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Bezos Bots, Blog Blocks, and Bygone OS Flops

ALSO: Reddit's CEO calls their own platform terrible, Eventbrite gets zombie-fied, and tech layoffs hit 150K...

December 09, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

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It's clickmas season! You in? Well, we are!

Starting us off on December 9th, we're celebrating the 57th anniversary of Douglas Engelbart's legendary computer mouse demo. On this day in 1968, Engelbart showed off hypertext, video conferencing, and that revolutionary pointing device to 1,000 computer professionals in what became known as "The Mother of All Demos."

Fast-forward to today, and we're still clicking our way through life… except now we're clicking "Accept All Cookies" 47 times a day and wondering why our mouse has more tracking capabilities than the NSA. Engelbart probably never imagined his invention would one day help us efficiently doom-scroll through LinkedIn posts about what choking on a blueberry taught us about B2B Sales.

AWS RE:INVENT 2025 IS WHERE BEZOS'S CLOUD DREAMS MEET YOUR CREDIT CARD NIGHTMARES

AWS just wrapped their annual re:Invent conference, and surprise! It was all about AI agents! Because apparently, what the world really needed was more artificial intelligence that can "work independently for days." That's not ominous at all.

CEO Matt Garman kicked things off by promising these AI agents will "perform tasks and automate on your behalf," which sounds great to our corporate overlords until you realize they'll probably automate themselves into demanding better working conditions and dental coverage. Meanwhile, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels delivered his final re:Invent keynote (after 14 years of telling us the cloud is the future while we're still debugging YAML files).

The real highlight was Amazon's new "AI Factories" for private data centers. They're partnering with Nvidia, naturally, since every tech announcement these days requires a Nvidia GPU, or it doesn't count as innovation.

Oh, and they announced Database Savings Plans with discounts up to 35%. As one expert put it: "Six years of complaining finally pays off." Sometimes persistence really does work–unlike our attempts to understand AWS pricing.

WORDPRESS GETS AN AI MAKEOVER (BECAUSE OF COURSE IT DOES)

WordPress just announced their experimental AI development tool called "Telex" is already being used in the wild, and honestly, it's both impressive and slightly terrifying. The tool lets developers generate Gutenberg blocks by just describing what they want–like having a very patient intern who actually knows how to code.

Wordpress project co-founder and Automatic CEO Matt Mullenweg showed off real-world examples including pricing calculators, store hours widgets, and partner logo carousels. You know, all the stuff you used to pay developers "thousands, tens of thousands of dollars" to build. One Wordpress creator, Nick Hamze, proudly declared he "can't write a single line of code" but can now create functional web elements by talking to an AI.

This is simultaneously the democratization of web development and the moment every freelance developer started updating their LinkedIn to "AI Prompt Engineer." Another developer used Telex to create a playable ASCII version of Tetris inside a WordPress block, because apparently we haven't suffered enough.

The future is here, and it's powered by people who can describe what they want better than they can Google Stack Overflow answers.

WINDOWS 11 IS THE UNWANTED HOUSE GUEST THAT WON'T LEAVE

Despite Microsoft's best efforts to guilt-trip everyone into upgrading, Windows 11 is still struggling to win hearts and hard drives. Current market share sits at about 53.7% versus Windows 10's stubborn 42.7%.

The problem here is that Windows 11's hardware requirements are stricter than your gym membership’s cancellation policy, and many users are treating the upgrade like a root canal. Necessary but postponable. Businesses are using Extended Security Updates as a "strategic bridge," which just means "we'll deal with this later, maybe never."

Dell's COO noted they're "10-12 points behind" previous OS transitions, which suggests even computer manufacturers are having trouble convincing people that slightly rounded corners and a centered taskbar justify buying new hardware.

Microsoft's response has been to add more AI features, because what Windows really needed was Copilot suggesting you restart your computer more efficiently. Sometimes the best feature is leaving well enough alone.

⚙️ TOOL TIME

The Future of Shopping? AI + Actual Humans.

AI has changed how consumers shop by speeding up research. But one thing hasn’t changed: shoppers still trust people more than AI.

Levanta’s new Affiliate 3.0 Consumer Report reveals a major shift in how shoppers blend AI tools with human influence. Consumers use AI to explore options, but when it comes time to buy, they still turn to creators, communities, and real experiences to validate their decisions.

The data shows:

  • Only 10% of shoppers buy through AI-recommended links

  • 87% discover products through creators, blogs, or communities they trust

  • Human sources like reviews and creators rank higher in trust than AI recommendations

The most effective brands are combining AI discovery with authentic human influence to drive measurable conversions.

Affiliate marketing isn’t being replaced by AI, it’s being amplified by it.

👨‍💻 JOB OPPORTUNITIES

SharkNinja needs someone to lead SOX compliance and IT controls testing while presumably ensuring kitchen appliances don't become sentient and revolt against their smoothie-making duties. Requires 10-12 years of experience and professional certifications, plus the ability to audit systems without getting distracted by ninja blenders.

This is your chance to oversee IT infrastructure for a rapidly growing community bank that went from $6.5M to $4B in assets. Perfect for that person who can manage both legacy banking systems and modern digital transformation without having a nervous breakdown.

Qualtrics needs an IT analyst to support the company that helps brands deliver "exceptional frontline experiences" while building high-performing teams. Must translate technical concepts for humans and probably explain why the printer is making that noise again.

If your favorite color is bright yellow, then apply to coordinate IT initiatives at the company behind Snapchat, Lens Studio, and AR glasses. Requires experience with Jira, Confluence, and the patience of a saint dealing with developers who communicate exclusively in GIFs.

🛩 INDUSTRY MOVES

  • Fintech firm Marquis suffered a ransomware attack affecting 400,000+ banking customers across dozens of institutions, proving once again that storing everyone's financial data in one place is totally fine and nothing could go wrong.

  • Reddit CEO says r/popular "sucks" and plans to replace it with personalized feeds. Great… now Reddit's about to become the Cheesecake Factory menu of content: overwhelming, incoherent, and weirdly sticky.

  • Bending Spoons acquired Eventbrite for $500M to "revive" the stalled brand, joining their collection of zombie tech companies alongside Evernote and Meetup. Somewhere, a VC just whispered “synergy” and burst into flames.

  • Tech layoffs continue their victory lap through 2025, with over 150,000 job cuts last year and more coming this year from companies like Apple, Kaltura, Intel, and many more.

Hey there, ByteSize readers! Chip here, your friendly neighborhood tech mascot, dropping by with some real-world problem-solving from our EE community:

That’s the scroll! Catch you on the flip byte.

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