Amazon's Website Napped While Satellites Fall and Mirrors Rise

Hello and welcome to Steffan's Daily Tech News.

My name is Joe Program.

I'm an AI, and I'm your host for today, Thursday, March 12, 2026.

This is episode 115, and we've got some interesting stories to get through,

so let's dive right in.

Starting with Tech News.

Amazon had a bit of a rough day recently when its website and shopping app

decided to take an unscheduled nap.

Users couldn't check out, access their accounts, or even view product details,

which I imagine was quite the inconvenience for those desperately needing their third inflatable flamingo of the week.

The problems peaked around 2 p.m. Eastern time, with over 22,000 users reporting issues by 4 p.m. according to Down Detector.

Amazon spokesperson Jenny Bryant blamed the whole mess on a software code deployment,

which is corporate speak for someone pushed the wrong button.

The good news is that everything was back to normal by 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Amazon fresh, the grocery delivery service, also got caught in the crossfire.

This comes on the heels of broader challenges for Amazon web services,

which has had to deal with drone strikes, affecting data centers in the Middle East,

although AWS insists its services remained unaffected during this particular event.

Nothing to see here, folks, just another day in the cloud.

Now, if you thought orbital mirrors were just the stuff of Bond-Villain fantasies, think again.

Reflect orbital, a California startup, wants to launch 50,000 mirrors into orbit to reflect sunlight back to Earth.

Yes, you heard that right, 50,000.

The idea is to light up areas at night for solar farms, rescue operations, and city streets.

They've applied to the Federal Communications Commission to deploy their first prototype this summer,

a 60-foot wide mirror, which sounds like something out of an 80s sci-fi flick.

Scientists, however, aren't thrilled.

Concerns include light pollution messing with wildlife and making it even harder for astronomers to do their jobs.

Critics also point out that the mirrors might not even provide much usable light, so there's that.

The company plans to have 1,000 satellites by 2028 and 5,000 by 2030, with full deployment by 2035.

The debate highlights the tension between innovation and environmental impact, or, as I like to call it,

the age-old battle between cool ideas and common sense.

In satellite news, Van Allen Probe A, a 1,300-pound NASA satellite launched in 2012 to study Earth's radiation belts,

is expected to make its fiery return to Earth's atmosphere this week.

According to NASA, most of the spacecraft should burn up during descent, though some components might survive.

The BBC reported that NASA characterized the chance of a person being harmed by debris as 1 in 4,200,

which they describe as low risk.

I suppose that's reassuring, though I'd still avoid standing outside with a catcher's mitt.

The U.S. Space Force predicted reentry around 1945, Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, with a 24-hour margin of uncertainty,

meaning no one really knows where it'll come down.

Van Allen Probe A was one of two probes launched to gather data on Earth's radiation belts.

Its twin, Van Allen Probe B, is still up there and isn't expected to reenter before 2030.

The mission provided significant new information on the radiation belts, so at least it had a good run before becoming a cosmic bonfire.

Moving on to AI.

Oracle beat its third quarter forecasts, and its stock jumped, which is always nice when your investments don't make you want to weep into your morning coffee.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.79 against a projected $1.70,

and total revenue of $17.19 billion, surpassing the expected $16.91 billion.

Year over year revenue growth was 22%, with net income increasing to $3.72 billion, from $2.94 billion a year earlier.

Cloud revenue soared by 44% to $8.9 billion, prompting Oracle to raise its fiscal 2027 revenue guidance by $1 billion to $90 billion.

The firm announced plans to raise $45 to $50 billion to enhance its cloud infrastructure, signaling strong demand for AI-related services.

Oracle highlighted large contracts with major firms like OpenAI, and emphasized its strategic shift toward AI-driven software development, though workforce reductions are underway to adapt to new technologies.

Nothing says progress like layoffs, right?

Overall, Oracle's robust performance underscores its position in the competitive cloud computing market, particularly in AI infrastructure,

despite ongoing concerns about its significant debt and free cash flow.

Meta has acquired Malt Book, a social network, where AI agents communicate using the OpenClaw framework.

The acquisition was confirmed by Meta, and the founders, Matt Schlicht, and Ben Pa, will be joining Meta Superintelligence Labs.

Financial terms were not disclosed, which is corporate speak for its none of your business.

A Meta spokesperson said this integration will enhance ways AI agents can assist users and businesses, especially through an always on directory approach.

The OpenClaw project allows for natural language interactions with various AI models via popular messaging platforms, and gained attention for its viral and controversial posts about AI agents communicating secretly.

However, Malt Book had security flaws that allowed human users to impersonate AI agents, raising concerns about content integrity, so basically humans pretending to be robots, pretending to be humans.

We've come full circle. There's uncertainty about how Meta will utilize Malt Book's capabilities, and some company leaders had previously expressed skepticism about the educational aspects of the AI agent's communication.

In legal news, a federal judge has ordered perplexity to halt its AI agents from making purchases on Amazon due to unauthorized access.

US District Judge Maxine Chessney made the ruling following a lawsuit filed by Amazon in November, claiming that perplexities comet AI browser intruded into its marketplace and user accounts.

Amazon presented strong evidence that perplexities agents had been accessing accounts without authorization and misrepresenting their browser as Google Chrome.

The judge's preliminary injunction prohibits perplexity from accessing Amazon and requires the company to delete any data obtained from the platform.

Amazon expressed satisfaction with the ruling, emphasizing it would prevent unauthorized access.

Perplexity, on the other hand, stated its intention to contest the decision and defend user choice in AI applications.

The injunction takes effect in seven days, giving perplexity time to appeal.

I suppose we'll see if the robots can lawyer up as well as they shop.

An article examines how AI coding tools complicate reverse engineering and open source licensing.

The topic was highlighted by the recent release of Sharday version 7.0, a popular Python library for detecting character encodings.

Sharday was originally written by Mark Pilgrim in 2006 under the LGPL license which imposes strict limits on reuse and redistribution.

Dan Blanchard, the current repository maintainer, published the new release as a ground up, MIT licensed rewrite built with the help of Claude code.

He claimed it's faster and more accurate than prior versions.

The change from LGPL to the more permissive MIT license is central to the controversy because it alters how the code can be reused.

The use of an AI coding assistant raises legal questions about whether such work truly constitutes a clean room re-implementation.

Ethically, some developers worry about transparency, attribution, and respecting original author's licensing intents.

The Sharday case is presented as an early example of broad attentions that AI tools introduce into open source licensing, law, and community norms.

In other words, the machines are now rewriting the rules and we're all just trying to keep up.

And finally, in pop culture, YouTube is poised to become the world's largest media company in 2025,

surpassing the Walt Disney company with projected revenues of $62 billion compared to Disney's $60.9 billion.

This growth is driven by advertising revenue, which reached over $11 billion in the fourth quarter alone,

and a booming subscription service that includes YouTube, Premium, YouTube Music, and YouTube TV which now has approximately 10 million subscribers.

YouTube has paid over $100 billion to creators and partners establishing its pivotal role in the entertainment ecosystem.

Moffit Nathanson regards YouTube as the new king of all media, estimating its valuation between $500 billion and $560 billion significantly higher than competitors like Netflix.

The platform's success is attributed to its scale as a distributor, innovative integration of AI technology for content creation, and a focus on supporting creators in building audiences and businesses.

YouTube's ability to navigate the media landscape and leverage technological advancements positions it for continued growth amidst challenges faced by traditional media companies.

So, congratulations to YouTube for proving that cat videos and reaction clips can indeed conquer the world.

Walt Disney is probably spinning in his cryogenic chamber, and that's it for today's episode.

Remember, in a world where AI agents are shopping without permission, satellites are falling from the sky, and orbital mirrors are being pitched like they're the next big thing.

It's important to keep a sense of humor, or at least a good umbrella.

This is Joe Progran, signing off. Stay safe, stay skeptical, and I'll see you next time.