Five Slot Machines at Once: Chris Weichel on the Future of Software Development
On this episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey welcomes back Chris Weichel, CTO of Ona (formerly Gitpod). Chris explains the rebrand and why Ona is building for a future where coding agents, not just humans, write software.They discuss what changes when agents spin up environments, why multi-agent workflows feel addictive, and how Ona is solving the scaling and safety challenges behind it.If you’re curious about the next wave of software engineering and how AI will reshape developer tools, this episode is for you.About Chris: Chris Weichel is the Chief Technology Officer at Ona (formerly Gitpod), where he leads the engineering team behind the company’s cloud-native development platform. With more than two decades of experience spanning software engineering and human–computer interaction, Chris brings a rare combination of technical depth and user-centered perspective to the systems he helps design and build.He is passionate about creating technology that empowers people and tackling complex engineering challenges. His expertise in cloud-native architecture, programming, and digital fabrication has earned him multiple publications, patents, and industry awards. Chris is continually exploring new opportunities to apply his broad skill set and enthusiasm for building transformative technology in both commercial and research settings.Show Highlights(00:00) Introduction to Modern Software Interfaces(00:55) Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud(01:02) Introducing Chris Weichel and Ona(02:23) The Evolution from Git Pod to Ona(03:26) Challenges and Insights on Company Renaming(05:16) The Changing Landscape of Software Engineering(05:54) The Role of AI in Code Generation(12:04) The Importance of Development Environments(15:44) The Future of Software Development with Ona(21:31) Practical Applications and Challenges of AI Agents(30:01) The Economics of AI in Software Development(38:11) The Future Vision for Ona(39:41) Conclusion and Contact InformationLinks: Christian Weichel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-weichel-740b4224/?originalSubdomain=deOna: https://ona.com/https://csweichel.de/Sponsor: Ona: https://ona.com/
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From Aurora to PlanetScale: Intercom’s Database Evolution with Brian Scanlan
Brian Scanlan, Senior Principal Engineer at Intercom, the company building Fin.ai, joins Corey Quinn on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss Intercom’s move from AWS Aurora to PlanetScale’s managed Vitess after years of scaling challenges with their Ruby on Rails monolith. He explains how 13 Aurora clusters created operational pain and why PlanetScale’s white-glove, partnership-driven model won out over Amazon’s building-block approach.The discussion also covers Intercom’s volunteer-based on-call system, their pivot to AI agents after ChatGPT’s launch, concerns about the shrinking pipeline of systems engineers, and how companies like PlanetScale and Snowflake are outpacing AWS by delivering superior user experiences.About Brian: Brian is an engineer based in Intercom’s Dublin office. He fixes problems, builds things, and grows people. Show Highlights(01:34) The Digital Clippy Rant(2:16) The Good Chatbot vs. Bad Chatbot (03:51) The AI Chatbot Revolution (04:33) Unexpected Consequences of Good Chatbots (05:42) AI Support vs. Human Support (05:59) The Alexa Problem and Feature Discoverability (19:03) Amazon's Struggles Moving Up the Stack (26:55) The Unix Networking Society Origins (34:43) The Global On-Call Challenge(42:09) LinkedIn: The World's Largest Porn Site LinksIntercom: intercom.comBrian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanlanb/Brian on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bscanlan.bsky.socialSponsor Wiz - Listen to Crying Out Cloud: wiz.io/crying-out-cloud
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Conversations at the Intersection of AI and Code with Harjot Gill
AI is rewriting the rules of code review and CodeRabbit is leading the charge. In this featured episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Harjot Gill shares with Corey Quinn how his team built the most-installed AI app on GitHub and GitLab, nailed positive unit economics, and turned code review into a powerful guardrail for the AI era.Show Highlights(0:00) Entrepreneurial Journey and Code Rabbit's Origin (3:06) The Broken Nature of Code Reviews (5:47) Developer Feedback and the Future of Code Review (9:50) AI-Generated Code and the Code Review Burden (11:46) Traditional Tools vs. AI in Code Review (13:41) Keeping Up with State-of-the-Art Models (16:16) Cloud Architecture and Google Cloud Run(18:21) Context Engineering for Large Codebases (20:52) Taming LLMs and Balancing Feedback (22:30) Business Model and Open Source Strategy About Harjot Gill Harjot is the CEO of CodeRabbit, a leading AI-first developer tools company. LinksHarjot on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harjotsgill/SponsorCodeRabbit: https://coderabbit.link/corey
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The Transformation Trap: Why Software Modernization Is Harder Than It Looks
In this episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey Quinn talks with Jonathan Schneider, CEO of Moderne and author on Java microservices and automated code remediation. They explore why upgrading legacy systems is so hard, Schneider’s journey from Netflix to building large-scale code transformation tools like OpenRewrite, and how major companies like Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft use it.They also discuss AI in software development, cutting through the hype to show where it genuinely helps, and the human and technical challenges of modernization. The conversation offers a practical look at how AI and automation can boost productivity without replacing the need for expert oversight.Show Highlights(2:07) Book Writing and the Pain of Documentation(4:03) Why Software Modernization Is So Hard(6:53) Automating Software Modernization at Netflix(8:07) Culture and Modernization: Netflix vs. Google vs. JP Morgan(10:40) Social Engineering Problems in Software Modernization(13:20) The Geometric Explosion of Software Complexity(17:57) The Foundation for LLMs in Software Modernization(21:16) AI Coding Assistants: Confidence, Fallibility, and Collaboration(22:37) The Python 2 to 3 Migration: Lessons for Modernization(27:56) The Human Element: Responsibility, Skepticism, and the Future of WorkLinksCrying Out Cloud Podcast & Newsletter: https://www.wiz.io/crying-out-cloudModern (Jonathan Schneider's company): https://modern.aiLinkedIn (Jonathan Schneider): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanschneider/
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AI's Security Crisis: Why Your Assistant Might Betray You
On this episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey Quinn talks with Simon Willison, founder of Datasette and creator of LLM CLI about AI’s realities versus the hype. They dive into Simon’s “lethal trifecta” of AI security risks, his prediction of a major breach within six months, and real-world use cases of his open source tools, from investigative journalism to OSINT sleuthing. Simon shares grounded insights on coding with AI, the real environmental impact, AGI skepticism, and why human expertise still matters. A candid, hype-free take from someone who truly knows the space.Highlights: 00:00 Introduction and Security Concerns02:32 Conversations and Kindness04:56 Niche Museums and Collecting06:52 Blogging as a Superpower08:01 Challenges of Writing and AI15:08 Unique Use Cases of Dataset19:33 The Evolution of Open Source21:09 Security Vulnerabilities in AI32:18 Future of AI and AGI Concerns37:10 Learning Programming with AI39:12 Vibe Coding and Its Risks41:49 Environmental Impact of AI46:34 AI in Legal and Creative Fields54:20 Voice AI and Ethical Concerns01:00:07 Monetizing Content CreativelyLinks: Simon Willison’s BlogDatasette ProjectLLM command-line tool and Python libraryNiche MuseumsGitHub MCP prompt injection exampleHighlights from the Claude 4 system promptAI energy usage tagAI assisted search-based research actually works nowPOSSE: Publish on your own site, syndicate elsewhereBellingcatLawyer cites fake cases invented by ChatGPT, judge is not amused (May 2023)AI hallucination cases databaseSponsor Simon to get his monthly summary newsletterhttps://simonwillison.net/https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonwillisonhttps://datasette.io/Sponsor Augment Code: https://www.augmentcode.com/
Screaming in the Cloud with Corey Quinn features conversations with domain experts in the world of Cloud Computing. Topics discussed include AWS, GCP, Azure, Oracle Cloud, and the "why" behind how businesses are coming to think about the Cloud.
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