On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Defector co-owner Alex Sujong Laughlin, whose recent piece about “lip filler accent” identified a new way TikTok is changing how we speak. Even people who don’t have any plastic surgery at all appear to be picking up on the trend, because when it comes to status, sounding like someone who has had plastic surgery is really all that matters.
This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay, with help from Kevin Bendis.
Fanttik, like Hoto, is quickly becoming a household name. The tool brand’s cordless wares are quiet, capable, and certainly more stylish than anything you’d find at your local Ace Hardware or neighborhood tool library. The S1 Pro electric screwdriver is a great example of the company’s penchant for attractive design, one you can currently grab on Amazon for an all-time low of $39.99 ($50 off) when you enter promo code YBRS9843 at checkout.
Unsurprisingly, Fanttik’s TikTok-worthy screwdriver isn’t going to rival a dedicated drill when it comes to torque or comfort, even when talking about the smaller 12V variety. Still, it’s more efficient than a manual screwdriver when it comes to performing small- to medium-sized tasks around the home, whether that be assembling a bed or tightening the screws on your bicycle seat — two things I used it for just this week. It’s lightweight and sleek, with a 220RPM motor, three torque settings, a circular LED light, and a dedicated button for screwing in or out.
In addition to the S1 Pro itself, you get a magnetic case that also houses the screwdriver and the 16 S2 hardened steel bits, which encompass everything from flathead and Allen heads to Torx bits for opening up smaller electronics. It’s also equipped with a 2,000mAh battery, which, according to Fanttik, should be enough to operate up to 340 screws. I haven’t put that claim to the test myself, but so far, so good.
More ways to save
Now through 10PM PT today, April 10th, Iniu’s 10,000mAh Portable Charger is on sale at Best Buy for just $15.99 ($13 off), which is the best price we’ve seen. I’ve become a big fan of Iniu’s compact charging banks in recent years, particularly the 2oW P61L-P1 on sale here, which comes with a built-in USB-C cable, a three-year warranty, and enough juice to charge an older smartphone model like the iPhone 15 to 65 capacity in just 25 minutes.
If you’re really looking to level up your newborn’s sleeping arrangements, enter the Cradlewise. The smart crib / bassinet — which is now available on Amazon for $1,709 ($90) thanks to an on-page coupon — combines a sound machine, an AI-enhanced baby monitor, and an automated rocker into a single device, with real-time notifications and sleep insights at the ready. It also easily converts from bassinet to crib, allowing you to eke out about 24 months of use, assuming you want to use it with your toddler.
Speaking of all-in-one devices, Mophie’s slick Juice Pack battery case is still on sale at Amazon starting at $49.93 (about $50 off), an all-time low. The MagSafe-compatible, lanyard-equipped case can provide both impact protection and an additional 50 percent of battery life to iPhone 16 and 17-series phones, including the iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro, and even the beefier 17 Pro Max.
Microsoft has started stripping Copilot branding out of Notepad in Windows 11, replacing the old Copilot menu with a more generic "writing tools" label. The AI features themselves aren't going away, but Microsoft seems to be backing off the heavy-handed Copilot branding and extra entry points. Windows Central reports: As promised, Microsoft is now beginning its effort to reduce and remove Copilot branding across Windows 11, with the latest Notepad update for Insiders outright removing the Copilot icon and phrasing. Now, the AI menu is simply called "writing tools," and maintains the same functionality as before. Additionally, Microsoft has also removed references to AI in the Settings area in Notepad. Now, the ability to turn on or off these AI powered writing tools are now listed under "Advanced features."
This change is present in the latest preview build of Notepad which is now rolling out to all Windows Insiders. The app version is 11.2512.28.0, and you'll know you have it if you see the Copilot icon replaced with a pen icon instead. [...] For Notepad, it appears Microsoft has opted to replace the Copilot menu with something more generic. It's still the same functionally, but it's no longer leaning on the tainted Copilot brand. Of course, you can still easily turn off all AI features in Notepad if you don't want them. The Verge reports that the "unnecessary Copilot buttons" are also disappearing from the Snipping Tool, Photos, and Widgets.
The rapid pace of modern software development, fueled by AI-driven coding and accelerated deployment cycles, has resurfaced a challenge that many development teams already struggled with: the speed of incident response must now match the speed of change. Every day, teams ship code faster than ever, which inevitably increases the risk of a new issue making it to production. The traditional approach—where engineers waste time jumping between disconnected tools—is no longer sustainable. It burns developers out and takes them out of a flow state. The solution is an interconnected AI ecosystem that leverages the operational data you already own.
PagerDuty is contributing to this interconnected AI ecosystem via Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standardized way for specialized AI tools to securely exchange information and actions. MCP acts as the common language, allowing AI tools and agents to talk directly to other tools and agents.
To date, we have over 60 tools that allow users to pull in critical incident data, service information, and even trigger automated responses in any AI-enabled tool of choice. And we’re always adding more tools (check out our release notes). We plan to build out MCP parity with our open APIs, meaning that all the critical PagerDuty data and actions available via API will be available via MCP. The best part? This data can be used during incidents, or when coding. Let’s look at how a flow could work for each of these scenarios.
Preventing Incidents with the Right Data at the Right Time
Imagine you’re creating a new agent, perhaps one that guides your users through a check-out experience, offering deals they should add to their cart before the final purchase. This agent then could share this information back with other teams that are looking for demand signals on popular products. It’s critical that this agent both provides a good customer experience (relevant suggestions, works as intended) and that it relays the correct final purchase information back to internal teams. Now, imagine that you’re making a small tweak to this agent that should allow the user to rate the helpfulness of the agent’s suggestion. Let’s prevent a potential incident.
Building Safer Agents with Past Incident Knowledge with LangSmith
The PagerDuty Incident Responder agent for LangSmith connects to the PagerDuty MCP server, accessing a service’s incident history and context. Developers can input a service name (such as the one this new agent is associated with), incident links for previous incidents with this agent, or symptom description from past failure. In response, PagerDuty will provide critical details that help developers assess risk: past incidents, triage information, and known failure modes discovered in post-incident reviews. This helps a developer prepare for a deploy with the right data at the right time.
Scoring Code Risk Before Deployment with Claude Code
Developers who code in Claude Code can also score the risk of the uncommitted code changes right in their development workflow as another safety mechanism. The PagerDuty Plug-in for Claude Code is a risk scoring tool that brings production context directly into the development process. When a developer runs a simple command like /risk-score, Claude analyzes the new code against 90 days of PagerDuty incident data. The analysis identifies high-risk file types, the extent of the change, and whether it overlaps with areas that have caused past incidents. The developer then receives a clear risk score and actionable recommendations before the code is committed, helping to reduce the risk and cost of major operational failures.
Checking System Health Before Deployment with GitHub Copilot
The PagerDuty Incident Responder custom agent for GitHub gives users access to PagerDuty data, including change correlation and incident data, directly within GitHub Copilot. Additionally, developers can build their own custom agents using PagerDuty MCP tools that offer even broader sets of data and actions. Users can quickly review what is currently happening in the system, ask about previous incidents on the service, and even summarize post-incident review notes. This can flag any concerns that may warrant postponing a deployment.
Accelerating Response During an Incident
The reality is that not every incident can be stopped, especially with the accelerated rate of shipping new code. When an incident does occur, MCP helps teams recover faster by reducing disruption and the cognitive load of having to jump between different tools. Let’s use our new agent example. Say the developer pushing the change to add the rating system skipped the review process above, and an issue slipped through the cracks. Here’s how MCP can make response smoother.
Acknowledge and Review in Cursor
When a new alert fires, you can immediately acknowledge and review it without leaving your coding tool. The PagerDuty MCP Integration with Cursor allows Cursor to pull in PagerDuty data or execute actions, including who is currently on-call, service status details, and incident history. This can help a developer answer key questions and begin triage, asking questions to PagerDuty about incident impact and services, any notes that are pre-populated, and more. Without context switching, a user could also ask GitHub Copilot about recent changes, bringing that information in-line with the critical PagerDuty data without ever leaving their tool of choice.
Automated Diagnostics and Suggested Fixes with Honeycomb data
While a developer is reviewing the issue, the PagerDuty SRE Agent is running diagnostics in the background. PagerDuty will be extending its SRE Agent to use logging and metrics data from Honeycomb via MCP. The SRE Agent will use this critical telemetry to inform triage, quickly determine the root cause, and execute more pointed automation, taking the initial diagnostic burden off the human responder. For example, the agent can quickly suggest a fix, like rolling back a recent change.
Quick Fix and Resolution
Thanks to this seamless flow of information, the responder can then go back to Cursor to take the suggested action—like rolling back the change. This unified, intelligent workflow quickly closes the loop from alert detection to resolution without pushing a user to a different surface. Response is faster, and developers can get back to building with less time spent on interrupt work.
By connecting data and actions from tools like LangSmith, Claude, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Honeycomb, and more, PagerDuty is making the right data and actions accessible exactly where teams need it. This approach helps reduce friction, accelerate incident management to match the pace of AI-driven development, and ultimately gives developers more time back for higher-value work. We are only scratching the surface of what is possible with MCP.
Want to learn more about PagerDuty’s approach to MCP? Join our twitch streamhere.
Want to contribute to our repo? Check out ourGitHub repo.
A printable zine: 50 Ways To Meet Your Neighbor. “32. Picking up trash, generally, is a good way to meet neighbors. People notice. 33. Winter: Shovel someone’s sidewalk. It’s also great cardio.”
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