Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

Why the catalog matters, how to configure it with popular query engines, and the essential best practices every data engineer should follow.

From smart home automation to self-hosted API backends, discover what the humble Raspberry Pi can really do as we head into 2026. As we close out 2025 and look ahead to 2026, the Raspberry Pi continues to punch well above its weight class. What started as an educational tool has evolved into a legitimate platform for home servers, IoT hubs, development environments, and even production-grade API backends.

For many finance leaders, 2025 was a year of upheaval, chaos, and uncertainty. Between supply chain disruptions, tariffs, interest rates, and other challenges, plenty of leaders spent their time just keeping the team afloat. As 2026 begins, it’s time to shift to a better perspective. With the right tools and attitude, finance professionals can set and meet goals that are more than just keeping your head above water.

Every software change answers one simple question: Did something break? Baseline testing exists to answer it with confidence. Teams often ship regressions simply because they lack a reliable reference to compare against. In modern software testing, a baseline provides that reference point and helps teams understand change without slowing down delivery.

The new fully managed remote BigQuery MCP server makes it easier to build intelligent data AI agents.

Real-time features are becoming increasingly important in web applications, but not every Rails developer is familiar with Action Cable, the framework's built-in WebSocket library. Rails Action Cable has long supported web sockets, but comes with some additional complexity. Rails 8 introduces Solid Cable, a new database-backed adapter for Action Cable that eliminates the need for Redis. In this guide, I'll walk you through Action Cable by way of Solid Cable and show you how to build a real-time feature.

Corporate concerns about entrusting sensitive data to third-party platforms keep many CTOs awake at night. Every time data leaves your infrastructure for a bolted-on BI tool, you're gambling with control. The stakes? Regulatory compliance, competitive advantage, and customer trust. Deploying a business analytics solution while keeping data safe and compliant often involves choosing between BI solutions that are either “bolted-on” or “embedded”.

In 2026, as AI models increasingly generate, refactor, and deploy code on their own, developers face a new challenge: how to safely run code they didn’t write. Sandboxes have become the backbone of this new workflow because they are lightweight, secure environments that let teams test, validate, and monitor code without risking production systems.

Whether you are tackling unstable features early or are responsible for setting a data-informed 2026 testing roadmap, these insights are here to help you accelerate your quality efforts.

October 2025, Paris. Thieves dressed as construction workers break into the Louvre and steal eight pieces of the French Crown Jewels valued at approximately €88 million. The robbery took place in broad daylight, and lasted less than eight minutes. As of the time of writing, only one of the jewels was recovered, a crown belonging to Napoleon III's wife Eugénie, which the thieves dropped in the street as they fled.