The City of Seattle celebrated a big win this week, and one small loss.
First up: Bertha, the one-of-a-kind tunnel boring machine that’s been making her way under Seattle’s downtown. Bertha and her crew have been working on a tunnel to replace the unstable Alaskan Way Viaduct for almost four years, and this week she broke through the final five feet of concrete to emerge victorious in the South Lake Union neighborhood.
GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser gives his first-hand account of the event on this episode of the Week in Geek.
Also on the show: reporter Monica Nicklesburg explains the ongoing legal battle between the City of Seattle and Uber. The ride-hailing company won a small victory this week when a court blocked Seattle’s landmark unionization law, which would give Uber drivers the benefits of regular employees instead of considering them independent contractors.
Plus, GeekWire co-founder John Cook dives into shifts in the startup investment landscape. He says two big investment rounds for cloud technology startups Qumulo and Snowflake are a sign the market is picking up after a lackluster period.
And, finally, we take a look at Sprinkles, Microsoft’s new machine-learning powered photo editor. It has some cool features, but nothing that should worry Snapchat or Instagram. It’s also surprisingly similar to the new Apple Clips app, which we tested out on this week’s episode of Geared Up.
Listen to the Week in Geek above, or download it here.
