robpegoraro

[robpegoraro]

Weekly output: T-Mobile adds fixed-wireless plans, FTC bans non-compete clauses, ransomware prevention, Mark Vena podcast

This week featured vastly less travel than last week, but it also afforded me the rare experience of hearing an executive-branch appointee burst into song. 4/23/2024: T-Mobile Adds New Fixed Wireless Plans: One for Home, One for the Road, PCMag Of all of T-Mobile’s announcements Tuesday, the unlimited-data version of its new Away fixed-wireless plan was easily the most interesting. 4/23/2024: FTC…

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#cybersecurity #fixed wireless #FTC non-compete ban #information security #infosec #Jen Easterly #Mark Vena #non-compete clauses #ransomware #Schoolhouse Rock #T-Mobile #T-Mobile home 5G #T-Mobile Home Internet

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Cash App reaches a new low in presenting terms-of-service changes

I've seen a lot of companies beclown themselves while presenting terms-of-service changes, but the e-mail Cash App sent me Friday might be the worst yet.

Messages from companies telling me that they’ve changed their terms of service are usually among the most forgettable of e-mails, but the one that Cash App sent me Friday was memorable for reasons that this Oakland, Calif., mobile-payment provider should not appreciate. This “Updates to our Terms of Service” e-mail that I read on my desktop offered zero description of the changes beyond saying…

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#Cash App #Cash.app #legalese #QR code #terms have changed #terms of service #ToS #user experience #UX

[robpegoraro]

Weekly output: Mark Vena podcast, nearshoring meets remote coding, Eve air taxis

Between late last Sunday night and very early Saturday morning, I clocked more than 10,000 miles in the air to cover Web Summit Rio, conduct an onstage interview at that conference, and see very little of the city outside my conference bubble. Is that why I’m feeling tired tonight? No, the gardening work I put in yesterday and today had much more to do with that. 4/15/2024: Ep 98 SmartTechCheck…

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#air taxis #BairesDev #Eve Air Mobility #eVTOL #Nacho de Marco #nearshoring #Rio #Rio de Janeiro #Web Summit #Web Summit Rio

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Seeing a city from inside a conference bubble

RIO DE JANEIRO I landed here Monday and I took off Friday, and it’s fair to ask how much I ever arrived in this city during my trip for Web Summit Rio. As in, the amount of time I spent in any public space outdoors could probably be measured in minutes. Unlike my journey to Rio last year, when I had an entire day free before Web Summit events and the morning through early afternoon open the day…

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#Brasil #Brazil #conference #first-world problem #Rio de Janeiro #Riocentro #traffic #Uber #Web Summit #Web Summit Rio

[robpegoraro]

Weekly output: age-verification rules, Android 15 beta, Affordable Connectivity Program

I’m flying to Brazil tonight for Web Summit Rio, where I’ll be doing an onstage interview Thursday. Unlike last year’s trip to Rio de Janeiro, this one has much less free time–I’ll basically have only the end of Monday afternoon to myself before spending Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at this conference and then spending Friday on a series of airplanes–but the extra time with my family is worth…

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#ACP #Affordable Connectivity Program #age verification #Android 15 #Brazil #Rio de Janeiro #social media age verification #Web Summit #Web Summit Rio #White House

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Darkness at 1:41 p.m.

The photos I took Monday didn't quite capture what it felt like to see a total solar eclipse for the first time, so I had to try to string some words together.

DALLAS I thought I’d seen enough pictures of a total solar eclipse to guess what it might feel like to see one with my own eyes. But then I got out of bed at 5:30 a.m. Monday to fly to DFW and witness that afternoon’s eclipse with a friend who lives northwest of the city—and that revealed how awestruck I could be left watching celestial mechanics play out in a sky like none above me before. The…

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#2024 eclipse #astronomy #celestial mechanics #corona #Dallas #eclipse #solar eclipse #solar system #totality

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Weekly output: online advertising and privacy, net neutrality vote, vineyard robotics, Meta content moderation run amok, manufacturing gone green

I’m heading to Dulles before dawn tomorrow, but not for work: I’m flying to Dallas to try to see the solar eclipse, a friend having invited people to visit for the occasion. Please wish us luck with the weather! 4/3/2024: Ad Industry Unbothered by Federal Privacy Law (Because It’ll Probably Never Happen), PCMag I wrote this from the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Public Policy and Legal Summit…

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#circular economy #cleantech #Facebook blocking links #Facebook content moderation #FCC #greentech #IAB #IAPP #Kansas Reflector #net neutrality #online privacy #privacy law #sustainability

[robpegoraro]

Weeding the lawn is a long game

This is the 20th spring that I’ve been weeding our lawn, but this spring and the last few before it have not been like the others in one way: One of the yard’s more annoying uninvited guests has become a lot more scarce. That would be a weed called hairy bittercress, one of the first to pop out of the ground in late winter. It’s easy to spot by that rapid emergence and subsequent appearance,…

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#Cardamine hirsuta #grass #hairy bittercress #lawn #lawn care #weeding #weeds #yard work

[robpegoraro]

Weekly output: T-Mobile's free MLB.tv, return-to-office trends, satellite-to-phone hopes, robots doing dirty and dangerous jobs

Happy Easter! March 31 also happens to be the date that many people observe as the International Transgender Day of Visibility, and because I strive not to be a bigot or a moron I can understand how the Biden administration would uphold the religious holiday that falls on varying dates and also recognize the human-rights-advocacy event with a fixed spot on the calendar (see, also, César…

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#AST SpaceMobile #Milwaukee #MLB.tv #regional sports networks #return to office #return to work #robotics #robots #Satellite Show #T-Mobile #T-Mobile Starlink

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City-sized arenas belong in city centers

The Capitals and the Wizards may not win another championship anytime soon, but they will continue playing their home games where they should: in the downtown arena they’ve called home since 1997 as first the MCI Center, then the Verizon Center, followed by the resulting nickname of the Phone Booth, and now Capital One Arena. That’s the best possible resolution of an interlude in which…

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#Cap One Arena #Capital Centre #Capital One Arena #Caps #Gallery Place #Hoyas #Landover #MCI Center #National Landing #NHL #Phone Booth #Potomac Yard #USAir Arena #Verizon Center #Wizards

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Weekly output: Symbotic, Most Innovative Companies in robotics, Redwood Materials, Most Innovative Companies in manufacturing, Matter security label, SpaceX and Starship, AT&T and AST SpaceMobile, Android 15, Waymo, This Week in Tech

If you’ve been wondering why it’s been so long since I last had a byline with Fast Company, here’s your answer: I’ve spent a non-trivial part of the last three months helping to put together the robotics and manufacturing parts of the publication’s Most Innovative Companies list. (In my nonexistent spare time, I also wrote a post for Patreon readers about my roadmap to getting our house off the…

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#Android 15 #AST SpaceMobile #Matter #MIC #Most Innovative Companies #Redwood Materials #satellite to phone #smart-home security #SpaceX Starship #Starlink #Symbotic #This Week in Tech #TWiT #Waymo

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This could be the least-appreciated aspect of D.C.'s convention center

For D.C.-area types of my age, the obvious advantage of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center over the old Washington Convention Center is that the facility that replaced that grim concrete hulk in 2003 isn’t a beige fortress that deadens multiple city blocks. But in addition to greeting Mount Vernon Square with a mostly-glass facade and leaving space (not all of it filled) for retail and…

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#convention center #drowsy #Georgetown Voice #lvcc #nap #postprandial #Satellite 2024 #siesta #sleepy #snooze #Walter E. Washington Convention Center #Washington Convention Center #yawn

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Weekly output: Uber app's carbon-pollution math, Uber and Austin, SpaceX Starship test flight, Mark Vena podcast

I got too old years ago to elbow my way into Irish bars on St. Patrick’s Day, but I do fly the Irish flag from our front porch alongside the latest in a series of American flags that have graced our house since weeks after we moved in almost 20 years ago. 3/11/2024: Uber App Now Tracks Carbon-Pollution Savings From Some Rides, PCMag I got an advance copy of Uber’s press release, but seeing this…

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#Austin #carbon footprint #Dara Khosrowshahi #Kirk Watson #Mark Vena #SpaceX Starship #sxsw #Uber

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Hype cycle meets rinse cycle: does my dishwasher really need a mobile app?

Years later than you might have expected, given my line of work, I’ve finally hit the dubious milestone of owning a major appliance with its own Internet Protocol address and mobile app–the Bosch dishwasher we procured as part of an overdue and immensely-appreciated kitchen renovation. I didn’t pick this 300-series SHE53C85N model because of that connected-home possibility. (I try not to use…

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#Bosch #Bosch SHE53C85N #connected home #dish wash cycle #dishwasher #Home Connect #SingleKey ID #smart home #Wirecutter

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Weekly output: satellite-to-phone services, fixed-wireless access, broadband buildout risks, 2023 broadband subscriber stats, actors negotiating for AI rights, Office Space reunion, how companies talk cybersecurity

AUSTIN–This week started with stories datelined from a city some 4,000 miles east of D.C. and ends with pieces datelined from a city about 1,300 miles southwest of home. 3/4/2024: SpaceX rivals pitch their phone-to-satellite alternatives, Light Reading I wrote most of this piece recapping an MWC panel featuring multiple non-SpaceX satellite-to-phone services–including my Falls Church neighbors…

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#ACA Connects #actors&039; strike #Affordable Connectivity Plan #Alan Davidson #Austin #Barcelona #BEAD #cybersecurity #Duncan Crabtree-Ireland #federal broadband buildout #fixed wireless #FWA #information security #Leichtman Research Group #Lynk Global #Mobile World Congress #MWC #Office Space #OneWeb #SAG-AFTRA #Sateliot #south by southwest #sxsw #Verizon home 5G

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Staying in touch with friends at SXSW is more of a messaging mess than ever

Before you and a group of friends travel to a large event, you need to choose a messaging app in which you can discuss which messaging app to use for your group chats there.

AUSTIN My phone has been buzzing with new-message notifications since I woke up way too early Friday morning to fly here for SXSW. That’s the fault not of my moderately overloaded social schedule, but of how the messaging choices of SXSW friends and acquaintances have spilled over into five different apps: Meta’s WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, the open-source Signal, and Google’s Messages and…

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#Austin #Facebook Messenger #Google Voice #group chat #iMessage #message group #phone notifications #Signal #sxsw #Telegram #WhatsApp

[robpegoraro]

Weekly output: Android feature drop, 5G-connected e-bike, infosec diplomacy, "Feel Tech Animal" demo, Bluesky supports hashtags, AT&T and AST SpaceMobile, Facebook to nix News tab, Mark Vena podcast

I have only two days this upcoming workweek that aren’t blocked off completely, Monday and Thursday. Tuesday I’ll be working the Virginia primary election (hard to believe it’s been almost four years since my first long day as a poll worker), Wednesday I’m covering the  ACA Connects telecom-industry conference, and Friday I fly to Austin for SXSW. In addition to the stories below, I wrote a bonus…

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#Android feature drop #AST SpaceMobile #AT&T #Barcelona #BCN #Bluesky #cybersecurity #e-bikes #Facebook News #hashtags #infosec #Mark Vena #Mobile World Congress #MWC #NTN #satellite to phone #virtual reality #wireless