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robpegoraro.com
D.C.-based freelance technology journalist covering, and often vexed by, computers, gadgets, and other things that beep. May or may not be notable. He/him. Read: PCMag, Fast Company, etc. Write: [email protected]
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Last day to vote early in the Democratic primary in Arlington! (If you've found the Washington Post inadequate in helping you choose among the two candidates for attorney general and the six for lieutenant governor, here are pointers to useful coverage elsewhere: robpegoraro.com/2025/06/12/s...)

submitted 9 hours ago • 1 comment

Cross endorsing is a good example of positive-sum campaigning that ranked-choice voting enables, but lots of candidates don't seem to understand that. For example, I can't recall that happening in any Arlington County Board races since we switched to RCV.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

This is a hell of a graf: “What does a human slowly going insane look like to a corporation?” Mr. Yudkowsky asked in an interview. “It looks like an additional monthly user.”

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

FYI, Arlington cyclists: yet another annoying downside of Trump's upcoming exercise in using the military as mascots.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

In other Trump-administration news: New social-engineering attack surface just dropped.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Fuck this banana-republic bullshit.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

If you were hoping for some in-the-weeds posts about broadcast digital TV, you're in luck--I'm spending the day at the Advanced Television Systems Committee's NextGen Broadcast Conference in D.C. #NextGenTV

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

An old-head's guide to having a good time on Bluesky: 1. Don't be a dick 2. Avoid dicks 3. Follow people who share nice and beautiful things, including their work 4. You are not obligated to answer anyone's questions 5. The main character of the day is not as interesting as they look

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Northern Virginia voters: If you were hoping to get a little more guidance from the Washington Post about your choices in Tuesday's Democratic primary, you're not alone. Here's a list of non-paywalled stories and guides from newsrooms elsewhere in the Commonwealth that may help.

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

If you write in Google Docs to a word count with any frequency and you have the Zoom app for Windows installed, you need to nuke this keyboard shortcut in Zoom immediately.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

"We want absolutely no rules," @cdt.org state-engagement director @travisrh.bsky.social sums up the reconciliation bill's 10-year ban on state AI regulation in a panel at the Future of Privacy Forum's D.C. summit. Companies should fear that, he adds: "This is a deeply anti-business stance."

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

If you wanted to read 2,000-plus words on the FCC's ability to conduct any more business with only two of its five commissioners in office--look, you know who you are!--Public Knowledge's @haroldfeld.bsky.social has once again risen to the occasion.

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Real capitalists can persuade other people to do business with them without threats of vexatious litigation or investigations by the ruling regime. Money quote: “This type of activity may be common on Nanjing Road in China, but absolutely not at all common on Madison Avenue.” (gift link)

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

If we're going to do this again, I reserve the right to self-plagiarize lightly by selling an updated version of the post I wrote two years ago debunking this.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Stickers vs. ads, Capitol South Metro edition.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

It's some kind of a PR tell if you send in a few fact-check questions to a publicist and they quickly reply to ask if you can jump on a call the next morning.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

A tiny sign of how messed-up things are in D.C. is when you can say hello to a Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission by saying "I've been covering telecom for about 30 years, and this is the first time I could introduce myself to half the FCC and still shake only one hand."

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

The search-traffic graph in this WSJ piece is brutal--but I wish the story had included some details about what the Journal did or did not do to have its own search traffic inch up a little instead of skidding downhill like everybody else's. (gift link)

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

One of the more interesting--by which I mean grotesque--parts of Virginia politics is that companies can make unlimited donations to candidates. I think it's worth taking note of who's willing to take particularly large amounts of cash from a single company.

submitted 4 days ago • 3 comments

Re-upping this post from my phone, not my desktop, and you should be able to guess why.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

It’s legit confusing to see Apple show off a new iPadOS release with headline features that not only didn’t ship in iOS a year ago but don’t exist on the iPhone at all.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

My contribution to refuting the inane "everybody should have stayed on X" argument: Try following #WWDC here and there. More of the people whose judgment I value about Apple are posting here, and Apple itself not participating here doesn't come close to outweighing that.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment