This week involved my having to finish a whole more writing than what you see below, so you can imagine my relief at still being able to step away from the keyboard in time to see the Dungeons & Dragons movie with friends Friday evening.

3/27/2023: White House Exec Order Bans Government Use of Most Commercial Spyware, PCMag

I wasn’t sure there was a story in this executive order until I saw enough tech-policy types (with no pattern of cheerleading for the Biden administration) say that, yes, it was a big deal.

3/28/2023: Amazon opens Sidewalk network to outside developers, Light Reading

This story ran under a different headline: “Amazon opens Sidewalk mesh network to outside developers.” After it ran, the Amazon PR rep who offered me an advance on the story emailed to say that Amazon doesn’t regard Sidewalk as a mesh network, since clients on it can only connect to Sidewalk nodes and can’t extend the network on their own. That is a valid point, but it’s also come after three years of everybody calling Sidewalk a mesh network.

3/28/2023: With MLB’s 3D Version of Gameday, Watch Plays From Any Angle Like a Video Game, PCMag

Major League Baseball hosted a press preview Tuesday at its New York offices (which I watched via Zoom) of tech changes coming to its systems and apps. MLB’s online presentation of games has come a mighty long way since I first covered it in 2005.