I’m off to Lisbon tonight for Web Summit–the eighth time I’ve covered this conference and the seventh time I’ve traveled to it as a speaker (with the organizers picking up lodging and airfare). This, however, is the first time in my experience that the conference doesn’t overlap with Election Day.
I gave Patreon readers got an advance look at my agenda in a post there Friday; the rest of y’all will get to find out as the week progresses.
10/24/2022: As chip shortage starts to ease, factory-level fixes will take longer, USA Today
Usually, I suggest story topics to my USAT editors, but this time one of them asked if I could tackle this topic.
10/24/2022: People Still Think Their Smart Speakers Are Eavesdropping on Conversations, PCMag
I got an advance look at a survey the Chubb insurance company had done, which both revealed some disturbing beliefs and practices among respondents and shared some dubious security advice.
10/26/2022: Do We Need to Rethink Existing Rules About Satellite Internet Interference?, PCMag
I went to a lunchtime panel Tuesday at the New America think tank about this wonky topic and came away with both a free lunch and notes for this post.
10/27/2022: And The Chip Shortage Lingers – What It Means For Your Next Car Purchase, KTRH
This Houston radio station wanted to quiz me about the USAT column. The link here points to a story they did based in part on a quick phone interview I did Wednesday morning with KTRH’s Jeff Biggs, but I assume H-town listeners also heard me on the air at some point.
10/25/2022: Soccer-playing robot, Al Jazeera
The Arabic-language news channel had me–in their D.C. studio for my first time since early 2020–to discuss an IEEE Spectrum story with the eye-catching headline “Goalkeeping Robot Dog Tends Its Net Like a Pro”
10/27/2022: Comcast Puts Up ‘Over 5 Million Served’ Sign for Xfinity Mobile, PCMag
I wrote about a Comcast service that people seem to really, really like.
10/29/2022: Elon Musk owns Twitter now, Al Jazeera
I returned to AJ’s studio for a spot about the possible ramifications and downsides of the world’s richest man owning Twitter.
10/30/2022: mind reading via MRI, Al Jazeera
Researchers at the University of Texas demonstrated an ability to reconstruct the mental language of subjects via MRI measurements–just not word for word. The anchors wanted to know if this technology could be abused by tyrannical governments; I said that since you need to have the subject inside an MRI machine, the government would need to detain the person first, and tyrannical governments already have ways to compel people to talk. The researchers also found that “subject cooperation is required both to train and to apply the decoder.”
Rob Pegoraro 