My dog hates having her picture taken. She started coming out, saw me with the phone and promptly backed up and curled up back under the bed.

Major victory in Kansas for transgender people. The Kansas Supreme Court declined to block a lower court ruling on gender markers on drivers license. ACLU Kansas says trans people can get their licenses updated starting Tuesday. The latest from S. Baum. Subscribe to support our journalism.

In today's wars/military actions, good cybersecurity is the equivalent of having robust supply lines in physical warfare. And your cybersecurity is only as good as your weakest link.

I'm answering your questions live about this week's Amazon and Google's smart home announcements. Come join me! www.theverge.com/tech/790817/...

I'm a big fan of providing kids with what they need. If anyone else wants to help, you can make a difference for as little as $16.

You can now fill out the FAFSA! About half of Washington families qualify for the Washington College Grant (WA Grant). A student from a family of four making $72,000 or less can get the equivalent of free public college tuition and fees for their post-high school program paid.

Today, @consumerreports.org @aspendigital.bsky.social @gca.bsky.social released the 4th Annual Consumer Cyber Readiness Report, co written by @gigastacey.bsky.social @jefflandale.bsky.social and I. innovation.consumerreports.org/2025-Consume... #CybersecurityAwarenessMonth 1/x

Spoiler: Americans are less confident than they were last year that their personal data is private and not distributed without their knowledge.

Hot off the press 🔥 We’ve teamed up with @aspendigital.bsky.social and @gca.bsky.social to drop our fourth annual Consumer Cyber Readiness Report just in time for #CybersecurityAwarenessMonth. innovation.consumerreports.org/2025-Consume...

Looking to speak to organizers & other experts for Teen Vogue about actions young workers can take when everything, including work, feels pointless/overwhelming. Tips on getting through the day? Is it about plugging into community beyond work? [email protected] or DM

I guess call your cities and school districts and ask them if they are using MFA and enforcing unique passwords...🤷‍♀️

This is a great idea and also means that interoperability between these appliances and the grid is essential. We don't want tech middlemen getting between appliances and the grid.

It's white supremacy and rugged individualism and patriarchy and guns. That's why we have mass shootings. We live in a dystopia of our own creation and call it freedom.

My guess is that most folks read articles about that Secret Service SIM farm bust that were misleading at best. Today's Metacurity explains why.

Apparently a few journalists or an editor also had this question. www.seattletimes.com/nation-world...

I've definitely heard it before, in regards to WWI & WWII. This article explains more. But, yeah, it's definitely been talked about more recently. www.historynet.com/ancient-ammu...

When did shooters start carving messages on their bullets? I feel like I first heard about this with Luigi Mangione, but has this always been a thing?

What I want to know is if this is the first time Homan has accepted a bribe. In a normal Administration, he would be immediately fired and a full forensic investigation conducted. But in this corrupt Administration, they’ll lie and deflect.

We brought together attorneys general from across the country to tell trans students: We see you. You belong here. And we will fight for you. As this school year kicks off, know that you are not alone, and we will work to make sure all schools are safe for every student.

Are y'all also cancelling ESPN?

Seeing lots of people talking about canceling their Disney+ subscriptions. If you happen to have some extra money around that used to go to Mickey Mouse... small indie media sites like mine could always use some assistance. Especially these days. www.techdirt.com/support/

@consumerreports.org sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calling on the company to extend its support of Windows 10 devices given the security threat posed by leaving millions of operational devices unprotected. advocacy.consumerreports.org/research/con...

The ebook ecosystems that are gate kept via drm and the inability to download ebooks to a computer in a format that can be easily converted is so much bullshit.

Not following GPC signals? State AGs are coming for you. cppa.ca.gov/announcement...

Y'all. I am in Iceland with a friend and it's such a great country. Yes it is beautiful, but I also appreciate how friendly everyone is, and almost everyone I have met tries to share a cool thing they like about the place where we are. Also, they sell soft serve at gas stations.

Y'all. I am in Iceland with a friend and it's such a great country. Yes it is beautiful, but I also appreciate how friendly everyone is, and almost everyone I have met tries to share a cool thing they like about the place where we are. Also, they sell soft serve at gas stations.

Kinda puts it into perspective why SpaceX gets so butthurt every time a state awards rural broadband-buildout subsidies to a fiber or cable provider.

PACER and CM/ECF aren’t just tools—they’re essential infrastructure relied on by attorneys, journalists, and the public. The way to fix this is to pass the Open Courts Act, a bill we've worked on with others for many years. It calls for a modern and secure system. We can't wait anymore.

You have just 3 weeks to object to the Roadless rule rollback. Link to USDA public comments here:

Things are grim on the healthcare front. In the last 9 months I've had my GP, neurologist, and sleep doctor retire. None of these doctors was above 50 yo. And it was incredibly hard to find a GP in my area. I suppose if I can't afford insurance next year I won't be able to afford care anyhow.

Framework actually did it. I upgraded a laptop's entire GPU in just three minutes.

I am desperately trying to find out how many 32-bit PCs are still in the market today. Has anyone seen reputable data on this? Search engines are failing me.

Over at The Verge I wrote about how the Trump administration destroyed U.S. wireless competition, using a disastrous (and now doomed) plan that involved Dish Network as cover:

I am on hold with Icelandic Air and there is no music or any repeating message. It's wild. And unsettling. But also, great for being able to work while waiting.

Really cool work out of the open source/open hardware world when it comes to rescuing connected devices killed by their manufacturers. This one is about how a community in New York state built hardware to keep their commercial Juicebox chargers working. natematias.com/portfolio/20...

Move fast and break things.

Online age verification is not like "showing ID to buy alcohol" because a) the liquor store doesn't get to scan your ID and store a digital copy of it forever in a database that will inevitably get hacked b) you don't have to show ID to go to the library because they have cocktail recipe books

Treasury is required to produce a report to Congress related to Direct File, the free tax filing option that the current administration intends to kill. They've created a survey with a bunch of leading questions. The survey deserves some responses supportive of the program to counteract its framing:

Here. Please have a poem. I think it's lovely.

This is fucking terrifying. Genuinely truly terrifying. What’s their scheme? To prosecute parents? Doctors? To take people’s treatments away? Absolutely no way this can end well.

Save the date: I’m teaching Burner Phone 101 at the Brooklyn Central Library on Saturday, August 16, 2025, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm. Come through to learn about the full spectrum of “burner phone” options.

One of the best things to teach your kids is to understand that security and privacy require ongoing vigilance, and that every company they interact with online is incentivized to push the envelope on privacy with every new feature. Older folks will call it cynical, but its a demonstrable fact.

I thought this was a Stingray setup gathering cellular data, but it's a different kind of intrusive form of surveillance. Will IR affect these cameras?

As tariff rates continue to make news, we're following the prices of 16 popular products to help you navigate marketplace shifts.

For non-Texans, Sen. Molly Cook's bio: "emergency room nurse and grassroots organizer." She's a white woman. This is the energy I'm talking about. You cannot allow one person alone to shoulder the burden of opposing the govt or police.

The cost difference between Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi/BLE chips is very small. This looks like the standard is catering to everyone’s wishes instead of focusing on better user experience.

Yeah, I don’t understand what this is all about. I thought Bluetooth provisioning was part of the vision all along. And I tend to believe that more dependency on the cloud isn’t a good thing.

The new version of Matter gives device makers the option of skipping BLE provisioning. This is pitched as good because it lowers device costs ... BUT it also means that when the server-side support dies the device can't connect to an app on your phone. www.theverge.com/matter/75717...

Also, it's been a while, but here are a list of IoT and smart home devices I still have in my home and love pretty unequivocally. Philips Hue smart bulbs and buttons: Gen 2 hub still works a decade in, and they are transparent about software support.