I think in America at least to ever achieve the idea that AI makes less work we need to reckon with the deeply held belief that work in and of itself is valuable and directly connected to our sense of identity and self worth. hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...

It used to be that we had public health leaders trying to prevent the next pandemic. These days we have public health leaders who won’t rest until they’ve caused one. www.cnbc.com/2026/02/10/m...

Great, if somewhat depressing, assessment for anyone considering buying a PC soon, by my @spectrum.ieee.org colleague Samuel K. Moore:

We are immensely grief stricken by the news of Kevin Lydy's recent passing. He was an integral part of EverQuest over the years. Our deepest condolences and sympathies go out to his family, friends, and the multitude of fans he made along his journey through life. Rest well dearest Adventurer.

I’m today’s episode of “republicans that hate local government,” we have Oregon’s robo taxi bill, brought forward by republicans, which strips cities of any ability to regulate them...local law enforcement won’t even have the power to ticket them. Wow, they’re really looking out for the little guy!

I just checked and there is ... less than 50 "players" online? arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/a...

When #BadBunny climbed utility poles at last night's #SuperBowl halftime show, his point came across loud and clear: Puerto Rico's power grid is crumbling, and the U.S. isn't doing enough about it. Here's what's happening in Puerto Rico. Photo: Kathryn Riley/AP. spectrum.ieee.org/puerto-rico-...

cancelling nitro's all cool (i did it too) but don't forget that this age verification requirement is pushed by "think of the children!!" govt regulations slowly creeping into more and more countries. alas it seems to be inevitable that in a decade every big online service is going to be age-gated.

Welp, that's it for Discord I guess. I don't really use it for much anyway, but if it was my main form of social media (as it seems for some gamers) man, I'd be sore. #discord www.theverge.com/tech/875309/...

Bulk RRAM Could Be AI’s Memory Wall Solution

This looks cool! Great cover, too.

I noticed today that Introversion Software has released its latest game, The Last Starship. Their prior work includes Defcon, Prisoner Architect, Darwinia, Uplink...going to check this out tonight. #indiedev #steam #spacegame store.steampowered.com/app/1857080/...

This is one of my favorite Hands On we've ever published: did you know that with a General-class Ham license and less than $100 bucks you can build, launch, and monitor a globe-circling balloon? #amateurradio #hamradio #picoballoon #citizenscience spectrum.ieee.org/explore-stra...

Bezos 100% bought WAPO just to ruin it, didn't he

There’s so much irony in reading the comments section of articles like this. Ars is a website for technologists, but when it comes to one of most striking computing innovations of the past 10 or 20 years, most readers are in full curmudgeon mode. arstechnica.com/features/202...

Oh yea, there’s no chance a ChromeOS and Android merger goes well. And from the sound of it calling it a merger may be charitable. www.theverge.com/tech/869659/...

finally started Hogwarts Legacy last night after having picked it up when it was free on Epic..and I think I’m going to like this game

Yes. Federal agents are gassing children. And to be frank, to say "children protesting" is kinda overselling what they were doing. It's more like a community march got vaguely near the ICE facility and so ICE decided to gas them (and, like, the entire south side of Portland) for no reason.

My first review of a laptop with Intel's new Panther Lake architecture, and whew, yes...it is worth the hype. #consumertech #intel #amd #pantherlake www.pcworld.com/article/3044...

Why is it that some people are convinced modern generative AI agents will change just about everything we do...and others are convinced they're a literal technological dead end? It's a puzzle. But I think there's an answer. #aiagents #llms #ai #agentics #agents

Down to 22.9 degree this morning, very cold for #pdx!

they went to an emergency room seeking help for their 7 year old child. ICE arrested the 7 year old and her parents. the family is here legally. www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...

I will never pay a subscription fee to unlock features the hardware I paid for already supports. Didn’t BMW already FAFO with this? Goes for PC stuff too arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01...

In all seriousness. Who is like, omg, yes, Dairy Queen! it hasn’t been good for a couple decades now... www.oregonlive.com/retail/2026/...

Presenting Shadow of the Colossus by @bossfightbooks.com : buff.ly/x62Lsey

It is beyond stupid to insist on registration for ebikes and other small electrical vehicles. If NJ would like to actually address road deaths maybe try regulating the 6,000 pound SUVs with 5-foot-tall hoods. Oh, but that would actually require some backbone... #ebikes

Gamers won't learn to live AI. Gamers* will buy games that use AI while also swearing that actually no one will ever buy games that use AI. Same as it ever was. *who actually counts as "gamers" is a mysterious and always will be

Wow down to 25 degrees in my part of #pdx this morning!

Fixed a bug in my tabletop RPG combat tracker and assistant, the Remove button, for removing characters from the initiative order, should now work properly. ttrpg-tools.online #ttrpg #dnd #pathfinder

Oregon State University is a leader in robotics and AI research, and also very close to my doorstep. So, I've been writing a few articles for them, highlighting the work of professors and students. This piece about Devin J. Roach, PhD dives into AI, 3D printing, and frickin' laser beams.

For PC World I took at look at Acer's Predator X27U F5, yet another 500Hz OLED monitor. Already, these are rapidly dipping in price...and the motion clarity is spectacular. #consumertech #displaytech #pcmonitor #oled www.pcworld.com/article/3011...

Looks like what I feared is happening... Nvidia's less expensive 16GB video cards are getting the axe. If you picked up one of those RTX 5060 TI 16GB cards for like, less than $400 around Black Friday, you did good. #nvidia #rtx #consumertech #memoryshortage www.youtube.com/watch?v=yteN...

At #CES 2026 I spoke with Eric Migicovsky, once and current founder of Pebble, about the future of the pioneering smartwatch and its operating system which, in case you haven't heard, is now open source. spectrum.ieee.org/open-source-... #opensource #wearables #smartwatch #consumertech

Yet another unacceptable example of Portland police letting a driver off the hook for reckless behavior because they appeared apologetic. And we wonder why traffic deaths are so high... bikeportland.org/2026/01/13/d... #pdx

Made some updates to my #ttrpg combat tracker. Added a new note system to make it easier to see, and save multiple notes. Updated the dice roller so that it can collapse and is easier to identify.

If we need a bridge, just build a bridge. Not this absurd boondoggle. #pdx bikeportland.org/2026/01/08/v...

These are the best laptop software #CES 2026! I toured CES to see as many laptops as I could. And you know what? It's a good year - memory pricing aside - particularly from Asus and Lenovo, which came in strong with some excellent do-it-all laptops. #ces2026 www.pcworld.com/article/3024...

slop

LEGO iMac G3

I really would like a new Deus Ex game though.

Oh yes I'm sure there's no way kidnapping the president of Venezuela could backfire, especially not with these very competent geniuses in office...

lol who cares gothamist.com/news/nyc-pho...

I haven’t laid eyes on this yet but it could be a big deal, and Samsung is already the generally slightly better choice for an OLED monitor…

Steam Deck has been on the top seller list at $399 over the holidays. Except it's not $399. That model is sold out. Valve is not going to re-stock it. It even says so on the order page. So maybe Valve, you should update the pricing on your front page, hmm? #valve #steam

The info I'm getting on laptops/desktops and other PC hardware at CES 2026 does not look great from a price perspective. I'd say you can expect to pay $100-$200 more for a laptop in summer 2026 than in summer 2025.

Reading in bed! what a scandal!

You know those The Lord of the Rings movies still hold up.

My book's first print run of 2000 copies took 5 years to sell through, but it did! Not bad for a book I was too pandemic-depressed to promote much when it came out. A second run of 1000 copies is with the printers now. Probably good for another 5 years, I'd bet?

Hahaha ok. Would love to hear the reasoning that went into this one… www.tomshardware.com/raspberry-pi...

Updated my TTRPG combat tracker today to fix a bug that was causing the pop-up with dice roll results to not appear in some circumstances. Also added an (experimental) feature to export/import combat to .json so GMs can set up a combat ahead of time for later use. ttrpg-tools.online #dnd #ttrpg