Verbal Approval Is Not Approval
Musk says he has "verbal government approval" for a 29-minute NY-to-DC tunnel. Verbal approval isn't a real thing, and the coverage this week mostly forgot to mention that.
Cutting the Cord Just in Time for Dragonstone
A cord-cutter's account of streaming the Game of Thrones Season 7 premiere on HBO Now, with a detour into AT&T's zero-rating deal, Prime Day disappointment, and a busted TV mount.
SoundCloud Guts Itself, and I Went Digging Through My Old DJ Mixes
SoundCloud just laid off 40% of its staff and closed two offices, which sent me digging through DJ mixes I uploaded back in 2011, plus a quick note on this week's net neutrality banners.
Everybody's Buffering: Notes on Yesterday's Net Neutrality Stunt
A rundown of what the July 12th net neutrality "Day of Action" actually looked like across the sites I visit, and why the loading-spinner gimmick worked better on some of them than others.
The Ransomware That Was Never Going to Give Anything Back
NotPetya looked like ransomware, but the "decryption ID" it showed victims was randomly generated garbage with no way to ever produce a real key. A closer look at the detail that got buried under the bigger headlines.
Finally Fixing My Backups After the Maersk Mess
A ransomware outbreak that knocked out shipping giant Maersk finally pushed me to fix my embarrassing backup setup. Here's the boring, forty-minute fix I'd been avoiding for years.
No Landing Tonight
SpaceX launched the Intelsat 35e satellite overnight with zero landing attempt, and I stayed up way too late watching a rocket disappear into the ocean instead of a droneship.
iPhone Turns Ten (And My Package Is Still Stuck in Cologne)
The iPhone just turned ten years old, which got me thinking back to my scratched-up secondhand 3G — plus a rant about a package stuck in FedEx limbo thanks to that malware outbreak everyone's been dealing with.
Kalanick's Out, and I'm Still Not Sure How I Feel About It
Travis Kalanick resigned as Uber's CEO last week under investor pressure, weeks after his mother died in a boating accident. Some thoughts on the brutal timeline and my own complicated relationship with the app.
My Grocery Store Got Bought By The Internet
A personal, slightly rattled reaction to Amazon's $13.7 billion deal for Whole Foods, from someone who shops there every week and isn't sure how to feel about it yet.
My TV Isn't Even 4K and Microsoft Wants $499 Anyway
Microsoft finally put a price on the Xbox One X at E3 last week, and I've spent the weekend arguing with myself about whether six teraflops matters when my TV can't even show it off.
Couldn't Buy a Graphics Card This Weekend
Ninety minutes on Newegg and I still couldn't find a GTX 1060 or RX 580 that wasn't sold out or marked up, thanks to the Ethereum mining boom. Plus a couple of stray thoughts on WWDC week.