#vegas — Public Fediverse posts

Weekly output: teens + AI chatbots, Android updates, Trump on data-center energy use, Archer + Starlink, balcony solar, customer feedback, CDA 230 + AI, Bluetooth updates

BARCELONA–It’s a treat to be able to start off a post with this dateline. This is the 13th trip that’s afforded me that opportunity and the 12th involving MWC. But this trip isn’t like the ones before it in one way; on my way across the Atlantic, my country started a war of choice because the president felt like it. The world is better without Iran’s worthless, murdering theocrat Ali Khameni, but I have little confidence in the Trump administration’s ability to do the right things for that long-suffering country.

In addition to the links you see below, Patreon readers got a bonus post from me in which I shared lessons learned from more than 10 years of booking Airbnbs.

2/24/2026: Most Teens Use AI for Homework Help. 10% Let It Do Everything, PCMag

Getting an advance copy of this new study from the Pew Research Center gave me a chance to note a new student-understudy chatbot called Einstein and quiz the CEO behind that app.

2/25/2026: Android Update Puts Gemini AI In the Driver’s Seat for Ride-Hail, Food Orders, PCMag

I have somehow become PCMag’s Android-updates guy. This report included a little testimony about Google’s call-scam-detection feature misfiring for me, an important bit of context to include in a post telling readers about Google bringing that tool to Samsung’s new Galaxy S26 series of phones.

2/25/2026: As Energy Costs Soar, Trump Pushes AI Giants to ‘Produce Their Own Electricity’, PCMag

I didn’t watch the entire State of the Union address because self-care is an important thing, but after reading about President Trump’s call for data-center operators to pay for their electricity and power infrastructure, I knew I’d have to write about that initiative.

2/27/2028: Archer Aviation Taps Starlink for Air Taxi Connectivity, PCMag

I still don’t quite get the point of adding Starlink connectivity to aircraft that won’t fly longer than 15 minutes or higher than 4,000 feet above major cities, but this was an easy post to crank out Friday morning before heading to Dulles that afternoon to start my journey to Spain.

2/28/2026: After Years of Shining in Europe, Balcony Solar Comes Out of the Dark in the US, PCMag

This story had been in the works for literally months–I took the photo you see at the top of the piece on the afternoon that I arrived in Berlin for IFA in September–but the policy picture has also changed dramatically, and for the better, over the intervening months.

2/28/2026: What’s the Best Way to Get Customer Feedback in 2026? Hint: It’s Not Email, PCMag

Two weeks after the customer-experience firm Medallia had me at its annual conference in Vegas (with my hotel covered upfront and my airfare to be reimbursed), PCMag ran my recap of what I learned there.

3/1/2026: Online Platforms Are Not Liable for What Users Post. Should That Include Gen AI?, PCMag

I spent Thursday at the Cato Institute for this enlightening conference marking the 30th anniversary of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the 1996 act that bars you from suing an online platform for something that one of its users posted.

3/1/2026: Bluetooth Is Getting an Upgrade. Here’s What It Means for Your Devices, PCMag

I took almost all of the notes for this at CES in January, but I needed more time to confirm some details and then write the post, after which its lack of a news peg left it easy to set aside for a bit.

Hype for the Future 80E: Las Vegas, Nevada 🎰

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/01/19/hype-for-the-future-80e-las-vegas-nevada-%f0%9f%8e%b0/

Of course I’m going to CES. Again. Why would I not?

Normal people can look forward to easing their way back into the work after the holidays, but I know I won’t have that luxury–because I will once again fly to Las Vegas for CES only a few days after New Year’s Day.

That’s been my journalistic lot in life every January since 1998, aside from the pandemic-frozen winter of 2021, and 2026 will not break that streak. Nor will any future January that I can imagine until I retire, whatever that means to somebody who strings together words for a living.

And yet so many tech-industry publicists open up their CES pitches by asking me, the guy serving a life sentence of covering the show, “Going to CES?”

So here’s my official answer to that question: Yes, I am.

To try to get ahead of other questions I keep getting in PR pitches for the Consumer Technology Association’s trade show:

• I should land at LAS late in the morning of Sunday, Jan. 4 and fly home late in the evening of Thursday, Jan. 8.
• Right now, my schedule looks least crowded on the afternoons of the 4th and the 5th and during the day on the 8th.
• If your client is hosting an evening event, my least scheduled evening is Wednesday and my most scheduled evenings are Sunday and Tuesday.
• If your client is hosting a morning event involving breakfast, please tell me about it so I have an alternative to the crime against bagels that is a CES press room.
• I will be at Pepcom’s Digital Experience Monday night and ShowStoppers Tuesday night; if your client will be at either of those giant receptions, please tell me how to find them there, but don’t ask me to set a time to say hi.
• If your client is hosting an event somewhere off the Strip Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, the answer is no. Vegas traffic is at its worst during CES, Clark County never does anything meaningful to improve it, and an Uber voucher won’t make the other cars disappear.
• Invitations with no hint about an event’s location are also a complete waste of everybody’s time. (What is it about this event that makes PR types lose their minds and commit elementary mistakes like that?) Please accept the reality of the space-time continuum and describe an event’s whereabouts upfront.
• Speaking of time, please get your pitch over with already. I don’t want to have to be reshuffling my CES schedule between Christmas and New Year’s.
• If your pitch is good enough, I may set aside most of what I just said here and take you up on it. Case in point: In January, I accepted a day-before invitation to get a ride to Lake Mead on Monday of CES week and experience a battery-electric sport boat.
• Yes, I got your e-mail about CES.

#ces #consumerElectronicsShow #consumerTechnologyAssociation #cta #gadgetGathering #las #lasVegas #lasVegasConventionCenter #pr #techPr #techTradeShow #vegas

#Trump says the world respects us. Empty seats in #Vegas prove otherwise.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/17/2338353/-Trump-says-the-world-respects-us-Empty-seats-in-Vegas-prove-otherwise
A Reuters analysis of the underlying data suggests the tourism slump could cost up to $71 billion in the #UnitedStates’ gross domestic product.

In Las Vegas, the damage is personal. Empty casinos mean shorter shifts, slashed hours, and layoffs. Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union, calls the city’s waning tourism the “#Trumpslump.”

Dear Friend of Vegas PBS – Help Protect from Trump

Please support Vegas PBS as you can. This notice came as an email. Vegas PBS, Vegas Strong! https://donate.vegaspbs.org/vegaspbs/donate

#2025 #America #Books #DonaldTrump #Health #History #LasVegas #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Nevada #Politics #PublicBroadcastingService #Reading #Resistance #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #Vegas #VegasPBS

Weekly output: public domain expands, net neutrality dies again, 2025 tech resolutions, United Airlines + Starlink

LAS VEGAS–I’m once again here for CES because I long ago lost the ability to imagine the second week of January without this giant tech show in it. I’m here through Thursday night, after which I can enjoy a few quiet days at home pivot to covering the ShmooCon hacker conference in D.C., the last year it will take place.

12/31/2024: Hitchcock and Hemingway: All the Good Stuff Coming to the Public Domain in 2025, PCMag

I love how writing about the notable creative works entering the public domain on Jan. 1 has become a year-end tradition for me.

1/2/2025: Court Ruling Kills Net-Neutrality Rules That Were Already Doomed, PCMag

I saw the news of this on my way to SFO at the end of holiday family time, then wrote it in the air on our way back to Dulles.

1/3/2025: My 2025 tech resolutions: ditching X, avoiding AI, and more, Fast Company

One of my editors at Fast Co. asked if I could do another version of the tech to-do list that I wrote for them at the end of 2023, and I said I’d be delighted to do that. The toughest task for me will probably be replacing a fossil-fueled appliance at home–but if climate-change deniers in Congress succeed in repealing Inflation Reduction Act tax credits after this year, I will have a strong motivation to complete that purchase.

1/5/2025: Starlink Wi-Fi Takes Off on United Airlines Flights This Spring, PCMag

United’s PR folks gave me an advance copy of this announcement, allowing me to file it Friday afternoon so that PCMag could schedule it to publish it Sunday morning.

#ces #copyright #FCC #inflightWiFi #LasVegas #netNeutrality #NewYearSResolutions #publicDomain #Starlink #techResolutions #UA #UnitedAirlines #Vegas

It’s getting real now. #KaseyaConnect24 Conference registration has been completed!

Can the last week of April come any sooner?

#Kaseya #Conference #MSP #IT #Vegas

REMINDER! TODAY @ 5:30pm EST, join us LIVE discussing #lasvegas #vegas & #hackersummercamp! Tips & highlights for #defcon31, #bhusa, #squadcon, #ringzero, #BSidesLV, #DianaInitiative, #cccamp23 & more!

Watch #Twitch, #YouTube, #Odysee & #Kick: https://linktr.ee/defcon201

@defcon @dcparrot @dcfurs @DCGVR @Defcon_Music @defconparties @dcshenanigans @BSidesLV @DianaInitiative @ringzer0 @blackgirlshack @CCC @c3stoc @c3cert #BlackHat #blackhat2023 #blackhatusa

Ready or not, it’s time to do this. #bsideslv #defcon #shabbatcon #thedianainitiative #bslv #tdi #hhv #rtv #btv #phv #asv #chv #ip #sev #badgelife #birdsarentreal #0xahhc #vegas

TOMORROW, August 5th @ 4pm EST, join us LIVE as we discuss #lasvegas #vegas & #hackersummercamp! Tips & highlights for #defcon31, #bhusa, #squadcon, #ringzero, #BSidesLV, #DianaInitiative, #cccamp23 & more!

Watch on #Twitch, #YouTube, #Odysee, @peertube & #Kick: https://linktr.ee/defcon201

@defcon @dcparrot @Defcon_Music @DCGVR @BSidesLV @DianaInitiative @ringzer0 #blackhat23 @CCC

For May-June 2023, my #ClassicTV #WatchList looks something like this:

#AcapulcoHEAT #Batman #BostonBlackie #Branded #TheBurningZone #HarryO #Highlander #HillStreetBlues #ItTakesAThief #KungFuTheLegendContinues #MagnumPI #McCloud #MikeHammer #MissionImpossible #MollyDodd #RudeAwakening #TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco #30Rock #Vegas #Viper

#ClassicTV #ClassicTelevision
#90sTV #80sTV #70sTV #60sTV #40sMovies

I've watched/reviewed/rated 25 episodes of #ClassicTV in the last 13 days.
Here's how they lined up.

10/10
#Aspen
#TheBionicWoman
#TheFamousTeddyZ
#Frasier
#HighwayPatrol
#MissionImpossible
#TheSixMillionDollarMan

9/10
#AlmostPerfect
#Branded
#BuffaloBill
#Columbo
#HillStreetBlues
#ItTakesAThief
#KungFuTheLegendContinues

8/10
#Benson
#MagnumPI
#SantaBarbara
#Viper

7/10
#AreYouBeingServed?
#FernwoodTonight
#IDreamOfJeannie
#SuperForce
#WonderWoman

4/10
#TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco
#Vegas