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Rob Pegoraro

@robpegoraro.com
9.5K followers 785 following 6.8K posts

D.C.-based freelance technology journalist covering, and often vexed by, computers, gadgets, and other things that beep. May or may not be notable. He/him. Read: PCMag, Fast Company, etc. Write: rob@robpegoraro.com

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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 1h
What makes Windows 11 report that a saved WiFi password doesn't work because "Some information changed since the last time you connected." Nothing's changed except this software started acting like a twit!
Dialog shown in the Windows 11 WiFi menu: 

"Enter the password

Some information changed since the last
time you connected. We need additional
information to complete the connection.

[ Next ]  [ Cancel ]"
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 5h
Is everybody going to get mad at me if I post about waffles?
A pecan waffle at a Waffle House in Atlanta, glistening with butter and maple syrup.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 22h
Seeing who is seated closer to or farther from Trump is the 2020s version of seeing who had a spot closer to or farther from Brezhnev on the reviewing stand for military parades in Red Square.
Screengrab of a screengrab of a Truth Social post, shared by the @RapidResponse47 X account, from @realDonaldTrump showing the seating chart for today's Oval Office meeting. The four closest tech figures: to his left, Elon Musk and then Sundar Pichai; to his right, Jensen Huang and then Mark Zuckerberg

Original post on X: https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2104963292678803924
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 29/09/2026
This evening's #transitadventure in Atlanta: MARTA to a robot bus to the Lee + White food hall by the Beltline trail (had a great dinner at Boxcar), then seeing a very shiny test train run through the West End station (the existing rolling stock is showing its age).
A green ATL Spoke bus, festooned with Lidar and other sensors, waits at the food hall. A Stadler Rail CQ400 train pulls into the West End station, looking extremely shiny with lights accenting its streamlined front.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 28/09/2026
From one airport with a subway to downtown to another: Hello again, ATL! I'm here through Thursday for the cable industry's SCTE TechExpo (where I'm emceeing one stage for part of Tuesday, with the organizers comping lodging in return).
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 28/09/2026
FYI to Amex cardholders and Metro riders in the D.C. area: Check your offers to activate a $2 cash-back deal on tap-to-pay @wmata.com fares, good on up to five rides through Dec. 31.
Screenshot of this offer's details as seen in Amex's Android app:

"WMATA - Tap to Pay

Spend $2 or more by tapping to pay, earn $2 back, up to 5 times (total of $10).

Expires 12/31/26

In-store only

Travel"
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 27/09/2026
The Nationals' 2026 season is in the books with a 6-4 win over the Mets. Which means we have officially seen the last of the Nats Park signage for the defunct and disgraced cryptocurrency startup Terra.
The scoreboard at Nats Park with the video board below it showing Terra's "A decentralized economy needs decentralized money" message.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 27/09/2026
Don't ask me what possessed my wife and I to go to Nats Park to see baseball in this Dickensian weather. (Verdict on our starting pitcher after two innings: Herz so not good.)
Nationals Park as seen from the 400 section, with rain misting over the field and a visible paucity of fans.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 25/09/2026
Can you think of any world leaders whom you would like to put on this train?
Sign on a train in the Netherlands shows a destination of "Den Haag Centraal," the central station in The Hague.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 20/09/2026
In other LAX news, I just noticed this helpful little feature in the travel-details mode of United's app: a map showing where on the taxiway or ramp the inbound plane for your flight is at.
Partial screenshot shows that the inbound plane landed and that airport operations are normal. Below that, a map of LAX's southern row of terminals depicts the plane operating my flight in light blue, with others in darker blue; I could see my plane in that position out the terminal window.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 19/09/2026
Greetings from LAX, where #CrankyDorkfest is on. Two-word review: Airplanes! Yay!
Throttle levers and other controls on the flight deck of a 787-9.A Southwest Airlines-operated Boeing 737 Max 8 in the carrier's America 250 livery, with "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness" written in the same style of script as the hand-written Constitution. A United Airlines-operated Boeing 787-9, with its engine in the middle of the frame.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 19/09/2026
Based on these results, I strongly advise against any LAX-bound pilots relying on Google's AI Overview for navigation assistance to their assigned runway.
A Google AI Overview result for "LAX runways" features three thumbnail images of the airport's runway layout and then this text:

"Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) has four parallel, east-west asphalt runways divided into a northern pair and a southern pair.

Runway List and Lengths

• 07L/25R: 12,091 feet long, 150 feet wide (North outboard)
• 07R/25L: 11,095 feet long, 200 feet wide (North inboard)
• 06L/24R: 8,925 feet long, 150 feet wide (South outboard)
• 06R/24L: 10,285 feet long, 150 feet wide (South inboard)

Operations and Traffic Patterns"

The problem: Google has the runway numbers flipped. The 24s are on the north side of LAX, the 25s on the south.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 18/09/2026
A fitting start to my journey to LAX for #CrankyDorkfest: Metro to IAD synced up perfectly with the arrival of a plane landing on runway 19L.
A CRJ-550 regional jet seen from below, landing gear down and flaps extended.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 15/09/2026
The dialog you get when you click "Turn Off Siri" doesn't even mention Apple Intelligence, so apparently not. Or at least not without considerable difficulty: www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comm...
Dialog box above the Settings app in macOS 27: 

"Turn off Siri?
You won't be able to start or continue conversations in the Siri app, and Apple accessories in your home won't recognize your voice or respond with personal content.
[Cancel]   [Turn Off Siri]"
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 14/09/2026
One of the details under the third heading on this list has me a little more eager to install this macOS update than I might otherwise be.
Apple system-settings pane announces the availability of macOS 27:

"Software Update
macOS 27
27 - 22.68 GB
Upgrade Tonight
Upgrade Now
macOS 27 introduces Siri Al powered by Apple Intelligence, new parental controls, and an expansive set of improvements that make your Mac even more responsive, reliable, and delightful.
Siri Al
Experience a Siri that's more personal, more capable, and more conversational.
Apple Intelligence Across Apps
See how your everyday apps get smarter and more useful from browsing the web in Safari to editing photos.
Design
Updates to Liquid Glass in macOS improve readability, add more character and definition to app icons, and enable you to personalize its appearance.
System Improvements
Discover lots of little ways your Mac is even enjoyable, like faster and smoothers experiences across the systems.
Child Safety
Access new features designed to allow you to more easily manage the content your children can see, who they can communicate with, and when they have access to apps.
Learn more about this update ›
Once downloaded, this update will take about 20 minutes to install."
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 06/09/2026
Update: After Photos snapped from 0% restored to showing no photos at all, I did another rebuild of the library that then surfaced only a handful of photos--with everything else in the "Recently Deleted" folder. Fortunately, the "Recover" option worked to retrieve 20+ years of pictures.
Photos dialog, titled "Recover": "Are you sure you want to apply this action to 20,864 photos?", with "Cancel" and "Apply" buttons.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 06/09/2026
Fun with Apple's Photos app for macOS Tahoe: • Having the app open on my Mac mini during a power outage apparently turned Photos' index of my library into gray goo. • Rebuilding the index failed. • After restoring the library from a Time Machine, Photos can't seem to get past 0% of "Restoring."
Screenshot of the Photos app, with the only thing visible being a "Restoring..." progress bar showing 0% complete.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 03/09/2026
I think this Identity Week talk by Government Printing Office CEO Hugh Halpern on the evolution of the U.S. passport--in terms of design, printing technology and security features--would go over well with the @glennf.com demographic.
Halpern speaking before a slide showing a timeline of U.S. passport evolution, with 1975's version highlighted.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 03/09/2026
This morning's discovery in transit IT: @wmata.com faregates run Windows 10 or 11 and can crash if the tap of a SmarTrip card aligns with some other glitch. First time I've seen this happen!
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 02/09/2026
Having any app think I'm somewhere far from my whereabouts is always odd, but this is especially odd: I got this standing in Dublin Airport while on T-Mobile roaming. Sharing my approximate location with the app dispelled it once but not a second time, while using the airport WiFi worked.
Screenshot of the Bluesky app for Android with the following error message: 

"Age Assurance

Hey there!

You are accessing Bluesky from a region that legally requires us to verify your age before allowing you to access the app.

Based on your network, we think you're in Texas, United States. This estimate may be inaccurate if you're using a VPN. Tap here to update your location with GPS.

[Share age range]

Sharing your age range reveals only the range associated with your Google Account - for example, that you're at least 18. Your exact age and birthday are never shared, and this data never leaves this device. Therefore, it only enables access on this device. Alternatively, you can use our trusted partner, KWS, to complete your verification and enable access on all platforms.

Bluesky

To log out, click here. Or if you'd prefer, you can delete your account."
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 30/08/2026
Liftoff! This was the first launch I've seen from the Kennedy Space Center's visitor center - and the first I've seen with my family beside me.
A Falcon Heavy rocket soars into a blue sky above Cape Canaveral, a bank of clouds below the bright spike of 27 Merlin engines sending the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to space.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 25/08/2026
Woke up too early, then remembered that the 5:33 a.m. launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral offered good chances for "space jellyfish" viewing. So glad I stepped outside for that--the second stage's exhaust, backlit by the sun in the upper atmosphere, looked like a giant comet down here.
A bright plume expands behind the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket delivering Starlink satellites. Two trees flank that sight, with one star visible at the left. The sky is about the darkest shade of blue possible.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 22/08/2026
One thing you will learn from a visit to the central library's tech shop: Arlingtonians are crafty AF.
An array of colorful 3D-printed and laser-cut artwork on an octagonal stand.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 22/08/2026
This afternoon's adventure in media preservation: using a film digitizer at the Arlington library's tech shop to scan some Super 8 film of my parents' wedding. One thing I've already learned: This is an absurdly slow process, because the scanner does this one frame at a time.
A reel of Kodak Super 8 film loaded on a spool at one end of a Kodak Reels machine that feeds into a scanner taking pictures of individual frames.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 20/08/2026
Happy National Aviation Day to all who observe! Please enjoy the most recent picture of an airplane from my phone's camera roll.
A Frontier Airlines-operated A321neo with its landing gear deployed, moments from landing at National Airport. The sky is mostly blue, with wispy clouds farther off.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 19/08/2026
A new low in packaging efficiency.
A 9 in. x 12 in. x 4 in. cardboard box used to ship a 32 GB Lexar microSDHC card and its SD Card adapter, both ensconced in a flat package 4 in. x 5.5 in.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 17/08/2026
Important detail right here...
Detail from page 9 of a PDF with details on the scheduling and budget of this project:

Schedule (Demolition C/D)
Design start:            Q2 2030
Demolition start:      Q1 2031
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 16/08/2026
FYI, Costco Travel: You could greatly shorten the menu to list an airline with a car rental if you stopped including airlines that ceased to exist 12 years ago.
Screenshot shows 11 airlines:
Air Rarotonga - GZ
Air Serbia - JU
Air Tahiti - VT
Air Tahiti Nui - TN
Air Transat - TS
AirAsia Japan - DJ
AirBridgeCargo Airlines - RU
AirTran Airways - FL
Alaska Airlines - AS
Albastar - AP
Alitalia - AZ

AirTran expired in 2014 after Southwest completed its purchase of the airline, and AirAsia Japan, AirBridgeCargo and Alitalia also ceased operations years ago.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 15/08/2026
Indie creative arts at the Arlington County Fair.
A pair of sneakers painted with aquatic imagery. The stripes on the side have this handwritten message: 
"My Soul Is
Anchored In
The Waves" Swaths of colored fabric adjoined to look like a stained-glass window depict the Reflecting Pool filled with green goop.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 14/08/2026
Today's unhelpful software dialog: 1Password's browser extension tells me it has a "Connection problem" with my password manager's desktop app but not how to fix it, while the 1Password desktop app doesn't show any problem. Uninstalling and reinstalling the extension did not dispel this warning.
Screenshot of part of the General settings category of 1Password's Safari extension shows that "Make 1Password the default password manager in this browser" and "Integrated this extension with the 1Password desktop app" are enabled but also reports "Integration status: Connection problem," with a yellow-light icon next to it and the text below saying "Please make sure the 1Password app is unlocked."
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 12/08/2026
There must be something about gas-powered leaf blowers (the unburned fuel in their polluting exhaust?) that makes property owners who should know how to capitalism instead waste their money on having people drag these nuisances around leaf-devoid sidewalks in August.
Two workers in bright yellow safety vests haul noisy, polluting gas-powered leaf blowers around the brick sidewalk--with not a single fallen leaf visible on it--outside the Call Your Mother bagel shop in Ballston.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 09/08/2026
Lil' known fact about the Nats' Lil Screech mascot: Our team's baby bird is an Agent Zero.
Lil Screech, wearing a Nats jersey with 0 on the back, looks over the field from the 300 section well above first base as a camera operator stands nearby.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 06/08/2026
Still down an hour later. Having this page be offline must be incredibly triggering for any avgeek flying today.
FAA's National Airspace System status page with a "Website Unavailable" heading above a pink box with the message "We are experiencing technical difficulties. We apologize for the inconvenience but please check back soon, as we are working to have the issues resolved.

Thank you,
FAA Web Operations Team"
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 05/08/2026
Have already reached the state of Black Hat schedule overload where I know I'm going to have to set aside most of a day next week just to watch videos of the talks I've missed.
A wall-sized video display titled "Conference At A Glance/Wednesday" lists 31 options happening currently
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 04/08/2026
Greetings from #ai42026. Not entirely sure what message this get-up is supposed to send about the future of AI, but maybe the next three days of this conference will enlighten me.
A person on stilts dressed in an elaborate costume adorned with sequences of color-changing lights and a scrolling display above their face that reads "Ai 4 2026"
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 04/08/2026
Looking much more like a ballpark than on my previous visit to Vegas in April.
The ballpark under construction, as seen from the pedestrian bridge crossing Tropicana Avenue just east of the Strip. One of the metal arches that will hold up its roof spans the field while another is about a third of the way across, held up by one of six green metal towers. The framework for four tiers of infield seats is visible at right and at the far end, and three large red construction cranes rise above the site.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 01/08/2026
This X post by an AI techbro was grown in a lab to annoy avgeeks. x.com/SebastianCal...
July 31 post from X subscriber @SebastianCaliri, last edited 10:22 a.m. that day: "Conversations between AI labs and leaders in DC are some of the most consequential discussions for our country and the world right now. 

Yet there are 25+ daily lie-flat flights from SFO to EWR/JFK and 0 from SFO to DCA. United Airlines, please do your patriotic duty. Introduce 2x daily SFO to DCA service with Starlink. Save the West."
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 29/07/2026
My other initial comment is that the depicted proposal to build some useless glassed-in bulge on top of Eero Saarinen’s main terminal needs to be value-engineered straight into the sun. Leave that beautiful building alone!
Rendering shows the Main Terminal with a glass eyebrow atop the curving roof. A parking lot in front has implausibly few cars and some nice-looking landscaping.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 28/07/2026
If you were wondering what happened to the Starship upper stage that flopped into the Indian Ocean at the end of Friday's flight test and then did not explode: Per SpaceX's latest Instagram story, the stage is still afloat and in sight of a support ship. Unclear why they haven't put it in tow yet.
Photo from SpaceX's Insta account shows eight crewmembers in orange safety gear standing on the wooden deck of a ship with Starship's upper stage afloat in the background apparently less than a mile away, with the sun shining on the scene.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 25/07/2026
One thing I didn’t expect from Starship’s 13th test launch: the upper stage not exploding right after the inevitable tipover following a soft landing in the Indian Ocean. Very lucky break for SpaceX, especially if they can recover the whole thing to inspect it onshore.
Starship’s upper stage just after flopping into the Indian Ocean, intact but with flames around its nose.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 24/07/2026
I can't be the only nerd to walk by this sign in Arlington and think "I didn't know WordPress was getting into the apartment business."
Sign on the side of the Windsor Courthouse, a new-ish high-rise apartment building by the Court House Metro station in Arlington has a partially encircled capital-W logo in a serif font that evokes the WordPress logo.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 23/07/2026
Kayak is basically unusable in my Mac's copy of Safari and has been so for at least the past few weeks. That doesn't seem like the kind of thing a site operator would want to see persist if they don't want to get run over by Google.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 19/07/2026
Very, very much in the target demographic here.
Stage backdrop at the United Center before Rush's performance on the band's Fifty Something tour, featuring a large 50 and smaller versions of that number in shades of gold.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 17/07/2026
A friend whose dad flew for PSA caught this error. His comment: "I’m impressed by PSA’s 47 year string of profitability until 2019 after they were merged out of existence in 1988."
Pacific Southwest Airlines

United States · San Diego · 1949 – 1988

DEFUNCT

BUDGET

California’s original low-fare airline, and the one Southwest openly modeled itself on. It flew from 1949 to 1988, painted a grinning smile on the nose of every jet, and was eventually absorbed into USAir.

Was profitable for 47 consecutive years (1973–2019) — the longest streak in airline history
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 17/07/2026
Cooling off nicely at Fort Reno Park for tonight's concert.
A punk-rock quartet playing on a plain elevated platform, with a Cold War-vintage emergency communication facility disguised as a water tower in the background.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 15/07/2026
Took way longer than I expected--Google shipped Android 17 almost a month ago--but this update is now ready to install on my Pixel 9 Pro. Do I feel lucky?
Screenshot of a notification titled "System update available":

Your Pixel is getting even better with the latest features and enhancements along with Android 17.

Learn more at our Community page.

What's new?

With Screen reactions, you can now record a selfie video overlay while capturing what's on your screen, all without needing extra apps. [1]

Gemini Omni makes creating and editing videos as easy as having a conversation. Blend text, images, and videos to bring your ideas to life. [2]

Describe an idea or upload a photo, and it'll be transformed into a high-quality audio track with lyrics in Gemini. [3]

Easily turn your apps into floating bubbles over your main screen to check them quickly or multitask without disrupting your flow. [4]

1 Screen reactions are only available when screen recording is set to

Download and install
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 14/07/2026
This standing-around time is treating eventual attendees to an extended look at the Kalshi-sucks ad playing on the side of a truck, hired by a "nonpartisan market integrity watchdog" called FairPredicts because Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour is one of the speakers.
Projection screen on the side of a panel truck shows a smiling casino dealer scooping up chips from a green felt table. At the top, the quote "On Kalshi, there is no house... People are trading against each other," attributed to Mansour, is stamped "Deceptive." Text at the bottom reads "The Truth: On Kalshi, you're often trading against market makers, including Wall Street firms and Kalshi Trading LLC."
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 09/07/2026
Meanwhile, on X, where Ars (note: very occasional freelance client of mine) has almost 13 times as many followers...
Screenshot of the X post by @arstechnica, with 1.8 million followers, showing it's drawn 4,410 views, one comment, eight reposts and 10 likes--vastly less engagement than the Ars post about the same story drew here, where that news site has 141,600 followers.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 03/07/2026
The VC-25, the Boeing 747-200 that the Air Force has used for presidential transport for decades, is one shiny airplane.
The Boeing 747-200 the Air Force flies as the VC-25, with its bare-metal Bell contrasting with the white-and-blue livery. Two power lines are in the foreground.
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Rob Pegoraro @robpegoraro.com · 02/07/2026
Got a picture on one of their subsequent passes. The F-16 remains one of the finest-looking aircraft ever made--so give me a heads-up about when I should step outside into this heat to enjoy the view.
Five F-16 fighters in the Thunderbirds red-white-and-blue livery, four in a tight formation and the fifth off to the right, with trees visible below.
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