gigastacey

@gigastacey.bsky.social

Recovering tech journalist and IoT expert who now works on cybersecurity, IoT, and right to repair for Consumer Reports.

EV charging for long trips is predatory and frustrating. There should be a pre-disclosed fee based on kilowatt hours. Tap to pay. There should be no need for an app, subscriptions, or weird fees. And we need laws so companies can charge per kWh without becoming providers if that's the issue.

I have not been a fan of Uber, especially after its hardcore tactics to sway elections, but I did use it in a pinch. After reading how they are defending themselves against sexual assault allegations, I will never use it again. And I encourage everyone to delete Uber. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/b...

Uber’s Strategy for Fighting Sexual Assault Suits: ‘What Were You Wearing?’

The ride-hailing giant promised to handle legal claims “in a way that is best for the survivor.” Its lawyers are pursuing a far more aggressive strategy.

nytimes.com

Y'all! Weber is cutting the software tether associated with my beloved June oven on Sept. 22. After this point the oven will no longer have a backend server connection, so I will lose app functionality and will no longer get updates to the cooking programs. But Weber is handling this well.

I cross-referenced my database of candidates against credible voter fraud cases. GOP politicians are implicated at 50x–38,000x the general public's rate. Yet even if every American voted with the integrity of a GOP candidate, it still wouldn't come close to justifying making voting one iota harder.

Bar chart titled "Voter fraud among Republican politicians vastly exceeds the public's. That rate is still just 1 in 850." The chart shows that 0.118% of Republican politicians (17 out of 14,442 DIME candidates from 2016–2026) have been credibly implicated in voter fraud. This rate is represented by a tall red bar that dwarfs the microscopic rates for the general electorate, making the politicians' rate 50x to 38,000x higher than the documented rates for everyone else.

I knew they were misogynistic a-holes, but I had no idea of their actual crimes. The New Yorker article opened my eyes. It was also something that I wish I could unlearn. I know men like that are terrible, I didn't want to be hyper focused on how terrible. It was great journalism.

Professa Murray@kalimurray.bsky.social · 4w ago

The fact that VP JD Vance and Richard Grenell went to Romania—on behalf of the Trump Administration— to advocate for Andrew and Tristan Tate, who by all accounts, were rapists running a coercive sex ring, then permitted them to come to Florida, should be a crazy, crazy scandal.

I accidentally taught my dog that the touch command means she finds my open palm and licks it instead of booping it with her nose. I now need to teach a new "boop"command because licking is not optimal.

A mini Aussie with white and Merle coloring walking toward the camera. She has blue eyes, an open mouth and looks interested. There is a ball in the foreground.

If you'd like some escapist reading this week, I enjoyed Fonda Lee's Last Contract of Isako about a menopausal samurai /corporate baddie solving a mystery on a corporate-controlled ice planet. The corporate dystopia did not offer an escape nor did her accurate complaints about achy knees.

Derek Mobley applied for more than 100 jobs. Every one rejected him. Samonne Montgomery uses the resulting lawsuit against Workday to ask the question courts are now forcing: who owns an automated hiring decision?

Assigning Responsibility When AI Discriminates Against Job Applicants

As AI systems become more ubiquitous in hiring, courts are beginning to answer the question that policy keeps postponing: who owns an automated decision?

buff.ly

I've spent about 5 hours trying to close a Twilio account that I thought I closed back in 2020. It suddenly started charging me again (I cannot figure out what for since I don't use any Twilio services and haven't for 6 years). I have to pay to get a real person to help. This should be illegal.

A man with NO criminal history was shot and killed by ICE. As far as I'm concerned, Trump's DHS Secretary should get hauled in front of Congress to answer for every shooting. We need a Congressional majority that will push for real answers and accountability. This cannot stand.

Son says he identified his father by his cries after fatal Houston ICE shooting

After hearing his father's cries for help in a Facebook video, a Houston man learned that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo had been killed during an ICE operation.

houstonchronicle.com

"…as of July 2025, the CDC made tracking cyclospora optional, as part of scaling back its Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network. At the time, food safety experts worried that it could make it harder to identify and respond to outbreaks."

Bruno J. Navarro@brunojnavarro.bsky.social · last mo.

The demand for tests for cyclosporiasis, a pathogen often caused by contaminated fresh produce, is so intense, with so many patients seeking help for diarrhea and crippling abdominal cramps, that many labs can’t keep up.