Rob Pegoraro<p><strong>Weekly output: Musk digitally deleting USAID, Arm vs. Qualcomm, U.K. vs. Apple, 8K TV, Bletchley Park</strong></p><p>One of this week’s published stories began with reporting weeks ago; another began with notes and photos taken months ago.</p><p><a href="https://robpegoraro.com/?attachment_id=25166" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a>2/3/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/musks-minions-deleting-digital-presence-of-us-international-development" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Musk’s Minions Deleting Digital Presence of US International Development Agency</a>, PCMag</p><p>I could not just write about the weird digital erasure Elon Musk and his goons have been inflicting on the online presence of the U.S. Agency for International Development without reminding readers of three important bits of context: USAID does good and useful work (as vouched for in that quote from Georgetown University government-department chair Anthony Arend, four of whose classes I took as an undergrad 35-plus years ago); USAID constituted all of .4% of the federal budget in fiscal year 2024; Elon Musk’s tweets show no sign of him having any interest in the agency until January.</p><p>2/6/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/arm-drops-effort-to-cancel-qualcomms-chip-licensing-deal" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Arm Drops Effort to Cancel Qualcomm’s Chip-Licensing Deal</a>, PCMag</p><p>If you were considering buying a Windows laptop with one of Qualcomm’s power-efficient Snapdragon X processors, this should rank as very good news.</p><p>2/7/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/report-uk-orders-apple-to-disable-e2e-encryption-on-icloud-backups-worldwide" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Report: UK Orders Apple to Disable E2E Encryption on iCloud Backups Worldwide</a>, PCMag</p><p>Writing up the Washington Post’s scoop about this dangerous demand by the U.K.’s Home Office gave me a crash course in looking up and citing legislation on Parliament’s Web site–without which I would have been writing about the Investigatory Powers Act without pointing people to the text of that 2016 statute and its 2024 amendments.</p><p>2/8/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/in-2025-the-picture-for-8k-tvs-still-isnt-looking-too-bright-or-sharp" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">In 2025, the Picture for 8K TVs (Still) Isn’t Looking Too Bright or Sharp</a>, PCMag</p><p>I originally had delusions of writing this piece from CES with a Las Vegas dateline, but the weeks since then allowed me to get some additional numbers from the Consumer Technology Association and quiz another analyst as well as the head of the 8K Association.</p><p>2/9/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/articles/to-see-codebreaking-at-its-most-metal-visit-bletchley-park" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">To See Codebreaking At Its Most Metal, Visit Bletchley Park</a>, PCMag</p><p>Some of you may remember my writing <a href="https://www.the-parallax.com/2018/08/01/bletchley-park-wwii-lessons-hackers/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">a piece about Bletchley Park</a> for the long-gone information-security publication The Parallax <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2018/08/05/weekly-output-data-transfer-facebook-vs-disinformation-campaigns-x2-bletchley-park-1-trillion-apple/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">in 2018</a>. I decided to revisit this museum of WWII codebreaking when <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2024/10/13/weekly-output-6g-ubers-electrification-ambitions-intels-new-desktop-cpu-designs-spacexs-starship-booster-catch-vast-spaces-iss-replacement-proposal/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">my trip to London in October for Uber’s Go-Get Zero event</a> (on Uber’s dime) left me with an afternoon free, and I’m glad I did because I was able to check out one exhibit that I’d had to skip earlier and see a few exhibits they’d added since then.</p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/8k/" target="_blank">#8K</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/8k-tv/" target="_blank">#8KTV</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/agency-for-international-development/" target="_blank">#AgencyForInternationalDevelopment</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/arm-holdings/" target="_blank">#ArmHoldings</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/bletchley-park/" target="_blank">#BletchleyPark</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/codebreaking/" target="_blank">#codebreaking</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/cryptography/" target="_blank">#cryptography</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/enigma-machine/" target="_blank">#EnigmaMachine</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/icloud-encryption/" target="_blank">#iCloudEncryption</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/investigatory-powers-act/" target="_blank">#InvestigatoryPowersAct</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/musk-coup/" target="_blank">#MuskCoup</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/qualcomm/" target="_blank">#Qualcomm</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/snapdragon-x/" target="_blank">#SnapdragonX</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/snoopers-charter/" target="_blank">#SnoopersCharter</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/u-k-home-office/" target="_blank">#UKHomeOffice</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/usaid/" target="_blank">#USAID</a></p>