Mari Silbey

The Fine Print* A newsletter by Karl Bode covering tech, media, politics, and consumer rights.

I finally have a newsletter!

It's called The Fine Print* and I'll be writing about tech, media, politics, consumer rights (and whatever else I damn-well please).

It's free, but if you have disposable income, you can support independent reporting for just $50/year or $4/month.

Everything makes me crazy now. Absolute rage leaking out at every moment. So much stupidity. So much cruelty.

It takes just a tiny bit of examination into the context and history. The tiniest tiniest bit

When Comcast is weirdly not the bad guy

This!

Just hire all the laid off reporters. Call it the Washington Citizen or something. Doesn’t seem that hard.

Can't believe this guy is still teaching. I worked on something with him back in 2003, and it was well known then what he thought women were most useful for: serving men

I know there are many more important things to be sad about, but assuming this is true, it breaks my heart.

CNN in Minneapolis: We are seeing thousands and thousands of people, we've been standing on the corner here for the past ten minutes. This this crowd has not let up. It's just continuous.

I think I might take one of these "under 20 minutes" AI skills courses the UK Govt. seems very keen on everyone doing and live-post it here... Maybe we can all learn something together! The press release sends me to aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/ - let's go and see!

A Comm Daily headline reads: Future of Radio Altimeters Emerges as Major Issue in Upper C-Band Comments

Not to be a broken record, but this is the "easy" part of the spectrum pipeline

I recognize this is small potatoes, but today I learned that "smart" TVs time out on their licensing agreements with streaming services. So after a certain number of years, your Netflix app can suddenly disappear from the tv without warning or explanation.

Ask me how I learned this.

We've all been there

Next bonus at work

The best commentary on CES.

Samsung automatically downloaded it to my phone and I immediately uninstalled it

Damn, you beat me to it

Or 2003?

We went down to one car this year. I'm lobbying hard for an EV when the current ride gives out.

Photo of a large Christmas tree lit up and decorated indoors

Are we taking down Christmas trees this weekend or next?

My friend once instinctively growled when she saw someone wearing a UNC hat

A random stranger walked up to me on the street one March (college basketball season) and said, There's something wrong with your jacket. I turned halfway around. She finished with... It says Duke on it.

And walked away. Never to be seen again.

Cruel, but mad props.

Here's to the Kennedy Center employee who had to call me yesterday about renewing my season tickets. She was very understanding, explained that many others were also canceling, and lamented she couldn't comment further. We wished each other very happy holidays. ✨️

Altimeter folks met with the FCC this week on concerns about the auctioning of spectrum in the upper C-band. Just a reminder, this is supposed to be the easy part of the spectrum pipeline. You know, the gimme frequencies out of the 800 MHz promised.

I am so sorry. That is horrendous.

A Christmas mug with the year 2018 printed on it and a large Christmas tree in the background of the photo

Every year our Christmas tree place gives us a free Christmas mug with our tree. We have them lined up in the cupboard every year from 2018. This year they didn't hand one out. I asked why. "Tariffs."

Whether that's the reason or "profit taking" somewhere in the supply chain, makes me sad.

I also saw The Matrix without knowing what i was getting into. Spectacular. Separately, I saw The Fugitive at the Uptown. Fun on the big screen.

Do We Have a Spectrum Policy? Telecompetitor recently published an article that cited concerns from analysts at MoffettNathanson Research that wonder about the way spectrum is being allocated for FWA home cellular broadband. It…

"It’s a fair question to ask if we even have a national spectrum policy now. Raiding 800 megahertz of the most valuable spectrum we have to support FWA sounds less like a policy and more like a land grab by the cellular industry."

potsandpansbyccg.com/2025/12/02/d...

and this doesn't even mention tiktok!

Will the 21st Century Nabobs Win Their War on Public Accountability? A friend of mine ran an analogy by me which really resonated....

Will the 21st Century Nabobs Win Their War on Public Accountability? talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/will-...