Technology on haibun.org

Bluesky’s interim CEO, Toni Schneider, drops the ‘interim’

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 21:51:55 +0000

In March, Bluesky’s longtime CEO, Jay Graber, stepped down from that role to become its chief innovation officer. Graber was immediately succeeded by Toni Schneider, the founding CEO of Automattic, which is the company behind WordPress and Tumblr.

Schneider, who has led the company as interim CEO for the past four months, is now dropping the “interim” status and becoming its permanent chief executive.

“I’m four months into my interim CEO role at Bluesky, and it’s time for an update,” Schneider wrote on his personal blog. “Most importantly, as of today, the interim part of the title is gone. I’m loving the mission and the job, and I’m all in as Bluesky’s official CEO.”

Mamdani announces new Click-to-Cancel rule for New York City - Engadget

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 21:04:33 +0000

The rule revives a proposed FTC protection that was abandoned last year.

Ron Adar/Shutterstock

If you live in New York city, cancelling subscriptions should get a lot easier starting October 1. New York City Mayor Mamdani has announced a new "Click-to-Cancel" rule, enforced by the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, that requires companies to provide "simple, straightforward subscription cancellation." As the name suggests, the rule forbids companies from letting you breezily click on a few boxes to sign up online, while requiring you to navigate a byzantine network of phone calls and carrier pigeons to unsubscribe. Besides making good on campaign promises, the new rule also revives one of the Federal Trade Commission's proposed protections under former FTC Chair Lina Khan.

Metal balls from space are popping up on Australia's beaches - Engadget

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 18:30:00 +0000

Sadly, aliens weren't involved.

Queensland Fire Department

The Schwartz is strong with a small Australian beach town that's having its own "space balls" moment. Six metallic spheres, each roughly twice the size of a basketball, washed ashore over the weekend on Forrest Beach in Queensland. The appearance of the mysterious objects has led to wild theories, UFO jokes and tongue-in-cheek alien promotions from local shops. Authorities, though, have a much more mundane explanation: space junk.