LR Extra: Olympic dreams and vacation screams

The Light Reading editors share their favorite Olympic events, some facts about Humane's AI pin and Google's autocorrect, and they recall some bad vacations with long car rides and sweaty theme parks.

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Phil Harvey, Nicole Ferraroand 2 more

August 9, 2024

Happy Friday!

Here's a little Light Reading Extra, a podcast where our editors veer off the usual telecom path to discuss topics that are "giving watercooler," as the kids might say. (Editor's note: No one says that.)

In this episode's opening segment, we discuss our favorite and least favorite Olympic sports. Nicole doesn't like violent sports, except rugby. Phil likes basketball – all of it; he doesn't like golf – nope, none of it. Jeff gives Peacock a thumbs up for its Olympic coverage and the AI-fueled Al Michaels updates. Kelsey updates us on the feud between Ingebrigtsen and Kerr in a way that could have turned into a game of charades. 

In segment two, we break out the facts that stuck with us in recent days. Get ready to learn more (or less) about Midwestern name pronunciations, Google autocomplete tendencies, Snoop Dogg's smoky Olympic merchandise and Humane, a company you might not remember by the time this posts.

We conclude with a discussion of vacation memories and preferences. What's the longest we've ever driven on a vacation? Why are we so afraid of cruise ships? Did Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament go from good to bad to so bad it's good? Listen along and find out on your way to your weekend. 

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About the Authors

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

Nicole Ferraro

Editor, host of 'The Divide' podcast, Light Reading

Nicole covers broadband, policy and the digital divide. She hosts The Divide on the Light Reading Podcast and tracks broadband builds in The Buildout column. Some* call her the Broadband Broad (*nobody).

Kelsey Ziser

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Kelsey is a senior editor at Light Reading, co-host of the Light Reading podcast, and host of the "What's the story?" podcast.

Her interest in the telecom world started with a PR position at Connect2 Communications, which led to a communications role at the FREEDM Systems Center, a smart grid research lab at N.C. State University. There, she orchestrated their webinar program across college campuses and covered research projects such as the center's smart solid-state transformer.

Kelsey enjoys reading four (or 12) books at once, watching movies about space travel, crafting and (hoarding) houseplants.

Kelsey is based in Raleigh, N.C.

Jeff Baumgartner

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Jeff Baumgartner is a Senior Editor for Light Reading and is responsible for the day-to-day news coverage and analysis of the cable and video sectors. Follow him on X and LinkedIn.

Baumgartner also served as Site Editor for Light Reading Cable from 2007-2013. In between his two stints at Light Reading, he led tech coverage for Multichannel News and was a regular contributor to Broadcasting + Cable. Baumgartner was named to the 2018 class of the Cable TV Pioneers.

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