For a while now, as regular readers know, I’ve been a frequent contributor to the remarkable, super smart tech news site Ars Technica. A few months ago they became part of the Condé Nast imperium, which has allowed them to begin expanding their coverage in a variety of ways.  And, as it turns out, I’m going to be one of those ways: As of next week, I’m joining Ars full time as their Washington Editor.

As some of you may recall, I polled my readers last month, in somewhat vague terms, as to whether I should be focusing on journalism or more long-form essayish writing. At the time—though for obvious reasons I couldn’t be terribly specific about the choice I was making—there did seem to be a general preference for the latter. I hope nobody’s too disappointed that, professionally anyway, I’ve opted to go in the other direction for now. But since the people have spoken, and because my head will explode if I’m doing all tech, all the time, my hope is also that here in this space, I’ll be able to get back to the sort of rambling philosophical thumbsucking that characterized the blog’s earlier days.  I’ve missed it too.

Needless to say—and much as I’ve enjoyed the eclectic (if impecunious) life of the freelancer—I’m pretty excited about the shift, both because it’s always a kick to be part of a rapidly growing organization full of smart people, and because it’s a chance to really drill deeply into some issues I care about without sacrificing the immediacy of daily reporting. There may be another fallow stretch here as I adjust to La Vida Ars and move into a new apartment, but I’m hoping that by the end of the month, you’ll be seeing more regular updates here (and, of course, much more from me at Ars).  I hope those of you who are at all interested in the techier side of my writing here—emphatically including privacy issues—will pop over and check it out.