Today’s NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Sunday, October 1, 2023

If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Sunday, October 1, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Beware, there are spoilers below for October 1, NYT Connections #112! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game. By the way, we’ve moved the basic “how to play” instructions to the very end of the page—just a heads up in case you’re used to scrolling down a few screens when you open this post.

If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.

Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And further down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!

---

Does today’s Connections game require any special knowledge?

You’ll want to know what a POPPY looks like, and when you might see a MOTH. It would also help to know more than one use of the word BALLPARK.

Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle

Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:

• Yellow category - Pick these up at lunch.
• Green category - Look for these at night.
• Blue category - Ironically: not blue.
• Purple category - I (honestly) did not figure this one out until it was too late.

Does today’s Connections game involve any wordplay?

There’s a fill-in-the-blank for the purple category, and it’s a tougher one than usual.

Ready to hear the answers? Keep scrolling if you want a little more help.

---

BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!

We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)

What are the ambiguous words in today’s Connections?

• A BALLPARK can be a place to play baseball, or a metaphor for estimation. If you’re close in your guess, you’re “in the right ballpark.”
• A BAT can be found in a ballpark, but not today.
• CARDINAL can mean something important or pivotal, as in the CARDINAL directions (north, south, etc). It’s also a rank in the Catholic church, just below the Pope. More familiarly, it’s a red songbird.

What are the categories in today’s Connections?

• Yellow: COFFEE COUNTER ITEMS
• Green: NOCTURNAL ANIMALS
• Blue: THINGS THAT ARE RED
• Purple: ____ FIGURE

DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW

Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.

What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?

The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is COFFEE COUNTER ITEMS and the words are: CUP, LID, STIRRER, STRAW.

What are the green words in today’s Connections?

The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is NOCTURNAL ANIMALS and the words are: BAT, MOTH, OWL, WOLF.

What are the blue words in today’s Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is THINGS THAT ARE RED and the words are: BEET, BRICK, CARDINAL, POPPY.

What are the purple words in today’s Connections?

The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is ____ FIGURE and the words are: ACTION, BALLPARK, GO (as in “go figure!”), STICK.

How I solved today’s Connections

BEET caught my eye first. It’s got to refer to beet-red, because otherwise how often do we talk about beets? POPPY and CARDINAL are clearly its brethren. (Fun fact: Church cardinals wear red because of something about the blood of Christ, and the bird was named when Europeans first saw it and were like, “oh hey, that bird dresses like a cardinal.”) Anyway, “BRICK red” is a shade of red, so that filled out my group.

CUP, LID, STIRRER, and STRAW fit together, obviously. This really feels like two overlapping mini-groups: One for a coffee cup (with STIRRER) and one for a soda cup (with STRAW). But you’d find them all together on a Starbucks counter next to the napkins, so here they are.

As much as my brain kept wanting to put BAT together with BALLPARK (and maybe STICK, as in chapitas), I decided to group it with OWL, MOTH, and WOLF, as animals. All are slightly spooky, and arguably nocturnal. Wolves are really more crepuscular, but does Wyna Liu know that? Does she think we know that? Anyway, that was a hit.

Finally, the puzzle within the puzzle: what do BALLPARK, ACTION, STICK, and GO have to do with each other? I didn’t get it, no matter how much I puzzled over the concept of a “ballpark estimate” or being “in the right ballpark.” It didn’t occur to me to phrase my estimate in terms of a ballpark figure.

Connections 
Puzzle #112
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪

How to play Connections

I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:

First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Crossword app. You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).

Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.

You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.

How to win Connections

The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.

If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.

Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/VQHYFkN

The Most Clever Ways to Reuse an Old Pillow

For the most part, pillows don’t last forever. Even if you wash them regularly, they can still flatten or lose their shape over time. On the other hand, you may have perfectly good pillows that you no longer need.

Either way, let’s say you have some pillows you want to get rid of, but you don’t necessarily want to throw them away. Here are a few of the ways you can reuse them instead.

Make a pet bed

You may not want to use a particular pillow anymore, but your dog or cat might appreciate a new bed—especially if you have a dog who is comforted by your scent. There are a few different ways to make one.

If they’re small enough to curl up on the pillow, you can get them their own designated pillowcases—so you can switch them out and wash them—and give it to them as-is. Better yet, find a box or plastic container roughly the same size as the pillow, and stuff the pillow inside. This will look better and make it easier to keep clean.

You can also combine multiple pillows and create a simple cover them out of an old sheet or inexpensive fleece blanket, as shown in this video.

Use the stuffing as packing material

Instead of throwing a pillow in the trash, you can cut it open and use the stuffing instead of or in addition to packing peanuts or bubble wrap the next time you need to send a fragile package.

Make new throw pillows

Have you ever ordered what you thought were reasonably priced throw pillows, only for them to arrive and find out you only bought the covers? Either way, it’s possible to find decent throw pillow covers for a great price, but the inserts tend to be pricey. Or, perhaps you have inserts, but they’re flat and uncomfortable. Regardless, repurposing an old pillow (or part of one) may be the solution. This tutorial walks you through that process.

Perform reconstructive surgery on a stuffed toy

Kids and pets can be rough on stuffed toys. Fortunately, you can use the stuffing from a pillow as a filler for aging stuffed toys. Find the hole or tear where the toy’s stuffing came out, or create a small incision somewhere inconspicuous, then add pillow fluff until the toy is back to its original shape (or close to it), and stitch it back together.

Cut up the case for rags

Once you’ve emptied a pillow’s stuffing to use as packing material or toy Botox, use a sharp pair of scissors to cut the case into pieces. Use these rags for household cleaning.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/y5kPZYe

How to Deep Clean Your Kitchen Cabinets

Even if you keep your kitchen relatively clean—wiping down countertops and tables, vacuuming the floor, and keeping the sink area as tidy as possible—grease and grime from regular cooking is going to build up over time. This is especially the case when it comes to surfaces we don’t wipe down on a regular basis, like the walls, backsplash, and cabinets.

Of these, cabinets are the hardest to keep clean: They’re high-touch surfaces, often in the path of cooking vapors from the stove, and have another space to clean inside. If it’s been a while since you deep cleaned your kitchen cabinets, here’s what to do.

Start with the inside of the cabinets

You can skip ahead to the next section if you’re only interested in cleaning the exterior of the cabinets, but chances are, the insides are pretty gross too.

Here’s where to start:

1. Empty the contents of the cabinets.
2. Use a crevice tool attachment to vacuum the inside of the cabinet, getting into the corners to get all the dust and crumbs.
3. Assess the condition of your contact paper or other type of shelf liner to see if it needs to be replaced. If so, peel it off, so you shelves are empty and bare.

Because kitchen cabinets hold food and the plates, dishes, and cups we eat and drink from, it’s best to avoid harsh chemicals when cleaning the inside.

To make a DIY solution that’s both safe and effective, mix a 50:50 solution of white vinegar and warm water in a clean spray bottle, add a few drops of liquid dishwashing detergent, then gently shake to combine the ingredients.

Next, lightly spritz the inside of the cabinet with the solution—making sure not to oversaturate any of the surfaces—and wipe them down with a clean rag or cloth. Finally, take a new clean cloth or sponge, dampen it with warm water, and wipe down the surfaces again to get rid of any residue.

In addition to the actual shelves, don’t forget to clean the inside of the cabinet door, and the top, back, and sides of the cabinet’s interior.

The cabinet has to dry before moving forward, so using as little of the solution as possible to get the job done will make everything move faster.

Clean the exterior

While the insides of the cabinets are drying out, it’s time to tackle the outsides. Start by using the same solution described above, but this time, let it sit on the cabinets for a minute or two before wiping. You may need to use a soft-bristled toothbrush to work on particularly grimy areas (typically the spots that are touched when the cabinets are opened and closed).

If that doesn’t do the trick, take some baking soda (you can start with 1/2 cup) and mix in a mild liquid dishwashing detergent (like Dawn) until it turns into a paste. Then use a cloth or toothbrush to apply it to the grimiest areas, and rinse with a clean dampened rag or sponge.

Don’t forget to clean the cabinet’s hardware and any other features, like glass panes on the doors.

Finish the interior

Once the insides are clean and dry, it’s time to line the shelves (unless the lining you had before is still in good shape). In addition to contact paper and dedicated shelf liner, some of the other materials you can use to line your shelves include:

• Self-adhesive laminate floor tiles
• Leftover linoleum floor pieces
• Leftover wallpaper pieces
• Plastic canvas
• Laminated paper
• Wax paper

When you’re finished lining, it’s time to reload the cabinets. If you’ve been thinking of implementing some type of organizational system, now’s the time to do it.

Either way, assess each item before putting it back in the cabinet: Does it need to be washed? Is it something you still use? Is it something you rarely use, and could put on a higher shelf? Is the shelf-stable food past its expiration date? If it doesn’t belong in there, leave it out.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/pc4VGfM

You Can Actually Trigger Two Shortcuts With the iPhone 15 Pro’s Action Button

The iPhone 15 Pro’s Action Button is a game-changer. With it, you can quickly launch features like the camera and flashlight, or, if you’re really creative, a host of useful shortcuts and automations. But what’s better than assigning one shortcut to the Action Button? Assigning two shortcuts to the Action Button.

That’s the clever hack Federico Viticci published on his MacStories blog. Viticci is known for creating a huge library of shortcuts, and his latest creation is MultiButton, which uses a workaround that let’s you to trigger two shortcuts using the Action Button. The logic behind MultiButton is easy to follow—press the Action Button once to trigger your primary shortcut, and press it a second time—within seven seconds of the first press—to trigger the second shortcut.

Here’s what Viticci says about his shortcut:

All of this wouldn’t have been necessary if Apple supported multiple gestures for the Action button, such as double- and triple-presses. Alas, in this version of iOS 17 for the iPhone 15 Pro, the Action button can only be associated with one shortcut at a time. That seemed like something I could fix with some clever programming in Shortcuts.

As he notes, Apple doesn’t allow you to double or triple-tap the Action Button for different actions by default, and so his shortcut addresses this gap—sort of. Your first Action Button tap will still trigger your first shortcut, even if you immediately follow it up with another to launch your second, so you’ll need to be thoughtful about the shortcuts you choose and the order in which you assign them. And if you’re wondering about the seven-second timer between the two presses of the Action Button, Viticci says it’s an arbitrary number he chose based on his usage of the button. If you press the Action Button a second time after seven seconds, it’ll continue to trigger the primary shortcut you assigned.

You can download the MultiButton shortcut here, but it’s worth checking out the original blog post, where Viticci offers detailed instructions on how to configure the shortcut, suggests potential use cases, and provides examples of how you can make the most of this shortcut tweak. Have fun doubling the utility of one of the best features of your new iPhone 15 Pro.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/2MbWlP6

This Three-camera Blink Bundle Is 58% Off Right Now

Photo: ZikG (Shutterstock)

Until the end of the day on Sunday, Oct. 1, Amazon Prime members can get a 58% discount on a three-camera Blink bundle, currently going for $99.99 (down from its $239.98 list price). This is the lowest price this bundle has been, according to Camelcamelcamel’s price history.

Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days start Oct. 10, during which Prime members can save on many different products. But if you don’t want to wait, this is a deal you can snag early. Here’s what you need to know.

What’s in the Blink bundle security camera sale

The bundle includes one Blink Video Doorbell, two third-generation Blink outdoor cameras, and one Sync Module 2. The Blink Video Doorbell retails for $59.99 on Amazon. It’s the first and only generation available, released in 2022 and has a “good” review from PCMag. It gives you two-way audio, 1080p resolution, and can be wired or battery-powered with easy installation. The Sync Module 2 it comes with is a $34.99 hub that connects Blink cameras to Blink’s cloud servers, allowing you to store video locally, manually record, share live video footage (but no live view recording), and control up to 10 Blink devices with the Blink Home Monitor app. It also extends the doorbell’s battery life and doesn’t require a monthly fee to use your local video storage.

The two Blink Outdoor cameras are the third generation released in 2020 and have an “excellent” review from PCMag. A two-pack bundle usually retails for $179.99 on Amazon. They can be used indoors or outdoors, have 1080p video resolution, have local and cloud storage capabilities, and are battery-powered with an impressive life of up to two years. Keep in mind that Blink already released the Blink Outdoor 4 earlier this year. Here’s our review of that model.

The Blink system is not compatible with Google or Apple’s smart home system. You will also need a Blink subscription to use all of its features:

You have two options for a Blink subscription plan. The Blink Basic Plan is $30 per year; the Blink Plus Plan runs you $100 a year with more features, the most important of which is having an unlimited number of devices hooked up to your account.

Considering the bundle itself is already a good deal based on the value of the products in it, a 58% discount on it makes this a good purchase for anyone looking to get started on their home security system.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/Jd7N9vV

Cling to That Summer Feeling With This Lemon Stick 'Drink'

Summer ended abruptly this year. One minute, I was sweating profusely, hiding from the sun indoors, and the next thing I knew, I was bundling myself in blankets, hiding from the rain indoors. I wasn’t done with summer, but summer was done with me. As a result, I’ve found myself clinging to sunny-weather things, like sorbet, iced coffee, and these minty, tangy lemon sticks.

The lemon stick, also known as the “Baltimore lemon stick” doesn’t really have much to do with summer—it marks the start of “growing season” in mid-spring—but it tastes like pure sunshine. They’re traditionally sold at Baltimore Flower Market in Mount Vernon, which is hosted by the Women’s Civic League, though the fine people of Baltimore make and enjoy them all spring and summer at parties and gatherings. The treat falls somewhere in between candy and drink, and has a bracing, sweet and sour flavor that tastes like a concentrated minty lemonade.

Making them is theoretically easy: Cut a lemon in half and shove a peppermint stick into it. It’s simple, but not that simple. A candy cane won’t work; it’s not porous enough. You want a soft peppermint stick. According to some opinionated Amazon customers, the best peppermint sticks for this application are King Leo Soft Peppermint Sticks and Bob’s Sweet Stripes.

Even with the “right” peppermint candies, there is a slight learning curve when it comes to getting the lemon juice to flow through the stick. Luckily, those opinionated Amazon customers pulled through once again:

These make perfect “straws” for the old-fashioned treat of sucking the juice out of oranges and lemons. Just roll the fruit on your countertop to soften it, poke a hole halfway through the fruit with an ice pick, bite a tiny bit off each end of the peppermint stick, and poke it in the hole you made in the fruit. Then gently squeeze the fruit while you suck on the peppermint stick. Within seconds, the peppermint “straw” will become porous; and the flavor combination, delicious!—Romance Fan

The effect is delightful. The sugary peppermint sweetens the tart lemon juice perfectly. It is startlingly balanced—sweet without being cloying, and sour without being mouth-puckering. It’s pleasant, it’s sunny, and it’s tempering these early onset seasonal blahs. (Which is pretty impressive for a piece of fruit and stick of candy.)

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/nNwAuUT

These Are the Signs of Poor Interoception in Kids

Interoception is the ability to recognize internal bodily signals, such as feeling hot or cold, hungry or thirsty. In the same way that the nerves in our muscles and joints will send signals to our brain, letting it know where we are in physical space, the nerves in our organs will also send signals about how full our digestive tract is, how fast our heart is beating, or how hot we are.

This, in turn, can help our brain understand whether we are anxious or relaxed, whether or not we need to eat or drink, or if we need to use the bathroom before leaving the house. Poor interoception is often associated with conditions such as autism and ADHD, and tend to go hand in hand with other sensory processing issues.

Some of the early signs of poor interoception

Some of the early signs of poor interoception in a child can include difficulties with potty training, due to issues with recognizing whether they need to poop or pee. Other signs can include erratic eating patterns, such as not eating for long periods of time or eating past the point of fullness, due to an inability to recognize hunger and satiety signals.

Poor interoception can also affect a child’s sleep schedule, making bedtime especially difficult. “You’ll see kids become rageful, because they’re exhausted, but they don’t have the sense that they need to go to bed,” says Andrew Kahn, a licensed psychologist, and associate director of behavior change and expertise at Understood.org.

Poor interoception can affect emotional regulation 

In addition to difficulties with recognizing physical cues, such as hunger or thirst, poor interoception can affect a child’s ability to regulate their emotions. “When we talk about interoception, a person’s emotional reactions occurs because they can’t interpret their bodily signals internally,” Kahn says.

For example, a child with poor interoception might not realize that they are experiencing pain or that they are tired. However, although a child may be having trouble recognizing and interpreting these signals of pain and discomfort, it’s still affecting them, which can show up in the form of becoming irritable, or having a meltdown. “It’s the 17 flavors of unnamed discomfort that generate within your own body,” Kahn says.

How to get help 

If a child is showing signs of poor interoception, early diagnosis and support can play a critical role in their long-term well-being. “In the absence of support, kids are far more likely to have challenges with mental health,” Kahn says. “Interoceptive challenges can result in feelings of confusion and exacerbate functional challenges in kids who already struggle to communicate and advocate for themselves.” Parents should start by reaching out to their pediatrician, who can refer them to an occupational therapist.

Other strategies for increasing interoceptive awareness include having your child do physical activities—such as playing a sport or learning an instrument— that can increase their bodily awareness, and/or having them do types of therapies, such as mindfulness awareness body-oriented therapy or dialectical behavior therapy, that work on increasing interoceptive awareness.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/sXl785N

Use 'Think, Pair, Share' for Effective Group Studying

There are a few effective methods that will help you study with partners or groups, but you have to know them before you get into that group setting—or else run the risk of no one getting much working done. I’m not a huge proponent of group work, but with the right methods, it can be productive. Here’s another method I haven’t covered before: Try “think, pair, share” the next time you want to study with someone else.

What is “think, pair, share”?

Think, pair, share is a teaching technique typically employed by instructors, but easily modifiable for more independent use. According to Western Governors University, it was developed by a professor named Frank Lyman in 1981 and is helpful for shy students, as it encourages them to engage in discussion.

The name basically tells you what you need to do: First, you think about the subject at hand, studying it until you are pretty sure you grasp it. Then, you pair up with someone to discuss it and share what you read, understand, and don’t understand with the group afterward. Ideally, by going over the material together, you’ll help each other fill in gaps in your understanding and enhance what you already know.

Why think, pair, share works for studying

If you’re familiar with other group study methods, like the jigsaw method or the Feynman technique, some of the elements of TPS might sound familiar. With jigsaw, each person in the group studies one part of the assigned text, then explains it to everyone else. When using Feynman, you explain the topic you studied as simply as you can to someone else who knows nothing about it. The difference is that with TP, everyone in the group knows the material before discussing, so you’re not necessarily teaching anyone or being taught, so much as you’re comparing ideas and understandings.

It works for largely the same reasons: When you’re sharing what you know, you make space for someone else to ask follow-up questions, forcing your brain to use active recall to search around for the answer—or sending you back to the source material to look it up. Hearing someone else’s perspective can help you reframe how you think of the topic, causing it to stick in your brain even more. For best results, use a critical reading strategy like SQ3R while reviewing the material on your own before you discuss with your partner.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/8wk6NlO

Malicious ads creep into Bing Chat responses

Users of Bing Chat, the GPT-4-powered search engine Microsoft introduced earlier this year, are being targeted with ads leading to malware.

According to Malwarebytes researchers, searching for Advanced IP Scanner (network-scanning software) or MyCase (legal case management software) may result in an infection.

Pushing malware via Bing Chat ads

Malwarebytes researchers tested Bing Chat with a simple query: “download advanced IP scanner”.

Bing Chat responded by saying that “You can download Advanced IP Scanner from their official website,” but hovering over the link opened a dialog box where an ad for a malicious site is shown above the link to the official website.

The malicious link within the Bing Chat conversation. (Source: Malwarebytes)

“Users have the choice of visiting either link, although the first one may be more likely to be clicked on because of its position. Even though there is a small ‘Ad’ label next to this link, it would be easy to miss and view the link as a regular search result,” noted Jérôme Segura, sr. director of threat intelligence at Malwarebytes.

Clicking on the link in the ad takes victims first to a site that checks whether they are a bot, a sandbox, a security researcher or just a regular human user.

Only the latter are then redirected to a fake site (advenced-ip-scanner[.]com) – the rest are shown a decoy site.

At this point, potential victims are prompted to download the installer, which contains three files, one of which is a heavily obfuscated malicious script. When the installer is run, the script connects to an external IP address and retrieves an additional payload.

Malvertising through search engines

Using malicious ads served by search engines is a popular way for threat actors to trick users into downloading malware.

This year has seen a significant jump in malvertising via Google Ads to deliver malicious payloads such as LOBSHOT, an infostealer/remote access trojan.

“Considering that tech giants make most of their revenue from advertising, it wasn’t surprising to see Microsoft introduce ads into Bing Chat shortly after its release. However, online ads have an inherent risk attached to them,” Segura noted.

from Help Net Security https://ift.tt/D6WH5xL

How to Fix Ugly Nail Pops in Your Walls

Photo: Vsevolodizotov (Shutterstock)

Drywall is relatively durable and cheap, and looks quite nice if installed and maintained correctly. But it’s also easy to damage while you’re just living your life—and it can even damage itself, most commonly through the appearance of little bumps under the surface known as “nail pops.” (Despite the name, nail pops can also be caused by drywall screws).

A nail pop is what it sounds like—the nail or screw used to attach the drywall to the wall studs pops up, deforming or even breaking through the paper surface of the drywall. They can be subtle and easy to ignore, or they can be pretty unsightly, demanding attention. The good news is that while nail pops can be kind of alarming, unless you’re seeing a ton of them, they probably don’t indicate a serious underlying problem. The better news is that nail pops are fairly easy to repair yourself.

What causes nail pops in drywall? 

There are a few basic reasons nail pops can happen:

• Shrinkage. New lumber is usually somewhat damp, and even if it’s been left to dry out for a while prior to installation, and the drying process can continue for a long time. As wood dries, it shrinks. If this is happening to your wall studs, they may have started slowly push out the drywall anchors. This is generally isn’t a concern beyond the aesthetics of having bumps or visible nail heads in your walls.
• Poor workmanship. If the crew or person who installed your drywall didn’t do a good job and skimped on the number of screws or nails used, used nails or screws that were too short for the drywall thickness, failed to space the anchors properly, or simply missed the studs entirely in a few spots, your drywall will show lots of problems, including nail pops, as the anchors that did bite into studs struggle to hang on.
• Settling. All structures will sink slightly and shift slightly on their foundations over time. This can cause cracks and other deformities in walls and ceilings, including nail pops.
• Moisture and humidity. If your home has a moisture problem, it can actually cause the opposite of shrinkage. As your studs expand and contract as moisture levels vary, it can slowly push the anchors out of the walls. If you expose the nail or screw head and see rusting, this may be the cause, which means you’ll need to tackle the moisture issue before repairing anything else.

How to fix nail pops in drywall

Fixing a nail or screw pop in your wall is pretty easy, assuming there isn’t an associated moisture issue. There are essentially two basic approaches:

• Punch it. One way to deal with a popped drywall anchor is to simply reset it by pounding it back into the stud, then repairing the damaged wall surface. For a nail, use a nail set to hammer it back into place. For screws, drive them back in using the appropriate screwdriver. Don’t overdo it—you just want to get them back under the surface of the wall. Then, patch the area with some drywall patching compound, sand the surface smooth, and paint. This technique is fast and easy, but the downside is that it probably won’t last—a once-popped nail or screw will almost certainly work its way back out again eventually.
• Pair it. A better approach is to secure the drywall: First, drive two drywall screws in above and below the popped anchor. Make sure you use the right length of screw, and don’t tear the paper surface of the drywall—drive them in until they crimp it, then stop. These new screws will hold the drywall to the stud more securely, preventing future pops. Then, reset the popped nail or screw using the advice above, and finally, repair the surface of the wall with patch compound. For a longer-lasting repair, use fiberglass mesh drywall tape on the area before you apply the compound.

If you see a lot of nail pops, or if they continue to happen, it’s a good idea to call in a professional to assess your situation.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/mCnAJuv

All the ‘Single-Use’ Household Items You Should Be Re-Using

Part of being an adult is feeling the constant need to replenish basic household supplies. One way to combat this loop is to be more mindful about recycling and re-purposing your stuff. But you can go one step further—there are many things we tend to treat as “single-use” that can, in fact, be used more than once. Using stuff at least twice will reduce how much of it you use, so you’ll spend less on it (and spend less overall) and throw less of it into the trash. So if you’re throwing any of the items on this list into the garbage every time you use it, think twice.

Aluminum foil

Foil is incredibly useful, but too often we treat it as a disposable resource. But it’s metal, people. It’s pretty durable, and it is absolutely possible to clean a used sheet of aluminum foil and use it a second (or even third) time. If it’s only been used to cover a dish and hasn’t actually gotten dirty, you can just smooth it out and repurpose the sheet. But even if it’s dirty, you can wash it—either by hand, or by placing it in your dishwasher (top rack, dirty side down, weighed down with something).

If you don’t feel like re-using your foil for your own cookery, you could at least wipe down used sheets, ball them up, and toss them into your dishwasher’s utensil bin to shine things up a bit.

Parchment paper

Just like foil, there’s no reason you can’t use the same sheet of parchment paper in several baking adventures. As long as the paper isn’t charred or burned from the heat of the oven, and doesn’t have baked-on crust from previous uses, you can wipe it down and re-use it for that second (or even third) batch of cookies. This is an especially useful tip because parchment paper isn’t recyclable, thanks to the thin layer of silicon on its surface, so use it as often as possible to reduce its waste.

Dryer sheets

If you use dryer sheets, you’re probably over-using them—if you pop one into your laundry every single time, you run the risk of clogging up your clothes (and your dryer vents) with the residue of the fabric softeners and other substances infused into the sheet. And you can reduce your use of them even more by using your sheets twice, as a “used” sheet will probably still have enough oomph to treat a second load. Alternatively, you can cut your sheets in half before use—you won’t notice any difference and your box of sheets will last twice as long.

Plastic shower curtains

Plastic shower curtains get buildup of soap scum and mildew over time. But rather than throwing them away as soon as they get gross, right, just toss them into your washing machine and watch it come out looking like new.

Soap

At first glance, soap would seem to be the ultimate “one-use” product, but if you’re using bar soaps in your daily routine, you end up with those tiny bits of soap at the end—the “slivers”—which you probably toss in the trash. But it’s not hard to hang onto them and then mash them together into a whole “new” bar of soap. There are a couple of ways to accomplish this ranging from the fast and funky to the more nuanced and professional, but the bottom line is that you can use your soap twice, and save a bit of scratch as a result.

Grocery plastic bags

While a lot of grocery stores have eliminated the plastic bag for carting home your items, there’s might be one place you’re still getting “single-use” plastic bags: the produce aisle—but you can absolutely use those produce bags a second time. You can even wash them if you’re worried about contamination of some sort, and then feel good about not dumping a bunch of plastic into the landfill.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/8VIPGJF

How to Manage Your Catastrophic Thinking

Catastrophic thinking can be extraordinarily hard to cope with. Whether it’s dealing with fears about your physical safety, the uncertainty of personal relationships, or the prospect of financial troubles, life can quickly feel far too big and out of control—while the worst-case scenarios, such as injury, financial ruin or the loss of a loved one, can feel like a foregone conclusion. Some examples of catastrophic thinking can include a person thinking that just getting into a car means they will die in an accident; thinking that all relationships are doomed to fail; or that making even a minor mistake at work will lead to being fired, which will then lead to homelessness.

When a person starts treating worst-case scenarios as inevitable, this can lead to avoidance of major life goals, while also worsening physical and mental well-being. In the moment, this kind of thinking can seem logical; often, these thoughts are driven by a person’s personal history, as well as the particulars of how their brain works.

If you’re experiencing catastrophic thinking, it’s important to seek out the help of a trained professional, who can help them manage these thoughts. For some people, however, whether they have a history of trauma or a disorder such as ADHD, managing these catastrophic thoughts can get complicated—and more traditional therapeutic approaches may not be as effective. Here’s what to know about finding the help that works best for you.

A trauma-informed approach can be essential 

For people with a history of trauma, these negative experiences will inform and shape their thinking. “Our brains are trying to keep us safe,” says Kate Hanselman, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with Thriveworks. “If you have a history of trauma, your brain is thinking worst-case scenarios to keep you alive.” In this context, a person who has experienced trauma is going to be filtering future experiences through the lens of their lived experiences, where the worst-case scenario can very easily seem like the most probable, logical outcome.

The first step, if you’ve been through trauma, is ensuring the safety of your environment, which may require removing yourself from an unsafe situation. For some people, they may not even recognize that their experiences qualify as traumatic, due to it being normalized. For others, they may still be in an unsafe environment, where the trauma is still ongoing, for which the first priority is to figure out how to get to a safe environment.

Only after a person is safe should the focus shift to processing the trauma, which often includes finding ways of incorporating these lived experiences into your world-view, while still letting you move forward with your life. “Trauma resets our baseline, to either say the world is bad and unsafe, or I am bad or unsafe,” Hanselman says. “A lot of trauma-focused modalities are looking at understanding either ourselves or the world differently.”

Some of the therapeutic modalities that can help with trauma include cognitive processing therapy, which helps patients work through their thoughts and beliefs about a traumatic event; prolonged exposure therapy, which works on gradually exposing a patient to their fears, so that they can work on managing their reactions; and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, which uses eye movements to help patients reprocess their traumatic memories.

Depending on a patient’s particular needs, which includes what type of trauma they experienced, and whether it was a single, one-time event, or a prolonged exposure to on-going trauma, a therapist might draw on techniques from different types of therapies. “The tools are very similar, but the ways in which they’re implemented and the support for the implementation, that’s what’s going to be different,” Hanselman says.

Conditions such as autism, ADHD or OCD can require a different approach 

Another complication for managing catastrophic thinking is if a person has a disorder such as autism, ADHD or OCD. All of these conditions can make catastrophic thinking worse and/or make managing them a lot harder. “Neurodivergent differences, like ADHD particularly, [are] going to lead to some things that worsen the catastrophic thinking process,” says Andrew Kahn, a licensed psychologist, and associate director of behavior change and expertise at Understood.org.

With a disorder like ADHD, a person’s executive functioning is impaired, which affects their ability to plan, prioritize and execute complex tasks. In turn, this impairment can lead to a number of consequences, whether it’s getting bad grades due to struggles with staying focused and organized; getting fired from a job due to an inability to successfully finish complex projects; or dealing with relationship issues due to being absent-minded. These consequences (or the danger of them occurring) can lead to patterns of catastrophic thinking that are very hard to break out of. “If you establish maladaptive patterns for long periods of time, mood functioning is going to dominate your world,” Kahn said. “You’re going to stay in this catastrophic state.”

For someone who does have any of these disorders, and is struggling with catastrophic thinking, the first step is getting proper diagnosis and treatment for their condition, as this will help lessen the predisposition for catastrophic thinking. “If you have ADHD, or autism, or OCD, the earlier and better we diagnose you, the more tools we are going to work on building,” Kahn said.

The second step is going to be seeking out the help of a mental health practitioner who understands some of the ways in which these conditions can affect catastrophic thinking, and which therapeutic tools can be useful.

Alternative therapeutic techniques 

Generally speaking, the major therapy for catastrophic thinking is cognitive behavioral therapy, which tends to emphasize engaging with and managing catastrophic thoughts. However, this approach may not work for certain kinds of people.

For example, if a person has been through a major trauma—which is its own real-life version of a worst-case scenario—the process of engaging and rationalizing with their catastrophic thoughts could easily end up being either ineffective at best or harmful at worst. “That’s one of the traps in cognitive behavioral therapy,” Kahn says. For a person who has already been through the worst, rationalizing or engaging with thoughts about this trauma isn’t going to lessen their distress about the experience, and also comes with a risk of invalidating their lived experiences. Instead, they might need to use some different approaches.

One potential strategy is mindfulness-based training, where a person works on learning to recognize and live with their catastrophic thoughts in a way that still allows them to live their life. “I’m going to treat the catastrophic thought like a balloon flying through the sky, where I can’t reach the string to bring it down, so there’s nothing I can do about this,” Kahn says. In so doing, “it permits me the opportunity to practice allowing the thought and experience to live, without having to beat myself up for it, to fight with it, to argue about it, and to try and prove it untrue. If I can allow it to live, and it doesn’t change my experience in some negative way, then over time, the connection can be broken.”

This strategy is often used in acceptance and commitment therapy, which focuses on finding ways of accepting certain experiences that are out of a person’s control, and coming up with strategies for moving forward.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/sfn4vUR

Swissbit releases N5200 Enterprise SSD

Swissbit is expanding its data center solutions portfolio with an SSD range for enterprise server and edge data center applications.

The N5200 Enterprise SSD combines reliability, durability, and scalability, making it the ideal choice for mission-critical applications. The new Swissbit Enterprise SSD is a particularly efficient storage solution that consumes up to 30% less power than other PCIe Gen4 SSDs while delivering up to twice the performance.

In addition, the product series offers a wide range of features essential for operation in modern enterprise environments, including hardware-based security features, advanced telemetry, OCP Cloud Specification 1.0, and Power Loss Protection (PLP). The N5200 range is Swissbit’s first SSD solution available in Enterprise and Data Center Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E1.S in addition to U.2. It is available in storage capacities from 1.92 to 7.68 TB.

“The launch of N5200 represents a key milestone in the expansion of our storage portfolio as our first Enterprise SSD. Alongside our broad range of storage solutions for industrial use on the one hand and high-performance data center SSDs on the other, it fits perfectly into our offering with its focus on demanding enterprise applications,” explains Roger Griesemer, General Manager Memory Solutions at Swissbit.

The N5200 SSD features a 4-lane PCIe and an NVMe 1.4 interface and offers sequential data rates of up to 7,000 MB/s read and 4,200 MB/s write. Random reads and writes reach up to 1.35 million IOPS and 450,000 IOPS, respectively. In terms of flash memory longevity, N5200 delivers endurance values of at least 1 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) measured against standardized workloads (JEDEC Enterprise Workload) over a 5-year period.

The Enterprise SSD also offers a wide range of crucial security features to ensure data confidentiality and protection against unauthorized access. These include hardware-based security features using TCG OPAL 2.01 and AES-256 encryption, Secure Boot, and Crypto Erase. In addition, N5200 features error correction and data protection mechanisms, supports up to 128 namespaces and delivers the highest level of data protection during power outages with Swissbit “powersafe”.

First Swissbit SSD in E1.S form factor

In addition to the U.2 (15 mm) format, the N5200 Enterprise SSD is also available in three compact E1.S form factor variations: 5.9 mm, 9.5 mm, and 15 mm. Compared to conventional m.2 SSD’s, E1.S provides greater space for flash packages and offers significant advantages in terms of thermal efficiency, space requirements and power consumption.

Furthermore, E1.S offers symmetrical package (9.5mm) and asymmetrical heatsink (15mm) variants that improve cooling and performance of vented server assemblies.

N5200 complies with the OCP Cloud Specification 1.0, as defined by the Open Compute Project (OCP) with the aim of improving data center efficiency, flexibility, and innovation. It contains guidelines and design templates for many types of data center infrastructure and components.

The N5200 Enterprise SSD is readily available in storage capacities of 1.92 TB, 3.84 TB and 7.68 TB.

from Help Net Security https://ift.tt/t7Zfrac

These Mini Dual Tube Night-Vision Binoculars Are $100 Right Now

The Mini Dual Tube Night Vision Binoculars are on sale for $99.99 right now (reg. $159). It weighs less than a pound, has 10X optical magnification, allows you to save videos and photos, and its night vision feature lets you see up to 984 feet in complete darkness. Its 850nm infrared illuminator lets you see animals clearly in dark or dim ambient light. They’re obviously not the most expensive or high-tech night vision binoculars, but good for casual campers, hunters, and bird watchers.

You can get the Mini Dual Tube Digital Night Vision Binoculars with 1080p HD Recording on sale for $99.99 right now, though prices can change at any time.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/sIQe2Nh

ZoobeTek unveils CRA to fight mobile hacking risks and quantum threats

ZoobeTek has unveiled Coral Remote Access (CRA) solution to fight mobile hacking risks and quantum threats. This solution is tailored for organizations that implement Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) or remote work policies.

As digitalization continues at a fast pace globally, there are growing concerns for data breaches and loss of data. Hackers are able to utilize a variety of attacks to pilfer sensitive corporate and personal data, making it vital for everyone to protect themselves. To protect data transmission and storage for smartphones, Mobile Device Management (MDM) and VPN have been adopted by enterprises and organizations.

Yet these are far away from an ideal solution to the challenges for mobile security nowadays. ZoobeTek’s CRA is designed to improve mobile security by centralizing corporate data and applications on controlled remote servers instead of storing them directly on mobile devices.

Leveraging Virtual Mobile Infrastructure (VMI) technology, CRA establishes a unified remote environment where all corporate mobile applications operate seamlessly. These applications are streamed in real-time with 4G to end users’ smartphones, enabling them to work with sensitive information without the need to download corporate files to their smartphones or tablets.

Utilizing cloud-based technology to create a digital twin of each device, CRA can further identify cybersecurity and behavioral risks on individual mobile device and block access to corporate resources, all while maintaining user privacy.

With built-in admin features, app updates and corporate security policies can be easily implemented within minutes for thousands of devices. CRA solution has been adopted by a telecom group and a government agency in Taiwan for over one year with more than 10,000 online users per day.

“Of course our first priority is to ensure that no confidential information and customer data can be stored at mobile devices of any employee. It is also of great importance to us that employees know the privacy of BYOD devices remains secured and intact. We have found no better products than CRA that meets all our requirements”, said one customer.

ZoobeTek’s CEO PingHsien Chi added “With our CRA, remote and hybrid work arrangements will become more secure to industries despite the quantum threats while productivity can be ensured without any compromise for security.”

from Help Net Security https://ift.tt/ZXI42N0

What's New on Netflix in October 2023

Netflix’s horror lineup for October includes The Fall of the House of Usher, a limited series based on the work of Edgar Allen Poe that tells the story of mysterious deaths among a wealthy family of pharmaceutical heirs (Oct. 12), as well as Veronica origin story Sister Death (Oct. 27), and Swedish slasher The Conference (Oct. 13). There are also two horror shorts: Flashback and Disco Inferno, both arriving on Oct. 20.

The Fall of the House of Usher | Official Trailer | Netflix

Netflix is also dropping a handful of documentaries this month. First up is Beckham, a four-part series about the life of, obviously, soccer star David Beckham (Oct. 4). There’s also Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul, another four-parter that looks inside the creation and influence of the vaping device (Oct. 11), and nature doc Life on Our Planet, narrated by Morgan Freeman (Oct. 25).

Finally, October brings the awaited return of popular original series like thriller Lupin (part 3 dropping on Oct. 5) and comedy Big Mouth (season 7 coming on Oct. 20).

Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) Netflix in October.

What’s coming to Netflix in October 2023

Coming soon (date TBA)

• ONEFOUR: Against All Odds—Netflix Documentary

Available October 1

• 60 Days In: Season 4
• A Beautiful Mind
• American Beauty
• Backdraft
• Casper
• Catch Me If You Can
• Cinderella Man
• Colombiana
• Drake & Josh: Seasons 1-3
• Dune (2021)
• Elysium
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall
• Gladiator
• Hot Tub Time Machine
• Kung Fu Panda
• Love Actually
• Margot at the Wedding
• Miss Juneteenth
• Mission: Impossible
• Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
• Mission: Impossible II
• Mission: Impossible III
• My Best Friend’s Wedding
• Role Models
• Runaway Bride
• Saving Private Ryan
• Scarface
• Sex and the City 2
• Sex and the City: The Movie
• The Adventures of Tintin
• The Amazing Spider-Man
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2
• The Firm
• The House Bunny
• The Little Rascals (1994)
• War of the Worlds

Available October 2

• Strawberry Shortcake and the Beast of Berry Bog

Available October 3

Available October 4

Available October 5

Available October 6

Available October 7

• Strong Girl Nam-soon—Netflix Series

Available October 9

Available October 10

Available October 11

Available October 12

Available October 13

• The Conference—Netflix Film
• Ijogbon—Netflix Film
• Spy Kids
• Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
• Spy Kids 3: Game Over

Available October 15

Available October 16

Available October 17

Available October 18

Available October 19

Available October 20

Available October 23

Available October 24

• The Family Business: Seasons 1-4
• Get Gotti—Netflix Documentary
• Minions
• Pete Holmes: I Am Not For Everyone—Netflix Comedy

Available October 25

• Absolute Beginners—Netflix Series
• Burning Betrayal—Netflix Film
• Life on Our Planet—Netflix Documentary
• The UnXplained with William Shatner: Season 3

Available October 26

Available October 27

Available October 28

• Castaway Diva—Netflix Series

Available October 29

Available October 31

What’s leaving Netflix in October 2023

Leaving October 1

Leaving October 2

Leaving October 4

• The Expendables
• The Expendables 2
• The Expendables 3

Leaving October 5

• American Pie: Girls’ Rules

Leaving October 14

• Half & Half: Seasons 1-4
• One on One: Seasons 1-5

Leaving October 31

• Cliffhanger
• Collateral
• Coming to America
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Girl, Interrupted
• Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie
• Into the Badlands: Seasons 1-3
• LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE
• Mile 22
• No Strings Attached
• Pride & Prejudice
• Reservoir Dogs
• Steel Magnolias
• Tagged: Seasons 1-3
• Terminator Genisys
• The Pink Panther
• The Pink Panther 2
• The Thundermans: Seasons 1-2
• Victorious: Seasons 1-2

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/QuP7Fe1

Use These Kinesthetic Methods to Retain What You Study

If you focus too hard on your “learning style,” you run the risk of getting boxed in by it. Whether you prefer to learn visually, auditorily, by reading or writing, or kinesthetically, there are benefits to using methods that align with all four of the main styles—and times when you’ll have to, whether you like it or not. Each style has something to offer, so embrace what works within each of them.

Of all the styles, kinesthetic methods can be a little more confusing—but still worth learning. Here are a few ways to study kinesthetically to help you really grasp the subject at hand.

What is kinesthetic learning?

First, let’s define “kinesthetic,” since it’s a word that doesn’t crop up much. According to the dictionary, it refers to anything “having to do with movement or sensation, especially within the body.” It might even refer to the need to move, especially if you’re someone who’s restless or energetic.

Kinesthetic learning, then, involves your body in some way. It’s hands-on and experiential, having less to do with sitting quietly and reading and more to do with really grasping your material. It’s also about practical application and real-world understanding that extends beyond reading or writing in a classroom.

Make your own study materials

One of the easiest and most effective ways to make regular studying kinesthetic is by using your hands to create your study materials. Instead of using a digital program to quiz yourself, for instance, hand-write your own flashcards. You can create mind maps on a piece of paper or construct models of what you’re learning about. There is plenty of software out there that will create flashcards, mind maps, mock tests, and even notes, but if you value hands-on learning, it might be best to eschew modern luxuries and go back to basics.

Luckily, this doesn’t have to be complicated. If you’re in an astronomy class, for instance, and want to better understand objects’ paths through space, you don’t need modeling clay and wire to create a model. You can ball up some paper to represent celestial objects and arrange them on the table to get a more visual sense of what it all looks like up there.

Move your body while you study

According to Houghton University, even moving your body in a way that isn’t necessarily related to your studies can help you focus and retain more. Chew gum, study at a standing desk, pace while you review, tap your foot, or study in a rocking chair or other semi-mobile seat. Consider switching locations or positions while you study, too. While you’re reading your accounting notes, try standing at the kitchen counter. When it’s time to do flashcards for marketing class, try sitting on the floor.

This advice comes with one cautionary note, however: If you move your body while you study, you may also feel the need to move it during test time to facilitate recall. For online tests, that’s not a huge deal, but for in-person ones, you may be stuck only able to tap your foot or chew gum, so choose a bodily movement that you can replicate in every situation.

Role play or imagine a real-world use case for what you study

The main goal of studying, beyond passing a test, is retaining information that will help you somehow in the real world. Connecting your materials to real life is a key element of retaining them—and kinesthetic techniques can help. Try role playing the real-world application of your subjects (which is so effective that Indeed even recommends it for workers in the professional world, not just students). For example, if you’re studying nursing, role play the exact order in which you take a person’s vital signs, what you say to them while you’re doing it, and how you record it all. Someone else can help you with this by acting as the patient, or you can do it alone, envisioning the scenario. Act out different ways it could go. What do you do if a patient is fidgeting? What do you do if they’re hostile and don’t want to be there? What do you do if you notice something abnormal during the check-up?

You can also imagine real-world scenarios and write them out. Say you’re in a science class and studying the scientific method. Imagine a scientist working on a new idea and preparing to test it out. Write a vignette showing them working through the steps, from observing and questioning something to researching it and forming a hypothesis. Similar to using a mnemonic device, creating a scenario and writing it down can help you remember. During test time, think of your fictional scientist and remember what you had them do.

Work in groups when you study

Working in groups can be risky, especially for those who really need silence and structure, but if you want to incorporate kinesthetic learning into your practice, it’s one of the most recommended methods. You should still structure the group session to make sure it stays on task, but try using the jigsaw method to break up large chunks of text and teach each other about it, or script a role-playing session based on what you’re learning about. Use physical flashcards to quiz one another and take regular breaks to stretch, chitchat, or move locations.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/CbUghd4

No, iOS 17 Won’t ‘Kill’ Your iPhone

Are you scared to update your iPhone to iOS 17? You’re not alone. There’s a genuine fear out there that installing Apple’s latest update will doom your older iPhone to a premature retirement, slowing it down and generally making it worse overall. The good news? It’s not true.

On the surface, I can see the logic, here. Apple wants people to buy their iPhones. If a new update makes their old iPhones feel slow and useless, people might decide to spend hundreds (or thousands) on a new phone instead. I understand why skeptics of giant, billion-dollar companies think that said companies want to profit above all else.

But while Apple will happily sell you a new iPhone any day, this conspiracy theory just doesn’t have legs. Apple doesn’t design iOS updates to slow down older iPhones, nor is it a fact that simply updating to the latest software will make your iPhone run worse. Will an iPhone XS run iOS 17 as fast as an iPhone 15 Pro? Of course not. But that doesn’t mean your XS needs to stay on iOS 16 forever. In fact, it’s terrible advice to tell people to avoid updating their iPhones, or any of their aging tech, at all.

iOS 17 runs just fine on all compatible iPhones

The update this year is a particularly weird one to accuse of slowing down iPhones, too: iOS 17 is not an overhaul of an update. There are plenty of fun new features to explore here, but it isn’t some feature-filled power-hungry update that flips the iPhone experience upside down. Jumping from iOS 16.7 to iOS 17 won’t feel like going from iOS 6 to iOS 7—that’s for sure.

iOS 17 isn’t the same on all compatible iPhones, either. While most of the updates features are available on iPhone 12 and newer, there are plenty of options missing from phones like the iPhone XS, XR, 11, and 11 Pro. These phones don’t have gesture reactions in FaceTime calls, autocorrect’s intelligent upgrades, or autocomplete, for example. Apple likely limits some of these features on older devices because they know they can’t handle it, or because it’s challenging to develop them well for the aging hardware.

Apple also drops support for iPhones it no longer wants to support. It’s not giving you the option to complain about how slow your iPhone X feels on iOS 17, because you can’t install iOS 17 on your iPhone X. Honestly, I bet Apple could get iOS 17 running smoothly (or at least at an acceptable speed) on the 2017 iPhones, but this is the line they decided to draw. These phones received five years of software updates, and will continue to receive security updates, so it wasn’t a bad run by any means.

There have been times in the past where iOS updates actually improved my older device’s performance. iOS 12, for example, saved my iPad Air 2. The thing did not run well on iOS 11 for whatever reason, and I figured it was time to upgrade to a new iPad. But that year, iOS 12 was all about stability and performance improvements, and the difference was night and day. I still have that iPad Air 2, and used it as my main iPad until Apple dropped support for it before iOS 16's launch.

I’m not saying iOS 17 will treat your iPhone XS like iOS 12 treated my iPad Air 2, but I am recommending that you update your phones if you can. If you don’t believe me, look for other people’s experiences online. Search the update in question as well as your particular iPhone model: This Reddit thread, for example, features iPhone XS users who are happy with how iOS 17 runs on their devices, and this post suggests iOS 17 slightly improved the performance of this user’s iPhone 12. As far as I can tell, iOS 17 seems to run well on all supported devices at this time.

If your iPhone feels way too slow, it might be the battery

Apple might not be behind the grand conspiracy it’s accused of here, but the origins of the theory might be the company’s own fault anyway, as Marques Brownlee points out in this TikTok.

Here’s the thing: Apple does slow down iPhones, but only once the batteries reach a certain age. They do this to prevent your iPhone from unexpectedly shutting down. If your iPhone runs at full speed on a bad battery, that power source might not be able to handle the task, and may just power down at random. So, the decision was made to throttle the clock speed of iPhones in this situation, preserving overall stability at the expense of performance.

The problem was Apple didn’t tell anyone they were doing this, so when they publicly confirmed it back in 2017, it felt shady AF. iPhone users felt justified in their suspicious that Apple was slowing down their perfectly good iPhones in an attempt to get them to buy a new one. Their suspicious were half right, but it didn’t matter: The damage was done, and a conspiracy theory was born.

Following the fiasco, Apple gave users a choice: They could choose to slow their iPhones down once the batteries reached a certain age, as Apple had traditionally done, or they could keep their iPhones running at peak performance, running the risk of unexpected shutdowns. However, the company still slows things down by default after it detects one of these unexpected shutdowns. You can choose to disable the throttling, but I recommend a battery replacement. Not only will you be able to run at peak performance without worrying about shutdowns, your overall battery life will improve as well. Win-win!

Remember, though: Any new update, especially a larger one like iOS 17, is going to put a drain on system resources at first. You may notice a hit to overall battery life, since your iPhone is working through post-update processes, but much of this will stabilize after a while.

You should always at least install security patches

If you absolutely refuse to upgrade to iOS 17, or if your iPhone doesn’t support iOS 17 in the first place, please install the security patches, at the very least. These security patches are baked into all iOS 17 updates, but Apple also releases patches for devices running iOS 16, iOS 15, and iOS 12. These updates will only contain patches for security vulnerabilities, without any of the new features or changes that you’re avoiding.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/uCQyKob

You Can Shift From a Scarcity Mindset to an Abundance Mindset

Do you constantly worry about not having enough money? Are you afraid to spend on things you want or need? This feeling of lack or limitation is known as a scarcity mindset, and it can seriously sabotage your finances. The good news is you can cultivate an abundance mindset instead: This involves focusing on all that you have instead of what you don’t. When you embrace the idea that you can achieve financial security in your life, you’ll be in a better position to make sound financial decisions. Here’s how you can get out of the scarcity trap and create a healthier relationship with money.

Heal your past relationship with money

In many ways, making a budget is only a surface-level solution. It’s tough abiding by a budget when there’s an unresolved emotional root of your money troubles.

Your relationship with your finances runs deep—it’s never as simple as being “good” or “bad” with money. One place to start is by defining your relationship with money. Ask yourself: How were finances handled growing up, and how did you feel about money once you became independent? You might have a lifelong scarcity mindset, one that’ll take serious work to untangle. The key is that in order to change the narrative, you need to get a better understanding of what that narrative looks like now. For more, check out these steps to start healing your relationship with money.

Spend consciously

Give yourself permission to spend on priorities and things you genuinely enjoy. Spending money aligns with an abundance mentality when done consciously. Note how it adds value to your life.

Forming a healthy relationship money means indulging thoughtfully. Ask yourself, “How do I expect this purchase will make me feel? What do I want it to make me feel? What feelings am I trying to avoid by buying it?” Allow yourself to indulge, especially if these indulgences improve your overall relationship with money.

You can’t avoid spending money altogether, so learn how to do it without shame (the same shame that only keeps the scarcity mindset in control). Here are some more concrete tips to become a conscientious spender.

Overcome your fear of debt

Sure, debt is a scary word. But not all debts are created equal, and a blanket fear of debt will hold you back from achieving an abundance mindset.

If you want to buy a home or a car, or make pretty much any major financial move, you probably need to get used to debt. And if you’re borrowing money for an asset that will turn a profit in the long run—like investing in real estate or a small business—your debt has the potential to significantly enhance your finances. Here’s our guide to getting organized to pull yourself out of debt.

Celebrate small wins

Note any financial success. Did you stick to your budget or save a little extra this month? Pay off a credit card? Instead of minimizing achievements, acknowledge and reward them. Small wins add up, and you may find your finances aren’t as bad as you think.

Stop comparing yourself to others

Everyone has their own story. It’s no use comparing yourself to a friend with generational wealth or your sibling with a higher-earning job. The only thing you can do is focus on what’s in your control. In a practical sense, that means creating and sticking to a budget. But in a deeper sense, it means keeping your eyes on your own paper and shifting from a scarcity to abundance mindset.

If your relationship with money is weighing you down, something needs to change. Consider finding a financial therapist. Financial therapy combines financial advice with psychoanalysis, giving you a way to unpack the emotional or behavioral barriers to your financial well-being.

Ultimately, these tips to go from scarcity to abundance aren’t just so you feel better. Your approach to money is key to building wealth. When you feel confident that you’re spending only on things you love and not wasting money on things you don’t, you will make much better financial decisions for yourself.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/zyQ25qW

Use LIFO, Not FIFO, to Manage Your Inbox

How do you decide which emails to respond to first? Your choice can determine how your workday will go, but the options can sometimes lead to indecision (which only slows you down more). In general, you should choose a side between a LIFO or FIFO approach to your inbox—and, in my opinion, the choice is LIFO.

What are LIFO and FIFO?

LIFO and FIFO are terms that come from the financial world—respectively, they stand for “last in, first out” and “first in, first out.” They’re often used by accountants to describe inventory but can refer to anything where items are coming “in,” like, well, emails. In this context, it refers to the practice of responding to either your oldest or your newest unreads first, then working your way in the opposite direction from there.

Why is LIFO better than FIFO for email management?

LIFO, or the practice of answering the most recent emails before older ones, is much more common than FIFO for good reason: Your more recent emails are timely and, depending on how old the past ones are, the ship on being late to them has already sailed. You should focus on the tasks at hand to stay on top of your work.

If something from the past is truly urgent or important, you’ll get a follow-up and, even though that might be embarrassing for you, it’ll bump the older content into LIFO territory anyway. LIFO essentially relies on the idea that the older problems will sort themselves out or be brought back to your attention if they have to be. It’s like giving yourself grace on what you missed and focusing instead on what you can take care of right now.

Of course, there might be times when you don’t get a follow-up or really do miss something important from the past. The Muse recommends an easy solution here that I can get behind: One day a week, use the time that you’ve blocked out for your email management to work in FIFO mode, going through your emails reverse-chronologically to make sure you didn’t miss anything big. Using FIFO too consistently can have negative consequences, though. If you’re always working on tasks from the past, you risk missing newer, more urgent ones that need immediate attention. Save it for one day per week and use your time to handle pressing matters on a day-to-day basis.

An important element of either strategy is timing. Make sure to block out time for email management every day, ideally using a scheduling tactic like timeboxing. Dedicating specific, uninterrupted time to your inbox management makes it more doable and ensures you’ll actually handle the emails in the first place, whereas answering them sporadically through the day opens you up to the possibility of being distracted or procrastinating more frequently.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/5pIxEau

Use the ‘Yesterbox’ Method to Stay on Top of Your Inbox

Inbox management, like so much else, is a necessary evil in our day-to-day lives. As such, it’s best handled with the use of a strict system. Also like so much else, finding the right system is time-intensive and adds a new layer of stress onto an already annoying task. Here’s a system that’s simple, doesn’t take a lot of time to start using, and can actually help you get through your unreads without overwhelming you. It’s called “yesterbox.”

What is the yesterbox inbox management system?

This technique—and its funny name—both come from late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who described yesterbox as a way of “relieving email guilt.” The concept is simple: Today, you only deal with yesterday’s emails.

Hsieh explained that “inbox zero” is not only an elusive goal, but a nearly impossible one; as soon as you start replying to emails, responses arrive. By its very nature, email is a form of correspondence, which means you’re sending and receiving—and for it to be effective, it has to be ongoing.

The thing is, though, that you don’t know how many emails you’ll get today. The only true, finite number you can count on is the number of emails you got yesterday, so that’s where your focus should be if you want to prevent yourself from getting caught up in the back-and-forth of immediate communication.

How to use yesterbox

Start by picking a time to deal with emails every day. Ideally, this should be in the morning, so nothing too urgent from yesterday slips through the cracks. Try using timeboxing to schedule your day and blocking out a dedicated time—a half an hour or so, depending on the volume of actionable emails you usually receive and how much of your work is actually done through them—for email management every morning. Hsieh was a proponent of dedicating three hours to this task, but he was the CEO of a giant company, so be realistic about how long it will actually take you.

Use that time to only look at and respond to emails you got the previous day. Next, filter out the emails from the previous day that will require more effort from you, whether it’s a lengthy response or the inclusion of attachments. You can star them or move them to a folder, but focus first on the ones that require simple responses—or no response at all. Go through each before returning to the ones that will take some real effort. Once that’s done, don’t look again until the next morning.

This creates a finite to-do list that doesn’t go on all day. By looking at each day’s previous emails systematically, you won’t miss any, either. The only real exception to this rule should be urgent, day-of emails about tasks that are taking place in the moment. If you’re expecting any like that, add the sender to your priority list to make sure you get the notifications and, if possible, ask them to make the subject line something easily identifiable. Resist the urge to look at any emails related to anything else but pressing, immediate issues.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/l3XMY0E

This Three-Camera Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Bundle Is 53% Off Today Only

Photo: Jeramey Lende (Shutterstock)

Until September 26 at 1 a.m. ET, Best Buy will be selling a three-camera bundle of the Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight security camera for $279.99 (was $599.99). This 53% off deal is Best Buy’s “deal of the day,” which means it will only last for the next several hours.

This is a better deal than Prime Day 

You can find some great deals on Best Buy’s “deal of the day,” which, as the name implies, updates daily. This deal is no exception, beating this summer’s Prime Day prices. According to Honey’s price history, Best Buy dropped the price of this bundle on June 11 to $299.99 for Prime Day.

What you get in this bundle

The Arlo bundle has everything you need to get started to monitor your home. The 12-piece bundle includes:

• Three Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight cameras
• Four rechargeable batteries
• A dual-battery charging station
• Three anti-theft mounts
• A security yard sign

The Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight cameras record in 1080p resolution with a 160-degree view. They have a color night vision feature. The indoor or outdoor cameras are battery-powered, so they are cord-free, and they can be hooked up to a solar panel charger, so you don’t have to worry about constantly charging the batteries (which last about a month). They can be hooked up through wifi with smart home devices like Arlo, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, and SmartThings. They automatically send all of their videos to the cloud, so there’s no need to constantly delete an SD card. They also have two-way audio communication so you can have a conversation with whoever is facing the camera.

Keep in mind that you’ll need a subscription to Arlo Secure, which starts at $5 per month, to record clips and add the ability to distinguish between people, animals, vehicles, packages, and general motion.

from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/S1t3zpR