Don't Prune These Shrubs in the Fall

Photo: 61vladimir (Shutterstock)

When it comes to gardening tasks, fall can feel like a season of preparation: getting your plants ready for the winter, and cleaning things up a bit so you have less work to do come spring. But if you’ve already planted your spring-flowering bulbs, put away your outdoor furniture, and raked all the leaves, you may be tempted to reach for the pruning sheers next and give your shrubs a quick pre-frost snip.

But, according to Arricca Elin SanSone of PureWow, that’s not always a great idea. In fact, pruning certain shrubs at this time of year can actually damage them, she explains in an article for the site. Here are a few examples of shrubs that fall into this category.

Rhododendrons

When you prune rhododendrons in the fall, you’re typically snipping off what would otherwise end up growing into clusters of pink, purple, and white flowers in the spring, SanSone explains.

Forsythia

Just as spring starts to creep in, forsythia is the first out of the gate with blooms early in the season. And while several different types of the shrub can become unwieldy, SanSone says to hold off on trimming anything in the fall, because doing so will remove the buds that will grow into next year’s bright yellow flowers.

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Lilac

The same goes for lilac: Pruning it in the fall means cutting off next spring’s blooms. According to SanSone, lilac shrubs shouldn’t really be trimmed at all, unless you’re cutting off a dead branch.

Ninebark

Part of the appeal of ninebark is its arching shape with colorful leaves and petite flowers that bloom in the spring. Pruning the shrub in the fall—or any time of year, for that matter—could ruin its shape. Like lilac, you can trim back any dead branches, but otherwise, SanSone says to leave it alone.

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How to Choose the Right Storage Unit Size so You Don't Overpay

Photo: Karolis Kavolelis (Shutterstock)

So, you have a bunch of extra stuff at home that you don’t want to throw away, but you don’t have room for, either. You’ve already Kondo-ed everything, getting rid of what you don’t need or doesn’t spark joy. You’ve triple checked all the potential storage spots in your house—the attic, basement, crawlspaces, under the stairs—and you’re all all out of space. It’s probably time to rent a storage unit.

But what size do you need? Get one that’s too big, and you’re paying for room you need. Get one that’s too small, and you’re facing the same problem you started with. Fortunately, Brie Greenhalgh at BobVila.com has some tips that should help you find a storage unit that’s just the right size. Here’s what to do.

Pack up your stuff

To figure out what size storage unit you’ll need, Greenhalgh recommends starting by packing up the stuff you need to store. But not just making piles—actually boxing it up or putting it into plastic bins the way you will when you actually store it (including putting bubble wrap around anything fragile).

Estimate the amount of space you’ll need

Then make a pile of all the boxes, containers, and furniture, and estimate the cubic volume. Otherwise, Greenhalgh says you’ll need to estimate the space you need based on the dimensions of your largest or bulkiest items, plus the boxes you’ll be storing. According to Greenhalgh, you can calculate that in two ways:

• Multiply the length and width of all your items while stacked together, or add each item’s measurements individually. This will give you a total square foot measurement. If the pile comes out to 8 feet by 8 feet, then you need at least a 64-square-foot storage unit.
• Multiply the length, width, and height of all your items while stacked together, or add each item’s measurements individually. This will give you a total cubic foot measurement. If the pile comes out to 8 by 8 by 8 feet, then you need at least a 512-cubic-foot storage unit.

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Greenhalgh says that, on average, storage unit sizes are as follows:

• Small: up to 50 square feet (400 cubic feet)
• Medium: up to 150 square feet (1,200 cubic feet)
• Large: up to 300 square feet (2,400 cubic feet)

Think about the future

Unless you only need short-term storage, you should consider your plans for the future, and whether that involves adding more stuff to your unit. According to Greenhalgh, it’s generally less expensive to rent one larger unit than two different-sized units, even if you don’t use all of the space immediately.

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Get Paid $1,000 To Binge-Watch Space Movies

Photo: Hethers (Shutterstock)

Any interest in going to space before the end of the year? Unfortunately, if you’re not a billionaire or former Star Trek actor, that’s probably not going to happen. But, you can do the next best thing: Get paid to watch a bunch of space movies. Here’s how to do that.

What the job entails

The position is with MRO Electric, and, as you’ve probably guessed, involves watching movies about or that take place in outer space. Specifically, you’ll need to sit through each of this 12 films over the course of one month:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• The Martian
• Interstellar
• Moon
• Proxima
• Passengers
• Hidden Figures
• Apollo 13
• First Man
• The Right Stuff
• Gravity
• October Sky

In addition to that, the successful applicant will be provided with a worksheet to complete for each movie, where they’ll need to take notes and track specific details. All of the tasks must be completed by December 23, 2021, after which the person will receive a payment of $1,000. Then, MRO Electric will incorporate the person’s responses from the worksheets into a blog post to be published on their website.

How to apply

In order to apply for the role, you must be at least 18 years of age and a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, and ideally, have:

• Overall enthusiasm for space travel
• Love for movies, especially the science fiction genre
• Strong attention to detail
• The ability and availability to watch 12 movies within one month’s time

To apply, fill out the form at the bottom of this page, including describing why you’re the perfect person for this role. “Applicants’ level of enthusiasm for space travel, movies, and science fiction will be a strong factor for consideration, so provide what you need to demonstrate how and why you love these subjects the most,” the job posting says.

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Applications must be received by Friday, November 26, 2021, and the successful candidate will be notified by December 2, 2021.

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Week in review: Popular npm package hijacked, zero trust security key tenets, wildcard certificate risks

Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles and interviews:

Apple fixes security feature bypass in macOS (CVE-2021-30892)
Apple has delivered a barrage of security updates for most of its devices this week, and among the vulnerabilities fixed are CVE-2021-30892, a System Integrity Protection (SIP) bypass in macOS, and CVE-2021-30883, an iOS flaw that’s actively exploited by attackers.

SolarWinds hackers are going after cloud, managed and IT service providers
Nobelium, the advanced, persistent threat (APT) actor behind the 2020 SolarWinds supply chain attack that served as a springboard for breaching a variety of high-level targets, is targeting organizations via their various service providers.

Popular npm package hijacked, modified to deliver cryptominers
Several versions of the npm package for UA-parser.js, a widely used JavaScript library, have been modified to include malicious code and have been made available for download.

MVSP: A minimum cybersecurity baseline to simplify vendor security assessment
Any organization that’s actively working on managing its cybersecurity risk can’t ignore the risk that goes with third-party vendors having access to its critical systems and customer data.

Good security habits: Leveraging the science behind how humans develop habits
In this interview with Help Net Security, George Finney, CSO at Southern Methodist University, explains what good security habits are, how to successfully implement them and why are they important. He also talks about his book Well Aware and what inspired him to write it.

Data engineers burnout overwhelming, a wake-up call to organizations
A Wakefield Research survey reveals a disturbing state of affairs among data engineering professionals. The study of 600 data engineers suggests an overwhelming majority are burned out and calling for relief.

Implementing DMARC to eliminate phishing emails
In this interview with Help Net Security, Alexander Garcia-Tobar, CEO at Valimail, explains the importance of implementing DMARC, as email is still greatly used by cybercriminals to infiltrate and attack organizations.

Despite spending millions on bot mitigation, 64% of organizations lost revenue due to bot attacks
A Kasada survey covers the state of bot mitigation exclusively from the perspective of organizations already using anti-bot solutions.

How do I select an SD-WAN solution for my business?
To select a suitable SD-WAN solution for your business, you need to think about a variety of factors. We’ve talked to several industry professionals to get their insight on the topic.

72% of organizations hit by DNS attacks in the past year
Domain name system (DNS) attacks are impacting organizations at worrisome rates. According to a survey from the Neustar International Security Council (NISC) conducted in September 2021, 72% of study participants reported experiencing a DNS attack within the last 12 months.

Network and IoT security in a zero trust security model
You can never be too careful when it comes to network and IoT security. With a rapidly growing number of disparate devices being connected to corporate and industrial infrastructures, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Biometrics emerging as the preferred identity verification option for digital consumers
Onfido announced the results of a global study with Okta which revealed that businesses have just 10 minutes to set up digital accounts or risk losing consumer trust.

Why cybersecurity leaders should focus on spending, people and technology (in that order)
Although cybersecurity continues to be top-of-mind for most organizations, organizations are dissatisfied with the state of their programs, and this is reflected in growing security budgets.

Increased risk tolerances are making digital transformation programs vulnerable
Digital transformation programs could be vulnerable to cyber attacks due to increased risk tolerances and ongoing cybersecurity challenges, according to a global research of 500 cybersecurity decision makers by NCC Group.

Ransomware: How bad is it going to get?
Ransomware gangs are becoming more brazen. In 2021, they hit high-profile targets like Kaseya and Colonial Pipeline. The question now is: how worse is the situation going to get?

Executives’ top concern in Q3 2021? New ransomware models
The threat of “new ransomware models” was the top concern facing executives in the third quarter of 2021, according to Gartner. Concerns about ransomware topped pandemic-related concerns, including supply chain disruptions, according to the survey of 294 senior executives across industry and geography.

Navigating ethics in AI today to avoid regrets tomorrow
As artificial intelligence (AI) programs become more powerful and more common, organizations that use them are feeling pressure to implement ethical practices in the development of AI software.

How to close the cybersecurity workforce gap
(ISC)² released the findings of its 2021 (ISC)² Cybersecurity Workforce Study. The study reveals updated figures for both the Cybersecurity Workforce Estimate and the Cybersecurity Workforce Gap in 2021, provides key insights into the makeup of the profession and explores the challenges and opportunities that exist for professionals and hiring organizations.

The first step to being cybersmart: Just start somewhere
When company leaders and IT staff begin looking at their options around improving their security and discover hundreds of possible solutions, they can become overwhelmed. However, the best thing they can do is just start somewhere.

Top cybersecurity threats enterprises will face in 2022
McAfee and FireEye released its 2022 Threat Predictions, examining the top cybersecurity threats they predict enterprises will face in 2022.

The dangers behind wildcard certificates: What enterprises need to know
Before IT leaders can truly respond to and mitigate wildcard certificate security risks – and manage wildcard certificates – it’s essential to first understand what wildcard certificates are and why it’s a common, flexible and helpful, but risky certificate.

API attacks are both underdetected and underreported
Akamai released a research into the evolving threat landscape for application programming interfaces (APIs), which according to Gartner will be the most frequent online attack vector by 2022.

The fast-expanding world of online proctoring: What cybersecurity industry leaders must know
The blistering post-pandemic pace of digital transformation has put the urgent demand for cybersecurity professionals in the spotlight. Simultaneously, more testing taking place online has meant that certification providers are now under increased pressure to ensure the integrity of remote cybersecurity examinations. When candidates present credentials that they have been awarded online, recruiters want to trust their validity.

Four key tenets of zero trust security
As cybercrime threatens businesses of all sizes, industries and locations, organizations have realized that the status quo is no longer tenable and that implementing zero trust is necessary.

Is offensive testing the way for enterprises to finally be ahead of adversaries?
The one principle the cyber-security industry is founded on is that defenders are always a step behind the hackers. Solutions are developed (FW, AV and onwards), technologies introduced (VMs, LB’s, microservices) practices emerge (DevSecOps anyone?) and yet – adversaries always find new ways.

Regulation fatigue: A challenge to shift processes left
The president’s recent order, and the potential actions of legislators to follow, could lead to burdensome regulations that interfere with shift left practices, and ultimately slow down the pace of software development.

Safeguarding the B2B sharing economy
Most people are familiar with business-to-consumer (B2C) sharing economy companies such as Uber, Airbnb, and DoorDash, but what you may not know is that this fast-growing, widely recognized business model is also being increasingly leveraged by business-to-business (B2B) companies to access on-demand services in lieu of short- or long-term contracts with third-party businesses.

Three OT security lessons learned from 2021’s biggest cyber incidents
The Colonial Pipeline, Oldsmar water treatment plant, and Iranian Railways incidents are etched into our memories because of their real-world impact, but the headlines only tell part of the story. In each instance, there are key OT security lessons to be learned, so that other organizations can avoid repeating history.

How to implement secure configurations more quickly
Secure configurations are a key best practice for limiting an organization’s cyber vulnerabilities. Since systems don’t ship securely, it’s important to review and implement recommended guidance.

The CISO’s guide to choosing an automated security questionnaire platform
In this day and age of cyber risk and data privacy regulations, automated third-party questionnaires are a must. Organizations can no longer simply hire vendors without proof of a strong cyber posture, and a comprehensive questionnaire can demonstrate that vendors’ internal security policies are up to par.

The CISO’s guide to third-party security management
Managing the security of your third parties is crucial, but security assessments are riddled with problems, including a lack of context, scalability and relevance. How can you build an effective process?

How to automate configuration review
Configuration management can be challenging. IT teams can become overwhelmed between various standards, compliance requirements, and security options. As the popularity of remote work grows, so does the complexity of implementing secure configurations. Thankfully, there are consensus-developed security recommendations and tools available to help automate the process.

New infosec products of the week: October 29, 2021
Here’s a look at the most interesting product releases from the past week, featuring releases from Avast, Data Theorem, Jumio, Quest and Secure.

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ITOCHU invests $31.5M in SilverSky to improve the cybersecurity programs of its subsidiary companies

SilverSky announced that ITOCHU International, Inc., the North American company of Tokyo-based ITOCHU Corporation, has signed an agreement to invest $31.5 million in SilverSky.

Significantly bolstering SilverSky’s ability to scale its operations worldwide, the ITOCHU investment broadens the company’s access to the Japanese market as well as all of APAC. Additionally, ITOCHU is set to leverage SilverSky’s service capabilities to improve the cybersecurity programs of its around 290 subsidiary companies around the globe.

Founded in 1858, ITOCHU Corporation invests in a vast array of businesses and stands as one of Japan’s largest “sōgō shōsha” (general trading companies). It’s involved in information and communications technology as well as textiles, machinery, metals, minerals, energy, chemicals, food, realty and finance, among others. In 2020, Berkshire Hathaway announced a 5 percent stake in ITOCHU.

“ITOCHU International’s investment in SilverSky underscores the power of our state-of the-art MDR services and arms us with notable channels and resources for significant growth,” said Richard Dobrow, CEO at SilverSky. “We’re looking forward to working with ITOCHU to vastly expand not only in Japan, but also throughout the Asia-Pacific market.”

“For ITOCHU, SilverSky represents a great investment opportunity in the market, as its MDR solutions are well positioned to scale quickly around the world,” said Mitsuru Claire Chino, President and CEO at ITOCHU International Inc. “This investment also allows ITOCHU subsidiary companies and customers access to an MDR solution that is simple, affordable and accessible – helping them combat an ever increasing cybersecurity threat landscape. We look forward to working closely with the SilverSky team to continue to grow the business and reinforce its stance as a go-to expert for easily improving an organization’s security posture.”

The agreement is subject to clearance by the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2021.

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How to Quiet Creaky Floors in an Older House

Photo: MeSamong (Shutterstock)

Living in an older house is, for many reasons, an experience. From architectural details you don’t see anymore, to layers of paint and wallpaper, to custom built-ins, there are features hidden everywhere.

Some quirks of older homes, however, are hard to ignore, let alone miss—like a leaky basement, teeny tiny closets, or flickering electricity—which relators routinely label as “character” and/or “charm.” Creaky hardwood floors also fall into this category.

It’s one thing for them to betray you at night, making noises as you attempt to sneak into the kitchen unnoticed to grab a snack. But older floors also have a tendency to make squeaking and cracking sounds even if no one in the house is up and about.

And even though you know it’s not an extra set of footsteps, your mind can play some pretty mean tricks on you in the dark. Here’s how to get your floors to quiet down.

How to stop wood floors from making noise

So why do older floors creak in the first place? “Squeaks happen when a house settles and wood flooring dries and then expands,” Lisa Kaplan Gordon writes in an article for Realtor.com. “This causes the floorboards to rub against each other, or against the subfloor, or against the nail casings.”

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Fortunately, she also has some ideas for how to stop the squeak. But first, you have to locate its source—something she says is a two-person job.

Have one person go down to the level of the house below the noisy floor (so if the creak is on the ground floor, head to the basement), while the other walks around on the squeaky floor. The person on the lower level should be able to pinpoint exactly (or approximately) where the sound is originating.

From there, you have several different options, depending on whether you want a quick-fix, or something more permanent, and whether you want (or more realistically, are able) to tackle the problem from above or below.

From below

According to Gordon, a few of the ways to fix the noisy floor from below include:

• Spreading some construction adhesive or carpenter’s glue on a thin wood shim, and then gently tapping it between the joists and subfloor, or two floorboards, “taking care not to pound so hard that you raise or buckle the floor,” she notes.
• If there’s a bigger gap, you can use a caulking gun to fill it with construction adhesive between the subfloor and the joist.
  

From above

Meanwhile, here are some ways to go about quieting your floors from above, once again, per Gordon:

• Sprinkle talcum powder into the noisy cracks, cover the area with a towel or cloth, and carefully walk over it so everything settles. “The powder works as a lubricant that stops the rubbing that causes the noise,” she explains.
• “Drive ring-shank flooring nails (covered with little rings that prevent the nail from backing out over time) or cement-covered flooring nails into the seams between rubbing parts,” Gordon says.
• If the squeak is caused by the floorboards being separated from the subfloor, you can drive two nails at opposite 45-degree angles into joists (which you can locate with a stud finder), then use wood filler on the holes.

If none of these sound feasible, Gordon provides several other options in her article.

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How to Spot Monarch Butterflies on Their Annual Migration

Photo: JHVEPhoto (Shutterstock)

Like some humans that live in the northern parts of the United States (or any part of Canada), monarch butterflies like to head south each winter. And who can blame them? Living here during the cold, wet months is tricky for us, let alone something with such thin wings.

And while we may be waving goodbye to the beautiful orange-and-black insects for part of the year, people in different parts of the country will have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of them en route to warmer climes. Here’s what to know about spotting monarch butterflies during their migration south.

What to know about monarch butterflies’ fall migration

Each year between September and November, the monarch butterflies of North America make their way down south—specifically, to two locations. According to Monarch Watch, a nonprofit educational outreach program focused on the monarch butterfly, the winged-insects that summer west of the Rocky Mountains travel to small groves of trees along the coast of California. The monarchs who reside east of the Rocky Mountains prefer mountain forests in Mexico.

When to look for migrating monarchs in your area

North American monarch butterflies don’t pick at certain date each year and all travel together: They base their fall departure on temperature changes, and the amount of daylight a particular location gets.

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The easiest way to figure out when the butterflies will be passing through your area is using this chart, courtesy of Monarch Watch:

If you don’t know your latitude offhand, it’s one quick search away (i.e. “Omaha latitude”). And where do these dates come from? Monarch Watch notes that these are general guidelines, rather than dates set in stone, which indicate when when a decent numbers of monarchs should be observed at each latitude. Here’s more:

These predictions are derived from reports to Monarch Watch, first-hand observations and the records of thousands of tagged butterflies that have been recovered over the years. The migration record at specific locations for any given year may differ from this overall pattern but it has proven to be remarkably consistent when viewed as a large-scale phenomenon.

They also have this handy map, if you’d like an additional visual aid:

So check the chart, grab some binoculars, and enjoy the butterflies.

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Where to Get Cheap Food and Freebies This Halloween Weekend

Photo: Natalia Kopylcova (Shutterstock)

It’s Halloween tomorrow, which means you’ll soon be digging into the candy you bought for the trick-or-treaters who never came. But you’re going to need something to eat between now and then, and a variety of restaurant chains have you covered. Here are a few of the food deals and freebies available throughout the spooky weekend.

Chipotle

Both today and tomorrow, (virtually) head to Roblox, (actually) dressed up in a Chipotle-inspired costume at 6:30 pm EST. If you’re one of the first 30,000 people (each day) to visit the (virtual) cashier, you’ll get a free (actual) burrito. Or, you could use the code BOORITO on Chipotle’s app or website to get a burrito for $5 from 5pm to close on Sunday, October 31st.

Krispy Kreme

Purchase one dozen doughnuts today (Saturday) and get another dozen (11 of their original glazed, plus one sprinkle doughnut) for $1 either in-store or online with code SCARY. Then tomorrow (Sunday, aka October 31st, aka Halloween) you can get a free doughnut if you come to the store in a costume.

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Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Purchase any adult entrée at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on Sunday, October 31st, and get a kid’s meal for 99 cents for children 10 and under.

Insomnia Cookies

Show up to any location in a costume today or tomorrow, and get a cookie for free.

Schlotzsky’s

Purchase any entrée using the Schlotzsky’s app and get a classic Cinnabon Roll for free.

McAlister’s Deli

Both today and tomorrow, purchase an adult entrée online, using the app, or in-store at McAlister’s Deli, and get two free kids meals (for little ones ages 12 and under) using the promo code HALLOWEEN21.

Joe’s Crab Shack

Purchase any adult entrée at participating Joe’s Crab Shack locations, and get a kid’s meal for 99 cents for children 10 and under.

And, as always, this is just a small sample of what’s out there, and not a comprehensive list. If there’s a Halloween weekend food deal you want people to know about, feel free to add it in the comments below.

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Europol announce “targeting” of 12 suspects in ransomware attacks

More anti-ransomware activity by law enforcement, this time in Switzerland and Ukraine.
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HPE unveils edge-to-cloud strategy for the company aligned to dominant market trends

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) hosted its virtual Securities Analyst Meeting (“SAM”), where Antonio Neri, president and CEO, and Tarek Robbiati, executive vice president and chief financial officer, provided the financial outlook for fiscal year 2022 as well as details on the company’s strategy, customer trends, and long-term growth opportunities.

“In 2021, HPE has significantly advanced our strategy to become the edge-to-cloud company,” said Neri. “HPE is at the center of compelling megatrends that are driving new customer expectations and presenting new profitable growth opportunities. We are accelerating our market leadership, as customers respond to our uniquely integrated portfolio. I am proud of our progress, confident in our position, and excited about the value we will continue to deliver for our shareholders.”

In his remarks at SAM, Neri highlighted three distinct trends that have gained traction as the world continues to recover and evolve from pandemic-related impacts, including: 1) the continued explosion of data at the edge, driven by the proliferation of devices and things, which requires secure connectivity; 2) the mandate for a cloud-everywhere experience that allows customers to manage data and workloads across a distributed enterprise; and 3) the growing need to quickly extract value from data to generate insights and build new business models.

“Each of these market trends, as well as increased customer demand for consuming IT as a service, represents a significant area of addressable growth for HPE,” said Neri. “We are particularly focused on the segments that will deliver the most profitable growth, and we are actively investing in both organic and inorganic innovation to ensure we capitalize on these margin-rich opportunities.”

Neri reviewed HPE’s market leadership, innovation, and results in each of the megatrend areas, placing particular emphasis on the company’s momentum with the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform. With more than 1,100 enterprise customers, HPE GreenLake is making significant contributions to the company’s 33 percent year over year growth in Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR) as of Q3 2021 and 46 percent as-a-service order growth.

“I would argue that no other company is positioned as strongly as we are to address the market opportunity before us,” said Neri.

Financial update

Tarek Robbiati, executive vice president and CFO, provided a financial update including an outlook for FY22.

“We have the right edge-to-cloud strategy aligned to dominant market trends with the right financial architecture,” said Robbiati. “Our long-term financial model delivers 15-20% free cash flow growth that enables balanced investments for growth with substantial capital returns to maximize value for shareholders.”

FY22 outlook

HPE expects FY22 financial results to continue the momentum from FY21. The company expects its revenue growth to be 3-4% in constant currency and non-GAAP operating profit growth of approximately 10-15% year-over-year. This excludes costs of approximately $1.2 billion primarily related to transformation costs, stock compensation expense and amortization of intangible assets.

The company expects non-GAAP Other Income & Expense of approximately $20-40 million to be an expense, excluding income of approximately $48 million primarily from non-service net periodic benefit credits. The company expects a non-GAAP tax rate of 14% based on current tax laws.

HPE expects non-GAAP diluted net earnings per share of $1.96-$2.10. The company expects FY22 GAAP diluted net earnings per share of $1.24-$1.38. The GAAP net EPS outlook includes after-tax costs of approximately $0.72 related primarily to transformation costs, stock-based compensation expense and amortization of intangible assets. HPE expects FY22 free cash flow to be $1.8-$2.0 billion.

The company expects to return at least 60% of free cash flow to shareholders in FY22. HPE expects this to include approximately $625 million in dividends and at least $500 million in share repurchases.

Long-term financial profile

HPE provided its long-term financial model for FY22-FY24. The company expects a compound annual revenue growth rate of 2-4%, adjusted for currency. The prior three-year view was 1-3%. The company expects the growth drivers to be Edge, High Performance Compute & Artificial Intelligence, and the as-a-Service businesses. The company expects as-a-Service ARR growth to accelerate to 35-45% to more than $2.3 billion in FY24 revenue.

The company expects its progress on its strategic imperatives will translate into a stronger financial architecture including sustainable, profitable growth and increasing recurring revenue at higher gross margins over time. The company expects compound annual non-GAAP operating profit growth rate of 8-10% driven by investments in key growth areas and an optimized operating model, which will be slightly offset by Other Income and Expense. HPE expects non-GAAP diluted net EPS to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7-9%.

HPE expects a free cash flow compound annual growth rate of 15-20% from the mid-point of our current FY21 outlook to deliver cumulative free cash flow from FY22-FY24 of $6.5-$7.0 billion.

The company will balance long term revenue and free cash flow growth with consistent returns to shareholders, including both dividends and significant share repurchases.

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Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Game Has a Cryptocurrency

In what maybe peak hype, Squid Game has its own cryptocurrency. Not in the fictional show, but in real life.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Read my blog posting guidelines here.

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10 of the Worst Things That Can Happen to You While Eating, According to Reddit (and How to Avoid Them)

Dining al fresco in mild weather always sounds nice, doesn’t it? But then you get there, and all manner of annoying outside things happen. First, the bugs. They could be mere flies landing on your pizza with their poop feet, wasps making your dinner their new home, or full-on bees flying into your mouth. Then there’s the “beautiful breeze” blowing away all your napkins and taking down the flimsy paper cups, and the added unpleasantness of what WorkingClassWarrior noted: “Eating in the direct sunlight. Fucking gross and hot.”

The only thing worse? “Doing so on the sidewalk on a street with a constant stream of cars seasoning you and your food with pollution and street dirt,” according to shitpost4shawarma. Add in lack of temperature control, rickety tables, less comfortable chairs and, as ZebraBorgata sums up, “eating outside blows.” (Thanks, pandemic!)

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Inline Skating Is Way Cooler When You Get Your Kid Involved

Over the past two weeks, my inline skating fitness journey has continued apace, with all the period fervor of the reunion tour for your favorite ‘90s band. After researching how to choose the right skates and the right gear and brushing up on the fundamentals, I planned to close out my Lifehacker Fitness Challenge by mastering a few skills I’d never picked up back in my skating prime. Instead, I would end up having fun sharing the sport with the next generation.

As the parent of a grade-school-aged child, I am very aware that my relationship with “cool” is a precarious one. I’m OK with that. If it was up to old people to dictate cool, we’d all still be, I don’t know, wearing wide-legged jeans. (Oh, wait.) So I fully expected my kid to tell me how deeply uncool it was to see me skating around at the park, practicing my moves.

But as I worked through the final three steps of Get Rolling: The Beginner’s Guide to Inline Skating (for more on that, see my previous post), something else happened: My daughter got excited about skating herself.

Now, I can’t take total credit. This isn’t my first day as a parent, and I know she cares just as much what her friends think (and soon, more). She’d mentioned wanting skates a few times in the past, but every time she’d try a friend’s pair, she would get frustrated at the difficultly she had finding her balance or managing to move. Once my sleek new pair arrived, though—and she saw me strapping them on—she quickly grew more interested.

A school event held at a skating rink proved the perfect motivation for both of us. She’d been planning to use traditional roller skates, but decided inline skates were the way to go (smart move—it’s way easier). I procured her a pair, and some safety gear, and we hit the park two weeks out from the skate party to practice. At first she was tentative on her wheels, clinging to my hand as she shuffled across the pebbled concrete. Every 15 minutes or so, she’d rest, and I’d let go of her hand to skate around, practicing my own moves. “You’re really good,” she observed. That felt nice.

After a few more practice sessions, we suddenly were at the rink with all her friends, and she was thrilled to be able to skate without stressing about it, while I was free to zip around among the other slow-moving kids and parents, feeling just like my 16-year-old skater boy self again. Yes, I felt cool because I was a better skater than a bunch of little kids. No, I’m not proud. (I’m a little proud.)

Working with my kid did take my focus off my skill development. Though I did attempt a few jump turns (Lesson Four), I didn’t drill them hard enough to do them with confidence, and I didn’t move on to the rest of the lessons in the book. But I don’t care. Sharing my enthusiasm for the sport with my daughter seems like a much better use of my time—and makes it much more likely I’ll keep up with it long after this month has ended.

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The Real(ish) History of Day of the Dead

Photo: BestStockFoto (Shutterstock)

Day of the Dead is having a cultural moment. The autumnal holiday marked by skeleton imagery, altars to dead ancestors, and great parties is becoming more and more widely celebrated, but where did it come from and what does it all mean? Read on, future-calacas.

What is Day of the Dead?

Day of the Dead, or Día de Muertos, is an annual holiday celebrated on November 1st and 2nd where families invite the spirits of dead friends and relatives to a party. It’s thought that the border between the World of the Living and the Land of Dead is open on these days, so your beloved Uncle Tony can hang out and enjoy the food, drink, music, and revelry he liked so much before he shuffled off his mortal coil. (But he’ll probably be invisible.)

The idea is to throw a party that the dead would want to attend, so it’s not about mourning, but about telling stories and jokes, dancing, and eating great food to celebrate and remember the ones we love instead of lamenting their absence.

Day of the Dead skeletons and ghosts might look like the spooky ghosts of Halloween, but the two holidays are not related, even in spirit. Day of the Dead isn’t about creepy, haunting specters and the macabre. It’s more life-(and death) affirming than that.

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Where did Day of the Dead come from?

The ancient origins of this holiday are a bit murky. Some maintain that Day of the Dead practices are directly descended from the Aztec empire in Central Mexico. The Aztecs held at least six different celebrations throughout the year that were similar to Day of the Dead, including a celebration to honor Mixcóatl, the god of war, that was held between October 20 and November 8 and included placing altars with food near the graves of warriors to aid their journey to the hereafter.

When the Spanish conquered and colonized the Aztecs in the 16th century, the dates of these celebrations were moved to the Catholic holidays of All Saints and All Souls Day on November 1st and 2nd, but they stayed largely the same in practice.

That’s one version. Some think that Day of the Dead, as it’s celebrated now, has more in common with Medieval European festivals and celebrations than pre-Columbian American ones. Specifically, All Souls Day, meant to remember the dead, and the danse macabre, in which dancing skeletons in paintings, woodcuts, and performances were meant to remind us that both beggars and kings will meet the same fate when death brings justice to us all.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, a collision of cultures where indigenous, religious, artistic, and political influences were smashed together to create a uniquely awesome new thing.

How is Day of the Dead celebrated?

While Day of the Dead activities and traditions vary from place to place—they fly giant kites in Guatemala, and some families in Bolivia decorate the actual skulls of loved ones with garlands of flowers—there are some widely practiced hallmarks of the holiday, particularly in Mexico and the United States.

Altars: Usually set up at home, these sometimes elaborate shrines can include banners, “papel picado” (tissue paper cut into decorative designs), candles, favorite foods, pan de muerto (bread of the dead), photos, and ofrendas, offerings specific to the one being celebrated, like a child’s favorite toy. They’re usually heavy on flowers, particularly orange or yellow marigolds, whose sweet scent is said to help guide souls to their homes.

Skulls and skeletons: Skulls and skeletons are all over Day of the Dead celebrations, from the small “sugar skulls” decorated with colorful icing and placed on altars, to the elaborate skulls-and-flowers some people paint on their faces. These are colorful skulls with wide-smiles, not creepy, Halloween-y skulls.

Much of the modern “look” of Day of the Dead can be traced to a single drawing. Cartoonist and social activist José Guadalupe Posada’s “La Calavera Catrina” was published in a broadside in 1911, a year before the start of the Mexican Revolution. Catrina is a high society lady-skeleton rocking a French style, flowered hat, and a wide grin. The title sentence in the La Catrina leaflet sums up the drawing’s intention: “Those garbanceras who today are coated with makeup will end up as deformed skulls.”

Cemetery visits: Day of the Dead celebrations for many families include visiting the graves of loved ones, cleaning them, decorating them with flowers, and leaving offerings. In some places, bands perform at cemeteries, and relatives often picnic, packing the favorite food of the deceased.

Parties: Most dead relatives would probably avoid hanging out at a dour, depressing party, so music, drinking, and eating is a big part of the day. Meals are often the favorite food of the deceased, and tequila, mezcal, and Atole—a non-boozy drink made of corn, cinnamon, and vanilla—are often drunk. But feel free to drink whatever you want. It’s what Aunt Rosy would have wanted.

Politics: Politics have been part of Day of the Dead celebration since at least the publishing of “La Catrina.” In the 1970s, the Chicano Movement used the holiday to call out discrimination and celebrate Mexican heritage, and in the 1980s, public altars were set up to commemorate AIDS victims. In 2019, a huge altar was set up in honor of victims of the El Paso shooting.

Public celebrations: While traditionally a more private holiday, in recent years, Day of the Dead parades, festivals, and street parties have become popular, particularly in Mexico and the Western US.

In a testament to the ever-evolving nature of the holiday, one of the largest festivals was inspired by a James Bond movie. In 2015’s Spectre, Bond visits an (entirely fictional) Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City. The following year, the city held an actual festival for those expecting it, and it’s been a tradition since.

Is celebrating Day of the Dead cultural appropriation if you’re not Hispanic?

It depends on who you ask. “Cultural appropriation” (of a holiday, or anything meaningful, really) is a complicated thing, but I think most Mexican people wouldn’t object to a sincere, respectful interest in Day of the Dead, just as Irish people like me don’t object to you eating soda bread and listening to The Pogues on Saint Paddy’s day (here’s the real history of St. Patrick’s Day, if you’re interested). It’s probably a moot point, anyway: It’s clearly happening, whether people like it or not.

Why is Day of the Dead growing in popularity?

Holidays rise and fall in prominence and cultural popularity constantly, often for hard-to-define reasons, but Day of the Dead’s rise in the United States coincides with more Hispanic people immigrating to the country, just as Saint Patrick’s day became nearly-universal with the influx of Irish immigrants in the 19th century.

Pop culture influences from movies like the aforementioned Spectre and Pixar’s CoCo fueled interest in the holiday, as did old fashioned capitalism, creating a critical mass of holiday popularity that has been growing year by year.

Ultimately, though, I think Día de Muertos “catching on” is about more than marketing and demographics. I think many of us, no matter our ethnicity, need a new way to think about death. The Victorian death-traditions that inform “mainstream” US culture—when we acknowledge death at all, it’s through black-clothes and mourning—just aren’t enough. Celebrating the dead joyfully, while also celebrating life (even while we acknowledge our our own mortality), is a much better excuse for a holiday than a groundhog coming out of his hole or something.

Also: Skull and skeleton imagery is self-evidently, perpetually cool.

 

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How to Import and Export Passwords From iCloud Keychain to Other Password Managers

Photo: Girts Ragelis (Shutterstock)

iCloud Keychain has always been a bit of an island: A hidden, secure nirvana, so long as you stayed within Apple’s strict ecosystem. To access and add passwords, you had to use Safari, and there was no reliable way to export passwords. But slowly, iCloud Keychain (or iCloud Passwords) is becoming less of a walled garden.

For instance, you can now use iCloud passwords on a Windows machine, including third-party browsers. And with macOS Monterey, Apple added a simple, universal CSV (plain text, unencrypted) import and export feature that’s widely supported in other password managers like Bitwarden, LastPass, and 1Passwords. This change means it’s now easier to move in and out of iCloud Keychain, depending on your needs. Here’s how it works.

How to import passwords in iCloud Keychain

You can import your existing database of usernames and passwords if you have it ready in a CSV file. This is a standard format which stores data in a plain-text unencrypted database, and is what you’ll get when you export your passwords from browsers (like Chrome) or password managers (like LastPass).

To start, go to System Preferences > Passwords (Apple moved the Passwords section to System Preferences with its macOS Monterey update) and authenticate to see a list of all your usernames and passwords. Click the three-dotted Menu button in the bottom toolbar, and choose the “Import Passwords” option.

Screenshot: Khamosh Pathak

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Choose the CSV file and click the “Import” button.

Screenshot: Khamosh Pathak

You’ll be asked to authenticate using your password or Touch ID. Once you do that, the passwords will be imported to your iCloud Keychain. After the process is done, Apple will helpfully ask you if you want to delete the original CSV file.

We would recommend you choose the “Delete” option, as it will remove the file from your local storage, as well as the Trash. If you don’t delete the file, anyone who gets their hand on it will know all your usernames and passwords (you should also use two-factor authentication for all your important accounts). There will be no way to recover this file.

Screenshot: Khamosh Pathak

How to export passwords from iCloud Keychain

Want to move away from iCloud Keychain to a more specialized password manager? That’s finally easy to do. Go to System Preferences > Passwords and authenticate with your admin password or Touch ID. Then, click the three-dotted Menu button in the bottom toolbar, and choose the “Export Passwords” option.

Screenshot: Khamosh Pathak

From the popup, click “Export Passwords.”

Screenshot: Khamosh Pathak

Choose the location, and hit the “Save” button.

Screenshot: Khamosh Pathak

Authenticate using your admin password or Touch ID. All your passwords will now be exported to the location. As we mentioned above, don’t forget to delete the CSV file after importing the data in the password manager of your choice.

Where should you go with your passwords now?

Armed with the CSV file filled with all your usernames and passwords, you can go anywhere you want. You can try any password manager or browser with all your personal data.

But there are a lot of choices now. Should you pay for 1Password? Is LastPass still worth it? In our testing, we’ve only found one true contender to iCloud Passwords, and that’s Bitwarden, as their free plan is more than enough for most users. It uses state-of-the-art encryption, and its basic app is open-source so anyone can audit its security measures. Plus, it has robust app and browser extensions and is available virtually everywhere. You can import that CSV file to Bitwarden with just a click, so give it a try if the manager sounds right for you.

 

 

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Your iPhone Apps Know Way Too Much About You

Photo: Marian Weyo (Shutterstock)

Some of you have just upgraded to a shiny new iPhone. More of you probably thought nah, my old iPhone works just fine. Whichever camp you belong to, there is one thing you absolutely must do with your iPhone right now—a comprehensive privacy audit.

Each time you open a new app on your iPhone, it likely bombards you with permission pop-ups requesting to access your location, notifications, contacts, camera, photos, yada yada yada. If you’ve been granting these permissions without thinking much, take a few minutes to reevaluate those decisions.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook-owned apps are particularly egregious when it comes to asking for far more permissions than they need. For instance, Instagram doesn’t let you post stories if you don’t grant it access to the camera, microphone, and your entire photo library. Other apps, like Uber, work just fine even if you don’t grant them location access—as long as you’re willing to manually select your location each time.

While it is great to deny apps access to permissions they don’t need, you shouldn’t be under the illusion that will somehow magically keep your information out of the clutches of the data mining industry. Advertisers and service providers have tons of ways to access your data and create a unique profile of you on the internet, and you only control a small part of this machine by revoking these permissions, but it’s still worth doing—your smartphone is loaded with private data no one should access without your explicit permission. Changing these settings will also have a positive impact on your phone’s battery life, as multiple apps won’t constantly be accessing your location or other sensors.

It’s good to keep all of the above in mind and periodically revisit your iPhone’s privacy permissions page. And with that, we’ll walk you through the privacy audit process.

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Stop apps from tracking you across the internet

Your iPhone lets you stop apps from tracking you across the web. You can refuse to allow apps to track you across both the apps and on the web using data such as your device ID, a unique advertising identifier, and your email address.

To do so, go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking on your iPhone and disable Allow Apps to Request to Track. Be aware that apps whose business depends on tracking you will probably find ways to flout this permission dialog, but disabling it will make them have to work harder at it.

Review all important privacy permissions on your iPhone

You can easily track the apps that access private information on your iPhone by going to Settings > Privacy. Tap each option on this page and review if a given app really needs access to the sensors and data mentioned here.

Next, tap Location Services and select any app that shows up. This will tell you more about what the app can access. Under Allow Location Access, you should change the permission for most apps to While Using the App or Never, depending on what the app does with your location data. If you deny Instagram access to your location, it won’t be able to give you quick location tags to add to your stories, but if you don’t need that feature, you can go ahead and deny location access to the app. Denying location access to Google Maps, on the other hand, will render it largely useless.

Another option to reduce the data you give apps is to disable Precise Location on the same page. Doing so means your phone will tell apps that you’re approximately somewhere in New York, instead of telling them that you’re inside your apartment.

On your iPhone’s privacy settings page you can review other options, such as Contacts, Microphone, Health, and Camera, and deny access to the apps that don’t need that level of access. Do the same thing for every option on this page to ensure you’re not giving apps access to more data than they need.

Limit the amount of data Apple collects

Although Apple itself is nowhere near as egregious with its data collection as apps whose business model is to spy on you, the company does collect some data about you. There’s a way to limit this, though there is no way to disable Apple’s ads on the iOS App Store.

A solution may arrive in the future, but until then, you can limit other types of data that Apple collects. Go to Settings > Privacy and scroll to the bottom of the page. Tap Analytics & Improvements and disable Share iPhone & Watch Analytics to stop sending Apple diagnostics and usage data. This setting is used to improve Apple products and services, but you’re under no obligation to give them this information.

Go back to the privacy settings page and tap Apple Advertising. Now you can disable Personalized Ads to stop Apple from using your data to deliver relevant ads. Finally, you can stop Apple from listening to your Siri commands too.

Check which apps have been tracking you

iOS 15 includes a nice feature that lets you check a weekly report of which apps have accessed important information, such as your location. At the time of writing, this feature is available in iPhone settings, but it’ll be fully enabled in an upcoming update. You can go to Settings > Privacy > Record App Activity and enable Record App Activity to start logging the data your favorite apps access.

To review this information, tap Save App Activity. This option will create a JSON file with app tracking information, which you can open with apps such as Notepad. The data in the file isn’t easy to decipher, but Apple plans to make it more straightforward with the iOS 15.2 update that’s coming soon. (If you already have the iOS 15.2 developer beta, you can go to Settings > Privacy > App Privacy Report to check it out.)

What else can I do to limit tracking?

For most people, the steps already mentioned above are good enough. However, if you want to go a step further, there are a few other things you can do to reduce tracking on the internet. Most privacy experts will tell you to determine what you hope to accomplish before deciding the right set of privacy measures to undertake. For most people, the goal is stopping advertisers and your internet provider from tracking you, and for that, there are some simple measures that you begin using right now.

For starters, you might simply stop using apps that track you excessively. If you’re not totally ready to abandon them entirely, try opening their mobile websites using privacy-friendly apps likeDuckDuckGo and Signal so you can use their services with reduced tracking. You can also follow good privacy practices such as not using the same email address on every website, using a good password manager for security, and generally reducing your dependence on giant conglomerates such as Facebook, Google, and Apple.

Consider switching to an encrypted DNS such as NextDNS to limit how much your ISP can track you. Apple provides a few other tools, such as iCloud Private Relay and Mail Privacy Protection, that limit tracking—enable those, too.

A strong firewall app will let you restrict trackers from accessing your information, but the best options are going to cost you. If you’re serious about tracking prevention, check out a firewall app such as Guardian Firewall + VPN. A day pass costs $0.99, so you can try it out for a day.

Even if you follow every step above, you’ll still be sharing more data with companies and advertisers than you’ll likely ever know. But it’s a good start.

 

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Make a Filling Seasonal Soup With Two Trader Joe's Products

Trader Joe’s is very good at two things: Stocking their frozen food section with a never-ending parade of novel and interesting convenience foods, and churning out new—some might say unnecessary—Thanksgiving- and Christmas-themed items every holiday season.

But it’s one of their most mundane frozen items, the frozen Organic Jasmine Rice, that recently won my heart. The rice is meant to be steamed right in the microwave-safe bag, but I usually rip that bag open and add the rice directly to simmering broth, soup, or stew to bulk it up and make it more filling. It’s probably not the most economical way to add rice to my soup but, as someone who eats a lot of meals solo, it is the most convenient. (If I don’t need a whole pack of rice, I put the leftovers inside a freezer bag and pop it back in the freezer.)

The Jasmine Rice, however, is not the only frozen rice you can do this with. Any of their frozen rices, including the flavored “fried rices” and such, can be added to one of their soups to make an almost instant, filling meal. This is true of their Chimichurri Rice (which I have not been able to find for some time), and it is true of their newest seasonal rice offering: the Turkey and Sausage Stuffing Fried Rice. All you have to do is take a cup of the frozen rice mixture and add it to a sauce pan with a cup and half of your favorite broth or soup (the chicken broth, turkey broth, and Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Soup work well here). Bring it to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the little sausage pieces are warmed through, stirring frequently to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the sauce pan.

The combination is savory and satisfying, with little turkey meatballs, carrots, slivered green beans, and corn. All of the usual stuffing flavors are in play here (rosemary, thyme, parsley, etc.). If you liked last year’s Everything but the Leftovers seasoning blend, you’ll love this fried rice mix and, subsequently, this soup.

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Once you combine and enjoy this convenient pair, you’ll probably start to notice other pre-packaged frozen rice, grain, dumplings, and pasta blends that can be simmered in hot broth to make a satisfying meal. The Sweet Potato Gnocchi is pretty good when paired with the Autumnal Harvest Soup, and any of the gyoza work well in their Miso Ginger Broth. Just don’t get attached to any one particular combination. Trader Joe’s is also very good at getting rid of all of my favorite items. (Will I ever recover from the discontinuation of Sir Strawberry? I highly doubt it.)

   

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35 Movies That Scarred Us for Life As Kids, According to Lifehacker Readers

A decade or so ago I made the (poor) decision to rewatch this movie while under the influence. As my memories suggest, there’s not a great amount of difference between watching a movie as a kid and watching a movie while high...sorry to 8-year-old me.

“Along the Rankin/Bass line, The Last Unicorn had so many horror moments. Top 3 being the three-boobed harpy murdering Mommy Fortuna, the red bull of course, and that damned talking skeleton when his eyes go red. Nightmares for weeks!” —fignootin4

“I don’t think this movie was supposed to have been a children’s movie, but I think the idea of non-children oriented animated films was kind of new to the industry at the time. So it was marketed as a family movie, despite having way too many dark and creepy elements to be young child appropriate. The Red Bull especially terrified me, but there are a lot of aspects that freaked me out. I’ve rewatched the movie as an adult and have more appreciation of it now, but I still can’t embrace it.” —HeathMaiden

Where to stream: The Roku Channel, Tubi, IMDb TV

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How to Finally Copy Text From Photos on Your Mac

Thanks to macOS Monterey, you can finally scan and copy text from photos on your Mac. The next time you want to save some time at school or quickly copy phone numbers from a business card, selecting and copying text from images will help you a lot. Here’s how to get that done.

How to copy text from photos on macOS Monterey

Along with a super-quick way to translate text, macOS Monterey lets you select text inside images too. This feature is called Live Text, and it’s also available on iPhones and iPads with iOS 15. The next time you see text inside an image on your Mac, drag the mouse pointer towards it and the cursor will change from an arrow to a selection tool. You can then click and drag the cursor over the text to select it.

Once the text is selected, you can right-click (or use the Control + click shortcut) to open the context menu. Here, you can decide if you want to copy the text, translate it, or quickly use the Look Up tool to find more information about the selected text. If you spot the name of a well-known destination, such as Niagara Falls, in a picture, Look Up will show you its Wikipedia entry. Similarly, looking up an address reveals a floating window with the location in Apple Maps.

Live Text works seamlessly for the most part, but, at the moment it works only in Safari, Photos, the built-in screenshot tool, and Quick Look (the preview tool which lets you take a peek at images and documents by hitting spacebar).

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Sometimes the cursor may not immediately change to a selection tool, but clicking the image once fixes this problem. One other limitation is Live Text currently supports only Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish; this feature doesn’t work if the text inside images is in other languages.

How to copy text inside images on older versions of macOS

If you haven’t yet upgraded to macOS Monterey, you can try TextSniper to pull text from images. The app has a seven-day free trial (via Setapp) and it costs $6.99 after that.

TextSniper has a couple advantages over Apple’s Live Text feature. First, it lets you click-and-drag across a large area and automatically capture all the text inside it, so you spend less time trying to select text inside images. The app makes this process easy by mapping itself to a neat keyboard shortcut (Command + Shift + 2). Second, it isn’t limited to a handful of apps on your Mac.

Sadly, TextSniper doesn’t officially support Monterey yet. If you have macOS Big Sur, it supports English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and Spanish. On macOS Catalina, it supports only English.

 

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How to Predict Ovulation (and Your Period) With an Oura Ring

The human body has a tiny quirk that many of us can live our whole lives without noticing: Body temperature ticks up by about half a degree after you ovulate, and decreases again around when your period begins. If you don’t personally ovulate, you probably don’t care. If you do, this fact can be enormously helpful in planning (or attempting to avoid) pregnancy. And Oura, the ring-shaped wearable best known as a sleep tracker, can now use it (along with other data) to predict your period.

I remember tracking my temperature when I was trying to conceive my first baby. Back then, you needed to buy a special thermometer at the drugstore that had an extra decimal place (so you’re not just 98.6, but, say, 98.62). You had to make sure to take your temperature first thing in the morning, when it’s most consistent, and always at the same time. And if you kept track in a notebook or on a special fertility-tracking website, you would be able to pinpoint when you ovulated, to within about a day.

You’re most likely to get pregnant in the last few days before ovulation, so knowing when that time comes every month is extremely helpful. And if you’d rather not get pregnant, temperature-based fertility awareness can help with that too—although, as you might guess, it’s not as effective as IUDs, oral contraceptives, or barrier methods like condoms. (Planned Parenthood has more info on this method here.)

When I first heard about how the Oura ring uses skin temperature as one of the factors that determine your “readiness,” I wondered if this meant that ovulation could throw off the scores. And that was true, at least at first—but then the company realized that temperature tracking could be valuable to wearers who ovulate. Not only might you track your temperature if you’re interested in getting pregnant, it’s also a good way of knowing where you are in your cycle.

If you get your period every four weeks, ovulation usually occurs right in the middle, about two weeks after your period starts. If your cycle is longer, usually the first half will be longer—say, three weeks from period to ovulation but then two weeks from ovulation to your next period.

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What the Oura app does

There are other gadgets out there that track temperature changes for fertility, like the Ava wristband. Oura isn’t geared toward baby-making, specifically, but the company announced that the new version of their ring will include a period prediction feature in its app. The old ring will still let you view your temperature and tag days as period days, but the new one adds prediction algorithms.

(Importantly if you have an Oura ring or if you’re considering buying one, the company just changed their business model. Instead of buying the ring and getting its functionality for free—in contrast to Whoop, which gives you the tech for free and then charges for a subscription—Oura is now charging for the ring and planning to charge for a subscription. They’re offering deals right now to upgrade and get a lifetime subscription if you already have a ring, and they’re including a 6-month membership for new customers. If you plan to stick with your older model, it will still keep working as before. Gizmodo has more on the new ring and its features here.)

According to the company’s studies, including this one published last year, the ring is able to pick up on changes in temperature and heart rate variability (two things that it measures anyway in the course of sleep and health tracking) that predict the hormone surge that occurs around ovulation.

Period prediction will be available in iOS right away, the company says, and in Android shortly afterward. To set it up, you’ll turn it on in settings (or from a card that appears on your home screen), and then you’ll answer some questions about how long and how regular your cycles tend to be. After that, the ring will track your temperature and you’ll let it know every time your period starts. Here’s the company’s guide to the new feature.

It takes about two months to start getting accurate predictions, and then the app will be able to tell you each month when it expects your period. You’ll get an estimate 30 days out, a reminder six days before, and a reminder the day before.

The company has a disclaimer that, while the feature should work on cycles of all lengths, they don’t expect it to be accurate if you use hormonal birth control, have an IUD, or use hormone replacement therapy, since you won’t necessarily have the changes in temperature that it’s expecting.

  

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Is Your Kid Ready to Trick-or-Treat Without You?

Photo: Evgeny Atamanenko (Shutterstock)

It’s that time of year again. To help your kids brainstorm, choose, and procure their costumes, alter the sleeves, finagle the belt, get the sword, take approximately one bazillion pictures and then...let them go trick-or-treating without you!?

Like it or not, there will come a time when our precious little lions and baby Yodas become blood-soaked Grim Reapers who rival us in height—and they’ll be asking to trick-or-treat without us hovering behind, making sure they said thank you. But how to know if they’re ready? Here are some factors to consider.

Your child’s age (and motivation)

Some parenting experts say age 9 is old enough to trick-or-treat alone, while some don’t recommend it until they’re 13. Four years is a world of difference at the pre-teen stage, though; how to narrow it down? Dr. Rosina McAlpine, CEO of Win Win Parenting told PopSugar, “While there is no one definitive ‘appropriate’ or ‘safe’ age for children to go out trick-or-treating by themselves that applies to all children in all circumstances, many parents consider allowing their children to go on their own...around 10 to 12 years of age.”

New-Jersey based therapist Kimberly Beury LPC notes, “It’s important to check in with your child to see why they want to go trick-or-treating with their friends and assess if this drive is their own or their friends’ (peer pressure).” If it’s more what their friends want than what they want, we may need to help them come up with an excuse to get out of the invite, and make alternate plans.

The neighborhood

Is the neighborhood your kids will be trick-or-treating in one long cul-de-sac where you could conceivably squint and see them from a distance? Or is it a network of winding streets that includes a main road they’d have to cross in the dark? Do you know many of the families in the homes around you, and is the neighborhood well-lit, or a black hole until a car comes down the street?

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Consider the layout, lighting, visibility, your familiarity with residents, and the number of other kids that will be out in the same location.

Your child’s maturity level (and life experience)

Does your child voluntarily do their homework, consistently follow rules, and rarely get in trouble? A child who has demonstrated a strong commitment to do the right thing may be mature enough to trick-or-treat without adult supervision. Similarly, do they stay home alone for short periods, walk to friends’ houses alone, or ride their bikes short distances for unsupervised group outings?

“Markers of maturity may be as simple as good decision-making around their peers and the ability to follow general safety guidelines, i.e. crossing the street at night,” Beury adds.

Who they’re going with

As with much of what happens during the (pre-)teen years, one must ask the almighty question: Who else is going to be there? (Did you just have flashbacks to your parents asking you that? Because I sure did.) Do you know the other kids they’re planning to trick-or-treat with—and are they responsible, or on the mischievous side? Will there be any older kids in the mix who could lead them into, er, questionable activities that are optimally executed under the cover of night with no parental supervision? Pay attention to your gut feeling if the answers to any of these questions give you pause.

Set ground rules

If you decide your not-so-little-one is ready to trick-or-treat with friends, be sure to have a detailed discussion about how to handle various scenarios from a safety perspective. Review ground rules such as curfew, geographic parameters, using the buddy system, and establishing a home base to return to if anyone gets lost (and of course, let them know you will be tracking them if they have a cell phone or GPS-enabled device). If they have a phone, set a check-in time. Ask what they would do if a stranger asked them into their car or home, or if they got separated from the group. Their answers will provide a glimpse into their ability to stay safe if anything goes awry.

And finally, consider yourself

Do you have a hunch this will be the last year your child will tolerate you trailing behind their group, and next year, they’ll be giving you a hard “no” that you’ll have little recourse to argue? If you sense the end of an era is nigh, we implore you to take what could be your final turn around the nabe with pumpkin ale in hand, fun parent crew in tow, and crunchy leaves underfoot while you relive the pure happiness of being a kid on Halloween, just for an hour or two.

  

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Why 'Tax Diversification' Is a Smart Investment Strategy

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Most people are familiar with portfolio diversification, which is a fancy way of saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” but fewer people think about tax diversification. It’s the same idea, except instead of investments, it’s about strategically spreading out your tax risk—because tax rates can change unexpectedly over time.

When you are taxed varies by investment type 

Tax diversification is focused on when you’ll be taxed on your investments. Because different types of investments vary on when taxes kick in, you have some flexibility to spread your tax risk out over a lifetime. After all, the difference between tax rates of 10% and 37% is considerable when you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As Kiplinger explains, these are the three basic categories of investments, based on when they’re taxed:

• Taxed always: Holdings for which you’re required to pay income taxes annually, such as investment brokerage accounts (or even checking accounts), which may produce interest, dividends, realized capital gains, and/or capital gains distributions.
• Taxed later (deferred): Holdings for which you’re only required to pay taxes upon withdrawal/distribution—like a 401(k) or 403(b)—or when any capital gain is realized, like many forms of real estate or other hard assets.
• Taxed rarely: Holdings for which you’re rarely, if ever, required to pay income taxes, like a Roth IRA, interest from municipal bonds, and certain types of specially designed life insurance.

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How tax diversification works

To illustrate how tax diversification would work, imagine that you put all your money into a 401(k), which is a “tax later” investment account. Most people do so assuming they’ll be in a lower tax bracket later in retirement, but that’s not necessarily the case. As Kiplinger points out, every dollar withdrawn from a 401(k) is considered ordinary income—the same as if it were coming from your monthly paycheck while you were still working. Therefore, it’s possible that you could still pay the same tax rate in retirement that you do now (your lifestyle isn’t necessarily going to be cheaper in retirement, either, as is commonly assumed).

Plus, with 401(k)s we’re talking about decades of deferred taxes. There is no way to know if your income bracket will change in the future due to tax policy changes. You can’t automatically assume your tax rate will stay the same.

This is where tax diversification comes into play. Using the same example, you could spread out your tax burden by splitting your investments between a 401(k) and a Roth IRA, which is a “tax rarely” investment account (although you’ll want to max out your 401(k)’s employer matching contributions first, if you can).

Roth IRAs are “tax rarely” (or “after-tax”) in that you pay taxes on the income before you actually deposit it into your Roth account and the withdrawals are tax free (after the age of 59.5). Whatever is left is yours to grow tax-free for as long as you have the account (there are contribution limits and restrictions based on income, however).

In this way, a Roth IRA is basically the opposite of a 401(k) in the way it’s taxed. By having both types of accounts, however, you would have more flexibility to mix your withdrawals later based on tax bracket considerations. For example, maybe a smaller required distribution from an 401(k) plus a tax-free Roth IRA withdrawal could keep you in a lower tax bracket compared to relying solely on the 401(k).

Bottom line

Since tax diversification depends on many factors like your age, income, lifestyle, and retirement plans, you should consult a financial advisor to help you navigate through all of your investment options. Life events can easily change your priorities, too, so it’s best to think of tax diversification as an ongoing conversation about what’s best for you rather than a fixed plan.

  

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‘Cheat Days,’ ‘Clean Eating,’ and Other Food-Related Phrases We Need to Stop Using Already

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Chocolate cake is never just delicious; it’s decadent. Popcorn can’t be merely tasty; it’s guilt-free. Your friend didn’t just help themselves to seconds; they feel the need to talk about working it off in the gym tomorrow.

I know I’ve wasted a lot of my life being that friend, the one who always undermines a good meal as “sooooo bad” (that’s exactly what I sound like, too). And it’s not the food itself that’s bad—in fact, the thing that’s bad (morally) is that the food is good (taste-wise). When we feel like food is somehow bad for us, we take the alarming leap of declaring ourselves bad for eating it.

In past articles we’ve discussed the pitfalls of food shaming, as well as why you maybe shouldn’t equate tasty snacks with serious addiction. From guilty to guilt-free, assigning moralistic language to food is a dangerous road. Good Housekeeping spoke with Claire Mysko, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), to describe the pervasive lexicon of diet culture:

[It’s] when we say we need to “burn off” or “make up for” the cheeseboard we shared with friends; when we skip the dessert we want and ponder if even snagging a bite of our partner’s dessert is “worth it”; whenever we ascribe virtue to our food choices, giggling that it’s naughty when we choose to eat what we crave or what comforts us, or good when we opt for low-calorie, low-carb, or other foods diet culture has deemed healthy.

But there is no such thing as “good” or “bad” food, at least according to Dr. Alix Timko, a psychologist in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who focuses on eating disorders. “Food is food,” Timko told us, “and we shouldn’t use moralizing language that only sets us up for failure.”

Below are some common words and phrases that equate fueling yourself with some kind of character judgment. You can push back against this kind of language and start to repair your relationship with the food you “deserve,” no matter who you are.

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“Guilt-free”

Enjoying a pint of ice cream is not a moral wrong. You will not have to stand trial in calorie-counting court. If nothing else, I believe that this sexualized, slender cow owes me financial compensation for lording over the grocery aisle with its “guilty” and “guilt-free” rulings. Plus, this brand of moralistic marketing is yet another cost of diet culture—the financial one, where we’re pressured into buying more expensive alternatives under the gimmick of “guilt-free” choices.

“I’m having seconds—don’t judge me.” / “I deserve these.”

1. An extra helping of food is not grounds to have other people judge you. (Unless we’re talking about hot dog eating contests, in which it is the sole ground for judges judging you.)
2. You “deserve” food for simply existing. Sure, our caloric and nutritional needs depend on a lot of factors, but eating is not something you need to “earn.”

“Clean eating”

Blegh. I’m cringing at the visual of getting my mouth washed out with soap. “Clean?” The word choice is at best confusing and at worst puritanical. Generally “clean eating” refers to foods that aren’t blatantly over-processed, but the phrasing has lost its meaning to the point of being nothing more than another diet culture trap.

“Junk food”

Similar to “clean eating,” the idea of what qualifies as “junk” has become too ambiguous to be a helpful term. Like with describing something as “artery clogging,” it’s problematic and dismissive to condemn certain foods as wholly unhealthy. This sort of language prevents us from enjoying so-called “junk foods” as the treats that they can and should be.

“Sinful”

This one isn’t even subtle. I’m not Eve in the Garden of Eden. I’m a hungry writer helping herself to some chocolate almonds. Let’s stop whipping out the biblical language to judge—or more accurately, tempt—various food choices.

Honorable mentions: indulgent, decadent, dangerous.

“I can’t believe I ate that, I’m so fat now.”

“Fat” is a body shape–not a synonym for “uncomfortable” or “bad.” Whether or not you are fat, it won’t be because of the one meal you just finished. The consequences of fatphobic language is a pressing issue on its own, but for now, try to avoid equating fat bodies with shame or failure.

“Well, you’re skinny, you can eat whatever you want.”

Similar to the example above, someone’s body type (skinny, fat, whatever) shouldn’t be used to deny or allow yourself food. This language reinforces the belief in thinness as the ideal to strive toward. And if we assume being thin is a permission slip to enjoy food freely, what are we saying about being fat? Let’s stop using each others’ body types as shorthand for who gets to enjoy food without guilt.

“Cheat days” / “Calories don’t count when you ____”

A calorie is a calorie: a unit of measurement that has no ethical hang-ups. When we say calories don’t count on special occasions, we’re reinforcing the diet culture mindset that they must be counted/monitored/restricted on non-“cheat” days. In reality, calorie counts are misleading for a number of reasons, and they shouldn’t be the lens through which you judge your food (or yourself).

“Somebody stop me.” / “Take this away from me.”

No, I will not take your nachos away from you. This one just makes me sad. Food is about trying new things, sharing experiences, and nurturing yourself—I will not take that away from you!

“I’ve been bad.” / “I’m being good.”

So simple, so elegant, so damaging. Call me dramatic, but it’s no small thing that we casually take the food we eat and make sweeping statements about who we are: someone who is good, or someone who is bad.

Diet culture places thinness as a sign of achievement, freedom, and morality. Anything that threatens this ideal (read: eating) needs to be joked about, excused, or punished as some kind of wrongdoing.

No matter your physical goals, it’s unhealthy to associate the act of feeding yourself with guilt. Assigning morals to your food is arguably worse for you than any sugary dessert could ever be.

And if you’re looking to start repairing your relationship with food, you could try intuitive eating to practice approaching eating with kindness and an open mind.

  

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