IT General

With it being the heart of hurricane season in the States, power outages are pretty common right now. When the lights and the internet go out, you've got to have something to do to pass the time, and having your favorite Netflix series downloaded and ready to go can be a lifesaver.

I figured plugging my NAS straight into my PC would be the fastest way to move files. I did not think I really needed a router in the middle to act as an extra hop. I had thought just one cable meant full speed. The idea is common enough that plenty of people try it. I didn't expect the router to be doing so much in the background.

Obsidian is, in my opinion, incredibly powerful because it keeps its core feature set intentionally lean. It’s designed to be customizable, and the community plugins are what fill those gaps. But sometimes, those plugins don't just add cool features—they fix fundamental problems that, honestly, feel like things the app should have out of the box. Here are the three best plugins I've found, in no particular order.

TL;DR: Block ads and trackers on up to nine devices with an AdGuard Family Plan lifetime subscription for $17.97 (reg. $169.99).

Opens in a new window Credit: AdGuard AdGuard Family Plan: Lifetime Subscription $17.97
$169.99 Save $152.02   Get Deal

Most households have several phones, tablets, and laptops, and each one gets hit with ads and trackers. If you want to block them all with one purchase, try a lifetime subscription to the AdGuard Family Plan for $17.97 (reg. $169.99).

Ads clutter pages, but they also slow down loading times, use up mobile data, and sometimes carry malware. AdGuard removes banners, pop-ups, and video ads, so pages load faster and look cleaner. On a phone, that means fewer interruptions while you scroll and less data spent on ads you never wanted to see. AdGuard also blocks trackers, so advertisers can’t follow your activity from site to site.

Kids use the same browsers and apps as everyone else, and one wrong click can take them to a page meant for adults. Parental controls let you filter out inappropriate sites across the family’s devices. AdGuard also blocks phishing links and malicious websites, giving everyone in the house a layer of protection against scams.

AdGuard’s Family Plan covers up to nine devices running Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android. Each person can install AdGuard on their own phone or computer under the same plan. That’s three times the device count of AdGuard’s Personal Plan, enough for a couple of laptops plus everyone’s phones and tablets. At $17.97 for nine devices, you pay less than $2 per device.

Because this is a lifetime subscription, you pay once and get updates and new features as they come out. You won’t have a renewal date to track or a yearly charge to cancel. You have 30 days after purchase to redeem your code, and the deal is open to new AdGuard users only.

Block ads and trackers on the whole family’s devices with one payment.

A lifetime subscription to the AdGuard Family Plan is $17.97 through Nov. 8.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

After a long day, you probably plop your smartwatch onto its charging puck on your nightstand and leave it there overnight. Or, if you wear it to bed to track your sleep, you might leave it charging all afternoon after getting home so you can put it back on right before bedtime.

Where do screenshots go on Windows 10 and Windows 11? The answer depends entirely on how you capture the image. There is no single central folder for all screenshots, but every method has a specific default location.

Most people start by simply installing a Linux distribution and then spend weeks tweaking it. When you build your own fork, though, and get a distro working for your personal use, the whole thing flips around: you bake your choices into the system from the ground up. It's probably the only way to have a true frictionless zero-setup install.

Learning to code can feel intimidating when you are starting from scratch, especially if you have never worked with electronics. You might have written a few scripts or followed programming tutorials, but making software interact with physical hardware introduces an entirely different set of challenges.

I hate having to unlock my phone just to find one little detail before driving. It could be an appointment time in Google Calendar, a hotel address buried in Gmail, or a place I saved in Google Maps after seeing it on an influencer’s page. I usually end up opening three different apps before I find what I’m looking for.

Overclocking used to be a hobby reserved for enthusiasts willing to sink hours into tweaking voltages and clock speeds before testing stability to squeeze every last bit of performance out of their hardware.

A recent YouTube video by Gamers Nexus exposed the fact that LG TVs are sending huge amounts of data from your home to LG's servers. This can include information about what you're watching, even if you're watching a DVD or Blu-ray through a connected device. A lot of people have started rooting their TVs to try to stop this from happening, so I decided to give it a try.

Long gone are the days of reblogging random posts or customizing your online profile with flashy backgrounds and autoplay music. But your old accounts may still be out there.

Keeping notifications on my phone under control is a constant battle. I try to disable annoying ones when they arrive, but sometimes it's just easier to ignore the problem. That's where Android's "Notification History" comes in handy, but not for the usual reasons.

The Google backup ecosystem is undeniably convenient, as long as you are willing to pay for a Google One subscription. The default 15GB isn't enough for most purposes. I was tired of manually selecting and sending batches of pictures via Quick Share to free up space on my phone, and I didn't want to pay a monthly subscription fee to secure my growing media library.

Over the years, we've seen vast improvements in eReaders and E Ink tablets. In a world where Kindle and Kobo eReaders used to reign supreme, the market is now delightfully diverse. The E Ink Corporation takes a lot of credit for this progress. Without the display maker's modern E Ink display tech, Android tablets with ePaper screens would not exist.

On Nov. 6, Fox closed a $22 billion deal to acquire streaming device giant Roku, and the merger already has an unforeseen casualty: The end of the Aquatic Life screensaver.

SEE ALSO: European Commission advises TikTok to redesign FYP or risk fines

Last week, fans of Aquatic Life — a relaxing aquarium filled with swimming fish — noticed an alert popping up on their Roku devices, warning that their fish would soon be gone. Because it was such a fan favorite, users took to social media to mourn the screensaver's end or plead for its future. Many wrote that Aquatic Life had become an essential part of their lives.

"Before my father passed I gifted him a Roku and one of the last conversations we had was him telling me he loved these fish so much," wrote one Reddit user.

"This screensaver has been a comfort to me for about ten years or more I can't remember. My wife picked it out and she loved it. Pancreatic cancer took her from me 7 years ago," wrote another.

Why is Aquatic Life leaving Roku TVs?

Some theorized the popular, ad-free screensaver was losing the company potential revenue money. Roku's annual earnings reports over the last several years have positively cited the "high-visibility placements" of device advertising, including on its screensavers.

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Others suggested Roku's new ownership may have been the nail in the coffin, with rumors circulating that the screensaver's developer had ended its licensing deal following Fox's entry. In an interview with ArsTechnica, Jim Sachs, the artist behind the screensaver, confirmed he chose not to renew his annual $80,000 licensing agreement after learning of the $22 billion deal. The deal was his primary form of income, Sachs told ArsTechnica.

"I can’t be part of the Fox world," Sachs told the publication, alluding to the controversial reputation of Fox News. "It seems that Fox simply wants another venue for spreading their philosophy, which I consider repugnant. I can’t stand the idea of my artwork being used to lure even one person down that rabbit hole."

When will Aquatic Life leave Roku?

Users who currently have their screens set to the serene aquarium will be moved into Roku City on Dec. 1. Roku City — the company's default screensaver and native ad placement spot — has garnered its own cult following and meme status over the years. The company has leaned into the popularity heavily, adding viral easter eggs and pop culture references intended to stir online conversation.

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But not everyone is a fan of the streaming metropolis.

"Likely because we live in a corporate dystopian hellscape and it's hard for them to shove advertisements into fish. This fucking sucks. No reason given. We just can't have nice things. Fuck Roku City," wrote one X user.

Roku has not publicly commented on customer demands to bring back Aquatic Life. Sachs said the company has asked him to renew the license, but that he wasn't willing to do so until Fox reverses its "rage-based business model" and chooses to "take responsibility for all the harm it has caused."

In the meantime, aquarium lovers can download the screensaver for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, or find an alternative on Roku.

Two years ago, Logitech got into the LCD-based macro keypad game with the MX Creative Console after buying Loupedeck in 2023. Recently, Logitech released a more affordable macro keypad than the MX Creative Console with the MX Keypad. I’ve spent the past few weeks using Logitech’s latest release and I have to say, I like it a lot more than I thought I would.

China's plan to land people on the moon by 2030 mirrors NASA's on paper but skips crewed lunar test flights, trusting robotic rehearsals for its first human landing instead.

Chinese space officials laid out their approach at the 7th Manned Space Symposium in Beijing on Oct. 31, according to Xinhua, the Chinese government's wire service. A slide reportedly from the presentation posted by CNSpaceflight, an independent outlet that tracks the Chinese space program, shows two of the initial missions with nobody aboard. A crew flies the Mengzhou, or "Dream Vessel," capsule to Earth orbit in 2027. Then the robots take over. The Lanyue, or "Embracing the Moon," lander touches down on its own in 2028, and an uncrewed mission rehearses the full landing sequence in 2029.

"For any crewed mission, we will try to fly it in an unmanned state first," said Wang Xiang, chief designer of the Chinese lunar exploration program, in the English captions of a CCTV report, China's state-run broadcaster.

The split cuts to the heart of a heated new space race and reveals two different institutional cultures. China's tight-lipped, military-run program trusts machines to prove its lunar hardware works. NASA's civilian program, working in public view to land astronauts first in 2028, leverages human test pilots. U.S. leaders say they're reviving the Apollo playbook that beat the Soviet Union to the moon: put crews on key test flights, launch often, and build on each mission.

"It's not entrepreneurial thinking or tech industry pixie dust or some new management philosophy," said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman at a news conference on Oct. 23. "It's a playbook this agency knows really well — the same playbook that went from Apollo 7 splashdown to Apollo 11 in just nine months."

SEE ALSO: New photo reveals an asteroid view that a NASA spacecraft never saw

NASA has already flown one of those crewed test flights. Artemis II sent four astronauts around the moon in April. Next year, the four-person Artemis III crew will spend about two weeks in Earth orbit practicing maneuvers to dock the Orion spaceship with test versions of two commercial landers. 

One lander is from Blue Origin, and the other is from SpaceX. Astronauts will climb into Blue Origin's lander to check its air and life-support systems, but will only briefly dock with Starship.

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Earlier this year, NASA decided to do that test as a separate mission, shoehorned between Artemis II and the first crewed moon landing. If something goes wrong, "we can come home much more quickly," explained Jeremy Parsons, who manages NASA's Artemis program.

Apollo followed roughly the same script. Four crewed test flights came before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in July 1969. China's first crew to head for the moon will be the one that lands.

Despite this major difference between the plans, NASA will lean on some robotics, too. SpaceX aims to land an uncrewed Starship on the moon by the end of 2027, and Blue Origin is working on its own uncrewed demonstration after Artemis III. NASA will keep both landers in the running as long as possible before picking one for its first crew, while China is building a single lander.

In other ways, the two plans look alike. Two Long March-10 rockets will launch China's capsule and lander separately, and the pair will link up in orbit around the moon. Two of the three crew members will then ride the lander to the surface and back. NASA's Orion carries four astronauts but also sends just two down. Blue Origin's lander even follows China's route, flying to lunar orbit on its own to meet the crew. SpaceX breaks the pattern, docking its Starship with Orion near Earth and pushing the spaceship to the moon.

Left: Blue Origin A schematic of what Artemis IV's flight would look like with Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander. Credit: NASA infographic Right: SpaceX A schematic of Artemis IV paired with SpaceX's Starship moon lander. Credit: NASA infographic

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China says its uncrewed flights will make the first crewed landing safer. Its robotic lander also will gather some scientific data, measuring how hot the lunar surface gets and how the dust behaves. Its 2029 rehearsal will run every step, from docking in lunar orbit to landing, lifting off and docking again. The program has already completed early tests of its rocket, capsule, and lander.

The race, Isaacman warned, "will be much closer than it ever needed to be," emphasizing that China has the spacecraft, landers, and a "credible two-launch architecture" to put taikonauts, the Chinese term for astronauts, on the moon within three years. 

NASA's own deadlines have slipped repeatedly. Artemis first aimed for a 2024 landing, and Isaacman recently acknowledged that Artemis III was running about three months behind schedule. 

He conceded that urgency has its limits: "No amount of my enthusiasm or schedule pressure changes the laws of physics."

2026 might be winding down, but Netflix is bolstering its movie slate to close the year. With a mix of holiday adventures and prestige plays, there is something for everyone on this eclectic list. The first film features a dog and Christmas, so naturally, families will love it. The next movie is the first film from an award-winning director since 2018.

European regulators warn TikTok's "rabbit hole"-inducing FYP might be breaking EU law.

Preliminary findings from an investigation by the European Commission accuse the social media giant of failing to mitigate the potential mental health risks of its personalized algorithmic feed in violation of the Digital Services Act.

In particular, the regulatory body takes issue with the platform's "continuous stream of personalized videos" and the ways in which its algorithm determines user interest. Repeated interaction with triggering content, the report says, is interpreted as positive interest, leading to a "rabbit hole effect."

SEE ALSO: A teen used her school Chromebook and Google AI Mode to plan her suicide, lawsuit alleges

"This design can be harmful when such endless and repeated exposure involves, for example, content about sadness, isolation or body image," the Commission writes. "These ‘rabbit holes' can have a detrimental impact on users' mental health, especially that of vulnerable adults and minors."

The early findings urged TikTok redesign its For Your Page. "TikTok should rely more on users' explicit preferences, disable viewing time as an indicator to recommend content, increase the accessibility and usability of user controls, and regularly test its algorithm," advise regulators.

If TikTok fails to comply with the commission's final report and recommendations, the company may be fined up to 6 percent of its global revenue.

Studies of TikTok's content recommendation algorithm have found that the platform's content moderation and personalization options frequently fail to keep harmful content off of users' feeds. The company has previously been accused of knowingly proceeding with ineffective measures to reduce excessive screen time and harmful content, including the tendency of users to fall into "bubbles" of harmful content via their For Your Page.

This past week, TikTok, Meta, and Google each filed lawsuits against California attorney general Rob Banta, seeking to block a new state law that prohibits "addictive" and "psychologically exploitative" design features on social media platforms. Such features include infinite scroll, autoplay, and personalized recommendations.