IT General

Industry Season 4, episode 6 should have been a victory lap for Harper Stern (Myha'la) and Eric Tao (Ken Leung). Instead, it was a heart-wrenching parting of ways.

The episode, titled "Dear Henry," saw Harper present SternTao's findings on Tender's scam activity, kicking off a large-scale short on the fraudulent fintech giant. Eric declares their win his "favorite day in finance."

SEE ALSO: Kit Harington and Max Minghella break down 'Industry's NSFW glory hole scene

However, that all comes crashing down when Eric receives a text from an unknown number. It's a video recording of his tryst with escort Dolly (Skye Lucia Degruttola), from earlier in the season. A photo of her passport soon follows, revealing that she was born in 2011.

It's a nauseating discovery, one that leaves Eric shell-shocked. Making matters worse is the fact that one of his teenage daughters, Lily (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss), is in the room when he receives the text. (She's just told Eric how much she loves him, a huge step in their otherwise-distant relationship, and he's simply unable to respond.)

SEE ALSO: 'Industry's Miriam Petche weighs in on Sweetpea's big episode, including those devastating final moments

Turns out, this is Whitney Halberstram's (Max Minghella) playbook at work. He hires escorts like Hayley (Kiernan Shipka) to get opponents in compromising sexual situations, then he blackmails them with the footage. Eric doesn't back down right away, though. He takes Whit head-on in a CNN interview, then transfers the entirety of his partnership in SternTao to Harper.

"It's yours, not mine," he tells her.

Their goodbye scene is shattering. So often a toxic mentor-mentee, father-daughter relationship, Harper and Eric have somehow managed to find more of an equilibrium in Season 4. Now, it all comes crashing down, but for Leung, Eric's sacrificing of his place at SternTao "is his ultimate show of love."

"It's his version of the highest love that he can give, the surrendering of self to protect [Harper]," Leung told Mashable in a video interview. "[He's thinking,] 'I'm going to kill myself to protect you.'"

Eric's protectiveness revolves around his complicated relationship with his daughters: Both his twins, Lily and Lara (Isla Bonner), as well his daughter figure in Harper. This season has seen him grow far closer to the latter, even pouring the Lily Lara Fund he'd established for his twins into SternTao.

But even as Eric has been estranged from Lily and Lara, he's had to face some uncomfortable truths about them. First, as he says in episode 5, he doesn't feel a "celestial" bond to them — more of a transactional one. Second, he's realizing that they have a similar capacity for ruthlessness as he does in the finance world. Lily was expelled from school for catfishing a classmate.

"In the professional sphere, Harper has come to take on a form that resembles [Eric], in his mind," Leung explained. "In the personal sphere, his daughter has become a version of him in her being a monster at school, getting kicked out of school. In one world, he can speak the language, and in the other world, he doesn't know how to, and I think for this season, Eric is trying to learn how to [get through] to his daughter through the world that he knows."

In the end, that internal struggle culminates in Eric's decision to give SternTao entirely up to Harper.

"It's what he's always wanted to do, tried to do, dreamt of doing as a dad, and could never [do]," Leung said. "But in this world, he can, and so that's what he does."

New episodes of Industry Season 4 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.

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Regardless of how we feel about virtual keyboards, many of us type more words on our phones than anywhere else. If you’re frustrated by the keyboard on your Samsung Galaxy phone, not only can you swap it out for an alternative, but you can even create your own!

If you're encrypting your drives, you're already well ahead of the curve when it comes to backing up your files. But there are reasons to be wary of them, too, and they apply especially if you're not used to the idea just yet.

Tesla Cybertruck owners can stop randomly digging through their vaults and start sliding! Unplugged Performance has released a convenient bed storage system for the Cybertruck with sliding drawers to keep all your gear organized and protected. To match the Cybertruck’s exterior look and overall aesthetics, Unplugged Performance designed the system with a high-strength stainless steel frame and heavy-duty latches and clips for the two sliding drawers.

Back in the late ’80s, when American muscle was all about big V-8s and playing it safe, one tiny manufacturer decided to flip the script entirely. They weren’t trying to beat Detroit at its own game—they were rewriting the whole playbook.

Dead zones are one of the most frustrating parts of Wi-Fi. Mesh systems fix that by letting your devices switch seamlessly between nodes as you move around your home, but their price tags can easily make you think twice.

Looking to buy a new hard drive? Get ready to pay even more this year.

According to Western Digital, one of the world's biggest hard drive manufacturers, the company has already sold out of its storage capacity for 2026 with more than 10 months still left in the year.

"We're pretty much sold out for calendar 2026," said Western Digital CEO Irving Tan on the company's recent quarterly earnings call. 

Tan shared that most of the storage space has been allocated to its "top seven customers." Three of these companies already have agreements with Western Digital for 2027 and even 2028. 

SEE ALSO: This is your last chance to get super cheap SSDs and hard drives at Amazon

Furthermore, the incentive for these hardware companies to prioritize the average consumer is also dwindling. According to Western Digital, thanks to a surge in demand from its enterprise customers, the consumer market now accounts for just 5 percent of the company's revenue.

AI companies have been eating up computer hardware as industry growth accelerates. Prices for products ranging from computer processors to video game consoles have skyrocketed due to these AI companies cannibalizing supply chains.

The tech industry has already been experiencing a shortage of memory due to demand from AI companies. PC makers have been forced to raise RAM prices on a near-regular basis as shortages persist. Video game console makers, like Sony, have even reportedly considered pushing the next PlayStation launch beyond the planned 2027 release in hopes that AI-related hardware shortages would be resolved by then.

With this latest news from Western Digital, it appears the ever-increasing demands from AI companies for memory and storage will continue to grow, with no end in sight. Unless, of course, investors decide to pull back from AI over fears that AI's promises may not come to fruition. But, for now at least, the shortages – and price hikes for consumers – will continue.

I think it's no surprise that many of the team here at How-To Geek love Linux. Open-source operating systems that you can play around with and tweak exactly how you want to are a geek's dream, after all.

When I’m asked to recommend a Linux distribution for beginners, I always suggest Ubuntu. It’s one of the easiest to master, but there’s still a learning curve for longtime Windows users. Here's what I recommend for first-time Ubuntu users to make the transition much easier.

The luxury sedan segment is crowded with V-6-powered models that promise refinement and power, but few deliver the balance of performance, comfort, and value that today’s buyers really want. The Genesis G70 2.5T upends expectations by offering comparable or better real-world performance than many six-cylinder rivals, yet it does so with a lighter footprint, strong efficiency, and a price that undercuts the competition.

In my house, we rely exclusively on batteries for electricity when our power goes out. Portable solar panels are a vital part of our home survival kit—even in the dead of winter.

The beauty of desktop PCs is that they're endlessly upgradeable. You can buy a PC today and still use some iteration of it in a decade, with a dozen upgrades along the way. But if there's one part that's really annoying to replace, it's the motherboard—and yet, it's also the component most people try to save money on.

In the '90s, lots of appliances had screens. Because they had screens, appliance makers generally thought they might as well add a clock. So devices like VCRs and microwaves would also display the time—if you bothered to set the clock!

You've probably heard about the recent AI controversies surrounding Windows, and you may have even heard of Linux as an alternative. Linux is a fantastic choice, but it's not for everyone—in fact, it's not for most. If you're an avid Windows user or a Linux enthusiast, I have three crucial reasons most users remain on Windows, even though Linux is entirely free.

Buying a 3D printer is exciting, but it can also be expensive. Not only do you have to shell out for a printer and take some time to learn how to use it, you also have to make peace with the fact that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Boston is not typically thought of as a hotbed for Hollywood entertainment. Los Angeles and New York City are still the top cities to find talent in movies and television. However, you'd be surprised at how many actors and actresses got their start in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, more specifically, Boston.

If you're just starting out with Linux, it can't be a lot to take in. One of the most important concepts to understand though is that you can prepare for issues by making sure snapshots are configured and running regularly. Here's what you need to know.

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