Technology

Google is expanding its Play Games app for PCs to include Android games and games made specifically for PCs. The goal is to compete with well-known platforms like Steam by supporting all native PC games, providing tools for developers to make in-app purchases easier and more secure, and offering up to 15% back on earnings.

A Linux terminal does a few things, but mainly, it shows line after line of text. While that isn’t exactly the first thing you’d think would make great use of your GPU, these terminals can harness that power in some interesting ways.

Believe it or not, some gamers prefer Macs to PCs for gaming. Thanks to Apple’s M-series chips and various software enhancements, macOS has significantly improved its gaming capabilities, making it an increasingly viable option.

Looking to add some non-English films to your Netflix watchlist but don't know where to start? These Netflix Originals are some of the most popular and watched films the platform has to offer, spanning different genres and languages.

You might want to become familiar with the Taco Bell mobile app.

That's because parent company Yum! Brands are rolling out an AI chatbot that you'll use to order at the drive-thru at 500 Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC locations in the second quarter of 2025, according to a company press release. The tech, which was developed in partnership with Nvidia, allegedly "enables a more natural, seamless ordering experience" through the use of a conversational chatbot that "adapts to human speech patterns," among other things.

SEE ALSO: TikTok removes AI 'chubby' filter after body-shaming criticism

At first glance, it's unclear how this is different from the AI drive-thru ordering that has been available at some Taco Bell locations since last year. Regardless, it's clear that chain restaurants are moving in this direction, at least for the time being.

Wendy's recently committed to a similar initiative, while McDonald's experimented with it (poorly) last year. It's true that human employees can and often do misinterpret orders, especially through the crackly speakers of a drive-thru, but it's very easy to imagine AI messing up orders in new and surprising ways that humans could never dream of.

However, you can order ahead in the mobile app and not have to deal with this at all, if you want to.

Ah, social media—the place to check in on old friends without the awkward small talk. But have you ever tried changing a privacy setting? It’s like trying to navigate a labyrinth of menus and submenus. What if I told you that this is intentional?

The British science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke famously said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Go back in time 500 years and show them your smartphone, and you'd probably be burned at the stake for being a witch. Even 100 years ago, the things your phone can do would have blown people's minds.

A long time ago, in smartphones that looked very different, there were SD card slots for expanding storage. That’s a long-lost feature, but it’s still surprisingly easy to use external physical storage with your iPhone or Android phone.

Monster Hunter Wilds has exploded onto the scene, reminding people that hunting gigantic beasts can be a lot of fun—both on your own and as part of a group.

Selling, gifting, or throwing out your PC? You need to wipe it first. Not doing so risks someone getting to the data on it and potentially using it to gain access to your online banking accounts, or just to snoop on your private photos.

If your personal media collection is growing, both Plex and Emby will serve you well. While they ultimately serve the same purpose, the two have several defining traits that make one more useful than the other.

One of 2025's biggest video game surprises might be getting the film treatment.

Variety reported that the media company Story Kitchen is shopping the rights for a movie adaptation of Hazelight Studios' Split Fiction. The game, which launched just a few weeks ago at the beginning of March, has been a smash hit, selling two million copies in its first week on the market. There are no named directors, writers, or actors attached to the project yet, so hold your horses on getting too excited, but at the very least, it sounds like Hollywood studios are interested.

SEE ALSO: 'Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition' review: A forgotten classic is back with a vengeance

Split Fiction is a co-op action-adventure game starring two women who get trapped in virtual worlds modeled after stories they've written as part of an evil plot by a big corporation to steal their work. The game has been critically acclaimed for its clever use of split-screen co-op gameplay, though critics have also pointed out weaknesses in Split Fiction's writing. That's an interesting combination of properties for a game that's being adapted to film. One has to wonder how the most compelling part of the game would translate to a motion picture.

As always, take announcements like this with a grain of salt. Movie adaptations of video games are announced all the time, but many never come to pass. A Metal Gear Solid movie starring Oscar Isaac has been "in the works" for a long time, with no meaningful updates on its progress in years. A studio buying the rights to something doesn't necessarily mean it's going to get made.

Still, this is a sign, if nothing else, that original IPs can still succeed in the world of video games.

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Saturday, March 22, 2025:

AcrossAuction offer

• The answer is Bid.

Side of a diamond

• The answer is Facet.

School subject that anagrams to A GARBLE, fittingly

• The answer is Algebra.

Apple laptop

• The answer is Macbook.

U.S. city that's home to 71 streets with "Peachtree" in their names

• The answer is Atlanta.

Wikipedia.org and weather.com

• The answer is Sites.

Higher ed degree

• The answer is PHD.

DownOne way of resealing tortilla chips

• The answer is Bag clip.

Athlete's frigid recovery treatment

• The answer is Ice bath.

Prepared to eat, as a fish

• The answer is Deboned.

Shoes without heels

• The answer is Flats.

Brings (out)

• The answer is Trots.

Physicians' grp.

• The answer is AMA.

Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar ___ Cardi B

• The answer is AKA.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Mini Crossword.

It may come as a shock that the depths of Earth's oceans are more alien to scientists than the surface of the moon, 240,000 miles away in space.

But it's true: With cameras and sensors, spacecraft have mapped lunar landscape features over the decades. Meanwhile, charting the ocean floor has presented its own daunting challenges. The intense water pressure found deep in the abyss can crush most equipment, and the seafloor is essentially hidden from view under miles upon miles of water, which absorbs light and becomes opaque. That makes direct observations especially difficult. 

A new effort using data from a NASA-led satellite is helping to change that, providing one of the most detailed maps of the bottom of the world's oceans ever created. The SWOT satellite, short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography, is a collaboration between NASA and its French counterpart, the Centre National d'Études Spatiales. 

"This satellite is a huge jump in our ability to map the seafloor," said David Sandwell, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in a statement. 

SEE ALSO: Scientists found huge beaches on Mars likely from a long gone ocean This global map of the ocean floor is based on data from NASA's SWOT satellite. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Launched in December 2022, the satellite actually was built to measure water height across the planet’s oceans, lakes, and rivers. Though not designed for seafloor mapping, scientists have found its advanced technology can help them estimate the size and shape of structures underwater more precisely.

Scientists of many disciplines say knowing what's down there is important. Maps help ships navigate around safety hazards and guide engineers in laying underwater communication cables. They also play a role in studying deep-sea currents, tides, and the movements of Earth’s tectonic plates, those massive puzzle pieces of Earth’s crust that shift over millions of years. 

Experts have been working on mapping the ocean floor with traditional methods, sending ships across the water with sonar technology — sound waves that bounce off the bottom — to measure depth. But the process has moved at a snail's pace: Ships can only cover small areas at a time, leaving much of the ocean uncharted. 

That slow progress means scientists may not meet their goal of having a complete seabed map by 2030. 

Though satellites are swarming in low-Earth orbit, most have a resolution that isn’t as good as sonar. But the new data from SWOT is about twice as detailed as older satellite maps, making it easier to see previously unknown features. A new SWOT-based seafloor map was published in the journal Science in December. 

NASA created an animation, posted above,  of some of the new information revealed in the SWOT data, including in regions off Mexico, South America, and the Antarctic Peninsula. Purple areas highlight lower regions around higher underwater elevations, shown in green. 

The satellite’s new type of radar technology has allowed it to detect seamounts less than half the size of those previously mapped, potentially increasing the number of known seamounts from 44,000 to 100,000. These underwater mountains affect ocean currents and can create nutrient-rich areas that attract marine life.

"We won’t get the full ship-based mapping done by" 2030, Sandwell said. "But SWOT will help us fill it in."

Here's how the technology works: The satellite detects tiny changes in the height of the water. Rather than a glass-like sheet all around the globe, the sea is uneven. Submerged mountains and other geological features with more mass than their surroundings cause bumps due to slightly stronger gravitational pulls. Those slight variations can be measured with SWOT's instruments. The satellite sweeps over 90 percent of the planet as it orbits every 21 days.

The SWOT satellite sweeps over 90 percent of the planet as it orbits every 21 days. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / CNES / Thales Alenia Space illustration

SWOT apparently collected more detailed data than 30 years’ worth of older satellite missions in just one year, according to the Science paper. The new map has a resolution of about 5 miles, meaning scientists are detecting things that eluded them in the past.

The clarity has allowed scientists to detect underwater ridges known as "abyssal hills," carved in long rows by slow tectonic shifts. They're the most common topographical feature on Earth, covering about 70 percent of the ocean floor — whose water, by the way, covers about 70 percent of the planet. Because they're smaller than seamounts, past satellites have struggled to find them.

The enhanced maps could lead to new geological discoveries, such as locating active underwater volcanoes and previously unknown fault lines. There could even be rediscoveries of lost ancient lands that weren't always hidden by water. 

And there's something in it for astrobiologists, too. Many researchers have posited that the chemistry needed to start life on this planet began at mid-ocean ridges, where tectonic plates have moved apart. This activity sometimes creates hydrothermal vents, a key environment of superheated water, rich in minerals. SWOT data may help scientists pinpoint new underwater hot springs for future study, which could help scientists better understand the recipe for life, perhaps even beyond Earth.

I see you, annotators — the readers with color-coded highlighting systems and tabs sticking out of every book. Going digital with an e-reader might not seem like it's for you, but with all the advancements in the market, things are changing. I've seen it all, from the most basic Kindle to a color e-reader and now the Kindle Scribe.

Launched in late 2024, Amazon debuted the next generation of the Kindle Scribe. It's the largest in the brand's lineup and the only model that comes with a pen and the ability to write. I'd spent time with the previous generation of Scribe, so I wanted to see how Amazon improved the device. Unfortunately... it wasn't much.

Here's what I think about the Kindle Scribe and if it's worth it.

Kindle Scribe price and specs Putting the original Kindle Scribe (left) head to head with the 2024 Kindle Scribe (right). Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

The 2024 Kindle Scribe is the same size as the previous generation but features a redesigned screen with even borders surrounding the screen.

These are the full specs for the 2024 Kindle Scribe:

• 10.2-inch display, up to 94 nits brightness, and 300 ppi resolution

• USB-C charging port with up to 12 weeks of battery life

• Starts at 16GB of storage, with 32GB and 64GB options available

• Premium pen included

• Comes in tungsten (dark gray) and metallic jade

• Not waterproof

All the perks of a Kindle e-reader, plus annotation Jotting down my thoughts on the Kindle Scribe... on the Kindle Scribe. Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

Kindles are great e-readers — our favorite, in fact. So, it's no surprise that the Kindle Scribe has the same possibilities. You can access books through the Kindle Store or Libby. Like all Kindles, there's seamless Libby integration to make it easy to read your library books.

But it has something other Kindles don't, the ability to annotate. With an included stylus (called the "premium pen"), you can write using the notebook feature as a digital notebook. Plus, this latest generation of Kindle Scribe allows you to annotate within the margins of books. I used it to annotate long PDFs, write notes in the margins, and handwrite line edits. Once I was done, I could send the annotated document from the Kindle to my email so I could easily send it back to my colleague.

When not in use, the premium pen magnetically attaches to the Kindle Scribe, keeping it within reach.

It's the slowest e-reader in the line-up

While it offers the same ability as other Kindles to read through a vast array of books, it is noticeably slower than other models in Amazon's line-up. When Amazon announced the new generation of Kindles in late 2024, the Kindle, Paperwhite, and Paperwhite Signature Edition were all touted as the brand's fastest devices, which they certainly are.

While the Kindle Scribe's displays have been redesigned, its processor has not been updated. The Scribe often lags when starting to wake up or switching between journals and books. I also noticed some pauses when turning pages, something I never experience on other Kindles. This is especially disappointing considering the price, which is more than double that of the Paperwhite.

It's nice to write on, but the displays will ghost you After switching to the notebook section of the Kindle, you can still see book covers from my library bleeding through the screen. Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

When it comes to annotating and writing on a Kindle Scribe, I love the tactile feel. The anti-glare screen and premium pen of the Kindle Scribe have a texture that emulates the feeling of writing with pen and paper. It's much different and preferential to the slippery texture of writing on an iPad with an Apple Pencil.

However, while the display has a nice feel, it suffers from a ghosting issue. The back end of the premium pen works as an eraser, so you can flip it over when you want to erase some notes. However, a shadow of your erased writing really lingers. When I exited the notebook I had erased, the shadow lingered even as I opened a new book and tried to read.

It's more expensive than an iPad

The Kindle Scribe is not a tablet. It's an e-reader with the ability to write. Why am I noting this? Because it's certainly priced like a tablet. The Kindle Scribe starts at $399.99 for the 16GB model and tops out at $449.99 for the 64GB model. Considering the recently launched 11th generation iPad with 128GB of storage starts at $349.99, the Kindle Scribe is a terrible value.

A tablet, like an iPad, has so many capabilities, like browsing social media and the web, streaming video, gaming, drawing, and even reading, with access to the Kindle app, Apple Books, and even Libby on there. Meanwhile, you're limited to just reading or writing on a Scribe — no streaming, gaming, or more. If you're looking for a distraction-free reader, maybe that's a draw. But otherwise, it's just too expensive.

Is the Kindle Scribe worth it? Kindles are usually great e-readers, but the Scribe doesn't live up to the rest of the line-up. Credit: Samantha Mangino

There's only one specific circumstance I imagine the Kindle Scribe is worth. If you're an avid annotator and want a distraction-free e-reader, the Kindle Scribe is great. It allows you to write notes in the margins of e-books or annotate PDFs, which you can then view on your computer.

But otherwise, if you're excited by the idea of an e-reader you can annotate on, look elsewhere. For $399.99, the Kindle Scribe isn't worth it with its meager performance and screen ghosting issues.

If you want an e-reader that you can annotate with, check out the Kobo Libra Colour, which costs $229.99. The Libra Colour is $170 less than the base model Kindle Scribe and comes with twice the storage. Or, if you want to spend your money on something that can do more than just read and write, swing for the iPad 11th generation, which is $349.99 — still $50 cheaper than the Scribe.

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2024) $399.99 at Amazon
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Remaking Ang Lee's award-winning 1993 queer rom-com The Wedding Banquet is no mean feat, but Fire Island's Andrew Ahn makes a masterclass of it.

A wholehearted, hilarious approach to Lee's rambunctious narrative, The Wedding Banquet balances the pressures of cultural traditions and family expectations with the liberation and joy of found family. Boasting a veritable feast of a cast delivering impeccable, funny, and moving performances, the film is a deeply romantic tale about a brilliant ruse that spins out of control. But there's clarity (and love) to be found in the chaos for these wonderful characters.

SEE ALSO: 70 best LGBTQ films to stream right now What is The Wedding Banquet about? Han Gi-Chan, Youn Yuh-jung, and Kelly Marie Tran in "The Wedding Banquet." Credit: Bleecker Street / ShivHans Pictures

The Wedding Banquet centres on two gay couples who are friends, each with major life hurdles ahead of them — and a proposal that could prove a temporary solution to it all. Ahn teams up with Lee's co-writer James Schamus to move the original film's New York-set narrative to Seattle, and the pair expand on the tension between cultural tradition, family, and queer identity in the present day.

Killers of the Flower Moon's Lily Gladstone and The Last Jedi star Kelly Marie Tran play Lee and Angela, lesbians who are struggling with their IVF journey and its towering costs. Wicked star Bowen Yang and Our Song's Han Gi-Chan play gay couple Chris and Min, who are navigating differing levels of commitment and Min's looming student visa expiry. A talented artist who is not out to his wealthy Korean family, Min is faced with a conundrum: become the head of one of his grandparents' companies or be forced to return to Korea. And while Min plans to propose to his love of five years, Chris, Min's grandfather would likely cut him off financially if they got married.

So, for the ultimate win-win, the four decide on a deal: Min and Angela will get a green-card marriage if Min pays for Angela and Lee's IVF expenses with his family's money. With a city hall appointment in the diary, everything's on course. But when Min's grandmother Ja-Young (Pachinko and Minari screen legend Youn Yuh-jung) arrives to meet her grandson's betrothed and help plan the ceremony, the wedding scheme levels up in stress, extravagance, and comedic potential. There's just one hour for the group to "de-queer the house," and Chris, Lee, and Angela are thrown into a flurry of swiftly removing the house's wealth of Tegan and Sara and Elliot Page books, The L Word DVDs, and Lilith Fair posters. Will it work? 

The cast of The Wedding Banquet are sublime. Han Gi-Chan and Bowen Yang in "The Wedding Banquet." Credit: Bleecker Street / ShivHans Pictures

You cannot ask for better than the cast of The Wedding Banquet, an ensemble of staggering talent who deliver truly exceptional performances.

Angela and Chris are longtime college friends whose ability to open up rests almost entirely with each other and a lot of tequila, and Tran and Yang bring a relatable fear of decisiveness to their characters. Why make a giant life decision when you can get shitfaced with your best friend instead, right? As Angela, Tran bears probably the greatest emotional arc in the film, slowly spiralling out of control without having the words to describe it all, and Tran's performance here is one of her best on-screen yet. Yang expertly keeps Chris' complete discomfort with commitment on track with hilarious physical comedy in unexpected moments — I would watch Yang unsuccessfully try to quickly get dressed in a panic every day of the week. And one of the unsung comedy heroes of the film is Bobo Le as Chris' party-loving cousin Kendall, a casual observer of the events who allows Chris' softer side out.

Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran in "The Wedding Banquet." Credit: Bleecker Street / ShivHans Pictures

In contrast, Min and Lee are open books, frustrated by the lack of emotional maturity and commitment from their partners while being extremely loving, patient people. Here, Gladstone's signature radiance and understatement shines through Lee, a character impossible not to fall in love with in their capable hands. 

Almost stealing the whole show is Han, whose offbeat and theatrical comedic timing as Min is simply perfect for the rom-com genre. Lines of dialogue that should be throwaway moments are unexpectedly hilarious or deeply romantic delivered by Han, who brings the power of his performance in South Korean gay drama Where Your Eyes Linger to this significantly lighter but just as meaningful role. 

Meanwhile, Didi's Joan Chen is outrageously funny and audacious as Angela's mother, May, a woman so publicly enthusiastic an ally and PFLAG member she gets literal awards for it. May's reaction to Angela and Min's wedding ruse subverts many a heteronormative rom-com with outbursts like, "My daughter, marrying a man?... Why did I put years into gay activism if this is what I get?" But Angela holds deep past resentment toward her mother for her private lack of support, and this internalised hurt bleeds into Angela's lack of ability to communicate; she refers to this as her tendency to "simmer" on things.

Joan Chen in "The Wedding Banquet." Credit: Bleecker Street / ShivHans Pictures

Where The Wedding Banquet soars is how the film treats Min's relationship with his grandmother Ja-Young, with a brilliant performance by Oscar winner Youn. She impeccably balances deadpan humour with moments of quiet love and growing empathy, and scenes between Youn and Chen as two contrasting matriarchs are highlights. Over the course of the film, Ja-Young gets to know her grandson not as man she and her husband want him to be, but as he is.

The Wedding Banquet is a beautifully filmed ode to queer love.

A film that explores the complexities of cultural and queer identity, The Wedding Banquet sees its characters examining their roots and looking to their futures. But it's also a really beautifully shot ode to queer love and creating a home with found family.

Ahn crafts tender moments of love and intimacy between the two couples in their own ways: handheld close-up shots of toes touching in bed, of brushing teeth together, of gardening in the backyard. The director creates a mellow, loving space in Lee's home for them all, one which Min's grandmother will eventually see for herself. Their lives are so intertwined Angela and Lee are literally sat in the middle of the room during a hilarious and heart-wrenching argument between Chris and Min, and Gladstone's reactions in this scene are deeply relatable.

Ultimately, The Wedding Banquet is a triumph of a romantic comedy, a smart and heartfelt update on Lee's '90s classic that explores the pressures of balancing cultural tradition with LGBTQ identity. Ahn's film leaves ample space for these wonderful characters to mess up, say the wrong thing, and figure out their next steps, all with the support and love of each other. Please let me marry this film.

The Wedding Banquet was reviewed out of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2025 and will hit U.S. cinemas April 18.

For a comic strip starring stick figures, Randall Monroe's xkcd has long been unusually relatable. Never more so than five years ago this month, when the strip offered its iconic response to COVID lockdowns around the world. 

"Experts are saying people may need to self-isolate to combat the virus," says a TV reporter in the first panel. A stick figure viewer takes a beat, then announces: "I've been practicing for this moment my whole life."

Introverted homebodies everywhere could relate. But I could relate for another reason. As the pandemic broke out, I had been living the brave new world of working from home for exactly 20 years. 

"I have watched, shocked, as the world has basically mandated that my life apply to everyone," I wrote in my diary at the end of March 2020. 

SEE ALSO: Remote work helps the environment. Here's how.

The times were dire — but for an introverted work-from-home journalist, life actually became easier. Almost every source, for almost every story, was stuck at home too, eager to talk. I didn’t have to drive to a single interview, suggest a lunch spot, pick a bar. Companies had to send their products for review without the interminable in-person demo. The publishing industry suddenly discovered it could instantly send PDFs of upcoming books rather than making reviewers wait for hard copies — the bulk of my once-bulging mailbox. 

And there was no longer any FOMO about the endless parade of evening events available to someone who's supposed to keep up with the exhausting luminaries of Silicon Valley. I expressed my feelings with a line from an episode of Doctor Who: "Did you wish really hard?" Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) asks the Doctor in "The Doctor's Wife," after his beloved TARDIS takes human form. 

I must have wished too hard, I concluded. And then a much older line, from Aesop, also popped into my head: be careful what you wish for. “Now I’m like a cat," I wrote. "Told that I can’t go out, I scratch at the door that held little interest before.” 

Working from home, the first 20 years

As the new San Francisco bureau chief for TIME magazine in March 2000 — arriving just in time to witness the dotcom crash — I'd been given a choice. My job was mistitled; the bureau was basically me, and I could work from anywhere in the city. We'll rent you an office downtown, New York HQ said, or you can work from home and we'll put what we would have spent towards your (even then) sky-high San Francisco rent. 

Well, I replied, "let me think about that for five seconds." It was a no-brainer, especially for a night owl who hates commuting. I found an architect's home with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge I never would have been able to afford on my own. It was workplace heaven. 

And I spent the first few months dealing with a feeling I hadn't expected: crushing guilt at my own good fortune. In the year 2000, according to that year's census, a mere 3.2 percent of people in the U.S. worked from home most of the week. Office dronery was all around me. Driving to Silicon Valley a few times a week, I shuddered at the nightmare of Highway 101. 

What about all the other night owls, commute haters, homebodies, or introverts stuck on that clogged freeway at rush hour in both directions? Didn't they deserve what I had? (Perhaps that's when I started wishing really hard.) 

There were other challenges to overcome, as months of WFH (we didn't have that acronym yet) turned into years. How not to fall into the dispiriting trap of wearing pajamas all day? Get review products delivered throughout the day, so you always need to be dressed for the UPS guy. How not to overheat your thighs when working with old-school laptops on a couch? Cushions are your friends. 

And then there was the question of how not to feel lonely, which I'd sometimes do when I looked up from a raucous conversation in Campfire (a predecessor of Slack) to find that I was not in fact in an office full of jokers. My favorite solution was an IRL one: find artists who wanted to co-work. Obsessed with creating their latest thing, unlikely to want to chat about tech or news, Bay Area artists were great for getting into a state of flow; they also often came with a hard drive of MP3s I could add to my stash.

And then there was the never-ending challenge of how to draw a bright line between work life and home life when they happened in the same place. In part, this was a problem of my position. Any major news event could upend my week at any time; if a major earthquake struck, I had to be ready to hire a helicopter to survey the damage.

Some editors in New York didn't understand time zones, and would call the bureau phone by my bed when they got into work. I became very good at sounding awake at 6 a.m., and a day when I could have coffee before my first call instantly became a very good day. 

Regardless, the fact that WFH was more productive, at least for me, became clear when I spent the occasional week at New York HQ. The aimless watercooler and kitchen conversations seemed to eat as much of my day as the commute I was suddenly taking. My diet was worse, not aided by all the sugary goods that office life often presses upon you (who could say no to birthday cake?).

I walked less overall: no afternoon constitutionals around the neighborhood. And desks with no optional couch? C'mon, how are you supposed to work in a vertical position after that much cake?

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Eleven years into my WFH lifestyle, 4.3 percent of Americans were working from home most of the week, up from 3.8 percent a decade earlier. The pace of change was strangely slow; the office lifestyle had America in its grip. Still, I'd moved on to other publications, and acquired a manager who heartily approved of couch working: my cat, Mowgli, who loves to gaze into the screen and supervise the writing process, purring when he likes a paragraph.

This can be so conducive to long productive laptop sessions — more so than coffee, more so than any perk in any office — that cats should probably count as a business expense. 

Granted, Mowgli was sometimes less keen on the keyboard part of laptops. Sometimes he would lean his head on it, looking reproachful; other times, more of a helicopter boss, he would use his paw to redirect my hand. When I wrote How Star Wars Conquered the Universe from that couch, Mowgli began trying to push the laptop out of his way with his back.

I gave him a shout-out in the acknowledgements, for being a true Jedi master and helping me find a way to let go of my conscious self and reach out with my feelings.

When the world went WFH

The percentage of WFH workers ticked up over the decades as the internet seeped further into our lives, but never as fast as I expected. Then came the pandemic, the moment I'd been unintentionally preparing for. A quarter of U.S. employees were WFH full time in 2021; by 2023, with the pandemic largely over, that number had ticked up to 28 percent. The trend seemed irreversible (whether it actually is or not is a different story). 

SEE ALSO: Remote work helps the environment. Here's how.

I tried not to be a WFH hipster as social media filled up with accounts of people learning all the pitfalls I'd dealt with for decades. They also discovered new ways to deal with them, beyond the saving graces of Slack and Zoom. I'll never forget one stylish friend's solution to the pajamas/sweatpants problem, as described in her Facebook post: "I am promoting all my evening gowns to workwear, effective immediately."

It reminded me of the surrealist artist Rene Magritte, who was very deliberate about putting on a suit (and the meticulous mindset that went with it) to go paint in his home studio between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

It was good to be ahead of the game, to know what was most necessary. The more we work from home, the more structure we need: this was clear a month into the pandemic, when I wrote about my new time management system. Paradoxically, the more we work from home, the more loosey-goosey we can be about when we actually do the work.

By 2020 no one in my New York HQ was calling me at 6 a.m. PT anymore, and work became something that could be done on a night owl's schedule; I also wrote about how the pandemic could de-throne the larks. 

By that time, the cat-like restlessness with being inside once I was told to be inside, as noted in my diary, was reaching critical levels. And so I began constructing the most epic outing I could imagine: a series of end-of-day hikes that would together comprise the entire Bay Area Ridge Trail, a 250-mile loop through San Francisco and all its surrounding counties.

Because when you've been working at home for decades, regular off-sites become more necessary than ever. 

This column/article/etc reflects the opinions of the writer.

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March Madness is all about huge matchups between talented young squads of players, and that's exactly what we're getting with Tennessee vs. UCLA. The second and seventh seeds will battle it out for a place in the Sweet 16.

If you want to watch Tennessee vs. UCLA for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Tennessee vs. UCLA?

Tennessee vs. UCLA starts at 9:40 p.m. ET on March 22. This second-round game takes place at the Rupp Arena.

How to watch Tennessee vs. UCLA for free

Tennessee vs. UCLA airs on TBS. It is possible to access TBS with streaming services that offer free trials:

• DirectTV (five-day free trial) — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV

• Hulu + Live TV (three-day free trial) — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV

By making the most of these free trials, you can watch Tennessee vs. UCLA (plus more March Madness games) without actually spending anything.

How to watch Tennessee vs. UCLA from anywhere in the world

If you're traveling outside of the U.S. during March Madness, you might need to use a VPN to unblock live streams of Tennessee vs. UCLA. VPNs can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the U.S., meaning you can unblock live streams of Tennessee vs. UCLA from anywhere in the world.

Live stream 2025 March Madness from anywhere in the world by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in the U.S.

4. Visit DirectTV, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, or Paramount+

5. Live stream Tennessee vs. UCLA for free from anywhere in the world

ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport from anywhere in the world, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including the U.S.

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (2-Year Subscription + 4 Months Free) $139 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

Where to stream 2025 March Madness online for free 5-Day Free Trial DirectTV $86.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 7-Day Free Trial Fubo $79.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 3-Day Free Trial Hulu + Live TV $82.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 7-Day Free Trial Paramount+ $7.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now

March Madness has started with a number of exciting games, and the second round showcases some really interesting matchups. Auburn face Creighton in one of the best games from this round, with a lot of exciting young players to keep tabs on.

If you want to watch Auburn vs. Creighton for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Auburn vs. Creighton?

Auburn vs. Creighton starts at 7:10 p.m. ET on March 22. This second-round game takes place at the Rupp Arena.

How to watch Auburn vs. Creighton for free

Auburn vs. Creighton airs on TBS. It is possible to access TBS with streaming services that offer free trials:

• DirectTV (five-day free trial) — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV

• Hulu + Live TV (three-day free trial) — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV

By making the most of these free trials, you can watch Auburn vs. Creighton (plus more March Madness games) without actually spending anything.

How to watch Auburn vs. Creighton from anywhere in the world

If you're traveling outside of the U.S. during March Madness, you might need to use a VPN to unblock live streams of Auburn vs. Creighton. VPNs can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the U.S., meaning you can unblock live streams of Auburn vs. Creighton from anywhere in the world.

Live stream 2025 March Madness from anywhere in the world by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in the U.S.

4. Visit DirectTV, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, or Paramount+

5. Live stream Auburn vs. Creighton for free from anywhere in the world

ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport from anywhere in the world, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including the U.S.

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (2-Year Subscription + 4 Months Free) $139 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

Where to stream 2025 March Madness online for free 5-Day Free Trial DirectTV $86.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 7-Day Free Trial Fubo $79.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 3-Day Free Trial Hulu + Live TV $82.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 7-Day Free Trial Paramount+ $7.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now

The second round of March Madness includes some absolutely massive games, including Wisconsin vs. BYU. Fans will be eager to see whether Egor Demin can lead his team into the next round. It's set to be a thrilling contest between the third and sixth seeds.

If you want to watch Wisconsin vs. BYU for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Wisconsin vs. BYU?

Wisconsin vs. BYU starts at 7:45 p.m. ET on March 22. This second-round game takes place at the Ball Arena.

How to watch Wisconsin vs. BYU for free

Wisconsin vs. BYU is available to watch on CBS. It is possible to access CBS with a range of streaming services that offer free trials:

• DirectTV (five-day free trial) — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV

• Fubo (seven-day free trial) — CBS

• Hulu + Live TV (three-day free trial) — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV

• Paramount+ (seven-day free trial) — CBS

By making the most of these free trials, you can watch Wisconsin vs. BYU (plus more March Madness games) without actually spending anything.

How to watch Wisconsin vs. BYU from anywhere in the world

If you're traveling outside of the U.S. during March Madness, you might need to use a VPN to unblock live streams of Wisconsin vs. BYU. VPNs can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the U.S., meaning you can unblock live streams of March Madness from anywhere in the world.

Live stream March Madness from anywhere in the world by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in the U.S.

4. Visit DirectTV, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, or Paramount+

5. Live stream Wisconsin vs. BYU for free from anywhere in the world

ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport from anywhere in the world, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including the U.S.

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (2-Year Subscription + 4 Months Free) $139 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal