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Changing your DNS server used to feel straightforward. Pick Google, Cloudflare, Quad9, or whatever else. Type in some IP addresses. Call it a day.

Ryobi once offered a clever fix to many issues, but time has proven to be the death of a few of them. As tools age, we find better, easier ways to use them, and problems of the past tend to disappear even more quickly than their solutions did. Ryobi was fixing niche problems while it was fixing garage problems, but that time has ended. Today, you may have something in your pocket or garage that caused the end of a tool line. Luckily, this only meant that problems disappeared, since their solutions are gone too.

When you use Linux, there are two dominant and well-established desktop environments that reign supreme: KDE and GNOME. I prefer GNOME, but there's one KDE feature so good that I've found a way not to do without.

In April, Reuters reported that Meta would track U.S. employees' mouse movements and keystrokes to train its AI agents. Weeks later, Meta laid off 8,000 employees, citing its AI push. Now, the company is facing backlash from remaining employees over the tracking tool, called Model Capability Initiative (MCI), which may also violate European Union privacy rules, Reuters reports.

Last month, the company apparently told U.S. employees that it launched MCI to track how they work — including clicks and dropdown menu navigation — to build AI agents that can perform software tasks, Reuters reported. They were also told this would only impact employees in the U.S. and that privacy safeguards were in place.

SEE ALSO: Meta plans to make an AI pendant and more smart glasses soon

Some employees have already complained about MCI, calling Meta an "Employee Data Extraction Factory," Reuters reported. One complaint is that the tool is using so much data that workers' home internet usage has spiked, and in some cases, using a month's quota in days. Another complaint is that MCI is more over-reaching than Meta lets on, extending to code changes, a computer's sleep and wake cycles, and URLs copied to a computer's clipboard.

An internal post about this apparently disappeared, two Meta employees told Reuters. Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold told the outlet that the post was "fundamentally inaccurate."

In a document reviewed by Reuters, Meta stated that MCI would capture the contents of any email or direct message sent to U.S. employees, regardless of the sender's location. According to a legal expert who spoke to Reuters, this may violate the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The question is whether data collection of EU resident data is considered "incidental" and whether the tool can pass a "purpose limitation" test.

Arnold told Reuters that MCI was installed only on U.S. employees' computers and that, "In the interest of transparency, we notified non-U.S. employees ‌that it was deployed on the computers of U.S. colleagues they may email or ⁠chat with in the normal course of business."

"We carefully considered and mitigated potential privacy risks in both the development and deployment of this tool, and we are committed to complying with applicable laws and regulations," Arnold stated to Reuters.

Earlier this month, Mashable reported that Meta (along with Google and TikTok) faces complaints from the EU regarding protections against financial scams.

Layoffs at other major tech companies this year, including Snapchat, Amazon, and Pinterest, have been pinned on AI. In 2025, AI was linked to 50,000 job cuts.

I love Android, but that's mostly because I can install whichever apps I need to fix the issues I have with how things ship out of the box. When setting up a new phone, I start by disabling disappointing apps and installing replacements. Here are four of the open source alternatives I turn to for features that the default Google apps just don't handle.

Over the past decade, Fedora has earned its reputation as the go-to cutting-edge Linux distro. But the landscape has changed. Today, several popular distros offer newer packages, faster updates, and comparable stability—making Fedora no longer the obvious default for Linux power users.

Installing Linux has a reputation for being difficult or technical, and depending on your choices, it could be. You'll find dozens of tutorials about dual-booting from one drive and manually working with partitions. Luckily, for the vast majority of people, none of that is necessary.

I was looking for smart home devices online when I stumbled across a smart knob and immediately wanted to buy it. Then I noticed that exactly what I needed was staring me in the face. My mini hi-fi system on my desk has a large knob that feels gorgeous to turn, so I wondered if I could turn it into a smart home controller.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move on to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity with how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for May 29, 2026

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible — and common — for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for May 31, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for May 31 Pips

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 5-1, placed vertically.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 5-1, placed vertically; 5-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed horizontally; 2-3, placed vertically.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically; 3-5, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally; 6-5, placed vertically.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for May 31 Pips

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 6-3, placed horizontally.

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 1-3, placed horizontally; 4-2, placed horizontally.

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 4-2, placed horizontally; 6-6, placed vertically.

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically.

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 1-5, placed vertically.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 5-3, placed vertically.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for May 31 Pips

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 1-6, placed vertically; 1-5, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 1-5, placed horizontally; 5-4, placed horizontally.

Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 5-4, placed horizontally; 4-6, placed horizontally.

Number (12): Everything in this space must add up to 12. The answer is 1-6, placed vertically; 6-0, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically; 1-2, placed horizontally.

Number (18): Everything in this space must add up to 18. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally; 6-6, placed vertically.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 6-0, placed vertically; 0-0, placed horizontally.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 3-4, placed vertically.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically; 3-4, placed vertically; 3-6, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 1-2, placed horizontally; 2-5, placed horizontally; 2-6, placed vertically.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 2-5, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed vertically.

Number (18): Everything in this space must add up to 18. The answer is 3-6, placed vertically; 2-6, placed vertically; 5-6, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-3, placed vertically.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 2-3, placed vertically.

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

Spreadsheet formulas used to feel fragile. One wrong column number could throw off an entire report. But when I finally replaced VLOOKUP with XLOOKUP, Excel started feeling predictable, flexible, and surprisingly hard to break.

Many "dead" electronics aren't actually dead. Cracked joints, loose wires, and worn-out connectors are extremely common problems, and they're all easily fixable if you have a decent soldering iron. Over a few years, the small repairs you can make with a soldering iron will save you money and reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill.

If you're having issues with your home internet and urgently need a connection for work or some other reason, or if yet another outage has flat-out taken down your connection, there's a way to get your router back online and reconnect all your devices to the web.

I’ll admit that I was quite excited when I found out that my 3D printer could be fully integrated into Home Assistant. If you have a smart home server running, you might as well connect as many devices as you can, right?

Whether you're tracking monthly spending, utility bills, hobby data, or other recurring numbers, predicting future trends usually means wrestling with complicated formulas. But Excel already has a built-in forecasting tool—and most people never realize it's there. Here's how to use it.

There's nothing quite like going to the movies, but a good projector can bridge the gap, giving you a small taste of the theater experience at home. A budget projector may be a more affordable option than a giant TV, but the results can sometimes be disappointing. A few simple and affordable upgrades can make your projector experience far better.

In this episode of How It Hits, we explore the fascinating journey of "The Backrooms." What started as a single, unsettling image posted anonymously on 4chan has blossomed into a massive internet subculture. Today, it boasts extensive Reddit lore, a viral YouTube found-footage series by Kane Parsons, and an A24 feature film.

When Microsoft first revealed Windows Recall, the reaction was immediate and brutal. The headlines called it spyware, security researchers threw warnings around like confetti, and actual WIndows users seemed very unhappy with the idea that their desktop would be screenshotted and saved every few seconds.

I have subscription fatigue, and if you're like most people, you probably do too. It feels like every useful AI feature now comes with a price tag attached to it, and those costs add up fast. I've paid for more than a few AI platforms, but I'm much less likely to do that now.

Getting into a new hobby can be daunting. Enthusiasts brag about spending thousands on fancy bits of equipment, while you’re still trying to figure out if you’re going to stick with it long-term.

There's no shame in admitting that your PC's downloads folder is in disarray. Mine was, and it had been for years. The last time it was in a state you could call orderly was right after I installed Windows 11 on my desktop PC. A few weeks later, it once again turned into a cluttered jungle filled with all kinds of files: documents, installers, ZIP archives, media, and everything else under the sun.