Blogroll

The summer blockbuster is one of the greatest things about this time of year. Originally established in the 1970s, Jaws proved summer movies could be profitable. A few years later, Star Wars proved a movie could become a year-round cultural empire. Action and fantasy movies thus created a new archetype for box office hits.

It's convenient to keep some things default, including some router settings. If you're still using these default router settings, then you need to change them immediately—even if you don't think you'll get hacked.

Ten years ago, a buyer shopping for a fun, rear-wheel drive sports car under $40,000 had some decent choices. Today, that list has shrunk, and the ones that remain have largely shifted to automatic transmissions as the standard treatment. In some cases, a manual may be offered, but only as an upgrade for enthusiasts willing to pay for it. The 2027 Subaru BRZ goes the other direction. The six-speed manual is standard. The automatic is the upgrade.

Many of us still remember the infamous Samsung Galaxy Note 7 incident, which highlighted just how volatile phone batteries can be when they fail. In that case, faulty batteries could overheat, enter thermal runaway, and in some instances catch fire. Since then, manufacturers have put a lot of effort into making modern batteries safer, and serious failures like that have become extremely rare.

While Excel is ubiquitous, I prefer Python for my data analysis. Spreadsheets are great for formatting data, but it's Python that's allowed me to build my own super calculator out of regular Python libraries. Here are my go-to Python tools

For a long time, the light on my porch was turned on based on sunset. When sunset arrived, the light would come on. While it worked okay, it was far from perfect, with the light sometimes coming on when it was still fairly bright, or not coming on despite it having gotten quite dark. Automating the light using the weather solved my problems.

Paramount Skydance's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. could soon face opposition from U.S. States.

As reported by Reuters, California, New York, and other unnamed states are preparing to file a lawsuit to block the merger. Sources say the lawsuit would be filed "in the coming weeks."

The lawsuit's specific complaints are unknown at this time, though they could align with Hollywood and US senators' prior criticisms of the merger, which include antitrust concerns and concerns about the merger's harmful impact on the increasingly fragile film and TV industry.

Even if the lawsuit doesn't succeed in blocking the merger entirely, it could still significantly delay the deal. The consequences of a delay wouldn't be pretty for Paramount. If the deal isn't closed by October, the company will have to pay shareholders a daily fee of around $6.9 million.

However, Paramount has been laying the political groundwork for a smoother journey to regulatory clearance. As Reuters notes, Paramount CEO David Ellison's father, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, has ties to President Donald Trump. David Ellison has also been taking steps to appease the Trump administration since the Paramount-Skydance merger, resulting in internal conflict at Paramount, as seen most recently in CBS's firing of 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley.

If you ask Apple users why they keep buying Apple products, the answer will almost always boil down to one word: “ecosystem.” The seamless integration between Apple devices is genuinely impressive, and for many people, it’s the main reason using anything else feels like a compromise.

Terminal tools are magnetic to shell-focused users. They look cool, and we're always driven to make our workflows faster and more efficient. I have three tools you've probably never heard of, but they solve persistent niggles you've yet to fix.

Wi-Fi is endlessly convenient - I don't think that anyone's going to disagree with that. But convenience has a price, and in some cases, it's a hefty price to pay. You might be trading a stable, performant connection for an unpredictable mess when you choose Wi-Fi over Ethernet.

Excel usually warns you about obvious formula mistakes, but some of the most damaging errors never trigger an alert. From shifting cell references to hidden lookup failures, these silent bugs can skew your results while leaving your spreadsheet looking perfectly normal.

Do you think you have to always dry your filament before printing, and always store it in a dry box when not printing? What if I told you that I've never dried my filament, and it hasn't affected my print quality at all? Here's why I don't dry my 3D printing filament.

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 June 7, 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 June 7, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for June 7 Pips

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

Greater Than (13): Everything in this space must be greater than 13. The answer is 0-5, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed horizontally; 5-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. The answer is 5-1, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed vertically; 3-2, placed horizontally; 2-1, placed horizontally.

Less Than (2): 2-2, placed vertically; 3-2, placed horizontally; 2-1, placed horizontally.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for June 7 Pips

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 1-4, placed vertically; 0-2, placed vertically.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 0-0, placed horizontally.

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

Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (4): Everything in this light blue space must be equal to 3. The answer is 1-4, placed vertically; 4-5, placed horizontally.

Number (3): Everything in this purple space must add up to 3. The answer is 6-2, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed horizontally.

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

Hard difficulty hints, answers for June 7 Pips

Number (6): Everything in this purple space must add up to 6. The answer is 1-1, placed vertically; 5-3, placed horizontally.

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

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

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 1-1, placed vertically; 5-4, placed vertically.

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

Number (7): Everything in this purple space must add up to 7. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally; 4-6, placed vertically.

Number (6): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-2, placed vertically.

Number (6): Everything in this red space must add up to 6. The answer is 5-4, placed vertically; 2-4, placed horizontally.

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

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 4-6, placed vertically; 6-0, 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.

Google Messages has become the de facto way that we send text messages, not just on Google Pixel phones, but on all Android phones. It's not a bad app, but Google's purpose for just about any product can be assumed to be data collection—an assumption that's been backed by outside research. Here are the privacy choices I make to minimize how much information Google or anyone else is able to gather.

If you dual-boot Windows and Linux, you've probably run into this issue before. You boot into Windows to get some work done, open File Explorer to grab a file from your Linux drive, and the drive just isn't there. It's plugged in, it's healthy, and Windows even acknowledges it in Disk Management—but the actual files are nowhere to be found.

If the movies have taught us anything, it's that the best way to protect your home from burglars when you're on vacation is to accidentally leave your young son behind. Since this is generally frowned upon, the next best option is to use the Presence Simulation component in Home Assistant, which can convincingly make your home look lived in while you're away.

Ryobi makes over 350 tools you'll love, but if you're a new homeowner or simply on a budget, certain tools are must-buys. If you already have a cordless drill and a few other items, here are six more Ryobi tools worth adding to your collection.

While many features on your Pixel phone, exclusive or not, are enabled by default, a good chunk aren't. Worse still, some handy features are not only disabled by default but also buried under a deluge of menus and rarely mentioned in Pixel promo materials, in true Google fashion.

I have many PCs in my home. Most run Windows, some run macOS, and a few run Linux, but the common thread across them all is that I typically end up on a Logitech wireless keyboard. The exception is when I'm sitting down for a longer writing session, where I prefer to use a mechanical keyboard. That's not because it's the fanciest keyboard I own. It's because it's easy, familiar, and already sitting where I need it. For a long time, I treated it like any other keyboard: press the keys, maybe use a few media controls, and move on.

Some smart home devices that demand a premium price tag, whether that’s in service of features you depend on, reliability, or to guarantee safety. Thankfully, there are plenty of opportunities to save money too.