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Got any broken RAM sticks in your drawer? Perhaps your RAM stopped working right smack in the middle of the RAM-pocalypse? Worry not, because many memory vendors offer lifetime warranties on their products.

The mid-size SUV segment is packed with great options, from the ever-popular Honda CR-V and Toyota Highlander to the stylish Hyundai Santa Fe. Then there are the under-the-radar choices, like the Volkswagen Atlas, quietly doing their thing.

Browser extensions really make the sky the limit when it comes to customizing your browsing experience, and I'm sure there are some extensions where you just can't imagine living without them. However, browser extensions that promise to improve your privacy are a bit of an oxymoron. Why? Because extensions, any extensions, are inherently damaging to your privacy.

There are all sorts of benefits to setting up a NAS network. All of your media and files will be backed up in one place, making everything easier to access. Of course, this also makes a NAS server an ideal way to use Plex, a service that allows you to stream all your own media.

The Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) viewers meet in Stranger Things Season 5 doesn't feel like the same Dustin we've known since Season 1.

Gone is Hawkins' resident ball of sunshine, replaced with a sulking, angry young man who would sooner graffiti a bully's locker than belt "Never Ending Story" over walkie-talkie. Yet this transformation didn't come out of nowhere. Instead, it stems from a clear point of trauma for Dustin: witnessing the tragic death of Eddie (Joseph Quinn) at the end of Season 4.

SEE ALSO: Gaten Matarazzo on 'Stranger Things' 'SNL' shoutout, Dustin and Steve's big fight, and why AI is 'lame'

Since then, Dustin has channeled his inner Eddie, growing out his hair, donning handfuls of rings, and rocking his Hellfire Club shirt no matter how much abuse it gets him from bullies. But while Dustin pays tribute to Eddie, he's been pushing away his other close friends, especially Steve (Joe Keery).

"He's actively trying to cut himself off from the person he's scared of losing the most," Matarazzo told Mashable during a Say More interview.

Dustin's grief causes serious tension in Stranger Things Season 5. Gaten Matarazzo in "Stranger Things." Credit: Netflix

Matarazzo knew the strained dynamic between Dustin and Steve would be polarizing, as the two had been basically inseparable since Season 2. He also knew the same would be true of Dustin's emotional arc as a whole.

"I was kind of hoping there would be a bit of a conflicted feeling around it," Matarazzo said. "I didn't want it to come across as like, 'Oh, poor him.' Because as much as that's true, and I think a lot of people can clearly see he's going through a lot, he's also being a dick. And I think, no matter how much one is grieving, it doesn't excuse your behavior towards other people, especially those who are in your corner, people who are there supporting you."

SEE ALSO: The 'Stranger Things' play totally unlocks 'Stranger Things' Season 5, Vol. 2

That tug-of-war between sympathy for and frustration at Dustin runs through much of Season 5, starting with Dustin missing episode's 1 crawl to the Upside Down after picking a fight with his tormentors. His absence jeopardizes the mission and further strains his relationship with his friends, many of whom have experienced their own losses since Season 1.

He's going through a lot. He's also being a dick. - Gaten Matarazzo

"Dustin's in a position where there's — it seems horrible to say — but there's almost bigger fish to fry than you losing your friend," Matarazzo said. "Everyone's lost people. Maybe it's the first time it felt so present to Dustin, because it's somebody so close to him, and it happens right in front of him."

Matarazzo contrasts Dustin's own grieving over Eddie with Lucas' (Caleb McLaughlin) grieving over Max (Sadie Sink) being in a coma for over a year.

"Lucas is clearly dealing with something very similar to Dustin, but also seems to be taking it in a route that's less selfish," he said, pointing to Lucas' continued involvement in the Season 5 crawl and the friend group overall.

SEE ALSO: 'Running Up That Hill' returns for Season 5 of 'Stranger Things'

The differences in the two characters' grieving processes on screen highlights that there's no one way to deal with loss. Grief is not linear, and Dustin's own journey comes with no shortage of mess and tension. That's especially true of his relationship with Steve, which hits its lowest point in Season 5.

Dustin and Steve's more contentious relationship this season altered the way Matarazzo and Keery approached key scenes together, as the pair's friendlier, more fun dynamic as scene partners clashed with Dustin and Steve's conflict.

"Sometimes we'd be goofing off before takes and especially early on, they would yell, 'action,' and I'm like, 'Oh, I'm not centered in the slightest,' because I'm still just joking around with him," Matarazzo said. "That was a different approach. And so we would look at things and look at each other and be like, 'Man, this is really sad,' because we just want to have fun sometimes. That's the natural drive there."

SEE ALSO: The 20 best Netflix TV shows of 2025

That's not to say there are no fun Dustin and Steve moments in Season 5. Matarazzo points to the scene in episode 4 when Steve drives his car through a rift into the Upside Down, with a terrified Dustin, Nancy (Natalia Dyer), and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) hanging on for dear life.

"[In that scene] there's the normal excitement of us screaming and yelling and insulting each other, but with playful banter, and I think it's one of those moments where in [Dustin's] weird, little pent-up rage, when all is said and done and when everything else goes crazy around him, he doesn't really have time to actively try to be mean to [Steve]," Matarazzo said.

Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 centers Dustin and Steve's relationship. Gaten Matarazzo and Joe Keery in "Stranger Things." Credit: Netflix

The Dustin and Steve drama comes to a head in Season 5, Volume 2, when the pair investigate Hawkins Lab in the Upside Down. There, the two fully have it out about Eddie's death, with their cutting words culminating in a physical altercation. In prior seasons, Matarazzo would have put a lot of pressure on himself the entire day leading up to shooting that scene.

"But that day, I remember I felt very normal until about 20 minutes before we started shooting," he recalled. "Sometimes I just wander around in a corner with headphones on, not really to build up any emotions or anything like that, but to just weirdly get the head fog out of it and just be at a neutral place, because then you can be open to discovering what happens. There are a lot of different takes. There are takes where we're crying before the fight, there are takes where we're even angrier, and there's takes where's it just at a neutral tone, where we're just saying these things to each other and then seeing how naturally it digs in, and they took a lot from each of them."

However, one scene that Matarazzo did put pressure on himself for was Dustin and Steve's eventual reconciliation, which led to a hug so deep I felt it in my bones.

"I was so scared of it the whole time," Matarazzo said. "I remember the whole season, I read it at the table read, and I was like, 'Oh great, it's one of those.'"

Much of Season 5 was shot chronologically, too, so Matarazzo and Keery came into the scene having already gone through much of the emotional build-up. That just makes the conversation all the more cathartic, as Stranger Things' fan-favorite duo finally lay all their emotions bare.

"I think one of the healthiest things to do in grief is unpacking it when you feel the need to do so and diving in and feeling everything that you possible can feel and that you're naturally inclined to feeling," Matarazzo said.

The reconciliation scene is that to a T, with Steve and especially Dustin dropping any facades and just allowing themselves to be open about how much they mean to one another. It's a stand-out Stranger Things moment in a season full of them, made all the sweeter by the complex twists and turns Steve and Dustin took to get there.

For more from Mashable's interview with Gaten Matarazzo, watch the full Say More episode on YouTube.

Volumes 1 and 2 of Stranger Things Season 5 are now streaming on Netflix. The series finale premieres Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix and in theaters.

For decades, desktop Linux distributions primarily used the X Window System (X11) for rendering displays and graphics, but Wayland is slowly taking over as the modern replacement. There are a few efforts to keep X alive, though, including a new project called Phoenix.

Spoilers ahead for the season one finale of HBO Max's Heated Rivalry:

That's a wrap for the first season of Heated Rivalry, the come-from-nowhere Canadian romance that quickly leapfrogged to the top of HBO Max's streaming series list. There is not yet a critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes for episode six, but the ultra-romantic, (mostly) languid finale certainly captured hearts on social media, with plenty of meme-able moments between NHL lovebirds, Shane and Ilya.

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After their fellow player Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) very publicly came out, Ilya decides that he will accept Shane's offer to spend a few weeks at the latter's secluded Canadian cottage (this cottage is more like a mansion in the woods, but it's good to be a professional athlete). Once at their private compound, some initial awkwardness between the besotted duo gives way to lovemaking, meal prep, barbecues, and numerous heartfelt confessions, delivered perfectly by Hudson Williams (Shane) and Connor Storrie (Ilya).

Some of the most affecting conversations include Ilya discussing his mother's suicide — he found her body when he was 12 — and a wonderful moment where Shane expresses to Ilya that their relationship is no longer just about the thrill of the forbidden, or even just about lust, but something much more. Then, Ilya, discussing his residency issues, admits he may marry his best friend/occasional lover Svetlana in order to obtain a green card. This elicits a wounded response from Shane, who quietly pleads with his betrothed not to marry someone who's not him (Williams's eye acting here is beautiful).

It's Shane's solution to Ilya's problem — his desire to never return to Russia — that serves as the impetus to what the whole season has built up to. Shane has stayed up all night, working on a solution, one that could keep them in each other's proximity. Shane proposed that Ilya abandon the Boston team that drafted him and join Ottawa, only two hours from Shane's home in Montreal. Shane also wants to start a charity with Ilya, giving them a reason to work together off the ice; a prelude to them being together, which Shane admits is what he wants so much it scares him. Shane's devotion to building a future for them together is catnip to Ilya, who starts smothering Shane with kisses, whispering words to him in Russian. Those words: "I love you."

SEE ALSO: Why is the sex in 'Heated Rivalry' so hot?

A moment later, crying and shaking, Ilya gathers to courage to tell Shane those words in English. Seeing this tougher-than-nails Russian hockey beast quivering over his love for Shane is a TV moment for the ages. Shane, gobsmacked, waits a beat to respond, which almost makes Ilya waver, until Shane responds in kind. "I love you so fucking much," Shane says. The oceans parted and the skies wept.

Hours later, Ilya watches the sunrise as Shane brings him coffee and a blanket; they soon embrace and sit in profound silence. It's a direct contrast to the previous episode, where the men watched the sun set over Tampa Bay, while barely scraping each other's pinkie fingers.

There is also a sunrise, toe-touching, sex, cheeseburgers, and swimming before the episode's biggest detour occurs — Shane's father (Dylan Walsh) catches his son making out with Ilya when he stops by the cottage to pick up a phone charger. The men, now seemingly a couple, drive to Shane's parents' house for a coming-out discussion that is as harrowing (mostly for Shane) as it is cathartic. The "talk" features the guys reassuring each other by touching toes under the kitchen table, a call back to their flirty press conference from earlier in the season. After a beautiful moment between Shane and his mother (a lovely Christina Chang), the boyfriends (not "lovers!") drive back to the cottage as the credits roll. Their intimacy, finally settling into something comfortable, is on display as they laugh, hold hands, admire each other, touch each other gently, and then in the last moment of the show, Shane playfully grabs Ilya's cheek while making a loony face himself. It was a rare demonstration of levity for Shane.

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Some on X speculated that the final shot of the show was more Williams and Storrie than Shane and Ilya. In an interview with EW, Williams and Heated Rivalry show creator (the series is based on the books by author Rachel Reid) and writer Jacob Tierney explained the exchange in the car was intentional and about the characters, not the actors.

"[Tierney] left that sweet exchange in to show how Shane is capable of breaking his guarded facade. 'I think Shane does have a playful side that is stifled...Under every scene in season 1, there's not much room for super goofy play,' Williams says. 'There's a tentative nature to episode 6. Although it's calm, it's still like, 'Can this work, when we're left alone to our own devices?'"

"It does feel like a puppy learning to play," Tierney adds.

One of the many things Heated Rivalry does well is showcase thoughtful details like the face-holding and the sentiments of love in Russian. Other notable examples include Shane's blood pressure dropping when Ilya enters his hospital room, Shane's period-appropriate boat shoes from the finale, and all the accurate Russian dialogue delivered brilliantly by Storrie.

Supercharged performance cars were once a staple of the enthusiast world, prized for their instant throttle response and unmistakable mechanical character. Unlike turbocharged engines that build boost gradually, superchargers deliver power the moment you press the accelerator. But in 2025, that experience is rapidly disappearing. As automakers chase efficiency targets and electrification, superchargers have been pushed aside in favor of turbos and electric motors.

Technically, you can start using the Termux console right away, but there is a checklist I follow after a fresh installation. It streamlines everything, so you can avoid configuring the app down the road.

Whether you're coming down off the high of Christmas or still couch-bound from all the food and libations, there's nothing quite like a good documentary or docuseries you can sink into, and Prime Video has a gravy boat full of them to choose from.

Copying around a couple of small files, like screenshots or documents, is, for the most part, normally fine. They’re normally small files, and you won’t have much trouble moving them around. The problem, however, comes when you actually have to move around a file that’s several gigabytes in size, or worse, several of them—using the regular tools meant for that purpose, your PC will be struggling.

I love folding phones. Seriously. I love mine so much that I ditched my laptop entirely. But the sad truth is that the inner screen, as durable as it is, can’t last as long as the outer one. It will, eventually, fail—it’s only a matter of time.

Researchers are making headway in the "terrifying robot apocalypse" department.

Yicaiglobal reported (via Interesting Engineering) that specialists from the Chinese cybersecurity research group Darknavy recently showed off a method of compromising commercial humanoid robots that has somewhat terrifying implications if used in a real-world setting. At GEEKcon in Shangai, the researchers took a commercially available Unitree robot and demonstrated that it could be hacked with voice commands and, if that wasn't bad enough, used to infect other nearby units.

The robot in question ran off an internal AI agent. By exploiting a flaw in the software, the researchers were able to take over the robot while it was connected to a network, at which point the researchers had the robot use local wireless communication to spread the hack to another nearby robot that actually wasn't even connected to the network at the time. Spreading the hack from one robot to another only took a matter of minutes. Even worse, the researchers were able to issue a command for the robot to physically strike a mannequin on stage.

SEE ALSO: What the iRobot bankruptcy means for Roomba owners

The implications here are as obvious as they are scary. For decades, cybersecurity risks have largely involved stealing money or information from people. If humanoid robots become commonplace in homes (for use in elder care or things like that), it suddenly opens up a whole new world of horrible possibilities for hackers to commit legitimate physical harm to innocent people. Beyond that, it could disrupt robotic labor operations or critical infrastructure.

For now, let's just be glad all of this was done in a safe environment, with the intent of finding ways to fix these problems rather than propagate them.

As we head into the final weekend of 2025, whether you're still coming down from Christmas or already decorating and getting your dancing shoes ready for the ball drop, put these three excellent Netflix documentaries on standby for when you want to relax this weekend.

Even though JavaScript was originally built for scripts in web pages, it is now used to write desktop applications, server software, and everything in between. Now, it might become an option for software on low-memory embedded systems and microcontrollers, thanks to the MicroQuickJS project.

If there's one kind of app where the GUI gets in the way of functionality, it's a VPN interface. That's why the command-line interface is my favorite way of launching and interacting with a VPN app. It's always faster, and doesn't take up any extra resources. I started using a command-line VPN about a year ago, and I have not gone back to the GUI for VPN since.

A clean Linux install doesn’t come with many pre-configured apps, and that can leave new users wondering where to start—unsure of what they actually need for a smooth, functional system. To remove that guesswork, here are five essential Linux apps you should install on day one.

On Christmas day this week, the team behind the popular CachyOS Linux distribution published a "2025 recap" blog post looking back how the distro has changed over the year, and also previewing what's to come. One thing previewed was CachyOS for NAS and other server devices.

You have it way easier these days, but back in the day, when you wanted to play a game on your PC, you had to take a similar approach to consoles. Go to a physical store, get a disc, then pop it into your PC. Chances are, though, that nowadays your PC doesn't have a CD drive. So what do you do when you want to play your old games on your new PC?

I've used a lot of open-source software over the years, and much of it has passed through my Windows machines at one point or another. Some tools stick around because they are free, others because they avoid the bloat and unnecessary features that often come with commercial software. Open source tends to focus on doing one job well, and that alone is usually enough to earn a spot on my system.