Speaking of felines, it’s International Cat Day!
Jazz is Ginny’s cat. Isn’t he adorable?
Thank you for reading today's post. Have an InterStellar Day! ~PrP
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Most of the infectious diseases on earth are being exacerbated by their climate change. Polio, COVID, Lyme, West Nile, hantavirus, typhoid, HIV and influenza to name a few are on the rise because of it. So even if we manage to save Earth from nuclear destruction, they will kill themselves some other way. Let’s just farm this place like we would any other.
Did You Know?
The “Zoo Hypothesis” is a theory that posits that alien civilizations know that Earth exists, but have purposely chosen to avoid contact for some reason (such as the belief that we, as a species, are not ready for alien contact).
Did You Know?
It’s not the coloration or flavor that gives grapefruit its name, but the way that the large fruit clusters, grape like, on the tree.
Did You Know?
The phrase “acid test”, used to indicate something is a rigorous measure of quality, as in “This flight will be the acid test for our new design.”, finds its roots in a literal test wherein acid is used to check gold samples (as metals of lesser value and purity are dissolved faster than pure gold).
Ha, ha, perhaps the “Cattle Hypothesis” would be the better theory since most alien civilizations that know that Earth exists have purposely chosen to harvest their human species as such.
Did You Know?
The phrase “acid test”, used to indicate something is a rigorous measure of quality, as in “This flight will be the acid test for our new design.”, finds its roots in a literal test wherein acid is used to check gold samples (as metals of lesser value and purity are dissolved faster than pure gold).
Did You Know?
In physics, a “weber”, named after the German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber, is the SI unit of magnetic flux. A weber is the magnetic flux that, linking a circuit of one turn, would produce in it an electromotive force of 1 volt if it were reduced to zero at a uniform rate in 1 second.
Did You Know?
Butterscotch is made with butter and brown sugar, cooked to the point of caramelization (the soft crack stage). Toffee uses the same basic recipe, but is cooked longer (the hard crack stage).
Did You Know?
Acetaminophen, a pain killer best known by the popular brand name Tylenol, has a rather curious side effect. Not only does it dull the sensation of pain, but research indicates that it also dulls empathy towards others in pain.
So if I am tired of feeling sorry for some of my “woe is me” relatives, I can just take a Tylenol.
Did You Know?
As a reward for helping King Charles II escape England (and Oliver Cromwell) in 1651, the Pendrill (Pendrell) family was awarded a permanent pension and descendants today are still paid a small sum by the Crown.
Did You Know?
The scientific name for the common red fox (the largest and most widespread of the true fox species) is “Vulpes vulpes” which, translated directly from Latin becomes “Fox Fox”, hinting at the particular prominence of the red fox.
Did You Know?
Qin Shi Huang—the first Emperor of China, whose artifacts and treasures include the Terracotta Army—died after ingesting mercury in the mistaken belief that it would grant him eternal life.
Did You Know?
Artificial grape flavoring is a bit of a necessity. If real grapes were used for all the grape-flavored products on the market (like sodas and candies), there wouldn’t be any left to produce wine.
Did You Know?
One bad apple does, in fact, spoil the bunch. The old saying is rooted in truth since apples release ethylene when they ripen and an overripe apple will cause the others near it to rapidly ripen too.
Did You Know?
In the old cartoons, the Road Runner always outran Wile E. Coyote, but in real life, the tables would be sharply turned. Actual greater roadrunners have a top speed of around 20 mph (32 kph) while a coyote can max out at around 43 mph (69 kph).
Did You Know?
Deep beneath the thick ice sheets of Antarctica, there is a mountain range similar in size to the European Alps, called the Gamburtsev Mountains, that have only been “seen” by humans thanks to the use of radar scanning and other deep-reaching topographical technologies.
Did You Know?
Zebroids are the offspring of crossbreeding between zebras and other equine species. The various names of specific zebroids reflects the breeding combination such as: zedonks, zorses, zebra mules, and zonkeys.
Did You Know?
Although not used consistently across the U.S., the National Fire Protection Association has recommended guidelines for fire hydrant colors, with specific colors designated for different water pressure levels for quick identification.
“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.’ M. Atwood“
There is good reason women should fear men who fear shame such as being laughed at. In most cultures, Hindu, Moslem, for example, their religion gives men the right to perform “honor” killings. That so called “honor” is merely the state of not being laughed at. In other countries men feel they have the right to retaliate against women if the women put them in a position to be laughter at. That concept is widely held in western countries. So yes women should fear men who they laugh at.
The wise woman will keep this in mind should they need to break up with a man, or reveal a particular disagreement they may have with one. Always do it in a safe environment. A safe environment is one where there would be plenty of witness should the situation turn violent. Be safe not sorry ladies. Never rely on your opinion that this particular man will not resort to violence. You will never be able to estimate the number of fatal statistics that belief has put the lie to.
Yeah, you may believe that you know the son-of-a-bastard, but don’t bet your life or personal safety on it.
Excellent advice that I’ve been given before but can never be heard too much. And I’ve given it to my girlfriends too. Thank you.
What Does “BC” Mean, and How Do You Use It?
VANN VICENTE
It’s one of the most popular slang terms on the web for a reason. Here’s what BC means and how it can save you a few extra seconds whenever you type a sentence explaining yourself.
BC stands for “because.” Unlike other internet slang terms we’ve covered, “BC” isn’t an acronym. Instead, it’s an abbreviation that shortens the word but completely retains its meaning. Since it’s an abbreviation, it’s rarely written in the uppercase BC; instead, most people write it in the lowercase “bc” or the sentence-case “Bc” if it’s at the start of a post.
In English, “because” is a conjunction that can be placed at either the start of a sentence or in the middle. You can put the abbreviation in either spot as well. For example, you can write, “Bc I slept well last night, I have a lot of energy.” Alternatively, “I have a lot of energy bc I slept well last night” is also a perfectly valid sentence.
The Origin of BC
We’ve talked a lot about how internet acronyms sprung up on message boards and IRC chat in the 1990s. However, internet abbreviations like “bc” are a more recent phenomenon, emerging in the mid to late 2000s on instant messaging applications.
As teenagers started flocking to platforms like AOL Instant Messenger, MSN, and Yahoo Messenger, they looked for inventive ways to cut down on the amount of typing they needed to do. This also coincided with the adoption of SMS, which had a limit on the number of characters in a single message.
The first definition for bc as “because” on the internet slang repository Urban Dictionary dates back to April 2008 and reads, “bc is an abbreviation for the word because.” There are dozens of other definitions predating this one that has nothing to do with “because,” including “birth control” and “be cool.” None of these stuck around.
In the 2010s, people across the internet adopted bc as an abbreviation for because. Nowadays, you’ll see it on tweets, in messages from your family, and in the captions of Instagram stories. It’s one of the prime examples of the internet deciding to shave a few letters off a common word.
BC is probably one of the most straightforward internet slang terms online. It’s short and simplifies a common word, which helps us construct sentences faster. However, it does have a few interesting implications for the way we write on the internet.
In the early days of the web, web acronyms were usually strung together to save space and send messages quickly. So, for example, you might see a message that reads “BRB, AFK,” which stands for “Be right back. Away from keyboard.”
On the other hand, you’ll often see the abbreviated “bc” in otherwise complete sentences. For example, “I’m tired bc I worked all day yesterday.” For many people who send hundreds of messages to other people every day, the abbreviation has completely replaced the word itself. This is similar to other abbreviations like “ok” replacing “okay,” and “srsly” replacing “seriously.”
Other BCs
Like other internet terms we’ve covered, the abbreviated “because” isn’t the only definition for the BC. Here are a few different meanings that you should watch out for.
The most ubiquitous definition for BC is “Before Christ,” a historical and religious term that denotes a year or period of history in Gregorian calendars predating the birth of Christ. This term likely conjured up an image of cave dwellers and dinosaurs for many people. This initialism is typically spelled out with periods between the letters, as in “B.C.,” and placed after a numerical year like “300 B.C.” It’s the counterpart of AD, which stands for “anno Domini.”
Another meaning for BC that you might see on the internet is “British Columbia,” the westernmost province of Canada. There’s also Boston College, a private university in Massachusetts. Lastly, you might see BC confused for “BCC,” which stands for blind carbon copy. This feature of modern e-mail clients allows you to copy someone in an e-mail without informing the recipient.
How to Use BC
Using bc is incredibly easy: just swap it out for “because” in all your messages! Don’t forget to write it in lowercase. While people widely understand it online, you should still avoid using this abbreviation in your professional e-mails.
Here are a few examples of bc in action:
“Why am I hungry? Bc I haven’t eaten in 15 hours.”
“The road is closed bc of construction work.”
“Bc I am lazy, I decided to stay home the whole day.”
“Did you sleep late bc of the party last night?”
If you want to learn about other internet slang terms, then check out our articles on NVM, RN, and IRL. You’ll be able to send out your tweets in record time!
What Does “TFTI” Mean, and How Do You Use It?
VANN VICENTE
Most of the time, “TFTI” is a sign that someone feels left out. Here’s what this acronym means and why it might make your group chats more awkward.
Thanks for the Invite!
TFTI stands for “thanks for the invite.” In direct messaging, people use this sarcastic initialism when they feel left out of a social situation. For example, if all your friends decided to go out for drinks and you saw their pictures on Instagram, you might message them, “Wow, TFTI.”
You can write it in both the uppercase “TFTI” and the lowercase “tfti,” with both being reasonably common. It’s closely tied to the concept of FOMO, which means the fear of missing out.
The Origin of TFTI
Unlike many acronyms from the early 2000s, TFTI rose to prominence in the 2010s. As more social groups started using technology to communicate, people began moving event planning and invitations to texts and direct messages. TFTI was coined to respond to incidents where your friends forget to invite you to something.
The earliest definition of TFTI on the internet slang database Urban Dictionary is from 2010. It reads, “an acronym for ‘Thanks For the Invite,’ usually used when a bunch of your buddies go out, and they don’t think to invite you.” Nowadays, people almost exclusively use it in direct texts and messages, particularly group threads.
Sarcastic and Sincere
Despite its seemingly good-natured and cheerful definition, TFTI is overwhelmingly used sarcastically. Most people who say the phrase or use the acronym aren’t being thankful, they’re pointing out that someone failed to invite them. So you should be careful of using this acronym — you might accidentally come across as bitter about not being invited.
You should also be wary of this acronym if someone’s saying it to you. People typically use it when they feel left out of an event, particularly when pictures or videos of that event are plastered all over social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. So, for example, if you organize a get-together of your friends and fail to invite one person who’s usually in the group, they will probably message you with a “TFTI.”
TFTI can also be a way to fish for additional information. Typically, when you don’t receive an invite to a social situation, you’re unsure whether they did it accidentally or deliberately. Saying “TFTI” to your friends can be a way for them to clarify whether they forgot to invite you or left you out on purpose. Sometimes, they may have invited you, but their message failed to send.
In rare situations, people use the phrase “thanks for the invite” to sincerely thank someone for inviting them, especially if they won’t be able to go to the event. However, this is rare and can vary between social groups.
TFTI and FOMO
One of the biggest reasons why “TFTI” exists in the first place is the “fear of missing out,” often shortened to “FOMO.” This is a feeling of anxiety people get when they don’t want to be excluded from social gatherings, opportunities, and experiences. Usually, people who are frustrated about not being invited to things already feel a lot of FOMO, and the lack of an invitation makes things worse.
What Does “FOMO” Mean, and How Do You Use It?
The idea of FOMO has been extensively studied, covered on the news, and depicted in movies and TV shows. You can read all about the term in our FOMO explainer. It also stretches outside the confines of social situations, with there being plenty of FOMO that comes from your career, finances, or family obligations. It can even describe the feeling of having too many TV shows to watch and not enough time.
However, not all TFTI situations are born out of FOMO. Many people are angry about not being invited to something, even though they would not have attended that gathering regardless. In these situations, people are more concerned with being thought of than actually participating in a social experience.
How to Use TFTI
Before you use TFTI, you should consider raising your concerns more maturely. The acronym can feel accusatory for most people, especially when they may have just forgotten to invite you by accident.
Here are a few examples of TFTI in action:
“Nice Instagram pictures. TFTI.”
“Wow, tfti. I guess you just forgot about me.”
“Did you go surfing without me? TFTI!”
If tensions are high in the group chat because someone sent a “TFTI,” you may want to use other slang terms to diffuse the situation. Check out our explainers on DW, YSK, and TIFU to make things less heated.
How Much Download Speed Do You Really Need?
JASON FITZPATRICK
Your local internet service provider (ISP) likely has a variety of packages ranging from budget options to the fastest speeds available in the region. But how much download speed do you actually need?
To get to the bottom of how much download speed you actually need from your ISP, let’s look at what common internet activities require, how to calculate what your household needs, and the times when having the fastest speed available actually provides some benefit.
How Much Bandwith Common Activities Require
The easiest way to put how much bandwidth, or download speed, you need into perspective is to consider how much bandwidth various common internet activities require and then consider how big a role those activities play in your internet use.
Let’s look at some common activities, ranked from the least demanding to the most demanding.
Internet Activity Minimum Recommended Download Speed
Email 1 Mbps
Music Streaming 2 Mbps
General Web Browsing 3 Mbps
Social Media 5 Mpbs
Online Gaming 5 Mpbs
Video Conferencing 5 Mpbs
HD Video Streaming 5 Mbps
4K Video Streaming 15 Mbps
It might come as a surprise to many people, but when you look at individual internet activities they simply aren’t that demanding. Low bandwidth activities like using email (or any other text-based communication like chatting), streaming music, or just browsing around the web searching for things or reading posts on your favorite forum, just don’t use that much bandwidth.
What Internet Speed Do I Need for Streaming Services?
And what you might think is a high bandwidth activity, like streaming video, isn’t actually particularly high bandwidth in the grand scheme of things. You just don’t need that much download speed to stream video. With a gigabit fiber connection, you could likely stream 4K video to TVs in every single room in your house, plus all the handheld devices, and still have some bandwidth to spare.
Further, before we leave this section, it’s important to emphasize that more bandwidth doesn’t make a less-demanding bandwidth activity better.
There is an upper threshold to how much bandwidth any given activity is going to use. If you need 5 Mbps of bandwidth to enjoy a smooth and stutter-free HD video stream, having 500 Mbps doesn’t make for an exponentially improved experience. It’s just extra bandwidth you’re not using—but paying for the privilege of keeping on perpetual standby just in case.
Calculating Your Household’s Bandwidth Needs
A family using tablets and laptops in an airy open-concept living space.
If you read that bit above about how a gigabit connection could stream 4K to a dozen or more devices in your home without strain, you might have thought “But I don’t need to stream 4K to every single room of my house, that’s silly.” And it is silly. For the vast majority of people, purchasing the highest tier of internet service available to them, especially if that’s gigabit speeds, is overkill.
Instead, they should look at how their household actually uses the internet and purchase an internet package that aligns with that.
For a single person household where the regular internet activities are playing around on Instagram while watching Netflix after work, there really isn’t much need for more than 15-20 Mbps of bandwidth—and that assumes the person is watching 4K content and furiously scrolling through Instagram at the same time.
You can adjust that estimate easily by looking at the chart above and guesstimating how often high-demand activities happen simultaneously. Have a larger household where multiple adults or teenagers are all streaming video simultaneously in the evening and, perhaps, gaming at the same time while they binge-watch Netflix? Multiply the number of users in your household by those activities.
Tip: Want an easy rule of thumb? Multiply the number of users in your household by 25 Mbps to determine your total bandwidth needs.
Again, you might be surprised to see that the number, even if you believed your household to be pretty internet hungry, is actually fairly low.
The reality is that despite the shiny allure of getting gigabit internet, most households really only need around 50-100 Mbps of internet bandwidth to meet all their needs
Even a household full of people living in a more-or-less permanent online state likely won’t need more than 200 Mbps to give everybody a satisfactory experience.
If you have a connection in that range (or even faster) and you’re not happy with it, we don’t recommend you call your ISP. We strongly recommend you skip the gigabit internet package and upgrade your router instead.
You Don’t Need Gigabit Internet, You Need a Better Router
Once you hit a certain bandwidth tier, the source of your dissatisfaction with your home internet isn’t the available bandwidth it’s your router’s inability to do something useful with it.
If we had to choose, we would always choose a home setup with a modest broadband package but a fantastic Wi-Fi and network setup over the fastest connection paired with a dusty old router.
High Speeds Only Benefit Sustained Downloads
For downloading big games on-demand, faster internet is always nice.
It sure sounds like we’re pretty down on top-tier high-speed internet packages, so you might be left wondering when it’s useful to actually have a gigabit connection.
There’s certainly one area where having a very fast connection shines: downloading things quickly.
Let’s say, for example, that you have a 100 Mbps internet connection and you want to download a new game. Most AAA titles these days are massive and routinely weigh in at 100+ GB. On a 100 Mbps connection, you can expect a sustained download speed of around 12.5 MB/s. (The reason it’s not 100 MB/s is that your internet speed is measured in megabits and data storage is measured in megabytes. To translate your advertised internet speed into actual download speed, divide it by 8 to convert bits to bytes.)
So to download a 100GB game, it would take around 2 hours and 15 minutes under ideal conditions. By contrast, on a gigabit connection (1000 Mbps) the maximum sustained download speed would be around 125 MB/s. Under ideal conditions, it would only take around 13.5 minutes to download your game. Let’s put a big emphasis on the “ideal conditions” bit, by the way. Even with a gigabit connection, you’re often bottlenecked by the remote server.
When you scale the size of the download back though, the differences become less significant. To download a 1GB file it would take 8 seconds with a 1000 Mbps connection and 1 minute and 20 seconds with a slower 100 Mbps connection.
Armed with this information you just have to do some simple math and decide if the price difference between the lower tier internet package and the higher tier internet package is worth that time savings for you. If you can get 100 Mbps internet for $25 a month and 1000 Mbps gigabit internet for $100 a month, the difference in cost over a year is $900.
If you download a ton of stuff and you hate waiting, maybe it’s worth that $900 (or whatever it may be) premium to get your games, files, and other downloads right now.
But unless there’s something else incentivizing you to move up to the higher internet tier, like you want more upload speed or you get a “free” Netflix or HBO Max account with the upgrade, you’re probably better off saving the money and doing something more useful with it like investing it in a better router.
Yes, I do speak to Hxua – pretty much daily.
Are you aware that there are thieves driving around in vehicles or on bicycles with devices designed to steal access to your WiFi? It’s called “Wardriving” and it isn’t actually illegal.
What Is Wi-Fi “Wardriving” and How Can You Protect Yourself?
SYDNEY BUTLER
War, what is it good for? Well, when we’re talking about wardriving, it’s away to find unsecured Wi-Fi, sometimes with malicious intent. Wardriving is hard to detect, but with preparation you can protect your home network from being targeted.
How Wardriving Works
The “driving” part in wardriving is quite literal. Hackers drive around in a car (or sometimes other vehicles like bicycles) with special equipment that maps out unsecured Wi-Fi networks
There are many different software tools in a wardriver’s arsenal. These include packet sniffers, network traffic analysis packages, and special software designed to crack Wi-Fi security.
Wardrivers also use special high-power antennas mounted on their vehicles that can detect Wi-Fi networks at long distances. Wardrivers use different types of antennas based on their needs. They also use portable computers such as laptops, or devices like the Raspberry Pi. They also need a GPS unit to map the locations of the vulnerable networks they discover.
What Happens in a Wardriving Attack
Driving around and collecting information about wireless networks is neither illegal nor a threat by itself. Wardriving attacks happen when that knowledge is weaponized to infiltrate those networks. If a remote attacker can log in to your Wi-Fi network, it means they’ll have access to the devices connected to that network. That includes computers, storage devices, cameras, and anything else with a network connection.
How Secure Is Your Home Wi-Fi?
As you can imagine, strangers having this sort of access to your private network could be catastrophic, potentially causing severe data loss and financial damage. The good news is that you can audit the security of your Wi-Fi network to make it as hard as possible for wardrivers to break in.
How to Protect Yourself From Wardriving
Make sure your router doesn’t have a pending firmware update, and also make sure that both your router’s administrator password and the Wi-Fi password are custom, strong passwords. Each router’s menus look a little different, so consult the manual on the exact steps involved.
It’s Time to Throw Away Your Old Router
Most importantly, on your Wi-Fi network, choose the highest level of Wi-Fi security that’s available, such as WPA3. If your router doesn’t support the latest protocols, it’s time to replace it. Keep in mind though that some of your older Wi-Fi-connected devices might not support that higher level of encryption. You’ll have to decide whether you want to lower your security to accommodate such devices or replace them. Of course, you should check whether those devices have updates that might make them compatible first.
One last thing if you’re worried about people snooping on your Wi-Fi activity: When you’re using a public Wi-Fi network, consider using a VPN to prevent other people nearby from monitoring your network traffic.
How to Stream Live News for Free
ANDREW HEINZMAN
Live news is often the only thing keeping families from abandoning cable TV. But you don’t need to pay for live news. Most major news networks broadcast for free through streaming services, apps, and websites. And in some cases, you can even stream local news to your devices!
Watch News on a Free Live TV Service
A Fire TV streaming ‘Good Morning America’ for free.
Amazon
Free live TV channels give you the cable experience without any monthly fees or commitments. They stream cool movies, along with entertainment and kids channels, and of course, they offer some major news networks, including ABC, NBC, USA Today, CBS, and Bloomberg.
I suggest that you install these services on your smart TV or streaming stick. That way, you can enjoy live news (and other live content) for free on the big screen.
Here are the best live TV services for free news:
NewsON (Web/iOS/Android)
Pluto TV (Web/iOS/Android)
Tubi (Web/iOS/Android)
Peacock (Web/iOS/Android)
Xumo (Web/iOS/Android)
Fire TV App (Only on Fire TV devices)
The Roku Channel (Only on Roku devices)
None of these services require an email address or login, save for Peacock. I should also note that Peacock’s news selection is a bit limited—it has NBC’s national channel, NBC local channels, and zero other news sources.
Can You Unsend in iMessage?
JOE FEDEWA
iMessage on the iPhone feels like an instant messaging app, but it doesn’t quite have all the same features. What if you accidentally send a message to someone? Can you undo it? The answer is a little complicated.
Let’s get the short answer out of the way. Once you see that “Delivered” label appear under an iMessage, you can’t “unsend” it even if it hasn’t been read yet. However, there’s a trick you can use to maybe stop that from happening if you act fast.
What Does “Delete” Do?
You may have noticed there is an option to “Delete” messages you’ve sent (touch and hold message > More > trash can icon). Deleting a message will remove it from the conversation on your iPhone, but it will still be on the recipient’s iPhone.
The same goes for deleting entire conversations in the Messages app. You’re only removing the conversation on your end. It will still be present on the recipient’s iPhone. This is simply a privacy feature you can use to “hide” messages and conversations on your device.
Prevent an iMessage From Being Delivered
Delivered iMessage.
Your only hope of “unsending” an iMessage is to stop it from being delivered. Depending on your internet connection, the message may be delivered instantly or take a few seconds. In order to stop that from happening, you’ll need to act fast.
If you can put your iPhone into Airplane Mode before the message says “Delivered,” you can then delete it before turning Airplane Mode off. However, you should know this is extremely hard to do. iMessages are sent very quickly—it’s one of the benefits—so you’ll need to have a pretty bad connection to have any hope.
Immediately after sending the message, swipe down from the top right corner of the screen to open the Control Center.
Swipe down on the handle.
Tap the airplane icon as quickly as you can.
Now you can go back to the conversation and touch and hold the message to bring up the menu. Tap the “More” option.
Tap “More” from the menu.
The message will be selected and you can tap the trash can icon.
You can now turn Airplane Mode off. If you were successful, the iMessage will have been deleted before it was sent, but that’s not likely. As mentioned, this maneuver is very difficult to pull off, but it’s your only real option. iMessage has a lot of great features, but “unsend” is unfortunately not one of them.
Stop Putting Your Phone in Rice
JOE FEDEWA
For nearly as long as smartphones have existed, people have been putting them in rice after dropping them in water. This often-repeated “trick” to save a water-logged phone has gone too far. Allow us to explain.
Where Did It Come From?
The rice trick has been around forever and there’s probably a good chance you’ve done it before—I know I have. Where did this common advice originate from? That’s an interesting question.
One of the first high-profile examples of the rice “trick” being recommended dates back to a Lifehacker post from June 2007. The claim was that dry rice “sucks up the surrounding moisture.” That same line of reasoning has been repeated ever since.
The trick certainly predated smartphones, but it really caught on as more people began carrying around expensive, fragile devices that don’t play nice with water. People want to know what to do when they drop their phone in water and the rice trick filled that need.
Why It Doesn’t Work
Here’s the harsh truth about putting a wet phone in rice—it does absolutely nothing. Rice does not have magical moisture-wicking powers. You might as well just put the phone in a completely empty bowl.
Rice does have some ability to absorb water from wet things, but it’s very weak. Plus, that doesn’t address the main problem. Even a strong desiccant such as silica gel can’t get at the most damaging liquid, which is on the inside of the phone.
Sometimes, if the water didn’t penetrate the phone too much, leaving it powered off and giving it time to dry out will save it. People end up thinking it was the rice that did something when in reality it was simply leaving the phone alone for a while that did the trick.
To make matters worse, rice can actually accentuate the water damage in some cases. The fine rice “dust” can get into the ports and mix with the water to create a paste-like substance that’s harder to remove.
How to Save a Wet Phone
The key to saving a wet phone is not necessarily to just wait for it to dry. That may work if you’re lucky, but it’s much more effective to actually remove as much water as possible as quickly as possible. Simply allowing it to dry will leave behind all the conductive stuff in the water.
If your phone has been submerged in water, the immediate first step is to power it off. Don’t try to power it on if the water turned it off. Then you should remove anything that can be removed. This includes cases, the SIM card tray, microSD card tray, and the battery (if it’s even removable).
Next, you can go the low-tech route and use a fan or compressed air to blow the water out of the ports. However, that won’t do anything for water that’s gotten inside the phone. To remove that water yourself, you’ll need to open it up. From there, you can scrub it with 90%+ isopropyl alcohol or set it in front of a fan.
We’ll probably never know who the first person to think of putting their wet phone in a bowl of rice was, but the “trick” has stuck around far too long. Thankfully, the majority of smartphones today have some level of water resistance. You’re better off getting one of those and taking other precautions. Save the rice for dinner.
That’s fucked up. No wonder my cell wasn’t helped when I tried rice to fix the water damage. I hate motherfuckers who make up shit like that.
Don’t feel like the lone wolf. I found out too the hard way that that rice crap doesn’t work.
Can My ISP See If I’m Using a VPN, and Do They Care?
FERGUS O’SULLIVAN
Using a VPN is a great way to increase your privacy while online: sites you visit won’t be able to identify you by your IP address, meaning you can make it so you’re in a different country. However, you may find yourself wondering whether or not your ISP can see that you’re using a VPN, and, if so, whether that matters.
Can My ISP See If I’m Using a VPN?
The answer to the first part is simple: Yes, your ISP could determine that you’re using a VPN if it wanted to.
This is due to the way a VPN works: When you use the internet without a VPN, you connect from your computer to your ISP’s system, which in turn connects to the site you want to visit—it’s a tiny bit more complicated than that, but for our purposes it’s enough. Check out our guide on how the internet works for more details.
What’s the Difference Between Incognito Mode and a VPN?
When you connect through a VPN, you go from your ISP to the VPN service’s server and then to a site. This makes it appear to that site like you’re using the IP address of the VPN server, and hopefully fooling them into thinking you’re somebody else, somewhere else. Note, though, that without incognito mode engaged, you could still be very easily identified.
What Does My ISP See?
VPNs are different from proxies in that they encrypt your connection through what’s called a secure tunnel. This encrypts the connection from your computer to the VPN’s server, usually using an advanced encryption method like AES-256 that can, in theory, only be cracked by somebody with a few billion years to spare.
The tunnel makes it so the site you visit can only see your fake IP address (the VPN’s IP address), but it also works the other way around. When an ISP looks at the connection you made and requests to know where it’s headed, all it gets back is some random garbage. It can see that you’re making a connection—it can even figure out the IP address you’re connecting to—but nothing beyond that.
Of course, getting back random garbage is a tell-tale sign that a VPN is being used. An ISP can figure out pretty easily which connections lead to a VPN: just look at the ones sending a lot of encrypted data back. There’s just no realistic way to figure out which VPN—not without finding out from the people renting out the server space, and they’ll never tell—or what you are accessing through a VPN.
Do ISPs Care If You Use a VPN?
That leads to the second part of the question, whether ISPs care that you’re using a VPN. The answer is probably that it depends on your geographical location. In most of the world, we can assume that ISPs generally don’t care. Whether you connect to a VPN’s server or that of a random site is probably all the same to them. After all, many people use VPNs to remotely connect to work networks. A VPN you’re using for privacy looks about the same.
There is, however, one big exception to this rule: Dictatorships like China, Iran, and a bunch of other countries that have made VPNs illegal. In those countries, most ISPs will either be owned by the state or have some kind of state control imposed, meaning that there is a chance of somebody checking on connections.
Are VPNs Legal?
We know that the Chinese authorities will impose fines on VPN use, and there are rumors that the government has developed VPN-tracking technology. We can speculate that these programs can gather information on which connections are sending back encrypted data and thus identify them, but we’re not sure.
VyprVPN is one VPN service that claims to have connection protocols that can fool the Chinese detection system, we assume by making the VPN tunnel look like a regular connection somehow.
What About ISPs That Sell Data?
Another set of countries where ISPs may not be so happy about customers using VPNs are ones where it’s legal for them to track and sell user data, like in the United States. Though we have no evidence of this, we can imagine that ISPs aren’t too happy with VPN users since that means there’s a lot less information to sell.
Do ISPs Track and Sell Your Browsing Data?
However, since VPN use is legal in the U.S. and there’s no way to mandate how people can use their internet connection, there’s little ISPs can do to stop customers who choose to use a VPN.
Whatever the case may be, it may be a smart move to use a VPN and deny your ISP the chance to harvest your data. We’ve put together a guide to finding the best VPN out there, but if you want a shortcut, we recommend ExpressVPN for most people, most of the time.
TRump’s Mar Largo home raided by the FBI.
Would love to see how fox is covering this. The whining of aggrieved magats has to be deafening. But still won’t turn on the fox channel. Wow! What a 3 weeks, Biden winning on many levels, legislation passed, SC judge approved, dead terrorist, and one fat orange one being fitted for an orange jumpsuit.
Somehow, the world is returning to sanity.
Wonderful news today! Tops the cpac crap
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken
Anonymous, you do know that H.L. Mencken predicted that a tRump would be elected.
“ On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
H. L. Mencken”
Ideal materials for quantum computing must show two key properties — quantum entanglement, a quantum state when one particle is indistinguishable from the other, and coherence, the property of a material that allows it to maintain entanglement. Coherence in quantum computers is difficult to maintain and that is why quantum computing remains elusive from human technology despite decades of research. However, recently their academia has been exploring complex materials which possess desirable properties and TNSe is one of them. We want to know who gave them access to the semimetal Ta2NiSe5 (also called TNSe).
As per 2D Semiconductors, Ta2NiSe5 is a semimetal that undergoes excitonic insulator transition at 330 kelvin (57°C or 134°F). In the excitonic insulator state, quantum materials undergo rapid condensation in a mechanism similar to Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer mechanism that applies to superconductors — although quite the opposite, leading to insulation instead of conduction. This condensation of the material limits the movement of the exciton (a combination of a free electron and a vacant hole in a semiconductor or a semimetal), leading to a coherence between quantum particles.
Without this semimetal discovery, humans would need decades to gain access to materials that would provide them quantum entanglement and coherence.
Coherence relies on the principle that every particle has a wave-like behavior and if the wave is split into two, then the waves may interfere with each other coherently in a way that they superimpose to form a single state.
This co-existence is what forms the basis of quantum computing. Coherence is essential in quantum computing because unlike a classic computer bit, which either exists in on state (1) or off state (0), a Qubit or quantum bit can co-exist in multiple states simultaneously (think Schrödinger’s cat).
This allows a quantum computer to process vast volumes of data very quickly. Why was a material with this ability provided to humans without first being debated.
White rice spikes blood sugar levels and ‘has almost the same effect as eating pure table sugar,’ according to Harvard Medical School
White rice contains less fiber, protein, and other key nutrients compared to brown rice. As a result, white rice has fewer health benefits.
No other president has ever supported in any way a blatant attack on Congress or supported the idea of hanging their own VP
How to prevent vision lost while using a computer.
4. Blink, breathe…and smile! People unconsciously blink less and breathe more shallowly when looking at a screen. Your eyes need to blink to maintain a healthy tear film and protect against dry eye. Taking deep breaths keeps blood flowing so that sufficient oxygen gets to your eyes. Try this: Blink rapidly six times…then close your eyes and take two slow, deep breaths. Repeat four times. Easy way to prevent eyestrain: Make a small smile. When you smile you can’t put strain on your eye muscles.
“They even broke into my safe!” 🤣🤣🤣 That’s my favorite line from that traitorous fat orange evil greasy pig. tRump has NEVER felt so violated in his pathetic life & that makes me happy . 🇺🇸
“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,” Trump said.
because we’ve never had one that tried to overthrow the Government …. what a douchebag.
He complains about how unfairly he’s treated but he said Obama, the sitting fucking President, wasn’t born in this country. He might be legally brain dead with how stupid and childish he is.
Why I Won’t Be Teaching My Daughter To Be A “Good Sport”
It’s not her job to smile and keep the peace.
by THAO THAI
I’m 7, standing in the bowling alley in smelly, too-big shoes, and my cousin has stolen my favorite ball, the one that looks like a purple galaxy. When I start to cry, my uncle says, “Did you think you were going to be a pro bowler? Only babies cry in public.” As everyone laughs, I pinch off my tears, ducking to hide a crestfallen face.
At 12, my photo gets selected by the local K-Mart to be enlarged as an advertisement for their photo department. An aunt points out the run in my stockings — magnified times 10 on the giant sign — through which my big toe sticks. “Couldn’t they have picked a better picture of you? One where you don’t look homeless?” I try to join the laughter around me.
These are small cruelties that perhaps every child has experienced, squashing down the ballooning shame so they aren’t laughed at by adults or peers. Because when you’re little, one of the greatest grievances is being seen as babyish. Too sensitive. The initial ridicule of being singled out gets overshadowed by a larger fear of being ostracized. So you play along. It turns out these moments don’t lessen in adulthood, particularly if you’re seen as an easy target for social performers. The problem is that malice, and even actual abuse, often gets cloaked in good-natured teasing. The harmless jokes aren’t so harmless after all.
Fast-forward a couple of decades: I’m in my early 30s, at a company-sponsored lunch with one-too-many margaritas, and a co-worker announces to the group that I remind him of Yoko Ono. As everyone titters, I smile faintly into my drink. I’m a good sport; I know the game. What’s the alternative, really? To call him out and make everyone uncomfortable over a claim of a microaggression they’d sooner forget? To diminish the goodwill we’ve created as a collective?
Months later, while I’m pregnant, a stranger walks up to me at a restaurant and guffaws, “What are you, carrying twins or something?” (I’m not, though I’m nine months pregnant at the time.) I call him a shithead. He looks startled to see I’ve gone off-script and returns to his own table, muttering about how people are too sensitive these days.
These moments represent a pattern all too familiar to me and many other women, perhaps. We are conditioned to become social lubricants, indulging in small talk and jokes that frequently come at the cost of our own dignity. Self-deprecation is our second language. It’s not fun to be the butt of the joke, but what alternative is there when the cost of speaking up can be so dire, professionally and personally?
My 5-year-old daughter, in all her great empathy and perceptiveness, is easily bruised. Like most children, she hasn’t yet filtered what adults find ridiculous. She says what’s on her mind. Once, when a relative laughed at an earnest declaration of hers, I saw her lower lip begin to tremble, a sign of her overflowing hurt. I felt something break inside of me — an accumulation, perhaps, of all the retorts I’ve subdued over my own lifetime. I said, “Please stop laughing at her.” He replied, “Sorry, can’t. I laugh at everything. She’ll have to get over it.”
Those who are sensitive are frequently told, perhaps not as bluntly as my relative expressed, to get over their own emotions. They are asked to be good sports in the name of communal ribbing. (The teasers, however, are not as frequently requested to stifle their taunts because — personal freedom.) So once again, an individual’s instinct gets buried in an attempt to maintain the group’s friendliness. But what does that communal goodwill mean if it conceals all the things that are allowed: sexism, racism, ableism; suffocation of the self; and marginalization of people who don’t fit into typical frameworks of being?
What some forget is that the act of teasing is that it is only a successful exchange if both parties agree to it. The truly harmless kind of teasing can only exist if there is trust between both parties, an acknowledging that the power dynamics are even. (Otherwise, we fall into the territory of bullying, a much more loaded topic.) When adults tease children, the power dynamics are seldom even. Yet, for some adults, ribbing the little people around them is an established pastime, often done in a sly way meant to exclude the child from a joke.
At a coffee shop, I overheard a boy ask for a donut. His father said, not so much to the boy as the whole coffee shop at large, “I don’t think you really need another donut, do you, kiddo? One’s plenty for you, yeah?” Everyone took in the boy’s shirt, stretched too tight over his belly and his round cheeks. There was an awkward silence as the boy’s face fell. Not only was he the butt of the joke, but he’d also been thrust into that position by someone he trusted.
I’m not perfect; I’ve caught myself teasing my own daughter over seemingly innocuous things. I’ve laughed at her inability to brush her teeth in a timely manner and her frequent tendency to wear clothes inside out. To me, it feels gentle in spirit, an extension of the cozy humor that my husband and I exchange. But it’s not like that for her. I watch her withdraw from me. She says, “That’s not nice. I don’t like being made fun of, Mama.” And I’m chastened. She’s right, as she so often is. Even if I don’t see the aggression in my own words, she does, and my intent does not overrule my impact. I apologize and try to do better next time.
At a renaissance fair a few years ago, a performer pulled me on stage as an unwilling volunteer. I resisted — physically resisted — for many reasons, chief among them my utter humiliation at being in a public spotlight. But he pulled me by the hand and, with the crowd’s eyes on me, I didn’t want to create a fuss. He spun jokes at my expense the whole time as I tried to laugh gamely. Then he forced me to hold a banana in my hand as he unpeeled it with a bullwhip from across the stage. To this day, I’m baffled by why I did not toss the banana at his head and remove myself from the stage at that very moment. But I stayed. If there’s a lesson to be learned in all this, it’s that you must never let a doublet-clad man named Dante Fettuccine whip a banana out of your hand at 60 miles per hour simply because you don’t want to look like a bad sport.
Left with what lessons I will be teaching my daughter, I consider how important it is that she finds her voice. Yes, of course, she must pick her battles, and she definitely should not go about calling everyone a shithead, but more importantly: She must understand that her own dignity is worth battling for. I hope she can forget everyone else’s definitions of what it means to be a good sport and instead forge her own ideas about what it means to be a compassionate being with righteous boundaries, one who can speak up for herself and others when the moment demands.
Thao Thai is a writer and editor based out of Ohio, where she lives with her husband and daughter. Her work has been published in Kitchn, Eater, Cubby, The Everymom, cupcakes and cashmere, and other publications. Her debut novel, Bayan Moon, comes out in 2023 from HarperCollins.
PrP, I’m new here. Only recently (two days ago) started reading your blog. This is a very informative blog. I’ve been encouraged to try it for almost a year. I think I’ve missed a lot.
Does the Length of a USB Cable Affect Charging?
GAURAV SHUKLA
The length of a USB cable can impact the amount of power it’s delivering from one end to another, but there are several caveats. Additionally, you can’t simply say that if you use a long USB cable, you’ll get a slower charging speed, or that faster charging always comes with a shorter cable. But before we talk about these caveats, it’s essential to understand why the cable length matters.
When an electric current passes through a wire, it’s not a free flow. Instead, the current encounters resistance from the wire, which causes energy loss. As a result, voltage drops when the current reaches its destination.
However, the resistance between two points depends on several factors, including not just the length of the wire but also its cross-sectional area, temperature, and the material used in the wire.
The longer a wire is, the more resistance the electric current will experience. So a one-meter cable will have less resistance than a two-meter cable. Similarly, the resistance of a wire increases with an increase in temperature. So if you are charging a device when the surrounding temperature is high, the resistance will also be higher than when the temperature is lower.
However, the resistance is inversely proportional to the cross-sectional area. Meaning if a wire is thicker, the current will get less resistance. But if the wire is thinner, the resistance will be higher. In the US, the wire thickness is commonly measured in gauge. That said, it’s important to remember that a lower gauge number indicates thicker wire, whereas a higher one means thinner. So lower gauge wires have lower resistance, and higher gauge wires have higher resistance.
And finally, the electrical resistance also depends on the material from which the wire is made. Silver has the least resistance, followed by copper, gold, and aluminum. USB and other cables typically use copper as it’s cheaper than silver, but copper alloys are also used to increase the physical strength of the cables.
All in all, yes, the length of the USB cable matters when it comes to the charging speed. But is the voltage drop significant enough to be noticeable, and do the cable manufacturers account for this voltage drop?
By now, it has become clear that there can be a voltage drop if you use a longer USB cable. But, as mentioned, multiple factors can affect the level of the voltage drop. Most important of which is the gauge of the wire. Temperature and wire material don’t matter as much because most USB cables typically have copper wires, and your surrounding temperature will not change whether you have a short or long cable.
As voltage drop is an unfortunate reality, USB cable manufacturers typically account for this and use lower gauge wire in long cables to reduce the overall electric resistance. But if a manufacturer has not done so, you may see a meaningful voltage drop in long cables, leading to slower charging. Untrustworthy and no-name brands sometimes try to save money by using higher gauge wire in longer cables.
But you won’t encounter this issue if the cable is USB-IF certified and from a reputed brand. USB-IF or USB Implementers Forum is a non-profit that maintains the USB standard, and it has recommended minimum DCR (DC resistance) requirements. According to USB-IF specification (PDF), there shouldn’t be more than 500 mV (0.5V) drop in a cable from end to end at the rated maximum current.
To give you an example of what a 0.5V drop might mean for your phone’s charging speed, if a charger pushes 3A of current at 5V, your phone should ideally get 15W of charging. But because of the voltage drop, 5V becomes 4.5V, and your phone only gets around 13.5W of charging speed. And 0.5V is the maximum drop in USB-IF certified cables, which you will only see in long cables, such as two, three, or more meters.
So if you plan to buy a long USB cable, look for a USB-IF certified cable from a reputed brand to avoid dealing with slower charging.
Apart from cable manufacturers, fast charging standards, such as Qualcomm Quick Charge, are also mindful of the voltage drop in long, thin cables. As a result, these standards try to minimize charging issues by pushing a high voltage.
Should You Be Concerned About USB Cable Length?
While technically it’s true that the length of a USB cable can affect its charging speed, as a consumer, you shouldn’t worry about it. Most people would probably never buy a USB cable longer than one or two meters, and the voltage drop is minuscule for these sizes. And if you want a longer USB cable, USB-IF certification and respected brands are your friends. You can also check out our best USB-C cables and the best Lightning cables roundups for cable recommendations
Bug Bites: Prevention and Treatment
Jamison Starbuck, ND, a naturopathic physician in family practice and producer of Dr. Starbuck’s Health Tips for Kids, a weekly program on Montana Public Radio, MTPR.org, both in Missoula. She is a past president of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians and a contributing editor to The Alternative Advisor: The Complete Guide to Natural Therapies and Alternative Treatments. DrJamisonStarbuck.com.
When summer rolls around, many of my patients ask how to prevent bug bites. Some folks claim that eating a lot of garlic, taking high doses of B vitamins, or avoiding sugar and beer work to keep insects at bay. I haven’t found these strategies to be universally effective, though they do work for some people.
Essential oils can do a good job of repelling insects, particularly citronella, an oil derived from the Cymbopogon plant, and the oil of lemon eucalyptus. Both are available in skin sprays and lotions, candles, and insect-repelling incense. These must be reapplied every 60 minutes to be effective, and they generally don’t work well against ticks, wasps, or bees. Additionally, some people are allergic to essential-oil preparations, making these repellents even more unpleasant than a mosquito bite.
My favorite suggestion surprises some of my patients: In my view, the most reliable repellent is to be mentally a few steps ahead of the insects. For example, investigate your hedge before trimming it. As I learned the hard way, many years ago, failing to check on insect habitats can end up in a disaster. I got 15 stings on my face and head seconds after slicing through a hornet nest hidden just inside the hedge with my first enthusiastic swipe with the electric hedge trimmer.
Reliable bug repellents are wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants when walking through moist areas where mosquitoes live, checking overhangs and gutters before painting or washing your house, and looking for bees or spiders in the coupler of a trailer or under the shady roof of a dog house before you move them.
If you do have the misfortune of being bitten by a summertime insect, a few natural medicines work well to relieve the pain and speed healing. My immediate, go-to remedy for any kind of bite is T Relief lotion. This homeopathic preparation is available online and over the counter in most natural food stores. Apply a small amount directly to the bite several times a day until the bite injury is healed.
If the insect bite is pink, hot, and puffy, apply ice and take homeopathic Apis 30 C for relief. The dose is two pellets under the tongue, away from meals, twice daily for one to three days. Warning: Apis is made from bee venom, so do not use it if you are allergic to bees.
Spider bites carry a greater risk of local infection than other insect bites, so I prescribe Echinacea tincture applied full strength directly to spider bites several times a day and taken internally to boost your immune response. The typical adult internal dose of Echinacea tincture is 60 drops in 2 ounces of water, away from food, four times a day for up to a week.
With all insect bites use common sense, not only in prevention but also in treatment. If a bite is very painful, if you develop a fever, or the bite or surrounding tissue appears infected, see your doctor.
Don’t Be Fooled: The Mac App Store Is Full of Scams
JUSTIN POT
You love technology, but not everyone does. For many people computers are confusing, even scary. Malevolent actors know this, and try to deliberately trick people online. From ads that look like download buttons to ransomware pop-ups, the web is full of deception-based design, intended to take advantage of the less technically inclined.
In theory, this is part of why app stores are useful. Users afraid of being scammed on the open web can browse the Mac App Store with confidence, knowing that Apple’s walled garden will protect them.
Except it won’t.
Try to put yourself into the mental state of a novice computer user. You have a brand new iMac, and you want to edit some Excel spreadsheets. In the dock you find that App Store you’ve heard so much about, so you open it. You find the search bar, then type “Microsoft Excel.”
The top result is something called “Office Bundle,” and costs $30. You click the result to read more.
Look at that! This is the “easiest way to create high-quality Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations.” That’s exactly what you need! Let’s read a little more.
Reading that block of text, what do you suppose this download offers? Go ahead and guess.
Seriously: guess. I’ll wait.
It’s…templates. A $30, 293MB collection of templates, all of which are useless without Microsoft Office.
It’s possible for a collection of templates to be worth $30, and for all I know these are really great. But let’s review:
This is the top result if you search for “Microsoft Excel.”
The word “template” is not in the name of the product.
The word “template” is not in the product’s description.
The product’s description outlines several functions that are specific to Microsoft Office, and have nothing to do with what customers will acquire by purchasing a collection of templates.
It’s literally impossible to find this product by searching for “templates.”
It’s easy to see that users could be deceived by this, and it’s hard to imagine that it’s not intentional on the developer’s part. Whatever the intention here, people were deceived:
Let’s be blunt: these customers were ripped off, and Apple pocketed $10 each. And you’ll only see these comments if you scroll past the two five star reviews that mention the word “app” numerous times. Both of those reviews, by the way, were left by accounts that haven’t reviewed any other apps in the Store.
Search for other Office applications and you’ll find more template bundles, disguised as official applications to varying degrees.
There are also several $20+ applications that put Microsoft’s free online version of Office into a dedicated browser. Then there are the actual “apps” capable of opening and editing Office files, many of which use terms like “Microsoft Word” in their names. They appear to be slightly modified versions of open source applications, but we’re not about to buy them to find out.
All of these fakes use Microsoft brands like Office, Word, and Excel in the product names. The logos aren’t one-to-one copies of Microsoft’s official logos, but they’re almost always the correct color and letter (blue “W” for Word, green “E” for Excel, etcetera).
We’ve talked about why the Mac App Store doesn’t have the applications you want, and the Microsoft Office Suite is among the applications you can’t get there. Maybe you already know this, but tell me: why should the average computer user be expected to? Scammy developers know that they can’t be, and are taking advantage of a hole in the market.
With the exception of OneNote and OneDrive, you cannot buy any official Office app from the Mac App Store. You have to purchase it directly from Microsoft, either for $150 or in the form of a yearly Office 365 subscription. (Alternatively, you can use Apple’s iWork suite, which probably came with your Mac, as well as the web version of Microsoft Office online or a free open source alternative like LibreOffice.)
This might seem obvious to you. It isn’t obvious to everyone, and the existence of the Mac App Store full of imitators serves to make this a lot more complicated. The walled garden isn’t protecting everyone.
These Scummy Apps Are All Over the App Store
We’ve focused on Microsoft Office because this is a particularly egregious example. But you don’t have to dig long to find similar problems.
Search for “Indesign” and you won’t find Adobe’s publishing tool, but you will find several bundles of tutorial videos with icons that mimic InDesign’s closely.
It’s not as clear that any of these applications are trying to deceive people, but it’s another case where it’s striking how closely these developers are mimicking official branding.
And other developers seem to be working some dark App Store SEO magic. Search for “Firefox” or “Chrome” and the top application is “Fast Browser,” a $1 app that hasn’t been updated since 2014.
Using this as your browser is a very, very bad idea.
And there’s all sorts of weirdness to be found elsewhere:
Search for “Adblock” and you’ll get a $2 application completely unaffiliated with the browser plugin with the same name.
Search for any website—Facebook, Gmail, anything—and you’ll find several dozen “apps” that do nothing more than open a browser window with the appropriate website. (Something that you can do for free with many browsers.)
Over the summer at least one Mac App Store app installed malware onto users’ Macs.
The App Store is also full of disk cleaners and memory cleaners, which you absolutely do not need.
We could go on. The point is that the App Store, which is supposed to protect users from deception, doesn’t seem to be doing a great job at that. There’s a lot of nonsense offered inside the walled garden.
Apple Needs to Clean Up the Mac App Store
Last year we outlined how the Windows Store was a cesspool of scams, a problem Microsoft has since been tackling. Apple, for their part, is making an effort to alleviate fake applications for iPhone and iPad users: the iOS App Store is currently being purged of outdated and broken applications.
But anyone who browses the Mac App Store regularly knows that this platform needs cleaning out too. Seemingly official applications of dubious value are way to easy to accidentally find by searching. It’s understandable that Apple wants the App Store to appear full, but leaving things seemingly designed to deceive people is hardly an answer.
What Is Plain Text?
VANN VICENTE
What exactly is “plain text?” And what’s the difference between plain text and other types of text?
Plain Text
To put it simply, plain text is any text that isn’t formatted. It does not take any special formatting, such as varying fonts, font sizes, bold font, or italics. It also only contains standard characters, which are those found in the default set of characters that an application can display. It can also refer to a document that only contains these unformatted characters.
Where Can You Find Plain Text?
A text document in Notepad.
Plain text files are often made by the most basic text file format, which takes on the “.txt” extension. These files are often created and edited by Notepad, the text editor found on every Windows device, or by another text editor. However, text files can be opened by virtually any document or text editor, including more powerful applications such as Notepad++, Wordpad, Microsoft Office, or OpenOffice.
Another place where you can find plain text is input forms in websites and apps. Many social media websites, such as Twitter and Instagram, only let you post captions and tweets as plain text, although there are some exceptions, such as hashtags and emoji. Therefore, you cannot add any additional formatting to these elements. They are automatically formatted according to the standards of the website or app. Older email clients also often have plain text modes, allowing you to send messages in plain text.
Plain Text vs. Rich Text
The opposite of plain text is rich text, which takes on various formatting characteristics that are not found in plain text. Here are the attributes often found in rich text, but not in plain text:
Font Size and Headings: How large or small the text is and whether it is a “header” element that opens a section or a “paragraph” element that makes up the body.
Font: Which font it actually is, such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman.
Color: This is the color of both the text itself and a highlight or background color.
Text Attributes: These are attributes normally used to emphasize or accentuate a word or sentence, such as bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough.
Spacing: This refers to how far apart lines are from each other and how far apart individual letters are from each other in a word.
Links: Whether a set of letters links to something else, such as a website URL.
Aside from these, document editors also have other types of rich text elements, such as indentation, superscripts and subscripts, mathematical formatting, and columns. When any rich text is converted into plain text, all of these elements become lost.
Rich text is normally constructed in two ways. The first is by using a rich document editor, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Office. The second is by using something called “markup language,” which is a simple code used to modify text with certain attributes, which is then displayed to the viewer as formatted text. Examples of markup languages include HTML, XML, and Markdown.
The Benefits of Using Plain Text Files
Many people opt to use plain text rather than rich text for most of their editing. This practice is especially common among programmers and developers, who code in languages constructed with plain text and are used to that environment.
Plain text is simple, easy to read, and can be read and sent to anyone. It also has none of the device or software compatibility issues that come with varying fonts. Those are just some of the reasons why many people use text files over more powerful applications like Word. There is even a large group of people who use plain text for all text editing, from creating grocery lists to typing out full-length novels.
Another important use of plain text files is that they form most of the underlying infrastructure behind files and web pages. For example, “.ini” files used to keep configurations for Windows applications are often stored in a plain text format. This allows you to edit your settings by simply opening them up in Notepad.
Paste as Plain Text
One of the most prominent places where you’ll likely encounter the term “plain text” is in the context of the right-click menu in your web browser or document editor, where you can opt to “Paste as Plain Text” whatever is currently stored in your clipboard. Therefore, when you copy the text to a location where rich text can appear, such as in Google Docs, a post browser, or a social media website, it’ll be pasted in without its formatting.
This is especially useful when you’re copying and pasting content from another website. If you opt to paste it directly, it’ll take on the original format of the website, including the font color, font size, and text attributes like bold font or italics. However, when pasted as plain text, it’ll take on the formatting of the destination location, whether that involves plain text, bold font, or font of varying colors