If you want a pure Magic: The Gathering video game experience, stick with Arena. Netmarble’s Magic: Manastrike, out now for iOS and Android, has two players dropping card-based creatures and spells into a two-lane battlefield in order to destroy their opponent’s towers. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it.
Source: Kotaku – The Latest Magic: The Gathering Game Is A Decent Card-Based Tower Defense
The Mandalorian has delighted viewers with its fresh storyline, catchy soundtrack, some droids and a few funky weapons. But all of that was nothing compared to The Child, who we are all calling Baby Yoda even though we know it’s not really Yoda. The Mandalorian, it turns out, is not just another Star Wars saga in a…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Parent Like the Mandalorian
A scientific assessment has confirmed enormous amounts of waste and definite harm to wildlife.
Source: TreeHugger – Canada moves forward with its single-use plastics ban
Because why wait for the actual Super Bowl to unveil your Super Bowl commercial, this is Walmart’s geek pop culture packed sixty second Super Bowl spot (for reference, 30 second ads this year went for as much as $5.6-million). There’s also a two minute extended cut because commercials need extended cuts now. These are strange times we’re living in. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to make a Target run. “Not Walmart?” The man doesn’t tell me what to do! “Shovel the sidewalk.” Whatever, dad! “I’m serious.” I know you are and I’m going to.
Keep going for the commercials, which does include Bill and future Bill from Bill & Ted buying a 12-pack of Bud Light, Mountain Dew, Doritos and green onions.
Source: Geekologie – Walmart’s Geek Pop Culture Packed Super Bowl Commercial
TACKLIFE ELY03 Electric Arc Lighter | $6 | Amazon | Promo code 3QL3I2S7
Source: Kotaku – This TACKLIFE Electric Arc Lighter Is Baby
Online subscriptions sure sound cheap, but what do a few bucks a month to watch TV shows, store photos online and stream music add up to? Quite a lot, it turns out. From a report: In 2019, we each spent $640 on digital subscriptions like streaming video and music services, cloud storage, dating apps and online productivity tools, according to an analysis for The New York Times by Mint, the online budgeting tool owned by Intuit, using data from millions of its users. That was up about 7 percent from $598 in 2017. We increased our spending the most last year on streaming TV services, paying $170 to subscribe to the likes of Netflix, Hulu and new entrants like Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus. While that was far cheaper than most traditional cable TV packages, which cost roughly $1,200 a year, it was up 30 percent from the $130 we spent on streaming TV services in 2017. Our spending on digital subscriptions is likely to only rise as more of our possessions become connected to the internet, like our television sets, home security systems and cars. At the same time, it will become harder and harder to keep track of all of the services we pay for.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – How Much Are We Paying for Our Subscription Services? A Lot
Source: [H]ardOCP – FBI probes use of Israeli firm’s spyware
It’s been a long time coming, but Microsoft has announced via its Italian-language website that Windows 10 installations have finally crossed the 1 billion mark worldwide. Although the news is interestingly coming first from the Microsoft Italy, we’d imagine that the company will soon be making an official announcement via channels in its
Source: Hot Hardware – Microsoft Announces Windows 10 Finally Crosses 1 Billion Active Installs Globally
Western Digital is one of the biggest names in storage, and today the company announced it has developed its 5th generation 3D NAND flash memory technology called BiCS5. It is latterly denser than the previous generation of 3D NAND, and also offers more storage layers—112 of them, to be precise.
These are important traits because they ensure
Source: Hot Hardware – Western Digital Announces BiCS5 112-Layer 3D NAND To Fuel Next-Gen SSDs
On March 1, New York will join states like California in the fight against plastic bags by banning most carryout plastic bags from grocery stores and other retailers.
Source: LifeHacker – How to Ditch Single-Use Plastic Bags Forever
With the V3D Gallium3D driver hitting OpenGL ES 3.1 compliance, the Raspberry Pi Foundation and their partners have turned to focusing on getting their Vulkan driver off the ground for Raspberry Pi 4 and future SBCs…
Source: Phoronix – Raspberry Pi Foundation Gets Back To Working On A Vulkan Driver – New Effort By Igalia
If you’ve ever used online banking or any other highly-secure website, chances are you’ve encountered a one-time passcode (OTP) before. These are SMS messages sent to your phone with a unique code that verifies your identity with the website you’re o…
Source: Engadget – Apple engineers propose a way to make using two-factor texts easier
I’ve got to clear out some HHD’s. I moved to a Promise array so have 4x WD NAS Red 6TB drives (Warranty 2019-2021) as well as 8x 8TB Seagates for long term storage…
Source: [H]ardOCP – FS: 0 !88TB! 8X8TB + 4X6TB + bonus
Source: [H]ardOCP – Wi-Fi card in motherboard M.2 slot
Microsoft has announced that it is launching a new Xbox Bounty Program that will pay gamers, security researchers, and tech fans globally for finding and reporting bugs. Bug bounty programs have been around for a long time and are an effort by companies to allow the public to uncover vulnerabilities in software and hardware to report them
Source: Hot Hardware – Microsoft Launches Xbox Bounty Program Paying Out Up To ,000
Despite criticism from Apple, EU lawmakers on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in favor for new rules to establish a common charger for all mobile device makers across Europe. From a report: Members of the European Parliament voted by 582-40 for a resolution urging the European Commission, which drafts EU laws, to ensure that EU consumers are no longer obliged to buy new chargers with each new device. The resolution said voluntary agreements in the industry had significantly reduced the number of charger types, but had not resulted in one common standard. The Commission should adopt new rules by July, the lawmakers’ resolution said, calling for “an urgent need for EU regulatory action to reduce electronic waste, empower consumers to make sustainable choices, and allow them to fully participate in an efficient and well-functioning internal market.” The proposed charging ports for portable devices include Micro-USB, USB-C, and the Lightning connector. Thursday’s resolution didn’t specify what the mobile charging standard should be, but non-Apple mobile devices and increasingly laptops and tablets are charged by USB-C, so the EU is highly unlikely to choose Apple’s Lightning connector.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – EU Lawmakers Vote Overwhelmingly in Favor of Charging Cable Standard, Despite Apple’s Protestations
This is a video of a motorcyclist proposing to his girlfriend while she’s riding on the back of his bike. As far as unusual proposals go, this is one. Dangerous too — there was definitely a fair amount of look ma no hands involved. I was worried he was going to drop the ring somewhere between exits 141 and 142. Still, isn’t it ever girl’s dream to be proposed to on the highway?
Keep going for the whole video.
Source: Geekologie – Motorcyclist Has Friends Help Him Propose To Girlfriend Riding On Back Of Bike
eSecurityPlanet: When considering cloud security products, it’s important to recognize and understand the different categories of solutions that are available to help organizations reduce risk and improve security.
Source: Linux Today – Top Cloud Security Companies
The appearance of large ice rings on Lake Baikal in southern Siberia has confounded scientists since they were first discovered in the early 2000s. Recent investigations into the ice rings have resulted in a plausible explanation, but there’s still much to learn about these unusual features.
Source: Gizmodo – Cool Discovery Could Finally Explain Gigantic Ice Rings Found on Siberian Lake
