Despite all of the technological advances that have made our lives so comfortable and convenient, from on-demand movies to smart devices that can be controlled from a handheld computer in our pockets, there are still some primitive situations we have to endure. For example, that seemingly endless time spent shivering in the shower while you wait for the water to heat up. Or that painful moment when you go to wash your hands and water that feels like it’s being pumped directly from the Arctic splashes you.
Waiting for the water to heat up is an age-old problem caused by simple laws of physics: Your water heater is far away from the tap or shower head, and it takes time to flush out the cold water in the pipes. But there are ways to speed up your hot water delivery. The easiest is to install a tankless water heater, but those can cost thousands of dollars to install, and require a lot of space your house may not have. If you want to speed up your hot water without taking on that much of an expense, you have a few more affordable choices.
One reason it takes a while for hot water to arrive is time: When you turn off the faucet, the hot water sitting in the pipes starts to cool off. The next time you turn on the tap, that cooled water has to be pushed out of the hot water pipes before the hot water can arrive.
To solve this, you can have a recirculating pump installed at a cost typically under $1,000. These pumps are installed on your existing water heater, and work by continuously circulating the water in the pipes so it never sits there, cooling off. Because it’s installed at the water heater, it speeds up hot water to your appliances, as well, including washing machines and dishwashers, which can help them operate more efficiently.
While a whole-house tankless water heater can be a big and expensive project, what’s known as a “point-of-use” tankless water heater can be a more manageable and affordable solution. These are small enough to install under a sink, and are designed to provide hot water on demand just at that point of use. The heaters themselves typically run a few hundred bucks, with installation typically running less than $1,000. Because of their small size, it’s feasible to install one of these yourself if you’re comfortable with plumbing and electrical work, but they can require careful calibration, so hiring a professional plumber is probably your best move.
Since part of the problem with slow hot water is heat loss as the water sits in the pipes, you can sometimes improve the situation just by insulating your hot water pipes thoroughly. This is definitely a DIY job if you can identify and access your hot water pipes, and it’s not a terribly expensive job to hire out, costing as little as $350 on average. It’s just a matter of wrapping the pipes with insulating cuffs, then taping everything off so it’s sealed up nicely. This can help keep water hot while it sits, so the next time you turn on the faucet, you get the hot water you expect.
Cold water has to drain out of your pipes for the hot water to hit your faucet or showerhead, so one possible way to speed things up is to remove any flow regulators/restrictors that have been installed. These simple devices do exactly what it sounds like: They restrict the flow of water, conserving energy and water and keeping your utility bills lower. But since they restrict flow, they also mean it can take longer for cold water to drain off and hot water to arrive, so removing or adjusting them can reduce the time it takes for that hot water to get to you.
Last May, we published a post by Matthew Lefthand recounting his 24-hour world-record attempt on Zwift. He was successful in his attempt and, in fact, set 12 new World Ultra-Cycling Association (WUCA) records, which were also Guinness World Records.
“Lefty” is an avid Zwifter, but his massive 24-hour indoor effort wasn’t the only achievement of his breakout 2025 season. Not by a long shot. He also notched major achievements riding outside, showing once again how indoor training can fuel outdoor results.
Below, find a press release detailing Matthew Lefthand being named the WUCA World Cup Champion in his rookie season. Congrats, Lefty!
Matthew Lefthand takes the Ultra-Cycling Scene by Storm in his Rookie Season
Salt Lake City, UT — January 3, 2026 — The World Ultra-Cycling Association (WUCA) proudly announces the conclusion of its 2025 World Cup season, a global competition recognizing the world’s most dedicated and high-performing ultra-distance cyclists across four endurance disciplines. The World Cup requires competitors to complete two timed challenges, and two long-distance races, which are then awarded points based on their performances at each event.
This year, the spotlight shone brightly on Matthew Lefthand, (Utah, USA) a licensed mental health counselor turned elite ultra-cycling athlete, whose record-setting performances propelled him to the forefront of international endurance racing. Lefthand’s introduction to ultra-cycling began in August 2024 when he broke the course record by six hours at Hoodoo 500, a 520-mile race through Southern Utah.
Lefthand’s 2025 season has been defined by his relentless pursuit of personal growth and has garnered more attention around the world with each performance.
Lefthand’s first place finishes and new course records at each of his events, landed him 8 points ahead of second place, Ingolf Micklisch (USA) and had more than double the points of third place, Piotr Mos (ITA).
“Not only did Matthew earn more points than any other previous World Cup winner, but his performances have brought a new level of excitement to all who follow the sport,” said Marc Polland, Past President of WUCA.
Lefthand’s journey this season was not just marked by competitive success, but also by personal breakthroughs and meaningful challenges:
“This season has been about discovering my limits, then continuously working to push past them, challenging what is believed to be possible in endurance athletics,” said Lefthand. “Every race, every record, and every training session has been a step toward redefining the limit on possible growth.”
His achievements have inspired athletes and fans around the world, illustrating that with grit, methodical preparation, and mental resilience, seemingly impossible goals can be achieved. Lefthand shares that he is often met with comments from strangers who express that they “rode their first 100 miles” on a day when Lefthand is completing a challenge and sharing his story online.
“People see me doing crazy things and then think, ‘Oh, maybe I haven’t given it everything I’ve got.’ And it’s incredible to hear these stories. It makes everything I’m doing that much more satisfying,” Lefthand said.
Both Lefthand and the global ultra-cycling community look toward 2026 with heightened ambitions, continued innovations in endurance training, and a deeper appreciation for the extraordinary athleticism that drives ultra-cycling forward.
“Matthew has breathed much needed, new life into this sport with his incredibly impressive race wins and world records this year. It seems that there’s nothing he can’t do. WUCA is thrilled by the enthusiasm and charisma Matthew has put behind sharing his experiences online. It is inspiring current athletes and bringing new cyclists to our sport,” said Deborah Bowlin, current President of WUCA.
Lefthand has set his sights on a similar trajectory in 2026, with plans to compete in the World Cup again, as well as each of the North American Championships for 6-hour, 12-hour, 24-hour, and Ultra Distance. Lefthand is also working on a special project that could lead to breaking 24 world records in 24 hours. Those interested in learning more can follow Lefthand on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, or visit his website at nolimitsleft.com.
ABOUT WORLD ULTRA-CYCLING ASSOCIATION (WUCA)
The World Ultra-Cycling Association (WUCA) is a global, non-profit organization that sets standards for excellence and accomplishment in ultra-cycling. As the sport’s governing body, WUCA sets standards of rules for competitive events, annual challenges and records. Its mission is to support, inspire and grow ultra-cycling globally, providing resources and structure to empower both athletes and event organizers.
ABOUT WUCA WORLD CUP
Established by the World Ultra-Cycling Association (WUCA), the World Cup is a season-long competition and is at the pinnacle of competitive ultra-cycling. Athletes accrue points through performances in diverse ultra events including 12-hour, 24-hour, and fixed distance events including one 750–1,500 km event, and one beyond 1,500 km, showcasing versatile strength and endurance over a global calendar of challenges.
Some coming soon, some out now, here are some investigative games you’ve yet to discover
The post 10 Mysterious Games To Check Out In Steam’s Detective Fest appeared first on Kotaku.
Parrot Linux plans versions 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 throughout 2026, shifting its security research toward AI systems and real-world attack surfaces.
60 years ago today, ABC aired the first episode of its live-action Batman television series, introducing Adam West as the deadpan Caped Crusader in what became a pop culture phenomenon blending high-camp humor and cliffhanger thrills. The mid-season replacement ran for 120 episodes over three seasons before ending in March 1968.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
When recently carrying out performance benchmarks of Intel Meteor Lake performance on Linux since launch day two years ago, the geo mean came in at 93% the original performance. Finding the performance trending clearly lower with an up-to-date Linux software stack compared to in December 2023 was quite surprising considering the rather nice gains we have seen over time on other Intel/AMD hardware. As noted in that article though, one of the possible explanations there is the Spectre BHI “Branch History Injection” vulnerability and microcode plus Linux kernel mitigations having come out post-launch and affecting Meteor Lake CPUs. Sure enough, follow-up tests looking at the Spectre BHI impact have revealed a measurable cost in a number of workloads for the Core Ultra processor.
Apple’s latest crop of updates was met with a bit of a mixed reaction. While some users love the new Liquid Glass design across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, others decidedly do not—which is likely what led Apple to introduce a dedicated setting to control the intensity of the effect. I’m partial to it, but I understand for some users, it’s a tad too much, especially if it makes certain UI elements more difficult to see.
But Liquid Glass isn’t the only thing Apple users have complained about, especially with regards to macOS Tahoe. Mac users reported various problems with performance and stability across macOS 26.0 and macOS 26.1, and have criticized design choices like overly rounded corners. Myself, I held out on updating my M3 Pro Mac until macOS 26.2, where many of these issues appeared to be fixed, but my M1 iMac is still on macOS Sequoia for the time being. All that to say, macOS 26 hasn’t had the smoothest start compared to some of Apple’s previous Mac updates. If you’ve been noticing, for example, that your Mac’s window management isn’t as cooperative as it’s been in the past, you’re not alone. In fact, there seems to be a clear explanation for what’s behind the issues.
As with other versions of macOS, you can resize and adjust your Mac apps’ windows by clicking and dragging from the bottom corners. The issue, however, is that as of Apple’s newest update, it can be fairly difficult to grab the corner of the window. You might, instead, find you click on the bottom corner of the app or website instead, leading to unintended actions. Clicking the top right corner of Chrome, for example, will drag the whole app window, rather than resize it. Clicking the bottom left corner and dragging will start to highlight everything in the app window instead, perhaps sending you all around the screen as well.
If you slowly hover your cursor over the corner of the window, eventually you’ll find a spot that turns your cursor into a resize icon, and you’ll know you’re good to click and drag to resize. But why is this so much more difficult to do quickly than it was in macOS Sequoia or beyond?
Norbert Heger, a software developer, seemingly has an answer. In a blog post on Sunday, Heger explains that those rounded corners Apple designed for Tahoe are having a negative impact on the clickable area of the window. With a square corner, most of the clickable area—Heger says 62% of it—lies within the corner of the window itself. That gives users a relatively large area to click within the corner in order to grab onto the window, and a little bit of room outside the window to click, as well. But these new rounded corners don’t seem to take that into consideration. Instead, they’re relying on the same click area as before, but because there’s less corner to work with now, the actual clickable area of the window is far less. Heger says about 75% of the clickable area now exists outside the window itself, giving users just 25% to work with in the actual corner of the window.
If you’re running macOS Tahoe, you can try this out for yourself right now: Move your cursor to the corner of the window, and wait for it to change into the resize icon. If you’re hovering within the window itself, it won’t change until you’re just about to move outside the window. You can keep going a bit, and see you can get pretty darn far outside the window before the cursor changes back.
This seems like a relatively easy fix on Apple’s part, assuming they’re aware of the issue. Maybe a patch will even make it into macOS 26.3. That said, the company has not publicly acknowledged the quirk, so it’s anyone’s guess. Until a potential fix, those of us on macOS Tahoe will just need to retrain our muscle memories around window resizing. For anyone who hasn’t upgraded yet, you can simply carry on as usual.
Doctors say they have achieved the previously impossible — restoring sight and preventing blindness in people with a rare but dangerous eye conditon called hypotony. From a report: Moorfields hospital in London is the world’s first dedicated clinic for the disorder and seven out of eight patients given the pioneering treatment have responded to the therapy, a pilot study shows. One of them — the first-ever — is Nicki Guy, 47, who is sharing her story exclusively with the BBC.
She says the results are incredible: “It’s life-changing. It’s given me everything back. I can see my child grow up. “I’ve gone from counting fingers and everything being really blurry to being able to see.” Currently, she can see and read most lines of letters on an eye test chart. She is one line away from what is legally required for driving – a massive change from being partially sighted, using a magnifying glass for anything close up and having to navigate around the house and outside largely using memory.
“If my vision stays like this for the rest of my life it would be absolutely brilliant. I may not ever be able to drive again but I’ll take that!” she says. With hypotony, pressure within the eyeball becomes dangerously low, leading it to cave in on itself.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
If you received an unsolicited password reset email from Instagram in recent days, you don’t need to panic. These messages don’t appear to be the result of a new data breach or account compromise, but rather a bug that Meta claims it has now fixed.
Following a wave of suspicious account recovery requests, antivirus software provider Malwarebytes posted a warning on Jan. 9 that threat actors had stolen personal information from 17.5 million Instagram accounts. As BleepingComputer reports, there have been various claims that hackers have obtained Instagram account data from multiple API scraping incidents in the last several years but notes that there haven’t been any confirmed incidents nor definitive proof of a new breach. Meta has said the issue was the result of a bug that allowed threat actors to request password reset emails, which it has since patched, and denies that user data has actually been compromised.
Of course, data breaches aren’t uncommon, and Meta platforms have been targeted in the past. So you should still practice good digital hygiene and stay vigilant to phishing attempts that could indicate account compromise.
If you do receive an Instagram password reset email that you didn’t request, you don’t need to do anything with it. You can just ignore and delete the message. In general, you should avoid clicking links in security-related messages that seem urgent or sound scary (again, if you didn’t initiate account recovery) as these can be phishing attempts designed to steal your credentials or other sensitive information. If you do want to change a password or update other security details for any account, you should go directly to the website or app and do so there.
If you haven’t already, you can (and should) enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for Instagram. On the mobile app, open the Menu from your profile page and go to Accounts Center > Password and security > Two-factor authentication. You can choose to receive login codes via authentication app (like Google Authenticator or Duo), SMS, or WhatsApp. As I’ve written, not all 2FA methods are created equal: SMS codes are especially easily phished, so an authentication app is probably your best option here.
Finally, you can check for suspicious devices logged into your Instagram account under Accounts Center > Password and security > Where you’re logged in. If you see any devices you don’t recognize, select it and tap Log out.
The “more intelligent” version of Siri that Apple plans to release later this year will be backed by Google’s Gemini language models, the company announced today. CNBC reports that the deal is part of a “multi-year partnership” between Apple and Google that will allow Apple to use Google’s AI models in its own software.
“After careful evaluation, we determined that Google’s technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we’re excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users,” reads an Apple statement given to CNBC.
Today’s announcement confirms reporting by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman late last year that Apple and Google were nearing a deal. Apple didn’t disclose terms, but Gurman said that Apple would be paying Google “about $1 billion a year” for access to its AI models “following an extensive evaluation period.”
Paramount Skydance just does not want to take no for an answer. After having multiple bids to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) rejected, including a recent hostile bid that the WBD board recommended that shareholders reject, Paramount is turning to the courts and mounting a proxy fight.
In a letter to shareholders on Monday, Paramount CEO David Ellison said the company has filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court seeking more disclosure about WBD’s pending Netflix deal and the process that led to its acceptance. Paramount argues WBD hasn’t provided “basic information” shareholders need to evaluate competing offers, including how WBD valued the planned cable-networks spinout Discovery Global (or Global Networks, depending on the filing). The Netflix acquisition would leave Discovery Global to become its own publicly traded company, while the Paramount offer included these assets.
Paramount is also escalating the corporate pressure campaign, with Ellison saying it intends to nominate a slate of directors for election at WBD’s 2026 annual meeting. The end goal would be installing a board that would “engage” on Paramount’s offer under the terms of WBD’s merger agreement with Netflix.
If WBD were to call a special meeting to approve the Netflix transaction before the annual meeting, Paramount says it will solicit proxy votes against the deal. It also plans to push a bylaw change requiring shareholders to approve any separation of Discovery Global. This change seems like Paramount stoking the flames (whether real or imagined) surrounding shareholders having their WBD shares bought out without the value of Discovery Global built-in under the Netflix merger.
Paramount remains convinced that its offer is “superior” to that of Netflix, while WBD maintains Paramount’s bid offers “insufficient value” and that Paramount has failed to submit a true best proposal “despite clear direction from WBD on both the deficiencies and potential solutions.” The lawsuit now aims to force WBD to spell out exactly how it arrived at recommending the Netflix deal over Paramount’s bid.
WBD expressed concerns over whether a potential Paramount deal would even reach closing, citing the substantial debt the smaller studio would have to take on to pull off a leveraged buyout.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/paramount-wont-quit-files-suit-against-warner-bros-discovery-over-rejected-bid-175317166.html?src=rss
The Death Stranding 2 director thought a dream diary would help him sleep better
The post Kojima Tries To Describe The Nightmare Fuel Haunting His Sleep, Including Creature Bites And ‘Voluptuous Nude Women’ appeared first on Kotaku.
Tinygrad 0.12 is out today for this deep learning stack led by George Hotz…
In open-source circles there are many situations, such as bug
reports, demos, and tutorials, when one might want to provide a
play-by-play of a session in one’s terminal. The asciinema project provides a set of
tools to do just that. Its tools let users record, edit, and share
terminal sessions in a text-based format that has quite a few
advantages compared to making and sharing videos of terminal sessions. For
example, it is easy to use, offers the ability to search text from
recorded sessions, and allows users to copy and paste directly from
the recording.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
As is usually the case during CES, older models get big discounts, making it one of the best times to shop for premium tech. If you’ve been looking for a massive OLED TV with a massive discount, it doesn’t get much better than the 77-inch Sony Bravia A95L OLED TV, currently going for $3,498 (originally $4,999.99). This is the lowest price this premium TV has ever reached, according to price-tracking tools.
The 77-inch Bravia A95L uses the same QD-OLED panel technology that has been successful with Samsung’s OLED TVs, and it combines it with their best-in-class Cognitive Processor XR. This makes the color volume, peak brightness in HDR content, and motion handling one of the best in OLED TVs, even in 2026. This makes it a great OLED TV for people who want a premium theater TV that can also look great while gaming.
The A95L comes with the Google TV smart interface, which is my personal favorite since it makes casting to the TV from your phone or laptop easy, and has an internal microphone for hands-free voice control. There aren’t many options for 77-inch premium OLED TVs, and even fewer that have withstood the test of time. The Bravia A95L is still relevant in 2026 for its quality, size, but most importantly, its price. If you can afford it and have a wall big enough for it, this massive OLED is a bargain.
The dramatically larger corner radius Apple introduced in macOS 26 Tahoe has pushed the invisible resize hit target for windows mostly outside the window itself — roughly 75% of the 19Ö19 pixel clickable area now lies beyond the visible boundary. In previous macOS versions, about 62% of that resize target would fall inside the window corner.
Apple removed the visible resize grippy-strip from window corners in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion in July 2011. The visual indicator had served two purposes: showing users where to click and signaling whether a window could be resized at all. Users since then have relied on muscle memory and the reasonable assumption that clicking near the inside corner would initiate a resize. DaringFireball’s John Gruber advice: don’t upgrade to macOS 26, or downgrade if you already have. he wrote Monday: “Why suffer willingly with a user interface that presents you with absurdities like window resizing affordances that are 75 percent outside the window?”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A hack to tweak the game to first-person makes it far too scary
The post Oh, Thank Goodness <i>Arc Raiders</i> Isn’t A First-Person Game appeared first on Kotaku.
The Linux kernel development cycle continues with the release of Linux 6.19-rc4, the fourth release candidate in the lead-up to the final 6.19 stable kernel. As with previous RC builds, this release is aimed squarely at developers, testers, and early adopters who help identify bugs and regressions before the kernel is finalized.
Nintendo isn’t ready to comment on hypotheticals
The post Nintendo Asked About Spiraling RAM Costs As Fans Worry About A Switch 2 Price Increase appeared first on Kotaku.
