![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrissa) wrote2025-09-15 01:08 pm
pi) wrote2025-09-15 10:21 amtozka) wrote2025-09-15 10:37 amCrossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.
foxmoth) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
communal_creators2025-09-15 12:30 pmiamrman) wrote in scans_daily2025-09-15 06:21 pmWriter: Chuck Dixon
Pencils: Tom Lyle
Inks: Bob Smith
Now Robin has to deal with King Snake now as well as the Russian Mob.
( Read more... )
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
lifehacker_feed) wrote2025-09-15 04:30 pmDid you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news.
Apple’s iOS 26 comes out today, and with it, a new design language called Liquid Glass. While the iPhone home screen has looked more or less the same ever since Apple ditched skeuomorphism in 2013, when you open up your phone today, after downloading the company’s latest update, you might be in for a surprise. Apple’s new look for the iPhone prioritizes transparency, and not everyone’s a fan.
Luckily, if you don’t like Liquid Glass, there’s something you can do about it. You can’t get rid of it entirely, but here’s how to make your iPhone look as close as possible to how it used to look before, across both the homescreen and apps like Safari.
First, know thine enemy. If you ever used Windows Vista back in the day, you have an idea of what you’re facing here. That operating system was famous for adding transparency effects to Windows that drastically affected performance, and while the iPhone seems to have saved itself from any performance issues with its own update, the goal seems to be the same: let you see what’s below your buttons and overlays by blurring and obscuring your background before letting it bleed through.
In theory, this adds a bit of depth to your display, and might make it easier to understand how your various screen elements exist in relation to each other. But in practice, some have complained about it being distracting, flooding your screen with irrelevant information you can’t do anything with.
Apple’s actually addressed these complaints a bit throughout the iOS 26 beta, specifically making the Control Center look less busy. But it’s still moving forward with the design changes overall.
If you’d rather Apple leave your iPhone’s design alone, though, you have options. During the beta, users discovered a pre-existing accessibility control within iOS that also, seemingly, neuters most of Liquid Glass’ changes. It won’t get rid of all of the updates—the new, wider toggle button is unaffected, for instance—but it goes a long way towards restoring your phone to how it looked before.
Called Reduce Transparency, this control has been around for years, and was originally intended as a way to add a solid background to any pre-Liquid Glass elements that already had transparent or blurred backgrounds, like the Passcode entry screen. Now, though, it turns out it also affects Liquid Glass as a whole.
You can see the changes here. Notice how the play button on Apple Music no longer lets blurred album artwork bleed into it, allowing you to more clearly read the artist’s name?
While I haven’t gotten my hands on Liquid Glass yet, I think I’ll be turning this on right away. I like big, chunky buttons, and Reduce Transparency seems like the way to get just that, even as Apple insists transparency is the future. If that sounds like you, here’s where you can turn it on:
Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
And while it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with Liquid Glass, while you’re in your accessibility controls, you might also want to turn on the Increase Contrast option, which will make your apps’ foreground elements pop from the background a bit more. After turning this on, you’ll see it right away on the Settings page’s toggles, which will take on a darker shade of gray when disabled. This is optional, but helps add to the chunky buttons look, and brings back a little bit of the depth Liquid Glass is going for, without making your screen busier.
For the most part, once you’ve enabled “Reduce Transparency,” you’ve gotten rid of Liquid Glass’ most extreme design decisions. Technically, the update does also allow you to make your icons clear or adjust your lock screen widgets, but those changes have to be opted into. However, one important app will look pretty drastically different by default: Safari.
When you open Safari after installing iOS 26, you’ll notice that the URL bar is now just a small pill at the bottom of the screen, next to a tiny back button and an even smaller refresh button. All your other old navigation features are instead hidden away in either the three-dots menu, or behind various swipes and long presses.
Personally, some of us at Lifehacker think the smaller address bar is worth it, but if you want to go back to the old URL bar, you can do that. Simply navigate to Settings > Apps > Safari. Under the Tabs section, you’ll see three layout options. Compact is the new default, but Bottom will bring back the old look, with full controls for back, forward, sharing, bookmarks, and tabs all laid out below the address. There’s also a new Top option, if you’d like, that moves the website address to the top of the screen but leaves navigation at the bottom.
osprey_archer) wrote2025-09-15 12:59 pmcyphomandra asked about Newbery novels in verse, and friends, I have THOUGHTS. I have OPINIONS. Or actually I have neither of those things, I just have FEELINGS, feelings first engendered decades ago when I first read Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust, which despite the lapse of time have yet to subside.lifehacker_feed) wrote2025-09-15 04:00 pmWe may earn a commission from links on this page.
Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news.
Strava's latest Power Skills feature is a nice addition for data-driven cyclists. Built on technology from The Breakaway (which Strava acquired earlier this year), this tool transforms your power meter data into actionable training insights. Here's everything you need to know about using it to improve your riding.
Power Skills uses your cycling power meter data to identify your strengths and areas for improvement across different types of efforts. Think of it as a fitness report card that analyzes your cycling performance across multiple disciplines. You’ll see twelve specific Power Intervals that you can work on, each benchmarked against thresholds adjusted for age, gender, weight, and so on. Then, each skill is made up of different combinations of these Power Intervals.
From here, Power Skills breaks down cycling performance into three main categories, each targeting different aspects of cycling fitness. Here's how Strava describes them:
Sprinting: Short bursts of extremely high output. Reflects your ability to generate explosive power. Power Intervals: 15 sec, 30 sec, and 1 minute.
Attacking: Balanced efforts that combine sprinting power with climbing endurance. Useful for short climbs or race breakaways. Power Intervals: 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes.
Climbing: Long, sustained efforts on climbs, flats, or workouts requiring steady pacing and endurance. Power Intervals: 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and 60 minutes.
Before going any further, I should clarify that to use Strava's Power Skills, you do need a Strava subscription and actual power meter data from your bicycle or indoor bike. If you're interested in making this serious biking upgrade (which Strava historically recommends), Garmin offers trusted options here.
For cyclists, power meters measure the actual watts of energy they're producing while pedaling; it's like having a direct measurement of your engine's output. The tool breaks down a rider's personal power records across those 12 intervals and highlights strengths and weaknesses, with the option to compare recent efforts against lifetime bests.
What's particularly helpful is that it ranks your performances against a standard that adjusts for age and body weight, showing where they stand relative to "what's possible" (your potential) across eight levels. This means a 50-year-old cyclist isn't being compared to 20-year-old pros, which is huge for Strava's famously competitive social media ecosystem.
Power Skills compares your recent efforts against lifetime bests, so you can see if your training is moving you in the right direction across different intervals. Here's what else to know to really make the most of it.
Your Power Skills profile shows a visual representation of your 12 key power intervals, from 5-second sprints to 60-minute efforts. Each interval is color-coded to show your relative strength in that area.
Like I describe above, this system ranks your performance across eight levels, adjusting for age and weight. This means you're being compared to realistic benchmarks for your demographic, not just elite riders. These rankings help you understand where you sit in the broader cycling population.
The main point of Power Skills is to identify your natural strengths and highlights areas with the most room for improvement. This is crucial for targeted training. Instead of generic "ride more," you get specific guidance on which energy systems need work.
Elephant in the room: This feature only works for cyclists, not runners. So as a runner myself, I'm holding out hope that Strava finds a way to make this feature work even without a physical power meter on a bike. For now, Garmin seems to have figured it out.
Some other limitations to keep in mind are that this sort of feature requires consistent power meter data to be meaningful. Plus, it's historical analysis only; it doesn't prescribe specific workouts. It's probably best used as one tool in a broader training approach, not the only metric you look toward for guidance. Still, Power Skills is a cool way to use data-driven insights to train smarter, not just harder.
ao3_news_feed) wrote2025-09-15 03:48 pm
AO3 Tag Wranglers continue to test processes for wrangling canonical additional tags (tags that appear in the auto-complete) which don't belong to any particular fandom (also known as "No Fandom" tags). This post will provide an overview of some of these upcoming changes.
In this round of updates, we continued a method which streamlines creation of new canonical tags, prioritizing more straightforward updates which would have less discussion compared to renaming current canonical tags or creating new canonical tags which touch on more complex topics. This method also reviews new tags on a regular basis, so check back on AO3 News for periodic "No Fandom" tag announcements.
None of these updates change the tags users have added to works. If a user-created tag is considered to have the same meaning as a new canonical, it will be made a synonym of one of these newly created canonical tags, and works with that user-created tag will appear when the canonical tag is selected.
In short, these changes only affect which tags appear in AO3's auto-complete and filters. You can and should continue to tag your works however you prefer.
The following concepts have been made new canonical tags:
While all these new tags have already been made canonical, we are still working on implementing changes and connecting relevant tags, so it’ll be some time before these updates are complete. We thank you in advance for your patience!
While we won't be announcing every change we make to No Fandom canonical tags, you can expect similar updates in the future on the tags we believe will most affect users. If you're interested in the changes we'll be making, you can continue to check AO3 News or follow us on Bluesky @wranglers.archiveofourown.org or Tumblr @ao3org for future announcements.
You can also read previous updates on "No Fandom" tags as well as other wrangling updates, linked below:
For more information about AO3's tag system, check out our Tags FAQ.
In addition to providing technical help, AO3 Support also handles requests related to how tags are sorted and connected. If you have questions about specific tags, which were first used over a month ago and are unrelated to any of the new canonical tags listed above, please contact Support instead of leaving a comment on this post.
Lastly, as mentioned above, we're still working on connecting relevant user-created tags to these new canonicals. If you have questions about specific tags which should be connected to these new canonicals, please refrain from contacting Support about them until at least two months from now.
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
tinny) wrote2025-09-15 06:13 pmcyberghostface) wrote in scans_daily2025-09-15 12:00 pm
jazzfish) wrote2025-09-15 08:58 amotw_news_feed) wrote2025-09-15 03:45 pmAO3 Tag Wranglers continue to test processes for wrangling canonical additional tags (tags that appear in the auto-complete) which don’t belong to any particular fandom (also known as “No Fandom” tags). This post will provide an overview of some of these upcoming changes.
In this round of updates, we continued a method which streamlines creation of new canonical tags, prioritizing more straightforward updates which would have less discussion compared to renaming current canonical tags or creating new canonical tags which touch on more complex topics. This method also reviews new tags on a regular basis, so check back on AO3 News for periodic “No Fandom” tag announcements.
None of these updates change the tags users have added to works. If a user-created tag is considered to have the same meaning as a new canonical, it will be made a synonym of one of these newly created canonical tags, and works with that user-created tag will appear when the canonical tag is selected.
In short, these changes only affect which tags appear in AO3’s auto-complete and filters. You can and should continue to tag your works however you prefer.
The following concepts have been made new canonical tags:
While all these new tags have already been made canonical, we are still working on implementing changes and connecting relevant tags, so it’ll be some time before these updates are complete. We thank you in advance for your patience!
While we won’t be announcing every change we make to No Fandom canonical tags, you can expect similar updates in the future on the tags we believe will most affect users. If you’re interested in the changes we’ll be making, you can continue to check AO3 News or follow us on Bluesky @wranglers.archiveofourown.org or Tumblr @ao3org for future announcements.
You can also read previous updates on “No Fandom” tags as well as other wrangling updates, linked below:
For more information about AO3’s tag system, check out our Tags FAQ.
In addition to providing technical help, AO3 Support also handles requests related to how tags are sorted and connected. If you have questions about specific tags, which were first used over a month ago and are unrelated to any of the new canonical tags listed above, please contact Support instead of leaving a comment on this post.
Lastly, as mentioned above, we’re still working on connecting relevant user-created tags to these new canonicals. If you have questions about specific tags which should be connected to these new canonicals, please refrain from contacting Support about them until at least two months from now.
lifehacker_feed) wrote2025-09-15 02:30 pmWe may earn a commission from links on this page.
Keeping track of what you weigh is important (although there are reasonable arguments against keeping track of it too much). I am really into tracking all of all my health-related data and organizing it on my phone so I can monitor trends and changes, so weighing myself consistently is just part of that larger mission. For me, that involves using a smart scale, which syncs with all my other health apps and creates a full picture of how I'm doing, fitness-wise—but if you don't want to get that tech-y with it, you have other options, too. Here are the best smart and dumb scales.
These have additional or cool features like body fat measurement—though you should probably take those figures with a grain of salt—that go beyond just telling you your weight.
I have this iHealth Nexus Smart Scale ($35) and love it so much I bought another one for my boyfriend. We've been using them for about two years with no problems. I weigh myself every other morning or so and the batteries lasted about 18 months before needing to be replaced. The price is accessible, but it still comes with a ton of features. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth, then it assesses your weight, BMI, and even makes some estimates of things like muscle mass and bone mass, importing all of that information to your device, making it downloadable, and creating graphs of changes over time. Because it syncs so easily with your phone's native health app, it also, technically, syncs with any other apps that are also tied in there. For instance, I use a nutrient-tracking app called Lifesum. My weight is automatically updated and inputted there when I weigh myself on the iHealth Nexus and Lifesum adjusts my calorie and nutrient suggestions for the day to keep me on track with my goals.
I'm an Apple Watch girl, so I'm a fan of my scale for its easy integration with Apple Health. Generally, if you're using a specific product or suite of products, I think you should stay in the same family as much as you can. The easier tracking is, the more likely you are to do it and stick with it. If you're a Fitbit user, grab the Fitbit Aria Air ($50), which syncs directly with your Fitbit dashboard, not Apple Health. It's relatively simple, only showing your weight and BMI, but really, that might be all you need. It's lightweight, "sleek," and "minimalist," according to reviewers, so it's not a bulky addition to the bathroom, either.
The Shapa scale ($120) is an innovative smart scale that shows you colors, not numbers, so you don't get too caught up monitoring your exact weight. I have a friend who is a big fan of this approach and this device. The colors refer to your average weight over time and if you see blue on your app, you're losing weight. Teal means you're starting to lose weight, green means you're maintaining it, light gray means you're starting to gain, and dark gray means you are gaining weight. That's it. It's popular on Reddit, too, where users praise it for helping them get over scale anxiety. It's not helpful to use a device if it's going to stress you out or, worse, demoralize you to the point that you stop using it. This simple, color-based approach helps you ignore numbers (which fluctuate over the course of an average day) and think more long-term.
This Renpho smart scale ($43) is cool because it lights up, either to remind you periodically to weigh yourself or to serve as a nightlight, depending on your preferences and needs. It's a versatile option that's great for small bathrooms. For its low price, it also packs quite a few punches: It syncs with Google Fit, Samsung Health, Fitbit, and MyFitnessPal, estimates metrics like body fat percentage and muscle mass, and even has baby- and pet-weighing modes, plus specialized modes for athletes.
Don't need the bells and whistles? That's fine. You can pick up an inexpensive one that just shows you your weight, easy peasy. You might still want to track this somewhere, like an Excel spreadsheet, so you can do half the work the smart scales do on your own, but if you're someone who gets a little too into weighing yourself or number-crunching, you can also just use these on their own for periodic check-ins.
The basic scale I use when I'm not using my iNexus isn't available on Amazon anymore, but this HomeBuds digital scale ($13) is very similar: There's an easy-to-read, bright LED display and the machine turns on automatically when you step on it. There isn't much else to say—and for a lot of people, that's the point!
This GE digital scale ($30) displays your body weight and BMI. I'll be real with you: This one has gone up in price (while the rest of the ones have gone down) over the past year, so now that it's inching into the $30+ range, it might be worth considering spending an extra $10 on a smart scale, or at least doing so down the line. You can use this as a bridge between the classic way and the more modern way, as it comes from a trusted brand and displays more measurements than the standard scale without diving into phone-connected territory.
applenym) wrote2025-09-15 09:49 am
In mid-August I returned from a long road trip (Minnesota to Seattle) and was seized by the urge to declutter my basement.
Every so often I feel the need to weed out my stuff, and in this fortunate moment the desire and my energy levels aligned. I attribute this particular recurring bee in my bonnet to two (obviously linked) factors: 1) my anxious brain needing to catalog exactly what stuff I have and where it all is, and 2) a childhood split between parents who lived in different states (plus my dad moved a lot).
When this mood hits, it helps that I love to organize and I'm not very sentimental about stuff. But I do have a terrible weakness, and it is this: arts & crafts supplies. Not just the obvious tools for creating art, like paintbrushes and origami paper. Oh no — I save all kinds of detritus, anything that could conceivably be used to create an art project: empty toilet paper rolls, bits of ribbon and string, old T-shirts and socks with holes in them, cardboard boxes, seashells, buttons, pretty scraps of paper and packaging, old calendars, glass jars, lids from used toothpaste tubes, the inside workings of dried-out ballpoint pens (those springs are cool), flattened cereal boxes, promotional magnets, old keys, rubber bands, et cetera ad infinitum.
The problem is that there's no good place for this kind of stuff to live in my small house. It gets pushed into nooks and crannies all over, and the psychic weight gets heavier over time. Plus I haven't actually done many craft projects in the past decade or two. Maybe I’ll get back to it someday, but who knows when?
So I did the KonMari thing and pulled all of it out of hiding and piled it into one place. I'd made passes at doing something like this before, but this time something unlocked inside of me and I was able to get rid of SO MUCH STUFF. It was GLORIOUS.
Of course some stuff is starting to creep back into the house again, but that’s mostly because I have such a weakness for glass containers. They are so good! Non-toxic, clear so you can see what’s inside them, different sizes and shapes to hold all kinds of things! Who doesn’t want a good glass jar (or several dozen)?
cakewrecks_feed) wrote2025-09-15 01:00 pmNames are tough - there are just so many weird ones out there - so I tend to cut bakers a lot of slack when it comes to misspelling them.
But I'm pretty sure these birthday kids weren't so understanding:
"...and that's how Bobby got his nickname! Now, you two kids get going, and have a nice prom!"
I'm guessing something about this cake is going to rub little Chase the wrong way:
Ooh. BURN.
Clap your hands if you believe Tink's gonna be ticked.
This remains one of my all-time favorite name wrecks:
"Look, Stetson! It's almost like you're part of the family!"
Of all the times to mix up your "u"s and "a"s...
And this is what we call a Freudian piping slip:
It was a bittersweet parting.
Of course, not every name goof results in an insult. Some people even come out ahead:
Way, WAY ahead.
It's doubly unfortunate that these polka dots look a lot more "Turdi" than "Trudi":
What a way to go.
Let's hope Violet doesn't live up to her new nick name.
This "cookie bouquet" was for a baby shower. I'll let you spot the problem:
"Well, I SHOULD HOPE SO."
Thanks to Brian C., Elizabeth B., Beth, Natalie B., Melissa R., Lacey C., Jennifer S., Kirsten H., Addy L., & Jennie C. for not naming any names.
*****
P.S. If you're bad with names, why not plaster their faces all over a pair of socks?
Though I have to admit it's way cuter with pets.
*****
And from my other blog, Epbot:
antisoppist) wrote2025-09-15 01:42 pmnineveh_uk and I went to see As You Like It with Harriet Walter in it. Harriet Walter was playing Jacques. I was pleased to find there was more of Jacques than I remembered. I just remembered him coming on lugubriously every now and then and eventually glumly producing the Seven Ages of Man speech. This is very probably because the only other time I have seen a performance of As You Like It, Jacques was played by Alan Rickman. In 1986. lifehacker_feed) wrote2025-09-15 01:00 pmWe may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding Lifehacker as a preferred source for tech news.
The Samsung HW-Q800F soundbar is down to $597.99 on Woot right now, which is a good chunk less than its $797.99 Amazon price tag, and even lower than the lowest price it’s ever gone for before ($697.99), according to price-trackers. This offer is valid for the next two weeks or until it sells out, with free shipping for Prime members and a $6 fee for others. Plus, it comes with a 90-day Woot limited warranty, but the real appeal here is the performance: It’s a 5.1.2-channel system with Dolby Atmos support, meaning you get immersive audio, even without extra satellite speakers.
When it comes to performance, the Q800F feels most at home with TV and movies. The subwoofer has plenty of rumble for action-heavy scenes, while the dedicated center channel makes dialogue stand out even when everything else gets loud. That’s something a lot of cheaper soundbars miss, and it makes a big difference if you don’t want to ride the volume button during every show. Additionally, it plays nice with just about any device you throw at it—HDMI passthrough for 4K at 60Hz with HDR and Dolby Vision, plus Bluetooth, wifi, AirPlay, and Spotify Connect. If you’ve got a recent Samsung TV, you can even skip the HDMI cable altogether and stream Atmos wirelessly. Voice control is built in through Alexa; however, reportedly, connecting it to Google Assistant requires a little extra effort using Samsung’s app.
There are some trade-offs, though. The Q800F doesn’t offer HDMI 2.1 support or features like VRR, which limits its appeal if you’re chasing cutting-edge gaming specs. And Atmos performance, while present, doesn’t match that of the more expensive Q990F with dedicated satellites (the surround effect feels wider than a basic stereo bar, but not always fully convincing). Also, the bass can skew a little boomy, and there’s a dip in the mids that can thin out certain dialogue. Still, for a clean setup with powerful sound and strong format support, the Q800F offers a lot of the premium experience at mid-range price.
