Today I Learned

Why reboot your whole SteamOS handheld to desktop when you can visit the desktop from inside the gaming mode? Nested Desktop does have limitations (no file management, no Steam-within-Steam) but gosh are there times this’d come in handy. Jacob at XDA calls it “the best Steam Deck feature you aren’t using”.

There’s an art to building a small-form-factor PC. When my recent upgrade doubled my CPU power draw, I had to choose: buy a bigger case to accommodate a more powerful cooler, or cut a hole in the side of my old one.

This is the BYD Yangwang U9, one of the fastest production EVs at 233MPH — but all I care about is how much closer we are to Speed Racer’s auto-jacks! Since BYD doesn’t want to get sued, a disclaimer states that “U9’s Leaping Function is prohibited for practical scenarios,” but it claims the feature works under very specific conditions. Would I rather have this or wheels that turn sideways, hmm...

If you’re trying to stay huddled and warm under the covers while enjoying a good ebook, there are tiny robotic fingers — triggered by a wireless remote you can keep under the blankets — that clamp onto e-readers and tap the edge of the screen to turn the page for you.

I would have sworn this feature already existed — probably because it does on desktop Gmail! But Google says it’s new for Android. Just expand your CC and BCC fields, drop your finger atop any email address for a moment, then drag it where you’d like.

$20 direct from Retro Fighters, $28 from Amazon, or about $18 from VGP Canada, all before shipping costs.

Sounds like it’s mostly knockoff Apple Earpods. Wired explains:

Ubisoft’s Cécile Russeil is EVP in charge of Communications, Corporate Affairs, Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility, Human Resources, and Legal. So anything and everything the company does to fix that toxic workplace we heard about in 2020, which led to some changes and more recently to arrests — it’s all on her. Sounds like a monster job.

I can’t get enough of ad agency creative Dustin Ballard’s AI hijinks: he made The Red Hot Chili Peppers sing a grocery list, turned Lil Jon’s “Get Low” into a time-honored Christmas classic, and showed up a congressional hearing on AI. That’s just a taste.

Every desktop GPU should ship with four of these unholy things.

As Jimmy Kimmel said in his opening monologue for the Oscars, “When I went to see Killers of the Flower Moon, I had my mail forwarded to the theater.” If you’re sitting through a three-hour movie, nature may call at an inconvenient moment.

The Wham Bam Cloud Personal Printer Sentry is a $29 gadget designed to protect your home if your printer catches fire, by exploding into a cloud of extinguishing powder if direct flame touches it for 2-3 seconds.

I wanted it to be February’s Button of the Month — partly because its big honking button has an incredible click and shoots out a monster jet of flame, partly because it triples as an alarm clock (!), and partly ‘cuz it hearkens back to Casio’s original invention: a finger ring for cigarettes.

I missed its September launch, but Spotify can now auto-generate you a time-appropriate playlist based on your daily listening habits by searching for “Daylist.” Playlists even come with bizarre titles like “ska punch skateboarding tuesday morning.”

Remember the a capella group that did the scary-good Windows and iPhone sound effects? They... never stopped, and somehow I’m just learning about it today.

It’s called the Heat It, and apparently it can work! Not that you need an app-based gadget like this; apparently standalone heat pens are an entire category of bug bite remedy. There are also suction-based sting removers — though some reviews suggest those work best if you notice the bite immediately.

TIL the Spotify mobile app allows you to play a unique version of the iconic Snake game that munches through the cover art for every song on a playlist of your choosing. Just head into the settings (the three dots) and tap on “eat this playlist.”

Today I learned there’s a piano-playing animatronic puppet that’s been roaming around San Francisco serenading the locals with Vanessa Carlton’s hit single A Thousand Miles.

People have been DIYing this for years, but it looks like Amazon just started stocking bespoke tool battery adapters in 2022! Friend of mine says his Dyson V6 one works great and — importantly — has low voltage cutoff when installed. (DeWalt famously puts protection in the tool, not the battery.)

How many? How fast? How much do they cost, and who foots the bill? How much electricity do they require? How do we plant them under the sea, and how quickly, with what challenges? How thick are they, and how vulnerable?

Today I learned about Ventoy, which makes an entire USB drive bootable — then, you just drag and drop ISOs to it!

The story of a hometown hero who brought Kurdish to Google Translate has a darker narrative lurking beneath: Google apparently doesn’t pay its hardest-working translators.

Even if you measure it like a TV, it’s just over half an inch. Misleading much? In fact, you’d need an APS-C or larger sensor to stretch to an inch diagonally — and only full-frame and medium format sensors are more than an inch wide.

That comes directly from p. 24 of Tesla’s Model S Emergency Response Guide (PDF), and it’s not just theoretical; fire crews needed four trucks and 6,000 gallons to put one out near Sacramento this weekend. Many fire engines carry less than 1,000 gallons each, and no, they can’t just use foam to smother the fire instead.