Lifehacker

If your travels are taking you to or from New England, the Great Lakes, or Plains areas this weekend, or through them, then you may want to consider changing your ticket.

A few years ago my friend group discovered the dice game Quixx. If you haven’t played it, I highly recommend it. Essentially, you roll a collection of differently-colored dice and then try to mark off numbers on a score sheet based on the totals.

Microsoft just released an adorable “Dogs and Cats” pack of desktop backgrounds, if you’ve been looking for a way to make your Windows 10 PC’s wallpaper a little cuter to look at. There are fifteen images in total, all of which are available for download from the Microsoft store.

Fires are currently still burning in Australia, threatening homes, residents, and the country’s unique wildlife. It’s a huge fight, and an expensive one. United is offering MileagePlus users a tiny incentive to make a donation to help fight the fires in the form of airline miles.

Nvidia and Asus announced at this year’s CES that they’ve created an esports-focused computer monitor capable of running at 360Hz in 1080p. You probably don’t need one, even if you’re getting better and better at CS:GO and feel like this is the year you’ll finally be able to step up your game and go big.Read more...

You feel your chest tightening, your breathing becomes erratic and your hands start to sweat. For most people, this may describe the physical experience of watching a spine-chilling horror movie. Yet for some anxiety sufferers these symptoms just need a good jump scare to resolve – something I only realized after I…Read more...

I once helped a man search for an engagement ring in knee-deep snow, in the dark, in middle-of-nowhere Iceland. As we sifted through the snow with our mittens while someone distracted his girlfriend, another in our search party (our tour group) chuckled, “Well, you’ve got insurance, right?”

We are firmly in the middle of bad winter, that portion of the year that is cold, damp, and grey, without warm seasonal cheer to balance the ill effects. I don’t know how you cope with ill effects, but I’ve heard drinking gin helps sometimes.Read more...

As someone who actively seeks out and writes about parenting hacks every day, I’m always looking for shortcuts and tricks to make your lives (and my own) a tiny bit easier. But not all hacks are created equal, and a hack that works brilliantly for one parent might be a complete waste of time for another. Your mileage,…Read more...

Shutting down or restarting your PC every now and then is a good thing. It can even solve minor performance issues by clearing temporary files and freeing up memory—a classic troubleshooting technique—but many of us neglect this simple act of tech upkeep. It’s a lot easier to put a desktop or laptop to sleep (or…Read more...

There’s nothing wrong with the premise of the U.S. Government’s Lifeline Assistance program. It allows those with substantially low incomes—135 percent or less than the Federal Poverty Guidelines, or less than $16,862 for a single-person household—to receive discounted or free phones and wireless services.

The first full moon of the year rises today, January 10th, which also brings the first lunar eclipse of the year.

As Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing an interesting strategy for getting a car deal, test drives on an affordable performance car, and inspections on cheap rides.Read more...

Ready for the first fitness challenge of 2020? We’re going to get acquainted with the infamous ab wheel, better known as “Hey, what’s this? I bet I can—oof.” (And here you fall on your face.) We’ll start today with some beginner tips.Read more...

Every year, for at least the past four years, I have resolved to spend less time on Twitter.Read more...

Southwest recently took the expiration date off its Rapid Rewards points program. And now, its co-branded credit card with Chase is offering the chance to rack up a gigantic pile of never-expiring points to use as you please.

It is a common refrain among parents of young children that the Terrible Twos have nothing on age three. When they hit age three, we start calling them “threenagers,” a tip of the hat to their increasingly disgruntled disposition. But that word is nowhere near strong enough to depict what it’s actually like to have a…Read more...

If you’re on the lookout for a good deal on a flight, it’s a hell of a guessing game as to when to pull the trigger, given the daily and even hourly changes in price on booking sites. Fortunately, data analysts at Hopper, a travel app, recently reviewed a few billion flight prices in 2019 to help you find some of the…Read more...

Deadlines are scary. I know. And Microsoft has thrown Windows 7 users a big one: Update to a more modern operating system by January 15, 2020, or you’ll never receive security updates ever again. Eventually, Microsoft will even start disabling key Windows 7 services—like Internet Backgammon and Internet…Read more...

Vitamin Gold Box | AmazonRead more...

2020 is going to be a bonkers year for US politics, but while the presidential debates and President Trump’s lingering impeachment might be the biggest topics of conversation (so far), we all know where the true political discourse happens: Facebook.

The wedge salad is often dismissed as nothing more than a vehicle for blue cheese and crispy bits of cured pork. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, I think a delivery system for cheese and bacon is what lettuce should strive to be, but you can make your wedge just a touch more nutritious (and…Read more...

If I look up from my office computer in southeast Portland I see a patchwork of brick buildings interspersed by evergreen patches of forest, all pushing up against a lead-colored sky. It’s winter in the Pacific Northwest, and we’re a couple months into a rainy season that will probably last until April. Lucky me, I…Read more...

Jeopardy! is holding a tournament this week between three of its greatest players: Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhaur. The event, called Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time, officially kicked off Wednesday evening on ABC, but will also air at 8pm ET Thursday and Friday evening.

There’s this thing that happens when a person sees a brand new human. Their hands, which just moments before they had complete control over, turn into large magnets that pull straight up and out with a primal need to touch that baby. It’s bad enough to endure months of randoms rubbing your pregnant stomach; now all…Read more...

2020 is off to an incredibly shitty start—what with the destructive bushfires in Australia, ramped-up tensions between the U.S. and Iran, and ongoing earthquakes in Puerto Rico. If you’re someone who enjoys staying on top of world events, keeping up with the news has likely become a full-time job.Read more...

As much fun as vacations can be, actually planning your travel can be tedious and anxiety-inducing. Sure, an all-inclusive package or a travel agent might make the process easier, but that’s going to get pricey, and anyway, some of us prefer to make all the arrangements ourselves—even if we have to rely on a…Read more...

Even though you probably just updated your Firefox desktop browser to version 72 (released Tuesday), make sure you run one more update to nab a special patch that Mozilla released yesterday. Updating to version 72.0.1 fixes a zero-day vulnerability that, if exploited, could allow an attacker to “take control of an…Read more...

Having a baby is a pricey endeavor. Health care costs and the expense of getting prepared for a baby’s first year of life take a hefty bit of coin. As babies grow, their needs change, too. There’s no way to anticipate how quickly your child will transition through the stages, which could bring on a heap of unforeseen…Read more...

Receiving a new credit card in the mail can feel like a major win. You researched cards, chose one that fits your needs, and got approved—and your new card confirms your financial clout. But what if you never asked to open that credit card that just showed up in the mail?

If you’ve spent the past few months indulging in everything from gifts to new clothes to more expensive versions of your favorite foods, shifting back to your everyday spending habits might be more difficult than you realize.Read more...

If you’re having a hard time waking up early, it may help to embrace one simple fact: getting out of bed on that first early morning is like ripping off a band-aid.Read more...

On Tuesday, an earthquake measuring a 6.4 magnitude struck the island of Puerto Rico, unleashing a series of aftershocks that have leveled homes and structures on the island; this earthquake closely followed a 5.8 magnitude earthquake which also struck the island early Monday morning.

One of the most challenging things about meal planning is predicting what future you is going to want to eat. I am very bad at this, as my palate often craves last-minute adventure, but one thing that always excites is potatoes.

I didn’t start fixing cars until I was a freshman in college, and by then, the internet was filling with how-to DIY YouTube videos that helped me get up to speed in short order. Lots of YouTubers spend tons of time making videos to show the rest of us how to fix things, and I think they deserve appreciation. So here’s…Read more...

Which Disney character are you? Which font are you? Which Office character are you? Instagram stories are overrun with filter quizzes, I know. Much like Baby Yoda and that song from The Witcher, these will go away—eventually. Until then, it is kind of fun to see what random results you get with these Instagram…Read more...

At this point, it almost feels like tradition. Every couple of months, Facebook will find itself embroiled in one scandal or another. Inevitably, #DeleteFacebook will start trending across various social media. So if you’re finally ready to go through with it and cut ties with Facebook, watch our step-by-step guide…Read more...

The other day, while chatting in Slack about this pumping hack, a couple of my co-workers got to talking about what does—and does not—make for an adequate workplace lactation room. I decided to ask the experts (the Offspring Facebook Group) what they thought should be included in a private pumping space and those…Read more...

Ever thought the high bonuses and huge perks offered by the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card sounded too good to be true? It sounds like the honeymoon period is coming to an end: The annual fee for the card is going from $450 to $550 this year.

eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S (White or Black) | $149 | Amazon

Jeopardy!’s “Greatest of All Time” tournament is in full swing. And if you haven’t gotten your chance to compete on the show just yet, now you can do the next best thing.

Workout apps are fine, but I’m a strong believer in an old fashioned training journal. Since last spring, I’ve logged my workouts in a hardback graph paper notebook, and I found that the blank pages gave me plenty of space for charts, reflections, reference material, and more. So here’s a peek at how I’m setting up my…Read more...

I have always been suspicious of artists who claim they can’t create anything of value while sober. I’ve never found my drunk writing to be any better than my sober writing, but I have to admit that some of my best ideas come to me once my inhibitions have been lowered by alcohol. Could a sober mind create SPAM…Read more...

If you work long hours, you should get paid for them, right? How about getting time-and-a-half for them? Good news: You might be eligible, per the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule.Read more...

Extendable Ice Scraper and Snow Brush with Foam Grip | $13| Daily Steals | Promo code KJSNOWSCPRRead more...

As a motor-carriage operator, there’s a lot of laws that must be acknowledged and respected: no open flames in the car, try to keep any raptors or other birds of prey secured while driving, take down your big cardboard sunshade before driving, that sort of thing. While I’m not certain any of those example laws are…Read more...

Cybersecurity firm Check Point Research recently came out with a pretty damning article about TikTok vulnerabilities that gave hackers a great way to infiltrate users’ accounts. TikTok has since patched the issues, so you’re safe, but the creative way that these attacks were generated offers a great learning…Read more...

The news keeps getting more upsetting: there are bushfires in Australia, earthquakes in Puerto Rico and a powderkeg situation in Iran, and that’s just been the past few days. With the deluge of terrifying world events, it’s easy to find yourself scanning social media and panicking. Words like “BREAKING” (especially in…Read more...

There are a lot of logistics involved in breastfeeding and pumping. You need time, you need space, you need equipment. Sometimes, after a pumping session, you just don’t feel like cleaning all those parts again. And sometimes, you don’t have the time because you’ve got a meeting that’s starting in three minutes or…Read more...

Welcome to that time of the year: when swarms of self-professed out-of-shape people vow to get swole or simply in better shape (or even more simply, less bad shape), which means gyms nationwide are flooded with new membership and false promises of a societally structural body packaged under the banner of health and…Read more...