Author: mike

Apple’s two-factor authentication is great, but like other services, it relies on a Recovery Key when you get locked out. Without that key, you can’t access your account if it’s hacked. The Next Web learned this the hard way.

The Next Web’s Owen Williams was locked out of his Apple ID and didn’t have his Recovery Key. If you’re using two-factor authentication, this is almost as bad as losing your phone. The Recovery Key is your safeguard to prove that you’re you—if someone attempts and fails to get into your Apple account, the only way back in is with the Recovery Key. Without your Recovery Key, you’re locked out of your Apple ID for good and all your purchases are gone. Apple makes this abundantly clear when you sign up for two-factor authentication, but if you somehow missed this memo, you can get a new Recovery Key pretty easily:

1. Go to the Apple ID page and log in.
2. Click "Password and Security"
3. Click "Replace Lost Key" and click Next
4. Make sure you actually print or save your key somewhere safe this time

You can only generate a new Recovery Key if you have access to your account, so do it now while you still can. Head over to The Next Web for William’s whole story.

The dark side of Apple’s two-factor authentication | The Next Web

via Lifehacker
Replace a Lost Apple ID Recovery Key Before You’re Locked Out

"The Dark Knight" by Jason Kang aka KangJason

"Hulk vs Wolverine" by Jason Kang aka KangJason

"Steampunk Ironman" by Jason Kang aka KangJason

via How to Carve Roast Unicorn
THE DARK KNIGHT, HULK vs. WOLVERINE & STEAMPUNK IRON MAN

A new treatment essentially cured lab animals of obesity and diabetes by lowering blood sugar levels and reducing body fat … Continued

The post Peptide cures obesity and diabetes in rats appeared first on Futurity.

via Futurity
Peptide cures obesity and diabetes in rats

Gift cards are a great way to get someone exactly what they want without giving them straight cash— and there are many ways to save on them. Here’s a tip to save some cash: Remember that gift cards are tax-free, so make sure you don’t get accidentally charged.

NerdWallet explains:

A final tip to getting the best deal: Gift cards aren’t subject to taxes in any state in the country, but it does occasionally happen that customers are charged tax nonetheless. If this happens to you (whether by accident or on purpose), let your cashier or online retailer know and demand the refund you’re entitled to.

For more ways to save on gift cards, check out the full post linked below.

How to Get Gift Cards for Less | NerdWallet

Image from 401(k) 2012.

via Lifehacker
Reminder: Gift Cards Are Tax-Free, So Make Sure You Don’t Get Charged

Preview is awesome for a number of reasons, and writer Dave Winer points out that it also makes a great paint program.

While you can’t create new works of art using just Preview, it is a more powerful editor than it looks at a glance. Just open up any image in Preview, click the toolbox icon, and you’ll get a bunch of editing tools. You can easily make backgrounds transparent, annotate images, draw whatever you want as an image, and more. Preview doesn’t have the charm of MS Paint, but it does a bit more than you’d think.

A hidden Mac paint program | Scripting News

via Lifehacker
Access Your Mac’s Hidden Paint Program In Preview

Brittle, anemic Helvetica is simply not a good choice as a default display font Apple’s operating system. That’s why I’m pretty excited about this little trick to replace Helvetica Neue (the standard font that comes with Yosemite) with San Francisco, Apple’s new typeface designed in-house for the Apple Watch.

As you’ll remember, we first laid eyes on San Francisco when the Apple Watch was unveiled, although we didn’t know its name yet. All we knew is that it was efficient and effortlessly readable at tiny sizes. Apple claimed they’d developed the typeface in-house, but didn’t reveal more about the typeface itself until a few months later.

Now, San Francisco, as it’s called, is available for Apple Watch developers, so Github user Wells Riley put together an easy way to install San Francisco as the default display typeface on your Yosemite-running Mac.

Helvetica was designed decades before the computer and its thin, willowy letterforms were never the right choice for someone squinting at a screen all day. San Francisco was not only developed explicitly for a screen but also for a very, very small one, meaning that it reads even better at the slightly larger size you’ll see on your monitor.

I made the swap and here’s what I see. Before, with Helvetica Neue all over the place (hit expand to see at full size):

And after, with San Francisco:

And an additional side-by-side comparison. Before:

After:

And in animated form:

I can tell you as someone who has done my fair share of screen-squinting that this upgrade is absolutely welcome. Something about the slightly elongated letters and a little extra internal space makes all the difference (and the @ sign is just lovely—a revelation). Now I’d like the same fix for my iPhone. Maybe Apple will roll out a version of San Francisco optimized for the next OS? Change can’t come soon enough. [GitHub, h/t to Nate Schulman]

via Gizmodo
Trust Us, Change Your Yosemite Font From Helvetica to San Francisco

A few weeks ago, the new Star Wars teaser trailer caused the internet to lose its collective shit. But amidst all the Millenium Falcon and soccer-ball-droid drooling, Saturday Night Live wanted to make sure that you don’t lose sight of one very important fact: By now, the original characters are just a bunch of old, senile geezers.

Or at least, they should be if they want to keep any sense of realism in this ancient magic flying space land. Grandma Leia can’t program R2’s clock. Lightsabers are more useful as walkers. And they just can’t figure out how to turn the Millenium Falcon’s damn blinker off. Never forget, kids: Time is the cruelest Sith of all. [Hulu]

via Gizmodo
SNL’s Star Wars Trailer: Remember, Everybody’s Old as Hell

Last week’s release of the teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens not only set the internet on fire, it spawned countless parodies. One of the more amusing take-offs on the…
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Wes Anderson’s The Force Awakens

The Sony Pictures hack went from from weird to unbelievable in a matter of days. Now, it’s just scary. Multiple sources are now saying that hackers sent Sony Pictures employees emails threatening to harm them and their family members. Said one employee, "It’s really crazy and scary."

That is indeed very crazy and scary. Variety reportedly got ahold of the actual email, claiming to be from GOP, the name the hackers are using. (It stands for Guardians of Peace.) And it is very crazy and scary. Check out the full email, per Variety:

I am the head of GOP who made you worry.

Removing Sony Pictures on earth is a very tiny work for our group which is a worldwide organization. And what we have done so far is only a small part of our further plan.It’s your false if you if you think this crisis will be over after some time. All hope will leave you and Sony Pictures will collapse. This situation is only due to Sony Pictures. Sony Pictures is responsible for whatever the result is. Sony Pictures clings to what is good to nobody from the beginning. It’s silly to expect in Sony Pictures to take off us. Sony Pictures makes only useless efforts. One beside you can be our member.

Many things beyond imagination will happen at many places of the world. Our agents find themselves act in necessary places. Please sign your name to object the false of the company at the email address below if you don’t want to suffer damage. If you don’t, not only you but your family will be in danger.

Nobody can prevent us, but the only way is to follow our demand. If you want to prevent us, make your company behave wisely.

A Sony Pictures spokesman said of the emails, "We are aware of the situation and are working with law enforcement." Which is a good thing at this point. [Variety]

via Gizmodo
Hackers Threatened to Put Sony Pictures Employees and Families in Danger

I know most of the food we eat contains iron to some extent. And I also know that iron is vital to keep us going. But watching this awesome science experiment where corn flakes get attracted to a magnet creeps me out a little. This is why it happens:

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via Gizmodo
Magnets can attract your cereal and this is why