Author: peterjang73

The wifi password is a power both desired and feared: Everyone wants to know it, but forget it, and you’re toast. Why Microsoft and Apple make it difficult to find wifi passwords on Windows and Mac isn’t clear (this is valuable information, after all). But, rest assured, those passwords are available to you if you’re prepared to click through some menus.

It isn’t only your computers that hide the wifi passwords: You can also see these passwords on your iPhone and Android devices as well. The next time someone asks for the wifi, as long as one of your device is connected to it, you can help.

How to see your wifi password on Windows

Microsoft hides your wifi passwords away behind various settings screens. How you get there, though, differs slightly depending on your platform. If you’re running Windows 11, hit Start, type control panel, then head to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center. If you’re on Windows 10, hit Start, then head to Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network and Sharing Center.

From here, on any platform, click on your particular wifi connection next to Connections, then, in Wi-Fi Status, click Wireless Properties. Now, open the Security tab, then make sure the Show characters box is checked. Once that’s done, you’ll see your network’s password. You can no share it with a friend or write it down and put it on the fridge.

How to see your wifi password on Mac

Apple does things a bit differently than Windows. You don’t necessarily view the password for the network you’re currently connected to; instead, the OS saves each wifi password you connect to in your device’s keychain, available to access whenever and wherever. You could share the wifi password from your old apartment to a subletter, or spill on the code for that coffee shop that really doesn’t like handing out the wifi.

To find it, open Keychain Access on your Mac (the quickest way is to search for it with Command + Space). Type your wifi network name into the search bar, then click the network when it appears in your list. With the network highlighted, click the (i) at the top of the window, or right-click on the network and choose Get Info, then click the checkbox next to Show password. Enter your Mac’s login password, and Keychain Access will reveal the wifi password in turn.

  

In 2016 Purdue University announced an income-share agreement program as a guinea pig experiment in which students could get money for college in exchange for a cut of their future earnings. “Back a Boiler,” it was called, in a nod to the school’s Boilermaker nickname. University president Mitch Daniels talked up the idea in testimony to Congress. 

Intrigued, other university leaders wanted in. “We’re looking at what Purdue University is doing now, and we are thinking about it,” said Sheila Bair, then president of Washington College. In subsequent years, Purdue’s program won a think tank’s award for most innovative public policy proposal, and at least 14 other colleges or universities launched similar initiatives.

So Purdue’s announcement in June that it was suspending the Back a Boiler program came as a thunderclap in the world of income-share agreements, or ISAs, and could signal the beginning of the end of experiments involving college students splitting their future paychecks with investors. 

The number of schools offering ISAs is sliding down the far side of the bell curve as several other accredited colleges or universities have ended or paused their programs. It’s a sign of fraught times for these schools and for the training boot camps that offer ISAs, with lawsuits mounting, federal and state governments imposing restrictions, and students reporting mixed satisfaction.

Purdue’s pause points to bigger problems in the ISA industry. One reason Back a Boiler has been suspended is that program servicer Vemo Education went out of business, says Brian Edelman, president of the Purdue Research Foundation. (Two other Vemo clients—Messiah University and Colorado Mountain College—also reported that the company has shut down, though the company doesn’t appear to have made a formal announcement. It did not respond to inquiries asking for confirmation.) 

A year ago, Vemo was sued by 47 former students of a for-profit coding academy called Make School; the students alleged that Vemo and Make School colluded to run a high-cost ISA program that violated state and federal laws forbidding unfair or deceptive business practices and false advertising. The students had agreed to repay 20 to 25 percent of their pre-tax income each month for three and a half years or more, with monthly payments as high as $2,500; some students signed contracts under which they would owe as much as $270,000. 

There’s another reason for Back a Boiler’s pause: clampdowns by the federal government on certain schools that offer ISAs. In a consent order last September issued by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against several private ISA providers, the bureau concluded that the schools had violated federal law by falsely telling users that ISAs weren’t loans and don’t create debt. A sample contract on the Back a Boiler website, for example, notes that “This is not a loan or credit.” 

In March, the Department of Education told accredited colleges and universities that, following on that order, they also must treat ISAs as loans, which have stricter rules requiring that students be allowed to pay them off early to save money. The protection bureau’s order interrupted the Purdue Research Foundation’s conversations with investors about an additional round of ISA funding, and Purdue decided to pause the program, Edelman said. 

It’s not just Purdue: Seven other accredited colleges or universities that once offered ISAs told The Hechinger Report that they’ve either paused or ended their programs. Only four of the fifteen schools contacted said they’re continuing; three schools didn’t respond to inquiries.

The strength and durability of cement has made it a staple building material around the world, but engineers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia have finally come up with a way to manufacture it at a lower cost by swapping in some recycled materials.

Making concrete uses a fairly simple recipe. A binding agent, which is usually a paste-like material called portland cement, is mixed with water and aggregates: a combination of sand, rocks, and gravel. Adjusting the amount of the various ingredients can alter the properties of the concrete, making it stronger or lighter as needed, but some of the items on the ingredient list, like larger stones and gravel, can increase the price, particularly in parts of the world where those materials aren’t always readily available.

One way to help reduce the cost of making concrete is to replace the aggregate with other materials, including used rubber tires that have been ground up into small particles. The idea kills two birds with one stone, as it’s also a smart way to recycle the millions of worn down rubber tires removed from vehicles every year. But to date, engineers have only managed to create concrete that meets required strength standards using a combination of rocks and rubber.

The problem, as the engineers at RMIT University hypothesized in a recently published research paper, is that the rubber alternate has too many pores. During the initial mixing process, the water fills the pores in the rubber particles, but when it eventually dries and that water evaporates, what’s left is countless voids and gaps between the rubber and the cement around it, weakening the bond and reducing the strength and quality of the concrete.

The solution to replacing all of the aggregate material in concrete with recycled tire rubber was to place the wet ingredients into steel molds that compress the mixture with pressure to eliminate all of the rubber’s pores. After drying, the resulting concrete exhibited a much stronger bond between the hardened cement and the rubber particles, giving it a 97% increase in compressive strength, and a 20% boost in tensile strength.

That’s a big increase, but still not quite enough for the rubber tire concrete to be used as a reliable structural element, so the researchers are looking into other ways to reinforce and strengthen it even further. And while the new approach may increase manufacturing costs, in the long run, it should still prove to be a more cost effective alternative to traditional concrete. That’s because, in addition to using cheaper source materials, it results in a lighter material that’s easier and cheaper to ship.

If you read the headline and thought to yourself, “Netflix has games?” You’re not alone. Reportedly, less than 1% of Netflix subscribers are playing these games, which likely means many subscribers aren’t aware they even exist. In fact, if you exclusively watch Netflix on your TV, you likely haven’t even seen these games come across your feeds. They’re real, they’re free to subscribers, and they’re generally really good!

Netflix began dipping its toes into the mobile gaming scene in November, launching five original titles. Since then, it has added 21 new games to the list, with plans to grow its library to around 50 by the end of the year. To date, the games have been downloaded roughly 23 million times, and have about 1.7 million daily active players, representing 0.77% of Netflix’s 221 million subscriber base.

The company is focused on mobile gaming to start, meaning these games are available on smartphones and tablets only right now. You won’t find them on your game consoles, computers, or smart TVs. That also poses a challenge when it comes to advertising, since many of us watch Netflix on devices incomparable with its games. I rarely watch Netflix on a phone or tablet, so I never encountered any mention of them before a report in Polygon this week.

While over 1.5 million Netflix subscribers playing these games every day, I sure don’t know any of them. If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering what games Netflix offers, and how to play them.

All the games Netflix currently offers for free

Here is a complete list of titles you can jump into today. Netflix does warn not all games are available on all devices, but does not specify beyond that generalization. Just be aware when choosing a game that you won’t necessarily be able to play it on your preferred device:

While you might assume—as I initially did—that Netflix’s games are shovelware popped out by the company to justify inflating subscription costs, it turns out the library is really solid. In fact, there are some excellent, well-regarded indie titles on this list, including Into the Breach, Moonlighter, and This is a True Story. Netflix does have some native IP in the list, notably Stranger Things: 1984 and Stranger Things 3: The Game, with an upcoming Queen’s Gambit chess title in the works.

Not each and every game is a winner. Dungeon Dwarves, for example, has 2.1 stars on the iOS App Store with 71 ratings as of this writing. However, you have a chance to see each game’s store page before downloading, so you’ll get a chance to peruse reviews and see if the title is worth your time. And since they’re all free, provided you have an active Netflix account, there’s no harm in downloading a dud or two.

How to play Netflix’s games

If at least one of these titles piques your interest, you can pick up and play it right now. To start, you’ll need an Android phone or tablet running Android 8.0 or later, or an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 15 or iPadOS 15 or later.

There are two ways to find Netflix games to download to your device. You can either open your Netflix app and scroll down on the Home page until you see the “Games” section. Tap a game, then tap “Get Game,” which will open the game’s page in your device’s respective app store.

You can also open the App Store or Play Store and search “Netflix games.” The results will return Netflix games, of course, but if you open Netflix’s developer page on the app store in question, you’ll also see a complete list of all the games (and additional apps) the company offers for download.

When you open a Netflix game for the first time, it may ask you to log in to your Netflix account. I didn’t have to, but then, I was already logged into the Netflix app on my iPhone; it’s possible the game will authenticate with the app so you don’t need to log in again. Beyond that, you simply tell the game which account is playing, just as you do when opening the regular Netflix app.  

Whatever your opinion of Netflix is in 2022, this offering is tough to criticize. It comes at no additional cost to all Netflix subscribers of any tier, and includes some great games (reviews suggest Bowling Ballers is a favorite). Time will tell if more Netflix subscribers end up playing—and more games keep being added—but until then, there’s plenty to keep you busy.

  

It’s gotten to that point where most of us either had a few Lego sets as kids or played with them at our friends’ houses. Besides the classic blocks there’s been a lot of interesting takes on the building series. Remember Bionicle? There was a whole animated television series dedicated to those weird lil guys.

Lego were first produced as wooden blocks in 1932, and in 1947 Lego started to manufacture the toys in plastic. It began making set themes like space, Vikings, and the Wild West in the ‘50s, and expanded into franchises later on. Some of the most beloved Lego sets are massive Star Wars builds, but everyone’s got their own personal favorite.

So here’s the question: what’s your favorite thing about Lego? Do you have a memory of building them with your parents? Destroying your sibling’s creations? Maybe there’s one particular build that holds a special place in your heart. Or, perhaps, you have a very excellent minifig collection that you’re just dying to show off.

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