Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery isn’t quite a done deal yet. As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the US Department of Justice has started its probe of Netflix’s proposed purchase, but is notably interested in whether the streaming giant was involved in any anticompetitive practices. According to the civil subpoena seen by WSJ, the Justice Department is looking into any “exclusionary conduct on the part of Netflix that would reasonably appear capable of entrenching market or monopoly power.”
While Netflix announced plans to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in December at a value of $82.7 billion, the deal was expected to close in 12 to 18 months, subject to required regulatory approvals. The DOJ has the power to block the transaction and this investigation could hint at the agency’s approach, which may involve proving that Netflix put its competition at an unfair advantage.
Netflix’s attorney, Steven Sunshine, told WSJ that this probe was standard practice and that, “we have not been given any notice or seen any other sign that the DOJ is conducting a separate monopolization investigation.” Netflix also said in a statement that it’s “constructively engaging with the Department of Justice as part of the standard review of our proposed acquisition of Warner Bros.” According to WSJ, the investigation is still in its early stages and could take up to a year to complete.
It’s 2005, and the computer room has been vibrating for two hours straight, my fingers gliding across the keyboard copying HTML and Java code while jamming to the latest R&B CD I burned. No, I’m not a computer programming wiz — I’m designing my MySpace page. I spend countless hours choosing the perfect song, trying to figure out why my About section header isn’t bold, and how to get those glittery GIFs to work.
I was in sixth grade when MySpace became popular, and today, my niece, an avid TikTok-er, is the same age I was back then. So after spending most of the summer rejecting my niece’s urgent requests to join in on her trending TikTok dances, I did what any researcher would do — start with “me-search.” I asked my niece what her TikTok would tell someone about her that they wouldn’t otherwise know.
“I’m trendy. I’m into fashion. I like to dance,” she said.
Thinking back to my constant MySpace page redesigning, Top 8 tweaks, and song choice updates, my obsession with getting the page just right wasn’t all that different from Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s TikTok fixation.
Granted, I could easily shut down the computer, leave the room, go hang out with friends, do homework, and not think about it until a new song hit me so deeply I thought, “this should be on my page!”
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In contrast, observing my niece and her friends today, I wonder why kids just can’t get off that particular app.
Yes, there have been relative social and cultural changes since the mid-2000s, but there is one inimitable variable: the COVID-19 shutdowns. We heard a lot about Gen Z or “Zoomers,” during the COVID-19 pandemic, coming of age and entering college in virtual school classrooms. But the pandemic shutdowns also forced the newest generation at the time, Gen Alpha, to interact in the virtual world. I remember my niece’s last few months of kindergarten on Zoom. For career day, she said she wanted to be a “brain doctor,” so we dressed her up as a surgeon. Watching the kids excitedly scan their classmates’ Zoom boxes to guess each other’s costumes. Between this virtual reality and TikTok’s tweaks to its algorithms and features, we have the perfect storm for what psychologists call “short video addiction.”
This timeline doesn’t start with TikTok, but its accessible video creation lowered the stakes when the mass exodus from what used to be Twitter turned users toward other platforms that prioritize influencers and sponsored content in its feeds, making the average user a content- consuming doom scroller instead of a participant in —– our not-so-social —– social media. Over the past few years, surveys of user behavior have shown a downward trend in people posting and an increase in influencer and product ads. When TikTok’s low-stakes algorithms made going viral seem attainable for any user who can hop on a trending sound or dance, the rest of its competitors iterated — Instagram Reels, FaceBook Reels, YouTube Shorts — all on an eternally refreshing loop of new content.
With how much time and energy children today pour into videos and social media, it prompts the question of whether we can harness that for something potentially a little more productive: education.
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Scroll Science
Can learning be as addictive as TikTok?
Well, let’s look at the science behind why it’s so addictive. You’ve probably heard about dopamine. It isn’t just our brain’s pleasure chemical — it’s also the learning signal that releases after unexpected rewards, especially from low-effort activity, like swiping from reel to reel and finding even better DIY project ideas you’ve been wanting to get to.
We experience either positive, negative, or zero reward prediction error, which keeps us striving for more rewards. Neuroscience research gives us a clear picture of what’s happening in our brains when we’re watching short-form videos. Our brains are constantly predicting what will happen next — it’s one of the ways we stay safe and make sense of the world. Reward prediction error is that chemical magic that happens when our prediction is wrong. It’s the same basic mechanism used to design slot machines and other variable-reward systems.
With endless video loops, when the next clip is better than we expected — the kind that’s so spot-on you immediately save it or send it to the group chat — our brain gives us a small dopamine boost. When a video is boring, we get no dopamine. When it’s disappointing, dopamine briefly dips. That constant cycle of maybe this next one will be great, new information, or useful is what keeps us scrolling.With every social media feed carefully curated for each user, there are dozens of algorithms learning what holds your gaze to feed you more of what will keep you on the app or website. For me, it’s funny parenting reels and home improvement YouTube Shorts. Of course I need to see the difference between galvanized and stainless steel screws for my next DIY project. That’s the sense of novelty and variable rewards that keeps us scrolling.
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Lastly, because the feeds just keep feeding more content through the infinite scroll feature, there’s no natural stopping point, so there is never a cue to stop and end the scrolling session.
Recent neuroscience studies show that high TikTok usage can activate brain regions tied to impulse and habit formation. In another recent study, researchers looked at electroencephalogram, or EEG tests, to assess the relationship between youth and young adults’ frequent short video consumption and reduced attention control, higher levels of stress, and learning fatigue. These are the makings of short video addiction, a condition researchers suggest is worthy of a spot in the DSM-5.
We Can Make Learning As Addictive
But should we?
It sounds like a good idea. It reminds me of when adults would say, “if only you knew your times tables like you know those rap songs.” But in this case, it’s not as simple as putting math on hip-hop beats.
Imagine your child or student’s TikTok infinite scroll were actually mini-lessons on tectonic plates, followed by how a basketball arc follows a parabola, and each 30‑second video ended with a satisfying “aha” moment and a surprising new fact. The algorithm could learn what students enjoy and what they are struggling with, then feed them culturally relevant examples with humor and well-timed reveals. It would feel great, and your students might start saying, “Just one more reel,” as they send you GIFs and memes — seemingly addicted to learning!
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Let’s look deeper at the science of learning. These techniques would likely keep students engaged, producing frequent dopamine hits, but for information to register as learning, though, we need a little more than dopamine and surprise rewards. Learning requires effortful processing, retrieval, and opportunities to apply ideas in new situations. Otherwise, our educational TikTok app prototype could fall into the loop of attention trap, making it easy to go from education to edu-tainment without the friction of problem-solving that makes learning stick.
This is where the attention trap shows up: a stream of highly optimized, bite-sized “aha” moments can keep eyes glued to the screen while quietly removing the productive friction of wrestling with problems, making choices, and getting feedback — the very processes that strengthen memory, understanding, and transfer. When the system does all the cognitive heavy lifting, students get edu‑tainment: they feel informed and interested, but they have not built the durable mental models that let them explain, use, or remember the ideas later.
Learning takes more than clever hooks and sticky formats. Digital experiences can be engaging — even addictive — but if they skip struggle and retrieval, they risk producing the illusion of learning rather than the real thing. As educators, the goal is not to compete with short‑form platforms on sheer stickiness, but to design experiences where attention is channeled into thinking, problem‑solving, and revisiting ideas over time.
Education apps can be addictive, but I’m not sure we want them to be. Then there might be too many people like me — addicted to the infinite scroll of YouTube Shorts on neuroscience and psychology research.
“U.S. and World Health Organization guidelines no longer specify a minimum duration of moderate or vigorous aerobic activity.”
Movement-tracking studies show even tiny, regular bursts of effort — as short as 30 seconds — can capture many of the health benefits of the gym. Climbing two to three flights of stairs a few times per day could change your life. Experts call it VILPA, or vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity. “The message now is that all activity counts,” said Martin Gibala, a professor and former chair of the kinesiology department at McMaster University in Canada… Just taking the stairs daily is associated with lower body weight and cutting the risk of stroke and heart disease — the leading (and largely preventable) cause of death globally. While it may not burn many calories (most exercise doesn’t), it does appear to extend your health span. Leg power — a measure of explosive muscle strength — was a stronger predictor of brain aging than any lifestyle factors measured in a 2015 study in the journal Gerontology…
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How little activity can you do? Four minutes daily. Essentially, a few flights of stairs at a vigorous pace. That’s the effort [Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor of physical activity and population health at the University of Sydney] found delivered significant health benefits in that 2022 study of British non-exercisers. “We saw benefits from the first minute,” Stamatakis said. For Americans, the effect is even more dramatic: a 44 percent drop in deaths, according to a peer-reviewed paper recently accepted for publication. “We showed for the first time that vigorous intensity, even if it’s done as part of the day-to-day routine, not in a planned and structured manner, works miracles,” Stamatakis said. “The key principle here is start with one, two minutes a day. The focus should be on making sure that it’s something that you can incorporate into your daily routine. Then you can start thinking about increasing the dose.”
Intensity is the most important factor. You won’t break a sweat in a brief burst, but you do need to feel it. A highly conditioned athlete might need to sprint to reach vigorous territory. But many people need only to take the stairs. Use your breathing as a guide, Stamatakis said: If you can sing, it’s light intensity. If you can speak but not sing, you’re entering moderate exertion. If you can’t hold a conversation, it’s vigorous. The biggest benefits come from moderate to vigorous movement. One minute of incidental vigorous activity prevents premature deaths, heart attacks or strokes as well as about three minutes of moderate activity or 35 to 49 minutes of light activity.
The European Commission said today that TikTok is facing a fine because its addictive features, including infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and personalized recommendation systems, are breaching the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
According to preliminary findings, TikTok has failed to adequately assess how these features could harm users’ physical and mental well-being, including minors and vulnerable adults.
The commission found that TikTok fuels the users’ urge to keep scrolling and shifts their brains into “autopilot mode” by constantly rewarding users with new content, potentially reducing self-control and leading to compulsive behavior.
TikTok has also disregarded important indicators of compulsive use, including the time minors spend on the app at night and how frequently users open it, the commission added.
If the findings are confirmed, the violations could trigger a fine of up to 6% of TikTok’s global annual turnover. To avoid being fined for violating the EU’s digital regulations, the commission said TikTok needs to change its core service design by implementing screen time breaks, adapting its recommendation system, and disabling key addictive features.
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“Social media addiction can have detrimental effects on the developing minds of children and teens, said EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen on Friday.
“The Digital Services Act makes platforms responsible for the effects they can have on their users. In Europe, we enforce our legislation to protect our children and our citizens online.”
The commission added that while TikTok has some mitigation measures, such as parental controls and screen-time management tools, these are likely ineffective because they are easy to dismiss and require parents to enable them manually.
In November, French prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into TikTok, accusing it of failing to safeguard the mental health of children.
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The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined TikTok €530 million (over $601 million) in May 2025 for illegally transferring the personal data of users in the European Economic Area (EEA) to China, in violation of the EU’s GDPR data protection regulations.
Two years earlier, the Irish watchdog slapped TikTok with a €345 million ($368 million) fine for violating children’s privacy by processing their data and employing “dark patterns” during registration and video posting.
Modern IT infrastructure moves faster than manual workflows can handle.
In this new Tines guide, learn how your team can reduce hidden manual delays, improve reliability through automated response, and build and scale intelligent workflows on top of tools you already use.
Gaming laptops get expensive fast, especially once you start asking for a sharper display and enough storage to avoid constant uninstalling. That’s why the “good screen, good GPU, sensible storage” tier is where the best deals live. The HP OMEN 16 is $1,059.99, saving you $420 off the $1,479.99 compared value. For a 16-inch machine with a 2K 144Hz panel, RTX 5060, and a 1TB SSD, this is a strong value if you want one laptop that can do games, work, and everything in between.
What you’re getting
This laptop pairs an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H (2025) with 16GB memory, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, and a 1TB SSD. The screen is the star: 16 inches, 2K resolution, and a 144Hz refresh rate. That combination is ideal for the kind of gaming people actually do on a laptop: crisp visuals when you’re exploring single-player worlds, and smoother motion when you’re jumping into competitive titles.
The 1TB SSD matters more than it sounds like. Modern games are huge, and a lot of “deal” laptops quietly cut storage to hit the price. Here, you get enough room to keep several big games installed and still have space for school or work files.
2K + 144Hz gives you a noticeably nicer experience than basic 1080p panels
RTX 5060 is the right class of GPU for modern gaming, approaching extreme pricing
1TB storage keeps the laptop usable long-term
It’s also a good pick if you want a machine that can double as a productivity laptop. A strong CPU, a high-resolution screen, and plenty of storage make it comfortable for everyday tasks, creative work, and multitasking, not just gaming.
One realistic note: 16GB RAM is fine for most people, but if you plan to stream, edit, and game at the same time, memory is often the first upgrade worth considering later. The good news is that’s usually easier than upgrading a GPU.
The bottom line
At $1,059.99, this HP OMEN 16 is a strong value if you want a sharper 2K 144Hz display, a modern RTX 5060 GPU, and a roomy 1TB SSD in a single laptop that can handle both gaming and daily life. If you only play lightweight games, you can spend less. But if you want a laptop that feels genuinely capable across current titles and won’t feel cramped a year from now, this discount is worth taking.
Trump Mobile is already failing to deliver on some early promises, according to the latest report from The Verge. The report revealed the near-final design of the T1 smartphone and uncovered some major changes with pricing and manufacturing.
The Verge spoke with Don Hendrickson and Eric Thomas, two of the three execs behind Trump Mobile, about the company’s first smartphone, which will get a more expensive price tag and no longer boast being made in the USA. Thanks to a screenshot from the report, we can see that the latest T1 design also changed the camera array, which first resembled the iPhone’s but now has three cameras in a misaligned vertical stack.
As for the price, Hendrickson told The Verge that anyone who paid the $100 deposit will still pay $499 total for the T1 as an “introductory price,” but that later customers could fork up to $999. Thomas also revealed that the T1 smartphone will go through “final assembly” in Miami and no longer be “proudly designed and built in the United States,” as seen in the introductory press release. Instead, the website now shows a description that says, “with American hands behind every device.” We still don’t have a release date — and now we don’t even have a final price — but the website still claims the T1 smartphone will be released “later this year.”
When we cover televisions, we often talk about the most popular 55 and 65-inch versions, but as someone with an 85-inch TV in their guest room, I know the appeal of an oversized screen. Today, I’ve got a deal for you on the larger end of Sony’s Bravia 9 Series screens, with a $900 discount on the 75-inch model, and a massive $1,800 markdown on the 85-inch version.
In addition to taking up an entire wall of your living room, these big screens are also super bright, reaching a stated 3,000 nits of peak brightness. Our reviewer Ryan Waniata, watching Moana, noted that “the sun blazed to near eye-squinting levels.” It’s helped along by quantum dots, which help colors look bright and real, even with the brightness cranked up.
While the viewing angles can’t quite compete with the best OLED screens, Sony has some tricks up its sleeve, like antireflection coating and wide-panel tech, which should make sure everyone on the couch has a good view. The occasional rainbow that pops up as a result is most noticeable with dark scenes in a well-lit room, which isn’t exactly the best viewing condition regardless of screen size or panel type.
It isn’t all perfect, unfortunately. There are only two HDMI 2.1 ports, and only one of them is the eARC port, so it’s likely to be tied up with your sound bar. Sharp-eyed viewers may also spot some uniformity issues, particularly around the edges of the screen.
As beginner videos go this one is fairly comprehensive. [Andrew] shows us how to build a square-wave generator on a breadboard using a 555 timer, explaining how its internal flip-flop is controlled by added resistance and capacitance to become a relaxation oscillator. He shows how to couple a potentiometer to vary the frequency.
He then adds an integrator built from a TL082 dual op amp to convert the circuit to a triangle-wave generator, using its second op amp to build a binary inverter. He notes that a binary inverter is usually implemented with a comparator, but he uses the op amp because it was spare and could be put to good use. Again, potentiometers are added for frequency control, in this case a 1 MΩ pot for coarse control and a 10 kΩ pot for fine control. He ends with a challenge to the viewer: how can this circuit be modified to be a sine-wave generator? Sound off in the comments if you have some ideas!
Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
It’s Super Bowl Sunday! Fittingly, today’s Mini Crossword includes some related clues. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.
If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.
What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc’s Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
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NYT Connections today (game #973) – today’s words
(Image credit: New York Times)
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
TIMER
GAG
DRILL
BIT
ROUTINE
SYMBOL
CENTS
LENGTH
NUMBER
SILENCE
GRIND
MUZZLE
HABIT
FACED
INHIBIT
UPPERCASE
NYT Connections today (game #973) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
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YELLOW: Keep someone quiet
GREEN: Familiar story
BLUE: Code to gain entry
PURPLE: Begin with a low number
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
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NYT Connections today (game #973) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
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YELLOW: SUPPRESS
GREEN: SAME OLD STUFF
BLUE: FEATURES OF A STRONG PASSWORD
PURPLE: WORDS AFTER “TWO”
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #973) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Connections, game #973, are…
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YELLOW: SUPPRESS GAG, INHIBIT, MUZZLE, SILENCE
GREEN: SAME OLD STUFF DRILL, GRIND, HABIT, ROUTINE
BLUE: FEATURES OF A STRONG PASSWORD LENGTH, NUMBER, SYMBOL, UPPERCASE
PURPLE: WORDS AFTER “TWO” BIT, CENTS, FACED, TIMER
My rating: Hard
My score: 1 mistake
I often get a sense of deja vu when playing Connections, seeing words and sometimes categories that have appeared in the game before.
Today, though, what I thought was a repeated group about stand-up comedy (GAG, BIT, ROUTINE, NUMBER) led to a mistake.
Glory followed, however, as I gained my ’25 Purple First’ badge after spotting theWORDS AFTER “TWO” link between BIT and FACED and spread it out to include CENTS and TIMER. Victory grabbed from the jaws of defeat.
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Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Saturday, February 7, game #972)
YELLOW: PIPS ON A DIE FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO
GREEN: SYMBOLS USED IN ARITHMETIC DIVIDED BY, EQUALS, MINUS, PLUS
BLUE: PUNCTUATION MARKS COLON, ELLIPSIS, PERIOD, QUOTATION MARK
PURPLE: LOWERCASE LETTERS I, L, T, X
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It’s playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
England will start their 2026 T20 World Cup campaign against Nepal on February 8 in Mumbai. England has won 2 T20I World Cups so far, first in 2010 and then again in 2022. However, the last time they toured India for an ICC event during the 2023 50-over World Cup, they were knocked out in the group stages after finishing at 7th (out of 10 teams) on the points table. They’ll be keen not to repeat the same mistakes on similar Indian pitches.
England will draw immense confidence from their 3-0 win over hosts Sri Lanka in the recently concluded T20I series. All-rounders Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, and Sam Curran were the key for them in the victory, and the fans will be hoping they continue their good form in the World Cup as well. Along with this, the experience of Jos Buttler and Phil Salt at the top of the order will be crucial for the English. And of course, who can forget their domineering captain Harry Brook, who will be keen to show his worth after recent controversies.
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Nepal, on the other hand, is only playing its third T20 World Cup. They first qualified in 2014, but failed to do so for the next three editions. Led by captain Rohit Paudel, Nepal features some experienced players in the likes of Dipendra Singh Airee, mystery-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, and finisher Aasif Sheikh.
The England vs Nepal match will be played at the Wankhede Stadium – a red soil pitch that tends to favor the batsmen, which makes England hot favorites to win. However, Nepal does possess the talent to cause an upset.
Keep reading as we explain how to watch the England vs Nepal T20 Cricket World Cup live stream online from wherever you are, including options to watch for FREE.
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Can I watch England vs Nepal for free?
How to watch England vs Nepal from outside your country
Below we’ve got you covered with your official broadcasting options for cricket-loving countries (and the US!), but if you’re overseas you’ll soon discover that you can’t watch your usual service because of geo-restrictions.
You can get past these blocks, however, by using the best VPN to change your streaming device’s IP address to your usual location.
Use a VPN to watch the England vs Nepal T20 World Cup live stream from anywhere:
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How to watch England vs Nepal in the UK
How to watch England vs Nepal in the US
How to watch England vs Nepal in India
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How to watch England vs Nepal in Pakistan
How to watch England vs Nepal in Australia
How to watch England vs Nepal in New Zealand
How to watch England vs Nepal in South Africa
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England vs Nepal T20 World Cup 2026 Q+A
When and where is the England vs Nepal match?
The England vs Nepal T20 World Cup 2026 match will be played on February 8 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai at 3pm IST / 6:30am ET.
England vs Nepal T20 World Cup 2026 squads
England: Harry Brook (c), Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Tom Banton, Jacob Bethell, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Liam Dawson, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Josh Tongue, Luke Wood
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
As beginner videos go this one is fairly comprehensive. [Andrew] shows us how to build a square-wave generator on a breadboard using a 555 timer, explaining how its internal flip-flop is controlled by added resistance and capacitance to become a relaxation oscillator. He shows how to couple a potentiometer to vary the frequency.
