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If you loved the Lego Game Boy but couldnt get yourself to buy it because it was only a display piece that couldnt play actual Game Boy games, I’ve got great news for you: It’s no longer merely a clever block of bricks. Substance Labs, a merry band of Lego and gaming lovers based in Switzerland, have created a kit that retrofits the official brick-perfect Lego set into an unofficial pixel-perfect playable Game Boy. The name of this wündertronics is BrickBoy. Yes, its a Kickstarter project, so the usual may not deliver caveats apply. Substance Labs calls itself a team of creators and engineers who grew up building with Lego and gaming on the classics [who have] spent the last years working across hardware, software, and product design, from open-source projects to custom electronics. I need to believe they will deliver on their promise because I need to believe that dreams do come true sometimes. And apparently, given the more than $500,000 that they have collected so far from project supporters, many other people feel the same way. Substance Labs says the prototypes are built and tested. We have shipped a naked kit to early testers, creators, and magazines, the company says. Now we are ready to move into the next phase together with you. The technical implementation of the BrickBoy kit is modular, allowing users to install the electronic core into the Lego chassis in under 10 minutes without soldering or coding. The hardware fits directly inside the assembled model, activating a functional display and speaker system that runs freeware, home-brew titles, and legally obtained ROMs. While the base unit relies on digital files, an optional third-party cartridge reader add-on allows the system to interface with physical Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. The nonfunctional Lego kit [Photo: Lego] Kits start at $115 for the essential edition, which will make your Lego model play original Game Boy games. A $196 collectors kit model plays every Game Boy title, including Classic, Color, and Advance, without any limitations. The Substance Labs designers say it has accelerable gameplay for faster sessions (so you can pace through long Pokémon games), a customizable backlight, Bluetooth audio, wireless game loading, and system updates. They have other versions, like the Gamer and Collector editions, which have additional features like Bluetooth audio and an “Exposition Mode” that keeps the unit powered and lit for display purposes. A 3D rendering of the Substance Labs Gamer Kit [Image: Substance Labs] I dont care much about the display purposes myself. My home might be the closest thing to the Lego Housecomplete with a Lego brick minefield all over the floor, thanks to my sonso I welcome the idea of turning all these Lego nostalgia sets into functional gear. The Danish company has been milking the 80s and 90s with sets like Lego Atari and Lego Pac-Man, which are cool and all, but do nothing but sit on a shelf gathering dust. The BrickBoy is a perfect example of how Lego could perhaps think of a way to make its sets actually usable objects. Not all of them would be possible to turn into a real thing, but models like the Game Boy, with its spot-on dimensions and proportions, are ideal. I get it, though. Theres probably not enough business to justify the engineering effort to mass-produce something like this. So Lego will leave it to the obsessives. Now Substance Labs better Miyamoto the hell out of this thing and hurry up with the deliveries, because I really need to get it for my son this holiday season. Hes already a Mario junkie, and he will become a Tetris addict too, just like his dad.
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E-Commerce
Ive worked for myself for nearly a decade, and in all but one of those years Ive earned more than the U.K. average salary. Some years its been a little more. Im naturally frugal, and even during the rockiest stretches, theres always been enough to cover the basicsplus a safety net if I ever truly needed it. Yet I worry about money constantly, gnawed by the sense that Im only one missed invoice from financial collapse. Although Im generally wary of self-diagnosis, the term money dysmorphiaa disconnect between how we feel about our finances and the realityfits me like a glove. From the rise of HENRYs (high earners, not rich yet) to the boom in income stacking, todays workplace trends illustrate just how messed up our relationship with finances has become. While money dysmorphia isnt a clinical term, its a shorthand that many workers now recognize. Credit Karma reports that 29% of Americans experience it, especially millennials and Gen Z, so Im in good company. But could the nature of solopreneurshipthe feast-or-famine cycles, the autonomy, the pressure to slay in your own lanemake us even more prone? Its absolutely heightened for solopreneurs, freelancers, and anyone with an unstable income, says Alex King, founder of financial education platform Generation Money. Without a fixed monthly salary, they normalize volatility and uncertainty, which can create a sense of inadequacy or inflated confidence in their finances. The numbers paint an intriguing picture. Advice site Freelancing Support reported that 41% of freelancers struggled with poor financial well-being in 2024, and a 2025 study found that three in four U.S. solopreneurs have less than six months worth of savingsor no safety net at all. Plenty of people have good reasons to be anxious. But a surprising portion are on solid ground: The number of six-figure solopreneurs has almost doubled since 2020, and research from the Minneapolis Fed shows that self-employed workers earn significantly more over their careers than those in traditional jobs. Everyones always thriving, innovating, scaling Kim Berndt, cofounder of the fashion tech collaboration lab We.art studio in Cologne, Germany, has been a solopreneur since 2017. After three years of not paying herself a salary, her numbers finally look stable. Emotionally, though, she feels anything but. Social media plays a significant role in warping her sense of financial reality. Its the biggest scam, because it creates the illusion that everyone is always thriving, innovating, scaling, she says. The two industries I straddletech and fashionglorify speed and visibility, yet theyre the Wild West when it comes to pay. Berndt has accepted that she may never feel stable, especially in an emerging field that many still dont understand and that offers little clarity around value. I chose self-employment, so I have to find ways to cope, she says. I identify with Berndts me-against-the-world mentality, so I was curious to hear what financial therapist Elana Feinsmith had to say about this predicament. I told her about the ripple effects of my own money dysmorphia: oscillating between avoiding my bank balance and obsessively checking it, hesitating to charge fairly, and feeling guilt and shame over basic spending. Finances are like an iceberg, she says. The numbers sit above the waterline, but below is where the dark, murky feelings live. She encourages me to examine not just the volatility of my work but also the money scripts I learned earlier in life. It doesnt take her long to extract that being the eldest daughter (surprise!) has something to do with it. Figure out the amount that would calm your nervous system, then project a few years down the line to see the real picture, she tells me. A panic alarm sounds in my headif only it were that simple. Feinsmith says that reaction is typical of money dysmorphia. It makes long-term planning seem impossible, and she sees clients grapple with it at every income level. Addressing the iceberg There are now 72.9 million independent workers in the U.S., and almost everyone wants to leave corporate jobs to start their own businesses, amid the fifth year of persistent inflation. King warns that these conditions are likely to breed more widespread money dysmorphia. But it doesnt have to define the solopreneur experience. Small structural changes can help close the gap between perception and reality. Have separate accounts for personal and business finances, King advises. Combining them distorts whether you feel rich one month and poor the next. Avoid months of paying yourself nothing, and dont overpay yourself when things go well. Ideally, work toward a baseline salary or a fixed minimum to cover costs. As the end of the year approaches, Im particularly beguiled by other freelancers 2025 roundups, where they highlight their wins, earnings, and learnings. Im all for championing the wins, but after ingesting a few, I fall into catastrophizing my own balance sheet. King points out that many of these updates confuse revenue with profit. Theyre not saying I made X amount, but then had to deduct what I spent on outreach, subscriptions, and training, because thats not sexy, he says. This year, Ill be approaching the freelance wrap-up posts with caution. And after consulting the experts, Im more convinced that theres no quick fix for financial dysmorphia. Yet just the idea of taking a pickax to my financial iceberg makes me feel calmer. Perhaps thats the best economic stability a solopreneur can ask for: not perfect peace of mind, but the confidence to keep moving anyway.
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E-Commerce
As the midterm election primaries inch closer, some candidates are focusing their campaigns on how theyll regulate artificial intelligence. On the right, populist Republicans are warning that the AI industry stands to undermine the Make America Great Again movement. On the left, theres worry about the sectors growing political and social power. Across the spectrum, theres near-universal concern about what the technology might be doing to children. The donor class is now getting involved: A super PAC called Leading the Future backed by OpenAI executive Greg Brockman and Andreessen Horowitz plans to spend as much as $100 million in the midterms to support its preferred candidates. Another bipartisan super PAC, focused on pushing for a national framework on regulating AI, formed earlier this week. These fights come as the Trump administration pushes to limit the ability of states to regulate the technology. Alex Bores, who authored legislation on AI in New York state and is running to represent its 12th district, has become an early target for Leading the Futures political spending during the midterms. It’s a badge of honor, he says, comparing the effort to an F rating from the National Rifle Association. This is not tech versus everyone else, he tells Fast Company. This is one small subset of the tech ecosystem that, instead of engaging in collaborative discussions on bills and how we can work for all, has decided they want to drown out the voices of anyone who isn’t them by spending hundreds of millions. Fast Company chatted with Bores about AI in politics, his time working at Palantir, and what it might take to modernize the government. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. One of the things the draft executive order talks about is creating a federal approach to regulating AI by the Trump administration. How seriously do you take that? It’s a cliché in D.C. that when you want something to not get done, make a commission to study it. And so making a proposal to study a thingto maybe put a policy forwardis silly. I want to be clear, the correct answer to these questions is a federal standard. The only reason the states have been acting is because the federal government hasn’t. If they want to actually work on a federal standard, they will find partners across the aisle. What they are prioritizing is stopping any state from taking action, not actually solving problems. We’re in a moment when there’s a lot of criticism and debate about what the future of the Democratic Party should look like. In New York, a liberal stronghold, Im curious about where conversations about how we should handle emerging technologies and AI might sit in the remaking of the Democratic Partyand the push to focus on issues that speak to younger voters and disaffected voters who havent been so into what the Democrats have been offering. We should always be human first and human focused. The specific ways that plays out in AI policy are ones that speak to younger people. The biggest impact of AI on the job market right now is on entry-level jobs, and you’re seeing a rise in unemployment of people in that cohort looking for their first job. One of the most popular things we did in New York this year was phone-free schools and making it so that we could actually change how tech is used in the classroom and make sure that it’s been used for education and not for screening or scrolling on social media. [Earlier this year, the state instituted new rules on electronic devices during school hours.] We shouldnt shoot for one big grand bargain on AI, as if it’s a static issue. It is something that infuses everything we do, and we need to continually be updating our protections as the technology grows. Can you talk a little bit more about what you did at Palantir and your decision to leave? I was at Palantir for four and a half years. I spent the vast majority of that time on the federal civilian team, and so it was working with the government to better serve the American people. I worked with the Department of Justice to go after the opioid epidemic. . . . I worked with the Department of Veterans Affairs on better staffing their hospitals and better serving veterans. I worked with the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] on understanding epidemics. I’m really proud of the work that I did there, because it was all about actually making government work better. Separate from tech, I think that’s the thing that the Democratic party and the country as a whole needs to see more of, is people who are willing to push through the obstacles and make sure that government is actually a force for good and serving people, and not just the political mudslinging that is most of what they see on TV. I left in 2019 when Palantir renewedor soon afterPalantir renewed their contract with ICE. Palantir had a contract with Homeland Security Investigations to help with fighting cross-border drug trafficking and human trafficking. During the first Trump administration, they started using that software for Enforcement and Removal Operationsfor what most people think of as deportation. That’s a different department within ICE. . . . That wasn’t something that was foreseen when the contract was signed in the Obama administration. And when Palantir renewed that contract, without cutting off that work or putting in protections that would step up in the future, that motivated me to leave. What do you make of the conversation surrounding Palantir right now? The company has insisted that its worked through multiple administrations, but the work with ICE, as well as with Israel, has sparked major criticisms of the company. I haven’t been there for six years, so I don’t have more detail on how they currently operate than anyone reading the news, but I’m proud of the work that I did there and very public with the reasons why I left. How hard is it to buy technology in government to make things faster, more efficient? Government modernizationupdating government software and providing better customer servicecontinues to be a big challenge. No one asks about government acquisition. This is amazing. It’s horribly inefficient, and that hurts the American people. It takes the government far too long to be able to sign a contract, so the costtherefore what the American people end up payingrises. It then benefits sort of the insiders who know how to do contracting more than the people who can deliver useful services, so then the American people don’t get the benefits from startups and others that might have cheaper, faster ways of solving problems. It is a problem at every level of government. One of the first bills I passed in New York, as an Assembly member, was making it easier for the government to actually use cloud computing instead of buying servers and always running on hardware, which slowed down getting services to New Yorkers. . . . A program called FedRAMP was supposed to make it easier to get tech to the government: You would do one security screening, be certified, and then be able to sell to each [federal] department, so they didn’t have to do their own [screening]. But it has become an incredibly onerous process that just makes it much more difficult to actualy work with the federal government. Should politicians be using generative AI in advertisements? I haven’t done it. But I have written the laws in New York that regulate it, and what we came to was it has to be disclosed. And if you use it to make deepfakes of a candidate, the candidate has the right to sue for injunctive relief with expedited review to pull that ad down if it’s going to deceive the public into something that actually happened. The problem of deepfakes is one that has a technical solution, and policymakers just haven’t kept up. Historically, we’re told it’s . . . just going to be a cat and mouse game where you have better detectors of deepfakes and then better AI generators [or that] we’ll never win that battle. But the industry has created a free, open-source metadata standards of data called C2PA that can be attached to any standard audio, video, or image file type that cryptographically proves whether that piece of content was taken from an actual device, was generated by AI, and/or how it’s been edited throughout the process. If you got to a place where 90%, 95% of people were using that standard, we’ve solved the problem of deepfakes, because anytime you don’t see that credential, you would immediately be suspicious of what’s being shown.
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E-Commerce
Social media has become inexorably intertwined with our daily lives, but not all platforms are equally popular. For every cultural phenomenon like TikTok, there’s a Mastodon. It would be easy, based on the news media’s borderline obsession with TikTok and X, to assume that those platforms are, if not the most used social media tools in America today, then very close to the top. They’re not. In fact, they’re squarely in the middle, according to a new study from Pew Research. Instead, it’s YouTube that is the most commonly used social media platform in the U.S.by a landslide. Pew reports that 84% of U.S. adults use YouTube. (The platform is also the most widely used by U.S. teens.) Facebook ranks high in usage as well, with 71% of adults saying they use it. Roughly half of U.S. adults say they visit each of these platforms at least once a day. Another Meta holding, Instagram, comes in third with 50% of the 5,022 adults surveyed saying they use it. Things fall off from there, though. YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are the only platforms with usage figures above 50%. TikTok, which ranks fourth, is used by just 37% of the adult respondents (usage numbers by teens and tweens are almost certainly much higher). WhatsApp comes in at 32% and Reddit at 26%, which is just a fraction above Snapchat’s 25%. While X comes in with roughly 20% of respondents saying they use it, Meta’s Threads is used by just 8% of the people Pew surveyed, Bluesky by 4%, and Truth Social is last among the ranked sites, coming in at just 3%. Pew’s study looked beyond which sites are the most popular to also give a demographic breakdown of who’s using what. As you might expect, adults younger than 30 are more frequent users of social media than older adults, but that also can vary by platform. (For instance, while YouTube sees heavy usage from all age groups, Instagram is used by 80% of adults between 18 and 29, but only 19% of people 65 or older.) Here’s how usage breaks down by other demographic fields. Gender Women are much more likely to use platforms that lean toward communication and interaction. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are most used by that demographic, while men opt more for X and Reddit. Ethnicity While people of all races and ethnicities use social media, some groups favor certain platforms more than others. Pew reports that TikTok and WhatsApp are used more frequently by Black and Hispanic adults. Among the survey pool, Instagram is used regularly by 62% of Hispanics, 58% of Asians, and 54% of Black adults versus 45% of white adults. Education Americans with higher levels of education are more likely to use Reddit, WhatsApp, and Instagram, the study found. People with less education lean toward TikTok. Roughly 40% of American adults with a college degree say they use Reddit, compared to just 15% of people with a high school diploma or less. Political leanings You can probably figure this one out without the study. Democrats and left-leaning folks are more likely than Republicans to use WhatsApp, Reddit, TikTok, Bluesky, and Threads. When it comes to X and Truth Social, things are reversed. Just two years ago, though, things weren’t as cut-and-dried. In 2023, Democrats were more likely than Republicans to use X (which was still Twitter until July 23 of that year).
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E-Commerce
Its that time of year again. My mailbox is stuffed with catalogs. Targeted seasonal ads from Amazon, Walmart, and Target are following me around the internet. And every other email in my overflowing inbox offers me the go-to 2025 gift guide for everyone on my list! Anyone else out there starting to dread gift-giving? Sometime in the past 30 years, cheaply made stuff became easily available at the click of a button on our phones, and that took a lot of the shine off of gifts. Not only did online shopping make it much easier to buy things for ourselves (whether we needed them or not), but also it was much easier to buy things for other people. And that influx of stuff has also helped illuminate the very short life cycle of thing I covet to dust collector to trash. Why would I spend money on a gift thats just going to end up in a landfill? If you, too, are sick of the gift guides hawking next years refuse, heres the anti-gift-guide gift guide that will help you survive the 2025 holiday season without losing your mind or all your money. Define your gifting ethos This may sound ridiculously obvious, but my goal with gift-giving is to find something that the recipient will appreciate and use. I want the gift to show that I was thinking about them and that I pay attention to their likes and dislikes. (Groundbreaking, I know.) But if youve ever gotten a sweater that is wildly the wrong size in a color best described as baby diarrhea umber, you know not everyone adheres to such giving goals. In fact, many of us give gifts for reasons other than wanting to please the recipient. If you are giving presents to people because of obligation, because of habit, or because its a complex dance of meanness disguised as altruism, remember that you dont have to. Figure out who you want to give presents to, and go from there. That doesnt necessarily mean you can just bow out of giving gifts to everyone who expects it. You may still need to continue the long-standing revenge gifting with your sister-in-law until the heat death of the universe. But you can at least put more thought into the gifts you give to the people you actually care about and dial back the effort and money on those obligatory gifts. Think beyond objects Figuring out what your recipients want often starts with understanding what they dont want. In many cases, thats clutter. If you know your friends and family well enough to identify a charitable organization thats close to their hearts, making a donation in their name could be a great gift. But you may not be on So whos your favorite charity? terms with everyone on your list. To find the right present for those recipients, check out our anti-junk gift guide below. These are all gifts your loved ones and friends will appreciate that they generally dont have to find a spot for in their home. Heartfelt words Believe it or not, letting people know how much you appreciate them is often the best gift you can give. This is especially true for anyone who occupies what might be described as a thankless position. This former educator would especially encourage you to write a heartfelt note to your childs teacher, rather than give them a mug with an assortment of teas and hot chocolates. (You know who else is probably giving Juniors teacher a mug? Every other parent in the classroom.) It doesnt need to be long or poetic. Just relay a quick anecdote about something your kid said or did as a result of the teachers hard work and sign your name. If you attach a small piece of chocolate to the card, youll elevate it to the best teacher gift ever. But this isnt just a gift for teachers. Writing a letter to your significant other, to your in-laws, to your kids, to your parents, to your best friend, or to anyone you want to acknowledge will probably be one of the most memorable gifts you could ever give. Tell them how you feel and share a memory. Tell them something they may not know about your relationship. Tell them what you hope for the new year. They will cherish your words. Experiences Even though my sister is possibly the easiest person in my life to shop for (she has impeccable taste that is easy to identify), I find its more meaningful for both of us if I buy experiential gifts for her instead of another piece of art or jewelry. Thats why my Hanukkah gift for her this year is a pair of tickets to see Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in Waiting for Godot on Broadway. Because watching Bill and Ted perform Samuel Beckett is the kind of experience that must be shared. Similarly, I like to purchase concert tickets for my husband, who loves live music. He returns the favor by buying me tickets to see some of my favorite comedians live. But there are plenty of other experience gifts that could be the best present under the tree: cooking, art, language, or music classes; museum or zoo memberships; camp registration; a vacation or weekend getaway. Photos It is a truth universally acknowledged that all our favorite photographs are never framed and put up on the wallespecially since the invention of Instagram. An easy and inexpensive gift that your friends and family will appreciate is taking the time to print out some of the best photos of you all together and getting them framed. For a bigger gift, you could create an entire photo book if youd like to commemorate your relationship over the years. These kinds of photo books are relatively easy to make and print using sites like Shutterfly. Consumables Giving consumable gifts is an easy way to ensure your presents dont have a subtext of Here, you throw this away. And the holiday season is a traditional time to exchange gifts of cookies, wine, and other treats. But remember, there are other types of consumable gifts. This gift guide is 100% affiliate-marketing free: Were not giving you specific items or linking to stuff to buy. Just consider consumable gifts like these for your loved ones: Candles or incense Essential oils Bath bombs, bath salts, or bubble bath Hand soap nd lotion Infused olive oil or vinegar Gourmet spices Coffee, tea, or cocoa Temporary tattoos (for kids) A more practical gift guide We all need things like socks, sunscreen, an ice scraper, a warm hat, a tool kit, and a first aid kit. And while most people probably already have most of these at home, they probably dont have high-quality versions of them. High-end practical essentials from brands that you personally love can be a great gift, especially if you know the recipient would never spend money on little luxuries for themselves. You can personalize these kinds of gifts. For example, my son and I recently tie-dyed some white bucket hats for an older relative who needed some additional sun protection. Making these sun hats one-of-a-kind made her even more delighted with the unexpected present. Books While some people may consider books to be clutter (blasphemers, all of them), many booklovers are happy to accept literary giftssince most methods of getting rid of a book are unlikely to contribute to environmental pollution. If you know your recipient is an avid reader, dont be afraid to give them a book. Of course, as any booklover who has been given books that did not in any way reflect their reading taste can attest, its not enough to simply pick up whatever book du jour is getting the most press and give it to your friend. And while no book aficionado will ever turn down a gift card to a local small bookseller, its a little impersonal. The best book gift is one youve read yourself that made you think of the recipient. I still treasure a book I received nearly 25 years ago, because the narrators sarcasm reminded the giver of my sense of humor. A guide to more joyful gift-giving When were all awash with too much stuff and anything we need is a one-click overnight delivery away, gift-giving loses a lot of its meaning. We can put the meaning back in if we embrace an anti-junk gift ethos for the holiday season. Instead of buying stuff just to have something to exchange, lets try to really give our loved ones things they will appreciate and remember, rather than something that will become the 2025 layer of municipal solid landfill waste.
Category:
E-Commerce
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