Hey-hello, Monday! Let’s begin with a little tech brain teaser to warm things up. Which of the following is not a texting acronym? Is it … ENE, FTW, LOL or OOMF? If you say IDK, the answer’s at the end.

🥖 It’s a fresh week and I have fresh tech know-how for you. Ready, set … go! — Kim

Ever wanted to get inside the brain of one of today's most infamous names in tech? A new book, "Elon Musk," contains over 600 pages of juicy details about Musk's life, from childhood through the wild twists and turns of his Twitter takeover.

Author Walter Isaacson spent two years shadowing Musk as he traveled worldwide. Sure, you can pick up a copy — or just read on for some of the most interesting tidbits. Think of this as the SparkNotes version.

Let that sink in

"Elon Musk" gives us a backstage pass to what really happened inside the Twitter drama. One surprising fact: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey almost walked away from investing in the platform's new version.

Dorsey had nothing but glowing praise for the tech mogul when news of Musk's takeover went public. But things quickly took a turn. Remember when he walked into Twitter’s headquarters with an actual bathroom sink?

Ultimately, Dorsey was convinced to keep his stake in the company, but it was a close call. Musk lucked out, too. The decision saved him around $1 billion.

The Twitter blues

Musk knew the Twitter Blue rollout was going to be a dumpster fire. He was presented with a long list of recommendations from Twitter's trust and safety team that would help soften the blow but went ahead, guns blazing.

Musk delayed the launch for two days and warned executives it would be a disaster. He said it would be "World War III over the blue checkmarks." He wasn't totally wrong.

Now, you play nice

It's no secret Musk has a history of ruffling feathers. Last year, he was accused of having an affair with the wife of Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin. Although both parties denied the accusations, Brin and his wife divorced.

Soon after news of the affair broke, Musk weaseled his way into a now-famous selfie with Brin. Unfortunately for Brin, his attempts to avoid the picture were futile.

Musk also refused to work with Bill Gates on charity projects because he shorted Tesla’s stock. He notoriously hates short sellers, and Gates was no exception.

Game boy

Musk's favorite mobile game is The Battle of Polytopia — similar to the uber-popular game Civilization. Musk says it helps him be a better CEO.

He forces people in his close circle to play against him and once refused to talk to his former girlfriend, musician Grimes, for a whole day after she attacked him with a fireball. Wonder if she gave him the silent treatment for their kids' names.

📕 For your convenience, here’s the link to order the book for your Kindle, as a physical copy, audiobook or on a CD.

⚡ This one didn’t make the book. Before he founded Tesla, he was just Lon Musk.

AI predicts your death: You're in a hospital bed, and your prognosis isn't great. How long have you got? The doctors at OSF HealthCare in Illinois turn to an AI model to find out. It assesses your vitals and predicts your death if it’s within five to 90 days. But what if the AI is wrong? What if there’s nothing left to save a person’s life but the doctors try anyway? How will the insurance company respond? New questions in an AI world.

Beating cancer: Microsoft and startup Paige are trying to build the world's biggest image-based AI model. It uses over a billion shots from pathology slides to study a range of cancer types. Here’s to hoping this will help detect those hard-to-spot, rare kinds.

Big news for emoji lovers: The Unicode Consortium (the go-to for all things emoji) just approved Emoji 15.1. Here's what you're eventually getting: A shaking head, a fire-breathing phoenix and a lime. I love margs, so I’ll def be using the lime!

Shaking things up: Tesla is changing the way it builds its EVs. Recent leaks hint at a huge shift — using a single cast piece for the whole underbody, not the usual 400 parts. This move leans on 3D-printed tech and sand to craft molds. Cheaper prices coming? Don’t bet on it.

Big AI oops: An MSN obituary about NBA star Brandon Hunter read "useless at 42" after passing last Tuesday. Yes, it was written by AI. This isn’t a first for MSN; another recent hiccup directed people to an Ottawa food bank and told them to arrive "on an empty stomach.” Oof.

Disappearing Airbnbs: After New York started enforcing a new law that requires short-term rental hosts to register, listings have plunged by 70%. That doesn't mean there aren't Airbnbs in NYC, though; many are skirting the rule, and there are likely thousands of unregistered stays still up.

Watch your wallets, students: As the three-year hiatus on loan repayments nears its end, scammers are seeing dollar signs. They might offer to help lower your monthly dues or even promise loan forgiveness — for a fee, of course. The real scoop on your loans is at studentaid.gov.

Feeling burnt out? Luxury vacations are popping up to help you escape the screen burn and unplug for a weekend. The catch? Your gadgets get locked away. But recent studies show ditching social media might not boost your well-being after all. Don’t waste your money on tricks — just turn off your phone.

I make the complex world of tech simple and approachable. From explaining the latest gadgets in plain English to offering easy-to-follow cybersecurity advice, I’ve got you covered.

👉 Tech understanding is just a click away!

When I think of “embarrassing searches,” they’re not … those kinds. They’re the ones where I’m trying to figure out how to spell a word I definitely should know how to spell. I’m not alone. We all use search engines as a dictionary these days.

But which words are the hardest to spell? The folks at unscrambled words (a Scrabble cheater/helper site) looked at a year of Google Search data to spill the beans.

Do you struggle with any of these?

Words I’m surprised didn’t make the top 10:

🐝 If you have a Scrabble or Wordle fan in your life, be sure to pass along this fun story to them. Use the share buttons below.

Ever seen an ad on Facebook and thought, “Where did that come from,” “That’s a little too close for comfort” or “I’m going to scream?” Here’s the insider trick to stopping obnoxious ads on Facebook.

💡 Do this before election season really gets going. Thank me later.

But first, why are you seeing these ads in your Facebook feed? It’s all about tracking. Facebook tracks what you do when using the site. “Like” a sports team and you’ll see more of it. Facebook also tracks you when you aren’t on the site.

Facebook works with third-party companies to get even more data about you. These third parties range from Amazon to apps you’ve installed on your devices, and the data shared includes where you go in real life and even your internet searches.

💣 If it doesn’t work, go nuclear. In your Facebook ad preferences, block the advertisers you never want to see.

OK, that’s AFTER you’ve read this newsletter. But you’re here so you’re doing that!

🦷🥚🚽 While you’re brushing your teeth, cooking eggs or, uh, using the bathroom, update yourself with my Daily Tech Update podcast. In just 60 seconds, I’ll catch you up on the big tech news story of the day.

Use the link below to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode.

It just feels like you’re always going in circles.

👩‍🔬 The answer: ENE. That’s a chemistry suffix (-ene) for organic compounds. FTW - For the win. LOL - Laughing out loud. OOMF - One of my friends.

Older folks use these texting acronyms:

🤠 Just kidding, I made those up to make you smile. If you did, rate this newsletter and give me a thumbs-up. Bonus points for forwarding it to a friend. Thank you, partner! — Kim