John Carmack has left id Software. After helping found the company more than 20 years ago, where he helped craft experiences like Doom and Quake, Carmack has officially shifted his focus full time to virtual reality firm Oculus VR, where he'll serve as a chief technical officer. It's a position he originally took on back in August, but it seems that splitting his time between the two companies just wasn't working out. "The divided focus was challenging," he says. The move is perhaps not that surprising: Carmack has always had a fascination with building new technologies, making the Oculus Rift headset an ideal project.

"John's work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete, and his departure will...

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Lately, with the mornings getting darker and colder, I’ve been waking up craving a hot breakfast. Fruit and yogurt just isn’t making the cut. And getting out of bed on crisp fall mornings is easier when I know I’ll soon be enjoying my favorite egg scramble.

Starting your day with protein is a great way to fuel up. I’ve noticed when I eat a high-protein breakfast I’m more productive throughout the morning and less likely to get the afternoon munchies. Once incorrectly branded an unhealthy food, eggs are now heralded as a top 10 healthiest food by many nutrition experts. Eggs contain the purest form of protein found in whole foods, which means our bodies use it more efficiently than any other protein.

And please, please, don’t throw out that yolk! Unless you’re allergic, you should definitely indulge in the egg’s incredible center. The yolk contains not only all the egg’s vitamins and minerals, but also healthy fats your body needs to absorb such fabulous nutrients.

My favorite egg scramble naturally has to include avocado. I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t love avocados (and to those out there who don’t, you’re seriously missing out!). Avocados can turn an average dish into an oh-my-I could-eat-this-every-day type dish. They give the eggs a creamy texture and a decadent flavor. The trick is to add the chopped avocado towards the end of cooking so you don’t end up with just a mushy pile of green eggs (although Dr. Seuss would approve).

What’s your secret ingredient in scrambled eggs or in an omelet?

Yield: 2 servings

Feta and Avocado Egg Scramble

We're incredibly excited to announce that The Verge and Alexis Ohanian have teamed up to bring you a brand new video series called Small Empires. Ohanian — a Reddit co-founder and all-around delightful chap — will visit rising New York City startups, offering an inside look at how the people behind these companies are building amazing and disruptive products. As Alexis sees it, the show will be something akin to "Inside the Actor’s Studio meets Dirty Jobs for tech in New York." And obviously, we liked the sound of that.

The show will start towards the end of July and new episodes will be available every week. Stay tuned for a lot more info soon. While you wait, check out the story The Hollywood Reporter did on the project, and...

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Download video: http://www.theverge.com/rss/redirect.mp4?url=http://ak.c.ooyala.com/syM2V4Yzq0M6z5Z8O-PMy6K81iUDFm2c/DOcJ-FxaFrRg4gtDEwOjFpaDowODE7jj

There's no arguing that our smartphones are our lifelines - they're our Rolodex, our photo albums, our windows to the digital world. Losing your smartphone isn't just an inconvenience, it could put your personal information at risk. We've compiled some tips to protect your smartphone in general, and actions you can take as a LastPass user in particular.

Get Proactive

Before you're ever put in the position of losing your phone, we recommend taking the time to use good security practices, now:

• Put in a password or pin code prompt. This is typically available in the settings for your smartphone. Remember, alphanumeric passwords are better - and ensure the time for reprompt is no more than a few minutes, if not immediate.
• Keep your apps up to date. Updates to apps can contain important security updates - don't delay in approving them.
• Know the apps you're downloading. If you're not sure about the maker of an app, do your research. Don't share your personal information with apps that you can't verify.
• Enable a device recovery service. This will help you track your device should you lose it, and may help you catch the person responsible if a device is stolen. Lifehacker recommends Prey.
• Set pin code reprompts and autologoff settings in your LastPass apps. These can be found in the Preferences menu of our mobile apps, and will ensure someone cannot easily access your stored LastPass data.
• Use multifactor authentication. Even if you've set your mobile device as "trusted" in your LastPass settings, you can easily revoke access later if needed.
• Back up your data. Ensure you've synced your contacts, photos, and other information so that you have copies of it should your device break or be lost.
• Store sensitive data in LastPass secure notes, not in an unprotected notes app. If you need to record sensitive information on the go, just add a note to LastPass, where you can easily access it, but where the data is protected by a master password, and your pin codes prompts.

Recovering From the Lost Phone 

Time is critical when recovering from a lost or stolen device. The sooner you can take action, the better you can protect your data and perhaps even recover your device.

• Activate your lost phone features. If you enabled Find My iPhone, Prey, or another similar service, follow their steps to active the lost device features.
• Update passwords. Update the passwords for Gmail, Facebook, and other services whose accounts are syncing to apps on your mobile device. Once you update the password, they cannot be synced, or even used in some cases, without re-authenticating with the new password.
• Kill active sessions. In LastPass, open the LastPass browser icon menu, and in the Tools sub-menu select the "other sessions" option. This page will show any active sessions for your account. Kill all sessions that are not in use.
• Remotely wipe data. If you are using iCloud, Google Sync, or another service that allows you to remotely wipe data, you should do so after ensuring you've backed up all data possible.

What are tips or strategies that you've used, or that you recommend? Share with us in the comments below!

Have a question you'd like to see answered by the LastPass team in a blog post? Let us know in comments or send us a note at marketing[at]lastpass.com. If we choose your question, you'll get a Tshirt!

BOOYA