When deciding on software to run on a hardware firewall, there are currently two main contenders: pfSense, which has been around for a long time, and OPNsense, which started out as a fork of pfSense. Both are fairly similar in scope and how they function underneath the GUI, so you might be wondering why you would choose one or the other. After all, if two things perform similarly, isn't it a coin toss between them? Well, strictly speaking, yes, but there are some reasons why you would want to choose one ahead of the other, especially if you have strong feelings about open-source software.

Ever since personal computing became a common fixture in our lives, the PC modding scene has existed. I can think back to the heydays of LAN parties when many participants would compete to show off their modded systems, and in an era when PC cases were either beige or black, they were eye-opening. Modern PC cases are very different from those early chassis, which might have you thinking the PC modding scene has gone away. But it hasn't. It just grew up along with the manufacturers and found new ways to push the envelope on what a mod could be.

BMW’s Vision Driving Experience is a test mule for its Neue Klasse platform. | Image: BMWLast November, I strapped into the rear passenger seat of an all-electric, four-door sedan with BMW test driver and 24-hour racer Jens Klingmann behind the wheel. It was a cold day at BMW’s Performance Driving Center in Greer, SC, and beneath the five-point harnesses, roll cage, and heavily camouflaged body, Klingmann had an unexpected co-pilot: a tiny black box called the “Heart of Joy.” It was an odd name for an interesting suite of tech features powering my brief three-lap stint on the 1.7-mile performance track. The Heart of Joy represents an interesting future for the German brand that still wants to be known as the “Ultimate Driving Machine” in the electrified future. The VDXThe vehicle we rode in is called the Vision Driving Experience (VDX), a one-off built specifically for testing this supposedly magic black box, as well as more upcoming features for BMW’s Neue Klasse platform. The VDX uses fans to suck it down to the track for better traction at speed. Those fans are loud inside the vehicle, making it nearly impossible to hear much more than a roar while we’re hurtling around the track at speeds nearing 90 mph, even though the car itself is a mostly …Read the full story at The Verge.

There are plenty of ways to open programs in Windows. You can use the Start menu, pin shortcuts to the taskbar, or even use PowerToys. Back when Cortana was around, voice commands were an option too. Keyboard shortcuts actually offer a much faster way to launch apps. I recently set up custom shortcuts for all my apps, and while I won’t claim it’s life-changing, it has made things noticeably faster. Here’s how you can do it too.

When you’re out building your home lab, the OS can matter almost as much as the hardware. However, with a deluge of operating systems designed to tackle your virtualization workloads, you might have a hard time selecting the perfect one for your home lab.

A Raspberry Pi is a powerful yet affordable device that can handily serve as the brain for your smart home. With the right hardware, software, and setup, the Pi can control lights, security cameras, thermostats, and even automate daily routines. Instead of relying on cloud-based services, you can keep everything local for better privacy and reliability.

Whether your computer has an inbuilt mic array or you use a USB mic, audio interface, or headset, the microphone you are using will rarely suit your voice straight out of the box. When you want your voice to sound its best for recording audio or for livestreaming; knowing how to equalize or EQ your mic input is a handy skill to have. To start with, you don't need expensive software, hardware, or a deep understanding of audio, just your microphone, a free program, and a little bit of time.

After Nvidia unleashed its 32GB 5090, all eyes have been on AMD to see what it does in response. Naturally, that means a lot of speculation around the possibility of a 32GB version of its most powerful up-and-coming card, the Radeon RX 9070. And while it was fun to dream, it seems that AMD has finally had enough and shut off further speculation with a funny response.

The New York Times has reportedly approved artificial intelligence tools that newsroom staff can use for editing copy, summarizing information, coding, and writing. The publication announced in an internal email that product and editorial staff will receive AI training, according to Semafor, and introduced a new internal AI tool called Echo for summarizing articles, briefings, and other company activity.Staff were reportedly sent new editorial guidelines detailing permitted uses for Echo and other AI tools, which encourage newsroom employees to use them to suggest edits and revisions for their work, and generate summaries, promotional copy for social media, and SEO headlines.Other examples mentioned in a mandatory training video shared with staff include using AI to develop news quizzes, quote cards, and FAQs, or suggesting what questions reporters should ask a start-up’s CEO during an interview. There are restrictions, however — the company told editorial staff that AI shouldn’t be used to draft or significantly alter an article, circumvent paywalls, input third-party copyrighted materials, or publish AI-generated images or videos without explicit labeling.It isn’t clear how much AI-edited copy The Times will allow in published articles. The outlet promised that “Times journalism will always be reported, written and edited by our expert journalists,” in a memo it released last year, and it reaffirmed that commitment to human involvement a few months later.“Generative A.I. can sometimes help with parts of our process, but the work should always be managed by and accountable to journalists,” read The Times’ generative AI principles, adopted in May 2024. “We are always responsible for what we report, however the report is created. Any use of generative A.I. in the newsroom must begin with factual information vetted by our journalists and, as with everything else we produce, must be reviewed by editors.”Alongside Echo, other AI tools apparently greenlit for use by The Times include GitHub Copilot as a programming assistant, Google Vertex AI for product development, NotebookLM, the NYT’s ChatExplorer, OpenAI’s non-ChatGPT API, and some of Amazon’s AI products. These AI tools and training guidelines are rolling out as The Times remains embroiled in a legal battle with OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that ChatGPT was trained on Times content without permission. Many other publications have also introduced AI into their newsrooms at varying scales, ranging from tools for spelling and grammar to generating entire articles.

If you want your PC to glow like it's radioactive, the good news is that almost every component in your computer can be found with some level of RGB lighting. That extends to peripherals like keyboards and mice, and also monitors, mousepads, and more. The bad news is that when you prefer form to function, the number of different RGB solutions on the market makes it tricky to plan out your build. You'll want to check a few things before you start piecing together your parts and building that PC.

Microsoft officially pulled support for Windows 7 a long time ago, and that means those PCs don't get any features or security updates from Microsoft. Even the Windows 7 ESU program can't save you from this problem, because Microsoft ended it way back in 2023.

Who says tech fans can't be fashionable? If you're on the hunt for a purse that both shows off your enthusiasm for all things digital and you want to spend five digits on it, then boy, do I have a deal for you. A company has revealed a new line of purses that use an Nvidia H100 AI GPU as part of the design, and it's selling for a pretty penny.