Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is planning to hold a “hackathon” next week in order to create a “mega API” for accessing Internal Revenue Service data, reports Wired. The outlet says the API would be used to move the data into a cloud platform — potentially a third-party one — to serve as the “read center” of the agency’s systems.DOGE’s hackathon plan includes pulling together “dozens” of IRS engineers in DC to build the API, writes Wired. Among the third-party providers the department has reportedly discussed involving is Palantir, a company known for its vast data collection and government surveillance and analysis work. DOGE is aiming to finish the API work in 30 days, a timeline one IRS employee told Wired is “not technically possible” and would “cripple” the IRS. Wired says the DOGE operatives orchestrating the project are 25-year-old Gavin Kliger and health-tech CEO Sam Corcos. On March 1st, The Washington Post reported that Corcos had pushed the agency to lift restrictions it had placed on Kliger’s access to its systems, and proposed an agreement to share IRS data across the government. A March 14th letter to the IRS from Senator Ron Wyden and others suggests the agency didn’t relent, as it praises their “rightful rejection” of DOGE’s requests. It goes on to cite another later Post story suggesting that Trump administration officials want to use IRS data “to power their immigration crackdown and government efficiency campaign.” One of the sources Wired spoke with said that “schematizing” and understanding the IRS data DOGE is after “would take years” and that “these people have no experience, not only in government, but in the IRS or with taxes or anything else.” DOGE has been winding its way through federal agencies since shortly after Trump’s inauguration in January. Recent stops include the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission. And on Friday, it gained access to data maintained by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles legal immigration.

While I'll always argue that SUM is my favorite and most-used Excel formula, there are plenty of other powerful functions included in the software. These features go far past using Excel as a digital calculator and can unlock valuable insights.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is the latest game in the Assassin's Creed series. After years of waiting on an AC game set in Feudal Japan, players were eager to jump in. Unfortunately, not everything is perfect in the newest titles in the series. A severe focus on equipment and leveling up makes the game a bit more of an annoyance than many would like to admit. While it isn't perfect, the game is still enjoyable, but one thing makes it even better, and that is the guaranteed assassination mode. It doesn't take away the grind, but it makes the gameplay feel much better and partially returns that old-school Assassin's Creed feeling from the earlier games in the series.

The ninth generation of gaming has entered its fifth year now, and it’s been a bit of snoozefest, hasn’t it? Plus, it’s a largely sad state of affairs with a few exceptions that serve as a ray of hope in an otherwise dark tunnel full of false promises — grand scales, bleeding-edge visuals, and better games than ever before.

Notion and Outline are both great note-taking and knowledge-base creation apps, but they are very different in many aspects. While Notion is an all-in-one type of tool, Outline has a lot more clear functions based on text and collaboration. I’ve used them, and I can express an honest opinion that Outline can be better than Notion for most users. Here’s why!

I've been going down the Home Assistant rabbit hole for quite a while now, automating various aspects of my home, setting up custom integrations with HACS, and building up a Tailscale reverse proxy system to be able to access it remotely whenever I want to. With that, I also discovered Zigbee, a wireless protocol that countless sensors and smart devices support. I've now gone down another rabbit hole with that, and I'm starting to buy sensors left and right to automate my home.

Not too long ago, 8GB of VRAM was considered more than adequate for graphics cards tailored toward gaming. Before I bought the RTX 3090 in early 2021, I had a GTX 1070 laptop with 8GB of VRAM, which could handle almost any game I threw at it without issues. But that was because I played games at 1080p resolution. While 1080p displays are still pretty common, 1440p and 4K monitors have become very popular among PC enthusiasts in recent years.

OPNsense is a powerful firewall forked from pfSense and based on FreeBSD. Although capable, many may find the software daunting when first starting with a custom firewall. OPNsense is pretty much good to go once installed, outside of configuring access to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). I've rounded up some things I always do when setting up OPNsense. Following these steps will get you up and running with a feature-rich LAN without compromising security.

As if drive corruptions, accidental deletions, and other unforeseen events don't already pose a threat to your precious data, you’ll also want to watch out for ransomware. For the uninitiated, it’s a type of malware that encrypts your storage volumes, rendering your files inaccessible unless you wire your hard-earned money to a malicious actor.

The 3D printing creative process can be exciting when everything runs smoothly. However, I’ve learned that even minor errors can derail an entire build. Therefore, it helps to stay informed about the daily pitfalls enthusiasts and professionals encounter. Recognizing these mistakes early on has helped me save material costs, get better prints, and increase my printer’s lifespan. By exploring common issues and ways to prevent them, you’ll keep your prints looking sharp and reliable. Let me help you understand these problems and how to avoid them.

Back when the 5090 was pretty new, there was a tale making the rounds of a card melting someone's PSU connector. Given how the GPU alone has a 600W power demand, it wasn't too surprising that it could eat through a cable, but it was still shocking to see. Unfortunately, if a new story is to be believed, not only has the 5090 chewed up another one, but it also killed the PSU while it was at it.

Cyber hygiene might not be a term you're familiar with, but chances are you know at least some of the practices that make up the overall process. Simply put, it's a set of common practices to reduce the likely attack surface that cybercriminals target. This improves security while also reducing the amount of sensitive data that's exposed if an attacker does get through your defenses.