Anyone dabbling in self-hosting runs into a familiar set of problems. For me, it's been deciding what to host on. While I started off with a Raspberry Pi, I quickly outgrew that. Next came a NAS, but it wasn't ideal either. Let's just say that while I wanted to self-host my stack at home, the hardware options leaned awkward. A full desktop server was just too awkward to run Home Assistant and Immich. But a cheap mini PC turned out to be the perfect middle ground I was looking for.

3D-printed PC parts are among the most satisfying ways to blend hobbyist creativity with practical PC building. You can make cable combs, fan ducts, SSD brackets, GPU supports, and all kinds of custom add-ons for a fraction of what retail accessories often cost. Better yet, you can make them fit your exact case and hardware instead of settling for something generic. That kind of flexibility is hard to beat, and it is a big reason printed parts have become so popular.

I've used Wyze products off and on for nearly a decade, and each time, no matter the device, I'm left satisfied. The products are affordable and reliable. Plus, the cost for service isn't all that bad either. Of course, everyone will have their own favorites, but as far as my experience goes, Wyze has never let me down.

The gaming PC I built back in 2017 had 16GB (2x8GB) of DDR4-3000 memory. The G.Skill Ripjaws V sticks lasted me well into 2022, at which point I moved to a new build. My older PC has been gathering dust since then. While I gave my Ryzen 5 1600 and GTX 1660 Ti to a friend a few years ago, the other components are still in their old boxes, waiting to be called upon someday. Ever since skyrocketing RAM prices brought unprecedented attention to PC memory, I've been wondering how best to use my 8GB sticks. I've been struggling to find the time to repurpose my old hardware for a DIY project, but a home lab and retro gaming PC are still on my mind. Alternatively, I could give the RAM to someone building a budget gaming PC. If nothing else, I can make a quick buck by selling the kit on the used market.

I feel like we're at a real crossroads in the handheld market. There is no clear winner just yet, with Windows 11, SteamOS, and Bazzite among the most popular options. However, I feel that the trajectories that each operating system picks now will decide which one will become the de facto choice among gamers.

Perplexity wants to be more than just an answer engine. On Wednesday it launched Personal Computer, a new AI agent tool that can turn a spare Mac into a locally run AI system, pitching it as "a digital proxy for you."Personal Computer will run 24/7 on a dedicated device on your local network, have full access to your files and apps, and be controllable from anywhere and on any device, Perplexity said. That deeper access makes it a more personalized version of a similar product Perplexity launched last month, Perplexity Computer, a cluster of agents it described as a "general-purpose digital worker." Perplexity pitches the system as more …Read the full story at The Verge.

Most home networks are far more crowded than they seem. Phones, laptops, TVs, tablets, smart speakers, printers, and stray little IoT gadgets all pile onto the same connection, yet most of us only see them when a router app coughs up a vague list of devices. That works well enough until something unfamiliar pops up. At that point, the network stops feeling invisible and starts feeling uncertain.

People who use Linux or an ARM64 device know the pain of having to resort to workarounds to get their favorite apps working on their systems. That goes double for anyone running an ARM64 device and Linux simultaneously. And while companies usually make excellent progress on one side of the equation (such as Google Chrome releasing on Windows on Arm back in 2024), the other side often gets left out.

Having witnessed my fair share of cloud-based services getting the enshittification treatment with privacy-intrusive ads, unintuitive menus, and paywalled features, I’ve been going through tons of self-hosted utilities to build a FOSS application stack. Although media management tools form a large segment of my local apps, I’ve also followed this notion for my productivity arsenal, as I’d rather not deal with cloud services when I can just host free tools on my home lab nodes. So, here’s the productivity stack that I currently use after years of trial and error.

If you’ve ever worked with vector graphics, you’ve probably considered getting an Illustrator subscription at some point, or already have one. It’s one of the industry standards and has been the go-to for hobbyists and professionals alike for any vector-related work for years now. I used to have a subscription myself, but then I eventually cut ties with Adobe, and started building a new editing stack comprising free and open-source graphics apps.

Let's say you've just spent $150 on a high-speed 40GB/s dock but your external SSD is transferring at half speed and your second monitor won't turn on. The issue here is that we were promised one cable to rule them all. Instead, we have got a dozen protocols hiding behind the same reversible connector.

I'll let you in on a little tech blogging inside baseball.