For about 10 years, Nvidia's Shield TV Pro was the only serious streaming device choice for power users. But now, I feel like my main focus when it comes to the tech in my life is simplification and de-bloating. This means my Nvidia Shield TV has been collecting dust as its aging OS has stuttered and overcomplicated a simple task: watching TV.

I've played tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) since I was a kid, back when maps were drawn on graph paper, and all we had was a bag of dice and an even bigger imagination to get us through the story. Computers were very basic, virtual tabletop software like Foundry was something we could only dream of, and Games Workshop was a tiny company making small board games.

A few years ago, the default answer to almost any “tiny computer” project was a full single-board computer running Linux. That made sense, because you got drivers, packages, a real filesystem, and every network tool under the sun.

You've been sitting in your office so focused on your screen to the point where it's actually become dark outside, and you haven't noticed. You say, "Siri, turn on the office light," and she replies, "I'm sorry, that device is not responding." Why? Because a guest or even your own muscle memory flipped the physical wall switch off, cutting the power to your $40 smart bulb and killing its smartness.

For months, I was caught in the AI subscription cycle and jumped between ChatGPT for blog post ideas, Perplexity for research, and Gemini for my Google Workspace tasks. It felt like I was managing a digital assembly line just to get a single post out of the door. But recently, I hit a breaking point and cancelled them all.

Lesley Groff, Epstein’s executive assistant. | Image: Jmail The folks behind Jmail are at it again with a clone of Wikipedia that turns the treasure trove of data in Epstein's emails into detailed dossiers on his associates. Entries include known visits to Epstein's properties, possible knowledge of Epstein's crimes, and laws that they might have broken. The reports are dense, listing how many emails they exchanged with Epstein, basic biographical information, and details about how they're connected. Beyond that, there are entries for the properties Epstein owns, detailing how they were acquired and the alleged activities that took place there. There are also entries for his business dealings, incl …Read the full story at The Verge.

AirDrop makes it look effortless to share files between my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. But the feature is limited only to Apple’s products. Hence, I end up emailing the files to myself, which feels like an outdated workaround.

Aside from ad-blockers, databases, and network tools, media servers are the most common utilities you’d find in the self-hosted ecosystem.

There's a certain tone people use when they talk about shucked hard drives. It's usually a mix of skepticism and mild caution, with remarks such as "they're cheap for a reason," and "they'll fail early."

As a cave-dwelling tinkerer, my home lab is essentially a lair of organized chaos, with server rigs in random places and wires dangling off tables. But since I have detailed notes and datacenter-tier asset management tools documenting every aspect of the setup, I’ve got everything under control… for the most part.

For years, Chrome's offer in the form of a 'save password' prompt was the default path of least resistance. It was good enough until the web started moving towards a password-less future. While it was the easy button, it was also a gilded cage. If Google decided one day that your account was flagged, all of your digital keys go with it including passkeys which meant you would completely be locked out of multiple accounts, pretty much for eternity.

If you have ever had issues with your Windows PC, from random slowdowns to app crashes and the dreaded BSOD, you would have, at some point, looked through the Event Viewer. The built-in utility keeps a log of all system events, which can be used for troubleshooting, and the right log can help you identify the faulting module. But let's face it, the Event Viewer can be overwhelming. Scanning through hundreds of log files takes time, and unless you have a fair bit of understanding of the operating system, reading into the logs can be a challenge. This is where another built-in utility comes into the picture.