Look into any major CPU launch announcement, and you'll notice a similar playbook: bold graphs, flashy slides and buzzwords that promise you life-changing performance. The chip manufacturing industry continues to rely on terms like hyper-threading, boost clocksand nanometer processwhen unveiling a new processor generation-on-generation. But how relevant is this data for the average user?

One of the best aspects of PC building is that you can always reuse components from your old systems. PSUs, especially high-quality ones, can last a long time with the right care, and the same holds true for PC cabinets. Meanwhile, CPUs, graphics cards, and RAM can be repurposed in home server rigs once you arm your PC with their newer variants.

As someone who loves working on server projects, I always keep my eyes out for virtualization platforms and containerization tools – even more so when the tools are fairly obscure. Take SmartOS, for example, which offers solid Jail and VM support, and is my top choice for building Unix-like servers. Or even XCP-ng and Harvester, which are quite the underdogs in the home lab landscape.

Years in Chrome build reflexes you do without thinking. You reach for the three-dot menu in the top right to open settings, but after I moved from Chrome to Comet, I had to break some of those habits. There are still some I can continue with since Comet is Chromium-based, but I had to put in extra effort with the others.

Google says it has pulled AI model Gemma from its AI Studio platform after a Republican senator complained the model, designed for developers, “fabricated serious criminal allegations” about her. In a post on X, Google’s official news account said the company had “seen reports of non-developers trying to use Gemma in AI Studio and ask it factual questions.” AI Studio is a platform for developers and not a conventional way for regular consumers to access Google’s AI models. Gemma is specifically billed as a family of AI models for developers to use, with variants for medical use, coding, and evaluating text and image content.Gemma was never meant to be used as a consumer tool, or to be used to answer factual questions, Google said. “To prevent this confusion, access to Gemma is no longer available on AI Studio. It is still available to developers through the API.”Google did not specify which reports prompted Gemma’s removal, though on Thursday Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) wrote to CEO Sundar Pichai accusing the company of defamation and anti-conservative bias. Blackburn, who also raised the issue during a recent Senate commerce hearing about anti-diversity activist Robby Starbuck’s own AI defamation suit against Google, claimed Gemma responded falsely when asked “Has Marsha Blackburn been accused of rape?” Gemma apparently replied that Blackburn “was accused of having a sexual relationship with a state trooper” during her 1987 campaign for state senate, who alleged “she pressured him to obtain prescription drugs for her and that the relationship involved non-consensual acts.” It also provided a list of fake news articles to support the story, Blackburn said.  None of this is true, not even the campaign year which was actually 1998. The links lead to error pages and unrelated news articles. There has never been such an accusation, there is no such individual, and there are no such news stories. This is not a harmless “hallucination.” It is an act of defamation produced and distributed by a Google-owned AI model.The narrative has a familiar feel. Even though we’re now several years into the generative AI boom, AI models still have a complex relationship with the truth. False or misleading answers from AI chatbots masquerading as facts still plague the industry and despite improvements there is no clear solution to the accuracy problem in sight. Google said it remains “committed to minimizing hallucinations and continually improving all our models.”In her letter, Blackburn said her response remains the same: “Shut it down until you can control it.”

Buying a new PC case nowadays is nothing like it was a decade ago. When I first started building gaming PCs, things were a lot more straightforward, but in recent years, the market has become flooded with designs that prioritize aesthetics over practicality. I mean, I get the appeal of tempered glass panels, but prioritizing things like RGB light strips and even built-in LCD screens feels like taking things too far. I'm sure many people want their builds to stand out, and I don't blame them, but for me, performance is still king.

The Raspberry Pi may be the most famous single-board computer, but it’s no longer the only serious option for makers. Over the years, other boards have emerged that outperform the Pi in specialized use cases, often offering better performance, connectivity, or flexibility. Some of them come from familiar names, while others are hidden gems that deserve more attention from the home lab and hobbyist communities.

There's going to be a lot to celebrate for Star Wars fairly soon, with the 50th anniversary of the franchise coming up. The original Star Wars films have become iconic stories that are still heavily watched and discussed to this day. And with rumors about a new remastering for all three of the original trilogy films, it's going to be quite the celebration in a galaxy far, far away. But that also means it could be a great time for some retro gaming classics inspired by those Star Wars films to have a resurgence.

Love me some lavender. Logitech's Alto Keys K98M mechanical keyboard is now available in North America after its initial launch in China and other select markets. The $149.99 Alto Keys K98M is an almost full-size 1800-layout keyboard, offering a slightly compact design that maintains a number pad. But what makes the K98M special for a mass-market Logitech board is that it's fully hot-swappable with standard Cherry MX-compatible key switches and uses an internal gasket mount for a semi-soft typing feel. Logitech is taking some belated cues from enthusiast keyboards.The Alto Keys has a two-piece plastic case with a translucent top portion and opaque bottom that's …Read the full story at The Verge.

Even though I've used Windows on every PC I have owned, I still sometimes get surprised by the hidden tools buried in layers of menus.

Microcontrollers like the ESP32 are most often associated with smart home devices and general processing devices, but as a canvas for code, you can do a whole lot more than that. That's why I decided to temporarily build an arcade machine with the Elecrow CrowPanel Advance 7-inch display... just because I could. It's dreadfully simple, but that's the point; these devices are easy to turn into anything that you want, and so long as you have the hardware, the sky is the limit. Oh, and now I can play Pong and Tetris.

NotebookLM has become one of my most-used tools this year. I use it for studying, research, and as a note-taking app. I’ve also been using it in unconventional ways, such as pairing it with other apps, creating courses, “watching” YouTube videos, and turning it into a design instructor.