There was a time when games felt like pure magic to me. Not because they were perfect, but because I was — starry-eyed, excited, and ready to believe. If something exploded, if a sword slashed, and if a car flipped and the screen shook, my brain lit up like it had just discovered fire.

Microsoft released its first security update of 2026 for Windows 11 on January 13th. Just four days later, it was forced to release an emergency out-of-band update to fix some pretty serious bugs, the first one introduced. The security patch was stopping some systems from shutting down or hibernating properly, and also preventing some users from logging in via remote desktop. The impact of the shutdown bug was limited to machines still running Windows 11 23H2, and only those running either the Enterprise of IoT editions. Still, this is just the latest buggy update that has forced Microsoft to issue an out-of-band update, something that use …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you give me a long article and tell me to read it and remember it later, I already know how that story ends. I’ll understand it while I’m reading, and then be like, “Hmmm, how does this fit into this?” Since I’m more of a visual learner, I need the information to look like something.

If you're considering upgrading to a smart home, one barrier you might encounter iscost. Some products can cost you hundreds of dollars, whether that's a thermostat or a doorbell with a built-in camera that also requires a monthly subscription. Opting for smart home products can be a costly investment, but that doesn't have to be the case.

PDFs are a part of life, so you'd think there would be more readily-available tools for editing them that didn't cost as much as a streaming service. Come on, Adobe; am I really getting the same value from Acrobat that I am from Hulu? No. Not even remotely. With that in mind, I set out to find a PDF editor that offered the same features but didn't cost anything, and I stumbled across Stirling PDF.

I spent a long time approaching NixOS as just another Linux distro that needed a slightly different installer and a new package manager. I looked for the equivalent of apt install, tried to tweak things live, and expected my changes to “stick” the way they do on Ubuntu. That mindset made every small task feel harder than it needed to be. Once I accepted that NixOS wants me to describe my system rather than babysit it, the whole thing started to make sense.

When I got into Linux, I stuck with GUI tools for a few months before slowly transitioning to terminal applications. With all the QoL features in Konsole, Ghostty, and other modern terminal emulators, my coding tasks became surprisingly fast, though something was still amiss. Thanks to my home lab, I’d often switch distros on a whim, which meant learning new shortcuts for each emulator. And since I’ve always loved tinkering with VMs, I’d have to put up with random disconnections that forced me to rerun long commands.

I've always loved the promise of the smart home, but even a die hard evangelist like myself has to concede that not every smart device makes your life easier. Some are complex to set up, others take too long to manage once they're running, and others work best when you manage them through a third-party solution.

It's relatively rare for a podcast to last 14 years, especially a fiction one. In fact, as far as I can tell, Welcome to Night Vale is the longest continually running fiction podcast out there. (Some will argue it's actually We're Alive, but that has taken a few significant breaks between seasons.) The story of Night Vale, the titular desert town, now spans 12 seasons, over 280 episodes, three books, and at least 10 live standalone shows. While dedicating several hundred hours of your life to listening to every episode might seem like a big ask, I believe you'll be hooked once you dive in.The show is written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cran …Read the full story at The Verge.

A few months ago, as Windows 10 was nearing its end of support, I decided to give Windows 11 a try on an unsupported laptop. I had performed a similar upgrade, one where the laptop didn't meet Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 requirements, but this time around, it was a little different. The CPU (Intel Core i5-4300M) itself was unsupported. At this point, I already knew that while Secure Boot and TPM were necessary, they weren't absolutely essential. On the other hand, an outdated, unsupported CPU directly impacts the system's performance, something that's non-negotiable for most. But I decided to proceed anyway. And, to be honest, my experience has been surprising.

Let's face it: 2026 is not the year to be brave with PC upgrades. RAMflation is very real, GPU pricing is still doing backflips, and even SSD shopping now feels like you're negotiating with a cartel instead of buying storage (technically, you are going up against multinational conglomerates for the same silicon). Building or upgrading a PC today isn't "future-proofing" in the least. Instead, it's pretty much just financial sabotage with RGB lighting.

When you think of a GPU dedicated to video encoding, you probably think about old consumer graphics cards from a few generations ago. Although a GTX 1070 or RX 580 might be able to handle your Plex or Jellyfin server, it is far from the ideal contender for the job. Old Nvidia Quadro GPUs might not get a lot of attention in most online discussions, but they can be more affordable, capable, and power-efficient for your streaming server. These workstation cards are engineered for reliable, 24x7 operation, unlike gaming GPUs focused on peak performance. If you're putting together a media server to stream your local library to your TV, phone, and other devices, look closely at older Quadro GPUs.