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.

So, there's a Pillar of Autumn-sized elephant in the room, and that's about Halo coming to the PlayStation 5. After Forza Horizon and Gears of War, the next big 'green' exclusive coming to Sony's console is Master Chief himself. For a huge part of a newer wave of gamers, Halo: Campaign Evolved, which is coming out next year, will be their first foray into the Halo universe, so buckle up, because this one might feel different.

M.2 SSDs used to be pretty affordable, but prices have risen over the past year, and even after some decent price drops, they still aren't back to where they were prior to 2023. That's why when something comes along that delivers good performance but doesn't cost an arm or a leg, it's worth highlighting so you can have a chance to upgrade your PC, laptop, or game console for less.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 might not be the most popular choice when it comes to graphics cards for this generation. But it's a good option if you're upgrading from something older, or just want something current that's not going to leave a huge dent in your bank account.

For PC builders and hardware enthusiasts, a warranty affords peace of mind, no matter what they plan to do with their rigs — whether it's competitive gaming with boost profiles, crypto mining, tweaking with BIOS settings to gain the maximum performance out of their system, or precariously moving their components to another cabinet.

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.

I've been a Spotify user for years. It was convenient, had everything I wanted to listen to, and worked seamlessly across all my devices. But somewhere along the way, things changed. The free tier became nearly unusable due to constant ads interrupting every few songs. Then came the price increases. And the more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I became with handing over data about every single song I played. So a few weeks ago, I decided to try something different. I built my own music streaming server using Navidrome, and honestly, I'm not going back.

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.

Model Context Protocol enables a Large Language Model (LLM) to do a lot more than just answer questions. Acting as a translator between the model and the digital world, it can abstract data from a particular service by exposing "tools" that the LLM can use. Instead of manually pasting snippets from another application, the model can choose to access that information if required. SearXNG is one such MCP server that enables a model to browse the web, but Context7 is another, fantastic MCP server that enables your model to access up to date documentation.

My adventures of building a smart home on a shoestring budget are taking an interesting turn. It turns out that I don’t need to splurge on costly smart home devices. Thanks to my colleague Adam Conway’s first-hand experience of building cheap smart home sensors with ESP32, my smart home dreams got a serious boost.

Do you fancy making your own game, but don't want to go through the pains of, you know, actually making a game? Well, I have some good news for you. Not only does Game Dev Tycoon let you design your ideal game in a safe sim environment, but it also puts you in charge of running an entire business based around producing top hits and sequels for your best-sellers. Best of all, you can do all that for the low, low price of $2 as part of a Steam sale.

In all the time I've been a PC gamer, I never felt the need to check out Steam's remote play features like Steam Link. All my gaming happened on my PC, and my TV and phone were reserved for streaming and doomscrolling, respectively. Lately, however, I wanted to introduce my partner to co-op gaming, and since we now had the Apple TV 4K (3rd Gen) for the TV, I hoped the performance would be up to the mark. Little did I know I would be spending more time troubleshooting the Steam Link app than actually playing games with my partner.