When I was in school, having the right software was a real headache. Back then, powerful writing or graphics programs were expensive and totally out of reach for most students. There just weren't many good, free options. I either had to spend a lot on pricey licenses or settle for clumsy, basic tools that waste your time.

Would you feel brave enough to set up a system where people could send you random messages anonymously? What if each message were printed off on a cute little receipt printer? If that sounds like something you'd want to do, then you're braver than I. You're also, apparently, in good company, as a Raspberry Pi tinkerer called Andrew Schmelyun has done just that. And if you don't have the guts like I do, you can at least send him a nice message on his printer.

The colder days are creeping in, and what better way to take advantage of the plummeting temperatures than a bit of snowboarding? Unfortunately, there isn't a single snowy mountain even remotely close to where I live, so the best I can do that doesn't cost an arm and a leg is to play a video game instead. Which isn't ideal, but saves on the aches and pains the day after.

So there's a good mantra in the technology world where you always have to ensure that the backup plan designed to save your hide will actually save your hide. There are a few data-related horror stories where people reached for the backup when things went into meltdown mode on the primary drive, only to discover that the backup had also broken somewhere along the way.

Starlink satellites awaiting deployment. | Image: SpaceX On Sunday, SpaceX launched 56 additional Starlink satellites on separate Falcon 9 rockets, surpassing 10,000 total satellites launched into low Earth orbit to date. The milestone was reached on board the 132nd Falcon 9 launch of 2025, tying the previous annual launch record with more than two full months to go in the year.Of those 10k satellites, only about 8,608 are currently operational, according to Jonathan McDowell’s satellite tracker calculations. Starlink satellites have a lifespan of roughly five years before they’re intentionally de-orbited to burn up in the atmosphere. The first Starlink prototypes launched in February 2018 ahead of its 2021 commercial service offering.SpaceX has approval to launch 12,000 satellites — with over 30,000 planned — to bring fast, low-latency internet to the world. Others like Amazon’s Project Kuiper and efforts in Europe and China, have their own mega constellation plans, raising concerns about the threat caused by overcrowding.

Microsoft Loop is one of those tools I almost immediately loved after trying it. It nails that balance between structure and freedom that many project management tools miss. Everything about it feels clean and thoughtfully designed. Unlike many other tools that require so much organization and management on my part, Loop is the kind of workspace I actually look forward to spending time in.

When Google first announced NotebookLM, it didn’t launch with any of the innovative learning tools it has today, like Audio/Video Overviews, Flashcards, and Quizzes. NotebookLM started off with the same goal it has today: to help users manage the rapid growth of information. Instead of simply scouring the web for relevant content like most AI chatbots, NotebookLM focuses on helping users organize and leverage their own knowledge by pairing powerful AI models with the material they provide.

A firewall is one of the first lines of defense against existential threats to your device, and most operating systems include one in some form, so you have protection even if you don't pay for robust antivirus tools. The built-in Windows Defender Firewall is surprisingly robust. Beneath its clunky interface lies a powerful packet filtering engine that does a respectable job of keeping unwanted elements out. However, one trip to the Advanced Security settings page reveals a travesty of tedious wizards to configure simple rules. For technophiles and home lab enthusiasts who want granular, explicit control over every packet leaving their machine to ensure a chatty smart device doesn't contact a random server.

If your home network feels sluggish, unreliable, and constantly bombarded by digital noise, you are not alone. After all, we spend fortunes on fast internet and mesh Wi-Fi, yet our experience is constantly affected by pop-ups, trackers, and unwanted requests.

When it comes to temperature monitoring, the voltage regulator module (VRM) doesn't often get the spotlight that CPUs and GPUs get.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud computing platform, is currently down. And while the previous sentence might make it sound like it’s just Amazon services experiencing issues, the outage is taking down a huge chunk of the internet. AWS is the backbone for many apps and websites. While it doesn't control the internet, it hosts and powers countless apps people use daily. This includes Asana, Snapchat, Roblox, Perplexity, Canva, Duolingo, Coinbase, Fortnite, McDonalds, Venmo, Apple TV, and many more.

Here are just a few of the services impacted by the outage. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is currently experiencing a major outage that has taken down online services, including Amazon, Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite, ChatGPT, Epic Games Store, Epic Online Services, and more. The AWS status checker is reporting that multiple services in the US-EAST-1 Region are “impacted” by operational issues, though outages also affected services in other regions globally. As of 6:35AM ET, Amazon says that “most AWS Service operations are succeeding normally now” and that it is working towards a full resolution. The AWS dashboard first reported issues affecting the US-EAST-1 Region at 3:11AM ET. “We are actively engaged and working to both mitigate the issue and understand root cause. We will provide an update in 45 minutes, or sooner if we have additional information to share,” Amazon said in an update published at 3:51AM ET.Users on Reddit reported that the Alexa smart assistant was down and unable to respond to queries or complete requests, and in my own experience, I found that routines like pre-set alarms are not functioning. The AWS issue also appeared to be impacting platforms running on its cloud network, including Perplexity, Airtable, Canva, and the McDonalds app. The cause of the outage hasn’t been confirmed, and it’s unclear when regular service will be full restored.“Perplexity is down right now,” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said on X. “The root cause is an AWS issue. We’re working on resolving it.”⚠️ An outage affecting several services on the internet is also impacting Fortnite log-ins. We're investigating this now, and will update you when we have more details.— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) October 20, 2025In a 5:27AM ET update, Amazon says “We are seeing significant signs of recovery. Most requests should now be succeeding. We continue to work through a backlog of queued requests.”AWS outages in the US-East-1 region have created widespread disruptions in 2023, 2021, and 2020, forcing multiple websites and platforms offline for several hours before regular service was restored.Update, October 20th: added status updates from Amazon.