I'm always surprised by how inventive people can get with old and decommissioned stuff. It wasn't too long ago since we saw someone converting a radio from 1955 into a modern-day internet streamer. However, if someone gave me a disused parking meter and told me to go wild with it, I have zero idea where I'd even start.

As a freelance tech blogger, my productivity lives and dies inside the browser. Almost everything I do, including researching tools, reading documentation, collecting links, writing drafts, translating content, and managing logins, happens in Chrome. When the browser gets cluttered or slow, my entire workflow suffers. That’s why I’m very selective about what I install. Over time, I realized the right Chrome extensions can quietly remove friction from daily work. Open-source extensions, in particular, have become my go-to choice: lightweight, transparent, and built to enhance focus rather than steal it. Here’s the list of open-source productivity Chrome extensions that keep my browser fast and organized.

When it comes to using a computer, there are multiple approaches you can take. You might just use it to complete your basic tasks like opening apps, writing, researching, sending emails, and basic file management. Then there's the other approach. You see, inevitably, files pile up over time across folders. Or perhaps you have a habit of leaving apps open in the background. Basically, system maintenance becomes something that you leave to the computer. That's a reasonable approach, but it doesn't cover every maintenance scenario.

My home lab has grown significantly since its humble beginnings of an Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X and a couple oflow-cost mini PCs. It's now a mix of Proxmox nodes, OPNsense firewalls and various storage machines, but there's one piece of equipment that keeps everything together and connected. That's a fairly expensive managed switch, which was just under $400 when I got it, but I'd rebuy that in a blink if it died on me.

Almost a year ago, I started my self-hosting journey. While I'm impressed with how much I've learned, there were also plenty of bumps along the way.

Billy Woods has one of the highest batting averages in the game. Between his solo records like Hiding Places and Maps, and his collaborative albums with Elucid as Armand Hammer, the man has multiple stone-cold classics under his belt. And, while no one would ever claim that Woods' albums were light-hearted fare (these are not party records), Golliwog represents his darkest to date.This is not your typical horrorcore record. Others, like Geto Boys, Gravediggaz, and Insane Clown Posse, reach for slasher aesthetics and shock tactics. But what Billy Woods has crafted is more A24 than Blumhouse. Sure, the first track is called "Jumpscare," an …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you're a Windows 10 user who couldn't make the jump to Windows 11, or you're just getting tired of Microsoft's shenanigans lately, you can always give Linux a try. The good news is, there are so many Linux distros out there for you to try. The bad news is, there are so many Linux distros out there that you can get decision paralysis over which one to use.

Many variants of newer mini PCs are so compact that they appear to only support what you see on the I/O panel, but beneath their exterior, you can sometimes find a hidden SATA port that you can utilize.

The goal of building automations is to make your life easier. Let the basics run on their own, with fewer switches to bother with and things to remember. Or at least that's the idea. But there are downsides to automation. The biggest being that if and when things break down, there's usually no way to find out unless it's too late. Be it a cron job or a script that failed, or perhaps a backup that didn't complete, automations tend to stop running without much of a heads-up. This is, obviously, problematic.

It’s no secret that Windows 11 has a bloatware problem. I began to notice it when we transitioned from Windows 7 to the world of Windows 8, which had an app store to download apps. Soon, the preloaded apps started making their way into the operating system, and it became more evident with Windows 10 and 11. Microsoft began cluttering the lean operating system into a concoction of preloaded apps, suggestions in random places (you can call them ads), and more bothersome stuff.

The Trump administration approached Microsoft for its donation to fund the White House's $300 million ballroom, documents released by Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-MA) office reveal. In response to a Democrat-led letter questioning Big Tech's involvement in the ballroom's construction, Microsoft counsel Karen Christian writes that the company "was contacted by a fundraiser for the effort regarding a possible donation" around two months after President Donald Trump announced plans to replace the White House's East Wing with a privately funded ballroom."At that time, Microsoft was provided information concerning the Trust for the National Mal …Read the full story at The Verge.

After using a NAS for a good few years, you eventually have to make a choice. You could either replace your aging NAS or keep pushing it with hardware upgrades year after year. Just out of curiosity, I kept track of new NAS enclosures, and what surprised me the most was the price of an empty enclosure. That’s because I knew what all would go into making it a complete system with NAS-specific drives and other critical upgrades.