The more I build out my home lab, the more I love it. Being able to tinker with operating systems, services, and networking gear is a fulfilling hobby for me, and the parts that work out make my home better to live in. I've learned a ton over the years, but the one thing that I've not loved is what it does to my electricity bill. Old ex-enterprise hardware can be power-hungry, and quite honestly, much of it was surplus to my actual needs.

If you maintain scripts in multiple languages, switch between projects, or just hate Googling the same code solutions repeatedly, a snippet manager is a lifesaver. While there are many options out there, if you are after a self-hosted and open-source one, look no further than massCode. It is a code snippet management app designed for developers to collect, organize, and quickly retrieve code snippets. massCode is cross-platform, available on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

If you've seen even just a handful of my articles in the past, you'll know that I am a huge advocate for all things related to e-ink displays. I can never put my finger on why, but there's something about the paper-like displays that makes them look a lot classier than their LCD brothers. You can turn a project from "looks like someone hung a screen on a wall" to "cool art installation" just by using an e-ink display.

Throughout my career as a software developer and a freelance tech blogger, remote access has been essential. For years, I relied on TeamViewer, but as my work evolved, I needed something faster, more reliable, and secure. I had been aware of Parsec for a while, but I had always pigeonholed it as a tool exclusively for gamers. However, as my frustration with TeamViewer grew, I decided to give it a shot.

Your home network connects everything from your laptop to your smart TV. It keeps the internet running, but without the proper setup, it can be an open invitation for unwanted access. It’s easy to assume the setup is safe, yet you won’t know for sure until you review your settings.

If you're looking to upgrade your home office setup, opting for an arm for your monitor or monitors can be a simple way to gain more screen space and desk space. Armatures are also more flexible than traditional monitor stands, allowing you to better adjust your monitor to the best ergonomic position.

Setting up Proxmox Linux containers (LXC) and virtual machines (VMs) is what makes this hypervisor an invaluable tool for home labs. It's powerful, light, and fast, but there are a few tweaks one can make to make it even better. One is to enable community updates, unless you have a subscription, of course. But another may not be too obvious, especially if you're just starting out with your first Proxmox deployment. I'm talking CPU passthrough to VMs and how selecting the right one ("host") can improve performance.

Following on from the release of the XIAO 7.5-inch ePaper Panel from Seeed Studio, the company has now released the TRMNL 7.5-inch DIY kit, a way to build your own TRMNL device to put in a shell of your choosing. However, despite being aimed specifically at TRMNL (which requires either hosting your own TRMNL server or paying for a bring your own device license), you can do a lot more than just TRMNL with it, too.

As a business owner, you know that knowledge is your most valuable asset. But how do you keep track of all the ideas, processes, documents, emails, and insights that make your business run? This is the challenge I faced, and it’s what led me to build a simple yet powerful knowledge system using two tools I already had at my disposal: NotebookLM and Google Docs.

First launched in 2018, the open-source SerenityOS offers its users a stripped-back GUI-based operating system that melds a 1990s desktop aesthetic with a focus on productivity for power users. It isn't Linux, but SerenityOS is a UNIX-like OS, built on a custom core and uses no licensed components. So, while it can run MP3s, other media and related codecs currently covered by licenses are not supported.

Home Assistant is the most popular self-hosted service for managing smart devices, and for good reason. It’s compatible with tons of IoT paraphernalia, includes robust trigger-action automations, and has a handful of neat add-ons that further bolster its functionality. HASS also offers custom dashboards, automation blueprints, and some other useful settings hidden inside a barrage of menus. Then there’s the Home Assistant Community Store, an underrated utility that can up your HASS game.

Open-world survival craft games have really hit their stride in the past few years. If you're not familiar with them, they're titles which plonk you down in a giant world and tell you to use any means necessary to keep yourself alive. There's also some construction mixed in with the hunting, gathering, and farming, which lets you go from someone with barely anything to their name to owning a huge base.