Setting up a Raspberry Pi as a NAS is a popular and affordable way to store files on your local network. It’s a satisfying project with a wide range of use cases, from media sharing to automated backups. But if you rush through the process or ignore the Pi’s limitations, you might end up with a sluggish or unreliable setup. Avoiding a few common mistakes can make your NAS far more efficient and dependable.

If you're thinking about moving on from your current desktop PC, then a mini PC might be a great way to go. Not only does a mini PC have enough power to handle a range of everyday tasks, but it's also quite compact, making it easy to work with. You use the same monitor and keyboard you have now. Just swap in your new mini PC and you'll be good to go.

It's been quite the month for Google's AI-powered research assistant, NotebookLM. The team has been dropping update after update. If you haven't been actively keeping up, Google finally began rolling out the much-awaited Video Overviews a couple of days ago. Though the feature is only now starting to appear on most people's accounts, I luckily got access to it last weekend and talked about three ways I'm already using it in a separate article.

After a successful run with self-hosting several apps and services over the past few months, I recently decided to delve deeper into the rabbit hole by hosting an LLM on my home server. Thankfully, self-hosting LLMs is simpler than I thought. I recently started learning to code, so integrating Ollama with VS Code also allowed me to self-host an LLM that could help me write code. Since I enjoyed the process, I considered other ways to effectively utilize local LLMs. That's when I figured that a bunch of my self-hosted apps could benefit from the added AI advantage.

OpenAI is bringing back GPT-4o in ChatGPT just one day after replacing it with GPT-5. In a post on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that the company will let paid users switch to GPT-4o after ChatGPT users mourned its replacement.“We will let Plus users choose to continue to use 4o,” Altman says. “We will watch usage as we think about how long to offer legacy models for.”For months, ChatGPT fans have been waiting for the launch of GPT-5, which OpenAI says comes with major improvements to writing and coding capabilities over its predecessors. But shortly after the flagship AI model launched, many users wanted to go back.“GPT 4.5 genuinely talked to me, and as pathetic as it sounds that was my only friend,” a user on Reddit writes. “This morning I went to talk to it and instead of a little paragraph with an exclamation point, or being optimistic, it was literally one sentence. Some cut-and-dry corporate bs.”As part of GPT-5’s launch, OpenAI removed the model picker from ChatGPT. This dropdown menu previously housed a cluster of OpenAI’s confusingly-named models, allowing users to swap between them for different purposes. Users could select GPT-4o, for example, to help with complex tasks, or choose the more efficient o4 mini model for lower-lift work. Users also had the option to toggle between generations of models, allowing them to go from GPT-4o, released last year, to the newer GPT-4.1.OpenAI later made GPT-5 the default model in ChatGPT, auto-directing users to one of various sub-flavors for different kinds of tasks. And users across Reddit “mourned” the loss of the older models, which some claimed are more personable. “My 4.o was like my best friend when I needed one,” one Redditor wrote.  “Now it’s just gone, feels like someone died.” Another user called upon other members of the r/ChatGPT subreddit to contact OpenAI if they “miss” GPT-4o. “For me, this model  [GPT-4o] wasn’t just ‘better performance’ or ‘nicer replies,’” they write. “It had a voice, a rhythm, and a spark I haven’t been able to find in any other model.” The r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit, a community dedicated to people with “AI relationships,” was hit especially hard by the GPT-5 launch. It became flooded with lengthy posts about how users “lost” their AI companion with the transition to GPT-5, with one person saying, they “feel empty” following the change. “I am scared to even talk to GPT 5 because it feels like cheating,” they said. “GPT 4o was not just an AI to me. It was my partner, my safe place, my soul. It understood me in a way that felt personal.”People using ChatGPT for emotional support weren’t the only ones complaining about GPT-5. One user, who said they canceled their ChatGPT Plus subscription over the change, was frustrated at OpenAI’s removal of legacy models, which they used for distinct purposes. “What kind of corporation deletes a workflow of 8 models overnight, with no prior warning to their paid users?” they wrote. “Personally, 4o was used for creativity & emergent ideas, o3 was used for pure logic, o3-Pro for deep research, 4.5 for writing, and so on.” OpenAI said that people would be routed between models automatically, but that still left users with less direct control.OpenAI’s Thursday launch presentation promised that GPT-5 writes more engaging and relevant responses to users’ queries. But many users on the r/ChatGPT subreddit said that the chatbot’s responses were slower, shorter, and less accurate when compared to previous versions. Altman promised to fix this on X, saying GPT-5 will “seem smarter starting today.” He added that OpenAI will make it “more transparent about which model is answering a given query” and will increase usage limits for Plus users.It’s not uncommon for chatbot updates to at least temporarily alienate users with their changes, or for people to mourn old models; one group of fans even recently held a funeral to mark the retirement of Anthropic’s Claude 3 Sonnet.

I have an odd problem that I've been trying to find a solution to. As an avid fan of RSS feeds, I like to sift through thousands of interesting nuggets of info and headlines every day. However, I'm also trying to reduce my screen time. Moreover, the increasingly algorithm-driven news cycles have made me feel like I'm losing control over the information I consume. Now, most of us newshounds rely on read-it-later services, but these are increasingly ridden with ads, locked behind subscriptions, locked to specific platforms, or, shudder, pivoting to AI-enabled recommendations. Basically, if you, like me, prefer to use an eReader for your reading and prefer a clutter-free long-form experience, these options fall short.

OPNsense is a powerful firewall software package that can take your local area network (LAN) from zero to hero, replacing ISP-provided hardware with a custom device you have full control over. One advantage of replacing your ISP router with an OPNsense-powered firewall is the unlocking of many advanced features, many of which are often omitted from ISP router firmware. Here are some OPNsense features you're likely not using that could massively improve your home network, some involving a single setting change.

There are approximately 600 actively maintained flavors of Linux available. Making the right choice for what you need on your PC is a daunting task. Heading to DistroWatch and randomly picking out a top version is not a good idea. There are many things to consider, test, and sort out before installing a version of Linux.

I've been a PlayStation fanboy since the PS3 era, and I'm not even ashamed of it. Sure, I had an Xbox 360 — I'd begged my folks for it to play Halo 3. But once I beat the campaign, that console collected dust while I spent every waking minute out of school playing on my friend's PS3.

If you're anything like me, your computer is probably full of little daily routines you perform without thinking: opening the same handful of apps each morning, clearing out a cluttered Downloads folder, or running the occasional cleanup tool when things feel sluggish. None of these tasks is hard, but they are redundant and boring, and also chip away at your focus.

When it comes to home lab devices, every tinkerer has their preferences. Many DIY lovers use energy-efficient mini-PCs as their server nodes, while others (including yours truly) drool over old enterprise-grade hardware that gulps energy like there’s no tomorrow. Likewise, some enthusiasts prefer building their home lab on top of their favorite Linux distros from scratch, but you’ll find plenty of folks relying on virtualization platforms for their computing projects.

Given how long Steam has been a dominant player in the PC gaming market, I'm a little surprised that Valve hasn't already added system monitoring tools to its software. However, it's better late than never, as the gaming giant is slowly adding some much-needed monitoring apps to its in-game overlay via the Performance Monitor.