You know, back in my day, when you wanted to know how to beat a level or craft a specific item in a game, you had to get on your bike, go to an internet cafe, and print out 30 pages of a GameFAQs page that re-designed the game's logo in ASCII art. Now you turn on Twitch and stream your gameplay, and you have hordes of people telling you exactly what you should do in varying degrees of rage.

I've been around the block when it comes to CPU cooling. I've used countless all-in-one liquid cooling kits and air coolers. I've also built more custom open-loop systems than I care to recall, and have always generally recommended some form of liquid as the go-to for keeping temperatures low under sustained loads — and still do. The thing is, I don't really do many sustained loads on my primary system. It's used for work, which consists of the browser, a few apps, and Jellyfin streaming some music, and for some gaming. The system is never pushed to its limit, since I have other devices to use for that.

I learned about self-hosted apps and services not too long ago and loved the idea. The fact that I could host apps and services on my local home network is just the level of privacy I needed — especially when working with sensitive files. Additionally, the long-term cost savings are also worth appreciating, as I no longer pay for cloud storage. I replaced OneDrive with Nextcloud and migrated from several paid apps to free, self-hosted alternatives. Thanks to my enthusiasm, I set up my own home lab to test various hardware and software in a self-contained environment. Along with the several mistakes I made while setting up my home lab, one of them was not hosting some must-have apps. There are some programs I wish I had known when I was just starting.

It doesn't take much to build a PC nowadays, which is great if you're looking to dive in on a budget. While there are many ways to build a PC, we think this Intel Core i5 CPU is a good way to go if you're looking for something cheap and powerful. You can now grab it from Woot with a steep discount at just $100, which is a fantastic price.

Nintendo is the undisputed king of handheld gaming consoles. For decades, the company has released multiple portable systems that have gone on to become legendary with gamers who love their ensemble of franchises. But after the release of the Nintendo DS system, Nintendo tried something different that blended together their recent success with something they tried in the past. The Nintendo 3DS was a system that offered players quality games with the option of enabling non-glasses wearing 3D effects, adding extra depth to the visuals displayed on the screen. For Nintendo fans, this was a unique feature that wasn't being made by any other company with games that were fun to play. The success of the console led to many different types of titles being released, building up the 3DS library of games that people have fond memories of.

Whether you're a researcher, a college student, or just someone constantly buried under readings and assignments, there's a good chance you've tried at least one AI tool to lighten the load. I know I have. Out of all the AI productivity tools I've tested, both for work and my personal life, NotebookLM is one of the few that's genuinely made a difference.

Consoles are not very pocket-sized these days, are they?. We started off with stuff like the Game Boy range, which could slot into a pants' pockets pretty easily. Now you need a pretty deep pair of cargo pants to store a Switch 2, if you even can.

The world of Marvel Comics is vast and filled with tons of iconic superhero characters that people love. The universe itself has been the inspiration for a ton of great video games released over the years, with some of them going on to become classics of the eras they released. Whether you were a fan of Earth's mightiest heroes, or loved following the exploits of a friendly neighborhood vigilante, Marvel video games have always been action-packed experiences. Most recently, Marvel games have moved into territory that has been different from many of the classics that came before, often with varying degrees of success and a range of reactions from players. But there are those few games that stand tall as examples of the best parts of the Marvel universe and the stories it can tell about exciting superheroes and their adventures.

Managing and organizing a home lab can be difficult, especially if you have many servers, self-hosted services, and even domains. While I use some of my domains for actual web hosting, I also use my domains in tandem with Tailscale for accessing my self-hosted services with a human-readable address. Yet when it comes to a home lab, organization is key, and My Idlers is a great way to start with just that.

The idea of updating your Linux kernel can sound intimidating, especially if you're new to the ecosystem or if your experience with Linux is limited to occasional tinkering. After all, the kernel is the heart of the operating system, and touching it feels like stepping into dangerous territory. But for the vast majority of users, updating the Linux kernel is no more complicated or risky than letting Windows install its monthly security patches.

My NAS was initially a personal project, set up to help me better manage my storage setup, which consisted of numerous portable drives at the time. However, over time, I managed to convince my family to share the device and appreciate the convenience it offers. It didn’t take too long to see that it’d be a task that would need a lot of habit changes — because no one should be deleting files stored by another person or messing up the NAS’s core settings.

Nvidia’s chief security officer has published a blog post insisting that its GPUs “do not and should not have kill switches and backdoors.” It comes amid pressure from both sides of the Pacific, with some US lawmakers pushing Nvidia to grant the government backdoors to AI chips, while Chinese officials have alleged that they already exist.David Reber Jr.’s post seems pointedly directed at US lawmakers. In May a bipartisan group introduced the Chip Security Act, a bill that would require Nvidia and other manufacturers to include tracking technology to identify when chips are illegally transported internationally, and leaves the door open for further security measures including remote kill switches. While Nvidia is expecting to be granted permits to once again sell certain AI chips in China, its most powerful hardware is still under strict US export controls there and elsewhere.“To mitigate the risk of misuse, some pundits and policymakers propose requiring hardware ‘kill switches’ or built-in controls that can remotely disable GPUs without user knowledge and consent,” wrote Reber Jr. “Some suspect they might already exist,” he continues, in a nod to a probe already launched in China over alleged “loopholes and backdoor” vulnerabilities in the H20 chips that have been sold in the country.“There is no such thing as a ‘good’ secret backdoor,” Reber Jr. argues, “only dangerous vulnerabilities that need to be eliminated.” He goes on to call kill switches “an open invitation for disaster,” before making it explicit that his intended audience is US policymakers: “That’s not sound policy. It’s an overreaction that would irreparably harm America’s economic and national security interests.”Both Nvidia and the US government would like the company to be the dominant supplier of AI chips to China, but the suggestion of direct US access to the hardware might put that at risk. Chinese chip companies are steadily improving their performance and production capacity, as China looks for a homegrown alternative. That raises the possibility that Nvidia will be usurped in the market by Huawei, a company that knows a thing or two about losing market share over alleged government access.