Rupert Murdoch’s fortress. | Photo: Getty Images While I generally respect The Wall Street Journal, every once in a while it sees fit to remind me that it is, in fact, owned by Rupert Murdoch. This time, it printed something dangerously close to anti-trans blood libel in the wake of Charlie Kirk's shooting.In its live-update blog yesterday, the Journal wrote, "Ammunition engraved with transgender and antifascist ideology was found inside the rifle authorities believe was used in Kirk's shooting, according to an internal law enforcement bulletin and a source familiar with the investigation." That language was echoed in social media posts. The right wing, including sitting members of Con …Read the full story at The Verge.

The sheer number of applications at your disposal is one of the best aspects of the self-hosted ecosystem, and each utility has its own rivals that bring cool features to the table. For private collaboration platforms, you can choose between Nextcloud, ownCloud, and SeaFile, while the password management space is split between Bitwarden and (my personal favorite) Vaultwarden. And I don’t even need to go over the Jellyfin-Plex (and Emby as well, I suppose) debate that’s been raging on for years.

One of the roadblocks that many home lab enthusiasts hit when they start self hosting services is the specter of Carrier Grade Network Address Translation, or CGNAT. This wonderful solution to the depletion of public-facing IPv4 addresses instantly puts your computer behind a double NAT situation, making all but basic connectivity and browsing a pain.

Parallels is the go-to solution if you're looking to run Windows on Mac. It's easy to set up, powerful, and offers a seamless experience. The only catch is that it's quite expensive, with even the cheapest option costing $100/year as a subscription or $220 if you're looking to own.

I think one of my favorite features that arrived with the gigantic wave of new AI tools is the translation tools. You may have noticed that, for some videos, YouTube will replace the voices of people speaking a foreign language with AI voices speaking in your native language. It's not exactly elegant, but it does make watching videos outside of my very minimal foreign language range a lot more enjoyable.

I've clocked my fair share of hours into Arma 3 with my friends. It may be 12 years old, but it's one of the more in-depth military simulators I've ever played. In fact, with so many years under its belt, its community has been hard at work developing mods and unique experiences that make it better than ever before.

While Windows is Microsoft's most famous software, it's likely not a huge money-maker for the company. I don't have its books on hand, but I can't imagine that people buying a new PC with a Windows 11 license once every three to five years is keeping it afloat. And that's not including the people who upgraded from Windows 10 to 11 for free.

Elon Musk is pressing Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to look into Blizzard employees who criticized Charlie Kirk after his death. Musk’s post quotes an X thread listing names and screenshots of the developers.“What’s going on here, @satyanadella?” Musk said. “These are Microsoft employees,” he added in another post.What’s going on here, @satyanadella? https://t.co/acO5poJMm8— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 12, 2025Musk’s direct question to Nadella follows a broader censorship crackdown from Republicans targeting individuals celebrating Kirk’s death or criticizing him. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) said he would use “Congressional authority and every influence with big tech platforms to mandate immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk.” Former Blizzard developer Mark Kern, who goes by “Grummz” online and frequently posts about right-wing issues on X, quoted the original thread, claiming that the screenshotted posts showed Blizzard employees “trashing” Kirk. Musk then quoted the post himself with his question to Nadella.“We’re aware of the views expressed by a small subset of our employees regarding recent events,” Microsoft said in a post on X. The post is not a reply to Musk but was shared on its main @Microsoft page. “We take matters like this very seriously and we are currently reviewing each individual situation. Comments celebrating violence against anyone are unacceptable and do not align with our values.” (The screenshots in the thread shared by Musk do not celebrate the shooting against Kirk.) Nadella has not replied to Musk publicly as of this writing.

Who doesn't have a thing for tweaking their desktops? We've all spent decades staring at monitor screens with normal, static wallpapers, and when you've got a mildly-decent rig, the first thing you want to do is change the desktop. After all, that's the first thing that greets us every time we turn our PC on. Now, the default, for many, is Wallpaper Engine, and yet, it isn't actually as easy as it might seem to justify spending even a single cent on something like a desktop wallpaper.

Obsidian has great default features, such as Graph View, which gives you a visual of how your notes are connected. You can also create folders and subfolders to keep everything easy to find. Those tools cover the basics, but sometimes you want more than the default setup to manage your projects and ideas efficiently.

Just because you built a project yourself doesn't mean it has to look rough. There are plenty of kits available that create a handy gadget while also looking incredible, and those are always my favorite. Such is the case of the ESPTimeCast, which comes with a ton of features and looks good doing so.

While interviewing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this week, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson brought up his belief in a conspiracy theory that former OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji was “definitely murdered.” The researcher’s death in November 2024, which was ruled a suicide by the San Francisco police, followed his release of statements online and in a New York Times article calling out OpenAI’s tech for alleged copyright violations. In their back-and-forth about a half-hour into the chat, Carlson bluntly explains his reasons for believing the theory, and that “[Balji’s] mother claims he was murdered on your orders.” Altman brings up the police reports and their findings after an investigation, later remarking, “I feel strange and sad debating this, and having to defend myself seems totally crazy, and you are a little bit accusing me,” even as Carlson denies doing so.Balaji had said that he was able to, using mathematical analysis, support the conclusion that “OpenAI’s use of copyrighted data violated the law and that technologies like ChatGPT were damaging the internet.” He had been set to testify in the Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. However, intellectual property lawyers cited in a report by Fortune said his arguments appeared to misunderstand copyright law, and it notes that he hadn’t released new inside information about the company, which some former employees turned whistleblowers have.Balaji’s mother has said she believes he was murdered to benefit OpenAI and other artificial intelligence companies, citing the absence of a note and findings of experts she’s hired. She appeared on Carlson’s show earlier this year, in an episode titled “Mother of Likely Murdered OpenAI Whistleblower Reveals All, Calls for Investigation of Sam Altman.” Her view has been promoted since Balaji’s death by Elon Musk and many people around him, as well as several elected officials.You can watch the relevant segment of the interview here, but this is what Carlson and Altman said that stuck out:Carlson: “…he was definitely murdered, I think… there were signs of a struggle, of course. The surveillance camera, the wires had been cut. He had just ordered take-out food, come back from a vacation with his friends on Catalina Island. No indication at all that he was suicidal. No note and no behavior. He had just spoken to a family member on the phone.And then he’s found dead with blood in multiple rooms. So that’s impossible. Seems really obvious he was murdered. Have you talked to the authorities about it?”Altman:  I have not talked to the authorities about it. Carlson: “Um, and his mother claims he was murdered on your orders. “Altman: “Do you believe that?”Carlson: “I- I’m, Well, I’m I’m asking.”Altman: “I mean… you, you just said it, so do you, do you believe that? Carlson: “I think that it is, um, worth looking into. And I don’t… I mean, if a guy comes out and accuses your company of committing crimes, I have no idea if that’s true or not, of course. Um, and then he is found killed, and there are signs of a struggle. I… I don’t think it’s worth dismissing it…I don’t think we should say, well, he killed himself when there’s no evidence that the guy was depressed at all. Um, I think… and if he was your friend, I would think he would want to speak to his mom or…Altman: “I did offer, she didn’t want to.”Carlson: “So, do you feel that, you know, when people look at that and they’re like, you know, it’s possible that happened. Do you feel that that reflects the worries they have about what’s happening here? Like people are afraid that this is like…”Altman: “I haven’t done too many interviews where I’ve been accused of, like…”Carlson: “Oh, I’m not accusing you at all. I’m just saying his, his mother says that.”