Over the course of my computing journey, I’ve built, upgraded, and replaced several PCs. But rather than labeling my older systems as e-waste and sending them to the scrapyard for pocket change, I try to come up with cool ways to leverage them in my home lab. For example, any mid-tier PC or laptop released in the last 5 years can be reborn as a solid general-purpose machine with a Linux distribution.

You know, I have a real soft spot for open-source hardware that's also sold as a complete product. It gives you the best of both worlds: you can either make your own if you have the DIY moxie, or you can purchase one if you don't feel up to the task. Everyone wins.

Video game narratives have some incredible highs, and a ton of lows, as the art form has evolved and matured over the past few decades. As part of that evolution, gaming started using narrative conventions from other mediums, including twists. A twist is when a story takes a sharp turn. While the best twists are set up in the story, but not made too obvious, there are also plenty that aren't supported and don't work. The best twists in gaming come as culminations of hours' worth of build-up across the game, before getting hit with a twist that changes everything. While these are often emotionally devastating, they also tie into the themes of the game, creating incredible moments of storytelling.

For any gaming PC, the monitor is an integral part of the setup. It might technically be just a peripheral, but it defines how immersive your gaming experience will be. Although I own a great monitor now, the one I used for over three years before this was hardly what you'd call a "gaming monitor." It was a small 22-inch 1080p display with a 75Hz maximum refresh rate. It was an IPS panel, but that was about it. I wish I had spent slightly more and gotten a more immersive display for arguably the best gaming years I had.

I've been upgrading my home network lately, and while I was figuring out how some of the wired connections would go, I opted for RJ45 SFP+ modules because some of my devices have 10GbE NICs. I could have gone with a mix of Ethernet and fiber, but I wanted everything to be the same, so it'd be easier to install and have some spare parts.

Have you ever tried downloading Google Chrome while using Bing on Microsoft Edge? If you haven't, you'll learn just how clingy Microsoft can get. Searching for Google Chrome with Bing will summon a header at the top of the search results claiming that "there's no need" to download a browser other than Edge. Clicking on the Google Chrome search result and proceeding with the download will summon another header, claiming that Edge provides a Microsoft-approved experience. In short, it's really adamant that you don't use Chrome.

When it comes to WSL, most go for Ubuntu or Fedora and there's a good reason for it. The learning curve is close to zero, whether you’re familiar with Linux or not. Plus there’s enough documentation and community support available to get you out of any mess. But I personally like to experiment with different Linux distros so I also tried NixOS in WSL. If you care more about a reproducible, declarative workspace than about sticking with a familiar apt or dnf workflow, I’d suggest you try it too.

NotebookLM started off as a Google Labs experiment, under the code name "Project Tailwind" in 2023. If you aren't familiar with Google Labs, it's basically Google's experimental playground, where the company tests out early-stage AI tools and features before deciding whether they're worth rolling out widely.

For years, I have been using multiple productivity apps for various work tasks, including Google Calendar for appointments, Evernote for quick notes, Trello and Asana for task management, Excel sheets for contacts, and 1Password for password management, among others. Although all or most of these apps are individually good at what they are meant for, using them all together was a total mess. It felt disjointed and inefficient, with the constant anxiety of overlooking something important.

The Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1 14 Gen 10 isn't a perfect laptop, but neither is the premium Yoga 9i. But they're both built from the same common core, the essence of what a Yoga means. You can get a very similar experience for a more affordable price with the Yoga 7, and sometimes, that's all that matters.

Have you given Elden Ring a try yet? If not, you're missing out. People have clocked thousands of hours into it, and with DLC continuously adding new elements to the game, it's a must-have for people who enjoy FromSoftware RPGs and difficult games.

There’s no shortage of Linux distros, whether you’re looking for easy-to-use options or one that's super niche. Most people stick to popular options like Ubuntu or Linux Mint, but I decided to try something different and unique – NixOS. It is a distro that runs on the Nix package manager, and unlike other Linux systems, where packages are dumped into a shared folder, NixOS keeps every package in its own unique path. This means dependencies don’t clash with each other.