Recently, I looked back at some of my articles and realized that it's only been a little over two months since I wrote about trying Linux for the first time. In that short span of time, I've become a certified Linux fan, and I now find it funny to think about how I was so scared of using it before. I truly believed that using Linux would just be harder and too difficult to get used to.

Building out a home lab with Raspberry Pi boards is a rewarding project, and it often sparks the urge to replicate enterprise-style infrastructure. High-availability setups, with redundant nodes, load balancers, and clustering, seem impressive. It’s easy to think that if enterprise IT runs this way, you should do the same at home. However, on hobbyist hardware found in a home lab, the costs quickly outweigh the benefits, and the end result is rarely worth the effort.

Last week, I discovered my new favorite focus app, and it might just be the perfect tool to help you concentrate. There are plenty of focus apps out there, but most haven't worked for me for one reason or another, whether it's distracting ads, too many paywalls, or a lack of engaging features.

The final list of games included in the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection was finally revealed during Gamescom 2025. The collection of classic fighting games will not only have the original arcade releases, but an ensemble of console ports and alternate versions of the games released on multiple platforms. The last two games announced for the retro bundle were spin-offs for the series, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. But now that we know what this collection of Mortal Kombat games will ultimately be, I want to see a second collection released that goes into the next era of the series.

If you're fond of trying out multiple operating systems without the hassle, you're probably using virtualization regularly. Whether you use Hyper-V, VMWare Workstation, or VirtualBox, enabling virtualization in the BIOS isn't where it ends. To make the most of your virtual machines (VMs) and ensure you aren't crippling performance, you need to look at several other BIOS features and settings that can make a huge difference. These settings ensure your VMs get complete access to your GPU, NIC, and other devices.

Verizon has confirmed to customers in stores and online that its network is having an issue on Saturday. Many people have been unable to connect and make or receive calls for hours, while DownDetector’s tracker peaked in the afternoon at around 3:30PM ET with more than 20,000 reports. Some customers report their service has continued to function throughout the day, so it’s unclear what the cause is exactly.Downdetector’s outage map showed hotspots in many cities, and Verizon didn’t specifically list affected areas. On X, the @VerizonSupport account confirmed the issue in response to customers’ questions, but didn’t have additional details on restoration or how widespread it is.Verizon’s Karen Schulz responded to our inquiry about the issue and confirmed the outage via email, saying, We are aware of a software issue impacting wireless service for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue. Please visit our Check Network Status page for updates on service in your area. We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience. We appreciate your patience.If there’s any additional information or the situation changes, we will update this post.

While playing one of the endless Backrooms games over the last weekend, I had the in-game handheld camera focused on one of the monstrous entities, and wondered out loud to my friend, "what if we were watching this on, like, a '90s VHS tape or something?" The idea held weight, so I went through the interwebs to find an app that would let me do just that.

When you’re building with Raspberry Pi or ESP32 boards, one of the biggest challenges is making your project look polished instead of like a pile of wires and circuit boards. That’s where 3D printable enclosures shine. With the right design, you can turn your DIY build into something that looks like it came straight off a store shelf. These options cover everything from sleek Raspberry Pi housings to cases that give ESP32 projects a professional finish.

When the internet was first designed, every device connected to it was supposed to have a unique public-facing IP address, and they did, for a time. But the explosion of internet-connected devices meant a solution was necessary, and Network Address Translation or NAT was born. This essentially translates your router's external IP into your devices' internal IP, fixing the IP address limitations but introducing a few new problems. The thing is, those problems are easily fixable with NAT rules to forward ports into and out of your network, and it would be that simple if your ISP wasn't involved.

If you're a PC gaming enthusiast, you've probably spent countless hours researching and arguing about performance bottlenecks and how you can combat them. Choosing the right combination of CPU and GPU is certainly important if you don't want to waste money, though one could argue it's also a fruitless pursuit. Hardware bottlenecks are, for the most part, unavoidable, and you can only minimize them.

Home Assistant has a reputation for primarily blinking your lights and automating your blinds, but that's not all it can do. While that's certainly fun, its capabilities go far beyond smart home automation, despite the name. Thanks to all of the software you can link up to it, too, its power can also be utilized by students looking to improve their organization. You can centralize classes, deadlines, chores, travel time, laundry, and notifications in one place, entirely local and private. Start with a phone, a calendar feed, and a simple dashboard, and you're already in a great place going into a new school year.

It's the clash of the titans this holiday season, with Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 going head-to-head with October and November releases, respectively. The FPS space has clearly not been this exciting in years, and with two of gaming's most bankable franchises ready for a dogfight come Q4, I have to say, things do look better for Battlefield this time around.