Grounded 2 launched into Early Access on July 29, 2025, and as a long-time fan of the series, I dove in at the moment it dropped. There’s a lot to love here. Obsidian and Eidos‑Montréal have evolved the micro-survival formula in meaningful ways. But as with any game still in development, it’s not without its frustrations. Here are the systems I’m most impressed by ... and the ones I’m hoping will get a second look.

We've seen mini PCs explode in popularity over the past year or so, with plenty of models to suit nearly every need. You can grab a cheap one that's great for powering your home lab, or you can splurge a little and get something that's going to be able to handle pretty much anything you can throw at it.

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.

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.

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.

Dealing with slow, laggy home Internet is the pits, and it can happen to any home network, from Multi-Gig capable connections to DSL. Even my home network slows down sometimes, and I've got 10GbE for some sections of it. But it's not all about straight-line speeds, with the general responsiveness and reliability of your network being key to a good internet experience. Those things aren't always easy to measure, but simple, quick fixes can get your slow network back to its best.

With people getting a free upgrade from Windows 10 to 11, Microsoft missed out on quite a bit of revenue. While I don't have Microsoft's profit books on hand by any means, I can imagine that the company wants to find a way to get its users to pay them in some shape or form, even if it's not for Windows 11 specifically.

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.

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.

Having spent the better part of five years in the mechanical keyboard hobby, I pushed myself to try smaller keyboards in pursuit of where the compactness and efficiency gain curves intersect. I hoped to find the perfect middle ground between a full-size battleship that has a key for every imaginable function and a tiny Pain27 keyboard that has all the letters, a Spacebar, and nothing else. The world of sub-40% keyboards has always been a siren call, promising ultimate desk space savings and reduced finger travel. The philosophy is simple: move your fingers less, get more done. But as with most things in life, there's a point of diminishing returns, and I think I've found it with one seriously regrettable purchase.