For a little while, we've seen Microsoft rolling out a new blue screen of death to Windows 11. Well, we say "blue screen," but in truth, the new adjustments makes the display go black instead. It's part of Microsoft's mission to make it easier for people and businesses to get their systems back up and running.

I've built, upgraded, and benchmarked dozens of PCs over the decades I've been into computing. Back when you had to set individual drive jumpers and airflow for cooling wasn't a consideration, to the relatively plug-and-play nature of PCs today. Whether you're using the best GPUs, the best gaming CPU, or something more modest, most of the PC building experience is codified, and has tons of specific how-to explainers if you get stuck. But for all the advancements in making things easier for the builder, some things remain irritating in every build I've done, and I honestly can't figure out why these are still problems.

I’ve spent years experimenting with countless Linux distributions, breaking my system more times than I can count. While that trial-and-error process is part of the fun for me, I’ve learned from helping friends and family that what excites me is exactly what drives them away; most people don’t want to fix their computers, they just want them to work.

Many designers have that one paid tool they swear by to bring their work to life, but I wanted to challenge that and run real-world projects with nothing but free tools. I’ve tried all of them, from open-source and self-hostable to proprietary, but there’s one tool that managed to do everything I needed — Figma.

Just a few days after administrators announced that the “federal Judiciary is taking additional steps to strengthen protections for sensitive case documents in response to recent escalated cyberattacks,” the New York Times reports investigators have found evidence Russia is “at least partially responsible” for a recent hack. Politico reported on the breach last week, saying it was “believed to have exposed sensitive court data across multiple U.S. states” and that while the system’s managers had been aware of its impact since around July 4th, they are still trying to figure out its full extent. Searches by the attackers reportedly included cases “involving people with Russian and Eastern European surnames,” and may have compromised sealed records that weren’t publicly available. After the SolarWinds breach in 2021, new procedures called for highly sensitive documents to be filed using paper or a secure electronic device, and not uploaded to CM/ECF. In 2022, the DOJ reportedly informed the judiciary of another ongoing breach.According to the Times, district court chief judges were warned last month to keep cases with documents “related to criminal activity with an overseas tie” off of the usual document management system for federal cases, which is made up of the Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) where files are uploaded and managed, as well as PACER, a database that’s available to the public. It points to this order issued Friday by Eastern District of New York chief judge Margo Brodie, saying that, until further notice, “criminal cases and in cases related to criminal investigations are prohibited from being filed in CM/ECF,” and are instead to be uploaded to a separate system that doesn’t connect to PACER.Last week’s notice from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said:The vast majority of documents filed with the Judiciary’s electronic case management system are not confidential and indeed are readily available to the public, which is fundamental to an open and transparent judicial system. However, some filings contain confidential or proprietary information that are sealed from public view.These sensitive documents can be targets of interest to a range of threat actors. To better protect them, courts have been implementing more rigorous procedures to restrict access to sensitive documents under carefully controlled and monitored circumstances.

I've been building PCs for around 20 years now, so I've had my fair share of squeezing in dirt-cheap components whenever I could. While it didn't matter as much when I was working with shoestring budgets, I now make it a point not to cheap out on certain components. Saving money when building a PC is always important, but it shouldn't come at the cost of compromising safety, reliability, performance, or esthetics. You might not be cheaping out on your CPU or graphics card, but it's also worth paying attention to the other components.

Sometimes, folks just want to pop online, get some things done, and call it a day. For that, you don't need a lot of power, and you certainly don't want to be spending a lot of money on a device that gets used sparingly. Luckily, a Chromebook can be the perfect tool in this scenario, along with other applications as well.

It's sometimes difficult to believe it has been almost two decades since I left the British education system. Although technology played a vital role during my earlier years in life, what was available on systems at school pale in comparison to today's standards. Then there's the hardware at home. I had a Tiny PC desktop available but it could barely run modern software and there was no access to means for self-hosting anything. So, here are some apps and services that could have helped me get through studies that I recommend to those going back to school.

If you're someone that's on your computer or laptop all day, a monitor stand can make a world of difference. Not only does a monitor stand bring the display to eye level, but it can also reduce fatigue and improve your posture. If you've been thinking about buying one, or want to experiment, this model from Amazon is going to be the perfect one to go with thanks to its no-nonsense price of just $8.

Like many avid Windows OS users, I was also a big fan of Windows XP. There's no exaggeration in saying that it's one of the major reasons Microsoft is a household name among PC users.

With Windows 10's end-of-life date fast approaching, it's time we made a choice as to what to do with our older machines (that is, unless that one guy's lawsuit manages to win). If you're like me, you've decided that you want to ditch Windows 10 and go with Linux instead.

Grammarly is an amazing tool for creating written content without a plethora of mistakes, be it spelling, grammar, and structure. It's one of many tools that can be relied on to bring enticing content from imagination to reality. I write a lot during the day, both on and off XDA. I've usually got Apostrophe, Obsidian, Visual Studio Code, and other browser tabs open that require text input and I'm always utilizing these helpers for publishing only the best content.