When considering apps that keep me bound to Google's ecosystem, Google Photos has been one of the biggest obstacles to reducing my reliance on the tech company. I've explored plenty of useful self-hosted apps, but self-hosting my own image backups has been one of the more rewarding experiences.

It has been a weird year for tech trends, with underdogs managing to score a win against their once-impervious rivals. We've only just recovered from seeing Linux take a 5% share in userbase for the first time ever, and now we're seeing what looks like a pretty big shift away from Intel's hardware, at least in the gaming scene. Recent Steam surveys have revealed that AMD has been on a slow but sure advance against Intel's dominance, managing to accrue over 40% of the Steam user playerbase just last month.

Every gamer who's ever held a controller in the '90s has some images burned into their mind. Not because they were ultra-HD or ray-traced, but because they imprinted themselves onto their souls from the very first moment.

Pokémon is a franchise that has garnered immense popularity over the years. With more than 34 games released across multiple Nintendo platforms, as well as a variety of anime series and films, it has become a juggernaut within gaming circles. The series is also very malleable with the types of genres it can be part of, with multiple spin-off titles applying different game genres into the Pokémon universe. But for as much as we've seen Pokémon conquer the world, digitally and physically, there are still things that we haven't seen from the franchise just yet. One of the biggest and most interesting types of games that would work well with the world of Pokémon would be the MMO RPG genre.

My laptop is nearing retirement, and I need a replacement. The most obvious alternative is the hardware I already own, and while a Raspberry Pi 5 might be a smart and affordable option, it lacks grunt on the media production side of things.

For years, I've used the same Razer mecha-membrane Ornata full-size keyboard. It's got a crisp linear tactile feel, enough of a click to satisfy my need for gamer ambiance. I do swap between keyboard and mouse and controller depending on the game, and the Ornata Chroma has never let me down. It's clicky, it's fun, and the RGB syncs nicely with my Razer Naga MMO mouse.

I used Snap Assist for years because it was quick and easy to use. I would place the cursor over the maximize icon and choose a layout. But once I started using various apps in a specific order, things stopped working the way I needed because I couldn’t place them where I wanted. I found myself manually rearranging windows, especially when I needed three or four apps open at the same time. I regularly use Slack, WhatsApp, Asana, and a few other apps, and I kept trying to juggle how to fit them all on the screen.

As excited as I was when OLED gaming monitors began to emerge in 2022, I was skeptical about owning one. PC enthusiasts on Reddit and reviewers on YouTube shared myths and misconceptions that made OLED monitors seem more trouble than they were worth. I don't blame them, though, because nobody knew how these monitors would hold up in the long run back then. Burn-in was one of the biggest concerns about using an OLED monitor for desktop work, along with text clarity issues compared to traditional LCD panels.

I've finally realized something I've been chasing for years on Windows. Instead of sitting down each morning, booting up my PC, and spending a few minutes logging in, opening all my applications, and setting all my windows up properly, I'm able to press the power button on my PC, take my dog out on a short morning walk, grab a cup of coffee, and return to my desk with everything set up exactly the way I want. And it was all enabled by a simple Microsoft application that's surprisingly difficult to find.

With the rise of personal LLMs, you don't need to purchase a product like the Amazon Alexa or Nest devices. With a little ingenuity and some tinkering, you can create your own voice-activated assistant to help you with whatever you like. Best of all, because you're the one who set it all up, you know exactly what's happening with your data, meaning you don't have to worry about who's snooping through it.

It’s no secret that Obsidian has become my go-to for deep dives and building a robust Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) system. However, I constantly hit a wall when it comes to capturing thoughts or quick notes on the fly. That’s when I realized the missing piece wasn’t a new PKM tool, but rather an accessible tool for those spontaneous ideas.

I used to jump between a mix of apps, notebooks, and sticky notes to desperately keep track of my tasks, projects, and endless stream of ideas. It was time-consuming, counterintuitive, and broke my flow. And then I discovered Nodegram, and it transformed how I visually manage everything. It’s truly a game-changer, and I can confidently say I’m not going back to my old ways.