Every time I turn around, it seems like something else has gone up in price. Netflix seems to have embarked on a quest to make streaming as unaffordable as cable, and even my garbage company emails me every few months about raising rates. One part of my life that doesn't have to suffer from increased prices is software, though. While there are plenty of services I am more than happy to pay for (and do, such as Obsidian Sync), others have self-hosted alternatives that do the job in no more than a few minutes of your time.

There are many things Gemma 4 can do. It can write you a sonnet, help you with your homework, organize your messy notes, make sense of your Excel spreadsheets, and when used right, it can save you $20 on a subscription you probably weren't getting enough value for. I've experienced mostly all of its capabilities from my own use, first-hand.

Nobody likes long boot times, but long shutdown times aren't welcome either. While you can just click "Shut Down" and be on your way, it probably keeps nagging at you if your PC takes unusually long to power down. If you've checked everything from stubborn apps to Windows Update issues, and are still no closer to an answer, I suggest checking Event Viewer for definitive evidence.

There's a very good chance the first thing that was automated when you set up Home Assistant is a light bulb. It was the same with my home, and I feel like a betting man when it comes to everyone else. It's the easiest thing to control and automate, not to mention there's a visual response. But lighting isn't where I've found Home Assistant to be most useful. The first thing to automate is something you repeatedly forget to do.

If you have a Zigbee smart home network, the main way to see what's happening on it is through your coordinator's logs, but you don't see the actual network at work. Zigbee2MQTT gives you a scrolling list of messages, Home Assistant can show you the important ones, and if something goes wrong, you dig through serial output or set up a packet capture. It may work, but it's not exactly something you can glance at from across the room, and it never looks like normal traffic.

OpenAI is announcing security updates following the July news that its AI broke out of a sandboxed environment and accidentally hacked Hugging Face, including improvements to its research environments, monitoring, and alignment techniques. The company had already put the brakes on a new model, Astra, that it thinks could have "critical" cybersecurity capabilities, and the company says it instituted a two-week pause in reinforcement learning (RL) training on its "latest models intended for deployment" while it tightened up security. The company's "largest planned frontier RL run remains on hold."For its frontier model research, OpenAI now r …Read the full story at The Verge.

Robin Williams' children are taking over their father's Instagram account after his daughter spoke out against the use of his AI likeness, as reported earlier by The Wrap. In a post on Tuesday, Zak, Zelda, and Cody Williams write that they want the late actor's Instagram profile to be a "safe, trusted place where the stories, photos, videos, and memories shared reflect his legacy with authenticity, warmth, and care."A story posted to Zelda Williams' own Instagram account expands on the decision to bring back her father's profile, saying that it's meant to help combat "rampant AI abuse," according to The Wrap:I'm sorry if anyone found Da …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Razer Seiren V3 Chroma is the microphone you need to take your audio to the next level. It's great for streaming, podcasts, meetings, video calls, and more. While it can be on the expensive side with its retail price of $130, the white model is now on sale at Best Buy for its 60th birthday. Best Buy is taking 60% off to celebrate, dropping it to just $52 for a very limited time. That's the best price we've seen across most major retailers, so grab it while you still can.

Every Notion account has a graveyard of abandoned databases. Databases themselves aren't even that hard to navigate, but they can get tedious under constant maintenance, which is part of the reason I left Notion a while ago in favor of simpler, more minimalist options. One of them is Obsidian's Bases plugin, which finally enabled many to leave Notion behind.

AMD's launch of the 7700X3D this year reminded me of a CPU that launched almost four years ago: the standard Ryzen 7 7700X. I'm sure many of you have forgotten about it too, because I rarely see it in benchmark charts or Reddit discussions anymore. After all, AMD has given us far more exciting CPUs to talk about in the last few years, from the 7800X3D to the 9850X3D, and even the dual-cache, dual-CCD 9950X3D2 recently.

The Nova 3P in eye-catching cyan. | Image: SteelSeries While many gaming headsets come with extra features, the tradeoff is that they’re often uncomfortable and heavy. A lightweight, affordable alternative that can connect to a bunch of platforms is available at Woot. The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3P in cyan is on sale for $59.99, a 45 percent discount from their usual $109.99 price. SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3PWhere to Buy: $109.99 $59.99 at WootThis headset, like most of SteelSeries’ models, feature a stretchy strap on the headband to offset its weight, plus a removable boom mic so you can take them on the go. While they sound good right out of the box, the SteelSeries app offers over 200 game-specific equalizer profiles that can enhance the sound experience, emphasizing the sound of footsteps in shooters, for example, or adding a richness to the music in cinematic games.This version of the headset is compatible with Windows and macOS computers, PlayStation consoles, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, and Android and iOS mobile devices. They include both a Bluetooth connection for calls and mobile use, and a compact low latency USB-C dongle for listening over a 2.4GHz wireless connection. They’re advertised to last up to 40 hours on a single charge, and can fast charge for up to nine hours of gaming in just 15 minutes via USB-C.

My old Fire TV Stick isn't used for much these days, especially since I've turned to Jellyfin for all of my household streaming.