Blogroll

I bought a NAS for mass storage, but it accidentally fixed my biggest PC performance bottlenecks

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 21:00

For those who can actually afford the luxury, a NAS can be a great addition to their setup. But in addition to serving storage and network functions, a NAS can also be a great option to breathe some new life into your PC. Here's how.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Why every soundbar I owned sounded flat, and how a cheap stereo system fixed it

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 20:30

I've owned a few soundbars over the years, most with a subwoofer, and they always felt like the right choice. They look clean, save space, and sound decent enough at first. But after going through three different setups, I realized I didn't actually like how they sounded. No matter the brand, they all felt a little thin and, at times, lifeless. I tried swapping in better subs to fix it, but it never really got me where I wanted.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Reliable, efficient, and practical: The hybrid three-row Toyota built for families

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 20:00

Three-row family SUVs are expected to do everything; carry passengers comfortably, handle long road trips, keep running costs manageable, and remain dependable for years. Finding one that checks every box without becoming too expensive can be difficult, especially when fuel economy starts to matter as much as space. One hybrid Toyota stands out by delivering all of those priorities in a single package.

Categories: IT General, Technology

I tripled my power bill building a massive home server before realizing two cheap NAS units are better

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 19:45

If you think your homelab is complete with just one NAS—think again. I run multiple NAS servers in my homelab, and it’s actually improved my workflow and homelabbing experience way more than I expected. Here’s why you should run more than one NAS in your homelab.

Categories: IT General, Technology

I finally stopped ignoring my YouTube Music subscription—these 5 features changed everything

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 19:30

For a long time, my YouTube Music Premium subscription felt like something I rarely used since it was tied to the subscription I have for NotebookLM. However, I never made it part of my daily routine. The whole experience felt separate from the kind of smooth, personalized audio I really wanted for my commutes, workouts, and workdays. My initial disinterest has completely changed thanks to the features that convinced me to use the full potential of my subscription. Look through these, and you might find a reason to cancel Spotify.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Stop using Cloudflare's default 1.1.1.1 DNS (changing one digit blocks malware at the router level)

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 19:15

Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 DNS server is popular for its speed, reliability, and support DNS over HTTPs (DOH), which gives you some added privacy. However, 1.1.1.1 doesn't do much besides lookup IP addresses for you. If you want something that offers additional security, you should try 1.1.1.2 instead.

Categories: IT General, Technology

I had no idea Home Assistant and Sonos could work this well together

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 19:00

I've owned Sonos speakers for several years and lived through the horror of the Sonos app overhaul. I've used Home Assistant for a similar length of time, and I only just realized how well the two work together.

Categories: IT General, Technology

New AI tool seeks to un-AI your writing

Mashable - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 18:46

A new ouroboros in the tech world has emerged: There's now an AI tool to "undo" AI writing.

Sinceerly is a Google Chrome extension to edit AI-generated (or human-written) emails. The aim is to add in errors that are typically scrubbed away with AI tools and change some of the obvious AI text "tells," like the phrase "not just X, but Y." Em dashes fall into the latter category, too — but as a longtime writer, I'm fond of them and abhor how it's apparently become a signal of AI. Regardless, Sinceerly will kill the em dash, as it states on its website.

SEE ALSO: Claude can now connect with Spotify, Uber, and a lot more apps

The tool has three modes: subtle, human, and CEO. Each render text more and more casual, where "CEO" mode doesn't even have correct punctuation but does tack on "Sent from my iPhone," of course.

Sinceerly is free for three email rewrites and works within Gmail. But if you want to pay $4.99 per month, you get unlimited rewrites, can switch instantly between modes, and can cache results so you can reopen them instantly.

Ben Horwitz, an investment partner at venture capital firm Dorm Room Fund, created Sinceerly, according to the website.

The concept of using AI to generate text, only to have another AI tool make it sound more human, is pretty absurd, but it might be a perfect encapsulation of popular opinion towards AI-generated copy in 2026. (Last month, major publisher Hachette dropped the novel Shy Girl due to allegations that it was AI-generated and/or poorly written.)

It might just be easier to — gasp — write text yourself.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Gemini on Android Auto is too chatty—here's how to make it shut up

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 18:45

Google made a lot of lofty claims about how Gemini for Android Auto was going to make driving better. It’s been a few months now since it rolled out, and one complaint keeps popping up: Gemini talks too much. Let’s fix it.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Vim’s statusline can do almost anything, but most people don’t know it

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 18:30

Vim normally shows basic information at the bottom of the screen, including the file name and the current line number. But the statusline takes this concept much further, with more information available using several built-in variables.

Categories: IT General, Technology

10 VS Code extensions I can't live without

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 18:28

The sheer number of extensions for VS Code can be so overwhelming that even veteran users get lost searching for what they need. Let me show you how to take your coding experience to an entirely new level with ten VS Code extensions I just can’t live without!

Categories: IT General, Technology

You don't need a Raspberry Pi for most "Pi projects"—here's what you can use instead

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 17:45

Are you looking at Raspberry Pi projects, thinking that you need a Raspberry Pi to do them? Chances are, you don’t. Here are three Raspberry Pi alternatives that are better than a Raspberry Pi in most cases and cost the same (or less).

Categories: IT General, Technology

Meta accused of profiting from scam ads in class-action lawsuit

Mashable - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 17:18

This week, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C. against Meta, alleging that the company deceived Facebook users about scam advertisements and profited from it.

Tycko and Zavareei LLP and Tech Justice Law filed the complaint on April 21 under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act on behalf of the Consumer Federation of America and Washington, D.C. Facebook users. The complaint states that while Meta publicly claims to fight scams, internal documents (published by Reuters in Dec. 2025) show it's making billions off of them.

SEE ALSO: Fake AI-generated shops, ads flourish on Facebook

The documents show that in 2024, Meta projected that around 10 percent of its revenue — around $16 billion — would come from advertising scam and banned products. Users are apparently exposed to 15 billion "high-risk" scam ads each day, per the documents. Meta apparently charged these high-risk advertisers more while rejecting 96 percent of valid user fraud reports.

"Meta has, as a matter of company policy, deliberately profited from rampant, inexcusable harm to users on its platforms," attorney and managing director at Tech Justice Law, Sarah Kay Wiley, stated in a press release. "Meta told its users it was fighting fraud. Internally, it was charging scammers a premium for access to those same users. That is not a failure of enforcement, that is a business model built on predatory deception."

A Meta spokesperson told Mashable, "These allegations misrepresent the reality of our work and we will fight them." 

"We aggressively combat scams across our platforms to protect people and businesses — last year alone, we removed over 159 million scam ads, 92 percent of which we took down before anyone reported them, and took down 10.9 million accounts on Facebook and Instagram associated with criminal scam centers. We fight scams because they are bad for business — people don't want them, advertisers don't want them, and we don't want them either," the spokesperson continued.

The complaint comes weeks after Meta announced new tools to fight scams on its platforms like Facebook and Instagram, including working with law enforcement. In recent years, Meta has reportedly rejected ads from legitimate businesses, like the sex toy shop Unbound (until they created fake ads targeted at men) and healthcare platform Daye.

Categories: IT General, Technology

I tested the 3 most popular Linux distros of April 2026, here's how I rank them

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 17:15

The top three Linux distros on DistroWatch right now are CachyOS, Linux Mint, and MX Linux. I tested all three to understand what makes each one tick and who each one is really built for. One of them is for performance-obsessed users, one is for people tired of Windows, and one is quietly doing something most distros can't. Here’s the full breakdown, and how I’d personally rank these three.

Categories: IT General, Technology

5 reasons you should skip the Bambu Lab A1 and buy an enclosed 3D printer

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 17:00

The Bambu Lab A1 and its smaller sibling, the A1 mini, are solid entry-level printers. But since their introduction, enclosed 3D printers have become more common, affordable, and desirable.

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to see what changed in your Excel spreadsheet (and who changed it)

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 16:45

Has something in your Excel spreadsheet changed—but you're not sure what, when, or who did it? The old "Track Changes" button used to handle this, but modern Excel takes a different approach. Instead of a single feature, Microsoft now uses a set of cloud-based tools that let you trace edits, view past versions, and understand exactly what happened—provided you know where to look.

Categories: IT General, Technology

This app makes remote homelab access stupidly simple—no port forwarding required

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 16:30

When you set up a service on your home server, you can access it right away by just typing the server's IP address, followed by the port that service is mapped to. So long as you're connected to the same network as the server, you can access that service.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Forget the Mercedes-Benz GLE—This Korean SUV is plusher, faster, and cheaper

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 16:15

The Mercedes-Benz GLE has long been one of the default choices for buyers shopping in the premium midsize SUV segment, offering strong comfort, prestige, and a polished driving experience. But in 2026, paying extra for a German badge no longer guarantees the best overall package. One Korean luxury SUV is making that reality impossible to ignore.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Sam Altman deeply sorry OpenAI didnt report mass shooting suspect

Mashable - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 16:11

On Friday, local news site Tumbler Ridgelines published an apology from OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman concerning a mass shooting.

The letter, dated April 23, is addressed to the community of Tumbler Ridge, a small town in British Columbia, Canada, where the alleged shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed eight people and then herself on Feb. 10. Van Rootselaar used ChatGPT, and her first account was suspended in June 2025 after it detected content that presented as "an indication of potential real-world violence." She was then banned, but OpenAI didn't report her to law enforcement, and she was able to create a second ChatGPT account that wasn't discovered until after the shooting.

SEE ALSO: Florida investigates OpenAI over deadly mass shooting

Weeks after the shooting, OpenAI announced it would change its safety protocols.

British Columbia Premier David Eby stated in March that Sam Altman would apologize and call for better regulations, and, as Tumbler Ridgelines pointed out, it's now here a month later.

"When I spoke with Mayor [Darryl] Krakowka and Premier Eby about this tragedy, they conveyed the anger, sadness, and concern being felt across Tumbler Ridge. We agreed a public apology was necessary, but that time was also needed to respect the community as you grieved. I share this letter with the understanding that everyone grieves in their own way and in their own time," the letter states.

Altman goes on to say that he's "deeply sorry" that OpenAI didn't alert law enforcement when the ChatGPT account was banned in June. "While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered," he wrote.

He also said he commits to finding "ways to prevent tragedies like this in the future."

"Going forward, our focus will continue to be on working with all levels of government to help ensure something like this never happens again," Altman wrote.

Eby posted on X that the apology is "necessary, and yet grossly insufficient for the devastation done to the families of Tumbler Ridge." Days prior, on Wednesday, he said that the investigation into the shooting has reached its final stages.

The apology also comes days after Florida's attorney general announced an investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT following a mass shooting at Florida State University in April 2025. A recent report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that eight in 10 popular AI chatbots assisted in planning violent crimes.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Categories: IT General, Technology

The internet from your terminal: 8 ways to use cURL

How-To Geek - Sat, 04/25/2026 - 16:00

The curl command-line tool is one of the most useful and versatile programs you can learn. Its versatility and comprehensive HTTP implementation mean that, if there’s a URL for it, curl can do it.

Categories: IT General, Technology
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