How-To Geek
3 life-improving Linux apps to try this weekend (May 8th–11th)
The weekend is the best time to actually sit down and mess with your Linux setup. This time, I have for you a selection of three apps that are aimed at improving your quality of life and using Linux that much more convenient. Each app solves a different kind of friction you've probably just accepted as part of your workflow.
Everyone says the battery is the best part of a laptop-turned-NAS: Here's why I unplugged mine
One of the biggest advantages of turning a laptop into a NAS is that you get to fully reuse its internals, including the built-in battery. In the event of a power outage, that battery can keep the system running until electricity returns, effectively serving as a mini-UPS. This allows zero downtime and no need to reset or reconfigure anything, which is especially useful if your NAS is in a hard-to-reach spot like mine.
7 satisfying 3D printing projects for the weekend (May 8 - 10)
Satisfaction means different things to different people. For some, it’s completing a complex set of instructions in order to build something truly impressive, for others, it’s something altogether more tactile. Sometimes it’s finding another way to keep your hands busy while you focus on other tasks.
Lossless Scaling instantly solved my biggest problem with GameCube emulation
I don't like it when old games are as limited as they were twenty years ago. I think that when we emulate games, the advances in technology should translate to better gameplay. Unfortunately, that's not how it's worked with my emulator for a long time. Luckily, lossless scaling solved this problem for me, but it did come with some hiccups.
I ditched cloud backups for local storage—here are 5 things that surprised me most
Cloud storage feels like the obvious choice for backing up important data. It’s cheap (and even free up to a point), convenient, and simple to set up.
These 5 VS Code features completely changed how I work
Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is the undoubted king of coding editors, with 75% of respondents to the 2025 Stack Overflow Survey citing it as a tool they use regularly. It towers above not only strong competitors like Vim, Cursor, and Notepad++, but also over its fuller-featured parent project, Visual Studio.
3 fresh new Netflix documentaries to stream this weekend (May 8-10)
Netflix is on fire right now with some new prestige scripted series and movies, from Lord of the Flies and Man on Fire, to Apex and Bugonia, burning up the platform. But sometimes you need a little grounding from all that fiction with a solid dose of documentary—which can be even wilder than fiction.
These AI note-taking earbuds record and summarize your meetings
Staying on top of conversations, whether in meetings, lectures, or even casual calls, can be harder than it sounds. You’re either fully engaged and missing key details, or busy taking notes and losing track of the discussion. And even when you record conversations, you’re often left with long audio files that are time-consuming to sort through.
I used Claude wrong for months, here's the setup that actually made it useful
When I first started using Claude, I treated it like a search bar with brains. I'd type a question into a fresh chat and get annoyed when Claude didn't understand what I wanted. It took me some time to realize that the problem wasn't Claude, it was me. A few changes in how I used Claude made it so much more useful.
Your 40V Ryobi mower is dying too fast—Why ‘self-propel' is killing battery life
If you've noticed your Ryobi lawn mower dying before the backyard is finished, the culprit isn't necessarily a bad or aging battery; it's probably how you're using your favorite feature. And if you've had the mower for a few years, how and when you use this feature becomes even more important.
I vibe coded a Rust frontend for FFmpeg and I’m never touching the command line again
FFmpeg is one of my favorite tools. It is a multimedia Swiss army knife that powers more media applications than I can count. However, it doesn't include a GUI by default, which can sometimes make it a bit difficult to use.
Everyone is terrified of their router's reset switch (but this other button is much more dangerous)
Router buttons are notoriously bad at making sense. It's not even that many people simply don't know what they're there for; it's that routers don't have one unified form factor the way laptops and desktop PCs do, so you may not even know what you're looking at.
Google Pixel "Rules" are a joke compared to Samsung's Modes & Routines
It took a while, but automation tools are now baked into most smartphones. They're actually pretty good, too—with one exception. While Samsung Modes & Routines (even iPhone Shortcuts) are excellent, Google’s Pixel “Rules” are embarrassingly lackluster.
5 ESP32 Wi-Fi projects to make this weekend (May 8 - 10)
Almost every ESP32 device has Wi-Fi; it’s one of the things that makes the microcontroller so versatile. You can use this functionality to power a variety of wireless projects, from penetration testing to expanding the range of your home network.
Your router is killing your Zigbee network—here's the $0 fix
Do you find that devices keep dropping off your Zigbee network or are slow to respond? The problem may not be your Zigbee network at all; it may be your Wi-Fi network. Both Zigbee and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi share the same frequency band, and they can get in each other’s way.
3 Paramount+ shows you can finish in a weekend (May 8-10)
There isn't a ton of new stuff landing on Paramount+ this week/weekend, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything great to watch—especially if you want to binge something that you can finish in about a weekend. Paramount+ has a massive library of newer and classic shows for U.S. subscribers to choose from, if you're willing to scroll through and find. Luckily, we love doing just that.
How to use LAMBDA in Excel to create scalable, reusable functions
If you've ever found yourself rewriting the same Excel logic in different places, or building long formulas just to reuse parts of them, you're not alone. As spreadsheets grow, formulas tend to get more complex and harder to manage. Excel's LAMBDA function changes that by letting you define logic once and reuse it wherever you need it.
3 new Netflix shows worth binging this weekend (May 8-10)
Netflix has some excellent new TV series arriving in the month of May, including a few that are already lighting up Rotten Tomatoes and the Top 10, like Man on Fire and Unchosen. But there's still plenty to come on the streaming service, including what's in store for U.S. subscribers this weekend.
This Chrome feature saves your AI prompts automatically, and most people don't know it exists
Like a lot of people working in tech, I've found AI creeping into more and more of my day. I'm summarizing long articles, cleaning up drafts, pulling key points out of research, and sanity-checking ideas before I move forward. The problem is, I kept using the same prompts over and over. Not just similar ones, the exact same instructions with small tweaks depending on the situation.
I didn’t expect an EV SUV this spacious to feel so luxurious
The Tesla Model Y has become the benchmark in the EV SUV space, and for good reason. It consistently leads sales and sets expectations for range, technology, and everyday usability.


