How-To Geek

The best thing about Linux is that it respects its users. It does exactly what you tell it to do. Want to kill a program? Send the kill command and it'll be terminated without warning. However, the worst part about Linux is also that it does exactly what you tell it to do. Here's what I mean.

GitHub hosts an enormous amount of genuinely great free and open-source software. But as an interface for discovering and installing apps, it's one of the worst experiences out there. There's no browsing by category, no install button, and half the time the README assumes you already know what a build toolchain is. I got tired of it, so I used Claude to build myself a workaround—an app-store-like layer that sits on top of GitHub.

Most smart TVs you buy nowadays ship with Google TV software, which is basically a forked version of Android TV OS. Google TV promises to bring a content-first layout, powered by AI. The term "content-first" comes with a caveat. As soon as you switch on your TV, you’re presented with a big promotional banner, which is basically a show or movie in your region pushed to you. Following this banner are your apps and an endless list of recommendations from Google TV to watch, which can be overwhelming most of the time.

If you're still happy with your 3D printer, there's no reason to stop using it. However, if it's been a long time since you bought your machine, you might not be aware that the floor has been raised considerably.

Android Auto is quite literally the same Android that’s on your phone, but it doesn’t have the same level of customization. There are no alternate home screen launchers or icon packs. However, one thing you can do is move the taskbar—though the option is not easy to find.

There's an absurd number of Windows keyboard shortcuts for mastering system navigation, beyond the simple Ctrl + C/V/X for copying, pasting, and cutting. Some I use regularly include Win + I for opening Settings, Ctrl + K for inserting hyperlinks into text, and Win + Shift + S for opening Snipping Tool for all my screen capture and annotation needs.

Plex is probably the easiest way to get started with building your own media server, but even if you choose to upgrade to Plex Pass, it still doesn't give you everything you might want. Fortunately, there are some third-party apps that can fill in the gaps. I keep my setup fairly lean and built around three main add-ons for detailed stats, different ways to stream and download, and adding a request service.

You never forget how to ride a bike, but you can be forgiven for not staying up to date with the latest cycling tech trends. These include new categories of bikes, safety improvements, and more gadgetry than ever before.

SSD speeds are far from the only thing that matters. In fact, many will say that they're almost irrelevant, and buying an expensive SSD is a waste of money.

Recently, my mini PC started acting up. It would freeze every so often, and Windows just didn't feel as responsive as it normally did. Nothing had completely stopped working, but the system had become unreliable enough that I knew something was wrong.

It seems like everything today has a subscription attached to it—whether a video streaming app, a food diary app, or even a calculator app. No matter the intent, there is a paywall for additional features.

Some of Excel's most useful features aren't hidden behind complicated menus or obscure keyboard shortcuts. They're built into controls you probably pass over without a second thought. Here are some that can save you time every day.

I'd never considered getting a page turner for my Kindle. When my wife got hers, I finally understood the appeal, but I couldn't believe how the device actually worked.

In my experience, there are two kinds of Ethernet cable users: those who buy one cable and use it for the next 10 years without ever thinking whether it's good or bad, and those who overthink the topic of these cables into oblivion, almost min-maxing every purchase and upgrading every so often. There is some in between, but not a lot.

Linux is having a moment, or rather, Microsoft is scaring people away from Windows. If you're making a transition, I highly recommend you consider the open-source GNOME desktop. Far from being a complicated hobbyist project for hardcore Linux nerds, GNOME today is fun, stylized, polished, and privacy-respecting in a way that feels foreign on Windows PCs, Chromebooks, and even MacBooks.

For many of us, we seem to get more spam calls than calls from people in our contacts list. The problem with strict call filters is that they run the risk of blocking the people you do actually want to hear from. Thankfully, that’s not something you need to worry about if you use an Android phone.

I've been vibe-coding small apps for a while now, and the biggest problem with them is that they live and die on the machine they were built on. Ideally, you'd want to self-host these apps so they're accessible across all your devices. So, this time, I'm testing Claude vs. Gemini to see which model does a better job of building a Dockerized app and making the self-hosting process as simple as possible.

The Cheap Yellow Display (CYD) combines an ESP32 microcontroller and small LCD touch display in one affordable package. The integrated screen means that you can build many projects without ever picking up a soldering iron or a breadboard.

Waze packs a lot of personality and utility into its phone app, but a chunk of that gets left behind once you plug into Android Auto. Here are three features that still don't make the jump.

I love building PCs, but I don't know anybody, myself included, who finds motherboards that exciting (outside of people who work with them for a living, I guess). It's all GPUs and CPUs, and complaining about outrageous prices.