How-To Geek

I don’t currently have any visible clocks on display in my house. I’m never without my watch or phone, and I decided that if I were to sacrifice some space for a dedicated timepiece, it would need to be something special, different, or interesting.

Occasionally rebooting your router and modem is pretty normal, and some routers even have a reboot schedule function that can take care of this for you. Though problematic network equipment should be replaced, adding a smart plug to your setup can save you effort and even automate the entire process.

So, you're wanting to get started with Ubiquiti's UniFi networking gear, huh? I love my UniFi setup, but I definitely made some mistakes. Here are the four biggest mistakes I see people make all the time in the UniFi community, and how you can avoid them.

Some weeks, the easiest way to find something good on Netflix is to skip over the newest releases and instead look into its library. The platform's diverse catalog has a lot to offer, especially when it comes to movies that have swept award shows during their respective runs.

Any time I recommend software to a friend, there is always an inevitable question: How much does it cost? The quality isn't necessarily the discerning factor—no one wants to pay for something if it isn't necessary. That makes free, open-source tools very easy to recommend to most people without a moment's hesitation.

“Can it run DOOM?” It’s the question people love to half-jokingly ask about every gadget with a screen. Android, of course, can run DOOM — but what about Android Auto? That’s an entirely different beast.

Microsoft's PowerToys suite of Windows utilities, which you can download from GitHub or install through the Microsoft Store, has earned a reputation as a tool designed for — and used exclusively by — Windows power users. But the reality is more nuanced.

Smart bulbs are one of the most common entries into the world of smart home devices, but they're not without their problems. If your internet goes down, you may find that you lose features or simply can't control your bulbs at all. There are several ways to stop this from happening.

Physical media is having a bit of a revival at the moment, and vinyl is getting a lot of attention with claims about its supposed superiority over digital audio. Music CDs, on the other hand, have received a more muted revival.

Back when I used the Steam Deck as my main PC handheld, I forgot the sudo password I'd created the first time around. Naturally, I started to panic and thought I'd need to reflash my Deck and lose all my data, but then I found a solution that let me reset my Steam Deck's sudo password in just a few minutes. All you need for this is a wired keyboard (or a wireless keyboard with a dongle and a USB dock) and some focus, because there's some typing involved.

Documentaries continue to thrive on Netflix this month, as evidenced by the solid stance of the true-crime three-parter Death of the Pastor's Wife that's been holding strong in the top spot on the streamer's Top 10, as of this writing. But the hits keep on coming, with two of this weekend's picks below also occupying space on that chart, proving that Netflix knows how to doc.

I've spent a frankly unreasonable amount of time in Excel, so I've had plenty of opportunities to find out which habits make my life easier—and which ones come back to haunt me later. Over the years, I've gradually ditched a handful of things that seemed harmless at the time but made my spreadsheets harder to sort, filter, update, or understand. Here are five things I stopped doing in Excel, and why my spreadsheets have become much more reliable as a result.

Stop letting old devices rot in a drawer and bring them back to life with the help of an inexpensive microcontroller and some code. The ESP32 is perfect for this task.

Got an old Android phone sitting unused in a drawer? By installing an open-source ROM, you can bring it bang up to date and give it a whole new lease of life. That's what I did with my old Motorola phone. Here's how it went.

The notification pull-down bar on Samsung Galaxy phones has changed quite a bit over the last few years, and not for the better. If you feel like your notifications aren't the same, out of order, and just seem a bit weird lately, you're not alone. The last two One UI updates changed the look and order of alerts, but one quick change in settings can fix it.

Buying digital movies is a risky business. There's no guarantee that you'll always be able to access the TV show or movie that you paid for. While some companies are actively removing people's content, there's one thing you can do to give your collection a better chance of survival.

Back in 1998, four of the biggest names in enterprise computing agreed on something wild. IBM, the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), Sequent, and Intel would merge their separate UNIX systems into one OS for Intel's upcoming 64-bit chips. They called it Project Monterey.

Wi-Fi 7 routers and network cards are finally becoming affordable and commonplace, but if you're a homelabber or someone who just enjoys any sort of self-hosting, you probably haven't had a pressing reason to upgrade to this latest standard.

Sometimes the best Excel projects start with something the program can't do out of the box. Surprisingly, Excel doesn't have a built-in timeline chart. So I experimented with a regular line chart, and 10 minutes later, I had a series of events mapped out in a dynamic timeline. Want to give it a try this weekend? Here's what I did.

Our Samsung Galaxy phones get better with each update, but sometimes the best features are completely hidden or don't get talked about enough. A prime example is the powerful "Finder" app feature that apparently Samsung doesn't want you to know about. Better yet, you can now put it right on your home screen.