How-To Geek

Building a comprehensive Obsidian Knowledge Base has become a discipline for me lately. I already use several different methods to build it. Some of them are pretty standard, like using the web importer plugin. Others are a bit more unexpected. And I do a great deal of it without touching the editor for the most part. But I wanted to go further. So I found a few rather unconventional sources to use to continue building my "second brain".

If you’re running out of storage on your Android, there's a good chance Chrome might be the silent culprit. While the app’s base size is roughly 150MB to 275MB, its storage footprint can grow significantly as your browser accumulates Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), offline media caches, and persistent web data over time. In my case, this was the reason for my browser having around 6GB of storage on my phone.

The PC market was already rough, but it just got worse. IDC estimates that PC shipments plunged 20.1% year-over-year in the summer (third quarter) this year, and that the situation isn't likely to get better any time soon.

You can never have enough storage space on your desktop, and adding an SSD like Lexar's NQ780 can help back up your movie and music collection, as well as important documents like your ID or birth certificate. It can also be a fast, reliable replacement if your current drive starts having issues.

The appeal of Arch is obvious: you get the latest and greatest within days of their release. However, Arch also has a reputation for being difficult to install and requiring constant upkeep.

The community often recommends self-hosted apps like Pi-hole, Vaultwarden, Audiobookshelf, and more. These aren't the only options; plenty of other self-hosted tools can do truly ingenious things. Many of them are lightweight enough to run on that old Raspberry Pi you should still have in your drawer.

There are two big players in the home networking space—eero and UniFi. They both target different audiences, and I have extensive experience with both. I've chosen UniFi to run my homelab because, at this point, it's the only good option out there for my needs. Here's why I use UniFi and why I left eero in the dust.

Netflix's prestige scripted hits like Florence Pugh's chart-topping East of Eden might get the lion's share of the hype, but documentaries and docuseries reliably rank as some of the streamer's most-watched programming. It turns out that even the greatest writers can't script some of the head-shaking storylines that only real life can conjure.

I think most of us have uploaded an image to the internet without giving it much thought. But those images hold more information than you may have guessed. A photo from your mobile phone can hold data about the device used, when the image was taken, and even where the image was taken.

Most power banks are built for everyday carry, not rain, dusty trails, or the occasional drop on rocky ground. Trusted by more than 40 million users, INIU knows this and has partnered with Strava and the American Hiking Society to launch its new INIU Outdoor Rugged Series.

I’ve had my cordless drill for years, and I’ve loved using it for all my projects. It’s reliable, easy to use, and gets the job done without constantly plugging it in.

Are you ready to ditch Google Photos and self-host your own photo server? There are a number of ways to go about doing that, allowing you to store your pictures without giving Google the rights to crawl through them all.

We’re used to hearing about GPUs overheating or power connectors melting. But this time, the threat comes from software that monitors NVIDIA’s GPUs and could have allowed attackers to disrupt vulnerable servers.

Android's default home screens are good enough that most of us no longer feel compelled to swap them out, but I still do. Hear me out — if you want a launcher that's willing to try something different and that you know isn't tracking what you do, here are some of the cream of the crop on F-Droid today.

Why did I end up buying soundbars for my TV? That's the question I've been asking myself recently. The obvious answer is that the sound that's built into my TVs was awful. But that's not a problem I created. That's a problem TV makers created when they got into a "mine's flatter than yours" race, which left no room for decent audio.

If you're using Windows 11, you've probably seen the recent backlash over Memory integrity. The alarmist voices say Windows is forcing this feature on everyone, and people are paying for it with loss of performance, driver incompatibilities, and games refusing to work.

If you're looking for a large-capacity NAS for your home or small business, there aren't a ton of choices out there. Ugreen recently upgraded its DXP8800 series with an all-new Ultra model, featuring a new processor and a higher RAM capacity. Is it worth the upgrade? It might be difficult to tell.

Excel has a funny habit of giving you useful little tools and then making you work to find them. That can be frustrating, but you can fix a lot of Excel annoyances with a few small tweaks until it works the way you want. That's where I landed with table names. I wanted them to be easier to see, and it turns out Excel gives you a couple of ways to make that happen. That small change has made life far easier than I'd imagined.

Let me be clear about something — I've been looking for a way to desperately cut down on my screen time. Not just for an article, but like, actually. I think it's a problem. Turns out, actively integrating your smartwatch into attempts to curb that is actually a great idea.

Ryobi's popular 18V ONE+ line of power tools includes over 350 products that all use the same battery, and you'll love just about all of them. However, if you're a new homeowner just getting started or on a budget, once you get a battery or two, here are some essential tools worth adding to your collection for under $80.