How-To Geek

I'm just old enough to have participated in the last few years of the floppy disk era, and although I don't feel a particularly strong sense of nostalgia about floppies, I do think that they're interesting. In any case, I've recently started archiving old screen saver disks and screwing around with floppy disk cameras, and I was surprised by all of the tactile, sensory memories that my mind had chosen to bury away.

Spooky season is here, which means I'm making room on my October watch list for witches, ghosts, and characters that make for interesting stories. Netflix has plenty to choose from, whether you want a supernatural mystery with a shade of comedy or a proper horror series that haunts you for days.

Most productivity software sells you a clean interface and a recurring charge for features you could build yourself in an afternoon. I've paid for tools that promised to do a lot, and they ended up being spreadsheets. People write Excel off as old or basic, but it can do math, it saves everything, and it works offline.

I realized recently how much of my phone life quietly depends on Google. Calendar for appointments, Keep for random thoughts, Chrome for basically everything, Maps when I’m lost, and Authenticator when Google decides I need another security code. It’s convenient, sure.

No one takes shots at bad movies and performances quite like the Golden Raspberry Awards, better known as the Razzie Awards. While the Oscars celebrate the best movies of the year, the Razzies reward the worst movies of the year. It's supposed to be a joke, but the Razzies have sometimes taken cheap shots. Thankfully, the Razzies eventually put age limits on their nominations.

There’s a common belief that Windows has more apps — and better ones, too — than Linux. And sure, that’s true in a few categories. If your work depends on Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Cloud, Windows is definitely the better platform. However, that superiority doesn’t hold across the board. Some really capable apps exist only on Linux, so if you’re on Windows, you can’t use them. Here are three of my favorite Linux-exclusive apps.

It feels like we never reminisce like we used to, but the past was clearly better in many ways. There are some 1990s gadgets that were so awesome or ahead of their time that they still put current tech to shame.

The dream of "one cable to rule them all" is finally a reality, and dozens of devices are better off because of it. USB-C gave us permission to own fewer single-use cables than we used to, and it opened the door to interesting functionality that would otherwise be impossible, like running data, power, and video between a single port on a laptop and a monitor.

For $150, you can walk into most brick-and-mortar stores and buy an inexpensive soundbar that sounds like a tin can, or you can start assembling a real 5.1 from the basic pieces.

Everyone from Instagram influencers to big-name CEOs seems to be saying the same thing: AI is going to be the end of SaaS (Software as a Service). And while I’d love a world with fewer subscriptions, when I look around, I see quite the opposite. If anything, more software subscriptions are popping up every year, often at absurdly inflated prices.

Being caught empty-handed on the side of the road is a situation no one wants to experience. I'm the type of person who likes to be prepared, so I keep a little travel toolkit in my truck. Additionally, two Ryobi tools are usually in my vehicle and come along for every ride.

In the early days of Android, it seemed like every other week we'd see a completely brand-new phone from an established tech giant. Everyone was taking a stab at it.

Cloud-connected robot vacuums can be convenient, but they aren't always great for your privacy. They can collect detailed information about your home, including floor plans, cleaning habits, and even camera footage, and send it to third-party servers. The good news is that open-source projects can help you use your robot vacuum without relying on the cloud.

If you're trying to revive an old laptop, the standard advice is "install Linux." Usually, that means you'll install Linux Mint first. In some cases, that works. However, on really old or low-power devices, even Mint is too demanding.

Mesh Wi-Fi systems are fantastic, and they beat Wi-Fi extenders by a mile. Each node scatters Wi-Fi throughout your house, giving you a stable connection that you don't have to worry about. It's one of the best ways to get rid of dead zones, at least.

One of the best things about Microsoft 365 is how its apps can work together. Loop can talk to Teams, Lists can talk to Power Automate, and Word can talk to Outlook. But when I thought about the cross-app connections I use most—and the ones that save me the most time—I noticed something: they all involve Excel.

Smartphone keyboards introduced us to a brand new way to type: swiping. Why tap every letter when you can just slide your finger over them? It's become a standard feature in nearly every Android keyboard app, and it's my preferred method. I wanted to know if it's actually faster.

After four months of letting a robot lawn mower manage my grass through crazy weather, hot summer months, objects in the yard, and daily wear, was it worth it? Is the grass really greener on the other side? The convenience is fantastic, but it's not without its quirks. While I absolutely love it, and it saves my weekend, I have thoughts.

Linux ships with plenty of tools for watching what your computer is doing, which is all nice and great, but most feel dated. btop, an open source tool, offers a complete, interactive view of your processor, memory, disks, network, and processes, all inside the terminal. Here is what it is and whether it deserves a spot on your system.

About 10 years ago, my wife and I bought a little farm down in Florida. We dreamed of having more privacy and plenty of room for our dogs to run around. We knew going into it that maintaining a property that large would be a lot of work, but we were excited about the possibilities. Prior to that, the homes we owned had postage-stamp-sized yards. All I really needed to get the job done was a lawn mower, a weed whacker, and a hedge trimmer. Suddenly, I had a lot more yard work to do along with a house and barn to maintain.