How-To Geek

We have swift boxes on the side of our home to try to encourage swifts to come and nest. There used to be nesting swifts in the area, so the hope is to lure them back. I wanted a way to track which birds were in the area based on their songs, so I set up my Raspberry Pi and an open-source app to help.

If you don't run Windows or macOS, you will probably have some flavor of Linux on your system. Or maybe even one of the BSDs if you're brave. If things had gone differently in the late '90s, you might be running something else: BeOS. BeOS still changed computing history, even though it was a flop. You can also install a successor today.

CDs were the most popular method for listening to music for over 20 years. Unsurprisingly, something new eventually came to take over...but then something old did, too.

When your internet is down and you call your ISP, what's the usual answer you get? I'm willing to bet it's either telling you to restart your router or telling you to wait. I've heard that one before; I've had my fair share of ISP troubles.

A new month means it's time to look at the list of movies coming to Netflix in August. First up is a documentary that might make you look at fried chicken in a new light. Two days later, a mysterious sci-fi thriller hits the service, and it looks like a mix between Signs and Twilight Zone: The Movie.

When I first tried Copilot in Excel, I wasn't impressed enough to keep paying for it. It felt more like an interesting extra than something that genuinely improved my workflow, so I downgraded to Microsoft 365 Classic. A year and a half later, I decided to give it another shot by testing whether it could handle more than basic spreadsheet tasks. The results might have just convinced me it was worth resubscribing.

You’ve heard of MakerWorld, Printables, and Thingiverse, and it’s true that these websites probably have more models than you’ll ever need. But there’s more to 3D printing than the top three, whether you’re looking for premium models or niche interests.

Switching away from Photoshop has always had a catch. GIMP was free, capable, and cross-platform, but actually using it felt like a trade-off. You had to justify every session. It took me so many tries to fully jump away from Photoshop. If I had tried switching over today, it would have been no problem thanks to everything GIMP has now.

Lamborghini spent the early 1970s trying to fix a problem most carmakers would have envied: a car that was already a legend yet still had room to improve. That car was the Miura, and “the fix” became the Miura SV, the model Lamborghini credits with starting a naming tradition it still uses today.

Hybrid SUVs have become increasingly efficient, but most earn their reputation by excelling in stop-and-go city driving. Maintaining that efficiency at highway speeds is a much tougher challenge, where the gasoline engine does far more of the work.

It's the final weekend of July, and while we wait for the hot new lineup from HBO Max to arrive for August (with DC's Lanterns and new docuseries Monsters of God on the way), the prestige service still has a few tricks up its sleeve for documentary lovers.

Affordable sports cars are becoming an endangered species. As prices continue to climb and automakers shift their focus toward SUVs and electrification, the number of genuinely fun performance cars that ordinary buyers can still afford has dwindled to just a handful.

While Will Ferrell's golf comedy The Hawk, Josh Duhamel's ranch drama Ransom Canyon, and WWE's Raw float around in Netflix's top spots as we approach the end of the month this weekend, if you're a U.S. subscriber looking for something worth adding to your watchlist, I have a few suggestions you might like.

Google's Pixel 11 event might include the company's first answer to Apple's AirTag. A leaked image (shown below) and store listings make clear that Google is close to releasing a Pixel Tag that could become Android's default item tracker.

Water in a phone speaker is one of those problems that's easy to miss until the audio sounds wrong, and you can't figure out why. Sometimes it happens after a swim or a rain catches you off guard, but it can also build up slowly from humidity or a splash you barely notice. The instinct is usually to shake the phone, let it dry out, or stick it in rice, but none of those actually work on water, physically wedged into the speaker mesh.

Most Excel users know Ctrl+F as a quick way to find specific text or values in a spreadsheet. You might also know Ctrl+H, but probably think of it as little more than a way to replace one value with another. For years, I overlooked how much more it could do. From cleaning up messy imports to fixing formatting issues, Find and Replace is one of Excel's most underrated cleanup tools.

Now and then, I come across a movie that makes me wonder how I hadn't heard of it sooner. This is especially true with Netflix titles, because there's so much to choose from, what with its original library and new, licensed titles arriving every month in the U.S.

Google Pixel phones have plenty of cool features, but when it comes to automations, they’re a bit lacking. Still, even with the limited options, I’m able to make my Pixel automatically change certain settings based on my location.

Badge prestige still carries a lot of weight in the sports sedan world, which is why many buyers automatically gravitate toward the usual German luxury brands. That can be an expensive habit, especially when there are overlooked alternatives offering comparable performance, premium interiors, and engaging driving dynamics for thousands less.

Got an old Chromecast sitting in a drawer unused? It doesn't matter if you no longer need it for streaming, there are plenty of other ways to make use of it. So connect it to your TV, update the software, and try one of these ideas to repurpose your old Chromecast.