Blogroll

Most of my important files already exist in several places, but almost all of those places are connected to something. My PC, cloud storage, and ordinary external drives are all convenient precisely because I can reach them whenever I need something. Unfortunately, that also means I can accidentally delete something, overwrite it, synchronize a bad change, or expose it to malware.

The first VBA macros I added to my Excel toolbar quickly became some of my most-used shortcuts. Since then, I've added five more that save me even more time by automating repetitive formatting, cleanup, and navigation tasks in every workbook I open.

Portable power stations come in all sizes, from those you can carry on a camping trip to suitcase-size ones that can power a home. But the next wave of home backup power is thinner, while being stylish enough to serve as decor—and there’s one brand that has me feeling particularly hyped.

If you think you have to go out and buy a brand-new system to run Plex on, you're sorely mistaken. Here are seven devices that you might have lying around the house that you can turn into a Plex server without spending a single cent.

TV streaming boxes haven’t changed much lately, but I recently placed one under my TV that has not only impressed me — it's impressed everyone I've shown it to. It also happens to lack any tracking and is powered by open source software. This may just be the upgrade your TV needs.

Linux runs everything from the world's most powerful supercomputers to most cellphones to low-power smart devices. However, the Linux community—never a group to not tinker—has been making Linux run on dozens of devices, from calculators to iPods to game consoles.

When Spotify launched, it was the thing of childhood dreams: every album, single, and music track ever released, playable at no additional cost beyond a small subscription fee. As someone who used to spend hundreds of dollars on a handful of albums each year, it was a revelation.

Your 3D printer can literally help you build a homelab, and that homelab can support your printer in return with some incredible self-hosted projects. Use these to free your printer from the cloud, archive models, and manage your filament—all for free.

It's never too early to start thinking about your next Galaxy phone. After trying out the Galaxy S26 Ultra this year and realizing it was a bit too big and heavy for me, I went back to an older, smaller model. But with rumors of an all-new Galaxy S27 Pro coming in 2027, I'm starting to get excited, and here's what I want to see.

I bought an MP3 player this year. Browsing eBay one night, I came across some new old stock Philips GoGear MP3 players for a ridiculously low price. I snagged one for $12 shipped. It arrived a few days later looking like it had just come off a store shelf. I opened it up and, within a few days, it changed the way I listen to music at home.

EA Sports announced it will remove all paid progression options from College Football 27's Dynasty and Road to Glory modes, reversing a decision that drew significant backlash from fans and content creators following the game's launch.

In a statement posted to social media during the game's launch week, the developer acknowledged that player feedback indicated the microtransactions "missed the mark."

The studio said the paid options had been "added independent of deeper mode progression with the aim to give players more choice," but conceded that "what you've said is that they're not adding the value we intended." EA said the changes would take effect the following morning, though it warned that players with existing College Point balances would lose the ability to apply them to Road to Glory or Dynasty once the features were removed, urging fans to spend their points beforehand.

Our big Guessing Game is back! Enter now for a chance to win an Apple Watch.

The reversal follows a wave of criticism after College Football 27's release, with fans organizing around the hashtag #CFBPlayDontPay to voice frustration over microtransactions appearing in the game's single-player offline modes. The system allowed players to spend real money to instantly boost their coach or player's development. For example, maxing out a coach in Dynasty from the start could cost as much as $100, more than the price of the game itself.

Compounding the frustration, EA also removed sliders that let players in College Football 25 and 26 manually adjust how much experience they earned, a feature that had let people level up faster without paying. With that option gone, spending money became the only way to speed up progression, which is what drove much of the backlash.

Notably, the statement stopped short of ruling out microtransactions from the franchise going forward. EA said its "goal for live service plans in CFB28 and beyond will be to deliver valuable features and content with greater transparency and communication" — language suggesting paid content will return in some form in next year's edition, even as the company walks back the current game's implementation.

3D printing hasn’t just made it possible to fabricate items at home; it’s changed lives and industries with its unique approach to manufacturing. Though 3D printing has its drawbacks, some items wouldn’t exist (or would be much harder to make at greater cost) without it.

Following a lighthearted week of quality time and family reunions, Love Island USA finally announced the four couples competing for the $100,000 first-place prize.

After Corbin and Parmida were dumped from the villa in Season 8, episode 29, there were six couples left standing: Aniya and Carl, Kayda and Zach, Kenzie and Dylan, Melanie and Sincere, Tierra and KC, and Trinity and Bryce. The next few days were full of fun challenges like The Girls pranking The Boys, The Girls enjoying a fun waterpark-themed getaway from the villa, and the Islanders meeting each other’s family members for the first time.

Season 8, Episode 33 kicked off with a "mouthwatering" couples’ challenge, in which each islander had to transfer food items in water (like sardines) or condiments (like ketchup) from their mouth into their partner’s mouth. After the challenge, the couples had a few more tough pills (or, in this case, fortune cookies) to swallow at dinner that night: they found out the results of a public vote that decided which four couples were heading to the finale, and which two couples were going home.

One by one, the couples cracked open their fortune cookies, revealing whether they were safe. The final four were revealed to be Aniya and Carl, Trinity and Bryce, Melanie and Sincere, and Kayda and Zach.

Our big Guessing Game is back! Enter now for a chance to win an Apple Watch.

This left two couples dumped from the villa: Kenzie and Dylan, and Tierra and KC.

X users were sad to see them go, especially those who thought that Tierra and KC had a stronger connection than other couples in the villa. KC had just asked Tierra to be his girlfriend in Season 8, episode 31, which made the dumping even more shocking to viewers.

However, viewers were elated that Kenzie didn’t say goodbye without squatting down for one last iconic split.

While the islanders shared an emotional goodbye with Kenzie, Dylan, Tierra, and KC, they took the time to appreciate the genuine friendships they built in the villa – embodying what viewers called "Friendship Island" this season.

What makes the final four couples especially memorable this season is that the four girls are each part of the original group of islanders that we were introduced to in Season 8, episode 1, with X users saying that we have a "core four" finale in our midst. 

Now that the final four couples have been revealed, we’re only a few episodes away from finding out which couple will be crowned the winners of Love Island USA Season 8.

The season finale is scheduled to air on Sunday, July 12, 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT on Peacock.

Paying for Claude feels fine until you start doing real work with it. The per-token costs through the API climb faster than most people expect, rate limits cut you off at the worst moments, and every prompt you write travels through infrastructure you don't control. You should take the time to learn how to replace that setup entirely with a local, self-hosted alternative. It runs on your own hardware, costs nothing per query, and keeps everything on your machine.

My Roku TV is old enough that I genuinely considered replacing it last year, mostly because every menu felt like it was wading through mud. Apps took a bit too long to open, and they buffered a lot. I assumed that was just the price of holding onto older hardware. It turns out most of that wasn't the hardware giving up; it was the software asking too much of it.

Google loves to brag about how smart Pixel phones are—usually in the same sentence as Gemini. However, some of my favorite features that are available on Pixel phones don’t require AI, yet they make my phone feel even smarter.

It's hard to miss the giants of coding because they show up everywhere in college courses, dominate job postings, and run huge, enterprise-level systems. However, there are more options than just the big names, and they deserve a lot of attention too.

Windows notifications can provide pertinent information, but in many cases, all they do is hinder your workflow. That's not surprising considering that, with the default settings, you're likely bombarded with superfluous alerts left and right, minute after minute. They not only invade your workspace visually, but also add a constant stream of sound alerts that can easily break your focus.

3D printers rely on a slicer to convert solid 3D models into a set of instructions that the printer can build, layer-by-layer. This is where you can customize various parameters that will decide the outcome of your print, but you can also make big changes to the print too.

I've been using my 2014 iMac 5K for more than a decade, and the 27-inch 5K screen is still a joy to use. Sadly, some of the apps I use on a daily basis will no longer work. Rather than buying a new Mac, I opted for a different solution that cost me nothing.