Stop automating your smart home, it's making things worse
…support daily life, that counts for a lot. I still automate things, just with a much stricter standard than before. Now I want every routine to justify its existence with reliability and…
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Forget Synology and DSM, this free NAS distro can revive old PCs as NAS servers
…QNAP is fairly reliable for hardcore enthusiasts, and its proprietary OS is easy enough for beginners. Heck, thanks to XPEnology, you can even try running Synology’s DSM on unsupported hardware, including…
I stopped chasing 3D printer upgrades after realizing most don't actually improve prints
Jeff Butts Mar 23, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Jeff's been involved in the IT industry since before the Internet and spent more than 20 years working in technical support, system…
I replaced PuTTY, Notepad++, and WinSCP with modern tools, and I wish I had sooner
…They're free, reliable, and at some point, I started thinking of them as defaults, forgetting there are plenty of other choices out there. When I heard a friend say, "I haven…
I built a Home Assistant automation that saves power daily, and nobody in my family even knows it exists
…I’m proud of it because it runs locally, reliably, and completely out of sight. Related 5 useful Home Assistant automations I wish I had in my life sooner From energy tracking…
My smart home was a mess until I gave it a brain
…I wanted my smart home to quietly support my routine without constant input. That’s when I started looking for a better approach. By adding the right control layer, I was able…
I replaced enterprise gear with a $50 compact PC, and my power bill thanked me
…they're reliable and power-efficient systems with the same quad-core processor, the Intel Core i5-7400. Luckily, thanks to the RAM situation, I had to source modules I already had…
Don’t toss that old SATA drive - here’s what to do with it instead
…The reliability concerns about these old SATA drives can be real, but they likely still have a ton of life left in them. Related I stopped treating my old 250GB SATA SSD…
I stopped recommending Linux Mint after trying Lubuntu on a nine-year-old laptop
…There's nothing major missing here, so it's a reliable experience for newcomers, too. Something I wish were different is that Lubuntu still doesn't support Flatpak out of the box…
This rugged Garmin smartwatch lasts 18 days on a charge and has just dropped $150
…The watch features all the sensors you need for reliable metric tracking for fitness and health. It also features GPS to keep track of your location, and there's even a live…