Quick Links Summary Why pay for premium streaming? Free AVOD services, such as Tubi and The Roku Channel, offer an impressive selection of shows and movies that will rival any premium service. They even have some original content that you don’t want to miss. The term “AVOD” is an initialism for “Ad-Supported Video on Demand.” Most AVOD services look and feel like Netflix, with hundreds of shows and movies tucked into dozens of different categories and genres....

Games don’t have an expiration date any more than a movie is worth less just because it’s old. That said, some games have stood the test of time much better than others, and don’t really need the epidemic of remakes and remasters we’re currently experiencing, but what exactly allows a game to be timeless? A Good Game Loop Is Forever What defines a timeless game more than anything is its game loop....

Quick Links Summary Many gamers feel obliged to use headphones to get the best possible experience. But what if I told you that you could get a quality gaming experience from speakers as well without having to sweat under those cans? Comfort Is a Non-factor With Speakers While there are some very comfy headphones on the market, you’ll always be able to feel their presence on your head. Even the lightest of headphones can’t go unnoticed, and I often find that they sit too tight or too loose on my ears....

Jupiter and Saturn are better to look at through a telescope, but if you could view them up close, they’d appear almost drab compared to the ice giants, which are hues of blue and green. But why blue rather than red? Why don’t we have neon-green ice giants? Earth: The Pale Blue Dot The Earth itself is so famously blue that its blue hue, viewed from the vantage point of Saturn, inspired Carl Sagan’s bookPale Blue Dot....

Quick Links We’re all constantly absorbing information online. Bionic reading is an approach to reading that can help you read faster, retain more information, and boost your productivity in your favorite web browsers—like Chrome. What Is Bionic Reading? Bionicreadingisamethodofreadingthatcombinestraditionalreadingwithtechnology-assistedtools.Thishelpsreadersincreasetheirreadingspeed,improvetheircomprehensionandretention,andultimatelybecomemoreproductiveintheirreadingactivities. Was the above paragraph easier and quicker to read? If you said yes, then you’ve just experienced some of the benefits of bionic reading. Now, imagine that but for a whole article, essay, or book....

Summary Is your computer monitor no longer sleeping when it’s supposed to? This is a problem I ran into and couldn’t figure it out—until I found one simple command that revealed everything. My Monitors Just Wouldn’t Sleep I have a desktop in my workshop that runs my CNC and laser. It runs Windows, and one day I walked out there after several days of not being out there to see the monitor never went to sleep....

Summary An ergonomic computer setup requires a bit of rule-breaking. You might buy a goofy trackball mouse, for example, or stand at your desk like some kind of heathen. But have you ever tried using a numpad on the left-hand side of your keyboard? It goes against all things natural, but it’s one of the easiest ways to increase your comfort at a desk. The Traditional Keyboard Layout Is an Ergonomic Mess Place both of your hands on your keyboard as if you’re about to start typing....

Quick Links Summary An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) combines surge protection and battery backup into one unit. Adding a UPS to your computer, router, or other electronic device protects them from damage and ensures uptime. Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units aren’t just for data centers and overly cautious geeks. There are plenty of good reasons to connect your PC to one and even use them around your home. What’s an Uninterruptible Power Supply?...

The cryptocurrency industry has been busy withthe sudden collapse of FTX, one of the top crypto exchanges (banks), for almost two months now. Many people still can’t get their money out of FTX, and another ruling is more bad news for people using exchanges. Celsius, a popular crypto lending firm,filed for bankruptcy back in Julyand is still undergoing legal proceedings. Bankruptcy generally prioritizes investors getting their money back over customers getting their money back, and in the case, there isn’t much in the way of bank-adjacent laws forcing crypto exchanges to work differently....

It’s clear that YouTube wants sports fans to watch more content on its platform, and today, we heard about several changes coming soon aiming to do just that. The company again mentioned a new “Watch with” feature, upgrades to multiview, and other changes coming this year. This week, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan wrote a blog post detailing the company’s “big bets for 2025,” mentioning all sorts of interesting facts, features, and promises....

Quick Links We all have phones, but we don’t all have the best accessories for them. Here are cheap phone-related niceties that make for an affordable start to the new year. 1A Phone Stand A phone may not be the biggest screen in your home, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t the one you look at most. Here’s one thing I’ve learned from hours of staring at a screen: It feels much nicer when you don’t have to hold the phone....

Quick Links Summary There was a moment not too long ago where if you had a computer, you probably also had a flash drive. Now many of us are mostly on our phones and default to cloud storage. Here’s the thing—modern flash drives and external SSDs are better than they have ever been. As recurring data leaks are keen to remind us, personal drives absolutely have their place. This Is the Fastest Way to Transfer Files If you’re trying to move files between two devices that are sitting right next to each other, a flash drive or external SSD is typically the fastest way to do it....

Choosing a new distro can be overwhelming. Installing a complex distro can be draining. If wasting wads of cash on the wrong hardware or getting neck-deep in technical jargon sounds daunting, then perhaps Qubes is not for you. Choosing Hardware Is Like Pulling Teeth The first hurdle you will face is hardware choice. Qubes depends on specific technologies, namely, VT-x, VT-D, IOMMU, and SLAT. These are common in modern computers but are difficult to match with other requirements, like IOMMU groups (which I’ll get to next) and cost....