Quick Links If you live in a snowy climate, you know all too well there is a type and depth of snow that isn’t worth firing up the snow blower for and is irritating to shovel. And that’s the perfect snow to blast with your leaf blower. Why Leaf Blow Snow? For folks reading this article after the winter winds deposited a wet slushy 12 inches on their driveway, leaf-blowing the snow accumulation isn’t a viable solution....

8Bitdo Pro 2 Bluetooth Controller The 8Bitdo Pro 2 Bluetooth Controller successfully merges old-school design with modern conveniences, making it the best way to experience your old favorite games all over again. Gamers looking for a flexible, high-performance controller with a retro feel should consider the 8Bitdo Pro 2. Right now, it’s on sale for$35.98 on Amazon, down from its original price of $49.99. This Bluetooth gamepad mixes classic style with modern tech, making it a great deal....

Apple just revealed an updated iPad Air with an M3 chip. It still starts at $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch model, but there’s not much of a reason for most people to upgrade. The current iPad lineup is a bit confusing, with the iPad Air serving as the middle ground between the base iPad and the iPad Pro. The iPad Air wasupdated last yearwith an M2 chip and a new 13-inch screen option, and now it’s been updated again alongsidea new base iPad....

Onn 4K Pro The onn 4K Pro Streaming Device features hands-free voice control with Google Assistant , 4K Ultra HD resolution , and Dolby Atmos/Dolby Vision . It has a Quad-core Cortex-A55 CPU , Mali-G31 MP2 GPU, 3GB RAM, and 32GB storage. Walmart’s Onn 4K Pro streaming device launched last year as a combination Nest speaker and Google TV streaming box. At only $50, it was already a great deal, but it just hit a price that makes it even harder to ignore....

Quick Links Connections is a game from the New York Times that challenges you to find the association between words. It sounds easy, but it isn’t—Connections categories can be almost anything, and they’re usually quite specific. If you need a hand getting the answers, we’ve got you covered. What Is Connections? Connections is a game from the New York Times. The objective is simple: sort 16 words into groups of 4....

Let’s Encrypt, the popular SSL certificate authority, is about to stop sending emails for expiring certificates. If you have a server using Let’s Encrypt, you’ll need to use automations to keep up with certificate renewals, or set up an alternative monitoring service. Let’s Encryptprovides free SSL certificates for web hosts and servers, allowing pages and other content to be served over secure HTTPS. It’s a popular solution for everything from major publishers toDIY homelabs, including this very website....

Summary While there are minimalistic desktop environments, you can take it even further by just using a window manager. It manages windows and nothing else. Here’s why it’s worth a try. What Is a Window Manager? A window manager is a program that does just that, managing window behavior in the X Window System. The X Window System, or X, isn’t a complete graphical user interface system in itself. It really only knows how to paint the pixels on the screen....

Quick Links One of the challenges with any DevOps workflow is managing secrets, passwords, and tokens that must be kept private for security reasons. This is especially true for open source repositories, where code is typically public. GitHub Secrets help manage this issue when working with GitHub Actions scripts. What Are GitHub Secrets? GitHub Secrets is essentially a vault that you’re able to store private keys in, which can be accessed by GitHub Actions scripts by name, much like environment variables....

Quick Links Summary To avoid illness, you should set your water heater thermostat at a minimum of 120°F. To avoid increased scalding risk, you should set it below 140°F. It’s tempting to set your water heater temperature back to save money, but before you do that, read this to ensure you’re getting optimum comfort and savings without risking your health. Why Does Water Heater Temperature Matter? Other than wishing the hot water lasted longer during a shower or dealing with the hassle of replacing a failed water heater, most people don’t think much about their water heaters—let alone the specifics of the temperature settings....

Quick Links Summary Fedora 38 introduces two new spins, one with the Budgie desktop environment and one with the Sway tiling window manager. Its GNOME spin moves to GNOME 44. Fedora 38 also removes restrictions and whitelisting from its flatpak implementation. Fedora 38 was released on August 12, 2025. So that you know what to expect when you install it, we took the beta for a spin to see what’s new in this Linux distribution’s latest release....

Summary The glowing Apple logo on the back of a MacBook was one of the most iconics Mac features—until Apple decided to unceremoniously dump it. The company offered several excuses as to why the glowing logo was gone, but I think time and technology have made it the right time for Apple to once again see the light. The Glowing Apple Logo Was the Coolest Thing About MacBooks As a type of free marketing, the glowing Apple logo on the lid of a MacBook was a stroke of genius....

Quick Links Cord-cutting—the act of ditching traditional cable TV—has been gaining popularity for over a decade. Streaming is great, but it’snot the home run it used to be. In fact, I made the decision to switch back to cable. Streaming TV in the Early Days The rise ofstreaming live TV servicescame at a perfect time for me. I was living on my own for the first time, and cable wasn’t something I wanted to deal with....

Personal preferences regarding game mechanics usually dictate the types of games we play. For me, a big selling point is player choice, and one of my favorite ways that it manifests is through romance mechanics. Whether it grants your party better abilities, changes the story, or makes a character happier, I am an absolute sucker for playing matchmaker in video games. Light spoilers ahead forMass EffectandFire Emblemplot points (but nothing that will stop you from playing the games)....