My quest for a true Photoshop alternative has always seemed like a compromise between GIMP’s heavy and steep learning curve, Krita’s niche painting-focused toolkit, and a browser-based, ad-filled Photopea. But the whole scenario changed when Affinity Photo 2 moved to a completely free template following its acquisition by Canva. It’s no longer just an economical … Read more
Over the past two years, I’ve installed Proxmox on PCs of all shapes and sizes, including enterprise servers, dinosaur machines, single-board computers, and gaming laptops. After all, the lightweight nature of Proxmox allows me to run this awesome platform on anything with an x86 processor, and since it supports Linux containers and KVM-based virtual machines, … Read more
I understand why many people don’t hesitate to splurge on high-end motherboards. When you invest in a high-end CPU and GPU, it almost feels like your motherboard needs to match that power as well. A cheaper board just wouldn’t look good next to expensive parts, and Reddit users would be quick to point that out … Read more
We all have a shoebox or drawer full of old technology and miscellaneous junk that you haven’t looked at since 2018. Whether it’s Arduino Nanos, dusty ESP8266s, old PIR sensors, or just a bunch of tangled jumper cables, there’s probably a lot of technology in that old drawer that could be put to good use … Read more
I was using Claude for almost everything recently. Web search, document analysis, content drafts, etc. Then I uploaded a stack of PDF files to NotebookLM for a client project and realized I had forced one tool to do two completely different tasks. NotebookLM isn’t trying to beat Claude in web search. This solves an entirely … Read more
Being able to tinker with Linux distributions and applications is yet another reason why I love my home server. However, you don’t really need a separate machine just to access Linux packages. Between WSL2, virtual machines, and dual booting, you have multiple ways to access this FOSS ecosystem, even when you have just one system … Read more
If you were to conduct a random survey of desktop and laptop owners asking them, “When was the last time you updated the firmware on your SSD?” “, there is no doubt that the overwhelming majority would answer “never”, and a select few would not even know that this option existed. Modern NVMe drives are … Read more
I have been on a The Legend of Zelda retro gaming’s kick lately, whether it’s revisiting Classic Nintendo 64 Ocarina of time via the excellent unofficial Ship of Harkinian-powered PC port on my ROG Xbox Ally X, or by spending time playing the Game Boy Advance The Minish cap on the 34XXSP type GBA SP … Read more
There’s never been a better time to become a Linux gamer. Over the past few years, Linux gaming has made some pretty big strides, and none of it has been wrapped up in flashy marketing or benchmark graphics. This change has been buried deep in kernel patches, memory controllers, and the type of engineering work … Read more
Self-hosting your own LLM is usually born out of the desire for two things: absolute privacy and total control. You configure the hardware, extract the models, and finally see that familiar chat box on your screen. It feels like a victory, but for most people, that’s where the journey ends. We’re so conditioned by the … Read more