Save videos from X without handing a stranger your login
Saving a video from X looks like a two-click problem until the clip comes from a private account, the download site demands notifications, or the file arrives with no audio. The safest…
Software
Articles about software applications and tools
107 articles
The iPhone battery settings that matter over three years
Your iPhone has two battery problems, and most advice mixes them together. One problem is getting through today without hunting for a charger. The other is keeping the battery useful after hundreds…
Real Python mixin quiz: 10 questions that sharpen your eye
Mixin classes are the kind of Python feature that experienced developers use without thinking, then stumble on when they have to explain them. The pattern is small, but the pitfalls hit hard:…
I almost forwarded a port to check my home camera. The better path
A friend asked me last month how to peek at his porch camera from the office, and before I could stop myself I was halfway through describing port forwarding. Then I caught…
Collabora Office 26.04 hands the AI key back to the user
The office suite market in 2026 has settled into a pattern. AI is on by default. The toggle is buried five menus deep. The assistant ships with a vendor model you cannot…
Run your own tailnet with Headscale and skip Tailscale’s cloud
I did not get the Tailscale pitch until I installed it. The client goes on a device, you log in once, and the rest of the tailnet shows up like it was…
8 DuckDuckGo settings that earn it the default slot
I run DuckDuckGo as my default search engine, and the honest answer is that I am not there for the privacy pitch alone. The privacy is real, but the day-to-day reason is…
Stop Windows Update from restarting your work: a tiered guide
Windows Update is one of those background systems that works fine until it does not. The default behavior on Windows 10 and 11 is to download updates in the background and install…
Security first, then privacy: a working priority order
When people argue about which tools to use, the security-versus-privacy debate usually goes nowhere because both sides are talking past each other. The arguments for privacy-focused tools (“I do not want Google…
Hard drive errors: how to triage before you lose the data
A failing drive rarely announces itself with a single dramatic crash. More often it whispers for weeks: a file that will not open, a save that takes five seconds longer than it…