Home Office Setup & Equipment

Valve's Steam Deck has quickly become my go-to gaming handheld. I've clocked—oh god—500 hours just in Hades II on the Steam Deck. Yet I spent full weeks of my life using this device without diving into its most powerful feature: its customizable controls. Here's why you should be using them, even if you think you don't need to. At first, I avoided customizing my controls because I usually like to play the way the developer intended. That ended when I sprained my left wrist while in the middle of replaying Chrono Trigger. I wanted to keep playing, but I needed to rest my wrist. What could I do? That's correct: Obviously, I should remap the in-game controls so I could acc…

There are many alternatives to dining out on Valentine’s Day, but none as classic as simply cooking a cozy meal at home. While you and your partner might find ordering Taco Bell to be meaningful and romantic (I know a couple that celebrates with chicken nuggets and champagne), if you’re interested in cooking, I’ve got some simple and budget-focused meal suggestions that are still pretty darn romantic. Air fryer stuffed mushroomsThese savory mushroom bites are some of my favorite things on planet Earth. They make for a great appetizer or side dish, and using the air fryer means you can have them on the table in about 10 minutes. Sausage, cream cheese, and some minced arom…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. A lot of folks want to upgrade their homes with a remodel, renovation, or smaller project. But cost is always a factor (and a barrier)—the average renovation cost for a house is over $50,000. Those costs drive a lot of folks to watch way too many home improvement shows and attempt do-it-yourself transformations, but those kinds of DIY projects require money, too—not to mention some basic skills and at least a few tools. If you’re not someone who’s comfortable swinging a hammer or plugging in a power drill—or someone who doesn’t even own a hammer or a power drill—the idea of upgrading your house might seem impossible unle…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The first time I put on real lifting shoes, it was a revelation. My feet were so stable during squats, it was like they were glued to the ground. They were so comfortable I forgot to take them off for deadlifts, however—a rookie mistake, as the heels put you at a disadvantage for that lift. Here’s what you should know about the shoes you wear when you lift heavy. Why your shoes matterWhen you first head into the gym, you’ll wear whatever shoes you’ve got. If that means a pair of running shoes, it’s not the end of the world. But as soon as you can, you should upgrade. Running shoes, and other comfortable sneaker-like footw…

February is cold, wet, windy and downright inhospitable to outdoor gardening—but you know you are mere weeks from the start of spring. The irises and crocuses are beginning to emerge. Like most gardeners, this fills me with both excitement and anxiety with a capital A—am I already behind? You’re not, because February is the time to catch up. So in this, the shortest of months, you have not one, but two jobs: Wrap up all the things you’ve not yet accomplished for winter, while preparing for spring. By the time we talk next month, we’ll be deep in seeding season. Get your fruit ready We’re at the tail end of the work that’ll determine what kind of fruit harvest you’ll hav…

Disney+ is checking its superhero box in March with the premiere of Marvel Television’s Daredevil: Born Again (March 4), the 13th series set in the MCU with Charlie Cox reprising his role as Matt Murdock (Daredevil), blind lawyer by day and vigilante superhero by night. Episodes will drop on Tuesdays beginning March 4. Also coming in March are additional episodes of the emotion-packed Pixar miniseries Win or Lose (weekly on Wednesdays) and the twelve remaining episodes of season two of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (March 19). A new Disney+ original comedy film is premiering at the end of the month. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Roa…

As egg prices skyrocket, you too may be considering if it would be cheaper going straight to the source and raising your own flock. As the steward of four sweet but dimwitted backyard chickens, I'll caution that it's more expensive than you think—but with prices spiking as high as $1 per egg in some areas, it may be worth considering. Each day, I reliably pull three or four gorgeously colored eggs out of my backyard chicken coop. “They're free!” I think to myself. But these eggs are only “free” if one ignores the costs of feeding, sheltering, protecting, and entertaining a flock of tiny, feathered dinosaurs. Now, most people with backyard birds aren’t going the cheap r…

Most video editing software works through re-encoding—essentially, uploading the file so it can be broken apart and stitched back together. This is necessary for advanced editing techniques but has some downsides. It's slow, for one thing, and the encoding process isn't lossless, meaning videos can look worse over time. This is a particularly vexing problem when all you want to do is cut a bit from the beginning or end of a file. Lossless Cut is an open source application for Linux, Windows, and Mac that can trim videos without the need for encoding. The changes to the original file are basically instantaneous and totally lossless. It's a great tool if all you ever do whe…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Looking to settle in with a good movie? Me too. That's why I've pored over release schedules to bring you the best original and new-to-streaming movies you can watch on Netflix, Prime, Max, Hulu, and other streaming platforms this week. Late January is the perfect time to check out a sensitive character comedy like A Real Pain, and it's never a bad time to dig into the story of P. Diddy with a documentary like Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy. A Real Pain (2024) Written by, directed by, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain is a buddy comedy/road movie in which a pair of mismatched cousins tour through Poland to …

There are times when blocking someone on Discord just seems downright harsh. Plus, when you block someone, they'll know that you've done so, which might lead to unwanted drama. Perhaps you simply want to ignore that they exist. You can go on with your merry life, and they can do their own thing. No hard feelings. Well, Discord has now added a feature appropriately called Ignore, so you can do just that. What does it mean to Ignore someone on Discord?Ignore is basically a mute feature. It lets you mute someone who's annoying or downright abusive. All without the added drama that comes with outright blocking someone. You can even use it to take a temporary break from someon…

Searching for a job can feel like a full time job itself. It’s easy to feel defeated when it feels like you’re sending your resume out into the void and hearing nothing back the majority of the time. Maybe you’re graduating soon, or making a career pivot, or jumping back into the workforce after some time away—the job hunt humbles us all. An action plan is key to turning your overwhelming job search into a much more manageable process—both in terms of your sanity and to increase your chances of getting hired. Personally, I love a good spreadsheet. Whether or not you’re Team Spreadsheet, you should create some form of a career search action plan. Why you need an action pla…

Apple Intelligence had a slow rollout, launching with a waitlist and only recently allowing access to AI images and its emoji generator. But following yesterday's release of iOS 18.3/iPadOS 18.3/MacOS 15.3, it seems Apple is finally ready to follow Microsoft and Google’s leads and start putting its AI features front-and-center. According to the update's release notes, Apple Intelligence has gone from an opt-in feature to an opt-out one. In other words, if you have an AI-compatible iPhone (meaning the iPhone 15 Pro and above) or iPad (meaning it has an A17 chip or above), Apple Intelligence will be toggled on by default as soon as you upgrade. As seen in a separate post he…

You’d think we all have enough stress in our lives already, but for some reason we still love those heart-pumping thrillers—whether the quiet, suspenseful kind or the big action spectacles. It might be that the things that get our hearts racing in real life are in the realm of “oh no, this medical bill,” making a spy movie, a heist-gone-wrong scenario, or even a dark kidnapping story a good vehicle for vicarious (and comparatively cheap) thrills. Regardless, here are the best thrillers currently streaming on Netflix, with a variety of tones that run from mildly tense to extremely dark. Rebel Ridge (2024) If you hadn't previously considered "civil forfeiture" as…

Thanks to some smart (and aggressive) marketing, Duolingo has cemented itself as one of the most popular language learning apps in the world. That said, it isn't without competition: There are plenty of alternatives to consider, and if you're peeved about Duolingo's plans to phase out its contract workers in favor of using AI, you might be looking into them. There's now a new competitor for Duo's crown, but it certainly isn't a replacement for the AI-averse. It's also far from an underdog, considering the service comes from none other than Google. Yesterday, the company announced a new AI-powered language learning experience it calls Little Language Lessons. It isn't an …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. People tend to start gardening the same way: They grow their first plant outside, feel the pride of eating their own sun-ripened tomato, and decide to plant two plants the next year. Most of those plants are bought from a nursery, but as you build a garden, buying starts from the store begins to make less sense. If you’re at the point where you’re considering planting, say, eight tomato plants, it might make sense to start growing your own. And you should. You can save a lot of money by growing your own from seeds. Buying garden starts makes sense at first People buy garden starts for simple reasons: By the time the wea…

If there's something you want to keep track of regularly, it belongs on your Mac's menu bar. The left side of the menu bar, of course, shows the menu for the current application. The right side, though, is a series of icons—and with the right application, you can put just about anything there. This is a list of the applications I find most useful in the menu bar but it's far from exhaustive—developers have gotten quite creative over the years. Check out the website MacMenuBar.com if you want to see even more menu bar tools. Check your calendar Credit: …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. There are all kinds of laws that govern the rights you have when you’re renting your home, but landlords are also pretty well-protected. You might think that anything that goes on in your apartment is their business (for better or worse), but there are actually quite a few things that simply are not their responsibility. While it’s pretty wild that they technically own your home and can make all kinds of rules about it but don’t actually have to fix certain issues, it’s worth knowing what is and is not their job when it comes to your space. Outdoor spaces are your responsibility If you are renting a house or are lucky en…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Having your car stolen is a traumatic experience—and a depressingly common one. Although car thefts nationwide are trending downward, there were still more than 850,000 vehicles stolen in 2024. If you’ve ever woken up to find your car missing from its spot (and I have!) you know it’s not fun. But thieves don’t always target the entire car. It’s often easier and less risky to steal a specific part from your car or truck. Many of these parts are relatively easy to access, remove, and sell, and the profit margin can be very lucrative for a busy and organized criminal. If your car is ever parked out in the open (especially ove…

If you were looking for a respite from X, but Threads didn't work out for you, you might have ended up at Bluesky. Sure, Mastodon is great in theory, but it doesn't have nearly as many users talking in one place. And as a single app, Bluesky is simply easier to use. Bluesky also feels like an app that has learned (or is still learning) from the mistakes of its peers. It has superior built-in moderation and troll-fighting features, and is relatively easy to get started with. But if you're going to pick up a new social network, you're going to want to carry over your mute words with you—that is, the collection of terms you've made over the years that you just don't want to …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’ve been eyeing premium wireless earbuds but don’t want to shell out big bucks, this deal on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 might catch your attention. Originally priced at $279.95, they’re now going for $99.99 on Woot—but only for eight days or until sold out. Plus, Prime members get free standard shipping, while others will have to pay $6 (just a heads up, this sale is only available in the U.S., and free shipping isn’t available for Alaska, Hawaii, or PO boxes). You also get a two-year Sennheiser manufacturer limited warranty, so…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. It can get a bit confusing to decide between the standard iPad, the iPad Air, and the iPad Pro. For the most budget-friendlyoption, the iPad 10th gen is your best bet. For those looking for top-of-the-line specs, the iPad Pro is the way to go. If you're somewhere in between, that's where the iPad Air's sweet spot is. Right now, the latest 11-inch M2 Wifi iPad Air is $499 (originally $599), and the Wifi + Cellular version (if you don't want to rely on wifi) is $649 (originally $749)—for both models, those match their lowest-ever prices, according to …

Apple Music and Spotify are the two most popular streaming services in the world; most of us already have our favorite. Fans get into endless debates about which service is better, and for many people, that boils down to two factors: pricing and recommendation algorithms. However, there are many other factors that settle the Apple Music vs. Spotify debate—you could be after better sound quality, sharing features, support for your preferred platforms, and many other things. But which service is superior? It depends on what you're looking for. Apple Music vs. Spotify: pricing If you're on a really tight budget and just cannot afford to pay for a music streaming service, S…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon's Big Spring Sale is back for its second year, and while it doesn’t go as hard as Prime Day, there are still plenty of worthwhile discounts. It runs from March 25 to March 31, and the best part is you don’t need a Prime membership to shop. That said, Prime members do get access to deeper discounts, and if you’re not one, Amazon’s free 30-day trial lets you cash in on the best deals without any commitment. One of the discounts spotted is on the Google Nest Cam (Indoor, Wired), now down to $69.99 from $99.99—this is the lowest it's ever been,…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. From viral hacks to your grandmother, someone or something has, at some point, told you to clean with baking soda and vinegar. Even I have told you to clean with baking soda and vinegar. Yesterday, sadly, I learned that this approach isn't all it's cracked up to be. Let's discuss. Why you shouldn't mix baking soda and vinegar to cleanThe good news is that this mixture isn't toxic or dangerous in any way. You're not poisoning yourself over time if you mix vinegar and baking soda to get a bubbly paste to scrub onto your walls, countertops, or tile. The bad news is that it just doesn't do much. See, yesterday, I wrote about…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Like any surface, a wood floor can get stained and dirty, but you have to be really careful with how you clean it. You shouldn't use harsh chemicals, whether your floor is sealed or unsealed, because you don't want to damage the wood itself, but that leaves you with fewer options. I tried two—well, three, but we'll get to that—simple techniques that didn't require any intense chemicals today and they both worked well. Remove stains from wood floors with vinegar First, I assessed the stains I was dealing with, which I noticed while cleaning under my couch earlier in the week. They appeared to be leftover from a project I…