Articles
12 guides
This section collects the HowTo Tech guides by Deta, the edition's contributor. Each one tackles a single household tech problem and works out what actually matters before you spend money. They are written in a dry, blunt voice and lean toward free fixes, careful testing and backups.
Several guides deal with protecting data. "Three Copies. Two Kinds. One Somewhere Else." explains the 3-2-1 backup rule, what each number protects against, and why a synced cloud folder is not a backup. The photo recovery guide explains the ways to get deleted iPhone photos back. The family password manager guide covers what belongs in a shared vault and how to plan for account recovery. "Everyone Wants a NAS. Most People Need a Second Drive." helps you decide whether network storage is worth it.
Others cover home equipment. One gives three free experiments for a Wi-Fi dead zone before you choose between an extender, a mesh system or a cable. Another walks through eight TV picture settings to change from their showroom defaults. There is a buying framework for a work-from-home monitor, a twenty-minute dual-monitor setup and a guide to checking a used graphics card before you pay. "They Will Tell You the Battery Is Fine" sorts common phone-battery advice into true, useless and wrong. Rounding out the section are a guide to the free and paid plugins for a home recording setup, and one on which tasks are worth automating with an AI agent.
- Everyone in This House Uses the Same Password. I Have Seen How This Ends.
- Everyone Wants a NAS. Most People Need a Second Drive.
- How to Set Up Dual Monitors at Your Home Office
- I Am Ten Years Old and I Have Outlived Four Monitors. Only One of Them Deserved It.
- I Have Automated Forty Things. Thirty-Six of Them Were Not Worth Automating.
- I Have Watched a Thousand Photos Die. The Ones That Came Back Had a Backup.
- The Free Plugins Make the Record. The $100 Buys Character.
- The Used Market Is Where Dignity Lives. It Is Also Where the Liars Are.
- They Will Tell You the Battery Is Fine. It Is Chemistry, and Chemistry Does Not Negotiate.
- Three Copies. Two Kinds. One Somewhere Else. I Have Lost Everything Twice.
- Your Television Was Set Up to Win an Argument in a Shop. You Do Not Live in a Shop.
- Your Wi-Fi Dies in the Same Room Every Time. I Have Seen This Before.