Hey, I'm back with more home server questions. :)

I've got a laptop running as my home server. I have previously removed my CD drive to add an HDD caddy for a total of two hard drives - a SATA SSD and a SATA HDD.

Now, I'm running out of storage a little, and I have a spare HDD that I've currently hooked up to my desktop PC that I could connect to my server. What are my options here?

I've found HDD adapters that you can connect via USB. But what are the read/write speeds for these and would they sufficient for a server? Or should I invest in some kinda hard drive bay that allows for multiple hard drives to be slotted into and connected (is that a NAS?)?

Open to any input here, preferably tge cheaper the better.

I want to host a fediverse instance but I need it to be light (limited system resources). Mastodon seems to be kinda heavy. GotoSocial is supposedly very light? (but limited on functionality?) is Pixelfed much heavier? Bonfire is built on elixir so should also be light? Akkoma? Pleroma?

Also, I need it to be engaging to people migrating mostly from IG, so I do need some bells/whistles I guess

thanks!

Apparently, nines are the hardest to grasp for primary school children. If only they’d learned how to cheat like me, says Adrian Chiles

Addiction rarely begins with harm. It begins with relief.

What Tim described didn’t sound like intoxication. It sounded quieter: people gradually relying on AI to reduce the discomfort of thinking.

Addiction medicine offers a useful framework. Many people use substances without developing addiction. The difference often lies in patterns of use and the role the substance plays in someone’s life. When something becomes the primary way a person manages discomfort — emotional or cognitive — risk increases.

The discomfort it relieves is subtle: the blank page, the uncertain decision, the difficult conversation, the effort of organizing thought. These moments are frustrating. They are also how competence develops.

When people hear the word “addiction,” they often assume it implies catastrophe — intoxication, loss of control, destruction. But addiction medicine describes a process long before those outcomes appear: the gradual shift from optional use to psychological reliance.

Framing AI that way makes people uncomfortable for a simple reason.

It suggests that something extraordinarily useful — something many of us already depend on — could quietly reshape how we think. And history shows that when a powerful tool offers relief from discomfort, questioning it often sounds like criticism of the people who use it.

The most transformative technologies are rarely dangerous because they are obviously harmful. They are powerful because they work so well that we stop noticing what they are replacing.

Today’s game is Halo CE. Yes. I know. ‘Halo Again?’. I was kind of left to my own devices with another friend tonight. The others had a date or were too sleepy or yadayada. You know the story. So me and this friend decided to just hop into Halo CE and dick around in the campaign. You can see the aftermath above.

It’s fun. I’m so used to playing on legendary, and while that doesn’t take out all the fun, it does put some pressure on me I hadn’t noticed before. Without the pressure of struggling against legendary we did things like: Drive a car off a cliff, Drive another car off a cliff, Hit each other with the 3rd car repeatedly, And then drive that one off the cliff

All around a good time. It really brings back a level of chill with the game I hadn’t experienced in a while. I had a little too much fun though and forgot to get photos.

The level of fun though, In a way, makes me dread going back to finish LASO, though I already dread that on its own. It definitely has given me something to compare it to again.

There was Truth and Reconciliation, which was the furthest we got. By now we had sunk nearly an hour in. This level is my run killer though. I was tired and it was just taking too long. We got stuck on one specific part and I had enough. I wouldn’t call it a rage quit but I definitely acknowledged I was tired and did not have the battery to handle that level. Which sucks because the rest of the campaign is really good to me.

Approaching the middle of 2026, I thought it might be interesting to check in with a handful of developers building software for the Steam Deck scene to see how things have gone, are going and might be for the future!

Most of these are good friends of mine, but there is one new face here as well. I asked them a few questions each about what the state of Steam Deck software looks like today.

• RetroDECK
• Decky Loader
• Junk Store
• Lutris
• Heroic Games Launcher
• Unifideck

^ all the projects I checked in with! So if you're curious, this one isn't exactly hard-hitting journalist, it is a nice light check-in with friends as to how the Steam Deck world is for them now!

Hope you enjoy it!

https://gardinerbryant.com/steam-deck-software-in-2026/

He doesn't want to diminish the current crisis, though.

Asterix and Obelix, the ever-popular characters created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, have now embarked on their biggest adventure yet — to conquer the language Hindi.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1144434/independent-review-confirms-critical-telegram-vulnerability-leaking-persistent-identifie

Law enforcement intercepted VPN traffic, seized domains, and arrested its operator.

Europol announced yesterday the results of the operation against the service, First VPN. The First VPN website now displays a message saying the domain was seized by a joint international law enforcement action.

“A VPN service used by cybercriminals to conceal ransomware attacks, data theft, and other serious offenses has been dismantled in an international operation led by France and the Netherlands, with support from Europol and Eurojust,” the agency said. “For years, the service, known as ‘First VPN,’ was promoted on Russian-speaking cybercrime forums as a trusted tool for remaining beyond the reach of law enforcement. It offered users anonymous payments, hidden infrastructure, and services designed specifically for criminal use.”

SpaceX conducted another successful Starship launch test yesterday evening.

You can watch the full, 1:40:00 footage here:

Invidious YouTube

I'd recommend watching it, it's a well-done video documentary, not too long, with good views.

Like that infamous "ET" torrent in 1982 where it involved a "pirate" sneaking a huge JVC camcorder (with a VHS reel) recording the entire movie in theaters, given this was before DVD's existed (don't even ask about pirate bay, those weren't available yet). The same applies to "torrented" music, one would have a spare tape cassette recording the song played via the radio, that's how they torrented content back then if they can't afford an official copy.

Only millennials or Gen X who were kids back then would've encountered or witnessed VHS or Cassette "torrents" from either friends or family and often or not, piracy in the pre internet days was rife even before torrent sites were a thing. There are VHS "torrents" of TV shows or series (placing a camcorder which faces the TV screen with a spare reel recording the entire show (ads included), then used to fast forward upon replay.