Software runs on data and data is often regarded as the new oil. So it makes sense to put data as close to where it is being processed as possible, in order to reduce latency for performance-hungry processing tasks. Some architectures call for big chunks of memory-like storage located near the compute function, while, conversely, in some cases, it makes more sense to move the computer nearer to the bulk storage. In this series of articles we explore the architectural decisions driving modern data processing… and, specifically, we look at computational storage “Computational storage is defined as architectures that provide Computational Storage Functions (CSF) coupled to storage, offloading host processing or reducing data movement. These architectures enable improvements in application performance and/or infrastructure efficiency through the integration of compute resources (outside of the traditional compute & memory architecture) either directly with storage or between the host and the storage. The goal of these architectures is to enable parallel computation and/or to alleviate constraints on existing compute, memory, storage and I/O.” Fern writes as follows When it comes to computational storage, people ask how exactly should software engineers identify, target and architect specific elements of the total processing workload to reside closer to computational storage functions? With quantum computing on the horizon (whether that be that a couple of years away, or more than a decade), software engineers need to be conscious of the threat it poses to traditional digital encryption and the knock-on effects for how data is processed and stored. Solutions developed to protect that data – and how they operate – will have a clear impact on how we architect specific elements of the processing workload and where they are located. Data disaggregation For example, data disaggregation offers real potential to future-proof data security in a quantum computing world but there is a trade-off, to some degree, between security and speed of data processing that may require a rethinking of how we architect storage and processing functions. Disaggregating data inherently creates some latency when it comes to accessing that data but there are ways of storing and processing that disaggregated data that allow system architects to bring data that is needed quickly close to the CPU while maintaining its wider disaggregated form. How? By making the storage ‘content-aware’. The Content Addressable Filesystem (CAFS) approach may have fallen by the wayside over recent years as massively parallel processing (MPP) architectures became prominent, but it’s actually quite a nifty way of doing things. It allows data exchange to take place remotely from the processor while also being aware enough to know that the next bit of data – which may be further away from the processor – will take longer to access and should therefore be moved closer. Crucially, there are ways in which this and other technologies can be applied to make the cloud inherently safe and secure, delivering an outcome analogous to homomorphic encryption – querying the data in its disaggregated using form without ever opening it up to the airwaves in clear. Latency you can live with Yes, there is some additional latency but there are three clear advantages to this approach: Firstly, the data itself is never revealed in its unencrypted state; Secondly, any latency disaggregating, re-aggregating, encrypting and decrypting the data can be mitigated by use of smart storage that identifies and pre-fetches relevant data, bringing it closer to the CPU as needed; Thirdly, limiting the amount of data stored near the CPU reduces the security risk of storing it all close to the processor, while that risk is further mitigated by a retrieval process that focuses on identifying and pulling back smaller pieces of data – effectively just bringing the relevant page from a book rather than the whole bookcase at any one time. This approach does mean reviewing what have become the accepted norms of data storage, processing and system architecture but there’s an argument that approaches such as CAFS were not the wrong approach, just before their time in terms of the solutions they enable. The refactoring X-factor So how much refactoring does it take to bring about a successful computational storage deployment and, crucially, how much tougher is that operation when the DevOps team in question is faced with a particularly archaic older legacy system? Our aim at Nerdcore Computers is to make the deployment of computational storage as transparent as possible so that it doesn’t interrupt workflow during the transition period and in-life. In essence, our approach to data storage is mapped in traditional storage terms but delivered virtually, meaning you don’t have to fully switch everything over on day one and risk breaking the whole integrated IT and human subsystems. Instead, you can deploy new storage at a manageable rate, decommissioning old systems as each phase of the transition completes and evolving your business practices and workflows gradually, as capacity and capability allows. It’s a new approach but not a novel one; more a change of mindset about how to structure computational storage and implement change that smooths the transition, especially where existing structures are particularly archaic or need to incorporate – initially at least – legacy systems. Author Nerdcore Computers

For much of IT history, your options for acquiring IT solutions were pretty limited. It was a choice between a one-off capital charge, combined with annual maintenance fees, and a three year lease – perhaps with an option for a peppercorn rental extension if you wanted to keep the kit for a year or two longer. Life was simple. How things have changed. We now have a range of new ways to pay, many of them pay-as-you-go or subscription services inspired by the popularity of public cloud services and SaaS software. What some may be surprised to learn is that subscription or consumption-based payment plans don’t just apply to cloud-based applications and virtual machines. Now it can be for the servers and storage systems that you run in your own data centre or computer room, too. Of course, this process – like the pressure on IT spending – is not entirely new. Over the years a few approaches have been made by IT vendors to make it easier to acquire kit. One that enjoyed some success in larger environments was the “capacity on demand” model, whereby the vendor would install more capacity in the computer room than the customer planned to use immediately, so it would be there ready for when a spike in demand occurred. This was good if you had a workload (or loads) with an unpredictable usage profile, but it came at a price premium, and should your workload subsequently drop back below the new baseline, there would be no reduction in cost. However, as the pressure on IT spend continues, vendors are now adapting these models still further, whether it’s to cater for fluctuating workload patterns, or simply to help organisations get a new project off the ground without having to make significant day one investments in new IT capacity. From capacity-on-demand to consumption-based pricing Many of these new models are based on consumption pricing similar to that used for cloud services. In other words, the vendor puts the kit into your data centre, computer room or colocation site and you pay them whenever you have workloads running on the equipment. They monitor the kit and work out when they will add new resources to cater for your growing usage or update the equipment to newer technology. This approach can also help organisations looking to get IT kit “off their books” under the new financial reporting standards. This is because some of these financial solutions are true “services” where the client has no control over the hardware used, just the ability to define the service qualities needed. The vendor does everything else. Dell, HPE, Fujitsu, Pure and IBM are just some of those bringing this new way of financing IT to market. And unlike most of the past 30 years, the vendors are actually taking pains to market such offerings in their own right, usually with their own branding wrapped around. It’s the first time I can remember when paying for IT was a subject of marketing campaigns. But beware: consumption-based IT pricing comes at a premium, making it sensible to use only in particular investment cases. It is not the answer to everything. So make sure you understand the offers open to you and work out the economics, as best you can, over a budgeting lifecycle of at least three years, to ensure you get best value for IT your spend. Author: Nerdcore Computers

CLOUD-MANAGED STACKABLE ACCESS SWITCHES The Cisco Meraki MS225 series switches provide layer 2 access switching and are ideal for deploying to branch locations. With stacking capabilities and 10G SFP+ uplinks on every model, performance is guaranteed. This family also supports an optional, rack-mountable remote PSU (Cisco RPS-2300) for power redundancy requirements. All Meraki switches are managed through an elegant, intuitive cloud-based interface, rather than cryptic command line. To bring up a Meraki switch, simply plug it in. Meraki switches do not require CLI for switch configuration or port management. Meraki’s centralized management platform gives administrators granular visibility into their network. Our dashboard helps you keep track of every configuration change in your network with our detailed event and change logs. Stackable access switches with 10G SFP+ uplinks, designed for the branch and campus INDUSTRY LEADING CLOUD MANAGEMENT Cloud management has a number of benefits that make it easier to build networks large and small:• Automatic email alerts from power loss, downtime, excessive Layer 1 errors, or configuration changes• Powerful remote diagnostic tools such as packet capture to help isolate and troubleshoot network issues• Role-based administration • Firmware upgrades and enhancements from the Meraki cloud• Virtual Stacking enables switch port configuration changes on the dashboard interface without the need to physically stack switches• Incredible network transparency with application, operating system, client, and hostname visibility• Zero-touch provisioning for rapid deployment across sites Product Highlights• Gigabit access switching with 24- and 48- port models and optional PoE+ support up to 740W• Stacking-compatible with the MS210• 4 x 10G SFP+ uplink interfaces on all models • Dual stacking interfaces with up to 80 Gbps of bandwidth• Non-blocking switch backplane with up to 176 Gbps bandwidth support• 6 configurable QoS queues for converged voice, video, and data applications• Low power consumption, quiet acoustic design, and shallow rack depth options, enabling flexible deployment in wiring closets as well as offices and classrooms• Integrated mounting brackets for rack mounting• Fanless design on select models• Lifetime hardware warranty and advanced replacement at no additional cost

Catalyst Quality for Small Deployments When your business is growing, you need your network to enable that growth, not stand in the way of it. So, it’s important to have a network that you know you can rely on. This is why we designed the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series switches – providing flexibility, simplicity, and security for deployments of up to 250 users. Flexible, so you can allocate resources intelligently Small businesses are known for agility, so your network requirements may change over time. The great news is, the Catalyst 1000 switches fit a host of use cases, whether you’re adding connectivity for an increase in staff or bringing online a host of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The compact, fanless design of the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series means it does not need to be placed in a wiring closet, but instead can sit in an open-plan office, day spa, or classroom without disturbing the environment. The series also offers a greater PoE budget, which means you can run more devices per port. Plus, Perpetual PoE ensures that the connected devices retain power in the event of a switch reboot. Simple, so you can do more, easier and faster Not all businesses have the luxury of experienced, dedicated IT professionals to keep their networks running. Even if they do, it’s likely that each IT person has to wear multiple hats. For this reason, we have built in several features that help save on network management time. One of these features is an on-box intuitive WebUI, called Cisco Configuration Professional for Catalyst (CCP). CCP provides you with a wizard for day-0 setup, day-N provisioning, image upgrades, troubleshooting, diagnostics, system monitoring, and a client view. Other time-saving features include the ability to connect via a Bluetooth dongle, and automatic switch recovery. You can access the user interface through Bluetooth connectivity by pairing the switch to a computer – helpful when the switch is tucked away somewhere hard to reach. With automatic switch recovery, you can configure automatic recovery on the switch to recover from the error-disabled state after the specified period of time. To demonstrate how easy it is to use, we asked a customer why they recommend the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series switches over any other competitor’s switches or even pro/consumer options. “Adding users, access points, and changing port types and VLAN settings can all be accomplished in minutes. The user interface is designed for people with minimal technical knowledge – and the device pretty much configures itself.” —John House, Senior IT Network Administrator for Transpo Systems Secure and reliable, so you can grow with confidence Even smaller networks must serve multiple functions, and the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series switches make it easy to meet competing demands with expanded support for VLANs. Larger-scale access control tables enable network administrators to segment traffic for greater security and control. The series runs classic Cisco IOS, one of the most hardened networking operating systems ever released. Advanced security features like 802.1x authentication and IPv6 First Hop Security provide additional protection. And with Perpetual PoE, your endpoints will continue to have power even if the switch must be rebooted. Upgrade from the Catalyst 2960-L switch series The Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series is the upgrade for the Catalyst 2960-L series. Compared to the C2960-L, the C1000 series has improved hardware, more advanced software options, and provides expanded support for VLANs. All in all, the Catalyst 1000 series offers cost-effective connectivity that is ideal for a variety of network needs: Branch offices with conventionally wired workspaces with PC, IP phones, Wireless Access Points, Cash Registers and printers, etc. Building infrastructure networks to connect physical security, sensors and control systems; and any application requiring Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and a low total cost of ownership. The Catalyst 1000 series switches are also backed by our enhanced limited lifetime hardware warranty. This provides next-business-day delivery of replacement hardware where available and 90 days of 8×5 Cisco Technical Assistance Center. Flexible, simple and secure, the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series switches deliver enterprise-grade quality sized for small deployments

Chromebooks continue to find success as affordable, simple, cloud-based laptops. Chrome OS isn’t as complex as Windows or macOS, but sometimes less is more (especially when you’re saving money). If you have a Chromebook of your own, these are some of the most useful features you need to make yourself aware of. 1. Record screen activity The screen capture capabilities of Chrome OS have been significantly improved recently. Press Ctrl+Shift+Show Windows (the fifth button from the left at the top), or click Screen capture in the Quick Settings pane, and you get a new pop-up panel. This lets you switch between image and video capture, opt to include the microphone in video recordings, capture part or the whole of the screen, or capture activity in one specific window. 2. Pin files to the shelf Need easy access to a specific file or group of files in Chrome OS? If you open up the Files app on your Chromebook, then right-click on a particular file or folder and choose Pin to shelf, you’ll then be able to access it by clicking on the icon just to the left of the Quick Settings buttons. Note that some types of file, including screenshots and downloads, automatically appear in this pinned section so you can access them more quickly. 3. Change wallpapers automatically Make sure you’re fully aware of all the options you get for setting the wallpaper on your Chromebook. If you right-click on the desktop and choose Set wallpaper, you can pick from a wide range of gorgeous-looking images provided by Google (or select an image of your own). Note that some categories on the left (including Landscapes and Art) reveal a Daily Refresh toggle switch when selected. Enable this to get a new backdrop every day. 3. Change wallpapers automatically Make sure you’re fully aware of all the options you get for setting the wallpaper on your Chromebook. If you right-click on the desktop and choose Set wallpaper, you can pick from a wide range of gorgeous-looking images provided by Google (or select an image of your own). Note that some categories on the left (including Landscapes and Art) reveal a Daily Refresh toggle switch when selected. Enable this to get a new backdrop every day. 4. Access the clipboard history The traditional computer clipboard has always been somewhat limited, what with it only being able to hold one item at a time. That’s starting to change across multiple platforms now though, including Chrome OS: If you hit the Search+V keyboard shortcut rather than the more traditional Ctrl+V shortcut, you’ll see the last five items copied or cut to the clipboard. Click on anything in the list to paste it, or use the X icons to remove something. 5. Open up virtual desks Chrome OS supports virtual desktops, similarly to Windows and macOS. Google calls them Desks, and you can find them by hitting the Show windows key (it’s fifth from the left on the top row). Click the Desk you want to switch to, or the + button to add a new one. You can have up to eight Desks in total, and by right-clicking on the title bars of windows you’re able to access a Move window to desk option which can come in handy. 6. Turn on the Night Light Chrome OS comes with a built-in feature for making the display warmer and reducing the strain on your eyes late at night. To turn it on, click the time (bottom right) to bring up the Quick Settings panel, then choose Night Light. It’s also available in the main Chrome OS Settings pane (under Device and Displays). Here you can also schedule Night Light to turn on automatically, either from sunset to sunrise, or at a time of your choosing. 7. Right-click for quick answers The right-click option in Chrome OS is more powerful than you might have realized: Select a word or phrase in a webpage, right-click on it, and Google Assistant swings into action to bring you definitions, translations and conversions right in the pop-up menu. (The options you see will vary depending on what you’ve selected.) You can click the Google Assistant icon on the left to open up the full Google Assistant interface and get more answers. 8. Scan QR codes You might not spend much time thinking about the camera(s) on your Chromebook—at least not in between video call meetings—but if you open up the Camera app you’ll notice a little QR code icon on the right (just above the shutter button). Click this to open the QR code scanner, and you’ll be shown where the QR code needs to be lined up. The other icons in the app let you mirror the camera, set up a timer, and put up a grid overlay. 9. Switch channels There are multiple channels of Chrome OS, just as there are multiple channels of Chrome. You can switch to the Beta or Dev channels rather than the Stable one if you don’t mind a few bugs and want to check out new features earlier. To change channels, from the Settings pane pick About Chrome OS, then Additional details, then Change channel (note that switching to a more stable channel will require a full reset). 10. Read text aloud Having your Chromebook read out text to you can be helpful for those with low vision or who are blind, but can also be beneficial for everyone. Click the time in the lower right corner, then Accessibility and Select to Speak. Any text on screen that you’d like to be read out loud can then be selected by holding down the Search button and clicking and dragging, or by clicking on the Select to Speak button in the shelf and then making your selection. 11. Pin media controls to the shelf Start playing media in one of the Chrome OS tabs, and you get a handy mini player in the Quick Settings panel (click the time in the lower right hand corner to see it). Open up these controls, click on the pin icon up on the right, and this pop-up box gets pinned to the shelf for easy access. You may prefer having it pinned if you’re often playing audio in the background. If multiple tabs are playing audio, you’ll get a mini player for all of them.

PCIe Gen 3, With Micron TLC And No RAM Lexar have released a new NVMe 1.4 NM620 SSD family which uses a modified Innogrit IG5216 Shasta+ controller along with the Micron 64-Layer 3D TLC we see in the majority of drives on the market. It doesn’t have any sort of RAM cache but the 1TB model that Nerdcore reviewed does have a 208 GB SLC cache to ensure that you don’t encounter slowdowns when writing large files. The choice to skip an integrated heatsink proved to be effective, with no evidence of thermal throttling during their torture tests. The same is true of the pseudo-SLC cache, with the drive offering the second highest random write speed they have tested, as long as you keep the files around 1GB or so. In some tests it was outpaced by Lexar’s own NM610 but overall the new family proved to be the better performer. The price is an example of the trend that is happening, even if no one wants it to. At $0.16/GB the drive feels expensive for a PCIe 3.0 drive with no RAM cache, but unfortunately that is currently a decent price, as we see the price of all drives slowly creeping up again. On the plus side we aren’t seeing supply shortages; one trend we do want to see continue! The Lexar NM620 uses a custom DM620 flash controller from Lexar. In our real-life performance testing we saw good performance results, despite the lack of a DRAM cache chip. With over 200 GB, the pseudo-SLC cache is also large enough to handle all bursts in write activity

When you were in school, were computers a part of your generation’s education? It could be that based on your age computers were in the early development stages when a computer was the size of a room. Aware of how technology is changing the medical landscape? Chances are you are somewhat aware, and we will look at one specific example that could revolutionize how chronic headaches are treated. A look will also be taken at how the medical research community is making strides for the betterment of the welfare of test mice. Once again, a demonstration of how technological advancements are helping all species, not just humans. It is hard for many of us who were born prior to the 1990’s to envision a time when kids in school come home with a school supplies checklist and it includes either a laptop or notebook. That time is now. One computer is now provided for every five students in the public-school system in the United States. Imagine a time when elementary and middle-school students are issued standardized testing on a computer rather than paper and pencil. Well, the 2015-2020 school year saw just this. More students in these categories were administered the standardized tests with technology than paper and pencil. Which sets the stage for these future generations to work in fields that will have a focus on the betterment of society through technology. The chances are good that you know somebody who suffers from severe headaches from time to time. The types of headaches that a couple of aspirin will not solve. The technologically inclined researchers have developed an electronic device which can be installed on the sufferer’s upper gum on the side of their head where the chronic headaches flare up. Once installed, when the individual senses the headache coming on, they can take a remote and place it on the side of their cheek where the device is located. At that time, electronic signals are distributed which causes a block of the pain causing neurotransmitters. This is a true demonstration of how the people who have been educated in technology are putting it to good use for society. Us humans may not take much, if any, time to consider how it is that many of the lifesaving medications have come about. It is necessary for the pharmaceutical industry to test medications before they are made available to humans, and that is where mice come in. According to world renowned companies and organizations such as the FDA and Johnson & Johnson, rodent ear tags have become painless, lightweight, and secure. Gone are the days of tagging a rodent’s ear with a metal tag which invariably leads to infections. Technology is our friend, yet many people continue to fight its advancements. This is a closed-minded approach. By embracing what is happening with an open-mind, and seeing how it is bettering the lives of all species one can surely be filled with thanks. Thanks for the tireless hours spent by the young as they learn the basics of technology, using that as a stepping stone to further education and then career paths focused on helping others. Author Nerdcore Computers

Get your website up and running super-fast while sharing server costs and resources! Shared Web hosting is the most popular and low cost hosting option available used by almost 90% of websites. With Shared hosting you share the server space, CPU, RAM, disk storage and other resources with multiple other websites on a first cum first serve basis. It is similar to renting a room in a big house where you share all the common utilities as the kitchen, dining area, electricity and water costs with other partners. Nerdcore Computers Cloud offers you affordable web hosting plans along with a simple Control Panel, Free Set up and Local Support. Bronze $3 .95 EX GST 2 GB Storage Space 10 GB Data transfer Sydney Data Centre Unlimited Emails(POP & IMAP Control Panel (CPanel) Spam Filter Premium DNS 24/7 Site Monitoring Daily Remote Backup Monthly $9.95/mo 12 Months $9.95/mo $5.95/mo 24 Months $9.95/mo $4.95/mo 36 Months $9.95/mo $3.95/mo Order Now Silver $9 .95 EX GST 5 GB Storage Space 20 GB Data transfer Sydney Data Centre Unlimited Emails(POP & IMAP Control Panel (CPanel) Spam Filter Premium DNS 24/7 Site Monitoring Daily Remote Backup Monthly $14.95/mo 12 Months $14.95/mo $12.95/mo 24 Months $14.95/mo $11.95/mo 36 Months $14.95/mo $9.95/mo Order Now Gold $12 .95 EX GST 10 GB Storage Space 50 GB Data transfer Sydney Data Centre Unlimited Emails(POP & IMAP Control Panel (CPanel) Spam Filter Premium DNS 24/7 Site Monitoring Daily Remote Backup Monthly $19.95/mo 12 Months $19.95/mo $17.95/mo 24 Months $19.95/mo $14.95/mo 36 Months $19.95/mo $12.95/mo Order Now Platinum $14 .95 EX GST 20 GB Storage Space 100 GB Data transfer Sydney Data Centre Unlimited Emails(POP & IMAP Control Panel (CPanel) Spam Filter Premium DNS 24/7 Site Monitoring Daily Remote Backup Monthly $24.95/mo 12 Months $24.95/mo $19.95/mo 24 Months $24.95/mo $17.95/mo 36 Months $24.95/mo $14.95/mo Order Now Our Shared web Hosting Packages include the following: Free Set up We assist you with the complete set up of your web hosting service for free. Our control panel is easy to operate without requiring technical expertise. 99.9% Uptime The Nerdcore Cloud, we provide you with high class reliable hosting solutions. Our QLD based data centres offer super quick page loads with 99.9% uptime. Unlimited My SQL Databases We provide you with unlimited My SQL databases making it simple for you to manage all your business data however big your business is. Unlimited Emails & Subdomains Send unlimited emails to your employees as well as clients. With our shared hosting services there is no restriction to the number of emails you can send. We also provide you with unlimited sub domains and email forwarding options along with your chosen hosting plan. Control Panel Life is easy with our intuitive control panel. You can manage your server settings without being a technical expert in case you wish to do so. Else we are always there for you! Web Statistics Get detailed reports related to your website performance. Our comprehensive reports give you an idea about what is trending hot and which time of the day or year is most profitable. PHP My Admin PHP My Admin is a free software tool that helps you manage SQL administration. We provide you with free PHP My Admin access along with our web hosting packages. FTP Access Uploading your files to your website is now simple and easy. At Nerdcore Computers, we provide you with FTP access details so that you can carry out tasks without any dependence. In case you require help we are just a call away! File Manager Nerdcore Computers shared web hosting also gives you the file manager. You have the freedom to access, manage and edit files on your website. No Lock In Contracts Our customers love us for the service we provide. So our Nerdcore Data Centre, we do not have any lock in contract period. You can choose to opt out of our hosting services anytime, in case you are not satisfied. Author Nerdcore Computers

A server crash could spell absolute disaster for your business. With the crash of your server, goes the crash of your website. In the meantime, your competitors are getting that much further ahead! Research has shown that website downtime can negatively affect your business reputation in a big way. The reliability and professionalism of your brand fly right out the window, along with your revenue. Additionally, server downtime can negatively affect employee productivity. This lag leaves you with both unhappy customers and a back-log of work! Avoid disaster and learn more about the 5 most common server problems your business could face, and how to avoid them. What is Business Server Monitoring? Most businesses run everyday functions on a server, allowing them to perform important tasks, such as: Hosting a business website Sending and receiving emails Accessing shared business data and files Sharing business data and files Ever tried to operate a fully productive day without access to email? In this day and age, your business productivity would sit at zero. This why server up-time is crucial for your business and your website. Server problems are costly, no doubt about it. Your business reputation, productivity, and overall revenue are on the line. Server monitoring can prevent problems before they happen, a measure all businesses should employ. It helps to detect any bugs or viruses in the system, helping you avoid major issues that could lead to server downtime and loss of productivity. How Does Server Monitoring Work? Generally, a server host company offers monitoring software to a business to protect its servers. This software regularly scans the network to detect any irregularities or potential failures within the system. 5 Common Server Problems Your Business May Encounter 1. Slow Page Load According to research, if a page on your website takes longer than three seconds to load, a user will abandon it. Three seconds doesn’t sound like much, but in today’s world, it’s a lifetime! This is where your server needs to perform at its best. Along with server irregularities, a number of things can slow your website speed: High resolution image rendering (loading) Long and complicated forms Videos which auto-play when a page is loaded A user’s web browser Network connection speed High amounts of traffic on the website The bottom line: if your server has issues, your website and page load times will tank. Your business could suffer, you’ll lose revenue, all because of server problems slowing down your website. 2. Viruses and Cyber Hacking Cybersecurity is a major concern for all businesses. Keeping your employee and customer information safe should be a top priority. Online servers are at risk of cybersecurity breach, especially when personal or business details are stored there. Unfortunately, cyber attacks and viruses are common in today’s tech age and can disrupt businesses by stealing and abusing information. A server can be taken down by any virus imposed by a cyber attack for days, if not weeks at a time. It’s an absolute nightmare for businesses and makes investing in robust online security protocol a necessity. When choosing a host for your web server, ensure they include a closely managed security system in their package! 3. Website Traffic Overload High amounts of traffic to your website is always the end-goal. It generates leads for your business, and as a result, revenue – that’s the point isn’t it? Well, it turns out you can have too much of a good thing. If your website receives an unusually high amount of traffic in a short period of time, your server may not be able to handle it. It can slow down your website speed and hurt functionality. In some instances, too much traffic can crash your entire server, shutting you down completely. Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales are common occasions where websites experience high amounts of traffic. Popular websites such as PayPal, Target, and Kmart have all crashed due to traffic overload. Even if you have a niche type of business selling medicinal cannabis oil, packed with informative cbd facts, you need a reliable host server! A hosting company which fully supports any amount of traffic eliminates risk of major server failure and other server problems. 4. Failure of Hardware or Software The failure of hardware and software in your business happens all the time. Hardware can malfunction, while software programs can become corrupted. Many businesses have faced hardware or software failure of some kind, in this instance, resulting in server downtime. Your host server company must offer time-efficient resolution services to get you back in business as soon as possible! 5. Server Crash The biggest issue a business could face is a total server crash. It could be the result of unpredictable events such as flooding, a fire, theft, or a major cyber attack. Additionally, if your web service is down, it could also cause your server to go down with it. The cost of recovering from a total server crash is huge, something no business should have to endure. This type of server issue could potentially cost your business thousands of dollars a day! When faced with a server crash, there’s not much you can do, but adequate monitoring and protection beforehand could mitigate potential disaster! Avoid Server Problems and Protect Your Business In the modern business world, your IT infrastructure needs to be a top priority. The world we live in is more connected via technology than at any other time in history. Without a fully functional IT infrastructure, your business could suffer – don’t leave your success open to your competition! Secure your business with a reliable server hosting and monitoring company. For complete peace-of-mind, an IT network and monitoring company will ensure business success at all hours of the day! And if you need help choosing one, or want more tips, check out our website. We have experts standing by to help you keep your website in tip-top shape. Author Nerdcore Computers

https://www.javatpoint.com/ The Best Portal to Learn Technologies

Many of your users are coasting along without adequate computer knowledge. Help them close the gap by sharing this list of essential skills. It is tempting to think that because you have used a computer for a long time, you are "computer literate" or "computer savvy," but this is not the case. Here are 10 skills you absolutely must know to be considered computer literate. If you already know these, you should be helping others learn them as well! 1: Search engines Using a search engine is more than typing in the address, putting a couple of keywords into the big text box, clicking Search, and choosing the first result. While that may work, it won't give you the best results much of the time. Learning the advanced search, Boolean operators, and how to discern good results from bad results goes a long way toward enabling you to use a computer as a powerful research tool. 2: Word processing Word processing is one of the oldest uses for a computer. And it continues to be extremely important, even though in many ways its functions have been put into other applications. (For example, people may write more emails than documents, but the task is nearly identical.) It is tough to claim to be computer literate if the basic functions of word processing -- like spell check, table creation, and working with headers -- are outside your capabilities. 3: Spreadsheets Spreadsheets were the killer application that got a lot of people willing to pony up big bucks for a PC in the early 1980s. Spreadsheets offer incredibly powerful analysis possibilities... if you know how to use them for more than storing the holiday card address list. (Okay, I use Excel for that too.) Being able to use formulas, references, and macros can turn a "grid of numbers" into actionable information in the hands of the right person. 4: Browser basics It is almost painful to watch some "computer savvy" people operate a Web browser. The most obvious goof is going to a search engine to type in the address of the site they want to go to. But folks are unaware of a lot of other things they do that make the Internet more difficult than it needs to be. Mastering techniques like opening links in new windows, using bookmarks, editing URLs to perform navigation, clearing the browser cache, and understanding common error messages will give you access to a world of unlimited information instead of keeping you stuck with only what Web site designers make obvious. 5: Virus/malware scanning Much of typical computer maintenance is automated or unneeded at this point, but it is still essential to understand how to check a system for nasty bugs, spyware, and other malicious applications. While the scanning tools come with real-time monitors, something can still slip onto the system before the scanner has the right filter for it. So it's critical to know how to trigger a manual virus/malware scan, as well as how to use alternative systems, spot signs of an infection, and other similar tasks. 6: Common keyboard commands If you do not know how to copy/paste without a mouse, you are not computer literate. Sorry! Every operating system has some universal keyboard commands, and while knowing them won't add 30 minutes back into your day, it will take a lot of the "friction" out of using a computer. Learning these commands is more a matter of routine than anything else; a short tutorial done once a day for a week will probably be enough to put you in the habit, and it will make you a happier user. 7: Basic hardware terminology It is tough to have someone help you with a problem when you tell them that your "hard drive" is unplugged, when you really mean "the computer." There are a number of common hardware misunderstandings out there, and while some are understandable (for instance, confusing a NIC with a modem -- the cables look similar and they serve the same purpose, networking), knowing basic hardware terminology is a must-have skill to be a savvy user. 8: Simple networking diagnosis Networking problems create the most common trouble with most computers. While you don't need to be able to program a Cisco router, you should know how to: Determine your IP address Verify physical connectivity to the network Check that you have a logical connection to the network Find out what path network traffic takes to get to its destination Translate from DNS names to IP addresses 9: How to hook it up Despite the color coding of connections and the fact that most cords can be plugged into only one hole, tons of people still can't hook up a computer. It is tough to claim to be computer literate if you can't even get it hooked up and turned on without some help. 10: Security/privacy 101 It is a dangerous world out there! You absolutely must know how to protect yourself from attackers on the Internet and keep your personal data private. Everything from knowing to check a link before you click it to verifying that encryption is being used to transmit sensitive data to researching sites before giving them your personal data are all critical skills for the modern computer user. If you do not know how to keep yourself safe, you need to learn how. What else? Does this cover the basic requirements of computer literacy or would you add a few more skills to the list? Share your thoughts with other TechRepublic members.

Acer all in one desktop Acer All in one 24 inch core i5 3.6 ghz 8 gb mem 1 tb hdd windows 10 professional dvd rom reader an burner webcam usb 3 ports hdmi in vga in 2 gb video card built in Total cost is 500.00

Our Verdict macOS Big Sur gives Safari major improvements, but its design changes may require some adjustments on your end. For Safari gets more complete Control Center collects options Messages gets pinned texts, GIF search Against Interface changes may not please all Doesn't support some older Macs macOS Big Sur is finally here. I've spent the summer playing around with the Developer Beta, where I saw some the perks of Apple's biggest refresh to its laptops and desktops in ages, and I'm ready to tell you if you should or shouldn't update now. The biggest Big Sur changes revolve around the interface, which has become more iOS-like, and pushed for bolder color, thanks to increased use of transparency and translucency. Safari's gotten a lot of tricks as well, including a tab preview option that we're surprised they beat Chrome to. That being said, macOS Big Sur isn't coming out in a vacuum. A new generation of Macs just debuted — all running the Apple M1 chip, including the new MacBook Air (2020) — and they will run Big Sur and also offer the ability to emulate iOS and iPadOS apps. We haven't gotten our hands on those yet, so I can't speak to how well that works. But for everyone else considering the upgrade from macOS Catalina (or earlier), here's everything you need to know to see if you should download the macOS Big Sur today: macOS Big Sur review: Release date and supported devices macOS Big Sur's release date has been "this fall," and since that season doesn't end until mid-December, they've hit that window. At the "One more thing" event, Apple announced that macOS Big Sur is arriving on Thursday, Nov. 12. Here's the complete list of Macs that support Big Sur: MacBook: 2015 and later MacBook Air: 2013 and later MacBook Pro: Late 2013 and later Mac mini: 2014 and later iMac: 2014 and later iMac Pro: 2017 and later (all models) Mac Pro: 2013 and later Personally, this is the biggest issue I have with macOS Big Sur, as my personal MacBook Pro, the first Retina Display model, came out in 2012. While it still runs (albeit a bit slower than it once did), I can see the writing on the walls, and anticipate buying a new Mac soon. macOS Big Sur review: Design I almost worry about the day my parents update to macOS Big Sur, because they're going to call or text and say "it's so different!" The biggest change from my point of view is the increased use of transparent and translucent layers, which you'll see everywhere from the Menu Bar at the top of the screen to every app's Toolbar, where all of its buttons are found. Your preference for Apple's changes here — where they're seemingly having the menus recede into the background to make content more prominent — will likely depend on how your eyes like (or dislike) text overlaid on transparent layers. At first, I saw the combination of white text on an opaque bright blue background as ... not what I would have chosen personally. Fortunately, you can switch your desktop background, and Apple offers plenty of options, which can and will change the color of the menu bar text for optimal legibility. Gripes aside, though, I love some of the new stock desktop backgrounds, so play around and find what works best for you. I probably wouldn't have gone this route had I been given the choice, as a more consistent interface allows you to pick the background you want and stay with it. That being said, I understand Apple's decision, and in the months I've used Big Sur, I've gotten used to all the different combinations. These moments happen throughout macOS Big Sur, including in Safari, where the backgrounds of websites can change the colors of the Toolbar and bookmark bar as you scroll down. To adjust, open System Preferences, select Accessibility, select Display in the left menu and click "Reduce transparency." Also, Apple's dialed back the silver hues of many of their applications, including Finder, Music and Safari, to a more neutral white tone. This may just be personal preference — I'm not sure — but while I preferred the silver hue of the past, this is something I quickly got over as well. The other big aesthetic change comes to macOS' app icons. Apple's introduced a new standard icon shape, using the squares with rounded edges seen in iOS. Along with that, we've got icons that look a lot more bubbly and curved. The design language used here is known as Neumorphism, and it puts an emphasis on shadows and dimensionality. If you're the type to care about app icons (and I count myself as one of those nit-picky types), you'll probably have strong opinions. I prefer how Music and News look, where the secondary element looks debossed, rather than how the chat bubble for Messages and the envelope for Mail are seemingly popping up out of the background. The one actually annoying part of this is that I have not gotten used to the new red hue of the Music app icon, making it hard to visually find it (I know I'll get used to it). One design discrepancy I've noticed, though, is how macOS handles security alerts and notifications. The former appear in middle-of-screen boxes, while the latter are smaller in the top-right corner, often times only showing you there's a button to click when your cursor hovers over it buttons. For new email notifications, that's not a big deal, but those initial notifications for each app, where they ask for permission to send notifications, I'd rather those appear in the center, where they'd be harder to ignore. Anything that appears in the top right corner is easier to dismiss. It's hard to be especially critical about design, since it's so much more subjective than almost any other aspect of technology, so I couch all of the above in "your mileage may vary." macOS Big Sur: Safari Advertisement Every time Apple announces a big new macOS update, I decide to use it as a chance to spend more time with Safari, which often gets more and more perks. And with macOS Big Sur, it feels like I'm going to be spending more time with Safari than ever. Sure, I won't be able to use it for some work stuff (some of our extensions are Chrome-only), but Safari's finally getting some features it's long needed. Similarly, I'm saying "finally" at the sight of favicons — the little icons for each website, like Twitter's bird and Dropbox's opened box — for tabs in Safari. These make it much easier to keep track of which tab is which, and have been in every other web browser since I can remember. Apple had made favicons available in Safari previously, but they were in the app's settings, where many people might not poke around and find. Apple didn't stop at that low-hanging fruit, though, as it's also rolled out tab previews. If the favicon isn't enough for you to realize what's on that page (it's been enough for me so far), you can hover over a tab to see what that page looks like, as a pop-over image will show a glimpse of said site. Advertisement Apple rates Safari on macOS Big Sur as "50% faster on average at loading frequently visited websites than Chrome," but I haven't noticed any significantly faster performance myself, though I haven't done any testing yet. Apple also claims that Safari is going to last an hour longer on battery than Chrome and Firefox for web browsing, and up to 3 hours longer for streaming video online. macOS Big Sur: Control Center and widgets on the Mac Apple's also imported iOS' Control Center, which collects a lot of system preferences (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, display brightness, volume, Do Not Disturb, keyboard brightness and screen mirroring) under a Menu Bar button that looks like a pair of on/off toggles. The best part of this feature is that it's not moving any features away from where they were, but consolidating them under one easy to find area, so users who are more familiar with their iPhone (both place this set of options in the top right corner) may find them faster. At the same time, these buttons all look a little bigger than they did in previous macOS versions. The larger icons aren't just easier to see, they're also a little more finger friendly, suggesting that Macs will some day offer a touch screen. That being said, I didn't find myself using Control Center at all, because my ingrained muscle memory for macOS defaults to using the traditional means. Yes, that includes the Touch Bar, which I don't like, but use anyways, as my fingers are still reaching for the row of keys at the top of the keyboard. Oh, and Apple's so in love with widgets in iOS 14 that Big Sur is also getting widgets. I haven't gotten to use any third party widgets (the best on iOS if you ask me), but I do like how the Notes widget makes it easier to access my household's shared grocery list. I just wish I could see more of it, as the single note version of the Notes app widget is only available in the small size, and not medium (2x) or large (4x). macOS Big Sur: Security and privacy macOS Catalina got a lot of flack for its heavy-handed security measures, forcing users to manually approve access for a lot of features -- over and over again. Personally, I'm all for it, because people should be more aware of what applications can do what with their data. Similarly, people should be more capable of seeing how websites are tracking them, something that Safari has pushed harder on. From the Safari start page you're presented with a counter of how many trackers Safari has stopped from "profiling you." Mozilla's Firefox browser has a similar feature. And when you load any website in Safari, you can click the Shield icon to see how many trackers are active and prevented on that page. macOS Big Sur: Beta notes Advertisement Beta versions of software are (nearly all of the time) less stable than the final versions released to the public — and that's been true for some of my time with macOS Big Sur. Most of the time, though it was stable, but when I did hit insurmountable flaws, I remembered why I warn people to never ever use beta software on their production machine. For example, software developers tend to only put betas on their test machines, and not their actual work machines. During earlier builds of the Big Sur developer betas, I ran into a really annoying problem where Mac App Store apps such as Due and Fantastical had to be deleted and reinstalled, but you couldn't delete them without restarting. Later, and this is the one that really sent me chasing answers, I couldn't open any Google Docs in Chrome. I kept getting an "Aw, snap" error message, which was both annoying and reminiscent of Steve Buscemi's "hello fellow kids" moment on 30 Rock (though that's more an issue with Google than Apple). macOS Big Sur: Features also found on iOS 14 In Messages, macOS gets the pinned messages (up to 9) that we see in the iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, but also threaded messages for replies in group chats. Those are nice, but I'm more happy to see the GIF search engine finally built into the OS. Now, when you tap on the Messages Apps icon next to the text entry field, you get the search option, to pull GIFs off the internet. I don't know if or when folks will give Apple Maps another shot, but if they pull up Maps on macOS Big Sur, they'll get a pleasant surprise at how full featured it is. In the left rail, you see our favorites (home, work, the movie theater you used to go to before COVID-19) and recent locations, such as the one NYC park that's actually quiet and my nearby UPS store. What I really like is how the Music app mini player can be turned into a beautiful full-screen experience presenting lyrics and artwork on a larger scale. Hit Shift + Command + M to open the Mini Viewer, and click the Green full screen button to see it for yourself. Big Sur also gets the automatic AirPods device switching that the iOS and iPadOS got earlier this fall. It works a little differently, though, as you'll only switch the audio after confirming a small pop-up in the top right corner of the screen. Wish it were more truly automatic, but I guess Apple's trying to avoid false-positives when people own multiple devices. macOS Big Sur: Outlook While I like a fair share of macOS Big Sur's features, I have a hard time telling people to install it ASAP. The design changes and Safari improvements are nice, but this is arguably not where all the big news in the land of Macs is happening. Advertisement Maybe one of the above features is calling your name, and that's well and good. My one piece of advice is to look up any third-party applications that you rely on for work, and make sure they have been updated for Big Sur. Major updates always carry a risk for compatibility issues — just like how the beta of Big Sur wasn't As noted above, the biggest story in macOS is the impending arrival of Apple M1 chip Macs that run on ARM-based chips. Not only will those bring iOS apps to the Mac, but the performance and endurance gains found in Apple Silicon chips have a chance to reshape the Mac as we know it. Maybe you can wait until your first Apple Silicon Mac to get Big Sur, as that may be a safer bet. For now, though, Big Sur looks like solid terrain for the future of the Mac.

Apple's macOS Big Sur is the latest version of its desktop and laptop operating system and the first to support both traditional Intel Macs and the new “Apple Silicon” Macs. Based on a three-month tryout in a series of public betas, Big Sur is quick, stable, impressively good-looking, and packed with subtle and significant improvements to the macOS interface. If you’re running last year’s Catalina version and haven’t installed a lot of third-party, non-Apple software, you can upgrade immediately to Big Sur, though only after making a complete Time Machine or other backup of your existing system. If you rely on third-party software, you may want to wait a few weeks or months for the first or second interim, or point release. But upgrade you should, because Big Sur is a substantial improvement, even over the excellent Catalina. Pros Integrated iOS-like Control Center Improved and more-informative Notification Center Redesigned toolbars and menus for easier navigation Security audits in Safari and the App Store Improved Maps app Better support for Home devices OS files cryptographically protected from hackers Cons Compatibility issues with third-party backup software Doesn't support 32-bit legacy apps Existing apps require updating security permissions No touch-screen support, despite mobile interface elements The first thing you notice when you start up your Mac running Big Sur is that the traditional Mac startup sound is back by default, though you can silence it from the System Preferences app. (With Catalina, expert users could enable or disable it using a terminal command.) After Big Sur appears on the screen, you see the most radical overhaul that Apple has given its flagship OS in years. But, as with almost every other new version, the new features and conveniences in macOS Big Sur integrate so well into the familiar interface that existence users will face a minimal learning curve. Apple has mastered the art of improving its OS design without disrupting the basic design established by OS X. Turning macOS Up to 11 Speaking of OS X—now called macOS—Apple is signaling the size of the shift Big Sur represents by increasing the main version number for the first time. The “X” in OS X meant ten, and Catalina, the previous macOS release, was version 10.15. When you click on “About This Mac” from the Apple menu, Big Sur describes itself as version 11.0. (But advanced users who dig deep into Big Sur’s internals will find that, for the sake of compatibility, it tells apps that its version number is 10.16.) Part of the point of changing the public-facing version number is that Big Sur is the first version that runs under Apple’s new Macs based on what Apple calls “Apple Silicon” and everyone else calls ARM. The first chips are here now, and they go by the moniker Apple M1. Big Sur and an unspecified number of future versions will run on both Intel and Apple Silicon machines, but a few years from now Apple will stop making Intel Macs and we’ll all be using Apple Silicon machines. Apple's iOS devices already use Apple Silicon, and that means that many iOS apps will run perfectly on new Macs with Apple Silicon hardware. All you’ll need to do is download them from the Mac App Store Big Sur will run on almost all Macs dating back to 2013, and the upgrade is free for the download. If you’re still running Mojave or earlier versions of the OS, keep in mind that Catalina and Big Sur won’t run your old 32-bit software, and you’ll need to open the System Report in the About This Mac app, and look at the list of “Legacy Software” to find out which apps you’ll need to replace with 64-bit apps if you decide to upgrade. For corporate and advanced computing, Microsoft Windows 10 offers far more features and flexibility than Apple has ever managed, but I consider macOS more coherent and enjoyable. Windows offers convenient integration with Android devices (and minimal integration with iOS devices), but Apple’s deep integration between Mac computers and iOS devices is a major part of its consumer-level appeal. The Big News First The biggest changes in Big Sur are in the macOS interface, which benefits from dozens of refinements that make it more convenient and intuitive than ever before. Apple continues to make macOS look more like iOS, and many individual elements in the updated interface resemble those in recent versions of mobile OS. The overall effect remains familiar from earlier macOS versions, however.

Despite a recent onslaught of rumors and reports, Apple hasn't officially announced its long-rumored virtual/augmented-reality headset. That means we don't really know what it's going to look like, save from a fairly crude sketch by The Information based on an image of a prototype. Now, designer Antonio de Rosa has shared his vision of what the finished product might look like, and one thing is certain — it looks a lot better than it does in the sketch. In De Rosa's renderings, the headset's face is a slab of curved black glass (or plastic) with a silver bezel and a silver Apple logo boldly placed in the middle. For some reason I doubt Apple would be so on the nose (both literally and figurative) with the logo, but the rest looks nice, slightly retro, and somewhat reminiscent of the original iPhone's black-and-silver design. Look closely, and you'll see cameras and sensors built into the top of the visor, just above the Apple logo. Reports say the headset will have passthrough cameras for a mixed-reality effect. SEE ALSO: On the inside, what De Rosa has imagined looks a lot like a snorkeling mask, with a rubber headband, and a rubber and mesh combo where the headset meets the face. A recent report says the headset will pack some powerful hardware, including dual 8K displays. Of course, all of this is just one artist's idea based off a sketch which, in turn, is based on an early prototype. In other words, Apple's actual headset might look very different when it finally launches, possibly in 2022. Price is unknown, but one report says it will cost around $3,000 Author Nerdcore Computers

Bottom line: Intel in a support document has confirmed that motherboards based on entry-level H410 chipsets and mid-tier B460 chipsets will not be compatible with upcoming 11th Gen Intel Core (Rocket Lake) CPUs. Both platforms launched in Q2 2020 and unless something changes, it appears as though they are going to have very short lifespans. Motherboards running an H470 or Z490 chipset may need a BIOS update in order to boot with a Rocket Lake processor, Intel added. The chipmaker didn’t explicitly say why H410 and B460 chipsets wouldn’t be compatible with the upcoming CPUs. According to Nerdcore Techs, however, H410 and B460 are based on “a different and older 22nm process node.” To circumvent this, the publication adds, some motherboard makers are resorting to sneaking the H470 chipset onto boards sold as H410 and B460 products. Examples cited include the Gigabyte H410M DS2V V2 (rev 1.0) and the H410M S2H V2 (rev 1.0). Looking at the name, you’d think these products would feature the H410 chipset but in fact, they utilize the H470. Intel is expected to launch Rocket Lake desktop chips sometime in the first quarter of 2021. Early listings from some European retailers last month provided a glimpse of Intel's upcoming lineup and what you might expect to pay for them. Intel has also shared some benchmarks from the Core i9-11900K which show it besting AMD chips in some scenarios. Author Nerdcore Computers Service Centre

Recently, I bumped into a friend (at an appropriate social distance because, yes, this is 2020) that I hadn't seen in a long time. The two of us have many common interests, and little time to discuss them. But in the few minutes before parting ways, we immediately slid into discussing Linux. We talked distros, desktops, and configurations, and everything in between. This serendipitous meeting reminded me of how tightly knit the Linux community is. So, I thought I would explore what about Linux brings us together. In previous pieces, I profiled some of the hubs where Linux fans convene. This time, I will go more in depth about what Linux users talk about. Before I'm finished, I have a feeling you will see just what makes Linux such an inexhaustible font of conversation. Choices Beget Chatting Merely as a point of comparison, and not as disparagement of users of other operating systems, I have not observed communities as active, vocal, and visible as Linux's among Windows and Mac users. Admittedly, it is difficult to gauge the entirety of an operating system's community, so I will consider each respective OS's customization and theming subculture as a proxy metric. All things being equal, users of any OS should be equally inclined to break in their UX. In support of this assumption, I have anecdotally observed no correlation between one's operating system and whether one's laptop is bedecked with stickers. There are some Windows themers, but they don't seem to have a large footprint. Reddit has a few small groups for those interested in tweaking their Windows UI. A lot of Windows GUI customization requires third-party programs, and these usually have forums for sharing recipes. Aside from these hubs, it was difficult to locate Windows personalization chatter. One can find some articles pointing the way to Windows modification bliss, but these are mostly listicles of theming software. Taken together, I didn't get the impression there were many spots for Windows modders to chit-chat beyond officially sanctioned customization software forums. Mac's themer community seems similar in scope. Articles on first-party settings changes and third-party theming applications are more plentiful for Mac compared to Windows. Reddit has only marginally more populated Mac themer subreddits. I had a hard time finding any other forums where Mac themers socialize. Most Mac theming options I discovered live on GitHub which, for GitHub's strengths, doesn't naturally lend itself to organic dialog. On the whole, while Mac seemed to have more theming programs than Windows, Mac had fewer forums I could track down. None of this came as a shock, as Apple is historically protective of its UX, and goes to great lengths to discourage users from straying beyond its walled garden -- one need only look at how hard Apple makes it for users to install software beyond the App Store. By comparison, Linux has a veritable sprawl of online tweaker presence. For one thing, the behemoth "unixporn" subreddit dwarfs any comparable Reddit presence. There is also a bustling presence on DeviantArt. And if that wasn't enough, there's the fact that every distro and every desktop environment has its own respective forum, too. There are even forums on theme download sites like Gnome-Look and its numerous siblings. Why Is There So Much Linux on the Web? I chalk this up to a few factors. First, Linux was practically born on the Web. In Linux's infancy, Linus Torvalds not only made the kernel available online, but he attracted a throng of would-be contributors via Usenet who collaborated in Linux's development. The Internet has been a significant distribution channel ever since, facilitating the obtainment and installation of desktop Linux distributions in the large majority of cases today. Second, since one could not easily purchase a computer with Linux preinstalled until around the last decade, online communities were essential for fielding the questions of Linux initiates. It is comforting to know there are veterans who can help when setting up an entirely new OS, especially one so off the beaten path. This has traditionally been, and remains, Linux's main analog to customer support that competing OSes offer. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, Linux simply offers so many choices. Windows gives you Windows the Windows way. On Mac, you get Mac the way Mac was intended. Not so with desktop Linux. Why? Simply put, there is no one "desktop Linux." With Linux, every distribution gives you a completely different suite of user programs built atop the kernel, sometimes with its own repackaging of the kernel itself. Not least of the cornucopia of options that the desktop Linux world offers is that of desktop environments. Most distros present a handful of curated desktop environments. Between all the Linux distros out there, one will encounter literally dozens of them. The only hope a humble Linux user has of figuring out which one they might want, aside from taking them all for a spin, is to ask around. Users also really get into advocating for particular desktops. This is nearly always good-natured, leading to amusing, if not informative, discussion threads. Talk of the Tux So, now that we have firmly established that Linux users love to chat, let's get into what keeps them so occupied. Few topics are so prevalent among Linux users as distributions. We can easily descend down a rabbit hole purely talking about how Linux users talk about distributions, so let's keep this high-level. There are many considerations that this topic prompts. A big one is a distro's suitability for beginners. Drawing in eager new users is the only way to grow the Linux community. Successful recruitment often hinges on making sure that these neophytes start with a distro that will give them an ideal experience. Some aspects of a "beginner-friendly" distribution include the availability and amiability of community support, ease of installation, ease of maintenance, and degree of similarity its UI has with those the user is more familiar with. Of these points, assessing a distro's ease of installation receives much attention. Discourse on this score can center on whether less choices or more choices are better. Some argue that too many choices will overwhelm newcomers who just want to meet the new OS on its terms, while others contend that new users will be put off by the lack of an expected feature. Distributions are also frequently scored on their customizability. Irrespective of one's view on customization, the degree to which it is open to users varies from distro to distro. It is common for distros to take the approach of releasing one or more images with a desktop environment baked in. By contrast, there are still proponents of disentangling the "system" software from the desktop environment, instead letting users pair any desktop with the base system at the time of installation. Debian and Arch Linux subscribe to this paradigm and win many devotees precisely for this trait. Customizability is also dependent on the desktop environment, as the number of UI options in the settings panel varies from desktop to desktop. The last dynamic of distribution dialog is size and memory usage. It's not necessarily a major concern for most, but those with older hardware or the security-conscious may prefer to have as few active processes on their system as possible. For others, system resource footprint is about having enough programs to get normal computing tasks done, and nothing more. Argument here typically centers on competing definitions of "enough." The next perennial topic of conversation is raw GUI customization. Naturally, much of this talk focuses on desktop environments. What makes desktop environments such fertile ground for discussion is their myriad philosophies, which are defined by their distinct combinations of positions along a few dichotomies: Does the desktop try to capture a "traditional" or revolutionary desktop interface paradigm? Does it favor sleekness or no-frills functionality? Do the developers strive for constant evolution or stability and consistency? Are windows, menus, and settings panels minimalist or information-dense? Should users accept the UI as it is, or make it their own? The Security Debate Last, but not least, there is an avid segment of Linux users waging the never-ending debate on security. This subject, too, can quickly get esoteric, so I will tread lightly. A regularly recurring security subtopic is whether to embrace a stable or bleeding-edge update model. Proponents of the stable approach, with its occasional waves of releases, note that the slower pace of releases provides fewer opportunities for introducing vulnerabilities, and that the longer interval between releases ensures the methodical review to reduce the number of bugs in each release. Bleeding-edge die-hards point to the quick turnaround for patches, and the rapid shedding of legacy code that these distros enjoy. Then, of course, there is the proverbial ever-thread on what crypto is best. I even waded into this debate with my heterodox argument for file-level encryption as a more practical alternative to the substantially more widely endorsed full-disk encryption. But even among the full-disk encryption acolytes, some fully encrypt an entire partition and leave it at that, while others set up logical volumes (usually with the LVM utility) inside a single fully-encrypted partition. Still others are fine with encrypting multiple partitions, each with a different key. These all have their merits, and their adherents will be sure you know it. Security debates can be dizzyingly complex and spirited. But this is the kind of thing that deserves constant reevaluation, so their energy is aptly spent Joining the Flock So, if you weren't convinced before that Linux users have plenty to talk about, you probably are now. That is definitely a sign of the wider community's strength -- differences aren't just tolerated, but celebrated. The more that Linux keeps us talking, in agreement or disagreement, the more we remember that computing should be a joy, and that we all found that joy in the same humble kernel. Author Nerdcore Computers

Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 30-series laptops are finally here, and while they’re no longer equivalent to their identically named desktop cousins, this new breed of GPUs is still formidable, as our RTX 3080 mobile review proves. Even better? Unlike desktop graphics cards, you can actually buy them! Well, some of them. Most of the GeForce RTX 30-series we’ve spotted so far come paired with Intel’s potent, yet older 10th-gen Comet Lake H gaming processors. New AMD Ryzen 5000 Mobile and Intel Tiger Lake H35 gaming processors were announced at CES 2021, but they’re not available quite yet—though the page for Asus’s intriguing Ryzen 9 5900HS-powered ROG Flow X13 laptop and its complementary ROG XG Mobile graphics dock teases that they’ll be available soon, and we’ve already got a review unit in our hands. The Asus ROG Flow X13 weighs as much as an XPS 13 2-in-1 yet features an 8-core Ryzen 9 5980HS, GeForce GTX 1650 and can be paired with a GeForce RTX 3080. For now, however, if you want an RTX 30-series laptops in your hands, you have to go with 10th-gen Intel. Good thing those chips still rock for gaming. You’ll also need to go with a more powerful RTX 3070 or 3080 graphics, at least for a few days, because more moderately priced (and modestly performing) RTX 3060 laptops won’t hit the streets until after February 2. Shopping for a gaming laptop is harder now because of some fundamental changes Nvidia made with the RTX 30-series. None of the listings for these laptops include crucial power or clock speed info to let you know how hard the manufacturers are pushing these machines. Nonetheless, at a time when desktop graphics cards are impossible to find and inflated to incredible prices in the rare times you can, we felt it worthwhile to pull together a list of some of the RTX 30-series laptops you can buy right now. All of the models in this non-comprehensive list come with drool-worthy, ultra-fast displays, and all were in stock at the time of writing, though a noted few remain in preorder status. Feel free to hit any link for even deeper configuration info. Let’s dig in. 11 GeForce RTX 30-series laptops you can buy right now If you want to spend under two grand on an RTX 30-series laptop, your options are extremely limited in these early days. You’ve only got two, in fact. The Gigabyte Aorus 15G costs $1,800 at Newegg. Here’s what you get for your cash: CPU: Intel Core i7-10870H GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Display: 15.6-inch, 240Hz 1080p IPS Memory: 32GB Storage: 512GB SSD Weight: 4.51 pounds The $2,099 Gigabyte Aorus 17G includes the same basic hardware but steps up to a larger, faster 17-inch display with a blistering 300Hz refresh rate. If you want a more potent RTX 3080 laptop from Gigabyte, you’ll need to opt for the company’s Aero line instead. It starts at $2,200 for the Aero 15 with an RTX 3070 inside, but several configurations are available, culminating in a beastly $3,700 Gigabyte Aero 17. For your cash, you’ll get an RTX 3080 paired with Intel’s ferocious Core i9-10980HK, 64GB of memory, 2TB of fast PCIe SSD storage, and a factory calibrated 4K display. MSI If you want to spend under two grand on an RTX 30-series laptop, your options are extremely limited in these early days. You’ve only got two, in fact. The Gigabyte Aorus 15G costs $1,800 at Newegg. Here’s what you get for your cash: CPU: Intel Core i7-10870H GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Display: 15.6-inch, 240Hz 1080p IPS Memory: 32GB Storage: 512GB SSD Weight: 4.51 pounds The $2,099 Gigabyte Aorus 17G includes the same basic hardware but steps up to a larger, faster 17-inch display with a blistering 300Hz refresh rate. If you want a more potent RTX 3080 laptop from Gigabyte, you’ll need to opt for the company’s Aero line instead. It starts at $2,200 for the Aero 15 with an RTX 3070 inside, but several configurations are available, culminating in a beastly $3,700 Gigabyte Aero 17. For your cash, you’ll get an RTX 3080 paired with Intel’s ferocious Core i9-10980HK, 64GB of memory, 2TB of fast PCIe SSD storage, and a factory calibrated 4K display. MSI MSI also offers a sub-$2,000 RTX 30-series laptop with the $1,799 MSI GP66 Leopard. It’s the same price as the Gigabyte Aorus 15G discussed previously, but a bit more modestly spec’d out. The overall experience matters greatly for laptops but the Gigabyte notebook definitely offers more bang for your buck on paper. Both wield the RTX 3070 mobile chip, though. CPU: Intel Core i7-10750H GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Display: 15.6-inch, 144Hz 1080p “IPS-level” Memory: 16GB Storage: 512GB SSD Weight: 5.25 pounds MSI offers a wider variety of RTX 30-series laptop lines. The $2,300 MSI GE66 Raider bumps things up to a 300Hz display, a Core i7-10870H processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The company’s larger 17-inch GE76 Raider is only in preorder status for now, alas, as are more potent notebooks with a step-up RTX 3080 inside. The flagship $2,999 MSI GS66 Stealth for example can be ordered on Amazon now but won’t ship until February 15. Razer leaned hard into the RTX 30-series, with plans for Razer Blade and Razer Blade Pro models with an awesome selection of displays in various sizes, speeds, and panel types. Currently, however, you can only buy the Razer Blade 15 base edition with either a 144Hz, 1080p display for $2,000 or a 165Hz, 1440p display for $2,200. Every other model is listed as a preorder, or comes with a notification button for when stock arrives. Here’s what’s inside the Razer Blade 15 Base Edition, aside from those differing display configurations: CPU: Intel Core i7-10750H GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Memory: 16GB Storage: 512GB SSD Weight: 4.6 pounds Eventually, you’ll be able to buy a 17-inch 4K Razer Blade Pro with a Core i7-10875H, an RTX 3080, a 1TB PCIe SSD (with an option for 2TB), and 32GB of RAM (with a 64GB option) as the ultimate Razer offering. For now, you can preorder it. Cutting-edge GeForce RTX 30-series laptops are only just starting to hit our test bench, but be sure to check out our guide to the best gaming notebooks for concrete recommendations as time goes on. Until then, the guide offers buying advice that can help you navigate the somewhat confusing world of laptop specs and configurations. Good luck! Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

Mozilla has yet to completely win or lose the war on video codecs, but has made a tactical retreat to preserve its forces, according to Ogg Vorbis creator Monty Montgomery. Cisco and Mozilla have announced a plan that will enable the browser maker to distribute an H.264 codec, and in effect end a standoff over which video codec should be at the end of the W3C's WebRTC standard. The problems for Mozilla stem from the fact that the H.264 codec is licensed by MPEG LA under terms that Mozilla is not willing to accept. The new arrangement will see Cisco pay the licence fee and distribute binary builds that can be used in Firefox. "We plan to open source our H.264 codec, and to provide it as a binary module that can be downloaded for free from the internet," wrote Rowan Trollope senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Collaboration Technology Group, in a blog post. "Cisco will not pass on our MPEG LA licensing costs for this module, and, based on the current licensing environment, this will effectively make H.264 free for use in WebRTC." Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich welcomed the move, but admitted that it is not a complete solution. "At Mozilla, we always come back to the question of what's good for the users, and in this case, that means interoperation of copious H.264 content across OSes and other browsers," "We've already started looking at how to integrate the Cisco-hosted H.264 binary module, and we hope to have something ready for users in early 2014." Mozilla is working on a new codec called Daala, which it hopes will leapfrog its competition to be the best video codec, but one that is also free from patents and licencing. Monty Montgomery, author of Ogg Vorbis and a recent Mozilla recruit charged with developing Daala, said that the deal with Cisco is not a win, though. "Let's state the obvious with respect to VP8 vs H.264: We lost, and we're admitting defeat," said Montgomery in his response. "Cisco is providing a path for orderly retreat that leaves supporters of an open web in a strong enough position to face the next battle, so we're taking it. "By endorsing Cisco's plan, there's no getting around the fact that we've caved on our principles." Montgomery said that it makes little sense for Mozilla to maintain its holdout against H.264 after its chief ally, Google, shipped recently with H.264 support. He said that the move by Cisco will see it cough up at least $6.5 million per year, due to the terms of the codec's licensing, which sets a yearly cap for licensing costs. The Ogg Vorbis author said that the arrangement has short-term benefits, but solves nothing in the long term. "H.264 is already considered 'on the way out' by MPEG, and today's announcement doesn't address any licensing issues surrounding the next generation of video codecs. "We've merely kicked the can down the road and set a dangerous precedent for next time around. And there will be a next time around, " he said.

When you search online, you will find various blog posts, documentation and tutorials on Azure DevOps. All of these items are valuable resources but rarely does one walk you through a real-world scenario. Many skim over the security aspect leaving passwords in clear text for simplicity or an end product that essentially does nothing. Let's change that. In this article/tutorial, you're going to learn from soup to nuts how to build a real Azure DevOps release pipeline that automates infrastructure. More specifically, you're going to learn how to use Azure DevOps to build a continuous deployment pipeline to provision Azure virtual machines. By the end of this project, you will have a fully-functioning Azure pipeline. From a single GitHub repo commit, it will: Build a temporary Azure resource group Provision an Azure VM via an ARM template Set up said ARM template in a CI/CD pipeline Upon any change to the template, kick off a template validation test Deploy the ARM template to Azure Test the deployed infrastructure Tear down all Azure resources Let's dive right in! Project Overview This project is going to be broken down into six main sections. They are: Azure resource preparation In this section, you will learn how to set up all of the prerequisite resources in Azure. Here you will: Create an Azure service principal for various tasks in the pipeline Set up an Azure Key Vault with secrets for the pipeline to use Set appropriate access policies for ARM deployments and pipeline usage Azure DevOps preparation Once you have all of the Azure resources set up, it's time to prepare Azure DevOps for your pipeline. In this section, you will: Install the Pester Test Runner build task in your Azure DevOps organization Create service connections to provide Azure DevOps with required resource access Create an Azure DevOps variable group linking a key vault to access Azure Key Vault secrets Script/template overview There are various artifacts that go with this project including the ARM template to build the server and the Pester tests. In this section, we'll briefly cover what the template is provisioning and what exactly Pester is testing in the pipeline. Pipeline creation In this section is where the real fun begins. You will begin setting up the actual pipeline. Here you'll learn how to setup this entire orchestration via a single YAML file. You'll be building the pipeline using the Multi-Stage Pipeline UI experience. As of this writing, this feature is in Preview. Pipeline demonstration Once the pipeline is built, you need to see it run! In this section is where you'll learn how to trigger the pipeline and simply watch the magic happen. Cleanup And finally, this since is just a demonstration, you'll get access to a script to tear down everything built during the tutorial. Does this sound like a lot? It is! But don't worry, you'll learn step-by-step as attack each task one at a time. If you’d like a script with all of the Azure CLI commands used to build this pipeline, you can find it in the ServerAutomationDemo GitHub repo as demo.ps1. Prerequisites You're going to learn a lot but you're also expected to come to the table with a few things. If you plan to follow along, be sure you have the following: An Azure DevOps organization - Check out the Microsoft QuickStart guide for instructions on how to do this. In this article, you'll be working with a project called ServerAutomationDemo. A GitHub repo - In this article, you'll be learning from a GitHub repo called ServerAutomationDemo. Sorry, we're not using Azure repos in this article. A GitHub personal access token - Be sure to create the token with the permissions of admin:repo_hook, all repo and all user options Cloud Shell or PowerShell 6+ if running locally - Examples may work in Windows PowerShell but were not tested. All of the examples will be performed locally via a PowerShell console but the Cloud Shell will work just as well. You will automate building the pipeline. Azure CLI installed (if running locally) - You'll learn how to perform tasks in this article with the Azure CLI. But, the same procedures can also be performed via the Azure Portal, PowerShell or the Azure SDK. Warning: The actions you're about to perform do cost real money unless you have some Azure credit. The most cost-intensive resources you'll be bringing up in Azure is a VM but only temporarily. Before you Start You're going to be doing a lot of configuration in this tutorial. Before you begin, please be sure you have the following items handy. The name of the Azure subscription resources will be deployed to - the examples will use Adam the Automator. The ID of the subscription The Azure AD tenant ID The DevOps organization name - the examples will use adbertram. The region you're placing resources into - the examples will use eastus. The name of the Azure resource group to put the temporary key vault into - the examples will use ServerAutomationDemo. A password to assign to the local administrator account on a deployed VM - the examples will use "I like azure.". The URL to the GitHub repo - the examples will use https://github.com/adbertram/ServerAutomationDemo. Logging in with the Azure CLI Be prepared to do a lot of work with the Azure CLI in the article. I love the Azure PowerShell cmdlets but the Azure CLI is currently capable of doing more DevOps tasks. Your first task is getting to a PowerShell 6+ console. Once in the console, authenticate to Azure using the command az login. This command will open a browser window and prompt you for your account. Once authenticated, be sure to set your subscription to the default. Setting it as the default will prevent you from having to specify it constantly. az login az account set --subscription 'Adam the Automator' Preparing Azure Resources Once you're logged in with the Azure CLI, it's time to get down to business. An Azure Pipeline has many different dependencies and various knobs to turn. In this first section, you're going to learn how to do some set up and prepare your environment for your pipeline. Installing the Azure CLI DevOps Extension You'll need a way to build the various Azure DevOps components with the Azure CLI. By default, it doesn't include that functionality. To manage Azure DevOps from the Azure CLI, you'll need to install the DevOps extension. Luckily, installing the extension is a single line as shown below. az extension add --name azure-devops Once the extension has been installed, then set your organization as the default to prevent specifying it over and over. az devops configure --defaults organization=https://dev.azure.com/adbertram Creating the Resource Group Although the pipeline will be creating a temporary resource group, you should also create one for any resources brought up in this demo. More specifically, this resource group is where you'll create an Azure Key Vault. az group create --location "eastus" --name "ServerAutomationDemo" Creating the Azure Service Principal The next task is to create an Azure service principal. You're going to need an Azure service principal to authenticate to the Azure Key Vault. You'll also use this service principal to authenticate a service connection. Create the service principal for both the key vault and for the eventual ARM deployment as shown below. $spIdUri = "http://ServerAutomationDemo"$sp = az ad sp create-for-rbac --name $spIdUri | ConvertFrom-Json At this point, it’d be a good idea to save the value of $sp.appId somewhere. When you get to building the pipeline later, you will need this! You'll notice some PowerShell commands in the examples e.g. ConvertFrom-Json. Since the Azure CLI only returns JSON strings, it's easier to reference properties if converted to a PowerShell object. Building the Key Vault The pipeline in this tutorial needs to reference a couple of passwords. Rather than storing passwords in clear text, let's do it the right way. All sensitive information will be stored in an Azure Key Vault. To create the key vault, use the az keyvault create command as shown below. This command creates the key vault in the previously-created resource group. Also notice the enabled-for-template-deployment switch. This changes the key vault access policy to allow the future ARM deployment to access the key vault. az keyvault create --location $region --name "ServerAutomationDemo-KV" --resource-group "ServerAutomationDemo" --enabled-for-template-deployment true Once in the variable group, click on Link secrets from an Azure key vault as variables. Once you do, you'll then be warned you'll be erasing all variables and click Confirm. You'll see how to do this below. This action is fine since the foo variable was temporary all along anyway. Once confirmed, select the ARM service connection and the ServerAutomationDemo-KV key vault created earlier as shown below. Click Add. Now check both of the secrets created earlier as shown below and click OK and Save to save the changes. Project Files Overview If you've made it this far, congratulations! You're now ready to begin building the pipeline. But wait...there's more! To make building an Azure Pipeline real world, this tutorial builds a pipeline complete with "unit" and "acceptance" tests. This makes the tutorial more interesting but also warrants some additional explanation on what's going on. In the GitHub repo for this tutorial, you'll find a few files as shown below. Now would be a good time to either clone this repo or build your own from the files. azure-pipelines.yml - The final YAML pipeline connect-azure.ps1 - PowerShell script to authenticate to an Azure subscription server.infrastructure.tests.ps1 - A simple Pester test to confirm VM configuration is goodserver.json - An Azure ARM template to provision a VM server.parameters.json - An Azure ARM parameters template that provides the ARM template with parameter values. server.templates.tests.ps1 - Pester "unit" tests to confirm the ARM template is valid You'll see how each of these files fits together in the pipeline in a little bit. Creating the Pipeline Assuming you've cloned my GitHub repo or set one up on your own, it's time to create the pipeline! To do so, run the az pipelines create command. The below command creates a pipeline called ServerAutomationDemo using the provided GitHub repo as a trigger. It will look at the master branch and use the service connection built earlier. az pipelines create --name "ServerAutomationDemo" --repository "https://github.com/adbertram/ServerAutomationDemo" --branch master --service-connection $gitHubServiceEndpoint.id --skip-run Depending on if you have the azure-pipelines.yml file in your GitHub repo, you may or may not receive feedback like below. Either way, your console will look similar. Be sure to have your GitHub personal access token ready! YAML Pipeline Review At this point, your pipeline is ready to run but it's important to first understand the YAML pipeline. Take a look at the azure-pipelines.yml file. This file is the pipeline when using the multi-stage YAML pipeline feature. Let's break down the various components that make up this YAML pipeline. The Trigger Since you're building a CI pipeline that automatically runs, you need a trigger. The trigger below instructs the pipeline to run when a commit is detected in the Git master branch. Notice also the paths section. By default, if you don't specifically include or exclude files or directories in a CI build, the pipeline will run when a commit it done on any file. Because this project is all built around an ARM template, you don't want to run the pipeline if, for example, you made a tweak to a Pester test. trigger: branches: include: - master paths: include: - server.json - server.parameters.json The Pool Every build needs an agent. Every build agent needs to run on a VM. In this case, the VM is using the ubuntu-latest VM image. This image is the default image that was defined when the build was originally created. It hasn't been changed due to the "simplicity" of this pipeline. pool: vmImage: "ubuntu-latest" Variables Next up, we have all of the variables and the variable group. The various tasks in this pipeline require reading values like the Azure subscription ID, tenant ID and the application ID for the service principal and so on. Rather than replicating static values in each task, they are defined as variable. Also notice the group element. This element is referencing the variable group you created earlier. Be sure to replace the subscription_id and tenant_id at this time. You'll learn how to get the application_id a little bit later. Remember in the Creating the Azure Service Principal section you were reminded to save the value of $sp.appId somewhere? This is where you’ll need it. Assign the value of that service principal application ID to application_id as shown below. variables: - group: ServerAutomationDemo - name: azure_resource_group_name value: "ServerProvisionTesting-$(Build.BuildId)" - name: subscription_id value: "XXXXXXXXXXXXX" - name: application_id value: "XXXXXXXXXXXXX" - name: tenant_id value: "XXXXXXXXXXXX" Note the value of the azure_resource_group_name variable. Inside of that value you'll see $(Build.BuildId). This is a system variable that represents the build ID of the current job. In this context, it is being used to ensure the temporary resource group created is unique. PowerShell Prep Tasks The next set of tasks invoke PowerShell code. This pipeline example uses PowerShell to create and remove a temporary resource group for testing purposes. In these deployment tasks, you'll see two examples of invoking PowerShell code. The first task invokes a script called connect-azure.ps1 that exists in the GitHub repo. This task authenticating to the Azure subscription for the subsequent Azure PowerShell commands to run. This Azure PowerShell connect task is calling the script and passing a key vault secret value (Server Automation Demo-AppPw) and the pipeline variables subscription_id, application_id and tenant_id. The second task is running PowerShell code inline meaning a script doesn't already exist. Instead, PowerShell code is defined in the pipeline YAML itself using the value of the azure_resource_group_name pipeline variable. - task: PowerShell@2 inputs: filePath: "connect-azure.ps1" arguments: '-ServicePrincipalPassword "$(ServerAutomationDemo-AppPw)" -SubscriptionId $(subscription_id) -ApplicationId $(application_id) -TenantId $(tenant_id)'- task: PowerShell@2 inputs: targetType: "inline" script: New-AzResourceGroup -Name $(azure_resource_group_name) -Location eastus -Force Pester Template Test Next up we have the first Pester test. In a CI/CD pipeline such as this, it's important to have a few different layers of tests. If you were creating a pipeline for a software project, you may create various unit tests. Since this example pipeline is built around a single ARM VM deployment, the first "unit" tests will be to test the validity of the JSON template. Inside of the server.templates.tests.ps1 file is where you can add as many different tests on the ARM template file itself as you'd like. Notice below, the pipeline is using various system variables. These variables are referencing the file location of the files once they get onto the build agent. The Peste rRunner task is sending the test results out to an XML file which will then be read later in the pipeline. - task: Pester@0 inputs: scriptFolder: "@{Path='$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/server.template.tests.ps1'; Parameters=@{ResourceGroupName='$(azure_resource_group_name)'}}" resultsFile: "$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/server.template.tests.XML" usePSCore: true run32Bit: False The ARM VM Deployment We have now come to the ARM deployment. Since the entire pipeline is build around the ability to deploy a VM, this one is important! This task deploying the ARM template providing all of the required attributes needed to make it happen. Note the deployment Outputs: arm_output attribute. In the next step, a task needs to connect to the VM that was deployed. A great way to get the DNS name or IP address of this VM is by returning it via the ARM deployment. The deployment Outputs option creates a pipeline variable that can be referenced in other tasks. - task: AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment@3 inputs: deploymentScope: "Resource Group" azureResourceManagerConnection: "ARM" subscriptionId: "1427e7fb-a488-4ec5-be44-30ac10ca2e95" action: "Create Or Update Resource Group" resourceGroupName: $(azure_resource_group_name) location: "East US" templateLocation: "Linked artifact" csmFile: "server.json" csmParametersFile: "server.parameters.json" deploymentMode: "Incremental" deploymentOutputs: "arm_output" Pester "Acceptance" Test Once the VM has been deployed, you need to ensure it was deployed properly with an "integration" or "acceptance" test. This Pester Runner task is invoking Pester and running another set of infrastructure-related tests to ensure the VM was deployed successfully. Notice that we're passing in the value of the output of the ARM deployment via the Arm Deployment Json Output parameter. The Pester test script file has a parameter defined that takes the value and reads the DNS hostname of the VM. task: Pester@0 inputs: scriptFolder: "@{Path='$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/server.infrastructure.tests.ps1'; Parameters=@{ArmDeploymentJsonOutput='$(arm_output)'}}" resultsFile: "$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/server.infrastructure.tests.XML" usePSCore: true run32Bit: False You can see below what he server.infrastructure.tests.ps1 PowerShell script looks like. Notice that it's reading the VM's DNS hostname to then run a simple open port check. $ArmDeploymentOutput = $ArmDeploymentJsonOutput | convertfrom-json## Run the tests describe 'Network Connnectivity' { it 'the VM has RDP/3389 open' { Test-Connection -TCPPort 3389 -TargetName $ArmDeploymentOutput.hostname.value -Quiet | should -Be $true } } "Acceptance" Test Cleanup The only reason the pipeline deployed any infrastructure was to test the validity of the ARM template. Because this infrastructure as only temporary, it needs to be cleaned up. In the last PowerShell task, the pipeline is removing the resource group created earlier and everything in it. - task: PowerShell@2 inputs: targetType: "inline" script: Get-AzResourceGroup -Name $(azure_resource_group_name) | Remove-AzResourceGroup -Force Pester Test Publishing And finally, we have come to the last set of tasks. Azure Pipelines has a task called Publish Test Results. This task reads an XML file on the build agent and displays tests results in Azure DevOps. This is a handy way to easily see the results of all tests run. - task: PublishTestResults@2 inputs: testResultsFormat: "NUnit" testResultsFiles: "$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/server.infrastructure.tests.XML" failTaskOnFailedTests: true- task: PublishTestResults@2 inputs: testResultsFormat: "NUnit" testResultsFiles: "$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/server.template.tests.XML" failTaskOnFailedTests: true Using the Azure DevOps Pipeline Finally, we're ready to run the pipeline and see how it works. In the Azure DevOps web UI, ensure you're in the Server Automation Demo project. Once here, click on Pipelines and then you should see the Server Automation Demo pipeline. One way to run the pipeline is to click on the three dots on the far right as shown below. Then, click on Run pipeline. This will kick off the automation goodness. The pipeline will chug along and run each task as instructed. By the end, you should see all green check marks for each task performed by the job as shown below. Cleaning Up Once you've fiddled around with the pipeline and everything you've accomplished here, you should clean things up. After all, this was just meant to be a tutorial and not a production task! Below you'll find some commands to clean up everything built in this article. This code removes the service principal, Azure AD application, the resource group and everything in it and the Azure DevOps project. $spId = ((az ad sp list --all | ConvertFrom-Json) | ? { '' -in $_.serviceprincipalnames }).objectId az ad sp delete --id $spId## Remove the resource group az group delete --name "ServerAutomationDemo" --yes --no-wait ## remove project$projectId = ((az devops project list | convertfrom-json).value | where { $_.name -eq 'ServerAutomationDemo' }).id az devops project delete --id $projectId --yes Summary This tutorial was meant to give you a peak into building a real Azure DevOps infrastructure automation pipeline. Even though there are countless other ways to build pipelines such as this, the skills you've learned in this tutorial should assist you through many different configurations. Now get out there and start doing more automating!

Top 10 Secure Computing Tips "Top 10" List of Secure Computing Tips Tip #1 - You are a target to hackers Don't ever say, "It won't happen to me." We are all at risk and the stakes are high - both for your personal and financial well-being and for the university's standing and reputation. Cybersecurity is everyone's responsibility. By following the tips below and remaining vigilant, you are doing your part to protect yourself and others. Tip #2 - Keep software up-to-date Installing software updates for your operating system and programs is critical. Always install the latest security updates for your devices: Turn on Automatic Updates for your operating system. Use web browsers such as Chrome or Firefox that receive frequent, automatic security updates. Make sure to keep browser plug-ins (Flash, Java, etc.) up-to-date. Tip #3 - Avoid Phishing scams - beware of suspicious emails and phone calls Phishing scams are a constant threat - using various social engineering(link is external) ploys, cyber-criminals will attempt to trick you into divulging personal information such as your login ID and password, banking or credit card information. Phishing scams can be carried out by phone, text, or through social networking sites - but most commonly by email. Be suspicious of any official-looking email message or phone call that asks for personal or financial information. Check out our Phishing Resources section for details about identifying phishing scams and protecting yourself. Tip #4 - Practice good password management We all have too many passwords to manage - and it's easy to take short-cuts, like reusing the same password. A password manager can help you to maintain strong unique passwords for all of your accounts. These programs can generate strong passwords for you, enter credentials automatically, and remind you to update your passwords periodically. Our Protecting Your Credentials how-to article contains detailed recommendations for keeping your password safe. Tip #5 - Be careful what you click Avoid visiting unknown websites or downloading software from untrusted sources. These sites often host malware that will automatically install (often silently) and compromise your computer. If attachments or links in the email are unexpected or suspicious for any reason, don't click on it. ISO recommends using Click-to-Play(link is external) or NoScript(link is external), browser add-on features that prevent the automatic download of plug-in content (e.g., Java, Flash) and scripts that can harbor malicious code. Tip #6 - Never leave devices unattended The physical security of your devices is just as important as their technical security. If you need to leave your laptop, phone, or tablet for any length of time - lock it up so no one else can use it. If you keep protected data on a flash drive or external hard drive, make sure their encrypted and locked up as well. For desktop computers, lock your screen or shut-down the system when not in use. Tip #7 - Safeguard Protected Data Be aware of Protected Data that you come into contact with and its associated restrictions. Review the UCB Data Classification Standard to understand data protection level requirements. In general: Keep high-level Protected Data (e.g., SSN's, credit card information, student records, health information, etc.) off of your workstation, laptop, or mobile devices. Securely remove sensitive data files from your system when they are no longer needed. Always use encryption when storing or transmitting sensitive data. Unsure of how to store or handle sensitive data? Email us at security@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail). Tip #8 - Use mobile devices safely Considering how much we rely on our mobile devices and how susceptible they are to attack, you'll want to make sure you are protected: Lock your device with a PIN or password - and never leave it unprotected in public. Only install apps from trusted sources (Apple AppStore, Google Play). Keep the device's operating system up-to-date. Don't click on links or attachments from unsolicited emails or texts. Avoid transmitting or storing personal information on the device. Most handheld devices are capable of employing data encryption - consult your device's documentation for available options. Use Apple's Find my iPhone(link is external) or the Android Device Manager(link is external) tools to help prevent loss or theft. Tip #9 - Install antivirus/anti-malware protection Only install these programs from a known and trusted source. Keep virus definitions, engines and software up-to-date to ensure your programs remains effective. See our Minimum Security Standards Anti-Malware Software Guidelines for more information Tip #10 - Back up your data Back up regularly - if you are a victim of a security incident, the only guaranteed way to repair your computer is to erase and re-install the system Author# Nerdcore Computers

You can configure your fans however you like, use as many dust filters as you can, and make sure your PC is well away from carpets and floor-bound fluff, but at some point, the inside of your case is going to get dusty. You can't escape it, and it's a good idea to clean your PC now and then if you want to keep your components' temperatures manageable. Here are the methods we use to safely and thoroughly clean out our computers. How to clean dust from your PC The Complete Guide to PC Gaming Nerdcore Computers is going back to the basics with a series of guides, how-tos, and deep dives into PC gaming's core concepts that we're calling The Complete Guide to PC Gaming. There's much more to come, and it's all being made possible by Razer, which stepped up to support this months-long project. Thanks, Razer! The most important thing to consider when cleaning your case is that we want to make it possible for cool, fresh air to get into the case and hot air to get out. If dust filters are clogged or there's excess dust collected around the heat sinks, that's not going to be possible and your system could overheat. To counter that, you want to do everything you can to eliminate dust and leave your system fresh and clean. Note: Whenever cleaning your PC or its components, you need to take extra special care about static damage. Using an anti-static wristband is ideal, but if you don't have one to hand, make sure to regularly ground yourself by touching your case or PSU housing. Wear a dust mask or respirator if you want to avoid breathing in any of the dust and dirt you remove from your case. Turn off your PC and unplug the power cable from the rear. If you want to be extra safe, unplug everything. Move your computer to somewhere well ventilated if possible, or at least open a window or door to let fresh air into the room. Remove the side panels and (if possible) the front panel of your case. Use a lint-free cloth or can of compressed air to clean the dust from any dust filters, as well as any obvious collections in the base of the case. Use a can of compressed air—we don't recommend trying to blow forcefully yourself—to clean the dust from any heatsinks like your CPU or graphics card cooler. A quick few blasts will have your components, like this radiator, looking good as new. Once you've knocked all the dust loose, use a vacuum cleaner to clean up any dust that ends up on the floor. However, don't use the vacuum directly on the interior of your case, as there is a real risk of static damage. (You could use one as a blower in a pinch, which Jarred regularly does, but don't get the tip close to sensitive components.) If your PC hasn't been cleaned in a while, there's a good chance you have dust caked onto the fans, vents, and heat sinks. In this case, a quick dusting won't get you much further than the below picture, and you'll need to do a deep clean. How to deep clean your PC If you display your PC like a work of art as much as a functional tool or gaming machine, then you'll want to do more than just give it a light dusting. For that, we'd recommend removing everything from the case. That means redoing all of your cable management, draining the water-cooling loop, and unhooking all your drive caddies. The end result, though, is worth it. Note: We still recommend an anti-static wrist band when handling any components. If you don't have one to hand, periodically touch your PC case to ground yourself. Remove all of your components and lay them out on a non-conductive surface. If you remove your CPU heat sink—not strictly necessary—be aware that you should remove and re-apply the thermal paste. If you're not sure how, read our guide. Use compressed air and a lint free cloth to blow and wipe any dust build up you can see. Pay particular attention to any crevices, plastic shrouds, and heat sinks. Thoroughly clean any dust filters too. To clean fan blades, hold them steady and wipe or blow each blade individually. If there are any fingerprint or oily marks on anything, use cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol or equivalent to wipe them clean. Make sure to leave them to dry before putting them back together. Some components, like a graphics card, can get dust build-up inside a covered area. Cleaning these may require disassembling the card, which is possible if you have the right tools (small hex and Torx bits are often required). There are certain components, like the interior of your PSU, that you aren't going to be able to clean effectively without taking it apart and voiding your warranty. Doing so can be dangerous, too. Instead, we'd recommend using a can of compressed air with a long straw attached to give it a little blast to dislodge any stubborn dust. When you next turn it on, its own fan and natural airflow should blow any loosened dust out of the rear. When you're finished cleaning, put everything back together. Take this opportunity to do a little cable management as it can help avoid dust build up by making for a cleaner passage of air through your system. How often should I clean my PC? To maintain a healthy system, we recommend a light dusting at least every three to six months, or more often if you have pets or live in an especially dusty environment. For deep cleanings, every six months to a year is recommended if you want to maintain peak performance, or every couple of years at the very least to avoid any potential overheating issues. Author Nerdcore

It’s official! The iPhone 12 is here, and it has some incredible features for both Apple lovers and Apple newbies alike. Launched on October 23, the iPhone 12 has a family of four models: the iPhone 12, the iPhone 12 Mini, the iPhone 12 Pro, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max. In this blog, we’ll cover the need-to-knows of each model. By the end of the blog, you’ll want to get your hands on one of these—trust us! (Quick reminder before we get started: Our technicians are continuously trained on new Apple models as they are released. So if you ever experience any issues with your iPhone 12 or any other iPhone model, we’ve got you covered with our Apple iPhone repair experts!) The iPhone 12 The iPhone 12 is a huge technological success, boasting a new design, exceptional dual-lens cameras, 5G connectivity, and a solid battery life. As far as iPhones go, it is the future! Its exciting new features include: Design – Unlike the rounded edges of previous iPhones, the iPhone 12’s edges are flat, making it more comfortable to grip and hold. Perhaps the most exciting design aspect of the iPhone 12, however, is its color options—black, white, deep blue, light green, and red. Display – The iPhone 12’s Super Retina XDR display makes colors intense and lifelike, transforming the viewing experience into something truly incomparable. And more! The iPhone 12 Mini The iPhone 12 Mini is almost identical to the iPhone 12, holding all of the same features in a smaller, sleeker package. The iPhone 12 features a 6.1 inch display, while the Mini features a 5.4 inch display, making it the smallest iPhone since the iPhone SE. Its compact size is perfect for those who have been looking for a phone they can use one-handed. A couple of other features of the iPhone 12 Mini include: Water Resistance – Less graceful iPhone users will be happy to discover that the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini can withstand up to six meters of water for up to thirty minutes. This means they can withstand rain, spills, and other common accidents with no problem! No one likes needing iPhone water damage repair, so this feature is a gamechanger. Drop Protection – The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini have four times stronger drop protection than other iPhone models due to the “ceramic shield” material protecting them. Ceramic shield is known as one of the toughest, most durable smartphone glasses. With a ceramic shield, you will rarely be in need of iPhone screen repair! The iPhone 12 Pro Photographer lovers, this one is for you! The iPhone 12 Pro offers advanced triple-camera setups and other photography features such as: Telephoto Lens – This third telephoto lens is only a feature of the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max models. This lens is designed for taking accurate, precise images of distant objects. Night Mode – Although the Night Mode feature is on the iPhone 11, Night Mode on the iPhone 12 Pro is a part of the ultra-wide camera, standard wide camera, and the front camera. This allows you to take low-light photos that are crisper without having to use the flash. The iPhone 12 Pro Max The iPhone 12 Pro Max offers almost all of the same features as the iPhone 12 Pro, except it boasts a larger and better display, battery, and camera system. Other features include: A Wider Wide Camera – You read that right! The iPhone 12 Pro Max’s wide camera is even more improved with a 47% larger sensor and pixels. Sensor-Shift Stabilization – Yet another incredible camera feature, sensor-shift stabilization makes your pictures and videos steadier. Say goodbye to blurry photos! Convinced yet that you want to upgrade to one of these beauties? Whether you’re looking for a new iPhone, looking for iPhone repair help, or just looking to learn more, Nerdcore Computer Technicians are here to help!

You’ve probably noticed that your phone battery begins to drain more quickly as your phone ages. When you first purchase the laptop, you hardly ever have to hook it up to its charger. But the more you use it and the older it gets, the shorter its battery lifespan becomes. As soon as this happens, many people choose to purchase a new laptop without considering other options like laptop battery replacement. At the right local laptop repair shop, replacing the Laptop battery is a much cheaper solution than dumping your old phone and buying a new one. Stay tuned to learn why! Fortunately, if you’re noticing any issues with your laptop battery, we can quickly and affordably replace it for you here at Nerdcore Computers. Our technicians will have your laptop running optimally again in no time! Here are a few reasons you should consider laptop battery replacement: 1. Cost Efficiency Laptops are more expensive than ever, and as tempting as it is to simply purchase a new laptop when your laptop battery is giving out, it will likely be a far more expensive purchase than a basic battery replacement. Plus, your laptop battery life may start to give out before the performance of the laptop itself slows down. This means everything except your battery is functioning perfectly, and it would be a bit of a waste to throw out a laptop that is only experiencing one particular problem. 2. Time Efficiency Another benefit to getting your laptop battery replaced (especially at a local repair shop like ours) is the fact that it will save you a significant amount of time. Most local laptop repair shops can replace your laptop battery the same day you bring it in, or they can even replace the battery within the hour. So getting your laptop battery replaced is both cheaper and faster than buying a new laptop 3. Security Most laptop repair shops offer some kind of warranty on their work as well. This means that if they replace your battery and it fails only weeks or months later, you’ll be covered. No time or money wasted! 4. Safety At this point, you’re probably thinking, “Hey, I can replace my battery myself and save even more money!” Although you might be a smartphone expert and capable of replacing the battery on your own, we highly recommend taking it to a professional. It’s the safest, easiest, and most reliable way to replace your phone’s battery. Here are a few things that could go wrong with DIY laptop battery replacement: There’s a strong possibility that you will break your laptop. Opening your laptop requires specific tools and specific skills like knowing how much pressure to use when opening up the laptop. You will have to purchase expensive tools and know how to use them. Most modern laptops have embedded batteries, which means replacing them isn’t as simple as opening your laptop and pulling out the battery. Removing the battery can entail heating, prying, and removing screws so you can access the internal components of the laptop, all of which are time consuming and difficult tasks. An exposed battery can release dangerous chemicals into the air if it’s broken or ruptured, meaning it could also start to swell and explode. Your laptop will be in good hands with the help of a local laptop repair shop technician. Perhaps the largest benefit of having your laptop battery replaced by a professional repair shop is the comforting knowledge that it will be replaced with a battery of the highest quality, and it will be installed efficiently and correctly. So count on us for all of your laptop battery repair and replacement needs! Author Nerdcore Computers

Here are five different health apps that helped improve our fitness and wellbeing and gave us useful information during COVID 19. Coronavirus had an unprecedented impact on healthcare in Australia. And changed the traditional way treatment was distributed and delivered. With digital technology and healthcare professionals forced to combine their services the use of telehealth surged – and allowed “health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies” to effectively attend to the needs of even the most remote patients. Here are five digital health-based organisations, apps and approaches that truly made an impact in improving people’s wellbeing 2020. 1. COVIDSafe https://apps.apple.com/au/app/covidsafe/id1509242894 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.gov.health.covidsafe&hl=en_AU&gl=US Released by the Australian Health Department, the COVIDSafe app served as a contact tracking tool designed to slow the spread of the virus. 2. Bloom https://apps.apple.com/au/app/bloom-meditation-sleep/id1469479066 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.applantis.bloomapp&hl=en_AU&gl=US This free online self-help program features over 500+ exercises from cognitive-behavioural-therapy (CBT), designed to significantly improve mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. According to its founder, Molly Jane, the app saw a surge in usage, as coronavirus-related stress drove young people to find solutions on their phones. Telehab https://apps.apple.com/au/app/telehab/id1439042849 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.telehab.client.pwa&hl=en_AU&gl=US In an attempt to control the spread of COVID19, and adhere to the rules of quarantine and movement restrictions, physiotherapists were forced to innovate and use telehealth to allow patients to attend appointments virtually. Through Telehab, therapists were empowered to consult via video and prescribe a treatment program, while patients were also able to record themselves performing their home exercises. This allowed for a safe and confidential way to digitally report and track progress for all participants. F45 Training https://apps.apple.com/au/app/f45-training/id946427655 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fitnessmobileapps.f45training&hl=en_AU&gl=US With gyms, fitness studios and indoor boot camps forced to shut their doors during the height of the pandemic in March, 2020, fitness brands pivoted and provided a solution to the mission of keeping physically fit by offering a plethora of free online or subscription classes and routines. One of the best was the F45 Challenge app which provided users with body weight exercises designed to be completed at home. Daybreak by Hello Sunday Morning https://apps.apple.com/au/app/daybreak-alcohol-support/id1107514492 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hellosundaymorning.android.challenges&hl=en_AU&gl=US While COVID closed pubs and limited public gatherings, social isolation created a lonely, stressful, anxious situation that had the potential to serve as a trigger for alcohol abuse. In recognising the importance of responding to this, online and phone support services for people experiencing drug and alcohol problems received an additional $6 million from the Australians Government during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them was Daybreak by Hello Sunday Morning – a treatment and early invention mobile app that provides online support to individuals seeking assistance in reducing their alcohol consumption. This provided a substitute for people who may have previously relied on face-to-face meetings with counsellors and psychologists to continue to receive the support they required to make healthy choices about their drinking behaviours.

1. Make WhatsApp messages automatically disappear We're huge fans of the WhatsApp messaging service. Offering free, cross-platform text, multimedia, voice messaging, and free voice and video calls, what's not to like? Chances are you've been using it on your phone for a while now, but you may not have spent any time tinkering under the hood to get next-level good at WhatsApp. We've taken some time to really drill down into the app to find its special tips, tricks, tweaks, hacks, and secret features so you can become a WhatsApp expert. 2. Change your WhatsApp chats background While we wouldn't suggest activating this functionality for your bae's message history, the ability to have WhatsApp messages automatically disappear after a certain period of time is useful to keep more noisy chats manageable. It is possible to change a setting that means all future messages in a certain chat will be automatically deleted from your phone after seven days. Do be aware though that this doesn't mean someone hasn't screenshotted or shared any messages in the meantime. To enable this feature, go into the WhatsApp chat you want to change the settings for, and at the top of your screen click on the person's or the group chat's name. In the menu screen that next appears, scroll down until you see the "Disappearing messages" option and tap it to toggle it on. This means the messages will disappear for everyone, but do note that you can only activate this option for group chats where you are the admin. If you're still stuck with the default WhatsApp wallpaper for your chats, then ya basic! It's super simple to change it out for a more interesting choice. To do it, go into WhatsApp and click on the cog-shaped Settings icon. Select Chats from the next menu screen that appears, then tap on Chat Wallpaper. This will then bring up your further options. You can choose to use one of WhatsApp's preloaded images from its gallery (it's worth having a browse, there are some pretty sweets pics), change your wallpaper to a solid color, or use an image from your own photos. If you select one of WhatsApp's images you will be prompted to select whether you want the image to remain still or move slightly by choosing the "perspective" view. 3. Use bold, italic, and crossed out text in WhatsApp chats You can make your WhatsApp text messages more interesting — and get your points across better — by using bold text, italics, and even crossing text out with a strikethrough. For bold text, simply add an *asterisk* to either side of the word or phrase. Adding an _underscore_ to either side of the word or phrase creates italic text. To strikethrough text, add a ~tilde~ to either side of the word or phrase. 4. Use the secret WhatsApp typewriter font Did you know WhatsApp has a secret font you can use to make your messages stand out from the crowd? You can use a special sequence of symbols to activate an old school typewriter-style typeface. To do it, you simply need to add three slanting apostrophes: ```. Note that on iOS this is not the standard apostrophe you will see in your main keyboard view. You have to press and hold the apostrophe sign to see the correct symbol to use — you want to select the first one that slants diagonally downwards from left to right. 5. Reply to a specific message within a WhatsApp chat thread Group chats on WhatsApp can get seriously noisy, and messages can come flying in from all directions when things get a bit busy. If someone messaged something that you want to reply to that would not make sense to post in a chronological way, you can go back to that past message to highlight it and reply directly. This makes the original message, with your reply beneath, appear at the bottom of your chat screen. To do this, press and hold on the message until a menu pops up from which you can select Reply. Alternatively, and a quicker method, is simply to swipe on the message you want to reply to from left to right. 6. Pin a WhatsApp chat to the top of your chats screen This is a really useful hack to keep a chat thread visible at the top of your Chats screen. If you want to give any of your chats top billing, simply swipe on the chat from left to right and tap on the drawing pin icon that appears. This will move that chat to the top of your chats screen so it's always immediately visible. This also adds a pin icon to the chat so you know it's been pinned. To undo this action, simply swipe the chat again to unpin it. You can pin up to three chats at one time. 7. Broadcast a personal WhatsApp message to multiple contacts It's possible in WhatsApp to send the same message to multiple contacts without them being in a group chat or even seeing who else received the message. Useful if you want to share important news with an announcement, or if you want to wish everyone seasonal greetings. It’s quick and simple to do. From your chats screen on iOS, tap on Broadcast Lists at the top right of your screen, then New List at the bottom, and then add the recipients you want to get the message. On Android devices, you need to choose New Broadcast from the chats menu. Any messages you send using this method will be received as individual messages in WhatsApp chat threads. 8. Give yourself more time to read WhatsApp messages before they are marked as read We all know that those two ticks below WhatsApp messages turn blue when the message has been seen, which puts you under pressure to reply. On iOS, if you want to get a sneak preview of a WhatsApp message before it's marked as read, you can tweak your notification settings to ensure a preview of the message appears on your home screen and stays there until you manually dismiss it. To set this useful feature up, ensure that you have message previews enabled in your WhatsApp settings menu. Check this by going to Settings, then Notifications, then toggling Show Preview to on. Next, go to your iPhone settings menu and select Notifications, then scroll down to find WhatsApp. In the next screen, ensure your notifications are enabled, then tap on Banner Style and change it to Persistent. This now means the previews of any WhatsApp messages you receive will remain on your iPhone's home screen until you dismiss them and the person who has sent the message won't get the blue ticks to say you've read it until you actually go into the app. 9. Customize alert tones for different WhatsApp chat threads you can customize the sound alert tone you hear when you receive a WhatsApp message from any contact or group. This is very useful because it means you can differentiate between group chats that you might not necessarily need to keep up with in real time and important direct messages from your loved ones. To give a WhatsApp group or contact a custom tone, go into the chat and tap on the person's or group's name at the top of the screen. Scroll down to Custom Tone and click through. You can then change the default tone to one you know you're either safe to ignore or one that you know means you need to grab your phone stat. What's up on WhatsApp Hopefully, you'll have found some useful tips, tricks, tweaks, and more within this list. From buying yourself time to reply to messages, to making your messages stand out with a different font, there are some great tricks here for all users of the popular WhatsApp messaging platform.

On average, a desktop PC gets replaced every 5.2 years in Australia Just like any other device, your Windows 10 Machine can sometimes stop working as well as it should. Whether you’re trying to get things back in order with a serious tune-up or are ready to upgrade and hand over your device to a friend or colleague, you may want to look into resetting your PC to factory settings. In this article, you’ll learn how to do a factory reset on Windows 10 to get your PC running smoothly again. How to do a Factory Reset on Windows 10 After deciding to give your computer a fresh restart, give yourself plenty of time in advance to work. If you’re keeping the device, you’ll want to back up your files before you get started. Expect the reset to take anywhere from two to three hours to complete. Once you’re ready, follow these steps to reset your Microsoft Windows computer to its factory settings. Open the Recovery Tool First, click on the Start menu in the bottom left-hand corner and open your settings menu by selecting the gear icon. Additionally, you can type in “Settings” directly into the search bar and double click when it shows up. Once you’re in settings, select “Update & Security” in the lower-left corner of your screen. Select Recovery Options A new window will appear, asking you to either keep your files or remove everything. If you’re looking to wipe out all your personal data and pass your PC onto a new user, click “Remove everything.” Otherwise, choose “Keep my files” to refresh your device and retain your information. This option also allows you to see a list of apps and settings that will be wiped from your PC. If you’ve opted to clear everything, you’ll be prompted to confirm once more before proceeding. Additionally, you can remove data by clicking on “Just remove my files” or wipe the drive entirely by selecting “Remove files and clean drive.” For security purposes, we recommend going with the second option before you hand over your device. Wiping your hard drive helps keep your files safe while minimizing the chances of them being recovered from another user. This option is a must if you’re selling or recycling your PC. Reset your Computer Lastly, click “Reset” to fully restore your computer to its original settings. Your PC will automatically restart or prompt you to do so. After a few minutes, it will reboot. Once you’re able to login after the reset process, your computer is ready to go. If you’re lending it off to someone, double-check that everything you previously selected is clear from the device. Need some additional tech help? Get the most out of your Windows PC or laptop with Computer Troubleshooter’s IT services! We proudly provide residential and business services and can troubleshoot and repair a variety of issues. Whether you need diagnostic services, maintenance, upgrades, or file back up solutions, we have you covered. Contact your nearest Nerdcore office today for reputable and customized IT solutions. Author Nerdcore Computers

Good Stuff Excellent camera Killer performance Dolby Vision video looks great 5G can be very fast Bad Stuff Battery life not as good as last year 5G hype is exhausting Not quite enough of an upgrade over the iPhone 12 iPhone 12 Pro design The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro share the same fundamental new design, which is very squared off and very flat — almost shockingly flat. Nearly every other phone has a curved edge and an obvious border between the display and the frame, but the iPhone 12s feels much more like a single piece. It reminds me a little of the iPhone 5, but more importantly, it looks and feels very different than any other modern phone, in the way Apple is historically good at making older designs seem instantly out of date. Oddly, the squared-off design also makes the iPhone 12 Pro seem more substantial than it actually is. It doesn’t look it, but it’s thinner than an iPhone 11 Pro. iPhone 12 Pro Camera Last year I said the iPhone 11 Pro had the best camera on a smartphone, and it’s not like the iPhone 12 Pro went backward. But it’s only a small step forward — enough to stay just ahead of the competition. Most of the improvements are fairly minor. The main camera has a very slightly brighter lens than last year, which helps it in low light, and Apple’s new Smart HDR 3 processing seems to be, well, a little smarter. The noise reduction is improved and looks better than the iPhone 11: photos look less grainy, and there’s a little more detail. The photos are also slightly more contrasty; every year, Apple seems to be more willing to let highlights be highlights and shadows be shadows, which is a look I’m personally fond of. iPhone 12 Pro on the left, Pixel 5 on the right All four cameras on the phone can do night mode now, which is very nice to have, but it’s most useful on the front camera for night mode selfies. Using the tele or the ultrawide for night mode shots works, but I’d stick with the main camera. It’s the best camera on the phone, and it takes the best images. There are some other small but noticeable photo improvements over the 11 Pro: the ultrawide lens distorts a little less at the edges, and photos from the ultrawide and telephoto are a tad sharper and more detailed. There are also some new settings: you can actually turn lens correction off, and you can turn off both Smart HDR and “scene detection,” which tries to intelligently recognize a shot and expose it correctly. It’s nice to see Apple embrace additional camera options, but I would generally leave everything flipped on; if you are offended by auto camera modes, you should just use an app with good manual controls like Halide 5G on the iPhone 12 Pro II am obligated to discuss 5G in a review of a new 5G iPhone, even though I personally do not find 5G compelling because I do not live anywhere close to a 5G service area on any of the major networks. I think that will be the case for a great many people for some time to come, and so I am happy to report the iPhone 12 Pro does just fine on LTE. But I did spend a day in Melbourne, and I can report that Optusnet Sub-6 “nationwide” 5G is basically fine. It’s there, and it was reasonably fast, although my iPhone 11 Pro on Telstra could produce equivalent speeds in many cases. Optusnet “nationwide” 5G network feels like the early days of LTE to me: I can’t tell if it’s always going to be this fast or whether it will slow down as a flood of devices — like, say, aggressively subsidized 5G iPhones — hit the network. We’ll find out! Real 5G is blazing-fast — when you can find it There’s a optusnet mmWave 5G tower just across the street from our office, and the iPhone 12 Pro was fast to latch onto it and light up the UW indicator. In a patch of 20 glorious square feet, I pulled over 2 gigabits per second down. (And 40 megabits per second up, which matched regular 5G.) If I walked 100 feet away, the signal dropped, and that was that. I hope you are not anticipating being very mobile with your 5G mobile phone if you have giant files to download. Using mmWave definitely made the phone get a little warm, and it seemed to drain the battery a little faster. It’s good that it’s very difficult to use mmWave, I suppose.

About MEGA MEGA's end-to-end encrypted cloud storage and chat service has stored more than 66 billion files for over 160 million users in 250 countries / territories. MEGA is accessible in multiple languages from desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux) and Android / iOS mobile apps. User files are stored in secure facilities in Europe or in countries (such as New Zealand) that the European Commission has determined to have an adequate level of protection under Article 45 of the GDPR, depending where the user based. No user files are stored in, or made available from, the United States of America. MEGA The Privacy Company was architected around the simple fact that cryptography, for it to be accepted and used, must not interfere with usability. MEGA is accessible without prior software installs and remains the only cloud storage provider with browser-based high-performance end-to-end encryption. Today, millions of business and personal users rely on MEGA to securely and reliably store and serve petabytes of data. We believe that this success is the result of MEGA's low barrier to entry to a more secure cloud. Get a free 50gb of cloud storage for basic file storage you can also look at some of there compare plans. Its the fastest an cheapest by far compared to Google drive and one drive or even drop box.

Learn how to sync music, films and more using iTunes on your Mac or PC. If you're using macOS Mojave or earlier or a Windows PC, use iTunes to sync content to your devices. Before you use iTunes to sync content to your iOS or iPadOS device, consider using iCloud, Apple Music or similar services to keep content from your Mac or PC in the cloud. This way, you can access your music, photos and more on your devices when you aren’t near your computer. Learn more about using Apple Music or iCloud Photos instead of iTunes. If you use iCloud or other services like Apple Music to keep your content up-to-date across all of your devices, some syncing features through iTunes might be turned off. What you can sync with iTunes Albums, songs, playlists, films, TV shows, podcasts and audiobooks. Photos and videos. Contacts and calendars. iTunes features might vary by country or region. Sync or remove content using iTunes Open iTunes and connect your device to your computer with a USB cable. Click the device icon in the upper-left corner of the iTunes window. Learn what to do if you don't see the icon. From the list under Settings on the left side of the iTunes window, click the type of content that you want to sync or remove.* To turn syncing on for a content type, select the checkbox next to Sync. Select the tick box next to each item that you want to sync. Click the Apply button in the lower-right corner of the window. If syncing doesn't start automatically, click the Sync button. * You can only sync your device with one iTunes library at a time. If you see a message that your device is synced with another iTunes library, your device was previously connected to another computer. If you click "Erase and Sync" in that message, all content of the selected type on your device will be erased and replaced with content from this computer. Sync your content using Wi-Fi After you set up syncing with iTunes using USB, you can set up iTunes to sync to your device with Wi-Fi instead of USB. Connect your device to your computer with a USB cable, then open iTunes and select your device. Click Summary on the left side of the iTunes window. Select "Sync with this [device] over Wi-Fi". Click Apply. When the computer and the device are on the same Wi-Fi network, the device appears in iTunes. The device syncs automatically whenever it's plugged in to power and iTunes is open on the computer. Author Nerdcore Computers

Apple is expected to introduce the first Macs running on Apple Silicon on Nov. 10, and Microsoft appears ready to make good on its promise to support these new Apple-powered Macs and macOS Big Sur. ARM support for Office Microsoft has already confirmed it will support Apple’s new Mac processors in Office. Word, PowerPoint and Excel were all shown running on these new processors at Apple’s WWDC event, where Apple Silicon was introduced. The expectation is that this support was enabled through use of Apple’s "Rosetta 2" technology, which lets applications developed for Intel Macs function on Apple Silicon. Microsoft has demonstrated a range of new Office for Mac features designed for Apple’s new macOS, which is perceptually becoming semi-synonymous with the new Apple Silicon Macs. Get native However, Microsoft is clearly planning to field native support of its apps on these new Macs. This is evidenced in the form of the latest "Slow ring" Office Insider update, which introduces a couple of new features and ushers in support for SQL Open Data Connectivity (ODBC) connectivity running on Apple’s chips in Excel. "The built-in SQL Server ODBC data connection provider will now support the new Apple Silicon devices as well as the TLS v1.2 communication protocol. This feature provides support for SQL Server ODBC data connections to work properly on new devices that have Apple Silicon processors, as well as support for SQL Servers that require secure connections via the TLS v1.2 protocol,” Microsoft’s release notes state. In September, we learned Microsoft and other developers were working to port Java (OpenJDK) to ARM-based Macs and Windows devices. Windows for ARM The latter is particularly interesting as it confirms Microsoft continues work on Windows for ARM. As recently as September, the company was revealed to be working on x64 app emulation support for Windows on ARM chips, which it needs to improve application support on Surface Pro X. One thing we don’t yet know is whether Microsoft has any plans to make it possible to support Windows on Apple Silicon. Microsoft has been reticent to discuss any such plans. Nor has it revealed any intention to make a version of Windows capable of running in VM on Parallels on Apple Silicon. Author Nerdcore Computers

Spyware Removal Don't be fooled by the term Spyware being minor or less innocent than viruses. Spyware is a malicious program that collects information about habits of users without their knowledge. As in the word "SPY", the presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user and most often is difficult to detect. There are countless types of spyware and the most common are keyloggers which are used to monitor users on corporate or public computers. Spyware can be designed to collect any type of data such as personal information, internet surfing habits, user logins, and bank or credit account information. Most often spyware causes degradation of system performance. Common signs of spyware infestation are significant CPU activity, disk usage, and network traffic. Spyware is also quite often associated with program applications freezing and system crashes. When a computer is infected with spyware it is rarely alone. It has been the experience of Nerdcore Computers that a computer infected with spyware usually has multiple infections such as viruses, and in the some worst cases trojan viruses and malware. Nerdcore Computers specializes in removing spyware, malware, trojans, backdoor viruses, conflicker viruses, contra viruses, darksma viruses, and defender viruses. If you have spyware, viruses or malware problems or suspect your system has been compromised call 1300Nerdcore In Shop Technical Support About Us Apple Computer Repairs Common Computer Problems Computer Services Computer Tune-Up Computer Tutoring Computers We Service Custom Computer Systems Data Backup Services Data Recovery Desktop Computer Repairs Firewall Setup Home Theatre Installation In-Shop Tech Support IT Services Laptop Computer Repairs Laptop Screen Replacement Mac Computer Repairs Mac Computer Setup Mac Operating System Install Malware Removal Network Design and Setup Network Security Setup Online Tech Support On-Site Tech Support Outlook Repair and Recovery Parental Control and Monitoring Smartphone Setup Spyware Removal System Recovery Tablet Setup Virus Removal Windows Computer Setup Windows Operating System Wireless Installations Contact Us Software Training Apple - Mac OS X Training Adobe Creative Suites Training Microsoft Office Training Microsoft Windows OS Training QuickBooks Accounting Training Myob Accounting Training Search Engine Optimization SEO Local Geo-centric Website Design Website Hosting Locations We Service On-site Melbourne North East Suburbs of Melbourne South Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne Western Suburbs of Melbourne Melbourne CBD One of the questions Nerdcore Computers is most asked is, "Why do I get viruses when I have antivirus software?" Well, the simple and short answer is, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The long answer is much more complicated. However, luck or the lack thereof is a big factor. Read More Monday - Friday: 9:30 am - 5:00 pm Saturday: 7:30 am - Noon Telephone: 1300637326 In-Shop Computer Help and Technical Support Nerdcore Computers do in-shop PC and Mac desktop and laptop computer repair services. These computer services include; desktop repair, laptop repair, notebook LCD repair, mother boards, GPU, hard drive repair and replacement, power supply, video card, memory, CPU and all major computer components. Regardless if it’s a simple printer problem or Malware Viruses, Trojan Viruses, Spyware, or any of the many thousands of computer issues that could be causing your computer problems, Nerdcore Computers will resolve them. Our specialists fixes that simple printer problem or scans and clears your PC of viruses and secures your system quickly. Nerdcore Computers specializes in removing malware, trojans, backdoor viruses, conflicker viruses, contra viruses, darksma viruses, and defender viruses. Nerdcore Computer Specialists can install Windows 7, 8, 10 and Mac OS X Operating Systems. Nerdcore Computers has developed a strong partnership with many Australia businesses. We have earned a reputation as an active and aggressive player in many residential and business sectors providing In-Shop Tech Support. If you require In-Shop Tech Support, System Recovery, Operating System Install - Software, Computer Help & Technical Support call Nerdcore Computers on 1300nerdcore.

As a computer user, you have most likely faced one of the following Most Common Computer Desktop & Laptop Problems at one time or another. Here are the Most Common Computer Desktop & Laptop Problems The nerdcore group repairs: Windows or MAC Systems Business IT Technical support MacBook Air Repair MacBook Pro Repair iMac Repair Software Tech Support Microsoft Windows 10 Repairs PC Repairs System Setup / Move Old System Data to a New System Move Programs & Data from Old System to a New System Windows 10 stuck in restart loop Computer keeps rebooting on startup Home network setup services Laptop repetitive beep sound on startup Laptop sound not working Laptop touch pad touchiness Laptop turns on and off repeatedly Laptop does not turn on at all Laptop Screen is blank / black Laptop screen repair Cracked laptop screen replacement MacBook Pro screen repair Cracked MacBook Pro screen replacement Laptop Battery not charging properly Laptop Power Connector repair Laptop Power Connector replacement Laptop Keyboard repair Laptop Keyboard replacements Laptop liquid spill MacBook Pro liquid spill Computer is extremely slow Computer needs to be tuned up Computer is infected with Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Malware and Spyware Pop-ups Make Computer Unusable Applications or Programs that won't Install Applications or Programs run slowly Abnormal Applications or Program behavior Microsoft Windows Missing DLL File Computer is not responding, freezing, crashing, mouse not working Wireless Network setup & troubleshooting Wireless Router Security Setup Dropped Internet Connections Internet & E-mail setup & troubleshooting Outlook or Outlook Express emails are lost or missing Microsoft Outlook setup or repair Windows Reinstallation, Recovery & Re-format Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 Upgrade or Reinstallation Computer shows a blue screen... often referred to as Blue Screen of Death Computer won't start up - power supply problems Computer won't boot - corrupted files on hard drive or hard drive failure Computer keeps shutting down Synchronization & Consolidation of Contact lists & Databases Data backup On-line Data Backup Data Recovery - Personal or Business Security and data protection Lost Password(s) - Password Recovery for: 7, 2008, 2003, 2000, NT or MAC OS X Systems - Internet Explorer - Mozilla Firefox Password recovery for Outlook or Outlook Express - Microsoft Office Access, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, Publisher, Word - Adobe Acrobat - QuickBooks - Filemaker Password recovery for archives such as .zip, .rar, .exe files and many other programs Bios power on Password Removal Computer has overheating problems, cooling solutions Strange or garbled image on the screen Desktop Computer beeping Driver conflicts DVD RW / CD RW not working or replacement Memory (RAM) upgrade or replacement / installation Hard drive upgrade or replacement / installation Solid State Drive (SSD) upgrade or replacement / installation Graphics Card upgrade or replacement / installation Motherboard upgrade / installation Fan replacement or noise reduction Hardware Installations & Upgrades Software Installations & Upgrades File and Printer Sharing / Networking Printers and Scanners Setup / installation Tablets and Smartphones If you have one or more of these computer problems, you are at the right place. MR PC DOCTOR will do all these repairs either In-shop, On Location or On Line Remote Assistance. Call Nerdcore Computers today at 1300637326

Your network is arguably your business’s most valuable asset. It keeps your team connected to critical information and applications that are imperative to the continued success of your company. With complex cabling, however, your workstation and network infrastructure can quickly grow uncontrollable. Isn’t there an easier way to manage your network components that can help your business grow, unhindered by physical infrastructure? One of the best ways that you can improve your business’s infrastructure is by implementing a virtual network. Basically, this process entails taking your current physical network infrastructure, virtualizing it, and migrating it to the cloud, making the deployment and access of data much easier. Doing so allows you to tie all of your IT components together without having to go through the painful process of cabling. Furthermore, a virtual network provides the following benefits: Mobility: Most notable is the fact that virtual networks allow business owners and their employees to access data from anywhere with an Internet connection. This is particularly helpful while out of the office. If you’re at a trade show or on a business trip, you can access data while on the road. Or, if you have a team of remote employees, they can access files that are critical to your company’s success. Flexibility: Playing off of mobility, adding new network users can be a huge pain, especially when cabling is involved. Instead of physically being connected to a network, anyone with an Internet connection and proper credentials can access the network. This makes adding new users and connecting new workstations to your company’s network much easier. The Main Problem: Security Of course, the biggest problem that faces virtual networks is by far security. If you’re accessing your network through a local wireless signal, you’re placing all of your faith on the wireless Internet connection to be secure. Particularly in public places, doing this can put sensitive data in the way of hackers. You need a virtual network solution that’s capable of encrypting your data while it’s in transit; otherwise, any hacker on the network can grab your data, which makes using public networks a liability. A virtual private network (VPN) from Nerdcore Computers Management provides a quality solution to this problem. A VPN encrypts data that’s transferred along your business’s virtual network, protecting it while it’s in transit. This allows your business to send and receive information from your virtual machine without fear of it being compromised by hackers. It’s an absolute must-have technology for business owners that are constantly on the move for work purposes. To learn more about VPNs and other virtualization services, give the nerdcore group a call on 1300637326

These days it’s possible to feel completely confident about hacker attacks as long as you have the most effective security in place. But what is the most effective security? How do hackers work? How can you feel completely confident? If you want to know, read on. In order to attack someones network, you will need to know as much as you can about that network, so gathering as much information as possible is pretty much where they all start. The information can be technical or non-technical, for example, the partners of the target can be useful for them to know, the location of all office branches etc. This information can help hackers understand the possible technologies in place to stop them. Technical information may contain IP addresses in use, services available, etc. More services running on servers means more entry points. More entry points make it easier to get access. The more services running on servers means more points of entry for the hackers. For example, if you saw that server A only had port 21 open, but server B had 7 different ports open, then server B is the clear choice for entry because each open port is an entry point and you get full access if you can bypass the security to one port entry point, so the one with more options would be the clear choice. Now what if I deployed SERVER-B just to grab your attention, distracting you from some meaningful server SERVER-A. I may install a (fake) server SERVER-B for hackers to attack so as to safe guard my production servers, as soon as they start I can now study attack patterns. Is it not a brilliant idea? That’s called the honey pot. Basically, what a honey pot is is effectively a trap designed to detect, distract and generally counter attempts to hack into your servers. Usually its in the form of data or a network that appears to be part of your main system and to contain valuable data, but in fact its isolated and monitored. A honeypot is valuable as a surveillance and early-warning tool. It can carry risks to a network, and must be handled with care. If they are not properly walled off, an attacker can use them to break into a system. Honeypots can be classified based on their deployment and based on their level of involvement. Based on the deployment, they can be classified as: Production Honey Pots  and Research Honey Pots Production Honey Pots: These Honey Pots are used mainly by the bigger companies and corporations in order to increase their overall security. They are easy to use, and only capture a small amount of information which would be useless to a hacker. Research Honey Pots: These are run by volunteers or an educational organization to simply gather information about how hackers work, their motives and tactics in order to create better protection from them. To learn about great ways to enhance your software security and train to become an expert in their uses, browse through the security training courses on koenig-solutions.com where you’ll also find a great range of cisco training courses. Tags: Computer Networking, computers, hackers, internet, IT, network, online, online protection, security, systems, technology Category: Computer Networking

Laptops are becoming as much of a necessity as cell phones and choosing the right one for you can be cumbersome. Choosing the most feasible laptop in fact depends upon personal preference and usage. If we look at the laptops on the market today, each extols their own traits. However, the mainstream has the same attributes on average. Processors, chipsets, size of hard disk drives, DVD players, and a wireless interface are found on all laptops. Of course all the other standard features are also there too like network ports, USB ports, serial port, etc. Right now it’s the Intel i9 Core or the Ryzen processors that have taken the market by storm but there are multiple features you may want from your laptop. Some want to use their laptop for gaming so you’ll want high speed processors. Others want to listen to music while they are working and want high quality speakers. Still others require high quality graphics. Students want laptops that are lightweight as they have to be carried all over the campus. Elderly people also want lightweight computers. Some people want widescreen laptops. The individual needs for laptops are so speckled that one single laptop cannot realize all the wants. Laptop makers are active in trying to add more attributes and make their laptops more versatile. Here it’s not only the American laptop makers that are in stiff competition, there are laptop manufacturers world wide. All are trying to achieve a sizable niche in the world of laptops. So when you’re in the market for a laptop, first recognize your requirements. Is the weight of the laptop a concern for you? Should the laptop be so strong that it can resist falls or weights falling on them? What is the absolute elementary size of hard disk you require? How fast should the processor speed be? How much battery time do you need? After you’ve determined what you’re looking for,  do a search for that specific laptop. Cost will also be a main concern and you want your laptop to work for a long time. Also the type of guarantees that are presented by laptop manufacturers has to be taken into account. Some people fancy international warranties as they do a lot of traveling. You may replace your cell phone after a couple of months but not your laptop. Your laptop is going to be around for a long time. Laptops have become the life support systems for a number of people globally. Journalists, business executives, students, and many other people have now become totally dependent on their laptops so buying a feasible laptop is a big decision. What you want is a laptop that suits your needs, gives you the battery time you want and is not a burden to carry around. Finding an apt and viable laptop is not tough once you categorize what you require. Do some research and gawk at reviews on the diverse brands and models available. This little research will help to narrow down your choices then you should be able to find a suitable laptop that will meet your current and future needs. Tags: acer laptop repairs, branded laptops, buying a laptop, cheap laptops, Computer Shopping, dell laptop repairs, laptop, Laptops, notebook, shopping, shopping for a laptop, sony vaio laptop repairs, toshiba laptop repairs Category: Computer Shopping

A high quality data center disaster recovery plan is a must for any company. It is not wise to be complacent as there is no telling when a problem may occur or disaster may strike. This plan is not something to put off until it’s more convenient, or until you have more money or more time. Too many company managers make the mistake of concentrating on business proposals, deadlines, and meetings…failing to consider that the deadline for a good data center disaster recovery plan could be at any given time. Quite a few have paid dearly for this mistake. The disaster recovery solution enables the use of remote standby servers to take over an application in case of server or application failure. Data is replicated in real-time to the remote site by using data replication software or storage devices. When a failure is detected, recovery procedures are started automatically. There are currently two options available for disaster recovery: One being a 2 node: this is when there is one server on the local site and one server at the recovery site. The other being 3 node: this is when there are two servers at the local site and one at the recovery site. Having a top-notch data center disaster recovery plan is a good investment. Not only does it give the assurance of surviving a potential catastrophe, but it can save money over the longer-term by keeping your business running smoothly through efficient data management. Getting a high quality plan can offer your business a new life, while readily dismissing such a plan may lead to the death of your business. In more than one case, companies or individuals that lose important data to a fire or earthquake face a time of uncertainty that is unrivaled in the world of business conflicts and personal negativity. The pits of despair are now too familiar a home for those that have lost crucial pieces of data or information because of a strong type of calamity. Disaster data recovery can not only serve to restore the data to its original form but it can also restore relationships between them and, perhaps more profoundly, the human heart. Tags: Computer Data Recovery, data disaster recovery plan, data management, data recovery, data replication software, disaster recovery solution, failure data, standby servers Category: Computer Data Recovery

Life has taken a jet fast pace where there is no place for the “slow and the steady” to win the race. Evidently, electronic mixers have replaced the hand crusher/grinder in the kitchen, telephones have replaced the telegram and market hopping has given way for subsidized e-shopping. While this has become an inseparable part and parcel of our lives, we are still looking for alternative faster means of sustenance at a cost-effective price, which is also reflected on the market. For instance, cheap laptops and computers have taken the market on their stride. However, one has to be very careful while buying a cheap laptop. With the demand steadily going up, thanks to advanced education and the IT boom, retailers and manufacturers have started providing discount offers for the convenience of the users and the consumers. For instance, some of the computers nerdcore computers like to sell are HP, Acer, Sony, etc have some of the best bargains in cheap laptops that range from $350.00 to $1000.00 The demand for cheap portable laptops is going up at a steady pace with the present developments in the global market. The advanced education pertaining to information technology new aspects of this field are being developed with the passing day. The consumer markets pertaining to these goods are also picking sales with the help of different types of discounts, steal deals, and many more. If you are buying a second hand cheap laptop it is better to invest in one that has a memory of 8gb memory minimum. The memory space is the main determining factor in the amount of information that can be stored in the laptop. Once the memory in upgraded, the processor speed increases remarkably. Make sure that the second-hand laptop has a memory of at least 8gb memory. This is because if the speed of the processor is slow then you could store more information at a given time for further reference. A stark difference can be seen in the speed of the processor if the memory is slightly increased. If you can, just go to the dealer and ask for second hand laptops they can provide you with a very good option. But you have to go through the configuration well. The cost of these laptops will be far less than the new ones. Another thing while buying a second hand laptop is that the system should not be more than a year old. A cheap laptop needs at least 8 GB memory in order to function properly. If you want a notebook, buy one that has at least 8gb memory. It is your requirement that decides what laptop you should buy. A small screened laptop with a screen of 14.1 inch is the best option if you travel a lot. It is light, portable and its battery life is also better. Know all about the warranty period, the after sales service and the charges of servicing when buying cheap portable laptops. Then you are sure about where to go when your portable laptop gives you trouble. It saves your money as well. Combining service and cost-effectiveness, cheap portable laptops are the best when you want to buy one for your personal or professional use. Online sources can also give you ideas about the cheap portable laptops available in the market. We also buy second hand computers. Just remember 1300nerdcore

Being a computer repair company, we get all kinds of computers in our shop. Some customers wonder why we often need to get their computer in the shop before we can give a free estimate – and there are two main reasons! We need to be sure of the problem at hand If we give someone a quote over the phone for an OS reinstall, that’s a software-only procedure and thus has no part-cost tied to it. If we get to look at it later and unfortunately something ELSE is a problem (need to replace a hard drive, for example) the estimate is useless because now we need to do more work on the computer, AND we need to account for the cost of the part. Thus, a customer can get upset and feel like they were lied to on the phone with the first quote. We try to avoid this situation completely and take a look at the computer before we give an estimate, or we make sure that the customer knows we will need to inspect the computer before we do anything to verify that the estimate we gave is still accurate. Some computers are more “repairable” than others Most PC desktop computers are pretty simple and easy to get into. Replacing a part is straightforward and usually doesn’t have any unseen complications. Getting into some laptops and iMacs can be a real hassle sometimes though! In fact, some newer Chromebooks are almost impossible to open up for hardware replacements without severely damaging the computer. There are so many different types of PC laptops out there now that it’s hard for the customer to give a full-detailed description of the computer they’re bringing in. We might be expecting one type of laptop and when it gets in the shop and we realize we under-estimated how long it will take to open up the computer and replace a part (and therefore we need to increase the labor cost). In rare cases, we might get surprised with the laptop and have to tell a customer that we can’t safely perform hardware repairs on their model! Both of those scenarios can be avoided if we avoid giving an estimate until we get the computer in front of us. That being said, many customers want to hear something over the phone, so we try to assess the situation as best we can and give a tentative estimate. Ring our service team during covid Just remember 1300nerdcore

You’ve probably heard of Cloud computing and services, but you may not know the many assets that it provides. By taking advantage of cloud services, small and medium-sized business owners gain access to numerous solutions and products ranging from hosted servers and email, virtual desktops, and industry and business applications. Since the inception of Cloud services, the industry has seen various improvements. The following benefits make cloud computing in 2020 more useful than ever. Three Reasons You Should Use Cloud Computing in 2020 Cloud services change the way small businesses use technology and operate day-to-day. Whether your goals are to increase productivity in the workplace or strengthen your security efforts, cloud computing has solutions to help you achieve them. Continue reading to learn how you can improve productivity with your business and your employees and take advantage of these improvements to cloud services in 2020. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is Cost-Effective SaaS now contributes $20 billion to the quarterly revenues of software vendors. The number is expected to grow with 32 percent each year. As SaaS continues to grow, there are more specialized platforms to monitor and manage the spend on cloud-based apps. Plus, with the Cloud, you’ll be hosting databases and software remotely. This means you won’t have to budget the purchase and maintenance of equipment. Typically with cloud computing, you pay for services as you go, and you only pay for what you end up using. Since you won’t be paying for things you don’t need, you’ll ultimately save money by switching to the Cloud. AI Offers Improved Security As cybercrime damages are expected to reach $6 trillion annually by 2021, cybersecurity is a growing concern around the world. With the implementation of Artificial Intelligence, the Cloud can detect security threats and help businesses become proactive in protecting against unauthorized entrance into cloud services. AI in Cloud computing provides you with excellent security standards that keep your confidential information safe. There are policies, procedures, and technologies in place to protect cloud-based systems. These security protocols will protect your company from third-party tampering when transmitting data to clients or fellow employees. While you’re looking for cloud services, find a company that will assess security threats and provides the right solutions for your business through AI. Cloud Services Support Flexible Schedules 4.3 million people in the Australia work from home at least half of the time. The same report indicates that 40 percent more Australian companies offer remote work than five years ago. With more and more employees working from home, cloud services can support remote work by providing your employees with everything they need online.  As an employer, you may be concerned with your employees’ productivity while working at home. You can rest assured knowing that 77 percent of workers report higher productivity while working remotely, and 52 percent are less likely to take time off work. Providing this flexibility and accessibility has the opportunity to pay off in the long run. Are you thinking about making the switch to the Cloud? Our local experts will help you understand how the Cloud works, what services it can provide your business, and decide if it’s the right fit for your business. Get in touch with us today by finding the office nearest you!

What's new You expect your data, applications, and systems to always be available. Acronis True Image 2021 does that by delivering true cyber protection, integrating reliable backups and advanced antimalware in one. Real-time protection Cyberthreats are constantly evolving, with 350,000 new types of malware being reported every day. Our integrated, AI-enhanced antimalware technology blocks them all – even those never seen before – by checking every file you interact with to detect and stop malicious activity in real-time. On-demand antivirus scans Ensure threats aren’t lurking on your computer by scanning for malware whenever you want. Choose a quick scan of files that are most typically where malware will hide or conduct a full system scan to check everything. You can schedule a scan or run one with the click of a button. Web filtering Most websites are useful, informative, or fun – but others are designed to inject malware, ransomware, and cryptojackers onto your system, or harbor scams, fake news, and phishing threats. Our new protection automatically blocks those malicious URLs the moment someone tries to visit them. Videoconference protection As work applications like Zoom, Cisco Webex, and Microsoft Teams are used to keep people family and friends connected, they don’t have IT support ensuring their security. Acronis’ new protections stop malware injection attacks and prevent hackers from exploiting these tools on your machine. Visual protection dashboard Your data is valuable, but so is your time. That’s why our Protection Dashboard let’s you quickly run scans, manage exclusion lists and quarantined items, etc., and monitor your protection at a glance with graphic displays of files checked, threats found, threats stopped, and the status of scans. New capabilities Signature-based analysis Traditional antivirus defenses deliver constantly updated protection by checking for updates to the threat database every five minutes. Behavioral analysis engine Our new dynamic detection engine is able to identify malware when it executes based on how it interacts with your Windows machine. CPU load balancing A new load-balancing setting keeps your computer’s CPU from overloading during antivirus scans by giving priority to other applications. Protection pause Suspend protection functions when you want for as long as you want: resume them automatically, on a schedule, or on your next restart. Quarantine and exclusions Potential threats are isolated in quarantine, while you control exclusion lists that allow approved programs to run uninterrupted. Windows Security Center Integration with Windows’ built-in protection ensures compliance with Windows guidelines and compatibility with other security solutions. Enhancement highlights Quick backup validation You now have the option to validate only the latest version for your backup, which significantly speeds up the standard process for validating the effectiveness of your backups. Resumable replication If the replication of a backup is interrupted, the replication process restarts from the point of the interruption, ensuring data isn’t duplicated – saving you time and cloud storage space. More backup functionality Several in-demand capabilities have been incorporated so you can do more with your backup files, such as the ability for .tibx archives to be mounted, moved, renamed, and converted to the .vhd format. Faster anywhere access Our Web Restore page has been redesigned to deliver faster, convenient, and more secure access to your cloud data – including the new option to password-protect your shared files and folders. Author Nerdcore Computers

Personal or business computers networked in a peer to peer fashion might function well when the number of interconnected users ranges from 2 to 3. If the number of users exceeds the aforementioned range, you should consider setting up a server to serve all your online business requirements. A server based network has several benefits that are tailor made for small business ventures. Let’s take a peek at a few of them without further ado. A server gives your business a whole lot of reliability Every business wants to lay their foundations on a bed of reliability. If that’s your thing, a server is an absolute must for you. Why? Let’s see. Say for example, you have three working PCs on an interlinked network connection. If one PC fails (on basis of any motherboard, hard disk or power supply faults) on the interlinked network, your entire system goes down until and unless the problems are diagnosed successfully with proper solutions. A server, on the other hand is an effective solution to such a serious issue. Server hardware maintains redundant hardware to tackle these issues at moment’s notice. In such cases, the failure of one device doesn’t guarantee the failure of the entire server system. Thus, it can continue to serve your business with full gusto even after the failure of a petty little associated device unlike your interlinked PCs. Reliability you wanted, reliability you’ll get. A server provides your business with network security This can be considered one of the best and most significant benefits of a server. By creating distinguished group and individual accounts, individual right can be assigned to users based on the nature and amount of data they can access on basis of their requirements. This can bring down unauthorized data access to a great extent and can provide your network with additional security that you had craved for in the past. For example: If you have a sales team and a HR team in your company, both would not be able to access data of one another even if the entire data is present on a single server. A server provides your business with a seamless remote accessibility A Windows 2020 server would give you the option to have 2 remote users on its network at the same time by default. And it also gives you the opportunity to add as many remote users you want in the near future through Remote Desktop licensing or a 3rd party software. Thus, geographical barriers cease to be a problem anymore. Your workers will be able to work remotely and access files on your server whenever they want wherever they are. They would also be able to access their individual company emails from any web browser on their respective devices whenever they want from anywhere in the world. You can’t ask for more than that; can you? A server provides your business with a centralized back up facility Data losses occur commonly in workplaces for several reasons ranging from machine failures to carelessness. These things create huge issues especially when the workplace functions in the absence of a server. A server can be considered a blessing in this aspect because it aids a lot in smoothing up your data backup process. You will be able to back up all your data including your mails to a centralized storage on your server and reduce all the hassles associated with data losses thereby, improving your workplace productivity at the same time. A server system aids in proper virus management One of the greatest threats faced by your network is a possible virus or spyware infection. Hence, an antivirus system is an absolute necessity these days. A server system can aid a lot in convenient virus management. The system administrator will be able to deploy the anti-virus software from a single PC to each workstation PC connected on the network, run a network wide scan as a whole (including the devices connected on the WiFi network) and remove all sorts of viruses if any. So you can very well see that this convenience is basically unmatched. Thanks to the compact server system, the entire virus management process can be done from a single PC itself. Always remember that expenses incurred in creating a server based network isn’t just a cost. It’s an investment; an invest having high ROI especially when your small business venture is concerned. It’s definitely going to benefit you in the long run. Author Nerdcore computers

10 x Hp 8200 small form factor desktop 2nd generation core i5 14 x Hp 6300 small form factor 3rd generation core i5 9 x Hp 8200 small form factor 2nd generation core i5 - 1 has slight cosmetic damage 2x Lenovo m91p think centre core i5 2nd gen They were from a school all information is deleted wiped you have to reinstall windows 10 with the license that comes with each computer Most have hard drives and memory all come with power cords all have windows 10 professional licenses Please ring me on 0468546397 if i dont answer leave a message or on facebook messenger i will return your call. serious buyers only location is Hughesdale Selling all together no separations. All working an tested an in very good condition. None are bios locked would suit computer technician a courier drop off service might be available depending on the bubble opening in your area. We have work permits to drive around. A small fee will be included. If you are in regional victoria an can have them collected from our office in Hughesdale address will be provided once you ring. Available by appointment $3400.00

Fast, Powerful and Easy Whether you need to run Windows programs that don’t have Mac versions, or you are making the switch from PC to Mac and need to transfer your data, Parallels Desktop has you covered. Pros Near-effortless installation of Windows in OS X. Lets you open Windows files in Mac apps or Mac files in Windows apps. Deep integration options give Windows apps access to OS X folders. Fastest performance of any virtual-machine software. Cons Minor stability issues. Unless you turn off many options, the OS X interface gets cluttered with Windows icons. Bottom Line Parallels Desktop is the first choice for beginners and non-technical users who want to run Windows apps under OS X. Parallels Desktop is the fastest and friendliest way to run Windows apps on a Mac for the majority of users who are likely to want to do so. IT pros may prefer VMware Fusion; expert users who want no-cost apps will prefer the open-source VirtualBox. Hardcore gamers may prefer Apple's Boot Camp, which lets users boot directly into Windows, with the added bonus of native graphics card support. For most ordinary Mac users who prefer Windows versions of apps like Microsoft Office or AutoCAD, however, or who use Windows-only apps like CorelDraw or WordPerfect Office, Parallels Desktop is the clear first choice for virtualization software. Parallel's Performance Compared to VMware, Parallels starts up Windows at top speed in testing. On my vintage 2015 MacBook Pro, Parallels boots Windows 10 to the desktop in 35 seconds, compared to 60 seconds for VMware. VirtualBox matches Parallels' boot speed, but it performs far fewer integration tasks while booting up. For example, VirtualBox doesn't provide printer integration and the ability to open Windows files with Mac apps and vice versa. One reason for Parallels' bootup speed advantage is that Parallels uses an emulated PC BIOS that supports the Fast Startup option, and the others don't. The speed difference isn't nearly as obvious when running Windows apps after the OS starts up, however. Parallels feels slightly faster than its rivals, but not drastically so. Fast as it is, Parallels won't satisfy hard-core gamers because Parallels, like VMware Fusion, only supports DirectX 10, while VirtualBox only supports DirectX 9. There's nothing that Parallels can do about this limitation, which is the result of the Mac's limited support for OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) features. By default when Parallels runs a Windows system, any files on your Mac desktop will also appear on your Windows desktop. This may sound convenient, but it's a feature that I always to turn off in Parallels' settings dialog. One reason I turn it off is that it leaves the Windows desktop cluttered. Another is that much of what I keep on my Mac desktop—like folders and apps—simply won't work when I click on them in Parallels' Windows desktop. Parallels tends to go overboard with integration features, turning them on by default whether you want them or not Parallels starts up with a menu for creating a new virtual machine or opening an existing one. This is where Parallels' focus on ordinary end users shines best. Unlike all other virtualization apps, Parallels doesn't expect you to have a Windows or Linux installer disk or disk image ready when you start it up, although it can use that image if you have one. Instead, Parallel's user-helpful menu lets you buy a Windows 10 download directly from Microsoft, or simply download a Windows 10 installer if you already have a license key. Another set of options lets you install a Parallels system-export utility on your Windows PC, and export it to Parallels via a network (slowly) or an external drive. A scrolling list at the foot of the menu lets you download specific versions of Linux or Android, install a virtual copy of macOS from your Mac's hidden recovery partition, or install Windows from a Boot Camp partition if you have one. Platforms and Pricing Parallels Desktop supports all Windows versions since Windows 2000, all Intel-based macOS versions (with some exceptions for licensing reasons), many flavors of Linux, BSD, Solaris, and a few other OSes. VMware Fusion and VirtualBox are even more flexible, and can run historical curiosities like OS/2 and NeXTSTEP. Also, unlike Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion and VirtualBox have versions that run on Windows and Linux machines, while Parallels Desktop is Mac-only. Office 365 Integration Allows Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents in Safari to open in their native Windows Office app. Works with Boot Camp Reuse your existing Boot Camp installation. Converting a virtual machine from Boot Camp is easy, just follow our installation assistant at startup. Retina Display Support Smart resizing and independent screen resolutions for separate displays. One-Click Tuning Select productivity, games, design, software testing, or development and Parallels Desktop will optimize your VM settings and performance for you. Instant Access Launch and access Windows applications right from the Mac Dock. Save Disk Space Get the most out of your Mac with automatic Disk Space optimization. Volume License Key Unified volume license key, centralized license management and advanced security features are available in Parallels Desktop Business Edition. Travel Mode Extend battery life while away from a power source. Parallels Toolbox Bonus with Subscription! Over 30 one-touch tools—clean your drive, take screenshots, download a video and more—all with just a single click. Remote AccessBonus with Subscription! Remote access to your Mac from any iOS device, Android device or browser with Parallels Access®. 24/7 Support Premium 24/7 phone, email and social support after activation.

Windows 10 is, by and large, a pretty good operating system. Microsoft have gone in hard on keeping their operating systems as unified as possible with forceful (though no longer completely mandatory updates), free upgrades to older Windows users and so on. Unfortunately, a possible consequence of Microsoft’s fast pushing of Windows updates means that some of them cause problems. There are some improvements. At the start of 2020 Microsoft revealed that drivers pending approval will no longer be released concurrently with Windows 10 updates, but so far this year it seems that updates are just as prone to causing problems as they were before. KB4566782: BSOD, Green(!) Screen of Death, Performance Issues (Lenovo users worst-affected)While BSOD (or Blue Screen of Death) errors are bad, at least there’s a familiarity to them and a sense that the Windows OS feels designed to do something about them. Green screens of death, on the other hand, are much rarer, and therefore scarier, and that’s what some users are reporting with this recent ‘bug-fixing’ update. Luckily, GSOD is basically the same thing as BSOD, so it’s not like it’s necessarily more serious, but it’s still a cause for concern much like any broken Windows 10 update. Lenovo users seem to be disproportionately affected by the unwanted side-effects of this August 2020 update. While we wait for an official fix, some users have reported that disabling virtualization features like Hyper-V- Intel virtualization and Windows Sandbox can help. [FIXED] May 2020 (2004) Update: “No Internet” Warning What is a computer without internet? Many users who have downloaded the Windows 10 May 2020 update (v2004) are probably in a good position to answer this philosophical question after the update has been causing the “No internet” indicator to appear, despite the fact that they can continue browsing the web. Users have been reporting that in the notification tray, the yellow hazard triangle has appeared over the Wi-Fi or ethernet symbol, denoting that there is no internet access. This issue occurs over both wired and wireless connections. While the internet should still work with this error, various apps like Spotify, Cortana and Microsoft Store might not. The Fix While Microsoft sorts this issue, you can fix it in the registry editor like so: Open the registry editor (Win + R then regedit), back up the registry, then go to the following registry address: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NlaSvc\Parameters\Internet Double-click “EnableActiveProbing”, change the “value data” to 1, then click OK and restart your PC. [FIXED] May 2020 (2004) Update Blocked This is a strange one. Many Windows users have now received the option to manually install the Windows 10 May 2020 update. But when they click it, they just get the notification that “This PC can’t be upgraded to Windows 10”. Don’t worry, this isn’t a problem at your PC’s end. It just that there are unspecified “unsupported settings” in this version of Windows 10 that aren’t yet ready to be released to the public. It’s annoying, but it’s simply a case of waiting out the update until it’s ready at Microsoft’s end. Granted, it’s a ‘May’ update and we’re now in July, but that’s the Windows update process for you! On the bright side, it’s good to see Microsoft withholding an update on account of it not being ready, because a rushed release could lead to similar problems to those listed below. KB4556799: BSOD, Flickering Screen, Audio Issues, Buggy Fonts The latest Windows 10 update, KB455699, is meant to improve stability for the latest versions of Windows 10 (v1903 and v1909). While it does that for most users, it also doubles as a Who’s Who of Windows update problems for some – including a Blue Screen of Death, white flickers, changes to system fonts, audio problems Based on the number of problems it causes, this update is one of the worst Windows 10 updates to date. Thankfully, Microsoft has made it easier to uninstall Windows 10 updates, and this problem can be fixed by doing that. Scroll down for pointers on how to uninstall Windows updates. How to Fix and Avoid Broken Windows 10 Updates Uninstall Windows 10 Updates You can uninstall smaller Windows 10 updates (to roll back builds, see next heading) by doing the following. In Windows, go to Settings -> Update & Security -> View update history -> Uninstall updates. In this window, scroll down in the main pane to the “Microsoft Windows” heading, and you’ll see all the KB and security updates for Windows 10, along with the dates they were installed. Simply right-click the one you want to uninstall, and reboot your PC. How to Roll Back Windows 10 Builds After every major update Windows 10 gives you a ten-day window to roll back to a previous version of Windows. It’s a useful feature and should give you enough time to judge whether you have a problematic update. Of course, this won’t recover your files if Windows 10 deletes them, but at least you’ll be on a more stable version of the OS. To do this, go to Windows 10 Settings, then click “Update & security -> Recovery.” Below “Reset this PC” you should see the option to “go back to the previous version of Windows 10.” Click “Get started,” then follow the steps to roll back Windows 10. Again, this option is only available for ten days after a Windows 10 build update. Check Your Windows 10 Build Before looking into rolling back and fixing broken Windows 10 updates, you need to check which build of Windows you’re currently on, which will confirm which issues are affecting you. To do this, just go to “Settings -> Update & Security -> View update history.” In the new window click the arrow next to “Feature Updates” to see the version of Windows that you’re currently using, and click “Quality Updates” to see all the smaller “KB” updates you have installed. Block and Defer Windows 10 Updates The first thing you can do to avoid getting the above update problems and more is to take over the control when your Windows 10 updates. This way you can hold off getting updates the moment Microsoft rolls them out, monitor the news for a bit to see if any major errors crop up, then manually do the update yourself. Recently, Windows Insiders revealed that an update is coming to Windows 10 (around April 2019) which will allow all Windows users (including Home users) to pause updates by up to seven days. In the meantime, if you’re on Windows 10 Pro, enterprise, Education or S, you can postpone updates by going to Settings -> Update & Security -> Windows Update. Here, select the option ‘Choose when updates are installed’ and pick the number of days you’d like to delay it by. Few things on PC are more frustrating than an update – ostensibly to improve performance – borking your system, but unfortunately Microsoft has form in this respect. Other teething issues with Windows 10 include the Start menu search not working and the Windows Store not working, so we can help you out there too!

How to Check if wget is Installed? Most likely, the wget package is already on your system as it now comes pre-installed on most Linux distributions. To check, open the terminal window and type in: wget If you have the wget software, the output tells you that the wget command is missing a URL, as shown in the image below: wget Command Not Found If the output displays wget command not found you need to download and install the tool manually. Below you will find the installation instructions for Ubuntu/Debian, CentOS, and Windows. How to Install wget on Ubuntu/Debian? To install wget on Ubuntu or Debian releases, use the command: sudo apt-get install wget How to Install wget on CentOS/Fedora? To install wget on CentOS or Fedora, type the following command: sudo yum install wget How to Install wget on Windows? To install and configure wget for Windows: Download wget for Windows and install the package. Add the wget bin path to environment variables (optional). Configuring this removes the need for full paths, and makes it a lot easier to run wget from the command prompt: Open the Start menu and search for “environment.” SelectEdit the system environment variables. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button. Select the Path variable under System Variables. Click Edit. In the Variable value field add the path to the wget bin directory preceded by a semicolon (;). If installed in the default path, add C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin. Open the command prompt (cmd.exe) and start running wget commands. Introduction to wget Syntax The wget syntax has the following pattern: wget [option][URL] Each [option] has its long and short form which are conveniently interchangeable. This attribute specifies what to do with the URL that follows. [URL] is the address of the file or directory you wish to download. wget Command Examples Download File from Web To download a file from the web use: wget [URL] For example, to install Tomcat 9, first you need to download the package with wget using the command: wget http://apache.cs.utah.edu/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.20/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.20.tar.gz Download File and Save Under Specific Name To download a file and save it under a specified name run: wget –O [file_name] [URL] The wget command allows you to rename files prior to downloading them on your computer. For instance, you may want to install Terraform. To download the package and rename it terraform.zip use the following command: wget –O terraform.zip https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/0.12.2/terraform_0.12.2_linux_amd64.zip Download File to Specific Directory By default wget downloads a file in the directory the user is in. To save the file in a different location, add the –P option: wget –P [wanted_directory] [URL] For example, while installing Git on Ubuntu, you can download the package in the /temp directory with the command: wget –P /temp https://github.com/git/git/archive/master.zip Set Download Speed You can set the download speed when downloading a big file, so it does not use the full available bandwidth. The download speed is defined in kilobytes (k) and megabytes (m). Use the command: wget --limit-rate [wanted_speed] [URL] For example, if you are installing NVIDIA TESLA drivers on Linux and want to limit the download speed to 1 megabyte, would use the command: wget --limit-rate 1m http://us.download.nvidia.com/tesla/396.37/nvidia-diag-driver-local-repo-ubuntu1710-396.37_1.0-1_amd64.deb Continue Download After Interruption Instead of having to start from scratch, wget can resume downloading where it stopped before the interruption. This is a useful feature if there is a lost of connection while downloading a file. wget –c [URL] For instance, you may want to install a Mumble Server on Linux and suddenly lose internet connection while downloading the installation file. To continue downloading, type in the command: wget –c https://github.com/mumble-voip/mumble/releases/download/1.2.19/murmur-static_x86-1.2.19.tar.bz2 Download Multiple Files wget allows downloading multiple files at the same time using the command: wget –i [file_name] To do so, follow the steps outlined below: 1. First, create and open a file under the name MultipleDownloads.txt (or a name of your choice), using a text editor. In this case, we used Nano: nano MultipleDownloads.txt 2. Once in the editor, add the URLs of the packages you want to download, one per line. 3. Save and exit the file. 4. Run the following wget command in the terminal window: wget –i MultipleDownloads.txt This prompts wget to download from each URL in the text file. Download Web page (Mirror Web page) With wget you can download an entire website from the internet, using the –m option. It prompts wget to create a mirror of the specified webpage. The basic command for doing so is: wget –m [URL] For example: wget –m https://phoenixnap.com Download via FTP To download via FTP, type in the username and password of the FTP server, followed by the ftp address: wget --ftp-user=[ftp_username] --ftp-password=[ftp_password] ftp://... For instance: wget --ftp-user=sofiftp --ftp-password=TopSecretPassword ftp://123.456.7890 Download in Background You can download in the background, a practical feature when dealing with a large file: wget –b [URL] You can check the status of the download with the command: tail –f wget –log To download the RPM package manager in the background, type: wget –b http://some_website/sample_file.rpm Increase Retry Attempts You can set how many times wget attempts to download a file after being interrupted by a bad network with: wget --tries=[number_of_tries] [URL] By default, the number of retry attempts is set to 20. You can also set the number to infinity with the values 0 or inf, as in the following example: wget --tries=inf http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/rhel/virtualbox.repo Skip Certificate Check By default, wget checks whether the server has a valid SSL/TLS certificate. If it does not identify an authentic certificate, it refuses to download. The --no-check-certificate option is used to avoid certificate authorities checking for a server certificate. However, utilize it only if you are sure of the website’s credibility or are not worried about security issues it may cause. wget --no-check-certificate [URL] If http://enteratonerisk.com has an untrusted certificate, but will not harm the system, you can download it with: wget --no-check-certificate http://enteratonerisk.com Change User Agent When downloading a webpage, wget essentially emulates a browser. In some cases, the output might say you don’t have permission to access the server, or that the connection is forbidden. This may be due to a website blocking client browsers that have a specific “User-Agent.” “User-Agent” is a header field that the browser sends to the server it wants to access. Therefore, to download from a server that is refusing to connect, try to modify the user agent. Find a database of all user agents online, search for the one you need and run the command: wget --user-agent=”User Agent Here” “[URL]” or wget –U ”User Agent Here” “[URL]” For example, to emulate Chrome (version 74), you would change the user agent with the command: wget --user-agent=” Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/74.0.3729.169 Safari/537.36” “https://phoenixnap.com” Conclusion This article sums up why wget is such a powerful tool for downloading files over the internet. It also serves as a good reference for beginners with its list of 12 essential wget commands and examples.

Dell latitude xfr e6420 2420m core i5 2.9 ghz 8 gb mem 512 gb ssd hdd Windows 10 Professional 8 gb mem rs32 com port connection vga in hdmi non touch screen 14 inch hd wireless 14 inch hd finger print scanner dvd rom reader new battery new charger condition is used military specification rugged laptop ex office surplus equipment 1 month warranty basic Buy this now for $1500.00

We help developers work faster by automating common, repetitive tasks to enable them to stay focused on code design and the big picture. We provide tools to explore and familiarize with code bases faster. Our products make it easy for you to take care of quality during all stages of development and spend less time on maintenance tasks. The JetBrains way of doing things Dog fooding is not just a philosophy at JetBrains but a way of life. We are in a position to use the tools we develop to develop our own tools, and this provides us with unique insight into our products. If we are not satisfied with what we are using, we make sure to do something about it, even if that means creating a new product. Watch the video!

Once a small business has scaled beyond two or three personnel, likely it’s time to buy a server computer for the office. Depending on the context, the term “server” may refer to server hardware, software, or the functionality of either or both. As with any equipment purchase, the logical place to start is with one simple question: what problem do you want the server to solve? Is the answer in the cloud? Your first choice when it comes to servers is whether or not you actually need one physically in your office. For businesses tight on space, introducing a business server may not be the best idea. Leasing a server on the cloud sometimes makes more sense—especially for small businesses that don’t have a robust IT infrastructure. However, there are limits to what you can do with a cloud-based server. Cloud servers are ideal for when businesses are first starting out. However, cloud costs grow as a business adds headcount. Monthly costs accumulate as data grows. Eventually, business sense says to bring some server infrastructure in-house. If you’re at this point, you’ll want to scale up not scale out with your infrastructure, which means using a combined, hybrid approach to your data architecture. If you decide that you definitely need the server on premises, then you should choose whether to assemble a server in-house or to purchase a pre-built. Building vs. Buying Building and buying both have their advantages and disadvantages. Buying a server gives you plenty of value from bundled software, warranty, and support from a brand-name manufacturer. Building a server, on the other hand, gives you the opportunity to custom-tailor your build so it’s tuned to the application you’re deploying. Keep in mind that purchasing a pre-built server may still require you to physically build out the system—certain SKUs may not include hard drives, memory, or optical drives. You may need to install them in-house before acclimating them to your environment. How does server hardware determine function? Servers do an amazing range of tasks. Does that mean one type of server is better than another for specific functions? Yes and no. Certain hardware specifications lend themselves to various tasks. At the hardware level, a server shares much in common with a standard PC. It’s helpful to think of servers as computers that dish out resources for other computers to use in order to illustrate the relationship. Server components differ in that they have extra features for 24/7 operation. For example, ECC server memory has error-correction firmware built into the controller is an extra protection against downtime. Additionally servers may have backup hardware components encased in the build—a redundant power supply, central processor, or hot-swappable drive bays—if one part faults out, backups step up and keep the data accessible for users. What is the server hardware doing? Server resources tie closely to three specific types of hardware: hard disk storage; CPU size—number of cores, and to a lesser extent, clock speed; and the capacity of on-board server memory (RAM). A file server will have multiple bays for hard drives since it’s primarily used for storage. A database server that handles lots of user queries benefits from a large (12- or 16-core) CPU. Web servers and application servers have framework-specific requirements you might reference, usually the number of users querying or writing to the database affects how robust you should go with the hardware. How to pick the right server for the job So, getting back to that initial question—what will your server actually do? A business buys a server to handle one or more specific tasks: Sharing assets with file server, or network attached storage (NAS) appliance across a local network or as so-called private cloud storage. Look for: multiple hot-swappable drive bays, configurable hardware/software RAID options; a low-power CPU should suffice. Providing authentication for a domain. Username, password, levels of access, and security settings resides in a designated server computer or network switch. Called a domain controller (DC) in Windows Server, and used for managing Active Directory (AD). Look for: a virtualization-capable server (any 64-bit CPU, 4 GB+ RAM) Providing database services to other servers. Applications and websites are built upon a database layer which is often stored on its own server. Development and non-user specific tasks like data analysis, mining, archiving, and storage using Oracle, MySQL, MS Access, and similar applications utilizes this server hardware. Look for: hard drives rated for fast writes; deploy an identical backup ‘slave’ server as a read-only database. Hosting a website with a web server. Web servers use HTTP to serve files that make up web pages served to users browsing a website. Web servers work in tandem with a database server. This may occur within the same physical hardware server, or by using two servers networked together. Look for: hardware redundancy especially if you host e-commerce. Increasing server RAM capacity benefits performance under load. Providing e-mail services with a mail server. Messaging servers, like Microsoft Exchange, use specific protocols (SMTP, POP3, IMAP) to send and receive messages. Dedicating server hardware to this task is recommend for optimal operation. Look for: similar specifications as a file server. Controlling shared peripheral equipment, like a printer. Low-power specs will suffice. You might repurpose and old PC as a print server if you have one. Running shared softwareon an application server. Centralizing applications their native framework (Java, PHP, .NET, various flavors of .js) improves performance under heavy usage, makes updates easier, and reduces TCO for maintaining tools organizations use for productivity. Look for: enterprise-grade storage bays (SAS hard drives) and ECC RAM. Note that un-virtualized instances tend to work better for development. Choosing server form factor to fit your physical space Servers come in several different physical form factors that can be classified into three umbrellas: tower, blade, and rack mount. The form factors are determined by the server case; you’ll find the same components on the inside of comparable models. Tower – A tower server resembles a regular desktop computers—except that they have server components inside. Same as their PC cousins, towers come in several different shapes. These make sense as first servers because they can offer plenty of processing power and don’t require you to purchase additional mounting hardware. The drawback of tower servers is that they take up more room than either rack mount or blade setups once you start adding more. Rackmount –Rack mount servers need to be installed onto a rack chassis. A chassis, typically several feet high, can hold multiple servers on top of each other in slots. Consider rack mount units when you have several servers and want to consolidate them into a smaller space. Blade – Similar to rack mount servers in that they require a chassis to be installed. Blade servers are even more space-efficient than rack mount servers. However, properly cooling blade servers can be more challenging; consider these when your server closet scales into a server room. They are an even bigger investment than rack mount servers. Server Operating Systems When you use a computer in client/server architecture, the server operating system (server OS) is designed specifically for making sure computing power is distributed appropriately to the endpoint machines on the domain. Configuring the server OS is what enables a server computer to act in various roles of deployment, as a mail server, file server, domain controller, web server, application server, and so forth. Think of a server OS as a more advanced and stable operating system than a desktop or mobile OS you would use on a client computer. A server OS supports more RAM, is more efficient with CPU power, and supports a greater number of network connections. They provide administrators a main interface for authenticating users, managing applications and file storage, and setting up permissions and other administrative processes across the domain. There are dozens of server operating systems. Proprietary server OSes like Windows Server, Ubuntu Server, CentOS, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are some of the more popular choices for running medium-size business domains. Conclusion Plan ahead five years when assessing your server needs. It’s a waste of money to outgrow your infrastructure before end of life. Choosing a business server workstation, especially your first one, can either improve the way professionals carry out their tasks or be a potential bottleneck. If they don’t have enough storage bays, you may easily find yourself rushing to purchase another machine with even more drive bays. You can avoid both overpaying and bottle necking your office simply by allowing your organizational data room to grow. The SMB server buying guide was first published 9-4-2020 by the nerdcore group small business server team and is updated subsequently at the beginning each year.