Search Results
951 results found with an empty search
- AMD Ryzen Processors for Desktops 9000 series - Nerdcore Custom AMD PCs
AMD Ryzen™ Processors for Desktops For incredible gaming, professional-grade productivity, and magical AI experiences. The Fastest Gaming Processor the World has Ever Seen AMD Ryzen™ 7 9800X3D is here. The Fastest Gaming Processors in the World Only AMD Ryzen™ processors feature models with exclusive AMD 3D V-Cache™ technology for a massive gaming performance boost. AMD combines its flagship Ryzen 9800X3D processor with a colossal 104MB of on-chip memory, paired with the most advanced processor cores you can get in a gaming PC so enthusiasts can harness the power of the ultimate gaming performance.3 AMD Ryzen Processors for Desktops 9000 series - Nerdcore Custom AMD PCs Play Games without a Graphics Card The latest AMD Ryzen G-Series processors feature best-in-class graphics built-in4, so you can play virtually any PC game out there in high definition without the added expense of a graphics card. And if you want to take your gaming to the next level later, you can add a high-performance graphics card whenever you want. Professional-Grade Productivity Whether you are working in Microsoft Office, exporting video files, or visualizing an architectural dream in 3D, AMD Ryzen processors are built to beat the clock. With premium options that include time-saving connectivity like PCIe® 5.0 storage support, ultra-fast Wi-Fi® 6E5, AMD EXPO™ technology 6, up to 32 processing threads, and dedicated video accelerators7, elevate your experience with AMD Ryzen processors. AMD Ryzen Processors for Desktops 9000 series - Nerdcore Custom PCs AMD Ryzen delivers the power of personal AI processing For decades AMD has pioneered technology to push the limits of what AI can accomplish, so now you can experience the power of your very own, incredibly advanced Artificial Intelligence technology.8 Be ready to usher in the future with new capabilities that only AMD Ryzen can provide. Whether it's enabling the ultimate AI platform with the Ryzen 9000 series, or AMD Ryzen AI with select Ryzen 8000G series processors, the it’s your key to unlock magical AI experiences on your PC. Exclusive AMD 3D V-Cache™ Technology The Ultimate Gaming Hardware AMD 3D V-Cache™ technology delivers a huge game performance advantage with up to 144MB of on-chip memory, available on AMD Ryzen X3D Series processors.11 Leadership Efficiency With Eco-Mode and New Low-Power Models AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors can deliver up to 49% more performance at the same power level compared to last gen. Use even less power with exclusive Eco-Mode, or choose one of the new low-power 65W models in the lineup.12 Unlocked for Overclocking6 Control Your Processing Power Tweak and tune your AMD Ryzen processor for personalized performance easily with one-click Precision Boost Overdrive, or do it manually with the robust AMD Ryzen Master utility.13 Accelerate your gaming with AMD EXPO overclocked memory . Upgradable for Years to Come Invest in a platform that grows with your needs over time. Your PC platform can be an investment, or a liability. AMD is the only processor manufacturer that has committed to years of future support for the cutting-edge Socket AM5 platform, so you will be able to upgrade to new processors we haven’t even announced yet. The newest AMD desktop platform is packed with state-of-the-art technologies including high-speed DDR5 memory, PCIe® 5.0 support, and AMD EXPO one-touch memory overclocking with kits going up to DDR-8000 speeds.9, 10 If your PC needs the latest and greatest capabilities now and in the future, insist on AMD Ryzen processors. AMD Ryzen 9000 Series: The Ultimate Processor for Gaming and Content Creation16, 17 Content Creation: AMD Ryzen 9950X vs Intel Core i9-14900K Blender AMD Ryzen +56% Handbrake AMD Ryzen +55% Intel Core i9-14900K 100 Gaming: AMD Ryzen 9800X3D vs Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Cyberpunk 2077 AMD Ryzen +59% Far Cry 6 AMD Ryzen +53% Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 AMD Ryzen +47% Final Fantasy XIV AMD Ryzen +41% Counter strike 2 AMD Ryzen +28% Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Ryzen 9000 Series Name Graphics Model # of CPU Cores # of Threads Max. Boost Clock Base Clock Thermal Solution (PIB) Graphics Core Count Default TDP AMD Ryzen™ 9 9950X AMD Radeon™ Graphics 16 32 Up to 5.7 GHz 4.3 GHz Not Included 2 170W AMD Ryzen™ 9 9900X AMD Radeon™ Graphics 12 24 Up to 5.6 GHz 4.4 GHz Not Included 2 120W AMD Ryzen™ 7 9800X3D AMD Radeon™ Graphics 8 16 Up to 5.2 GHz 4.7 GHz Not Included 2 120W AMD Ryzen™ 7 9700X AMD Radeon™ Graphics 8 16 Up to 5.5 GHz 3.8 GHz Not Included 2 65W AMD Ryzen™ 5 9600X AMD Radeon™ Graphics 6 12 Up to 5.4 GHz 3.9 GHz Not Included 2 65W Author Nerdcore PC
- Why China Buys U.S. Debt With Treasury Bonds
China has steadily accumulated U.S. Treasury securities over the last few decades. As of August 2024, the Asian nation owned $774.6 billion in Treasuries ((bonds issued by the federal government), which is the main form of U.S. debt to China.12 Some analysts and investors fear China could dump these Treasuries in retaliation and that this weaponization of its holdings would send interest rates higher , potentially hurting economic growth. The amount of Treasuries China holds has been decreasing since 2018. This article discusses the business behind China buying U.S. debt.3 Why China Buys U.S. Debt With Treasury Bonds China invests heavily in U.S. Treasury bonds to keep its export prices lower. China focuses on export-led growth to help generate jobs. To keep its export prices low, China must keep the renminbi low compared to the U.S. dollar. U.S. debt to China comes in the form of U.S. Treasuries, largely due to their safety and stability. Although there are worries about China selling off U.S. debt, which would hamper economic growth, doing so in large amounts poses risks for China as well, making it unlikely to happen. Chinese Economics China is primarily a manufacturing hub and an export-driven economy. Trade data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that China has been running a big trade surplus with the U.S. since 1985. This means that China sells more goods and services to the U.S. than the U.S. sells to China. Chinese exporters receive U.S. dollars (USD) for their goods sold to the U.S., but they need renminbi (RMB or yuan) to pay their workers and store money locally. They sell the dollars they receive through exports to get RMB, which increases the USD supply and raises the demand for RMB. China's central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) , actively intervenes to prevent this imbalance between the U.S. dollar and yuan in local markets. It buys the available excess U.S. dollars from the exporters and gives them the required yuan. The PBOC can print yuan as needed. Effectively, this intervention by the PBOC creates a scarcity of U.S. dollars, which keeps the USD rates higher. China hence accumulates USD as forex reserves. Self-Correcting Currency Flow International trading, which involves two currencies, has a self-correcting mechanism. Assume Australia is running a current account deficit , which means the country is importing more than it is exporting. The other countries that are sending goods to Australia are getting paid Australian dollars (AUD), so there is a huge supply of AUD in the international market, leading the AUD to depreciate against other currencies. However, this decline in AUD will make Australian exports cheaper and imports costlier. Gradually, Australia will start exporting more and importing less, due to its lower-valued currency. This will ultimately reverse the initial scenario. This is the self-correcting mechanism that occurs in the international trade and forex markets regularly, with little or no intervention from any authority. Why China Buys U.S. Debt With Treasury Bonds China's Need for a Weak Renminbi China’s strategy is to maintain export-led growth, which aids in generating jobs and enables it, through such continued growth, to keep its large population productively engaged. Since this strategy is dependent on exports, China requires RMB to continue to have a lower currency than the USD, and thus offer cheaper prices. If the PBOC stops interfering—in the previously described manner—the RMB would self-correct and appreciate, thus making Chinese exports costlier. It would lead to a major crisis of unemployment due to the loss of export business. China wants to keep its goods competitive in the international markets, and that cannot happen if the RMB appreciates. It thus keeps the RMB low compared to the USD using the mechanism that's been described. However, this leads to a huge pileup of USD as forex reserves for China. Why China Buys U.S. Debt With Treasury Bonds PBOC Strategy and Chinese Inflation Though other labor-intensive, export-driven countries like India carry out similar measures, they do so only to a limited extent. One of the major challenges resulting from the approach that's been outlined is that it leads to high inflation. China has tight, state-dominated control over its economy and can manage inflation through other measures like subsidies and price controls . Other countries don’t have such a high level of control and have to give in to the market pressures of a free or partially free economy. China's Use of USD Reserves China's central bank had approximately $3.3 trillion in total foreign exchange reserves as of August 2024. Like the U.S., it also exports to other regions like Europe. The euro forms the second biggest tranche of Chinese forex reserves.67 China needs to invest in such huge stockpiles to earn at least the risk-free rate. With trillions of U.S. dollars, China has found the U.S. Treasury securities to offer the safest investment destination for Chinese forex reserves. With euro stockpiles, China can consider investing in European debt. Possibly, even U.S. dollar stockpiles can be invested to obtain comparatively better returns from euro debt. China acknowledges that the stability and safety of investment take priority over everything else. Though the eurozone has been in existence for about two decades now, it remains unstable.8 It is not even certain whether the Eurozone (and euro) will continue to exist in the mid-to-long term. An asset swap (U.S. debt to euro debt) is thus not recommended, especially in cases where the other asset is considered riskier. Other asset classes like real estate, stocks, and other countries' treasuries are far riskier compared to U.S. debt. Forex reserve money is not spare cash to be gambled away in risky securities for want of higher returns. Another option for China is to use the dollars elsewhere. For example, the dollars can be used to pay Middle East countries for oil supplies. However, those countries too will need to invest the dollars they receive. Effectively, owing to the acceptance of the dollar as the international trade currency, any dollar supply eventually resides in the forex reserve of a nation or the safest investment—U.S. Treasury securities. One more reason for China to continuously buy U.S. Treasuries is the gigantic size of the U.S. trade deficit with China. The U.S. monthly deficit with China in August 2024 was approximately $27.9 billion, and with that large amount of money involved, Treasuries are probably the best available option for China. Buying U.S. Treasuries enhances China's money supply and creditworthiness. Selling or swapping such Treasuries would reverse these advantages.4 Impact of China Buying U.S. Debt U.S. debt offers the safest haven for Chinese forex reserves, which effectively means that China offers loans to the U.S. so that the U.S. can keep buying the goods China produces. Hence, as long as China continues to have an export-driven economy with a huge trade surplus with the U.S., it will keep piling up U.S. dollars and U.S. debt. Chinese loans to the U.S., through the purchase of U.S. debt, enable the U.S. to buy Chinese products. It’s a win-win situation for both nations, with both benefiting mutually. China has a huge market for its products, and the U.S. benefits from the economic prices of Chinese goods. Beyond their well-known political rivalry, both nations (willingly or unwillingly) are locked in a state of inter-dependency that will continue and from which both benefit. The U.S. national debt as of Oct. 16, 2024, stands at about $35.74 trillion.9 USD As a Reserve Currency Effectively, China is buying the present-day reserve currency. Until the 19th century, gold was the global standard for reserves. It was replaced by the British pound sterling. Today, U.S. Treasuries are considered virtually the safest.10 Apart from the long history of the use of gold by multiple nations, history also provides instances where many countries had huge reserves of British pounds sterling (GBP) in the post-World War II era. These countries did not intend to spend their GBP reserves or to invest in the U.K. but were retaining the pound sterling purely as safe reserves. When those reserves were sold off, however, the U.K. faced a currency crisis . Its economy deteriorated due to the excess supply of its currency, leading to high interest rates. Will the same happen to the U.S. if China decides to offload its U.S. debt holdings?11 It's worth noting that the prevailing economic system after the WW-II era required the U.K. to maintain a fixed exchange rate . Due to those restraints and the absence of a flexible exchange rate system, the selling off of the GBP reserves by other countries caused severe economic consequences for the U.K. Since the U.S. dollar has a variable exchange rate, however, any sale by any nation holding huge U.S. debt or dollar reserves will trigger the adjustment of the trade balance at the international level. The offloaded U.S. reserves by China will either end up with another nation or will return to the U.S. Repercussions The repercussions for China of such an offloading would be worse. An excess supply of U.S. dollars would lead to a decline in USD rates, making RMB valuations higher. It would increase the cost of Chinese products, making them lose their competitive price advantage. China may not be willing to do that, as it makes little economic sense. If China (or any other nation that has a trade surplus with the U.S.) stops buying U.S. Treasuries or even starts dumping its U.S. forex reserves, its trade surplus would become a trade deficit—something which no export-oriented economy would want, as they would be worse off as a result. The ongoing worries about China's holding of U.S. Treasuries or the fear of Beijing dumping them are uncalled for. Even if such a thing were to happen, the dollars and debt securities would not vanish. They would reach other vaults. U.S. Debt to China: Risk Perspective for America Although this ongoing activity has led to China becoming a creditor to the U.S., the situation for the U.S. may not be that bad. Considering the consequences that China would suffer from selling off its U.S. reserves, China (or any other nation) will likely refrain from such actions. Even if China were to proceed with the selling of these reserves, the U.S., being a free economy, can print any amount of dollars as needed. It can also take other measures like quantitative easing (QE) . Although printing dollars would reduce the value of its currency, thereby increasing inflation, it would work in favor of U.S. debt. Real repayment value will fall proportionately to inflation—something good for the debtor (U.S.), but bad for the creditor (China). Even though the U.S. budget deficit has been rising, the risk of the U.S. defaulting on its debt practically remains nil (unless a political decision to do so is made). Effectively, the U.S. may not need China to continuously purchase its debt; rather China needs the U.S. more, to ensure its continued economic prosperity. U.S. Debt to China: Risk Perspective for China China, on the other hand, needs to be concerned about loaning money to a nation that also has the limitless authority to print it in any amount. High inflation in the U.S. would have adverse effects on China, as the real repayment value to China would be reduced in the case of high inflation in the U.S. Willingly or unwillingly, China will have to continue to purchase U.S. debt to ensure price competitiveness for its exports at the international level. Is China Increasing or Decreasing Its U.S. Treasuries Holdings? China's holdings of U.S. Treasuries peaked between 2012 and 2016, with a value of over $1.3 trillion. Since then, its size has been slowly declining. It dipped below $1 trillion in mid-2022 for the first time since 2010. As of August 2024, it stands at $774.6 billion.31 Is China the Largest Foreign Holder of U.S. Debt? No, China is currently the second-largest holder of U.S. Treasuries, behind Japan, which holds around $1.1 trillion as of August 2024.1 Why Does China Buy U.S. Treasuries? There are several reasons why China buys U.S. Treasuries. These instruments are among the world's safest assets, making them secure and stable and the U.S. dollar remains the world's reserve currency in international trade. This allows the Chinese central bank to effectively hold dollar-denominated assets. But the most important reason is that China receives a surplus of U.S. dollars due to the trade imbalance between the two countries, as China exports more to the U.S. than it imports. But, Chinese companies and their workers need to be paid in China's local currency. This means the Chinese banking system must convert dollars with the central bank, which must then do something with them. The central bank uses these dollars to purchase Treasuries, which earn a stable return. What Would Happen If China Sold All of Its Treasuries? It is unlikely that China would sell its U.S. Treasuries all at once because this would be economically painful for China and leave it holding dollars that it would need to spend or invest elsewhere. The most immediate effect would be an increase in interest rates on Treasuries since selling so many at once would artificially depress their prices in the bond market; thus increasing their yields. If the Fed were not to react at all to such an event, it is estimated that it would increase long-term Treasury yields by 30 to 60 basis points. The Bottom Line Geopolitical realities and economic dependencies often lead to interesting situations in the global arena. China's continuous purchase of U.S. debt is one such interesting scenario. It continues to raise concerns about the U.S. becoming a net debtor nation , susceptible to the demands of a creditor nation . The reality, however, is not as bleak as it may seem, for this type of economic arrangement is actually a win-win for both nations. Author - Repressed by Nercdore PC for reading purposes only.
- Make The Perfect Coffee Every Time with Chemistry
Make The Perfect Coffee Every Make The Perfect Coffee Every Time with Chemistry Time with Chemistry You already ditched instant coffee, and you go through the tedious process of making your own coffee. But sometimes you get it right, but sometimes you don’t. No worries because coffee brewing, at its core, is a scientific art. It's a daily ritual that combines precise measurements, timing, and a bit of chemistry to transform ground coffee beans and water into a delightful beverage. If you’re new to coffee making, you’ve come to the right place. Let's dive into the essentials for making the perfect cup of coffee every single time. What You Need: Coffee Beans (of course): Freshly roasted, high-quality beans are non-negotiable. The fresher the bean, the better the flavor. Digital Scale: Precision is key in chemistry, and coffee making is no different. A digital scale ensures accurate measurements of coffee and water. Burr Grinder: Uniformity in coffee grounds size is crucial for even extraction. A burr grinder provides consistent grounds, unlike a blade grinder. Thermometer: Temperature affects extraction rates. Too hot, and you'll over-extract, leading to bitterness; too cold, and under-extraction makes your coffee weak. Gooseneck Kettle: Control over pouring speed and precision matters in the extraction process. A gooseneck kettle gives you that control. Filtered Water: Coffee is 98% water, so its quality cannot be overlooked. Filtered water can significantly improve the taste of your coffee. Chemex, French Press, or Espresso Machine: The brewing method impacts the coffee's body and flavor profile. Choose based on your preference. Glass Beaker : The star of our setup, replacing traditional measuring cups for precision and a visually engaging brewing process. Make The Perfect Coffee Every Time with Chemistry Putting It All Together Start with high-quality, freshly roasted coffee beans for the best flavor. The freshness of your coffee beans plays a crucial role, so aim to use it as soon as possible after it's roasted, purchasing in small amounts ideally every one to two weeks. Grind your beans just before brewing to ensure maximum freshness. The grind size is critical and should be matched to your brewing method. For example, a medium grind works well for drip coffee makers, while a coarser grind is ideal for French Press. A burr grinder is recommended for the most consistent grind size. More importantly, only grind your coffee beans when you need it. Preground coffee beans will become stale, resulting in bland, dull, and weak-tasting coffee. The recommended starting point for a balanced cup of coffee is 1:16, which translates to 1 gram of coffee for every 16 grams of water. To put this into perspective, if you're making a standard 8-ounce (about 237 ml) cup of coffee, you would need approximately 15 grams of coffee. This measurement ensures a balanced extraction, avoiding both under and over-extraction, which can lead to a bitter taste. Use filtered or bottled water if your tap water isn’t the best. The water temperature is crucial to get the most flavour and aroma out of your grounded coffee beans. Using your beaker, heat up your water and measure its heat to be between 195°F to 205°F (approximately 91°C to 96°C) using a digital thermometer . This temperature range ensures that the delicate oils and flavors in the coffee grounds are extracted without scorching. The contact time between water and coffee should be about 2-4 minutes for French Press and approximately 5 minutes for drip brew. For espresso, the contact time is much shorter, around 20-30 seconds. The pour-over method allows for a controlled brewing process, letting you adjust the pour rate and ensure even saturation of the coffee grounds. Coffee cools rapidly after brewing, and many drinkers add cream or milk, which further cools the coffee. The ideal serving temperature for coffee is a personal preference but is typically below 140°F (60°C) for most people. Putting It All Together: Start by using it to measure the exact amount of filtered water needed for your coffee. Heat the water in the beaker on a stovetop or with an electric kettle, then use a thermometer to ensure it reaches the correct temperature. Next, pour your freshly ground coffee into your brewing device of choice. Slowly add the heated water from the beaker, ensuring even coverage over the grounds. If your brewing method allows, use a glass rod to stir the mixture gently, enhancing the extraction process. The beaker can also be used to serve your brewed coffee. It's heat-resistant, looks visually stunning because it’s see-through, and c’mon! You just made the perfect coffee, and you won’t have to guess the next time you make it. The Science Behind Coffee I’m glad you stuck around! If you want to learn more about coffee and are fascinated how it all comes together, then keep reading. Because the science behind coffee is a fascinating exploration of chemistry, physics, and even a bit of biology. It's an interplay of various elements that transform simple beans and water into a complex, aromatic beverage enjoyed by millions. Let's delve into the science that makes your morning brew possible. 1. Chemical Composition of Coffee Beans Coffee beans are rich in compounds that contribute to their flavor and aroma. These include caffeine, oils, acids, and sugars. During the roasting process, chemical reactions such as the Maillard reaction and caramelisation occur, altering the beans' chemical structure and developing the rich flavors and aromas characteristic of coffee. 2. Extraction Process Extraction is the process of dissolving soluble flavors from coffee grounds into water. The main factors affecting extraction are grind size, water temperature, coffee-to-water ratio, and brewing time. The goal is to extract the right balance of flavors: too little extraction results in sour, underdeveloped coffee, while too much extraction leads to bitterness from over-extraction of undesirable compounds. 3. Grind Size and Surface Area The grind size of coffee beans affects the extraction rate. Finer grinds have a larger surface area exposed to water, speeding up the extraction. However, too fine a grind can lead to over-extraction and bitterness. Conversely, a coarser grind slows extraction, which can result in a weak, under-extracted brew if not adjusted for with longer brewing time or hotter water. 4. Water Temperature The optimal water temperature for brewing coffee is between 195°F and 205°F (91°C to 96°C). This range is critical because it's hot enough to extract the desirable compounds efficiently without extracting too many bitter compounds, which are more readily dissolved at higher temperatures. 5. Coffee-to-Water Ratio The ratio of coffee to water is crucial in determining the strength and flavor balance of the coffee. The "Golden Ratio" is a general guideline, but adjustments may be necessary based on personal preference and the specific beans and brewing method used. 6. Brewing Time The contact time between coffee and water also impacts extraction. Espresso, for example, uses a very short extraction time under high pressure, while French press coffee has a longer brewing time. Finding the right balance is key to achieving the desired flavor profile. 7. Acidity and Bitterness Coffee's flavor profile includes acidity and bitterness, which are influenced by the bean's origin, the roast level, and the brewing process. Acidity brings brightness and sharpness to coffee, while bitterness can add depth, but too much can be unpleasant. 8. Soluble Yield The goal of brewing coffee is to achieve a certain percentage of solubles yield, which is the amount of coffee solids dissolved in the water. The Specialty Coffee Association suggests a target range of 18% to 22% for optimal balance and flavor.
- Meet the Y70 Nerdcore Gaming Custom Computer Case with touch panel to our family of custom gaming cases
Meet the Y70 Nerdcore Gaming Custom Computer Case with touch panel to our family of custom gaming cases Y70 Modern Aesthetic Case Enhanced In Every Dimension Y70 is an upgraded dual chamber ATX mid tower modern aesthetic case that delivers next gen gaming experiences with massive 4 slot vertical graphics and unlocks maximum performance via ginormous cooling capacity. All while celebrating your favorite hardware by showing off your PC the way it was meant to be seen. Note: Please be aware that all HYTE.com pre-orders will be shipped and fulfilled through the USA. For international customers, we recommend checking with your local distributors first, as they may have faster fulfillment due to shipping times. Meet the Y70 Nerdcore Gaming Custom Computer Case with touch panel to our family of custom gaming cases Product Features Mesmerizing 14.5" Integrated Touchscreen (Y70 Touch Infinite Only) At a 688 x 2560 (2.5K) resolution and 60Hz refresh rate, this capacitive touchscreen delivers an insanely crisp and buttery smooth visual experience with 5-point multi-touch capability, unlocking a magnitude of possibilities and extensive screen customization powered by HYTE Nexus software. Our bigger, brighter, faster 2nd generation panel features a larger 14.5" display with a 33% closer dot pitch, 17% higher brightness, 25% greater contrast ratio, and 50% faster pixel response time for an even better user experience. All in a single package integrated into the case chassis structure, pioneering meaningful digital interaction with the best display ever in a case. Spilt Milk Has Never Looked So Good (Milky Y70's Only) Soft and creamy colors soak Y70 in a sweet & delicious fresh style. Strawberry Milk, Blueberry Milk, and Taro Milk flavors have arrived! Milky canopies are included for uninterrupted visual flow. Massive 4 Slot Vertical Graphics Y70 grows GPU support to 4 slots with additional airflow space between the edge of the card and the glass. This means you can fit even the largest and most powerful of graphics cards into your build with ease. Additionally, the cold floor cooling down below can house up to a trio of 120mm or duo of 140mm fans up to 32mm thick to direct fresh airflow straight into the GPU. Included Luxury PCIE 4.0 Riser Cable Included with the case is a luxury PCIE 4.0 x 16 riser with a color-matched canopy for uninterrupted visual flow that'll make for a painless GPU installation and build process. It also allows for a plethora of half-height PCIE cards to sit behind the throne of the vertical graphics. Ginormous Cooling Capacity A spacious interior makes room for up to a 360mm long & 125mm thick radiator on the side and adjustable top bracket that can house another 360mm radiator up to 68mm thick up above. Working together with the cold floor cooling at the bottom and spot for an additional fan at the rear of the case, Y70 has a total capacity of 10 fans in a fully populated chassis. With over 180mm of clearance to the side glass, air and water cooling enthusiasts alike will appreciate the flexibility afforded to them by the chassis to create the most robust cooling configurations possible. Unified Modern Aesthetic With 4 unique colorways, Y70 puts your build front and center with a beautifully crafted 3-piece panoramic glass which serves as a window into the heart of your PC. The dual chamber interior layout keeps the front looking great while giving you plenty of space to manage cables in the back, especially with the help of our seamless L-shaped molded rubber grommet, meticulously placed cable routing channels & tie-down points, and reusable Velcro straps. All easily accessible with tool-less top and side panels alongside floating storage sleds that eject from the rear of the case for intuitive drive maintenance. Mesmerizing 14.1" Integrated Touchscreen (Y70 Touch Only) At a resolution of 1100 x 3840 (4K) and refresh rate of 60Hz, this capacitive touchscreen delivers an insanely crisp and buttery smooth visual experience alongside 10-point multi-touch capability which unlocks a magnitude of possibilities with extensive screen customization powered by HYTE Nexus software. All in a single package integrated into the case chassis structure, pioneering meaningful digital interaction with the best display ever in a case. Tech Specs Type Dual Chamber Mid-Tower ATX Case Exterior Dimensions 470 x 320 x 470 mm Volume (L) 70.7 Motherboard Sizes ITX, mATX, ATX, EATX Expansion Slots 7 half + 4 full height Riser Cable Included Yes, PCIE 4.0 x 16 I/O 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x 3.5mm Audio/Mic Combo Jack Dust Filters Top, Side, Bottom Top Fans 3x 120 mm / 2x 140 mm Top Radiator 120-360, 140-280 @ 68 mm thick Rear Fans 1x 120/140 mm Rear Radiator 1x 120/140 mm Side Fans 3x 120 mm / 2x 140 mm Side Radiator 120-360, 140-280 @ 125 mm thick Bottom Fans 3x 120 mm / 2x 140 mm @ 32 mm thick Max Video Card Length 422 mm Max Video Card Thickness 105 mm Max CPU Cooler Height 180 mm Max PSU Length 235 mm Storage 2x 3.5" HDD or 4x 2.5" SSD Y70 Touch Infinite Display Specifications 14.5” 688 x 2560 (2.5K) 60Hz 5-Point Multi-Touch Capacitive Touchscreen - 183 PPI - 0.006mm Dot Pitch - 350 nits - 1500:1 Contrast Ratio - 89 Degree Viewing Angle - 20ms Pixel Response Time Y70 Touch Display Specifications 14.1” 1100 x 3840 (4K) 60Hz 10-Point Multi-Touch Capacitive Touchscreen - 283 PPI - 0.008mm Dot Pitch - 300 nits - 1200:1 Contrast Ratio - 85 Degree Viewing Angle - 30ms Pixel Response Time Powered By Nexus (Y70 Touch Infinite & Y70 Touch Only) Yes, Nexus Touch Warranty 3 Years SKU (Non-Touch) CS-HYTE-Y70-WW / CS-HYTE-Y70-BW / CS-HYTE-Y70-BR / CS-HYTE-Y70-B / CS-HYTE-Y70-SM / CS-HYTE-Y70-TM / CS-HYTE-Y70-BM SKU (Touch) CS-HYTE-Y70TI-WW / CS-HYTE-Y70TI-WB / CS-HYTE-Y70TI-BB / CS-HYTE-Y70TI-RB
- Think System SR250 V2
System specs: View All Models > Processor 1xIntel Pentium G6405T 2C 35W 3.5GHz 35W Total Memory Capacity 8GB/128GB/TruDDR4 Memory Included 1x8GB 1Rx8 Form Factor 1U Supported Hard Disk 2.5" SAS/SATA Number of Processors 1 Memory Slots Available 2(2) x 8(8) Drive Bays 4x 3.5-inch simple-swap SATA drives; 3x 3.5-inch simple-swap SATA drives plus 1x 3.5-inch simple-swap NVMe drive; 4x 3.5-inch hot-swap SATA/SAS drives; 8x 2.5-inch hot-swap SATA/SAS drives; 10x 2.5-inch hot-swap SATA/SAS drives; Optional SATA Mirrored M.2 boot drive kit; installs in a PCIe slot \ FEATURES High reliability and security The Lenovo ThinkSystem SR250 V2 offers reliability, and security without sacrificing performance. This single-processor rack server, in a compact 1U form factor, is built for expanding businesses or edge deployment. With an increase in performance of up to 17% above previous generations, the next-generation Intel® Xeon® E-2300 processors provide higher workload performance at an entry-level price point. Think System SR250 V2 Flexible, scalable and manageable The ThinkSystem SR250 V2 offers flexibility via multiple configurations with TruDDR4 memory, GPU support, and an array of storage options. Ideal for IT infrastructure, web serving, virtualization, and edge applications. The SR250 V2 includes the Lenovo XClarity Controller, that standardizes and automates server management tasks. The XClarity Administrator virtualized application centrally manages your ThinkSystem servers, storage, and networking, lowering costs and speeding infrastructure provisioning. Energy-efficient powerhouse The ThinkSystem SR250 V2 provides enterprise-level, 8 core performance while using no more than 95W CPUs. It’s shorter-depth rack accommodates the space-constrained environments found in many SMB’s, remote/branch offices, and edge applications. The ThinkSystem SR250 V2 is an ideal solution when your business needs a server to handle large workloads in a small footprint. Tech Specs Form Factor 1U rack; Height: 43mm (1.7 inches), width: 435mm (17.1 inches), depth: 498mm (19.6 inches) Processor 1x Intel® Xeon® processor E-2300 or 1x Intel® Pentium® processor, up to 8 cores at 95W Memory Up to 128GB in 4x DIMM slots using 32GB UDIMMs 3200MHz TruDDR4 Disk Bay Combinations 4x 3.5-inch simple-swap SATA drives 3x 3.5-inch simple-swap SATA drives plus 1x 3.5-inch simple-swap NVMe drive 4x 3.5-inch hot-swap SATA/SAS drives 8x 2.5-inch hot-swap SATA/SAS drives 10x 2.5-inch hot-swap SATA/SAS drives Optional SATA Mirrored M.2 boot drive kit; installs in a PCIe slot Expansion Slots 2x PCIe Gen4 x8 slots or 1x PCIe Gen4 x16 slot 1x PCIe Gen4 x8 (x4 interface) internal RAID slot RAID Support Intel® VROC Software RAID supports simple swap and hot swap Multiple RAID configurations (common with other ThinkSystem servers) Network Interface 2x GbE on-board ports (Broadcom BCM5720); 1x GbE port dedicated for XCC management Ports Front: 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps), 1x USB 2.0 port for local management using the XCC Mobile app Rear: 2x USB 3.2 G2 (10Gb) ports, 2x RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 1x 1GbE dedicated XCC port for remote management, 1x Serial port and 1x VGA port Systems Management and Security Lenovo XClarity Controller; Embedded TPM 2.0;Optional front security bezel Power Supplies Supports a single fixed power supply or a redundant pair of hot-swap power supplies OS Support Microsoft Windows Server 2022, Red Hat, SUSE, and VMware ESXi. Visit lenovopress.com/osig for more information. Limited Warranty 1-year or 3-year warranty Services Your needs are specific, and our expert consultants and technicians can meet them with their extensive industry experience and deep technical knowledge. Solution Services Design the best strategy for your enterprise. We'll work with you to find the right solution for your unique business needs. Implementation Services Accelerate your time to productivity. We'll help you streamline implementation of new technologies so you can focus on your business. Support Services Safeguard your IT investment. Our experts are standing by to help, around the world and around the clock - 24/7/365. Buy this direct for $3000.00 inc. GST
- Other Banknotes - Australian Money Before the New Change
The $5 paper banknote was first issued in 1967 and features Sir Joseph Banks and Caroline Chisholm. Banks was a naturalist and sailed with Captain James Cook to Botany Bay in 1770. Chisholm worked to improve conditions for immigrants; finding work and shelter for girls and facilitating passage to Australia for families. Size: 150mm by 75mm $1 Australia's first decimal banknote was the $1 paper banknote issued in 1966. It features Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and representations of Aboriginal art based on the work of David Malangi and others. It was replaced by a $1 coin in 1984. Size: 140mm by 70mm $2 The $2 paper banknote features John Macarthur, who helped to establish the Australian wool industry, and William James Farrer, who worked to improve the quality of wheat grown in Australia. It was first issued in 1966 and replaced by a $2 coin in 1988. Size: 145mm by 72.5mm The $100 paper banknote features Sir Douglas Mawson and John Tebbutt. It was first issued in 1984. Mawson led expeditions to Antarctica and made scientific contributions to the fields of physics and geology. Tebbutt was a pioneer of Australian astronomy and discovered major comets. Size: 172mm by 82.5mm $20 The $20 paper banknote features Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Lawrence Hargrave. It was first issued in 1966. Kingsford Smith broke the record for time taken to fly from Sydney to London - 12 days and 18 hours. Hargrave studied human flight and experimented with models, kites and engines. Size: 160mm by 80mm $10 The $10 paper banknote features Francis Greenway and Henry Lawson. It was first issued in 1966. Greenway was an architect whose work can be seen around Sydney. Lawson was a well-known Australian poet whose iconic work captured the mateship and hardship of the goldfields and outback sheep country. Size: 155mm by 77.5mm Federation $5 The Federation $5 banknote features Sir Henry Parkes, a prominent politician often referred to as the ‘Father of Federation’; and Catherine Helen Spence, who led the way for women's rights in Australia. It was issued in 2001 to commemorate Australia's Centenary of Federation. $10 The Commemorative $10 banknote, issued in 1988 to celebrate Australia's bicentenary, was Australia's first polymer banknote. One side symbolises European settlement. The other side symbolises the original discovery and settlement of Australia some 40,000 - 60,000 years earlier. $50 The $50 paper banknote features Lord Howard Walter Florey, who shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine for the discovery of penicillin; and Sir Ian Clunies Ross, a veterinary scientist who became chairman of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. It was first issued in 1973. Size: 165mm by 82.5mm
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Review
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Review This is our first look at Nvidia's GeForce 40 series, starting with the flagship GPU, the GeForce RTX 4090. Today we're about to find out all you need to know about this next generation graphics card – most importantly its gaming performance. The new GeForce RTX 4090 is baked on the AD102 silicon which measures 608.4 mm2, about 3% smaller than the GA102 used by the RTX 3080 and 3090 . Nvidia has moved from the Samsung 8N process with Ampere to TSMC's 4N process for Ada Lovelace. Quite incredibly, this has seen transistor count increase by 170% from 28.3 billion to an insane 76.3 billion. When compared to the RTX 3090 Ti , there's 52% more streaming multiprocessors, CUDA cores, Tensor cores and RT cores and texture units. The ROP count has increased by 57% and the boost clock has been wound up by 35%. The same 21 Gbps GDDR6X memory is in use and there's still 24GB of it on a 384-bit wide memory bus, resulting in the same 1008 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU also keeps the same the PCI Express 4.0 x16 interface. Nvidia claims a total graphics power rating of 450 watts for the RTX 4090, the same rating given to the 3090 Ti , though the maximum GPU temperature has been slightly downgraded from 93C to 90C. The minimum power supply requirement is 850 watts, which is what we'll be using for all of our testing. In terms of design, the Founders Edition 4090 looks similar to the 3090 with some fairly significant changes. The most noticeable is the graphics card's width. On paper, Nvidia claims a triple-slot form factor for both models which is accurate, but where the 3090 measures 52mm wide, the new RTX 4090 is 17% wider at 61mm. Despite the size increase, both models weigh about the same at 2190 grams. That's surprising, but what's not all that surprising is the absence of the NVLink connector which Nvidia has now killed off and will instead rely on the PCIe 4.0 bus. The only other major change is the 16-pin power input which has been upgraded to the PCIe 5.0 spec, otherwise known as the super catch 12VHPWR power connector. A single PCIe 5.0 power connector can deliver up to 600 watts, whereas previously that would require four 8-pin power connectors. You won't require a new PCIe 5.0 compliant PSU though as the RTX 4090 comes with a 4x 8-pin to single 16-pin adapter, similar to the 3x 8-pin to 16-pin adapter supplied with 3090 Tis. We should note that it was falsely reported that the 12VHPWR power connector could only survive 30 cycles (30 connect and disconnects), but that's not the case and the connector longevity will be similar to that of the 8-pin connectors, which is to say you're never going to wear one out. Besides the increase in cores, inclusion of 4th-gen tensor cores and 3rd-gen RT cores, GeForce 40 also introduces DLSS 3, a feature that for now is exclusive to the GeForce 40 series. This new upscaling/frame rate multiplying technology is exciting and while we'll briefly show some results in this review, our full analysis of DLSS 3 is coming up soon. DLSS 3 requires a significant amount of testing and analysis which is far beyond the scope of a day-one review. For testing, all GPUs were set to run at the official clock specifications (no factory overclocking), the CPU powering the test system is the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with 32GB of dual-rank, dual-channel DDR4-3200 CL14 memory on the MSI MPG X570S Carbon Max WiFi motherboard. Benchmarks Starting with Watch Dogs: Legion at 1440p, the GeForce RTX 4090 doesn't look that impressive here (...wait for it). Sure, it's the fastest GPU we've ever seen but a 9% boost over the 6950 XT is hardly awe-inspiring. We saw a more substantial 22% uplift over the RTX 3090 Ti , but given today's GPU prices that's not amazing. Having said that, the issue appears to be less with the RTX 4090 and more with the 5800X3D which has become the primary system bottleneck... Therefore when increasing the resolution to 4K we get to see how brutally fast the RTX 4090 really is. We're now looking at a monstrous 60% boost over the 6950 XT and a 64% uplift from the RTX 3090 Ti, that's unbelievable and a truly high refresh rate experience at 4K. It appears as though we have a lot more CPU headroom in Rainbow Six Extraction at 1440p and so the RTX 4090 is 59% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti and 71% faster than the RTX 3090 and 6950 XT. This is a serious performance uplift. Jumping up to 4K didn't change the results radically as we weren't CPU limited at 1440p. The RTX 4090 was once again ~60% faster than the 3090 Ti, though the margin against the Radeon 6950 XT kept growing and now we're looking at a 102% deficit here for AMD. That's brutal to say the least. Performance Summary: 13 Game Average Here's a look at the 13 game average which is calculated using the geomean. The GeForce RTX 4090 pumped out 219 fps making it on average 44% faster than the 6950 XT and 45% faster than the 3090 Ti . Those are huge margins but still under-represent the RTX 4090 as the 5800X3D (a pretty fast gaming CPU) was limiting performance on multiple occasions. It's crazy to think that one of the fastest gaming CPUs out there can be a serious bottleneck for the RTX 4090 at 1440p, and in many cases we're using the highest visual settings for testing. The GeForce RTX 4090 is on average 59% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti and 71% faster than the 6950 XT at 4K gaming. Those are massive margins. Just as impressive is the fact that the RTX 4090 averaged 145 fps at 4K. This is truly the first 4K GPU capable of delivering a high refresh rate gaming experience. Very impressive stuff by Nvidia. We haven't touched on 1080p results for the 13 games tested, though we did gather all that data even if the results were often heavily CPU limited. Overall, the RTX 4090 was 28% faster than the 3090 Ti at 1080p using the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and 24% faster than the 6950 XT, so it's still faster and if anything, a great tool for testing next-gen CPU performance. Ray Tracing Performance + DLSS For ray tracing and upscaling results we'll start with F1 22. At 1440p, the RTX 4090 was just 11% faster than the 3090 Ti and 24% faster than the 6950 XT, when comparing standard rasterization performance (ultra high quality preset but with RT effects disabled). With RT + DLSS enabled the RTX 4090 was 17% faster than the 3090 Ti and 29% faster than the 6950 XT which was using FSR for upscaling.
- From computers to furniture, China cuts tariffs on some consumer goods - Nerdcore Technology
China on Monday announced it will lower tariffs on some consumer goods ranging from computers to furniture and bicycles as Beijing faces worldwide scrutiny over its trade practices. From computers to furniture, China cuts tariffs on some consumer goods - Nerdcore Technology Beijing and Washington have slapped tariffs on more than $360 billion in two-way trade in their simmering trade spat while Europe has recently indicated it will take China to task for alleged unfair trade policies. China’s tariff rate on imported goods like books, computers, food, furniture and medicines will drop to 13 percent starting Tuesday, the State Council's tariff commission announced. The goods had been taxed at a 15 per cent rate, official news agency Xinhua reported. The border tax slapped on other imported goods like sporting goods, fishing supplies, textiles, electronic appliances and bicycles will also be lowered to 20 per cent from 25 per cent, according to Xinhua. Top EU leaders will meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang this week at a summit in Brussels, but their hopes of winning solid commitments on trade look set for disappointment. From computers to furniture, China cuts tariffs on some consumer goods - Nerdcore Technology President Donald Trump on Friday said talks with Beijing were making progress toward ending the trade war between the world's two top economies, but he again stopped short of predicting success. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin engaged in trade talks with a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He from April 3-5 in Washington. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Author Nerdcore Computers Service Centre
- How to Deliver One Million Tech Jobs by 2025
The Technology Council of Australia (TCA) today launched its Roadmap to Deliver One Million Tech Jobs , which details the pathway for Australia to embrace the technology jobs opportunity. Underpinned by research from Accenture, TCA revealed the four key steps that are needed to ensure this goal will be achieved and the potential benefits. These steps include: Keep growing the pipeline of new Aussie tech start-up companies, to contribute 30,000 new jobs and an extra $7bn in value by 2030. Scale-up more early stage Australian tech companies equating to 65,000 jobs and $14bn in value . Create more large homegrown Aussie tech companies and ensure Australia is an attractive market for investment from multinationals equalling 75,000 new jobs , and $16bn in extra value . Accelerate tech job creation and investment by businesses outside of the tech sector for 258,000 new jobs , and $45bn in value. Download the research (PDF) Kate Pounder, CEO, TCA said, “Today we are calling on all sides of Government to help us reach the technology sector’s full potential.” “The tech sector has the ability to help drive recovery for our economy, provide secure jobs for the future and continue to underpin crucial sectors such as agriculture and mining.” “The biggest and most urgent risk to meeting our goal of one million people in tech sector jobs by 2025 is the acute labour shortages facing the sector.” “We must act now to ensure we can fill the new tech jobs we’re creating in Australia over the next four years.” Kate Pounder, CEO, Tech Council of Australia “To get one million people employed in tech sector jobs by 2025, we need an additional 286,000 workers to join the sector.” “To meet this ambitious target, reskilling and upskilling workers must become the primary way tech jobs are filled.” “We believe with the right investment, training and regulation – the tech sector will provide jobs, economic growth, and a pathway to secure employment for the next generation of Australian workers.” How to Deliver One Million Tech Jobs by 2025 “The boom in tech related jobs means there are now more software engineers and developers in Australia than hairdressers, plumbers, or high school teachers. That’s 1 in 16 working Australians.” “We want to significantly increase that figure.” Ms. Pounder said. Today’s announcement of the roadmap also coincides with the TCA signing it’s 60th member. Since launch, another 35 companies from start-ups to global multinationals have joined the TCA to help deliver its vision. New members include major employers in the Australian tech sector including: Australian tech leaders such as WiseTech Global, Seek and REA, fast-growing Australian tech companies, such as Airwallex, Brighte, Finder, Envato, Nearmap, Go1, Open Learning and Rokt, and leading global firms such as Amazon Web Services, LinkedIn and Docusign. About the Tech Council The Technology Council of Australia launched in August with a clear vision to ensure the tech sector plays a critical role in Australia’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The TCA has set the biggest and most urgent risk to the goal of employing one million people in tech sector jobs by 2025 is acute labour shortages facing the tech sector. That means we must act now to ensure we can fill the new tech jobs we’re creating in Australia over the next four years. Three goals for the tech sector in Australia: Employ 1 million people in tech-related jobs by 2025, and 1.2 million by 2030 Contribute $250bn to GDP from tech-related activity by 2030 Make Australia the best place to start and scale a company Our newest members Accenture – A global professional services company offering Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services. Airwallex – A global fintech payment platform which helps businesses manage payments, treasury and expenses internationally, without the constraints of the traditional financial system. Alium Capital – A cross-over, all stage investment fund focused on identifying fast growing, scalable, well run businesses in APAC. Amazon Web Services – The world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud offering. Bridge – An advanced CRM to support employment services. Brighte – On a mission to make every home sustainable by offering consumers a fast and easy way to pay for solar, battery and home improvements. DocuSign – Helping organisations connect and automate how they prepare, sign, act on, and manage agreements. Envato – The world’s leading marketplace and community for creative assets and creative people. Finder – Australia’s most visited comparison site. GetCapital – A provider of credit and payment platforms to help businesses easily trade, pay and access funds. Go1 – Offering the largest curated eLearning library from top training providers in a single subscription. King River Capital – A venture capital for high growth software companies. LinkedIn – Connecting the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. Mable Technolog y – Helping connect people with care and support workers in their community. Max Kelsen – Experts in machine learning and quantum computing providing innovative solutions and research. MaxMine – Integrating business improvement, a powerful technology stack and operational analytics, to deliver a large increase in value to open cut operations. Nearmap – Offering businesses instant access to high resolution aerial imagery, city-scale 3D datasets, and integrated geospatial tools. Nintex – Process management and automation software that improves the way people work with easy-to-use tools for visually managing, quickly automating and continuously optimizing business processes and workflows. OpenLearning – Providing an online lifelong learning platform to education providers and a global marketplace of world-class courses, micro-credentials and qualifications for learners of all levels. REA Group – Changing the way the world experiences property. REA Group is a leading global digital business specialising in property. Reason Group – A home-grown Australian SME specialising in government transformation. Rokt – Through its proprietary technology, Rokt enables its ecommerce clients to increase brand engagement and unlock new revenues in the Transaction Moment™, allowing them to stay ahead of their competition while delivering a superior and individualized experience for each customer. Seek – Helping people live more fulfilling and productive working lives and help organisations succeed. Sesimi – Allowing you to store, manage and share all your marketing assets in one place to make your life easier. Slalom – A global consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation. Startupbootcamp – The world’s largest network of multi-corporate backed accelerators helping startups scale internationally. TeleAus – A leading information and communications engineering solutions and services provider specialising in IT services, telecommunications engineering and business solutions that deliver real results. Telstra Ventures – Investing in technology companies and offering synergy revenues to its portfolio companies. Think and Grow – Helping to build high calibre teams that can compete globally in a world of rapid change. Thinkmill – Helping organisations ship products and deliver services with confidence and velocity. Tidal – An early stage venture capital firm investing in product-led ANZ founders bound for international markets. Till Payments – Taking the complexity out of payments for merchants so you can get paid anywhere, anytime through a single, simplified platform. Willow – Enabling users to make proactive, data-led decisions in real time, to grow profits, reduce expenses and better manage risk. WiseTech Global – A leading developer and provider of breakthrough software solutions that enable and empower those that own and operate the supply chains of the world. Yarris Technologies – Providing a suite of products designed to manage complex business workflow processes. Zepto – A payment infrastructure company that combines account to account real time payment and open banking capabilities in the B2B space. Posted from https://techcouncil.com.au/newsroom/2021sept-jobs-roadmap/ as reference to tech jobs industry free information sharing
- Are there rules for languages spoken at Australian workplaces?
Bonjour, Bongiorno, Guten Tag, Ni Hao, Konnichiwa, Hola, Hello. You may have understood and/or recognised one or more of those greetings in a number of languages, but if the conversation went any further, would you be able to follow? Say this conversation took place in the workplace, what would that mean for you? How would you feel? As an employee or worker in Australia, could speaking in a language other than English in the workplace constitute exclusion of other employees? Possibly a form of bullying ? Or, could a complaint or direction in relation to speaking or not speaking a particular language in the workplace constitute discrimination? This is not a topic that has been widely tested in the courts. A case (The Western Australian Mint & Industrial Personnel Company Pty Ltd v Jinda Tuinaphiang and Siriphon Linda Schulze) heard back in 2002 by the Equal Opportunity Tribunal of Western Australia involved two employees whose native language was Thai. The two employees were directed not to speak Thai in the workplace to the exclusion of another employee who did not speak or understand Thai. The two Thai speaking employees made a claim for discrimination based on race as a result of the direction not to speak Thai in the workplace. The Tribunal found that the two employees excluded another employee through their ‘exclusionary discussion in the Thai language’. The Tribunal further accepted that the only reason that the direction was made was to try and resolve the dispute that had arisen between the two Thai speaking employees and another non-Thai speaking employee; and that the direction therefore came about in an attempt to solve a workplace dispute and disagreement, and was not occasioned to treat the two Thai-speaking employees less favourably. Ultimately, the Tribunal found that there was neither direct nor indirect discrimination, because it was not because of, or “on the ground of”, the race of the complainants or any relevant characteristic that the direction was made. Further, in Fernandes v State of New South Wales [1999] NSWADT 32 , the New South Wales Administrative Decision Tribunal said that ‘the Tribunal regards it as totally acceptable for two employees in the workplace to have a private conversation in a language other than English.’. However, the Tribunal went on to say that if the conversation conducted in a language other than English had occurred as part of a broader group discussion, or in proximity of a third employee who felt that they were being discussed, then the request may have had some justification, indicating that, without otherwise, it would not. What this means is that discrimination on the ground of race could occur if a person is disallowed to speak their native language in a particular workplace setting. Whether the term, condition or requirement regarding speaking or not speaking a certain language in the workplace is reasonable will depend on the circumstances of each case. To be unreasonable, the requirement must be found to have the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, of any human right or fundamental freedom in a field of public life. For example, in the case of the Western Australian Mint, if the direction to not speak Thai around another co-worker was not for the purposes of solving a workplace dispute and was just a direction that all employees must speak English while at work, then could be considered racial discrimination . The concept of reasonableness has been considered by the High Court of Australia and it was concluded, by a majority, that ‘reasonable’ referred to what was reasonable in all the circumstances of the case, and involves considering not only the position of the complainants but also the position of the Corporation. If we take this interpretation to the case of the Western Australian Mint, what was reasonable in all of the circumstances, including the fact that the complainants were both able to speak English, and the direction not to speak Thai in the workplace was for the purpose of resolving a workplace dispute and ultimately maintaining a healthy and safe workplace, then the Tribunal’s finding of no-discrimination may make sense. Are there rules for languages spoken at Australian workplaces? Evidently, the circumstances of each case, particularly when it comes to discrimination , will weigh on what is considered as reasonable and therefore what would constitute direct or indirect discrimination in the workplace regarding a direction to speak or not speak a certain language. Take-Aways: Although it is unlikely that your employment contract or workplace policies will specify a particular language that you need to speak, nor expressly exclude the speaking of another language in the workplace: Employees should be conscious of their surroundings and/or the circumstances in which they speak another language in the workplace to avoid feelings of exclusion or isolation by other employees; Employees have a right to speak languages other than English in the workplace; If directed not to speak in a particular language or to speak in one language only in the workplace, employees should be aware of their rights This topic is particularly relevant for immigrant workers and workers on visas, or w hose first language is not English Are there rules for languages spoken at Australian workplaces?
- Acer Nitro 15 computer repairs - Acer Nitro 15 Laptop Repairs Australia - Ring 1300 637 326
Acer Nitro Computer Repairs and customer support- Expertise You Can Trust Upon in Australia Acer nitro Computer repairs right here in your local area. We offer all the major repairs on any Acer Nitro 15 computer repairs. Acer Nitro is amongst those brands that cannot be ignored when we look for electronic gadgets. acer laptops are built for high level of performance. Being empowered and equipped with all the required features, this brand is bit expensive in comparison to others available in the market. This is the reason why there are few technical issues with this brand. Our acer Nitro computer repair centre also offers services for acer which is a high end gaming laptops produced by acer Nitro . Our technicians and engineers have experience in fixing and repairing all the acer products. We offer same day quick and reliable repair services to the consumers, commercial and corporate clients. acer Nitro Computer Repair Australia is answer to all your troubles and issues Our technicians and engineers are experienced and skilled in repairing the device without letting you go anywhere. They are capable of resolving all the types of software and hardware issues from your acer Laptop, Computer, Notebook,Tablet etc. From failed hard drives to virus removal, we offer all the fixing services. We also provide No Fix, No Fee guarantee for all the services we are providing as we are confident enough of our repairing services. In case, if our technicians and engineers are unable to find and fix the error in your device, then we won’t be charging a single penny from you. Our acer Nitro Computer Repair Service team is just a call away. (03 86897974) The user can contact and reach our team through different modes. We are available at your service via phone support where the technicians and engineers will guide you step by step. The other way is via online remote assistance. If we are unable to fix issue with these methods then our technicians will visit your place and fix the malfunctioned device. We also provide pick and drop service and return the fixed laptop within 24 hours. What all Acer Nitro laptop issues are resolved at our repair centre? Our Laptop Repair team believes in delivering reliable and dependable services to the Acer laptop users . We will fix the device irrespective of your preference for onsite consultation at your place or conducting repair remotely. Following are the some of the issues that are fixed and resolved at our centre: Acer Nitro Hard drive upgrades Acer Nitro Notebook running slowly Acer Nitro Data recovery Acer Nitro Line or blotches on LCD screen Acer Nitro Software upgrades Acer Nitro System will not boot from hard drive Acer Nitro Bottom case damage Acer Nitro Battery unable to charge Acer Memory upgrades Acer Nitro Fan is not working properly Acer Nitro Virus removal Acer Nitro Overheating issue Acer Nitro Faulty keyboards Acer Nitro Video graphics not in good condition Acer Nitro Liquid damage repairs Acer Nitro Plugged in not charging fault Acer Nitro CD or DVD drive is not functioning Acer Nitro Appearance of Blue screens Acer Nitro Graphics card failure Acer Nitro Broken hinge repair Acer Nitro DC power jack is not working Acer Nitro Antivirus related issues Acer Nitro Motherboard needs repairing or replacement Acer Nitro Laptop is not booting Acer Nitro System unable to turn on Acer Nitro Abruptly shutting down Acer Nitro Cracked LCD screen Acer Nitro Unclear LCD display Why Acer Nitro Repair Australia Services over other service providers- Our technicians and engineers will diagnose the issue and error. After detecting the issue, our team will inform you about the charges applicable for fixing the error. Afterwards, our technicians will connect with you and tell you how long it is going to take in resolving the error. Once you accept the services, our experts will help you in solving the issue and fix the device. Nerdcore Computers Acer Nitro 15 Computer Repair Centre is at your service in one single call on 1300637326 Acer Repair Australia is the catering to all the repair requirements and providing all the needed services. And because of the experienced and skilled technicians, we are able to make our mark in the region. Our engineers can fix and repair all the dysfunctional devices. Drop a call at Acer Nitro PC/Desktop Repair Centre Number 1300637326 and our technicians will quickly come at your service. Author Nerdcore Computers
- Today we celebrate Australian National Flag Day Australia
The Australian Flag was first flown on 3 September 1901, over the dome of the Exhibition Building in Melbourne. The Australian National Flag is paraded by our defence forces and displayed around the country at sporting events and b Upon federation in 1901, Australia’s first Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Sir Edmund Barton, announced an international competition to design a flag for the new Commonwealth of Australia. There were 32,823 entries, of which 5 nearly identical designs were awarded equal first. The prize money of £200 was divided among the winners: Annie Dorrington from Perth, who became quite a well-known artist; Ivor Evans from Melbourne, a 14-year-old school boy whose father owned a flag-making business; Leslie Hawkins, a teenager from Leichhardt in New South Wales; Egbert Nuttall, from Prahran in Victoria; and William Stevens, First Officer in the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. Were Proud Aussies an we love our country. The Australian Flag was flown for the first time on 3 September 1901, the day on which the then Prime Minister announced the 5 joint competition winners. It was flown over the dome of the Exhibition Building in Melbourne, which was the then seat of the federal government, where all the designs were on display. The Australian National Flag as we know it today is based on this design. In this original design, the stars of the Southern Cross had different numy service organisations, schools, community groups and private citizens. Australian National Flag Day Australian National Flag Day is an opportunity for individuals, community organisations, local authorities, businesses and schools to celebrate the anniversary of the Australian National Flag. Australian National Flag Day, proclaimed in 1996 as a national day, celebrates the first time the flag was flown on 3 September 1901. All Australians are encouraged to fly or display the Australian National Flag to celebrate Australian National Flag Day. Ideas to help you celebrate Australian National Flag Day: Conduct a flag raising ceremony Businesses and organisations which don’t have a flagpole may wish to display the Australian National Flag in the public areas of their buildings, such as foyers Read about the history of the Australian National Flag and the protocols for flying the flag Register for the Commonwealth Flag Network. The Department also provides a flag kit which can be used to help promote an understanding of Australia’s democratic heritage and traditions, and the shared values of freedom, tolerance, respect, responsibility and inclusion. The flag kit consists of the following resources: Australian National Flag Day fact sheet Australian National Flag fun facts Australian National Flag fact sheet Australian National Flag outline for colouring in - PDF 34 KB Australian National Flag info sheet with how to recreate the Flag - PDF 161 KB Australian red ensign fact sheet This post was reused from https://www.pmc.gov.au/honours-and-symbols/australian-national-symbols/australian-national-flag
- Windows 12: Expected Release Date, Latest News & Features
Windows 12 is expected to be released in Fall 2025, based on Microsoft's typical release cycles. AI capabilities are anticipated to be a major focus in Windows 12, building on the AI features introduced in the Windows 11 update. Windows 12 may reintroduce ads in the Start menu, following the recent introduction (and subsequent removal) of ads in a Windows 11 update. Hardware requirements for Windows 12 are likely to be more demanding than previous versions, requiring faster CPUs, more RAM, solid-state drives, and graphics cards compatible with DirectX 12 or later for a better run. While Microsoft may offer Windows 12 as a free upgrade for existing Windows 11 or 10 users, new purchases are likely to follow a pricing structure similar to Windows 11. Microsoft is deep into Windows 12 development, with the next version of the most popular desktop OS in the world expected in 2025. We have one more revision of Windows 11 to come first — Windows 11 24H2 , which will bring HDR background support, Wi-Fi 7, and artificial intelligence features — but once that arrives before the end of 2024, Windows 12 is the next operating system to keep your eyes on. In this article, we’ll explore everything we know so far about Windows 12, from its expected release date and pricing to its rumored features and system requirements. New Windows 12 Features Table of Contents When is Windows 12 Being Released? Estimated Launch: July-October 2025 Windows 12 is expected to be released in July to October 2025. Original estimates considered 2024 to be the year until Microsoft announced Windows 11 24H2. Based on the company’s previous release playbook, a release date in Q3 aligns with Microsoft’s traditional launch windows. Other than Windows Vista, every major OS launch has happened in October, or occasionally September. Perhaps Fall season is a lucky charm for Microsoft? New Windows 12 Features AI the Focal Point of Windows 12? Microsoft has never been shy about its intention to bring artificial intelligence capabilities to its Windows OS. So, we don’t expect this to change in Windows 12. Building on the foundation laid by Windows 11’s 23H2 update, which introduced Microsoft Copilot to Windows , and going deeper with the upcoming 24H2, Windows 12 is likely to have been built with AI right at the center. Copilot has already demonstrated its ability to provide a more personalized and efficient experience, and future updates could further enhance its ability to control and interact with the PC. However, it’s not been a smooth run, with Microsoft’s idea to automatically screenshot users’ machines getting instant pushback. Windows 11 24H2 , coming soon, also includes a better version of HDR support, additional compression tools in Windows Explorer, and eagerly anticipated Wi-Fi 7 support, so we can expect these features to be baked in to Windows 12. One potential area of improvement is the expansion of AI-powered search capabilities , similar to those seen in Windows 11’s Taskbar, where users can easily use the search icon to look up content across Microsoft 365. Additionally, the Recommended section in File Explorer , which suggests files and folders based on user behavior, could be further refined and expanded with better AI algorithms . Another likely integration is to suggest user actions using a virtual assistant that can anticipate user needs and provide recommendations accordingly. Just please, not Clippy 2.0. What Will Windows 12 Look Like? While there is not much to go on yet, back in 2022 Windows Central reporter Zac Bowden was shown a UI design prototype at a Microsoft event , which showed floating toolbars at the top of Windows, including a weather icon, a search bar, mobile-like system items in the top right. This was two years ago, and was an “accidental flash” of what might be a prototype, but it may be an early glance of Microsoft’s plans. Browden recreated what he saw in the article above. A Microsoft leak of a potential Windows 12 new look. (Microsoft) Will Ads Return to Windows 12 Start Menu? In April 2024, Microsoft released a Windows 11 update that introduced ads in the Start menu . While they’ve removed this feature, there are still concerns that it might become a permanent addition in future versions, including Windows 12. The ads, displayed in the Recommended section, promote Microsoft Store apps from a select group of developers, aiming to facilitate app discovery. While this update may enhance user experience, it remains to be seen whether Start menu ads will become a standard feature in future Windows versions. What Hardware Will I Need to Run Windows 12? Expected Specs: 1GHz+, 64-bit Only? Otherwise, Largely Similar to Windows 11 While Microsoft has not revealed its Windows 12 system requirements, we can make some educated guesses based on current trends and technological advancements. Firstly, due to AI-laden features expected to come with the new Windows, it’s likely that users will require nothing less than 1 gigahertz (GHz) , a 64-bit processor, with 2 or more cores, a minimum of 4-8 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of storage or more to run Windows 12. In terms of storage, a solid-state drive (SSD) will be the preferred choice, given its faster read and write speeds compared to traditional hard disk drives (HDDs). A minimum of 256 GB of storage will likely be required, with 512 GB or more recommended for users with large file collections. Graphics requirements will likely be more demanding, with a minimum graphics card that is compatible with DirectX 12 (DX12) or later. We expect Windows 12 specs to be largely similar to Windows 11 specs, although perhaps making a 64-bit processor mandatory. Windows 12 vs Windows 11: Minimum Specs Hardware Requirement Windows 11 Windows 12 (Expected) Processor 1 GHz or faster with 2 or more cores 1 GHz or faster with 2 or more cores (64-bit compatible) RAM 4 GB or more 4 GB or more Storage 64 GB or larger 64 GB or larger System firmware UEFI, Secure Boot capable UEFI, Secure Boot capable TPM TPM version 2.0 TPM version 2.0 Graphics card DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver Will There Be Different Versions of Windows 12? Similar to its predecessors, Windows 12 is likely to come in Home and Pro versions, perhaps with different aliases. This will cater to the preferences of end consumers and high-end users. So, it should not come as a surprise if Microsoft decides to version Windows 12 according to this classification. We can also expect varying levels of features, security, and support in the versions as we currently have in Windows 11. Windows 12 Price Free Upgrade & Premium Options? With many software releases following a subscription model, it’s not out of place to wonder if Microsoft would come up with a Windows 12 subscription model rather than its current license purchase model. It’s safe to assume that Microsoft will offer Windows 12 as a free optional upgrade for Windows 11 users, but likely a paid upgrade for Windows 10 . For those who wish to purchase a standalone copy of Windows 12, Microsoft will likely follow the pricing pattern on its Windows 11 . If this becomes the case, we can expect Windows 12 Home to cost more than the $139 currently charged for Windows 11 Home. Windows 12 Pro could cost around $199.99 or more. This pricing structure is consistent with Microsoft’s previous releases, and it’s likely that Windows 12 will follow suit. The Bottom Line If you’re a Windows user or enthusiast, the possibility of having more AI functions to tinker with in a new Windows could be exciting. While details are scarce on Microsoft’s plans for a future Windows operating system iteration, what we do know is that the tech giant consistently strives to innovate and improve user experience with each new version and we look forward to an official Windows 12 preview. And with AI lurking around every software, there is no reason not to expect more of it when the official Windows 12 release hits the news. But beyond AI, Microsoft will likely aim to optimize performance, improve security features, and ensure seamless compatibility with apps as they forge ahead with the future of their flagship product. And no, we have no suggestions about what the Windows 12 logo looks like yet. Author Nerdcore Computers 24/09/2024
- 7 Ways To Use Jupyter Notebooks inside PyCharm
Jupyter notebooks allow you to tell stories by creating and sharing data, equations, and visualizations sequentially, with a supporting narrative as you go through the notebook. Jupyter notebooks in PyCharm Professional provide functionality above and beyond that of browser-based Jupyter notebooks, such as code completion, dynamic plots, and quick statistics, to help you explore and work with your data quickly and effectively. Let’s take a look at 7 ways you can use Jupyter notebooks in PyCharm to achieve your goals. They are: Creating or connecting to an existing notebook Importing your data Getting acquainted with your data Using JetBrains AI Assistant Exploring your code with PyCharm Getting insights from your code Sharing your insights and charts The Jupyter notebook that we used in this demo is available on GitHub . 1. Creating or connecting to an existing notebook You can create and work on your Jupyter notebooks locally or connect to one remotely with PyCharm. Let’s take a look at both options so you can decide for yourself. Creating a new Jupyter notebook To work with a Jupyter notebook locally, you need to go to the Project tool window inside PyCharm, navigate to the location where you want to add the notebook, and invoke a new file. You can do this by using either your keyboard shortcuts ⌘N (macOS) / Alt+Ins (Windows/Linux) or by right-clicking and selecting New | Jupyter Notebook . Give your new notebook a name, and PyCharm will open it ready for you to start work. You can also drag local Jupyter notebooks into PyCharm, and the IDE will automatically recognise them for you. Connecting to a remote Jupyter notebook Alternatively, you can connect to a remote Jupyter notebook by selecting Tools | Add Jupyter Connection . You can then choose to start a local Jupyter server, connect to an existing running local Jupyter server, or connect to a Jupyter server using a URL – all of these options are supported. Now you have your Jupyter notebook, you need some data! 2. Importing your data Data generally comes in two formats, CSV or database. Let’s look at importing data from a CSV file first. Importing from a CSV file Polars and pandas are the two most commonly used libraries for importing data into Jupyter notebooks. I’ll give you code for both in this section, and you can check out the documentation for both Polars and pandas and learn how Polars is different to pandas . You need to ensure your CSV is somewhere in your PyCharm project, perhaps in a folder called `data`. Then, you can invoke import pandas and subsequently use it to read the code in: import pandas as pd df = pd.read _csv("../data/airlines.csv") In this example, airlines.csv is the file containing the data we want to manipulate. To run this and any code cell in PyCharm, use ⇧⏎ (macOS) / Shift+Enter (Windows/Linux). You can also use the green run arrows on the toolbar at the top. If you prefer to use Polars, you can use this code: import polars as pl df = pl.read _csv("../data/airlines.csv") Importing from a database If your data is in a database, as is often the case for internal projects, importing it into a Jupyter notebook will require just a few more lines of code. First, you need to set up your database connection. In this example, we’re using postgreSQL . For pandas, you need to use this code to read the data in: import pandas as pd engine = create_engine("postgresql://jetbrains: jetbrains@localhost /demo") df = pd.read _sql(sql=text("SELECT * FROM airlines"), con=engine.connect()) And for Polars, it’s this code: import polars as pl engine = create_engine("postgresql://jetbrains: jetbrains@localhost /demo") connection = engine.connect() query = "SELECT * FROM airlines" df = pl.read _database(query, connection) 3. Getting acquainted with your data Now we’ve read our data in, we can take a look at the DataFrame or `df` as we will refer to it in our code. To print out the DataFrame, you only need a single line of code, regardless of which method you used to read the data in: 3. Getting acquainted with your data Now we’ve read our data in, we can take a look at the DataFrame or `df` as we will refer to it in our code. To print out the DataFrame, you only need a single line of code, regardless of which method you used to read the data in: df DataFrames PyCharm displays your DataFrame as a table firstly so you can explore it. You can scroll horizontally through the DataFrame and click on any column header to order the data by that column. You can click on the Show Column Statistics icon on the right-hand side and select Compact or Detailed to get some helpful statistics on each column of data. Dynamic charts You can use PyCharm to get a dynamic chart of your DataFrame by clicking on the Chart View icon on the left-hand side. We’re using pandas in this example, but Polars DataFrames also have the same option. Click on the Show Series Settings icon (a cog) on the right-hand side to configure your plot to meet your needs: In this view, you can hover your mouse over your data to learn more about it and easily spot outliers: 4. Using JetBrains AI Assistant JetBrains AI Assistant has several offerings that can make you more productive when you’re working with Jupyter notebooks inside PyCharm. Let’s take a closer look at how you can use JetBrains AI Assistant to explain a DataFrame, write code, and even explain errors. Explaining DataFrames If you’ve got a DataFrame but are unsure where to start, you can click the purple AI icon on the right-hand side of the DataFrame and select Explain DataFrame . JetBrains AI Assistant will use its context to give you an overview of the DataFrame: Writing Code You can also get JetBrains AI Assistant to help you write code. Perhaps you know what kind of plot you want, but you’re not 100% sure what the code should look like. Well, now you can use JetBrains AI Assistant to help you. Let’s say you want to use ‘matplotlib’ to create a chart that finds the relationship between ‘TimeMonthName’ and ‘MinutesDelayedWeather’. By specifying the column names, we’re giving more context to the request which improves the reliability of the generated code. Try it with the following prompt: Give me code using matplotlib to create a chart which finds the relationship between ‘TimeMonthName’ and ‘MinutesDelayedWeather’ for my dataframe df If you like the resulting code, you can use the Insert Snippet at Caret button to insert the code and then run it: import matplotlib.pyplot as plt # Assuming your data is in a DataFrame named 'df' # Replace 'df' with the actual name of your DataFrame if different # Plotting plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6)) plt.bar (df['TimeMonthName'], df['MinutesDelayedWeather'], color='skyblue') plt.xlabel('Month') plt.ylabel('Minutes Delayed due to Weather') plt.title('Relationship between TimeMonthName and MinutesDelayedWeather') plt.xticks(rotation=45) plt.grid(axis='y', linestyle='--', alpha=0.7) plt.tight_layout() plt.show () If you don’t want to open the AI Assistant tool window, you can use the AI cell prompt to ask your questions. For example, we can ask the same question here and get the code we need: Explaining errors You can also get JetBrains AI Assistant to explain errors for you. When you get an error, click Explain with AI : You can use the resulting output to further your understanding of the problem and perhaps even get some code to fix it! 5. Exploring your code PyCharm can help you get an overview of your Jupyter notebook, complete parts of your code to save your fingers, refactor it as required, debug it, and even add integrations to help you take it to the next level. Tips for navigating and optimizing your code Our Jupyter notebooks can grow large quite quickly, but thankfully you can use PyCharm’s Structure view to see all your notebook’s headings by clicking ⌘7 (macOS) / Alt+7 (Windows/Linux). Code completion Another helpful feature that you can take advantage of when using Jupyter notebooks inside PyCharm is code completion. You get both basic and type-based code completion out of the box with PyCharm, but you can also enable Full Line Code Completion in PyCharm Professional, which uses a local AI model to provide suggestions. Lastly, JetBrains AI Assistant can also help you write code and discover new libraries and frameworks. Refactoring Sometimes you need to refactor your code, and in that case, you only need to know one keyboard shortcut ⌃T (macOS) / Shift+Ctrl+Alt+T (Windows/Linux) then you can choose the refactoring you want to invoke. Pick from popular options such as Rename , Change Signature, and Introduce Variable , or lesser-known options such as Extract Method , to change your code without changing the semantics: As your Jupyter notebook grows, it’s likely that your import statements will also grow. Sometimes you might import a package such as polars and numpy , but forget that numpy is a transitive dependency of the Polars library and as such, we don’t need to import it separately. To catch these cases and keep your code tidy, you can invoke Optimize Imports ⌃⌥O (macOS) / Ctrl+Alt+O (Windows/Linux) and PyCharm will remove the ones you don’t need. Debugging your code You might not have used the debugger in PyCharm yet, and that’s okay. Just know that it’s there and ready to support you when you need to better understand some behavior in your Jupyter notebook. Place a breakpoint on the line you’re interested in by clicking in the gutter or by using ⌘F8 (macOS) / Ctrl+F8 (Windows/Linux), and then run your code with the debugger attached with the debug icon on the top toolbar: You can also invoke PyCharm’s debugger in your Jupyter notebook with ⌥⇧⏎ (macOS) / Shift+Alt+Enter (Windows/Linux). There are some restrictions when it comes to debugging your code in a Jupyter notebook, but please try this out for yourself and share your feedback with us. Adding integrations into PyCharm IDEs wouldn’t be complete without the integrations you need. PyCharm Professional 2024.2 brings two new integrations to your workflow: DataBricks and HuggingFace . You can enable the integrations with both Databricks and HuggingFace by going to your Settings ⌘ (macOS) / Ctrl+Alt+S (Windows/Linux), selecting Plugins and searching for the plugin with the corresponding name on the Marketplace tab. 6. Getting insights from your code When analyzing your data, there’s a difference between categorical and continuous variables. Categorical data has a finite number of discrete groups or categories, whereas continuous data is one continuous measurement. Let’s look at how we can extract different insights from both the categorical and continuous variables in our airlines dataset. Continuous variables We can get a sense of how continuous data is distributed by looking at measures of the average value in that data and the spread of the data around the average. In normally distributed data, we can use the mean to measure the average and the standard deviation to measure the spread. However, when data is not distributed normally, we can get more accurate information using the median and the interquartile range (this is the difference between the seventy-fifth and twenty-fifth percentiles). Let’s look at one of our continuous variables to understand the difference between these measurements. In our dataset, we have lots of continuous variables, but we’ll work with `NumDelaysLateAircraft` to see what we can learn. Let’s use the following code to get some summary statistics for just that column: df['NumDelaysLateAircraft'].describe() Looking at this data, we can see that there is a big difference between the `mean` of ~789 and the ‘median’ (our fiftieth percentile, indicated by “50%” in the table below) of ~618. This indicates a skew in our variable’s distribution, so let’s use PyCharm to explore it further. Click on the Chart View icon at the top left. Once the chart has been rendered, we’ll change the series settings represented by the cog on the right-hand side of the screen. Change your x-axis to `NumDelaysLateAircraft` and your y-axis to `NumDelaysLateAircraft`. Now drop down the y-axis using the little arrow and select `count`. The final step is to change the chart type to Histogram using the icons in the top-right corner: Now that we can see the skew laid out visually, we can see that most of the time, the delays are not too excessive. However, we have a number of more extreme delays – one aircraft is an outlier on the right and it was delayed by 4,509 minutes, which is just over three days! In statistics, the mean is very sensitive to outliers because it’s a geometric average, unlike the median, which, if you ordered all observations in your variable, would sit exactly in the middle of these values. When the mean is higher than the median, it’s because you have outliers on the right-hand side of the data, the higher side, as we had here. In such cases, the median is a better indicator of the true average delay, as you can see if you look at the histogram. Categorical variables Let’s take a look at how we can use code to get some insights from our categorical variables. In order to get something that’s a little more interesting than just `AirportCode`, we’ll analyze how many aircraft were delayed by weather, `NumDelaysWeather`, in the different months of the year, `TimeMonthName`. Use this code to group `NumDelaysWeather` with `TimeMonthName`: result = df[['TimeMonthName', 'NumDelaysWeather']].groupby('TimeMonthName').sum() result This gives us the DataFrame again in table format, but click the Chart View icon on the left-hand side of the PyCharm UI to see what we can learn: This is okay, but it would be helpful to have the months ordered according to the Gregorian calendar. Let’s first create a variable for the months that we expect: month_order = [ "January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December" ] Now we can ask PyCharm to use the order that we’ve just defined in `month_order`: # Convert the 'TimeMonthName' column to a categorical type with the specified order df["TimeMonthName"] = pd.Categorical(df["TimeMonthName"], categories=month_order, ordered=True) # Now you can group by 'TimeMonthName' and perform sum operation, specifying observed=False result = df[['TimeMonthName', 'NumDelaysWeather']].groupby('TimeMonthName', observed=False).sum() result We then click on the Chart View icon once more , but something’s wrong!
- Create a powerful Kubernetes security duo with Custom Org Policy and Policy Controller
Google Cloud provides various centralized resource governance controls to assist customers in implementing defense in depth strategies, enabling organizations to securely expand their Google Cloud usage across numerous projects, APIs, and developers. These controls empower administrators to enhance security and ensure compliance throughout the organization while minimizing any additional burden on the development process. Google Cloud provides two powerful and complementary controls for Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE): custom Org Policy and Policy Controller. These tools work in tandem to enhance governance and compliance on a large scale while securing GKE clusters. Implementing these guardrails can also facilitate quicker time-to-market and improved operational efficiency. Custom Organization Policies serve as adaptable safeguards within Google Cloud, designed to regulate resource configurations and promote security and compliance on a large scale. By utilizing these policies, organizations can centralize their control mechanisms, enforce them in a hierarchical manner, and ensure that only compliant resources are allowed within their infrastructure. The establishment of these policy guardrails creates clear boundaries for development teams, facilitating the implementation of proactive strategies that reduce the risk of incidents while enhancing overall efficiency. Custom Organization Policies serve as adaptable safeguards within Google Cloud, designed to regulate resource configurations and promote security and compliance on a large scale. By utilizing these policies, organizations can centralize their control mechanisms, enforce them in a hierarchical manner, and ensure that only compliant resources are allowed within their infrastructure. The establishment of these policy guardrails creates clear boundaries for development teams, facilitating the implementation of proactive strategies that reduce the risk of incidents while enhancing overall efficiency. To reduce disruption during the implementation of policy changes, custom Org Policies offer safe rollout tools such as the policy simulator, which allows for the preview of resource violations, and dry run, which helps identify runtime violations. You can effectively design, test, and deploy hierarchical resource configuration guardrails at scale utilizing gCloud, Console, and Terraform. Here are four custom Org Policy constraints for GKE to help you get started: Enforce Binary Authorization, ensuring that only trusted and attested images can be used to spin up new GKE clusters. Disallow disabling of node auto-upgrade for new node pools. Enable Workload Identity for new clusters. Disallow disabling of Cloud Logging on existing clusters. You can also find an expanded library of ready to use constraints here . The Policy Controller implements entirely programmable policies for your GKE clusters, serving as protective measures that ensure compliance with security, governance, and regulatory standards. It allows for the application of policies during the admission process, facilitates runtime auditing, and integrates with CI/CD pipelines to provide early feedback on code compliance with established policies. The Policy Controller is built on the open-source Open Policy Agent Gatekeeper framework. Policy Controller comes with an integrated dashboard so you can get an at-a-glance view for the policies applied to your clusters. This includes enforcement status (dryrun, warn, or enforced), violations, and an advanced remediation flow to help you address the violations for all of your Kubernetes environments including GKE on Google Cloud, Anthos on-prem, Anthos on AWS and Azure, and attached clusters. Policy Controller also provides policy bundles , out-of-the-box sets of constraints which are created and maintained by Google. Policy bundles can be used as-is, without writing a single line of code. Policy Controller also has a library of more than 80 templates for Kubernetes resources with examples to help you get started with custom policies for your organization. Some of the common use cases for Policy Controller (f ull policy library , p olicy bundles ) include: Restricting RBAC access, such as not allowing unauthenticated principles to be cluster admins. Limiting the repositories that a given container image can be pulled from. Ensuring workloads on a fleet of clusters are compliant with Center for Internet Security (CIS) GKE benchmark, and Pod Security Standards. Verifying required labels are present for all workloads for security or governance purposes. Custom Org Policy and Policy Controller are better together By using custom Org Policies and Policy Controller together, organizations can implement defense in depth for their GKE resources: Custom Org Policies allow org admins to centrally enforce cluster and nodepool configurations during resource provisioning or mutation. This forms the outer layer of control inherited by GKE resources through the resource hierarchy. Policy Controller offers platform admins dynamic guardrails within individual GKE clusters. This forms the inner granular layer allowing on-cluster Kubernetes administration to meet security, operational and governance requirements. Layered guardrails using Org Policy and Policy Controller Together, Org Policy and Policy Controller provide the guardrails needed to run GKE at scale. Built-in integrations for Org Policy and Policy Controller Additionally, for Security Command Center customers, data related to Org Policies and Policy Controller are automatically sent to your console, supporting a comprehensive view of your organization’s risk posture. Org Policy and Policy Controller also integrate with Cloud Operations logs and metrics. Get started today The easiest way to get started with Policy Controller is to install Policy Controller and apply a policy bundle to audit your fleet of clusters against a standard, such as PCI DSS 3.2.1 , CIS Kubernetes Benchmark 1.5.1 , PSS Baseline , PSS Restricted , PSP , Policy Essentials , or Anthos Service Mesh Security . To implement custom Org Policies, check out our guide to learn how to define, test, deploy, and manage your custom policies. You can watch a demo of custom org policy that we showcased recently. Whether you're a security architect, a compliance practitioner, or a developer, custom org policies can empower you to take control of your cloud resources. Get started in Cloud Console today. Author Nerdcore PC 08/27/2024
- The 5 Best Electric Cars on the Market
Electric cars are facing challenges as we enter 2024. Audi recently pushed back its pivot to electrics to 2030. Jaguar is struggling to survive until it can make its expected transition next year. Ford and GM appear to be cutting back their electric efforts, and other carmakers are talking about shutting down their dealerships to contain their financial bleeding, much of which is being blamed on poor demand for electric cars. I’ve had two electric cars and have another on order, which will be on this list, but we are currently a world in transition. While all transitions are ugly, this one is especially so because the ecosystem wasn’t and isn’t ready for this pivot. There is no doubt in my mind that this will all be settled by the end of the decade, but we’ll likely have a whole new list of carmakers, and many of those that currently exist may be bought or shut down due to this transition. Let’s talk about the five best electric cars in the world right now — some of which aren’t available in the U.S. We’ll close with my first Product of the Week for 2024, the best electric car charger in the market. Understanding the Practicality of Electric Cars When picking a “best of” list, it is important to understand how the reviewer sets the bar for “best.” As I’ve noted, I’ve owned two fully electric cars and still have one plug-in hybrid, which makes more sense right now for most folks than a full electric car because you aren’t dependent on the existing charging infrastructure to drive long distances. To date, electric cars are best used as secondary vehicles for round trips under 200 miles, so you can charge at home and avoid public charging. This limitation arises primarily because Level 3 chargers have been undependable, with the exception of Tesla. However, those of us who can mostly charge from home don’t experience this inconvenience, and we have the benefit of never going to a public charging station that may not work or be accessible. Most electric cars on the market mix internal combustion engine (ICE) and electric technology, which often conflict. Developers did not design these two types of technology together, and they may not even originate from the same century. Electric cars should be relatively reliable but often aren’t because of this legacy tech intermixed with newer tech, and the two don’t seem to be getting along well. So, for the best, I’ll pick from a list of from-the-ground-up electric cars that lack much of this legacy tech and have at least 300 miles of range, which is, for most, enough to rely on home charging primarily. If your commute is longer than 200 miles round trip, you may want to up your minimum range; cars with over 600 miles of range are coming. With that range requirement, I’d suggest staying with an ICE car or plug-in hybrid until 2026, when electric vehicles with greater ranges and more advanced batteries are due. While only Tesla has this now, I’d favor cars with NACS (Tesla’s North American Charging Standard) over the non-Tesla J1772 port when possible, given the industry appears to be pivoting to the NACS standard. It’ll likely increase the car’s resale value when you are done with it, as well. Following are my picks for the five best electric cars. Tesla just updated its Model 3 Tesla just updated its Model 3. While it isn’t as cutting-edge as the Tesla Cybertruck, it is more practical, better priced, and a ton better looking than its larger, more advanced sibling. As the Tesla lines are updated, the improvements are worth waiting for. Currently, the Model 3 is the most affordable updated offering and sets the bar for reasonably priced, ground-up designed electric cars. It can be configured with 333 miles of range, which exceeds my minimum range bar and has decent performance. Tesla’s fit and finish have improved of late (early Model 3s often were delivered incomplete), and it remains one of the best values in the market. Tesla is also in decent financial shape, so of the electric-car-only vendors, it is the most likely to be around in five years, which is always a consideration given we’ve already had several electric car companies fail. While the price starts at $30,000, fully configured, they are closer to $45,000, which is still a decent value. Lucid Air Sapphire If I were rich, I would get the Lucid Air Sapphire. With up to 1,234 horsepower, this thing is at the highest end of a supercar in performance (1.89 seconds 0-60 time). It is in the Tesla Model X range in terms of size and price, meaning it isn’t cheap, with a fully configured price pushing $250,000. But if you want a no-compromise electric car in the U.S., this is it. The Lucid Air Sapphire is one of the first cars to utilize 900V charging systems (good luck finding a 900V charger today), making it somewhat future-proof. It can be configured with up to 427 miles of range. There was a recent Gumball Rally run with this car, and the only reason it failed to break the record was because it couldn’t yet use Tesla chargers, highlighting again the benefit of that charging network. It is another ground-up design that highlights what you could do if the price were almost no object. Fisker Ocean Extreme Since I’m not rich, I recently ordered the Fisker Ocean Extreme, which is far more affordable at closer to $65,000 (prices start at a more cost-effective $38,000). It also features a ground-up design, and with around 364 miles of configurable range, it easily meets my minimum. This Fisker is not only a decent-looking car, but it provides several unique features, like an airline-like fold-down table for the driver. I tend to eat burgers when traveling in the car, and having a table to put my meal on would be incredibly helpful. It is also handy when you have to sign a charge slip. As one of the best-looking electric cars on the road, I put my money into the Ocean Extreme even though the company is on uneven financial ground. Rivian R1S/R1T The Rivian R1S SUV or R1T pickup (there are two potential configurations), with a range of up to 410 miles on the pickup and up to 390 miles on the SUV, is one of the first electrics with a four-motor option, which should be far better than two-motor electrics off-road or on snow or ice because you can infinitely vary the power to all four wheels individually. Four-motor capability makes Rivian one of the most advanced electric cars on the market, and it has some interesting, unique features like a slide-out RV-type tray under the rear truck bed. This vehicle prices out in the mid-$80,000 range, depending on configuration, but the delta is worth it for those four motors. I’ve seen this truck out-race a Ford Raptor while pulling a trailer. This is an impressive vehicle, priced less and far more practical than the Tesla Pickup. Zeekr 001 ’ll close my list with one of the Chinese cars we can’t buy here. This vehicle is one of the prettiest electric cars on the market. For instance, you might confuse it with a Porsche Taycan from a distance. With a massive range of about 640 miles, an impressive interior, and prices discounted to start under $40,000 (the similar Porsche starts at around $90,000 and can exceed $160,000), this is one of the best bargains currently in the market. While you can’t buy the Zeekr 001 in the U.S., it is expected to be very similar to the Polestar 4 which will be available here this year starting at around $60,000 and is also a stunning car. I picked this over the BYD Denza N7 because it is a little cheaper, and I think it is better looking, and it anticipates a car that will be available here. (Note: BYD either has or is expected to pass Tesla as the top electric car company in the world.) China has some exceedingly competitive electric cars coming to market, and the market protections currently keeping it out of the U.S. won’t last indefinitely.
- Nerdcore pc Remains Despite a significant IT outage, it remains unaffected.
The digital realm is currently experiencing a significant IT outage, one of the most extensive in recent history. Numerous businesses and individuals are facing challenges due to disruptions in Microsoft services such as Microsoft 365, Azure, and Xbox, as well as the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike's security platform. Early assessments indicate that over 15 million businesses and numerous individuals have been affected by this unparalleled outage. Amidst widespread chaos, The nerdcore group remains steadfast, ensuring our operations continue smoothly. Our dedication to exclusively on-premise systems has protected us from the current turmoil, highlighting the strength of non-cloud-dependent infrastructure. What really happened? The reason behind the worldwide IT disturbance was a defective software update released by CrowdStrike, a prominent cybersecurity company. This update, meant for their Falcon Sensor software (created to safeguard systems from cyber threats), mistakenly caused a major malfunction in Windows systems, resulting in crashes and the well-known "Blue Screen of Death" (BSOD) appearing. The update's flawed code resulted in conflicts with Windows OS, causing widespread instability and system failures. The exact cause of the conflict is still being investigated, but it's evident that the update initiated a series of problems that affected many systems using CrowdStrike's security software. This initial disruption led to a domino effect, with interconnected services like Microsoft's Azure cloud platform and Microsoft 365 applications also facing cascading failures. The sudden increase in errors and system shutdowns overwhelmed Microsoft's infrastructure, worsening the outage and expanding its reach. CrowdStrike promptly detected the problematic update and released a solution, however, the harm had already been inflicted. Numerous systems had already crashed, causing ripple effects across the digital realm. Although CrowdStrike's remedy stops additional systems from being compromised, it does not automatically recover those that were already affected. The recent event emphasizes the interconnectedness of modern IT systems and the risk of a single software error causing a widespread outage. It also highlights the critical need for thorough testing and validation procedures, particularly for software updates on essential systems. The aftermath of this incident has had extensive consequences: Businesses: Numerous organizations are facing challenges such as communication disruptions, workflow interruptions, and potential security risks. The impact spans across small businesses to large corporations. Individuals: Millions of people are experiencing difficulties accessing emails, working on projects collaboratively, and engaging in online activities like gaming. When can we expect a return to normalcy? Microsoft and CrowdStrike are diligently collaborating to address the issue, however, as of 9:00 pm on 19 July 2024, Australian Eastern Standard Time, there is currently no definite timeline for complete service restoration. While waiting for services to be restored, consider utilizing different communication methods such as text messages or phone calls. Engage in offline tasks that do not rely on internet access to stay productive during the outage. Be extra vigilant about online security to protect systems that may be more susceptible due to the CrowdStrike outage. In times of turmoil, your support system is crucial. We offer assistance to businesses experiencing operational paralysis: Emergency Solutions: We can assist in creating temporary measures to maintain essential operations. Creating a Stronger Future: This disruption highlights the significance of IT backup systems. We can aid in designing reliable systems with on-site elements to prevent future vulnerabilities. The recent worldwide service interruption serves as a reminder of the importance of having a variety of IT strategies, such as utilizing both cloud and on-premise solutions. The nerdcore group embraces this philosophy and is prepared to offer our knowledge to assist you in strengthening your digital infrastructure against potential future disturbances.
- Engaging Performance Review Examples [+ Tips From an NERDCORE Manager]
Performance review season can be a daunting period for both management and employees. One-sided conversations, mixed messages and wordy documents leave both parties feeling like they have the same, stressful conversation each time. But if you take the right approach, quarterly or annual performance reviews are an awesome opportunity to reinforce solid habits, redirect poor traits and drive professional growth for your employees. In this post, I’ll give you tips from my own experience as an HR manager to make the performance review process a lot more painless, plus human resource templates you can customize now. Engaging Performance Review Examples [+ Tips From an NERDCORE Manager] What is a performance review? A performance review is a regulated assessment in which managers evaluate an employee’s work performance to identify their strengths and weaknesses, offer feedback and assist with goal setting. The frequency and depth of the review process may vary by company, based on company size and goals of the evaluations. It could be annually: This quarterly performance review example has sections for both achievements and areas of improvement. It also has a section for core values, as this must be a key performance indicator at this company. Different companies will have different measuring sticks for success. How to write a performance review Having an employee-friendly performance review process can not only make or break the development of your employees but also disrupt the relationship between managers and their reports. Beyond creating a robust performance review strategy and performance review form, managers must also consider their delivery of the appraisals. Communicating a performance review effectively is the final touch to executing a constructive, celebratory and effective review process. When creating an effective assessment, it’s important to include the following: Calculate an overall rating for the employee; although a manager will be highlighting both the strengths and weaknesses of an employee’s behavior, it will aid the employee’s morale to communicate how the employee averaged on this rating scale. Ensure the employees are engaged in their own reviews; thus, be sure to include the employees’ goals and developments toward reaching such goals in the assessments. Celebrate employees improvements; highlighting an employees’ developments are a powerful way to impact employee engagement and boost overall team performance. Company culture and values; dedicate a section of the assessment to evaluate how employees align with the company’s core values thus contributing to a positive company culture. Based on my involvement in building out our own effective performance review process at Venngage, I suggest taking the following steps into consideration when constructing a performance review: 1. Set expectations early Early in an employee’s career with a company, managers should communicate the details of their review process including the expectations. It should be included in your employee handbook, for example. In this way, managers set and communicate clear expectations of the key job functions and competencies of the role when an employee joins the company. The information presented in performance reviews should align with this define as well as use familiar language and terms. This strategy will work to eliminate any potential confusion or surprises for both parties. 2. Don’t make it personal Feedback is about actions and behavior, not the person. When writing a performance review, it helps to take a look at the issue(s) you’ve included and ensure that they apply to actions and behavior of the employee rather than the personal attributes of said employee. This will also help to regulate the information mentioned in the review, to guarantee it is relevant and appropriate information. 3. Beware of biases and limitations While there may be a general ‘right’ way of doing things, there are often multiple — and equally good — ways to reach the same end goal. Please ensure your review is not biased or limited in favor of your personal work style and beliefs. Try to consider the various aspects of the employees role and experience that may impact their decision to pursue alternative methods or working habits. Be empathetic towards these factors when writing your review. 4. Be specific The information presented in the review should be task-focused, clear and to the point. General comments will leave an employee feeling confused and in the dark as to what aspect of their work needs to be corrected or how they can pursue improvements. Failing to be direct in your messaging will impact the way your message is received and create further confusion about what the expectations are. Managers should be specific on what behaviors of their employees they are celebrating and what actions require improvements. 4. Offer guidance Managers play a critical role in understanding the career goals of their employees and crafting development opportunities to help their reports achieve their goals. It is important as a manager to offer your advice and expertise to your employees to help further their development. If, as a result of the feedback given, the employee (or yourself) may feel as though they need additional training, consider the benefit of workshops, mentoring or coaching. Be sure to use performance reviews as a way to guide employees whether it is toward further greatness or for areas requiring some improvement. 5. Follow up Follow up in writing and check in continuously to ensure improvement. Both managers and employees should receive a copy of the review to refer back to moving forward. Whether reviews are scheduled annually or quarterly, they should be a continuous topic of discussion for both managers and employees. When writing a review, ensure that the review is clear and specific. Being mindful of this will help to ensure the employee can easily refer back to the form on their own after the meeting. Performance review examples and templates To conduct an effective performance review, it’s important to deliver a positive and solution-focused message. This will be less discouraging to the employee. This performance review example shows how you can offer constructive feedback, while also praising the employee’s efforts. The majority of the sections focus on the employees’ achievements and strengths. Suggested areas of improvement are positioned in the middle, letting managers cushion criticism with praise. This appraisal example shows how managers can give constructive feedback to their employees by giving them clear direction on what things to keep doing and what actions to take in future. While Felicia did not meet her goal, her manager acknowledges that the goal was set deliberately high and that 74 percent of the goal still has significant impact. This employee review form also points to specific positive behavior, such as self-education, teamwork and a strong work ethic. There are also specific recommendations for improvement, such as putting together a plan to get more press mentions and scaling her experiments. Another way to do a performance review, or kick off the process, is to use a quadrant. Both the employee and manager can plot where they think the former falls on certain key values and build out discussion points from there. You can change “get it done/get it right” in the employee review template below to “uphold core values/contribute to company culture” for example. Performance review examples for managers Performance reviews are a crucial part of effective management, offering an opportunity to provide constructive feedback and set the stage for future growth. To conduct a successful performance review as a manager, preparation is essential. Collect and review performance data well in advance, considering both quantitative metrics and qualitative observations. Make sure to prioritize clear and open communication. Create a comfortable and respectful environment for the discussion, allowing the employee to share their perspective and concerns. Offering specific examples of both strengths and areas for improvement is critical, as vague feedback can lead to misunderstandings. Additionally, focus on setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals for the future, collaboratively establishing an action plan that aligns with the company’s objectives and the employee’s career aspirations. Finally, follow up on the action plan throughout the year, providing ongoing support and feedback to ensure continuous improvement. Consistent and well-structured performance reviews contribute to employee development, job satisfaction, and overall team success. Performance review examples for employees Performance reviews for new employees are critical in setting the tone for their growth and integration into the organization. For new employees especially, they may be nervous or unsure of what to expect for their first performance review. That’s why, it’s important for managers to create a welcoming and comfortable environment. Start by acknowledging their achievements and progress since joining the company. Recognizing their early contributions can boost their confidence and motivation. Additionally, focus on clear communication. Outline expectations and performance standards specific to their role. New employees should leave the review with a clear understanding of their job responsibilities and how their work aligns with the company’s goals. It’s also crucial to discuss their career development. New employees often seek opportunities for advancement and growth. Use the review to explore their long-term goals within the company, and explain how their role fits into the larger career path. Finally, emphasize ongoing support and mentorship. New employees benefit from regular check-ins and guidance to help them acclimate and succeed in their roles. Self performance review examples In a self-performance review, employees assess themselves using the same rubric as their managers would and submit them to HR and/or their manager prior to their official review meeting. The benefits of doing self-assessments have made them a common part of the employee review throughout many companies. Self-assessments are an encouraging opportunity for employees to share their thoughts about their job, goals, desired responsibilities and aspects of either their role or environment that they may be struggling with. Set employees up for success in the self-assessment process by giving them a robust employee evaluation form with thoughtful questions, and HR tools to automate this process and make it more convenient. Annual self-evaluation employee review template This first example is perfect for a thorough annual review. The targeted questions prompt the employee to reflect on their achievements and shortcomings, while also rating themselves on specific skill sets required for their job. The above employee self-assessment example allows for multiple sign-offs, plus a section to list colleagues who can back up the employee’s statements. Yearly performance self-evaluation templates A yearly performance self-evaluation isn’t just a great chance for employees to assess their past performance. It’s also a way for employees to plan for their professional future as they can see where their strengths lie and what skills they need to build to move up in the company. An annual self-evaluation can also build an employee’s case for their compensation review. This employee self-evaluation form is broken into sections that cover all these factors: about your job, achievements, goals and professional development. The above employee self-assessment example allows for multiple sign-offs, plus a section to list colleagues who can back up the employee’s statements. Yearly performance self-evaluation templates A yearly performance self-evaluation isn’t just a great chance for employees to assess their past performance. It’s also a way for employees to plan for their professional future as they can see where their strengths lie and what skills they need to build to move up in the company. An annual self-evaluation can also build an employee’s case for their compensation review. This employee self-evaluation form is broken into sections that cover all these factors: about your job, achievements, goals and professional development.
- Australian 3G Network Shutdown: Everything you need to know
As the 5G rollout progresses, mobile network operators are going to start turning off 3G services. While 3G will still be around for a little longer, we're already seeing telcos switch it off entirely. Australian 3G Network Shutdown: Everything you need to know Why shut down 3G networks? All wireless communications rely on radio frequency or "spectrum" (measured in megahertz bands, such as 850MHz or 2100MHz). Spectrum is a fixed resource. The amount available to use is determined by the physics of radio waves. Telcos buy access to "lots" of spectrum that they use to build their network, but once a band is full, that's it. We can't add more. As such, telcos have to make the most of the spectrum they have. For example, if a provider no longer runs 3G services on a certain band, it can redeploy that spectrum as faster and more efficient 4G or 5G. It's not a perfect analogy, but think of spectrum like a farm. You can change how you use your land - you could turn your apple orchard into a vineyard - but you can't plant outside of your property. Find a better phone plan Use the WhistleOut search engine to compare mobile deals from 30 providers. When will Australia's 3G networks be shut down? Telstra and Optus have all phased out parts of their 3G networks, but there's still a bit of time before their 3G networks are shut down entirely. Vodafone started shutting down its 3G network on December 15 last year, and finished in January. Telstra is slated to turn off 3G in August, while Optus follow in September. These dates may change, however. The Federal Government could force Telstra and Optus to push back their respective 3G network shutdown dates amid concerns some older 4G phones may not be able to call Triple Zero without 3G. Telstra has already pushed back its 3G shutdown date from June to August. There are also a number of 4G phones that won't be able to make calls at all when 3G is shut down, since they don't support VoLTE. Telstra 3G shutdown Telstra switched off 3G connectivity on its 2100MHz spectrum on March 25, 2019, but will continue to operate 3G services on its 850MHz spectrum until August 31, 2024. Telstra was originally planning to stop operating its 3G network on June 30, but delayed the closure by two months to give customers more time to upgrade devices if need be. Telstra published a list of devices it has sold that were affected by the 2100MHz 3G shutdown. You can find it here. If you have a 2100MHz-only 3G device, it will no longer be able to connect to the Telstra network. If you can still get 3G on the Telstra network, your device hasn't been affected by Telstra's decision to switch off 3G on 2100MHz. Customers with a phone plan on Telstra-powered MVNOs such as Boost Mobile, Belong, and Woolworths Mobile will also be affected by this change. Telstra customers and customers on a Telstra-powered provider can text "3" to 3498 to see if their phone will continue to work after the 3G shutdown. Vodafone 3G shutdown Vodafone phased 3G connectivity on its 2100MHz spectrum over the course of 2019, and stopped operating 3G services on its 900MHz spectrum starting December 15 last year. It progressively shut down its 3G network and finished in January. Optus 3G shutdown Optus has ended 3G services on the 2100MHz spectrum, but still offers 3G connectivity on the 900Mhz spectrum. It will shut down the rest of its 3G network in September this year. Australian 3G Network Shutdown: Everything you need to know 4G phones that won't work after the 3G shutdown Some older 4G phones won't be able to make phone calls at all when 3G networks are shut down, due to a lack of VoLTE support. VoLTE is a technology that allows phones to make calls over 4G networks. As such, these phones will effectively become data-only devices following the 3G shutdown. What makes this a little more complicated is the fact that VoLTE compatibility can differ between Telstra and Optus. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S6 supports VoLTE on Optus, but it doesn't support it on Telstra. The Galaxy S7 was the first VoLTE-compatible S-series phone for Telstra customers. Here's a list of popular 4G phones that will no longer work on the Telstra network after it shuts down 3G: iPhone 5 iPhone 5C iPhone 5S Galaxy S5 Galaxy S6 Galaxy S6 Edge Galaxy Note 4 And here's a list of popular 4G phones that will no longer work on the Optus network after it shuts down 3G: iPhone 5 iPhone 5C iPhone 5S Galaxy S5 Galaxy Note 4 Google Pixel 2 XL Huawei Y6 Prime Optus X Smart 4G OPPO A57 OPPO F1s In addition, there are some newer 4G devices that support VoLTE but still use 3G for calling Triple Zero. As such, these phones won't be able to make emergency calls after 3G is shut down. The following popular 4G devices will still be able to make calls after the 4G shutdown, but won't be able to make emergency calls. iPhone 6 iPhone 6 Plus iPhone SE (1st generation) Galaxy S7 Galaxy S7 Plus Galaxy S8 Galaxy S8 Plus Galaxy Note 5 Galaxy Note 8 Google Pixel Google Pixel XL Google Pixel 2 Google Pixel 2 XL* *Optus says the Pixel 2 XL won't be able to make phone calls at all after the 3G shutdown, but Telstra says the phone will keep working for its customers There are other phones from other manufacturers that will be affected by this issue. If you're concerned about your device, its best to contact your telco directly.
- Cloud Computing 2024 Migrate Your Business is it for you
A holistic data centre, will provide a comprehensive range of platforms that have been designed to meet any client's requirements that needs to manage there entire hardware ans software into the cloud. Cloud computing is a transformative concept in the field of computing. It enables businesses to access a wide range of software and services on demand. Unlike the traditional approach of purchasing expensive servers upfront, cloud computing provides businesses with access to a flexible pool of computing resources at various levels, including platform, infrastructure, and applications. By leveraging the robust infrastructure and IT services offered by Nerdcore PC, businesses can achieve greater efficiency and speed without the need to invest in building, managing, or maintaining their own infrastructure. Types of Cloud Computing Models Public Cloud Host your systems on a high-performance Public Cloud that actually protects you from downtime with high-availability infrastructure. Hybrid Cloud Extend your existing infrastructure into the Cloud whilst still utilising and benefiting from your existing hardware via Hybrid Cloud. Private Cloud Benefit from the scalability, flexibility, and customisability of Public Cloud, but utilising your own hardware for even greater security and efficiency. Multi Cloud Utilise multiple Cloud providers to increase your flexibility, reduce your costs, and mitigate the risks of relying on a single provider. The Types of Cloud Computing Services A Visual Guide to Shared Responsibility With each Cloud Computing deployment model and service, the responsibilities of the provider and user differ; here is a visual guide on where the lines are drawn. Need help solutioning or migrating? Wherever you’re currently hosted, we have dedicated solution architects that can assist with the design, build, and migration away from your current platform. They’re experts in designing large-scale cloud platforms and can assist you regardless of what platform you are looking at moving to. If you are interested in migrating over to any of our Cloud platforms, reach out to us! We’d love to have a conversation and assist you on the next stage of your cloud platform journey. Call Nerdcore PC for a free consultation
- Athens were coming to see you 2024 - Computer repairs Athens - Nerdcore PC
Welcome to the nerdcore family the club that brings your ideas to life. We advertise on all the foreign radio stations across the Australian country to reach as many people as possible. Rythmos greek radio station is just one of them. Are we doing enough to protect our computers in our businesses? Do you have an appetite to keep your systems safe. In our community we are faced with many challenging computer viruses in our lives. Nerdcore computers is the voice of computer repair services for Australia. Support is available at 1300nerdcore if your experiencing computer viruses, dont hesitate to pickup the phone if you need to. Dear Customers, Come by office for a Greek Frappe before we leave for Greece. Its been a pleasure to help Thousands of Businesses, Families, Friends, an working users over the last 20 years. The time is near were our team is heading overseas to Athens Greece for a vacation, seminar with our Athens Pangkrati office again . Our company started in Athens in 2020 an i have to attend to the guys over there. From the 10th July 2024 you might not find me at the office in Hughesdale. But will find me in our office in Athens pangrati. But rest assured our staff can help you at 3b Willesden Road Hughesdale or at your office or home location. Our staff would more than happy to help with any issues or answer any questions you might have about your nerdcore pc. From File server Maintenance to onsite computer repairs for businesses we have got your back. We thrilled to announce that our team has had an amazing start to 2024 year an we hope to see you all when i return from my Vacation. Or if you are in Europe send us a message on Facebook or instagram so we can organize some happy snappies. Athens were coming to see you 2024 - Computer repairs Athens - Nerdcore PC We will still have staff on the ground at the office in Melbourne. I look forward to seeing you at your place or ours. You can still ask for help or request an engineer to help you at your business. Were passionate about technology an we look forward to doing more business with your staff when we return. Any business computer repairs please fill in the quick quotes section on our webpage or shoot us an email at helpdesk@nerdcore.com.au. Please leave a message if you require urgent assistance at you home or business a technician will contact you within 30 minutes or there after to assist you with your enquiry. Thank you for your support over the years. We appreciate all the hard work everyone has put into making this company a global force. Managing Director Nick Veloutsos Check out some of our other Guest post which you can find some useful information about any computer breakdowns that require a professional engineer to care for your computers an bring them back to life. Computer Repairs Melbourne Computer Repairs Sydney Computer Repairs Hobart Computer Repairs Brisbane Computer repairs Perth Computer Repairs Darwin Author Nerdcore Computers Service Centre.
- The 7 best prepaid eSIM plans for Australia in 2024
The Best eSIM Providers and Plans for Australia Australia is a vast country, often referred to as a continent itself, with numerous places to explore and activities to enjoy, making a reliable phone connection essential for navigation, sharing memories, and staying in touch with loved ones. Purchasing a local eSIM in Australia can be complex due to various options like Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone, each offering different advantages based on coverage, affordability, and data packages. While local network providers are dependable, using them as a foreigner requires a thorough process involving passport details and accommodation information, along with ensuring device compatibility with Australian network frequencies. Opting for third-party mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) for an eSIM can be a more convenient choice, as they utilize major local networks, offer cost-effective plans, and additional benefits like unlimited data, phone numbers, SMS, and calls. This article will compare the top travel eSIM plans and providers in Australia to help you select the most suitable option for your trip, ensuring a seamless and enjoyable vacation experience. The Best eSIM Providers and Plans for Australia ✅ Our top recommendation: Yesim 20GB Australia Yesim might not be the most famous eSIM provider, but they offers exceptional value compared to its peers. Our top recommendation for Australia is this 20 GB plan / 7 days plan, perfect for those who need large data for browsing the internet or updating loved ones at home. The best part? You can activate this offer in a heartbeat by scanning the QR code sent to your email. Data 20 GB Validity30 day(s) 🇦🇺 Australia Data only Special Offer: €7 OFF Yesim - Australia $33.62 $41.21 $1.68/GB Learn more › This data package works on both Vodafone and Optus in 4G, two of the top network providers in the country. So, rest assured that you can enjoy the fastest coverage and speed at an affordable price. Yesim: the best provider for a cheap eSIM plan Those who are on a backpacker's budget, eyes here! Of all the international eSIMs we have compared, Yesim, so far, offers one of the cheapest eSIM plans. Yesim offers a 3 GB / 30-day plan for only 10 ($3.28 after discount). With this plan, you can get up to 4G access from the country's leading network operators, such as Vodaphone and Optus. You're also free to use this eSIM in 8 other Southeast Asian countries; however, we doubt you won't consume all this data during your travels in Australia. The Best eSIM Providers and Plans for Australia If you maxed out your data, though, you can easily top up online using the Yesim app or website. You need not also worry about language barriers or navigation on their platform because it uses the English language and features a user-friendly interface. If you prefer slightly more data, you can avail this 5 GB 30-day plan for $8.69 after discount (originally priced at $16.30). Data 5 GB Validity15 day(s) 🇦🇺 Australia Data only Special Offer: €7 OFF Yesim - Australia $8.68 $16.27 $1.74/GB Learn more › It's a bit more expensive than the previous plan but still cheaper if we compare it to other third-party MVNOs. For example, a similar plan at Redteago will cost you $9. GoMoWorld: best for trips up to 10 days GoMoWorld is relatively new to the industry. It was founded in 2023 and doesn't offer many plans across countries. The catch? They offer cheaper plans than most competitors, especially for larger eSIM data packages. This is likely a way to attract travelers to patronize their brand, and it seems effective because they have many users already despite being a startup. For your 10-day trip in Australia, you might want to try our database's most popular eSIM prepaid plan – the 20GB data / 30 days in 4G. Data 20 GB Validity5 day(s) 12 countries Data only Maya Mobile - Asia+ 20GB - 5 Days $34.00 $1.70/GB Learn more › To buy this plan (or to take advantage of any of their offerings), you must download their app from Google Playstore and App Store. Once you get the app, create a user profile, purchase the plan, and set it up within minutes. Unfortunately, you can only use it within Australia, so if you have other plans of visiting nearby countries within this continent, you will need to buy another eSIM data package from the same or different provider. Best for Australia + New Zealand: Maya Do you have plans to travel to New Zealand after your exhilarating trip to Australia, or vice versa? Then, you need a global or regional eSIM that works for both countries. Maya is an excellent eSIM for anyone traveling to the region. It offers one of the most cost-effective products, uses a Vodaphone network, and provides an extensive 4G/LTE coverage. Our favorite travel eSIM plan to use around the continent is this 20 GB data plan, valid for 5 days. Data 20 GB Validity5 day(s) 12 countries Data only Maya Mobile - Asia+ 20GB - 5 Days $34.00 $1.70/GB Learn more › With only $25, you can use this eSIM in Australia, New Zealand, and 10 other Asian countries. While unlimited browsing is not possible, customizing your subscription is easy. You are free to prolong the validity of your eSIM by utilizing the top-up feature. Once Maya reminds you that you're low on data, you can add more via the app with 3GB, 5GB, 10GB, and 20GB options. On the flip side, a large amount of data for a short duration might not be for everyone, especially those who usually spend time indoors and can connect to WiFi. So, here's a large data plan from Nomad that you use for 60 days around multiple countries. It isn't the most affordable travel eSIM for your Aussie trip, but it's ideal for staying connected. Data 30 GB Validity60 day(s) 8 countries Data only Special Offer: $1 OFF Nomad - Regional SEA-Oceania - 60 Days - 30 GB $59.00 $60.00 $1.97/GB Learn more › The generous 40 GB plan / 60 days is better than almost any other regional eSIM we looked at for Australian travel. It also offers excellent features like 4G and 5G accessibility and easy top-up. Maya: best for unlimited plans To ensure reliable connectivity beyond your hostel's inconsistent WiFi, you'll need sufficient data for your travels in Australia. If you do not worry about budget, you should invest in unlimited data packages for work and leisure purposes. Maya provides unlimited plans that grant access to 3G / 4G high-speed coverage. This is suitable for adventurous travelers who enjoy outdoor activities like exploring secluded islands, mountain climbing, or visiting remote areas. Data Unlimited Validity10 day(s) 12 countries Data only Maya Mobile - Asia+ Unlimited LITE - 10 Days $45.00 Learn more › Traveling can be unpredictable, making it essential to remain consistently connected to the internet. With this plan, you can enjoy 2GB of high-speed data (you get unlimited 1MB/s data though) daily on your trips to Australia and New Zealand and 10 other Asian countries. Note, though, that throttling can happen in all unlimited plans. Once you've exhausted the allocated data usage for this eSIM package, you may need to wait until another day to enjoy the same level of coverage. eSIM Australia FAQs Is Airalo good for Australia? Absolutely! Airalo eSIMs are good for your trip to Australia. Their eSIMs are from Yes! Go! - and they use a 4G/LTE coverage from Optus. We are big fans of Airalo. However, we find their eSIM plans in Australia expensive. Hence, it’s not part of our “best” list. For instance, their 20 GB / 30-day package is worth $40, which is a lot pricier than the plans we have provided in this post. Does Vodafone offer prepaid eSIM in Australia? Yes, Vodafone offers prepaid eSIM to both locals and foreigners in Australia. It’s one of the biggest eSIM providers in the country. You can get their eSIM through their My Vodaphone app. Also, local MVNOs use the Vodafone network to provide prepaid eSIMs. These providers are Felix Mobile, Kogan Mobile, Lebara, and TPG. Most international eSIMs likewise collaborate with Vodaphone to provide the best network in the country. Some of these third-party MVNOs are Yesim, Maya, and Nomad. Do other local providers offer prepaid eSIM for Australia? Three major local providers offer prepaid eSIM for Australia, namely Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone. Regardless of which eSIM you choose, it’s guaranteed that you’ll be able to use a reliable data connection in the country. Australia also offers local MVNOs. These MVNOs buy network service from the three above mentioned phone networks and provide the basic products as the giant telcos at a lower price. Which carriers support eSIM in Australia? Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone are the top 3 carriers that support eSIM in Australia. These telco giants also work with small telcos to provide SIM and eSIM services in the country. Here’s a table of your options: Sources: https://www.whistleout.com.au/MobilePhones/Guides/what-is-esim https://www.whistleout.com.au/MobilePhones/Guides/which-network-is-behind-your-MVNO However, buying from international MVNOs is your best bet if you're a foreigner traveling in Australia. Purchasing local eSIMs before or upon arrival in the country can be a hassle and time-consuming, and third-party providers provide a seamless process. Not to mention that it's a lot cheaper than putting your phone on roaming. Is my device compatible with an eSIM? eSIM is quite a new technology in the country. It was only launched in 2018, so we expect only newer phone models to be eSIM-compatible. If you've recently bought a new iPhone, Samsung, Oppo, Google, and Motorola phone, then it's likely that your device is compatible with an eSIM. You can look at this article to know whether your phone is eSIM compatible. Conclusion Choosing the best eSIM providers and plans is up to you. It depends on what type of traveler you are – are you a digital nomad? A globetrotter? or only visiting the country for a week or so? The best plans we've provided in this article are tailored to these types of travelers in mind. So, it's up to you to identify which suits your needs. Pro Tip: Before you take that much-awaited flight to Australia, check your phone and bank account, as they will also help you find the best plans that work for you. In case you didn't find the right plan for your trip, there's a high chance that you might find it here: Author Nerdcore Computers
- Dion Red X Core Workstation Content Creator - Custom PC gaming Computer
Dion Red X Msi Z790 Gmaing Wifi Mother Board Core i7 - 6.2 ghz 14700k Cpu 64 gb ddr5 Fury Memory 2tb M.2 SSD Antec Platinum 1300 watt PSU Corsair 7000d Airflow Case Cooler Master Atmos 360 Liquid cooling System Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64 bit Wifi + Bluetooth 7 Pack Rgb Fan Silent Noise Buy it Now $4500.00 2 Years Return To Base Warranty Custom PCS Computers - Nerdcore PC Custom Gaming Computers - Nerdcore PC New Computers - Nerdcore Computers Dion Red X Core Workstation Content Creator - Custom PC gaming Computer Dion Red X Core i7 - 6.2 ghz 14700k Cpu 64 gb ddr5 Fury Memory 2tb M.2 SSD Antec Platinum 1300watt PSU Corsair 7000d Airflow Case Cooler Master Atmos 360 Liquid cooling System Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64 bit Wifi + Bluetooth Buy it Now $4500.00 2 Years Return To Base Warranty New computers for sale - Nerdcore PC Custom Gaming PCS - Nerdcore PC Call nerdcore PC for a custom build - Any Budget you have in mind.
- Happy Mothers Day
In Short and Sweet Mother's Day Messages Hugs and kisses. Love you, Mum! Enjoy this day that's all for you! Thanks for all that you do for me! Lots of love. You're the best mum! To the best mum in the world! Nerdcore pc is giving the chance for one lucky mother to win a laptop. Want your mum to have a new updated pc for her. As an appreciation to our customers who we have been serving since 2001. Were giving away a new laptop to one lucky mum. To be part of this raffle just submit an online enquiry form stating code GIFTNERD. The laptop is a dell Dell Latitude 5500 (Latitude 15 5500 Series) Processor: Intel Core i7-8665U 4 x 1.9 - 4.8 GHz (Intel Core i7) Graphics adapter Intel UHD Graphics 620 Memory: 16 GB Display: 15.60 inch 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixel 141 PPI, capacitive, LGD05FF 156WFD, IPS, glossy: no Mainboard - Intel Cannon Lake-U PCH-LP Premium Storage 1Tb
- Contrasting Worlds: Back to the Future in 1984 - A Pixelated Era versus Today's Tech Oasis
In the year when ice t moonwalked into our hearts, Apple introduced the Macintosh, and Orwell's dystopian vision resonated in our thoughts, the world stood at the edge of transformation. It was a time filled with cultural symbols and technological progress that, to the eyes of 2024, may appear as remnants of a past era. Contrasting Worlds: Back to the Future in 1984 - A Pixelated Era versus Today's Tech Oasis Let us embark on a journey down memory lane, contrasting the pixelated world of consumer technology in 1984 with the advanced technological paradise we live in today. The Cold War left a lasting impact, with the Berlin Wall as a prominent symbol, while the initial mobile phone call was made using a bulky device in stark contrast to today's pocket-sized supercomputers. MTV's debut revolutionized the music industry, and the inaugural Space Shuttle mission reached for the stars Contrasting Worlds: Back to the Future in 1984 - A Pixelated Era versus Today's Tech Oasis During the early 1980s, personal computers were gradually becoming popular in households. The pioneers of this era were the Commodore 64s and Apple IIs, known for their blocky graphics and cassette tape drives. It was a time when booting up a game required a floppy disk. Fast forward to today, and we have sleek laptops and desktops equipped with lightning-fast processors, terabytes of storage, and mind-boggling internet speeds. Video games have also come a long way, transitioning from pixelated sprites to immersive worlds that are just a click away. The advent of dial-up internet marked the beginning of online communities, characterized by slow and crackling connections. The nostalgic sound of modems connecting has now been replaced by instant messaging, video calls, and social media platforms, enabling seamless global communication and community building. Today, we can effortlessly send messages and share photos across the globe within milliseconds, a significant departure from the era of handwritten letters and telegram wires. Contrasting Worlds: Back to the Future in 1984 - A Pixelated Era versus Today's Tech Oasis The landscape of entertainment has transformed over the years. Back in 1984, VHS tapes brought a revolution to home entertainment, where renting a plastic case filled with magnetic tape was the norm for blockbuster nights. However, today's streaming services have completely changed the game, offering vast libraries of content that can be accessed instantly. Similarly, music lovers used to enjoy their favorite tunes on cassettes with Walkmans, which paved the way for the iPods and music streaming services we have today, providing personalized playlists tailored to our moods. Who can forget the days of rewinding and fast-forwarding tapes with a pencil? Reflecting on the progress made in computer and consumer technology between 1984 and 2024 reveals astonishing developments. The bulky, pixelated devices of the past have evolved into sophisticated tools that not only connect and entertain us but also monitor our health. It is intriguing to ponder what the future holds in the next four decades - perhaps flying cars, robot assistants, or even more remarkable innovations. Only time and the continuous advancement of technology will unveil the possibilities. Content Created on 4/30/2024 Nerdcore PC
- Explore the historical landscape of computer assistance in Australia while also developing the ability to identify signs of hacking for home and business users.
Australia's dedication to technological progress is evident in the transformative evolution of computer support services. This blog explores the history of computer support in the country and highlights the importance of identifying hacking signs for home and business users. In the event that you believe you have been targeted by a cyber attack, it is imperative to seek expert help. You may want to contact nerdcore pc at 1300 637 326 for a complimentary phone consultation. Australia's journey in computer support has a rich history that spans several decades. During the 1980s and 1990s, computer support in Australia was initially limited and primarily relied on local tech enthusiasts and small businesses for assistance. The early systems were often complex, necessitating hands-on troubleshooting. With the increasing presence of computers in households and businesses, specialized computer support firms emerged during the 2000s. These firms provided a wide array of services, including hardware repairs and software troubleshooting, offering valuable assistance to users navigating the intricacies of modern computing. The 2010s marked a significant transition towards remote support and online services. During this period, there was a notable increase in the availability of tech support through phone consultations, remote desktop assistance, and online forums. Computer support in Australia has advanced in the 2020s to encompass specialized services like cybersecurity, data recovery, and managed IT services, shifting focus from reactive problem-solving to proactive problem prevention strategies. Identifying Indications of Unauthorized Access for Home and Business Users. For Home Users Uncommon Device Activity: Should your computer or smart devices exhibit irregular behavior or display indications of unauthorized access, it may indicate a hacking attempt. Pop-up ads that appear out of nowhere, sudden browser redirects, or alterations to your homepage could be signs of malware or a system that has been compromised. Monitor your online accounts regularly to detect any unusual or unauthorized activity, such as logins from unfamiliar locations. Stay vigilant and be aware of any unexplained account activity. Sluggishness: Engaging in hacking activities can put a strain on your system resources, resulting in decreased performance. If you notice a sudden decline in your computer's speed, it is advisable to investigate the cause. In the event that you discover your passwords have been altered without your awareness, it is a definite indication that your accounts might have been breached. For Businesses Keep a close eye on network logs to detect any abnormal or irregular activity patterns. An unexpected increase in activity or unexplained data transfers could signal a potential security breach. Monitor unauthorized access: Track user entry to critical systems. Numerous unsuccessful login tries or access from unfamiliar locations may indicate a potential cyber intrusion. Data anomalies refer to unexplained alterations or removals of data, particularly within vital systems, which may serve as a potential indication of a security breach. Phishing attacks remain a prevalent method for hackers to infiltrate business networks through employees falling for deceptive emails. Implementing routine cybersecurity training is crucial in reducing this vulnerability. The presence of ransomware messages that demand payment for data release indicates a ransomware attack targeting employees. Contact nerdcore computers for a free phone consultation If you have concerns about the security of your home or business systems, it is essential to seek professional help. nerdcore computers has extensive experience and knowledge in providing computer support. Contact us at 1300 637 326 for a complimentary phone consultation, during which our skilled professionals can evaluate your situation and assist you in taking the appropriate measures to address any potential security risks. Conclusion In Australia, the evolution of computer support reflects the country's commitment to offering effective solutions in the constantly changing technology landscape. It is crucial for individuals and businesses to be able to identify signs of hacking in order to protect their digital resources. If you require professional help, you may want to contact nerdcore computers for a complimentary phone consultation to proactively enhance the security of your digital space. Author Nerdcore Computers
- 8 café & restaurant technology trends you need to know about
Leveraging new technology is essential for maintaining your competitive edge in any industry, and this is no different when it comes to cafés and restaurants. Whether it’s a new POS system, updated table booking software, or a food ordering app for restaurants with no delivery service, there’s plenty of emerging technologies that offer significant benefits for your business. 8 café & restaurant technology trends you need to know about It’s no secret that 2020 disrupted the hospitality industry and accelerated new ways of doing business. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced many cafés and restaurants to technologies like contactless payments and courier delivery services, that they may have been slow to adopt otherwise. 8 café & restaurant technology trends you need to know about Now, many cafés and restaurants have reinvented themselves around new technologies that enhance safety, improve operational efficiencies, open up new revenue streams, reduce their ecological footprint, and more. Keep reading to learn 8 café & restaurant technology trends you need to know about the top café and restaurant technology trends leading the industry in 2021. 1. Contactless ordering and payments To stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic, cafés and restaurants needed to prioritise social distancing between staff and customers. This has led to a rapid rise in the adoption of contactless ordering systems that allow customers to order and pay for their meal without leaving their table or directly interacting with a staff member. Contactless ordering systems sync with your point of sale and can automatically send tickets to kitchen display systems. This fundamentally alters the ordering process within your café or restaurant, with front of house staff no longer required to attend tables and write down orders. 8 café & restaurant technology trends you need to know about 2. Paperless kitchen display systems As public awareness around foodservice sustainability increases, cafés and restaurants have begun to reduce their environmental footprint by minimising waste in the kitchen. While most kitchen waste occurs during the food preparation stage, a significant amount of paper waste is created using traditional printed tickets to track orders. Kitchen display systems have been widespread in fast food establishments for decades since they made sense for rapid service of low-complexity food. Nowadays, independent cafés and restaurants are adopting kitchen display systems at an increasing rate after recognising the various benefits they bring. Kitchen display systems not only help to eliminate paper waste - but they also keep your kitchen better organised. A kitchen display system will also help you save money otherwise spent restocking thermal paper rolls for ticket printing machines. 3. Cloud point of sale systems Cloud-computing systems have led to massive efficiency gains for a wide range of industries, and your café or restaurant can benefit from them too. The previously mentioned contactless ordering and kitchen display systems become even more efficient when they form part of a network of systems that also cover workflows, inventory management, timesheets, accounting, and more. Leveraging cloud POS systems will allow you to foster better collaboration between BOH and FOH staff, keep payments secure, streamline the ordering of ingredients, and enjoy a wide range of other benefits. While training your team with these systems will inevitably cause some disruption, it’s worth doing in the long run if you want to stay as competitive as possible. 4. Digital customer loyalty programs Rewarding repeat customers is a proven tactic that you’re likely already using with your business, but is it operating as smoothly as it could? Rather than giving customers an easily misplaced and wasteful punch card or token, foodservice operators are switching to digital systems where customers can sign up, log in, and track their rewards using a QR code or mobile app. Please add the other benefit of being able to collect customer data to help with marketing offers etc. 5. Online ordering and delivery Food delivery apps like UberEats undoubtedly helped many foodservice operators stay active during the harsh lockdowns of 2020. With sit-down dining prohibited to stop the spread of COVID, the only way for many chefs to have their food enjoyed was to package it in a takeaway box and trust it with a courier. The necessity of facilitating online ordering and delivery has introduced an entirely new revenue stream for cafés and restaurants that previously never thought to offer this service. The nature of the gig economy has meant that there’s almost always delivery partners available nearby, so there’s no need to hire dedicated delivery staff, and this significantly reduces the cost of offering this service to your customers. 6. Voice recognition technology As voice recognition technology gets better at interpreting the intricacies of human speech, voice-activated ordering is being used to help provide a better ordering experience to customers. This technology can also be used in the kitchen, allowing chefs to control their kitchen display system, re-order stock, take notes, and do a variety of other tasks with greater efficiency. Voice recognition technology also makes ordering more accessible to people with disabilities. 7. Food traceability software COVID-19 also highlighted the importance of avoiding the contamination of ingredients through the adoption of food traceability software. Foodservice operators, their staff, and their customers all enjoy greater peace of mind when they have transparency regarding the origin of produce. Cafés and restaurants need to do their best to ensure what they serve meets health standards and that employees are doing their due diligence at every stage of the food preparation process. Failing to demonstrate a commitment to traceability and accountability is something that can harm your reputation and take customers from your business - whether somebody gets sick or not. 8. Bipolar ionisation and UVGI technology To help stop the spread of viruses and keep their kitchens open, foodservice operators have also started to invest in the latest air-cleaning technologies to use with their HVAC systems. The two main air-cleaning technologies being used today are ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) and bipolar ionisation (BPI). UVGI uses ultraviolet light at a specific wavelength to degrade organic matter and neutralise bacteria. Bipolar ionisation is a newer technology that uses electricity to generate ions that work to either cluster around and destroy contaminants or bond with them to create a large mass that air filtration systems can target. Which trending technologies will you leverage? Although many of the technologies listed here were originally adopted to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, they offer various other benefits that make them worth exploring outside of lockdown. Think about the technologies listed above and how adopting them can improve your service, draw in more customers, and raise your profits. Remember; don’t forget to chat with your staff to get their insight on which new technologies your café or restaurant should adopt. For example, if you’re thinking about investing in a kitchen display system, you need to consult your kitchen staff first since they’re the ones who will be using it.
- How technology has shaped Australian dairy farming
Over the generations, technology has helped farmers deepen their stewardship of the land, improve the quality of their milk and ease the burden of farming. A hundred years ago, Tom Middlebrook’s ancestors were living and farming in relative isolation on Bowman Farm in Gloucester, on the mid north coast of New South Wales. Named for the Bowman River that runs through it, the farm was established by Tom’s great-grandfather, Percy Middlebrook. Back then it had no electricity, trips into town were rare and all the farm work was done by hand. Over the years, the Middlebrook family has tapped into advancements in technology to improve their farming practices. Second-generation farmer Allen (Tom’s grandfather) saw electricity arrive when power came through the Bowman area in the mid 1930s and purchased the farm’s first tractor a decade later. With third-generation farmer Trevor (Tom’s father) at the helm, a 270-megalitre dam and solar panels were introduced. That legacy of using technology to farm continues to this day, as dairy farmers across the industry turn to innovations such as precision drones, soil probes, robots and number-crunching apps to farm as holistically and efficiently as possible. Water security During an extended period of severe drought and intense bushfire, the farm was sustained by the 270-megalitre dam that Trevor installed in 2000. The dam collects rainwater runoff from the hill country around it and enabled Tom to keep his dairy herd alive. “When fire started bursting up everywhere in 2019, it felt like we were on Mars,” says Tom. “The dam meant we could keep the stock watered; we wouldn’t be here today without it.” Tom aims to increase water security by improving on-farm water collection and irrigation. In 2018 he became involved with the Department of Primary Industries’ Irrigating for Profit project, which helps farmers understand what’s going on below ground level so they can improve their irrigation planning and decision-making. The project involved installing moisture-measuring meters to a depth of 80cm. Using probes to measure moisture levels 15, 40 and 80cm below ground, data gets sent to a telemetry (data logging) unit, which is then available on Tom’s phone. “Every day I can check how much moisture is in the soil. And then I have the ability to make irrigation decisions on the back of that, because the reality is, once you see a physical effect in your pasture or crop, you're already two steps behind.” Precision farming Above the ground, drones are another modern technology helping farmers farm better. They can be used for monitoring crop health, spraying and seed spreading, for monitoring and mustering livestock, and for inspecting farms. Installed with advanced sensors that take images at different wavelengths (multispectral images), they can give detailed insight into how a crop is faring or where soil is dry. Drones can be especially useful on big farms like Tom’s which, at 800ha, takes a lot of time and effort to maintain – especially as Tom grows most of the food his cows need on Bowman Farm. This is economically preferable, as buying in feed to sustain a herd as large as Tom’s can cost thousands of dollars a day. It’s also a nutrition-based preference, as industry experts advise that high-quality forage crops should make up the bulk of a cow’s diet. So, in addition to the soil probes he uses to optimise soil conditions, Tom uses precision farming drones to protect his crops from pests and increase his chances of producing good pasture for his cows to forage on all year round. The name ‘precision farming’ alludes to the way drone technology enables farmers to program a drone to fly a particular flight path and height above crops, and seed drop or spray precisely where it’s most suited or needed. “It’s proved an effective way of keeping on top of destructive issues in our corn crops as they grow very tall and can’t be driven on with conventional tractors or vehicles,” Tom says. “Next season I plan to use drones for mapping, seeding and fertilising too.” Comfortable cows Beyond closely monitoring feed quality, dairy farmers like Tom are investing in herd-monitoring collars, which allow farmers to track the comfort and wellbeing of individual cows. Radio-frequency identification, accelerometer and microphone sensor technologies in the collars track eating and ruminating time. Together with temperature sensors, they can indicate things like illness, calving and heat stress. This provides valuable data for farmers to use in decision making. “It sends an alert to my phone if a cow is in distress, or if she’s calving. And then I can go and find that cow and make sure she's OK. It tells me things like how much time she's spent eating that day, how much she's walked – it’s kind of like a fitness tracker around her neck.” Elsewhere, a growing number of Australian dairy farmers are introducing robotic arms that spray disinfectant and emollient on cows’ teats after milking alongside their automatic milking systems. These protect against bacteria and help to keep cows in good health. During the floods of March 2021, road access to the farm was flooded and Tom, his family and cows were effectively stranded. This was hard on the cows because they had no dry ground to stand or lie down on. To avoid this in the future, Tom plans to build a state-of-the-art barn for his cows to “bunker down in” during periods of extreme weather. It will be capable of housing them for days or even weeks on end. Just like out in the field, in the barn the collars will help Tom keep a close eye on his cows, with their comfort and wellbeing in mind. Big Technology in Australian Dairy Dairy farming is more than collecting milk, and today’s equipment options reflect that. Dairy farmers and their workers have full schedules each day. The larger the herds, the more help needed with dairy farming’s day-to-day operations. To aid with the production and costs of dairy farming, a larger farm may be home to amazing technology consumers don’t know exist. From helping focus labor to providing extra luxuries to cows, this technology helps dairy farmers efficiently run their farm and control resources. Here are a handful of the different technologies that a modern dairy farmer may choose. Feed Robots It’s hard when your nose gets in the way of your food or, even worse, knocks a particularly yummy-looking selection out of reach. Instead of workers regularly coming through the barns to push the feed, some farms feature tech that continuously pushes feed up to the cows so they have a constant supply of food available. There’s also tech that automates food delivery. Cows can receive (within reason) as much food as they want when they want it. For the young ones, automated calf feeders provide nutrition by adjusting for the specific calf’s age as they wean off milk. Big Technology in Australian Dairy Milking Machines Cows are milked two to three times a day, and not by hand. Cows know when it’s time for a milking and line up at the milk parlor to be attached to the milkers that gently suck the milk out of the udders, waiting patiently while workers clean their udders. To reduce the time spent milking and cleaning the parlor, some dairy farms use a rotary milker, where cows essentially wait to ride a carousel to be milked and cleaned. They look forward to their milking times twice or thrice a day! Another milking method is through robotic milking. Cows are given access to robotic milk systems in their barn 24 hours a day, choosing when it’s time to be milked. Building off past data (and lasers!), equipment identifies the cow once she enters, sanitizes the udder, gently collects the milk and releases the cow when she is done milking, possibly giving her a treat of pellets. This lets the cow milk the normal 2 or 3 times a day, but it also means she can milk more if needed. Tracking Collars and Ear Tags Technology is nothing without the accessories. Electronic ID collars with a tracking chip give dairy farmers vital information about the cow, tracking everything from the number of times she chews her cud in a day to how much milk she makes. Fitbit-like pedometers worn by cows send updates about the daily activities of herds and send a notification when there’s a potential problem. This information combined with other systems like automated feeding and milking data helps monitor animal health. Tracking milk yields, feeding habits and the daily exercise of each cow provide individualized data that can be used in the early detection of changes in routine that may relate to their health or comfort. Being in the know helps farmers know the happenings on their farm, even helping detect when a cow is going into labor! Automatic Brushers Cow comfort is important, too! Cows live in barns with fans and misters that keep them cool. Their bedding is made of materials that are easy to clean and recycle so they always have a clean bed to sprawl on, perhaps even a waterbed. Equipment is run regularly to clean the floors of the barn to remove mud and muck. This and all the tech above benefits cows by ensuring they receive the best individualized care they can without learning to speak English, but they won't complain about extra comforts. A fun addition that may be included are automatic brushers. These brushers are placed around the barn. When a cow has an itch she just can’t scratch, she walks up and starts the brushes. These brushes may be used on cows, but they can be such hogs about their automatic scratcher. Author Nerdcore Pc
- How to Use Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac
Microsoft Remote Desktop is a helpful tool for Mac users. It lets them connect to Windows PCs from any location. To use it, you must install the software on both your Mac and PC. To set up Microsoft Remote Desktop: Install the software on both devices. On your Mac, open the app and choose “New” to create a connection. Enter the PC name and user credentials. Once the connection is ready, you can start remote desktop sessions. Select the connection from the list and click “Start”. Then, enter the remote PC’s login credentials. You’ll be able to access the Windows computer’s desktop right from your Mac. Microsoft Remote Desktop offers even more features. You can customize display settings, adjust screen resolution, and use local resources. Pro Tip: To get the best performance, make sure you have a reliable internet connection and close unused apps. This will reduce lag and give you a smoother remote desktop experience. Understanding Microsoft Remote Desktop To understand Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac, familiarize yourself with its basic functionality, as well as the benefits it offers. In this section, we’ll delve into what Microsoft Remote Desktop is and why it’s valuable for Mac users. We’ll explore its features and advantages, including seamless connectivity and enhanced productivity. What is Microsoft Remote Desktop? Microsoft Remote Desktop is a helpful tool. It lets users access their computers remotely from another device. You can connect and control all your work or files from any place in the world. So, you can work productively even when far from your desk. Using Microsoft Remote Desktop offers lots of advantages. You can get important documents, open apps, and do tasks on your remote computer like you were at the desk. You don’t need to take storage devices with you, or use other unreliable file-sharing methods. Plus, it encrypts the connection between the local and remote devices. This ensures sensitive info stays safe, and stops anyone from accessing it without permission. And, it makes a reliable and stable connection, so you won’t have problems because of distance. To get the most from Microsoft Remote Desktop there are a few things to do: Make sure both devices have an active web connection with enough bandwidth for remote access. Update the remote desktop client software frequently for improvements and security updates. Use strong passwords for your login to avoid other people accessing your account. By taking these steps, you can use Microsoft Remote Desktop without problems, and without compromising data security. Enjoy freedom and flexibility while still connected to your work from anywhere. Benefits of using Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac is a powerful tool with lots of benefits. It lets you access Windows apps and files from anywhere, making remote work a breeze. Productivity boost: Use RD on Mac and get the same Windows experience on your device – no disruption. Seamless integration: Connect to your PC or virtual machine and access files with ease. Flexibility and mobility: Remote access to your Windows desktop means you can work anywhere. Security features: RD employs NLA and encryption for keeping confidential info secure. How to Use Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac You can even use multiple monitors with RD, for enhanced multitasking. No matter if you’re an entrepreneur or student, the benefits of using RD on Mac are endless. My friend recently used RD on his Mac. He’s a graphic designer and needed special Windows software. With the help of RD, he ran it directly from his Mac with no performance issues. It saved him time and the convenience of working from his favorite device. Setting up Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac To set up Microsoft Remote Desktop on your Mac, follow these steps and make use of the sub-sections as your solution. Start by downloading and installing Microsoft Remote Desktop on your Mac. Next, configure the Remote Desktop settings to ensure optimal performance. By following these instructions, you’ll be able to seamlessly use Microsoft Remote Desktop on your Mac for a smoother and more convenient computing experience. Downloading and installing Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac Microsoft Remote Desktop is an awesome tool for Mac users who need to access their Windows computers remotely. To get it, here’s what you must do: Go to the Mac App Store. In the search bar, type “Microsoft Remote Desktop”. When it appears in the search results, click its icon. Hit the “Get” button for the download and installation to start. Once done, click “Open” to launch Microsoft Remote Desktop. Follow the instructions on the screen to configure your remote connections. Now you can enjoy uninterrupted remote access to your Windows device from your Mac! It’s a convenient solution to work or access files from anywhere. For peak performance and security, here are some tips: Ensure your Mac and Windows PC have reliable internet connections. Keep both systems up-to-date with software patches and security updates. Use strong and unique passwords for all accounts related to Microsoft Remote Desktop. Enable two-factor authentication (if available) to further enhance security. These suggestions will make your experience with Microsoft Remote Desktop better and secure data from potential threats. Stay connected and productive with this awesome tool! Configuring Remote Desktop settings Launch Microsoft Remote Desktop on your Mac! Then, select “Preferences” from the drop-down menu. Click the “Advanced” tab to access more settings. Personalize display resolution and keyboard shortcuts to fit your needs. Save and test for successful configuration. To get the most out of Remote Desktop, you can customize settings to match your requirements. This feature has been around since remote connections first became necessary. Microsoft developed it to meet users’ needs. It’s now a must-have for many professionals. Mastery of Remote Desktop settings means you can access desktops seamlessly. Experience the power of unrestricted connectivity. With this knowledge, you can boost your digital experience! Using Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac To efficiently use Microsoft Remote Desktop on your Mac, explore the following solutions within the “Using Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac” section. Connect to a remote Windows PC, navigate the Remote Desktop interface, transfer files between Mac and remote Windows PC, and troubleshoot common issues. These sub-sections will guide you through each aspect of utilizing Microsoft Remote Desktop on your Mac effectively. Connecting to a remote Windows PC To connect a Windows PC remotely using Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac, try this: Open the app on your Mac. Click “+” and select “Desktop” from the drop-down menu. Enter the name or IP address of the remote Windows PC. Set desired resolution, colors, and other preferences. Hit the “Add” button to save the connection. This method is secure and efficient for accessing a remote Windows PC from Mac. Microsoft’s technology ensures performance and security. The idea of remotely using a Windows PC from a Mac has been around for a while. Microsoft developed an app for macOS users to access their Windows-based systems remotely. Connecting to a remote Windows PC using Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac is useful. It integrates systems and offers users the flexibility to manage their computing environment across devices. Navigating the Remote Desktop interface To make navigating the Remote Desktop an effective experience, here are some steps: Open the Microsoft Remote Desktop app on your Mac. Click the “+” at the top left corner to add a remote desktop connection. Fill in the details, such as PC name, IP address, username and password. Your connection will appear in the list on the main interface. Double-click it to start. Use the toolbar options at the top to interact with the remote desktop. Toggle full-screen/windowed mode, change display settings and access more features. Also, customize keyboard shortcuts and preferences in the app settings to have a unique experience. To optimize usage of Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac: Have a stable internet connection for smooth performance. Take advantage of multi-monitor support to expand your workspace across multiple screens. Adjust video playback settings for optimal streaming quality when accessing multimedia content remotely. By applying these tips and utilizing the features of Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac, you can navigate through the interface efficiently and make the remote desktop experience more productive and enjoyable. Transferring files between Mac and remote Windows PC Transferring files from Mac to a remote Windows PC is key for an efficient workflow. Follow these steps for a hassle-free transfer: Download the Microsoft Remote Desktop app from the Mac App Store. Install and launch it on your Mac. Click the “+” button to add a new remote desktop connection. Enter the PC name and user account credentials. Select the right connection and connect to the remote Windows PC. Transfer files between Mac and PC with drag-and-drop or copy-paste. For a smoother experience, ensure both Mac and remote PC have reliable internet. To increase security during transfers, consider using a virtual private network (VPN). Don’t forget to regularly update the Microsoft Remote Desktop app to enjoy the latest features. Microsoft Remote Desktop grants super-easy access to all your files across platforms. Fun Fact: Microsoft Remote Desktop won “Best of TechEd 2010 – Breakthrough Technology” award. It’s definitely a great tool for macOS and Windows file management! Troubleshooting common issues Having Microsoft Remote Desktop issues on your Mac? Follow these steps to get back on track! Check internet connection: Make sure it’s stable and reliable. Slow or intermittent internet can cause remote desktop issues. Verify server settings: Turn the server on and make sure it’s properly configured and accessible from your Mac. Update Remote Desktop: Keep your app up to date for optimal performance. Check for updates regularly and install them quickly. Plus: Firewall settings: Ensure the Remote Desktop app and its connections are not being blocked. Adjust settings if needed. Troubleshoot these issues now and enjoy efficient productivity. Resolving common issues quickly will prevent disruptions and save you from missing out on important tasks. Get started! Conclusion The article on how to use Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac provides step-by-step instructions. It covers everything from installation to troubleshooting. So users can easily connect to their Windows machines remotely and access all their files and applications. The article highlights the importance of having both the Mac and Windows on the same network. This helps to avoid potential issues. It also suggests optimizing settings like screen resolution, audio quality, and keyboard shortcuts. For a better experience, make sure you have a reliable internet connection with enough bandwidth. Slow or unstable connections can cause delays. Additionally, it’s important to regularly update both the Mac and Windows with the latest system updates and security patches. Utilizing features like clipboard sharing between Mac and Windows allows easy file transfer. Exploring advanced functionalities such as multiple monitor support or printer redirection can also be beneficial. These suggestions help users maximize their utilization of Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac. Set up your remote desktop today and enjoy the benefits! Author Nerdcore PC Other Links Install and setup Remote Desktop For Apple Mac Install Setup Remote Desktop Support
- Use Apple products on enterprise networks
Find out which hosts and ports are required to use your Apple products on enterprise networks. This article is intended for enterprise and education network administrators. Apple products require access to the internet hosts listed in this article for a variety of services. Here's how your devices connect to hosts and work with proxies: Network connections to the hosts below are initiated by the device, not by hosts operated by Apple. Apple services will fail any connection that uses HTTPS Interception (SSL Inspection). If the HTTPS traffic traverses a web proxy, disable HTTPS Interception for the hosts listed in this article. Make sure your Apple devices can access the hosts listed below. Apple Push Notifications Find out how to troubleshoot connecting to the Apple Push Notification service (APNs). For devices that send all traffic through an HTTP proxy, you can configure the proxy either manually on the device or with Mobile Device Management (MDM). Devices can connect to APNs when configured to use the HTTP proxy with a proxy auto-config (PAC) file. Use Apple products on enterprise networks Device setup Apple devices need access to the following hosts during the setup process, or when installing, updating or restoring the operating system. Device management Apple devices enrolled in MDM need access to the following hosts and domains. Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager Administrators and managers need access to the following hosts and domains in order to administer and manage Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager. Employees and students using Managed Apple IDs need access to the following host in order to look up others in their business or school when composing messages or sharing documents. Apple Business Essentials device management Administrators and devices managed by Apple Business Essentials need access to the following hosts and domains, along with those listed above for Apple Business Manager. Classroom and Classwork Student and Teacher devices using the Classroom or Classwork apps need access to the following hosts, as well as those listed in the Apple ID and iCloud sections below. Software updates Make sure that you can access the following ports for updating macOS, updating apps from the Mac App Store and for using content caching. macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS and tvOS Apple devices need access to the following hosts when installing, restoring and updating iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. App Store Apple devices need access to the following hosts and domains for installing and updating apps. Network provider updates Mobile devices need access to the following hosts to install provider bundle updates. Content caching A Mac that provides content caching needs access to the following hosts, as well as the hosts listed in this document that provide Apple content, such as software updates, apps and additional content. Clients of macOS content caching need access to the following hosts. App features Apple devices may need access to the following hosts to use certain app features. App notarisation is required for apps to run on macOS 10.14 and later. Gatekeeper requires access to Apple servers to verify notarisation, unless the app developer has stapled the notarisation ticket to the app. App developers can find out more about customising the notarisation workflow. App validation is used to certify that a valid instance of the app is running. App developers can find out more about establishing an app‘s integrity. Beta updates Apple devices need access to the following hosts to sign in to Beta Updates and report feedback using the Feedback Assistant app. Apple diagnostics Apple devices may access the following host in order to perform diagnostics used to detect a possible hardware issue. Domain Name System resolution Encrypted Domain Name System (DNS) resolution in iOS 14, iPadOS 14, tvOS 14, and macOS Big Sur and later uses the following host. Certificate validation Apple devices must be able to connect to the following hosts to validate digital certificates used by the hosts listed in this article. Apple ID Apple devices must be able to connect to the following hosts in order to authenticate an Apple ID. This is required for all services that use an Apple ID, such as iCloud, app installation and Xcode. iCloud In addition to the Apple ID hosts listed above, Apple devices must be able to connect to hosts in the following domains to use iCloud services. Siri and Search Apple devices must be able to connect to the following hosts to process Siri requests, including dictation and searching in Apple apps. Associated Domains Apple devices must be able to connect to the following hosts to use Associated Domains in iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and macOS Big Sur and later. Associated Domains underpin universal links, a feature that allows an app to present content in place of all or part of its website. Handoff, App Clips and single sign-on extensions all use Associated Domains. Tap to Pay on iPhone To use a payment app to accept contactless payments, an iPhone must be able to reach the following hosts. Additional content Apple devices must be able to connect to the following hosts to download additional content. Some additional content may also be hosted on third-party content distribution networks. Firewalls If your firewall supports using hostnames, you may be able to use most Apple services listed above by allowing outbound connections to *.apple.com. If your firewall can only be configured with IP addresses, allow outbound connections to 17.0.0.0/8. The entire 17.0.0.0/8 address block is assigned to Apple. HTTP proxy You can use Apple services through a proxy if you disable packet inspection and authentication for traffic to and from the listed hosts. Exceptions to this are noted above. Attempts to perform content inspection on encrypted communications between Apple devices and services will result in a dropped connection to preserve platform security and user privacy. Content Distribution Networks and DNS Resolution Some of the hosts listed in this article may have CNAME records in DNS instead of A or AAAA records. These CNAME records may refer to other CNAME records in a chain before ultimately resolving to an IP address. This DNS resolution allows Apple to provide fast and reliable content delivery to users in all regions and is transparent to devices and proxy servers. Apple doesn't publish a list of these CNAME records because they are subject to change. You shouldn't need to configure your firewall or proxy server to allow them as long as you don't block DNS lookups and allow access to the hosts and domains named above. Recent changes July 2023: Removed the macOS version requirement for APN connectio
- Install and set up Remote Desktop For Apple MAC
To use Remote Desktop, your administrator and client computers must meet these requirements: Mac computers must be running OS X 10.10.5 or later. Mac client computers must have version 3.6 or later of the Remote Desktop client software for full control. Although you may be able to control and observe Mac computers using earlier versions of the Remote Desktop client software, you can’t generate reports or execute remote commands. To find the client software version, when you’re using Remote Desktop, select the computer, choose File > Get Info, and look at the ARD Version field. To find the client software version on Mac computers you haven’t yet added to the All Computers list, go to the computer, locate the following file in the Finder, and check its version: /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app Non-Mac client computers must have Virtual Network Computing (VNC)–compatible software. Install and set up Remote Desktop For Apple MAC When you install Remote Desktop and open it for the first time, use the setup assistant to finalize configuration. After configuration, you start administering computers by adding clients to the main list of computers. Download Remote Desktop from the App Store. If you have another copy of Remote Desktop acting as a Task Server (a dedicated computer for report data collection and delegated install tasks), enter the server address, then click Continue. Prepare each client computer to be managed using Remote Desktop. The Remote Desktop client software is installed by default in macOS. Select the Scanner in the sidebar, and select each client computer that you want to add to your list of controlled computers. Install and set up Remote Desktop For Apple MAC You must then Add Clients Add clients to Remote Desktop To manage client computers using Remote Desktop, you must first add them to a computers list. The All Computer list shows all of the computers contained in all lists. When you add a computer to a list, it is also added to the All Computer list. You can use Bonjour to discover computers on your local subnet, if your local network’s routing devices allow multicast DNS (mDNS) packets on port 5353. To find computers that aren’t on the local subnet, your local network’s routing devices must be configured to pass network pings and TCP/UDP packets on ports 3283 and 5900. If your local network’s routing devices use Network Address Translation (NAT), you must know the mapping to the client computers’ remote management and screen sharing public ports. Add clients using Bonjour You can use Bonjour to display a list of computers in your default Bonjour domain with Remote Desktop enabled. Typically this includes only your local subnet, but it can also include other subnets. All other client discovery methods display computers regardless of whether they have Remote Desktop enabled. In Remote Desktop , select a scanner in the sidebar of the main window, then choose Bonjour from the pop-up menu. Drag one or more computers to a computer list, such as All Computers. Authenticate by providing the user name and password for a Remote Desktop administrator. Add clients using a directory server When you view the directory server scanner, you see all client computers that the Task Server knows about and that are organized in computer groups in the directory. You bind to directory servers in the Accounts pane of System Preferences. In Remote Desktop , select a scanner in the sidebar of the main window, then choose Directory Server from the pop-up menu. Drag one or more computers to a computer list, such as All Computers. Authenticate by providing the user name and password for a Remote Desktop administrator. Add clients by importing a file You can add a list of computers to the All Computers list by importing a file listing the computers’ IP addresses. The list can be in text file or spreadsheet format and must contain IP addresses or fully qualified domain names (such as abc.example.com). You can add a range of IP addresses by expressing the range in the following format: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx–yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy. For example, using a text file with “192.168.0.2–192.168.2.200” scans all IP addresses in that address range. In Remote Desktop , select a scanner in the sidebar of the main window, then choose File Import from the pop-up menu. Browse for the file by clicking the Open File button, or drag a file into the dialog. Alternatively, you can enter the file’s pathname in the File field. All responding clients are listed in the Remote Desktop window. Drag one or more computers to a computer list, such as All Computers. Authenticate by providing the user name and password for a Remote Desktop administrator. Add clients using network addresses You can add a computer to the All Computers list by entering its IP address or fully qualified domain name. In Remote Desktop , select a scanner in the sidebar of the main window, then choose Network Address from the pop-up menu. Enter the IP address or fully qualified domain name in the Address field, then click the Refresh button. Drag one or more computers to a computer list, such as All Computers. Authenticate by providing the user name and password for a Remote Desktop administrator. Add clients using IP addresses You can add a client directly to a computer list using the IP address or host name. In Remote Desktop , select a computer list in the sidebar of the main window, such as All Computers, then choose File > Add by Address. Enter the IP address or fully qualified domain name, enter the user name and password, then click the Advanced Options triangle. If the client computer uses Network Address Translation (NAT), enter the public ports that are mapped to the client in the Remote Management Port and Screen Sharing Port fields. Verify the name and password before adding the computer to the computer list, then click Add. Add clients using a local network When you choose the local network scanner, Remote Desktop sends a subnet broadcast to computers on the same subnets as the administrator computer. All possible clients on the local subnets appear in a list on the right side of the Remote Desktop window. In Remote Desktop , select a scanner in the sidebar of the main window, then choose Local Network from the pop-up menu. Drag one or more computers to a computer list, such as All Computers. Authenticate by providing a user name and password for a Remote Desktop administrator. Add clients using a network range You can query a range of IP addresses to look for clients. To locate computers by network range, you provide a beginning and ending IP address to scan, and Remote Desktop queries each IP address in that range in sequence, asking if the computer is a client computer. This method works best when searching for clients outside the local subnet but on the local area network. Alternatively, you can use a text file that contains IP address ranges (in this format: “192.168.0.1–192.168.3.20”), and import the file to find clients. In Remote Desktop , select a scanner in the sidebar of the main window, then choose Network Range from the pop-up menu. Enter the beginning and ending IP address, click the Refresh button, then drag one or more computers to a computer list, such as All Computers. Authenticate by providing a user name and password for a Remote Desktop administrator. Add clients known by the Task Server When you view the Task Server scanner, you see all client computers that the Task Server knows about. This list includes client computers that other Remote Desktop administrators have added. In Remote Desktop , select a scanner in the sidebar of the main window, then choose Task Server from the pop-up menu. Drag one or more computers to a computer list, such as All Computers. Authenticate by providing a user name and password for a Remote Desktop administrator. Author - Nerdcore PC - Remote Desktop Login for Mac Other Links: Remote Setup From Windows To Mac PC Remote Desktop Login Support - Software
- Cooler Master Unveils a Sneaker X - Shaped PC
According to Cooler Master, Sneaker X can be equipped to “accommodate the latest top-of-the-line CPU and GPU as well as an AIO cooler.” No price has been set for Sneaker X thus far, but you can expect to pre-order the custom gaming computers unit sometime in the third quarter of 2022. Cooler Master Unveils a Sneaker X - Shaped PC If you’re a sneaker enthusiast and aesthetically tired of your PC setup, Cooler Master has the solution for you. The Taiwananese computer hardware manufacturer will release a sneaker-shaped PC case, dubbed, Sneaker X, that is made to commemorate Cooler Master’s 30th anniversary. It’s difficult to gauge exactly how big the Sneaker X module is, but observing the size of the cooler inside leads one to believe that the unit is certainly larger than the average shoe. The case is based off the work of modder JMDF, which was first exhibited at the ‘Case Mode World Series’ held in 2020. Aesthetically speaking, the Sneaker X looks partly inspired by famous silhouettes recently made by Nike and Balenciaga and will come in three different colorways — blue, light blue and red. Cooler Master has unveiled a range of products to celebrate their 30th anniversary, with some being more unconventional than others. One standout product is Sneaker X, a PC case that is shaped like a sneaker. This unique design was initially created by modder JMDF and was featured in Cooler Master's Case Mod World Series 2020. Cooler Master claims that the Sneaker X case can hold the latest high-performance CPU and GPU, along with an AIO cooler. The video demonstrates a 600W power supply fitting inside, giving an idea of its size. However, it is possible that certain elements of the design have been altered in the Sneaker X compared to JMDF's initial design. Author Nerdcore PC - Custom Gaming Computers
- Types of Cyber Attacks to Expect in 2024
Insights from the Nerdcore Cyber Threat Report In today’s interconnected world, where digital transformation is rapidly evolving, cyber threats continue to pose a significant risk to businesses of all sizes. The nerdcore Cyber Threat Report for 2024 sheds light on the evolving landscape of cyber attacks, offering valuable insights into the types of threats organizations can expect to face in the coming year. Let’s delve into some of the key takeaways from the report and explore the potential types of cyber attacks on the horizon. Small businesses are often targeted by cyber threats, being three times more vulnerable than larger organizations. Nerdcore cyber team dedication to providing up-to-date threat intelligence is essential, given that SMBs account for 80% of their user base. In 2023, there was a notable rise in cyber threats, with malware attacks increasing by 11% compared to the previous year. Encrypted threats saw a significant 117% increase, while crypto jacking surged by 659%. Surprisingly, never-before-seen malware detections decreased by 38%, indicating that attackers are focusing on refining existing methods rather than developing new ones. The global volume of malware attacks in 2023 hit 6.06 billion, the highest since 2019. Asia and Europe saw a decline in malware incidents, while North America and LATAM experienced increases of 15% and 30% respectively. Notably, malicious OneNote files emerged as a prevalent initial threat vector, highlighting threat actors' flexibility. The number of ransomware attacks decreased by 36% to 317.6 million year-over-year. However, Asia experienced a significant increase of 1,627% in ransomware volumes since 2019. Lock Bit continued to be a strong ransomware group, demonstrating innovation through bug bounty programs and frequent toolkit updates. Threat actors are still active, utilizing effective variants repeatedly for now. The number of intrusion attempts surged, hitting 7.6 trillion in 2023, marking a 20% rise from the year before. Malicious intrusion levels increased in different sectors, leading to alert exhaustion and the risk of data breaches. The number of encrypted attacks has more than doubled in 2023, reaching a total of 15.7 million. While North America experienced a 30% increase, Europe, Asia, and LATAM saw triple-digit spikes. Various industries, including healthcare, education, government, and retail, have witnessed significant surges in encrypted threats. Attackers are increasingly utilizing encryption protocols to conceal malware, ransomware, zero-day attacks, and more. Traditional security controls and older generation firewalls lack the capability to detect, inspect, and mitigate threats transmitted through HTTPs traffic. Therefore, businesses with outdated hardware and software are more vulnerable to attacks. To enhance your security, consider exploring nerdcore Computers Gen 7 layer configuration Firewalls and other licensing options, which offer affordable solutions for businesses of all sizes. Weve got your back. Dont worry about that. In 2023, the number of crypto jacking incidents surged by an astounding 659%, totaling 1.06 billion cases. Among the favored tools for these attacks, XMRig, originally a legitimate software, was frequently exploited by malicious actors. The detrimental impact on both the environment and finances highlights the gravity of this escalating menace. Anticipating 2024 2. The upcoming year of 2024 is on the horizon, with threat actors increasingly utilizing advanced technologies. This evolution in the threat landscape is projected to bring about rapid changes, particularly with the integration of AI in enhancing phishing tactics, carrying out sophisticated Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes, and creating harmful code, presenting defenders with fresh obstacles to overcome. 1. Suggestions for Improved Cybersecurity 2. Implement Multifactor Authentication (MFA) to bolster security. 3. Stay proactive in applying patches promptly to prevent exploit attempts. 4. Regularly conduct security assessments to identify vulnerabilities and strengthen defenses. 5. Educate employees on cybersecurity best practices for a vigilant workforce. 6. Scan all network traffic, especially encrypted traffic, for potential threats. 7. Extend security measures to the cloud with Security Service Edge (SSE) and Zero-Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA). 8. Update security appliances and software to stay ahead of evolving threats. 9. The nerdcore Cyber Threat Report for 2024 emphasizes the importance of robust cybersecurity measures to combat cyber threats effectively. Contact us for a security assessment or explore our latest products for enhanced protection against cyber attacks. Author# nerdcore computers
- Future of Wireless Connectivity Wifi 7 2024
What's shaping the future of wireless networking technology? The landscape of network connectivity is ever-changing for businesses across various industries. While networking vendors introduce new technologies, external events such as the COVID-19 pandemic also impact the way Future of Wireless Connectivity Wifi 7 2024 networking professionals carry out their responsibilities. The current period is marked by a convergence of different elements that will determine future developments. This piece explores the modernization of networks, focusing on Wi-Fi within the corporate environment, amidst the ongoing redefinition of enterprises. Many wireless LAN vendors are transitioning towards a cloud-centric approach. - The need for WLAN controllers is diminishing as vendors embrace centralized management. - WLAN models are undergoing significant changes as vendors adapt to new trends. The evolution of Wi-Fi appears to be moving towards cloud-based management, particularly with the utilization of virtual LAN aggregation tools such as the Mist Edge appliance to streamline Layer 2 necessities in large-scale networks. Traditional on-site management systems and controller stacks are gradually fading away, allowing engineers to focus on their expertise in WLAN rather than solely managing hardware components. The radio technology is undergoing various advancements in the realm of wireless networks. In the United States, the inclusion of 6 GHz in the 802.11ax standard, commonly referred to as Wi-Fi 6E, is generating significant excitement and will also be incorporated into Wi-Fi 7. The recent expansion in WLAN spectrum allocation has the potential to significantly impact the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, with the emergence of the 6 GHz band through the latest APs. 2. Device manufacturers are recognizing the importance of tailoring wireless devices to specific needs, with the development of purpose-specific devices for Private 5G, Long-Range WAN, 60 GHz, and other unlicensed frequencies below 1,000 MHz. 3. WLAN administrators should broaden their knowledge of access technologies beyond Wi-Fi to adapt to the evolving landscape of wireless communication. Switch manufacturers have long been attempting to convince WLAN customers that they require faster switchports and increased Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities, resulting in more expensive Ethernet ports. However, with the introduction of Wi-Fi 6E and the upcoming Wi-Fi 7, network administrators must now contemplate uplink ports to access points (APs) that can offer connectivity speeds of 2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps, or 10 Gbps, along with more robust PoE support than ever before. Enterprises are increasingly considering pricier switches in the future, but the demand for Ethernet switches may decrease as more devices transition to high-speed wireless connectivity, eliminating the need for wired connections in many environments. Future of Wireless Connectivity Wifi 7 2024 The COVID-19 pandemic brought about numerous challenges for networks, particularly in terms of transitioning employees to remote work. The traditional routine of workers commuting to the office and utilizing the enterprise LAN has undergone a permanent transformation. Nowadays, it has become customary to facilitate hybrid or fully remote staff using various approaches. Certain access points have the ability to connect back to the main network and expand the corporate service set identifier to home networks, allowing for centralized management of distributed access points. In other cases, environments utilize Microsoft's Active Directory features or similar tools to enable automatic VPN functionality on devices managed by the organization. Remote users are becoming increasingly common, and as central WLAN systems are upgraded, new services are typically introduced to ensure that remote employees have access to secure and reliable Wi-Fi connections to stay productive and connected. Author Nerdcore Computers Service Centre
- The Best Computer Games To Play
Discovering the best games to engage in during 2024 is a thrilling adventure for enthusiasts meticulously crafting their gaming environments with custom computer builds, custom PCs, and custom gaming computers. The evolving landscape of computer games The Best Computer Games To Play continually raises the bar, demanding more from gaming PC builders who are eager to match these advancements with high-performing rigs. Whether you are assembling a monstrous setup to delve deep into the intricacies of visually stunning games like Elden Ring or require a more balanced build to enjoy the strategic depths of Baldur's Gate 3, the requirements vary significantly. The adaptability of custom gaming computers ensures that whether you're battling it out in the timeless arenas of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or crafting worlds in Minecraft, your experience remains unparalleled. The Best Computer Games To Play As the choices for gaming expand, the significance of aligning your gaming pc with the titles you cherish most has never been more crucial, ensuring every pixel and frame rate is experienced as intended. If you're considering upgrading your PC or starting a new build to enhance your gaming experience, be sure to consult our comprehensive step-by-step guide for building a gaming PC. Along with this, we have curated a specialized list highlighting the best Steam Deck games currently available, providing you with a selection of top-tier titles to enjoy. For those in need of accessories to complement their setup, explore our meticulously compiled roundups showcasing the finest gaming keyboards, gaming mice, and PC gaming headsets on the market. Consider these resources to optimize your gaming setup and take your gaming sessions to the next level. Another chapter in the mind-bending Remedy universe, Alan Wake 2 picks up right where the cult classic left off more than a decade ago. Alan is trapped in the Dark Place and his only way out is to write his own story. His campaign takes place alongside a concurrent one with FBI agent Saga Anderson, and the two complimentary campaigns can be played together in any order. The lightly spooky elements of the first game turn much darker here, for a horror experience full of unforgettable moments. Apex Legends has solidified its position as the top battle royale game with its refined gameplay and diverse roster of characters. Respawn Entertainment's foundation in FPS games shines through in the sharp gunplay and strategic elements present in the game. With multiple maps, game modes, and a deep lore to keep players engaged, Apex Legends offers a comprehensive experience that is both challenging and rewarding. The free-to-play model makes it accessible to all players, allowing everyone to enjoy the thrill of being the last one standing. The triumphant return of a legacy CRPG series is also one of the best games of 2023. While Baldur's Gate 3 is also available to play on PS5, the PC version is the clear leader thanks to its intuitive keyboard-and-mouse controls--and it's a welcome return to form for longtime Baldur's Gate fans. This fantasy tale is set in the Dungeons in the tone of None. One of the most original games of recent memory, Before Your Eyes has a simple premise that hinges on your ocular organs controlling the entire experience through a webcam. It's a short jaunt of a game that chronicles the life of a recently deceased person that you play as, but the catch here is that every time you blink, time moves forward. It's a terrific idea, incredibly well-implemented, and ties in perfectly with themes of memories, life, and storing those precious moments within ourselves. Unusual but packing a heavyweight emotional punch, you won't want to take your eyes off of this game for a single instant. The Case of the Golden Idol immerses players in a world of intrigue and mystery, challenging them to solve puzzles and unravel a captivating story. The game's unique narrative-building mechanic keeps players engaged as they piece together clues and uncover the truth behind the golden idol. With the addition of DLC, fans can continue to enjoy new mysteries and stories while honing their detective skills. Color Gray games has created a memorable experience that delights fans of classic adventure games. First released in the '90s, Sid Meier's Civilization series is still going strong in 2021, thanks to continued support for its most recent release, Civilization VI. As in previous games, Civilization VI casts you in the role of a historical leader, such as Egypt's Cleopatra or India's Gandhi, and tasks you with building your civilization from the ground up, including growing your military, developing new research facilities, and engaging in diplomacy with other world leaders. Of course, Civilization VI expanded and improved on previous games in the series, with additions such as the inclusion of districts that let cities expand across multiple tiles, but it's also continued to receive new content in the form of two major expansions: Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm, both of which added new leaders, civilizations, and features to the game. Civilizatio Cocoon - A tiny bug in a big world surrounded by puzzles. In this game from a new studio founded by key Limbo developers, you're a small cicada-like creature exploring the wilderness with limited movement and only specially powered orbs to help. But nested inside the noodle-tickling puzzle mechanics is an artful, subtle message about self-improvement and how one forms their identity, making it a can't-miss. Control's blend of action, mystique, and the surreal is one that should not be missed, and while it's available on PS5 and Xbox Series X, you'll find no version better than that of the PC. The pairing of DLSS and ray-tracing makes Control a visual powerhouse, reflecting its impressive effects on the surface of the Oldest House's pristine waxed floors and shrouding its mysterious hallways in the uncertainty of shadow. And that's all accented by supernatural fights that can pop off at a moment's notice in any one of these enigmatic rooms as the world shifts and morphs around you. What makes Control truly special is exploring the unknown and uncovering secrets the world isn't supposed to know. The Ultimate Edition gets you both pieces of DLC, AWE and The Foundation The iconic competitive FPS is still going strong today with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Though CSGO has undergone significant changes over its lifespan, it's still very much the core Counter-Strike experience that revolutionized the multiplayer FPS genre in the 2000s. The standard mode of play is a five-on-five demolition-style match on carefully crafted maps that emphasize specific positioning, sightlines, and team strategies. But beyond that, there's a hostage rescue mode, gungame free-for-all, and tons of custom content from years of work by its player base. 2. One of the most exciting things about CSGO is the high-intensity competitive matches where the slightest mistakes could spell doom for your team, or clutch plays could drastically shift the momentum of a match. Counter-Strike has historically been played with a level of precision in both the FPS combat and in its tactics, which makes a bit of a steep learning curve for newcomers. However, in the tone of None Cyberpunk 2077 had a divisive launch that by all accounts failed to live up to the lofty expectations placed on it. But CD Projekt Red didn't abandon the game, instead issuing a steady stream of updates culminating in September 2023's massive 2.0 update that overhauls many major systems, while also integrating the new Phantom Liberty DLC. The Cyberpunk of today is a sharper, more focused action-RPG with a greater variety of skills that let you navigate Night City your own way. The Phantom Liberty expansion received a 10/10 in our review, adding new systems and a compelling new story featuring Idris Elba. Best of all, it's still a gorgeous showpiece for your PC rig, so there's never been a better time to dive in. Arkane Studios has solidified its reputation as a premier developer of first-person shooter games with the release of Deathloop. This game not only excels in delivering well-crafted action, but also boasts a rich and engaging narrative that keeps players hooked from start to finish. 2. Deathloop's unique premise of a time loop where the player must break the cycle by assassinating key targets is not only inventive, but adds a layer of complexity and strategy to the gameplay. 3. The game's cast of characters is memorable and well-developed, with each one adding depth to the overall story. 4. With its hidden secrets, stunning visuals, and innovative gameplay mechanics, Deathloop stands out as a top contender for game of the year Despite releasing more than nearly five years ago, Destiny 2 remains one of the most popular live service multiplayer games around. While the sequel started off on a strong note, it has only gotten better thanks to consistent updates and expansions that delivered a steady stream of enthralling first-person shooter content. And it's not even close to being too late to jump into Destiny 2, as more content is coming through 2023. Destiny 2's plethora of content would be nothing without strong mechanics and overarching systems that keep you grinding away for new gear. Bungie crafted one of the best-feeling first-person shooters we've played in recent years, so it offers a constant source of fun regardless of whether you're making your way through story missions, going on challenging raids with friends, or battling in the Crucible. It's a wonderful game that digs its teeth into you the more you play, and it's easily one of the best cooperative PC games available today. When it comes to writing, Disco Elysium is perhaps unrivaled. Developed and published by ZA/UM in 2019, Disco Elysium places you in the role of a detective suffering from amnesia and a serious bout of alcoholism. His quest to unravel a baffling murder and the details of his life that he's forgotten takes you on an absolutely stunning adventure that thrives on its choice-based gameplay and exquisite dialogue. Disco Elysium balances humor and serious life dilemmas with astounding grace, and the freedom it gives you to shape the narrative and your interactions with its many colorful characters you meet allows you to make this detective story your own. Its gorgeous world is teeming with life, and viewing it from the eyes of a nameless cop with memory issues makes it all the more immersive. It earned a rare 10/10 from GameSpot, and we can safely say there's nothing else exactly like it in modern PC gaming. Building on the already-brilliant formula of its predecessor, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an all-time great RPG, giving you a huge range of freedom in how to build your party, deal with a combat scenario, and approach a given situation. It's a game best played on PC, thanks to its crisper visuals, the precision of using a mouse, and faster loading times, which encourage you to experiment with its wide range of possibilities. While truly a great game overall, much of the fun in Divinity stems from seeing what you can get away with, be it stealing items or avoiding a lengthy combat encounter by setting up an elaborate trap. Experience with earlier entries in the series aren't required to enjoy Original Sin 2, and as the best entry to date, this is an ideal place to start--just be prepared to lose dozens of hours to it. Dota 2 is not only one of the more daunting PC games to learn and master, but it's also one of the most rewarding and satisfying to play once you know what you're doing. Two teams of five assault each other as they try to destroy the opposing team's Ancient. It sounds simple, but the strategic depth is vast, and there's a lot to learn if you want to keep up. It requires learning the map, getting familiar with the vast array of characters, and mastering their mechanics to be successful. Of course, if this wasn't an exciting process, it wouldn't be as popular as it is--and if you haven't seen a match play out at The International, then you're missing out. A strong contender for the best game of 2022, From Software's latest dip into dark fantasy and brutal combat is the studio at its very best. The Lands Between are a massive sandbox in which to explore as a newly-risen Tarnished warrior, and every corner of this world hides a secret that'll take you down a path of danger in exchange for fascinating lore and powerful rewards. While Elden Ring doesn't stray too far from the usual From Software formula, it does polish the elegant gameplay and signature style of that studio to a mirror finish that's beautiful to behold and loaded with dozens of hours of content to dive into. It's true that since its release in 2012, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been ported to just about every platform that can play games, including Amazon Alexa speakers and smart refrigerators. But the king of all Skyrim versions is the one on PC, and it's not even close. That's because the PC version gives you access to years of mods created by the Skyrim community. From adding serious RPG story content to providing ridiculous possibilities like replacing all dragons with Thomas the Tank Engine, the PC version of Skyrim adds nearly endless options to an already expansive, enormous game. You absolutely should play Skyrim on PC if you haven't, and you absolutely should mod it to see how the game has become so much more than it was when it was released. Skyrim is also available with Xbox Game Pass for PC. The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters are a nostalgic blast from the past, bringing back the magic of the early days of the beloved franchise. Square Enix has meticulously restored each game to its original glory, ensuring that both long-time fans and newcomers alike can enjoy the timeless gameplay and charming pixel art that defined these classics. With added features and improvements from past releases, these remasters offer the perfect way to experience the origins of Final Fantasy in all their retro glory. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a curious newcomer, the Pixel Remasters are a must-have for any fan of the series. The first chapter in a mammoth project, Final Fantasy VII Remake blends new and old ideas to create a uniquely nostalgic and fresh take on what is considered by many to be the greatest video game of all time. Jaw-droppingly gorgeous to look at, the return of Cloud Strife and pals to the world of Midgar is a cinematic masterpiece that combines explosive blockbuster moments with fun action-RPG elements. While some story beats have stayed the same, Final Fantasy VII Remake also takes time to make some crucial changes to the plot, setting this project up to deliver some massive surprises down the road when the Avalanche crew embarks on a road trip that'll decide the fate of the world. The Final Fantasy series is known for having a strong focus on storytelling with colorful characters who get into over-the-top battles, and the MMO Final Fantasy XIV manages to stay true to what the series is all about. Though you might assume the familiar Final Fantasy tenets of storytelling and strong character moments would be absent in an online game, FFXIV is one of the more story-driven MMOs out today. Final Fantasy XIV is the franchise's second crack at an MMO, and it features a sprawling story about rebellion, equality, and friendship that manages to hit the same highs of the franchise's best single-player games. Though MMOs have a reputation for being inaccessible and time-consuming, Final Fantasy XIV offers an excellent gateway for lapsed and new MMO players to jump into--and it's also a fantastic Final Fantasy game in its own right. Few games capture the thrill of driving like Forza Horizon 5, set in the vibrant landscape of Mexico. With a wide array of vehicles, activities, and rewards for speed demons, the game never fails to deliver excitement from start to finish. It strikes the perfect balance between heart-pounding showcase events and moments of personal reflection, highlighting the deep connection between player and car. Forza Horizon 5 is a must-play for any fan of racing games looking for an exhilarating and immersive experience. Even if it took a few years, the wait for one of the best PlayStation games on the market to hit PC was well worth it. While previous God of War games emphasized gratuitous violence and a character with the personality of a very angry cardboard box, Sony's reinvention of Kratos helped create a more nuanced and layered hero. That doesn't mean that there wasn't a satisfying amount of carnage to engage in, though, as developer Sony Santa Monica expanded on Kratos' brutal abilities in methodical ways and gave him plenty of new tools to play with in a Nordic sandbox. Even if it took a few years, the wait for one of the best PlayStation games on the market to hit PC was well worth it. While previous God of War games emphasized gratuitous violence and a character with the personality of a very angry cardboard box, Sony's reinvention of Kratos helped create a more nuanced and layered hero. That doesn't mean that there wasn't a satisfying amount of carnage to engage in, though, as developer Sony Santa Monica expanded on Kratos' brutal abilities in methodical ways and gave him plenty of new tools to play with in a Nordic sandbox. As far as roguelikes go, Hades is among the best. It nails the loop of jumping into the underworld and fighting your way out of Hell, providing players with an arsenal of unique weaponry and powers fit for a god (and borrowed from many of the Gods and Goddesses of Olympus). However, it's the slower moments in which you visit the friends and family of protagonist Zagreus between runs that grab hold and keep you fighting for the truth. In most roguelikes, you care solely about making it further than your last run, but Hades does more: It blends action and story, striking a delicate balance of clawing your way toward the overworld and growing your relationships. Years in the making, the return of Master Chief saw the legendary hero hit the ground running with a new and epic adventure. Even after a lengthy amount of hibernation, Master Chief's newest odyssey shows no signs of ring rust and is augmented by a few new tricks up his Mjolnir-armored sleeve. While the main single-player campaign is a treat that's packed with massive setpieces and satisfying action, the multiplayer side is no slouch other and offers a ton of modes to try out. If you're feeling competitive or nostalgic, Halo Infinite hits a sweet spot for fans looking to revisit a franchise that has matured with them over the years. IO Interactive's grand World of Assassination trilogy reached its final chapter in 2021, as Hitman 3 built on the efforts made by its predecessors to create a perfectly executed experience. Bigger, bolder, and more cunning than ever, Agent 47's journey around the world saw him explore an opulent Dubai skyscraper, solve a murder mystery in an ancient British mansion, and turn a train into a slaughterhouse as he worked his way through each cabin. Each destination offers not only some devilishly delicious ways to eliminate targets, but also plenty of room for experimentation that leads to hilarious and grim demises for anyone who gets in your way. Inscryption is a unique blend of tabletop card games and deckbuilding, where players risk their lives in a suspenseful game of survival. The game also features roguelite progression, mystery, and a unsettling art style that adds to its overall charm. The strange and captivating nature of Inscryption ensures that players will be thinking about it long after they've finished playing, making it a truly unforgettable gaming experience. League of Legends is a popular competitive game known for its strategic combat, mechanical depth, and diverse cast of characters. It's easy to become engrossed in match after match of this MOBA due to its engaging gameplay. Despite the complexity of the game, it is more accessible than Dota 2, making it a great entry point for those new to the world of MOBAs. Loop Hero is a game that defies traditional genre labels, blending RPG elements with deck-building mechanics and strategic gameplay in a way that feels remarkably fresh and innovative. Whether you're exploring the looped world or carefully crafting your deck of cards, there's plenty to keep you engaged and challenged for hours on end. The game's unique blend of familiar mechanics and new ideas makes for a truly captivating experience that's sure to leave a lasting impression on players. If soaring through the air and flying around the world is a dream of yours, there's no better game than Microsoft Flight Simulator. You can fly out of almost any airport in the world, including smaller airports in quieter towns, and go literally anywhere on Earth--though landing may be difficult in places like the Grand Canyon and Mount Everest. Microsoft used satellite imagery to recreate the world in-game, and it's improving both the game and map all the time. If there was ever a reason to invest in a flight stick or yoke system, it's Microsoft Flight Simulator. The game is available via Xbox Game Pass for PC. Minecraft is a global phenomenon for a reason. Its crafting, base building, and survival-lite mechanics are unmatched, providing both an engaging and accessible experience to people of all ages and walks of life. Crafting huge castles, cozy homes, or monuments to your favorite video game character is a joyful time, while venturing toward the Nether is a tense experience that you're not sure you'll return from. Whether you're building up a huge tower or exploring the depths of the perilous mines, Minecraft remains an exciting time that can be enjoyed with friends or by yourself. Just make those Creepers don't get too close to your house. Monster Hunter Rise After Monster Hunter World set a new benchmark for what the Capcom series was capable of, Monster Hunter: Rise had some big dragon leather boots to fill. Monster Hunter Rise is a showcase of what happens when you take the lessons learned from something new and apply it to an older example of Monster Hunter greatness, as the newest game in the series expertly shifted back to all-out action. Originally designed for the Nintendo Switch, Rise's port to PC came with a ton of free post-launch content, graphical upgrades, and performance enhancements that make this version the definitive edition of an already fantastic game. A gonzo take on Wario Land platformers, Pizza Tower was a success that gathered fans through its early access period and then exploded once it was released in full. Peppino Spaghetti has a similar move set to Wario, but this take gives him a boost of speed and agility that makes Pizza Tower center around lightning reflexes and speedy runs through the stages. The art style looks straight out of a 1990s Nickelodeon cartoon, with a soundtrack to match. Portal 2 is a truly remarkable game that manages to blend humor, storytelling, and mind-bending puzzles into a seamless experience. The game's witty dialogue and well-developed characters make it an absolute joy to play, while the innovative gameplay mechanics keep you constantly engaged and challenged. Not to mention, the addition of online and local co-op, as well as user-created content, adds even more depth and replayability to an already fantastic game. Playing Portal 2 on PC allows players to access a wealth of additional content and mods, making it the definitive way to experience this beloved title. If you're a fan of puzzle games or just looking for a truly unique gaming experience, Portal 2 is a must-play. For the ultimate experience in zombie apocalypse realism, nothing competes with Project Zomboid. The isometric survival game is perhaps most like DayZ, but is somehow even more hardcore, with things like hunger, wounds, and fatigue being deadlier than similar systems in other games, and the purest depiction of how, in real life, even just a single zombie would likely spell your doom. It's a PC exclusive, so it's sorta great on PC by default, but given the sheer number of mechanics involved here, a mouse and keyboard setup feels right at home, though the game is fully playable on controller and even Steam Deck too. Rainbow Six Siege is a strategic masterpiece, blending intense first-person shooting with clever planning and teamwork. Teams of five clash in a battle for control of various buildings, each with different objectives like capturing a point, defusing bombs, or rescuing hostages. Success in Siege relies on knowing the maps inside and out, as well as working seamlessly with your teammates to achieve victory. The game values intelligence and strategy over mere shooting skills, making it a refreshing challenge for players looking to exercise their tactical prowess. Playing on PC with a keyboard and mouse offers the most precise and fluid experience, enhancing the already high stakes of each match. . Red Dead Redemption 2 is truly a masterpiece in the world of video games, offering a captivating story that dives deep into the lore of the Wild West. The expansive world allows players to explore every nook and cranny, discovering hidden secrets and engaging in all sorts of activities. With stunning visuals and immersive gameplay, this game transports players to a time and place unlike any other. Whether you are embarking on missions, hunting wildlife, or simply admiring the scenery, Red Dead Redemption 2 offers an experience like no other in the gaming world. Capcom's venerable Resident Evil series has been progressively producing remakes of its classic library, but none of them held the expectations and weight of Resident Evil 4. It's long been regarded as one of the best survival-horror games of all time, and a trendsetter for the action-focused style of the genre. Capcom approached this remake especially cautiously, giving it a light touch of upgrades that make the whole experience feel modern without losing its soul. It's also never looked more beautiful, so you can see the horrific monstrosities of Las Plagas with newfound fidelity. Return of the Obra Dinn is a meticulously crafted puzzle game that thrusts players into a baffling mystery. As an insurance adjuster tasked with unraveling the deaths on a long-lost ship, players must piece together clues in order to identify each victim and determine the circumstances surrounding their demise. The game presents players with a complex web of interconnected puzzles, offering a challenging and immersive experience that will captivate and intrigue gamers from start to finish. The stark black-and-white visuals and unique storytelling style only serve to enhance the overall atmosphere, making for an unforgettable gaming experience. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, developed by From Software, offers a new take on the action-adventure genre with its innovative gameplay mechanics. In this game, blocking attacks becomes a strategic element, adding depth to every encounter. Boss battles are intense tests of skill, requiring precise timing and quick reflexes to emerge victorious. The PC version allows for modding, allowing players to customize their experience by speeding up gameplay or even playing as unconventional characters. The lack of an easy mode has sparked debate, but the modding community offers a solution for players looking to adjust the difficulty to their liking. Overall, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice delivers a challenging and engaging experience for fans of the genre. The unfortunate swan song for the tactics genre experts at developer Mimimi, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew let the studio leave on a high note. Starring a cast of cursed pirates aboard a living ghost ship, you'll have to use stealth and your wits to take down legions of Inquisition troops. Each of the crew has their own otherworldly powers and specializations, making it engaging to experiment with different combinations of abilities to take down the enemy without being seen. Shadow Gambit also learns from its predecessors by implementing save scumming into the story, making it that much more satisfying to pull off a perfect plan--and less punishing when you make a mistake. The Best PC Games To Play In 2024 Only The Stanley Parable, a nearly unexplainable game where things get regularly weird and meta, could get away with hiding what amounts to a sequel within the frame of an expanded re-release of the original game. Like the original title, the strange and hilariously distracted nature of The Stanley Parable is something that you have to experience for yourself, as words simply do not do it justice. With the Ultra Deluxe edition, you're getting an experience that feels like a game within a game, adding the illusion of freedom and other surprises along the way. It's nothing short of a clever and thought-provoking examination of video games and the relationship that we have with them. It starts with an old broken-down farm and a handful of seeds. You clear out the weeds and rocks until you get tired, and then you do it again. You get into the rhythm of daily life--visiting friends, watering crops, occasional light spelunking. Before you know it, it's been 75 hours and you're mostly managing your complex irrigation system and planning for next season's harvest. Stardew Valley is a friendly, relaxing experience that also somehow manages to be endlessly addicting. Fans know the feeling of assuring themselves they'll play just one more day before bed. And while it's appeared on just about every platform, PC often gets the first chance to test all of the little quality-of-life tweaks and new features that come with patches--most recently the massive 1.5 update appeared on PC almost two months before consoles. Plus, there's a huge library of mods that let you tweak various gameplay elements, give the game a new aesthetic, and even add extensive new content in the tone of None. Starfield is a highly anticipated RPG from Bethesda, the studio known for their popular Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises. The game brings players into a new spacefaring setting, offering a fresh take on the familiar RPG formula. With diverse biomes, space combat, and refined gunplay featuring boost packs for added mobility, players can expect a truly immersive experience. Available on Xbox and PC, the PC version offers additional customization options through console commands and mods, allowing players to tailor the game to their preferences. Starfield promises to deliver an exciting and unique gameplay experience for fans of the genre. The Talos Principle 2 is a captivating sequel that continues to deliver a thought-provoking experience through its blend of intricate puzzles and philosophical musings. Players are once again drawn into a world that challenges their perceptions and forces them to confront deep existential questions. While the first game set the stage, the sequel demonstrates that Croteam is adept at keeping players engaged and eager to unravel the mysteries of the world they find themselves in. The balance between gameplay and introspective contemplation is expertly maintained, making The Talos Principle 2 a standout title in the puzzle genre. If Death's Door didn't satiate your hunger for a Zelda-like adventure, then Tunic is well-equipped to fill you up with some nostalgic and cathartic gameplay. Not just an homage to Zelda games of the NES and SNES eras, Tunic's familiar green clothing and swordplay in a vibrant and colorful world is balanced by a collection of amazing puzzles and challenges that require quick reflexes and superb wits. Evocative of a bygone time and somehow still feeling like a completely fresh take on the subject matter, this love letter to the past was years in the making and more than delivers on its elevator pitch of exploration and wonder. If Death's Door didn't satiate your hunger for a Zelda-like adventure, then Tunic is well-equipped to fill you up with some nostalgic and cathartic gameplay. Not just an homage to Zelda games of the NES and SNES eras, Tunic's familiar green clothing and swordplay in a vibrant and colorful world is balanced by a collection of amazing puzzles and challenges that require quick reflexes and superb wits. Evocative of a bygone time and somehow still feeling like a completely fresh take on the subject matter, this love letter to the past was years in the making and more than delivers on its elevator pitch of exploration and wonder. A puzzle game built around a mechanic that feels like magic, Viewfinder has a remarkable wow-factor that alone puts it on this list. The concept is simple enough: You take a photo and when you place a picture against the environment, you can walk into it. That allows you to create a bridge where there was none before, or walk into a completely different art style than the rest of the environment. When the game gives you your own camera, and starts introducing different ways to apply its simple rule set, the mind bending puzzles grow more complex.
- The Complete List of Data Breaches In Australia For 2018 – 2024
The Complete List of Data Breaches In Australia For 2018 – 2024 Preventing data breaches requires a multi-faceted approach that includes implementing robust cybersecurity measures, conducting regular security audits, educating employees on data security best practices, and staying informed about the latest threats and vulnerabilities. By taking proactive steps to protect sensitive information, organizations can reduce the risk of a data breach and safeguard their reputation and financial well-being. In the event of a data breach, swift and effective response is crucial to mitigate the damage and prevent further unauthorized access to sensitive data. The Complete List of Data Breaches In Australia For 2018 – 2024 GaP Solutions – March 2024 GaP Solutions bit by LockBit ransomware attack | The Australian retail software vendor responds to cyber attack from resurrected ransomware gang. HVD.HOST – March 2024 Raft of Australian companies compromised in hosting service hack | The Black Basta ransomware gang has posted details of a hack affecting nearly a dozen Australian organisations. Epic Games – February 2024 Fortnite game developer Epic Games allegedly hacked | A ransomware gang claims to have nearly 200 gigabytes of internal data, but Epic Games says there is no evidence of any compromise. Epic Games ‘hacker’ Mogilevich admits it was a scam operation The Department of Communities – February 2024 Whistleblower reveals Department of Communities’ failure to revoke credit card access for ex-employees Hacker offers the personal details of 25m Aussies for sale – February 2024 Hacker offers the personal details of 25m Aussies for sale Microsoft – February 2024 Microsoft patches 80 vulnerabilities | Two bugs under exploit, plus other critical patches Microsoft Azure – February 2024 Senior executives affected in largest observed Microsoft Azure data breach | A Microsoft Azure cloud takeover campaign has resulted in the largest data breach ever seen by the platform, compromising hundreds of accounts, including those of executives, according to a new report. Villis Bakery – February 2024 Hackers target iconic South Australian company Vili’s Family Bakery Tangerine Telecom – February 2024 Tangerine Telecom says customer data of 232,000 affected by ‘cyber incident’ 232,000 customers exposed in Tangerine security breach Internet provider Tangerine suffers cyberattack CBA-owned Tangerine Telecom in mass data breach Kadac Australia – February 2024 Kadac Australia hit by Medusa ransomware attack, threat group demands $100k Balmain – February 2024 Lender’s website down 10 days after major hack Australian Human Resources Institute – February 2024 Australian Human Resources Institute warns customers of cyber attack | AHRI has sent out emails warning of malware that could have been spreading fake browser updates AnyDesk – February 2024 AnyDesk resets passwords after breach AnyDesk Hit by Cyberattack That Targeted Production Systems AnyDesk revokes signing certs, portal passwords after crooks sneak into systems AnyDesk says hackers breached its production servers, reset passwords AnyDesk Incident: Customer Credentials Leaked and Published for Sale on the Dark Web Elite Supplements – February 2024 Customer data stolen in major Australian supplement brand cyber attack Cloudflare – February 2024 Cloudflare server breached using old credentials from previous attack Europcar – February 2024 Europcar denies alleged data breach affecting 50m Central Coast Council – February 2024 Central Coast Council cyber attack could affect people nationwide Football Australia – February 2024 Personal data exposed in Football Australia data leak after database left accessible Canberra Medical Centre – January 2024 Patient data hacked at Canberra medical centre LinkedIn, Adobe, Twitter and More – January 2024 26bn records exposed in largest data leak of all time: LinkedIn, Adobe, Twitter and more affected Quantum Radiology – January 2024 Hacked Sydney radiologist instructs staff to tell customers hack was a technical fault Nissan Australia – January 2024 The Australian and New Zealand Nissan Corporation and Financial Services (“Nissan”) is currently managing a cyber incident. Here is the latest information on our incident response. Hal Leonard Australia – January 2024 Print music giant Hal Leonard Australia falls victim to Qilin ransomware Binge, Dan Murphys, Guzman y Gomez, The Iconic -January 2024 Hackers target Binge, The Iconic, Dan Murphy’s customers following Australian data breaches Guzman y Gomez, Dan Murphy’s customers affected in credential stuffing campaign Labour – January 2024 Labor hit by major government data breach, millions of files stolen from key departments The Iconic – January 2024 The Iconic responds to hacking claims, promising refunds to customers The Iconic promises to issue refunds to hacked customers The Iconic And A Melb Travel Agency Become Target Of Cyber Hacks Impacting 1000s Of Aussies The Iconic denies responsibility for data breach The Iconic was hit by criminals taking money by ‘credential stuffing’. How can you stay safe? Inspiring Vacations – January 2024 Australian travel agency exposes customer data after leaving database publicly accessible Passports, travel documents exposed in data breach Inspiring Vacations Hit by Significant Data Breach: 112,000 Travelers Affected Australian travel agency hit by data breach, leaking passport and travel details of thousands of customers Personal information of more than 112,000 people exposed in data breach Australian travel agency exposes customer data after leaving database publicly accessible Court Services Australia – January 2024 Victorian court systems allegedly breached by Qilin ransomware gang | Victoria’s courts have been hit by a cyber attack allegedly at the hands of Russia-based hackers. Hackers hit Victoria’s court recording database Yakult Australia – January 2024 Yakult Australia confirms cyber incident | Investigating extent of system and data access by threat actor. Eagers Automotive – January 2024 Eager Automotive halts trading following cyber attack | Australian vehicle dealership giant Eagers Automotive has announced that it suffered a systems outage as a result of a cyber attack. Customers warned after major car dealership group Eagers Automotive hacked LockBit 3.0 Claims Attack on Australian Auto Dealer Eagers Eagers Auto says outsiders accessed data from IT servers Eagers Automotive finds unauthorised access to parts of IT systems Data Breaches for Australia 2023 Data Breaches for Australia 2022 Data Breaches for Australia 2021 Data Breaches for Australia 2020 Data Breaches for Australia 2019 Data Breaches for Australia 2018
- Unleashing the Power of the Razer Seiren V3 Chroma and Seiren V3 Mini: A New Standard in Audio Quality
Razer has introduced two new microphones, the Seiren V3 Chroma and Seiren V3 Mini, designed to enhance the audio experience for gamers and content creators. These microphones combine Razer's signature style with advanced features to become the focal point of any gaming setup or streaming studio. Nick Bourne, Head of Razer’s Mobile, Console & Streaming Division, expressed excitement about the launch of the Seiren V3 Chroma and Seiren V3 Mini. He highlighted the integration of top-tier audio quality with Razer Chroma RGB technology, offering content creators customization, control, and clarity for their recordings. The Razer Seiren V3 Chroma stands out for its impeccable audio clarity and visually stunning RGB experience. With Stream and Game Reactive Lighting powered by Razer Chroma RGB, this microphone enhances the showmanship of content creators by responding to in-game events and stream alerts with vibrant lighting effects. Unleashing the Power of the Razer Seiren V3 Chroma and Seiren V3 Mini: A New Standard in Audio Quality The heart of the Seiren V3 Chroma is its Supercardioid Condenser Mic, which captures every nuance of the user’s voice with an exceptional level of detail, backed by a tighter pickup pattern that effectively minimizes background noise. Whether communicating with teammates or engaging with an audience, the Seiren V3 Chroma ensures every word is heard with crystal clarity. The Seiren V3 Chroma’s Multi-Function Tap-to-Mute Sensor is more than just a button – it’s an intuitive command center at your fingertips. With a simple tap, users can control audio output including mute/unmute, adjust lighting, and toggle the microphone’s digital gain limiter or check mic monitoring levels with lighting indicators, ensuring a flawless audio experience even during the most intense live streams or gaming sessions. The Razer Seiren V3 Mini: Clarity Made Compact The Seiren V3 Mini builds on the foundation of its predecessor by incorporating additional functionalities into its compact form factor. New advancements include an intuitive tap-to-mute sensor with an LED indicator that provides instant control and feedback, onboard audio mixing via Razer Synapse, and an improved bit sampling rate for superior audio performance. This makes the Seiren V3 Mini an optimal solution for streamers and gamers seeking high-quality audio without the bulk. For content creators and gamers alike, background noise can be a persistent challenge. The 14mm Condenser Mic at its core is tailored for clear, detailed voice capture, especially effective in higher frequency ranges. The Seiren V3 Mini’s Supercardioid Pickup Pattern expertly isolates the speaker’s voice, ensuring that only the intended audio is captured. The addition of a Tap-to-Mute Sensor with an LED Indicator provides instant control and feedback, a crucial feature for live streaming or during heated in-game communication. Razer is a prominent lifestyle brand catering to gamers worldwide, known for its iconic triple-headed snake logo. The company has established itself as a leader in the gaming and esports communities, boasting a vast fan base across the globe. Razer's offerings include top-notch gaming peripherals, Blade gaming laptops, and innovative software platforms like Razer Synapse, Razer Chroma RGB, and Razer Cortex. Additionally, Razer provides payment services through Razer Gold and fintech services via Razer Fintech.
- Thermal Take View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue Mid Tower Chassis
Built for amazing viewing, the View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue Mid Tower Chassis is an ATX case that features tempered glass front and left panels, and comes with a pre-installed CT140 ARGB Sync PC Cooling Fan White at the rear. Thermal Take View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue Mid Tower Chassis View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue Mid Tower Chassis Built for amazing viewing, the View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue Mid Tower Chassis is an ATX case that features tempered glass front and left panels, and comes with a pre-installed CT140 ARGB Sync PC Cooling Fan White at the rear. Its RGB lighting can be controlled by motherboard software from ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, and ASRock. Moreover, up to nine 120mm fans can be installed in the chassis, and up to a 360mm radiator can be placed on the top of the View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue Mid Tower Chassis. Supports up to a 360mm Radiator on the Top Thermal Take View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue Mid Tower Chassis Providing good cooling support, users can choose to place a 360mm radiator on the top of the View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue. Tempered Glass Front and Left Panels custom pc builder - nerdcore pc The View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue is designed for better visibility, allowing users to enjoy their system through the tempered glass front and left panels. Supports up to a 360mm Radiator on the Top Providing good cooling support, users can choose to place a 360mm radiator on the top of the View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue. One CT140 ARGB Sync PC Cooling Fan White Pre-installed The View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue Mid Tower Chassis comes with a CT140 ARGB Sync PC Cooling Fan White pre-installed at the rear. It's fascinating lighting effects can be controlled by motherboard software from ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, and ASRock. Enhanced Airflow for Better Cooling The View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue Mid Tower Chassis boasts a built-in MESH power supply cover that enhances airflow within the case. Not only does this feature help ensure efficient cooling, its full-length cover provides ample space to neatly manage cables. Opportunities For High-End Expansion The View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue Mid Tower Chassis offers good expandability. It can support a CPU cooler with a maximum height of 180mm, VGA placement up to 420mm in length, a power supply up to 220mm in length. Optimized for excellent cooling performance, the case comes with a pre-installed CT140 ARGB Sync PC Cooling Fan White at the rear, and up to nine 120mm fans can be installed. For radiator compatibility, it can support up to 360mm on top, giving more options for high-end expansion! How Much Storage Is Totally Up To You For storage compatibility, the View 270 TG ARGB Hydrangea Blue gives maximum support of up to two 2.5″ SSDs or two 3.5″ HDDs in total. Handy I/O Ports Two USB 3.0, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C and HD Audio ports are placed on the top panel to grant direct access when needed. All-in-One Compatibility List All-in-One Compatibility List Sync with Motherboard RGB Software Designed to synchronize with ASUS Aura Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync, and ASRock Polychrome. It supports motherboards with a 5V addressable RGB header, allowing you to control the lights directly from the software mentioned above without installing any extra lighting software or controllers. For more details, please visit ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, and ASRock official websites.
- ASUS ROG-MATRIX-RTX4090-P24G-GAMING ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 Platinum 24GB GDDR6X Graphics Card Card
SPECIFICATIONS ASUS ROG-MATRIX-RTX4090-P24G-GAMING ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 Platinum 24GB GDDR6X Graphics Card Card In Stock $7400.00
- nerdcore pc gaming custom - Build a powerful custom one of kind gaming pc from nerdcore pc
Choose a variety of styles - Rgb heaven lights , water cooling systems for motherboard cpu an graphics cards an memory. Our designer cases are open an assembled by industry leading professionals. The Best Gaming PCs for 2024. We can build you a dream pc - Its your PC its our choice. You can't buy a more powerful gaming platform than a tricked-out nerdcore pc desktop. Here's everything you need to know, part by part, to pick the right prebuilt gaming PC, plus current favorites an flavors culled from our top-rated picks. nerdcore pc gaming custom - Build a powerful custom one of kind gaming pc from nerdcore pc Despite the allure and simplicity of gaming consoles and handheld devices, the nerdcore PC gaming has never been stronger. nerdcore pc enthusiasts know that nothing beats the quality of game play you can get with a nerdcore pc desktop built for gaming. Today, it's within almost every determined nerdcore PC shopper's grasp to get a prebuilt nerdcore gaming PC with the graphics power necessary to drive the latest games on a full HD (4k) monitor at lofty detail settings. What kind of nerdcore pc desktop makes games look and run better than on the Sony PS5 or Microsoft Xbox Series X? If you have deep pockets, with heaps of cash it's a custom-built hot rod from an elite boutique nerdcore PC maker, such as Falcon Northwest, Maingear, or Velocity Micro. However, a few well-informed choices will go a long way toward buying the right gaming desktop from a mainstream brand, like Dell, Lenovo, or MSI—even if you're not made of money. These are the best pre built gaming desktops in 2024 across all budgets and our latest top picks in the nerdcore pc category. Every gaming nerdcore PC we recommend has been thoroughly tested—from tower PCs to compacts—for a variety of uses. Our top picks are followed by a guide explaining how to buy the right gaming desktop for you and your budget. nerdcore pc gaming custom - Build a powerful custom one of kind gaming pc from nerdcore pc Author # nerdcore pc
- Top 8 Australian Cybersecurity Frameworks
If you're an Australian business and confused about which cybersecurity frameworks you should be complying with, you're not alone. Unlike the United States, Australia currently doesn't have clear mandatory minimum cybersecurity standards for businesses. This is likely to change in the near future. The Australian government is being pressured to follow the United States lead in lifting the nation's cybersecurity posture. When this national security reform is complete, industry-specific regulatory standards will likely be introduced to strengthen the specific vulnerabilities that are unique to each sector. In the interim, Australian businesses are critically exposed to Nation-State threat actors, and so, must take ownership of their cyber threat resilience now. According to the 2020 Australian Digital Trust Report, a 4-week disruption to critical digital infrastructures caused by a cyberattack would cost the Australian economy AU$30 billion (1.5% of GDP) or 163,000 jobs. To assist in the effort of strengthening the Nation's cyber threat resilience, we've compiled a list of the top cybersecurity controls and frameworks impacting Australian businesses in 2023. Learn how UpGuard simplifies Vendor Risk Management > 1. Essential Eight Essential Eight was developed by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASCS) in 2017 to help Australian businesses mitigate cybersecurity threats and data breaches. This framework is recommended by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) for all Australian organizations. For more information about the security standards of the ASD, refer to this Information Security Manual (ISM). Essential Eight (also known as the ASD Essential Eight) is comprised of eight basic mitigation strategies, or security controls, that are divided across three primary objectives. Learn how to comply with CPS 230 > Each of the listed strategies under each objective links to an implementation guideline post by the Australian Government. Objective 1: Prevent Cyberattacks This initial strategy aims to protect internal systems from malicious software such as, malware, ransomware, and other cyber threats. Objective 1 includes 4 security controls. Patch application vulnerabilities Application control User application hardening Configuring MS Office Macro settings Learn how Australian businesses can prevent data breaches > Objective 2: Limit Extent of Cyberattacks This objective aims to limit the penetration depth of all malicious injections. This is achieved by discovering and remediating all security vulnerabilities so that threat actors cannot exploit them. Objective 1 includes 3 security controls: Patch operating system vulnerabilities Restrict Admin access Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Learn the difference between 2FA and MFA > Objective 3: Data Recovery and System Availability This objective covers the final stage of cyber security incidents. Sensitive data resources must be continuously backed up to support system availability through immediate data recovery. This objective includes the 8th and final security control - Daily backups. For each mitigation strategy, the Australian SIgnals DIrectorate recommends for the Essential EIght framework to be implemented in three phases: Maturity Level One - Partily aligned with the mitigation strategy objectives Maturity Level Two - Mostly aligned with the mitigation strategy objectives Maturity Level Three - Fully aligned with the mitigation strategy objectives The minimal recommended baseline for cyber threat protection is Maturity Level Three. Learn more about the Essential Eight Framework > Which Industries Does the Essential Eight Apply To? The Australian Signals Directorate recommends all Australian Government entities and businesses implement the Essential Eight framework for best cybersecurity practice. Is the Essential Eight Mandatory for Australian Businesses? The Australian Federal government will mandate the Essential Eight framework for all 98 non-corporate Commonwealth entities. Compliance with this framework is expected for both corporate and non-corporate Commercial entities (NCCEs). To evaluate compliance, these entities will undergo a comprehensive audit every 5 years commencing on June 2022 Previously, Government entities were expected to comply with only the top 4 Essential Eight strategies. But after an audit revealed abysmal cyber resilience across multiple government departments, compliance expectations have expanded to all eight strategies with the inclusion of NCCEs. Since 2018, it has become mandatory for all businesses with an annual turnover of at least $3 million, to report data breaches to the OAIC - whether or not they've embraced the Essential Eight framework. Learn the difference bewteen a regulation and a cyber framework > How UpGuard Can Help you Comply with the Essential Eight UpGuard empowers Australian businesses to achieve compliance with Essential Eight security controls. UpGuard's comprehensive attack surface monitoring engine provides vulnerability analytics to support application hardening efforts and audits the complete threat landscape to keep patch applications up to date. Request a free trial of UpGuard > 2. Australian Energy Sector Cyber Security Framework (AESCSF) The Australian Energy Sector Cyber Security Framework (AESCSF) is an annual assessment of cybersecurity resilience across the Australian energy sector. The AESCSF was developed in 2018 as a collaborative effort between: The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) The Australian Government The Cyber Security Industry Working Group (CSIWG) Critical Infrastructure Centre (CIC) Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) In an effort to apply the highest level of cyber threat protection to Australian energy infrastructures, the AESCSF combines aspects of recognized security frameworks with a risk-management approach such as: NIST Cyber Security Framework (by the National Institute of Standards and Technology) NIST) SP 800-53 Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (C2M2) NIST SP 800-53 COBIT Essential Eight Notifiable Data Breaches scheme (NDB) ISO/IEC 27001 The Australian Privacy Principles To access resources for the latest AESCSF 2020-21 program, refer to the Australian Energy Market Operator website. Which Industries Does the Australian Energy Sector CyberSecurity Framework (AESCSF) Apply To? The AESCSF has been designed for the Australian Energy sector. Is the Australian Energy Sector CyberSecurity Framework (AESCSF) Mandatory for Australian Businesses? The AESCSF is not a mandatory security framework for the Australian Energy Sector. However, because critical infrastructures are currently being targeted by cybercriminals, this framework is recommended for its clear maturity pathway programs. How UpGuard Can Help You Comply with the AESCSF UpGuard supports many of popular the cybersecurity risk assessments and cybersecurity frameworks being leveraged by AESCSF. Request a free trial of UpGuard > 3. CIS Controls Center for Internet Security (CIS) Controls are a set of different security efforts designed to protect systems from common cyber-attacks. These mitigation strategies have been designed to disrupt the cyberattack lifecycle. The CIS framework has been recently updated from version 7.1 to version 8. Version 8 is more aligned with the latest digital transformation trends that are expanding the threat landscape. These include: The prevalence of work-from-home arrangements Increased reliance on cloud-based solutions Increased mobile endpoints Increased adoption of virtualization The transition to hybrid workforces that deviate between office and home environments Another obvious change in CIS version 8 is the reduction of controls - they've dropped from 20 to 18. The updated list of CIS controls are outlined below: CIS Control 1: Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets CIS Control 2: Inventory and Control of Software Assets CIS Control 3: Data Protection CIS Control 4: Secure Configuration of Enterprise Assets and Software CIS Control 5: Account Management CIS Control 6: Access Control Management CIS Control 7: Continuous Vulnerability Management CIS Control 8: Audit Log Management CIS Control 9: Email Web Browser and Protections CIS Control 10: Malware Defenses CIS Control 11: Data Recovery CIS Control 12: Network Infrastructure Management CIS Control 13: Network Monitoring and Defense CIS Control 14: Security Awareness and Skills Training CIS Control 15: Service Provider Management CIS Control 16: Application Software Security CIS Control 17: Incident Response Management CIS Control 18: Penetration Testing Difference Between CIS Controls and CIS Benchmarks CIS controls are a list of recommended strategies for securing systems and devices. CIS Benchmarks are hardening strategies for specific vendor products. The range of CIS Benchmarks includes 100+ security best practices across 25+ vendors. To access this list For more details, see the complete list of CIS Benchmarks Which Industries Does the CIS Framework Apply To? CIS controls are not industry-specific, any organization can strengthen its security posture by implementing CIS controls. CIS controls are especially beneficial to industries that store copious amounts of sensitive end-user information such as finance, healthcare, education, and law. Are CIS Controls Mandatory for Australian Businesses? At the time of writing this, adopting the CIS controls framework is not a mandatory requirement for Australian businesses. CIS controls are not mandatory, by they're recommended for the superior sensitive data protection they offer. Because this framework is industry agnostic, it can be readily confirmed to most security requirements. How UpGuard Can Help You Comply with the CIS Controls UpGuard offers a CIS controls security standard questionnaire to assess compliance against the best practice guidelines for cybersecurity outlined in the 18 CIS Controls. Request a free trial of UpGuard > 4. Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) This Cloud Control Matrix (CCM) is a cybersecurity framework for cloud computing environments. This control framework was created by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) - a not-for-profit dedicated to promoting best practices for cloud computing security. The CCM covers the primary components of cloud technology across 16 domains which branch out into 133 control objectives. This framework can be used to surface security deficiencies in cloud implementation efforts and provide guidance on security controls that could remediate them. The CCM is particularly effective because it maps its controls to prominent security standards and regulations such as: AICPA BITS Shared Assessments German BSI C5 PIPEDA Canada CIS AWS Foundation COBIT COPPA ENISA IAF 95/46/EC EU Data Protection Directive FedRAMP FERPA GAPP HIPAA/HITECH Act HITRUST CSF ISO/IEC 27001 ISO/IEC 27002 ISO/IEC 27017 ISO/IEC 27018 Mexico Federal Law NERC CIP NIST SP800-53 NZISM ODCA UM: PA PCI DSS IEC 62443-3-3 C5. CCM caters to all parties in a cloud computing relationship - cloud customers and cloud solution providers. Cloud Customers The CCM offers the Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire (CAIQ) for customers that wish to scrutinize the security efforts of their cloud providers, namely which security controls are implemented for PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS products. The CAIQ has recently been updated to version 4 which can be accessed here. Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs) Vendors offering cloud products can submit self-assessments with the CAIQ to demonstrate their compliance with CMS standards. This proof of compliance can be sent to clients or used to apply for the Security, Trust, Assurance, and Risk Registry (STAR). There are two benefits to being included in this registry. The first is that compliance with the CCM matrix is verified by CSA which strengthens the appeal of vendor relationship. The second is that vendors included in the registry have all of their security control documentation publically available, which reduces the complexity of vendor assessments. For more details about the Cloud Control Matrics, refer to the Cloud Security Alliance website. Is the Cloud Control Matrix Mandatory for Australian Businesses? The CCM matrix is not a mandatory requirement in Australia. However, this framework is designed to map to mandatory regulations and frameworks. The Cloud Security Alliance has created a series of mappings to the Cloud Control Matrix (CCM) that can be accessed here. CSA is regularly updating this list, so if your required cybersecurity framework mapping is not included in this list, contact CSA to confirm whether it will be in the future. How UpGuard Can Help You Comply with the Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) UpGuard supports compliance with each of the CCM control objectives by offering security questionnaires associated with the standards the CCM maps to. UpGuard offers a custom questionnaire builder to empower organizations to contextualize their CCM compliance. 5. Control Objectives for Information Technology (COBIT) COBIT was developed by the IT Governance Institute (ITGI) and the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). This IT management framework is designed to support the development, organization, and implementation of processes that improve IT governance and cybersecurity best practices. The COBIT framework is commonly used to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). But for general use-cases, COBIT allows organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of their IT investments in light of their business goals. COBIT 2019 is the latest version of the framework, upgraded from COBIT 5. COBIT 5 was the most celebrated framework because it enforced accountability, which prevented stakeholder. The COBIT 2019 framework consists of 6 principles, outlined below. The 5 principles that governed the COBIT 5 framework are also listed for comparison. COBIT 2019 Principles: Principle 1: Provide stakeholder value Principle 2: Holistic approach Principle 3: Dynamic governance system Principle 4: Governance distinct from management Principle 5: Tailored to enterprise needs Principle 6: End-to-end governance system COBIT 5 Principles: Principle 1: Meeting stakeholder needs Principle 2: Covering the enterprise end to end Principle 3: Applying a single integrated framework Principle 4: Enabling a holistic approach Principle 5: Separating governance from management Learn more about COBIT To contextualize a potential COBIT implementation, refer to these case studies. Which Industries Does COBIT Apply to? COBIT supports all organizations that depend on the reliable distribution of relevant information. This broad categorization includes both government entities and private sector organizations. Is the COBIT Framework Mandatory for Australian Businesses? COBIT is not a mandatory cybersecurity framework in Australia. However, because Australian businesses issuing and registering securities in the United States need to be compliant with SOX, this group would do well to implement COBIT since it supports SOX compliance. How UpGuard Can Help You Comply with COBIT UpGuard makes it easier for Australian businesses to achieve SOX compliance, which in turn, supports the progression to COBIT compliance. Some of the protocols that support this effort include: Ensuring the correct information security policies are in place Implementing safeguards to detect and remediate data leaks Remediating vulnerabilities placing sensitive data at risk. Request a free trial of UpGuard > 6. Australian Government Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) The Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) empowers Australian Government entities, to protect their people, information, and assets. Its goal is to cultivate a positive security culture across all entities. This protection is valid on Australian soil and overseas. The PSPF aims to implement the following policies. Each policy links to core requirements guidelines. Security governance Information security Personnel security Physical security There are 5 PSPF principles that represent desired security outcomes: Security is everyone's responsibility - A positive security culture supports the achievement of security outcomes. Security enables the business of government - Services can be delivered more efficiently if they're secure. Security measures protect assets and people from their associated cyber risks. Each department takes ownership of its inherent and residual risks. Security incident responses should be continuously reviewed and improved. Which industries Does the PSPF Apply To? The Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) applies to all Australian government entities and non-corporate Commonwealth entities. Is the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) Mandatory for Australian Businesses? The PSPF must be applied to Australian Government entities and non-corporate government entities in accordance with their risk profiles. The PSPF became a critical requirement for government bodies in 2018 when the Attorney-General established the framework as an Australian Government Policy. The PSPF is also considered a best cybersecurity practice for all Australian state and territory agencies. How to Be Compliant With the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) UpGuard supports compliance with the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) by offering a single pain of visibility into the entire attack surface to help all departments take ownership of their security posture 7. The Australian Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 The Australian Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (SOCI Act) seeks to protect Australian Infrastructures from foreign cyberattacks. The range of powers, functions, and obligations in this Act applies to specific critical infrastructure assets in the electricity, gas, water, and ports sectors. There are three primary directives of the Australian Security of Critical Infrastructure Act: Owners and operators of critical infrastructures must register all relevant assets. Owners and operators of critical infrastructures must supply the Department of Home Affairs with all required information that could support the security efforts of the center. Owners and operators of critical infrastructures must comply with all instructions from the Minister of Home Affairs that support the mitigation of national security risks where all other risk mitigation efforts have. been exhausted. On 10 December 2020, the Australian government introduced the Security Legislation Amendment Bill to broaden the definition of critical infrastructures in the SOCI Act. This amendment broadens the application of the SOCI Act to 11 classes of critical infrastructures including: Top 8 Australian Cybersecurity Frameworks Communications Data storage and processing Defence Financial services and markets Food and grocery Health care and medical Transport Higher education and research Energy Space technology Water and Sewerage More information about the Act can be accessed via the resources below: Overview of the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 Coverage of critical infrastructures Reporting entity obligations Note: The SOCI Act framework has undergone reforms to strengthen the cybersecurity of Australia's critical infrastructures. The updated framework is outlined in the SLACIP Act. Which Industries Does the Australian Security of Critical Infrastructure Act Apply To? Australian Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 applies to the electricity, gas, water, and ports sectors that possess a specific range of critical assets. Is the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 Mandatory for Australian Businesses? At the time of writing this, there are no announcements enforcing compliance with SOCI 2018. How UpGuard Can Help You Comply with the Australian Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 UpGuard supports compliance with SOCI 2018 and its reformed security controls by helping critical infrastructures discover and remediate data leaks and vulnerabilities exposing critical assets and third-party vendors in the supply chain. 8. ISO/IEC 38500 The ISO/IEC 38500 is an international standard for an IT governance framework. It ensures the security of all management processes and decisions that impact the current and future use of Information Technology. ISO/IEC 38500 empowers multiple parties to take ownership of a company's security posture including: Executive managers Users with access to all of the organization's resources. Third-party vendors Technical specialists Consultants Auditors This framework is supported by six principles: Establish clear responsibilities Support the objectives of the organization Make strategic acquisitions Ensure KPIs are exceeded Ensure conformance with rules Consider all human factors For more information, refer to the official ISO/IEC 38500 2015 standard document. Is the ISO/IEC 38500 Mandatory for Australian Businesses? ISO 38500 is an international standard for IT security, so Australian businesses are expected to be compliant with this framework. All types of businesses should strive to be ISO 38500 compliant including: Public and private companies Government entities Not-for-profits Businesses of all sizes, regardless of their IT usage.
- 13 Biggest Data Cyber Security Breaches in Australia
Data breaches in Australia are on the rise, particularly in the financial and healthcare industries. In an effort to DISRUPT this negative trend, the Australian government is revising its cybersecurity frameworks and policies to strengthen resilience against nation-state threat actors. But Australian businesses cannot solely rely on the government's cybersecurity initiatives. Even the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) admits that proposed security frameworks only raise the baseline of security. It's up to each individual business to continue lifting this standard with additional data breach prevention controls. To help Australian businesses avoid some of the common malpractices that facilitate data breaches, we've compiled a list of some of the biggest data breaches in Australia, ranked by magnitude of impact. If you're interested in a global perspective, you can also read our blog on the biggest data breaches globally. 13 Biggest Data Cyber Security Breaches in Australia 1. Canva Date: May 2019 Impact: 137 million users Australian unicorn Canva suffered a monumental data breach impacting 137 million of its users. To put that into perspective, the online design tool currently has about 55 million active monthly users. A cybercriminal identified as Ghosticplayers breached Canva's defences but was stopped by Canva when they detected malicious activity in their systems. Unfortunately, this interception did not happen soon enough. The threat actor had time to access the following user data: Usernames Real names Email addresses Country data Encrypted passwords Partial payment data After the cyberattack, Ghosticplayers contacted ZDNet to brag about the successful data breach. This is unusual behavior for cybercriminals who usually gloat about their cybercrimes on dark web forums. Canva quickly notified affected accounts that had decrypted passwords to change their passwords and reset all accounts for those that had not changed their passwords in 6 months. 13 Biggest Data Cyber Security Breaches in Australia 2. Latitude Date: March 2023 Impact: 14 million customers Latitude, the Australian personal loan and financial service provider, was affected by a data breach that impacted over 14 million people from Australia and New Zealand. Although the initial disclosure stated that only 328,000 individual customers were affected, that number quickly grew to 14 million after further investigation. The Latitude breach was one of Australia’s largest breaches in recent history and follows a recent string of large-scale attacks (Optus and Medibank). The attack occurred when one set of employee credentials was stolen, allowing access to Latitude’s customer data, mainly consisting of: Full names Physical addresses Email addresses Phone numbers Dates of birth Driver’s license numbers Passport numbers Much of the information was data stored from 2005, which drew questions on why companies continue to store customer records beyond the required seven-year timeframe. The government also considered extending the reach of federal cyber agencies to intervene in the case private companies come under attack. Latitude is currently being investigated for its role in the attack and whether or not it had sufficient ability to prevent the attack from happening. The company is also being investigated for a class-action lawsuit. 3. Optus Date: September 2022 Impact: 9.8 million customers The Optus data breach was one of the biggest security breaches ever in Australian history. As the second-largest telecommunications company in Australia, this security incident brought up questions about Australian data security policies and how companies handle them. Cybercriminals believed to be working for a state-sponsored operation breached Optus' internal network, compromising personal information and impacting up to 9.8 million customers, almost 40% of the population. According to Optus CEO Kelly Bayer, the oldest records in the compromised database could date as far back as 2017. Personal data included in this compromised data set includes: Names Birth dates Addresses Phone numbers Passport information Driver's license numbers Government ID numbers Medical records & Medicare card ID numbers It’s speculated that the criminal group gained access through an unauthorized API endpoint, meaning a user/password or other authentication method wasn't required to connect to the API. Bayer said it was an extremely sophisticated attack that circumvented the company’s strong cyber defenses. Hackers published the sensitive data samples on online forums just a few days later, demanding a A$1.5m ransom in cryptocurrency. However, the hacker reversed course just a few days after demanding a ransom due to pressure from law enforcement and claimed to delete all the data during an apology on the same forum. The fallout of the attack saw major policy criticisms about the effectiveness of Australian cybersecurity. In April 2023, Optus was hit with a class-action lawsuit comprised of 1.2 million customers. Australian Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil admitted that the country was a decade behind other developed countries on cybersecurity and data privacy. The alleged details of the Optus data breach as revealed by a cyber criminal claiming responsibility - Source: Twitter - Jeremy Kirk. If the cyber criminals are confirmed to be state-sponsored, the breach was likely caused by a ransomware attack - a style of attack preferenced by such well-financed hacker groups for its high success rates and significant dividends. Learn how the Ransomware-as-a-Service criminal network operates. Investigations are still underway, and Optus has yet to confirm whether it received a ransomware note from the cybercriminals. At this point, it isn’t clear whether this breach constitutes a violation of Australian privacy principles. To prevent such a costly conclusion, Optus needs to demonstrate that it took active measures to ensure the protection of all customer data from data breach attempts - a decision for the privacy commissioner to make. 4. Medibank Date: December 2022 Impact: 9.7 million people In December 2022, Medibank, the Australian health insurance giant, was the victim of a major data breach, affecting the personal details of 9.7 million customers. The attack was believed to be linked to a well-known ransomware group based in Russia, the REvil ransomware gang. The privacy breach was first discovered when REvil posted on a dark web blog a folder that contained 6GB of raw data samples, indicating that they had larger amounts of data to release, and demanded a $10 million ransom. The data included: Names Birthdates Passport numbers Medical claims data Medical records Despite one of the largest data breaches in Australian history, Medibank stayed firm and refused to pay the ransom. Although the data is believed to have been fully released on the dark web, no cases of identity or financial fraud have occurred yet. Medibank also urged customers to stay vigilant on credit checks and phishing scams to ensure that they do not become victims, and the health giant invested significant amounts into its cybersecurity. Medibank is currently under investigation by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) for its information handling practices and could be subject to a $50 million fine if it is determined that it did not have sufficient security practices in place. Additionally, a class-action lawsuit could be underway for Medibank as well. 5. ProctorU Date: July 2020 Impact: 444,000 people Sensitive information belonging to ProctorU, an online proctoring service for remote students, was leaked online for free on a dark web hacking forum. This incident was part of a larger data leak impacting 18 companies and exposing 386 million records. The compromised database of 444,000 records included user records with email addresses belonging to: The University of Sydney The University of New South Wales The University of Melbourne The University of Queensland The University of Tasmania James Cook University Swinburne University of Technology The University of Western Australia Curtin University and the University of Adelaide Email addresses from prominent American universities were also included in the data exposure, including UCLA, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Syracuse, Columbia, and more. However, despite the email address breach, ProctorU said no financial information was compromised. 6. Australian National University (ANU) Date: November 2018 Impact: 200,000 students The Australian National University (ANU) fell victim to a highly sophisticated cyber attack that shocked even the most experienced Australian security experts. Furthermore, the attack wasn’t discovered until nearly six months later. Cyber attackers accessed sensitive information dating as far back as 19 years. The following information was stolen: Names Addresses Phone numbers Dates of birth Emergency contact details Tax file numbers Payroll information Bank account details Student academic results The attackers deployed four spear-phishing campaigns to harvest network access credentials from staff. The successful phishing attack came down to a senior staff member who opened an infected email, which granted the attackers deeper levels of access until the University's Enterprise Systems Doman (ESD) was breached. This is where the University's most sensitive records were stored. The attackers worked meticulously to cover their tracks, instantly deleted access logs, and used the anonymity software Tor to obfuscate their location details. The phishing campaign continued to expand with a second round of emails directly from the staff member’s breached email, which invited more prominent school members to a fake event to increase the scope of the attack. Although there has been no evidence of information being exploited, ANU spent millions of dollars after the attack to upgrade its network security. 7. Eastern Health Date: March 2021 Impact: 4 hospitals Eastern Health, an operator of 4 Melbourne hospitals, fell victim to a cyberattack causing certain elective surgeries to be postponed. The nature of the cyber attack is unknown, but it's suspected to have been a ransomware attack. This is likely to be true since, according to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), ransomware attacks targeting the Australian health sector are growing. Eastern Health assured the public that no patient data was compromised in the attack. 8. Service NSW Date: April 2020 Impact: 104,000 people 47 Service NSW staff email accounts were hacked through a series of phishing attacks. This led to 5 million documents being accessed, 10 percent of which contains sensitive data impacting 104,000 people. A major contributing factor to the seamless breach was the lack of multi-factor authentication 9. Melbourne Heart Group Date: February 2019 Impact: 15,000 patients Melbourne Heart Group, a specialist cardiology unit in Cabrini Hospital, fell victim to a ransomware attack impacting 15,000 patient files. Ransomware attacks are still classified as data breaches because cybercriminals access sensitive data and hold it hostage unless a ransom price is paid. This data breach compromised personal patient details and medical data, exposing victims to potential phishing attacks and identity theft. Melbourne Heart Group was locked of it its compromised data for almost 3 weeks. A spokesperson for the cardiology unit said that no sensitive data was leaked while it was in possession of the cybercriminals. But such a claim assumes ransomware criminals are true to their promise that damages will be completely reversed if demands are obeyed Melbourne Heart Group, reportedly, paid the bitcoin ransom. Most of the encrypted files were restored, but not all of them. 10. Australian Parliament House Date: February 2019 Impact: Multiple political party networks - Liberal, Labor, and the Nationals. Australian Parliament House networks were breached by a nation-state criminal group. It's speculated that China was responsible for the attack, as a response to Scott Morrison banning Huawei and ZTE equipment from Australia's 5G network. The attack resulted in the loss of some data, but according to the head of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) Mike Burgess, none of it was classified as sensitive. "There was a small amount of data taken; none of that was deemed sensitive, but the assessment of that is a matter for the parliament themselves." Mike said at the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee on April 5, 2019. The cybercriminals used phishing methods to steal employee credentials and gain entry into the government's network. This precursor attack took place on an infected external website that a small number of parliament staff visited. 11. Tasmanian Ambulance Date: January 2021 Impact: Every resident that requested an ambulance between Nov 2020 and Jan 2021. At the time of the breach, the Tasmanian ambulance was using outdated radio technology to run its communications network. Cyberattackers intercepted the radio data, converted the conversation to text, and posted the stolen data online. The breached data included the following patient information: HIV status Gender Age Address of each emergency incident. The website exposing the compromised data has since been taken offline. 12. Northern Territory Government Date: February 2021 Impact: 4400 emails Personal and business emails across thousands of territories have been leaked following a breach of the Northern Territory's COVID-19 check-in app. When the app was introduced, NT residents were assured that only Health Department officials and technical support personnel would have access to the collected data. According to Sue Hawes, the head of the COVID-19 hazard management unit, the data breach was caused by an unintentional error. 3. Western Australian Parliament Date: March 2021 Impact: Unknown Western Australia parliament's mail server was accessed after a Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerability was compromised. This incident was part of a global cyberattack frenzy targeting the zero-day exploit before Microsoft responded with a patch release. WA's Executive Manager of Parliamentary Services Rob Hunter said that a forensic audit found no evidence of a data breach. A soon as security teams became aware of the malicious intrusion, they immediately disconnected the targeted email server. But it's uncertain whether this consolation is true. The lack of transparency into the event is concerning. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) declined to comment about the WA parliament attack but said that many Australian organisations were exposed to potential compromise while their servers remained unpatched. If the nation-state criminals were as sophisticated as the Prime Minister described them, may have had enough time to clandestinely exfiltrated some sensitive, even during such a brief visit. All information has been reproduced from leading news sites for republication in 2024. For awareness an blog article updates on own Australian cyber security front line.
- Best Graphics Cards for Gaming in 2024
The best graphics cards are the beating heart of any gaming PC, and everything else comes second. Without a powerful GPU pushing pixels, even the fastest CPU won't manage much. While no one graphics card will be right for everyone, we'll provide options for every budget and mindset below. Whether you're after the fastest graphics card, the best value, or the best card at a given price, we've got you covered. Where our GPU benchmarks hierarchy ranks all of the cards based purely on performance, our list of the best graphics cards looks at the whole package. Current GPU pricing, performance, features, efficiency, and availability are all important, though the weighting becomes more subjective. Factoring in all of those aspects, these are the best graphics cards that are currently available. With the increasing RTX 4090 prices, it's hard to justify buying the fastest GPU that's currently available. Prices on all GPUs have trended up in the post-Black Friday slump, so if you missed out on those deals, you might want to wait and see what January brings. AMD and Nvidia have basically wrapped up their latest generation GPU lineups, unless there are still plans for an RTX 4050 at the bottom of the stack. It's not clear what such a chip might entail at this point, possibly 8GB of memory on a 128-bit interface (again), or could Nvidia try foisting a 96-bit 6GB card on the market? Hopefully the former rather than the latter.There are rumblings of various RTX 40-series Super cards, which will probably appear in January. These may replace the existing non-Super models. What's not clear is whether anything will happen at the top of the stack with the RTX 4090. Nvidia's RTX 4090 is now banned from export to China, though that has merely encouraged scalpers to hoard RTX 4090 cards. A faster RTX 4090 Ti / Super would likewise be banned, and would need to be assembled outside of China, but it could still happen.On the AMD side of things, there are credible rumblings of an incoming RX 7600 XT. Specs remain a bit of a mystery, though we can't help but hope for a 12GB Navi 32-based variant. The existing RX 7600 already uses a maxed out Navi 33 configuration, so higher clocks would be the only option if AMD goes that route. Again, we anticipate cards arriving in January, around the CES timeframe. Intel's Arc Alchemist GPUs rate more as previous generation hardware, as they're manufactured on TSMC N6 and compete more directly against the RTX 3060 and RX 6700 10GB instead of newer parts. However, Arc A750 priced at under $200 (we've seen it sell for as little as $179) remains a very competitive option, if you don't mind the occasional driver snafus and higher power use. Note: We're showing current online prices alongside the official launch MSRPs in the above table, with the GPUs sorted by performance. Retail prices have fluctuated quite a bit over the course of a month; the table lists the best we could find at the time of writing.Our list now consists mostly of current generation cards, with only a single previous generation part still hanging around (RX 6700 XT) — unless you want to classify Arc as previous gen. Those older parts are near the bottom of the performance list, though they can still offer a good value if you're not after maximum performance or efficiency.The performance ranking (above) incorporates 15 games from our updated test suite, with both rasterization and ray tracing performance included. While we previously had DXR (DirectX Raytracing) as a separate column, we feel there are enough RT-enabled games now to aggregate the scores. Note that we are not including upscaling results in the table, which would generally skew things more in favor of Nvidia GPUs, depending on the selection of games, but the DXR games at least partially account for that.The above table is sorted by performance, which is why the RTX 4090 sits at the top, and why the RTX 4070 edges past the 7800 XT. Our subjective rankings below factor in price, power, and features colored by our own opinions. Others may offer a slightly different take, but all of the cards on this list are worthy of your consideration. Best Graphics Cards for Gaming 2024 1. GeForce RTX 4090 Fastest Graphics Card, Great for Creators, AI, and Autocad - Microstation Professionals Specifications GPU: Ada AD102 GPU Cores: 16384 Boost Clock: 2,520 MHz Video RAM: 24GB GDDR6X 21 Gbps TGP: 450 watts Reasons to buy +The fastest GPU, period +Excellent 4K and maybe even 8K gaming +Powerful ray tracing hardware +DLSS and now DLSS 3 +24GB is great for content creation workloads Reasons to avoid -Extreme price and power requirements -Needs a fast CPU and large PSU -Frame Generation is a bit gimmicky For some, the best graphics card is the fastest card, pricing be damned. Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4090 caters to precisely this category of user. It was also the debut of Nvidia's Ada Lovelace architecture, and will represent the most potent card Nvidia has to offer, possibly until 2025 when the next generation GPUs are rumored to arrive.Note also that pricing of the RTX 4090 has become quite extreme, with most cards now selling above $2,000 thanks to the China RTX 4090 export restrictions. If you don't already have a 4090, you're probably best off giving it a pass now.The RTX 4090 offers a larger gap between itself and the next closest Nvidia GPU. Across our suite of gaming benchmarks, it's 35% faster overall than the RTX 4080. It's also 51% faster than AMD's top performing RX 7900 XTX — though it also costs about 60% more.Let's be clear about something: You really need a high refresh rate 4K monitor to get the most out of the RTX 4090. At 1440p its advantage over a 4080 shrinks to 23%, and it's only 13% at 1080p — and that includes some demanding DXR games. The lead over the RX 7900 XTX also falls to only 24% at 1080p. Not only do you need a high resolution, high refresh rate monitor, but you'll also want the fastest CPU possible to get the most out of the 4090.It's not just gaming performance, either. In professional content creation workloads like Blender, Octane, and V-Ray, the RTX 4090 is up to 45% faster than the RTX 4080. And with Blender, it's over three times faster than the RX 7900 XTX. Don't even get us started on artificial intelligence tasks. In Stable Diffusion testing, the RTX 4090 is around four times faster than the 7900 XTX for 512x512 images, and nearly seven times faster for 768x768 images.There are numerous other AI workloads that currently only run on Nvidia GPUs. In short, Nvidia knows a thing or two about content creation applications. The only potential problem is that it uses drivers to lock improved performance in some apps (like some of those in SPEC viewperf) to its true professional cards, i.e. the RTX 6000 48GB.AMD's RDNA 3 response to Ada Lovelace might be a better value, at least if you're only looking at rasterization games, but for raw performance the RTX 4090 reigns as the current champion. Just keep in mind that you may also need a CPU and power supply upgrade to get the most out of the 4090. We'd also suggest waiting until next month to see if we get a new halo part, or if the rumored RTX 4080 Super might be a more cost effective solution. 2. Radeon RX 7900 XTX AMD's Fastest GPU, Great for Rasterization Specifications GPU: Navi 31 GPU Cores: 6144 Boost Clock: 2500 MHz Video RAM: 24GB GDDR6 20 Gbps TBP: 355 watts Reasons to buy +Great overall performance +Lots of VRAM and cache +Great for non-RT workloads +Good SPECviewperf results Reasons to avoid $1,000 starting price Much slower RT performance Weaker in AI / deep learning workloads The Red Team King is dead; long live the Red Team King! AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XTX rates as the fastest graphics card from AMD, and lands near the top of the charts — with a generational price bump to match. Officially priced at $999, the least expensive models now start at around $950, and supply has basically caught up to demand. There's good reason for the demand, as the 7900 XTX comes packing AMD's latest RDNA 3 architecture.That gives the 7900 XTX a lot more potential compute, and you get 33% more memory and bandwidth as well. Compared to the RX 6950 XT, on average the new GPU is 40% faster at 4K, though that shrinks to 30% at 1440p and just 24% at 1080p. It also delivers that performance boost without dramatically increasing power use or graphics card size.AMD remains a potent solution for anyone that doesn't care as much about ray tracing — and when you see the massive hit to performance for often relatively mild gains in image fidelity, we can understand why many feel that way. Still, the number of games with RT support continues to grow, and most of those also support Nvidia's DLSS technology, something AMD hasn't fully countered even if FSR2 can at times come close. If you want the best DXR/RT experience right now, Nvidia still wins hands down.AMD's GPUs can also be used for professional and content creation tasks, but here things get a bit hit and miss. Certain apps in the SPECviewperf suite run great on AMD hardware, others come up short. However, if you want to do AI or deep learning research, there's no question Nvidia's cards are a far better pick. For this generation, the RX 7900 XTX is AMD's fastest option, and it definitely packs a punch. If you're willing to step down to the 7900 XT, that's also worth considering (see below), as it tends to be priced better now. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX review 3. GeForce RTX 4070 A Balanced High-End Nvidia GPU Specifications GPU: AD104 GPU Cores: 5888 Boost Clock: 2,475 MHz Video RAM: 12GB GDDR6X 21 Gbps TGP: 200 watts Today's Best Deals View at Amazon View at mwave View at Best Deal 4 U Reasons to buy Excellent efficiency and good performance Good for 1440p gaming DLSS, DLSS 3, and DXR features Reasons to avoid Generational price hike Frame Generation marketing 12GB is the minimum we'd want with a $400+ GPU Nvidia's RTX 4070 didn't blow us away with extreme performance or value... but it's generally equal to the previous generation RTX 3080, comes with the latest Ada Lovelace architecture and features, and costs $100 less (though note that the RTX 3070 and above are effectively discontinued now). Also, the RTX 4070 costs $200 less than the next step up, the RTX 4070 Ti: 85% of the performance for 75% of the price.Nvidia's not going to win any awards for offering a great value, as it charges the absolute maximum it feels it can get away with. At the same time, it looks better than a lot of other possibilities. In our overall performance rankings, it's basically tied with AMD's new RX 7800 XT — slightly slower in rasterization, faster in ray tracing, plus it has DLSS support — but the real advantage is in power requirements. With a 200W TGP, it uses about 60W less power than the reference RX 7800 XT.Nvidia is always keen to point out how much faster the RTX 40-series is, once you enable DLSS 3 Frame Generation. As we've said before, these generated frames aren't the same as "real" frames and increase input latency. It's not that DLSS 3 is bad, but we prefer to compare non-enhanced performance, and in terms of feel we'd say DLSS 3 improves the experience over the baseline by 10–20 percent, not the 50–100 percent you'll see in Nvidia's performance charts.The RTX 4070 has been pretty much available at MSRP since it launched, which again speaks to the lack of demand for "upper mainstream" parts that carry high-end pricing. Factory overclocked cards with extra RGB cost the usual $20–$50 extra. We still can't help but feel the cards are a bit overpriced, but there's no question the RTX 4070 easily beats the previous generation RTX 3070 Ti in performance at the same $599 price point — it's about 23% faster overall. 4. GeForce RTX 4060 The Best Budget Nvidia Option Specifications GPU: Ada AD107 GPU Cores: 3072 Boost Clock: 2,460 MHz Video RAM: 8GB GDDR6 17 Gbps TGP: 115 watts Reasons to buy +Great 1080p performance +Very efficient and quiet +Faster and cheaper than RTX 3060 Reasons to avoid -Only 8GB of VRAM -128-bit memory interface It seems more like an RTX 4050 With the launch of the RTX 4060, Nvidia has just about wrapped up this generation of desktop graphics cards based on the Ada Lovelace architecture. There's still potentially a desktop 4050 in the works, as well as refresh parts if needed (i.e. we could see a new variant of the RTX 20-series 'Super' models), but for now this is as low as Nvidia goes with the RTX 40-series.There are certainly drawbacks. Nvidia opted to cut down the memory interface to just 128 bits, which in turn limits the memory capacity options. Nvidia could do a 16GB card if it really wanted, but 8GB is the standard configuration and we don't expect anything else — only the 4060 Ti 16GB has the doubled VRAM option, and we weren't particularly impressed by that card. The 4060-class cards also have an x8 PCIe interface, though in practice that shouldn't matter.The good news is that, as promised, performance is faster than the previous generation RTX 3060, by about 20% at 1080p and 1440p. There are edge cases in some games (meaning, 4K at max settings) where the 12GB on the 3060 can pull ahead, but performance is already well below the acceptable level at that point. As an example, Borderlands 3 ran at 26.5 fps on the 4060 versus 28.9 fps on the 3060 at 4K Badass settings; neither is a great experience, even though the 3060 is technically faster.There are other benefits, of course: You get all the latest Ada features, including DLSS 3 support. Also, the power draw is just 115W for the reference model, and typically won't exceed 125W on overclocked cards (like the Asus Dual OC that we used for testing). Oh, and most RTX 4060 cards won't bother with the questionable 16-pin power connector and adapter shenanigans.AMD's closest alternative is the previous generation RX 6700 XT. You get the usual results: higher rasterization performance from AMD, worse ray tracing performance, and higher power requirements — about 100W more in this case. The new RX 7700 XT meanwhile kicks pricing into a different category, so it's not really competing with the 4060 either. Depending on the games you play, the extra VRAM can put AMD ahead by up to 40% (Borderlands 3), though overall it's only 15% faster at 1440p ultra in rasterization games, and the 4060 is 25% faster in our ray tracing test suite.An alternative view is that this is an upgraded RTX 3050, with the same 115W TGP and 60% better performance. Too bad it costs $50 extra, though the 3050 was mostly priced at $300 and above until the past few months. 5. Radeon RX 7800 XT AMD's Latest 'Upper Mainstream' Offering Specifications GPU: RDNA 3 Navi 32 GPU Cores: 3840 Boost Clock: 2,430 MHz Video RAM: 16GB GDDR6 19.5 Gbps TBP: 263 watts Reasons to buy Plenty of VRAM and 256-bit interface Great for 1440p and 1080p Strong in rasterization testing More efficient than RDNA 2, plus AV1 and DP2.1 Reasons to avoid Only slightly faster than RX 6800 XT Still lacking in DXR and AI performance Somewhat noisy reference design AMD has mostly completed it's new RDNA 3 GPU lineup with the release of Navi 32 and the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT. Of the two cards, the 7800 XT is the clearly superior option: It's up to 20% faster and 'only' costs 11% more. Which isn't to say it's a win in every possible way, as it's also only 5% faster than the existing RX 6800 XT and inherits the same $500 going rate of that card. Still, it does have a few advantages.Performance in general may only be slightly improved, but the 7800 XT uses about 45W less power than the 6800 XT in our testing. Alternatively, it provides basically the same performance as the 6900 XT, while using less power and at a lower online price. It also adds the AV1 encoding support and DP2.1 video output, plus improved compute and AI capabilities — it's about 45% faster than the 6800 XT in Stable Diffusion, for example.Given Navi 22 powered the RX 6700-class GPUs, it would have made more sense to have Navi 32 likewise power the RX 7700-class GPUs. In that case, the generational upgrade from the 6700 XT would have been excellent, as the RX 7800 XT is about 60% faster. But then we'd also be talking about a new $499 MSRP device replacing a former $479 MSRP card, which is now selling for around $320. The remaining inventory and bang for the buck remains a sticking point for AMD GPUs, in other words.Compared to the Nvidia competition, the RX 7800 XT greatly outperforms the RTX 4060 Ti, leading by 26% overall at 1440p, and 40% when confining the testing to rasterization games. However, the RTX 4060 Ti costs $100 less (and the 16GB model doesn't really help in a meaningful way). The RTX 4070 meanwhile offers 6% more performance at 1440p, and 27% higher ray tracing performance (rasterization performance is basically tied), while costing $100 extra. So there's no truly direct competition, and AMD carves out a niche at the $500 mark.Ultimately, it's the usual story from AMD: Better rasterization performance, worse ray tracing, AI, and upscaling results, at a generally competitive price. If the price drops another $50, though, this becomes a far more interesting option. 5. Radeon RX 7800 XT AMD's Latest 'Upper Mainstream' Offering Specifications GPU: RDNA 3 Navi 32 GPU Cores: 3840 Boost Clock: 2,430 MHz Video RAM: 16GB GDDR6 19.5 Gbps TBP: 263 watts Reasons to buy Plenty of VRAM and 256-bit interface Great for 1440p and 1080p Strong in rasterization testing More efficient than RDNA 2, plus AV1 and DP2.1 Reasons to avoid Only slightly faster than RX 6800 XT Still lacking in DXR and AI performance Somewhat noisy reference design AMD has mostly completed it's new RDNA 3 GPU lineup with the release of Navi 32 and the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT. Of the two cards, the 7800 XT is the clearly superior option: It's up to 20% faster and 'only' costs 11% more. Which isn't to say it's a win in every possible way, as it's also only 5% faster than the existing RX 6800 XT and inherits the same $500 going rate of that card. Still, it does have a few advantages.Performance in general may only be slightly improved, but the 7800 XT uses about 45W less power than the 6800 XT in our testing. Alternatively, it provides basically the same performance as the 6900 XT, while using less power and at a lower online price. It also adds the AV1 encoding support and DP2.1 video output, plus improved compute and AI capabilities — it's about 45% faster than the 6800 XT in Stable Diffusion, for example.Given Navi 22 powered the RX 6700-class GPUs, it would have made more sense to have Navi 32 likewise power the RX 7700-class GPUs. In that case, the generational upgrade from the 6700 XT would have been excellent, as the RX 7800 XT is about 60% faster. But then we'd also be talking about a new $499 MSRP device replacing a former $479 MSRP card, which is now selling for around $320. The remaining inventory and bang for the buck remains a sticking point for AMD GPUs, in other words.Compared to the Nvidia competition, the RX 7800 XT greatly outperforms the RTX 4060 Ti, leading by 26% overall at 1440p, and 40% when confining the testing to rasterization games. However, the RTX 4060 Ti costs $100 less (and the 16GB model doesn't really help in a meaningful way). The RTX 4070 meanwhile offers 6% more performance at 1440p, and 27% higher ray tracing performance (rasterization performance is basically tied), while costing $100 extra. So there's no truly direct competition, and AMD carves out a niche at the $500 mark.Ultimately, it's the usual story from AMD: Better rasterization performance, worse ray tracing, AI, and upscaling results, at a generally competitive price. If the price drops another $50, though, this becomes a far more interesting option. 7. Radeon RX 6700 XT Great Performance at a Good Price Specifications GPU: Navi 22 GPU Cores: 2560 Boost Clock: 2581 MHz Video RAM: 12GB GDDR6 16 Gbps TBP: 230 watts View at Amazon Reasons to buy Great 1080p and 1440p performance Plenty of VRAM Good price to performance ratio Reasons to avoid Weaker RT performance FSR2 can't defeat DLSS Future RDNA 3 models AMD's previous generation midrange/high-end offering follows the usual path, trimming down the top model Navi 21 GPU to create a smaller die that can sell at lower prices. That's AMD's Navi 22 and the RX 6700 XT. The RX 6750 XT is the same GPU, with slightly higher clock speeds, memory speeds, and power consumption — about 5% faster overall. Give some thought to the RX 6700 10GB as well, which offers less performance but also costs less (assuming you can still find one in stock).In terms of pricing and performance, the RX 6700 XT still fills the pricing gap between the new RX 7600 and the RX 7700 XT. It's about $70 more than the former and $120 less than the latter, and it doesn't look like AMD has any plans for a replacement (i.e. an RX 7700 non-XT). The RX 6700 XT trades blows with the new RTX 4060, with the usual better rasterization but worse ray tracing performance. Whether that matters is up to the individual, but AMD also provides 12GB VRAM while Nvidia's new card consumes about 90W less power.This is the lone remaining holdout for the previous generation, and it's tough to imaging it going away any time soon. Perhaps the RX 7700 XT will come down in price, but while inventory of the 6700-class remains, those would simply drop in response. The 6700 XT still offers a relatively potent upgrade over the RX 7600, outperforming the new chip by 28% at 1440p. Maybe we eventually get an RX 7700 non-XT, but that seems unlikely given AMD's current product stack. 8. Intel Arc A750 Team Blue's Budget-Friendly Option Specifications GPU: ACM-G10 GPU Cores: 3584 Boost Clock: 2,400 MHz Video RAM: 8GB GDDR6 16 Gbps TDP: 225 watts Today's Best Deals Reasons to buy Great value at current prices Excellent video codec support Good overall performance Reasons to avoid Needs modern PC with ReBAR support Not particularly efficient Driver issues still occur Testing the Intel Arc A750 was a bit like dealing with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. At times, performance looked excellent, sometimes surpassing the GeForce RTX 3060. Other times, Arc came up far short of expectations, trailing the RTX 3050. The drivers continued to improve, however, and with prices now starting at less than $200, this represents an excellent value — just note that some of the cost savings will ultimately show up in your electrical bill, as it's not as efficient as the competition.There are some compromises, like the 8GB of VRAM — the A770 Limited Edition doubles that to 16GB, but also costs around $100 extra. Intel's A750 also has to go up against AMD's RX 7600, which is the primary competition at this price (even if AMD's prices have recently increased). Depending on the game, performance may end up favoring one or the other, though Intel now holds the overall edge by a scant 2% at 1080p ultra. Like Nvidia GPUs, ray tracing games tend to favor Intel, while rasterization games are more in the AMD camp.Intel was the first company to deliver hardware accelerated AV1 encoding and decoding support, and QuickSync continues to deliver an excellent blend of encoding performance and quality. There's also XeSS, basically a direct competitor to Nvidia's DLSS, except it uses Arc's Matrix cores when present, and can even fall back into DP4a mode for non-Arc GPUs. But DLSS 2 still comes out on top, and it's in far more games. The Arc A750 isn't a knockout blow, by any stretch, but it's also nice to have a third player in the GPU arena. The A750 competes with the RTX 3060 and leaves us looking forward to Intel's future Arc Battlemage GPUs, even if they're probably a year out. You should also check out the Arc A770 16GB, if you're willing to give Intel a chance, though it's a steep upsell these days. 10. Nvidia RTX 4080 The Second Fastest GPU, Still Very Expensive Specifications GPU: AD103 GPU Cores: 9728 Boost Clock: 2,505 MHz Video RAM: 16GB GDDR6 22.4 Gbps TGP: 320 watts Reasons to buy Good efficiency and architecture Second fastest GPU overall Handles 4K ultra, with DLSS 3 Reasons to avoid Largish step down from RTX 4090 Way more expensive than RTX 3080 Only a 256-bit memory interface The RTX 4080 represents everything people dislike about Nvidia's 40-series lineup. It's faster than every previous generation RTX 30-series part, sure, outperforming the RTX 3090 Ti by up to 20%. But the name suggests it's the replacement for the RTX 3080, a card that launched at $699. Nvidia went from $699 for an xx80-class GPU to $1,199 in one generation! Up to 50% higher performance, but also for 71% more money.Still, the RTX 4080 warrants a look for some people, as it costs nearly $1,000 less than the top RTX 4090 and still offers all the same features. Just with a bit less performance and VRAM. Overall, it's up to 25% slower than the 4090, for a bit more than half the price, though looking at MSRPs it's only supposed to be 31% less money. That's not the usual case of diminishing returns we see at the top of the GPU hierarchy, where the previous RTX 3090 was only 20% faster than the 3080 but cost over twice as much. People would give the 4080 a lot more love if it was priced under $1,000.AMD's competition is also a factor to consider. The RX 7900 XTX matches the RTX 4080 in rasterization performance, for about $150 less. But the 7900 XT doesn't give you DLSS 2, 3, or 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction. And the 4080 is already over 30% faster than the 7900 XTX in ray tracing without those features. And for AI, even in Stable Diffusion where there's good support for both AMD and Nvidia hardware, the 4080 is about triple the performance of the 7900 XTX. The biggest problem is that graphics cards costing over $1,000 have a very limited audience. Basically, they're for gamers with very deep pockets. If you're building an extreme gaming PC, you might be looking at $3,000 or more for all of the parts, including an RTX 4080. At that point, why not just fork over the extra $500 to upgrade to an RTX 4090 instead? The cynics among us would point out that this is probably precisely what Nvidia would like you to do. After all, being second fastest isn't really worth major bragging rights. 11. Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti Best Graphics Cards for Gaming in 2024 Mainstream Nvidia Ada for $400 Specifications GPU: AD106 GPU Cores: 4352 Boost Clock: 2,535 MHz Video RAM: 8GB GDDR6 18 Gbps TGP: 160 watts Reasons to buy Great efficiency Latest Nvidia architecture Generally faster than 3060 Ti Reasons to avoid 8GB and 128-bit bus for $399? Less VRAM than RTX 3060 DLSS 3 is no magic bullet What is this, 2016? A brand-new, $399 graphics card launching with only 8GB of memory? We thought we had left that era in the past after the RTX 3060 gave us 12GB, but Nvidia seems more intent on cost-cutting and market segmentation these days. But the RTX 4060 Ti does technically beat the previous generation RTX 3060 Ti, by 10–15 percent overall in our testing. There are plenty of reasons to waffle on this one. The larger L2 cache does mostly overcome the limited bandwidth from the 128-bit interface, but cache hit rates go down as resolution increases, meaning 1440p and especially 4K can be problematic. At least the price is the same as the outgoing RTX 3060 Ti, and you do get some new features. Also, we wouldn't bother with the 4060 Ti 16GB variant, unless you really just need more VRAM capacity — it doesn't really help except at 4K ultra, at which point the performance still tends to be poor. The 16GB card now only has a $50 premium, however, so there are niche use cases like AI LLMs where it may be useful. If you were previously looking at the RTX 3060 Ti, and you don't want to consider an AMD or Intel alternative, this was the least expensive Ada Lovelace / RTX 40-series GPU — but the RTX 4060 above has now taken over that title. The RTX 4060 also has fewer GPU cores and less L2 cache size, so it very much ends up as a GPU that warrants its $299 price tag.Looking at performance, the 4060 Ti generally manages 1440p ultra at 60 fps in rasterization games, but for ray tracing you'll want to stick with 1080p — or use DLSS. Frame Generation is heavily used in Nvidia's marketing materials, and it can provide a significant bump to your fps. However, it's more of a frame smoothing technique as it interpolates between two frames and doesn't apply any new user input to the generated frame.Besides that, you get better ray tracing hardware and AV1 encoding support. Nvidia's new mainstream GPU is also about 35% faster than AMD's new RX 7600 in our rasterization tests, for about 50% more money. Factor in ray tracing and it's more like a 50% increase in performance for 50% more money. That's okay, but then the RX 7600 isn't an awesome new offering either. There's a reason this ranks down near the bottom of our list: It's definitely serviceable, but a price cut would go a long way toward sweetening the deal. Nerdcore Graphics Cards Performance Results Our updated test suite of games consists of 15 titles. The data in the following charts is from testing conducted during the past several months. Only the fastest cards are tested at 1440p and 4K, but we do our best to test everything at 1080p medium and ultra.For each resolution, the first chart shows the geometric mean (i.e. equal weighting) for all 15 games. The second chart shows performance in the nine rasterization games, and the third chart focuses in on ray tracing performance in six games. Then we'll have the 15 individual game charts, for those who like to see all the data.AMD's FSR has now been out for about two years now, with FSR 2.0 now having surpassed the year mark. Nvidia's DLSS 2 has been around since mid-2019, while Intel's XeSS formally launched in October 2023. Twelve of the games in our test suite support DLSS 2, five more support DLSS 3, five now support FSR2, and four support XeSS. However, we're running all of the benchmarks at native resolution for these tests. We have a separate article looking at FSR and DLSS, and the bottom line is that DLSS and XeSS improve performance with less compromise to image quality, but FSR2 works on any GPU. The charts below contain nearly all of the current RTX 40/30-series, RX 7000/6000-series, and Intel's Arc A-series graphics cards. Our GPU benchmarks hierarchy contains additional results for those who are interested, along with performance testing from our 2020-2021 suite running on a Core i9-9900K. The charts are color coded with AMD in red, Nvidia in blue, and Intel in gray to make it easier to see what's going on.The following charts are up to date as of January 10, 2024. Nearly all current generation and previous generation GPUs are included in nerdcore graphics cards reviews. Power, Clocks, and Temperatures Author Nerdcore Computers We have sourced out information from NVIDIA an GEFORCE MSI to conclude our own review on what we think the best video cards will be in 2024..
- Dell Inspiron 5481 Laptop I3-8145U 2.1GHz 16GB RAM 1Tb SSD WIN11 Touch
About this item 14.0-inch HD (1366 x 768) LED-Backlit Touch Display, Intel UHD Graphics 620 8th Generation Intel Core i3-8145U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.9 GHz) 1TB Solid State Drive, 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 2666MHz SD card | USB 3.1 Gen 1 | Security cable slot | Power | HDMI 1.4b | USB 3.1 Gen 1 | USB 3.1 Gen 1 | Universal audio jack Windows 11 Home 64-bit English, 0.78" thin, Weight: 3.88lb (1.76kg) Shipping any were in Australia Dell Inspiron 5481 Laptop I3-8145U 2.1GHz 16GB RAM 1Tb SSD WIN11 TouchDell Inspiron 5481 Laptop I3-8145U 2.1GHz 16GB RAM 1Tb SSD WIN11 Touch Dell Inspiron 5481 Laptop I3-8145U 2.1GHz 16GB RAM 1Tb SSD WIN11 Touch Other Technical Details 12 Months Warranty New battery installed Key benefits - Excellent for work or school or business the touch feature an the large 14 inch FHD screen is nice to work with. The speed of the 8th gen core i3 is fast enough to run most applications an always will perform on the larger files. Long battery life means all day use. With connectivity like blue tooth an wireless you can connect to any hot spot an expect to stream videos an music with ease. Buy now click here $950.00
- Common online security risks and advice on what you can do to protect yourself.
Common online security risks and advice on what you can do to protect yourself.Threats Business email compromise Protect your business and employees from phishing attacks designed to steal your money, goods or information. Common online security risks and advice on what you can do to protect yourself. Common online security risks and advice on what you can do to protect yourself. What is a data breach? Hacking Identity theft Small Business Cyber Security Guide All information provided has been reused only for distribution of information to educate our customers an the Australian Public of the current scams. This information is vital for you to read which could prevent your business being attacked by a cyber attacks.
- Is 14th gen Intel good?
Intel’s 14th Gen provides great performance in creative apps, but it’s not enough to beat AMD’s gaming chops As the 14900K is just a refresh, it means you don’t need to worry about a new motherboard if you’ve already got a 12900K or 13900K. Intel is still using its LGA 1700 socket here, and existing Z690 and Z790 motherboards fully support the latest 14th Gen chips. You’ll need to install a BIOS update on the motherboard, but that’s an easy process on most modern boards. There’s no new motherboards or chipsets this year, but motherboard makers have been refreshing some of their Z790 offerings to bundle in the Wi-Fi 7 support that the Core i9-14900K provides. For my testing, I installed the chip on MSI’s MAG Z790 Carbon WiFi. It has everything you need to take advantage of the 14900K, including four M.2 slots that all support PCIe Gen 4 speeds and a single M.2 slot for PCIe Gen 5 (or below). The 14900K is still built on Intel’s 7 process and its x86 performance hybrid architecture. That means there are performance cores (P-cores) and efficiency cores (E-cores) that split workloads using Intel’s Thread Director, an embedded microcontroller inside the CPU that monitors threads and ensures they’re running on the correct cores. The core counts haven’t changed this year, but Intel is now supporting DDR5 5600 and DDR4 3200 memory speeds. Unlike AMD and its switch to AM5, Intel continues to maintain DDR4 compatibility for motherboard makers that ship with DDR4 support instead of DDR5. I have tested a variety of workloads, synthetic benchmarks, and games across both Intel’s Core i9-14900K, comparing it against the previous generation chips and AMD’s competitors. All tests were run on the latest Windows 11 updates with VBS security off, Resizable BAR enabled, and MSI’s game boost disabled. All games were tested at 1080p with high or ultra settings. Intel’s new Core i9-14900K comfortably beats AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X and 7950X3D in every creator task that I tested. The 13900K from last year was already beating AMD in most of these creator tasks anyway, but the 14900K extends that lead slightly. I say slightly because all of the improvements are under 5 percent here, and even the gaming gains are only slight, too. Geekbench 5 single-thread and Cinebench 2024 single-thread performance both show the 14900K beating the 13900K by 4 percent, with the Pugetbench Premiere Pro and Photoshop tests are up just 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively. If you’re looking for the best chip for creator tasks, then the 14900K delivers here, but there’s little reason to upgrade from a 13th Gen model. If you’re on a 12th Gen chip, then you’ll get the huge performance benefits of moving to a 13th Gen one and a little bit on top with the 14th Gen, but if you can find a 13900K for less than the cost of the 14th Gen, there’s little reason to spend more. We also perform a standard video test at The Verge, where we export a five-minute 4K video using Adobe Premiere Pro. I used the latest Premiere Pro 2023 release for this alongside the RTX 4090, and it exported in two minutes and 31 seconds. That’s just a few seconds of improvement over the two minutes and 39 seconds that I recorded when I tested the 13900K last year, further reflecting the small performance increase you’re getting with the flagship 14th Gen chip. I used Nvidia’s RTX 4090 for game testing across all Intel and AMD chips. Surprisingly, the 14900K lost out to AMD’s 7800X3D in every single gaming test that I ran. We saw the same with the 13900K losing every gaming benchmark earlier this year, and Intel’s 14900K still doesn’t answer the superior performance that AMD’s 3D V-Cache delivers. The gap between the 14900K and the 7800X3D is around 4 percent in most games, with some managing to perform surprisingly well on the 7800X3D thanks to the 3D V-Cache boosts. Much like the creator benchmarks, the performance boost that the 14900K delivers over the 13900K is minimal. In most games, it’s less than 5 percent better, with the exception of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, where the 14900K manages to deliver scores that are far more competitive with the 7800X3D. While there’s a small performance gain generation over generation with the 14900K, there’s no efficiency or thermal gains. The 14900K still runs just as hot and power-hungry as the 13900K. During a Cinebench R23 multithread benchmark, I recorded temperatures of 105C. That’s the same temperature that I saw on the 13900K and 2C more than the standard 13900K. AMD’s 7950X managed to reach 96C during the same test, with the 7900X maxing out at 92C during the Cinebench test. The 7950X3D managed to max out at 88C during the same test. While the 14900K still beats the 7950X3D by nearly 9 percent during this Cinebench R23 multithread test, the fact AMD manages to come close at nearly 20C cooler shows just how much Intel is pushing the limits here. Those limits extend to power usage, too. In the same Cinebench test, the 14900K maxes out at 324 watts, but the 7950X3D only hits 147 watts. That’s a huge difference in power draw, with Intel drawing 120 percent more power for a nearly 9 percent performance improvement. And when you look at the gaming side of things, the 7800X3D and 7950X3D simply run a lot cooler most of the time and use far less energy than the 14900K. It’s hard to recommend the 14900K this year unless you really want the best creator performance out there and you don’t care about your energy bills or the sheer heat it produces. AMD’s 7800X3D is simply a better choice for gaming, particularly as it’s easy to find for under $400 compared to the $589 (and likely above) pricing for the 14900K. Intel still needs an answer to AMD’s 3D V-Cache, and it’s not clear when that’s going to arrive. Rumors point to an Intel Arrow Lake desktop CPU launch next year, with a socket swap to LGA 1851. The 14th Gen feels like the end of LGA 1700 and, with it, a whimper of performance improvements. Meanwhile, Intel is losing out on the gaming side of performance but still dominating for creative tasks. That will make the choice difficult for those who need both gaming and creative app performance. But for those just looking to game, the choice is obvious.
- Samsung U32J590UQE 31.5" 4K LCD Monitor
Samsung U32J590UQE 31.5" 4K LCD Monitor Description Samsung U32J590UQE 31.5" 4K LCD Monitor - 16:9 - Dark Blue Gray - 812.80 mm Class - Vertical Alignment (VA) - 3840 x 2160 - 1.07 Billion Colors - FreeSync - 270 cd/m² - 4 ms - 60 Hz Refresh Rate - HDMI - DisplayPort Widescreen UHD With 4x the pixels of Full HD, the 31.5" UJ59 delivers more screen space and amazingly life-like UHD images. That means you can view documents and webpages with less scrolling, work more comfortably with multiple windows and toolbars, and enjoy photos, videos and games in stunning 4K quality. A billion colour shades Supporting a billion shades of colour, the UJ59 delivers incredibly vivid and realistic images. Its accuracy means colours appear more natural and true to life, making the UJ59 useful for photo, video and graphics applications Widescreen 4K Gaming Discover 4K gaming in true widescreen on the 31.5" UJ59 monitor. With 8.3 million pixels supporting a wider range of colours and resolving every image with simply astonishing clarity, 4K gaming is a truly thrilling and immersive experience. Smooth Gameplay AMD FreeSync is designed to synchronise the refresh rate of your graphics card and monitor to reduce image tear and stutter. And Low Input Lag is designed to help minimize the delay between mouse, keyboard, or joystick input and onscreen response for a smooth gaming experience. Game Mode Game Mode is designed to optimise screen contrast. By selectively boosting contrast in scenes, Game Mode reveals detail in dark areas to let you spot your enemies fast. Superb upscaling Samsung's UHD upscaling technology includes signal analysis and detail enhancement that converts SD, HD and Full HD content such that it can be used on this UHD monitor Slim bezels Framed by slim screen bezels and finished in stylish matte black, the UJ59 sits elegantly on any desktop. And its Y-shaped stand provides a firm footing and a refined metallic touch. Features 16:9 widescreen resolution perfect for watching movies, playing video games and getting on with office work DisplayPort interface that transmits both audio and video signals through a single connection to deliver versatile performance Features HDMI input to get connected with the top of the line PCs, Blu-ray players, and cutting edge gaming consoles HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) offers fantastic sound/video quality and single-cable comfort HDMI interface allows you to connect to a variety of HD devices including gaming consoles, Blu-ray players, laptop PCs, digital cameras and many others for the ultimate true high-definition display Over half a million pixels than UHD (3840x2160) and four times than Full HD makes you view even the finest details clearly to carry out intricate work for higher quality output The 4K screen mode provides crisp images with more than 8 million pixels Freesync technology ensures that the refresh rates between your graphics card and monitor are synchronized to reduce video distortion Put an end to choppy gameplay and broken frames with fluid, artefact-free performance at virtually any framerate with FreeSync technology VESA mount compatibility allows you to mount the display on a wall or with a stand depending on your specific needs 270 cd/m² brightness gives an exceptional visible display for clear and consistent on-screen pictures Furnishes captivating visuals with 270 cd/m² brightness levels 4 ms GTG response time diminishes ghosting, blurring, and streaking in fast-moving games and movies Specifications : Audio Video Technical Information General Information Interfaces/Ports Physical Characteristics Buy it now 700.00
- MSI Geforce Gaming 4060 RTX Gaming Graphics Card
Model Name Graphics Processing Unit Interface Core Clocks CUDA® CORES Memory Speed Memory Memory Bus Output HDCP Support Power consumption Power connectors Recommended PSU Card Dimension (mm) Weight (Card / Package) DirectX Version Support OpenGL Version Support Maximum Displays G-SYNC® technology Digital Maximum Resolution GeForce RTX™ 4060 GAMING X 8G NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4060 PCI Express® Gen 4 x 8 Extreme Performance: 2610MHz (MSI Center) MSI Geforce Gaming 4060 RTX Gaming Graphics Card Boost: 2595 MHz 3072 Units 17 Gbps 8GB GDDR6 128-bit DisplayPort x 3 (v1.4a) HDMI™ x 1 (Supports 4K@120Hz HDR and 8K@60Hz HDR and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) as specified in HDMI™ 2.1a) Y 115 W 8-pin x 1 550 W 247 x 130 x 41 mm 587 g / 1000 g 12 Ultimate 4.6 4 Y 7680 x 4320 BUY IT NOW $760.00
- Panasonic Fz-G1 Mk4 Toughpad on sale
Purchase this Panasonic toughpad for your business in 2024 Panasonic Fz-g1 Mk4 - Buy this product now core i5 - 6400u 2.9ghz 8gb ram 256 gb ssd hard drive storage Wifi + modem GPS - GPRS sim card for mobile internet Webcam front an back extra long battery life double the standard battery screen size is 10 inch Bluetooth Wireless connection long range only 300 hours on the toughpad condition is like new an 12 months return to base warranty provided Total cost is $1800.00 Panasonic Fz-G1 Mk4 Toughpad on sale Buy this product now Click here
- Merry Christmas to all the lovely amazing Families an Friends we have made in 2023.
What a year its been, with so many wonderful memories an exciting jobs we have created an our team has had the pleasure of being part of in 2023. We want to thank everyone, all the families, an close friends we have made along way. We hope your Christmas is a wonderful one an may a prosperous New Year in 2024. Nerdcore Computers services will be running right through the holiday season so if your computer breaks or you just need to talk to us give our team a ring on 1300637326. From our team have a wonderful Holiday Season. Warm Wishes Nick Veloutsos Owner


















![Engaging Performance Review Examples [+ Tips From an NERDCORE Manager]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/673167_3fe26395bd35466e9bd46aaba7d565f9~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_176,h_124,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_3,enc_auto/673167_3fe26395bd35466e9bd46aaba7d565f9~mv2.png)































