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As the UK recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 will be a year of recovery, and local authorities have a crucial role to play in leading this process. However, pressures continue to increase from the government to meet targets on climate change, improve health and social care and ensure that local infrastructure continues to meet increasing demand after the pandemic -- all with restricted financial support.

So how can technology help councils to address and meet these challenges?

If you’re an internet user -- and you clearly are, seeing as how you’re reading this on the internet -- you’ve probably already used WebRTC, but weren't aware of it.

What’s more, you were probably also unaware of WebRTC's leakage issues. Nonetheless, WebRTC is everywhere, as an answer to the age-old question: "How do I teleconference online?"

Creating apps and automating processes without having to write code has a number of benefits that have become even more attractive during the pandemic. So it's no surprise that Gartner estimates 65 percent of all application development by 2024 will be using low-code or no-code tools.

Of course in the modern world anything important -- and quite a few things that aren't -- needs to have a day. So, in order to raise awareness of the benefits of no-code, today has been declared National No-Code Day -- an initiative started by no-code and AI programming platform Zapier.

Meta has announced a temporary change in its hate speech policies, meaning that users in some countries will be allowed to post content that would otherwise have been banned. The change means that users of Facebook and Instagram will be able to promote violence against Russian soldiers, as well as call for the death of President Putin, without fear of censorship.

Posts that include violent speech such as "death to the Russian invaders" are to be permitted in numerous countries, but there is the matter of the context of the invasion of Ukraine to keep in mind. At the same time, the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has surprised many by announcing that it will downrate sites that publish Russian propaganda and disinformation.

Powerful and flexible, Python is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. It's got all the right stuff for the software driving the cutting-edge of the development world -- machine learning, robotics, artificial intelligence, data science, etc. The good news is that it’s also pretty straightforward to learn, with a simplified syntax, natural-language flow, and an amazingly supportive user community.

The latest edition of Python All-in-One For Dummies gives you an inside look at the exciting possibilities offered in the Python world and provides a springboard to launch yourself into wherever you want your coding career to take you.

Enterprises are producing larger and larger amounts of data and as they deploy more IoT, edge and 5G devices the volume is only likely to increase.

This puts more pressure on storage capacity which has the potential to be an inhibiting factor in digital transformation. We spoke to Dr Tong Zhang, co-founder and chief scientist at ScaleFlux, to learn more about the importance of storage to enterprise IT plans and infrastructure.

Zorin OS is one of the best Linux-based operating systems around, thanks to its focus on elegance and simplicity. It offers familiarity to Windows-switchers too. Ultimately, Zorin OS is a solid distribution for both Linux beginners and experts alike.

Today, the first "point" release of Zorin OS 16 becomes available for download. Zorin OS 16.1 comes with security patches plus other goodies, such as the great LibreOffice 7.3 office suite and other updated packages.

When it comes to storage drives, faster is always better, right? Well, yes, but remember, better performance usually comes at a higher price. And so, if you don't need bleeding edge speeds, why should you pay for it?

Despite the prevalence of PCIe 4.0 solid state drives, and the emergence of PCIe 5.0 SSDs, the truth is, most consumers would probably not notice the speed benefits they offer over, say, a PCIe 3.0 SSD. Hell, many would likely see no difference between PCIe and SATA. For those consumers that don't need a PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 SSD, today, Silicon Power unveils a new PCIe 3.0 (Gen3x4) drive. Called "UD80," it actually has very respectable read and write speeds.

The number of malicious web application requests grew 88 percent between 2020 and 2021, with broken access control and injection attacks making up over 75 percent of them.

The latest threat analysis report from Radware shows the most attacked industries were banking and finance, along with SaaS providers, together accounting for more than 28 percent of web application attacks.

Password manager company 1Password is increasing its top bug bounty reward to $1 million, making it the highest bounty in Bugcrowd history and one of the largest rewards in cybersecurity.

Since beginning the bug bounty program in 2017, 1Password has paid out $103,000 to Bugcrowd researchers, averaging $900 per reward. While all detected bugs have been minor, showing no threat to the secrecy of sensitive customer data, 1Password was able to resolve them quickly to reduce the risk of attacks.

Windows 11 began rolling out in October last year, but more than a third of devices currently in use at the average enterprise are not capable of running it according to new research from Riverbed|Aternity.

Analysis of data from millions of employee devices across hundreds of global companies using the Aternity Digital Experience Management platform seeks to better understand the state of Windows 11 readiness.

Are you a fan of USB-C? Yeah, me too. I love that you can insert a USB-C cable into the port without having to worry that it is the wrong orientation. Not to mention, the port is so thin that it allows computers to be thinner than ever before. No longer are manufacturers forced to accommodate the chunky USB-A ports.

If your laptop, tablet, or smartphone charges by USB-C, then I have some interesting news for you. Today, Satechi launches a 30W USB-C PD GaN wall charger and a beautiful braided USB4 cable. The charger is so, so cute and tiny while still offering 30 watts of power. While this wattage isn't ideal for laptops, it should be a great option for a phone or tablet. The aforementioned USB4 cable is USB-C to USB-C and offered in your choice of two lengths.

It is about six months since Microsoft acquired the video editor Clipchamp, and many people hoped that this could signal the return of the much-missed Windows Movie Maker. And this is -- almost -- what is happening.

In the latest preview build of Windows 11, Microsoft has integrated the video editor into the operating system, taking the unfortunate decision to retain the terrible name. Appalling moniker aside, the arrival of Clipchamp is something to be welcomed as it's a great, user-friendly editor that will keep beginners (and beyond) more than happy.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies saw their revenue growth slow by 46 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, according to a study released today by payments infrastructure firm Paddle.

Thanks to increased demand for software tools as businesses accelerated their digital transformations and shifted to remote working amid the pandemic, SaaS businesses’ revenue soared on average by 78 percent in 2020.

In the span of the last 13 days, we have seen a steady, but ever-increasing flow of major companies exiting the Russian market. Big names who have announced they will be pausing business in Russia include Microsoft, Google, and Apple, as well as non-tech entities such GM, Ford, McDonald’s, Starbucks and VW. That’s just scratching the surface.  

Today will be another big jolt to the country’s economy. Or, at the very least, the people’s lifestyle, as WarnerMedia is now exiting Russia.