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I’ve long been a big fan of virtual reality and have been playing more VR games than ever this past year thanks to lockdown and the arrival of the Oculus Quest 2.

The best thing about this VR headset is it’s wireless, so you have the freedom of movement you don’t get with other devices. There’s a good selection of games available to buy and install on the headset too, with personal favorites being Climb 2, Pistol Whip, Superhot VR, and Arizona Sunshine. You can also play games installed on your PC, like Half Life: Alyx, via either a compatible USB-C cable or the recently updated Virtual Desktop app.

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In February 2021, Atlassian Server officially retired and this means organizations can no longer buy new Atlassian (Core) Server licenses (such as Jira, Confluence BitBucket, JSM) as the product has now reached end-of-life (EOL). While customers can still upgrade or downgrade their Server licenses and maintenance, support will continue to be available for the next three years, and Server customers can continue to purchase additional functionality and apps via the Atlassian Marketplace. Atlassian’s ultimate goal is to move customers either to its Atlassian SaaS product or to Atlassian Data Center (allowing customers  to host where they want).

Those organizations unable to move to a cloud environment (SaaS), or those who want to take a slower transition to the cloud, either because of IP issues or because they work in highly regulated industries, should seriously consider a move to Atlassian Data Center. This not only provides high levels of stability, scalability and high availability, it enables IT teams to maintain control, stay abreast of ever-increasing demands and more effectively plan ahead.

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The shift brought about by the pandemic has accelerated many companies’ plans to move to the cloud. But all migrations come with some risk and rushing them through may be storing up problems for the future.

A successful hybrid strategy can help in avoiding these issues. We spoke to Arcserve's backup, DR, and ransomware protection evangelist Sam Roguine to find out about the potential risks of rushed cloud migrations -- like security gaps and missing data -- and how IT leaders can address them.

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New York is the best state in the USA, and no, I don't just say that because I am a resident. Is it wildly expensive to live in many areas of New York? Absolutely. But you get what you pay for, folks -- parks, beaches, entertainment, restaurants, etc. Look, New York is a trendsetter and leader that was able to overcome the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And guess what? New York is now leading the way to a post-COVID normalcy.

You see, Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced Excelsior Pass -- a digital way for New York residents to prove they are either fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative. This will allow businesses to verify a patron's status before allowing them entry. In other words, things like concerts and sporting events will soon be more accessible, and other states need to follow New York's lead ASAP.

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If you love tiny desktop computers as much as I do, you absolutely must check out Minisforum. This manufacturer makes diminutive PCs with both attractive designs and respectable performance. They can typically run both Windows 10 and Linux wonderfully.

As an AMD fan, I am very excited about Minisforum's latest offering. Called "DESKMINI UM340," this miniature desktop computer is powered by a quad-core AMD Ryzen 5 3450U CPU and has Radeon Vega 8 graphics. While it comes with either 8GB or 16GB RAM, it will support up to 64GB of memory. For storage, there are two capacities of NVMe SSDs -- 256GB and 512GB.

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Microsoft has released a new servicing stack update for Windows 10. The KB5001205 update is available for version 1909 of the operating system, and it addresses an issue with the Secure Boot feature.

The company says that the update fixes an issue that prevented another update installing. It also includes quality improvements to the servicing stack to help with the overall update experience in Windows 10.

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Whatever you use your computer for, the taskbar is something you interact with to some extent every day. It's a component that lies at the heart of Windows 10, and Microsoft is finally making a key change that will be welcomed by many users.

With the release of Windows 10 build 21343 the other day, we have already seen some of the visual changes Microsoft is bringing to Explorer. But in Windows 10 21H2, the company is also freeing the taskbar from the explorer.exe process into its own library. It's a move that means the Sun Valley update for Windows 10 should help to improve stability and eliminate problems with Explorer resulting in taskbar crashes, as is so often the case currently.

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The more reliant businesses become on technology the more risk they face from a range of cyberthreats. This is especially true when it comes to critical infrastructure as it's an attractive target for nation state and other attackers.

We spoke to James Carder, chief security officer and vice president of labs at SIEM platform LogRhythm to discover more about critical infrastructure threats and how to guard against them.

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USB flash drives may not be as popular as they were years ago, but they still have their place. For instance, even though I save most of my data to the cloud nowadays, I still depend on flash drives for installing operating systems, such as Windows 10, Ubuntu, Manjaro, and more.

The problem with traditional USB flash drives, however, is many new computers no longer have USB-A ports. And so, they require the use of dongles or adapters. Thankfully, companies are also making USB Type-C flash drives. Even better, today, Transcend unveils a flash drive that has both USB-A and USB-C connectors. Called "JetFlash 930C," it should work with pretty much any computer.

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Microsoft loves to release special editions of its Xbox controllers with fun colors and designs, and apparently, consumers really enjoy buying them. After all, if these controllers weren't selling well, it is doubtful Microsoft would bother to continue putting them out. Are these special controllers just money-grabs? Sure. But hey, if people enjoy them, so be it

Today, Microsoft announces two new special edition Xbox One controllers -- Electric Volt and Daystrike Camo. Both look very cool, but I happen to prefer the former -- that green reminds me of yummy Mountain Dew. Color and design aside, these controllers are extra special, as they are environmentally friendly too. You see, this is the first-ever Xbox hardware to be produced with post-consumer recycled resins. In other words, Microsoft is keeping some plastics, such as old compact discs and water jugs, out of landfills. Nice.

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A new content collaboration platform for 64-bit ARM processors will deliver the first viable self-hosted web office solution for the popular Raspberry Pi 4.

The result of a joint effort between Canonical, Collabora and Nextcloud this will allow Raspberry Pi users to turn their Pi 4 into a self-hosted content collaboration and document editing solution in just a few minutes.

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In the last year especially, many businesses have turned to SaaS applications in order to aid remote working. But a survey of over 630 SaaS users across a mix of industries finds that 40 percent have previously lost data stored in their online tools.

The study from cloud backup company Rewind finds 53 percent of respondents cited using SaaS tools on the job, and 43 percent using four or more.

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There are plenty of screencast tools out there, but while many offer cut-down free versions, they’re often more crippleware than freeware. Eyeing a spot in this market is IObit, which claims -- with some justification -- to provide a genuinely usable free screen-recording tool with its latest new release: iFun Screen Recorder 1.0.

The software promises no time-limited recordings, unwanted watermarks or other restrictions forcing you to upgrade to make proper use of the program -- a Pro version does exist, but its features can be safely ignored by most. And while it may lack the more sophisticated features of well-known screen-casting tools, you get all the core functionality you need to produce decent screencasts.

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As enterprises move more data to the cloud and grant higher levels of third party access, attackers are increasingly targeting non-traditional user populations that may not be adequately protected.

But a new survey of CISOs from identity specialist CyberArk shows that security teams are shifting to zero trust in response to these changing attack patterns.

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Outsourcing is the practice of contracting out certain business functions -- most commonly, customer support and software development.

When implemented effectively, it is a powerful business strategy that can help companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency. And as the proliferation of business technology continues to break down the geographical barriers to working with international partners, outsourcing has only become more widespread.

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