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I have a confession to make: I’m a PC anti-vaxxer. I just don’t trust all those patches and security "fixes" software companies want to foist upon my innocent little laptop. I mean, how do I know one of those updates won’t harm it? Most software platforms are now so complex, it’s nearly impossible to tell the impact a new library or DLL might have.

What if a patch makes my PC slower? I’ve heard about at least one "fix" -- to some made-up sounding bugaboo called "Spectre" -- that caused PCs to lose compute cycles. My little laptop struggles to handle daily life as it is. The thought of further handicapping it by compromising its processing speed seems downright cruel.

If the word MouseJack seems familiar, it's because it as been around for a while. It is a remote access hack that emerged a few years back that took advantage of a vulnerability in some Logitech wireless dongles, as well as hardware from other manufacturers.

Being at least three years old, you would expect that patches would have been addressed -- and they were. But a large number of devices are still at risk because Logitech failed to recall the affect units that were on sale so there's a chance that if you bought a Logitech wireless keyboard, mouse or standalone dongle in the last few years, you could be at risk.

Windows Insiders on the Fast ring have been receiving weekly Windows 10 builds from the 20H1 branch -- the feature update due out a year from now.

There is another update coming later this year though, and Insiders on the Slow ring are receiving these 19H2 builds as cumulative updates.

Twitter is rolling out a faster, redesigned version of its website, bringing not only a new look to the desktop, but also a range of new features.

It's now possible to bookmark tweets -- something users have been asking for for a very long time -- there is a darker dark mode, and the Explore feature from Twitter's mobile apps makes its way to the web. There's certainly a lot to like, but the fact that the new look is not optional is likely to grate with some users.

Data center environments must stay consistent regarding things like humidity and temperature. Otherwise, the costly equipment inside them could begin malfunctioning. Moreover, data center clients want assurances that the valuable information stored within a facility will be available whenever they need it, and maintaining consistency comes into play there, too.

Here are four ways machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are upending data center management.

Smaller businesses have always found it hard to compete against their larger rivals, but that's starting to change as technology allows a leveling of the playing field.

So how can technology, and in particular the cloud, help to give smaller companies an edge? We spoke to John Buni, CEO and co-founder of the CleanCloud SaaS platform and founder of bespoke tailoring company Tailor Made London, to find out.

As businesses move more of their workloads to the cloud they depend on data and applications always being available and secure. But this can conflict with the need for regulatory compliance and effective backup regimes.

Quest Software is launching a new version of its QoreStor product that helps businesses to easily move, recover and store data from on premise and cloud locations.

On the 7th January, NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens launched the Long-Term Plan -- a 10-year plan setting out what the National Heath Service will be prioritizing in the next decade -- to much fanfare. It’s unlikely the launch passed anyone in the UK by – the press coverage blanketed the start of the longest month of the year a bit like the snow. The key messages show continuity from the Five Year Forward Plan -- integrated care remains the panacea to many of the challenges the NHS faces.

While the focus remains on the UK's exit from Europe, we are unlikely to see a new health bill that will support movement towards integrated care. So, how will the industry achieve this cornerstone of the Long Term Plan without formal governance in place to make it work? Of course, integrated care requires collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem, for partners to act as one. For anyone who has worked with, or even been a patient within the health system, this seems a tall order. But there a number of ways to achieve it; set up a partnership board with each provider having a seat at the board -- a shared sovereignty model if you will, in other areas we are likely to see one provider take a lead position or a third option of a partnership approach whereby innovative contracting is used with shared financial risk.

FinePrint Software has released both pdfFactory 7.0 and FinePrint 10.0 for Windows PCs. pdfFactory 7.0 provides PDF creation tools, and offers a more fully featured Pro version with PDF-editing capabilities, while FinePrint is a universal print previewer designed to save users time, ink, paper and other resources.

The latest version of both tools focus on improving and future-proofing their user interfaces to work with high-definition monitors.

The German state of Hesse has banned schools from using Microsoft Office 365 because it fears the software opens up student and teachers' private information to the risk of "potential access by US authorities".

The Hesse Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HBDI) believes that Office 365 is in contravention of GDPR legislation, and also expressed concerns about the collection of telemetry data by Windows 10.

Like YouTube? Enjoy Netflix?

Then you’re a bad person! It’s people like you who are destroying our planet and dooming future generations!

Europe's Galileo satellite network -- used by satnavs, financial institutions and more -- is in the throes of a huge outage. The system has been down since Friday meaning that travelers (and others) in Europe have instead had to fall back on the American Global Positioning System (GPS) -- or even Russia or Chinese systems.

Galileo has been struck by what is being described as a "technical incident related to its ground infrastructure", and it's not clear when the situation will be remedied.

When you think of USB hubs, docks, adapters, and dongles, Sony probably isn't the first company that comes to mind. For instance, the minds of consumers are more likely to conjure images of StarTech.com, Satechi, Plugable, and VisionTek. And yet, Sony has announced new SD card reader and USB hub that it calls the "world's fastest." Whether that claim is true is debatable. One thing is for sure -- it looks quite beautiful.

Called "MRW-S3," it is actually much more than a hub and card reader as Sony humbly calls it. Sure, it has an SD card reader, micro SD card slot, and two USB 3.1 gen 2 ports (1x USB-A and 1x USB-C), but also, it has USB-C power delivery and HDMI video. In other words, MRW-S3 is really a full-fledged USB-C docking station -- for both home and mobile. Weighing just 95 grams, you won't even know it is in your bag.

Cloud infrastructure is the foundation of most enterprises and any crack can cause significant damage. A great example of this is the 2017 AWS S3 outage, which was caused by an unauthorized administrator typing an incorrect command when trying to fix a billing system slowdown. The fact that the admin had access to a larger subsystem is what led to the problem that ultimately cost customers an estimated $150 million.

Unfortunately, the probability of identities intentionally or accidentally misusing privileges -- and a corresponding impact on business -- is going to increase greatly for enterprises embracing cloud. In May 2019, for example, a faulty database script deployed by Salesforce inadvertently gave all users full access to sensitive company and customer data, forcing the company to shut down its Marketing Cloud services for 15+ hours.

Having just removed some of the blocks that were preventing people from installing Windows 10 May 2019 Update (Windows 10 version 1903), the company has now introduced a couple more obstacles -- including for its own devices.

One of the new blocks prevents Surface Book 2 owners from installing the update, while another affects systems with Intel 4 series chipset integrated GPUs.