Reading for today: on the loss of our beloved Pets

I will never laugh at anyone for grieving over a loved beast. I think God wants us to love Him more, not to love creatures (even animals) less. We love everything in one way too much (i.e., at the expense of our love for Him), but in another way we love every- thing too little.

No person, animal, flower, or even pebble has ever been loved too much - i.e., more than every one of God’s works deserves.

Dedicated to our precious Angel Poppy who died 13 August 2014

By C.S. Lewis

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III

Compiled in Words to Live By

Reading for today (from Ecclesiastes 5): give thanks to God for the goodness of life

This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labour under the sun during the few days of life God has given them - for this is their lot. 

Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil - this is a gift of God. 

They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.

www.biblegateway.com

Battery Specialist Swobbee Joins Honda, KTM, Yamaha, And Piaggio Consortium

On July 27, 2022, Berlin-based startup Swobbee officially joined the Swappable Batteries Motorcycle Consortium. That’s the group formed by Honda, KTM, Piaggio, and Yamaha to develop compatible equipment and infrastructure to support widespread electrification across the industry.  The Swappable Battery Motorcycle Consortium will soon have a shared battery platform across manufacturers.

Who is Swobbee, and what is the company’s specialty? It bills itself as offering “Battery-as-a-Service,” and you can probably see where this is going. Its role in this project is, in fact, to develop a shared-use battery that all participating manufacturers can use in all their vehicles. 

Swobbee evolved from another company called GreenPack, which also produced a battery design that was both standardized and portable, for use in multiple EVs and other small electric equipment. Now Swobbee is getting to work doing the same thing for two-wheelers that are part of this consortium. 

"We are convinced that we can make a valuable contribution to the development of a multi-vehicle compatible, high-performance rechargeable battery with our many years of practical experience in the battery exchange infrastructure field and the system configuration of battery technologies,” Swobbee co-founder and head of marketing Tobias Breyer said in a statement. 

As the consortium grows, it’s moves like this that can hopefully entice other vehicle manufacturers to join the charge 😉. Knowing that a standardized battery and charging infrastructure system that can be shared across manufacturers is currently under development could theoretically be a game-changer. Will it be, though? That, of course, remains to be seen...

www.rideapart.com

Tickets on sale NOW for Motorcycle Live 2022

Tickets are now on sale for Motorcycle Live 2022, in association with Bikesure Insurance - and with savings to be made by purchasing in advance, there’s no better time to get them booked!

Taking place at its home - the NEC, Birmingham - from 19-27 November 2022, Motorcycle Live is a 'must' for many motorcycle enthusiasts. This year’s show promises to be truly memorable - with many manufacturers already signed up, it is one you won’t want to miss... 

FREE opportunities to ride for all ages and abilities, loads of manufacturers, chances to buy and a Black Horse stage schedule packed with racing stars, riders and celebrities, what are you waiting for?

NEW for 2022, we've extended the age of a child ticket to 18 year olds. So for just £1, 6 - 18** year olds can access a show brimming with all things two wheels, to sit on, try and marvel at everything the biking world has to offer.

Advanced tickets are priced at £22 for adults, £1** for children aged 6-18 and under 5's go free**. Motorcycle parking is free and car parking can be booked at a discounted price of £10 (£16.95 if bought on the day) when purchased with tickets in advance. **must be accompanied by a paying adult.

www.motorcyclelive.co.uk

Still deciding whether or not to buy into Crypto? This should put you off for good!

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing published Monday, Tesla said the value of its digital assets -- including bitcoin and dogecoin -- were set at $222 billion as of June 30. 

Tesla took an impairment charge of $170 million on its bitcoin holdings for the first six months of the year, while recording a $64 million gain from converting its bitcoin into fiat currency. 

Musk also indicated the company continues to hold the digital dogecoin, but did not indicate its value or amount.

www.thestreet.com

The tangled web of security vendors!

 

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has given a provisional nod to the proposed merger of British cybersecurity company Avast and US rival NortonLifeLock.

Action by Britain's market regulators has international ramifications; the CMA's interventions in the Arm-Nvidia deal were partly responsible for the cancellation of the $66 billion sale of the British chip designer to Nvidia. And it has held up Facebook's purchase of Giphy.

As for the antivirus vendor pact, the $8.6 billion merger was announced in August 2021 and, after a gentle probe, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided that a closer look was needed in March 2022. That closer look (referred to as a Phase 2 investigation) is pretty much done and dusted and the CMA has provisionally decided that the deal doesn't raise competition concerns in the UK.

This is due to existing players, including the duo's main rival in the UK, McAfee, and Microsoft's bundling of its own security applications into Windows.

So: Bullguard got taken over by Norton (LifeLock). AVG got taken over by Avast. Now Norton & Avast are merging! Not sure this is a good thing... Want to see which security vendor is best? Check with AV-Test, or contact Donline.

www.theregister.com

Outlook stops responding when viewing Uber receipt emails (& others). Word is also affected

 

When opening, replying, or forwarding some emails that include complex tables, Outlook stops responding. The same table contents will also cause Word to stop responding.

This issue started in Current Channel Version 2206 Build 15330.20196 and higher.  It also occurs in current builds of Beta and Current Channel Preview.

The Word Team has implemented a fix that will be released to the Beta channel shortly for fix verification.  We currently estimate the fix to go out to production Current Channel on Patch Tuesday August 9, 2022.

www.microsoft.com