Happy New Year! Welcome to 2023!

 

A Prayer for Blessings in the Year Ahead: Father, Thank you for your great love and blessing over our lives. Thank you that your favor has no end, but it lasts for our entire lifetime. Forgive us for sometimes forgetting that you are intimately acquainted with all of our ways, that you know what concerns us, and you cover us as with a shield. We ask that we would walk in your blessing and goodness today. That your face would shine on us. That you would open the right doors for our lives and for our loved ones, that you would close the wrong doors and protect us from those we need to walk away from. Establish the work of our hands and bring to fulfilment all that you have given us to do in these days. We pray that you would make our way purposeful and our footsteps firm out of your goodness and love. Give us a heart of wisdom to hear your voice, and make us strong by your huge favour and grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.

May your year be filled with peace, prosperity and love. May God's Blessings shower upon you and bestow upon each of you a bright, healthy and peaceful new year.

Don Kim & Calli - Donline

What sort of New Year’s resolution should a Christian make?

www.gotquestions.org

Netgear warns users to patch recently fixed WiFi router bug

Netgear has fixed a high-severity vulnerability affecting multiple WiFi router models and advised customers to update their devices to the latest available firmware as soon as possible.

The flaw impacts multiple Wireless AC Nighthawk, Wireless AX Nighthawk (WiFi 6), and Wireless AC router models.

Although Netgear did not disclose any information about the component affected by this bug or its impact, it did say that it is a pre-authentication buffer overflow vulnerability.

The impact of a successful buffer overflow exploitation can range from crashes following denial of service to arbitrary code execution, if code execution is achieved during the attack.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

A Christmas Blessing from Donline

 

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Wishing you and your loved ones health, peace, happiness and prosperity; 
over this Christmas, the New Year and throughout 2023.

With Blessings,
Don, Kim & Calli

Christmas is a time to give. Please consider these good causes.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests

 

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.” — Luke 2:13-14

On Christmas of 1914 something happened that nobody could have ever predicted. British and German troops were bogged down in the muddy cold trenches in Flanders Field which was their only protection from machine gun fire. Between them was “No Man’s Land,” an area the width of a football field, strewn with decaying bodies and barbed wire. The First World War was in a quagmire. Bodies were stacked like cordwood. But as Christmas approached, something in the soldiers warmed. On December 23 the German soldiers withdrew to a monastery ruin where they held Christmas worship. They put up Christmas trees - Tannenbaums - with lights that were so different from the grayness all around. British soldiers on the other side of the line couldn’t help but risk raising their heads to peek at the Tannenbaums - now hundreds of them, and they began to sing Christmas carols familiar to them.

Two British officers, defying orders, ventured out of the trenches to propose a Christmas truce to their enemies, but by now rank and file soldiers had already begun talking to, and meeting up with, groups of their opponents. The British sang everything from Christmas carols to Tipperary, and the Germans responded with a Christmas concert of their own. A German violinist stood atop his parapet and played on his violin. A French soldier, a member of the Paris Opera, sang out O Holy Night. A German officer named Thomas gave a gift to a British officer–a Victoria cross and letter from a fallen British soldier, and Lt. Hulse, from the British side, responded by giving Thomas a silk scarf. Each side buried their dead. They bared their heads and recited the 23rd Psalm. As Christmas day 1914 drew to a close and darkness fell, the soldiers gradually returned to their trenches. For two whole days they had ceased being enemies, and the world was at peace. In the darkness a voice started singing one of the most familiar Christmas carols: Silent Night.

Peace is always a noble aspiration; in times of war or in times of harmony. When you find yourself at odds with someone or when you’re feeling pretty good about your relationships. When you feel in harmony with God or when you feel a discord. It’s always important to pursue peace.

www.biblegateway.com

The Great British Switch Off: Your questions answered

If you didn’t know already, in 2023 the UK telephone network will be changing profoundly. This is the year that new sales of analogue (PSTN and ISDN) telephone services will end, and by 2025 they’ll be switched off altogether.

Why is the switch off happening? The old copper telephone network that has provided the backbone to our communications (and more recently internet connections) for many, many years is finally being withdrawn from service.

It’s a network that’s existed in some form or another for more than a hundred years and compared to some of the modern technology that’s around today, it is beginning to show its age - and there are now better alternatives.

Full fibre (FTTP) broadband, for example, has the benefit of being much faster, more reliable and less prone to interference. As our reliance on not only high-quality connectivity but also more feature rich voice communications increases, it provides a much better platform than old fashioned copper can.

The new technology that is currently rolling out should see us through the next few decades, while the old copper network would be unable to cope with our changing demands.

Click here to find answers to frequently asked questions about the GBSO.

www.zen.co.uk

Christmas is coming and you're invited!

You’re very welcome at a church near you this Advent and Christmas. From beautiful candlelit moments to joyful nativity and Christingle services for all ages, come and be encouraged by the hope of the Christmas story. Search your location to find your nearest services and events.

Are you thinking of coming to church for the first time, or the first time in a long time, this Christmas? You will be very welcome! Find out the answers to common questions you may have.

Why not invite a friend or family member to come with you to church this December? Read our blog for ideas about inviting others.

If you can’t make it to church in person this Advent and Christmas, join in online. Search for services live streamed from a church near you. We also stream national online services via YouTube and Facebook.

www.achurchnearyou.com

Child of Hope Uganda - Nativity play for 2022!

 

Welcome to this year's Child of Hope fun Nativity play, starring a bunch of CoH pupils and shot in one take... well, almost.

Huge thanks to everyone who has donated to our Christmas appeal. This year, we would love to provide Christmas food parcels for all our pupils and their families from the Namatala slum, as well as food parcels and a Christmas party (Ebola restrictions allowing) for the pupils at our new nursery in Namalu, Karamoja. Over 650 families would benefit from your kind donations.

Please click here for details if you'd like to donate (which would be great!).

www.childofhopeuganda.org

Ultra-desirable Brough Superior Lawrence Dagger cuts a dash

Brough Superior has expanded its ultra-exclusive, high-end Lawrence range with a new, sportier variant: the Brough Superior Lawrence Dagger.

Purveyors of luxury, high-end motorcycles, Brough Superior - founded in Britain but resurrected in France in 2014 - launched the exquisitely finished Lawrence in 2021 as the latest addition to a steadily growing range of retro-inspired, lavishly appointed motorcycles to join the SS100, Pendine and Anniversary.

Now for 2023, Brough Superior has revealed the ‘Dagger’, a more contemporary, sporting-themed version of its range-topper.

At the front, the Dagger gains new bodywork with a funnelled nose cone section leading down to a porthole headlight, a fork crown, rear fender and seat cowl made of carbon-fibre. It also receives a more discreet exhaust form compared with the standard Lawrence for a leaner side-profile appearance.

An off-gold finish to the 17-inch rims, engine cover and decals completes the moody new look, while retaining all of the beautifully-styled attention to detail.

Under the skin, the Lawrence Dagger retains the same 997cc V-Twin engine, which - at 102bhp - has been tuned to provide more thumping low down grunt than high-end performance.

Beautiful, but as a wise man once said, "if you need to ask, you can't afford it"!

www.bennetts.co.uk

An early Christmas prezzie - from the good folks at the Telegraph!

Yuletide celebrations are just around the corner. So, before you get caught up in the festive revelries, make sure you don’t miss your special Christmas offer.

Claim a digital subscription to The Telegraph! Fuel a mutual interest, spark a conversation, or discuss and debate the issues of the day with the help of our award-winning journalists.

This offer is only available until December 31. Unwrap your exclusive bundle in just a few short steps via the link below.

Merry Christmas, from all of us at The Telegraph.

www.telegraph.co.uk

The Church of England's Christmas video for 2022 is now live!

This year’s Church of England Christmas video tells the story of a life supported by the local church. It follows one woman through many Christmases throughout her life, from her first starring role as the baby Jesus in the village nativity play, to childhood and teenage years; joining church youth groups; later getting married; parenthood and then facing bereavement.  

Despite life's ups and downs, she finds joy and support in the church, faith and friendship, not only during Christmas but throughout the year. And it echoes a simple message: we are here for you through life’s journey. For worship and community.

Our thanks to the churches and the communities who helped tell our Christmas story: Melbourne Parish Church (Diocese of Hereford), St George’s Church (Diocese of Leeds), and St Giles Cripplegate (Diocese of London).

www.churchofengland.org

Intruders gain access to user data in LastPass incident

Intruders broke into a third-party cloud storage service LastPass shares with affiliate company GoTo and gained access to "certain elements" of customers' information, the pair have confirmed.

LastPass did not define what it meant by "certain elements," saying it was unsure what data was looked at: "We are working diligently to understand the scope of the incident and identify what specific information has been accessed this morning."

It did maintain, however, that services were unaffected and that customers' passwords remained "safely encrypted" – without ruling out that some of the data was stolen. The company is known to use a one-way salted hash for master passwords, with a fuller description in this technical whitepaper. The master passwords are used to lock users' password vaults, where their logins for various websites etc. can be stored, with the passphrase only ever entered by the user on their browser or app and not sent to or stored by LastPass.

www.theregister.com