Christian Aid Week. The climate emergency is one of the greatest injustices we face. Together we stop this climate crisis.

Christian Aid Week: 10 - 16 May 2021

This climate crisis hurts us all. But people living in poverty fight the worst of it every day.

From drought to flooding, climate change robs people of control over their lives. Extreme weather means people like Rose are struggling to survive without a reliable source of water.

Your gift could help a community build an earth dam, so when the rains do come, they will have the water they need to live. A reliable source of water will help families withstand long drought or relentless rainstorms.

Every envelope. Every gift. Every challenge can change lives. Together we stop this climate crisis.

www.christianaid.org.uk

Like a nice cookie? Of course you do! Better check this out - for the best handmade cookies!

Mike Hall (one of my bikey mates & owner of the excellent Mike Hall Carpentry Services) presented me with the most superb box of handmade Terry's Chocolate Orange cookies. Beautifully presented, delicious, and a wonderful gift. Well done The Cookie Dough Club - these are a truly superb treat!

Freshly baked cookies or bake yourself cookie dough in a huge range of flavours.

We’re based in Waterlooville, Portsmouth. Offering a collection & delivery option. 

Postal bakes coming soon!

www.facebook.com/the.cookie.dough.club

Microsoft is finally ditching its Windows 95-era icons

 

Microsoft is finally preparing to refresh its Windows 95-era icons. The software giant has been slowly improving the icons it uses in Windows 10, as part of a “sweeping visual rejuvenation” planned for later this year. We saw a number of new system icons back in March, with new File Explorer, folder, Recycle Bin, disk drive icons, and more. Microsoft is now planning to refresh the Windows 95-era icons you still sometimes come across in Windows 10.

Windows Latest has spotted new icons for the hibernation mode, networking, memory, floppy drives, and much more as part of the shell32.dll file in preview versions of Windows 10. This DLL is a key part of the Windows Shell, which surfaces icons in a variety of dialog boxes throughout the operating system. It’s also a big reason why Windows icons have been so inconsistent throughout the years. Microsoft has often modernized other parts of the OS only for an older app to throw you into a dialog box with Windows 95-era icons from shell32.dll.

All of this work to improve the consistency of Windows is part of Microsoft’s design overhaul to Windows 10, codenamed Sun Valley. The visual changes are expected to appear in the Windows 10 21H2 update that should arrive in October. Microsoft has not officially detailed its Sun Valley work, but a job listing earlier this year teased a “sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows.”

www.theverge.com

Millions of people in the UK at risk of using unsecure routers

Millions (potentially up to 7.5 million) around the UK could be at risk of using routers with security flaws, a Which? investigation has found.

In December 2020 we conducted a survey of more than 6,000 UK adults, asking them which routers they’re using at home. We found millions could be using devices over five years old, that are no longer being supported with firmware updates. 

We sent a selection of the most commonly used old devices to security specialists, Red Maple Technologies, to find out just how secure they are, and discovered issues with more than half, from ISPs such as Virgin, Sky, TalkTalk, EE and Vodafone.

www.which.co.uk

IT & Motorcycles (& cars) - why there is a shortage of new models at the moment

If you’ve had even just a side-eye on the global newsfeeds in recent weeks you will know that there is a crisis brewing in the motoring industry that is bit-by-bit consuming all of the top manufacturers - the ‘global chip shortage’.

While this may not seem terribly important to your Average Joe, these chips can be found in everything from cars to motorcycles and everything in between, such as ABS, smart keys and ECUs. In short, they have a literal part to play in every single new model that rolls off the production line.

It is a crisis that has already affected some of the biggest names in the motoring industry; JLR, Mini, Toyota, Nissan and Honda have already scaled back production to ease the strain on the supply chain issues, and now Yamaha has gone on record to explain why it’s is now falling behind on orders.

There is a positive reason as to why this is occurring. Demand for motorcycles has bounced right back from the lulls of 2020 when we were gripped in the COVID-19 crisis, but it was during this period that suppliers saw orders cancelled in anticipation of a steadier return to full production capacity.

www.visordown.com

Excellent, informative, free (if a bit geeky) training: LOCTITE®XPLORE

LOCTITE®XPLORE is a new e-learning platform designed for Assembly, Maintenance and Vehicle Repair Pros – to help you make informed decisions within your area of expertise.

The content is based on the accumulated knowledge of more than 65 years of practical experience – and it’s 100% free, quick and certified. All you have to do is pick a topic and start improving your skills – 15 min at a time. Quick gratification is as easy as that!

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it! Sign up HERE.

www.henkel-adhesives.com

BlackBerry has built the iOS of cars, and it's taken over the automotive industry

It might be running in your car right now, but you'd never know it because there's no "Intel Inside"-like badge. And that's just how BlackBerry likes it.

BlackBerry QNX is the de facto standard for in-car operating systems. If a car were a smartphone, QNX is iOS or Android. It's what connects all the bits of vehicle hardware so that the "apps" — everything from the speedometer to the tire pressure monitoring system — can talk to each other securely and reliably.

Modern automobiles are wildly complex, with countless sensors, electronic control units (ECU), buttons, inputs, connectivity and more. And they're all built by different suppliers but still need to communicate. That's where QNX comes in.

Grant Courville, BlackBerry's vice president for products and strategy — aka one of the guys in charge of QNX — puts it this way: "The consumer won't ever see our logo. They won't ever see our software... but we provide the safe and secure plumbing in the car."

www.techrepublic.com