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Microsoft has announced Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2008 and 2012, and for SQL Server 2012 and made it free if you run them in its Azure cloud.

The current extended support offering for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 ends on October 10, 2023. However, Monojit Bhattacharya, a product management leader for Azure and member of Microsofts Windows Server Team, has revealed that Redmond is offering Extended Security Updates for three years.

SQL Server 2012, for which extended support ends on July 12, 2022, has also been given an extra three years of security updates.

Microsofts made this an offer thats hard to resist by making it free if users move their workloads into Azure. They also must apply the Azure Hybrid Benefit a scheme that allows use of on-prem licences acquired under Software Assurance.

Azure Hybrid Benefit includes lower Azure prices than are available with other offers. Microsoft seldom tires of pointing out that the Benefit therefore makes Azure the cheapest place to run Windows Server and SQL Server in the cloud.

If you persist in running on-prem, Microsoft will ramp the price of the extended update offering. In year one itll cost three quarters of your licence costs, in year two the price will be at parity, and in year three Extended Security Updates will cost 125 per cent of the license cost.

Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server has also been given a little extra love, with one more year of updates offered but only in Azure.

SQL Server and Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Extended Security Updates are currently scheduled to end on July 9, 2022, and January 14, 2023, respectively.

News of the Extended Security Updates was revealed at Microsofts partner centric Inspire virtual gabfest which, in addition to the announcement of cloudy Windows 365 desktops, saw Redmond reveal:

Inspire continues tomorrow.

Read more from the original source:
Microsoft extends security updates for Windows and SQL Server 2012 and 2008 - The Register

People all around the world deserve the right to have a private conversation. Communication privacy is a human right, a civil liberty and one of the centerpieces of a free society. And while we all deserve basic communications privacy, the journalists, NGO workers and human rights and democracy activists among us are especially at risk, since they are often at odds with powerful governments.

So it is no surprise that people around the world are angry to learn that surveillance software sold by NSO Group to governments has been found on cellphones worldwide. Thousands of NGOs, human rights and democracy activists, along with government employees and many others have been targeted and spied upon. We agree and we are thankful for the work done by Amnesty International, the countless journalists at Forbidden Stories, along with Citizen Lab, to bring this awful situation to light.

"A commitment to giving their own citizens strong security is the true test of a countrys commitment to cybersecurity."

Like many others, EFF has warned for years of the danger of the misuse of powerful state-sponsored malware. Yet the stories just keep coming about malware being used to surveil and track journalists and human rights defenders who are then murdered including the murders of Jamal Khashoggi or Cecilio Pineda-Birto. Yet we have failed to ensure real accountability for the governments and companies responsible.

What can be done to prevent this? How do we create accountability and ensure redress? Its heartening that both South Africa and Germany have recently banned dragnet communications surveillance, in part because there was no way to protect the essential private communications of journalists and privileged communications of lawyers. All of us deserve privacy, but lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders are at special risk because of their often adversarial relationship with powerful governments. Of course, the dual-use nature of targeted surveillance like the malware that NSO sells is trickier, since it is allowable under human rights law when it is deployed under proper necessary and proportionate limits. But that doesnt mean we are helpless. In fact, we have suggestions on both prevention and accountability.

First, and beyond question, we need real device security. While all software can be buggy and malware often takes advantage of those bugs, we can do much better. To do better, we need the full support of our governments. Its just shameful that in 2021 the U.S. government as well as many foreign governments in the Five Eyes and elsewhere are more interested in their own easy, surreptitious access to our devices than they are in the actual security of our devices. A commitment to giving their own citizens strong security is the true test of a countrys commitment to cybersecurity. By this measure, the countries of the world, especially those who view themselves as leaders in cybersecurity, are currently failing.

It now seems painfully obvious that we need international cooperation in support of strong encryption and device security. Countries should be holding themselves and each other to account when they pressure device manufacturers to dumb down or back door our devices and when they hoard zero days and other attacks rather than ensuring that those security holes are promptly fixed. We also need governments to hold each other to the necessary and proportionate requirement of international human rights law for evaluating surveillance and these limits must apply whether that surveillance is done for law enforcement or national security purposes. And the US, EU, and others must put diplomatic pressure on the countries where these immoral spyware companies are are headquartered in to stop selling hacking gear to countries who use them to commit human rights abuses. At this point, many of these companies -- Cellebrite, NSO Group, and Candiru/Saituare headquartered in Israel and its time that both governments and civil society focus attention there.

Second, we can create real accountability by bringing laws and remedies around the world up to date to ensure that those impacted by state-sponsored malware have the ability to bring suit or otherwise obtain a remedy. Those who have been spied upon must be able to get redress from both the governments who do the illegal spying and the companies that knowingly provide them with the specific tools to do so. The companies whose good name are tarnished by this malware deserve to be able to stop it too. EFF has supported all of these efforts, but more is needed. Specifically:

We supported WhatsApps litigation against NSO Group to stop it from spoofing WhatsApp as a strategy for infecting unsuspecting victims. The Ninth Circuit is currently considering NSOs appeal.

We sought direct accountability for foreign governments who spy on Americans in the U.S. in Kidane v. Ethiopia. We argued that foreign countries who install malware on Americans devices should be held to account, just as the U.S. government would be if it violated the Wiretap Act or any of the other many applicable laws. We were stymied by a cramped reading of the law in the D.C. Circuit -- the court wrongly decided that the fact that the malware was sent from Ethiopia rather than from inside the U.S. triggered sovereign immunity. That dangerous ruling should be corrected by other courts or Congress should clarify that foreign governments dont have a free pass to spy on people in America. NSO Group says that U.S. telephone numbers (that start with +1) are not allowed to be tracked by its service, but Americans can and do have foreign-based telephones and regardless, everyone in the world deserves human rights and redress. Countries around the world should step up to make sure their laws cover state sponsored malware attacks that occur in their jurisdiction.

We also have supported those who are seeking accountability from companies directly, including the Chinese religious minority who have been targeted using a specially-built part of the Great Firewall of China created by American tech giant Cisco.

"The truth is, too many democratic or democratic-leaning countries are facilitating the spread of this malware because they want to be able to use it against their own enemies."

Third, we must increase the pressure on these companies to make sure they are not selling to repressive regimes and continue naming and shaming those that do. EFFs Know Your Customer framework is a good place to start, as was the State Departments draft guidance (that apparently was never finalized). And these promises must have real teeth. Apparently we were right in 2019 that NSO Groups unenforceable announcement that it was holding itself to the highest standards of ethical business, was largely a toothless public relations move. Yet while NSO is rightfully on the hot seat now, they are not the only player in this immoral market. Companies who sell dangerous equipment of all kinds must take steps to understand and limit misuse and these surveillance. Malware tools used by governments are no different.

Fourth, we support former United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression David Kaye in calling for a moratorium on the governmental use of these malware technologies. While this is a longshot, we agree that the long history of misuse, and the growing list of resulting extrajudicial killings of journalists and human rights defenders, along with other human rights abuses, justifies a full moratorium.

These are just the start of possible remedies and accountability strategies. Other approaches may be reasonable too, but each must recognize that, at least right now, the intelligence and law enforcement communities of many countries are not defining cybersecurity to include actually protecting us, much less the journalists and NGOs and activists that do the risky work to keep us informed and protect our rights. We also have to understand that unless done carefully, regulatory responses like further triggering U.S. export restrictions could result in less security for the rest of us while not really addressing the problem. The NSO Group was reportedly able to sell to the Saudi regime with the permission and encouragement of the Israeli government under that countrys export regime. The truth is, too many democratic or democratic-leaning countries are facilitating the spread of this malware because they want to be able to use it against their own enemies.

Until governments around the world get out of the way and actually support security for all of us, including accountability and redress for victims, these outrages will continue. Governments must recognize that intelligence agency and law enforcement hostility to device security is dangerous for their own citizens because a device cannot tell if the malware infecting it is from the good guys or the bad guys. This fact is just not going to go away.

We must have strong security at the start, and strong accountability after the fact if we want to get to a world where all of us can enjoy communications security. Only then will our journalists, human rights defenders and NGOs be able to do their work without fear of being tracked, watched and potentially murdered simply because they use a mobile device.

Link:
Pegasus Project Shows the Need for Real Device Security, Accountability and Redress for those Facing State-Sponsored Malware - EFF

Its easier than ever to find components, peripherals and accessories that feature RGB lighting. In fact, its often harder to find PC parts without them. The hard part is making all those RGB glow in harmony, at least if they arent all made by the same company. Manufacturers have to decide if theyre going to offer their own lighting app, support an established synchronization platform (say, Asus Armoury Crate or Razers Chroma RGB), or just leave customers with a few preset effects to choose from and be done with it.

WhirlwindFX seeks to change that with SignalRGB sofware. The platform is supposed to make it easy to sync RGB lighting across devices regardless of their manufacturer, and the company regularly adds support for new hardware and releases new software integrations that can make an entire setup respond to in-game events. Users can submit their own lighting effects, too, and everything is managed through the central SignalRGB app.

Weve spent a few weeks experimenting with SignalRGB Pro to see if the promise of keeping every aspect of your setups lighting in sync is too good to be true. Were going to share our findings below. But before we do, we want to warn anyone with photosensitive epilepsy that the SignalRGB landing page, as well as several of the effects found within the app itself, feature very fast-moving, strobe-like lighting. Proceed with caution.

WhirlwindFX offers two versions of SignalRGB. The free version includes full hardware support, access to lighting effects, and the ability to manage a mouses CPI. SignalRGB Pro expands that feature set with game integrations, one-of-a-kind audio visualizers, an advanced pixel accurate screen ambience effect, and early access to upcoming features in exchange for $4.99 per month or $35.88 per year at time of writing.

The company gave us access to SignalRGB Pro for evaluation purposes. That access was provided to us via promo codes, however, which means we experienced the sign-up process ourselves. And thats where the problems start. Signing up for SignalRGB Pro is a multi-step process that requires an FAQ article to explain, which exceeds the amount of effort wed put into joining a new service on our own time.

Canceling the subscription also requires multiple steps. WhirlwindFX does email you before youre about to be charged, which is nice, but that email doesnt include a link to a page where the subscription can be canceled. Instead the service requires you to launch the SignalRGB app, navigate its menus, and then follow a link to the cancelation page--a process we only discovered because we searched for a support article.

Managing an account shouldnt be this frustrating. It would be bad enough if signing up for SignalRGB were a hassle, and weve become far too accustomed to companies making it difficult to cancel a subscription. But the lack of account management options available on WhirlwindFXs website (or in SignalRGB itself) is exacerbated by the fact that the sign-up page doesnt let you disable automatic renewals. Nothing about this aspect of the service left a good firstor lastimpression, even though we had free access to it.

That doesnt mean SignalRGB should be overlooked. There is a free tier, after all, and the cancelation process shouldnt bother folks who never stop using SignalRGB Pro. But account management is an important aspect of any service, and its worth noting SignalRGBs flaws in this regard at the start. Now lets talk about the utility itself.

SignalRGBs claim to fame is that it allows you to control and sync your favorite RGB devices from any brand with one free application. WhirlwindFX isnt pulling off any technical wizardry to automatically support every RGB-equipped product on the market, though. Instead the companys developers have to manually add support for specific devices to SignalRGB. A list of compatible hardware can be found on the services website.

We asked WhirlwindFX for more information about how often it adds support for new devices to SignalRGB. The company told us it added support for 16, 15, and then 13 unique SKUs, respectively, during a three-week period in May and June. Most of those products are peripherals, a company rep said. But its recently introduced support for a number of motherboards as well. Users can also request the addition of support for a specific device via its website.

So far as existing device support goes, WhirlwindFX says that SignalRGB currently supports nearly 200+ [sic] of the most popular PC gaming peripherals, including products from brands like Razer, Corsair, SteelSeries, HyperX, Logitech and more. Those products are spread across mice, keyboards and headsets, monitors, mousepads and microphones, as well as a variety of other categories. (Theres also a promise of supporting memory kits soon.) More information about supported devices can be found here.

Supporting roughly 200 devices is a feather in SignalRGBs cap, but the nature of the platform means that its value will vary from user to user. Some people will find that SignalRGB already supports all of their devices; others wont be able to get it working on any of their hardware. People using older devices and early adopters will both likely find themselves waiting for WhirlwindFX to expand SignalRGBs support to their equipment. [Editors Note: In the custom rig Im writing this on, the software recognized my Asus motherboard and Corsair headset, but not my RGB-enabled Team Group SSD or Zotac graphics card.] Whether or not the app is worth using in the meantime largely depends on your willingness to use (and perhaps even pay for) a product on the promise that it will improve in the future.

SignalRGB is supposed to make adding lighting effects to supported hardware easy. In theory the process should be:

This process isnt foolproof, however. For a while we could get the app to control the lighting on our SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless, for example, but not the Logitech G Pro keyboard (the old version with Romer-G switches, not the most recent version). The G Pro was initially supported, but then it stopped working. Its not clear why. The app is supposed to support the keyboard, and we dont have any Logitech software installed, so its not like the keyboard was struggling to resolve conflicting settings. This problem was eventually fixed, presumably because of an update to the app, but the inconsistent experience still left us wanting more.

SignalRGB also offered to control the RGB lighting on the Logitech G Pro X Superlight which doesnt actually have any LEDs to control. The preview images shown for both the G Pro X Superlight and the G Pro keyboard were also incorrect. The image shown for the Superlight looks like a Razer mouse, and even though the keyboards image at least appears to be on-brand, its still not the right device. That would be a minor problem if the rest of the app worked as intended, but as it stands, the app just seems like its broken.

WhirlwindFX also recently introduced a new feature called Layouts to make setting up multiple devicesthe apps raison dtreeasier by showing them all at a glance. We couldnt test the feature ourselves due to a lack of supported hardware. But if it does work as intended, this should go a long way toward helping SignalRGB serve its intended purpose. Unfortunately the rest of the experience makes that a big if.

SignalRGB is also supposed to offer integrations with more than 70 games so it can make your systems lighting react to in-game events. WhirlwindFX has published many YouTube videos showcasing integrations with popular titles like Fortnite, Valorant and Minecraft, to name a few, and most of them make sense. Taking damage in Apex Legends makes some lights flash red to mimic blood splatter, for example, while walking into lava in Minecraft will flash orange particles.

These videos offer excellent previews of the lighting effects triggered by in-game actions. They dont appear to be available within SignalRGB itself, though, with the app instead requiring you to install and apply the integration without knowing exactly what it does. Would it be difficult to Alt+Tab over to a browser window to preview a specific integration? No. But the experience would be greatly improved if SignalRGB offered an idea of what to expect before that integration is applied.

Even applying an integration wont necessarily offer more information, until the relevant game is launched. This is the preview displayed if you apply the Valorant integration when the game is closed:

That image exposes some of SignalRGBs inner workings. This suggested the app was reading the screen and looking for specific visual cues rather than relying on a behind-the-scenes API, and WhirlwindFX confirmed that is the case. This kind of screen-reading will likely inspire privacy-minded users to leave SignalRGB behind. But even if you dont mind this process, its still jarring to see it in action. The man behind the curtain shouldve stayed there.

This doesnt seem to be the most efficient of processes, either. Valorant itself likes to use as much of our Intel Core i5-7600K as possible, with Task Manager typically reporting 90% usage in-game, but SignalRGB was quick to take up the remaining 10%. The end result was unbearable frame drops that had us scrambling to close the program. Better hardware might solve that problem, but its a shame people using older hardware will probably have to avoid the app. (Although Microsoft may be solving the old hardware issue its own way with Windows 11.)

These are essentially lighting effects that react to currently playing audio. SignalRGB doesnt separate these visualizations into their own section of the app; theyre intermingled with other lighting effects. Mirroring these visualizations to RGB hardware is fairly interesting, but the visualizations themselves arent particularly novel, so dont expect to be blown away the next time you listen to some Taylor Swift.

We couldnt test this feature because we dont use Philips Hue lightbulbs or have dedicated light strips behind our monitor. We do have one smart bulb, a Nanoleaf Essentials A19 controlled via HomeKit, but neither that lightbulb nor that platform is SignalRGB-compatible. But the basic idea is that the app will sample whats happening on-screen to decide what colors to project to enable improved ambience. These capabilities are also offered by other lighting solutions, but having them included here is still nice.

Its not hard to see why RGB fanatics might be curious about SignalRGB. Keeping an entire systems lighting in sync with unique effects that respond to whats happening on-screen or in-ear is a compelling enough proposition. The effort to support as many devices as possible is also commendable.

But, the execution simply isnt there -- at least not yet. When we tested SignalRGB in June 2021, device previews were incorrect, there were no previews for lighting effects until they were installed, and lots of RGB devices (particularly on the component front) just werent recognized by the software at all. In short, several aspects of the platform feel like a work in progress at best, and far from a polished solution. Is that better than not being able to keep your hardwares lighting in sync at all? Maybe, if you happen to have peripherals that work. But the performance overhead and lack of integrated account management features would be enough for us to stop using SignalRGB even if it did support all our devices.

WhirlwindFX is making steady advances toward a more refined SignalRGB. The company regularly adds support for new devices, expands to additional product categories, and introduces new features. The company also told us its working on a significant overhaul to the dashboard user interface to provide a clearer experience that includes previews for lighting effects and game integrations. A rep told us the update will arrive by July 31st at the latest and will also include GPU and RAM support (although its obviously not clear which models), an in-app notification system for updates, and a tutorial and free one-month trial of the Pro version.

The promised updates sound good, but this isnt a proof of concept looking for beta testers. This is a promise of future potential being marketed as a finished product. Maybe check back in 3-6 months to see how much the device support, features, and overall feel has improved. In the meantime, most people should probably stick with the (likely multiple) pieces of software they currently use to control their RGB devices. The long-dreamed-of world of simple RGB synchronicity still isnt here yet. Maybe it never will be.

Read more from the original source:
One RGB App to Rule Them All? Hands On With WhirlwindFX SignalRGB Software - Tom's Hardware

Last week I was buying some gaskets in my local hardware store when I noticed that I was the only person wearing a mask except for one of the clerks at the registers and she had it below her nose. The last time I was there, just about everybody was masked.

Weve gotten blase about the whole pandemic thing in New Hampshire and for good reason: Were in pretty good shape. The amount of COVID-19 circulating freely is as low as it was at this point a year ago, so low that its easy to ignore.

But there are hints that our free-and-easy summer may be ending sooner than we hoped.

New cases of COVID-19 began rising in New Hampshire last week, although not by much. More alarmingly, new cases are rising in every single state, sometimes sharply. A few places, notably Los Angeles County (which has seven times the population of New Hampshire) have gone back to indoor mask mandates.

According to the CDC, the month of June saw 337 Americans die from COVID-19 on an average every day more than deaths from gunshot, car crashes and flu, combined.

Its a reminder that the pandemic is not anywhere near over in America. And in much of the rest of the world, as international news depressingly tells us, COVID-19 is a raging pandemic that kills thousands and hospitalizes millions and is helping to undermine entire economies.

This is, of course, due mostly to the Delta variant.

Weve long known that the Delta breed, to use my canine metaphor, is more contagious than the original virus. Now that its widespread, weve found that, happily, it does not seem to be more likely to cause serious illness. Thats good news but even so, if we have more cases, were going to eventually see more people in the hospital and more deaths.

The solution, of course, is to boost our natural immune system to make it harder for any variant of the COVID-19 virus to take root in our lungs.

I have done that through eating right, exercising and all that stuff, but mostly through vaccination. If more people followed suit we wouldnt have to be worrying so much.

Dont you wish they would? I sure do.

TheMonitorhas paused our daily updated charts. For coronavirus-related information and updates throughout the week, visitconcordmonitor.com/coronavirus.

How are we doing on vaccinations? Not good enough and not getting better.

For all practical purposes, nobody is getting vaccinated anymore in New Hampshire.

The first two weeks of July saw just 2,000 people added to the tally of those who had gotten their first shot and just 2,500 added to the fully vaccinated list maintained by the state Department of Health and Human Services.

It looks like were going to be stuck at 60% of the population getting vaccinated, although that could rise if a vaccine is developed for children under 12. Either way its nowhere near any sort of herd immunity, especially not with a more-contagious variant on the loose.

Whats the trend on the spread and impact of the disease? Good but there are hints of less good.

Our two-week average of new cases is still low 25 per day as of July 16, exactly what it was on July 16 of 2020 but last week saw more than 40 new cases of COVID-19 announced on three days running. That hasnt happened since mid-June.

Read more from the original source:
COVID hints that our free-and-easy summer may end early - Granite Geek - Concord Monitor

What states are included?

While they vary state to state, most of the items included in the tax reduction are school based, such as stationery and folders. However, some states include some expensive products in their qualifying items such as computers and software:

For many states on this list the reasons are for back to school preparation. With the new school year approaching, the tax-free weekends give parents and students some support in acquiring school items.

That is not to say they are the only ones who can utilise the weekends. These discounts apply to all shoppers.

However, some states have multiple tax-free holidays a year but for different reasons.

For example, Florida has two more tax-free weekends. These are in place so people can prepare for natural disasters. those were back in May and June. Other states which experience disasters such as Texas and Alabama have extra breaks as well.

Originally posted here:
When will the 2021 tax holiday be? - AS English