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Introduction and a Warning About Illegal Harm
The UK Online Safety Act is a transformative piece of legislation designed to make online spaces safer for users. Platforms that fail to comply risk hefty fines, reputational damage, and, in extreme cases, criminal liability. Illegal harm online, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), terrorist content, and hate speech, is now under tighter scrutiny.
The regulations are international in their reach and apply to online services that have links with the UK, regardless of where the provider of the service is based or registered.
TL:DR – The deadline has passed for completing a risk assessment. You should still complete one immediately because if your business provides an online service (a service made available over the internet), such as a website or an app, the Act may apply. The Act introduces new regulations for online service providers to help keep people in the UK – especially children – safe from illegal and harmful content online.
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Read more: UK Online Safety Act Compliance: What You Must Do Now
Backing up data is essential, but keeping multiple drives in sync and ensuring file integrity can be challenging. macOS Sequoia includes several built-in command-line utilities to manage, compare, and verify files effectively. Theres also Carbon Copy Cloner which you should just go ahead and use without hesitation. Its been around for decades, not quite as long as the 50 year old Unix diff utility but nevertheless it has earned its reputation as a rock solid graphical drive copying / cloning utility for macOS.
TL;DR – The best macOS tools for syncing and comparing backup drives include rsync for file transfer, diff for directory comparison, shasum for integrity checks, and fswatch for real-time monitoring. Automating these processes with cron - an old school but ubiquitous utility that runs commands or shell scripts periodically at fixed times, dates, or intervals can ensure backup reliability.
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VMware’s decision to make VMware Workstation and VMWare Fusion free for all users has opened up new possibilities for developers, IT professionals, and businesses. This move simplifies virtualisation, allowing users to run and manage virtual machines (VMs) on Windows and Linux without additional costs. One of the biggest advantages is the ease of moving virtual machines between different platforms, particularly from macOS (using VMware Fusion) to a Windows or Linux PC running VMware Workstation.
TL:DR – Moving virtual machines in VMware virtual machine format is easier than ever between Intel based Mac; computers, Windows PC's and Linux desktops.
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My Mac mini (2018) is still supported, say Apple. But I seem to have reached a crossroads with it. You see, it won't update to macOS Sequioia 15.3.2 no matter what I try, and I have tried quite hard - As Apple continues to enhance its software offerings, compatibility issues seem to be increasing. I wonder if its a sign that it is time to depart the Intel Mac owners club for good and lose my last liferaft to x86 virtualisation on macOS? Thats quite a big call for me to make as I have a few virtual machines that I do really still need. But I have one faithful old Xserve 3,1 which could be able to run them still. So this isn't really a howto post more a lament for Intel macOS and perhaps the start of a long goodbye to it. This post investigates the specifics of these installation failures and outlines potential troubleshooting steps.
TL:DR The macOS Sequoia 15.3.2 update, while introducing crucial security patches, is not installing smoothly for this Mac Mini 2018 Intel user. Comprehensive troubleshooting steps which normally alleviate common issues don't seem to be working for me so far. In the end I had to completely erase it and revert to macOS Sonoma. So, I'm done with this Mac Mini and its off to Computer Exchange...
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Read more: Intel based Mac Mini (2018) Sequoia 15.3.2 update failed
direnv lets you load and unload environment variables depending on the current directory. This is incredibly helpful for per-project isolated development environments or in DevOps for loading secrets for deployment of software builds reliably.
TL:DR – This is a shell extension, for Unix-like operating systems with a supported shell such as bash, zsh, and is easy to install and widely supported. Highly recommended.
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The Time Machine feature on macOS Sequoia plays a vital role in ensuring the safety of your data. This article offers insights into effective usage of Time Machine, and explores its frustrations.
TL:DR – The benefits of using Time Machine include its capability for incremental backups and version control. While new updates have introduced bugs leading to backup failures, users can take specific steps to troubleshoot these issues or explore alternative solutions available to maintain their data integrity.
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Read more: Protect your data: Why you should use Time Machine on macOS Sequoia
Installing Node.js on Ubuntu can be a convoluted process, particularly when it comes to managing multiple versions. Node Version Manager (NVM) provides a solution that allows developers to deal with versioning effectively. This guide offers a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough on installing Node.js via NVM on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, ensuring that you maintain the latest Long Term Support (LTS) version of this essential runtime environment vital for backend services and real-time applications.
Node.js is an open-source JavaScript runtime that executes JavaScript code outside a web browser, predominantly used for building scalable network applications. However, various projects might require different versions. NVM addresses this issue seamlessly, allowing developers to switch between Node.js versions as required. Understanding the newer commands and installation steps is imperative in ensuring compatibility and maintaining best practices in development environments. Those looking to dive deeper into NVM can refer to its GitHub repository.
TL:DR – The installation of Node.js on Ubuntu via NVM includes prerequisites, step-by-step installation guidance, how to manage various Node.js versions effectively, and additional insights into best practices for development environments. Using NVM is highly recommended for developers who regularly update or switch node versions to maintain optimised functionality across projects. The version of Node installed by Ubuntu's package manager is woefully outdated so don't assume that will be ok.
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Read more: Why You Should Install Node.js LTS on Ubuntu via NVM
- Apple Notes App Hacks: Power User Cheatsheet and Tips for Improved Workflow
- Which M4 MacBook Model should you buy?
- Unbeatable MacBook Air Bargains in the UK
- The Ten Best Obscure Mobile Apps You Never Knew You Needed
- Older Pixel Devices Get a Performance Boost
- Our Journey to 2.5K Clicks in 28 days from Google Search
- Branching out: creating a new Git repository simply
- Effortless Reminders & Calendars on macOS/iOS/iPadOS
- Is Website Commenting Beneficial for SEO?
- The Impact of Restricting Phone Encryption in the UK
- Boost Your Presentation Impact: Using Presenter Overlay on macOS Effectively
- Pitfalls When Creating a macOS External Startup Disk