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The acronym CNC can be a bit confusing. The letters stand for computer numerical control, meaning a computer controls the movement of a machine. As such, 3D printers, laser cutters, and even vinyl cutters (i.e., a Circut) are technically CNCs. But the term CNC is most often used to describe a machine that uses a spinning spindle with an end mill bit that cuts away material. Some big industrial CNCs substitute a spinning end mill bit with a plasma cutter, but that’s a story for another day....

Because there are still some groans and strains in the supply chain, both big box stores and smaller businesses are offering more deals this year. You can save hundreds of dollars on major staples like TVs or even some top-notch electronics like Samsung devices. Below, we’ve rounded up the best Cyber Monday deals still available that you can shop right now. However, some of these deals might be flash deals, so if you see something that you’d like or that’s a perfect gift for a family member, add it to your cart sooner rather than later....

Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977 and was quickly followed by the launch of Voyager 1 on September 5. Since then, NASA’s twin Voyager probes are the only probes to ever explore interstellar space and have visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Researchers are using the Voyager’s observations to better understand the heliosphere, the protective bubble created by the Sun’s magnetic field and the outward flow of solar wind, and get a more complete picture of the Sun....

Entrepreneurs and experts at the front lines of the AI revolution recognize this is a hurdle technology alone can’t solve, “AI cannot solve issues where there are already underlying problems, like a company’s culture or lack of trust from a customer base,” says Stephan Baldwin, founder of Assisted Living Center. “These are fostered by principles that shape the everyday inner and outer workings of a company.” One of the challenges, Baldwin points out, us “artificial Intelligence models act based on historical data, meaning they’re prone to biases that we humans had when gathering information....

What will life be like in 2022? What will work be like? Businesses will want everyone to be at the office. Unless, that is, it becomes so much cheaper and more profitable to have everyone working from home. Or wait, it’ll all be hybrid. Unless that doesn’t work because everyone at the office will be sitting, lonely, on Zoom calls all day. When you look back on 2021, what themes resonate over and over again?...

Ransomware has become one of the most disruptive forms of cyberattack this year. It was back in 2017 with the global WannaCry outbreak that we first saw the severe disruption the malware could cause, and in 2021, nothing seems to have changed for the better. This year alone, so far we’ve seen the Colonial Pipeline ransomware disaster that caused fuel supply shortages across parts of the US; ongoing issues at Ireland’s national health service, and systematic disruption for meat processor giant JBS due to the malware....

You might need a degree to get a high-paying and solid career, but at the same time, it’s necessary to keep working to pay for your schooling. Throw in supporting your household throughout the process, and the struggle gets even more challenging. And single parents aren’t the only non-traditional students struggling to gain a valuable yet costly education. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, students over age 25 make up the fastest-growing cohort in all of higher education....

Via 9to5Google, Google dropped support for IE 11 because ‘it is time’ and the browser only makes up a small share of browsers used on Google Search. SEE: Another reason why developers are quitting: To escape from your bad code News of Google Search ending official support for IE 11 came from Malte Uble, a software engineer at Google, who explained Google Search now delivers IE 11 browsers a “fallback experience” that offers a pared-back version of Google Search....

“Now that [the NBN’s] built, I think it’s appropriate to treat its cost as sunk and therefore, what matters for Australia is getting the best use out of the NBN,” Sims told Senate Estimates yesterday. The ACCC chair was speaking to the NBN’s efforts to recoup costs, wherein the company responsible for running the network has previously said it needs to eventually have an average revenue per user of AU$51 to avoid a potential write-down....

Outlined in the annual federal Budget released on Tuesday night, the Coalition plans to hand over AU$142.2m across four years to the AFP for upping its specialist operational, intelligence, collection, and criminal asset confiscation capabilities, which includes these new warrants. The Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020 was enshrined late last year, giving the AFP the ability to issue three types of warrants. The first of the warrants is a data disruption one, which can be used to prevent “continuation of criminal activity by participants, and be the safest and most expedient option where those participants are in unknown locations or acting under anonymous or false identities”....

In a statement to ZDNet, Adobe said it ended support for Magento 1 on June 30, 2020. “We continue to encourage merchants to upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Commerce for the most up-to-date security, flexibility, extensibility, and scalability,” an Adobe spokesperson said. “At a minimum, we recommend Magento Open Source merchants on Magento 1 to upgrade to the latest version of Magento Open Source (built on Magento 2), to which Adobe contributes key security updates....

Alexa Together offers an ageing customer 24/7 hands-free access to an Urgent Response professional emergency helpline. During an emergency, they can say, “Alexa, call for help,” to connect with a trained agent who can request the dispatch of police, the fire department or an ambulance. When Urgent Response is called, Alexa will proactively notify a designated caregiver. The service also connects with third-party fall detection devices from Assistive Technology Service (ATS) and Vayyar....

This week, Dominik Gabi, Facebook software engineer said in a blog post that Mariana Trench was originally an internal tool for the company’s security engineers but has now been released to the public “to help scale security through building automation.” Mariana Trench (MT) is a tool for finding vulnerabilities in Android and Java, with a particular focus on examining code in Android applications. According to the tech giant, MT is able to scan “large mobile codebases” and will alert users to potential security problems found in the code by analyzing data flows prior to production....

Current limitations aside, Microsoft is continuing to invest in bringing Android to Windows 11, as seen in its update to the WSA on Windows 11 (version 2204.40000.15) to Android 12.1, which is available to Insiders on the Dev Channel, according to a Microsoft blogpost. WSA launched with Android 11. SEE: The best Android phones: Better than the iPhone? Microsoft has improved networking on the Windows Subsystem for Android, so that Android apps can connect to devices on the same network as a Windows PC....

Comparing the five leading smartphone companies that are shipping 5G-enabled devices – Google, Apple, LG, OnePlus and Samsung – OpenSignal found that a race to make handsets faster is effectively on and is set to further accelerate in 2021. To understand how users are impacted by 5G capabilities, OpenSignal’s researchers looked at average 5G download speeds for owners of different smartphone brands, and compared them to average 4G download speeds for those brands....

I expected that if there was any time when Apple top brass would mention it, it would be during the earnings call. And that’s when it happened. Apple, like most other tech firms, is feeling the pinch due to component shortages. A word that came up a lot during the call was “constraints.” It was up to Apple CFO Luca Maestri to break the bad news. Must read: Don’t buy these Apple products: July 2021 edition Normally, I’d put this down to scarcity marketing – “get in there quick with your iPhone orders, because otherwise you’ll miss out and the cool kids will laugh at you” sort of thing – but these supply constraints are real and they’re affecting almost every company that is involved in making things....

This is quite a significant milestone as it will likely be the end of the line for quite a few older devices, as iOS 15 approaches and support is dropped for some iPhones and iPads. After this point, any battery bugs or performance issues that remain aren’t going to be fixed. Must read: I just found my lost AirTag… you’ll never guess where it went While we don’t yet have the official list of devices supported by iOS 15, the word is that it will drop support for devices running the A9 chip....

A group of Apple employees operating as a “solidarity union” called Apple Together is pushing back after Apple CEO Tim Cook said staff would be required to work from company offices for at least three days a week from September 5. The group claims that Apple’s broad-brush stance on office work fails to take into account “the unique demands of each job role” and ignores evidence that suggests remote work benefits productivity, diversity, inclusion, and work-life balance....

“Apple believes that Australia’s existing regulatory framework is encouraging and fostering innovative developments that offer competition to incumbent banks, while minimising the risks that arise from developments in technology and broader structural changes to the economy driving new forms of payments,” Apple said in a submission [PDF] to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services. “Apple believes policies or regulations that seek to prescribe or dictate a technical approach are unnecessary and create severe unintended consequences, including compromising the security of the payments systems and stifling innovation that benefits customers, banks, and the broader payments industry....

As we’re not yet zipping around the skies in electric flying Ubers, the cumulative impact of these kinds of advancements will take time to be fully realized. While the company continued to make improvements to its Scope 2 (from purchased electricity) emissions in 2021, it still saw significant increases in its Scope 1 (from direct operations) and Scope 3 (from indirect sources) emissions, which typically represent the lion’s share of a company’s carbon footprint....