Download the MovieLens data set from: https://grouplens.org/datasets/movielens/latest/

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October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). And there is still a lot to do!

For the last 17 years, the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) campaign, driven by the Department of Homeland Security, has raised awareness about the importance of cyber security across the Nation with the mission of ensuring that all Americans have the resources they need to be safer and more secure online.

In alignment with this noble mission, Microsoft Security is providing educational content and executive speakers to empower our customers, employees and families. Tune into the CyberTalks recap to listen to the keynoted delivered by @Ann Johnson, Corporate Vice President of Security, Compliance and Identity, on how to future proof your security strategy.

Cyber security podcasts

In addition to the blog series that is taking over our blog in October, Microsoft Security is also sponsoring two security podcasts in CyberScoop.com we want to encourage our community to tune in and listen to both conversations.

• Available now: Enabling secure remote work by embracing Zero Trust—One of the greatest challenges we often hear from public and private sector CISOs, when it comes to achieving a Zero Trust IT operating environment, is the question of how to tackle such a massive undertaking—and where to begin. Tune in to listen to CTO, Steve Faehl, to learn more about Microsoft’s journey towards Zero Trust.
• Available October 19: Risk Reduction—Podcast featuring GM, Alym Rayani who delivers an in-depth conversation about compliance and its connection to security.

Additional security blogs to read

Government agency audit traceability

The reality today for many government agencies is there is no audit traceability to determine which email messages and content an attacker may have seen during a breached session into a user’s mailbox. The standard level of Office 365 auditing includes events that a user logged into their mailbox but does not include detailed information on the activity that occurs within the mailbox. As a result, organizations have no choice but to assume all content within the mailbox is compromised whether sensitive data or PII was viewed by the adversary. To learn more about how using Advanced Audit can help improve forensic investigation capability, read this blog from Matthew Littleton, Principal Technical Specialist on this Public Sector blog.

Top 5 security questions asked by US Government customers

In an era of remote work, end users wanted to collaborate with outside agencies but in a way that meant their data was secure. IT Admins wanted to know which configuration options best fit their organization’s security posture. CIO’s wanted to lean in and give their workforce the best in class technology, all while following US Government accreditation standards. The common theme in most questions asked by our customers was around security. Read more about the top 5 security questions asked by our US Government customers for Microsoft Teams.

October is my favorite time of year, between the change of season, Major League Baseball playoffs, and with football underway. It’s also National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, though with so many cyberattacks and incidents in the news, one month of dedicated focus hardly seems sufficient. Learn how Microsoft delivers on an end-to-end security strategy to reduce risk and deliver on its commitment to customers.

To learn more about how to be #Cybersmart visit the cybersecurity website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

If you’ve been itching for a bit of Turrican-themed action on your Switch, then you’ll be delighted to hear that Turrican Flashback, the iconic and much acclaimed action shooter is landing on the Switch on 8th December. It will be available to buy on the eShop and it’s also getting a physical release too. Developed with some of the original team and featuring the soundtrack by Chris Huelsbeck this is one to watch out for.

It should be noted that this release comes in addition to Strictly Limited Games’ Turrican Anthology Volumes 1 & 2, which include these games and others spread across two releases.

Here are some more details about this retro compilation from ININ Games:

ININ Games is proud to share the exciting news that Turrican, Europe’s greatest action video game series, will be coming to retail for the first time in almost 30 years in a brand new, curated collection from the original development team Factor 5 titled Turrican Flashback! This curated retail edition aims to make Turrican available to a wider audience and complement the limited collector’s editions from Strictly Limited Games that are dedicated to collectors and the biggest fans of Turrican.

Turrican Flashback brings together 4 of the greatest titles in the series with Turrican, Turrican II: The Final Fight, Mega Turrican and Super Turrican all in one package! Developed jointly between the original team at Factor 5 and preservation specialists Ratalaika Games, Turrican has never felt, looked and sounded better! New reworked controls makes the classic home computer classics an ease to pick up and play, welcoming new and old fans to relive the classic with the touch of a button. Additionally, new filters and dynamic on screen elements allows players to customize their experience, going full “Retro” or enjoy the game in full widescreen with minimal on-screen HUD elements. All this with crystal clear and perfectly rendered audio playback of the classic soundtracks and sound effects!

Turrican Flashback packs all this and more into a neat package retailing at 29,99€ and marks the return of Europe’s greatest gaming hero! Rise against the Machine, save the galaxy and welcome back… To Turrican!

Let us know if you are excited about the release of Turrican Flashback in December with a comment below.

The Godot game engine recently released a developer update of their Web export development progress. This blog post discussed some of the upcoming features of the new WIP web exporter, including work to support GDNative on the Web, which would be a huge step forward.

Of perhaps more interest though is the new version of Godot Online, a version of Godot that runs entirely in your browser. Getting started is remarkably simple, go to Godot Online url, then upload a zipped copy of the project you want to edit by clicking Choose File then selecting the zip, once done hit the Start Godot Editor button:

Next click the Import button, then navigate to the zip file containing your project.

Next you need to create a project, this is the same process as normal Godot, create a new empty folder in your projects directory then click Import & Edit:

At this point everything else should be exactly like using normal desktop Godot. The only major difference is exporting your project. When you are done you can export your project as a zip file using the Project->Tools->Download Project Source.

You can learn more about Godot Online and see it in action in the video below.

Silverblue is an operating system for your desktop built on Fedora. It’s excellent for daily use, development, and container-based workflows. It offers numerous advantages such as being able to roll back in case of any problems. If you want to update to Fedora 33 on your Silverblue system, this article tells you how. It not only shows you what to do, but also how to revert things if something unforeseen happens.

Prior to actually doing the rebase to Fedora 33, you should apply any pending updates. Enter the following in the terminal:

$ rpm-ostree update

or install updates through GNOME Software and reboot.

Rebasing using GNOME Software

The GNOME Software shows you that there is new version of Fedora available on the Updates screen.

First thing you need to do is to download the new image, so click on the Download button. This will take some time and after it’s done you will see that the update is ready to install.

Click on the Install button. This step will take only a few moments and then you will be prompted to restart your computer.

Click on Restart button and you are done. After restart you will end up in new and shiny release of Fedora 33. Easy, isn’t it?

Rebasing using terminal

If you prefer to do everything in a terminal, than this next guide is for you.

Rebasing to Fedora 33 using terminal is easy. First, check if the 33 branch is available:

$ ostree remote refs fedora

You should see the following in the output:

fedora:fedora/33/x86_64/silverblue

Next, rebase your system to the Fedora 33 branch.

$ rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/33/x86_64/silverblue

Finally, the last thing to do is restart your computer and boot to Fedora 33.

How to roll back

If anything bad happens—for instance, if you can’t boot to Fedora 33 at all—it’s easy to go back. Pick the previous entry in the GRUB menu at boot, and your system will start in its previous state before switching to Fedora 33. To make this change permanent, use the following command:

$ rpm-ostree rollback

That’s it. Now you know how to rebase Silverblue to Fedora 33 and roll back. So why not do it today?

Trick or treating may be off the cards for Halloween this year, but all that indoor time will surely have given you ample opportunity to create the cosplay garb of your dreams, no? Ready for when you can venture out and plunge your hands into communal bowls of candy of an evening, right?

Well, it doesn’t really matter — your quaint costume will pale in comparison to this incredible Samus suit built by Brenden McCormack and his wife, Laura. As highlighted by Kotaku, Brenden is a developer at Wargaming — the studio behind World of Tanks — but in his downtime it seems this Metroid fan enjoys building arm cannons and baby Metroids in canisters with his significant other.

Just take a look at the images in his tweet below. We don’t know about you, but it sure puts our bedsheet with some eye holes cut out to shame!

Brenden also shared a short clip of the suit powering up:

Of course, this isn’t the first Samus cosplay we’ve seen, but we’re constantly astonished by the engineering and skill that goes into these suits, and the addition of the cute baby Metroid here really is the icing on the cake.

Think your Halloween efforts can compete with this? Feel free to dazzle us below with you own efforts this 31st Oct. Stay safe, everyone!

There are myriad spooky levels throughout the history of video games, although one of the best has to be Mad Monster Mansion from Banjo-Kazooie (officially known as The Best Video Game Of All Time™ around these parts — when this writer’s around, at least).

Composer Grant Kirkhope recently put out a remix of that level’s creepy theme, as well as a witchy remix for the villainous Gruntilda. On top of those seasonal gifts, Kirkhope has also confirmed that he’s working (slowly) on an entire album of remixes from the game. Now that’s just the kind of wholesome, heart-warming news we need to get us though the end of this wretched year!

You can check out the recent remixes at Grant’s Bandcamp page via the tweets below:

There’s no set timescale for release — and as he states above, it may not include every track from the game — but the mischievous fairy tale-esque soundtrack from the original is still fantastic over two decades on, so the prospect of hearing it again with a fresh take from the maestro, Grant ‘Clanker’ Kirkhope, is very exciting indeed.

Want a fun spooky game for Halloween? Dig out Grabbed By The Ghoulies, whydonchya? If you don’t have a copy of the Xbox original (for shame), it’s included in Rare Replay!… What do you mean that’s not on Switch?!?