AWS Glue now supports zero-ETL for self-managed database sources. Using Glue zero-ETL, you can now setup an integration to replicate data from Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL or PostgreSQL databases which are located on-premises or on AWS EC2 to Redshift with a simple experience that eliminates configuration complexity.
AWS zero-ETL for self-managed database sources will automatically create an integration for an on-going replication of data from your on-premises or EC2 databases through a simple, no-code interface. You can now replicate data from Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases into Redshift. This feature further reduces users’ operational burden and saves weeks of engineering effort needed to design, build, and test data pipelines to ingest data from self-managed databases to Redshift.
AWS Glue zero-ETL for self-managed database sources are available in the following AWS Regions: US East (Ohio), Europe (Stockholm), Europe (Ireland), Europe (Frankfurt), Canada West (Calgary), US West (Oregon), and Asia Pacific (Seoul) regions. To get started, sign into the AWS Management Console. For more information visit the AWS Glue page or review the AWS Glue zero-ETL documentation.
Furnituremakers among you undoubtedly remember your most difficult glue-up: A countertop, bench or tabletop of unwieldy dimensions. Well, you probably won’t complain again, after seeing what these folks are doing. Swiss timber company Huesser Holzleimbau, which specializes in creating glue-lam beams, recently won a contract to manufacture two burly beams for a bridge.
Twenty-eight employees (including people from the office called onto the shop floor to pitch in) worked together on the most massive glue-up I’ve ever seen:
Once all of the separate glue-ups were put together, the resultant part was 27.3 m (90 ft) long, with a width and height of 1320 x 1360 mm (52 x 54 in). Counting the steel brackets embedded into the beam, it weighs 24.1 tonnes (53,130 lbs)! And they made two of them.
Located in Obersaxen, Switzerland, the Lochlitobel Bridge was erected last month to span a gorge.
As for why they made it out of wood and not steel, it was actually faster and required less logistics to make it out of wood. Glue-lam beams have 1.5 to 3 times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel, and could thus be fabricated offsite, trucked to the site and hoisted into place with less equipment than would have been required with heavy steel.
"During the entire construction period, no auxiliary bridges would have been possible, and there would have been virtually no convenient detour options," writes the Canton of Graubunden, where the bridge is located. "To minimize traffic restrictions, the two wooden load-bearing girders, each weighing 25 tons and over 27 meters long, were prefabricated and then installed on site with millimeter precision. This process ensured high quality and, from the dismantling of the old bridge to the commissioning of the new one, a road closure of only eight weeks."
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The Windows taskbar is something that we see all the time, but don’t pay much attention to. It’s there. It exists. And if you’re like most people, you probably only use it for interacting with the Start menu, switching apps, or accessing the Quick Settings every now and then.
But hidden in that quiet corner of your screen are a few icons that deserve way more attention than they get. These icons appear when apps are using sensitive features like your microphone or your location. And if you ignore them for too long, you might be giving away more of your privacy than you realize.
Most people ignore these taskbar icons, but they’re crucial
These icons are trying to tell you something
Every time an app uses your microphone, you’ll see a tiny microphone icon right next to the system tray. If you hover over it, Windows will show you the name of the app that’s using it. If multiple apps are listening or recording at once, Windows will list all of them.
This works the same way for location access. When an app is accessing your location, you’ll see a tiny arrow instead. And if both your microphone and location are being accessed at once, you’ll see both icons stacked together.
The problem is that most people never notice these indicators, or they see them and never bother to check what they mean. Also, these icons disappear as soon as the app stops using the microphone or location, so they are very easy to miss. It’s not like your webcam’s LED indicator that lights up right in front of you. They’re small, quiet icons that appear in a corner you rarely focus on, but they’re just as important.
A look at the privacy menu can reveal more
The activity log most people never open
Even if you miss the microphone and location taskbar icons, you can still check which apps are using your PC’s sensitive features. For that, you need to dive into Windows’ privacy settings.
Head to Settings > Privacy & security > App permissions and click Microphone. Expand Recent activity, and you’ll see a list of apps that have accessed your mic in the past 7 days. It also shows the exact date and time each app used it. This makes it easy to determine whether the activity lines up with something you actually did, like joining a video call, or whether an app accessed your mic when you were not expecting it.
The same applies for location tracking. Go back to App permissions and click Location instead. You will see which apps have used your location and when. And while Windows doesn’t show a camera icon when an app is using your webcam, you can find details about camera activity in the privacy menu.
This menu is basically a detailed history of which apps have been peeking behind the curtain. The taskbar icons show you what’s happening in the moment, and the privacy settings show you what has been happening over time.
Become a ghost on your Windows PC.
Stop these apps from invading your privacy before it’s too late
Cut off unnecessary access
Screenshot by Pankil Shah — No attribution required
Knowing which apps are accessing your microphone, camera, or location is only half the battle. If something looks suspicious, you also need to know how to put a stop to it. Of course, the most straightforward way is to just uninstall the app or program, but that’s not always an option or even necessary. In some cases, you might actually need the app, just not its constant access to your personal data.
To get around this, you can revoke camera, location, or microphone permissions for such apps. Head to Settings > Privacy & security > App permissions and select the permission you want to manage. Then expand Let apps access your camera/microphone/location and use the toggles to revoke access for apps that don’t need it.
One tricky part is that when a website uses your microphone or location, Windows’s taskbar icon or privacy menu will only show the name of the browser. This means you won’t be able to tell which website was actually accessing it from the taskbar.
If you don’t want to revoke camera or microphone access for your browser entirely, most browsers also show information about which websites have accessed your PC’s sensitive features like the camera, microphone, or location. For instance, in Edge, you can head to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Site permissions > Recent activity to see if any website has accessed your camera, microphone, or location. You can then click on the website that looks suspicious and block its access from there.
Most of us don’t really pay much attention when setting up an app for the first time. In a rush to try something new, we often grant all the permission an app needs without thinking it through. The good thing is that Windows has your back and can notify you when apps use sensitive information. But it is still up to you to notice those indicators and act on them before they become a bigger problem.
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Save 40% with Plex Pass Black Friday deal – Image credit: Plex
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Today, AWS Organizations announces support for upgrade rollout policy, a new capability that helps customers stagger automatic upgrades across their Amazon Aurora (MySQL-Compatible Edition and PostgreSQL-Compatible Edition) and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) including RDS for MySQL, RDS for PostgreSQL, RDS for MariaDB, RDS for SQL Server, RDS for Oracle, and RDS for Db2 databases. This capability eliminates the operational overhead of coordinating automatic minor version upgrades either manually or through custom tools across hundreds of resources and accounts, while giving customers peace of mind by ensuring upgrades are first tested in less critical environments before being rolled out to production.
With upgrade rollout policy, you can define upgrade sequences using simple orders (first, second, last) applied through account-level policies or resource tags. When new minor versions become eligible for automatic upgrade, the policy ensures upgrades start with development environments, allowing you to validate changes before proceeding to more critical environments. AWS Health notifications between phases and built-in validation periods help you monitor progress and ensure stability throughout the upgrade process. You can also disable automatic progression at any time if issues are detected, giving you complete control over the upgrade journey.
This feature is available in all AWS commercial Regions and AWS GovCloud (US) Regions, supporting automatic minor version upgrades for Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS database engines. You can manage upgrade policies using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, AWS SDKs, AWS CloudFormation, or AWS CDK. For Amazon RDS for Oracle, the upgrade rollout policy supports automatic minor version upgrades for engine versions released after January 2026.
Over the past couple of weeks, friends and colleagues have made me aware of multiple ingeniously implemented, browser-based ways to play classic MS-DOS and Windows games with other people on basically any hardware.
The late 1990s and early 2000s were the peak of multiplayer gaming for me. It was the era of real-time strategy games and boomer shooters, and not only did I attend many LAN parties, but I also played online with friends.
That’s still possible today with several old-school games; there are Discord servers that arrange scheduled matches of Starsiege Tribes, for example. But oftentimes, it’s not exactly trivial to get those games running in modern Windows, and as in the old days, you might have some annoying network configuration work ahead of you—to say nothing of the fact that many folks who were on Windows back in those days are now on macOS or Linux instead.
Millions of people around the world are living with the harsh reality of Alzheimer’s disease, which also significantly impacts family members. Nobody is immune, as A-list actor Chris Hemsworth discovered when his own father was recently diagnosed. The revelation inspired Hemsworth to embark on a trip down memory lane with his father, which took them to Australia’s Northern Territory. The experience was captured on film for A Road Trip To Remember, a new documentary film from National Geographic.
Director Tom Barbor-Might had worked with Hemsworth on the latter’s documentary series, Limitless, also for National Geographic. Each episode of Limitless follows Hemsworth on a unique challenge to push himself to the limits, augmented with interviews with scientific experts on such practices as fasting, extreme temperatures, brain-boosting, and regulating one’s stress response. Barbor-Might directed the season 1 finale, “Acceptance,” which was very different in tone, dealing with the inevitability of death and the need to confront one’s own mortality.
“It was really interesting to see Chris in that more intimate personal space, and he was great at it,” Barbor-Might told Ars. “He was charming, emotional, and vulnerable, and it was really moving. It felt like there was more work to be done there.” When Craig Hemsworth received his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to explore that personal element further.
Director Tom Barbor-Might behind the camera during filming of the documentary.
National Geographic/Craig Parry
Director Tom Barbor-Might behind the camera during filming of the documentary.
National Geographic/Craig Parry
Scientist Suraj Samtani chats with Chris Hemsworth about the potential benefits of reminiscence therapy.
National Geographic
Scientist Suraj Samtani chats with Chris Hemsworth about the potential benefits of reminiscence therapy.
National Geographic
Director Tom Barbor-Might behind the camera during filming of the documentary.
National Geographic/Craig Parry
Scientist Suraj Samtani chats with Chris Hemsworth about the potential benefits of reminiscence therapy.
National Geographic
Hemsworth found a scientific guide for this journey in Suraj Samtani, a clinical psychologist at the New South Wales Center for Healthy Brain Aging who specializes in dementia. Recent research has shown that one’s risk of dementia can be reduced by half by maintaining regular social interactions and even after a diagnosis, fostering strong social connections can slow cognitive decline. Revisiting past experiences, including visiting locations from one’s past, can also boost cognition in those with early-onset dementia or Alzheimer’s—hence the Hemsworth road trip.
The first stage was to re-create the Melbourne family home from the 1990s. “The therapeutic practice of reminiscence therapy gave the film not only its intellectual and emotional underpinning, it gave it its structure,” said Barbor-Might. “We wanted to really explore this and also, as an audience, get a glimpse of their family life in the 1990s. It was a sequence that felt really important. The owner extraordinarily agreed to let us revert [the house]. They went and lived in a hotel for a month and were very, very noble and accommodating.”
