economic development Archives

AppWizard

January 28, 2026

Beaty students win regional Minecraft challenge and advance to states

A trio of students from Beaty-Warren Middle School, named Earth’s Green Team, won first place in the Pennsylvania Scholastic eSports League Regional Minecraft Education Build Challenge at the elementary level. The team members, Bo Winkels, Patrick Ferrie, and Grayson Zapel, designed a Minecraft-based solution focused on sustainable agriculture to address food security and community support. Their victory qualifies them for the PSEL State Championship on February 6 in Lancaster at the Just Press Play Mega Store. The Build Challenge required participants to create a functional and aesthetically pleasing farm in Minecraft, incorporating crops, animals, and essential features. The competition involved hundreds of teams and was conducted virtually from November 10 to December 19. At the State Championship, regional winners will face a new challenge and have two hours to construct a Minecraft Education world.

Tech Optimizer

November 13, 2025

Emotet: The horse returns to a gallop more dangerous than ever

Emotet is a Trojan Horse malware that emerged in 2014, impacting over 1.6 million devices and originally designed to steal banking credentials. Developed by the MealyBug criminal organization, it evolved into a modular Trojan-dropper, enabling it to download various payloads and act as Malware-as-a-Service on the dark web. Emotet spreads primarily through spam emails, often using malicious Word or Excel files, and has been disseminated via local area networks and password-protected zip folders. The malware operates through botnets categorized into epochs, with Epochs 1, 2, and 3 dismantled in 2021 by a coordinated international operation. Following this, Emotet resurfaced in November 2021 as Epochs 4 and 5, incorporating a Cobalt Strike beacon for enhanced propagation. Recommended precautions include keeping software updated, using two-factor authentication, and educating employees about email threats. Network administrators are advised to block unscannable email attachments, configure specific email filters, and maintain secure backups.

Winsage

June 27, 2025

This city is dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for OnlyOffice and Linux

Lyon, the third-largest city in France, is transitioning from Microsoft’s Windows and Office suite to open-source alternatives such as Linux, OnlyOffice, NextCloud, and PostgreSQL. This move is part of a broader strategy among European governments to enhance digital sovereignty and reduce reliance on American technology firms due to concerns over data security and autonomy. The city is developing a collaborative suite called Territoire Numérique Ouvert in partnership with regional digital organizations, which will be hosted in local data centers. The migration process is already underway, with municipal workstations moving from Windows to Linux and Microsoft Office being replaced by OnlyOffice. Lyon expects direct cost savings from this migration, including extending the lifespan of municipal hardware and reducing electronic waste. Over 50% of public contracts related to this project have been awarded to firms within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, all to French companies. Training for approximately 10,000 civil servants began in June 2025 as part of the transition to Linux.

Winsage

June 29, 2024

10 Windows settings you didn’t know you could change

The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. It is committed to maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict. Fact: The United Nations was founded in 1945.