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Thursday, December 31, 2015

New Security Tool for your Computer...

We are recommending Spybot Anti-Beacon immunization security tool for your system.

We used Spybot Search and Destroy a long time ago, but we don't use it as much anymore, but we do like the Anti-Beacon program.

This program can run alongside DW w/out any problem. We are researching MBAM and Kaspersky, but we don't see a problem.

Anti-Beacon is small, simple to use, and is provided free of charge. It was created to address the privacy concerns of users of Windows 10 who do not wish to have information about their PC usage sent to Microsoft...Windows 7 and 8 capable...
https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The comparisons are starting to Surface...

5 ways Ubuntu Linux is better than Microsoft Windows 10...
http://betanews.com/2015/12/30/microsoft-ubuntu-windows-10-2015/

Fact Correction: You can uninstall IE, but the E stands for Explorer. Windows is Explorer, so to truly uninstall Explorer would uninstall itself...

We agree that Microsoft has been a bit aggressive on it's promotion of Windows 10.

The Nagware reminders can be controlled.

With Control Panel View and App View just tells you that there are a lot of tweaks need uh tweakin' and is typical of OS upgrades.

We like the Tile view, but we agree that something is odd with having the Tiles in the start menu, they don't have a fluid feel to them...

...however the alternative is to have them come in from the sides which could be irritating, or have them just appear in the screen by tapping a key/key combination...what can you think of...

Windows is more concerned with your viewing pleasure at this stage of the game, whereas Ubuntu is concerned with trying to be compatible...

They're both free, but that's where Linux steamrolls over Microsoft.

Microsoft is free for now, but they are going to a fee based subscription to use their software(s) Office is already being charged and Linux is freeeeeee...

Whether you pay for the Windows Software program or you are eligible for the free upgrade will put you in the subscription, but when you stop paying you'll stop receiving program enhancements.

You'll still receive security updates, but you won't get for example Windows 11. Plus there will probably be a cutoff time that you can upgrade like Apple's software does.

sidenote: We really like how Apple and Linux manages it's upgrades with 3rd party applications. That should be Microsoft's focus in our opinion...

In Microsoft's defense, not everyone has been cooperative with MS in the past because MS kept their source code under lock and key, but that's not the case anymore.

Microsoft has really listened to it's users this go around so we see continued changes and advancements in the Windows 10 OS if they continue this holistic approach.

As for the Security issue...well if you're going to use Mainstream Operating Systems like Google, Apple and Microsoft just expect it.

This is where Ubuntu and the like Steamroll over MS, Apple and Google and that motivates businesses. The less crap on their screen the more work that gets done.

Root User on Linux is dominant over Microsoft's Administrator when it comes to security.

Linux can run on small and large networks just like Windows can, and Linux will be cheaper in both scenarios, but Windows has more bells and whistles that end users are familiar with that make it easier to support the end user.

Linux is more forgiving when it comes to hardware which can make upgrades cheaper keeping costs down.

This is where PC dominates the market compared to Apple because Linux, Google and Microsoft are different choices and Apple well is Apple, often imitated never duplicated...and that's a fact!

**UPDATE**

Speaking of MS and their subscription fees does bring out quite a bit of concerns on when and how they should start this process, we say as soon as the year is up...

Here's an idea: Split the difference go 39.95 as would a Malware Program would cost for one year. However, give them the option to pay 59.95 for a two year subscription, a savings of 19.95.

Start working in bundles with 5 years and you'll get a discount for Office...

Let people know that a portion of their payment goes towards a good cause like Habitat for Humanity.

By 2017 or 2018 you should be subscribin' :-P Now just have some cool video and a voice over that says Access Granted and you're good to go :-D

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Happy Birthday Linus Torvalds...

Who's Linus Torvalds? Well he turned 46 years old Yesterday and is running around in your home right now...

Linus Torvalds - "He is the inventor and lead developer of Linux kernel, the core of the operating system we all know and use today under various shapes and sizes: PCs, Android, Chrome OS and others. His decision to create and distribute Linux for free and reveal its underlying source code has made him a cult figure."

Ten facts you might now know about Linux...
http://www.hotforsecurity.com/blog/ten-facts-you-might-now-know-about-linux-13191.html

What is Linux...Linux in it's simplest terms is an Operating System.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Kaspersky Safe Money...

welllll, this program is okay.

It's gotta a couple of issues:

1. It doesn't recognize its own plugins. We think it's because they have condensed the drivers to, two, drivers opposed to its 6 that it loaded before...we're guessing...

...the result is that it shows you that you aren't fully protected because your plugin is disabled, but after checking the Unprotected and then Protected then Protected to Unprotected Mode and everything was enabled, but still got a orange error box...no solution, looked online noticed some people were having it, but none of their solutions worked...

2. Safe Money loads like Sandoxie loads a browser, by creating a frame around it (noticeable) and sorry, but that's not a compliment :-(

...first of all it has to open another browser, so now you have two browsers open and you would think they would be able to manage it better. DW's management is how protected browser's should run.

The overall performance of the Kaspersky Program seems stable, which is a good thing, because KIS is a resourceful program.

It has a little shake upon reboot...otherwise it's a straight forward program and downloadable at Google Play for 3 devices at a really good deal.

400 million people trust Kaspersky Lab...
http://usa.kaspersky.com/?domain=kaspersky.com

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Educational Talks Cont...

Recently we wrote about bringing digital technology to children using interactive software that has the ability to connect with each and every child regardless of the ethnicity.
http://5hvnzon.blogspot.com/search?q=interactive+software

We also mentioned home schooling for students which would bring this one on one digital technology to the student at their home.
http://5hvnzon.blogspot.com/2015/11/heres-idea.html

It's becoming too difficult to train teachers to teach with such an increase of diversity, and it's becoming too expensive and dangerous to get kids to school.

Recently they have just opened school later for students which in turn disrupts the schedules of the parents/guardians to get the kids to school and work for themselves.

Now Mark Zuckerberg weighs in on the subject by introducing personal training and he too recognizes the impracticability of training teachers to meet such a demand.
http://www.newsweek.com/zuckerbergs-automated-teaching-idea-deeply-flawed-404199

One of the concerns is teaching in an isolated manner that trains them efficiently in one field while limiting general abilities.

This is how schools teach now and is the exact reason why we need to change them. Most kids don't have basic math and English skills at a college level and flunk out in their first year, and Ironically enough that's all an Associates degree is :-D

They don't have practical bookkeeping skills, bank skills, home building skills or just plain old social skills and never learn those until college and even then there is no guarantee that they'll get it.

Their other argument is the "Real World" factor that again schools think they teach kids, but they don't.

Schools learn out of a text book and a 200 year old curriculum. blah blah blah blah blah, just text out of a book.

Sure these are based on real world events and people, but the problems come with the solutions, so it leaves little to the imagination.

To teach "Real World" to children you must have them garden to watch something grow that they planted and maintained.

Art, Music and Sports create the real world scenario by teaching them isolation, structure and accomplishment and all can be done using these new tools.

The other areas they speak of is the connection aspect that a teacher has over a software program, but again, they are wrong.

Sure, the teacher may connect well with a few of the students and produce outstanding results for those few, but they'll never reach all their students.

Students at a young age feel comfortable around the people that raise them and with software you can create that image they have in their mind and be able to connect with familiarity all the while showing distinction.

There will always be a need for Teachers, but more specialized and tutorial based to help the child with their subjects remotely.

Plus the software is able to come to them in digital form, so the lessons can be taught using headphones that will block out distractions and keep the pupil focused on the lesson.

The teachers of today vent their frustration when a student can't learn by rubbing their head, sighing and even raising their voice, but a software will always stay in a positive form and always reassuring the student that they are going to get it.

sidenote: However, not limited too...you can change the mannerisms to adapt to different learning abilities... 

We are too reliant on the quotes and expressions of others with television episodes and movies when we should be discovering our own quotes and expressions from ourselves and our peers.

People respond with quotes from movies and find themselves in trouble using the tactics that actors use and not what real life requires.

"Finally, children’s preferences are not fixed—in fact they often change as immediate responses to the environment."

Children's preferences changed due to the parents/guardians life lessons and what has and has not worked for them changes a child's preference.

This is the delicate balance of guardian and child that schools endure every day that includes parents input and child's abilities.

Parents will always be hovering above their children in helicopters, but what has to change is the distance they need to keep from one another so the child can develop on their own and not around the family's business needs.

Hololens developments are the final piece of the puzzle to keep kids connected through digital virtual reality to maintain cognitive skills and social interaction.

They also mention the security behind the development of the child and keeping this safe...safe from what?

Anything you do in school is public record and is used in every resume you'll ever fill out and any job you apply for so this is a ridiculous question.

The only security that people are concerned with is the aggregating circumstances a child/teen has with physical disabilities or personal troubles, but that's not a part of the school system, that's a part of the medical and judicial fields, not the schools.

Time management is the true key to learning and if the child doesn't feel pressured by a clock or their peers stepping up before them to turn in their test first will allow the child to learn at their pace and this is where schools of today will never be able to compete with digital learning...and that's a fact!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Forced Authorization Attacks...

What surprises retailers is that the criminal can type in anything at this stage and the transaction will go through...
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/12/forced_authoriz.html

A Dental Theory...

The Wisdom tooth...

When you are growing up you'll be told you have wisdom teeth, anywhere from 0-4 molars that only need to be pulled if need be...

**UPDATE**
...come to find out there can be more than 4 wisdom teeth.

We say PULL EM!

You'll want to pull them out as soon as it is safe to pull them out because you won't need them...ever!

The theory goes that the dentist doesn't want you to pull them because these are money makers...

Teeth come in crooked and need to be straightened so they immediately put on braces and tell you that this is the right thing to do, but we disagree.

If you were to just pull the Wisdom teeth there will be enough room for the remaining 28 teeth to grow and adjust naturally.

sidenote: We're sure there are exceptions to the rule, but that number is far less than the current average.

Your teeth grow and need that room to fully develop and without the wisdom teeth will reduce a lot of cracked teeth, pricey crown repairs and braces...

The only other hurdle you have to go over in your mind is to convince yourself that you don't need the Wisdom tooth/teeth none of them remove them ALLLLL...and that's a...theory...

Linuxfest 2016...

"LinuxFest Northwest is celebrating 17 years of service to the Free and Open Source community. Please join us by presenting at the largest, technically diverse, educational, and fun open source conferences in the Pacific Northwest. The conference had 1850 attendees last year, and this year promises to be even bigger."

When and Where

April 23rd and 24th 2015 - 9:00am-5pm
Bellingham Technical College
3028 Lindbergh Avenue
Bellingham, WA 98225

http://www.linuxfestnorthwest.org/2016/present

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Patch Tuesday...

It's that time again for updating your Windows 7 and above machines.

We're not fans of Vista and don't understand why people would still use Vista when they could go to 7.

Anyway, update if you dare, as for us, we're waiting...

**UPDATE**

Microsoft Patches 71 Flaws, Two Under Attack; Warns of Leaked XBox Live Cert...
https://threatpost.com/microsoft-patches-71-flaws-two-under-attack-warns-of-leaked-xbox-live-cert/115601/

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Somebody was paying attention in Class...

Watchmaking craftsmanship and avant-garde innovation, the TAG Heuer Connected...
http://us.tagheuer.com/en/luxury-watches/tag-heuer-connected-rubber-bracelet-black

Internet Explorer End of Support...

Theory is becoming reality with Windows 10 and it's support options for systems running anything but, and the new/old update is you better get to 11...

The rumor is that Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 11 would be it's last version of internet explorer, which means no more updates/improvements/security patches for 10 and below.

Rumor...
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/WindowsForBusiness/End-of-IE-support

It's a good thing, because it's getting confusing going back and forth between whether or not you're talking about IE or OS :-P

Here's an Idea...

For the Calendar's that are becoming popular again should have an improvement to the Birthday reminder...

When you program in your family and friends birthdays it will announce also how old they are that day.

This comes in handy for those golden birthdays that demand the right gift!

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Upgrading Mac OS X Tiger to Snow Leopard...

Apple supports their product for life it seems like :-D You can still get downloads for programs that are no longer supported.

If you have Tiger you're going to have some problems with the Net so you'll need to upgrade to Snow Leopard.

More than likely if you have Tiger you have an Intel System with 1 gb of ram, UPGRADE to 2 gb.
http://www.crucial.com/

Your system won't perform as well in Lion as it would with Snow Leopard, you can't upgrade to Lion!

El Capitan is the latest installment of OS X, before that is Lion, then Snow Leopard, Leopard and Tiger.

Customer Service has ended for Snow Leopard and anything below Snow Leopard, but all you need is the updates of which Apple will provide and a GURU and you'll have an OS that should last, hmmm 2 years?., before upgrading/replacing ;-)

"You can indeed still get all of the security & other OS patches to 10.6 Snow Leopard. You can use the 10.6.8 Combo updater, which will update any version (10.6.0, 10.6.1, 10.6.2, etc) up to 10.6.8. It's the equivalent of an offline Service Pack installer for MS Windows.
10.6.8 Combo updater - https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1399?locale=en_US

You can also still purchase a copy of Snow Leopard here if needed:
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
There are likely a few other security updates, Java updates, and others that you will have to let the OS auto update after the 10.6.8 Combo update completes."

"Tiger and Leopard were released in versions for Intel and PowerPC processors. Snow Leopard is the first version released only for Intel Macs. Since the release of Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion", OS X has dropped support for 32-bit Intel processors as well. It now runs exclusively on 64-bit Intel CPUs.
The latest version of OS X is 10.11 "El Capitan", which was released to the public on September 30, 2015."

To upgrade just insert the DVD Leopard and follow the prompts to Install/restart...

Leopard will install upon reboot, so let it do it's boot and you just need to answer what language to load in, and choose the Mac HD. Leopard will tell you that it's updating, Snow Leopard won't.

Snow Leopard will collect information and install components from the desktop should take 20 minutes, then it will reboot and continue the install, should be around 40% left to install...

We recommend loading Leopard First, do updates, then Install Snow Leopard, do updates, and in that order.

quiktip: We recommend doing the 10.6.8 update by itself, do the other two individually as well.

sidenote: Say Replace Conflict (Font Issue)

The upgrade is clean and you'll finally be able to get your Firefox Up to Date, which is the problem with Tiger and Leopard, most go to Snow Leopard to make it all worth while.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Here's an Idea...

How about getting some security software for the software that is in cars today.

With a Wi-Fi connection in your car makes you vulnerable to being hacked, so do we have a Firewall for the car?

Of course they do, it's in-between the engine and the driver, not that firewall, a FIREWALL???

You should have an app that shows who is on your network and can lock down to only those users.