Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Here's an Idea...

You cities that have a failing bike share system should try moving your bikes to the terminals of the train stops...

You would also have them at your bus stops as well...

Try to limit the buses to the Train Stops by the furthest one out while leaving short distances to the bikes, this way you sort of...force them on the bike ;-)

You could also provide incentive for businesses to host pronto bike stations at their businesses which might motivate people to use them more...

They could peddle to their next stop and so forth...

They could take it one step further and have bike trailers connected to bikes to help in carrying their load...

Maybe even have a pickup service to go to the house to pick up bikes if customers want to use them to do daily runs w/out having to take them back to the "bike rack"...

Or you could start bringing them closer to the homes and have a bike rack neighborhood friendly conveniently located rental station...

To make this ALL work you'll need to have county and city buses run on the same schedules, which currently city and counties are not doing...

They are worried about revenue, which is admirable, but you need to work together and by doing so, you can create a cheaper solution...

This is the problem now, nobody is talking to one another, schedules are all off and nobody is happy all the while taking millions of taxpayers dollars...

Look it's as easy as adding a virtual site to a Master Web page, plus you would be able to see what everyone else can see while navigating your own grid...

County and State have control over their buses, but would only be able to view all bus/train grids throughout the state...

In other words, to provide security for the cities and counties you would have read only privileges on services outside of your network...

The software itself would be able to analyze all the data after a manual submission that would coordinate bus schedules more consistent with all connections in all networks...

Good Luck ;-) you're gonna need it...and that's a fact!

...what can you think of...

Monday, March 28, 2016

The Apple Encryption case dropped...

The FBI said they have dropped the case against Apple because of a third party involvement that discovered a way around the encryption...

sidenote: We heard that John McAfee offered to help...could you imagine :-O

They are being secretive about it as well, but not sure why because more than likely the third party was Syed Rizwan Farook's fingerprint :-D

Either way, it shows that they don't enhouse the talent anymore...

Way to stand your ground Apple, but you know that the Govt. picks it's battles carefully, you can bet it's not over yet...

You know back in the day, it was a proud honor to be the one that showed the government something that helped them with national security, but not anymore...

You say you have improved your relationship with the people, but obviously you haven't...and that's a fact!

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Here's an Idea...

Remove the Echo...

It's time to remove the echo from devices...

When you're in speaker mode it creates an echo and an interference signal that muffles the speaker, and depending on the distance you are from the phone can make it worse...

They say a Duck doesn't have an echo when it quacks, and some say they do, well there in lies the confusion, does it or doesn't it needs to be answered...

If the duck doesn't have an echo then it stands to reason that an echo can be removed, and if the echo can be removed the call experience would improve...

...ahhh, if anything, it might just turn out to be a fun exercise in futility ;-)

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Monday, March 21, 2016

Update Your Kindle "TONIGHT"...

Neglect to make the over-the-top change by tomorrow, and you'll lose access to the Kindle Store, books saved in the Cloud, and other features that depend on Kindle services...
http://www.pcmag.com/news/343055/have-an-older-kindle-update-now-or-lose-internet-access

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Qualcomm Security Concerns...

One of the greatest concerns surrounding the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) is its security, and it seems that some people's worst fears have just been realized...
http://betanews.com/2016/03/15/internet-of-things-security/

Another example that companies don't concern themselves with security, and Qualcomm is already failing as we've pointed out earlier.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Did you Really Read it...

AT&T Sent out a little snippet that let you know that your data is our utmost concern, but just so you know we're sharing it already, hope you don't mind...

Oh, thanks...we think...NOT...unsubscribe from it...

"AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT THE PRIVACY OF YOUR CUSTOMER PROPRIETARY NETWORK INFORMATION (OR CPNI)"


"The protection of our customers' privacy is of utmost importance to the employees and management of the AT&T family of companies (AT&T)*. Please take a moment to read the following important message about the privacy of your customer information.
 AT&T companies that provide telecommunications and interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service (which permits VoIP customers to both send and receive calls to/from customers with traditional telephone/telecommunications service) would like to share your customer proprietary network information (CPNI) within the AT&T family of companies for our own marketing purposes, including using that information to offer you additional products and services.
 What is CPNI? Your CPNI includes the types of telecommunications and interconnected VoIP services you currently purchase, how you use them and the related billing for those services. CPNI does not include your telephone number, your name or your address. Protecting the confidentiality of your CPNI is your right and our duty under federal law. As an AT&T customer, you can restrict the use of your CPNI even within the AT&T family of companies.
 To allow AT&T to use your CPNI, no further action is required. AT&T and our authorized agents will not sell, trade or share your CPNI with anyone other than those who are in the AT&T family of companies or are AT&T authorized agents, unless required by law.
 If at any time you would prefer that AT&T not use your CPNI to offer you additional products and services, you may:

  •   Submit an online form at https://www.att.com/ecpnioptout/InitiateCPNIForm.action; or
  •   Call 800.315.8303 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and follow the prompts; or
  •   To speak to a service representative call 800.288.2020.

 Your decision to permit or restrict the use of CPNI will remain in effect until you decide to change it, which you can do at any time without charge. Restricting our use of your CPNI will not affect the provision of any AT&T products or services to which you currently subscribe, nor will it eliminate other types of marketing contacts.
 Thank you for choosing AT&T. We appreciate your business."

It probably won't work for you and they'll refer you to this # 1-800-288-2020, but don't it's just 611 from your phone and they won't know what you're talking about...

Just dial # 800.315.8303, but it probably will give you a technical error and won't be able to process it, just dial back and do it again and it should finish the restriction process.

Malwarebytes semi-regular newsletter...

"Say howdy to our semi-regular newsletter. In it we typically talk about how to prevent threats like ransomware, give you the latest intel on how to avoid cyberscams, and tip you off to the latest Malwarebytes deals. It's all the info you need to be a cybersecurity ninja. If that sounds good to you, we'll keep sending 'em along. If not, it's easy to unsubscribe. And if you change your mind later, you always sign up on our website."

Cheers,
The Malwarebytes team
https://www.malwarebytes.org/articles/how-to-beat-ransomware-prevent-dont-react/

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Linuxfest Northwest 2016 Registration is Open...

Greetings from LFNW!
Have you registered yet for LinuxFest Northwest 2016? We're celebrating our 17th year of Linux and Open Source! Thanks to corporate sponsors and individual supporters, as well as Bellingham Technical College, the event is free to attendees again this year. Thank you for your support!

If you already registered, thank you! We look forward to seeing you in April.

***Whats new?***
 * New Open Hardware area
 * Expanded Friday night board-game party at Fox Hall & early registration. Skip the line!
 * New Saturday night after-party at the Hotel Bellwether
 * 80 Presentations, Dedicated GNOME and Postgres Sprint rooms
 * Dedicated session video team
 * More tracks and timeslots. See more without missing out

Register: http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/2016/registration

Some silver sponsorships still open, see more at https://linuxfestnorthwest.org/2016/sponsor/packages

***Where***
Bellingham Technical College
3028 Lindbergh Avenue
Bellingham, WA 98225

(2 Miles south of Bellingham International Airport, BLI)

***When***
April 23rd and 24th 2016 - 9:00am-5pm. Registration opens at 8:30 Saturday

***Cost***
Like every year, Linuxfest Northwest is Free for standard registration. This will get you into the Exhibit Hall, all Presentations, and the after parties.
We additionally have a Individual Supporter for $70 (Earlybird is $60 before March 16) registration option.
  * T-Shirt
  * Lunch included both days
  * Goodie Canvas Bag
  * The warm feeling of supporting us!

Register: http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/2016/registration

***Lodging***
For more hotels and features of each, visit: https://www.linuxfestnorthwest.org/2016/hotels
YOU MUST BOOK LODGING BY APRIL 1st, 2016 TO SECURE THE GROUP RATE. DON'T DELAY, BOOK IT TODAY!


***Connect with us***
Tweet us! https://twitter.com/lfnw @lfnw Use the #lfnw hash tag if you're discussing LFNW.
Watch us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqeKeRXssKqbK4XHqLYrctQ
Stalk us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/search?search=&keywords=Linuxfest%2BNorthwest
Write the old Style mailing list: http://lists.blug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fest-list

We're looking forward to another great Fest. Tell your friends, and get on board online at linuxfestnorthwest.org

See you there!
LFNW Crew

Register: http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/2016/registration
Keep updated with us:
 Google+: https://plus.google.com/+LinuxfestnorthwestOrg/about
 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/linuxfestnorthwest
 Twitter: https://twitter.com/lfnw
 Site: http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/2016

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Windows 10 Logon Problems...

We had an unusual problem in Windows 10...

When the system was created it was created with a local account with no password, but the user added an email account which caused the other account to stop logging in...

You would still see the name in the login page but using a password or not wouldn't matter because you couldn't login, but you could with the Email account...

Now you might be able to fix this from the account you can log into by pressing and holding the windows key + r, then type netwpliz, once there find the account in question highlight it and choose reset password, you can leave the boxes blank and just say okay if you don't want a password...

If this doesn't allow you to see the account you are having password problems with you might have to enable the Administrator account...

Windows 10 disables the administrator account and has been disabled since Vista or it could be XP, but we think the early versions of Vista still had the Administrator account active...

This is the account needed to make changes to issues like this and from Safe Mode is where you go to change it.

To Enable the Administrator account, type cmd from search, now right click on command prompt and say run as administrator, say yes when prompted...

From command prompt type net user administrator /active:yes now hit enter and exit cmd...

You'll need to enable safe mode boot so, press and hold windos key + r now type msconfig say yes when prompted...

This will open System Configuration, now choose the boot tab then put a check mark in Safe Mode, now press apply then okay, restart...

From safe mode you'll now see an administrator account, click on that, it won't have a password on it, just click on it and sign in...

sidenote: It might automatically boot into Administrator account 

Once in safe mode press and hold windows key + r now type netplwiz...

This will open User Accounts, now find the user you are having problems logging into, now press reset password and type in a new password when prompted or leave the boxes blank and say okay and the password will be removed now close User Accounts...

Now type cmd in search then right click and say run as administrator say yes if prompted, now type Net user administrator /active:no

You'll need to disable safe mode boot so, press and hold windos key + r now type msconfig say yes when prompted...

This will open System Configuration, now choose the boot tab and take the check mark out of Safe Mode, now press apply then okay, restart...

sidenote: Windows menu might not work don't worry about it, you don't need it...

Windows will boot up normal and you will now be able to login to your account without any problem...

Good Luck and Thanks...HP AL ;-)

Saturday, March 12, 2016

CEO Watch...

Margaret Cushing "Meg" Whitman aka. the "Hatchet"...

Well ol' Meg has sliced and diced and correlated HP like a Julian Slicer, but does she have the multi-tasking ability coupled with the technological savvy to compliment her organizational skillz...

She is definitely going to be either the largest failure any business has ever seen or the greatest success for sure...

She's already dwarfed HPQ (Headquarters) so it may be roses for HPE, but it's thorns for HPQ, which would make sense considering that HPQ is the "Male" side, HPE is Female ;-)

She's out to make it her own, so you better get on board, or put on your Gorgets cause it's hatchet time...and that's a fact!

sidenote: We're rootin' for ya' Meg...and that's another fact!

Attention Consumers...

We wanted to say, "Attention Small Business Owners" but, they never listen anyway...

They do however listen to consumers and with social media now they can't help but listen, but in order for them to hear you they need to be called out first...

So we are here to call out all small businesses. Oh, and if you make less than a billion a year, you're a small business.

The only difference between the lot of you is that one is just smaller than the other ;-)

Just recently we read an article from InfoWorld:

Introducing the 'Treacherous 12,' the top security threats organizations face when using cloud services...
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3041078/security/the-dirty-dozen-12-cloud-security-threats.html

These are the future threats that IT concern themselves with now, coupled with the threats of yesterday and today...

We'll tell you that the history we have in Electronics it's always the same, people will spend 1,000's of dollars on equipment, but nothing on security to protect it...

Their expression is absolutely priceless everytime when they say, "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS JUST HAPPENED"...

The balance that is needed in business and all business for that matter is with the security developers and product developers...

You'll need moderators between the two to help with communication, but team meetings monthly, moderators optional ;-)

Software developers need to manage both a security team and a product development team to keep their contingency clauses intact...

The market is so wide open for any business right now it's laughable that it's not taking off more :-D

The internet brings life to the small town, so start thinking shipping connections ;-) and build yourself a runway and start receiving air shipments...

Amazon just leased a bunch of Boeing Jets to deliver products, coupled with UPS and FED EX will be, WOOOOO, sorry just losing our minds with how much potential small towns have over Large Cities...

Better Fuel usually, local harvest, homestyle cooking with hometown personality and feel...

See that's the beauty all small towns have over cities...People don't go to France for Paris, nonono, it's the tranquility and beauty of the cobble stoned villages that stretch across that land of wine and nothing but time...WOOOOOOO, sorry, lost our minds again thinking about the POTENTIAL!!!

Small Towns build a receiving area, focus on security and throughput, build up local home town look that built America and reinvent her, go jiggy with it mannnn/womannn/humannnnn :-D ;-)

Cheaper storage costs, regional cutoffs, lower taxes, local local local look and feel...

America got HUGE by Gas Stations, well, build a Gas Station, but instead of cars you'll be doing planes as well and anything that flies...carflies...

Think Electric because people will want to travel from state to state in their solar powered plane to check on quality control...

Truck Deliveries are not the future, it'll be plane, boat, train into the cities, which will save on the environment and peoples health exponentially...

Anyway, off subject, look, if the gun manufacturer can be held responsible for a death, what do you think if you lose someones data in the cloud...that wouldn't be good for you...

We're all for computers being sold for more money these days and should be, because they're being built with new technology at an energized and increasing rate...

As we said, it won't matter how much they spend, they won't secure it so that is where you local PC shops can excel in the market right now with a total solution for the customer...

Any computer you sell will have to have a total security and backup solution for customers already in place and all the way to the UPS...

You have to build in a security solution in every piece of software that comes out from now on to protect you from yourselves, and will give you street cred for one that looks out...

You have the ability to build multiple stories of business right now with all the potential that is just sitting out their waiting for someone to help them...

They're begging for it and to beg for things now is so yesteryear, especially when you have an Internet...

All you need is a Shipping and Receiving Warehouse with a  Runway that can handle any commercial and small aircraft...

It's expensive to build in cities and companies like Amazon need Huge Warehouses to hold their clients products in for better/closer shipping methods...

Like we said, the future is Airplane, Solarplanes, Carplanes :-D seriously, you small cities that have airports already should get your internet fast and ready and a local Starbucks or Equivalent or Alternative...TEA ;-) and sit back and watch the money roll in...

Chinese tea is the best tea in the WORLD, uhuh, the best, and because why class...it's because they have the best climate for Tea uhuh, India doesn't have the best climate for tea, that's China...

Caffeine is bad in the doses people are drinking it in now, and are causing all sorts of problems like inflammation, skin defects, unneeded nervousness and twitching in people...

Loose tea shops are the future...what's that...don't think so...well look at it this way, South America is where the Best coffee comes from and where Howard Schultz makes all his money off of you :-D

Well South America doesn't drink coffee, it's true, the most popular drink in South America is...Yerba Mate ('er-buh-mah-tay)

Yerba Mate has a lot of Caffeine in it, but is the staple you'll need to compete with Coffee drinkers, just make sure you only serve loose Tea, bag tea is the leftovers of good tea, the seeds and stems :-D

Neither here nor there, just another niche' market that's begging for life...

sidenote: It's "actually" :-D actually...actually faster to prepare than coffee, literally :-P and the myth is in the steep...

BROAD BRUSH GOING ON HERE BROAD BRUSH INDEEDLEYDOOOO...

Go all nostalgic with it and modern at the same time with building up the small town feel by rebuilding era specific car models with newly redesigned electric solutions, it can be done it's a called a conversion...

Being Green doesn't have to be just an ideology, you're reinventing yourself while staying nostalgic and loyal to your roots...

You're trains could even be electric while maintaining the nostalgic look all the way to the steam coming out of a stack for visual effect, but faster than the old coal and diesel trains of yesteryear...

People from the city are wanting the amenities of a small town, but they need the feel of modern conveniences like environmentally fast and friendly transportation solutions...

Cloud Software developers are popping up all over the places, but the problem they have is they can't afford the servers it takes to go online...

Moses Lake Washington has the right idea when it comes to reinventing themselves for sure and is a good model to learn from:  http://www.cityofml.com

Farming has tapered off a bit, so let those lands redevelop naturally while building these services to put your town on the map...

Chevy Chase had it right when he said, "it's all ball bearings now a days" but it's all the, "IOT" of things now a days Boss....Where's Fletch...

Get online and get it on time with a side of lime ;-) and bring back the home town feel with an Airport :-P

Meanwhile, back on subject, you have to hold these small businesses to higher standards when they buy computers for their business...

All we see is an owner buying a computer online, they bring it in, they plug it in and the first thing they check is if they are online, anything else doesn't matter...

They just need to get to their cloud server/application/program for their business and don't care about security AT ALL...

No backup, no security settings set or maintained, no malware, and you just willy nilly give them all your sensitive information thinking they must be secure if they have a software...

The buzz word is "Cloud", oh, you on the cloud...YEP, cool...that's it :-D no are you secure, is my data safe, just cool you're on the cloud...

You need to protect them from themselves while protecting you in the process...

We have been to more companies than we can count, and almost every place disregards security and backup due to more cost...

The sell is a total solution, there is no need for guessing anymore, all environments have been made already, all that changes is the venue...

A, B or C will suit your needs, and a don't worry, you'll have a we'll have your back feeling as you walkaway knowing a positive solution is in place already...

All solutions have Backup/Security/1 Year Remote services, onsite is 1 hour discount for every hour first hour is always an hour regardless if you're there 15 minutes or 60 and includes drive time....

Your prices will go up, your fees will go up, your profits will go up, the sides of your mouth will go up, so get up and start it up because they need you...and that's a fact!

Just a song before I go...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YGTPvDoJyM

**UPDATE**

Now caffeine addicts are up in arms over Starbucks allegedly under filling its lattes...
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2016/03/18/starbucks-being-sued-for-serving-underfilled-lattes/

...case in point...

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Speaking of being sneaky...

Microsoft buried a Get Windows 10 ad generator inside this month's Internet Explorer security patch for Windows 7 and 8.1...
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3042155/microsoft-windows/windows-patch-kb-3139929-when-a-security-update-is-not-a-security-update.html

Those Waskily Wabbits at Microsoft...

The Most Over used Word...

The most over used word in the English Dictionary is the word...Actually...

We were talking to a millennial the other day and every sentence had 4 actually words in it.

It's not just millennia's, but millennia's are by far the largest demographic that over uses the word actually.

Try Expanding your vocabulary by using:  absolutely, certainly, indisputably, indubitably, positively, realistically, undoubtedly, unquestionably, veritably...

Or better yet, you can "actually" leave out the adverb altogether: Ex. You can leave out the adverb altogether ;-)

We blame the BIG 3, Govt., Science and Catholicism...If they would just be honest with people we wouldn't have to validate everything with a factual actual ;-)

People think by applying the "actually" adverb to their sentence will remove doubt from the other person thinking they might be lying.

The second most over used word is literally and typically actually and literally will be used quite often together.

However, Actually is by far the most over used word in the English dictionary...and that's a fact!

Sunday, March 6, 2016

A Legend becomes Legendary...

Ray Tomlinson wrote and sent the first email on the ARPANET system, a computer network that was created for the U.S. government that is considered a precursor to the Internet...
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/inventor-modern-email-ray-tomlinson-dies-37446206

Thank You,
    R.I.P.
       V

Thursday, March 3, 2016

In The Newz...

...the first cyber Bug Bounty Program in the history of the federal government," officially inviting hackers to take up the challenge...
http://thehackernews.com/2016/03/hack-the-pentagon.html

They are going to be doing criminal background checks on people to make sure they aren't bringing in a bad element on inauguration day...sounds counterintuitive...

We've had this discussion before, and what it came down to was an analogy of the Police Officer...

Some Cops are balancing on right and wrong avenue, in other words, if they weren't a cop they'd be a criminal...

So by bringing in the White Hat Hackers, or Cops...is not going to show you anything and/or will you learn anything.

In order to get the criminal thought process you'll need to allow Black Hat Hackers as well...

You'll need to mock up a network for them to connect to, in other words, take what you have already just minus the data ;-)

Meet them on their terms!

Otherwise all you're doing is reminding us of an old saying, "It was nothing but Smoke and Mirrors"...and that's a fact!

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Webroot Update...

Well we have started the process of loading Webroot on this network and so far it has been a very simple process.

Webroot has a deal for 5 Licenses with their IS Complete for only 79.99, but that price could change...

Print/Print Screen either way will give you an invoice, and an email will be sent...

The Software is setup pretty aggressively already, just a minimal change on the last page under Advanced Settings...

A Work in progress, but what we have seen so far has been impressive...

MRG Effitas 360 Assessment & Certification Programme Q4 2015...
https://www.mrg-effitas.com/recent-projects/our-projects/

Level 1 = All threats detected on first exposure / system uncompromised.
Kaspersky Internet Security


Level 2 = All threats detected and neutralised / system remediated before or on the first user reboot
Bitdefender Internet Security
ESET SmartSecurity
Webroot SecureAnywhere Internet Security Plus
SurfRight HitmanPro *
Zemana Anti-Malware

Failed = Security product failed to detect all infections and remediate the system during the test procedure.
avast! Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
Avira Internet Security
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
McAfee Internet Security
Microsoft Security Essentials
Panda Internet Security
Symantec Norton Security
ThreatTrack VIPRE Internet Security
Trend Micro Premium Security