Every now and then a phishing scheme catches my attention. Usually we know that there are no Nigerians that want to give you millions of dollars. Some fall prey to this each and every day hence the e-mails.
We know that the IRS does not E-mail you with important notices.
We should know that Inga from Russia is really not hot for you when you click on the file that contains her personal contact information. Unless of course you personally know an Inga who is hot for you, best not click.
“Overdue Invoices” click here for details probably should be suspect as well.
This one came today which interested me in that we do so much with Amazon and Woot and of course eBay that we have no idea if there is really a package or not.
Capture of e-mail…
The picture here is a copy of a phishing scheme that unleash who only knows what on my computer if I were foolish enough to click on the attached Zip file.
Some clues to look for are the senders address… Eurafrik.org If it were truly from FedEx most probably if would be from a fedex.com or something similar.
They provide a tracking number, which you might actually go to the FedEx site and see what it does, I suspect nothing.
Bottom line, do not click if you are not 100% sure that it is indeed legitimate. The damage you unleash could be anything from a key logger to ransomware.
Always Always Always have really good anti-Virus software running and updated. Currently I like ESET Node 32… That is my choice for now, but your mileage may vary.. Free anti-Virus software is not worth what you pay for it.
I have no affiliation with Eset or any other software company…
I find myself between contracts on occasion. If there were something, that is a good match for my skills and talents, I would love the opportunity to speak with them or you about it.
As a seasoned professional, I bring many things to the table.
If I had a nickel for every time someone would ask me, “I got this C:\> on my screen, what do I do now?” Family is the worst, you cant charge them!
I started working with computers when DOS was in its infancy; nobody knew who Bill Gates was and Wang, IBM and Xerox were the major players with Atari, Tandy and the Commodore PET was in vogue for the affluent home user.
Early hard drive which had to be in a really cool room. The media was removable, the heads would stay inside the machine.
Steve Jobs had just stopped being a criminal with his phone freaking hardware, but still was a nobody, while building the first apple in his garage.
Alex Gibney’s newest documentary, “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine,” chronicles the famed Apple founder. Courtesy photoBlue Box
BBS’s or Bulletin Boards hanging off a POTS line at 300baud were the standard. 1200 baud was certainly not common as some were still using acoustical modems.
Al Gore had not invented the internet yet…
Truthfully I think he had something to do with legislation allowing the public access to it. Somehow it got conflated with him as the inventor.
Main Frames were what most companies used complete with water-cooling.
Networks went from different coaxial types for the physical layer. Arc net was the least expensive, Ethernet was still in the works, and Token ring, IBM’s idea was the standard; but few could afford it.
Starting on the ground floor of this industry, leaving a rather successful career in electronics was a valuable experience for me.
Witnessing the demise of the typewriter, dictation equipment, Gregg Shorthand and the secretarial pool replaced with high-powered laptops and smartphones has been quite the thing to see.
Yes, I actually worked on these…Mylar belts were the media.
The cost of one business letter in the 70’s was well over $100 in 1970’s dollars. Today a quick e-mail re-defined the way we communicate. In today’s 2016 dollar, that is $627.38…
Before my time but not by much!
If you do not believe me about the price of a business letter, ask me about it. I was there.
Gregg shorthand
The first virus I fought was before there was anti-virus software. The cleverest virus I fought was the “pong” virus. Modeled after the Pong game, one would be working in some program and a ball resembling the ball in pong would appear. As it struck a character, the character would fall to the bottom of the screen. This of course was destroying your document but at least you had some entertainment while it did it.
Pong or “ping pong virus”
Moving from the XT Based 8086 systems in the late 70’s up to the recent, has been a nice ride and I have enjoyed being part of that evolution. As hardware hits the brick walls of physics and bigger better faster slows down, software must carry the advancements forward until such a time that chip manufacturers figure out how to get more speed and throughput maximizing everything from RAM to video and disc performance. Embracing advancements while constantly positioning the company strategically ahead of the curve, but not on the bleeding edge is my long-standing history.
These were great!
Once included in your world, seamlessly; I will become part of that world knowing your business and how technology fits.
Every part works in concert to fulfill its intended purpose. Employees must necessarily “fit.”
While focusing more on business applications vs wiz bang hardware, I specialize in providing an ROI to the people who have to pay for it. Is this technology necessary? How will it help? Will it prepare me to transition in the future?
Spending much of my life with technology, I have run a business now for the last 10 years providing ad-hoc IT services, while performing disaster recovery services.
My specialties include, but are not are limited to:
Over 30 years hands-on IT projects.
Over 15 years in Management.
Data Center design and installation
Power
Placement
Controls
HVAC
Fire retardant
ADA compliance
Security design and audits
Physical security design
Disaster Recovery
Best Practice
Business Acumen
Compliance issues with SOX or other regulations, as the need requires.
Visionary and forward “out of the box” thinker.
Troubleshooter
From the desktop to the cloud, I have it covered.
Some of the typical calls I receive while on site.
The internet is slow.
The server crashes.
We think we might have a virus.
This computer cant “see” the printer.
I don’t know what we have?
I thought we paid for that software?
Somehow this computer got hacked.
Cant get on the Internet..
If these sound familiar the underlying causes may surprise you.
Through best practice, a complete inventory of your hardware and software it usually does not take long to figure out why?
Lack of documentation is generally the common denominator.
From a startup that just needs things set up right the first time, to a company that let some family member set it up, and now needs help, I am your person. No sugar coating…
This letter is meant for those of you who see my profile on Linked in and wonder if I am available. Drop me a note, I might be!
Unlike others who will blow smoke, I will not. If you are seeking a trip to the moon with funding for the carnival, I will tell you. If I cannot help you, I will not waste your time. I know many people in the industry, I might simply refer you.
As someone who has written many job descriptions, hired and let go more than I care to think about, I am a tried and tested realist. I find options for you, and then you decide.
(HIPAA) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
Being and IT guy for the last 35 years, I am no stranger to HIPAA, SOX, FISMA, and many other regulations from the government, including the federal mandates as to how this is to be accomplished.
While HIPAA is designed to protect your privacy, I wonder if that is how it is actually being used.
From a DR (disaster recovery) standpoint, your data must be backed up and off site. Your data must be recoverable; meaning that you have successfully tested the process on a regular basis.
The easiest way to do this is with CLOUD technology but, I am here to tell you that the hackers attack the cloud… If you’re data, and my data, and your competitors, is in some nebulous storage arrays out there in some data center…that is a central target for the bad guy…
You must have written policies and procedures regarding same… This would be part of your DR plan, run book; or even your living document that is your DR plan.
SOX or Sarbanes Oxley is another set of rules that apply to all publicly traded companies that share many of the same tenants of a good DR plan. E-mails must be stored and retrievable in the event the government wants to see them. Stored off-site and recoverable…
The government, for the government’s own use, has stricter policies and procedures which I wrote about some time back when the Hillary e-mail fiasco came to light… That is why this whole e-mail scandal is laughable as there is no possible way that those e-mails should have been lost, just like there is no way that she should have had a server of her own, dealing with Top Secret Classified e-mails. Why she is already not wearing orange, and living in Club Cupcake Penitentiary, is a testament to the corrupt policies and procedures that our wonderful government seems to enjoy for the rich and famous or in this case the political elites.
Calling and talking with any of the folks at your insurance carrier, you are told that your call may be recorded and monitored for security and training purposes… Now please tell me how this does not violate HIPAA?
When visiting your doctors you had to sign a release, basically nullifying HIPAA so they, the office staff or doctors can talk about your case, health or anything that is needed to whomever that they have to deal with to get paid. Again, how is this not a violation of HIPAA? Working behind the scenes at these places I have heard many cases talked about from end stage renal disease, to genital warts complete with names. I was once working in a plastic surgeons office where his desk was littered with open pictures of nude women with before and after breast augmentation etc etc. This stuff should have been put up before I was ever allowed into his office.
The simple facts are, that we are living in an age of no-privacy; either expressed or implied. The idea of HIPAA is great but, like the thousands of pages of tax code, it is virtually meaningless after the lawyers get through with it. It’s like living in Chicago with all sorts of police vehicles, and one cop who lives at the donut shop. There is the illusion of security, but it simply does not exists.
The airport is another place where you have no privacy but, still the TSA misses about 95% of the threats that their agents try to smuggle through, while testing their efficiency.
While we parade through scanners that strip us naked, and expose us to ionizing radiation, they still miss 95%…! How the hell is that possible?!
While in the waiting room the other day I could hear the office staff talking about patients and their treatment options… That was not bad enough… One of the ladies at the reception desk was calling patients who owed them money between greeting people, taking credit card info… Yep, she read back the guy’s number complete, the billing zip code and expiration where everyone could hear it. I take credit cards and I thought to myself… you did not get the CVV code… A few minutes later she called him back to get that…. And repeated it to where anyone in the waiting room could have heard.
While I have since written a letter to my Doctor…it does not end here…
This same doctor prescribed some meds that I went to CVS to pick up… While in line, the cashier, after getting your name and date of birth, grabs the meds off the shelf, and tells you what they are so everyone in line and the immediate area can hear.
Name and DOB are nobody’s business and certainly what you are buying is nobody’s business…
While I may be over sensitive to this, I don’t really think so…
Either we have HIPAA or we don’t. Either we follow the rules and policies set forth…or we don’t.
The illusions of security is not enough. The illusion of privacy is not enough. Collecting everyone’s Meta data without warrant, is wrong on many levels.
We need to look at and re-vamp all of these policies as we have given up so much of our privacy for the sake of laziness on the part of the employees.
Instead of me telling the lady behind the counter she should ask me to see my ID verifying who I am and my DOB without saying it aloud. After she pulls my meds she can show me what they are without voicing them… Simple policy changes prevent unauthorized or in this case nosey people in line getting into your business.
There are simple answers for all of these things but one simply has to think… We are too damned lazy to think…
I spend a lot less time on FaceBook, and other social media, than I used to.
It is not that I don’t enjoy stalking my friends and family, looking at their vacation pics and what they ate for lunch… Some of that is interesting and truthfully bespeaks to the reasons for their obvious weight issues…. I digress…
The reason that I do less and less of it is that those who control Facebook in particular have made such an advertising vehicle out of it, that just about everything you click on, every story hijacks your computer or other device.
Suddenly you are forced to watch some advertisement for something. All you really want is to get past the “teaser” (that line that made you click in the first place) and see what they are talking about.
Nope, you have to wait for the ad to load which is bandwidth, and your time.
Once you get there, you find that the teaser was flat and the story was written in such a way to get you to click. Someone gets money for your click, so the writing worked.
You were manipulatedby those that are smarter than you and someone got paid for your click. If you are doing this on a data plan that charges you for your data download, you might very well be paying for the privilege of being manipulated.
When this happens to me, I close the story as I am certain that it was not that interesting anyway; and because of this, I have been on Facebook less and less.
If they want to sell advertising space off to the sides of the screen or even in the middle of the stories I can live with that, to hijack my browser and force me to find the hidden close button after I have watched the obligatory 15 seconds of the commercial is wrong and while I cannot affect change with the advertisers, I can kill the story, and I can find something else to do with my time like “read a book.”
Some of these pop ups and hijacks are eerily reminiscent of the pop ups that were indeed viruses. “Click here to update your drivers, or scan your computer etc.”
Surfing the web one finds this type of thing and you can and should turn that option in your browser off. If you want to see some video about the veg-a-matic, you can click on a link and be entertained in whatever way you choose. To be forced to watch commercials before you can see what the teaser is about is “part of capitalism” that I don’t appreciate.
While many watched the GOP debate last night, many did not. It did in fact draw a record audience of 22.9 million which is a record, and clearly due to Trump!
Many in fact will get their news from snippets, sound bites, tweets, or comedians looking for ratings, at the expense of candidates.
This is the world that we live in.
The first debate between the lower polling candidates, it was easy to see why the four there polled so low and to be fair, Rand Paul should have been there as well.To be absolutely fair to Mr. Paul, I admire him. I don’t think he is presidential material but, I do think he is fighting for you and me and the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and for that my hats off to him.
Even this debate was about TRUMP
Lindsey Graham who I have little respect for, actually schooled the bunch and tried to drive the message home that the world is a dangerous place; and under this administration, it has not gotten better.
I actually respect Lindsey a little bit more, after his performance last night.
The reason that we have so many GOP hopefuls is, that this president set the bar pretty low! There was a time that I was considering running on the slogan, “I could not do any worse!” If you like this guy as your president, my apologies and “bless your heart.”
I am certain that as a person he is probably someone I would enjoy knowing. These last 7 years have been an unmitigated disaster.
What we have in the white house is the JV teamand of that, I have little doubt.
Most of the candidates simply took shots at the front runner, in order to make a name for themselves. They were desperate and floundering and it was to be expected. This was their chance to get back onto the board and I think they all failed. Mr. Graham focused on the president and the issues of the day which is really how as a candidate you should differentiate yourself. His comment about “more drinking in the white house,” Showed a human side of him that I liked.
At the main debate, Donald Trump was set up as the Straw Man by CNN for ratings. Simply that, nothing more. The questions and methods used were to tarnish the entire GOP; and of course make the front runners appear as feckless, as the current administration who think that ISIS is the JV Team. My opinion, your mileage may vary.
Hollywood elites also weighed in and that too, sniping from the cheap seats.
Just because you can remember a few lines and emote, does not make you a brilliant politician, or your opinion any more germane than that of john Q public. It simply means that when you speak, people know of you, and because you have name recognition, you can get printed. If you played a good guy, they might think your character is that of a good guy etc. There is a responsibility that comes with that, but few acknowledge it and abuse it regularly.
Donald Trump is resonating because Americans’ don’t like where we are going, and want America to change. Mr. Trump cannot be purchased by special interests and even though he is flawed, I like the idea that if he says he will do it, he probably will.
His largest flaw is not his truculent attitude towards “idiots,” or his sophomoric attacks on people’s looks. It is; he is very short on substance. His bravado and ego seem to overpower his respect for the office which he seeks. Donald needs to come up with some humility and reverence for the office of President, and I question if he can do it.
Think about it just for a moment, what kind of person thinks that he or she can be the most powerful person in the world?! Narcissism would certainly come into play or should be suspected.
It was obvious that Mr. Trump was not rehearsed or prepared for the onslaught of attacks from both his fellow candidates, and the moderators. He deflected and defended, but the facts are that he was on defense for 3 hours! I am certain that he felt like one of those Trump Piñatas the Hispanics are selling. Those of you who don’t like him probably enjoyed that part of it but, this is more than entertainment. We have serious issues and we need someone who is going to get serious about fixing them!
That face!
Carly appeared to be the “winner” last nightbut, I must tell you as much as I appreciate her moxie, she came off as a bitch last night. She came off as petty, vindictive and uninformed, in many political areas, even though she managed to memorize some facts and figures, much like Rubio, it was too rehearsed for my take. She tells of great times at HP but as someone who has been in IT since 1982, I know that it was because they merged with Compaq. I also had many friends who lost their jobs to overseas. Tough decisions to put Americans out of work are not what we need! While she gained ground with some, she lost it with me. It is my hope that she can earn that back, as we really need serious candidates.
Huckabee, Who I have never really been a fan of, gained some traction with me in that he gave a solid performance. I would like to know more about him without the bloviating. Cruz was too rehearsed, and way too in your face.
“If we can make provisions for convicted killers we can certainly make provisions for elected officials!”
Chris Christie had a good night, and I think his pitch to the American people was smart, I liked how he “became the adult” in the room and, I think that was a good moment for him. Christie will be one to watch.
“You had your turn now do not interrupt me!”
The media is having a hay-day poking at Trump, and his argument that autism and vaccines have some sort of link while standing next to a neurosurgeon “planned by CNN,” fell flat.
We need answers to this!
While science says that is debunked, they also say we are in the middle of global warming. While I am not a denier of some sort of climate change, I do think it is a little like Chicken Little. I know that Al Gore has those Carbon Credits all printed up, waiting to sell them to companies here in the US; while we ship our coal to China! In short it is completely disingenuous and all about money!
Files/The Associated Press Workers cycle past a coal-fired power plant on a tricycle cart in Changchun in northeast Chinas Jilin province. Chinas label as a developing nation in climate matters is facing a challenge. —
This administration evidently thinks that the poisoned air over China, will stay over China!
If there is a shred of doubt in the vaccine science, it needs to be looked at carefully.
I personally feel that the rise of autism is due to drug use in the different countries and once you “do drugs” you screw with you DNA, thus effecting the DNA of any progeny. That is true for both parties, not simply the mother! True fact, we like the drug culture for some reason, so we don’t report it.
Maybe we feel that people who did drugs and gave birth to kids with special needs don’t need to bear the burden of their actions, so we downplay it. Sorry folks! We need a nation of accountability. If you speed and get caught you get a ticket. If you do something wrong and there are consequences, you should pay those consequences. If you give birth to special needs kids and you did drugs…..it’s probably on you.
Twitter was busy last night with GOP haters talking smack behind their anonymous handles, and what have you. There were even threats lobbed at some of the candidates. If you live behind the curtain, and in your mother’s basement, I guess you feel pretty bold.
Well my pretties, let me tell you something as a technology guy, they can find you! They can not only find you by the unique id of the device you are using but, with technology; they can walk right up to you in a crowd of thousands. If I can do it, so can they, and they have much more expensive toys than I.
One way to find you and your secrets.
Freedom of speech is one thing, threats are another. Calling Trump stupid is your right, not smart, but.. Threatening someone with his resources, and a presidential candidate, really not too smart.
Speaking of really not smart, Someone not on the stage but, a vocal supporter of Trump tweeted through the entire event.
Ann Coulter, who I have watched, listened to, and find her intelligent, had a major brain fart last night.
I hope your accoutnt was hacked but I think it was you… Not smart!
I do not understand this tweet of hers, and I don’t think Mr. Trump will find it any too smart either. He will have to distance himself from her, and hope that he does not get too wet from the splash. Many on the twitter-verse were linking the two as one.
Most people that I know and call friends or even associate with, welcome diversity. You and I can be polar opposite on everything. As long as there is mutual respect, we are good.
This tweet is totally disrespectful and uncalled for. The similar attacks lobbed against her, were also over the top, and simply sub-human.
Israel is our friend and so are the people of Israel. Mentioning them in their closing statement was germane as many feel that this administration has dissed them (they have) and they don’t like Netanyahu for reasons which escape me.
To alienate people with comments like hers is unacceptable, and proves once again that you should not drink and drive, and or drink and tweet!
Bush and the rest were unremarkable …to me….Sorry. We don’t need career politicians and we need term limits. Once you retire as a politician you go home. You don’t simply move over to Avenue K and become a lobbyist, you go home. And by the way, you live by the same laws that we do.
Well, one would think that I was about to write a commentary on some DJ, or perhaps some radio personality that was messy, or ill fit for their job but, that is not the case.
This is actually a technical article regarding the GRECOM PSR 700.
This radio is actually a very nice, easy to use scanner, for the person who wants to listen immediately without punching in all of those dozens of frequencies.
The data base comes on a small SD card that you simply install in the radio under the batteries and it is then menu driven with familiar controls as it mimics the old iPod in many respects.
I picked up the radio the other day as I have not used it in over a year. With Trumps visit coming up and all of the protesters I thought that listening in might prove interesting.
When I picked up the radio it literally stuck to my hand. This thing was made in China and I am guessing that like their famous capacitor flub up they too did not do something right with the chemical makeup of the case on the radio. The plastic actually started to break down and reacted with the atmosphere “I am guessing.”
If you run your fingernail along the back of the plastic the “sticky” actually comes off and adheres to your fingernail much like the glue on those nasty little labels that you find on so many things that you buy now days.
Going on the web looking for a solution there was not one. There are others that have reported this but, Grecom is out of business. I am guessing that the refund or warrantee of all of the radios that this affected was too much for them and they abandoned those customers.
I took the battery cover off and simply tried to wash it. Dish soap and a brush just made a sticky mess of both the brush and my hands.
Even if it worked you could not run the radio under water so some other form of “fix” was going to have to be discovered.
Goo Gone to the rescue.
Using Goo Gone and that little plastic tool that you use to take laptops of smartphones apart worked nicely.
Simply get a little goo gone on your finger and rub it on to the area that you want to clean.
After it sits for a few minutes use the tool much like a scraper and small deliberate strokes and you will see the sticky crap come off and pile up at the end of the stroke.
If you feel comfortable dismantling the radio first that might be your best bet as any mistake will have this stuff inside your radio.
I carefully did this too all of the surfaces removing as much as the sticky stuff as possible. I then got a cloth rag and with some force rubbed and buffed the rest as best I could.
I finished the process with “Windex,” and a paper towel. Dampen the paper towel with Windex, never spray it on to the radio. Small deliberate forceful strokes, removed the rest of the nastiness that was nothing more than flypaper on my radio. Cosmetically the radio is not as pristine as it once was, and the lettering that was under the sticky mess disappeared as well.
The radio is still usable, and does not stick too anything any longer.
If you are thinking about buying one of these online think twice as you may be buying a sticky mess.
This is not for the faint of heart and I am disappointed that I spent that kind of money and have a radio that clearly is not as pristine as it was when I bought it.
If you have one of these here is the page for downloads and if you want third party out of warranty service.. I contacted them several days ago and no response so, your mileage may very…
How about a post that has nothing political in it?
How about a post that is instructional and interesting?
Think I can do it?
Me personally, sometimes I feel like someone is going to have to develop a twelve step program to break the addiction of collecting and repairing these things. Truth be known some of these are highly collectable and some are well, just not.
I am guessing that if one saves them long enough the radios that are not collectable today will be at some point in the future.
To that end, I collect those that are “collectible” today as well as radio’s that are unique or sought after for some reason ie the Owl Radio from Clash of the Titans.
More often than not I will purchase a collection of radio’s from different sources. I might purchase the entire collection because one of the radio’s in that collection is collectable or I might get them because I need parts that I know they will render.
The bottom line is the case must be intact. It must look good with no cracks etc. If it is busted all to hell it turns into a parts piece and devalued substantially.
Today I worked on a radio that was marketed to the US although it is typically marketed to the Russians.
Repaired, aligned and cleaned up….
Someone had worked on it sometime in the past as the slugs were all out of place. I guess it is terribly irresistible to resist putting a screwdriver in the transformers and trimmer caps, as I get more radio’s that have been tweaked, by someone with a screwdriver, instead of the proper alignment tool.
Having said that this radio defies common logic, in that the wire colors that we come to expect over here in the states is backwards. Red which normally denotes positive, was the negative lead and of course that made the black wire positive.
When I first apply power to one of these radios I do so with a variable supply. Turning the radio on first, then slowly increasing the voltage from 0 to whatever the voltage should be whether it be 3,6 or 9 volts or somewhere in between. The trick is to have a power supply with an amp meter.
Most transistor radios draw very little current. If you start to raise the voltage and the current starts to jump and maybe hold at 10 milliamps or so, check your polarity.
Bottom line is that after I figured out that the power leads are opposite of what one might expect the next thing needed was an alignment.
In most radio’s like this you start with injecting a signal at 455khz. After tuning the proper transformer and trimmer cap for this, than I move on to tweaking the rest of them for maximum sensitivity at 1600, 55 and finally around 800khz.
The process takes less than a five minutes and when finished the radio is as good as new.
Most of these vintage electronics need new caps “electrolytic capacitors.” Caps made in the day were expensive so the manufacturers used the minimums that they could get by with. Tracing and/or injecting a signal one can usually tell which if any caps are bad, and within moments, have the audio back to where it should be.
Radio needing new caps.
Some of the newer capacitors on the market are NP or non-polarized! Too often I pull out and old cap to find I did not remember which direction to install the new one as I need to keep the negative and positive leg in the correct holes. With NP caps simply install them and move on.
I suggest that you take pictures before taking too much apart as without a print if a wire pops off, you can have a devil of a time figuring out where it went.
Six transistor radio’s are the most common and really all you need to pull in strong station and actually differentiate between the different stations without too much overlap.
Eight Transistor Radios have much better sensitivity and are able to differentiate strong stations from weak ones thus, you can have much better selectivity. My favorite radio to actually keep batteries in are the 8 transistor variety.
Some manufacturer’s in the day found that they could use the PN junction as a diode but yet claim that they had 10, 12 or even 16 transistors! The unknowing public equated that to the “jewels in a watch.” The more the better and so they had a gimmick until some government agency clamped down on them. If the transistor is being used as a diode it cannot be counted as a transistor.
Ross to name just one of the brands was one of the manufacturers that became famous for this tactic.
Shortly after Bell labs came out with the transistor Raytheon and a company named Idea came out with the first transistor radio. It was know as the Regency TR-1.
These are highly collectible even today. Around $100 might get you one that the case is basically in tact.
This is a nice looking example of the TR-1
Before this portable radio’s were tube based and used two different batteries to play them. One of the I believe was a high voltage battery known as the “B” battery, and one drove the filaments and I think it was 1.5 volts.
I have a few of these but, with no availability of the B battery, I think that other than something to sit on a shelf; it is a waste of time and energy to collect. Your mileage may vary…
If I get enough interest I might post more radio stuff in the future as I work on many of these and it is a hobby.
See, no political rhetoric on this post, I can do it! 🙂
While some may find them cute and cuddly, and some, absolutely disgusting; this rat that I am speaking of is neither.
The rat that I want to educate about is really an acronym for Remote Access Trojan.
Just about everything electronic today has a built in camera. Not to mention a microphone.
Some smart TV’s actually have them built in to allow you to voice command the TV.
Your car may very well have something like this built in.
I have long held that our government could if they wanted, under some obscure interpretation of the Patriot Act, access your camera and or microphone to peek into your home. I have also thought that this could be done with the microphone and camera on most laptops and of course desktops that have them.
Not only is there news of the Feds hacking your cell phones and either listening in or downloading your contact list and other information through something called String Ray but there are theories that your local police may be doing this as well without a warrant! (1)
It is not enough that we may have our government spying on us without warrant but, we have Trojans that copy your keystrokes and send them to some server in Russia, or some other obscure third world country looking for passwords and banking information now we have RATS.
Today we know that perverted individuals out there have in fact used the cameras in laptops handed out by the school to indeed spy on kids in their bedrooms. While this made the news, little attention was really paid to this, as conspiracy nuts are everywhere.
(2) The Case in question
We now know that the Chinese among others have created Trojans that allow them remote access to your camera and or microphone in your laptop! Simply click on the wrong thing and the writer of the software has access to your machine.
One couple received a picture of themselves lying in bed watching a movie on Netflix. This came to them from someone using a made up name, via their Facebook page.
(3) Naked Security Story
You really have to be smart when you are cruising the internet and checking e-mail as the crooks and other creeps are smarter. I have often said that these folks are probably kids sitting around in their mother’s basement in their underwear, writing Trojans, seeing who can outdo the other via groups like Anonymous.
I would like to see devices like phones have an actual on off switch or removable customer replaceable battery. If you want to make certain that the thing is off, remove the power. Apple has made this task about impossible for the everyday user and that is problematic. Placing the device in airplane mode might be your closest bet to protecting your privacy but I would bet that there is a work around for that.
I would also like to see on off switches on cameras and microphones that absolutely can be switched off until required.
The simple truth is we have no idea what these phones are doing in the background and with viruses and Trojans, we have no idea when some remote access Trojan will activate or be activated by some creep in some basement somewhere.
Someone write an app that tells you what the phone is dong or has done.
When you sit back and think that I am a crazy conspiracy nut, I would remind you of the porn scanners that are still in use at some airports today.
Yes, if you invert the negative with any cheap software you get a positive…
Who in their right mind would think that it is ok to use ionizing radiation to undress the public by the tens of thousands for the purpose of what, looking for weapons? We are so politically correct that we can’t profile but we can strip search the public, grope grandma and feel up children! Political Correctness is a way to control the massesand not something that we should be doing as a people. We have free speech, and other than yelling fire in a theater or threatening to kill someone, I would not surrender the first amendment for anything!
Did you read about the whistle blower who worked for the TSA and admitted that it was a big joke to watch people stripped of their clothing and then make remarks and jokes about what they saw? (4) (5)
If I could have any job in the world, currently it would be to be in some position of authority at the TSA! I would love to clean that bunch of people up and while I am at it, assist them with security as currently they are loath to do much right, of course it is the government so …. What do you expect?! They need folks who think outside the box and currently they have a bunch of automatons.
The news media commonly carried stories about the TSA scanner as equivalent to being at altitude for a couple of hours. The lying bastards however did not tell the truth. While pilots do suffer more cases of skin cancers than non-pilots as cosmic radiation is more intense at altitude, it is not the same as ionizing radiation.
To further exacerbate the privacy issue you are undoubtedly aware that cameras are everywhere. You must assume that wherever you are, or whatever you are doing, there may be a camera watching you. Every red light contains cameras that I maintain can and do look at people in cars collecting bio metric data, looking for who is doing what when. These are not the low end cameras that you can buy on-line, these are high end cameras that have good quality optics.
How about some of these cameras:
There is a wifi enabled camera in there. Have you seen these in your hotel room perhaps?
These are just a scant few. These things are tiny and easily concealed. Assume that you have no privacy. If you scratch it in public, chances are someone saw you.
Orwell was ahead of his time, and you my friends need to be aware of this, and act accordingly.
One of my neighbors was talking via a group regarding cable and internet and what have you. Since I took the time to write this to them I thought that I would also share this with you my “virtual” neighbors.
Shopping Saves Money
I had Time Warner for years. The bill had eventually reached $300 a month, the picture was hardly HD and often pixelated and too often went out. The service technicians had been over too many times to fix it and I was over paying that kind of money for interference and snowy pictures. The Internet was slow 6mgb I think and, the two phone lines of course went down when the cable went down.
Truth be told, we don’t recognize the up time, we only really recognize and pay attention to the down time! So when it went off or they had issues, it was an issue. As things are “bundled” it is a real problem!
Howdy Neighbor!
Because the e-mail is also through Time Warner, now all of the communication other than the cellular is dead, if it dies for whatever reason.
While I would argue that this is a good time to pick up a book, or go sit on the porch with a glass of tea and say howdy to the neighbors, as we hardly ever meet our neighbors anymore. We are too happy with our gadgets, and our air conditioning, another story.
Un-Bundle
The old adage about not putting all of your eggs in one basket is salient advice, and germane when it comes to communication.
Some of the easiest things to do is get another e-mail account that is not tied to your provider. Gmail, or some other freebie is a good start. Yes there are security issues with this so don’t broadcast your banking information through un-encrypted e-mail. I would argue not to put anything on there that you would not put on social media, but that too is another topic.
Next, as someone pointed out, who needs a land line. POTS lines or ‘plain old telephone lines” are a thing of the past, much like pay phones. If you really want a phone line that looks like a regular line, there are options.
First and the cheapest I have found is “Magic Jack.” Yep, looks cheesy but for $100 for 5 years, pick your number and exchange, which is an easy choice. Phone lines through your cable provider have all sorts of taxes and fees including *“universal fees” , which are fees tacked onto your phone line to pay for someone else’s phone.
I personally like to choose who I donate to and I don’t like to have it extracted from me, so that too was an easy choice. No fees or other hidden theft of money with Magic Jack.
There are devices that you can get that utilize the Cell phone service and hook up to your home wiring that actually use a cell phone number as a home phone thus not doing business with the cable company in that regard. More expensive and fees and other hidden charges will be there. It still might be less expensive than the cable company.
There are other options for entertainment as more and more services are streaming online as someone else pointed out. I still like the TV services offered by Verizon but, if that price gets too high, I will switch again.
Broadband is changing constantly and some say that you should get the fastest around including the company that sells it via some upgrade by some carriers on some channel.
Since most companies are using something called QoS (Quality of Service) they can actually throttle certain types of packets so, streaming video may be fast but other types of files may crawl. This is what the whole net neutrality argument is all about.
Should NETFLIX for instance be able to pay the FCC or some other government entity to have priority traffic over some other streaming service? Those that have a business like this lobby for it as it would make them more successful and those that think the internet should be unencumbered from government regulations lobby for neutrality. Your online game packets should have the same priority as VOIP. (Voice over IP) I would argue that some companies are already doing it to some degree with or without regulations but proving it would be difficult. Verizon has in its “fine print” an option to slow the traffic to your MAC address of your router, if you violate any of the rules on the internet such as downloading copyrighted stuff so trust me when I say this, they can do it easily.
My point to this is that I would not pay extra for faster or more bandwidth in that your “cable speed checker” may say that you are blazing but, in fact the traffic that you are interested in may be throttled back for something else. There are other issues that could also slow down the traffic to your particular site that you are interested in so, before you buy a racecar, make certain you can use it.
Should your Internet be sold to you like water, or electricity?
There are, and have been arguments by greedy politicians and others who believe that you should pay for what you use or cause to move or transverse the internet. Not only should you pay for your connection to, and the speed thereof, but you should also pay for the amount of data downloaded or uploaded much like cellular providers already do. Even if the price was negligible, once they got the camel’s nose inside the tent, you would quickly find the whole camel inside the tent. I would fight this at every turn of the road.
Network cable is not wire
Start with the basic and see if it is acceptable. Ramp up slowly and this is a biggie, make sure that the slowness that you are experiencing is not on your own home network. Often I see companies that have paid big bucks for superfast internet access and have placed their network cables on top of fluorescent lights, or other em emitting sources. Another huge mistake that I see often is the use of zip ties to keep them all neatly bundled. Like building a home, make certain that your networks foundation (physical layer) is solid and installed per specifications.
Too many companies hire some handyman to install network cable thinking it is like any other kind of wire. IT IS NOT. There is a reason that there are so many different standards of cable and it has to do with shielding and something called TPI or (twist per inch.) Along with all of that, there is a spacer inside the cable that actually holds the different pairs at certain distances from one another as to not adversely affect the impedance of the cable. Hire a cable specialist to do this for you; as not only does it need to be routed correctly, but it must be terminated correctly.
Threaten to Fire them
When the cable company gets too pricey call and tell them that you are going to “cancel” and change providers. They will most probably send you to a “retention specialist” who is authorized to cut your bill, or offer you some free something or other for some amount of time.
Be prepared to cut the cable.
If you are just un-happy with the service and the retention specialist tries to low ball you, simply tell them no; and come get the stuff, or write the letter as some require etc. I see many people bringing cable boxes and Satellite boxes and what have you to the UPS store or to the FED EX store as those folks have a contract with the provider to wrap the stuff up, and ship it for them. Read and understand your contract before you engage the company and certainly before you terminate services. The fine print in some of these contracts is ambiguous at best. If I need a lawyer to look it over that is a red flag for me. If I cannot within a few moments read the contract, and understand it completely; I am uninterested in the product. That is sage advice that 40 years of dealing with vendors has taught me.
Important Information
A note about Magic Jack and or other VOIP services. 911 may not be a function that you have with it so remember if there is an emergency, use your cell phone. 911 is an emergency number (obviously) and when there is an emergency people often forget things like (that phone does not have 911!) when seconds count, you don’t have time to call 911 on a line that will not do you any good!
With Magic Jack they sell it with a network cable that plugs right into your router. The problem is the cable is “flat.” A flat cable picks up EM “electromagnetic” interference too easily and effects the performance and quality of the device. Toss it and use a regular cat 5 or cat 6 jumper cable.
Alarm systems can be dicey with VOIP and certainly with some cable providers. There are companies that offer cellular connected alarms and while I would not want that exclusively, I would want that as an option. Crooks can be smart so one must be a step ahead of and smarter than them. A good alarm company should have specialist that can make certain that if there is an issue that the police or fire or other emergency services will indeed get the call. One other small pearl of wisdom I would pass on regarding this is simply to test your alarm once a month at least. When you pay the bill, go test the alarm. Make it a habit. You don’t want to find out that it does not work, when or if you need it.
Big corporations really suck when they go the extra mile forcing one to buy expensive stuff.
Under the guise of “saving the planet” we have lost it!
First off let me just rant a little about the planet. The Earth has been around 4.5 billion years. Man has been around for about 6 million of those years but, we only have we been a “threat” to the planet the last 150 years or so.
When I say threat, not really. One lucky strike from a meteor and we are done! Toast,the next life form to take hold will hopefully be more evolved than some of our peers who think money is the answer to everything no matter who they screw!
Industrialization is claimed to be the largest threat to the planet along with the ever increasing population. I agree that millions of people all creating waste emissions from gasses to solids, probably are not doing the earth any good but, do you really for just one minute think that one Volcano, or large fire does not do as much if not more damage to the eco-system than man?
There is a super volcano that is due to erupt any moment in Yellow stone park. When that bad boy goes off it will be a life changer!
Then tell me about coal power plants or Gas guzzling SUv’s.
Despite High Emissions, New Coal Power Plants Planned in Germany…AACHEN, GERMANY – MAY 15: Behind the open-pit coal mine Gartzweiler exhaust rises from cooling towers at the lignit coal-fired power stations Frimmersdorf, Neurath and Niederaussem May 15, 2007 near Aachen, Germany. The four German major energy providers Vattenfall, RWE, E.on and EnBW plan to invest more than 30 billion euros in construction and infrastructure of cole conducted power plants in Germany. (Photo by Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images)
Yes, we are burning fossil fuels “dinosaurs” to heat and cool our homes and to drive our gas burning vehicles to and from the job and what have you.
If you really want to solve global warming first you really need to get truthful with the numbers, and facts, as what has been published thus far is to push a “carbon credit agenda” to make the rich richer and in the end is simply another tax!
Now, back to bulbs.
Edison through trial and error “brute force” came up with an incandescent light bulb.
The typical light in your home burns 60 watts of electricity.
It took me a few minutes to do the math for you, so here it is in a spreadsheet.
You can do any further multiplication you like, as in how many of these bulbs do you have and how long do you really leave them on.
The 100 and the 60 are representing incandescent “old school” bulbs.
The 12 is representing a CFL bulb and the 3 watt is representing the LED variety.
Basing the cost per kilowatt hour at 8.5 cents, this is what it would look like to run one bulb for a year never turning it off.
So, if you want to save the earth…or money, lets look at how and where you would put what kind of bulb.
Here is the bulb that failed prematurely. Notice the black around the inside of the plastic. This thing got hot before it stopped working and the important part of this is that the fuse did not blow!
I also think that we were pushed into using them by congress via some backroom dealwith GE or some other maker of these things through the good folks at AVE K,you know lobbyist. Like republicans or not, this was a GW Bush thing and I think it smells.
CFL or any fluorescent bulb must stay on for a minimum of 15 minutes or you shorten the life of the bulb. That means, don’t put them in places that you turn the light on for a few moments and then off again. CFL or fluorescent tubes should go into places that you energize them, and then leave them on for hours, like a kitchen, family room or porch light.
This bulb died because the capacitor died. If you look at it you will see that it has bubbled up on the top. Checking the capacitor it is non functional.
GE must have purchased a plethora of bad capacitors from China!
If you look at the actual glass you will notice that there is no black around the base, this bulb died way too young…
LED bulbs don’t just quit “usually” unlike an incandescent of fluorescent. They grow dim over time as they age and one day you will notice that it is not very bright, and replace it. I like them in bathrooms and closets, desk lights and lights in areas where I don’t want a lot of heat generated.
LED bulb replacing CFL bulb which replaced an incandescent bulb.
The average cost of a CFL or LED bulb however is much higher than its incandescent counterpart.
While they have come down in price, they are still no where as inexpensive as an incandescent.
A box of 4 or even 6 on sale, was around $1. The CFL is around $2 each but that is now. When they first came out they were about $4 each. As other manufacturers entered into the arena the price came down.
The same is true of LED bulbs. These bulbs can get downright pricey!
As far as function goes we have the incandescent with fewest complications. A filament across the two electrodes sealed into a vacuum. Apply the right voltage and suitable current that the filament will light and there will be light, and heat!
Fluorescent is much more complex in that there is two filaments and high voltage applied which ionizes the gas inside. This gas reacts to the phosphorescent coating inside the bulb making light, And oh yes, they have mercury in them.
The CFL takes in 110 or 220 depending upon your location and converts it into the voltages and currents needed to start the process as well as maintain the process while voltage is applied. If you look inside the base of a CFL bulb you will see a host of associated circuitry to accomplish this task.
LED Bulbs are less complex in that they use minimal components to convert the voltages into the needed voltages to run the LED’s.
There is not much heat and the circuitry is not complex. LED bulbs should really be less expensive than CFL and I look for that to be the case as time marches on. Currently you are still paying for the novelty much like the early adopters of flat screen TV’s.
Pay attention to these bulbs when you buy them as they must be set up for “dimmable” circuits if you intend to use them in a legacy lighting system that had incandescent lighting in it.
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