The Technology blog and podcast

site optimisation

Hi.
Well before I plunge into the load of comments, I have started extra site optimisation.
Once a year or maybe twice, or every so often, I will be sweeping the site of all unused things like spam, database comments, etc.
This is to reduce clutter and increase performance.
A note to users on the site.
For those like me that use wordpress as a direct login to the site 2step authentication is enabled on this site and on the wordpress system.
If you login via normal userid and password method you will still be able to get in.
But if you use wordpress to login, you will need to setup 2step.
Please backup the 10 backup codes you are given incase something happens.
If you end up using all or half or well whatever, just remember to regenerate your code list and keep it on a cloud storage device.
Another note, for admins, Site info is placed with the wordpress version, php, sql, etc.
Also note, that while it gripes on, healthcheck seems to want us to have php 7.3 and according to performance tips you don’t need this.
As well as this, jetpack now handles image and page caches via wordpress cloud services.
I have noticed immediate speeding up of the system.
Later on, I may concidder extra services like cloudflare and maxcdn but as I need to get more iinvolved lets try the easy solutions.
Oh, also, jetpack should in theory update plugins when they update, so no more me having to login all the time and update plugins.

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HP launches Spectre x360 13 pre-installed with ExpressVPN

Just like an antivirus/anti-malware solution, having a VPN installed on your PC is very important. Are you ever concerned about the privacy of your online activity? Or worried about advertising trackers? Or maybe you are trying to access content that is prohibited by your government or Internet Service Provider (ISP)? Do you ever want to watch certain movies on Netflix only to find that they are not available in your country? A VPN will help you solve all the above problems. What’s more, a VPN is affordable and easy to use, especially in the case of the recent HP and ExpressVPN partnership where the VPN comes pre-installed on the latest HP performance laptop.

 

The HP and ExpressVPN partnership

Consumer VPN expert ExpressVPN recently announced its partnership with the giant tech company HP Inc. As part of the agreement, a selected number of PC’s will come pre-installed with ExpressVPN’s Windows app to help protect users’ privacy and security online. 

HP’s recently unveiled Spectre x360 13 laptop model will be the first one to enjoy this arrangement that includes a 30-day trial period to see if the VPN is a good fit for them. The product will, however, get incorporated on more HP models in the coming months.  After the trial period has elapsed, users will get an opportunity to either buy a longer plan or opt-out of the subscription. 

 

About ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is the market leader in consumer VPNs. Its popularity stems from its speed, security, reliability, and ease-of-use. ExpressVPN helps users to secure their data traffic and guard their online presence against prying eyes. This VPN gives users peace of mind when they connect to untrusted or unsecured networks, such as public Wi-Fis at the coffee shops, hotels, and airports. You will be able to encrypt your network data and secure your internet browsing experience with one simple click!

 

ExpressVPN TrustedServer Technology

ExpressVPN’s TrustedServer technology presents a major surge in protecting consumer privacy and security by addressing key risks common with how VPN servers are conventionally run. 

Traditionally, server owners install the software and operating system during the initial set up of the server and then add amendments over time. Take note that every change made gives rise to the possible changes among servers, decreasing the trust that each one of them is using the same exact code. 

ExpressVPN’s TrustedServer technology ensures each of its 3,000+ VPN servers uses the most recent software. Every time the server reboots, it loads the most up-to-date read-only picture containing the whole software stack, OS, and others. This is to say that ExpressVPN is aware of everything that is running on all their servers, which minimizes the possibility of exposure or misconfiguration and greatly enhance VPN security.

 

HP Spectre x360 13 Features

HP’s newest Spectre x360 13 laptop model combines the cultivation of impressive design and mobility, with heightened security and performance features that allow users to enjoy their passions without limitations.

With 6 out of 10 PC users concerned about their privacy being compromised, the new Spectre model features a dedicated mute mic key, HP Webcam Kill Switch, and an extra HP Sure View display. It also features twice the performance of its predecessors with an extended battery life of up to 22 hours, enough to take you through the day. 

 

About HP

HP is a global IT corporation specializing in the sale of software, hardware, and other similar services. The company was founded in 1939 by engineers David Packard and William R. Hewlett. HP’s product line includes PCs and other computing devices, software, storage tools, scanners, printers, plotters, and enterprise and industry-standard servers among other imaging devices. In 2014, HP decided to split the company into two– HP, Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.

People who use PC’s/laptops are mostly on the go, and this often results in the use of unsecured Wi-Fi networks. With a speedy and trustworthy VPN like ExpressVPN, users of the new Spectre x360 13 will walk with their head high knowing that their privacy and security remain unaffected regardless of whichever Wi-Fi network they are on. 

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Philmore Update: does Phil need training?

I just got an update on the Philmore Productions saga over in Chicago.

I want to ask a very important question. How many webmasters and developers do you know that do not back up their web site code, development processes, and other aspects of business?

Philmore admitted that he lost the email forwarding capability, and the code that powers his web site.

As its discussed on a telephone line, Philmore continues to display such stupidity. I don’t understand what type of brain is in his Head. This doesn’t make any type of sense. I just can’t wait to see what else he’ll admit that we probably have called in the last few months. What a tragedy!

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Scott Schober writes new book, will be out October 1

You can preorder a new book by Scott and Craig Schober
called “Cybersecurity Is Everybody’s Business: Solve the Security Puzzle for Your Small Business and Home Paperback – October 1, 2019” which looks to be a good one. Its on Amazon preorder right now, and I’m sure that bookshare may have it soon after release. The print version is running for approximately $30 while Kindle can be had for $10 right now. Here is the Amazon link to this book, and I hope we can all read it and learn something.

Did you read the book Hacked Again by Scott? I believe that this picks up where the other left off.

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About the book

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Since publication of his first book, Hacked Again, Scott Schober has dedicated himself to educating anyone who would listen by telling his own story of
being hacked in the hope that others can learn from his own mistakes. Now joined by his brother Craig, the two have set their sights on the biggest target
of all, small businesses.

There are 30 million small businesses currently operating in the United States. Some of them are single owner/operated while others collectively employ
hundreds of millions. This book is for all of them and anyone who makes it their business to stay safe from phishing attacks, malware spying, ransomware,
identity theft, major breaches and hackers who would compromise their security. We are all in this together which is why cybersecurity is everybody’s business.

Scott and Craig Schober examine a multitude of cybersecurity issues affecting all of us including:

list of 11 items
• Cyber Insurance
• Internet of Things
• State Sponsored Hacking and Spying
• Card Skimmers & Identity Theft
• Social Engineering
• Ransomware
• Phishing Attacks
• Vital Password Creation
• Robocalls
• Cryptocurrency
• Virtual Private Networks
list end

Scott and Craig Schober delve into the details of the latest cyber breaches that made headlines and continue to affect your small business and all consumers
such as:

list of 6 items
• Ashley Madison Hack
• Yahoo Hack
• Marriott Hotel Hack
• Anthem Hack
• Equifax Hack
• Uber Hack
list end

Throughout Cybersecurity Is Everybody’s Business, Scott and Craig not only contextualize the impact of these cyberattacks on your small business and daily
lives, but also provide expert insight and a plan of attack for fending off future security breaches. Through tips and advice gained since his last book,
Scott offers hope in the ever-changing world of cybersecurity.

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Lets see if we can get this book, and learn together!

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Philmore Admits … confirmation of what the network has said for months?

Hello folks,

It looks like Philmore Productions has finally admitted to what we’ve been saying for the past several months. We’ve already known that the data was shot, but in messages sent to this network indicated that the company has been running out of date software and hardware for at least 15 years. Here’s what we know.

• Philmore Productions admits to data loss, including portions of the software and web services.
• We’ve never covered the multiple dialogic cards through this process, whereby Philmore Productions has went through multiple different cards.
• Philmore Productions did not honor their word when saying they would give refunds, and reffered later to standard business practice of only refunding upon request.
• Multiple months of downtime, and admitting to a long standing bug which he admitted to actually liking.
• Finally, Philmore Productions has admitted to running out of date software and hardware, which caused performance issues, (see item above) and how the system is running faster now.

What really bothers me besides the multiple months of downtime to his customers, is still the lack of transparency. In the next upcoming podcast, podcast listeners will hear two messages in his own words about how things went wrong, what he’s been running, and what he is running now. He admits that the system runs faster, and how Microsoft went in to his computer and turned off the dialogic system as part of fixing his computer. When turning that back on, he admits to turning something on which caused the system to pause during prompts such as log in, message counts, and the like. I personally remember reporting that bug within the first months of the system, and it was never fixed. He admits within the messages the podcasters will here that he actually enjoyed this “bug” in the system and he wishes that it was back that way..

The good news, is there is now Windows 2016, an upgraded SQL database, and a new dialogic card. It took the IT department and him another day after getting the card to get the system operating now.

I’m a little concerned about the SQL database. This database is run on servers for things like WordPress, and other CMS’s across the Internet. Philmore Productions must continue to keep this SQL software he’s running up to date, or miscreants will find a way in, and if he had data problems before, he’ll have more of them now. According to reports shared with this network, the system is running faster, but the network will not pay for a box to confirm this as the network here has left Philmore many years ago and has no plans to return at this time.

Philmore Productions must learn that he’s very lucky that a lot of customers have stayed, but many have confirmed to be gone now, including some of his longest customers since the beginning. I dialed a couple of boxes at random on the 18th, and both boxes I called have been cancelled.

We called the data loss issues from the very beginning during this whole ordeal. It was not practical to have us not call this, because when the system came back up, prompts were missing, and things ended up getting disconnected because the system didn’t know what to do. The web server being corrupted was inevitable, because it had gone between network computers and I’m positive now that Philmore does not do any type of backups. This was confirmed by Philmore Productions.

I can understand not doing backups many years ago, but ever since the breach reports starting with Target happened, Philmore Productions admitted to this network that he had taken new credit card info from his customers. This was the time to invest in a dedicated hard drive or two to back up the data. Cloud services were still in its infancy then, and that was the beginning.

The Jared Rimer network has never had a data loss of critical web sites and podcast material. We may have lost some data due to us deleting it because of space, or it not being in Dropbox or Google because it wasn’t considered that important and could be gotten again. The data Philmore Productions holds is very critical, and services are now out to give the company the space they need to back up this data. Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon backup, and many others are here to serve you. Its time Philmore get in to the 21st century and invest in some solution to survive. If they have not been hit too hard by the last couple of months, then lets do it.

Philmore Productions should’ve honored their word on automatic refunds as promised all these months ago. The Better Business Bureau would not like getting complaints now on how this was never done. We link to Philmore Productions listings on one of our other articles, and since I’m not a customer, I am powerless on doing anything because I could only talk about my experience. Iit wasn’t dealing with money and bad business practices.

Running out of date software is my next biggest problem for this company. Businesses who run software like SQL, and Windows must upgrade on a regular basis. While this may be a pain, I also understand that Philmore Productions also didn’t update Windows. This is the critical reason why the system crashed and burned. I can’t imagine running this network on an out of date, unpatched, vulnerable, and outdated software and hardware. This network always ran Windows Update, and taking the computer offline to do so is critical. When my software was out of date, it got updated. It fixes bugs and vulnerabilities that could be leveraged by miscreants without your knowledge. If Philmore Productions is to learn anything, they must update Windows, the software they’re using, and the backend hardware when necessary. Philmore Productions can’t continue to neglect the security of the system and more importantly, the data he so preciously must maintain for his customers.

Philmore Productions must learn to ask the appropriate questions. The company should’ve asked the venders what card to get for the new operating system, instead of blowing money on cards just for them not to work! This is what I would do, and I hope that the company will learn from this crucial costly mistake.

Is there anything I’ve missed? Please contact me, and sound off in the comments if you wish. I’m not going to be ashamed to publish this and let the comments flow where they may. The company must learn somehow, and I am not going to be held responsible for what happens next.

Other articles in this series

• Philmore up … Philmore down … are you done with the game? September 6, 2019
• Philmore up, is this the beginning of the end? August 28, 2019
• Philmore orders new server August 5, 2019
• Philmore still down, no end in site July 28, 2019
• Philmore: … Is Anyone Home? July 20, 2019
• Is Philmore up yet? July 14, 2019
• Philmore Productions not honoring cancellations? What the hell? July 10, 2019
• Philmore: Is It Down for Good? July 7, 2019

Some of the articles in this list are not able to be commented on but this article thats posted today is the most recent, and you can comment on anything you’d find of interest between all of these.

The Jared Rimer Network is now a third party. We get reports directly from customers and outsiders. The proceeding article is opinion and updates based on how I understand it, and nothing more. The comments in this post are those of the poster and not of the JRN, or its staff, clients, or management.

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Latest outages

Hello folks,

We’ve been aware of outages across the network. The provider is aware of it, and it is out of their hands. I am unable to write any more at this time, as its an ongoing investigation. I’m hopeful we’re now stable. Please also welcome our newest contributer and check out the article on Phishing. Very valuable. Thanks again for your support.

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Philmore up … Philmore down … are you done with the game?

So its been awhile, and boy, it seems like Philmore can’t be stabilized. Going back on their word on refunds, they talk about the standard business practice of customers requesting refunds for all the downtime. While I can agree with this practice, the company made it very clear that they would do this once the system came up. They have not.

To add insult to injury, let me ask you a question. Would you use something that is not compatible with your system, or would you make sure that it is compatible? I think we have this type of problem now with Philmore productions, and it can’t be good. Turns out, that we still have a computer which continues to reboot randomly, and the cause is the dialogic card, one in which may not be compatible with the software or version of the operating system. I’m being caucious, because I do not know exactly what is going on, but we can confirm that it is not compatible.

What I’ve noticed with this company is something that I’ve seen too much with them. The programming and development of the system is comparible to others I’ve been on, but the transparency or lack thereof, has not been the greatest. Promises and no action, or promises and excuses on why it can’t be delivered.

Long time customers are choosing that this is enough, on their own. While I’ve written blogs, talked about the situations via podcasts in audio, or even in conferences or one on one, the fact is that customers are seeing what this company is really like. This can’t be a good thing for them, and we don’t know or can’t predict whats going to happen. Companies come and go all the time, whether its customer problems, or money or other issues. I’ve been predicting Philmore to be gone for several years now, and maybe this will put the nail in the coffin. I’m not sure, but its all in writing.

One of their customers posted on their bulletin board system talking about all of the past, and how they were tired of it. It was a very lengthy message which we aren’t able to get a copy of, but from what I hear, it was well thought out. The company did confirm that the data was corrupted and couldn’t be salvageable and the tech blog and podcast as well as others close to the network said the same thing.

How much worse can it get for this company? I’m not sure, but only time will tell what will really happen. Comment if you wish.

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Philmore up, is this the beginning of the end?

“Welcome to Philmore Productions, may I take your bug report?”

“Yes, I have a huge bug report, Phil. Your voice mail seems to be completely broken. I can’t send any messages out, so having you tell me to leave a voice mail in your box is going to be pointless.”

Yes folks, this is now what Philmore Productions Voicemail is like now, according to reports. It just came up in the afternoon of August 28, 2019. During my podcast break during my moving process, I’ve written several articles in regards to Philmore’s potential. It seems like now that the system, in parts, is completely broken.

Hey Phil, did you end up copying the data like you said you did? If you did, did you find out if it was corrupted? How is the corrupted data treating you?

I called it a long time ago that copying corrupted data is going to cause you a lot of problems. I even told AT&T when I ordered my service for this location, the short version of what has gone on through the years in this company. The girl I talked to said that it wasn’t good. Now, what do you plan to do? The voice mail lines that were forwarding are now back up and operating, although you were apparently supposed to have access to be able to do that when you were upgraded. Is that broken too, or are you too stupid and don’t know how anything works and you have to have companies tell you everything?

When I got in to the web hosting business, I made it a point to learn everything I can about the features I use, and where stuff is in my control panel. While I may not know a lot of stuff, and/or things move around, I’ll go look and try to figure it out before I try to bug my provider. If there is a pannel you can access, look at it, save the company some time. The fact your shit is broken isn’t doing you any good right now, and now will be the time for you to respond to this type of bug report which will certainly happen.

How many times have you said that your system is going to be up better than ever during the reports you provided your customers? I believe that your voices need to speak even louder, folks. If this is a tell tale sign that this isn’t what you expected, maybe you need to decide what is best. This can’t be good. I’m not telling people to leave, but while I’m writing this article, the voice mail bug that was mentioned in the first section of this article is fixed. I’m sure that the rest of the issues will be fixed over time, and the time is now! You said it was going to be better, but in my opinion, its now more crap.

You all will figure it out, and make your own decision. Make it the right one.

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We’re on feedburner

Hi.
This is crashmaster creator of the blindvms podcast.
We are on feedburner.
My podcast address is http://feeds.feedburner.com/blindvms
This cast is on feedburner at
http://feeds.feedburner.com/tech-jrn
There have been some articles from 2014 saying feed burner is shutting down, its a google service so I thought, why not.
Its another way.
Note, I am not intergrating any of this with the site, or anything, but this is another way because its free, and I was making a feed for myself anyway and I thought, oh well may as well for no reason what so ever except I can.
Goes to the rss, adds a few more subscription options and avenues, I mean its not like there are loads allready but just because it exists I put it up.
Articles say that its shutting down, and maybe it is, but its not yet.
A lot of stuff still is on it and its part of google so whatever.
All other feeds work.
Oh, to jared, I just put the feed up, its in my google but your address and name is on it since I previde only the feed linking, not the content.
I don’t care if these feeds actually get subscribers it was just put them up there because I can for no reason but I can.

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I want to install fibre, but how do you tell

Hi.
With all the scams, both phone and electronic, serveys and the ongoing list of nusance calls and door to door religious and other salespeople going about, there are many reasons not to trust what comes to the door.
For example I have been told by my parents that under no cercumstances should I open the door at all even to a curior because of safety concerns.
Yesterday I was at my aunt’s house, after a salesperson knocked on the door which I did open asking to install fibre.
Like this “hello sir, I have come to install fibre in your house”
Me, I never ordered any.
Man, “we are upgrading your ariea and I need to connect fibre to your house right now.”
I didn’t order it.
Do you live here alone was the next question.
At this point I was shocked, now my dad, a power enginier who has no fear of serveys, and men at the door even going so far as to engage and start a deal, a man coming offering the same thing, wanted to install fibre, and while dad watched it closely what he did, managed to get us a nice fibre connection of which I am using and am thankfull for.
I am not one such man.
I am blind and spam savi.
My responce was to get this guy to fuck off as quickly as I could, manners were out the window.
This guy was obviously a scam, I had no way of knowing if he was truth and with all the horror stories well who knows.
In hindsight, the instal I have been talking about as the connection we currently have there has been shocking.
In fact the way it started with u was that our connection broke and stopped working and the previder basically said I should order fibre.
In this reguard, the previder at my aunt’s address has allready set up a plan for us to confirm of which all I need to do is hit a button and it will just work.
My aunt and other family were quite rood back but that does bring up the situation.
An example can be found here

some guy in a construction vest just tried to get me to switch to Optik fibre, anyone else experience this? from vancouver

There are many horror stories, one of these happened to a friend.
One of my friends had a man come to the house, they botched it completely, the cables were not deep enough, the ceelings were smashed, and they came round at all hours of the night to confirm things worked and to sign off.
My friend complained to the previder and it went up the chain to their boss who got rid of them and handled everything himself and it was happy all round.
My friend got a good deal out of it to.
However, how would you tell.
There is precious material on the dark side of fibre installs even though I tried to search for it.
What I have clearly got from several sites is you need to order it yourself.
So if some random shows up and wants to install it, its probably a scam, but it could be also the company upgrading an ariea so how do you tell.

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Philmore orders new server

Hello folks,

Last update we got was at some point last week indicating that Philmore Productions would be ordering a new server for the voice mail system. On Sunday, after recording the first file for podcast 319, it was learned that the IT department will be proceeding with the ordering of the server. My hunch of the company shopping around and looking for a deal looks to be coming true.

Also, it is to be rumored that people are now asking for cancellations left and right.

Philmore Productions is now making it clear you need to ask for money back, going back on their word on automatic refunds for this downtime.

Still not satisfied? You can report your concerns to the BBB who’s link is in an earlier post, as my opinion still stands whereby automatic refunds, and/or no billing past the outage date if prolonged is the necessary step.

Please advise I’m not here to tell customers what they should or not do with their money. I enjoyed Philmore Voicemail when I was on it, but I’m no longer there as I wouldn’t call it very much now anyhow.

Please make the right choice for you.

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Waking up with a nightmare

Hi all.
There is nothing worse than waking up early in the morning to find your site is hacked.
There is nothing more annoying to wake up with an error.
So thursday morning I get up early to do a few things only to check email and get an odd message I have never gotten before.
From google search console.
Crawl error with one page, index failure.Solution, not sure.
Site works, page works, so assume a network brounout for 1 or 2 seconds, during index, logical solution is request entire domain index.
Mean time I decided to go and do a health scan.
1. run health scan.
Warnings!
1. you do not have the latest php.
2. your site is not secure.
3. you are missing some optional modules.
Searching all things, 3, doesn’t matter, however I did a download of another php tool for plugins so hopefully things don’t go stupid.
Next ssl, do we have ssl?
Easiest solution for me is to update and get ssl on the site.
Since I don’t have that sort of access the easiest way was to set up cloudflare which I did but not sure if I will bother using as I found out we have ssl already.
So install simple ssl, enable it and set it all up.
So thats up.
So if you get the site in https by default thats why.
Technically it doesn’t matter if we have ssl or not but google puts search ranks up for it so its a good idea.
So thats all that.

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Philmore still down, no end in site

vvHi all,

I want to take this opportunity to give a brief update while I’m on location about Philmore Productions.

We’ve gotten confirmed reports of Philmore Productions billing customers for service which has not been up since July 4, 2019.

The activation date was supposed to be July 15th, but that has since been come and gone. aWe believe Philmore Productions is looking for a cheap server, as several days ago, athey reported they were ordering a new server for the voice mail system. On top of that, net by phone had its own issues of hard drive problems and computer trouble.

Net by Phone seems to be up for now, but the voice mail system haws no end in site. Long time customers are finally seeing what Philmore is all about, and is demanding cancellation or money back which was promised.

Now iuts time for everyone to speak up. Speak up loud and clear. Now is the time to show Philmore what issues are not impressing you. I don’t understand why there is a delay in the server ordering, it should be straight forward, unless Philmore doesn’t have the money to buy the server but yet they say it is being ordered.

We’ll provide updates when we can. This is beyond repair now, I think this is killing the company.

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Philmore: … Is Anyone Home?

According to this July 20th 9 am CT update I have a question to ask. Is Philmore home? Alive? Pulsing?

History can be found by reading Philmore: Is It Down for Good? Other articles include Philmore Productions not honoring cancellations? What the hell? and Is Philmore up yet? This all paints a story which seems to be getting worse by the day. It was also reported that the voice mail may have been up if not briefly.

Is this company still breathing, now that we are finding out that its flagship product Net by Phone is now down? Philmore Productions indicates that it went down on July 20th because of a hard drive failure. They claim that it started some time ago, but yet, part of why I think Philmore is dead is because the signs of the drive was going as they claim it was acting strangely. Thats usually the first sign of trouble. Philmore Productions has never run maintenance tools on the drives to determine if there is something going on. We always try to tell people that if there is something wrong, to seak help, if they aren’t knowledgable. There is nothing wrong with not being knowledgable, even I don’t know it all.

Are we still breathing over there in Chicago? The weather had a hand in motion, but its always the company that has to make sure things are operating the best it can. There was recently an article published, not totally related, about a company who is recovering from ransomware. In this case, being tight lipped is not a bad thing, but backups in both Philmore and the company in question is key. We know that Philmore has little to no backups. We know that in the article I speak of, the company in question is recovering from the ransomware by restoring from those backups. While I’ll talk about that article more in a different post, I’m emphasizing that each situation is different, and updating your customer base in any situation is the key to each situation that comes up.

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Is Philmore up yet?

Philmore is either going to be up, or is going to be down. Today is the day that Philmore promised his customers that it would be up. Are you interested in the latest update?

Go and download this 1mb file which talks about how i’m correct.

The company claims that they were not prepared for this. Some of this is common sense.

• Did Philmore Productions back up? Probably not since he’s trying to restore from corrupted data.
• Why did it take a month to come out and tell his customers about the fact that he couldn’t recover their data after the power outage?
• The system was up, probably slower than normal because it couldn’t access the data customers had for years.

There’s probably more, but the problem we have is that I still think its too late. One customer on a line indicated to me they’re calling Philmore Productions to cancel all boxes. When I last wrote about cancelling, Philmore Productions would not take cancellations until the 10th which was the day I published that article. Philmore Productions did not have a data recovery program available to him which should’ve been run the first day after his systems came back up.

This is the same company that decided to have a running live system while data recovery was in process, and the promise it would be done in days.

School doesn’t teach these things, common sense does. I would have:

• had my software backed up somewhere
• customer data backed up somewhere
• never taken down sensitive data while traveling, saving the message until I could take it down safely
• made sure if I had trouble, be prepared to tell my customers about the issue and what I was going to do with it and
• be transparent on everything to do with the business and its operations which include good or bad.

I’m sure that now is the time to say something. Now is the time to show this company about how serious this mistake has cost him.

Have you read Philmore Productions not honoring cancellations? What the hell? yet? There is more live coverage around the phone lines if you know where to look.

This includes:

• Gordon Radio: 832-999-8255
• Philmore Productions customer service update: 773-572-3000
• Unsensored partylines customer service line: 773-572-6200

Make your voices heard. It may be till August before the system sees the day of light. This can’t be good.

Thanks for reading!

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Philmore Productions not honoring cancellations? What the hell?

Hello folks,

It has come to my attention that Philmore Productions is not honoring cancellation requests by customers. Within the last 24 hours of this posts timestamp, 773-572-3000, has a message about the catostrophic downtime and estimated restoral of July 15th.

After this announcement, he gives his office number (312) 396-4160 for questions and concerns.

According to the BBB search on Philmore Productions, the company has an A. Recently, the company was called in regards to cancelling services. Its been reported that Philmore Productions said that customer service is closed, and cancellations will not be honored until the 10th of July. This is a responsible customer who wishes to cancel and has a right to cancel as they are not happy with the level of service Philmore is providing. We all know that in coverage here on the blog, that Philmore is not covering themselves very well through this difficult time. I understand it isn’t easy, but they’ve done it all wrong. The link to the BBB provides a complaint form that you may access to file a complaint against the company if you wish to do so. Telling customers that you’re closed, yet you provide your office number, seems wrong to me. If you didn’t want to have people calling, don’t give your number out! Philmore does not like dealing with customers live. His behavior towards customers have been good at times, but at times also bad. The security of the company is laxidasical at best.

Its time for you to show Philmore Productions who is boss here. Demand money back, or you’ll go and file a complaint with the BBB through the link to the search above. Its time the mistreatment of ligitament customers comes to an end.

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blindvms e1 out

Hi all.
Go here
blindvms first ep
Yeah, its out, bad sound and all.
I am still getting used to the setup but at least I made a start.
For those on nvda list I am going to start putting out things in reguards to part of this.
For those waiting, remember that www.groups.io/g/blindvms is the group to go to.
You can comment here and I’ll get them.
You can comment on the blindvms blog and I’ll get them to.
You can leave a voice message on the blindvms anchor page and I will listen, maybe include it, and you can eamil me and I will get it.
Finally if you happen to listen to this from new zealand and want to chat or australia maybe, email me and I will give you a number but understand my offline phone and mobile is the only way to keep my online and offline world apart, and I generally want a bit of peace when I log off, I get far to many scams as it is.
Also it appears a fellow podcaster is interested to know what I am doing and how I am doing it, weather that could mean someone to share remains to be seen.
Never the less, know this jared that if you think you want to contribute to this or un it along side the current tech cast there is always a spot, after all you let me admin this site with you so its only fair you share in any expantion.

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Philmore: Is It Down for Good?

Ever since the technology archives became the technology podcast, Philmore Productions has been talked about for good and for bad. I believe it has been more bad than good. The most recent: Philmore Productions blocking whole area codes which was minor compared to others. Philmore Productions continues to trash its customers writeen in November 2018 was a prediction post, in no way was it written to trash the company.

The time has now come to really put Philmore to bed. I am thinking that the time has come to say good-bye. Philmore Productions programs reasonably, the system has always worked, but now, after some recent events, its time to say goodbye to ignorance.

First, lets start at the beginning. Around the end of May, 2019: Philmore Productions suffered an outage due to a storm that blew through the Chicago area. After determining that it was a circuit breaker that caused the outage, Philmore was braught up. Currently to this day, Net By Phone is still up and operating under its capacity.

After some time passed, Philmore Productions determined that a hard drive failed. That is not the worse thing that can happen, you buy a new drive, and rebuild from the data you had in backups. The good news is that he had an array, so the data was not completely lost. This took several weeks to diagnose. The system could be used with newer material, but older material had issues. Once this was determined, a new drive and restoral of data took place. This is now mid June, when this process took place.

Lets fast forward now to July 4th weekend. At the time of writing, and until we find out otherwise, Philmore is down. It has been down since the 4th, and this could be the end. Philmore Productions told its customer base that the system would be down briefly for maintenance. After several hours, people were wondering what was happening.

According to some reports, the system is either down to restore data, or worse, it was supposed to be back up at a certain date (jul 6th 2019) and its not. The recent report is an upgrade gone wrong.

If there is something I’ve learned through the years of covering breaches, we need to backup all of our stuff, which would include software, correct? Philmore is telling some that there was a software update which pretty much crashed his software. This could be the end.

The constant lies, the potential breaches, the non-communication with customers or potential customers, the loss of potential data you had, the apologies, the inability to put hard limits when you say 3,000 messages, the unlimited factor, the yelling at customers (including me when testing the uploader tool) really adds up. I’m very fair here, I even posted Philmore Productions releases upload tool for the voice mail system a 2014 article when I was still there. If you say I’m not fair, here is the Philmore Productions search I did on the blog. Phil, its time for you to start understanding how your stuff works, and it may be too late. Your biggest customer is still there, and for that, I’m surprised.

I think this biggest disaster is the end. There is no line of communication with the company, because the company does not give any live customer service. They will call from any number they want, but yet, they hate when people call any number they have. I’m using “they” loosely, as Philmore doesn’t want people to know its a one man shop, not an organization of a few employees.

Customers, its enough. Show Philmore Productions that you mean business. Be truthful and tell the public what is up with your system including the web site and services. Do not tell a potential returning customer one thing, and another person working at a different company another. How are we going to believe anything you say or do now? Its been over a month now, and the system isn’t operating and you still have no web site. Time to tell him who is boss around here.

Other systems have had their issues, and they have been able to notify their base.

Thanks for reading, and make it a great day!

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Philmore Productions blocking whole area codes

It has come to my attention that Philmore Productions customer service is now blocking full blown area codes from accessing the platform. On May 30th, a customer notified me of this issue through another contact method. They were once able to access the system, but now has to access the system a different way through a completely different app.

We’ve talked about Philmore Productions in a negative light before, and I’d rather talk about Philmore in a great light. The problem is, that Philmore Productions and their customer service team doesn’t know how to do things the right way. You don’t block full area codes, and you don’t just block just because. Customers from the same area are now going to be effected by their foolishness. This is outright terrible, and anyone who does not like this behavior should cancel service immediately.

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Windows 10 1903

Hi all.
Well its about time this goes up.
So the update came out yesterday a few things to note.
In some systems I updated, system restore was turned off and needs to be turned back on.
In all systems after first boot the system was in a weird locked up mode and needed to be turned off then back on again.
After updating, entering a folder may not show its contents, if you are in a tree of folders on any drive, hit down arrow once and enter and open something up then it should display.
In some cases, I have found folders not viewing or displaying right tab and shift tab a couple times and they will appear.
The downloads history pain sucks, tab about the view ribbon and you should be able to sort things by all sorts of things, select the option none and most of that will be gone.
Everything else seems to work though the system seems to have a few fan spikes from time to time especially at startup.
All apps or a great load of them for ms are updated in store including store itself.
When updating, always download the media creation tool, run it, make a drive, and then
run the setup, select to not download updates as this seems to cause the program to lock itself waiting for a responce from the server, interestingly you can happily do this at normal speeds from ms own servers after you update.
Running windows upgrade assistant will eventually cause a slow down and then eventual lock up of the program at 99%.
For now and until they fix it, updating due to issues with setting up from a usb stick may cause the installer to switch all drives around so right now it won’t even try to even run when you have a drive inserted.
Instead make a folder on a drive in the system call it esd, copy the contents of your drive to esd run setup with the drive or drives out of the system and it will run.
On newer installs of the os windows will now have a reserved storage option enabled, which is supposed to be used by windows itself for better performance with updates and junk files.
It can be as much as 7gb of space, and windows says it could be bigger so in a worse case scenario windows could take over your drive and get rid of anything it needs for itself.
Even if it doesn’t after 1809 I wouldn’t put it past the os to delete all drives and make them windows reserved for itself if it wanted.
So go here

How to disable ‘Reserved Storage’ on Windows 10

Look at the keys mentioned and make sure that thing is off.
Remember, if you like me use winamp as your chip player and adlib and had to reassociated msc files with mmc.exe before, you will find that .msc files are unknown to the os because of the way we sort of forced windows to be.
Load regedit, and search for mmc.exe
tab once to the tree view, find the do not open key and delete it.
Then you should be able to associate mmc.exe with msc files and be done with that remember not to associate winamp with msc files.
If you have msc files which are media, open them inside the player.
Until I hear back from its makers assuming my mail does get read, ribbon disabler is disabled and just won’t work.
So you will have to deal with the crappy windows shell till it is fixed.
The home tab has some of the edit functions and new functions, all the other keys work as expected.
All features and languages have been transfered for you and there was only 1 feature to install infrared support to windows.
A reminder to have your display and soundcard and other drivers handy just in case.
For the intel unit I installed things last night an old asus workstation it didn’t appear I needed to do anything.
However on my amd workstation I currently use while there was sound it didn’t sound right.
Luckily refreshing the driver from hp for 1809 worked well enough but is still slightly different.
A reminder to all amd users for right now, that amd 2019.5.1 just won’t work no matter what os you are running, it simply will lock things and just suck and not work and you will have to restore.
Currently the recommended amd driver version for compatability right now is 2019.4.1 so install that and remember to go to preffs and turn off overlays so the key doesn’t conflict with file replacement opperations.
Please remember to deactivate your eloquence and vocaliser and other speech synth licences before you install the program or you will loose them.
Please note that if you use resilio sync your configurations will be destroyed so remember to have your keys so you can put them in again.
Please remember to check all services, ie dropbox, for dropbox account settings, security then hit t and unlink any ghost devices which havn’t updated in the last hour if they are and close down any sessions that are not running right now.
Be prepaired to get warnings from services, icloud, etc you shouldn’t but who knows.
Please remember to check for store and other program updates.
Google chrome has one but nothing else right now.
Please rerun adobe reader after you update so it can register itself.
When first run windows installer will appear for a short while while the program configures itself.
Windows this time has kept a lot of settings bar autoplay an and a few things like that saved.

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