Apple's 2 Factor Authentication

Hey! I am back in the cube! So, lets get straight into it, and talk about Apple's two factor authentication.

"But Bay, I hate it, I think its the worst thing, and I just cant deal with this!!". I know, I know. Yes, you can do this. Lets talk about it, and how to try to keep your account out of recovery.

Step one: Make sure you KEEP YOUR TRUSTED PHONE NUMBER UP TO DATE. What is your trusted phone number? Your trusted phone number is the number that you used to verify your account. You can login to https://AppleID.com to login and change or add your trusted phone number.

Step 2: Make sure you have access to your trusted device. I know, things happen, you shatter the screen, and now you have lost access to the trusted device. What's your trusted device? This can be any Apple product that you are logged into iCloud on.

Step 3: MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER YOUR PASSWORD. Really. Like how hard is it to write it down in a notebook that you keep somewhere. Its not. Write it down. DONT PUT IT IN NOTES IN YOUR PHONE. What happens when you lose access to your trusted device, and you can't access your notes on another device? You can say bye bye to that password!

So I know your asking, "Bay, what do I do now?!?!?!". Don't worry, just like Apple, I am here to help.

So before you take your account into recovery, lets look at some options that might help you before you have to wait 1-5 weeks for account recovery to end. Depending on the situations, some of these scenarios may or may not work for you.

Lost access to trusted device, but still have access to the trusted phone number, and remember your password? No worries! Head over to https://iforgot.apple.com Once there, you will put in your Apple ID (iCloud), fill in the captcha letters, then hit the circle with the arrow in it.

Next, it should give you some options, we want to change the password. You will then enter your trusted phone number, that I know you kept up to date. Then it will want to send you a code. You can choose the option, "Didn't get code" and to call you with the code. It will then dial your trusted phone number and give you a code, then you should be able to change your password.

Did you know you can also do this on a phone that has a passcode on it? ITS SUPER EASY PEOPLE! You'll go to:
Settings>Tap your name at the top>Password and Security>Change password>Put passcode in

But Bay, my device is activation locked!! OH NO!
No worries! Do you know someone with a passcode on their Apple device? You can change it from their Find My iPhone App on their phone. You'll get into the app, choose "Forgot Password", and follow the prompts! You should be able to change your password using your trusted phone number.

Did you know? You can still get incoming phone calls on your activation locked device?


Have additional questions? Feel free to comment!

The new FBI virus

There is a new virus going around. Its the fantastic FBI virus that has users confused and wondering what they did to incur that 200 dollar fine.

How I removed the virus:

Step one-Run RKill. This will kill the process from running. This can be obtained here.

Then you want to go ahead and head over to your C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\App Data\(random text) Inside a hidden folder, there is going to be a random string of numbers and letters. Delete that folder. (Inside this folder is going to be a program and its essentials. Mine started with a P, but I cannot remember the name. :)

DO NOT RESTART YOUR COMPUTER YET!

Next, download and install Malwarebytes. Run a full scan. Usually this takes about an hour depending on a few factors.

When your done, it should have quarantined 2-4 more files. Go ahead and check the log file that is generated, and then click on the tab that says Quarantine. Here you are going to go ahead and delete everything there.

Last, download and install Ccleaner or Glary Utilities. On there is a utility to clean the registry. Go ahead and run that, and make sure to make a backup of your registry in an easy to remember place on your computer.

Last when that is done, go ahead and restart your computer.

When you restart your computer, you should have no more virus.

(I nor any poster on this blog is responsible for any damage or failure that may occur, you are doing this at your own discretion)

Call me SATA Caddy girl.

For the past couple of months, I have been working a new job in a new town. I had to get out of the town I was living in. So thats a good thing. At this new job, you might as well call me a "Glorified Receptionist". Seriously. Thats all I do around here, is I do receptionist work, AND I put HDD into SATA Caddies for servers hot swap drives, format, box it up, rinse, lather, and repeat. On a daily basis. Did anyone know I have experience with hardware? Did they not ready my resume that shows I was a bench tech? I miss my Firedog job. I had a cool boss, cool co-workers, and I could stand around and fix computers all day. Where did those days go?

New tech article coming soon!!! (As soon as im done with scanning, data entry, and sending some emails)

The AT&T steamroller and you!

This I suppose is more of an in-depth follow up from a brief rant I did about this on my blog, The Fn Icon.  Thanks to Amanda for giving me a chance to complain a little more.


Let me start by saying this....


I'm all for competition in any given market.  Anytime you have competition, fair competition that is, it benefits the consumer.  We get innovation, we get better pricing, and we're all winners.  OK that might be a bit of a stretch, but hey, I like to think positive.


The cellular market is no different than any other.  You keep a good amount of companies in the mix, they battle some back and forth on what they're willing to give up for subscribers (subs), and we pick and choose what we need most and jump on it.  Through time numerous mergers and buyouts have occurred for the sake of growth, or sometimes even survival.  Small market carriers group up into one to increase their overall base, large carriers eat up the small guys to increase their coverage maps.  It's all economics.


The most important thing is you must maintain balance in the market.  No one really gets hurt if Verizon picks up Local John's Wireless World.  More than likely, our friend John has a nice batch of towers already set up in some rural area that Verizon can't see as financially worth while to expand into on their own.  They buy out John, John makes a ton of cash to swim in on his bed, and Verizon makes that red coverage map a little bigger with less expense.  


Customers are also happy as their coverage options just jumped by leaps and bounds.  Previously, they may not have had the luxury of nation wide coverage as their small carrier couldn't foot the bill on all the roaming agreements, and Verizon had no towers out there so they were stuck.  Now they walk in the Verizon store and get a huge stash of phones to pick and choose from.  Again, this is a win for the consumer.


Most of these are just sideways moves for the most part.  There's no real innovation that comes out of it, just a jump in coverage and selection.  No one is going to jump out of their seat in excitement.  Take the Sprint Nextel merger.  To this day it still doesn't make sense as the two wireless networks aren't compatible, but Sprint got a nice jump in the business market with the direct connect service businesses love so much.  Again, all they did was increase market share and revenue.


Then you have those mergers that are purely for innovation.  Best example on current scenarios is the Sprint merger with Clear not long ago to help boost the 4G inception.  Sprint had nothing invested in 4G really, and Clear had a nice market they were building but needed financial backing.  Sprint jumped on the boat, 4G took off, and now it's being rolled out in various forms by all the major carriers.  Carriers are happy because they get more revenue, and customers are happy with all the cool new phones and blazing speeds for porn.


Now we have the proposition of a juggernaut.  AT&T is looking to purchase T-Mobile for $39 billion in cash and stock.  Now I understand T-Mobile is only #4 among the major carriers, but the combined sub numbers are pretty astounding.


Currently, Verizon has about 101 million subscribers, while AT&T has 96 million, Sprint Nextel 48 million, and T-Mobile 36 million. All of the other players have less than 10 percent of market share combined. 


Do the math.....that's about 132 million subs combined.


"Wireless competition will continue to flourish," AT&T said, arguing that the "transaction is in the public interest."


Really now?  I remember the last time they said that when they bought Cingular.  Their major claim was "more bars in more places".  Funny, my signal never went up any.  All I got out of that deal is never knowing the actual name of my cell phone carrier because it kept changing back and forth, and causing me hassle having to migrate from one type of account to another.  Thanks guys.


AT&T has also neglected to come out and say what few perks that T-Mo customers have now will carry over.  At the moment their prices are lower.....don't count on that to keep up.  AT&T I think at times is happy being the most expensive carrier.  Unlimited data?  Yeah, not so much.  AT&T is already on a tiered data system, and buying T-Mo is nothing more than an easy way to get into the 4G market they couldn't sink any real cash into.  They've taken enough of a beating over their over clocked 3G network being billed as 4G.  Now they can gut out T-Mo for their own gain to play catch up with Verizon and Sprint.


So who wins in this?  No one honestly.  When you have a monopoly like this happen, the consumer suffers.  All the other carriers have to eat each other up into one which creates less parity, or just chip away on the bottom end of the sub base for what they can get and try to wait out the storm.  


Once complete, they can set their own prices and gouge them however they choose.  They own the market, so what can you do about it?  All those new super sweet phones coming out you want so bad? Forget it....exclusive deals stick to the carrier who can shell out the most in subsidies.  With the revenue they would bring in, they can lock almost any phone they want.


Now, who are the biggest losers besides consumers?


Sprint:  They're #3 in the big boy market.  They only gain they'll have is T-Mobile's low end customers which are rarely profitable.  Now they'll be stuck between 2 carriers with a large advantage in subs, and pre-paid carriers that chew their ankles daily.


Small market carriers:  Take your pick....Metro PCS, Cricket, US Cellular, etc.  They'll never compete with the big boys.  They'll have to join together or die out.  For the most part, their coverage maps are based on deals to use space from the big boys.  Wait till their incurred rates get so drastic they're no longer an affordable option and fizzle out.


Google: Yeah, I said it.  AT&T's CEO absolutely hates Google.  This is common knowledge.  The few Google phones that made it to an AT&T shelf were so scaled down they're worthless.  T-Mobile is the only carrier with a Google developer-model GSM phone.  Don't expect that to continue.


T-Mobile Employees:  One thing is a constant when companies merge....employees get fired.  It's a normal cost cutting expense when it happens, and daddy isn't going to kick his own kids out on the street.


Here's the plus side to this whole scenario.  It's going to be about a year before anything is final.  During this time, there's going to be investigations by the FCC, SEC, FTC, Homeland Security, Congress, and every other all letter group that gets paid too much that you can think of.  FCC insiders have already claimed there's no way they'll give the OK to this.


Let's certainly hope so......


Nick
twitter.com/NickTheFnIcon

Excuse me sir, you have an ID10T error.

When I was still doing tech support, we had some companies that are from some of the top companies and schools in the nation. I would suppose that would come with some of the top of the line administrators as well. Oh wait, that was the wrong assumption.

Me: Alright sir, it looks like where going to need SSH access.
Him: Whats SSH access?
Me: Sir are you the administrator?
Him: Yes, can someone walk me through how to set up SSH access?
Me: Sir, I will have one call you back, whats your public IP address?
Him: Whats that?
Me: **face palm**

I am seriously not making this up. I had so many calls that wound up this same way. There ARE Administrators out there that DO NOT know what their IP address is, or how to get it. They dont have a clue what SSH access is. Why oh why did I have to put up with stuff like that?

Intel what are you thinking?

Intel has done a great job with the i-Series processors. I have been pretty impressed with the power of the little guys, although I am still a big fan of AMD (shhhhhhhh!)

So why is Intel on my C list? That would because they are lacking on quality of their motherboards. Quality control is important. (Ok you cube dwellers know all too well how your boss is breathing down your neck). When you send in a bad Intel board, and you get a bad one back, that has a different serial number, something is lacking in the quality department.

When the bios wont even come up, then you know you have issues. So what the heck is Intel thinking? (More to come, as the story develops!)

Get blamed for Tier 2's lack to pay attention day!!!

So I come in today, and I get an email from the boss asking why I kept some cases longer than I should have. Well that would be because I posted the questions in our WORK CHAT ROOM that tier two is supposed to be paying attention to. Its not like tier 2 could have looked at the IRC and just answered a simple question, nooo that would be too easy. Instead, they like to wait three days before they even attempt to answer my question. And yes, I could pick up the phone and call them, but I thought they were supposed to keep an eye on their chat. Guess I was wrong.


So whats your pet peeve in the office? Have you gotten in trouble lately?