Warning: Telemarketing robo calls have reach a new low

Telemarketing robocalls have reached a new low.  They are setting the caller id to be a phone number and name of your neighbor or some business you know.  And no, you can't complain about it to the phone company.  They don't accept responsibility.  They say it is legal to use the special electronics that make this possible and phone numbers along with names are readily available, both on public sites and black (bad) sites.

For those numbers that have been compromised, you can't change to a new number and expect that that number will not already be compromised.  That is to say, you change your number and, if that number hasn't already been compromised, though perhaps with a different name, it soon will be.

The root cause is that the FTC is not regulating the use of the special electronics that implement the spoofing call.  In general, I don't like government regulation, but this is an international problem and the government needs to get involved.

It is time the FTC gets our message:  spoofing tools should be illegal.  Go here:  https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/spoofing-and-caller-id

Unfortunately, the only universal option we have now is to ignore the call and wait until the caller leaves a message.  Then, if the call is legit, call them back.

Many answering machines have a block call feature... there is a limit to the number of phone numbers the machine can hold.

For your cellphone, use an app like "Calls Blacklist" to block numbers.

For those who use Spectrum for your Voice, Spectrum offers a dashboard of protection features.  One of them handles Robo Calls.

Sign in.

1. Select Voice tab.
2. Go to Voice Online Manager.
3. Under Settings, select Privacy.
4. For the robocalls, Select Nomorobo.
5. Select On and select Save.

Note that these options dos not solve the problem of your neighbor's number and name being spoofed.  But it is something you can do. 

I can't see images in Yahoo!

This issue is reported all the time.  Some communities have community web sites where messages are distributed as images.  That is when folks are the most frustrated. 

The background on what is going on is:  Yahoo is known for insecure email.  The developers are fixing problems and releasing solutions to the online and mobile application implementations in a scattergun way; and they aren't good about announcing and teaching the changes. 

In the case of images, here is the solution to fixing missing images, as of Nov. 26: 

https://support.cloudhq.net/how-to-enable-images-on-yahoo-mail-messages/.  Copy and paste this link into your browser. 

This management problem of not educating users on changes to the email applications is an ongoing problem with many providers, but Yahoo is the worst.  If you have problems in the form of "I could do it in that past, but not now" let me know and I'll research recent changes in that system that might be the reason. 

Information on the next Windows 10 release

NOVEMBER 13, 2018 10:00 AM

Resuming the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update

By John Cable / Director of Program Management, Windows Servicing and Delivery

    

In early October, we paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update as we investigated isolated reports of users missing files after updating.  We take any case of data loss seriously, and as I noted on October 9, we have thoroughly investigated and resolved all related issues.

In addition to extensive internal validation, we have taken time to closely monitor feedback and diagnostic data from our Windows Insiders and from the millions of devices on the Windows 10 October Update, and we have no further evidence of data loss.  Based on this data, today we are beginning the re-release of the October Update by making it available via media and to advanced users who seek to manually check for updates.

As with all Windows releases, we will continue to carefully study the results, feedback and diagnostic data before we begin offering the update in phases to more devices in the coming weeks and months.

While the April Update had the fastest Windows 10 update rollout velocity, we are taking a more measured approach with the October Update, slowing our rollout to more carefully study device health data. We will offer the October Update to users via Windows Update when data shows your device is ready and you will have a great experience. If we detect that your device may have an issue, such as an application incompatibility, we will not install the update until that issue is resolved, even if you “Check for updates,” so you avoid encountering any known problems. For those advanced users seeking to install the update early by manually using “Check for updates” in settings, know that we are slowly throttling up this availability, while we carefully monitor data and feedback.

We plan to add a Windows update status dashboard in the coming year to provide more information on any issues that lead to update blocks. For this current October Update rollout we will be providing regular updates for notable issues on the public Window 10 update history page.

For our commercial customers, the re-release date of the Windows 10 version 1809 will also be today, November 13, 2018 (this includes Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server, version 1809). This date marks the revised start of the servicing timeline for the Semi-Annual Channel (“Targeted”) release.  As previously announced and beginning with this release, feature updates that release around September will have a 30-month servicing timeline.  Just as we phase our consumer rollout, we recommend IT administrators begin to validate that apps, devices and infrastructure used by their organization work well with the new release before broadly deploying. Windows 10, version 1809 is now available through Windows Server Update Services, Windows Update for Businessand System Center Configuration Manager’sphased deployment.  For additional information please see the latest IT Pro Blog.

Editor’s note: Information on a communications dashboard was erroneously left out of this post. It has since been updated to include those details.

UPDATED NOVEMBER 14, 2018 8:41 AM

Quicken dirty trick for all 2018 and future versions: annual charge for downloads equal to cost of a new version

It used to be that when you bought any version of Quicken, you would set up all your accounts to either download all transactions automatically at start up from the appropriate web site or download when an icon was clicked from within the program.  From 2018 versions on, this download feature is only available if you pay an annual license fee equal to the cost of that year's new version.  That at least triples the out of pocket cost of Quicken for most users.  In other words, there is an annual fee from now on for using Quicken as users have come to expect it to work.  If you don't pay the annual fee, then you must enter all transactions on all accounts by hand.

For me, the Quicken download feature allows me to track usage of all accounts, especially credit card accounts, to both automatically enter all transactions into the Quicken and for me to spot, in one place, any suspicious transactions so I can respond in a timely manner.

So, what I did was drop down to the release with the smallest feature list I could live with, cutting my license cost in half. 

 

Don't Use the Single Sign In feature provided by companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google

An article on the Wired web site, https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-hack-single-sign-on-data-exposed/, describes the perils of having that kind of account where you can use that account to sign on to another account.  "That kind of account" includes Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn.  For example, take Facebook.  You can sign in to another account, say Uber, using the Facebook login and password.  The obvious problem is that if someone knows your Facebook login information, then that person can log into your Uber account.  But it is worse than that.  Someone can hijack a piece of data stored on your computer called a token, placed there by your Facebook account, and can log on to your Uber account with that token.  This can happen even if you have never logged on to Uber using your Facebook account information. 

The article describes various scenarios that Facebook users are exposed to.  What can you do?  Well, my recommendation is to entirely cancel your Facebook account and then clean out your browser cache for all browsers you use.  In fact, I believe that Facebook should be forced out of business if it retains its current architecture and business and political arrangements.

For those that insist on using Facebook- like me, never use Facebook login information to access another account.  Go into your Facebook control page and make sure you don't have current accounts that are linked to your Facebook account: 

How:  To turn off Facebook's integration with apps, games and websites:

1. Click  in the top-right corner of Facebook and select Settings.
2. Click Apps and Websites in the left side menu.
3. Scroll down to the Apps, Websites and Games section and click Edit.
4. Click Turn Off.

Then, use Facebook only in the incognito mode of your browser.  This will erase all Facebook tokens at the end of your Facebook session.   Don't leave your Facebook session active and unattended.

There is a similar approach for other web sites that provide this Single Sign In function.