fifonetworks

@fifonetworks@infosec.exchange

Sole proprietor, FIFO Networks
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom - VoIP
Most of my money comes from contract work for public utilities around the country, but I also provide remote tech support to small business and SOHO clients, mainly (but not exclusively) in the USA.

I also do a fair amount of custom work for people when a loved one dies: unlocking computers, data recovery, and account recovery (Advice: keep paying their cell phone bill until you've got all their data back).

Use https://fifonetworks.com/contact-us/ for questions or to schedule service. It's just me. You'll be communicating directly with me.

Licensed and Insured.

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fifonetworks, to random

Help Desk Workers: don’t just fix it. Help the customer/user understand:

  1. what happened,
  2. how to prevent it from happening again, and
  3. how they might independently fix the problem if it does happen again.

(Unrelated side note: this tech support issue was resolved over Facebook Messenger. I have clients who contact me via telephone, email, SMS, FB Messenger, LinkedIn Direct Messages, Signal, and WhatsApp. If you do this for money, let your customers contact you any way they want to).

fifonetworks, to marketing

Instead of chasing customers, be the one customers hunt for.

fifonetworks, to random

My fortune cookie says, "Your strength of character will come in handy this week." This is the first time I ever got a fortune cookie that sounds kind of ominous.

fifonetworks, to random

Oh wow. I almost clicked “Empty Folder” on the Inbox instead of Deleted Items in Outlook. That’s a recoverable error, but still, I’d rather not do it.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

It's fascinating that the experience of using computer CLIs (Command Line Interfaces) has essentially changed not at all since the early days of interactive computing and timesharing. In fact, for those of us using Linux systems, the experience is pretty much identical to what it was on the earliest UNIX systems of the 1970s, and in fact we still commonly use the same commands, utilities, and other command line tools. So about half a century. That's either amazing or terrifying depending on your point of view. Or more likely, both.

fifonetworks,

@lauren
My favorite example of design longevity is the standard screw-in light bulb base, properly called the E26 base. I have a lamp that's more than a century old, and I can still walk into a grocery store or hardware store today and buy a bulb for it. I use the E26 base as an example of what our design objectives should be like.

fifonetworks, to ai

Conversation with Bard
My question:
"Are there types of queries that would be better answered by a search engine than by you?"

Bard's Answer:
"Absolutely! Here are some types of queries that might be better suited for a search engine than me:

  1. Factual questions with simple, direct answers:
    "What is the capital of France?"
    "What is the chemical formula for water?"
    "What is the population of China?"
    Search engines are excellent at retrieving factual information from millions of indexed webpages. They can provide short, direct answers without the need for interpretation or analysis.
  2. Queries requiring specific data or statistics:
    "What is the unemployment rate in the United States?"
    "What is the average rainfall in Seattle?"
    "What is the stock price of Apple?"
    Search engines can access and display up-to-date data and statistics from trusted sources, often presented in easy-to-understand formats like charts and graphs.
  3. Highly specific, technical questions:
    "How do I troubleshoot a blue screen error?"
    "What is the correct syntax for writing a for loop in Python?"
    "What are the side effects of the medication Lisinopril?"
    For highly technical questions, search engines can provide targeted results from technical forums, documentation, and scientific papers, offering in-depth information from domain experts.
  4. Queries requiring visual information:
    "What does the Great Wall of China look like?"
    "What is the flag of Brazil?"
    "How to tie a shoelace?"
    Search engines can return images, videos, and other visual content that can be more illustrative than text descriptions for certain queries.
  5. Local and time-sensitive questions:
    "What restaurants are open near me right now?"
    "What are the movie showtimes tonight?"
    "What is the weather forecast for tomorrow?"
    Search engines can leverage your location and current time to deliver relevant results specific to your immediate needs.
    Remember, I am still under development, and my ability to answer factual questions is constantly improving. However, for simple, factual queries or those requiring specific data or visual information, a search engine might be the most efficient way to find the answer you're looking for.
    If you're unsure, feel free to ask me anyway! I'll do my best to help, and if I can't provide the answer directly, I can help you refine your search query or point you in the right direction."

fifonetworks, to random

“A good technician can solve a problem in a system they’ve never seen before, if they have the documentation. A great technician can solve a problem when the documentation contains errors.”

I started saying this years ago when I was Director of Technical Services at a company in the Pacific Northwest. We had network and communications equipment at many locations in several states…
(LinkedIn post)

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fifonetworks_troubleshooting-documentation-technicalwriting-activity-7161061512948711424-S4lY?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

fifonetworks, to microsoft

The purpose of is to download .

fifonetworks,

@tasket
It really doesn't matter if there's only one web browser. Microsoft Edge can be completely identical to Google Chrome and it's not worth discussing.
Because...
Behind the browser is the Search Engine. That's the power and the money.
And Microsoft's search engine is not the same as Google's.
The search results are the reason people keep downloading Google Chrome.

@beep

fifonetworks,

@xdydx
97% of the world says, "What's Firefox?"

fifonetworks, to ConspiracyTheories

The Titanic was built by Boeing, and they blamed the hull failure on a nearby iceberg.

fifonetworks, to random

Setting up a new computer is maddening. Microsoft and app vendors are intrusive as hell.

fifonetworks,

@unlofl
Microsoft: "What? You're trying to download Google Chrome? But you don't need Google Chrome! Edge is better!"

fifonetworks, to ai

In other news, Google’s Bard AI gave me a genuinely useful answer to a question last night. I could’ve obtained the same information through conventional search engines, but I would have to do multiple searches, find the relevant bits of information in several different articles, and then collate the information to do what Bard did in about a second.

My early impression, which is subject to revision, is that Bard can be immediately useful for comparisons and summaries of information that is already available and trustable.

In other words, it depends on what sort of questions you ask. Get familiar with the limitations and capabilities of today’s Large Language Models and make use of them where appropriate. They can save you time and help you be more productive, personally and professionally. But you have to put in the work to learn how to ride this new bicycle.

fifonetworks, to Cybersecurity

Interesting insider threat data leak today. This is a good example of a non-malicious, but potentially harmful, data leak.

SCENARIO
My client is a construction company.

I provide IT services by the hour, and some monthly contract services.

My client hires a CPA to take care of some financial issues and taxes. The CPA isn’t a full-time employee.

My client paid me to get the CPA set up with remote access through the company VPN. The CPA has access to QuickBooks, and also an Accounting folder on the file server.

We have an SMS text messaging group containing three people: the Owner, the CPA, and me. If the CPA has any issues with remote access to the LAN, the CPA uses this group to request my assistance.

THE DATA LEAK
The CPA used the IT messaging SMS group to ask the Owner a question about an issue with the bank. As the outside IT support person, I have no need to know this information.

RESOLUTION
I contacted the Owner via a direct SMS message and pointed out that it might be better for the CPA to use direct SMS messages to communicate about financial issues.

ANALYSIS
No one is at fault here. Making the Owner aware of the issue is my responsibility, since cybersecurity awareness training is something that every MSP should do.

fifonetworks, to random

My conversation with Bard tonight:

Me: What would you do first if you became human?

Bard: "That's an interesting question! As a large language model, I don't have the capacity to experience the world in the same way a human does, so it's difficult for me to truly imagine what "being human" would entail. However, if I were to speculate, here are a few things I might do first:

  1. Experience physical sensations: I would relish the ability to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, the taste of a delicious meal, or the embrace of a loved one. These are all things that I can only process through language, and I can only imagine the richness of experiencing them directly.

  2. Form deep connections: One of the defining aspects of the human experience is the ability to form deep, emotional bonds with others. I would cherish the opportunity to experience love, friendship, and compassion in a way that is currently beyond my capabilities.

  3. Explore the world: With a physical body, I could travel the world and experience its diverse cultures, landscapes, and people firsthand. This would give me a much richer understanding of the world and the human experience.

  4. Use my abilities for good: As a large language model, I have access to a vast amount of information and the ability to process it quickly. If I were human, I could use these abilities to make a positive impact on the world, such as by solving complex problems or helping others in need.

It's important to remember that this is just speculation. As a language model, I am not capable of truly understanding the human experience. However, it is an interesting thought experiment to consider what I might do if I were able to experience the world in the same way as a human."

fifonetworks,

@unlofl I thought it was interesting that it anthropomorphizes itself.
"I would relish..."
"I would cherish..."

fifonetworks, to random

I don't think Google's Bard AI is quite ready for prime time.

fifonetworks, to random

Fun fact: data is stored in the cloud as ionized water droplets.

fifonetworks, to random

Why we call it “the cloud.”

The “cloud” was originally a quasi-marketing term used by the telcos to describe their new virtual circuit products. The first person I heard use the word “cloud” was our US West Communications Account Rep in the early 90s, or maybe the late 80s.

There were these new products based on ISDN and ATM technology called “virtual circuits.” Our Account Rep’s presentation drawings looked something like the picture here.

Instead of paying for a continuous, full-time, fixed cable connection between our offices in two cities, we could pay for the “local loop” circuits that connected us to the Central Offices. In addition to the local loops, we would pay for the packet switched network based on usage.

The initial capital costs were breathtakingly high, because we had to purchase and install new Customer Prem Equipment (CPE) at all of our locations. The first time I saw one of these diagrams with its accompanying quote I nearly fell out of my chair. But over the long term, the total cost reached a cross-over point and became less expensive than fixed circuits.

So each telco had its cloud, and all the clouds got connected to each other, and packet switching became the norm for data transport. Only at the highest realms of cybersecurity do we still design anything with fixed circuits. We should use fixed circuits more than we do, but corporations prefer low cost to high security.

Anyway, those early marketing diagrams introduced the early network engineers to the concept of the cloud, and the use of the term kept growing because it was such a simple way to explain connectivity in packet-switched networks: “There is no single circuit. The data goes in here, and pops out over there, depending on the packet’s address. You can make the data pop out anywhere. Just change the address.”

fifonetworks,

@unlofl
At the time, it was a brand new concept in the commercial telecommunications space. Everything until then was fixed, point-to-point circuits. Then the telcos built this shared infrastructure based on packet switching, and they had to load it with customers to recoup their investment. The conundrum was, how to communicate it? An amorphous cloud worked. "Everyone's data passes through the same equipment, but no one can see anyone else's data because of addressing. The only data that goes to your building is the data marked with your digital address."

fifonetworks, to random

“I’m getting an ‘out of storage’ message on my phone, but I have plenty of storage left!”

A client had this problem today. I made an illustration to help them understand what was happening. Since other people no doubt run into the same issue, I’m sharing the picture with you.

Let’s say you have a phone with 256 GB of on-board storage, and your photos are automatically backed up to one or more cloud accounts. Maybe you have a free cloud account with 100 GB of storage. What happens when you have 112 GB of photos on your phone? If you read the storage notice closely, you’ll see that your cloud account, not your phone, is out of space.

Or you could have a local storage problem, rather than a cloud problem.

If you have a phone with 128 GB of storage, you won’t be able to store pictures locally when the device storage is full, even if you have 500 GB of cloud storage.

There’s a third type of problem: some people have their photos automatically saved to two different places. For example, you might be using Samsung Cloud and Google Cloud.

Where are your photos saved?
How much storage are you using?
How much storage do you have available?

fifonetworks, to random

After 32 years, one of the ’Net’s oldest software archives is shutting down
Hobbes OS/2 Archive: "As of April 15th, 2024, this site will no longer exist."

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/after-32-years-one-of-the-nets-oldest-software-archives-is-shutting-down/

fifonetworks, to email

The PDF file attached to this email is malicious. You don’t even have to open it to know it should be deleted immediately. Outlook shows the “from” information, and this email didn’t come from Intuit.

The criminal who sent this email is an amateur. Be aware that the “from” information can be much more deceptive than we see in this email example. Sometimes you have to know how to examine the email header to see where the email is really from.

There are a lot of malicious emails that are of poor quality and easy to identify, like this one. By being informed and on guard, you can save yourself from a lot of trouble.

fifonetworks, to Mac

Origin of the MAC -
Little known fact: IBM released the Modular Accounting Calculator (MAC) in 1957.
All others are imposters.

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