The Kyocera Rise Falling Apart Problem: How to fix it!

Paul

The Rise Falling Apart!

When I first wrote about My Kyocera Rise from Virgin Mobile.  I got a lot of people asking about if there was a fix for this without calling VM!  If yours is just coming apart from and you wondering how to fix it.  I am here to help.  I went back and got my VM phone before I mailed it off and looked it over.   I found the six screws that were supposed to hold it in place, most of them were missing.   I don’t know if it was the dropping of the phone that caused this or it being in my back pocket.  Some how those screws came loose and just came off the phone.   You will need to pop off the back cover of the phone to verify that it doesn’t have the four screws like you see in the picture above.   If it doesn’t have those screws then you can easily fix this without calling VM!

Found Screws!

I have Glasses and I am always having to repair and fix them.   So I had a 250pc Micro-Screw Assortment for Eyeglasses & watches.   I started looking around for the right size.   You basically start with the biggest and work your way to the smallest.   I don’t recall which ones I used but you will find the ones that will fit those four holes.   Once that is done just make sure to tighten those suckers, don’t break the head off the screw.  Just enough to keep it tight, if it seems to feel like it is loosening from time to time, just pop the back off  and tighten them some more.

What you will need:

Save time and effort from calling Virgin Mobile about sending a replacement phone.   You can just fix it yourself.   Just make sure the Phone is put together before you start screwing in those screws and your phone should last much longer.

Paul Sylvester

 

Google Play Store revenues skyrocketing, a staggering 90% increase over last year’s first quarter

Fahad Majidi

Today's latte, Google Play.

There is just no stopping for android. The revenues Google Play generated by Google Play are sky-rocketing. According to the research firms Google has  seen 90% increase in Google Play Store revenues compared t o the first quarter of the last year, now that is huge!

And the reason behind such a big leap in terms of revenue is the mass production of android devices around the world along with some of the idiosyncrasies of the Asian users. As the things are going for android the researcher and analysts believe that Google Play will catch up with Apple’s App Store somewhere around in 2016. According to the chief analyst at Canalys Adam Dam it would take android almost three to four years to get at par with the Apple’s App Store in terms of revenue. Android might be getting increase in the revenues at a faster pace but Apple’s App Store had a head start and that made all the difference.

Android might have gotten a 90% increase but if we look at the overall stats of the first quarter, there is no one near the share of App Store. In the first three months from January to March the app industry made total revenue $2.2 billion. Out of this $2.2 billion the almighty App Store accounted for $1.48 billion holding upto almost 74% of the total app revenue. When it comes to revenues apps certainly form the crux of overall profits.

Now coming to the downloads, the number of downloads made by Android and Apple users may vary depending on different researches. But one thing is for sure android’s downloads are quickly catching up to that of Apple’s or even exceeded it according to some other researches.

One of the key markets of android devices, not only android but also other smartphones, lies in countries such as Japan and South Korea where people mostly go for card and fantasy based apps. South Korea is considered to be the hub of smartphones where almost 80% of people own one. So making such fantasy based apps and card games really paid off for Android’s first quarter staggering augmentation in the revenues.

Let’s see what holds for Google’s little green mascot in the second quarter as it continues to grow bigger and better, forming into a phantom that looms over Apple.

 

Fahad Majidi is a Paid Contributor for the Paulstechtalk.com website.  Any views of his is his own and not of the website.   Any Links in this article are affiliate links to products mentioned to help support paying for the contributor.

 

How password security will change in 10 years!

Paul

Passwords are going out the Window!

We’ve seen in the past where people have used such words as ninja, jesus, 12345678, and password!  I’ve talked about Lastpass in the past and I really believe they are the best possible combination of the two. With the recent questions of Password Length and Password Strength, I have come to the conclusion that in the coming years.   People will be doing a 3 factor authentication and having the passwords as a back up.   It really would be nice to have two ways to authenticate and not have to put in a password.

3 factor authentication!

I know your Password! Click image to see!Three factor authentication is a simple concept.   Since we have a password we can simply use two other ways to authenticate for example a cell phone and maybe a Yubi Key.  The password will be the backup for one or the other.  If you lost your phone and still would need to authenticate you password would be one you can use in an emergency. Thus it really becomes a 2 factor authentication but since we could use all three to authenticate it would make it that much harder for a hacker to brute force an attack and get your sensitive data.

2 factor authentication!

Although most people don’t think of this but having a limited number of possible access to the important data can make it just that much harder and maybe get the hacker to go somewhere else.   What about social networks?  Do we really need that for social?  I am thinking maybe and it just depends on how you login in the first place.   I would love most of them to to maybe let me authenticate with Google and come back to them but that leaves a large hole.   It just depends on how valuable your social status is and what the possible outcome of someone getting a hold of that social network.  

Elite passwords!

Some would call it “leet” speak,  and I’ve heard people say this is something we should do in reguards to making a password.   I tell you know, we already have a 2,000 most common passwords and I am betting it has some really good leet passwords already.  So what makes a hacker no try those to hack your account.   I would think these would be tried after the primary just because this would also be the easiest way to gain access to an account.

In Ten years!

I am pretty confident in ten years we will see something like this happen and we will no longer be depending on a system that was developed in the late 1990’s.   We have to be ready for change and keep it.  I just hope it happens sooner rather than later and that most companies should jump aboard and help us get this implemented.   I don’t know how hard this will be but it will be nice to not have to worry about a password anymore with my bank or other financial institution. 

Paul Sylvester

Library administrators just don’t get it and that just bugs me!

Paul

Blocking Proxpm

At the Library!

You hit the road for your favorite library and you decide you want to protect yourself from all those snooping people who like to watch what you do.   The problem is you have an unprotected and unencrypted network.   You try as you might to get a VPN setup and you just can’t connect.  So you try to find other VPN’s that woul work and your instantly blocked.  They’ve installed websense into their serves to prevent people from using a VPN.  

Not all VPNS are bad!

When I found this out, I was really irked by them preventing me from visiting such website.  I suspect they are worried someone will use a VPN to visit porn sites or research something bad.  It wouldn’t be so bad if they woul allow people to use VPN or ones they trust but this is a blacket attempt to prevent people from using them.  

Ways they can help people wit h security!

If they want to prevent this an still monitor traffic.   That is also fine with me, I understan this.   I just don’t feel comfortable using a public wifi without some privacy protection.   What if somone gets my credit card while I am using their public wifi.  Would they be liable?  More than certain, they have some clause to prevent this.

All they would have to do is make all open wifi spots encrypted with a way for guest to login to.   They wouldn’t have to have a different password for every person login in.   A simple guest password would suffice and make every wifi connection secure to prevent someone from snooping over the air transmissions.   libraries probably won’t do this but I am asking they look into this problem and come up with a solution to help us security minded people.   If they do nothing, then nothing will be solved.  

Paul Sylvester 

 

Why using the Reverse Pin number won’t work!

Paul

Seems to circulating around!

I got this email about this and wanted to clarify something about this and I wasn’t sure if this was a hoax or not.    Wikipedia is not helping this myth if it is but I will talk about the reasons why it won’t work and explain to you in detail the reasons!

Privacy!

In the Privacy Act of 1974, No business or organization can release personal information about you without your direct consent or without a court order.   Although this isn’t strictly followed by all Online business or organization.   In order for ANY ATM To disclose your location of the ATM you are at or even your financial information would be against the Privacy Act!

Terms of Service would be need to updated!

All banks would have to change their TOS just to cover their butts in case something would go wrong.  You would see bank after bank making sure you knew about the changes in their services when it comes to ATMS!  This would be one of the requirements to be able to do this!   

The Algorithm!

Let’s face it if this software was available, it would be a screaming security nitemare!  Every bank uses their own Algorithm and HASH in association with each account.   In order for an ATM to give out money from any institution it would be required to provide the currect security code which would be the PIN code.   So the bank would have to create both front door passcode(PIN NUMBER) and a back door passcord(Reverse pin number) to access your personal information and also what money you have on your account.   This two PIN approach would make your account much easier to hack and or guess your pin, if implemented!  Since the ATM would not know which pin is correct until it connected with the bank server, it would not know if the pin entered is correct or reversed until the bank granted access and thus it would be impossible to implement this!!

Safety and Such!

It would just cause more problems than it is worth.   Just think if you had to put in your pin in reverse wouldn’t it be more trouble and possibly cause more violence than it would solve.   I know I have ADHD and I wouldn’t be able to do it very easily.   If the robber wants the money he will get impatient and maybe even hurt the victim even more.   This is why it will never be implemented because in the long run.   It doesn’t stop violence or death it just is more inconvenience than anything.   Think about how long it would be before the police actually got to that ATM.  On average it takes 20 mins just where I live and I know the robber won’t stay their very long if at all!  Once he gets what he wants, your either dead or very lucky!   Just some stuff to think about!

Paul Sylvester