Wiping your IPhone Clean

Well, I’m Baack! I’ve been off line for a few months.. with the craziness of work and the fact that my life is just as crazier than usual.. that’s an update for another post!

Are you buying a new iPhone X and want to wipe all the data from your old phone?  Well I came across this CNET article that might be usable to you.

With the iPhone X availibility now down to just a few days: Yes, Dad is itching to  get an iPhone X, yet we all know how the best laid plans can be put on hold.

Yes even if you are a DROID or a Window’s phone you can use the CNET article to clear your phone, so you can become one of the iPhone cult followers… like I am..

I excerpted the intructions below from the site above.. so I’m not taking any accolades for my kownledge or ability to do the instructions below.. I am also not responsible if anything goes wrong when you follow the excerpted instructions below!

Apple devices that support iOS 5 or later include hardware encryption when you set a passcode. If you perform a wipe using the method below, the encryption key is also overwritten, which makes it very difficult for anyone who wants to recover the data.

Step 1: Before starting the reset process, make sure to unpair devices like the Apple Watch ($429.00 at Apple). Then, turn off Find My iPhone ($849.00 at Apple). For iOS 10.2 or earlier, go to Settings > iCloud > Find My iPhone. Enter your Apple ID password if prompted. For iOS 10.3 or later, go to Settings > Your name > iCloud > Find My iPhone.

Step 2: Turn off and sign out of other services including iMessage and the App Store. Go to Settings > Messages > toggle the iMessage option. For your Apple ID, go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > tap your Apple ID email address and then tap Sign Out.

For added peace of mind you may also want to sign out individually from any other linked services and apps, such as Facebook or Twitter.

Step 3: Sign out of iCloud completely. Head to Settings > iCloud and find Sign Out at the bottom of the page. For iOS 10.3 and later, Settings > Your name > Sign Out. For iOS 7 devices, choose Delete Account.

Note: if you delete all your data manually without signing out of iCloud, it will also delete the content from iCloud as well — which is something you definitely don’t want.

Step 4: Start the wipe process. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. Confirm the selection.

Step 5: Remove the serial number of the device from your Apple account profile at appleid.apple.com.

Dad’s Taxi: No longer Needed

This week, the day that I dreaded finally came true. The days of Dad’s taxi came to an end.. No.. I’m not shutting down this blog!

My 17 year old daughter got her provisional driver’s license and now she is totally mobile with her own car.. A hand me down.. from my father. .. to her sister.. to her.. A 2003 Honda Civic with very very low miles..

Of course.. in my last attempt at maintaining some control I had to take some final steps to ensure her safety has she hit the perilous travails on the roads of Central New Jersey.

• I signed a contract with my 17 year old.. on what hours she can drive using her provisional license (6AM – 11PM).. Nothing outside those hours
• Only she can drive the car.. The car is NOT to be used by her BFF’s.
• She needs to tell mom/dad whenever she goes out as to her destination and must text/call us that she has arrived at her destination.
• She is responsible for ensuring car is in working order.. If any major maintenance is to be done, Mom/Dad will take care of it.
• She’s fully insured (Courtesy of Dear Dad).
• Drive defensively.. There is a reason why NJ has one of the highest insurance rates. If you live in NJ, you know what I mean by this.
• No Texting and driving! Phone is to be turned off whenever she gets in the car if she is the driver.

She even started taking the care to High School!

So Dad’s Taxi is now officially out of business.. Unless of course my girls want me to drive them around when they are home!

 

 

Black Monday – Possible of 300K of outages

I know everyone that reads Dads’ Taxi is very alert about Malware and virusus.

Tomorrow (Monday, July 9th) is when up to 300 thousand PC’s may go dark because of the “doomsday virus”. What does going dark mean? It mean you won’t be able to get on the Internet and update your Facebook status, or do ANYTHING on the internet.

Of course the media is hyping this possible situation to the max and trying to get everyone to be scared silly. Well on Dad’s taxi, we try to alleviate your concerns by providing you with links that were published on Yahoo that you can use to see whether your computer is/was infected. It takes 20 seconds of your time and any one of the links below will do the check for you.

The Taxi is providing these links as a courtesy to my legions of followers. Ok, the ten’s of follower’s I have!

Online security firms, Facebook and the FBI are offering free diagnostic checks for users whose computers may be infected. Here are links to several sites:

• Malware check: http://dns-ok.us/

After you run the real time tester and you see the image below, your machine has been infected!

• FBI: https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-if-your-computer-is-using-rogue-DNS

• DNS Changer Working Group: http://www.dcwg.org/

• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-security/notifying-dnschanger-victims/10150833689760766

• McAfee: http://www.mcafee.com/dnscheck

Keep in mind, this malware was discovered and and baddies that originated this malware were arrested. The information was excerpted from the following Yahoo News Site:

• The problem stems from malware known as DNS Changer, which was created by cybercriminals to redirect Internet traffic by hijacking the domain name systems of Web browsers.
• The ring behind the DNS Changer virus, discovered in 2007, was shut down last year by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Estonian police and other law enforcement agencies.
• Because the virus controlled so much Web traffic, authorities obtained a court order to allow the FBI to operate replacement servers which allow traffic to flow normally, even from infected computers.
• But that order expires Monday, when experts say infected computers will face an “Internet doomsday.”

Related articles

• Malware Monday: How to check if you’ll lose Internet tomorrow – NDTV (gadgets.ndtv.com)
• More than 20,000 infected computers in India may lose internet tomorrow (indiatoday.intoday.in)
• Will you have Internet tomorrow? (salon.com)
• Virus could black out nearly 250,000 PCs (news.yahoo.com)
• ‘Internet Doomsday’ virus could black out 250,000 PCs (todayonline.com)

Facebook Proxy

So I was talking to my 16 yr old today and the conversation came on to Facebook and how she can get to FB regardless of where she is. Of course I’m deprived of this right at my job, as we have very tight security so we don’t waste time..

So she tells me casually that she can get into facebook regardless where she is.. Of course her school blocks access to the site (as they should). Using the proxy, she can unblock the proxy security at her school and get to her favorite haunt –> Facebook.

She tells me that to get around the restrictions of the high school blocking her access to Facebook (and that is it her absolute right to Facebook on demand), she just went to google and utilzed a facebook proxy.

When I went to Google and typed in facebook proxy and lo and behold, there were so many pages that allows you to circumvent restrictions on access to FB.

Of course none of the sites that were listed worked for me, from work.. Let me know if you have any success. Of course my daughter continues to get her daily dosage of Facebook even though she should be getting an education! Note to self, have a talk with this teenager ASAP about not breaking security, get a job, get a good education, etc.. Yet I know that conversation will just wind up with eyes being rolled!

Scambusters

Today with the way technology is proceeding at a breakneck speed, we are all inundated with offers either via email, telephone or by on-line malware. This post talks about some tips to avoid being scammed. In today’s of technology overload, you are your own last line of defense against spam, phishing, malware, virus’s, and any web born aggrevation.

Hmm, do I sound like someone who has gone down this path?

To battle the scourge of being scammed or having your identity stolen, here are a couple of really good sites which help you follow up on this ageless motto:

“If it sounds too good to be true, it absolutely is”.

1. Scambusters – Check out questionable offers
2. Scam – On-line community forums

Some tips to avoid being scammed or having your identity stolen (my list of on-line NO-NO’s):

• Don’t open ANY emails that look suspicious (No you have not won $5M in the European Union’s lottery that you never entered)
• Don’t confirm any personal information via email – NO valid financial institution will ask you for your pin code to “confirm” your identity.
• Never ever give your credit card number to anyone on the phone, if you have any doubt of  who the caller is. I encountered this when I kept on getting “restricted” calls from the Policemen’s fund raiser on my home phone. As soon as you ask for proof of identity or email confirmation, the phone line mysteriously goes dead….
• Make sure your Antivirus, hardware/software firewall, spyware blocker, anti-phishing (browser) addons for Firefox or IE are updated. If this sounds like I’m over-protected, I’m not. Even with all of the above, I’ve seen many of these villans attack my machines at home. So in order to protect yourself, you need to have a combinations. I’ve used both McAfee and Norton. These days I lean towards McAfee, only because, it’s provided free by most web providers (Comcast, Optimum, etc…). I’v also stopped using IE all together and only use Firefox on all my machines.
• Make sure you disable Pop-Ups (this is how how I caught the dreaded “Your machine has a virus, you need to purchase ….”  virus). You can always enable or override with simple keystrokes.
• Do not accept any invitation/messages  from anyone that you do not know on social networking sites.  Yes that means me, a noted Facebook and LinkedIn fanatic.
• Do not accept an invitation : When you get an invite from someone that you have no clue to be your “friend” on your instant messager client (cindyfunxx38  is not your friend)

Overall, I can safely say: “If you encounter stangers bearing gifts, you can almost be assured that you will be given a gift that will last for a lifetime”.

If you know of any additional scambuster sites, leave me a comment.

Tickled by Life – Life Enhancement

I was having a really difficult at work this week. 😦  and I needed something to cheer me up.

I came across the site Tickled by Life and before I could finish reading one article, I realized that this Blog was a keeper and wanted to share with my readers.

I especiallly enjoyed the article What goes around Comes around..

Enjoy!

Thrifty Fun – Fun, advice and blogs

This entry comes as a courtesy of my Sis-In-Law (RM). Good work RM. Bet you never thought you’d be published at Dad’s Taxi! 🙂

Thrifty Fun is a pretty cool site which has some really nice featured articles and newsletters which you can subscribe to. The site is family oriented, so it seems to be a pretty good place for information and tips! Most of the focus of this site is related to the home and tips on how to solve household problems. Found that to be pretty useful.

It’s here that I found another link to an interesting My Frugal Life Blog site.The site offers some excellent advice, free newsletters, tips and so much more.  You can browse the various topics and much more.

What I liked best  was the disclaimer for the site. Now I gotta figure out how to do the same for Dad’s Taxi.

Take a look along the bottom of the page and you’ll find some interesting sites for budgeting, savings advice, couponing, ezines (newsletters), etc..

Overall, the site is really nice and deserves a detailed look.. enjoy..

PS. Thanks RM.

CELL PHONE DO NOT CALL REGISTRY

Mea Culpa. After I posted this entry, I realized that I had fallen into one of the olders email hoaxes that has been on the Internet.

A good friend of mine directed me to the Urban Legends site which discusses the below.

There is no deadline. Below is the excerpt which makes this entry moot. Again I don’t normally post this kind of information without verifying, but in this case, I did.

Comments: Yes, you can add your cell phone number(s) to the National Do Not Call Registry.

But no, you won’t suddenly be at the mercy of 10,000 telemarketers if you don’t.

While it’s true that several of the major wireless phone providers announced a plan some years ago to establish a 411 directory of customers’ cell phone numbers, it is not true that the plan involved publishing said directory for any and all to read. Participating companies said the numbers would be made available only via telephone, only to users who dialed directory assistance and paid a fee, and only with customer consent.

In any case, the point has been moot since 2006, when the plan to create a 411 directory for cell phone numbers was indefinitely postponed.

******************************************************************

Notice: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public next month.

Starting February 2009, Cell phone numbers will go public.

If you want to avoid telemarketing or sales calls, follow the process below, and it should put your cell phone on the DO NOT CALL LIST put into place by the Federal Trade Commission.

This is the National Do Not Call Registry sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission.  You may also register your home phone number on this number too but it is essential to register your cell phone because all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls.

…. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS MADE TO YOUR CELL PHONE.

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:    888-382-1222.

Important thing here is that you MUST call from the number you are registering. According to the site:

Your registration will not expire. Telephone numbers placed on the National Do Not Call Registry will remain on it permanently due to the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007, which became law in February 2008. Read more about it at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/04/dncfyi.shtm.

It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.

If after you do this and you continue to get those annoying sales calls on your cell, you can always call to the National Do Not Call Registry to initiate a complaint against the cell phone spammer!

The National Do Not Call Registry Serves multiple purposes:

1. Register multiple phone numbers to be put on the DO NOT CALL List with the FTC
2. Verify that your number is on the DO NOT CALL list (via email)
3. Initiate complaints against the organizations that continue to call you when you are on the DO NOT CALL List.
   

Thanks to my tennis buddy Drew for enlightening me with this tidbit..

Of course if you like sales calls interrupting your privacy, you can ignore… 🙂

Clark Howard Highlights – Tips for your Financia Life

A few weeks ago I talked about Clark Howard. He’s the guy who has is an a excellent advocate for consumers. His tips and tricks give you excellent ideas on saving money in your every day financial transactions.

Today, I came across the CNN site with videos by Clark on his weekly TV Show.

As I’ve said before, what I like about Clark Howard’s information is that it’s very useful in everyday life. Take a look.

mashable – All Web news

I was bored and cruising (yes everyone knows how easily I get distracted/bored) and came across the mashable site.

This site provides an excellent summarized summary of NEW things happening. I could just waste hours and hours of time on the popular category of  Facebook, Firefox, Google and my fav iPhone.

What I liked about the site,  is that you can leave comments on any of the stories that are published here.

I like the clean structure and the a could look at the popular categories. I’ll give you one guess which one I gravitated to. the iPhone area.

What I liked even more of this site is the Jobs section.

• Here you can see job postings (besides your Monster,  and careerbuilder). The interface was clean. I just selected the state I was looking for a job in and voila,  I saw the jobs in a simple list.
• Updated 11/15/18: without doubt the best aggregator site today is Indeed. This site puts together jobs from multiple sites for a one stop job search

Take a look at mashable , I added the daily feed to my Yahoo, of course this site allows you to add subscribe to this site.  I give this site 4+ stars.

One of my next blog entries  is going to be dedicated to how to network in this crummy (yes that’s a technical term) economy and the inside tricks to finding jobs others won’t find.. Stay tuned for that.