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Sticks…A Cautionary Tale!
There's many a dog that has a passion for sticks, some will go and find their own and drag it around with them regardless of its size. Others will expectantly wait, wide-eyed, full of anticipation for you to throw it for them. To chase, to fetch, to do it all over again, thats the game, that's what they've been waiting all day to do. We, along with the help of Jake, would ask you to think twice – as tempting as it might be, as wide as those pleeding eyes are, throw a ball or toy instead. DON'T THROW STICKS, THE CONSEQUENCES CAN BE DISASTEROUS – as Jake's story will demonstrate.
Jake was enjoying his walk as usual, getting excited about the prospect of having sticks thrown for him to chase. His owner did not want to disappoint and picked up a suitable branch. It was flung high into the air and Jake chased eagerly, keen to please his owner and demonstrate his atheletic prowess. He leapt up and caught one end of the stick in his mouth in a medal-worthy display of gymnastic ability. However, on landing, he could not control the other end of the stick, which hit the ground before he did. Planting itself firming in the soil, Jake's momentum then jammed the rest of the stick through the back of his throat, where it became stuck.
Jake was rushed to see our vet Helen at Pool House Hospital. The severity of his injury was quickly apparent. One end of the stick was visible in his mouth, whilst the other could easily be seen and felt under the skin half way down his neck. The blunt stick had torn through the tonsillar crypt at the side of his throat and pushed its way through the muscles of the pharynx and neck to appear just under the skin, narrowly missing major blood vessels and nerves!
Helen had to take Jake straight to theatre for an emergency operation. The stick was removed through an incision over the neck, taking care not to damage any veins, arteries or nerves. The large deep hole that remained was flushed of bark and wood debris and left to heal.
Thankfully, Jake made a full recovery, but it could have been far worse. Only few millimetres difference and the outcome could have been very different.
Jake doesn't play with sticks anymore – he's learnt that a ball is just as much fun and far safer.


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Sponsored by: Build your own mock malware and test your stack. Stackhackr will tell you if your company is vulnerable. Built by Barkly.
Last week I wrote about Passwords Evolved: Authentication Guidance for the Modern Era with the aim of helping those building services which require authentication to move into the modern era of how we think about protecting accounts. In that post, I talked about NIST's Digital Identity Guidelines which were recently released. Of particular interest to me was the section advising organisations to block subscribers from using passwords that have previously appeared in a data breach. Here's the full exert from the authentication & lifecycle management doc (CSP is "Credential Service Provider"):
NIST isn't mincing words here, in fact they're quite clearly saying that you shouldn't be allowing people to use a password that's been breached before, among other types of passwords they shouldn't be using. The reasons for this should be obvious but just in case you're not fully aware of the risks, have a read of my recent post on password reuse, credential stuffing and another billion records in Have I been pwned (HIBP). As I read NIST's guidance, I realised I was in a unique position to help do something about the problem they're trying to address due to the volume of data I've obtained in running HIBP. Others picked up on this too:
It would be exceptionally helpful if @troyhunt could share anonymized passwords for this purpose.
— scriptjunkie (@scriptjunkie1) June 23, 2017
This blog post introduces a new service I call "Pwned Passwords", gives you guidance on how to use it and ultimately, provides you with 306 million passwords you can download for free and use to protect your own systems. If you're impatient you can go and play with it right now, otherwise let me explain what I've created.
Where Are the Passwords From?
Before I go any further, I've always been pretty clear about not redistributing data from breaches and this doesn't change that one little bit. I'll get into the nuances of that shortly but I wanted to make it crystal clear up front: I'm providing this data in a way that will not disadvantage those who used the passwords I'm providing. As such, they're not in clear text and whilst I appreciate that will mean some use cases aren't feasible, protecting the individuals still using these passwords is the first priority.
I've aggregated these passwords from a variety of different sources, starting with the massive combo lists I wrote about in May. These contain all the sorts of terrible passwords you'd expect from real world examples and you can read an analysis in BinaryEdge's post on how users are choosing their passwords on the internet. I began with the Exploit.in list which has 805,499,391 rows of email address and plain text password pairs. That actually "only" had 593,427,119 unique email addresses in it so what we're seeing here is a heap of email accounts with more than one password. This is the reality of these combo lists: they're often providing multiple different alternate passwords which could be used to break into the one account.
I grabbed the passwords from the Exploit.in list which gave me 197,602,390 unique values. Think about this for a moment: 75% of the passwords in that one data set had been used more than once. This is really important as it starts to put shape around the scale of the problem we're facing.
I moved on to the Anti Public list which contained 562,077,488 rows with 457,962,538 unique email addresses. This gave me a further 96,684,629 unique passwords not already in the Exploit.in data. Looking at it the other way, 83% of the passwords in that set had already been seen before. This is entirely expected: as more data is added, a smaller proportion of the passwords are previously unseen.
From there, I moved through a variety of other data sources adding more and more passwords albeit with a steadily decreasing rate of new ones appearing. I was adding sources with tens of millions of passwords and finding "only" a 6-figure number of new ones. Whilst you could say that the data I'm providing is largely comprised of those two combo lists, you could also say that once you have hundreds of millions of passwords, new data breaches are simply not turning up too much stuff we haven't already seen. (Keep that last point in mind for when I later talk about updates.)
When I was finished, there were 306,259,512 unique Pwned Passwords in the set. Let's talk about how you can now use them.
Checking Passwords Online
For quite some time now, I've had suggestions along the lines of that earlier tweet saying "you should build a service for websites to check passwords against when customers sign up". I want to explain why this is a bad idea, why I've done it anyway and why that's not how you should use the service.
To the first point, there is now a link on the nav of HIBP titled Passwords. On that page, there's a search box where you can enter a password and it will tell you if it exists on the service. For example, if you test the password "[email protected]":
It goes without saying (although I say it anyway on that page), but don't enter a password you currently use into any third-party service like this! I don't explicitly log them and I'm a trustworthy guy but yeah, don't. The point of the web-based service is so that people who have been guilty of using sloppy passwords have a means of independent verification that it's not one they should no longer be using. Mind you, someone could actually have an exceptionally good password but if the website stored it in plain text then leaked it, that password has still been "burned".
If a password is not found in the Pwned Passwords set, it'll result in a response like this:
My hope is that an easily accessible online service like this also partially addresses the age-old request I've had to provide email address and password pairs; if the password alone comes back with a hit on this service, that's a very good reason to no longer use it regardless of whose account it originally appeared against.
As well people checking passwords they themselves may have used, I'm envisaging more tech-savvy people using this service to demonstrate a point to friends, relatives and co-workers: "you see, this password has been breached before, don't use it!" If this one thing I've learned over the years of running this service, it's that nothing hits home like seeing your own data pwned.
To give people more options, they can also search for a SHA1 hash of the password. Taking the password "[email protected]" example from earlier on, a search for "ce0b2b771f7d468c0141918daea704e0e5ad45db" (the hash itself is not case sensitive so "CE0B…" is fine too) yields the same result:
The service auto-detects SHA1 hashes in the web UI so if your actual password was a SHA1 hash, that's not going to work for you. This is where you need the API which is per the existing APIs on the service, is fully documented. Using this you can perform a search as follows:
And as for that "but the actual password I want to search for is a SHA1 hash" scenario, you can always call the API as follows:
GET https://haveibeenpwned/api/v2/pwnedpassword/ce0b2b771f7d468c0141918daea704e0e5ad45db?originalPasswordIsAHash=true
That will actually return a 404 as nobody used the hash of "[email protected]" as their actual password (at least if they did, it hasn't appeared in plain text or was readily crackable). There's no response body when hitting the API, just 404 when the password isn't found and 200 when it is, for example when just searching for "[email protected]" via its hash:
GET https://haveibeenpwned/api/v2/pwnedpassword/ce0b2b771f7d468c0141918daea704e0e5ad45db
Just like the other APIs on HIBP, the Pwned Passwords service fully supports CORS so if you really did want to integrate it into a web front end somewhere, you can (I suggest sending only a SHA1 hash if you want to do that, at least it's some additional protection). Also like the other APIs, it's rate limited to one request every 1,500ms per IP address. This is heaps for legitimate web-based use cases.
One quick caveat on the search feature: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence or in other words, just because a password doesn't return a hit doesn't mean it hasn't been previously exposed. For example, the password I used on Dropbox is out there as a bcrypt hash and given it's a randomly generated string out of 1Password, it's simply not getting cracked. I say this because some people will inevitably say "I was in the XX breach and used YY password but your service doesn't say it was pwned". Now you know why!
So that's the online option but again, don't use this for anything important in terms of actual passwords, there's a much better way.
Checking Passwords Offline
The entire collection of 306 million hashed passwords can be directly downloaded from the Pwned Passwords page. It's a single 7-Zip file that's 5.3GB which you can then download and extract into whatever data structure you want to work with (it's 11.9GB once expanded). This allows you to use the passwords in whatever fashion you see fit and I'll give you a few sample scenarios in a moment.
Providing data in this fashion wasn't easy, primarily due to the size of the zip file. Actually, let me rephrase that: it wouldn't be easy if I wanted to do it without spending a heap for other people to download the data! I asked for some advice on this whilst preparing the service:
What's a cheap way of hosting a 6GB file for a heap of people to download? Don't want to torrent and don't mind paying a *little*
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) July 20, 2017
There were lots of well-intentioned suggestions which wouldn't fly. For example, Dropbox and OneDrive aren't intended for sharing files with a large audience and they'll pull your ability to do so if you try (believe me). Hosting models which require me to administer a server are also out as that's a bunch of other responsibility I'm unwilling to take on. Lots of people pointed to file hosting models where the storage was cheap but then the bandwidth stung so those were out too. Backblaze's B2 was the most cost effective but at 2c a GB for downloads, I could easily see myself paying north of a thousand dollars over time. Amazon has got a neat Requestor Pays Feature but as soon as there's a cost – any cost – there's a barrier to entry. In fact, both this model and torrenting it were out because they make access to data harder; many organisations block torrents (for obvious reasons) and I know, for example, that either of these options would have posed insurmountable hurdles at my previous employment. (Actually, I probably would have ended up just paying for it myself due to the procurement challenges of even a single-digit dollar amount, but let's not get me started on that!)
After that tweet, I got several offers of support which was awesome given it wasn't even clear what I was doing! One of those offers came from Cloudflare who I've written about many times before. I'm a big supporter of what they do for all the sorts of reasons mentioned in those posts, plus their offer of support would mean the data would be aggressively cached in their 115 edge nodes around the world. What this means over and above simple hosting of the files itself is that downloads should be super fast for everyone because it's always being served from somewhere very close to them. The source file actually sits in Azure blob storage but regardless of how many times you guys download it, I'll only see a few requests a month at most. So big thanks to Cloudflare for not just making this possible in the first place, but for making it a better experience for everyone.
So that's the data and where to get it, let's now talk about the hashes.
Why Hashes?
Sometimes passwords are personally identifiable. Either they contain personal info (such as kids' names and birthdays) or they can even be email addresses. One of the most common password hints in the Adobe data breach (remember, they leaked hints in clear text), was "email" so you see the challenge here.
Further to that, if I did provide all the passwords in clear text fashion then it opens up the risk of them being used as a source to potentially brute force accounts. Yes, some people will be able to sniff out the sources of a large number of them in plain text if they really want to, but as with my views on protecting data breaches themselves, I don't want to be the channel by which this data is spread further in a way that can do harm. I'm hashing them out of "an abundance of caution" and besides, for the use cases I'm going to talk about shortly, they don't need to be in plain text format anyway.
Each of the 306 million passwords is being provided as a SHA1 hash. What this means is that anyone using this data can take a plain text password from their end (for example during registration, password change or at login), hash it with SHA1 and see if it's previously been leaked. It doesn't matter that SHA1 is a fast algorithm unsuitable for storing your customers' passwords with because that's not what we're doing here, it's simply about ensuring the source passwords are not immediately visible.
Also, just a quick note on the hashes: I processed all the passwords in a SQL Server DB then dumped out the hashes using the HASHBYTES function which represents them in uppercase. If you're comparing these to hashes on your end, make sure you either generate your hashes in uppercase or do a case insensitive comparison.
Let's go through a few different use cases of how I'm hoping this data can be employed to do good things.
Use Case 1: Registration
At the point of registration, the user-provided password can be checked against the Pwned Passwords list. If a match is found, there are 2 likely explanations for what's happened:
- This is a password the user has previously used and it has been pwned in a data breach. It may even be a very good password strength wise, but it should now be considered "burned".
- This is a password someone else has used and it has been pwned in a data beach. This is almost certainly a poor password choice as someone else has independently chosen the same string of characters.
Both scenarios ultimately mean the same thing – the password has previously been used, exposed and is circulating amongst nefarious parties with criminal intent. Let's go back to NIST's advice for a moment in terms of how to handle this:
If the chosen secret is found in the list, the CSP or verifier SHALL advise the subscriber that they need to select a different secret, SHALL provide the reason for rejection, and SHALL require the subscriber to choose a different value.
This is one possible path to take in that you simply reject the registration and ask the user to create another password. Per NIST's guidance though, do explain why the password has been rejected:
This has a usability impact. From a purely "secure all the things" standpoint, you should absolutely take the above approach but there will inevitably be organisations that are reluctant to potentially lose the registration as a result of pushing back. I also suggest having an easily accessible link to explain why the password has been rejected. You and I know what a data breach is but it's a foreign world to many other people so some language the masses can understand (including why it's in their own best interests) is highly recommended.
A middle ground would be to recommend the user create a new password without necessarily enforcing this action. The obvious risk is that the user clicks through the warning and proceeds with using a compromised password, but at least you've given them the opportunity to improve their security profile.
There should not be a "one size fits all" approach here. Consider the risk in the context of what it is you're protecting and whilst that means that yes, there are cases where you certainly shouldn't allow the passwords, there are also cases where the damage would be much less and some more leeway might be granted.
Use Case 2: Password Change
Think back to that earlier NIST guidance:
When processing requests to establish and change memorized secrets
Password change is important as it obviously presents another opportunity for users to make good (or bad) decisions. But it's a little different to registration for a couple of reasons. One reason is that it presents an opportunity to do the following:
Here you can do some social good; we know how much passwords are reused and the reality of it is that if they've been using that password on one service, they've probably been using it on others too. Giving people a heads up that even an outgoing password was a poor choice may well help save them from grief on a totally unrelated website.
Clearly, the new password should also be checked against the list and as per the previous use case at registration, you could either block a Pwned Password entirely or ask the user if they're sure they want to proceed. However, in this use case I'd be more inclined to err towards blocking it simply because by now, the user is already a customer. The argument of "let's not do anything to jeopardise signups" is no longer valid and whilst I'd be hesitant to say "always block Pwned Passwords at change", I'd be more inclined to do it here than anywhere else.
Use Case 3: Login
Many systems will already have large databases of users. Many of them have made poor password choices stretching all the way back to registration, an event that potentially occurred many years ago. Whilst that password remains in use, anyone using it faces a heightened risk of account takeover which means doing something like this makes a lot of sense:
I suggest being very clear that there has not been a security incident on the site they're logging into and that the password was exposed via a totally unrelated site. You wouldn't need to do this every single time someone logs in, just the first time since implementing the feature after which you could flag the account as checked and not do so again. You'd definitely want to make sure this is an expeditious process too; 306 million records in a poorly indexed database with many people simultaneously logging on wouldn't make for a happy user experience! An approach as I've taken with Azure Table Storage would be ideal in that it's very fast (single digit ms), very scalable and very cost effective.
Other Use Cases
I'm sure clever people will come up with other ways of using this data. Perhaps, for example, a Pwned Password is only allowed if multi-step verification is enabled. Maybe there are certain features of the service that are not available if the password has a hit on the pwned list. Or consider whether you could even provide an incentive if the user proactively opts to change a Pwned Password after being prompted, for example the way MailChimp provide an incentive to enabled 2FA:
Love this – just paid @MailChimp some money and got a 10% discount because I have 2FA enabled 😎 pic.twitter.com/3cgFb68VG4
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) June 30, 2017
The thing about protecting people in this fashion is that it doesn't just reduce the risk of bad things happening to them, it also reduces the burden on the organisation holding credentials that have already been compromised. Increasingly, services are becoming more and more aware of this value and I'm seeing instances of this every day. This one just last week from Spirit Airlines, for example:
@troyhunt should I be worried? Already check haveibeenpwned and know some decade old combos still exist out in the wild, but this is new pic.twitter.com/EQWkSsHldm
— Mallard Phallus (@mkane848) July 28, 2017
Or a couple of days before that, this one from Freelancer:
wasn't breached in any recent leak but still nice @troyhunt pic.twitter.com/C2nQD9UHcd
— A (@hej) July 27, 2017
I particularly like the way they mention HIBP 🙂 In fact, this approach was quite well-received and they got themselves a writeup on Gizmodo for their efforts. So you can see the point I'm making: increasingly, organisations are using breached data to do good things whether that be from mining data breaches directly themselves, monitoring for email address exposure (a number of organisations actually use HIBP commercially to do this), or as I hope, downloading these 306 million Pwned Passwords and stopping them from doing any more harm.
If you have other ideas on how to use this data and particularly if you use it in the way I'm hoping organisations do, please leave a comment below. My genuine hope is that this initiative helps drive positive change but given the way it'll be downloaded and used, I'll have no direct visibility into its uses so I'm relying on people to let me know.
Augment Pwned Passwords with Other Approaches
The 306 million passwords in this list obviously represents a really comprehensive set of strings that shouldn't be used as passwords, but it's not exhaustive and nor can it ever be. For example, the earlier screen cap from NIST also says that you shouldn't allow the following:
Context-specific words, such as the name of the service, the username, and derivatives thereof
If your service is called "Jim's Drone Hire", you shouldn't allow a password of JimsDroneHire. Or J1m5Dr0n3H1r3. Or and other combination people may try. They won't be in the list of Pwned Passwords but you still shouldn't allow them.
You also should still use implementations such as Dropbox's zxcvbn. This includes 47k common passwords and runs client side so it can give immediate feedback as people are entering a password. Every one of those passwords is also included in the Pwned Passwords list so the server side validation is already covered if you're using the list I've provided here. (Incidentally, more than 99% of them had already appeared in data breaches loaded into the Pwned Passwords list.)
Updates, Attribution and Donations
As for updates, when a "significant" volume of new passwords becomes available I'll update the data. I'm not putting a number on what "significant" constitutes (I'll cross that bridge when I get to it), and it will likely be provided as a delta that can be easily added to the existing data set. But the reality is that 306 million passwords already represents a huge portion of the passwords people regularly use, a fact that was made abundantly clear as I built out the data set and found a decreasing number of new passwords not already in the master list.
In terms of attribution, you're free to use the Pwned Passwords without identifying HIBP as the source, simply because I want to remove every possible barrier to use. As I mentioned earlier, I know how corporate environments in particular can put up barriers around the most inane things and I don't want the legal department to stop something that's in everybody's best interests. Of course, I'm happy if you do want to attribute HIBP as the source of the data, but you're under no obligation to do so.
As I mentioned earlier, I've been able to host and provide this data for free courtesy of Cloudflare. There's (almost) no cost to me to host it, none to distribute it and indeed none to acquire it in the first place (I have a policy of never paying for data – the last thing we need is people being financially incentivised to hack websites). The only cost to me has been time and I've already got a great donation page on HIBP if you'd like to contribute towards that by buying me a coffee or some beer. I'm enormously grateful to those who do 🙂
There will be those within organisations that won't be too keen on the approaches above due to the friction it presents to some users. I've written before about the attitude of people with titles like "Marketing Manager" where there can be a myopic focus on usability whilst serious security incidents remain "a hypothetical risk". If you're wearing the same shoes as I have so many times before where you're trying to make yourself heard and do what you ultimately believe is in the organisation's best interests, let me give you a couple of suggestions:
- Offer to "downsample" the users you apply this to over a trial period. For example, take just 10% of the logins, check them against Pwned Passwords and show the prompt I suggest above then measure the behaviour (i.e. how many then change their passwords).
- Just passively collect data in a "phase one" approach. See how many of the registrations, password changes and logins match the Pwned Passwords list and collect aggregated stats (no, don't log the password itself!) Use this data to then have an evidence-based discussion about the risk to the organisation.
Use this data to do good things. Take it as an opportunity to not just reduce the risk to the service you're involved in running, but also to help make people aware of the broader risks they face due to their password management practices. When someone gets a "hit" on a Pwned Password, help them understand the broader risk profile and what this means to their personal security. One thing that's really hit home while running HIBP is that few things resonate with people like demonstrating that they've been pwned. I can do that with those who come to the site and enter their email address but by providing these 306 million Pwned Passwords, my hope is that with your help, I can distribute that "lightbulb moment" out to a far greater breadth of people.

subset: commoncrawl


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Big plans for former North Hill Surgery
PUBLISHED: 15:17 14 January 2019
Ipswich-based property law firm Attwells has purchased a new Colchester office on North Hill in the heart of the town, with plans to open in March 2019.
Attwells is investing in the new office, an important building in Colchester that once housed the North Hill Surgery, to complement their existing London and Ipswich offices.
They will also be undertaking a refurbishment of the building, to give it a new lease of life before they open in the Spring.
The new office at of 18 North Hill and 21 Nunns Road, will see up to 10 new jobs created for the Colchester area, offering opportunity to better support existing Colchester clients, and to connect with other local businesses and organisations.
Senior associate of Attwells Lloyd Clarke, who grew up and studied in Colchester, said: "Attwells' move into Colchester will enable us to better cement the good relationships we have with existing clients in the area – it will also mean we have an opportunity to support local people through our specialist personal, commercial and property law services – it's a very exciting time for our firm."
Attwells have recently been involved in a number of community-based activities in Colchester, including gift donations to elderly patients at Colchester Hospital over the festive period. They are also set to launch a discount system for former patients of North Hill Surgery, which will be available from February 2019 for those looking for support in personal law.
The move was co-ordinated by Steven Donnelly of Fenn Wright Colchester, who said: "This handsome period building in an easily accessible town centre location, with private on site car parking, and is ideally positioned for Attwells. At Fenn Wright we believe the opening of their Colchester office in March will be of huge benefit to their existing clients as well as both local residents and businesses."
• File Name: Nick Attwell & Steven Donnelly – Handover of Colchester Keys
• Image Caption: Nick Attwell, Founder and Senior Partner of Attwells Solicitors, and Steven Donnelly of Fenn Wright Colchester meet to hand over the keys for the new Attwells Colchester office.
• Image Credit: Attwells Solicitors
• Attwells was established in 2007 by Nick Attwell, who achieved a Master of Law from Cambridge University in 1997.
• With its head office in Ipswich Attwells Solicitors is the leading property firm in East Anglia with a boutique London Office.
North Hill Surgery:
• The building on North Hill was once the home of the North Hill Surgery, with staff relocating to other local practices in September 2018 as a result of being merged with Creffield Medical Centre. According to the Surgery, the move will "provide greater efficiencies in patient care" for the future.
If you value what this story gives you, please consider supporting the Ipswich Star. Click the link in the orange box below for details.


text:
Alice Cooper has revealed that Elvis Presley once asked him to shoot him in the head.
The 'Poison' rocker recalled that he first met Presley in 1971, along with Liza Minnelli and porn star Linda Lovelace, in a Las Vegas hotel suite.
Cooper told The Mirror: "When we got inside the place was full of guns. Elvis took me into the kitchen, opened a drawer, and pulled out a loaded pistol, telling me to put it to his head.
"I didn't know what to do. I had this gun in my hand and was expecting one of his security to come in any second, see me holding a weapon and shoot me dead."
Cooper then revealed his thought processes in the moment of confusion, explaining: "A little voice in my left ear was telling me, 'Go on, kill him, you'll always be the guy who killed Elvis'. In my other ear was another voice saying, 'You can't kill him, it's Elvis Presley, wound him instead, you'll only get a few years!'
"A fraction of a second later Elvis did a flying kick on the gun and sent it flying, before tripping me and pinning me to the ground by my neck, announcing, 'That's how you stop a man with a gun'."
Cooper will headline the Second Stage at this weekend's Download festival on Saturday. Def Leppard, System Of A Down and Linkin Park are among the Main Stage headliners for the event.
> Alice Cooper: 'I relate to Charlie Sheen'
> Alice Cooper to give 4D performance


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Gary Johnson : Demagogy 2.0
We recently revealed the demagogue in chief Ron Paul, leader of the Demagogic Party of America (the only party we have unfortunately).
This week we'll introduce a new candidate, a forerunner who despite is late appearance has still many demagogic tools in his arsenal.
You know, the one that calls himself classical liberal but refuses to acknowledge the main principle of classical liberalism : the right of a civilization to govern itself.
While I have no doubt that Gary Johnson would be a perfectly good "liberal" candidate, as in left-wing socialist hippie, I have a hard time seeing him as a classical liberal of any form.
I don't know what is a bigger spoliation than to refuse to a nation the right to govern itself.
I don't know what is a bigger violation of private property than to allow invasions for foreign countries, and even encourage them (we are talking about the man who wants amnesty for all illegals).
It's funny that when the US Army intervenes in Afghanistan or Syria, the globalist media is always whining about "invasions", "unconstitutional wars", and so forth. But they always fail to show the REAL invasion going on : illegal immigration.
But the global agenda will never allow a serious candidate for president of the United States, as their goal is that we become a mediocre country lacking our own culture, destroyed by 60 years of ethnomasochism, and being controlled and occupied by foreign interests.
I strongly criticize Gary Johnson's views on immigration, but you would think that as a so-called "libertarian" he would at least have a decent economic program right ?
Bullshit, his economic plan is probably the weakest of any candidate (even behind Obama).
Abolish tariffs ? Seriously ? So how are you going to get any state income ? Tax labor ? capital gains ? VAT ?
How can you call yourself libertarian and want to tax labor ? As a matter of fact, how can you be in the twenty-first century and want to tax labor ?
He always brags about how he balanced the budget as governor (what more or less every republican governor has ever done), but it's quite easy to do so if you're going to tax capital, labor and consumption.
The real question to ask yourself is : what will be our economic situation in ten years, once every company will have moved offshore ?
High tariffs are an incentive for a company to move somewhere, as well as low labor/capital taxes. Gary Johnson wants the opposite for our country, the opposite of what has always worked, the opposite of what is working RIGHT NOW for the top exporters in the world and those who at least have a positive trade balance.
Will it work for the USA ? Has it ever worked for anyone who has applied it ? No.
Does it buy votes ? Does it seems serious to the uneducated masses ? Apparently.
I don't know what's the worst in all this : that an ignorant like Gary Johnson would become a presidential candidate, or that some people take him seriously.
Free market is not the new magic pill
It's funny to note how both the communist and the new wave of pro-European globalist share very similar views on most subjects. For instance, they both follow blindly the work of so-called economists that had very little real market experience (Marx for the Red, Hayek, Bastiat, Von Mises for the Blue). They're also both eager to openly designate scrapegoats, the "invisible enemy" against whom we must all unite for the "greater good" even beyond American interests. And finally, they're both also eager declare themselves outsiders, anti-system or anti-establishment.
Recently in our political debates, many conservative candidates have expressed views about a more open market, a free market if you will. Now free market doesn't have to mean mere submission to the globalization of our economies as Ron Paul suggests, some markets can be very restricted yet very open to globalization (or even globalism) as California shows us.
Free market means a more open economy inside our borders, less governmental restrictions on businesses and business creation. Now as favorable as I am to this idea, our politicians and other leaders have now managed to turn what was once a genuinely good idea to a new masquerade of demagogy.
Politicians, and especially Ron Paul, seem not only to see free market as the new magic pill, but even as the only economic proposition. Free market is neither the new magic pill, there shouldn't be any magic pills, neither should it be the only proposition of any decent candidate.
He seems to think that by allowing free market all the problems we face will be solved… well first of all that would imply that all are problems are economic, not political or ideological for example.
And secondly, where are all the other top free market countries in the world ? Once again, Ron Paul and the other liberal suckers are very good at scaffolding demagogic speeches, but as always they don't translate in reality.
The two biggest exporters in the world, China and Germany, are also those who have some of the least free markets. The United States actually aren't bad at all in terms of free market, ranking 6th on the 2011 economic freedom index. Germany is 25th and China 132th. Yet, we have the worst trade balance in the world, ranking 198th on… 198 countries. Note that the difference between the USA's trade balance and the 197th is bigger than the difference between the 1rst and the 197th. If you have any experienced in statistics, you shall notice how fucked up that is.
But don't forget that trade deficit is only the tip of the iceberg, the real consequences lie behind it : printing, taxing or borrowing money, reliance on foreign investments…
The top five countries with the best trade balance also have the least free markets : China, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Japan, Russia (source: CIA world factbook).
Not only that, but most of the successful countries also have a lot of governmental involvement : over 50% of GDP for France, Belgium, Denmark, Russia. How can Ron Paul still advocate free market as the ultimate solution, the magic pill ?
Sure free market is beneficial, I'm not saying otherwise. But it all comes down to supply and demand, and there's a very (very) simple equation that both Ron Paul and Marx seem to ignore : supply = demand. No more, no less.
How can there be a supply when all our goods or produced by foreigners in foreign countries ? How can there be a demand when our economy, like our politicians, is completely disconnected from the reality of the market by countless stimulus plans that involve printing, borrowing or relying on foreign investments ?
Free market and economic liberty are both stimulating factors for an economy, but under no condition should they be considered as "magic pills". If the candidates believed in real liberalism (individual responsibility), they'd drop the magic pill speech altogether and leave that for Obama. But the truth is that neither Ron Paul nor any other candidate is any better than Obama to answer our current economic issue. As a matter of fact, most of our politicians don't even want to answer them.
How will the USA pay for its trade deficit ?
Among the 2012 presidential debates that spread quickly and increasingly over this country, quite a few yet not as much as expected concern the economic situation of the United States of America.
Strangely enough, these same economic debates will have been characterized by two essentials elements : the overly pronounced taste for globalism of our candidates and the complete absence of solutions concerning the trade deficit.
For the first one, no real surprise you don't step out of five decades of blatant ethnomasochism as easily. For the second characteristic on the other hand, even though I half expected it I must say I am nevertheless taken aback by the stupid of those who desire to govern us.
On the economic table,you might have witnessed a few lonely tirades about the public spending, and even less numerous interventions about the unemployment, which Ron Paul blames on the… FED. How original.
I truly have a hard time seeing how monetary creation, if that's what Ron Paul reproaches to the FED in the first place, leads to unemployment since on the contrary, in the short term monetary creation will bring devaluation of the currency, and lead to more exports. It's only in the long term that monetary creation can show its perverse effects, more on that later.
But aside from Ron Paul's usual ramble, very few mentions to our current economic situation have been noticeable, like for example our record high trade deficit. It's also funny to notice that we barely use the term "trade balance" anymore, only "trade deficit" implying that our balance couldn't be positive.
Only once again, and if you dispose of whatever political experience or plainly common sense you may already have noticed, purposely ignoring an issue won't make it fix itself. We've had proof for the public debt, the ethnomasochism, the anti-Americanism and countless other political experiments.
The truth about the trade deficit in America
Every candidate talks openly about such concepts as wealth redistribution and common wealth, but what they seemingly fail to notice is that to have any wealth to distribute you have to produce it first. And as we fail to produce any wealth, actually we lose some each day hence the term trade deficit, our economic system is only feeding on a smaller and smaller piece of cake : our past gains.
The only companies actually bringing money into the USA are the very old ones, often times the ones labelled as corporations by the mass media, and they are also believe or not the most taxed entities in this country.
But taxing our big companies is not and was never enough for our economic system not to collapse under the weight of the drag that is our American Business Model.
To substitute to our nonexistent and even hugely deficient production of wealth, there are three solutions.
1. Tax money
2. Print money
3. Borrow money
Needless to say that our government is applying all three of these, and rather ineffectively.
But don't forget that Americans are sheep, and whole common wealth system is designed against them. In the long run that is.
The system is designed by essence for the supply to meet the demand by all needs necessary, disregarding our sovereignty and our long term national interests (the liberals always talk about collective interest, but what is more collective than our own nation I demand).
Americans are such sheep that as long as the supply meets the demand, or in this case the demands, they won't protest. They all want the "miracle pill" to solve all our problems, and that's exactly why charlatans such as Ron Paul can rise effortlessly on top of all political polls.
Americans aren't lucid at all when it comes to political and economical decisions, and these democratic debates often turn out to be one way overbidding schemes.
– We aren't producing enough wealth and bringing enough money in our country ? We can either change our ways and adopt a more patriotic form of citizenship, or we can just tax the rich and the companies. The latter solution is easier, more demagogic and by the time the consequences will arise there will be a new president in the office to put the blame on.
– We can't tax the rich anymore but still aren't bringing enough money in our country ? We can either change our ways and adopt a more patriotic form of citizenship, or we can just borrow our money with massive interest rates from other countries, most of which openly consider themselves our enemies. The latter solution is easier, more demagogic and by the time the consequences will arise there will be a new president in the office to put the blame on.
– We can't borrow anymore money but still aren't bringing enough money in our country ? We can either change our ways and adopt a more patriotic form of citizenship, or we can just print more money disregarding the issues linked to devaluation. The latter solution is easier, more demagogic and by the time the consequences will arise there will be a new president in the office to put the blame on.
The candidate Ron Paul and several other conservatives have strongly opposed the concept of monetary creation, at least indirectly, and the "FED system". Unsurprisingly, none of them has ever brought up the consequences of ending a system on which our whole economy is now dependent.
And for once in the history of the United States of Demagogy, there is a possibility that the supply won't meet the demand, simply because there is no more supply. There are no more fake issues, "miracle pills", Jesus-is-our-savior-he-will-fix-our-economy-vote-Santorum-2012, nonviable settlements, wrong answers and non-solutions to disconnect the American people from the market.
Our politicians believed they could just ignore the reality of economic war and the market altogether, but they are only just starting to see the consequences of fifty decades of internationalism and ethnomasochism.
Corporations should have a bigger voice in the White House
If you are trying to win an argument over politics in the United States, there are some advanced cheats you can easily use to discredit your opponent, such as calling him a fascist, a racist, a nationalist… or a pro-corporation. These cheats are so powerful that you can win any argument simply by using them, even against someone much more competent than you on political or economical subjects.
You see, in the middle of an unprecedented economic crisis, the massive trade deficit and public debt we face, and the continuously growing influence of the foreign and foreign interests in our own country, Americans are worried about corporations.
And by corporations, Americans don't mean corporate lobbies, they just mean American corporations. Once again, demagogy became a convenient excuse for anti-Americanism.
That just proves to show that once more Americans are blaming scapegoats, and not any scapegoat because they are actually blaming the wealth creators and the only ones that draw money into the United States, as opposed to the very common American Business Model.
Many "Americans", loyal adepts following the sheep mentality, have expressed their desire for corporations to have less voice in the White House. They even came up with a slogan, "Corporations are not people". Some would argue that by doing that they are shooting themselves in the foot, since most of them are also supporters of famous anti-American lobbies, such as ecology, anti-racism or even globalism. Others would also argue that the priority would be to lessen the voice of the foreign out of our politics.
Some real questions arise from these clear demonstrations of demagogy and sheep mentality, including the following, should the corporations have a bigger or small voice inside the White House ?
First of all, supposing that we should lessen the voice of corporations/companies means that they already have some, which is clearly not the case. Have you ever heard of an act favoring American companies ? Sure the international socialist media might talk to you about SOPA/PIPA, but was it really a corporate issue ? Similar laws are effective in many other countries in the world (only more nationalist version), and have proven that such laws are more of a political issue.
Furthermore SOPA/PIPA don't really favor American corporations since most musical labels and films distributors are foreign, and these laws don't make distinction between the origin of any intellectual propriety (unlike their European equivalents for example).
Secondly, when is the last time Obama's administration addressed an issue that American companies/entrepreneurs have to face ? Like social dumping, foreign protectionism, foreign nationalism, foreign economical imperialism, American ethnomasochism ? Even more consternating, when was the last time any president or political candidate had an open discussion with entrepreneurs, companies or any other wealth creator ? Despite them being very good at showing appalling doses of demagogy on public media, those facts alone exhibit their clear aversion for those that are actually bringing money in the USA.
Lastly, the anti-American media is very good at pointing out the supposed size of the corporations in our politics, but they forget that the entire American system is based on feeding off of these big corporations. The middle-class doesn't export, neither do they bring money in the USA. The companies are the most taxed entities in this country, depriving them from political power would be not only stupid but also very hypocritical. The recent American government decisions were never pro-business, and much less pro-American business.
I honestly believe that more corporation voicing their views in the political debate can only be more beneficial.
Not only is it only fare that the biggest contributors to our economy have a bigger voice, but especially since they are close to being the only ones that actually know shit about the business world and political economy.
If I wanted to see unbiased global political economics brought to the political table and had a choice between :
- Delusional politicians living in their fantasies incapable of seeing the facts of the market.
- Unemployed hippies calling themselves the 99% and whining about the economic crisis.
- Foreign news reporters writing about how globalism is good and how nationalism is bad, yet promoting the opposite in their respective countries.
…and actual companies that actually have real experience of how global economics work, I'd much rather have them inside a political debate.
In their political decisions American have for too long relied on principles, dreams, opinions, morals, ideas rather than on facts and on what actually works.
Ultimately, this is why the politicians that make the least amount of promises are always sanctioned. That tells you a lot about the voters, who at each election, will look for the person that says the most… without realizing that if he says so much, it's because he doesn't know shit.
Opinions and principles of our politicians are worthless, it's time American stop the demagogy perpetuated by the media about what's right to do, what's ethical, what's tolerant… and start looking at what works.
American multinational corporations, unlike most Americans, actually know what works and they also know what's going on outside our borders. They actually know what discriminative laws they have to face when trying to implant themselves in this or that country, and also know that their foreign competitors don't have to face these laws when implanting themselves in the USA.
I'd rather have them bring that to the political table then hear Santorum whining about Jesus or Ron Paul about torture.
The only way of seeing what works is to have actual global business experience. And actual global business experience comes from… reality, once again.
Not from Joe K. plumber since 1978 who thinks nationalism is bad because it's "racist" and "intolerant", not from Frank B. unemployed since always who thinks welfare is good because Obama said so, and certainly not from Jennifer A. writer for the Huffington Post who shares her political analysis every week yet learned about economy reading fucking cosmo.


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And according to study author Dr Vikram Bhakoo, hospitals may be running up to 20 per cent less efficient than they could be by not taking full advantage of e-business technology that is in widespread use across the retail and grocery sectors.
The "E-business Adoption within the Australian Pharmaceutical Hospital Supply Chain" study, the first of its kind to be conducted in Australia, involved detailed case studies of 15 key organisations across the pharmaceutical supply chain, from medicine manufacturers and wholesalers, to logistic service providers and public hospitals.
The study found that paper-based records and operational bottlenecks, such as poor information sharing between manufacturers and wholesalers, are preventing the uptake of e-business technology that would lead to a much more sustainable and efficient healthcare system.
Dr Bhakoo from the University's Faculty of Business and Economics said that of the hospitals that were studied, those that had effectively implemented e-business technology were better off. "These hospitals that used technology such as bar coding and electronic messaging across procurement and inventory management purposes, recorded dramatic improvements in service levels and reduced errors in the supply chain by between 15 to 20 per cent."
"As supply chain costs constitute up to one-third of a hospital's expenses, digital technologies can be adopted to achieve significant savings, while boosting overall labour productivity and patient safety."
These improvements are likely to have a domino effect among other public hospitals that are collaborative and happy to share their insights said Dr Bhakoo, however recent Productivity Commission figures show that many hospitals have been reluctant to embrace e-technologies.
The lack of progress in e-business adoption is attributed to a range of regulatory, technological and financial factors, according to Dr Bhakoo, with each of these factors playing different roles for each entity in the supply chain. "While technological issues such as managing IT risk and system integration issues were the chief concerns for hospitals, financial factors such as a faster cash flow and a return on investment were key stumbling blocks for the pharmaceutical manufacturers."
"Australia also faces challenges due to its market size, which is rather small on the global scale, amounting to only 1% of the worldwide pharmaceutical industry. The challenge lies in aligning international standards with improved local approaches to supply chain management," Dr Bhakoo said.
The study findings complement ongoing work by the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA), the regulatory authority overseeing the deployment of electronic systems within the healthcare sector.
"If we are to address the issue of rising costs in health care we need to take a holistic view of the supply chain and include diverse stakeholders to understand where the bottlenecks lie," concluded Dr Bhakoo.
Dr Vikram Bhakoo
Faculty of Business & Economics
David Scott
Media Unit


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This is weird to admit, but I miss St. Cloud. The nonsensical streets, the strip-mall personality, the "why would you walk?" mentality, the plethora of chain restaurants that were always, always busy because no one ever cooks in Cloudtown…and the superheroes. I long for Superman like Michael longs for Rojo Caliente. I always knew where I was, and where I was going, and (most importantly) how to get between the two. Well, maybe not always (one of my first life lessons from St. Cloud: never ask directions to Wal-Mart from someone working at K-Mart).
Alright, I know St. Cloud is basically the dirtmall of cities. It is Ann, and I am George-Michael, and you are Michael: her? Most of all, I know I'll like my new city eventually — correction, I do like it; I just haven't figured out how to make it home. I miss feeling at home.


text:
Doug Ford and the Ontario Tories are continuing their attacks on the vulnerable in Ontario. Recently leaked documents dating back to mid-December show plans have already been approved to shift health care services, and the public dollars that fund them, into private hands.
Canadian Doctors for Medicare has this handy tool to compare health-care delivery models on the basis of four criteria:
- Equitable access
- High-quality care
- Effective, clinically indicated services
- Effective integration and system stewardship
Make sure that you evaluate what is proposed using this tool.
In the interim, Christine Elliott, Ontario's Health Minister, has insisted that the government is still listening to constituents about the privatization plan. The Council of Canadians has put together this action to call her.
Thank you for reading this story…
More people are reading rabble.ca than ever and unlike many news organizations, we have never put up a paywall – at rabble we've always believed in making our reporting and analysis free to all, while striving to make it sustainable as well. Media isn't free to produce. rabble's total budget is likely less than what big corporate media spend on photocopying (we kid you not!) and we do not have any major foundation, sponsor or angel investor. Our main supporters are people and organizations -- like you. This is why we need your help. You are what keep us sustainable.
rabble.ca has staked its existence on you. We live or die on community support -- your support! We get hundreds of thousands of visitors and we believe in them. We believe in you. We believe people will put in what they can for the greater good. We call that sustainable.
So what is the easy answer for us? Depend on a community of visitors who care passionately about media that amplifies the voices of people struggling for change and justice. It really is that simple. When the people who visit rabble care enough to contribute a bit then it works for everyone.
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Tech companies crack down on Alex Jones
NEWTOWN - Families that that lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook shootings are no longer the only ones decrying the rhetoric of conspiracy extremist Alex Jones
Tech companies from Facebook to YouTube and from Apple to Spotify have taken a more aggressive stance against misinformation and hate speech promoted by the Texas-based host of InfoWars by removing his platforms and banning his content.
The social media crackdown on Jones follows three defamation lawsuits filed against Jones and InfoWars by families who lost loved ones in the 2012 Sandy Hook School shootings that killed 20 first-graders and six educators.
Jones is the high-profile extremist who has called the worst crime in modern Connecticut history "staged," "synthetic," "manufactured," "a giant hoax" and "completely faked with actors" with "inside job written all over it."
His attorneys have refuted the defamation charges, saying he no longer believes the Sandy Hook shootings was a conspiracy, and he has the right to be wrong.
On Monday, Facebook said enough is enough, calling Jones' attacks "dehumanizing." The social media giant removed four pages related to Jones and his InfoWars program.
"All four pages have been unpublished for repeated violations of community standards and accumulating too many strikes," Facebook said in a statement on Monday.
Apple, Spotify and YouTube have also removed material published by Jones, the Associated Press reported.
In late July, Lenny Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose son was slain in the Sandy Hook shootings, called out Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an open letter for giving extremists "a safe haven for hate."
email@example.com 203-731-3342


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Social Media
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- Importing Twitter Audience Insights Data into Treasure Data (Deprecated)


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"What initially started as a movement to the mobile phone/tablet work style has spilled over into full remote computing solutions," notes Paul Ponzeka in
HelpNet Security.
"Users want to be able to take any device and work from anywhere with no loss of functionality.
From the business perspective, this can send chills up the backs of CIOs and CISOs as this full freedom work solution creates numerous security and compliance challenges..."
Read More ...


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Who Uses NCR Silver?
We serve entrepreneurs and growing enterprises in over 130 different business verticals such as retail, restaurants, pubs, frozen treats, and more.
What Is NCR Silver?
NCR Silver delivers value beyond the point of sale to help businesses of all sizes drive success. Along with an easy-to-use tablet point of sale, the NCR Silver suite of cloud-based tools delivers actionable insights, multi-site capabilities, customer engagement tools and business management resources, all available at your fingertips.
NCR Silver Details
NCR Silver
Founded 1884
NCR Silver Pricing Overview
NCR Silver does not have a free version and does not offer a free trial. NCR Silver paid version starts at US$79.00/month.
Starting Price
Pricing Details
Each additional device: $50 per month
Free Version
Free Trial
Cloud, SaaS, Web
Mobile - iOS Native
Mobile - Android Native
Live Online
24/7 (Live Rep)
NCR Silver Features
Alternative Products
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NCR Silver Reviews
Showing 5 of 141 reviews
Verified Reviewer
Overall Rating5/5
Ease of Use5/5
Features & Functionality5/5
Customer SupportUnrated
Value for MoneyUnrated
Likelihood to Recommend8/10
- Reviewer Source
- Reviewed on 14/03/2019
"iPad POS that includes marketing tools!"
Pros: Having email templates included was huge for us. Customer data integrates with emails, allowing us to segment our customers and send personalized deals.
Cons: Email templates are not as attractive as something like MailChimp, so a working knowledge of html coding can help make them more appealing
- Reviewer Source
- Reviewed on 14/03/2019
Wendy W.
Overall Rating5/5
Ease of Use5/5
Features & Functionality4/5
Customer Support5/5
Value for Money4/5
Likelihood to Recommend10/10
- Reviewer Source
- Reviewed on 18/06/2019
"NCR Silver meets our multi store needs"
Pros: This cloud based system met the majority of our needs when I began searching for a new POS system when our retail store was adding a second location. I was looking for a system that could be accessed remotely, share information between the locations and could grow as our store grows. The 24/7 Customer Service is reliable and accessible. Most times, a single phone call is all it takes to resolve a problem.
The biggest drawback was discovered shortly after we began installation. We were told during the sales pitch that our system of alpha numeric sku numbers would easily transfer to NCR silver. The use of the bar code scanners and ticketing system would be simple process. This was not the case. We have to manually key in the alpha numeric sku numbers which is much more time consuming the scanning.
Four years later, we have of course adapted.
- Reviewer Source
- Reviewed on 18/06/2019
Lindsey H.
Overall Rating3/5
Ease of Use5/5
Features & Functionality4/5
Customer Support5/5
Value for Money3/5
Likelihood to Recommend7/10
- Reviewer Source
- Reviewed on 19/06/2019
"Some very good pros, and some pretty frustrating cons"
Comments: Overall I would still use this system even if we weren't required to by the franchise. Partly because I wouldn't want to have to deal with switching over to a new system, but also because every system has its own issues and I don't think there are any other solutions out there that are better than this, at least in the price range of a small business. I believe NCR is working to fix the issues, at least, and I like the feel of the system. I would appreciate a little more transparency about issues that could affect reporting of sales data or processing of credit card transactions.
Pros: The software is easy to use and relatively intuitive; new employees pick up the POS system quickly. The developers have been gradually adding desired functions that have been great improvements, and I imagine they will continue to do so. While some of the other stores in our franchise have complained about not being able to reach customer support in a timely manner, I myself have always been able to get through to them quickly and they are always helpful in working through issues.
Cons: When the software has an issue, it tends to not be a small one. Also, it seems like NCR will work on fixing the issue but not let everyone know that there WAS an issue, even when it may affect your reporting of sales. For example, there have been software glitches where the over/short number for the registers was not getting recorded by NCR. We only discovered this because another store in our franchise figured it out and reported it. I never saw any communication from NCR letting people know about it, the issue was just resolved quietly a while later. Plus, almost every time there is an update, there are usually major issues with functionality for about the next week that can affect the ability to process transactions. The software/hardware interface has some issues as well.
- Reviewer Source
- Reviewed on 19/06/2019
Kari A.
Overall Rating5/5
Ease of Use4/5
Features & Functionality4/5
Customer Support2/5
Value for Money3/5
Likelihood to Recommend5/10
- Reviewer Source
- Reviewed on 18/03/2020
"Originally a great product, now not so much"
Comments: I do not utilize ALL the functionalities because I am a bakery not a restaurant so I would like to be able to get a "cheaper" version so I am able to get the most for my money. In the last few months customer service is almost impossible to get answers from and they no longer have the concierge system where I have a specific customer service agent that helps. Its very frustrating to wait on hold and then get told that I am calling the wrong numbers when the website for help clearly states to call certain numbers for assistance. Overall, customer service needs help.
Pros: I liked the ease of set up of this product as well as the ability to run categorical reports. I also like the ability to use this as a time clock system too!
Cons: I would like to see a way to customize each category more, I sell cupcakes, I would like an option for more specific categories and options.
- Reviewer Source
- Reviewed on 18/03/2020
Kelley C.
Overall Rating4/5
Ease of Use5/5
Features & Functionality4/5
Customer Support4/5
Value for Money5/5
Likelihood to Recommend9/10
- Reviewer Source
- Reviewed on 02/07/2019
"Payment reporting inhancement"
Comments: Our overall experience with Silver has been great. We have recommended this product to several colleagues.
Pros: This software is very easy to use and set-up. There are a lot of helpful reports you can run. I like that you can view your business activity remotely from your smart phone.
Cons: When there is a problem it is sometimes difficult for customer support to fix the problem until the next update. This is frustrating because you are left to wait up to three months or more.
- Reviewer Source
- Reviewed on 02/07/2019


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FileGee Backup & Sync Personal Edition is a System Utilities::Backup & Restore software developed by FileGee. After our trial and test, the software was found to be official, secure and free. Here is the official description for FileGee Backup & Sync Personal Edition: 1.Can backup files to E-mail, can split large files and store them in several messages.
2.With independent multi-job mode, the software can execute different backups or synchronizations for different file folders simultaneously.
3.Support one-way synchronization, bi-directional synchronization, incremental backup, full backup and other types of file synchronization and backup.
4.With various automatically triggered job modes, the software can start up backup and synchronization jobs in real-time, timing, interval, system idleness or manual methods.
5.Can preview the job execution, analysis the file operations that will be done.
6.USB removable storage devices can be monitored in real time, automatically backup or synchronize when the storage device plug in.
7.Support Unicode, the file name with multi-charset language can be processed.
8.Able to encrypt files when the backup or synchronize runs.
9.Intelligent recovery function for incremental backup, you can restore the source directory structure and files completely same as each execution.
10.Can adopt all-purpose zip format to compress backup files and can create password to protect the files.
11.Provide file filter function to execute selective filter or file name approximate matching filter for the targeted files.
12.With plenty of timing planning solutions, the software supports monthly, weekly and daily planning modes.
13.Provide many modes for automatically deleting excessive backup files and logs, not only backing up useful data, but also wasting no storage space.
14.During the execution, the job can be stopped at any moment, the software shall automatically record the backup files, with no backup repeated in next execution operation.
15.Detailed execution log makes a note of the operations and operation results of all files in each job comprehensively.
16.Support setting Dropbox as source directory or destination directory.
1. Added GoogleDrive backup feature. 2. Added Dropbox 2.0 backup feature. 3. Added OneDrive for business backup feature.
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A new attack of Dan Brown
Wlodzimierz Redzioch talks to Professor Massimo Introvigne, the founder and director of the Italian Centre for Studies on New Religions.
Wlodzimierz Redzioch: – You have dealt with Dan Browns' literary works for many years. What is your opinion about them?
Prof. Massimo Introvigne: – I am not a literary critic but as a sociologist of religion I am interested in the fact that many people regard Dan Brown's books both as novels and texts showing historical truths. Brown himself uses this ambiguity. One day he says that his books are only novels and on other occasions he tells people that what he writes about is the truth. From the sociological point of view it is not important whether his books are written well or badly. What counts is the fact that millions of people change their religious convictions under the influence of his books.
– Nowadays fewer and fewer people study manuals of history and more and more people read Dan Brown's books. Is there a risk that the public opinion is convinced that the events depicted by Brown begin to be seen as historical facts?
– When the film 'The Da Vinci Code' was very successful in Great Britain, a survey was conducted. It showed that most British people thought that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and had children (I noticed a similar conviction among secondary school students in Italy). If a similar question had been asked before the publication of the book 'The Da Vinci Code' probably nobody would have answered that Jesus had a wife. What is worse, probably millions are convinced that Jesus never regarded himself as God. This would have been the idea of Emperor Constantine. Of course, we mean notorious nonsenses but people read such nonsenses in the book 'The Da Vinci Code.'
– You publicly accused Dan Brown of anti-Catholicism. What was his reaction?
– Brown answered to my accusations in his interview for the Italian weekly 'Panorama', 'The objections of this critic meet the truth – I favour freemasonry more than the Vatican' ('Panorama', 29 October 2009).
– This diplomatic statement conceals the whole truth about Dan Brown, namely the fact that he is a fervent enemy of Christianity, especially the Catholic Church. At the same time he is in favour of freemasonry about which he wrote his latest book. What should one know about the 'The Lost Symbol'?
– 'The Lost Symbol' advertises and promotes freemasonry. My last book 'The Found Symbol' answers the question what freemasonry really is. First of all, Catholics should know that freemasonry rejects all dogmas and principles which could be discussed. It uses the method of democratic discussion in which everyone can present his/her point of view in order to find 'the truth' through mediation. This method can be good, for example during a session of some city council that is to decide where to build the sewer system. But when we use it in discussions concerning big ethical and philosophical questions we fall into relativism, which John Paul II and Benedict XVI so often condemned. The freemasonry method is like a computer programme. What comes from the computer depends on what is 'put' into it. The Church condemns the 'programme' itself, the so-called freemasonry method, regardless of the results because it introduces relativism and creates the danger of losing one's faith. That's why in the declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Masonic associations (Quaesitum est: de associationibus massonicis), prepared by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and promulgated by John Paul II, the Church teaches, 'Therefore the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden.' The new Code of Canon Law (1983) does not expressly speak about excommunication. The declaration states, 'The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.' Some Masons claim that because the new Code of Canon Law does not use the term 'excommunication' Catholics could belong to Masonic associations without any problems. But of course, this is only the view of freemasonry and not of the Catholic Church. Naturally, referring to this matter Catholics must respect the teaching of the Church and not the opinion of freemasonry. Even if the Code does not use the expression 'excommunication' the fact that the faithful who enroll in Masonic associations 'may not receive Holy Communion' explains everything. Besides, the above-mentioned declaration stresses that 'It is not within the competence of local ecclesiastical authorities to give a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations' and the local bishops cannot change the definite decision of the Holy See.
– What is the convergence between the idea of Dan Brown and the idea of freemasonry?
– Brown is not a deep thinker but in his latest book 'The Lost Symbol' he reveals his ideas quite clearly. He thinks that the Catholic Church afflicts his believers by such concepts as sin and grace whereas the spirituality that sets man free should be centred on the fact that man is a divine being. This is an old thesis of the eternal enemy of the Church – the Gnostic heresy with which Brown identifies himself. In his book 'The Lost Symbol' he states that the only difference between you [man] and God is that you have forgotten that you are a divine being. Brown gives a simplified picture of freemasonry because he does not show the differences between various Masonic associations, various historical epochs or geographical contexts. Nevertheless, ascribing to the wide trend of freemasonry the statement that man is a true God is not wrong. In this case the views of freemasonry are identical with Brown's ideas.
– The publication of 'The Lost Symbol' in Poland will be widely advertised like all Dan Brown's books. Many Catholics read them as well. However, they should realise that its author is a philo-Masonic anti-clerical and his books are tools to earn big money and to fight against the Catholic Church.
"Niedziela" 3/2010


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Paleo diet huh? I could see the thinly veiled mockery coming from a mile away. When a diet becomes a buzzword on the streets of LA, you better be prepared to defend your credibility if you blog about it, especially if you blog on medical conditions and diseases. Among the grenades of surly hipster commentary… Read More
Tips to Make Coffee Paleo Friendly: Get Coffee Out of Your Paleo Diet
Addiction for coffee is quite common and normal because of our daily hectic work schedule, busy social and personal life as it is capable to provide instant relief and boost to your mind and body. Whether coffee is completely a healthy paleo or not is a conflicting topic, however, by making some prudent changes… Read More
List of Eatable and Avoidable Foods When Starting the Paleo Diet
Paleo diet denotes all the foods content that used to be taken by ancient people before 10000 years ago. These diets include foods that used to gathered through hunting or through gathering processes such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish and meats. For staying healthy and fit like ancient people every person must follow the primary… Read More
Paleo Diet Lunch Box Ideas for Work
If you are planning to shift to Paleo diet or you have already started your transition, then you may be fairly familiar with the fact that Paleo lunch is the most challenging meal of the day. The Challenge of Sticking to Paleo Diet Eating For one, you are away from home and work commitments often… Read More


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There are actually many reasons why I love being a mom. In this post, let me share the 5 Best Things I love Being a Mom. From the simplest to the toughest challenge, a mother is strong to overcome it. Despite several failures and hardship, they are always there looking forward for a brighter future. To be a mom is to devote your life in raising your family. Together with your spouse, you share the same goals and responsibilities for your family. When you are a mom, mostly you know evey … [Read more...] about 5 Best Things I love Being a Mom
super mommy
#SuperMommy #Goals
As much as I want to blog every day, I find it hard to post right away. It is because of my mommy priorities with my family. Now, I wanted to revive my #supermommy #goals. When I started my blog more than six years ago, I always have these super mommy goals in mind that's why I entitled my blog "Experience of a Super Mommy". There's a weekly and monthly routine, including all the activities that I am doing as a mommy. Super mommy means doing my best for my family as a wife, mother, … [Read more...] about #SuperMommy #Goals


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5 Essential Winter Marketing Tips That Will Set Your Holiday Season Up for Success
With shoppers on the prowl for the best gifts and deals, your small business will want to stand out amongst the crowds. The winter season is also the perfect time for your brand to give back to its employees, loyal customers, and the community at large. With this in mind, your business can leave a lasting impression no matter its industry and audiences. These five pointers will guide your small business brand through the holiday season, making it memorable for you, yours, and your following.
No. 1: Start early. Every year, the holiday season seems to start earlier and earlier. Long gone are the days when Black Friday signaled the beginning of winter and holiday cheer. Even Halloween has been rooked into the end-of-year festivities.
With this in mind, your small business ought to prepare as soon as possible. Make sure your brand has a strategy in place, stocks up on popular products, and is well-staffed for the winter. If your business needs extra help, advertise for this in advance.
No. 2: Be sure to target specific holiday events. Although the holiday season appears as a long stretch that builds up to Christmas, the end of the year can actually be broken up into chunks, allowing your small business brand to segment its messaging.
You'll want to consider the following holidays and hallmarks: the Fall Equinox, the end of autumn, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's Eve/Day, and holiday breaks for school. Keeping all of these end-of-year celebrations in mind will help your business customize and personalize its marketing tactics to specific, niche groups of customers.
No. 3: Consider using mobile marketing. Our smartphones have become the cornerstones of our daily routines and communication. If done properly, mobile marketing can actually increase customer loyalty and conversions. Here are a few mobile marketing tactics your business can try out this holiday season:
- Target your brand's messages. Customers no longer want generic messages about your offering. Instead, your small business ought to target its messages according to the interests and preferences of its audience segments. Do your research via surveys and categorize your customer and client lists accordingly. Customization is key!
- Automate push notifications, coupons and promotions to be sent at optimal times. Keep in mind that geolocation abilities can also remind people of special deals when they're within a certain radius of your business. This will encourage recipients to make purchases on the fly.
- Craft gift guides that are optimized for mobile phones. This will ensure that your mobile customers can see and browse your holiday offers. The physical products in your gift guide can be categorized and curated to appeal to various customer profiles. Alternatively, your brand can promote it services via gift certificates.
- Expand your audience. As much as you should be reaching out to loyal and established customers, the holiday season also presents the opportunity to reach out to new people. By offering a holiday coupon for text alert signups and/or app downloads, your small business can expand its offering's reach even just a little further.
No. 4: Do something special for your loyal customers and audience. There are many ways to spread the spirit of giving during the holiday season. Knowing your audience is the key to making them feel appreciated.
Your small business can show its gratitude through free giveaways, holiday-themed contests, as well as special events, offers, and discounts. To go above and beyond, your brand could also collect food items and toys for those in your local community who are in need.
No. 5: Think about how to target your audience during the post-holiday season. While the holiday season technically ends after New Year's Day, your small business can avoid a huge drop-off in sales by staying focused on your customers' post-holiday habits and needs.
For example, many buyers now anticipate huge savings at the beginning of the year. What can your brand do to appeal to these bargain-hunters? Also, don't forget about the segments of your audience that play winter sports, return to school, or have made New Year's resolutions aligned with self-improvement, health, fitness, etc.


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- Edition 1, Chapter 14.1 -
hair talk: Ashley strout
At Hairstory we often deal with major transformations, but we never execute a change for the sake of drama. Fundamentally, everything we choose to do is truly right for the person in our chair. Sometimes simple edits make the most significant difference to an overall look.
Case-in-point: textile designer and tattoo artist Ashley Strout. When I first saw her, I noticed her haircut was too full and weighted in the back, and her bangs were too wispy and weak. So first, I removed the excess from the back, bringing up the line. Then I added to the bangs, creating a wider frame for her face. I made sure that they did not curve at the sides, which I feel would have made the look too soft; rather, I cut nearly 90-degree angles at her temples.
Hairdressing is an art of refinement, of discovering and exposing the details that give a person a look authentic to who they are. It's about what it takes to go from good to great – the devil, and my razor, are in those details.