Cogitate Inc Newsletters Here you can find archives of our newsletters and other important information. 8 January January 2015 Newsletter By PFA Admin newsletter 0 Comment Chasing Shadows I think I wrote once about chasing Rainbows and that’s something I continue to do when the weather looks cooperative. Somehow it’s just something I enjoy and I find lots of them. There’s something else I chase though and that’s shadows. Chasing shadows has a negative connotation in that it implies that you’re chasing something that can’t be caught or chasing something only imagined. I know I’ve chased a rather large number of programming bugs that I thought were there, but turned out to be not a bug at all, but actually something that was working well all along. In those cases, the bug turned out to be in my mind as an incorrect expectation of how the program should work. It’s on those cases where I slap my forehead and say ‘Oh!’ I think over the years I’ve developed a dent in my head where I slap my palm. The shadows I do chase are shadows cast by the sun. The most amazing of those are total eclipses of the sun when the moon’s shadow is cast upon the earth. It’s something that I’ve experienced twice. Chasing a total eclipse of the sun usually requires travel to distance places and even if one gets to the right place can be spoiled by bad weather. That has happened to me more than twice. Next in the shadow amazing quotient is the annular eclipse of the sun or ‘ring eclipse’. That happens when the sun and the moon are lined up perfectly, but the moon is a little further away from the earth in its elliptical orbit and cannot cover the full face of the sun when observed from earth. That leaves only the sun’s outer limb visible. A ring eclipse is very strange and I’ve seen exactly one of those and I only had to travel 10 miles from home to see it. The earth’s shadow can also be cast upon the moon and I’ve seen several total lunar eclipses. When fully eclipsed by the earth’s shadow the moon turns a strange shade of red as the dust in the earth’s atmosphere diffracts the sun’s rays. Another partial eclipse of the sun is when the planet Venus passes over the face of the sun in an event called the Transit of Venus. It’s very impressive to see a little dot of Venus pass slowly across the face of the sun. I’ve seen two of those. There are always numerous partial eclipses of the sun and the moon. They’re not as inspiring or amazing as the other I’ve mentioned, but it’s fun to go out and catch them. Now I’ve got a new shadow that I’m chasing. That’s of rock formations left by American Indians where a shadow is cast upon a rock face by another rock at a solstice or equinox. I found out that there’s one close to me and so I went out this past winter solstice to see it for myself. As it turned out there was no shadow of interest cast at all, but looking at the arrangement of the rocks and stones it seems I was probably one solstice off. I’m thinking the alignment only happens during the summer solstice. So I’ll chase that shadow next June 21st and see if I can add it to my list of "Shadows that I have Caught." Even if it turns out to be a failure, it will sure be more fun than chasing a program bug that isn’t there! Read Full January 2015 Newsletter Chasing Shadows I think I wrote once about chasing Rainbows and that’s something I continue to do when the weather looks cooperative. Somehow it’s just something I enjoy and I find lots of them. There’s something else I chase though and that’s shadows. Chasing shadows has a negative connotation in that it implies that you’re chasing something that can’t be caught or chasing something only imagined. I know I’ve chased a rather large number of programming bugs that I thought were there, but turned out to be not a bug at all, but actually something that was working well all along. In those cases, the bug turned out to be in my mind as an incorrect expectation of how the program should work. It’s on those cases where I slap my forehead and say ‘Oh!’ I think over the years I’ve developed a dent in my head where I slap my palm. The shadows I do chase are shadows cast by the sun. The most amazing of those are total eclipses of the sun when the moon’s shadow is cast upon the earth. It’s something that I’ve experienced twice. Chasing a total eclipse of the sun usually requires travel to distance places and even if one gets to the right place can be spoiled by bad weather. That has happened to me more than twice. Next in the shadow amazing quotient is the annular eclipse of the sun or ‘ring eclipse’. That happens when the sun and the moon are lined up perfectly, but the moon is a little further away from the earth in its elliptical orbit and cannot cover the full face of the sun when observed from earth. That leaves only the sun’s outer limb visible. A ring eclipse is very strange and I’ve seen exactly one of those and I only had to travel 10 miles from home to see it. The earth’s shadow can also be cast upon the moon and I’ve seen several total lunar eclipses. When fully eclipsed by the earth’s shadow the moon turns a strange shade of red as the dust in the earth’s atmosphere diffracts the sun’s rays. Another partial eclipse of the sun is when the planet Venus passes over the face of the sun in an event called the Transit of Venus. It’s very impressive to see a little dot of Venus pass slowly across the face of the sun. I’ve seen two of those. There are always numerous partial eclipses of the sun and the moon. They’re not as inspiring or amazing as the other I’ve mentioned, but it’s fun to go out and catch them. Now I’ve got a new shadow that I’m chasing. That’s of rock formations left by American Indians where a shadow is cast upon a rock face by another rock at a solstice or equinox. I found out that there’s one close to me and so I went out this past winter solstice to see it for myself. As it turned out there was no shadow of interest cast at all, but looking at the arrangement of the rocks and stones it seems I was probably one solstice off. I’m thinking the alignment only happens during the summer solstice. So I’ll chase that shadow next June 21st and see if I can add it to my list of "Shadows that I have Caught." Even if it turns out to be a failure, it will sure be more fun than chasing a program bug that isn’t there! Read Full January 2015 Newsletter Attached Files January 2015 Newsletter 1.44 MB Related Articles November 2015 Newsletter Cogitate Staff Holiday Schedule We here at Cogitate Inc. would like to let you know of our upcoming Holiday schedule. The following days our office will be closed and instead of working, we will spending this time off with our families. Thanksgiving Holiday: Closed Wednesday, November 25, 2015 through Sunday, November 29, 2015. Christmas Holiday: Closed Thursday, December 24, 2015 through Sunday, December 27, 2015. New Year’s Holiday: Closed Thursday December 31, 2015 through Sunday, January 3, 2016 Best Wishes To You And Your Families During The Upcoming Holiday Season! Read Full November 2015 Newsletter January 2014 Newsletter PFA Works and You! We are very pleased to let you know our first version of PFA Works has made it to the Microsoft Store and is now available as a free download; however, this is only one part of the product. The other parts are still under review by our testers. Roscommon and Wexford County Road Commissions agreed to help us design and test PFA Works, so feel free to give them a call to see how it is going. We wanted to fully release the product in 2013, but the holidays and year-end stuff have gobbled up the time; therefore, we will be hosting a webinar to showcase PFA Works in January 2014. You will all receive a special invitation to the webinar through email. Finally, we would like to offer all of you the chance to help us. If you would like to start using PFA Works now, please contact George Loescher at 866-634-9991 extension 9. Read Full January 2014 Newsletter December 2015 Newsletter Helpful Reminders for 1099-MISC Forms It is the last month of 2015, and that means that soon 1099 MISC forms will need to be filled out and submitted to the IRS. A Form 1099-MISC needs to be filed for each person to whom you have paid, during the year, in the course of your business, at least $600 in rents, services, (including attorney fees) other income payments, medical and health care payments. Payments for which a Form 1099-MISC is NOT required include all of the following: 1. Generally, payments to a corporation. (See below) 2. Payments for merchandise, telegrams, telephone, freight, storage, and similar items. 3. Wages paid to an employee (report on Form W-2). 4. Business travel allowances paid to employees. 5. Distributions from Pensions, Annuities, Retirement Plans, IRA’s etc. Here are some examples of what goes in the most common boxes: BOX 1, RENTS Real estate rentals paid for office space. Machine rentals. If the machine rental is part of a contract that includes both the use of the and operator, prorate the rental between the rent of the machine (box 1) and the operator’s wages(box7) BOX 6, MEDICAL and HEALTH CARE PAYMENTS Enter payments of $600 or more made to each physician or other supplier or provider of medical or health care services. Include payments made by medical or health care insurers under health, accident, and sickness insurance programs. You are not required to report payments to pharmacies for prescription drugs. The exemption from issuing Form 1099-MISC to a corporation does not apply to payments for medical or health care services provided by corporations, including professional corporations. BOX 7, NON-EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION If the following four conditions are met, you must generally report a payment as non-employee compensation: You made the payment to someone who is not your employee You made the payment for services in the course of your business You made the payment to an individual, partnership, estate, or, in some cases, a corporation You made payments of at least $600 during the year. Attorney fees of $600 or more paid in the course of your business are reportable in box 7. The term attorney includes a law firm or other provider of legal services. The exemption from issuing Form 1099-MISC to a corporation does not apply to payments for legal services. Therefore, you must report attorney fees paid to corporations that provide legal services. General instructions for Form 1099-MISC, and the rest of the boxes, are available at https://www.irs.gov/uac/About-Form-1099MISC. Read Full December 2015 Newsletter February 2015 Newsletter Planning For Disasters If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times!... I can still hear my mother’s voice in my head every time I read those words. This phrase evokes a different set of emotions in each of us. These words never ring truer then when it comes to preparing your municipality for a computer disaster. A clear checklist of procedures helps to keep everyone working towards recovering from the disaster. Once you have a checklist developed, practicing this list on a regular basis is very important. Imagine a group of firemen that do not know the procedures trying to put out a fire! A large part of your checklist should be devoted to the recovery of critical data. Practicing the data recovery procedures will help to identify any weaknesses in your data backup systems. So before any computer disaster happens to your municipality please develop and practice your checklist. Whether you have 9G Backup at your municipality or another backup system, please make sure that your data is backed up and able to be recovered if a disaster strikes! Read Full February 2015 Newsletter March 2015 Newsletter Posting Meter Readings With Automatic Meter Reading Devices This month we are discussing the procedures for posting your meter readings when using Automatic Meter Reading Devices. When using Automatic Meter Reading Devices, your meter reading data is exported from and imported into UtilAbility via Meter Reader Interface text files that are recognized by both UtilAbility and your Meter Reader software. When it’s time to read your meters, you first need to export your data so that your Meter Reading Device is aware of any changes that you have made within UtilAbility since you last read your meters. These changes may include things such as your updated last readings, any new home owners, any specific comments regarding your meters and any meters that you have replaced. You can export your current data from the Export to Meter Reader menu item under the File Menu From the main screen in UtilAbility. Here you can specify some parameters for your export including the file name to be exported. Your data is exported a file that your Meter Reader software can read and ultimately export to your Meter Reading Device. Once you have read your meters, you will need to transfer the new readings to UtilAbility. Typically, your readings are first imported into your Meter Reader Software and then exported to a text file that UtilAbility can read. You can import that information into UtilAbility using the Import from Meter Reader function from the Post Meter Readings screen. Finally, you can review the imported automatic meter readings and commit your Meter Reading Journal the same way you would as when entering your readings manually. Before you calculate your bills, it’s a good idea to run your meter reading reports and review your reading and usage information to be sure there are no mistakes. This can save you time in the long run as it is better to catch any problems before you calculate rather than correcting them later. The Account Meter Reading Exceptions List report will show any potential problems with your meters, such as meters you may have missed or meters with higher than average usages, etc. The Meter Reading Journals and Details report will show all the readings posted in your entire meter reading journal. If you have any questions about Posting Meter Readings with Automatic Meter Reading Devices or would like more information, please contact our support staff or visit our UtilAbility web site at www.utilability.com. Read Full March 2015 Newsletter April 2015 Newsletter Spring Is In the Air, Time For Spring Cleaning Spring is in the air and it is time for a good spring cleaning. These words my mother would say the first warmer day in April. And sure enough I was voluntold (forcibly volunteered) to open and clean all the windows from the top of the house to the bottom. Inevitably during the cleaning we would hear the words "how did this place get so dirty?" And of course nobody dared to suggest any answer to my Mom for fear of extra chores. When it comes to viruses and malware for your PC, I hear the same question many times, "How did I get infected?" I will try to answer that by giving the 9 easiest ways to get infected. 1.Simply click on any links. Simply clicking on any links without proper investigation will result you in having the risk of accessing either a malicious site or phishing site. Any of those are not good and you stand a high chance to get your computer infected, especially if you click on incoming links from unknown user. 2. Never perform software update. Attackers sometimes can make use of your out-dated software which consists of certain vulnerabilities to attack your computer and gain full control of it. A very good example is Adobe Flash player, your web browser, or any other application that has the potential to go out to the internet, and it stands a very high chance to get infected. As a result, just go on without updating your software and the attacker will find the vulnerability to penetrate where the attacker will then gain full access to your computer and plant a Trojan there. 3. Turning off automatic Windows update. Turning off the automatic Windows update is like turning off a security feature. Making your Windows update automatically means getting the latest security patch automatically as well. If you want to get infected, just don’t update your Windows and by 2-3 months’ time, you should be able to see the list of Windows vulnerability that you have. 4. No antivirus installed. If you still do not have any antivirus installed, I would like to know how you can tell if your computer is infected with a virus? How are you going to disinfect them? Antivirus software today can come as cheap as free and there is no reason for you not to install one. Let’s put it this way, antivirus software is like a security guard, do you see any banks operate without at least one security guard? 5. No firewall installed. A Firewall is not an antivirus. If you owned an antivirus and treating it like a firewall, then you might be wrong. A firewall is best at preventing and not disinfecting. Firewalls today can also come as cheap as free. Since we have a security guard as antivirus, firewall is going to be things that can prevent theft such as a solid steel door, CCTV, and good alarm system. As a result, if you don’t have a firewall, you are just welcoming the Malware to your computer. 6. Executing unknown file without scanning. When you download a file from somewhere or receive a file from your friend, do you run a scan on the file before executing it? How sure are you that the file you are about to execute is not malicious? Scanning just one file or two does not hurt and it should be done whenever you want to execute them especially when you just received a file. If you want to get yourself infected, download more files randomly from the internet and launch them without a proper virus scan. 7. Do not have a regular full system scan. Even human body needs regular medical checkup from time to time to know the condition of your health. The same goes for your computer…it needs to be scanned regularly so that you will know your own computer is Malware-free or not. Malware today does not have to be active 24×7. Most of them hide themselves and you can’t detect them until you scan your computer. As a result, scan your computer at least once a week to tell the Malware that the hide and seek game is over. 8. Do not read error messages. I realized that there are some users who somehow can read a long error message in less than a second. They are fantastic speed readers, aren’t they? No, they aren’t. They just ignore those error messages and click OK without reading them. If you do not know what is going wrong on the site you are visiting, you might just be visiting an unsafe site. They might have some security feature turned off and you did not realize because you didn’t read the error message. So now, do you want to spend your one minute to read the error message or just don’t read them and think that you are too smart to know everything? 9. Ignoring error messages. For some of the users who read error messages, but are somewhat stubborn or have no concern for their security, they just continue their browsing as usual. This happens commonly when the website is trying to tell you that the site that you are visiting has HTTPS connection error. This could lead to either the certificate had already expired or the web address had been compromised. That is why the Certificate Authority revoked the web certificate so that it can warn you all about the compromised event. However, many users just ignore them and don’t give a piece of concern at all on the HTTPS issue and just visit. Do remember that if you are visiting a non-HTTPS site, it means your communication channel is not encrypted! Credit: Alan Tay Read Full April 2015 Newsletter Comments are closed.