The Greater Seattle Area IT Experts

Facebook has had two-factor authentication available for a long time, but before recent changes, it required the user to provide a phone number. This made a lot of people not want to use the system. Moreover, the update comes months after Facebook admitted that they had a bug in their previous two-factor system, that was sending users who set up the security protocol SMS notifications. Users were getting their Facebook notifications from 362-65, the 2FA number they used. If a user replied, it would be posted to their profile page.

Now the social media giant will accept apps like Google Authenticator and Duo Security, and has refined the setup process making it much simpler for the average user to set up. This change comes at a great time, as SMS has been at the center of a good number of two-factor hacks. In other words, try to avoid using text messages for your two-factor authentication. Sure, it’s better than not having the additional layer of security, but a lot of recent cases have found that it’s not impossible for hackers to intercept your 2fa codes and use them to gain access to your accounts.

To set up 2FA for Facebook, follow these instructions:

• Go to Settings
• Click on “Security and Login”
• Navigate to “Use two-factor authentication”
• Select type of account you want to use to authenticate.

Two-factor authentication sets up an extra layer of security to protect your sensitive information against infiltration and theft. If you would like to learn more about two-factor authentication for your business, call Digital Seattle today at (206) 709-9556.

Inventory
The first thing you’ll want to do is take inventory of all of the cables, wires, and adapters you have to ensure that you aren’t going to toss something that will have value to you. The notion you had when you didn’t throw them out earlier could be the right one. For chargers and other adapters, you may want to keep some around that still have use. Smartphone chargers with USB Type-A and Type-C cords can be of use if you have guests since most smartphone adapters will work to charge other devices in common areas.

Discarding Unwanted Cables
Once you’ve assessed the practical usability of the cords, wires, and adapters you’ve collected, and removed the ones that have some function, contact the people around you to see if they could use them. Some people would love an extra charger to put in their gym or computer bag, or just to have around the house. This could go a long way toward getting rid of a majority of your older cables.

As for those cables, wires, and adapters that no one wants, and have no practical use for you, you should recycle them. At Digital Seattle, we recycle all types of hardware and connectors. If you can’t make it to us, and would like to know where the closest recycling center to you is, you can call 1-800-Recycling or visit the National Center for Electronics Recycling website.

If you are looking at recycling your technology, give us a call at (206) 709-9556 and one of our technicians can help you get your old technology go where it needs to go.

What a Software Framework Is
In software programming, it is much easier to build code based on something that is already written than it is to write something from scratch. A framework is a collected abstraction of editable code that can be used to make software for a specific application. A framework is essentially a collection of APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces.

Wait, Abstraction?
An abstraction can be loosely defined as the process of removing pieces and elements of something to condense it into its most basic version. When applied to software, an abstraction provides developers with a kind of blank canvas to work on.

.NET Framework
The .NET framework makes a library (called the Framework Class Library, or FCL) available to developers to utilize. The FCL holds tens of thousands of shared code examples, all ready to be used to build software much more easily. Another benefit of .NET framework software is that it results in a standardization between software's built through .NET.

.NET also provides a runtime environment for applications created using it, allowing developers to virtually test their creations. While development platforms frequently feature runtime environments, .NET’s is different in that its Common Language Runtime (CLR) environment offers developers increased functionality. In addition to providing a sandbox environment to test applications, developers are also able to create software with confidence in its security, manage memory and processor threads, and handle program exceptions.

These features add quite a bit of benefit to software titles created through the .NET framework, especially where portability is concerned. Allowing freedom to developers in choosing a programming language to base their applications on, including those that aren’t usually run on hardware systems, the CLR makes it so that code can be run on any hardware system, as long as the .NET framework is also installed. This has the added benefit of allowing a developer within an organization to code in whatever language they prefer. This ability to code comfortably provides no small benefit to an organization, as developers are more able to create a superior software, often for a reduced cost than otherwise.

Delivering .NET
Like any other computing platform, there have been multiple versions of .NET framework, the newest being made backward-compatible. While this allowed older software to be changed, other titles simply wouldn’t function. This created no small problems for both independent developers and organizations. As a result, older Windows operating systems will have numerous versions of .NET framework installed.

If you have a newer system that doesn’t have the framework installed on it, you can anticipate that it will show up soon enough. There are three ways that it can be introduced to your system:

1. It is included with Windows OS.
2. An application requires a version of .NET to run and prompts the user to install it.
3. A piece of software directs the user to a website to download a compatible version of the framework.

Fortunately, even software that was designed on past versions of .NET will continue to work with the Windows 10 version.

Software development is huge, which only makes sense when you consider how much of our day-to-day life now relies on software of some kind. To learn more about the technology that you use every day, reach out to us at (206) 709-9556, or keep checking back here on our blog.