Founder @ https://teapawt.net/t.co/X8ous4affQ. On a mission to help companies grow. Helping you turn your IT spend into a competitive advantage.
Dallas, TX
Joined September 2008
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After 20+ years in IT, I’ve learned this:
The most expensive mistakes aren’t picking the wrong tool - they’re signing the wrong contract, trusting the wrong vendor, or skipping the hard questions because everyone’s in a hurry.
I share what I’ve seen go wrong so others don’t have to learn the hard way.
Microsoft patched 1,400+ vulnerabilities this month - one of them was already being used in attacks.
Say your MSP report shows 98% patched within 14 days. That number won’t tell you if the one being exploited is fixed on your machines. And if your contract only asks for a patch percentage, that’s all the MSP owes you.
Before you renew, the agreement should say who handles actively exploited vulnerabilities and how fast. If it doesn’t, fix that first.
We review MSP agreements before renewal and help you compare providers if it’s time to switch: vist.ly/5qmd5
Your provider can keep missing its uptime commitments and still hold you to the full contract. All you may get for the outages is a credit on your next bill.
If the service keeps failing, can you leave without paying to terminate?
That's the clause I'd check before signing or renewing. Have an agreement on your desk? Let's review what your exit terms actually allow: vist.ly/5qini
Three vendor quotes won't help much if you asked the wrong three vendors.
Before comparing prices, figure out who belongs on the shortlist and what you're actually comparing.
Here's what to check first: vist.ly/5qhhm
It's the lack of judgement up and down the stack that shows the rot, unfortunately the only fix is to root it out and start over
Siri is still bad, like really really bad. I opened an email with my Uber Eats confirmation, there was a live activity on the screen with progress, and I pulled down and asked Siri "what did I order for lunch?" And it thought for like 2 minutes and then said it doesn't know. 🤦♂️
Okay so the harness and models are clearly bad. Well, then next I opened up the Siri GUI app on macOS and HOLY. It's the worst looking, beginner, basic bitch app I've ever seen. Did someone spend more than 5 minutes on this?
Whoever worked on this app along with the full chain of people who checked off on this needs to be terminated immediately. This is 0/10 terrible software, so embarrassed for Apple to ship this.
You negotiated 20% off a $25-per-seat quote. Great, you're down to $20. But what if the starting price was never competitive?
Getting a discount doesn't tell you what you should actually be paying.
Here's what to question before accepting the offer: vist.ly/5qc6m
Alternatively... just don't install the apps on your phone in the first place
Claude Code just found proof that every app on your phone is listening to your conversations. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat. they're using what you say out loud to build your feed. i have the data to prove it.
i've suspected this for months but last week something happened that made me finally check.
i was on a call with my friend and told him i'm thinking about breaking up with my girlfriend. didn't text it. didn't search it. just said it out loud with my phone on the table. two hours later she opens TikTok next to me and her entire feed is breakups. "signs your relationship is over." "how to heal after a breakup." she looked at me and said "why is TikTok showing me this." i said i don't know. but i did know.
i connected my iPhone to my MacBook and ran Claude Code that same night.
it scanned every app's background microphone activity for the last 90 days. not just the apps that asked for microphone permission. apps that were supposed to only have access to photos or location but were activating the microphone anyway.
what it found:
→ TikTok activated the microphone 347 times while the app was "closed" in the background
→ Instagram → 211 background activations
→ Facebook → 189
→ Snapchat → 94
every activation lasted between 3 and 15 seconds. enough to catch a sentence. every one of them tagged a keyword and cached it locally on the phone with a timestamp.
Claude Code pulled the full keyword cache:
→ "breakup" — tagged 4 hours before her feed changed
→ "moving out" — from a conversation with my mom last Tuesday
→ "wedding venue" — from a call with my sister about her engagement that i never searched once
→ "protein powder" — said it out loud to my roommate, had ads for it within an hour
→ "flight to tokyo" — mentioned it at dinner, saw travel ads the same night
those keywords were sitting in a local cache on my phone organized by app with timestamps. TikTok had the most entries. Instagram was second. every single keyword matched a conversation i had out loud near my phone.
the scariest one was "wedding venue." my sister told me she's getting engaged on a private call. i never searched it. never typed it. within a day my explore page had engagement rings and venue tours.
then Claude Code checked a second phone in the same room. my girlfriend's. same keywords. same timestamps. both phones were picking up the same conversation and tagging it independently.
i asked Claude Code how to shut it down. it mapped every app's microphone access and built a permission audit.
what i did:
→ revoked microphone access from every app that doesn't need it to function
→ disabled background app refresh for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat
→ turned off "Hey Siri" which keeps the microphone in passive listening mode 24/7
→ revoked "nearby interaction" permission which uses ultrasonic audio between devices
Claude Code confirmed all four apps lost background microphone access after the changes. i checked her phone too. same steps. took about 3 minutes per phone.
within 48 hours both our feeds went completely random. generic content. nothing personal. nothing from our conversations. that's when i knew for sure it was real.
the full step by step and the prompt are in the first reply. takes 3 minutes. save it so you don't lose it and send it to anyone who's ever said "my phone is definitely listening to me." it is. now you can prove it and shut it down.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
2 days before, OP claimed to have found spyware on his "wife's phone":
x.com/starmexxx/stat…
Now, in this post, he talks about his "girlfriend":
x.com/starmexxx/stat…
OP has a history of fake AI content:
"Spy camera" found in hotel room: x.com/starmexxx/stat…
Spyware on "friend's computer": x.com/starmexxx/stat…
OP selling AI products: x.com/starmexxx/stat…
Flagged as AI: x.com/i/grok/share/b…
The cheapest vendor on your shortlist is probably the one you know the least about.
If they're quoting way below everyone else, I'd want to understand why before signing anything.
Here's what to question about that low quote: vist.ly/5q6kk
You can find a better provider at a lower price and still be stuck with your current one, all because you missed the renewal notice deadline.
Our free IT Renewal Calendar tracks renewal and notice dates for up to 20 IT contracts.
vist.ly/5pzbm
ALT Calendar and documents locked with chains and a padlock.
Before buying infrastructure, look at where the business will be in three years.
New locations? Different compliance requirements? More systems to integrate?
Those are things you can plan for now instead of replacing equipment later. vist.ly/5pnf2
If your VMware renewal is going through Insight, Insight can only help you through October 31.
Broadcom pulled Insight’s authorization to resell VMware in North America. Insight says it will finish booked work and keep delivering client-funded services through the end of the month. After that, Insight is out.
If you have pricing negotiated or an order in progress, get it in writing this week who finishes the order and who supports you starting Nov 1. Don’t assume your order covers it.
If you’re stuck in the middle of this, send us what you have and we’ll go through your options on a call: vist.ly/5pmac
Max Clark retweeted
Some stats on #php2shell. In the 10 hours before it was publicly announced, across the @Cloudflare network we saw thousands of attempts to exploit it. That jumped to tens of thousands in the 45 minutes post announcement, hundreds of thousands within 2 hours, and millions now.
Starting from scratch sounds easier. No legacy systems, no compatibility issues.
But now you're making decisions the business could be living with for the next five to seven years. vist.ly/5pgxu
Protect your infrastructure and PATCH!
“It’s on the roadmap” isn’t a yes. When you’re building a vendor shortlist, only count what they can do today.
How to build the shortlist before the first demo: vist.ly/5pd34
ALT Text reading 'Are You Choosing IT Infrastructure Backwards?' on navy background.
You can spend weeks evaluating a phone system that doesn't support the hardware you already own.
Before the demos, check your desk phones, conference room equipment, and integrations. Some vendors won't make the cut. vist.ly/5pbqi
A client sent their cancellation notice on time and still got locked in for 2.5 more years. A service order they signed months earlier reset the end date on everything.
Here's how to spot it before your next order: vist.ly/5p7r3
Three years after buying a platform, a new requirement comes along. Can you turn on a feature, or do you have to replace the system?
That's a question worth asking before you sign. vist.ly/5p6cs
55 days to recover from ransomware versus 3 days. Same class of attack.
Real cyber insurance claims data: teams managing detection in-house took a median of 55 days, claims near $500,000. Companies with a real MDR service recovered in 3 days, claims near $75,000.
How many alerts did your team actually investigate last month?
Before you spend another dollar on detection, find out what it takes to actually respond. The staffing math is in the episode. vist.ly/5n2qh