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As we have reported in the past with Domain Registry of America, fly by night domain registration companies send fake renewal notices to business owners to try to trick them into paying the wrong company.

Recently our customers have reported getting bills from a company called “DNS Services.” At first it appears to be an invoice, but in fact it is actually a scam promoting their backup DNS service.

If you are a JVF customer and host your website with us, do not send any payments to DNS Services! Their fake invoice is merely a scam!

If you read the fine print you will notice that they are just soliciting you for business, the scam is that they trick you into thinking you owe a bill. We suggest you simply throw their solicitation away, do not try to contact them as that will confirm the contact information they have for you is good and could lead to further spam or misleading emails.

Here is a copy of the invoice from DNS services for reference:

In order to work as a team effectively on a single project, you need a way to coordinate your source code and other important project assets. That’s why at JVF we keep all of our project artifacts in a single, authoritative place using Tortoise SVN.

If you don’t use source control you’re playing with fire. By using a source control platform it will allow you to create a repository with views into the evolution of your software stacks. Plus, it gives you another area that acts as a backup in addition to a quick way of allowing multiple developers to work together. The repository is the master storage for all of your files and their history. It's typically stored on your server in order for all developers to have access to it.

For those not familiar with source control, it's a form of software that performs an orderly process in which developers checkout the latest code from the server, do their work, run all of the tests to confirm that their code works, then check-in their changes. The process is called continuous integration, which helps coordinate changes to files and also provides a history of changes.

There is no practical alternative to source control, that’s why we are thankful for the concurrent model which allows two people to edit the same file simultaneously. Tortoise SVN automatically merges their changes, so nothing gets overwritten accidentally. If two people edit the exact same lines of code, the version control system prompts them to merge the two lines so there is no confusion.

To us it’s obvious that storing your source code in some form of source control is a necessity. With good version control practices, you can easily coordinate changes with other members of your team. It also allows you to easily reproduce old versions of your software when you need to in addition to recovering and deploying old builds in little time.

Some of the other features that we find helpful is the ability of working in a safe and secure environment that can be managed within the cloud. This allows us the ability to separate user rights and roles to manage different access levels so you can go back in history to revive old code. Another feature we use all the time allows you to compare functionality in order to isolate exact changes needed for system patches & updates.

Source control gives you the confidence to carry out more ambitious experimental work, while making your everyday working processes simpler and more satisfying. Source Control is also Open-source, so the software is distributed free and has a rich development community. Since there are many source control platforms for you to choose from it is up to you to find the one that best fits your needs.

"Start saving money today by installing energy-efficient LED lighting from Modern Lighting Concepts, an innovator of lighting products."

San Francisco, CA September 5, 2012 – Jason Franco, President of JVF Consulting, LLC announced the launch of the Modern Lighting Concepts eCommerce website. The new website features incentives programs for energy efficient lighting upgrades in addition to a LED benefit checklist to ensure you purchase the correct lighting for your application. Interior designers, home owners and construction contractors can now place their orders online to have LED lighting delivered right to their door.

LED lighting has emerged as an environmentally favorable technology due to its efficiency and energy savings. Modern Lighting Concepts line of LED lighting outperforms standard lighting products currently available to consumers while supporting sustainable design.

At Modern Lighting Concepts they understand that different lighting and display applications have different requirements. That’s why they offer the most options to meet your application and design needs in one place. By choosing the right LED lighting for your application you can distinguish every application area beautifying your surroundings.

“Energy-efficient LEDs light up our homes, businesses and restaurants bringing years of cost savings to the public” said Jason Franco, President of JVF Consulting. “LED lighting can virtually light your kid's bedroom lamps from birth through high school graduation.” With every new addition to their online store, Modern Lighting Concepts is taking the necessary steps to ensure their success on the net, with the assistance of JVF Consulting.

The Modern Lighting Concepts website has many products for you to choose from with detailed information in order to best select the appropriate product for your application. Their contact information is easily accessible for visitors with questions or concerns about their lighting products. MLC also provides visitors with coupon codes in order to help turn them into customers.

The new Modern Lighting Concepts website is powered by Magento and designed by the leader in custom website design, JVF Consulting, LLC. Through the use of Magento, MLC can easily maintain their own website by editing, adding, and removing products to their website without any html knowledge. The power to reach a broader audience is now possible through the use of their new custom website by JVF Consulting.

About Modern Lighting Concepts:
Modern Lighting Concepts was founded by Sonia Chun with the objective of providing customers with a variety of energy efficient options without sacrificing quality and style. Established in the San Francisco Bay Area MLC is dedicated to providing consumers with an efficient, accessible and user-friendly shopping experience. Their unique relationship with lighting manufacturers allows them to remain devoted to the most contemporary and solid state technological advances.  MLC provides a one-stop shop for environmentally-minded, quality-driven customers in search of innovation and sophistication. For more information visit www.modernlightingconcepts.com

Contact:
Jason Franco
JVF Consulting, LLC
(925) 479-9768
http://www.jvfconsulting.com

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Having problems sending email using the PHP mail function? Just because you sent an email, doesn't mean it will arrive!

At JVF we’ve found several limitations when using PHP mail. Our main complaint is that emails sent from a web form ends up in the receivers spam/junk/bulk folders even though we set the correct headers in PHP. We also experienced Gmail users who do not receive the email at all.

If you’re experiencing the same issues, the most important thing to check first is to make sure the SMTP server is not listed in one of the many DNS-based blacklists. Here is the one we have come to trust: http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

PHP mail uses the settings in PHP.ini to send email through sendmail. Sendmail is a direct path that just hands over the mail you generated to the system's SMTP server, but requires you to build the header for it. PHP mail does not support SMTP authentication, which is required by many mail servers. Since SMTP requires a valid login to send the mail, the headers match the rDNS records allowing a flawless delivery.

After rigorous testing it’s obvious that PHP mail may be faster since you don't have to connect to your smtp server, but it's not better. In the long run, SMTP email is the only way to guarantee that your email will arrive in the inbox of your receivers. So don’t waste your time with the PHP mail function, instead use a web form that requires SMTP logic.

Nobody knows more about car modifications than our friend Sean over at FFtec Motorsports in Hayward, CA. At the age of 2 he gave his son Evan a Lightning McQueen Power Wheel for Christmas. After three years of constant use the plastic tires had completely worn down. Most people would have thrown the car away and bought another one, but not Sean.

"We decided to upgrade the oem plastic wheels to metal rims with rubber tires. From that point more modifications were added every few weeks. Now, Evans Lightning McQueen Power Wheel is equipped with an aluminum back half chassis, dual sealed gel batteries with an output of 24 volts, a 500 watt .66 horsepower electric motor, disk brake, throttle modulated variable speed control with reverse and sparco battery cut off switch" said Sean Burgess.

When it was all said and done, Sean took Evan out to a dirt track near their home and told him to let it rip. Thankfully Sean documented the whole process and posted the video to YouTube. Since the custom build was posted last Sunday, "Evan's Lightning McQueen" has received over 2 million views!