Archives for 2006

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Women 2.0 Party

Posted on August 28, 2006 ·

I should read the PR 2.0 blog more often.  A lot more often.  Here’s the invitation I missed:

You’re Invited – Women 2.0 Party Today  Wow!  Woman 2.0 – Peter Rip should update his Everything 2.0 list now.

Here’s a set of photos from the previous Women 2.0 Party.  But wait…  where are the women?

Guys, you’re nice and everything… but if this is what 2.0 means, I’d rather stay with Women 1.0

Update (8/28): Stowe, what’s on your mind?

Update (9/3):  Valleywag shows an improved photo…

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Filed Under: Bay Area, Blogging, Humor, Misc, Social Networking, Startups ·
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Scammers Are Getting Smart

Posted on August 28, 2006 ·

(Updated)
Here’s an email I received this morning:

Dear xxxxxx,

Thank you for your subscription to
http: // polarstaryouth.org/scken1578.html  (link removed for my readers protection)

You have been billed as KRBILL LLC for the amount of:
3.95(USD) for 3 days (trial) then 34.95(USD) recurring every 30 days .
Your new subscription identification number is:xxxxxxx,
Your membership access information is:
Username for your subscription: xxxxxxx
Password for your subscription: xxxxxxx
E-mail: xxxxxxx
Membership website: http: // polarstaryouth.org/scken1578.html (link removed)
Thank you for choosing KRBill as the eMerchant for your subscription!
Customer Support/Cancel Your Subscription 28/08/2006 07:06

 

Obviously scammers are getting smart: reading you’ve just been billed, wouldn’t you instinctively click to clarify/cancel?  We’re all getting smarter about scam, but the sense of urgency can easily trigger a kneejerk reaction, forgetting all precautions, and that’s exactly what the scammer counts on. However, there’s two safety precautions I strongly recommend to everyone:

  • No card to charge: I only ever use throwaway, virtual credit card numbers on the Net, so scammers can bill all they want, they can’t charge my card
  • Protected Email address: I have specific email addresses for subscription lists and online orders,  another one for financial activity (banks, brokers), yet another for the blog…etc.  I don’t ever use online my “real” email addresses that I want to protect. So when scam arrives to the protected email, I can rest assured they don’t have any of my data, the email is harmless junk.

Any other good ideas?  Please leave them in a comment below.

Update (8/28):  Polar Youth appears to be a non-profit, not selling anything. However, the full URL (I did not click it, but retyped it) leads to a page where one can supposedly by a software product, and the licence terms refer to Intuit.  Since it’s obviously forgery, perhaps someone from Intuit will chime in here.

Update (9/1):  Wow… apparently this scam was first insignificant enough that only I posted about it, thus getting the #1 postition on Google for the search term “Krbill”… than it got widespread enough that a lot of people are searching for it… I am getting a lot of hits.  I also may have become the target of the scammers revenge: the appear to phish my email as sender.  I received emails asking for explanation, even one asking for a refund of any money charged to them.  Rest assured: the scammers could not get your money, unless you provided them with data.

As a commenter points out below, the websites the scam email leads to contain hidden iframe that attempts to download malware on your computer.

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Filed Under: Business, Misc, Personal Productivity, Technology ·
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Friday Quiz: What do Astronomers and Wikipedians Have In Common?

Posted on August 25, 2006 ·

Hints here and here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Enterprise Software, Humor, Social Networking, Software, Technology ·
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Items to Avoid Aboard a Flight: Dell, Apple Laptops and…Penis Pumps

Posted on August 24, 2006 ·

As I reported before, Qantas airlines restricts the use of Dell computers on board their aircraft; other airlines may follow suit, and with Apple joining the battery-recall, perhaps Mac’s get on the restricted list, too.

But this is minor inconvenience compared to the trouble carrying a … penis pump (*blush*) can get you into, reports the Chicago Sun Times:

“The female airport security guard held the small, black, squeezable rubber object she’d just plucked out of Mardin Amin’s backpack, and eyed it suspiciously.

Standing next to his mother, an embarrassed Amin whispered out of one corner of his mouth that it was a “pump” — as in a penis pump. The guard misunderstood the Iraqi man and thought she heard the word “bomb,” Amin’s attorney told a Cook County judge Wednesday.

“He told her it’s a pump,” attorney Eileen O’Neill-Burke said as a cluster of burly, snickering police officers watched the court proceedings. “He’s standing with his mother. Of course he’s not going to shout this out.”

But after listening to the female guard testify she heard Amin “clearly” say the word bomb during the Aug. 16 incident at O’Hare Airport, Judge Gerald Winiecki decided there was enough evidence for the case to move forward. Amin, 29, is charged with felony disorderly conduct and faces up to three years in prison if convicted.”

Oh, well, judges have their way with penis pumps:  in unrelated news, former Oklahoma Judge Donald Thompson was sentenced to 4 years in prison for repeatedly using a penis pump – during trials he presided over in his courtroom.

I’m starting to think these pumps are really not worth all the trouble. After all,  Small is the New Big. 

Perhaps it’s time to update the list of things to avoid during air travel:

  • sex toys
  • your mother
  • thick accent

or any combination of the above.

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Filed Under: Humor, Misc ·
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Vista Startup Sound – Blind Ignorance

Posted on August 24, 2006 ·

(Updated)
Vista beta testers mad about forced startup sound – reported Robert Scoble yesterday.  What several testers observed was that the Windows startup sign can not be turned off.   Naive me, this is how I tried to calm down the “mad users” in a comment:

“Oh, for God’s sake it can’t possibly be by design… It’s a beta, and with Microsoft’s so-called stable products being so buggy, what do you expect? Just be happy it doesn’t force an automatic reboot every 30 minutes :-)“

Yeah, right. Today the story continues, as Robert interviewed  “Steve Ball, group program manager for the Windows Audio Video Excellence team (basically, the team that builds the stuff that plays audio and video in Windows).”   Wow, thank God they have an entire team for that!  But it gets better: they hired famous guitarist Robert Fripp for the job.  Geez, just give me a machine that boots fast and doesn’t crash, I’ll get my music on my own! yell

And here’s the best part from Steve Ball:

“This will be a non-customizable sound, and that’s been part of the plan for Windows Vista for many months, he said.
However, the plan might change and Steve Ball is reading all the feedback, both on blogs, and in the newsgroups for beta testers, and his team is considering all of this stuff and still has not made final decisions (although they’ve spent a lot of time already arguing this stuff out and are heading down a path of making this a non-customizable sound that can’t be turned off, just like the Xbox has today).

“Why the hell would you want to do this in the first place?” he told me is a common question.”

Wow. If he really can’t think of a reason, how about  this:  has it ever occurred to anyone that some of us Microsoft-slaves might just wake up in the wee hours and want to work (i.e. turn on the computer) without waking up the family?

I am fuming… this is yet another case of product-focused thinking ignoring users. cry

Update (8/24):  Here’s another scenario, from a comment to Scoble’s blog:

“I really hope this isn’t true. If it is, we’ll never deploy Windows Vista in a clinical environment or care setting. We currently have Windows 2000 PCs running in very sensitive care environments that need constant reboots — if the system is forcing the startup sound to play, regardless of other settings, that could be very disruptive to a care environment without us have to take unnecessary steps to mitigate the noise. Microsoft, _think_ about your users not yourselves!”

Another commenter sums it up perfectly:

“Microsoft is still doing what Microsoft does best, telling their customers that Microsoft owns their computer and not them.”

Better yet, just watch this video.

Also read Silence is Golden by Michael Parekh.

Update (9/23): Microsoft listens, after all, says Scoble.  They are making the sound optional.

 

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Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Customer Service, Marketing / PR, Personal Productivity, Software, Technology ·
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TechCrunch Getting a Facelift Again?

Posted on August 24, 2006 ·

The focus of the announcement is the launch of TechCrunch UK.  But that’s not all, towards the end Mike casually mentions:

“For those of you who’ve asked, we’ll be moving all of our sites over to this new design in the coming weeks.”

There are subtle differences between the two versions now, so this facelift will definitely not be as dramatic as the previous one.  But if you ask me (I know, no-one really asked me), I still prefer the Classic TechCrunch designed by Frederico Oliveira. 

 

 

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Filed Under: Blogging ·
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Technorati Gone Crazy This Morning

Posted on August 24, 2006 ·

Impossible to sign in; you get thrown back to the sign-in page. That means no account info, no favorites, stats… etc. What a morning 🙁

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Filed Under: Blogging ·
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Dell: Don’t Leave Home *With* It…

Posted on August 23, 2006 ·

…At least not if you want to fly. 

After the well-publicized Dell-explosions and a recall of over 4 million batteries (made by Sony) Qantas Airlines issued new rules:  travelers are allowed to bring their Dells on board, however, they can only use them if they first remove the battery, then plug it into an outlet – which is only available on business- and first class.

Security at some airports apparently goes a bit further:

“One passenger who flew out of Canberra on a Qantas flight on Monday reported that he and his colleagues had encountered security personnel removing the batteries from all Dell computers, and taping up the contact points on the battery ” – reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

I guess from  now on there are three classes of notebooks: the Mac, the Win and the Dell.

Also read  Engadget, Gizmodo and The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Update (8/24):  As Jim points out in a comment below, after Dell now Apple issued a battery-recall, too.  I suspect the story is far from being over, a lot of other manufacturers use Sony’s batteries.

Update (9/6):  Korean Air joined the ban, in fact they go a step further: passengers have to remove the batteries and pack them in their check-in luggage.

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Filed Under: Business, Misc, Technology ·
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No Kidding – Superpapa of 370 Children Arrested

Posted on August 23, 2006 ·

A man known as ”Superpapa” who says he took advantage of a quirk in German laws to adopt more than 300 children worldwide has been arrested on suspicion of violating laws on child rearing in Paraguay, authorities said Tuesday.

According to the police statement, Hass said he adopted more than 370 children of different ages in countries worldwide, including Russia, Romania, India and Pakistan with the intent of taking them to Germany to collect a government subsidy of €200 (US$260) a month for each under Germany’s child protection laws.

(read full article at AP) 

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Filed Under: Misc ·
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Watch Out for Zoho

Posted on August 23, 2006 ·

I declared the Zoho Suite complete exactly 2 months ago, when they released Zoho Show.  However, there is always complete … and even more complete 🙂  And the Zoho guys are getting cute: they want you to guess what’s next.

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Filed Under: Business, Collaboration, Personal Productivity, SaaS, Software, Technology ·
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