Ok… They didn’t say “we hate you” but they diit add a new crazy, stupid “convenience fee” to online payments. So even though they did say it… Actions speak louder than words.
Verizon Wireless: “We Hate You.”
Reply
Category Archives: tech
Shooting: It’s Not Just for Zombies, It’s for Other Trouble Too…
A few months back my car’s flaky ignition switch gave out and literally fell out of the
steering column. The replacement works great, but it has a quirk that you have to turn to exactly the right spot to take the key out without leaving the radio on. A few days ago, while traveling for work, I did this part of the procedure wrong and left the radio playing all night. When I came out the next morning to go to the office, my keychain buttons didn’t respond and I could hear the radio playing from ten feet away. My immediate assumption is that the battery would be too dead to start the big engine. I sat down, put the key in, turned, and the car just wheezed without turning at all. Clearly my initial assumption was correct, so I dialed up roadside assistance and waited.
How many times have you picked up your VoIP phone and not had a dialtone and said, “damnit, service is out again.” I can’t count the number of tech calls I have been a part of or heard about where a piece of equipment suddenly stopped working and the user declared, with passion generally reserved for Samuel L. Jackson and Al Paccino at the climax of a movie, that they were positive it was plugged in and it just stopped working. After a long line of troubleshooting, unplugging and replugging it in miraculously cures the ailment, clearly a function of some latent factory problem.
Since purchasing my 1994 car some three years ago, I have on three different occasions forgotten that it has a kill switch on the ignition. If it sits for some small period of time, the kill switch engages and the engine won’t turn over. Lights work, radio works, but trying to start it results in a non-response. If the ignition is not fully disengaged, for instance if it is slightly on and leaves the radio playing, pushing the unlock will not disengage the kill switch. After forty-five minutes of non-response from Verizon’s roadside assistance, I walked out to the car, pressed the unlock button, heard the familiar “BEEP BEEP”, started the car and drove to the office. Even the pros sometimes forget to follow the basic troubleshooting steps and end up falling into the assumption ravine.
Two minutes of stepping back, forgetting that I know everything, and following a basic checklist would have saved me a lot of time and embarrassment.
Sprint on losing streak
In wireless news… Sprint really needs this AT&T/T-Mobile deal to fail. After losing more than analysts had predicted, Sprint’s share price dropped 16%.
Bloomberg reports:
Sprint lost 101,000 customers on monthly contracts after dropping 114,000 in the previous three-month period, starting a new losing streak after reporting a gain in the lucrative users in the fourth quarter of 2010 for the first time in more than four years. The carrier is promoting handsets such as HTC Corp.’s Evo to compete with AT&T Inc. (T) and Verizon Wireless, which both now carry Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone.
Explaining SIP Brute Force Attacks to Non-techs
Check out this article from TEAM FORREST about explaining SIP Brute Force Attacks in plain English.
Facebook Disconnect
Facebook Disconnect
Facebook, with it’s over 500 million active users, routinely faces concerns over the privacy; specifically the lack of privacy for its members. The Wall Street Journal recently found:
Many of the most popular applications, or “apps,” on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook’s strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook’s rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users’ activities secure.
Tropo Pushes International Development
Tropo Go Global
Tropo, a voice application platform, announced yesterday availability of local numbers in more than 40 countries. Tropo previously had offered local numbers limited to the United States, but now launched the program internationally.
Need to test an app that makes calls? Those have been 100% free in development for calls to US numbers. We’re expanding that support internationally as well. In addition to the free calls to US mobiles and landlines that you’ve always had, our developer program now supports free calling to landlines in 17 other countries.
Although SMS may still be limited to US numbers, the availability of International local numbers to developers makes testing voice applications incredibly easy and affordable (as in free).
More information can be obtained directly from their release announcement.
Google 86′s Google 411
G-g-g-g-g-g-google.
I love my Droid. That being said… my love for Google wanes like a loveless marriage from a white, suburban utopia. I’m comfortable with Google, but the love affair is over. Both of us want different things from our relationship.
I want Google to be a kinder, gentler corporation. The one that doesn’t scream M-M-M-Max Headroom and make me think that the next leader of Google, Inc. may indeed be named Darth Vader.
One of the products that I loved from Google was GooG411. Using it was simple. Continue reading
I’ll have clear skies, personal conversation, and hold the technology, please.
"Put down the phone. Slowly walk away. Say hi to the person next to you. Yes, that's a human. Yes, they are real."
Too much technology consumes our daily lives.
Ironic topic for a blog post? Probably. Blasphemous for a guy whose entire livelihood depends on the fact that internet connections barely even dreamable ten years ago are available at his house? Sure. True? Absolutely.
Last week I took four plane rides (thanks Usairways* for $27 first class upgrades) and spent four days on a cruise. In the airport, my disappointment towards Continue reading
Spam wars
I r muzikal n delishus
1
spam n. \ˈspam\ unsolicited usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresses
I r muzikal n delishus
Millions of dollars are spent every year by companies and individuals combating spam. Spam filters, email systems with integrated spam management, reviewing spam emails for real emails that got inappropriately flagged, storing spam, deleting spam, reporting spam, it all adds up.
Rackspace WordPress Sites Under Attack
Fanatical Support
Got Rackspace? Got WordPress? If so… you may just have a problem.
We’ve been getting calls today from Rackspace clients (hosting WordPress sites) that have been compromised similarly to the GoDaddy hack a few weeks back. The Unmask Parasites Blog has an excellent article on the attack posted on their, well, their blog.
There are some huge sites that have been hit, and some not-so-large as well (we personally were hit by an earlier attack). In the “Is Cloud the answer” debates, this will surely become an example of how a compromise in the cloud, can devastate an entire farm.
Update 6/19/2010
Shortly after this article was initially posted, Rackspace via their Rackcloud Twitter account posted the following message: Continue reading