AVG posted a virus removal CD for both linux and windows systems.

The AVG Rescue CD is essentially a portable version of AVG Anti-Virus supplied through Linux distribution. It can be used in the form of a bootable CD or bootable USB flash drive to recover your computer when the system cannot be loaded normally, such as after an extensive or deep-rooted virus infection. In short, the AVG Rescue CD enables you to fully remove infections from an otherwise inoperable PC and render the system bootable again.

Haven’t tested it, but looks like a nice tool for an IT Pro’s arsenal.

• http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd

Friendly, yet still Spam.

We love the “blog” format of presenting information for a multitude of reasons; one big reason being the comment factor. The posting of comments to VoIP Tech Chat allows discussions to occur, posts to remain “current,” easy updates, and more. Comments also allow spammers the opportunity to increase page rankings of whatever site they are trying to promote.

What is a PageRank Anyway?

According to Google Fun Facts, “The basis of Google’s search technology is called PageRank™, and assigns an “importance” value to each page on the web and gives it a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that’s not why it’s called PageRank. It’s actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page.”

The Twitter Summary: PageRank measures the importance of websites by mathematically evaluating the links from other webpages. Better PageRank, more site traffic. (SWEET! A Twoosh!)

We Post Therefore We Receive SPAM

Through a combination of social marketing, submissions, and indexing, this site (much like most others), becomes the target of spammers wishing to increase the ranking of whatever site will bring them some pocket change. Most often, we see spam from sites selling Viagra, Weight Loss Meds, and other ingestible health aids. Sometimes, the spam comes from sites just trying to cash in with online advertising. Either way, spammers constantly craft their comments in order to get “accepted” into your comment stream.

Which actually brings me to my point…

Killing Them with Kindness

Lately, spam comments have become nothing short of complimentary. For example, the following comments appeared in today’s spam repository (unedited for spelling, grammar, etc.):

Heard about this site from my friend. He pointed me here and told me I’d find what I need. He was right! I got all the questions I had, answered. Didn’t even take long to find it. Love the fact that you made it so easy for people like me. More power

i’m almost always bouncing across the web the majority of the evening so I choose to browse a lot, which unfortunately isnt always a beneficial matter as most of the internet sites I view are composed of unproductive trash copied from different web pages a million times, on the other hand I gotta give you props this site is truely half decent and possesses a lot of authentic content, so many thanks for removing the trend of solely duplicating other folks’ blogs, in case you ever want to have fun with a couple of hands of zynga poker with me just email me – you have my email

How often do you write your blogs? I enjoy them a lot

Superbly written article, if only all bloggers offered the same content as you, the internet would be a far better place. Please keep it up! Cheers.

Reading this reminds me of my previous room mate. That guy was one of the smartest people I know, but he was a little too original for my tastes though. Anyways I enjoyed reading this, thanks. Will give me something to discuss when I see him.

Thanks for sharing, please keep an update about this info. love to read it more. i like this site too much. Good theme .

It’s not common these days to find this type of information. I’m glad I stumbled upon your website. Keep up the good work!

I am really enjoying reading your well written articles. It looks like you spend allot of effort and time on you blog.I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work!

Is it probable for us to follow you actually on Twitter?

Superb site,Thank you regarding this good post – I will certainly be sure to look at your website more often.Just subscribed to the RSS feed…

nice fantastic blog yea nice job our website will soon be adding reviews on websites and add them to our websites as the top best 25 blogs to visit we also do reviews on Customer Reviews all types of reviews thanks

I added your blog to bookmarks. And i’ll read your articles more often!

One thing I really like about website blogs is that they trigger a thought in my head. The moment that happens, I feel as I have to respond with the hope it’s pleasant to other people. Simply because there are many blogs and forums with many points of view, they question your comprehension.  It’s at these occasions when you have crucial insignt many others may not have had, and this includes the blogger him/herself. I find myself coming back to to your weblog only because you have numerous wonderful insights and also you happen to be at this a while, that’s very exciting and tells me you know a lot. Keep triggering thoughts in others!

Does it Work?

If you “google” some of the comments, you will find a lot of sites that allowed the comment to post. Which brings me full circle to the title… At least the SPAM is friendly.

Perhaps some site owners don’t use comment moderation. Perhaps the owners received the comment, became entirely excited with the compliment, and happily approved the link. But one thing remains certain — the spammers simply do not care. As long as the link to their site goes live, the spammer received exactly what they wanted.

Can you believe that we haven’t posted a true VoIP Tech Chat in over a year? Although many of you are thankful for the break, we have decided to invade your favorite audio player once more (with feeling) with the first of (what we hope) will be many podcasts for 2010. This week we discuss Verizon Wireless, Vonage, Customer Service, and well, just a good ol’ fashioned VoIP Tech Chat.

As always, VoIP Tech Chat can be accessed from:

• VoIP Tech Chat (download mp3)
• iTunes
• And, thanks to popular request, you can also stream the chat by pressing the play button below
  Download audio file (09MAR2010VTC.mp3)

Links of “Interest:”

• Follow Fred on Twitter
• Follow Patrick on Twitter (Yay!)
• Past Post from Patrick regarding a positive experience with Verizon

Free has a price, and it’s usually subjecting ourselves to marketing based on the magic numbers games.

Here at VoipTechChat(.com!) we don’t (as of this writing, but things change…) have any paid advertising on the site, and have abandoned AdWords, since it’s giving away real estate and not getting a lot of value. While we are open to targeted advertising (if you have a phone to sell, we are available to pitch it!), we appreciate that generic revolving text ads aren’t super valuable to anyone.

Today I started noticing the heavy addition of leading ads in my YouTube videos and I realized a critical feature all ads should share, and very few do:You should want to watch an ad. You should want to share it with your friends. You should be ABLE to share it with your friends.

When I see a clever ad on TV, regardless of if I like the product or want to buy it, I will send it to my friends. I tell two people, they tell two, etc. Maybe I have a blog with three regular readers and I want to show them. Which leads me to two questions:

1. Why pay to produce an ad and air an ad on television, but not upload it to video sites like youtube where people can view it and share it for free?

2. Why would Youtube, of all places, have clever ads in front of videos, but not a link to the ad itself?

When creating an ad-supported service, whether it’s a “free” calling card, “free” conference server, “free” social networking site, “free” blog,  the key test should always be:  is this advertising content either useful, entertaining, or both for my users? Can my users easily share this advertising content with their friends on an entirely opt-in basis? If people are interested in the ad and sharing the ad, the chances become much higher they will buy the product or service being advertised. If it’s not useful or entertaining, why would you put your reputation behind it?

Many companies have failed at their attempts to artificially create viral content, now companies are actively hindering it to their own detriment.

When my little girl went from being a benign, unmoving lump of sleeping, drooling baby to a terroristic unplugging, biting, chewing, eating, swallowing, gagging, breaking, pulling, tugging beast of a toddler, my home decor changed. When we moved into our excessive 4 bed / 2.5 bath home in 2007, we had dreams. We had a guest room, and a Disney room, and my home office taking up about 25% of the under A/C space. When the beast began terrorizing our home, we retreated into a fallback position and isolated her to the safest room in the house, my former office. I was relegated to the Disney room. It’s purple. Very purple.

When moving between old office and new, as is my tradition in packing, I crammed everything into boxes with the knowledge that should I come to need an item, I would go searching through the boxes piled in the “supply closet” of my new “office”. In almost two years, I have not touched these boxes. Today was a day of reckoning when I was reminded of an important rule: Don’t use old Cat 5 and other copper cables.

There are people who will disagree with me, and I accept their disagreement with the knowledge they are wrong. Cat 5 (ie. network cable)  and copper coax cable (ie. cable tv cable) costs between $0.25 and $1 per foot. On a new VoIP phone, you need anywhere from 3 to 25 ft. of Cat 5 depending on the location of your phone / adapter in relation to your router and with the assumption that you are not using a wireless solution.

Many homes, like mine, have an accumulation of old cables, and when you get a new ATA (analog telephone adapter, aka. that veyeop thingy) that inexplicably comes without one, you go to the pile, untangle the least confined cable, and hook it up. Time and time again I have gone through ten and twenty minute troubleshooting sessions with people (and, in true ‘Dr. heal thyself’ fashion, spent hours myself) only to find that a strange or intermittent problem with connectivity, registration, or voice quality was remedied by putting on a fresh Cat 5 cable.

In fifteen years of working with networking setups, one in ten intermittent or quality issues end up being plain old bad cables (remember from previous posts, 50% are unplug or partially unplugged cables). Just in my five years of VoIP experience, I can’t count the number of times voice quality issues have been wiped out completely by getting fresh cables with good connectors. Considering the cost is < $15 for almost any project, save yourself the time and hassle. Throw away the old Cat 5 and coax cables, buy fresh ones for the new install, and you are eliminating a huge point of failure for years to come.

Note: You can play or download the MP3 audio of the “Telemarketer Torture” calls towards the end of the article.

When I first started working with VoIP, I began to hate telephony, and any and all things telephone related. This bothered me on many levels. You see, as a kid, I loved telephones. Growing up in the “big city,” pay phones seemed to be on every corner. Family stories talk about walking several blocks extra, just to avoid me seeing and wanting to play with a phone. But, as usual, I digress…

When I worked with an unnamed switch (let’s just say it rhymed with Broadmoft), I hated working with VoIP. I knew there had to be a better way and started playing with Asterisk. Soon, my memories of playing with phones started coming back and my love rekindled. Now, I look forward to working with phone systems, only because I truly feel that the use of a phone can only be limited by your imagination. And with companies like Twilio, Adhearsion, and Digium, the community of telephone developers seems only to grow.

With that long winded introduction, let’s discuss today’s topic — telemarketer torture. I, like every other person I know, receives the random yet continual undesired telemarketer call (yes, I’m on the DND databases and let’s not get into that). Thanks to Asterisk, I can send my telemarketers to a little place I call the Annoyatron.

Now, many developers and users implement their own version of Telemarketer Torture. Some like using IVR’s. Some like endless ringing. Personally, I like to keep them on the line for a long time. You see, since I add numbers to the Annoyatron after they call me, by the time they reach the Annoyatron they have already called and wasted my time at least once before. So, instead of just having them hang up and move on to the next home, I like to see if I can keep them talking for a while. My Goal? At least 2 minutes.

I use Asterisk’s “WaitForSilence” command to keep my torture conversational. When there’s a pause, the Annoyatron will play a file. While the telemarketer speaks, the Annoyatron will patiently wait. You put it all together, and wala — the Annoyatron Telemarketer Torture.

Today, I received unwanted calls regarding long distance to India. I added the number to the Annoyatron and well, the results of their continued calls no longer annoy me. Here are two examples:

Listen to Call 1:
Download audio file (annoyatron.mp3)
(or you can download the MP3)

Listen to Call 2:
Download audio file (annoyatron2.mp3)
(or you can download this MP3, too)

Ok, so here’s an example of how you would write the dialplan in Asterisk:

[annoyatron]
exten => s,1,Answer()
exten => s,n,Wait(2)
exten => s,n,Playback(annoy/annoy-hello)
exten => s,n,WaitForSilence(2200)
;...
; record a file for "your side" of the conversation
; wait for silence, and then play it
; lather rinse repeat
;...
exten => s,n,Hangup()

Simple, no? Just one of the reasons Asterisk allowed me to enjoy working with telephones. Awwww.

We’d love to hear about your fun examples with Asterisk. And you know, Leif Madsen is requesting some ideas for Asterisk Recipes himself.

Asterisk is free, open source software provided under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Asterisk is the most popular open source software available, with the Asterisk Community being the top influencer in VoIP.

Why free? It’s just how Digium rolls. They really take that GPL open source to heart.

Firefox has released version 3.5.1 to address a security flaw announced earlier this week. For more information, please read the post at Team Forrest.

Our sponsor, Team Forrest, is reporting a serious security flaw in Firefox 3.5. The Zero-day exploit allows malicious javascript code to take control of a end-user.

For more information, please read the post at Team Forrest.

Note: There’s an intro, the DDA response, and Fred’s response in this article. Jump to the end to read Fred’s response.

A few months back, we posted a nice little article on using Asterisk to get Parking Space Availability from Ann Arbor garages. The response from the VoIP community was fantastic! We received great comments and feedback from people like Jason Goecke, Dug Song, Dave Michels, Evan Cooke, and more! People not only responded, they even showed different ways of providing access to this information. And everyone shared their work in an open forum — truly a great example of open source coding inspiring innovation (albeit with Parking Spaces).

Even better was the local response in Ann Arbor. Edward Vielmetti and Fred Posner were interviewed in the local papers, appeared on a radio show, and even rode the teeter totter. Everyone loved the idea of being able to check on parking space availability… everyone except for the DDA (insert scary music).

The DDA (Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority), funded by tax dollars,  “provides a diversity of transportation and parking options to meet downtown’s [Ann Arbor’s] ever-changing needs.” The DDA does not like us making information of parking spaces available to the public via phone. Instead, the DDA wants to control this information. Seriously, they want to control parking space availability information.

Tyler Erickson helped Edward Vielmetti and Fred make this project even more fascinating by tracking parking space availability over time. The plan was to provide predictability of availability. For example, “We’re sorry, the lot at 4th and Washington is currently filled, we predict the parking lot will be available in 7 minutes. Press 1 to be notified…”

Wouldn’t that be neat? We thought so… The DDA’s response was to block Tyler’s access. Of course, since it was using Google Apps, it blocked Google, but that’s another story. We inquired as to why this blockage occurred and… well enter Susan Pollay. Susan Pollay is Executive Director of the DDA. She told us (and remember, this is a tax funded organization):

“Hi all.   Over the last day or so I have talked about your project with a few DDA members and what arose from these conversations was a shared concern that because the project was not an initiative created by/run by the DDA there are no controls in place for this at present.  For instance, there is no DDA policy about how to allow /or even if it should allow an outside group to use the DDA’s parking data for a private enterprise.  There is a concern about how unsecure/secure the DDA website is made when sharing this data.   And finally, a concern that if the project had value to parking patrons, that the DDA itself should consider providing this service as an extension of what it is already doing on-line.”

Interesting… but the story doesn’t stop there. Due to real-life concerns of all of us, we kind of let this project move to the back burner. But then, two days ago Edward Vielmetti noticed the DDA website was no longer publishing real-time parking information. The response from Susan Polly follows:

From: Susan Pollay
Subject: RE: DDA real time parking data via web is not working // was Fwd: parking app busted again
Date: March 12, 2009 11:36:56 AM GMT-04:00
To: Sabra Briere, Edward Vielmetti
Cc: Margie Teall, Christopher TaylorC, Carsten Hohnke, Fred Posner, Tyler Erickson

Many thanks for this and other emails.  The DDA became aware of Mr. Vielmetti’s project after reading about it in the press.   Immediately a number of concerns were expressed including 1) no permission from the DDA was granted before this project got underway, 2) this project hopes to sell this software to other communities and thereby make a profit and is using DDA-generated information to accomplish this, 3) the DDA has no control over what is done with this information yet this information is attributed to the DDA, 4) persons interested in finding out about parking structure vacancies must make a toll-call out of state.

The DDA Operations Committee met and discussed these concerns.  Their resolve was to provide information by phone to interested members of the public using real human beings answering phones at the Republic Parking office.

There are several benefits to the public with this arrangement.  1) Republic Parking staff members can provide the follow up information that an automated system can’t.  e.g. You call to find out if there are vacancies at 4th & Washington – and if there are no vacancies or very few, Republic Parking staff can suggest a nearby convenient alternative parking location.  They can give directions to the parking structure.  They can provide information like yes, they do take credit cards.    The automated system only tells you there are 0 spaces available.      2) Republic Parking staff members can keep track of how many people are calling, what structures they call about most often, the follow up questions, etc.   This way if we ever decide to acquire an automated phone system we know how to prioritize and provide the information most sought after by patrons.  The DDA would have retrieved none of this information from Mr. Vielmetti.       And finally 3) a call to Republic Parking is not a toll call.  It is a local office, staffed 24 hours a day, 6 days a week (Sundays all facilities are open and unlikely there are vacancy concerns).

Thanks again for contacting me.  I hope to be helpful, so please let me know if I can answer any additional questions about this…..

Best wishes.

Susan

WOW!

Fred’s response follows:

From: Fred Posner
Subject: Re: DDA real time parking data via web is not working // was Fwd: parking app busted again
Date: March 12, 2009 4:13:08 PM GMT-04:00
To: Susan Pollay

Good afternoon,

First, my apologies to Tyler and Carsten. They both wrote exceptional, professionally toned replies. I, however, am so appalled at this email, that I must speak directly to the points mentioned.

Susan, the DDA is funded by tax dollars and parking fees. Perhaps you have forgotten that public money is used to fund the DDA’s mission to serve the public?  Allow me to introduce you to the concepts of open government and “public domain.” I don’t want to waste everyone’s time here, but please read up on these concepts so we can be on the same page.

Lets take your first point:

“No permission from the DDA was granted before this project got underway”

What permission should we have gotten? The DDA publishes parking space availability on the internet and on big, bright signs attached on garages. Do you believe that this is classified information that should be controlled by the government? If I asked someone if they knew how many spaces were available, should they say to me “I’m sorry Fred, I don’t have specific permission from the DDA to release that information.” Should people who release this information be considered enemies of the state and locked in Guantanamo Bay?

The bottom line here is that to horde this information is ridiculous. Let’s forget the tax/government/information aspect for a second. Even if this were private parking, I could never imagine an organization that would say… “Hey, I don’t want people to know that I have spaces available. They might come give money to park here.” An example of this is movie theaters. Movie theaters regularly welcome people announcing availability of shows and times. Why? Because they want to fill the seats. And if the seats are full, they want to let people know so they will plan to come back at a time when there is availability. With this in mind, there are many, many private companies that assist movie theaters with publishing this information on websites and phones.

This translates well to Ann Arbor Parking. I’m sure the citizens that you serve would like access to information. I’m also certain that the businesses would like people to know that parking is available. And, I’m certain they want a lot of access to that information. After all, no one suffers from having too much access to the same information. But the DDA response was completely the opposite. You actively stopped us from getting this information by blocking IP’s (such as google application server) and changing the format of the information.

In regards to needing your permission, I say simply, “You’re wrong. Either the information is public information on the public internet and public signs, or it’s private information that should be properly secured. Your idea that this public information must be secured is wrong. The idea is wrong, the approach is wrong, and the underlying ideology is wrong.”

Let’s look at point number 2:

“this project hopes to sell this software to other communities and thereby make a profit and is using DDA-generated information to accomplish this”

Wrong. Simply wrong. And your saying this is borderline libelous. Ed, Tyler, and I did this project to provide information. No money was thought of, and as a matter of fact, it cost me money to provide phone service for the beta project. Not only did we do this work for FREE, we also published the work, the source, and the methods online. We published the code we wrote and entered it into the public domain.

You know what happened when we did this? Others wrote similar code and also published it online. A discussion of open sharing of information took place with some very big names in the VoIP (voice over Internet) industry. We all shared code and provided public information to our work. Sadly, private companies and individuals are willing to share information, but the public DDA is not… that seems backwards, no?

Take a look at the post written on VoIP Tech Chat and the discussion that followed:

http://www.voiptechchat.com/voip/218/use-asterisk-cepstral-and-perl-to-get-parking-and-weather-updates/

Point number 3:

“the DDA has no control over what is done with this information yet this information is attributed to the DDA”

Ok. When I was in third grade I had to write a report where I researched information and cited my sources. I attributed the information I learned and gave credit to the source so that others could also get that same information. This “marvel” concept of citing sources is still used today.

I must ask, what control of this information is needed? “My goodness, it’s crazy. I can’t believe it… with this parking space availability information… I can unlock the secret to who killed Kennedy!!!! Eureka!”

Sarcasm aside, the thought of government controlling information means the end of freedom. Information is for people and there’s a reason why people need access to information. If you have thoughts of controlling information, please leave government. Also, citing the source of information is not a problem, it’s actually proper, responsible, and good practice.

Point number 4:

“persons interested in finding out about parking structure vacancies must make a toll-call out of state.”

Wrong. At one point, I had this project linked to a 212 number. Why? Because I could support unlimited callers at that number. I did this at a cost of 1.5 cents per minute from my pocket. It took me two weeks, but we received a local Ann Arbor number capable of having more than 2 simultaneous calls. So for a brief 10 day period, you needed to dial 212. Then you could dial 734. We released this information online, over the radio, and to newspapers… So basically, since January 20th, you’re wrong (and we really didn’t make this live until January 10th).

But let’s take this a step further… and say “So what?” Right now the DDA releases this information only online at at the garage. If people want to make this available via SMS, Phone, Twitter, Facebook, Smoke Signal, Tea Leaves, or whatever communicative method one can imagine, it’s simply another way to access the same information. After all, no one suffers from having too much access to the same information.

So, not only is there a local number, it shouldn’t matter if there wasn’t. I truly see implementing a Detroit number, maybe Toledo, Grand Rapids… and more. Could you imagine the possibility of people from another area calling a local number (for them) to visit Ann Arbor? I can… and wow, that would be great.

Benefit number 1:

“Republic Parking staff members can provide the follow up information that an automated system cant.  e.g. You call to find out if there are vacancies at 4th & Washington  and if there are no vacancies or very few, Republic Parking staff can suggest a nearby convenient alternative parking location.  They can give directions to the parking structure.  They can provide information like yes, they do take credit cards.    The automated system only tells you there are 0 spaces available”

Our system not only can do all this, it can do more. Our system can speak many languages. Our system won’t call in sick. Our system doesn’t have attitude, ever. And here’s the best part… Our system doesn’t only say there are “0″ spaces available. Our system actually calls you back when spots are available. Our system will also call you back when there are no more spots available. Are you going to have Republic Parking do that? Our system can give instructions, make recommendations, provide hours, and do much more than a staffed person and it costs you… nothing. No benefits, no salary, no cost, and yet more service.

Benefit number 2:

“Republic Parking staff members can keep track of how many people are calling, what structures they call about most often, the follow up questions, etc.   This way if we ever decide to acquire an automated phone system we know how to prioritize and provide the information most sought after by patrons.  The DDA would have retrieved none of this information from Mr. Vielmetti.”

We keep track of this information. Any time you want it, all you have to do is ask. Unlike the DDA, Mr. Vielmetti, Mr. Posner, and Mr. Erickson have demonstrated an ability and willingness to share information.

Final Benefit number 3:

“a call to Republic Parking is not a toll call.  It is a local office, staffed 24 hours a day, 6 days a week (Sundays all facilities are open and unlikely there are vacancy concerns).”

A call to Republic Parking can be a toll call for many of the users who travel from out of town or are students here in Ann Arbor  but I already addressed that above. Our system is a local call to Ann Arbor right now which you imply otherwise. Also, our system is open 24/7 and yes, you do have some availability problems on Sunday… well at least we could see that when you weren’t blocking access to the information.

Sometimes it helps to have other people look at information, this way we can assist you when you make incorrect statements. Your statement is a PERFECT illustration of why open access to information is needed. Open access to information corrects statements that interpret information incorrectly.

In closing…

Right now I wear two hats. I’m both a Florida Resident and am renting in Pittsfield Township. I also own a small business. After watching these Jeff Daniels’ commercials promoting the benefits of doing business in Michigan, I was very seriously considering moving my business from Florida to Michigan. However, dealing with the DDA has really opened my eyes.

You see, I’ve worked for the government. And say what you want about Florida, we take public access to government very seriously in the Sunshine state. We have what is called the Sunshine Law that provides both criminal and civil penalties when public access is restricted. It’s a great law, and perhaps needed here as well. You see, I believe, as many others do, that in a government of the people and by the people, that information belongs to the people. Government agencies, such as the DDA, should help get information to the public, not wish to control it.

The thought of the DDA requiring permission to access public information and / or control information is not only a scary thought; it’s absolutely anti-American. After all, no one suffers from having too much access to the same information.

A personal hero of mine has always been Benjamin Franklin, and I leave you with this:

“Never trust a government that doesn’t trust its own citizens…”

Fred Posner

PS…

Wonder why the phone number can’t tell you the available spaces? We are specifically blocked and forbidden to access their website. Here’s the page we get:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>403 Forbidden</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Forbidden</h1>
<p>You don't have permission to access /parking__transportation/available_parking_spots/
on this server.</p>
<hr>
<address>Apache/2.2.4 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.4 OpenSSL/0.9.7a DAV/2 mod_jk/1.2.20 PHP/5.2.1 Server at a2dda.org Port 80</address>
</body></html>

Welcome to the new world order.

Ever had a story to report that was shocking, offensive, and hilarious all at the same time? Imagine this scenario, if you will:

You’re surrounded by family and friends watching the Super Bowl in your living room on your brand new, HD big screen TV. It’s the Steelers vs. the Cardinals and just when you think the Cardinals have all but lost, an amazing run by Fitzgerald switches the lead to Arizona and you can’t believe it. You watch the screen waiting for the replay, when instead of seeing a ball caught by Fitzgerald, you see a whole other kind of ball, courtesy of Club Jenna.

And yes, in this case, that ball is full “in your face” frontal male nudity. Literally, in your face.

Viewers in Tuscon, AZ watching the game via Comcast on KVOA channel 4 lived that exact scenario. For approximately 30 seconds after the touchdown, viewers in Tuscon watched the game transition from touchdown, to porn, and then right back to touchdown celebration. KVOA has posted this statement from Comcast:

Tucson, Arizona

Updated 8:30a — Comcast Releases Statement Apologizing to Customers

KVOA-TV is investigating pornographic material viewed during the Super Bowl by some Tucson area Comcast viewers.  Just after the last touchdown by the Cardinals, approximately 30 seconds of pornographic material was shown.  It appears this material was only viewed by some Comcast customers.

Comcast has released a new statement today:

“We are mortified by last evening’s Super Bowl interuption, and deeply apologize to our customers for the inappropriate programming.  We are aggressively investigating the situation including the possibility of foul play,” said Kelle Maslyn, Comcast Corporate Affairs Manager.

When we contacted Cox last night, we received this statement:

“We have received no evidence that any inappropriate material was broadcast on any of our channels during the Super Bowl.  The alleged incident appears to be isolated to the Comcast territory.  We will offer our support to all appropriate organizations to help them determine what happened,” says Mike Dunne, Cox Director of Media Relations.

KVOA is dismayed and disappointed that some Comcast customers and their families were subjected to this material.  Nielsen says, “KVOA will continue to investigate what happened to our clean signal and make sure our viewers get answers.”

If you would like to see the video, you can find it here: (although be warned, full frontal nudity not safe for work or kids or people who don’t like videos showing full frontal nudity):

• Gizmodo
• Comcast Superbowl Porn