It Must Be The Silly Season!
I’m getting masses of spam, trying to get me to join casinos. I haven’t seen it at this level for a couple of years.
They say there’s one born every minute, but it would appear that most of them are promoting on-line casinos. I suppose it could be due to a large number of unemployed kids, who’ve just left university and this is the only job they can get.
It’s so sad really.
Another Good Reason Not To Use Facebook
It would appear according to this report on the BBC’s web site, that everything about Facebook, isn’t as it should be.
I wonder what is going to be the next social network phenomena!
A Message From Syria
I just received this message.
Greetings,
I will like to formally introduce myself, I am Mrs. Asma al-Assad, First Lady of Syria which is the wife of Syria President Bashar al Assad.
I have a Profitable business transaction for you which involves transfer of funds,Please if interested do contact me via email for more details on this transaction but if this does not suit your business ethics, kindly delete this e-mail as I will gladly appreciate.
I await your swift response, to my email.
Regards
Mrs. Asma al-Assad
It is the sort of message for which the delete button was invented.
I checked the message source and it came from Indonesia.
Aurevoir Minitel
The French are pulling the plug on Minitel. Read about it here.
I’ve met people, who liked it, so it wasn’t that much of a disaster, but obviously, it’s been killed by the World Wide Web.
Facebook Tells People The E-Mail Address To Use
If I join a club or a forum on the Internet, I like to decide how I’m contacted or addressed. So I think Facebook is beig arrogant in swapping e-mail addresses to their own system in members cotacts. It’s all here on the BBC.
How dare they!
I think I made a good decision to leave Facebook.
One Line Spam E-Mails
I have seen a large increase in the number of one line spam e-mails over the last week or so.
Typically, the e-mail has the following characteristics.
- There is rarely a Subject
- The sender maybe someone you know and the e-mail address is not encoded.
- The e-mail is copied to lots of other people, who often are connected to the sender. I’ve just received one from Australia and it is copied to masses of people in the country.
- The body of the e-mail consists of a single complicated link. Don’t click this, as you’ll get infected with a virus or an advert for a drug you don’t need.
So what should you do if you get such an e-mail?
Ask Leo has the details here. Read it.
He says that the sender’s e-mail account has been hacked, so contact them immediately and get them to run a virus check on their computer and change their password and account recovery questions.
I would also advise, that if they use HOTMAIL, GMAIL, YAHOO or any other free e-mail to move away from that account and get a new account. I know it’s a pain, but they could use your account to send other things that you might not like, as they have your current ID and password.
Read Leo as I said and if you don’t believe me, believe him.
I have had five of these e-mails in the last couple of weeks; two from friends, a couple from Australia and another from who knows where.
The frequency seems to be increasing.
A Note For Those On The Other side of the World
The BBC is streaming their coverage of Royal Ascot on the web.
It’s a long way for all those pixels to go.
Turing Remembered
The BBC has an excellent article about Alan Turing on its web site. Interestingly, the article is by Vint Cerf, a guy I saw lecture at the University of Hertfordshire a few years ago. They also share a birthday of June 23rd.
The article has been published because next year, the Science Museum will be mounting an exhibition on Turing. That should be well worth a visit.
Facebook Is a Pain
I keep getting people wanting me to join Facebook. I’m afraid, I don’t join any social networking site, that will have me as a member. I was a member once, but I cancelled it a few months ago.
People Shouldn’t be so Thin-Skinned
There is a story in the Standard last night entitled Tantrum of the Opera. A Twickenham housewife tweeted to her friend that although she had seen the musical eighty times, she couldn’t stand the star. It has now developed into a full-blooded row.
I would make three conclusions from this.
In the first place the comment was only tweeted to a friend and thus the star is being a bit over the top.
Secondly, the lady has seen the musical eighty times, and so as she is effectively paying some of the star’s wages, she deserves a little respect.
Lastly, if I was producing a musical, I know someone, who I wouldn’t be employing.
They were also discussing another case on BBC Breakfast this morning, where someone made a comment about an X-Factor contestant. She has now suffered months of abuse.
She was possibly a bit unwise to say what she says, but it does illustrate, why you should always be careful what you say on social networking sites. However to abuse the lady and call her all sorts of unwise things in totally wrong.
The sooner we have a high profile case, where one of these so called trolls, gets some time at Her Majesty’s pleasure, the better. It will be interesting to see how much abuse the judge gets.
I have had a bit of abuse in my time over this blog and suspect it was because the post was about an odious foreign government.
The Anonymous Widower 