So my last post looks a little bit out-of-date…
Aside from Steve Jobs, the world has last night lost John Linton, boss of Australian ISP Exetel. Linton was known for his outspoken views, and his lack of enthusiasm for the National Broadband Network put him at odds with much of the telco industry here in Australia. But his views were respected, and I for one think we will feel his loss badly.
News just in: Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple Inc. His resignation letter doesn’t say why, but I don’t think there are any surprises as to the reason.
Jobs has had a major influence on the destiny of Apple, with his recent decisions positioning Apple very strongly in the short term. It’s said that Apple today has more cash reserves than the US Treasury. Whether this position can be maintained by his successor Tim Cook remains to be seen, but it’ll be a tough job.
All the best to Jobs – a man who has arguably changed the world.
I have decided to bite the bullet and get rid of the fax line. There was a time when it had a purpose, but now the vast bulk of what I receive via fax is spam, or material that could have just as easily been sent as an email (and that includes the spam). Furthermore, when government departments stop faxing you and move onto email you know it’s time to move on.
So thank you fax line, it’s been nice having you.
This scam has been going around for a while – someone from an alleged PC security company (sometimes even “Telstra” or “Microsoft”) calls up and talks you through getting to your computer’s event log. The event log is a technical record of the things done by your computer and always has a lot of stuff in it, including errors and warnings. That’s perfectly normal. However these scammers create a sense of fear in you by telling you that this is “junk and malicious stuff”, and it is “infesting the hard drive of your computer”.
They will then ask you to navigate to a website called www.ammyy.com where they will then get you to download a program that gives them remote control of your computer. At some point in this exercise they will get hold of your credit card details, at which point you can consider yourself well and truly scammed. In case you ever wanted to hear what typically transpires, have a listen here:
These clowns have called me three times today, and twice I have played along. On the last go, I decided to record the conversation. During this call I clearly got busted… “You know we’re a scam, right?”… great stuff. In case you ever encounter such a phone call, a couple of phone numbers they may call from are 03-90149568 and 03-90149868.
Now, it’s important for me to explain that my PABX only records conversations on demand (if you listen carefully you may hear me keying in the command during the course of the conversation), and that this recording was made and is published pursuant to Part 4, Section 45 of the Invasion of Privacy Act 1971 (QLD), namely the public interest clause. Besides, express permission was given by them during the course of the phone call. Do I have my bases covered?
It’s difficult for a nerd not to get excited at announcements like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCTH7rBoGck
Nokia is losing market share in a big way. Their problem has never been hardware – every Nokia phone I have ever owned has been thoughtfully designed and beautifully made. My most recent decision to turn away from Nokia was based entirely on the fact that Nokias of late have shipped with software that was obsolete 3 years ago. With Windows Phone 7, Nokia re-enters the game. I am desperately excited about this!