Heroes: Man Tells Fax Spammers To Go Fax Themselves... And They Comply
Topic: Miscellaneous
8:50 am EDT, Sep 18, 2008
For weeks now I have been receiving fax calls on my house line, a number I've had for over twenty years and now ported to VOIP; somehow, at some point, it got included on a telemarketing fax CD.
I get them 3-4 times a day, each repeated 3 times, starting at 6 AM. Being awaken by the cheerful chirping of a fax when answering the phone isn't my cup of tea: Nobody calls me at six, so when it rings I always think there is some kind of emergency!
I finally decided to do something about this problem, and using the caller ID number as starting point, Google kindly provides me with the main number and name of the offending company.
The receptionist was not so receptive to my request: Seems they have many employees, and no interest in tracking down who is sending what, because they are very, very busy. Goodbye.
OK. Fine by me. One great advantage of my VOIP provider (Primus, for anyone who cares) is that their base package includes many interesting features, including the possibility to redirect any number to another. Thirty seconds later, I had the fax number redirected to the receptionist's number.
Since the redirection happens at the exchange, it will of course be a bit more difficult for them to track down the origin of these new, annoying calls than if they had been willing to listen to my complaint. They had their chance, and blew it.
I call this forcing corporate responsibility.null
Ah, this is even better than the "ex-girlfriend trick" though not quite as fun as sending them 1000 pages of black. :)
Quebec man changes name to dodge relentless airport screening
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:02 pm EDT, Sep 12, 2008
A Quebec businessman whose name is one of the many that have erroneously landed on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's flight passenger watch list has decided to change his name to avoid lengthy security hassles at the airport.
This was on Consumerist today. I'm TOTALLY going to get some Star Wars stickers and start adding them to the trucks that are parked in my neighborhood each day :)
This Burbank airplane factory was covered with camoflauge netting and decorated to be a suburban subdivision in order to hide it from possible Japanese air attacks during World War II.
Tsa: Do You Have Any Naked Pictures Of Your Mother? The TSA Does
Topic: Miscellaneous
12:03 am EDT, Jun 12, 2008
This comment on Consumerist is great...
Weasel words? When you're hiding the truth, you love to use them. Did you catch the weasel words in these quotes?
"the image is erased from the screen permanently."
The image is erased permanently... FROM THE SCREEN. Not from the hard drive. There is a very clear distinction there, and they're making it.
The officer is unable to print, export, store or transmit the image."
The OFFICER who is operating the device is unable to do those things. But that does not mean that the software itself isn't designed to do one or any number of those things. They didn't deny that the technology is capable of doing those things. Rather, they deny that those features are under direct control of the officer.
Further, if the NSA or FBI or some other agency (outside of the TSA) wanted to collect these records in the name of some terrorism operation, there would be little if nothing to stop them.
Okay, maybe this guy is as cracked as those "NASA faked the moon landing" people, but I still say that people don't have informed consent going into this... that there should be a full resolution sign (preferably the size of the machine) showing what it really does. When Kip Hawley's scan is painted on the machine where traveler's can see it, things will be a little more fair. After all, Kip surely doesn't have anything to hide, eh?
