I don’t know who would be stupider: the people who sent out this incredibly poor attempt at phishing, or anyone who responds with a username and password. Needless to say, don’t respond. The message was sent from a server in Papua New Guinea. From: “Minson Peni – 1059175918 – WT”Date: May 25, 2009 4:54:34 PM […]
Oh, my aching back! That’s what I was thinking while walking around Microsoft’s TechEd conference a couple of week ago. Perhaps I’m getting old, but a briefcase full of papers, plus a 5.5-lb Apple MacBook Pro, got old really fast. I’d already lightened my load by picking up an Amazon Kindle 2 digital book reader […]
Don’t forget the TRS-80 Model 100 and Tandy 102! In today’s world of ubiquitous notebooks, netbooks and smartphones, one device was there first. Introduced in 1983, the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 was an incredible platform. While it was very underpowered by today’s standards, the 3-pound notebook had a full-sized keyboard, a very usable screen […]
A friend forwarded this puzzling scam spam to me. The “from” domain is chevy.com, and it claims to be from the fictitious “Chevy Financial Company” in London. Don’t respond and don’t be fooled! From: John Lazone Subject: Job Opportunity Chevy Financial Company-London, United Kingdom. E8 2NP. My name is John Lanzone, I would like to […]
Do you think that this half-price automobile offer comes from Ford Motor Company? Of course not, it’s a spam scammer. While I admire this scammer’s creativity (there’s even a fake dealer sticker included with the message), you should not respond. Don’t be fooled! The message I received was generated by a spam zombie in Florida, […]
At this week’s TechEd conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft did not present a vision. But that’s okay. That’s not what the conference attendees were looking for. This may have been the least interesting TechEd that I’ve attended. Granted, I haven’t been to all of Microsoft’s TechEd conferences, but I have attended most of the U.S. […]
Sometimes the spam that I receive boggles the mind. However, when the cost to send out the spam is $0.00 per message, why not? Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
I’ve ordered a new HP netbook. Why? Because my Apple MacBook Pro is too big and heavy for working a trade show, and a MacBook Air is far too pricey. When I’m at a conference, meeting or trade show, I need a notebook with a good keyboard that I can use to take notes, make […]
Puppy scammers? Puppy scammers? Oooh, this is a good one! My friend Mac forwarded this delightful spam scam. Do you really think that the FBI Director would send out an email like this? Sadly, some people might. Don’t reply to messages like this, don’t be fooled!Attn: Beneficiary, This is to Officially inform you that it […]
Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
Should I just whack it? I’ve had a couple of reports today that my voicemail isn’t working right. Two callers wrote to me and said that they just got a fast busy signal. I asked some folks to call me to test voicemail, and for them, it worked. “Go figure.” I’ll call the phone company, […]
In the wake of Microsoft’s large-scale layoff of 3,600 employees yesterday, we wonder: What’s the fate of MSDN Magazine? According to one of my sources, “MSDN is a goner.” But another source said that while there were significant layoffs within Microsoft’s marketing department, the magazine survived. Does anybody know for certain? >> Update: Despite some […]
When a company promotes its CFO to acting CEO, instead of advancing a sales or product executive, that’s a good sign that the company’s going to be sold soon. That’s what I wrote on Jan. 8, in “Borland back in the frying pan,” after the news that CEO Todd Nielsen had jumped ship to join […]
I just had a pleasant chat with Robin Lane, Director of Public Relations for Vocus. She called to do damage control after my blog and twitter postings. To make a long story short: 1. At the present time, Vocus does not provide any way for journalists or analysts to directly see or modify their information […]
It sure does pay to tweet when you’ve got a complaint, because it can get someone’s attention in a hurry. On Wednesday, I posted a blog entry about the unwanted spam that I receive from the Vocus PR service, “Can we vaporize Vocus with a medical laser? Please?“ I also tweeted it, as “How can […]
This just in, literally: I received an “out-of-office” reply, dated today, May 1, 2009. It was in response to an email that I sent someone on June 16, 2005. That’s a four-year delay. The original email was about booking a meeting at JavaOne 2005. Guess that meeting didn’t happen. Ain’t technology grand? Z Trek Copyright […]
Ten years ago, Ted Bahr and I decided to launch a company together. That company, of course, is BZ Media. Today is one of our two key anniversary dates. April 30, 1999: We decide to start a publishing company. We didn’t know the name of the company. We didn’t know what we’d do — whether […]
Are you all a-twitter about Twitter? Is your face on Facebook? Are you linked into LinkedIn? Is there space on your MySpace? Are you a-gog about blogs? I’ve just come back from a publishing conference where a major topic of discussion was the use of social media, like those mentioned above, to help form communities. […]
The press-release spam service, Vocus, pelts me with unwanted and irrelevant press releases nearly every day. There appears to be no way to get them to stop. Here’s their latest time-wasting message: Subj: Dr. Khanna featured in highly respected trade journal For Immediate Release Recently M.D. Rajesh Khanna, founder of the Khanna Institute of LASIK, […]
This scam spam — sent to one of our info@ mailboxes — was too precious not to share. Enjoy! (And as always, don’t respond, don’t be fooled, if you receive such messages.) From: Anahita Mailbox Subject: TRUST Attention: Dearest Beloved Sir/Madam I came across your contact via international personal research profile in my earnest search […]
Our friends at Hkitos are back with yet another domain spam scam. (See my post, “Domain scam pirates strike again.”) The spammer will make sure that bad guys don’t seize our domain names and Internet keywords. And golly gosh, they offer professional IT services too. Who’d have thought it? I’ve substituted the word BRAND for […]
I hope the little boy is okay. While I was sitting at the gate for my San Francisco -> Denver flight yesterday, a woman comes over and sits, a few rows away, pushing a stroller and carrying a crying boy. She’s a young woman, pretty, Asian, in her late 20s. The little boy is adorable, […]
It looks like Oracle is going to buy Sun Microsystems for $5.6 billion (net of Sun’s cash cache). Maybe the deal won’t happen. Maybe IBM will swing in with a counter offer. At this point, though, the odds are good that Oracle’s going to end up owning Java and all the other Sun technologies. Oracle […]
LinkedIn has great customer service, but needs to fix its software. I’m a heavy LinkedIn user, finding it invaluable for tracking down people when I don’t have their current contact information. In our industry, people move around a lot! Every couple of months, something gets screwed up in LinkedIn-Land, and my address book disappears. Each […]
Network Solutions is about to lose my business. I believe they have engaged in unethical behavior. Last week, Ted and I were bouncing around some project ideas, and as part of the brainstorming, I went and researched some potential domains names, uncovering five that might possibly works (and which were available). We decided not to […]
The common “419” scams generally try to help you smuggle money out of a foreign country, in exchange for a hefty percentage. The writer often pretends to be the wife of a former dictator, a military officer, or a rogue bank executive looking to cash in on a huge pile of loot. A popular variation […]
They’re singing a familiar tune… this must be the 20th time this year that someone has gone after these particular domains. (I have substituted the word brand for the actual domain cited in the letter below.) Be alert for these scams — and yes, they are scams. If you reply, they will try to sell […]
I’m delighted that Smalltalk is still thriving. Back “in the day,” I experimented with Smalltalk, both in college and then later as the editor of AI Expert. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to build a production system using the platform. Too bad. The news of the day is that Instantiations has updated VAST, its […]
There are good words of wisdom in this story, sent to me by a PR person. This is a copy/paste job.Businesses Affected by Recession Should Guard Against Computer Havoc by Disgruntled Laid-Off Employees Gary Kessler, a nationally recognized computer security expert and director of the master’s program in digital investigation management at Champlain College in […]
Sometimes a comment comes in that makes you feel good. I’ve been asked by friends, “why do you keep blogging about spam?” Occasionally I wonder about that myself. After all, it’s not always very interesting (although it is often very funny). Stephen from Maui posted a comment on my post “Domain scammers keep on scamming” […]