NO, I didn’t mean to type satellite. Stratellite. This is an idea that I’ve written on before and I think it has some interesting possibilities. The idea is to positition a large airship (helium balloon of sorts) in the stratosphere. Put it above the steering currents of the jet stream and equip it with the ability to stay in a fixed place for months at a time. Also, put antennas on it. For what? Whatever you need…. cell phone coverage… a wireless internet transceiver of some sort? etc.
Tag: phone
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Collection company….
I’m quite frustrated this evening. Another long day of computer problems and tonight I come in to around the tenth call from a collection agency. The kicker in this case is that it’s not for me, but for someone I’ve never heard of. Over the years we’ve had a fair amount of credit card debt and have worked our way to within about one payment of being out from under. All with no defaults, no collection agencies, etc. We’ve followed the rules in other words. And the last 2 weeks we’ve been harrassed by a collection agency looking for someone that we’ve never met that I can only assume gave our phone number. The collection agency is….
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Tech support tutorials made easy on linux….
One of the real frustrations with phone tech support is translating step by step what is needed to the person on the other end. I know it sounds easy, but in reality – what if they’ve got xyz theme for their menuing and it’s not there, what if… oh you know – they’ve just got something in a different place than you expect it. The person on the other end usually has to be the eyes and that, many times doesn’t work out great. That’s one reason that I’ve worked to start doing the remote tech support because that way I can BE AT the machine and what seems like an eternity on the phone can actually become a short and quick resolution. Anyway – Newsforge today detailed a way to capture videos of actions on screen in a “how-to” format under linux with ScreenKast and share the how-to video online with captorials.com
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Fun with Voice Recognition
Lately, I’ve tried to make use of my phone’s voice command system for calls. I’ve had a couple long drives and used a headset and tried to do something that works better without the headset…. “Name Dial”…. “please say the number” (sigh…) “1234567” “did you say 3225467?” “NO” “did you say 3225468?” “NO!” 5 miles later….. for the 5th time…. “Name dial”…. “please say the name” (finally…) It reminded me quite well of using what was a demonstration program from Microsoft that would type as you dictate. Ah, fabulous, science fiction meets reality. I tested and, it was, PAINFUL to use. “Now is the time…. no delete word no…. don’t type that.. no you stupid. NO stop. delete… not oh….” Well, it’s reassuring to see that Microsoft has problems with using Voice Dictation too. The video is hosted at Google videos and is a “demonstration” of voice recognition technology.
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Sometimes the simplest things solve problems….
How many times have I had this kind of phone call…. “my computers not working”… “the light on the monitor is on, but there aren’t any lights on the keyboard. everything seems connected, but there’s nothing on the screen.” Usually, my first question is along the lines of… “have you tried turning it off and back on.” I sometimes hear “I can’t use the start button” or something like that. At this point, I suggest that they try disconnecting the power and letting it sit for a few moments (5-10 seconds is usually enough.) Plugging it back in and trying the switch.
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Winter Olympics 2006 Turin Italy – technology wibro/wimax
The 2006 Winter Olympics are coming up. This time around, the olympics are being held in Turin, Italy. The official site can be found here. I can’t say that I’ve been a huge fan of the Olympics, but there are things that interest me. First is the security environment. Obviously the Olympics is a high-profile event and unfortunately has been the target of trouble before. I can’t help but have a concern (and prayer) that the security will be clamped down in such a way that all the events go off smoothly and that sport is the main story for their run. Of course, the next thing on my mind is the technology aspect…. from this announcement
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Registrars not verifying contact information on domains?
According to a GAO report one of the reasons that phishing and scam websites are because of a lack of enforcement and policing by registrars of accurate contact information. According to their study over 5% of sites had been registered with false data. ~2.5% had been registered with incomplete information. These findings come from a random sample of 300 domain names that they then did lookups on the domains.
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Connectivity issues
Our ISP here was out this afternoon. (Cable and internet) for a bit before I had to run to an appointment, so I got a bit behind in entries. It’s interesting though, Charter has been really pushing their new telephone service lately. Which is all well and good, but I’ve thought many times, if I were to get phone service from Charter how many times a year I’d be without phone service? How would I have called to report the outage today? (Carrier pigeon) – cell phone is the expected answer I’m sure, but….
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Beware emails that sound too good to be true
A new phishing scheme is promising tax refunds in the amoutn of over $500 to recipients of the scam. Sophos has an advisory. It looks pretty devious – asking people to type in the link address (or copy and paste) and using URL redirect to make it use an official site to then redirect to the phony site.
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Scottrade announces compromise that put eCheck secure infromation at risk
The securityfix is reporting that Scottrade, one of the larger online brokers, has announced details of a security compromise that has put a good deal of customer information at risk. It looks as though it is related to the eCheck Secure service for transferring data from personal bank accounts to Scottrade. Scottrades provider for the eCheck Secure service is the Troy Group, Inc.