WTF, VZW?

So, in today's email, I find the below image/message from Verizon Wireless:

I find it a tad confusing. I mean, I upgraded both phones to Samsung Charges in June. So, it's not like either my handset or Donna's handsets are eligle for a "new every 2" uprade for nearly two years. So why email this to me. Am I supposed to tell my freinds, who aren't yet VZW customers, "hey: look at this awesome deal?" I mean, if that's the intent, it makes no sense, either? Why the hell would I recommend, to anyone, "go get Verizon so you can stream video at LTE speeds and blow through your data cap in under a day!" Seriously: it makes no sense at all. It would only have made sense to send me this if: A) either of my phones were not recently upgrades; or, B) VZW hadn't just put data caps in place for all new customers. Neither A nor B is true, so why spam me?

Best "Job" Spam Ever?

So, today, I find in my main email account's Inbox, one of those various "job opportunity" emails (you know, the ones that typically flog the "work from home" or "not MLM"). Well this one's job requirements were priceless:

Candidates:

• Efficacy to proceed efficaciously within a team and independently
• Native ability to resolve different intricacies
• Strong communication skills

My favorite is the first requirement. I wonder if the person who wrote that first requirement fulfills the third requirement?

Unexpected Audiences

Ugh...

So, I posted up an article on doing Active Directory based authentication on Linux systems. Specifically, I discussed how to get around issues encountered with using the LikeWise product in a complex (messy) Active Directory environment. I figured that maybe some Linux geek that had to use this product in a complex environment might run into issues such as I had. When I had run into those issues, since it was a "free" version of a commercial product, there was no support to fall back on beyond the product's forums and Google. Neither resource was useful to me. So, in the spirit of "giving back", I wrote my article.

Today, I got an unsolicited email from someone (possibly just a bot) at Centrify. Apparently, they've got web-scrubbers out there either searching for articles on competing products or just the Linux/AD topic, in general. At any rate, they apparently found my article and sent me an email. Basically, it was some sales person trying to elicit interest in their product (Centrify). Since the authentication product chosen wasn't my choice (I just had to get it working outside of the lab), I'm not exactly the best person to spam. I'm just a tech who has to figure out how to make the various steaming piles of technology work.

Now, I get that these guys are trying to move product, and all, but, still... It's a touch creepy when these kinds of things happen. I mean, it's nice to think that someone's reading my tech blog, but it would be much nicer if people were finding it useful and not just as an avenue for trying to sell me stuff.

Oh well: life on the modern web, I suppose.

I (Still) Love (Some) Spammers

How can you not be amused by a letter from "Peter McWealth" in you inbox?

LegitSsofotwareDeallOfTheCentturyyAavaiiIalbaIeAtAVerfiied_anddCertfifiedOniIne_store

So, I get an email (SPAM, obviously) with the above subject line. I see something like that and all I can think is "yeah, lemme open that right the hell up." Seriously: does anyone actually respond to such mailings??

Hallmarks of SPAM

There are any number of attributes of an email that can tell you, within about half a second, that the contents are SPAM. It can be the from address. It can be the to address. It can be the subject line. It can be the greeting.

Today, I got one of those emails that begins with the greeting, "Hello: my dear"". Amusingly, this greeting was accompanied by an opening sentence that was trying to entice me into a "business opportunity."

I mean, even were the email legit, how serious could you take such a "business" missive if they start by calling you "Dear"?

I Has My Doubts

Why is it that this piece of spam makes me doubt that "Katy Perry Wants You". I'm pretty sure she has no idea of my existence.

Fuck You Verizon

So, apparently, at some point in time, Verizon Wireless signed some kind of agreement with Facebook (as they have with other online "services") to automatically install an uninstallable application on your smartphone (I'm assuming all their smartphones and not just the BlackBerry Storms). This was probably a while ago, but, it wasn't until tonight, when I unistalled the FB app I'd installed several months ago, that I discovered it. You see, after I'd selected the FB application for deletion, upon reboot, there was a different FB app icon on my home screen of my Storm. WTF?

Unfortunately, whenever Verizon Wireless does this shit, they make it something that can't be deleted. All you can do is hide the application. Because VZW does this so frequently, I've created a "Junk VZ Apps" folder where I can move these unremoveable applications. I'm sure, once VZ figures this ploy out, they'll come up with some kind of countermeasure.

Shit like this makes me consider ending my plan with them. My BlackBerry is chronically short on memory, as is, and you can't offload apps to the SD card (where I have plenty of storage capacity). So, I don't install that much on it, to begin with. I've called VZW to complain about these unremoveable installs, before. They "helpful" techs inform me there's nothing that they can do but that it's just a stub. It's not really taking up device memory.

I find this somewhat hard to believe. Surely that image on my screen consumes some memory to render (etc.). Surely, even if it's just a stub for downloading the full app, it takes some device memory to put that stub on my phone. Stop eating my already chronically short device memory, fuckers.