Category: Google Plus Archive

Active wi-fi scanning can reveal your phone’s favorite networks. That might not sound like much, but…

Active wi-fi scanning can reveal your phone’s favorite networks. That might not sound like much, but snoopers might be able to pick up info from descriptive network names…or automatically create an “evil twin” network.

What is your phone saying behind your back?

Do you always turn WiFi off on your smartphone before leaving the house or work? You might think there’s no harm in having WiFi turned on but not connected to a network, but that’s not necessarily…

An OS designed for touchscreen tablets isn’t ideal for desktop PCs

Apparently, an OS designed for touchscreen tablets isn’t ideal for desktop PCs with keyboards, mice and large monitors. Who would have thought it?

Usability Expert: Windows 8 on PCs is Confusing, a Cognitive Burden – initial review by Raluca Budiu of Nielsen-Norman Group

November Update: Follow-up article by Jakob Nielsen going into more detail

I love this explanation of “opt-in” co-reg marketing “permission”

I love this explanation of “opt-in” co-reg marketing “permission” (if you can call it that):

A husband gets permission from his wife to go to the pub on certain nights of the week with his mates, then sometime later later gets divorced, re-married, and then uses the original permission as an excuse when his new partner moans about his social habits.

Cloudmark Blog | Optical express SMS Spam in the UK

This email was broadcast to…

“This email was broadcast to UCLA Volleyball ticket buyers, Volleyball Insiders and data collection contacts subscribed to the Olympic Sports Bruin Alert.” None of which apply, so get out of my inbox.

Bonus points for making me wait in line to unsubscribe.

Extra bonus points for, as near as I can tell, automatically subscribing me to new lists when I had previously unsubscribed from everything after giving them the benefit of the doubt last time. (I never did sign up for UCLA athletics, but I did sign up for UCLA arts, and I suspect they got their lists mixed up at some point.)

It’s long past time to start reporting this junk as spam.

Unknown Caller is still trying to call me twice a day.

Unknown Caller is still trying to call me twice a day. But I guess it must not be that important, since they can’t be bothered to leave a message, and they went to the trouble of blocking Caller ID so that I can’t call them back.

Wayne comments: I’ve been getting regular calls from an 800 number that also doesn’t leave a message. Wonder if they’re related. ;p

–GP

Finally picked up the “Unknown” caller who’s been calling 2-3 times daily and not leaving a message. They hung up immediately. #WTF

–T