Hey, My Email is Confidential!

We all read blogs every day and probably leave quite a few comments every week. Can you imagine your email address being posted every time you submit a comment online? I am sure it happens every now and then but hopefully not too often...

Have you ever posted a comment online and some douchebag published your email address along with your comment?

What did you do? Did you close your email account to get away from all the spam? Did you behome a hacker just to gain access and remove your email address yourself?

I hear this is the case for a website that is maintained by someone called Emmanuel Sarides. His title is Dr but not for Doctor but Dreadful Emmanuel Sarides.

Since 2009 I have been contacting the webmaster with a simple and honest request, remove my email address from the internet, man! In 2012, he threatened me that he'd sue me for harrassment should I continue asking that he removes my email address.

How do you feel about people violating your rights? What action would you take, if any?

The email communication I exchanged with him will follow soon.

Won an Oscar but Lost a Man

There's an interesting fact I read on the Daily Mail today...! "Kate Winslet, Reese Witherspoon, Hilary Swank, Chalize Theron, Julia Roberts and Halle Berry all found themselves newly single shortly after winning an Academy Award." Sandra Bullock is the latest newly added member of this 'exclusive' team as she just found out... that her honey-bunny Jesse James was cheating on her while she was away shooting a film in Atlanta.

The article goes as far as to call this 'rare' phenomenon the "Oscars Curse" (ta-ta-ta-DAH!) but I prefer to call it... human nature. Men and women cheat on their partners for all kinds of different reasons. No matter how pretty, famous and adorable you might think you are...

Look into the Princess Diana case.... The whole planet is wondering how has Charles chosen Camilla over Diana, but he's not... and neither is Camilla. Remember the chick that Hugh Grant has chosen for himself when he got tired of... Liz Harley?! Tiger Woods, John Terry, and so many more are only human beings and we tend to forget this purely because they are on the spotlight.

Of course I can understand the humiliation they are feeling since actors are normally very sensitive people who are overexposed to the media and therefore to people's judgement and it's hard - so bloody hard - not to give a damn about what other people think when your primary aim in life is for everybody to adore you and recognise how special you are. They are most vulnerable because of their exposure - agreed.

But even this is rapidly changing. Social networking sites are turning us all into small celebrities. Even if you just have a few hundreds eyes fixed upon you, you still might feel you are famous and therefore important. This is a very common phenomenon in smaller cities too, where people think so high of themselves and carry themselves around like some sort of royalty just because they know a handful of other people that live in the same god-forgotten place.

Whatever goes out on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking site stays there forever! We ourselves are becoming small celebrities with people regularly following our news, commenting on our photos, and we are always trying to impress them all. "Look at me, look at me! Do you want to become my neighbour in Farmville?!" hahahaha - it's so funny really (though tinged with a pinch of sadness) how people in our days take much more time to care about their online profiles rather than themselves.

Well the truth has always been hard and ugly but it's out there for anyone that dares to face it. We are either all special all none of us. And cheating is a global phenomenon as old as time and light. So why are we (I refer to the human race as a whole) still taking it all so seriously in the first place? Wouldn't it be better if we all put our hands on our hearts and admitted that we might all fancy some variety in our sex life from time to time?

I am not trying to underestimate anyone's feelings. All I am saying is that since 90% of the world's population (I just made up this statistic just like everybody else does! :P) is bound to experience a heartbreak, we would be much better off, psychologically speaking, if we avoided any unnecessary repetition of the painful and distressing memories and (alas!) changed the way we think and feel about the infidelity in general. Let's be honest with ourselves first and then the lies, we sometimes base our whole lives upon, will soon fade away....

Any other thoughts?

OH, NO!!! MY iPHONE IS CRAP!

OH, NO!!! MY iPHONE IS CRAP!

Similar to all of you and certainly not different I was dying to finally get my hands on this black beauty (some prefer it white – but they’re not the cool guys- aha, there… I said it! What you’re gonna do about it, what you’re gonna do about it?! Hehehe hoho), the legendary iPhone.

But it’s crap, it really is. It’s OK for me to say it ‘cause I love it so much. I love it so much that I hate it… it happens in real life also you love something so much that you end up to hate it for not being worthy of your love or for being so much worthy of love in general that you don’t have so much to give and you feel drained but in any way let me not get carried away, cause I keep on talking and jumping from one thought to another for hours, maybe days. Certainly haven’t tried it for a week, but a good couple of days for sure. I remember that. It was one day… hehe, I am only joking.

It is the iPhone that I want to moan about today. And here it comes. Surely you’ll all remember from my previous post how I have been waiting for a long long (it’s not a grammar error you idiotic ugly Word Assistant. It adds to the drama, you ignorant ignorant moran!) time for O2 to restock the new 3GS 32GB iPhones.

It’s not the iPhone, it’s O2 that’s crap.

Reasons to switch to iPhone

• Voice4Mail
• Voicenotes Dictaphone
• Remote desktop lite
• Addison Lee on the go
• Ocado on the go.
  How cool is that! Instead of making lists and sticking non-sticky post it notes on the freezer and finally ending up always forgetting something you needed from the supermarket. And the Murphy rule has it that it’s most of the times the thing that made you decide you need to do the shopping in the first place.
  If of course you don’t order online then I guess a simple To do or Shopping List note would do the trick.
  
  Other Dubious Applications that caught my eye
• Excuse generator
• Fake Caller
• Fake Conversation
  
  Drawback
  When it comes to typing... iPhone does not have sideways arrows to move to the left and/or to the right. And it does not have an Undo button. Remember tears came in our eyes when the Undo button was first introduced. What a marvellous day for humanity, “what is done, can be undone” screamed Bill to the world. But no no no, that kind of magic is not what Apple stands for and represents.

O2 Bad Mobile Network Coverage - Two Laptops or an iPhone?

O2 is experiencing coverage problems again in London, UK. It does not affect all iPhones (and other mobiles using the 3G technology) but it's definitely annoying for those who does affect. Two days have gone by, and they still haven't made an announcement. I called their Customer Service team as I thought that my 1 - week old iPhone was going funny in the SIM, if you know what I mean.

They confirmed they are aware of the existing coverage problems but had not been given a timeline of when the problems is going to be resolved. The representative was unable to confirm why some iPhones were not affected.

It's been two days and I still cannot get my email, of course I cannot send either. I cannot access the internet nor any of the applications that run over the internet. This would be fine if it only happened let's say once a year, but how many times a year have we (O2 customers) have to put up with this? Users in social networks reported the same problem already 5 or 6 times this year alone.

Well, at least it still receives calls and sends messages but let's be honest know... i didn't pay the price of 2 laptops just for that, did I?

Or perhaps did you?

Spam + Scam = Scammers

Have you ever woke up one morning, checked your emails and believed - even for a sec! - you've finally become a millionaire? Yes!!!

How great would it be if we never had to enter any competitions but could still win all the prizes! In a nutshell, the best medicine against spam and scam is "think before you act". If it's too good to be true then there's most definitely a catch.

At the end of the day, all scams are the same. There is a bait - usually in the form of money reward, and there is a catch that you are going to be asked to be ripped off very kindly.... in the form of advance fees, administration fees, gesture of good faith, etc.... you get the idea! ;)

In order to protect yourself the best thing you have got to do in case you receive an email suggesting that you've won something from an unknown to you personally sender is not reply at all.

However, if you find it entertaining or for educational purposes and you do decide to answer, then please make sure you do not share any sensitive personal information with the scammer, such as bank account details, date of birth, passport number, etc. and most importantly do not make any payment whatsover.

One thing you need to bear in mind is that once you pay them there is probably (that's a 99.9% probability!) very little you could do to recover the money. Yes, that's the stage where you need to admit to yourself: it's too late for all this now. I have been officially conned.

The UK National Lottery scam email looks as follows (quite professional I'd say... I have seen much worse - those Nigerian scams are the best, you know which ones I am talking about! When your help is needed to access that large amount of money that a deceased has left behind ....)


UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS:
P O Box 1010 Liverpool, L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM (Customer Services)

ATTENTION: WINNER

This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of (£1,000,000.00) One Million Great British Pounds held on the 12th of October,2009 in London UK.

Contact our fiduciary agent for claims with:

Name:Mr.Marvel Mark
Tell: +447024039995
Email: mr.marvel.mark@live.com

Winning Parameters:
REF NO: UK 200-26937
BATCH NO: 2007MJL-01

Fill the below:1.Full. Name:_____2.Address:_____3.Marital Status:____4.Occupation:____5.Age:_____6.Sex:7:____8.Country of Residence:____9.Telephone Number:

Congratulations!!
Mrs.Christiana Criswell.
U.K ONLINE LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL

To help combat scammers please report any fraud email activity to the Fraudwatch International. A quick internet search will also help you identify the most popular email scams and you'll soon become a scammer savvy.

Good luck!

O2 Runs Out of iPhone 3GS

Crap! Since the very first time I heard about iPod I was intrigued to buy it! Not that I am your classic kind of "I-love-any-gadget" type of person but the possibility that you could hold in your hands an interactive, user-friendly, smart and devilishly quick (yeah, yeah... I heard you complaining but hope dies last. And I betcha that compared to my current rather problematic and still so bloostiff Sony Ericsson typing and navigating through the iPhone will feel like popping the clouds!)

In the beginning, having heard of all the criticism surrounding the launch of the iPhone I decided to wait a bit, just to see what happens. You see, Apple has managed to raise the audience's expectations a far way more than any reasonable marketeer would advise them it's safe to do... and that's why they were bound to come up quickly with a better and much faster version or say goodbye to their.... million investment. In July 2007, New York Times reported on the consumers' anger over how "bad investment" they though iPhone was.

Two years later, the new version is here and while we are all so excited about it (ok, we might not be the 'early birds'.... we hesitated yes, but do we deserve to be punished in this way? )

I have been waiting nearly a year for a my contract to finish so I can buy the new iPhone at last. But allegedly O2, currently the exclusive provider of iPhone 3GS has run out of iPhones! How is this possible? I have been calling O2 every other day for the past two months trying to figure out what is going on with the iPhone supplies. No stock. They got no iPhones.

Do they know when the next delivery will be? No- they don't.
Can they provide an estimate? Absolutely not, you should just call back again and again.
Do they take orders? Absolutely not, you should just wait until it's restocked.
When will that be then? Nobody knows...

Bur rumour has it that their exclusive deal with Apple is to expire around the 9th of October. Now, this might explain a lot. It could be that Apple decided to cut O2 down just before the exclusive deal expires so they can negotiate far better deals for themselves with the other mobile providers given the unprecedented level of demand.

If that's the case I can wait a bit longer. It's highly unlikely given the current level of demand that the providers will enrol to a price- war, but it still means that we will at last have the luxury of choosing the provider we reckon is best.

I said I can wait but to be honest I really can't wait to get my hands on that beauty! :)

Swine Flu Update

Since the advice on Swine Flu at the end of April there has been a significant change in the way the health authorities around the world are dealing with pandemic. Some might argue that they have now managed to turn the pandemic into a very healthy sustainable business making tones of money.

In the UK the policy had been to contain the spread of the virus by using a number of public health interventions. This included giving antivirals (Tamiflu) both to those who were symptomatic as a treatment as well as to their close contacts to prevent them from developing the disease. That's killing two birds with one stone... But is there a cure?

Doctors have confirmed that antivirals used in the treatment of flu are not a 'cure'. They reduce the virus spreading in the body, help the patient to recover more quickly and reduce the risk of complications. They also reduce shedding of the virus by infected people so that its spread may be delayed. However, they do not offer longer term protection. Only a vaccine can achieve this and it is not anticipated that this will be available until later in the year (October is frequently quoted as the anticipated date).

Once the virus is widespread within the community, the value of antivirals in terms of slowing the spread of the disease or offering individual protection is greatly reduced. This is because people are likely to be repeatedly exposed to the disease. It is not possible to eliminate the virus using antivirals. As a result the policy of containment has changed to one of treatment. What does this mean for F&C staff?

The advice is still to
•Maintain good basic hygiene, for example washing hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of virus from your hands to face or to other people.
•Dispose of dirty tissues promptly and carefully.
•Cleaning hard surfaces (e.g. door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product.

What should I do if I develop flu like symptoms?
You should stay at (or go) home and contact your Doctor or the health authorities and follow their advice. Your return to work should be on a date to be agreed with your Doctor.

What should I do if my family develops flu like symptoms?
Maintenance of good basic hygiene remains paramount. If you do not have flu like symptoms you may continue to come to work. However, you must consult your Doctor if these symptoms change and follow the advice given.

Will the controls on business travel be relaxed?
It continues to be good practice for only essential business travel to take place. This should be approved by your member of the Executive Committee.