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Tuesday, March 27, 2007
A new - and dangerous - Web site
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Plenty of Web sites are annoying, some are dangereous. There’s a new one that has the potential to create all sorts of problems, including in your own home.
My guess? You’ll be reading about it soon when it’s shut down.
Here’s why it has the potential to create massive problems.
The Web site lets you enter a phone number and it’ll then automatically call that number. Imagine how that will take crank calls to the next level. Ex-boyfriends, fired employees and the masses of disgruntled humans in this world will love it.
You can read about the site here..
You’ll notice that there’s no address for the crank calling site - either in the posting that is linked above or in this post. No way. I even worry that I’m doing the wrong thing mentioning this at all but - as a colleague noted a few minutes ago - you’ll be reading about this site soon when it’s closed down. So I don’t feel right ignoring it.
I did log on the crank site and tried it out. It’s a shame but it works perfectly.
Will you find it with a Google search? Maybe, but - thankfully - it takes some real searching.
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A cellular disaster
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m not a fan of cellular phones. Like most everyone else, I own one. And the junk drawer at home is full of discarded models. My wife is a real estate agent and she spends so much time using one that I worry that her ears will get flattened out. For her, maybe for you, they are a necessary evil.
I remember - working at newspapers - using the earliest models. They reminded me of the radios we carried around in the Army. I’d pack a big satchel with a whip antenna all attached to a regular telephone handset. I’m operating by memory here but - because of the big battery required - I think those things weighed about five pounds.
Today’s cells are tiny, of course, but even more aggravating. At work, it’s not uncommon to be in the elevator while two different people hold personal conversations via cellphone. You have to wonder what’s so important that it can’t wait 2 minutes until they reach a regular phone in the newsroom.
I’m glad to see that I’m not alone. John Dvorak, a technology writer who has been a favorite of mine for many years, has a long rant about cellphone here.
Look, I know they’re not going away. But maybe because mine is ringing right now - and it’s not daylight yet - Dvorak’s column touched a sore spot.
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