This is hilarious….
Monthly Archives: March 2008
links for 2008-03-30
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Exactly the instructions I needed for setting up gmail on my n95. I’m really liking this blog, very useful!
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If you want to use Share on Ovi with your Nokia phone, you need to download this app.
N95 Report: Why I had to give up
NOTE: I posted the article below about 10 minutes too soon. After completing the Nokia firmware upgrade as instructed, using their software on a Windows laptop, my lovely N95 morphed into an expensive brick. It won’t start.
It’s surprising how upset I am about this. I’ve held off for years on getting a serious cell phone because I don’t really want or need a phone, I need a moblogging tool. I hate talking on the phone, it’s a low priority for me.
Last Sunday, when I decided to take the plunge and get the N95, I was so excited. And believe me, right now I really needed something positive to be excited about. I’ve been vastly overworked and very stressed.
I really WANT to be moblogging. I’m so ready for it. I’ve been wanting to do it for ages. But the tools weren’t where I needed them to be. They still aren’t. I can’t be bothered with carrying 3 or 4 different pieces of gear and lugging a laptop about. I was willing to pay top dollar for a serious integrated moblogging tool.
Yeah, I know the iPhone 3G *might* be coming out soon. But no word whether it would have a Bluetooth keyboard option, and I really really really really hate iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard.
And, yeah, I know the Nokia N96 *might* be coming out soon too — but after this experience I’d only want to go with a Nokia again if I could get it from a local retail store where I could exchange it fast if it bricks out again. Right now, their only store are in NYC and Chicago.
I’m not ashamed to tell you this experienced has reduced me to tears on this lovely spring day…
links for 2008-03-29
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I’ll have to check some of these out…
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Good advice, since I’m shopping for a headset right now.
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The headset I decided on to go with my new N95 phone. Several users wrote that if you get extra jabra ear gels, this fits a lot more securely. So I got them too. Should get it all Monday.
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My UK geek friend suggested this as a useful tool for the few times I have to deal with PC-only software, as is the case for firmware upgrades for the Nokia N95.
Sneaky Spammers and “Clickthrough Cloaking”
Judging from how this spam hack is exhibiting, the most likely explanation seems to be something Tom Vilot turned up with a bit of research. (Thanks, Tom!)
“Search spam is an attack on search engines’ ranking algorithms to promote spam links into top search ranking that they do not deserve. Cloaking is a well-known search spam technique in which spammers serve one page to search-engine crawlers to optimize ranking, but serve a different page to browser users to maximize potential profit. In this experience report, we investigate a different and relatively new type of cloaking, called Click-Through Cloaking, in which spammers serve non-spam content to browsers who visit the URL directly without clicking through search results, in an attempt to evade spam detection by human spam investigators and anti-spam scanners.”
…Coincidentally, I just updated all my WordPress plugins yesterday. Also, Google just re-indexed me a few hours ago. The spam is no longer showing up for my site in Google’s results, which indicates that by updating my plugins I may have closed this vulnerability, for now. We’ll see.
Dammit, this blog has been hacked again!
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| MSNlive |
| Despite what MSN’s search engine thinks, I am NOT hawking drugs on this site… |
(UPDATE: Since initially posting this, I’ve learned a bit more. The plot thickens…)
My friend the SEO maven Brett Borders just alerted me to some disturbing news. Apparently, Microsoft’s search engine thinks this blog, which I’ve run since 1998, is drug spam.
Brett got tipped to this by a Mar. 25 Search Engine Journal story, Hackers Forcing Sites to Cloak Search Engines with Link Spam. The screen grab illustrating that story showed Contentious.com near the top of a list results from a “linkfromdomain search on MSN so I can prove that, indeed, there are over 2,000 links FROM Twitter pointing TO pages about Viagra.” I just repeated that search, and sure enough my domain is on that list — showing spam content that somehow has been hacked into my site.
I also just searched Google for references to Viagra from my domain, and saw that Google is caching that same spam content for my home page as well.
As far as I can tell, this spam content has been inserted my home page as well as at least three recent posts. Obviously, this WordPress blog has been hacked again. Like I didn’t have enough troubles with this last fall.
This is annoying, and could be potentially damaging to me. I’m on a deadline and don’t have time to delve into why this is happening, but would appreciate tips for Contentious readers about why this might be happening and what, if anything, I can do to stop it. I’m getting really tired of this, and hate that I only find out about it via third parties.
Got any suggestions before I can dive into this myself? Please comment below.
Thanks!
links for 2008-03-25
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What are Unlocked Cell Phones?
Good tutorial. “Carriers operating on the GSM network use SIM cards. In the United Sates, this includes Cingular Wireless, now one with AT&T Wireless, and T-Mobile. “
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Pick the Perfect Smartphone – Nokia N95 (U.S.) – Reviews by PC Magazine
PC magazine’s review of the Nokia N95-3
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Pick the Perfect Smartphone – Nokia N95 (U.S.) – Reviews by PC Magazine
And here’s the full review from PC magazine of my new cell phone/moblogging tool.
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The AT&T 3G network uses HSDPA/UMTS technology | Wireless from AT&T, formerly Cingular
AT&T’s explanation of what their 3G network service includes. This is cool: “Multi-task while you are on a call—search for movies times, look up directions, or send messages.”
I’m getting my Nokia N95, but not from Nokia
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| Nokia |
| The Nokia N95-3, which will be in my hands tomorrow, no thanks to NokiaUSA or LetsTalk.com. |
On Sunday, I finally took the plunge and ordered a serious moblogging tool: the Nokia N95-3, finally available in the US. (It’s been out in Europe for a couple of years.) It’s got everything I want: a good camera (still and video), pretty good audio recording quality, real gps, wifi, a decent web browser, an OS that allows third-party apps, works easily with a folding bluetooth keyboard — and it also happens to be a cell phone, too. (So I can finally ditch my landline, a needless expense these days.)
I ordered it directly from NokiaUSA.com, with 2-day shipping. Or so I thought. Actually, Nokia funnels its online US sales through a company called LetsTalk.com.
This morning — the day I was expecting to receive my N95 — I get an e-mail from LetsTalk.com saying that they need “more information” from me to complete this transaction. So I call them and give them my order number.
This is the really annoying part: LetsTalk.com did not need any more information from ME — they really needed to hear from my credit card company, American Express. Mind you, they already had my AmEx account information. But for some bizarre unknown reason they stalled this sizeable purchase by requiring ME to call THEM — for nothing at all!
Here’s how LetsTalk.com wanted to proceed: They said they would allegedly contact AmEx today to have AmEx call me to verify this transaction by phone. Then AmEx was supposed to call LetsTalk.com back with the OK. And then, finally, allegedly, LetTalk.com would ship this phone to me.
I had a better idea: I canceled that purchase and went to Amazon.com. There I found the exact same phone, keyboard, and carrying case. And I bought it from Amazon. I even splurged $15 for overnight shipping, so it’ll arrive tomorrow. (Well, the carrying case may take a day extra. Big deal.)
And here’s the beauty of it: NokiaUSA (via LetsTalk.com) was going to charge me about $860 total.
Grand total, with shipping, via Amazon: $675.47.
Yep, I saved about $185 by choosing better service. Suits me.
links for 2008-03-24
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I’m definitely going to be using VOIP on my new cell phone, so this is useful advice. “T-Mobile, is among the first companies to ban the use of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol, or Internet-based telephone service) over its networks.”
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If you use a cell phone, it helps to really understand what GSM is. This is a good backgrounder
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This is very intriguing — how captchas are being used to do uselful work besides determining that I’m human. Good reminder that billions of years of evolution still trumps technology. For now.
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“Because you chose to follow to a particular entity (person or service) then the context is already given. So witty headlines will work. Not only will they work, they will be appreciated as the short verse poetry they could be.”
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“The problem, for some in the industry, is that when someone enters a term into that secondary search box, Google displays ads for competing sites, thereby profiting from ads it sells against brand. The feature also keeps users searching on Google pages.”
links for 2008-03-23
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“The first 15 hours I owned the iPhone I could not get Wifi working. I figured a few things out on my own, and also got some great advice from others. I am compiling those here for others who might have trouble with their home WIFI.”
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One of the reasons I’ve been holding off on an iPhone is I don’t like the touchscreen keyboard. I want a good moblogging and e-mail device, and so far this ain’t it. Doesn’t sound promising yet.
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I like this! “Turn it inside-out. Why should we be asking for information about and from our govt? The government should have to ask to keep things from us. Government information — every act of government on our behalf — should be free by default.”
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“1st fundamental change fr the mojo phone: It’s small, unobtrusive, unthreatening. You don’t feel like you’re talking to a camera &, in turn, to thousands or millions online. It makes recording people more casual, perhaps candid, certainly easier.”
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Regardless of which moblogging tool I get, I will check out this service.
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Om Malik’s review of the US edition of the Nokia N95
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Oh, this is sweet….
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This might be the one I want….
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YES! YES! YES! “Great websites are not redesigned. They are continuously improved. The website that gets some new budget every couple of years for a redesign is the website that is being managed like a brochure. In other words, it’s not being managed.”