Two big reasons not to use Gmail

I was absolutely shocked to learn this is how Gmail works.   If I read this correctly, #Google lets more than one person use a single email address (in this case, over 200!)? How daft! Why would they do that? pic.twitter.com/KtTO6PnDEI — Jack Yan 甄爵恩 (@jackyan) September 27, 2020 PS.: This was the image linked […]

Read More… from Two big reasons not to use Gmail



Catfished on Facebook? That’s OK, too, they’re there to provide the tools

I don’t particularly have it in for Google and Facebook. I’m only pointing out the obvious: if you say your policy is x, or your product is y, then don’t deliver us z. Put it into non-electronic terms: if you sell me a car and I put it into first gear, and it instead reverses, […]

Read More… from Catfished on Facebook? That’s OK, too, they’re there to provide the tools



Netflix spams, Amazon doesn’t care

It pays to have some ground rules when dealing with the internet. A very big one that I’m sure that you all observe is: don’t do business with spammers. If a Nigerian prince tells you he has $5 million for you, ignore him.    There are tainted email lists that have been going around for […]

Read More… from Netflix spams, Amazon doesn’t care



Verizon’s continued hypocrisy borne of pettiness

Remember Tumblr, the platform owned by Verizon that I left?    I left because of Verizon’s policies, of placing their corporate agenda ahead of the users.    I went to NewTumbl instead—a site that Tumblr users might not know about, since Verizon has ensured that searches for its competitor come up empty.    I was […]

Read More… from Verizon’s continued hypocrisy borne of pettiness



The porn blackmail scam—ignore it if you receive it

I’m not saying I can’t be conned—because by my own admission, I have been—but sometimes when you’re very sure of your position, scammers’ lies don’t work.    Here’s a fascinating one that came in today, a lot more aggressive than the usual request for helping someone move millions of dollars of bullion out of the […]

Read More… from The porn blackmail scam—ignore it if you receive it



I don’t do paid blog posts here (so don’t ask)

  I know we all get these emails from time to time, but they still annoy me.    If ‘Peter’ had visited this blog, he would know that every single post since 2006 has been my own, unpaid, unsponsored thoughts. Why would I change that now?    You may say it’s a fair question, and […]

Read More… from I don’t do paid blog posts here (so don’t ask)



Could the fight against phishing be shifted?

I wasn’t able to find anything about this online, and I wonder if anyone was already doing it. If not, maybe someone should.    Could the big players, e.g. Amazon and Apple, not provide the public with a fake email address and password (or a series of them) that we can feed in to phishing […]

Read More… from Could the fight against phishing be shifted?



Facebook’s still deleting drag accounts and keeping bots

Some interesting bugs out there on Facebook that my friends are telling me about. One has been removed from all her groups, including one that I run (we never touched her account), another cannot comment any more (an increasingly common bug now), while Felicity Frockaccino, well known on the drag scene locally and in Sydney, […]

Read More… from Facebook’s still deleting drag accounts and keeping bots



Why Facebook’s errors might be increasing

Now that I’ve figured out that Facebook only works on alternate days (or at least evenings, since it gave up the ghost again for the early afternoon), I’m back into my usual swing of things. It’s not so much that I spend that much time on social networks, but getting to the bottom of things […]

Read More… from Why Facebook’s errors might be increasing



Five or ten years, your Kiwi passport is not a valid government-issued ID, says Facebook

Sometimes you wonder if the big players on Silicon Valley exist in a parallel universe.    Google, of course, is a firm that makes little sense to me: one that usually says one thing and does another, in almost every encounter I have had with it. And you know they can’t be that smart if, […]

Read More… from Five or ten years, your Kiwi passport is not a valid government-issued ID, says Facebook