So, first off, I have to give all the credit to this idea to Saire, who some of you may have read at Step Away From The Console.....
I got a phone call yesterday (on my fancy new Galaxy) from 02 8986 3000 and when i answered it the call immediately disconnected.
(Don't stress about me publishing the number - there is a reason!)
I don't really know anyone in Sydney but I do know people in Brisbane and, having lived there for a decade or more, I'm really feeling it when i watch the flood disaster unfolding on TV. Given the parlous communication systems in Brisbane at the moment I considered there was a *small* chance the call may have been legitimate, possibly soomeone from Sydney calling about a mutual contact in Brisbane.
I am, however, reluctant to call odd numbers without doing some research so I went straight to uncle Google.
I typed the number, including the area code in brackets into Google in inverted commas and clicked on 'Pages from Australia'
[If you don't know - Inverted commas (or "quotations" like that) limit Google to searching for exactly what you have typed and nothing else. It's a very useful tip, especially for things like phone numbers and names.]
I expected to find nothing or possibly the phone number listed as a number of some random Sydney business.
Instead I came across rage and bewilderment: http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=02+89863000&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=
It appears this number is used by someone, probably a phone company call centre and if you call back you will get a variety of responses ranging from being immediately put on hold, getting a recorded message claiming "No agents can take your call" or an engaged signal.
I mentioned this call to Saire and she said "Oh, I've had one of those random numbers bothering me. I simply listed the contact in my phone as "Evil phone company" and every time they call I know not to bother answering it." (I may have misquoted a little. Please excuse me if I did, Saire.)
What a brilliant idea!
I listed the number in my phone contacts as the deliberately mis-spelt "Evil Vodaphone" (which plenty of people seem to agree with anyway) and thought nothing more of it.
Just five minutes ago I heard my mobile ringing and, as no-one I know rings my mobile when I'm at work, grabbed the phone as fast as I could.
"Evil Vodaphone" said my phone. Chuckling, I refused the call and went back to work. But the whole thing stuck in my head....
What an interesting use of technology. Using search engine to check unknown phone number, discovering plenty of websites that exist solely to help you figure out mysterious phone numbers and defining that kind of number in your phone so it becomes no more annoying than some random fly, bugging you for as long as it takes to swipe it away.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Quite Nice?
Anyone who has read my blogs may know that I wasn't much of a fan of Delicious and, I'm guessing, everyone now knows that Delicious is done, or will be soon.
Just today I realised that a service I use regularly does have one aspect that sort of mirrors one of Delicious' primary functions.
Bit.Ly (http://bit.ly/) is a free on-line service that allows to to shrink those ridiculously long URL's that you often find down into something short enough to allow you to post links in Twitter or emails, without negatively impacting your word-count.
To use it all you have to do is Copy the URL of the site you are interested in and Paste it into the box on Bit.Ly. Instantly, without any other input, it is converted into a much shorter URL. Simply Copy that URL and Paste it into your Twitter post or email.
Earlier today somebody mentioned a site I had emailed someone else and asked if I had kept the link. I started to tell them that I had not kept when I suddenly realised that I had, without any plan or effort on my part.
Bit.Ly keeps a record of every long URL you shrink! It keeps records of links and Tweets about the URL as well, and a lot more information I haven't explored.
Now this is not the reason that I signed up to Bit.Ly but it is certainly the kind of value-adding that makes any web service more useful, especially on a free service.
It may not be Delicious but, in terms of tracking websites I found interesting enough to share with others, it does a good enough job for me.
Just today I realised that a service I use regularly does have one aspect that sort of mirrors one of Delicious' primary functions.
Bit.Ly (http://bit.ly/) is a free on-line service that allows to to shrink those ridiculously long URL's that you often find down into something short enough to allow you to post links in Twitter or emails, without negatively impacting your word-count.
To use it all you have to do is Copy the URL of the site you are interested in and Paste it into the box on Bit.Ly. Instantly, without any other input, it is converted into a much shorter URL. Simply Copy that URL and Paste it into your Twitter post or email.
Earlier today somebody mentioned a site I had emailed someone else and asked if I had kept the link. I started to tell them that I had not kept when I suddenly realised that I had, without any plan or effort on my part.
Bit.Ly keeps a record of every long URL you shrink! It keeps records of links and Tweets about the URL as well, and a lot more information I haven't explored.
Now this is not the reason that I signed up to Bit.Ly but it is certainly the kind of value-adding that makes any web service more useful, especially on a free service.
It may not be Delicious but, in terms of tracking websites I found interesting enough to share with others, it does a good enough job for me.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
The demise of two media formats...
...well, that may be a little misleading. But only a little.
In a recent post I talked about using USB drives as my storage media of choice and I considered ideas about storage media. I was recently reminded of this when I saw the sad news that Kodachrome was dead: http://bit.ly/flvukK
I used this film, back in the day, as did millions of others around the world. I even developed a couple of rolls (with help) in the darkroom at high school. I used to love film photography and i loved the different formats of film; 35mm was king but I loved the neatness of 126 and the compactness of 110. I even have a 'collectable' 110 camera rattling around in one of my drawers at home. Sure, the resolution of those compact formats wasn't great but I didn't care; to me it was all about the art.
(If you ask nicely, one day I'll tell you how I got my first camera - it's the perfect origin story for a famous photographer; I simply failed to take advantage of the 'narrativium' surrounding me and did not become a famous photographer.)
As soon as digital camera's passed the resolutions available to ordinary click-and-shoot, paper copy cameras (yes, I'm ignoring slide photography) I was interested but it wasn't until assorted flash memory storage options (like Memory Sticks, XD and SD cards) became mainstream that it became a truly viable option. There were some fascinating alternatives along the way. Do you remember the Kodak Disc camera? (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc%20film if you don't.) But, eventually, digital cameras became relatively cheap and people started using their PC's as a method of storing, organising and editing their happy snaps. Right along with that was the idea of storing photos on CD's.
Which brings me to this point...would you believe CD-ROM's have now been around for 25 years! I was astonished to realise this; I have mates who aren't that old!
Can you remember when your library first introduced CD-ROMS? No, you don't have to have been working there! It might have happened when you were still bemoaning your local library's lack of YA material. Heck, you might have been listening to your parent marvelling about the new technology!
Anyway, here is a pretty thought-provoking little piece about the history of CD-ROM's in library environments: http://www.librarytechnology.org/blog.pl?ThreadID=182&BlogID=1
I love the cover of CD-ROM world from 1994!
How many of us still have CD-ROM's? It's worth wondering just how much longer PC DVD drives will incorporate CD format support. Will Blu-Ray drives always remain backwards-compatible with CD's? No technological format last's forever, nor will readers of those formats always be available. Laser Discs are gone, microfiche readers are virtually impossible to find and now even the most venerable film format has expired.
For long-term, device-independent, data storage it's still pretty hard to beat printed paper.
In a recent post I talked about using USB drives as my storage media of choice and I considered ideas about storage media. I was recently reminded of this when I saw the sad news that Kodachrome was dead: http://bit.ly/flvukK
I used this film, back in the day, as did millions of others around the world. I even developed a couple of rolls (with help) in the darkroom at high school. I used to love film photography and i loved the different formats of film; 35mm was king but I loved the neatness of 126 and the compactness of 110. I even have a 'collectable' 110 camera rattling around in one of my drawers at home. Sure, the resolution of those compact formats wasn't great but I didn't care; to me it was all about the art.
(If you ask nicely, one day I'll tell you how I got my first camera - it's the perfect origin story for a famous photographer; I simply failed to take advantage of the 'narrativium' surrounding me and did not become a famous photographer.)
As soon as digital camera's passed the resolutions available to ordinary click-and-shoot, paper copy cameras (yes, I'm ignoring slide photography) I was interested but it wasn't until assorted flash memory storage options (like Memory Sticks, XD and SD cards) became mainstream that it became a truly viable option. There were some fascinating alternatives along the way. Do you remember the Kodak Disc camera? (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc%20film if you don't.) But, eventually, digital cameras became relatively cheap and people started using their PC's as a method of storing, organising and editing their happy snaps. Right along with that was the idea of storing photos on CD's.
Which brings me to this point...would you believe CD-ROM's have now been around for 25 years! I was astonished to realise this; I have mates who aren't that old!
Can you remember when your library first introduced CD-ROMS? No, you don't have to have been working there! It might have happened when you were still bemoaning your local library's lack of YA material. Heck, you might have been listening to your parent marvelling about the new technology!
Anyway, here is a pretty thought-provoking little piece about the history of CD-ROM's in library environments: http://www.librarytechnology.org/blog.pl?ThreadID=182&BlogID=1
I love the cover of CD-ROM world from 1994!
How many of us still have CD-ROM's? It's worth wondering just how much longer PC DVD drives will incorporate CD format support. Will Blu-Ray drives always remain backwards-compatible with CD's? No technological format last's forever, nor will readers of those formats always be available. Laser Discs are gone, microfiche readers are virtually impossible to find and now even the most venerable film format has expired.
For long-term, device-independent, data storage it's still pretty hard to beat printed paper.
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