Friday, August 17, 2007

Is Visalus a scam?

While the product they market seems to have some legitimate use, even though not FDA approved, I am rather bothered by the fact that it's a MLM enterprise.
What do you think?

Sunday, August 05, 2007

PDF Attachement Spam



During the last few days I have received a couple of the online-pharmacy spam e-mailsinto my g-mail account. Thesee-mails were not filtered out by GMail's spam detecting bots. Essentially, these e-mails were without any inline text, but with a PDF file attached.
My conclusion: Gmail anti spam algorithms aren't aware of PDF files content.


Edit: Adobe has commented on the possibility of PDF spam filter implementation. Read about it on CNET.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Sprint PCS Termination Fee

Sprint PCS Will Not Produce Any Evidence of Contract, Charges Early Termination Fee

So, I got myself an iPhone. Really nice little gadget, plus the reception I get on the AT&T network is so much better everywhere I normally use my cellphone: home, at work, etc. etc. This post is however is not about the iPhone.

Unlike some people I had no problem activating my new iPhone, it worked smoothly and my number of 6 years transferred flawlessly from Sprint PCS network to AT&T network. Here I were, happily enjoying my newly found connectivity until I received a final bill from Sprint PCS with a promise to charge my checking account to the amount of 150 American dollars as an early termination fee.

I have had my phone with Sprint for over two years, and I do not recall changing my plan but I might have done so.
I decided to call them and after a 15 minutes wait I was talking to a guy who told me that supposedly I have changed my plan with them in the December of 2006 and it was then that I have signed a new two year contract agreement with them.
I replied that I do not recall any such thing and that I were not able to access my account info or any of the previous statements on the Sprint web site, and that I would like to have a copy of that contract agreement with my signature sent to me for my records.
The guy on the other end of the line answered that it is not possible, because the don't do that.
I was surprised and I asked him how can I believe that I have actually signed a contract, if they cannot provide me with a copy of one.


His reply was: but we sent you one in the billing statement you received after you have authorized the change.

me Then you would have no trouble sending it again?

him No, sir, no we cannot do that.

me Why?

him Because you changed your plan over the phone?

me Have I?

him Yes, I have a record of it here.

me But you just told me you sent me a copy of a contract with signature. How was it possible if it was a verbal agreement?

him I am sorry I made a mistake.

me So, you do not have any proof?

him You could go to a local Sprint PCS store, they will be able to make a print out for you.

me A print out of what?

him Of an agreement.

me I am not going anywhere, if they can give it to me, you can send it to me.

him No, I cannot do it, sir.


After that I just told him that I am not going to pay anything to them until they will be able to produce a hard copy proving that I have actually signed anything at all.
I am also going to send them a letter protesting a charge. I have already stopped all and any charges to my checking account from the Sprint PCS.

Disclaimer: the dialog posted is not an accurate transcript of the conversation. It is only to the best of my recollection. I am in no way affiliated with either AT&T nor Apple Inc.




Monday, July 23, 2007

iPhone syncing with iSync

I was curious if I could sync my iPhone with iSync. Yes it is possible. There is a trick to it. One must have the status of iSync shown in the status bar and initiate the sync by clicking the status icon and choosing Sync Now. It will sync everything except for music and other iTunes stuff. Interestingly it will not show syncing notification on the iPhone screen.
I came to realize that iSync is used for non iTunes related syncing when, while playing around with the settings if the utility I changed the Protect your Data on your Computer setting from default of 5 percent to any. After that every time I would Sync in iTunes and any info at all has been changed in the contacts, an alert window would pop up asking for a permission to update the contacts on my Mac. Before it would only pop up if the change was 5% or more.

Opps I am late. Apperently it has been already discovered: Link