Archive for 16 January 2007
Nokia PC Suite Can Sync With Windows Vista!
16 January 2007 in Phones & Pocket PC | Comments (1)
The latest Nokia PC Suite version seems nicely compatible with Windows Vista. The surprise to me was to see it supporting Windows Vista’s Contacts synchronization already with calendar syncing maybe coming soon. 
Now, will my Pocket PC ever sync again? I’ll have to see, but I’m not expecting a miracle since the Fujistu Siemens Pocket Loox 720 didn’t work in the RC1 and RC2 betas of Windows Vista.
SMS Spam Is The Worst Spam
16 January 2007 in Root | Comments (1)
There is nothing more irritating that seeing this arrive in your textmessage inbox:
And opening the message you see this (notice that “soittoaani” should be spelled “soittoääni”:
What it is, is not an offer of gratitude from your mobile phone operator, but plain and simple spam to get you hooked on ordering their services. But, the fun part is that the user agreement (or TOS, EULA, I don’t know the exact word to use here) tells you that you are signing up to their service and paying 2€ for the luxury of free tones per month, or at least so according to F-Secure’s weblog. 
Where is the sender from? No-one seems to know for sure, but the domain vkap.net is registered in Germany, so probably from there. (Jamba, aka. Jamster is also from the same country, but there is no evident connection between vkap and them)
What can you do to stop the spam? Whatever you do, do NOT connect to the site or type it in your browser! Contact your operator immidiately when you get this piece of sh… uhum, spam and tell them what you generally think of spam. (Don’t be too harsh, or “direct”, with the helpdesk personel, though; they are humans too.) Hopefully we can all erase this before it grows too big.
January, The Start Of Hurricane Season In Sweden (?)
16 January 2007 in Root | Comments (0)
Sweden seems to have gotten their own hurricane season that seems to last for the month of January every second year.
In 2005 southern Sweden was hit with a amazingly powerful low pressure which generated hurricane force winds. Called “Gudrun” it oblitirated woods and power-lines leaving many without power, accessible roads and telephones.
Fast forward to today (or last weekend to be exact) and yet another storm — called “Per” — with hurricane force winds hits the same southern Sweden. This wasn’t as powerful storm as Gudrun, and most people are having a sense of déjà vu (not like in the movie with the same name, though). Power, phones, roads are down, but this time it seems to be easier to get things up and a-running than when the last hurricane came for a visit.
There’s one thing that’s interesting here and that is the way the Swedes are coordinating the rebuilding as soon as the storm has moved on where as the US government hasn’t done much for the New Orleans post-Katrina, even today. Sure, it isn’t the same case here (country size, GNP differences and such) but it is the thought-to-action-time that counts the points in my book.
I’m only hoping the swedish power companies would try to coordinate some power line buryings to prevent the trees from cutting off power when it blows a little. That would minimize the damage a little the next time they’re having a hurricane season.