In case you’d forgotten, it’s April Fool’s Day. Which means lots of fake stories will be flying around the internet, Twitter and Facebook.
Including this one from Gmail: Gmail motion. Controlling your email with your body.
You know you want it.
Vodafone unveiled its new 360 service yesterday in Dublin, with the help of chief executive Charles Butterworth and Dita von Teese.
Personally, I was disappointed that DvT didn’t explain the finer points of the service. But moving along.
Weirdest email of the day: from MyHome.ie just after lunch today with the subject line “Record Number of Homes Repossessed: Could you be next?”
Half an hour earlier and I would have been choking on my cheese sandwich. Maybe they knew something I didn’t.
Anyway, slightly odd for a company that are trying to sell you property to warn you of potential repossessions.
According to a new lifestyle survey by O2, more bosses of small and medium firms are taking work home as a result of the downturn, with some working weekends and others being contacted regularly while on holidays. Newsflash: it’s not just the bosses. (more…)
Nothing gets past the scam artists. Oh no. No opportunity too small, no crisis too big to exploit. It was only a matter of time before swine flu made its way into the spammers’ repertoire of scams to pull on unsuspecting punters.
Spammers have a bad reputation. In most cases, deservedly so.
I knew spam was a problem – my own spam filter currently has 1,824 messages languishing in it – but I didn’t think that things had got this bad. Not only do they clog up your inbox, but spammers can now be blamed for killing the planet too.
(more…)
Mistakes happen. Every now and again we all get our email addresses wrong. But a polite request to the person who keeps giving out my gmail address as theirs: please stop.
In the past few months I have had family emails, friends updating me about hen parties I’m not actually going to and, once, some blood test results from a Dublin clinic. That one I replied to. The rest I’ve started blacklisting as spam.
Here’s the thing. If I wanted to sign up to newsletters from Aldi and Lidl, I would. And I don’t want notifications from online clinics, or be registered with HP for a printer I never bought. It might also explain the massive jump in spam in my account in the past few months.
So please. STOP. Thanks.
Another week, another survey on how the internet is wasting time for Irish employers. This one, by Peninsula Ireland, says Irish employees are wasting two hours and 20 minutes a day on personal internet use [Irish Times].
Now, does anyone else suspect some fudging of the truth was going on here?
(more…)
I love the different web clips that Google sticks into my Gmail account. Every so often there’s something interesting. Sometimes they are just bizarre. Like today’s “gem”.
“Inbox [2] Unread – www.secretlovemsg.com – There are secret messages waiting for you. Read them here €10/wk”
Oh look, internet strangers are sending me secret messages. I’ll just hand over €10 a week (a WEEK!!!) to read them.
Recession, anyone?
I think I may have a problem. In the space of the past half hour I’ve caught myself checking my email three times (once every ten minutes, maths fans).
Not so unusual during working hours, but the problems here are:
1. I’m not working
2. It’s saturday, so I should be doing something else, like having a life.
3. The only new emails I’ve got all day are spam or facebook notifications.
4. Even if I had an email that needed my attention, it can probably wait til Monday.
(make that four times. I had a sneaky check halfway through writing this.)
One of these days I’m going to do a small experiment and dump my mobile, laptop and any other internet connected device I own for a day. Twenty-four little hours. See how I survive the withdrawal and let people laugh about the results.
Not today though. Maybe next week.
