Took some time this week to investigate some Google Voice features on my Gmail account ..

This from my G+ post: "testing out google voice options. there is currently some goofy restriction on only activating 'US based' numbers. why? meanwhile, my google voice account uses a MT (406) area code and forwards to my google chat, or to my burner US (406) cell phone, or to my magicjack UT (801) number .. which forwards to my AB (403) home phone .. which can simul-ring to any of my other phones as needed. also places a call-me widget on my ssdirect.com site. I wonder if it is working .."

Meanwhile, it is working a bit .. kind of. This post documents a bit of what it took.

The promotional About Us video from the link above is slickified but gives you a taste of what our in store shopping experience was like. Fun, loud, busy, kind of magical. Put me in mind of scenes of the Gringotts Wizarding Bank from the Harry Potter movies ... maybe we should have had Hagrid as a tour guide.

p.s. As a Jewish establishment, they are closed on Saturdays, but you can always shop the website 24/7/365 ..

Funny ad .. but how true can any ‘attack style’ advertising be? They are over-exaggerating the Googdangers to try to change the transfer of your dollars from someone else’s pockets back into their own. Has Microsoft ever killed a feature, moved a menu around, changed the way things used to work (ahem .. vista, word ribbon ..)? Can I get an ‘upgrade’ from the audience? Has a cool product ever just been scrapped? What ever happened to Bob? He seemed nice. Ever make a program obsolete? Try to make everyone ‘upgrade’ simply because they want you to try out a new operating system.They seem to be stuck on ‘how can so much of it be free’ – as in no charge, without exchange of dollars, open. The concept is simple. Remember broadcast TV? You know, the old kind before cable and satellite and internet. They paid for the service by selling advertising! We got to watch shows without cost over the air by permitting ourselves to become their product rather than their customer. Of course, in order to keep ‘us’ as products, they had to provide fabulous (enough) content so that we would keep watching. Ever hear of Nielsen ratings? It is in Google’s best interest to keep providing excellent (enough) products so that we continue to function as their products for their paying advertisers as we consume their Googcontent and use their ‘free’ Googservices.

Family Movie Time?

Check out kids-in-mind.com (http://www.kids-in-mind.com). It provides parents and other adults with objective and complete information about a film's content so that they can decide, based on their own value system, whether they should watch a movie with or without their kids. It's like a food labeling system which tells you what a food item contains. It is a reliable, content-based alternative to the confusing MPAA (US) movie ratings.

You may also find http://parentpreviews.com/in-theaters of use. Family Movie Reviews, Movie Ratings & More .. links to Expert Studies, Articles and Reviewer Blogs. Only rates movies less than R ratings.

Had a trojan calling itself AVG 2011 installed on one work computer yesterday by an inadvertent click of a popup by a co-worker. Because we also use real AVG on these systems it was easy for the user to click and install the trojan .. oh, the social engineering. It also installed and called itself AVG 2011, further disguising itself to the casual system user. It was quickly isolated and removed by uninstalling the new AVG 2011 program and cleaning using MBAM from safe mode.

Interestingly, that same day had another case popup from a client with a laptop. This one called itself 'System Tools' and had to be removed in much the same way.

Users always ask why their existing antivirus programs did not protect them from their foolish clicking. The answer? I suppose that todays antivirus programs are only and can only be designed to protect you from known threats. They are no good at brand new ones, which is why they are always trying to update themselves online.

Be safe out there!

Had an interesting case - a computer running VISTA and an obsolete version of AVG (version 8.5 trial) was brought in with the Think Point malware program installed. It would start up in either regular or 'safe' mode and pretend to work away - listing fake infections you are supposed to have .. and eventually finishing and then asking you to purchase their program to fix all those problems. DON'T.

"Think Point Antivirus is not a legitimate and Real Antispyware Program but itself a spyware, more precisely a new kind of rogue antispyware program from the same family of System Armor. The only difference being the core files are modified a little bit and the name is changed to hide it's detection by legitimate Antivirus programs installed on your PC."

Telus Internet went down at 10am Wed 10 Nov 2010 until after 2pm. Not a big deal for a home user, but killer for a business that relies on the internet for the interac machine and for processing transactions (eg in the Pharmacy). Can we expect a refund? Unlikely. [aside: we eventually switched to Shaw Internet  ..]

 12:17:17 :Welcome! Thank you for using TELUS Chat Support, please be advised that your chat session will be recorded to ensure a quality customer experience.
 12:17:17 :Roger: Initial Question/Comment: I have clients all over southern alberta calling to see when your internet service is likely to be fixed .. any news?
 12:17:22 :You are number (16) in queue. Estimated wait time is 0 hours 42 minutes 56 seconds

Hello from Twitter Land ..
You can follow me at twitter.com/ssdirect ..