Feeds, Feedback and Key Words

When I started my blog, I subscribed to FeedBurner A great tool to burn your feeds.
Recently they launched FeedFlare and that is a tool I really like.

FeedFlare allows publishers to easily build “interactivity” into the content they create, making it simple for subscribers to tag, email or share their content with others. Publishers can include a variety of services including a live display of the number of comments to each post, the ability to email the author directly and show the number of blogs that link to their item. Publishers can choose to include FeedFlare within the feed itself as well as on their blog or site.

With great interest I daily view the stats, especially which search options did bring readers to my blog.
Already for some time, I see that “cheating husband PalTalk” is a very favourite subject.
Indeed I once wrote a story about tracking an unfaithful husband via PalTalk.
I clicked the links in the Feed stats and ended up with a list of articles about this phenomenon.

A spring-board to braking up relation ships often seems to be a Dating site.
For what ever reason (they differ enormously reading the stories) men in a relationship log on to Dating sites.
It starts with browsing. Next a brief profile, an old “shimmery” picture, maybe the 'little' lie of being single.
The excitement of being there and being admired by other women, is taking shape, temptation is hard to resist.

But………….. if other women can contact them, their own partners can do that too!
It is very tempting to log on to sites if a woman thinks her partner is (cyber)unfaithful. If the man is talking to a woman, how will he know it is not his own wife gathering evidence? Scary….

No doubt the other way round is happening as well but my stats don’t tell me because I never tried to trace a cheating woman.

Another returning popular post is the one about my cold. At first it puzzled me.
OK, I blogged about it but why on earth are people looking for posts about a cold? But when I looked at the keywords in the search options that lead to my post, some of them were “Avatar” and “Icon Profile”
Interesting…. I indeed wrote about an Avatar designed by my Moderator colleague Carola Clavo.

Listening to the stats, one should be able to write a blog post with only popular key words.
It wouldn’t need to make any sense at all but it would work perfectly to draw people to your blog.

What about:

My female cheating Avatar who never used PayPal to fool her sick husband who caught a cold, put her profile on a Dating Site.
While chatting on Skype, beta testing Joost and voting in Estonia, she replied to co-workers who use Bluetooth to connect to the Internet with a protected password. Running out of Skype credits she went for SkypePro to subscribe to the Agile course. The Mac and Windows notebook aside the Pocket PC, made much noise due to dusty ventilators which caused a high CPU. She downloaded Speedfan and viewed the total online users at Skype.

Complete rubbish but with a lot of popular key words!!

Next of kin? I received one again from Nigeria………

I know, I am definitely not the first one to blog about this super annoying way of fooling people.
But it happened again, I received another (probably no. 1005) e-mail from Nigeria:

“Compliment of the day.

I got your contact in course of my inquiry to locate relations of my
Deceasesd Client Mr Mercer Holliday,who died in a car crash on the 13th
February 2003.The reason for this is to inherit a Contracts Payment Deposits
Account of $6.5 million of which the Deceased left in a Finance Firm.

Consequently, having gone through to your profile on Internet, I want you to
please assist me to inherit the fund into your Account. This request emerged
last week when the Finance Firm contacted me for the attention of my
Deceases Client (perhaps for one reason or the other they have tried to
contact him and was unsuccessful).

However, thereupon I announced his death and protocols observed, I was
mandated (as the deceased's attorney)to provide the Next of Kin to inherit
the Deposits or they will freeze it as"Unclaimed Deposit".Unfortunately, and
unknown to the Finance Firm, the Next of Kin was among the dead in the car
crash.

But rather leaving the Deposits/Account frozen hence I seek your help to
claim the fund into your Account as you share same names with the Next of
Kin and I have the required Information to execute the transaction under
legal process.

Please contact me for further information and commencement of the
transaction,and I need your full mailing address,your direct telephone
number/Fax number,for this transaction to commence successfully.

Be informed that your compensation will be 40% of this fund,while 60% will
be my share.

Please it is only trust and honesty to ourself will make this claim to work
out accordingly,and success will be our achievement at the end of this
transaction.

Please get in touch with me by my email address :(XXXX@yahoo.com) For
the successful transaction,

Yours faithfully,
XXXXXX”

What really annoys me is that the senders consider us being complete idiots.
This so called “Nigerian Scam 419 Correspondence” is going on for years and years already.It has been on TV, there are pages and pages about this on the Internet, warnings all over. And they still keep sending them. To me that is an insult to our intelligence. Ok, this an “my glass is half empty” approach and that is not me. Let me put it this way: it is a compliment to the senders intelligence.

A few years ago I called the cell phone of the sender of such an e-mail, who desperately wanted to talk to me.
I was curious whether the number indeed existed.
A man with a Nigerian accent answered: “Hello!”
Me:"Ah, I am sorry, I am afraid I dialled the wrong number”
He: “No, no… you dialled the right number. You need to talk to me!” (probably a clairvoyant as well….)
Me: “No, sorry for disturbing you but I need to talk to Joe N.” (an acquaintance from Ireland with a lovely bold Irish accent…..)
He: “But dear, you are now talking to Joe N!”

Yes, and he was talking to a fool……

This is the less annoying part. The worst letter I ever received tried to let me believe it was composed by a Nigerian lady who’s husband died of Cancer. She found my name and e-mail address on a Cancer site and told me I would understand how hard the suffering of her husband was. Because of me being a successful Cancer survivor, she asked my cooperation to transport the millions of her husband to my account until she moved to another country, safe for the Government in Nigeria.

I am very, very seldom angry but this time I was very close to getting as angry as I have never been before.
Of course I was not the first and last Cancer survivor who received this letter, other must have received it too.
I manage, I know a sick mind wrote this disgusting letter but how many people will be touched and think they indeed can help out?

Never ever reply to these letters, they are called SCAM which is in my opinion a far too lovely word for it. I still need to invent a word that really expresses my true feelings.

Buy Skype Engineering Support

"Professional support now available"

announcement by Peeter P. Mõtsküla at Skype's blogs.

"We will guarantee next business day response and three business days resolution, or your request will be handled free of charge. You will also be able to place your premium support requests confidentially."

· Paid support issues are top priority: your issue will be resolved
before work is started on unpaid issues.
· It's pricey, € 300 per incident, half that if you pre-pay for ten.
· It's only through Skype's issue tracker system. No live support.
· And it's just for software developers.

Tags:
· Start your trouble ticket
· Peeter P. Mõtsküla's announcement
· Skype DevZone wiki entry
· STS - Skype Technical Services

Small Talk

It is finally Saturday, I know it was Saturday last week and the week before and…
But this time it felt like the week lasted a month instead of 7 days. Everyday I tried to squeeze 72 hours into 24.
(Skype-phone) meetings, the forum, Tracer, Opvion, Agile, Matter Solutions, my other clients, my own administration, applications due to my ad for co-workers, blogging and reading and of course the odd household job.

So today’s blog post is not about SkypePro, Public Beta, Skype and FCC, mobiles, Bluetooth etc. No, today is just Small Talk.

I am tired although I will continue working today. Still lots to do at the office and still lots to do to my new bedroom. I managed to paint the laths for the wooden wall and the doorpost so hope to finish that today.Yesterday evening after food shopping I also bought laths for the little window. With the weather being so nice and Spring-like, the mosquito’s are back. I am fortunate in a way that they don’t like my blood but gosh, I dislike their zooming so much.
You can’t really blame them, they have been zooming at the attic for 30 years and all of a sudden I “live” their. Still, I need to make a wire-blind to keep them out but the window frame needs to be done first. All little jobs but all together they can be time-consuming.

Waking up at the attic is one great pleasure. I have many trees at the back of my house and listening to the birds (and Ug who rejoined her friends) makes me feel rich. Closing my eyes I can even imagine being back in Sweden. Also the sound of the wind in the trees makes me happy. And all for free!
I still don’t have a curtain for this little window so I can watch the full moon passing by and not only through the window but also reflected in the mirror on the opposite wall.
The same for the sun during the mornings and it fills me with energy.

Tomorrow is my day off. My brother and his family are coming to spend the day with Mum and of course I will be there too. And I am much looking forward to it.
Mum’s heart is deteriorating which hurts watching her. It has to be her very strong spirit that keeps her going.
My respect for my mother is endless. She did not live an easy live with my father being ill for 24 years, the foster children and us but she loved being a wife, nurse, mother and friend. She lived tropical years so it is a miracle on its own that she is still around at the age of 79. Still smiling, still an open ear for all who love to talk to her, a shoulder to those who need a good cry.

Every day starts and ends with a cup of “Wiener Melange” at Mum’s and we talk about numerous subjects. Although nearly blind due to her diabetes she didn't loose interest in what is going. Mum listens to news from all over the world as to documentaries and discussion programs. She reads spoken books and a reader myself, we discuss those.
It will be so empty when she isn’t around anymore. We make the best of the time we spend together.

For now breakfast… yummy. Then a walk with the dog, a chat with Mum and back home…... back to where I started the Small Talk.

Enjoy your weekend, love and hug the people who are dear and close to you. Smile at the sun, dance in the rain, run through the snow. Where ever you are, have a great day.

Introducing the Book

For my generation it is not that long ago that the Computer got introduced and by now we are all used to it.
Even the much older generation can handle a PC to e-mail to children and grand children all over the world.

But did you ever think of learning how to read a book in medieval times??

View one of the funiest video's I have ever watched........



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Skype 3.1 Beta for Windows with SkypeFind and Typing Indicators

Finally Skype 3.1 Beta for Windows went public. It was a great joy to test it and I am sure it will be welcomed by all users because it finally has a Typing Indicator. And a nice one too!
Of course all parties need to be on 3.1 to see it and it is even more fun when you are in a groups chat with more people. I love the little pencil that is moving or erasing. Yes, it also shows when you erase your text.

Click the picture to view the animated version.


New is also “SkypeFind” where you can list your favourite shop, restaurant, club, bank or what ever business you like to share with others.
This is going to be a great database for not only your own area but also for when you travel around the world.
When you are e.g. hungry, log on to Skype, type the country you are in, type a keyword and see which restaurant is near and what the recommendations are.

All the new features in Beta 3.1 are nicely explained in Skype’s Blog. Enjoy but remember it is a public Beta version! Downlaod here.

SkypePro

Yesterday Skype launched SkypePro, something I have been looking forward to as the connection fee made Skype more expensive then ever before.

Skype Pro is indeed offering a lot of extra’s but I am still very disappointed.
Let me first list the extra’s :

* pay nothing per minute within the following countries:
US, UK, France, Hong Kong, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Estonia, Australia, Brazil and Japan.
* Includes €5 Skype Credit as a special introductory offer.
* €30 discount on SkypeIn numbers - people can call you at local rates.
* Free Voicemail
* Save €30 on a Philips VoIP 841 cordless phone.
* Save €10 on an SMC WiFi phone.
* Exclusive discounts on Unyte Desktop Sharing Extra.
* Two free animated avatars from CrazyTalk.
* Three free ringtones from Emotive.

Note:
* €11.50 where VAT applies.
* Connection fee and fair usage policies apply.

Unfortunately there are no Dutch SkypeIn numbers. Varras Consultancy has numbers in the UK and Sweden so will benefit (in a way) of the discount. But…….. this connection fee….. I have to admit it annoys me.

Let’s do some simple arithmetic’s:
876 connection fees is as much as € 30 which still leaves an additional € 20 for a one SkypeIn number (€ 50). It sounds like a lot of calls but it is only 2.4 call per day. Maybe the average user doesn’t make that "many" calls but others do.

Calls within the above mentioned countries are free of charge apart from the connection fees. But now a days there are very cheap mobile subscriptions and Skype clearly states it is not a replacement for your landline so as an alternative I have a mobile subscription of € 2.50 per month (including VAT) and 500 free calling minutes within Holland and to other subscribers of the same provider.

Needless to say I am not going to use SkypePro for national calls because with 6.25 connections, I already reached the mobile monthly subscription.

I do use Skype a lot for calls outside Holland and will continue doing that but will it be cheaper with Pro? No, the connection fee comes on top of the existing calling rate. Here we are back again with Free SkypeIn….
On top of all of this there is the monthly € 2 (€ 24 per year…) which will be deducted from my credits (with my permission because this is a free choice when you purchase Pro).

I signed up for Pro because I think it isn’t fair to complain without trying and I am told people with a bump of languages are horrible mathematical geniuses’ so please feel free to add your comment to convince me of the opposite: SkypePro makes calling cheaper….

SkypePro FAQ