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How Do I …reach a real person when I need tech support?
It’s a challenge to find a real person when you need tech support quickly. We recommend G ethuman.com as the best online site for finding useful and real numbers when you need a live person to talk to.
It’s not a perfect resource. On the one hand it dishes out extremely detailed numbers – it lists AOL Chairman Steve Case’s work number. On the other hand, the site blog shows hundreds of users can’t find assorted numbers for numerous large corporations. Bottom line: No other site has more inside numbers than Gethuman.
.TXT Video Challenge No. 23 – This week the contest has an election theme. Dennis Coats, a good old boy from Sandpoint, has a fun video called “Election Year.” Find it at http://bit.ly/ 4wS5SK.
The video starts and ends with shots featuring the Stars and Stripes. How many times during the entire video is the flag represented? Winner is the first person to e-mail the correct answer to TXT@ spokesman.com. That person wins a $5 coffee card. Past winners are not eligible.
Jargon 2.0: Backscatter (n.)
Backscatter is the devious use of a false “bounced” e-mail to deliver spam to recipients.
It works this way. A spammer creates a forged “from” address, say, Don@diddy.com. The message, which contains spam, is sent to dozens and dozens of addresses at actual e-mail domains, such as Yahoo.com or MSN.com.
The mail server at Yahoo or MSN will “bounce” those messages if there is no valid recipient, and send them back to the “sender,” Don@diddy.com. Even though Don wasn’t the real sender, the false header means Don will find the bounced messages in his inbox, with an “undeliverable” subject line. He’ll open one, thinking he sent it. In fact, it’s just a spam message. In some nasty cases, it might even be a virus.
The list –Top five searches on Yahoo as of July 21, covering previous 48 hours: Patrick Swayze, Danica Patrick, Estelle Getty, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale.
Tech tidbit –The first Web site to offer advertising was Global Network Navigator based in San Francisco. The site gnn.com was launched in August 1993. The site has been archived and can be visited, just as though you’re still in 1993. Check it out at http://bit.ly/ xW5Kf.