What good is Caller ID?

In a recent TWIT episode, Kevin Mitnick described a new service called SpoofCard that gives you some interesting new abilities when you make phone calls, all by using a special kind of calling card:

How can I change my voice?

SpoofCard offers the ability to select a Male or Female voice when making a call. The feature works in real-time and allows the caller to speak in a normal tone while the person on the other end will hear the changed voice.

What are the advantages of Caller ID spoofing?

Caller ID spoofing gives business professionals the ability to manipulate their identity to their choosing and stay anonymous. Caller ID spoofing is also valuable in defeating popular telephone services such as “*57 Call Trace”, “*69 Last Call Return”, “Anonymous Call Rejection” and “Detailed Billing”. Private Investigators will find Caller ID spoofing valuable for pretext calls.

Now, we can all be one of the Jerky Boys!

Ghost in the machine

When you stare at data long enough, patterns emerge.

(click for full)

Yeah, I need to get out more. But the glowing box of light resists my feeble efforts.

Math fun

The Hairy Ball Theorem!

(insert Beavis and Butthead laughter here)

Foodthulhu

A great idea from Jon: H.P. Lovecraft meets bizarre vintage food adverts:

It was very peculiar, but as the little boy uttered his petition there seemed to form overhead the shadowy, nebulous figures of exotic things; of hybrid creatures, crowned with horn-flanked disks.

Those who described these strange shapes felt quite sure that they were not human, despite some superficial resemblences in size and general outline.

The odor of the fish was maddening; but I was too much concerned with graver things to mind so slight an evil, and set out boldly for an unknown goal.

(thanks to boingboing and accordionguy for mashup fodder)

Try the veal

(15:03:11) Frank: Did you hear about the penguin in a santa suit who went to the psychiatrist?
(15:03:21) Frank: diagnosis: bipolar!
(15:03:34) Frank: tip your waitresses…
(15:03:48) Frank: I’ll be here all week…
(15:03:52) David: <insert cricket chirps here>

Ultimately, EVERYBODY just wants to makes music.

Remember 80s movie staple Rick Moranis?

You loved him in Ghostbusters. And Little Shop of Horrors. And the Honey, I Shrunk the Everything series of flicks. Well fast-forward a bit from the 80s (a VERY long bit, come to think of it) and you’ll find that he’s released a country music album, of all things, named “Agoraphobic Cowboy”.

(his site | his explanation | amazon reviews)

Dumbest moments in business

(via Business 2.0):

Winner, Dumbest Moment, Outsourcing
Told you we shouldn’t have rented that list from the Department of Homeland Security.

Blaming a mailing-list vendor for providing bad information, JPMorgan Chase apologizes for sending a form letter about its credit card services to an Arab American man in California addressed to “Palestinian Bomber.”


Another good one:

Winner, Dumbest Moment, Public Relations
Men, on the other hand, have a charming self-destructive quality.

Speaking at an ad industry event in Toronto, WPP Group’s worldwide creative director, Neil French, says there aren’t more female creative directors “because they’re crap” and they eventually “wimp out” and “go off and suckle something.” French speaks from a stage decorated as a hunting lodge while being served drinks by a woman in a skimpy maid’s outfit, of whom he asks, “Could you lean over a bit more?” Two weeks later WPP accepts French’s resignation.

The ghosts of BASIC past

Click the button for resurrected geekery.

Update:

From Jerry:
“What goose did:

Once upon a time, there was a great sinus who lived in a large goose in the clouds.

I’d really like to hear the rest of that story.”

Pluto brings out silliness


The New Horizons mission finally launched, after many false starts and delays. And it brought out not only the great feeling of human achievement, but more importantly some goofiness in our instant messaging chatter:

(12:52:26) Chris: aw snap! they are delaying for clouds
(12:52:39) Chris: it’s a freaking rocket guys
(12:52:47) Chris: clouds are not a problem
(12:53:39) David: dammit
(12:53:49) David: oh no, we might hit an endangered bird species up there or something
(12:53:56) Chris: why does god hate pluto
(12:54:11) Chris: oh yeah…the whole “underworld” thing
(12:56:58) David: LOL

(Chris getting excited as we hear that the launch is actually happening for real this time:)

(13:53:25) Chris: ooh, they might be good to go at 2 PM
(13:53:30) Chris: GO! GO!
(13:53:56) Chris: GO on weather
(13:55:38) Chris: light that freakin candle
(13:56:14) Chris: man, i should have seen if i could have gone over to mission ops
(13:57:44) Chris: look out for teh birdz!!!!!11
(14:00:40) Chris: OH YEAH!
(14:03:37) Chris: sweeet

(the day after, i saw an article about
the spacecraft’s cargo containing the ashes of Pluto’s discoverer Clyde Tombaugh):

(11:17:22) David: i had no idea
(11:18:27) Jon: neither did I
(11:18:42) David: the plutonium is going to bring that dude back to life
(11:18:56) Jon: …as the Incredible Hulk
(11:19:05) David: HULK SMASH CHARON!!!!

Haven’t you wanted to do this?

(via PostSecret)