First of all you should all have registered here: https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx at the National Do Not Call Registry.  So, avid readers, as you are all aware, I have been very much against the use of caller ID blocking be it for Telemarketing purposes or for any associated harassment that would result from the use of caller id blocking, especially frustrated with spoofing and VoIp anonymity.

This week the House of Representatives passed a new bill, an amendment to the 1934 Communications Act to prohibit manipulation of caller identification information, this will outlaw [fingers crossed] the use of *67 , spoof cards and all that other crap I hate.  The proposed bill is only 8 pages long, but every word reassures me of the impact it will have on all of us into the future.

DSLreports writes:

Argh!

Congress has passed a law that bans all spoofing of caller ID identification, be it via traditional phone service or VoIP. The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2010 (pdf copy here) was passed in the House of Representatives this week, and was primarily aimed at scammers who use spoofed phone numbers when pitching bogus wares (you’re probably familiar with the extended auto warranty scams by now.) The language of the bill:

It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, in connection with any real time voice communications service, regard- less of the technology or network utilized, to cause any caller ID service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information, with the intent to defraud or deceive.

The bill of course contains an exemption for police or federal agencies should they be using the tactic in law enforcement.

I breath a sigh of relief today.  Thank you HOR, now on to Congress!!

There is irony here, just yesterday I was contacted by a former client regarding an Amazon Account I had set up for them over a year ago – they lost the password, yada yada yada.  I forwarded them some information and case closed.  This morning however, and quite coincidentally, I noticed an email sitting in my In-Box allegedly from Amazon – now I can see how the timing of such an email may have lured me in, you know?  It was present in my mind and I could have easily thought it was residual information in the clients Amazon account associated with my account or some such email confusion.  However… read this entry »

AS I am watching the “Pseudo Live” launch video on Adobe.com for the CS5 suite, I can’t help but think how great everything looks in the pre-recorded video.  Great production value! There are hundreds of Tweets on the subject as we all listen in for our specialized area of interest…. I heard nothing about transcoding video from Premiere or what the status of the Adobe Media Encoder is, which are the applications I use the most as a streamer of media, followed closely by good ole’ Dreamweaver.

Video looked great, Adobe Mobile Video looked great on the innocuous ”Mobile Device” they featured (ahem, iPhone?)… As far as you can tell from a video they produced and mastered in their Adobe CS5 suite… especially with all those “easy to use effects” in Adobe After Effects.  Everything was great…

And then, the live launch video ended. read this entry »