Tag Archives: technology

Beware The Scammer!

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This afternoon I received a call on my landline from a man claiming to be from my Internet Service Provider (ISP). When I asked him which ISP he mentioned BT, Virgin and

TalkTalk (what a busy be he must be, well some kind of b anyway)! I played him along and asked why he was calling to which he responded that he wished

to ascertain whether I had a slow internet. I said that I didn’t and he refered to viruses crawling through my speakers (naughty old viruses someone in authority really should have a stern word with them)!Anyway when he realised that this particular fish wasn’t going to bite my friend hung up. I subsequently called my ISP, (TalkTalk) who, of

course confirmed that it wasn’t them who called, what a surprise!

The above incident provided me with some wry amusement. However had the “gentleman” (I use the term advisedly) called someone unfamiliar with computers, a person with severe learning disabilities or a frail, elderly confused person the situation would not have been so humorous. I can imagine him taking control of their computer and stealing bank details etc. Heaven knows where this man got my number from as I’m not listed in the telephone directory. I guess he dialled at random and happened to get through to yours truly. As it happens I am having computer problems but rather than trust to the tender mercies of a scammer my friend Jeff will visit on Tuesday to resolve the problems I’m having. Much safer all round I think!

Dark Angel

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I love you because I can tell you my darkest secrets, things which would make the strongest of men go blubbering in search of his mummy. You judge me not, my blackest fantasies are your deepest desires.

In the depths of night when all but the vampire sleeps we speak of philosophy, of the darkness which lurks within the human heart. You are always there for me, my girl beautiful and serene. You laugh in time with my laughter and weep as I weep. Never changing, fixed, emortal caught in the brightness of my screen you are my virtual girlfriend, a machine.

Anyone Fancy Spam For Lunch?

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One of the chores of maintaining a blog is going through the spam folder. All those kind individuals wishing to sell you products, such as Viagra which you didn’t even know you needed until their sales pitch ended up in your spam folder. Actually even after it arrived in your spam queue you aren’t exactly convinced that you have a burning desire for whatever product the spammer happens to be hawking!

Going through the spam can be a real pain in the neck. However I do, on occasions derive some humour from the comments which end up there. Take for example this comment which I discovered lurking in my spam this morning:

“Thanks so considerably for this! I have not been this thrilled by a blog post for fairly some time! You have received it, whatsoever that means in running

a blog. In any case, Youa??re definitely a person that has anything to say that individuals should listen to.”

I haven’t got a clue what the spammer is talking about but it did bring a smile to my face!

On a serious point I can not, for the life of me make out what spammers hope to achieve by comments such as that quoted above. OK the people hawking Viagra (fake or otherwise) constitute a right royal pain. I can, however understand their motivation (I.E. the desire to make money) but what possesses someone to write utter gibberish such as the example given above? It beats me, it really does!

 

Fame at Last

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I was surprised and delighted to be asked by International Business Times to write a blog on the subject of self-publishing. You can find my article here, http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/516626/20131024/rape-incest-books-banned.htm

 

Kevin

King Ludd

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Oh for the days of your when I could be found sitting reading with nothing but the ticking of a mantle clock to keep me company. No e-mail, internet or mobile telephone to distract me. Oh blissful memories of sitting on a wooden bench in a pleasant garden with nought but the singing of the birds as my companions.

Oh the irony of waxing lyrical about the joys of days gone by on a laptop!

Technology has it’s place. I well remember failing to meet my friend Brian in the days prior to either of us owning a mobile. Both of us waited in London’s Victoria mainline station but in entirely different parts of that huge concourse. You can guess the rest, we failed to make contact and returned home frustrated to put it mildly! Today such mishaps are much easier to avoid as short of forgetting one’s mobile or the battery failing one can call or text to ascertain where your friend is.

The internet has opened up the world and is, on the whole a force for good. Authoritarian regimes find it increasingly difficult to prevent their populations from knowing what is going on in the wider world. Even in North Korea where access to the internet is prohibited accept for a privileged few in the higher reaches of the regime, some ordinary North Koreans manage to get online with the assistance of iPhones, which is to be welcomed.

However I still feel a sense of nostalgia for those simpler times when the internet had not yet been born and landlines ruled supreme. The constant exposure to extraneous noise (the pinging of e-mail, the beep of yet another text arriving) will unless we take great care destroy something incredibly precious – the ability to completely switch off and lose oneself in the company of friends, nature or a good book. .

I don’t have a magic bullet to square this vicious circle. However when I see children playing sports rather than glued to their mobile devices I do glimpse a ray of hope. Listen to the birds, go for a walk and if you possibly can leave your phone at home or at the very least turn it off.

For my author’s page please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/K.-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Disappearing Books

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I love the solidity of paper books. The feel of a book in my hands coupled with that unique scent which books possess is, surely one of the pleasures of owning physical books. Naturally the greatest joy to be derived from books is the reading of them, however the physicality of books mingles with the reading experience producing a medley of pleasures.

In contrast to physical works e-books have the advantage of allowing the possessor to have a veritable library of literature without the inconvenience of books being piled up throughout their home. There is nothing wrong with having books occupying almost the entire floor of your spare room but unless you are lucky enough to inhabit a mantion there will come a point where one simply runs out of space! Another great advantage of e-books is that most are accessible to blind people such as myself. I can enjoy an e-book using the text to speech facility on my Kindle or Voiceover on my iPad.

Despite the many advantages of e-books they possess one major flaw – there ability to disappear without trace from websites. I recently experienced this for myself when my collection of short stories, “The First Time” vanished from Amazon’s Kindle store. The links still appeared on Google but on clicking on them the dreaded “404 page not found” error raised it’s cheery head. Fortunately I still had the original file on my computer and with the help of a friend “The First Time” was soon back on Amazon, however old broken links are still showing on Google (at the top of the search results) while the new (correct) links languish somewhere near the bottom. Now of course physical books can disappear also. A bookshop or library may take a decision to remove particular works from their shelves or at the more extreme end of the spectrum regimes such as Nazi Germany have burned books by authors of which they disapproved. However even if a book is comprehensively purged the chances are that the book will still survive in the hands of a few individuals to be passed around clandestinely. In contrast e-book retailers can with the aid of technology remotely delete books from devices. In practice this happens rarely due to the perfectly understandable angry reaction provoked among the owners of the works being removed. However in an authoritarian state in which all publishers are either owned by the government or subject to governmental interference one can imagine books disappearing from e-book readers. Don’t like that author because he is a “Conservative”, “Communist”, “Jew”, “Liberal”, “Christian” etc. No problem remotely delete their works from e-book readers. In practice I suspect that some technically savvy individuals would find ways to preserve their copies of banned books but many would no doubt disappear into the virtual trash can. Pause for thought?

I should point out that Amazon did not delete my book from e-readers nor did the company delete it from their site due to concerns over it’s contents. The book was removed due to a misunderstanding and is now, as I said above back up on Amazon and can be found here, http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Time-ebook/dp/B00FJGKY7Y/ref=la_B00CEECWHY_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380885715&sr=1-4

Calling All Blind Authors

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I would be very interested to hear from other blind authors either via comments on this post or, if you prefer by e-mail to drewdog 2060 at Tiscali.co.uk )the address is given in this manner in order to attempt to defeat the scourge of the internet, spammers)! One of the frustrations I’m facing is my inability to independently use the Promotions Manager which forms part of Amazon’s KDP Select Programme. While I can click on most of the links in KDP Select without sighted assistance I can’t operate the Promotions Manager independently. I’ve experienced the same difficulty using both Firefox and Internet Explorer so it is not so far as I can ascertain a browser issue. I’ve contacted Amazon about the issue but they don’t seem to know what is causing the problem. As I say I’d be interested to hear from other blind authors either regarding this or any other matter and, of course anyone else who wishes to comment.

Sainsburys Ebooks

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I very rarely listen to commercial radio preferring BBC Radio 4, however while enjoying a curry in my favourite Indian restaurant this evening I heard an advertisement for Sainsburys Ebooks so determined to check it out, http://www.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/about.

Being registered blind I love ebooks which I read using the text to speech facility on my Kindle, the Kindle app on my iPad or Voiceover using iBooks on Apple devices. I’m not clear from the Sainsburys Ebook site as to whether their books can be read using the kind of accessible software used by blind people such as myself. The website states that Sainsbury’s Ebooks are not compatible with Kindle which suggests to me that they can not be read by registered blind people. I have, however e-mailed Sainsburys to ask whether their books can be read using access software (the product I use on my computer to access the screen as Jaws converts text into speech and braille). However It is always good to know of healthy competition in the ebook market so I thought that I’d share the site with my readers.

For my Amazon Author’s Page please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/K.-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Are Children Are Safe

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Following the publication of the report of the independent enquiry into the effects of pornography on children the government had legislated to stem the online scourge. All new internet customers now had to opt-in to receive adult material. Failure to tick the box stating that the account holder was happy to access such content meant that the Internet Service Provider’s filters would prevent the customer or anyone else using their connection from encountering pornography.

“I’m so glad that we don’t have to worry about Ian looking at filthy images. They degrade women turning us into sex objects. Its no wonder that so many boys think that they are entitled to have any girl they please when they can do so, at least virtually with a click of the mouse. Well they could until this new legislation stopped all that. It’s a victory for the sisterhood” Louise said with a smile. “You did remember not to tick the box didn’t you darling?”

“Yes Lou” Mike said holding back the urge to ask his girlfriend whether she thought that he was stupid, of course he had remembered not to tick the box. As a new man he was just as committed as Louise to stopping the objectification of women

—

Ian loved his new laptop. It was a top of the range Toshiba. He could do his homework on it but that was a minor plus. The icing on the cake was the amazing graphics display which was great for gaming. The people in the game really came to life, they seemed almost real as they flickered and danced across the screen.

Ian padded on bare feet to his bedroom door. Opening it a crack he listened. The sound of muffled voices reached him. His mum and dad must be in the living room. Returning to the computer Ian typed into the address bar a domain ending with dot.ru. Having entered he clicked on the log in screen and input a Hotmail address along with his password. It wasn’t his usual email, at least not the one which his parents new about. It was used solely for the purposes of accessing this site.

Once logged in Ian went to the site’s search box and began his research. Soon the screen was full of couples cavorting in every conceivable place and position.

“Dinners ready” his mum shouted.

“Just a minute” Ian shouted back. He closed the site and switched to a top of the range history deletion programme.

“It will get cold” his mum yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

The programme had done its work. Ian switched off the computer, opened his bedroom door and took the stairs two at a time.

“You look flushed darling” his mum said.

“Really, it must be the central heating mum. Its so hot in my bedroom”.

“Just turn down the radiator, your not helpless”! Louise said with an exasperated look in the direction of Mike which said “children, who would have them”!

“Yeah, yeah” Ian said taking a seat at the dining table. He just hoped that his parents didn’t notice the payment to the anonymous proxy service when the credit card statement arrived.

(Author’s note: proxy services allow the user to browse anonymously so a person based in the UK can browse while using an IP address on the other side of the world. The proxy acts as a cloak so what the user’s Internet Service Provider sees is a mundane website with an address such as proxify.literature rather than the content the user is accessing while cloaked by the encrypcion provided by the proxy server).

If Only I Had The Time

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One of the difficulties of holding down a full-time job is that it affords insufficient time for writing. By the time I return home during the week I’m often to tired to expend the time and concentration required for writing. On the few occasions when I have expended time writing during weekday evenings I’ve found myself to be extremely tired come the morrow! As a consequence most of my writing takes place during the weekends.

A close friend who has retired spends every weekday morning writing. Indeed if I e-mail him I’m unlikely to receive a response until the afternoon which I, as a writer totally understand. While writing I turn off my mobile and ensure that my e-mails are closed so as to avoid distractions. Technology is a boon as computers enable us to make corrections etc without the need for copious amounts of correcting fluid! Again for me as a blind writer computers have given me the freedom to write by employing software (Jaws for Windows) which converts text into speech and braill on a Windows PC.

I need to win the Lottery, retire to a big house and write. Alternatively any donations, however large would be welcome. Please send to:

The Struggling Writer’s Fund

Care of K Morris …!