chuma.org

Month: October 2003

  • Surveys, surveys, surveys

    I don’t like surveys.

    There is some kind of survey going on right now with a whole bunch of retailers in my area where they will ask me what my postal code is. They don’t know why, they just say it’s some kind of “new survey”. From memory, I’ve encountered this at:

    • Grand & Toy
    • Michael’s
    • Canadian Tire

    Always, the postal code is typed in directly into the register terminal, which says to me that it is associated to the transaction. Also, they cannot complete the transaction without getting a postal code. Umm… no thanks. Being mostly wary of my privacy, and the way that information can theoretically be linked back to me, I’ve been giving out bogus codes. Usually ‘H0H0H0’ – this is the postal code that Canada Post uses for letters to Santa Claus that children send. The North Pole should be represented! Usually I’ve got no problems with this, a few times I’ve even gotten a smile from a cashier. Sometimes they’ve refused to take Santa’s postal code though. So I’ve got another idea – use a postal code for Nunavut. The postal code for Resolute, Nunavut is X0A0V0. I’m gonna go with that. Maybe I can give them pointers on polar bear safety to make it convincing.

  • Artful spammers

    I’m used to getting a lot of spam. The vast majority of it gets filtered out. Just now one slipped by my filter and I was about to delete it, when I highlighted it and saw it in my mail client’s preview pane. Now, usually spammers will add all kinds of junk characters to the bottom of a message to make it “unique” to try and foil spam filters. Well, at the bottom of this message was this text:

    cannot help himself, and to obey promptly when he has fallen into tried to sit up, and collapsed upon my broken arm. Then Moreau appeared, saying. Prince Andrew looked silently at Pierre with an ironic smile.

    What happens when I put that exact string into Google? Why, it’s Sun Tzu’s The Art of War!

  • Hey US Immigration: Canadians go to Canada.

    CBC News: Canadian freed from Syrian jail set to arrive in Montreal: Here’s the short form of the story:

    • Canadian citizen (of Syrian origin) visits Tunisia.
    • Returns to Canada by way of New York (huge N. American air hub)
    • US authorities suspect he might be a mamber of al-Qaeda. Evidence or reasons given: he knew a man in Ottawa who was suspected of having links to al-Qaeda. However, the RCMP had already questioned him months before he travelled and said that he was OK.
    • Unfortunately, the person in question had not renounced his Syrian citizenship, and even though he holds Canadian citizenship for over 15 years and was travelling on a Canadian passport, they deport him to Syria.
    • The USA does not inform Canada that they have deported him to his country of birth until after the fact, and he was listed as a missing person for almost a month.
    • Because he left Syria before serving mandatory military service there, he could have been charged, tried and convicted of being a deserter. Furthermore, Syria’s human rights record with regards to prisoners is… bad.
    • Instead, they just hold him in custody, and finally Canadian officials negotiate his release.

    Dear US Immigration: No one gives you the right to screw around with the citizens of other countries.

  • Lore Brand Comics – R.I.P. brunching.com