The Federal Trade Commission has tons of helpful information for consumers on their site. I've been reading some of it due to these calls from Marketlink.
Are You Getting Telemarketing Calls You Don't Want? Here's How to Stop Them says:
Understand that some calls are not covered. Once your number has been on the registry for three months, most telemarketing calls will stop. However, you still may get:
- calls from - or on behalf of - political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors;
- calls from companies with whom you have an existing business relationship. A company may call you for 18 months after you make a purchase or three months after you submit an inquiry or application;
- calls from companies you've given permission to call.
Note how calls made on behalf of political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors are not covered. The article does not mention this exception for companies with whom you have an existing business relationship. Hmm, any lawyers care to comment?
Michael emailed to tell me about his problems with Marketlink, Inc., which I mentioned previously (see Grr, More Information?, Dirty, and The End, Hopefully).
He writes:
I have been receiving a call from 515-309-9027 for two years every Tuesday am at about 1:37 am […].
He also points to a document (PDF) which Marketlink filed with the Federal Trade Commission when the National Do Not Call Registry was first proposed.
There are some really choice quotes in the document, for example, the claim that Marketlink provides "highly ethical, cost-effective sales and customer care calling programs". Then on page 2:
While we detest the unprofessional and fradulent practices of some companies engaged in so-called "telemarketing," we believe it would be extremeley unfair to put companies like Marketlink - who conduct their businesses professionally and with the utmost integrity - at a severe economic disadvantage [&hellip].
I'm sorry, but calling people at 1:37 in the morning is simply not professional. At that point, you really have crossed the line. If your predictive dialer is to blame, fix it.
Even more troubling is what Michael writes about calling his cable company. According to his email, they initially claimed they had no relationship with Marketlink. But when he pointed them to the document above, he got a different response:
Charter Communications took a very different tone with me and will now be looking "into the matter". They offered me a free month's worth of cable, I said they have woken me up once a week every Tuesday night/morning for two years and a month's worth of free cable wasn't going to cut it.
I hate cable companies as it is, but this is too much. Maybe it's time for me to switch back to DSL from a local provider.
Runners: When did you all decide to run in the bike lane, opposite to the flow of traffic? No, REALLY. Which one of you morons thought that was a good idea?
First, you have cars to contend with (who, from experience as a cyclist, aren't always paying attention).
Next, WHAT IF A CYCLIST IS USING THE BIKE LANE? You leave him or her little choice in the matter: swerve to avoid you, hoping there's no cars, or run you the fuck over.
Don't feed me any crap about "well a car or cyclist is responsible for going at a reasonable speed". If you don't like running on the sidewalks, go to a fucking gym.
Linux uses a file, /etc/resolv.conf to configure DNS. In this file, you put the IP address of each of your name servers. You can also add entries which set the local domain name (e.g. yamum.org), and the list of search domains. Search domains are like shortcuts, allowing you to type, for example, news instead of news.ufl.edu. ("Type" is the operative word here; you shouldn't rely on search domains in your programs.)
Take this example file:
nameserver 192.168.1.2
nameserver 10.0.0.1
search ufl.edu yamum.org
domain yamum.org
Setting the domain as the last entry in the file is completely braindead, because it resets the search domains and thus breaks our "shortcut". A sensible person would never create a resolv.conf like this, and I like to think I'm generally sensible.
As it turns out, this is Gentoo's fault.
No, seriously, what on hell was the baselayout team thinking when they did that?
Don't forget to read the developer cop out:
that's the point of the
OVERRIDEvariablereally the only point of setting your domainname is to auto-modify
resolv.confso if you dont wantresolv.confto be touched at all, you shouldnt set theDOMAINNAMEvariable
Not that this is obvious from the comment in the default /etc/conf.d/domainname:
# When setting up resolv.conf, what should take precedence?
# If you wish to always override DHCP/whatever, set this to 1.
OVERRIDE=1
Well, I'm not using DHCP, but I guess I fall under the "whatever" category. ARGH.
Really though, the point is that no sane person would go around creating broken files like this. If I were writing a boot script which modified a user's resolv.conf, I wouldn't knowingly break it.
Is it just me, or are our spam fighting methods more trouble than they are worth?
RBLs seem to be all the rage these days. I just got an email from my sister tagged by SpamAssassin because she included a link to NPR's Web site. Now, I know that I can remove the RBLs from SpamAssassin's scoring, or give them less weight. But why did NPR's site get listed in the first place?
* 2.0 URIBL_PH_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the PH SURBL blocklist
* [URIs: npr.org]
* 2.5 URIBL_JP_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the JP SURBL blocklist
* [URIs: npr.org]
* 4.3 URIBL_SC_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the SC SURBL blocklist
* [URIs: npr.org]
Also of note is that SpamBayes is probably an order of magnitude more accurate than SpamAssassin…
Full of broken thoughts
Girl #1: Do cappuccinos have milk in them?
Girl #2: Tee hee.
Guy: I think so. Why?
Girl #1: I'm allergic to milk.
Guy: Ha ha ha.
Girl #2: You're an idiot. I can't believe you got a drink with milk.
Guy: Maybe they used something without lactose.
Ahh, med students. So smart yet so dumb.
I just got off the phone with Cox. The rep confirmed that they are using the marketing company mentioned previously. She said that she would "notify the marketing department" about my desire to stop these calls, implying that there is a list which will no longer contain my phone number.
This still doesn't explain the discrepancy mentioned by Szymon, who said he already informed his cable company that he did not wish to receive calls. If my cable company were to mistakenly release my number, I'd be pretty pissed.
So, if you're receiving calls from 515-309-9027, call your cable company and calmly explain that you're receiving calls from a marketing company and you'd like them to stop. Filing a complaint with the National Do Not Call Registry, at least in my case, would not be helpful even though I am on the list, because I have an "established business relationship" with Cox.
Szymon writes:
Hi,
Found your blog when searching on the above number.
The number belongs to http://www.marketlinkinc.com
I called them last week after receiving many calls - just like you did. They told me they were calling from my "local cable company"
I doubt that is true since I am on the do-not-call list for my cable company.
Maybe one day they'll call when I'm actually home so I can talk to them.
After posting on Monday, I received another call from 515-309-9027 and answered it out of frustration. The person claimed to be calling from Cox, my local cable monopoly. I told her to stop calling, and disconnected. Somewhat surprisingly, I haven't received calls since.
The timing of this is rather strange: I recently moved and signed up for Cox services, using my cell as the contact number (because I do not have a landline). Unfortunately, I do not recall explicitly telling them my marketing preferences, nor do I recall being asked my preferences. I usually make a point of looking for the fine print on issues like this, though it may have slipped my mind in all the confusion with moving.
Given what Szymon says, however, I'm still very suspicious of the marketing company. Hopefully I'll know more tomorrow after I call Cox (sorry, been too busy or too tired to really deal with this).
Could you kindly deliver those two Netflix DVDs to me? You know, the ones that Netflix said they sent last week? They were supposed to be here this past Saturday and, well, I'm really anxious to watch them. It's not fair to let me see the first four episodes of 24 and then leave me hanging like this.
Your friend,
dwc
P.S. I've never reported a DVD as lost or stolen to Netflix, and Netflix is probably accurate like 99% of the time with their delivery estimates.
P.P.S. My mailbox wasn't full.
P.P.P.S. I probably don't have to tell you this, but opening another person's mail is a federal offense. While I would understand that you might want to watch the DVDs as much as I do, that doesn't give you the right to take the copies I borrowed from Netflix.
Judging by the number of people finding this site from searching for the phone number 515-309-9027, it looks like I'm not alone in my frustration.
Has anyone answered the phone when they receive a call from this number? If you have, email me and I will post the information here.
I received three calls from that number on Saturday, none on Sunday, and one more today. They have yet to leave a message, so I'm pretty sure it's a telemarketer…
Every day for the past couple of weeks, someone has called my cell phone. The number reported by caller ID is 515-309-9027, which is from the Des Moines, IA area according to Google.
I usually don't answer my phone if I don't recognize the number, especially if it's from an area code where I have no friends or family.
I added my number to the National Do Not Call Registry shortly after I got it.
Well, if it's important, maybe they'll get the hint and leave a message.
We finally released the new UF News site today. It's technically in beta for now, but I'm just excited to be getting feedback from a wider audience.
The site runs WordPress and about 20 plugins. More information is available in my development blog.
Taylor did a great job on the design of the site. I'm sure he'll be blogging about it at some point. :-)
I don't want to listen but it's all too clear
I've been working crazy hours getting a project ready for release.
Work should not intrude on the rest of my life, I know, but shit happens.
This is actually the first day I haven't been at work past 21:00 in about three weeks.
I finished Perdido Street Station a couple of weeks ago. Overall impression: slightly disappointed.
Don't get me wrong: the world that China Miéville created was pretty damn amazing. He described the city, New Crobuzon, with amazing (and at times gut-wrenching) detail. I was also intrigured by the different humanoid races, especially the khepri.
However, I couldn't help but feel like the story lacked direction. There was just too much going on to really feel for any one character. I mean, was the story about Isaac's promise to Yagharek? Or was it about the slake-moths? The tie ("crisis energy", or chaos theory) between the plot lines wasn't strong enough for me.
Also frustrating was Miéville's diction. I swear, he used the words "vertiginous" and "variegated" about 50 times in the novel. Normally that sort of thing doesn't bother me, but the words stuck out for some reason. In most places, a "cheaper" word would have been sufficient.
I'd still recommend the novel, but maybe as one to read when you need a break from your primary.
Currently on The Confusion, which had a pretty damn funny intro.