MessageMe SMS spam

there’s a round of spam (herein defined as copies of unsolicited messages that are delivered through electronic means) SMS on-going to get pple to install the Message Me app that reads something like:

“Get MessageMe (followed by a http colon slash slash msg dot me slash something something)”

messageme-spam

and there’s a fb status warning pple of its “severity” being shared:

“If u received SMS fm MessageMe, don’t click the link. Ignore & delete. It’s a spam virus going around. Once u click the link , the same SMS wil be sent out to ALL the contacts in your hp. And max out your SMS quota.text from Members”

out of curiosity and to be extra cautious, I checked out the URL with a browser running linux. the URL behaves like a redirect URL that leads you to d/l the app.

the origin of the SMS I’ve received two days ago is unknown. but the ‘severity’ may not as serious as the fb status that’s going around, cos like some forumers were saying, if the redirect URL can steal and max out your SMS quota, there exists a SERIOUS vulnerability in BOTH iOS and Android. chances of this is extremely extremely slim.

so what you could do is this:
(1) don’t support MessageMe for it’s spamming attempt (and other apps who do the same in future);
(2) ignore/delete the SMS, and beware of similar SMSes in future cos we won’t know one day a vulnerability could exists on more than one OSes at the same time and be exploited by crackers out there (:

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p.s. Thanks to Vincent for pointing out this possibility:

would it be possible that the URL will detect the OS and redirect to a different URL? E.g. it detects that the browser is calling the URL from a Android phone and redirect to a APK, which would usually prompt the user to confirm installing the app. If the user confirms, the newly installed app could possibly read the phone contacts and spam out SMSes.

i agreed to this possibility and i thought this is a cleverer way to spam. but i still maintain that by clicking on the link itself (without installing the app) and SMSes will be sent out points to a severe vulnerability in both iOS and Android; such a case is extremely unlikely here.

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pps. on further thought, if one’s contact list contains 2000 phone numbers, there is a chance of ‘maxing out’ one’s sms quota indeed if all 2000 phone numbers become recipients of the spam :O is the app kind enough to stop at a maximum cap (but will the phone know what’s your free SMS quota?), or will it just send out the maximum possible number of contacts in the phone? scary thought if one does not have unlimited SMSes and one’s no. of contacts exceeds one’s free SMS quota in a month :O

padfone 2 review – only one note

if u lands here via any search engine, chances are you are preparing to buy a new/used asus padfone 2 and looking for a review. OR, you connected your padfone 2 to the padfone station but your display/screen keeps on flicker flickering non-stop. this is not the usual review, but it’s purpose is to share ONE recent (shocking) experience with my own padfone2.

one fine day, i plugged in my padfone2 to the padfone station, and the screen keeps on blinking and flickering intermittently. yes, it’s absolutely abnormal.

so the hospital it’s sent to, and guess what the doctor tells me? “there’s a black thing that’s missing that’s causing the problem” i look and look and i really have no idea what the doctor is saying cos i din even realise there’s something there in the first place! the most shocking part follows:

“the replacement for the parts costs S$100 (singapore dollars),” said the doctor.
“what!?!”
“yes, you compare the socket with the one on the padfone station you will see the difference.”
“errr … hmmm … (actually i still cant tell what’s there or what’s not) … but why did Asus install something that will so easily drop out in the first place? i have never heard of such a problem from any other phone.”
“yes, just to set your expectation there. for this time, becos it’s the first time (err…sounds like it’ll drop easily again and again and again?!?) we’ll waive the charges”

today, after 5 working days, i get to get back the phone. and the first thing i do is to examine what’s “new” that went missing … hmm … seriously … such a small piece of thing cost $100 !?!

it’s real small, so i have taken a close up shot of it here:
padfone2-connector-highlighted

for those who owns a padfone 2, you can compare my photo with your phone and you’ll get what i mean (i think).

so the advice is this, for anyone who’s going to buy a padfone 2, (1) get a new set with warranty cover, (2) don’t ever ROOT your device before the warranty expires, (3) if you are buying a used set, make sure you inspect the charging connectors very closely, and make sure the black ‘parts’ shown in my photo are intact, (4) don’t buy this model, get the latest padfone infinity instead.

for record sake, the proprietary charging cable cost S$15 from the hospital.

and for record sake x2, ASUS has done away with this (stupid) connector and revert to the standard mini USB. so this problem should effectively be no more? i’m not sure 😛

knowledge creation — literary writing

if knowledge creation (aka knowledge building) is about ideas improvement and being a deliberate act of creating something new, would entries to “What is the best horror story you can come up with in two sentences” on reddit count?

some samples:

  1. I begin tucking him into bed and he tells me, “Daddy check for monsters under my bed.” I look underneath for his amusement and see him, another him, under the bed, staring back at me quivering and whispering, “Daddy there’s somebody on my bed.” by justAnotherMuffledVo
  2. I woke up to hear knocking on glass. At first, I though it was the window until I heard it come from the mirror again. by therealhatman
  3. They celebrated the first successful cryogenic freezing. He had no way of letting them know he was still conscious. by KnowsGooderThanYou
  4. The last thing I saw was my alarm clock flashing 12:07 before she pushed her long rotting nails through my chest, her other hand muffling my screams. I sat bolt upright, relieved it was only a dream, but as I saw my alarm clock read 12:06, I heard my closet door creak open. by jmperson
  5. The doctors told the amputee he might experience a phantom limb from time to time. Nobody prepared him for the moments though, when he felt cold fingers brush across his phantom hand. by Gagege

and an extended story built on Gagege‘s idea, by Nosfermarki:

It had been 6 months since the accident. I remember because Elizabeth was helping me sign my name in our daughter Jenny’s birthday card. Slowly she guided by hand, helping me create some legible signature rather than the scribbles of a child in kindergarten, the best that I was able to manage with such little practice. It seems that when one loses a limb, it’s quite likely to be the dominant one. For me it was the right.

I was concentrating on my writing, trying not to make her do too much of the work, when I felt it. I hadn’t noticed the phantom feeling of my elbow resting on the table beside me, by this point I had almost gotten used to it, although the pain would sometimes still wake me. It was brief, but enough to startle me and cause my hand, still holding the pen, to jump and effectively turn my name into scribbles despite my wife’s best efforts. It was gentle but cold. Too cold. Less like ice and more like the feeling of a deep cut, when the insides of a body part are suddenly exposed to the outside elements that they were never supposed to meet. When Elizabeth asked, I shrugged it off, telling her it was an unexpected pain in the hand that was convinced it was clenched, even though it didn’t exist. At the moment, I almost believed that that was what happening myself.

The next time it woke me…. (skipped)

For months it happened, with no warning or reason. The doctors said it was just the phantom limb, that it was to be expected. No one understood that something was wrong. Sometimes it would last days at a time, and those were the days when I would stay in bed, watching TV, trying not to focus on the hand around my wrist, trying not to think of the thing that was holding me. Sometimes it’s grip would loosen only to tighten again, as if the hand that didn’t exist was sore from holding my hand that didn’t exist for so long. The one day, it stopped. For a month or so, nothing happened at all. I had gone from living with an unknown entity at my side every day to finally being free. We lived it up during that time. We went everywhere, from the Grand Canyon to Disney World. It had been forever since we had the opportunity to spend time as a family again, and we enjoyed every moment we had, grateful to have suffered only a small loss to our family.

We had opened the cafe again, and my wife was doing what she loved. My daughter and I were at the cafe. It was closing time. She and I sat at a table outside while Elizabeth closed the register, chatting about the upcoming middle school dance. My wife joined us and locked the doors. “Wanna come with me?” she asked, patting the bag of money in her hand awaiting deposit at the bank across the street. Jenny jumped up, eager, no doubt, to get one of the suckers from the candy dish that the bank kept at it’s counter. “I’ll warm up the truck,” I said, fishing my keys from my pocket. My wife nodded in approval and walked me to the truck, kissing me on the cheek through the window after I entered, and again on glass after I rolled it up. They headed down the length of the truck and I turned to check the mirror when I saw it. A truck barreling down the road heading straight for my wife and daughter. I screamed her name and threw the door open when the hand that wasn’t there was suddenly jerked to the opposing side of the truck, holding me in place as I kicked and screamed. The kiss on the glass of the window was the last I ever got, and the hand never let go again.

and finally, trust someone among the community to be innovative (aka break the rules), marino1310‘s SIX words creation:

I just saw my reflection blink.

samples credit: various authors on reddit.com *THUMBS UP* to all the authors!

the language task, in brief

copy-n-pasted this from the recent call-for-papers email sent by Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology.

The language task is a key concept in language teaching and learning grounded in the communicative approach (Ellis, 2003; Nunan, 1989). This task can be defined as “a coherent and coordinated activity […], interactive or not, comprising a management of meaning, a link to the real world and a defined outcome, and in which the pragmatic result takes precedence over language performance” (Narcy-Combes, 2006). The language task is especially relevant in the context of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), in which information and communication technologies (ICT) facilitate its use and, in particular, allow access to authentic language, interaction and language production. In this context, the aim is to design learning scenarios (Guichon, 2006; Mangenot & Louveau, 2006) made up of macro and micro e-tasks (Mangenot & Soubrié, 2010) that, ideally, provide learners with opportunities to actively practice skills, to engage with others in one’s own language learning and to develop language autonomy.

Credit: CJLT editors