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   Message 358 of 1,840   
   August Abolins to Charles Pierson   
   vandals, spoofers and handles   
   27 Jan 21 21:18:00   
   
   MSGID: 1:153/757.21@fidonet ecd5aed0   
   REPLY: 1:106/127 6da71fe2   
   PID: OpenXP/5.0.48 (Win32)   
   CHRS: ASCII 1   
   TZUTC: -0500   
   Hello Charles!   
      
   ** On Wednesday 27.01.21 - 09:34, Charles Pierson wrote to August Abolins:   
      
      
    AA>> I had an incident of vandalism a few years ago. I reported   
    AA>> it to the landlord first. ...   
      
    CP> A police report is usually required if an insurance claim   
    CP> is being done. There are other reasons as well of course.   
      
   Someone spray-painted some graffiti on the side of the building.     
   It resembled the anarachy "A", but I could have accepted it as     
   an homage to me!  :D   
      
      
    AA>> This winter, I decorated the outside of my shop with a   
    AA>> couple of seasonal potted decorations. I paid a local   
    AA>> artist about $50 each. One morning, I found one of them   
    AA>> missing. ...   
      
    CP> That I'm kind of torn about. Simply because of the dollar   
    CP> value, it wouldn't be very high priority for the police to   
    CP> investigate, unless it was one of many such incidents in   
    CP> the community.   
      
   I don't recall anyone else talking about damage or loss to their     
   outdoor decorations.   
      
      
    CP> But, you bought and someone decided it was ok just to ttake   
    CP> it.   
      
   All it takes is a punk drunk enough or doped-up enough and then     
   anything goes.   
      
      
    CP> Besides the police not making it known, do your fellow   
    CP> shopkeepers talk with each other about things?  It's odd   
    CP> that it wasn't better heard of sooner.   
      
   It is odd. The only other time I'd hear about a concern from the     
   police was when it was reported that some counterfeit bills were     
   circulating.  IMHO, I think the banks should have samples of     
   counterfeits so that we can see what to look for.   
      
   There is no known "shopkeepers talk" in my town. A few people     
   have tried to build Facebook pages to connect the local business     
   community.  But I simply hate all the ads that I have to waste     
   my time and resources waiting to load.  And, since anyone could     
   join, our concerns and secrets could be discovered by anyone -     
   so I don't bother.   As a business owner, I need to learn to     
   keep my mouth shut about many things - politics or otherwise.   
      
   Perhaps an invite-only Telegram group specifically intended to     
   share reports of vandalism might work.   Perhaps RETAIL_HORROR_2     
   could be it!    
      
      
   re: spoofed numbers..   
    AA>> ..their excuse is that different countries have   
    AA>> different equipment and it is therefore hard to unify   
    AA>> everyone on a single stategy or "code" to fix the problem.   
      
    CP> Since VOIP is becoming more common than hardlines, I'm not   
    CP> so sure that that is a totally honest answer anymore.   
      
   I agree.. there *has* to be a way to identify numbers that are     
   gleened from a virtual pool versus a set group of numbers issued     
   by genuine carriers.  Then..  simply block all virtual numbers     
   automatically.  But all carriers have to be on the same page     
   about this.  But since this all has to do with money (the more     
   calls the better), I doubt that any company is going to block   
   anything by default.   
      
      
    CP> Occasionally, I have called back the number on the caller   
    CP> ID, only to have it be some eldery ladies home number, not   
    CP> some company the message is suppisedly from.   
      
   Ah... Ok.   
      
   But I would be suspect if the number was not familiar - and not     
   bother returning the call. If the original call is important,     
   the person (if real) can always leave v-mail.   
      
   I just got a call from 905-641-3433, identified as "Unknown" on     
   my Blackberry, tonight.   A simple reverse lookup revealed that     
   it was some telemarketer.  And.. there was no v-mail.  So, there     
   is no way that I am just going to dial it back.   
      
      
    CP> By the way, your Handle you use at times Ogg, struck my as   
    CP> familiar, althoygh I wasn't sure why.   
      
    CP> I figured it out,  That's the last name of the District   
    CP> Attorney here in Harris County.   
      
   Ogg was a kind of shortcut/nickname to my first name used by     
   some closer friends since the 70s.   
      
   I just read that: "It derives from the gaelic adjective 'og'     
   meaning 'young' and was originally given as a baptismal or     
   nickname of endearment."   
      
   Later.. much later.. I learned that it was the name given to     
   describe the open-container format to be used with the Vorbis     
   audio codec.   
      
   Ogg has an interesting paragraph about its naming origins in the     
   wikipedia page for itself:   
      
   " Ogg is derived from "ogging", jargon from the computer game   
   Netrek, which came to mean doing something forcefully, possibly   
   without consideration of the drain on future resources.[3] At   
   its inception, the Ogg project was thought to be somewhat   
   ambitious given the limited power of the PC hardware of the   
   time.[8] Although it is sometimes assumed that the name "Ogg"   
   comes from the character of Nanny Ogg in Terry Pratchett's   
   Discworld novels, the format's developers say that is not   
   true.[8] Still, to quote the same reference: "Vorbis, on the   
   other hand is named after the Terry Pratchett character from the   
   book Small Gods".   
      
   " The Ogg Vorbis project started in 1993. It was originally   
   named "Squish" but that name was already trademarked, so the   
   project underwent a name change. The new name, "OggSquish", was   
   used until 2001 when it was changed again to "Ogg". Ogg has   
   since come to refer to the container format, which is now part   
   of the larger Xiph.org multimedia project. Today, "Squish" (now   
   known as "Vorbis") refers to a particular audio coding format   
   typically used with the Ogg container format.[9]   
      
   --   
     ../|ug   
      
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