david stoker's blog » Random

Blank iPhone Text Message

David — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:58:50 +0000

UPDATE: Turns out the blank text messages I have been receiving are because of some updates that T-Mobile has recently done to their voice mail system. Apparently, the iPhone now interprets the information from T-Mobile about the voice mail status as blank text messages. Its a little annoying I guess but I can live with it since I have an unlocked phone and I don’t pay crazy fees to AT&T every month. If you want to read more about the problem, you can read this thread over at hackint0sh.org

This morning I received a blank text message on my iPhone! Not sure what was going on but the message showed up blank and without a number. The picture below shows what I’m talking about. Strangely enough, notice the date for the message. It’s not 2012 and it’s not 9:11 PM! I’m assuming it was my phone freaking out and not the cell network but it was definitely a weird occurrence!

Funny Spam Message

David — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:10:26 +0000

I’ve had my Gmail account for about 4 years now and so I get a decent amount of spam. My address has been around long enough and used to sign up for various things that I average about 50 spam messages a day. Fortunately, Gmail does an excellent job of filtering the spam so I don’t ever have to look at it. I was deleting the spam though and noticed this message. Quite an elobrate message and strange to see the effort that someone went to making this:

Mrs. Ruth Madoff

West, Liverpool,

London.

My Great Compliments,

I’m Mrs. Ruth Madoff, 67, wife to Mr. Bernard L. Madoff, of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, who pleaded guilty to operating a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, is worth up to $826 million, according to a document filed with a federal court on Friday 13th March 2009.

My husband pleading stealing billions from investment from his clients and he was ordered to jail Thursday 12th March 2009, after pleading guilty to all 11 criminal counts in one of Wall Street’s biggest swindles.

Now the Federal investigators in the USA are working around the clock to freeze all my assets, fearing that I’m trying to flee the country which I have done shortly after my husband was sentenced, I have $93 million in my name beyond their reach.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is working with federal prosecutors in Manhattan to prepare a filing asking a judge to formally freeze all of my assets as soon as possible.

My husband deposited the sum of (USD$17.000.000.00 Million) in a Finance Firm in Europe some years ago in my name, I need you to collect this funds and distribute it to both of us since the Federal investigators are working around the clock to freeze all my assets. Meanwhile all documents related to transfer of this fund to your account is with my attorney Mr. Peter Chavkin, who is willing to help us process the release order from the UK bank.

Presently, I’m in a hard out here in UK as the Federal investigators as well the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking for me to freeze my entire asset as well prosecute me like my husband.

Please reply back to me on this e-mail as I will like if you contact my attorney directly so that he will direct you on the way forward. Please due send to me all your contact details as I will like to speak with you before we commence on the transaction.

Please keep this confidential. You can read my story on this website: http://www.nypost.com/seven/03152009/news/regionalnews/ruth_in_crosshair_159631.htm

God bless you.

Best Regards,

Mrs. Ruth Madoff

Bizarre! I wonder how many people respond to this stuff and think it is legitimate? I really have not ever understood spam since the majority of messages are completely retarded and don’t make any sense. There must be some point to spam though since spammers continue to send these messages like crazy. There are some interesting statistics on spam here that indicate that about 75% of email messages are spam! What a waste!

Saturday Night Storms

David — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:29:59 +0000

Thunderstorms are amazing to watch and listen to. Fortunately, living in Florida, I get to see and experience a good number of these every year! The shear power of these storms is incredible and the way they develop is amazing. Lightning is also a rather remarkable phenomenon that is just unbelievable. Did you know that lightning can reach temperatures of 50000 degrees Fahrenheit? That is four times the temperature on the surface of the SUN! It is rather incredible to think that people get struck by lightning and still survive somehow.

The loud trickle of rain on my window combined with flashes of lightning every few minutes and huge booms of thunder is just incredible. Its almost as if the rain is rolling through late on Saturday night so as to ‘clean’ the remnants of the previous week and make way for the fresh week ahead by purifying the air and bringing a nice swath of cold air.

Check out this doppler radar picture of what is hitting Gainesville right now!

It is just incredible to see the size of these storms and the power contained within them. Seeing these big bolts of lightning and hearing the thunder can really make one feel powerless. In my opinion and experience, these huge systems of storms just point to the existance of a greater power that is in control of everything.