Cell phones, do you really want to be available all the time?

Do you really want to be available for anyone and everyone on a 24/7 basis?  What do I mean?  A famous person once said that the more available you make yourself; the more available everyone will expect you to be. People will actually be annoyed if you are not instantly and constantly available rather than being pleased when you do call. People expecting you to be available all the time may be annoying.  Cell phone calls follow you everywhere you are including your bathroom.  Even during nighttime when you want to rest, cell phones continue to ring and annoy you.  If it is important, no problem but if it is very menial, why you need to be bothered so late.

Today in this modern society, we live in and the proliferation of cell phones we see people talking anywhere and everywhere.  If used for business, this may prove to be very effective and worthy.  However, for very menial issues being bothered in your sleep and even during your bathroom time may be quite annoying if not outright disgusting.  However, if you make yourself available all the time, you created your own nightmare.

Cell phone etiquette is getting to be a forgotten concept.  You will see people talking on the phone loudly and disturbs people nearby in restaurants and even in offices.  I am sure by now, once or twice in a meeting you will notice that when a cell phone rings, almost everyone around will immediately look for their cell phones.  If you were the one talking, and then the person in front of you talks on his phone, how would you feel?  I am sure you will feel belittled and ignored.  Rude practice, and should be changed.

It may help people who use cell phones to follow certain degree of etiquette with respect to the use of cell phones specially in places where you may seem rude if you use or even when your cell phone rings.

When you are in a place of worship, it may be necessary to leave your cell phone in the house or at least turn it off if you do not want to be away with it.  This is because ringing cell phone will not just disturb you while you pray it will also disturb others.  You do not need to show off your expensive gadget in a place of worship. 

During meetings, please turn off your cell phone; it is rude to have your phone ringing while somebody speaks.  Disruption may cause problems especially when the meeting tackles extremely important issues.  However, if you are waiting for terribly important call, you may use the vibrate mode of your cell phone to alert you when a call is in-coming and leave the meeting if you need to answer the call.  You may also inform the possible caller that you are in a meeting and that you cannot be disturbed.

When traveling and if you are on-board an aircraft, you will be required to turn off your phone.  This is because electronics devices may interfere with the aircraft’s avionics.  Thus, it is a requirement to turn of your phone for safety reasons.  However, for extremely long flights, airline companies allow cell phone usage at a certain time, if you really need to make a phone call, use this time allotted if necessary.

Cell phone have become to be a necessity nowadays, that is why most people use it and cell phone manufacturers have continuously develop different usage and functions for this very small gadget. Be globally competitive, but you should understand that being rude is not part of modernity.  Follow certain degree of etiquette; this will be very helpful to you and your business.

Hoax: Ericsson Free Laptop Promotion

Email chain letter claims phone manufacturer Ericsson will give away free laptop computers to those who forward the message to at least eight people.
Description: Email hoax
Circulating since: April 2000
Status: False

Example #1:

Fwd: FREE Laptops!...
The Ericsson Company is distributing free computer Lap-tops in an attempt to match Nokia that has already done so.
Ericsson hopes to increase its popularity this way. For this reason, they are giving away the new WAP laptops. All you need to do to qualify is to send this mail to 8 people you know. Within 2 weeks, you will receive Ericsson T18. But if you can send it to 20 people or more, you will receive Ericsson R320.
Make sure to send a copy to: anna.swelung@ericsson.com

Example #2:

Dear All,

Ericsson is distributing free laptops for their brand promotion. They hope to increase their popularity and sale by this campaign. All you need to do is send an email about this promotion to 8 people and you will receive an Ericsson T16 Laptop.

However, if you send an email to 20 or more people, you will receive an Ericsson R320 Laptop.

Make sure you send a copy to: anna.swelung@ericsson.com

With Regards,
N. Kousik (IT - Manager - RCG)

Example #3:

Subject: FW: free laptops

Dear All,
Ericsson are distributing free laptops for their brand promotion. They are hoping to increase their popularity and sales with this campaign.

All you need to do is send an email about this promotion to 8 people and you will receive an Ericsson T18 laptop.

However, if you send an email to 20 people or more you will receive an Ericsson R320 laptop.

Kindly ensure that you cc to Anna at Ericsson so that she will know you have sent the email.

Make sure you copy Anna@Ericsson.co.uk to your emails.

Analysis: Here's a chain letter that doesn't even make sense on the face of it.  To quote the main premise as stated in a version circulating since 2007:

The Ericsson Company is distributing free computer laptops in an attempt to match Nokia that has already done so.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but Nokia has never distributed free laptop computers to email forwarders. Nor are they ever likely to do so. Nor is Sony Ericsson.

All you need to do to qualify is to send this mail to 8 people you know. Within 2 weeks, you will receive Ericsson T18.

Sounds easy enough and tempting, too, but get this: the Ericsson T18 is a cell phone, not a computer. Moreover, it's a discontinued model. They don't sell it anymore!

But if you can send it to 20 people or more, you will receive Ericsson R320.

Again, the Ericsson R320 is a cell phone, not a computer. And discontinued, to boot! 

What gives? The email above is slightly revised version of a nine-year-old hoax promising free phones to frequent forwarders. Though the phrase "computer laptops" has been substituted in the newer variant to reel in more suckers, evidently the anonymous prankster who revised the original couldn't be bothered to change the model numbers of the supposed promotional items.
The email address to which copies of the forwarded message are supposed to be sent, anna.swelung@ericsson.com, is a corruption of the address specified in the 2000 version of the hoax (anna.swelund@ericsson.com), which, of course, was never valid in the first place.

2009 update:
On May 12, 2009 Sony Ericsson released the following statement in response to a revised version of the hoax:

Hoax Competition Email

Sony Ericsson has been made aware of an online email campaign claiming that Ericsson will give away a free laptop computer to users who forward the promotional information. The same campaign includes a photograph of the Sony Ericsson logo and mentions an Ericsson contact name and email number.

Sony Ericsson confirms that this email campaign is a hoax. In addition, Sony Ericsson confirms that the Ericsson contact name does not exist.

All competitions and promotions involving Sony Ericsson are run through official channels such as Sony Ericsson’s website or Sony Ericsson’s partners’ websites. Please be wary of any competition or promotion that appears to come from outside of Sony Ericsson or Sony Ericsson’s partners official channels. Examples of these include via spam emails or SMS.

Please do not reply to or forward the email if you receive it.

Black in the White House Virus Hoax

Outline

Message warns that an email attachment named "Black in the White House" or "Black Muslim in the White House" contains a damaging computer virus that can destroy the hard drive of the infected computer.

Brief Analysis

The claims in the warning are false. There is no virus that has the characteristics described in the message. The message is just another version of a long running hoax warning that has been circulating for a number of years.

Detailed analysis and references below example. 

Examples

Subject: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!URGENT MESSAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! URGENT!!! PLEASE CIRCULATE to your friends, family and contacts. In the coming days, DO NOT open any message with an attachment called: BLACK MUSLIM IN THE WHITE HOUSE, regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus that opens an Olympics torch that burns the whole hard disk C of your computer. This virus comes from a known person who you have in your list. Directions: You should send this message to all of your contacts. It is better to receive this e-mail 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a message called BLACK MUSLIM IN THE WHITE HOUSE even if sent by a friend, do not open, and shut down your machine immediately. It is the worst virus announced by CNN. This new virus has been discovered recently it has been classified by Microsoft as the virus most destructive ever. This virus was discovered yesterday afternoon by McAfee.. There is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the hard disk, where vital information function is held

Subject: Do not open any message URGENT!!! PLEASE CIRCULATE to your friends, family and contacts. In the coming days, Do not open any message With an attachment called: Black in the White House, Regardless of who sent you ... It is a virus that opens an Olympic torch that burns the whole hard disk C of your computer. This virus comes from a known person who you had in your list Directions. . That's why you should send this message to all your Contacts. It is better to receive this email 25 times to receive the virus and Open .. If you receive a message called: black in the white house, even Sent by a friend, do not open and shut down your machine immediately. It is the worst virus announced by CNN. A new virus has been discovered Recently it has been classified by Microsoft as the virus most destructive ever. This virus was discovered yesterday afternoon By McAfee. And there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus Simply destroys the Zero Sector of the hard disk, where information Vital function is stored.

Detailed Analysis

This message warns recipients to watch out for emails with an attachment called "Black in the White House". A later version changes the wording slightly to "Black Muslim in the White House". The message warns that opening the attachment will launch a destructive computer virus that will "burn" the hard drive of the recipient's computer thereby damaging it beyond repair. Supposedly, the virus destroys the "Zero Sector" on the infected computer's hard drive. According to the warning, the virus has been classified as the "most destructive ever" by Microsoft and CNN.

However, the information in the message is untrue. There is no a virus like the one described in the warning. In fact, the warning is just a newer incarnation of an older virus hoax that has circulated for several years. As the following example illustrates, the wording in the message is very similar to the Invitation virus hoax that began circulating back in 2006:

You should be alert during the next days: Do not open any message with an attached filed called "Invitation" regardless of who sent it. It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called "invitation", though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept. SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW, COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US

And the "Invitation" hoax is in turn a revamped version of the even older Virtual Card for You hoax that began circulating as early as the year 2000:

WORST VIRUS EVER --- CNN ANNOUNCED

PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST!! A new virus has just been discovered that has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive ever. This virus was discovered yesterday afternoon by McAfee . This virus simply destroys Sector Zero from the hard disk, where vital information for its functioning are stored.

This virus acts in the following manner:
It sends itself automatically to all contacts on your list with the title: "A Card for You".

As soon as the supposed virtual card is opened the computer freezes so that the user has to reboot. When the ctrl+alt+ del keys or the reset button are pressed, the virus destroys Sector Zero, thus permanently destroying the hard disk. Yesterday in just a few hours this virus caused panic in New York , according to news broadcast by CNN.

This alert was received by an employee of Microsoft itself. So don't open any mails with subject: "A Virtual Card for You. " As soon as you get the mail, delete it !! Please pass this mail to all of your friends.

Forward this to everyone in your address book. I'm sure most people, like myself, would rather receive this notice 25 times than not at All.

 Another recent variant of the hoax claims that the attachment on the "virus" email is named "Resignation Of Barack Obama". In fact, there have been a number of other variants based on the original "Virtual Card for You" hoax, including several that circulate in languages other than English. All versions of this hoax are equally untrue and none should be taken seriously. Forwarding such false warnings serves only to spread misinformation. McAfee, the antivirus company mentioned in the messages, has published a write-up denouncing the warnings as hoaxes.

Be careful....... when you travel Dubai and other Arab countries !!

Yesterday I came to know of a case from a friend of mine which is very scary. One of his friends was traveling to UK via Dubai .
Unfortunately he was carrying a packet of Khas Khas which is a commonly used spice in some Indian curries and sweets. Khas Khas is also known as poppy seed which can be sprouted to grow narcotics (afeem etc.).

This innocent person did not know that recently the laws in UAE and other Gulf countries have been revised and carrying Khas Khas is punishable with minimum 20 years of imprisonment or even worse with death penalty. Currently, the person is in a jail in Dubai for the last two weeks. His friends are frantically trying hard for his release but are finding that this has become a very very serious case. Lawyers are asking huge fees amounting to AED 100,000 even to appear in the court to plead for his innocence.

Please forward this info to all you know especially in India . They should know the seriousness of this matter and should never ever carry even minutest quantities of the following items when traveling to Gulf countries:

1. Khas Khas whether raw, roasted or cooked.
2. Paan
3. Beetle nut (supari and its products, e.g. Paan Parag etc.)

The penalties are very severe and it could destroy the life of an innocent person.

I appeal you to create the awareness by forwarding this info to all you know.