Sure, Have Him Call Me at 555-1234
I just visited a car inspection website, only to be greeted with this box:
Clever, eh? Fuck-off message and a fake number: I don’t know why they didn’t just go for “We don’t want your business. Go away.”
In a similar brain-dead vein, I came across two other things today that left me shaking my head. One’s in Canada:
Mark Duncan, chief operating officer for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, the agency tasked with providing security at Canadian airports, says the system is sound.
“Our last public opinion survey showed that 90 per cent of the people were satisfied with the security process. So we think we’ve delivered on the mandate we were given,” Duncan said.
—Investigation highlights security concerns at Canadian airports
The security guys that I read tend to get pretty pessimistic, because they’re so creative they’re able to find flaws in just about anything. Not Mark Duncan. He’s apparently from the “Family Feud” school of penetration testing: “Survey says: ‘we’re secure!'”
And finally, let us also bestow a “Whaaa?” award to the folks in Redmond:
“As Web advertising grows and consumer revenues shrink, we need to consider creating ad-supported versions of our software,” two Microsoft researchers and an MSN employee wrote in a paper presented to company executives earlier this year.
—Microsoft eyes making desktop apps free
Because the only thing that could make Microsoft Office even better was if the little paperclip thing said “It looks like you’re trying to write a letter. Would you like to save money on your car insurance?”