Holiday Software Roundup
In this holiday-themed software roundup, we learn that scammers are targeting airline customers with fake emails, advances in mobile technology are keeping friends and family more together than ever before, and a young programmer captivated his neighborhood and YouTube viewers with his complex and dazzling Christmas display.
Watch Out for Email Scams and Other Cyber Bandits
If the pleasantries and joy of the holiday season have caused you to lower your guard to people with questionable motives, I urge you to check out this post by writer Aki Libo-on. Aki writes of an email scam that is hitting customers of Australian-based airline Quantas.
Apparently, someone is spamming folks with fake emails that contain alluring offers like seat selection fee receipts; unfortunately, the emails are riddled with malicious links. Quantas’s subsidiary Jetstar was also hit with a similar scam in which spammers sent out fake itineraries to customers.
The Sydney Morning Herald probes a bit deeper into the news and notes that Virgin Australia has also found itself targeted by email scammers, and on its Facebook page the company issued a warning to its customers to beware of the malware-infected emails.
Research Shows Video Calling Technology Is Keeping People in Touch during the Holidays—at Least in Britain
It’s safe to assume that advances in mobile technology have allowed for an increase in communication between family and friends who may be countries, or even continents, apart. Now, a new survey by UK-based Tesco Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator, shows evidence of this assumption.
According to The Telegraph, the Tesco Mobile survey found that “24 percent of households in Britain will be using video calling software to speak to friends and family during Christmas.” Skype is supposedly the most popular software service with half of the surveyed households using the popular technology.
The story ends on a sweet quote by British journalist Helen Russell that could only occur in our modern-day age of high technology.
From The Telegraph:
My husband and I are celebrating our first Christmas in snowy Denmark so we'll be Skyping the family in London to show off our Danish cooking skills and give them a virtual tour of our new home. In return, we'll get to see the full glory of my family's Christmas jumper collection and feel a little closer to the people we'll be missing most.
Young Programmer Brings Holiday Cheer via Skrillex-themed House Decorations
I thought I’d leave you with this delightful and elaborate Christmas-themed posting from PCWorld that highlights the “best high-tech holiday light shows of 2012.” Of all the videos, the one that most caught my attention was “Cadger Dubstep Christmas Light House.” No, I’m not a fervent fan of Skrillex by any means, but I am fascinated by the fact that a seventeen-year-old boy was partly responsible for programming the controlled Christmas chaos. According to a story from KBOI2, young Zach Cadger has been making Christmas displays since he was nine-years old.
