Like, I guess, many people, we leave our computers running when we’re not using them. We keep apps like iChat and Skype running too, with the sound turned up, in case anyone should call.

So I’m sitting in the studio, alone, this morning, listening to The Talk Show while I get my head clear for a day’s work, when the Mac behind me starts to talk (video below.)

It turns out it’s repeating, recorded spam, coming through Skype.

How can this even happen?

Update

Out of curiosity, I typed w w w dot pee gee em ess gee dot com into my browser. I’ve seen this type of fake virus scanner before, and I use a Mac so I can just laugh at them. Most interesting though is how these tricksters managed to talk to me over Skype without my permission.

Update 2

It turns out this is old news for some people. As you were.

I don’t use Last.fm socially, but I left it scrobbling so it could compile the soundtrack to my 2011.

Bruce Lawson asked:

If I buy a Galaxy Tab 10.1 today, do I get a *timely* over-the-air upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich for free?

Samsung UK replied:

This is not guaranteed. Honeycomb was made specifically for the 10.1, so there are no plans for release at present.

I guess that I just expected, when I bought my Galaxy Tab 10.1 this summer, that I’d get software updates from Samsung the same way I get them for my iOS devices. Sure enough I did get one — one that replaced stock Honeycomb with Samsung’s own TouchWiz variant — an update I didn’t want but was told that if I didn’t update, I wouldn’t get any upgrades in future.

Now it looks like my Galaxy Tab 10.1 — already the most expensive shaving mirror I’ve ever bought — is going to stay stuck in 2011. Does the same go for Tabs still on the shelves of your favourite big box retailer? What about the 10.1N variant I saw in Germany two weeks ago?

Samsung doesn’t get software.

Some quotes from the HP MacBook Pro Envy’s design video (Hat tip to Matt Legend Gemmell):

I doubt it’ll come as much of a surprise to learn that I love my iPhone 4S. It was a major upgrade from the 3G I swapped my original iPhone for last September, but I’ve been less impressed with its battery life. Now I think I’ve found the culprit. Foursquare

.Net magazine published its The top 25 books for web designers and developers after asking a few contributors and yours truly for our recommendations.

Joshua Topolsky

We think of The Verge (and its underlying CMS) as something akin to an app. A piece of software that is being constantly developed and updated. Today we’re launching with The Verge 1.0, but 1.1 and 1.2 are just around the corner.

This Is My Next — my favourite tech, gadget site over the last few months — has (right on cue) become The Verge.

If you’ve been reading This Is My Next, you’ll know there’s been a lot to like about the quality of its journalism. There’s a lot to like about the new site’s design too, from the strong layout of its review pages to many of the design details.

I can see myself spending a lot of time on the Apple hub. I love the category/brand tabs in the review sidebar navigation. They’re not unique, they’re not new, but here they just ‘work’. The ‘jump to’ overlay on product review pages, like this one for the iPhone 4S, just works too. It’s obvious that everyone involved in The Verge cares about the details.

Compared to Engadget, Gizmodo or the recent TechCrunch redesign disaster, The Verge’s design is a treat and it looks like a worthy successor to This Is My Next. So far, I love it.

Friday night is Geek Ninja Battle Night in Brighton and the topic that Aral “Ken” Balkan, Sarah “Cammy” Parmenter, Remy “Cyclops” Sharp and me (Andy “M(alarkey) Bison” Clarke) are fighting over is Mobile – Web vs. Native! I’m taking the unusual step (for me) of speaking without a slide-deck to back me up, but I’ve prepared an outline for my short talk which might be interesting if you’re not attending.

From time to time, I get asked, “Why no index in Hardboiled Web Design?” My usual flippant answer being, “What? You want it even thicker?” Still, I know some people like indexes and the Hardboiled paperback doesn’t have one, (unless you count searching in the PDF version). Steven Milne has taken matters into his own hands with his unofficial Hardboiled Index.

I got different two scarves last Christmas, from two different people. But the difference wasn’t the colour, or the fabric, it was the giving.

It’s a смешные старые игры, this web design design lark. Who’d have thought that learning a bit of code would’ve meant I got travel around the world and to places I never thought I’d see?

I’ve always believed that content on the web should be free (from presentation).

My new Macbook Air arrived this evening and it’s the best laptop I’ve ever owned. Less than an hour after unpacking it, it’s already the travelling production powerhouse I wanted.

I’m tired. Really tired. Not just the tiredness that comes from back-to-back transatlantic flights crammed into airline seats (although I have another one of those to look forward to today), but the kind of tiredness that goes deep into my bones.

After several years of presenting my workshop materials on behalf of other people, on the 1st of September 2008 I announced that I’d be striking out to present my content in my own series of workshop events. I called this aspect of my business For A Beautiful Web.

If you own anything made by Apple, you possibly already know about Hard Graft. I’ve been a huge fan of them, their cases and sleeves since a friend introduced me to them a year or so ago. So when Apple announced the iPad, I knew I wanted a Hard Graft case for it. Hell, I wanted a Hard Graft iPad case even before there was an iPad. And now I have one.

If you are one of those people who love to complain about old browsers, it’s important to remember just how far browsers have come.

Do you occasionally have to explain to a client why the site you made for them using CSS looks different for people who use very old browsing software? You should thank your lucky stars.

A simple game time waster (and an old school blog meme). Go to the address bar in your browser and type a letter. Start with “a”, end with “z”. Here is what I found.

Some things are best expressed without words.