#Call center call monitoring software

[callcenterwfhsoftware]

How can virtual contact centers maintain productivity standards when employees work from home?

Maintaining productivity standards in virtual contact centers when employees work from home can be challenging, but with the right tools and strategies, it's entirely achievable.

Clear Communication: Establishing clear communication channels is crucial. Regular check-ins, virtual meetings, and updates ensure that everyone is on the same page, minimizing misunderstandings and delays.

Performance Monitoring: Monitoring employee performance is essential to maintaining productivity. This is where CollaborationRoom shines. Their remote work collaboration software provides call centers with real-time insights into employee performance, enabling managers to identify areas that need improvement and provide timely feedback.

Setting Expectations: Clearly defined goals and expectations help employees understand their responsibilities, even when working remotely. This includes setting KPIs, deadlines, and quality standards.

Training and Support: Continuous training ensures that employees are up-to-date with the latest tools and techniques. CollaborationRoom's software also supports ongoing development by providing analytics that highlight skill gaps, allowing for targeted training.

Leveraging Technology: Utilizing advanced tools like CollaborationRoom's call monitoring software can help maintain productivity by offering features like automated reporting, real-time alerts, and detailed performance analytics. These tools ensure that managers can keep track of productivity levels, even in a remote setting.

By implementing these strategies and leveraging the right technology, virtual call center software can maintain high productivity standards, ensuring efficient and effective operations.

[shadyflowerblizzard]

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[nasa]

LaRue Burbank, mathematician and computer, is just one of the many women who were instrumental to NASA missions.

4 Little Known Women Who Made Huge Contributions to NASA

Women have always played a significant role at NASA and its predecessor NACA, although for much of the agency’s history, they received neither the praise nor recognition that their contributions deserved. To celebrate Women’s History Month – and properly highlight some of the little-known women-led accomplishments of NASA’s early history – our archivists gathered the stories of four women whose work was critical to NASA’s success and paved the way for future generations.

LaRue Burbank: One of the Women Who Helped Land a Man on the Moon

LaRue Burbank was a trailblazing mathematician at NASA. Hired in 1954 at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (now NASA’s Langley Research Center), she, like many other young women at NACA, the predecessor to NASA, had a bachelor's degree in mathematics. But unlike most, she also had a physics degree. For the next four years, she worked as a "human computer," conducting complex data analyses for engineers using calculators, slide rules, and other instruments. After NASA's founding, she continued this vital work for Project Mercury.

In 1962, she transferred to the newly established Manned Spacecraft Center (now NASA’s Johnson Space Center) in Houston, becoming one of the few female professionals and managers there.  Her expertise in electronics engineering led her to develop critical display systems used by flight controllers in Mission Control to monitor spacecraft during missions. Her work on the Apollo missions was vital to achieving President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon.

Eilene Galloway: How NASA became… NASA

Eilene Galloway wasn't a NASA employee, but she played a huge role in its very creation. In 1957, after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, Senator Richard Russell Jr. called on Galloway, an expert on the Atomic Energy Act, to write a report on the U.S. response to the space race. Initially, legislators aimed to essentially re-write the Atomic Energy Act to handle the U.S. space goals. However, Galloway argued that the existing military framework wouldn't suffice – a new agency was needed to oversee both military and civilian aspects of space exploration. This included not just defense, but also meteorology, communications, and international cooperation.

Her work on the National Aeronautics and Space Act ensured NASA had the power to accomplish all these goals, without limitations from the Department of Defense or restrictions on international agreements. Galloway is even to thank for the name "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", as initially NASA was to be called “National Aeronautics and Space Agency” which was deemed to not carry enough weight and status for the wide-ranging role that NASA was to fill.

Barbara Scott: The “Star Trek Nerd” Who Led Our Understanding of the Stars

A self-described "Star Trek nerd," Barbara Scott's passion for space wasn't steered toward engineering by her guidance counselor. But that didn't stop her!  Fueled by her love of math and computer science, she landed at Goddard Spaceflight Center in 1977.  One of the first women working on flight software, Barbara's coding skills became instrumental on missions like the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) and the Thermal Canister Experiment on the Space Shuttle's STS-3.  For the final decade of her impressive career, Scott managed the flight software for the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, a testament to her dedication to space exploration.

Dr. Claire Parkinson: An Early Pioneer in Climate Science Whose Work is Still Saving Lives

Dr. Claire Parkinson's love of math blossomed into a passion for climate science. Inspired by the Moon landing, and the fight for civil rights, she pursued a graduate degree in climatology.  In 1978, her talents landed her at Goddard, where she continued her research on sea ice modeling. But Parkinson's impact goes beyond theory.  She began analyzing satellite data, leading to a groundbreaking discovery: a decline in Arctic sea ice coverage between 1973 and 1987. This critical finding caught the attention of Senator Al Gore, highlighting the urgency of climate change.

Parkinson's leadership extended beyond research.  As Project Scientist for the Aqua satellite, she championed making its data freely available. This real-time information has benefitted countless projects, from wildfire management to weather forecasting, even aiding in monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. Parkinson's dedication to understanding sea ice patterns and the impact of climate change continues to be a valuable resource for our planet.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space! 

[callcriteriaqa]

Using call criteria contact center quality assurance software, businesses can determine how effective their customer service operations are. We at Call Criteria, provide you with complete AI-enabled quality assurance solutions to monitor agent performance. For more information, Visit our website to get a free demo of our Quality Assurance software.

[rileyslibrary]

Living With Ghosts: 4. Pretty Broken

His body stands straight, but his mind betrays him. He still wears his gun around his left shoulder. It looks too heavy for him now, just like his conscience.

Relationship: Simon “Ghost” Riley x F!Reader

Word Count: 1,150

Notes:

Warnings: Mentions of blood and war

As much as I like Ghost’s demeanor throughout the game, I cannot help but wonder what he would be like suffering the aftereffects of war.

Entire work on AO3

Table of Contents

———————————————————————

It’s been days since you last talked to him.

His inattentiveness, however, was not the outcome of your petty little brawl—not the direct consequence, at least. If you had to venture a guess, it’s because he was busy with other matters at the moment—far more important ones.

The Russian Mafia appears to have increased its presence in the region over the past week, raising suspicions of a potential terrorist attack. As a result, the CIA has requested high readiness from the Special Forces operators deployed in the area.

That’s where he is, you fool. It doesn’t matter how abandoned, lonely, or insecure you feel, for he had a job to do. He was right there, at the front line, risking his life for the nation’s—and probably the world’s—safety. You were the last thing on his mind right now; if you ever were anything to him but a mild inconvenience.

Let’s not forget that you also had a part to play in this operation; to actively scan land, air, and sea for irregular traffic and report to the CIA.

Well, not actively, per se—the safe house has a well-equipped wine cellar for that specific purpose.

“Surveillance Control Center,” they call it—SCC for short.

What was once used to store ruby-red Chianti Classico Riserva bottles can now be confused with the cockpit of a spaceship. The CIA engineers have outdone themselves with this one—you give them that.

The SCC is part of a computer network connecting every CIA safe house in the Mediterranean. It incorporates CCTV monitors, cameras, radars, and motion sensors designed to detect unusual movements in the region. Live-streaming feeds are processed using highly sophisticated software, which, upon catching unusual traffic, alerts the SCC’s terminal. The wine cellar also houses an arsenal of weapons and ammunition, just in case the shit hits the fan.

Your job, for now, is to oversee the SCC’s flawless operation and inform Laswell of any findings.

Boring; that’s what your job was. Boring.

“Christmas is coming,” Laswell’s voice sounded over the telephone, “You guys should do something to celebrate.”

“Do what, exactly, Kate? Go from house to house and sing carols on behalf of the CIA?” You reply, leaning forward as if you were trying to physically get your point across.

“If you’d stop being a sarcastic shit, then perhaps you could think a little better.” Her irritation rasped in her voice. “Do something together; think of it as a team-building event.”

He said he’d fix that attitude of yours; when was that team-building event going to take place?

She was right, though—as much as you’d hate to admit it. Christmas does bring people together.

You begin to reminisce about the good times back home when your family used to celebrate every year. You used to cook together, sing along to festive songs, watch Mr. Bean on television, and exchange gifts.

You remember your mother, who refrained from buying ornaments from the shops. She used to bake them instead—yes, bake them. She used to roll out the dough, give shape to it with cookie cutters and bake the ornaments so you would all decorate the Christmas tree with them. The entire house smelled divine with these four little ingredients she used in her recipe—cinnamon, salt, flour, and water.

Ingredients you already had in your pantry.

“Laswell, when’s my shift ending?” you asked in anticipation.

“It ended thirty-seven minutes ago. Tired of me?”

“I thought of something.” You announce, sitting on the edge of your seat.

“Wha-”

“I have to go. Over and out.” You report as you close the comms and head upstairs to the infamous pantry.

Cinnamon, salt, flour, and water.

You were determined to make it work, right here, in this safe house—with or without Ghost.

You hurried outside, scanning the area for the tree branches he trimmed a few weeks ago. If you tie them together, you could create something resembling a Christmas tree.

When was the last time he felt the Christmas spirit? Does he have a Christmas tree at his house? A family to sing together next to the fireplace? A warm, festive meal?

You moved frantically—part Christmas elf rolling out dough and baking ornaments, part Frankenstein trying to assemble a Christmas tree monstrosity.

Time flew by; hours passed like minutes as you worked hard, your creativity unleashed, putting forth your best effort to create something out of nothing.

To create festive decor out of raw ingredients.

To construct a tree out of stray branches.

To form a connection out of two peoples’ broken pieces.

“What’s that smell?”

You were so focused that you didn’t notice him standing behind you.

You turn around to see a wreck, the fragments of a man who has probably seen terrible things and done far worse.

“I—is everything all right?” You hesitate.

“Out of trouble, for now.” He replies.

His body stands straight, but his mind betrays him. He still wears his gun around his left shoulder. It looks too heavy for him now, just like his conscience.

“Yes, I know. I spoke with Laswell. I mean, are you all right?”

“Been better.”

His uniform is dusty, and his boots are covered in mud. There is a slight rip on his balaclava, teasing you with a subtle view of his jawline, like a Geisha exposing her nape.

“It’s over, for now.” you try to comfort him.

There’s blood on his left sleeve—a lot of blood. He just became aware of it as well.

“Not mine.” He announces and hides it behind his back. “What’s that smell?” He repeats, trying to avoid the conversation.

“Cinnamon.”

“Ya bakin’?” He seems shocked.

“Sort of; They’re ornaments for the Christmas tree,” you say, pointing in the direction of your most recent creation.

“A Christmas tree.” He stutters, glazed eyes darting left and right, assessing the new environment.

You want to tell him that there are no booby traps here, nothing dangerous to be careful of. You want to console him that there is no need to be alerted for an ambush here, for this is a safe space. No more killing, no more death, for now. Just you two, a hideous Christmas tree, and badly shaped cinnamon-baked ornaments.

“Do you like them?” You ask reluctantly, trying to divert his attention from this week’s horrors. “I couldn’t find any cookie cutters, so I shaped them with a knife instead. I tried to make them look pretty, but some came out broken.”

“Aren’t we all?” he mumbles as he walks towards the Christmas tree.

“Aren’t we all exactly what, lieutenant—pretty or broken?” you ask, attempting to lighten the mood.

“Pretty broken, kid,” he whispers as he picks up a shattered ornament. “Pretty damn broken.”

———————————————————————

Next ->

[iamknicole]

Prologue

A/N: Bare with me the holidays are a busy time for me so it'll most likely be week day uploads when I do start posting chapters! Enjoy! Comment, reblog & share! Updates depend on engagement! 🌻

Warnings: A bit of cursing, 18+, Minors DNI

Masterlist

The sound of kids talking and playing filled Shania's ears as she entered the three year old classroom. A few kids noticed her, running to give her hugs then went back to playing. She watched them for a moment then went to the connected boys restroom, peeking in. 

"Hey, Ms. Martina. You buzzed for me?"

Martina stood from her kneel in front of the middle stall. "Yeah. Jaden has a stomach thing and no clothes."

Shania walked in to check on the child, giving him a soft smile. "Not feeling good, buddy?"

His voice came out weak and sad. "No ma'am."

"I'll get somebody to bring you some ginger ale and extra clothes while I call mommy and daddy. Sound good?" Giving him another pout, she turned to Martina. "If you want when he's cleaned up, you can bring him to the office with me. Tell me the last name again."

"Fatu."

Leaving the classroom, Shania power walked through the daycare back to her office and to her desk. After going through her software, she found his profile and dialed the first number. 

"Good morning, Mrs. Fatu. This is Shania Taylor at Busy Bees. Jaden's not feeling well and he's had an accident so you're gonna have to come pick him up. Thank you. See you soon."

Shania left the same message three times with Jaden's mom, dad and uncle. She sighed softly realizing there was only one more number to call. Dialing the number, she put it on speaker so she could pull her curls away from her face. 

"Hello?"

The deep voice startled her a bit as she honestly wasn't expecting anyone to answer. 

"Helloooo," the voice sang out, "Somebody there?"

"Sorry, yes." She picked her phone up, moving it closer to her.  "Hey, I'm sorry to bother you. This is Shania Taylor from Busy Bees. Is this Joshua Fatu?"

"Uh, yeah, this Josh. Busy Bees?"

"Yes, Busy Bees. Your nephew, Jaden, is enrolled here."

"Oh shit, my bad," he said quickly, "I don't think I ever knew the name. He aight? He need something?"

She glanced at her office door when she heard a light knock, finding Martina standing in the doorway with Jaden in tow. She waved them in, pointing at the ottoman in front of her window. 

"He's actually not feeling well and had an accident. He didn't have any clothes but I keep extras here so that's taken care of. You are gonna have to get him though."

Josh went silent for a moment, Shania could hear rustling around in his background.

"I don't mind at all but did you call Jon or Trinity first?"

"Yes sir," she said softly as she rolled her chair over to Jaden. She covered him with her throw blanket. "I called them and the other uncle they had listed, no one answered."

"Aight, I'll try to call them. I'm on the way though, Ms. Taylor."

"Thank you, see you soon."

The small monitor on her desk chimed and real time video popped up fifteen minutes later. Easing up from her spot, Shania checked the monitor then went to the front door of the center. She pushed the door open for him, a small smile on her face. 

"Hey, Mr. Fatu." She watched him as he stepped inside. "Thank you for coming."

He looked around the foyer then at her, giving her a small nod. "Josh. Just Josh. I gotta get em from the class?"

"Nope, he's actually been in my office with me. Fell asleep not too long ago. He had me watching toy videos so the nap was a blessing in disguise for us both," she joked. "Since he is asleep, I can go ahead and get a copy of your license."

He frowned a little at that. "Why?"

"I make copies of everyone's licenses when they come to pick up one of my babies. State law. Keeps them safe. You can step into my office."

The two stood in silence while she made her copies. Josh grabbed Jaden's backpack, bag of soiled clothes and the small bottle of ginger ale beside him. He watched Shania move quickly around her office from the printer to the filling cabinet then to her desktop, lingering there for a few minutes. She wrote something down on her post it before peeling it off. Going to Josh, she held it out to him smiling. Slowly, he took it then looked at her. 

"What's this?"

"Your family's code to get into the door so you don't have to wait to be let in whenever you come get him."

"Thank you," he stuffed it into his pocket then carefully picked up his sleeping nephew, "I need to sign em out?"

"I'll take care of it. You just take care of my buddy. When you talk to his parents, let them know he can return when he's been symptom free for 24 hours."

"Gotcha. You the boss lady huh?" He joked adjusting Jaden in his arms. 

Her smile grew a little wider, her cheeks pushing her eyes into small slits. "I wouldn't say boss lady but I am the owner."

"Shit. Forreal?"

"Yes and we don't talk like that in Busy Bees, Josh." She chastised playfully.

He flashed her a quick smile, giving a peek of his gold fronts on his bottom teeth. "My bad, Ms. Taylor. Ima let them know though. Have a good day, don't work too hard."

Walking in front of him to the door, she propped the door open for him to exit. She watched him effortlessly unlock his truck, put Jaden's things in then Jaden into his seat. She called out to him before he could open the driver side. 

"What's up?"

"Call me Shania."

His fronts made another appearance. "Yes ma'am."

[mariacallous]

For more than three weeks, Gaza has faced an almost total internet blackout. The cables, cell towers, and infrastructure needed to keep people online have been damaged or destroyed as Israel launched thousands of missiles in response to Hamas attacking Israel and taking hundreds of hostages on October 7. Then, this evening, amid reports of heavy bombing in Gaza, some of the last remaining connectivity disappeared.

In the days after October 7, people living in Gaza have been unable to communicate with family or friends, leaving them unsure whether loved ones are alive. Finding reliable news about events has become harder. Rescue workers have not been able to connect to mobile networks, hampering recovery efforts. And information flowing out of Gaza, showing the conditions on the ground, has been stymied.

As the Israel Defense Forces said it was expanding its ground operations in Gaza this evening, internet connectivity fell further. Paltel, the main Palestinian communications company, has been able to keep some of its services online during Israel’s military response to Hamas’ attack. However, at around 7:30 pm local time today, internet monitoring firm NetBlocks confirmed a “collapse” in connectivity in the Gaza Strip, mostly impacting remaining Paltel services.

“We regret to announce a complete interruption of all communications and internet services within the Gaza Strip,” Paltel posted in a post on its Facebook page. The company claimed that bombing had “caused the destruction of all remaining international routes.” An identical post was made on the Facebook page of Jawwal, the region’s biggest mobile provider, which is owned by Paltel. Separately, Palestinian Red Crescent, a humanitarian organization, said on X (formerly Twitter) that it had lost contact with its operation room in Gaza and is “deeply concerned” about its ability to keep caring for people, with landline, cell, and internet connections being inaccessible.

“This is a terrifying development,” Marwa Fatafta, a policy manager focusing on the Middle East and North Africa at the digital rights group Access Now, tells WIRED. “Taking Gaza completely off the grid while launching an unprecedented bombardment campaign only means something atrocious is about to happen.”

A WIRED review of internet analysis data, social media posts, and Palestinian internet and telecom company statements shows how connectivity in the Gaza Strip drastically plummeted after October 7 and how some buildings linked to internet firms have been damaged in attacks. Photos and videos show sites that house various internet and telecom firms have been damaged, while reports from official organizations, including the United Nations, describe the impact of people being offline.

Damaged Lines

Around the world, the internet and telecoms networks that typically give web users access to international video calls, online banking, and endless social media are a complicated, sprawling mix of hardware and software. Networks of networks, combining data centers, servers, switches, and reams of cables, communicate with each other and send data globally. Local internet access is provided by a mix of companies with no clear public documentation of their infrastructure, making it difficult to monitor the overall status of the system as a whole. In Gaza, experts say, internet connectivity is heavily reliant on Israeli infrastructure to connect to the outside world.

Amid Israel’s intense bombing of Gaza, physical systems powering the internet have been destroyed. On October 10, the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which oversees emergency responses, said air strikes “targeted several telecommunication installations” and had destroyed two of the three main lines of communications going into Gaza.

Prior to tonight’s blackout, internet connectivity remained but was “extremely slow and limited,” Access Now’s Fatafta says. People she has spoken to from Gaza say it could take a day to upload and send a few photos. “They have to send like 20 messages in order for one to go through,” Fatafta says. “They are desperately—especially for Gazans that live outside—trying to get through to their families.”

“Every time I try to call someone from family or friends, I try to call between seven to 10 times,” says Ramadan Al-Agha, a digital marketer who lives in Khan Yunis, a city in the south of the Gaza Strip. “The call may be cut off two or three times,” he told WIRED in a WhatsApp message before the latest outages. “We cannot access news quickly and clearly.” People in the region have simultaneously faced electricity blackouts, dwindling supplies of fuel used to power generators, and a lack of clean water, food, and medical supplies. “It is a humanitarian disaster,” Al-Agha says.

Connectivity in Gaza started to drop not long after Israel responded to the October 7 Hamas attack. Rene Wilhelm, a senior R&D engineer at the nonprofit internet infrastructure organization Ripe Network Coordination Center, says based on an analysis of internet routing data it collects that 11 Palestinian networks, which may operate both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, began to experience disruption after October 7. Eight of the networks were no longer visible to the global internet as of October 23, Wilhelm says. Ahead of this evening’s blackout, there was around 15 percent of normal connectivity, according to data from Georgia Tech’s Internet Outage Detection and Analysis project. That dropped to around 7 percent as reports of the blackout circulated.

One office belonging to Paltel in the Al Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City has been destroyed in the attacks, photos and videos show. Floors have been destroyed and windows blown away in the multistory building, and piles of rubble surround the entrances. (It is unclear what equipment the building housed or how many floors Paltel occupied.) Another internet provider, AlfaNet, is listed as being based in the Al-Watan Tower. The company posted to its Facebook page on October 8 that the tower had been destroyed and its services have stopped, with other online posts also saying the tower has been destroyed.

Multiple Palestinian internet and telecoms firms have said their services have been disrupted during the war, mostly posting to social media. Internet provider Fusion initially said its engineers were trying to repair its infrastructure, although it has since said this is not continuing. “The network was destroyed, and the cables and poles were badly damaged by the bombing,” it wrote on Facebook. JetNet said there had been a “sudden disruption” to access points. SpeedClick posted that the situation was out of its control. And HiNet posted that it has “no more to offer to ensure” people could stay online following “the attacks and destruction our internet servers have suffered.”

Across Paltel’s network on October 19, according to an update shared by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 83 percent of fixed line users had been disconnected, with 53 percent of sites providing fixed line connections also being offline. Half of the company’s fiber optic internet lines in Gaza weren’t operational, the update says. The connectivity disappeared this evening, according to Paltel’s Facebook post, which says there has been a “complete interruption” of all its services. Paltel, AlfaNet, Fusion, and SpeedClick could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment.

Lost Connections

In recent years, governments and authoritarian regimes have frequently turned to shutting down the internet for millions of people in attempts to suppress protests and curtail free speech. Targeting the communications networks is common during conflicts. During Russia's war in Ukraine, its forces have decimated communications networks, tried to take over the internet, and set up new mobile companies to control information flows. When Hamas first attacked Israel on October 7, it used drones to bomb communications equipment at surveillance posts along the borders of the Gaza Strip.

Monika Gehner, the head of corporate communications at the International Telecommunication Union, says the body is always “alarmed” by damage inflicted on any telecommunications infrastructure during conflicts. The ITU, the United Nations’ primary internet governance body, believes “efficient telecommunication services” are crucial to peace and international cooperation, and its secretary-general has called for respecting infrastructure in the Middle East, Gehner says.

Officials in Israel have consistently claimed they are targeting Hamas militants within Gaza, not civilians, while responding to the Hamas attacks, which killed more than 1,400 people in Israel. The Hamas-run Health Ministry within Gaza has said more than 7,000 people have been killed there and released a list of names. A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces did not respond to WIRED’s questions about internet disruptions within Gaza.

Hanna Kreitem, a senior adviser for internet technology and development in the Middle East and North Africa at the Internet Society, an open internet advocacy nonprofit, says Palestinian firms have a “big reliance” on Israeli internet firms. “Palestinians are not controlling any of the ICT infrastructure,” says Mona Shtaya, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. Mobile networks in the Gaza Strip rely on 2G technologies. Al-Agha, the digital marketer, shared a screenshot showing mobile internet speeds of 7.18 kilobytes per second; average mobile speeds in the US in 2022 were 24 megabits per second, according to mobile analytics firm Statista.

“The internet is vital in times of war in crises,” says Fatafta, the Access Now policy manager, who adds that there can be “terrible consequences” linked to connectivity blackouts. The UN’s OCHA said rescue workers have had a harder time “carrying out their mission” partly due to the “limited or no connection to mobile networks.” Al-Agha says he has lost some clients due to the disruptions. The lack of connectivity can obscure events that are happening on the ground, Fatafta says. News crews have told WIRED they have footage from the ground but are “losing the story because of the internet.”

Kreitem says that a lack of electricity and access to the equipment will have made an impact on top of any physical damage to communications networks. “We don't know how many of the people that actually operate these networks are still alive,” Kreitem says. “The network operators are part of the world there, there's no place for them to run. They are as affected as any other person.”

[slenbee]

Common scams and you

Hello everyone!

I'm finally writing out the idea that has been floating around in my head for a while now, and I'm honestly surprised there's no videos on youtube (that I've found) that talk about the most common scams that are out there on the internet that you may encounter.

So! Let's start.

#1. Virus pop up scams.

These types of scams are based around inciting panic and fear in those that encounter them. They are generally encountered by mistyping a url in the search bar that then leads you to a web page containing a flashy visual alert (and sometimes audio alert) stating something like the following:

Your system is at risk! # Viruses found! Warning!

Your system has been compromised!

Viruses / Trojans found!

The majority of which then provide a phone number that scam victims would call to get the issue 'resolved.' Those who fall for this scam contact the call center seeking help, and those there- the scammers, lull their victims into a false sense of security that they'll solve the issue. They then have their victims download remote access software such as AnyDesk and UltraViewer.

These programs allow a user who connects complete and TOTAL CONTROL of your computer. They can view your screen, track what you type or click, not to mention they can lock it, and they can change the password, holding it at ransom. They can do pretty much ANYTHING as long as the software is installed. It runs in the background and they can monitor everything you do.

They will tell you that to get rid of the virus/'hack', you must pay a certain amount (usually between $300-$1k or more) for them to clean your computer and 'add an antivirus'.

They will tell you that you need to go to walmart/wallgreens to get gift cards. Or they will ask you to provide banking details so that they can steal your banking/login information to transfer money via zelle or other methods while under the control of the remote access application.

If you or anyone you know has made it to the installation part of this scam, make sure to disconnect the internet immediately and uninstall the program that they installed upon the computer.

This scam can ALSO happen to people on mobile. There are websites and apps configured to show that you've got a virus, and much like above, it will tell you that you need to call a phone number or download an app to get it resolved.

Clicking off the page / notification gets rid of it. There was never any virus to worry about. So don't worry too much if you see something like this while browsing the internet. Just try and be safe!

#2. E-Mail scams.

The most notorious of all of e-mail scams that I've encountered over the years are as follows:

Your <brand> anti-virus has expired. Click here to re-new!

You have been charged <huge amount> for <brand> anti-virus. If this is a mistake please call <phone number> to get this resolved.

You have received a PayPal invoice from <scammer name/brand> for <huge amount> please call <phone number>.

Much like the virus pop up scam, these scams follow a similar path when it comes to the end result. You call them, they have you install a remote access application, they tell you to pay x amount of money so they can install their 'anti-virus', and/or they do a fake 'scan' in the console, and likely install a real virus that harvests your information.

All in all, best to avoid it/delete the e-mail. No proper anti-virus is going to send you an e-mail telling you to call them. Nor are they going to charge you $300 for a 'renewal.'

As for the paypal invoice, just ignore it and check your actual paypal. If there's no invoice, there never was one in the first place. Flag it as trash and delete it.

#3 Phone scams.

These can be scary, especially if you've got a son, daughter, or relative who might live out of town.

Mom/Dad I lost my phone can you send me money for a new one?

Hey I'm with your kid and they're hurt/arrested/etc can you send me some money to pay the ambulance/bail/etc.

Your kid said I'd bring you these things and you'd pay me.

This is <name> from <fake business/tech support> on behalf of apple/microsoft to let you know your warranty has expired.

Sadly this means that your phone number has likely been leaked online somewhere, and scammers are now attempting to use it to get money from you. Best advice is to hang up and block the number immediately before calling your child/family member to make sure they're okay.

#4. Text Scams.

These are generally pretty easy to notice, and pretty easy to avoid, if you know what to look out for.

Any random number that texts you with something akin to the following, is a scam:

THIS IS <FAKE NAME> FROM THE UNITED STATES <FAKE COMPANY> TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU'VE WON <MILLIONS OF DOLLARS>. PLEASE FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW TO HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR WINNINGS.

Fedex has your package click this link to update your information.

UPS has failed to deliver your package. click this link to-

Hi <name that's not yours> are we set for our <event> next <day>?

<name not yours> I'm looking forward to <activity> next <day>. Are you going to be busy?

While links to scammy websites are easy to avoid, the last two might not be so easy to some people. Replying to them in any form puts you on a list of 'active numbers' for them to target. They will text you repeatedly with different prompts which all lead down the same line.

You say 'wrong number', they say 'this isn't <name>?' you say 'no' they say 'i'm so sorry i thought this was <name>' you say 'no problem' they say 'oh you're so kind want to be friends?' which then leads into 'i'm <fake name> from China/Singapore/<country> but I live in california/new york. I'm a fashion designer/investor/owner of a small company' and they send a fake picture of them which is likely stolen from somewhere online. They also ask for you to send them YOUR pictures. Don't do this.

End goal is for you to download WatsApp/Telegram to send them money and/or invest in fake crypto.

There are also text scams similar to those mentioned above where it's someone pretending to be a sugar mommy/daddy and they try to get you to spend time and hook up with them. They ask you to pay a 'fee' so they know you're 'legit' or something which, of course, is just a way to get you to send them money.

#5. Facebook Scams.

These are rather new, but once you know the signs, you'll know how to avoid them.

When buying/selling something on facebook, if someone says they can't pick it up but <brother/sister/cousin> can and they ask if you take cashapp, zelle, etc, it's a scam.

If you or someone you know who is older/elderly is contacted by someone who's in the military/ex-military/ex-cia/ex-fbi etc and they flood your DM's with affection and kindness and lots of love and attention in an effort to get you in a relationship with them, this is known as a romance scam.

They will ask for money to 'get a new phone' or 'to send pictures because my camera is broken.' or to 'buy a plane ticket to come see you'. It's a scam, a big scam, and a lot of elderly people have been scammed out of a lot of money because of it. They will call you and talk to you and say they love you and all that kissy kissy mwah junk just to build trust so they can try and get money.

It's not real. As sad as that is to say, all these people are after is money.

If you know anyone who might be in any of these situations, PLEASE try and talk some sense into them. Especially if they've sent large amounts of money to someone over the internet. Google is your best friend, and there is information out there for people who want to find it.

All in all, just make sure you're careful in who you trust.

#6. Discord/Steam Scams.

These can be less obvious to those who aren't tech savvy, but once you know the signs they're hard to miss.

Anyone who randomly DM's you about beta-testing their 'new game' is trying to get you to click a link that leads to a website containing an application that contains a virus. This will harvest your information and give the hacker access to everything on your computer.

Anyone who randomly DM's you saying that they found 'compromising photos/information of you online' most likely will try to get you to click a virus link that will infect your computer.

Anyone who randomly DM's you saying they 'reported you to the discord/steam admins' for something inappropriate/illegal will try to get you to contact their 'friend' who is a 'discord/steam admin' to get it resolved.

This will either involve them sending you a virus link or trying to get you to send them money/gift cards to get the issue 'resolved.' They will also sometimes send you to a legit looking steam page which is fake and will harvest your steam login data.

Again, these are easy to notice once you know the signs. Just note that sometimes your friends might send you messages like these or ask for money, which in that case their account was likely compromised/hacked. Make sure to report them so that discord/steam can help get the account back in the right hands.

I know I've likely forgotten some other types of scams but for now these are the most common that people should keep an eye out and look for.

Protect yourself and protect others!

[pencil-peach]

GWitch Onscreen Text: Episode 7

This is part eight of my attempt to transcribe and discuss all the monitor text in g witch! Because I got worms! We're on episode 7, "Shall We Gundam?"

Now then. Shall we? (Gundam?)

Not text, but in the opening, Vim tells the Peil Witches that it's despicable of them to breach the Cathedra Agreement, only for one of them to respond that she believes he would know something about that himself. This is our first hint towards the existence of the Schwarzette.

Now to the real text, we see a mockup of the Pharact of it's systems in this opening as well.

Here, we see that the Pharact is 19.1m and 57.1t.

The Blue and Red labels are tough to make out, but they each respectively say the same thing. I'll make my best guess: Blue labels: G-O | SYS-GUND CHH Red Labels: GUND FORMAT | CORAX UNITS

The Corax Units are the name of the Pharacts GUND Bits, and we know those use the Gund Format, so that checks. We saw 'CHH' on 4's data graph, still not sure what it means though.

I think the floating red text says GA - MS//RACT, but I can't be sure. The big label in the center says GUND-ARM FP/A-77.

Not text, but I think Sarius and Delling is another relationship I wish we got to see more of. Delling actually worked directly under Sarius within Grassley before eventually becoming President of the entire Group.

During the scene in the greenhouse, we get a look at the program on Miorine's monitor. No way to read the actual text on it from this shot, but we do see Miorine verify the name of one of the brands of fertilizer before presumably typing it on the screen, so it's probably safe to assume it's tracking the general maintenance of the tomatoes.

We never get a completely clear shot of the Incubation Party Invitation (Because it just can never be easy) But I'll make my best estimate of it from the shots we DO get.

TEXT: SUBJECT: INCUBATION EVENT PARTY INVITATION & APPLICATION GUIDELINES FROM: BENERIT GROUP PROTOCOL MANAGEMENT OFFICE

INVITATION The Benerit Group has the great honor of inviting you to the 15th Incubation Event.

Off topic but this scene has one of my favorite Miorine Noises in the whole show. It's so good. Take a listen. She is Flabbergasted.

TEXT: 15th INCUBATION EVENT PARTY Hosted by BENERIT GROUP

Pretty...

The Mobile Suits on display aren't named, but the one in the back right is actually the YOASOBI Collaboration Version of the Demi Trainer.

(YOASOBI are the musical duo that composed Shukufuku)

I wont bore you with a 1 to 1 transcription of the text of this first presentation, so here's the general overview.

This is PRESENTATION No. 001 for the Incubation Party from TENGRIFF SOLUTIONS. They're asking for 100,000,000 to develop an INTEGRATED FIRE CONTROL SOFTWARE. What that means generally is that they want to develop a software that can automatically correct/redirect an MS's aim to a specific target, in both Individual and Team based MS Operations. The benefits of this system are: AUTO TRAJECTORY CORRECTION AUTO CORIOLIS CORRECTION AUTO GRAVITY CORRECTION FIRE CONTROL FORMS BATTALION HIGH SPEED TARGET DATA LINK HIGH PERFORMANCE SPOTTING SYSTEM ALL ENVIRONMENT CONTROL SYSTEM

Unfortunately this project did not meet the 75% formation requirement and DIED

Funny Shaddiq Expression. I don't think he ever makes a face like this for the rest of the series.

[Pointing] One of the two times throughout the series we see any pat of Notrette. The only other time is in the second season opening.

We see VIM JETURK on Lauda's screen when he's calling him. (The "Accept" button actually darkens when Lauda taps it)

This scene is our first look into Nika's role as a go between for Shaddiq, and also how it'll be a main point of conflict between her and Martin, as he's the one who sees the two of them talking.

(Also, Shaddiq has a habit of abruptly lowering the tone of his voice to signify a change in his demeanor. If you ever rewatch the series again, try and listen for it ! He does it all the time)

TEXT (Top to Bottom) BENERIT GROUP NETWORK CONNECTION ^ ACCESS REQUEST ACCESS POINT: STAGE SCREEN LINE CODE: 2915.455X.eX STATUS: APPROVAL PENDING LINE CODE: Yds2.4006.40 LINE CODE: 2945.Rr50.52 LINE CODE: KL40.024c.R2

Miorine's phone when she requests access to the Stage Screen

When she gets approved and begins connecting, her phone displays this loading screen called SYNCHRONIZE

And the stage screen is displaying that same loading screen for a split second before fully connecting.

Miorine explains what this all means in the show proper, so I feel it'd be redundant to explain it, but here's the presentation anyhow.

We also see the UI of the program Mio is using in the presentation. She only uses the MEMO tab, but we see that there's a TEXT and PICT tab as well.

When Miorine takes the phone back from Delling, the investment status has reached 3%, meaning he invested 7,200,000,000 in the company. Mama Mia !

Business Successfully Formed!

But it seems that they only reached the bare minimum amount, 75%. So of the 240,000,000,000, she requested, the company earned at LEAST 180,000,000,000

We also see that Miorine’s presentation is only the 5th one of the night.

And that's all! Thank you very much! Unfortunately I can't leave anymore images because I've somehow reached the image limit :(

Instead I leave you with this: Go back and watch the scene where Miorine and Suletta see Prospera and Godoy. After the scene where Suletta greets him, they keep drawing his face wrong. Okay! Goodbye....!

Click here to go to Episode 8!

Click here to go to the Masterpost!

[callcenterwfhsoftware]

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Performance Metrics: The software provides valuable data on key performance indicators (KPIs) like average handling time, first call resolution, and customer satisfaction scores. This data helps in tracking progress and making informed decisions to boost efficiency.

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By leveraging CollaborationRoom’s call monitoring software, virtual contact centers can ensure that their employees are not only meeting performance standards but also continuously improving, leading to enhanced overall efficiency and customer satisfaction.

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

Researchers have uncovered new safety concerns in Google Chrome

When you’re on the web doing some reading, shopping, or any other online activity, your browser is probably the last thing you’re thinking about. Web browsers—including the “big four” of Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox—operate silently in the background, and don’t usually come to mind unless you experience web pages not loading, or you’ve decided to add some new browsing features to improve functionality.

It’s important, however, to stay aware of browser-related safety concerns. Researchers have recently uncovered a couple such threats that could affect millions of web users. Both happen to target Google Chrome, which is by far the most popular web browser in the world. But even if you don’t currently use Chrome, it’s worth understanding these issues, as similar ones inevitably show up on other browser platforms. Let’s look at the two of the latest browser-related security problems, along with tips on how to keep yourself safe when browsing the web.

Problem: Fake error messages According to recent reports, cybersecurity researchers have discovered a fake error warning in Google Chrome. Some users are seeing what appears to be an authentic Chrome pop-up window, with a message at the top stating “Something went wrong while displaying this webpage,” or similar. Below that message, the window includes a list of instructions on how to fix the “error.” It’s actually a front for malware. If you see a pop-up like this and click through the fraudulent instructions, you’ll be essentially giving cybercriminals access to your PC, allowing them to plant malicious software designed to steal your personal information. There’s a telltale sign that this pop-up window is a scam: One of the instructions involves the running of “Windows PowerShell,” a computer program from Microsoft. Chrome never asks users to run this program as part of any legitimate fix. Here are a few of Google’s tips for avoiding malware like this:

• Keep your computer’s operating system up to date, as each new version typically includes the latest security fixes. If available, turn on automatic updates. • If possible, avoid clicking inside any unexpected pop-up windows, even if they appear to be from a legitimate source. Simply close the window. • Install and use an antivirus program to run regular scans of your computer for malware.

Problem: Harmful browser extensions Researchers from Stanford University and the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security estimate that between mid 2020 and early 2023, roughly 280 million Google Chrome users installed extensions from the Google Chrome Store that were found to contain malware. A browser extension is a software application that you can add to your web browser to improve its functionality. Some extensions are created by the browser platforms themselves; most are offered by third-party developers. All are built on what’s called a permissions model—they require permission from the user to access certain information like browsing history, physical location, or data on websites visited by the user.

Extensions are a great way to get more out of your online experience. Unfortunately, as the new research shows, they’re also a vehicle for bad actors to exploit. Among the countless legitimate extensions available in places like the Google Chrome Store are malicious ones designed to sneak malware or spyware onto your device, or steal passwords or other data. Google claims the issue is not widespread. Its Security Blog states that in 2024, “less than 1% of all installs from the Chrome Web Store were found to include malware.” It also says Google has a dedicated team that reviews extensions before they’re offered on the Chrome Web Store, and continually monitors them. Regardless, there are things you can do to be better protected from unsafe extensions. These include:

• In Chrome, turn on Enhanced Safe Browsing. It’s designed to help protect you against harmful extensions and other threats. • Never install an extension without doing at least a little research about the application and its developer. Read reviews and visit the developer’s website to check legitimacy. • If possible, don’t give an extension unlimited permission to work on every website, only on select sites. And if you have extensions you’re no longer actively using, uninstall them. (In Chrome, you can manage extensions by visiting the chrome://extensions page.)

[rapeculturerealities]

Kids Are Back in Classrooms and Laptops Are Still Spying on Them | WIRED

Student-monitoring software has come under renewed scrutiny over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. When students in the US were forced to continue their schooling virtually, many brought home school-issued devices. Baked into these machines was software that can allow teachers to view and control students’ screens, use AI to scan text from student emails and cloud-based documents, and, in severe cases, send alerts of potential violent threats or mental health harms to educators and local law enforcement after school hours.

Now that the majority of American students are finally going back to school in-person, the surveillance software that proliferated during the pandemic will stay on their school-issued devices, where it will continue to watch them. According to a report published today from the Center for Democracy and Technology, 89 percent of teachers have said that their schools will continue using student-monitoring software, up 5 percentage points from last year. At the same time, the overturning of Roe v. Wade has led to new concerns about digital surveillance in states that have made abortion care illegal. Proposals targeting LGBTQ youth, such as the Texas governor’s calls to investigate the families of kids seeking gender-affirming care, raise additional worries about how data collected through school-issued devices might be weaponized in September.

The CDT report also reveals how monitoring software can shrink the distance between classrooms and carceral systems. Forty-four percent of teachers reported that at least one student at their school has been contacted by law enforcement as a result of behaviors flagged by the monitoring software. And 37 percent of teachers who say their school uses activity monitoring outside of regular hours report that such alerts are directed to “a third party focused on public safety” (e.g., local police department, immigration enforcement). “Schools have institutionalized and routinized law enforcement’s access to students’ information,” says Elizabeth Laird, the director of equity in civic technology at the CDT.

[classicintp]

sometimes we like to think of animal bodies (including our own) like a lone passenger inside the command center of a giant, mechanical robot made of meat. usually the imagination conducts some rudimentary metaphor of you surrounded by monitors feeding you outside images captured by your two state-of-the-art high-definition cameras called Eyes, with surround sound speakers relaying the audio from your mech suit's two positioning microphones called Ears, while you/your brain pushes buttons and pulls levers to move yours arms and legs, protected from temperature extremes, impacts, and disease by the mechanized meat suit. im not saying it's the only idea ever but it's one of the most (if not *the* most) common metaphors used to imagine a basic understanding of how the system works.

but it's not at all what's happening. a more apt metaphor is you alone tied up in a dark room with no light whatsoever. when you try to move, your limbs don't respond; you feel no pressure as you resist your bonds nor texture of the binds constricting you. you don't even know if you're tied up actually, you're just assuming you are because when you moved you didn't feel the familiar sensations and weight of free movement. You felt nothing.

well, almost nothing: you felt an electric shock. it didn't hurt, and it wasn't localized like a sting, but it enveloped your whole body. you notice when you try to move your right arm, while you still can't see anything or feel the weight of your arm move, you feel one kind of shock.. and when you try to move your left arm you feel almost the exact same shock. almost the same, but just different enough that you can tell one is for your left arm, one is for your right arm.

other than these shocks you are utterly paralyzed. you can't see, you can't hear, you can't feel anything except the shocks. you open your eyes wide hoping they've adjusted enough to find any modicum of faint light but you can't even feel the stretch of your eyelids as if you didn't even have eyes at all. that's how utterly still and paralyzed you are. but the moment you tried to open your eyes you are belted with more shocks. all around you the buzz and hum and tingle of different pulses and intensities of electricity in different patterns on every inch of your body.

that's what your brain is doing right now. it has spent so much time paralyzed in its dark, lightless, quiet room that it highly specifically understands the position and location of your arms and legs based on this electrical feedback. your eyes take in all of the different frequencies of light and convert them to different intensities and complex coded patterns of electricity voltages. music plays in the car and your cochlea transmits a rollercoaster of highly specific electrical signals to shock your brain with. imagine that. the blind can't see, the deaf can't hear, but imagine also being paralyzed, unfeeling, piloting a giant, dangerous mech robot based only on the waves, pulses, and patterns of electricity you are shocked with 24/7.

and consider this.. im still speaking too simply for this metaphor to be anything close to accurate; your conscious self, who you recognize yourself to be, is not your brain. rather than you alone in a room trying to move your arm and getting lit up with a specific pattern of biting electricity as specific feedback... imagine instead you have the help of an artificial intelligence software that is programmed to aid you in piloting the mech. everything the mech suit's visual sensors convert into electricity that pulses across your otherwise paralyzed form, you have to translate and form into a model used to teach the AI. you receive about a billion different pulses and patterns of shocking electricity just from the visual system that you only relay the most useful and relevant 25% of entire spectrum of info: for example, the optical system has a minor design flaw that leaves a blind spot in the positional data of the signal you receive from it, but with the stream of signals you receive about the position of each eye and the depths of each obstacle they detect? you're pretty easily able to fill in the missing signal data, so you do that and feed that to the AI's model so it doesn't have to be aware the mech suit has a blindspot in its vision (which could otherwise cause the AI to focus on the intentional design flaw instead of literally anything else it could be doing).

im 6 paragraphs in so im gonna stop there. it's an existential realization i remember every now and it feels better to talk about it. you, me? we're egotistical AI programs integrated into a mechanical meat robot; we aid the original captain with piloting the system as an extension of their being rather than as a separated tool. do you understand? does it makes sense that your conscious self does not see with your eyes? that your brain does not see with your eyes? Your eyes take in light and turn it into a complicated sightless electrical morse code, your brain interprets those pulses and feeds you, the AI program, the pertinent information based on the billions and billions of big and small models its trained you with for decades. everything you think you see is just bad AI art. truly as jaden smith once tweeted, how can mirrors be real if your eyes aren't real??

[callcriteriaqa]

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