So I got my telephone bill today and normally it’s like $360HK a month.

It’s a one off payment for all data usage on my windows mobile phone. I thought I’d splash out and get myself an HTC HD2 because it looked super cool and I can now watch YouTube easily, anywhere I go.

More recently I started downloading apps for it, more specifically games. This is where it appears to have bitten me in the arse.

My bill was for $2124.34HK for the last month. I looked at the details of it and it shows that at a certain time, late one evening I had apparently made a 30 min phone call to Antarctica, which cost $1609.

I called SmarTone Vodaphone about this and she told me that they knew about a problem, whereby Windows phone users that had been infected with a virus had been making telephone calls to this number.  She also went on to tell me that it was specifically from a game that was downloaded called “3D Anti Terrorist”

which I did remember downloading and later removing because it didn’t work on my phone.  She then advised me that I would need to do a full, hard reset of the phone, meaning that all my data would be lost.  The more important question that she answered was that by the guidelines that are written by her company and she is forced to regurgitate, I would have to pay for this phone call.

This would have been downloaded from one of two places. Either from the “Windows Market Place” or more likely from “Freeware PocketPC”. The thing is I can’t seem to find it on these sites now and I don’t find any reference to it, apology for posting it, or anything to say that the application had a virus in it.

However, I did find this which fully helped to explain it.

So my questions are now.

• If smartone knew about this virus, what have they done about it?
• Have they approached the company that I downloaded it from (they undoubtedly have a record).
• Am I going to pay for this phone call?
• Does Freeware for Pocket PC or Windows marketplace have any antivirus software on it?

I am conducting my search now and waiting for the call from the managers at the telephone company.

*UPDATE*

So, as always, it’s a real effort to make sure you get to talk to the manager and when you do, things can start to happen with positive change.

The first thing to happen was that I was offered if I would pay half of the outstanding balance for this rougue telephone call. Which, of course, I flat refused. They explained that they (SmarTone) would have to pay the IDD company for the call and that I need to pay SmarTone. I explained it very simply, that they either don’t pay for the IDD call or take the IDD company to court and I will not pay for the call.

A few days later and I was told that they would pay for all of the cost of the telephone call and further more, the SmartTone service (from Hong Kong) would not allow calls to these premium rate IDD services anymore. So even if my phone did get the same virus again, it wouldn’t be able to dial the number to exploit the system again.

So all in all, it seem to appear that SmarTone have reacted to this situation rather well and left me happy enough for the time being to remain their customer.

Well done SmarTone.

What a load of tripe.

First of all, once you get the gist of it you know exactly what’s going to happen. Who is implicated, what is implicated, how it will pan out for the people concerned in the film and how it will end.

The US film industry (propaganda machine) obviously think that there is a need to try and paint a picture of a fictitious American hero trying to fight for “truth justice and the American way”. They have pinned a fictitious blame on an individual that is flimsy and weak.  The whole film just doesn’t cut it.

American troops were and still are in Iraq, because they were/are told to be there. Long after it became totally clear that the whole WMD “thing” was a lie (which we all knew before the invasion), the US popular thought was that this is the war we are in and while we’re here lets get what we can.
Considering that this film was about false intelligence, I find it paradoxical that this film is an insult to my and anyone else’s intelligence.

Do not turn to this film for any answers to any serious questions and do not turn to this film for any entertainment. I found myself not caring less who lived or died in this unextravagant predictable “thriller”.

Go and do something less boring instead.

It has been confirmed over the enormous argument that has taken place between China and US corporate giants Google, that this is to be settled with a head to head battle on the streets of Hong Kong.

After mapping the entire City for the Google Maps application, this information has been fed to the servers at EA. EA became famous for their sports games and most recently have dominated the first person shoot up market with their “Battlefield Bad Company”.

The issue of Google pulling out of China, has upset many business leaders throughout the super power. Google had created an infrastructure that these business’s had come to depend upon. China had an arrangement with Google keeping the flow of information in check, which Google claimed they found unethical.

The argument has not been resolved and in a recent board meeting, executives came to blows, both citing the fact that they were losing billions of dollars over the disagreement.

In stepped EA’s head of business development, Mr Martin Tyler says “….throughout history, such arguments over trade have ended up in warfare. What both side are talking about concerns many billions of dollars and there seems to be no agreement to go forward. What we suggested was that both sides go head to head, through our servers, on a simulated version of Hong Kong. Winner takes all.”

Both sides have welcomed the idea and have agreed a six month’s of monitoring gamers to assemble their armies. After this there will be a two week conscription and training, before the final armies are prepared for battle.

All that is left now, is to sell the viewing rights to TV.