David Pogue is waging war on those carriers that make you listen to a stupid canned message from them after you listen to a personal voicemail message. Those 15 seconds of canned bullshit are there to make you rack up mobile expenses.

One way to avoid them is to press:

*-1-# in a row

This is because the secret skip the message code is different for each carrier and this should get them all.

How to bypass stupid voicemail instructions

There are loads of ways to complain in the US to your carrier – we should start this in Europe as well!

‘Take Back the Beep’ Campaign – Pogue’s Posts Blog – NYTimes.com.

The Pirate Bay has been told to block access to Dutch users in some magical fashion during a court session in which the subpoena’s were delivered via Twitter and Facebook and the defendants were not able to come to the courtroom to defend themselves. They sent a written response, but this was ignored due to their non presence.

Is this the beginning of the end of free speech on internet in the Netherlands? If it’s up to the SS like stichting Brein it is: and they’ll be the arbiters of what we are and aren’t allowed to see.

Dutch court rules that The Pirate Bay should be blocked | Security and the Net.