Day: 25 December 2015

Crossed lines and the continuing mystery of 07490170731

https://twitter.com/cubicgarden/status/680196715803054080

I wrote the following post last night and I know it was posted because its on my FB wall (friends have commented too) and posted to twitter correctly. I even found a Google Cached version of it here. But looking at my WordPress install there is no sign of it at all!

googlecache-version of 07490170731

Since yesterday I tried to call O2 to say there was a problem but line went quiet for 10mins and I got more text messages.

Merry xmas to you and family..****** and david 1:30 PM
We might be doing a surprise visi .make sure in 1:37 PM
Eh!!!??? Wtf!!!???
So I replied, expecting my number to be blocked but I explained they got the wrong number. I wouldn’t care so much but theres a number of weird things happening including the deletion of my blog post!
Anyway here’s the blog I originally wrote…

Every once in a while you feel like the something is emerging, like skynet is reaching centennial status or something. Or more likely GCHQ and others have made some kind of mistake. Its almost like those number counting stations.

A friend who I haven’t heard from in almost 2 years suddenly got in touch. It was so weird and the caller ID was unknown to my work mobile phone, which was forwarded to my personal mobile phone. I briefly spoke to my friend but the line was terrible (but I was in starbucks to be fair so thought little about it) she called me back from another number – This time 07490170731 (which I added to her contact). I could hear her but it was weird like there was a crossline or something. Like somebody was listening and I could hear their breathing. On both times I could hear her but she couldn’t hear me much. I said about the heavy breathing and coughing which was male. She said she could hear it and would give me a call back another time. She also said I had called her…?

I got a text from that number at 6:38pm (23rd dec) saying it was her and at 6:48pm the same day. “Sorted had a cross line..”

I replied saying something like… Ummm I dont think you can crosslines on a digital siginal?

Which prompted this tweet, after some searching…

It was so weird but things got weirder…. after calling the friend on the mobile number again and texting. Going to a voice mail machine of as it sounded like a vehicle recovery centre or something. I then got another call with her and the rough man coughing. She could kind of hear me and I said about the man and that somebody was listening in before hanging up. It was her and she responded like she would, so no recording or someone putting her up to it as such.

I got more texts asking if I’m ok, and what was I doing tomorrow? This is when I decided to not text back and contact her via Facebook and Twitter DM. With every message that came through, I replied saying look at your twitter dm and fb.

In the morning I got messages from the same number this time saying it was ******* from **** shop. I said wtf? I’m sorry ****** has been using this number to contact me. This was about 10:10am.

Then while sitting in the Arnolfini cafe, I got messages saying…

Did you just tex a lady called ****** .and who areYOU

WHO ARE YOU?

****** is my wife..and who is **** ..and where is the shop..please

I then got a call from David ******** telling me to take him off speaker phone and stop messing about. I obviously didn’t have him on speaker but he was distant like the calls previously with my friend (no man coughing though). After putting down the phone I got…

Who are you and why playing about.you just tex my wife.and who is **** again.

After a while I got this…

Ive reported to my service provider.my name is david ****** and an gonna block your number

Nothing since, but I’ve not called or texted that number since. Also nothing from my friend but I did text her old numbers just in-case.

Finally I spent some time researching online 07490170731. Out of the stuff I found, this was the most interesting and confirmed the apps which forward my sms’s, the phone provider and my friends wasn’t having a laugh.

In the last 3 days…

Jessica 3 daysI’m looking for the name of the owner of the number 07490170731?

Alfie 3 dayswho is the owner of this number 07490170731 ?

Chloé 3 daysCan you help me to find out who owns this number 07490170731 ?

I still don’t know whats really going on behind the number but I’ll be recording the next call if I get one. I have a log of all my text messages anyway and use a app to log calls times to my google calendar anyway. The audit trail is all there at least. I removed identifiable names, just incase its one massive prank or some kind.

Why blog this, especially in the early hours of Christmas day? No idea, I find it slightly bizarre like I scratched up against the side of the matrix or something. Too weird to explain to the people I have including my parents and friends.

Happy Christmas!

 

A review of my 2015 resolutions

Harajuku

Its that time of year when I reflect on the amazing amount of things which have happened this year, even Richard Brandson is in on this now. While I’m not going to try out quantified self Stephen wolfram; as I mentioned in last years review, but heres some bits and bobs.

 

  • 2,653,347 steps this year so far
  • 2791 floors this year so far
  • 1,98.78 km of walked distance so far
  • 449mins of sleep deficit (this is what I should have
  • Average sleep this year has been 6 hours 50mins.

Trakt.tv recently changed their interface and are still waiting on their yearly dashboard. On Last.FM I listened to 255 artists  with an average of 3 scobbles per day.

Now on with the 2015 resolutions review…

 

  1. Go to a new part of the world
    This was a big win this year.
    Not only did I make it to Tokyo, Japan at long last but I also went to Warsaw , Poland and even to Fife in Scotland; which was the 1st of 2 times in Scotland this year.  All were great and I’m sure to visit again in the near future.
  2. Improve my circus skills
    I started to learn the basics of the vertex during the early autumn months and learned quickly where I was going wrong with a visit to Manchester Quirkus. I was doing the whip with the wrong hand causing the diabolo to tilt away from me. Now I can kind of get the diabolo into a vertex but haven’t mastered any moves beyond that… yet!
  3. Scooter into another country or new area
    I  drove up to Scotland on my scooter, which isn’t bad. Yes it was only gretna green (just over the border but it’s still Scotland). I’m certainly thinking about next year driving further, as I saw signs saying Edinburgh and Glasgow less than 100 miles. I reckon I could get up to both in about 4 hours. Maybe stopping in Kate’s Yut again. I’m also thinking Ireland would be good, maybe even Northern Ireland?
  4. Explore my sapiosexual and datasexual sides
    Well thanks to Tom for the total destruction of sapiosexual term. Which I explored in the blog entry about myself. Friends and collages have commented (when asked) at the bravery of being so open about things like this. Which I sniff at because theres so much more…
  5. Quantify more and make better use of my data exports
    Didn’t do so much of this, I did less quantified self aggregation but added even more sensors to the line up including weight scales and even better sleep tracking. I also found the interest in Manchester around the Quantified Self also dropped and I had to put the Manchester QS meetup on hold, along with attending the QSEU 2015 conference. My data is still in silos but I’m certainly thinking about doing more in 2016. Especially around the homelab and media exports.
  6. Do something for other dyslexics
     This year I’ve been helping others and attending a dyslexic meetup in Manchester every first Saturday of the month. Its been good to discuss openly with others.
    As part of Mozfest 2015, I was also included a session about dyslexia and it was well attended and spawned an adhoc session with further talks with the Tate to be continued in 2016.
  7. Improve my health and alertness
    Yes things are getting better and better. Alertness is great but of course there is always room to improve. The electronic scale is useful and of course the sleep tracking is identifying patterns which contribute. Nothing scientific but interesting.
  8. Hire somebody to ironing my clothes
     Done… Just need to use her services more often I guess (only given her 3 big bags of clothes so far).
  9. Try dating younger (and progressive) but central located women
    Yeah my dating has certainly gone down this year. I’ve decided to give up on Plenty of Fish after the insane amount of Catfishing going on. OkCupid is turning up the same people all the times, so I’m thinking about redoing my profile and looking at the questions again. I also installed Bumble to see if the female pick first option was any good or not.
    As for younger, progressive and central. Well its not worked out too well, I seem to be finding older, progressive and central. Must try harder I guess. Dave says I need to try new places but I refuse to pay for dating services knowing little time I have and the way it works behind the scenes.
  10. Decorate the flat
    This is on hold till next year but I have plans since I finally got gigabit broadband from hyperoptic and a projector for the living room when watching films with friends. I also finally found a corner sofa from the new range at Ikea which is cheaper than I budgeted for, meaning more for re-decoration. Thinking about sorting out the internal network properly by getting a professional in to do it.
  11. Read more
    Well I did read more but once again I spent more time reading non-fiction not fiction. I don’t think I’ll ever really get into reading for fun but I certainly got into audiobooks more in 2015. Keep thinking about getting a subscription to Audible. But I find the Instapaper and Greader text to speech players actually good enough for generic reading. I also added a plugin to read any text from Android outloud on my bluetooth headset. This is handy and means I can close my tablet and wonder around like a audiobook.
  12. Discover more music via Djs and Podcasts
    I tried listening to youtube and mixcloud at work and its ok but pausing the music is a pain when you have it in the background somewhere over the 2 screens.
    On the other hand, podcasts certainly picked up in the later part of 2015. I’m subscribed to about 12 podcasts now and with gigabit I don’t even download them, I’m using Kodi’s built in RSS support to play directly.