robert_cringely
Columnist

More on hot talk and high tech

analysis
Jul 17, 20072 mins

First, apologies are in order to Cringester D. F., who contributed yesterday's gem about Dell's accidental foray into the phone sex biz and underwent an inadvertent sex change in the process. "He" is actually a she. Sorry for that little walk on the wild side, D. F. And speaking of yesterday's post, it seems Dell is not the only high-tech company urging its customers to let their fingers do the walking. Reader J

First, apologies are in order to Cringester D. F., who contributed yesterday’s gem about Dell’s accidental foray into the phone sex biz and underwent an inadvertent sex change in the process. “He” is actually a she. Sorry for that little walk on the wild side, D. F.

And speaking of yesterday’s post, it seems Dell is not the only high-tech company urging its customers to let their fingers do the walking. Reader J. S. (gender unknown) reports receiving an email from Secure Computing’s IronMail service following a DDOS attack on its servers last week. Within the message was an 800 number for domestic customers to call for tech support. That’s right. Not only was it a sex talk line, it was the same one employed by Dell’s sales rep  (1-800-PASSION, if you’re interested in researching this further). An embarrassed customer service rep says the number was a typo, and the company thought they’d caught that mistake before the email was sent out. The correct toll-free number for IronMail support is 800.700.8328.

On the other hand, they could always keep the number and change their name to “IronMale.”

[UPDATE: This item has been edited slightly to correct an error in the identity of one tipster. Also, I had comments turned off (bad Cringe, no donuts!) They’re back on.]

Hmmm. Two high-tech companies promoting the same phone sex service – coincidence or conspiracy? You make the call. Post your comments below or email them to me here. Top tipsters will qualify for free swag.