29 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for May 23, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 130 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
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Date: Sat, 21 May 2011 18:30:53 -0500
From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: any phone service offering pseudo-anonymous, throwaway, numbers?
Message-ID: <ir9hvm$t1d$1@dont-email.me>
On 5/21/2011 9:18 AM, danny burstein wrote:
> Having my own internet domains I can simply make-up an
> e-mail address and destroy it a month later. And there are
> commercial services with similar options.
>
> But doing it with a phone number is trickier.
>
> I was thinking of... a system/company that offers
> up phone numbers, and then lets you pick and choose
> "extensions" in it, which you could either route
> to your "real" number, to v-mail, or send back to
> oblivion when no longer needed.
>
> For example, the company might have, among other
> numbers, 808-555-1000. You could get "rights to",
> for want of a better term, extensions "752-1000"
> through "752-1999", and assign them as you chose.
>
> So getting back to that tire place where you want
> them to reach you, you'd activate ext. 752-1222
> to call out to your real number (or go to v-mail).
> Two months later, when you start getting marketing
> garbage, you'd simply kill it off.
>
> Anyone know of any service that has this? (And yes,
> I realize this would be almost practical for
> anyone with their own "Asterisk" system, but
> that requires the equipment, the set up, and
> oodles of upfront money, effort, and maintenance).
I'd expect most hosted VoIP will do this. I use voip.ms, and can
order additional DID numbers for $0.99/month and a $0.50 setup charge,
keep them as long as I want, and then cancel them (and they don't have
to be in one of the local ACs). Handle calls differently depending on
what incoming number they use. Or, set up "extensions" that are
handled differently. Or, blacklist/whitelist to handle incoming calls
differently, depending on their source.
I manually enter spam callers to get the "that number has been
disconnected" message.
Except for the part about having different incoming numbers, you could
do most of that with Google Voice, for free.
Dave
Date: Sat, 21 May 2011 23:00:27 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Letting it ring?
Message-ID: <ir9g6b$qni$5@news.albasani.net>
Pete Cresswell <nobody-home@Invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote:
>Per David Clayton:
>>C'mon, 98% of people who have been brainwas.... trained to use phones have
>>a Pavlovian urge to answer any ringing phone.
>>With the way technology is set up these days (answering machines,
>>diversions etc.) and people's general impatience it must be a rare thing
>>these days for a call to time-out ringing.
>I find that's part of the flaw in the logic of "screening calls"
>via an answering machine.
>The tension involved in waiting out four rings, sitting through
>the announcement, and then listening for the voice on the other
>end seems to outweigh just picking the thing up and answering it.
The answering machine is set to answer after 4, 5, or 6 rings, depending
on how long you give yourself to get to a phone, when you're NOT
screening calls. It's set to answer immediately or 1 ring when you
are screening calls.
***** Moderator's Note *****
To change the number of rings on my machine, I have to wade through a
complicated setup menu, so that doesn't happen. If I don't want to get
calls, I unplug my phone.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sat, 21 May 2011 18:17:35 -0700
From: AES <siegman@stanford.edu>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Apple's filing in Apple v. Samsung
Message-ID: <siegman-F30D18.18173521052011@sciid-srv02.med.tufts.edu>
> > ***** Moderators Note *****
> >
> > If torts were decided on the basis of hype, Applie would win easily:
> > here's a snippet from the first page of the filing:
> >
> > The iPhone was radically different. In one small and lightweight
> > handheld device, it offered sophisticated mobile phone functions, a
> > multi-touch screen that allows users to control the phone with their
> > fingers, music storage and playback, a mobile computing platform for
> > handheld applications, and full access to the Internet. These features
> > were combined in an elegantly designed product with a distinctive user
> > interface, icons, and eye-catching displays that gave the iPhone an
> > unmistakable look.
> >
> > Bill Horne
> > Moderator
> >
>
> The entire complaint is more advertising than a legal action. It looks
> nice, though.
I was more impressed -- or depressed, actually -- by another of Apple's
filings, attempting to claim trademark protection for the term 'app
store' and thereby block amazon and Android from using it, which stated
that:
Apple denies that, based on their common meaning, the
words 'app store' together denote a store for apps . . .
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