Studied in Boston and loved coming back to Norway, no more phone spam!
Log on to a central governmental service, with your 2-auth, opt out your phone-number and mail-address (the paper one) and then you don’t get more spam after 2-3weeks. It takes some time for everyone to update.
Why are are there not something similar in the US?
I hate telephones
421–430 of 449 posts
Re: I hate telephones
#422I'd love it if my cell phone auto-screened calls from numbers not in my address book. Give them a special message that explains the only way they'll get through is to leave a message. Or that they can register their number in a public registry that fully explains who they are and then I can decide whether to take calls from that number.
Google Voice sort of has this feature. There's a feature to prompt unknown callers for their name which will then show up on your caller ID.
And what stops spam callers from saying "Grandma"?
Re: I hate telephones
#423Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hahaha, like "using the phone" means "talking to a human", that's a good one. Using the phone means 1. Listening to a long list of automated selections, none of which are ever useful (pretty much information more easily available over the Internet). 2. Getting placed on hold for tens of minutes or an hour or more. 3. Talking to someone who will ignore your question and ask if you have tried some obvious or irrelevant…
I have no trouble getting to a human in a reasonable time (under 10 minutes) as a regular customer for services like cable/Internet, mobile, building maintenance. And for business services I usually have a real person's card and a direct phone number to them.
At least in Germany, shouting "I WANT TO SPEAK TO A HUMAN" in an angry tone to the automated menu works all the time. I never wait for a real person more than one minute.
Re: I hate telephones
#424Other than the NHS conspiracy theory and the desire to hand even more power over to facebook, I completely understand where the author's coming from. Especially not knowing who'll be on the other end (caller ID only identifies the number, not the person); and trying to anticipate and gather all necessary details to hand before embarking, due to being tethered to the wall/desk.
I've spent a while thinking about this over the years. I think a much better form of interaction is the landline answering machine: the caller will be heard for a few seconds ("Hi it's Bob, are you there?"), the recipient can decide whether to answer, and if not then the caller doesn't know if they were available or not. Contrast that with current BS like "it disconnected after one ring, so I know you hit cancel".
A similar mode of interaction is that of the walkie talkie, although that doesn't give the option of leaving a message.
Re: I hate telephones
#425Earlier quoted context omitted.
Natural disasters that cut off power for more than a few hours are unlikely in Northern Europe. Cell towers have their own emergency power supply to deal with the once in a decade brown out. If the power is off for days it means the Apocalypse or WW3 has happened.
Just out of curiosity how do you define Northern Europe? It's a term I'm seeing more lately but I don't know what it really means.
Northern Europe refers geographically to the northern part of Europe, or in a narrower sense, to the cultural grouping of the Nordic countries, Baltic countries, and sometimes also the British Isles. (Wikipedia)
Re: I hate telephones
#426Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiousity, when were you born? I was born in the 80's, and among my friends literally noone has a landline, not even the older ones. There's simply no argument for it. I'm in northern Europe by the way.
There IS an argument for it. Around a year ago we had a freak windstorm here. It was an amazing experience - took down trees and tore apart roofs all over. I'd never seen houses crushed by trees before. The power was out for days in some places, including mine. My phone battery died after a day, ditto the laptop's battery. My landline continued to function throughout. As I recall the service was also extremely inexpe…
>The power was out for days in some places, including mine. My phone battery died after a day, ditto the laptop's battery. My landline continued to function throughout.
In your case PSTN was the "stable fallback" but there is nothing inherent in the technology that makes this so. Your phone stations still need power, and if they don't have backup power they'll be dead as well.
Cables have a bigger chance of breaking if they're in the air, less so if they're buried. Of course, PSTN, power and fiber can all be both in the air or buried. There's nothing inherent in any of them that make them more "resilient". So if you live in an area where your PSTN is buried and your power lines aren't, it might to lead you to conclude that PSTN is "stable", in fact there's nothing about PSTN in itself that makes it so.
In a lot of places, cell towers will have backup power as well, and so will fiber networks, and your power network might be (should be, probably) buried and better protected than your other cables.
Re: I hate telephones
#427Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's better but it's still kind of imposing. We are not socially wired to be compatible with the technology to magically steal people's attention from space.
If you don't want to be bothered, just turn off your ringer and notifications. Don't try to invent non-existent social norms. Part of the reason I have a phone is so people can reach me.
> Don't try to invent non-existent social norms.
That's how new social norms come into the world. Often, they get invented in response to technological change. For example, prior to answering machines being widespread, the norm was to never ignore the phone ringing. After, it became OK to ignore the phone if it was inconvenient to answer because if the call was important, the caller would surely leave a message.
Now there's a push to normalize texting to see if it's a good time before calling, at least if the call isn't urgent. I support this: it's a very minor imposition on the caller's time and reduces interruptions when the callee is busy, as the content of a text can be checked at a glance.
Re: I hate telephones
#428Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find that when typing the way to get through things quickly is to anticipate there responses and try to head them off in the initial email unless you want it to become and endless back and forth of one line emails and this is very hard to do. I speak much quicker than I type so (250-300 wpm vs 50-60) as do most people so the communication happens a faster. Finally, it is much easier to convey meaning and feelings g…
So what I'm hearing is that phones are still great for social engineering. No wonder millennials hate phones.
I’m 30, a millenial, the FD in question is in his 50s. It wasn’t social engineering it was negotiating to improve my businesses trading position - something that HN’ers should appreciate.
I’m also an engineer with a PhD in electronics, code regularly and run a factory. All this is to say that I’m not some sales/business development person who is clinging on to an old medium, I’m a business owner using the right tools for the job.
Re: I hate telephones
#429I’m probably a bit the other way in that I get frustrated with text messages going back and forth and back and forth when a one minute phone call will sort everything out far more efficiently. Probably also has something to do with hating tapping away at tiny virtual keyboard on the phone, too. My teenage daughter seems very reluctant to make a phone call. Watching her try and organise something with her friends driv…
I've moved to the "Just make a phone call" camp after hating phones for many years. I still don't really care for phones, but getting stuff done is often much quicker when you call someone. If given the choice I would drop Skype and other online calling services, they're still no where as reliable as telephones and always a hassle. My preferred communication means are: phone, email and everything else could disappear…
> I would drop Skype and other online calling services, they're still no where as reliable as telephones and always a hassle.
Counterpoint: I travel a lot, mostly between the US and Europe and use different SIM cards and therefore phone numbers in different places. Half the people I want to talk to at any given time would have to make an international call, and don't necessarily know where I am and which number to use.
My Skype and Google Hangouts usernames don't change though. Even apps like Signal and Whatsapp that use a phone number as an identifier (which I HATE) continue working the same unless they need to be reinstalled. Sometimes I don't even get a local SIM card and those apps still work wherever there's a Wifi connection.
There's probably some global roaming thing I could pay through the nose for, but it isn't important enough to me to be that easy to reach.
Re: I hate telephones
#430Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just don’t answer, or, better yet, stick your phone on silent or do not disturb when you are busy. you’re projecting that emotion on to the caller, I see an incoming call as an indication that someone would like to speak to me, it a demand for attention. If I can’t take the call I won’t answer and will call them back (or email to arrange a more suitable time) when I can.
Why not do this first every time? > email to arrange a more suitable time Or better yet, provide the important details over email and then if there is some unimaginable reason why an audio medium is still required to convey information (identify a bird call? place a long distance call with a whistle?) then contact over the phone.
Because this assumes the person is always contactable by email. There is a none zero chance that the person is available for a phone call but not in front of email. Instead you see the email 3 hours later, the sender is now busy as are you so you land up in a game of email ping pong trying to arrange a time. Just put your phone on silent or don’t answer it if you’re not available.