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I hate telephones

jameshfisher.com

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Re: I hate telephones

#261

Post by SerLava »

jessriedel wrote: post #257
SerLava wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Why don’t you just call them, and get it all figured out right now?” Because it's rude. It has always been rude, but now with the phone in your pocket it's that much worse. She doesn't know what her friend isn't doing at the moment, and shouldn't impose. The featured article gives a better impression of this than I can... but I'll add that the tragedy of the commons is a factor. You can't just show up from outer s…

Even if you subscribed to this bizarre principle that it's rude to call someone unannounced, you could always just ask by text.

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.

Re: I hate telephones

#262

Post by dpc_pw »

I have a Google Voice number, and phone set to ring only for people on a whitelist. So I pick the phone only from family and friends and calls that I expected. Everybody else gets to leave a voice message. I get a transcription on email and call back if it's worth it. If they don't leave a voice message, that means it wasn't important.

Re: I hate telephones

#263

Post by petecox »

tony101 wrote: post #255
kibwen wrote: post #37

I receive about 20 spam calls per day. In contrast, I receive about 0.2 legitimate calls per day. Google itself suspects that these are spam calls, because it pops up a bright red "SUSPECTED SPAM CALLER" warning when the phone begins ringing. And yet, I have found no option to have the phone automatically decline the call. There's not even an option to silence the ringer for any call not from my contacts; I actually…

I am not a lawyer, but if you can figure out who is calling you, I believe you can file a lawsuit against them for violating the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act), which carries statutory damages of up to $1,500 per violation. Sources: https://michaelrkn.github.io/how-to-sue-a-telemarketer/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/legalnewsline/2016/08/25/filing...

The law is probably not much help if they're scammers calling from overseas.

Criminals from India call us here in AUS pretending to be from some legitimate call centre, advising us of some non-existent government rebate.

Re: I hate telephones

#265

Post by chris_7 »

kemayo wrote: post #61
kibwen wrote: post #37

I receive about 20 spam calls per day. In contrast, I receive about 0.2 legitimate calls per day. Google itself suspects that these are spam calls, because it pops up a bright red "SUSPECTED SPAM CALLER" warning when the phone begins ringing. And yet, I have found no option to have the phone automatically decline the call. There's not even an option to silence the ringer for any call not from my contacts; I actually…

Strangely enough, given Android's comparatively-customizable nature, I think this is an area where iOS does it better? (Others might correct me.) iOS 10 added "call blocking" as an app-type, which lets you choose apps which can filter phone calls for you. They can flag calls as possible-spam, or completely block them. (See [1] for Hiya's options screen, as an example.) An "only ring for my friends" feature is sort of…

> I don't think it's possible to make a call-blocker app which functions as a whitelist, sadly, because I think this is like their browser content blockers and operates as the app providing a list of blocked numbers for privacy reasons.

There's only 10,000,000,000 phone numbers, not even eliminating area codes that don't exist. I wonder if iOS will break on that...?

Re: I hate telephones

#266

Post by tyingq »

daveFNbuck wrote: post #259
vilmosi wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android can absolutely do this. Either via settings or replacing the default calling app.

How can you do this via settings in Android? I've spent hours searching for the answer and have yet to find it.

Add spammers phone as a contact, then select "all calls to voicemail" for that contact.

Re: I hate telephones

#267

Post by Sidnicious »

After reading this, I just started experimentally sending all calls to voicemail. Here's how I set it up; it should work with GSM phone carriers:

- Dial the below number. It'll show a bunch of information, including your voicemail number. Remember/copy the number.

    *#67#
- Create a new contact. I put "Phone Off" in the company name field. Use the below number as its phone number, replacing the "X"s with the number from the first step, including country code. Calling this contact will tell the network to forward all calls to voicemail without the phone ringing.

    *21*+XXXXXXXXXXX#
- Create another new contact. I put "Phone On" in the company name field. Enter the phone number below. Calling it will cancel call forwarding.

    ##21#
I added both of these contacts to my favorites and can tap them to enable/disable calls. Right now, I'm only planning to turn off forwarding when I'm actively expecting a call. It turns out that my phone puts an indicator in the status bar when forwarding is turned on, which is cool. Let's see how it goes.

Re: I hate telephones

#268

Post by sctb »

libeclipse wrote: post #264
sctb wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've been posting a lot of unsubstantive comments. Could you please stop and follow the guidelines instead? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Allow yourself and your pretentious shit.

I don't understand.

Re: I hate telephones

#269

Post by draw_down »

anotherevan wrote: post #111

I’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…

God, typing on these things is the worst. And yes, it can take 45 minutes of texting to poorly approximate the amount of info that can be exchanged in a 1 minute voice conversation.

Re: I hate telephones

#270

Post by ecshafer »

iiv wrote: post #245
xg15 wrote: post #200

> I hate telephones. > The problem is the medium. The problem is synchronous communication. The problem is the telephone. I hate telephones. > I’m told that, in 1993, 2.5 million people in the UK had “telephone phobia”. That’s over 4%, similar to rates of arachnophobia. This is not unusual, and I’d bet rates are higher now. Everyone hates telephones. > ... Asynchronous textual communication is how everyone communicat…

I agree with the sentiment of his article, but I also agree with you. The article is written in a condescending and arrogant way.

My impression of the article is that the person has some semi serious mental health issues. Their anxiety is getting in the way of their life.

But they are spinning it as something wrong with the system.

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