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I hate telephones

jameshfisher.com

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Re: I hate telephones

#341

Post by csydas »

Trav5 wrote: post #90
kemayo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory there's the national do not call registry: https://www.donotcall.gov/ In practice... there's some groups who are still allowed to call you even if you're on the registry. Others will just ignore it, and filing a complaint is difficult.

I added all my numbers to this list a year or two ago and shortly after the spam calls started. Even on numbers that are not publicly used. (I have Google voice as my primary number and it calls my mobile number and a voip desk phone. Now all three get spam calls. I had them for years and the voip and mobile numbers were previously clean. )

I posted this elsewhere in this topic, but my experience with the Federal Do Not Call list was the exact opposite - they promised "within 3 months the calls would stop" and sure enough, within 3 months I never got another call.

Re: I hate telephones

#342

Post by nicky0 »

jessriedel wrote: post #276
SerLava wrote: post #261

Earlier 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.

A lot of people have a smartphone in order to use mobile internet services and apps and would prefer not to be able to be called.

Simply owning a phone is not an invitation to be called.

You and your circle of contacts may love being called and that is fine for you but don't impose this "norm" on others.

Re: I hate telephones

#343

Post by slackingoff2017 »

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 strongly suspect it's your carrier preventing google from filtering these calls. I have google fi and it filters spam automatically (suspected spam at least disables ringer)

Re: I hate telephones

#344

Post by ryan-allen »

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…

You can install apps on Android that you can fine-tune what happens when a call is incoming.

I set it up to immediately hang up any private numbers and not report a missed call, set it up to hang on up non-private numbers that are not in my address book and show a missed call, and it lets everyone else through who is in my address book.

Since doing this I couldn't be happier. I can't remember the last time I got an unsolicited call.

I don't have voicemail because I don't know how to set it up to have a recorded message that doesn't accept voicemails. I'd like to set it up so that I can say 'you can contact me on this email address' but not accept a voicemail message, then it'd be perfect.

The people who need to be able to contact me are already in my address book. Everyone else can send me an email.

Re: I hate telephones

#345

Post by nicky0 »

code_duck wrote: post #339

I don't like to answer unexpected calls from anyone. It was different when the phone was the only instant communication medium... one hd more time to prepare for the content of a given call. Now, it is always a distraction... my girlfriend frequently calls without warning in the middle of a text conversation, and i often don't answer because i'm not ready. It takes a far greater level of attention and commitment to t…

I think you have it right. No obligation to answer a call. Not answering just means that it's not a good time. Sadly a lot of people seem to think it is rude.

Re: I hate telephones

#346

Post by chrisbennet »

tyingq wrote: post #266
daveFNbuck wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Spammers use a spoofed caller ID with the same first 3 digits as your phone number so it looks like a local number sO blocking them by number doesn’t really work.

Re: I hate telephones

#347

Post by rspeer »

jessriedel wrote: post #276
SerLava wrote: post #261

Earlier 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.

This social norm exists.

Re: I hate telephones

#348

Post by _nalply »

fivre wrote: post #149
_nalply wrote: post #23

Me, too. I don't hear, so I don't phone. However some business is almost impossible to conduct without phoning. AWS requires identification by phone. Customs tried to call me to ask me something about my bike I sent home from a holiday abroad. Credit cards are only unblocked by a phone call. And so on. (And phone relays are only a partial solution because some commpanies deem them insecure - I have currently a credit…

Interesting. You don't use TTY devices then? I wouldn't be entirely surprised if those became less prevalent as telephone services decline in popularity, but I'd figured most of the deaf community used them still.

I don't understand this question. You mean, are AWS, the credit card institution and the customs also using TTY devices? Sorry, no.

And since texting (mobile short message service) TTY slowly went out of use, at least here in Switzerland. I still own a TTY device, however I haven't used it for more than ten years.

An interesting technical tidbit here: My TTY is using V.21, however with only one channel and with 110 baud. I researched the TTY with recording on a sound card and analysing the tones. Bit 0 is represented by a sinus wave of 1180Hz, 1 by 980Hz with a duration of 9.1ms each. A byte was transferred with 10 bits (total duration 91ms), 1 bit was a stop bit and the other one a parity bit (I am not sure, I forgot some details). Additionally there was a carrier tone at 1080Hz which was held for about 3 seconds after the last byte has been sent.

This means it was not possible that both parties simultaneously send. We had a convention that the other party is allowed to answer when we type two asterisks.

A phone relay service in Switzerland still continues to use this convention in their JavaScript application. It is a simulation of the old TTY device they sold to people. I think they had to use websockets because every letter is sent to the other party right away.

Re: I hate telephones

#349

Post by loeg »

dingo_bat wrote: post #284
kemayo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Parent's phone is weird that it doesn't have a call-blocking feature. All flagship androids give you the option to block spam calls.

Even if the number changes every time? The common pattern lately is a number with the same leading six digits as my actual phone number, followed by a presumably falsified last four digits. As far as I know, these are randomly generated.

Re: I hate telephones

#350

Post by loeg »

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…

For me the ratio is only as bad as 5 to 0.2. Telephone spam is a major problem.
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