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Call Someone – Without Having To Talk To Them
waderoush writes "After a long beta period, Boston-based MobileSphere launched a 'straight-to-voicemail' service yesterday called Slydial. If you call 267-SLY-DIAL and listen to a short ad, you can then be connected to the voicemail inbox of any US mobile phone subscriber, without causing their phone to ring. Sounds kinda useful — but incredibly, MobileSphere is pitching the service as a way to avoid actually communicating with all those difficult, boring people in your life. In reply to suggestions that Slydial erodes and cheapens genuine human interaction, a MobileSphere exec says the company is just combating technology with technology, by helping people take control of whether and when to talk with their friends, family, and coworkers."
Typically, can't you just hit # on most systems and go straight to the voicemail? It worked that way on two of my previous mobiles.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
But only with the people you dont want to talk too.
The same way text messages and IM's do... and that's pretty useful.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Send email to xyz: "Dood, wanna join the party? It's, like, gonna be awesome!!!"
Send SMS to xyz: "Hey, chk ur email"
Then send the vmail to xyz: "Have your checked your SMS?"
Voice mail is worse than talking to those boring people. I hate voice mail.
If I want to communicate with someone without calling them, I'll take text any day.
Voice messaging is a lot easier and less dangerous than text messaging, and we do that all the time. I see nothing wrong with this, and in fact was just talking about this idea with some friends a few months ago. What with the iPhone's visual voice mail, I think this is good for the times when you want to quickly leave a person a message without wanting to disturb them, instead of sending them a text message. Now more phones need an easy interface for picking which voice messages you want to listen to.
A community-oriented lyrics site
. In reply to suggestions that Slydial erodes and cheapens genuine human interaction,
You say that as if it's a bad thing :-)
As soon as service providers realize there's a buck to be made, say good bye to that feature and this questionable service.
neat. provides the asynchronous communication like what sms and e-mail provide.
pretty nice when you don't want to carry on conversations and just want to leave messages that people can check and respond to at their leisure.
why can't you do something like this without having to listen to ads tho?
http://www.object404.com
It costs me money every time I retrieve it. Just dial my phone, and I'll call back from a landline. You remember landlines, don't you? Or are they all gone now?
What?
And therefore guaranteed to never receive a response!
I don't think I -ever- check my voicemail unless I've accidentally missed a call I know is important, and almost nobody I know checks theirs on their personal cell either.
Text messaging has replaced leaving voicemail for reminders and invitations, as it's much easier and more convenient.
I think this is a service far past its time. Maybe it would have been useful in the 90s.
Work is different, but this isn't exactly targeted at businesspeople.
Gives the game of phone tag a whole new dynamic...
Finally! A way to call my mother so that she'll stop bitching about me never calling and at the same time avoiding making it last 50 minutes everytime. A win-win situation!
Yes, I do call my mother sometimes, it's just more convenient than yelling from the bottom of the basement for food.
You just got troll'd!
"Hey boss! Sorry I'm leaving ANOTHER message! Working from home today as usual. Are you out of town? I've called three times today but you must be in an area without coverage. I really need to talk with you about some implementation specifics before I can start coding." (goes back to sleep)
person on the other end may still be paying roaming fees so they may be a bad thing for them even more so if they are over seas.
I stumbled upon this gem while looking for a quick way to enable/disable forwarding on my blackberry:
http://www.geckobeach.com/cellular/secrets/gsmcodes.php
It's another tool in the handbag of communication and ettiquette.
Visits being the highest priority and inconvenience.
Phonecalls being the next step down in priority and inconvenience.
Voicemail.
E-mail.
IM.
Use the appropriate tool for the level of urgency. Bothering everybody with a visit on your timetable is extremely disruptive to THEIR timetable, so it should only be done when it's called for.
my cell phone is permanently on mute, i don't have a home phone. text me or email me. its asynchronous communication, far superior. i don't have to immediately interrupt what i'm focused on to deal with something usually trivial
i've had trouble in my jobs because of this, i subtly train employers not to call me. i purposely miss their calls, let their call ring while i'm sitting there, and then i send them an email right after they call: "did you just call me?" i never call them, and always email
people romanticize dealing with someone directly as something that is lost. well people also romanticize the great depression and world war ii era london. people romanticize their teenage years (they are painful for everyone). what people romanticize means shit
i live in times square, and people romanticize how it was before it had been disneyfied and turned into just another mall setting. well i remember pre-giuliani times square: prostitutes, heroin addicts, and stinky adult stores. fuck that. people romanticize all sorts of crap. but its just empty pointless nostaligia, and has no real merit or valid argument on its behalf
saying something is lost with less people talking to each other in person or on the phone is bullshit. its not better. email and text is far superior to the telephone
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
You will never be able to get the telemarketing people off your back then, since they now can fill up your voicemail with their messages without having to experience that you hang up on them.
Cool, now I don't have to talk to the remaining friends that I have.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
If you are on at&t and so are they, just check your own voicemail, and in the options, you can leave a message for a phone number. I haven't tried it from AT&T to other providers yet.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
I despise voicemail.
If someone calls me, I miss the call, and they leave a voicemail, I just call them back from my missed calls list, and I don't even listen to the voicemail.
All voicemail does for me is leave an annoying icon on my screen and make my phone beep on bootup for 30 minutes.
If anyone tries to use this service with me, they will end up not communicating with me at all, as I never check voicemail.
I wonder if AT&T will turn off my voicemail service if I ask them to.
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
In reply to suggestions that Slydial erodes and cheapens genuine human interaction, a MobileSphere exec says
Did they actually reply? Or did they redirect to a prerecorded message saying this?
... more like the asynchronous aspect email but with the ability to actually communicate with some inflection, emotion, etc (plus, you can do it when you're away from your computer). A lot of times I'll want to call someone just to tell them one thing, but don't bother calling because I don't feel like interrupting their life over it.
I can see myself using this.
I definitely plan to use this service. That way, I can leave annoying voice messages on the phone of a certain individual who prefers to annoyingly text me instead of confronting me over the phone. Then, I won't have to talk to her -- I can just call and leave another voicemail explaining how she's wrong.
Haha!
-l
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I'm sure anyone in IT can relate to the concept of someone you'd rather not talk to, but have to leave a message for. I have several people like this that I need to work with. Having a conversation with them is like root canal therapy sometimes. Being able to leave them messages and not actually speak to them would definitely lower my daily stress levels.
Call me anti-social, but these people could drive anyone nuts.
I don't think people are using the right tool for the job in this instance. There are plenty of other technologies that allow you to get messages to people without interacting with them and allowing them to access the message on their own terms.
Maybe my next entrepreneurial adventure will be a service that you can call from your mobile phone, leave a message, and my staff will hand write the message on decent stationary and snail mail it the recipient.
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
Hmm, I think the second option would probably be the most common use. I can think of a number of people that are basically telecommunications black holes. Once you get sucked in... you can never escape. If you text them you get 10 back. If you actually end up talking to them you pretty much have to tell them that your leg is on fire before they'll let you off the phone.
Outside of that... listening to voicemail messages sucks. I avoid leaving them unless I must.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
I don't think I -ever- check my voicemail unless I've accidentally missed a call I know is important, and almost nobody I know checks theirs on their personal cell either.
Seriously? Whenever I see the little voicemail icon lit up, I check it. You really just ignore the messages until they get auto-deleted unless you think there's something especially good in there?
There are times when I just want to send a voicemail home without ringing the phone -- often because it's late and I don't want to wake anyone up. Since I'm already running Asterisk, I just registered a DID with IPKall, which is a free service. When I dial the IPKall number, it goes straight into voicemail. So if, for example, my wife wakes up in the middle of the night and sees the VM light on the phone blinking, she can push the button and find out that I'm stuck at work on an overnight project, or whatever. If, on the other hand, the purpose of my call is important enough to wake someone up at home, I dial the main number and the phones ring.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Check out YouMail (http://youmail.com/). Universal visual voicemail, each VM shows up as SMS or e-mail, automated voice-to-text, and has a website that works in most smartphone browsers. The personalized greetings are a nice bonus.
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
Most corporate voicemail packages have allowed exactly this, internal to the organization of course, for many years. It's not a new idea, and it does have its uses.
This service means you do not interact with people you don't want to interact with, and therefore increases the percentage of pleasant interactions you enjoy throughout the day.
That's not erosion, that's added value.
Yahoo! Pipes are awesome. How awesome? http://pipes.yahoo.com/jesdynf/slashdot
I have Verizon Wireless, and if I connect to my voicemail, I have the option to record a message and have it sent to a phone number that I enter. I've used it from time to time. Not sure if I can send to a non-VZW number though.
Hey employee! Talk to bob about the implementation issues. And I'm gonna have to ask you to work at the weekend again.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
I can log into my own voicemail and send a voicemail message to any number without actually calling them.
Technoli
Of course, since my wife and I have cell phones on the same system, we can log into our own voice mail and send messages, and now, of course, there's texting.
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
full disclosure, i work for a provider.
i tried it on my phone, i went to a regular busy. I hung up on sly dial and the target mobile rang once.
i'm not impressed, and i'd be concerned about the nature of the connection they're making - there's no privacy statement about what numbers they keep on record, there's nothing to keep them from recording conversations.
Pretty much ever since we had answering machines I've thought it would be great to be able to leave a message without ringing the phone.
A typical situation is that I listen to a message and want to respond but it's not an appropriate time. Instead of remembering to call the next morning, I'd much rather be able to call right then and leave a response that the person can retrieve when convenient.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
The call recipient can choose to avoid taking calls from people not on their A-List, now the caller has the same option.
We are the 198 proof..
Funny, I'm just the opposite. Voicemail means one of my clients has a problem that can't wait. Either that or it's a real estate agent who equates "emergency" with "need something trivial". All I get via SMS are ads or notifications from my cell provider, which I routinely ignore. As for reminders...that's what having a PDA phone is for, right (or does your wife need to keep tabs on you?).
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
...messages left are flagged that they went straight to voice mail I wouldn't care. Otherwise the 'Liars' out there would try to pass off that they called, but were bounced to voicemail.
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
Well I don't plan on calling you so I won't have that problem. I don't know anyone who doesn't check their voicemail. I don't always do it right away, but I always get around to it sooner or later. How on earth do you know if you missed an important call if you don't check the message?
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Yep.
Yep.
Nope. More like: ...."
"uhh hh hhh uh dood? I uh hh huh h mmmmmmm wanted to callyouabouttheparty and uh uh uh uh the party is
Repeat for about 10 minutes.
I HATE voice-mail because almost no one knows how to leave a message CORRECTLY.
Correct method:
"Hi! This is *name* at *call back number* and I wanted to talk to you about *subject*. Once again, this is *name* at *call back number* calling about *subject*. Bye!"
Incorrect method 1:
"Hi! This is *name*. Call me."
Unless you are the girlfriend/boyfriend. Then it is allowable.
Incorrect method 2:
"Hi! About the thing that blah blah blah blah blah *ten minutes pass* blah blah blah bl" Cut off by message limit timer.
I prefer email and text because it takes MORE effort to type in excess material than voice-mail does.
This could easily turn into spam. The problem is that this may not be considered a "call" under the Do Not Call list rules for cell phones. It might be legal to spam via this route. Uh oh.
Slydial erodes and cheapens genuine human interaction . . .
No, what erodes and cheapens genuine human interaction is being so boring that your friends would rather talk to your voicemail than to you.
Of course, this only works if 1) your boss checks cellphone voicemail all at once, preferably late in the day and 2) doesn't expect office communication to be done via email/IM/etc...
This is probably more useful for, say, teenagers who know the moment they speak to their mom and dad they'll be told to go home, but with this they can fly under the radar for a few hours.
On the positive side of things, you can certainly convey much more in a voicemail than you can in a SMS text, if you know your friend is in a class or your coworker is in a meeting.
this is a pretty good idea. Much of the time i try to call someone, they are at work. With this i can call them without interrupting what theyre working. Its basically SMS without the text, with voice instead. I think it could indeed be useful. I am just disappointed that i didnt think of it first.
What I already get this service for free. Just move to the midwest and all your calls are automatically dropped or the calls just ring straight to voice mail with no indication.
I know a couple people who just can't shut up, what should be a 3 minute phone call stretches into a half hour or longer. I'd love to have this option.
Those are those old phones that charge you extra money every time you call someone outside your immediate geographical area, right?
And charge you an extra monthly fee to even have voicemail?
And that you can only use when in your own home?
Yeah, I think I remember my grandfather talking about them.
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
Oh, it only works with other Verizon customers? The only person I've ever tried that with also has Verizon.
Technoli
Now instead of thinking up elaborate ways to avoid doing what's right we can just pay someone to cover up our lies
The iPhone does this, and it's fantastic. I previously hated voicemail to the point that I would generally just ignore it -- they'll call back if it's important! iPhone's visual voicemail has made it pleasant to use again.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
Actually, this can already be done on Verizon Wireless to Verizon Wireless calls, and maybe AT&T as well.
Dial your OWN voicemail, then once you get to the main menu, hit option 2 to send a message. It then asks you for the 10 digit mailbox number (which is the subscriber's phone number with area code), it says their recorded name, and allows you to leave a voicemail.
I've used this to try to determine who called me if they don't leave a message - the system will play their recorded clip of them reading their name.
You used to be able to do this on land lines. In this neck-o-the-woods, you would dial the number to reach the Bell voicemail retrieval number (416-210-0xxx), then dial the number of the recipient. You would get their Bell voicemail, and could leave a message without thier phone ringing. Bell disabled that feature a number of years ago, though. Apparently, telemarketers were exploiting it.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Seriously, if they are in a meeting - or elsewhere where a ringing phone is frowned upon - have them silence the thing.
But I'm sure the marketing people will love this. Now they can 'call' you while circumventing a ton of provisions, including telling them to stop calling you right in the very phone call. .. not to mention kids and pranksters.
I'd check my contract on the services rendered by my provider to see if this can be blocked.
There's already a way to leave somebody voice mail without actually calling them: call your own voice mail. They all have a "send voice mail" option. Don't know if this works across providers. Probably.
I've tried dialing the number and just get a fast-busy signal.
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
Well, I can sorta see your point, but I seriously have a problem with it being marketed as "a way to avoid actually communicating with all those difficult, boring people in your life." If I wanted to essentially tell mom that she's boring and I don't want to talk to her, well, I could do that by more old fashioned ways. Or just not call in the first place.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
...telus, has had a voice-mail only system for years. I guess it's a bit different than TFA - but basically, it's like a deposit-only account. You call the number, and leave a message - that's it. The person for whom the message is destined must call the same number, authenticate, and check for messages - and/or leave one.
I bet this will be used by those annoying telesales outfits as a way to get messages to every cell phone on their list. Be prepared to be annoyed!
..."Dad, I wish I could just access your bank account without having to actually call you to ask for money..."
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
That reminds me of the Dilbert where he's at home in the early hours of the morning and he calls his boss (to make it look like he's working) and says something like "It's 3 am and I'm here in my underwear thinking of you" then he says "Crap" and pushes a button and says "Crap" again. Dogbert asks "Did you just send a dirty voicemail to your boss?" and Dilbert says "No, I think I pressed the group code" :-)
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
Yeah. Visual voicemail is great for quick mass deletes. "Hey honey, there are five messages from you. I'm deleting them all, let me know if you said anything important"
This feature has been implemented here in Portugal for years, but no one uses it. In fact, almost no one uses voicemail. You know, we don't pay for received SMS.
Here we just have to dial 66xxxxxxx were xx's is the cellphone number to get *that* advanced feature Slydial.
U.S.A.: the most advanced world in the world? ROFTLOL
As the recipient, I hate voice mail. I ask people not to leave voicemail. Voicemail sucks. If I could pick up the phone I would; since I can't, I'll call you back when I *can.*
I know this is annoying to callers; I know that leaving a message is now a pretty normal thing, and consequently people are expected to listen to messages regularly, etc. That is, if someone's phone greeting is "Please leave a message at the tone!", then leaving a message it would seem should reach them. So I try to at least have an honest voice message which requests that callers *not* leave a message. But Yes, there are times when leaving a message is the only rational thing on the part of the caller ("My battery is dying, my camel is dragging me out of reception range, I am trapped in the desert, please come get me.") and that's just an annoyance of life. I am not insensitive to this, just don't have a good solution.
HOWEVER: Usually, I'm more likely to (quickly) check email than voice mail, because most voice messages are rambly time wasters; if I have to listen to voice messages, what I'd like is an MP3 or similar sound file, sent as an email with associated caller info, rather than the voice-mail blob of goo, in which people leave long, wandering missives, often without well identifying themselves. Even better, email with accompanying text derived from speech recognition. Even if it's crazily rough-edged, this would be useful.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
The post above says their number is busy, probably from a few million auto-dialers advertising every possible means of maintaining an erection...
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
My Unicel voicemail system isn't that bad so I don't mind too much. I do wish I could manage them online though. As for the in-laws? They're a bit like fish. They're nice to have around the house for a little while but then they begin to stink.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
and where the hell are those TPS reports??
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Next thing you know, you'll be able to place convincing thoughts and commands directly into the minds of others...kinda like telling them that these aren't the robots they're looking for... just with a simple wave of your hand.
Now just imagine the powerful marketing value of that!
So if someone used this service to send a message to my voice mail, would it go through to my cell phone's voice mail, or would it use the forwarding number from my phone? If it's the former, I could end up with messages in the wrong inbox, and I'd never be aware of them.
Yeah, I frequently let my voicemail box get full then fly through and delete before the person can get one word out. Unless, like you said, I missed something I knew was important.
In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
But if your friend is in class or your coworker in a meeting, your call should go straight to voicemail anyway. If he chooses to answer the phone in class/meeting, well, that's his fault not yours, he should have turned the phone off.
There's already a "way to avoid actually communicating with all those difficult, boring people in your life": don't talk to them.
Inserting [insert witty signature here] here does not constitute a witty signature.
"Erodes and cheapens genuine human interaction?" Caller ID has already taken care of that. The days are gone when you call someone secure in the knowledge that they're either going to pick up or can't hear the phone ringing.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
It seems most people don't like checking their voicemail, but I take it a step further. I don't answer the phone unless the person leaves a voicemail (with the exception of family). I figure if the issue isn't important enough to leave a message, it isn't important enough for me to answer the phone.
The best was at my old job where I managed the phone switch. I just set my voicemail queue depth to zero. When people called they'd get my recorded message telling them to send me an email.
Mmm, yeah, and I'll forward you another copy of that voice-memo about cover sheets for your TPS reports.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
What country are you from? There seems to be a bit of a cultural divide with voice mail. One of my good friends is from Italy and he never checks his voice mail. The way he explained it to me is that it is very rude not to answer the phone when someone calls, even if you just answer to tell them to fuck off. And if you are unable to answer, you always call them back. He says his family to this day has never owned an answering machine for this reason.
Although, my friend and his family may just be odd.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
If you never check your voice mail, and yet leave the service enabled, people can justifiably call you an idiot when they leave you a message and you don't reply. If you have a voice mail service that you never check, either turn it the hell off (so callers hear only ringing) or set it to announce-only and tell them NOT to leave a message. Better yet, set your outgoing message to tell them how they CAN reach you. The way you're doing it is really inconsiderate, since it's no trouble for you, but it inconveniences others by wasting their time unnecessarily. Your time is NOT more valuable than theirs. Umm, do you drive a Hummer, by any chance?
If you haven't read James Thurber's great short story "The Catbird Seat", you should do so now. I won't spoil it for you, except to say something like your idea is in the story.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
I actually have the same approach.. I have too many people in my life that leave the stupidest voice mails (trying to be funny, info i don't need, just saying hi).... my time is too important to listen to automated operators followed by useless information. On another note, this service would be great for harassment and prank phone calls!
Well I don't plan on calling you so I won't have that problem. I don't know anyone who doesn't check their voicemail. I don't always do it right away, but I always get around to it sooner or later. How on earth do you know if you missed an important call if you don't check the message?
"Important" is in the ear of the beholder, I suppose. I never check my voicemail unless my wife sees the message waiting symbol on my phone and asks why I haven't checked my messages. My own fault: I haven't gone through and deleted everything before leaving my phone sitting out. If it's really important, they'll call back -- either that or their problem will go away on its own.
I am not a crackpot.
an easy way to dump that tranny you picked last week end w/o the drama.
"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."-- Fred Hampton
My wife loves to gab and 'live' on the phone with endless pauses between bits of conversation, and when I'm in the car driving it's dangerous. It's always frustrated me that I can simply 'voice mail' a message to her. "Honey, I'm on my way home and I'm going to stop and get some milk. If you want anything else, give me a buzz, otherwise I'll see you in forty minutes."
Send, Done and Thankyou.
Because I don't currently have that option, I end up not often as not not calling at all.
Give me the damn option to communicate however the hell I want, and let ME bear the fsck'ing responsibility myself if my communications with others 'erode' in any way, shape or form.
Did John Katz write this article?
**>>BELCH
Vonage can send you voicemail by email - either as a sound clip, or a voice to text conversion.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
This sounds like something Seinfeld would be interested in.
No real friend leaves voicemails because they know how much of a chore it is. It seems like something so minor, but it's a pain in the ass to call my voicemail and sit there listening to someone rattling off about nothing in particular. I'd rather someone text me after they attempt to call me and ask for a call back or something. Texts are far less intrusive.
This, by helping people take control of whether and when to talk with their friends, family, and coworkers, just makes me think that most people react to a ringing phone without thinking about it. If you don't want to talk to people ignore the phone, it really is not that hard. Some times to live dangerously I leave the house without my cell phone!
Give me a voicemail equivalent to isolatr.com. I use this service and am very pleased with the results, but for some reason have no friends to recommend it to.
This is hilarious. I purposefully ignore vmail. It's too time consuming. If I'm interested in the caller (via callerid), I'll return the call. Otherwise, I ignore it. It's crap to me. I don't care how noble you think the cause to be -- it's crap.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
I work at a cell phone company. I can't wait for this to cause problems in my life.
Cust: My service sucks, my calls are going to voicemail and I never get them
Rep: I understand.... maybe no one likes you and they are doing it willfully?
Almost need this tagged with whatcouldpossiblygowrong
Ascii artist &
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I actually have the same approach.. I have too many people in my life that leave the stupidest voice mails (trying to be funny, info i don't need, just saying hi)....
Interesting! Given the number of replies, this seems like a common situation.
I guess this must partly be a volume thing. In both my work and personal lives, the primary means of remote communication is email. So the number of voicemails I get is pretty small. The ones I do get tend to be relatively important. But living in San Francisco and doing computer work I guess I must be at the email-heavy end of things.
One thing I love about email is the ability to skim and then dash off a quick reply, so I can be polite but not waste much time. If I had to deal with my volume of email as voicemail instead, I guess I'd be similarly willing to delete most stuff unheard.
I bet it will be used by advertisers to batch targeted VM's to 10 million phones for only pennies/msg. This technology is useless for anything other than selling advertising.
What a sign of our lifestyle when this is modded insightful instead of funny.
My college had this back in the 1990s. We used it all the time. Leave a message on a professor's machine at 2am? No problem.
Now, if we could just give people a warning when they have 15seconds left for their message (and only give them 45sec total). Forwarding messages would be great too.
heck, the ASPEN system of the early 1990s had many great features that are just missing today.
This is a great idea. It's already pretty well successfully implemented with pinger.com. It works similarly, you dial pinger and immedately get prompted for a name from your contact list, and then talk and hang up. The recipient gets a text/SMS message with a number to dial that *immediately* lets them hear the message (they don't have to have pinger accounts) I've been using this for quite some time.
People here are posting about interacting with people, but come on, really how about respecting their time? When my wife is home with the baby, I'd rather send a text or VM without ringing the phone...who knows if she remembered to turn the ringer off. But the real point is "near time communication" as opposed to real-time. I don't like getting phone calls while I'm driving or at work. It's much easier to look at my phone and see a SMS/VM and respond to it when I'm comfortable, and able to give the caller my full attention.
Ah, human interaction often cheapens and erodes human interaction. For supporting evidence, check replies on Youtube et al. Occasional gems of clarity mired in the cess of 'Ur ghey!!!', 'Amerika pwns all you towelheads', 'Nuke the west!', and the rest of the incomprehension, pointless noise and misdirected rage. It's pretty depressing, particularly when someone's trying to put an interesting point across.
I'm not sure there's a whole business in it, but I like the idea.
Most land-line telco subscribers get their voicemail through their telco. And most telco's have a voicemail access number that also always to to *leave* voicemail. (In fact, the voicemail access almost seems to be a hacked-on mis-use of the voicemail leaving system. You have to hit # or * to get to your voicemail first, making the leaving voicemail feature seem high priority.)
Anyhow, whenever I was snagged into doing a mass calling thingy for a group I belonged to, I would simply call the voicemail access number and leave messages about the event or whatever that we were supposed to call about. I didn't have to bother people during their supper, and they could check the info at their leisure. I often wished this feature were more universally available.
This company seems to be onto something, although I wish it also did it for land lines...
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Many voicemail systems (e.g. corporate ones) have long (upwards of 10 years) had the ability to send vmail without making a phone call. This is sometimes used to vmail several people with the same message. It is also used by PHBs and slackers to seem like they are in the office when they are not (the vmail appears to originate from the sender's office phone number).
To send a stealth message, a person usually needs to know the vmail portal access phone number for the party he wants to vmail. Most external people don't know the vmail portal number, so they can't send stealth messages.
Enter Slydial. What Slydial has done is simply learn all the access phone numbers for big vmail systems (mobile carriers, etc.) and to build a more-or-less universal front end over the existing feature. Convenient? Maybe, but it isn't very novel and it's easy for the carriers to break frequently. I'm not sure this is a sustainable business. (Besides, is there demand? Even internal users rarely use the stealth send features.)
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
I don't know about the US, but here in Ireland, if you want to go straight to someone's voicemail, you just prepend the digit 5 to the phone number, e.g. 087-1111111 becomes 087-51111111 and you're straight through to voicemail.
One of the universal rules of happiness is always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual
Yea, you could tell people about Sprint if you knew it, but who does? And what about all the other carriers? I think it's easier to have this number on your phone and let them do the work for you.
Mobile networks in Europe (or at least here in Ireland) have had this as long as I can remember. You dial the network code, 5, then the number and get through to the persons voicemail, eg. Tel. number 085 1234567, you dial 085 51234567. I'm kinda surprised this is new over there.
Hell yes, I ignore voicemail. I pretty much ignore my phone, too, though I have it on me all the time. If someone calls and I care what they have to say, I'd answer the damn thing. If I'm ignoring the call it's because I don't care, so why would I care enough to listen to a pedantic lecture about how many messages I have, and then someone yammering at me?
But I hate that stupid little voicemail icon, too, so when I see it, I usually play a game called "How fast can I delete the voicemail?" On my phone I don't think it's possible to break the two second barrier, but I'm trying.
Of course, then I have to go clear out the "New Voicemail Message" notification, and the "X Missed Calls" notification. Then I have a pristine phone once again until some other jackwit calls me.
mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
I don't know how easy it is on most phones, but my phone was able to retrieve the 'diverted-to voicemail number'
It was a standard number, that was diverted to if my main number wasn't answered or was unavailable.
I used to give this number to most people for this very purpose.
Ok, so this is 'recipient' rather than 'caller' initiated, but hey.
Sig out of date
I've received *SPAM* voicemail messages before (is there a term for that already? Maybe I should invent one..).
Bloody bastards making me waste my precious wireless minutes to hock their shitty wares.. I would seriously kill the fucker responsible..
I am the maverick of Slashdot
... and sends through your caller ID info.
Tested on Sprint and AT&T Wireless/SBC/Cingular/AT&T.
I cannot confirm nor deny the allegation or allegations you may or may not have just made
I can't believe how many anti-social assholes there are! If someone leaves a voicemail, they obviously have something to say... how could someone just ignore their voicemail and purposely delete them without listening to them? Man... how inconsiderate. These are the kind of people that deserve to be ignored every time they speak, because apparently nobody else has anything valuable to say... so what makes them any different?
I used to be on Sprint. If you put two 1's in front of the full 10 digit phone number it'll go straight to voicemail. It only works from Sprint to Sprint. For example if their number is 917-555-1234 just dial 11-917-555-1234. I used to work in an call center that was outsourced to Sprint cellular. So if a customer asked us to call them back we'd get a lab phone and call them that way, so we wouldn't have to talk to them. I later found a backdoor phone number. It dials into the voicemail system and then you an leave a message on their voicemail. I don't remember what that number was, but most carriers actually outsource voicemail to the same company. That's why when you access your voicemail the controls and the automated voice all sound the same. I don't remember the company's name but it shouldn't be too hard to find.
So apparently this company has the backdoor number.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
I am fairly certain this does not use any "backdoor" or "special" access numbers in order to function...
If you have access to multiple lines (not including your cell phone), try this: Call your cell phone from one of the lines (be it another cell phone, your desk phone, etc.) As soon as the call starts ringing, place it on hold, and call your cell phone *again* from another line (be it another line on your PBX, another cell phone, etc.) If your cell phone has voice mail service, this second call should connect directly to the voice mail and play your greeting. (While the first call will continue to ring your phone.)
I'm pretty certain this is how the service works. It places one outbound call to the destination cell phone to "tie up" the line, places a second call which *should* immediately go to voice mail, and then drops the first call. Since most mobile phones do not ring immediately after the number is dialed, it is theoretically possible to pull this off if everything is timed correctly, and a little bit of luck plays in your favor. (My experience has been that GSM phones take several seconds to start ringing, and ringback does not start until the handset begins to ring, whereas CDMA will produce ringback immediately to the caller, but the actual handset may take several seconds to start ringing.)
I tried this service against several different phones/providers, sometimes it would cause the phone to ring briefly, and other times it would not.
I also called our PBX at the office with it, and basically saw a call come in on Line 1, followed by another call on Line 2 about half a second later. Which would seem to back up my theory.
I've been getting these kinds of voicemail on my home phone for at least 2 years. Apparently Gary from Century 21 hear I was selling my house and really wants to talk to me about it (I live in a high-rise apartment). I can't believe Canada had a feature for the US...
When I have to do this, I use TraqMonkey -- http://www.traqmonkey.com/
It sends the message I leave to their email as an attachment
For some people, that gets the message to them faster; also, TraqMonkey has transcription available, so they can just read the text.
But I think the most common use for TraqMonkey is delivering reminders to yourself.
Sound just like email without the need to be able to decipher the glyphs. A certain sector of society will love this, the rest of us will find it to be a total pain.
You really just ignore the messages until they get auto-deleted unless you think there's something especially good in there?
And you can never tell whether there is, you have to check them. I'm waiting for,
"Hi. I'm quite a tall, blonde intelligent women, about DD cup size. I tend to wear a knee-length skirt, boots, and tights when I'm out. I've been watching you coming into work every day, and think you're really hot. I managed to get your number and am asking you if you want to come for a drink with me. If so, please call me back."
It hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure it will.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Serious question - how do you have that many people in your life that just want to call up and say hi? I have virtually no-one in my life that takes that much of an interest in me. Did you have these friends from school/college days, or what?
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
I'm curious how they're accomplishing this; what their network is, did they obtain permission from the mobile carriers for special access.
Ultimately, is there a way the consumer/hacker could accomplish this - perhaps via a VoIP service.
First of all, this service does NOT block your number. It shows a missed call (on the intended recipient's caller id) from the number that you dialed the Sly Dial service from, THEN it goes to their voice mail. To prove that this is the intended way that this service is supposed to work by Sly Dial, block your phone number before calling their service (dial *67 then 267-SLY-DIAL). Listen to the recording you get from them. It specifically says that you're blocking your number and that your intended party is to know who is Sly Dialing them. It instructs you to hang up, and then call back without blocking your number. The second point I want to make is... just like anything else, once this service becomes popular and known in the public eye, it won't be such a secret anymore, therefore causing people to think that they didn't get a missed call because they were in a dead spot or something, but that they have been "Sly Dialed." You'll get a call back from the person saying, "hey, did you Sly Dial me the other day???"... lol. But for now, I guess it's good for what it's worth in certain situations.
I see a lot of posts about how people hate both listening to as well as leaving voice mail.
They used to be called answering machines. And while a lot of people liked them because you didn't have to have both parties be there synchronized to transmit/receive the information contained in the call, there were a portion who could not use them. My father was one of them. He just hated to leave messages on an answering machine. He has changed though, and now *sometimes* leaves messages on my voicemail.
Why do so many people hate voice mail now? How many are old enough to have not liked answering machines? That would provide a baseline or sorts.
My premise is that this percentage has increased. It seems so, given the rate of acceptance in the 80's or 90's. How many other factors have increased that baseline? Cases of just too much accessibility? Or too many machines? Fear of permanent records? Just rather talk to a human? Can't be bothered to check? Generally people who had an answering machine in the '70's at least listened to the messages, while now we have people who won't check their voice mail. Interesting.
I don't know. I am sometimes uncomfortable leaving a message because i may have a hard time formulating my thoughts on the fly in a coherent manner but I manage anyway. I listen to my voicemail because if people want to get a hold of me, I want to help them do so. Same reason I have an email address and don't jsut depent n irc or im. sry don't txt
lol
Wait, forum! Both realtime and virtual voicemail of discussion threads. I wonder what the continuum is in use today, and what classes of dimensions would be good to measure.
snail mail
answering machines
voice mail
forums
irc
skype/cell
fixed land line
telepresence
fleshmeets
Where does this fall on the continuum? Near real time contemplation on an archived "virtual flash mob" event.
If you're reading this (woe unto you!); A near-realtime, no longer flash mob experience of Logos about a topic of little consequence, mediated through the visual centers of your consciousness. And perhaps vocal if you at all vocalize words (even non-vocally, of course (sort of like parens for the mind-body interface) ) multi sensual information in reading, writing. Perhaps hearing or touch or colour to some people who have a patterned sense of say, numbers, that other people do not have. Five actually being green in a tangible sense, just like gravity or c3 blue. I wonder what would happen if everyone were able to access these types of sensorium, or different types based on inclination. I think that's where research on this should be headed.
What's the shape of the future?
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...