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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.
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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.
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. In reply to suggestions that Slydial erodes and cheapens genuine human interaction,
You say that as if it's a bad thing :-)
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.
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)
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.
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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.
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 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.
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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.
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Hey employee! Talk to bob about the implementation issues. And I'm gonna have to ask you to work at the weekend again.
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Funny, if someone calls me, and I miss it, and they don't leave a voicemail, I assume it wasn't important and don't call them back.
"I only speak the truth"
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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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Why not? Often, the voicemail contains all of the info needed for you to determine what action needs to be taken, including whether or not a callback is even necessary.
When I call someone, I only leave voicemail if doing so would add useful information. Something like "I need your input on something by 4:00 today, but I'll be out between noon and 1. Give me a call when you get a chance." That lets them know that I require a callback, and what timeframe we're dealing with.
Another example might be "I need you to email me that file by tomorrow afternoon. Thanks." In that case, no callback is required as long as they email me the file in a reasonable timeframe.
The problem is that idiots think voicemail should be used for "Hi, I just called you. Call me back." as if my phone doesn't keep track of incoming calls.
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" :-)
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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"
There's already a "way to avoid actually communicating with all those difficult, boring people in your life": don't talk to them.
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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.
I'm sure they call the provider's "check your voicemail remotely" number.
For example, with Sprint, you can dial the area-code, and exchange followed by 6245 (mail), and then proceed to enter a mailbox number to check (with password) or send (without password) a message to.
Other providers have a similar number.
So instead telling people this, these guys are having you listen to an advertisement and dialing the number for you.
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.