Yes, I'm on the do not call list, but I still get calls. And how can I deal with recordings? I answer the phone and it is not a human, it's a recorded spiel, and maybe if I listen to all of it there will be a human at the end whom I can inform not to call me again. Or maybe not. There is no clue how long I might have to listen before I can respond. It's very frustrating.
Even worse, the faxes. I am not set up to receive faxes most of the time, occasionally I connect a fax machine to send one. But somehow I'm on their lists. They call in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. If you try to ignore them they call twice more. There is no way to identify them without being set up to receive a fax, and then you are helping them confirm they have a valid number. The only thing I have thought of is to leave the phone off the hook when I pick it up and hear a fax machine. I leave it off hook until I get the phone company's off-hook warning sound. This might have two effects: it just might slow the caller down, depending upon how long it takes the sending machine to realize there is nothing there, and the phone might still be off hook when they try to resend.
For voice calls there ought to be a law requiring a caller to inform you who he or she represents at the start of a call and to have a human or a recorder ready to acknowledge your wish not to be called within a very short time after you pick up. For faxes there ought to be a way to program a modem or some other gadget to respond to an incoming fax in some way that disables the calling machine for a significant time. Does anybody know if this can be done?
I agree the time has come to remove Morse code as a barrier to becoming a ham. But I hope some portion of the frequency bands will still be reserved for c.w. and other modes that use low bandwidth and are effective with low power. Note I am not even saying reserve the frequencies for Morse code alone. There are computer assisted digital modes that rival or exceed the ability of the human ear and brain to decode narrow-bandwidth signals at low signal-to-noise ratios. But these are compatible with Morse code.
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned in the comments so far is that it is possible for a beginner with limited funds to build transmitters and receivers that are useful for c.w. operation from scratch. This is not the case with equipment for f.m. or single sideband voice operation. Thus, although learning Morse code is a hurdle that is formidable to some, once mastered it opens up many possibilities for technical experimentation.
I've now been a ham for over forty years. In my youth ham radio was for young geeks what computers have become now. My friends and I built our transmitters from parts scavenged from old radios and televisions, and in the process learned skills that later helped us when we built our own computers.
Some say learning Morse code is easy. For them that may have been true, but not all people learn things in the same way. As a teen-ager it took me two years from the time I decided I wanted to be a ham to the time I could pass a 5 word-per-minute Novice code test. It took me a full year to pass the next hurdle, the 13 word per minute test for a General license. It was almost 15 years more before I could pass the Extra Class 20 word per minute test. So I am completely sympathetic with those who say learning Morse code is a barrier. For some that is certainly true. I say let them into ham, radio, let them see how hard it can be to make yourself heard with a 100 watt transmitter competing on crowded voice bands, and then let them meet some of the operators who regularly succeed with 5 or 10 watt homebuilt rigs using Morse. Some may then decide it's worth the effort.
Even before I took a job as a sysadmin I had too many passwords on different systems to remember. So I invented some rules for writing them down:
1. Obviously: don't write them in a public place, meaning anywhere a guest, janitor, or thief visiting my office could find them.
2. In a pocket address book or on a wallet card, don't make a system:user:password list, write down the passwords only with no indication of what system and user name they are for. Maybe add a few phone numbers or nonsense strings. That way if my book or wallet is lost and found by a stranger it won't give enough info for someone to figure out where a password is valid and for what username. Trust my memory for my login names and names of my workstations/servers/ISPs.
3. When it gets to the point where you just have to re-use the same password on multiple machines think about differential vulnerabilities. Maybe I will use the same password on two Windows workstations in the same office, but I use a different one on Mac or Linux boxes -- if someone can access one Windows box and find my password he can probably break into the one sitting next to it just as well, but why give him the password for the Linux box, too.
4. When I became a system administrator I bought a PDA to replace my little black address book, and I use an encrypted file for my passwords. And then I was very careful never to lose the PDA or leave it where it could be stolen.
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Yes, I'm on the do not call list, but I still get calls. And how can I deal with recordings? I answer the phone and it is not a human, it's a recorded spiel, and maybe if I listen to all of it there will be a human at the end whom I can inform not to call me again. Or maybe not. There is no clue how long I might have to listen before I can respond. It's very frustrating.
Even worse, the faxes. I am not set up to receive faxes most of the time, occasionally I connect a fax machine to send one. But somehow I'm on their lists. They call in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. If you try to ignore them they call twice more. There is no way to identify them without being set up to receive a fax, and then you are helping them confirm they have a valid number. The only thing I have thought of is to leave the phone off the hook when I pick it up and hear a fax machine. I leave it off hook until I get the phone company's off-hook warning sound. This might have two effects: it just might slow the caller down, depending upon how long it takes the sending machine to realize there is nothing there, and the phone might still be off hook when they try to resend.
For voice calls there ought to be a law requiring a caller to inform you who he or she represents at the start of a call and to have a human or a recorder ready to acknowledge your wish not to be called within a very short time after you pick up. For faxes there ought to be a way to program a modem or some other gadget to respond to an incoming fax in some way that disables the calling machine for a significant time. Does anybody know if this can be done?
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned in the comments so far is that it is possible for a beginner with limited funds to build transmitters and receivers that are useful for c.w. operation from scratch. This is not the case with equipment for f.m. or single sideband voice operation. Thus, although learning Morse code is a hurdle that is formidable to some, once mastered it opens up many possibilities for technical experimentation.
I've now been a ham for over forty years. In my youth ham radio was for young geeks what computers have become now. My friends and I built our transmitters from parts scavenged from old radios and televisions, and in the process learned skills that later helped us when we built our own computers.
Some say learning Morse code is easy. For them that may have been true, but not all people learn things in the same way. As a teen-ager it took me two years from the time I decided I wanted to be a ham to the time I could pass a 5 word-per-minute Novice code test. It took me a full year to pass the next hurdle, the 13 word per minute test for a General license. It was almost 15 years more before I could pass the Extra Class 20 word per minute test. So I am completely sympathetic with those who say learning Morse code is a barrier. For some that is certainly true. I say let them into ham, radio, let them see how hard it can be to make yourself heard with a 100 watt transmitter competing on crowded voice bands, and then let them meet some of the operators who regularly succeed with 5 or 10 watt homebuilt rigs using Morse. Some may then decide it's worth the effort.
Even before I took a job as a sysadmin I had too
many passwords on different systems to remember.
So I invented some rules for writing them down:
1. Obviously: don't write them in a public place,
meaning anywhere a guest, janitor, or thief
visiting my office could find them.
2. In a pocket address book or on a wallet card,
don't make a system:user:password list, write
down the passwords only with no indication of
what system and user name they are for. Maybe add
a few phone numbers or nonsense strings. That way
if my book or wallet is lost and found by a
stranger it won't give enough info for someone to
figure out where a password is valid and for what
username. Trust my memory for my login names and
names of my workstations/servers/ISPs.
3. When it gets to the point where you just have
to re-use the same password on multiple machines
think about differential vulnerabilities. Maybe
I will use the same password on two Windows
workstations in the same office, but I use a
different one on Mac or Linux boxes -- if someone
can access one Windows box and find my password
he can probably break into the one sitting next
to it just as well, but why give him the password
for the Linux box, too.
4. When I became a system administrator I bought
a PDA to replace my little black address book,
and I use an encrypted file for my passwords. And
then I was very careful never to lose the PDA or
leave it where it could be stolen.