Is there any point to the Telephone Preference Service?

[Bob Eager]

Nah, the PDP-11!

[Mark]

Babbage's difference engine.

[Roger Mills]

I doubt whether many people had PDP-11s at home!

[Bob Eager]

You have one of those in your HOUSE?

[Huge]

I do.

[Gareth]

It certainly isn't perfect but it has significantly reduced the number of marketing calls I get.

[Gareth]

I have used my real phone number on price comparison sites and I get hardly any marketing calls; maybe only a handful a year.

[jgharston]

I'm currently developing some PDP-11 software right now! It's running some test code as I type. :)

JGH

[Gareth]

You could have some fun with that. I hope I can remember to try this if they do call me.

me: "yes hang on it is not connected to the monitor give me 15 minutes to set it up" put receiver down (but don't hang up) and go and have a cup of tea/beer whatever. come back in half an hour "ok what now"

scammer: "ok click on the start button"

me: get another beer from fridge. "I can't find the start button"

scammer: "it's on the bottom left of the screen click on it with the mouse"

me: "it doesn't have a mouse and I can't see a start button"

scammer: "What does it say on the screen then"

me: "Sinclair Research 1982"

I've never had one of these calls but if I wasn't busy I think it could be fun to see how much of their time I could waste.

[Bob Eager]

That's two of us then. That would be fun when they call. Except that as from this week, they'll have to get through the obstacles that Asterisk throws up. Starting with "All members of the household are currently busy with other telemarketers"..

[D.M.Chapman]

heh. Have you seen

?

Particularly good towards the end when he can't type the 6 digit code :)

Darren

[fred]

In article , Alan writes

Which Caller ID box do you have? Do you know if that is a common feature?

[tim....]

If it's a genuine survey then it is allowed.

If it's just a pretend survey as a proxy to try to sell something, then it isn't

tim

[tim....]

It does seem to have stopped double-glazing etc. callers from the UK. The local health club seemed not to have heard of it for some years, but they've stopped calling me as well now. I just get them from what, from the callers' accents, is probably the Indian sub-continent and thus not subject to UK law. Cue many stories as to how to wind them up/ waste their time (if you can spare yours)

As the TPS say, "surveys" aren't prohibited, nor are calls from companies like your utilities supplier with whom you already have a relationship,

-------------------------------------------------------------------

If you register ALL Sales calls are prohibited, even ones from companies with which you have a pre-existing relationship. The companies will often tell you otherwise - they are wrong.

tim

[Bob Eager]

If I get a witheld caller ID, I play the 'out of service' tri-tone before the rest of it kicks in. That seems to stop a lot of the automated ones.

[Alan]

In message , fred wrote

It was a discontinued item when I purchased it 8 years ago :(

haven't seen anything similar. I can read the display 10ft away, it displays the number and the name of "recognised" callers. It logs all calls (number/time). The green light flashes when a recognised caller rings. It also displays the time, date and temperature

[fred]

In article , Alan writes

LOL, loving the temperature display on a caller ID unit!

On availability, such is life, I despair of setting anything useful up these days without resorting to as Asterisk server. I'm planning a 24/7 movie server so maybe I can add that as a background task.

[TheOldFellow]

In which case it's Fraud, and the right authority is the Police (who also can't be arsed to do anything about anything)

R.

[Mark]

No. It was a joke.

[Huge]

I'm faintly disappointed I've never had one of these.