Observations of the Random sort

[Shem]

my outgoing message says 'I no longer receive voicemail at this number, it is not monitored and messages will not be returned. Please send an SMS or email if you need to contact me.'

If it's full, they don't hear it. They just get a message that the mailbox is full.

[lunchstealer]

Nomorobo has made my phone usable again. I just wish they were allowed to block numbers spoofed to look like they're on the same exchange as you.

It's much easier for me because I don't live anywhere near my exchange, so there's no chance that it's someone I actually want to talk to, so any unknown number like that gets directed straight to voicemail. They never leave a message. Go figure.

[Highway]

Nomorobo has made my phone usable again. I just wish they were allowed to block numbers spoofed to look like they're on the same exchange as you.

It's much easier for me because I don't live anywhere near my exchange, so there's no chance that it's someone I actually want to talk to, so any unknown number like that gets directed straight to voicemail. They never leave a message. Go figure.

Yeah, No one I want to talk to is on my exchange. All of those calls are rejected.

[Dangerman]

my outgoing message says 'I no longer receive voicemail at this number, it is not monitored and messages will not be returned. Please send an SMS or email if you need to contact me.'

If it's full, they don't hear it. They just get a message that the mailbox is full.

That doesn't seem to be the case with my carrier (VZN).
ETA: That is, you have to listen to my message, and then you are told the mailbox is full, because FYTW.

[Mo]

Re: robocalls

I've been getting so many that I now leave my voicemail full (so no more can be added) and my outgoing message says 'I no longer receive voicemail at this number, it is not monitored and messages will not be returned. Please send an SMS or email if you need to contact me.'

I'm on the do not call list, I file complaints after each call with the number, time and date. My next action will be a complaint to the NH AG because all of these calls are being routed through a Verizon center in NH, and VZN won't respond to my complaints.

The article I linked explains basically all the reasons why those avenues aren't working.

[Fin Fang Foom]

I get like one to four scam calls per month on my cell phone. I never answer. I don't know how you all are getting hit so bad. Maybe someone thinks you are old.

[Aresen]

I get like one to four scam calls per month on my cell phone. I never answer. I don't know how you all are getting hit so bad. Maybe someone thinks you are old.

I think any response, even a recorded message, tells the bot that there is a live number. I simply reject any call from a number that I do not recognize.

[Dangerman]

The article I linked explains basically all the reasons why those avenues aren't working.

Yeah, I rtfa, I'm just pointing out that I happen to fit neatly into that story.

[Mo]

There's literally nothing that the government can do. AT&T has provided an app that will block many of the calls, but not most of them. The ways to solve it require some technology lift. Part of it is origin validation, basically making sure that the originator of a VoIP call is authorized to originate the call. Also, now phone companies have permission to block calls that can't originate calls, like inbound call only IRS lines.

It happens to me a bunch too. What's nice for me at least is that I have an Orange County, CA line and all of the spoofed calls specifically try to look like they are local calls. However, the only calls I would expect to get from Orange County are from friends/family, so I know I can ignore all calls from those area codes.

[Dangerman]

I think you're right about a tech lift. I think a protocol designed for analog, human speed use is probably reaching natural limits now that we can robo dial for practically nothing.

But I wonder, if there's actually nothing that can be done, why aren't businesses being spammed as hard? Their numbers are easily found and the internal networks are more machine friendly than human friendly. It should be happening at least by accident more than we hear about, right?

[Rachel]

I think you're right about a tech lift. I think a protocol designed for analog, human speed use is probably reaching natural limits now that we can robo dial for practically nothing.

But I wonder, if there's actually nothing that can be done, why aren't businesses being spammed as hard? Their numbers are easily found and the internal networks are more machine friendly than human friendly. It should be happening at least by accident more than we hear about, right?

I get 2-3 robo calls a day at work. We get the same ones quite frequently.

[Mo]

It's less about robo-dialers, which have existed for decades. It's more about the ease of getting on to the infrastructure. VoIP has made telecom access cheap and also made it very easy to hide your location and do it from anywhere. Doing it over POTS has discovery risk and infrastructure lift that no longer exists.

Small companies see it more than bigs ones because they can filter on their side, I suspect. I also would guess the autodialer lists are cleaned up to exclude businesses if they can. They're not dialing numbers at random, but rather using lists where they know there's a person answering.

[Dangerman]

Word

[Mo]

I can't wait to tell my kids about how the L33T haxx0rs of my day were just trying to get free long distance phone calls.

[Mo]

Exactly 0% of the people that say, "Mark Wahlberg is one of Hollywood's biggest stars because look at how much money his movie makes," would also say, "Sam Jackson is the biggest star ever to grace the silver screen."

[Aresen]

Exactly 0% of the people that say, "Mark Wahlberg is one of Hollywood's biggest stars because look at how much money his movie makes," would also say, "Sam Jackson is the biggest star ever to grace the silver screen."

I would like to know the percentage of people that subscribe to either of those postulates. I would also like to know if the standard deviation in each sample is greater than the number itself.

[Mo]

No one subscribes to the latter because most people are not idiots and understand that total box office is a terrible measure of how big a "star" someone is. A lot of people are claiming the former.

[JasonL]

In today's world, I'm not sure I object to total eyeballs watching the movies you make as a proxy of stardom. Cultural relevance of a few Chosen just aint what it used to be and also globalism is a thing. It's always been the case that biggest star isn't best actor.

[Mo]

In today's world, I'm not sure I object to total eyeballs watching the movies you make as a proxy of stardom. Cultural relevance of a few Chosen just aint what it used to be and also globalism is a thing. It's always been the case that biggest star isn't best actor.

No one watches Transformer movies for Mark Wahlberg (and he's in the 2 worst performing ones of the series), as evidenced by the fact that no one cared that Shia was replaced by Wahlberg. Similarly, no one watched Planet of the Apes for him either. You can make a good case for Chris Pratt being a big part of the success of GOTG, but he gets zero credit for the success of Jurassic World. It's like saying Will Perdue is a great played because he has 4 rings.

[thoreau]

The only measure that matters is what The Market thinks. Which actor makes the most money?

[Warren]

Does it matter if I don't know why I, or anyone else for that matter, should care how big a star Mark Wahlberg is? Do I want to know?

[Sandy]

So you can know if he deserves money for reshoots when his costar didn't/wasn't able to negotiate that into her contract.

[JasonL]

So, I just got on instagram a lil while ago. I like travel and food pics in a feed, but, um, linking through to content like a recipe is pretty retarded? Why do people like insta for content delivery with linking that bad?

[nicole]

Yeah great q

[Jasper]

So it ain't just me. Of course, I'm also not part of the selfie generation, so that might explain it.