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December 01, 2005

Hacking voice mail

General_electrics

The IVR Cheat Sheet by Paul English. A handy cheat sheet to bypass phone systems and talk to a human

Do you like facts? Here’s a giant Alphabetical index of facts

Afraid to ask. Have you ever had a medical question that you were too embarrassed to ask a friend, family member, or even your doctor?

Not listed there: G virus, "The Phage" and Magnimus Obliviophallocytis - List of fictional diseases. (From Ben Yates’s Wikipedia Blog)

How to Spin a Pencil Around Your Thumb

Many More Unusual Bits of Information Here

December 1, 2005 in Information | Permalink

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Comments

Sigh!

When will we learn that angry reactionary outbursts are never the real way to progress.... I am sure there was a Paul English for the horse and buggy and against trains and cars, and a Paul English against the airplane and for trains and cars, and a Paul English against electric light and for good old warm candle light, and a Paul English against the pesky telephone and for the respectful and genteel letter, and a Paul English againt the cold type writer and for the warm pen and pencil, and a Paul English against the robotic personal computer and for the trusty type writer, etc., etc. History is littered with Paul Englishes who think they are fighting for the rights of the little man when in fact they are simply out to make some transient noise....

The irony -- which seems to have been completely missed by Mr. English -- is that his call for the human touch is in fact a call to ensure that the job of the operator/agent on the other end of the line is as soul-deadning as possible. If Mr. English had his way, we should not try to replace by a robot the operator that asks you for state and city and then the name of the contact, and then give you the phone number. Imagine the daily work life of this operator. Deaden the soul of that person so that Mr. English can get his 'human touch'.

It's easy to bash automation, but thank God for it. It has made our life a lot easier (imagine a world without ATMs for a second).

For some constructive advice on what companies should do to make phone automation better, see: http://www.angel.com/ivrcheatsheet/index.jsp

Posted by: Max Fromm at Dec 2, 2005 10:08:30 PM