Don't like unsolicited calls?

[Helge Hafting]

Crane, Matthew wrote:
> 
> The auto-detect routines that make a human or answering machine 
> determination before switching to an operator seem to fail consistently 
> when answering with my openmoko phone.   I'd rather they didn't call at 
> all, but at least when they do you don't have to listen to a sales 
> pitch.  A very good thing for sure.
> 

Well, this phone is programmable. Put the unwanted numbers on a blocking 
list, and have the FR auto-reject them without ringing.

For something more creative, have the phone pretend to answer. It could 
"listen" to the sales pitch. When silence is detected, pick from a pool 
of short .wav files that say random stuff like "interesting, tell me 
more", "could you please repeat that?", "just a 
moment....<noises>.....where were we?", "could you take it from the 
beginning, my aunt wants to hear about that too!"

Obviously, such a program should update the phone log with how much 
telemarketer time it has wasted.  And a high-score list where you can 
see who has talked for the longest time before realizing that something 
was wrong. :-)

Helge Hafting