Blog: March 2008 Archives

Alternate title: But damn, FreeBSD is pissing my off good this time around.

One thing about my job that really spoils me is the shear size of it. Where I'm at, we have more machines down for maintenance than most folks have in service company wide. We don't bundle up too many services on any one box - less things to go wrong when a box fails. And, boxes do fail - a fairly predictable amount fail every day, like clockwork. I tell people I plan for failure and they look at me funny. But what I mean is, I know things will fail - we can build to accommodate it.

I hate telemarketers. And, despite the do not call list, or perhaps in spite of, they've gotten much meaner and naster as of late - bogus or missing caller id, no identification when the predicitve callers call you, and if you do get a human, the moment you utter DNC lists, actually _before you finish_, you get a click. One was so rude as to tell me *I* had the wrong number, before the click.

I finally ran across the device at http://interceptorid.com/. It is known as a few different names but is really the same device. Plug it into the phone line between your phone and the wall. It intercepts all phone calls, finds the caller id after that first ring, then either sends it to your phone, or to an answering machine. For my own setup, calls with valid caller id, coming from "local" area codes (basically, northern California) all ring my phone directly; *everything* else (especially toll free #'s) ring the answering machine instead. Best part is, those screened calls, don't ring me at all.

Good stuff, but hard to find at this time - looks like they are preparing to change the design some. This was definately a version 1.0 product - a bit clunky. But, it definately works as advertise.