short takes (links)

[cellio]

A few links that have been accumulating:

The last survivor of the Christmas 1914 truce has died (from madfilkentist). If you don't know the story of this truce, follow the link. John McCutcheon captured its essence in the song "Christmas in the Trenches", one of my favorites.

Fannish speech patterns (from ommkarja).

How to outsmart automated phone systems (from dyanearden). Most of these I knew (and have used), but the warning about cell phones is new to me. And when I get annoyed with these systems I almost always try "0" and "#"; at worst it repeats the current menu.

How to write unmaintainable code (from anastasiav).

Comments

Automated voice recognition hell

[goljerp]

Oh, gosh, I had a hellish experience with Verizon the other day. I was trying to call to cancel my DSL order with them. I was at the "main menu" and I was told three things I could ask for; to cancel, I should ask for, um, "my account", I think. So I said that. It didn't understand me. I tried again, speaking slowly and in a more annoyed tone of voice. No luck. I tried a third time, and it bumped me to technical support, which of course meant I had to wait on hold for someone... grr...

On the other hand, I think that Discover's automated voice mail got my new address. Or else it thinks I'm on Cemetary Road. We'll see if I get my next bill...