Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Geek Question

If I butchered fatted calf on the altar of your geekdom would you shine your luciferous geekness on this poor mortal.

I have an unlisted number, sensible really given what I do for a quid.
Anyway if I dial my mobile (a bog standard Nokia on 3G Telstrarse none of your whizzo IDoovers or Crackberrys for me) from my home number the caller ID shows "Private Number." Right & fine. Also when I call home & the Bobette is on the phone ( a common state of affairs, she is 16) the Telstrarse Home Messages says "You have reached home messages 101 service of a (significant pause) private number blah blah blah." Confirms my perception of the cloaking technology is working fine, although if you have dialled the number, you'd think you might have known it, but that's bye the bye.

I had reason to call my help desk Nuffy last night and did so from the home phone. He answered "Hey Bob." Now don't get me wrong his Kung Fu is mighty, but I don't believe he has telekinesis nor paranormal psych capacities. Plenty of psychotropic capacity, but that's another story.

He runs a naked ADSL and an alcatel VOIP phone.
Apparently his phone book in his VOIP phone recognises my number. But I thought my silent number status meant that it doesn't transmit my number in the caller ID field.

WTF?
How does his VOIP phone recognise a number that I  thought wasn't transmitted?

8 comments:

  1. It is transmitted so that even if you have a private number, calls to emergency services (i.e. 000, fire, police, ambulance, Nuffy & Rajneesh) are able to override your private number and always display. I got that beat too though, I can display whatever number I like. Shame I lost the Prime Minister's private line in the wash.
    Nuffy

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  2. G'day NB.

    As Nuffy said your number is sent for the reasons stated.

    It will show as Private Number in normal circumstances. However if I have your number listed in my phone's phone/address book it will display the name that I have associated with that number.

    So obviously you have given me your number for me to have entered it into the phone/ address book. Same for mobile phone's address book.

    My mobile can even have a different ring tone for individuals as well as bringing up a photo (if I have one) of the caller.

    If you are not in my phone/address book it just cames up "Unknown".

    Hope this eases you mind about the privacy of Unlisted numbers.

    Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year to you and yours.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aah, Thankyou oh Geeky ones.
    I was ruminating this last night.
    I guess I am confusing 2 distinct issues.
    Issue 1 - I am unlisted commercial & publicly available phone books (as distinct from what you program into your phone book)(which I guess theoretically could be hacked, but that's not important right now)

    Issue 2- Caller ID.
    Interesting.

    No Nuffy, the Rajnesh Help Desk does not qualify as an Emergency Service. For starters you don't issue snappy overalls nor cool Pelican brand tool kits.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh and all the very best of the season to you & yours Al.

    ReplyDelete
  5. S'allright. Now where's my fatted calf?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I offer you a substitute of fatted possum, which has been knocking on the glass foyer outside my bedroom these last few nights in order to engage the cat in social pleasantries.
    i.e.
    Cat 'hiss, spit, scree, faaaaark ewe....'
    Possum, an octave higher and with twinges of schizophrenic rage,
    'hiss, rattle rattle rattle FARK YOU, you FKN spoiled houseridden feline...'

    Happy Xmas, Nbob.
    Have a chili possum sausage.
    They're fresh, and they're good.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Tis Boxing Day (aka the Day of Vain Regret and Bitter Pain) and I am stuffed on several different levels. A great & glorious New Year to you, yer SWMBO and the brave Bobette. I know where you can get a small muzzle-loading cannon (bore approx. 50mm). How good would it be to stand off and give the more annoying ones a broadside?

    PS Quokka's snags contain 30% scrub turkey, 15% Irish backpacker. Read the label carefully.

    ReplyDelete
  8. And the same felicitations & sincere sympathy to the Hammer of the Helpless and all the many Little GreyBeards, or would they be goatees?
    Not if Brother Moko is around.

    Grape & chain shot are the only way to let fly with period pieces. The sainted Hunter S had alsorts of bother with neighbours when using solid ball.
    On that particular tangerine, I listend to an interesting bloke the other day (I think it was a BBC World rebroadcast) who expanded on the meme that without the metal smithing technologies (pl) that where developed in cannon, mortar and bell casting we could not have had a steam age.

    ReplyDelete

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I was the proud recipient of the worlds first monkeys ass to human face transplant. Friends of the donor monkey says it took well, I'm not so sure.