roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) (07/17/90)
john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > An OTC pharmacutical company is sponsoring something called "Pollen > Trak" (with the same announcer on the machine that did "Weather > Trak"). You call the number and you get a pollen report for your > area. Based on the ANI data obtained in real time you are given, > supposedly, the correct report. It gives me a Sacramento area report; > that's hardly useful since San Jose is somewhat outside Sacramento's > geographic sphere of influence. I just had to try it. The recorded voice asked me to punch in my area code and phone number. (So much for ANI!) Then, it was kind enough to give _me_ the Sacramento pollen report, too! It strikes me that Minneapolis is perhaps a bit farther afield than San Jose, eh, John? I wonder who's programming this beastie? Roy M. Silvernail now available at: cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu
cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) (07/19/90)
I called the PollenTrak number myself, and when I made a wrong entry of the phone number, it said it didn't have information available about the ZIPCODE area I selected?
dmr@csli.stanford.edu (Daniel M. Rosenberg) (07/20/90)
In <9891@accuvax.nwu.edu> cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) writes: >john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: >> An OTC pharmacutical company is sponsoring something called "Pollen >> Trak" [ uses ANI, etc. ] ... It gives me a Sacramento area report; >> that's hardly useful since San Jose is somewhat outside Sacramento's >> geographic sphere of influence. >I just had to try it. The recorded voice asked me to punch in my area >code and phone number. (So much for ANI!) Then, it was kind enough to >give _me_ the Sacramento pollen report, too! And so I did the same thing, and gave it my "phone number" at work -- really the number to an auto attendant. And the Pollen Trak thing balked and said "Not available." So, I called back and gave it the number of the {San Francisco Chronicle's} Classified Ads department (same area code, different exchange). And got the SF Bay Pollen Report fine. And then I gave it the number of the inbound modem pool at AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ,(with the old 201 area code) and correctly got the pollen report for the Newark area of New Jersey, same woman's voice. Strangely enough, the pollen report seemed (except for place name) identical in San Francisco and Newark ("bad but not so bad -- buy some Benadryl"). # Daniel M. Rosenberg // Stanford CSLI // Chew my opinions, not Stanford's. # dmr@csli.stanford.edu // decwrl!csli!dmr // dmr%csli@stanford.bitnet
ie09@vaxb.acs.unt.edu (07/20/90)
I called the 'Pollen Update' number and it did not prompt me for my phone number. It gave me the pollen report for Dallas, which is where I live. Looks like it works fine here.
tep@tots.logicon.com (Tom Perrine) (07/21/90)
In article <9945@accuvax.nwu.edu> cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 500, Message 9 of 12 >I called the PollenTrak number myself, and when I made a wrong entry >of the phone number, it said it didn't have information available >about the ZIPCODE area I selected? That's funny. I gave it a San Diego phone number (area code 619). I got the "national pollen report", which was rather vague, to say the least! That's life in this Pac*Bell backwater :-) Tom Perrine (tep) |Internet: tep@tots.Logicon.COM Logicon |UUCP: nosc!hamachi!tots!tep Tactical and Training Systems Division |-or- sun!suntan!tots!tep San Diego CA |GENIE: T.PERRINE |+1 619 455 1330
ergo@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Isaac Rabinovitch) (07/23/90)
In <9891@accuvax.nwu.edu> cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) writes: >john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: >> An OTC pharmacutical company is sponsoring something called "Pollen >> Trak" (with the same announcer on the machine that did "Weather >> Trak"). You call the number and you get a pollen report for your >> area. Based on the ANI data obtained in real time you are given, >> supposedly, the correct report. It gives me a Sacramento area report; >> that's hardly useful since San Jose is somewhat outside Sacramento's >> geographic sphere of influence. >I just had to try it. The recorded voice asked me to punch in my area >code and phone number. (So much for ANI!) Then, it was kind enough to >give _me_ the Sacramento pollen report, too! This is interesting. My experience is slightly different. It may be that there are two Pollen Trak numbers, since the one I've seen on TV lately is not the one I use. Anyway, the first few times I called, I got the report for my area, without my having to enter anything. I also got a coupon offer (you leave voice mail with your name and address), which I ignored. Subsequent calls got the pollen report and a brief commercial, but not the coupon offer. This piqued my curiousity: could they possibly be keeping a database of phone numbers? So I tried calling from various pay phones. Usually a pay phone gets the Sacramento report (especially if it's long distance carrier isn't ATT), but not always. Sometimes (but no more often than on a private phone), I'm asked to enter my phone number. The coupon offer is repeated at what seem to be random intervals. I never get the Sacramento report from my home phone. And yes, I'm one of those wimps who stuck with ATT! ergo@netcom.uucp Isaac Rabinovitch atina!pyramid!apple!netcom!ergo Silicon Valley, CA uunet!mimsy!ames!claris!netcom!ergo