friedl@uunet.uu.net (Stephen J. Friedl) (06/13/90)
John Higdon writes: > I have, for a about a week now, received a call on my main private > line at about 3:00 am daily. I answer with a groggy "hello", then the > caller hangs up. and goes on to make a case for Caller-ID. I have a related story... My partner was trying to get uucp working from the office to his house, working from his house. It was kind of a casual project, and it was just not working taking *days*. Eventually he was in the office late one evening trying to get it working, so after a few bad attempts he went to a terminal by the modem pool and fired off a poll after turning up the volume. It dialed, answered, and a groggy female voice pleaded "Please stop calling me". Oops. Wrong phone number in the uucp Systems file. We debated whether to try to track this person down and send her some flowers by way of apology, but decided we had bothered her enough :-( Stephen J. Friedl, KA8CMY / Software Consultant / Tustin, CA / 3B2-kind-of-guy +1 714 544 6561 / friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US / {uunet,attmail}!mtndew!friedl [Moderator's Note: We had a similar instance of this in Chicago a few years ago when a computer on the Fidonet tried *for over two weeks* to connect with another computer in the area, not once, but several times per night. An elderly lady had the number it was calling. She was understandably frightened and upset. Illinois Bell's Security Department came to her assistance and located the offending computer whose owner was not even aware of what his machine was doing at 2 AM every day. He reached a 'gentlemans agreement' with IBT: He was not to operate a modem or computer on IBT's lines during a three month period of 'probation'. If he was caught doing so, IBT would sue him to permanently disconnect his service. The alternative was he could do as he pleased and fight them, but they would supply his name to the police and assist the elderly lady in filing formal charges. Guess which he chose. His BBS went offline that day. A harsh penalty? I don't think so. PT]