bernhold@qtp.ufl.edu (David E. Bernholdt) (03/23/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0099m03@vector.UUCP> Erik@cup.portal.com writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 99, message 3 of 7 > >If you call me and your number is not displayed I won't >be answering the phone. I personally don't think anyone can really afford to take this attitude: Imagine your [husband|wife|son|daughter|whatever] tries to call you from the house of a friend who has CPID turned off. Do you choose you friends by whether or not they have CPID? Or what if the person calling you has been in an accident and is using the phone of someone near the accident, who may have CPID turned off. I think if I called AmEx and found them calling me by name I would be a bit disconcerted too, but then I make most such calls from my office, as, it would seem, do a fair portion of others. The moral here is that if you are calling anyone - business or personal - from a phone which is not your home phone, CPID becomes just about useless. Furthermore, even if you have CPID, I'm not sure how much good it does: Would you recognize the phone numbers of everyone who might have a "legitimate" reason to call you and not answer the others? CPID doesn't help you distinguish a "junk" call from a real call, so its not much good for screening you calls. About the only marginally useful thing it does is give you advance warning on who is calling from those (relatively few) numbers you do know. The people whose numbers *I* would recoginze are generally also the people who's voices I would recognize right away anyway! It just doesn't sound that wonderful to me. -- David Bernholdt bernhold@qtp.ufl.edu Quantum Theory Project bernhold@ufpine.bitnet University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611 904/392 6365