samho@larry.cs.washington.edu (Sam Ho) (12/15/88)
Last week, KTZZ-TV, Channel 22 here in Seattle, broadcast a half-hour paid advertisement for an information provider called PhoneQuest. Last year, about this time, PhoneQuest was showing 30-second ads for dialing Santa at some 976 number. This year, not only did they encourage kids to call Santa, they even dialed the phone, by playing DTMF tones over the air for a Dial-It number. Just hold the phone up to the TV speaker, and pay your $2.00 plus $0.35 for each additional minute. Part way through, after some outraged phone calls, KTZZ started scrolling a message across the bottom of the screen to check with your parents first. PhoneQuest blithely explained that the broadcast tones were to prevent accidentally dialing the wrong number and getting an adult message. Merry Christmas and modern technology to you. This would never have happened in the good old days of rotary dialing. :-) Sam Ho samho@larry.cs.washington.edu