I no longer can answer my phone. I get at least 20-40 spam/scam calls per day, and many are legitimate companies calling for loans and refinancing offers, which started after I got a home loan. I cannot seem to stop them from calling, and even though my phone number is listed in National Do Not Call Registry for many years, it hasn't worked at all. The only relief is that on my iPhone, I was able to block all calls not found in my contacts (ie whitelist phone numbers only).
Now, my only worry is that I might get a call from someone who I need to talk to, but is blocked and I won't even know it. For example, what if I get an emergency call from police/fire/hospital and I won't even know it. I also tried using "Screen unknown caller" feature, but then, no one likes them and sometimes they think it is AI bot and they usually just hang up (which is great for spam caller but not for legitimate caller)
My only solution that I could think of is to have a dedicated phone line just for friends/family/work, and a second line for banking/shopping/utilities/everything else.
> My only solution that I could think of is to have a dedicated phone line just for friends/family/work, and a second line for banking/shopping/utilities/everything else.
This fails the moment one of your "clean line" contacts downloads a sketchy app that sells all their contacts, and sells an updated list as your appear in their recent calls list - meaning it's not a one-time thing, it's for a few weeks after every time you call them.
It works if you only allow incoming calls from your contacts (e.g. whitelisted numbers) on friends/family/work line. If that number leaks, who cares? The random numbers will be blocked anyway. Probably would want to set it up so the 'public' line is silenced - just periodically check the VM box for anything important.
It seems possible, but maybe not affordable, for scammers to buy information about you and then spoof numbers of places that could/should theoretically call you. If you couple this with the potential victims on the other end being elderly you've greatly increased the risks of the attack being successful.
But then you're right back where you started: When you need a clean number for a hospital or similarly important service to call (Wife's work, daycare, school office), it goes to the distrusted, silent-by-default line, or, just as bad, it doesn't ring the clean, only-whitelsisted-numbers-ring line
> I also tried using "Screen unknown caller" feature, but then, no one likes them and sometimes they think it is AI bot and they usually just hang up (which is great for spam caller but not for legitimate caller)
When its someone legit I find that they actually go through the effort. I've had USPS explain who they were to my phone and I was able to answer them as a result.
I get the comfort that "normal person" would send an SMS "it was me Greg, call me back" if you don't pick up and most of my family is on whatsapp anyway.
Scammers or spammers will never send an SMS with clarification that they wanted to call you.
But a normal person could be calling from a doctor's office, a hospital, or your child's school - and not an actual cellphone, and they may not want to text you (or not be allowed to text you) from their personal cellphone, either.
As a parent, the "block all numbers!" approach has always seemed incredibly naive to me.
Yeah. A few months ago my wife and I had a miscommunication that ended up with her one place without her phone and me waiting for her in a different place. Completely unknown number, but since it didn't come up as suspected spam I answered it.
Those will usually leave a voice mail if it's important. Then you can call the place back and discuss it. If they don't bother to leave a voice mail, then it's not urgent / important.
Doctors' offices, hospitals, and schools are well aware of this problem because they're dealing with both the outgoing and incoming elements of it. Many hospitals no longer permit direct calls to inpatient rooms because of the spam and fraud rates. Outbound communications are similarly frustrated, and are driving use of online and app-based contact methods (with ... their own issues).
Other organisations, institutions, and businesses too. HN discussion tends to focus on the consumer side of this, it's what most commenters have most familiarity with themselves, but you'd better believe that pretty much the entire phone customer base is fed up to there on this. Which puts the entire network at risk of defection, a risk that telcos have been talking publicly about for over a decade now:
[S]ince mid-2015, a consortium of engineers from phone carriers and others in the telecom industry have worked on a way to [stop call-spoofing], worried that spam phone calls could eventually endanger the whole system. “We’re getting to the point where nobody trusts the phone network,” says Jim McEachern, principal technologist at the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS.) “When they stop trusting the phone network, they stop using it.”
Jim is a good guy and ATIS tried real hard with STIR/SHAKEN, but technology cannot overcome the commercial incentives that carriers have to let this nonsense continue. I've written about this before too [0].
Your follow-up, here (<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48938169>), was particularly insightful, and has influenced my thinking. Essentially: authentication / validation should happen out of band with phone number itself, for the reasons you've given.
I do suspect that for routing authentication, header-level signifiers should be reasonably useful, but for strong identity or authority attestation, they're not. That's ... a deeper problem, but also one which can be solved independently.
Oh, and I'd love to see that Dallas Morning News AT&T CEO interview story, if you could find it.
Yes, I think that is it. Thank you for finding it!
AT&T took some bad press around that time, and in July 2016, the FCC, facing political pressure, and now sensing that the PR gods were now on their side, leaned on the major carriers to set up a 'task force' to get things moving. I remember sitting in the little room at the FCC while various telco industry grandees bloviated. We all agreed that ATIS and IETF should define technical standards since they'd already made a start (Jim M did ATIS, for example) and so everyone agreed that STIR/SHAKEN was going to be The Path.
The original STIR/SHAKEN assumptions were that the attestation would be carried throughout the network in a SIP header and that every SIP processing element would deal with it. Reality soon intruded in the form of ancient telco equipment that didn't have the headroom to process another bunch of bytes in every call setup message. Another idea was to have signing and verification done by SIP application servers, but that didn't pan out for the same reasons. (Forgive me, I'm going to toot my own horn here for a second:) I invented a scheme with my colleagues where the signing or verification was an HTTPS operation triggered by the SIP device at the network perimeter (a 'session border controller' in telco-speak) which made the problem more tractable. AT&T took my PowerPoint and submitted a stunningly close copy as their own to the FCC. I still have the slides somewhere. I was salty at the time but ah well, what can you do: my employer still made money off the product with other customers.
Thanks! I'm going through the articles with interest.
I've heard the "but we can't filter traffic at the network level" line from AT&T much more recently than that date. If there's any corporate learning that's occurred, it's not filtered through the ranks.
It seems as if sorting out the STIR/SHAKEN situation with smaller telcos is going to have to happen. How that happens is something I don't have much clarity on, though I suspect some degree of national regulation and assistance will be required in the US. Your work could be an element of that?
I've been ... unhappy ... with telecoms options for well over a decade now, and predicting the #DeathOfTelephony (one of my Fediverse topics/tags) for much of that time. It's coming about more slowly than I'd expected/hoped, but I'm seeing lots of strain. Enterprise/organisational frustration has been increasingly apparent over the past five years or so. Millennials and onward (as well as many Gen Xers) actively avoid voice calls. It's simply getting hard to connect to people. Then there's the privacy / surveillance / propaganda / manipulation elements.
I think what I'd like is a SIP trunk to the house, and manage remote calls over WiFi (possibly with a SIP phone, I've got an old GSM 2G I'm thinking of doing some hardware-hacking on, or I could buy something ready-made). Carry a standard mobile for emergencies, but avoid it if at all possible, and route most comms through the VOIP system with a bunch of bespoke rules.
If I were running a business there'd be other considerations. I'm ... glad I'm not, for the moment.
The extent to which something vaguely resembling that might be more widely used ... I'm not sure. I'm thinking through elements I'd like to incorporate, might post that later (probably to the Fediverse or elsewhere for now).
Same as GP. I silence unknown callers, and unknown text messages. They can leave a voicemail, and I might check it at some point. I check unknown texts a little more often, but they don't interrupt me with an alert which is the important thing.
No police/fire/hospital emergency outcome is going to hinge upon someone else answering a phone call or text messsage.
What I did was implement a SIP number that asks for a random digit to be pressed before allowing the call through. It also connects to my CardDAV server, and any numbers in my address book don't get the prompt. This works for 95% of bogus calls. The only thing this stops is people not on my address book calling from hands-free. But this has never come up in conversation so I think I'm OK!
Some carriers offer blocking all unknown calls from specified area codes. On Verizon that is "Neighborhood Filter", part of their "Call Filter" toolkit:
The way it's meant to be used is that the subscriber would block their own area code, and perhaps co-located overlays or neighbouring area codes. The limit for now is ten area codes.
Known or explicitly approved numbers are passed through.
The additional hack is that it's possible to request a number in any arbitrary area code, and spam and robocall rates vary tremendously across area codes. They're generally worst across the Deep South / Southeast (TX, OK, AR, AL, MS, TN, GA, SC, NC), and lowest in Alaska, Utah, Massachussetts, Washington, and North Dakota.
Pick a low-spam, low-population state, request a number from one of its area codes (if not its one area code ;-), and then block all but known numbers from that area code.
Ha, for a brief moment I thought VM=virtual machine and not voice mail and was scratching my head how you set that up and what the VM is doing with the call
Live in Europe, last time I got a spam call 4-5 years ago it was my ISP asking of I wanted to add tv to my internet. Told them not to call me again and they didn't.
I live in Europe and I get scam calls and sales calls. Yes, legit companies spam call less in Europe due to regulation but scammers committing crimes don’t care about privacy laws etc it’s their least problems
You are lucky. I been on a financial scam list for the last 18 years. They call maybe twice per year. Almost interesting to see over time what scams are trendy.
> The only relief is that on my iPhone, I was able to block all calls not found in my contacts (ie whitelist phone numbers only).
It is insane that Android still does not have this option. It has to be some kind of software patent horseshit preventing them from adding the feature.
> you’re going to get tired faster if your muscles have to exert more force
I like to handwrite, but my right hand gets tired very fast, especially as I got older. I write almost a shorthand style, and it is hard to read, but I value speed of writing things down versus the neatness or readability afterward. The author recommends fountain pen or gel rollerball pen, which I have both tried.
Does anyone have any other advice for preventing fatigue? I've also tried to learn to use my left hand, so I can switch hand when my hand gets tired. But even after months (or years?) of trying, I could never get it to write, or atleast to my satisfaction.
Clench the other fist while writing. This loosens the writing hand. Something in the subconscious releases tension in the other hand. It's a trick I've used with reasonable success and it's immediately effective. It does require a bit of conscious effort, but overall it's a great hack.
Other posters are providing advice about writing from the shoulder, and writing slower etc which I would agree with. The other thing I would mention is: how tightly do you grasp/hold the pen? Try relaxing the grasp a bit.
(I've noticed this with students I support. In the UK the public exams known as GCSEs and GCEs are written papers, and some adult students who need to take them have similar fatigue problems).
If you're willing to try things like non-dominant hand writing, it may be worth learning something like business cursive. Most of the movement is done with your arm, and it was designed for people who had to handwrite all day for their job.
A liquid ink rollerball pen, for example the classic "uni-ball Vision Elite" is even closer to the effortless writing experience of a fountain pen (i.e. with a minimum pressure on the paper), than any gel pen (but gel pens are still much better than traditional ball-point pens, which require an excessive pressure on the paper; fountain pens and liquid-ink rollerball pens need to just touch the paper, almost no pressure needed).
Versus a fountain pen, a liquid-ink rollerball pen has the advantage of being insensitive to orientation (which may be difficult to control if you tire easily) and it is also much more unlikely to dry up when unused.
I do not write so much by hand as to become tired, so for myself I prefer a Japanese fountain pen with a nib that allows variable-width lines, for less boring letter forms, but if the criterion for choosing is the maximum possible comfort then I recommend a liquid-ink rollerball pen, and I have experimented with all kinds of writing implements known to mankind.
Except for using the most comfortable writing tool, there is nothing else to do besides changing the style in which you write, to simplify the hand movements.
Perhaps you should alternate between 2 different styles of handwriting, because they might stress different hand muscles.
I have no idea what style of handwriting you use, but I am not convinced that the kinds of "cursive" handwriting that were taught in many schools are really the least tiring, despite their emphasis on minimizing the number of times when the pen is raised from the paper. Many years ago I have abandoned the kind of writing that I was taught as a child and I have switched to one of the variants of the so-called "Italic" handwriting, which are now promoted in many places and which are a revival of the Aldine letters from the Italy of the 16th century, which have also been the base from which the so-called "Italic" style of the printed typefaces (fonts) had been developed. Such a handwriting has improved readability, but how fast and comfortable it is felt, can vary a lot between people. It works for me, but that does not mean that it would also be the best for others. There are books and on-line tutorials about this.
Perhaps you should just write slower, to avoid fatigue.
Consider using "bubble mapping" and connecting words/thoughts, instead of writing linear text.
I write a daily journal - in this calm relaxed mode, I write linearly (on dotted paper).
When I'm in a business meeting, or taking notes where time is fleeting (a speech / seminar), I use bubble notes - which is effective for quickly getting the thoughts down, and connecting them.
Don't hold the pen too tightly. Find a pen and paper combination that doesn't require force to write. Ball point pens on cheap notebook paper are notorious for requiring too much force. On quality paper with a good pen the ink will flow effortlessly because of gravity and capillary action. You will only need a light pressure.
I'm left handed and I never really learned a good grip I could write with. So I've always struggled with handwriting. I also have an essential tremor in my left hand. As I have aged, the tremor has gotten worse. So now, I have to grip tight to minimize the tremor.
I've pretty much given up on handwriting, it's embarrassing to either try to write, or have someone else write stuff for me. I ask my wife to fill stuff out for me all the time, but people probably think that's weird when they see it.
I'm just an average guy, and I love assembling Ikea furniture. It feels like an adult Lego. But sometimes, I wonder if this is like an IQ test, as I need to sometimes figure out what the illustration is asking me to do. My feeling is that those who have higher IQ will do better. Anyway, now these days, it feels like Lego costs more than Ikea furniture.
That's too bad. I might need bluetooth on keyboard, mice, headphone/earbuds, etc. OpenBSD seems so nice, but right now it is limited to running as a server, and not a desktop, which could be considered a good thing, as it focuses on simplicity. However, I do wish it had more hardware support.
EDIT: Running openBSD in a VM might get me the best of both world, with hardware support on host OS (linux/win) and the benefit of running OpenBSD.
It's pretty cool. I created a beautiful isometric illustration of home garden, which is worthy of being featured in a real book or magazine. I really like the isometric view to explain things, and the color palette is consistent and pleasant.
In Florida, the irony is that hurricane is the reason for not having too many solar panels. For example, Miami-Dade county requires commercial solar panel installation to have hurricane-approved solar mounts, which can withstand up to 160mph+ winds. This means installation is very costly. Even for homes, many insurance company will not insure homes with roof solar panel because of hurricane.
That's a requirement for everything, not just solar panels. The price premium for it is not that big since that's the only type of mounts you can get in florida. All modern housing is mostly category 5 rated due to the fact that hurricane damage grows exponentially as it picks up mass.
I like the idea, as a niche project for users that don't have control over their hardware/OS, or run on USB flash for portability.
Speaking of which, I have notes / journal entries dating back several decades, all in plain text files. I'm worried about these new projects and their longevity and whether it'll be actively supported 30 years from now. For simplicity, I'd use gocryptfs, Veracrypt, or other general file-based encryption which suits your risk tolerance, and use whatever editor (ie Obsidian, vscode, OneNote, etc) I want to use.
My memory is fuzzy, but as for me, Delphi died the day it suddenly became too expensive for hobbyists and students, and I couldn't justify spending more on Delphi than on a brand new PC at that time. Borland sold it away and we saw price up in the thousands of dollars for a single license. When the free community edition came out, it was a decade too late. I also miss dBase, as it was far superior to MS foxpro or Access.
I love this idea as I grew up with ancient dial up phones, and I miss actually holding a handset and dialing a number to make calls. However, gen alpha has grown up in completely digital era, and most interaction occurs on FaceTime (or other video chat), and I don't think we can ever go back even if we wanted to. My kids' grandparents WANT to see their precious little grandkids so we always use video calls, if it involves kids and grandparents.
I, on the other hand, want this to communicate with friends who want to do the same.
Now, my only worry is that I might get a call from someone who I need to talk to, but is blocked and I won't even know it. For example, what if I get an emergency call from police/fire/hospital and I won't even know it. I also tried using "Screen unknown caller" feature, but then, no one likes them and sometimes they think it is AI bot and they usually just hang up (which is great for spam caller but not for legitimate caller)
My only solution that I could think of is to have a dedicated phone line just for friends/family/work, and a second line for banking/shopping/utilities/everything else.