The robot comes calling...

September 13, 2005 9:06 AM

The robot comes calling... When web services attack! NotifyPhoneBasic will call any phone number in the US/Canada and read your message to that phone number. You can even set the caller id information.
posted by ph00dz (45 comments total)

That is awesome.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 9:22 AM on September 13, 2005

IE only?
posted by melt away at 9:24 AM on September 13, 2005

Does anyone else get the feeling that this thing is going to be a BIG annoyance? I tried voice ID 3 and it was barely decernable. Bleh!
posted by michaelonfs at 9:25 AM on September 13, 2005

The greatest thing ever.
posted by jonson at 9:28 AM on September 13, 2005

It seems to cut out after a while, and plays a sales message. Maybe that's what the "license key" field is for.
posted by jonson at 9:33 AM on September 13, 2005

That is too much fun.
posted by killdevil at 9:37 AM on September 13, 2005

Every tech-novice in my address book is about to get a "verbal virus" attack.

chortle!
posted by CynicalKnight at 9:48 AM on September 13, 2005

It kept telling me that the phone number and caller id didn't match, even though they did. pshaw!
posted by mecran01 at 9:49 AM on September 13, 2005

Naw, they can't match. I ran into the same thing.. robot toys are destroying my productivity.
posted by foot at 9:52 AM on September 13, 2005

ring! ring! "this is a test service. please purchase a full key to remove this message"
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:55 AM on September 13, 2005

I am a Spanish robot and I am currently stuck in a well. Please bring rope and emergency services.
posted by foot at 9:58 AM on September 13, 2005

Wow, that QueueID number is incrementing quickly.
posted by Hubajube at 10:01 AM on September 13, 2005

Wait a second.....CDyne....Cyberdyne? It's beginning....
posted by Sangermaine at 10:02 AM on September 13, 2005

Very neato. In a War Games/1980 sort of way.
posted by fungible at 10:06 AM on September 13, 2005

I want this in the UK - anyone?
posted by gravelshoes at 10:08 AM on September 13, 2005

Now it's just hanging up before delivering the message. So screwy.
posted by Imperfect at 10:18 AM on September 13, 2005

The stupid robot just keeps hanging up on me. Say something funny, damnit!
posted by Plutor at 10:18 AM on September 13, 2005

I think we MeFi'd it.
posted by CynicalKnight at 10:19 AM on September 13, 2005

The phone rang (of course I tried this with my own number) but when i picked up there was no robot voice, just silence. Did I break it?

Or is this a new way of harvesting phone numbers of nerds?
posted by kika at 10:20 AM on September 13, 2005

oh man there was something just like this in 99 or 00, i cannot for the life of me remember the name of it, but it was fun! you could call anyone for free and a robotic male or robotic female voice would speak your message. so much time wasted crank calling people
posted by poppo at 10:22 AM on September 13, 2005

I get the phone to ring, but I haven't heard the message read aloud yet... bug or am I doing something wrong...
posted by Hanover Phist at 10:22 AM on September 13, 2005

I get the phone to ring, but I haven't heard the message read aloud yet... bug or am I doing something wrong...
posted by Hanover Phist at 10:23 AM on September 13, 2005

rewind, i would say in fact it was more like 97
posted by poppo at 10:23 AM on September 13, 2005

(ah, crap.. sorry for the double)
posted by Hanover Phist at 10:23 AM on September 13, 2005

This could be fun, it only it worked for me.

kika, maybe you got the shy robot?
posted by fenriq at 10:31 AM on September 13, 2005

The queue seems too long...
posted by klangklangston at 10:51 AM on September 13, 2005

Worked fine for me: Mac, Tiger, Firefox, IQ >30, full pot of coffee, SOCKS <2days old
posted by hal9k at 10:59 AM on September 13, 2005

It worked now and I bugged my SO (working for a phone company) with it.

This has so much possibility for abuse it's not funny anymore. Anonymous terrorist threats anyone?
posted by kika at 11:01 AM on September 13, 2005

ph00dz, you just turned an entire dorm floor into a coordinated phone prank unit. It works for all of us, but you have to answer right away because the message starts playing as soon as it starts ringing, so you'll likely hear the sales pitch if you aren't a quick draw. Fortunately, the text field accepts ridiculously long strings, so if you want to type in a minute's worth of SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN or just have your witty message repeat a few times, you can.

Yeah, please play nicely with your anonymity and computerized pranking...
posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 11:24 AM on September 13, 2005

I think you have to say something and then be quiet so it knows you answered the phone. "Hello" worked for me.
posted by rubin at 11:26 AM on September 13, 2005

oh man there was something just like this in 99 or 00

yeah, i had a deja vu feeling too. it was even earlier, however.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:53 AM on September 13, 2005

It worked earlier. Doesn't now. Saying "hello" isn't helping.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:35 PM on September 13, 2005

Someone just unwittingly stumbled upon a massive scam to obtain valid unlisted phone numbers via the internet.

Kudos.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:50 PM on September 13, 2005

oh man there was something just like this in 99 or 00, i cannot for the life of me remember the name of it, but it was fun! you could call anyone for free and a robotic male or robotic female voice would speak your message. so much time wasted crank calling people


Mr. Wakeup. I used to annoy all my friends. I mean, even more.
posted by Skot at 12:52 PM on September 13, 2005

Other Creepy CDYNE services
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:54 PM on September 13, 2005

I LIKE THIS TELEMARKETING RESOURCE DU JOUR.
IT IS A VERY NICE TELEMARKETING RESOURCE DU JOUR.
posted by Smart Dalek at 1:24 PM on September 13, 2005

"Yields falsehood when preceeded with its own quotation" yields falsehood when preceeded with its own quotation!
posted by spazzm at 2:00 PM on September 13, 2005

Not with that exclamation point there at the end.
posted by sonofsamiam at 2:07 PM on September 13, 2005

This reminds me of iPing. They have a free test drive feature. You don't get to pick the message, but the annoyance factor is still there.
posted by beth at 3:48 PM on September 13, 2005

all i get is silence and a hangup :(
posted by papakwanz at 4:51 PM on September 13, 2005

Heh. I just got a call from my dog, saying he'd figured out how to make the computer call me and tell me how much he wants to go run up and down along the fence and bark at the doberman next door.

Clearly, my husband got to metafilter earlier than I did today.
posted by ambrosia at 5:12 PM on September 13, 2005

it goes: "yields falsehood when appended to its quotation." yields falsehood when appended to its quotation. (oh, and: This sentence has exactly threee erors.)

this is great! right up there with the soundboards of ahnold and napoleon. and the spaceship/boston album prank is that much better when it sounds like a robot!
posted by carsonb at 6:37 PM on September 13, 2005

Nope, it's "preceded", not "appended". Unless you've got another source than me.
posted by spazzm at 8:01 PM on September 13, 2005

my source is the article "On Self-Referential Sentences" (from the collection Metamagical Themas pg. 8) by Douglas R. Hofstadter, quoting Willard Van Orman Quine.

What is a question that can serve as it's own answer?
I want phone robots to ask that every time. then we send the phone spiders!!!! *cackle*
posted by carsonb at 11:41 PM on September 13, 2005

Heh. Because of the queue, I didn't get my call until 2:50 am. Serves me right for pranking myself, I guess...
posted by klangklangston at 6:17 AM on September 14, 2005