Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with call

When all the guys join in singing...only they're yelling it from the back of the band

rileyray3000 — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:34:18 -0800

Okay what is the name of the kind of swing music where the band does call and response with the singer? Not the backup singers. The horn section. So I was listening the other day to a favorite jazz song, Blue Skies

It occurred to me that what I like about it is the call and response with the regular guys in the band, the horn section, the rhythm guys. It's also what I like about a couple of Cab Calloway songs. Unfortunately, trying to find MORE songs like this based on "it's where the guys with the guitars yell back at Frank" isn't the walk in the park I thought it'd be

So my question is: is this a subgenre of Swing? If so, can you recommend some other examples I might like?

on call compensation

mandapanda — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:18:34 -0800

Is it legal in the states of Massachusetts or California for a company to require its non-exempt employees to basically be on call 24/7 with no compensation? Details inside. A company based out of California with branches in Massachusetts requires a group of non-exempt employees to respond to calls from its internal alarm system 24/7. The calls last only a few minutes, but require the employee to assess the situation and inhibit the alarm if the situation is not urgent. If the situation is urgent, the responding employee must go to the branch location and inspect. If the alarm is inhibited but the situation remains, the alarm will call again in an hour.

If and only if the employee goes the location, the employee will be paid. No compensation is offered for being on call to answer the phone, nor is compensation offered for answering the phone. However, employees get in trouble at work for not answering the phone on nights and weekends.

Is this legal? My gut feeling says no as the employees are required to maintain a condition throughout non work hours in which they are capable of responding to calls. Also, the calls require a non-negligible amount of work and definitely provide a service to the company. Taking the calls is a requirement.

Thanks for your input.

Please hold, someone will be with you shortly.

yoyoceramic — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:55:59 -0800

I want to run it in a radio show type of format... a conference call that is. I want to run a conference call in a radio show type of format, where I can see on a switchboard (on the computer screen I assume) a listing of the callers (preferably in the order they called).

Since I will be fielding only questions, this style is preferred so that I can be asked the question by the caller, then interact with the caller while the other listeners on the line can hear. After I reslove the question, I bring the next caller on the line.

Any software recommendations out there? Preferably ones that are free-low cost. I'm imagining something where the caller calls in and is greeted with, "Welcome to the Q&A session, you are caller number 5. Please enjoy the conversation and we will answer your question shortly"

Help me get this job!

Bageena — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:35:48 -0800

I have an interview for a Dialer Admin II position at a huge collections outfit in four hours. Although I have about 10 years of collections call center experience and have worked extensively ON a dialer, I've never actually done any Dialer Admin-type work. What can I say or do to help me get this job? I've already landed a position as a collector for said company, but this could make the different between a job and a career. I feel like I have enough experience in collections to do the job right, even if I don't know much about building a dialer campaign specifically. So yeah - hoping there are some dialer admins, HR or manager-type people who can give me some good advice on how to win this possibly life-changing interview.

Dwight says GET BACK TO WORK

kenbennedy — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:34:25 -0800

passiveaggressivefilter: How can I get a (humorous) anonymous call to ring a nearby phone at the office? There is a visiting employee in a cubicle adjacent to mine,; He spends hours at a time chatting it up (loudly) with the neighbors. I remember when "snakes on a plane" came out, Samuel L Jackson would call your phone if you entered it in to leave you a voicemail. That site isn't up now, what similar ones are?

This guy is frigging annoying! I need to break up his irrelevant monologues with hints that he needs to get back to work. I saw an older one for Dwight from "the office" which would be perfect, but I can't find the link now... Help!! (or feel free to give a better suggestion, besides actually approaching the guy and voicing my concerns).

I have the phone # to send it to, I just need to initiate the call so he can't pin me down on the caller ID.

The Call of the Mole

misteraitch — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:47:05 -0800

Where can I find a recording of the cry or call or shriek or squeak of the common European mole, Talpa Europaea?

How can I forward a call to two cell phones?

PercussivePaul — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:05:53 -0800

My new apartment's buzzer works by dialing a phone number. My girlfriend and I both live in the apartment. We each have cell phones, no land line, and the buzzer will only accept one number. What should we do? Options:
1. Get a land line for the apartment. Don't want to because it would cost money and we'd have no other use for it.

2. Route to one of our phones. This should work fine under normal circumstances but what if the chosen person is not home, and their phone is dead? We could make it work but it has the potential to be inconvenient.

3. Both our cell phones ring, and whoever picks up first answers the call. I think this is the ideal solution but I have no idea how to implement this since the system apparently can't do it on its own. There must be services out there that would let us do this. Anything reliable, cheap, and available in Vancouver BC? (Both of us have cell service from Telus and have basic simple phones.)

Please help us improve our office phone system on the cheap.

4ster — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:38:24 -0800

I work in a small office with a small budget where the only full-time employees are my assistant and I, and we have separate offices. Our office has two phone lines. When one is busy, the other rings. Line one is our published office number. We each have our own voice mailbox. The problem is that you only get the "Press 1 to speak to [her], press 2 to speak to [me]" when both lines are busy or no one answers. I want to set up things so that people can select who they would like to speak to before the phone rings on our end. My reason for this is to cut down on the number of distractions my assistant has to deal with, so I'd like for calls to me to come straight to me, so I can handle them for her.

Our phone company is Embarq, and their fees for having them change things around on their end are prohibitively expensive. I'm trying to see if there is some other way to accomplish that we can afford. I'm open to most anything, including forwarding calls to my (Sprint) Blackberry. However, nothing I can think of deals with the matter of my assistant having to deal with so many calls.

I know it is a long shot, but I'm just curious if there are any workarounds we have not considered.

Thanks.

To Access the Call, Please Dial Your Participant Code Now

jay dee bee — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:22:44 -0800

I am seeking personal recommendations for telephone conference call systems/services/companies. Specific features needed are detailed below. I am looking for a high-quality, reliable conference call service for use a few times a month by a new business. The last time this question was asked was in 2005 and I would like to see if there are better/different answers for 2009.

Features needed:

* Does not need to be free, but I don't have a platinum budget either.
* I would like participants to be able to dial-in easily if I give them a number and a code.
* I would like to have a way to know the names of people who joined the call and the duration they were on, but I do not want others to know who else is on (ie participants are not announced to all)
* I would like the minimize the beeps. Nothing is worse than a zillion bee-boops and boo-beeps when someone important is speaking.
* The ability to record and playback the call seems cool, though I've never done it before. It might prove useful if I tried it.
* Good customer service from the company in case of snafus, etc.

Some companies I've seen are Civicom and Citynet, in addition to a whole slew of free conference call sites, but after awhile they all start to look the same, which is why I'm looking for personal recommendations.

Thank you!

Record phone calls on iPhone 3Gs?

Bradley — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:15:03 -0800

Going from Treo to iPhone -- how do I record in-progress calls? I've had a nice app on my Treo the past few years called CallRec. It could even auto-record every single call (outgoing or incoming), locally to the Treo's SD card, then sync the WAV file to my laptop. If I can't figure out how to record calls on the iPhone within the next 3 weeks, as of today I'm thinking I'll need to go back to the Treo.

I travel a lot for work so I talk to my 4 year old on the phone a lot, and I love having his cute voice preserved forever. I also record presentations I do, counseling sessions that I pay for, voicemails I want to keep, etc.

I think voice recognition technology will catch up in a few years to where I'll be able to dump all these sound files into a program and have it spit out clean text on the other end.

Any ideas other than buying hardware to go between phone and headset? Any programmers want to tackle it? I'm enjoying the heck out of the iPhone after a week, have googled for 20+ hours to find the apps I need to replace Treo functionality, etc. Since this new 3Gs version has video recording and a voice recorder, I figured call recording would be a piece of cake. So far, no go. Thanks!!

Booty call..where/ how to

Anonymous — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:57:24 -0800

If I booty call/txt a guy (i'm a girl) should it be expected of me to show up to his place or should I ask him to pick me up? If I booty call/txt a guy (i'm female, in my 20s) should it be expected of me to show up to his place or should I ask him to pick me up? Background info... I live with my parents, so he can't come over and he lives 45 minutes away. I could drive out there at night, but i'm a bit chicken. Other question for females (ages 18-30) who live with your parents... how do get your casual sex in? Do you get picked up, do you go to the guy's place, where and how do you sneak off to at night when you want to get laid? Do you let friends know where you are?

How to record a call using a cell phone?

Jennifer S. — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:40:39 -0800

How do I record a call on a cell phone - or what are my options for recording a conversation in the situation I'm dealing with? I need to record an extended phone conversation so I can transcribe it for work purposes.

I had planned to have the client, who's in England, call me on Skype. I'd just put my hand-held Best Buy voice recorder by the speaker the way I usually do.

But the client has said we can't use Skype, as he's found the connection from England is consistently horrible everywhere in the States he's tried. He's certain our connection would also be bad.

I have no land line, so that leaves my cell phone. And my cell won't do, as I there's no way I know to use a hand-held recorder with it.

I could set up the call from a friend's house & use their land line, but dammit, is there any way to do it from my own land-lineless place?

I am totally broke this month, so I have no budget for any solution I'd need to pay for.

BTW I have a Motorola Razr a few years old & Bluetooth setup. Is there some kind of speaker functionality with this that I don't know about?

Suggestions?

Cell phone key finder?

gilsonal — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:31:58 -0800

Is there a product out there that would let me call my keys from my cell phone? I'm tired of losing them! I've seen a couple products where you use a remote control to beep your keys, but then that ends up being another thing to have to carry around. Any good suggestions? I'd rather have something I can call from my phone, but a small remote wouldn't be that bad, I suppose. It took me 8 hours to find my keys last weekend, and I'd really rather not have a repeat of that :)

Should I ignore my ex friend with Benefits Birthday tomorrow?

zulonline — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:22:37 -0800

Should I ignore my Ex - Friend with Benefits Birthday tomorrow? And how speak to him after that after that? All my story is already explained on my last question threads, basically I managed to moved out from a difficult situation in which I found myself cared of, but rejected.

Still this person gets in touch with me ocassionaly and ask me about my life. I still got his keys from his flat , where I used to live before the "breaking up ", and I think he does'nt want to lose me as a friend.. but I can't guess what is in his mind, probably he feels guilty about cousing me pain as he did not feel in the same way I have.

Last week he called me briefly to say hi and asked me the favor to send a package to his doughter for Chritsmas , I went to his flat while he is abroad and picked up. He said he will let me now the adress where I have to send it. I haven't heard of him for a week, and is now his Birthday tomorrow! I dont know if he came back to the City or still is abroad.

I am totally confused , I have done all eforts to move on with my life for the last 2 months, I still feel him as a friend in some ways as he looked after me for sometime when I needed, although he deprivated me of his love while living together. And that makes me feel still so angry and upset .

I feel that ignoring his Birthday by not calling or texting him, will show him I don't want part of him anymore, and I will don't make a fool of myself again, as I invent and did everything for the past 2 years to win his love with not so good results.

But on the other hand, I feel that if I ignore his birthday, he willl think I am upset I am not over him, ( altough I am very upset becasuse last time he called I said that it was nice to see his flat was very tidy and nice when I picked up my mail and , as the last call he mentioned he had a friend ( a college secretary from his work and she stayied at his place for a few days and she kept the flat nice and tidy, I got really upset , and I showed to him ) also It is diff for me to be harsh to people even more when I have spent so much time caring about them and loving them , then acting on the oposite way make me feel guilty .

I also think he will be upset If I don't call him, he may think I am playing games ? or get resentment thinking that just because he doesn t love me , I can't be just his friend,? also I feel sad in case he came to the City and spend his B alone, and just because he was who decided to keep as just friends, he doesn't dare to call me on his day?

I am also afraid perhaps of loosing his friendship in a long term it might make me feel bad when I will be really over him.

So the question is please , should I call him tomorrow or not?
what do I say if I call, and what do I say if I don't when he contact me later to tell me his doughter adress? , how should I act ? what do I say about his birthday?

Thank you for your advice..I am very lonely at the moment and I'd like to have some diferent opinions which would help me to make up my mind to rhis respect. As you probably read I am quite confused and anxious about it. Cheers.

either way, I'm an asshole.

Sara Anne — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:07:41 -0800

Which is worse? To call or not to call? Someone I'm not attracted to gave me his phone number. I liked talking to him, and thought he was a nice guy, but there was simply no there there. Which would be worse: if I were to 'lose' his phone number or call and explain?

I need to know who made this prank phone call!

lukeklein — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:52:19 -0800

Who made this recorded prank phone call? It's SO funny! When I was younger, I went to summer camp and a friend of mine had this HILARIOUS collection of prank phone calls by a group similar to the Jerky Boys, but I am almost certain that it wasn't them. Anyway, here is a little excerpt from what I can remember. I believe the premise is that a foreigner is calling a translation or international advocacy group, and the operator is having difficulty understanding the caller...

Operator: ...I'm sorry I don't understand.

Foreigner: Yes.

Operator: Can you call back on Wednesday?

Foreigner: Yes..... No. What? Wednesday what? What is Wednesday?

Operator: Can you call back on Wednesday, the day after tomorrow?

Foreigner: Tomorrow?

Operator: No, the day after tomorrow.

Foreigner: Tomorrow?

Operator: No, sir. The day after tomorrow.

Foreigner: Tomorrow?

Operator: ....Yes. Please call back tomorrow...

Foreigner: OK!!!

Anyway, the sketch in its entirety is GUT-BUSTINGLY funny. If anyone remembers this from their childhood and can remember who it is, please let me know!

Should I schedule my Skype video chats?

jeffhoward — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:16:01 -0800

What's the protocol for scheduling personal video calls over Skype or iChat AV? I'm pretty new to this area and trying to understand whether it's okay to just call someone up on video. I can see the need to set up times for conference calls or video conferences in a business setting where you're trying to coordinate groups of people or book facilities, but the rationale seems less clear for communicating with friends or family. Is it rude to send an impromptu video request to a friend or relative who you know to be on Skype? What's the protocol? If you need to schedule it beforehand, why? How much time is appropriate and under what circumstances?

Get rid of urge to call ex

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:33:58 -0800

Urge to call ex I still get an urge to call someone I dated a year ago. I know it would make no sense, as he ended things with me. I know I wouldn't "get closure" by calling him, he probably wouldn't answer the phone and even if he did I know there's no point "confronting" him as it's been way too long, I would be making an ass of myself by wanting to talk to him. I know what he's like and trying to talk to him will not heal anything, he is not like a trusted friend, he actually ended our relationship quite callously. So, I have to heal myself. i guess I am basically looking for some perspective on this, like faith that I will get over it. For God's sake I still remember his phone number even though i never wrote it down. : ) Eek! Help! : ) The urge to call generally comes when I'm feeling good, not when I'm feeling angry or sad or anything. I did enjoy the time we spent together, I thought he was sweet and intelligent, and yes, there was brief talk of marriage, though this can't really be taken seriously in a way as we only dated a few months. I think my feelings are natural, to want closure, he just stood me up to end things. So even though I get myself, i am sick of this nonsensical urge to call him. I think it's just curiousity, like, is he still alive and in town, that's all I'd learn from his machine anyway.

Would you like to accept the charges?

dr_dank — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 08:52:03 -0800

Is it worth the time and effort to attempt to get a third-party collect call removed from my phone bill? On my Verizon bill this month, there is collect call from The Billing Resource on behalf of OSP Communications. The trouble is that the call was "accepted" on a day and time that nobody was home.

On one hand, I don't want to pay for something that I didn't use and is most certainly a scam of some sort. On the other hand, we're looking to buy a house in the next year and it would be equally dumb to blemish our credit and shell out far more money if we're not approved for a good mortgage because these scammers push it to collections over an $11 charge.

Verizon can't help because they're only passing through the charge for a third party provider. I can't imagine that these people would make it easy or even possible to contest these charges.

Has anyone successfully fought charges like these?

Help with MS Outlook 2002

CollectiveMind — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:23:52 -0800

I am using a computerized telephone management system called Advanced Call Center. One of its features is it emails me whenever I receive a call at my business. That feature needs and uses the Telephone Applications Programming Interface (TAPI) feature within Outlook to function. But Outlook generates a popup on the host PC that requires that I allow or disallow the message before it will allow ACC to reinitalize the modem and return to answering mode. If I'm not there, I can't turn off the window, so ACC doesn't answer anymore calls. Is there a way to turn this notification function off in Outlook 2002, or have it automatically send without notification?

Is there an ornithologist in the house?

shannonm — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:02:00 -0800

Need help identifying a bird with an unusual call. I came across this bird last week in a nature preserve in Woodland Hills, CA. It was black with a red spot on the wing near the shoulder. It (and its many friends) made a strange computer-y sound (my daughter called them birdbots). Based on the time of year, and the fact that there seemed to be a call-and-response rhythm, I thought it might be some sort of mating call. I uploaded a small video clip here. Anyone know what kind of bird this is? And does it normally sound like R2D2, or is that just a special springtime "How YOU doin'" thing?

20 Euro cents per minute is quite outrageous

cmonkey — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:28:29 -0800

Is there a better option for international phone forwarding than Skype? I would like to have a US phone number redirect to my German phone number, but Skype's rates to German mobiles are quite high. Are there any other options?

Where can I find screen captures of COD4 intermission sequences?

serial_consign — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:30:06 -0800

Where can I find more information (and screenshots) about the motion graphic intermissions of Call of Duty 4? I'm doing a mini-research project on Call of Duty 4 and trying to find some screen captures (I have the Xbox version) and information about the intermission sequences in single player mode. These are the map/vector graphics sequences with the voiceover narration detailing the plot development.

Does anybody have any info on who produced these sequences - I'm assuming they were produced in house at Infinity Ward. Also, where I can find some screenshots of them? Searching online has been useless as all I can find are dozens and dozens of (virtually identical) banal reviews.

And...scene?

paperlanterns — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:52:08 -0800

MeFi actors/casting directors/people who have been extras before... any tips for what I should do at an "extras casting call"? They are having a casting call for the movie "State of Play" with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck this weekend. I have no link or connection to the acting field, but I thought it would be fun to try out for an extra. The casting notice really gave no direction for what kinds of extras they are looking for, other than "bring a pen and a small photo." Should I get dressed up? How dressed up? (i.e. Washingtonian-esque? the movie is about some congressman having an affair and his mistress turns up dead... or something like that). Or will they just be looking at my face and I should just keep it simple.... again, this is for fun, but it would be a kinda sweet experience to have if I'm chosen as some background extra. I've googled the topic, but I wanted to get some real-life anecdotes if anyone has them! thanks

alarming cat

scottMontgomery — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:21:19 -0800

Why would a cat wake you up between 4 and 5 in the morning when it has water and food and an accessible litter box? My parent's cat has taken to coming in to their bedroom and "talking" to them between 4 and 5 every morning. My mom has gotten up on occasion and can't figure out what the cat wants as all doors are open to food, water and the litter pan. When they don't respond at all to the cat (when it does the 4 - 5 AM wake up thing) the cat pees in their fireplace or on a bathroom rug.
Does anyone know what this could be about?