Comments on: Smarter than your average phonebot

By: Joseph Hertzlinger

Joseph Hertzlinger — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 03:46:55 +0000

I’m sure People for the Ethical Treatment of Robots are planning to protest lying to innocent machines.

By: Meryl Yourish

Meryl Yourish — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 18:51:58 +0000

Urban legend. If you don't have a PBX phone system in your home -- and most people don't -- they can't do squat when you press a button during a phone calls. At work, however, that's a different story.

By: Ben-David

Ben-David — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 12:11:55 +0000

We have been instructed NOT to press ANYTHING – apparently there is a way they can use your phone line for overseas calls, but you have to press a key to activate it.

Or is that another hoax?

Anyway, we’ve told our kids to just hang up without pressing anything.

By: Meryl Yourish

Meryl Yourish — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:23:35 +0000

Eric, I’m not a parent, and I know exactly how you feel. Kids are smart. And manipulative. When you finally get the chance to outwit them, you have to savor every victory.

Fourth graders are worse, though. I’m constantly foiling the “meet-you-in-the-bathroom” plot. One kid asks to go, thirty seconds later, that kid’s pal asks to go. I’ve stopped that dead by insisting they wait until the other comes back. They never complain, because it was just a ploy to get out of class and goof off.

By: Eric J

Eric J — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:49:04 +0000

Until I was a parent, I never understood just how proud one could feel for outwitting a two-year-old.

By: SnoopyTheGoon

SnoopyTheGoon — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:42:36 +0000

Don’t you have a vague feeling of some missed opportunity, of some blurry but beautiful possible new horizons, after resolving a case like this?

Nah, still jetlagged…