The Voice Mail of Reason
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After switching them over to VOIP, Juan J. expected some questions from the French office about their new telephone system. He wasn't surprised when the phone rang and a number +33 appeared.
C> "Hi, this is Céline from France. My phone tells me there's a new voice mail, but I don't know how to access it."
Of course, the field technician had forgotten to tell them their passwords.
J> "No problem, I'll tell you your password. Hold on."
Juan went to the website of PerfectPhone, a provider of VOIP services that didn't exactly live up to its name. On the website, as an authenticated user, you could easily call the personal page of a user, with all his or her settings, including the plain-text voice mail password. By changing the customer number in the URL, you could easily see (and change) the configuration of other users in other companies too by the way. Practical, but not-so-perfect from a security point of view.
In any case: Céline's high-complexity password was there.
J> "Céline, just use 1234 to get into your voice mail. But perhaps we should change it."
C> "No no, I'll just note it down somewhere so I can remember it. I'll hang up now to try it. I'll get in touch if it doesn't work"
It only took 1 minute to get back into touch.
C> "It doesn't work."
Weird. It should just work, like for all other users. Juan changed the code and hung up so she could give it another go.
RING
C> "It still doesn't work"
J> "Strange. I'll inform myself what can possible be wrong. I'll get back to you soon."After one hour of consulting colleagues who knew the system better and contacting PerfectPhone themselves, all baffled at the strange problem, the phone rang again.
C> "Juan? This is Céline. It works now. I found it out."
J> "Ah? I'm happy to hear. But what was different now?"
C> "You know, I just entered the password on the dialpad"
J> "... so... what exactly did you do before?"
C> "Well the voice mail talked to me. So I talked back."
In my series: Confession: Proactive wiring,With love... from Exchange and the 'rampartly' classic Gone Phishing
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One will never go bankrupt betting that users will do stupid things.
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That's not a stupid thing, that's a very sensible thing. The problem is there's a really fucking stupid machine in the way.
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I'll admit that you see - or should I say 'hear' - more often voice-controlled menus these days, but assuming a random telephone is voice-controlled... 2015 is still a bit too early for that. Or I am getting old.
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Other menus? Yeah, ok, speech recognition, whatever.
But the password? Yup, that's the thing I want to be set to use speech recognition, so I have to speak it in a loud and clear voice so everyone in the office hears it...
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That's not a stupid thing, that's a very sensible thing. The problem is there's a really fucking stupid machine in the way.
Meh, I absolutely refuse to talk to the computers. I just jam on the zero key or speak gibberish until it confuses them enough to transfer me to a human. I wouldn't be calling if it was a problem I could solve on my own or through a quick look on the website. I realize I am in the minority, but there we have it
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Insert Star Trek IV scene when Scotty tries talking to the computer....
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So I talked back
Maybe she was just from the future, and dial-pads are "quaint"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9kTVZiJ3Uc
Insert Star Trek IV scene when Scotty tries talking to the computer....
Here you go!
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Oh, you mean you don't recognize the indoctrination materials of Our Chieftain Overmind Microsoft May They Reign Forever?
Filed under: It's the Speech Tutorial for Speech Recognition since Windows 7
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Oh, you mean you don't recognize the indoctrination materials of Our Chieftain Overmind Microsoft May They Reign Forever?
Nyet, comrade. I keep my speechifying and my typifying separate-like >_<
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separate-like
I see. Well until they tell me not to, I'm using ALL appendages as Output devices for the Input devices I interact with.
Filed under: Incorrect Interface!
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Note to self: Never buy a keyboard or mouse from @Tsaukpaetra.
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That is one nifty-looking keyboard.
Indeed it is. Too bad it seems to have been a custom, one-off design, but even their "standard" products are $1000 – $1200. I like their Art Deco design, but not at that price.