From: gilbert@mdd.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert)
Subject: Re: capturing caller id data
Organization: Motorola, Mobile Data Division - Seattle, WA
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 20:33:52 GMT

In article <35069@nntpd.lkg.dec.com> edp@math.zko.dec.com (Eric Postpischil) writes:
>In article <1992Apr9.005456.11245@mdd.comm.mot.com>,
>gilbert@mdd.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) writes:
>
>>The line number may be used to guess, and that is fine, if you somehow
>>are able to recognize the number.
>
>That is trivial.  I know I would recognize the numbers of many people,
>but even if I could not, some machine would do it for me.  My phone
>already displays the name I have listed for a number if I dial the
>number manually instead of using the autodialer.  That is, it looks up
>the number I dial and puts the name in the display.  Obviously, this
>would be a desirable and common feature in machines to display calling
>line information.  Certainly somebody would come out with a phone that
>combined autodialing and incoming-line identification.

Obviously for numbers you have been exposed to, this is "trivial".
But if you have kids in school, you get calls from other parents about
things, unanticipated.

I am suggesting there may be numbers neither you NOR your computer can
recognize.

>>If you leave it for your answering machine, then how valuable was CLID
>>in the first place?  Worth the 20% more on your basic phone bill, plus
>>the cost of the readout device(s).  I believe SOME people will answer
>>YES.  I also believe some will answer NO.
>
>Oh, I can answer this, and I don't have to guess as you seem to be
>doing.  Routing undesired calls to an answering machine is a GREAT
>advantage.

You didn't "answer" this... you gave us one data point.  Your preference.
Nobody here can answer this, except for themselves.  I still believe
some will answer NO.

>    It transforms answering the phone from a nuisance to a
>pleasure.  My local phone company offers RingMate, which provides the
>customer with a second phone number that has a distinctive ring pattern.
>I have given the new number to friends and family, but not businesses. 
>The new number is unpublished (which is free for the second number).  I
>get a rare wrong-number on the new number, but otherwise I can answer it
>always knowing it is somebody I want to talk to.

EXACTLY!!!!  Not CLID... who cares about the phone your friends care to
call you from.  RingMate is a much more useful feature than CLID, because it
lets you truely know when your friends are calling.  You give them the
ability to reach you from ANYWHERE.

  Further, telemarketers
>always get my answering machine, and they rarely leave messages.  This
>has made my phone much more useful to me.  You say that calling-line
>identification does not provide much utility because it does not
>distinguish callers, only lines.  Yet actual experience has PROVEN to me
>that a single BIT of information is greatly useful -- more bits would be
>better.  Calling-line identification would be even better than RingMate

Are you saying ANY single bit of information is useful.  This is kinda
like meeting a blind date at a crowded restaurant...  "I'll be a male..."

Duh.

Point is, CLID gives you a pretty lame piece of information.  There are
other services (you even named one) that is based on WHO is calling,
not on WHERE they are calling from.

Another point is, in todays information age, phone devices are propogating
so fast in our lives that it really is gettin LESS LIKELY to associate
a number with the person... 

John
-- 
John Gilbert
gilbert@mdd.comm.mot.com
..!uunet!mdisea!gilbert
Newsgroups: misc.consumers