I got an odd voice mail message today – it was my phone company “personal voice assistant” reminding me that Thursday is my birthday, and I should give myself a call. It even offered to dial my home if I pressed 4.
This was confusing until I realized that I have an address book that includes my own information; the system decided to be helpful and remind me. Which serves mostly as a reminder that I don’t know when other birthdays are, and this is a feature I’m definitely going to take advantage of.
The neatest thing about this is that it actually generates speech – it said my name correctly (without that annoying “record your name” thing that other voice mail systems make you go through) and pronounced everything right… except, strangely, “August.”
I much prefer this kind of “unsolicited” call to those damned telemarketing recordings.
hi, gene…
what a cool thing! i have a wall calendar with people’s birthdays…but a phone call, as a reminder…that’s neat-o! or as my dearly beloved john denver would say…and mean it…FAR OUT!
lots of love,
you know who