Hat tip to Strange New Products for the pointer to this wonderful bit of software for the corporate worker:
New Service Gets Rid of Unwanted People
Ring4Freedom is a web-based service that rings your cell phone or landline phone anytime you want, allowing you to escape the throngs of unwanted conversationalists.
Ever had someone walk up to your cubicle and start chattering away, wishing you could find a polite way to get rid of them? Ring4Freedom perhaps is your answer.
It's a piece of software that sits in your Windows system tray. Clicking on the icon (or pressing CTRL-D) will send a signal over the Internet to Ring4Freedom's server, which then places a call to your phone. This way, you can tell your unwanted guest that you're expecting an important call, and send them away.
The companies website is here: Ring 4 FreedomThe service costs $4.95/month or 29.95/Year (half price). I could have used this in a few places I worked. At one place, the manager for my division (a peach of a guy, just not management material by a long long shot) held regular meetings that were so brain-crashingly dull and useless that I would have myself paged 45 minutes after the meeting began. I would get a ten minute precis of the meeting that next day from one of the unfortunates that had to sit through the entire four hour presentation (yes, they did last that long). Christ on a corn dog! I just Googled the guy's name just for a joke and this is an excerpt of the first item that showed up:
Committee Meetings
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:29 pm followed by a group picture and dinner. Respectfully submitted, Xxxxxx Yyyyyyyy Zzzzzzzz, ...
classes.big-school.edu/xxxxxxxxxxx
It is him.
The guy loved to run loooong meetings...
I ran meetings when I had my own business and later at Microsoft.
If they lasted more than one hour, I was doing something wrong.
