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http://www.evoice.com

With all the talk last week about ANI numbers, we will mention first  that evoice's phone numbers can be used as one.  If you call one of their local numbers, or their toll free number 1-800-222-6000, and press 8, wait for the prompt, then 06, it will read back your phone number.  Jr. Skulker Lucky225 points out that the proper name for this is "Automatic Number Announcement Circuit" or "ANAC" whereas "Automatic Number Identification" or "ANI" is the mechanism that figures out what your phone number is.  WebSkulker knew that, but always calls these "ANI numbers" because that's the slang term everyone else uses.

But that's not what evoice is supposed to be for.  They have been advertising heavily on the radio here in San Francisco, so WebSkulker signed up for a free account.  It is a free voicemail system that you and your callers can access via local numbers in some parts of the country, or by the toll-free number.  They are trying to get you to use it as your only voicemail, but it is much too limiting for that because: (1) You don't have a unique phone number; everyone dials the same number to leave a message, and the caller must enter your box number.  (2) The first greeting that the caller hears invites them to sign on to their mailbox, to get a mailbox of their own, etc. and the option to leave you a message is hidden away in the middle.  (3) You have to listen to an advertisement before you can hear your messages by phone.

There are a couple of good things about this system:  (1) They will optionally send you email every time you receive a voice message with an attachment containing the message in RealAudio format.  (2) If you tell them to answer your phone and give them your phone number, they will arrange with your local phone company to add the Busy Call Forwarding and No-Answer Call Forwarding features to your phone and, according to one of their support people, evoice will pay the bill for these features!  Unfortunately you still won't be able to have a custom greeting, but at least it will answer your phone with a nice generic message with your name in the middle.

Evoice is trying to market themselves to non-Internet users as well.  It is possible to sign up for a box strictly by phone by calling 1-800-GET-EVOIce.

http://www.l-3com.com/cs-east/programs/infosec/privatel.htm

This is a portable device that can be used with almost any office or home telephone in the world to carry on a private, encrypted, conversation with someone else who owns the same device.  You unplug the handset, plug it into this box, plug the box into the phone, and you are set to go.  Unfortunately it won't work from payphones because the handsets on those don't unplug, and unfortunately the price is way too high for the average jr. skulker: $595.

http://www.espsoftworks.com/normal

Jr. Skulker Marvelena Quesada submitted this site by a company working on state-of-the-art PC games that can be played by people who are blind or visually impaired.  A beta test of one of the games is available now for download, so you can see how this works.

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/finalmeals.htm

Governor George Bush Jr. of Texas is a "compassionate conservative" and you can really tell that by looking at this page.  It shows the final meals served to the large number of prisoners who were executed recently in Texas.  You might want to serve one of these at your next dinner party!  Thanks to Jr. Skulker Per Bob Gudgel for telling us about this.

P.S.  Ms. Cat's last meal was a can of cat food.  All of her meals are cans of cat food.

Submitted by Jr. Skulker Georgie Peorgie 

Perhaps one of the best uses of our tax dollars...

The phone rings at FBI headquarters. "Hello, FBI, can I help you?"  "Yes, my name is Sven and I'm calling to report my neighbor Ole Olson. He is hiding marijuana inside his firewood."  "Thank you very much for the call sir, we'll look into it." 

The next day FBI agents descend on Ole's house. They search the shed where the firewood is kept. Using axes, they bust open every piece of wood, but find no marijuana. They apologize to Olson and leave. 

Later that evening, the phone rings at Ole's house.  "Hey, Ole, this is Sven, did the FBI come?"  "Ya!"  "Did they chop your firewood?"  "Ya sure." 

"Good, now it's your turn to call. I need my garden plowed."

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