6 ms·

Fakecall: helping polite introverts stay productive

142 points by llambda 15y ago

achompas 15y ago
Brilliant. I don't work with cow-orkers, but I'll keep this for friends who do. Congrats on a nice app. :D
- scottw 15y ago
  Thanks. I submitted this to hn earlier this summer, but must have hit the wrong time of day or something because it just languished. I don't think I got more than one karma point from it. The irony is that this coverage has only given me real karma points, and no hn karma (pg's URL de-duplication tester doesn't go back in time far enough) :)
  - achompas 15y ago
    To be honest, I went digging through the "New" tab and found your app. There's a nonzero chance I helped you get to the front page. :P Anyway, good luck!
logjam 15y ago
Nice. I once developed an ad-hoc version of something like this (it had "call at time X" functionality) to page me out of meetings...the next logical step would have been to tie into my appointment calendar, so that scheduled meetings automatically triggered the page request.
paulasmuth 15y ago
This could be really useful one day and I love the idea of providing a REST api instead of a UI! Are you going to add support for european numbers (or would you open-source the code)?
- scottw 15y ago
  Twilio just launched in Europe a couple of weeks ago I think; I need to get myself a Euro number and make a few code adjustments. Gimme a week or so.
psychotik 15y ago
Neat. "Use at your own risk. I can't afford a lawyer, so don't do anything stupid with this, please." is a nice touch.
headsclouds 15y ago
Sorry to sound harsh, but this seems really silly to me (the concept, not the code which I'm not competent to comment on). Be human, tell other people to fuck off when they are bothering you. End of story. I find the lack of verbal communication skills among programmers/techies their biggest disability. Learn to talk to other people, you might notice the world will become a much easier place to function in. Disclaimer: I was super-shy when I was younger, so I know what I'm talking about. I never went to these kinds of lengths to avoid talking to people though, this is crazy.
- funkah 15y ago
  > Be human, tell other people to fuck off when they are bothering you > lack of verbal communication skills
  - hyperbovine 15y ago
    I'm not seeing it...
  - greyish_water 15y ago
    That kind of post doesn't work as well when the text isn't green.
- keiferski 15y ago
  Yes, thank you. Hiding behind silly web apps doesn't help anyone. BUT, "telling people to fuck off" isn't much better. A polite "hey, I'm trying to get some stuff done, I'll be with you soon" is sufficient.
  - headsclouds 15y ago
    I thought it was clear that it was an exaggeration, perhaps it would be clearer if I had used quotes. A polite ”sorry man, I have things to do” will suffice.
    - brider 15y ago
LiveTheDream 15y ago
This > DELETE http://api.fakecall.net/v1/account/(your http://api.fakecall.net/v1/account/(your number) does this > This really deletes your account and leaves no trace. We use "rm -rf /path/to/1234567890" (really). Really hope they don't allow a number like "../*"
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  Does it really matter if they do?
  - uxp 15y ago
    it does if `rm -rf /var/www/fakecall.net/accounts/../../../../usr` actually hits /usr and mangles the server.
    - sliverstorm 15y ago
      That would simply be poor system design. Why would you run the service and/or the rm's as root?
      - burgerbrain 15y ago
        Ok. You run the service/rm's as a user specially created user. So think about what happens when they do the above. Hint: not nothing. Or to put it more bluntly: What about `rm -rf /var/www/fakecall.net/accounts/../*`?
        sliverstorm 15y ago
        I understand what would happen, what I mean is this is a free service the guy is offering for fun. Does it really matter if all the accounts are deleted? I mean, it could be annoying, but I don't generally expect account protection on free side-project hobby services.
        15y ago
pavel_lishin 15y ago
What sorts of things does Steve say? It would be nice if I could pass a string for him to pronounce.
- scottw 15y ago
  Steve is pretty boring, but I have Big Plans to make his conversation a little more... customizable.
- burgerbrain 15y ago
  He asked me if I could configure an EC2 server for him.
drumdance 15y ago
Actually, a better use case is probably hot girls at bars who don't want to be hit on. They could have an app on their phone that tells this script to call them in 1,5 or 10 minutes.
- robterrell 15y ago
  There's an app in the App Store called "Fake Call" that does exactly that. It shows a perfectly mocked-up phone call animation, complete with contact photo and custom ringtone.
- fleitz 15y ago
  Women don't go to bars to avoid social interaction, how many attractive women do you know that don't know how to tell a guy off?
r00fus 15y ago
The cow-orkers bit is somewhat off-putting, but this service looks very useful. 15 years ago, I used a service like this (PC->modem programmed to call my pager) when I was dating... if the date was going well, I would tell my date "Oh, that was work, but I'm going to ignore them" and if it wasn't, it was my "exit call" and I aborted the date. I imagine this kind of service can be useful in many situations, combine with a fake contact detail on your smartphone and it can seem like your CEO/Wife/etc is calling and you get an option to cut short meetings. However, these days an SMS or email can provide almost as much excuse so it's not as critical to get a call for interruption purposes.
- fsvehla 15y ago
  It is just a very old usenet joke.
kaiuhl 15y ago
This is incredible. I created an account for myself and my non-technical office mate and created a page hosted internally we've bookmarked. Now if someone walks in to chat about something trivial and one of us wants to keep working, we have a little button to push that sends the request and redirects back to the previous page. Thanks for this!
- scottw 15y ago
  If you run OS X, look for my little applescript on the main page that you can bind to a keystroke. Very handy! :)
adityakothadiya 15y ago
This is cool. I developed a Voice Call reminder iPhone app - http://JustRemindIt.com http://JustRemindIt.com. When I developed it, its soul purpose was to send Voice Call reminders to anyone. I didn't think too much at that time for what else people can use this app. Couple customers sent me feedback email saying that this app is really cool as it helps them to get out of a boring meeting. They simply schedule a Voice Call reminder to themselves. And my app does the reliable job of calling them. When phone rings, they just walk out of a meeting without faking much :). Couple of people said they use it as a "Future Voice Mail" service. Send real message to someone, not just "reminding" specific. I guess use case mentioned in this article could be another use case for my app :).
nandemo 15y ago
I had the idea to do something like this a while ago. I then googled it and turns out there were already a number of services doing this, though none here in Japan. Unfortunately Twilio is not available here yet. I wonder if there's another way of doing it cheap. I never thought of using with coworkers though. In that case I'd simply tell them I'm busy with something important. My idea was for dates and other social situations where you need an excuse to "escape".
shalmanese 15y ago
I use http://www.phonemyphone.com/ http://www.phonemyphone.com/ . It doesn't have an API but it does what I need.
GigabyteCoin 15y ago
Would a polite introvert pick up their cell phone whilst talking to another individual?
- cjfont 15y ago
  If it's supposedly a work-related phone call, yes.
geon 15y ago
Since when is it polite to lie? I think that's very impolite.
iliis 15y ago
Nice idea. I may have use for that. Does it work internationally? I'm in Europe :/ Another important thing: > All passwords are hashed with SHA256 before storage SHA256 is NOT suitable to hash passwords. In this case it's rather unimportant, because only phone numbers are stored, but SHA/MD5 et al. are often used when security matters too. So, use bcrypt: http://codahale.com/how-to-safely-store-a-password/ http://codahale.com/how-to-safely-store-a-password/
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
NIL8 15y ago
I like it. I can think of many situations where this would be a handy tool. Part of me wishes it was a simple app that would allow me to simply type a couple of numbers in and begin using it. However, I can also see that if it became too easy to use and too widely available, people might get wise to it. Then, you'd have those "cow-orkers" stopping by your office to show you this cool new app that fakes calls.

142 points by llambda 15y ago

achompas 15y ago

Brilliant. I don't work with cow-orkers, but I'll keep this for friends who do. Congrats on a nice app. :D

scottw 15y ago
Thanks. I submitted this to hn earlier this summer, but must have hit the wrong time of day or something because it just languished. I don't think I got more than one karma point from it. The irony is that this coverage has only given me real karma points, and no hn karma (pg's URL de-duplication tester doesn't go back in time far enough) :)
- achompas 15y ago
  To be honest, I went digging through the "New" tab and found your app. There's a nonzero chance I helped you get to the front page. :P Anyway, good luck!

logjam 15y ago

Nice. I once developed an ad-hoc version of something like this (it had "call at time X" functionality) to page me out of meetings...the next logical step would have been to tie into my appointment calendar, so that scheduled meetings automatically triggered the page request.

paulasmuth 15y ago

This could be really useful one day and I love the idea of providing a REST api instead of a UI! Are you going to add support for european numbers (or would you open-source the code)?

scottw 15y ago
Twilio just launched in Europe a couple of weeks ago I think; I need to get myself a Euro number and make a few code adjustments. Gimme a week or so.

psychotik 15y ago

Neat. "Use at your own risk. I can't afford a lawyer, so don't do anything stupid with this, please." is a nice touch.

headsclouds 15y ago

Sorry to sound harsh, but this seems really silly to me (the concept, not the code which I'm not competent to comment on). Be human, tell other people to fuck off when they are bothering you. End of story. I find the lack of verbal communication skills among programmers/techies their biggest disability. Learn to talk to other people, you might notice the world will become a much easier place to function in. Disclaimer: I was super-shy when I was younger, so I know what I'm talking about. I never went to these kinds of lengths to avoid talking to people though, this is crazy.

funkah 15y ago
> Be human, tell other people to fuck off when they are bothering you > lack of verbal communication skills
- hyperbovine 15y ago
  I'm not seeing it...
- greyish_water 15y ago
  That kind of post doesn't work as well when the text isn't green.
keiferski 15y ago
Yes, thank you. Hiding behind silly web apps doesn't help anyone. BUT, "telling people to fuck off" isn't much better. A polite "hey, I'm trying to get some stuff done, I'll be with you soon" is sufficient.
- headsclouds 15y ago
  I thought it was clear that it was an exaggeration, perhaps it would be clearer if I had used quotes. A polite ”sorry man, I have things to do” will suffice.
  - brider 15y ago

LiveTheDream 15y ago

This > DELETE http://api.fakecall.net/v1/account/(your http://api.fakecall.net/v1/account/(your number) does this > This really deletes your account and leaves no trace. We use "rm -rf /path/to/1234567890" (really). Really hope they don't allow a number like "../*"

sliverstorm 15y ago
Does it really matter if they do?
- uxp 15y ago
  it does if `rm -rf /var/www/fakecall.net/accounts/../../../../usr` actually hits /usr and mangles the server.
  - sliverstorm 15y ago
    That would simply be poor system design. Why would you run the service and/or the rm's as root?
    - burgerbrain 15y ago
      Ok. You run the service/rm's as a user specially created user. So think about what happens when they do the above. Hint: not nothing. Or to put it more bluntly: What about `rm -rf /var/www/fakecall.net/accounts/../*`?
      - sliverstorm 15y ago
        I understand what would happen, what I mean is this is a free service the guy is offering for fun. Does it really matter if all the accounts are deleted? I mean, it could be annoying, but I don't generally expect account protection on free side-project hobby services.
        15y ago

pavel_lishin 15y ago

What sorts of things does Steve say? It would be nice if I could pass a string for him to pronounce.

scottw 15y ago
Steve is pretty boring, but I have Big Plans to make his conversation a little more... customizable.
burgerbrain 15y ago
He asked me if I could configure an EC2 server for him.

drumdance 15y ago

Actually, a better use case is probably hot girls at bars who don't want to be hit on. They could have an app on their phone that tells this script to call them in 1,5 or 10 minutes.

robterrell 15y ago
There's an app in the App Store called "Fake Call" that does exactly that. It shows a perfectly mocked-up phone call animation, complete with contact photo and custom ringtone.
fleitz 15y ago
Women don't go to bars to avoid social interaction, how many attractive women do you know that don't know how to tell a guy off?

r00fus 15y ago

The cow-orkers bit is somewhat off-putting, but this service looks very useful. 15 years ago, I used a service like this (PC->modem programmed to call my pager) when I was dating... if the date was going well, I would tell my date "Oh, that was work, but I'm going to ignore them" and if it wasn't, it was my "exit call" and I aborted the date. I imagine this kind of service can be useful in many situations, combine with a fake contact detail on your smartphone and it can seem like your CEO/Wife/etc is calling and you get an option to cut short meetings. However, these days an SMS or email can provide almost as much excuse so it's not as critical to get a call for interruption purposes.

fsvehla 15y ago
It is just a very old usenet joke.

kaiuhl 15y ago

This is incredible. I created an account for myself and my non-technical office mate and created a page hosted internally we've bookmarked. Now if someone walks in to chat about something trivial and one of us wants to keep working, we have a little button to push that sends the request and redirects back to the previous page. Thanks for this!

scottw 15y ago
If you run OS X, look for my little applescript on the main page that you can bind to a keystroke. Very handy! :)

adityakothadiya 15y ago

This is cool. I developed a Voice Call reminder iPhone app - http://JustRemindIt.com http://JustRemindIt.com. When I developed it, its soul purpose was to send Voice Call reminders to anyone. I didn't think too much at that time for what else people can use this app. Couple customers sent me feedback email saying that this app is really cool as it helps them to get out of a boring meeting. They simply schedule a Voice Call reminder to themselves. And my app does the reliable job of calling them. When phone rings, they just walk out of a meeting without faking much :). Couple of people said they use it as a "Future Voice Mail" service. Send real message to someone, not just "reminding" specific. I guess use case mentioned in this article could be another use case for my app :).

nandemo 15y ago

I had the idea to do something like this a while ago. I then googled it and turns out there were already a number of services doing this, though none here in Japan. Unfortunately Twilio is not available here yet. I wonder if there's another way of doing it cheap. I never thought of using with coworkers though. In that case I'd simply tell them I'm busy with something important. My idea was for dates and other social situations where you need an excuse to "escape".

shalmanese 15y ago

I use http://www.phonemyphone.com/ http://www.phonemyphone.com/ . It doesn't have an API but it does what I need.

GigabyteCoin 15y ago

Would a polite introvert pick up their cell phone whilst talking to another individual?

cjfont 15y ago
If it's supposedly a work-related phone call, yes.

geon 15y ago

Since when is it polite to lie? I think that's very impolite.

iliis 15y ago

Nice idea. I may have use for that. Does it work internationally? I'm in Europe :/ Another important thing: > All passwords are hashed with SHA256 before storage SHA256 is NOT suitable to hash passwords. In this case it's rather unimportant, because only phone numbers are stored, but SHA/MD5 et al. are often used when security matters too. So, use bcrypt: http://codahale.com/how-to-safely-store-a-password/ http://codahale.com/how-to-safely-store-a-password/

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

NIL8 15y ago

I like it. I can think of many situations where this would be a handy tool. Part of me wishes it was a simple app that would allow me to simply type a couple of numbers in and begin using it. However, I can also see that if it became too easy to use and too widely available, people might get wise to it. Then, you'd have those "cow-orkers" stopping by your office to show you this cool new app that fakes calls.