Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Random conference call as an alternative to daytime television

or as a cure for insomnia
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Many commercial conference-call services work on the basis that you can join a call by dialling the conference call number (which always remains the same) and then you dial a seven digit number to join the call of your choice. So, you can call the number and then enter a random seven digit number to join a random conference call which may be organised by one of hundreds of clients of the conference call service provider.

Of course, when you join the call everyone will hear a 'ping' as you join, but mostly people ignore this. Just stay quiet and you've got a fun afternoon's listening to absolutely tedious waffle.
hippo, Jul 10 2019

Found the image on Wayback http://web.archive....ww.spiderphone.com/
Clerks fans should appreciate the GIF. Those were the days... [theircompetitor, Jul 11 2019]

[link]






       Luckily, one of my patents assists with preventing just this kind of hanger on behavior (more important in cases of commercial or other espionage). It's one little way in which I improved the world (improving conference call experiences is tough of course)
theircompetitor, Jul 10 2019
  

       "Elvis has left the call" ...
8th of 7, Jul 10 2019
  

       yeah, well, you'd know it on my system...
theircompetitor, Jul 10 2019
  

       //a random seven digit number// So, as long as there are more than a few million conference calls active, you're in with a chance. Actually, my last few conference calls have 9-digit access codes.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 10 2019
  

       there's a large variety of schemes, including just dial out, caller-id based, and unique phone# based nowadays (so no code) you can try calling every number...
theircompetitor, Jul 10 2019
  

       This prompts the question "What effect would the input of half a dozen random people ,who didn't understand the issues being discussed, have on corporate decision making ? "   

       We suspect it would be surprisingly beneficial.
8th of 7, Jul 10 2019
  

       [theircompetitor] - nice!
[8th of 7]: I would posit 2 "random" groups - 1 to keep the corporates distracted, and another to do the decision making for them. Bureaucracy will be the death of us all...
neutrinos_shadow, Jul 10 2019
  

       No, the large space rock hurtling towards your planet will be the death of you all, but that's another story.
8th of 7, Jul 10 2019
  

       A singer who did one of the voices for "Alvin and the Chipmunks" describes being bored and watching a late night talk show. The host announces that he is going to call all of the people in the phone book with -- let's say Elvis's name -- until he reaches someone.   

       Sitting at home, the singer picks up his phone book and calls each name seconds before the tv host does, using any sort of nonsense to keep them on the phone.   

       He later related "If the host had gone out of sequence just once, he would have reached someone..."
4and20, Jul 10 2019
  

       Due to an overlap with somebodies calendar/email recently I began getting text reminders for meetings at a company I left six years ago.   

       I wonder I can figure out how to bill them ...
normzone, Jul 10 2019
  

       Norm...you are probably still on the payroll..admit nothing, deny everything etc
not_morrison_rm, Jul 13 2019
  

       For a graphical equivalent, one could try one of the popular anonymous internet imageboards. But in the case of insomnia, this cure is worse than the disease.
sninctown, Jul 15 2019
  
      
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