From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1997 18:11:42 -0800 (PST)
To: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
Subject: Re: More on digital postage
In-Reply-To: <199702151802.KAA22867@mail.pacifier.com>
Message-ID: <33066CC5.74C8@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


jim bell wrote:
> At 11:40 AM 2/15/97 -0600, snow wrote:
> >Mr. Bell wrote:

> But having an address, and a walkway, and a doorbell is generally considered
> if not explicit permission, but at least toleration of the idea that
> somebody can walk up and knock on the door, etc.  Having a telephone with a
> number that anyone can dial is going to result in some level of intrusion.
> Having a fax machine is a similar issue, unless technology provides a way to
> block unwanted faxes.

There are some neato methods to deal with the door and the phone,
but I haven't investigated faxes since I don't run one at home.

For the door, you can have a locked gate so they can't knock on the
door,
and an adjustable volume ringer or phone at the gate that's easy to
ignore
when you don't want them to know you're there and you're ignoring them.
If the gate is not practical, at least put a locked screen door in
front of the regular door, and the ringer or whatever outside the
screen.
For more aggressive pests, some signs might be necessary.

For the phone, you can do like I did, and simply remove (or break)
the outgoing message tape, so when they call, all they get is a beep
and they'll have to think fast or they're cut off.  Cuts way back
on pesky calls, but allows your loyals to leave messages or speak
so you'll know who it is.