How Does it Know ?


This morning, I am sitting at computer, phone rings, and low-and-behold, a pop-up bubble shows up on the monitor of my new computer that tells me my phone is ringing and who is calling. Never seent hat before--ever. I don't even have the DSL line plugged in at the moment (phone lines were messed up a few days ago)--so, How on earth does it know?

I just called myself using my cell to call the ground line and took a screenshot of the monitor.

The computer is hooked to the web by cable at the moment, so I don't know how it is communicating with my phone ground line, but it is and it is giving me caller ID. Anyone else have this 'feature' ?

And don't tell me to click the little icon on the systray--it is gone once the bubble is gone ! Tried to call myself a second time so I could click the green circle icon while the cellphone was ringing, but it didn't display that time...weird....

Must be that there is a phone line going to it thru the UPS that I can use for dial-up connections should both DSL & cable fail me. Maybe it is a 'feature' of WinXP Media Edition, which this new computer is running.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Color Change Paint Job

Image
I spotted another car with one of those awesome paint jobs that change colors are you drive past. I used to see one with a different set of hues parked in from of a local vinyl liner pool company here in Gulf Shores. This is what I'd like on my VW Thing, but I want coral and peach shades so it look like a woman's fingernail polish rack at the nail salon. Anyone know anything about this type of paint job ? What is it called ? What's it cost. Where do you go to get it ?
Read more

Class distinctions and social networking sites

Interesting read: An excerpt: A month ago, the military banned MySpace but not Facebook. This was a very interesting move because the division in the military reflects the division in high schools. Soldiers are on MySpace; officers are on Facebook. Facebook is extremely popular in the military, but it's not the SNS of choice for 18-year old soldiers, a group that is primarily from poorer, less educated communities. They are using MySpace. The officers, many of whom have already received college training, are using Facebook. The military ban appears to replicate the class divisions that exist throughout the military. I can't help but wonder if the reason for this goes beyond the purported concerns that those in the military are leaking information or spending too much time online or soaking up too much bandwidth with their MySpace usage. The entire article
Read more

Is It Just ME?

Two odd phrases keep popping up in print that just seem weird to me. Here is one: "I am absolutely appalled that another computer containing the personal information of veterans has gone missing ," said Sen. Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican. Why not say "is missing" ? Doesn't "has gone" imply some action on the part of the computer? And our local newspaper recently had headlines that said: "City looks to buy land on Ft. Morgan Road" Is "looks to buy" an accepted English phrase for "considers" or similar? Maybe it is, but both of those phrases sound rather like Granny Clampett to me. Your opinion?
Read more