Calling card | Hacker News Reader

Calling card

en.wikipedia.org

45 pointsapsec11244 comments

This feels almost like SYN/ACK/NACK, but for people. Which means you could DDoS an aristocrat by sending them a lot of visiting cards.

My first thought was that this would be an interesting protocol for calling someone.

I often receive more annoying robocalls on my personal phone than welcomed calls from unknown numbers. My usual solution is to quickly google the number to see if any scam reports are available and then quickly answer if not.

But I might start the practice of texting ahead of calling someone unfamiliar with a quick message like “This is John Smith's phone. I'll be calling shortly.” That way, I would ensure that my call was picked up or at least given the priority they prefer.

Or maybe I'm just a weirdo that worries too much about the consequences of actually answering robocalls :)

Just read an interesting strategy for dealing with robocalls: answer and immediately mute yourself. They will assume it's a dead line and take you off the list.

Or do what I do and answer every unknown call with "911. What's the location of your emergency?"

That second strategy ought to get you on another, more interesting, list though.

How come? Is that illegal?

> I often receive more annoying robocalls on my personal phone than welcomed calls from unknown numbers. My usual solution is to quickly google the number to see if any scam reports are available and then quickly answer if not.

My strategy is generally just not to answer and let them leave a message if it's an actual person. Unless I have some reason to be expecting the call, I think that most people nowadays would find it reasonable that calling someone who doesn't have your number might result in you having to leave a message. If it is an actual person, I'll very often call them back immediately after listening to the message.

> But I might start the practice of texting ahead of calling someone unfamiliar with a quick message like “This is John Smith's phone. I'll be calling shortly.” That way, I would ensure that my call was picked up or at least given the priority they prefer.

Hitta.se (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=se.hitta.andro...) will automatically look up the caller's name in the (equivalent of the) yellow pages.

I assume there's an equivalent in most other countries?

Actually interesting:

Around here we have a number of forward/reverse lookup services (I use 1881.no) but I have a hard time finding anything similar for other countries. Right now I am trying to look up what I believe is a Californian number but where do I find a usable phone registry for US?

Actually, the phone call has been considered dead for a number of years now.

https://www.wired.com/2010/07/st_thompson_deadphone/

Isn't googling more work than answering and hanging up if it's a robot?

I use truecaller. It works well me, but robocalls have never been a major problem for me fohttps://www.truecaller.com/

>https://www.truecaller.com/

Not the best option considering the app sends them all your contacts.

> Sometimes the name of a gentlemen's club might be added, but addresses were not otherwise included. [..] The visiting card is no longer the universal feature of upper middle class and upper class life that it once was in Europe and North America. Much more common is the business card.

And "gentlemen's clubs" now typically means strip clubs in modern culture.

These are still in use on some circles. When I was young, my parents sent me to a thing called Cotillion. It was a sort of evening camp for young people where we learned table manners, ballroom dancing, and ettiquite. Calling cards were part of the deal. A proper host had a special tray for them near the entrance for people to leave theirs.

Interestingly, while in English we now say "business card", it seems that at least Swedish and Finnish, and probably other languages too, retained some form of "visiting card". In Swedish "visitkort" and in Finnish "käyntikortti" (literally, visit card) are still the terms for business card in use today.

They were distinct concepts, my great grandfather had both [1], so maybe in those other languages they didn't overlap in use like they did in America. For timing I found them in his address book he brought to France in WW1.

1. https://imgur.com/gallery/GNdcj

"Visitenkarte" in German (for both today's business card and the old style calling card).

I like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Visiting_Card_of_Kaiser_W...

I believe James Brown at one time had business cards printed with "himself" as title.

"Biglietto da visita" in Italian, it was used also for accompanying a gift, most people used to have two sets, one, a proper "visit card" without anything but the title and the name (and the title was usually striken with a pen to show familiarity) and one more properly a "business card" with the postal address and (once available) phone number.

In Spanish too. "Tarjeta de visita".

Same in Russian - "vizitka".

In Italy we have "biglietti da visita" which literally translate, as you may guess, in "visiting cards."

In India they still call them visiting cards

Same goes for Danish - visitkort as in Swedish

Let me add Norwegian to the list as well, only with a double t in visitt (double because the vowel in front should have shorter pronunciation I think).

Interesting article but it shows the cultural biais of Wikipedia, not a word about Asia where visiting cards might have been even more important to social interactions.

It's odd that in 2017 we are still having this debate. wiki welcomes you to improve the article. In fact that's the whole idea behind the site. It's odd that some users are still missing this use case in its entirety.

Don't edit for the same reason I stay away from Stack Overflow as long as possible:

Less chance of being bitten by people who seems to think they does the planet a service by rejecting and deleting content.

I recognise this might only be a misunderstanding, I rarely get bitten myself but I have seen enough useful questions and answers being punished on SO and enough Meta discussions telling everyone how great this is to learn that the site is mostly not for me.

> wiki welcomes you

Welcomes? Over the years there have been many projects to make Wikipedia more welcoming to newcomers, because WP recognised that the "don't bite the newbies" guidance is nto always followed.

I don't know what it's like now. I'd be interested to see the results of surveys of new editors.

It's those who complain about the quality of Wikipedia whom, in the same vein, complain it's hard for newbies to edit it.

I've had edits rejected and I must say Wikipedia's 'assume good faith' policy makes it less hard on the newbie ego.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Assume_good_faith

Maybe newbie edits that don't cut the mark is one of the processes that attempt to drive the quality upward.

The article you're looking for is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_card

It is a more general article on what we now call business cards, and contains a significant amount of information about the use of business cards in Japan and the etiquette involved.

OP, on the other hand, is about a specific precursor to the modern business card that only existed in the West.

My uncle loved to give people his card. Just like any business man from the time, he would reach into his pocket during a lengthy conversation, saying "here, let me give you my card."

Out would come this plain white business card, with 2 words printed: "My Card".

He would perform this satire with the most grace and seriousness he could muster.

"only existed in the West." Are you sure? I think I remember these mentionned in the vast Chinese classic litterature. It was the nearly the same usage: an expensive piece of parper with a name on it that was sent back and forth to prepare an irl meeting.

Would be great if you took a few minutes to improve the article then. Reducing the cultural bias of Wikipedia happens the same way as improving Wikipedia in general, one article at a time.

Thanks, I did contribute to Wikipedia long ago (the article about Confucius still has some sequels of my edits), but it happens that I have not enough knowledge on this topic. To me, reminding about Wikipedia's cultural biais is necessary, because many people think it is reliable and complete.

Anyone interested in learning more about this cultural bias might find this essay helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Systemic_bias

Well, of the English Wikipedia, rather.

It'd be fun if articles had links to their equivalents in other languages, with automatic translation. A problem with Wikipedia is that each language is a separate silo, which lowers the value of an universal encyclopedia.

Look in the sidebar - the Languages section.

(OT) I use that feature all the time when I know the name of, say, a mathematical term in one language but not in another.

Oh wow, this is the exact same use case for me. Other than that I prefer english one and rarely read articles in my own language.

Oh, wow, thanks. I'd seen that, but assumed it was a link to the frontpage of each language. Still would like if it could offer an automatic translation.

Browse with Chrome, job done.

An interesting comment but it shows the preferred language of the contributor. ;)

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