deafbiz.com

I learned about this new service from LifeHacker

Keep in mind that this is for making hearing phone calls as you can use it from your mobile phone or if your computer is capable of making phone calls from the browser. It’s a useful tool to minimize wasting minutes on the cell phone and aggravation with phone menus.

Fonolo uses a patented process called “Deep Dialing”.  Fonolo works by automating the nativiation through the dreaded touch-tone menus. (”Press 1 for English…”)

Instead, you navigate a company’s phone menu visually, through a web or mobile interface.

Just click the point in the menu you need to call and fonolo will automatically dial the company, navigate to that point and then connect you to the call.

For those using Relay Services, this is a handy guide to prep you for the phone menu so that you can decide ahead of time which numbers to press for the right services.

For example, here’s what it would look like if you plan to call AOL:

Main menu

Main Menu

Hi. Thanks for calling AOL.

This call may be monitored or recorded for quality service.

[click to expand] Main Menu:

To get to the right place, just say one of these:

“Reset password,”

“Tech support,”

“Billing,”

“Sign up,” or,

“Cancellations.”

If nothing sounds right, say “It’s none of those.”

Right now, they’re limited to a small number of companies since it’s in Beta mode. Fonolo built a system that “spiders” the phone system, much like a web search engine spiders the web. Fonolo dial companies, navigate their menus and use a combination of voice recognition, signal processing and human editing to maintain a map of phone space. Since phone menus can change any time, Fonolo continually spider each company to keep the database current.

Not a bad idea to reduce your time on Relay Services (but of course a bad idea for Relay Services because that’ll mean less money for them, heh).

Fonolo

I’ve made a big mistake of subscribing to Sitesell.com and I cannot get unsubscribed. They’re already in violated of FCC rules for not providing an unsubscribe link. I’m getting bombarded with their emails and am at my wit’s end to stop it!

So this is my deafbiz.com policy - any deaf related website using sitesell.com web builder will be immediately removed from the link directory, no question asked. If you plead with me to get back on the list, your pleas will be ignored. Use another website builder program!
This is my message to Ken Evoy (even though he said he’s an MD, I call b.s. on that) - get me off your f****** mailing list!

This is really cool: Visuwords.

I first typed the word “deaf” and when I hover each word with the mouse, it pops up a definition.  Furthermore, it shows what each word is associated with (ex. nounds, adjectives, etc.)

I want to thank SprintRelay.tv for their sponsorship of Deaf Resource Center. Without their support I would not be able to keep the website updated more often.

I encourage all to consider using SprintRelay.tv for your VRS services.

Found it at CNN’s Money section where readers submitted bulls**t jobs and I didn’t expect to see Relay Services Operator on the list.

Relay is supposed to be a service for the deaf, hard of hearing, and speech disabled where a person using the Internet, cell phone or text telephone reaches an operator, I dial a number for them and relay conversation between a text and voice user.

90 percent of the calls we get are from people who are not deaf, most of them are scam calls or prank calls, so for eight hours a day, 40 hours a week I relay bogus conversations. The benefits are good though. The turnover rate is extraordinary. A few weeks of Nigerian scam calls and teenagers with nothing else to do can take a toll on some people.

Pay: 10.00-10.50 starting with the availability of a promotion after 6 months.

Can anyone from the Relay Services verify that 90% of the calls are NOT from or to deaf people? That’s pretty high and a huge waste of taxpayer’s money.