<story><title>Fakecall: helping polite introverts stay productive</title><url>http://www.fakecall.net/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>headsclouds</author><text>Sorry to sound harsh, but this seems really silly to me (the concept, not the code which I&apos;m not competent to comment on).&lt;p&gt;Be human, tell other people to fuck off when they are bothering you. End of story.&lt;p&gt;I find the lack of verbal communication skills among programmers/techies their biggest disability. Learn to talk to other people, you might notice the world will become a much easier place to function in.&lt;p&gt;Disclaimer: I was super-shy when I was younger, so I know what I&apos;m talking about. I never went to these kinds of lengths to avoid talking to people though, this is crazy.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>crikli</author><text>You&apos;re not acknowledging some of the political realities of the work place that make such silliness necessary.&lt;p&gt;At my last job the IT guy, who had at some point been frightened by soap and had since managed to evade it in every form, would come and stand in front of my desk for as long as it took for me to acknowledge him.  He could not be out-waited.&lt;p&gt;Thing is, he got his feeling tremendously hurt if you told him you didn&apos;t have time to talk to him, you were busy, etc.  And next time you needed a server provisioned or something you were in for a long wait.&lt;p&gt;So my officemate and I wrote a very similar tool to the OPs that would place a call to our desk phones so that we could get out of these situations.&lt;p&gt;Silly?  Absolutely.  But 100% necessary given the personalities involved.</text></comment>
<story><title>Fakecall: helping polite introverts stay productive</title><url>http://www.fakecall.net/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>headsclouds</author><text>Sorry to sound harsh, but this seems really silly to me (the concept, not the code which I&apos;m not competent to comment on).&lt;p&gt;Be human, tell other people to fuck off when they are bothering you. End of story.&lt;p&gt;I find the lack of verbal communication skills among programmers/techies their biggest disability. Learn to talk to other people, you might notice the world will become a much easier place to function in.&lt;p&gt;Disclaimer: I was super-shy when I was younger, so I know what I&apos;m talking about. I never went to these kinds of lengths to avoid talking to people though, this is crazy.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>keiferski</author><text>Yes, thank you. Hiding behind silly web apps doesn&apos;t help anyone.&lt;p&gt;BUT, &quot;telling people to fuck off&quot; isn&apos;t much better. A polite &quot;hey, I&apos;m trying to get some stuff done, I&apos;ll be with you soon&quot; is sufficient.</text></comment>