Charges for "non-published" landline numbers

[blueriver]

I hate the landline, majority of the calls are solicitor's ... I keep it and my phone number listed cause anyone local needing my services they call that landline. Most find my website, my card or the as well listed 800#. But I do get local calls.

 

[cttractor]

I hate the landline, majority of the calls are solicitor's ...

Interesting! I prefer a landline by far. I find the call quality on every cell phone I've had and used to be poor compared to a land line. I also work from home 75% of the time and find that I can't hold a cell phone to my ear using my shoulder, but I can with a normal handset.

In addition, I'm concerned about the deleterious effects of having a transmitter so close to my head and suspect we're going to be seeing a higher incidence of brain cancers in the future as a result. There have been studies both negating and supporting that hypothesis and I don't want to find my suspicions are true and I didn't use adequate caution.

Finally, I just hate the 1/4 second delay or so that cell phones introduce and find myself and the caller stepping on each other because of that delay. And it's twice as long when both parties are using cell phones. Of course, like everyone, I do use a cell phone when mobile; I just try to limit my use of it.

 

[Bird]

I prefer a landline by far.

Me, too. Of course I wear hearing aids, so I nearly always use both land line phone and cell phone as speaker phones.

 

[cttractor]

Me, too. Of course I wear hearing aids, so I nearly always use both land line phone and cell phone as speaker phones.

It's all relative. When they make cochlear implants able to make and receive phone calls, you're going to be way ahead of the rest of us. That's the route I'm going when I need hearing assitance. I wonder if they'll charge us on a "per call" basis...hmmmm...

 

[JDgreen227]

It's all relative. When they make cochlear implants able to make and receive phone calls, you're going to be way ahead of the rest of us. That's the route I'm going when I need hearing assitance. I wonder if they'll charge us on a "per call" basis...hmmmm...

As a person who has an INTERNAL cochlear implant, I beg to differ with your post...Bird wears EXTERNAL hearing aids, and those are a very different device from a cochlear impant. Hearing aids simply receive and magnify sound input. Cochlear implants are a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly hard of hearing or completely deaf. I have been completely deaf since age 11, and although I had an implant operation back in 1996, it didn't work as expected. Believe me, I hope you never need hearing assistance to the extent an implant is required. You have NO idea how many metal detectors there are outside of airport screening unless you have an implant....:laughing:

 

[cttractor]

As a person who has an INTERNAL cochlear implant, I beg to differ with your post...Bird wears EXTERNAL hearing aids, and those are a very different device from a cochlear impant. Hearing aids simply receive and magnify sound input. Cochlear implants are a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly hard of hearing or completely deaf. I have been completely deaf since age 11, and although I had an implant operation back in 1996, it didn't work as expected. Believe me, I hope you never need hearing assistance to the extent an implant is required. You have NO idea how many metal detectors there are outside of airport screening unless you have an implant....:laughing:

I understand the differences. I have a friend who is a neuroscientist focusing on aural bionics and cochlear implants. We were joking once about how we're seeing all manner of functionality being incorporated into cell phones as users now surf the Web, make purchases, get the weather, play music, scan prices, etc., as well as make calls. So, we started joking about incorporating all that into an implant and realized that it was a real possibility for the future and that humans are more and more being augmented by implanted electronics and micro-processing. My comment to Bird was just a "tongue in cheek" extension of that.

But this gives me an opportunity to ask you a question, if it's ok. If not, just say so and I apologize for the intrusion. You mentioned losing your hearing at age eleven, so that implies that you did hear normally before that. Does the implant truly give you back your hearing or some semblance that allows you to converse without lip reading?

I hope this is not too much of a thread hijacking.

 

[JDgreen227]

Perfectly okay for you to inquire, and since I am OP here that makes any hijacking okay....

I had normal hearing until the age of 11, and was stricken by spinal menigitis. As a result my auditory nerves were damaged and all my hearing was lost. Prior to the implant operation in early 1996, the doctors told me there was no assurance I would regain any type of hearing, their testing revealed I might, but they could not be sure. Although the operation was technically a success, any sound input provided to my implant was badly garbled...like you took an entire group of various sounds and jumbled them up and fed them into my implant.

So, what I basically heard was pure NOISE, with nothing recognizable. About lip reading--that is my only method of communication, and I am very skilled. Thankfully I was able to hear for 11 years, meaning I had learned speech, and was a very avid reader. Those who are born deaf must struggle to learn speech and reading...I was VERY fortunate in that regard.

I can well imagine what you and your friend discuss as regards the future...the way communications and electronics have rapidly advanced is just amazing. I have carried a Blackberry since 2001, and had someone told me in the year 2000 that someday I would be able to communicate with others, and surf the Internet anytime, anywhere, using a device that fit in a shirt pocket, I would have privately thought they were crazy.

 

[Bird]

Bird wears EXTERNAL hearing aids, and those are a very different device from a cochlear implant.

Yep, "very different" is an understatement. I had very good hearing in my younger days. I believe I was 41 when I first saw a doctor for tinnitus. He told me at that time that someday I'd need hearing aids, but not at that time. Sure enough, I got my first hearing aids 11 years later, when I was 52. I'm on my third pair now. But of course there's just no comparison to what you've lived through.

 

[JDgreen227]

Yep, "very different" is an understatement. I had very good hearing in my younger days. I believe I was 41 when I first saw a doctor for tinnitus. He told me at that time that someday I'd need hearing aids, but not at that time. Sure enough, I got my first hearing aids 11 years later, when I was 52. I'm on my third pair now. But of course there's just no comparison to what you've lived through.

Bird, this will give you one heck of a laugh...after I had recovered from the implant operation and had the external electronic receiver fitted and adjusted, and began trying to pick up something recognizable as sound, after a month I went back to see the doctor who performed the operation. He asked me "what is your first impression of your implant?" and my reply was, "Doctor, I never realized what a d--- noisy place the world could be..." :laughing:

 

[Bird]

:laughing:Yeah, I can understand that.:laughing: It is noisy, and even for me, it's frequently just noisy; not understandable communication. Fortunately, I don't have much problem with one on one conversation, but I don't watch TV that isn't closed captioned, I avoid crowds because if 2 or more are talking at the same time, I don't understand either of them, and I generally cannot understand small children.