
An app that lets you pretend to receive a call when a co-worker distracts you - r0muald
http://nopebutton.com/
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blowski
Just be honest and say "please don't think I'm being rude, but I really need
to get on with this work." You can be assertive without lying or being nasty.

~~~
cheriot
That's ideal and needs to be the first approach. In practice, people that
communicate all day don't always understand than other jobs require
uninterrupted focus. That's why engineers try things like no-meeting-
wednesdays and schedule blocks for coding.

I wouldn't use the tool in question, but I relate to the motivation.

~~~
Xylakant
if you need to use this tool, the uninterrupted focus is most likely already
gone, damage done. it's even likely that the person will return once your call
is done to interrupt you again.

~~~
mgkimsal
or.... they'll learn that you prioritize answering calls over f2f, and they'll
start calling you all the time. easier to 'avoid' to some degree, but you're
just shifting the interruption.

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bigbugbag
That's a clever social engineering scheme to collect phone numbers.

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random_upvoter
I never understood why a telephone gets precedence over somebody who made the
effort to come to you in person.

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dazc
Because after 6 or 7 rings the person calling you will go away, while the
person who has come to you will, usually, stand and wait.

I agree with the sentiment though, that it does often give the impression of
being bad mannered.

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dazzawazza
Just let them go to voice mail. If it's important they'll leave a message.

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mhd
Reminds me of the "Boss Key" you had in earlier games (or as a TSR in DOS),
that showed some fake spreadsheet instead of your game screen. This is
basically its cubicle cousin.

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dovdovdov
Resume your focus! ...until our partners call you on a hourly bases for the
rest of your life. ;)

~~~
chillaxdude
lol so true.

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cyberferret
I was going to jump on this before I realised that (1) I have my phone on DND
when I am 'running silent, running deep', and (2) I found out from the
comments here that it doesn't work outside the US.

Perhaps to address both issues, there could be a version of this that doesn't
actually make a physical call? Perhaps a pairing of an iOS/Android app to a
button on the browser which send a standard in app message (free) to the phone
associated with the button. The app could then simulate a ring tone, which
would be enough to complete the illusion of an incoming call?

~~~
FullMtlAlcoholc
You can also use something like Google Voice or True Caller and block all
other calls to your phone except for that one

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libeclipse
Why not just honestly say you're busy? Works for me.

There's quite a few versions of this. I think a cheaper option is an app on
your phone that imitates a phone call.

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staunch
Just yell "I'm wired in!" and get back to it!

(teehee:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=942sTOBISQs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=942sTOBISQs))

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kozak
The problem of being distracted when coding was greatly reduced for me when we
moved to Git from more ancient version control tools. With faster/easier
committing and history browsing, I can now make smaller and more logically
divided commits, and thus need to keep less context in my head at every single
moment.

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andrewflnr
What an outrageously annoying website. I love it!

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scandox
I created a version of this in 2006 (I think), called Getmooh.com - Get Me Out
Of Here. The idea was to get people out of bad dates with an automated call.

I used the Skype API with VB6 and some natural voice libraries from AT&T. We
mostly got used for prank calls with pre-recorded messages we had. Worked OK.
But cost us money and I got bored once it was built. We got maybe 60,000 sign
ups I think.

~~~
tragic
I'm pretty sure this was a feature of an old dumbphone, you could set it up so
that holding down the number 5 (say) on the key pad would trigger a 'call'.
Might have been a Samsung?

~~~
Raed667
I hand an old Nokia (That had a sliding keyboard !!) with this feature (press
down volume 4 times), it also had a scheduling feature with personalized ring-
tone, number and display name!

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JoshTriplett
Amusing idea. Absolutely no good reason for this to require a Chrome-specific
extension, though; this would work in any browser.

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omegote
Any browser with extensions support, you mean.

~~~
janci
Why not a simple bookmark? No extensions required.

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annerajb
This seems great for those situation where telling the person that you are
busy, or cannot attend them anymore wont cut it.

Usually a phone call is the only detractor for them to interrupt me. at the
end it ended up being just to let me know something like i got this to
compile!! which could have been done on slack or lync.

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Raed667
I think this works only for US and Canadian numbers. Which isn't mentioned
anywhere on the website.

~~~
yehi
I think that's because other cultures don't mind telling others that they are
busy /s

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spb
I made a similar app to this for Pebble at a hackathon in 2015:
[https://github.com/phoneyscape](https://github.com/phoneyscape)

We got an offer from Madrona Ventures for it that I never ended up following
up on.

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mysterydip
Related but with a different focus, Chelsea Handler made an app called "Gotta
Go": [https://gottago.io/](https://gottago.io/) The process was detailed in
one of her Netflix episodes IIRC.

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mikhailfranco
False premise - a phone call should never be allowed to interrupt a real
conversation.

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AndrewKemendo
Surely you don't mean never.

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gherig4
This is a blatant advertisement

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veli_joza
It's a quick side project that might be useful to some, presented in quirky
and humorous way. Why does it bother you?

~~~
gherig4
It is a way to collect phone numbers disguised as an outlet for passive
aggression.

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Markoff
pretty standard feature on Japanese phones for unemployed people or people who
wanna look more busy or important, I guess people in West don't care do much
about losing face our impression

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ninju
Note the fine print in gray (or is it grey) text at the bottom the page

 _(Any discount code associated with this experience will expire on December
31, 2017.)_

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edsykes
"i'm sorry, i'm on a deadline"

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raarts
I just say: i'm going to get me a coffee (water, restroom) and when i return
they're gone.

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tvaughan
If you don't have your phone on airplane mode then you do want to be
distracted.

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taksintikk
Simple but powerful.

Great job.

