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From: faustus@tartarus.uchicago.edu (Kurt Ackermann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.hardware,alt.privacy
Subject: Query: Mac as a smart answering machine
Message-ID: <faustus.671471794@tartarus.uchicago.edu>
Date: 12 Apr 91 15:56:34 GMT
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (NewsMistress)
Organization: University of Chicago
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I am intrigued by the idea of using a computer as a smart answering machine
to sort out callers, ring differently for different people, leave
different messages for different callers, and such things.

The basic idea would be to give out an access code to a certain group 
of callers that would make their calls ring differently, give them a 
different message on the machine, etc.

Do such things exist for the Mac? I have heard of Watson boards for IBM-type
machines.

Any info on costs? features? 

Do you need to dedicate a computer *specifcally* to answering the phone,
or is it the kind of thing that you could activate when you weren't using
your Mac, and then deactivate it when you were?  

Any info would be greatly appreciated, including magazine articles, etc.

Please reply E-mail, I'll post a comprehensive article on the facts I get
(I'm asking many different sources for info on this stuff :-)


Thanks in advance,

--Kurt Ackermann

faustus@gargoyle.uchicago.edu