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Pogue Speaks

PopularityDialer Goes Offline

By DAVID POGUE

Over a decade ago, I remember seeing a "Saturday Night Live" skit that still stays with me. It was a talk show where all of the guests had one thing in common: they were all jerks or psychopaths whose one-time actions had created lifelong inconvenience for the rest of society. There was that guy who put poison into a bottle of Tylenol, initiating the era of the childproof (and adult-proof) package. There was the hijacker, whose actions led to the nationwide construction of airport X-ray machines. And so on.

I thought of that this week when I learned what happened to one of my favorite Web sites: PopularityDialer.com.

It's an absolutely delicious concept. You plug in your cellphone number. At a date and time you specify, your phone rings. That's it. No charge.

It's a perfect way to give yourself an out when you plan to be on a date, in a meeting or anywhere else where you might need an excuse to get away—or to demonstrate your own popularity.

Better yet: You know how sometimes the person next to you can faintly overhear the person you're talking to? For that reason, when you set up a time and date for your call, you can also specify what you want to hear on the other end. You have a choice of five prerecorded "caller on the other end" one-way conversations, so that you can have a plausible chat. There's the boss ("This is Mr. Johnson calling from the office. Did you complete that thing, about a month ago? That photocopier training?"), the girlfriend call ("Hey, you, what's going on? I'm going out later. You should come!"), and so on.

In one of my talks, I explore the way the Internet and the phone have been merging in fascinating ways. And I always demo Popularity Dialer, setting it up to "interrupt" me during the talk itself. It's hilarious.

Until a few weeks ago. I pulled up the site for the demo—and found a note that it was down for "maintenance."

When the site didn't come back for several weeks, I e-mailed the creators, Jenny Chowdhury and Cory Forsyth, who built PopularityDialer as college students. Jenny wrote to explain the sad news: Some idiot had set up an unwanted PopularityDialer call to an F.C.C. lawyer. Next thing Jenny new, her site was served with a ludicrous citation:

"This is an official CITATION, issued pursuant to section 503(b)(5) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the Act), 47 U.S.C. § (503)(b)(5), for violations of the Act and Federal Communications Commission's rules that govern telephone solicitations and unsolicited advertisements."

Ms. Chowdhury and Mr. Forsyth had to take PopularityDialer offline.

The whole thing is absurd on so many levels.

* PopularityDialer doesn't advertise or solicit anything.

* PopularityDialer has always offered a place to list your number if you don't want to receive its calls.

* Plenty of other Web sites offer services that call you at a specified time. Most of them are wake-up services, like iPing.com, TelePixie.com, Wakeupland.com, Snoozester.com, and so on. All of them offer exactly the same risk of abuse as PopularityDialer. You could use any of them to set up a wake-up call to an F.C.C. lawyer, too. PopularityDialer just happened to be the unlucky victim of an anonymous jerk.

It gets weirder. When Ms. Chowdhury and Mr. Forsyth contacted the F.C.C. to get an explanation for the citation, the F.C.C. minion who responded was equally baffled. "I don't see how a Web site falls within the jurisdiction of the F.C.C. or how it would cause T.C.P.A. violations," went the reply. "We would not give any advice on how to legally continue the operation of your business. That would have to come from your own attorney."

So let me get this straight: The same F.C.C. that sent the citation has no idea why it sent the citation?

Ms. Chowdhury and Mr. Forsyth have appealed the citation. Let's hope that sanity prevails, and that one of the Internet's cleverest and wittiest gems is brought back to life—soon.

Visit David Pogue on the Web at DavidPogue.com

Come Away With Me

Come away with me in the night
Come away with me
And I will write you a song

Come away with me on a bus
Come away where they can't tempt us
With their lies

I want to walk with you
On a cloudy day
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high
So won't you try to come

Come away with me and we'll kiss
On a mountaintop
Come away with me
And I'll never stop loving you

And I want to wake up with the rain
Falling on a tin roof
While I'm safe there in your arms
So all I ask is for you
To come away with me in the night
Come away with me



~~ Norah Jones

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The summer I was 17, I drove to Alaska with my aunt, on what was no longer called the Alcan Highway. It was a dream trip. And that was the summer I first saw fireweed. And questioned how anything so beautiful could be called a weed? And decided that perhaps grownups were crazy (a view I hold to this very day).

If there is a heaven, it will need to be full of fireweed, or I won't accept it as such.


,

Situation: rain

. . . .when we walk in fields of gold. . . .

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Among the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold

So she took her love for to gaze awhile
Among the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold

Will you stay with me will you be my love
Among the fields of barley
And you can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold

I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We will walk in fields of gold
We'll walk in fields of gold

I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We will walk in fields of gold
We'll walk in fields of gold

Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
As you lie in fields of gold

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Among the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold

~~ Eva Cassidy

I Wanna Grow Old With You

Another day
Without your smile
Another day just passes by
But now I know
How much it means
For you to stay
Right here with me

The time we spent apart will make our love grow stronger
But it hurts so bad I can't take it any longer

I wanna grow old with you
I wanna die lying in your arms
I wanna grow old with you
I wanna be looking in your eyes
I wanna be there for you
Sharing in everything you do
I wanna grow old with you

A thousand miles between us now
It causes me to wonder how
Our love tonight remains so strong
It makes our risk right all along

The time we spent apart will make our love grow stronger
But it hurts so bad I can't take it any longer

I wanna grow old with you
I wanna die lying in your arms
I wanna grow old with you
I wanna be looking in your eyes
I wanna be there for you
Sharing in everything you do
I wanna grow old with you

Things can come and go I know but
Baby I believe
Something's burning strong between us
Makes it clear to me


I wanna grow old with you
I wanna die lying in your arms
I wanna grow old with you
I wanna be looking in your eyes
I wanna be there for you
Sharing in everything you do
I wanna grow old with you


.

Like river, like rain

Slow come
but steady

Fragrant tongue
Eyes that walk the wind

I have known you for long
so long

All the night
the cattle lowing in the distance

And one star
shines


.

Flame Flower Tree. . . .

below is wood and wind above is flame Waiting, quiet heart for the touch along rib thigh Wishing, soon but willing a long winter a longer spring Wanting, just you whenever you are ready .

A daffoldil you say? Yep.

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To Be Loved by You

The Rose

Some say love, it is a river
that drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed.
Some say love, it is a hunger,
an endless aching need.
I say love, it is a flower,
and you its only seed.

It's the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance.
It's the dream afraid of waking
that never takes the chance.
It's the one who won't be taken,
who cannot seem to give,
and the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live.

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long,
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong,
just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed that with the sun's love
in the spring becomes the rose.




.

Seven Daffodils

Seven Daffodils

I do not have a mansion, and I haven't any land,
 Not even one dollar to crinkle in my hand.
But I can show you morning on a thousand hills,
 And kiss you and give you seven daffodils.

I do not have a fortune to buy you pretty things,
 But I can weave you moonbeams for necklaces and rings,
And I can show you morning on a thousand hills,
 And kiss you and give you seven daffodils.

Seven golden daffodils, all shining in the sun,
 They light the way of evening, when our day is done.
And I can give you music, and a crust of bread,
    A pillow of piney boughs to rest your head.


.

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The fire burns bright
releasing the seed
blight banished

Your caring, there
around my shoulders
handknitted shawl

And the silence we held open
double dream of wing
escapes

Ah comfort beyond comfort
approaching joy
we wait stilled and awed



.

Leap of Faith