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<essay xml:lang="en" version="pto" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:gal="http://norman.walsh.name/rdf/gallery#">
<info>
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
<title>Automatic Dialing</title><biblioid class="uri">http://norman.walsh.name/2003/11/05/tel</biblioid>
<volumenum>6</volumenum>
<issuenum>107</issuenum>
<pubdate>2003-11-05</pubdate>
<date>$Date: 2005-09-11 10:27:02 -0400 (Sun, 11 Sep 2005) $</date>
<author>
      <personname>
<firstname>Norman</firstname>
	<surname>Walsh</surname>
</personname>
    </author>
<copyright>
      <year>2003</year>
      <holder>Norman Walsh</holder>
    </copyright>
<abstract>
<para>Point, click, dial, talk. Cool.</para>
</abstract>
<dc:subject rdf:resource="http://norman.walsh.name/knows/taxonomy#Gadgets"/>
<dc:subject rdf:resource="http://norman.walsh.name/knows/taxonomy#SelfReference"/>
</info>

<epigraph>
<attribution>Dan Connolly</attribution>
<para xml:id="p1"><indexterm>
	<primary>Connolly</primary>
	<secondary>Dan</secondary>
</indexterm>The bane of my existence is doing things that
I know the computer could do for me.
</para>
</epigraph>

<para xml:id="p2">This is a short essay because it’s really just a pointer to something
<link xlink:href="/knows/who#dan-connolly">Dan</link> showed me in IRC this afternoon: with
a little fiddling (a really remarkably little fiddling, actually), I
now have support for <uri>tel:</uri> URIs on my desktop.
</para>

<para xml:id="p3">I build web pages from the data
<link xlink:href="http://nwalsh.com/docs/presentations/extreme2002/">in my Palm</link>.
For a while now, I’ve been generating proper <uri>tel:</uri> URIs for the phone
numbers, but I’ve never been able to do anything with them.</para>

<para xml:id="p4">Now with
<link xlink:href="http://rdfig.xmlhack.com/2003/11/05/2003-11-05.html#2003-11-05 23:38">a
few little hacks</link>, I can click on them and DTMF tones come
out of the speakers. Hold the handset up and <emphasis>it dials</emphasis>.
</para>

<para xml:id="p5">Whee!</para>

<para xml:id="p6">I know, I know. I’m easily amused. But <emphasis>Whee!!!</emphasis>
This is the way these things are supposed to work. I’m planning to get
a Bluetooth<indexterm>
      <primary>Bluetooth</primary>
    </indexterm>
USB<indexterm>
      <primary>USB</primary>
    </indexterm> adapter for my laptop tomorrow.
I’ll see if I can’t fiddle this thing to dail my mobile when I’m on the road.
</para>

<para xml:id="p7">Browser support (the “click” part) relies on the ability to
extend the internet protocols that
Gnome<indexterm>
      <primary>Gnome</primary>
    </indexterm> knows about. (A pretty
cool feature in its own right.)</para>

<para xml:id="p8">Does anyone know of an
easy way to do this in Mozilla? A quick
<link xlink:href="ttp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8&amp;q=mozilla+protocol+extend+uri&amp;btnG=Google+Search">Google</link><indexterm>
      <primary>Google</primary>
    </indexterm> turned up some
source-level patches to the Mozilla codebase, but that’s a little more
hacking than I had in mind.</para>

</essay>

