While I'm on the subject of vile things, I heard the most disturbing commercial on the radio the other day. Verizon is now offering a service where you can customize your ring tone, not just for yourself, but for your caller. You get to pick songs that will play for specific callers instead of the ringing sound.

In other words, you can pay extra to take away a standard, useful piece of feedback, and replace it with something that is almost guaranteed to make the caller feel like they are on hold with a company that “values their call”. Nothing tells the people in your life you care quite like playing muzak at them.

I think I'll pass though. I'm holding out for the ability to require callers to first navigate an annoying automated menu driven by a peppy but chronically deaf voice-activated system. The ability to periodically break in to the muzak in such a way that the caller will think they have finally gotten though, just to give them the critical news that they in fact are still waiting would be a nice bonus, but I'm flexible on that point.