8:00 AM -- Several of the recent conference calls I've been on have added a strange new twist to the already irksome login procedure. After the pointless part where I get asked to say my name, the system actually plays it back and asks me to confirm that "Dan Jones" is really my name!

What genius thought up this new wrinkle I wonder? I know it's a trivial thing, but I need to be on and off these calls quickly. I don't want to waste time entering multiple pins and double-checking my own name.

Also, the sheer futility of it winds me up. Who says their own name wrong? Even if you did, would you take the time to correct it?

In fact I might start deliberately giving the machine the wrong name, just to break the tedium. Do you think anyone would even notice?— Frederick Arbuthnot, Site Editor, Unstrung