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Scripts I wrote that I use all the time

(evanhahn.com)
768 points speckx | 8 comments | 22 Oct 25 14:53 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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wiether ◴[22 Oct 25 17:56 UTC] No.45672776[source]▶
It's been a while since I haven't read something as useful!

There also some very niche stuff that I won't use but found funny

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giraffe_lady ◴[22 Oct 25 17:57 UTC] No.45672794[source]▶
The nato phonetic alphabet one cracked me up. My dude you don't need that, call center employees don't know it, just say S as in Sugar like ur grandma used to.
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1. ericyd ◴[22 Oct 25 18:02 UTC] No.45672863[source]▶
The nato phonetic alphabet is still useful even if the other party doesn't know it, I've used it a bunch of times on the phone to spell out my 10- letter last name. Saves quite a lot of time and energy for me vs saying "letter as in word" for each letter.
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2. ◴[22 Oct 25 18:06 UTC] No.45672920[source]▶
3. SoftTalker ◴[22 Oct 25 18:29 UTC] No.45673236[source]▶
> saying "letter as in word" for each letter

Which often just confuses things further.

Me: My name is "Farb" F-A-R-B. B as in Baker.

Them: Farb-Baker, got it.

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4. giraffe_lady ◴[22 Oct 25 18:46 UTC] No.45673436[source]▶
"M as in Mancy."
5. giraffe_lady ◴[22 Oct 25 18:47 UTC] No.45673453[source]▶
Right but it's not much more useful than any other phonetic alphabet the other party doesn't know, including the one you make up on the spot.
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6. vunderba ◴[22 Oct 25 20:12 UTC] No.45674555[source]▶
Exactly. The listening party doesn't need to have knowledge of the NATO alphabet to still benefit from it since they are just regular English words.

I once had someone sound out a serial number over a spotty phone connection years ago and they said "N as in NAIL". You know what sounds a lot like NAIL? MAIL.

And that is why we don't just arbitrarily make up phonetic alphabets.

7. sfink ◴[22 Oct 25 20:33 UTC] No.45674796[source]▶
If you're me, it's still useful because the ones I make up on the spot aren't great.

"S-T-E-V-E @ gmail.com, S as in sun, T as in taste, ..." "Got it, fpeve."

8. dragonwriter ◴[22 Oct 25 20:41 UTC] No.45674878[source]▶
I dunno, there's a pretty good chance that the one that people spent time and effort designing to replace earlier efforts with the goal of reducing potential ambiguity and for use over noisy connections with expectation that mistakes could cost lives is probably better than what you improvise on the spot