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instructions for everything you want to know
How to block robocalls and telemarketers
Post author By Как
We are sure you will agree that robocalls can be annoying. Apple, Google, and the US government are already planning to stop them completely. While we hope that happens soon, do you know that there are actions you can take to block robocalls from call centers or telemarketers?
How To Block Robocalls From Your Devices
According to reports, the US lawmakers are already planning to pass legislation that would help to prevent unnecessary calls from your device.
Apple and Google have added a built-in feature on iPhones and Android phones. This built-in feature helps to block certain unknown numbers from calling or texting your device. Apart from this feature, there are some third-party apps, including Nomorobo, RoboKiller, and Truecaller, that also help to block robocalls from telemarketers.
Here are a few guides on how you can block robocalls from telemarketers and call centers.
1- Block/Silence Unknown Callers In iOS 13
In case you have Apple's iOS 13 or higher installed on your iPhone, there's a feature on it that can help you block robocalls from call centers and telemarketers. It helps to silent calls from unknown callers, sending them to your voicemail, where they appear on your recent list. Also, you can easily go to the list and return calls, in case there's an important phone number of the recent lists.
To enable the feature, you need to go to your Settings app and click the Phone section. After that, scroll down and toggle the Silent Unknown Callers button to help you enable the feature.
2- Block Phone Numbers On iPhone
Robocallers make use of thousands of phone numbers over and over again. However, one thing that's interesting about the numbers is that most of them utilize the same prefixes as your phone number. In case you want to know how to block robocalls and other irrelevant calls on your iPhone device, here's a simple step:
Go to your phone app, and tap on recent calls. From there, you'll be able to choose the number you want to block.
Next, tap on the info icon right beside the number.
Tap Block this Caller, then proceed by tapping Block Contact.
By doing that, you won't have to worry about receiving calls from the number anymore.
3- Block Numbers From Android Phones
In case you are interested in knowing how to block robocalls from telemarketers on your Android devices, here's a simple step for you:
Open your device's phone app, and choose recent calls.
Tap the specific number you're interested in blocking, and tap the block/report spam icon.
Then, proceed by confirming the action.
Apart from this process, there are also some Android phones that can enable users to block unknown calls through their Settings app.
In case your phone has that feature, all you need is to go to the Settings app, and select the block number option and activate it.
4- Scam Block And Scam ID Feature On T-Mobile
With T-Mobile, you can easily enjoy the Scam ID and Scam Block feature free of charge. The Scam ID helps to detect calls from scammers, while the Scam Block enables you to block the calls before coming to your phone.
Furthermore, you'll get to enjoy the Name ID feature when you subscribe to $4 per month. That helps to show the location and name of the callers, and block irrelevant and robocalls.
5- Verizon Call Filter
You can also block robocalls on your device with the Verizon call filter. Although the offer by Verizon is about $3 per month, the wireless network provider also offers it free of charge to compatible devices.
For the free plan, the call filter helps users to detect and filter spam calls. That, it does by signaling you any time there are robocalls or spam calls. For the prepaid plan, the call filter helps to kick in the caller ID and some other features.
You can always download the call filter app on the Apple Store or Google play store.
@chrisbhoffman
November 21, 2016, 6:40am EDT
Modern robocalls aren't just telemarketers trying to sell you something. They're often scammers trying to trick you into parting with your money or identity information. So how do you stop them from coming in?
Get on the Do Not Call List
In the USA, you can register your number on the National Do Not Call Registry. Telemarketers are not supposed to call numbers on the list. Some other countries have their own "Do Not Call" registries, so check to see if your country offers something similar if you don't live in the USA.
Just head to that government website and register all the phone numbers you use to avoid getting telemarketing calls. If you're not sure whether you registered your number previously, you can verify whether the phone number is on the list or not.
Telemarketer calls should stop within 31 days of you adding your number to the list. Initially, numbers put on the list were set to expire after five years, forcing people to re-register their numbers. However, this requirement was removed. Your phone number will now never expire from the list.
Unfortunately, the Do Not Call list won't stop all robocalls. It will stop legitimate telemarketing calls, but telephone scammers—which are generally located outside the USA, anyway—won't bother following the rules. This also only applies to telemarketing, so political campaigns, charities, and surveys are still free to call you as well.
Ask Legitimate Callers to Stop
Callers with whom you have an "existing business relationship" are free to place robocalls to you, even if you're on the Do Not Call list. However, if you ask the caller to not call you again, they are supposed to stop calling, or face a potential $40,000 fine.
If you asked the company to stop calling you and they continue, keep a record of the date and time you asked. You can then report the company to the FTC.
This won't help if you're dealing with a scammer. But, if a legitimate company is placing robocalls to you, it should follow the rules when you ask it to stop.
Block a Database of Numbers on Your Smartphone
The Do Not Call list is a great first step. Unfortunately, there are many telephone scammers out there who don't want to follow the rules. And you may not want to receive calls from political campaigns, survey companies, charities, and other organizations that are exempt from the Do Not Call list.
To block those robocalls, you can download a third-party app for your smartphone that blocks a "crowdsourced" list of phone numbers that other people have reported.
There are quite a few apps for this, including Mr. Number, available for both Android and iPhone. When a robocall dials your phone number, you'll see a warning that the caller is a suspected telemarketer or scammer. The app can also block these calls completely, so you won't even know these numbers are calling you. If you're an iPhone user, you'll need iOS 10 to take advantage of this app.
Block Individual Phone Numbers
Lastly, you keep receiving robocalls from a specific phone number—or a few specific phone numbers—you can block that number right on your smartphone. Both Android and iPhone have built-in ways to block specific phone numbers so you won't receive phone calls from it ever again. You can do this right from the call history in your dialer app.
Unfortunately, there's no foolproof solution to block all robocalls. Apps that do the dirty work for you are the best option, but that won't help if you're using a landline phone. In 2015, the FTC ruled telephone carriers could offer call-blocking tools to their customers. Telephone companies will hopefully provide better call-screening tools for all customers in the future. For now, though, these solutions should help diminish the problem, if not eliminate it entirely.
How to block robocalls on iPhone and Android
Tips on how to block unwanted robocalls on the iPhone and Android device.
Unwanted calls are often harmless but some are after your credit card information, IDs or passwords. All are a distraction and a waste of your time.
Robocallers have gotten more devious by masking their calls with phone numbers that use the first three or first six digits of your phone number.
But the scams are old. They pretend to be major banks, big tech companies, or government organizations like the IRS.
Whatever the scam, here are several ways to stop unwanted calls on your smartphone – and one way to stop them cold.
Manually: if you don't get a lot of unwanted calls, you can block calls one at a time. On the iPhone you do this by selecting "Phone" then tapping the information icon (the encircled lowercase "i"), and selecting "Block this Caller." On Android, it's similar, you tap on the caller's name, then long-press the number and tap "Block/report spam" (note that this procedure can vary slightly from device to device on Android).
Blocking calls manually, however, is usually futile because scammers and spammers are constantly changing their numbers, usually on a daily basis.
Use an app: there are lots of apps that take on telemarketers and suspicious calls, some are better at blocking calls before they get through than others. AT&T and Verizon, as with other carriers, offer apps that let you block calls by identifying likely fraudsters. To identify a suspicious call, numbers are run against a massive list of robocallers that is updated daily.
For instance, the basic setup of the Verizon Caller Name ID app ($2.99 per month per line) is like any call blocker app on the iPhone. After installing the app, under the iPhone's Settings you tap on "Phone," then "Call Blocking & Identification," then toggle on the Verizon "Caller Name ID" app.
If you want to take this a step further, the Verizon app will also try to block suspicious calls and send them to voicemail. This requires going into the Verizon app and tapping "Block" then "Spam filter on" then setting a risk level.
For Android devices, you open the Verizon Caller Name ID app, tap "Block management," tap "Spam filter", then toggle the feature on and select the risk level.
AT&T has its Mobile Security & Call Protect Plus ($3.99 per month) service that has Automatic Fraud Blocking, which can detect and allow you to block incoming suspicious calls.
Samsung offers a "Smart Call" feature on its phones that can tell you if the call is suspicious and allows you to block the call. Go to "Caller ID and spam protection" in Call Settings, then turn on "Caller ID and spam protection." Note that is not made available by all carriers.
And Google offers caller ID & spam protection for Android. With this, you can stop spam calls from ringing on your phone. "You won't get missed call or voicemail notifications, but you'll still see filtered calls in your call history and be able to check any voicemail you receive," according to Google.
There are third-party apps that you can try for free such as Nomorobo and RoboKiller. After the trial period, both ask for a small monthly fee, which typically starts at $0.99 or $1.99 per month. There's also an app called Hiya that is free.
The best advice is to try these services and see which one works for you.
Kill all suspicious calls: the most effective method is to limit calls to your contact list. On the iPhone, this will stop all unwanted calls from ringing on your phone. The only calls that get through are people on your contact list. Other legitimate calls typically go to voicemail.
On the iPhone, you go to Settings, then tap on "Do Not Disturb" then select "Allow Calls From" then "All Contacts." This is deadly effective and may be a good option for people hounded by spam calls. For Android, you can do this with apps such as Calls Blacklist.
The FCC just passed a measure to help block the annoying (and illegal) calls.
Gone are the days I used to be excited when hearing my phone ring. Is it a friend, family member, or perhaps a colleague? Nope — just another scammer offering a "free" vacation in the Bahamas or a machine demanding payment for "unpaid medical fees." When I think about it, I might actually receive more scam calls than actual calls.
The reality for millions of Americans is that we receive way too many robocalls on a daily basis. Nearly 48 billion robocalls were made in the US last year, and they certainly aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Wait, what are robocalls and how do they work?
Often, a computer program leverages voice over internet protocol (VOIP) to quickly and cheaply call you. A computer-generated number comes up on your phone, which is often made to appear similar to yours to prompt you to answer. This technique, known as spoofing, disguises the true identity of the call origin and instead makes it show up as an unknown or generic number (like 123456789).
FYI: Robocalls can also show up as real numbers that belong to someone else. That means if you ignore the call but dial it back later, you might reach someone who has no idea their number was misused.
What is the FCC doing about robocalls?
Good news: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking some major steps to reduce the amount of illegal and unwanted calls. On June 6, 2019, the FCC unanimously passed a new measure that would help block robocalls. The ruling would allow carrier companies (like T-Mobile and Verizon) to automatically block illegal and unwanted calls before they reach consumers' phones. Previously, carriers were allowed to block certain calls — but only after a subscriber agreed to opt in. Under the new measure, carriers can now do so without the consumers' permission.
Like most things that seem too good to be true, there's a catch: Carrier companies are not required to provide blocking services free of charge, meaning you might have to pay extra for it. Also, automated calls from legitimate companies (like reminders from your doctor's office or an airline) may be blocked too. Credit, banking, and healthcare groups are advocating for change to make sure their auto-generated (and legitimate) calls can still get through.
With or without these new changes, there are still plenty of steps you can take to block these unwanted calls.
How to stop robocalls for good
The most important thing you can do to stop robocalls is not answer any unknown numbers. If you answer a robocall, you'll be put onto a VIP list of people that the scammers know are more likely to pick up. Then, you could actually be passed onto a real person who may try to solicit information from you or trick you into buying something.
To be safe, let unknown calls go to voicemail and see what the message is. While you can often block specific numbers, it usually isn't helpful since the number can easily change on the next robocall.
If you think you're receiving robocalls, you can:
File a complaint with the FCC, noting the time and date of the call, the number that appeared, a description of the message, and your number.
Sign up for the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry, so it becomes illegal for telemarketers to call you. (It's not foolproof, but it's an easy first step.)
Download a robocall blocking app from your cell phone carrier or a third-party.
Utilize the "Do Not Disturb" function on your iPhone or Android — scroll down for step-by-step instructions.
The best robocall blocking apps and tools
AT&T Call Protect: A call-blocking app for AT&T customers that detects and blocks calls from likely fraudsters, identifies telemarketers and other suspected spam calls, and lets you block unwanted calls by number. Available on iOS and Android for free.
Sprint Premium Caller ID: A service that allows Sprint customers to identify unknown callers by name and get warnings on spam calls. Activate from your Sprint account for $3 a month.
T-Mobile Scam Block: A default-off tool that prevents T-Mobile customers from receiving scam calls. Activate from your T-Mobile account, in the latest Name ID app, or dial #622# from your T-Mobile phone. Offered to customers at no extra cost.
Verizon Call Filter: An app that blocks and silences unwanted calls for Verizon customers based on risk level. Available on iOS and Android for free.
RoboKiller: When someone calls you and their number is verified as spam from RoboKiller's database, your phone won't ring. Instead you will get a number that notifies you someone has been blocked. The difference between this spam blocking app and others is that it answers the call with a pre-recorded message, wasting the scammer's time. Available on iOS and Android with a 7-day free trial, then $4 a month or $30 a year.
Hiya: An app that blocks any numbers and texts you want to avoid. Other services include blocking calls, blacklisting unwanted phone numbers, reverse searching incoming call information, and receiving spam alerts. Available on iOS and Android for free.
How to stop robocalls on iPhones
By using Apple's Do Not Disturb feature, you'll only be notified for calls and texts from your contacts. All other numbers will be silenced and delivered in the background. Here's how to use it:
Go to Settings →
Do Not Disturb →
Allow Call From →
Select "All Contacts"
How to stop robocalls on Androids
Similar to iPhones, Android phones have a similar Do Not Disturb feature that silences sounds and other notifications from any number outside of your contacts. Here's how to use it:
Go to Sound →
Exceptions →
Select "Calls From Contacts"
If you answer the phone and hear a recorded message instead of a live person, it's a robocall. If you're getting a lot of robocalls trying to sell you something, odds are the calls are illegal. Many are also probably scams.
Here's what you need to know about robocalls and what you can do about them.
Are robocalls legal?
Why do I get so many robocalls?
How can I know if a robocall is a scam?
What kinds of robocalls are allowed without my permission?
How can I get fewer robocalls?
What should I do if I get an illegal robocall?
What else is the FTC doing about robocalls?
Why doesn't the Do Not Call Registry stop robocalls?
A robocall trying to sell you something is illegal unless a company has your written permission to call you that way. To get your permission, the company has to be clear it's asking to call you with robocalls, and it can't make you agree to the calls to get a product or service. If you give permission, you have the right to change your mind later.
A few types of robocalls are allowed under FTC rules without your permission, like political calls about candidates running for office or charities asking for donations. Keep reading for more examples.
It's cheap and easy for scammers and telemarketers to make robocalls over the internet from anywhere in the world.
If someone is already breaking the law by robocalling you without permission, there's a good chance it's a scam. At the very least, it's a company you don't want to do business with. Don't rely on your caller ID. S cammers can fake the name and number that shows up, making it look like a call is from a government agency like the Social Security Administration or a local number. That's called spoofing.
You can watch out for common phone scams like government imposter scams . If someone calls you out of the blue and a sks you to hand over personal information or wire money or pay with a gift card , it's a scam.
Under FTC rules, some robocalls don't require your permission:
Messages that are purely informational. Robocalls about your flight being cancelled, reminding you about an appointment, or letting you know about a delayed school opening fall into this category, as long as the caller doesn't also try to sell you something.
Debt collection calls. A business contacting you to collect a debt can use robocalls to reach you. But robocalls that try to sell you services to reduce your debt are illegal and are almost certainly scams.
Political calls .
Calls from some health care providers. This includes a robocall from a pharmacy reminding you to refill a prescription.
Messages from charities. Charities can make these calls themselves. But if a charity hires someone to make robocalls on its behalf, the robocalls can only go to members of the charity or prior donors. They also must include an automated option to let you stop future calls.
To get fewer illegal robocalls, look into call-blocking solutions . The call-blocking option you choose will depend on whether you're getting calls on a mobile phone, traditional landline, or home phone that uses the internet (VoIP).
Hang up . Don't press any numbers. The recording might say that pressing a number will let you speak to a live operator or remove you from their call list, but it might lead to more robocalls, instead.
Report the call to the FTC at donotcall.gov . Report the number on your caller ID and any number you're told to call back, which helps us track down the scammers behind the call. Even if you think the number on your caller ID is fake, report it. The FTC analyzes complaint data and trends to identify illegal callers based on calling patterns.
The FTC takes the phone numbers you report and releases them to the public each business day. This helps phone carriers and other partners that are working on call-blocking solutions. Your reports also help law enforcement identify the people behind illegal calls.
The FTC continues to bring enforcement actions against robocallers and has already stopped people responsible for billions of robocalls. You can read about recent FTC cases and other robocall-related actions in our press releases .
The FTC also continues to work with other law enforcement agencies and encourages industry efforts to combat robocalls and caller ID spoofing. The FTC has led initiatives to develop technology-based solutions, including a series of robocall contests that challenged tech experts to design tools that block robocalls and help investigators track down and stop robocallers.
The National Do Not Call Registry is designed to stop sales calls from real companies that follow the law. The Registry is a list that tells telemarketers what numbers not to call. The FTC does not and cannot block calls. Scammers don't care if you're on the Registry.
Even though the Registry can't stop all of the unwanted calls you're getting, being on the Registry could make it easier for you to spot scam calls. If a caller is ignoring the Registry or making an illegal robocall, hang up. There's a good chance it's a scam.
Learn more about unwanted calls at ftc.gov/calls .
L earn more about the Telemarketing Sales Rule that governs robocalls on the FTC's Business Center .
You can use Silence Unknown Callers or a third-party app to block spam calls on your iPhone.
Turn on Silence Unknown Callers
With iOS 13 and later, you can turn on Silence Unknown Callers to avoid getting calls from people you don't know. This blocks phone numbers that you've never been in contact with and don't have saved in your contacts list. If you've previously texted with someone using their phone number or if a person has shared their phone number with you in an email, a phone call from that number will go through.
To turn on Silence Unknown Callers, go to Settings > Phone, then scroll down, tap Silence Unknown Callers, and turn on the feature. Calls from unknown numbers are silenced and sent to your voicemail, and appear in your recent calls list.
Incoming calls will come through from people that are saved in your contacts list, recent calls list, and from Siri Suggestions to let you know who's calling based on phone numbers included in your emails or text messages.
If an emergency call is placed, Silence Unknown Callers will be temporarily disabled for the next 24 hours to allow for your iPhone to be reached.
Before you turn on Silence Unknown Callers, make sure you have important contacts saved or you could miss a phone call that you don't want to miss. The call will still go to voicemail and appear in your recent calls list, but you won't get a notification while the call is ringing.
Set up an app to filter and detect spam calls
Go to the App Store and download an app that detects and blocks spam phone calls. You can download and install multiple apps with this feature from different app developers.
Go to Settings > Phone.
Tap Call Blocking & Identification.
Under Allow These Apps To Block Calls And Provide Caller ID, turn the app on or off. You can also reorder the apps based on priority. Just tap Edit and then drag the apps in the order you want them.
Phone numbers that appear under Blocked Contacts are numbers that you manually block.
When you receive a call, your device checks the caller's number and compares it to the list of phone numbers in your third-party spam apps. If there's a match, iOS displays the identifying label chosen by the app, for example Spam or Telemarketing. If the app determines that a phone number is spam, it may choose to block the phone call automatically. Incoming calls are never sent to third-party developers.
If you determine that a number is from a spam caller, you can block the number manually on your device. Phone numbers that you manually block appear under Blocked Contacts.
If you no longer want to use the app, you can remove it.
Here's one thing we can all agree on: Robocalls are annoying and intrusive, and we want them to stop!
Despite years of congressional hearings, prodding from the Federal Communications Commission and assurances from the telecommunications industry that it's working on solutions, our phones keep ringing and ringing and ringing.
According to YouMail, which makes a robocall blocking app for mobile devices:
Americans were bombarded with an estimated 48 billion robocalls last year, an increase of 57 percent from 2017. Thirty-seven percent were classified as scams.
Between January and April of this year, more than 20 billion robocalls have been made — about half of them were scam-related.
"We are where email was 15 years ago, where half of all the messages that came in were spam and your inbox was useless," said Alex Quilici, YouMail's CEO.
To deal with customer backlash, the major wireless carriers are using new call-filter technology. They also rolled out apps to screen and block robocalls. Despite these well-intentioned efforts, the problem continues to grow because robocalls are such a cheap and easy way for criminals to target massive numbers of potential victims.
We are where email was 15 years ago, where half of all the messages that came in were spam and your inbox was useless.
Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail
You can't trust caller ID any longer
The average American now gets 150 or more robocalls each year, based on YouMail's data.
Some robocalls are legitimate and important, such as a reminder about a doctor's appointment or an alert about a flight delay. But to deal with the flood of bogus calls, a lot of us (myself included) won't answer if we don't recognize the number displayed on the caller ID.
Robocall scammers need you to answer; they can't steal your money or personal information if they can't talk to you. So, they've developed a devious trick: They manipulate the number that appears on caller ID to make it look like it's coming from your area code or local prefix – or both.
It's called "neighborhood spoofing" and according to a new report from the AARP Fraud Watch Network, it works. The survey found that most people still use caller ID to determine whether they take a call:
Only 18 percent said they would take a call from a toll-free number.
More than half (59 percent) said they are more likely to answer a call from a local area code or an area code where family or friends live (44 percent).
More than a third (36 percent) are more likely to answer a call with an area code and prefix that matches their own.
"It's so easy to spoof the number and pretend to be somebody you're not, that caller ID is not a reliable means of finding out who's calling anymore," said Doug Shadel, AARP fraud prevention expert and author of the report. "The vast majority of scam-related robocalls now have spoofed numbers that display the local area code, even when they're placed somewhere else in the U.S. or even outside the country."
Aaron Foss, who created the Nomorobo robocall blocking service, says 20 percent of all robocalls are now neighborhood spoofed, and he expects that percentage to go higher because the deception works.
Trump signed the anti-robocall act following its bipartisan support in Congress.
Robocalls: The new FCC crackdown
President Donald Trump has signed a new law aimed at tackling the scourge of illegal robocalls.
The bipartisan legislation expanded the power of the Federal Communications Commission to deter spam calls and reinforced the responsibility of individual phone companies to protect their own consumers.
"With this legislation, phone companies will be required to give all consumers meaningful new protections against these calls and Americans will finally get some relief from the ringing telephone," Maureen Mahoney, policy analyst with Consumer Reports, told The Associated Press.
However, while consumers may receive fewer spam calls in 2020, they won't disappear overnight or entirely, she explained.
The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, or TRACED Act, increases fines on spam robocallers from $1,500 to as much as $10,000 per illegal call. It also requires phone companies speed up their adaptation of "call authentication technologies" to verify that incoming calls are legitimate before ever reaching consumers, a point Mahoney said is a "big victory."
"The key is requiring these phone companies to help stop the calls before they reach the consumer and do it at no additional charge," she told The AP.
While consumers can buy software like Hiya and YouMail to help weed out the billions of robocalls that Americans collectively receive each month on cellphones, this new legislation thrusts the responsibility on service providers to block those calls from ever reaching consumers.
The also requires the Federal Communications Commission and service providers to develop a system which informs customers when they're receiving a "spoofed" call — when the caller ID is made to look like it's coming from the same area code, a well-known agency, such as the Internal Revenue Service or company. That system, however, will not work for home phones connected to copper landlines, so the measure calls on the FCC and phone companies to find an alternative for those customers.
Another key takeaway from the new legislation is that it allows the FCC four years to intervene and collect fines after an illegal robocall takes place instead of only one, as with previous legislation. The additional time may prove helpful. According to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC collected only 0.003 percent of the fines it imposed between 2015 and early 2019.
The FCC is also now required do more to try to protect hospitals because robocalls can divert staffers' attention when they appear to come from inside the hospital.
Beyond robocalls, the law also directs the FCC to create new rules that will help protect subscribers from receiving unwanted texts too.
Faking caller ID numbers and placing automated telemarketing calls to consumers without their written permission is already illegal in the U.S., but enforcing their subsequent fines has come with hurdles. While U.S.-based robocalls are easier to trace, many of the robocalls that Americans receive originate from overseas, and Consumer Reports says those will likely continue without sufficient interruption.
While Mahoney praises the final legislation overall, she told The AP that robocallers may exploit some protection gaps that were lost between the House and Senate versions — such as a mandate to clarify that the consumer give or withdraw consent to telemarketers.
Xfinity Voice service works with Nomorobo to block unsolicited robocalls to your home. It's a cloud-based service that hangs up or blocks illegal robocallers or telemarketer calls.
Let's show you how to set up Nomorobo with your Xfinity Voice service. You'll need to be home in order to complete the activation with your Xfinity Voice line. Note: Nomorobo service is not compatible with the Xfinity Voice Unlimited Saver or Local With More call plans.
If you don't need to instructions, you can go directly to the Nomorobo mobile and landline set up. For instructions, go to set up Nomorobo, disable Nomorobo or frequently asked questions.
Set Up Nomorobo
Go to https://www.nomorobo.com/signup and follow the instructions for signing up.
Choose Comcast XFINITY as your landline carrier in Step 1. Enter your email address in Step 2 and click Next. You'll get an email with a link to activate the Nomorobo service. Click on the link and continue as directed.
When you reach the Setup Your Carrier step on Nomorobo's website, go to Xfinity Connect.
Sign in using your primary Xfinity ID and password, and then select the Voice tab.
Click the settings wheel at top right and select Settings.
Enter the Nomorobo phone number (provided by Nomorobo during setup) into the Advanced Call Forwarding field and select Add.
Make sure that the Nomorobo phone number is not the only number listed in this section.
Your number should also be listed as a default. Otherwise, callers may get a busy signal when calling your home phone.
The number of rings before voicemail should match the rings for your home number. The service automatically terminates calls after one ring.
After you have completed those steps, go back to the Nomorobo website. Go to Your Phones and click the Test button next to your number. Then select I'm ready. Call me now to perform a test call.
You'll get a call to verify that the service is set up correctly. Wait until the third ring to pick up the phone.
Nomorobo will now screen incoming phone calls to your Xfinity Voice telephone number and automatically hang up if a call is determined to be from an illegal robocaller or telemarketer. Your phone will ring once, letting you know that the robocall has been stopped.
Disable Nomorobo
I've enabled and verified Nomorobo on my phone. What do I do now?
Continue to use your phone like normal. All you'll need to do is to wait for the second ring to answer the phone for incoming calls, as Nomorobo needs the first ring to detect robocallers. If you only hear one ring and then it stops, you know a robocaller was just blocked. If the phone continues ringing, you can answer it.
Will this block my doctor's office, prescription reminders, school closings, weather advisories, etc.?
No. The only numbers that are blocked are reported, illegal robocallers.
A robocaller still called me. What happened?
Occasionally, a robocaller or telemarketer will slip through, as Nomorobo must constantly adapts to their changes in tactics. If you do get a robocall, please report it here.
Does Nomorobo work with Unlimited Saver and Local With More customers?
No. At this time, Nomorobo isn't compatible with Xfinity Voice Unlimited Saver or Local With More call plans
Does Nomorobo work with Comcast Business Voice customers?
At this time, Nomorobo isn't compatible with Comcast Business Voice.
What about political and charity calls?
Nomorobo does block political robocalls. You can enable or disable this feature by clicking Edit next to your number when signed into your account on the Nomorobo website. Nomorobo doesn't block charity calls.
Say goodbye to those unwanted calls for good.
We've all been there: You see a somewhat familiar number pop up on your caller ID, usually with the same area code as your own. You pick up the phone thinking it's someone you know, only to find that it's a stranger or a robot trying to sell you something or get you to give them your private information. This has become so common in fact, that according to a September 2019 survey from Robocall Index, about 1,700 robocalls are received nationwide every second. Raymond Huahong Tu, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland, explained to The Washington Post, that today's telemarketers commonly use automatic dialing systems that allow them to place numerous calls at once and to substitute prerecorded or computer-generated messages for live ones. So how do you stop the madness and prevent your phone number from getting consistent calls from telemarketers? Well, that depends on whether or not you have a landline or mobile phone (and which kind). Below, we've gathered the top solutions for getting rid of telemarketers at home and on your cell.
The first step, no matter what kind of phone or phone line you're using, is to get yourself on the National Do Not Call Registry. This is maintained and enforced by the federal government and applies to all U.S. telemarketers (excluding non-profits). While this is a necessary first step for reporting telemarketers, you'll likely continue to receive calls from those violating the registry. So, here's how to further protect yourself from telemarketers.
How to block telemarketers and robocalls on your landline
Anonymous Call Rejection is a service available to landline users that blocks all those numbers that appear as "Anonymous" on caller ID from reaching you. As long as your caller ID is activated, pick up your line, and enter the magic number: *77. After that, you should hear a confirmation message that your Anonymous Call Rejection service has been turned on. And voila, from thereon out, any telemarketer hiding their number will be rejected. (It should be noted that some carriers charge extra for this service and that this should not be used on mobile lines, where dialing *77 will instead connect you with law enforcement.)
How to block telemarketers and robocalls on your cell phone
If you have a major cellular carrier—like AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile—your phone likely comes preloaded with free call-filtering and blocking services. That's why you'll see a numbered identified as "Spam?" on your caller ID. But these services can be less than reliable. If you want to keep all unfamiliar numbers from reaching you in full, turn on your phone's built-in Do Not Disturb Mode, which is available on both iPhones and Androids. While this will block all of those unwanted calls—including telemarketing calls and robocalls—you will likely also miss some legitimate calls when this mode is on, like from your doctor's office or hair salon if they're not saved in your Contacts list.
Another, albeit more tedious, option, is to block each individual number once you receive a call from a telemarketer or robot.
On your iPhone, open your Phone app, go to your Recents tab, then tap the "i" (AKA the Information icon) to the right of the number you want to block. On the next page, tap "Block this Caller" at the bottom of the screen to put the number on your Blocked Numbers list.
If you have an Android, similarly open your Recents section in your Phone app, then hold your finger on the suspicious number until the option to"Block/report spam" pops up.
Of course, if you understandably want a faster solution, there are many apps you can download to your smartphone. These major three—Hiya, Nomorobo, and Robokiller—all utilize some version of an extensive call blacklist, which is usually crowdsourced. If low cost and privacy are your priorities, Hiya is the one for you: It's free, and claims to not make use of client voicemail and call information. If you are willing to shell out a couple bucks per month, Nomorobo and Robokiller are both excellent options, and the latter has a killer perk: The service includes access to so-called "spambots," which will answer telemarketing calls for you and engage whoever's on the other end (even other bots!) in pointless bot-conversation. Soon, the telemarketers will catch on and stop calling you. Simple as that! And for more ways to make the most of the supercomputer in your pocket, Here's the Single Best Way to Make Your Phone Battery Last All Day.
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Quantum Computing Makes A Leap Forward As Moore's Law Approaches Expiration Date
Posted on 21st Apr 2015
On April 19th, 1965, Gordon Moore wrote a technical paper that predicted the increase of computing power. He initially observed that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since ICs had been invented, and he later perfected the law doubling time to two years.
This month, Moore's Law turned 50. To this day his prediction holds true, but it might not reflect reality in a few years from now. The reason? Our need for ever-smarter computers requires that we rethink the way we build them, and perhaps even the way we operate them.
"In the beginning, it was just a way of chronicling the progress," Moore said in an interview with the BBC. "But gradually, it became something that the various industry participants recognized as something they had to stay on or fall behind technologically. So it went from a way of measuring what had happened to something that was kind of driving the industry."
Mark Bohr, Intel's director of process architecture and integration, tells the British broadcaster that having Moore's law as a guiding north star has kept the industry on pace, driving competition and churn. Without it, we'd still be using the desktop PCs from a decade ago, he said.
Photo by Alexandre Debiève on Unsplash
Who will break the law, and when?
Bob Colwell, Intel's ex-chief architect, made some waves a couple of years ago when he publicly announced his prediction that Moore's Law would no longer apply starting with 2022. Most scientists agree.
The problem lies in the key ingredient used to make the chips – silicon – and how we build and operate computers. Silicon, for its part, has a physical limit where it becomes unusable as a semiconductor to create the tiny transistors that make up a chip. As we start to look at new materials, like graphene or phosphorene, the computer's architecture also needs to be reimagined.
There are a few tech juggernauts who are currently trying to tackle the problem, and perhaps even breathe new life into Moore's Law. Andrew McAfee is one of them. The developers he spoke to say there are code-centric advances that make Moore's Law look "ridiculous in comparison." However, if we find a way to translate the law and apply it to software, it would reignite it. Startup QxBranch is also pushing hard to ensure that Moore's law lives on – through quantum computers.
Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash
"Half-way there"
Going by a pair of articles in the Business Insider (1,2), recent advancements in quantum computer development bodes well with the predictable demise of Moore's Law. Breakthrough research from UCSB and Google has given birth to the first stable array of nine qubits (quantum bits, the counterpart in quantum computing to the binary model in classical computing). This prevents errors that were previously impossible to fix. It's not the last piece of the puzzle, but according to MIT physicist Scott Aaronsen, this particular experiment gets us "half way there."
One major difference between traditional binary computers and quantum computers is that the latter promises to address "unsolvable problems." While a regular PC can encode information in only one of four possible combinations (00, 01, 10, 11), a quantum computer can juggle all four at once. Problems that take years to solve with today's computers would be tackled in hours, perhaps even minutes by a quantum computer.
An extra benefit is that quantum computers can learn from experience, being able to tweak the code of an erroneous program and stop certain problems from arising in the future.
The 5 nanometer limit is assumed by some experts to mark the end of Moore's law. Chips today are made on a 14nm scale, shrinking by a factor of two once every two years. Quantum computers are still in their infancy, so the next problem to solve will be to switch from silicon to a new semiconductor that allows us to shrink transistors even further – and buy us some time.
Tags: chip, computer, gordon moore, integrated circuit, intel, moore's law, processor, quantum computer, quantum computing, silicon, wafer

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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A Casual Fan
Weekend Preview: The Highest of High Holy Days is Upon Us.
Posted by acasualfan under Headlines, Water Cooler Chatter, Weekend Preview | Tags: Drew Brees, Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, Peyton Manning |
We are two days away from Super Bowl Sunday, the highest of high holy days on the sporting calendar. This is Easter, Eid, and Yom Kippur all wrapped up into one for even the most casual of sports fans, as across the country the devout and the lapsed sports junkies will gather in living rooms around cocktail weenies and nachos to watch the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints vie for the title of best team ever (well, at least for this year). The two weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl traditionally leads to a whole lot of bloviation by the sports media in an attempt to hype up a game that, in all seriousness, really needs no hyping. Everybody watches this game. Super Bowl Sunday has become a national holiday on par with the Fourth of July, so much so that if the NFL ever decided to move this game to a weekday, bosses would be forced to give their employees the day off. So this year it's Saints vs. Colts or, as the media has chosen to sell this game, a city whose buildings but not its spirit was crushed by a devastating hurricane four and a half years ago, a spirit that is embodied by its love for its football team vs. Peyton Manning (above left). Here's our Super Bowl preview.
1. The New Orleans Saints earned their way to Super Bowl XLIV (44) by defeating the Minnesota Vikings in a game that they, in all honesty, had no business winning. The VIkings outplayed them for the entire game, but were done in by turnovers (especially one egregious interception by the aged Brett Favre), and the Saints won the game in overtime. Now they are a five-point underdog against the Colts, which seems about right. For the Saints to win, they will need to be close to unstoppable on offense, because their defense showed against the Vikings that, outside of the ability to force turnovers, they really are not that good. The Saints will not when this game if they score less than 30 points on Sunday, and still may not win if they do. Expect big days from quarterback Drew Brees (above right) and wide receiver Marques Colston.
Super Bowl Party Cheat Sheet
Traditionally, at a Super Bowl party, you can keep your comments short and sweet, and still look like you know your football.
The Saints will be in trouble if they get behind by more than a touchdown. Teams don't come back against Peyton Manning. He just won't allow it. Could you pass the corn chips?"
This is fairly self-explanatory, but the context is that many believe Peyton Manning is the greatest quarterback in the history of time, and Manning's will alone will keep the Saints from coming back. It's a specious argument, but one, if said with enough confidence, will make it look as if you have been watching football all of your life, instead of one day a year for the last 44 years.
2. The Indianapolis Colts should win this game because, as we said earlier, Peyton Manning is the son of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and all around ass kicker Joe Montana and Jesus Christ. The perfect football player. Actually, he is the son of former New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning, who is adored by the members of the sports media despite having a thoroughly mediocre career. But the Colts do hail from the AFC, which has dominated the Super Bowl in recent years. Our prediction: Colts 38, Saints 14.
Well, that's it for now. Enjoy the holiday.
Headlines, Water Cooler Chatter, Weekend Preview
Tags: Drew Brees, Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, Peyton Manning


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Thanks to capitalism, sports in the former Soviet Union have changed—for both good and bad
It was Living Legends Night at Moscow's Ice Palace hockey rink, and the place was sold out. Vladislav Tretiak, arguably the greatest goalie in hockey history, watched solemnly from center ice as his old Central Red Army Club number 20 rose toward the rafters, where it would hang in spartan splendor in retirement. This American-style honor had never before been given to a player in the former Soviet Union, and the 41-year-old Tretiak was moved to say, "It's a nice gift. I have waited nine years for this. Thank you so much."
The applause rang out for the old hero, just as it had in the past. But if the applause was familiar to Tretiak, little else about the Ice Palace was. In the corridors merchants hawked sweatshirts emblazoned with the Russian Penguins' logo, symbolic of the new partnership between the Central Red Army Club (known as CSKA) and the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL. Garish advertisements pitching everything from Clark Bars to Apple computers lined the boards. We Will Rock You was being blasted through the P.A. system to the hyped-up crowd of Muscovites, who were merrily guzzling Iron City beer from Pittsburgh. And when the CSKA team was introduced, the players took the ice like performers in the Old Moscow Circus: Lights were dimmed, drumrolls sounded, and each player was ushered in by spotlight. The team jerseys bore little resemblance to Tretiak's unadorned garment in the rafters. A big grinning cartoon penguin perched on a star was sewn on the front, a tad beneath the logo of Iron City beer, the team's major sponsor.
But such festivities belie a darker side of the reinvigorated Russian athletic landscape. In some hockey arenas in Moscow, hoods dressed in gangster-style leather trench coats—long enough to hide automatic weapons—mill about in the corridors within sight of the dressing rooms. What is going on here? A brave new world has blossomed with frightening ramifications from the wreckage of the financially bankrupt sports system of the former Soviet Union. It is called capitalism, and in the past year the four big C's of the new Russian capitalism—cash, commerce, chutzpah and corruption—have made many incursions into the previously hermetic world of Russian sports. There's much more, both good and bad, to come.
Just how much more became apparent over the Christmas holidays, when Los Angeles King defenseman Alexei Zhitnik, who's from Ukraine, admitted that last summer an organized-crime group from the former Soviet Union had tried to extort money from him. "I have a little problem with [Russian] mafia," Zhitnik told the Los Angeles Times. "They say things like, 'Blow up your car.' " Zhitnik, whose $400,000 salary is a sheikh's fortune in impoverished Ukraine, denied paying any money to the mobsters, saying friends helped him out of the jam. "If you pay the first time, next time you pay much more," Zhitnik said. "The cops can't do anything. No rules. No laws."
So it goes in the Wild West of modern Russia, where bribes, protection money and threats of violence are part of doing business. The threats, sadly, are not always just threats. Six prominent Russian bankers have been assassinated since last summer, the most recent on Dec. 7. And last August a Russian executive with the Old Moscow Circus, whose concessions are operated by Delaware North, the parent company of the Boston Bruins, was shot to death when he apparently resisted the demands of a local mafia.
"This is a dangerous place, even if you are only trying to make a little money," says Paul Sporn, a Boston entrepreneur who arrived in Moscow three years ago to help develop marketing strategies for Russian sports teams. "If you want to sell something, you must have a Russian partner. If you don't, you'll be twisted, turned, knocked down and kicked. I've been robbed, my partner has been mugged, and we know people who have been killed."
Zhitnik's revelation spawned a flurry of follow-up stories about other Russian hockey players in the NHL who were either fearful of returning to their homeland or who had paid money to the so-called mafia so their families wouldn't be harmed. Few players spoke on the record, except to deny the reports, and there were no confirmed cases of physical violence—although Winnipeg Jet general manager Mike Smith did say one of his draft choices (he declined to name which one) had been "roughed up" by members of organized crime in Russia. Still, it is common knowledge in NHL circles that a number of players have been threatened.
"If you make lots of money, you have to pay a percent—this is life," says Sergei Lyakhov, one of Russia's top discus throwers. Last year Lyakhov brought home some $15,000 in hard currency. "But this is nothing," he says, "so I'm not in trouble. Now, if you take [Detroit Red Wing star Sergei] Fedorov and his $3 million, that's another story."
Fedorov signed a four-year, $11.7 million deal on Dec. 22 but took the precaution of bringing his family to live with him in the U.S. before signing his contract.
"It's a country that lives off payoffs," says one Russian hockey insider. "Everybody's getting paid off. That's a fact of life when you do business in Russia today. It was addressed with the Penguins' ownership. They were told the mafia could be a serious problem down the road. But they haven't been touched by it yet. What I think has helped the relationship is [the mafia] doesn't perceive them as ugly Americans who are trying to make a fast buck. They've invested a lot in the team."
Sports reflect life, and life in Russia today is as unpredictable as tomorrow's headlines. But one thing is certain: The formerly mighty state sports organizations have become shadows of their previous selves. In order to keep sports in Russia healthy, fans, athletes and officials have had to rethink how they do business.
This fall in Moscow, glitzy TV commercials were made featuring such sports stars as Igor Dobrovolski, a striker on the Russian World Cup soccer team, who hawked Snickers bars for M&M/Mars Inc., lifting that candy to No. 1 among Russia's millions of sweets eaters. Also playing TV huckster was Viacheslav Fetisov, the former CSKA and Soviet Olympic hockey hero who's now a defenseman for the New Jersey Devils. Last summer Fetisov, who had reportedly been approached by the Russian mafia, opened a chain of hi-fi electronic and clothing stores in Moscow, and his commercials feature a clip of him playing for the Devils that's backed by a jingle that burbles, in Russian, "A star in Russia, a star in the NHL, a star in business, too."
Of course, anywhere there is even the slightest whiff of high-octane sports marketing, there will be fierce competition among athletic-shoe companies. So it is in Moscow, where Reebok and Adidas now battle. In a coup a year and a half ago Reebok snatched sponsorship of the Russian Olympic team from Adidas and then went on to sponsor a host of local basketball teams, including Moscow Dynamo and Moscow State University. Adidas retaliated last summer by sponsoring Russia's first three-on-three street-basketball tournament, a 300-team extravaganza in Moscow's Gorky Park. Many of the participants wore baggy pants, Air Jordan T-shirts and fade cuts, and played to the rhythmic pounding of rap music.
Another source of sports money is Russia's privately operated trading companies, which are licensed to sell oil, gas, gold and minerals to the West and thus are rolling in hard-to-get foreign currency. One such firm, the Balcar Trading Co., has become an angel for the CSKA women's basketball team and put up the cash to import a pair of pioneering former U.S. Olympians, Teresa Weatherspoon, 28, a feisty point guard, and Medina Dixon, 31, a sharpshooting 6'3" forward who had played for seven years in a Japanese league until it was suddenly closed to foreigners this year. As the first Americans ever to play pro basketball in Russia, each is being paid about $60,000 a season plus a barrel of perks—a raja's ransom in Moscow, where women players average $1,000 a month. As one team official puts it, "We will solve all their problems. If they want a fax, they got it. A car, O.K. Free gas, no problem. Bodyguards, they are there. Nannies, drivers, apartments—all of it, we give."
There were some hardships for Weatherspoon and Dixon to overcome, like the 17-hour train ride to Kiev before the most important game of the season and the road trip to southern Russia when they were confined to their hotel rooms "for safety reasons." But all in all, playing basketball for CSKA has been mutually beneficial for the Americans and the Russians. So far this season the CSKA women are on track to win the league title.
Another sports-oriented trading firm, Macwell, is run by a mysterious hoops-happy Israeli known only as Sheptai, who has latched on to the men's basketball team of the venerable sports organization Moscow Spartak. This year Spartak has moved up to Russia's top league, and to make itself competitive with traditional powers Moscow Dynamo and CSKA, Spartak looked across the ocean to the U.S. for help. Like the Central Red Army women's team, Spartak imported Russia's first pair of NCAA Division I players—Tony Turner, 22, a 6'8" forward from Providence who arrived in Russia in September, and Chuck Evans, 22, an electrifying 5'11" point guard from Mississippi State, who followed a month later.
So far, all has gone well for the American men. Turner and Evans are earning both money (about $50,000 for the season, with the possibility of a bonus) and respect. Since they arrived, the Spartak team has advanced to the second round of the playoffs in the Russian Championship Basketball League. Indeed, in a Russia that has lost its best basketball players to the West, Evans and Turner are considered among the top 10 players in the country. Perhaps even more important to Sheptai is that having better players leads to more sponsors, higher attendance and eventually, the hope is, TV and media deals.
"There is a sports revolution going on," says Sheptai. "We are in the forefront and will be the first out of the tunnel."
But nothing rivals the success story of the CSKA hockey team. This outfit was the Soviet equivalent of the New York Yankees; it was a dynasty that from its inception in 1947 won 33 national championships. Once the Communist regime began to crack in '91, so did this team.
In deep financial difficulty, the club eventually fell under the management of a shadowy Georgian businessman named Nugzar Natchkhebia, who, by common Moscow belief, sold off the best players to the NHL at bargain prices and may or may not have taken the bulk of the transfer fees for himself. Plenty of legal questions over Natchkhebia's stewardship remain, but one sad truth is that the team's performance sank steadily, reaching an alltime low last year, when the club had a 7-28-7 record. To make matters worse, CSKA developed a reputation for refusing to pay its players for weeks on end, if at all, and for giving them only one meal a day. Attendance at the 5,400-seat Ice Palace fell from near-capacity crowds to an average of 300 per game. Desperate for cash, the club management rented the front of the arena to a Mercedes dealer and turned the rink into a raunchy disco on nongame nights.
It got so bad that in early 1993 the team was near death. And at that point Russia's—and perhaps the world's—greatest hockey coach, the dour, dignified Viktor Tikhonov, 63, who had led CSKA to 13 national titles and the national Olympic team to three gold medals, faced the painful realization that life as he had known it was changed forever. There was nothing CSKA could do but sell a piece of the team to the highest bidder. "It would have been easier just to quit," Tikhonov said recently, "but I am a battler."
He and a handful of Russian Army officers traveled to Montreal last February for the NHL All-Star Game. They were in search of a white knight to bail them out, and they found one. Howard Baldwin, the often unorthodox chairman of the Pittsburgh Penguins, listened at a breakfast to the pitch from Tikhonov & Co., and as Baldwin says, "I was intrigued by the deal, but I didn't quite know why. It was a sort of fantasy of the hunt. We knew that there was knowledge to be gained by having this foothold in Russia, but we didn't know exactly what knowledge."
Despite his puzzlement and the still-pending legal action over Natchkhebia's management, Baldwin went ahead. He formed an investors' group called Penguin Army International Ltd., which included actor Michael J. Fox, and put up more than $1 million to buy a 50% interest in the CSKA hockey team and a management contract to run the Ice Palace. From that moment on, the grand old team was called the Russian Penguins, with the overly cute new cartoon logo—"a hip-looking bird," says Steven Warshaw, the former IMG marketing agent for Joe Montana and Wayne Gretzky who is now vice-president of marketing for the Russian Penguins.
With Baldwin's management contributions and Warshaw's marketing smarts, the team has gotten some solid sponsorship capital from Iron City premium beer ($600,000 over three years) and Canadian sports-equipment giant CCM ($300,000 over three years), while some of the U.S.'s heaviest corporate hitters—McDonald's, Kraft, Coca-Cola—have put up a lot of dough to plaster their names on such things as pads and gloves ($32,000) and the Zamboni ($20,000). There are also luxury suites in the Ice Palace that sell for $23,000 a season. All of this has generated enough money so that the team was able to sign six free agents, increase player salaries to an average of $12,000 a year (last season it was $3,000) and field a more respectable team, which, through Jan. 2, was 15-14-4, a massive improvement on last year's record.
Crowds are averaging 4,267 per game, more than a tenfold increase over last season, and the team's improved record isn't the only reason the fans are coming back. These days the building is filled with pure sideshow. As Warshaw says, "We know what excites fans. We're doing something weird every game."
The weirdness ranges from Gorbachev-Yeltsin look-alike contests to young women stripping down to bikinis on the ice to dancing bears to barrel-jumping contests to a blonde female acrobat sliding down a rope and handing the referee the puck for a face-off. Sometimes crowds are brought in on the promise of free Iron City beer, sometimes for giveaways of pucks, pins or beer mugs. There is always rock 'n' roll music blaring, and the fans love having the Russian Penguins introduced in the glare of a spotlight in the darkened arena.
When Warshaw first suggested this classic bit of American hype, Tikhonov was stunned that anyone would think of turning off the lights on a visiting team. "That would be offending our guests," he protested. Warshaw countered by pointing out, "That's what we in the U.S. call a home field advantage."
Ultimately Tikhonov not only bought the spotlight gimmick but also signed on with enthusiasm to most of the other high jinks. "The team has woken up," he says, "and the fans are coming back to life."
While the hype has brought the fans back, at an average ticket price of only 16 cents, no one—including Howard Baldwin and his group—is going to get rich from admissions to Russian games. So what is to be gained from Baldwin's little investment? CSKA doesn't really work as a farm team because all other NHL teams have access to drafting Russian Penguin players. But as Baldwin says, "This is a little like having a junior team. There are huge pools of talented kids over there, all over the country. This business is so competitive that if we can just get a little leg up on our rivals discovering new talent, we're ahead of the game." (But not that far ahead. The Red Wings are reportedly interested in purchasing a piece of the Soviet Wings hockey club in Moscow, and the Edmonton Oilers are rumored to be interested in the Sports Club of the Army team in St. Petersburg.)
Baldwin's returns on his investment will most likely show up less in great hockey players than in great hockey merchandising. With a nifty array of Russian Penguin paraphernalia already for sale in the U.S., Baldwin and the CSKA hockey team expect to sell about $250,000 worth of merchandise this year.
For many Russians there is, of course, a sense that great traditions have been violated at the famous old club, that the memory of the legends who once played for it has somehow been stained. But Stanislav Lagovsky, a decorated army colonel who is president of CSKA's sports organizations throughout Russia, points out, "If the Penguins hadn't bought in, it's not certain there would be any hockey team at all here. In fact, it is only our commercial activity—our support by Adidas, Mercedes, Iron City, McDonald's—that keeps us from closing sports schools and canceling programs."
More and more athletes, teams and sports clubs in Russia are learning they cannot survive without the advice, ideas and investments of capitalists and capitalism. They are also learning the harsh realities: The sports world is not immune to crime and corruption. "There's a lot of money floating around our hockey these days," says Georgi Zhuravlyov, head scout for Moscow Dynamo. "And it's clear where there's lots of money, you will find a group of people trying to do business on it."
Too often, these days, that means funny business.
FOUR PHOTOS
DAMIAN STROHMEYER
Brave new world (clockwise from bottom left): Lagovsky (center) & Co. watched Tretiak being honored; Evans was urged on by Spartak cheerleaders; Zhitnik became the target of threats.
RICHARD MACKSON
[See caption above.]
THREE PHOTOS
Sports logos are hot in Moscow, where corporate America has also left its mark.
In Moscow's GUM store Evans (left) and Turner got a good look at Russian consumers.
TWO PHOTOS
Weatherspoon (right and below) and Dixon were welcome additions to CSKA.
JOHN BIEVER
Fedorov didn't sign his new contract with Detroit until his family was safely in the U.S.
Just about any merchandise that has to do with NBA stars is a big seller in Russia.


Mainstream secondary education can offer adults foundation skills or 'second chance' education. Adult students can have the opportunity to gain National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) qualifications that they did not achieve when they first attended secondary school as a regular student.
In 2004, the Ministry published circular 2004/07, which sets out the requirements for the enrolment of adult students as mainstream secondary students. Aspects of circular 2004/07 have been updated in circular 2013/07.


November 24 2015 – Sean "sgares" Gares steps down from Cloud9.
January 11 2016 – Jake "Stewie2k" Yip is announced as Cloud9's new player.
March 24 2016 – Andrew "Irukandji" Timmerman is recruited as a trial coach.
April 12 2016 – Cloud9 announced that Ryan "fREAKAZOID" Abadir is no longer apart of the starting line up, and that Eric" adreN" Hoag will be playing for the team, on loan from Team Liquid.
April 23 2016 – Cloud9 announce Alec "Slemmy" White as their new player and in-game leader.
July 26 2016 – Tres "stunna" Saranthus and Andrew "Irukandji" Timmerman leave their respective positions as manager and coach.
August 17 2016 – Cloud9 announce that Alec "Slemmy" White will be stepping down from the starting roster and will be replaced by Timothy "autimatic" Ta.
Cloud9, over the past 10 months have gone through 7 changes to their starting roster and the people influencing their team. Out of the 7 changes, 5 changes were made to the starting line up directly. Out of the five changes that were made, two of them really stand out.
They are the addition(s) of Jake "Stewie2k" Yip and Timothy "autimatic" Ta to the Cloud9 line up.
The rise of "Stewie2k" and "autimatic" is something of legends – picking two young players, whom are obviously very talented, and then actually putting them in a top team. By having these two on Cloud9, they were allowed to refine, sharpen and develop their skills as players and evolve into a phenomenal duo that would eventually be the driving force in leading Cloud9 to their first ever international championship (for CS:GO) – the ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals.
When Cloud9 announced the signing of Jake "Stewie2k" Yip, he was filling big shoes. With the then recent departure of Sean "sgares" Gares, many were questioning why Cloud9 opted to go for "Stewie2k" instead of someone more established and had an in-game leading brain.
Many people disagreed with the Stewie2k pickup when it was first announced. A player that was relatively inexperienced on LAN being brought up to a top tier North American team.
Many people thought it was super high risk, and were afraid that the reward wouldn't suffice, as you may/may not have seen from the various reactions back when the announcement was made.
Jason "Moses" O'Toole said that Cloud9 made a similar move like this back in 2014 with Mike "Shroud" Grzesiek – he was picked up because they liked his decision making and his individual skill. North American Counter-Strike fans should be familiar with "Shroud"'s individual skill. The talent that "Shroud" possesses was crucial for that team. Cloud9 looked to do the same with "Stewie2k". Another individually talented player that had yet to be refined. By picking up a player so young, Cloud9 may have seen the opportunity to develop a player young, kill off his bad habits and develop him into an incredible player that has the potential to be a phenom.
Good things take time, and with Stewie they took time. He had shown glimmers of hope throughout the first four months of his tenure on the roster, but after the departure of Ryan "fREAKAZOID" Abadir and the arrival of Alec "Slemmy" White, Cloud9 finally had the brains to back up their brawn. With Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert finally relieved of the in-game leader role, things seemed to be settling down for Cloud9.
Then came TBS' ELEAGUE Season 1 – Stewie2k's breakout event.
Breaking down Stewie2k's performance throughout this tournament from a statistical point of view, it seemed like Stewie2k was performing well, and gradually improving throughout the course of the event against their national and international opposition.
In their first ELEAGUE match, against Liquid, Stewie2k went 19/2/18, with 80.7 ADR and a 0.99 HLTV rating. 11/19 of the frags were headshots. In their second game against Team Liquid, Stewie stepped up phenomenally on Cache, going 29/27 (4.14 K/D). Stewie racked up a 150.4 ADR with a 2.55 HLTV rating. Whilst many would have argued that it was against national competition, these personal results for Stewie were fantastic. With Cloud9 coming up with a lacklustre performance at the MLG Columbus 2016 major, this was a huge step – for both individual and team.
With Cloud9's second ELEAGUE match being against major champions Luminosity Gaming, many would have expected a slightly lesser performance from Cloud9 overall, let alone Stewie2k. Considering the score of the match up (16:7), Stewie's stats weren't bad at all against the major champions, racking up 14/19 on the scoreboard, with a 63.3 ADR and a 0.85 rating. The story was somewhat similar in their second match up against Luminosity, on Train, where Cloud9 lost 16:10. However, Stewie continued to show why Cloud9 picked him up, pulling together a 18/20 score against the major champions, with an 81.5 ADR and a 0.88 rating.
Coming up against Renegades on Train, Stewie was getting a taste of Counter-Strike from all over the world – North America, Brazil and Australia. In this match up Stewie2k went 20/14 with an 80.9 ADR and a 1.25 rating. In this match Cloud9 lost but Stewie's stats were relatively consistent and in this match on Cobblestone Stewie once again posted phenomenal statistics on the board. In their various matches against Renegades in ELEAGUE, Stewie continually posted up good statistics, particularly in that match going 27/20, with a 111.1 ADR and a 1.35 rating.
Note: I threw together the Renegades matches all in one because I lost track of my tabs. Sorry.
Again, in ELEAGUE, against Luminosity, Stewie posted up great stats. with a score of 24/19, 95.9 ADR and a 1.29 rating. This match, Stewie underperformed slightly with 21/27, 75.3 ADR and an 0.85 rating. Match three against LG was definitely a personal standout for me watching Stewie2k play. 24/19, 109.7 ADR and a 1.32 rating, placing higher than LG on the ratings board (barring FalleN) , bringing in the highest ADR score out of everyone involved in the game and the only one on Cloud9 to have a positive K/D difference.
Later on in ELEAGUE, Stewie and co. came up against Na'Vi. Posting 20/28, 76.6 ADR and a 0.70 rating in the first match, Stewie looked to improve on his performance against a very strong Na'Vi side in the second and third maps. With Cloud9 winning this map, the whole Cloud9 side performed well, but the standouts were Shroud and Stewie, in terms of K/D, ADR and rating. Of course, the focus here is Stewie, so his stats were 24/14, 104.7 ADR and a 1.44 rating. The third and final map of the series saw Stewie pull out 17/17 K/D, 52.8 ADR and a 0.98 rating.
Despite Stewie performing well against Fnatic, Cloud9 were still sent home early after this loss to Fnatic and a BO3 loss to Liquid.
By this time Stewie had been able to play in two decently sized LAN tournaments (DH Austin, MLG Columbus and the ESL Pro League Season 3 finals). This meant he might've been able to gauge an idea of what he was up against internationally.
Due to these factors, it seemed to me that Stewie finally felt comfortable with his team, and with someone who was used to in-game leading now doing so, it seems like Stewie began to flourish once comfortable under Slemmy's leadership, and it felt like ELEAGUE was the place where that comfort started to settle in. We did see glimmers of the Stewie2k factor, but ELEAGUE was where it was consistent. ELEAGUE was where Stewie really was the x-factor and Cloud9 were able to win. In these tournaments prior, Cloud9 might have been losing but Stewie was performing, and often when a team loses, they're generally criticized as opposed to looking for some positives to take away – when a team starts winning, you tend to notice individual standouts, and at ELEAGUE, Stewie stood out whether win or lose, which is why for me it was his stand-out tournament that kicked him into gear.
It showed, it felt like the first bit of ELEAGUE games (excluding vs. Na'Vi because that was later) that Stewie was more confident. Against this team, against mousesports, against TyLoo, against EnvyUS and finally against G2 eSports, Stewie was the standout performer at the ESL Cologne Qualifier for Cloud9. He posted up high K/D + ADR against Empire (27-22, 110.2 ADR), against Mousesports (21-23, 80.0 ADR), 17-22 w/ 80.5 ADR against TyLoo, 30-21, 114.0 ADR vs. EnvyUS and 23-21, 111.4 ADR vs. G2.
Stewie had played more games at ELEAGUE than any of the other prior tournaments. ELEAGUE was the tournament where games were consistent due to Cloud9's tenure in the tournament and one would expect stats to even out in a tournament that long but Stewie's stayed considerably high, and then shot up when they played the qualifiers for Cologne.
Then with Cloud9's early elimination at ECS his ADR average fell to about 77. Of course, ADR isn't the only measure of success in a player's game, but it's one that I used to benchmark his rise in the ELEAGUE competition especially, since that was a longer tournament in terms of games played. His improvement, which was shown at the major qualifiers and even at ECS shows that ELEAGUE was the point where Stewie established himself as a name to be feared amongst international competitors. He played much better as time went on against opponents, and considering, aside from MLG Columbus, ELEAGUE and the Major Qualifiers were international tournaments, Stewie flourished wonderfully against his opponents under Slemmy.
By this time, it felt like Stewie had matured as a player after being around teammates that had been in the competitive scene at the highest level for quite some time, and despite Slemmy's late arrival, his in game leadership seemed to have helped Stewie develop into an even better player.
Statistics like ADR, FPR and so forth only tell so much of the story of Stewie's development. The rest was told in his online and offline gameplay and decision making. Stewie was able to rifle and pick up the AWP, which made him an extremely versatile player.
Stewie's rise, statistically and visually is one of the most phenomenal things to happen to North American Counter-Strike. It seemed like he was the player that could do almost everything.
It seemed like, with just a bit of guidance, time around experienced players and playtime at LAN tournaments with national and international talent, especially international talent, Stewie was able to develop and shape into North America's strongest and most talented player. He is a quick learner looking to improve and has the right mindset for the game. His rise has been phenomenal. He was a diamond amongst a bunch of rocks and after joining Cloud9, he was refined and formed into a shiny, strong diamond, and has been arguably the biggest force in the Cloud9 squad recently.
Practice makes perfect, and Stewie has been able to utilize the resources at Cloud9 to develop into a refined player and has released the potential that Cloud9 initially saw in him.
Stewie had started as someone people looked to simply as a "pug star", to now being North America's best talent.
After ELEAGUE, there were no offline tournaments until Northern Arena, Toronto.
Slemmy had left and Cloud9 needed to fill a hole in their roster once again….
autimatic has been in the pro scene for quite some time now, most notably with teams like Denial eSports, Nihilum Gaming, Tempo Storm, compLexity Gaming, Team SoloMid and now Cloud9.
Autimatic has achieved some high placed accolades throughout his CS career, including a 2nd placed finish at Northern Arena 2015 with coL, 3rd in the North American minor for Cologne with TSM and a top 4 finish at ECS Season 1 with TSM as well.
A career of what looked like many averages turned into something phenomenal the moment he set foot into the Cloud9 house. A 2nd place finish at the Northern Arena LAN in Toronto, a top four finish at the Starladder i-League StarSeries S2, a 2nd place finish at Dreamhack Bucharest and most recently a first place finish at the ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals, hosted in Brazil.
Could it simply be the fact that he finally has a strong core of teammates around him?
It's a high probability. The refined Jake "Stewie2k" Yip, you also have the likes of Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert and Mike "shroud" Grzesiek. On paper, and recently on LAN, this team has been performing at a high level consistently.
Stewie has been playing well, n0thing has been playing well, shroud has shown signs of recovering his old form in a lot of instances and as soon as autimatic came into this line up he started to play really well too.
Looking to Northern Arena – his first LAN playing vs. ACE, Rogue, CLG, Heroic and Immortals. Against ACE, autimatic didn't really have to do much, going 11-8 with 62.4 ADR. Against Rogue, more work was put in by autimatic, going 17-16 with 75.8 ADR. Against CLG in a bo3, he went 40-23 with 94.8 ADR, against Heroic he had the score of 59-45 in a best of three match up, with 93.5 ADR and finally against Immortals, he posted up numbers like 60-55 with 78.1 ADR.
Autimatic had a 1.13 average rating at Northern Arena, with an ADR average of 80.92 ADR. Autimatic's statistics and gameplay were good at this event, but fans and analysts alike were looking to overseas events to judge his place on Cloud9.
So, he went overseas with his team.
Cloud9 were due to participate in the Starladder offline tournament and were placed in a group with nV, VG. Cyberzen and VP.
autimatic's average ADR and rating: 80.5 ADR, 1.13 average rating.
Moving onto Dreamhack Bucharest, another European tournament where autimatic under par considering his performance in the last two offline tournaments.
vs. Flipside, autimatic went 14-13, with 79.4 ADR and a 1.02 rating. vs. FaZe, autimatic went 14-19, with 56.2 ADR and a 0.75 rating. vs. EnvyUS, autimatic posted up 62-46, 84.3 ADR and a 1.25 rating. Against Virtus.Pro, autimatic boasted a 35-41, 73.9 ADR and a rating of 0.87.
Still a sound tournament for autimatic, an exceptional one for Cloud9.
Then came something not many people expected until after the group stage.
autimatic was arguably Cloud9's most influential player throughout the duration of this offline tournament, which lead the organization and team alike to their first CS:GO international championship victory, $200,000 in prize money and earned autimatic the HLTV MVP award for his outstanding performance in the series.
autimatic's story is much more simple than Stewie's – a professional player in teams where his potential could not be unleashed finally gets into a team that knows he's talented, puts him in the right position with a strong team around him and finally he's able to perform at the level he's been wanting to perform at for some time. It's just amazing how quickly autimatic settled into Cloud9 and made an impact with this team. He seems to be playing with a lot more confidence and it showed in his performances, especially the Pro League Season 4 finals, where the best teams from South America (who compete in North America), North America and Europe come to participate in an offline tournament.
autimatic's ascension to being one of the best players in North America was a rapid one, and like Stewie, has the right mindset for the game – practice & hard work that pays off.
Cloud9's recent success seems to have come with the addition of autimatic under Stewie2k's in-game leadership. They are both performing at a high level since being on the same team. We've already looked at autimatic's statistics when he plays with Stewie, so let's look at some of Stewie's statistics with autimatic on the team.
Stewie2k with Autimatic on the team has been performing consistently well throughout the last few of their international tournaments. With autimatic coming into the team, it could be that he fits right in with Stewie's calling style and that Stewie knows how to utilize a player like autimatic well, or it's just the environment that he's in with Cloud9, or both. Stewie was already performing well before Autimatic came into the side, but with his arrival, it feels like Stewie's game has gone one step further than what it was when Slemmy was on the squad.
As a spectator, you can see it in their gameplay – a newfound level of confidence by being with each other on the same team is something to behold. Watching these two play is really interesting and nice to see, because you can tell that they are hard workers and dedicated to improving themselves and improving the team based on how many hours they put into playing and practising.
Regardless, it has been a phenomenal developmental story for both Stewie2k and Autimatic.
For Stewie2k, evolving from a so called "pug star" to one of the best players in North America, a dynamic player who can play most roles on a team, most places on any map, someone who's AWP is as good as their rifle and now in-game leading for the best North American team – all at the age of 18.
As for autimatic, someone who had potential, but never had the environment or teammates to help him release it. The Cloud9 roster knew autimatic had the skill and potential, a lot of players in the professional scene knew he had the potential, and he himself must've known he had the potential to become a fragging monster. He's on a team, surrounded by good players and wham – he's performing like he's been on the team for a year +.
These two also are able to bring the best out of their teammates – particularly n0thing and shroud.
It's fantastic to see Stewie2k and Autimatic be refined, polished, sharpened and constantly improving everyday to try to solidify themselves as two of North America's best talents, and solidify Cloud9's position as North America's top team.
Kudos Cloud9, on picking up these two diamonds in the rough.


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