Tweeters:

The "new" Washington BirdBox has a couple of temporary announcements
pertaining to the new release. One is a short message that you hear right
after the greeting, asking you to report to the system administrator any
bugs or inconsistencies of performance you may have encountered. The
message will be deleted in a month or two, by which time callers should
have pushed all the buttons and chased out any lurking insects. By the
way, the BirdBox received a hundred calls in the 24 hours since it went
on-line yesterday around 9:00 p.m., and no bugs so far -- fingers crossed!

The other temporary announcement is a list of the main upgrades, intended
mainly for long-time users of the old system, to accustom them to the
changes. In the program, this announcement plays along with the User's
Guide if you select that option under the Information Menu. It, too, will
be deleted in a month or two (the Users' Guide itself stays).

Anyway, here is Bob Mauritsen's text of the upgrade announcement:

"After a long hiatus, we are happy to announce that the BirdBox went back
on line on Sunday, October 12th, on a more powerful computer and with many
major upgrades and new features, as follows.

1) The infamous chickadee question has been moved lower in the voicemail
tree. Users who do not answer the question correctly will still be able to
leave a report.

2) The BirdBox now lets you listen to the most recent 18 reports or all the
reports from the last 7 days, whichever is greater.

3) When listening to reports, you can now back up to a previously played
report, as well as move to the next report. When you hit the end of the
reports, you no longer automatically return to the Main Menu.

4) If you want to interrupt a report, you can now do so even during
playback of its corresponding Date/Time stamp.

5) You must actively save your report or comment by pressing seven, rather
than by hanging up, as before. If you just hang up, the report will be
deleted.

6) You will return to the Main Menu after leaving a report or comment.
Previously, the BirdBox forced you to hang up.

7) A new initial Information Menu allows you to listen to WOS announcements
and regional RBA phone numbers, get information for reporting your
sightings, and learn how to use the BirdBox efficiently.

8) The characteristics have been changed to allow for fainter voices and
longer pauses. However, this is a tradeoff, and as a result, telephone
keypad tones are slightly harder for the system to detect. Hence you must
be sure that you leave a small interval between pressed keys, and that each
key-pressing is firm and long enough to produce a clear tone.

9) The prompts and the allowed responses are now more consistent throughout
the program.

10) The administrative side of the program has been considerably expanded,
with new features that make managing and transcribing reports and comments
considerably easier.

If you discover a bug or inconsistency in the new BirdBox, please leave a
comment to that effect for the system administrator. Thank you."

Washington Ornithological Society BirdBox - (425) 454-2662

Hal Opperman