Sometimes I really hate answering machines/voicemail. Not for the usual reasons, but for the extra robotic voice we get to hear all the time now. What happened to, "Hi, this is so and so, leave a message after the beep." Then there would be a beep, and you would leave your message. Now there is five minutes of "Press 1 to leave a message, press 2 to not leave a message, press 3 to page, press 4 to listen to the answering message again, and hang the fuck up if you don't want to leave a message." When I check voice mail for my cell phone, and mind you, I'm talking about picking up my cellphone and pressing "check voice mail," I get to hear, after I've out in my password, "You have X unheard messages.... Unheard messages will follow.... First unheard messaage." Then I get to hear the message. Why can't I just type in my pw, and then hear the message and if I want more than I can find out what buttons to press AFTER I hear the message. There's no logic to the way they do this stuff anymore. EVERYONE knows to leave a message after the beep, so we don't need a robot telling us after the human has already told us something we already know. I could maybe understand it if there was product placement. "Press one to hear the Coca-Cola 'A Coke and Smile' unheard message. Press two to hear the McDonald's Chicken Selects skipped messages.. There is no product placement, however. Maybe there should be.