Do not call
About half a year ago or so I started payed for call blocking through Verizon. It's a feature that makes it impossible for companies or individuals who block their caller ID information from talking with me without jumping through a couple of hoops. While it might be inconvenient for my father and my daughter's best friend, the net result is that the phone went silent between the hours of 4-8 every night -- no more telemarketers.
Shortly thereafter, the state of Massachusetts offered its own do not call registry -- registering your phone number on this service likewise prevented telemarketers in the state of Mass. from contacting us.
Now the last piece of the puzzle has gone into place. The FTC today implemented Donotcall.gov, a national registry that's good for five years, apparently.
Of course, the government-made Web site to register is a bucketload of chicken-fried ASS running off active server pages, but that's another story.