"Do you mean your meeting scheduled for this Friday?"
"Yes."
The Joey automatically keyed in the subject field with: "Meeting
Confirmation, July sixth."
"Dear Peter," the Joey said, then "Please begin your message,
William."
William recited a brief note, saying that he was looking forward
to the upcoming meeting. When he was done, he covered the
microphone with his hand again and turned to Byron. "How do I
tell it I'm done?"
"Just say it's name first, and it will know that you want to give
it a command. That's why we named this one Pip. It's a word it
would probably never encounter in your normal correspondence and
so it knows that you are talking to it, rather than giving it
text to put on the screen."
"Pip," William said into the mic, "That's all."
The Joey did not respond.
"Pip," William tried again, "Thank you."
Nothing.
William looked at Peter, who looked at Rick.
"What's the word for done," Peter said.
"Done," Rick said. "Looks like we'd better put in a few more ways
of saying done," he said, scribbling a note to himself.
William said, "Pip: done."
"Thank you," the Joey said. "Shall I send this fax now or later?"
"Now," William said. He looked at Peter. "Is that okay."
Peter nodded.
"Sending," the Joey said. A few moments later the portable's
built-in modem dialed the phone line plugged into it.
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