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Guilty Operator. Other promising targets for attack include post offices that use computerized mail sorters and telephone operators who insist that customers place their own long-distance calls with a computerized dialing code. Matusow advises pasting stamps on sideways so that the scanner cannot read the magnetized strips that differentiate between values of stamps. In persuading telephone operators to handle calls personally, he suggests saying: "I'm sorry, operator, but I'm blind and do need your assistance." That ploy "is bound to make her feel extremely guilty, and will make it easier for the next caller who wants her to make the connection."
Finally, for those whose frustrations cannot be expunged by small, subtle victories, Matusow proposes direct confrontation—attacking the inhuman enemy with the most human of weapons: "Women going into a room with a bank of computers are advised to wear a lot of the cheapest perfume they can find." Computers operate effectively only in "clean" air, Matusow explains, and are highly sensitive to environmental changes. Heavy dollops of perfume could paralyze a computer as effectively as they do those of a weak-kneed human office worker.