If you would like to hear a duck quack

I've turned the sound off on my digital camera. When I take a picture, I don't get that fake SLR sound. I like it that way. It allows me to take stealth photos although it does confuse those whom I ask to take pictures with my camera.

Perhaps to make up for my silent camera, I changed the sound associated with my cell phone camera. I don't take photos with my cell phone very often but when I do, my phone quacks.

Yep, quacks.

It cracks me up.

It startles the subjects of my photos. Luckily, it quacks just after it captures the image so all my cell phone photos don't turn into a gallery of shocked looks.

Tonight, since Stacey was taking my picture with her cell phone, the only camera she brought on her 10 day vacation in Aspen, I decided to take her picture with mine.

She about jumped out of her skin when my phone quacked at her.

Her reaction then led to my recounting the story of The National Discount Brokers Group.

Do you remember the National Discount Brokers Group?

Back in 2000-2001, an email made the rounds, telling of a real live toll free number that, at the end of its phone tree, offered the option of hearing a duck quack.

"If you would like to hear a duck quack, press 7.''

Really. I tried it. So did everyone in my office after I told them about it. You pressed 7, a duck quacked and the call ended.

It was hilarious.

I googled it last night and found the number. So I called it.

Alas, the duck no longer quacks.

Oh well, I still have my cell phone . . .

BUSINESS: DIARY; The Duck Quacks And Has a Big Bill

By JULIE DUNN

Published: November 12, 2000

''For trading, press 1. For a new account kit, press 2 . . . If you would like to hear a duck quack, press 7.''

Not your normal menu option, but the National Discount Brokers Group says it is more than happy to reap the benefits of having its toll-free number (800-888-3999) turned into an e-mail craze.

What started with a trickle of callers turned into a flood last month when e-mail messages about the toll-free quack began circulating. The online brokerage firm is now averaging two million calls a week.

And even though the calls are costing N.D.B. $10,000 a day in phone charges, the company says the mallard mascot is worth it. In the last few weeks, new accounts have increased 75 percent.

In redoing the brokerage firm's telephone system last summer, Chris McQuilkin, the president and chief executive, noticed that it had an option empty on the menu. He decided that hearing a duck quacking might be just what customers needed.

''This thing has really taken on a life of its own,'' said Richard Tauberman, a spokesman.

The company, based in Jersey City, merged last month with Deutsche Bank in a deal valued at $1 billion. There are no plans to silence the quacking. Julie Dunn