And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
please pick me up off the floor, I'm eighty-four I'm still laughing I grew up in an area where you picked up the receiver and the operator asked who you wanted to talk with; didn't even ask the phone number
I don't know if this is true - in fact can't be - but I hear some youths are flummoxed by a dial phone and simply don't know how to use it. But supposedly some are also unable to read an analog clock too. Times really do change.
I get that they don't know how to use a rotary phone, that shouldn't be any real problem for them. But the inability to read a clock face has other problems. I worked an outdoor shooting range for five years and got to shoot a lot as well as train new shooters. I'd watch and call their shots for them. "2 inches out at 3 o'clock." They had no idea what I was talking about. Once ecplained to them, they really liked the system. They just don't know what they don't know.
I was workcamping at an amusement park in Iowa. One of the rides I ran was the bumper-cars. My first time, the place is full of middle school kids driving bumper-cars, my job is to remind them to go "clockwise"... took me 15 seconds to realize that most of these kids didn't know which way a clock went.
I went to a play & there was a wall phone on the wall. The actress went to make a call and turned the dial in the wrong direction and that jumped out to me! She was young & never used one...
CW-- It if VERY true. Just retired teaching public high school. 80%+ could not read the analog clock in the front of the room. They had to log time out and in when they left the room. They had to take out their phone to record the time. I understand after I left, they spent something like $50K to replace all of the analog clocks with digital.
My wife had a hell of a time with quarters when she came here, because Japan had 1, 5, 10, 50 and hundred yen coins.
Phone numbers are freaky, I remember ours from when I was a kid and I bet it's been fifty years since I called it. Nearly as long since I dialed my wife's parent's number in Japan... Muscle memory.
The AT&T system had a low-level architecture that was built on local “exchanges” that were designated using the alphabetic characters. My local exchange was designated Franklin, hence FR (or 37). Originally, the exchanges were staffed by operators, my aunt was one. As time progressed, the operators were replaced by automated switching centers, running mostly mechanical switches. In time, those were replaced by software-operated call switches that were much cheaper. In fact these software switches were so cheap that businesses could purchase them and replace their own in-house operators. These private switches were called Private Branch Exchanges (PBXs). The big AT&T software opening system used for these switches was UNIX, although I have no idea if there are still switches using that operating system or not. The replacement of analog telephone systems with digital systems using SS7 eventually led to fully packetized telephony which can use TCP/IP switches which are ubiquitous and much cheaper.
A city a half hour flight away (not US) had a couple of big earthquakes about 15 years ago with the inevitable collapse of cell phone functions. I was told that old dial up phones remained functional if the circuit was intact because they have a power supply as part of the network rather than through the main power supply. I recall that the phone circuits were far more resilient so remained functional when nothing else did. I recall a callus on my dialing finger calling my first girlfriend back in the 1970's but she eventually dumped me for a guy with a car. I guess canoodling on my motor bike wasn't as appealing.
The transition from rotary dial to touch-tone phones was introduced in Pennsylvania in 1963. I first got into telephony as an Interior Communications (IC) Electrician in the Navy, and then worked for AT&T for the following 44 years. The advances in communications technologies over those decades was mind boggling. It'll be interesting to see where it goes in the future!
I have still saved many of those phones, and still have a mounted wall phone. Too much effort to remove. Maybe someone will get some $$$ for them after I'm gone. I had to go to almost worthless WIFI living in the sticks, because ZIPLESS charged me $55.00 a month while my electric bill was $38.00. How many lights or heat will Zipless provide?......ZIP!
In the early 70s I graduated HS in SoCal and got a job with PacBell to pay for college and live, I was working in the Black Slums of South Central Los Angeles and the two central exchanges were very old along with the wiring in the area. The exchanges were replaced over the 4 years I was in the area. The wiring was still a mess as I left. In the 4 years I did various jobs from installations, to repairs, to cable work, and planning.
please pick me up off the floor, I'm eighty-four
ReplyDeleteI'm still laughing
I grew up in an area where you picked up the receiver and the operator asked who you wanted to talk with; didn't even ask the phone number
I don't know if this is true - in fact can't be - but I hear some youths are flummoxed by a dial phone and simply don't know how to use it. But supposedly some are also unable to read an analog clock too. Times really do change.
DeleteI get that they don't know how to use a rotary phone, that shouldn't be any real problem for them. But the inability to read a clock face has other problems. I worked an outdoor shooting range for five years and got to shoot a lot as well as train new shooters. I'd watch and call their shots for them.
Delete"2 inches out at 3 o'clock." They had no idea what I was talking about. Once ecplained to them, they really liked the system.
They just don't know what they don't know.
I was workcamping at an amusement park in Iowa. One of the rides I ran was the bumper-cars.
DeleteMy first time, the place is full of middle school kids driving bumper-cars, my job is to remind them to go "clockwise"... took me 15 seconds to realize that most of these kids didn't know which way a clock went.
"Delta, traffic 12 o'clock, opposite direction, same altitude."
Delete"You have to give better directions, we're all wearing digital watches."
I went to a play & there was a wall phone on the wall. The actress went to make a call and turned the dial in the wrong direction and that jumped out to me! She was young & never used one...
ReplyDeleteCW-- It if VERY true. Just retired teaching public high school. 80%+ could not read the analog clock in the front of the room. They had to log time out and in when they left the room. They had to take out their phone to record the time. I understand after I left, they spent something like $50K to replace all of the analog clocks with digital.
ReplyDeleteBack in the early 50's, we lived in Arlington, VA and our phone number was KEnmore - 8 - 5607. You'd need the dial with the alphabet to call me.
ReplyDeleteThey can't count change. Don't know a quarter is 1/4 of a dollar or a dime is 1/10th.
ReplyDeleteNobody does "money" anymore.
And they can't give correct change if you try to 'help' them by handing them three 'extra' pennies along with a ten dollar bill.
ReplyDeleteThey haven’t learnt times tables and can’t do simple mental math. They have to pull out their cell phones. We’ve raised a generation of idiots.
DeleteJust as there are plenty of people now who can't read an analog clock I am sure this would stump a lot of people also.
ReplyDeleteMy wife had a hell of a time with quarters when she came here, because Japan had 1, 5, 10, 50 and hundred yen coins.
ReplyDeletePhone numbers are freaky, I remember ours from when I was a kid and I bet it's been fifty years since I called it. Nearly as long since I dialed my wife's parent's number in Japan... Muscle memory.
When I was a kid, the 1st two numbers were called out by alphabet. Probably some reason why, I just didn't know it.
ReplyDeleteRob Muir
DeletePosted too fast…
DeleteThe AT&T system had a low-level architecture that was built on local “exchanges” that were designated using the alphabetic characters. My local exchange was designated Franklin, hence FR (or 37). Originally, the exchanges were staffed by operators, my aunt was one. As time progressed, the operators were replaced by automated switching centers, running mostly mechanical switches. In time, those were replaced by software-operated call switches that were much cheaper. In fact these software switches were so cheap that businesses could purchase them and replace their own in-house operators. These private switches were called Private Branch Exchanges (PBXs). The big AT&T software opening system used for these switches was UNIX, although I have no idea if there are still switches using that operating system or not. The replacement of analog telephone systems with digital systems using SS7 eventually led to fully packetized telephony which can use TCP/IP switches which are ubiquitous and much cheaper.
A city a half hour flight away (not US) had a couple of big earthquakes about 15 years ago with the inevitable collapse of cell phone functions. I was told that old dial up phones remained functional if the circuit was intact because they have a power supply as part of the network rather than through the main power supply. I recall that the phone circuits were far more resilient so remained functional when nothing else did.
DeleteI recall a callus on my dialing finger calling my first girlfriend back in the 1970's but she eventually dumped me for a guy with a car. I guess canoodling on my motor bike wasn't as appealing.
The transition from rotary dial to touch-tone phones was introduced in Pennsylvania in 1963. I first got into telephony as an Interior Communications (IC) Electrician in the Navy, and then worked for AT&T for the following 44 years. The advances in communications technologies over those decades was mind boggling. It'll be interesting to see where it goes in the future!
ReplyDeleteI have still saved many of those phones, and still have a mounted wall phone. Too much effort to remove. Maybe someone will get some $$$ for them after I'm gone.
ReplyDeleteI had to go to almost worthless WIFI living in the sticks, because ZIPLESS charged me $55.00 a month while my electric bill was $38.00. How many lights or heat will Zipless provide?......ZIP!
867-5309....Hey Jenny! Can I stop over for a bit?...
ReplyDeleteThat was the # of Ashbrook Jr. HS in Gastonia, NC. Had to change it, as they were getting 100+ "crank" calls/day.
DeleteIn the early 70s I graduated HS in SoCal and got a job with PacBell to pay for college and live, I was working in the Black Slums of South Central Los Angeles and the two central exchanges were very old along with the wiring in the area. The exchanges were replaced over the 4 years I was in the area. The wiring was still a mess as I left. In the 4 years I did various jobs from installations, to repairs, to cable work, and planning.
ReplyDelete