OT. Kids, cassettes, and rotary dial phones

Dean Hoffman snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

Weird.

Average age in the US is 38. We must appreciate what these people have not experienced like WW11, Korea and Vietnam not just old technology.

Frank <"frank "@frank.net> wrote

Not really relevant to what those kids had never seen before.

Interesting how counter intuitive the dial phone is with it only working when you have taken the receiver off the top of the phone. The opposite to cellphones.

Cassettes even weirder.

That stuff should be covered in school.

No point in covering that in school.

What's weird about it? Why would anyone be expected to know how to use something they've never seen before?

Marilyn Manson snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

I'm surprised that those kids parents didn’t have any cassettes left over.

I'm surprised that those kids had never seen cassettes before.

Not so surprised about dial phones or how they work.

A 20 YO in the US is very likely to have never had a cassette player or used a rotary dial phone. They may not have actually used any kind of land line.

I went to public school from 1952 to 64.

No history class ever got later than the Civil War.

micky snipped-for-privacy@fmguy.com wrote

Fark. I knew the US school system was f***ed but I didn't realise it was that comprehensively f***ed.

Did the rest of you yanks see the same thing ?

How did you find out about those wars ?

My high school US history class covered the 20th century superficially and I graduated in 64 too. We had exhausted the book that did end with the Civil War.by May. I will say it was a glossed over history, mostly just the teacher's opinion and he wanted us to look the stuff up ourselves if we didn't believe him. We were the good guys in the Spanish American war and the world wars. They were the bad guys and we kicked their ass. The teacher also said the depression was ended by the FDR government intervention. I did write a paper pointing out the FDR initiatives didn't end the depression, WWII did, but it got a mediocre grade. By then it was so late in May we didn't have time to argue about it.

During my annual physical my 'cognitive' test consists of drawing a clock face with the hands at a specified time. I've pointed out to the nurse that very soon 'clock face' is going to draw a blank stare.

This was Indiana, btw.

Whenever they say they need new textbooks, I say they don't need them because the teacher can fill them in on anything that has happened since he was 20.

When I wrote the code to show a big clock on my webpage, I noticed that creating the analog clock was a lot more involved that creating the digital clock. For one thing, polar-rectangular transforms (which require trigonometry).

The 3 pay phone calls I made in the last 25 years doesn't really justify that. I do not feel the obligation to be instantly available all the time. I did that for 40 years.

Three times in 25 years doesn't justify much need. Most people blather on their phone because they have it, not because they need it. Even when I had a company phone in my car, long before they fit in your purse, I was the lowest minute per month guy in the territory. I averaged about 30-40 minutes a month. Some guys were over 300.

I have been using a microwave longer than you knew they existed. Mine is 50 years old. I just don't confuse heating things up with cooking. Maybe the people at your bank are assholes but the folks here are fun to talk to and I keep enough money there that they don't charge me for the conversation.

You won't get a plan anything like that in the US unless you are on welfare. Are you on welfare?

SOMEONE on SOME OTHER GROUP

Ya sure That's a case.

The taxes are usually more than that, assuming you get a plan with a carrier with reasonable coverage..