The Most Expensive Pay Phone Call in History

[philo]

On 02/12/2016 11:24 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote: much better than:

Heck, I don't recall my parents asking me where I was going.

>

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

And dial a "0" and it interrupts for 10 brief instants. Possibly the reason for putting "0" in the wrong place.

BTW, The "0" is STILL in the wrong place on phone keypads and computer keyboards.

[snip]

[philo]

As I get older my hearing gets worse, but I can hear the low frequencies fine. The last time I had a doctor check, he said it was normal for someone my age.

When my wife tells me to get my hearing rechecked I ask her why I should pay to find out something I already know. The fact that my low range is good means everything is basically ok other than having lost some cilia .

Possibly the same reason I never took a MENSA test:

I am smart enough not to pay someone just to tell me I'm dumb!

[Don Y]

And telephone keypads are arranged "upside down" (almost) from numeric keypads!

[Don Y]

Yeah, and look how *you* turned out!! (ducks) :>

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Only yesterday I happened upon a YouTube video dealing with the design of the telephone number pad. The current layout was chosen after extensive investigation of users' preferences and accuracy.

Perce

[Don Y]

The first (electronic) product that I designed had a numeric keypad. We had to think long and hard about whether our customers (fishermen) would be more accustomed to using a "touch tone phone" (1970's) or a "digital calculator" -- as they most definitely wouldn't have had any other exposure to keypads (no microwave ovens, personal computers, etc.)

Likewise, we had to consider whether '6's and '9's should have "tails":

• |

+--

• |

| +--+

vs.

+--

• |

+--

• |

| +--+

(and, just because one of them has/hasn't, doesn't mean the *other* should/shouldn't!)

And you don't want to consider the amount of thought and effort that comes into designing a *typeface* (aka "font")!

[Yomama]

Where are you going?

Yomama

[Micky]

I coudln't believe it. And yeah, it was some 3rd party company.

[FrozenNorth]

I know the person that runs that website, long time usenet friend.

[philo]

yep, pretty badly!!!!

[philo]

HA!!!!

[Paintedcow]

Thats a pretty fun website. I like listening to those old recordings...

[Wade Garrett]

Back in the day, there was a way to multi-bend a foot-long length of coat hanger wire which could then be inserted up the open coin return slot of the old Bell System pay phones-- the ones before they installed pull-down doors on the coin returns-- that would lodge behind the holding box and prevent the operator-activated solenoid from tipping it backward into the money box. A skillful jiggle on the wire would tip the holding box forward sending the coins back down the coin return slot. Free call!

The increasingly widespread use of these "pay phone hooks" back in the

50's and 60's was a contributing factor in Ma Bell's replacing all the old open-slot coin return slot phones with the pull-down door kind...

[Mr. Emann]

Back in my younger days, when a phone call cost a dime, we used to drop a penny down the nickel slot and bump the coin return button as it was going down. That would send the penny into the dime slot area and turn the phone on. Another trick was to flatten out a plastic straw and shove it down the dime slot and drop a penny down the nickle slot and pull the straw out as the penny was going down. Had the same effect.

[Don Y]

There's also a spot on the "Fortress" where you can drill a little hole and get similar results.

Ma Bell went to great lengths to protect the cash it had collected; not so much *future* cash!

Coin mechanisms (and coin handling) suffer from being a relatively complex task *and* one that you would ideally NOT like to spend lots of resources ($$) on -- as it adds no direct value (it's more of an insurance policy).

Early dollar bill validators could be hacked by attaching a length of clear plastic to the bill (most typically, a long piece of tape that is then folded back on itself to double its thickness/strength

*and* cover up the exposed adhesive soas not to get caught in the mechanism).

The coin mechanisms in pin-tables (and other arcade pieces) can almost always be conned into accepting a penny as "payment" (in lieu of a quarter).

Red boxes can con TPC into thinking you've inserted coins.

Some slot machines could be "confused" to miscount dispensed coins (on a payout) by flashing a light *inside* the hopper (coin dispenser) to blind the photoelectric "coin detector".

Etc. The number of vulnerabilities that folks will uncover "to make/save/steal a buck" is amusingly large: "Why didn't anyone think of PREVENTING this *obvious* hack?"

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I think that's for the same reason computer keyboards have the letters in that weird QWERTY layout. It's to slow down users, making them compatible with the hardware.

[Don Y]

I'm not sure. Which users do they want to slow down: folks dialing the phone (not sure anything short of a bizarre ordering like 3954286107 would have much effect) or folks entering values for computations?

AFAICT, it may have just been different approaches to the problem by different types of designers.

I always wondered why WE telephone handsets were so damn uncomfortable. You'd think they would want that to just *melt* into your ear so you'd run up all sorts of (usage) charges!

[Wade Garrett]

Another old trick I read about was to bring a portable tape recorder into a deserted phone booth and record the "bong" noises a series of quarters made as they dropped into the coin slot. From then on, when making long distance calls and the operator asked you to deposit X dollars, you just played back the proper number of bongs with the phone handset's mouthpiece close to the speaker on your recorder.

The only way operators determined how much you deposited was to listen to the sound a coin made as it hit the bonger under the quarter slot, the single bing under the nickle slot and the double bing under the dime slot. She couldn't tell the difference between the real thing and a recording of it. Remember the old ad slogan "Is it live or is it Memorex"?

The advent of electronic coin sensor/counters ended that little scammy-doo.

[Jack]

The real scammy-doo was the exorbitant long-distance rate charged by the phoney company..