Another thing we could do was dial a 3 digit number, hang up and get back a "test ring".
My parents didn't like it if I was "just going out". They usually wanted a reason - playing ball, going to the movies, etc. Just "going out" could apparently lead to trouble. (They were right)
To avoid the inevitable questions, I'd dial the ring-back number, answer the phone and say something like "Hi Greg, what's up?... Meet you at the bowling alley? Sure. See you soon!"
Yes, my one touch tone phone has that switch. Of course, you'd have to switch it back to "tone" when calling any kind of automated thing (press
1 for...) -- and remember to switch back to pulse before the next call.
Unless you are a very good whistler . . .
That reminds me when the TV show "Raising Hope" aired ~10 years ago... the one episode - they used a flute to simulate the key tones on a rotary phone... I'm not sure if it could actually work, but the thought was quite amusing none the less!
snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Mine is. I think I got a 400 GB card and it's well past half.
Lots of music and tons of pictures. I really *really* need to copy things to another card and put it somewhere safe--like my mom's house.
It's 2021, why aren't backups easier?
Puckdropper
Clare Snyder snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca> wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Well written and useful fully featured applications used to take only 500 KB or so. Now they're coming out of the box needing a minimum of 5 MB!
Tinder, the dating app, is about 50 MB. All it does is load pictures from the Internet, has a "like" "pass" "rewind" "super like" and "upgrade" button, and somehow they can't figure out how to fit that in to something smaller.
I'm glad I don't need to use that 50 MB any more...
Puckdropper
Dialing is actually dual-tone--whether a flautist can do that I have no idea. Doing vocally would I suspect require major talent plus a lot of practice.
Backups aren't all that difficult. A SD card reader for a PC is a few bucks. Two copies and you're done.
The point is that land lines are CO powered, period. Earthquakes can be a problem.
Sure. The dial is just breaks shorts/brakes the circuit, same as the hook.
Did that as a kid.
Ours was four digits - 4191 (how did I remember that?)
We were sent out in the morning and the street lights were the signal to go home. We could go home for lunch but usually went to someone else's house (or they came to ours). Try that today.
Yes, and the ESS (electronic switching system) switching then had to build in pulse dialing. It cost them money and they started charging for it so they could get rid of the additional hardware. I guess some of the babies didn't.
I remember my last land line cost more per month than two cell phones and lines. They charged for land lines by "message units" (time * distance).
Have to do that for cell phones, too. ;-)
They no longer offer measured rate (that's what it was called locally) - just flat rate here. I pay AT&T roughly $40/mo including taxes and fees for the local line with unlimited local (~12 mile) calling.
Also, that's no features or anything fancy - just a dial tone. I pay a separate company ~$5/mo for 5c/m long distance (average $5 for 60 minutes or so LD - all fees/tax inc).
Well, aside from a static issue on the line once (still worked just annoying), I've never had a land line outage or issue. DSL, a few times. It's solid as a rock, otherwise, I wouldn't keep it.
That's still a *LOT* of money for only a 12 mile radius. I get the whole country for less than that.
Up here the pulse phones don't work any more most places. We got rid of the last dial phone about 10? years ago when they stopped supporting it - and then switched to VOIP soon after
We paid a premium to maintain pulse dialing the last 8 or 10 years we had the dial phone.
They didn't charge extra for pulse dialing, they charged extra for
*tone* dialing.
--
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required