Remember When
Because no advanced civilization would trek those zillions of light years to visit the likes of us.Quote: AyecarumbaWhen the Defense Department verified that fighter pilot video of a UFO performing maneuvers at speeds and endurance beyond our current capabilities was genuine, I thought the world would go nuts. However, the news came and went pretty quietly. Why are we not as a planet looking into this?
in my old neighborhood 588-3124 became JUniper - 8-3124 - JUniper meaning JU meaning 58
BUtterfield 5-1212
ANdrew 3-2368
DRake
DRexel
ESsex
FRanklin
FRontier
you matched the letters to the numbers on the old rotary phones
First NYC blackout, scores of people trying to dial calls from a phone booth wee aided by a blind man. he knew the rotary phone dial quite well.Quote: lilredroosteryou matched the letters to the numbers on the old rotary phones
T-Mobile has put an end to this, and my phone bill is 3X higher too.
Quote: ChumpChangeRemember when I had to buy a long-distance MCI minutes card to make long distance phone calls because my long distance carrier didn't really exist?
T-Mobil has put an end to this, and my phone bill is 3X higher too.
I first left home in late 1996 and long distance still mattered. Got a local bill and an MCI bill. By 2 years later LD was down to a then-low 5 cents a minute on weekends so I called the folks then. Still $3 an hour but told my mother don't worry it was now "cheap."
Then I got a cell with free LD and eventually free weekends. By this time the LD carriers were playing a little game and charging a minimum of a few bucks a month. They asked who I wanted my carrier to be and I said "nobody." I finally let some bill go to collections, got it cleared when I got credit monitoring and learned how to clean up my credit report.
In college the town was so small you just gave the last 4 of your phone number. Some girls we knew had xxx=7777 by random chance.
and it was sometimes really bad - you'd get all these crackling noises and the voice on the other end would start to fade
Quote: lilredroosterback in the day, 60s and 70s, long distance was really expensive
and it was sometimes really bad - you'd get all these crackling noises and the voice on the other end would start to fade
I don't remember it being that bad though it was not as good as a local call looking back.
Who remembers the earliest MCI commercials? Where they had two screens with a meter running and the tag, "If your Long Distance Bill is $25.00 per month or more call MCI."?????
$25 then is $75 or so now. I pay $45 or so for a cell with no more limits and free LD.
Quote: lilredroosterback in the day, 60s and 70s, long distance was really expensive
and it was sometimes really bad - you'd get all these crackling noises and the voice on the other end would start to fade
I had the same problem at a pay phone in the '90's. I think they were bugging the phones. There might have been a line about this in the movie "Dick" (1999).
Lol trailer https://www.imdb.com/video/vi982694425?playlistId=tt0144168&ref_=tt_ov_vi
Quote: LovecompsHow about when you'd make a long distance collect call and then the person at the other end would refulse to accept the call but making the call in the first place was a way to get a message (like I made it home) across?
We just rang twice and hung up.
One ring was a different signal.
Quote: LovecompsHow about when you'd make a long distance collect call and then the person at the other end would refulse to accept the call but making the call in the first place was a way to get a message (like I made it home) across?
We did this, but had a more complicated code. Depending on who you asked for, (not that anyone was there), it was a different message. Our dogs all had people names, so it was usually one of them.
In the very rare occasion you actually needed them to accept, you just used their real name and they trusted you had a legitimate reason for them to take the call.
Collect call from ‘SallyhadababynamedEdsixpoundstwoounces’
Quote: lilredrooster
BUtterfield 5-1212
ANdrew 3-2368
I grew up under the GLendale exchange,
and moved to a 8 party line in the
UNderhill exchange. Listening in on
calls was every kids duty. They never
ever said anything worth hearing. It
was women complaining 99% of the
time. I should have used that as my
first clue that women as a rule are
seldom happy.
then she somehow sent us a dime refund in the phone's change slot
you could buy a popsicle with a dime
a real sweet hustle
there was also some way to mess with a pay phone and get a dime to come out but I never learned how
they put the blade of their pocket knife into some part of the phone, IIRC the quarter or dime slot
only a few older kids knew hot to do it
true geniuses
Quote: GreasyjohnHow about this one: You mail a letter without postage and address it to yourself and put the return address as the person you want to the letter to go to.
USPS often caught on to that one. If it was an obvious scam they may just destroy it.
Remember when you had to rent your phone from the phone company? When we moved my grandmother out of her house in the mid-90's, she was still renting her phone for about $5/ month! This was when you could buy one at Home Depot for $10-$15.
Quote: SOOPOOThere is a joke commercial that goes something like this.....
Collect call from ‘SallyhadababynamedEdsixpoundstwoounces’
Even into the early 90s, the new company, NYNEX, charged some calls by Message Unit and some were unlimited.
My friends Dad started his own phone company and quit his real job. Everyone thought he was nuts and used to laff about the citizens band radio phones he was hawking. You could listen in on his phones with any tv that had the UHF bands. The joke was on us when Sprint bought him out for a few hundred million dollars.
Quote: lilredrooster
there was also some way to mess with a pay phone and get a dime to come out but I never learned how
they put the blade of their pocket knife into some part of the phone, IIRC the quarter or dime slot
only a few older kids knew hot to do it
true geniuses
There's that scene in War Games where Matthew Broderick shorts out a payphone or something to get a free phone call. They show it pretty clearly on screen how he does it, so I wonder if it ever actually worked.
Quote: TigerWuThere's that scene in War Games where Matthew Broderick shorts out a payphone or something to get a free phone call. They show it pretty clearly on screen how he does it, so I wonder if it ever actually worked.
The trick from back then (may or may not have been in that movie) was that the coins dropped with a distinctive tone associated to each denomination.
That overlapped some development-wise with hand-held recorders. So you'd pay for a call, but record the handset earpiece as you paid.
Once you had the sounds, you could go to a phone, hold the recording to the speaker part of the handset, and play it. The phone thought you deposited money, and put the call through.
Quote: beachbumbabsThe trick from back then (may or may not have been in that movie) was that the coins dropped with a distinctive tone associated to each denomination.
That overlapped some development-wise with hand-held recorders. So you'd pay for a call, but record the handset earpiece as you paid.
Once you had the sounds, you could go to a phone, hold the recording to the speaker part of the handset, and play it. The phone thought you deposited money, and put the call through.
We had tone generators made from parts from Radio Shack. You could do lots of fun stuff including getting free calls.
Quote: beachbumbabs
Once you had the sounds, you could go to a phone, hold the recording to the speaker part of the handset, and play it. The phone thought you deposited money, and put the call through.
yeah, something similar to that was called "phreaking" - the earliest tech hackers - I read the book about it - pretty good book too
"Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a culture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, such as equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. The term phreak is a sensational spelling of the word freak with the ph- from phone, and may also refer to the use of various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system. Phreak, phreaker, or phone phreak are names used for and by individuals who participate in phreaking.
The term first referred to groups who had reverse engineered the system of tones used to route long-distance calls. By re-creating these tones, phreaks could switch calls from the phone handset, allowing free calls to be made around the world. To ease the creation of these tones, electronic tone generators known as blue boxes became a staple of the phreaker community, a group of people that included future Apple Inc. cofounders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking
Pick up the phone to call someone, and two women in the neighborhood would be gabbing. Had to wait until they were done and try again when the line was open. It was a real nightmare if you had gossipers in the area.
Quote: CalderFor a few years when I was a kid, our phone was on a Party Line, a single line which included the phones from the rest of our block.
Two of the biggest tech thrills of
my life were the first color TV
in 1970, and our first private
line in 69. Took me years to
get over the thrill of color TV,
every day was like Dorothy
opening the door to Technicolor
OZ. Never enjoyed TV as much
as I did in the early 70's. Who
knew Superman, filmed in
the 50's, was in color.
and never see an ad from Big Pharm
for one of it's miracle drugs? Now
you can't not see them. And most
of the time they don't tell what
it's even for. Half the commercial
is usually a list of all the ways the
drug can kill you.
Quote: EvenBobTwo of the biggest tech thrills of
my life were the first color TV
in 1970, and our first private
line in 69. Took me years to
get over the thrill of color TV,
every day was like Dorothy
opening the door to Technicolor
OZ. Never enjoyed TV as much
as I did in the early 70's. Who
knew Superman, filmed in
the 50's, was in color.
In 1965 we only had a black and white TV set. There was only Chanels 2,4,5,7,9,11,13 and an additional uhf station which never had anything any good on it. If you wanted to change the channel you had to get up and go over to the TV and turn the knob.
Me and my brother used to go over to our neighbors house on Sunday nights and watch “Walt Disney’s wonderful world of color.” The program started out in black-and-white and when the Peacock arrived on the screen and fanned its tail programming would continue in color. Or was it when Tinker Bell came out with her magic wand and made it go to color. That might’ve been a different show. But anyway, it was “Disney’s wonderful world of color” which is what I remember being the first television show in color. And I think color TVs back then were about $500. That would be what, about $4000 in today’s money.
Now about half of what you watch on TV is commercials.
Quote: GreasyjohnQuote: EvenBobTwo of the biggest tech thrills of
my life were the first color TV
in 1970, and our first private
line in 69. Took me years to
get over the thrill of color TV,
every day was like Dorothy
opening the door to Technicolor
OZ. Never enjoyed TV as much
as I did in the early 70's. Who
knew Superman, filmed in
the 50's, was in color.
In 1965 we only had a black and white TV set. There was only Chanels 2,4,5,7,9,11,13 and an additional uhf station which never had anything any good on it.
Sounds like Northern Jersey to me!
Quote: GreasyjohnIn 1965 we only had a black and white TV set. There was only Chanels 2,4,5,7,9,11,13 and an additional uhf station which never had anything any good on it.
I had 2, 4, a very fuzzy 7, and 17 (PBS). Party line? You bet. We had to get up to change the channel; you ever have to get up to "dial in the aerial"? Was a big lighted box with one big knob. Crank it and... "Ka-CHUNK...Ka-CHUNK...Ka-CHUNK" the big antennae clunked around its base on the roof. This wasn't '65, this continued through all 4 Bill's Superbowls! lol My peers were on AOL Instant Messenger talking to "totally real girls from California" while I was still waiting for Maude to catch Blanche up with the weekly specials at the fete. A clear night allowing the CBC to waft 'cross the lake was an event worthy of suspending the bed time.
According to the lower chart, I need a 75" TV anyway, but 1.75x 43" = 75".
TV Size to Distance Calculator and Science - RTINGS.com
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-size/size-to-distance-relationship
I can't even read my watch without glasses anymore.
Quote: GreasyjohnIf you wanted to change the channel you had to get up and go over to the TV and turn the knob.
And I think color TVs back then were about $500. That would be what, about $4000 in today’s money.
My first TV remote control was a wired RCA.
Wire ran from the TV across the room into
a square heavy box you held in your hand
and a motor inside the TV would click the
channels around one at a time. It was wonderful.
My first color set was a Zenith and cost $400
in 1970. 16" screen. That was a huge amount
of money, I had to finance it. You could buy
a decent used car for $150 in 1970. It cost
$6 to stay at Motel 6. Ground beef was 3
pounds for a dollar. Cigs were $3.50 a carton.
This is wired remote, they don't show the
wire running to the TV.
https://www.thejournal.ie/inventor-of-first-tv-remote-control-dies-aged-96-460123-May2012/
I probably used this remote for a month in 1967, and never saw a remote again until the 1980's.
012 Zenith Space Command Retro-future Ultrasonic Remote Control Project - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrhKW20DIvA
My dreams of being a TV repairman were just a freakin' nightmare.
First look inside and power up of a Zenith color roundie TV from 1965
Zenith 5311U color roundie p1o?
https://youtu.be/mdcA93xJh2g
Quote: ChumpChangeInventor of first TV remote control dies aged 96 ·
The first wireless remote. There were
wired remotes before that.
Quote: FaceI had 2, 4, a very fuzzy 7, and 17 (PBS). Party line? You bet. We had to get up to change the channel; you ever have to get up to "dial in the aerial"? Was a big lighted box with one big knob. Crank it and... "Ka-CHUNK...Ka-CHUNK...Ka-CHUNK" the big antennae clunked around its base on the roof. This wasn't '65, this continued through all 4 Bill's Superbowls! lol My peers were on AOL Instant Messenger talking to "totally real girls from California" while I was still waiting for Maude to catch Blanche up with the weekly specials at the fete. A clear night allowing the CBC to waft 'cross the lake was an event worthy of suspending the bed time.
You could dial in your aerial? Wow, we didn’t have anything that high tech. But all this reminds me, we only had two phones in our house, one upstairs in my moms room and one downstairs in the kitchen. And of course they were both rotary dial. I haven’t used the phone like that since Nixon was in the White House. I remember it was about 1985 that payphones went from a dime a call to a quarter a call. It was right about this time the parking meters quit allowing the use of pennies. Now parking meters have so many instructions on them they’re more complicated than algebra.
Quote: lilredroosterpulp fiction 1950s and early 60s - for connoisseurs of great literature everywhere 😄
I enjoyed that montage so much I copied it so forum members could see it again. (I’ll take Quickie.)
Quote: lilredroosterpulp fiction 1950s and early 60s - for connoisseurs of great literature everywhere 😄
About 1959 when I was 10, I
remember the local druggist
rushing over to where I was
looking at the racks of
paperbacks and pushing me to
the comic book section.
Pulp fiction covers were X
rated in his opinion. He
was very stern about it.
Quote: EvenBob
About 1959 when I was 10, I
remember the local druggist
rushing over to where I was
looking at the racks of
paperbacks and pushing me to
the comic book section.
Pulp fiction covers were X
rated in his opinion. He
was very stern about it.
Apparently he wasn't offended by them enough to not sell them...
McDonalds never admitted this but anybody who ever had a Mighty Mo knew it was the same thing
Quote: lilredrooster50s suburban Washington DC restaurant menu - Hot Shoppes - their Mighty Mo was legendary - McDonalds copied it and it became the Big Mac
McDonalds never admitted this but anybody who ever had a Mighty Mo knew it was the same thing
The Big Mac was "invented" McDonald's in the late '60's, officially as competition to the Big Boy Burger, produced by Big Boy Restaurant. The Big Boy Burger dates all the way back to the 1930's. Hot Shoppes debuted in the late 1920's, but I can't figure out when they put the Mighty Mo on their menu.
Quote: billryanI bought myself a huge 25 inch tv in 1977. Everyone mocked me because it was black and white. People would praise the set when it was off for being so huge but scoff when it was on. I used it regularly as a bedroom tv thru 1996, when it was relegated to my garage. About ten years later, my nephew asked me if he could borrow it for his new apartment and I told him he could have it. Later that night he called and asked me how to turn on the color. It was returned to my garage and stayed there until I moved to Vegas in 2015. About 2010, they changed the tv frequencies so it no longer picked up signals.
CRT televisions are hot collectibles among professional video gamers who play older systems. Something about digital TVs is "slower" than CRTs, so when you're competing at top levels and fractions of a second count, the CRTs are better.
Quote: billryanI bought myself a huge 25 inch tv in 1977. Everyone mocked me because it was black and white.
Why? I would watch no TV before
I bought a B&W. I hate B&W, even
in still photos. I love the new
colorizing process. it makes 150
year old photos jump off the page.
We don't see in B&W, why would
we enjoy looking at it.
Quote: TigerWuCRT televisions are hot collectibles among professional video gamers who play older systems. Something about digital TVs is "slower" than CRTs, so when you're competing at top levels and fractions of a second count, the CRTs are better.
True and, by strict definition, a video game is something that's only played on a CRT.
Quote: GialmereTrue and, by strict definition, a video game is something that's only played on a CRT.
How do you come to this conclusion?
Quote: TigerWuHow do you come to this conclusion?
It's admittedly old school...
Quote: EvenBobWhy? I would watch no TV before
I bought a B&W. I hate B&W, even
in still photos. I love the new
colorizing process. it makes 150
year old photos jump off the page.
We don't see in B&W, why would
we enjoy looking at it.
I'm shocked.
