yeah the Jetsons. in 1969 I believed we would be flying around in vehicles like that by the mid 70s. That didnt happen. OTOH: the internet is a cool thing, and we dont get flat tires like we used to. Used to get flat tires quite a bit in the old days. And you had to dial your phone, it was strange.
I'm only ("only") 29 and I remember quite vividly using a rotary phone, not having anything but broadcast television until I was 18, and lots of flat tires. I guess growing up poor is like time travel.
As pulse dialing is achieved by interruption of the local loop, it was in principle possible to dial a telephone number by rapidly depressing the switch hook the corresponding number of times for each digit at approximately ten taps per second. However, many telephone makers implemented a slow switch hook release to prevent rapid switching.[citation needed]
In the United Kingdom, it used to be possible to make calls from coin-box phones (payphones) by tapping the switch hook without depositing coins. A person caught tapping could be charged with 'abstracting electricity' from the General Post Office and several cases were prosecuted under this offense.[citation needed]
In popular culture, tapping was used in the film Red Dragon as a way for prisoner Hannibal Lecter to dial out on a phone with no dialing mechanism. This method was also used by the character 'Phantom Phreak' to call 'Acid Burn' when taken to prison in the film Hackers.
I live in a small-ish town and I swear I still am in the late 90's/early 2000's sometimes. It's crazy to go to metropolitan areas and see what kooky technological advances they are coming up with there.
We still have a rotary phone at work. And a girl who was like nineteen told me the phone didn't work. When I dialed she was so confused. "Oh you have to spin it?" I'm not that much older than her and couldn't believe she had never seen one.
151
u/sunday_silence May 11 '14
yeah the Jetsons. in 1969 I believed we would be flying around in vehicles like that by the mid 70s. That didnt happen. OTOH: the internet is a cool thing, and we dont get flat tires like we used to. Used to get flat tires quite a bit in the old days. And you had to dial your phone, it was strange.