Neil Hopcroft

A digital misfit

Nothing interesting yet, please move along…. http://www.payphone-project.com/payphones/uk/


Categories: Memories.

/ 11 Comments

11 comments

    • neilh

      I know people who geek about the technology of such things (have you ever seen a speaking clock? they’re really cool, they’ve got one in the Science Museum) but to actually get excited about the numbers seems, well, more geeky than I can really contemplate (which probably makes it quite geeky indeed). Incidentally, while I was staying with my parents before coming over the Tokyo, I was leafing through some copies of old adverts my mother has for some of the shops in our town, I was particularly amused by the ones proudly proclaiming they had a telephone number, it was something like ‘Tonbridge 87’, from the days way before subscriber trunk dialling.

      Reply
      • stompyboots

        There’s a great scene in Family Guy where someone dials a wrong number: ‘this is 7, what were you trying to dial?’ ‘3’.

        I can’t imagine what it would have been like to only need to dial one or two numbers, but I love old adverts like that. And when you buy a CD that has instructions on how to play it in the liner notes!

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        • neilh

          Those instructions were very important back when they first came out, they were fiddly little things (compared to vinyl) and you had to handle them carefully ‘cos they were dead expensive too. Now, they’re disposable (30p for a CDR, I’ve got value from it if I only play it once) and cumbersome – I can now get 6 hours of music on a card the size of a postage stamp, I wonder how long it will be before we consider those cumbersome too?

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          • stompyboots

            There were so many potential ‘next steps’ for CDs that never really took off. Minidiscs, for example. I know quite a few people who have them, but how many albums are released on them? I reckon the next thing will be people paying to have MP3s sent to their phones – after all, ringtone sales have eclipsed CD sales over the last year!

          • stompyboots

            I know! It’s ludicrous, particularly when people don’t have polyphonic ringtones. Then it’s just a series of varied beeps. Even with polyphonic ringtones it’s often a guessing game.

            I don’t see what’s wrong with ‘ring ring’ myself.

          • neilh

            When you work at a company making mobile phones everyone needs different ringtones. But thats OK, ‘cos nobody else uses ‘ring ring’, so thats my ringtone of choice. I did like ‘s “Answer the fucking phone” ringtone, but it doesn’t really carry the air of professionalism I’m trying to convey.

          • stompyboots

            No, I can see that. Not the best thing to go off in a meeting with the CEO.

            I don’t understand why ‘ring ring’ is so unpopular. I’ve actually had people comment on the fact that I use it – ‘why do you want your mobile to sound like a house phone?’!

  2. neilh

    Re: “Ford,” he said, “you’re turning into a penguin. Stop it.”

    I had some cholocate wotsits today, does that count?

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