Ma Bell is coming back and, boy, is she pissed!

[[email protected]]

Yes, the house would be *gone*. In the south, where houses
are built on a concrete slab, all that is left is the concrete
slab and maybe a pipe sticking up out of it. F5 will even
pull all the linoleum off of the floors. (The linoleum is
usually glued directly to the slab.)

Right. They had a basement. But there was no warning at
all. The only reason Dad was out was because of a feeling
he had. I get the same feeling when there's a tornado
somewhere (it must be the pressure). It didn't make
a roaring sound as it passed overhead. Dad was really
spooked. Usually the area turns the air raid sirens on.
They didn't come on.

They were turned on a couple weeks ago in Holland. My sister
said that most of the people at her work didn't know what to
do. I didn't understand this. We had drills and everything in
school. Hope College kids knew what to do.

/BAH

 

[[email protected]]

I love the way this group takes one guy's spam and brainstorms so well.

Perhaps you should reexamine your assumption.

/BAH

 

[Steven]

Perhaps you should reexamine your assumption.

/BAH

Depends on what I'm assumpting

 

[Steven]

Please don't feed the troll.

They eat too much troll chow, stick to cats.

 

[CBFalconer]

Some of the newer central office equipment in the US no longer
recognizes a dial telephone, and it will likely go completely
away as equipment isa upgraded.

That's almost as evil as removing serial and parallel ports from
the later laptops (and desktops). A working rotary dial phone
greatly amuses the grandkids.

 

[Steve O'Hara-Smith]

On Wed, 18 Oct 06 12:18:52 GMT

Usually the area turns the air raid sirens on.
They didn't come on.

They were turned on a couple weeks ago in Holland. My sister
said that most of the people at her work didn't know what to
do. I didn't understand this. We had drills and everything in
school. Hope College kids knew what to do.

Air raid drills had stopped happening in the UK by the time I was
at school. I'm not sure how long they'd been stopped.

 

[Steven]

That's almost as evil as removing serial and parallel ports from
the later laptops (and desktops). A working rotary dial phone
greatly amuses the grandkids.

When did they remove them from desktops? I'm just not finding your
mutant mobos yet.

 

[Stephen Adams]

That's almost as evil as removing serial and parallel ports from
the later laptops (and desktops).

Evil? I haven't needed a serial or parallel port for 5+ years, except
for configuring a router 'out of band.' And in that case, a serial USB
adapter worked just fine. Of course, I've been using Macs and Linux
exclusively for the past 5 years, so that could be part of it.

A working rotary dial phone greatly amuses the grandkids.

There was, until recently, a rotary dial pay phone in the basement of
the Chapel at Elmhurst College. Actually, it may still be there, but
it's been a few years since I saw it. My kids were amused.

-Stephen

 

[Don Bowey]

What do you know about "White Alice"?

It got down to -60F at Bethel, a 3-way site location.

Don

 

[Steven]

Evil? I haven't needed a serial or parallel port for 5+ years, except
for configuring a router 'out of band.' And in that case, a serial USB
adapter worked just fine. Of course, I've been using Macs and Linux
exclusively for the past 5 years, so that could be part of it.

Ah, you don't need to use really old digital cameras like Epson
PhotoPCs (it was whole and 20 bucks, lad) and you don't have a 1992 HP
DeskJet for a backup (by goodness, it's outlasted 8 printers)!

 

[Stephen Adams]

Ah, you don't need to use really old digital cameras like Epson
PhotoPCs (it was whole and 20 bucks, lad) and you don't have a 1992 HP
DeskJet for a backup (by goodness, it's outlasted 8 printers)!

I have a 15-year old laser printer with only a parallel input, but
an inexpensive network device solves that problem. So I don't need
the port on any new system...

-Stephen

 

[Wim Lewis]

When did they remove them from desktops? I'm just not finding your
mutant mobos yet.

Search for "legacy-free" motherboards and you'll find quite a few PC-type
motherboards without the traditional PC ports on 'em. Interestingly, the
ones I found just now were almost all fairly old --- sub-GHz PIII
motherboards. More recent motherboards seem to have the usual serial
and parallel and even PS/2 ports. I bet that the incremental cost
of those is pretty tiny (and mostly due to the physical connectors,
not the silicon). WRT Ma Bell, though, the cost of continuing to support
pulse dialing has got to be nearly zero, so why eliminate it?

On the other hand, on a laptop (like the one I'm using) there might not be
*room* for the physical connectors, which I assume is why they've gotten
pretty rare on laptops. (Also, this laptop is a Mac... but whatever.)

 

[Morten Reistad]

Search for "legacy-free" motherboards and you'll find quite a few PC-type
motherboards without the traditional PC ports on 'em. Interestingly, the
ones I found just now were almost all fairly old --- sub-GHz PIII
motherboards. More recent motherboards seem to have the usual serial
and parallel and even PS/2 ports. I bet that the incremental cost
of those is pretty tiny (and mostly due to the physical connectors,
not the silicon). WRT Ma Bell, though, the cost of continuing to support
pulse dialing has got to be nearly zero, so why eliminate it?

Support for pulse dialling adds a third to the price of an ATA (analogoue
telephone adapter). It requires some costly electronics to decode
those sort circuits reliably.

On the other hand, on a laptop (like the one I'm using) there might not be
*room* for the physical connectors, which I assume is why they've gotten
pretty rare on laptops. (Also, this laptop is a Mac... but whatever.)

I still don't get this "every cable has to connect to my desktop machine"
mentality. This is what we have networks for. I have set up a cheap
Mini-ITX box with serial and parallel ports for this old-printer
access; and access it over the network. Wireless, even.

The old hardware retires to the closet.

-- mrr

 

[Brian Inglis]

It was also the first Over the Horizon microwave telephone system.
It was supposed to have dropped that low at Ft Greely, AK, where I was
stationed. It was below -20F when we took survival training.

Kids go trick-or-treating here some years at that temp, and often in
Jan-Feb wait for (sometimes cancelled) city buses to school.

 

[Steven]

I'll bet they don't sleep in shelters built out of piles of snow, and
eat 35 year old military rations for a week at a time.

No. Domino's has Ski-doos.

 

[Larry Elmore]

It was also the first Over the Horizon microwave telephone system.
It was supposed to have dropped that low at Ft Greely, AK, where I was
stationed. It was below -20F when we took survival training.

Never got that cold at Adak, AK. Perhaps +10F while I was there. Then
again, it never got very warm, either. 60F on one of the very rare
sunny days. The White Alice antennae were easily the most noticeable
human artifact. IIRC, there were 4 of them. Two facing Shemya and two
facing, damn, I can't remember that island's name now.

--Larry

 

[krw]

No. Domino's has Ski-doos.

I'd rather eat frozen military rations or better, the boxes
Domino's pizzas come in. A little ketchup and...

 

[Don Bowey]

Never got that cold at Adak, AK. Perhaps +10F while I was there. Then
again, it never got very warm, either. 60F on one of the very rare
sunny days. The White Alice antennae were easily the most noticeable
human artifact. IIRC, there were 4 of them. Two facing Shemya and two
facing, damn, I can't remember that island's name now.

--Larry

Nicolski was the first site upchain from Adak.

I spent half a year there. It was part of the Dew Line Extension project.

Don

 

[Don Bowey]

Paper cuts on your tongue?


The rations were between four and ten years older than I was at the
time. They were so old that each meal came with two cigarettes, and a
couple sheets of toilet paper. The crackers turned to dust when you
picked them up, the peanut butter had separated into solids and peanut
oil. Most of it was so bad that the guys couldn't eat it. I traded the
cigarettes for their deserts. It was funny to watch someone try to smoke
30 year old cigarettes. They would light them, take one puff, and it was
gone. The one meal with the canned ham wasn't bad, but others would
make you throw up yesterday's meals.

That sounds really BAD.

At Bethel, the A.F. had to prepare one dinner each week from, I think, C
rations. That was in the late 50s-early 60s so they weren't too old. Cigs
were usable, but chocolate was bitter. Other A.F. food was good, especially
considering the Motor Pool guys also cooked.

At Nicolski we (WECo Defense Projects guys) were fed by a contract Cook and
Bull-Cook, so we ate well. I hit that site at 153 lbs. And left at 165.

Don

 

[Don Bowey]

It was also the first Over the Horizon microwave telephone system.
It was supposed to have dropped that low at Ft Greely, AK, where I was
stationed. It was below -20F when we took survival training.

There was also a Tropo Scatter system between Florida and Cuba, but I don't
recall which was first.

We were always able to get first communications up using only the 6W
exciters, and then brought up the Klystron power amps later (25 to 50 kW).
We got some deep fades at low power, but it was usable instead of using HF
radio. That left more HF radio time for the ham bands.

I don't remember receiving any survival training except....... We were
issued A.F. Arctic clothing and were told to *NEVER* go anywhere without it.

Don