pre-internet woes

[MikeW]

sure it seemed friendlier back then, people seem so solitary now

I'm convinced that the next major step in technology will be biological interfacing. That is, our connectivity won't be something we carry with us, it will be something that is apart of our physiology and connected directly to our neurological pathways. And given the rate of change I've witnessed in my lifetime, I expect this to occur sooner than most believe possible and become as ubiquitous as cell phones very quickly.

[ShiftyNJ]

Anbody remember crank telephones that were about three feet tall and hung on the wall? Or how about placing long distance calls by calling the operator, giving the number and waiting to be called back when the number was connected? I also lived in a place where there were party lines. In that town, you picked up the phone and gave teh operator the number and were connected. She knew your friends anyway, so I wold just say, "Is Mike home?" and she would connect him. When I was in fifth grade, we were actually taken on a field trip to the phone company where a push button phone was demonstrated as a thing of the future and we were taught how to use a dial phone. The phones, by the way, were hard wired into your house and they belonged to the phone company.

I do remember well stretching the phone wire as far as it would go to talk privately in the laundry room. I grew up so far out in the sticks... we didn't have one, but I knew people that were still on party lines in the mid-80s. Also, in my town and the next one over, you could dial the last number of the exchange and the four-number extension and the call would go through.

As teens we went through a rash of asking the operator for an "emergency breakthrough" when someone wouldn't get off the line when we had drama to share. I think it ended up being in the paper.

[meridannight]

I'm convinced that the next major step in technology will be biological interfacing. That is, our connectivity won't be something we carry with us, it will be something that is apart of our physiology and connected directly to our neurological pathways.

no thanks! i will never go for that one. call me old-fashioned, but i will not willingly mess with the physiology of my brain. brain is an electrical processor, most of the information is digital (i.e. there either is an action potential, or there isn't), imagine if you messed with that? you could accidentally shut it down or send false commands.

and it is not as close as it may look when thinking about the progress of technology. we still don't know human brain in all its intricacies and it is unimaginable we start changing or altering the way it functions before we know for sure. everything before then is a lab-rat experiment.

and we already have perfectly good ways to alter the brain where it is needed and where it matters. it's called DRUGS. they're temporary, achieve the effect that is needed, and research has technically infinite possibilities to improve even further on them. actual physiological interface with your brain is not necessary (at least not the way things are right now).

[Virge]

Anbody remember crank telephones that were about three feet tall and hung on the wall? Or how about placing long distance calls by calling the operator, giving the number and waiting to be called back when the number was connected?

Oh man! Those were one of the first things I started buying up around here and hauling to the big cities and selling for prices I ought to be ashamed of!!!!!!! I salvaged three wooden door with glass panes phone booths that had been in a closed down hospital here... They had seats and ashtrays built into them. I still have a two of the old wooden wall phones (like pic below) that have dials on them. I've never paid more than $100 for any of them and gotten most of them for nothing. AND I still have supply of the old old pay phones and I'm being slow about selling them so I don't flood the market and make the price go down.

If any of you ever run up on really cheap old phones like these grab them up no matter what shape they're in. Just contact me and I'll put you on to the guys who restore the wiring on them etc... and NEVER put them on ebay. Talking to the right dealers, you can get over $800 each on any of them... and even get a comma in the price on some.

I remember IBM round-ball "Selectric" typewriters:

I don't remember much of what happened yesterday though.

The old guy I have told some of you about STILL TYPES on one of them and has about a dozen balls he can change out for different fonts. It's funny as heck to hear that thing typing. It sounds like someone beating a toy wind up mechanical chicken with a hammer.

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Now for my next big find up here...... A guy told me about a old building in a town nearby where the first veteran's hospital up here moved everything they had when they expanded to a new building. That was right after WWII. I don't know of anyone who'd want old hospital beds and things like that except movie studios maybe. But I do have nine high back three wheeled wheel chairs with woven rattan seats and backs. All the rattan is going to have to be redone and it's going to mean I'll have to take them out of state to get it done cheap. I know of one similar that sold retail for $1,800 a few months back. So there's a good profit margin for me to sell them wholesale.



and ...... there's about 2 dozen solid wood ones with 4 wheels...

[Wolfpack]

I remember always running around while on Holidays tring to find a pay phone to contact relatives back at home to let them know we had got there all right, and of course it would most likely be raining while looking for said pay phone. 'sigh' the days before mobile phones.

[Iceblink]

I remember every one of those things, but I am starting to get the hang of this internet thing. My GeoCities home page is really starting to look fabulous!

[ShiftyNJ]

I have a couple cool old dial phones around here... I always liked the "slimline" series with miniature dial and no gap between 0 and 1, so the finger stop actually moved from five o'clock to six o'clock when you start dialing. I have one of those which still works. I miss phones and other appliances being heavy and solid... you could actually "slam down the phone" without it cracking in half, or walk away from the desk without it crashing to the floor (and cracking in half).

[ShiftyNJ]

I remember every one of those things, but I am starting to get the hang of this internet thing. My GeoCities home page is really starting to look fabulous!

LOL I logged into my Myspace not long ago just to clear away the tumbleweeds.