How old are you?

[inkyschwartz@mastodon.social]

@PE4KH @galacticstone Phreaking?

[corvus@mapstodon.space]

@fullyabstract @IrrationalMethod @galacticstone

For some reason this reminded me of our family sitting down to dinner and letting the phone ring as we scowled, "the nerve of people calling during dinner time!"
Needless to say my phone is on DND 24/7 except for my parents, my wife, and my sister.

[jztusk@mastodon.social]

@galacticstone

Payphone? We have phone at home, just wait and use that, saves a dime.

[lopta@mastodon.social]

@galacticstone When I first moved to America I refused to pay the phone company extra for tone dialling, so my push button phone was set to pulse dial.

[catsalad@infosec.exchange]

@galacticstone I am both much older and way younger than one might think.

[pe4kh@mastodon.radio]

@InkySchwartz @galacticstone yes.

[w_b@mastodon.world]

@mweiss @shapr @IrrationalMethod @galacticstone

I thought party line ringing was generated at the Central office.

[mweiss@infosec.exchange]

@w_b @shapr @IrrationalMethod @galacticstone it is. The ringer was designed to respond only to a particular pattern so it wouldn't ring at all if the call was intended for someone else on the line.

[wollman@mastodon.social]

@galacticstone I've used a phone-company-issued calling card from a Touch-Tone payphone, but I think the rotary ones were all phased out by the time I ever made a sent-paid coin call that didn't involve the operator.

I'm old enough that I was taught how to use a phone in school, including operator-assisted calls. We still had five-digit local dialing when I was in second grade. (Then we moved to a rural area remoted on a digital exchange so seven-digit dialing was mandatory.)

[mweiss@infosec.exchange]

@shapr @IrrationalMethod @galacticstone I discovered it when I brought the phone home and it didn't ring. I had to do some research online to learn about this one.

[sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online]

@galacticstone
One of my first tasks as a technical editor was to assist the senior editor in taking apart and putting together the pay part of a payphone, to test the documentation.
It didn't go according to the instructions but we fixed them.

I remember button A and button B!

[eaterofsnacks@tilde.zone]

@galacticstone Can't call yourself old school unless you've tipped a street urchin a farthing to run a message from Kensington to Whitechapel, preferably in mid-winter.

[w_b@mastodon.world]

@mweiss @shapr @IrrationalMethod @galacticstone

Thank you for clarifying that. I should see a phone geek friend tomorrow. I'll have to ask about it.

[ljrk@todon.eu]

@galacticstone rotary, 28yo

[graand@thecanadian.social]

@galacticstone @Wyatt_H_Knott Ah yes, the infamous butt set! I have one of those in my toolkit from way back in my early networking days. Telco services were a thing and confirming dial tone was important.

[stinerman@mastodon.social]

@galacticstone ope! I didn't read carefully. I've used a rotary phone but not a rotary payphone. I have used a touch tone payphone. 1-800-COLLECT.

[chinmay@social.treehouse.systems]

@galacticstone I've used coin-operated, button-keypad payphones a single digit number of times, I don't know what a touch-tone is

[mikeimback@disabled.social]

@galacticstone I once found a gram of weed in the change slot of a payphone, and a group of young boys down the sidewalk a little, nervously watching me (ie: old enough that payphones were used to score weed)

[virtulis@loud.computer]

@galacticstone I've used a touch tone payphone to dictate a shopping list for dad's pager, is that anything.

And many years later to make a recipient-paid call when my prepaid sim ran out.

Other than those few occurrences, I'm really close to never having used any kind of payphone.

I might have been the last generation where it was normal and expected to not have a comms device on you at all times for most of my childhood. Good times.

[zigi_now9@autistics.life]

@galacticstone I don't know what a payphone is, and I don't know if it's because I'm a young chachŏr or a non-native English speaker, or both. :3