pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
This can be another 'you hate it when' type threads. Make this one for something you used to take for granted that just went away without much notice. I started this one so our other thread that I'm rather keen on wouldn't get off track.
The goddamned telephones. No more pay phones, no more beepy pagers and most people could care less if a desk telephone is working or not. Nobody is going to dial a carrier access code to save money on long distance because long distance sort of went away too and younger folks wouldn't know what the hell it is. The service life of those old phones and systems is measured in decades and in some cases I've had to set up things that are older than the people using them. At one time they were THE network that connected you to everyone else. The Public Switched Telephone Network. It's still there because it has to be, because it still provides a necessary structure but an alternative has appeared that looks and smells a lot like it, but isn't.
This is where your robocall bullshit comes from.
There really is no 'land line' service anymore, the exceptions probably being rural areas. Fiber optic transport and fully digital conversion took place in the 90s. Only the last 'golden mile' or so of aerial twisted pair wire connected to your house. Remember early DSL and the filters you had to use? What was high speed internet service at the time had to work over a network designed for something else. Now that's all gone and what was the traditional phone provider brings the plastic pipe right to you desktop - FiOS. If you look you'll find all that old land line cable cut, coiled or laying in the bushes. Or maybe it's the cable company that brings you the service. Same exact thing applies except they're still fooking around with that coaxial cable for the last mile. It doesn't have the limitations of twisted pair but it isn't that glorious plastic pipe either. Old tech to be eventually phased out.
Whatever gadgets your provider shows up with will have a telephony jack somewhere should you choose to pay for their service. Sometimes it's covered by a sticker and you don't notice it. I painted my kitchen yellow to match my 1970 Harvest Gold Western Electric, fully modular with a metal hook switch and plastic rotary dial. In the basement I keep a black 1960 WE2500 all metal, all hardwired - had to rewire it from 'party line' service if you want to remember that (I don't particularly, but do anyway) . Along with a bunch of others and a couple of PBXs. They don't know that Ma Bell's dead. That little telephony port looks, feels and behaves exactly as that old landline did. They don't know they live in the Matrix, that everything beyond line of sight is done via PFM not analog electronics.
The goddamned telephones. No more pay phones, no more beepy pagers and most people could care less if a desk telephone is working or not. Nobody is going to dial a carrier access code to save money on long distance because long distance sort of went away too and younger folks wouldn't know what the hell it is. The service life of those old phones and systems is measured in decades and in some cases I've had to set up things that are older than the people using them. At one time they were THE network that connected you to everyone else. The Public Switched Telephone Network. It's still there because it has to be, because it still provides a necessary structure but an alternative has appeared that looks and smells a lot like it, but isn't.
This is where your robocall bullshit comes from.
There really is no 'land line' service anymore, the exceptions probably being rural areas. Fiber optic transport and fully digital conversion took place in the 90s. Only the last 'golden mile' or so of aerial twisted pair wire connected to your house. Remember early DSL and the filters you had to use? What was high speed internet service at the time had to work over a network designed for something else. Now that's all gone and what was the traditional phone provider brings the plastic pipe right to you desktop - FiOS. If you look you'll find all that old land line cable cut, coiled or laying in the bushes. Or maybe it's the cable company that brings you the service. Same exact thing applies except they're still fooking around with that coaxial cable for the last mile. It doesn't have the limitations of twisted pair but it isn't that glorious plastic pipe either. Old tech to be eventually phased out.
Whatever gadgets your provider shows up with will have a telephony jack somewhere should you choose to pay for their service. Sometimes it's covered by a sticker and you don't notice it. I painted my kitchen yellow to match my 1970 Harvest Gold Western Electric, fully modular with a metal hook switch and plastic rotary dial. In the basement I keep a black 1960 WE2500 all metal, all hardwired - had to rewire it from 'party line' service if you want to remember that (I don't particularly, but do anyway) . Along with a bunch of others and a couple of PBXs. They don't know that Ma Bell's dead. That little telephony port looks, feels and behaves exactly as that old landline did. They don't know they live in the Matrix, that everything beyond line of sight is done via PFM not analog electronics.
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