This is an odd one, because I long ago should have asked and gotten an answer - among other things, I was in the advanced telephony field when it started merging with computers, and I’ve designed and built a variety of telecom gear. But a comment on the “when you were a child, you thought…” thread sparked this question.
Around 1968-72, there was a local 916 area code Pacific Bell number we could call - I can’t remember the exchange other than that it was local (481, for example) and the subscriber number was 0000. It would answer on one ring and provide a minute or so of the most wonderful sounds before it hung up: a combination of faint rising-and falling tone with about a 3-second cycle, a wheee-youp, wheee-youp sound at about normal voice level with a 2/3 second cycle, and a very faint sound that would go up to a very high pitch. (The last is odd because phones then and mostly now are limited to a voice channel of 300-2800 Hz, and this seemed much higher.)
I figured out over time, as modems became more common, that it was some kind of modem-ish comm or control connection. Does anyone with knowledge of ca. 1970 telecom gear know specifically what it might have been?
I don’t know how specific you want to get but it was probably a modem or a fax machine. They had both back then (side note: the first fax machine was invented in the 1840’s! before phones even existed; they communicated through telegraph lines at first). If it was a modem, it was probably connected to a mainframe at a university or government facility. That was the most common use for modems back then.
I’m hoping some old Bell tech is around and can guess very specifically what it might have been. Being on the 0000 subscriber number almost certainly means it was telco internal. I hadn’t thought of a fax machine, but it could have been one of the era like those used by police - what were those called? We saw them in a few movies and TV shows of the early 1960s, as the bad guy’s image slowwwwlly printed out. I’d have to see if the handshake signals sounded anything like what I recall.
In 1970, a modem was a box about the size of small fridge, and sat between the mainframe and its terminals. For anybody running a computer system to allow anyone to connect via phone would have been a huge security risk (as we all now know), so it probably was a school.
In 1976, I took a COBOL class at a small branch of some University (don’t remember).
We connected via a dial-up - you picked you the handset, dialed the number, and, upone getting that hi-low signal, placed the handset into a cradle with foam rings like headphones for the microphone and speaker. I think we were blazing at 9600 baud. Yes, the terminals were teletype-the display was printout.
FAX machines still operate (as of the last 10 years, at least) at 9600.
Not a clue. It was some of that secret knowledge passed from kid to kid, who had probably discovered it by dialing random weird number.
Yeah, my experience with computers goes back to PDP-6 teleprinters and 4-bit HP engineering computers, so I was with the rise of modems pretty much all the way. This particular case has bugged me from time to time, even though I can make pretty close guesses. I’d love to know someday *exactly *what it was, but those who know are probably all dead by now.
9600 baud? Using an acoustic coupler? I don’t recall acoustic couplers that fast.
When I first started programming in 1971 or 1972, I was using a 110 baud acoustic that was later upgraded to 300. I can’t recall what the first 1200 baud modem looked like that I used, but the first 2400 baud unit I used was a standalone unit about the size of a cigar box and there was no phone.
Probably not, as the Telex network was hardwired from machine to the Telex switch equipment.
As Gary “Wombat” Robson said, I’d be surprised if an acoustic coupler modem worked at 9600. I did build a 1200 baud one that could use acoustic coupling and I think that would be the limit. My first 2400 baud one was definitely plugged in to the telephone line.
Maybe Scott Adams knows what it was! After all, he worked for Pacific Bell before “Dilbert” let him quit.
Yeah, and Dilbert went to hell when he quit. Anybody else ever work at the “Crooked Cross” PacBell center in San Ramon?
I did a (very brief) contract there. The first thing I was told, after being assigned a cubie and given ID and beeper (which guaranteed that I was not going to extend) was:
“Scott Adams - you know - Dilbert! He works here! He is in cubie 1Q(something)”
These people actually took pride in being the model for that exquisitely dysfunctional office Dilbert portrayed.
And the scary part: Scott Adams made the place look better than it could have ever hoped to be.
The entire workforce spends its time in “meetings”
Attendance is taken in these meetings. Failure to attend gets you in trouble.
“Project Managers” have no staff - Application Managers have staff.
Calling meetings became a pissing contest to see who could demand the presence of the most people.
Consider this: I once attended a “meeting” with 36 people (yes, there was plenty of time to count. Purpose of meeting: Being read a “status” report on a project that made no progress (because everybody was constantly in “meetings”.
I suppose I should also note:
Remember grade school, where your greatest hope was to get a little gold star next to your name?
Actually saw an easel with peoples names neatly printed on a grid - some of them actually had 3" gold stars beside them.
