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What was surprising, and quite annoying was that many cell phone systems failed. Can't say if it was overload or a dependence on power, but they weren't working. On top of that the fancy bell phone booths didn't know how to accept a quarter without power.. there was a dial tone, but it couldn't produce the tones, so I couldn't even call collect.
on the bright side... this is the least amount of spam I've sat down to in the morning for years.
I'm one of three people at my office. Power's up, Internet's up, servers are working, but nobody's showed up yet. Sigh...
I bet I could've just not showed up and nobody would've held it against me. All I can hope for is karma points for showing up when the boss hasn't even come in yet...
There was a festival atmosphere last night. Bars were open by candlelight and lots of counting money by hand and scrounging the video game machines for quarters to give out as change because the register was stuck shut. Beers were cold, though-- big tubs of ice. The taps stayed cold until about 9:30, but after that they were too warm to drink unless you were willing to drink beer with ice in it.
Nice Blitz spirit, lots of people with candles and accoustic guitars.
I felt bad for those stranded in subways and elevators, but apparently they were all pulled out safely, and most people were pretty good-humored about it all.
You kind of wish these benign disasters would happen more often because they do remind us to talk to our neighbors once in a while, to open our windows and turn out the lights and look at the stars for once.
We haven't had any power problems in Denver (we're on the west coast power grid)
after that they were too warm to drink
Our Brit members might have been able to keep on enjoying them for some time... :) My daughter lives in Brooklyn, but ended up spending the night at a co-worker's apartment in Manhattan. Subways will be the last things to be powered up, I guess... they said 6 - 9 hours after power was fully restored.
Well. Certain beers you just don't want to drink warm. Mostly, American beers. They're just not designed for it. Bleh.
I had a couple of Heinekens that were so so so cold and frosty. Brr! It was great. And the breeze from the back stoop where the more drunken bar patrons were sitting outside was quite pleasant.
I don't imagine the subways will be running for a while. I'm sure they're not going to even start powering them up until they're totally sure the power's not going down again. I sure wouldn't want to be on one if the power was dodgy! They're scary enough.
I live in Syracuse, NY. I had power back on at my house by 10pm. Some areas around here never lost power.
-Pete
On top of that the fancy bell phone booths didn't know how to accept a quarter without power.. there was a dial tone, but it couldn't produce the tones, so I couldn't even call collect.
well, they'd hit the switchhook (at least) ten times... that was the exact same thing as dialing zero for the operator... with proper timing and counting, one can dial most anywhere... but the system must handle pulse dialing...
lift handset
press, release
press, release
press, release 5
press, release
press, release
pause
press, release
press, release
press, release 5
press, release
press, release
pause
press, release
press, release
press, release 5
press, release
press, release
pause
press, release 1
pause
press, release 2
press, release
pause
press, release 1
pause
press, release 2
press, release
:o:);)
lift handset
press, release
I tried a little 'tappa, tappa, tappa', but to no avail. I was considering trying to voice some 'beep, beep' stuff into it, but I'm sure I wouldn't get the DTFM signals quite right.
anyway, most of them, TTBOMK, are still able to be operated manually... if you had dialtone and ten tappa's didn't work, that's about the only other thing i can think of...
you're right in that you would likely not get the tones correct... they are actually a combination of two tones... each row has a tone and each column has a tone... the combination of the two tells the telco which button you are pushing ;)
no, what i described isn't/wasn't phone phreaking... that's done "deeper" in the system... similar type stuff, though, with the tones... not able to be done in this day in time... not like it was then...
who remembers the first phone phreaker?
what was his real name?
what was handle/nickname?
how did he get it?
You'd phone yourself to get a busy signal. Then you'd yell 'hello!' loud and sometimes others would reply. Somehow busy signals were connected together but I never understood the mechanism.
Tried to build an audio filter to get rid of the loud busy signal tones.
Boring childhood.
Several years later, there was a local newspaper article about the practice. But I and a few friends did it first
steven something? Woznick? or was he just the most prominent...
Captain Crunch? (or something like that)
"who remembers the first phone phreaker?"
steven something? Woznick? or was he just the most prominent...
nope... Steve "the Woz" Wozniak was one of the founders of Apple Computers... yes, they did get into trouble with blueboxes and such but the Woz is not this character...
[edited by: wkitty42 at 7:07 pm (utc) on Aug. 15, 2003]
"what was handle/nickname?"
Captain Crunch? (or something like that)
yes, this person's handle/nickname is/was Captain Crunch...
still waiting for someone to come up with how he got this name... ;)
http:**//student.dcu.ie/~cannonk3/hackers/essay1.html
damn I feel old for a young guy.
Wow. I haven't heard a phone actually *ring* in I-don't-know-how-many years... I'll have to try that clicking the cradle buttons trick. That's nifty. :)
(Yep, here in the middle-of-nowhere Alaska, the power goes out for no more than a few hours, and the power company calls you back to make sure when it's come back on... hehehe)
correct... it was the toy whistle that captain crunch cereal gave away...
'nother question... what was the second whistle that was also used for phreaking?
still waiting on someone to say what captain crunch's real name is/was...
i keep a few of those around for those times when the electronic stuff just doesn't cut it... with your own two wires, a 9volt battery and two of those old style phones, you can set up your very own private comm link... it's not hooked into anything other than the two wires and the battery... kinda like the two cans and a string ;)
geez, someone needs to come up with the last two answers and we can end this off topic topic :o :)
