Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "Carlos E. R." Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: Distros specifically designed for children Date: Fri, 30 May 2025 22:39:31 +0200 Lines: 52 Message-ID: References: <100ljn1$30vat$2@dont-email.me> <6831b9a7$0$8595$426a74cc@news.free.fr> <6832fab9$0$11442$426a74cc@news.free.fr> <10102st$1j2ov$1@dont-email.me> <10131ao$28rgm$1@dont-email.me> <1015efc$2rf1i$5@dont-email.me> <1017d5j$3aupc$1@dont-email.me> <10197p6$1k6fh$1@news1.tnib.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net pTX4rPMTr3yCQq+M8RbghgNwQloTsKedHDkojh/zoPOr/+tYGJ Cancel-Lock: sha1:2GG45OqeTKToYjcwLZNI2zx2Zbs= sha256:Bnfsgvn4am8u7Q0VzJFmUMg4kBIwl2tTAsQgYiF1WVw= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Content-Language: en-CA, es-ANY In-Reply-To: Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:68026 On 2025-05-30 19:14, Charlie Gibbs wrote: > On 2025-05-30, c186282 wrote: > >> On 5/30/25 1:39 AM, rbowman wrote: >> >>> GE sent a friend and I to the fair, trying to groom potential engineers in >>> promising high school students. GE isn't what it was then, and one of the >>> few things that did happen was touch tone dialing. Kennedy opened the fair >>> with a TT phone and there was a booth where you could see how much faster >>> it was than a rotary dial. Of course Ma Bell owned the whole shebang. >>> >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs4zjEwqdJQ > > I remember seeing an exhibit like that somewhere at about the same time. Birmingham (UK) Science Museum, summer 1976. >> "Touch-tone" WAS do-able ... > > But you had to pay for it. A friend and I hacked relays into our modems' > phone connection, activated by the DTR line. A suitable driver enabled > us to pulse dial at whatever speed we wanted. Maybe it was just the COs > updating their equipment for Touch-Tone, but we found that we could pulse > dial at 20 pps. It was almost as fast as Touch-Tone. Wow. > >> But STILL want my flying car !!! > > I'm not so sure about that. The way people are driving these days, > the last thing I want to see is for flying to gain mass appeal. They are trying to do that with big drone like fly-taxis, automated :-) >> When I was a kiddie, a teacher took us to the proximate >> Bell/ATT facility. It was PACKED with row after row after >> row of relay-operated dialer machines. Physically connected >> one physical line with others. SO cool to watch ! Ca-chunk, >> ca-chunk, ca-chunk the discs would go around in order to >> connect A with B - layer after layer. Straight-up wired >> contacts back then, no software. Electro-mechanical magic ! > > Early-stage techno-porn. Loved it. > -- Cheers, Carlos E.R.