About the photo...
Last year, my daughter Aurora and I were walking around in Muir Woods and we came across this payphone.
It's weird to me it's designed for kids. It's like something out of a horror movie. But that's not what this post is about.
Installing a payphone in my house | bertrand fan
The first part of blog is...
When I was growing up in the 90s, I remember wanting to get on the Internet. My parents weren’t going to help me, so I called up an ISP and said I wanted to set up an account. They asked for my name and I gave them a fake name. And then they asked for a credit card number and I told them I had to find my wallet and call them back.
There's more information that I'm sharing for science. I don't know how old he was at the time (a teenager?) but he figures out a way to use the net for free via payphones and clever math.
The second part is how/why he installed a payphone in his house. Their daughter "calls" him or his wife.
My daughter is 5 - I don’t want her dialing 911.
I also don’t want her calling up an ISP and convincing them to make an account for her - I’m not quite ready to reap what I sow.
Technically the two phones could talk to each other, but first a call would have to be made to get into “Dad, get off the phone!” territory. Do those phone numbers that tell you the time still exist? Do they stop talking after a while?
This is when I discovered a crazy piece of technology, a phone line simulator.
[...]
I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but at random hours in the day I’ll be working in my office and the payphone will ring and my daughter will tell me about her dolls for a minute or so and then I’ll say, “That’s great, but I have to get back to work.” and we’ll say goodbye until the next time. Most of the time, it’s a nice break.
It's weird to me it's designed for kids. It's like something out of a horror movie.
it's designed for accessibilty
Yep, the phone is low-mounted in a standard height box so an average adult can comfortably stand under the awning without smacking their head, but a child, little person, or someone in a wheelchair can access the device comfortably as well.
The maximum height for the highest operational area of the phone, in this case the coin-op, is 48 inches from the ground for ADA compliance. All standalone payphone units must be mounted at that height, and since payphone banks are largely a thing of the past, most payphones are now like this.
The ADA is genuinely one of the only good things the US has ever done and accessibility is sorely behind here in Canada.
I googled him to see what cool stuff he's doing.
Bertrand Fan - OpenAI
Oh, well.
I think US cities ought to start installing payphones again, but charge only a single penny for a call. They're not gonna stop making pennies on accounta that one company that has a contract with mint to provide the zinc -- so we have these pseudo-copper discs with no real practical use. If states and cities had ¢1 payphones, then one dollar would always be worth 100 phone calls, no matter what inflation did. You could tie in other services too, things that are never going to make a profit at the point of service but who's function pays out across other sectors of the economy. A bus ride should always cost a dime. Single quarter laundromats. That sort of thing. If the feds won't peg the damn dollar to a basket of goods, make the cities peg the zinc!
If states and cities had...
I like those ideas. All them together don't use pennies but for the pun It could be called zinco to make fun of crypto. Like... Zinco is great! And it doesn't wreck the planet by using 1% of US energy consumption like something we won't name!
one company that has a contract with mint to provide the zinc
Could you tell me the name? I googled but the results were a pile of crap. God, I hate google now.
Jarden Zinc Products
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarden_Zinc_Products
firefox lets you keep several search engines on hand
right click the toolbar and select "Customize"
if you add a designated search bar, it will let you add various search engines to the roster when you're on the webpage (the magnifying glass changes colour and gets a little plus+ symbol)
you can start typing something in it and press TAB to cycle through which search to use
I usually use https://duckduckgo.com/ or https://yandex.com/ though i also added stuff like ebay or the minecraft wiki for quick access as needed.
I think intercoms, speaking tubes, and phone line simulators are cool. I want some situation where I have an excuse to set up a working pair of Western Electric 2500 or 2554 telephones. no dialing, just pick up and talk, and maybe one aftermarket button for ringing every other connected phone. Maybe instead of a button, a dynamo crank for a very retro feel. or perhaps in addition to ringing, you also have small red incandescent indicator bulb that illuminates on every Telephone when receiver is lifted.
a dynamo crank for a very retro feel.
"Ahoy hoy - this is kitchen. We are receiving..."
small red incandescent indicator bulb that illuminates...
That sounds cool.
I feel very, very old...
Eli5: Why does the coin drop after hanging up the pay phone : explainlikeimfive
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