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Introduction to the Dial Telephone (1936) [video]

41 points| adamnemecek | 10 years ago |youtube.com | reply

10 comments

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[+] bch|10 years ago|reply
Some new, and some familiar DTMF[0] there. You can try it out directly with xmms by playing this "location": tone://440;480

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-tone_multi-frequency_sign...

[+] jd3|10 years ago|reply
nice. didn't know xmms could play tones like that. I've moved on to using mpd+theremin on this install, but I still have good 'ol xmms through pkgsrc ;)

really cool stuff.

[+] DyslexicAtheist|10 years ago|reply
later versions contained an Easter egg: If you dialled a certain number you could listen to a voice announcing the time.

This eventually became so popular that it was eventually implemented as an official feature.

Also this eventually inspired David L. Mills to come up with the initial design of the NTP protocol.

OK I'll see myself out ...

[+] rootbear|10 years ago|reply
In the US, the voice would say "At the tone, the time will be 12:23 and 40 seconds ... BEEP!"

But in the UK it was "At the third stroke, the time will be 12:23 and 40 seconds ... beep! beep! beeeep!"

I like the UK version because you can get into the rhythm, like when a music conductor counts beats before an entrance. It would be interesting to know if anyone had done a study to see if the UK version produced better results.

A local radio music show in the 70's edited the US version for their intro into "At the time the tone will be 1 .. 2 .. 1 2 3 4" <music starts>.