How to Dial

[Boink]

Just a public service announcement (for millennials):

 

[Gliderman8]

Where’s the “@“ symbol? How do you access your email?
It will never catch on.

 

[dklawson]

Oddly enough, just this week I was looking online for "corded phones". I want a second corded phone for our land line (I don't have a cell) so I can call the power company when the power goes out. I was amazed that all the cheap corded phones have about 8% to 15% "one star" ratings. How can such a mature and almost obsolete technology cause so many problems?

My wife and I have taken to watching Perry Mason. We were amazed how common it was for Perry to be visiting a witness and receive a phone call at THEIR residence or office. I guess it was the precursor to call forwarding.

 

[NutmegCT]

Doug - I'd bet that those cheap corded phones are made by the gazillions, probably overseas, and have circuitry and parts that don't last long (maybe more than a minute!). Back when we rented the phone directly from the phone company - at the astronomical price of $1.75/month - if the phone failed, you got a replacement within 24 hours.

So it's often that the buyer's technology fails - not the phone company's switching system. Here's an old memory:

(And back before the end user could actually *dial* a number, does anyone remember the song 'Hello Central - give me heaven" ?)

https://youtu.be/FhahxDLdRDA

 

[Boink]

Cool video!!!

 

[Silverghost]

And of course the timeless Lily Tomlin.....One ringy dingy.....

 

[Silverghost]

And of course the timeless Lily Tomlin.....One ringy dingy.....

 

[mikephillips]

So now they can recognize a dial, but there's nothing to tell them how to use it. I can just see some youngster punching at the numbers and crying "where is the screen and why doesn't it connect!!'

 

[Boink]

NEXT UP: how to write a check! :highly_amused:

 

[Gliderman8]

NEXT UP: how to write a check! :highly_amused:

And tell time on an analog clock.

 

[mikephillips]

Considering how many are not being taught cursive writing anymore just reading and signing could be the problem

 

[NutmegCT]

Mike was reading my mind. I was working with some junior interns (summer ed program) at Sturbridge Village. I asked one to read my list of chores upstairs in the diary book. He came back down after a few minutes, and said "We don't learn that old fashioned writing."

Yep

 

[mikephillips]

A few years ago when my second brother and family moved to their current home my now 17yo niece was in 4th grade and apparently turned in something written in cursive. Her teacher told her to stop doing that since they hadn't taught kids for several years to use it, and she didn't want the rest to feel bad that the new kid knew something they didn't. Little sister then never learned. What's kind of sad is one of my great grandfathers taught handwriting to business people and office staff back in the teens and twenties and would be appalled were he here today.

 

[John Turney]

Takes me back to the days when I did drawings for Pacific Bell during school vacations. As a result of my drafting days, I quit doing cursive. Unlike my peers, the typists could read my writing (in the days before word processing). I remember our secretary at Bechtel saying "Write it right the first time; I'm not typing revisions."

 

[Boink]

Considering how many are not being taught cursive writing anymore just reading and signing could be the problem

My grand-daughters are not. Wonder what a "signature" will mean in the future.

 

[DavidApp]

Clockwise and counter clockwise will soon be meaningless as they will have never seen a clock with hands that move.

My sister living in Australia is volunteering on a project to digitize ships manifests. Soon there will be very few who can read Copperplate script or cursive.

David

 

[Bayless]

Have to admit that I pretty much gave up cursive over 50 years ago. As a "programmer" my writings had to be read by a keypunch operator and converted to cards for input. Not only did the characters have to be clearly printed but they even had to fit in the carefully designed little outlined spaces on the appropriate form. Probably just as well though as I did not have a "good hand", as they used to say.

 

[waltesefalcon]

I only write in cursive on the board and my students have to learn it when they arrive in my class or be more confused than high school kids normally are. Luckily our schools here in Oklahoma realized they made a huge mistake when the state decided to drop cursive from the curriculum. That makes me a little sad as I won't be able to torture students once they come to my class equipped with the tools they need to read my writing.

 

[Boink]

I stopped with cursive in college... but it remains in a signature.

 

[John Turney]

I learned that signatures don't have to be readable, just distinctive. After signing dozens of ship's logs every day, mine became much simpler. On a related note, there was a brain teaser in Reader's Digest (remember that one?) to compare names with signatures. The one that I was sure was Khrushchev's actually belonged to Eisenhower.