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Pictorial and Written History of Bell Systems

Posted by michael on from the ma-knows-what-you-want dept.

gngulrajani writes "I have wasted an afternoon digging though this website. Lots of old school Bell marketing posters as well as technical specifications for things such as 'Telephone Memory Devices' and a 'dataphone service'."

4 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. AT&T Going Underground. by Dieppe · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    This is from a print ad concerning the "Plot" to bury AT&T with a black and white picture of a bunch of people with shovels on top.

    We're going underground. Bit by bit we're burying our telephone lines in many parts of the country to give you better service.

    Our purpose is not just to unclutter the landscape, although neighborhoods will look neater. Underground cables are rarely affected by storms. And they're never kayoed[?] by falling limbs or wayward autos.

    Our service is good but we keep trying to make it better. And ourselves more welcome than ever around your home. Going underground is one part of that effort. We may be the only phone company in town, but we try not to act like it.

    "Kayoed"??? What unique language is this? *reaching for dictionary*

    Oh I see.

    kayo

    n. Sports pl. kayos

    A knockout in boxing.

    tr.v. kayoed, kayoing, kayos

    1.Sports. To knock out.

    2.Slang. To put out of commission.

    Ah, there must be one other /.er who knows that on sight! (Well it's mildly amusing to me anyway.)

    Well at least Microsoft's motto isn't "We may be the only OS in town, and we act like it."

  2. Re:Baby bells by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I purchased my first computer, an Apple ][+

    This is off-topic but I just can't help it anymore. There was never any such thing as an "Apple ][" nor was there any such thing as an "Apple //". There was, however, an "Apple II". That's right, roman numeral II. The symbols that look like ][ and // are just FONTS! They are FONTS of text that means the roman numeral II. The first one truncates the inboard serifs just to be stylish, and the second one is just an italic sans serif. No one ever tries to use alternative characters to replicate the fonts of other products; why do they always do it with the Apple II? It's a mystery.

  3. Re:Baby bells by NanoGator · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    "This is off-topic but I just can't help it anymore. There was never any such thing as an "Apple ][" nor was there any such thing as an "Apple //"

    Oh man, I'm so glad you came by and cleared this up. I've been saying Apple Slash Slash for years!!!

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  4. Re:Baby bells by ZorinLynx · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Historical tidbit: You couldn't type a [ on the Apple II keyboard. Yup! No [!!! Holy crap! You could, however, type a ]. How? Shift-M! Yet there was no ] over the M.

    Some programming languages that required [ and ] had control key combinations to produce them in their editors, since they weren't on the keyboard. Other characters missing were {} (oh no, I can't write C!), the backslash, and lower case letters.

    Fun system, it was. With limitations that almost sound like a joke today...