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Louisiana Towns Going High-Tech

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the rated-c-for-can-you-hear-me-now dept.

wolverineinspector writes "Mink, LA is finally getting telephone land lines after the neighbouring communities got theirs in 1970. In the article they also say that as many as 6.2% of US homes don't have phone service - that would mean that 19 million Americans don't have wired phone lines available to them."

16 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. Re:welcome to teh 20th century by drxray · · Score: 3, Funny

    Their first call:

    "Hi. Got Skype?"

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  2. Bad Credit? by mfh · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just because 6.2% of people don't have wired phones doesn't mean that the service isn't available to them. A lot of people ditch their wired lines and just use their cell phone.

    I'm guessing it's bad credit.

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  3. Re:and by PoopJuggler · · Score: 5, Funny

    It also means that 6.2% of Americans aren't getting gouged or ripped-off by the telcos.

  4. Telephones just now, eh? by nxtr · · Score: 4, Funny

    So much for Canada being the great white north.

  5. Don't forget the Amish by UpLateDrinkingCoffee · · Score: 4, Funny
    In the article they also say that as many as 6.2% of US homes don't have phone service - that would mean that 19 million Americans don't have wired phone lines available to them."
    Maybe some people just don't want a telephone, like the Amish. They certainly don't account for 6.2% of U.S. homes, but I'll bet it's a factor.
    1. Re:Don't forget the Amish by deathazre · · Score: 5, Funny

      the hell, the amish have a website?

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    2. Re:Don't forget the Amish by commodoresloat · · Score: 2, Funny

      Even Baptists have a website now!

  6. What the hell? by evilviper · · Score: 3, Funny
    No matter how many times I read it, I have no clue what the hell this paragraph in the story is supposed to mean:

    The analog service, which is being phased out here, also lacks features like voice mail. So people like Ray, who sells fire-extinguishing systems for Firetrace International in the Southeast, can sometimes be found at the local Dumpster in a clearing, shouting into his digital cell phone: "How is the signal? HOW IS THE SIGNAL?"


    Whaaaaaa?
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  7. Re: welcome to teh 20th century by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 2, Funny
    Trrriiiiinnnggg....

    "Yes? Hello?"

    "Hello! I am calling you to inform you of our wonderful new product line, introduced this week. Would you care to take a little time and hear more about it?"

    "WTF ?!?"

    "I see. Sorry to have bothered you. Have a nice day, ma'am."

  8. Re:I didn't either... by jschottm · · Score: 4, Funny

    What a waste, every call on the land line is a telemarketer...about 6-10 a day.

    At the very least, use it for some fun. Just get an answering machine without a ringer. Here's some ideas to get you started:

    1. Record the little error tone that the phone company uses and get a woman to do a really pinched voice, "The number you have called, 555-1234, has been changed. The new number is 555-1234. Please note this change."

    2. Get someone to do the voice of an elderly person, "Hello? Hello? You're goana have to speak up sonny, I'm a little hard of hearing. What? You're calling from who?" It helps if you can get a really long recording time.

    3. I'm going to assume from your username that you're down in Texas. Just record something really unpleasant happening on a farm to a cow.

    4. Fax handshake. For added style points, record a message and record a 300 baud modem sending it in plaintext ala Information Society.

    5. Amusing excerpts - for a while I had bits of Deliverence or the introduction to Jesus Built My Hotrod as my message.

    6. Same concept as 2, but get an actual little kid. "No, Daddy doesn't want to talk to you. I have blocks. I like them. I make..."

    At the end of the month, play back the messages and see if you got any amusing responses. It would be more amusing to hack up a Linux telephony box so you could record their responses as the message plays, but that might be a little too much effort.

  9. Huh? Dont tell me... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 3, Funny

    ---The Federal Communications Commission does not keep track of places without phone service, but a survey released in October found that 93.8 percent of American households had telephones of some sort

    Was it a PHONE survey? Please dont say it so..

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  10. They'll be getting electricity soon too... by mantle_etching · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe.

  11. Re:and by SoSueMe · · Score: 3, Funny

    That means 19 million Americans don't have to sign up for the "Do Not Call" list.

  12. Boy... we may be behind here in louisiana... but.. by bmooney28 · · Score: 3, Funny

    slashdot missed this story by the better part of a week ;) (check the date on it!)

  13. Re:Just because 6.2% don't have phones by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well of course they would need to have phones. How else would they be able to coordinate with their offshore quilt suppliers?

  14. Re:Just because 6.2% don't have phones by Colonel+Cholling · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does this mean Luke Skkywalker is Amish? IIRC, he was using a portable generator to charge R2D2 when visiting Yoda, but I have'nt seen him plugging the android into a wall.

    That's because the droid and generator were both 110V, but the wall current was 220V. Remember, Uncle Owen wouldn't let him go to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters.

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