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AT&T Stops 'Time', Ends An Era
theoeag writes "Starting in September, you will no longer be able to pick up a landline, payphone, etc and find out what time it is at the beep. AT&T, which has had the service since the 20s, cited a lack of demand in the digital age as the reason for "time"'s extinction. Actually, the service had already stopped in most states, but Nevada and California — with their large rural and unmapped areas — were still holding out, should the lost motorist or weary hiker need to know the time of day. But no more! The "Time Machine", which consisted of two large drum-like devices that contained several audio-tracks and a quite advanced system for syncing up with the caller, will probably end up in a museum, anxiously awaiting the arrival of its cousin: The Pay-Phone."
This is by far the most evil thing AT&T has done. How can they take time away from us? Gasp
I feel really sorry for whoever gets assigned the POP-CORN phone number.
I'm sad to see this go. I didn't use it very much but it was kind of reassuring that it was there. Okay, I'm crazy!
I once answered the phone at work, and found that the call was the speaking clock. Weird... folks told me it was probably returning all the past calls I'd placed to it.
More Twoson than Cupertino
"anxiously awaiting the arrival of its cousin: The Pay-Phone."
That's gonna make escaping Agent Smith just THAT much harder.
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
It was all relative, anyway...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Whoa, we must have been ahead of the curve. We used to get Time AND Temperature!!!
What does a news server have to do with time?
What does a news server have to do with time?
With all that porn, who cares what time it is!
But we used to call her the "Bell Bitch"
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
This is more than sad. For me it's been indispensible.
You see, those numbers are absolutely wonderful to use for websites that require a phone number for registration. Sure, I could just make up a number. Or give one out of someone else. But I hate the idea of bugging some innocent person with this. Even people whom I don't like.
A case in point are the job boards. These days lots of job shops in India pick up on these numbers and pester people for their Resumes non-stop. I suspect it's to say that they looked for an American citizen so they can fill a position with an H1-B (given their attitude, I can't imagine that it's to help work with the person they are calling).
So I give them the number for time, knowing that it will cost them money to call it.
There must be an elegant alternative which is equally fruitful, but I am at a loss for ideas. Does anyone have any?
202 456 1414
No productive work goes on there, so you won't be interrupting anyone.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Sundial.
The payphone will never be obsolete so long as we have Superman.
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
when I tried to use mine for DST at about 2:00am it was malfunctioning, the dark shadow was smeared all over the dial
I was just thinking about this the other day for some reason!
One memory I have from youth is taking my oh-so-new-and-cool digital watch and carefully synchronizing it exactly to the beep when I called time. :)
Of course, later I synced my watch one day to the atomic clock, and then for some reason decided to check it against 853-1212. Imagine my geek outrage when freakin' Time was FORTY SECONDS OFF. I felt like an idiot for carefully syncing my watch all that time.
*sigh* another naive belief of youth falls. ("I mean, it's the phone company, of course they'd carefully ensure that 853-1212 has the exact time to the millisecond!")
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
I found this out years ago when my GF was getting really persistent obscene phone calls. :)
Sorry about that. I've moved on and starting harassing someone else's GF. No hard feelings, I hope.
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
I'm worried that one day they'll eliminate 127.0.0.1! The day they take that offline I'm in big trouble!
I hate printers.
Yes, and plutonium will be available at every corner drugstore.
You mean Europeople have to manually set the time? I think you're lying.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
I wonder if someone could develop a global system of flying objects that could somehow measure the contours of the earth.
Then, finally, we would be able to discover what actually lies in these vast 'unmapped' areas of 'nevada' and 'california'.
Imagine the possibilities.
867-5309