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Internet Payphones launched

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the but-i-just-wanted-to-make-a-call dept.

Stephen writes "BT has opened the first payphone with internet access. It's expensive, however, at 10p (16c) per minute. Read all about it at the BBC. " Here's my question: The phone books always get destroyed, the booths managled-how long is it going to take for for hoodlums to destroy these things?

11 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. that's not expensive. by Artifex · · Score: 2

    Have you tried using pay phones in England? Do you know how expensive they are? 10p a minute's quite cheap, by comparison. when I was trying to call friends in London from Bath, I was putting in 10p every 30 seconds or so...

    --
    Get off my launchpad!
  2. Re:Internet payphones by rnt · · Score: 3

    Funny thing with those dutch Internet kiosks was that some websites could crash the browser it used (www.digicrime.com had a section to kill various browsers).

    With the browserapplication killed you got an all too familiar desktop... yep, the damn thing ran ms-windows and guess what? MSIE was also installed... funny. After crashing the browser wich checked your phonecard you could go on for free with MSIE or download another browser which didn't do anything with the phonecard at all.

    The dutch telecom company was kind enough to put one of those thingies at the campsite of the Hacking In Progres conference.

    The great idea was to make a "backup" of the harddisk onto one of the many computers on HIP (each with quite anonymous IP numbers) just to see what was on it and maybe even installing Linux on the kiosk.

    We had it all planned...

    Imagine the surprise of those dutch PTT engineers when they would have found out their kiosk suddenly ran an entirely different operating system!

    Unfortunately someone else got a bit impatient and crashed the thing real good before we got a chance to implement our Evil Plans... It wouldn't boot anymore, so playtime was over. :-(

    Too bad, it didn't seem too complicated to have it run Linux and figure out a way to make the chipcardreader/writer work.

    I'm not sure if I'll ever trust those public Internet Kiosks with passwords... A few years ago they were just a bit too public! Maybe security is tightened a bit, but then again, I guess I'm just paranoid...

    But still, I like the idea of being able to read slashdot at any moment, even in the pouring rain on the street!

  3. Vandalism by bafful · · Score: 3

    The article says, "no matter how hard you hit the screen with the phone receiver in frustration, it will not break". Of course, that's something that has to be tried, isn't it?

    1. Re:Vandalism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Back when I was in tech school and fixing TV sets for fun (then not knowing what the heck to do with them, as I don't encourage television on anybody) I used to have some fun with the clunkers by trying to smash in the screens. The glass face on a CRT is very thick. I remember a few times bouncing a hammer against the face of one (with proper eye protection and all, of course). Even hurling a 12" portable face down onto the street wouldn't break it.

      We did throw a 19" color set off my third floor balcony one night, and it made one heck of a *pop* when it hit the ground. Left a little crater in the lawn, tiny bits of glass, and the wire/anode guts out of the CRT (no trace of the CRT glass of any size remained.) Good thing there wasn't anybody down there.

      Ah, the irresponsible college days.

    2. Re:Vandalism by embobo · · Score: 2

      Well, when I was in college my friends and I did a performance art piece for open mic night where we smashed up a tv.

      It began with some nice space music playing as we slowly danced around in ignorant bliss. Then a loud shriek occurred, indicating that we were suddenly aware of the annoying tv. We retrived some long wooden sticks. One guy ran at the TV and fairly easily smashed the picture tube with his stick.

      We proceeded to pulverize the tv completely, smashing it up for about 5 minutes. End of show.

      It was a shame that we didn't do such a good job sweeping up the glass and debris because some lamers came out next in barefoot to do a cover of a Depeche Mode song.

      Take heed, all you pre-college slashheads out there. Contrast this wonderfully creative way of destoying a tv with the lame way the AC did in tech school. Liberal arts schools are the way to go.

  4. But not the last... by Cyberdeck · · Score: 2

    There are several companies that have been beta testing in the US with this kind of equipment. One of them in downtown Philadelphia. Makes me wonder what the going rate for bulletproofing is.

  5. Anonymous access by Confused · · Score: 2

    The best use for these boots is to do things that that should not be too easy to traced back. The bucket stops at the public internet boot. The only thing to check is for the security cameras and not to behave stupidly.

    But that goes for all things.

  6. Re:Security? by matsh · · Score: 2

    We built such a system in Sweden 3 years ago, and
    I think it was pretty secure, even though we used
    Windows 95. Whe used special hardware to disable
    some keys on the keyboard, so that, for example,
    ctrl-alt-delete was impossible. There was also no
    task bar at the bottom of the screen. If you used
    a real OS, such as Linux, I guess, or maybe a
    JavaStation, I think they can be made rock solid,
    except if you used a tough saw and opened the case
    and started poking around in the hardware.

  7. Nice idea, appalling implementation.. by stevied · · Score: 2
    • The Evening Standard article on this says `E-mail messages can be read or sent using a personal password via BT's own e-mail service..'. How difficult would it have been to have a simple, generic POP3 client on the thing?

    • Also from ES: `The Internet is searchable in the usual way, although screened to exclude sites that BT coyly calls "unsuitable".' Great: random acts of censorship by software, which is a Good Thing, honest. I wonder if competitors' webmail services are suitable viewing or not. Don't forget this is the company that searched subscribers' 'phone bills for calls to ISPs and then called them to flog their own internet service.

    • Video e-mail - users can take a photo of themselves at the terminal and attach it to an e-mail. Yum. Does it also come with a built in, daemon controlled mallet I can use to LART anyone who tries to mail me one of those?

  8. Inform@fon (Teligent uses QNX OS) by vovin · · Score: 2

    First? I think not. http://www.qnx.com/hotnews/pr/teligent.html

  9. Re:Security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    If you used Linux there would have to be a phonebook sized printout hanging from a wire beneath it with the source code listing in it. If the listing book got trashed, the ghost of RMS would be invoked and a speaker on the side of it would squawck stuff about GNU/Linux. It wouldn't take real money, but instead would require you to buy little tokens with a snorting Gnu on the obverse and a bust of Linus on the reverse.