In Eastern Europe this method was called "mayak" (beacon) and disappeared when calls became practically free even when SMS services was free much earlier because calling has a higher possibility to be noticed by callee.
Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
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Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#22I remember doing this when I was a kid. We also had an understanding of the number of based on the number of rings, too: 1 ring and hang up was when my aunt got home and 2 rings was my cousin got home. They could call us long distance to let us know they got home OK.
Yeah this was big among my age group in Australia too, in the late 80s early 90s. Pay phones only charged if the other end picked up, so it was an easy way to tell dad to pick you up or that you’d be late.
When I was young I used to use the 1800-REVERSE number, which would require the person answering the phone to pay. I thought it was a great way to contact my parents if I had run out of phone credit.
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#23Long before cell phones and answering machines my Dad was a pharmacist in a small town. He was happy to drive down to the drugstore when a customer called our home needing an after-hours refill, except on Sunday which was his recharge day. On Sundays we were instructed never to answer the phone unless it rang twice, paused, then rang again. Close family members knew the secret code; customers just learned Dad wasn't available on Sundays.
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#24Not quite this, but it seems similar to that old joke about receiving a collect call from "Hadthebaby Itsaboy"
It was featured in an insurance commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JxhTnWrKYs
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#25In case you didn’t know, this media group was started by Sofia Schmidt, Daughter of Eric Schmidt. It focuses on tech stories from other countries besides the USA.
It focuses on tech stories from other countries besides the USA (but written from a distinctly US point of view). Top stories on the front page right now: * Fighting brain drain and creeping authoritarianism in Russia’s techno-utopian village * A defamation lawsuit in Singapore sets a dangerous precedent * Peru’s surprise presidential front runner has fewer than 8,000 Twitter followers * The mysterious user editing a…
İ am glad she has no apparent bias at all
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#26Having used collect calls in the 90's and 2000's to leave messages, this type of communication definitely rings a bell (pun intended).
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#27In case you didn’t know, this media group was started by Sofia Schmidt, Daughter of Eric Schmidt. It focuses on tech stories from other countries besides the USA.
It focuses on tech stories from other countries besides the USA (but written from a distinctly US point of view). Top stories on the front page right now: * Fighting brain drain and creeping authoritarianism in Russia’s techno-utopian village * A defamation lawsuit in Singapore sets a dangerous precedent * Peru’s surprise presidential front runner has fewer than 8,000 Twitter followers * The mysterious user editing a…
I don't understand the dismissive attitude. It's very much an all or nothing argument that completely ignores the middle ground.
I personally think this is a fantastic gateway. I'd love to have a better global perspective, but I simply don't have the resources (or time) to build a deeply informed opinion. This type of media gives me access to foreign tech within easy reach. Honestly, it gives me exposure to topics that I wouldn't even know exists. If it's a topic that piques my interest, I can certainly find alternative coverage (hopefully with less bias).
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#28In case you didn’t know, this media group was started by Sofia Schmidt, Daughter of Eric Schmidt. It focuses on tech stories from other countries besides the USA.
It focuses on tech stories from other countries besides the USA (but written from a distinctly US point of view). Top stories on the front page right now: * Fighting brain drain and creeping authoritarianism in Russia’s techno-utopian village * A defamation lawsuit in Singapore sets a dangerous precedent * Peru’s surprise presidential front runner has fewer than 8,000 Twitter followers * The mysterious user editing a…
I recall reading this article about Bangladesh[1] from the site. Even for someone who know basically nothing about Bangladesh, it wasn't hard to notice major inconsistencies in their narrative; my analysis at the time[2]. It seems they took something fairly ordinary and tried hard to spin it into a "look how different these people are" (different in a bad way, for the most part, from my impressions) story to sell to Americans. Needless to say I take what they write with a big grain of salt.
[1] https://restofworld.org/2020/bangladesh-economy-runs-on-face...
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah this was big among my age group in Australia too, in the late 80s early 90s. Pay phones only charged if the other end picked up, so it was an easy way to tell dad to pick you up or that you’d be late.
Pay phones (the yellow ones) in Melbourne in the early 90s let you both hear each other for under 1 second. Calling multiple times you could let your parents know to pick you up from wherever you were :)
This is also semi true in the US. There was a small recording window to say your name for the opposing party when dialing collect.
Resulted in such wonders as a famous "itsbobwehadababyitsaboy" commercial .
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah this was big among my age group in Australia too, in the late 80s early 90s. Pay phones only charged if the other end picked up, so it was an easy way to tell dad to pick you up or that you’d be late.
This was pretty common in the United States once direct dialing was available. Another trick was to place operator-assisted person-to-person calls with the names of different fictional people representing different messages. For example, Harvey Jones could mean "Pick me up at the diner."
I used to just say my message really fast when I was using the French equivalent (PCV France). So my dad would get a call saying something like “you are receiving a PCV call from: canyoupleasecomefetchmeatschoolloveyouthanks. Do you accept it?”. He would then hang up.