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Installing a payphone in my house

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Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#261

Post by ClumsyPilot »

autoexec wrote: post #259
stevenjgarner wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going through the grueling immigration process, Homeland Security eventually sits across the table from you, looks you in the eye, and asks "have you ever committed a crime for which you have not been convicted?"

I doubt there's a single person alive who could answer "no" to that question with certainty and still be telling the truth. What is the purpose of a question like that?

It's malevalent question - most people don't even know the names of all crimes that exist - let alone defences avaliable and how they all work togetehr.

Breaking into someone's house is obviously a crime, but if you were running away from a axe-wielding murder then it isn't.

Taking someone's car is theft, but it isn't if 'they would have agreed for you to use it if they had known the situatiojn at hand'.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#262

Post by unityByFreedom »

JackFr wrote: post #193
unityByFreedom wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's a really awesome story with a great opening, middle, and especially the end, if one ignores the adolescent fraud. That admission was the best part! Everyone here was not goody two shoes in their teens. Accepting this reality can release people from expectations of perfection. Perhaps ironically, kids' behavior can improve when they feel their imperfections are airable.

In the grand scheme of things, what he did is hardly the end of the world. And yet, it still doesn't sit quite right with me. I suppose its because there doesn't seem to be the slightest hint in the writing that credit card fraud is wrong, or that it's even something you shouldn't do. I looked for it. And to add to that, what he did wasn't 'a hack', it wasn't particularly clever. It was just theft of services and a l…

> there doesn't seem to be the slightest hint in the writing that credit card fraud is wrong, or that it's even something you shouldn't do. I looked for it.

It's there,

> I also don’t want her calling up an ISP and convincing them to make an account for her - I’m not quite ready to reap what I sow.

That point did make it come across as "youthful indescretion" to me.

> what he did wasn't 'a hack', it wasn't particularly clever. It was just theft of services and a lot of lying because he didn't have something he wanted.

Who says a hack needs to be clever? And what is clever? Bug fixes are often something very simple that can take a long time to discover. I'd put hacks into the same category.

Again, I think demonizing confessions like this can cause more trouble. Just because we don't talk about mischievousness doesn't mean it isn't out there.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#263

Post by jamal-kumar »

Gordonjcp wrote: post #103
jamal-kumar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah a red light would flash over the booth and the door would shut closed, hence having to put your foot in there. Alot of people buying and using these cards were like 'bullshit!' but this guy who told me about this figured to err on the side of caution anyways and ended up having to comically escape the situation with all these people looking at him. This was like 5 years before my own time in Japan but pretty hil…

I'm not saying you're wrong but a) this sounds like a massive safety issue and b) this sounds like exactly the sort of thing I'd say to anyone trying to get a dodgy phone card from me, "yeah you need to wedge your foot in the door in case it detects the card is hooky, and tries to lock you in" just so I could stand there and laugh at their contortions trying to keep one foot outside while they use the phone.

Heh yeah I feel the same but the 90s were a different time

Remember playgrounds back then? I remember one around Osaka Castle which was like a huge children's slide with those industrial conveyor rollers you rode down on pieces of cardboard (to go stupidly fast!),which I'm sure you could pinch yourself on really bad.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#265

Post by iancmceachern »

entropie wrote: post #182
eternityforest wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the technology itself is 100x better in just about every way(Except for pure novelty, smartphones largely killed true gadgets) The lack of fun, to me, is mostly because of how everything changed around it. I can make a basic website now, no problem, everything is easier than it was aside from the fact we pretty much have to have HTTPS. But, nobody will read it, because it will be lost in a sea of clickbait. I…

Well not sure. My GFs blog is like in its 6th year now and every year its more visitors. Its not that much in internet terms (we are at ~700 visitors a day) but its serious content (dogs and science around dogs). No clickbaits, no cookies, no nothing.

Can younshare the Url? My wife would love her blog sounds like...

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#266

Post by WalterBright »

genewitch wrote: post #128
WalterBright wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing has not improved one iota in the 30 years I've had a cell phone - the voice quality.

I'm not sure this is true universally. I just spoke to a friend for the first time since I got a phone that does "HD" calling, and although I've been speaking to them for 25 years on the phone, I didn't recognize their voice. I feel like POTS and edge->3g calling made me miss out on a lot of detail and intonation. I'm just glad I get to experience this call quality with non-technically inclined friends before I go co…

VOIP has far better voice quality than cellular.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#267

Post by bpye »

wrboyce wrote: post #169
bpye wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it looks like you can buy them https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403689859315

It’s worth noting a K6 weighs in at about 1,250kg so “collect in person” is easier said than done! Personally I’d go with a specialist/approved company such as x2connect.

I didn't know x2connect existed, neat.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#268

Post by ck2 »

hnbad wrote: post #121
jamal-kumar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever watch the newest one they made? It's like baudrillardian banality taken to its logical extreme. The first half is literally a clip show. Comes off as a shitty superhero movie of now but with matrix characters

The movie is infinitely better if you understand it within its real world context. The Wachowskis did not want to make another Matrix movie but the studio approached them and said that they would make the movie either way but they would be given full artistic freedom if they agreed. They basically had the choice of doing this themselves or letting the studio turn it into a soulless franchise detached from their own v…

They put their name on it. They made appearances. They took a huge paycheck despite already being millionaires and not needing it.

So they own it as much as the 1st 2nd or 3rd. They did not have to do that. In fact it would have been an even stronger statement if every review of the 4th started off with "done without the original creators input or approval".

But now the 4th has been done with the original creators input and approval, so it's their fault, their mess.

In hindsight you can now see the wonder and amazement of the first movies were not just from them but everyone that worked so hard for them, not just the actors but everyone behind the scenes, even the clever color timing, completely absent from the 4th as well as the horrible music, everyone just phoned it in for the paycheck.

"Because someone else would do it if we didn't" is not a viable excuse, it would have been a statement otherwise, a path they purposely didn't chose for either ego or profit.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#269

Post by dotancohen »

bmitc wrote: post #52

That's a really awesome story with a great opening, middle, and especially the end, if one ignores the adolescent fraud. I think it really highlights the simple joy that technology that literally just works can bring. I'm around the same age as the author, a little younger in fact, but there's just something about today's Internet and a lot of the overwhelming amount of technology that just isn't fun or memorable. Fr…

  > part of the tragedy is that a lot of technology that worked well has been replaced by "better" technology that doesn't work well.
I am 100% convinced that '80's era landlines had superior sound quality to today's cellphones by any manufacturer. I went out of my way to get a Samsung Note that ostensibly supports some high-quality sound when communicating with another device that supports whatever this profile is called, but all conversations are streams of "what? say again?".

Yes I know that POTS landlines generally discard much not-in-human-vocal-range sounds that still affect how we perceive voice. But even with that limitation, I feel that the difference in sound quality as I remember it and as I now experience it cannot all be attributed to 30 years of rock concerts and rifle fire on these eardrums.

Re: Installing a payphone in my house

#270

Post by stevenjgarner »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #260
stevenjgarner wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going through the grueling immigration process, Homeland Security eventually sits across the table from you, looks you in the eye, and asks "have you ever committed a crime for which you have not been convicted?"

Do they actually ask that? That's madness. It's really not a valid question -> only a court can determine if you've commited a crime, that's why we call people suspects, not criminals, before they are convicted. For example recently in UK, a group of 4 people have toppled a statue and threw it in the river. This sounds like a crime to any normal person, and they were charged with criminal damage. The accused raised d…

> But the opinions of random people are just that - opinions.

Yet the opinion of the US (UK?) Government is so final, and often without appeal.

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