The forgotten war on beepers • Hacker News Board

Re: The forgotten war on beepers

#31

Post by lagniappe » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 6:15 PM UTC

I dont own a phone, but to me a beeper is an okay compromise. During the quest to find one, I came across some really cool things.

- Some beepers are made to only RX, not TX, as to not skew results of medical equipment

- Basically 2 companies, operating with antequated websites (and prices) still provide service at the historic prices

- Beepers are still sold today, new in box

- Two-way pagers have been almost totally displaced from the market (lack of service and hardware) despite being more advanced than regular beepers.

Anybody want to share a testimonial about their current beeper for someone who's looking for a good option?

Re: The forgotten war on beepers

#32

Post by standardUser » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 6:17 PM UTC

rightbyte wrote: post #21

samatman wrote: post #16

I got my pager at 18 (no one cool called it a beeper, this was when 'cool' was still a thing), and yes, my weed dealer had one, and knew my beeper code (it was a beeper code but you sent it to a pager, young people just do this). Beeper code is worth explaining: you'd send a number to be called back at, and there was room for more digits, so everyone had a three-digit number which was theirs, and you just kinda had t…

Did people use the telephone number message to send alphabet messages or like '1' for 'I am home' etc?

I recall in the 90's we would add 911 if it was urgent and 420 if it was about drugs. We would also end with our 3-digit 'pager code' to identify who sent the message.

Re: The forgotten war on beepers

#33

Post by BobaFloutist » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 6:19 PM UTC

drdaeman wrote: post #15

ok123456 wrote: post #13

The policy at my school was that any "electronic device," be it a cellphone or pager, would be confiscated and held until the end of the school year. I had this happen to a (not yet modified) Radio Shack tone dialer.

> confiscated and held until the end of the school year. How things like that were even remotely legal?

Children don't really have property rights, and even if they did, courts have consistently ruled that the bill of rights is reduced in school settings.

Re: The forgotten war on beepers

#34

Post by mongol » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 6:20 PM UTC

mttpgn wrote: post #10

In the late 1990s, my dad attended night classes with other adult learners to earn his MBA. Everywhere he went during those years, my dad had a beeper clipped to his belt for an on-call hospital rotation. During his first week of class, my dad's beeper loudly went off during the middle of the lecture. As my dad scrambled out of the lecture hall to call the number on the little screen, the professor accurately guessed…

That is funny, in a way that I feel hard to explain. Something about it being a simpler, more innocent time?

Re: The forgotten war on beepers

#35

Post by threeio » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 6:20 PM UTC

I remember having to get an exemption to have my alphanumeric pager in school because my job (pc support for a Fortune 500) required me to have it with me when I got to the office... it was ridiculous but eventually worked out.

--

Alternatively I've got a modern DAPnet ham radio alphanumeric pager now that I use occasionally for notifications related to radio stuff. :) (https://hampager.de)

Re: The forgotten war on beepers

#36

Post by FdbkHb » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 6:21 PM UTC

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #19

Lets not forget the : Rock-Satan scare of the 80's. Rap-Drug Scare Walkman will let kids get snatched up. The pager Trans people are coming for your husband. Seems like every decade people have to freak out. But it isn't just the common generational trope. The religious right has to always have another issue that can be used as the poster boy for the war on Lucifer. If you don't have a boogie man, then how do you kee…

You forgot people summoning demons through Dungeons&Dragons.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/72/Occult_dnd.pn...

Re: The forgotten war on beepers

#37

Post by hiatus » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 6:23 PM UTC

toast0 wrote: post #5

hiatus wrote: post #3

> Senator Ronald Rice passed away in 2023 - the New Jersey Pager ban still in place - months later The Washington Post editorial board would call on schools to ban cellphones entirely - part of a new moral panic about kids and digital devices, many of whose parents were once prohibited from bringing pagers to school. I was waiting for the author to point to cellphones in the same breath. Obviously, there is a substan…

> Obviously, there is a substantial difference between a one-way receive-only device and cellphones. Motorola released their two way pager, the Tango in 1995. In 1996, they had an app for the Tango to access the web [1]. You can't make a call with a pager, but nobody makes calls anymore; there's not a lot of difference in capability; although there's a large difference in distribution. [1] http://www.wirelesscommunic…

Service was ~$25/month (and only worked in your area) and you were limited to ~100 messages a month at that price (with each message <100 chars long). I can't imagine browsing the web with that service would be affordable for any real use.

Re: The forgotten war on beepers

#38

Post by adamomada » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 6:24 PM UTC

pizzafeelsright wrote: post #2

Beepers with text were peak technology.

A 386 in your pocket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_950

Re: The forgotten war on beepers

#39

Post by function_seven » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 6:25 PM UTC

My brother gave me a beeper as a Christmas present in 1996. It was cool, but it got really cool when I bought an 800-number from LDDS Worldcom. The only thing I was charged was (IIRC) 6¢ per minute, and no call setup charge.*

I got paper bills in the mail for $0.34. Friends could page me from a payphone without having to drop a coin.

*(EDIT: I think I misremember a bit. If the call originated from a pay phone, I think I was charged additional for that.)

Re: The forgotten war on beepers

#40

Post by autoexec » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 6:27 PM UTC

BobaFloutist wrote: post #33

drdaeman wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> confiscated and held until the end of the school year. How things like that were even remotely legal?

Children don't really have property rights, and even if they did, courts have consistently ruled that the bill of rights is reduced in school settings.

Children don't have property rights but their parents do and they own their children's things. If a parent went to the school and asked for the confiscated item that school would be insane to deny them.