Barbed Wire Fences Were An Early DIY Telephone Network:
Before Ma Bell came to town, and long before DSL, it was barbed wire, of all things, that brought rural communities together. A Sears telephone hooked up to barbed wire—miles of which were already conveniently strung along fences—connected far-flung ranches in the recently settled American west. Thus an ingenious and unregulated telephone system sprung up a hundred years ago.
More than just physical wire differentiated these rural telephone systems and their more formal urban counterparts. Without switchboards, without individual lines, and without telephone fees, the barbed wire telephone system became its own social network. Today, we might see elements of "personalised ringtones, chat rooms and online music" in this telephone network, as Bob Holmes writes in a feature at New Scientist.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 08 2022, @03:08AM (3 children)
fuck yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 08 2022, @03:30AM (2 children)
And the Lord did grin, and people did feast upon the lambs, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 08 2022, @03:33AM (1 child)
Don't tell me... Was it in Wuhan market?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 08 2022, @06:14AM
Wuhan death to Runaway! People's Army teams are on the way to the address provided by our communist comrades on SoylentNews! Great Paper Tiger Butter Trump!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 08 2022, @03:27AM (3 children)
Have the same story without a paywall, since 2017 [atlasobscura.com]
BTW, eds, since when is a good idea to post stories behind paywalls? Here's where all ends for me [data]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 08 2022, @04:00AM (1 child)
Hmmm. I'm in USA, no paywall at gizmodo.com for me, the whole story was there. One "Please subscribe" popup which was closed normally.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 08 2022, @04:06AM
Not gizdomo, the original New Scientist source is paywalled.
Which makes from this story more of an implicit add to NS - the amount of info is way in gizdomo is way thinner than the one in atlasobscura.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 08 2022, @04:07AM
Soylent won't get to become a big money-spinner like Hackaday unless its gets into scratch-my-back commercial Internet
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 08 2022, @05:06AM
I saw a security guard guarding an electric tower. I asked him if they were worried that someone would either steal electricity or if they were worried that someone would steal wires or parts of the metal frame. Apparently people have climbed up that tower in the past and committed suicide and they don't want to deal with the liability so the electric company pretty much pays someone to stay there 24/7 (well, three people/shifts per 24 hour day).