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For my primary phone number, the underlying technology for bringing the service into my residence is:
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| 9% | 18 votes |
| 8% | 15 votes |
| 62% | 115 votes |
| 1% | 2 votes |
| 2% | 4 votes |
| 2% | 4 votes |
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- Don't complain about lack of options. You've got to pick a few when you do multiple choice. Those are the breaks.
- Feel free to suggest poll ideas if you're feeling creative. I'd strongly suggest reading the past polls first.
- This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
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For my primary phone number, the underlying technology for bringing the service into my residence is:
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The last time I saw him he was walking down Lover's Lane holding his own hand.
-- Fred Allen
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 22 2020, @05:20PM (2 children)
I have a cell phone that stays on the charger with the ringer turned off because more often than not it doesn't ring anyway. I usually check it once or twice a day to see if anyone texted bitching about me not answering and might call them back if it looks warranted or entertaining. Other than that it's blissful and serene silence round these parts.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Sunday August 23 2020, @12:13PM (1 child)
I have a similar setup, the cellphone (or smartphone) takes it charge from one of the computers. So the phone stays there, I might answer if I'm near it but most of the time I might get back somewhat depending on who called and if they called multiple times or texted. The only once that can expect a call back, usually within a day as I tend to (but it's not set in stone or anything) at least check the phone once in the morning and once in the evening, are probably the parents and a few select friends. I removed the "service" of leaving a voice-message cause I never checked those anyway. The phone is a tool I use at my convenience and when I feel like it. Most people that know me by now know to just send an email instead of calling and they usually have an answer within a day.
The situation is somewhat similar for the job phone, except then I'm obligated to answer during office hours. But I would never answer the phone if I was doing something else, meetings or whatnot. The work policy tho is that I am allowed to use it for personal calls etc to, but that is clearly a trap cause they want you to have it with you all the time and all hours of the day. The only time that happens is if I'm away on meetings or conferences or similar.
I hate the ring-signals so they are all on the buzzer, or vibration, so there is a somewhat limited range as to when I notice. Most of the time if I'm next to it I note it due to the screen turning on.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday August 23 2020, @12:34PM
Well, I kinda cheat too. Anyone who I might actually want to call back in a timely manner has The Roomie's number as well. Business contacts I generally tell to use email and I'll do my best to get back to them ASAP, with a response within 24 hours being the far range of the goal. I provide code and hardware support nowadays not administration, so that's a perfectly reasonable (and even fairly good vs most vendors) position to take.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 22 2020, @06:34PM (2 children)
This is the same phone line that existed when I moved here, in 1986. Today, it carries DSL, which has recently been upgraded from 2Mb to 15Mb. I keep checking for alternatives, but so far, nothing.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday August 25 2020, @04:34PM (1 child)
I would have a POTS line if they were more affordable. I know the copper is running to the house, so there really should be no barrier to entry. But last time I checked the price was around 30 USD each month.
Overall I guess it is a good thing. Work requires a mobile number, so the land line would just receive junk calls. And today with everyone using conferencing applications, call quality has been improved. For years my biggest drive for a land line was call quality; mobile phones have gotten much better but copper still has the best quality for anything using a phone number.
(Score: 2) by Acabatag on Sunday August 30 2020, @04:41AM
I would still have a POTS line if CenturyLink had allowed it. However, when we got cable internet I tried to shut off the DSL service and drop back to just having a regular phone line. CenturyLink refuses to change your service plan, and probably, from what I can tell, pays their operators a bonus for ignoring service change requests. So I just disconnected the wire at the house service entry and stopped paying the bill.
About a year later a Collection Agency that CenturyLink ripped off by selling my 'bad debt' to started sending me mail. All of which was ignored. If they had reached me by phone (impossible by any number CenturyLink would have given them, duh) I would have buddied up to them, because we were both ripped off by CenturyLink.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday August 22 2020, @11:08PM (9 children)
When you figure that you'll want a cell phone anyway, why bother with a land line, missing calls and having to call in for missed messages? As for Internet, strip out all images, emojis , etc, and avoid social media, and 2 gigs of cell data is more than enough. Use Firefox and disable images. You can tether your laptop to your phone and get the same benefit with Firefox by going into settings and doing the same. No auto play videos , no social media icons, and no YouTube stupidity.
Given that people use their phones to access the Internet more than all other methods combined, it's pretty much the default for most people.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Monday August 24 2020, @08:30AM (3 children)
Stripping out emojis does not affect your data usage. You may not be aware of it, but in the data stream, emojis are characters just like any other, not something that's loaded extra like images. So on one hand, you cannot detect whether you have an emoji before you have received it anyway, and second, the whole emoji takes just a few bytes anyway.
You may strip out emojis because you dislike seeing them, but if you think it does anything to your data usage, you're delusional.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday August 30 2020, @11:31AM (2 children)
Makes me wonder what all the fuss is about phones with 64 megapixel cameras when they're just gonna post the picture to some stupid social media website which will reduce the resolution to next to nothing.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @01:50AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday September 12 2020, @02:22AM
Simpler is easier to secure. And it's stupid to override user display preferences. And if you need an application, give your user an application, not a web app.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 24 2020, @10:52AM (1 child)
There was a time when cellular service quality was so poor compared to land lines that we kept the land line just to be able to have a quality conversation with the other party.
By comparison, the quality of the two seems to have met in the middle now. My VOIP at work is pretty good quality, excellent if speaking with other VOIP endpoints in the company, but services like Vonage on Comcast are just as craptastic as cellular these days, cellular is still quite bad most of the time, and many places POTS over twisted copper is just hopped up on a marginal VoIP at some point anyway so you're still stuck with unreasonably long lag, black hole silence, Max Headroom garbles, and the occasional "can you hear me, can you hear me?" one way connections.
I do appreciate the flat-rate unlimited long distance calling, as opposed to $20+ per hour that we had in the 1980s, but I really wish that the industry published their voice connection quality tests and would compete based on that in addition to price.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @04:36AM
I like the reliability and audio fidelity of landlines, but certainly not the insane price. I'm in a Verizon area, and they made an edict that copper lines are not to be repaired, and _must_ be upgraded to FIOS, which I have at several client locations. It works great, but their installers are absolute butcher gorillas and I refuse to let them in my house. I could write paragraphs on the horrific work they do, for instance: NO strain reliefs installed for a very tiny fiber, yet big heavy long outer jacket dangling from the fiber (of course it broke). Another place- small office where there are several tenant businesses- Verizon tech disconnected a bunch of Ethernet (and took many live servers offline) that had NOTHING to do with his voice line install that he butchered anyway. They suck worse than Comcast who I also have available and can self-install.
I'm in a very very weak cell zone- 1 antenna bar out of 4 on my one phone, and data just barely works slowly. No reception with another phone. In spite of that, audio quality with RP is very good and clear. It was quite garbly with a previous provider (CC), even in strong 4-bar signal areas. But that's because they spend $ on TV ad bandwidth rather than cell bandwidth.
(Score: 2) by Acabatag on Sunday August 30 2020, @04:43AM (1 child)
I would love to still have a land line because my wife, when she gets home, chucks her cell phone somewhere in the house and mostly ignores it. So it's often impossible to call home.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @04:42AM
Is she trying to tell you something? :)
In my area you can get Comcast cable TV, Internet, and voice lines through the cable modem / router. Verizon FIOS does the same. Of course if AC power goes off you lose phone. Verizon's FIOS interface boxes used to have 8-hour batteries. Last install I saw has empty space for battery, so you can provide your own (and need special connector).
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday September 02 2020, @09:40PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday August 22 2020, @11:15PM (6 children)
My primary copper wire phone line has a number but no telephone connected to it. Only modem.
The reason is simple: less attenuation means better data.
It's been thusly for... let me count it... 32 years already.
Only thing what gets changed time to time is the modem.
So, I legitimately voted for Matrix option, and I am proud of it.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @04:46AM (5 children)
You should have received a simple low-pass filter with the install or in the modem box, that allows full DSL carrier into modem, with no carrier attenuation due to voice phones.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday September 07 2020, @05:26AM (4 children)
Splitter. No, thanks. I have quite a collection of those. And I don't believe in them. I believe measuring a little. But I absolutely trust real data throughput.
With splitter, loss is even worse on ADSL2+ than it was on DSL.
See, I am on modems since 1988 on this line. V22bis first.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @06:00AM
Oh, I assumed you meant DSL, but you mean acoustical frequency range modem? Seriously?
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @06:06AM (2 children)
I'm not clear and we're not communicating well. I wrote "filter", and I mean "filter", not splitter. I actually still have an ADSL line running and I can disconnect the copper landline phones and there's no loss of signal, due to the low-pass filter. So maybe you're not doing it right? The filter goes in line with the voice phones- all of them. Only the DSL modem should be connected directly (no filter) to the incoming POTS lines.
A splitter won't make a difference by itself. It will drag down the DSL carrier if you connect phones with no filter.
Or maybe you have a bad phone that's got some conductance when it's on-hook?
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday September 07 2020, @07:08AM (1 child)
I am on ADSL2+ at 20Mbit for couple of years. And I am happy with that.
With a comm junk box full of phones, modems, answering machines and faxes, ancient, old, new and post-modern ones, none of those will come in contact to this line, ever.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @12:13PM
Got it. I'm an EE and have done hardware all my life, hence my being more proactive about hardware.
20 Mb is pretty good.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Sunday August 23 2020, @12:31AM (3 children)
My *mobile* phone number is the number I was assigned to my POTS land line when I moved here in 1996. I resolved to keep it forever after local number portability [wikipedia.org] became a thing, as it may be the coolest phone number *ever* as the seven digit number is, in fact, a palindrome.
The big problem is that I get crap *voice* signal from my wireless provider, historically due to a lack of signal penetrating my apartment building. More recently (once they installed a cell tower on the roof of my building, that was *supposed* to make things better. However, construction on the school next door (for the last several *years*) has a scaffolding abutting my building and the metal in the scaffold plus the chicken wire covering the scaffolding creates a pretty good faraday cage [wikipedia.org] blocking most of the *voice* signal (my mobile phone doesn't support VoLTE [wikipedia.org], and as such doesn't support Wifi calling either) in my home.
Since this is nothing new, I do also have a VOIP line for my *home* phone from the ISP which I get DSL with six (count 'em) *free* static IP addresses. I also "have" a VOIP line (unused, in fact the cable modem associated with it isn't even powered on) from my other ISP (200/10Mb/sec) as part of my package. I know there's a number associated with it, but I'm not sure what it is.
Since I get crap cell reception, I generally tell people I actually want to hear from to call the VOIP line, which I have configured to forward to my mobile phone if it isn't answered after four rings. Also, lots of people have the mobile number I transferred from the original POTS line, so I get calls on both phones. Sadly, the mobile phone often doesn't even ring when I'm at home. The poor signal also negatively impacts SMS messages (both sending and receiving), but other messaging platforms (like Signal) don't have an issue at all. This allows me to get calls on either number
I'm using an "unofficial" custom ROM on my mobile phone (LineageOS [xda-developers.com] 17.1), as I haven't gotten any updates from the manufacturer since 2015 (and that's Android 4.4 KitKat [wikipedia.org].
I'm probably going to buy a new phone, as the custom rom I'm using isn't a supported build even for LineageOS [soylentnews.org]. And there are serious issues with it, as the seven year-old firmware and baseband software only *mostly* works with recent Android versions.
Once I get a new phone, which will support VoLTE/Wifi calling (and I have excellent Wifi coverage in my home), I may very well get rid of the VOIP line and move that number to Google Voice or similar.
So. As I said, it's complicated.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2020, @06:11PM (2 children)
VoLTE and VOIP work well on pretty much any new phone that I've tried (on AT&T), but you might want to consider bugging your phone company to give you a 3G base station - they'll give it to you free if you push them.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday September 05 2020, @06:29PM (1 child)
That's true. Most phones sold in the past 2-3 years do support VoLTE.
I purchased my phone in January of 2014. And no, it does *not* support VoLTE.
I doubt that my provider would do so. Aside from them being huge assholes, I don't have any sort of contract with them, just a month-to-month plan.
I'll just buy a new phone when this one breaks or I get annoyed enough with the crappy voice/SMS reception.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @04:55AM
On whose network does your cell phone run? Maybe one of the other ones would have better reception? You might get a repeater / signal booster too.
Talk about Faraday cages- my house has aluminum siding. Better than a tin-foil hat!
However, that forces the cell phone to run at full RF power, and I'm trapped inside with the RF energy reflecting all around. I'm doomed.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:09AM (10 children)
I don't need my own power
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday August 23 2020, @12:36PM (9 children)
Dude, you must have some seriously buff phone lines coming in to your house.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:34PM (8 children)
POTS powers the phone just fine, even lights up the dial when I pick up
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday August 23 2020, @04:32PM (7 children)
That is one of the benefits of the old copper system, you could actually power things with it -- such as the phone itself. In an emergency when normal power might have gone down that was usually still pushing a very small amount of power. Enough for some minor things. When they pulled the copper system, that just went away. Them wanting to have some VOIP over it just wasn't the same.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday August 23 2020, @04:49PM (6 children)
Back in the day, they had great big batteries to keep the system powered up, very reliable, until a tree falls on the line. Regardless, still beats cell service and their frail little towers by far. In a real emergency, HAM and/or CB radio is all there is
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @05:56PM (3 children)
What is the bandwidth of flag semaphore?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday August 24 2020, @02:37AM
can't find any measurements of latency, bandwidth or signal loss on semaphore.. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/10/zero-latency-human-society-tech/ [arstechnica.com]
..bound to be better than IPoAC [wikipedia.org], though.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by Osamabobama on Monday August 31 2020, @05:21PM (1 child)
Semaphore is about one byte per second, with a limited character set. A sender with strong shoulders could go faster, but there needs to be sufficient dwell time on each signal to distinguish it from transient noise that may be present in intermediate states between intended characters.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @05:03AM
So 10 baud, give or take. :)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 23 2020, @07:07PM (1 child)
As far back as I can remember, the phone lines were buried. Can't be certain, maybe some of them were hung on "telephone poles", but certainly most were buried underground. A storm might kill the electrical power, but you could still call Grandma to see if she was alright, or whatever. A fallen tree would have to pull the line out of the ground, or fall directly onto a switch box to kill the telephone.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Monday August 24 2020, @03:31AM
Australia doesn't bury phone or electricity [aph.gov.au] cables..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @07:26AM (8 children)
That way I can still call the cops if I see or hear a nigger trying to break into my house. Otherwise I don't need a phone.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday August 23 2020, @12:38PM (2 children)
Get a gun, you won't even need 911 service anymore. And you're a lot more likely to live through a break-in. When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2020, @06:15PM (1 child)
You should note that depending on the city and state you live in, self defense may not be a reasonable option. If that's the case, they should move to somewhere sane, and then buy a gun.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 06 2020, @12:38AM
No, in your home you are allowed to be armed and to defend yourself against invaders in every last state. Yes, some of them have idiotic notions like you should try to run away first but reasonable doubt there is not exactly a high legal defense bar to clear even if you didn't make the slightest attempt.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 24 2020, @12:12AM (1 child)
What if it is a honky breaking in?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 24 2020, @09:47AM
S&W doesn't discriminate.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by maxwell demon on Monday August 24 2020, @08:43AM (2 children)
You can hear the skin colour of an intruder?
But interesting that you won't call the police if the burglar is white. I guess that's why you posted as Anonymous Coward: If white burglars knew who you are, you might get frequent “visits” ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2020, @01:09PM
No no. He doesn't mind being robbed by white people. Like Trump.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2020, @12:03PM
When it's dark, everyone's as black as the next one.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday August 23 2020, @11:47AM
Yes, I use a land-line as my primary telephone.
I also have a cell phone, but it doesn't work well when I'm at home; presumably the building is a bit Faraday-cagey.
That land line is also my internet link.
Switching to VOIP would only help save money on long-distance fees, but I don't use long-distance enough to be worth the trouble.
-- hendrik
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Sunday August 23 2020, @03:12PM (13 children)
Already commented on this too many times to count, so just to summarize:
POTS telephone line
- Crystal clear sound when talking to other using a real telephone. Does not sound like a robot trying to fuck my ear.
- No computer or batteries in my telephone that require replacement of the entire thing every two years.
- Never any dropouts when an airplane flies over, or similar.
- Never needs charging.
- Works during power outages.
- Back end interface equipment is the telephone companies' responsibility, not mine.
- Compatible with FAX/modem, because why not.
- Perfectly reliable. Never have had a single second of trouble at my end all the years I have had it.
- Smartphones are for girls.
Downsides? I guess it doesn't Have What Plants Crave.
Although I did get an alarming letter in the mail the other day stating that DSL service will no longer be available in this area. That makes me think that either the phone company may be making some equipment changes, or my ISP has found a scummy way to extort more money from me.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Monday August 24 2020, @05:23PM
Another advantage of POTS, which actually is a disadvantage of Cellular, is: Latency.
Try making a cell call to your friend who is in the same room. Pay attention to the latency. That didn't happen with POTS.
You say something, there is a disturbingly long lag before you hear it come out of the other person's phone.
They something, same long pause before it is heard on your phone.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday August 24 2020, @05:27PM (7 children)
There is a disadvantage of POTS that must be mentioned.
Spam phone calls. a.k.a.: Telemarketing
That was one of the reasons why we eventually got rid of POTS. Because you never will get spam phone calls on a cell phone.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 24 2020, @10:22PM
Wow, I wish it worked like that /here/.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday August 25 2020, @03:43PM (4 children)
You are obviously not in the US.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday August 25 2020, @04:39PM (3 children)
I AM in the US.
I do get spam phone calls.
I did NOT use any no-sarcasm tags.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday August 25 2020, @08:53PM (2 children)
Ah, apologies. Most people use /sarcasm or /s to denote sarcasm.
Poe's Law and all.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday August 25 2020, @09:40PM (1 child)
<no-sarcasm>
Yes, some people do use sarcasm tags.
</no-sarcasm>
But it seems unnecessary as nobody on SN would ever post anything sarcastic.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday August 26 2020, @02:17PM
I get it, you're just doing things oppositely.
i.e. Most people would write your reply as such:
As such, I shall assume you are being sarcastic unless you use your no-sarcasm tags. Cheers!
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2020, @06:17PM
I've never gotten spam calls on my cell before, but I've been getting spam texts for around a year now.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Tuesday August 25 2020, @06:17AM
I was kind of surprised that POTS is currently at 14%, but the advantages you list are undeniable. I gave up on POTS over 10 years ago. Of all the things you mention, it's the nature of analog voice I miss the most sometimes. There might have been the occasional static on the line, but it never dropped out. In 20 years of analog calls, I don't think I ever uttered the phrase, "say again? You dropped out". Now I expect to say it at least once in any cel call longer than half an hour.
Unfortunately, with limited budget for communications, the societal expectation of "available anywhere" trumps the quality of POTS. I have to pick one, so I pick what I must.
I don't need the smartphone though. When my old Nokia finally gave out, I got the most bare-bones flip they had. Even that can browse the Internet, but I never use it.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Monday August 31 2020, @05:28PM (2 children)
That's crystal clear sound only between 300 Hz and 3.3 kHz. There's a reason the sound of a phone call is so recognizeable.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 01 2020, @03:57PM (1 child)
That highly recognizable sound can be approximated if you have an ancient piece of equipment known as a "graphic equalizer" with about a dozen or more sliders that can adjust the strength of narrow parts of the audio spectrum.
But these are truly ancient. Predating AOL. Predating Usenet. Predating even CompuServe. Even predating the 1977 holy trinity: TRS-80, Commodore PET, and Apple II introduced that year.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Wednesday September 02 2020, @05:54AM
Jesus Christ! It fucking probably predates the wheel. Was this a tool of the dinosaurs!?!
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Monday August 24 2020, @01:28AM (2 children)
We ditched the POTS line when we realised that the only calls we ever got on it were from tech support scammers.
Now the family each have their own cell phone and Internet comes through fibre, which is the only way to go.
I do miss trolling the tech support scammers though.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday August 24 2020, @03:27AM
While the payoff isn't as immediate, there are other ways [419eater.com] to troll scammers too.
I can tell you from experience, it's quite amusing.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday August 24 2020, @05:26PM
Similar story here.
First the two parents had cell phones.
Eventually the kid got old enough to have a cell phone.
At that point, we began to question why we were paying for a land line, that we didn't use, except to receive spam calls.
Haven't had a land line now in a very long time. I would guess it's been about a dozen or fifteen years.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Monday August 24 2020, @08:25AM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday August 24 2020, @02:39PM (1 child)
The "Ham radio phone patch/autopatch" wasn't 99% likely not to be the primary phone service for anyone who used it in the past either. Though, you might have gotten a few bites, if this poll had aired 20 years ago.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 02 2020, @01:48AM
Before we took the cellular plunge, I bought a pair of 70cm/2m/6m handheld HAM radios and used them for a year - worked pretty well to coordinate airport pickup, could easily reach the wife in her car while I was walking through the terminal (this was before "cellular lots" were a thing.) Lots of places had simple 2m repeaters that gave an easy 10 miles of range between the handsets, and rarely (like ski slopes in Colorado) you'd find open trunking systems that could go much farther. After about 2 years of that, the NiCad batteries crapped out and it was time to bite the bullet and get a "real" cell phone - but, that pair of HAM handhelds was quite a bit cheaper than a two year contract for one cellphone.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Tuesday August 25 2020, @01:35PM (3 children)
I still have the same number that was assigned when my family moved to this house in 1961. It's also got ADSL on it, but still has the voice phone. I have a wall black beauty dial phone in the kitchen that still works (and yes, the central office switch still understands pulse dialing. I know, I tried it a few weeks ago after a similar question here on Soylent came up.)
That said, I have a Tracfone that does 4GLTE. It's a flip phone, not a smartphone. Like TMB, I keep it turned off most of the time.
I do have a Galaxy S6, but it was on the now defunct FreedomPop and it's relegated to running my flir camera.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @06:20AM (2 children)
FreedomPop is defunct? Or you mean you're not using it any more? I recently switched providers and almost went with them.
I also have an S6 "Active" that I really like, but the RF doesn't work as well as my other phones, so I can't use it as a phone because at home I'm in an RF null. Great camera, lots of good features and apps, makes a nice tiny computer.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday September 07 2020, @06:45AM (1 child)
It's not defunct, but was effectively for me. I had a CDMA Samsung S4 that used Sprint towers that was via FreedomPop and they moved away from supporting the phones that were on Sprint. I would have had to buy a different phone to stay with them or transfer to another company that they had made a (poor) deal to take over that part of their service. As I only really used the phone to run my FLIR camera, I didn't bother transferring it. Even when I had their service, my main phone was a Tracfone flip phone as I tend to destroy any smartphone that I carry due to my job.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday September 07 2020, @06:47AM
Typo alert. S4 should be S6.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday August 25 2020, @03:47PM (7 children)
Ditched the POTS line when the ex and I sold our house. Didn't see the need to have a landline anymore, and was paying for a cell phone anyways.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 02 2020, @01:53AM (6 children)
We moved houses in 2003 and I just got POTS because, well, that's just what you did.
We moved houses again in 2006, both had our own cellphones for over a year, and managed to convince the wife that we could use Vonage VoIP instead of POTS - screwed around with Vonage for a year, it worked, we saved a pile of money, and then saved even more when we ditched Vonage too (TBH, while it worked, it was more trouble than POTS).
Never looked back, moved houses in 2013 and have never had POTS or VoIP here - finally threw away the Panasonic wireless POTS handsets a couple of years later, just when wireless home phones were finally getting good they became obsolete.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @05:00AM (5 children)
I know a guy (well) who switched his main business phone to a MagicJack. He's had it for years and loves it. You don't even need the MagicJack- their system will take messages and you can call in (however) and retrieve VMs. The voice quality with the MJ is excellent. I don't know if he's ever had a call drop, but I doubt he uses it all that much- mostly his cell.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 07 2020, @11:59AM (4 children)
We've done the Google Voice IP boxes a couple of times, can't beat the monthly fees (0), but sooner or later they need some kind of attention and when you realize that you haven't picked up the handset that connects to them in over 3 months (because all you use are your cellular handsets)... is it really worth any brain cycles at all to keep it going?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @12:22PM (3 children)
Thanks- I've never looked into things like Google Voice IP boxes- didn't even know they existed. I tend to distrust anything Google, but it's generally good to know the options out there. My cell only works near a 2nd floor window. If I try to walk around the house with it, call will usually drop. My Samsung S6 won't connect at all. It's nice to be able to move around while talking, or to be able to answer a call from anywhere in the house, so I'm considering a cell-to-landline box because I have a few cordless handsets that work great including walking outside. IP to landline box would work well too, but right now I'm not doing wired Internet.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 07 2020, @02:11PM (2 children)
We live in a low density island of a higher density town, so from my yard my cell phone has connected to at least 30 different cell towers - none of them close and strong, but so many of them that you usually get a connection - if you're in the yard. Then, we have a metal roof, so... kinda hopeless inside, except: WiFi calling - which works brilliantly, except when it doesn't - lately I've been getting a lot of "one way" connections where I hear them but they don't hear me. Seems like that started when I replaced the access point with a WiFi6 mesh system, but it's hard to say, I still get great WiFi voice connections with the cell phone over half the time.
When the cordless handsets started moving off of 49MHz up to 2 & 5GHz they started working really well, and that's about the same time we started using our cell phones for everything - those were the Moto 815s (like the Razr but with a real battery in a flip case) - those things lasted 5+ years, by the time we replaced them smartphones were basically the only option, and those seem to live about 2 years before dying of some problem or another, usually cracked glass.
Last time I pulled the 5GHz POTS cordless handsets out of mothballs, their batteries were all shot. Replaced 'em but somehow the aftermarket batteries didn't work nearly as well as the ones that came from Panasonic. Had a phones upstairs, downstairs and garage for a while - with a nice local intercom function, but when you use it so rarely everybody forgets how it works.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @02:26PM (1 child)
All very interesting. I haven't tried WiFi VOIP yet.
You might benefit from a cell repeater with a directional antenna (but I'm remembering your lightning "issues").
From what I've read, and a good bit of direct experience, Panasonic NiCd / NiMH batteries are the best, sometimes very significantly.
Many cordless phone bases overcharge (and kill) the batteries. The symptom is: batteries are warm to the touch.
Also, NiCd & NiMH like deep discharge fairly often. Like let one run down overnight once a month or so.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 07 2020, @07:19PM
Honestly, that POTS wireless handset system (5 phones in all) was uber cool when we got it, and quickly evolved into a useless waste of space once we started carrying the phablets everywhere. Our 5.9" tablet-phones do VNC remote control of the Netflix computer, the receiver-amplifier, etc. etc. in addition to being e-mail, SMS and phones, so they're pretty much fused to our persons - makes a lot of stuff like wireless phones and even remote controls obsolete.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2020, @11:15PM (2 children)
I use google voice exclusively. I have been living in Europe for a year and the only people I would call then were in the USA, so Google Voice or any other VOIP would work well, but given my parent and grandparent really only understand phone numbers and I had a google voice account set up, I choose to use that. Since being forced to return to the states I have found I rarely need a cell phone and have lived with Google voice ever since. Incidentally, Google voice is great if you don't own/live in a single house. For the past few months I have been traveling the USA staying in AirBnbs. Having a POTS phone would be impossible and having a VOIP related to a single ISP wouldn't make sense either. A cell phone could work, but why spend the money on something I don't value when I overspend on what I do value (housing, travel and good internet) already?
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Friday August 28 2020, @04:25PM (1 child)
I have VOIP for the house, but through T-mobile instead of my ISP--though interestingly enough, it is not through their cellular towers, but through a LAN connection. For $10 a month it is an easy way to get a phone line for the house and the kids without worrying about cell phone batteries, data, loss, breakage, long distance, and so forth. And as a bonus, it will work where ever I can plug it in. Theoretically, I can take it with me on vacation and not miss a call to the house.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 07 2020, @05:10AM
Sounds like a good setup. I mentioned above about someone I know who has and loves a MagicJack. I don't know much about it otherwise, IE, not sure if they have a proprietary protocol or what they're doing (and don't need to know so didn't research it...)
I have a cell phone that'll do VOIP ... over LTE data (or WiFi).
There exist devices that have an RJ-11 (landline POTS phone jack) and cell phone communication, and I expect you can take them anywhere. It'd be funny to carry one in a car and talk on an old fashioned landline phone while driving.
(Score: 2) by NickM on Saturday August 29 2020, @02:28AM
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Thursday September 03 2020, @11:51PM
I use Google Voice. I have an Obi 200 box (set up with my google voice account) with a network cable to my switch, with a cheap Wal-Mart phone plugged into the Obi. It's in my bedroom with the router and cable modem. I rarely get up to go in and answer it, because I just wait for my cheap tracfone (with no minutes [it's never even been activated]) to give me a new mail sound (I have google voice set up to email me about missed calls). Then I just open the google voice app and call them back if I want to.
It's totally free (except for the internet) and almost everywhere I go has an open WiFi hotspot so I get the missed call email alerts as soon as I connect to a WiFi hotspot (Wal-Mart for example).
Very slick, very cheap, and the added bonus of no distractions while I'm driving.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Sunday September 06 2020, @07:25PM
brings me all the all the information I want, and a lot more I don't, and then carries all my secrets everywhere.
Why would I need Google or more complex technology?
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @12:07AM
Around here they still tack on a $10 charge for a home phone line, even though so many people have a mobile it is basically redundant. Yes, some families and people like having a phone in the house. Good for them, it's their choice. Why is my internet access bill inflated by $10 to have 'a phone number' and a listing?
We went through a period a while back when people realised that DSL did not equate to a phone number. It shocked Telstra to the core. Millions of people no longer paying their monthly rent for 'a phone number' would destroy their bottom line. They fought tooth and nail but in the end sanity prevailed.
With the switch to NBN it's hard to find a plan that doesn't include a phone number, even if you tell them you don't want it. On a fiber connection. Comparing plans to those with 'no home phone' showed that they are tacking on the $10 charge for this even though many people don't realise you can plug a phone into your home DSL router.