Post ASHuOIeOOa8UViMNCC by kevin@elephant.crime.group
(DIR) More posts by kevin@elephant.crime.group
(DIR) Post #ASFjCZbU3DltnpHkIa by mmasnick@mastodon.social
2023-02-02T00:44:17Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Kinda hoping that Netflix's new "we'll ban you if you watch the Netflix account you paid for outside of your home too much" story turns into a "New Coke"-style business school case study in how to do something totally stupid that pisses off your most loyal customers, and leads Netflix to reverse course quickly.
(DIR) Post #ASFjCa4CKSjxEsig3U by mansr@society.oftrolls.com
2023-02-02T00:48:43Z
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@mmasnick I was under the impression that it was (mainly) the owners of licensed content that were demanding this. Happy to be corrected.
(DIR) Post #ASFjU9ib1x7UjWzoiO by mmasnick@mastodon.social
2023-02-02T00:51:52Z
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@mansr have not seen any evidence of that at all.
(DIR) Post #ASFm8hYOqkoVAEgjDM by mansr@society.oftrolls.com
2023-02-02T01:21:39Z
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@mmasnick Perhaps I'm thinking of the VPN blocking, or maybe I'm imagining things.
(DIR) Post #ASFpViOCD3f8HIa3yC by gmcgath@liberdon.com
2023-02-02T01:59:25Z
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@mmasnick I use Netflix mostly to watch German shows, which requires a VPN to Germany. If they stop letting me do that, I might as well shut down my account.
(DIR) Post #ASGxc16OXfNMqNjKfw by dragonfrog@mastodon.sdf.org
2023-02-02T15:04:52Z
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@mansr @mmasnick I imagine the content owners get paid more if the content is watched more. You'd think they'd want more people per account, not fewer.
(DIR) Post #ASGxmjZQ4787egPt6O by mansr@society.oftrolls.com
2023-02-02T15:06:51Z
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@dragonfrog @mmasnick Content owners are idiots.
(DIR) Post #ASHuOI4EZ1DEhZRUps by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T00:48:51Z
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@mmasnick Kinda reminds me of how in early public Internet days some big ISPs tried to charge separately for every device hooked to the Net, and even tried to ban NAT.
(DIR) Post #ASHuOIeOOa8UViMNCC by kevin@elephant.crime.group
2023-02-02T01:53:22Z
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@lauren @mmasnick The phone company did this too. First you had to rent phones from them, then pay for each device connected. One of the ways they found "illegal" phones was the voltage drop from the number of phones that rang for an incoming call. So phone makers added a switch to turn off the ringer.First phone mute button was for pirate phones.
(DIR) Post #ASHuOJTRKmy942F8lM by sinabhfuil@mastodon.ie
2023-02-02T05:17:36Z
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@kevin @lauren @mmasnick And if someone left a phone off the hook and you needed urgently to contact them, you could ask the operator to send a howl down the line - their home would suddenly fill with this eerie howl
(DIR) Post #ASHuOJv5fz5SRnBDrU by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T16:37:03Z
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@sinabhfuil @kevin @mmasnick I've never heard of an operator initiating the howl. For sure many systems would run a howl for a relatively brief period if a phone was left off hook. Maybe some even kept it going until the handset was hung up again. Though smaller systems certainly could vary in practice.
(DIR) Post #ASHuOKVxSuZsI8QfKK by kevin@elephant.crime.group
2023-02-03T02:03:08Z
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@lauren @sinabhfuil @mmasnick Is the howl the strobing tone you'd get when you left a handset off hook? I remember us getting the North American tone on the Wikipedia page, but never heard it referred to as a howl. Jeez, I haven't heard that in forever.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-hook_tone
(DIR) Post #ASHub8easHGZGqZm1Q by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-03T02:05:27Z
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@kevin @sinabhfuil @mmasnick There are different ones. Some sound like sirens up and down. Others are loud BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP tones at a high rate.
(DIR) Post #ASICxXdGU3CMHnmpY8 by sinabhfuil@mastodon.ie
2023-02-03T05:31:12Z
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@lauren @kevin @mmasnick It was done in emergencies
(DIR) Post #ASIqnvG1mrympSsyp6 by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T01:57:31Z
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@kevin @mmasnick Oh, by the way, their phone counting did not rely on voltage drop during ring. They used a capacitance check, usually late at night. Sometimes this would result in a minor ringer bell tap.
(DIR) Post #ASIqnvz35TzZ55wvzs by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T02:00:05Z
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@kevin @mmasnick Coincidentally, I was watching old episodes of the "The Saint" recently (one of my favorite old shows) and in at least two they used bell tap during dialing on a different phone in the house as a plot point revealing that the other phone was being used to make a call.
(DIR) Post #ASIqnwacpm38xdWwZE by JRBuckley@mastodon.coffee
2023-02-02T14:18:16Z
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@lauren @kevin @mmasnickIn 1970s Berlin, when you picked up one phone an indicator would flip red on all the other extensions and they would go dead until you hung up the first phone. I was told it was an anti-eaves dropping measure.
(DIR) Post #ASIqnx7EsW8aammzOy by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-02T16:34:35Z
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@JRBuckley @kevin @mmasnick I've never heard of that. Unless there's a bypass, it also means you couldn't add someone onto an extension during a call!
(DIR) Post #ASIqnxfcofdwJQsS00 by JRBuckley@mastodon.coffee
2023-02-03T12:57:39Z
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@lauren @kevin @mmasnickExactly, only one extension could be used at a time.Admittedly, I was 10 when I first encountered this and it was in locations controlled by the US Military (offices and off-base housing) in West Berlin, so I don't know if this was a standard thing or if I misunderstood its purpose, etc. I never saw it anywhere else after that or during the 12 years I spent in Southern Germany in the 1980s-90s.
(DIR) Post #ASJ5n8Drb2hE3vxEMS by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-03T15:45:36Z
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@JRBuckley @kevin @mmasnick Thinking it was a military thing most likely.
(DIR) Post #ASJ7qSCjxcH4oQ8nZY by kevin@elephant.crime.group
2023-02-03T16:08:38Z
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@lauren @JRBuckley @mmasnick this is like the 4 extra buttons military phones had.
(DIR) Post #ASJ8HPAjLKXtE53Hvs by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-02-03T16:13:33Z
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@kevin @JRBuckley @mmasnick That was AUTOVON. Fourth column red buttons: FO - F - I - P (flash override, flash, immediate, priority).