Comments by "roachtoasties" (@roachtoasties) on "AT&T Tech Channel" channel.

  1. Out of curiosity, I dialed the number that's at the start of this video. It's someone's personal number (no longer a pay phone). I wonder if he gets other calls from here.
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  2.  @4agony777  In the 1970's and 1980's it was the TSPS console telephone operators used. Supervisors, on and off throughout the day, would sit at a console in the corner of the office, listen in and see what an operator was doing (mainly pressing buttons and completing calls) on the console. Operators were graded on speed and accuracy. If an operator had too many mistakes (they were called either irregulars or errors) bad things can happen to them from a poor evaluation to termination. It was also possible to be immediately terminated if the error/violation was considered serious. Attendance was also looked at closely. You better have a good car or not miss the bus or you also could be shown the door. This, and other things, made the environment very stressful. I was one of these operators in California. While I won't go into detail here why I no longer worked there (I lasted close to three years), afterwards I eventually completed my college degree and went into the I.T. field. I've been successful since. AT&T's loss.
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  3. I'm sold. Where can I trade in my Windows 10 machine for one of these workstations?
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  4. Cool. When is dial service coming to my area?
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  5.  fbw71u  Both are true. But if I could stop by the World's Fair in 1962, I think it would be just before U.S. urban decay, so it should be fun. At least where I'm from (California), things have been turning around, but we have a lot of catching up.
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  6. Ballroom dancing in the rest room. Where is that done now? Maybe today they would be twerking in the rest room, if there were still operators.
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  7. An old video showing a cordboard office that still wasn't replaced by a TSPS office. How many operators are now left? Two?
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  8. Now one can build their own "telephone switching machine" with a laptop and a bunch of VOIP adapters. No giant truck with tons of stuff needed.
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  9. Yes, he swiped it, although it looked like an oversized garage door opener.
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  10. I'm fairly certain 911 wasn't in operation in Los Angeles County until late 1984. There was probably just one TSPS operator office open at that hour that handled calls from the telephone prefixes that were going to be cut in that central office. All the woman did was call the TSPS office, where the supervisor there yelled out to the operators if they had any emergency calls held on their positions. Nobody indicated they did, so they started chopping the cables. If there was a call they would have waited until it was completed. If a customer dialed the fire or police department directly and they were on an emergency call at that precise time, they would have been cut off. Almost no customers called the police that way, since they rarely knew the direct phone numbers off hand, so they dialed "0" and said "Operator, get me the police!"
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  11. Direct Distance Dialing. Cool. What will they think of next? When will this newfangled service be coming to my community? My wrist is getting tired of cranking the old handle on the side of my telephone.
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  12. I'm unsure if this went anywhere, but it looks like something that Prodigy expanded on. Of course, Prodigy and other similar services, eventually became obsolete.
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  13. The Farm Interphone System. What will they think of next? Where can I get mine? I need 'um that spankin new system on my farm. My wife is 'err getting um tired of walking back and forth to 'er 'um barn for me to get the phone when I'm milkin' them er cows. How come Oliver down on the Green Acres farm never got the system? He was always climbin' up that um telephone pole every time the phone rang.
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  14. I had a job many decades ago where I had to answer the phone. I remember someone calling me saying something like, "You a-h's have hung up on me five times! Five F-N times! Five damn times! Five F-N times!" After that tongue lashing I said "OK, I'm going to make it six!" (Click!)
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  15. Wasn't Pacific Telephone renamed Pacific Bell on January 1st, 1984? Maybe the lettering outside the central office wasn't yet changed.
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  16. Now, if you still want a corded phone, just pick up a $6 POS at Target. When it breaks, throw it out and get another.
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  17.  fbw71u  It's slow, but there's downtown urban renewal in L.A., and more rail service. The same in San Francisco (if you can deal with the homeless issue). It's nothing like Europe, but compared to the 70's and 80's when there was nothing but a few belching city buses, things are improving.
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  18. Thanks for the introduction. I'll be right over to drop off my punch cards for processing.
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  19. Cool. When is this new dial service coming to my community?
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  20. This looks like a TV commercial. Where did people go to watch about this important update in 1936, as there was no television service? Did they go to the local movie theater to watch commercials, then go back home? :/
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  21. When I was a kid I thought the Bell System is the Bell System because there are bells inside of each telephone. If I opened up a telephone and disconnected the wire to the bell, then you're no longer part of the Bell System.
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  22. At 2:40 I see some of the old TSPS consoles. I don't even remember the last time I spoke to an operator. AT&T must have an office or two still tucked away somewhere in the U.S., for the handful of callers who might still need one. Millennials, and some pre-millennials, might not know what an operator even is.
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  23. This was before 911. She called whatever TSPS (operator) office was open and handling that telephone office prefixes. Someone probably then yelled to all the operators asking whether they had any emergency calls held on their positions. There were none, so they started cutting cables. If someone was on an emergency call without dialing the operator (like dialing a fire department phone number direct) they still got cut off and their house burned down.
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  24. How did that rocket delivery of shepherds beef patties work out? It looked like the rocket exploded.
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  25. 213 was down to a tiny area of downtown Los Angeles. I think it was just three square miles, until the 323 and 213 merged. Of course, now, with cellphones and VOIP, the "area" in area code has less of a meaning.
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  26. Thanks for the introduction. I'll be right over to drop off my punch cards for processing.
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  27. Questions: We all know about custom calling features, so no need to ask about that. I do need to know what code the bird needed to poke at 3:55 to get fed. Now that's important. There's also the issue of the dogs at 11:23. If the family is "many miles away on vacation" why are they just concerned about watering the lawn? Their dogs are left wandering around the house. Who's taking care of them? Important stuff!
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  28. I thought it was when you're walking around street corners in a bad part of town and end up being punched by the neighborhood gangs.
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  29. I don't think AT&T went as far as having everyone dress in uniforms at the office, but a lot of the other stuff happened.
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  30. If there were still operators in 2025: "Hello Los Angeles. Yusuf is on the line from Mumbai. Please provide the text code he just sent you so he can empty out your bank account. Thank you."
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  31. Of course, nothing lasts forever.
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  32. 7,500 people churning out telephones in 1980 in Indianapolis. Now, I doubt if you go into a store to buy a desk phone or cell phone, you'll find any that are made in the U.S. Were these people really happy or were they just smiling for the camera. Screwing a part onto telephones going by you on an assembly line had to be monotonous.
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  33. How many customers ultimately subscribed? Four?
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  34. Anyone yakking on the phone at 11:00 pm got cut off. Wasn't Pacific Telephone already known as Pacific Bell/Pacific Telesis in 1984? Maybe the sign on the building still wasn't replaced. Anyway, probably no more telephone central office cut-overs. Now it's "internet outages." VoIP allows literally anyone with a small amount of knowledge, to make their own small switching network in their house.
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  35. 1946 for this video doesn't seem right. Maybe a few years later.
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  36. The phones will work at 170F? That's good to know. I'll either be dead, or the house has burned down, but the phone will still be there. :/
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  37. When is this newfangled dial service coming to my community?
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  38. 200,000 operators in 1932 could have been equivalent to millions of operators today, if technology and the business never changed. The population wouldn't be big enough to employ enough operators. Now, I don't even want to answer the phone. Most calls are robocalls or telemarketers. If someone wants to communicate with me, send me a text, email or social media post. Not only have operators become obsolete, the telephone call itself might become obsolete.
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  39. If the developers only knew back then that cellular service would go from improving productivity to basically posting twerking videos on TikTok, they would have halted the program.
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  40. Cool. When is this new dial service coming to my neighborhood?
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  41. Decades ago AT&T didn't allow you to own your own phone, let alone mess around with your home wiring. If you did something wrong by buying a phone at a flea market, "their employees in the central office could end up being electrocuted." I wonder how many of these employees really left work in a body bag.
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  42. Neither. I suggest a career as a pin setter. That should carry him through until retirement.
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  43. It probably would have died anyway. Nothing lasts forever. Advances in technology became more and more decentralized. Building bigger and bigger buildings in the same locations might have worked in the 50's - 70's, but not now.
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  44.  @brianandrews7099  It's about time! I must be last in line to get the upgrade.
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  45. I guess, but since 911 has been engrained into our minds, I doubt many people dial 0 for an emergency call. If an operator did get such a call, they'll just connect them to the 911 emergency service for their location.
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