Posts by Ross Mason
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Hard News: The other kind of phone tapping, in reply to Anthony851,
If the person receiving the call was aware that the call was from a PCS the order could me made, bread and milk etc. Then you would push the “B” button and get your coins back.
That reminded me of the other trick of screaming into the ear piece. This is again without pushing button A. It was quite a laugh watching people watching you yell at the "wrong end".
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One distinct and very useful tool that emerged from the PO Relay World was the spring tension measuring/adjusting tool. (It helped to have PO techies as shooting mates) It was like a wee torque wrench. One could adjust the tension on its arm and use it to adjust the relay or switch tensioning. We found it immensely useful for setting the triggers on our target rifles.
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Hard News: The other kind of phone tapping, in reply to Alfie,
Mind you, the attraction wasn’t that the calls were free – they only cost a penny or two back then – and besides, we all had home phones which worked locally for free. It was the fact that we’d aquired this secret knowledge which tricked the Post Office technology which really appealed to us. Boy, were we clever!
And when you were out on the piss and thought it would be a good idea to phone partner for a ride, you’d find the nearest phone and “try” and tap the home number!!!! Bugger..repeat…bugger.. repeat..bugger… repeat…..My home number was great but – 286889 was an easy number to phreak……except when you were pissed….
It got very sophisticated when the multi toned frequency system came into the phone system. Many hoons built boxes to gain access to the phone.
See this article that includes the Apple Boys who misspent their youth phreaking in.
Edit: Privacy was always an issue…or the lack of it…especially with the old party lines. Our family regularly moved to phones that had upwards of 6 to 8 people on one line. But we did win at Little River. We had phone number 1.
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Hard News: How about that cricket, eh?, in reply to ,
I was surprised to see the unsightly shadow cast on the pitch.
So Steve, would you have complained about the shadows if Aussie batted first? My dollar would say that you would be screaming at the TV telling "our" bowlers to use the speckled light on the pitch to their advantage. And didn't NZ win the toss????
Conspiracy: I heard from someone who was there who told their son who passed it on to a friend of mine that if Aussie won the toss a bevy of blokes would emerge onto the roof to unfold the curtains that were to be drawn out over the windows and roof in that part of the arena so that the effect would not have been so great..........
It was great cricket and I was just sad watching BM (like that? I call him "BM" now) getting hacked down so quickly. And my #2 daughter has one of those events of a lifetime now tucked away by being there!
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And my daughter #2 and her BF bought tickets for the final way before the tourney started........sigh......lucky lucky buggers.
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Hard News: How about that cricket, eh?, in reply to Hilary Stace,
He said he was taught to be humble in victory as that scene played of him walking over to shake the hand of the poor man on the ground.
Grant Elliot is old. Old enough to have lost the sledging snarl of youth, Old enough to enjoy the game. Old enough to celebrate success because after all the years of trying when you finally achieve something like this you think of all those times when you were truly pissed off and this one moment makes it all worthwhile. Old enough to understand that it is sport. Merely an invented game. This twinkling moment that should, in the light of day for the loser, bring the realisation expressed by ABD coming to the press conference: "The sun will still come up tomorrow".
PS: Have no sorrow for South Africa. Just remember the times when they have thrashed us. Bask in it.
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12 months of my past were spent at Scott Base. Of course with 4 months of darkness aurora were visible regularly. One particular active evening I ventured out in about ten layers, took a ground sheet and snuck out to a quiet spot and lay on the snow. They say that aurora sing to you. It seemed so. As one watched, these curtains – imagine floor to ceiling drapes and you are looking from the floor up into them – swished and danced and jetted toward me and drifted back to space. Then to be replaced by another set adjacent to begin the show again.
Anthony Powell’s doco “A year on Ice” has some absolutely majestic aurora time lapse. I took my family to the show at the Embassy and remarked to the audience that after years of trying to describe my experience this doco was easily the best description of what a year on ice was like.
I do wish the aurora would sneak up here a little more. Wellington just doesn’t cut it I’m afraid and I will have to trust Capture to show the bits I miss.
Sigh……
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Speaker: Women, science and superheroes, in reply to BenWilson,
The arts science split was/is profound.
You think? I know loads of people who were talented in both.
At school it was.
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Speaker: Women, science and superheroes, in reply to ,
Edit……
Canned that one….
Dalziel again!!
Good for knotty problems though.
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When I was in the 4th form I wanted to learn typing. Why I don't know but it was a skill I thought was cool 'cos I liked typewriters!! (Pulling them apart :-) )
Don't really know how useful that would have been today though........waste of t im e REaLly.
The arts science split was/is profound. There could/should be an option attached to each stream to give "General Education" of science for the arts and "General Education" of arts for the science.