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humanoidhistory · 8 months

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Southwestern Bell van, Texas, 1970s.

(via)

#at&t #van #fort worth #dallas #texas #tx #vans #southwestern bell #ma bell #baby bell

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madhattersez · 1 year

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Hell yeah! Had an awesome find at a thrift shop today - A 1929 Southwestern Bell Telephone technical manual and installation guide for phones of the era.

Maybe you're asking why I think this is awesome? Haha. That makes sense - Well, first of all, I -live- vintage stuff. Antiques, old books, weird ephemera of the past. This definitely fits in with all of that, and has a gorgeous, punched leather cover with the gold stamping. Such a slick piece of history.

Second, I'm an old computer nerd cat. Back in the early '90s, I was a phone phreak - a phone hacker back before mobile phones and even alphanumeric pagers were a thing. It was in these days that "Ma Bell" (Southwestern Bell) was a big Queen on the scene, in her prime.

What were common phreaker practices back in the day? Well, it was all about exploration and curiosity. We would wardial (using our home landline connections and modems to dial a huge list of numbers in a row to try and find systems on the other end rather than regular phones - I'd leave it on all day and come back with a shorter list of various systems to dial in and play around on), we would build blue (and other color) boxes from RadioShack parts to use payphones to make free calls and do all sorts of rad tricks, we would prank folks that deserved it or use said tricks to disrupt schools and business, we would navigate voicemail systems and change automatic messages, and we would generate credit card numbers (which was incredibly easy back in the day) to make free calls to our first girlfriends in Canada. Well, that last one was mostly a me thing, haha.

Basically, payphones and early phone systems were a wonderful, incredible playground for me and I have SO many fond memories of these times. To have a book like this in my hands feels like I just looked inside the Ark of the Covenant and instead of melting my face off, it just glowed real bright and whistled a 2600hz tone sweetly into my ears.

This has so many cool photos like the ones above, and lots of radical technical diagrams, too.

As a bonus, there are hand-typed notes from a division head telephone engineer that wrote about systems they were building in Galveston, TX in the '60s:

Anyways, this is such a cool relic and I'll probably not be able to bring myself to sell it.

Did you know I wrote a verse about being a phreaker for a song with Nerdcore legend YTCracker wayyyyyy back in 2010? Well, now you do. You can hear that here (I'm the second dude, of course):

#phone phreak #phreak #phreaker #hacker #hackers #southwestern bell #ma bell #phone hacking #hacking #old books #vibtage books #antique books #treasure #thrift store finds #antiques #leatherwork #nerecore #madhatter #ytcracker

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goshyesvintageads · 1 year

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American Telephone & Telegraph Co, 1966

#AT&T #ad #1966 #vintage #advertisement #pay phones #apology #1960s #dime #telephone #retro #transistor #fail #Ma Bell #phone company #advertising

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stone-cold-groove · 5 months

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If it’s long distance only necessary calls, please on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25.

#the bell system #bell telephone #bell telephone system #ma bell #vintage illustration #vintage advertising #life during wartime #christmas #christmas season #holiday season #xmas #christmas holidays #christmas advertising #americana #christmas aesthetic #christmas trees #christmas decor

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commodorez · 1 year

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@drgorebag

That would be a vinyl decal a friend made at a maker space for me, adhered to my Magnavox 8CM515 which is my preferred composite video monitor. I usually use that with Commodore C64s & VIC-20s.

I've been using this thing for years. It's the only display I have that can handle the 80 column RGBi signal from a Commodore 128. Commodore rebranded this variant into the 1902 monitor, so it's a common pairing for a 128 or 128D.

#magnavox #composite video #vic-20 #commodore #ma bell

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mostlysignssomeportents · 11 months

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2/3 ain't bad.

#CorsoItalia #Toronto #StClairWest #MaBell #IllCommunication

#Corso Italia #toronto #St Clair West #Ma Bell #ill communication

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urban-detritus · 2 years

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Came across this little Long Distance Rate Wheel that Ma Bell put out in 1977. Using it like an old decoder ring, you would find the two cities that you are calling from and to on the back. That graph would give the user a letter. Take that letter and use the decoder wheel to line up with that letter. (In the photo H is being used.) Then that would show you at the opposite end of the wheel the long distance rates you would pay depending on the time of day you called.

Cell phones sure have eliminated this pain in the derriere.

#urban exploration #found item #long distance calling #urbex #urbexworld #urbandecay #ma bell #long distance rate wheel #1970s

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belleshaw · 2 years

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ayquebella · 5 days

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Vintage Old Time Retro Nostalgic Touch-Tone Telephone Push Button Corded Landline Phone Charm Pendant

Soooo cute, sterling silver charm of a retro push-button telephone! This wonderful charm is of a old timey telephone from a bygone era. The push-button telephone has buttons or keys for dialing a telephone number, which was much more modern than rotary phones. This terrific sterling silver charm with a layer of oxidized silver is so very adorable and will look terrific on your favorite charm bracelet or necklace!

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futuristicgun · 1 year

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#unix #bell labs #ma bell #at&t

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kald-dal-art · 6 months

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Drawings of TBOSAS characters people requested, still have more drawing requests to get to but they were more related to the OG trilogy so thought I could at least have all the TBOSAS characters in one post.

@lavenderbehindherear @coryo @sirensorisons and anon request :) hope you like it

#the ballad of songbirds and snakes #the hunger games #thg #tbosas #tigris snow #sejanus plinth #ma plinth #pluribus bell #wovey tbosas #bobbin tbosas #teslee tbosas #fan art #digital art #procreate #artists on tumblr #district 2 #district 3 #district 8

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holocene-sims · 4 months

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belle of the ball ❄️✨🤍

#ts4 #the sims 4 #sims 4 #sims 4 screenshots #sims 4 gameplay #sims 4 portrait #simblr #alternate caption: merry cerise-mas and happy new year <3 #alternate caption 2: belle of the art museum winter fundraiser party #yes girl get those donations for your museum with your stunning fashion sense #hopefully good fashion because i dressed her and i wear only grandpa clothes but if grandpa also bought some t-shirts from hot topic #anyway HEY cerise is back #she's only really appeared on my blog once but she deserves more spotlight #holocene.png #hlcn: story extras #hlcn: cerise

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madhattersez · 11 months

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Phreak the Planet

Saw one of these old friends a few months back.

It's becoming harder and harder to find payphones after the mass decommission, so I always take time to have a little moment whenever I do stumble across one.

Memories... Sweet memories of RadioShack-powered boxes, mini tape recorders, calling my long distance girlfriend, disrupting the asshole staff at my Junior High, learning neat tricks to show people, and just having harmless fun before the Internet truly hit.