The 970-HA-JOKES Payphone Project | Hacker News Reader

The 970-HA-JOKES Payphone Project

learn.sparkfun.com

106 pointsjrmg16 comments

Re: Toll-Free calls, you can actually get paid for those too. Thanks to the 1996 telecommunications law, there's something called "dial-around compensation" which entitles payphone owners to about 50 cents for a toll free call. Here's one such clearinghouse that connects payphones operators and IXCs: https://npc.cc/home.aspx.

See also Futel, another hacker public payphone project: https://www.wweek.com/culture/2020/02/12/a-portland-software...

I thought these were extinct in my country. I was wrong, there are payphones in Post offices, on Bus Stations , hospitals etc.

This is awesome, but to be honest, since they knew it was temporary and a bit of fun I think they should have made the phone primarily a joke and not just via Easter eggs. Rick roll every number for example. After a day it would get huge media attention and there'd be queues around the block to use it. The small pleasure it would give thousands would be greater then the admittedly large pleasure it seems to have given the creator and his wife.

>> After 10 days we decided we had enough fun and wanted to remove the phone before too many questions were asked

I guess this is a US thing? I mean who would care? And would there be any harm in waiting until they complained before they took it down?

There's this sense that the author went to enormous lengths to build this phone, but concerns over some authority come through.

I hope eventually it found a new home inside a doctors waiting room or somewhere where it can be enjoyed for a long time.

Municipalities in the US can be very picky about what shows up installed on a street corner. Sometimes it’s because of local ordinance, or someone doesn’t like it, or the person in charge doesn’t like that they weren’t asked first.

Yes, it’s a normal thing in the US to expect the authorities to show up sooner or later and ruin your fun. And yes, it really does happen.

I didn't doubt there was a reason for the concern. Obviously he is concerned for a reason. I was just unsure of what that reason might be.

Also, in my culture, if there was a complaint then I'd remove the offending article, no harm done. Clearly he was worried about bigger consequences though.

It just goes to show that although we might speak the same language, we live in very different societies. This can be inciteful because it helps me to see my blind spots to things we might improve over here.

Would you want to take the risk they remove it for you, so to speak? You may lose the fruit of your hard labor and not being able to get to it anymore.

this is why there's graffiti instead of canvases hung, i wager.

"insightful"

It would be cool if this is turned into a touring art installation, let it appear in some more places for some days at a time.

911 abuse liabilities maybe as well. i actually saw this payphone and thought wtf but didnt have time to investigate! ah well

In Australia, Telstra made all calls free and operate a wireless network for all broadband customers. Free calls goes some way to stopping the vandalism problem.

Otherwise they are advertising space. I think the US pay phones are too small to accommodate advertisements.

They should just play an audio ad before connecting the call. Press 1 to skip after 5 seconds of the ad (is this joke too dystopian?).

This is the Sparkfun I knew and loved.

Too bad they didn’t throw in a Person of Interest joke :(

Still, it’s a neat project!

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