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Comment by jacques_chester | Hacker News Reader

It's like remembering the screeeeee-krrsssssh-bdang!bdang!bdang!-krrrssssh-click of a dialup modem. It fairly neatly bifurcates generations of nerds.

Rotary phones were quite elegant. As the dial returns to 0, it sends pulses down the line. The pulses actuate series of stepping switches to form the final phone circuit.

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> Rotary phones were quite elegant. As the dial returns to 0, it sends pulses down the line. The pulses actuate series of stepping switches to form the final phone circuit.

Back when I was poor and didn't have a place to live, I would go into a hotel lobby where they had a phone for guests to receive, but not make, calls -- the phone didn't have a dial. I would pick up the handset, wait for a dial tone, then press one of the buttons beneath the handset, ten time really fast. Then I would say, "Hello, operator? I'm handicapped, can you dial a number for me?"

Australia's phone system largely skipped past having operators, so the various tricks for getting one to dial for you never worked here.

Ah, but with a little practice (& patience!) you can dial complete numbers using this system. I used to call the 113 number (clock/time information) here in Argentina in this way just for fun.

Just as well. Human operators only prolonged unfair and very negative sexual stereotypes.

It's ok, we're Australians. We have plenty of other negative sexual stereotypes to pick up any slack.

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