[NTLK] Fact Check [OT]

[Lord Groundhog]

~~~ On 2010/01/22 09:35, Jon Glass at jonglass at usa.net wrote ~~~

> There were phones that could act as modems via infra-red, but ...


I remember those days well, Jon, but it is good to recall more precisely, as
you do there, when it was that we were at different stages of development.
It's easy to forget just how far the Newton was leaning forward to peer over
the cliff of the possible.

With reference to phones and modems and such, I recall a gizmo I never got
round to buying and for which I don't ever recall the proper name now.  You
plugged into your laptop and then strapped its two thingies (you'll notice
I'm using all the technical terms now) onto a phone receiver -- one on each
end.  That allowed you to use the phone as a modem when you couldn't plug
straight into a phone socket.  Not useful ordinarily if you had a good modem
pcmcia card or a built-in modem in your laptop, but there were occasions (in
hotels where the phone was hard-wired into the wall or at a phone booth)
where such a gizmo was a great boon.

I borrowed one once when I was in a hotel.  It was even slower than my
pcmcia modem because it had to convert back and forth between the digital
signal and the audio/analogue.  You had to be sure it was strapped on
properly and it cut out on me twice.  But it sent my fax.

Seems like something out of the Dark Ages now.

 
Shalom. 
Christian 

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
            -- what Arthur C. Clarke meant

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http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/3942

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