5 ms·

> but just tapping on the “hang” button That looks like a hack. I understood it at 7 years old, but it is typically the kind of hack I’m told other adults woul

> but just tapping on the “hang” button That looks like a hack. I understood it at 7 years old, but it is typically the kind of hack I’m told other adults wouldn’t understand. Do you think it was much used beyond technical-minded people who always wondered how things worked?

gota 7y ago
If I recall correctly we guessed this as children because the sound made by the rotary thing let go at "N" was the same as pressing the "hang" button N times I mean it was an easy association to make, so at least a couple of friends guessed it. I can't remember if I was told or if I figured it out myself, but at least the explanation I was given involved this empirical observation
klondike_ 7y ago
People who needed to make a lot of phone calls would often do this because it was faster than waiting for the rotary wheel to return to the start You sometimes see it in old movies
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  As I recall, there was a movie where someone was in jail, the CO dialed the phone number for their free phone call, and then when the CO locked the number pad and left, the "hacker" immediately hung up and redialed a different number by tapping on the cradle switch. They might have just tapped 10 times (dial rotary-0) to get an operator and then requested manual completion of the call. I don't remember, exactly. I don't even know if you can still also do pulse dialing instead of solely DTMF dialing now.
  - mindcrime 7y ago
    That was from "Hackers"[1][2]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_(film) [2]: https://youtu.be/h_Awe6CI91k?t=41 https://youtu.be/h_Awe6CI91k?t=41
- jaclaz 7y ago
  >People who needed to make a lot of phone calls would often do this because it was faster than waiting for the rotary wheel to return to the start Allow me to doubt that, the time the rotary dial goes back is exactly the time needed for making the pulses at the correct interval/rate, typically 10 pulses per second: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_dialing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_dialing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_dialing#Pulse_rate_and_coding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_dialing#Pulse_rate_and_c... Even if the switch allowed usually (and in theory) 7 to 12 most phones dials were set for exactly 10 and I doubt that anyone could get relably 12 pulses per second by tapping, in any case, a 999-999999 would have taken some 9-10 seconds by dialing and no less than 7 seconds by tapping or anyway at the most you would have been able to shave off at the most some 20% of the dialing time, introducing a high risk of getting "another" number.

gota 7y ago

If I recall correctly we guessed this as children because the sound made by the rotary thing let go at "N" was the same as pressing the "hang" button N times I mean it was an easy association to make, so at least a couple of friends guessed it. I can't remember if I was told or if I figured it out myself, but at least the explanation I was given involved this empirical observation

klondike_ 7y ago

People who needed to make a lot of phone calls would often do this because it was faster than waiting for the rotary wheel to return to the start You sometimes see it in old movies

logfromblammo 7y ago
As I recall, there was a movie where someone was in jail, the CO dialed the phone number for their free phone call, and then when the CO locked the number pad and left, the "hacker" immediately hung up and redialed a different number by tapping on the cradle switch. They might have just tapped 10 times (dial rotary-0) to get an operator and then requested manual completion of the call. I don't remember, exactly. I don't even know if you can still also do pulse dialing instead of solely DTMF dialing now.
- mindcrime 7y ago
  That was from "Hackers"[1][2]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_(film) [2]: https://youtu.be/h_Awe6CI91k?t=41 https://youtu.be/h_Awe6CI91k?t=41
jaclaz 7y ago
>People who needed to make a lot of phone calls would often do this because it was faster than waiting for the rotary wheel to return to the start Allow me to doubt that, the time the rotary dial goes back is exactly the time needed for making the pulses at the correct interval/rate, typically 10 pulses per second: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_dialing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_dialing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_dialing#Pulse_rate_and_coding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_dialing#Pulse_rate_and_c... Even if the switch allowed usually (and in theory) 7 to 12 most phones dials were set for exactly 10 and I doubt that anyone could get relably 12 pulses per second by tapping, in any case, a 999-999999 would have taken some 9-10 seconds by dialing and no less than 7 seconds by tapping or anyway at the most you would have been able to shave off at the most some 20% of the dialing time, introducing a high risk of getting "another" number.