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Article claims that the 1995 No Doubt song, Spiderwebs, references Caller ID. Clearly, the song is about an implausible excuse recorded as an outgoing answerin

Article claims that the 1995 No Doubt song, Spiderwebs, references Caller ID. Clearly, the song is about an implausible excuse recorded as an outgoing answering machine message, not Caller ID. "I'm walking into spider webs. Leave a message, and I'll call you back." For the youngsters, an answering machine was the precursor technology to voice mail. It was a hardware device that you installed on a landline--the only kind of phone line most people had--between the demarcation point and your phone handset, that automatically answered a phone call after a programmed number of rings. The machine then played the outgoing message, sounded a beep, and recorded the subsequent audio as an incoming message. The machine could be set to play the incoming audio through a speaker, and if the call was from a familiar source, the phone handset could then be picked up. This was referred to as "screening your calls". Equally clearly, the superior cultural documentation for Caller ID is the Scream movies. Scream came out in 1996, and Scream 2 in 1997. Sydney did not have Caller ID in the first, and had purchased it by the second, to combat crank callers. After the release of Scream, Caller ID use tripled in the US. (That may be coincidental, attributable to the adoption rate of a new and useful technology.)

Spooky23 7y ago
I think caller-id got alot cheaper in that era. IIRC, my parents upgraded to a bundle with numeric dialing, regional long distance, and caller-id around that time. Previously, I know that numeric dialing was a $10/mo upgrade, and caller ID required that plus something like $17. When the price came down it was worth it so that my mom could screen forced overtime calls. She was required to report to work if contact was made, so we basically didn't answer the phone at certain times! I remember coming back from college and my sister answered the phone on a Sunday night, and I was shocked.
paggle 7y ago
Also, for those too young to remember answering machines, they spawned a lot of scenes in thriller movies where someone had to break into a place to get an answering machine tape, either to ascertain what was on it or to swap it out with a blank tape so that the intended recipient didn’t receive it. Even in some romantic comedies where someone confessed their love in a message and then regretted it. Also, the mechanics of answering machines is why they have the “please leave the message after the beep.” The greeting was stored at the beginning of the tape (no solid state memory!), but there could be a lot of messages already on the machine. So the machine would rewind the tape to the beginning in standby mode, play the greeting, then fast forward to the first section of blank tape. Since this would be a variable amount of time, they played a beep so the caller knew when recording was starting. This could be a long wait for people with lots of messages. When the greeting could be stored in solid state, this was an advertised feature, as were the completely solid state machines.
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  Two-tape machines had the outgoing message on one tape, and the incoming messages recorded to a longer tape, that did not rewind until playback. In some instances, the outgoing message was recorded on a microcassette tape, as would have been used in compact personal audio recorders, and the incoming messages went to either another microcassette or to a full-sized cassette tape. Single-tape machines were basically extinct by the late 80s. By the 90s, they returned when the outgoing message was recorded to solid-state memory, and the incoming went to tape.
  - paggle 7y ago
    We never had a solid state machine and only had single tape machines. I think at the low end they were quite common through the 90s, unless we had one that lasted a long time and also had the 90's styling in the 80s, which could be the case.
- ghaff 7y ago
  It's amusing to note how many plot points, gags, etc. in various movies (and books) are obsoleted by today's technology, perhaps cell phones most of all. It's the default that you can always reach someone now and you probably have to provide some rationale if you can't.
  - aaron_m04 7y ago
    > It's the default that you can always reach someone now and you probably have to provide some rationale if you can't. "Sorry, I was in a mine shaft"
  - tomjen3 7y ago
    There is a great example of this in Buffy where they obsolete themselves. In one of the earlier episodes (where a demon is scanned into a computer and activated) they call one of the characters at home, and the phone connects, so they no she isn't online. In one of the later episodes a character has just left the room and as they are about to call him, the camera pans to his seat where he has left his flip-cell phone.
js2 7y ago
> For the youngsters, an answering machine was the precursor technology to voice mail. On display in this scene from The Terminator: https://youtu.be/ASMnW0H5AAI?t=1m10s https://youtu.be/ASMnW0H5AAI?t=1m10s This scene will also familiarize youngsters with a precursor device to the mobile phone known as a pay phone.
- hirundo 7y ago
  > a precursor device to the mobile phone known as a pay phone. Housed in a "phone booth" that was sometimes used for quick clothes changes or time travel.
floatboth 7y ago
> The machine could be set to play the incoming audio through a speaker, and if the call was from a familiar source, the phone handset could then be picked up That's how voicemail still works on many DECT landline phones
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Assuming you use your phone's voicemail system. I've never used anyone do that; everyone I know relied on voicemail provided by the phone company, but this meant that when the call goes to voicemail it appears as a missed call to the phone itself and you can no longer pick up the line and intercept it.
acheron 7y ago
Related: the 1994 R.E.M. song "Star 69". Even if you didn't have Caller ID, you could dial *69 and it would automatically call back the last person who called you. "I know you called, I know you hung up my line, star 69" (edited: 1994, not '95. The album was 94, the tour was 95.)
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  Note that * 69 may have incurred a per-call or monthly charge, as it was introduced during the era when phone companies would nickel-and-dime their customers for every "new" feature (for values of "new" less than 20 years old). That was roughly between the minute following "Watson, I need you," and the minute after cable television companies started offering VoIP triple-play. (To be reintroduced with mobile text messaging and data charges, of course!) This sort of business practice curtailed the adoption of a lot of useful features, Caller ID included. There were a lot of people still using rotary pulse dialing in the 80s, because the telcos charged a higher monthly price for DTMF touch-tone dialing.
  - hinkley 7y ago
    I worked in mobile for a while pre smartphone and we were talking one day about stupid patents (filing wireless patents for the same tech that had expired patents in wired equipment) and weird fees and somebody asserted that in the diaspora after Ma Bell got trust-busted, a lot of those executives ended up at mobile carriers, using the same bag of tricks. This explained quite a lot. When I left the industry, I left because all the profits went to the carriers and all the risk to us. From my perspective, VC money was funding the telcos. But an earlier thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was that the teclos were trying to white-label phones from then-unknowns like HTC (who ISTR was already white-labelling for Motorola and Nokia?) so that they didn't have to negotiate with the manufacturers over tech and prices. You would get exactly what the carrier wanted you to have and not one bit more. This was just when the Razr phone had its first price drop, and rumors of the iPhone were beginning. This is definitely one time when a Cult of Personality saved us from something much worse.
    - 7y ago
SilasX 7y ago
>Article claims that the 1995 No Doubt song, Spiderwebs, references Caller ID. Clearly, the song is about an implausible excuse recorded as an outgoing answering machine message, not Caller ID. You're referring to this part of the article? >> No Doubt’s “Spiderwebs,” featured a protagonist, Gwen Stefani, who was screening her phone calls—something made easier with Caller ID. The article is correct, some of the lyrics explicitly refer to screening calls[1]: "And it's all your fault/ I screen my phone calls/ No matter who calls/ I gotta screen my phone calls" In common parlance, that means checking who's calling you before deciding if you'll take the call, which involves Caller ID. [2] I don't know where you're getting the song being about implausible excuse from the caller -- the song is about Gwen not wanting to talk to someone who thinks she's interested (and Genius confirms): "You think that we connect ... Your words walk right through my ears/ Presuming I like what I hear". And later in verse 2: "Don't have the courage inside me/ To tell you please let me be" If you're referring to the "a likely story", look at the surrounding lines: "Sorry I'm not home right now ... So leave a message and I'll call you back/ A likely story, but leave a message/ And I'll call you back." That is, she's recognizing that her claim of not being available is implausible. Finally, my love of that song paid off on HN! [1] https://genius.com/No-doubt-spiderwebs-lyrics https://genius.com/No-doubt-spiderwebs-lyrics [2] EDIT: A now-deleted reply pointed out that at the time it wouldn't be understood as referring to caller ID, as it wasn't very common to have, and most people screened by listening to the message. I stand corrected. Still, the article only says that screening is made easier with caller ID, which is correct, and the song is still about screening calls because of unwanted attention, not, as was claimed, about the implausible content of said message.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- 0xffff2 7y ago
  >I don't know where you're getting the song being about implausible excuse from the caller GP is saying it's an implausible excuse from the callee.
- dionidium 7y ago
  > In common parlance, that means checking who's calling you before deciding if you'll take the call, which involves Caller ID. [2] Not true! "Screening your phone calls" in those days meant waiting for someone to start leaving a message on your answering machine, which you could hear in the room in real time [0], and then only picking up the phone if it was someone you wanted to talk to. [0] Messages weren't left on a server that you'd access later. They were recorded on a physical tape in your house. You could hear the person leaving the message as they did it.

Spooky23 7y ago

I think caller-id got alot cheaper in that era. IIRC, my parents upgraded to a bundle with numeric dialing, regional long distance, and caller-id around that time. Previously, I know that numeric dialing was a $10/mo upgrade, and caller ID required that plus something like $17. When the price came down it was worth it so that my mom could screen forced overtime calls. She was required to report to work if contact was made, so we basically didn't answer the phone at certain times! I remember coming back from college and my sister answered the phone on a Sunday night, and I was shocked.

paggle 7y ago

Also, for those too young to remember answering machines, they spawned a lot of scenes in thriller movies where someone had to break into a place to get an answering machine tape, either to ascertain what was on it or to swap it out with a blank tape so that the intended recipient didn’t receive it. Even in some romantic comedies where someone confessed their love in a message and then regretted it. Also, the mechanics of answering machines is why they have the “please leave the message after the beep.” The greeting was stored at the beginning of the tape (no solid state memory!), but there could be a lot of messages already on the machine. So the machine would rewind the tape to the beginning in standby mode, play the greeting, then fast forward to the first section of blank tape. Since this would be a variable amount of time, they played a beep so the caller knew when recording was starting. This could be a long wait for people with lots of messages. When the greeting could be stored in solid state, this was an advertised feature, as were the completely solid state machines.

logfromblammo 7y ago
Two-tape machines had the outgoing message on one tape, and the incoming messages recorded to a longer tape, that did not rewind until playback. In some instances, the outgoing message was recorded on a microcassette tape, as would have been used in compact personal audio recorders, and the incoming messages went to either another microcassette or to a full-sized cassette tape. Single-tape machines were basically extinct by the late 80s. By the 90s, they returned when the outgoing message was recorded to solid-state memory, and the incoming went to tape.
- paggle 7y ago
  We never had a solid state machine and only had single tape machines. I think at the low end they were quite common through the 90s, unless we had one that lasted a long time and also had the 90's styling in the 80s, which could be the case.
ghaff 7y ago
It's amusing to note how many plot points, gags, etc. in various movies (and books) are obsoleted by today's technology, perhaps cell phones most of all. It's the default that you can always reach someone now and you probably have to provide some rationale if you can't.
- aaron_m04 7y ago
  > It's the default that you can always reach someone now and you probably have to provide some rationale if you can't. "Sorry, I was in a mine shaft"
- tomjen3 7y ago
  There is a great example of this in Buffy where they obsolete themselves. In one of the earlier episodes (where a demon is scanned into a computer and activated) they call one of the characters at home, and the phone connects, so they no she isn't online. In one of the later episodes a character has just left the room and as they are about to call him, the camera pans to his seat where he has left his flip-cell phone.

js2 7y ago

> For the youngsters, an answering machine was the precursor technology to voice mail. On display in this scene from The Terminator: https://youtu.be/ASMnW0H5AAI?t=1m10s https://youtu.be/ASMnW0H5AAI?t=1m10s This scene will also familiarize youngsters with a precursor device to the mobile phone known as a pay phone.

hirundo 7y ago
> a precursor device to the mobile phone known as a pay phone. Housed in a "phone booth" that was sometimes used for quick clothes changes or time travel.

floatboth 7y ago

> The machine could be set to play the incoming audio through a speaker, and if the call was from a familiar source, the phone handset could then be picked up That's how voicemail still works on many DECT landline phones

Nextgrid 7y ago
Assuming you use your phone's voicemail system. I've never used anyone do that; everyone I know relied on voicemail provided by the phone company, but this meant that when the call goes to voicemail it appears as a missed call to the phone itself and you can no longer pick up the line and intercept it.

acheron 7y ago

Related: the 1994 R.E.M. song "Star 69". Even if you didn't have Caller ID, you could dial *69 and it would automatically call back the last person who called you. "I know you called, I know you hung up my line, star 69" (edited: 1994, not '95. The album was 94, the tour was 95.)

logfromblammo 7y ago
Note that * 69 may have incurred a per-call or monthly charge, as it was introduced during the era when phone companies would nickel-and-dime their customers for every "new" feature (for values of "new" less than 20 years old). That was roughly between the minute following "Watson, I need you," and the minute after cable television companies started offering VoIP triple-play. (To be reintroduced with mobile text messaging and data charges, of course!) This sort of business practice curtailed the adoption of a lot of useful features, Caller ID included. There were a lot of people still using rotary pulse dialing in the 80s, because the telcos charged a higher monthly price for DTMF touch-tone dialing.
- hinkley 7y ago
  I worked in mobile for a while pre smartphone and we were talking one day about stupid patents (filing wireless patents for the same tech that had expired patents in wired equipment) and weird fees and somebody asserted that in the diaspora after Ma Bell got trust-busted, a lot of those executives ended up at mobile carriers, using the same bag of tricks. This explained quite a lot. When I left the industry, I left because all the profits went to the carriers and all the risk to us. From my perspective, VC money was funding the telcos. But an earlier thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was that the teclos were trying to white-label phones from then-unknowns like HTC (who ISTR was already white-labelling for Motorola and Nokia?) so that they didn't have to negotiate with the manufacturers over tech and prices. You would get exactly what the carrier wanted you to have and not one bit more. This was just when the Razr phone had its first price drop, and rumors of the iPhone were beginning. This is definitely one time when a Cult of Personality saved us from something much worse.
  - 7y ago

SilasX 7y ago

>Article claims that the 1995 No Doubt song, Spiderwebs, references Caller ID. Clearly, the song is about an implausible excuse recorded as an outgoing answering machine message, not Caller ID. You're referring to this part of the article? >> No Doubt’s “Spiderwebs,” featured a protagonist, Gwen Stefani, who was screening her phone calls—something made easier with Caller ID. The article is correct, some of the lyrics explicitly refer to screening calls[1]: "And it's all your fault/ I screen my phone calls/ No matter who calls/ I gotta screen my phone calls" In common parlance, that means checking who's calling you before deciding if you'll take the call, which involves Caller ID. [2] I don't know where you're getting the song being about implausible excuse from the caller -- the song is about Gwen not wanting to talk to someone who thinks she's interested (and Genius confirms): "You think that we connect ... Your words walk right through my ears/ Presuming I like what I hear". And later in verse 2: "Don't have the courage inside me/ To tell you please let me be" If you're referring to the "a likely story", look at the surrounding lines: "Sorry I'm not home right now ... So leave a message and I'll call you back/ A likely story, but leave a message/ And I'll call you back." That is, she's recognizing that her claim of not being available is implausible. Finally, my love of that song paid off on HN! [1] https://genius.com/No-doubt-spiderwebs-lyrics https://genius.com/No-doubt-spiderwebs-lyrics [2] EDIT: A now-deleted reply pointed out that at the time it wouldn't be understood as referring to caller ID, as it wasn't very common to have, and most people screened by listening to the message. I stand corrected. Still, the article only says that screening is made easier with caller ID, which is correct, and the song is still about screening calls because of unwanted attention, not, as was claimed, about the implausible content of said message.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
0xffff2 7y ago
>I don't know where you're getting the song being about implausible excuse from the caller GP is saying it's an implausible excuse from the callee.
dionidium 7y ago
> In common parlance, that means checking who's calling you before deciding if you'll take the call, which involves Caller ID. [2] Not true! "Screening your phone calls" in those days meant waiting for someone to start leaving a message on your answering machine, which you could hear in the room in real time [0], and then only picking up the phone if it was someone you wanted to talk to. [0] Messages weren't left on a server that you'd access later. They were recorded on a physical tape in your house. You could hear the person leaving the message as they did it.