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Anyone from MIT's Tau Epsilon Phi around to confirm/deny that TEPaphone is still running? In the late 1990s/early 2000s, a friend of mine (a brother in TEP) to
by KMag 4y ago
Anyone from MIT's Tau Epsilon Phi around to confirm/deny that TEPaphone is still running? In the late 1990s/early 2000s, a friend of mine (a brother in TEP) told me about their PBX hand-wired from mechanical relays and stepping switches as a hobby project by one of their brothers a decade or two earlier. Apparently its creator was far more interested in the project than in his coursework, to disastrous effect.
If I recall correctly, every-other class, they needed to decide which brother was going to be the designated recipient of the handed-down arcane design and maintenance knowledge. I believe the title of office was Phone Master, and just like Sith Lords, there were always 2: master and apprentice.
On the plus side, it had a photo sensor sitting over the washer and dryer display lights, so dialling the extension for the washer or dryer would give a busy tone if in use, and a ring tone otherwise.
- trynewideas 4y agoIt still shows up in the interactive text adventure tEp house tour[1] (ask irving about Tep-O-Phone, or find it in the basement hallway) but, bad news: > Built from relays that fell out of a Bell telephone truck by Fred Fenning while he was failing his telephony class, Tep-o-phone was a state-of-the-art telephone switching system that let the outside world dial individual rooms, switching tEp's six external lines. It also let people call the laundry room (Mr. Washer and Ms. Dryers) to see if there were free machines. Sadly, Tep-o-phone has since fallen into disrepair with the now-widespread use of cell phones, but every once in a while it tries to connect a call for old time's sake. 1: https://tep.mit.edu/tour https://tep.mit.edu/tour They did rig the laundry status up to the Internet, though, and you can confirm it from the same Zork-like interface in the laundry room.