OT: Books and such

frightlever · #1 December 20th, 2006, 04:51 AM

You can read html while on the move? Cool. I had a friend who could use the internet in the early 90s without a computer or modem just by whistling down the phoneline. Is it like that?

And of course these days most mp3 players and handheld games machines can read text ebooks, with a bit of tinkering.

narf poit chez BOOM · #2 December 20th, 2006, 05:16 AM

Er, I dunno. I just meant you could read it on a computer without a reader.

Fyron · #3 December 20th, 2006, 05:30 AM

frightlever said:
I had a friend who could use the internet in the early 90s without a computer or modem just by whistling down the phoneline. Is it like that?

Uhh... yeah...

Randallw · #4 December 20th, 2006, 06:54 AM

I saw that in a documentary once. Before the internet proto-hackers could get free long distance phone calls by ringing up the exchange and then play a toy whistle down the line to get connected.

frightlever · #5 December 20th, 2006, 01:45 PM

He was in that documentary. Honest.

Fyron · #6 December 20th, 2006, 05:21 PM

Randallw said:
Before the internet proto-hackers could get free long distance phone calls by ringing up the exchange and then play a toy whistle down the line to get connected.

There is a world of difference between mimicking a ringtone signal and "using the Internet by whistling."

Randallw · #7 December 20th, 2006, 11:21 PM

granted. It's so impossible, unless you're the Terminatrix, that I thought it was pretty obvious frightlever had gotten his context wrong.