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touch tone keypad

Started by bwanna, October 10, 2009, 09:23:37 PM

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bwanna

i listen to talk radio all day at work. today i heard a guy claim the reason that the keys on the telephone are opposite the layout on a calculator was cuz the "tones" could not keep up with the dialing speed of folks adept on the calculator. :o

i was skeptical, sooooo.......

http://tinyurl.com/ygsb46e


donna

Phonesrfun

Those of us who are accountants have lived with this for a long time.  I joined the accounting "profession" in 1972, and believe it or not my first Olivetti adding machine could only add and subtract, and was completely mechanical.  After a few months, I could easily punch in numbers faster than it could handle, so the old machines were slow themselves.

Over the years, I have just gotten used to it, and when I am thinking about it, I can do the phone by touch also, but I do need to think about it, or I dial wrong numbers.  Thank heavens for speed dial.

It would be nice to have one or the other change, but at this point, if the calculators were to change, I would need to retire.  Given the state of the economy, I can't do that just yet, so for me the best thing to do is nothing.  Frankly, the touchtone pad makes more sense, and I would imagine that if the telephones were to change, the world would be up in arms, so I don't think that will happen any time soon.

I also remember the old adding machines and rotary calculators that had vertical rows of buttons.  Those were nightmares to operate!

-Bill
-Bill G

McHeath

It's not surprising that no particular thought went into the calculator keypad, while the Bell Labs folks obsessively investigated the matter and ended up with the best possible layout.  When I was taught to ten-key in high school, had a whole class on it, the layout seemed pretty odd to me at first.  Backwards, as the eye naturally starts at the top not bottom.

Dan/Panther

My passcode for retrieving my phone messages is 2580, right down the middle.
When I call in for my messaeges I use my touchtone phone in the kitchen. The operator says; "enter your pin, then push pound".
I have my finger poised above the number 2, and swipe the keyboard straight down the middle, and then push pound. It takes 2 tenths of a second, NO WAY anyone could possibly push the numbers individually and be faster. Yet it still works.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Ellen

D/P, I used to have the phone number 536-9635 in Allston, Mass.  That one was fun.

dsk

#5
Quote from: Phonesrfun on October 10, 2009, 10:01:52 PM
Those of us who are accountants have lived with this for a long time.  I joined the accounting "profession" in 1972, and believe it or not my first Olivetti adding machine could only add and subtract, and was completely mechanical.  After a few months, I could easily punch in numbers faster than it could handle, so the old machines were slow themselves.

Over the years, I have just gotten used to it, and when I am thinking about it, I can do the phone by touch also, but I do need to think about it, or I dial wrong numbers.  Thank heavens for speed dial.

It would be nice to have one or the other change, but at this point, if the calculators were to change, I would need to retire.  Given the state of the economy, I can't do that just yet, so for me the best thing to do is nothing.  Frankly, the touchtone pad makes more sense, and I would imagine that if the telephones were to change, the world would be up in arms, so I don't think that will happen any time soon.

I also remember the old adding machines and rotary calculators that had vertical rows of buttons.  Those were nightmares to operate!

-Bill

Bill!
would you like to have one of these?

dsk

rp2813

Yeah, 2580 is very handy.  I've used it, and for my mom who had macular degeneration and used a big-button phone, I gave her 2580 for the PIN on her ATM card.  I've often wondered if ID thieves try 2580 right away, but have never had any trouble.

Around here, the old CLayburn exchange includes the suffix 8.  So if I lived on the east side of town, I'd be dying to get 258-0852.

I also heard way back when that Ma Bell designed the keypad with consideration for those who were very adept with an adding machine.  It seems odd that something electronic would be impacted by the speed at which the keys were pressed, but I would not have any reason to doubt Ma Bell's motivations.

Ralph
Ralph

foots

The 10 key calculator pad as we know it was invented in 1911 by David Sundstrand and brought to market in 1914 (Sundstrand Adding Machine Company). The full key adding machines were already using multiple rows of keys starting at the top with 9 and the lower you got on the keyboard, the lower the numbers got until you got to 1 (there was no 0). I guess this layout was carried over when the 10 key was invented and a 0 was added at the bottom.
"Ain't Worryin' 'Bout Nothin"

Greg G.

Quote from: bwanna on October 10, 2009, 09:23:37 PM
i listen to talk radio all day at work. today i heard a guy claim the reason that the keys on the telephone are opposite the layout on a calculator was cuz the "tones" could not keep up with the dialing speed of folks adept on the calculator. :o

i was skeptical, sooooo.......

http://tinyurl.com/ygsb46e

Sounds like a similar reason I heard for the QWERTY typing keyboard, designed to slow typists down so the keys wouldn't jam: 
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/qwerty.htm
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

Dan/Panther

Quote from: Ellen on October 11, 2009, 06:44:21 AM
D/P, I used to have the phone number 536-9635 in Allston, Mass.  That one was fun.
It's funny how trhings work out like that in pure random.
Like my Current prefix of 763, It just happens to match the first two digits of my last name, RO, so I have dial cards that say RO-3-XXXX.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

bingster

The phone number my parents had for something like 25 years was 345-6172.  Who can spot the oddity in that number?
= DARRIN =



McHeath

All the numbers you can get are there, from 1 to 7.  Was the area code 809?

JorgeAmely

According to the numbers to letters translator, at

http://www.phonespell.org/phoneSpell.html

the number has two words embedded:

film-1-pa    film-17-a


Other than that, I am clueless. ??? ??? ???
Jorge

bingster

McHeath guessed it.  It's got all the digits, 1 through 7.  Area code 809 would have been awesome, but this was in Maryland (301).
= DARRIN =



Phonesrfun

Not to mention 3+4, 5+2 and 1+6, and of course lucky #7 itself.  Quite a number.
-Bill G