"We're sorry, but the number you've dialled..."

February 7, 2001 4:22 PM

"We're sorry, but the number you've dialled..." [ 11 second RealAudio file ] Found here, as part of a collection of recordings most of the rest of which will only be interesting to telecom geeks.
posted by baylink (8 comments total)

How do you *know* if you're a telecom geek?

If this RAM file is screamingly funny to you, you are. If you just don't get it, you're not.
posted by baylink at 4:28 PM on February 7, 2001

I'm impressed, but I don't really get it. Help us out?
posted by rodii at 4:58 PM on February 7, 2001

By "telecom geek" do you mean phreaker? People interested in tones and colored boxes? I reckon so.
posted by redleaf at 7:42 PM on February 7, 2001

I admit it, I laughed, pretty hard, at baylink's link. And I'm no kind of telecom geek. I can just imagine the mindset of a person who would find that clip funny, and that in itself caused me to laugh.
posted by kindall at 8:16 PM on February 7, 2001

hehehehehehehhehehehehe
its comforting to know that now i am a geek with an official label.'telecom geek'instead of a plain-jane, run-of-the-mill geek
posted by fiery at 2:41 AM on February 8, 2001

A telecom geek is someone who owns (and paid for themselves) their own punch-down tool, toner, and can wrench, and knows how to use them. :-)

The clip uses MF signalling tones to replace the vocals, MF tones being the network signalling counterpart of DTMF tones, which they substantially predate. MF tones were part of the in-band Signalling System 6, which predated today's out of band SS7.
posted by baylink at 1:01 PM on February 8, 2001

Dammit baylink, you're getting all the ladies hot and bothered. Enough with your smooth telecom pick-up lines ;-)
posted by Avogadro at 1:43 PM on February 8, 2001

Um, which ones? :-)

Please, send addresses, email, handles, phone numbers... *something*. :-)
posted by baylink at 2:43 PM on February 8, 2001