The Origin of the * and the #

[Big Media]

If the image doesn't show:

http://bp3.blogger.com/_TVfEjAyW4Fk/RzU ... dphone.jpg

[Hoosier Daddy]

This particular Western Electric "circle bell" logo was used from 1939-1964, which should help you date the advertisment.



The Federal government subsidized the Bell System for decades to promote growth, stability, and redundancy, to connect parts of America that weren't cost effective to connect, and to harden and protect the coast-to-coast telecommunications backbone that served not only the Department of Defense but also the mom in Vermont who was calling a son or daughter in New Mexico.

This country's phone system was the envy of the world, and was one of the key ingredients in making the United States an international superpower in the 20th century.

Damn socialists.

[Tom Taggart]

If you look closely at the lower left corner of the picture you will see the date ---y 28, 1969

[genlock]

The Autovon system in the late 60's had star and A and Fo,F, I, P keys.
The autodin was a military and government system for teletype,
the Autovon was a voice equivalent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autovon

Picture shows Autovon keypad circa 1963.

I understand the AT&T tower at Missouri Branch nar Cabwaylingo state park in
southern Wayne county was on the Autovon net.

[AmpedNow]

This country's phone system was the envy of the world, and was one of the key ingredients in making the United States an international superpower in the 20th century.

Contrast that to the digital/cellular age today. We are now a third world technology backwater.

Almost half of the country still has no high speed internet options, while the options we do have are woefully slow compared to other countries. Anything under 20MB down is nothing to brag about at this point. The fastest I can still get is 6.

3G cellular networks are just now becoming commonplace, but still not everywhere. Other countries have been using 4G for 2-3 years already. Our "high end" phones are already obsolete in many parts of the world the day they are released.

Digital flat screen TVs have been available in Asia for at least a decade. They're just now becoming mainstream here.

Yet so many Americans still think we're #1 in everything -- including technology... It's not true anymore.

[Waveguide]

[Tom Taggart]

(sigh)....
Let's look at some numbers.

Ohio with 116,000 square kilometers is just about the same size at the old East Germany (lander of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia and Berlin,) but there's more people in eastern Germany when you include Berlin (11.4 million to over 13 million). Berlin, with three million people inside the ring road, is smaller in area than Franklin County (or, essentially the area inside I-270).

Ohio is also larger than South Korea, with 100,000 km2, but South Korea has a population of 48 million.

West Virginia with an area of 62,755 Km2 has a population of less than 2 million. It is larger than:

Belgium: 30,000 KM2 Population 10.8 million
Netherlands 41,000 km2 Population 16 million
Switzerland 41,000 Km2 Population 7.7 million

So, before we get into all of these comparisons with European or Asian powerhouses with wonderful high speed broadband consider the population densities. For that matter, how about comparing broadband rates, economic statistics of WV with EU member Slovakia? (with 49,000 km2 smaller than WV, but with 5 million people more densely populated). Pressburg, PA, err, Bratislavia, Slovakia, bears somewhat of a resemblance to Wheeling (well, there's a river, but no island), though it is home to the world's ugliest government building: (HQ of Slovak Radio--how's that for a tie to a broadcasting message board!)

http://www.earthinpictures.com/world/sl ... radio.html

[fearpeddler]

basically it comes down to government wasting money, obviously in the EU they've spent it wisely, where here we've spent ours on holy wars and bailing out our corrupt ceo's and businessmen....

[Hoosier Daddy]

basically it comes down to government wasting money, obviously in the EU they've spent it wisely, where here we've spent ours on holy wars and bailing out our corrupt ceo's and businessmen....

Ding! We have a winner.

[Dave Harman]

basically it comes down to government wasting money, obviously in the EU they've spent it wisely, where here we've spent ours on holy wars and bailing out our corrupt ceo's and businessmen....

Ding! We have a winner.

Yep, there's your Congress for you. The shift to socialism in the U.S. didn't just start with Obama, that's for sure. So we swear at him, and re-elect Byrd and Rockefeller everytime we get the chance.