
Has Bell Invented a "Telegraph Killer"? - blasdel
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2009/11/19hongo.html
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ShabbyDoo
I am reminded of the story about how the market for the Xerox photocopier was
initially computed. # of secretaries x # letters / day * average # mimeograph
copies of each letter. The potential of the technology to affect the use of
its outputs was ignored.

My wife and I recently upgraded our crappy mobiles to Droids. We hadn't at all
considered the value of geolocating each other, but we quickly realized that a
significant portion of the calls we made to each other were for the sole
purpose of asking, "Where are you?" or "How close to X are you?" The potential
uses of a new technology are not always obvious before adoption.

------
jxcole
"Consumers these days list spirit detection as an essential feature for new
technology"

So this is what my web apps have been missing.

------
natmaster
"...we conducted a séance under modern scientific standards at Bell Labs."

~~~
radley
Perhaps... but was it funded?

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rapind
"We had difficulty reaching other users on the Bell apparatus, which Alexander
Graham admits will have limited utility until they build a second Telephone."

------
ttol
"Our tests show that users of the Telephone need not learn any "code," having
only to shout in the plain English understood by all but imbeciles,
foreigners, and the Chinese."

------
kiba
"We found the experience far more comfortable than the one we had with the
Telegraph, though fatigue from magnetic waves is inevitable in the use of
each."

What cause this mysterious belief?

~~~
Retric
Nothing, it's a parody written fairly recently. Feel free to email the author
to find out more.

