fourpence to the future

[davemac]

I was messing about with my phone recently, thinking, this phone connects to the internet, its got bluetooth (I can put it in my pocket and talk through an earpiece) takes photos, its an alarm clock, a compass, it sends emails and receives them, it texts. In fact it will do a million other things if I choose to download an app for it. Most people have a mobile phone nowadays, plus a landline used for calls and internet connection.


This set me thinking, in my liftime I have come from a period when not many houses had phones (my mother when she could afford a phone had a party line, this was a shared line with another house, who would put up with that nowaday) , and most people had to go out and find a red phone box.
This entailed putting 4 old pennies in the box and pressing button A, then if the person on the other end answered you pressed button B to talk to them.



So the question is, what part of modern life do you think has advanced your life the most, or what do you think should never have been invented.

 

[cashman]

Think probably the internet has advanced my life greatly,not that i understand much about the mechanics of it,

 

[Retlaw]

Think probably the internet has advanced my life greatly,not that i understand much about the mechanics of it,

Without the internet, Iwould have had to spend months in the Public Record Office in London, to even get 1/2 way to where I am now with my research.
Retlaw.

 

[davemac]

Think probably the internet has advanced my life greatly,not that i understand much about the mechanics of it,

I think the internet would be on the top of the list here as everyone reading this uses the internet, so I suppose thats fair enough

 

[davemac]

Without the internet, Iwould have had to spend months in the Public Record Office in London, to even get 1/2 way to where I am now with my research.
Retlaw.

you could argue that without the internet you may not have started your research in the first place, or kept it local

 

[Eric]

Viagara

 

[cashman]

you could argue that without the internet you may not have started your research in the first place, or kept it local

Thats n argument am sure would be lost.

 

[Mancie]

One of the major advances since the 80's has to be football.. the old boring style of play from teams like Liverpool has been advanced no end.

 

[jaysay]

I was messing about with my phone recently, thinking, this phone connects to the internet, its got bluetooth (I can put it in my pocket and talk through an earpiece) takes photos, its an alarm clock, a compass, it sends emails and receives them, it texts. In fact it will do a million other things if I choose to download an app for it. Most people have a mobile phone nowadays, plus a landline used for calls and internet connection.


This set me thinking, in my liftime I have come from a period when not many houses had phones (my mother when she could afford a phone had a party line, this was a shared line with another house, who would put up with that nowaday) , and most people had to go out and find a red phone box.
This entailed putting 4 old pennies in the box and pressing button A, then if the person on the other end answered you pressed button B to talk to them.



So the question is, what part of modern life do you think has advanced your life the most, or what do you think should never have been invented.

Now come on Dave you pressed button A to conect, button B to get your money back if nobody answered

 

[jaysay]

It was well into the 70s when my mum got a phone and that was only because I had it installed, while I was working away. As you say Dave most people have a mobile these days, I have one but its always switched off unless I go out and its a bog standard on too not these new all singing all dancing models. I can remember the days when, if you wanted to make a call while you were out, you had to search for a red box that wasn't vandalised, which was no mean feat, now if people don't have a mobile stuck to their ear theres something wrong with them, sure it won't be long before we get telephone ear as a new illness

 

[davemac]

Now come on Dave you pressed button A to conect, button B to get your money back if nobody answered

I dont remember it that way, but you are right. I am getting old now so I remember the principal but not the fine detail

 

[davemac]

Viagara

well it has its place.
Around here they give it to all the males in old peoples homes of an evening along with the horlicks.

it stops them falling out of bed, and they have a good nights sleep

 

[Margaret Pilkington]

Button B was to get your money back........I remember when we were children we would go into the phone box and press button B to see if we could get fourpence......you could buy a lot of Rainbow drops with fourpence, quite a few aniseed balls, black jacks and fruit salad....or buy four enormous bubbly gums.(the kind that filled your mouth so full you hardly had room to chew it.......in fact we used to bite it in half and share it with a friend(we didn't care about getting germs.....after all it was only spit and none of us ever died from drinking out of the same pop bottle).
Thanks for bringing back some happy memories.

 

[Boeing Guy]

Too young for that, but I do remember dialling and waiting for the pips with a handful of tuppences.

 

[jaysay]

I dont remember it that way, but you are right. I am getting old now so I remember the principal but not the fine detail

Used to be a saying Press Button B and get your money back, if ya remember Dave you slotted your four pennies into the slow and waited then when they answered whap your thumb on button A to talk

 

[jaysay]

Too young for that, but I do remember dialling and waiting for the pips with a handful of tuppences.

Ya BG and if you ware waiting to use the phone and there was some one using it with a pile of coins on the side, you knew you were in for a long wait

 

[mobertol]

For those of us with family spread all over the globe, internet is a godsend. You can keep in touch regularly and it doesn't cost too much. You can share almost anything with friends and family on Facebook these days and have video telephone links free.

I remember back in the early 70's, when my Aunt and family emigrated to Canada, phone calls were kept for special occasions -Xmas mainly and you had to book the call. We used to tape and send messages on an early tape recorder - hope the tapes have been destroyed as there were some very embarassing things they made me do such as sing songs and play my clarinet (which I loathed)!

I do hate mobile phones though as they make people very ignorant -they walk around in their own little bubble talking on them anywhere and everywhere. They also use them while driving which is dangerous. You have absolutely no privacy if you carry a mobile phone - they can pick up wherever you've been so you can't get away with anything anymore. No-one ever rings me on mine which is another reason I don't like them

 

[cashman]

Mobile Phones are my pet hate, i do have one,but only fer the fact if paris is out driving or such things on her own n summat happens, I think mobiles have produced a pig ignorant group of people! That may be blunt,but am sure everyone will know what i mean.

 

[MargaretR]

Mobile Phones are my pet hate, i do have one,but only fer the fact if paris is out driving or such things on her own n summat happens, I think mobiles have produced a pig ignorant group of people! That may be blunt,but am sure everyone will know what i mean.

I agree. Mine is only used when I am out (rare) and need a taxi home.

I find it strange that companies assume that you have one.

Today I needed to register on the Royal Mail website to pay import duty on a parcel, which wont be delivered until I pay. The site wouldn't complete my registration until I supplied a mobile number.

 

[Margaret Pilkington]

Mobile Phones are my pet hate, i do have one,but only fer the fact if paris is out driving or such things on her own n summat happens, I think mobiles have produced a pig ignorant group of people! That may be blunt,but am sure everyone will know what i mean.

Mine too, Cashy.
I was given one as a present when I was working....someone thought I might just need to call if my car broke down or I got stranded in the snow on the tops by QPH.......I carried it but it was never switched on.....it became a family joke...they could never reach me on my mobile phone.
I told them it was for MY convenience not theirs.

I have a Nokia 6310...old as the hills...in pristine condition. No camera.....it has blue tooth but I have never used it...not sure how to, or whether it would be useful to me.....not sure if it can connect to the internet because all I want it for, is to(rare) make phonecalls. I have had 20 quid of credit on it for 11 months.....that says it all!