this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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Sometime, probably close to 20 years ago, but perhaps more recently, you heard a dial tone for the last time and you didn’t even realize it would be.

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[–] dialtone 133 points 5 months ago (2 children)
[–] disguy_ovahea 26 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I’ve been meaning to ask, has anyone ever told you your F is a tad sharp for equal temperament? I’m not suggesting you change. I think your clean beat frequency makes you pretty cool just the way you are.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I first read it

has anyone ever told you F

And thought it was going to be a joke continuing OP's thought 🫡

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Did you... join during the Rexodus and wait all this time just for this joke? 🤣 (if there is a more mundane explanation, I don't want to know - I prefer this one:-)

[–] Lost_My_Mind 9 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I'm so angry today, that I didn't even catch the joke. It wasn't until I was making my own reply of confusion that I needed to copy the username of who said that, that I realized their name was /u/dialtone

Then I got their joke. I still don't know what a Rexodus is though.

[–] cedarmesa 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] Lost_My_Mind 2 points 5 months ago

I kinda like that one. Lets use that.

[–] Confused_Emus 8 points 5 months ago

Rexodus - portmanteau of Reddit exodus

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Have you lost your mind!? Hehe, I could not resist doing it again:-P.

Rexodus = Reddit Exodus. Lemmy is several years old (>5), Kbin is newer (3.5 years?), and Mbin is a fork off of the Kbin code - the latter two being different code that both implement the ActivityPub (snooze... bored yet?:-P). Anyway, when the CEO of Reddit, Huffman (platform username: spez) pissed off a bunch of users, content creators, and 3rd party app devs, a lot of us came over here to the Fediverse at that time. And Rexodus is one of the names - the top one iirc - that we call that event that prompted us to leave there. It may lose all meaning soon again, i.e. when Reddit kills off the old.reddit access there will be another such migration wave, possibly larger than the first, and surely there were past such waves as well, but for now it means the time of the protests, so roughly one year ago. Which is also roughly the age of that person's account.

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[–] Lifecoach5000 52 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Dial tone still exists. Pretty much every business phone that’s most likely a VoIP line still generates dial tone to the user’s headset.

[–] homesweethomeMrL 29 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That’s just sparkling doot

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Man, reading this sentence felt like a little electric jolt to the brain as it pieced the memes together.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Indeed, but most people will not hear it anymore as they don't use business phones, same as ordinary landline phones

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Last time I heard a dial tone was just a second ago when I pushed the speakerphone button on my Cisco ip phone.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Ceci n'est pas une tonalité

[–] plz1 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

It's actually fake, though. IP phones "play" that. Also, when on a call, they insert "comfort noise, that very low hiss you may hear, to augment the odd feeling most get with crystal clear VOIP audio.

[–] mPony 7 points 5 months ago

It's only a dial tone if it comes from a land line

otherwise it's just sparkling audio lies

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[–] Vinny_93 31 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I still hear a dial-up modem when I close my eyes

[–] db2 12 points 5 months ago (6 children)

But can you tell the difference between 28.8 and 33.6 just by listening?

[–] homesweethomeMrL 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)
[–] db2 8 points 5 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't understand the need for these. I can't read text faster than 300 baud anyway.

[–] Lost_My_Mind 5 points 5 months ago

Wait until this guy learns about webtv, and its ability to load a 320x480 jpg in a little under 10 minutes.

[–] Lost_My_Mind 5 points 5 months ago

I used to confuse my 56k modem in 1998. I used to pick up the phone and make modem noises. It used to "connect", and then IMMEDIATELY spew out a diarrea of errors that it wasn't connected.

I miss the 90s....

[–] shalafi 5 points 5 months ago

We tech support folks used to be able to discern a legit US Robotics 56K over a software modem. By listening to our customers connect.

[–] ripcord 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

300, 1200, 2400, 9600, 19.2, and 56k yes.

I don't remember 28.8 and 33.6 sounds, though. I guess my life has been for nothing :(

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Ngl I wish I was of the generation where I could've acquired this skill. As it is, I just have the faint childhood memory of our home modem. (In my 30s, for reference.)

[–] Demonmariner 28 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have a landline, I hear a dial tone every time I pick up the phone.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Low-key way of informing everyone that nobody ever calls your landline.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

Or that they're the ones making all the calls.

[–] MeatStiq 21 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I listen to it every day at work when connecting to customers alarm systems.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Necromancer

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

if you have tinnitus it never really stopped

[–] noughtnaut 4 points 5 months ago

Sorry to nitpick... Tinnitus is more likely to introduce high-frequency sound than the 440Hz dial tone. If anything, that is the one frequency that old-timey phone techs would eventually struggle to hear...

[–] Waldowal 13 points 5 months ago

On a similar note for parents: At some point, you did/will pick your child up and then put them down for the last time.

[–] NeptuneOrbit 12 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I have a captain crunch whistle so I hear it anytime I want to!

[–] homesweethomeMrL 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

You were one of those people.

It is still wild to me that a cheap toy was able to "hack" the phone systems back then.

[–] slazer2au 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

What's even worse is in some countries the file tone was a pretty good match for a guitar note so some musicians would use it as a starting point to tune their guitars.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago

True, I remember tuning my guitar to it. Thanks for bringing back that memory.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

My phone makes a dial tone the moment I press a single key on the keypad to make a call. 🤷🏻‍♂️

It's not the same as picking up a landline; it's just the phone app adding it probably to let you know you're dialing.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

I heard one about a week ago

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I heard it last night in a movie. From an actual phone, it's been a few years, but less than 10. EDIT: actually, less than 3 years as I had to fax paperwork to get my internet. Japan!

[–] Nurse_Robot 5 points 5 months ago

My work has landlines, so I still get to hear it

[–] hperrin 4 points 5 months ago

I don’t know. I have several old phones and a touch tone dialing adapter. I like the experience. I can say with high confidence that I’ll hear a dial tone in the future.

Plus, watch any movie from the seventies through the nineties that includes a phone, and you’ll probably hear a dial tone.

[–] PanoptiDon 3 points 5 months ago

Sadly, I had to fax documents recently.

[–] BigPotato 2 points 5 months ago

My office phone has a dial tone. It's VOIP but when you pick up the receiver it BOOOOOOOPs... So I think it was last week I heard one...

Hopefully not for the last time...

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