[Telecom] Telecom stuff--"Three Days of the Condor" movie

Many of which were wrong.

The printers were a lot more quiet than they were in real life. The PDP-8 was a minimal configuration, but there was enough of it there to actually operate, and it did have standard DECTape drives.

The 026 keypunch had nothing to do with the PDP-8. And the "scanner" that turned pages in the books was also pure Hollywood.

It was completely Hollywood and in no way realistic. In the original book "Six Day of the Condor," Condor uses a series of cheeseboxes at payphones throughout New York to hide his call, which is a lot more realistic but less exciting on-screen than a trip through a crossbar switch.

--scott

A propos technology and classic movies -- although not specifically telecom related -- I recently saw Scorsese's 1976 masterpiece 'Taxi Driver' again. The scenes in the political campaign headquarters seem quite funny now because on all the desks there was ... a typewriter! (i.e., _not_ a pc or laptop).

I suppose 32 years qualifies 'Taxi Driver' as an "old" movie, but isn't it interesting how changes in the world and changes in oneself combine to radically alter your perspective on things? I remember very well when I was a teenager in the '60s, watching the ancient films from the '30s and '40s. What a strange world they depicted: funny clothes, funny cars, even funny ways of speaking. The interval in time between now and the '70s is the same (or even greater) than the gap was for my teenage self and those old gangster flicks I liked, yet when I today watch pictures made in the '60s and '70s they don't, for the most part, seem so remote. This has to be due to the fact that I myself lived through that time.

But what about changes in the world? I wonder if kids today watching movies from, say, the '70s and '80s have the same reaction to the 'old' cars that I did? Do they find them quaint? I suspect not. The reason could be that in the 1930s the technology of the personal automobile was still comparatively new. The lengthening perspective from the '60s back to the '30s reflected nearly a _doubling_ of the history of the motor-car, up to that time. The 30 years from today back to the '70s is only some, what?, 30% of the total history of the evolution of such vehicles. Moreover, look at the effects that resulted as the technology matured over the decades. From the 1970s onward, as concerns about fuel economy became paramount, computer-assisted design techniques meant that the old-fashioned radical differences in the appearance of different makes of car have largely disappeared. And not only do cars today look more like each other: cars of 2008 look more like cars of 1978 than cars of 1968 resembled those of 1938. (At least on the outside: under the hood, of course, there are wondrous changes.)

In the world of high-tech, the comparison between today and the '60s or '70s seems analogous to the earlier situation with cars. Modern kids watching ancient films such as '2001' must be agog at the behemoth mainframes -- real and 'speculative' -- that they see there; that is, if they don't simply find those cutting-edge marvels of engineering of yore to be altogether laughable. And so it goes.

cheers,

Henry

I saw a movie the other day on cable that was taking place in 1950's New York City, the pay phone was right, but the dial was True Tone, lik today as was the Howler tone. Someone was not thinking or was to young to remember, but no one other then telephone people would notice that.

You would still find just as many typewriters in a 1986 office. The big drop was after roughly 1990 when PCs came down enough in price and high enough in print quality and functionality to replace typewriters on a widespread basis. An IBM/XT with a 9 pin printer wasn't adequate.

There were word processing machines in 1976, such as IBM's magcard typewriters and specialty mini-computers but they were very expensive and suitable only for high volume specialized applications.

Typewriters remain in offices, though fewer and not used as much. A big need was forms, but now PDF forms allow on-line entry before printing. Address and file labels remain a legitimate need.

Several things in "Condor" struck me as a "time warp". One was the automobiles--they were so big and fat. so much body. The other was the merchant calling in orally to verify a credit card; I forgot about that and the little reference booklets. Back then most people didn't use credit cards. Also, they watched TV by turning it on at the set and rotating the channel knob, today all TV's have remotes.

I suspect a kid today watching the movie would think the use of payphones was strange. Mobile phones were very rare back then.

Today we take for granted the security CCTVs in the movie, but back then they were new and novel.

I asked a friend (with whom I saw the movie when it first came out) to see it with her kids, but she doesn't get TCM cable. I am curious what her two sons would think of the movie in terms you suggest. (One societal change is that she'd show it to your 14 y/o, back then the movie was "R" and not appropriate for a young kid.)

Some comments on that. When I was say, 18-21, most 1930s movies were alien to me, the fashions, dialogue, technology, etc. just went over my head. However, as I got older and learned more history and saw more movies, they made much more sense to me. Today I can relate much better to the background scenes show to get a flavor of the film.

Some TV show plots of the 1950s/1960s are totally obsolete today. For instance, many sitcom plots dealt with Father having no cash on hand. Today he'd use a credit card. Many plots involve confusion over meeting people; today, cell phones eliminate much of that. (Of course, today, they simply have someone's phone inadvertently turned off, forgotten, or not charged.)

But other plots are timeless. "I Love Lucy" is quite good in that sense, so much of their humor is hysterical today. Lucy makes a quick phone call to Ricky--other than the telephone set, there is no difference than today. (A popular TV show for kids today, "Hannah Montanna", copies Lucy/Ethel scheming.)

As an aside, to this day, pay phones on TV still go "ding" when the coin is dropped even though that disappeared in service many years ago.

snipped-for-privacy@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: [...]

Time is warping faster every day. I spent a year in 97-98 managing the development of a speech recognition system to replace a roomful of operators taking those credit card validation calls. It coped with a high percentage of calls; when it failed it passed the call on to an operator. We sold it to AT&T. The system was soon redundant for that purpose: now it has been developed further to take yellow pages calls.

Colin

I posted this sometime in the past.

About twenty years ago, there was a Canadian made movie (you can tell they are made in Canada with the Logic 10 style 10-button 1A2 keyset and similar styed SL-1 digital keyset) about a disgrunted telco manager that could send a high voltage pulse to a pay phone and blow up the head of the person answering the phone. The movie name was "Bells".

In one scene, he was leading a guided tour into a C.O.'s switch room and waved his hand, proclaiming it was the newest in electronic switching technology (ESS). It was a old cross-bar switch.

development of a speech

validation calls. It

an operator. We sold

developed further to

No doubt about that. Googles 411 services at 1-800-GOOG-411 is awesome. The voice recognition is very robust on that service. The nice feature is the fact that it directly connects you too.

Consider that the DVD's of the early years of Sesame Street now come with a disclaimer that the DVD's are for adults, not kids. The video of the clip is on net already:

Disney has always had its finger on the pulse of what offends the delicate American sensibilities.

That one really made me ponder the sheer idiocy of the television watching public. The people that complained are those who believe that "If God had meant you to be naked you would have been born that way."

I attended Catholic schools for grades one through twelve. The first eight years you'd never hear a teacher curse or use coarse language.

Then in high school the biggest cursers were the Christian Brothers. Two come immediately to mind, Brother Eugene, and Brother Stephen.

"The Day the Earth Stood Still" was on the other night (AMC). Excellent movie though today it will seem a bit contrived and overdone.

The telecom stuff: Not much, one small PBX (551?) with the operator having the old breastplate headset. Phones were 202 with E handsets. One scene had a stern faced baritone voiced general pick up a phone, dials 0, and announce "get me the President!". During the chase scene, many army guys using 'bag' radios with F style handsets. Another baritone voiced officer calling out directions "ATTENTION ZONE

There was one scene were two people used what apparently was an automatic elevator, no operator. I wasn't sure they existed in 1951. In the building lobby was an elevator starter with a clicker, something featured in the movie "The Apartment". I know automatic elevators were out by 1960, probably a few years earlier, but for a number of years after that manual elevators with uniformed operators remained in service in many places. (I've been told the manual elevator in my high school had been automated some time in the past.)

One significant societal changed scene was a nice rooming house. Back then, a normal of obviously middle class people had rooms in a large pleasant house, apparently owned by a widow. Today such houses are rare and if they exist, usually cater to those with troubles.

I read that while the movie took place in Washington DC, it was filmed entirely in Hollywood, with just background scenes made in DC and overlaid with Hollywood images. I guess if i watched for it now I'd see that, but not knowing it the overlays were seamless and well done.