Dialing by ear

Subject: Dialing by ear
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Aug 06 - 07:03 PM

OK,this is a new one for me, but now that I can carry a tune and have also been doing a telemarketing thing for a while now, I find that I can tell that I've dialed a wrong number, because it sounds off. I'm catching all the reversals that I used to make (646 for 464, for example) as soon as they're made instead of when I check... not that I can tell what tune a number will be, I've tried, but I *can* apparently tell if what I hear is not what I read.
Is this common?

Subject: RE: Dialing by ear
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Aug 06 - 07:17 PM

I could tell whether a modem had sync'd or not before the signal came back by the sound. I could also get it to raise and drop by whistling down the line!

But rather than dialing by ear I always liked the other one.

Can I use your dictaphone...

:D (tG)

Subject: RE: Dialing by ear
From: open mike
Date: 10 Aug 06 - 08:03 PM

when touch tone dialing first came in,
i remember reading a story about how
someone had learned to by-pass the
pay phone by making free calls
using whistling .
i think those tones are made up
of multiple tones now.

have you ever seen a song book
with tunes you can play by
dialing?

you are supposed to hold down the
button on the phone so you do not
make an inadvertant international
long distance call, though.

Subject: RE: Dialing by ear
From:
Date: 10 Aug 06 - 08:21 PM

have you ever seen a song book with tunes you can play by dialing?

I used to have the two volumes. IT was a lot of fun, but your timing had to be impeccable!

Subject: RE: Dialing by ear
From: mack/misophist
Date: 10 Aug 06 - 09:04 PM

The human senses can be amazing. Back in the old days of vinyl lp's, some disc jockeys could tell where to set the stylus just by looking at the grooves. Similar thing, different sense.

Subject: RE: Dialing by ear
From: Folkiedave
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 06:29 AM

I tried it but even with a modern touchphone my hair kpt on getting in the way

Subject: RE: Dialing by ear
From: Jim McLean
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 06:58 AM

20 years ago I designed and built a machine interfaced to an Acorn PC which could do the opposite. If you whistled into the microphone, the computer played back the tune and printed it out in musical notation. It also displayed the tune on the monitor as musical notation. This allowed non musicians to have a hard copy of their self composed tunes. You could, of course, have an electronic keyboard hard wired to the PC in those days, but my machine picked up soundwaves. I was told to patent it but I never did and now there are chips which do everything.

Subject: RE: Dialing by ear
From: Gedpipes
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 07:02 AM

I really find it difficult

Subject: RE: Dialing by ear
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 09:36 AM

So do I, I prefer my fingers...

Subject: RE: Dialing by ear
From: NH Dave
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 09:59 AM

As Open Mike noted, when dual tone tone dialing first came into use, some users,especially people who had been blind from birth, and others with inate good pitch, found that they could whistle the tones needed to dial a call.

One hacker discovered that a plastic whistle packed into boxes of Captain Crunch, an American Breakfast cereal, gave off the two tones needed to access toll-free diaing. This hacker known as Captain Crunch, for the obvious reason had a ball hacking free long distant calls for himself and friends. The originators or Apple Computers, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak got some of their start up funds from building and selling Blue Boxes , small electronic boxes that would play the tones needed to take complete control of your phone line, and make these toll free calls. Captain Crunch went to jail for his fun and games, the Steves went on to more honest pursuits.

Dave