This article was posted to the Usenet group alt.hackers in
1995; any technical information is probably outdated.
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Re: Phone Pranksters: Caught 'Em!
Article: 7519 of alt.hackers From: rjones@rjones.oz.net (Ry Jones) Newsgroups: alt.hackers Subject: Re: Phone Pranksters: Caught 'Em! Date: 16 Mar 1995 09:04:52 GMT Organization: The SenseMedia Network, http://sensemedia.net/, info@sensemedia.net Lines: 28 Approved: <president@whitehouse.gov> Message-ID: 3k8uvk$qho@emerald.oz.net NNTP-Posting-Host: rjones.oz.net X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Status: RO
Tom Wemlinger (twemling@infinet.com) wrote: : I went to Radio Shack and picked : up a pilot lamp of suitable specifications, reamed a hole in the : housing, and wired it in. Musta been visible from half a mile away! Ain't those lights handy as all get out? That leads to my ObHack: I worked nights at the local hospital as an operator (oh, I loved that job) and thought it was pretty inconsiderate for people to call me during the day. I took an old Bell Canada black dial phone (you know, the kind your grandma had) and mounted one of those pilot lights (125VAC orange type) in the casing. It flashed on ring voltage. Worked great! If I was awake, the room was small enough I could see the light no matter what. ObHack #2: In the same general thought pattern, when I lived with my parents I rigged a blue project box on the wall with a dial switch from a TV and 4 of those lights (one of each color Radio Shack sold... blue, red, green, orange). I could tell which line had an incoming call and switch my wall phone to use that circuit. I had a hold circuit on my voice line so I could pop off, take a message on line X, and come back. I prolly spent more on project boxes and pilot lamps than I could have bought the four way controller from Radio Shack, but I built it and it was therefore far superior. -- Finest handcrafted code since 1987.
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