I have paid extra for an Actual Landline (wired in, no modem or electricity required to run it, and have an old corded phone in case of need) for almost five years, since my father was in hospice, I was going through some cancer crisis or other, and the wireless system was a sometime thing. I had to have a communications device, and this ensured it.
Since, these days, it's mostly spammers who call the landline, I have contemplated getting rid of it - but I still want to have a means to make a call no matter what. I may just leave it to my trustee to get rid of it when the time comes.
We've got a landline (it was cheaper to keep it than to get rid of it, go figure) and yes, the spammers and election idiots call it constantly. But we haven't yet found a non-electricity dependent phone for it. I may have to hit up Ebay.
I'm looking at that site named for a big river. I'm looking for a new landline phone as a backup, because my current one is wearing out. And my cell reception where I live is very bad.
I searched the site for "corded landline phone", and got lots of hits at various prices. You might also try the discount sections, like Warehouse.
Some phones like that do require batteries, though, for a keypad light, caller ID, etc. Frankly, those have never worked well on my current phone--possibly needed a better band of battery.
This is raising questions in my mind. I do have what I call a landline, and a corded phone for emergencies which goes straight into the wall. But it isn't the BT line any more, it is a line which comes in with my broadband. It has worked when I set up a corded phone for my guest, but I am now woneering if it will work if anything goes wrong with the cable supplier. The wire is definitely separate from the fibre connection to the router.
Ah - I thought perhaps they had. My modem/computer etc. were added after the phone line was put in (O! so many years ago!), so the modem can easily be disconnected and bypassed...
That's the normal way. I have a splitter and filter at the wall and the phone is plugged into one bit and the modem/router the other. The phone is not in the slightest dependent on the LAN.
Me, too. I miss the soothing sound of the rotating dial; and playing with dialing to get to the place and rhythm where you don't have to let the dial go all the way back after the number. Small pleasures.
When I was doing the aforementioned shopping last night, I noticed there were actual rotary phones with a working rotary dial! (Not the fake ones, where the dial doesn't move, and there's a push-button inside every hole on the dial.)
Evidently, these are some sort of hybrid, because the listing said they work with current phone lines. Traditional rotary phones use a different kind of line, 'cause different tech. Maybe these have some kind of adapter inside?
Anyway, I wouldn't mind having one. But traditional rotary phones take longer to dial, and that could be a problem in an emergency.
When we moved in here there was a Big Button land line phone left by the previous owner. It seemed to work OK, but after a while became very erratic - needed picking up & shaking before giving a dialling tone, and didn't always connect with an incoming call. I put it down to the copious gritty dust that got everywhere during the renovations.
Eventually we gave up trying, and just used the one in the bedroom, an old, basic, BT handset which we had brought with us (We had brought two, but gave one to a charity shop before the Big Button became a problem)
Thanks to the discussion upthread I took a look at the big river site, thinking I could get a replacement handset for the hall - while browsing I saw that a very similar one to ours needed batteries to make all its 'features' work. Lightbulb moment!
I turned the non-functioning handset over, saw a battery compartment and opened same. Lo and behold - batteries, one of which was corroded. Clearly the cause of our telephone problems.
Having had a couple of battery corrosion problems with other small gadgets which had caused permanent damage I didn't hold out much hope, but a quick rub with a bit of sandpaper on the affected terminal and a set of new batteries - all is resolved.
Thanks to Golden Key for investigating the big river site for corded phones, otherwise we'd never have thought about duff batteries - or batteries at all!
I would send it to hell but it seems hell is here. Wildfire 15 miles from here, zero containment, and high winds forecast for the next two days. Mr. Image had several seizures last week and hurt his back and leg and can not walk and remains in bed. This would make evacuation very difficult.
Is there some kind of central number you can call to let the first responders and the powers that be know, so they can help figure something out?
I'm in SF, so not in a direct fire area. But from what I've heard on the news during various fires, over the years, they want to know that kind of thing ahead of time.
FWIW, YMMV. Best of luck.
ETA: Maybe Mr. I's doctor(s) could help? E.g., confirm his health status to necessary parties?
Thank you golden key I have already made plans to make calls Monday morning, to plan ahead. Hoping that the three fires now going will be blown away from us. I am only concerned about one at the moment. I am also praying for those in Napa and Santa Rosa in the path. It is heartbreaking what is burning.
Thanks, HA. As soon as I'd hit "post comment", I wondered if that was what it was. I think I'd be in sympathy with Karl - I suspect it's not something I'd want to have shoved into my earholes, as it were!
What is it with builders and loud *music*? It doesn't seem to make them get the job finished more quickly...
I recall walking to work in London across the concourse of Waterloo Station in the rush-hour. Martial music, of the brass-band variety, was sometimes relayed over the tannoy, to get the sheeple moving faster!
I believe that classical music is sometimes played outside Underground stations in "difficult" areas, as the yoofs wot congregate there don't like it and move on ...
Electronic dance music, lots of it in this house as husband and younger son are fans.
You have my deepest, deepest sympathy.
In this house, music runs from Gong to Metallica via Hawkwind, Tull and Fairport. I get a lot of stick that my music's old, but it's not my fault that there's not much productivity in the genres that appeal to me. I like lyricism, melody and harmony (which yes, Metallica do provide); rhythm doesn't do much for me beyond being a framework to hang the rest on; in fact if its too prominent and insistent it irritates me*, and dance of any kind doesn't interest me in the slightest.
I'm reminded of a shopping trip in Oxford Street, when I was getting thoroughly fed up of the (lack of) quality of muzak in the various shops I'd been in.
Eventually I went into Laura Ashley (a favourite of mine in those days) and although I hadn't really intended to buy anything (I usually waited for the January sales and it was November) I bought a scarf or something similarly small and inexpensive purely because their piped music was Vaughan Williams' Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, which lifted my mood and restored my faith in human nature!
I remember - many years ago - going into a bookshop in Lisbon and recognising that the music they were playing was from Scott Joplin's opera "Treemonisha". I felt very pleased with myself!
So you should - a very obscure opera, to say the least!
(I once went to a fairly professional production of it, accompanied by a Kiwi lady friend. We decided - reluctantly - to stick it out for the second half, but a lot of people didn't....)
Libby, which is an app for borrowing books from the library. When I turn the page I sometimes get a totally black screen. I need to go into the library as I think deleting then signing up again may fix the problem. Overdrive - an alternative app works well on the same device so I'm not totally bereaved.
The problem is that it is school holidays and there will be wall to wall mini- terroristslittle darlings everywhere.
For what it's worth (maybe nothing), I find sometimes turning a few pages backward helps with a problem like that, then going forward again. Or refreshing the screen, if you can.
... In this house, music runs from Gong to Metallica via Hawkwind, Tull and Fairport. I get a lot of stick that my music's old, but it's not my fault that there's not much productivity in the genres that appeal to me. ...
(I really need the old "pounding on the floor whilst laughing" emoji.)
You/they think that your music is old?!? It is to laugh. Mine runs from the Renaissance or so into serious music of our own time, with an emphasis on the 19th century. And it is absolutely Great Stuff!
Lamb Chopped, thanks. After a few less than polite words were uttered I found that after the black page it displayed the page after the next one, so I then had to go back a page and it was OK, until next time.🙄 I knew it had to be in there somewhere.
It was a mystery and I was determined to find out whodunnit,
It has been my happy place for years, and all of a sudden it tells me
Bad Request
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Size of a request header field exceeds server limit.
I have cleared the cache and the cookies, and flushed the DNS (get me!) but to no avail. At first I thought it worked on my tablet, but alas, that too caught the infection, so I think I am going to have to call the helpdesk. That's this morning sorted then...
So you should - a very obscure opera, to say the least!
(I once went to a fairly professional production of it, accompanied by a Kiwi lady friend. We decided - reluctantly - to stick it out for the second half [...])
... In this house, music runs from Gong to Metallica via Hawkwind, Tull and Fairport. I get a lot of stick that my music's old, but it's not my fault that there's not much productivity in the genres that appeal to me. ...
(I really need the old "pounding on the floor whilst laughing" emoji.)
You/they think that your music is old?!? It is to laugh. Mine runs from the Renaissance or so into serious music of our own time, with an emphasis on the 19th century. And it is absolutely Great Stuff!
I don't think my music's old. My critics think it's old.
My music tastes are fairly ecclectic- if it has a tune I'll listen, so we are exposing the Dragonlets to a wide range of stuff, including early music and a lot of organ pieces. Dragonlet 1 does sometimes moan about our choices, but is still a bit young to have developed his own tastes yet.
So you should - a very obscure opera, to say the least!
(I once went to a fairly professional production of it, accompanied by a Kiwi lady friend. We decided - reluctantly - to stick it out for the second half [...])
You surely mean, the 'sickened heath'?
Yes, she did indeed have a strong Kiwi accent - she came from Auckland.
A lovely lass - six feet tall without high heels...
... In this house, music runs from Gong to Metallica via Hawkwind, Tull and Fairport. I get a lot of stick that my music's old, but it's not my fault that there's not much productivity in the genres that appeal to me. ...
(I really need the old "pounding on the floor whilst laughing" emoji.)
You/they think that your music is old?!? It is to laugh. Mine runs from the Renaissance or so into serious music of our own time, with an emphasis on the 19th century. And it is absolutely Great Stuff!
Huh. For some of us, music died with young Mr Gibbons...what is this new-fangled 19thC stuff of which you speak?
Thanks for posting the Anvil Chorus, GK - it brought back memories of a record of a Welsh male-voice choir that my dad had back in the 1970s.
There is also an Anvil section (not a chorus I think) in "Rheingold". When I saw it at the Coliseum c.1970 there was a note in the programme: "Anvils supplied by courtesy of British Rail".
... In this house, music runs from Gong to Metallica via Hawkwind, Tull and Fairport. I get a lot of stick that my music's old, but it's not my fault that there's not much productivity in the genres that appeal to me. ...
(I really need the old "pounding on the floor whilst laughing" emoji.)
You/they think that your music is old?!? It is to laugh. Mine runs from the Renaissance or so into serious music of our own time, with an emphasis on the 19th century. And it is absolutely Great Stuff!
I don't think my music's old. My critics think it's old.
I complained to our musician recently about the minister's appalling taste in what he loosely calls music, suggesting that that if he can't stomach strong traditional church music, there's still a wealth of modern music and hymns that are good for congregational singing. His response was that His Reverence considers anything before about 2005 to be out of the Dark Ages. (We have a good Casavant organ and a quite glorious Schimmel grand piano, all now sadly neglected in favour of the band from hell, with its small repertoire of vacuous, migraine-inducing tripe. A first rate classical pianist left and the choir has disintegrated).
Comments
Since, these days, it's mostly spammers who call the landline, I have contemplated getting rid of it - but I still want to have a means to make a call no matter what. I may just leave it to my trustee to get rid of it when the time comes.
I'm looking at that site named for a big river. I'm looking for a new landline phone as a backup, because my current one is wearing out. And my cell reception where I live is very bad.
I searched the site for "corded landline phone", and got lots of hits at various prices. You might also try the discount sections, like Warehouse.
Some phones like that do require batteries, though, for a keypad light, caller ID, etc. Frankly, those have never worked well on my current phone--possibly needed a better band of battery.
Anyway, YMMV. Good luck!
That's the normal way. I have a splitter and filter at the wall and the phone is plugged into one bit and the modem/router the other. The phone is not in the slightest dependent on the LAN.
Me, too. I miss the soothing sound of the rotating dial; and playing with dialing to get to the place and rhythm where you don't have to let the dial go all the way back after the number. Small pleasures.
When I was doing the aforementioned shopping last night, I noticed there were actual rotary phones with a working rotary dial! (Not the fake ones, where the dial doesn't move, and there's a push-button inside every hole on the dial.)
Evidently, these are some sort of hybrid, because the listing said they work with current phone lines. Traditional rotary phones use a different kind of line, 'cause different tech. Maybe these have some kind of adapter inside?
Anyway, I wouldn't mind having one. But traditional rotary phones take longer to dial, and that could be a problem in an emergency.
But it's cool that these exist!
I prefer the international standard 2020-03-08 or spell out the month name. 08 Mar 2020.
Eventually we gave up trying, and just used the one in the bedroom, an old, basic, BT handset which we had brought with us (We had brought two, but gave one to a charity shop before the Big Button became a problem)
Thanks to the discussion upthread I took a look at the big river site, thinking I could get a replacement handset for the hall - while browsing I saw that a very similar one to ours needed batteries to make all its 'features' work. Lightbulb moment!
I turned the non-functioning handset over, saw a battery compartment and opened same. Lo and behold - batteries, one of which was corroded. Clearly the cause of our telephone problems.
Having had a couple of battery corrosion problems with other small gadgets which had caused permanent damage I didn't hold out much hope, but a quick rub with a bit of sandpaper on the affected terminal and a set of new batteries - all is resolved.
Thanks to Golden Key for investigating the big river site for corded phones, otherwise we'd never have thought about duff batteries - or batteries at all!
Is there some kind of central number you can call to let the first responders and the powers that be know, so they can help figure something out?
I'm in SF, so not in a direct fire area. But from what I've heard on the news during various fires, over the years, they want to know that kind of thing ahead of time.
FWIW, YMMV. Best of luck.
ETA: Maybe Mr. I's doctor(s) could help? E.g., confirm his health status to necessary parties?
Not helped by the fact I have a particular loathing for EDM.
I recall walking to work in London across the concourse of Waterloo Station in the rush-hour. Martial music, of the brass-band variety, was sometimes relayed over the tannoy, to get the sheeple moving faster!
You have my deepest, deepest sympathy.
In this house, music runs from Gong to Metallica via Hawkwind, Tull and Fairport. I get a lot of stick that my music's old, but it's not my fault that there's not much productivity in the genres that appeal to me. I like lyricism, melody and harmony (which yes, Metallica do provide); rhythm doesn't do much for me beyond being a framework to hang the rest on; in fact if its too prominent and insistent it irritates me*, and dance of any kind doesn't interest me in the slightest.
*Drumming circles at festivals drive me insane.
Maybe so they can hear it over the sound of their building?
I'm sure that's why it's on at the volume it is, but can't at least some of them share my music taste? Just occasionally?
The ideal piece though would be 4'33".
Eventually I went into Laura Ashley (a favourite of mine in those days) and although I hadn't really intended to buy anything (I usually waited for the January sales and it was November) I bought a scarf or something similarly small and inexpensive purely because their piped music was Vaughan Williams' Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, which lifted my mood and restored my faith in human nature!
Did you...er...take your time in choosing said scarf?
(I once went to a fairly professional production of it, accompanied by a Kiwi lady friend. We decided - reluctantly - to stick it out for the second half, but a lot of people didn't....)
Even though I'll probably wish I hadn't asked...
Thx.
I'm not eager for the long sleep myself.
Absolutely!
The problem is that it is school holidays and there will be wall to wall mini- terroristslittle darlings everywhere.
signed Huia the Grump.
You/they think that your music is old?!? It is to laugh. Mine runs from the Renaissance or so into serious music of our own time, with an emphasis on the 19th century. And it is absolutely Great Stuff!
It was a mystery and I was determined to find out whodunnit,
It has been my happy place for years, and all of a sudden it tells me
Bad Request
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Size of a request header field exceeds server limit.
I have cleared the cache and the cookies, and flushed the DNS (get me!) but to no avail. At first I thought it worked on my tablet, but alas, that too caught the infection, so I think I am going to have to call the helpdesk. That's this morning sorted then...
You surely mean, the 'sickened heath'?
I don't think my music's old. My critics think it's old.
Surely, surely, it should be Verdi's "Anvil Chorus" (YouTube). Especially about 1 minute in.
Yes, she did indeed have a strong Kiwi accent - she came from Auckland.
A lovely lass - six feet tall without high heels...
Huh. For some of us, music died with young Mr Gibbons...what is this new-fangled 19thC stuff of which you speak?
I complained to our musician recently about the minister's appalling taste in what he loosely calls music, suggesting that that if he can't stomach strong traditional church music, there's still a wealth of modern music and hymns that are good for congregational singing. His response was that His Reverence considers anything before about 2005 to be out of the Dark Ages. (We have a good Casavant organ and a quite glorious Schimmel grand piano, all now sadly neglected in favour of the band from hell, with its small repertoire of vacuous, migraine-inducing tripe. A first rate classical pianist left and the choir has disintegrated).