9 Mar
2017
9 Mar
'17
4:06 p.m.
From: "Steve Johnson"
This reminds me of a story from that era. One of the
mainframe computers
had the ability to place phone calls and a program was run every night
to collect data from far-flung teletypes [which had been pre-loaded with
data tapes]. ... On day the operators realized that there were two
phone numbers in Nebraska that were getting called every weekday night,
and the numbers were very similar. They suspected one was a wrong
number, so they listened in on the calls to see which one was real. The
phone rang in Nebraska at 2am and was answered by a sleepy man .. The
man was heard to say "It's all right, Bertha. It's just that nut with a
whistle again!"
Interesting: I've heard this same story, but told about TIPs and the ARPANET.
A computer at BBN was set up to regularly dial all the TIP modem lines, to
check that they were working. One line was always down, so they listened in,
and heard some human say "it's just that pevert with the whistle again".
I wonder which one was the original: anyone know for sure?
Noel