Exploding The Phone

Phreak. :)

Byte magazine cover featuring a desktop with a screen showing a green landscape, next to a window showing the real-life version, which is ugly, industrialized, and smoky.

The original Star Trek crew are at a holographic museum of "ancient technology," watching a guy scratch his head while reading a retro computer manual.

A painting, a window, and a desktop computer are all lined up to complete the same view, a scene of a blue mountain range.

A white-bearded Robert Tinney stands near an easel with a famous Tinney illustration of a smartwatch that runs on a micro-floppy disk.

RIP Robert Tinney (November 22, 1947 – February 1, 2026), the artist famous for his playful covers for Byte magazine, a hobbist magazine that ushered in the microcomputing age from the mid-70s through the 90s. I'm honored to have included his work in my own art collection.

A high ceilinged room with windows high up. There are two sets of sliding doors with signs reading "1" and "2" above them. They are flanked by three cylindrical Bell phone booths. A "claw" machine is next to one of the phones A sign above a window looking into where the buses park is largely obscured and read "Bon Appé".

The new-ish Montreal intercity bus terminal is fully equipped with pay phones. (Mamiya 7ii, 43mm f4.5, Kodak TriX)

You can stream Joybubbles from Sundance today! festival.sundance.org/program/film...

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A plain wooden door with a narrow, vertical window at the top of the window is a sign reading Telefon. To the left is some sort of electrical box above a stairway.

I had little hope of finding payphones in Switzerland this week. It put its last phone booth in a museum in 2019. This sign in Zurich's Rheinfelder Bierhaus got my hopes up. But the phone has been replaced by a mop, a bucket and some cleaning supplies. (Leica M Monochrom, 28mm f2.8 Elmarit M, v3)

A Bell phone booth in front of a brick, low rise apartment with stone trim and an awning above its entrance the view of which is blocked by a shrub. One door is broken off of the booth. The other is covered in graffiti. Some of the trim on the phone has been torn off. A black and white checked paper wrapper is sitting on top of the phone.

Rue Sherbrooke, Montreal. Perhaps inevitably for an urban booth, a fast food wrapped has been dumped on top of the phone. (Mamiya 7ii, 43mm f4.5, Kodak Tri X)

A night view of a Bell phone booth in front of a convenience store. Its sign is turned off. To the left of the booth is a Canada Post mail box.

A dépanneur in Rigaud, Quebec. One of the few phone booths I've encountered that is the primary lighting source of its surrounding area. (Mamiya 7ii, 43mm f4.5, Kodak Tri X)

Last call for the landline. The wired communication world will soon be no more Remember party lines? Yellow Pages? The old wired-in telephone is disappearing, but its cultural impact deserves a ringing endorsement.

nationalpost.com/feature/last...

That seems … insane. Like, concentrated essence of liver damage in a bottle?

This is awesome! Are you uploading to internet archive or … ?

Two battered up payphone kiosks separated by a brcik column. A plate is broken open under one of them. Their signs only read: PHONE. There is a sticker inside one for "$10 Cab". Behind is a mall parking lot at night.

I'm very indebted to @panamstyle.bsky.social for alerting me to this sad couple in Rochester, N.Y. While I'm not about to add color to the phone project, these kiosks are blood red and the first line on the pavement behind them is more or less matching. (Mamiya 7ii, 43mm f4.5, Kodak Tri X)

A textured concrete brick wall with a Bell phone kiosk mounted on it. To its left is a bench. Two posters of Second World War vets are mounted in a window to the left. Another window to the right opens into an entrance way.

The grocery store on the main street of Mitchell, Ontario, a town that I don't think I've previously passed through. The phone appeared to be in good order. (Mamiya 7ii, 43mm f4.5, Kodak Tri X)

A Bell payphone kiosk in harsh sun. It's in front of a shop in between the entrance, which has a long list of hours in block printing, and a cage with BBQ propane tanks that's fronted with a sign for Levac, the company that filled them. A sign in a window gives estimated lottery jackpots, another sign declares the shop to be open and partly obstructs a Coca-Cola logo. The building's awnings can partly be seen.

The Pronto Market in Russell, Ontario. The phone has not survived what appears to be several pointless attempts to light it on fire. There's neither a dial tone nor a scroll on the LED display. (Chamonix 45N2, Schneider 135mm f5.6 Symmar S, Kodak TriX 320)

FBI FOIA doc about Joseph Popp showing two version of his middle name and detailing an attempt to get a warrant for his arrest and extradition to the UK.

Joseph Popp, the godfather of #ransomware, is such a hard to pin down character in documents and references to the point that the #FBI refer to him as "Joseph Lewis Popp" and "Joseph Louis Popp" in the SAME document. There are multiple versions of every basic detail about his life out there.

Lori Emerson - Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook. Mexican Summer & Anthology. Buy Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook by Lori Emerson on Mexican Summer & Anthology.

very happy and relieved to confirm: the second printing of #othernetworks will be available on the Anthology Editions website November 21st and also available to order from your favorite independent bookstore shortly after shop.mexicansummer.com/merch/495898...

A cargo bicycle, with a loose rear fender, carrying coffee for sale, leans against a phone kiosk in hard morning sun on a very wide sidewalk next to a busy street. A double decker bus and many trees are in the background.

Now some Mexico City phone action. This one earns its keep by propping up a bicycle cafe. (Leica R8, 21mm f4 Super Angulon R, Kodak TriX)

Not space shuttle, I don’t think, but rather Apollo guidance computer (agc). cool either way tho!

Extremely familiar to anyone who has been to Burning Man!

A cylinderical payphone booth on a concrete platform in frton of a window. A suicide prevention help notice is to its left. A cabinet to the right has fire hose connections and an extinguisher. A phone pictograph is above a push button emergency call station. A illuminated sign further ride is overexposed. Trash and recycling receptacles are underneath it.

Bayview O Train Station, westbound platform, Ottawa. (Leica M Monochrom, the M9 based original, 50mm f1.2 Noctilux ASPH)

Well, to be fair, no one really does anymore. :-) I mean, there is Project MF at www.projectmf.org but, as lovely as it is, it's not quite as good as the old telephone network.

Nice assembly and packaging job btw! Looks great!

That's my board! :-)

photograph of a full page newspaper story. the top half of the page features a black and white photograph of a woman smiling with a telephone handset up to her mouth. she is standing on the left of a large replica of a telephone dial possibly with a switchboard. a man in a suit stands on the right. text for the article is below. In 1954, Mountain Bell employees taught Boulder residents how to dial a telephone. 1954 Dial Day' in Boulder In the early months the finger stop, the dial pany employee, was unique to Area codes, at the time, were of 1954, Mountain Bell must be allowed to re- party-line subscribers. Most only used by operators who Telephone employ- turn freely to its start- party lines were spread across ees visited clubs and ing position." were contacted by dialing four households. Residents the number "0") for long-dis- schools in Boulder to Boulder, in 1954, had could (and often did) listen in tance calls, even from Boulder teach members of the a population of approxi- to conversations of the other to Denver. The operators also mately 25,000 residents. subscribers -- often, annoyed gave directory information and a telephone. Before "Dial Day," residents wanting to make a call only had to pick up their receivers and wait for an operator to ask, "Number please?" Finally, on March 6, 1954, phone users could make local calls themselves, but they had a lot to learn. "Midnight tonight will be a historic moment for Boulder,". stated a writer in the Camera's 24-page special "Dial Day" sup-plement. Subscribers had to be told to wait for the dial tone ("a steady hum") before placing their calls. Then, they were taught how to physically dial their new rotary phones. "Don't force the dial to try to speed it up," stated a Mountain Bell employee. "After each number is pulled around to According to the Cam- when the shared phone was in assisted in emergency calls. era, there were 40 tele- use. In return, they got reduced Individuals took a while phones for every 100 ra…

in 1954 telephone employees at Mountain Bell came to Boulder, Colorado for "Dial Day" to teach residents how to dial a telephone. reportedly, employees explained "how busy signals were different than siren-like tones that indicated that a caller had mis-dialed." #othernetworks

A screenshot of an announcement from American Science & Surplus reads: It's with a heavy heart that we share some difficult news. For almost 90 years, our company has been so much more than a business; it's been a family. A community of inventors, creators, and curious minds, built on a shared passion for discovery. After working hard to stay open, and thanks to your incredible support, we were able to hang on a little longer. But despite our team's best efforts and your unwavering love, we're not able to continue. We will be closing our mail-order warehouse and discontinuing our catalogs. The last day to order from us online or by phone will be September 7th, at which point our website will also be shut down. While we were unable to find a buyer for the Park Ridge store and will be closing later in September (if interested email patrick@sciplus.com), we do have some good news. Geneva and Milwaukee could remain open as employee-owned and operated locations. We are so excited for them to continue the legacy of American Science & Surplus. We will keep you posted if and when we can make this happen! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for 88 wonderful years. We'll miss you all more than words can say. Happy trails and please continue to support small businesses everywhere-they need you! incerely, Patrick Meyer & The Entire AS&S Team

Terrible news: American Science & Surplus is closing.

The stores in Geneva and Milwaukee may have a future if they can work out terms of a proposal for current workers to buy the business, but Park Ridge (which moved there from Jefferson Park) is permanently shuttering.

sciplus.com/important-in...

Two wall mounted payphone kiosks and a tiled wall with a very large transit map in between them. An expandable stainless steel door is to the right.

This pair, with an aging transit map for handyl reference, are in the Jean Talon station of Montreal's Métro (Leica M Monochrom, 50mm f1.2 Noctilux ASPH)

“I thought it would be fun to get a lot of mathematicians to try and re-enact” That’s Mathematics by Tom Lehrer #TomLehrer
youtu.be/U9norkmRXDY

That’s *amazing*.

Ok I’ve not been making as much progress as I would have liked on the tarot project. But here’s the next card I’ve been working on.

The Phreak.

Three cylindrical Bell pay phone kiosks near a large window. Each is a slightly different height. A very long room is behind them, as is a claw machine.

This decorative phone kiosk arrangement can be found in Quebec City's bus terminal. Note now it is conveniently near an always disappointing claw machine. (Leica M5, 35mm f1.4 Summilux ASPH, Kodak TriX)