@pluralistic
And it's all the Phreakers' fault! Damn freeloaders 😡
@manu @pluralistic
I knew a guy in the 80s who would make collect calls from Canada to a payphone in France. When his girlfriend answered, she would say she accepted the charges, but the Canadian operator didnt know that there was no such mechanism in France so they would have long free talks at a time when international calls were expensive and neither Skype nor the Internet existed.
@DenOfEarth @manu @pluralistic I heard a story once about a British expat living in the Caribbean. He had arranged for his club in London to phone him with a morning alarm call. A friend heard of this arrangement and asked him, "Isn't that rather expensive?". "Oh, I never pick up the phone" was his answer.
@phlebas @DenOfEarth @manu @pluralistic I knew of an Art Director in London who used to shoot with my boss when I was a young photographic assistant in the 80s. Rather than pay the cost of London parking meters or garages he would just drive to the doorstep of his first appointment (he drove in from out of town), park his Bentley on the pavement outside then collect it several days later from the car pound where it had been clamped and removed to. He maintained it was cheaper than parking. Probably the same guy.
@phlebas @DenOfEarth @manu @pluralistic
He roomed at Claridge’s whilst in town.