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From: Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: Machine Shop
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2025 16:23:55 -0800
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On Wed, 05 Mar 2025 19:33:47 GMT, cyclintom <cyclintom@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>On Mon Feb 24 12:57:55 2025 Jeff Liebermann  wrote:
>> On Mon, 24 Feb 2025 14:56:30 -0500, Frank Krygowski
>> <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> 
>> > From time to time, I had enough numerical data to process that I taught 
>> >myself to use the number pad without looking. It's not hard. (But its 
>> >weird that telephone key pads are not the same layout as keyboard keypads.)
>> 
>> The first touch tone phone was introduced by Ma Bell (AT&T) in 1963.
>> At the time, Ma Bell was doing everything possible to avoid being
>> declared a vertically integrated monopoly, which owns every part of
>> the business from components to equipment rentals.  Ma Bell actually
>> did own everything, but not the computer part of the business.
>> 
>> Ma Bell had various methods of convincing the courts that they were
>> not trying to extend their monopoly into the computer business.  As
>> long as Ma Bell was not selling or providing computer products or
>> services, the illusion was maintained.  The problem was that more
>> things were being done at the CO's (central offices) and at the
>> subscriber location by computers.  The billing machines, switches,
>> routing, etc were all done by devices closely resembling computers. Ma
>> Bell's strategy was to rename everything that could possibly be
>> considered a computer to some other less risky name.  AT&T also made
>> an effort to design the subscriber equipment to NOT look or function
>> like a computer.  The problem was that calculators were far older than
>> touch tone dials.  Therefore, the Ma Bell touch tone dial pad was
>> re-arranged so that it still functioned for dialing, but would drive
>> the subscriber (user) insane if they tried to use it as a calculator
>> or switch back and forth between the layouts.
>> 
>> There are also some other theories on why there's a difference:
>> <https://www.vcalc.net/keyboard.htm>

>Bell Telephone constructed NONE of their computerized switching. That was done at IBM in south San Jose.

Really?  

"3B series computers"
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3B_series_computers>
"The 3B series computers are a line of minicomputers made between the
late 1970s and 1993 by AT&T Computer Systems' Western Electric
subsidiary, for use with the company's UNIX operating system. The line
primarily consists of the models 3B20, 3B5, 3B15, 3B2, and 3B4000. The
series is notable for controlling a series of electronic switching
systems for telecommunications, for general computing purposes, and
for serving as the historical software porting base for commercial
UNIX."

Before 2006, when Alcatel merged with Lucent, switching hardware for
AT&T was made by a wide variety of vendors:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_telephone_switches>
IBM is listed as ROLM.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROLM>

"The Breakup of "Ma Bell": United States v. AT&T"
<https://www.fjc.gov/history/spotlight-judicial-history/breakup-ma-bell>
"One consequence of the agreement was that AT&T was forbidden to enter
the computer business, a concession the company’s management did not
see as very significant at the time."

"Breakup of the Bell System"
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System>
"It also proposed that it be freed from a 1956 antitrust consent
decree, then administered by Judge Vincent P. Biunno in the United
States District Court for the District of New Jersey, that barred it
from participating in the general sale of computers..."

-- 
Jeff Liebermann                 jeffl@cruzio.com
PO Box 272      http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann      AE6KS    831-336-2558