“In order to get one of the greatest inventions of the modern age, in other words, we thought we needed the solitary genius. But if Alexander Graham Bell had fallen into the Grand River and drowned that day back in Brantford, the world would still have had the telephone, the only difference being that the telephone company would have been nicknamed Ma Gray, not Ma Bell.” IfsWorldHas BeensStillsIdeasAgeOrderDifferencesCompanyModernGeniusNeededRiversInventionFallenGrayBellsSolitaryTelephonesModern AgeGraham Bell Author:Malcolm Gladwell
“Think of it: the lowest common denominator in being digital is not your operating system, modem, or model of computer. It's a tiny piece of plastic, designed decades ago by Bell Labs' Charles Krumreich, Edwin Hardesty, and company, who thought they were making an inconspicuous plug for a few telephone handsets. Not in their wildest dreams was Registered Jack 11 - a modular connector more commonly known as the RJ-11 - meant to be plugged and unplugged so many times, by so many people, for so many reasons, all over the world.” PeopleThinkingWorldReasonDreamCommonCompanyKnownPiecesComputerModelsDecadesTinyDigitalMeant To BeBellsPlasticLowestTelephonesLabsPlugsCommon DenominatorOperating SystemsWildest DreamsLowest Common DenominatorConnectors Author:Nicholas Negroponte
“letters are venerable; and the telephone valiant, for the journey is a lonely one, and if bound together by notes and telephones we went in company, perhaps - who knows? - we might talk by the way.” IfsKnowsWayMightTogetherCompanyJourneyCommunicationLonelyLettersNotesBoundsTelephonesValiant Book:Selected Works of Virginia Woolf Source: Selected Works of Virginia Woolf
“The telephone conversation is, by its very nature, reactive, not reflective. Immediacy is its prime virtue. ... The letter, written in absorbed solitude, is an act of faith: it assumes the presence of humanity: world and self are generated from within: loneliness is courted, not feared. To write a letter is to be alone with my thoughts in the conjured presence of another person. I keep myself imaginative company. I occupy the empty room.” WorldWritingPersonsSelfHumanityRoomsCompanyVirtueWrittenLonelinessSolitudeConversationEmptyLettersAssumingPrimeTelephonesMy ThoughtsImaginativeImmediacyEmpty Rooms Author:Vivian Gornick
“I did something rather innovative that my competitors didn't like: I took out a full-page advertisement in the Yellow Pages that listed an office on the east side of Cincinnati, and another office on the west side, while every other heating/air-conditioning company had only one location and one phone number. I was the citywide company. In fact, our 'westside office' was just an answering service taking telephone message. From the start we appeared to be a big company.” FactsBigsSidesNumbersCompanyAirOfficeMessagesPagesWestPhonesEastYellowLocationTelephonesCompetitorsInnovativeConditioningAdvertisementsHeatingBig CompaniesPhone NumbersAir ConditioningEast SideWest SideWestside Author:Kevin Harrington
“By an irony of fate, my first employment was as a draughtsman. I hated drawing; it was for me the very worst of annoyances. Fortunately, it was not long before I secured the position I sought, that of chief electrician to the telephone company.” FirstsLongCompanyFateWorstPositionDrawingEmploymentChiefsHatedIronyTelephonesSecuredAnnoyanceElectrician Author:Nikola Tesla
“You will never ever, in any circumstance, win any struggle at any time. That being said, we have a long way to go. At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies. We are not at that point yet. But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.” WayLongSaidMomentsWinningGoalCompanyStruggleMediaCircumstancesBattleUltimatePhonesCapitalistTelephonesLong WayCablesUltimate GoalNeutralityLong Way To Go Author:Robert Waterman McChesney
“When the New York Times revealed the warrantless surveillance of voice calls, in December 2005, the telephone companies got nervous.” VoiceCompanyNew YorkNervousTelephonesSurveillanceNew York TimesDecember Author:Barton Gellman
“Henry Ford has several times sneered at unproductive stockholders.... Well, now. Let's see. Who made Henry Ford's own automobile company possible? The stockholders who originally advanced money to him. Who makes it possible for you and me to be carried to and from business by train or street car? Stockholders.... Who made our vast telephone and telegraph service possible? Stockholders.... Were stockholders all over the country to withdraw their capital from the enterprises in which they are invested, there would be a panic ... on a scale never before known.” WellsMadeCountryWould BeCompanyKnownStreetsCarTrainScalesEnterprisePanicTelephonesAutomobileUnproductiveTelegraph Author:B. C. Forbes
“In order to keep up with the criminals and to protect our national security, the solution is clear: we need legislation to ensure that telephone companies and other carriers provide law enforcement with access to this new technology.” NeedsLawOrderCompanyTechnologyClearSecurityInternetProtectSolutionsCriminalsAccessFree SpeechLegislationNational SecurityLaw EnforcementEnforcementTelephonesNew TechnologyCarrier Author:Louis J. Freeh
“I thought all I had to do was to buy a camera and become a film director. So when I left school I worked at a telephone company, which gave me the money to buy the basic equipment including the camera, the projector and the screen.” SchoolFilmLeftCompanyDirectorsCamerasIncludingScreensEquipmentTelephonesFilm DirectorsProjectors Author:Jean-Pierre Jeunet
“I believe in imagination. I was a worker when I was 17. Between 17 and 21, I was a worker in the telephone company and imagination saved my life.” BelieveI BelieveImaginationCompanyWorkersI Believe InSavedTelephones Author:Jean-Pierre Jeunet
“Seriously, we are in the midst of the convergence of voice and data and that is challenging the infrastructure of the telephone companies. There are huge commercial interests in the basic technology, but even more so in content delivery and control of content.” VoiceInterestChallengesCompanyTechnologyHugeDataMidstTelephonesInfrastructureDeliveryConvergence Author:Steve Crocker
“Communism is just one big telephone company.” BigsCompanyCommunismJust OneTelephones Author:Lenny Bruce