Languish.org

General Category => Off the Record => Topic started by: jimmy olsen on June 19, 2013, 04:17:20 AM

Title: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: jimmy olsen on June 19, 2013, 04:17:20 AM
I'm amazed there were any telegraphs left, even in a country like India.

Tons of links embedded in this article
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/17/death_of_the_telegraph_world_s_last_telegram_to_be_sent_in_india_on_july.html
Quote

A few weeks ago, a flurry of unubstantiated hype about "the death of tech blogging" moved me to declare, facetiously, the death of declaring things dead. Since then I've been sporadically keeping track of just a small portion of the trends, ideas, and technologies that newspaper, magazine, and blog headlines declare dead every day.

But sometimes things really do die, and not just in the sense that they become somewhat less cool or experience a dip in popularity. To wit: India's state-owned telecom company is planning to shut down what is considered the world's last telegraph service, citing losses of over $23 million a year. The world's last telegram will be sent on July 14.

We in the media kill things off so readily these days that it's easy to forget how long it actually takes a once-prevalent technology to vanish altogether. The telegram should serve as a reminder: It often takes a really, really long time. Had there been a TechCrunch or a Forbes.com a century ago, some scribe would have no doubt declared the telegram defunct even then, done in by the rise of the landline telephone (itself the frequent subject of exaggerated death reports these days). In fact, though, the telegraph's use in India peaked as recently as 1985, and it continues even now to play a role in the lives of some portion of the 74 percent of Indians who do not have mobile phones.

Asked how he manages to make such accurate predictions in his books, the novelist William Gibson once explained, "The future is already here, it's just not very evenly distributed." The fact that telegraph service still exists in at least one corner of the Earth as of June 17, 2013, suggests a corrollary to Gibson's axiom: The past is still here, it's just not evenly distributed.
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: Eddie Teach on June 19, 2013, 04:54:57 AM
I bet there's some hobbyists out there that have a functioning telegraph system.
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: Caliga on June 19, 2013, 06:27:08 AM
WHO GIVES A SHIT STOP
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 07:40:23 AM
Quote from: Caliga on June 19, 2013, 06:27:08 AM
WHO GIVES A SHIT STOP


:mad:
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: HVC on June 19, 2013, 07:42:08 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 07:40:23 AM
Quote from: Caliga on June 19, 2013, 06:27:08 AM
WHO GIVES A SHIT STOP


:mad:
seedy you're so hipster you don't even know you're a hipster :P.
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: KRonn on June 19, 2013, 07:42:56 AM
I wonder if the NSA can tap into telegraph communications very easily, compared to other forms of electronic types?   ;)
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 07:52:56 AM
Quote from: HVC on June 19, 2013, 07:42:08 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 07:40:23 AM
Quote from: Caliga on June 19, 2013, 06:27:08 AM
WHO GIVES A SHIT STOP


:mad:
seedy you're so hipster you don't even know you're a hipster :P.

:mad: :mad:

< 30: hipster
> 40: crotchety old fart
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: HVC on June 19, 2013, 07:55:49 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 07:52:56 AM
Quote from: HVC on June 19, 2013, 07:42:08 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 07:40:23 AM
Quote from: Caliga on June 19, 2013, 06:27:08 AM
WHO GIVES A SHIT STOP


:mad:
seedy you're so hipster you don't even know you're a hipster :P.

:mad: :mad:

< 30: hipster
> 40: crotchety old fart
lol. Did you type that out on your typewriter first? Fine, you're a proto-hipster from which all other hipsters sprang forth? Better? :D
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: Eddie Teach on June 19, 2013, 07:56:05 AM
Seedy was hipster before it was cool. That's like meta-hipster.  :wacko:
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 07:59:25 AM
Proto-hipster, meta-hipster.  Now you guys are just getting nasty.  LOOK TWO SPACES
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: HVC on June 19, 2013, 08:02:35 AM
We mock because we love and because we're bored. But mainly the bored part.
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 08:05:00 AM
Excuse me, but I have to rack my 35mm camera with a roll of film.   Bet you don't even remember what the fuck that is anymore.
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: HVC on June 19, 2013, 08:17:37 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 08:05:00 AM
Excuse me, but I have to rack my 35mm camera with a roll of film.   Bet you don't even remember what the fuck that is anymore.
my dad was a professional photographer, I'm well acquainted.  Digital is better :P
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 08:23:09 AM
Asshole.
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: HVC on June 19, 2013, 08:26:24 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 08:23:09 AM
Asshole.
:lol:  he tossed all that stuff out. Probably be worth a bit now.
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: mongers on June 19, 2013, 08:34:06 AM
Quote from: HVC on June 19, 2013, 08:26:24 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 08:23:09 AM
Asshole.
:lol:  he tossed all that stuff out. Probably be worth a bit now.

Certainly some of the prime lenses are in demand for use on DSLR.

I still regret selling a pre-war leica primary, would make some lovely images nowadays assuming there's a digital camera that could take it (I assume leica make an appropriate rangefinder style body, but that must be mucho bucks)
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: Duque de Bragança on June 19, 2013, 09:58:38 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 08:05:00 AM
Excuse me, but I have to rack my 35mm camera with a roll of film.   Bet you don't even remember what the fuck that is anymore.

35 mm?  :lol: Stolen from a cinematheque or a studio or what? Too high maintenance.
More likely, Super 8. At most, Hi8.
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: ulmont on June 19, 2013, 02:32:21 PM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 19, 2013, 04:17:20 AM
I'm amazed there were any telegraphs left, even in a country like India.

I like how you waited until the story had already been debunked to post it.

Quote[N]ews of the death of the telegram has been greatly exaggerated. "Somehow they got the impression that this meant the end of telegrams worldwide," Colin Stone, Director of Operations for International Telegram, a telegraphy service based in Canada, said in a phone conversation with Ars. "We'll still offer services in India, even though the state-run service is closing."
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/06/telegram-not-dead-stop/
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: fhdz on June 19, 2013, 02:35:31 PM
Maybe I should move to India and become a telegraph operator.
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: Jacob on June 19, 2013, 02:47:21 PM
Quote from: Duque de Bragança on June 19, 2013, 09:58:38 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 19, 2013, 08:05:00 AM
Excuse me, but I have to rack my 35mm camera with a roll of film.   Bet you don't even remember what the fuck that is anymore.

35 mm?  :lol: Stolen from a cinematheque or a studio or what? Too high maintenance.
More likely, Super 8. At most, Hi8.

Psst...

This:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiamike.com%2Findia%2Fattachments%2F2953d1125846281-asahi-pentax-classic-sv-slr-1962-dscn1278.jpg&hash=8b15d02dc91fcd332e11c7cd2285d55251fe555f)

Not this:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpetapixel.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F12%2Fstarwars_mini.jpg&hash=9e46fe6987be1a900f271ca7e408e213facf3ee8)
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: Admiral Yi on June 19, 2013, 02:48:33 PM
Quote from: fahdiz on June 19, 2013, 02:35:31 PM
Maybe I should move to India and become a telegraph operator.

You have a nose for growth industries.
Title: Re: Death of the Telegraph: World's last telegram will be sent on July 14th
Post by: fhdz on June 19, 2013, 02:55:50 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on June 19, 2013, 02:48:33 PM
Quote from: fahdiz on June 19, 2013, 02:35:31 PM
Maybe I should move to India and become a telegraph operator.

You have a nose for growth industries.

:lol: