AT&T unplugs its time machine
For the longest time, the time was but a phone call away. But sadly, starting this month, AT&T will no longer give you the time of day.
“Time of day calling it quits at AT&T”
It’s the end of time, at least as far as AT&T is concerned.
The brief note in customers’ bills hardly does justice to the momentousness of the decision. “Service withdrawal,” it blandly declares. “Effective September 2007, Time of Day information service will be discontinued.”
What that means is that people throughout Southern California will no longer be able to call 853-1212 to hear a woman’s recorded voice state that “at the tone, Pacific Daylight Time will be . . .” with the recording automatically updating at 10-second intervals.
“Times change,” said John Britton, an AT&T spokesman. “In today’s world, there are just too many other ways to get this information. You can look at your cellphone or your computer. You no longer have to pick up the telephone.”
Indeed, time already has stopped in 48 other states, he said. California and Nevada are the two remaining holdouts.
The voice of Jane Barbe is likely still in your head. She was the most famous time-teller, and she left us four years ago. But she was but the voice for a group of people who took pride in giving anyone who dialed the time of day. Because time machines existed outside of science fiction, for a time.
Richard Frenkiel was assigned to work on the time machines when he joined Bell Labs in the early 1960s. He described the devices as large drums about 2 feet in diameter, with as many as 100 album-like audio tracks on the exterior. Whenever someone called time, the drums would start turning and a message would begin, with different tracks mixed together on the fly.
“The people who worked on it took it very seriously,” Frenkiel, 64, recalled. “They took a lot of pride in it.”
It truly is a sad time for those fond of the correct time. Remember a simpler time, when the phone number for time was lodged in our heads? Now that number is gone. Because we’ve just run out of time.
–WKW
September 4th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
We can always just pick up the phone and ask Sarah.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I told my wife I would love her until the end of time. Now what do I do?