drms3002@cis.ohio-state.edu (Andy Meijers) (09/26/89)
A minor plea to those who design 'modern' telephone sets, esp. for
offices.
1. Make them HEAVIER, and put a nonskid base on them. As I write this,
I have just pulled my ATT-issue (came with System 8.5) sculpture off
the desk for the umpteenth time. Guess I'll end up taping it to the
desk, like many do around here.
2. Shape the handsets to FIT THE HUMAN HEAD! Real people do not talk
daintily holding the handset in their fingertips. They jam it on one
shoulder so they write. This worthless thing promptly shoots out of
sight if you try.
3. Don't position the cord connectors so the handset cord tangles unto
itself 2 inches from the base. (see # 1, above). Put the line cord
where the it won't cause the phone to trip over it whenever you move
it six inches.
4. Put a button for each function! (ie, hold, transfer etc). Phones
should not require constant referral to the manual to operate; they
should be self-evident. While you're at it, make the buttons REAL,
with a click. A pox on squishy membrane switches and finger-nail-tip
size buttons a quarter inch apart.
5. Make cords that don't lose their coil in a month, or that act like
a DNA molecule and coil back on themselves, with a non-porous surface
that doesn't get filthy immediately . (That also applies to the whole
phone. Make it cleanable!)
6. Make a ringer/bell that can be tracked by ear. In an office full of
chirping crickets, all with the speakers buried, it is often hard to
tell which one is ringing.
I could go on for another page, but you get the idea. Fancy sculptures
may sell well in the catalog or showroom, but are often miserable for
the users. (This translates to Lo$t productivity.)
Buyers: Get a thirty-day 'test-drive' clause.
Designers: (including ATT, WECO, etc): Go back and look at the 500 and
2500 series desk sets again. There is a reason they lasted so long,
and were so widely imitated. They WORKED!!!
Specific disclaimer: I do NOT speak for my agency. ( In fact, they do
not know I'm on here right now.)
Andy Meijers DRMS-LZA <Standard Disclaimers Apply> Phone:(616)961-7253
Defense Reutilization & Marketing Service FTS:552-7253 AV:932-7253
Battle Creek, MI 49017-3092 Internet:ameijers%dlscg1.uucp@dsac.dla.mil
UUCP: {uunet!gould!dsacg1,osu-cis!dsacg1,eecae!dsacng1}!dlscg1!ameijersgabe@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu (Gabe Wiener) (09/28/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0410m01@vector.dallas.tx.us> dsacg1!dlscg1!drms3002@ cis.ohio-state.edu (Andy Meijers) writes: >Designers: (including ATT, WECO, etc): Go back and look at the 500 and >2500 series desk sets again. There is a reason they lasted so long, >and were so widely imitated. They WORKED!!! Speaking of the 2500, is it still with us? Does AT&T (or ITT, or GTE, or Stromberg Carlson (comdial) or whoever) still manufacture a _real_ 2500 set? I remember when a friend went to buy a 2500 set a few years ago, what he came back with was truly horrible. Worse, it was made by AT&T. It had -- - A square handset - Buttons that generated short tone bursts - A wimpy electronic ringer. A ringer should be MECHANICAL and it should be LOUD! -An el-cheapo keypad that had little travel, and had the cutesy yuppie ringer volume and other such stuff right on the front panel. -No weight. You could breathe and the thing might fly away. Is this the evolution (or shall I say devolution) of the venerable 2500 set? I'd better hang on to the one I have. It may well be worth something one day. Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings gabe@ctr.columbia.edu to be seriously considered as a means of gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu communication. The device is inherently of 72355.1226@compuserve.com no value to us."
morris@jade.jpl.nasa.gov (Mike Morris) (09/28/89)
(Andy Meijers) writes: > >A minor plea to those who design 'modern' telephone sets, esp. for >offices. >1. Make them HEAVIER, and put a nonskid base on them. As I write this, >I have just pulled my ATT-issue (came with System 8.5) sculpture off >the desk for the umpteenth time. Guess I'll end up taping it to the >desk, like many do around here. I took an old steam iron plate, contact cemented a rubber pad to it and then cemented the plate to the phone. Ugly, but it works. When people comment about it, I say "Only way I could make the new phone as usable as the old one". >2. Shape the handsets to FIT THE HUMAN HEAD! Real people do not talk >daintily holding the handset in their fingertips. They jam it on one >shoulder so they write. This worthless thing promptly shoots out of >sight if you try. A friend acquired a spare handset and gutted it, and moved the guts into a old style handset. Modular cords, etc... There's also a pad sold by some phone stores that works real good... It mounts with a peel-and-stick adhesive... >3. Don't position the cord connectors so the handset cord tangles unto >itself 2 inches from the base. (see # 1, above). Put the line cord There's a gadget sold in some phone stores, and in the Hello Direct catalog that fixes that - it's a swivel device. >where the it won't cause the phone to trip over it whenever you move >it six inches. Huh? >4. Put a button for each function! (ie, hold, transfer etc). Phones >should not require constant referral to the manual to operate; they >should be self-evident. While you're at it, make the buttons REAL, >with a click. A pox on squishy membrane switches and finger-nail-tip >size buttons a quarter inch apart. Hello the designers - are you listening? I don't mind a [SHIFT] key, if the shifted functions are the lesser used ones, as long as I can say which are the lesser used! i.e. Give us a user definable keyboard, with an overlay that can be labeled with a pencil/pen and slides into the phone behind a clear overlay. >5. Make cords that don't lose their coil in a month, or that act like >a DNA molecule and coil back on themselves, with a non-porous surface >that doesn't get filthy immediately . (That also applies to the whole >phone. Make it cleanable!) Yes Yes Yes >6. Make a ringer/bell that can be tracked by ear. In an office full of >chirping crickets, all with the speakers buried, it is often hard to >tell which one is ringing. Here's one place where I wish the rest of the world had copied Rolm - their phones had 4 different ring sounds, user selectable. On the old 500 phones you could swap gongs around (the normal phone had one high and one low, by swapping gongs in two of 3 phones you could have one normal, one high, one low). Some EKS phones can have a capacitor changed. But a selectable ring tone would take only a few bytes in a microprocessor based phone, why can't we have such an obvious thing? >I could go on for another page, but you get the idea. Fancy sculptures >may sell well in the catalog or showroom, but are often miserable for >the users. (This translates to Lo$t productivity.) It's obvious - the designers have secretaries! >Buyers: Get a thirty-day 'test-drive' clause. > >Designers: (including ATT, WECO, etc): Go back and look at the 500 and >2500 series desk sets again. There is a reason they lasted so long, >and were so widely imitated. They WORKED!!! An old saying comes to mind: Intelligence is not company policy. Mike Morris UUCP: Morris@Jade.JPL.NASA.gov ICBM: 34.12 N, 118.02 W #Include quote.cute.standard PSTN: 818-447-7052 #Include disclaimer.standard cat flames.all > /dev/null
bet@orion.mc.duke.edu (Bennett Todd) (09/28/89)
In-reply-to: dsacg1!dlscg1!drms3002@cis.ohio-state.edu (Andy Meijers) If our experience is any indicator, there is little hope for improvement in telephone instrument design. What happened here is that AT&T representatives wooed senior administrators; when time came to replace our old key system, which worked wonderfully but was at the limits of its capacity and couldn't be expanded, there was no technical evaluation of phone systems. We ended up getting some AT&T gee-whiz system with LEDs and whatnot. The telephones have to get wall power to work, insofar as they work at all, which is mostly not. This is lovely when you want to call to report that the power is out. The human engineering is pathetic. The system is constantly enjoying "software glitches" which prevent phones from ringing when they are called, or spontaneously trigger some kind of forwarding without illuminating the forwarding indicator. I don't have any reason to believe that AT&T weasles couldn't grease in to enough other organizations the same way to make for a profitable business. I'm pretty sure I understand the precise reasons for the design changes; the new phones offer the following benefits: 1. They charge disproportionately much for them. 2. They are more fragile than the older ones -- which means that they will have to be replaced sooner. 3. The poor fools who actually have to *use* the damned things loathe them, so when the weasles come along and sell management on a whole new replacement system in two or three years, there won't be anything like the complaints that rang through the office when the old key system with the old massive phones was taken out. Equipment lifetimes of several decades aren't so good for repeat sales. However, this isn't all to our loss. I used to think that having a telephone was really important. I have been cured of this belief. Between GTE and AT&T, I don't particularly worry about being hard to reach by phone at work, and impossible at home. -Bennett bet@orion.mc.duke.edu [Moderator's Note: But Bennett, if it weren't for your phone -- or someone's phone -- how would you receive this Digest each day? Even though you are not enamored of voice telephony, apparently the use of the Devil's Instrument for data transmission passes muster with you, eh? PT]
julian@bongo.uucp (julian macassey) (09/29/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0413m07@vector.dallas.tx.us>, gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia. edu (Gabe Wiener) writes: > In article <telecom-v09i0410m01@vector.dallas.tx.us> dsacg1!dlscg1!drms3002@ > cis.ohio-state.edu (Andy Meijers) writes: > > >Designers: (including ATT, WECO, etc): Go back and look at the 500 and > >2500 series desk sets again. There is a reason they lasted so long, > >and were so widely imitated. They WORKED!!! > > Speaking of the 2500, is it still with us? Does AT&T (or ITT, or GTE, > or Stromberg Carlson (comdial) or whoever) still manufacture a _real_ > 2500 set? I remember when a friend went to buy a 2500 set a few Yes, the following companies still make real 500 and 2500 sets: ITT, Comdial (Stromberg Carlson), Northern Telecom?. Also North Supply (A phone equipment distributor) imports a made in Korea clone called the Premier. The Premier is not as robust as the others. It is cheaper, now you know why. The 500 set is a standard desk rotary, a 2500 is a standard desk Touch-Tone. The variations of these, wallphone etc have slightly different numbers such as 2600. A standard 500 or 2500 has interchangeable parts: The ringer from one will fit in the other. The handsets are interchangeable. The base from one will fit the cover of the other. Yes, you can have old AT&T guts tarted up with a new comdial plastic case and an ITT handset. All parts are available from suppliers such as North, so any of these phones can be repaired or reconditioned. In the telco trade, this is called R&R (repair and restoration). AT&T phone stores used to offer thier old 2500 sets as refurbed at a good price. This is a deal. As you can fix any of these phones, you can buy battered ones and repair and clean them up. You can also convert old non modular to modular. These sets are really tough, they have to pass tests involving repeated drops into concrete and voltage surges of 1,000V @ 1,000A. Automatic Electric (GTE) make versions of these sets that work fine, but are not interchangeable with the others. Another phone equipment supplier that can supply 2500 set parts is Graybar. No doubt about it. A 500 or 2500 will last forever. I just R&Red one for a friend that had a manufacturing date of 1954. Still in daily use, I made it modular and polished the plastic. If there is any interest, I can explain how to repair and tart up these phones. The phones I use are all 2500 sets. I have a garage of phones from around the world. Nothing matches the 2500. I have to admit though that the old style handset used in the UK was the most comfortable for cradling. It is longer and wider than the G2 (the standard handset on 500/2500). The UK operators headset was also more comfortable than the WECO black monsters but not as indestructable. Yours Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo ucla-an!denwa!bongo!julian n6are@k6iyk (Packet Radio) n6are.ampr.org [44.16.0.81] voice (213) 653-4495
albert%endor@husc6.harvard.edu (David Albert) (09/29/89)
In article <x> Gabe Wiener <gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu> writes: >Speaking of the 2500, is it still with us? Does AT&T (or ITT, or GTE, >or Stromberg Carlson (comdial) or whoever) still manufacture a _real_ >2500 set? I don't know sets by their numbers, but if the 2500 is the standard, pre-buy-your-own-phone desk set with a roughly rectangular base, then the answer is that they are no longer manufactured, but that "refurbished" models are still available. In 1983 (or so), when Illinois Bell allowed you to purchase the phone you had been leasing from them at a discount, I did so. About 6 months ago the touchtones on my phone stopped working (no, it had nothing to do with line polarity -- that's the first thing I checked -- and it happened a few days after I dropped it on the floor, so maybe it was my fault) and I decided to get a new one. I was finally able to purchase a "refurbished" touchtone set exactly like my old one, for $49.95, direct from AT&T, but they told me that none of their new desk-model touchtone phones had mechanical ringers. (For the same price, AT&T said they'd fix my old phone, but that hardly seemed like a reasonable option). Also available for $49.95, they said, was an in-line modular mechanical bell attachment that would work with any phone, so for those who want the features of new phones and the sound of old ones, that might be worth considering. I decided to go with the complete phone. David Albert | "What are you trying to do, UUCP: ...!harvard!albert | change the world?" INTERNET: albert@harvard.harvard.edu | "No, just our little corner of it." [Moderator's Note: But you know what I *really* miss are the 2515 sets. Those were the 2500 'two line turn button' sets, with the plastic knob in the corner for selection of line one or two. The turn button also could be depressed, and the corresponding blue/white pair of wires (mine has three pairs, at least) used to sound an intercom buzzer elsewhere. Furthermore, I got a little neon bulb at Radio Shack and wired it in there so it would illuminate the little button when the phone rang. All that AT&T will do for you now is replace them one on one for *lease* customers only. Its a shame to see these great old sets no longer being built. PT]
desnoyer@apple.com (Peter Desnoyers) (09/29/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0413m07@vector.dallas.tx.us> gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu (Gabe Wiener) writes: > Speaking of the 2500, is it still with us? Does AT&T (or ITT, or GTE, > or Stromberg Carlson (comdial) or whoever) still manufacture a _real_ > 2500 set? [complains about sleazy (new) AT&T set] I have an AT&T phone in front of me that we bought a few months ago for our lab. It has CS2500DMGH and a date code printed on the bottom, so I guess it's a 2500 set :-) Anyway, it's made in Singapore, it's cheap and sleazy, and the keypad stops generating tones if the voltage drops below 5.4 volts. It feels too lightweight for a telephone, although if you open it up you find there are two heavy metal bars riveted to the bottom that seem to have no purpose but to add weight. On the plus side, it has memory, redial, and mute. Peter Desnoyers Apple ATG (408) 974-4469
edg@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Edward Greenberg) (09/30/89)
>[Moderator's Note: But you know what I *really* miss are the 2515 >sets. Those were the 2500 'two line turn button' sets, with the plastic >knob in the corner for selection of line one or two. The turn button also Indeed. Two line twists were a joy, and some even had a manual hold built into the exclusion plunger. One of my favorite phones is a 2500 set with a headset jack in the back. What I wouldn't give for a few more of those. In the interests of reminiscence, here are some of the funky phones I've got in stock: A clear base and handset 2500 set. A friend bought a bunch of these cases and uses them to R & R 2500 sets as novelty items. Everything is clear. The handset, base, faceplate and, of course, the cover over the number card. One of these days I'm going to laser print my phone number onto a transparency so that can be clear too. A marblized green and white Stromberg Carlson trimline. This one was picked up in a phone wholesaler on closeout. The story was that a line of these had been designed for a Hawaiian hotel that got into financial trouble during construction. It went well with a green bathroom that I no longer have. My wife won't let it see the light of day any more though. A beige, five line touchtone card dialer. I gotta find a place to put this one in the house... It's just too nice to keep in a box. Unfortunately, there ain't anyplace in the current residence that needs a phone. This one is programmed by punching out holes in cards. You have to punch two holes per number. One for the row and one for the column. Inside, it's mechanical and electrical madness. I wonder if (where) I could still get cards. An "ITT/Kellogg" 576 set. This is one with three lines and three manual holds. It has ROUND buttons, and has to have hookswitch key restoration on the hold buttons, in order not to busy out the lines forever. It also has neon ring indicators on the line buttons, and provisions to wire a supply to provide lights for on-hold indications. This phone has a Numeric dial, rather than a "metropolitan" one. That means it has ten LARGE digits (in standard rotary dial digit font) instead of ten smaller digits with letter codes next to them. What other pieces of history do we have out there? Ed Greenberg uunet!apple!netcom!edg [Moderator's Note: I've got a 'French-style' phone: the round, fat base with the felt covering the bottom, the sort of skinny neck and the four fingers -- two extended upright on either side - which form the cradle. It has a rather large, heavy receiver, and *straight, brown cloth cord* from the receiver to the base, and from the base to where it was tied on by its spade lugs to the side-ringer on the wall. Rotary dial, of course, with a 'Z' on the Operator hole. Inside the unit on the bottom plate is the notation 'manufactured by Western Electric Hawthorne Works, 3-15-1927'. Bell phones of that era did not have bells in them. The bell was always in a box mounted on the wall; what we would today term a side-ringer, as is used for the second line on a two line phone. It still works, but the transmission quality is poor. PT]
davef@brspyr1.brs.com (Dave Fiske) (10/03/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0415m01@vector.dallas.tx.us>, morris@jade.jpl.nasa. gov (Mike Morris) writes: > (Andy Meijers) writes: > > >6. Make a ringer/bell that can be tracked by ear. In an office full of > >chirping crickets, all with the speakers buried, it is often hard to > >tell which one is ringing. > > Here's one place where I wish the rest of the world had copied Rolm - > their phones had 4 different ring sounds, user selectable. On the old We used to have this problem at home. My father had a home office, with a separate line installed, and they could never tell whether it was the home or the office phone that was ringing. I managed to solve this problem for them, totally by accident. I was rummaging through a bin of reduced-price clearance items in a Montgomery Ward store once, and found this little device which stifled your phone's normal ring, and instead played one of up to 8 user-selectable tunes. I can't remember all the tunes, but I know it included La Cucaracha, Yellow Rose of Texas, and Jingle Bells. Only a bar or two of the selected song would play. My mother used to change the tune every month or so when she got tired of the current one. Also, the dog used to get pretty excited whenever the phone rang. The unit ran on a 9-volt battery, which usually lasted a year or so. The best part was that it only cost me like $7.88 or so, since it was on clearance. "ANGRY WOMEN BEAT UP SHOE SALESMAN Dave Fiske (davef@brspyr1.BRS.COM) WHO POSED AS GYNECOLOGIST" Home: David_A_Fiske@cup.portal.com Headline from Weekly World News CIS: 75415,163 GEnie: davef
john@jetson.upma.md.us (John Owens) (10/03/89)
On Sep 27, 9:37pm, Gabe Wiener wrote: > I remember when a friend went to buy a 2500 set a few > years ago, what he came back with was truly horrible. Worse, it was > made by AT&T. > Is this the evolution (or shall I say devolution) of the venerable 2500 > set? I'd better hang on to the one I have. It may well be worth something > one day. Just after these "improved" AT&T phones went on the market (1985), I was still able to find an unused Western Electric-labelled electromechanical white Trimline desk phone in among the new AT&T phones without too much trouble. In 1987, I wanted a matching (unused) wall phone, and only found one after considerable scrounging through stocks of low-volume AT&T resellers - I found one at a K-mart. In both cases, there was little packaging difference, and the prices were the same. I doubt if I could find any unused electromechanical Western Electric phones now (although someone pointed out in an earlier message that ITT and others are still making them). Interestingly, when I was looking for the phone in 1987, a salesperson told me that I should get the electronic model, since they offered a 3-year warranty on the new ones and only a 1-year warranty on the "old" (but unused) phones. I had my doubts that the new phones would make it through the warranty period, while I suspected that the old ones could outlive me.... There's a big difference between making a phone that you plan to maintain forever at your own expense and making a phone for retail sale! Even the AT&T Phone Center Stores won't lease the new phones, only refurbished old ones (but they refuse to sell them). John Owens john@jetson.UPMA.MD.US uunet!jetson!john +1 301 249 6000 john%jetson.uucp@uunet.uu.net
ijk@violin.att.com (Ihor J Kinal) (10/05/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0424m01@vector.dallas.tx.us>, davef@brspyr1.brs.com (Dave Fiske) writes: > We used to have this problem at home. My father had a home office, > with a separate line installed, and they could never tell whether it > was the home or the office phone that was ringing. > I managed to solve this problem for them, totally by accident. I was > rummaging through a bin of reduced-price clearance items in a > Montgomery Ward store once, and found this little device which stifled > your phone's normal ring, and instead played one of up to 8 > user-selectable tunes. An unnecessarily hi-tech solution. My family had the same problem [my father is a Family Doctor - the office phone rang almost constantly]. The SIMPLE solution was to REMOVE the BELLs from the office phones. They still made a whirr sound, instead of a noisy ring. Much better, and easily identifiable [plus easier to ignore at 3AM for the rest of the family]. Note that this was technically illegal, since the phone was telco property, but I presume that statute of limitations has expired. I also do the same for my bedroom phones - easier to ignore when I don't want to answer the phone. Unfotunately, my last phone expired and the replacement has an electronic ringer, which I can only turn to lo [still a bit annoying] or off [too quiet]. Ihor Kinal <include standard disclaimers: I'm a software person, primarily> P.S. The other amusing thing was that for many years, the office and home were NOT located in the same residence. But my father still had the office phone in both places. I have no idea how much extra it cost, but it was possible. Some of the extensions needed to have their ringers disabled, since the load was too high.
RS%AI.AI.MIT.EDU@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu (Robert E. Seastrom) (10/09/89)
In TELECOM Digest V9 #434 you write: > [Moderator's Note: In my office, I have a Comdial 2500 phone with a TAP > button. It's a great help with call-waiting, etc. PT] We have two of these here at the house. I've disabled the Sure-Hangup feature on the switchhook after getting zapped once too many when flashing in the traditional manner. They're pretty decent phones, good sound quality and all, but I do wish that they were a bit more tolerable to physical abuse. These phones are in the kitchen and are forever getting yanked off the counter and hitting the floor. Do you know of any other phones besides the WECO 2500 that are really tolerant of living in a house full of abusive hackers? ---Rob
robert@cbmvax.commodore.com (Robert L. Oliver) (10/11/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0420m01@vector.dallas.tx.us>, claris!netcom!edg@ames. arc.nasa.gov (Edward Greenberg) writes: > >[Moderator's Note: But you know what I *really* miss are the 2515 > >sets. Those were the 2500 'two line turn button' sets, with the plastic > >knob in the corner for selection of line one or two. ... PT] > ... > One of my favorite phones is a 2500 set with a headset jack in the > back. What I wouldn't give for a few more of those. Really? How much would you give? You might be pleased to know that AT&T Technologies, Inc. STILL MANUFACTURES these, or something similar, apparently to the ORIGINAL "Survive a nuclear war" specifications (and in the U.S.A.)! As I mentioned in an earlier article, we just installed a new AT&T System 25. Since some of our single line people required headsets, and since there was some shortage of "new-improved" style phones or their headset adapters, we were given BRAND NEW 2514BMW (!) sets, complete with headset jack on the back and Plantronics headsets, which AT&T resells (ouch). On our phones (2514), however, the "turn button" is to switch between the headset and the handset, rather than between lines like on the 2515 mentioned by PT. Also, when the button is PRESSED (not turned) it produces a timed break for putting people on hold in the System 25. NOW, the problem that remains is that people walk up to when you're wearing the headset, and they can't readily tell if you're on the phone or not. If they are familiar with the phone, they'll carefully inspect the turnbuttom to see if it's in the "on" position, meaning headset, meaning you're probably in the middle of a call. But it's hard to see that. What would be nice is if the turnbutton had a light in it that lit up when you were using the line (just like the buttons on the old multi-line desk sets we recently praised). Would this be hard to add? Robert Oliver Rabbit Software Corp. (215) 647-0440 7 Great Valley Parkway East robert@hutch.uucp Malvern, PA 19355 ...!uunet!cbmvax!hutch!robert
robert@cbmvax.commodore.com (Robert L. Oliver) (10/15/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0424m05@vector.dallas.tx.us>, roy%phri@uunet.uu.net (Roy Smith) writes: > With all this talk about non-ergonomic rings, I thought I would > bring up another mis-feature. Our ATT System-25 at work doesn't have call > forwarding, it has what we've come to refer to as call following. We just installed a brand new System 25 here. It DOES have call forwarding AND following. I suggest you look into a software upgrade. The System 25's a nice improvement over our old ITT 3100. I won't restate the gripes about the new desk phones that are too light. Ours are the size of the old 500s, but they're empty, since the electro- mechanical innards have been replaced by silicon and such. The phone bottoms have LARGE cavities, since AT&T decided not to "enclose" the unused space; the bottom of the phone receeds up inside, if you follow. One can actually put the phone down ON TOP of paperweights, bottles of Liquid PaperTM, and such and hide things underneath! I personally haven't found a good use yet. TO THE System 25 DESIGNERS, if you're listening: ITEM 1 Our old ITT 3100 had a very non-Bell feature called "call park" which allowed you to park a call on one of several non-existant extensions. A bit more versatile than being reduced to transferring a call. The System 25 has call park, but you can only park onto YOUR extension number (called a "PDC"). Thus, single-line users can't park more than one call. Bit of a problem when you're trying to answer the night bell from a single line phone and you get a second call. The dedicated park extensions also had the benefit of allowing you to easily refer to them. E.g., since there might be ten of them, 160 through 169, you could page someone over the PA system and say simply "Call for Ken Shaby on Park Zero". With the S25, since ANY number may be a park, you have to be more specific ("Park One-Six-Zero"). And if the pagEE didn't realize the page was for him/her until late into the message (often the case), they may have only gotten the "Zero" which used to be fine; now they need the other two digits they missed. ITEM 2 Single-line phones can't do last-number-redial!!! That's gotta be only a software change, since multi-line phones can do it, I would think (as far as I know, all phones are handled by the same sort of card in the 25). They CAN do "camp-on-a-busy-line", but that only works for INTERNAL calls. I need redial on external calls BUT I LIKE THE SYSTEM 25. Don't get me wrong... Trivia note: The "Master Console" (option, I believe) of the System 25 is a re-labeled AT&T Unix PC! Yes, the original AT&T/Convergent Tech. machine (was it called a system 7100 or something?) that was AT&T's much-touted Byte-front-covered not-so-huge success.