Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: sje!tom@pdx.mentor.com (Tom Ace) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Prophetic ROLM Ad Message-ID:Date: 9 Aug 89 20:10:10 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 32 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 284, message 6 of 9 A somewhat pompous full-page ad (lots of white space around a paragraph of text) for ROLM appeared in the 8/7/89 NY Times. It suggested that something special would happen to ROLM customers the next day. (The ad's text is reproduced at the end of this posting.) Sure enough, when I got into work on Tuesday, several extensions in the building, including mine, were making bizarre noises from the speakers in their bases: howls, fragments of various ringing tones, screeching noises, and more. We have a Rolm PBX. The repairman told me a card in the PBX was taken out by a power disturbance, and that we ought to have a power line conditioner. I told him a PBX ought to have a more tolerant power supply; he smiled knowingly. Dozens of computers in the same building (Apollos, Macs, others) had no problems. The same day, I called someone at another company in another state, and the voice mail was broken in their Rolm PBX. I found it amusing that all this happened on the day mentioned in the ad: "For just about everyone here in America, tomorrow, August the 8th, will be just another Tuesday. Alarm clocks will ring a little earlier than we'd like. The newspaper will arrive too late to read. Dressing the kids will take at least twice as long as planned. Three meetings will be scheduled for the same time. The lunch hour will only be 38 minutes. A few of us will get a raise. There won't be enough hours in the day. Someone will get a puppy for their birthday when they were really hoping for a pony. In other words, for most everyone here in America, just another typical Tuesday. Everyone, that is, except for the customers of ROLM." Tom Ace tom@sje.mentor.com ...!mntgfx!sje!tom