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From: 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: White House Phone Trivia (Was: Touchtone History)
Message-ID: <9761@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 15 Jul 90 01:42:00 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 487, Message 7 of 11


 
In article <Digest v10, iss 479>, Roger writes:

>I think those same phones are still there ... spotted a photo of
>President Bush in the Oval Office ...  and there on the desk in clear
>view was an TT version of the unit described above. One of the those
>big tanks...

>The burning question that Telecom readers want answered is: Why
>doesn't the President's office have a nice little Merlin (R) or neat
>IDSN set ???
 
The answer may range from the sublime to the ridiculous, Roger. It
might be:

1.) The White House Communications Agency still insists the
President have something that WORKS -- without fear of silent,
unannounced failure or software screw-ups;

2.) The WHCA itself still doesn't know how to maintain anything but
good old 1A Key Telephone equipment;

3.) The White House PBX may still be one that requires line interfaces
of the type 1A Key provides for multi-line telephones (you'd be
surprised how much OLD stuff our Federal offices have ... the age of
IBM mainframe computers in government is a well-publicized case in
point.

4.) Perhaps President Bush has trouble learning the ropes of
software-trickery phones ... maybe even Danny Quayle gets in there
once in a while!  As to those latter points, I refer you to Gary
Trudeau.  He'll probably respond in an upcoming "Doonesbury."