https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Khendon 2026-04-15T13:37:20Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.30.0 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1578:_Squirrelphone&diff=101884 2015-09-16T05:24:54Z

<p>Khendon: in the US</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1578<br /> | date = September 16, 2015<br /> | title = Squirrelphone<br /> | image = squirrelphone.png<br /> | titletext = After a while, the squirrel starts making that beeping noise and doesn't stop until it hops back up onto the stump.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> This is a joke about [http://squirrelmail.org/ SquirrelMail], a web-based email client that was for many early email users their first webmail service.<br /> <br /> Before SquirrelMail, users had to check email by opening a terminal via [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telnet telnet] to a remote server and using a command line tool like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_%28Unix%29 mail] or [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_%28e-mail_client%29 Pine] or dowloading it via [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol SMTP] to a dedicated email client. Organizations enabling it in their servers allowed their users as well to check mail from any web browser, even in a setting like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_caf%C3%A9 Internet cafés] where only WWW was possible and telnet or email clients were not available.<br /> <br /> While Squirrelmail was an existent service, there has never existed a &quot;Squirrel-phone&quot; or similar sevice, a living squirrel being not an appropiate creature to mantain a phone call.<br /> <br /> <br /> The sounds the squirrel makes correspond to the tones that the terminals made when you used the POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) in the US:<br /> * When someone else called you and the receiver of your phone was hanged up, the phone made loud and long &quot;riiing riiiing&quot; tones.<br /> * When you picked up, the phone call was established and no noises were made.<br /> * When no phone call was established and you picked up, a continous &quot;riiiiiiiiiiing&quot; tone was heard, meaning the service was up and you could dial someone else's number.<br /> * When no phone call was established but dialling was not possible, short &quot;bip bip bip bip&quot; tones were heard. This happened either when an existing call ended or was interrupted or you had had the receiver too long (about half a minute) picked up without dialing (This is case of the alt-text). In this case, you should hang up again to be able to pick up and dial.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Squirrels]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Animals]]</div>

Khendon