Strange Abuses For Your Home Phone
----------------------------------
by Static
static@mentalwaste.8m.com

There are quite a lot of rather strange phones on the market right now. One of
them is the Conairphone model: HAC SW8260. This little bugger consists of an 
almost bite-sized control and a 1/8 inch input/output jack that the headset 
(the part through which we speak and listen... please stop me if I'm getting too
technical here) connects to. The little 1/8 inch headphone- plug-sized jack is
what makes this article worth printing. With the proper wires or patch cords
and plug adapters, we can do all kinds of fun shit. Any piece of audio
equipment can be used in conjunction with this phone since the input and output
all come from the little jack. Some of the things we can do are: record any
phone conversation of interest without notifying the party/parties on the line,
patch peoples' most intimate conversations into PA systems, and generally put
any noise we wish directly into the phone. While recording conversations over
the phone is nothing terribly exciting or new, this is a somewhat newer and
lazy way to go about it. Hell, if I want to talk to somebody and record the
conversation, I just rig a microphone into a karaoke machine and plug the phone
into the machine and vice versa. The new thing however is this inane little 
possibility: Musical performance for multiple people over the phone from the
privacy of anywhere, as you can plug instruments into the phone. I'd very much 
like to be the first musician to ever do something like this (if anyone would
possibly be interested in this venture, do drop me a line sometime. (I play
Industrial/IDM/Darkwave/Electronical Ambient/Whatever.) All of the wires and
adapters can either be bought at the store we've all come to know and lovelhate
as Radio Shack, or your local music shop. Also, any phone with the
aforementioned 1/8 inch input/output jacks is capable of this nonsense in case
you don't feel like gravedigging all over to find the phone I use for this. And
finally, there is a plethora of strange things one can attempt via phone with
this method that I haven't or never will bother to think of... so I leave it to
the rest of you out there to play with the options and attempt really oddball
things. If anyone has any ideas about things to do, I'd sure as hell like to
hear them.