The BubblePhone is a response to Jason Sturges' absolute hatred of that hellish device, the telephone. The telephone, as you may or may not know, rings occasionally bringing people from far and near directly to your ear. This has many benefits, but a few shortcomings. Among those shortcomings are the fact that anyone can call you at any time, night or day, whether or not you want to speak to them.
This has some serious repurcussions on human health. For one, the sound most telephones make when ringing is highly abrasive, as it is designed to be able to be heard from at least 3 miles away. This is why you can hear your neighbor's telephone whenever it rings as well. The effect of the telephone ringing in the middle of a good night's slumber is one of the most annoying things in the universe to some people, especially when you have more than 4 roommates with people calling at ALL hours from foreign countries.
So, a solution was needed to solve these problems. Thus began my long and treacherous road to the creation of the BubblePhone. The BubblePhone began as a very simple script; it would simply watch the phone lines through the use of a modem, and play a happy bubbling sound whenever the phone would ring through the distributed stereo system in the house (read on later for more discussion of this system). It has evolved into the glorious bloatware you see before you now, complete with caller ID support, stereo 16-bit sound, a database of recent callers, and voice support for announcing callers.
The bubblephone, much like the average human, will get more and more upset if people call too often in a short period of time. Should furious bubbling occur, simply unplug your phone for a half an hour and it will return to its usual complacent self. However, if you enjoy angry bubbling, feel free to let it vent its anger.
What does it take to get it to go?
8-bit sound version:
2.5 MB RAM
Caller-ID capable modem (tested on Supra FaxModem 28.8)
Caller-ID + Name installed on phone line to be monitored
Some form of Macintalk installed (Macintalk Pro is certainly preferred)
Suggested additions:
Stereo system to pipe sounds through
Adobe Type Manager (available free via the Acrobat Reader at http://www.adobe.com)
How do I install it?
Installation is relatively simple, just drag the items in the support folder into your system folder, dropping them where necessary, and fire the Bubblephone up if your modem is on and ready. You shouldn't even have to restart the machine. Note that the serial tool must go into the extensions folder, fonts go wherever your system decides to put them, and Macintalk Pro should be installed to have voice feedback run. If you don't have Macintalk Pro on your machine, it is available from Apple at http://www.support.apple.com in the software library.
Why is it so big?
Because it's written in Hypercard, king of the bloatware apps. Get over it if you use any Microsoft product, you're already used to it.
Why does it screw up sometimes?
Because it's a beta release. You're testing it for me. Drop me a line if you find some nasty bugs at hosehead@iastate.edu. Hitting Cmd-period if it seems to be locked up usually frees it.
The volume from the Mac speaker isn't enough to replace the phone ringer. What can I do?
Hook your mac up to your stereo. How? Go to Radio Shack and get a 1/8" stereo mini-headphone jack to stereo RCA plug cable. Plug one end into the speaker out on your mac, the other end into the AUX inputs on your amplifier. Voila. Now, get really slick like we do, and run cable all over your house so the power of the Bubblephone can be known to each and every one of the members of your family.
It's too vulgar for me to use.
Well, don't whine to me. The residents here didn't think the Bubblephone had enough attitude, so I had to install the Uranium P-36 Space Modulator to satisfy the masses. In future versions, you'll be able to enable it at will. Don't use this software if you have kids and want them to grow up to be happy and healthy and oblivious to the world. However, if you're children are already seasoned, they'll enjoy it just like healthy kids should.
What's in store for the future?
By releasetime:
Native support for powermacs, optional P-36 space modulator, menus that work worth a damn, optional support for Caller-ID (currently required), and more easter eggs.
Who's responsible for this?
All the responsible parties can be found by clicking on the BubblePhone box at the top of the window. They're listed below, for the sake of duplicative work:
Tom Pepper -- software engineer
Jason Sturges -- philosophical input, and musical composer
