No Time Like the Present

[This is sad, history, phone]

Like the license plate in "Back to the Future", callers in California and Nevada are 'OUTATIME,' come September.

From the LA Times:

“It's the end of time, at least as far as AT&T is concerned.

The brief note in customers' bills hardly does justice to the momentousness of the decision. "Service withdrawal," it blandly declares. "Effective September 2007, Time of Day information service will be discontinued."

What that means is that people throughout California will no longer be able to call 853- or 767- to hear a woman's recorded voice state that "at the tone, Pacific Daylight Time will be . . ." with the recording automatically updating at 10-second intervals.

"Times change," said John Britton, an AT&T spokesman. "In today's world, there are just too many other ways to get this information. You can look at your cellphone or your computer. You no longer have to pick up the telephone.”

Time already has stopped in 48 other states, California and Nevada being the last remaining holdouts.