mgrant@BRILLIG.UMD.EDU (Mike Grant) (02/05/86)
[...] I've heard that there's a company that's going to market a nationwide directory assistance database on a CD-ROM for use with your favorite home computer. When this happens, all anyone will have to do to have their own CNA database is sort the the data the way they need it. -Mike
Ralph.Hyre@IUS2.CS.CMU.EDU (02/10/86)
In article <8602060733.AA12585@ucbvax.berkeley.edu> you write: >[...] > >I've heard that there's a company that's going to market a nationwide >directory assistance database on a CD-ROM for use with your favorite >home computer. When this happens, all anyone will have to do to have >their own CNA database is sort the the data the way they need it. >-Mike The interesting questions here are: Will the company itself provide a CNA database with a number -> person index as well as the typical person -> number. (The Grolier's encyclopedia disks are interesting and useful for just this reason.) What the government do (if anything) about possible abuses. Will it be legal for a person to sell his own CNA database? (If so, why hasn't anyone done this before? Are there really Phone Police that enforce CNA access :-) Where I come from (Cincinnati, OH) the only places I've heard of having CNA databases are law enforcement and otherg government agencies. As I understand it, CNA stands for Called Number Authority. The phone company keeps a list of number-person correspondences, which are available in many cities by simply calling (presumably) secret phone number. (The CNA operator answers and says 'Number, please?', you give number, they give name.) The general public does not/is not supposed to have access to this information.