anthony@uunet.uu.net (Anthony Lee) (11/19/89)
I was wondering with the Call Line Identity or the Calling Number Delivery service, what is actually displayed on the callee's telephone. Is it just the caller's number? Surely this wouldn't be very helpful. I mean the telephone book is indexed on surnames so wouldn't it better if the surname and initials of the caller be displayed? cheers Anthony Anthony Lee (Humble PhD student) (Alias Time Lord Doctor) ACSnet: anthony@batserver.cs.uq.oz TEL:(+617) 3712651 Internet: anthony@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au (+617) 3774139 (w) SNAIL: Dept Comp. Science, University of Qld, St Lucia, Qld 4067, Australia [Moderator's Note: But you see, names are not unique to their users. Telephone numbers are. If my caller-ID box says 'John Smith', am I to look through a couple pages of the Chicago alpha directory at the hundreds of people in Chicago named 'John Smith' to find my caller? PT]
johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (11/20/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0521m03@vector.dallas.tx.us> our moderator writes: >[Moderator's Note: But you see, names are not unique to their users. >Telephone numbers are. ... Unless, of course, the phone happens to be shared by several people on a hall. Or someone's calling from a friend's house, or calling one client from a second client's office. Or calling from a 5,000 line PBX which always gives the main number as the calling number. Or using a payphone. Or, if the caller's more serious, tapping someone else's line in an unlocked phone closet in order to masquerade as them. Caller ID doesn't conclusively identify the caller any more than getting a car's license number conclusively identifies the driver. It's a strong hint, but hardly the iron-clad identifier that some people wish it were. Think of it like the signature on electronic mail, not too hard to fake out if you really want to. John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl "Now, we are all jelly doughnuts."