roy%phri@uunet.uu.net (Roy Smith) (08/25/89)
I just spoke to an operator and asked him for information on how to
place a shore-to-ship call via the marine operator. He wasn't sure (I
suspect it wasn't an AT&T operator) but suggested that I call 102880411.
What's interesting is that he said "one-oh-two, pause, eight-eight-zero,
pause, four-one-one". As he was saying it, I was writing down digits,
putting a space everytime he paused. I looked at it and asked him if he
was sure it was right; it didn't have the right number of digits for any
phone number I knew, and 102 sure is a funny looking area code anyway.
It wasn't until a bit later that I realized it should be parsed
10-288-0-411. It's amazing how much you depend on the cadence to be able
to remember phone numbers. Speak those 9 digits 3-3-3, and they make no
sense, speak them 2-3-1-3 (or 5-1-3) and it's obvious. I once got a
directory assistance recording which spoke a 7 digit number in some funny
way (something like 2-2-2-1). I had to listen to it about three times
before I could manage to copy the digits down.
--
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
{att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu
"The connector is the network"ron@hardees.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) (08/27/89)
Yes, used to be a party line that advertised it's number as 100 411 7777777 (actually they said seven sevens). It took me a minute to realize what the number actually was. The other fun one is that the Rutgers library ID numbers that are displayed on the checkout terminals are social security numbers. I looked at my number a couple of times before I realized it because they had the spaces in non obvious locations. -Ron
john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (08/30/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0328m08@vector.dallas.tx.us>, ron@hardees.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) writes: > Yes, used to be a party line that advertised it's number as > 100 411 7777777 (actually they said seven sevens). > It took me a minute to realize what the number actually was. I think I saw that ad. Didn't it go something like: 100 411 700 777-7777 ? Which opens the huge 700 can of worms. This is sort of a free-for-all area code. LD carriers can use it for almost any purpose and charge almost any amount for the call. Remember Alliance Teleconferencing by AT&T? And we all know 700 555-4141 which tells you your carrier (or the name of any carrier you wish by prefixing it with the appropriate 10XXX code). In the above mention, someone is using a "700" for a party line. Since it requires the caller to dial the carrier prefix (10041), there is no need to set up prior arrangements with anyone. With 900 service, the carrier must set up specific prefixes to be automatically routed to his point of presense by the operating company, regardless of the subscribers pre-subscribed carrier selection. BTW, I've got a little AOS horror story in the works. The final event should occur tomorrow. If the information I've received checks out, it could all be a little worse than we imagined. -- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !