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#42
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What ever happened to the WORDS used in phone numbers?
On Monday, June 1, 2015 at 6:30:24 PM UTC-5, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 6/1/2015 1:01 PM, micky wrote: On Mon, 01 Jun 2015 11:57:08 -0400, wrote: On Mon, 01 Jun 2015 04:03:55 -0400, micky wrote: On Mon, 01 Jun 2015 02:36:30 -0500, wrote: On Mon, 01 Jun 2015 02:59:06 -0400, micky wrote: I have to tell you about when my mother moved to western Pa. in 1945, from Indianapolis. While NYC and probably some other places had dial phones already, we didn't. So my mother would tell the operator, OLiver 4-1383 please, or Oliver 4-3343 please,and after a couple days or weeks, the operator told her, You don't have to say Oliver 4, Ma'am.. They're all Oliver 4. I remember when I came home and they had installed dials. They changed the phone in my parents' bedroom entirely, but the wall phone in the idtchen they took the top off, connected a couple wires, and attached a top with a dial. One time I called my best friend and I heard click click, click click click. I hung up and our phone rang. He had been calling me. The phone didn't ring at his end when I called. When I was REAL young, my parents phone was on a "party line". Sometimes I'd pick up the phone, and the other party would be talking. I still dont understand how that worked. I assume the other party had a different phone number. Yes, somehow they would have a different ring, I think. You were supposed to only answer your own ring. When we moved back to Indy and my mother signed up for the phone, the customer service person said she could get a party line with no other party on it, so she'd save money with no inconvenience. I'm sure we were not the only ones who got that.. And I think we had that for the whole 8 years we were there. But maybe we had to change to a private line eventually and she didnt' mention it. My guess is that they ran two phone numbers thru the same wires to save on wires. My parents were glad when they got rid of the party line, but I think they had to pay a little more. That is what the yellow and green were in the old 3 wire JK cable. It is selective ringing. One party was on the red/green, one on the red/ yellow. When I first learned the two wires to the phone were called the tip and the ring, I assumed the ring was coming in on the ring, as in your example just above, the green or the yellow. Is there any truth to that? Is that related to the name ring? Because when I was 60 y.o. I finally realized the ring was the second conductor on a phone plug, behind the tip. I know that's valid nomenclature, but it doesn't prove ring wasn't also used for the wire the ring came in on. ???? I heard that tip and ring were refer to the plugs the operators used. Tip was the tip of the plug, and ring wss connected to the back of the 1/4 inch phono plug. Nothing to do with phone ringers. - The phone plug is referred to as a TRS type,"Tip Ring Sleeve" The tip is the green wire, the ring is the red wire and the sleeve is the chassis ground.. The is a wealth of information on The Web about the phone system circuitry and you should check it out. 8-) [8~{} Uncle Ring Monster |
#43
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What ever happened to the WORDS used in phone numbers?
There is something to be said for using names as preefixes. I still remember my grandparents phone number in Woodside - Queens, NYC, 65 years later. It was HAvemeyer 9-3665. Don't know what area code(s) are in use in that part of NYC, but it could be fun to call the number and ask to speak with themg.
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#44
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What ever happened to the WORDS used in phone numbers?
Our prefix in Chicago was Dorchester 3. I recall my mother having to drop a nickel or a slug in the phone box at home. Each month a guy would come to collect the money, including real money for the slugs. This would have been in the 40's.
In the 60's I was in charge of making ski group reservations each year at Boyne Mountain, MI. The lodge phone number was 10 and I had to go through the long distance operator to reach it. |
#45
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What ever happened to the WORDS used in phone numbers?
"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in message
On 06/01/2015 07:48 AM, Robert Green wrote: stuff snipped Before anyone has a canary, there are still places that do things the old way and you can dial a neighbor with only 7 digits. The UK used to have exchange names -- at least in the London area -- of which the first *three* letters were dialed. Right after I pressed SEND I realized a more robust disclaimer was probably necessary. Especially when I started reading in Wikipedia how the switched telephone network grew in fits and starts. Much more chilling is how the Internet grew and how basically unsafe the underlying transport protocols really a http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/bus...curity-part-2/ In our part of the USA, all numbers within our own area code can now be dialed without the area code, but it was not always that way. That's the first case of regression I've ever heard of. Are you POTS, cell, internet or what? With only 7-digit "subscriber numbers" in a country with the population of the USA, there is no way of assigning area codes logically -- at least without dumping the old 0-or-1-in-the-middle ones, and probably not even then. Australia has 8-digit "subscriber numbers," and the initial digits of area codes (apart from the leading 0 for in-country calls) indicate the State (or group of States), plus one specifically for all cell phones irrespective of location. The people who get to look at someone else's work before designing their own usually get a leg up. (-: I've been on both sides of that equation. With 8-digit "subscriber numbers" the USA could have area codes with the initial digit denoting the region and further digits indicating the State or subset of the region or State. Maybe special area codes within each region for cell phones -- or maybe a set of area codes for cell phones irrespective of location. I seem to recall a study that said while a large number of people can remember 7 digit phone numbers, when you jump to 8, that large number diminishes significantly. The same rules hold true for voicemail menus and even on-screen menus. I believe that voicemail menus begin to be a problem for many people after the 4th menu choice. These are all vague, age-tainted memories of a human factors engineering course I took in the early 90's. I'm too lazy to look them up today. The damn birds started in at 2:30 this morning. I suspect it's a cat on the prowl because they were definitely moving from tree to tree and squawking their little bird lungs out. -- Bobby G. |
#46
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What ever happened to the WORDS used in phone numbers?
On 06/02/2015 10:06 AM, Robert Green wrote:
In our part of the USA, all numbers within our own area code can now be dialed without the area code, but it was not always that way. That's the first case of regression I've ever heard of. Are you POTS, cell, internet or what? 616 area code. Our number was originally an AT&T landline number, then ported to Google Voice, which forwards to our "real" number (also 616 but given out only to family members). VOIP using an Obihai box. I don't think we've needed to use the area code from our cell phones either -- also 616, T-Mobile. With only 7-digit "subscriber numbers" in a country with the population of the USA, there is no way of assigning area codes logically -- at least without dumping the old 0-or-1-in-the-middle ones, and probably not even then. Australia has 8-digit "subscriber numbers," and the initial digits of area codes (apart from the leading 0 for in-country calls) indicate the State (or group of States), plus one specifically for all cell phones irrespective of location. The people who get to look at someone else's work before designing their own usually get a leg up. (-: I've been on both sides of that equation. With 8-digit "subscriber numbers" the USA could have area codes with the initial digit denoting the region and further digits indicating the State or subset of the region or State. Maybe special area codes within each region for cell phones -- or maybe a set of area codes for cell phones irrespective of location. I seem to recall a study that said while a large number of people can remember 7 digit phone numbers, when you jump to 8, that large number diminishes significantly. But if you have to remember a 3-digit area code as well, you already have to remember a 10-digit number. And if 10-digit numbers are sufficient for the population of the USA (which they are for now, at least), perhaps one could switch to logically/geographically assigned 2-digit area codes and 8-digit "subscriber numbers." It was interesting to find that although Australian phone numbers within a given area code are xxxx-xxxx, people would speak them as xxx-xxx-xx -- or was it xx-xxx-xxx? Perce |
#47
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What ever happened to the WORDS used in phone numbers?
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#48
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What ever happened to the WORDS used in phone numbers?
"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in message
... On 06/02/2015 10:06 AM, Robert Green wrote: stuff snipped Are you POTS, cell, internet or what? 616 area code. Our number was originally an AT&T landline number, then ported to Google Voice, which forwards to our "real" number (also 616 but given out only to family members). VOIP using an Obihai box. I don't think we've needed to use the area code from our cell phones either -- also 616, T-Mobile. That's a checkered past, so to speak! I seem to recall a study that said while a large number of people can remember 7 digit phone numbers, when you jump to 8, that large number diminishes significantly. But if you have to remember a 3-digit area code as well, you already have to remember a 10-digit number. It's not that clear cut. In my area there are 4 major area codes - 202, 703, 301 and 240. Those don't really count (memory wise) as 3 digits since they're really one choice out of 4 possible codes in this area. Admittedly in the whole universe of area codes it would be 3 extra digits to remember, but practically those digits map into a prefix that people see as a single token to remember. There was an awful lot of discussion about this when the switch to full area code dialing first began. It was interesting to find that although Australian phone numbers within a given area code are xxxx-xxxx, people would speak them as xxx-xxx-xx -- or was it xx-xxx-xxx? A perfect example of tokenizing. They break the number into smaller subgroups that are easier to remember as single tokens. Area codes are like that and to some extent so are exchanges. Lots of phones in the area are 937 or 881 exchanges so it works the same way. You end up with both the area code and the exchange collapsed into single tokens. I can think of a number of places that have the 937 code which then tends to get thought of as a single token even though it's three digits. In college my roommates used to pick various words that could be dialed and call up and say: Did you know your number spells DICKWAD (or some other cuss word)? When they dialed the guy whose number turned out to spell A$$HOLE (277-4053) he answered "Only if you use the number zero to mean the letter O!" -- Bobby G. |
#49
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What ever happened to the WORDS used in phone numbers?
On Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 3:34:31 AM UTC-4, Robert Green wrote:
"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in message ... On 06/02/2015 10:06 AM, Robert Green wrote: stuff snipped Are you POTS, cell, internet or what? 616 area code. Our number was originally an AT&T landline number, then ported to Google Voice, which forwards to our "real" number (also 616 but given out only to family members). VOIP using an Obihai box. I don't think we've needed to use the area code from our cell phones either -- also 616, T-Mobile. That's a checkered past, so to speak! I seem to recall a study that said while a large number of people can remember 7 digit phone numbers, when you jump to 8, that large number diminishes significantly. But if you have to remember a 3-digit area code as well, you already have to remember a 10-digit number. It's not that clear cut. In my area there are 4 major area codes - 202, 703, 301 and 240. Those don't really count (memory wise) as 3 digits since they're really one choice out of 4 possible codes in this area. Admittedly in the whole universe of area codes it would be 3 extra digits to remember, but practically those digits map into a prefix that people see as a single token to remember. There was an awful lot of discussion about this when the switch to full area code dialing first began. It was interesting to find that although Australian phone numbers within a given area code are xxxx-xxxx, people would speak them as xxx-xxx-xx -- or was it xx-xxx-xxx? A perfect example of tokenizing. They break the number into smaller subgroups that are easier to remember as single tokens. Area codes are like that and to some extent so are exchanges. Lots of phones in the area are 937 or 881 exchanges so it works the same way. You end up with both the area code and the exchange collapsed into single tokens. I can think of a number of places that have the 937 code which then tends to get thought of as a single token even though it's three digits. In college my roommates used to pick various words that could be dialed and call up and say: Did you know your number spells DICKWAD (or some other cuss word)? When they dialed the guy whose number turned out to spell A$$HOLE (277-4053) he answered "Only if you use the number zero to mean the letter O!" -- Bobby G. It maps into an easy token only if you recognize the area code and connect it with the token. There are plenty of new area codes, especially for cell phones, so that is dwindling. For example, IDK most of the new cell phone area codes for NYC anymore. And then with VOIP, the ability to port numbers, Google Voice redirecting calls, etc. the association of the number to a geography is also diminishing. |
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