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feedmegin posted:I think by prefix he means the 3 digits after +1, not the international prefix. Also population doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how long numbers are; British phone numbers are 11 digits (the first of which is always 0, granted), and we're like 1/6th the population of the US. Landline numbers have geographical area codes but mobile phone numbers don't - they all start with 07<something> and aren't tied to any particular location. Correct. I do not mean international code prefix. For me if I wanted to dial a mobile phone in full that was in the country (no matter which country i was in) I would dial +61 (australia) 4xx xxx xxx. Locally I would dial 04xx xxx xxx. The 04 country wide is way of knowing whatever phone you are dialing is a mobile, not land line, think of it as an area code specific for mobile. each state here has a differrent 0x prefix.
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Feb 26, 2016 15:26
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Cojawfee posted:It's on YouTube. This thread could go for pages on the strength of awkward Microsoft marketing videos.
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Feb 26, 2016 15:31
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George Plimpton hawking Intelevison. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD9GySeh2t4
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Feb 26, 2016 15:34
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Mad Monk posted:George Plimpton hawking Intelevison. Reminded me of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f3524BQ0Ms Humphreys has a new favorite as of 16:41 on Feb 26, 2016 |
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Feb 26, 2016 15:46
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Humphreys posted:Correct. I do not mean international code prefix. For me if I wanted to dial a mobile phone in full that was in the country (no matter which country i was in) I would dial +61 (australia) 4xx xxx xxx. Locally I would dial 04xx xxx xxx. The 04 country wide is way of knowing whatever phone you are dialing is a mobile, not land line, think of it as an area code specific for mobile. each state here has a differrent 0x prefix. Oh no, in the US we have differing prefixes because of our population size. Each state is guaranteed at least one unique prefix, but some states are large enough that they can get several. For example, the state of Idaho only has the (208) prefix (as in, 208-XXX-XXXX), while other states can have 10 or 20 different ones. Here's a map:  Oh and even though we have 7 digit numbers, we don't have all of the available options. Certain number combinations (at least historically) were cordoned off depending on official use. For example, 911 is the emergency number here. A lot of numbers with the combination "911" are not in use (like 208-555-9113) because people might be trying to dial for help instead of that number.
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Feb 26, 2016 15:53
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Non Serviam posted:I don't have an answer for you, but I've experienced it when I call my mother's landline from Skype and one of us raises their voice. Oh my god, I'm potentially not crazy!  Anyone else ever experience this?
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Feb 26, 2016 16:20
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Prefixes and area codes are not the same thing.
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Feb 26, 2016 16:29
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computer parts posted:Oh and even though we have 7 digit numbers, we don't have all of the available options. Certain number combinations (at least historically) were cordoned off depending on official use. For example, 911 is the emergency number here. A lot of numbers with the combination "911" are not in use (like 208-555-9113) because people might be trying to dial for help instead of that number. What's weird about this is that a cab company in my hometown had a phone number that included the 911 sequence in it. One day, I was calling them, and only dialed a bit of the phone number, and then hung up when I realized I didn't need or want a cab (forget the reason)... 2 seconds later, 911 calls me back, and I spend a good 4-5 minutes on the phone ensuring them that no, this isn't an emergency, no I'm not in trouble, no one's here threatening me, I'm fine, we're all fine here.... how are you? And I definitely had dialed numbers BEFORE the '9', no idea how they picked that up.
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Feb 26, 2016 16:42
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I could see why random numbers followed by 911 would work so that someone could more discreetly call 911. I would think 911+some numbers would be more likely to work, but maybe it's set up both ways.
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Feb 26, 2016 16:47
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Before I get this post back on topic of internet relics, who here can actually remember 5 different peoples phone number? I struggle remembering my own landline (needed for ADSL) let alone current friends' numbers. On internet relics, I remember a fun site something like 'spark' or 'the spark' that was maybe like cracked that had articles on various random poo poo. I recall articles called "The stinky foot project" and "Stinky Meat"
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Feb 26, 2016 17:01
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I don't even remember my own phone number, which I should probably get around to memorizing because anytime anyone asks for a number I have to go into phone settings.
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Feb 26, 2016 17:02
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Humphreys posted:Before I get this post back on topic of internet relics, who here can actually remember 5 different peoples phone number? I struggle remembering my own landline (needed for ADSL) let alone current friends' numbers. I can easily remember 5 numbers, but my high school buddies haven't lived with their parents in over 15 years.
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Feb 26, 2016 17:03
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Same. I had to fill out some form online recently for... I don't remember, credit report maybe? with those questions to verify you are who you say you are. One of them was to confirm which of the numbers was part of your phone number, and since I've used a Google Voice number forever I had absolutely no idea what number was actually assigned to my handset. Actually logged into my Verizon account to check, and even there it was hard to find. I remember the spark too, though I'd completely forgotten about the stinky meat project. Sparknotes is still alive, basically free cliffs notes for literature, and I'm pretty sure okcupid rose from the ashes of sparkmatch.
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Feb 26, 2016 17:10
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:What's weird about this is that a cab company in my hometown had a phone number that included the 911 sequence in it. One day, I was calling them, and only dialed a bit of the phone number, and then hung up when I realized I didn't need or want a cab (forget the reason)... 2 seconds later, 911 calls me back, and I spend a good 4-5 minutes on the phone ensuring them that no, this isn't an emergency, no I'm not in trouble, no one's here threatening me, I'm fine, we're all fine here.... how are you? This reminds me, in the early days of cellphones, friend asked me if he can look at my phone, and i was, sure go for it. He hands me the phone and I see "dialing 911 equivalent". I've manged to hang up before the call actually connected. That guy
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Feb 26, 2016 17:45
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:What's weird about this is that a cab company in my hometown had a phone number that included the 911 sequence in it. One day, I was calling them, and only dialed a bit of the phone number, and then hung up when I realized I didn't need or want a cab (forget the reason)... 2 seconds later, 911 calls me back, and I spend a good 4-5 minutes on the phone ensuring them that no, this isn't an emergency, no I'm not in trouble, no one's here threatening me, I'm fine, we're all fine here.... how are you? When I was in middle school, they set up a telephone service where you could call and push a series of numbers to hear your homework assignments for that day. It was dumb overall; only a few teachers bothered keeping it updated past the first week of it rolling out. The funny part was that a series of teachers had the code 911x(or maybe it was x911) to hear their messages. Supposedly, the 911 system was slammed the first night it opened. All the 911 teachers had their numbers changed to something else. Can someone who knows about 911 and POTS explain if that could really trigger a 911 call? I always figured kids were prank calling 911 and using that as an excuse. Can I just dial 911 in the middle of a regular call and get connected to 911?
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Feb 26, 2016 18:14
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computer parts posted:No one has a landline these days unless you're really old or if your cable company makes you get one as part of a bundle. A co-worker adopted a baby and one of the requirements is that they have a landline in case they have to call 911. Christo3 posted:Promoting the installation and use of Windows 95 with characters from hit 90's TV show Friends(tm) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGYcNcFhctc
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Feb 26, 2016 18:21
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computer parts posted:Oh and even though we have 7 digit numbers, we don't have all of the available options. Certain number combinations (at least historically) were cordoned off depending on official use. For example, 911 is the emergency number here. A lot of numbers with the combination "911" are not in use (like 208-555-9113) because people might be trying to dial for help instead of that number. That last bit is incorrect. My old landline phone number that I've had since the late 90s (since moved to VOIP) literally has a 911 in it, at exactly the same place as in your example. No one has ever gotten an ambulance when they tried to call me. And now if anyone figures out my area code I guess I've just 1/10000th doxxed myself.  torgo posted:Can someone who knows about 911 and POTS explain if that could really trigger a 911 call? I always figured kids were prank calling 911 and using that as an excuse. Can I just dial 911 in the middle of a regular call and get connected to 911? No, it has to be dialed like a regular number. I occasionally punched in my 911-including number when paging people, back in the day of pagers, and I never got an ambulance either. Also, it was common "pager speak" to tack 911 on the end of the number you sent to mean "this is an emergency, call me right now." So yes, I'm old... but not QUITE old enough to have gotten in on the fun of phone phreaking. The various-color phreaking boxes and the 2600-Hz Captain Crunch whistle and all that good stuff had all stopped working by the time I was in grade school, but that didn't stop people putting the plans for them up on BBSes for the next decade and a half.  
Powered Descent has a new favorite as of 18:35 on Feb 26, 2016 |
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Feb 26, 2016 18:32
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VectorSigma posted:All this fancy shmancy VoIP and globally accessible packet-switched network bullshit is cool and all but I'll be damned if POTS isn't still in use 50 or more years from now. It won't be Granny Gums' GEneva5-4342 number that's for sure.
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Feb 26, 2016 18:58
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:What's weird about this is that a cab company in my hometown had a phone number that included the 911 sequence in it. One day, I was calling them, and only dialed a bit of the phone number, and then hung up when I realized I didn't need or want a cab (forget the reason)... 2 seconds later, 911 calls me back, and I spend a good 4-5 minutes on the phone ensuring them that no, this isn't an emergency, no I'm not in trouble, no one's here threatening me, I'm fine, we're all fine here.... how are you? I worked at Best Buy in college and to dial out, you had to hit 91, then 1 + area code and number. If you didn't do it pretty fast, you'd call 911.
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Feb 26, 2016 23:43
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I guess I must have lived in a fantasy world according to the people saying that 911 in the middle of a phone number didn't trigger a call to 911. I was trying to dial a BBS back in the early 90s on my 2400 baud modem numerous times and it failed to connect. A few minutes later the phone line rings. It was a 911 operator asking if everything was OK because the call kept dropping out on their end. I explained that I was trying dialing a long distance number on my PC trying to connect to a service. I hang up and take another look at the phone number in the back of the magazine. It had a 911 in it. I then checked the computer and made sure I had entered 1 + the full number. I had. I figure it probably depended on either your phone company or area or something. We used to be able to just dial the last four digits if the person was in our prefix. Then you couldn't. Then ten digit dialing became a requirement around fifteen years ago. Maybe some areas had the whole "you might be mashing keys in a panic, so if you hit 911 in the middle, we'll direct you there" and others didn't. GI_Clutch has a new favorite as of 03:37 on Feb 27, 2016 |
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Feb 27, 2016 01:19
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Where i live a long time ago you used to be able to dial local numbers with no area code and it worked on landlines
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Feb 27, 2016 01:33
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I'm pretty sure that's still the case in most places. Some places have overlay area codes (Portland and Denver come to mind) and you have to do ten digit dialing for everything, but that's still the exception rather than the rule.
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Feb 27, 2016 01:47
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The Bible posted:I worked at Best Buy in college and to dial out, you had to hit 91, then 1 + area code and number. If you didn't do it pretty fast, you'd call 911. This is how every PBX I've ever worked with works. Dial 9 to dial out, but if you dial 9-1-1 and then wait a few seconds, the office phone system will assume you want 911 and automatically dial it out. Many phone systems if you dial 9-1-1 and then hang up, it'll register as a 911 call no matter how many or what numbers you dialed first. This is intentional behavior, kind of like a "silent alarm." They will call you back, and if you don't answer, they'll probably send police/EMS, no joke. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1 explains how the actual routing of the system works, it doesn't work quite like "normal" phone numbers, so everyone's anecdotes in this thread are probably completely true. powerofrecall has a new favorite as of 03:03 on Feb 27, 2016 |
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Feb 27, 2016 03:01
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thathonkey posted:Where i live a long time ago you used to be able to dial local numbers with no area code and it worked on landlines The town I was born in was small enough that you only had to dial the last 4 digits of an in-town number. 4050 what up
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Feb 27, 2016 05:16
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Yeah, you know you've left the city/suburbs and entered rural America when you see 7-digit phone numbers on signs instead of 10-digit. This goes for pretty much anywhere.
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Feb 27, 2016 05:20
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I've lived in Idaho for about 4 years now, and the whole one area code for the entire state thing blows my mind still. I grew up in rural Indiana, and we had multiple area codes (that you had to dial) by the mid 90s.
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Feb 27, 2016 05:23
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VectorSigma posted:All this fancy shmancy VoIP and globally accessible packet-switched network bullshit is cool and all but I'll be damned if POTS isn't still in use 50 or more years from now. This is probably more true than you realize. I work in the telephony industry now, and we are STILL hooking up POTS lines for credit card machines and faxes (good lord, faxes in TYOL 2016). The fax is sorta understandable because I think in some cases, a faxed, signed document is binding, where e-sigs and such can be fiddly legally. But CC machines make me crazy, because unless your CC processing machine is ANCIENT, it has an Ethernet port right next to the phone line port, and all you have to do is call your processing company and have them walk you through changing the settings to use internet authentication, and BAM. You just saved your company between $10 and $50 a month on an otherwise useless phone line. AND your authentications go through in like 5 seconds instead of relying on a lovely analog modem to make an ever-more difficult to establish connection to some remote, un-serviced modem port in a locked lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the leopard!" Or something.
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Feb 27, 2016 06:13
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In eastern Canada, TWO provinces use the same area code because the population is that low. Both PEI (Prince Edward Island) and Nova Scotia are in the 902.
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Feb 27, 2016 06:20
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:In eastern Canada, TWO provinces use the same area code because the population is that low. Both PEI (Prince Edward Island) and Nova Scotia are in the 902. Used to include New Brunswick and Newfoundland too! Even more strange, there's a small town in Alaska right on the border with British Columbia, which uses BC area codes for its phone system. I have no idea how they deal with that for international rates.
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Feb 27, 2016 06:53
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Hillary Clintons Thong posted:I've lived in Idaho for about 4 years now, and the whole one area code for the entire state thing blows my mind still. 812 or 317? I don't think there was that much rural in 219 and all the 765 were 317s until maybe the ninties.
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Feb 27, 2016 07:01
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stubblyhead posted:Used to include New Brunswick and Newfoundland too! Even more strange, there's a small town in Alaska right on the border with British Columbia, which uses BC area codes for its phone system. I have no idea how they deal with that for international rates. Haha yeah, Hyder. All its services come through Canada because it's completely isolated otherwise. Hilarious place.
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Feb 27, 2016 07:04
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BgRdMchne posted:812 or 317? I don't think there was that much rural in 219 and all the 765 were 317s until maybe the ninties. I dont remember a lot of the numbers I just remember having to start dialing area code back then. I grew up in western noble county, and suddenly we had to add 219 or 260 and poo poo.
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Feb 27, 2016 07:10
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Data Graham posted:Haha yeah, Hyder. All its services come through Canada because it's completely isolated otherwise. Hilarious place. To be fair pretty much everywhere in the Alaska panhandle is completely isolated. It's not at all unusual for towns out there to be accessible only by boat or plane. gently caress, you can't even drive to the state capital.
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Feb 27, 2016 07:16
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In the late 90s Australia had to add 2 more numbers after the state prefix. That caused a major uproar for businesses that HAD to change their number on all advertising and media. I know my dad was especially pissed off because his nicely pinstriped business artwork on his trucks didn't really work with adding 2 more numbers (circular logo with phone number on the bottom curve - essentially meant that he had to get everything redone). Other companies were lucky and for a few years you would see stickers with xx number pasted to the front of billboards and signs.
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Feb 27, 2016 08:59
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Feb 27, 2016 09:36
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woodch posted:I work in the telephony industry now, and we are STILL hooking up POTS lines Any ISDN? 
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Feb 27, 2016 10:02
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i'm in
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Feb 27, 2016 10:17
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stubblyhead posted:Used to include New Brunswick and Newfoundland too! Even more strange, there's a small town in Alaska right on the border with British Columbia, which uses BC area codes for its phone system. I have no idea how they deal with that for international rates. Wow, had no idea, and I'm from NB! Imagine my initial, 5-minute-confusion when I moved to QC and saw that when you choose your phone number, you could pick from two area codes. That, and you HAVE to dial 10 digits! Wowzers! Going back home to visit, it's really odd to me now to only dial 7. I know this is the Internet tech from yesteryear chat thread, but I think we all can agree that this phone tech chat is some interesting poo poo.
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Feb 27, 2016 14:35
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stubblyhead posted:Used to include New Brunswick and Newfoundland too! How long ago was this? I only ever remember 709. Edit: oh never mind that was over 50 years ago: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_codes_902_and_782 Mak0rz has a new favorite as of 16:39 on Feb 27, 2016 |
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Feb 27, 2016 16:37
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Is this the point of the thread when a bunch of eastern Canadian goons come out of the woodwork? Hope so
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Feb 27, 2016 16:55
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