Telephone numbers

[MultiMillionMiler]

Actually, the total of 36 letters and numbers could be arranged in a perfect square..

[1995hoo]

Can you come up with ideas of USA improvement that actually pertain to your country doing it better?

I'll let you start with modern heavy metal music. Finland kills us in that dept (especially since we have 60x population). Any pointers?

Should use letters.

What does that mean?

It's picking at your desire to use letters for everything because

I like letters as identifiers very greatly.

Shit, nobody tell him about Missouri.

Someone please poke the 'STOP POO" sign guy.

The intersection in that picture is in Wisconsin.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Can you come up with ideas of USA improvement that actually pertain to your country doing it better?

I'll let you start with modern heavy metal music. Finland kills us in that dept (especially since we have 60x population). Any pointers?

Should use letters.

What does that mean?

It's picking at your desire to use letters for everything because

I like letters as identifiers very greatly.

Shit, nobody tell him about Missouri.

Someone please poke the 'STOP POO" sign guy.

The intersection in that picture is in Wisconsin.

Oh, never a doubt. I just think that's the most awesome sign ever.

[kphoger]

What about all-letter telephone numbers?

So... you want telephones to have 36 dialing keys?  26 letters plus 10 numerals?  That sounds like an absolutely terrible idea.

Actually, the total of 36 letters and numbers could be arranged in a perfect square..

That does not make it any less of a terrible idea.

[MultiMillionMiler]

What about all-letter telephone numbers?

So... you want telephones to have 36 dialing keys?  26 letters plus 10 numerals?  That sounds like an absolutely terrible idea.

Actually, the total of 36 letters and numbers could be arranged in a perfect square..

That does not make it any less of a terrible idea.

No I agree, but maybe that format could be a better application to keyboards or something.

[Scott5114]

The fact that nobody really uses Dvorak keyboards despite them being around since 1936 shows that, for most people, QWERTY is good enough.

[hotdogPi]

The fact that nobody really uses Dvorak keyboards despite them being around since 1936 shows that, for most people, QWERTY is good enough.

Nobody can agree on the alt/option modifier keys, though. By default, Apple has support for several accents on vowels, but not consonants (except ç and ñ; ł is doable by holding the key but not through key combination), so Czech is out. No macrons, either. Currency symbols are limited to $£€Â¥. En-dashes and em-dashes are included, as are ± and ≠, but × is not. And why are fi and fl (those are both one character each) included?

Microsoft includes 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 as fractions, but Apple does not.

[Scott5114]

Microsoft includes 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 as fractions, but Apple does not.

⅞

[kkt]

There is obviously no reason to change zip codes.

As to area codes or phone numbers, the goofed up when they started all the overlays and area splits.  They could have just gone to four numbers, adding a zero to all the area codes and then up from there and had an inexhaustible supply.

Zip codes would be nicer with letters.

If they had letters, they'd have to be careful not to assign offensive words to zip codes.

[kkt]

Seems like we've had this type of discussion before.

At one time, you saw phone numbers listed as a word followed by one number, then the dash, then the four-digit number. The landline prefix in my community is 464, so old newspaper ads showed phone numbers as INgersoll4-nnnn.

If you're old enough to remember the big-band song "Pennsylvania 6-5000," or have otherwise heard of it or that phrase, that song is making reference to a phone number.

Originally, the number was PENnsylvania 5000.  New York (until 1930), Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia (prior to 1948) used 3 letter-4 digit numbers before changing to the more common 2 letter-5 digit numbers.  Chicago was the last city to show 2L5N numbers instead of 7 digits in the phone book, ending the practice in the mid '70s, although they are still used in advertising to this day.

In the rest of the country, prior to the 1950s, larger cities (including LA) used 2 letter-4 digit numbers, such as MAin 1234, while smaller cities and towns used 4 or 5 digits if they had dial service.  Rural areas that didn't have dial service had to signal the operator to make a call, either by just picking up the handset or turning the crank if they had really old phones (I saw one of those used in northern Wisconsin as late as 1962, and it worked!) to alert the operator.  Those areas used 3 digit numbers with a letter on the end, such as 123-J, for party lines.

I used phone where you picked up the handset and told the operator the number you wanted in 1982.

[CoreySamson]

There is obviously no reason to change zip codes.

As to area codes or phone numbers, the goofed up when they started all the overlays and area splits.  They could have just gone to four numbers, adding a zero to all the area codes and then up from there and had an inexhaustible supply.

Zip codes would be nicer with letters.

If they had letters, they'd have to be careful not to assign offensive words to zip codes.

And what's not to say that the words they did assign become offensive sometime in the future? Language is always changing, and what is considered a simple derogatory term today could be a highly offensive slur in the future.

[kkt]

That may seem like ancient history to you, but my grandfather had a rotary telephone until the day he moved into a nursing home about twenty years ago.

I have a rotary dial telephone, and it still works, including the central office switch understanding the dial.

[Scott5114]

There is obviously no reason to change zip codes.

As to area codes or phone numbers, the goofed up when they started all the overlays and area splits.  They could have just gone to four numbers, adding a zero to all the area codes and then up from there and had an inexhaustible supply.

Zip codes would be nicer with letters.

If they had letters, they'd have to be careful not to assign offensive words to zip codes.

And what's not to say that the words they did assign become offensive sometime in the future? Language is always changing, and what is considered a simple derogatory term today could be a highly offensive slur in the future.

While it's much less likely to happen, numbers can and do become offensive sometimes too (it's just more awkward because we can't really stop using a number).

[Dirt Roads]

That may seem like ancient history to you, but my grandfather had a rotary telephone until the day he moved into a nursing home about twenty years ago.

I have a rotary dial telephone, and it still works, including the central office switch understanding the dial.

My aunt that worked for Ma Bell still has a rotary dial as an emergency backup (I have one, but it is attached to a four-prong RCA connector block and I would need to cut it off in order to wire it in).  I'm not sure why the telephone companies are still required to support pulse dial, but it is notable that many of the oldest touch-tone phones had a conversion switch that allows the phone to send pulse-dial signals (in the case of a failure on the touch-tone circuit board).  I had an old touch-tone phone that I had to switch over to pulse-dial because one of the button tones failed.

[KeithE4Phx]

There is obviously no reason to change zip codes.

As to area codes or phone numbers, the goofed up when they started all the overlays and area splits.  They could have just gone to four numbers, adding a zero to all the area codes and then up from there and had an inexhaustible supply.

Zip codes would be nicer with letters.

If they had letters, they'd have to be careful not to assign offensive words to zip codes.

And what's not to say that the words they did assign become offensive sometime in the future? Language is always changing, and what is considered a simple derogatory term today could be a highly offensive slur in the future.

While it's much less likely to happen, numbers can and do become offensive sometimes too (it's just more awkward because we can't really stop using a number).

Back in the '80s and '90s, I used to see bumper stickers with the phrase "How's my driving?  Call 1-800-EAT-SHIT."  I have to assume that the cops started cracking down on such language in public, since I haven't seen one this century.

[Scott5114]

Back in the '80s and '90s, I used to see bumper stickers with the phrase "How's my driving?  Call 1-800-EAT-SHIT."  I have to assume that the cops started cracking down on such language in public, since I haven't seen one this century.

Probably just that the company making them quit doing so. There's nothing actually illegal about profanity (courts have ruled the 1st Amendment generally includes the right to say things like "shit").

[hotdogPi]

I've seen at least one of that exact bumper sticker within the last two months.

[kkt]

That may seem like ancient history to you, but my grandfather had a rotary telephone until the day he moved into a nursing home about twenty years ago.

I have a rotary dial telephone, and it still works, including the central office switch understanding the dial.

My aunt that worked for Ma Bell still has a rotary dial as an emergency backup (I have one, but it is attached to a four-prong RCA connector block and I would need to cut it off in order to wire it in).  I'm not sure why the telephone companies are still required to support pulse dial, but it is notable that many of the oldest touch-tone phones had a conversion switch that allows the phone to send pulse-dial signals (in the case of a failure on the touch-tone circuit board).  I had an old touch-tone phone that I had to switch over to pulse-dial because one of the button tones failed.

Back in the day - late 1970s, early 1980s or so - touch tone dialing was an extra cost service.  The phone company (there was Only One) would charge you an extra dollar or something on your bill every month.  Touch tone dialing would only work if you were forking over the loot.  So many older phones had a switch to send pulse dial.

Nevermind that quicker dialing with touch-tone actually saved the phone company money, because the central office switch could read the numbers faster than pulse dial so they didn't need to keep the circuit open as long and didn't need as many circuits...

[Scott5114]

The first phone I had in my room when I was a kid in the early 2000s (a translucent green plastic thing) had a TONE/PULSE switch even at that late date.

[jeffandnicole]

There is obviously no reason to change zip codes.

As to area codes or phone numbers, the goofed up when they started all the overlays and area splits.  They could have just gone to four numbers, adding a zero to all the area codes and then up from there and had an inexhaustible supply.

Zip codes would be nicer with letters.

If they had letters, they'd have to be careful not to assign offensive words to zip codes.

And what's not to say that the words they did assign become offensive sometime in the future? Language is always changing, and what is considered a simple derogatory term today could be a highly offensive slur in the future.

While it's much less likely to happen, numbers can and do become offensive sometimes too (it's just more awkward because we can't really stop using a number).

Back in the '80s and '90s, I used to see bumper stickers with the phrase "How's my driving?  Call 1-800-EAT-SHIT."  I have to assume that the cops started cracking down on such language in public, since I haven't seen one this century.

Quite the opposite actually.  People can put anything and everything on their vehicles, and they're constitutionally protected.  800-EAT-SHIT is tame by today's standards. There's plenty of other profanity people enjoy writing on their vehicles instead.

[Road Hog]

Germany didn't have touch tone dialing as late as the mid-1990s. They had number buttons but it was all pulse. The wild thing was, US phones would hook up and work just fine, just without the touch tone.

[zachary_amaryllis]

That may seem like ancient history to you, but my grandfather had a rotary telephone until the day he moved into a nursing home about twenty years ago.

I have a rotary dial telephone, and it still works, including the central office switch understanding the dial.

My aunt that worked for Ma Bell still has a rotary dial as an emergency backup (I have one, but it is attached to a four-prong RCA connector block and I would need to cut it off in order to wire it in).  I'm not sure why the telephone companies are still required to support pulse dial, but it is notable that many of the oldest touch-tone phones had a conversion switch that allows the phone to send pulse-dial signals (in the case of a failure on the touch-tone circuit board).  I had an old touch-tone phone that I had to switch over to pulse-dial because one of the button tones failed.

Back in the day - late 1970s, early 1980s or so - touch tone dialing was an extra cost service.  The phone company (there was Only One) would charge you an extra dollar or something on your bill every month.  Touch tone dialing would only work if you were forking over the loot.  So many older phones had a switch to send pulse dial.

Nevermind that quicker dialing with touch-tone actually saved the phone company money, because the central office switch could read the numbers faster than pulse dial so they didn't need to keep the circuit open as long and didn't need as many circuits...

Since a pulse phone is effectively picking up and hanging up the line, quickly, is it possible to dial a number by jiggling the switch-hook quickly, or make/breaking the line? seems like that could be useful in an emergency.

Trapped somewhere, and there's just a phone jack. Could you blind-dial 911 or something that way?

[1995hoo]

There is obviously no reason to change zip codes.

As to area codes or phone numbers, the goofed up when they started all the overlays and area splits.  They could have just gone to four numbers, adding a zero to all the area codes and then up from there and had an inexhaustible supply.

Zip codes would be nicer with letters.

If they had letters, they'd have to be careful not to assign offensive words to zip codes.

And what's not to say that the words they did assign become offensive sometime in the future? Language is always changing, and what is considered a simple derogatory term today could be a highly offensive slur in the future.

While it's much less likely to happen, numbers can and do become offensive sometimes too (it's just more awkward because we can't really stop using a number).

As an example of that, Jeopardy doesn't allow players to use certain numbers as wagers on Daily Doubles or in Final Jeopardy. The prohibited amounts are $69 (banned in 2018), $666, $14, $88, and $1488. Apparently the latter three numbers are associated with white supremacists. Wikipedia explains: "The primary slogan in the Fourteen Words is 'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children,' followed by the secondary slogan 'Because the beauty of the White Aryan woman must not perish from the earth.'" Apparently the "8"s in "1488" represent the eighth letter of the alphabet (H), with "HH" standing for "Heil Hitler." Of course, one might validly question whether the average white supremacist is intelligent enough to make it onto Jeopardy in the first place.

Interestingly, $420 is allowed.

[Big John]

Interestingly, $420 is allowed.

And used too frequently on The Price Is Right.

[kkt]

That may seem like ancient history to you, but my grandfather had a rotary telephone until the day he moved into a nursing home about twenty years ago.

I have a rotary dial telephone, and it still works, including the central office switch understanding the dial.

My aunt that worked for Ma Bell still has a rotary dial as an emergency backup (I have one, but it is attached to a four-prong RCA connector block and I would need to cut it off in order to wire it in).  I'm not sure why the telephone companies are still required to support pulse dial, but it is notable that many of the oldest touch-tone phones had a conversion switch that allows the phone to send pulse-dial signals (in the case of a failure on the touch-tone circuit board).  I had an old touch-tone phone that I had to switch over to pulse-dial because one of the button tones failed.

Back in the day - late 1970s, early 1980s or so - touch tone dialing was an extra cost service.  The phone company (there was Only One) would charge you an extra dollar or something on your bill every month.  Touch tone dialing would only work if you were forking over the loot.  So many older phones had a switch to send pulse dial.

Nevermind that quicker dialing with touch-tone actually saved the phone company money, because the central office switch could read the numbers faster than pulse dial so they didn't need to keep the circuit open as long and didn't need as many circuits...

Since a pulse phone is effectively picking up and hanging up the line, quickly, is it possible to dial a number by jiggling the switch-hook quickly, or make/breaking the line? seems like that could be useful in an emergency.

Trapped somewhere, and there's just a phone jack. Could you blind-dial 911 or something that way?

It's possible but it's very sensitive to timing.  Easier to dial a 1 or a 2 than a 9 or a 10.  Getting good at it was a skill very few people bothered to acquire