Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: roy%phri@uunet.uu.net (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: An Example of Mis-parsing a Phone Number Message-ID: Date: 25 Aug 89 13:24:10 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: Public Health Research Institute, NYC, NY Lines: 23 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 325, message 2 of 10 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"