Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!elroy!gryphon!vector!telecom-gateway From: roy@phri (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Very strange wrong number Message-ID: Date: 11 Feb 89 18:31:15 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Lines: 52 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 56, message 1 of 7 I just got the most bizarre wrong number I've ever heard of. I'm sitting at home and the phone rings. Somebody asks for Tony Herbert and I tell him he has the wrong number (we get a lot of wrong numbers; NYTel must reassign numbers pretty fast) and ask him what number he's calling. He says he's calling from Holland and is trying to reach 718-636-11238, at which point I tell him he's got too many digits for a US phone number. Apparently he got me because the first 10 digits are indeed mine. He then volunteers that he's trying to reach Tony Herbert from radio station WNYE, who lives at 349 St. John's Place. This is really spooky because I'm at 295 St. John's; 349 must be just a couple of buildings down the street. At any rate, I offer to look up the phone number for him (I'm sure he could have reached international directory assistance for free instead of paying for the call, but he didn't seem to mind). It seems that neither WNYE nor Tony are listed in the book (it turns out that directory assistance has the listing for WNYE, but not for Tony). The guy gives me his name and phone number in Holland and asks me if I would mind delivering a message to Tony (which I agree that I will try to do). We both remark on how strange a coincidence it is that he got a wrong number just a couple hundred yards away from his target trying to place a transatlantic phone call and on how good the line is (no echo at all, very clean, and almost no delay, must have been on the new transatlantic fiber), say goodbye, and hang up. It's not until a couple of minutes later that I realize why the number he had for me/Tony is so strange; with the extra '8' tacked on the end, the last 5 digits become my zip code! Sounds like something out of The Twilight Zone, but it's true. Even I couldn't make up a story this strange. On a totally different topic, I'm looking for a phone which will work well in a noisy environment (i.e. my computer room). It's almost impossible to hear the other party on the line, even if they shout, with a normal phone. Possibly all that has to be done is to attenuate the sidetone; if I put my hand over the mouthpiece when the other party is talking, I can hear them pretty well, but it's a pain, especially when you need one hand to hold the phone, one to cover the mike, and one to type. Adjustable volume would probably help too; even with the sidetone gone, it's still a little hard to hear, but simply cranking up the volume alone won't change the S/N unless you do something about picking up ambient noise. BTW, trying to listen to the phone in a noisy room is one of the few advantages that people who are deaf in one ear (as I am) have over fully-hearing people. How many times have you seen somebody try to hold the phone with one hand, cover the other ear with their second hand, and try to write with their third? :-) -- Roy Smith, System Administrator Public Health Research Institute {allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers}!phri!roy -or- phri!roy@uunet.uu.net "The connector is the network"