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0. Every internet user has a phone number they can be reached at.
by j2kun 11y ago
0. Every internet user has a phone number they can be reached at.
- guessbest 11y agoYou'd think Programmers would start counting at zero. But seriously, this is more about the limitation of POTS, Plain Old Telephone Systems.
- gaur 11y agoThe bandwidth of POTS is limited to about one decade, from 300 Hz to 3.3 kHz. Often you don't notice the poor quality while using POTS. But if you ever listen to an NPR show where a journalist is calling into the studio over POTS, it's quite jarring how bad it is.
- david-given 11y agoThis is my pet hate. There are too many places which require a phone number and won't take no for an answer. Some of them you can lie to, entering something that's obviously invalid like 0, but others do rigourous validation and simply won't let you enter something that's not a phone number (Google Play is an offender here). I usually end up entering 012345678, but that's actually a valid UK number, and I don't like doing that. But you have to wonder about any online form which requires you to lie to complete...
- jessaustin 11y agoIn North America, I've always used "<valid area code>-555-1212", which is one of the numbers for directory assistance. The area code may be varied based on whatever location seems plausible. Unless the service insists on sending a text or verifying the number with your credit card company (the latter seems less common now than it used to be) there are no problems. I wouldn't worry about "012345678"; if they didn't want that number they'd probably have changed it by now. Maybe they want "867-5309"?
- justincormack 11y agoThere are reserved fictitious phone numbers in most countries you could use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_telephone_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_telephone_number
- david-given 11y agoThe problem with fictitious numbers is that they normally don't look invalid. I don't want to supply them with a contact number which merely doesn't work; I want to supply them with a contact number which is obviously not a real number at a glance. Hence why I use 0 where possible. Ideally I'd prefer them to allow me to leave the number blank, of course.
- jordigh 11y agoMy usual solution here for the most stubborn web forms that won't take no for an answer is to find the contact number of the organisation that is demanding a phone number and I write their own number on the form. If you want to phone someone, try phoning yourself!