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I'm reminded of this: Among his other activities, Woz collects phone numbers, and his longtime goal has been to acquire a number with seven matching digits

I'm reminded of this: Among his other activities, Woz collects phone numbers, and his longtime goal has been to acquire a number with seven matching digits. But for most of Woz's life there were no Silicon Valley exchanges with three matching digits, so Woz had to be satisfied with numbers like 221-1111. Then, one day, while eavesdropping on cell phone calls, Woz begin hearing a new exchange: 888. And then, after more months of scheming and waiting, he had it: 888-8888. This was his new cell-phone number, and his greatest philonumerical triumph. The number proved unusable. It received more than a hundred wrong numbers a day. Given that the number is virtually impossible to misdial, this traffic was baffling. More strange still, there was never anybody talking on the other end of the line. Just silence. Or, not silence really, but dead air, sometimes with the sound of a television in the background, or somebody talking softly in English or Spanish, or bizarre gurgling noises. Woz listened intently. Then, one day, with the phone pressed to his ear, Woz heard a woman say, at a distance, "Hey, what are you doing with that?" The receiver was snatched up and slammed down. Suddenly, it all made sense: the hundreds of calls, the dead air, the gurgling sounds. Babies. They were picking up the receiver and pressing a button at the bottom of the handset. Again and again. It made a noise: "Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep." The children of America were making their first prank call. And the person who answered the phone was Woz. https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1lduxa/til_steve_wozniak_was_the_first_owner_of_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1lduxa/til_s...

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
For the benefit of people reading this on mobile, here is the text from the above comment without the indentation: Among his other activities, Woz collects phone numbers, and hislongtime goal has been to acquire a number with seven matching digits. But for most of Woz's life there were no Silicon Valley exchanges withthree matching digits, so Woz had to be satisfied with numbers like221-1111. Then, one day, while eavesdropping on cell phone calls, Wozbegin hearing a new exchange: 888. And then, after more months ofscheming and waiting, he had it: 888-8888. This was his new cell-phonenumber, and his greatest philonumerical triumph. The number proved unusable. It received more than a hundred wrongnumbers a day. Given that the number is virtually impossible tomisdial, this traffic was baffling. More strange still, there wasnever anybody talking on the other end of the line. Just silence. Or,not silence really, but dead air, sometimes with the sound of atelevision in the background, or somebody talking softly in English orSpanish, or bizarre gurgling noises. Woz listened intently. Then, one day, with the phone pressed to his ear, Woz heard a womansay, at a distance, "Hey, what are you doing with that?" The receiverwas snatched up and slammed down. Suddenly, it all made sense: thehundreds of calls, the dead air, the gurgling sounds. Babies. Theywere picking up the receiver and pressing a button at the bottom ofthe handset. Again and again. It made a noise: "Beep beep beep beepbeep beep beep." The children of America were making their first prank call. And the person who answered the phone was Woz.
Theodores 9y ago
...and this reminds me of the time I emailed 'Fred' at 'gmail.com'. Actually 'Fred's' email was 'email.fred@gmail.com' however I mis-heard the 'email.' part even after verbally confirming the address as it seemed too concise. So I send expected email, to then get a reply from the real 'fred@gmail.com', this obviously not being my contractor friend. Turns out that this happens all the time - well considered, properly written emails of significance had been arriving in 'Fred's' inbox, each of them having to be politely returned as 'Fred' was ethical that way... There are downsides to 'ideal' email addresses as well as 'ideal' phone numbers.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
  I have an email address that is the.myfirstname.mylastname@popularservice.com I repeatedly emailed myself from my work email address to myfistname.mylastname@popularservice.com - I kept forgetting the "the." at the start of my own email address. I only realised when the owner of the other address politely wrote back asking me to stop doing this. I hadn't noticed because the emails were just autohotkey script backups and xml files containing machine settings for a laser cutter and I wasn't really paying attention as to whether I had received them or not. Anyway, I got tired of trying to spell english-word email address to people over the phone, so I registered a domain and now have an unambiguous email address a364 athingy k45j dotthingy com - it's heaps easier to say and write down and nobody has a similar address because I own the domain.

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago

For the benefit of people reading this on mobile, here is the text from the above comment without the indentation: Among his other activities, Woz collects phone numbers, and hislongtime goal has been to acquire a number with seven matching digits. But for most of Woz's life there were no Silicon Valley exchanges withthree matching digits, so Woz had to be satisfied with numbers like221-1111. Then, one day, while eavesdropping on cell phone calls, Wozbegin hearing a new exchange: 888. And then, after more months ofscheming and waiting, he had it: 888-8888. This was his new cell-phonenumber, and his greatest philonumerical triumph. The number proved unusable. It received more than a hundred wrongnumbers a day. Given that the number is virtually impossible tomisdial, this traffic was baffling. More strange still, there wasnever anybody talking on the other end of the line. Just silence. Or,not silence really, but dead air, sometimes with the sound of atelevision in the background, or somebody talking softly in English orSpanish, or bizarre gurgling noises. Woz listened intently. Then, one day, with the phone pressed to his ear, Woz heard a womansay, at a distance, "Hey, what are you doing with that?" The receiverwas snatched up and slammed down. Suddenly, it all made sense: thehundreds of calls, the dead air, the gurgling sounds. Babies. Theywere picking up the receiver and pressing a button at the bottom ofthe handset. Again and again. It made a noise: "Beep beep beep beepbeep beep beep." The children of America were making their first prank call. And the person who answered the phone was Woz.

Theodores 9y ago

...and this reminds me of the time I emailed 'Fred' at 'gmail.com'. Actually 'Fred's' email was 'email.fred@gmail.com' however I mis-heard the 'email.' part even after verbally confirming the address as it seemed too concise. So I send expected email, to then get a reply from the real 'fred@gmail.com', this obviously not being my contractor friend. Turns out that this happens all the time - well considered, properly written emails of significance had been arriving in 'Fred's' inbox, each of them having to be politely returned as 'Fred' was ethical that way... There are downsides to 'ideal' email addresses as well as 'ideal' phone numbers.

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
I have an email address that is the.myfirstname.mylastname@popularservice.com I repeatedly emailed myself from my work email address to myfistname.mylastname@popularservice.com - I kept forgetting the "the." at the start of my own email address. I only realised when the owner of the other address politely wrote back asking me to stop doing this. I hadn't noticed because the emails were just autohotkey script backups and xml files containing machine settings for a laser cutter and I wasn't really paying attention as to whether I had received them or not. Anyway, I got tired of trying to spell english-word email address to people over the phone, so I registered a domain and now have an unambiguous email address a364 athingy k45j dotthingy com - it's heaps easier to say and write down and nobody has a similar address because I own the domain.