A Number For Everything 598
jtcampbell writes: "Whilst reading the Times today I found this article about a U.S. government idea to give everyone a unique 'ENUM,' that serves as a universal phone number, email address, and fax number. Quite a cool idea, but will everyone adopt the standard? besides, i thought we left numeric email addresses with compuserve a few years back. And remembering these 11 digit numbers could be fun ..."
Universal SPAM!? (Score:3, Insightful)
Easy to safeguard against this (Score:3, Insightful)
1) No message to be delivered to an ENUM unless it's from another ENUM
2) No interference with existing email addresses - allow these to keep being used
3) Allow ENUM users to set 'privacy policies' on their ENUM, including 'no unsolicited promotional material'. Sending spam to an ENUM in defiance of applicable policies to be a criminal offense.
Re:Easy to safeguard against this (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Easy to safeguard against this (Score:3, Interesting)
So additional legislation in this area is largely unnecessary-- not to mention that I personally agree with it being a free speech issue. It's a hard line to draw. If we make a rule like "your email cannot contain a specific offer to sell something" then spammers will just be creative and use words that get around any sale offers. At some point on the grey scale, you get to where your friend can't send you an email invitation to go out to lunch because that is a commercial activity involving buying stuff.
I put this sort of legislation (anti-spam) in the same category as COPA and the DMCA. Too hard to be Constitutional to even bother with. What we don't need is more complex laws.
We need to educate users on email filtering and get them to realize that replying or even reading obvious spam are bad ideas (and thanks to Outlook all they have to do is open the email to be tagged as having read the email-- and if they click on a link in the email, they are being tracked as though the email were just another webpage). Spam must be useful to spammers because the public is not equipped to make it irrelevant. But, of course, those idiots from "Campus Crusade for Christ" are always on the street corners yelling or passing out their endless stream of tracts despite no result, too-- so maybe it's just one of those things we have to deal with.
Privacy concerns & Legal means of contact (Score:2)
--CTH
It isn't a US govt scheme (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It isn't a US govt scheme (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It isn't a US govt scheme ...bah! (Score:2)
Re:and it aint good! (Score:2, Insightful)
It's already happened... (Score:5, Informative)
Any US Citizens here _not_ have their SSNs memorized? Raise your hands. I didn't really think so. Guess what, to Government, you are a number!
(There was some lip-service given to "restricting use" and "preventing abuse" decades ago, but it's been forgotten for the utility of SSN identifiers.)
Too late!
AFAIK, it's not illegal in the US not to have a SSN: it's just illegal to attend most schools, serve in the military, or work for taxable wages without one.
Of course it's also possible to acquire _more_ numbers - if you're ever arrested, you'll get a case number (if convicted and sentenced to jail or prison, you'll get an inmate number too); if sued in civil court, you'll get a docket number, etc., etc. But those happen if you break the law or piss someone off...
But you have more numbers, even if you're an upstanding gentle citizen: drivers license, credit cards, bank accounts, phone number, cellphone, et al.
Bottom line, I think a case can be made for a UIN (Universal Identification Number), for two reasons: (1) it will simplify so many mundane things, from communications (live and electronic) through public records and commercial transactions, and (2) it will require revising almost all the record keeping systems extant, boosting the economy as a great successor to the Y2K convulsion, a good way to get 250,000+ programmers re-employed!
Re:It's already happened... (Score:2)
Correct. There is NO law that REQUIRES a person to have one.
> it's just illegal to attend most schools, serve in the military, or work for taxable wages without one.
Show me the law where this is illegal.
Re:It's already happened... (Score:2)
Re:It's already happened... (Score:2, Informative)
It's mostly possible: http://www.cjmciver.org/free.shtml [cjmciver.org]
Re:It isn't a US govt scheme (Score:3, Funny)
Since the entire population of Luxembourg is only 35 the devising of such a scheme can hardly have taxed the inventor.
Re:It isn't a US govt scheme (Score:3, Funny)
Thank you for your input, Slashdot user #202465.
Your sentiments have been duly recorded for posterity in comment #2251343.
ENUM, or new SSN? Sure!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
What about identity theft? (Score:3, Interesting)
Speaking of which, I don't think SSNs can be replaced if stolen...maybe if you're in the Witness Protection Program...
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What about identity theft? (Score:5, Funny)
Prof: So, of these fields for the employee database, which would you use as the primary key: SSN, LAST_NAME, FIRST_NAME, or STREET_ADDRESS?
Me: None of the above.
Prof: Oh? The main requirements for a primary key is that the field be unique, and that the field not change. The SSN seems to fit that bill doesn't it?
Me: No, not everyone has a SSN.
Prof: This is an *employee* database. Of course they're all going to have SSNs.
Me: But these are not in anywway guarnteed to be unique or not change.
Prof: Oh, you're just talking silly things. Of course they're not going to change or be unique.
Me: Do YOU trust the government that much?
Prof: Stop being ridiculous.
So, you see... I *was* right!!! Heh.
Re:What about identity theft? (Score:2)
Witness Protection people get new SSNs.
It is commonly believed (and probably true, it makes sense) that No Such Agency and perhaps some of its competitors inside the US government can alter or delete SSNs as well.
That said, if this comes through, I want the ten nines. Barring that, a U-group code.
Hah.
Changing numbers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Changing numbers (Score:2, Funny)
Of course not! This way you can always be spammed, AND Microsoft can always keep track of you!
Re:Changing numbers (Score:2)
change them if you get too many prank phone calls or too much spam
On the other hand, if everyone had a single unique ID number you would be able to easily block prank phone calls and spam.
Ehhh. (Score:2, Insightful)
Kanji is the way to go! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Kanji is the way to go! (Score:4, Funny)
60,000^3 = 216 Trillion combinations.
Chinese people typically have 3-character names. A one-character family name and a two-character first name.
So all we really need to do is give everyone on Earth a unique Chinese name! And since the characters might be hard to remember, you can tattoo it on their foreheads so the won't forget it.
I know Southern Baptists especially will just love this idea!
Re:Kanji is the way to go! (Score:2)
For the 2-character first names, we'll let the Chinese keep their own names and give the nonsense names like "stinky fjord" or "rabbit bowl" to people who don't know the difference.
Think, child! (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, I'm sure you don't remember lots of (up to) 12 digit sequences that already exist, but have no problems remembering things like 'slashdot.org' and 'www.userfriendly.org'. As in the Internet, so with life. If you want to do this right, you'd have some form of "Personal Name System" to act as an equivalent to the "Domain Name System" we already seem to use quite successfully.
And yet another useless golden goose hits the net! (Score:2)
Interesting but what if (Score:2, Insightful)
IPV6 (Score:2, Interesting)
Not such a good idea. (Score:5, Funny)
The problem with that is that it opens you up to two things: abuse and honest mistakes. Both for obvious reasons would be real problems.
Example. The credit agency in Canada seems to think I owe BMW money for a car. That is long gone (when the lease ended, I sold that car and bought a different make). Still, it's well neigh impossible to get that off the record. Now imagine everyone had that info!
And another example. I recently changed medical insuramce companies at work, and that needed an AIDS test. Negative, I am happy to say. But if it had not been: if all these systems had been tied together (as they will be soon, with one number) that information would quite easily have got back to the bank, or the employer, etc.
I think we need to be very careful indeed with systems that make it easier for people bad or good to track us and what we do.
How to avoid the problems of Gattacka (Score:2)
Re:Not such a good idea. (Score:2)
Here it's not quite like that - I'm in Canada, by the way. You cannot get insurance (eg a group plan) without AIDS tests, and you sign a form allowing the release of any of your conversations with your doctor to the insurance company and to your own company. People here are starting to know better than to tell their doctors anything.
Michael
Who is Number One? (Score:3, Funny)
Slave New World (Score:2)
Implant more likely... (Score:2)
Initially, this was to be used for pets, to aid in recovery of lost animals.
At the time, I remember thinking that the next step would be to use them on soldiers, to eliminate the need for dog tags.
Eventually, it would be offered as a way of "Keeping Kids Safe" (tm) from abductors.
Eventually, everyone would be required to have one.
If I remember correctly, the implant was a series of magnetic wafers stacked with their polarity representing a binary code, all sealed in a glass or plastic capsule. Never wears out or needs a power source.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
Re:Slave New World (Score:2)
What we need to do is embed a non degradable surfice into the flesh of every person so that we can get some reliable scans.
Sort the names out first ... (Score:3, Insightful)
The following is a sample of people who might need more than one identity:
- Battered wives hiding from husbands.
- Witness protection programs
- Whistle-Blowers and others wanting to be semi-anomonious
- People having strong gender dysphoria, wishing to have a foot in each gender. [Yes, it's a real condition that has a high suicide rate, because the mind and body don't get along that well.]
So we should consider the identity issues before we start slamming other doors first.What about home addresses??? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've long wished that the postal system would assign everyone a unique number, and if someone wanted to send you something, they'd address it to that number instead of some street address. The mail is already routed by computers, so it'd be easy for those computers to look up that number, correllate it to your current physical address, and send it there.
This would really be helpful if you move a lot. Right now, you have to file a change of address form, which isn't completely reliable, and that only lasts a few months. After that, if someone hasn't been informed of your new address, it'll go to your old address. There's just no excuse for this any more.
Re:What about home addresses??? (Score:2, Interesting)
All of the problems that programmers have with pointers would immediately jump into the real world.
Re:What about home addresses??? (Score:2)
It is extremely unlikely that there will be a duplicate house number within a 9-digit zip code, which usually narrows the area down to a street or neighborhood. So you simply put the house number and the 9-digit zip, resulting in a complete address which looks like 4871 13068-4310. (I just made this up. I seriously doubt this is someone's real address.)
However, postal addresses in the usual form have lots of redundancy built in (especially using the name). In the purely numeric form, if you get one digit wrong, the mail is definitely not going to get to its intended destination.
Were talkin' the Post Office here. Not ... (Score:2)
I'm mobile and its my responsibility to pick up my mail and amswer my phone. Its not the phone company's, or the bank's, or my 401k's or the government's hassle where I am, just as long as they can get in touch with me.
You want to move around, go ahead and move around but leave a stable point of reference and you'll have no problems with anybody.
Re:Were talkin' the Post Office here. Not ... (Score:2)
You've moved three times in five years. You're mobile?
I'm guessing you're still in the same city, since you've kept the same PO box and area code.
In the past five years, I've moved 11 times (12 times if you count the move I made right about this time five years ago) between 8 different addresses. Plus there was the month I spent travelling a couple years back.
Those 8 addresses include cities on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
I know exactly what Canada Post's change of address forms look like. Up here, we get six months of mail forwarding to the new address. It's usually been good enough.
I have kept the same email addresses (well most of them). I have of course added a few.
I don't have a cellphone. My last three moves have all been within Ontario so the fact that I've changed area codes each time hasn't mattered: Bell happily forwards my phone calls. I used mass emails and icqs for most of my other phone number changes.
As for jobs, I've held a total of three during this time as well. wow, I'm getting old. the year before, I was knocking back four at once at one point. must be slowing down. :)
You're not mobile, buddy. You're just a guy who moves every so often.
Re:What about home addresses??? (Score:2)
Social Security Numbers and the Real Problem (Score:2)
I've memorized my social security number, and I don't even use it on a regular (everyday/week) basis. The numbers are not the problem.
The real problem is the fact that every right to privacy group would scream bloody murder. Have you seen people's reactions to what they did at the Super Bowl last year? The cameras that find felons in the crowd? I didn't care about that, I mean, finding felons isn't a bad thing.
However, this makes me a little apprehensive. Ever read 1984 by Orwell? This calls that to mind. With everything being wireless now it would be easy for the government (the NSA already monitors practically every electronic signal in the world) to know that:
Number 12345678901: Cellular phone call from 8th and Maple. Withdrew $50 from ATM on corner of 9th and Maple.
Etc.
I'm sure extremist are already envisioning numbers tatooed on people's foreheads. I don't think that would happen, but if this number became the only means of ID I would move to Ireland. (Dual citizenships are cool).
Hrrm.... (Score:2)
I am not a number! (Score:2)
I can't imagine an easier way to welcome in a brave new world of tyranny and oppression than this.
Here at the First Federated National Bank, you're not just a number. You're four numbers, a dash, three letters, four more numbers...
Revelations 13:16 - 18 (Score:5, Interesting)
17: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18: Here is wisdom, Let him that have understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (666)
Someone was going to post this eventually.
There goes all my karma
Re:Revelations 13:16 - 18 (Score:3, Insightful)
True enough.
Although this goes back to the ancient paranoia of big government of any kind. although originally this was ancient Rome.
There is a large community of people who are always going to oppose things like this just for this specific reason.
Think of what MS could do with this sort of Government Standard, for example.
It all does come down to a matter of trust. and sadly, the number of people and organizations that we normally can trust implicity with this sort of thing are tragically few.
Until then, this sort of thing is probably a bad idea. Just because of the problem of trust, and the few bad apples.
- - -
Radio Free Nation [radiofreenation.com]
If You have the Story, We have the Soap Box
666. Whose Number Is It Anyway? (Score:2)
Ok. Just for fun. There are two individuals mentioned in that passage:
Individual #1. He that has understanding and is to count the number of the beast.
Individual #2. The beast.
Now which one of those two individuals is the last sentence refering to? Note that the reader is apparently warned from the beginning that it takes wisdom to understand the sentence. Maybe everybody is wrong about the number of the beast. Which would make sense considering that the book of revelation claims that almost everybody is deceived by the beast.
If you believe in this stuff about 666 being the number of the beast, why do you think that you are not one of the deceived ones? And if the number is given to you, why would the author of the passage ask you to calculate it? Just a thought. Move along now.
Re:666. Whose Number Is It Anyway? (Score:2)
Just for *more* fun, here is the same passage from the Vulgate Bible. (I know it's not the original, but I understand the King James is mainly translated from the Vulgate.) Maybe this will help clarify whom is being referred to:
16. et faciet omnes pusillos et magnos et divites et pauperes et liberos et servos habere caracter in dextera manu aut in frontibus suis
17. et ne quis possit emere aut vendere nisi qui habet caracter nomen bestiae aut numerum nominis eius
18. hic sapientia est qui habet intellectum conputet numerum bestiae numerus enim hominis est et numerus eius est sescenti sexaginta sex
It seems to me that "sescenti sexaginta sex" refers to the beast here.
Punctuation Marks? (Score:2)
It seems to me that "sescenti sexaginta sex" refers to the beast here.
The question is, who does "et numerus eius" refer to? And what happened to the original punctuation marks? I am pretty sure there were punctuation marks in the original Greek.
Re:Punctuation Marks? (Score:2)
No. AFAIK, the book of Revelations was written in Greek on the island of Patmos.
23.5 (Score:2)
Every Thing Is Fire!
Re:666. Whose Number Is It Anyway? (Score:2)
The original (or, as close to the original as i have available, if you're of that line of htinking) Greek is clear that the number being calculated is associated with the calculatee, not the calculator. you're just used to english, which is a shitty language for this sort of thing, if i may say so. =)
Warning: bad romanization below, missing accents, with breathings:
`Wde `n sophia estiv. `o exwv vouv psnphisatw tov 'apithmov tou phnpiou, 'arithmos yar 'avthrwpou 'estiv, kai `o 'arithmos 'autou "`exakosioi `exnkovta `ex".
"Here is wisdom. The one having understanding, let him calculate the number(-ou) of the beast, for it(-ou) is the number of a man, and the it(-ou) is six hundred sixty six."
and you calculate someone's number by doing magic number games with the letters of their name (i think it's a holdover from the whole letters-as-numbers thing in hebrew, but i really don't know. it's been a long time since we covered revelation in sunday school... keep in mind i haven't been to church in 3 or 4 years now)
things i thought i would never post to
Re:666. Whose Number Is It Anyway? (Score:2)
Thanks for that informative post. If I understand what you wrote correctly, the part translated "and his number is..." in English should have been "and it is..."
Re:Revelations 13:16 - 18 (Score:2)
John the revelator is showing how the word beast is equivalent to the number 666. If 7 is the perfect number, then 6 falls short of perfection, and repeating something three times obviously would be a way to add emphasis.
But did you notice? (Score:2)
The name of the contributor of the original article?
Damian Whitworth
That's right. DAMIAN
*Now* I've got the heebie-jeebies...
Jim in Tokyo
Re:Revelations 13:16 - 18 (Score:4, Offtopic)
Approximate number of the Beast
DCLXVI
Roman numeral of the Beast
666.0000
Number of the High Precision Beast
0.666
Number of the Millibeast
/ 666
Beast Common Denominator
(-666) ^ (1/2)
Imaginary number of the Beast
6.66 e3
Floating point Beast
1010011010
Binary of the Beast
6, uh... what was that number again?
Number of the Blonde Beast
1-666
Area code of the Beast
00666
Zip code of the Beast
666mph
The speed limit of the Beast
$665.95
Retail price of the Beast
$699.25
Price of the Beast plus 5% state sales tax
$769.95
Price of the Beast with all accessories and replacement soul
$656.66
Walmart price of the Beast
$646.66
Next week's Walmart price of the Beast
Phillips 666
Gasoline of the Beast
Route 666
Way of the Beast
666 F
Oven temperature for roast Beast
666k
Retirement plan of the Beast
666 mg
Recommended Minimum Daily Requirement of Beast
6.66 %
5 year CD interest rate at First Beast of Hell National Bank, $666 minimum deposit.
$666/hr
Beast's lawyer's billing rate
Lotus 6-6-6
Spreadsheet of the Beast
Word 6.66
Word Processor of the Beast
i66686
CPU of the Beast
666i
BMW of the Beast
DSM-666 (revised)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Beast
1232 Octal, Apt. 29A
Beast's hexed address
668
Next-door neighbor of the Beast
333
The semi-Christ
665.9997856
The Number of the Beast on a Pentium
Due credit [geocities.com].
Re:Revelations 13:16 - 18 (Score:2)
That is English, my friend. Is English not your first language, or did you skip high school?
Re:Revelations 13:16 - 18 (Score:2)
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
For there is no power but of God: the powers that
be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore
resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of
God: and they that resist shall receive to
themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror
to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then
not be afraid of the power? do that which is
good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For
he is the minister of God to thee for good.
Even Satin can quote scripture to his own ends. (paraphraseing The Bard)
Re:satan@isonfire.com (Score:2)
Re:Revelations 13:16 - 18 (Score:5, Funny)
When I worked at Packard Bell tech support, my friend got a call from a woman who was distraught that her AUTOEXEC.BAT file was exactly 666 kilobytes. My friend had her edit the file and add
REM SATAN I CAST THEE OUT
to the end of the file. Did a DIR and checked the filesize -- 682k (or something like that.) Problem solved. The woman said "thank you" and hung up.
How about universal number portability? (Score:2)
For example, I've had a cell phone with SprintPCS for several years. Most everybody I know or do business with calls me on my Sprint number.
So if I want to switch to Verizon or Nextel or Cingular or Voicestream I lose my number. Plus, the cell phone is not listed in the phone book so people I don't talk to often will have trouble getting a hold of me.
Being able to xfer your number across company boundaries, even if it cost more money would be a worthwhile thing.
DNS link? (Score:2)
Nameber - Ira Levin's This Perfect Day (Score:2)
In Ira Levin's sci-fi novel, This Perfect Day, everyone was genetically homogenized, and was known by a nameber . They hailed a government run by Uni, a massive computer.
- "Listen, Li RM35M26J449988WXYZ," Papa Jan said. "Listen. I'm going to tell you something fantastic, incredible. In my day--are you listening?--in my day there were
- over twenty different names for boys alone! Would you believe it? Love of Family, it's the truth. There was 'Jan,' and 'John,' and 'Amu,' and 'Lev.' 'Higa,' and 'Mike'! 'Tonio'! And in my father's time there were even more, maybe forty or fifty! Isn't that ridiculous? All those different names when members themselves are exactly the same and interchangeable? Isn't that the silliest thing you ever heard of?"
Thank you. No, Thank Uni. A pretty decent "hero rebels against the system" kind of story, worth the read. Written in 1969.And Chip nodded, confused, feeling that Papa Jan meant the opposite, that somehow it wasn't silly and ridiculous to have forty or fifty different names for boys alone.
"Look at them!" Papa Jan said, taking Chip's hand and walking on with him--through Unity Park to the Wei's Birthday parade. "Exactly the same! Isn't it marvelous? Hair the same; boys, girls, all the same. Like peas in a pod. Isn't it fine? Isn't it top speed?"
Re:Nameber - Ira Levin's This Perfect Day (Score:2)
Weird.
My Mother... (Score:3, Insightful)
Sigh.
Multiple Identities (Score:3, Insightful)
I also have a cell phone, and I'm very careful with whom I give that number. There are some people that I absolutely want to have it; there are other people that, under no circumstances, would I want them to have it. It's the same at work. I give some people my direct desk extension, and I send some people through the secretary. Having a universal access number like that could cause no end of grief for people, and eliminate one of the great ways of escaping contact when that's necessary.
Also, IIRC (and I'm sorry, but I don't feel like checking this out), I thought that originally it was illegal to use a SSN to track anything other than Social Security. Of course, people use it for everything now, but I'm not so sure that's a good idea.
My $.02
Re:Multiple Identities (Score:2)
- You must present it when required by approved government organizations.
- You may refuse to reveal your SSN to any business or institution which is not an approved government organization (w/ a few exceptions for those that will do direct transactions with approved gov. organization on your behalf; e.g. tax reporting, Medicare).
- Any business may, without penalty, decline to provide service to individuals who do not reveal their SSN.
As you might imagine this leads to some fantastic catch-22's where one gets to decide between secrecy or getting served. For instance to the best of my knowledge all credit card companies require SSNs in order to recieve a card.The basic issue is that SSNs make a fantastic unique identifier in databases and thus everyone wants to use them that way, since they won't be duplicated by any other US citizen. I can only guess that this time around they figure unique identifiers are so useful that they aren't even making the pretense of limiting their use.
Read the RFC, See the Movie... (Score:2, Informative)
For people who like facts with their uninformed speculation.
We doan' need no stinkin' DNS... 216.211.192.203 (Score:2)
Then again, it could just be a made up number. But you won't care either way. You'll be too busy "moo"ing for me.
How about just using my fuckin' finger-prints? (And the differences in skin temperature between the different parts of the print?)
Security based on what can be counterfeited is no security at all. Base it on something existential and you might have a chance.
Who's the fuckin' imbecile of a post-pubescent, pre-menopausal, unpreoccupied, '4F', tea-totaling bitch who came up with that shit.
I know people who can't remember if its their third or fourth martini. A four didit PIN number at the ATM dictates whether they buy or bum another round.
11 digits... Yeah right.
This already exists (Score:3, Troll)
In the UK, we can already get "personal numbers" which you can have redirected to wherever you are. There's no reason why companies in other countries can't do the same thing.
That gives you all the benefits of unique personal numbering without many of the SSN/Big Brother/Brave New World/buzzword-X privacy concerns.
Gerv
Imagine the spam! (Score:2)
IPs get this treatment regularly (think portscans) but an IP is just a gateway to services, not actual communication.
This sort of numbering is a Bad Thing, even beyond the obvious Mark of the Beast problems.
Re:Imagine the spam! (Score:2)
Pick a really large domain of potential numbers and then assign them randomly. There are ~6 billion people, so use 16 or 20 digit numbers so only one number in a million or 10 billion is actually active. Alternatively 8 random english characters is enough for 6 billion people, so use 12 character sequences and you are pretty safe from someone randomly hitting one.
Of course this is security be obsurcity which has only limited value when it's your only line of defense, and you pay for it with increasingly more complicated things to remember.
Re:Imagine the spam! (Score:2)
If you want to spam people, you can just send to consecutive numbers- you're guaranteed a hit.
This is worth it to me for the convenience of being able to set up allow lists for my friends without worrying about my friends switching from AOL to erols. Right now that's the biggest thing stopping me from putting unsolicited email into the big "probably spam" folder.
666@everybody.us (Score:2)
Anyone else suspect maybe this is just a big scheme to use the .us TLD for something besides low-rent local government Web sites? I bet the Postal Service is connected to this idea somehow, if it's for real.
What is wrong with authors... (Score:2)
From the article...
Just say, 100 Billion combinations...
And in the second part of the paragraph... if each country uses it's own area codes, it would decrease, not increase the combinations...
The Prisoner (Score:2, Funny)
Number Two: "In the Village."
Prisoner: "Who are you?"
Number Two: "The new Number Two."
Prisoner: "Who is Number One?"
Number Two: "You are."
Prisoner: "What do you want?"
Number Two: "Information."
Prisoner: "Well, you won't get it!"
Number Two: "By hook or by crook, we will."
Prisoner: "I am not a number, I am a free man."
Number Two: (laughs)
Someone had to post it. I figure since I used to actually watch "The Prisoner" it's not entirely out of line. First it starts with the "Dr. Who". Next think you know you're watching "The Prisoner" and "The Avengers". That damn anglophilic PBS.
This will simplify spam programs (Score:2, Redundant)
{ send_spam(n,text); }
I reserve my number: (Score:2)
Re:I reserve my number: (Score:2)
numbers vs words (Score:2)
The one thing, and people have mentioned this higher up, is preventing spam. My suggestion would be to require you to "authorize" other users to contact you. Once we all have PDAs this might be practical. You could also have a "request" sort of thing, like ICQ has...but then you would likely get inundated with "Request for authorization from: teensex00124134 free teen sex at www.teensex.com" sort of authorization messages. maybe if the requests would only show the number&name of the person/organization, rather than a spammable text message...
An old "Peanuts" comic strip (Score:2, Funny)
I remember reading an old Peanuts comic strip (bless Charles Schulz's memory), where Charlie Brown and Lucy meet a kid whose name is '5'. He explains that his parents gave him and his sisters ('3' and '4') names as numbers as a protest of sorts. Then Charlie Brown muses that what if everyone had numbers for names, and thinks that he'd have 3.1416 as his name...
Just a silly thought...looks like your government is insisting that everyone have numbers for names. :)
more detailed articles (Score:2)
There's a lot of detailed technical info here [cconvergence.com].
Re: (Score:2)
McCarthy-ism/Christianity/Russians/numeric ID (Score:2, Insightful)
Over and over again we are conditioned to believe that our government has our best interests in mind, and only wants to improve our convenience with ID systems, all the while gathering enormous amounts of data that is continuously generated and offered by the citizens of this nation, so they can better plan our cities, etc. But truth be known -- take a look back at RedWitchHunt days of our nation, and genetic purification -- all ID data usually does is allow someone to have a bit of data over on someone else. I know several Russians who were unfortunate to be here during those sad times. Their SSN numbers and linked nationality data were in fact used against them. You say it won't happen again? Whatever... say, I have some land down in Florida I'd like to sell ya... you are just the idi...errr... customer for this special land I have been looking for!
I guess as with all such schemes that deal with the ID of the average citizen, we have once again gotten comfortable with all the easy things that a hash function applied to database key can bring (be it hashed alphabetically on paper, molten silicon switches (tubes), or silicon die with metal on top). Government now believes we are ready to be ID'd with precision, and then additionally, easily located. What happens then when the wrong people get this data, sort of like McCarthy-ism? They know with absolute precision who you are, where you live, and all they have to do is key you into the global routing system (PING) and wham, they can drive the paddy wagon right to your door for easy, no-muss pickup. Say what you want about the wonders about ID technology, nothing about it turns me on. DNA is good enough, after all, the cops are not supposed to have easy jobs. They don't need to find me unless I performed a "crime against humanity" anyway.
So whatever.... if you want someone to know your every thought and move, then fine. Oh, I forgot, this is Richard Stallman's harem. You wouldn't understand, that just as with gun control, the very people who would be best ID'd and tracked are the very ones who will be the ones that stay under (or over) the system. When average people will figure this out instead of mewling in line for the latest public safety/super-duper-consumer convenience fad, then perhaps we will have a truly safe society where the line in the sand over privacy will be clearly drawn.
Additionally, I remember one poster endorsing the idea that a ID system that eliminated privacy would be the great equalizer. You, my son, are no more brilliant than the doorstop my cat knaws on nightly. There will always be those outside of the system, and anyone outside of the system and not subject to its laws, can dominate/play said system ot their sole advantage. Start using your brain, and quit thinking like a socialist. Any communal equalization system will end in failure. It always does, always will. I'm not sure what the blissful fascination with socialism is.... yeah, it looks good on paper, just like a dot com, but it sucks in real life.
I am now wearing a fire suit, and the halon is near. Bring it on!
Good-day to you,
TurboD
Wasn't this already tried? Q number or whatever? (Score:2)
Univerisal access to me is not a right for anyone. I prefer to have different channels of access through different means and paths as a method for me to filter out the folks I probably don't want to talk to versus the people that I'm more likely going to want to talk to.
The only thing this would do is make it easier to marketers to peddle crap to us. *grin*
Forget primary key 11-digit numbers. Look here (Score:2)
For example, if my # was 1111-111-1111 I could take the unique ID 000000002-1111-111-1111, run it through this institutions encryption to create a scrambled, but unique, id (this has problems. There would only be one key in this system, and if it was comprimised, though it's only ever used by the intitution, then that would be a problem. It wouldn't even have to be a key, it could just be a relational table, but data compromising issues would still exist). I could give this ID out (at a bar, to an employer, whatever) and when the person used it, by phone, email, fax, whatever, it would get processed by the institution, decrypted, and would reveal the ID and the 'serial number'.
the benefit of this system is the person you give the card to has no way of knowing what your ID is, as it never appears in plaintext, and if you're tired of hearing from that person (or that # ends up on a spam list) you can simply refuse the serial number 000000002. They don't know what 20-digit number would decrypt to 000000003-1111-111-1111, so you're safe.
I could see business cards (and personal cards) with two parts, you detach it when you give it to someone and write the name of who you gave it to on the part you keep. that part has the serial number (000000002) on it so you can trace how someone 'got your number'.
ENUMs as relational pointers (Score:2)
ENUMs will be aliases for other services (like e-mail, telephone services, etc.). Each service will require a type of authentication before it can get into the wrong hands. It's just basically a convience measure. Instead of giving all your info to the phone company to get service, you just give them your ENUM, they get your info with a public key issued for phone company service providers. So they have access only to that info which is required under those specific aliases.
If you think of an ENUM as a kind of relational ID in a database for all services, accounts, etc. you have, and only specific people having keys to access that information referenced to by your ENUM, you'll get the idea. So when you give an average citizen your ENUM, you can choose to enable them to have your phone number, etc. if you want. Or you can give them a NULL ENUM, which basically would serve as a number to track you in case you, say, pass a bad check (and would offer no information initially).
Re:ENUMs as relational pointers (Score:2)
Oh, so only large corporations will be able to abuse it. That's cool.
Why stop at people? (Score:2)
Won't have to remember it... (Score:2)
burris
(blah blah Goodwin's Rule blah blah)
Does anyone else find this dehumanizing? (Score:2)
We're not nameless and faceless; we're not a piece of data, even if we're represented by one in a database. But I think this will tip us just that much further to thinking of each other as somehow less than we are.
Re:ICQ (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:ICQ (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:SS number (Score:2)
Re:This will never happen. (Score:2)
(sarcasm off)
Really, I don't know which is more stupid: pimply teenage geek morons posting their ignorant drivel on Slashdot, or the morons who mod them as "insightful"!
Well, all the things that you mention would come to pass within weeks if it weren't for the "pimply teenage geek morons" and other good people who work to keep the government relatively free from the grips of you underappreciated, misunderstood, uninfluential, unassuming, nonjudgemental, just-minding-your-own-business, not-into-witch-hunts-anymore folks.
Re:Cool Idea??? NOT. (Score:2)