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06 Dec 05 - 09:28 AM (#1621109) Subject: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: Cool Beans No, not the ultimate aphrodisiac. Sorry. But, listen... Looking something up in an old college textbook I noticed I had written a strange combination of letters and numbers on the inside cover, under my name. This was odd becuase it was many years before home computers. I realized it was my old phone number: a two-letter exchange followed by five digits. Like PEnnsylvania 6-5000, immortalized in the Glen Miller song. If you're around 45 or older, your old home phone number is ingrained in your memory. In the age of ever-changing alpha-numeric computer passwords and logpins, it's a combination you'll never forget. Puts us a step ahead of the young uns, doesn't it? I've already begun using my old phone number as a password at work. When they ask us change it (they do every 6 months) I'll use my best friend's. Then revert 6 months later to my old phone number. Once again, John Henry beats the steam drill. This time he lives to tell about it. |
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06 Dec 05 - 09:53 AM (#1621131) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: mack/misophist Another system I learned from a friend: take a line from a favourite song or poem and make it into an acronym. For even better security, capitalise certain letters or convert them into numbers. |
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06 Dec 05 - 09:54 AM (#1621136) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: JohnInKansas CB - Unfortunately, in most "up to date" organizations where they have real Gestapomeisters in charge of IT, passwords are required to be a minimum of 8 characters (some require 10), and must include both letters and numerals and at least one additional character (not a letter or a numeral). Password change authentication often automatically disallows any of the last 6 to 10 passwords that you've used. (But then the meister forgets to change the default password for the wireless LAN, so ...) But you're right about remembering the old phone numbers better than the more recent ones. I can even remember the combination to my first school locker padlock, from over 50 years ago (but then it's still on the shed out back). John |
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06 Dec 05 - 10:16 AM (#1621161) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: Bill D In this day of multiple passwords for different programs, web sites and email...etc, I finally got a password remembering program...PasswordSafe (yes, there are other good ones, also)....I now only need ONE password to doublecheck that I remember the others. (I actually use a 'personal' pattern on the keyboard that gives a large password, but is easy to type and remember...but would be VERY unlikely to be broken....not that anyone is likely to try! In my Password Safe I keep not only computer passwords, but my safe combination, PIN # for bank, Mudcat registration ...etc... And yes, I remember many, many old numbers from 30 to 55 years ago, including phone numbers, addresses, license plate #s from 1952-1958 on my parents cars and MY first car and, as John says, combination padlocks from school days. (for many years, John, our Wichita phone # was FOrest 33996...an easy one by itself!) |
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07 Dec 05 - 01:07 AM (#1621695) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: Gurney Passwords. I always remember my army pay number, two of my Dad's motorbikes from my childhood (can't remember the car and van that I've owned for the last nine years) and my Mum's and Gran's Co-Op numbers (if you don't know, you are not British.) Any of these can be expanded with initials or birthdates, etc. I do take JohniK's point about IT people, though. I worked in a firm where we were required to change our password weekly. I changed mine very weakly, trying to drive him mad. |
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07 Dec 05 - 01:45 AM (#1621704) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: open mike the phone number i had during those teen years when somehow it was easy to spend hours on the phone was 393-9397 or 39-39-39-7 which rings out a cute little tune as it happens.. |
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07 Dec 05 - 07:01 AM (#1621827) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: Sandra in Sydney I can remember the phone we had 1959-66 (7-14 years) YU 4511 & Dad's old blue 1920's car (Ford??) AAA 500 of the same period. It had running boards & was a tall square topped car & would fill with kids (us & neighbours) on the mornings Dad was able to drive us to school! Strangely enough I can't remember a single phone no. after that, except for a friend's number from the early 80's & the number I've had since 1980 because I still have it. |
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07 Dec 05 - 11:36 AM (#1621997) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: JohnInKansas I do remember that when I was about 6 or 7 y.o. our number was 23743, and the "old lady" who lived about nine houses to the north had 34723. She was probably a very nice old gal, and I was told that she was a retired "children's book writer" but I don't think I ever saw her. It was obvious though that she - and apparently several of her friends - had reached the CRS stage, as I was carefully taught to say - politely and slowly - "I believe the number you want is 34723." We got several calls a week when her friends transposed the numbers, for several years. She even called a few times when she wanted her caretaker to come for her. Now if I could remember my current phone number ... John |
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07 Dec 05 - 12:20 PM (#1622027) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: Bill D John...I suppose you had a party line about then, as we did when the number was only 33996. We had *8* parties briefly, then 4...one of whom we knew was a few houses down, and the type who would listen in. It was interesting! I remember my parents' joy when we got individual, private numbers! (and I even remember in 1947, in New Orleans before the hurricane that drove us TO Wichita, having the number 329-J and having the operator say "number, please" when you picked up the reciever!) |
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07 Dec 05 - 08:01 PM (#1622313) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: JohnInKansas Bill D: Those were "private line" numbers, although at the time you could choose a "party line service." This was, as I recall, not the traditional party line. Lots of nearby rural areas had the normal ones, including the crank phones hanging on the wall (high enough so that the kids had to pull up a chair to stand on to answer one). The last crank phone I knew of came off the wall in about 1956(?). In Wichita, in the 1940s to early 1950s, for really cheap, you could get what they called a "party line service." You got your own number, and only your phone rang when someone called your number; but others on your party-line could hear the conversation if they "happened to pick up the phone." You couldn't make a call if the line was in use, but instead of a busy signal you heard a conversation. They could also hear you if you joined in - as to ask for the line for an emergency. Fairly early in that era an "improvement" gave you a busy signal if the "party line" was in use, and you didn't hear the other people's conversation; but you could only call out when no one else on the party line was using it. There was a "code number" you could dial to notify the ones on the line that you had an emergency and really needed the line, but it never seemed to work. Throughout the entire era, you could pay a little extra and get a "private line." Of course those who still used the party lines would gossip about what a snob you were for doing so, and those with private lines would "justify their need" with all sorts of rationalizations, but I never heard of recourse to weapons in such debates. A "private number" (unlisted) was another matter entirely, and I recall a local small town businessman expressing his thanks when the preacher devoted an entire sermon to explaining that everybody knew the businessman's number and the line was always busy. His new "private number" was to assure that his daughter would be able to get through if she had to call home from school in an emergency. Most of the congregation still thought it was "a bit sinful," but apparently got over it, although he did note a few who quit doing business with him - at least for a while. Services of the later party line configuration were still in use in a few places at least as late as the 1980s, and may still be for all I know in some of the rural 'phone co-op systems. I don't believe service of that kind is available in any of the "big cities" now. John |
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07 Dec 05 - 08:37 PM (#1622332) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: Amos Wow...how do you estimate "sins" brought on by technological advances?? LOL Mayebe we need an additional Testament from sonmewhere... the "Seriously New Testament"... A |
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07 Dec 05 - 09:05 PM (#1622355) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: Bill D wow, John! That's more than I ever knew about it all. I remember picking up the phone and hearing voices, and having to wait..(about 1950-53 or so)...but I never realized as a kid that totally private lines were available...by the time I was ready to wonder, we HAD a private line. I don't even remember debating it with other kids. "It was all so different before everything changed." |
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08 Dec 05 - 12:28 AM (#1622438) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: The Fooles Troupe Crank phone callers are usually off the wall. |
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08 Dec 05 - 12:42 AM (#1622444) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: Neighmond Mine was CEdalia 3-6424. Long, short, long, short. Chaz |
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09 Dec 05 - 12:08 AM (#1623404) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: GUEST,Joe_F When I was a kid in Beverly Hills, CRestview 1-4766. When I was an undergraduate in Pasadena, SYcamore 2-9829. When all-number calling came in, I made up mnemonics based on the numbers of letters in successive words. When I lived on Long Island in the '60s, my home phone was "finemans retreat situated on a tiny estuary". At work, "generally an avid editor is fucked up". --- Joe Fineman joe_f@verizon.net ||: If there were enough doctors, we'd all be sick. :|| |
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09 Dec 05 - 12:26 AM (#1623412) Subject: RE: Tech: The Ultimate Alphanumeric From: JohnInKansas Amos - Wow...how do you estimate "sins" .... Same as always. Anybody "different" is sinful (especially if one is "slightly envious" of the difference). John |