Interesting remark..

 ac> On Thu 2010-03-04 20:29, Mvan Le (3:800/432) wrote to Andrew Clarke:

 ac>> Apparently 555-1212 is Directory Assistance in the US and Canada.

 ML> Ah I see. I suppose that should be rejected back in the day when
 ML> people actually took phone numbers seriously. These days nobody
 ML> cares :) 

 ac> I don't think anybody really cared much back then either :)

I think if you look you will find that to this day there are a series of
telephone numbers here in the USA which are in the 555-#### area which are
still forbidden to be used for assignment to any person!  The reason is
that they are 'reserved' for use in the motion picture industry for use in
movies so that people who try to call them cannot reach anything.

Actually, the entire QNODE declaraton and setup file for putting together a
very carefully chosen acceptable outbound call number matrix is still quite
important to me and I suspect many other people who still support phone
dial line BBS operations.  Yes, it is true that things have moved largely
to 'unlimited' long distance and even local area charge for phone service. 
But not everywhere and for everyone,especially for those who must use POTS
lines for BBS support.  It is still important to be able to segregate
operations so that only phone numbers one wants the system to be able to
dial are actually dialable. That to still guard against run-away cost
issues.  Where you are actually still charged for every outbound call you
make on a per second connection even to a number you are trying to call
that doesn't even answer the phone!

I know.  For sure.  The LD service I must use here actually DOES bill me
for each call to a number outbound even if I don't connect for a minimum of
one minute even if that number still just rings and doesn't answer. And
they will not change this issue.


--> Sleep well; OS/2's still awake! ;)

Mike {at} 1:117/3001

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