Comment On For a Good Time, Call...

How do you know it was the developer's own home phone number? More likely someone who'd screwed him over, surely.

Sure you didn't just anonymize the local "good times" girls out of some extra income?
Josh's colleague put the number in ther because they promised him a hefty rebate for the extra phone calls.

867-5309
...which is apparently for sale on e-bay right now. Top bid's $1000

is the masking for emphasis or intended to be functional, because it only achieves one of those - barely.

212-555-1212 is the phone number listed in the code. You could have been more creative and gone with something like 567-8309. I wonder what that Irish's Girls number is?

I don't know much about american phone numbers, being english and all, but there seem to be an aweful lot of people with that number - http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=214-555-1212&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

Is it just a dummy phone number a bit like http://example.com ?

Well, I guess your masking isn't working as expected!!
lol

Schmigz:

212-555-1212 is the phone number listed in the code. You could have been more creative and gone with something like 567-8309. I wonder what that Irish's Girls number is?

She's number one in my book. :)

It's a National Directory Assistance number, fools.

@dave: NNN-555-1212 is directory enquiries for the area code NNN.

6060842 (and I'm waitin' for you...)

Bob:

It's a National Directory Assistance number, fools.

So now we know where the developer lives and works!

dave:

I don't know much about american phone numbers, being english and all, but there seem to be an aweful lot of people with that number - http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=214-555-1212&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

Is it just a dummy phone number a bit like http://example.com ?

555-1212 is the phone number for information (find a phone number). It's keyed by area code, so 214-555-1212 is info for area code 214.

Other than that, 555-xxxx is nonsense, as there are NO other valid phone numbers in these US of A that have an exchange of 555. (feel free to correct me if I have that wrong, but I'm pretty sure.)

jimlangrunner:

Other than that, 555-xxxx is nonsense, as there are NO other valid phone numbers in these US of A that have an exchange of 555. (feel free to correct me if I have that wrong, but I'm pretty sure.)

WHAT?! All those movies lied to us?! My world... crumbling!

214. It's a Texas number, from near Dallas. Does that tell us anything more about him?

The real wtf: trying to hide text like this:

<span style="background-color: #000">555</span>-<span style="background-color: #000">1212</span>

his mother is also his sister?

span:

The real wtf: trying to hide text like this:

<span style="background-color: #000">555</span>-<span style="background-color: #000">1212</span>

No, the WTF is that you don't get the joke ;)

jimlangrunner:

555-1212 is the phone number for information (find a phone number). It's keyed by area code, so 214-555-1212 is info for area code 214.

That makes some sense: If no number is given, call the information service

...is not providing a proper bloody constructor for PhoneNumber! Gaaah! Sometimes it seems I spend all my time trying to bang this into people's heads.

dave:

I don't know much about american phone numbers, being english and all, but there seem to be an aweful lot of people with that number - http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=214-555-1212&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

Is it just a dummy phone number a bit like http://example.com ?

555-1212 is the number for information (shortcut == 411)

Edit: nuts - I knew I should have read all the way through the comments before posting :(

What happened to the forums?

jimlangrunner:

Other than that, 555-xxxx is nonsense, as there are NO other valid phone numbers in these US of A that have an exchange of 555. (feel free to correct me if I have that wrong, but I'm pretty sure.)

Actually, there is nothing legally or technically that prevents the phone companies from giving out numbers in the 555 exchange. However, by common agreement, most will not.

Furthermore, by later common agreements, the movie industry will only use numbers of this form: 555-1XXX. As such, in some area codes, phone companies are using the 555 exchange with a 4 digit code not starting with 1.

In addition, some area codes just plain don't care and will assign a 555 number. In those areas, phone customers must take it upon themselves to ask for a new number outside the 555 exchange.

so you should be able to do

if ( homePhone == null )

{

    setHomePhone( new PhoneNumber( "214-555-1212" ) );

}

right?

NANPA says 555-0100 through 555-0199 are the only reserved numbers for fiction. The 555 prefix is for information services and almost all 555 numbers have been reserved even though few U.S. phone companies are supporting their use at this time.

Vollhorst:

jimlangrunner:

Other than that, 555-xxxx is nonsense, as there are NO other valid phone numbers in these US of A that have an exchange of 555. (feel free to correct me if I have that wrong, but I'm pretty sure.)

WHAT?! All those movies lied to us?! My world... crumbling!

That's exactly why the movies use 555 numbers. People WILL call numbers given in fictional media, as the 'Jenny' song proved.

Anonymous Coward:

so you should be able to do

if ( homePhone == null )

{

    setHomePhone( new PhoneNumber( "214-555-1212" ) );

}

right?

Or:

if ( homePhone == null )

{

    setHomePhone( "214-555-1212" );

}

FFS

Anonymous Coward:

so you should be able to do

if ( homePhone == null )

{

    setHomePhone( new PhoneNumber( "214-555-1212" ) );

}

right?

That's still iffy. If you insist on using getFoo/setFoo for everything then you should use those methods consistently.

if ( getHomePhone() == null )

{

    setHomePhone( new PhoneNumber( "214-555-1212" ) );

}

Although really it would be better to have

public PhoneNumber getHomePhone()

{

    if ( homePhone == null ) return defaultHomePhone;

    return homePhone;

}

Feel free to use ternary operators if you prefer.

span:

The real wtf: trying to hide text like this:

<span style="background-color: #000">555</span>-<span style="background-color: #000">1212</span>

I was wondering how you guys got the number.

214-555-1212 Hello? Bingo.

viceroy:

Actually, there is nothing legally or technically that prevents the phone companies from giving out numbers in the 555 exchange. However, by common agreement, most will not.

Valid US area codes are all three-digit combinations XYZ
except X == 0
except X == 1
except Y == Z
except Y == 9
except X == 3 AND Y == 7
except X == 9 AND Y == 6
http://www.nanpa.com/area_codes/index.html

just highlight the text and it gives you the number....

here it is - took a while to try'em all...

homePhone.setNumber( "214-555-1212" );

But hasn't anybody noticed, with all these NANPA references, what NANPA stands for? It's the North American Numbering Plan Administration! We North Americans have to stand up for ourselves! I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, numbered, injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected or selected! I am not a number, I am a free, or at least reasonably priced, man, man!

Next thing ya know, they'll tell us to zip it, zip it good....

I can't decide whether the real WTF is that he had HTML tags in his phone number or that Jake forgot to escape them in the article.

DaveAronson:

But hasn't anybody noticed, with all these NANPA references, what NANPA stands for? It's the North American Numbering Plan Administration! We North Americans have to stand up for ourselves! I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, numbered, injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected or selected! I am not a number, I am a free, or at least reasonably priced, man, man!

Next thing ya know, they'll tell us to zip it, zip it good....

Now THAT was funny! *digs out devo music*

dpm:

viceroy:

Actually, there is nothing legally or technically that prevents the phone companies from giving out numbers in the 555 exchange. However, by common agreement, most will not.

Valid US area codes are all three-digit combinations XYZ
except X == 0
except X == 1
except Y == Z
except Y == 9
except X == 3 AND Y == 7
except X == 9 AND Y == 6
http://www.nanpa.com/area_codes/index.html

Umm... exchange != area code

STOP CALLING ME ALREADY!!!

Schmigz:

I wonder what that Irish's Girls number is?

I don't remember offhand. I just have her as #1 in my speed dial.

halcyon1234:

Why didn't you also censor out the area code? You just opened this developer up to some serious phone calls. The entire keyspace is at most 10,000,000 entries. We can hack that in seconds and spend the rest of our time doing nothing but calling him over and over, all because his phone number appeared ON THE INTERNET!

214-000-0000 Hello? Nope
214-000-0001 Hello? Nope.

Actually, the keyspace is reduced... there are no 0** or 1** exchanges in the 214 area code, and you can eliminate the exchanges 211, 311, 411, 511, 555, 610, 611, 711, 811, 911, 936, 945, and 990, and probably a few others. Check http://www.directory-assistance.net/npanxx/214.html for the full list.

It's the number for local information. I don't need to read the comments because I'm pretty sure I'm the first person in the world to be able to figure this out and post this comment. Oh wait...

dpm:

viceroy:

Actually, there is nothing legally or technically that prevents the phone companies from giving out numbers in the 555 exchange. However, by common agreement, most will not.

Valid US area codes are all three-digit combinations XYZ
except X == 0
except X == 1
except Y == Z
except Y == 9
except X == 3 AND Y == 7
except X == 9 AND Y == 6
http://www.nanpa.com/area_codes/index.html

So we're discussing exchange prefixes and you're citing rules about area codes... Failing your reading comprehension class? Probably should hire a tutor.

When i read this in NetNewsWire, i can see the phonenumber :)

talking about a real wtf.

Noob :

( "214-555-1212" );

The real WTF is that NetNewsWire doesn't support styles.

From what I have heard there are no numbers starting with 555 in the US.
This is why they use numbers starting with 555 in the movies.
To bring in some prejudice: I guess someone got a few million $ because his number appeared in a movie before they started using 555...

Schmigz:

212-555-1212 is the phone number listed in the code. You could have been more creative and gone with something like 567-8309.

<pendantic> You know, if you're going to call Jenny, you'd do better to get her number right (it's 867-5309). </pendantic>

So much for censoring.... highlighting the phone number with your mouse cursor reveals the numbers underneath. Hopefully, you changed the numbers as well, or he might become quite popular.