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The Internet Handhelds Hardware

John Patrick: ENUM is a Really Big Deal 126

Posted by michael from the more-ways-to-get-crank-calls dept.
penciling_in writes "John Patrick, former vice president of Internet technology at IBM, says 'ENUM is a really big deal'. Here is what he has to say on CircleID about this: 'Basically, ENUM is a protocol that will make it possible to converge the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the Internet. In other words, a telephone number can get you to a Web service -- telephone number in, URL out. The idea can be extremely useful when you consider that most telephones are limited to twelve keys on a keypad. Every try to enter your alphanumeric login ID and password to a web site on a cell phone or Personal Digital Assistant? It is next to impossible! The biggest impact of ENUM will probably be for Voice Over IP (VoIP). In fact, it could be the tipping point.'"
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John Patrick: ENUM is a Really Big Deal More

John Patrick: ENUM is a Really Big Deal

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  • This message... (Score:3, Funny)

    by AccUser ( 191555 ) <mhg@taosCOBOLe.co.uk minus language> on Monday October 20, 2003 @07:48AM (#7259560) Homepage
    This message brought to you by 1-800-SLASHDOT
  • Unless you are actually enumerating the values of a user-defined type, it is safer and simply better programming practice to use the const keyword instead of the deprecated enum hack.

    And I use VoIP now and it saves me a lot of money in long distance charges. Whether the service provider is using ENUM, I don't know, but I do know that as an end user I don't care one way or the other. Const, Enum, it's all the same to me (as a user).
    • "Unless you are actually enumerating the values of a user-defined type, it is safer and simply better programming practice to use the const keyword instead of the deprecated enum hack."

      Except with enum you can make the last element the size - handy for compile-time joy.
    • Every language should have Enums. Detracted Enum? You must be out of your mind. The fact that Java doesn't have Enums pisses me off. I have to do it in a roundabout which often sucks and takes more time. Not having Enums is a a weakness.

  • Outstanding (Score:4, Funny)

    by stanmann ( 602645 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @07:49AM (#7259569) Journal
    Next stop IPv6 and having a number for everything...

    "Hello this is the refrigerator, the Answering machine is broken, so speak slowly and I will put on a sticky note... with your message"

  • Actually (Score:3, Informative)

    by Gortbusters.org ( 637314 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @07:54AM (#7259599) Homepage Journal
    ENUM is good when the PBX is not authoritative for a number. For example, if someone dials a number inside a company, if that number is for another extension in the company you send the call there. It is only when this number goes outside of the company that it is useful.

    BTW, It also plays well with SIP (RFC 3261), because that number can map to a SIP URI sip:user@domain to route a call. Neato!
  • remember a number like 435364-5464562 for a website or "http://www.slashdot.org"?

    when you spend time typing on a cellphones pad it gets much faster and quite frankly words are much easier to remember which is what ultimately matters. the difference between a number and a word or two doesn't really matter(it's just double the button punches at maximum usually, in time it's just 15 secs instead of 10, numbers pulled out of my hat).

    oh yeah i've done my fair share of cellphone thumbing, including numerous sla
  • I don't see how this needs an extra protocol. For instance, you could type in Slashdot's address as 66*35*250*150#.

    No reason to make it more complicated than it is.

    Besides, old technologies such as POTS (Telephones) and TV are frequently regulated (and taxed!) by governments in a way that makes them unsuitable for open content. The very thought of connecting these very taxable technologies to the Internet scares me.
  • ENUM is based on trust, in the sense that your ENUM server won't send you off to the phone call version of goatse. So far we have other systems based on trust like the DNS system (which is being systematically undermined by those designated to care for it, but I digress). It is only through trust that we are able to hit the enter key without fear that our DNS server won't send us to tubgirl or comp-u-geek, and so far it's worked out quite well.

    However, I don't trust people who have two first names and no
  • The whole idea behind having to dial a *number* to get in touch with someone is so antiquated that it's hard to believe that in this year 2003 we are still using it as our primary means of communication. It's like a giant cow just standing there eating and sleeping and sucking up valuable resources and farting toxic methane gas which is warming our atmosphere making this world unlivable.

    If we can get VoIP, we can finally tip over this flatulent bovine and bring ourselves into the 21st century. I shouldn't have to dial a number to connect to someone. No one ought to be reduced to a simple number! I should be able to call an acquaintance using their name or ideally some truly identifying tag like a URL. ENUM is essentially the only system that would allow this kind of connection.

    The phone companies are sleeping on their laurels now. It's time to bring the next tech to bear and knock these soon-to-be hamburgers over.
    • "The whole idea behind having to dial a *number* to get in touch with someone is so antiquated that it's hard to believe that in this year 2003 we are still using it as our primary means of communication."

      It's not been my "primary method" for about 5 years - I always dial stored numbers, looked up by name (apart from the first time I call someone, and assuming they didn't send my phone a business card).

      "It's like a giant cow just standing there eating and sleeping and sucking up valuable resources and far
    • I should be able to call an acquaintance using their name or ideally some truly identifying tag like a URL.

      Hmm. So rather than typing 410-455-xxxx to speak to me, you could type "Tom Swiss, Baltimore, Maryland, USA" on your terminal. Then wait for a lookup. Then have to select "Which Tom Swiss? Thomas M. Swiss in Catonsville, or Thomas C. Swiss in Towson?" Doesn't sound all that better than having a unique numeric ID.

    • EMUN actually sounds transitional to me. It's a bridge technology to integrate the phohe system, and then at some point, when we have deployed better interaction models for telephony, we'll go to a broader, more flexible URI scheme.

      Actually, I also think it's not a complete integration. There have to be other things you can integrate with a live stream of data. Digital signatures would be one. Perhaps some open (and better designed) analog of Powerpoint might be another.
    • Dear 265275*,
      Thank you for your input in comment 7259667. Please keep up the valuable commentary.

      Kindest Regards,
      514750

      * Please note that when IPv6 becomes more widely released, a new value will be assigned to uniquely identify you.
  • As I can see, Parlay [parlay.org] it's a much more credible iniciative. And it's based on open standards.

    Cirruz

  • Drop the current three-letters-per-digit phone scheme and add six new numbers to every phone. Let's call them A, B, C, D, E, and F. Let's face it, for 6 extra digits, we get 2.5 times the phone numbers. Add 2 extra digits to the current limit of 10 digits per phone number, and it will be IPv6 compatible. And let's face it, there no more dificulty in remembering phone numbers if they include Alpha characters.
    • do you know how long it would take to switch over all phones/phone numbers to other then 10 digit dialing? how much money it would cost? my parents work for the tele-cos and i worked for the tele-cos for a while. and believe me it would take lots of time and money. Ex. remember when they switched 888 to be toll free in addition to 800? that took close to a year and several million dollars. all because one tele-co thought it was great marketing to sell an 800 number to parents with kids in college. as fa
    • if i remember correctly, the 3+7 number scheme was constructed due to short term memory encoding limitations. the average person can't really hold more than ten digits in her head for long.
    • The DTFM (Touch-Tone(R)) scheme already has four additional tones defined (making a total of 16). The military uses them for prioritization of voice traffic, the Bell System (remember them?) used them for tolls and long distance switching (remember blue boxes?). I don't know if they're currently used by today's phone network - they might be available for use.

      So, with 16 available tones, you just need to press two buttons in sequence for every IP address you want to call.

      Chip H.
      • Oops - that would be two buttons for every dotted-part of an IP address. 8 in all for a IPv4 address. More for a IPv6 number, of course.

        Chip H.
      • The DTFM (Touch-Tone(R))

        That's "DTMF" for "Dual-Tone, MultiFrequency." Each button on your phone generates a sound made up of two notes. Each row has a note and each column has a note; a given button plays the notes for its row and column.

        There's a 4th column, missing from nearly all phones. The entries are labelled A, B, C, and D. They have a 4th column-note.

  • If the RFC is correct and it's true that TCP/IP can be implemented using carrier pigeons, how would one go about making the pigeon to wire interface? And if it is possible, how do you handle implementing ENUM on top of that?

    Can the pigeon poop be recycled somehow?
  • Honey - it's ten o'clock,
    Junior should be home by now.

    Dear - so ring his cell phone and
    tell him to come home!
    Never mind, I just ran traceroute on his
    phone... He is... uh-oh..

    Sisy - Oh, he is so grounded... hehe...

  • I'd RATHER use URL's on my PHONE... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dpbsmith ( 263124 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @08:24AM (#7259776) Homepage
    Telephone numbers are almost as long as numeric IP addresses. Why not get rid of DNS and key in the addresses? And issue paper "Internet books" where we could look up the IP addresses of sites we wanted to access?

    I'm not sure what aspect of cognitive psychology explains this, but I and many of my middle-aged friends acknowledge having problems remembering local phone numbers now that in our state we are required to dial area codes on all calls.

    I'm talking about short-term memory here. Forget long-term memory, I haven't stored telephone numbers in my brain in years; I have a Palm for that.

    What I'm saying is that I can look in a telephone book, see the local number 762-####, and even though all local numbers have the area code 781, remembering to dial 781 (and dialing it) put enough extra strain on my enfeebled brain that by the time I've dialed the 781 and the 762, I can't remember the last four digits any more.

    Actually I dial 1-781-762 because, for some unknown reason, the power that be have decided that a) you must dial a 1 if the call is a local toll call; b) there is no simple algorithm for determining whether or not an exchange in the 781 area code is a local toll call or not; c) if I don't dial the 1 some of my calls will not go through; d) if I always dial 1 all of them go through; e) dialling the 1 does not change the cost of the call, so... well, you get the idea.

    Information theory says that the "1" carries no information, and the "781"--being the same on 95% of my calls--carries less than a single bit of information. That "1781" should only amount to a fraction of a digit's worth of memory strain.

    Well, tell it to my brain, because it apparently doesn't know how to do data compression on the leading digits of telephone numbers.

    Even if I keep the telephone book in my hand, by the time I've finished dialing the 1-781-762, my eyes have moved off the page and it takes me a good two or three seconds to reacquire the listing visually, scan carefully horizontally to make sure I'm picking up the number that's on the same line as the name, get those last four digits, and transfer my attention back to the the dial.

    The phone system seems to be getting less and less patient even as telephone numbers get longer and longer. Even though the equipment must cost orders of magnitude less than it did twenty years ago, the engineers that set the timeouts apparently can't stand having their precious equipment tied up. The result is that sometimes the phone times out and abort the call before I can key in the last four digits.

    Yes, I considered posting this as an Anonymous Coward. No, I don't have any memory-related mental diseases--and I'm not all that old.

    But the prospect of tying websites to telephone numbers strikes me as the dumbest idea I've heard in a long time.
    • The prepended "1" is the country code for the US. Seems many other countries have two or three digit codes.

      Silly to have to dial it within the country though...
      • When you dial '1', it isn't the country code. It's an indication to the switch that you are dialing a 10-digit number. Back in the old days, when switches were built from relays, the leading '1' would route the following digits to a toll switch.

        To direct dial an international call, you dial the international direct dial prefix (011 in the USA), the country code, and the rest of the number.

    • Try storing the 1781 as a visual pattern. It forms a nice little triangle on the left side of the keypad. If you train yourself to the pattern rather than the digits, you may be able to remember the other digits while punching that triangle. No as many numbers, but one visual. I agree with your general sentiment about the phone system though. I've suffered 3 area code splits in 20 years, all without moving.
      • I've suffered 3 area code splits in 20 years, all without moving.

        My area code has changed 3 times in the last 10-12 years, along with a change in my zip code, also without moving.

        IMHO, the telcos have really mangled the way all these code splits and dialing rules have been put in place. Used to be you dialed just the seven digits for a local call, a "1" for a toll call (which originally did connect you to a toll switching center, back in the step switch days), and adding the area code for outside your a
    • Telephone numbers are almost as long as numeric IP addresses. Why not get rid of DNS and key in the addresses? And issue paper "Internet books" where we could look up the IP addresses of sites we wanted to access?

      If we ever move to IPv6, those addresses are going to get a LOT longer. Besides, one of the purposes of lookup tools-- be they transparent like DNS or interactive like Google-- is to get AWAY from fixed, paper directories.

      • The parent to your post was being sarcastic. He doesn't really advocate getting rid of DNS. The point was that even this ENUM technology is not good enough because you have to remember a sequence of numbers, when written words are almost always much easier to remember.

        In the future there will be two ways to call your friends, voice prompt (e.g. "Call Jenny") or some sort of scrolling/navigational tool. Pretty soon when the number of mobiles gets too numerous, we are going to run out of area codes. When th
      • "If we ever move to IPv6, those addresses are going to get a LOT longer."

        No, they're going to get two digits longer. The difference is they're written in hexidecimal.

    • You've covered why the US phone number system is broken. My grandmothers phone was KIngman-something so the real phone number was 54X-XXXX but you could get by with just the last 5 digits since there were so few phones in the exchange. That was common over most of the US till 30 years ago. Then compaines started getting direct dial extentions and then fax and then computer lines and a massive growth in the number of lines. How ever most of the new lines don't need a human friendly number. In fact I wou
    • The number of items you can keep in your short-term memory is a very finite number. Through a great deal of mental training you can up the number to around 10 or 11, there are people that have gotten upwards of 15, but that's a lot of work.

      The fact is, most people can only remember from 3 -> 5 items in short-term memory. You can test this by having someone list off numbers, start with 1 and work your way up. They should be random, and then see if you can repeat them back after 10 seconds.

      You will fi
      • The number of items you can keep in your short-term memory is a very finite number. Through a great deal of mental training you can up the number to around 10 or 11, there are people that have gotten upwards of 15, but that's a lot of work. The fact is, most people can only remember from 3 -> 5 items in short-term memory. You can test this by having someone list off numbers, start with 1 and work your way up. They should be random, and then see if you can repeat them back after 10 seconds. You will fin
    • It's 7+/- 2 for STM. And if you can't chunk the (718) as one "bit", then you're on the losing side of S(hort) T(erm) M(emory). I gotta tell you, if everything's 718, and you have to dial 718 to get anywhere, it should not add an inordinate amount of load to the system.

      Information theory says that the "1" carries no information, and the "781"--being the same on 95% of my calls--carries less than a single bit of information. That "1781" should only amount to a fraction of a digit's worth of memory strain.
    • The thing with telephone numbers is that they're divided into address spaces where all of the numbers that you'll usually dial from memory are within the same area code.

      Back when most people didn't know anyone who wasn't from the same town or the next town over, their list of phone numbers often only differed in the last 4 digits. Then as the town got too big for 4 digits being enough people started to have to remember all 7 digits for each contact. Now, as our society becomes more and more mobile (are
  • "Jenny, Jenny, who can I turn to? 9.0.3.5.7.6.8.e164.arpa" doesn't have the same ring to it.

    • Re:Not the same. (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by 4/3PI*R^3 ( 102276 )
      Try this Jenni Cam [jennicam.org]
      • For the bonehead with mod points that doesn't get the joke.

        1-Story : Phone Numbers -> Web Pages
        2-Parent Comment : 867-5309 -> 80's rock song that talks about a girl named Jenny
        3-Previous Comment : This number should resolve to Jenni Cam

        Ha, ha, ha, ha...
        Off Topic my ass, its Funny
        DUMBASS MODERATOR
    • The way they propose doing the phone number lookups doesn't make sense to me. The article explains that when the DNS looks up www.ibm.com, it needs to look up the ".com" first, then the ".ibm" then "www". This is understandable.

      Then why would 1-888-867-5309 be looked up as 9.0.3.5.7.6.8.8.8.8.1.e164.arpa???? That isn't right. "www.ibm.com" is organized from most specific to least specific. 1-888-867-5309 is organized from least specific to most specific. Therefore, a more DNS-like way of looking this
      • Its to make it easy to parse. An Aussie number would be published as 03-9123-4567 compared to a US number of 800-555-1212. The old numbers used to be 03-123-4567 but they ran out of numbers in the two cities (that are bigger than Chicago now). They tack on an 8 or a 9 on all the major cities and then everyone has an 8 digit local number. They might have considered a 039-123-4567 which would make sense since dial 035-123-4567 is a long distance call so the 1st 3 digits are an area code. The problem is h
        • Easy...there are periods separating the numbers. Or, if entered on a keypad, asterisks. If each digit needs to be parsed individually because someone decides that we can't have people with cell phones using their asterisk key to type out a phone number, then the point of my post still exists...why do the numbers have to be in reverse, when the numbers are already organized the way DNS expects to see the address...from least specific to most?
  • Cool, maybe now I can get a dns style address for my phone number that won't have to change when I move houses, or change countries.

  • Every try to enter your alphanumeric login ID and password to a web site on a cell phone or Personal Digital Assistant? It is next to impossible!

    Effective next monday, all Internet users will have their usernames and passwords converted to 32-digit numbers to comply with telephone-Internet convergence. Use them to login to our website at http://2529850985513857918375981751. Your username and password are:

    Username: 72946835 56198569 01854984 91856914
    Password: 57105710 19158294 19469819 14691749

    This i

  • Coming soon to ENUM: wildcard service (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Soon when you dial a wrong number you'll get Verisign on the other end asking you for your credit card number.
    • The parent post is modded funny. But it is probably a frigthening realistic scenario. If ENUM ever catches on, then you will have lots of older PBX-based users using it, trying to contact new native VoIP-based users. And what happens when they cannot reach the number? They'll get redirected to an "operator", who will gladly redirect your call to the correct user for a fee of course.
  • It will no doubt be a big deal for VoIP. Why? Because it means that all you have to do in order to associate your IP address with a phone number is to register your phone number with DNS. That's certainly a nice-to-have.

    But when they suggest that we could use this to somehow ease the pain of using a PDA/number-pad as a UI to the Internet (read: WWW), and therefore bring about the holy grail of Convergence, that's when my bozometer redlines. OK, so that phone number translates to a DNS name, which in tu
    • The main point of this service is to facilitate Voice over IP. Telephone number in - domain that routes the call to the right number out. In theory, at least. This may possibly need regulation to prevent scammers from hijacking people's calls.

      Remember - this controls what happens when people attempt to reach *your" phone number!

      Anything else, like other IP based services that could be offered on different ports from a server with the same URL is icing on the cake (or a huge revenue opportunity / regul

      • Yes, the major point of this will be to enable older 'dumb' phones to call a primitive x-digit phone number and be redirected (this will be handled transparently on the network) to either a SIP value (I think we need to add a new type SIP record to DNS like MX), or standard A or CNAME type record, so they can connect to another user or service that is delivered over the phone.
        • I think we need to add a new type SIP record to DNS like MX

          SRV [rfc-editor.org]. Some SIP projects use this already, carriers do not because they (wisely) do not trust DNS. I expect that even if an open standard is used to relay this kind of information it will be done over semi-private networks rather than the public internet.

    • OK. I was thinking about using enum from the internet. Apart from VoIP from the Internet, enum is "about" voice / fax / telephony services from a phone line.

      It's not, yet, about accessing websites as such from a phone, or providing a harder to remember alternative to URLs.

      Though with sophisticated phones (approaching PCs), that distinction could begin to blur...

      Our three main points are fear, surprise, and an almost fanatical devotion to...
      downloading monty python sketches over the internet to a v

  • seems like an attempt to wrestle control away from "the Internet" and back to the telcos. Sure it has some uses, and therefore needs IETF standards eventually, but this hype about it being the next big thing? Sounds like an attempt to re-establish phone numbers as the primary business identifier, and return control of small business to the regulated monopolies and their lawyers. Reminds me of the current "Yellow Page" advertising system.... $700 per month for an ad, and it can't contain a website address l
  • Since the enum domain is a hierarchy that corresponds to international format telephone numbers (leading "1" is US/Canada/et al, leading "44" is UK, "353" is Irish Republic, etc) the e164.arpa "domain" may have to be delegated on similar lines, so that neustar don't end up running what would become a worldwide resource. Besides, local telecoms authorities may be better placed than neustar to determine how calls may be routed into the "Plain Old Telephone System".

    Either that, or there would need to be st

  • No Kidding (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 4of12 ( 97621 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @09:07AM (#7260048) Homepage Journal

    There are many issues to be worked out

    Technically, the QoS (latency) over the low quality lines, seems something of an issue. I read somewhere that anything more than 0.1 sec latency makes conversation noticeably less spontaneous. Maybe it will encourage us all to listen to others without interrupting them:)

    Politically, the regulated monopolies that provide local telephone service will be difficult to interface with. They'll demand money for access to the offices (some people have stories about this), but are also obligated to maintain lines and obey a slew of regulations, such as providing service to backwater areas, emergency service, tacking on a whole zoo of fees and taxes.

  • The point with easily memorable phone numbers is usually that they sound musical or rhyme, or that they make a logical pattern on the keypad of a typical telephone. When you can have words instead of numbers, it strikes me that web addresses are already far more easily memorable than the typical telephone number which is just a random string of digits, maybe with a few double digits, or if you're lucky, triple digits.

  • Tipping point (Score:5, Insightful)

    by swb ( 14022 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @09:09AM (#7260064)
    The tipping point for VoIP will be going to the local discount store and being able to buy a standards-compliant phone with ethernet and/or POTS (depending on the desire to bridge to POTS) for less than $50. Add slightly more money for greater features (more POTS lines, 802.11, cordless, voicemail, etc).

    In other words, the standards for VoIP need to crystalize to the point where interoperability with gatekeepers and other switch-like devices is a given, and not some game of vendor lock-in. I should be able to buy a Samsung/Apex/Sampo/$cheap_asian_brand VoIP phone, plug it into my ethernet network and have it just plain work with other VoIP phones, bridges, etc.

    How or what the various numbering protocols work isn't the tipping point. The PSTN is too big and complex and the legacy devices too numerous to think that a new, acronym-loaded, buzzword-compliant numbering scheme will make a difference. For VoIP to matter it must initially be transparent to the POTS world, and that means telephone numbers and bridging.

    Vonage is on the right track here as a bridging service. Their POTS bridge device is on the right track at least conceptually, although I can't comment on its protocol neutrality.
    • I should be able to buy a Samsung/Apex/Sampo/$cheap_asian_brand VoIP phone, plug it into my ethernet network and have it just plain work with other VoIP phones, bridges, etc.

      And for this to happen, we need IPv6 because VoIP does not play well with all those NAT IPv4 networks out there.
      • There's two easy solutions to NAT, and they're the same solutions we've been applying to any internal device or service:

        1) Static NAT port mapping to internal bridges or phones, like people do now for game/web/mail/etc servers behind NAT gateways. Requires a VoIP standard that doesn't do something lame ala active FTP and negotiate port numbers and IP addresses inside packets.

        2) Protocol-standard bridging software or agents that can be integrated into NAT devices to provide NAT-friendly bridging for incom
        • I have Vonage VOIP. They gave me some cute little Cisco box (forgot the model number), and it works fine from behind my NAT firewall. I suspect it just opens up a connection to the VoIP server and sits there sending keepalives until theres a phonecall. Or maybe theres a heartbeat that updates my IP address. However it does it, it was totally painless and transparent to set up, and it's better than being integrated with the phone cause I can use it with any conventional phone I want.
          • It works exactly as you suspect, it originates a connection to Vonage and that channel is used for signalling with their gateway. It may or may not open a second channel to handle actual voice packets, but this connection would be originated by the client end.

            The classical NAT problem the parent poster was referring to is having both ends of a VoIP session behind NAT where neither can technically communicate with each other since neither is technically reachable from the internet, which is a problem that
      • My Cisco VoIP adapter that came with Vonage works right out of the box with my Netgear broadband firewall/router. I don't see any issues with VoIP, NAT and IPv4.
  • Is a telephony invention that permits access to my voicemail (enter the PIN code) using a hands-free headset while on the road with no button pushing on the phone.
  • While eNumb is probably the future when it comes to communications, having a database cross referenced number (that can also be input in its alphanumeric form) provides an alternative thanks to the anti-spamming benefits of keeping each communications medium iD separate. Hope that makes sense. As you read this, GoNumber is being converted to Open Source and of course, improved in all aspects.

  • Basically, ENUM maps phone numbers to the DNS, e.g. the number 555-1234 from Washington DC (area code 202) in USA (country code 1), which is written 1-202-555-1234 (in the E164 international phopne numbering scheme) will be mapped to the DNS entry: 4.3.2.1.5.5.5.2.0.2.1.e164.arpa (note it's reversed).

    Well, we're lucky they chose the .arpa toplevel, otherwise each wrong phone number would have been answered by Verisign's sitefinder ...

  • Man, I feel stupid.

    I read over the /. blurb, and skimmed the related article, all the while nodding to myself and thinking "Hell yeah...I use ENUM [mysql.com] as the data type in MySQL all the time, and I've been doing it for years. I am so ahead of the curve. I rock."

    D'oh. Wrong ENUM.

    -Waldo Jaquith
  • Ok IP v4 is allready out of address space and Phonenumber space is less than the adress space of IPv4... Should I go on?

    I have no clue why someone would think that using a 68 digit phone number to get to a web url that is only 14 easy to remember chars long would be a good thing :) After all IPv6 should be here soon and it has About 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,4 5 6 addresses...

    For anything new to be accepted and widely used... It needs to be atleast as convient as what is currently in
  • This isn't a replacement or even an add-on. It uses stuff we already have to offer more to the internet. For all those who don't see the point and think that using numbers is a step backwards, think about this: the "old-fashioned" method of using numbers has worked well for years with the telephone. people already have the habit to use phone numbers. those habits can now be used for the internet. And here's the thing I like: all companies have to do is register their existing phone numbers in this and insta
  • If you want a number, use decimal IP notation.

    If you want a name, fix the bloody phone software to make it easier to enter URLs. Maybe even make it suggest completions from the phone companies' DNS cache rather than the phones' internal dictionary.

    What's the betting IBM have a patent on this ENUM bollocks?

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