On Wed, 11 Apr 2018 10:31:43 -0400, Phil Smith III wrote:
>
>And ISTR was one of the reasons for seven-digit phone numbers. Either that
>or it was a happy accident, but I know I've read at least someone claiming
>it was chosen because "seven is magic". How many of us remember shorter
>numbers? I remember four-digit dialing when I was a kid; my brother-in-law
>has that beat: his home phone number when he was little was.4. Small town.
>
And I must dial (press?) 10 digits for even a local call. Politics. Merchants
did
not want to cede to their competitors the advantage of a more conveniently
entered code.
I recall two letters and five digits, and earlier two letters (the first two of
a word) and four digits. An abbreviated word may be easier to remember
than two arbitrary digits. But Telco gave up when they exhausted
pronouncable digraphs.
There's a similar scramble for memorable domain names (marginally NSFW):
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/dillon-edwards-investments/n11241
-- gil
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