Old Phones, Encore Une Fois

I wrote a blog post back in December discussing the problems of doing research in old phone numbers. I heard from the manager of WhereCall.com, who read my post and decided to take on the challenge of determining the location associated with old area codes, exchanges, and/or phone numbers. He added a search engine to his site allowing research into old area codes and exchanges.

Here's how his database works:

If you search the New Jersey area code 201, the search result suggests that the area code could now be 551, 908, 732, 848, 973, or 862. My first phone number in the Matawan area in 1978 had the area code and exchange 201-566. Scott's database suggests four places I might have lived, including Matawan.

Using a New York example, a 212-549 number from the Bronx in the 1970s would now be 718-549. The database results yield five possibilities, most in Manhattan but one in the Bronx.

A search of the oldest area codes for Boston (617), New Jersey (201), Maryland (301), and NYC (212) can yield up to half a dozen possible current locations, but more recent iterations like 908-566 can narrow the search significantly.

What is still lacking is a chronological aspect to the data. I would hope that eventually a search of the area code/exchange 212-549 could be paired with the year 1985 to yield the location Bronx, NY and 201-566 in 1979 could result in the location Matawan, NJ. Or a search of 201 area code might generate a list of the area codes it spawned and when those area codes came into existence. Another challenge?

2009 Anniversaries - Follow Up

As a follow up to my blog article on 2009 anniversaries, I should point out a few anniversaries that I missed at the time.

• 50th anniversary of the Day the Music Died. While the anniversary, strictly speaking, memorializes the day Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash, some say that it was the beginning of the end of early rock and roll.
• 50th anniversary of statehood for Hawaii.
• 50th anniversary of statehood for Alaska.
  
• 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution.
• 25th anniversary of overcoming the Orwellian destiny foretold in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Or did we?
  

Darkness Shall Not Prevail

It seems that life has allocated this week as a time to be reminded of the dark underbelly of the Internet. A friend wrote this week, for example, to advise me that he'd gone through the early stages of getting a Facebook account but got scared off by all the privacy warnings FB put before him during the registration process. He thought he remembered that I have such an account and he just wanted me to know that he'd decided against signing up. I guess we won't be friending one another anytime soon.

Then today I got an email from some folks who've written an article about Wiki hoaxes against the rich and famous. They characterize cyber criminal activity as "blunders" that make Wiki less reliable, less trustworthy. And they are quick to advise the reader that professors don't allow you to quote Wiki because it is so rife with errors. They thought I'd like to share that message with you.

I advocate for FB and Wiki because I believe these technologies advance civilization. I'm sure it is somehow helpful to be reminded of their weaknesses, but such cannot be the whole message. Who is edified by that?

Great Lakes Wiki

While I was in Erie, Pennsylvania, I met briefly with a small group of environmentalists concerned about Lake Erie. I suggested that they contribute articles to Wikipedia and begin to collaborate with others with similar interests. I told them they could share information online for free that way. I went so far as to establish baseline articles for them, including the Lake Erie Watershed and Lake Erie Basin articles. But each of the articles has had less than a dozen edits by other contributors in more than a year. This approach towards collaboration might have a long horizon, but I doubt it. In the near term it has not prompted sharing. I was beginning to think some folks are just not meant for Wiki. Lo and behold a new wiki project -- The Great Lakes Wiki -- has emerged. Maybe it will be more successful? I hope so. There is much at stake. I wish them well with their Wiki project.

I'd love to see a similar project started here in New Jersey. In my Aberdeen NJ Life blog I just wrote about how my town council is voting on a contract regarding water diversion rights. The council considers the matter routine, probably because the region is fed by an overused aquifer that has been red-flagged by the state DEP for over 20 years.

The Iranian Revolution: Thirty Years

The Center for Middle East Studies at Rutgers University hosted a major conference this weekend dedicated to an academic review of the thirty years following the Iranian Revolution. There were scholars in attendance from around the world. A friend of mine who is very interested in interfaith issues asked me to join him, and I had a wonderful time.

I provide a summary of only some of the many wonderful speakers below.

Reza Akbari of Freedom House talked about the role of the Guardian Council in Iranian Government. The parliament issues laws, but they have to be found in compliance with Shariya law or they are disallowed. About 40% of the laws that elected officials pass are discarded by this council. Another council exists to try to reconcile disputes between the parliament and the Guardian Council. The whole process is rather disenfranchising.

Kevan Harris of Johns Hopkins University talked about the big role of entitlements in Iranian society. It reminded me a bit of how Social Security is a sacred cow in the US. No one can tinker with entitlements in Iran without getting burned, apparently.

Babak Rahimi delivered a vibrant lecture that included a fascinating discussion of the role of the web in Iranian politics and society.

Sina Mossayeb discussed the intellectual drain (not just a brain drain) that Iranian society has experienced over the past thirty years. (Note that the concept of Iran's brain drain gets its own entry at Wikipedia.)

Trita Parsi, of the National Iranian American Council, gave an interesting lecture on how best for America and Iran to come together to work through their differences. He pointed out that if President Obama can elucidate a substantial endgame to bilateral talks, Iran and the US can likely move forward in small steps with some success. But if there is no ultimate goal in mind and talks proceed only to mitigate tactical problems faced by the US, such as troublesome issues in Iraq and Afghanistan, then Iran is less likely to participate. Parsi believes that Iran's goal is to be recognized as a key player in the Middle East and was burned by the US after helping in Afghanistan after 9/11.

George Sanikidze, of Tbilisi State University, talked about Iran and its relations with the South Caucasus, especially in light of the Russia-Georgia conflict last fall. It was interesting to hear that both Iran and Russia fear NATO enlargement.

Radwan Ziadeh, of Harvard, discussed relations with Syria, breaking up the post-revolutionary period into three ever-warming periods - 1979-1990 (allies), 1990-2000 (friends), 2000-2008 (axis). My impression from how he described the periods in question was that Syria's Hafez al Assad lacked trust of Iran until Khomenei's death and Assad's son, Bashar al Assad, has suffered under Iran's heel ever since his father died.

Be sure to support the center by attending future events you find interesting. This weekend's conference was free. An upcoming comedy night planned for 25 March may involve a fee.

Don't Throw Wiki From The Train

Back in April 2008, an unregistered Wiki editor vandalized the Irving Gordon article that referred to Patty Page's 1950s hit song Mama From The Train. In an obvious reference to a Danny Devito movie, this editor changed the text to read Throw Mama From The Train. Then he added a rather naughty parenthetical note about Mama for good measure. Amazingly, this and an equally naughty note about Nat King Cole's hit Unforgettable remained uncorrected until today - nine months later. A similar assault on the song article was halted in its tracks in only one minute. (That editor might have caught both edits if he'd checked the user contributions and posted a warning like he was supposed to.)

Turns out that the vandal toyed with only two Wiki articles and, like Snagglepuss, exited Stage Right, never to return. I inaugurated the vandal's assigned Wiki talk page and added a less than subtle warning to behave in the future. If he ever returns to the scene and launches a new campaign against the 1950's or any other topic, he'll soon have tried Wiki's patience and he'll be on the outside looking in.

This all came to my attention because my Fifties music friend from yesterday's article wrote to tell me about this Patti Page disinformation campaign. My friend gets around the Web, but it wasn't always that way. I'm proud of his ability to get around the communications superhighway. But he didn't detect the connivance behind this edit. I saw it right away, mostly because I've got some experience and know how to confirm my suspicions.

My friend lamented the article's deficiencies but then passed an equivocal judgment on Wiki, saying,"See why I'm skeptical about that do-it-yourself portal of knowledge? :-) Though I know it does have lots of useful & accurate material in it. I make use of it myself, but know how to approach it with some caution. There's just not enough editorial supervision to prevent such nonsense as the above being put in."

He knows there can be errors in it, but he uses it anyway, but with a degree of caution. I couldn't have said it better myself.

I found some hope in his closing remarks that suggest he'll someday accept his duty to become a Wiki editor. You might see darkness, but I see some light working its way in. "Guess I should write in a correction, but I doubt that I will. It's not my project. "

URL Dead Zones

A friend of mine wrote me the other day to complain about a website that talked up the music of the mid-1950's but offered no contact information. My friend shops the web for sheet music and lyrics and he simply couldn't understand why someone would post lyrics without allowing him to write or make a purchase. There had to be some sort of purpose to the page. He wrote to me in frustration.

I visited the site and found that the page had no hyperlinks. Not back to a main page. Not to anywhere. In that sort of case, you need to look at the URL itself to see if you can follow the trail back from a subdirectory to find the root, in other words you want to find some sort of main page.

In this case the URL was: http://www.mtbrook55.com/1955hits.htm

The page my friend and I have been looking at is called 1955hits.htm. The main page is what is left: www.mtbrook55.com. In most cases, the best way to find the identity of the web host, or at least some kind of raison d'etre for the web site, is to visit that main page. Often non-professionals will create pages that don't link back and forth, only one way. A good case for saying, "You can't get there from here!"

Well, actually you can get to the main page. Simply click into the URL window at the end of the URL and backspace through the characters until the subdirectory characters have been removed and all that are left are the characters for the main page URL. There are lots of links there. The whole thing has to do with a class reunion.

The music page turned out to be a dead zone for my friend, who Googled his way onto the page. His visit was out of context. But for class reunion enthusiasts who entered from the main page, the music page was a logical part of a package. (Although the prospective class reunionists might get lost if they don't know how to use the back arrow to to return to the main page.)

In another case, you might land on a cemetery page while doing genealogy research. You can go back one level and visit the main page for the county where that and other cemeteries are found. We're not permitted to visit the next couple of tiers up the subdirectory chain. You have to go all the way back to the root of the website to get another foothold.

Don't expect to easily find your way from the root page back to where you were originally simply by using links found on the root page. Maybe it will be easy, but then again it may be nearly impossible. On this particular page, you can use the search feature to try perusing the US state in question, but it could take you a few hours to get anywhere that way. The special topics search feature is more useful. It lets you check off "cemeteries" and conduct a search for the county and state in question. The best choice in my search results happened to be the list of county cemeteries I was looking for. Whew!

In some cases a website will have orphaned pages that are parked in the domain but aren't linked to anything. Those pages have to be Googled, unless you can find a file directory within the website. I haven't had much luck finding file lists for this article -- maybe they are old technology? I imagine they are out there still, somewhere. If you have a good example, post it as a reply.