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John Patrick: ENUM is a Really Big Deal
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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Any fool can talk, but it takes a wise man to listen.
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).
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"
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
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.
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...
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 is done for your convenience. Have a nice day!
Soon when you dial a wrong number you'll get Verisign on the other end asking you for your credit card number.