Comments by "Lawrence D’Oliveiro" (@lawrencedoliveiro9104) on "Error Correction u0026 International Book Codes - Computerphile" video.

I’ve wondered why telephone numbers don’t have check digits. It would reduce the incidence of wrong numbers by 90%. Yes, it would make them longer. That mattered more back when they might only have been 5-6 digits. Now that they are commonly 7-8 digits or longer (particularly for mobile phone users), it seems less of an issue. Come to think of it, why are we still using telephone numbers? They’re an idea that dates from the 19th century. Why don’t we use 20th century Internet-based technologies, such as the Domain Name System? Use names, instead of numbers, to connect to people.
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@johnfrancisdoe1563 Ðat’s what I þought.
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@TrueThanny Yes, address books are precisely my point. Why do we have to do the lookup of the number, and then have to dial that number? Why not have the computer do the lookup for us? That’s how the DNS works -- it’s like an address book that automatically keeps itself up-to-date!
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@tamasdemjen4242 We have technologies like autocomplete. It’s like speed-dial for the 21st century.
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@johnfrancisdoe1563 Names can also be matched using heuristics like Soundex, to save typing.
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That’s like saying that in the reals you can’t divide.
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@aDifferentJT That’s like saying that in the reals there is no corresponding function that represents division.
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@fllthdcrb Total nonsense, in other words.
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