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D. Murali

While booking or buying online, one scribbles down several digits and letters. Later one can't work out if they are 0s or Os, or 2s or Zs. Is there a way out?

IT was an otherwise normal day except that my microwave oven was more than normally noisy. There was an AMC for the gadget, so I called up the company to book a complaint. "Shall I read out the customer code that is printed on the AMC paper?" I offered, keeping the dot-matrix-output close to my nose, because the point size was 6 or less and it was WRO07DM02 or some such which was tough to memorise. "No need," said the courteous voice at the other end. "Tell me your phone number." And I chanted the thing with the 2 prefix. But their system was down all of a sudden and so she couldn't check my address. "As soon as the UPS is up, I'll call you," she said. Within the next five minutes, the call did come and I was given a computer-generated complaint number, "BP13M001". I jotted it down with a jungle of other numbers on the calendar - such as SM43T026 given by the gas agency when I wanted a cylinder refill, DIY7500P72 that was spat out by the computer as receipt number when I made an online payment for a bill, and so on. If I were to be asked for `my' number by any of these companies, I would in all probability give them not one but at least half-a-dozen, including my PAN and credit card numbers, and ask them to choose one that fit their system.

ZYR2-F32Z-N00001 is the title of one of the recent postings in www.halfbakery.com and it is about "combinatorial reference." I realise I'm not alone having trouble with long numbers. The author writes: "I am sick and tired of meaningless alphanumeric strings whenever I make a travel booking/purchase over the Internet. I scribble down umpteen digits/ letters, and then I can never work out if they are 0s or Os, or 2s or Zs. Likewise pin codes for secure sites and so on." Is there a solution? He suggests "combinations of everyday words" as the antidote. "A list of 1,000 words, and two word combinations gives you 1,000,000 possible combinations. Chuck in another word and you have a billion. Surely enough for anyone." If, as he suggests, you say goodbye to ZYR2-F32Z-N00001 and welcome "moist badger magnet", you would be cutting down "on all those mis-transcriptions, and you might even have a chance of remembering your passcode." His postscript wonders: "Why is there so much redundancy in most booking/reference numbers? I had to quote a 13-digit number to my gas company this morning. There are enough numbers for every man, woman and child on the planet to have well over 1,000 each."

One hassled reader of the site supports the idea: "If you can make the system work for Ford part numbers I'm all for it." Another suggestion is on how to make up a simple sentence "for added redundancy and easier memorising" with words in this order: "1st is a relative, 2nd is a popular name, 3rd is a verb, 4th is a number for checksum, 5th is an object and so on." For example, "Confirmation for your ticket: `Aunt Jane eats 12 slugs in the yard.'" One way to avoid this "bunch of consumer claptrap," notes yet another, is to buy your item "in person."

If you find codes too tough to laugh away, here is a story that relates the code problem of a model. She visits her psychiatrist and complains, "I'm on the road a lot, and my clients are upset they can't reach me." He replies, "Sure you carry your mobile in your car?" She says, "You know, it's a little too expensive, so I did the next best thing. I put a letterbox in the car." The shrink doesn't bat an eyelid and asks, "Oh, how's that working?" The model replies, "Actually, I am not getting any letters yet." He asks, "And what do you think is the reason?" In all her wisdom, she replies, "I think it's because when I'm driving around my PIN code keeps changing."

ITworks@thehindu.co.in

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