Re: Last entry in phonebook, circa 1950s [Telecom]

Sep 11, 2008 1 Replies

For years, the last entry in the Manhattan (NYC) white pages was the supposed surname Zzzyandottie (that's correct, 3 - count 'em -



3 Zs) with some unusual but realistic first name. The address looked like a legitimate Midtown address, and the phone number was a plain vanilla one. I was curious, but not curious enough to actually dial it and find out who answered. ;-)

I seem to remember that one of the early bank frauds by computer was by a programmer who arranged things so that when amounts were rounded off, the round-off pennies were all deposited in whatever account came last alphabetically (a technique known as "salami slicing"). It came to light when the marketing people decided to do an ad highlighting the very first ("AAAA..") and last ("ZZZ..") accounts.

Dave

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