Pin numbers.
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Actually, it wasn't that far away :-) Our first cellular phone network was established in 1981, covering the Scandinavian countries (Wikipedia: NMT[^]. NMT ("1G") replaced older mobile phone systems, "OLT" in Norway, established in 1966. When NMT was introduced, OLT had approx. 30,000 subscriber in a population of 4 million - scaled to population size, that would correspond to 2.5 million subscribers in today's USA. So at the 1981 introduction of the cellular NMT technology, we were familiar with mobile phones here in Norway. OLT was not "cellular": To make a call, you hooked up to your closest base station. You had to stay within range of that base for the duration of the call; an ongoing call couldn't automatically be switched to another base station. So OLT was less suited to fast moving vehicles. The low transmission frequency (somewhat higher than FM transmitters) meant that a single base station could cover a large area; it was a lesser problem than you might think. (But total network capacity was a bigger problem than you might think!) The 1981 NMT system was fully automatic (OLT required operator assistance), and cellular, so you could move freely from one base station to another. The sound was analog, FM modulation. Digital cellular phones (GSM standard, "2G") were not introduced until 1991 - but it really didn't make a big difference to us: We had extended use of cellular NMT mobile phones at the time, so to us, buying a new GSM phone was just another cellular. Another aspect easing GSM adoption in Norway (and other countries) is that we agreed upon one single standard. Roaming was included in the initial base standard, so phones would work in all European (and gradually all) countries, while USA let four incompatible standards compete to select the best through economic bloodshed. GSM didn't make a great impact until the battle left the original US warriors all laying severely wounded on the battleground :-) (We had that same story repeated with digital radio: While European and other countries started preparing for and implementing a fully digital DAB radio system, US authorities let a number of alternate standards stab each other to death. The last I have heard is that no digital FM replacement seems ready to take over in the US, not even today. (Correct me if I am wrong! Yes, I certainly know of HD Radio, but being
Y'know...after initially glancing at the wall of text, I was tempted to go cynical and reply with "cool story, bro". But after having actually read it, I must say, that was a rather informative history lesson. Thanks for that. But, I still wouldn't have been carrying a cell phone under decades later. :-)
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True. I was wondering about other effects that might add to the H2G2 effect on this particular number to make it jump out, and it occurred to me that people born in 1979 might be 42 years old at the time of making their PIN around 2021? It would be an interesting bit of statistical analysis involving guesses, educated or otherwise, on the PIN creation dates to try to tease such an effect out of the data and prove if it is significantly above chance or not. (p.s. Is your 0504 speculation about the movie release date?)
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True. I was wondering about other effects that might add to the H2G2 effect on this particular number to make it jump out, and it occurred to me that people born in 1979 might be 42 years old at the time of making their PIN around 2021? It would be an interesting bit of statistical analysis involving guesses, educated or otherwise, on the PIN creation dates to try to tease such an effect out of the data and prove if it is significantly above chance or not. (p.s. Is your 0504 speculation about the movie release date?)
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Ah, yes of course. I know “May the fourth be with you” well, but being Australian I didn’t think to write it that way around, despite it being the Jedi way around of saying it.