Life is in the numbers SHARON McCULLY
What I want to know is how a secret agent extraordinaire can get away with a simple three-digit code like 007 to steal foreign secrets and ordinary folks like me need a 12-digit code plus a three-digit password to access our bank accounts.
I also want to know why it takes four remote controls to operate the television, but that's another column.
There are so many numbers to remember and buttons to push in the run of a day I'm one step away from needing a computer programmer to digitalize my head.
VVhen I pick up the telephone to make a long-distance call anywhere in Quebec or Ontario, I have to dial a special seven-digit code before dialing the long distance number in order to bypass Bell. To access my messages, I have to dial a different seven-digit code, followed by a four-digit numerical password. That's if I'm in the local area.
Outside the region, I dial a dozen digits before entering the seven-digit code. And if I'm making a long-distance business call I use my easy-to-remember 14-digit calling card @ number. For 'simplified' bank transactions by telephone, I can punch in my 12-digit personal code, followed by a three-digit password, then pay bills numbered one to six from accounts one to four.
To check e-mail on the home computer, there is a simple five-letter password which is not the same as the four-letter password on the laptop or the five-letter password on the computer used at work.
To ensure there is no breach of security and to prevent some news thief from breaking into our system and stealing all the news that will appear in the next day's paper, Southam changes our eight-letter password every few weeks, roughly twenty new passwords a year.
There was a time when the only number used to identify me was a social insurance number. I was led to believe by the issuer it was such a highly confidential number, I carried my SIN card backwards in my wallet in case some wayward eye would spot it when I opened my purse in the grocery store and use to discover -- I don't know -- how much tax I pay.
Today, Revenue Canada can use it to find my blood type. And I would be happy to tell anyone who asks how much tax I pay.
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