~ryanlowe/blog: Access to Information

About

I'm Ryan Lowe, a Software Engineering graduate living in Ottawa, Canada. I like agile software development and Ruby on Rails.

I write this blog in Canadian English and don't use a spell checker. Typos happen.

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» Full-time Ruby on Rails freelancer
» Full-time with Rails since May 2005
» Former committer for RadRails (now Aptana)
» I also have a few Rails side-projects in development:
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  2. Hey Heads Up! TODO list and sharing
  3. Layered Genealogy family history research
  4. foos for foosball scoring
  5. fanconcert for music fans (on hold)

Hiring Rails developers? I can telecommute by the hour from Ottawa, Canada

»» Email: rails AT ryanlowe DOT ca

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Access to Information

It's funny how ordinary sources of information when looked at differently can be a privacy concern. Take a phone book for example. Even though it connects names to addresses and phone numbers people don't worry about it. You have to know a person's name to get anywhere unless you want to search the whole book by hand.

Well welcome to the Internet age my friends. Not a lot of people know that you can enter someone's phone number and get their name and address. Or even enter their address and get their name and phone number.

The most interesting one on this page? Find out all of the names and phone numbers of the people on any Canadian street (leave the house number blank). You should open the link in Internet Explorer though -- it doesn't seem to like Mozilla.

Posted at February 12, 2004 at 09:34 PM EST
Last updated February 12, 2004 at 09:34 PM EST

Comments

Wow. You can even see where my dad went to school.

» Posted by: itsy at February 12, 2004 10:34 PM

I like this feature actually, because now I can finally check some of those "Unknown" numbers.
I didn't know this was possible. Even Canada 411 does not have this feature. Thanks Ryan.

» Posted by: Aleks at February 13, 2004 10:58 AM

I wish that it worked for cell phones. Also, I am definitely getting an unlisted number next time; not only for privacy, but also to avoid some telemarketers and junk mailers.

» Posted by: Lisa at February 13, 2004 01:11 PM