Five Fascinating Origins of Everyday Numerical Codes1 生活大解“碼”

By Elizabeth S. Anderson 木沐/選 棣棠/注

007， 911， 999， 419 and 404 are few of the many numerical codes we often come across2. 007 is synonymous with the top fictional spy， James Bond.3 911 is the emergency code of the United States. 999 is its British equivalent4. 419 refers to fraud， and the good old 404 always appears on that heart-wrenching page telling us we have followed a nonexistent or expired link.5

1. 007

007 is synonymous with the fictional British spy， James Bond. To start with， Ian Fleming， the original writer of the James Bond series， was a reporter-turned-writer who worked for the British naval intelligence during World War II.6 He named his fictional spy after7 a real-life bird scientist with the same name. Ian Fleming did not know the real James Bond in person but had come across his name on one of his books. Fleming settled for8 the name because he felt it fit the dull personality he wanted for his character.

Nevertheless， the fictional James Bond ended up being more popular than the real one， who even got into problems at an airport because officials thought hed forged his name.9 James Bonds code， 007， is based on 0070， which was the code Germany assigned to the series of messages that led to the infamous Zimmermann telegram incident.10 The Zimmermann telegram was a series of messages sent between Germany and the German embassy11 in Mexico. The messages urged Mexico to go to war with the United States and revealed Germanys plans to use submarines to sink US ships.12

2. 911

The brutal murder of Catherine Genovese on March 13， 1964， is one of the most referenced cases of the “bystander effect”—where no one does anything to save a situation because of the belief that someone else will.13 At least 12 people witnessed the murder， yet none of them interfered14 to save her.

At the time that Catherine Genovese was murdered， the United States had no unified15 emergency number. People had to either call the police on their private lines or rush down to the police station to report emergencies. The police did not answer all calls， and even when they did， they would sometimes advise the callers to mind their business and not interfere in issues that were of no concern to them.16 In fact， during Genoveses murder， a man called the police but no one picked up the call.

While Genoveses case was just one of the hundreds of murders that occurred in New York in 1964， it was perhaps the most publicized17. The great public disapproval that followed it led to the creation of the 911 system， as well as the introduction of “Good Samaritan” laws in all states.18 These laws exempt people from legal action if their attempts to help someone else end up complicating that persons life.19

3. 999

999 is the British equivalent of 911. It was introduced on June 30， 1937， two years after five women died in a house fire. Before its introduction， people had to send telegrams to the police or go to the police station to report emergencies. Alternatively， they could press “0” to dial their phone exchange and ask the operator to connect them to the police， ambulance， or fire department， as applicable.20

However， many people could not reach the emergency services via the telephone on the day of the fire because the phone network was jammed. After the proposal of a general emergency code was passed， it was suggested that the emergency number should be one that could be easily found even if the caller was surrounded by thick smoke.21 In addition to 999， several other numbers were proposed， but most were rejected for various reasons.

111 was not used because it could be accidentally dialed by faulty telephones， 222 was linked to the Abbey telephone exchange， and the first “0” in 000 would have called the exchange operator.22 The 999 emergency number did not go down well with the police， who kicked against having a telephone in their stations， because they felt it was embarrassing for people to call them to report crimes.23 So the responsibility of picking up the 999 calls was given to the Post Office.

4. 419

The term “419” is used to refer to fraud， especially fraudulent24 emails sent over the Internet. Such emails， which are often financial requests with promises of bogus rewards， are sometimes called “Nigerian prince scams，”25 because they originate in Nigeria. 419 mails predate emails， as they have been sent since the era of letters， telex， and fax.26 They began in the 1990s， when unemployed Nigerian university graduates began sending fraudulent letters to Nigerian businessmen and， later， their American and Western European counterparts27.

The term “419” stems from section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code.28 Section 419， which deals with fraud， states that anybody who obtains anything that can be stolen from someone else with the intention of defrauding that person should be given a jail term of three to seven years.29 While 419 mails originated in Nigeria， todays 419 emails are sent by gangs that involve several independent cells living in different parts of Africa and Eastern Europe.30

5. 404

The average Internet user should be familiar with the phrase： “Error 404： Page not found.” It pops up31 whenever we follow a broken or dead link.

Rumor has it that32 the code was started by a group of young scientists who started the Internet. The scientists worked at the European Organization for Nuclear Research （CERN）， where they had the Internet central database in room 404.33 It was from this room that they manually retrieved and sent data requested from the central database.34 The database grew in size， and people soon began requesting files with the wrong names. Whenever that happened， the scientists simply replied with the phrase， “Room 404： File not found.” When the Internet became automated35， the scientists no longer manually needed to respond to the error. Instead， it was the server36 that automatically generated the error and sent it to peoples computers. This rumor is false.

The 404 arose from HTTP error codes，37 which could begin with 1， 2， 3， 4， or 5， depending on the type of error. Errors that begin with a “4” are client errors. The “04” that follows the first “4” means “not found.” So， “404” means “client error， not found.” The reason why servers bring out different phrases after the 404 error is that it is not mandatory for the server to recognize the two numbers after the first number.38 That is why some servers show “Error 404： Page not found” while others show “Error 404： Not found” or “Error 404： File not found.”

1. fascinating： 讓人著迷的；numerical code： 數(shù)字碼。

2. come across： 碰到。

3. synonymous： 同義的；fictional： 虛構(gòu)的；James Bond： 詹姆斯·邦德，英國小說家伊恩·弗萊明（Ian Fleming， 1908—1964）寫的間諜小說系列中的主人公，代號為007。

4. equivalent： 對應(yīng)物。

5. fraud： 欺詐；heart-wrenching： 令人心痛的；expired： 過期的。

6. reporter-turned-writer： 由記者轉(zhuǎn)行成的作家；naval intelligence： 海軍情報(bào)處。

7. name after： 以……命名。

8. settle for： 滿足于，接受。

9. nevertheless： 然而；forge： 偽造。

10. assign to： 留出用于；infamous： 臭名昭著的； Zimmermann telegram incident： 齊默爾曼電報(bào)事件。

11. embassy： 大使館。

12. urge： 促使；reveal： 泄露；submarine： 潛水艇。

13. 凱瑟琳·吉諾維斯在1964年3月13日被殘忍殺害一案是被引用最多的“旁觀者效應(yīng)”案例——即沒有人采取任何行動相救，因?yàn)槿巳硕颊J(rèn)為別人會去救。brutal： 殘忍的；Catherine Genovese： 凱瑟琳·吉諾維斯（1935—1964）， 是住在紐約皇后區(qū)的一名婦女，1964年3月13日她在自家公寓前被人捅死；referenced： 引用的；bystander effect： 旁觀者效應(yīng)，是一種社會心理學(xué)現(xiàn)象，指在緊急情況時由于有他人在場而沒有對受害者提供幫助的情況，救助行為出現(xiàn)的可能與在場旁觀人數(shù)成反比，即旁觀人數(shù)越多，救助行為出現(xiàn)的可能性就越小。

14. interfere： 介入，干涉。

15. unified： 統(tǒng)一的。

16. 警察不會接聽所有的來電，即使接了，有時他們也會建議來電者管好自己的事，不要去干涉與自己無關(guān)的事情。of no concern： 無關(guān)緊要，沒有意義。

17. publicized： 引起公眾注意的，眾所周知的。

18. disapproval： 譴責(zé)；Good Samaritan laws： 好撒瑪利亞人法，是關(guān)于在緊急狀態(tài)下，施救者因其救助行為，給被救助者造成某種損害時予以免除責(zé)任的法律條文。

19. exempt sb. from： 把某人從……免除；legal action： 法律訴訟；complicate： 使……變得更糟。

20. alternatively： 或者；phone exchange： 電話局，電話交換臺；operator： 接線員； as applicable： 如果適用的話。

21. 在使用通用急救號碼的議案通過后，有人建議急救號碼應(yīng)該容易被找到，哪怕打電話的人被濃煙包圍。proposal： 提案；be surrounded by： 被……包圍。

22. 111不予使用，因?yàn)闀怀龉收系碾娫捯馔鈸艽虺鰜恚?22是連通威斯敏斯特修道院分機(jī)的，而若是000的話，按第一個0就會打到電話局接線員那里。faulty： 有故障的；the Abbey： 特指威斯敏斯特修道院。

23. go down well with： 被……接受；kick against： 竭力反對；embarrassing： 使人尷尬的。

24. fraudulent： 欺詐的。

25. bogus： 假的；Nigerian prince scam： 尼日利亞王子騙局。

26. predate： 在日期上早于，先于；telex： 電傳，電報(bào)。

27. counterpart： 對應(yīng)的人。

28. stem from： 來源于；section：（法律的）款，項(xiàng)；criminal code： 刑法。

29. 涉及詐騙的第419條規(guī)定，任何人意圖欺詐他人，獲取可從他人處偷取的物品，將處以三到七年的有期徒刑。defraud： 欺騙，欺詐。

30. gang： 團(tuán)伙；independent cell： 單間牢房。

31. pop up： 忽然彈出。

32. rumor has it that...： 有謠言說……。

33. the European Organization for Nuclear Research： 歐洲核研究組織；central database： 中央數(shù)據(jù)庫。

34. manually： 手動地；retrieve： 檢索。

35. automated： 自動化的。

36. server： 服務(wù)器。

37. arise from： 從……產(chǎn)生；HTTP： 超文本傳輸協(xié)議，Hyper Text Transport Protocol的縮寫。

38. bring out： 使顯示；mandatory： 強(qiáng)制性的。