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Is there a free API or some other way to determine what carrier a cell phone number is registered with?
I'd like my application to broadcast text messages without them picking their carrier from a list.
UPDATE:
Interestingly, a coworker found the answer: http://developer.whitepages.com/
UPDATE2:
Well the whitepages license agreement is so restrictive that you can't build an app for it. Any other ideas?
UPDATE3:
At some point, someone removed my Update 2. This puts it back. More importantly as of 10/19/2015 the Terms of Service is still in a state that it should be impossible to legally utilize their services.
Data24-7 offers an API for looking up the carrier for wireless phone numbers. It also returns the email addresses to send SMS and MMS messages to the phone. It's not free, it's $12 per month and $0.006 per lookup.
The link is: http://www.data24-7.com
I know this question is 5 years old already but for those still looking for something, PacificEast (who I work for) offers a Line Identification Append service for US and Canadian numbers that handles local number portability. The service is available as a SOAP API or as a batch service (you send PacificEast your file, they process it and send it back). Besides the carrier, the service will also identify line type (wireless, landline, etc.), whether the number has been ported or not, and some geographic information.
If you are looking for what I was (a way to easily email -> SMS people for a program), I believe the best is going to be to send an email phonenumber#sms-gateway to each carrier for the country. In doing so, the number will only work with one carrier where the number is active at this moment. The other emails will be returned.
If you try to look it up using an online service, you are now relying on the carrier they have in their database, which may be outdated.
You should note that the way to figure out which carrier a number belongs to will be country-specific (though, some countries might use the same scheme, but I'm not sure - I've worked with both the norwegian and swedish portability databases and they're quite different api-wize - and require vpn + authentication).
The information is, at least here, not available to the public - I've seen service providers, network operators and information providers (as in yellow pages) that have access.
But otoh, wouldn't a proper sms gateway service do this for you?
Neustar would be your best bet, they handle lookups, number portability, Do Not Call list, etc... The service is not free but they are the most reliable in the business. Another option might be Twilio
Your biggest problem is that people can now take their numbers with them. So while in the past cell phone carriers had blocks of phone numbers, and probably still do, there's no reliable way to map a specific cell number to a certain carrier.
You can try to screenscrape from a website like http://www.fonefinder.net that does a 'whois' on the number
Here is an example url to scrape. (I verified its really sprint, so that is correct)
http://www.fonefinder.net/findome.php?npa=817&nxx=683&thoublock=2926
I recently wrote one in Ruby that interfaces with the aforementioned FoneFinder.net
https://rubygems.org/gems/FoneFinder --> Ruby Gem page
https://github.com/evinugur/FoneFinder.rb/ --> Github Source
You can use it to get a few fields of data that relate to a cell phone number, but to determine carrier, do this.
require 'FoneFinder'
myPhoneNumber = FoneFinder.new("123-456-7890")
puts myPhoneNumber.carrier
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Any body knows of a good ICD10 API to do diagnostic code lookups that can recommend. I am currently building a simple app to tag patients with medical condition and the idea is to have a lookup API where one can type asthma for example and get back all the different ICD10 codes for asthma
My R package, icd converts ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes to descriptions, in addition to its main function of finding comorbidities. Documentation at https://jackwasey.github.io/icd/ , and code at https://github.com/jackwasey/icd . It does this using the function explain_code. It currently uses ICD-10-CM, i.e. the USA billing adapted ICD-10 code set, which in general is more specific than the canonical WHO version, but does have some areas of less detail.
E.g. WHO ICD-10 has HIV disease resulting in Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia as a subdivision for HIV infection, whereas ICD-10-CM just has HIV. On the other hand, ICD-10-CM has Sucked into jet engine, subsequent encounter whereas the WHO is happy with the terribly vague: Person on ground injured in air transport accident.
The volume of data for all the descriptions is not very high, just handful of megabytes, so although an API may seem convenient, you might consider just having all the data and not having to ping some random server.
I'm going to assume you're ignoring all of the usual stuff around variations of spelling of medical terms, proper terms vs. colloquialisms, labels vs. descriptions, etc. that get to be a pain with term / code finders.
If you want to use a hosted option and are OK with the terms of use, you could use UMLS (https://uts.nlm.nih.gov/home.html#apidocumentation). It's a great resource, but the use case you're describing isn't necessarily what it's intended to address.
Personally - and I usually don't like to roll my own stuff - I'd consider doing your own thing. You could do something focused on your needs and tailor it to any specific behaviors you might want (like preferring specific codes based on an organization - EX: billing preference). You could also probably make it far, far more ... perky ... and address short forms of terms (EX: synonyms like "DVT") or misspellings ("asthma" vs. "athsma"). If you go that route, I'd suggest considering getting your hands on the ICD-10 code info and then mashing it into Elastic Search. You could extend the data by mixing it with other info and really make it hum. And Elastic is wicked fast.
That's just my $0.02, though.
There is a project called "Unified Medical Language System (UMLS)", funded by NIH and apparently they are working on a RESTful Web API for medical terms.
https://documentation.uts.nlm.nih.gov/rest/home.html
I didn't work with their API yest and the samples I am seeing on their website sounds like they are more SNOMED-CT oriented.
The option I would go for is to get the whole ICD-10-CM from CMS and build my own Web API.
https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/2016-ICD-10-CM-and-GEMs.html
you can check the full documentation from WHO https://icd.who.int/icdapi
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What's a good way to capture user stories when you have features that are common across multiple UI modes?
For example, imagine a commercial flight information system, something someone might use to answer the question "When is flight UA211 expected to land?"
As is often the case, the feature of providing schedule information is common underlying functionality, even though you might ask for it via a desktop web browser, a mobile browser (where you want to apply different style to make it more usable), and maybe even via SMS shortcodes.
Now, that certainly could be a single user story ("As someone meeting a traveller, I want to see flight arrival information so that I can be at the airport on time"). But that seems wrong (and would probably be an epic story, anyway).
You can make it separate user stories ("As a desktop user...", "As a smartphone user...", etc), which I've done in the past, and the team just knows to estimate the first one to include all of functionality, and the subsequent ones to estimate only UI implementation.
A third option is to make the underlying functionality a story isolated from the presentation layer, and then have UI stories: "As a flight info system front end, I want to get flight status information so that I can present it to the user", "As a desktop user, I want to see flight arrival... etc". But that seems artificial.
Thoughts?
dwh
I think the problem is that you are trying to tie the UI functionality to the backend too tightly.
For example, if you break it into a simple story:
A user may want to know the flight status given the flight number.
OK, now, given that you implement that, now you can look at which platforms will be calling this, as, one part of agile is not to over-develop, but in this case, if you have a business need to support mobile and desktop devices, then you should look at implementing this as a REST service, since that is the simplest solution for both to work with.
So the REST service solves the first story above.
Now, you will find that there are other specifics for each platform. For example, is there something on the phone that may already have the information, for example, did the traveller go to a trip site and already enter his info, then you may want to go there, assuming that the traveller is in the users contacts.
Or, if the user is just going to enter a flight number and that is it, then why not just do it as a webpage, as that is the simplest approach that supports both concepts. Then, if you have a url that supports GET, and outputs as HTML then you can easily display.
So, my first story was too simple, you may want to consider whether it is possible to return different types of data, so a user may want to have HTML, PDF, json or xml, but for each of these there should be a business need.
Unfortunately it is hard to answer your question as there are too many unknowns, which is why you are having a difficult time. If you ask the wrong question then you do have an epic, but if you can just break it down to a few simple stories then it becomes much easier to solve.
I would recommend the second option.
As you suggested, the first sounds like too much for a single story, and a story should always fit into a single iteration.
With the third option, the big problem is that you aren't delivering business value at the end of the story, which is generally a bad practice.
There are other ways you could split this work though. You could initially develop a very cut-down, barebones version which would work across all clients, and then refine each of them in subsequent stories.
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I have been thinking about setting up some sort of library for all our internally developed software at my organisation. I would like collect any ideas the good SO folk may have on this topic.
I figure, what is the point in instilling into developers the benefits of writing reusable code, if on the next project the first thing developers do is file -> new due to a lack of knowledge of what code is already out there to be reused.
As an added benefit, I think that just by having a library like this would encourage developers to think more in terms of reusability when writing code
I would like to keep this library as simple as possible, perhaps my only two requirements being:
Search facility
Usable for many types of components: assemblies, web services, etc
I see the basic information required on each asset/component to be:
Name & version
Description / purpose
Dependencies
Would you record any more information?
What would be the best platform for this i.e., wiki, forum, etc?
What would make a software library like this successful vs unsuccessful?
All ideas are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Edit:
Found these similar questions after posting:
How do you ensure code is reused correctly?
How do you foster the use of shared components in your organization?
Sounds like there is no central repository of code available at your organization. Depending on what you do this could be because of compatmentalization of the knowledge due to security restrictions, the fact that external vendor code is included in some/all of the solutions, or your company has not yet seen the benefits of getting people to reuse, refactor, and evangelize the benefits of such a repository.
The common attributes of solutions I have seen work at mutiple corporations are a multi pronged approach.
Buy in at some level from the management. Usually it's a CTO/CIO that the idea resonates with and they claim it's a good thing and don't give any money to fund it but they won't sand in your way if they are aware that someone is going to champion the idea before they start soliciting code and consolidating it somewhere.
Some list of projects and the collateral available in english. Seen this on wikis, on sharepoint lists, in text files within a source repository. All of them share the common attribute of some sort of front end search server that allows full text over the description of a solution.
Some common share or repository for the binaries and / or code. Oftentimes a large org has different authentication/authorization methods for many different environments and it might not be practical (or possible logistically) to share a single soure repository - don't get hung up on that aspect - just try to get it to the point that there is a well known share/directory/repository that works for your org.
Always make sure there is someone listed as a contact - no one ever takes code and runs it in production without at lest talking to the previous owner of it - and if you don't have a person they can start asking questions of right away then they might just go ahead and hit file->new.
Unsuccessful attributes I've seen?
N submissions per engineer per time period = lots of crap starts making it's way in
No method of rating / feedback. If there is no means to favorite/rate/give some indicator that allows the cream to rise to the top you don't go back to search it often because you weren't able to benefit from everyone else's slogging through the code that wasn't really very good.
Lack of feedback/email link that contacts the author with questions directly into their email.
lack of ability to categorize organically. Every time there is some super rigid hierarchy or category list that was predetermined everything ends up in "other". If you use tags or similar you can avoid it.
Requirement of some design document to accompany it that is of a rigid format the code isn't accepted - no one can ever agree on the "centralized" format of a design doc and no one ever submits when this is required.
Just my thinking.
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I am new to writing use cases.I heard that Use cases are non-technical expressions .
I have the following task for which i have to write Use case.
(I reduced the requirement for your understanding)
Registered Customer of ABC company logged in to the system with credentials to retrieve
the complete Address of particular service provider.He searches the service provider on TextBox.The System communcates with database and displays the result on monitor.
I am technical guy,
I have to write use case to explain the behavior of the system to the client.
I have written Use case as follows :
Use case Name: Address Locating System
Primary Actor: Customer
Stakeholder: ABC Company
Precondition: Customer Successfully Logged in to the system
Success Scenarios:
Customer Enter the search term in the box provided.
System searches the search terms for matches.
System Supplies the address to the Customer.
Extension Point: Client is informed when no successful match
Post condition: None
Questions.
Is the Use Case described above, correct?
Do really tech people need to write Use cases?
Whenever I need to write a Use Case, I pick up my copy of UML Distilled and use its suggested format. There are variations in the formats, so this isn't the only way. In any case it's a good reference to have on your desk. You might also check out Writing Effective Use Cases; I haven't read that one, though.
If you'd like a free example, see:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?UseCasesMartinFowlerSimpleTextExample
I might avoid the "in the box provided" bit - that's an implementation detail that might change. I might also change 2 to just "System searches for matches."
And yes, technical people do need to write Use Cases readable by non-technical domain experts.
I would say that this is your use case:
Registered Customer of ABC company
logged in to the system with
credentials to retrieve the complete
Address of particular service
provider.He searches the service
provider on TextBox.The System
communcates with database and displays
the result on monitor.
There is no need to do all the formatting, special headings, numbering etc. Give it a title and you are done. For presentation to a client,
I'd use use case diagrams, and not show even this amount of detail unless asked.
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A client using our system has requested that we store the SSNs/SINs of the end users in our database. Currently, we store minimal information about users (name, email address, and optionally, country), so I'm not overly concerned about a security breach - however, I have a suspicion there could be legal issues about storing SSNs and not taking "appropriate" measures to secure them (coming from Australia, this is my first encounter with them). Is this a valid concern?
I also read on the Wikipedia page about SINs (Canada's equivalent to SSNs) that it should ONLY be used when absolutely necessary and definitely shouldn't be used as a general identifier, or similar.
So, are there any potential legal issues about this sort of thing? Do you have any recommendations?
The baseline recommendation would be to:
Inform the user that you are storing their SSN before they use your site/application. Since the request appears to be to collect the information after the fact, the users should have a way to opt out of your system before they log in or before they put in their SSN
Issue a legal guarantee that you will not provide, sell, or otherwise distribute the above information (along with their other personal information of course)
Have them check a checkbox stating that they understand that you really are storing their SSNs
but the most important part would probably be:
Hire a lawyer well-versed with legal matters over the web
Funny thing about SSNs... the law that created them, also clearly defined what they may be used for (basically tax records, retirement benefits, etc.) and what they are not allowed to be used for - everything else.
So the fact that the bank requires your SSN to open a checking account, your ISP asks for it for high speed internet access, airlines demand it before allowing you on a plane, your local grocery/pub keeps a tab stored by your SSN - that is all illegal. Shocking, isn't it...
All the hooha around identity theft, and how easy it is thanks to a single, unprotected "secret" that "uniquely" identifies you across the board (not to mention that its sometimes used as authentication) - should never have been made possible.
Some good warning stated already here.
I'll just add that speaking of SIN (Canada's Social Insurance Number) codes, I believe it's possible to have collisions between a SIN and a SSN (in other words the same number, but two different people/countries). It shouldn't be a surprise since these are separate codification systems, but I somehow can imagine some doing data entry that may be inclined to stick a SIN into a SSN field and vis-versa (think international students in college/university as one instance - I was told by a DBA friend that he saw this happen).
A given information system may be designed to not allow duplicates, and either way, you can see why there might be confusion and data integrity issues (using a SSN column as a unique key? Hmm).
Way too many organizations in the USA use SSNs as unique identifiers for people, despite the well-documented problems with them. Unless your application actually has something to do with government benefits, there's no good reason for you to store SSns.
Given that so many organizations (mis)use them to identify people for things like credit checks, you really need to be careful with them. With nothing more than someone's name, address, and SSN, it's pretty easy to get credit under their name, and steal their identity.
The legal issues are along the lines of getting sued into oblivion for any leak of personal information that contains SSNs.
If it were me I'd avoid them like the plague, or figure out some very very secure way to store them. Additionally (not a legal expert by any extent but..) if you can put in writing somewhere that you are no way responsible if any of this gets out.
At a minimum, you want to be sure that SSNs are never emailed without some protection. I think the built-in "password to open" in Excel is enough, legally. I think email is the weakest link, at least in my industry.
Every now and then, there is a news item "Laptop Stolen: Thousands of SSNs Possibly Compromised." It's my great fear that it could be my laptop. I put all SSN containing files in a PGP-protected virtual drive.
You do have good security on your database, don't you? If not, why not?