One of the nice things about working with foreign languages is that it forces you to 
use a dictionary. In the course of reading some <a href="http://news.yahoo.de">German news</a>
and using an excellent <a href="http://dict.leo.org/">English-German dictionary</a>, I've learned
two good new words, <i><a href="http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=adumbrate">adumbrate</a></i>
and <i><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=nychthemeron">nychthemeron</a></i> (which is not in Webster's
online dictionary ;). 

<p>
At work, the last couple of phone number ports using Local Number Portability
(LNP allows you to keep the same phone number if you change your telephone
company) have gone abysmally bad (customers left stranded without connectivity
for multiple days because our ports of numbers have not propagated to all the
ILECs' switches which service our customers. I'd like to understand why we're
experiencing these issues, and how we can avoid them in the future. As far as I
can tell (currently), the problems are caused by old non-SS7 speaking switches
which are statically configured with call routes. 

<p>
To deal with these supreme inconveniences,
I've found some good resources online that explain how various ILECs' LNP procedures work. They are 
ordered by complexity with 1 being the minimum.

<ol>
<li>

<a href="http://www.worldcom.com/us/tools/lnp/lnp_guide/">
http://www.worldcom.com/us/tools/lnp/lnp_guide/</a>
<li>
<a href="http://www.consumer.att.com/lnp/pdf/lnp_port_out_guide.pdf">
http://www.consumer.att.com/lnp/pdf/lnp_port_out_guide.pdf</a>
<li>
<a href="../docs/att_business_lnp_handbook.pdf">
http://192.20.5.56/local/lnp/downloads/att_business_services_local_number_portability_procedures_handbook.pdf</a>
</ol>

<p>
<hr align=center width=75% noshade>
<p>

Learning? 
<center> 
<a href="http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/gallery/epidemiology/consfigs2.htm">
<img border=0 src="http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/gallery/epidemiology/consfig2.gif"></a>
</center>
<p>

Not Learning? 
<center>
<b><small>Per Capita Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Incidence, United States, 1979-92</b></small><br>
<a href="http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/gallery/fetal/cordero.htm">
<img src="http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/gallery/fetal/CORDERO84.gif" border=0>
</a>
</center>

<p>