From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Mar 20 03:37:17 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i2K8bGa24912; Sat, 20 Mar 2004 03:37:17 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 03:37:17 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200403200837.i2K8bGa24912@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V23 #131 TELECOM Digest Sat, 20 Mar 2004 03:36:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 131 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Lawsuit Regarding Excessive Prison Phone Charges (Danny Burstein) Telephone Switchbox (Will) BellSouth DSL Rate Increase (John McHarry) Lottery's Toll-Free Number Leads to Different Fantasies (E Friedebach) Strange Call (Michael Muderick) Re: New York City 911 Data - Anywhere? (Tony P.) Re: Power Lines Set to Carry Internet to Outlet Near You (John Bartley) Re: Seeking any Advice on 5.8 GHZ Phones (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) VoicePulse Announces Major Expansion (From VOIP News) Telephone/Engineer Tool Kit For Sale (Rick) Re: Line Identifier (Herb Stein) Re: TV Changing Rapidly, Viewers Try to Adjust (Stan) TiVo Will Die (Monty Solomon) After TiVo, Radio Rewound (Monty Solomon) Listen, You'll Hear the Future (Monty Solomon) Akimbo Seeks Obscure Entertainment du jour (Monty Solomon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk is definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Danny Burstein Subject: Lawsuit Regarding Excessive Prison Phone Charges Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 21:27:25 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC New York, NY -- A filing today (11-March-2004) with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asks the agency to examine the harm caused by high phone rates charged to people in prison, and criticizes the relationships between prison administrators and commercial phone companies that give rise to the unusually high rates. "The filing asks the FCC to take two primary steps to remedy this problem: One, require that private prisons replace exclusive telephone service contracts with contracts allowing people in prison to select one of several telephone companies to carry their long distance calls. And two, require private prisons to allow the people they incarcerate the option of making direct dial calls as an alternative to the more expensive collect calls most currently require. [ snippety snip, rest at (watch for line wrap) : http://www.brennancenter.org/presscenter/releases_2004/ pressrelease_2004_0311.html _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: mlliw@joimail.com (Will) Subject: Telephone Switchbox Date: 19 Mar 2004 19:05:27 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Is there a box that when called to normally, it sends through, but when a code such as #22, It brings the caller to a _dialtone_ on another line? I have seen several boxes that do this (for computer/fax/telephone) that when #22 is dialed, they send to a separate place, but they don't give a _dialtone_ on a separate line. Thanks! mlliw PS This would be for when my work has AreaPlus (More non-long distance places) and when I call it and dial #22, I would be able to call a nearby county for free. ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: BellSouth DSL Rate Increase Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 19:05:09 -0500 BellSouth has decided to impose a $2.97 "regulatory cost recovery fee", actually a simple price increase on their DSL service. One of the reasons they site is the federal universal service charge. I don't think this is charged against DSL, or am I wrong? ------------------------------ From: friedebach@yahoo.com (Eric Friedebach) Subject: Lottery's Toll-Free Number Leads to Different Kind of Fantasies Date: 19 Mar 2004 16:44:16 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com March 19, 2004, Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. -- North Dakota lottery officials had to send new stickers to merchants to cover up an embarrassing glitch - a toll-free number on the new lottery's ticket terminals that directed callers to a phone-sex line. The number is for retailers who have lottery questions, and is not intended for public use. Those who called it got a recording that gave them a second number to call, which advertised 'live, one-on-one fantasy talk.' http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4673576.html [Note from Eric: This being Friday, I can almost guarantee there will be no more news items like this for the remainder of the week.] Eric Friedebach /Tonight's Skywarn training cancelled due to... weather?/ ------------------------------ From: Michael Muderick Subject: Strange Call Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 17:44:14 -0500 I got a call at my office today: "I'm sorry, this call was intended for answer by an answering machine." Click. Not worth *69. No caller ID. Any ideas? ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: New York City 911 Data - Anywhere? Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 01:11:10 GMT In article , cstabbert@yahoo.com says: > Hi. I've been trying to locate some specific information on 911 calls > in New York over the last six months to a year. > Ideally, I'd like to be able to get information calls dispatched to > specific precincts broken down by incident type (domestic/assault/ > theft etc.), by time of day, and by day of the week. > Googling around has led to NYPD's CompStat information, which provides > precinct-level crime statistics, but isn't really what I'm looking > for. > It's a tall order, perhaps. So far, calling the NYPD (both main > information and specific precincts) and the New York mayor's office > hasn't gotten me very far (the information doesn't exist, or isn't > public, or would be released only under FOIA). Anybody have a clue > whether this information is out there, and if so, how I'd get it? > If there's a better newsgroup to post this in, or some other forum > that might provide leads, please let me know. You should be able to pull the dispatch records. That is probably the best indicator. I know we tracked both incident and dispatch. It was rather interesting to see how long it took the officers to get on the scene. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 14:32:55 PST From: John Bartley or K7AAY@ARRL.NET Subject: Re: Power Lines Set to Carry Internet to Outlet Near You On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 23:51:23 +1100, Colin Sutton wrote: > A unit of Cinergy Corp. today will become the nation's first electric > utility to offer high-speed Internet service to customers via its > power lines, turning every electrical outlet in homes or offices into > a Web connection. That is, until an amateur radio operator, either in the neighborhood or in a vehicle driving by, transmists with as little as one watt of power on HF bands. The Enrons pushing BPL are doing so under Part 15 of the Communications Act, and have no license from the FCC to do so. Where hams have tested (Austria, Japan, and now here), they have found that BPL interferes with amateur radio and shortwave reception. Conversely, transmitting on licensed ham frequencies has been shown to interfere with BPL, at power levels much lower than the maximum permitted 1,500 watts. It should be noted those frequency allocations are a matter of law, as amateurs are the primary users of many HF frequencies. This is confirmed by international treaty. Those HF frequencies are reliable at bouncing off the inner ionosphere, and are the key to hams being able to reach far away locations without satellite. Other licensed users of HF, such as commercial shortwave broadcasters and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have also noted the technical weaknesses of BPL. Therefore, BPL may be offered, but its reliability is in question. John E. Bartley, III K7AAY telcom admin, PDX - Views mine. celdata cjb net - Handheld Cellular Data FAQ *This post quad-ROT13 encrypted. Reading it violates the DMCA.* ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. <73115.1041@compuserve.com> Subject: Re: Seeking any Advice on 5.8 GHZ Phones Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 17:15:24 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com burris wrote: > Yes, all that I have seen, and I do beta testing for a few > manufacturers of 5.8, use 2.4 from handset to base and 5.8 from base > to handset. Marketing?? I suspect a combination of cost and marketing. The higher the frequency, the smaller the antenna length needs to be. In the handset, that becomes a marketing factor as you can eliminate the antenna. The perceived "betterness" of a higher number for frequency also comes into play. It doesn't matter in the base and there's no need to spend the money ... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 19:19:23 -0500 From: VOIP News Subject: VoicePulse Announces Major Expansion [Pat: Please conceal the "From:" e-mail address if you use this. -Jack] http://www.voxilla.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=59&mode=nested&order=0&thold=0 Inching Westward VOXILLA.COM News Report New Jersey-based Voice over IP service provider VoicePulse will be tripling the number of rate centers it serves throughout the United States over the next two weeks. The expansion effort, says VoicePulse CEO and President Ravi Sakaria, is part of the company's goal to cover the 48 continental United States by the end of 2004. Today (Mar. 19), VoicePulse began offering service in California's populous Los Angeles County, the first time the company has offered service on the Pacific coast. By early April, Sakaria said, VoicePulse will be adding service to 1,800 rate centers throughout the country. Before today, the company served a total of 900 rate centers in 14 states, primarily on the East Coast. Full story at: http://www.voxilla.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=59&mode=nested&order=0&thold=0 If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VoIPnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: VoIPnews-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ------------------------------ From: rixride@hotmail.com (Rick) Subject: Telephone/Engineer Tool Kit For Sale Date: 19 Mar 2004 19:04:28 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3803843729 Used Engieering Tool Case for sale, Cheap! Thanks, Rick ------------------------------ From: Herb Stein Subject: Re: Line Identifier Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 21:55:15 -0600 Steve Griffin wrote in message news:telecom23.129.5@telecom-digest.org: > I do residential structured wiring. When I'm connecting to the NID, > it's nice to know which line I'm connecting to. In most areas around > here (Maryland, DC, VA), 811 will get me a recording of the line I'm > calling from. In some areas, this won't work. I was told there is a > universal number that will work, but I don't now what it is. Can > anyone help? Try 1 888 902-9998 Herb Stein herb@herbstein.com ------------------------------ From: Stan Subject: Re: TV Changing Rapidly, Viewers Try to Adjust Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 04:28:50 GMT Organization: RoadRunner - Carolina The more things change, the more they stay the same. These days, 'The Sopranos' is called a 'limited run' series because it only runs 13 weeks. In the 50's and 60's, there were no VCRs and hardly any re-runs. You watched a television show for 39 weeks from September to May. For the other 13 weeks, there were 'Summer replacement series'. Every year there was a new batch of summer replacement series, usually low cost musical/comedy/variety shows. 'Glen Campbell' and 'The Hudson Brothers' come to mind as examples. In the 21st Century, 'The Apprentice', 'Survivor', and other 'limited run' series run approximately 13 episodes, often bloated by one or two clip shows and a recap show (with 'lost' footage). 'The Sopranos' runs 13 weeks at a time, disappears for a year, and comes back when there's a new story to tell. Sounds more like a Summer Replacement to me. -Stan Monty Solomon wrote in message news:telecom23.122.1@telecom-digest.org: > By DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer > NEW YORK (AP) -- The natural rhythms of television used to be as > dependable as leaves sprouting in spring and falling in autumn. > Broadcast networks would premiere new shows in mid-September, then > replace failures when the weather turned cold. Summer was rerun > season. Prime-time schedules rarely changed. > > Those days are long gone. > Series pop up and disappear anytime, dispatched around the schedule > like chess pieces. Some shows are rerun all the time, others never. > You can't even count on a show to start at the top of an hour anymore. > For ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, plus upstarts WB and UPN, the landscape is > changing rapidly. The reasons include viewers' lackluster response to > the current season, cable continuing to grab viewers and awards, and > the hyper-competitiveness of TV executives. > For viewers, their trusted TV sets can be confusing. Here's a look at > how things are changing and why: > http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?story=200403092003_APO_V0089 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 02:09:14 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TiVo Will Die By Jim Louderback March 18, 2004 PC Magazine It's always hard to write an obituary, especially when the subject is still alive. It's especially hard for me, because I love the little guy like a brother. But, alas, TiVo will die. I was one of the first reviewers to get my hands on an early TiVo box. I compared TiVo with ReplayTV, and although I really wanted to like ReplayTV, TiVo won my heart over. It wasn't the cutesy mascot, although that helped. Rather, it was the drop-dead simplicity and ease of use that even the first version evinced. And to top everything off, TiVo came with the world's best remote control ever, even more astounding for such a fiendishly complex device. Shaped like a dog bone, it was simple to use, easy to understand, and a pleasure to hold. The Wall Street Journal's arbiter of tech-Walt Mossberg-still thinks ReplayTV was better, and we've argued over the brilliance of the remote. But the acid test, for me, was when I plopped TiVo down in front of my computer-averse wife. She took to it like a duck to water. So much, in fact, that I soon purchased another one just so I could watch what I wanted to see. But TiVo today has a problem-and it's not what you think. Most folks point to TiVo's inability to convince consumers just how cool the product is and why they need one. Yes, it's hard to describe why a personal video recorder (PVR) is better than a VCR-until you use one. Give a TiVo to your friends for a month and you'll have to pry the remote out of their cold, dead hands. ReplayTV faces the same challenge, but that's not where the real threat lies. Instead, a convergence of three separate trends is conspiring to kill off TiVo. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1550772,00.asp TiVo Will Die Posted by michael on Friday March 19, @01:13PM from the tivo-is-dying-etc.-etc. dept. http://slashdot.org/articles/04/03/19/1749233.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 02:21:52 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: After TiVo, Radio Rewound By DAVID POGUE YOU'VE heard of occupational hazards like tennis elbow, runner's knee, footballer's ankle. But those ailments pale next to the agony of the TiVo twitch. This recently diagnosed condition is exhibited by owners of digital video recorders like TiVo and ReplayTV. Having become addicted to the seven-second replay button -- an essential movie-watching tool in this era of special effects and mumbled dialogue -- TiVo twitch sufferers are often seen reflexively pressing a nonexistent seven-second replay button, even when they're not in front of the television. Their brains helplessly fire the deeply ingrained "Let me catch that again" command when they're listening to the car radio, enduring a flaky cellphone connection or savoring a hard-won apology from a spouse. Truth is, you can't blame the brain for misfiring. It's bizarre that five years into the digital video-recorder era, you still can't buy a digital VCR for radio. Why has the electronics industry developed so many machines that let us time-shift Dr. Phil and "Saturday Night Live," but so few that do so for Dr. Joy Browne and "Science Friday"? Actually, there is one such device. Radio YourWay (pogoproducts.com) looks at first glance like a pocket-size (2.2 by 3.9 by 0.7 inches) AM-FM transistor radio, which, in part, it is. But it also contains a built-in timer, so that you can set up a schedule for recording radio broadcasts. Programming it is exactly as easy -- or as difficult -- as programming a VCR, except that it uses a military-style 24-hour clock instead of AM and PM designations. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/26/technology/circuits/26stat.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 02:50:22 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Listen, You'll Hear the Future Radio stations, receivers get in tune with digital age By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 3/1/2004 It's been 101 years since Guglielmo Marconi made this country's first trans-Atlantic radio broadcast from South Wellfleet on Cape Cod, but radio continues to be a vibrant focus of technological innovation. After years of development, in recent months three Boston stations have begun broadcasting digital versions of their signals that can offer CD-quality music as well as streaming text information such as song titles and news and weather headlines to display screens on special digital receivers. Another 10 area stations plan to offer digital -- sometimes called ''high-definition radio" -- this year, joining nearly 300 stations nationwide that have licensed the technology. Japanese radio maker Kenwood in mid-January rolled out the first digital radio receiver, a $350 unit that includes a display screen similar to the ''crawler" at the bottom of cable television news channels. JVC and Panasonic are expected to introduce digital car radios in the next 30 to 60 days. The sets would all pick up conventional broadcasts when digital versions are unavailable. http://www.boston.com/business/markets/articles/2004/03/01/listen_youll_hear_the_future/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 02:14:29 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Akimbo Seeks Obscure Entertainment du jour By Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET News.com Ever have a desire to watch first-run movies from Nigeria, videos on fishing for Walleye Pike or see someone deliver the nightly news while naked? Akimbo might be for you. The San Mateo, Calif.-based start-up will launch a set-top box and subscription service in May that will offer a chance for home viewers to obtain programs and entertainment that they otherwise might not see on cable TV channels or networks. The programming, for instance, will include short films that have been nominated for awards at the Cannes Film Festival or the Oscars; features from the Billiard Club Network; music videos from India; extreme sports documentaries; and the Naked News, described as "the first Internet news program to present the news with nude newscasters, delivering international, national, sports and entertainment news together with health and fitness, movie reviews and in-the-street interviews." In addition, Akimbo expects to deliver first-run films on a pay-per-view basis from studios such as Lions Gate Films, which made the recently released film "The Cooler." Akimbo CEO Josh Goldman and other company executives previously worked at MySimon, a shopping site owned by CNET Networks, publisher of News.com. The idea behind Akimbo is to create a TiVo-like service that doesn't have to rely on the programming from media conglomerates, said Steve Shannon, the company's executive vice president of sales and marketing and an alumni of ReplayTV. http://news.com.com/2100-1041-5176273.html ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #131 ******************************