From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Sep 20 17:45:51 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id i8KLjoW04005; Mon, 20 Sep 2004 17:45:51 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 17:45:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200409202145.i8KLjoW04005@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 #436 TELECOM Digest Mon, 20 Sep 2004 17:46:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 436 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #449, September 20, 2004 (Angus TeleManagement) More SPAM About VoIP (Justin Time) Packet8 Users -- Curious About the Service (Joe) Net Calls Put Regulators in a Quandary (Jack Decker) The Voice Over IP Insurrection (Jack Decker) A Backup Battery For Cell Phones (Eric Friedebach) The Wal-Mart Supremacy (Monty Solomon) Re: USB to Serial Convertor as COM1 (Scott Dorsey) Re: DIRECWAY VPN Accelerator (T. Sean Weintz) Re: Cannot Switch Local Telco Without Disconnecting Broadband (Sullivan) TouchTone Patent (John Centralia) Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? (Dave Close) Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? (Dave Garland) Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? (burris) Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? (Michael Covington) Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? (Robert Bonomi) Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? (JP) Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? (Lisa Hancock) 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 11:03:14 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #449, September 20, 2004 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 449: September 20, 2004 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Rogers Buys Microcell ** Aliant Strikers Accept Contract ** 26 Applicants Seek New Spectrum ** CRTC VoIP Hearing Starts Tomorrow ** Area Code 250 Filling Up Fast ** Peel Police Issue VoIP 9-1-1 Warning ** Nortel Upgrades PBX Software ** Bell to Outsource Repair Call Centres ** Nortel Lowers Revenue Forecast ** Ex-Schooley Mitchell Consultants Reorganize ** Yak Doubles Sales ** Total Telcom Upgrades Fibre ** A Buyer's Guide to VoIP Services ============================================================ ROGERS BUYS MICROCELL: Microcell Communications has agreed to be acquired by Rogers Wireless in an all-cash deal totaling $1.4 billion. Microcell's Board will recommend to shareholders that they accept the $35/share offer. When the acquisition is complete, Rogers will be Canada's largest wireless carrier, with 5.1 million customers. ** Microcell CEO Andre Tremblay says the deal includes "the continuation of the Fido brand in the marketplace." ALIANT STRIKERS ACCEPT CONTRACT: 76% of the 4,300 members of the Council of Atlantic Telecommunications Unions have voted to end their five-month strike and accept a new three-year contract. (see Telecom Update #447) ** Published reports say that a majority of union members in Newfoundland voted against the deal, because it does not provide wage parity with the other three provinces. 26 APPLICANTS SEEK NEW SPECTRUM: Twenty-six applicants have qualified to bid for the 2300/3500 MHz spectrum licences that weren't sold in last February's auction (see Telecom Update #445). ** Over half of the available licences received multiple bids, and so will be auctioned. Another 30% received only one bid and will be sold at the opening price, unless the bid is withdrawn this week. ** Bidders had to submit deposits that set the maximum each may bid. The biggest deposits came from Bell Canada, Distributel, Mipps, Rogers Wireless, Tele-Mobile (Telus), UBS Wireless, and 4253311 Canada Inc. http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/sf02026e.html http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/sf02009e.html CRTC VoIP HEARING STARTS TOMORROW: The CRTC's public hearing on VoIP Telephony (Public Notice 2004-2) is being held from Tuesday to Thursday this week in Gatineau, Quebec. (See Telecom Update #428, 438) An audio feed of the hearing will be webcast from the CRTC site. www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/process/2004/sep21_t.htm AREA CODE 250 FILLING UP FAST: The latest numbering resources survey indicates that British Columbia Area Code 250 will run out of prefixes in June 2009, three years earlier than previously forecast. The Canadian Numbering Administrator will hold a Relief Planning Meeting on October 21-22, in Kelowna, B.C. www.cnac.ca/npa_data.htm#NPA250 PEEL POLICE ISSUE VoIP 9-1-1 WARNING: A press release issued by the Peel Regional Police Service warns that 9-1-1 calls made from broadband-IP phones may not reach the appropriate 9-1-1 call centre or transmit caller location information. It cites a recent case of a 9-1-1 call made from London, Ontario, that went to Toronto and appeared to the 9-1-1 operator to be a call from Toronto. ** The police recommend that 9-1-1 callers use a conventional phone, or ensure that their VoIP provider provides access to the local 9-1-1 centre and provides the correct number and address. NORTEL UPGRADES PBX SOFTWARE: On September 13, Nortel introduced new releases of its Communications Server 1000 IP-PBX and Multimedia CS 5100. It also launched a new large-enterprise product, CS 2100, and new IP telephones. ** Nortel has retired the Succession, Optera, and Shasta brand names. Most products will now be identified purely by function. BELL TO OUTSOURCE REPAIR CALL CENTRES: Bell Canada is outsourcing 300 jobs in its repair (6-1-1) operation to Expertel in Quebec and Minacs in Ontario. The Canadian Telephone Employees Association has previously filed grievances against Bell for sending work to those companies. NORTEL LOWERS REVENUE FORECAST: Nortel Networks says that its third quarter revenues will be lower than those of the previous quarter and that revenue growth this year will trail the industry as a whole. (See Telecom Update #445, 448) EX-SCHOOLEY MITCHELL CONSULTANTS REORGANIZE: A group of former franchisees of the Schooley Mitchell agency, which went bankrupt in March, have organized themselves as Abilita Inc, with head offices in Dallas and Oakville, Ontario. (See Telecom Update #427) YAK DOUBLES SALES: Yak Communications says its sales for the year ended June 30 were US$80.0 million, double those of the preceding year. Net income per share rose 63%. TOTAL TELCOM UPGRADES FIBRE: Total Telcom Fibre says it has begun installing new switches and routers to double the capacity of its fibre network between Edmonton, Alberta, and Fort St. John, British Columbia. A BUYER'S GUIDE TO VoIP SERVICES: In the new issue of Telemanagement, Ian Angus compares Canadian broadband-IP telephone services from nine suppliers, and John Riddell compares IP-Centrex offerings available from three Canadian carriers. ** Also in this issue: Designing Converged Networks for Manageability, including a checklist for troubleshooting converged nets. ** To receive Telemanagement every month--including unlimited access to Telemanagement's extensive online content--visit www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub.html or phone 800-263-4415 ext 500. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2004 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: More SPAM About VoIP Date: 20 Sep 2004 07:11:35 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Press Release Source: 8x8, Inc. Internet Telephone Service Offers Added Measure of Security for Residents of Hurricane Prone Regions Monday September 20, 8:15 am ET SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- While thousands of south Florida residents lost telephone service in the aftermath of Hurricane Frances, at least one Boca Raton resident was grateful that he had decided to switch to a VoIP (voice over internet protocol) internet phone service which, despite the severity of the storm, continued to function when other phone services went down. ****** What the article doesn't state is the phone only works when there is electrical power for the converter/interface and the broadband connection is still up. In some of the areas nonessential service was limited to better serve the public safety and public healthcare groups. Now, I have friends in Pensacola, they survived the storm with little damage to their house, but their electricity is out and they are running a generator for essential items like a refrigerator and microwave. Their phone service is out - as well as their broadband connection. So, VoIP telephone service doesn't continue to function in their instance, but the cell phone works. So, the cellular phone company could write a press release telling the world how "traditional telephone service, including VoIP" failed and the day was saved by AT&T/Nextel/Sprint/T-Mobile/Verizon or whatever carrier happened to write the blurb. Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: valleyview@mail2world.com (Joe) Subject: Packet8 Users - Curious About the Service Date: 20 Sep 2004 06:39:17 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Any packet8 users out there - - Curious about what Packet8 is REALLY charging. I emailed them and get NO REPLY to my questions. From their terms and conditions I see: ... "Such charges shall include activation fees, monthly service fees, shipping charges, disconnection fees, equipment charges, toll charges, taxes and any other applicable charges" ... I'm curious what "activation fee", shipping fee and what fee they charge for the black box (hardware) is ? Also, what taxes and junk fees appear on each bill. I'm not comfortable giving my credit card company to any company who is not totally upfront and posts ALL their fees and charges UPFRONT in bold on their homepage. Packet8 doesn't seem to do this. Joe please cc me any answer to email below, thanks valleyview mail2world.com ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 14:05:23 -0400 Subject: Net Calls Put Regulators in a Quandary Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/business-0/1095573106271750.xml FCC considers whether they are telecom or information service BY JOELLE TESSLER Star-Ledger Staff Internet phone calls could be the biggest thing to hit telecommunications since Congress began deregulating the industry in 1996. Rock-bottom prices and features such as the ability to check voicemail online and make local phone calls from anywhere in the country promise to draw millions of callers onto the Internet. But one big question mark is hanging over this booming market: how to regulate it. Should Internet phone ventures, like traditional phone companies, be forced to offer 911 service and accommodations for the disabled? Should they be required to build wiretapping capabilities into their networks? What taxes and consumer protections should apply? The Federal Communications Commission, state utilities regulators and Congress are walking a fine line as they sort out these thorny issues. They don't want to compromise public safety or allow the Internet to become a hiding place for criminals and terrorists. But they also seek to avoid costly regulatory burdens that would unduly hinder the market's growth. "It's clear that neither legislators or regulators want to see the technology handcuffed because it's good for consumers," said Stephen Greenberg, chief executive of Net2Phone, a Newark company that provides cable companies with technology to offer their customers Internet telephone service. "It's a quality product at a cheap price." Full story at: http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/business-0/1095573106271750.xml How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 14:57:42 -0400 Subject: The Voice Over IP Insurrection Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.gigaom.com/2004/09/the_voice_over_i.php [Om Malik writes:] The Voice over IP Insurrection Daniel Berninger, an old friend, a seriously smart guy and VoIP guru of sorts, and more recently senior analyst, for Tier1 Research, has been a great man to bounce ideas off. He and I have chatted about many things, and each time I come away learning something new. So last week he argued, "in the battle between Bellheads and Netheads, we're all Netheads now." Could not agree more. Here is his long missive on the VoIP insurrection, the best and most definitive essay you will ever read on this technology, where it is headed and why it is important. This is the second of my guest columns series where I bring the experts who know a thing or two about their respective areas of expertise. What just happened? The $3 billion dollar budget at Bell Laboratories did not include a single project addressing the use of data networks to transport voice when VocalTec Communications released InternetPhone in February 1995. As of 2004, every project at the post-divestiture AT&T Labs and Lucent Technologies Bell Labs reflects the reality of voice over Internet Protocol. Every major incumbent carrier, and the largest cable television providers, in the United States has announced a VoIP program. And even as some upstart carriers have used VoIP to lower telephony prices dramatically, even more radical innovators threaten to lower the cost of a phone call to zero—to make it free. The VoIP insurrection over the last decade marks a milestone in communication history no less dramatic than the arrival of the telephone in 1876. We know data networks and packetized voice will displace the long standing pre-1995 world rooted in Alexander Graham Bell's invention. It remains uncertain whether telecom's incumbent carriers and equipment makers will continue to dominate or even survive as the information technology industry absorbs voice as a simple application of the Internet. The roots of the VoIP insurrection trace back to four synchronistic events in 1968. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled MCI could compete with AT&T using microwave transport on the Chicago to St. Louis route. The same year, the FCC's Carterfone decision forced AT&T to allow customers to attach non-Western Electric equipment, such as new telephones, and modems, to the telephone network. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency issued a contract to Bolt Beranek and Newman for a precursor to the Internet. And in July 1968, Andrew Grove and Gordon Moore founded Intel. Innovation in the communication sector remained the proprietary right of AT&T for most the 20th century, but events in 1968 breached the barriers that kept the telecom and information technology industries apart. For the first two-thirds of the 20th century, AT&T had manned Berlin Wall separating telecommunications and computing, but eventually, these two enormous technology tracks would be unified. Full story at: http://www.gigaom.com/2004/09/the_voice_over_i.php ------------------------------ From: friedebach@yahoo.com (Eric Friedebach) Subject: A Backup Battery For Cell Phones Date: 20 Sep 2004 12:48:50 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Arik Hesseldahl, 09.20.04, Forbes.com NEW YORK - A mobile phone is useless when its battery runs out, and as luck would often have it, there's rarely a convenient AC power outlet or even a car cigarette lighter handy when it does. A convenient little product called Cellboost was created for moments like this. It looks a bit like a Zippo lighter, but is slightly smaller, and if you plug one into your wireless phone, it can charge the battery long enough to talk for up to an hour or so. http://www.forbes.com/2004/09/20/cx_ah_0920tentech.html Eric Friedebach /"Andrew Blew Me" restroom graffiti, Miami, September 1992/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 02:27:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Wal-Mart Supremacy The giant retailer's introduction of RFID technology is forcing other supermarket chains to catch up. But fiddling with data may not be the best survival strategy in the Wal-Mart future. By Sam Williams Sept. 20, 2004 | What do you call it when a company announces a multibillion-dollar technology initiative with no preexisting infrastructure, no software code and an 18-month deadline to delivery? In most cases you'd call it a recipe for disaster. In the case of Wal-Mart, a company with the power to force others to follow its technology agenda, you'd simply call it "tough love." That two-word description, according to a January article in Computerworld Magazine, is exactly how Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott summed up his company's philosophy on radio frequency identification (RFID) in a speech to suppliers last winter. For those who missed it, the company sent out letters to top suppliers last June requesting that all pallets and boxes come equipped with RFID tags by Jan. 1, 2005, a request designed to facilitate better warehouse tracking. Suppliers so far seem to have gotten the message. This June, a year after the initial letter campaign requesting 100 participants, Wal-Mart reported that 137 companies had climbed aboard. http://salon.com/tech/feature/2004/09/20/walmart/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All I know is that Walmart has generally wreaked havoc with the existing businesses in almost every small town where they have located. Here in Independence, KS where I am located, Walmart came to town in the year 2000, built a new, very large supercenter west of town. They started building from scratch, and got the place open late in the year of 2000. The first thing they did was get in a big discussion with City of Independence over getting utilities there (the property was formerly *not* in the city, on the north side of Main Street that far west. The city agreed to annex the area. If you do downtown to shop these days, the stores are mostly empty of customers; but the parking lot at Walmart is full and running over all the time. They originally had been working along with the Chamber of Commerce here in town by honoring our 'Main Street Independence' gift certificates. All the stores downtown sell and honor those gift certificates (which are processed through the Chamber of Commerce offices); its a promotion to help build up business downtown. One day Walmart said they were not going to honor those certificates any longer. One hope for our little downtown area is that Walgreens is going to open a store here, and it will be located more or less downtown, at 10th and Maple Streets. I *never* go to Walmart unless there is no other place *downtown* to get what I need, then I go to Walmart, get what I want and leave. We used to have *three* major grocery stores in town, (Safeway, Dillons, and Country Mart.) One by one, Walmart chased them out of business here. I woke up one day and the *one remaining grocery store* had closed (Country Mart), so then even the Walmart haters had to go to Walmart to get their groceries until a few months later when the Oklahoma chain of stores called 'Marvins' decided to take on Walmart and opened their store in the old Country Mart/Safeway location. Every store downtown offers delivery service and charge accounts, except for guess who? Walmart, which does neither. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: USB to Serial Convertor as COM1 Date: 20 Sep 2004 10:11:47 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article , Leander Vanhulle wrote: > I have an external serial port connected with usb on my computer. My > original port is broken. How do you let it work under DOS as COM1, > with Windows its no problem but it doesn't work under DOS. You will need to find MS-DOS drivers for your USB card. I would be very, very surprised if they exist. When MS-DOS was last being updated regularly, USB did not exist. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: DIRECWAY VPN Accelerator Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 12:08:57 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Monty Solomon wrote: > Hughes Network Systems Introduces Satellite-based Virtual Private > Network Solution > DIRECWAY(R) VPN Accelerator Answers Growing Demand for > Teleworking in Both Urban and Rural Locations > GERMANTOWN, Md., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Network Systems, > Inc. (HNS), the world's leading provider of satellite broadband > solutions, which it markets under the DIRECWAY(R) brand, today > introduced a satellite-based virtual private network (VPN) > acceleration technology. Based on the IPsec standard, DIRECWAY VPN > Accelerator enables enterprises and government agencies to implement > uniformly efficient and secure, wide area broadband networks, reaching > teleworker employees at any location, urban or rural. LOL. No amount of acceleration will get over Satellites latencey problems, which makes satellite almost useless for VPN deployments. Duh. My condolences to any/all who decide to try this service. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Cannot Switch Local Telco Without Disconnecting Comcast Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 06:45:18 GMT In article , tetromino@gmail.com says: > I live in Maryland, US. Currently I use Verizon local phone line and > Comcast high-speed internet (cable modem). I decided to switch to > Cavalier Telephone for local phone service to save something like $13 > per month (Verizon's prices are quite high). Cavalier techs tell me > that they can't switch me because Verizon won't release my number > until I disconnect from Comcast HSI. Is Cavalier lying? Can a cable / > cable internet subscription affect whether I can switch local > telephone providers? Is there some sort of a deal between Comcast and > Verizon for preserving their monolopolies? It sounds like Comcast, in your area, may be reselling Verizon DSL, carried on your phone line, under the name of Comcast high speed internet. I have no idea whether Comcast actually does this, but if they do, it would explain the issue. If your phone line has DSL on it, you will generally not be able to port your number. If you could, the DSL would come to a crashing halt upon porting. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA Delete nospam from my address and it won't work. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But, Mr. Sullivan, if what you say is true, then couldn't he let the Comcast 'high speed' be disconnected, transfer his service to Cavalier as desired, *then* get the Comcast 'high speed' service reconnected via Cavalier? Maybe not; I do know that TerraWorld resells SBC DSL service, under the TerraWorld name, but if an SBC customer jumps ship and goes with Prairie Steam, SBC flatly refuses to allow TerraWorld to contine the arrangement with that customer. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Centralia Subject: TouchTone Patent Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 14:48:55 -0500 Would like to find the patent number for DTMF / TouchTone, probably issued in the 1940-50 time frame. Thanks. John B. Mow CENTRALIA SYSTEMS INC. 3415 Custer Rd - Ste 132 Plano, TX 75023 214-550-6060 214-550-5959 Fax ------------------------------ From: dave@compata.com (Dave Close) Subject: Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? Date: 19 Sep 2004 23:48:54 -0700 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California TELECOM Digest Editor writes: > Maybe 80 decimal is some number we would recognize in hexadecimal... Well, it's 0x50. You do know that Christmas and Halloween fall on the same day? (25/dec == 31/oct) The Julian calendar, developed by and named for Julius Caesar, started numbering months with what we now call March. That's why the last four months of our modern calendar have names when are associated with the Latin prefices for seven through ten. That's also why February, the last month for Julius, is the one with the odd number of days. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." - Pericles Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "Politics is the business of getting dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 power and privilege without dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu possessing merit." - P. J. O'Rourke [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well I do recall reading/discussing how New Year's Eve/Day occured on March 21/22. That is to say, March 21 some year was followed by March 22 the next year. Their idea was that our new beginnings should occur with the start of the new growing season rather than in the dead of winter as we do it now. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 02:22:14 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > I thought maybe there was some hexadecimal numbering thoughts > involved in this thing about 12 rows, but in that case, how do you > get 80 columns wide? Maybe 80 decimal is some number we would > recognize in hexadecimal, but now I am confused and best quit for > the night. Can anyone write to us and explain the signficance and > history of 80 columns wide by 12 (or 24) rows deep? It surely goes back to the days when hexadecimal was the last thought in anyone's mind. It was in 1928 that IBM increased the number of columns on a card to 80. The original (1890) cards from Herman Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company (which would later become IBM) had 20 columns x 12 rows (providing enough rows for the 10 decimal digits plus two additional rows to indicate "minus", and in combination with a second punch to allow coding alphabetic information). The number of columns increased several times through the years, ending at 80 in 1928. Early IBM computers used 36-bit words, and could only accept 72 columns of data; the remaining 8 were often used for card sequence, so if the deck of cards was dropped it could be mechanically sorted back into order. http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/oldpunch.html and other pages on that fine website. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I thought that the grandfather of William Burroughs (a prominent author), who founded the Burroughs Adding Machine Company (you know, punch the buttons, yank the crank lever back and forth) was the founder (or one of them) of IBM. That's what William Burroughs claims in his book 'Naked Lunch' when he casually mentions his grandfather. William Burroughs said he was still living off the largesse in his grandfather's trust fund. PAT] ------------------------------ From: burris Subject: Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 06:21:39 -0400 TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Julian Macassey wrote to the Digest fifteen years ago and asked about > the ' # ' key on telephones. There were several messages on it at > the time, then about nine years ago, in 1995 we had a more or less > definitive answer. For those of you who have wondered about this key > which is located directly below the 9 on telephone keypads, here are > the answers we printed at the time, as per our archives. > Subject: Octothorpe source > Date: 19 Nov 88 15:25:08 PST (Sat) > From: ucla-an!bongo!julian@ee.UCLA.EDU (julian macassey) > I am looking for an authoritative reference for the term > OCTOTHORPE. > An octothorpe is an # , which is what is usually referred to as > "the pound sign" or "the hash mark", sometimes as "the number > symbol". I know the correct term is octothorpe, I have seen references > to it in some Bell docs, I have even seen a news clipping years ago > that mentioned it. > My problem is that every now and again, some smart Alec asks me > where it comes from. I have even been accused of making it up. No > dictionary I have seen has ever given me a definition. Yes I have > looked it up in the 24 Volume Oxford English Dictionary. I have > checked the encyc Brit and alleged Telecommunications Dictionaries. > I do know that Octo means eight and Thorpe means beam. So the word > has some roots. > There is a good term paper here for someone. > Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo voice (213) 653-4495 This site gives good iformation on the topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octothorpe burris ------------------------------ From: Michael A. Covington Subject: Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 09:39:09 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory (http://www.speedfactory.net) The Don McPherson story sounds too good to be true, unless Mr. McPherson can confirm it himself. (I'm a linguist and have studied a lot of etymologies; elaborate stories like that are almost invariably false. An analogous one is the story that attributes the name "ham radio" to the initials of 3 people or 3 ships.) So I would urge further investigation. I had heard -- but can no longer trace the source -- that an "octothorpe" is a mapmaker's symbol for 8 fields around a village common. "Thorpe" means "village," not "beam." Despite being well known to us, the word "octothorpe" seems to be extremely obscure; it is in neither the OED (online edition) nor the Jargon File. I can, however, clear up one other detail. # is called "pound sign" not because of any connection with British pounds, but because, in industrial use 75 or so years ago, it denoted pounds of weight. To this day "24#" means 24-pound paper, for instance. The poundage of paper, in turn, is the weight of some specified quantity - I don't recall at the moment exactly how much. Michael Covington Associate Director, Artificial Intelligence Center The University of Georgia - www.ai.uga.edu/mc ------------------------------ Organization: Robert Bonomi Consulting Subject: Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 13:51:34 +0000 In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: (in 2004) It occurs to me that so much > of what we dealt with in the past was always 80 columns wide (as a > computer monitor is today) and 12 rows deep (as IBM punchcards were > designed), but twice that, or 24 rows for computer terminals today. So > if we inserted an IBM punchcard in a computer to dial a phone number, > (and in fact, early 'speed dial' phones used cards you stuck in a slot > in top of them did they not?), then our modern day telephone symbol > '*' would be the equivilent of the 'high punch' on the old IBM > punchcards would it not, or the 'eleventh row' and the modern day > telephone symbol '#' would be the 'X' punch or 'twelveth row' on the > old IBM punchcards. I thought maybe there was some hexadecimal > numbering thoughts involved in this thing about 12 rows, but in that > case, how do you get 80 columns wide? Maybe 80 decimal is some > number we would recognize in hexadecimal, but now I am confused and > best quit for the night. Can anyone write to us and explain the > signficance and history of 80 columns wide by 12 (or 24) rows deep? > PAT] The 80-columns wide 'standard' for a video display is simply a reflection of the 80-column width of a standard punch-card. Because, in the 'commercial' environment, 'input' software *was* standardized at 80 columns -- directly attributable to the punch-card antecedents. Many early 'budget' video terminals for home/hobby use did *not* show 80 columns -- it was difficult to achieve that many characters across a standard TV receiver display -- even with a 'video' input (separate from the 'RF' antenna input). The 'better' devices did manage to show 64 characters. often with only 16 lines of text though -- a trade-off to match the display data to the _exact_ size of available memory chips -- you could to 16x64 in a 1kbyte memory; with -simple- addressing logic. 24x80 required an absolute minimum of a 2kbyte memory, and it took a full 3kbytes if you had to have every 'line' of text start on a 'power-of-two' bound. As to 'why punch cards were 80 columns', the answer is probably similar to "why railroad tracks are 4' 8-1/2" apart." Standard lettering for a _lot_ of business applications is 10 characters/inch. A punch-card is 8-1/2" wide. between the cut corner, and the rounded edge, you have just over 8" available for the printing on the top. 0.1" spacing was also a common unit for a lot of kinds of electro-mechanical production. I suspect that 'ease of manufacture' to that unit of measure played into the decision. 80 cols was *not* universal, though. Burroughs used a 96-column card, that was less than 1/2 the size, side-to-side, of the Hollerith card. They would _completely_ fit in a shirt-pocket. The 24 rows of text, on the other hand, is directly traceable to the timing standards employed in a standard (TV set type ) video display. Of the nominal 525 lines in the raster, only 484 are 'visible'. The remainder are consumed by the 'retrace' and vertical blanking. The standard TV signal is 'interlaced', with adjacent scan-lines occurring in alternate 'fields' of the frame. A 'one scan-line' height "dot" is 'almost too thin' to see clearly, and has a potential 'flicker' issue. So, the dot 'height' was set at two scan lines. So, you have a maximum of 242 'visible' dots vertically on the display. The minimum cell for a character-generator capable of clearly displaying upper _and_lower_ case letters is a 7x9 cell. Add one 'dot space' between lines, and it takes 10 dots vertically, per line of text. With an 'available' space of 242 dots to work with, Guess how many lines you can fit in? To display _more_ than 24 lines of text would require designing a complete set of driver circuitry to produce the required "non-standard" scan rate. Doable, but _expensive_ to implement. Displaying _less_ than 24 lines was relatively easy. you just added more 'white space' between the lines. Of course, this *didn't* make the characters any bigger, or any easier to read, so it was a 'why bother' kind of thing. You could go 'upper-case only' -- requiring a 5x7 character cell, using 4 scan-lines per 'double dot' (effectively doubling the vertical size of a dot), and get 16 of those lines on a screen. (each line occupying 15 single- dots of height; 7 double-dots plus 1 single dot between lines). Trying to do something like 20 lines of text, with only minimal spacing between lines, made for a _raft_ of difficulties. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My very first computer, an Ohio Scientific C-1-P had upper case only. Then one day the OSI people came out with a chip we had to install in our keypad which would 'toggle' between lower/upper case. PAT] ------------------------------ From: JP Subject: Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 15:01:33 GMT > Yep, same here. I've never been able to find it in a dictionary, nor http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=octothorpe ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? Date: 20 Sep 2004 10:22:52 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > The 80 column width of computer monitors in character mode is based > on the 80 character width of the punched card. However, a great many > computers today are operated in Windows mode where the character size > and spacing can be whatever the designer wants. Indeed, modern screen > characters are variable width, not fixed width. The "modern" IBM punch card (as last used by mainframe computers) was designed in 1928 and was a patented improvement. Before then, punched cards used round holes and contained less characters. The use of rectangular allowed more characters and 80 fit on the card. 80 is also a nice number easily divisible into various field sizes. As an aside, Remington Rand, IBM's competitor, continued to use round holes. It developed a two-tier hole design that allowed 90 characters per card, but IBM was by far the market leader. Also, the size of the punch card was based on the size of US currency at the time, which was larger than is now. Punched cards for information processing were invented by Herman Hollerith in 1890 and his outfit eventually was purchased by the C-T-R company which evolved into IBM in the early 1900s. The early company hired Thomas J. Watsor Sr to be its manager. He was not the "founder" of IBM, though he took the ragtag little outfit and turned into a worldwide organization. Originally the holes were used to store numbers only, 0 through 9, one punch representing a number. The upper section "12 and 11" punch was used for control information and later extra holes for alphabetic characters in the 1930s. By the 1930s IBM's tab machines were quite sophisticated and could do many things that today's spreadsheet programs do (obviously a lot slower). In the late 1940s IBM developed its final generation of tab machines. Punch cards were the input and storage mechanism of tab machines (also known as EAM -- electric accounting machines). Punched cards had nothing to do with hex or computers. When computers came out, keypunch machines and cards were an easy way to enter information into the new computers, so they found a new life. See "IBM's Early Computers" by Bashe et al for additional information. Excellent book. IBM also developed a mini punch card with 96 holes for its System/36 line. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: (in 2004) It occurs to me that so much > of what we dealt with in the past was always 80 columns wide (as a > computer monitor is today) and 12 rows deep (as IBM punchcards were > designed), but twice that, or 24 rows for computer terminals today. So > if we inserted an IBM punchcard in a computer to dial a phone number, > (and in fact, early 'speed dial' phones used cards you stuck in a slot > in top of them did they not?), then our modern day telephone symbol > '*' would be the equivilent of the 'high punch' on the old IBM > punchcards would it not, or the 'eleventh row' and the modern day > telephone symbol '#' would be the 'X' punch or 'twelveth row' on the > old IBM punchcards. I thought maybe there was some hexadecimal > numbering thoughts involved in this thing about 12 rows, but in that > case, how do you get 80 columns wide? Maybe 80 decimal is some > number we would recognize in hexadecimal, but now I am confused and > best quit for the night. Can anyone write to us and explain the > signficance and history of 80 columns wide by 12 (or 24) rows deep? > PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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