From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Dec 16 15:06:25 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBGK6Ou29350; Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:06:25 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:06:25 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412162006.iBGK6Ou29350@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 #601 TELECOM Digest Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:06:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 601 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Wrong 911 Address Delays Firemen (TELECOM Digest Editor) Identify Theft Victim Falsely Charged (Lisa Hancock) News Services via Internet (Fred Atkinson) FCC Approves Wireless Internet Access on Airplanes (Marcus Didius Falco) Seniors Confront Foul Cellphone (Eric Friedebach) Some Down Time for Digest Over Weekend (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Software Should Not Be Copyrighted -- Lawsuit (Mark Crispin) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (C.W.) Re: AT&T CallVantage Service -- Your Thoughts (LB@notmine.com) Re: AT&T CallVantage Service -- Your Thoughts (Rick Merrill) Re: Cross Battery and Verizon (LB@notmine.com) Re: Kevin Mitnick Recalled (Michael D. Sullivan) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 18:46:54 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Wrong 911 Address Delays Firemen NEW YORK - AP via Independence Reporter, Wednesday, December 15 - A fire in a six-story apartment building early Wednesday, killed one person and injured 31 others, and Mayor Bloomberg said firefighters were delayed because the caller reporting the fire gave the wrong address. Six civilians were in critical condition fllowing their rescue, three of them children. In addition, six firefighers, and five police officers were injured. A candle in a second floor apartment appeared to be the cause of the fire, and the fire quickly spread through the entire second and third floor of the building, in Jackson Heights, Queens. Mayor Bloomberg said someone called 911 and gave the wrong address of building. Firefighters went to the wrong address, discovered the error, then immediatly went to the correct address, causing in total a two or three minute delay in reaching the place they should have been. By then, the fire was spreading quickly, and police officers were called to assist in evacuating the building. The temperature was in the upper teens or low twenties. =================================== [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As sad as this event is, *nothing* was said about the call to 911 going over VOIP, rather than the more usual transport for calls to 911, nor was it explained who the 'someone' was that gave an incorrect address to the dispatcher. Maybe one of our NYC readers can provide more background on this. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Identify Theft Victim Falsely Charged Date: 15 Dec 2004 14:08:32 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com There are more and more reports of devastating losses to identity theft victims. One troubling newspaper columnist report stated that authorities only pursue criminals when the monetary loss is extremely large, otherwise it's not worth their effort. This was very frustrating to one victim. Another report (referenced below) described how another victim was falsely charged with a serious crime and suffered as a result. Apparently the victim's credit card was stolen, and the thief used it to set up an illegal porn site. The victim was raided by the Feds and his business computer (and livlihood) was confiscated. He was eventually cleared of any crime, but that took months. He claims his computers were seriously damaged in the process. With today's heightened sensitivity toward illegal porn, one can't help but worry about the risk of some sort of identity theft, either to steal money or as a malicious way to attack someone. See: http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_349120748.html If anyone knows additional details about this story, would you post them? [public comments only, please] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: He should have gotten out of the matter by *immediatly reporting* -- as soon as he knew of it -- of his loss to his local police, *then* always referred to that report whenever there were further consequences. But I do hope he sued FBI and other government officials for the hassles he suffered as a result. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: News Services via Internet Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 15:29:45 -0500 Does anyone know of news services devices provided via Internet connection? To give an example of what I mean: A news scroller that runs ball scores over as they are updated by the news service provider. This could be mounted in a bar or restaurant and connected to a high speed Internet connection. If you could reply via email about this, I'd like to know who offers such services. Regards, Fred [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Search on the net for the phrase 'RSS' (Really Simple Syndication) for services like you want. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 23:10:23 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: USATODAY.com - FCC Approves Wireless Internet Access on Airplanes Press reports say that the FAA is in no hurry to allow this, so it may be=20 several years before it's implemented. This article says that they won't complete their technical study for 2 years. Another scenario, however, would be to nibble away at the rules: use is now allowed at the ramp with the doors open. It might be allowed on some airlines while taxiing based on this experience. Then later it could be allowed at altitude based on that experience. But that would take a couple of years anyhow. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2004-12-15-wifi-in-flight_x.htm http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=3Dcpt&title=USATODAY.com+-+FCC+approves+wireless+Internet+access+on+commercial+jets&expire=&urlID=3D12603942&fb=3DY&url=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Ftravel%2Fnews%2F2004-12-15-wifi-in-flight_x.htm&partnerID=1664 FCC approves wireless Internet access on commercial jets By Genaro C. Armas, Associated Press WASHINGTON Airlines can provide their passengers access to high-speed wireless Internet while they fly, under a vote by federal regulators Wednesday. "If there is a theme for this meeting, it is that we want (new technologies) on the land, in the air, and on the sea" Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell said Wednesday as the commission considered new rules for airlines. "We are pushing the frontiers in order to bring the information age to all corners of the world," he said. The FCC also talked about whether to end the ban on using cell phones on planes, but did not vote. David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, a passenger group, said the changes under consideration would "make business travelers more efficient and while away the time for a lot of other passengers. This is all the wave of the future here." Currently, the only way passengers on domestic flights can communicate with the ground is through phones usually built into the seat backs. That service isn't very popular: It costs far more than conventional or cell phones about $3.99 a minute and the reception often is poor. Of the three companies that initially offered that service on commercial jets, only Verizon Airfone remains. It has phones on about 1,500 jets. The FCC approved a measure to restructure how frequencies for such "air-to-ground" services are used and allow the airlines to offer wireless high-speed Internet connections. Left undecided was the issue of how many companies the FCC would allow, through an auction, to offer such services. Verizon Airfone maintains that letting one company handle the service would ensure the best quality, and existing technology can't support two competitors. Others, including Boeing and AirCell, argue for two competitors to prevent one company from having a monopoly. FCC officials said the auction would take place within a year. Once plans are completed and planes outfitted with the equipment, wireless high-speed Internet access might be found on commercial domestic flights by 2006, said Jack Blumenstein, chairman and CEO of Louisville, Colo.-based AirCell. The timeline on when air travelers would be able to start using cell phones in flight is murkier, in part because both the FCC and the Federal Aviation Administration ban the practice. The FCC took up the issue Wednesday in an effort to start public discussion, and commissioners might eventually relax the rules or lift the ban entirely. Of most concern to FCC officials is how using a cell phone in an airplane would interfere with cell phone use on the ground. The FAA is worried mainly about how airborne cell phone use would interfere with a plane's navigation and electrical systems, agency spokeswoman Laura Brown said. The technology used on seat-back phones and being considered for use for wireless Internet hookups causes no interference. The FAA has commissioned a private, independent firm to study the issue, and results aren't due until 2006. The FAA will not make its decision on cell phone use until after the study is completed, Brown said. Allowing high-speed Internet access and cell phone use on planes could offer cash-strapped airline companies a new source for revenues, said Doug Wills, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the major airlines' trade group. Still, airlines must weigh the demand for such service against the desire of other passengers for a quiet cabin, Wills said. "Some people see a cell-free environment as a good thing," he said. Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2004-12-15-wifi-in-flight_x.htm NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Associated Press and USA Today. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Eric Friedebach Subject: Seniors Confront Foul Cellphone Date: 16 Dec 2004 00:46:13 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com [Note from Eric: The headline in my post is not the one from the AP feed. I changed it to make some sense in the archive. The actual headline is below.] Senior citizen, sentenced to probation, gets a thumbs-up in court Associated Press, 12-15-04 ST. PAUL - A retiree who tussled with a man half his age who was using foul language in a restaurant was sentenced to probation, but he got a thumbs-up from attorneys and others who sympathized with his motives. Bill Stevenson, 79, of Lake Elmo, pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly conduct Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court, and judge Paulette Flynn placed him on three months of probation. "I think I could've won my case by going to trial, with a sympathetic jury," said Stevenson. "I've had over 30 calls and letters and e-mails, and I've not had one negative call. They're all on my side." Stevenson and another retired 3M engineer, Sten Gerfast, 74, confronted the man July 15 at Bruegger's Bagels in the Sun Ray Shopping Center. The two retirees were going over a design Gerfast had invented when Jesse Tabor, of Minneapolis, entered the bakery with his 13-year-old daughter. In an interview after the incident, Tabor, 40, said he was talking on his cell phone with a man whose home he was remodeling and said he didn't recall cursing. But Stevenson and Gerfast remember it differently. "He was using the F-word against this guy he was talking to," Stevenson said. "There was an argument on the phone. The third time he walked by our booth where Mr. Gerfast and I were trying to design something, Mr. Gerfast said to me, 'Should I do something about it?' I thought a moment and thought, 'What can you do in a case like this?' I didn't know what you could do." So Gerfast, of Mendota Heights, decided to confront Tabor. He tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to take his call outside, Stevenson said, but Tabor said something like, "This is none of your business." "It was only when he used the words, 'you f-ing bastard' -- it was yelled across the bagel shop so everybody heard it -- that I started walking up to him," Stevenson said. "Then he said 'you f-ing a-hole" and that really bothered me. I've been in lots of different places, but when I heard that kind of stuff coming in my hometown, I thought, 'Somebody's got to do something.' " Stevenson grabbed the phone from Tabor and the two men played tug-of-war for a few seconds. Stevenson realized it was a dumb thing to do, let go of the phone and Tabor "went sailing across the floor," Stevenson said. The three men with charged with disorderly conduct. Gerfast was acquitted in a court trial last month. Tabor, who has previous convictions for criminal sexual conduct and drug possession, failed to appear at a September hearing and a bench warrant was issued for him. Attempts to reach him Tuesday were unsuccessful. http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/10420049.htm [Note from Eric: This item came up on a local (Minneapolis) talk radio station today. The talk show host was able to get Sten Gerfast on the phone. It turns out Gerfast was the mechanical engineer on 3M's tape drive backup system some years back, among over two dozen other patents to his name under 3M.] Eric Friedebach /KMPX Rocks!/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 18:03:12 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Some Down Time for Digest Over Weekend John Levine, who helps the Digest by providing the alias 'telecom-digest.org' address to me, via his computer in Trumansburg, NY said to me that this weekend coming up, he will be doing some maintainence on one of his computers (rearranging files, etc) and so will be off line part of the time. In the event, when you ask for the URL http://telecom-digest.org this weekend, the computer tells you the page cannot be reached, then use one of the other addresses to reach our site. In addition to our direct address http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives you can also use http://telecom-digest.n3.net if you wish. The preferred URL is the first one (with '.org') but massis and .n3.net also work fine and bypass John Levine's computer to get here. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Software Should Not Be Copyrighted -- Lawsuit Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 11:40:37 -0800 Organization: University of Washington On Tue, 14 Dec 2004, Steve Sobol wrote: >> Intellectual-property consultant Greg Aharonian hopes to convince the >> court that software makers can protect their products adequately >> through patents > No. Patents are absolutely NOT the proper way to go. Copyrights are. I agree. This is one issue that the Gnu radicals got right. Now, we may all feel that copyright should not last as long as it does, especially in the field of software where the value of intellectual property becomes moot long before its creator dies. All too often, the preservation of antique software has been hampered by the difficulty in identifying who owns the IP and securing permission. Even worse, once the owner is identified, it turns out to be an extraordinarily complex and expensive process to get the permission executed even when the owner is otherwise pleased to grant it. What's needed is an inexpensive process by which an owner can abandon IP without undesirable side-effects. But that's something that should be fixed in copyright law. Patents, on the other hand, lock up techniques; and the history of software patents is a sad litany of numerous obvious and commonly-used techniques being claimed under patent. The necessary litigation to overturn such patents is ridiculously expensive. Something tells me that Aharonian is a lawyer who's looking to drum up even more business. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 14:17:32 CST Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? From: C.W. John Bartley wrote on Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:25:44 -0500 about Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? > On Tue, 14 Dec 2004, Clark W. Griswold, Jr. wrote: ... > Topic drift alert. Not that that ever happens here in the -> TELECOM <- digest. Or is it now the Telecom-Computer-Hacker-Legal-WiFi-Television-Automobile-Etc News Feed Digest? ------------------------------ From: LB@notmine.com Subject: Re: AT&T CallVantage Service -- Your Thoughts Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 17:10:07 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online Lanceman wrote: > Hi - > I am considering switching my local landline to the AT&T CallVantage > service. I have also looked at Vonage, but am unable to move my local > number with them. Anyone out there have good or bad experiences with > the CallVantage service? > Thanks in advance for your replies. > Lance I believe Consumer Reports thought poorly of ATT stuff. LB ------------------------------ From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: AT&T CallVantage Service -- Your Thoughts Organization: Comcast Online Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 23:53:54 GMT Lanceman wrote: > Hi - > I am considering switching my local landline to the AT&T CallVantage > service. I have also looked at Vonage, but am unable to move my local > number with them. Anyone out there have good or bad experiences with > the CallVantage service? Excellent experiences. When the previous company continued to bill me, a rep. from CallVantage stayed with me on the phone until the other company agreed to give me full credit from the date that CallVantage switched on. It was a snap to disconnect the house phones from the old system and connect the Telephone Adapter (TA) to my house phone. One caution: it may not power more than three REN (Ringer Equivalency Number) worth of phones. Their official policy is to support a wireless phone with multiple handsets. One feature I use a lot is the phone messages my callers leave are sent to me as attachments to email! Another feature I like is the on-line list of callers: one click and the call is returned! Rick Merrill ------------------------------ From: LB@notmine.com Subject: Re: Cross Battery and Verizon Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 17:13:45 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online Joe Perkowski wrote: > Hey ppl, > Does anyone know what is "cross battery"? We put in a NBX 2 months > ago running fine. Now, we are getting static and crosstalk on some of > our incoming lines. > We have had a great deal of rain these past 2 weeks, and have had > previously problems with Verizon due to old copper in our area. > The Verizon guy is telling us "cross battery" is causing this? > What is "cross battery" if anyone knows...? > Thanks. > Joe He may be blowing smoke. The rain points to your problem -- poor cable. The wires in the cable actually are rotated over distance. As you can see all cable have a sag. If a poorly insulated wire inside the cable is at the bottom of the bunch where the sag is low then water can get in there. Unfortunately the fix is new cable or new way of routing. LB ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Kevin Mitnick Recalled Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 02:29:45 GMT In article , lisa_minter2001 @yahoo.com says: > Rummaging around through the Telecom Archives, I found two interesting > items on Kevin Mitnick. I wonder if anyone knows what he has been > doing since 1997 or whenever he got out of prison. He's become a computer security consultant, appearing on 60 Minutes, writing in Newsweek, running his consulting website , writing books, etc. The usual stuff for a convicted notorious hacker. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA Delete nospam from my address and it won't work. ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #601 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Dec 16 16:30:12 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBGLUCO01002; Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:30:12 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:30:12 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412162130.iBGLUCO01002@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 #602 TELECOM Digest Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:30:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 602 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Yahoo Maps Offer Live U.S. Traffic Conditions (Lisa Minter) Latest Zafi Worm Wreaking Holiday E-Mail Havoc (Lisa Minter) Cell Phone Motorists are Dangerous (Lisa Hancock) FCC Announces New Competition Rules (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: Urban Legends Reference Pages: (Celling Your Soul) (Tony P.) Re: AT&T CallVantage Service -- Your Thoughts (Rick Merrill) Re: AT&T CallVantage Service -- Your Thoughts (gb) Re: Cingular Migration (jrefactors@hotmail.com) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Software Should Not Be Copyrighted -- Lawsuit (Lisa Hancock) Re: Dialogic JCT Series (Maverick) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave of The Future? (Patrick Townson) Re: Wrong 911 Address Delays Firemen (John Levine) Re: Software Should Not Be Copyrighted (Scott Dorsey) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Yahoo Maps Offer Live U.S. Traffic Conditions Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 11:55:36 EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. is set to offer an online service that lets users view live U.S. local traffic conditions on custom-created maps, the first site to do so nationally, the company said late on Wednesday. In a milestone for Internet-based traffic services, Yahoo has beefed up its existing mapping services to allow customers to plot a route from one local destination to another, and overlay traffic data such as road speeds and potential delays. The new service can be found at http://maps.yahoo.com/. While local radio, television and weather sites have offered traffic tracking for years, many of the maps and features are primitive. No national site exists that offers dynamically generated traffic maps, Yahoo executives said. "Certainly the distribution of this content on the Yahoo site is just a starting point," Paul Levine, general manager of Yahoo's local services unit, said in an interview. Eventually, users away from computers may be able to receive traffic alerts via e-mail or on phones with links to live maps, he said. He declined to say whether or when a version of the service might be offered on mobile devices such as phones, wireless handheld computers or car location systems. The service is currently only available for viewing U.S. road conditions. The traffic mapping feature, which will be available across Yahoo's search, local content and map sections of the site, is the latest move to enhance Yahoo's local information push and follows rival Google's own recent push into online mapping. Google recently acquired Keyhole Corp., a supplier of online satellite maps that allow users to zoom to street level and view locations such as buildings or even cars. A big limitation is that Keyhole maps rely on previously collected photos and as such give no snapshot of current conditions. By contrast, Yahoo's dynamic maps draw on real-time traffic information from metropolitan transportation departments and private providers, including embedded road sensors, traffic cameras, police scanners, and traffic helicopters. Yahoo declined to identify the exact sources of its traffic data. The site boasts traffic accident reports and road construction information in more than 70 metropolitan areas, in effect covering regions where three-quarters of the U.S. population lives. Real-time driving speed data will be available in the more than 20 top metropolitan markets. The new service generates regional maps that include the user's starting point and destination. Roadways are colored green, yellow and red, to highlight the normal movement of traffic, minor delays or severe road congestion. A user can hover over a stretch of road to view details of impediments. They can drill down at hazards to see further details. Yahoo's existing map service allows users to type in only single addresses, then zoom in or out on the resulting local map. Icons displaying convenient entertainment, shopping and services can be served up at the user's request. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Latest Zafi Worm Wreaking Holiday E-Mail Havoc Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 11:59:26 EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Zafi.D worm, which disguises itself as an e-mail holiday greeting, is currently the most frequently detected worldwide virus, software security company Panda Software said this week. The worm is most commonly found in South America, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Hungary and spreads itself in an e-mail attachment that says "Happy holidays!" Glendale, California-based Panda also noted in a statement on Wednesday that the virus has the ability to adapt to the language of the user, matching the message's language to the domain of a user's e-mail address. In addition, Zafi.D -- which appeared for the first time on Tuesday -- enables attackers to gain remote control of an affected computer, Panda said. The worm is not expected to have much effect on the United States because the time difference with Europe gave advance warning to U.S. anti-virus companies, broadcaster CNN said on its Web site on Wednesday. This is the fourth incarnation of Zafi, with the first one detected last April, CNN said. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily.^^ *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Cell Phone Motorists Are Dangerous Date: 16 Dec 2004 09:43:45 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I just had two close calls, nearly getting hit by two separate motorists distracted by their cell phone conversation. The first motorist was driving in the middle of the road, right on the center line, oblivious to oncoming traffic. The second motorist was driving too slowly yet igonored pedestrians in the designated crosswalk. Quite often drivers on their phones find themselves in the wrong toll gate line, and disrupt traffic when they have to shift over. BTW, in this state it is illegal drive and talk on the cell phone, not that these motorists care. Why is it so critical that people must stay connected 24/7? Can't they stay off the phone during their drive? More importantly, don't people _want_ to have a break from constant phone calls? (I know if I'm on the phone too much I'm grateful for a break). ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 13:14:53 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: FCC Announces New Competition Rules Telecom dailyLead from USTA December 16, 2004 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18162&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * FCC announces new competition rules BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Breaking down the Sprint-Nextel merger * Time Warner in $510 million settlement with federal regulators * Verizon in deal to carry Discovery channels over FiOS USTA SPOTLIGHT * USTA Says FCC Order Leaves Economy, Businesses and Consumers on Hold EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * FCC approves wireless broadband use during flights REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Emergency GPS shutdown plans reviewed * U.K. lowers broadband access costs for BT competitors * Maryland judge rules state's anti-spam law unconstitutional Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18162&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Urban Legends Reference Pages: Politics (Celling Your Soul) Organization: ATCC Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 10:21:32 -0500 In article , mark@atwood.name says: > Steve Sobol writes: >> Tony P. wrote: >>> In article , dvanhorn@dvanhorn.org >>> says: >>>> One thing I've noticed lately, is a lot of telemarketing calls from >>>> Quebec. Note that Canadian telemarketers are not bound by US law. >>> I've noted the same thing. Is there some particular reason this occurs? >> Because they aren't bound by US law ... > But the people they are marketing on behalf of *are*, and they are > responsable for assuring the legality of all marketing efforts they > have subcontracted for. That is precisely why I say that to stop spam in its tracks you have to follow the money. Financial auditing is a tool that most law enforcement agencies don't understand. If they did we'd see a whole lot less corruption in government and business. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But they *will soon* be bound by Canadian law. Canada right now is in the process of discussing and legislating some very tough telemarketing -- or actually, anti- telemarketing -- laws. See http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . PAT] ------------------------------ From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: AT&T CallVantage Service -- Your Thoughts Organization: Comcast Online Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:18:23 GMT Lanceman wrote: > Hi - > I am considering switching my local landline to the AT&T CallVantage > service. I have also looked at Vonage, but am unable to move my local > number with them. Anyone out there have good or bad experiences with > the CallVantage service? > Thanks in advance for your replies. > Lance see: https://www.callvantage.att.com/help/featurefaqs/ It was a snap to disconnect the house phones from the old system and connect the Telephone Adapter (TA) to my house phone. One caution: it may not power more than three REN (Ringer Equivalency Number) worth of phones. Their official policy is to support a wireless phone with multiple handsets. One feature I use a lot is the phone messages my callers leave are sent to me as attachments to email! Another feature I like is the on-line list of callers: one click and the call is returned! Rick Merrill ------------------------------ From: gb Subject: Re: AT&T CallVantage Service -- Your Thoughts Date: 16 Dec 2004 03:45:11 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Excellent service, wonderful terms and conditions, flawless connection. Canada included, Europe calls cheap. No weird federal taxes, so, a twenty dollar service costs twenty dollars, not forty dollars. ------------------------------ From: jrefactors@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Cingular Migration Date: 16 Dec 2004 09:21:40 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Then how about SBC? I always heard SBC advertisments mentioning about Cingular Wireless. Please advise more ... ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Date: 16 Dec 2004 10:10:14 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com As others mentioned, it will get to the point that no one will watch their stuff because the imposed restrictions are too onerous. There's a lot of stuff on now I will only watch as a VCR tape because it is just too loaded with commercials and irritating ones at that. It used to be about 45 minutes of content vs. 15 minutes of commercials. In an hour show; my guess now they added another 5 minutes so it's 40 show 20 commercials. Some late night or cable fare is 30/30 -- you get five minutes of content then five minutes of commercials -- utterly unbearable to watch live. (And very annoying if on cable which you're paying separately for anyway). I don't watch much of network news anymore because they made that 18 minutes instead of 22.5 and the commercials are all disturbing health care products. Yes, the VCR does allow me to skip commercials but on the other hand I can watch simultaneous shows now (watch one live, tape the other), which means I see more TV, benefiting them. Time shifting of course allows me to see stuff I'd never see, again, a benefit for them. I'd hate to see increased govt regulation of Hollywood and the TV networks, but these people have become incredibly greedy and need to be reined in. Of course, we must remember that some controls may be _worse_ than what we have now*. But I would: 1) Separate ownership of the cable TV industry from the production industry. In other words, Time Warner would be allowed to make movies/TV, but not own cable delivery systems. 2) Separate network owners. I don't mind cable networks from having multiple similar channels (ie NICK and TVLAND or A&E and HIST), but I don't like ABC owning Disney and the Family Channel, and I understand CBS/Viacom own a lot as well. *In some cases, it might be better if networks owned more of their affiliates. During some controversial broadcasts the affiliates refused to show them while the network did (ie Murrow vs. McCarthy, southern civil rights issues). That's a tricky double-edged sword. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you remember *many, many* years ago when cable television was first getting underway how 'they' said cable would be a better deal 'since there would not be any commercials; it is all paid for by your cable fees'. What a joke that was. Of course that was long before they started showing commercials in the movie theatres (where you had bought a five or six dollar ticket to watch a movie also.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Software Should Not Be Copyrighted -- Lawsuit Date: 16 Dec 2004 10:22:16 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lisa Minter wrote: > Aharonian argues in his complaint that software copyright laws > violate the right to due process enshrined in the U.S. Constitution > because they do not provide clear boundaries for appropriate > use. That means industry players and courts do not have a clear idea > of the rules. >> "Until you're sued and a judge makes up his mind about what is the >> idea and expression (at stake), no one knows," Aharonian said in an >> interview. In the history of technology, there have been a great many court battles over patents. For example, I think the fellow who invented FM had a long running battle with RCA over it. Having patent is no guarantee at all of no litigation. There are plenty of arguments over exactly what a patent does and not does not cover, and whether a subsequent invention is actually something new and different or just a copy of an existing patent. A patent and copyright each have their advantages and disadvantages. I understand copyright law was recently changed to allow holders to keep their rights much longer. Some people object to that because it supposedly enriches "big [evil] corporations". It just might (like Disney and Warner continuing to get royalties over Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny). On the other hand, it also just as much protects small guys who create something and can continue to get royalties. Further, it protects certain popular images from being abused by becoming public domain and I think that's a good thing. There is always the conflict between our desire to protect creators and our dislike of anti trust. One solution in the past has been to mandate monopolists (whether intentional or not) to license their patents at reasonable cost to competitors. I think, for example, classic cartoon images should be protected, but also available for license at a reasonable fee. (I wanted to buy a video tape of an old newsreel. The company quoted me $3,000, which I thought was a bit much for something 75 years old.) ------------------------------ From: Maverick Subject: Re: Dialogic JCT Series Date: 16 Dec 2004 08:30:55 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, Thanks for the help David. I am not sure if we are purchasing from some stockist or directly or from some some reseller but I will to get some help from there as well. Thanks anyways. ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' the Wave of the Future? Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 14:18:02 -0600 C.W. (temp18@thewolfden.org) responded in this thread on Wed, 15 Dec 2004 14:17:32 CST: > wrote: >> Topic drift alert. >> Not that that ever happens here in the -> TELECOM <- digest. > Or is it now the Telecom-Computer-Hacker-Legal-WiFi-Television- > Automobile-Etc News Feed Digest? Right on, C.W.! I am glad you understand what is going on here. It is *all those things* (except for the automobile part), but the hassle is, the Digest software I use is so old it would require a lot of work to get all that in the title; my software is so obsolete that all my scripts would have to be changed to use the *entire title* before the word 'Digest', so to avoid having to rebuild all my scripts I just stick with the seven letter word 'TELECOM' which makes it all hold together just right. As a courtesy to the people who wish to read telecom news, I do run a liberal amount of it in each issue, and even more of it in the TD-Extra pages daily on our web site. Trouble is, C.W., I fell asleep at the switch when the issue before this came out, and I could not think of a witty, snotty Editor's Note to answer you back with at the time, but I hope this delayed response is good enough. PAT ------------------------------ Date: 16 Dec 2004 20:36:40 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Wrong 911 Address Delays Firemen Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As sad as this event is, *nothing* > was said about the call to 911 going over VOIP, ... Nobody said it had anything to do with VoIP. A few moments in Google news found this explanation in the NY Post: Officials said a neighbor a block away from the blaze mistakenly gave the 911 operator his own address -- sending the first wave of firefighters to the wrong apartment house. Twenty-five units altogether responded to a flood of calls but only one went to the wrong address -- a not uncommon situation, officials said. ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Software Should Not Be Copyrighted -- Lawsuit Date: 16 Dec 2004 15:42:15 -0500 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Mark Crispin wrote: > Patents, on the other hand, lock up techniques; and the history of > software patents is a sad litany of numerous obvious and commonly-used > techniques being claimed under patent. The necessary litigation to > overturn such patents is ridiculously expensive. This is not necessarily something wrong with patents. This is something wrong with patents that are issued by a patent bureau with no proper examination of the patents. A quick look at recent software patents shows that the vast majority of them are not new designs but entirely dependant on prior art, and that anyone with any software experience should never have allowed them to be issued. The fact that the patent bureau does not have anybody skilled enough to realize that the ring buffer is a forty-year-old idea and therefore not patentable to Microsoft means that they should not be in the business of issuing software patents. But that does not mean that somebody out there should not be doing it. I should add that software patents should also not last anywhere near as long as they do. > Something tells me that Aharonian is a lawyer who's looking to drum up > even more business. There is a need to protect innovative technology. In the best of all possible worlds, patents will do that. In fact, issuing patents on technology that is not innovative causes the system to collapse completely. But that does not mean that there is not a kernel of goodness in the idea. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #602 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Dec 16 23:46:18 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBH4kHZ05765; Thu, 16 Dec 2004 23:46:18 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 23:46:18 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412170446.iBH4kHZ05765@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 #603 TELECOM Digest Thu, 16 Dec 2004 23:42:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 603 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson No Safer and Less Free (Lisa Minter) Gays Own More Tech Innovations (Lisa Minter) Record Industry Sues 754 for Internet Song Swaps (Lisa Minter) AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phones (Marcus Falco) Re: FCC Approves Wireless Internet Access on Airplanes (Joseph) Re: Wrong 911 Address Delays Firemen (Mark Atwood) Re: Wrong 911 Address Delays Firemen (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: Cingular Migration (John Levine) Re: Cell Phone Users/Motorists Are Dangerous (Dave VanHorn) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Cross Battery and Verizon (Gary Novosielski) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: No Safer and Less Free Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:07:55 EST Organization: http://lisaminter.us.tf Editorial on National ID Cards By Laura W. Murphy "Show me your papers" is a phrase most Americans would never expect to hear in their everyday lives, but with the intelligence bill passed by Congress last week, that's the type of Big-Brother society we're becoming. The de facto national ID that lawmakers approved won't make us any safer, but it will make us much less free. Most people already use a driver's license -- to cash checks, vote and travel -- so what's wrong with standardizing and consolidating data? A national ID is an identity thief's dream come true. Under new federal guidelines, state IDs must include personal information, plus a digital photograph, and they must be "machine readable." Businesses might soon be able to swipe your ID to track what you bought, and when and where you bought it. They could be able to use that information themselves or sell it to others. Since 9/11, Americans have had to weigh tradeoffs between privacy and security. A national ID, though, protects neither. Of the 25 countries most affected by terrorist attacks -- including Israel -- 80% already have national IDs. A national ID hasn't made these nations any safer. A convincing case has not been made that this system would have stopped 9/11 or the Oklahoma City bombing, because a national ID cannot reveal malicious intentions. For example, some of the 9/11 hijackers obtained identification documents legally, and were in the country legally. It takes good, old-fashioned police work to follow up on leads and separate the Mohamed Attas and Timothy McVeighs from law-abiding people. A national ID wouldn't have stopped those with fake IDs, either. An ID is only as secure as the "source documents" it requires. Someone who used a fake birth certificate and fake Social Security card to get an ID will still be able to do so under the new law; the same people who manufacture fake driver's licenses today will be manufacturing fake national IDs tomorrow. Our privacy isn't the only price we'll pay for this system. Enacting this legislation will cost billions of dollars -- money better spent on real security measures that will keep us both safe and free.

Laura W. Murphy is director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington Legislative Office. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, the Associated Press, and Yahoo News.. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Gays Own More Tech Innovations Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:17:51 EST Organization: http://lisaminter.us.tf Trendsetters once more, gay people are slightly ahead of the curve when it comes to using technology, particularly when it comes to communication, a new online survey reveals. Harris Interactive, in conjunction with Witeck-Combs Communications, a strategic public relations and marketing firm that focuses on the gay market, conducted an online survey of technology usage and found some real differences between how gay and straight people use or acquire new technology. If you wanted to watch cable, for instance, you'd have more luck finding a cable box at a gay person's home. More than two-thirds of gay households, or 69 percent, have cable as compared with less than two-thirds, or 61 percent, of straight homes. At a gay household you would also double your chances of being able to watch "Queer as Folk" in HDTV: 16 percent of gay households have HDTV; only 8 percent of straight households have it so far. Gay people may also stay slightly better connected than their straight counterparts -- at least when it comes to cell phones. Eight in 10 gay people, or 79 percent, have cellular service as compared with 72 percent of straight people. The survey also showed slightly more gay people pick their cell phones and cell phone plans according to their friends' and family's advice. While showing the difference between the two communities, the survey also suggests that such market information is important for companies to know if they want to attract more gay customers. "It's no secret that the cellular market is becoming increasingly saturated, and these data can help marketers distinguish between GLB and heterosexual consumers' use and purchase considerations," Jake Stafford, senior marketing strategist at Witeck-Combs, said in the firm's press release. "The research also suggests that as gays continue to embrace emerging technologies such as HDTV, there is room for innovations that would continue to spur the buying preferences of trend-setting gay customers." NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Planet Out News and AP News Service.. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Record Industry Sues 754 for Internet Song Swaps Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:11:36 EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A recording industry trade group said Thursday that it has filed another wave of lawsuits against 754 people it suspects of distributing songs over the Internet without permission. The Recording Industry Association of America has now sued more than 7,000 people for distributing its songs over "peer to peer" networks like eDonkey and Kazaa, in an effort to discourage the online song copying that it believes has cut into CD sales. The RIAA typically settles copyright infringement suits for around $5,000 each. Despite more than a year of headline-grabbing lawsuits, peer-to-peer use has not declined. An average of 7.5 million users were logged on to peer-to-peer networks in November 2004, up from 4.4 million in November 2003, according to the research firm BigChampagne. The four major labels -- Vivendi Universal, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI Group Plc and privately held Warner Music -- have recently begun to license their songs to a new generation of online services as a way to slash distribution costs and reach out to fans. But recording-industry officials remain at loggerheads with software makers like Grokster and Morpheus that allow users to freely copy their songs. "With legal online retailers still forced to compete against illegal free networks, the playing field remains decidedly unbalanced," said RIAA president Cary Sherman in a statement. Courts so far have declined to declare peer-to-peer software makers like Grokster and Morpheus illegal because, like a photocopier, they do not permit copyright infringement but merely make it possible. The Supreme Court will hear the entertainment's case against Grokster and Morpheus in March. The latest round of lawsuits included students at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Under pressure form the RIAA, many schools have taken steps to limit file sharing and at least 20 schools give students free access to industry-sanctioned download services like Roxio Inc.'s Napster . The RIAA does not yet know the names of those it has sued, only the numerical addresses used by their computers. The trade group typically finds out suspects' identities from their Internet service providers during the legal proceedings. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuter News. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 21:42:50 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use There are a lot more interests than the FCC and FAA in this story, and a lot of players who can delay or derail the change. In this case its the flight attendants. They may be claiming a safety issue, but it may be they don't want to deal with passengers yelling into the phones, or it may be they're hoping to use it as a bargaining chip in negotiations. http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=3Dst/sn/12150000aaa06203.u pi&Sys=3Dsiteia&Fid=3DAVIATION&Type=3DNews&Filter=3DAviation http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=3Dst/sn/12150000aaa06203.u pi&Sys=3Dprint&Fid=3DAVIATION&Type=3DNews&Filter=3DAviation&S=3Dsiteia=20 AFA opposes in-flight cell phone use WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A union representing U.S. flight attendants is= calling on the Federal Communications Commission to maintain its ban on in-flight use of cellular telephones. The Association of Flight Attendants warns widespread use of wireless devices in the confined space of an aircraft cabin potentially could interfere with an aircraft's communications and navigation systems, compromise safety and increase conflicts between passengers and crew member. An AFA representative called for more research on the use of portable electronic devices on board aircraft during a Washington meeting on proposed changes in prohibitions on cellular use. "While this process is unfolding, attempts to weaken the long-standing FCC prohibition will only confuse the public, and any widespread misperception by travelers that cell phone use in flight is now intrinsically safe might well prove catastrophic," said Chris Witkowski, director of the AFA Air Safety, Health and Security Department in a statement. The AFA represents more than 46,000 flight attendants. Copyright 2004 by United Press International. All rights reserved. Copyright 2004 UPI NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance United Press International. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: FCC Approves Wireless Internet Access on Airplanes Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:03:22 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 23:10:23 -0500, Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > Press reports say that the FAA is in no hurry to allow this, so it may > be several years before it's implemented. This article says that > they won't complete their technical study for 2 years. > Another scenario, however, would be to nibble away at the rules: use > is now allowed at the ramp with the doors open. It might be allowed on > some airlines while taxiing based on this experience. Then later it > could be allowed at altitude based on that experience. But that would > take a couple of years anyhow. All this talk of the FAA is nice, but isn't the present prohibition for cell phones in flight because of a FCC edict and it has nothing to do with how it affects avionics and the FAA isn't even involved officially, but rather the way that someone in a plane at 35,000 feet would affect multiple cells on the ground and thus mess things up on the ground is the main concern of the FCC? ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Wrong 911 Address Delays Firemen From: Mark Atwood Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 21:35:35 GMT TELECOM Digest Editor writes: > A fire in a six-story apartment building early Wednesday, killed one > person and injured 31 others, and Mayor Bloomberg said firefighters > were delayed because the caller reporting the fire gave the wrong > address. Which is why, when one moves to a new address and has POTS service installed, on a weekday day, when not lots of emergencies are happening, it is wise to dial 911, immediately tell the operator that this is not an emergency, and ask them to verify your address. Mark Atwood | When you do things right, people won't be sure mark@atwood.name | you've done anything at all. http://mark.atwood.name/ http://www.livejournal.com/users/fallenpegasus [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When I first printed the original item a couple days ago, my original intention was to *refute* the oft-given argument about how 'VOIP fails to provide good identifica- tion to public safety units.' That is one reason telcos and their supporters give against VOIP service. My intention was to show it can go both ways. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: Wrong 911 Address Delays Firemen Date: 16 Dec 2004 23:20:36 -0500 Organization: PANIX -- Public Access Networks Corp. In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As sad as this event is, *nothing* > was said about the call to 911 going over VOIP, rather than the > more usual transport for calls to 911, nor was it explained who the > 'someone' was that gave an incorrect address to the dispatcher. Maybe > one of our NYC readers can provide more background on this. PAT] The story didn't say anything about VOIP because VOIP was either not involved or entirely irrelevant. According to this morning's New York Times, the caller who reported the fire was so flustered that he gave the dispatcher *his* address as the building on fire instead of the correct one (which was about a block away). The real problem here is idiots (often building superintendents, or tenants intimidated by complaints from their neighbors about door slamming noise) who remove or defeat the extremely strong spring that New York City requires as a self-closer on all apartment-door hinges. With the required spring in place, the door basically _cannot_ stay open when someone rushes out of an apartment after discovering a fire. In this case, according to the Times, the tenant rushed out of the apartment after discovering the fire and did not close the door; what the Times failed to mention was that if the door had been in compliance with the fire code, it would have closed itself. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky ------------------------------ Date: 17 Dec 2004 03:35:59 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Cingular Migration Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Then how about SBC? I always heard SBC advertisments mentioning about > Cingular Wireless. Please advise more ... That story did a rather poor job of explaining what the problem is. Cingular bought AT&T Wireless. Since it takes a while to merge the operations of two big companies, for the moment AT&T Wireless is still operating as AT&T Wireless even though it's part of Cingular. That's so EXCEPT in a few places, like the part of Oklahoma where the article was written. For anti-trust reasons, they sold some parts of AT&T Wireless to Alltel. So in those few places, AT&T Wireless is really Alltel. AT&T Wireless did a lousy job of telling the customers in those areas to ignore all the ads, you're really Alltel customers now. If you were a Cingular customer before, you're still a Cingular customer. If you were an AT&T Wireless customer before, you're probably a Cingular customer, except in a few areas where you're an Alltel customer instead. If you're an AT&T Wireless customer and you're not sure, I'd suggest calling 611 from your cell phone and when you get a human ask "is this Cinglar or Alltel"? John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ Reply-To: Dave VanHorn From: Dave VanHorn Subject: Re: Cell Phone Motorists Are Dangerous Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:45:53 -0500 I've been watching this, conducting my own unscientific poll if you will ... My results suggest that everyone should be forced to use cell phones while driving, as I've seen far more "stupid maneuvers" by drivers without cell phones, than with them. Seriously, I think it's wrong to judge one driver's abilities by another driver's abilities. If that were the case, we'd all be walking because some people can't concentrate enough to drive, at all. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Date: 16 Dec 2004 13:45:55 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you remember *many, many* years > ago when cable television was first getting underway how 'they' said > cable would be a better deal 'since there would not be any > commercials; it is all paid for by your cable fees'. What a joke > that was. Of course that was long before they started showing > commercials in the movie theatres (where you had bought a five or > six dollar ticket to watch a movie also.) PAT] Yes, I do. Indeed, I remember a lot of promises about cable television that never came to be, and I've read a lot of the hopes for broadcast TV that either never came out or only did in a trickle. All these broken promises from new technology is a motivator for many of my postings here. I've seen enough "oh this is a wonderful technology!" promises when in reality it actually made things _worse_ for us consumers. Sometimes the technology itself was just plain bad, sometimes it was the way it was promoted and marketed. Everyone is deep in love with "digital" over analog, but the rush to implementation had a lot of bugs with disasterous consquences as firemen radios went dead. A major police system used in several cities tends to fail; the mfr is working on it. The old Bell System used to test, test, and retest its new technologies before rolling them out nationwide. After in-house extensive lab testing, they did carefully controlled beta tests in one real exchange. Their famous initial ESS tests taught them a heck of a lot about reliability, the switchgear, and station sets. The original point of CATV was better reception. I'm still waiting for that to happen. For some reason the lowest channels on my system come in very poorly, and I've called them out many times. As it happens I don't watch those channels too much so I live with it, but it's interesting how this supposedly high-tech medium (with fiber optic now) still can't get the basics right. The second point of CATV was better program selection. In some ways that has come true, but in many ways that's lacking. When Nick@Nite and TV Land first came out they offered some neat stuff from the 1950s, but now it's just more reruns of recent junk. Nick daytime had some creative original shows, but I don't think they bother anymore. I don't think much of cable news networks because they spew out raw facts that are _out of context_ and thus not newsworthy. Good news reporting is more than just reporting isolated facts -- it is putting them together in a logical fashion, eliminating contradictions, and putting in a wider context. Despite all the time they have they still put everything in brief sound bites. ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Cross Battery and Verizon Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:22:51 GMT Joe Perkowski wrote: > The Verizon guy is telling us "cross battery" is causing this? Tell him you don't care if Green Men from Mars are causing it; when is he going to fix it? ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #603 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Dec 17 14:23:23 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBHJNM814288; Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:23:23 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:23:23 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412171923.iBHJNM814288@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 #604 TELECOM Digest Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:23:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 604 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Time Warner to Pay $510 Million to Resolve U.S. Probes (Lisa Minter) AOL Settlement Includes Tight Controls (Lisa Minter) Former Charter CEO Pleads Guilty to Fraud (Monty Solomon) Geico Claims Google Advertising Policy Violates Trademark Law (ptownson) VOIP, Bluetooth Vulnerable to Hacks (Telecom DailyLead) Re: Dialogic JCT Series (David) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Andrew Bell) Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use (Joseph) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Time Warner to Pay $510 Million to Resolve U.S. Probes Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 11:15:39 EST WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc. said on Wednesday it agreed to pay the U.S. government $510 million to resolve criminal and civil charges that its America Online unit fraudulently inflated its revenue figures. The agreements close a two-year investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission and gives the world's largest media company financial flexibility to pursue a range of deals, including the acquisition of cable operator Adelphia Communications Corp. "For them to be an effective and fully competitive suitor, they will be pressed to clear their reputation from any type of censure," said Thomas Russo, a portfolio manager at asset manager Gardner, Russo, Gardner, which owns shares in the company. Time Warner Chief Executive Dick Parsons told employees in an internal company memorandum, "While there are still challenges ahead, the steps we announced today will help to remove a cloud that has been hanging over the company for some time now," The company, which is home to such assets as Bugs Bunny, CNN and People magazine, has already set up a $500 million reserve to cover anticipated costs of the agreements. DEFERRED PROSECUTION Time Warner said it will pay $210 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to resolve criminal charges of aiding and abetting securities fraud. Under the agreement filed in federal court in Virginia, Time Warner accepted responsibility for criminal violations made by AOL employees and pledged to cooperate fully with the Justice Department in its investigation into individuals involved in the fraud, among other conditions. In exchange, the government agreed to defer prosecution of the company for two years, after which it will dismiss charges if Time Warner complies with the deal. "The agreements we've reached today with America Online and Time Warner give the company a chance to turn itself around and avoid the consequences of a criminal conviction," said Deputy Attorney General James Comey. U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said the investigation was continuing and he expected additional criminal charges. The company has offered to pay about $300 million to settle fraud charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to its buyout of a stake held by Germany's Bertelsmann AG AOL Europe. While a final resolution with the SEC has not been reached, the staff of the SEC has agreed to recommend the proposal to the commissioners, who must sign off on any settlement, Time Warner said in a statement. Time Warner will also agree to an independent examiner who will review the company's accounting on online advertising revenue from 1999 to 2002, which may result in further restatements. Time Warner said it admits no guilt or denies any wrongdoing as part of the SEC proposal. DEALINGS WITH PURCHASEPRO The Justice Department's charges stemmed from AOL's dealings with the once-thriving now defunct software company PurchasePro.com. Court documents said "six or more" AOL officers or employees aided PurchasePro.com's officers to falsely inflate the company's revenue. No AOL officials have yet been charged in the case and Justice Department officials declined to identify any of the AOL officials who may be charged. As part of the deal with the Justice Department, four former PurchasePro executives agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with the government's investigation. They also settled civil charges with the SEC. Time Warner stock closed the day flat at $19.38 on the New York Stock Exchange. For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: AOL Settlement Includes Tight Controls Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:59:04 EST By David A. Vise, Washington Post Staff Writer America Online Inc.'s settlement with the Justice Department imposes a strict new set of controls on the company, including requirements that the Internet giant hire a corporate monitor and disclose serious wrongdoing discovered internally to the government. The deal -- announced Wednesday and signed by federal prosecutors and America Online chief executive Jonathan F. Miller -- comes as authorities seek to strengthen corporate checks and balances following scandals at Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and other firms. The AOL settlement requires the Dulles-based company to give the Justice Department every letter it receives threatening private litigation against AOL. The agreement also makes the Justice Department a party to normally private communications between AOL and its parent company, media giant Time Warner Inc. "AOL will adopt a new internal standard of conduct under which it will inform the Department of Justice of any new matter reported to Time Warner's Audit and Finance Committee that involves substantial and credible evidence of any Federal Crimes," the cooperation agreement states. AOL also agreed to hire and pay for an independent monitor for at least two years. The selection must be approved by Justice, and the monitor will report to prosecutors regularly on the firm's business conduct. The monitor has the power to hire accounting firms to assist in the work and must be given access to all details of AOL's online advertising deals. The company could be subject to criminal prosecution if it fails to live up to the terms of the agreement. Justice officials filed a criminal complaint against America Online but agreed to defer prosecution for two years and to dismiss the complaint at the end of that period if the company cooperates fully with authorities. However, AOL could be prosecuted as a corporate entity if it commits various crimes in the future. As part of the settlement, the firm waived its right to assert that the statute of limitations had expired. On Wednesday, Time Warner and AOL agreed to pay the federal government $510 million to settle criminal and civil charges following a long-running probe of questionable accounting and dealmaking that inflated AOL's revenue and profit before and after the company merged with Time Warner. The agreements have been approved by Justice and the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission , but the proposed SEC agreement still must be reviewed by the commissioners of the agency, who have the right to alter, amend or reject the proposed settlement. AOL also agreed to assist Justice fully in the criminal prosecution of "six or more" current and former AOL employees involved in alleged accounting fraud committed between AOL and PurchasePro.com Inc., a defunct Las Vegas software firm. The agreement states that AOL and PurchasePro engaged in a multiyear scheme of accounting fraud and deceptive dealmaking that enabled both companies to exaggerate the real revenue they were taking in by millions of dollars. The agreement does not list the names of the six individuals at AOL but states that they worked in AOL's business affairs unit, which took the lead on advertising deals; in the interactive marketing unit; and elsewhere. Former AOL employees David M. Colburn and Eric Keller, who worked in business affairs, are among the former AOL employees under scrutiny, said people familiar with the probe who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. Attorneys for both men have said they engaged in no wrongdoing. Four former PurchasePro executives agreed on Wednesday to plead guilty to criminal charges in the probe and to cooperate in the government's investigation. They are Robert Geoffrey Layne, former executive vice president and a co-founder; Shawn P. McGhee, the company's former chief operating officer; Dale L. Boeth, a former senior vice president; and James S. Sholeff, a former vice president. Under the cooperation agreement signed by Miller, AOL agreed not to challenge Justice's conclusions about the alleged criminal nature of the scheme between the companies or the criminal culpability of some AOL officials. Miller also agreed that AOL will actively assist Justice in the prosecution. Among other things, Miller agreed that AOL officials with knowledge of the wrongdoing will testify before a federal grand jury about current and former America Online officials who participated in the fraudulent deals and, if necessary, testify at trial. The Department of Justice's "decision to defer and ultimately not seek criminal sanctions against AOL is contingent on AOL's adherence to a number of conditions," Miller wrote in an e-mail to employees. "We take this matter very seriously and expect you to do the same. As a company, living up to the conditions imposed by the DOJ must and will be a clear priority." NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Washington Post Company. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:55:22 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Former Charter CEO Pleads Guilty to Fraud By JIM SALTER AP Business Writer ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The former chief operating officer of cable television company Charter Communications Inc. pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal charge that he conspired to defraud investors by inflating subscriber numbers, U.S. Attorney James Martin said. David Barford, 46, of Chesterfield, faces sentencing March 11 for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, but has agreed to testify in the trial of two other former executives, Martin said. As part of the plea agreement, 13 other counts were dismissed, Martin said. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=45695431 ------------------------------ Subject: Geico Claims Google Advertising Policy Violates Trademark Law From: ptownson Organization: SFGate, San Francisco, CA Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:21 -0800 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2004/12/13/n= ational1739EST0713.DTL Monday, December 13, 2004 (AP) SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer (12-13) 14:39 PST ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- federal judge heard arguments Monday in a trademark dispute that could threaten millions in advertising revenue for search engine Google Inc. Attorneys for auto insurance giant Geico told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema that Google should not be allowed to sell ads to rival insurance companies that are triggered whenever Geico's name is typed into the Google search box. Geico claims that Google's AdWords program, which displays the rival ads under a "Sponsored Links" heading next to a user's search results, causes confusion for consumers and illegally exploits Geico's investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in its brand. "When a consumers enters 'Geico' ... and goes to the sponsored link believing there's a connection, that is where the confusion arises," said Geico attorney Charles Ossola. But Google attorney Michael Page said the ad policy is no different than a supermarket giving out coupons for one product in the checkout line when a customer buys the same product from a different company. "There is nothing wrong with that under the trademark laws," Page said. Geico filed the lawsuit against Google in May, seeking $8.65 million in lost profits and a court order preventing Google from using its name in the advertising program. Under the program, for example, a competing insurance company could bid to have its ad appear every time Google users search for the word "Geico." When a user clicks on an ad, the advertiser pays Google a predetermined fee. Google is facing similar lawsuits from other companies, including American Blind and Wallpaper Factory Inc. and AXA, the world's No. 3 insurer. Last year, Google asked a court to rule on whether its pay-for-placement ad policy is legal. John McCutcheon, Geico's assistant vice president of marketing, testified Monday that most consumers visit just one Web site when shopping for auto insurance. If a consumer trying to find Geico is unknowingly steered to a competitor's site, "We've lost one opportunity." The Geico lawsuit, filed in May, came just weeks after Google said it hoped to raise $2.7 billion with an initial public stock offering. The vast majority of Google's ad revenue comes from search-related advertising. In federal filings, the company said it would face financial risks if it was forced to limit sales of keyword ads to generic words. Geico's lawsuit had also named Web site company Overture Services, a Yahoo! subsidiary, but the two companies reached an undisclosed settlement in November, after Brinkema denied a motion to dismiss the trademark claims. The bench trial is expected to last three days, after which Brinkema could issue a decision or take the matter under advisement. Copyright 2004 AP NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance SF-Gate and Associated Press. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As this issue of the Digest was being prepared for distribution, word reached us that Google had won the case. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 13:33:00 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: VoIP, Bluetooth Vulnerable to Hacks Telecom dailyLead from USTA December 17, 2004 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18191&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * VoIP, Bluetooth vulnerable to hacks BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Sprint-Nextel merger won't result in immediate changes * Opinion: Debt holds Qwest back * Former Charter exec pleads guilty in subscriber-number case * Covad, Verizon revise DSL deal USTA SPOTLIGHT * Announcing Phone Facts Plus 2005 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Cable companies drive boom in fiber-optic cable business * NTT DoCoMo takes wraps off new handset REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * DOJ to keep a close watch on AOL's books * Court allows fiber rights-of-way lawsuits to proceed Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18191&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: David Reply-To: FlyLikeAnEagle@United.Com Subject: Re: Dialogic JCT Series Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 05:24:07 GMT On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:30:55 UTC, Maverick wrote: > Hi, > Thanks for the help David. > I am not sure if we are purchasing from some stockist or directly or > from some some reseller but I will to get some help from there as > well. Thanks anyways. The groups we initially contacted once we had identified that the D/42JCT-U was useful for a new product were a great help. The cards ranged in price nearly two to one. Some dealers had support charges and others an up front service fee. We chose a supplier near the low end per card and a somewhat reasonable hourly support rate. During the initial contacts we were directed deep into the Intel web sites with addresses for their support groups. These are still free to sign up for. If you are technically savy, this may help you get certain questions answered. The support group we pay for as well as many other developers hang out there. The D/42 and D/82 aren't used by most developers but it has been worthwhile. It is good to pick the brains of other developers who may have fought some of the battles you may face when starting out on a new system. It all depends on what help you need. David ------------------------------ From: Andrew Bell Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:06:35 -0500 hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote about Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? on 16 Dec 2004 10:10:14 -0800: > As others mentioned, it will get to the point that no one will watch > their stuff because the imposed restrictions are too onerous. GOOD! Hoist by their own petard, I say. > Yes, the VCR does allow me to skip commercials but on the other hand I > can watch simultaneous shows now (watch one live, tape the other), > which means I see more TV, benefiting them. Time shifting of course > allows me to see stuff I'd never see, again, a benefit for them. Not so. You only benefit "them" if you watch the commercials. Leaving aside things like per {cable|satellite} subscriber payments, an OTA TV station sells a product (the viewers) to their customer (the advertisers.) Yes, YOU are the product. If you don't co-operate and watch the commercials like a good sheep, then you are of absolutely no commercial (pun intended) value, and "they" couldn't care less what you watch or when. The more people skip commercials, the less advertisers will pay. For TV to survive as an advertiser supported medium, they MUST find a way to make their product attractive to their customers. They can do this in two ways -- embed the advertising directly in the programming, or use technology to attempt to force viewers to watch commercials. Or, the radical approach would be to abandon the advertiser supported model and turn the whole thing on its head. If you turn the programming into the product, and turn the viewers into the customer, just imagine the increase in quality programming! Of course, a $300/month cable bill will probably come with it, but everything has its price. Andrew ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:09:35 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 21:42:50 -0500, Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > The Association of Flight Attendants warns widespread use of wireless > devices in the confined space of an aircraft cabin potentially could > interfere with an aircraft's communications and navigation systems, > compromise safety and increase conflicts between passengers and crew > member. Well, as has been written many times before it's unlikely that use of cell phones will interfere with avionics. It's more likely the second part "increase conflicts between passengers and crew member." ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #604 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Dec 18 02:51:14 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBI7pCk20964; Sat, 18 Dec 2004 02:51:14 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 02:51:14 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412180751.iBI7pCk20964@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 #605 TELECOM Digest Sat, 18 Dec 2004 02:51:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 605 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Apple Sues Over Web Leak of Advance Products (Lisa Minter) Wireless in Cherryvale (Wesrock@aol.com) Mass Call in or Choke Lines in Chicago Area (kevin906) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Cingular Migration (jrefactors@hotmail.com) Re: Cross Battery and Verizon (William Warren) Re: Vonage Voice Quality Getting Worse? (Rick Merrill) Re: Geico Claims Google Ad Policy Violates Trademark Law (Clarence Dold) Re: Cell Phone Motorists Are Dangerous (Phil McKerracher) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Tony P.) CTI Consultant (Peter Deveaux) Copy Protection Easily Defeated With Shift Key (Marcus Didius Falco) Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use'...) (Neal McLain) VOIP (jim@giganews.com) Lots of Free Domains Without ICANN Tyranny (TELECOM Digest Editor) Ten Ducks (joppenheimer@icbtollfree.com) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Apple Sues Over Web Leak of Advance Products Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 19:48:36 EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. is suing anonymous people who leaked details about new products by posting information on the Internet, court documents showed on Friday. Apple's complaint, filed with the Santa Clara County California Superior Court, comes only weeks ahead of the Macworld conference in San Francisco, the annual show where CEO Steve Jobs unveils the latest Apple products. Apple is notoriously secretive about its product plans, while many fan sites routinely discuss what may be in store, including posting pictures of real products and hoaxes. The complaint alleges that "an unidentified individual, acting alone or in concert with others, has recently misappropriated and disseminated through Web sites confidential information about an unreleased Apple product." Apple said in the seven-page civil complaint, filed on Dec. 13, that it did not know the "true names or capacities, whether individual, associate, corporate or otherwise," of the defendants. Once they have been discovered, the Cupertino, California-based company said it would amend the complaint. It was not the first time Apple has gone after fanatics who have posted information about upcoming products on the Internet. In December 2002, Apple sued a former contractor who allegedly posted drawings, images and engineering details of the company's PowerMac G4 computer in July of that year, several weeks before the product was officially unveiled. "Apple has filed a civil complaint against unnamed individuals who we believe stole our trade secrets and posted detailed information about an unannounced Apple product on the Internet," the company said in a statement provided to Reuters. "Apple's DNA is innovation and the protection of our trade secrets is crucial to our success." Mac rumor Web sites are at their busiest ahead of the annual Macworld conventions, which are highly anticipated by the Mac faithful for product introductions and Jobs' keynote. In recent weeks, the Web sites have been buzzing with speculation that Apple will introduce a smaller, cheaper version of its market-leading iPod digital music player that uses flash memory, rather than the hard disk drives of the standard iPods. Flash memory chips retain data stored on them even when electrical current is shut off. Financial analysts Andy Neff of Bear Stearns and Charlie Wolf of Needham & Co. have also published notes in recent weeks mentioning flash iPods. "To succeed, Apple must develop innovative products and bring those products to market in advance of its competitors," the company said in its complaint. "If Apple competitors were aware of Apple's future production information, those competitors could benefit economically from that knowledge by directing their product development or marketing to frustrate Apple's plans." NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service.. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 20:15:24 EST Subject: Wireless in Cherryvale What kind of wireless service do they have in Cherryvale? I was there a week or two ago and tried three times to make a call. My phone is a Nokia 5165, which has both digital and analog capabilities. It displayed simply "Roam" (not "Cingular Roam") so I must have been in an area (never encountered one before on my "regional plan"), and then my attempts had these results: 1. Assorted noises, perhaps switching noises, no connection. 2. Very noisy connection, cut off several seconds into the recorded message at the number (in Cherryvale) I was calling. 3. Clean connection, and proceeded through the called number's announcement message all the way to the beep to record, and I did leave a message, apparently successfully. My service is registered in Oklahoma City, area code 405, and Kansas is in the "region." You're probably familiar with the situation in Cherryvale and would know what kind of service I got, what carrier, and why it was so erratic. Just wondering, no big deal. It was a day with bright sunshine and the calls were made from different locations in Cherryvale. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Cherryvale, with around 2000 residents, has the same carriers we have here in Independence, namely Cingular Wireless, Alltel, and Sprint. But the towers are few and far apart. Now that I think about it, I don't beleive any carrier has an office there in town, however, in all fairness, I am a few blocks down the street from a Cingular Wireless tower here in Independence, but yet now and then my phone says 'roam' also (Nokia 6100 series, an older type phone). If I 'cycle the power' it comes back up in Cingular, but when I tested it (by dialing 611 when 'roaming') I found I was on Alltel. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kevin906 Subject: Mass Callin or Choke Lines in Chicago Area Date: 17 Dec 2004 11:20:54 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Anyone have any clues about how these lines are engineered these days? Or has everyone that knew anything about them retired to sunny climes? I would think that in the era of modern ISDN SS7 networks that these chokes would no longer be needed to manage traffic loads between Central offices. If they can be provisioned as something besides analog lines without caller id? I am just throwing this out there. Wondering if this technology can be updated into the 21st century. Thanks for any input. ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 19:24:49 EST Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you remember *many, many* years >> ago when cable television was first getting underway how 'they' said >> cable would be a better deal 'since there would not be any >> commercials; it is all paid for by your cable fees'. What a joke >> that was. Of course that was long before they started showing >> commercials in the movie theatres (where you had bought a five or >> six dollar ticket to watch a movie also.) PAT] This seems a strange memory, since I remember commercials in movie theaters in Perry, Oklahoma, in the 1930s, when I was not yet even a teenager. A few years later I was working as a projectionist in those same theaters, and running the commercials along with the rest of the show. This would have been in the 1940s, perhaps into the 1950s. Most of the commercials for movie theaters were produced by the Alexander Film Company of Colorado Springs, Colo. One which probably had a lasting effect on commerce, and which most people from that time will still remember is the one where the audio was the song "Twice as much and for a nickel, too ... Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you." Surely they ran them in Independence, too, and pretty much everywhere in the country, including theaters in cities. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe, but I do not remember, sorry. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jrefactors@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Cingular Migration Date: 17 Dec 2004 11:51:15 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I am AT&T customer. AT&T customers have the option to unchange the plan or migrate to Cingular. But if Cingular already bought AT&T Wireless, even AT&T customers unchange the plan, eventually the wireless network will be Cingular's network. And the AT&T wireless bill will become Cingular bill. Then what's the point to migrate? There are so many advertisments encourage AT&T Wireless customers to migrate to Cingular, that's my confusion. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Cross Battery and Verizon From: William Warren Organization: Church of the Infinite Possibility Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 20:11:10 GMT On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 14:01:52 GMT, Joe Perkowski wrote: > Hey ppl, > Does anyone know what is "cross battery"? We put in a NBX 2 months > ago running fine. Now, we are getting static and crosstalk on some of > our incoming lines. > We have had a great deal of rain these past 2 weeks, and have had > previously problems with Verizon due to old copper in our area. > The Verizon guy is telling us "cross battery" is causing this? > What is "cross battery" if anyone knows...? Joe, He means "Crossed _WITH_ Battery", i.e., he sees a "foreign" voltage on your pair when he puts a voltmeter on your line at the CO. There are three possible causes: 1. The pair is defective, and is shorted to another pair in the cable. The tester is seeing the voltage on the _other_ pair (-48v from the CO), looped back to him through the short circuit in the cable. 2. There is a short circuit in your company's internal cable. 3. Your PBX places a "Ground detect" voltage on the pair in order to sense the tip ground which signals dial tone on a ground-start line. In all these cases, you'll need to open the lines at the demarcation point and make a binary decision about which side (your or theirs) the problem is coming from. In case (3), if your test at the demarc shows voltage coming from your PBX, the problem could be that your PBX is optioned for ground-start, but the CO is configured for loop-start. You'll need to change the options on the line(s) involved. HTH. William (Filter noise from my address for direct replies) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 15:28:35 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Vonage Voice Quality Getting Worse? A number of people 'think' they have a problem with their VoIP provider, BUT the problems only occur when talking to someone on a CELL phone. The reason may be that the compression algorithms used in the cell phone do not "fit well" with the compression algotithms used for VoIP. - RM ------------------------------ From: dold@XReXXGeico.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Geico Claims Google Advertising Policy Violates Trademark Law Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 20:30:45 UTC Organization: a2i network ptownson wrote: > > Monday, December 13, 2004 (AP) > SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer > (12-13) 14:39 PST ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- federal judge heard > arguments Monday in a trademark dispute that could threaten millions > in advertising revenue for search engine Google Inc. Let's try to stay current. The judge issued a summary dismissal of the case moments after Geico finished their presentation and Google asked for a dismissal. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 ------------------------------ From: Phil McKerracher Subject: Re: Cell Phone Motorists Are Dangerous Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 00:00:43 GMT wrote in message news:telecom23.602.3@telecom-digest.org: > I just had two close calls, nearly getting hit by two separate > motorists distracted by their cell phone conversation... > Why is it so critical that people must stay connected 24/7? I can think of lots of possible reasons, some of which make me wonder how we ever managed without cell phones. Two obvious examples are medical emergencies (pregnant wife etc) and arranging a rendezvous somewhere (e.g airport). Things that are hard to predict but sometimes very important. But I completely agree that people should pull over or at least use a hands-free kit. Phil McKerracher www.mckerracher.org ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Organization: ATCC Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 20:26:07 -0500 In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you remember *many, many* years >> ago when cable television was first getting underway how 'they' said >> cable would be a better deal 'since there would not be any >> commercials; it is all paid for by your cable fees'. What a joke >> that was. Of course that was long before they started showing >> commercials in the movie theatres (where you had bought a five or >> six dollar ticket to watch a movie also.) PAT] > Yes, I do. Indeed, I remember a lot of promises about cable > television that never came to be, and I've read a lot of the hopes for > broadcast TV that either never came out or only did in a trickle. > All these broken promises from new technology is a motivator for many > of my postings here. I've seen enough "oh this is a wonderful > technology!" promises when in reality it actually made things _worse_ > for us consumers. Sometimes the technology itself was just plain bad, > sometimes it was the way it was promoted and marketed. > Everyone is deep in love with "digital" over analog, but the rush to > implementation had a lot of bugs with disasterous consquences as > firemen radios went dead. A major police system used in several > cities tends to fail; the mfr is working on it. Working on it until the first wrongful death suit that is. > The old Bell System used to test, test, and retest its new > technologies before rolling them out nationwide. After in-house > extensive lab testing, they did carefully controlled beta tests in one > real exchange. Their famous initial ESS tests taught them a heck of a > lot about reliability, the switchgear, and station sets. The first ESS couldn't even handle ring current so there were special phone sets with electronic ringers. Now here we are forty or so years later and most new phones have electronic ringers yet the infrastructure still supports the 90VAC 20Hz signalling. > The original point of CATV was better reception. I'm still waiting > for that to happen. For some reason the lowest channels on my system > come in very poorly, and I've called them out many times. As it > happens I don't watch those channels too much so I live with it, but > it's interesting how this supposedly high-tech medium (with fiber > optic now) still can't get the basics right. I love how the cable companies harp on the fact that satellite transmission can be interrupted by rain, and then one of their own carried stations goes off the air because you guessed it, weather interfered with the cable companies OWN satellite reception. > The second point of CATV was better program selection. In some ways > that has come true, but in many ways that's lacking. When Nick@Nite > and TV Land first came out they offered some neat stuff from the > 1950s, but now it's just more reruns of recent junk. Nick daytime had > some creative original shows, but I don't think they bother anymore. What kills me is all the commercials. I've got expanded basic service and I can flip through all 80 channels in a given time and see nothing but commercials. > I don't think much of cable news networks because they spew out raw > facts that are _out of context_ and thus not newsworthy. Good news > reporting is more than just reporting isolated facts -- it is putting > them together in a logical fashion, eliminating contradictions, and > putting in a wider context. Despite all the time they have they still > put everything in brief sound bites. But that costs money. It's the same thing that ruined prime time television. Reality television is so much cheaper to produce but you get absolute lowest common denominator television. The only reason I watch the local evening news is to if anyone I know has gotten ambushed which has happened a couple of times. :) Tony ------------------------------ From: pdeveaux@primas.net (Peter Deveaux) Subject: CTI Consultant Date: 17 Dec 2004 18:08:59 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com CTI Systems Applications Consultant design computer telephony integrated solutions Description: We are a developer of custom computer telephony (CT) software solutions. We seek the services of a skilled CTI consultant. CTI Systems Applications Consultant Primary responsibility is to design and develop custom Computer Telephony Integrated solutions. Candidate will be responsible for design, development, testing and support for Intel NetMerge Dialogic CT-Connect consulting projects. Secondarily, this engineer will also be responsible to provide site implementation and installation services for CT Connect related products at customer sites. This includes installing CT Connect Software on CTI server platforms, testing and troubleshooting the telephone switch to CTI server link, providing consulting services for CT Connect management and maintenance procedures, and verifying the customer's acceptance of the installation services. A working knowledge of data networking is required for the site implementation and installation services aspects of this position. Other responsibilities include assisting sales professionals with customer requirements gathering. Approximate travel time 20%. Minimum Qualifications: 3+ years experience in developing software solutions on a Windows / Windows NT environment Person must be able to program in one or more of the following languages, C, C++, VB or Java, and have the necessary skills to test and troubleshoot complex systems. Proven track record in delivering consulting and application integration projects. Experience with object-oriented programming and 1+ years of Computer Telephony Integration development is a minimum requirement. Desired Qualifications: Excellent communications skills Intel NetMerge experience Dialogic CT-Connect experience Aspect Contact Server Company-Paid Benefits: Medical Coverage Vision Coverage Paid Prescription Program Dental Coverage Additional Benefits: Paid Time Off Holidays Optional Benefits: Tuition Reimbursement Plan Apply to: tech-hr@primas.net www.primas.net ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 21:28:42 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: [IP] Copy Protection Easily Defeated With Shift Key If I recall correctly there was a similar scheme several years ago that could be defeated in a similar way: From: "David Farber" < > _______________ Forward Header _______________ Subject: Copy Protection Easily Defeated With Shift Key Author: EEkid Date: 17th December 2004 2:50:43 pm SonyBMG plans to begin the new year with a batch of freshly pressed music cds that will feature copy protection technology from First 4 Internet. First 4 Internet's technology encodes the music files with a heavy encryption that allows standard cd players to playback the music. There are also additional data files on the CD that further enhance encryption. All of which is easily bypassed by simply holding down the shift button when you load the CD into a PC. http://www.anandtech.com/news/shownews.aspx?i=23525 _______________ Forward Header _______________ Subject: Re: [IP] Copy Protection Easily Defeated With Shift Ke y Author: Brett Glass < g> Date: 17th December 2004 5:40:38 pm Dave: One doesn't even need to hold down the shift key to disable this nasty DRM if one configures one's Windows system not to "autoplay" CDs when they are inserted. This is a good idea, since leaving this "feature" enabled can also cause awkward problems if a CD is left in a drive when the machine is rebooted. Instructions on how to disable "autoplay" (They'll vary for different versions of Windows) are available on hundreds of Web sites; consult your favorite search engine. --Brett Glassi ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 21:32:09 -0600 From: Neal McLain Subject: Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use'...) PAT wrote [TD 23:602]: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you remember *many, many* > years ago when cable television was first getting underway how > 'they' said cable would be a better deal 'since there would not > be any commercials; it is all paid for by your cable fees'. Huh? That's not the way I remember it. Who's the 'they' that told you that? From 1948 to 1975 (before communications satellites existed) cable TV systems carried programming from two sources: "local origination" and television broadcast stations. Local-origination programming was non-broadcast programming produced either by the cable operator or by local "access" organizations. Broadcast stations fell into two loosely-defined categories: "local" stations, which potential subscribers could receive off-the-air, and "distant" stations which the average viewer couldn't receive without an elaborate antenna. Distant broadcast stations which didn't duplicate local stations were the cable operator's bread and butter. Cable operators usually carried local stations in an effort to offer a complete lineup (and because FCC rules made such carriage mandatory for most cable systems). But local stations didn't help sell cable subscriptions: only distant broadcast stations which subscribers couldn't receive off-the-air -- particularly commercial independents like WOR-TV and WGN-TV -- would induce potential subscribers to sign up for cable. Cable operators went to great lengths to "import" distant stations. Tall towers, some exceeding 1000 feet, were erected just to support receiving antennas. Many cable operators constructed microwave links to import distant stations. Some cable operators even constructed antenna sites on mountaintops so remote that they couldn't be reached except by helicopter. The FCC's "manner of carriage" rules governed how cable systems could carry television stations. One fundamental rule that was established in those days (and that remains in place to this day) stated that, unless specifically permitted by some other FCC rule, the cable TV system must carry each broadcast signal in its entirely, without any interruption or substitution. In other words, the cable system **shall carry** all commercial and political messages transmitted by the originating station, and shall not delete or alter any such message. This rule applied even to non-commercial educational (NCE) stations. Although these stations didn't carry commercials, they did carry program promos and solicitations for contributions. Local programming was governed under FCC different rules. - Any sort of paid commercial or political advertising was prohibited on any channel designated by franchise as a public, educational, or government access channel. - Advertising was permitted on channels controlled by cable operators, and many cable operators accepted commercial and political messages. Even character-generated "message board" channels carried advertising. Given this history, I don't see how it's possible that anyone familiar with the industry could have claimed that "there would not be any commercials; it is all paid for by your cable fees." Without distant independent commercial stations like WGN-TV and WOR-TV, the cable industry wouldn't have had a salable product. Neal McLain ------------------------------ From: jim@giganews.com Subject: VOIP Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 00:22:11 -0600 I'm considering VOIP for my home but realistically, how many phones can it support? I've read from 2 sites, 3 and 5 phones so I was hoping what your experience has been? Does it matter who the provider is to answer this question? I presume the phones are the same used as before voip. Just in case, can you buy one base unit with multiple hand sets ? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 02:02:03 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Lots of Free Domains Without ICANN Tyranny I notice that in addition to .tf domains, one can also now get free domains in the .tc and .ms domains under the same terms as the original .tf domains. That is, auto, unvalidated registration, free forever, using redirection to any other site you want it to go to. For 'ms' domain names, go to http://www.cydots.com to sign up. For 'tc' domain names, go to http://www.smartdots.com to sign up. For 'tf' domain names, go to http://unonic.com to sign up. For wox.org and dhs.org, n3.net and home.dhs.org you do have to pay $5.00 for a two year registration, but it is a totally automated process as well, and these also redirect to wherever you wish. Yoy pay the $5.00 fee (one charge gets you up to four domain names)and these turn on immediatly upon set up); these are also redirectors to wherever you wish, and can be passworded or not as you wish. You pay the five dollar registration fee for wox.org and dhs.org and n3.net using a PayPal account. These three are all based out of Australia, but like all 'org' and 'net' domains, they *are* subject (I suppose) to ICANN tyranny. So you may wish to go with ms, tc, and tf which are not only free, and easy to use instant signup/registration, but no ICANN supervision. Other than 'tf' which was explained to me as the Antarctic area of the Indian Ocean, I have no idea where 'tc' and 'ms' are located, but they are free, with remote registration, and redirection as well as incoming email, etc. Just a reminder, I was notified by John Levine that he will be doing some work on his machine xuxa.com this weekend and as a result, telecom-digest.org may be unreachable some of the weekend. If you try to reach us, and cannot get through, then try either of these which bypass John: massis.lcs.mit.edu or www.telecom-digest.n3.net . PAT ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: Subject: Ten Ducks Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 18:10:40 -0500 Organization: ICB Inc./WhoSells800.com Today ICB made a small holiday donation -- half a dairy cow, some rabbits, fruit trees, clothes for homeless children, blankets, ducks, a gift to the "Girls in Crisis Fund." It's not much, we thought at first, just a token, a drop in the bucket. But we realized that a lot of drops in a lot of buckets, helps a lot of people. And we did touch a few lives today, each one important. So as you do your last minute shopping, you might consider farm animals, or a foot-powered water pump. It's most rewarding. (See http://worldvision.org.) Best wishes to you and your family for a happy holiday and a healthy new year. Warmest Regards, Judith Oppenheimer http://JudithOppenheimer.com http://ICBTollFreeNews.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And the same to you, Judith! I can also recommend http://worldvision.org as a good site for readers. PAT] ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #605 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Dec 18 19:03:51 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBJ03pI00543; Sat, 18 Dec 2004 19:03:51 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 19:03:51 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412190003.iBJ03pI00543@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 #606 TELECOM Digest Sat, 18 Dec 2004 19:04:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 606 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson ISP "Wins" Billion Dollar Anti-Spam Lawsuit (Danny Burstein) Re: VOIP (Rick Merrill) Re: VOIP (Dave VanHorn) Re: VOIP (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: VOIP (Tony P.) Re: VOIP (John Levine) Re: Cingular Migration (Klay Anderson) Re: Cingular Migration (John Levine) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (DevilsPGD) Re: Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use') (Barry Margolin) Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Oppose In-Flight Cell Phone (John D. Galt) Re: Vonage Voice Quality Getting Worse? (John Levine) Re: Wireless in Cherryvale (John Levine) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (AES/newspost) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Danny Burstein Subject: ISP "Wins" Billion Dollar Anti-Spam Lawsuit Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 16:24:21 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC ("wins" in quotes because getting the money is unlikely, and the initial judgment is based on defaults/no shows.) "Spam suit nets $1 billion" By Todd Ruger and Kay Luna "CLINTON, Iowa A federal judge awarded a Clinton Internet service provider more than $1 billion in judgments Friday in a lawsuit against companies who used his equipment to send so-called spam e-mails. "It is believed to be by far the largest judgment ever against companies accused of sending unsolicited commercial e-mail via the Internet, said those who track such practices. " 'It's definitely a victory for all of us that open up our e-mail and find lewd and malicious and fraudulent e-mail in our boxes every day,' said Robert Kramer, the owner of CIS Internet Services in Clinton. [ snippety snip, rest of very comprehensive article at: http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id1041776 ------------------------------ From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: VOIP Organization: Comcast Online Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 14:30:32 GMT jim@giganews.com wrote: > I'm considering VOIP for my home but realistically, how many phones > can it support? I've read from 2 sites, 3 and 5 phones so I was > hoping what your experience has been? Does it matter who the provider > is to answer this question? I presume the phones are the same used as > before voip. Just in case, can you buy one base unit with multiple > hand sets ? It matters what TA (telephone adapter) you use: some only support 1 REN and some support 3 REN (ringer equivalency number). Remember that these are the base sets only, so if you have a cordless baseset it can support multiple handsets. The providers will tell you (most likely) "one phone". - RM ------------------------------ Reply-To: Dave VanHorn From: Dave VanHorn Subject: Re: VOIP Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:40:47 -0500 How do they handle 911 calls when the power is out? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Either they do not handle them at all (the usual, default situation) or, if they planned ahead of time for such contingencies they have a backup battery they use. You can buy a backup battery (such as used for an orderly shut down on computers) but use it to power the VOIP TA, the modem and nothing else. Then the VOIP phone will continue to work. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: VOIP Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 10:05:25 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com jim@giganews.com wrote: > I'm considering VOIP for my home but realistically, how many phones > can it support? I've read from 2 sites, 3 and 5 phones so I was > hoping what your experience has been? Does it matter who the provider > is to answer this question? I presume the phones are the same used as > before voip. Most VOIP Terminal Adapters (TAs) that I have seen will support between 3-5 REN. REN stands for ringer equivilence number. A REN of 1.0 is roughly equal to the current needed to drive 1 mechanical bell ringer in an old 500 style telephone. Modern electronic "chirp" ringers are in the neighborhood of 0.3 REN, so driving multiple phones is usually not a problem. That said, I think someone here recently reported that their VOIP service had lowered the max REN of their TA through a config option. It apparently took a phone call to get it raised. > Just in case, can you buy one base unit with multiple hand sets ? Yes. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: VOIP Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 13:51:17 -0500 In article , jim@giganews.com says: > I'm considering VOIP for my home but realistically, how many phones > can it support? I've read from 2 sites, 3 and 5 phones so I was > hoping what your experience has been? Does it matter who the provider > is to answer this question? I presume the phones are the same used as > before voip. Just in case, can you buy one base unit with multiple > hand sets ? I have five phones connected to my VoIP router (A Linksys RT31P2). The phones are: A Radio Shack 43-3544 900MHz cordless; Western Electric 2940 Celebrity; Western Electric 2226 Trimline; Western Electric 2702B Princess; Western Electric 302 - Receive Only but will be able to dial once I pick up a SMART-1 adapter. No problems at all. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 2004 21:36:05 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: VOIP Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I'm considering VOIP for my home but realistically, how many phones > can it support? It depends on the terminal adapter. I have Vonage with a Cisco ATA-186 and it supports three phones fine. > Just in case, can you buy one base unit with multiple hand sets ? Most VoIP carriers give you a terminal adapter into which you plug a phone rather than a standalone phone. You can always throw money at the problem and plug in a high-end cordless phone that supports multiple handsets. You can also buy ring boosters that increase the number of phones you can plug in. -- John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: Klay Anderson Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 10:07:24 -0700 Organization: Klay Anderson Audio, Inc. Subject: Re: Cingular Migration In article , jrefactors@hotmail.com wrote: > Then what's the point to migrate? There are so many advertisments > encourage AT&T Wireless customers to migrate to Cingular, that's my > confusion. In my case, I had to in order to change my phone to a RAZR. No problems though, other than long on-hold times to get the deal straight and BS promises about shipping times. A few newbies in the cubicles were not too sure how to do it, but all were cheerful and eventually I got it done. For the same AT&T business plan on my particualar phone, Cingular was US$20 per month cheaper, so I am not complaining. Regards, Klay Anderson http://www.klay.com +801-942-8346 ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 2004 20:38:39 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Cingular Migration Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I am AT&T customer. AT&T customers have the option to unchange the > plan or migrate to Cingular. Then what's the point to migrate? Cingular's point is that they would like all of their customers to have profitable new plans and use GSM phones. If you like your plan, there's no reason to change it. If you have a TDMA phone, at some point you'll probably have better service if you switch to a GSM phone, since Cingular is rapidly moving their network to GSM. But it's been my experience with Cingular that I can walk in and say that I want a new phone but I don't want to change my plan, and they'll say OK. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 02:35:32 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message Tony P. wrote: > I love how the cable companies harp on the fact that satellite > transmission can be interrupted by rain, and then one of their own > carried stations goes off the air because you guessed it, weather > interfered with the cable companies OWN satellite reception. While true, it takes a lot more weather to take out a 6' dish then a 20" dish. ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use'...) Organization: Symantec Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 10:15:30 -0500 In article , Neal McLain wrote: > Given this history, I don't see how it's possible that anyone familiar > with the industry could have claimed that "there would not be any > commercials; it is all paid for by your cable fees." Without distant > independent commercial stations like WGN-TV and WOR-TV, the cable > industry wouldn't have had a salable product. Of course they weren't talking about broadcast channels that were piped in by the cable system -- those would obviously have the same content as over-the-air. The no-commercials expectation was for all the premium channels that were created just for pay cable distribution. Since we have to pay extra to get those, there was an expectation that these fees would obviate commercials. But the only channels that have stayed true to this vision are some of the movie channels, like HBO and Showtime. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: John David Galt Subject: Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 09:14:10 -0800 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society Joseph wrote: > On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 21:42:50 -0500, Marcus Didius Falco > wrote: >> The Association of Flight Attendants warns widespread use of wireless >> devices in the confined space of an aircraft cabin potentially could >> interfere with an aircraft's communications and navigation systems, >> compromise safety and increase conflicts between passengers and crew >> member. > Well, as has been written many times before it's unlikely that use of > cell phones will interfere with avionics. > It's more likely the second part "increase conflicts between > passengers and crew member." Why would they expect conflicts? Do they intend to try to enforce rules against cell phone use after those rules are repealed, or what? If they're talking about complaints from other passengers, perhaps they should divide the plane into "phoning" and "non-phoning" sections, now that the smokers are gone. At least phoning won't pollute the breathing air of the people in the non-phoning section. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 2004 20:42:53 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Vonage Voice Quality Getting Worse? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > A number of people 'think' they have a problem with their VoIP > provider, BUT the problems only occur when talking to someone on a > CELL phone. In my case, I have observed lousy voice quality when picking up my Vonage voice mail on the voice prompts which are, I presume, coming directly from Vonage's servers. I haven't noticed cell phone voice quality being much worse than it is elsewhere. I do have one more clue: people tell me that even when I can barely understand them, they can understand me fine, so the problem is on the inbound side. I don't understand that at all, since my net connection is equally fast in both directions (it's a T1) and I usually have more outbound traffic from web servers than inbound. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 2004 21:02:18 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Wireless in Cherryvale Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > What kind of wireless service do they have in Cherryvale? I was > there a week or two ago and tried three times to make a call. The Wireless Travel Guide gives this info for Montgomery county. The A-side AMPS carrier is Alltel with CDMA and analog, and the B side is US Cellular with TDMA and analog. There's also some 1900 MHz carriers, but your 5165 is 800 MHz only. Your phone should roam OK on US Cellular since it's a TDMA phone, but Cingular programs in a list of preferred carriers, and if Alltel is preferred more than US Cellular, it could be trying to do analog on Alltel rather than TDMA on US Cellular. You can try dialing 611 to see who you get. If it's Alltel, that explains the crummy service. If it's US Cellular, who knows, might be a distant tower, might be a problem between Cingular and US Cellular authorizing your phone. ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 15:11:24 -0800 In article , Clark W. Griswold, Jr. wrote: > AES/newspost wrote: >> I've read news stories in the past about cellphone jammers or blockers >> for use in restaurants, theaters, library reading rooms, etc. >> Anyone have any leads on portable, battery-powered versions? > I share your implied problem with inconsiderate cell users. However, > based on your address, you should know that these devices are illegal > in the US. While the odds of getting caught using them are quite > small, especially if used in a mobile situation (ie, in your pocket), > people have been prosecuted in other countries (a dealer in Scotland & > a church in Mexico). You correctly sensed the implied (and in fact primary) message behind my post: I have very little interest in sitting through a five-hour transcontinental flight, trying to read, sleep, or just relax, while multiple cellphone users all around me do deals in penetrating voices all through the flight. I suspect others will feel similarly, and wonder how the airlines will deal with the issue. Assuming that the airlines probably won't deal straightforwardly with the problem, or will be unwilling to forgo the add'l revenue in flight cellphone service can offer, I've tried to think of realistic solutions and/or counter-measures, but haven't come up with much that seems promising in the list: * Earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones for all the other passengers [uncomfortable, and more seriously don't really work all that well] * Airlines set up a couple of enclosed "phone booths" somewhere on the plane, for those who have to play this game [unlikely, because of revenue seating lost, but maybe.] * Cellphoners required to use some kind of silent throat mikes and whisper [technically feasible?] * Limiting cell phoning to first class? [Maybe some would pay extra for the opportunity, driving up FC sales -- but other FC opponents might squawk equally loudly.] * Jammers, as per initial query [which I suspect will happen, if the problem gets bad enough.] * And of course finally the "Charles Bronson response": Bring a large battery-powered "boombox" tape deck with a really annoying musical selection as your carryon, and if the cellphone noise pollution around you gets too annoying just turn it on LOUD and decline to turn it off, pointing out politely to neighbors and cabin crew that if the cellphone guys can noise pollute, so can you. [Unfortunately I have more in common with Walter Mitty than Charles Bronson, so it's not likely to happen]. Inflight cellphone use does seem to me one of those problems where some number of passengers will certainly be rude and inconsiderate enough to make it a problem; the airlines will be craven and greedy enough not to deal with it; and air travel will deteriorate even more than it already has [Dulles main terminal at 4:30 pm yesterday afternoon was a sight not to be believed]. ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #606 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Dec 19 01:25:51 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBJ6Pp204439; Sun, 19 Dec 2004 01:25:51 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 01:25:51 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412190625.iBJ6Pp204439@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 #607 TELECOM Digest Sun, 19 Dec 2004 01:26:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 607 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson VoicePoint - VoIP (Lou Jahn) A.C.L.U.'s Search for Data on Donors Stirs Privacy Fears (Monty Solomon) Re: VOIP (Tony P.) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Dave Close) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Tony P.) Re: Vonage Voice Quality Getting Worse? (DevilsPGD) Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use (DevilsPGD) Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Call Phone Use (Joseph) Re: Wireless in Cherryvale (Joseph) Re: Cell Phone Motorists Are Dangerous (Dave Close) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (Mark Crispin) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (Gene S. Berkowitz) Re: Access of Calling Card Dial in Number From Prepaid Cell (E. Parrish) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lou Jahn Subject: VoicePoint - VoIP Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 19:42:30 -0500 Organization: Info Partners Corp. I am using VoicePoint and have several questions: 1) How do I get my number listed within Verizon's Directory Assistance, I think there was a prior post, but could not find it. 2) Every once and awhile - the incoming voice discussions become garbled -- or fade off (like early Cell phones) - anyone know why this occurs? I have not noticed any thing around that might cause it. 3) Recently (within the past 10 days) callers tell me that at times my speech on my VoIP line sometime sounds as though I have been given a shot of Novocain. Could this be a reverse version of item 2? Also -- I have tried a second VoIP line to forward my Faxes, but it does not work in a consistent fashion. People sending might get 2-3 of a 5 page fax through and have to resubmit 2-3 times before I receive a full 5 page Fax. So if there any tricks to make Fax operate "okay", I'd love to hear them. Overall ... my judgment of VoicePoint is it has promise, but still needs loads of improvement before any LEC selling true landline service needs to worry if buyers need an equal level of quality. The best part is their clever extra features where I can control them via Internet and also getting email notice on calls and Voicemail. However, if I call into voicemail for messages, it does not let me know when the message arrived. If it matters my ISP is Comcast using a Toshiba cable modem and Syslink Router/Hub. If I had to grade the service, I guess it would be a C+. Lou Jahn Info Partners Corp. [TELCOM Digest Editor's Note: The answer to your first question (regards listing in Directory Assistance) is you speak to *your carrier*, they are the ones who handle it. They are the 'agents' (both for placement and monthly collection of fees) with the national DA database which Verizon and the others use. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 14:29:07 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A.C.L.U.'s Search for Data on Donors Stirs Privacy Fears By STEPHANIE STROM The American Civil Liberties Union is using sophisticated technology to collect a wide variety of information about its members and donors in a fund-raising effort that has ignited a bitter debate over its leaders' commitment to privacy rights. Some board members say the extensive data collection makes a mockery of the organization's frequent criticism of banks, corporations and government agencies for their practice of accumulating data on people for marketing and other purposes. Daniel S. Lowman, vice president for analytical services at Grenzebach Glier & Associates, the data firm hired by the A.C.L.U., said the software the organization is using, Prospect Explorer, combs a broad range of publicly available data to compile a file with information like an individual's wealth, holdings in public corporations, other assets and philanthropic interests. The issue has attracted the attention of the New York attorney general, who is looking into whether the group violated its promises to protect the privacy of its donors and members. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/18/national/18aclu.html ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: VOIP Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 23:06:03 -0500 In article , RickMerrill@comTHROWcast.net says: > jim@giganews.com wrote: >> I'm considering VOIP for my home but realistically, how many phones >> can it support? I've read from 2 sites, 3 and 5 phones so I was >> hoping what your experience has been? Does it matter who the provider >> is to answer this question? I presume the phones are the same used as >> before voip. Just in case, can you buy one base unit with multiple >> hand sets ? > It matters what TA (telephone adapter) you use: some only support 1 > REN and some support 3 REN (ringer equivalency number). Remember that > these are the base sets only, so if you have a cordless baseset it can > support multiple handsets. The providers will tell you (most likely) > "one phone". - RM The Linksys RT31P2 supports 5 REN. In article , spamtrap100@comcast.net says: > jim@giganews.com wrote: >> I'm considering VOIP for my home but realistically, how many phones >> can it support? I've read from 2 sites, 3 and 5 phones so I was >> hoping what your experience has been? Does it matter who the provider >> is to answer this question? I presume the phones are the same used as >> before voip. > Most VOIP Terminal Adapters (TAs) that I have seen will support > between 3-5 REN. > REN stands for ringer equivilence number. A REN of 1.0 is roughly > equal to the current needed to drive 1 mechanical bell ringer in an > old 500 style telephone. Modern electronic "chirp" ringers are in the > neighborhood of 0.3 REN, so driving multiple phones is usually not a > problem. > That said, I think someone here recently reported that their VOIP > service had lowered the max REN of their TA through a config > option. It apparently took a phone call to get it raised. That would have been me. But in my case the ring voltage was set to 60VAC instead of 90VAC. 90VAC hasn't stressed the unit any but I do note it gets a little warm. ------------------------------ From: dave@compata.com (Dave Close) Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Date: 18 Dec 2004 16:29:34 -0800 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California Tony P. writes: >> I don't think much of cable news networks because they spew out raw >> facts that are _out of context_ and thus not newsworthy. Good news >> reporting is more than just reporting isolated facts -- it is putting >> them together in a logical fashion, eliminating contradictions, and >> putting in a wider context. Despite all the time they have they still >> put everything in brief sound bites. > But that costs money. It's the same thing that ruined prime time > television. Reality television is so much cheaper to produce but you > get absolute lowest common denominator television. The only reason I > watch the local evening news is to if anyone I know has gotten > ambushed which has happened a couple of times. :) When CNN first started Headline News, back before Gulf War One, they were still a bootstrap operation and very short of money. HLN used a single anchor and no remote correspondents. Video was bought from local stations and presented with the anchor's voice-over. That was much less expensive than the present programming. And not only was it less costly to produce, it was a better product as well. The original HLN presented two or three times as many stories in a half-hour as they do today, and didn't use "human interest" filler. They truly presented just the headlines. As their cost has gone up, their quality has gone down. HLN today is a local newscast in a small market, without the local coverage. The best network news today is Univision, though it is necessary to tolerate Spanish. They actually cover international stories (with a heavy concentration on Latin America, of course), and squeeze in many more stories than any of the English language networks. The best part is that, while understanding Spanish helps, if you have a good idea what's going on in the world, you can get a lot from their broadcast without that. And what you don't understand, you can follow-up on through the Web since, like everyone else, a banner gives you the location of the story. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Political campaigns are the graveyard of real ideas and the birthplace of empty promises." -- Teresa Heinz Kerry 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 ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 23:05:42 -0500 In article , devilspgd@crazyhat.net says: > In message Tony P. > wrote: >> I love how the cable companies harp on the fact that satellite >> transmission can be interrupted by rain, and then one of their own >> carried stations goes off the air because you guessed it, weather >> interfered with the cable companies OWN satellite reception. > While true, it takes a lot more weather to take out a 6' dish then a > 20" dish. It can be misting here and we lose channels. Anytime water is involved you can kiss centimeter or lower bands goodbye. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Vonage Voice Quality Getting Worse? Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 17:32:24 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message John Levine wrote: >> A number of people 'think' they have a problem with their VoIP >> provider, BUT the problems only occur when talking to someone on a >> CELL phone. > In my case, I have observed lousy voice quality when picking up my > Vonage voice mail on the voice prompts which are, I presume, coming > directly from Vonage's servers. I haven't noticed cell phone voice > quality being much worse than it is elsewhere. > I do have one more clue: people tell me that even when I can barely > understand them, they can understand me fine, so the problem is on the > inbound side. I don't understand that at all, since my net connection > is equally fast in both directions (it's a T1) and I usually have more > outbound traffic from web servers than inbound. It could be that Vonage is having issues on their side, or that some router/link on the path Vonage's traffic takes to get to you is having problems but the reverse is stable. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 17:32:25 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message John David Galt wrote: >>> The Association of Flight Attendants warns widespread use of wireless >>> devices in the confined space of an aircraft cabin potentially could >>> interfere with an aircraft's communications and navigation systems, >>> compromise safety and increase conflicts between passengers and crew >>> member. >> Well, as has been written many times before it's unlikely that use of >> cell phones will interfere with avionics. >> It's more likely the second part "increase conflicts between >> passengers and crew member." > Why would they expect conflicts? Do they intend to try to enforce rules > against cell phone use after those rules are repealed, or what? 1) Just because the FCC doesn't have rules against it doesn't mean that the airline's rules and/or FAA rules have changed. 2) IIRC, CRTC rules don't allow cell calls from airlines -- Imagine trying to explain that distinction to your typical obnoxious idiot as the plane flies from US soil to Canada. 3) Flight attendants will have to deal with drunk confined retards yelling into their cellphone and complaints from nearby passengers. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 21:40:23 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 09:14:10 -0800, John David Galt wrote: > If they're talking about complaints from other passengers, perhaps > they should divide the plane into "phoning" and "non-phoning" > sections, now that the smokers are gone. At least phoning won't > pollute the breathing air of the people in the non-phoning section. More than likely that's just what they're afraid of. Considering that some people haven't got the good sense their Lord gave them to be considerate of others I'd be worried too. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Wireless in Cherryvale Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 21:45:10 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 18 Dec 2004 21:02:18 -0000, John Levine wrote: > The A-side AMPS carrier is Alltel with CDMA and analog, and the B side > is US Cellular with TDMA and analog. There's also some 1900 MHz > carriers, but your 5165 is 800 MHz only. Sorry you have incorrect information. The Nokia 5165 is 800/1900 TDMA and 800 AMPS. The Nokia 5120 is 800 TDMA only. http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/5165/0,2803,feat:1,00.html ------------------------------ From: dave@compata.com (Dave Close) Subject: Re: Cell Phone Motorists Are Dangerous Date: 18 Dec 2004 16:48:56 -0800 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California Phil McKerracher writes: > But I completely agree that people should pull over or at least use a > hands-free kit. There are far too many roads on which it is impossible to "pull over". Consider most central business districts: the only potential pull-over spots are turn lanes or bus stops. Even if an empty parking space were nearby, you couldn't get into it while answering a call. When people talk about pulling over, they seem to think that all calls happen while driving on highways. It may be more likely to find a good spot along a highway or freeway, but many of those don't have an extra lane, either. That fact is that, many times it is less distracting to answer an incoming call, speak for a minute or two, and continue on. Extended conversations are a different matter, I'd agree. A hands-free kit is nice, but again not always practical. One is not likely installed in your rental car, for example. And putting on a headset for every short drive, most of which will not involve a phone call, seems overkill. But blaming the phone is all the rage, as is blaming blood alcohol levels. (I've seen studies showing that people with /one/ drink are safer drivers than those with no drinks.) It seems we just can't bring ourselves, as a society, to put the blame where it really belongs: on the person misbehaving. -- Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Political campaigns are the graveyard of real ideas and the birthplace of empty promises." -- Teresa Heinz Kerry ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 17:07:08 -0800 Organization: University of Washington On Sat, 18 Dec 2004, AES/newspost wrote: > * And of course finally the "Charles Bronson response": Bring a large > battery-powered "boombox" tape deck with a really annoying musical > selection as your carryon, and if the cellphone noise pollution around > you gets too annoying just turn it on LOUD and decline to turn it off, > pointing out politely to neighbors and cabin crew that if the cellphone > guys can noise pollute, so can you. There's a better way. It's what I do with excessively long/personal cell phone conversations on the ferries. I start mocking their conversation, in a loud enough tone of voice that they can hear me. Be it lawyers plotting or trophy wives babbling, I have the appropriate offensive comments at hand to offend them enough to tone down their conversation, terminate it, or move away from my vicinity. A short and/or obviously necessary phone conversation does not elicit this response. After all, I use a cell phone myself. I would not think of harassing someone arranging to be picked up, or learning errands to do on the way home, etc. It's only when they drag it out long beyond what is necessary (and worse, use the walkie-talkie mode), to the point that it disturbs others; and especially when the topic is inappropriate for a public setting. It's quite effective. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 20:12:12 -0500 In article , siegman@stanford.edu says: > In article , Clark W. Griswold, > Jr. wrote: >> AES/newspost wrote: >>> I've read news stories in the past about cellphone jammers or blockers >>> for use in restaurants, theaters, library reading rooms, etc. >>> Anyone have any leads on portable, battery-powered versions? >> I share your implied problem with inconsiderate cell users. However, >> based on your address, you should know that these devices are illegal >> in the US. While the odds of getting caught using them are quite >> small, especially if used in a mobile situation (ie, in your pocket), >> people have been prosecuted in other countries (a dealer in Scotland & >> a church in Mexico). > You correctly sensed the implied (and in fact primary) message behind > my post: I have very little interest in sitting through a five-hour > transcontinental flight, trying to read, sleep, or just relax, while > multiple cellphone users all around me do deals in penetrating voices > all through the flight. I suspect others will feel similarly, and > wonder how the airlines will deal with the issue. > Assuming that the airlines probably won't deal straightforwardly with > the problem, or will be unwilling to forgo the add'l revenue in flight > cellphone service can offer, I've tried to think of realistic > solutions and/or counter-measures, but haven't come up with much that > seems promising in the list: > * Earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones for all the other passengers > [uncomfortable, and more seriously don't really work all that well] > * Airlines set up a couple of enclosed "phone booths" somewhere on the > plane, for those who have to play this game [unlikely, because of > revenue seating lost, but maybe.] > * Cellphoners required to use some kind of silent throat mikes and > whisper [technically feasible?] > * Limiting cell phoning to first class? [Maybe some would pay extra > for the opportunity, driving up FC sales -- but other FC opponents > might squawk equally loudly.] > * Jammers, as per initial query [which I suspect will happen, if the > problem gets bad enough.] > * And of course finally the "Charles Bronson response": Bring a large > battery-powered "boombox" tape deck with a really annoying musical > selection as your carryon, and if the cellphone noise pollution around > you gets too annoying just turn it on LOUD and decline to turn it off, > pointing out politely to neighbors and cabin crew that if the cellphone > guys can noise pollute, so can you. [Unfortunately I have more in > common with Walter Mitty than Charles Bronson, so it's not likely to > happen]. > Inflight cellphone use does seem to me one of those problems where some > number of passengers will certainly be rude and inconsiderate enough to > make it a problem; the airlines will be craven and greedy enough not to > deal with it; and air travel will deteriorate even more than it already > has [Dulles main terminal at 4:30 pm yesterday afternoon was a sight not > to be believed]. Wait until the first corporate weenie causes a stock stampede by incidently sharing confidential corporate information with the 10-15 people within earshot. The opportunities for easy airborne corporate espionage are great too, especially when laptops get plugged into the network. This would all be moot if seatback calls were even remotely reasonable in price. --Gene ------------------------------ From: Earl F. Parrish Subject: Re: Access of Calling Card Dial in Number From Prepaid Cellular Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 03:38:26 GMT Marek Tomczyk wrote in message news:telecom23.544.4@telecom-digest.org: > Hi, > I'm posting this for a friend (Juergen). Find his contact address at > the bottom of this post. Thanks. > Marek > =========== > Hi Telecom Digest, > This October I stayed three weeks in the bay area. I like it a lot, > and this time I even had a GSM1900 (Nokia 6100) phone from my German > provider T-Mobile with me. > The phone worked fine, but I never ever used it to place phone > calls home to Germany and I never ever answered any incoming call. > Why? Quite simple, the charges for outgoing and esspecially inbound > calls are outrageous. Just imagine to pay $1.70 for incoming calls > per minute!!! > So I have decided now to get an American mobile phone on my next > trip to the USA. > I like the offer of AT&T Wireless very much as it provides a long > validity of one year for balances starting at $100. Domestic calling > with the Free2Go service is very reasonable priced, but calling > foreign countries is still expensive. > So the idea is to use a calling card service for this matter. The > AT&T documents say that prepaid calling card service is not possible > with Free2Go. Besides this AT&T says in its terms that certain > numbers can be blocked if "abuse" to the network happens. > Is calling a local dial in number from a mobile phone in America, in > particular from a free2Go phone, abusive usage of the network? > Do you know if calling of local (regular) dial in number from > American, in particular prepaid aka "pay as you go" services is > possible? > Can such providers block access to those numbers? > Unfortunately I could not find definitive information about this > issue on the web. > Thanks, > Juergen-Usenet@web.de Click on this link for information about one of the Locus Mobile affiliates which piggybacks on the TDMA network of the former AT&T Wireless network: http://www.ecallplus.com/ Pay special attention to the link for International Calls on the page you reach. Earl F. Parrish ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #607 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Dec 19 22:14:23 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBK3ENQ15409; Sun, 19 Dec 2004 22:14:23 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 22:14:23 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412200314.iBK3ENQ15409@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 #608 TELECOM Digest Sun, 19 Dec 2004 22:14:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 608 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Vodafone Rim Blackberry 7100v (DFleming Ireland) Speaking of Giving Up Landline For Cellphone (Thomas A. Horsley) Foreign Residential Listings (Fred Atkinson) VoIP - Zyxel Prestige 2002 Analog Adaptor (lauricat) QCTimes.com -- Spam Suit Nets $1 Billion (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (Joseph) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (AES/newspost) Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use (DevilsPGD) Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use (n28110) Re: Vonage Voice Quality Getting Worse? (Tony P.) Re: Vonage Voice Quality Getting Worse? (Rob Levandowski) Re: Wireless in Cherryvale (John Levine) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (DevilsPGD) Re: Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use'...) (Neal McLain) Re: Cell Phone Motorists Are Dangerous (Thomas A. Horsley) Re: Access of Calling Card Dial in Number Prepaid Cellular (M Crispin) Re: VOIP (Rick Merrill) Re: VoicePoint - VoIP (Rick Merrill) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: davidfleming01@eircom.net (DFleming Ireland) Subject: Vodafone Rim Blackberry 7100v Date: 19 Dec 2004 12:27:25 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I am thinking of buying this phone for use in Ireland. Can someone tell me what is the real position re: Internet access? i.e. am I wasting my money and should I get separate phone & PDA? The price would put this item far ahead of the O2 XDA2 and it's much prettier than O2's Blackberry, but I still have doubts. Can anyone help? DF ------------------------------ Subject: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 13:41:50 GMT Is there any kind of gadget available to interface with a cellphone (perhaps via the headset connection) that would allow you to plug your cellphone into it when you are at home, and have it provide your own little local phone system over your old phone wires so that you could use any phone in the house to make a call on the cellphone and have all the phones in the house ring when the cellphone rings? Or lacking that level of sophistication, is there anything that could at least amplify the ring so you could hear it if you left your phone on the other side of the house? >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Foreign Residential Listings Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 12:20:41 -0500 > Can anyone suggest an *easy* way for people to get foreign residential > or business telephone numbers listed with directory assistance? Most people who attempt to do this (for example, to get their Vonage residential number listed with directory assistance) encounter a bottomless pit of CSRs that don't want to find out how to do it and just tell them it can't be done rather than deal with it. It most certainly can. I've gotten my Vonage number listed with directory assistance. If you don't believe it, call 803 directory assistance (or Easy 411 or whichever one you use) and ask for Fred W. Atkinson, III in Columbia, SC. They'll give you my Vonage (803) 233 number. If you are trying to get Bellsouth to do it, get my number from directory assistance and refer to it when you call them. Tell them you want the same kind of account that I have. I posted my story on the Vonage forum (http://www.vonage-forum.com). Someone else is going through the same bottomless pit of CSRs. With all the telephone company people on here, I'm sure a solution can be found. Or perhaps there are or is a representative(s) of a company that can get these listings made. Certainly one of you can help with this. Then I can post it on the Vonage forum and we can make it easier for the other folks. As VOIP service continues to grow, this will become a bigger issue. We can solve it now if someone here will be a Good Samaritan and help. When I finally got it done, I had to have created what is called a 'miscellaneous account' and make a 'foreign listing'. The cost is a little over twenty-four dollars per year with Bellsouth for a residential listing. The account number consisted of my area code, the letter 'M' followed by a series of digits that did not correspond to my telephone number. They bill annually for the service. If you do it in the middle of the calendar year, they prorate it for the remaining months. But to get it done (because those CSRs did not want to be bothered with it), I had to call the South Carolina Public Service Commission and register a complaint. They called some vice-presiden's office at Bellsouth on my behalf. I was then promptly contacted by a Bellsouth representative who got it done immediately for me and without any further hassle. When the bill came, they billed me for access charges. I called them back and pointed out that this wasn't telelphone service, but only a listing. They promptly removed that charge from my bill, as they should have. But, it was less than a dollar overcharge. It wouldn't have killed me if I had gone ahead and paid it. Everyone should have the right to have their telephone number listed regardless of who is providing the service. That shouldn't be an issue. Feedback? Regards, Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ From: lauricat@gmail.com (lauricat) Subject: VoIP - Zyxel Prestige 2002 Analog Adaptor Date: 18 Dec 2004 23:35:44 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi all, I have recently bought a Zyxel Prestige 2002 Analog Telephone Adaptor. I am having all sorts of problems getting it to work. I am trying to hook up to a local (Australian) provider, www.faktortel.com.au and use the service. It does not matter what settings I use I can't make a call. I recently upgraded my firmware, so now I don't get a constantly engaged tone - also the new flash has changes to a "common" phone area that allows me to select my country, I assume to tailor the box to it's local connection. My VoIP provider supports SIP and G529, so does Prestige. I am running Win XP Pro (SP1), a 512/128 DSL connection and a Billion 711CE Modem/Router, through a 8 port hub. If any one has some experience with these adaptors I would be glad to get some info. (I have printed out the manual and gone right through it..) I am also working on this with my provider, to try and resolve the issue. There really does not *seem* to be much out there on this brand of adaptor. Thanks, Laurie. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 19:01:32 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: QCTimes.com -- Spam Suit Nets $1 Billion Trying yet another way of stripping the HTML. Hope this works better http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=3D1041776 http://www.qctimes.com/print.php?story_id=3D1041776&doc=3D Copyright 2004 The Quad-City Times | www.QCTimes.com By Todd Ruger and Kay Luna CLINTON, Iowa A federal judge awarded a Clinton Internet service= provider more than $1 billion in judgments Friday in a lawsuit against companies who used his equipment to send so-called spam e-mails. It is believed to be by far the largest judgment ever against companies accused of sending unsolicited commercial e-mail via the Internet, said those who track such practices. It's definitely a victory for all of us that open up our e-mail and find lewd and malicious and fraudulent e-mail in our boxes every day, said Robert Kramer, the owner of CIS Internet Services in Clinton. Kramer is unlikely to ever collect the large judgment, which was made possible through an Iowa law that allows plaintiffs to claim damages of $10 per spam message, said his attorney, Kelly O. Wallace of Atlanta. "We hope to recover at least his costs," Wallace said of the lawsuit, originally filed in October 2003 against 300 defendants then known only as John Does. "He decided it was worthwhile to take some of these guys down." Kramer;s relatively small service provided e-mail for about 5,000 subscribers in the Clinton vicinity when, at one point, his Internet server received 10 million or more spam e-mails per day, according to Kramer and the judgment documents. He was called away almost daily to repair downed e-mail servers that should run months without interruption, Kramer added. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Wolle of the Southern District of Iowa filed the default judgments Friday against three companies under the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Iowa Ongoing Criminal Conduct Act: n $360 million against Cash Link Systems Inc., a Florida corporation shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission in July for a fraudulent investment scheme involving automatic teller machines. n $720 million against AMP Dollar Savings Inc., an Arizona corporation that Wallace said is mainly a organization designed for spammers to hide their identities. n $140,000 against TEI Marketing Group Inc., a Florida corporation. Wallace described TEI as one guy selling spy software. Wallace said he has only heard of judgments up to $25 million in spam-related cases. The president of the SpamCon Foundation, an organization based in Palo Alto, Calif., said it was the biggest judgment in a spam lawsuit she has ever heard about. "This is just incredible," Laura Atkins said. "I'm not aware of anything that's been over $100 million. Steve Linford, the chief executive officer of a London-based spam tracker called The Spamhaus Project, also said he had not heard of a judgment reaching $1 billion, adding that such lawsuits and criminal investigations into spamming are starting to have an effect. "But the effect is still rather small," he said. "What we are seeing is slightly more spammers from overseas." While it used to be that 100 percent of spammers operated in the United States, about 10 percent of them now operate in other countries, including Russia and some Asian nations, with 70 percent of spam messages directing users to Web sites hosted in China, he said. Kramer said the lawsuit made a difference for his business almost immediately after it was filed, but not before 4 years of taking a toll on him at both the business and personal levels. "I was forced to set up an infrastructure that would support e-mail for millions of users," he said. "It has consumed me." Friday's judgment covers only three companies who did not respond to court papers and were found in default. The lawsuit continues against other named defendants. "It's a slow process and it's not cheap," Wallace said. "Our goal is the economic death penalty." He and Kramer said they began identifying the companies by doing what the spammers wanted purchasing spy software and other products typically hawked via the e-mails, including penis enlargement pills. "I've got a bottle of them sitting here," Kramer said. "I never opened them." Wallace said he presented about 1,400 pieces of evidence at a hearing to determine the amount of damages, including selections from thousands of CD-ROMs full of computer usage log files showing that large numbers of spam e-mail were not atypical. Kramer's problems are linked to a CD-ROM sold to spammers that is called 'Bulk Mailing 4 Dummies,' which includes a guide for sending spam and a large number of mainly fictitious e-mail addresses for some of the largest Internet providers in the nation, the judgment states. While most of the addresses were for large providers such as America Online, Microsoft Network, Hotmail and Earthlink, CIS somehow had 2.8 million addresses entered on the CD-ROM, Wallace said. Receiving e-mail at those bogus addresses uses as much computer resources as legitimate e-mail, the judgment states. "My dad put it well when he said I was being terrorized, and I was, Kramer said. "It's been a hassle to catch these people because of the method they use. Nothing will stop spam altogether, he said. "I think all of us as Internet service providers are always going to face spam problems," he said. "We are still pursuing others. We're going to catch more." The company, operating since 1996, has four full-time employees. Two are network administrators. In response to the spam congestion, CIS beefed up its core infrastructure, spending thousands of dollars to upgrade the system so it could handle the traffic flow. Kramer now calls himself a 'spam professional.' "We know how to handle this better than any other ISP (Internet service provider) in Clinton," he said. "We can virtually eliminate spam coming to your mailbox." Todd Ruger can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or truger@qctimes.com. BY THE NUMBERS For the two larger parts of the anti-spam judgment he entered Friday, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Wolle used a formula based on trial testimony and Iowa and federal laws. This is how the judgment was calculated for Clinton Internet Services against AMP Dollar Services Inc.: AMP Dollar messages, per server per day 40,000 CIS mail servers X 3 Messages per day 120,000 Number of days X 150 Total e-mails sent 18 million Statutory damages per message X $10 Total statutory damages $180 million Federal, state laws triple statutory damages X 3 New damage total $540 million Punitive damages + $180 million Total liability of AMP Dollar $720 million Copyright 2002 The Quad-City Times NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Quad City Times. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 08:16:08 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 17:07:08 -0800, Mark Crispin wrote: > I start mocking their conversation, in a loud enough tone of voice > that they can hear me. Be it lawyers plotting or trophy wives > babbling, I have the appropriate offensive comments at hand to offend > them enough to tone down their conversation, terminate it, or move > away from my vicinity. You're really lucky that someone hasn't slugged you yet for your obnoxious behavior. You seem to think that their being obnoxious is license for you to be as well, eh? > A short and/or obviously necessary phone conversation does not elicit > this response. After all, I use a cell phone myself. I would not > think of harassing someone arranging to be picked up, or learning > errands to do on the way home, etc. Ah, I see you are the arbeiter of what is a "long" or short conversation and what is necessary and what is not. How fortunate that you are around to judge for us what is the "right" length and subject for conversations. > It's only when they drag it out long beyond what is necessary (and > worse, use the walkie-talkie mode), to the point that it disturbs > others; and especially when the topic is inappropriate for a public > setting. And we should suppose that you are the judge of what is necessary and what is fluff, eh? > It's quite effective. Until some guy socks you in the mouth for commenting on his private conversation. ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 09:38:50 -0800 In article , Mark Crispin wrote: > On Sat, 18 Dec 2004, AES/newspost wrote (re in-flight cellphone call annoyance): >> * And of course finally the "Charles Bronson response": Bring a large >> battery-powered "boombox" tape deck with a really annoying musical >> selection as your carryon, and if the cellphone noise pollution around >> you gets too annoying just turn it on LOUD > There's a better way. It's what I do with excessively long/personal > cell phone conversations on the ferries. > I start mocking their conversation, in a loud enough tone of voice > that they can hear me. Marc, I think I knew you or knew of you, in long-ago Stanford computer center days (?); and it looks like you've inherited more Charles Bronson genes, and I've inherited more Walter Mitty genes. --AES ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 00:33:17 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message Joseph wrote: >> If they're talking about complaints from other passengers, perhaps >> they should divide the plane into "phoning" and "non-phoning" >> sections, now that the smokers are gone. At least phoning won't >> pollute the breathing air of the people in the non-phoning section. > More than likely that's just what they're afraid of. Considering that > some people haven't got the good sense their Lord gave them to be > considerate of others I'd be worried too. I happen to believe many folks weren't given any good sense to begin with. It explains a lot. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 18:20:11 +0000 (GMT) From: n28110 Subject: Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use Organization: Shaw Residential Internet Joseph wrote in message news:telecom23.607.8@telecom-digest.org: > More than likely that's just what they're afraid of. Considering that > some people haven't got the good sense their Lord gave them to be > considerate of others I'd be worried too. I'm not convinced that sense is a god-given gift ... As a wearer of a cellular phone for work reasons, I'm absolutely amazed at the numer of people who power up the phone the instant the plane leaves the active runway onto the taxiway, only to call their (I'm assuming) loved ones to let them know that the plane has successfully smacked onto the ground. Of course I was amazed that a young lady would have a conversation that would drive her to tears on the MARTA in Atlanta ... ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Vonage Voice Quality Getting Worse? Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 13:03:20 -0500 In article , devilspgd@crazyhat.net says: > In message John Levine > wrote: >>> A number of people 'think' they have a problem with their VoIP >>> provider, BUT the problems only occur when talking to someone on a >>> CELL phone. >> In my case, I have observed lousy voice quality when picking up my >> Vonage voice mail on the voice prompts which are, I presume, coming >> directly from Vonage's servers. I haven't noticed cell phone voice >> quality being much worse than it is elsewhere. >> I do have one more clue: people tell me that even when I can barely >> understand them, they can understand me fine, so the problem is on the >> inbound side. I don't understand that at all, since my net connection >> is equally fast in both directions (it's a T1) and I usually have more >> outbound traffic from web servers than inbound. > It could be that Vonage is having issues on their side, or that some > router/link on the path Vonage's traffic takes to get to you is having > problems but the reverse is stable. Vonage is pretty much ISP dependent. They haul from your local ISP to either a Paetec or Focal switch and put it out on the PSTN from there. ------------------------------ From: Rob Levandowski Subject: Re: Vonage Voice Quality Getting Worse? Organization: MacWhiz Technologies Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 23:15:29 GMT In article , Rick Merrill wrote: > A number of people 'think' they have a problem with their VoIP > provider, BUT the problems only occur when talking to someone on a > CELL phone. The reason may be that the compression algorithms used in > the cell phone do not "fit well" with the compression algotithms used > for VoIP. - RM I've noticed that the voice quality of my Vonage line has *improved* lately. The line seems far more resistant to echo in the past few months. When I first got my Vonage line, I had many dropouts. I have a Cisco ATA, and I use a UNIX system as my home firewall/router. I was able to improve the reliability and call quality quite a nbit by configuring my firewall to give priority to the Vonage packets and to TCP ACK packets in general. Less geeky users with consumer-grade home routers may not have the ability to do this. Rob Levandowski robl@macwhiz.com ------------------------------ Date: 19 Dec 2004 06:56:35 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Wireless in Cherryvale Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> The A-side AMPS carrier is Alltel with CDMA and analog, and the B side >> is US Cellular with TDMA and analog. There's also some 1900 MHz >> carriers, but your 5165 is 800 MHz only. > Sorry you have incorrect information. The Nokia 5165 is 800/1900 TDMA > and 800 AMPS. Gee, look at that. All the time I had a 5165 it never picked up a 1900 signal, but I suppose that has more to do with where I live. Anyway, the guide says that Cingular does TDMA and GSM 1900 but not in Cherryvale. The guide says there is TDMA 1900 in Cherryvale from Dobson, but Dobson's web site says not. So I'd guess the lousy connections are from falling back to AMPS. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 00:33:12 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message Tony P. wrote: >>> I love how the cable companies harp on the fact that satellite >>> transmission can be interrupted by rain, and then one of their own >>> carried stations goes off the air because you guessed it, weather >>> interfered with the cable companies OWN satellite reception. >> While true, it takes a lot more weather to take out a 6' dish then a >> 20" dish. > It can be misting here and we lose channels. Anytime water is involved > you can kiss centimeter or lower bands goodbye. To tie it in to the cable-vs-satellite argument, does it take out any of the cable company's channels? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 04:55:47 -0600 From: Neal McLain Subject: Re: Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use'...) PAT wrote [TD 23:602]: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you remember *many, many* > years ago when cable television was first getting underway how > 'they' said cable would be a better deal 'since there would not > be any commercials; it is all paid for by your cable fees'. To which I wrote [TD 23:605]: > Given this history, I don't see how it's possible that anyone > familiar with the industry could have claimed that "there would > not be any commercials; it is all paid for by your cable fees." > Without distant independent commercial stations like WGN-TV and > WOR-TV, the cable industry wouldn't have had a salable product. Whereupon Barry Margolin wrote [TD 23:606]: > Of course they weren't talking about broadcast channels that > were piped in by the cable system -- those would obviously have > the same content as over-the-air. The no-commercials > expectation was for all the premium channels that were created > just for pay cable distribution. Since we have to pay extra to > get those, there was an expectation that these fees would > obviate commercials. But the only channels that have stayed > true to this vision are some of the movie channels, like HBO > and Showtime. So you're telling me that back in the late 40s and early 50s ("... when cable television was first getting underway"), "they" expected that the cable industry would create commercial-free "premium channels ... just for pay cable distribution"? And, by implication, that a technology would exist for distributing these channels nationwide at reasonable cost? Gee, I'd sure like to know who "they" are. Neal McLain [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I do not know who 'they' were either, but I distinctly remember sometime the late 1950's hearing about how 'cable television stations will not have commercials since the fee you pay for service takes care of all that ..." PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Cell Phone Motorists Are Dangerous From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 13:34:38 GMT Actually, I think the point is moot now. From my own unscientific survey, I am the only person in the world driving without a cellphone stuck to my head. It has been years since I have seen anyone on my daily commute along I-95 in South Florida who wasn't on a cellphone (maybe the non-cell users all have that heavy window tinting or something :-). Oblivious behavior is not confined to drivers either. There is this one student waiting for a bus every day along the route from my house and not only is she always on a phone, but 90% of the time she has managed to wander out right into the middle of the road to stand and talk. I've been thinking of starting a comic book "Cellphone Girl" where the hero foils crime without realizing it by blundering into things while on her cellphone :-). -- >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Access of Calling Card Dial in Number From Prepaid Cellular Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 11:28:13 -0800 Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing On Fri, 12 Nov 2004, Marek Tomczyk wrote: > I like the offer of AT&T Wireless very much as it provides a long > validity of one year for balances starting at $100. That's news to me. I used to have AT&T Wireless Free2Go on my Alaska phone (now Dobson Cellular One). The expiration period was 45 days, although it would rollover if you recharge in time. AT&T Wireless was recently bought by Cingular, so this may have changed. In any case, Free2Go uses TDMA digital, which is on its way towards extinction. Most TDMA phones are also SOC locked, so you can't use them with another carrier. I suggest that you consider either a prepay GSM SIM card for your home country phone (assuming you have an unlocked tri-band or quad-band phone), or one of the CDMA prepaid services. Under CDMA prepay, Verizon's is on their network, the phones are unlocked, and can be used with monthly service. Virgin has ultra cheap prepay using Sprint's network (which almost certainly means that the phones are locked but there are ways of getting Sprint unlock codes). Another advantage of Verizon is that, overall, it probably has the best coverage in the continental US (48 states), especially if you pick a phone with analog capability. If you go to Alaska, you'll need a TDMA/analog phone, although GSM has finally appeared in Alaska. There is very little CDMA in Alaska. > So the idea is to use a calling card service for this matter. The AT&T > documents say that prepaid calling card service is not possible with > Free2Go. Besides this AT&T says in its terms that certain numbers can > be blocked if "abuse" to the network happens. Don't worry about it; your plan is fine. When you call one of the cheap international calling card companies, the cellular company still gets to charge you for the airtime, so they are happy. What they are concerned about are calls to numbers with delayed surcharges and fraud issues. Calls to the premium 900 area code, and to the local 976 premium exchange, are almost always blocked to cell phones. Most cell phones have international calls blocked unless you ask customer service to unblock it. Most people consider that to be a good thing, and also do that on their wired phones (although the default for wired phones is to allow international calls unless the customer asks for it to be disabled). However, "international calls" really means "calls outside of country code 1"; that is, the 011 North American international dialing prefix is disabled. That doesn't always help. Remember that country code 1 is quite a few countries. You get a message "urgent, please call me at (555) 555-5555" which looks like an ordinary US or Canada number, but is really an expensive pornography service in the Caribbean that charges $10/minute. The customer complains about the bill and refuses to pay. Usually, the phone company refunds the charge and takes the loss itself, but it then blocks future calls to that number. From the prepaid cell phone company's point of view, they are probably happy if you use a calling card for international calls, because then the problem (of how much to charge you for the international call) is some other company's problem. The cell phone company just charges you for the airtime, which they know how to do quite well. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 15:12:18 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: VOIP Dave VanHorn wrote: > How do they handle 911 calls when the power is out? No. If your cable is up AND you have your modem and TA and phone on a UPS, then probably ok. Furthermore, the VoIP 911 is not the same as E911. Check with town and supplier. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Either they do not handle them at > all (the usual, default situation) or, if they planned ahead of > time for such contingencies they have a backup battery they use. > You can buy a backup battery (such as used for an orderly shut > down on computers) but use it to power the VOIP TA, the modem > and nothing else. Then the VOIP phone will continue to work. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 15:35:57 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: VoicePoint - VoIP Lou Jahn wrote: > I am using VoicePoint and have several questions: > 1) How do I get my number listed within Verizon's Directory Assistance, > I think there was a prior post, but could not find it. Ask your provider: VoIP may not be under any obligation to "list" the number if it is a new one. > 2) Every once and awhile - the incoming voice discussions become > garbled -- or fade off (like early Cell phones) - anyone know why this > occurs? I have not noticed any thing around that might cause it. This is still in transition with some VoIP. For example, Call Vantage (ATT) says it is a problem when certain cell phones call their VoIP users because of compression algorithms! > 3) Recently (within the past 10 days) callers tell me that at times my > speech on my VoIP line sometime sounds as though I have been given a > shot of Novocain. Could this be a reverse version of item 2? > Also -- I have tried a second VoIP line to forward my Faxes, but it > does not work in a consistent fashion. People sending might get 2-3 of > a 5 page fax through and have to resubmit 2-3 times before I receive a > full 5 page Fax. So if there any tricks to make Fax operate "okay", > I'd love to hear them. Here too, you must talk with your specific VoIP provider. > Overall ... my judgment of VoicePoint is it has promise, but still > needs loads of improvement before any LEC selling true landline > service needs to worry if buyers need an equal level of quality. The > best part is their clever extra features where I can control them via > Internet and also getting email notice on calls and > Voicemail. However, if I call into voicemail for messages, it does not > let me know when the message arrived. > If it matters my ISP is Comcast using a Toshiba cable modem and > Syslink Router/Hub. If I had to grade the service, I guess it would be > a C+. > Lou Jahn > Info Partners Corp. > [TELCOM Digest Editor's Note: The answer to your first question > (regards listing in Directory Assistance) is you speak to *your > carrier*, they are the ones who handle it. They are the 'agents' > (both for placement and monthly collection of fees) with the > national DA database which Verizon and the others use. PAT] ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #608 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Dec 20 14:25:12 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBKJPCE23928; Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:25:12 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:25:12 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412201925.iBKJPCE23928@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 #609 TELECOM Digest Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:25:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 609 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #462, December 20, 2004 (Angus TeleManagement) Jeff Pulver Offers IP Communications Predictions for 2005 (Lisa Minter) Sprint's Merger With Nextel (Marcus Didius Falco) P2P Battle Shifts to High Court (Lisa Minter) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (Mark Crispin) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (jmeissen@aracnet) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Tony P.) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Bob Goudreau) Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone (John Levine) Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use (DevilsPGD) Re: Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use'...) (Neal McLain) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 Dec 2004 11:48:56 -0500 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #462, December 20, 2004 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 462: December 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: ** We're Taking a Break ** Ottawa Tables Do-Not-Call Bill ** Bell Predicts Big Shift to New Services ** Telus Sees Wireless-Driven Growth ** Nortel Reports Slip in Sales ** SuperPages Retreats ** AOL Enters VoIP Market ** Winnipeg Firm Offers $14.95 VoIP ** Bell Plans 3G Wireless Service ** RIM Loses Another Round ** Ted Rogers Gets Contract Extension ** Canadian Firm Takes Over NANPA Fund ** Unbundled Access to Bell ADSL Approved ** MTS-Allstream Slams Bell CSAs ** Telus Takes Stake in IP Unity ** Telehop Enters Atlantic Provinces ** Telus to Buy Back Shares ** TeraGo Buys Regional Carrier ** Onlinetel Moves to Cuts Costs ** Telecom Executive Roundtable ============================================================ WE'RE TAKING A BREAK: Telecom Update is taking a winter break. The next regular issue will be published on Monday, January 10. OTTAWA TABLES DO-NOT-CALL BILL: Bill C-37, tabled December 13 by Industry Minister David Emerson, will empower the CRTC to establish a national do-not-call list, and to impose fines of $1,500 per call on individuals, and $15,000 on corporations, for violating telemarketing rules. The cost of operating the list is to be recovered from telemarketers. ** After the bill passes, the CRTC will hold public consultations on how the list will operate, how much it will cost, and whether any types of calls should be exempt. The list is unlikely to be operational until late 2005 or 2006. www.parl.gc.ca/38/1/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/government/C-37/C-37_1/C-37-3E.html BELL PREDICTS BIG SHIFT TO NEW SERVICES: At a conference for investment analysts last week, BCE CEO Michael Sabia said that the percentage of Bell Canada revenues coming from new services such as wireless, video, high-speed Internet, and IP networking would rise from 40% today to 55% in 2006. ** Bell and Microsoft have announced a "strategic initiative" which will integrate telecom services and Microsoft software for small and mid-size businesses. The two companies plan a joint incubation lab to develop additional integrated services, and to operate customer education programs. ** BCE Inc. has raised its annual common share dividend by 10%, to $1.32 per share. This is the company's first dividend increase in over a decade. TELUS SEES WIRELESS-DRIVEN GROWTH: Telus Corp. last week forecast that its 2005 earnings per share will be 8% to 21% higher than in 2004. A wireline EBITDA decline of 2% to 5% will be offset by wireless EBITDA growth in the 19% to 23% range, said CFO Robert McFarlane. NORTEL REPORTS SLIP IN SALES: According to its "limited estimated unaudited" results, Nortel had sales of US$2.27 billion in the third quarter, down 10% from the average of the first two quarters. Nortel expects fourth quarter revenues of $2.9 billion and a third quarter loss of $0.06 per share. SUPERPAGES RETREATS: SuperPages Canada, publisher of telephone directories bearing the Telus brand, has decided to stop publishing directories in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, the Maritimes, and some areas of Quebec. The decision means that SuperPages books will once again be published only in areas where Telus is the incumbent telephone company. Five hundred employees will lose their jobs. ** SuperPages was formed in 2001 when Dallas-based Verizon Information Services bought Telus's directory publishing business for $810 million. AOL ENTERS VoIP MARKET: AOL Canada plans to offer a residential VoIP service across Canada in 2005, beginning in Greater Toronto next month. Basic service including voicemail and other features will be $34.95/month. WINNIPEG FIRM OFFERS $14.95 VoIP: Ravon, a VoIP service from Winnipeg-based Modern Digital Communications, provides basic local calling to users across Canada for $14.95/month. BELL PLANS 3G WIRELESS SERVICE: Bell Canada has begun a trial in Toronto of EVDO (Evolution, Data Optimized) technology that will support wireless data speeds up to 2.4 Mbps. The company says it will roll out commercial service in major cities in 2005 and 2006. RIM LOSES ANOTHER ROUND: A U.S. appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that Research In Motion infringed on patents of NTP Inc., but has sent the case back to the district court for further argument. (See Telecom Update #437) TED ROGERS GETS CONTRACT EXTENSION: The Board of Directors of Rogers Communications has extended the employment contract of President and CEO Ted Rogers from December 31, 2006, to June 30, 2008. CANADIAN FIRM TAKES OVER NANPA FUND: Welch & Company, an Ottawa-based accounting firm, is now the Billing and Collection Agent for the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) Fund, which collects money from telecom carriers to finance administration of the telephone numbering system. UNBUNDLED ACCESS TO BELL ADSL APPROVED: The CRTC has given interim approval to Bell tariffs for Gateway Access Service and High Speed Access Service, which will allow competitors to provide high-speed access using Bell's ADSL facilities. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2004/o2004-418.htm MTS-ALLSTREAM SLAMS BELL CSAs: In September, the Federal Court dismissed Bell Canada's appeal of the CRTC's order to disclose details of its Customer Specific Arrangements (see Telecom Update #401, 414). Bell has since refiled these CSAs, in Tariff Notices 817 to 843. Allstream has now submitted a detailed critique, charging that many of the tariffs are still incomplete or non-compliant and should be turned down. http://decisions.fca-caf.gc.ca/caf/2004/2004caf295.shtml www.crtc.gc.ca/8740/eng/2004/b20_818.htm TELUS TAKES STAKE IN IP UNITY: Telus Ventures has made a "strategic investment" in IP Unity, the California-based company that provides voicemail and e-mail technology for Telus's IP-One hosted IP-PBX service. The amount of the investment was not revealed. TELEHOP ENTERS ATLANTIC PROVINCES: Telehop Communications, operator of the 10-10-620 dial-around long distance service, has signed a Billing and Collection Agreement with Aliant, allowing it to offer service in the four Atlantic provinces. TELUS TO BUY BACK SHARES: Telus Corporation has received TSX approval to purchase up to 14 million of its common shares and up to 11.5 million of its non-voting shares, about 7% of the outstanding shares in each category. TERAGO BUYS REGIONAL CARRIER: TeraGo Networks has added seven cities in southwest Ontario to its fixed wireless broadband network through the purchase of WorldWithoutWire, a regional carrier based in Waterloo, Ontario. ONLINETEL MOVES TO CUTS COSTS: Eiger Technology, parent of Newlook Industries, which offers LD services under the name Onlinetel, reports several measures to cut costs, including selling a facility in Stratford and bringing its outsourced call centre back in house. Newlook President Neil Romanchych, hired last spring, will leave the company on December 31. ** Eiger CEO Gerry Racicot says Newlook will return to positive cash flow in 2006. TELECOM EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE: Coming soon -- a special issue of Telemanagement, featuring exclusive articles by 13 industry leaders, and comments from dozens of enterprise managers, on the most important issues in enterprise telecom and networking in 2005. ** Contributors include top executives from: Allstream, Avaya, Bell Canada, Cisco, Delphi Solutions, IBM, Intel, Mitel, Nortel, OneConnect, Primus, Sprint Canada, and Telus. ** This special issue, for subscribers only, will be published on January 3. To start your subscription with this special issue, go to www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub-online.html. ============================================================ 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. 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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. ============================================================ JOHN RIDDELL jriddell@angustel.ca Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca 8 Old Kingston Road Tel: 905-686-5050 x226 Ajax Ontario L1T 2Z7 Canada Fax: 905-686-2655 ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:39:15 -0500 Subject: Jeff Pulver Offers IP Communications Predictions for 2005 http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/12-20-2004/0002669321&EDATE World Renowned VoIP Thought Leader Jeff Pulver Offers IP Communications Predictions for 2005 http://www.pulver.com http://pulverblog.pulver.com Pulver Predicts Burnout of Some VoIP Start-Ups, Major Carrier VoIP Announcements, FCC and Regulatory Actions, the Growth of Wireless Vs. Wireline, and More MELVILLE, N.Y., Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver, who is responsible for creating the industry standard Voice on the Net (VON) events and is known as the "voice" of IP Communications, has announced a number of predictions for what will happen to the VoIP industry in the year ahead. His predictions for 2005 are: 1) VoIP in the USA will cross the "early-adopter chasm." 2) Broadband penetration will begin to snowball in the US, but not at a pace fast enough to raise America's mediocre global standing in broadband penetration. 3) We will see the restart of VoIP IPOs, and we will also see some VoIP startups burning-out due to lack of marketing funds and customer base ... and vision. 4) Still more major carrier VoIP announcements, as well as significant product announcements from major non-carriers (including software and Internet giants). 5) New battle lines and tangling alliances will form between and among carriers, vendors, and application providers and debate will grow over the continuing role for unaffiliated, non-carrier VoIP providers. 6) (a) The FCC will not establish an IP-Communications Bureau. (b) The FCC will release an Order in the IP-Enabled Services Proceeding, setting forth a broad, hands-off approach for VoIP. 7) Governments around the world will look harder at VoIP regulation, and service providers will respond by stepping up their efforts to deploy industry-based solutions for many of the social issues confronting the industry (e.g., emergency response, lawful intercept). 8) The pace of Wireless replacement of Wireline will increase. 9) ENUM (Electronic Numbering) will continue to happen around the world ... and the US will continue to lag. 10) Open Source communications will continue to gain momentum, the effects of which will be felt in the next 12-18 months. 11) IM and incidental communications and applications (such as "presence") will continue to grow unregulated. 12) Universal Service will move to a connections-based system. 13) Access rates and inter-carrier compensation will trend down (although the long-anticipated unified intercarrier comp reform will not be seen in '05.) 14) Sides will be drawn further as Congressional debate grows over the likely rewrite of the Communications Act. We will find out who our friends are and who has just been paying us lip-service. 15) 2005 might be the year of Bluetooth. 2005 will see the emergence of the first dual, or multi-mode, phones capable of switching from WiFi to mobile wireless (and perhaps to landline). "We are in the midst of a VoIP communications revolution," said Jeff Pulver, chairman of Pulver.com Enterprises. "The buzz surrounding the international VoIP industry continues to grow, and it's important for everyone to understand and take advantage of the changes taking place. IP Communications is 'disruptive' communications in the most positive sense, and it will dramatically enhance the ways in which we communicate." Pulver publishes a blog that offers unique insight into the state of the IP Communications industry. This blog, which is updated daily (and sometimes more often than that) addresses all-things-VoIP, from the technical (i.e., service and product innovations, extensions of concept) to the political (Governmental concerns, hearings and rulings, any and all issues-based subject matter). The Jeff Pulver Blog can be easily accessed at http://pulverblog.pulver.com/ , and reader comments are welcome (and typically result in a speedy reply!). About Jeff Pulver Jeff Pulver is one of the true pioneers of the Internet telephony/VoIP industry with more than a decade of hands-on experience in IP Communications and innovation. He is the publisher of The Pulver Report and VON magazine, and creator of the industry standard Voice on the Net (VON) conferences, where all sectors of the IP Communications industry come together to discuss, debate, and advance the industry. Additionally, Mr. Pulver is the founder of a number of IP Communications companies. Mr. Pulver has testified before the FCC, the United States Congress, and numerous agencies that have a growing interest in IP Communications. Named by BusinessWeek as one of their 2003 "Gurus of Technology," Mr. Pulver is committed to the future of IP Communications and is featured often in the media as a true expert in his field. About Pulver.com Enterprises The Pulver.com group of companies strives to promote the IP industry and change the way people communicate through new, enabling, innovative IP Communications technologies. The group focuses on IP hardware, software, and communications services, demonstrating that IP Communications makes it possible to do new things with telecommunications that can't be done with the traditional PSTN network. Pulver.com Enterprises owns a number of companies including Free World Dialup, LibreTel, pulverInnovations, and Blue Lava Software, and is headed by IP Communications entrepreneur and globally renowned thought leader, Jeff Pulver. Reader Contact Information Pulver.com Enterprises, 115 Broadhollow Road, Suite 225; Melville, NY 11747; Tel: 631-961-8950, Fax: 631-293-3996, http://www.pulver.com . Company Contact: Press Contact: Diana Caporale Alan Weinkrantz 631-961-8986 210-820-3070 ext. 103 dcaporale@pulver.com alan@weinkrantz.com SOURCE Pulver.com Enterprises Web Site: http://www.pulver.com http://pulverblog.pulver.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 02:49:47 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Sprint's Merger With Nextel http://economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3D3499537 And then there were four From The Economist print edition Why America's latest wireless merger makes sense and its implications FROM six to five, and now four: the oft-repeated prediction that America s fragmented wireless telecoms industry would consolidate finally came true in 2004. In October, Cingular completed its $41 billion purchase of AT&T Wireless, leapfrogging Verizon Wireless to become the nation s largest wireless operator (see chart). And on Wednesday December 15th, Sprint and Nextel, the third- and fifth-largest operators, announced a merger of equals in reality, the acquisition by Sprint of Nextel for around $36 billion. The combined firm will be called Sprint Nextel. Both deals were driven in large part by technology, which placed constraints on who could merge with whom. Unlike Europe, where wireless operators all use a system called GSM, America s operators use several different and incompatible standards. Verizon and Sprint use a technology called CDMA, while Cingular, AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile have GSM networks (which explains why Cingular and AT&T Wireless made a logical partnership). Nextel, however, uses a proprietary system called iDEN, made by Motorola, which has both strengths and weaknesses. Mobile telecommunications Its main strength is its acclaimed push to talk feature, which allows Nextel handsets to be used like walkie-talkies, though the calls are in fact routed over the cellular network. As a result, Nextel has long been the choice of construction workers and maintenance technicians; other consumers love the walkie-talkie feature too. It explains Nextel s unrivalled customer loyalty and average revenue per user, both key industry metrics. But as the industry upgrades to high-speed third generation (3G) networks, which offer both extra voice capacity and fast internet access, there is no upgrade path for iDEN so Nextel must switch to another= technology. It has been evaluating two options. The first is another proprietary technology, called Flash-OFDM, made by a firm called Flarion. This is sometimes referred to as a 4G technology, but is already available: Nextel has a small Flarion network running in North Carolina. While it works well as a wireless-broadband technology for PCs and laptops, however, the technology is not yet supported in mobile phones. So Nextel was also evaluating the high-speed version of CDMA, called EV-DO. Verizon Wireless is already deploying it, and Sprint, after much dithering, recently announced that it would do so too. For Nextel, the benefit of EV-DO is that handsets already exist, and it is possible to implement push-to-talk functionality, on a par with Nextel s existing service, on an EV-DO network. Customers can therefore be moved from iDEN to EV-DO without having to give up the feature they value most. Hence the logic of merging with Sprint, which is also committed to EV-DO. The deal makes sense for other reasons too. Nextel has lots of business customers, an area where Sprint is weak. The combined firm will have greater economies of scale and more bargaining power with handset and equipment suppliers. And the decision to spin off Sprint s regional fixed-line division paves the way for Sprint Nextel to strike deals with America s cable operators. They want to add wireless telephony to their service bundles, better to compete with America s regional fixed-line incumbents, the Baby Bells. Sprint and Nextel already rent network capacity to smaller operators such as Virgin Mobile and Boost, so they know how to support such virtual operators . The merger requires regulatory approval, but that is likely to be forthcoming, since the deal is smaller than the Cingular/AT&T Wireless transaction and will clearly enhance competition. Shareholders are also likely to approve. A rumoured counter-bid for Sprint from Verizon Wireless, which could derail the deal, seems unlikely not least because regulators would probably object. But many hurdles remain. Integrating the two firms various networks will be tricky; another worry is that the corporate cultures will clash. Nextel has an entrepreneurial, innovative culture, while Sprint is formal and conservative, says Raul Katz of Adventis, a consultancy. Yet perhaps the most significant aspect of the deal concerns not 3G, but 4G. Between them, Sprint and Nextel own nearly all the spectrum licences for the unused 2.5GHz frequency band. The combined firm will be able to use this prime wireless real estate to build a 4G network, perhaps using Flarion s technology or WiMax, an emerging wireless-broadband standard. In the short term, the merger helps Sprint Nextel catch up with Verizon and Cingular in the 3G stakes. But beyond that, it also gives the new firm a head start in 4G. Copyright The Economist Newspaper Limited 2004. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: P2P Battle Shifts to High Court Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 10:33:07 EST NEW YORK (Billboard) - The U.S. Supreme Court is about to play a vital role in determining the fortunes of the music industry. Its decision in the so-called Grokster case will finally clarify the industry's ability to control peer-to-peer technology through existing law. In so doing, the court will influence the industry at every level, including its ability to invest in artists and songwriters, entertainment industry lawyers say. The High Court on Dec. 10 gave the nod to record labels, music publishers, songwriters and major motion picture studios, agreeing to review the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that ruled that P2P operators Grokster and StreamCast were not liable for copyright infringements by users of their file-sharing technology. Gregory Garre, a partner with Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C., highlights the significance of the court's decision to hear the case. Only about 100 cases out of roughly 8,000 petitions filed each year are granted review by the court, he says. Garre, formerly with the Solicitor General's office within the Department of Justice now heads the firms Supreme Court practice. He believes the justices will have two concerns as they review this case. First, they will focus on whether the P2P services facilitate a blatant way for users to defeat copyright laws, threatening this important form of intellectual property. BETAMAX PRECEDENT While the Supreme Court in 1984 held that Sony Corp of America was not liable for any copyright infringement by users of its Betamax video recorder, Garre notes, the evidence in the Grokster case is different. Most people used the Betamax for lawful reasons -- to watch recorded TV programs at a later time. In the Grokster case, the record shows that the substantial majority of P2P users infringe copyrights, he says. The court also will be sensitive to the fact that its ruling may have dramatic effects in the marketplace for technology and entertainment, Garre says. Its ruling will reflect careful consideration of these concerns, he predicts. None of the lawyers Billboard contacted believe the court's decision will change the 1984 Sony Betamax decision. "It has served the law well for the last 20 years," Garre says. The justices will most likely interpret that decision and apply it to current technology. As the nine justices consider the issues and listen to oral arguments, expected to be scheduled for March, they will take a common-sense approach, Garre says. While appellate courts focus on applying legal precedent, he explains, the Supreme Court tends to be concerned with the practical dimensions of their decisions. The justices could explore alternative ways to restrict copyright infringement on the P2P networks, says Marc Jacobson, of Greenberg Traurig in New York. The court could send the case back to the District Court in Los Angeles -- where it is still pending on other issues -- for that court to explore the alternatives and then apply rules provided by the Supreme Court. FRIENDS OR FOES? The parties to this case won't be the only ones raising issues with the court, Garre notes. "This is the kind of case that is going to attract an enormous amount of amicus briefs." Anyone with an interest in the case may file a "friend of the court" brief with consent of the parties, which is rarely denied. This could prove troublesome to the parties, however. While some organizations may coordinate their efforts with one side, they are not required to do so, Garre says. Their interests could undermine a strategy developed by the parties they support. Amicus briefs will be especially important in educating the court in how the technology works and why these issues are so important, Garre adds. The decision is expected before the court adjourns for the summer. A wild card in the process is whether Chief Justice William Rehnquist who is ailing, will take part in the decision. Rehnquist was a dissenter in the Sony Betamax case. In the meantime, the industry continues to face an uncertain future. "We're going to have to get a handle on digital piracy in order to get investors comfortable and to restore stability in the recording and publishing industry," says Michael Elkin, with Thelen Reid & Priest. Pending copyright-related legislation is likely to stay on hold until the court rules. Reuters/Billboard NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters/Billboard News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 22:03:54 -0800 Organization: University of Washington On Sun, 19 Dec 2004, Joseph wrote: > You're really lucky that someone hasn't slugged you yet for your > obnoxious behavior. In case you weren't aware, assault is a felony, punishable with fines and jail time. I am also quite capable of self-defense from criminal attack. You need to learn to restrain your violent impulses. When you grow up, you will learn that you can not solve your problems with violence. On Sun, 19 Dec 2004, AES/newspost wrote: > I think I knew you or knew of you, in long-ago Stanford computer > center days (?); and it looks like you've inherited more Charles > Bronson genes, and I've inherited more Walter Mitty genes. Tony, it has nothing to do with Charles Bronson. It has everything to do with shaming those who impose their loud cell phone conversations on an unwilling and captive audience. Increasingly, there are laws and/or regulations banning use of cell phones in public places. Cell phone jammers are illegal in the US, but they are being deployed increasingly. This not a good thing; someone will die some day because of a jammer. Nevertheless, this is the natural result of abusive cell phone use; and will get worse unless people pay more attention to mobile phone manners. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: 20 Dec 2004 15:59:35 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , Joseph wrote: > On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 17:07:08 -0800, Mark Crispin > wrote: >> I start mocking their conversation, in a loud enough tone of voice >> that they can hear me. > You're really lucky that someone hasn't slugged you yet for your > obnoxious behavior. You seem to think that their being obnoxious is > license for you to be as well, eh? Sounds good to me. :-) Teaching by example can be very effective. >> It's quite effective. > Until some guy socks you in the mouth for commenting on his private > conversation. If it's held in a public place, and broadcast for all to hear, then it's no longer private. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 23:07:25 -0500 In article , devilspgd@crazyhat.net says: > In message Tony P. > wrote: >>>> I love how the cable companies harp on the fact that satellite >>>> transmission can be interrupted by rain, and then one of their own >>>> carried stations goes off the air because you guessed it, weather >>>> interfered with the cable companies OWN satellite reception. >>> While true, it takes a lot more weather to take out a 6' dish then a >>> 20" dish. >> It can be misting here and we lose channels. Anytime water is involved >> you can kiss centimeter or lower bands goodbye. > To tie it in to the cable-vs-satellite argument, does it take out any of > the cable company's channels? It takes out things like Discovery, TNT, AMC, etc. all of which are delivered via satellite. ------------------------------ From: BobGoudreau@withheld on request Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:58:26 -0500 [Please make sure my email address is removed from both this message and from the issue's table of contents. Thanks] Dave Close wrote: > When CNN first started Headline News, back before Gulf War One, they > were still a bootstrap operation and very short of money HLN used a > single anchor and no remote correspondents. Video was bought from > local stations and presented with the anchor's voice-over. That was > much less expensive than the present programming. I think this overstates the situation slightly. When my family first got cable TV in the summer of 1982 (almost 9 years before the Kuwait war), I remember that it included two separate 24-hour news stations. One was CNN, which was already starting to make its mark, though not yet as famous as the aforementioned war would eventually make it. The other was its new sister station called "CNN2", which had been launched at the beginning of that same year, and wouldn't be renamed to "CNN Headline News" until the following year. It was clear from the start that CNN2's role in life was to be a summary-serving companion for its big brother. It's true that there was a single anchor at a time, but its content came (as it still does) from CNN. Of course, some of that content was (and is) purchased from other news sources, including local news teams, but even back then, CNN did have correspondents of its own. Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ------------------------------ Date: 20 Dec 2004 03:35:51 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA In article you write: > Is there any kind of gadget available to interface with a cellphone > (perhaps via the headset connection) that would allow you to plug your > cellphone into it when you are at home, and have it provide your own > little local phone system over your old phone wires so that you could > use any phone in the house to make a call on the cellphone and have > all the phones in the house ring when the cellphone rings? Mike Sandman sells devices that do just that, at http://www.sandman.com/pouches.html (It's on the same page as cell phone belt pouches.) Regards, John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have one of those devices from Mike. Mine is called 'cell socket' and my cellular phone sits right inside the device. It charges the phone battery, and allows the phone to be used from any regular phone which plugs in with a modular connector. I can use it with a 'total com' PBXtra box by plugging the Cell Socket into one of the 'dial 9' level ports on the PBXtra (which Mike also offers in his catalog). From any phone, dial 9 and get dialtone from the cell phone (via cell socket). Or when cell phone (via cell socket) rings, the phone attached to PBXtra as the default for incoming calls will ring as well, or a common audible will ring and dialing *7 from any phone allows it to be answered. I put my Vonage phone in another port on the PBXtra as well to do the same thing with it, then the remaining five ports (of the eight ports on PBXtra) allow me to answer any phone (landline, Vonage or cell phone) from any phone in my house, or transfer any call to any other extension. These devices (PBXtra units) are great for people who have a large house (but a small amount of phone traffic) but want the flexibilty of all phones at all locations, and they are fully programmable by the user. For example, I have my one landline phone as dial 9 for outgoing calls, my Vonage line as dial 8 for outgoing calls, and my cell phone on the cell socket as dial 7 for outgoing calls. The common audible tells me when any of them have an incoming call, and *7 allows me to answer whatever line is ringing. You definitly need to check Mike Sandman's catalog if you have not recently. Look at http://www.sandman.com . One disadvantage is no caller ID available on it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: AFA (Flight Attendants) Opposes In-Flight Cell Phone Use Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 20:56:35 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message n28110 wrote: > As a wearer of a cellular phone for work reasons, I'm absolutely > amazed at the numer of people who power up the phone the instant the > plane leaves the active runway onto the taxiway, only to call their > (I'm assuming) loved ones to let them know that the plane has > successfully smacked onto the ground. I did exactly that on my last two flights -- Well, I wasn't calling "loved ones", I was calling the people I was meeting to let them know they should get off their asses and drive to the airport. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 00:37:04 -0600 From: Neal McLain Subject: Re: Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use'...) I wrote: > Gee, I'd sure like to know who "they" are. PAT wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I do not know who 'they' > were either, but I distinctly remember sometime the late 1950's > hearing about how 'cable television stations will not have > commercials since the fee you pay for service takes care of all > that ..." PAT] I think whoever told you that was either misinformed or pulling your leg. In the late 1950's, very few cable TV systems carried anything other than broadcast stations (which, of course, included advertising). Although a few cable systems originated some programming, it was pretty primitive stuff. As it happens, the "Weather Scan" was introduced in 1958 -- the industry's first attempt at automated programming. The Cable Center's history-of-cable page describes this device as follows: 1958-59 Systems begin carrying FM radio stations and "weather scans" (a stationery camera pans between gauges showing local temperature, barometric pressure, wind, etc.). Weather scans provide an additional opportunity to sell local advertising with the advertiser's message printed on a fixed placard beside the gauges. Customers can also listen to background music while they watch the weather information. Source: "Cable History: 1950." Denver: The Cable Center, 2004. http://www.cablecenter.org/history/timeline/decade.cfm?start=1950 This link includes a photograph of the device. The Weather Scan should sound familiar to PAT: it's the same "weather dials" device that Coffeyville Community College used on their Channel 4 station back in the 60s. See: http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/archives/back.issues/recent.single.issues/V23_%23529 Note that the Weather Scan, primitive though it was, established a precedent for advertising support of local-origination programming: "Weather scans provide an additional opportunity to sell local advertising with the advertiser's message printed on a fixed placard beside the gauges." Neal McLain ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #609 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Dec 21 01:11:00 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBL6Ax429280; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 01:11:00 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 01:11:00 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412210611.iBL6Ax429280@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 #610 TELECOM Digest Tue, 21 Dec 2004 01:11:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 610 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call (phoner@company.com) TV Over Phones Attracts Billions in Investment (Telecom dailyLead) DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo lifetime Service (googlenospam@netcrafting) Motorola MD481 Cordless (Weston Fire 22) PSAPs Sound E911 Call For Help (Lisa Minter) Vonage(R) Canada and Galaxy Broadband Bring VoIP Phone Service (Minter) System Would Allow 911 Checks (Jack Decker) Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone (Neal McLain) Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone (LB@notmine.com) Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone (John Stahl) Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone (Joseph) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (Steve Sobol) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (Joseph) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use') (Barry Margolin) Re: New Treo 650 Is Better Than Ever; Rivals Offer Alternatives (Drew) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call From: phoner@company.com Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 22:06:01 GMT Cell phone companies record the tower that handles each call, and then keep that info for at least a short time. That came out in the recent arson case in Maryland. The suspect claimed that he was at home. However, he had a cellphone call during his alibi time. His provider's records showed that the cell tower handling his call wasn't near his house. This had to have been a routine log since the suspect wasn't yet a suspect at the time of the call. (Putting my tinfoil hat on:) I have a theory that the location of every cellphone that is turned on is being routinely recorded, say every minute, and saved for later data mining. I have no direct evidence. However, this is technically feasible, and is a logical (to me) extension of what we know was done decades ago. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:27:08 -0500 (EST) From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: TV Over Phones Attracts Billions in Investment Telecom dailyLead from USTA December 20, 2004 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18221&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * TV over phones attracts billions in investment BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Analysis: Wireless consolidation may have its benefits * Analysis: Investors cheer telecom rebound * CNET Special Report: The year in broadband * Comcast upgrade leads to new services in Colorado USTA SPOTLIGHT * Telecom Crash Course -- The must-have book for telecom professionals EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Sprint offers streaming music via mobile phones * Yahoo! expands mobile offering REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Opinion: FCC took wrong approach in last week's competition ruling * Iowa ISP wins $1B in spam damages Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18221&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: googlenospam@netcrafting.com Subject: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service Date: 20 Dec 2004 11:58:39 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I thought Google readers would like to know this. When I bought my Sony Directv w/Tivo satellite receiver three years ago, I also bought the Tivo lifetime subscription for $249.00. It is still in use and is my only Tivo unit. From 11/2001 to 10/2004, my monthly satellite service was provided by Pegasus. This happened because we were in an area that Directv chose to have them service. Directv took over Pegasus this fall. My most recent billing from Directv is showing a new monthly fee of $4.99 for Tivo service. When I called Directv, they said, "Sorry, but we're not honoring the lifetime Tivo subscriptions purchased when the customer was serviced by Pegasus.". This is a really bad deal. I called Tivo and they were of no help. Directv billed me for the lifetime subscription on 12/6/2001 and I paid THEM for it. I'm on hold waiting to talk to a Directv customer service supervisor right now. I'll continue this paragraph after I speak with them ... Just hung up with Kathy at Directv and they said, "Sorry, but that's the way it is." I cannot believe this is happening. I thought a lifetime subscription lasted the lifetime of the Tivo unit? This is not the case for folks who were serviced by Pegasus. Beware if you buy a lifetime Tivo on Ebay that was owned by a customer who got their satellite service from Pegasus. Signed, Angry customer in Northern MN. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Someone committed fraud on you. When you purchase (or otherwise take over) an existing business, then you take over not only the assets of the existing business, but the *liabilities* as well, unless the people going *out* of business specifically publish a notice to the effect otherwise, which is to afford *you* - the holder of that asset (by virtue of your lifetime subscription in this case) -- the opportunity to collect on it from the original owner of the business. Did DirectTV publish a notice saying 'not responsible for debts of Pegasus' or did Peegasus publish a notice saying 'going out of business, etc'. Did Pegasus file a petition in bankruptcy? If so, did they list *all* of their liabilities, including 'lifetime' (prepaid) subscriptions? You definitly were defrauded, but collecting on it may be a challenge and cost more than it is worth. Your legal complaint is with Pegasus, assuming that DirectTV had no knowledge of any such 'lifetime subscritions' outstanding through Pegasus. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Weston Fire 22 Subject: Motorola MD481 Cordless Date: 20 Dec 2004 17:06:42 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I got a MD481 cordless phone the other day, after charging overnight, yada, yada, I went to use the phone today. Any number I call, local or long distance, I get a message from the telco saying the call couldn't be completed, etc. Just to check things out, I switched to pulse dialing and it works fine. So, tone dialing doesn't work, pulse dialing does. I proceeded to call Motorola support (and waited 30 minutes on hold) and was promptly told,"Sir, this is a digital phone and you need to call your phone comapny and make sure you have a digital phone line and not an analog phone line. If the phone company says you have a digital line, then call us back." Huh?? Never before have I heard such a thing. Sure the phone says digital on it, but so do my other two cordless phones (though not Motorola's). So did the support guy just not know what was wrong and decided to send me on a chase and hope he didn't get me when I called back? Any insight would be appreciated. Bruce ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 12:15:47 -0500 Subject: PSAPs Sound E911 Call For Help http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=140090 PSAPs Sound E911 Call For Help Emergency responders in rural areas still are struggling for more money to handle advancing VoIP-based communications as they continue to work through lingering wireless E911 Phase II location-based services issues. For the time being, public safety answering points (PSAPs) will get some relief. After it looked as though PSAPs would get left out in the cold this year, senators stepped up to the plate at the last minute and approved a bill to create a centralized national E911 coordinating office run jointly by the U.S. Commerce Department and the Department of Transportation. It also will authorize $250 million in matching grants for states, local governments and tribal organizations to improve their 911 communications systems, hire and train more personnel, as well as purchase equipment. And for those states that divert E911 surcharge fees, the initiative makes them ineligible for the matching grants; a bi-annual report to Congress on E911 progress will identify those states. Full story at: http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=140090 ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:55:00 -0500 Subject: Vonage(R) Canada and Galaxy Broadband bring VoIP phone service Jack Decker note: News from our neighbors to the north, east, and (if you are in Downtown Detroit) south. Maybe something like this could be used to provide phone service to the East Lake area, and other parts of northern Michigan that are presently unserved! Of course if Vonage will work over satellite broadband (albeit with noticeable latency - you can't repeal the laws of physics nor exceed the speed of light) then it's probable that other VoIP companys' service would also, and I am hopeful that at least one of the commercial VoIP providers will be able to offer numbers in the Upper Peninsula real soon now (and it's not Vonage). http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/December2004/20/c7153.html Vonage(R) Canada and Galaxy Broadband bring VoIP phone service to isolated Canadians Remote oil drilling rigs, lighthouses, and fishing lodges connect to the outside world with innovative satellite broadband and Internet telephone service MISSISSAUGA, ON, Dec. 20 /CNW/ - Vonage Canada, the country's leading provider of broadband phone service, today announced a partnership with Galaxy Broadband Communications, a leading provider of two-way high-speed Internet access via satellite, to offer Canadians in remote locations a more affordable, reliable and potentially life-saving link to the world. Galaxy Broadband provides broadband Internet access through its network of satellites to remote logging camps, oil drilling rigs, fly-in fishing and hunting lodges and any Canadian who is otherwise disconnected because of location. The agreement with Vonage Canada will allow those isolated work locations or homes to connect Vonage's broadband phone service to the high-speed network, ensuring reliable communications to company headquarters, family and friends. "Our customers are traditionally beyond the reach of land-based, high-speed Internet access," said Rick Hodgkinson, president and CEO of Galaxy Broadband. "Communications is often very spotty with our remote customers, with little or no cellular phone coverage, where people literally have to climb the nearest hilltops to try and get a signal. Reliable connections are critical to many remote operations like drilling rigs in the middle of nowhere, in case of emergency or other safety considerations. Vonage's service piggybacks on Galaxy's high-speed connection so remote workers and homeowners have an instant, reliable link to the outside world, and at a significantly less cost than cellular or satellite telephone service." Galaxy Broadband tested nearly 10 VoIP services in 2004, selecting Vonage because of its reliability and call quality. Galaxy will make the Vonage service available to its 400 certified reseller partners across Canada. Remote Canadian homeowners, branch operations and small business owners can choose an area code from 14 major centres in six provinces, including Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Customers can also obtain a secondary "virtual" number from any available area code in Canada and the U.S. served by Vonage. International virtual numbers are also available from Mexico and U.K. Broadband phone service, or VoIP, works by turning voice calls into data packets and sending them over the Internet. When the data packs approach their destination, they are reassembled, and delivered in the form of a traditional call. "Voice over IP brings communications to people who would otherwise be disconnected from the world," said Bill Rainey, president, Vonage Canada. "The simplicity of Vonage's service allows any remote homeowner or business with high-speed access to bridge the distance gap and take advantage of this breakthrough technology that is changing the way Canadians make and receive phone calls." Vonage Canada's partnership with Galaxy is another step in its strategy of widening its distribution channel with Canadian resellers whose customers are looking for an affordable, full-featured phone service that leverages the power and ubiquity of the Internet. About Vonage(R) Canada Vonage Canada is redefining communications by offering consumers and small businesses an affordable alternative to traditional telephone service. The fastest growing telephony company in North America, Vonage's service area encompasses more than 2000 active rate centers in over 125 North American markets, including six Canadian provinces. Vonage is sold directly through http://www.vonage.ca and retail partners such as STAPLES Business Depot and RadioShack Canada. With more than 350,000 lines in service within North America, Vonage continues to add more than 30,000 lines per month to its network. More than 10 million calls per week are made using Vonage, the easy-to-use, feature-rich, flat-rate phone service. Vonage Canada is headquartered in Mississauga, ON. For more information about Vonage's products and services, please visit http://www.vonage.ca or call 1-877-272-0528. Vonage Canada is a trademark of Vonage Holdings Corp. About Galaxy Broadband With more than 25 years experience, Galaxy Broadband Communications Inc. specializes in providing satellite-based Internet solutions for consumers and businesses throughout Canada. For more information about high-speed Internet virtually anywhere in Canada, visit http://www.galaxybroadband.ca or call 1-877-463-9728. For further information: Duane MacDonald for Vonage Canada, (416) 924-5700 x4043; Patti Jordan, Vonage Canada, (416) 907-6157, patti.jordan@vonage.com ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 12:49:18 -0500 Subject: System Would Allow 911 Checks http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_18928007.shtml Verification service not yet available in Wisconsin By Duke Behnke Post-Crescent staff writer A national company with expertise in emergency communications has developed an automated system that would enable telephone customers to verify the accuracy of their 911 information. The system, however, is not available through SBC Wisconsin, the telephone company that manages 911 databases in Outagamie, Waupaca and Winnebago counties. "We have not tested this technology, and it currently is not available in any Wisconsin community," SBC spokesman Howard Riefs said this past week. "Its very much in its infancy." Intrado Inc. of Longmont, Colo., unveiled 911Plus Info Check in November as a means for telephone customers to self-validate their 911 information, which public service agencies use to dispatch emergency personnel. Earlier this year, The Post-Crescent found that telecommunicators in the four counties around Appleton uncover an average of 200 data errors each year, ranging from a wrong digit in a house number to missing information and wrong communities. Some result in emergency crews being dispatched to the wrong address. The newspaper began investigating the issue in January after paramedics mistakenly were sent to a Menasha address while a Neenah man died of a heart attack at his home. With the new system, telephone customers call a special number and follow a few steps for security and privacy protection to hear the 911 address on record for their phone number. If the information is wrong, callers can report the inaccuracy through the system. Full story at: http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_18928007.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 17:18:16 -0600 From: Neal McLain Subject: Re: Giving up Landline For Cellphone Thomas A. Horsley wrote: > Is there any kind of gadget available to interface with a > cellphone (perhaps via the headset connection) that would allow > you to plug your cellphone into it when you are at home, and > have it provide your own little local phone system over your > old phone wires so that you could use any phone in the house to > make a call on the cellphone and have all the phones in the > house ring when the cellphone rings? Try "cellsocket" < http://www.cellsocket.com/ >. For the past few weeks, I've been trying, without much success, to get one of these things to work in rural Brazoria County, Texas. I've encountered two problems: low signal from AT&T Wireless and the cellsocket's inability to complete some calls. In an attempt to overcome the low-signal problem, I installed an outdoor omnidirectional antenna (Mike Sandman's "indoor cellular antenna" < http://www.sandman.com/pouches.html > mounted on the roof of a single-story building surrounded by lots of trees). The antenna is connected to the cellsocket by about 16 feet of cable. According to Sandman, this antenna is supposed to provide 3 dB. gain, but it hasn't helped in my situation. Maybe the cable loss negates the antenna's gain. For test purposes, I connected a standard 2500-type touch-tone desk phone to the cellsocket's RJ-11 jack. When I make a call from this phone, I'm supposed to be able to dial 1-NXX-NXX-XXXX-#, where the "#" serves as "SEND." Most of the time, this seems to work, but sometimes the call doesn't go through: immediately after I press "#", it dumps the call I get dialtone again. I haven't been able to figure out why this happens. Perhaps the low-signal problem is causing (or contributing to) it, so I don't blame the cellsocket. I discussed this problem with cellsocket's technician (a marginally-helpful guy named Roosevelt), who suggested that I contact the cellsocket manufacturer, WHP Wireless, Inc. At that point, I gave up on the whole idea, and signed up with Vonage. The antenna is still on the roof, but I'll haul it down one of these days. Further lessons I learned from all this effort: - Tellular makes a "cellular fixed wireless" device < http://www.telular.com/products/index.asp >. But apparently, it doesn't just interface with a cellphone; it *replaces* the cellphone. Which, I assume, means you'd need a separate cell access line just for it. - Mike Sandman's website describes a "Cellular POTS adapter" < http://www.sandman.com/pouches.html >. It doesn't exist: Sandman's website is WAY out of date. I originally planned to use one of these adapters in conjunction with the rooftop antenna; unfortunately, I had already installed the antenna on the roof when I found out that the adapter isn't available. Which is why I ended up using a cellsocket instead. (And yes, I did grump at Mike Sandman about his obsolete website, but he still hasn't fixed it.) - Sandman's antenna doesn't mate directly with the cellsocket's input connector (of course), so I had to buy an adapter cable (SMA-male-to-FME-male). Fortunately, HamStop.com < http://www.hamstop.com/ > had one for 5.95, including shipping. - The cellsocket only fits certain kinds of cellphones, so I had to buy a new one. I bought a used Motorola 120T on eBay, only to discover that AT&T wouldn't authorize it because it was on their "lost or stolen" list. So then I managed to return that phone to the seller, and bought another one. Then I spent a half-hour on the phone with AT&T getting my cellphone number moved from my old old phone to my new old phone. AT&T's CSR was a bit perplexed that anybody would actually buy an old 120T, but she proceeded cheerfully anyway. As things stand now, I have a Motorola 120T cellphone, Sandman's antenna, a cellsocket, an SMA-FME adapter, a big hole in the hall wall, two holes in the roof, and a pending order with Vonage. And nothing to show for it. Maybe the cellsocket would work if AT&T's signal were stronger ... Neal McLain [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: AT&T's signal strength is a serious problem in many rural areas. They seem to have a bad habit of *not* releasing your phone from one of their towers until the signal strength gets to be so awful they have no choice but to let you go, then they have cut some deal with (some one or another) of the Cell One carriers to take you. I originally got an AT&T Wireless phone (the old Nokia 5165, still my phone of choice) when I was staying in the Chicago area, on the '630' area code. I brought that phone all the way to Kansas with me, and only rarely did it ever switch to 'roam' as the bus I was riding on came down I-55 and then US Highway 54 through Missouri. But the screen display would often times change from 'AT&T' to 'AT&T Extended Area'. Once the bus got into Tulsa the signal perked up again; then coming north out of Tulsa on the Jefferson Lines bus it gradually pooped out again, and eventually the screen display changed to 'extended area'. Here in Independence, the phone always says 'extended area', and I am told it gets its signal through Dobson's operation, an antenna farm over in Liberty, Kansas, which is west and south of town a little. Dobson has the Cellular One franchise here, but his 'antenna farm' in Liberty, KS has not only Cell One, but also Cingular and other tenants renting space through him. AT&T closed their dealership here in Independence and sold their local customer base to Cingular a few years ago. I still have a Nokia 5165 but on Cingular now. (I rarely bother to use the AT&T Wireless phone, which I have on prepaid service. I take the two phones, hold them side by side, the Cingular phone **always** gets better reception; I think because AT&T insists on 'serving me' from Dobson's place in Liberty; while Cingular *used to* use Dobson as well, but now have their own towers around town. PAT] ------------------------------ From: LB@notmine.com Subject: Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 18:00:22 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online John Levine wrote: > In article you write: >> Is there any kind of gadget available to interface with a cellphone >> (perhaps via the headset connection) that would allow you to plug your >> cellphone into it when you are at home, and have it provide your own >> little local phone system over your old phone wires so that you could >> use any phone in the house to make a call on the cellphone and have >> all the phones in the house ring when the cellphone rings? > Mike Sandman sells devices that do just that, at > http://www.sandman.com/pouches.html (It's on the same page as cell > phone belt pouches.) > Regards, > John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 > johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com, > Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have one of those devices from Mike. > Mine is called 'cell socket' and my cellular phone sits right inside > the device. It charges the phone battery, and allows the phone to be > used from any regular phone which plugs in with a modular connector. > I can use it with a 'total com' PBXtra box by plugging the Cell Socket > into one of the 'dial 9' level ports on the PBXtra (which Mike also > offers in his catalog). From any phone, dial 9 and get dialtone from > the cell phone (via cell socket). Or when cell phone (via cell socket) > rings, the phone attached to PBXtra as the default for incoming calls > will ring as well, or a common audible will ring and dialing *7 from > any phone allows it to be answered. I put my Vonage phone in another > port on the PBXtra as well to do the same thing with it, then the > remaining five ports (of the eight ports on PBXtra) allow me to answer > any phone (landline, Vonage or cell phone) from any phone in my > house, or transfer any call to any other extension. > These devices (PBXtra units) are great for people who have a large > house (but a small amount of phone traffic) but want the flexibilty > of all phones at all locations, and they are fully programmable by > the user. For example, I have my one landline phone as dial 9 for > outgoing calls, my Vonage line as dial 8 for outgoing calls, and > my cell phone on the cell socket as dial 7 for outgoing calls. The > common audible tells me when any of them have an incoming call, and > *7 allows me to answer whatever line is ringing. You definitly need > to check Mike Sandman's catalog if you have not recently. Look at > http://www.sandman.com . One disadvantage is no caller ID available > on it. PAT] Very Interesting. Does it matter where one places the adapter? My cell phone only get decent reception while at one end of the house. LB [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have one of Mike's external 3-db gain antennas also, and it sits by a window in my bedroom, feeding the cell socket device. The PBXtra unit on the other hand is in my computer area at the other end of my house. What I would suggest you do is put the cellsocket adapter at whatever place in your house you get the best cellular reception, then run a pair to wherever the PBXtra is located. In other words, cell socket output *not* to a phone, but to the *input* of the PBXtra, then run the pairs used by the PBXtra to wherever. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 18:56:04 -0500 From: John Stahl Subject: Re.: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cell phone Try this location (URL) for a review of several cell-phone-to-landline-phone-adapters: http://www.phonelabs.com/news_08.asp The author indicates that there are several manufacturers of these gadgets which you can connect through a non-active landline installation (i.e., a home or business line telephone system which you have disconnected from the incoming line at the NID but is still wired to RJ-11 type outlets to which you can attach standard landline type phones) and drop your cell phone into (these gadgets vary by the make of cell phone) when you come home. These gadgets then allow you to receive/make telephone calls by using your attached landline phones all through the (inserted) cell phone. Most I've heard not only allow make/receive calls but charge the cell phone battery. These type of gadgets would seem to be most popular with senior citizens as they are more used to using "standard" type phone sets rather than the smaller cell phones (obviously only usable when the cell is dropped into them when you are home.) Hope this info helps you. John Stahl Aljon Enterprises Telecom/Data Consultant [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh yeah ... keep the cell socket (or other cell phone adapter) just like the Vonage (or other VOIP adapter) **away** -- totally separate -- from the landline phone central office incoming pairs. Just like VOIP adapters, cell phone adapters get easily offended and tend to fry when telco voltage gets on the line. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 10:15:02 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 13:41:50 GMT, tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) wrote: > Is there any kind of gadget available to interface with a cellphone > (perhaps via the headset connection) that would allow you to plug your > cellphone into it when you are at home, and have it provide your own > little local phone system over your old phone wires so that you could > use any phone in the house to make a call on the cellphone and have > all the phones in the house ring when the cellphone rings? I don't know if this is what you're talking about but there are at least two "docking" solutions. CellSocket has a unit where you put your phone into a docking station and you can then use regular wireline phones in your house to make and receive calls. There's also another called "Dock-N-Talk" which works similarly and also has Bluetooth connectivity so more phones are compatible. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 13:16:09 -0800 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Mark Crispin wrote: >> You're really lucky that someone hasn't slugged you yet for your >> obnoxious behavior. > In case you weren't aware, assault is a felony, punishable with fines > and jail time. I am also quite capable of self-defense from criminal > attack. > You need to learn to restrain your violent impulses. When you grow > up, you will learn that you can not solve your problems with violence. Wow. I'm impressed. I've never seen someone take a post as far out of context as you somehow managed to. I guess the second paragraph of your response would have been appropriate if Joseph was actually threatening to hurt you. Of course, he wasn't. He was just commenting that you're lucky that your obnoxious behavior hasn't caused a fight yet, and I agree. (Yes, abusive cell users are also obnoxious.) JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 19:32:01 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 22:03:54 -0800, Mark Crispin wrote: > In case you weren't aware, assault is a felony, punishable with fines > and jail time. I am also quite capable of self-defense from criminal > attack. Well, if you are obnoxious enough they may not care and decide they don't want you messing with their personal conversations. ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 20:04:20 EST Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? In a message dated Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:58:26 -0500, BobGoudreau@withheld on request writes: > When my family first got cable TV in the summer of 1982 (almost 9 > years before the Kuwait war), I remember that it included two separate > 24-hour news stations. One was CNN, which was already starting to make > its mark, though not yet as famous as the aforementioned war would > eventually make it. The other was its new sister station called > "CNN2", which had been launched at the beginning of that same year, > and wouldn't be renamed to "CNN Headline News" until the following > year. It was clear from the start that CNN2's role in life was to be a > summary-serving companion for its big brother. It's true that there > was a single anchor at a time, but its content came (as it still does) > from CNN. Of course, some of that content was (and is) purchased from > other news sources, including local news teams, but even back then, > CNN did have correspondents of its own. Two personal experiences come to mind: A Continental Airlines flight skidded off the runway leaving the airport in Denver. My sister had been on the flight of that number on her way back from Oklahoma City to Denver. She called me to tell me (a) it skidded off on departure (for Billings, I believe), and not on arrival, and so she was safe (b) the actual aircraft had been changed in Denver so even though it was the same flight number it was not the aircraft she was on. As soon as she told me about the crash, I reached over to the TV and turned it on CNN. It had a live feed of the crash scene from some local station in Denver, just as I expected it would (news events of that sort are where CNN shines; CNN Headline News rarely runs such live feeds but included the story in its regular report). At the time of the Oklahoma City bombing (when I was sitting at the same computer in the same place as I am writing this) there was confusion for some time as to what had happened. Within a few minutes CNN was picking up from all three network affiliates in Oklahoma City and were switching among them to present as coherent report as could be provided at those earlier minutes as hours. I finally just watched CNN where I could see all the local reports with some continuity rather than trying to switch between local stations. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use'...) Organization: Symantec Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 21:40:48 -0500 In article , Neal McLain wrote: > So you're telling me that back in the late 40s and early 50s > ("... when cable television was first getting underway"), "they" > expected that the cable industry would create commercial-free "premium > channels ... just for pay cable distribution"? And, by implication, > that a technology would exist for distributing these channels > nationwide at reasonable cost? I don't know what people were saying about cable TV in the 40's and 50's. I'm talking about what happened in the 70's when cable-only channels like HBO first started to appear. I believe that prior to that, cable TV was just a way of providing TV service to communities that had environmental difficulties receiving broadcast TV (e.g. mountainous terrain blocking the signals). Since you had to pay extra for these "premium" channels, there was an expectation that this would obviate the need for commercials. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: dixie_drew@yahoo.com Subject: Re: New Treo 650 Is Better Than Ever, But Rivals Offer Alternatives Date: 20 Dec 2004 14:32:08 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I just got a Treo 650 for $40! I'm so excited that I signed up for two more. Check it out: http://www.power2source.com/index.php?ref_id=642 Owen P. Epstein wrote: > Monty Solomon wrote in message > news:: >> New Treo 650 Is Better Than Ever, But Rivals Offer Some Alternatives >> By WALTER S. MOSSBERG >> PalmOne's Treo smart phone has been the best combination of phone, PDA >> and e-mail device on the market. It had a few key flaws, though, so >> the company has now released a new, improved model, the Treo 650, to >> be sold by Sprint starting next month. >> But the rest of the industry is catching on to the idea of making a >> phone that, like the Treo, actually has a full keyboard for banging >> out e-mails. So the competition will be tougher for the new Treo than >> it was for its predecessor. >> Over the last week, I've been testing the new Treo 650, and comparing >> it with two other PDA phones that have now morphed into models with >> keyboards. One is the Microsoft-based Pocket PC phone. The other is >> the Sony Ericsson P910 smart phone, based on the Symbian operating >> system. I concentrated on the new keyboards in these two competitors >> because that's their main new feature. I have already reviewed another >> major Treo competitor, the new BlackBerry 7100t, sold by T-Mobile. >> My verdict: The Treo is better than ever, but the two newest keyboard >> phones, like the new BlackBerry, will give some new options to mobile >> e-mail users who prefer different designs and different software. >> http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20041028.html > Well you just may be on to something but the market for Palm Treo is > really hopping. What other PDA gives the same brilliance as the Treo? > Thx, > Owen Epstein ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #610 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Dec 21 16:04:47 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBLL4lr09564; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:04:47 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:04:47 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412212104.iBLL4lr09564@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 #611 TELECOM Digest Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:05:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 611 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? (pfschoeng@yahoo.com) Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless (DevilsPGD) Global Crossing Secures Much Needed Financing (Telecom DailyLead) Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call (A Burkitt-Gray) Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call (Dave VanHorn) Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call (Isaiah Beard) Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call (Daniel Johnson) Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service (DevilsPGD) Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo lifetime Service (Michael Muderick) Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone (LB@notmine.com) Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone (Thomas A. Horsley) Re: Hanging Up on Wireless Spam (Sparky) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (Lisa Hancock) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (Mark Crispin) Re: System Would Allow 911 Checks (Mark Atwood) Re: Sprint's Merger With Nextel (Isaiah Beard) A Christmas Carol: 'Lost Boy' Clings to Hope He'll See Mom (Lisa Minter) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: pfschoeng@yahoo.com Subject: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? Date: 21 Dec 2004 08:53:38 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com This discussion must begin with safety isues. The radiation level is usually given a SAR value and must be less than 1.6. Other safety issues should also be discussed. Reliability and durability are the next things to consider. Nokia, Motorola and Samsung seem to do well, although this is only my preliminary impression. The specific model numbers by the manufacturer is necessary. For example, the Nokia 3200 is considered by many to be a good phone but other Nokias fare less well. Performance is next, the main points being reception and battery life. Many cellphones seem to have a problem with low audio volume for some reason. Features are probably the main thing most people mistakenly consider when buying a cellphone. It should be considered last in most cases. ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless Date: 21 Dec 2004 16:54:53 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , Weston Fire 22 wrote: > I got a MD481 cordless phone the other day, after charging overnight, > yada, yada, I went to use the phone today. Any number I call, local > or long distance, I get a message from the telco saying the call > couldn't be completed, etc. > Just to check things out, I switched to pulse dialing and it works > fine. So, tone dialing doesn't work, pulse dialing does. I proceeded > to call Motorola support (and waited 30 minutes on hold) and was > promptly told,"Sir, this is a digital phone and you need to call your > phone comapny and make sure you have a digital phone line and not an > analog phone line. If the phone company says you have a digital line, > then call us back." Huh?? Never before have I heard such a thing. > Sure the phone says digital on it, but so do my other two cordless > phones (though not Motorola's). > So did the support guy just not know what was wrong and decided to > send me on a chase and hope he didn't get me when I called back? Any > insight would be appreciated. Wow. That is so "Dilbert"-ish I had to laugh, in spite of your obviously not funny predicament. You were fed a line a mile long. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 23:57:27 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message Weston Fire 22 wrote: > Just to check things out, I switched to pulse dialing and it works > fine. So, tone dialing doesn't work, pulse dialing does. I proceeded > to call Motorola support (and waited 30 minutes on hold) and was > promptly told,"Sir, this is a digital phone and you need to call your > phone comapny and make sure you have a digital phone line and not an > analog phone line. If the phone company says you have a digital line, > then call us back." Huh?? Never before have I heard such a thing. > Sure the phone says digital on it, but so do my other two cordless > phones (though not Motorola's). > So did the support guy just not know what was wrong and decided to > send me on a chase and hope he didn't get me when I called back? Any > insight would be appreciated. Any phone with a TONE/PULSE switch is analog by definition, no digital service would use analog tones (or would repeatedly short the circuit, for that matter) to communicate data, the very concept is absurd. In other words, he was probably not happy in his job :) ------------------------------ From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Global Crossing Secures Much-Needed Financing Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:00:00 EST As we end this year, the dailyLead team wishes you the best during the holiday season. Thanks to our partners, our advertisers and -- most significantly -- you and the thousands of your colleagues who read the Telecom dailyLead, this has been a very good year, indeed. Your comments and suggestions help to improve our service, and we look forward to helping you stay smart and save even more time in 2005! Telecom dailyLead from USTA December 21, 2004 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18262&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Global Crossing secures much-needed financing BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Sprint projects sales and profit to grow in 2005 * Report surveys the outlook for Wi-Fi * Qwest sells services through nonprofits USTA SPOTLIGHT * Order USTA's Best-Selling VoIP Implementation and Planning Guide Today EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Musiwave offers music via mobile phones REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Nextel to sit out spectrum auction Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18262&l=2017006 ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: Burkitt-Gray Subject: Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:58:31 -0000 Organization: Alan Burkitt-Gray In volume 23 : Issue 610 phoner@company.com wrote: > Cell phone companies record the tower that handles each call, and > then keep that info for at least a short time." Well, of course. Where's the surprise? Operators not only have to provide E-911 location information to emergency services, but are also investigating opportunities for location-based services, which would at the very least use cellsite information. Here in the UK there have been two prominent murder cases where routine location-based information from cellsites was key. In November 2003 in the trial of Ian Huntley for the murder of two teenagers, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the prosecution used detailed evidence of his movements during and after the murder, based on his location when he turned his phone on, made calls, and turned it off, and when it went out of range. He was found guilty and is now doing life. And when a prominent television presenter, Jill Dando, was stabbed to death at the door of her home in broad daylight in London in 1999, the phone companies supplied data to the police about phones in use in the area at the relevant time. The person eventually arrested and convicted of the murder didn't have a phone, but at the time of the investigation much was made -- particularly in the ukcrypto email list -- about the use of the phone data. Alan B-G Alan Burkitt-Gray, London, UK alan@burkitt-gray.com ------------------------------ Reply-To: Dave VanHorn From: Dave VanHorn Subject: Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:49:02 -0500 I have seen my cellphone do some bizarre things at times. Once, I was standing in Auburn Ca, and my phone switched to "roam". I was well within my home area, so I called 611 to see what was up.. They said I was in Chico. Look at a map. ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 10:44:21 -0500 phoner@company.com wrote: > Cell phone companies record the tower that handles each call, and then > keep that info for at least a short time. This has been S.O.P. for a long time, and that information is generally kept for as long as your carrier keeps copies of your past bills (in my case, at least 2 years, in the case of other carriers, who knows ... perhaps forever?). The original purpose was for maintenance reasons (logging cells that frequently drop calls, for example) as well as fraud tracking (If your phone makes a call from a cell in New York City, and then five minutes later, a phone claiming to be yours makes a call in Montana somewhere, then fraud is suspected). Of course, in our current era, these same logs are convenient for investigators in they can potentially bolster a claim that you were elsewhere than your purported alibi. > That came out in the recent arson case in Maryland. The suspect > claimed that he was at home. However, he had a cellphone call during > his alibi time. His provider's records showed that the cell tower > handling his call wasn't near his house. Refuting the validity of this evidence to bolster the prosecution's case depends on how far away that cell tower was. There are plenty of reasons for a non-adjacent cell to take your call. Perhaps the nearest cell was at capacity and could not handle your call, but your phone happened to be able to pick up a not-so-nearby cell that had slots free. Or, perhaps there was an odd atmospheric disturbance that permitted an unusual propagation of radio waves to distant cell sites (similar to listening to a distant radio station "on a skip"). Such an argument tends to be less plausible the generally low-power nature of cell phone transceivers, but such things could still happen under very rare conditions. In any case, cell site records aren't a smoking gun. Even if you happen to be making a call at a cell that covers the scene of a crime, there can still be a rather wide area that the cell covers, anywhere from a radius of a quarter of a mile (for microcells in dense metro areas) to several miles (in rural areas). Such records may suggest that your phone was in the area, but it won't always pinpoint you to the exact spot. If you have a plausible alibi that puts you in the vicinity of the crime but not connected to it, then the cell site evidence could be moot. Further, unless the phone has been tapped or a witness sees/hears you using it, they still can't definitively prove it was YOU using the phone. > (Putting my tinfoil hat on:) I have a theory that the location of > every cellphone that is turned on is being routinely recorded, say > every minute, and saved for later data mining. No, not every minute. For one thing, your phone when "idle" is not constantly transmitting. To have everyone's phone constantly transmit would really degrade battery life, and also severely cripple the cell network as it is overwhelmed with broadcasting cell phones and not enough channels to handle them all. Cell phones do, however, register with the network from time to time using a brief burst of data. They generally do this when a phone moves out of a specific "zone" or cluster of cells into a new area, broadcasting a "here I am!" message so that in case a call comes in, the network knows in which cell group it will find your phone and cause it to ring. And if a phone is sitting still, it might send out a registration every 5-15 minutes or so to remind the network that it's still there. > I have no direct evidence. However, this is technically feasible, > and is a logical (to me) extension of what we know was done decades > ago. There is one last thing to note. All cell phones being sold in the US are now FCC mandated to have a location-tracking capability built-in. Most cell phones have a GPS-assisted device inside them now that permits this capability, and with it you can theoretically be pinpointed to within a couple hundred feet. However, this is generally activated only when someone dials 911 and is connected to a dispatch center that can retrieve that location data. The intent here is to allow cell users to enjoy the same benefits as most landline users when they dial 911 (emergency personnel can find you even if you don't know where you are or otherwise cannot relay that information). However, even now, not many 911 call centers can retrieve this info, because the capability requires expensive upgrades that many local governments haven't bothered to spend money on. And in any case, both the traditional cell-tracking data and the more precise GPS data can be easily circumvented: if you don't want to be located, turn off your cell phone. :) E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Daniel W. Johnson Subject: Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call Date: 21 Dec 2004 10:58:34 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com They probably do that logging for quality of service purposes. For example, if a particular tower has an average call length of 10 seconds, it's likely that people are hanging up due to unusable connections. Or if handoffs are going from the 3rd-and-Main tower directly to the 5th-and-Main tower, skipping the one at 4th-and-Main, there is probably something wrong with the middle tower. Correlating the tower logs with call logs would help with handling trouble tickets; if someone complains that their last call had a lot of noise for the middle third, it helps to know that the middle third of the call was handled by the 4th-and-Main tower. General location data on all phones that are on would be volumnious. But I suspect that some cell companies note quantities for each tower, for help when selecting new tower locations. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 04:07:00 -0800 Organization: Cox Communications > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Someone committed fraud on you. When > you purchase (or otherwise take over) an existing business, then > you take over not only the assets of the existing business, but the > *liabilities* as well, unless the people going *out* of business > specifically publish a notice to the effect otherwise, which is to > afford *you* - the holder of that asset (by virtue of your lifetime > subscription in this case) -- the opportunity to collect on it from > the original owner of the business. Did DirectTV publish a notice > saying 'not responsible for debts of Pegasus' or did Peegasus publish > a notice saying 'going out of business, etc'. Did Pegasus file a > petition in bankruptcy? If so, did they list *all* of their > liabilities, including 'lifetime' (prepaid) subscriptions? You > definitly were defrauded, but collecting on it may be a challenge and > cost more than it is worth. Your legal complaint is with Pegasus, > assuming that DirectTV had no knowledge of any such 'lifetime > subscritions' outstanding through Pegasus. PAT] As a matter of business ethics, and perhaps law, TIVO is liable and being quite ugly in the process, if the facts are stated correctly. It's TIVO who made the claim in the first instance of the life-time service option. It's TIVO who complies and distributes the programming and software updates. Sounds like a couple of scam artists at work here. ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service Date: 21 Dec 2004 16:43:48 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , wrote: > When I bought my Sony Directv w/Tivo satellite receiver three years > ago, I also bought the Tivo lifetime subscription for $249.00. It is > still in use and is my only Tivo unit. From 11/2001 to 10/2004, my > monthly satellite service was provided by Pegasus. This happened > because we were in an area that Directv chose to have them service. > Directv took over Pegasus this fall. My most recent billing from > Directv is showing a new monthly fee of $4.99 for Tivo service. When I > called Directv, they said, "Sorry, but we're not honoring the lifetime > Tivo subscriptions purchased when the customer was serviced by > Pegasus.". This is a really bad deal. I called Tivo and they were of > no help. Directv billed me for the lifetime subscription on 12/6/2001 > and I paid THEM for it. > I'm on hold waiting to talk to a Directv customer service supervisor > right now. I'll continue this paragraph after I speak with them ... > Just hung up with Kathy at Directv and they said, "Sorry, but that's > the way it is." Something doesn't add up. The monthly Tivo charges aren't a revenue for DirecTV but a pass-through charge from Tivo, and comprise the income Tivo derives from the DirecTV subscribers. When you paid the lifetime subscription charge you were paying that to Tivo. DirecTV just plays the part of middleman. Sounds to me like you haven't gone high enough up the food chain yet. I would try to contact Tivo for resolution. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 23:57:28 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message googlenospam@netcrafting.com wrote: > I cannot believe this is happening. I thought a lifetime subscription > lasted the lifetime of the Tivo unit? This is not the case for folks > who were serviced by Pegasus. Beware if you buy a lifetime Tivo on > Ebay that was owned by a customer who got their satellite service from > Pegasus. I'd suggest a quick trip to file papers in small claims court would probably get either your subscription fee refunded, your lifetime service restored, or possibly both. If it's not worth the hassle, at a minimum write letters to Pegasus, DirecTV (even though they're the same companies the letters will probably end up in different places), the BBB, the FCC (Who won't help, but will likely forward the letter higher up the DirecTV chain then your letter will go), and to your local attorney general (who won't act either, but it looks good on the "CC" line and it *is* fraud) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Someone committed fraud on you. When > you purchase (or otherwise take over) an existing business, then > you take over not only the assets of the existing business, but the > *liabilities* as well, unless the people going *out* of business > specifically publish a notice to the effect otherwise, which is to > afford *you* - the holder of that asset (by virtue of your lifetime > subscription in this case) -- the opportunity to collect on it from > the original owner of the business. Did DirectTV publish a notice > saying 'not responsible for debts of Pegasus' or did Peegasus publish > a notice saying 'going out of business, etc'. Did Pegasus file a > petition in bankruptcy? If so, did they list *all* of their > liabilities, including 'lifetime' (prepaid) subscriptions? You > definitly were defrauded, but collecting on it may be a challenge and > cost more than it is worth. Your legal complaint is with Pegasus, > assuming that DirectTV had no knowledge of any such 'lifetime > subscritions' outstanding through Pegasus. PAT] If Pegasus was purchased by DirecTV, then the legal complaint is with DirecTV -- If DirecTV purchased Pegasus without being aware of Pegasus' liabilities, that's their fault, and maybe next time they'll perform due diligence before making a corporate acquisition. ------------------------------ From: Michael Muderick Subject: Re: DirecTV Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 06:01:51 -0500 Pat is correct in his answer. The lifetime guarantee should be honored. I know of a bank in the '70's that offered (then) guaranteed free for life checking. There has since been takeover after takeover. Those that took out that account, are still taking advantage of it. At one point they were notified that, to keep it, they had to maintain a $100 minimum in the account - not part of the original deal, but they were notified - and it was honored. Good luck. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We also need to define the term 'lifetime'. *Whose* lifetime? *Which* lifetime? Yours? The equipment? The corporate entity (Pegasus)? PAT] ------------------------------ From: LB@notmine.com Subject: Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 05:37:22 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online Joseph wrote: > On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 13:41:50 GMT, tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. > Horsley) wrote: >> Is there any kind of gadget available to interface with a cellphone >> (perhaps via the headset connection) that would allow you to plug your >> cellphone into it when you are at home, and have it provide your own >> little local phone system over your old phone wires so that you could >> use any phone in the house to make a call on the cellphone and have >> all the phones in the house ring when the cellphone rings? > I don't know if this is what you're talking about but there are at > least two "docking" solutions. CellSocket has a unit where you put > your phone into a docking station and you can then use regular > wireline phones in your house to make and receive calls. There's also > another called "Dock-N-Talk" which works similarly and also has > Bluetooth connectivity so more phones are compatible. Thank You. LB ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Speaking of Giving up Landline For Cellphone From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 13:11:30 GMT From what I can tell, none of these gadgets will work with my audiovox phone, and it seems kind of like overkill anyway. What about the 2nd half of my question -- anyone ever hear of a ring amplifier for cellphones? The closest thing I've found is this: http://www.techlib.com/electronics/cellhelp.htm It is hard to believe such a useful gadget isn't available in an already built form :-). >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 22:19:56 -0800 Organization: University of Washington On Mon, 20 Dec 2004, Joseph wrote: >> In case you weren't aware, assault is a felony, punishable with fines >> and jail time. I am also quite capable of self-defense from criminal >> attack. > Well, if you are obnoxious enough they may not care and decide they > don't want you messing with their personal conversations. If they do and decide to resort to criminal attack, then I will press charges (and, if necessary, physically defend myself). They will then end up in a place where they won't be allowed to use a cell phone, which will solve the problem of their obnoxious use of a cell phone on public transportation. Most people are intelligent enough to understand this progression. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Most people are also smart enough to understand that, depending on the police officers who arrive to deal with the situation, *they* may decide to take you in as well, and lock you up. Often times, when there is a street brawl, the cops just say 'let the judge work it out when they get to court' and lock you both up in the meantime. What makes you think the cop will *necessarily*c consider you to be the good guy and the other fellow the bad guy? PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: 21 Dec 2004 12:21:09 -0800 Mark Crispin wrote: >> You're really lucky that someone hasn't slugged you yet for your >> obnoxious behavior. > In case you weren't aware, assault is a felony, punishable with fines > and jail time. I am also quite capable of self-defense from criminal > attack. Unfortunately, the reality of today's world is such that: 1) You might not be as capable as you think to defend yourself from an assault. People have gotten shot over stuff like this. 2) In attempting to defend yourself, _you_ may be the one charged with assault, not the other person. Not fair, but the way it is. 3) You could be charged with disorderly conduct. Again, not fair, but the way it is. 4) You could get sued. ------------------------------ From: SPARKY Subject: Re: Hanging Up On Wireless Spam Date: 21 Dec 2004 12:16:08 -0800 I got a text message spam, I have TMobile, they charged me 5 cents, but after demanding the charge be taken off they did. They said they have no way of blocking text messaging, I can only do it as a filter, this would be after the fact usually. Told them I would drop my cell phone before I'll start paying for SPAM, what's next SPAM deliveried to your TV via your cable box? and you get to pay for it? Nathan Tenny wrote: >> Why's that? I'm not a network-side guy, but it seems to me that the >> local system just needs to talk to its own VLR to find out what it >> needs to know about you. All the phone is doing is sending up a data >> burst (encapsulated in one of several ways, depending on the system >> and the length of the message and the phase of the moon), which >> wouldn't seem to be a process requiring any special contact with the >> home network. > In article , > Spyros Bartsocas wrote: >> I am not a very technical person, but you program a Service Center to >> the phone. > That must be the equivalent of a Message Center (MC henceforth) in > the IS-41 world (I assume you're talking about GSM, where I *really* > know nothing about the network side). It makes sense that the SMS > > transaction would need to go through whatever SMS entity "owns" the > > target phone, I guess. >> The service center phone number includes the country code >> in order to be reachable from other networks. So, I believe what >> happens is that you are actually calling this number (at least it >> appears this way last time I roamed in Switzerland). > That's *really* interesting, and doesn't seem to be the case in IS-41, > where the various MSCs just talk to each other. I'm looking at IS-41 > as I write this, trying to figure out how the process works; every > time I think I've understood it, I start to write a summary and then > discover that I'm wrong. My current thinking -- which I'm going to > write down and send in a hurry before I have a chance to change my > mind -- is that the sender's MC always has to contact the recipient's > MC, but policy for which network the MCs are located on is left up to > the carriers. > In principle, if I'm right, a roamer *could* be associated with an MC > on the local network, and then delivery of SMS would be routed just > like a call -- caller's MSC checks with recipient's HLR which directs > it to the appropriate VLR, which indicates how to deliver the > notification. But the roamer could also be "owned" by his home MC, in > which case the sender has to talk to HLR, then VLR, then back to the > "home" MC, which gives back a routing address (by consulting the HLR), > and *then* the message gets routed accordingly (presumably not > involving the roamer's home network any more). > There isn't an actual *call* involved, in the sense of a process > that involves assigning a mobile onto a traffic channel and sending > traffic around, but maybe the MC generates its own CDRs, which then > show up as calls on your bill. > Can anyone give a definitive, succinct explanation? This is well > outside my field, but it's got me curious, particularly about the > differences between GSM and IS-41. > Nathan Tenny | When the world ends, there'll be no more > Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA | air. That's why it's important to pollute > | the air now. Before it's too late. > | -- Kathy Acker ------------------------------ Subject: Re: System Would Allow 911 Checks From: Mark Atwood Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:08:57 GMT Lisa Minter writes: > With the new system, telephone customers call a special number and > follow a few steps for security and privacy protection to hear the 911 > address on record for their phone number. You can do the same thing by just calling 911 during non-peak times and asking them to verify your information. Mark Atwood | When you do things right, people won't be sure mark@atwood.name | you've done anything at all. http://mark.atwood.name/ http://www.livejournal.com/users/fallenpegasus [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But it is better to call the non- emergency administrative number *first* and get their okay before doing that. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Sprint's Merger With Nextel Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 10:07:10 -0500 Unfortunately, analysts still fail to grasp something that most people who have a knowledge of wireless have known for years: Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > Its main strength is its acclaimed push to talk feature, which allows > Nextel handsets to be used like walkie-talkies, though the calls are in > fact routed over the cellular network. ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ Even if you use the term loosely, there is no real "cellular network" in iDEN, at least not in the same sense as other cellular carriers. Nextel's network is really just a glorified SMR network, originally intended by Motorola for use as a digital walkie-talkie network that just *happens* to have a very good phone patch built in. Nextel was originally known as Fleet Call, and was originally an analog two-way radio operator until they converted their systems to digital, and then bought up their competitors and converted theirs too... annoying quite a few business customers in the process, too and raising antitrust concerns as they began to monopolize the SMR industry (see http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/indx117.htm for an example). However, Nextel discovered that people didn't want a two-way radio that happened to have cell phone capability for the occasional phone call ... they instead wanted a cell phone that happened to have a built in two-way radio for the occasional dispatch call. And this is where the "Dead end" lies. More than twice the bandwidth was needed to handle a duplex phone call than a dispatch call, and as a result, iDEN's capacity was taxed from the beginning. If you look back at old iDEN handsets, you can see the obvious distinctions (i.e. http://tinyurl.com/568yd ). They were designed more as walkie-talkies with phone keypads attached. Since the big paradigm shift, the handsets have gotten much sleeker. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: A Christmas Carol - 'Lost Boy' Clings to Hope He'll See Mother Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 10:54:17 EST By Dahleen Glanton Tribune national correspondent Gabriel Boul was 7 when he last saw his mother. She was on the floor of their home in Sudan, bound and gagged. Nearby, Boul's father, an older sister and a brother lay in a puddle of blood, slain by militiamen who had raided their peaceful village. Four years ago he landed in America, one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan," more than 3,500 young refugees who have made it out of the civil war-torn country and resettled in cities such as Atlanta, Chicago and Salt Lake City since 2000. It was to be the start of a new life. But for Boul, 24, stories rarely have a happy ending. He has liver cancer. Last week, he moved into a hospice. Boul always wondered what happened to his mother. Surely, he thought, she could not have survived the violence that left millions dead or displaced in Sudan during the last two decades. But in September he got an unexpected phone call, and the voice on the other end was his mother, Atong Abor, whom he had not seen in 17 years. "Neither one of us believed it was true," said Boul, a lanky young man whose boyish face looks much younger than the age that refugee camp workers put on his birth certificate. "I just held the phone while she cried for 10 minutes." The call, arranged by a friend who had tracked Boul's mother down in a village in Sudan, was a remarkable gift for Boul, whose life has been a series of hardships and triumphs. The only thing he wishes for now is to see her face to face. With war raging in Sudan, a country with limited diplomatic relations with the U.S., getting his mother to this country is a challenge. But that hasn't stopped his friends in Atlanta from trying. They set up a fund at the Bank of America to accept donations for her travel. They asked Sen. Saxby Chambliss R-Ga.) and former UN Ambassador Andrew Young to help expedite a temporary visa. Chambliss' office confirmed it is working on it. "He is such a good, bright kid, and he deserves this wish," said Janis Sundquist, an Atlanta volunteer, who developed a motherly bond with Boul three years ago while helping him get settled. "Nothing is being done to help the situation in Sudan, and these boys feel forgotten. They feel like God has left them for some reason." Doctors said Boul has only a few months to live. But for a man who has spent his life overcoming odds, this is not news he is willing to accept. There are too many other things to think about, he said, like getting some warm clothes for the winter. His graduation from Open Campus High School, an alternative public school, is coming up in June. He has a job making salads at a restaurant at the airport, and other young refugees in Africa are waiting for the check he sends each month. And there's his dream to return to Sudan and help the sick--as his father, a tribal doctor, did. "He is very motivated and very ambitious," said Dr. Val Akopov, a physician at Emory Crawford Long Hospital. "He was very curious about all the things he was seeing in America, and it is no doubt that he would have been successful here. He has overcome so much, and embracing his mom would complete that circle." Lying in his hospice bed, his frail body often curled up in pain, Boul struggled to talk about the day his family was attacked. He and his 12-year-old brother had been tending cattle when he heard the gunshots. When they got to the house, the militiamen were there. They tied the boys up. They shot his brother as Boul watched. They later left Boul in the house alone, deciding there was no need to kill him because he was too young to survive without food or water. After they left, a neighbor came and took him away. Boul is one of some 26,000 Sudanese boys who fled the violence that destroyed their villages in the late 1980s. He spent four years at a refugee camp in Ethiopia before the boys were forced to return to Sudan. He was 11 when he and others walked more than 1,000 miles through the desert, eating leaves, drinking dirty water and struggling to stay alive for four months, as they made their way to a refugee camp in Kenya. Their name, the "Lost Boys of Sudan," comes from the orphans who followed Peter Pan. Many of the refugees died along the way or after they arrived in Kenya, where disease ravaged the camp. The rescue program initiated by the United Nations and the State Department began bringing the boys to the U.S. in 2000. The resettlement program continues today. Boul can't describe how it would feel to see his mother but said, "It would be a great present for me." In the meantime, morphine will ease the pain from the cancer. And Boul will sleep and wait as long as he can. Even if she does not arrive in time, she will be with him in his dreams, he said, just as she always has. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily.^^ *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #611 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Dec 21 20:20:55 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBM1KsZ12089; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:20:55 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:20:55 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412220120.iBM1KsZ12089@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 #612 TELECOM Digest Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:21:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 612 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cromwell vrs. Sprint Settlement (TELECOM Digest Editor) What Tandem in Telcom Means? (Jack) Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service (Joseph) Re: DirecTV Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service (jmeissen@aracnet.com) More on TiVo and Lifetime Subscriptions (Lee Sweet) Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call (Lisa Hancock) Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call (A. Burkitt-Gray) Re: Hanging Up On Wireless Spam (T. Sean Weintz) Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless (Weston Fire 22) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:41:41 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Cromwell vrs. Sprint Settlement Some time ago, I mentioned here that Sprint had decided it was in their best interest, legally, to settle with customers in the class action suit "Cromwell vrs. Sprint Communications Company, LP", Docket number 99-2125-GTV in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. I told you how to apply for relief, as a member of the Class (anyone who used Sprint service during the 1998-1999 time period, but I forgot exactly what the complaint was about; I suspect it was something to do with their slovenly customer service). I used their local service (the old United Telephone) during much of 1999 when living in Junction City, KS). Well, my 'relief' arrived today in snailmail: a Fifty Dollar prepaid Sprint phone card. Its like a plastic phone card; the one side of the card has a large $50 printed on it, the Sprint corporate logo; and the phrase 'Domestic Long Distance'. The reverse side of the card had the interesting stuff on it: An 800 number to use to place calls (800-858-1799); my ten digit card number which begins with '687' and seven more digits, and the instructions to use it. "For customer service, call 1-800-981-7012. To place another call, do not hang up. Press # for 2 seconds. The maximum rate per domestic minute is 19 cents, **assuming the call is not made from a U.S. payphone.** An additional charge of $2.85 *per call* applies if calling from a U.S. phone or the minute rate equivilent, All rates are subject to change. " 19 cents per minute ??? $2.85 payphone surcharge ??? I dunno, somewhere I read that Sprint was supposed to be so much cheaper than AT&T ... of course I know this card was *free*, but still, is the above their 'typical' rates? "This prepaid card given 'in full settlement' (as of the first time I use it) expires in thirteen months, on January 31, 2006. " Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Jack Subject: What Tandem in Telcom Means? Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 18:31:01 -0500 Organization: NTT/VERIO I am new to telcom. I came across the term Tandem many times (eg. LEC Access Tandem). What exactly does Tandem mean? Is there any good book or website that would help me understand basic concepts? TIA! Jack [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You might try checking on the net for a group of books called "Lee's ABC of Telephones". That's a good start. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 12:46:59 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 20 Dec 2004 11:58:39 -0800, googlenospam@netcrafting.com wrote: > I cannot believe this is happening. I thought a lifetime > subscription lasted the lifetime of the Tivo unit? This is not the > case for folks who were serviced by Pegasus. Beware if you buy a > lifetime Tivo on Ebay that was owned by a customer who got their > satellite service from Pegasus. Well, buying anything "lifetime" should always be considered a risk. What lifetime are they referring to? Yours, the satellite receiver, the company? What applies to gym memberships probably applies to all things that you buy. Buying a "lifetime" anything is always a gamble. Unless in the original agreement they vowed to continue your service on the "lifetime" basis no matter who the company became I'm afraid you're probably sunk. ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: DirecTV Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service Date: 21 Dec 2004 22:16:26 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , Michael Muderick wrote: > Pat is correct in his answer. The lifetime guarantee should be > honored. It seems that these days the decision to honor commitments is at the whim of whoever is in charge. I have stopped doing business with McAfee (Network Associates now?) because if a similar incident. A friend had paid a premium for an anti-virus product with "Free Lifetime Upgrades". We had to rebuild his system because of a hard-drive failure, and after re-installing the software it failed to update. Several layers of "customer support" would only tell us "You have to buy the latest version". We threw it in the trash and installed the free version of Avast! (http://www.avast.com/). John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: Lee Sweet Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:38:24 -0500 Subject: More on TiVo and Lifetime Subscriptions I thought someone would post this by now, but since they haven't, here's the answer: This issue appears to have been corrected. Just get to the TiVo Specialty Group at DirecTV and they know what to do. The details are in this thread at tivocommunity.com, the number one place for TiVo info on the 'net. Some CSRs were saying that they can't do anything about the transfer of lifetime, but DirecTV (with whom your contract is, not anyone at TiVo) does know the right answer if you get to the right group. Frontline CSRs are often known for the quickie answer (as we all know from other industries that we hear about :-) ). Here's the thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=207060 [And, hello to PAT, who I worked with many years back on getting my company's vanity tollfree number!] __ Lee Sweet Datatel, Inc. Manager of Telephony Services and Information Security How higher education does business Voice: 703.968.4661 Fax: 703.968.4625 Cell: 703.932.9425 lee@datatel.com www.datatel.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Hello back to you, Lee. Don't be such a stranger around here! PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call Date: 21 Dec 2004 13:36:28 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Isaiah Beard wrote: > Of course, in our current era, these same logs are convenient for > investigators in they can potentially bolster a claim that you were > elsewhere than your purported alibi. Nowadays we are tracked through many ways, some known, some unknown. Some of us have highway toll transponders on our cars. Many of us carry ID badges with sensors. Many of us use mag cards for transit fares. A great many retail transaction points, from convenience stores to tollgates, have recording TV cameras. This information is often used by prosecutors. But I wonder how often defense attorneys can access this information and at what cost to the defendant. > Refuting the validity of this evidence to bolster the prosecution's > case depends on how far away that cell tower was. There are plenty of > reasons for a non-adjacent cell to take your call. Perhaps the > nearest cell was at capacity and could not handle your call, but your > phone happened to be able to pick up a not-so-nearby cell that had > slots free. > In any case, cell site records aren't a smoking gun. Even if you > happen to be making a call at a cell that covers the scene of a crime, > there can still be a rather wide area that the cell covers, anywhere > from a radius of a quarter of a mile (for microcells in dense metro > areas) to several miles (in rural areas). I initiate a number of cell phone calls from the same spot but at least four separate locations show up on my bill. Sometimes the location name isn't close to the physical location -- I was once a good 20 miles away from the location named on one call. > However, even now, not many 911 call centers can retrieve this info, > because the capability requires expensive upgrades that many local > governments haven't bothered to spend money on. My state charges a $1 extra per month per line (land and cell) for 911 upgrades. ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: Burkitt-Gray Subject: Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 22:01:21 -0000 Organization: Alan Burkitt-Gray Isaiah Beard wrote: "Refuting the validity of this evidence to bolster the prosecution's case depends on how far away that cell tower was. There are plenty of reasons for a non-adjacent cell to take your call. Perhaps the nearest cell was at capacity and could not handle your call, but your phone happened to be able to pick up a not-so-nearby cell that had slots free." In the Huntley case I mentioned earlier there was just such an example. Huntley's phone was picked up by a base station some way off, but the prosecution brought in someone from the phone company -- Vodafone I think but I can't remember -- to show that because the terrain (Soham, near Cambridge, in eastern England) is very flat there was a good signal from the distant base station at his home, where he did the murders. Someone from the phone company tried it out and demonstrated it to the jury with complex maps showing the field strength around the area. Google "Soham murder" and you should find reports of the case if you're interested. Meanwhile have a look at this article from The Guardian's Online section in 2001 http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,,608434,00.html. Under UK data protection law (which is matched in other European Union countries) citizens have a right to see personal data held about them by private companies on payment of a small fee. In that article a journalist, S A Mathieson, showed how he tested the law with the mobile phone company Orange and demanded to see the data it kept on his locations when he made calls. Orange had to comply with the Data Protection Act. Mathieson wrote: "[Guardian] Online can now reveal that the base station used by an Orange subscriber is retained at the beginning and end of every call, whether outbound or inbound, including calls to retrieve voicemail," and wrote later in the same article: "Orange ... currently retains location data for six months. Vodafone already keeps it for a year, BT Cellnet [since separated from BT and renamed O2] for "at least a year", and Virgin Mobile has retained it since its foundation in November 1999. It plans to hold such data for six years, citing financial regulations. One2One [now T-Mobile] refused to disclose its retention period. Other than this information, none of the networks would discuss location data further than to say they complied with the law." Alan Burkitt-Gray alan@burkitt-gray.com ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: Hanging Up On Wireless Spam Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 18:15:40 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com SPARKY wrote: > what's next; SPAM deliveried to your TV via your cable box? Um, isn't that what commercials are? ------------------------------ From: Weston Fire 22 Subject: Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless Date: 21 Dec 2004 16:41:28 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Well, I was suspecting as much, so I decided I would email their support and see what they gave me, well, here is their response. It must be the company line: Dear Bruce, Thank you for choosing Motorola! If your phone is dialing on pulse dialing and not tone dialing, you will need to check with your phone service provider to see if the line is digital or analog b/c if it is not a digital line then the phone is not going to dial on tone dialing. Please let us know if we can further assist you. Thanks, Freda Allman Motorola Cordless Support ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #612 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Dec 22 02:15:34 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBM7FW915105; Wed, 22 Dec 2004 02:15:34 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 02:15:34 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412220715.iBM7FW915105@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 #613 TELECOM Digest Wed, 22 Dec 2004 02:16:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 613 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cable TV Advertising (Neal McLain) U.S. Judge Refuses to Accept Guilty Plea on Spam (Lisa Minter) Download Site SuprNova Closes Amid Hollywood Crackdown (Lisa Minter) Sex Tape on Internet Roils Indian Public (Lisa Minter) Washington Post Buys Microsoft's Webzine (Lisa Minter) Apple Sues Three for Posting Mac OS X on Net (Lisa Minter) Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service (DevilsPGD) Re: DirecTV Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service (William Van Hefner) Re: DirecTV Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service (Barry Margolin) Re: Cromwell vrs. Sprint Settlement (Steven Sobol) Re: Hanging Up on Wireless Spam (Steven Sobol) Re: What Tandem in Telcom Means? (John McHarry) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 00:48:15 -0600 From: Neal McLain Subject: Cable TV Advertising (was 'Transitional Fair Use') Barry Margolin wrote: > I don't know what people were saying about cable TV in > the 40's and 50's. I'm talking about what happened in > the 70's when cable-only channels like HBO first started > to appear. I believe that prior to that, cable TV was > just a way of providing TV service to communities > that had environmental difficulties receiving broadcast > TV (e.g. mountainous terrain blocking the signals). CATV systems were operating in small-market cities well before 1970, including communities that already supported local broadcast stations. Many of these CATV systems produced extensive schedules of local non-broadcast programming ("origination cablecasting" in FCC-speak), and much of it included commercial advertising. As an example, my former employer, Complete Channel TV in Madison Wisconsin, co-existed in a market with four broadcast stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS). We operated a full-color studio for several years before the first satellite-delivered non-broadcast programming appeared. We used this studio for three types of programming: commercially-sponsored; non-commercial public affairs; and public access. > Since you had to pay extra for these "premium" channels, > there was an expectation that this would obviate the need > for commercials. The CATV industry uses the term "premium" to refer to programming channels funded by subscriber fees *over and above* the charge for basic (or extended basic) service. By this definition, premium channels are, and always have been, commercial free: HBO, Showtime, The Movie Channel, and Cinemax. The CATV industry (and the FCC) use the term "cable programming service" (CPS) to identify channels that: - Are usually carried on the basic or extended basic tier (e.g. CNN, ESPN, Discovery, Family Channel), and - Are not broadcast stations, premium channels, or access channels. The entrepreneurs who funded CPS channels certainly didn't expect that these channels would be commercial-free. With a few exceptions, every CPS channel carried by satellite after 1975 was launched as a commercial venture and carried advertising from day one. There are, of course, exceptions. In a previous post on this subject, I included a list of non-commercial CPS channels: http://tinyurl.com/4kfxq These exceptions aside, CPS channels are, and always have been, commercial ventures. I don't see how anyone who was familiar with the CATV industry could have expected that the basic service charge "would obviate the need for commercials." References: The FCC definitions of "basic service" and "CPS" are at 47 CFR 76.901: http://tinyurl.com/45sj9 An extensive history of the CATV industry, including information about programming, is at The Cable Center's "Cable History" page: http://tinyurl.com/5nukj Neal McLain ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: U.S. Judge Refuses to Accept Guilty Plea on Spam Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 23:26:04 EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday refused to accept a guilty plea from a former America Online employee accused of selling the Internet provider's customer list to a "spammer," saying he was unsure a crime had been committed. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein stopped a hearing at which Jason Smathers was to plead guilty to conspiracy and interstate trafficking of stolen property, saying he had a "technical question" about the alleged crime. At issue, the judge said, is whether the actions rose to the level required by a new antispam law, which states that spam must be not only annoying but deceptive. Spam is the term widely used for unsolicited commercial e-mails, often hawking products to combat sexual dysfunction or promote weight loss. "Everybody has spamsters, but mine is a technical question," the judge said. "I don't think it's deceptive or misleading to the recipient." The judge, who said he once used AOL but quit the provider because of the amount of spam he received, asked prosecutors to submit a legal brief by Jan. 12 with more information. The judge also set a hearing for Jan. 28 at which time he could decide to accept the plea. "I need to be independently satisfied that a crime has been committed," he said. The case by federal prosecutors charges that Smathers, of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, stole a list of 92 million customer screen names from AOL, a Time Warner Inc. unit, and sold it to an Internet marketer. The marketer then allegedly used the list to promote his online gambling operation and sold the names to other spammers, according to prosecutors. Smathers, 24, faces up to 15 years in prison on charges of conspiracy and interstate trafficking of stolen property, but was expected to receive a sentence closer to 18 to 24 months. After the hearing was unexpectedly cut short, an attorney for Smathers said "everything has been thrown open now" by the judge's refusal to accept his client's plea. "This is a new statute," the attorney, Jay Goldberg, said. "He is questioning whether the conduct here met the standard of deception." NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Download Site SuprNova Closes Amid Hollywood Crackdown Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 23:33:14 EST By Adam Pasick LONDON (Reuters) - SuprNova.org, one of the Internet's most popular sites for finding links to download pirated movies, has been taken offline by its creator amid a legal crackdown by Hollywood's copyright cops. Slovenia-based SuprNova offered thousands of special files that enabled users to download movies, TV shows, music and other content using the BitTorrent file-transfer network. Earlier this month, the Motion Picture Association of America launched a barrage of lawsuits against people that operate the so-called "torrent" files, as well as servers on the eDonkey and Direct Connect networks. SuprNova's creator, who goes by the name Sloncek, took the site down over the weekend, citing the increased legal pressure on those hosting torrent files. In addition to MPAA's civil lawsuits in the United States and Britain, criminal charges were filed in France, the Netherlands and Finland. "SuprNova.org was more like a hobby that took most of my free time away. And now with current situation, there's too much pressure and I don't have the time for it," Sloncek told the file-sharing Web site Slyck (http://www.slyck.com). He did not respond to an emailed interview request from Reuters. In a message on SuprNova, Sloncek said: "We are sorry to inform you all, that SuprNova is closing down for good in the way that we all know it. We do not know if SuprNova is going to return, but it is certainly not going to be hosting any more torrent links." BitTorrent has quietly grown into a file-sharing behemoth, devouring up to one-third of the Internet's bandwidth by one research firm's account. Bram Cohen, the programer that created BitTorrent, has warned against using the software for illicit purposes. BitTorrent's "file-swarming" software breaks a digital file into many pieces, shares the pieces among all users who have downloaded the torrent file, then stitches them back together. It is also used for many non-illicit purposes, such as sharing non-copyrighted music and distributing video game demos. The shutdown of the premier source for movies and TV downloads through BitTorrent was welcomed by MPAA anti-piracy chief John Malcolm, who has railed against "parasites leeching off the creative activity of others." "I'm pleased. It was the most popular torrent site," he said. "They took that action voluntarily, so obviously they were concerned about their conduct. It was something we were studying, so I can understand why they were concerned." Hollywood is desperate to avoid the fate of its corporate cousins in the music industry, who have yet to recover from the illicit MP3 downloading boom that began with Napster. The large size of video content has prevented movie and TV downloads from catching on as quickly, but higher bandwidth and improving compression technology means that it may not be safe for long. "We are a little bit ahead of the curve in the sense that the movie industry is still making money. Downloading and uploading video has not become, thankfully, mainstream activity the way that downloading and uploading music became," Malcolm said. "We've also gotten out ahead because our industry has not been decimated -- yet." NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Sex Tape on Internet Roils Indian Public Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 23:39:14 EST By VIJAY JOSHI, Associated Press Writer NEW DELHI - It was a private act of two hormone-charged teenagers that lasted 2 minutes and 37 seconds on digital video. But offered for sale on the Internet, the fuzzy images of the 17-year-old girl having oral sex with her high school sweetheart has sent shock waves through urban India, exposing the growing friction between the conservative middle class, its increasingly Westernized progeny and modern technology. "It came to me as a surprise that kids are having sex so soon," Barkha Dutt, who hosts the country's most popular television talk show on social issues, said in an interview. "Even we are not aware of how much things have changed." India may be the birthplace of Kama Sutra, the 6th century sex manual, but sex today is a generally taboo subject. Premarital sex is not widely condoned, and public displays of affection draw frowns. Caught in the scandal's stinging sweep is Avnish Bajaj, the Indian-born American who heads eBay's Indian subsidiary Baazee.com, where the video clip shot by the schoolboy himself using his cell phone camera was put up for sale. Arrested last week under an ambiguous Indian law on cyber porn, Bajaj was freed after posting bail Tuesday, but his U.S. passport remained confiscated. Bajaj's arrest triggered a diplomatic spat between the United States and India and a threat by eBay executives to reconsider doing business in a country that would toss one of their top managers in jail as a scapegoat. "This incident has certainly given us pause and raises concerns about the safeguards that are in place for businesses operating in India," said Henry Gomez, an eBay vice president in the United States. "This situation is one of concern at highest levels of the U.S. government," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington. Bajaj set up Baazee.com in 2000 and sold it to San Jose, Calif.-based eBay, the Internet's leading auction company, for about $50 million in June. The Harvard-educated executive has since headed the Bombay-based subsidiary. The sex clip was recorded weeks ago and passed on by the bragging schoolboy to three of his friends and eventually made its way to video disc sellers in New Delhi. It did not draw much attention until an engineering student at a prestigious Indian college listed it for sale on Baazee.com. Now the girl's parents have sent her off to Canada. The 17-year-old boy, the son of an affluent businessman, is now in a juvenile detention center. He went to Nepal to escape the media glare and was arrested at the airport when he returned to the capital on Sunday. A judge on Tuesday ordered him held until Jan. 4 for questioning to try to determine how the video clip reached the man who tried to sell it. The controversy over the clip; it's the talk of urban India, an obsession of newspapers and talk shows; is typical of a society in transition, said Dr. Ranjana Kumari, the director of the think tank Center for Social Research. India's recent economic boom has created unimaginable wealth among the tech-savvy urban population, who live in a globalized world dominated by the Internet, international brands and Western lifestyle with its relatively liberal sexual values. Kumari says urban India is being pulled apart by these new values and its own centuries-old social conservatism. "It is this transition which is resulting in a lot of confusion," Kumari said. Observers like Kumari think a variety of people share the blame for grossly amplifying this sex scandal including the authorities who arrested Bajaj and the boy, who remains unidentified because of his age; the teenagers' parents, who weren't aware of their children's activities; and teachers, for sidestepping sex education in schools. Many are outraged by the arrest of the schoolboy, who along with the girl attended one of the capital's best known private schools, The Delhi Public School. "What are we trying to say here?" asked Dutt. "What do we believe is wrong? Was it that he had sex? Was it that he sent out the clip? Which part is the disturbing part?" Of greater concern to many in the business community is Bajaj's arrest under the Information Technology Act of 2000. The law makes a criminal offense of "publishing, transmitting, or causing to publish any information in electronic form, which is obscene." But it also says an Internet provider or Web site manager can't be held responsible if he acted diligently to remedy an electronic offense after learning of it. Baazee.com maintains it yanked the sex video listing as soon as customer service managers noticed it, and Bajaj had traveled to New Delhi to cooperate with authorities. Pawan Duggal, a cyberlaw expert, said Bajaj's arrest has serious implications, especially when Internet usage in the country is rapidly growing and foreign investors are increasingly looking to India for e-commerce opportunities. "Ultimately we have to see bigger picture. We want to increase Internet penetration. All this will only happen if you allow service providers the freedom," he said. "The law needs to be more industry friendly and more pragmatic." AP Technology Writer Rachel Konrad contributed to this report from San Jose, Calif. For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Associated Press. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Vijay Joshi, the writer of this article for the Associated Press noted that this incident caused a diplomatic squabble between India and the USA. I am reminded of the similarity between this incident (minors and consensual sex) and an incident on September 25 in Iraq: one of Bush's Onward Christian Soldiers raped a seventeen year old boy, an Iraqi soldier. It is discussed in detail in Yahoo News Tuesday evening (let's see if I can get this URL correct): http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=101&e=4&u=/po/20041222/co_po/americansoldiershootsiraqiaftersex You may need to use a Yahoo login to deep link into that page, and if the link does not work for some reason, go to Yahoo News (my.news.yahoo.com) and read the 'Planet Out' news section, for the story 'American Soldier Shoots Iraqi After Sex'. It seems that National Guardsman Private Federico Merida, age 21 shot and killed a 17-year old Iraqi boy following a sex act between them. At his court martial, held in Iraq about a month ago, Merida shot the boy eleven times with his carbine following the sex act. At first, he tried to blame it on the boy, saying the boy had demanded money following sex. Then he changed his story and said the boy had *forced him* to do the sex act. Later he admitted to 'getting agressive with the boy' and when the kid threatened to tattle on him, he decided to shoot the kid. Merida was found guilty in the court martial, sentenced to 25 years in prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in what the Army euphemistically refers to as the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks. The parents of the Iraqi boy are understandably livid about it; and according to Yahoo, the Army has been covering up the court martial records. Tsk, tsk. Like the two children in India and the E-Bay video, we may hear more about this problem in Iraq. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Washington Post Buys Microsoft's Webzine Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 23:42:14 EST By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer The Washington Post Co. said yesterday it is buying Slate in an effort to boost the media company's online traffic but does not plan any editorial changes at the eight-year-old Web magazine. In announcing a deal to acquire Slate from Microsoft Corp. for an undisclosed sum, said to be in the millions of dollars, Post executives said they would keep Jacob Weisberg as editor and most of the 30-person staff. Asked for reaction, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said by e-mail: "Mostly I'm really proud of Slate's pioneering role in online journalism, and confident it will continue to lead the way. As one of the early -- albeit minor -- participants in Slate's diary section, I'll always feel incredibly close to it -- and will definitely remain an avid fan and reader." He added: "Graduating to media ownership seemed the obvious next step for Slate, and I'm confident it will thrive wonderfully under The Post." Weisberg pronounced himself "delighted" with the move. "Microsoft has been a great place for us for the last 8 1/2 years," he said, but "it was a tough place to develop our business because it wasn't a media company and doesn't want to be a media company. They're really big and we're really small. The joke was always that we're almost a rounding error, but a rounding error probably exaggerated our status." Ann McDaniel, a Post Co. vice president, said: "Our goal is not to in any way change Slate. We think it's important that it keep its personality. Over time, we hope to find a business model that will make money. You're not suddenly going to see a different kind of Slate." Jeff Jarvis, who writes a blog called BuzzMachine.com and is president of Advance Publications' Internet arm, called the sale "a smart move" because "The Washington Post has been in many ways clever and smart about online. It will support Slate in a good environment that understands media in a way that Microsoft, God bless them, which tried many times, didn't." Had the sale fallen through, Jarvis said, Microsoft "wouldn't necessarily have been a happy home" for Slate once "they already tried to give you up for adoption and failed. As if to underscore Slate's independence, the magazine ran a piece yesterday by media columnist Jack Shafer that criticized a front-page Washington Post series on the murders of new and expectant mothers. "I was glad to whack the new master one more time," Shafer said yesterday, adding that he plans to continue doing so and has found that the newspaper "has a remarkably thick skin" about criticism. The Post reported in July that Microsoft was looking for a buyer and that the leading contenders were The Post Co. and the New York Times Co. The Times did pursue a possible deal, according to people familiar with the matter. The Post's Web site already has an alliance with MSNBC.com, which is partly owned by Microsoft, and former Microsoft executive Melinda Gates, the wife of the company's founder, was named to the Post Co. board in September.

Cliff Sloan, general counsel of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, will become publisher of the money-losing magazine when the deal takes effect next month. Scott Moore, general manager of MSN Network Experience, called the sale "bittersweet," saying: "It's a little like seeing your kid go off to college." But Microsoft now has "a mass-market publishing strategy," he said, and "Slate is more of a niche publication. Slate wasn't going to get as much attention as it really deserved." According to Nielsen Net Ratings, washingtonpost.com drew 7 million unique visitors last month, compared with 6 million for Slate. Another service, ComScore Media Metrix, says washingtonpost.com drew 4.5 million unique visitors last month and Slate 4.8 million, but that people spend more time on the Post site: 120 million page views, compared with 25 million for Slate. Much of Slate's traffic is driven by being part of the Microsoft Network, whose home page will continue to feature Slate headlines. Post executives say that Slate's home page will include some reference to the newspaper's Web site and that washingtonpost.com will also promote certain Slate stories. Sloan called the acquisition, which will become part of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, "a great fit" in part because advertisers could be offered a package that would include The Post and Newsweek sites as well as Slate. Post stock closed up $26.95 yesterday to finish at $60.01. Slate was founded in suburban Seattle, where Microsoft is based, in 1996 when former New Republic editor and CNN commentator Michael Kinsley launched what was then an unusual experiment in online daily journalism. But the software giant and the liberal magazine proved to be an odd combination. Weisberg said it was difficult, for example, to pay freelance writers on a timely basis because "a company like Microsoft isn't geared to write a check for $400." In editorial terms, Slate will be losing its Seattle flavor while keeping its offices in New York, where Weisberg works, and on Washington's M Street. While a few copy editors now based in Redmond, Wash., will work from home, several other Slate staffers, including publisher Cyrus Krohn, have decided not to move east. Slate, which has competed with another liberal online journal, San Francisco-based Salon, has made a mark not just with feature articles but also with columns and digests such as "Pressbox," "Chatterbox," "Moneybox," "Kausfiles," and the "Dear Prudence" advice column. Slate also co-produces the National Public Radio show "Day to Day." Given its Web-based DNA, Slate does some things differently than The Post. A week before the election, nearly all its editorial staffers, including Weisberg, disclosed that they were voting for John Kerry over President Bush. On Election Day, Slate posted leaked numbers from the early wave of exit polls made available to the networks, the Associated Press and such clients as The Post, something the newspaper would never do. Asked if he was worried about editorial interference from the new owner, Weisberg invoked the name of The Post Co.'s chief executive. "Don Graham and everyone else we've dealt with at The Post Co. made very clear they wanted to buy Slate because they like the magazine the way it is," he said. "I don't think readers are going to notice much difference." NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Washington Post.. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Apple Sues Three for Posting Mac OS X on Net Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 23:44:41 EST By Duncan Martell SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. has sued three men for illegally distributing test copies of the next version of its Mac OS X operating system on a file-sharing Web site, court records showed on Tuesday. The lawsuit is the second in as many weeks by the maker of the popular iPod digital music players and iconic Macintosh personal computers to thwart the release of its software and details of its unannounced products. Apple claims in its suit that two different versions of Mac OS X, code-named Tiger, were made available on the Web on or about Oct. 30 and Dec. 8 of this year. The company has said it will ship Mac OS X "Tiger" in the first half of 2005, after previewing it to the Mac community at a trade show last June. Apple makes test versions available to certain software developers under strict confidentiality conditions and lets them test the prerelease software and develop or change their own programs to work with the software. The company said in its lawsuit that the two different versions were made publicly available by the men, who were members of the Apple Developer Connection. "Members of Apple Developer Connection receive advance copies of Apple software under strict confidentiality agreements, which we take very seriously to protect our intellectual property," the company said in a statement. According to the suit, the men released the software on a Web site that employs BitTorrent file-sharing technology, which is used to rapidly distribute large files of electronic data, and is also widely used to distribute pirated copies of motion pictures via the Internet. "Apple's future operating results and financial condition are substantially dependent on its ability to continue to develop improvements to the Mac OS and related software applications in order to maintain perceived design and functional advantages over competing platforms," the company said in its civil complaint, filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose. Apple's Macintosh computers and Mac operating system compete principally with personal computers using Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Windows operating system. Apple currently has a less than 5 percent share of the overall PC market. On Dec. 13 Apple, based in Cupertino, California, filed a lawsuit against unnamed individuals who leaked details about new products by posting information on the Internet. The lawsuits come weeks ahead of the Macworld conference in San Francisco, the annual show where Chief Executive Steve Jobs typically unveils the latest Apple products in front of thousands of the Mac faithful. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 21:56:17 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message Joseph wrote: > Well, buying anything "lifetime" should always be considered a risk. > What lifetime are they referring to? Yours, the satellite receiver, > the company? What applies to gym memberships probably applies to all > things that you buy. Buying a "lifetime" anything is always a gamble. > Unless in the original agreement they vowed to continue your service > on the "lifetime" basis no matter who the company became I'm afraid > you're probably sunk. Lifetime typically means "lifetime" of the hardware, but obviously if the company goes under there is nobody to sue anyway. However, it really depends on the contract -- As with all things in life, read the contract for the answers. ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: William Van Hefner Subject: Re: DirecTV Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:34:15 -0800 Organization: Vantek Communications, Inc. > If Pegasus was purchased by DirecTV, then the legal complaint > is with DirecTV -- If DirecTV purchased Pegasus without being > aware of Pegasus' liabilities, that's their fault, and maybe > next time they'll perform due diligence before making a > corporate acquisition. The whole affair between Pegasus, DirecTV and TiVo is actually a quite messy situation. In a nutshell, Pegasus had a contract at one time to be a distributor of DirecTV programming. Pegasus signed-up customers in rural areas and was paid a regular commission each month by DirecTV for doing so. At some point, DirecTV decided that it wanted to terminate the Pegasus contract. Since these commissions constituted Pegasus' chief form of income, they fought the issue in court. The decision was a complicated one, but what DirecTV ended up doing was basically taking over Pegasus' entire customer base and keep the monthly commissions for themselves. Pegasus is now in deep doo-doo and I believe that they will now very likely go out of business. I am not sure whether DirecTV did direct billing of "Pegasus customers" from the beginning, or whether Pegasus itself acted as a rebiller, but as DirecTV sees it, these customers paid Pegasus the lifetime subscription money for the TiVo service, and not them. Exactly how much of this "lifetime subscription" was passed through to DirecTV from Pegasus is unknown, but it certainly was not 100%, as DirecTV would have liked it. DirecTV -USED- to offer TiVo service, which was completely driven by TiVo's software and proprietary programming. Now when you buy a DirecTV receiver with DVR capabilities, you get "DirecTV DVR service powered by TiVo". This is basically DirecTV's way of severing their exclusive deal with TiVo, and will allow them in the future to do away with TiVo as a middleman altogether. Therefore, DirecTV viewers are not really getting TiVo service directly anymore. They are just getting a repackaged form of the service, and DirecTV may do-away with TiVo's service at any time. DVR technology is now so standard that companies like DirecTV no longer need companies like TiVo. They can do everything themselves. This begs the question, exactly how much of this "lifetime" subscription was passed on from Pegasus to DirecTV, and in turn, how much of the subscription was passed on from DirecTV to TiVo? Nobody really knows, as these were all private agreements. For its part, Pegasus has (VERY unwillingly) been cut out of the loop. It can't do a thing, even if it actually has the money to give back (it doesn't). DirecTV will likely claim that it was not the one paid for the lifetime subscription, and has no obligation to fulfill Pegasus' promises. It did NOT buy Pegasus. It only cannibalized its customer base. And TiVo? Well, they would be happy to provide the lifetime service, I'm sure. Only thing is, the subscription is tied to the receiver (NOT the owner) and DirecTV no longer offers TiVo service. This whole fiasco reminds me of the Abbott & Costello "Who's On First" sketch. Everyone is denying responsibility. IMHO, DirecTV made a killing from taking over the Pegasus customer base, and should honor the deal. Whether or not they are legally obligated to do so though is another question. William Van Hefner Editor - TheDigest.Com ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: DIrectv Not Honoring Tivo Lifetime Service Organization: Symantec Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 01:03:28 -0500 In article , googlenospam@netcrafting.com wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Someone committed fraud on you. When > you purchase (or otherwise take over) an existing business, then > you take over not only the assets of the existing business, but the > *liabilities* as well, unless the people going *out* of business > specifically publish a notice to the effect otherwise, which is to > afford *you* - the holder of that asset (by virtue of your lifetime > subscription in this case) -- the opportunity to collect on it from > the original owner of the business. I think an exception to this is if the company taken over was in bankruptcy. This seems to allow some freedom for the new owner in cancelling or renegotiating contracts. When I was working for Genuity and Level(3) acquired us, they started cancelling many of our customers' contracts because they weren't profitable (I assume we'd been giving lots of discounts in order to build up the business, but Level(3) was big enough that they didn't need loss leaders like these). -- Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Cromwell vrs. Sprint Settlement Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 22:29:28 -0800 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > I dunno, somewhere I read that Sprint was supposed to be so much > cheaper than AT&T ... of course I know this card was *free*, but > still, is the above their 'typical' rates? MCI is supposed to be cheaper than AT&T too, but their calling card rates still suck. Around here I can buy Sprint and MCI prepaid cards at the local grocery store chains, and they're cheap. But so are AT&T cards from Wal*Mart. Why? The SMALLEST such chain here is locally-owned Stater Brothers Market, which is headquartered about an hour from here in Colton, CA. And I'm sure they buy thousands of the cards at once. The other chains are Von's (Safeway Stores, Inc.), Ralphs and Food4Less (Kroger Company) and Albertsons (Federated Inc). Safeway, Kroger and Federated are all huge companies with lots of buying power -- Kroger, in particular, is by far the largest grocery company in the country, if not in the world. And we all know how big Wal*Mart is. (a) I'd question how many plaintiffs got cards -- I'm sure it's small compared to the number of cards a typical large retail chain buys in a year. (b) I wouldn't expect any special deals on cards given out as a settlement lawsuit -- I'm sure Sprint wants to minimize its losses from the suit. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Hanging Up On Wireless Spam Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 22:31:09 -0800 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com T. Sean Weintz wrote: >> what's next; SPAM deliveried to your TV via your cable box? > Um, isn't that what commercials are? This comment demonstrates a basic misunderstanding of what spam is. Spam is not 'advertising I don't like'. The defining characteristic of spam is that it is an attempt by the advertiser to shift advertising costs onto the recipient, and when was the last time you were forced to pay for someone's television or radio ad? JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is sort of what happens now on cable channels. Although the advertiser does not 'force me to pay for it', they do prevent me from getting a full 24/7 of the shows I might want to see (if I were a televison watcher.)Presumably, what I pay for cable is intended to pay the cable operator's costs and make a profit for him as well. But he wants to double dip by charging the advertiser to give his messages, and charge *me* for watching them. If that were not the case, why wouldn't the cable operator program the DVR boxes they now use to fast-forward past commercials if that is what I wanted to do? PAT] ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: What Tandem in Telcom Means? Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 03:49:19 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 18:31:01 -0500, Jack wrote: > I am new to telcom. I came across the term Tandem many times (eg. LEC > Access Tandem). > What exactly does Tandem mean? PAT's reference is correct, but, in the meantime, a tandem office is a telephone switching machine that stands between two end offices, the latter serving subscriber lines. In the olden days, a couple decades ago or less, end offices couldn't handle long distance accounting and were connected with toll tandems that could. In very large cities there were also, as I recall, some inter local tandems that allowed hub and spoke arrangements of local switching. With computer driven switches (central offices) this has pretty much gone the way of the horse and buggy. Any office can perform most any function required, given the appropriate software. One switch can serve several NXX exchanges and also interface to toll carriers, or act as part of one itself. This has also allowed routing to become much more dynamic, adapting to changing traffic patterns. ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #613 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Dec 22 17:29:31 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBMMTVf23425; Wed, 22 Dec 2004 17:29:31 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 17:29:31 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412222229.iBMMTVf23425@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 #614 TELECOM Digest Wed, 22 Dec 2004 17:28:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 614 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson T-Mobile Cripples the Blackberry (Monty Solomon) Broadband Tops Dial-Up Use in Homes, Nielsen Says (Telecom dailyLead) Voicemail Recommendations (xasdfg123456@yahoo.com) Re: Access of Calling Card Dial in Number From Prepaid Cellular (hbr) Re: What Tandem in Telcom Means? (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Cell Phone Company Records Tower Handling Call (Howard Eisenhauer) Re: Cell Phone Company Records Tower Handling Call (Fritz Whittington) Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement (BobGoudreau) Re: VOIP (ukcats4218016@yahoo.com) Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless (Rich Greenberg) Re: Hanging Up On Wireless Spam (Fritz Whittington) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 17:11:50 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: T-Mobile Cripples the Blackberry Jason D. O'Grady Blackberry's Crippled by T-Mobile. In his article "T-Mobile Tells BlackBerry Users: GetLess!" PowerPage editor Emory Lundberg reports about how T-Mobile effectively crippled the Blackberry smartphone on its network by disallowing outbound requests on TCP port 80. A real sin considering that T-Mo Blackberry users pay US$40 per month for "BlackBerry Unlimited w/Enterprise E-mail" that includes "Unlimited Web Browsing." http://www.powerpage.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/powerpage.woa/wa/story?newsID=13375 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 13:43:49 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Broadband Tops Dial-Up Use in Homes, Nielsen/NetRatings Says Telecom dailyLead from USTA http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18294&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Broadband tops dial-up use in homes, Nielsen/NetRatings says BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * CompUSA to sell VoIP service from Vonage * Cablevision halts plan to spin off Rainbow assets * EMC buys SMARTS for $260 million * RIM earnings jump, Qualcomm raises fiscal first-quarter forecast USTA SPOTLIGHT * SIP Demystified Now Available in the Telecom Bookstore EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Alcatel, Microsoft said to mull IPTV deal * UWB standard elusive REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Plea deal denied in AOL e-mail address theft case Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18294&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: xasdfg123456@yahoo.com Subject: Voicemail Recommendations Date: 22 Dec 2004 12:33:39 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi. I am looking to replace my current voicemail system (KeyVoice on DOS) with something far easier to configure, and am hoping to get some recommendations from the group. I think KeyVoice is overkill for what we need, (20-person office, old Panasonic DBS). I am not a phone tech, but a sys admin, so of course something I could easily setup myself by reading the manual would be great, too. I know a little bit about DBS programming so I am looking to do this all myself. Thanks a bunch. Bill ------------------------------ From: hbr Subject: Re: Access of Calling Card Dial in Number From Prepaid Cellular Date: 22 Dec 2004 05:21:09 -0800 Maybe this provider could work for you - http://dynasky.com/ (I just discoverd them and think they are great for many reasons). Good luck! Heidi Mark Crispin wrote: > On Fri, 12 Nov 2004, Marek Tomczyk wrote: >> I like the offer of AT&T Wireless very much as it provides a long >> validity of one year for balances starting at $100. > That's news to me. I used to have AT&T Wireless Free2Go on my Alaska > phone (now Dobson Cellular One). The expiration period was 45 days, > although it would rollover if you recharge in time. > AT&T Wireless was recently bought by Cingular, so this may have > changed. In any case, Free2Go uses TDMA digital, which is on its way > towards extinction. Most TDMA phones are also SOC locked, so you > can't use them with another carrier. > I suggest that you consider either a prepay GSM SIM card for your > home country phone (assuming you have an unlocked tri-band or > quad-band phone), or one of the CDMA prepaid services. > Under CDMA prepay, Verizon's is on their network, the phones are > unlocked, and can be used with monthly service. Virgin has ultra > cheap prepay using Sprint's network (which almost certainly means > that the phones are locked but there are ways of getting Sprint > unlock codes). > Another advantage of Verizon is that, overall, it probably has the > best coverage in the continental US (48 states), especially if you > pick a phone with analog capability. If you go to Alaska, you'll > need a TDMA/analog phone, although GSM has finally appeared in > Alaska. There is very little CDMA in Alaska. >> So the idea is to use a calling card service for this matter. The >> AT&T documents say that prepaid calling card service is not >> possible with Free2Go. Besides this AT&T says in its terms that >> certain numbers can be blocked if "abuse" to the network happens. > Don't worry about it; your plan is fine. > When you call one of the cheap international calling card companies, > the cellular company still gets to charge you for the airtime, so > they are happy. > What they are concerned about are calls to numbers with delayed > surcharges and fraud issues. Calls to the premium 900 area code, and > to the local 976 premium exchange, are almost always blocked to cell > phones. > Most cell phones have international calls blocked unless you ask > customer service to unblock it. Most people consider that to be a > good thing, and also do that on their wired phones (although the > default for wired phones is to allow international calls unless the > customer asks for it to be disabled). > However, "international calls" really means "calls outside of country > code 1"; that is, the 011 North American international dialing prefix > is disabled. That doesn't always help. > Remember that country code 1 is quite a few countries. You get a > message "urgent, please call me at (555) 555-5555" which looks like > an ordinary US or Canada number, but is really an expensive > pornography service in the Caribbean that charges $10/minute. The > customer complains about the bill and refuses to pay. Usually, the > phone company refunds the charge and takes the loss itself, but it > then blocks future calls to that number. > From the prepaid cell phone company's point of view, they are > probably happy if you use a calling card for international calls, > because then the problem (of how much to charge you for the > international call) is some other company's problem. The cell phone > company just charges you for the airtime, which they know how to do > quite well. > -- Mark -- > http://staff.washington.edu/mrc > Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. > Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 09:26:26 EST Subject: Re: What Tandem in Telcom Means? In a message dated Wed, 22 Dec 2004 03:49:19 GMT, John McHarry writes: > On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 18:31:01 -0500, Jack wrote: >> I am new to telcom. I came across the term Tandem many times (eg. LEC >> Access Tandem). >> What exactly does Tandem mean? > PAT's reference is correct, but, in the meantime, a tandem office is a > telephone switching machine that stands between two end offices, the > latter serving subscriber lines. In the olden days, a couple decades > ago or less, end offices couldn't handle long distance accounting and were > connected with toll tandems that could. In very large cities there were > also, as I recall, some inter local tandems that allowed hub and spoke > arrangements of local switching. Aw, c'mon folks. Manual tandems existed before there were dial offices, and a concern in big cities was the delay as in some cases phone numbers had to be passed manually from the originating operator to a tandem operator, then another tandem operator, and finally to the terminating office. The first dial offices to get DDD ("long distance accounting") were end offices, and it was only later that tandems with CAMA ("Centralized Automatic Message Accounting") were used to provide customer toll dialing to end offices not equipped for any kind of accounting, such as step-by-step offices. In the late 1940s I made a call from a coin box in Los Angeles, and the operator had to go to rate-and-route to learn which (manual) toll tandem to plug into which had trunks toward the destination. L.A. had so many outgoing manual toll trunks that they had to be distributed among various tandems; as I recall, for my call the operator was director to (manual) toll tandem No. 4. which had trunks for the MX (multi-switch) routing to the destination. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Howard Eisenhauer Subject: Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 16:45:52 GMT Indeed they do, it's part of the billing information they use to compute your bill. Each billing record for an outgoing call records the calling number (so they know who to bill- duh), the number called, the cell the call originated on, start time and duration. The originating cell info & the called number are used by the billing process to determine if the call is billed as local or long distance. Same thing only different for incoming calls. Howard. On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 22:06:01 GMT, phoner@company.com wrote: > Cell phone companies record the tower that handles each call, and then > keep that info for at least a short time. > That came out in the recent arson case in Maryland. The suspect > claimed that he was at home. However, he had a cellphone call during > his alibi time. His provider's records showed that the cell tower > handling his call wasn't near his house. > This had to have been a routine log since the suspect wasn't yet a > suspect at the time of the call. > (Putting my tinfoil hat on:) I have a theory that the location of > every cellphone that is turned on is being routinely recorded, say > every minute, and saved for later data mining. I have no direct > evidence. However, this is technically feasible, and is a logical (to > me) extension of what we know was done decades ago. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 14:15:03 -0600 From: Fritz Whittington Subject: Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call On or about 2004-12-21 08:49, Dave VanHorn whipped out a trusty #2 pencil and scribbled: > I have seen my cellphone do some bizarre things at times. > Once, I was standing in Auburn Ca, and my phone switched to > "roam". I was well within my home area, so I called 611 to see what > was up ... They said I was in Chico. Look at a map. So Chico looks to be about 100 miles away, but you've got some elevation. Perhaps the cells along I-80 were saturated with traffic, and the Chico tower was the closest one with capacity to spare? So your phone would lock onto it, and then appear to be roaming. Fritz Whittington Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. (Edgar Allan Poe, "Eleonora") ------------------------------ From: BobGoudreau@withheld on request Subject: Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 12:25:08 -0500 [As always, please remove my email address from the message and from the digest table of contents. Thanks.] Steve Sobol wrote: > Safeway, Kroger and Federated are all huge companies with lots of > buying power -- Kroger, in particular, is by far the largest grocery > company in the country, if not in the world. > And we all know how big Wal*Mart is=2E Apparently not all of us do. In particular, it has been a few years since Kroger has been "by far the largest grocery company in the country". Kroger is now a distant second to Wal-Mart's grocery business. See http://www.progressivegrocer.com/progressivegrocer/images/pdf/pg-top-50-2004pdf= Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ------------------------------ From: ukcats4218016@yahoo.com Subject: Re: VOIP Date: 22 Dec 2004 11:11:43 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm not sure how many phones my service (SunRocket) will support, but they do offer two separate phone numbers for one price. I only have one phone hooked up, but with the two numbers, you would automatically be able to double the quantity. ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless Date: 22 Dec 2004 14:18:23 -0500 Organization: Organized? Me? In article , Weston Fire 22 wrote: > Well, I was suspecting as much, so I decided I would email their > support and see what they gave me, well, here is their response. It > must be the company line: > Dear Bruce, > Thank you for choosing Motorola! If your phone is dialing on pulse > dialing and not tone dialing, you will need to check with your phone > service provider to see if the line is digital or analog b/c if it is > not a digital line then the phone is not going to dial on tone > dialing. I would hazzard a guess that *IN THIS USAGE*, "digital line" == "touchtone capable line" Try telling them that you have confirmed that the line is "a digital line". Have you tried a known good TT phone? Rich Greenberg N6LRT Marietta, GA, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time zone. I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 13:59:52 -0600 From: Fritz Whittington Subject: Re: Hanging Up On Wireless Spam On or about 2004-12-22 00:31, Steve Sobol whipped out a trusty #2 pencil and scribbled: > T. Sean Weintz wrote: >>> what's next; SPAM deliveried to your TV via your cable box? >> Um, isn't that what commercials are? > This comment demonstrates a basic misunderstanding of what spam > is. Spam is not 'advertising I don't like'. The defining > characteristic of spam is that it is an attempt by the advertiser to > shift advertising costs onto the recipient, and when was the last time > you were forced to pay for someone's television or radio ad? Every time you buy a product that is advertised on TV or radio, some fraction of the price you pay goes to paying for those ads. Even if you buy a bottle of "generic" aspirin at a 7-11, some fraction of the price you pay goes towards 7-11's ads. You'd almost have to live on a desert island and be completely self-sufficient to not ever pay something for advertising. (But then, of course, you probably wouldn't have radio or TV anyway.) Fritz Whittington "Build a man a fire and he will be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life." -- Unknown ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #614 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Dec 23 00:42:36 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBN5gaj27015; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 00:42:36 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 00:42:36 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412230542.iBN5gaj27015@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 #615 TELECOM Digest Thu, 23 Dec 2004 00:40:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 615 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Network Security Hacks", Andrew Lockart (Rob Slade) Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement (Steve Sobol) Re: Cromwell vrs. Sprint Settlement (Isaiah Beard) Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless (Weston Fire 22) Re: Hanging Up On Wireless Spam (Steve Sobol) Re: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? (Steven Fleckenstein) Telecom Words: Meaning For 'Bearer' (Jack) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 13:42:37 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Network Security Hacks", Andrew Lockart Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKNTSCHK.RVW 20041106 "Network Security Hacks", Andrew Lockart, 2004, 0-596-00643-8, U$24.95/C$36.95 %A Andrew Lockart %C 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472 %D 2004 %G 0-596-00643-8 %I O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. %O U$24.95/C$36.95 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 nuts@ora.com %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596006438/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596006438/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596006438/robsladesin03-20 %P 298 p. %T "Network Security Hacks" Chapter one lists twenty tips for using a number of utilities and programs to enhance the security of UNIX systems. The explanations are clear and specific, although you would probably have to be really familiar with UNIX administration to get the full benefit of these suggestions. Windows gets ten hacks in chapter two. While useful, these could have had more explanation in some cases, in regard to the limitations and pitfalls of the recommendations. Almost all of the network security tools discussed in chapter three are for UNIX, although some do have Windows versions. The same is true with the logging tips in chapter four, although there is mention of arranging to have Windows report to a syslogd. Network monitoring, and some analysis thereof, is in chapter five. Tunnels and VPN (Virtual Private Network) products are detailed in chapter six. Most of the network intrusion detection material in chapter seven concerns Snort. (You are not my NIDS, you are a Snort!) Chapter eight lists a few recovery and response tools. If you run a UNIX system and network, this book enumerates many useful tasks, settings, and tools that will help to make your systems and network more secure. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2004 BKNTSCHK.RVW 20041106 ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@sun.soci.niu.edu When art critics get together, they talk about form, texture, movement, meaning. When artists get together, they talk about where you can get the best turpentine for cheap. - Picasso http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev or http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 20:06:01 EST Subject: Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement In a message datedWed, 22 Dec 2004 12:25:08 -0500, BobGoudreau@withheld on request writes: > Steve Sobol wrote: >> Safeway, Kroger and Federated are all huge companies with lots of >> buying power -- Kroger, in particular, is by far the largest grocery >> company in the country, if not in the world. >> And we all know how big Wal*Mart is=2E > Apparently not all of us do. In particular, it has been a few years > since Kroger has been "by far the largest grocery company in the country". > Kroger is now a distant second to Wal-Mart's grocery business. See > http://www.progressivegrocer.com/progressivegrocer/images/pdf/pg-top-50-2004p > Bob Goudreau > Cary, NC A recent survey of retail grocers in Oklahoma showed Wal-Mart Supercenters and Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets were in first and second place, I forget which was which. Albertson's was third. There are no Kroger stores in Oklahoma. What is the "Federated" some have mentioned in connection with Albertson's? The corporate name is Albertson's and they are based in Boise, Idaho. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is a chain of stores called 'Federated Department Stores'. I do not recall ever being in one of them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 17:55:24 -0800 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com BobGoudreau@withheld on request wrote: > Apparently not all of us do. In particular, it has been a few years > since Kroger has been "by far the largest grocery company in the country". > Kroger is now a distant second to Wal-Mart's grocery business. See > http://www.progressivegrocer.com/progressivegrocer/images/pdf/pg-top-50-2004pdf= Point noted -- would it be more accurate to say "largest grocery company that doesn't operate huge big-box retail superstores?" As far as I know, Kroger stores are still grocery stores, not Wal-mart style stores. Our local Ralphs has some miscellaneous supplies -- pharmacy items, everyday needs like diapers, etc., but if I want to buy my boy a new bike, or get a 32" television, or I need a new battery for my car, I'm not going to Ralphs. Wal*Mart superstores aren't just groceries. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For groceries, I find that Marvin's suits me very well, and its right downtown which makes it very conven- ient to walk to and from. That is, if it was not so cold outside today. (In the mid-teens all day today and yesterday.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Cromwell vrs. Sprint Settlement Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 22:22:53 -0500 TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > 19 cents per minute ??? > $2.85 payphone surcharge ??? > I dunno, somewhere I read that Sprint was supposed to be so much > cheaper than AT&T ... They are! that is, if you're using one of their calling plans other then their highest tariffed rates. :) > of course I know this card was *free*, but > still, is the above their 'typical' rates? No, currently Sprint is very big on bundle or unlimited plans. Pay a set amount per months and get an unlimited number of LD minutes. The actual rate charged would of course vary depending on your usage, since you're paying a set amount that covers all of your calls for the month. For purposes of this settltment, they probably took the highest tariff they have on file and used that on these cards. Still as you've said, it's "free" and you're not paying for it. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, but $2.85 surcharge on a pay phone call? That's totally ridiculous. I could see thirty or fifty cents surcharge, but $2.85? If you call an 800 number from a Sprint- controlled payphone -- let's say in northeast Kansas where they took over United Tel, is that the amount they charge to the owner of the 800 number? Or are there different surcharge amounts in use, depending on the tariff? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Weston Fire 22 Subject: Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless Date: 22 Dec 2004 17:45:21 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com When I called the telco today, just as a goof, the lady there was stumped as well. She checked our "settings in the switch" and we are indeed set to tone service. She had never heard of a phone requiring a digital line as well. As soon as I asked, she replied, we have analog lines. Yes, we have always used tone phones, never had to use pulse before this phone. We will see what mot comes up with, I replied back that yes indeed, we are setup for tone service. Bruce ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Hanging Up On Wireless Spam Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 17:51:41 -0800 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Fritz Whittington wrote: > Every time you buy a product that is advertised on TV or radio, some > fraction of the price you pay goes to paying for those ads. OK, fine. The advertisers still don't get the ads for free. There is a significant investment required by the advertisers to create and air the ads, sometimes running into millions of dollars. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. ------------------------------ From: Steven Fleckenstein Subject: Re: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 21:56:36 -0500 In article , pfschoeng@yahoo.com says: I have an old Qualcom QCP-820 on VZW. It is kind of bulky by todays standards, doesn;t have any of the frills, but when my wife compares it to her 4 month old Kyocera or my daughter uses it instead of her Motorola V60s they can't believe how much better the audio sounds to them compared to their units. It does the basics well and with a pull out antenna picks up the signal where others with stubs don't. Steve [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: On those cell phones with stubs for antennas, it is possible at all to loosen the stub and connect a telescoping antenna there in its place? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jack Subject: Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Bearer'? Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 23:14:12 -0500 Organization: NTT/VERIO What does Bearer mean in telecom? TIA! Jack ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #615 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Dec 23 15:51:12 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBNKpCE05689; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 15:51:12 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 15:51:12 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412232051.iBNKpCE05689@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 #616 TELECOM Digest Thu, 23 Dec 2004 15:49:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 616 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Download Site SuprNova Closes Amid Hollywood Crackdown (Lisa Minter) Browser Wars (Lisa Minter) Review: E-Mail Program Lacks 'Wow' Factor (Lisa Minter) Beware Sprint Phone Rebates (Nate) Broadband Connections Rise 38%, According to FCC (Telecom dailyLead) T1/ISDN Intergration With VoiP? (Dave) Map-Open in Send Routing Info to Hlr (Bernardo) Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement (John Levine) Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement (Joseph) Re: Cromwell vrs. Sprint Settlement (Steve Sobol) Re: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? (John Levine) Re: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? (Joseph) Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless (DevilsPGD) Re: Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Bearer'? (Todd Mueller) Re: Telecom Terms (Doug Krause) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Download Site SuprNova Closes Amid Hollywood Crackdown Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:39:57 EST By Adam Pasick LONDON (Reuters) - SuprNova.org, one of the Internet's most popular sites for finding links to download pirated movies, has been taken offline by its creator amid a legal crackdown by Hollywood's copyright cops. Slovenia-based SuprNova offered thousands of special files that enabled users to download movies, TV shows, music and other content using the BitTorrent file-transfer network. Earlier this month, the Motion Picture Association of America launched a barrage of lawsuits against people that operate the so-called "torrent" files, as well as servers on the eDonkey and Direct Connect networks. SuprNova's creator, who goes by the name Sloncek, took the site down over the weekend, citing the increased legal pressure on those hosting torrent files. In addition to MPAA's civil lawsuits in the United States and Britain, criminal charges were filed in France, the Netherlands and Finland. "SuprNova.org was more like a hobby that took most of my free time away. And now with current situation, there's too much pressure and I don't have the time for it," Sloncek told the file-sharing Web site Slyck (http://www.slyck.com). He did not respond to an emailed interview request from Reuters. In a message on SuprNova, Sloncek said: "We are sorry to inform you all, that SuprNova is closing down for good in the way that we all know it. We do not know if SuprNova is going to return, but it is certainly not going to be hosting any more torrent links." BitTorrent has quietly grown into a file-sharing behemoth, devouring up to one-third of the Internet's bandwidth by one research firm's account. Bram Cohen, the programer that created BitTorrent, has warned against using the software for illicit purposes. BitTorrent's "file-swarming" software breaks a digital file into many pieces, shares the pieces among all users who have downloaded the torrent file, then stitches them back together. It is also used for many non-illicit purposes, such as sharing non-copyrighted music and distributing video game demos. The shutdown of the premier source for movies and TV downloads through BitTorrent was welcomed by MPAA anti-piracy chief John Malcolm, who has railed against "parasites leeching off the creative activity of others." "I'm pleased. It was the most popular torrent site," he said. "They took that action voluntarily, so obviously they were concerned about their conduct. It was something we were studying, so I can understand why they were concerned." Hollywood is desperate to avoid the fate of its corporate cousins in the music industry, who have yet to recover from the illicit MP3 downloading boom that began with Napster. The large size of video content has prevented movie and TV downloads from catching on as quickly, but higher bandwidth and improving compression technology means that it may not be safe for long. "We are a little bit ahead of the curve in the sense that the movie industry is still making money. Downloading and uploading video has not become, thankfully, mainstream activity the way that downloading and uploading music became," Malcolm said. "We've also gotten out ahead because our industry has not been decimated -- yet." NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Browser Wars Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:50:58 -0500 (EST) Michael Desmond Are you sick and tired of Internet Explorer? Have you grown weary of the constant vulnerabilities and patches? Do you scratch your head at sudden program lockups and crashes? Are you dismayed that Microsoft hasn't lifted a finger to improve or enhance IE since it buried Netscape's Navigator browser at the dawn of the century? Yeah, me too. Welcome to Internet Explorer backlash. For the first time since Microsoft launched its flagship browser in 1995, Internet Explorer is actually losing market share. Research firm WebSideStory reported that the enormous chunk of IE users declined from a high of 95 percent in June to 92.9 percent in October. That number could drop further, as a sudden wealth of good browser options attracts users of all stripes. A lot of the credit can go to the folks at the Open-Source Foundation, which was established in 1998 to breathe new life into the fast-failing Netscape browser platform. It's taken six years and the utter failure of Netscape the company, but Mozilla is finally delivering on its promise. Today, not one, but two significant browser alternatives are powered by Mozilla's Gecko software code base -- America Online's Netscape 7.2 and the wildly popular new Firefox 1.0 browser. Of course, even those two aren't the only IE challengers: A third major alternative, the Opera browser from Opera Software, has been serving disaffected IE users for years. With so many choices just a software download away, questions swirl. Why should you care? Which browser is best? And after all is said and done, should you really switch? Software junkies may tell you the answers are obvious and conclusions foregone, but wait; read on. *It's the Tabs, Stupid*. There are a lot of reasons why users are fleeing Microsoft Internet Explorer, but a lot of it boils down to security. Microsoft has chosen to run IE like a highly automated factory. ActiveX controls, dynamic HTML, and other technologies deliver lots of automation and programmatic control over IE. That's great if you want to integrate, say, a billing system with your browser, or have Web sites offer dynamic interfaces. But those same controls can be misused or targeted, amplifying the threat from malicious code.

Microsoft's response has been a grim parade of patches, fixes, and advisories. In some instances, Microsoft has suggested turning off features or setting security levels so high that they disable the very capabilities that make IE attractive in the first place. Finally in October, Microsoft released Windows XP Service Pack 2, a wholesale update that helped close many of the vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. But understand this: No browser is without flaws. Mozilla patched some holes of its own prior to the Firefox 1.0 release, and Opera has issued a few security-centric updates in the past year. The problem for Microsoft is the overwhelming popularity of its browser. Virus writers and hackers target IE because there are so many systems running it. Perhaps more frustrating than security leaks is the fact that Microsoft quit adding new features to its browser. The last major feature refresh for IE dates back to August 2001 -- and it shows. Firefox, Netscape, and Opera all offer significant feature improvements over IE, including tabbed browsing for juggling multiple Web pages, and built-in pop-up blocking to prevent ads from opening new browser windows. Other refinements include helpful managers for file downloads, integrated search bars, and more accessible controls for managing histories, cookie files, and the browser cache. In fact, the future of Web browsing comes down to one word: tabs. I realized it the instant I fired up multiple pages in a single Opera program window. Just like that, I could browse a half-dozen Web pages with ease, jumping from one to the next simply by clicking on the little tabs at the top of the window. What's more, I could open multiple tabbed pages in the background, so they could load while I looked at the page in the foreground. Not all tabbing systems are created equal, and no one has done it perfectly yet. Opera gets the nod for best keyboard shortcuts. For example, I can close a tabbed page by holding Shift and clicking on the page tab; clicking the tab for the foreground page bounces me to the last page I viewed. I can even drag tabs around to keep pages in neat order. Both Firefox and Netscape offer tabbing that is a bit more rigid. Time to Switch? Of the four browsers I've worked with --IE, Firefox, Netscape, and Opera -- Firefox 1.0 stood out as the best overall choice. The browser does an excellent job of faithfully displaying Web pages, offers a superior user interface, and suffers fewer crashes than my previous favorite, Opera. It's also highly customizable through something called Firefox Extensions. I installed one module that lets me navigate pages using mouse gestures, a feature I became addicted to during my Opera years.

One area where you'll hear browser makers tout an advantage is performance, or how quickly a browser can show you Web sites. I'd urge you to take any such claims with a grain of salt. In my testing, I found that performance was usually determined by the speed of my Internet connection (not surprisingly) rather than one browser or another. Although Firefox tended to outperform all the others in loading complex pages, we're talking about a difference of one to two seconds. When the dust settles, the different browsers offer their own unique benefits and drawbacks. Here's a quick take on which browser might be best for you, depending on how you work. Firefox: The best all-around alternative to IE. Great for power users who want to add functionality to the browser, and appropriate for newbies just getting started. Internet Explorer: Best for corporate users in controlled environments and those who spend most of their time on Microsoft-branded or IE-specific Web sites. Netscape: Best for AOL subscribers (with AOL Instant Messenger integration) and those who are willing to put up with some rough edges to use other goodies, including an HTML editor and e-mail program. Opera: Best for power users who keep many pages open at once and perform frequent downloads. There's an e-mail program included, but banner ads on the free version of the browser are annoying. So is it time to ditch Internet Explorer once and for all? In a word, no. Microsoft requires its browser to access its Windows Update and Office Update services, and it's not uncommon to find Web sites that are designed specifically for IE. Pages such as MSNBC.com can challenge non-Microsoft browsers. Firefox renders MSNBC pretty well, while Opera fails to render the fly-out menus on the navigation bar. For the time being, most users will need to keep IE handy, just in case. Keep in mind that you can have more than one browser on your computer. If one acts up, close it and launch the other. But for general-purpose Web browsing, there is no reason to put off the switch a minute longer. Firefox, Netscape, and Opera are an impressive trio of IE alternatives that could help shelter you from the daily blizzard of Internet exploits. Michael Desmond is a freelance writer living in Burlington, Vermont. His wife doesn't understand how anyone can get so excited about tabs. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Micheal Desmond, and Yahoo News. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Review: E-Mail Program Lacks 'Wow' Factor Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:51:53 EST By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer NEW YORK - The Firefox browser has become an instant sensation, in just a few weeks gaining impressively against Microsoft Corp.'s market-leading but malware-beleaguered Internet Explorer. Security experts worried about IE's flaws and vulnerabilities have recommended Firefox. Others, myself included, were impressed by its innovative features. The team that put Firefox together, Mozilla Foundation, now offers a free standalone e-mail application, called Thunderbird. But this time, the case for switching from Microsoft products is less compelling. I just can't see too many people abandoning Microsoft's Outlook, if they use it. Outlook is the gold standard in e-mail programs, despite its $109 list price. Among other things, Thunderbird lacks a calendar application, and its tools for sorting your incoming messages are rather rudimentary. If you're happy to sacrifice features for something free, anyone running a Windows operating system already has Outlook Express. So why bother with Thunderbird? In some ways, Thunderbird is more powerful than Outlook Express. But its built-in junk mail filter is based solely on what you, the user, consider spam and legitimate mail. Unlike many other anti-spam programs, Thunderbird will do nothing until you "train" the software by marking a few spam messages as "junk" and a few good messages as "not junk." This approach does reduce the chances of good mail ending up wrongly blocked; a peril these days with many spam-filtering programs for users who aren't careful. Thunderbird also offers Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, a technology for pulling headlines from news sites and Web journals. Headlines and articles from RSS feeds appear as normal e-mail messages so you can file them away, forward them to a friend or do whatever else you might do to e-mail. If you have multiple e-mail accounts, you can choose to view them all in one bucket with Thunderbird, or in separate folders sorted by account or type of account, say personal or work. Outlook Express lets you keep accounts separate, but only by creating separate "identities," meaning you can only view one account at a time. Another plus of Thunderbird is that it automatically enters addresses into your address book as you send out e-mail, making it easier to identify replies as legitimate and to avoid retyping the same addresses over and over. Outlook Express does that only for messages to which you've replied. Other than that, Thunderbird looks and works like any other e-mail program. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux computers, the program lets you do standard things like change fonts and sizes, specify whether to include original message in replies and check for new messages after a given number of minutes, which you specify. It supports the two most popular e-mail protocols, POP3 and IMAP. It will bring in Web-based e-mail from Google, Yahoo and America Online using those protocols (Yahoo is available as part of a $19.99-a-year premium offering). Thunderbird does not, however, support Microsoft's Hotmail or MSN services. Thunderbird does promise to let you import existing mail, address books and account settings from Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape 4, Netscape 7 and Mozilla (a combo mail-browser suite from Thunderbird's developers). In practice, though, not everything worked. I couldn't import an address book from Netscape 4, and my distribution lists on Outlook Express disappeared in the conversion. And some of the features that trump Outlook Express need work. To activate RSS feeds, you must manually type in long addresses. Make a typo, and you must start over; the software doesn't let you simply change the one wrong character. Many good RSS programs these days can automatically detect feeds. And while Thunderbird lets you separate multiple e-mail accounts, there's no easy way to sort them. Rather, they are listed in the order added, not alphabetically or in some other meaningful order. Perhaps the biggest argument for switching is that Thunderbird is open-source. Two paid developers and hundreds of volunteers jointly created it, releasing the underlying software blueprints for anyone to inspect and improve upon. That, they argue, produces a better and safer product than proprietary systems like Microsoft's. For some people, that's reason enough to switch to Thunderbird. For others, I can't find a compelling reason unless you're dissatisfied NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Associated Press. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Nate Subject: Beware Sprint Phone Rebates Date: 23 Dec 2004 09:20:02 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com After my previous Sprint contract was up, I called to see about a phone/plan upgrade. The salesman sold me a new plan and a new phone with a big rebate. Well, the rebate was turned down because the "saleperson" never changed my original plan. Called Sprint and after talking to two people (including a supervisor), they wouldn't do anything except say "talk to the rebate people". I explained that the "rebate people" aren't the ones who screwed up. They didn't seem to grasp this concept. It looks like Sprint may have sold me a very, very overpriced phone. Can you say lifelong loss of a Sprint customer? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is a typical tactic by Sprint. We have had other messages in the Digest from people who said Sprint was not honoring their rebates very well. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:35:04 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Broadband Connections Rise 38%, According to FCC Telecom dailyLead from USTA December 23, 2004 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18325&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Broadband connections rise 38%, according to FCC BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Sprint-Nextel deal could boost Motorola * Mobile marketing for offline products * Acterna thrives after difficult spell USTA SPOTLIGHT * USTA urges Wal-Mart and SAM'S CLUB to Disassociate from AT&T phone card scheme EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Germany takes Wi-Fi on the road REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC order raises value of Nextel spectrum EDITOR'S NOTE * The dailyLead will not publish Friday Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18325&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: Dave Subject: T1/ISDN Intergration With VoiP? Reply-To: feywrayspamno@hotmail.com Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 15:05:11 GMT If I have VoiP and use a converter to what normally would be a POTS line, what if, instead, the converter went to a T1 or ISDN set up? Could I have 23 or 24 incoming VoiP calls, each going to a different DID number? Could I have an outgoing call center with 23 or 24 agents each talking over VoiP at the same time to 23 or 24 different people? ------------------------------ From: bparoli@internet.com.uy (Bernardo) Subject: Map-Open in Send Routing Info to Hlr Date: 23 Dec 2004 06:43:39 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com When I send the sendRoutingInfoForSm to the hlr, I need send the User Information with Map-Open? If I don't send this information, the hlr return error? Thanks, bp ------------------------------ Date: 23 Dec 2004 06:49:45 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is a chain of stores called > 'Federated Department Stores'. I do not recall ever being in one > of them. PAT] Sure you have. They own Bloomindale's, Macy's, and a bunch of smaller regional chains. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When I used to live in Chicago, I would frequently fly to New York City for weekend visits with friends or to go shopping, and on those trips I would go into Macy's occassionally, and Alfred Bloomingdale invited me to come over to his store also. But that was in the 1960's, and I do not think either Bloomingdale's or Macy's were part of Federated at that time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 06:41:41 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 20:06:01 EST, TELECOM Digest editor wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is a chain of stores called > 'Federated Department Stores'. I do not recall ever being in one > of them. PAT] Bloomingdale's, Bon March (now Bon-Macy's soon to be just Macy's), Burdines-Macy's, Goldsmith-Macy's, Lazarus-Macy's, Macy's East/West, Rich's are some of their stores. At one time Foley's in Houston was part of the Federated Department stores. It's unlikely that they have any stores in your area of Kansas. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if they have any stores in Wichita, Topeka or Tulsa, OK which are the three closest bigger towns to here. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 11:15:00 -0800 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Wesrock@aol.com wrote: >>Apparently not all of us do. In particular, it has been a few years >>since Kroger has been "by far the largest grocery company in the country". > A recent survey of retail grocers in Oklahoma showed Wal-Mart > Supercenters and Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets were in first and > second place, I forget which was which. > Albertson's was third. There are no Kroger stores in Oklahoma. Hm. I was informed by someone I consider reliable that Federated Department Stores owned Albertsons (which I thought was strange), but I don't see anything on the web, including albertsons.com and federated-fds.com, that would indicate that. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. ------------------------------ Date: 23 Dec 2004 06:52:26 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: On those cell phones with stubs for > antennas, it is possible at all to loosen the stub and connect a > telescoping antenna there in its place? PAT] As often as not the stub is a fake. Some phones such as the Nokia 5165 and 6340 have a socket for an external antenna, usually as part of a car kit. If you look at the back of your 5165, there's a little rubber plug over the antenna jack that you can pry out. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, I know about the little rubber plug. It has to be removed to use the Cell Socket for those Nokia models, then you can either use the antenna you screw on to the Cell Socket or the stand alone antenna, such as Mike Sandman offers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 06:44:30 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 21:56:36 -0500, Steven Fleckenstein wrote: > It does the basics well and with a pull > out antenna picks up the signal where others with stubs don'[t] Pull out antenna is more of a requirement with CDMA phones rather than just "preference." ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Motorola MD481 Cordless Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 00:18:47 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message Weston Fire 22 wrote: > When I called the telco today, just as a goof, the lady there was > stumped as well. She checked our "settings in the switch" and we are > indeed set to tone service. She had never heard of a phone requiring > a digital line as well. As soon as I asked, she replied, we have > analog lines. As far as digital goes, think ISDN. There are plenty of digital line options, but they cost a lot more and offer little for your average home user. ------------------------------ From: toddmueller@gmail.com Subject: Re: Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Bearer'? Date: 23 Dec 2004 07:11:46 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com 'Bearer' channels are payload channels, they 'bear' the load. ------------------------------ From: dkrause@ratcage.com (Doug Krause) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Telecom Terms Date: 23 Dec 2004 14:23:03 -0600 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For starters, 'tele-phone' is a combin- > ation of 'phonic' which has to do with hearing, and 'tele' which > refers to communication or transfer of information. 'Tele-gram' is > made up of two parts, one of which comes from 'grap' or visual > inspection of 'tele' or the transfer of information. If something > is 'very graphic' it means it is 'a lot to look at'. So when you use > a 'telephone' you communicate information by hearing and speaking; when > you use a 'telegraph' you communicate information by reading. "Tele" means "from a distance". So telephone is distant hearing, television is distant seeing, etc. Doug Krause dijon@ratcage.com ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #616 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Dec 24 06:29:40 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBOBTdJ13604; Fri, 24 Dec 2004 06:29:40 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 06:29:40 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412241129.iBOBTdJ13604@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 #617 TELECOM Digest Fri, 24 Dec 2004 06:30:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 617 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NYS AG Spitzer Settles Out More Leases (Danny Burstein) Municipal and State Governments to VoIP Industry: Deploy VoIP (Minter) T1/ISDN integration with VoiP? (Dave) Re: T1/ISDN Intergration With VoiP? (T. Sean Weintz) Microsoft Fails to Delay EU Sanctions (Lisa Minter) Consumers Union Launches Telecom Advocacy Web Site (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: Review: E-Mail Program Lacks 'Wow' Factor (T. Sean Weintz) Re: Review: E-Mail Program Lacks 'Wow' Factor (Garrett Wollman) Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement (Rich Greenberg) Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement (Steve Sobol) Re: Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Bearer'? (T. Sean Weintz) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Danny Burstein Subject: NYS AG Spitzer Settles Out More Leases Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 05:29:00 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC (and this time I've double checked that I'm posting the correct url...) "Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced settlements with five leading financial institutions in connection with a widespread telecommunications fraud involving NorVergence, Inc., a bankrupt New Jersey-based telephone equipment and service company. "Under the terms of the agreement, the financing companies will forgive approximately $11 million in payments due from New York customers who had signed long-term contracts with NorVergence. Earlier this month, Spitzer announced a $2 million settlement with GE Capital regarding similar NorVergence contracts. The $13 million forgiven under all of these settlements provides relief to more than half of NorVergence customers in ... ( snip, snip. the rest of the press release gives details as to which leasing companies have settled, which ones are still reluctant, etc.) New York. http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2004/dec/dec23b_04.html _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Danny, to the best of your knowledge are there *still* any business people paying on their Norvergence 'leases' (to financial institutions who were 'holders in due course', but of course!) or have they all wised up to this and put a total freeze on accounts payable as was suggested here many months ago? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:24:41 -0500 Subject: Municipal and State Governments to VoIP Industry: "Deploy VoIP" http://192.246.69.231/jeff/personal/archives/001467.html December 23, 2004 Municipal and State Governments to VoIP Industry: "Deploy VoIP ... but Give Us All your Money" -- Zen Koan or Catch 22? A Wall Street Journal editorial yesterday (12/22) shined the spotlight on those politicians and policymakers who have been sending mixed messages lately to the VoIP industry. These politicians have been saying on the one hand that consumers should be allowed to avail themselves of the benefits of IP technology, and, at the same time, they have been threatening to extract usurious fees from VoIP service providers. These mixed signals have made it difficult for us would-be innovators and entrepreneurs to know whether or not to deliver IP-based technologies and services to American consumers. Every legislator, governor, and regulator allegedly wants to promote, and allow its constituents to benefit from, new IP-based technologies and services. At the same time, many politicians see VoIP as an easy revenue generator and have blood in their eye for the nascent VoIP industry. Recent FCC and Congressional action indicates a general desire to ensure that the VoIP innovators may continue to bring new technologies and services to consumers with some assurance that government will not stifle its growth through unnecessary fees, taxes, or administrative hassles. Most recently, the FCC indicated that VoIP services must not be subjected to 50 state and countless local rules that would make it impossible for any would-be VoIP provider to deploy a national or global product. Within the past two weeks, however, we have heard rumblings from both state and local authorities that they intend to extract as much blood as possible from the nascent industry. The WSJ properly noted recent efforts by the National Governors Association and by some in Congress who would attempt to impose taxes upwards of 20% on VoIP services. The WSJ editorial did not take note of similar efforts by municipalities, such as Santa Monica, to impose a utility use tax on VoIP services. At least the city of Santa Monica had the nerve to confront the industry directly without having to hide behind a mob of municipalities. Unlike Santa Monica, members of the National Governors Association are attempting to shield themselves within the mob. No individual governor could be accused of thwarting VoIP if all the other governors endorse a nationwide effort. I guess no one wants to be the only governor imposing usurious fees on new IP-based technologies and services. Instead, the governors have joined forces in the hope that if everyone imposes similar fees, they do not individually take the heat for being the only tax-imposing luddite driving away the VoIP industry. Full story at: http://192.246.69.231/jeff/personal/archives/001467.html ------------------------------ From: Dave Subject: T1/ISDN Integration With VoiP? Reply-To: feywrayspamno@hotmail.com Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 20:16:25 GMT If I have VoiP and use a converter to what normally would be a POTS line, what if, instead, the converter went to a T1 or ISDN set up? Could I have 23 or 24 incoming VoiP calls, each going to a different DID number? Could I have an outgoing call center with 23 or 24 agents each talking over VoiP at the same time to 23 or 24 different people? ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: T1/ISDN Intergration With VoiP? Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 16:46:58 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Dave wrote: > If I have VoiP and use a converter to what normally would be a POTS > line, what if, instead, the converter went to a T1 or ISDN set up? > Could I have 23 or 24 incoming VoiP calls, each going to a different > DID number? Could I have an outgoing call center with 23 or 24 agents > each talking over VoiP at the same time to 23 or 24 different people? So far as I know, no one makes a converter like that. Given that PBX systems are moving towards supporting SIP directly anyway, one would not really be needed. Simply get 24 sip accounts and set the PBX up to use them all. They all work over 1 single ethernet cable -- the sip protocol takes care of telling the PBX what number was dialed for the incoming calls. I think pretty much all PRI functionality can be duplicated in SIP natively. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But, given the amount of bandwidth required for VOIP, even though that may be theoretically possible, is it likely? How many 'computers' and how much internet connectivity would be required to pull that off? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Microsoft Fails to Delay EU Sanctions Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 14:22:51 EST By Douglas Bakshian and David Lawsky LUXEMBOURG/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. was ordered by a European Union court to change its business practices and immediately market a stripped-down version of Windows after it lost an appeal to delay sanctions imposed earlier this year. The world's largest software maker said it would comply immediately by introducing a stripped-down version of its computer operating system without its Windows Media Player music and video software next month. Microsoft, which will also share specifications with rival makers of server software, had tried to delay penalties that were imposed by the executive European Commission in March. "Microsoft has not demonstrated specifically that it might suffer serious and irreparable damage," said Bo Vesterdorf, president of the Court of First Instance, the EU's second-highest court. The commission had found the U.S. software giant abused the virtual monopoly of Windows and also levied a record 497 million euro ($665 million) fine. Microsoft, which had reached separate settlements worth billions of dollars with rival companies and organizations supporting the commission's case, did not seek to avoid the fine. "We will move forward immediately to comply with today's decision," Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said in a conference call with reporters. The company had not decided whether to appeal against Wednesday's order, Smith added, but indicated in a conference call with reporters that there was "cause for optimism" for future litigation. Microsoft had pushed hard for a settlement, which would have required the EU to rescind a major decision for the first time in its history. Smith nevertheless urged the commission to consider fresh settlement talks, arguing the judge had found some merit in Microsoft's arguments on the substance of the case. But Jonathan Todd, a commission competition spokesman, said the court decision upheld the effectiveness of antitrust action and the EU executive was "not in a process of renegotiation." Microsoft stock dipped slightly by late Nasdaq trade on Wednesday, standing at $26.97, down 10 cents, or 0.4 percent. "While the headline value of the court's ruling may have a slight negative effect on Microsoft's stock, we believe that the practical implications of the ruling are minimal," said Charles Di Bona, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. CONSUMER VICTORY "This is a victory for consumers," said Brussels lawyer Thomas Vinje, who represented an industry group that dropped out of the case after a $20 million settlement with Microsoft. Microsoft wanted the penalties, which the commission suspended temporarily during the appeal, frozen until its court case on the substance of the EU ruling finishes years from now. The EU executive argued the market would have moved on and the sanctions would be obsolete. Todd said there was no longer any reason to extend the voluntary suspension. The commission found that Microsoft bundled Media Player to cripple rivals such as RealNetworks Inc.'s RealPlayer, which it shoved off its perch as the dominant player. Now some versions of Windows will be shipped to computer makers without audiovisual software, a decision the commission designed to prompt computer makers to choose from various audiovisual offerings instead of accepting the Windows bundle. "Anything that helps create a level playing field, anything that puts a premium on quality, not on monopoly, is good for RealNetworks," said Dave Stewart, RealNetworks deputy general counsel. "We're going to do what we can to take advantage of the opportunity," Stewart said. The commission ordered Microsoft to share data protocols -- software rules of the road -- with makers of work-group servers that are used in offices to access files and run printers. "Microsoft is not required by the remedy ... to disclose source code, nor does Microsoft dispute that," the judge said. The ruling was a vindication for former Competition Commissioner Mario Monti, whose administration was dogged by a string of high-profile reversals from the court in recent years, and puts his successor, Neelie Kroes, in a strong position. The decision on the sanctions can be appealed to the European Court of Justice, which would take another three to eight months, experts say. Microsoft's main appeal will be heard by a panel of five judges of the lower court that will not include Vesterdorf. To win Wednesday's appeal for so-called interim measures, Microsoft had to show not only that it had a reasonable case but also that it urgently needed relief and that the balance of interests between it and the public weighed in its favor. (Additional reporting by Quentin Webb in Brussels and Reed Stevenson in Seattle.) NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 21:50:49 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Consumers Union Launches Telecom Advocacy Web Site From: Declan McCullagh < > Date: December 22, 2004 11:50:35 PM EST Subject: [Politech] Consumers Union launches telecom advocacy web site For Politech, please: Consumers Union has released a new telecommunications and media online resource: _www.HearUsNow.org_ . I hope that you will take a moment to check it out. The site offers in-depth reading on over 60 consumer related telecom issues. Consumer tips on what to do before you buy, understanding your bills after and making companies listen when you are unhappy (from phone services to copyright rules on digital content). There are also 7 different ways to make a difference in less then 2 minutes (see "Get Heard" on the left bar and click the red link). Hearusnow.org gives consumers the ability to work for change on an individual level and provides hundreds of resources to join efforts already going on across the country. And there is a fun movie to watch, a spoof on a current TV show, but more importantly puts media consolidation (a somewhat dry topic) in to a nice, easily digestible, package. Please help spread the word and tell people to go to _www.HearUsNow.org_ . All the best, --kdg =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Kenneth DeGraff Policy Advocate Consumers Union Publisher of Consumer Reports o/ 202.462.6262 f/ 202.265.9548 e/ kdegraff@consumer.org w/ _http://www.consumersunion.org_ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: Review: E-Mail Program Lacks 'Wow' Factor Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 16:53:52 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Lisa Minter wrote: > By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer > NEW YORK - The Firefox browser has become an instant sensation, in > just a few weeks gaining impressively against Microsoft Corp.'s > market-leading but malware-beleaguered Internet Explorer. > Security experts worried about IE's flaws and vulnerabilities have > recommended Firefox. Others, myself included, were impressed by its > innovative features. > The team that put Firefox together, Mozilla Foundation, now offers a > free standalone e-mail application, called Thunderbird. But this time, > the case for switching from Microsoft products is less compelling. > I just can't see too many people abandoning Microsoft's Outlook, if > they use it. Outlook is the gold standard in e-mail programs, despite > its $109 list price. Among other things, Thunderbird lacks a > calendar application, and its tools for sorting your incoming messages > are rather rudimentary. > If you're happy to sacrifice features for something free, anyone > running a Windows operating system already has Outlook Express. > So why bother with Thunderbird? > In some ways, Thunderbird is more powerful than Outlook Express. It's also more stable and more secure. It doesn't fall prey to the exploits that allow viruses to spread so easily from Outlook. Also, try opening a very large IMAP folder in Outlook or Outlook Express (one with say 50,000 messages in it) - both apps will completely choke and freeze up. (as will most email programs -- eudora, "the bat", etc) Thunderbird handles these with no problem at all. ------------------------------ From: wollman@lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Review: E-Mail Program Lacks 'Wow' Factor Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 01:01:31 +0000 (UTC) Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , Lisa Minter wrote: > By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer [entire text of wire-service news story deleted] > I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted > material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright > Law. Having actually read 17 USC 107,[1] I believe quoting an entire wire-service article verbatim is far from "fair use", in particular: (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and Copying an entire work verbatim is rarely considered "fair use" regardless of the purpose; even a university professor who wants to distribute chapters of an out-of-print source to her class is expected to get permission from the copyright owner. (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work The authors of these wire-service articles frequently work as independent contractors, paid by the article for stories they write. News organizations are in turn charged substantial fees to reproduce the wire service's material. If every wire-service article that happens to catch Lisa's eye (apparently without regard to its relationship to telecommunications) is reposted here, the end result will be that news organizations will no longer pay to have the stories written. That would be a bad result for everyone. -GAWollman [1] I had to consider carefully the implications of the copyright law for my own Web site, which contains many short snippets of broadcast radio programming. I came to the conclusion that my use did constitute "fair use", in part because my snippets are very small relative to the whole, and because they have no effect on the commercial value of the works quoted. Only one station has ever objected, and (although it was clear to me that they did not understand the law) I complied with their request immediately. -- Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every wollman@lcs.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own Opinions not those of| search for greater freedom. MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. ___ (2003) ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement Date: 23 Dec 2004 16:11:49 -0500 Organization: Organized? Me? In article , Joseph wrote: > Bloomingdale's, Bon March (now Bon-Macy's soon to be just Macy's), > Burdines-Macy's, Goldsmith-Macy's, Lazarus-Macy's, Macy's East/West, > Rich's are some of their stores. At one time Foley's in Houston was > part of the Federated Department stores. It's unlikely that they have > any stores in your area of Kansas. Rich's has been Rich's-Macy's for some time and is about to become just plain Macy's. Rich Greenberg N6LRT Marietta, GA, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time zone. I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Cromwell vrs. [sic] Sprint Settlement Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:12:58 -0800 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Joseph wrote: > Bloomingdale's, Bon March (now Bon-Macy's soon to be just Macy's), > Burdines-Macy's, Goldsmith-Macy's, Lazarus-Macy's, Macy's East/West, > Rich's are some of their stores. At one time Foley's in Houston was > part of the Federated Department stores. Foleys, BTW, is now owned by May Department Stores. -- JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Bearer'? Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 16:47:48 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com toddmueller@gmail.com wrote: > 'Bearer' channels are payload channels, they 'bear' the load. For instance ISDN "B" Channels? ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #617 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Dec 25 11:49:58 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBPGnw127200; Sat, 25 Dec 2004 11:49:58 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 11:49:58 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412251649.iBPGnw127200@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 #618 TELECOM Digest Sat, 25 Dec 2004 11:50:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 618 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Don't Disconnect VoIP Service Until You Are Ready to Lose Dial (Decker) Free Holiday Calling to Canada, Israel and the USA (Lisa Minter) USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart (Jack Decker) Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart (Aswath Rao) Verizon Takes Next Big Step Toward VoIP (Lisa Minter) Researchers Warn of Multiple Unpatched Windows Holes (Monty Solomon) Re: What Tandem in Telcom Means? (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: T1/ISDN Integration With VoiP? (Hank Karl) Re: Beware Sprint Phone Rebates (stannc@yahoo.com) My High Hopes About Google Ads (TELECOM Digest Editor) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jack Decker Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 13:18:30 -0500 Subject: Don't Disconnect VoIP Service Until You Are Ready to Lose Dial A very unsettling thread over on BroadbandReports.com, about how those who have called to cancel a VoIP service at some future date have found that it stopped working a few moments later, and could not be reconnected. If the VoIP companies want to add fuel to the fire of those clamoring for more regulation, actions like this will surely do that. Note that AT&T seems to be the smelliest skunk at this picnic (but not the only one) ... http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,12200955~mode=flat ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 19:22:17 -0500 Subject: Free Holiday Calling to Canada, Israel and the USA http://192.246.69.231/jeff/personal/archives/001471.html The Jeff Pulver Blog Notes, comments and observations December 24, 2004 Free Holiday Calling on the FWD Network: Sponsored by LibreTel Members of Free World Dialup are now able to place for free, calls into: Canada, Israel and the USA for the remainder of the holiday season. The call requests are being routed from the FWD Network to our peering partner LibreTel for completion. Members who place a call will hear a short audio advertisement for LibreTel at the start of each call. To place a call, dial: * [country code] number on the Free World Dialup network. Calls can not be place to mobile numbers outside of the USA and Canada. My hope is that our promotion will help some families and friends stay in closer touch during this holiday season. This promotion will be ending on January 2nd. Posted by jeff at December 24, 2004 09:15 AM [Note: If you don't already have Free World Dialup, one of the easier ways to get it might be to download the Pulver Communicator < http://www.pulver.com/communicator/ >, a combination instant messaging (works with AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo IM's) and VoIP software client. You do need a headset, or a microphone plus headphones or speakers connected to your computer to use it, but if you have the right equipment you can be up and running with Free World Dialup in minutes.] ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 12:32:59 -0500 Subject: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart I don't know what they are putting in the water coolers at the United States Telecom Association (USTA), but this is just strange. ANYONE would half a brain would want to try to avoid the cushy little access charge scheme that the independent phone companies have set up for themselves, and I don't think there's a long distance company on the planet that hasn't tried to reduce the charges they pay to local phone companies by any legal means possible (and by some methods of questionable legality, but still, when you have are really, really idiotic system of compensation you have to expect things like that, given that the independent phone companies have somehow managed to manipulate the laws to their own benefit). What is so, well, just plain strange about this is that the USTA would make such an appeal to Wal-Mart and try to wrap themselves in the flag while doing so. A long time ago, I used to think that the small phone companies were the good guys (and a very few still are) but when I see things like this, I am starting to think they are mostly becoming just as bad as the old Bell System. Here's the press release the USTA posted on their web site (a further comment follows the release): FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, December 22, 2004 CONTACT: Allison Remsen 202.326.7370 Telecom Association CEO Urges Wal-Mart and SAM'S CLUB To Disassociate From AT&T's Phone Card Scheme. Scheme Pads AT&T's Bottom Line at the Expense of Rural Communities WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, the President and CEO of the United States Telecom Association (USTA) sent a letter to the CEOs of Wal-Mart and SAMS CLUB urging the two companies to disassociate themselves from a scheme where AT&T exploits Wal-Mart and SAMS CLUB customers' goodwill for American troops to pad AT&T's bottom line in a controversial phone card gimmick that is currently under review by the Federal Communications Commission. "Knowing Wal-Mart and SAMS CLUB'S commitment to delivering value and service in rural America, I am writing to share my concern that your customers and your brands are being exploited by a company seeking public relations 'cover' for its scandalous business practices, which are currently under review by the Federal Communications Commission," explained Walter B. McCormick, Jr., President and CEO of USTA. If this activity continues, "the result for rural telecommunications and for the nation's commitment to affordable, reliable access to a dial tone is devastating. To date, AT&T has admitted to avoiding more than $500 million in obligations owed to help maintain rural telecom networks and universal service. "In this latest attempt to avoid paying what it owes, AT&T has employed a two-part scheme. In the first part, AT&T claims that because it briefly diverts long-distance calls between two towns in the same state to an out-of-state 800 platform, the company can avail itself of the lower rates carriers charge for interstate calls rather than paying the higher rates owed to local telecom providers for intrastate calls. The second part of the scheme involves playing a brief audio clip promoting companies like Wal-Mart and SAMS CLUB. AT&T claims that by including this brief audio clip, calls placed using these cards are no longer phone calls but are instead 'enhanced' services which have no obligation to support universal service, the joint industry fund that ensures affordable, reliable telecommunications services for rural and fixed-income Americans as well as for connecting schools and libraries to the Internet." The letter explains that while hiding behind the flag for its own financial gain, AT&T has blocked rivals from donating free calls to military families. Also, this latest scheme raises consumer phone bills and undermines affordable, reliable telecommunications in rural communities. "This is a case of for-profit patriotism, and it stands squarely at odds with what our member companies understand to be the core values of Wal-Mart and SAMS CLUB," explained McCormick. "We urge you to disassociate Wal-Mart and SAMS CLUB from AT&T's unconscionable refusal to meet its obligations to rural telecommunications and its cynical exploitation of the goodwill of all Americans toward our troops and their families." To view the full text of the letter, go to www.usta.org. [Actually it is at http://www.usta.org/getFile.php?k=0C948152754A4104BBF64FAA44CB646B ] ### About USTA USTA is the premier trade association representing service providers and suppliers for the telecom industry. USTA's 1,200 member companies offer a wide range of services, including local exchange, long distance, wireless, Internet and cable television service. [The aforementioned further comment:] So, this is a trade association trying to engage in protectionism for its members, just the same as when trade associations of plumbers or electricians or whatever try to get laws passed that would bar homeowners from doing their own plumbing or wiring. Of course, many homeowners just ignore such laws when they do get passed, and it doesn't surprise me that long distance companies and others would try to get around usurious and ridiculous access charges that the small phone companies somehow feel they are entitled to, this often after collecting ridiculously high monthly rates from their customers. I'm certainly not saying that either AT&T or Wal-Mart is on the side of the angels, so to speak, but to try and make this an issue of patriotism when it is really an issue of money and greed is reaching pretty low. Also, whether the USTA wants to admit it or not, the fact that a call is routed outside of a state can make it interstate. I recall when Merit/Michnet (not sure which moniker they were using at the time) set up their network of dialup access numbers back in the early 90's. Most of their numbers were in Michigan but they also had an access point in Washington, D.C. and another in Chicago (if I recall correctly). The whole point of having those two access points was that under the law it made the entire network an interstate network, thereby reducing their costs. Maybe a legal loophole, but what organization or business doesn't take advantage of any legal loophole they come across that will save them money? Now, this may be a case of "a pox on both your houses", because the letter does state this: "AT&T has used its position as a U.S. military contractor to block rivals from donating free calls to our military families. As you likely are aware, AT&T has an exclusive contract with the U.S. military. In a formal filing with the FCC, Sprint recounted that AT&T used its role to bar U.S. military personnel from using free calling cards that Sprint had distributed to troops in Iraq and elsewhere. While AT&T's 'free' minutes for the troops only accrue when your customers donate their purchased minutes, the company actively ensured our troops never received no-strings-attached donations. The clear message: Good-faith giving should not come at the expense of AT&T's bottom line." Now if this is true, it is also reprehensible, and those who have read this list for a while know that I generally don't have a high opinion of AT&T anyway (nor of Sprint, for that matter), but note that this is dragging in an unrelated issue. But to be fair about it, I would have to see AT&T's response, because frankly, I don't believe much of what the USTA is saying in this letter. Basically what it appears that the USTA is trying to do is get Wal-Mart to act as an enforcement arm for the companies they represent -- is it because their appeals to the FCC and to many state commissions to do their dirty work have fallen on deaf ears of late? Why they think Wal-Mart would want to get involved in this is beyond me; after all, Wal-Mart is a user of telephone service, and I'm sure that if they give this a moment's consideration they will realize that high access charges also affect their bottom line. Hopefully whoever receives this letter at Wal-Mart will either promptly file it in the paper shredder, or else send a response telling the USTA to take a flying leap. It is not patriotic to gouge telephone users, and it's certainly not patriotic to tie the issue of access charges to the issue of free phone cards. This letter reminds me of something that a social activist group might write to a company to try and get them to use paper instead of plastic, or to save the spotted owls, but the USTA isn't any social action group with high ideals - it is a trade organization trying to protect and enhance the bottom line of its members. So in that context, this letter is just strange. All of the above (except for the press release and the excerpt from the letter) is just my opinion, of course. But we really need access charge reform and it is organizations like the USTA that are standing in the way, and I for one would be just as happy to see them get run over (figuratively speaking) because they represent the old way of doing things, which basically amounts to gouging telephone users for every cent they can get (again my opinion). ------------------------------ From: Aswath Rao Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 22:43:40 -0500 Subject: Re: USTA sends strange letter to Wal-Mart I also hope that access charge regime gets fixed soon. At least then VoIP proponents will develop truly new features rather than just being an arbitrage player. Aswath > All of the above (except for the press release and the excerpt from > the letter) is just my opinion, of course. But we really need access > charge reform and it is organizations like the USTA that are > standing in the way, and I for one would be just as happy to see > them get run over (figuratively speaking) because they represent the > old way of doing things, which basically amounts to gouging > telephone users for every cent they can get (again my opinion). ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Researchers Warn of Multiple Unpatched Windows Holes Researchers warn of multiple unpatched Windows holes Vulnerabilities could leave systems open to remote attacks News Story by Paul Roberts DECEMBER 24, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Antivirus company Symantec Corp. warned its customers about a number of critical holes in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system that surfaced late yesterday and that could make Windows systems vulnerable to compromise by remote attackers. Symantec acted after security researchers published the details of the heap overflow vulnerabilities in messages posted to online security news groups Thursday, including the Bugtraq mailing list, and on xfocus.net. The flaws affect most supported versions of Windows, but Microsoft has not yet issued a patch for the newly disclosed holes. Windows users are vulnerable to Internet based attacks until patches are issued, Symantec said. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,98532,00.html Three Serious Windows Vulnerabilities Surface By David Morgenstern December 24, 2004 Symantec Corp.'s Security Response service on Friday confirmed that unpatched Windows vulnerabilities could pose a serious risk for exploits via malicious Web pages and e-mail messages. One of the three security vulnerabilities involves image handling-a source of recent exploits on Windows and Unix operating systems. The other two risks are found in the Help system and in Window's ANI (Automatic Number Identification) authentication. Symantec said the Microsoft Windows LoadImage API Function Integer Overflow Vulnerability could be exploited via browsers or e-mail client software. Users who open an HTML message or Web page bearing the image could face security risks. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1745642,00.asp Exploits released for new Windows flaws Published: December 23, 2004, 3:31 PM PST By Robert Lemos Staff Writer, CNET News.com A Chinese security group has released sample code to exploit two new unpatched flaws in Microsoft Windows. The advisory comes in the week before Christmas, a time when many companies and home users are least prepared to deal with the problems. Security firm Symantec warned its clients of the vulnerabilities on Thursday, after the Chinese company that found the flaws published them to the Internet. One vulnerability, in the operating system's LoadImage function, could enable an attacker to compromise a victim's PC when the computer displays a specially crafted image placed on a Web site or in an e-mail. The other vulnerability, in the Windows Help program, likewise could affect any program that opens a Help file. http://news.com.com/2100-1002-5502534.html ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: What Tandem in Telcom Means? Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 00:53:57 -0800 Organization: Cox Communications Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > In the late 1940s I made a call from a coin box in Los Angeles, and > the operator had to go to rate-and-route to learn which (manual) toll > tandem to plug into which had trunks toward the destination. L.A. had > so many outgoing manual toll trunks that they had to be distributed > among various tandems; as I recall, for my call the operator was > director to (manual) toll tandem No. 4. which had trunks for the MX > (multi-switch) routing to the destination. If you were calling out of the area before DDD came in effect in the late 1950s, there was always rate-and-route for calls out the LA area, and probably most areas of the country. ------------------------------ From: Hank Karl Subject: Re: T1/ISDN Intergration With VoiP? Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 11:25:47 -0500 Organization: NETPLEX Internet Services - http://www.ntplx.net/ On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 15:05:11 GMT, Dave wrote: > If I have VoiP and use a converter to what normally would be a POTS > line, what if, instead, the converter went to a T1 or ISDN set up? > Could I have 23 or 24 incoming VoiP calls, each going to a different > DID number? Could I have an outgoing call center with 23 or 24 agents > each talking over VoiP at the same time to 23 or 24 different people? I assume you mean "23 agents each talking to one other person", not "23 agents each talking to 23 other people". The answer is yes, assuming you have sufficient bandwidth on the IP connection. I have heard that some high compression codecs (like G.723.1) may cause stress if you're using it all day long, and also may noticeably degrade the way your voice sounds. ------------------------------ From: Subject: Re: Beware Sprint Phone Rebates Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 21:42:27 -0500 Organization: what do you want Nate wrote about Beware Sprint Phone Rebates on Date: 23 Dec 2004 09:20:02 -0800: > After my previous Sprint contract was up, I called to see about a > phone/plan upgrade. The salesman sold me a new plan and a new phone > with a big rebate. Well, the rebate was turned down because the > "saleperson" never changed my original plan. Called Sprint and > after talking to two people (including a supervisor), they wouldn't > do anything except say "talk to the rebate people". I explained > that the "rebate people" aren't the ones who screwed up. They > didn't seem to grasp this concept. It looks like Sprint may have > sold me a very, very overpriced phone. Can you say lifelong loss of > a Sprint customer? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is a typical tactic by Sprint. > We have had other messages in the Digest from people who said Sprint > was not honoring their rebates very well. PAT] I was hosed by Sprint's rebate nonsense last year as well. On the other hand, when I switched that same family member over to Verizon in November, they received the rebate check from the Verizon phone in three weeks. -Stan ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 18:24:57 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: My High Hopes About Google Ads Some readers may recall that three months ago, I signed up -- at their encouragement -- with Google Ad Sense, in the hopes I could convert this Digest into an advertiser supported forum. They had contacted me and said I was 'pre-approved' for their ad program. I spoke on the telephone to one of their (frankly, sort of smooth talking) sales reps in New York City who evaluated this site, and told me I should 'easily' expect to make 'several hundred dollars' per month. Nothing could be further from the truth. Thus far, now three months and a couple weeks later, they have not sent a single check, nor will they explain *how* they calculate the payouts. For example, one day there may be 20 click throughs and the Google scorecard says that is worth 10 dollars. A couple days later there are 20 click throughs and Google says it is only worth 10 cents. I do not get any answer from them in email about how they calculate these things. I run three clusters of ads (one horizonal banner at the top of the page on latest-issue.html and two 'tower' groups verticaally along the left side of the page, supposedly with four ads in each tower cluster). But often times, the two vertical towers are totally blank and the top horizonal thing is a single public service ad. They (Google) say that is because they do not have appropriate ads to give me. Now and again, they run the same identical ad two or three times on the latest-issue.html page, and if I read their terms of service correctly, they claim they will not run the same ad more than once on a page, but that does not seem to apply to them either. I have checked my pages both through the direct URL of 'massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives' and also through the more well-known alias 'telecom-digest.org' but also through the lesser known aliases of 'telecom-digest.net' and 'telecom-digest.com' and I also set up an alias to test with of 'telecom-digest.us.tf' and others, such as 'telecom-digest.n3.net' and sometimes *they* get a full compliment of ads when the original (via massis) get no ads at all. When I use another redirection alias, through 'us.tc' or 'net.tc' still other ads show up in German or French. I just wish they would explain their rationale for what they do, but they will not! They claim they will only pay with a written check mailed to your address (no PayPal payouts which is much more convenient) and that they will only pay for those months on which you get at least one hundred dollars in revenue, and that they 'reserve the right' to not pay that if they choose to charge you for your 'costs' in running their search engine or if they decided you were cheating on them, etc. And they won't give any real, consistent explanation for how they come to those conclusions. And guess what! Surprise ... I have yet to have a single month on which I 'earned' a hundred dollars. The closest I have come was last month (November) in which they admitted (by their calculation which is the only thing they will use) to $98.60. So, of course no check, since it was not the hundred dollars they insist on, which their smooth talking sales rep told me should be 'easy money'. And of course, if you quit their program, then you do not get anything accrued at all as of that point. Over all, I do not think Google Ad Sense is a very good program; it just clutters up a person's web pages with a bunch of ads, (of which I disapprove anyway), and it would be different if they actually paid on a timely basis and if they explained how they do it. So far I have gotten nothing from them except canned answers about their 'policies'. I cannot recommend it to web page publishers. Another similar program is called 'Bidvertiser' and I am thinking very seriously about writing off what I have lost on Google Ad Sense unless I can find an attorney willing to sue them to try and collect the approximatly two hundred dollars they always find reasons not to pay on, and see how the Bidvertiser program works instead. Bidvertiser says they will pay via PayPal anytime you, as a publisher, collect at least ten dollars due. There is also a similar program through Yahoo, I believe. I have experimented with Bidvertiser on a non-telecom web site I also operate, and it seems to be doing okay, although the payouts are much less, but at least it gives the appearance of being a more honest operation. Any thoughts from readers? Patrick Townson ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #618 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Dec 26 20:17:36 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBR1HaB14461; Sun, 26 Dec 2004 20:17:36 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 20:17:36 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412270117.iBR1HaB14461@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 #619 TELECOM Digest Sun, 26 Dec 2004 20:18:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 619 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson IPTV Pioneer Backspace Inks Deal with IPFlix (torotoro@digitalputty.com) Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart (John Levine) Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: The End of TV as We Know It (torotoro@digitalputty.com) Re: Beware Sprint Phone Rebates (DevilsPGD) Re: Verizon Takes Next Big Step Toward VoIP (Tony P.) Re: Don't Disconnect VoIP Service Until You Are Ready to Lose (Tony P.) Re: Click Fraud Threatens Web (Consultant) Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads (Dave Garland) Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads (Jeffrey Mattox) Serious Vandalism on the Net Over the Holiday (Patrick Townson) Last Laugh! Hospital Bill (Lisa Minter) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: torotoro@digitalputty.com Subject: IPTV Pioneer Backspace Inks Deal with IPFlix Date: 25 Dec 2004 16:15:31 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Backspace TV a pioneer in live IPTV broadcast has partnered with Data-Fortress Groups subsidiary IPFlix to provide all of their content to their IP Infrastructure. Founded from the marriage between an ISP and Broadcast Television Station, Digitalputty and KCCE respectively, Backspace Communications has been broadcasting live television stations over IP networks for the past four years. Backspace has developed their own account management automation software, authorization and authentications software, utilization and monitoring software, all proprietary and database driven. In addition, they have conceived and constructed a completely proprietary acquisition, encoding, and broadcasting infrastructure. Backspace TV is a true pioneer in the IPTV Marketplace. Data-Fortress has been building out their points of presence throughout Western Canada and United States West Coast for over five years. They have a complete fiber loop throughout the Greater Vancouver Metropolitan area and service a major university campus as well. Between the two, with Backspace content and DATA-Fortress networks, this pair promises to be a strong player in the emerging market of IPTV. ------------------------------ Date: 25 Dec 2004 18:35:51 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I also hope that access charge regime gets fixed soon. At least then > VoIP proponents will develop truly new features rather than just > being an arbitrage player. Completely agreed. If VoIP is so great, it should be able to support the same obligations as real telephony such as 911 and USF. >> All of the above (except for the press release and the excerpt from >> the letter) is just my opinion, of course. But we really need >> access charge reform and it is organizations like the USTA that are >> standing in the way, ... The implementation of Universal Service certainly could be improved, but it still makes it possible for you to call a whole lot of people who live outside cities and suburbs and couldn't afford a phone if they had to pay the full incremental cost. Remember that the whole point of USF is that the more people who you can call, the more useful everyone's phones are. R's of the season. John ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 23:46:09 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart Jack Decker on Fri, 24 Dec 2004 12:32:59 -0500 wrote about USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart > "In this latest attempt to avoid paying what it owes, AT&T has > employed a two-part scheme. In the first part, AT&T claims that > because it briefly diverts long-distance calls between two towns in > the same state to an out-of-state 800 platform, the company can avail > itself of the lower rates carriers charge for interstate calls rather > than paying the higher rates owed to local telecom providers for > intrastate calls. Many years ago big companies in California would route their point-to-point private lines or "tie lines" through a PBX in an office in Nevada. This was a "rusty switch" in that it didn't actually switch the traffic. Still, it entitled the companies to pay interstate rates. The FCC has ALWAYS taken a very strict view on what is interstate traffic. Since the FCC is also trying to lower per-minute access charges, AT&T will probably prevail > The second part of the scheme involves playing a > brief audio clip promoting companies like Wal-Mart and SAMS > CLUB. AT&T claims that by including this brief audio clip, calls > placed using these cards are no longer phone calls but are instead > 'enhanced' services which have no obligation to support > universal service, the joint industry fund that ensures affordable, > reliable telecommunications services for rural and fixed-income > Americans as well as for connecting schools and libraries to the > Internet." The definition of "enhanced services" has been a mess for years. "Time" and "Weather" services provided by the phone company came under the definition of "enhanced" and had to be exempted from the FCC's rules many years ago, even before the divestiture. ------------------------------ From: torotoro@digitalputty.com Subject: Re: The End of TV as We Know It Date: 25 Dec 2004 16:08:20 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Very poignant posture, Monty. We at Backspace.TV have been on just that since 1999 when we founded our ISP Digitalputty.com and married it with our TV Station KCCE 50. Moreover, as an enterprise level corporation with SBC we were heavy into negotiations for distribution to their 4M Yahoo DSL Subs when they suddenly went silent last June ( about the same time they inked Microsoft IPTV ). We're broadcasting to consumers and partnering with RBOC's for their subs as well. Welcome to the future of broadcast. http://www.backspace.tv Monty Solomon wrote: > Sit back on the sofa and get ready for packetized, on-demand, digital > broadcasts. > By Frank Rose > Wired Magazine > Issue 12.12 > December 2004 > We live in the age of the digital packet. Documents, images, music, > phone calls -- all get chopped up, propelled through networks, and > reassembled at the other end according to Internet protocol. So why > not TV? > That's the question cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner and Baby > Bells like SBC and Verizon have been asking. The concept has profound > implications for television and the Internet. TV over Internet > protocol -- IPTV -- will transform couch-cruising into an on-demand > experience. For the Internet, it will mean broadband at speeds 10, > 100, or even 1,000 times faster than today's DSL or cable. Online > games would be startlingly realistic; the idea of channels would seem > hopelessly archaic. Why not indeed? > So far, the answer has been inertia. But competition is a powerful > stimulus. For years, DirecTV and EchoStar have been adding subscribers > far faster than cable, so cable companies want something satellite > can't match. At the same time, voice over IP is enabling cable > operators to poach phone customers from telcos. Combine VoIP, truly > high-speed broadband, and totally on-demand TV - and you've got such a > compelling proposition that the Bell companies figure the only way to > survive is to do likewise. > IPTV is not to be confused with television over the Internet. On the > public Net, packets get delayed or lost entirely -- that's why Web > video is so jerky and lo-res. But private networks like Comcast's are > engineered, obviously, for reliable video delivery -- which means IPTV > will look at least as good as TV coming from digital cable or > satellite. > It will be accompanied by another, equally critical change. Instead > of broadcasting every channel continuously, service providers plan to > transmit them only to subscribers who request them. In effect, every > channel will be streamed on demand. This will free up huge amounts of > bandwidth for hi-def TV and high-speed broadband. Add IP and you get > interactive services like caller ID on your TV. And the system will > be able to track viewing habits as effectively as Amazon tracks its > customers, so ads will be targeted with scary precision. Put it all > together and you've got television that's as intensely personalized > as 20th-century broadcasting was generic. > http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/start.html?pg=7 ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Beware Sprint Phone Rebates Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 21:18:00 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message Nate wrote: > After my previous Sprint contract was up, I called to see about a > phone/plan upgrade. The salesman sold me a new plan and a new phone > with a big rebate. Well, the rebate was turned down because the > "saleperson" never changed my original plan. Called Sprint and after > talking to two people (including a supervisor), they wouldn't do > anything except say "talk to the rebate people". I explained that the > "rebate people" aren't the ones who screwed up. They didn't seem to > grasp this concept. It looks like Sprint may have sold me a very, > very overpriced phone. Can you say lifelong loss of a Sprint > customer? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is a typical tactic by Sprint. > We have had other messages in the Digest from people who said Sprint > was not honoring their rebates very well. PAT] I would suggest that if they aren't honouring the contract, you shouldn't either. Cease paying the phone bill, for the love of god cease using the phone, then fight it when/if they come after you. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Verizon Takes Next Big Step Toward VoIP Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 12:19:17 -0500 In article , lisa_minter2001@ yahoo.com says: > http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=113914 > Posted on: Friday, 24 December 2004, 03:01 CST > Verizon Takes Next Big Step Toward VoIP > Best known locally for its spring tulip festival, the small northwest > Washington city of Mount Vernon now has a new claim to fame: the first > central office in Verizon's network to be converted from old-fashioned > circuit switching to cutting-edge packet telephony > The setup within the Skagit Valley facility doesn't look much > different than it did before the conversion, part of a $1 billion- > plus nationwide project that Verizon estimates will take five or six > years to complete. The central piece of new equipment, a Nortel > softswitch outfitted with add-ons to support legacy TDM > interconnections, takes up about as much space as the 7-foot-high, > 19-inch-wide Class 5 circuit switch it replaced. The most visible > change is that the new gear flashes with green lights, whereas the > Class 5 cabinets were"closed up and pretty mundane," says a network > operations supervisor at the facility > But the most significant difference is what you can't see: a platform > that promises to generate increased revenue through support of new > converged services while slashing capital and operational costs by up > to 50%. > Verizon is looking to ditch 2,500 Class 5 switches in about as many > local central offices in favor of IP softswitches, plus line media and > trunking gateways. The carrier is deploying Nortel's Communications > Server 2000 softswitch, Packet Voice Gateway (PVG) and Media Gateway > 9000 products. [.....] > Verizon also has installed many softswitches in five central offices > in California, but has not yet turned up service on them because > state regulators are challenging an FCC rule that does not require > incumbents to unbundle VoIP facilities to provide wholesale access > for competitors. ... "It's one of those classic state vs. federal > issues." Elby says the recent FCC ruling that found Vonage's VoIP > service to be interstate in nature and thus exempt from state > regulation has no bearing on Verizon's softswitch deployment in > California. Wholesale unbundling is a separate issue, and Elby > argues that California has erred in its judgment and questions if > this error will be fixed. Full story at: > http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=113914 Once again, too much too late for Verizon. You know that most switches have been IP aware for at least a decade, if not two. I imagine Verizon will still charge exorbitant rates which will mean that they won't gain much other than not needing the old circuit switched infrastructure anymore. So there will be some savings but not for consumers. Thanks again Verizon. I'm so glad I ditched you! ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Don't Disconnect VoIP Service Until You Are Ready to Lose Dial Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 12:21:49 -0500 In article , jack- yahoogroups@withheld says: > A very unsettling thread over on BroadbandReports.com, about how those > who have called to cancel a VoIP service at some future date have > found that it stopped working a few moments later, and could not be > reconnected. If the VoIP companies want to add fuel to the fire of > those clamoring for more regulation, actions like this will surely do > that. Note that AT&T seems to be the smelliest skunk at this picnic > (but not the only one) ... > http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,12200955~mode=flat I can't imagine why I'd get rid of my VoIP line. First, one of the things I look at when moving is if broadband is available or not. If it isn't then I don't move there. So all I'd have to do is take my Vonage router with me, disconnect the telco side of the NID and plug the Vonage router in there. And I've found that the cable companies are more than willing to keep installation appointments. Not only that, they go the length including running new cable to a location of your choice, etc. So in a day or two I can have my net service and phone service up and running at a new location. RBOC's can't move that fast. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My experience with cable (at least in rural areas) is that cable is very prompt with their installation and repairs. Same day or next day installation/repair is quite common. And you are correct; the telcos (Bell at least) are rarely that fast. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Consultant Subject: Re: Click Fraud Threatens Web Date: 25 Dec 2004 21:17:05 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com There are tools and consultants that can help you. And the big issue with click fraud is that it isn't small numbers of people making small amounts of cash, it is large scale abuse using trojan type techniques that install rogue dll's on vast numbers of pc's that is of greater concern. Overture WILL make refunds, read this blog regarding the case study : http://www.clickfraud.com/ The refunds can be large and they can be made quickly, just keep in mind that Overture cannot detect all types of fraud, you have to show the evidence, that often means recruiting a clickfraud consultant. C.F. Consultant Lisa Minter quoted an article in the Digest: > Someone could make the argument that watchdogs have better things to > do. But click fraud -- endlessly clicking on ads to generate cash or > hurt a competitor -- is a serious threat to the web business, and no > one's doing much about it. Commentary by Adam L. Penenberg. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,65324,00.html?tw=wn_story_mailer [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But some companies doing this sort of work -- Google for instance -- seem almost paranoid about webmasters and others trying to cheat them. But I have news for Google, some webmasters are honest people also trying to earn a decent living. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 11:15:36 -0600 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > When I use another redirection alias, through 'us.tc' or 'net.tc' > still other ads show up in German or French. I don't know the answer to any of your other questions. But smartdots.com (the German registrar who is giving away those .tc subdomains) has a header line in their redirected pages that says the language is German. (You'll see it if you view the page source with your browser.) Chances are, Google's robot is using that header to determine the language of the ad. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I did not realize '.tc' was assigned to Germany. For some reason, I thought that '.de' was their country code. Also, I did not think that Google paid any attention to the META or HEAD lines on web pages; just the contents of the page. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 16:32:07 -0600 From: Jeffrey Mattox Subject: Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads Pat: [Please withhold my email address for spam reasons.] Pat wrote: > They claim they ... will only pay for those months on which you get > at least one hundred dollars in revenue, and that they 'reserve the > right' to not pay that if they choose to charge you for your 'costs' > in running their search engine or if they decided you were cheating > on them, etc. > I have yet to have a single month on which I 'earned' a hundred > dollars. The closest I have come was last month (November) in which > they admitted (by their calculation which is the only thing they > will use) to $98.60. So, of course no check, since it was not the > hundred dollars they insist on,... > ... I am thinking very seriously about writing off what I have lost > on Google Ad Sense unless I can find an attorney willing to sue them > to try and collect the approximately two hundred dollars they always > find reasons not to pay on, ... Pat! Calm down! From the very start, you've expected them to cheat you, so you assume they are. Not so. You have grossly misunderstood their payment scheme. For one thing, they WILL pay you what you earned. They accumulate your earnings from one month to the next until you reach $100 or more, then they pay you whatever the balance is. It is NOT a minimum $100 per month or you get nothing. They just don't want to cut checks for less than $100. Second, the charge back only applies to Google Search (not the ads) and only to some very large users of their service. This will certainly not apply to you. Even to those users, they only charge a small fraction of the earnings. As to how they calculate the payments, it depends on how much each advertiser is willing to pay, and that varies widely from one ad to the next. They keep less than half, and pay you the rest. True, they don't give you the exact ratios, but people have figured it out and there are web sites devoted to this issue. I believe it's about 70/30 (70% to you, 30% to Google). The amount varies depending on the settings the advertiser has put in, and so it's impossible to compute in advance what you will earn. You are seeing duplicate ads (or no ads) because you are expecting them to serve 12 per page. That is too many, and Google (and others) suggests you avoid putting that many ads on a page. If you only offered up the banner (4 ads), it would look and feel better. All this is explained on the Google Adsense site, and I have previously suggested you read their FAQ. But, you have repeatedly railed against them, so I assume you were convinced from the start that they were out to cheat you. You don't need lawyers. You need to calm down, wait for your first check, and read their FAQ! The only real complaint you have is their estimation that you would earn "several hundreds of dollars per month." You are earning about $100 per month. Is that really so bad? Jeff [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thus far I have earned **zero dollars and zero cents** from their ads, over three months since I started running their ads. And maybe I was convinced early on that they would cheat me, but if you actually read their lengthy terms of service, you'll see where they feel the same way about most of the webmasters. Don't bot-click, don't play games with key-words, we 'reserve the right not to pay' etc, as if *they* thought they were in charge of things around here! And they are very, very secret about *how much* they choose to pay. I have had days with a dozen click throughs and Google said it was worth ten dollars; the next day two or three times as many hits and click throughs and it was only worth ten cents. And I have never before seen a company which would not state specifically what its operation costs were (as with Google searches) and 'reserve the right' to charge that cost back after-the-fact to the webmasters who were running their ads for them. Why won't Google give any guidelines on things like this, other than just generic phrases? Anyway, they pay much, much less on clickthroughs after the search engine than on ads before it. I thought that markdown was to pay for their costs. I'd rather see them agree to pay some smaller amount of money, but *actually pay it* and not play games like they do now. I am expected to wait for several months before getting any money at all, and even then I don't know for sure how much it will be until it gets here? 'Bidvertiser' tells you exactly how many pennies they are going to pay for clickthroughs. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson Subject: Serious Vandalism on the Net Over the Holiday Date: Sun, 26, Dec 2004 18:00:00 EST It appears that over the Christmas holiday, some kiddie who got a new toy computer to play with decided to do a number on many (most? all?) newsgroups with several thousand trashy, stupid messages, repeated over and over in various newsgroups. I received messages from readers of c.d.t. who thought *I* could possibly do something about it. This newsgroup got hit pretty badly, but news.admin.net-abuse.email got it worst of all, I understand. I had some email this afternoon with John Levine about this mess, and he responded: > This is quite unusual. It's been over a year since there's > been a spew like this, and there wouldn't be now except that > there appears to be one well-connected host in Europe whose > management has taken the week off. Then I asked: > But even if the managment took the week off, didn't they have any > bots on duty? John then replied: They have a dusty server that is misconfigured and lets anyone post with fake credentials. Most likely it has been sitting there for a couple of years, unused and unnoticed. The correct thing to do with it is to pull the plug. The group that's under attack, news.admin.net-abuse.email is unmoderated so there's no approved line to handle. I found a few dozen cross posts to c.d.t and sent out cancels for them. As far as I can tell, the flood stopped this morning so apparently they woke someone up. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of The Internet for Dummies Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Mayor "I dropped the toothpaste", said Tom, crestfallenly. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And I hope for all of you, the Christmas holiday was as joyful and pleasant as it has been for me! PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Last Laugh! Doctor and Hospital Bills From: Lisa Minter Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 21:07:51 EST A man suffered a serious heart attack and had open heart bypass surgery. He awakened from the surgery to find himself in the care of nuns at a Catholic hospital. As he was recovering, a nun asked him questions regarding how he was going to pay for services. He was asked if he had health insurance. He replied in a raspy voice, "No health insurance." The nun asked if he had money in the bank. He replied, "No money in the bank." The nun asked, "Do you have a relative who could help you?" He said, "I only have a spinster sister who is a nun." The nun got a little perturbed and announced loudly, "Nuns are not spinsters! Nuns are married to God." The patient replied, "Then send the bill to my brother-in-law." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Very good! I wish I had thought of that line when Stormont-Vale Medical Center came to see me to collect on the *300 thousand* dollars I owed after my brain aneurysm surgery, two months in a coma and an additional month in the rehabilitation unit. Ever see a hospital/doctor bill bottom line of $300,000.00 after three months more or less in the hospital? It almost caused me to have yet another heart attack! PAT] ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #619 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Dec 27 15:47:46 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBRKlk024269; Mon, 27 Dec 2004 15:47:46 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 15:47:46 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412272047.iBRKlk024269@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 #620 TELECOM Digest Mon, 27 Dec 2004 15:48:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 620 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Adelphia Reports Billions in Losses Going Back Over Years (dailyLead) Drill Bit Size (Fred Atkinson) The Secret Life of Phone Numbers (Alan Burkitt-Gray) Re: What Tandem in Telcom Means? (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart (Mark Atwood) Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads (Dave Garland) Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads (LB@notmine.com) Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads (Bob Goudreau) Re: Last Laugh! Doctor and Hospital Bills (Dave VanHorn) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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, 27 Dec 2004 12:45:13 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Adelphia Reports Billions in Losses Dating Back Over Years http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18342&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Adelphia reports billions in losses dating back over years BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Experts: Mobile phone viruses may pose threat * Researchers predict Ethernet services boom * Nextel chief sees big things on the horizon * Lucent's Russo reaps gains from company's turnaround USTA SPOTLIGHT * "3G Wireless with WiMAX and Wi-Fi" -- Now in the Telecom Bookstore EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * As GPS use grows, privacy concerns emerge REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Israel restricts pornographic mobile phone content * FCC: Local-access lines up 7% in first half of 2004 Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18342&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Drill Bit Size Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 10:11:37 -0500 Can anyone on here tell me what the standard bit size that is used by telephone installers to drill the holes for running standard, four pair telephone wire through (like drilling a hole through the baseboard into the floor to pull the wire in to wire a jack mounted on the baseboard)? Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: Alan Burkitt-Gray Subject: TELECOM Digest: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 13:27:18 -0000 Organization: Alan Burkitt-Gray I thought Digest fans would be interested in this programme on BBC Radio 4 tonight (Monday 27) at 20.00 GMT (3pm ET): It's available when broadcast from the BBC Radio Four website in RealAudio on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4.shtml?fm (you can download a free player if you don't already have it) The Secret Life of Phone Numbers Dialing up stories from the history of telephony, Ian Peacock recalls the days of two-digit phone numbers and purring dial tones, GPO operators and mechanical exchanges. He discovers that this era was still with us even as digital technology and mobile phones entered our lives in the 1990s. Producer Alan Daulby The BBC has a listen again facility, also in RealAudio, for up to seven days after original broadcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml Alan Burkitt-Gray alan@burkitt-gray.com 7 Foxes Dale, London SE3 9BD, UK tel 020 8463 0365 international +44 20 8463 0365 mobile 079 6202 1330 international +44 79 6202 1330 ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 09:13:24 EST Subject: Re: What Tandem in Telcom Means? In a message dated Sat, 25 Dec 2004 00:53:57 -0800, Tim@Backhome.org writes: > Wesrock@aol.com wrote: >> In the late 1940s I made a call from a coin box in Los Angeles, and >> the operator had to go to rate-and-route to learn which (manual) toll >> tandem to plug into which had trunks toward the destination. L.A. had >> so many outgoing manual toll trunks that they had to be distributed >> among various tandems; as I recall, for my call the operator was >> director to (manual) toll tandem No. 4. which had trunks for the MX >> (multi-switch) routing to the destination. > If you were calling out of the area before DDD came in effect in the > late 1950s, there was always rate-and-route for calls out the LA area, > and probably most areas of the country. I'm not sure what point you are making. Toll operators had keyshelf bulletins giving routes to the commonly called points, and in most cases direct trunks to a large number of places directly in their multiples. Rate-and-route operators existed everywhere, to determine the routing to places with less traffic, including the smallest places and toll stations, that were not listed on the keyshelf bulletin. What I found unusual about Los Angeles was that it had outgoing trunks to so many places that the toll operator had to know (whether from her knowledge, the keyshelf bulletin or rate-and-route) not only that she had to first reach a tandem with trunks to places not in her multiple but that there were several different tandems because there were so many different trunk groups they could not all be accomodated either in the multiple before the operator or in a single toll tandem as was the case in most places. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart From: Mark Atwood Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 01:49:21 GMT John Levine writes: >> I also hope that access charge regime gets fixed soon. At least then >> VoIP proponents will develop truly new features rather than just >> being an arbitrage player. > Completely agreed. If VoIP is so great, it should be able to support > the same obligations as real telephony such as 911 and USF. Should email have similar "obligations"? So long as I know what I'm getting, I am perfectly happy paying for my "fake telephony". And, VoIP or no, the USF should be elimated. Now. Immediately. Yesterday, if possible. Mark Atwood | When you do things right, people won't be sure mark@atwood.name | you've done anything at all. http://mark.atwood.name/ http://www.livejournal.com/users/fallenpegasus ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 00:12:00 -0600 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > I did not realize '.tc' was assigned to Germany. It's not. It's assigned to the Turks and Caicos Islands. But apparently the German registrar owns "us.tc", and it's subdomains of that they're giving away. (I expect that it's not possible to move to somebody else's name server, you're not actually getting an IP number from smartdots but, I think, just some forwarding wizardry.) > For some reason, I thought that '.de' was their country code. Quite correct, .de is Germany. But the registrar has presumably they've paid the .tc government (or whoever has ultimate authority over that TLD) to purchase "us.tc", "net.tc", "at.tc", "de.tc", etc. A lot of tiny countries seem to be trying to cash in on their namespace this way. > Also, I did not think that Google paid any attention to the > META or HEAD lines on web pages; just the contents of the page. I'm not sure, but what with your page apparently being in a frame, who knows what Google looks for. That 'META name="LANGUAGE" content="DE,german,deutsch"' is an obvious connection to "German", as the T&C Islands are English-speaking. ------------------------------ From: LB@notmine.com Subject: Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 05:55:56 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online Jeffrey Mattox wrote: > Pat: > [Please withhold my email address for spam reasons.] > Pat wrote: >> They claim they ... will only pay for those months on which you get >> at least one hundred dollars in revenue, and that they 'reserve the >> right' to not pay that if they choose to charge you for your 'costs' >> in running their search engine or if they decided you were cheating >> on them, etc. >> I have yet to have a single month on which I 'earned' a hundred >> dollars. The closest I have come was last month (November) in which >> they admitted (by their calculation which is the only thing they >> will use) to $98.60. So, of course no check, since it was not the >> hundred dollars they insist on,... >> ... I am thinking very seriously about writing off what I have lost >> on Google Ad Sense unless I can find an attorney willing to sue them >> to try and collect the approximately two hundred dollars they always >> find reasons not to pay on, ... > Pat! Calm down! From the very start, you've expected them to cheat > you, so you assume they are. Not so. You have grossly misunderstood > their payment scheme. For one thing, they WILL pay you what you > earned. They accumulate your earnings from one month to the next > until you reach $100 or more, then they pay you whatever the balance > is. It is NOT a minimum $100 per month or you get nothing. They just > don't want to cut checks for less than $100. > Second, the charge back only applies to Google Search (not the ads) > and only to some very large users of their service. This will > certainly not apply to you. Even to those users, they only charge a > small fraction of the earnings. > As to how they calculate the payments, it depends on how much each > advertiser is willing to pay, and that varies widely from one ad to > the next. They keep less than half, and pay you the rest. True, they > don't give you the exact ratios, but people have figured it out and > there are web sites devoted to this issue. I believe it's about 70/30 > (70% to you, 30% to Google). The amount varies depending on the > settings the advertiser has put in, and so it's impossible to compute > in advance what you will earn. > You are seeing duplicate ads (or no ads) because you are expecting > them to serve 12 per page. That is too many, and Google (and others) > suggests you avoid putting that many ads on a page. If you only > offered up the banner (4 ads), it would look and feel better. > All this is explained on the Google Adsense site, and I have > previously suggested you read their FAQ. But, you have repeatedly > railed against them, so I assume you were convinced from the start > that they were out to cheat you. You don't need lawyers. You need > to calm down, wait for your first check, and read their FAQ! > The only real complaint you have is their estimation that you would > earn "several hundreds of dollars per month." You are earning about > $100 per month. Is that really so bad? > Jeff > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thus far I have earned **zero dollars > and zero cents** from their ads, over three months since I started > running their ads. And maybe I was convinced early on that they would > cheat me, but if you actually read their lengthy terms of service, > you'll see where they feel the same way about most of the webmasters. > Don't bot-click, don't play games with key-words, we 'reserve the > right not to pay' etc, as if *they* thought they were in charge of > things around here! And they are very, very secret about *how much* > they choose to pay. I have had days with a dozen click throughs and > Google said it was worth ten dollars; the next day two or three times > as many hits and click throughs and it was only worth ten cents. And > I have never before seen a company which would not state specifically > what its operation costs were (as with Google searches) and 'reserve > the right' to charge that cost back after-the-fact to the webmasters > who were running their ads for them. Why won't Google give any guidelines > on things like this, other than just generic phrases? Anyway, they > pay much, much less on clickthroughs after the search engine than > on ads before it. I thought that markdown was to pay for their costs. > I'd rather see them agree to pay some smaller amount of money, but > *actually pay it* and not play games like they do now. I am expected > to wait for several months before getting any money at all, and even > then I don't know for sure how much it will be until it gets here? > 'Bidvertiser' tells you exactly how many pennies they are going to pay > for clickthroughs. PAT] Pat, It appears Google is like E-bay. Both are 800 pound gorillas that you do not have to dance with, but since so many folks do dance with you are stuck with their rules. To answer some of your "why" questions. Google _does_ have competition and good business sense says they have every reason to be as quiet as possible on many things. It appears you are stuck with the Golden Rule of business: Those with the Gold make the rules LB ------------------------------ From: BobGoudreau@ withheld on request Subject: Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 11:48:18 -0500 [As always, please delete my email address from the message header and from the digest ToC=2E Thanks=2E] >>> When I use another redirection alias, through 'us.tc' or 'net.tc' >>> still other ads show up in German or French. >> I don't know the answer to any of your other questions. But >> smartdots.com (the German registrar who is giving away those .tc >> subdomains) has a header line in their redirected pages that says the >> language is German. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I did not realize '.tc' was assigned > to Germany. It's not. It's assigned to the Turks and Caicos Islands, which is a British territory in the Caribbean. > For some reason, I thought that '.de' was their country code. True, but irrelevant. Dave didn't claim that the .tc domain was assigned to Germany. What he actually said was that the .tc and net.tc SUBdomains (not the overall .tc domain) were ADMINISTERED by (not assigned to) a German registrar COMPANY (not the government of the Federal Republic of Germany). Presumably, SmartDots purchased the rights to those subdomains through legitimate means from the registrar of the overall .tc domain, which is an English company called AdamsNames Limited. AdamsNames itself presumably has an arrangement with the T&C government (or possibly their colonial superiors in London) to administer the .tc name space. Bob Goudreau Cary, NC [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It seems like that Adams Company has a lot of domains they give away for free, just for asking, and taking. Both '.tf' and '.tc' are entirely divided up with lots of sub-domains under them, including all the various two letter country codes and all the USA domains such as .org, .com, .net, etc ... if you go to http://smartdots.com or http://cydots.com or http://www.unonic.com or http://dhs.org you will see a drop down menu listing (in each case) **dozens** of domains and sub-domains, etc where you are free to help yourself, as long as the unique name of your site is not taken. http://cydots.com gives away all the '.ms' domains the same way. And they all -- cydots, smartdots, unonic, etc give lots of free webmaster tools, if you want them; passworded web sites, hit counters, email, etc. 'dhs.org' is out of Australia, and they give away lots of dhs.org subdomains, and also 'n3.net'. They --'dhs.org' -- ask for a five dollar donation for their work which can be paid through PayPal, but all the '.tc', '.tf', and '.ms' domain names are totally free, and they also offer email, and various webmaster tools Every one of them works like re-directors, but they offer to 'cloak' the real site you are at with whatever name you tell them. I am sure there are more like that, those are the only ones I found thus far. I do not know where '.ms' (smartdots.com) is located, but it must be that same Adams Company, or at least they use the same domain name-picking software that '.tf' (known to be Adams Company) uses. So I suggest everyone stock up on domain names from all those countries. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: Dave VanHorn From: Dave VanHorn Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Doctor and Hospital Bills Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 08:40:44 -0500 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Very good! I wish I had thought of that > line when Stormont-Vale Medical Center came to see me to collect on > the *300 thousand* dollars I owed after my brain aneurysm surgery, two > months in a coma and an additional month in the rehabilitation unit. > Ever see a hospital/doctor bill bottom line of $300,000.00 after three > months more or less in the hospital? It almost caused me to have yet > another heart attack! PAT] Two years ago, I was in intensive care for pancreatitis. No mild attack this, nine weeks in the hospital, plus another 6 at home. Through all this time, no food, no water, I ate through a tube in my arm. Roughly $250k Insurance picked up most of the tab though. ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #620 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Dec 28 15:11:21 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBSKBLh06869; Tue, 28 Dec 2004 15:11:21 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 15:11:21 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412282011.iBSKBLh06869@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 #621 TELECOM Digest Tue, 28 Dec 2004 15:11:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 621 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Will 2005 Bring a Safer Internet? (Lisa Minter) Hacker Hits McDonald's China Web Site Over Taiwan (Lisa Minter) T-Online Launches No-Frills Internet Brand (Lisa Minter) Dueling Satellite Radio Rivals see Subscriber Jump (Telecom dailyLead) Speaking of VoIP (Tony P.) Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads (John Levine) Re: Drill Bit Size (Gordon S. Hlavenka) Re: Drill Bit Size (Justin Time) Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart (John Levine) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Will 2005 Bring a Safer Internet? Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:23:13 EST by Larry Seltzer - eWEEK Sometimes writing about security is just too easy. Making predictions about next year is like this in some ways. Let's pick some of the low-hanging fruit early. Even though most spam-tracking companies show that spam already comprises 75 percent or more of all e-mail, that proportion will go up in 2005. We are approaching the situation in which, I have always assumed, users will begin to withdraw from e-mail because it is so unpleasant. It seems to me that the consensus number at the end of last year was at or just above 50 percent, so I'll assume it will go up another 50 percent of legit percentage, up to 87.5 percent. Of course, with an overall number like that, there will be many days where 95 percent or more of all e-mail is spam. No matter how good filters are, more and more is going to get through. Will authentication, the last great hope to save e-mail, make a difference? We can hope that by the end of 2005 it will have taken deep roots, but will we be in a position where domains can really begin blocking and rejecting mail that isn't authenticated? That's the ultimate goal, and I think it will take longer. Perhaps this is some more low-hanging fruit. You might have noticed that December has so far been a gangbusters month for vulnerability reports. Microsoft is well-represented, not just on its own controversial patch day, but with a separate report about the Windows Firewall and an independent report about Internet Explorer. But it's not just Microsoft. We've also had reports this month of vulnerabilities in products from Cisco and Veritas, along with the Samba file-sharing system. There were separate reports about the PHP Web programming system and Mozilla-based Web browsers. And let's not forget the serious holes Apple reported early this month. December must have been the most bug-ridden month of 2004, but researchers tell me that inventories of unpublished vulnerabilities are running high. I think that months like December will become more the norm than the exception in 2005. We'll need some new metric to quantify this, but I think the average number of vulnerabilities reported per month in 2005 will increase substantially over 2004. Firefox Flaws, Phishing: On a related point, we and others have been reporting that usage of the Firefox browser has been increasing rapidly. I'm actually skeptical of the numbers, but let's take them for granted for the sake of argument. If they're true, then Firefox and Mozilla are on track to reach the point of penetration where malware programmers will begin targeting them specifically. I don't want to overstate things; Firefox has a long way to go before its problem list rivals that of Internet Explorer, but it does have problems, some of them serious. I pointed to a new one recently and there are other fairly recent ones reported. It's not hard to imagine attacks on Mozilla and Firefox originating with spam messages aimed at them. "Subj: Attention Firefox Users -- Sign Up for Update Notification" or something along those lines. What, you think only IE users are stupid enough to click through? Speaking of user error, most of us pundits a year ago predicted an increase in phishing, but boy, was there an increase in phishing! Most of it is rather unimaginative stuff, simply trolling for Paypal account information. I've seen an increase recently in the cleverness of these attacks and I think the attackers have barely scratched the surface of what is possible. So, look for another large increase in the volume of phishing attack e-mails, but look especially for an increase in the quality of the attack. Spyware got annoying enough in 2004 for the mainstream security industry to start ramping up to attack it, either through their own products or through buying established anti-spyware/-adware companies (as Computer Associates did with PestPatrol). Look for the security industry to try to push new anti-spyware products, especially in the corporate market. In fact, this has already begun. I hope, but won't predict, that buyers reject getting shafted on this anti-spyware scam. This is a function that the anti-virus companies should have taken on all along as part of what their products do. I'll dig further into this subject soon. To quote Peter Coffee quoting Bill Gates, "There is a tendency to overestimate how much technology will change in the next two years, and a similar tendency to underestimate how much things will change in the next 10 years." Ten years ago, most of us barely had our feet wet in the Internet. Who would have thought it would be such a hostile place and that so much of our attention would be spend trying to protect ourselves from criminals running rampant? I can't predict that it will be a safer place a year from now, but it will have to be in 10 years; there's a limit to how much of this security stuff we can all tolerate. Larry Seltzer has worked in and written about the computer industry since 1983. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Ziff-Davis. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Diges Editor's Note: I agree with Mr. Seltzer; the net is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, if it ever does. I can only speak for my little entry on the net, this Digest and its web pages; but the spam to letigimate email ratio here almost always runs in excess of 90 percent spam. Thus far today, for example, I have dumped 356 items of spam from telecom mail alone. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Hacker Hits McDonald's China Web Site Over Taiwan Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:25:55 EST BEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese-language Web site of fast food giant McDonald's Corp. was broken into twice on Christmas by a hacker protesting against its listing of Taiwan as a separate country, the Beijing Youth Daily said on Monday. The world's largest restaurant chain is expanding fast in China and currently has 600 stores in what has become its eighth-largest market. McDonald's English-language home page features a sign saying "I'm going to McDonald's" pointing at a drop-down menu listing China and Taiwan as separate "country/market" identities. China has considered the self-ruled island of Taiwan part of its territory since it split away from the mainland after the defeated Nationalists fled there at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. On Christmas night, the McDonald's Chinese home page (www.mcdonalds.com.cn) was turned into a black-and-white picture of a skull bearing the words "protest McDonald's official Web site listing Taiwan as a country," the newspaper said. On top of the skull were the English words "Chinese hacker." The site could not be opened at all early on Monday but was back to normal later in the day. An official with McDonald's in Beijing said the company had no immediate comment. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: T-Online Launches No-Frills Internet Brand Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:28:28 EST FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's dominant Internet service provider, Deutsche Telekom unit T-Online International, has launched its no-frills brand Congster in a fight back against German low-cost rivals. T-Online launched the Web site www.congster.de where clients can sign up for Congster's low-cost Internet access, targeting users of cheaper competitors such as freenet.de or United Internet with a stripped-down Internet access. Unlike T-Online and the rivals, Congster does not offer subsidies for hardware needed for high-speed, or DSL, or for the sign-up fees first-time users have to pay, targeting tech-savvy clients which already have a DSL service but seek change. "Congster is clearly aiming for customers who already have DSL, who already have e-mail, have the hardware, and know how to set up their PC to use it," said a spokesman for Congster, a fully-owned T-Online subsidiary, on Tuesday. On its Web site, Congster offers an online form with which prospective customers can easily set up a letter cancelling their existing DSL account with 15 of its rivals if they sign up with Congster. T-Online's namesake brand, which connects 11.3 million users in Germany to the Internet, is significantly more expensive than those rivals as it offers additional services such as premium content, e-mail and anti-virus software. Congster, without these additional services, is offering its cheapest rate at 3.99 euros per month including 2,000 megabytes of data. Freenet charges 5.90 euros for the same data volume, and T-Online's fee is 9.95 euros for just 1,500 megabytes. T-Online, which its parent Telekom wants to reintegrate by buying back all stock it does not own in a 3-billion euro $4.06 billion) bid, has lost market share over the past 12 months amid a fierce price war for DSL Internet access in Germany. The Congster spokesman declined to say how many clients the new service hoped to gain, or how many had already signed up. He said customer numbers could be reported next month. Telekom is due to report customer numbers for the quarter to December on January 27. T-Online stock, for which Telekom is offering 8.99 euros per share in a tender offer that expires in February, traded unchanged at 9.74 euros by 3:57 a.m. EST. Freenet stock was up 1.2 percent at 19.28 euros and United Internet was unchanged at 19.75 euros. All three shares are constituents of Germany's high-tech index TecDAX which was 0.1 percent lighter. ($1=.7386 Euro) NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:09:45 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Dueling Satellite Radio Rivals See Jump in Subscribers Telecom dailyLead from USTA http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18376&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Dueling satellite radio rivals see jump in subscribers BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Broadband takes U.K. by storm * Telefonica privatization offers interesting lessons * Blackstone eyes IPO for New Skies Satellite USTA SPOTLIGHT * In USTA's Telecom Bookstore: "Softswitch Architecture for VoIP" EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * What does the future hold for 3G? REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Bill signed exempting E-Rate from federal accounting rules Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18376&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Speaking of VoIP Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 16:53:36 -0500 I got a call from Cox today. Apparently they'll be rolling out VoIP service to compete with Vonage, Voicewing, etc in about two months. The price will be $18.99 a month. But then I realized, Cox is an FCC regulated voice carrier so all the fees and crap will kick in and the price will be > $24.99 I pay now. The guy trying to sell me this service was explaining my VoIP line isn't secure. I told him anyone with a half brain and a butt set could render pretty much any wire line communication insecure. As I explained, my line goes down to the NID where I disconnected and tagged the Verizon line. So it's an analog signal at that point. I love the scare tactics they try. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Cox is the cable company serving Coffeyville. Cable One does Independence and south of town going out Tenth Street to around Dearing, Kansas, then Cox takes over from there south to Coffeyville, Tyro, Caney and the Oklahoma state line. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 28 Dec 2004 05:41:56 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It seems like that Adams Company has > a lot of domains they give away for free, just for asking, and taking. No, Bob is right. Somone in Germany paid to register net.tc, org.tc, etc. and is for reasons of his own giving away subdomains. That's fine, it's legal and honest, but if you use one of these subdomains you're completely at the mercy of Mr. net.tc if he decides to change his rules. Personally, I'd rather pay the $10 and have a domain that's harder to take away on a whim. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The givers-away of free, remote registered domains in the '.ms', '.tc' and '.tf' domains are all using precisely the same templates and software, and all offer the same webmaster's tool-kits, if, as you suggest, they are different people/organizations. But instead of paying $10 for a domain you could pay $5 for (any unlimited number of) domain names in the 'dhs.org' and 'n3.net' group, which, although they have USA-like nomenclatures for their names, are based in Australia ( http://dhs.org ) All the above redirectors are good for guys who wish to run websites using their own computers but keep their true identity secret. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 23:43:57 -0600 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelex.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: Drill Bit Size Fred Atkinson wrote: > Can anyone on here tell me what the standard bit size that is used by > telephone installers to drill the holes for running standard, four > pair telephone wire through (like drilling a hole through the > baseboard into the floor to pull the wire in to wire a jack mounted on > the baseboard)? I have a 5/8" spade bit, 6 feet long with a 6 foot extension. Spade bits are easier to aim, IMO, than twist bits. Standard caveats apply wrt knowing what's ahead of your bit :-) I also have a "shorty" that's only 18" long, for special occasions. Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com Tragically, as many as 9625 out of every 10,000 individuals may be neurotypical ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: Drill Bit Size Date: 28 Dec 2004 05:08:39 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Try one about a 1/16 in. larger than the diameter of the cable you are feeding through the hole. The size of the bit will vary slightly between brands, but a 5/16 should handle the bulk of them. ------------------------------ Date: 27 Dec 2004 20:55:46 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> Completely agreed. If VoIP is so great, it should be able to support >> the same obligations as real telephony such as 911 and USF. > Should email have similar "obligations"? Of course not. It doesn't purport to be telphony, and it doesn't interoperate with the other billion phones on the face of the planet. > So long as I know what I'm getting, I am perfectly happy paying > for my "fake telephony". > And, VoIP or no, the USF should be elimated. Now. Immediately. > Yesterday, if possible. I think you might enjoy Free World Dialup. It's got no USF and no pesky high cost users. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of The Internet for Dummies, Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "I shook hands with Senators Dole and Inouye," said Tom, disarmingly. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not only is Free World Dialup *totally* free, but you can interface with the public telephone network some of the time, partly, also for free. For example, you can get no charge incoming-only telephone numbers in the 360-227 group of numbers in Washington state. A person dialing that 360-227 number gets translated into your Free World Dialup line. I think whoever offers that service gives free voicemail with it as well, and email notification of any voicemail message received. Now for outgoing calls, there is more of a problem. Right now, during December and part of January, FWD is giving free outgoing calls as well, dialing * plus the country code and the full ten digit number. Other than this holiday period, FWD only gives free outgoing calls on the calls they don't have to pay for either, i.e. toll free 800 numbers. What you do in that case is *1 plus the ten digit toll free number. Free World Dialup is not a bad deal at all for many folks. I have an FWD number on one of my Think Pad laptops (the one with the wireless 802.11 card in it) so I can walk around in my back yard and get phone calls via the 360-227-xxxx number from anyone. PAT] ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #621 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Dec 28 22:11:14 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBT3BD810426; Tue, 28 Dec 2004 22:11:14 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 22:11:14 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412290311.iBT3BD810426@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 #622 TELECOM Digest Tue, 28 Dec 2004 22:10:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 622 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Surfing in Secret (Lisa Minter) Tracking Techniques (Lisa Minter) Keeping E-Mail Private (Lisa Minter) What Will the PC of 2005 Look Like? (Lisa Minter) NASA Television Now on Our Web Site (TELECOM Digest Editor) Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Speaking of VoIP (John Levine) www.area-code.us (Mike Schoenberger) 1st 1-900 Number Question on Millionaire Show (carl@mail.centuria.com) Re: Drill Bit Size (Tony P.) Looking For Users Manual For Bellsouth 4300GR Phone (eljainc@ameritech) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Surfing in Secret Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:31:29 EST by Michael Fitzgerald - ExtremeTech A famous cartoon from the early days of the Internet featured a dog surfing his computer with the caption, "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog." That cartoon implied a level of anonymity that doesn't really exist online. You might tell your online pals you aren't a dog, but it doesn't take much work for someone to figure out you visit puppylove.com, have "Cat Marauder" on your Amazon wish list and spend a lot of time in the DogzChew chatroom. Now, you might be thinking that in truth, no one cares if you're a dog. In fact, at a holiday party, a friend of mine asked me why GhostSurf, a software package that helps you shield your online privacy, was a selling point for his new PC. He didn't think he was doing anything interesting online. Except shopping, checking out various types of news sites, sending e-mail to clients and letting his kids check out their favorite sites. All of these things could prove very interesting, if not to governments and marketers then to bored geeks and more malicious types. But don't get paranoid. It's unlikely that you're being a victim to keystroke logging or some other form of cyber-wiretapping. And most, if not all, e-commerce sites use encryption software to protect their orders. So, chances are slim that someone will capture your credit card data as you type it in online. But the IP address your computer has is tantamount to your home address. It goes with you to every site you visit and gets recorded along with all of your actions there, every time you go there. It's a simple fact of Internet life that "sites do log stuff," says Simple Nomad (Mark Loveless), a well-known white-hat hacker who is a senior security analyst at toolmaker Bindview Corp. You actually may want them to log at least some things about you, in order to get quick access to a site or to place an order. But Simple Nomad warns that you aren't just flitting around the Internet unwatched. He impresses his teenage son by sitting in coffee shops with his laptop and telling his son which joke in a chat room made someone laugh or what their credit card number is. He uses a tool called a sniffer to do this, in unsecure wireless network environments. Sniffing You Out Sniffers do make it easy for others to find out whether you're a dog, but they aren't all that common. They're generally not a threat to someone on a home network with a firewall and good common sense about what files not to open. But malicious hackers can break into logs of Web sites and Internet Service Providers, which might contain things such as your mother's maiden name, your passwords, your date of birth, your credit card numbers and other types of personal information. These can be used to build profiles of you, either for identity theft or for other purposes. Spyware Then there's the scourge of spyware. You can read John C. Dvorak's take on spyware and its various guises in PC Mag's 'Panic Over Spyware.' Typically, spyware is some innocuous-looking toolbar that lets you, say, change the background color of sites you visit and is in fact tracking what you do and sending information back to another site. Spyware can be distributed automatically and even downloaded to your computer without your knowledge, says Chris Wysopal, director of development at Symantec Corporation. He warns that spyware spreaders actually "are just throwing out a wide net and going after thousands and thousands of people. That's more the way it goes on the Internet." Foiling Criminals So, how to avoid having your IP address become some criminal's window into your life? There are a series of tools to consider, and some simple, common-sense steps to take that can help immensely. First, the tools. Surf anonymously, which protects your privacy and may help you reduce your spam levels and limit the amount of junklike cookies that get dumped on your system. There are a wide variety of tools available. A good sample can be found at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. It covers 16 categories, including ways to e-mail anonymously, surf anonymously and instant message securely. Surfing anonymously might sound geeky, but it's not all that hard. The basic premise involves using software to have your server mask your IP address. It does this by taking, say, the URL you've typed into your browser and sending the request via a different computer, which acts as a proxy for the request; a go-between that cloaks who you are. Good anonymizer tools will also use encryption, so that online snoops can't just grab whatever traffic is going back and forth between you and a Web site. The main drawback to anonymizers is loss of surfing speed. Masking your IP address will slow down your Web surfing, although it's less noticeable in broadband environments. Tools of the Trade Three tools we like are Anonymizer 2004, Bypass Proxy Client 0.78 and GhostSurf 2005 Platinum. All have encrypted communications, and all use their own, company-controlled servers to keep your Web surfing secret. Each is featured in 'Surf in Secret'. The most basic is Anonymizer 2004, which sends any Web request you make; going to Google, say, or buying a book on Amazon.com; first to its own servers and then out to the Web, with a proxy IP address that isn't yours. The service works well, but you are dealing with a single source of servers; all Anonymizers; and it doesn't give you much else than anonymous surfing for its $29.99 a year. You can, however, get a series of other kinds of privacy tools for $99.95 a year. At $49.95 a year, GhostSurf 2005 Platinum costs more than Anonymizer 2004, but it gives you a lot more, too. It's our favorite tool for anonymous surfing, because it offers other tools, such as protection for your instant messaging, and also a way to let you mark sites that you want to allow to see your identity, such as a paid news site you subscribe to. Bypass Proxy Client 0.78 is also an excellent tool, but it's more for advanced users. It requires some skill with software to use, and is best for people who are unable to use Anonymizer or GhostSurf, perhaps because their company IT department decides to block those programs. One nice, though complicated, Bypass feature allows you to route your Web traffic to a proxy server of your choosing. If you're concerned about having your site requests going through servers belonging to just one company, you might try software that uses public servers to route your Web requests. Steganos Internet Anonym Pro 7 is a good tool in this category. This app does take more time to set up than an application like GhostSurf, since Steganos has to go out and search for public servers to use as proxies, but it accelerates with use. It costs $59.95 a year, and that nets you a spyware blocker, an Internet trace eraser and a "shredder" feature. The downside to software such as Steganos is that since the servers are public, pieces of your Web surfing could be tracked. You also can't encrypt your communications, so you could be tracked. There are also free anonymizer tools available, though it's worth checking out the background of any such free service. Now, the habits. Wysopal notes that there are several simple things people can do to protect themselves online: Avoid the cookie monster. You can use your browser to set up a list of the sites that can give you cookies. Don't let any other sites have them, and don't accept their cookies. Don't talk to strangers. Use pseudonyms for your e-mail and chat accounts. Don't give your real name or information about yourself to people you don't know well. Same goes for sites you're unfamiliar with. Don't fill out Web forms. The fewer places that have your personal information, the more protected you are. Use encryption where you can, and finally, when in doubt, fax. Wysopal notes that no one has yet developed spyware for fax machines. And that's just dog-gone good sense. Michael Fitzgerald is an award-winning technology writer and editor. His writing on technology appears in The Economist, Inc., MIT Technology Review and a number of other publications. He's spoken at numerous industry events and frequently appeared on CNN and other major television networks. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance ExtremeTouch and Michael Fitzgerald. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Tracking Techniques Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:34:21 EST Michael Fitzgerald - ExtremeTech The classic techniques include things such as sniffing, which captures all of the data coming from a connection and then analyzes it. Sniffers originally were used to diagnose network performance. But since they capture all of the data coming through a network, these tools can be useful for mischief. Sniffers might be a concern if you spend a lot of time surfing the Web at your office, where your company has a right to track what you do online. But from home, you probably have little to fear from it. It would require either dropping software undetected into a home computer, or breaking into an ISP and do the same. And even then, with encryption and Secure Sockets Layer-type protections built into most Web sites that handle transactions, there's a good deal of data that sniffers can't see, says Chris Wysopal, director of development at Symantec Corporation. He warns that it's far simpler for malicious cyber-types to write and distribute spyware, or phishing, which involves building sites that mimic a bank or retail site and then sending out mass e-mails alerting people to an "emergency" such as the closing of their account if they don't go to the site and give their personal information. These are his top two concerns for privacy violations online. While there are tools for battling spyware, both schemes are best fought through avoidance. Don't download toolbars for your Web site or other such packages unless you know the vendor is a legitimate one (not always clear in the case of spyware, since adware can look like spyware to some, and legitimate business use to others). And don't believe any company that claims it needs your credit card number or other personal information in order to preserve your account. It isn't true. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, ExtremeTech and Michael Fitzgerald. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Keeping E-Mail Private Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:36:27 EST by Michael Fitzgerald - ExtremeTech Surfing anonymously is one thing. But wouldn't sending e-mail anonymously be an online version of mash notes? The quick answer is no. There are plenty of ways to protect your identity when sending e-mail while still making sure that the person who gets your e-mail knows it's from you. And there's good reason to figure out how to do so. Unless you do something to shield your e-mail, "it's basically a postcard," says Chris Wysopal, director of development at Symantec Corporation. In other words, anyone at any ISP can see the headers to your e-mail, which says who you are and who it's going to, and can read it if they so choose. So can a hacker who has compromised the ISP. Wysopal recommends using encryption software such as PGP, which effectively seals the envelope, though the headers; the to and from addresses are still readable. But encryption continues to be a challenge for most of us. That isn't so much because it's complicated; it's much simpler than it once was; but because you can exchange encrypted e-mail only with someone who uses the same software. A simpler method, and one that also will shield your address, is to use a re-mailer service such as Hushmail. These services strip off the original address and put on a new one. It's like a forwarding service in the real world, and it makes sure that unwelcome eyes can't see your e-mail, know you sent it or who's getting it. You can read of free services in PC Mag's 'Hiding Your Identity'. Re-mailers range from easy to use to very difficult, as noted on privacy advocate and author Andre Bacard's site dedicated to the topic. They also can vary the level of anonymity (so yes, you could send e-mash notes). While it might seem simpler still to just set up a Webmail account with a fake name, that's not as anonymous as you might think. For one thing, if you use it from your home computer, and you don't use proxy switching software to hide your IP address, it won't be hard for someone to connect the IP address with the Webmail system. Naturally, you could go to the public library or another publicly available Internet site and use machines there. That does eliminate the IP address problem. But even there, you have to remember that unless you clear the browser cache and take other steps to erase your tracks, the next user can figure out a lot of things about you. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Extreme Tech and Michael Fitzgerald. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: What Will the PC of 2005 Look Like? Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 12:39:38 EST by Martyn Williams and Tom Krazit, IDG News Service Consumers thinking about buying a new computer in 2005 might be better off putting off their purchase until 2006. With few major changes in PC hardware or software due over the next year, the PC of 2005 is likely to look awfully similar to the PC of today. Big changes aren't due until 2006, when the Longhorn operating system from Microsoft, 64-bit applications, and optical drives based on the Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD formats will become available to the average user. Still, that doesn't mean there are no technologies worth looking out for if you do plan to upgrade in 2005. Chipping In: Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are expected to unveil dual-core chips -- which contain two processor cores on a single piece of silicon -- by the end of 2005, although they probably won't appear in mainstream PCs until well into 2006, says Stephen Baker, director of industry analysis at NPD Techworld in Reston, Virginia. Intel will likely boost the cache memory in its Pentium 4 processor and AMD is expected to increase the clock speed of its Athlon 64, but these changes will be incremental. A more substantial shift in processor performance, the move to 64-bit computing, probably also won't happen next year, even though Microsoft is expected to finally release a 64-bit version of Windows XP in early 2005. Bigger changes can be expected in chip sets, which handle the flow of communication between the processor and the rest of a PC. A new series of Intel chip sets supporting the PCI Express interface and DDR2 memory will trickle down to mainstream systems, or those priced at about $800, in 2005, Baker says. PCI Express will allow data to travel faster between the chip set and peripheral hardware such as graphics cards and storage. Intel has billed its introduction as one of its most important upgrades in a decade. While that might be stretching it, mainstream users will begin to see more and more products that take advantage of the increased bandwidth in 2005, Baker says. DDR2 will allow memory chips to move data at faster clock rates. The older DDR standard is reaching the limit of its effectiveness as memory clock rates exceed 400 MHz. Memory chip vendors are expected to produce larger amounts of DDR2 in 2005, bringing costs down and allowing vendors to put faster memory chips in cheaper PCs. PCI Express and DDR Memory will also appear in notebooks from early 2005 with the introduction of Intela??s next-generation Alviso chip set. Notebook sales have been growing faster than those of desktops for several years, a trend that will continue into 2005, says Roger Kay, vice president of client computing at IDC, in Framingham, Massa- chusetts. Technologies that make it easier to handle music, video, games, and other multimedia are also on tap for 2005. PC vendors will release more PCs with Microsoft's XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system, designed to make it easy to burn DVDs and manage digital media files, as well as pause and record live television. To help users handle their expanding collections of music and movie files, PC vendors will also increase the storage capacity of hard drives in mainstream PCs. Today they are typically between 80GB and 120GB. In 2005, expect to see $800 PCs with around 200GB of storage, Baker says. A disk technology called Serial ATA is also becoming established. It includes a feature called Native Command Queuing (NCQ), which allows a drive to manage multiple commands from the PC in whatever order it deems most efficient, rather than the order in which they were received. It can deliver a substantial performance boost to users, and that's good news for data-heavy applications such as those involving video. In the optical disc space, users are likely to see incremental increases in DVD read and write speeds. In the latter half of the year the first PC drives supporting new, blue-laser based disc formats, Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, are expected to make their way onto the market. Both formats are aimed primarily at high-definition video and can store several times more data than today's DVDs. Single-layer Blu-ray Discs can store around 25GB, while HD-DVD isn't far behind. Hewlett-Packard recently became the first to go on record with its plans for shipping Blu-ray Disc PCs, saying it will offer them in 2005. However, the move towards PCs with better multimedia features will only work if they provide a simple, rewarding experience for users, notes IDC's Kay. PCs captured the hearts and wallets of buyers by making tasks such as word processing much easier. Televisions and DVD players are also easy to use. People won't want a PC in their living room if it doesn't provide them with a good experience for their money, Kay says. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance IDG News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 20:04:23 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: NASA Television Now on Our Web Site For persons who are interested, you can now watch and listen to NASA (National Aurenotics and Space Administration) audio *and video* here on the telecom web site. Go to http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nasa.html to watch and listen. In addition to news/documentaries programs, you will also be able to hear radio transmissions between Houston, Canaveral and whatver vessel is in orbit at the time. I hope you will enjoy this Telecom Digest Extra feature. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 20:36:53 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! I realize what I say next is not a telecom topic; but ... I say it and hope you will give it some thought as I have several times today. That disturbance of the earth over around s.e. Asia on Sunday has certainly taken its toll. AP Network news (in our td-extra section on the web site) said as of Tuesday afternoon, USA time, the body count was now over *fifty thousand* men, women and children, in Sri Lanka and surrounding areas. Government authorities are instructing the living people to 'carry the bodies as you find them out to the curb and leave them; we will do mass disposal of the remains.' It sort of reminds me of Monday morning here in Independence, as the sanitary disposal trucks move through the alleys collecting the garbage. I mean, can you even begin to grasp or understand the horror of the whole scene in Sri Lanka? Stacking the dead bodies at the curb where workers will take them away over the next few days .... Meanwhile, the United Nations called on Dubya to do more than the stingy pittance he offered. He said he would 'think about it'. Trouble is, Dubya has gotten so badly in debt on account of Iraq, he does not have a lot of money left over for things like alleviating human misery. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: 28 Dec 2004 20:50:53 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Speaking of VoIP Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > But then I realized, Cox is an FCC regulated voice carrier so all the > fees and crap will kick in and the price will be > $24.99 I pay now. > The guy trying to sell me this service was explaining my VoIP line > isn't secure. That's a pretty lame sales tactic. He should have pointed out that Cox's service has real 911, real operators, real battery backup so it works when the power fails, and includes a real phone book listing. Poking at their web site, I'm surprised to see that they don't bundle long distance so if you don't like their not particularly cheap LD service, you can use someone else's. ------------------------------ Subject: www.area-code.us Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 17:00:11 -0500 From: Mike Schoenberger Mark, Linc or Patrick, I was unable to find another contact email so I hope that you receive this and can forward my email to someone who can fix a link on this site. If you go to Codes -> Services -> Rocky Mountain Telco it goes to http://www.rockymnttel.com/. This is now a porn site for whatever reason! Michael Schoenberger Quality Assurance Cutting Edge Media, Inc 1.800.561.9297 Ext 1119 =20 Fax 717.361.0860 mike@cemedia.com www.CuttingEdgeMedia.com "Exceeding Your Expectations is Our #1 Priority" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know Linc Madison reads this Digest now and then but I do not know that he has any control over that web site other than possibly dropping it off of any listing he maintains on his own web site. But there are numerous webmasters of telecom related sites who read this Digest, and after they ascertain that the 'change in policy' at that web site was not the work of a hacker and is, in fact real, they may choose to (a) either remove it from any links at their own site or (b) contact the webmaster there if they know who it is and ask what is going on. My opinion is the webmaster may have failed to pay his 'dues' to the registrar of .com so his site was put up for sale, just like our Internet History Org site was, (which Mikka, writing from the numann mail server in Canada) assured me was perfectly proper. Maybe -- if this latest instance was a grab by a cybersquatter as my internet-history.org was, he can get a place somewhere in the '.tf' or '.tc' domain, like I did for the internet history archives. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: 1st 1-900 Number? Question on Millionaire Show Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 00:40:10 +0000 From: Because of Christmastime, I am away from my usual email. I am Carl Moore (cmoore@arl.army.mil). On ABC-TV "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" show which aired last Friday (Dec. 24), there was a question about the 1st 1-900 number (in 1980?). The answer given was that it was used for Reagan-Carter debate (in U.S. presidential campaign that year). What about the 1-900-242-1611 used for Carter's call-in in 1977? Notice that BOTH of these involved President Carter. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The correct answer **should have been** the 1977 call-in program. Someone should notify the producer of the show and challenge his 'correct answer'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Drill Bit Size Organization: ATCC Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 17:37:53 -0500 In article , nospam@crashelex.com says: > Fred Atkinson wrote: >> Can anyone on here tell me what the standard bit size that is used by >> telephone installers to drill the holes for running standard, four >> pair telephone wire through (like drilling a hole through the >> baseboard into the floor to pull the wire in to wire a jack mounted on >> the baseboard)? > I have a 5/8" spade bit, 6 feet long with a 6 foot extension. Spade > bits are easier to aim, IMO, than twist bits. Standard caveats apply > wrt knowing what's ahead of your bit :-) > I also have a "shorty" that's only 18" long, for special occasions. 5/8" seems huge. You can get CAT-5 through a quarter inch hole so I'd recommend a long quarter inch bit. The 5/8" would be good for dropping cable from the pole into the house but that's about all. ------------------------------ From: eljainc@ameritech.net Subject: Looking For User's Manual For Bellsouth 4300GR Telephone Date: 28 Dec 2004 14:50:36 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hello, I am looking for the users manual or any documentation on the Bellsouth 4300GR 4-line telephone system. Does anybody have this in PDF format? Thanks in advance, Mike McWhinney ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #622 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Dec 29 20:10:06 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBU1A5g21716; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:10:06 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:10:06 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412300110.iBU1A5g21716@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 #623 TELECOM Digest Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:10:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 623 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Death Match" by Lincoln Child (Patrick Townson) Quadruple Play: Time Warner, Sprint Near Cell Phone Deal (Telecom Daily) Re: First 1-900 Number? Question on Millionaire Show (Anthony Bellanga) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (David Clayton) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Web Page Helps Tsunami Survivor Search (Lisa Minter) Navy SEALs Sue Associated Press Over Iraq Photos (Lisa Minter) Vioxx Unseats Porn in List of Top 2004 Junk Email (Lisa Minter) Re: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers (Phil McKerracher) Office Phones, Omega Phone, Iwatsu, 24 Button CHEAP!!! (TIA@thanks.com) Re: Beware Sprint Phone Rebates (Brad Houser) Re: www.area-code.us (Linc Madison) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:00:00 EST From: Patrick Townson Subject: Book Review: "Death Match" by Lincoln Child An interesting new book I read over the Christmas holiday was entitled "Death Match" written by author Lincoln Child, published in April, 2004 by Doubleday division of Random House. The ISBN is 0-385-50670-8. Another book by Mr. Child was titled "Utopia". "Death Match" is a story about an imaginary Internet 'Dating/Match Service' operating in New York City. This Internet Dating Service is called 'Eden'. Unlike more 'primitive internet dating services' which only ask a bunch of questions then proceed to match two people together (i.e. Yahoo, but not named in the book), the fictional service known as 'Eden' is much more expensive (for example, like 'e-harmony.com' but, again, not named as such), and uses several very complex computer algorythms to match people together and costs a lot more money. Eden takes much pride in putting together 'super couples'; people who are matched at 95 percent or better in all the aspects, offering a lifetime guarentee of a pefect mate. But, as Eden discovers, strange disasters begin to occur to the couples they match up. One supercouple commits apparently a double- suicide exactly two years to the day they first were introduced through Eden. Then a few weeks later, a second 'supercouple' also die, and police say that was a double-suicide pact also. Eden decides to investigate it further. They hire a forensic psychologist who had been employed by the FBI as a profiler to look into the whole thing. He is given free reign to examine all the aspects of the way the business is run, and he gets that free reign until he begins to discover some ugly details about the company's founder, a recluse who lives in a penthouse at the top of the Eden building with a very sophisticated computer network they call 'Lisa', which is a take off on the name 'Eliza' which I believe is or was a very large, very fast, very intelligent computer at MIT which uses artificial intelligence. The story takes a number of interesting twists and turns and I think you might enjoy it. Mr. Child has authored several best selling thrillers, including co-authoring some books with Douglas Preston such as 'Relic', 'The Cabinet of Curiosities', and 'Still Life With Crows'. He lives with his family in Morristown, NJ. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 13:03:21 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Quadruple Play: Time Warner, Sprint Reportedly Near Cell Phone Deal Telecom dailyLead from USTA http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18408&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Quadruple Play: Time Warner, Sprint reportedly near cell phone deal BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Adelphia offers $300 million to settle SEC, DOJ investigations * Level 3, France Telecom ink deal * Qwest delays VoIP rollout * Vonage extends free phone service offer to troops in Iraq USTA SPOTLIGHT * Carrier Grade Voice Over IP -- Now at www.telecom-bookstore.com EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Internet, TV convergence still faces hurdles REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Federal court rules Minnesota can't regulate VoIP services Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18408&l=2017006 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 21:57:57 -0700 From: Anthony Bellanga Subject: Re: First 1-900 Number? Question on Millionaire Show Please do NOT display my email address nor "reply-to" address whatsoever in my posting. Thanks! Carl Moore wrote: > On ABC-TV "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" show which aired last Friday > (Dec. 24), there was a question about the 1st 1-900 number (in 1980?). > The answer given was that it was used for Reagan-Carter debate (in > U.S. presidential campaign that year). What about the 1-900-242-1611 > used for Carter's call-in in 1977? Notice that BOTH of these involved > President Carter. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The correct answer **should have been** > the 1977 call-in program. Someone should notify the producer of the > show and challenge his 'correct answer'. PAT] I seem to remember that the 1980 1-900 number for the Reagan-Carter might have been the first widespread or known use of 900 for the new "Dial-IT" pay-per-call function, these calls with their own special rates. This 1980 activity was probably a "call to submit your vote or opinion as to who won the debate". The 1977 Carter radio call-in program hosted by CBS newsman Walter Cronkite was still using the older "choke" or "mass calling" network function of 1-900. AT&T had actually begun the "choke" or "mass call" 900 network back in 1970, and I understand that there were sporadic uses throughout the 1970s, but apparantly they weren't as publicly known or widespread. The 1977 President Carter radio call-in special with 1-900-242-1611 was actually set to be FREE to the calling party, with either the White House or CBS News picking up the tab from AT&T. But except for that 1977 Carter radio call-in, the 1970s "mass calling" 900 choke network was billed at regular tariffed distance-based rates, based on the NPA-NXX code of the calling party with respect to the 900-NNX code of the dialed number. When AT&T changed 900 to "Dial-It" (pay-per-call) in 1980, they totally re-vamped the 900-NXX codes in use, this time with specific pay-per-call charges associated with specific (new) 900-NXX codes. Initially (early 1980s), AT&T's "Dial-It" 900 was only 50-c per call, or at most 50-c the first minute with 35-c each additional minute, but by the mid-1980s, AT&T had all kinds of Dial-It 900 rates, each rate based on the specific 900-NXX code of the dialed number, rates ranging from either free (900-200 and 900-555 numbers at that time), or 25-c per-call or per-minute, to as much as ten dollars a call, all rates associated with specific 900-NXX codes. Then by the late 1980s (post-divestiture), other competitive companies began to provide their own pay-per-call 900 services (the use of the term "Dial-It" is a trademark or servicemark of AT&T), specific 900-NXX codes also dedicated to specific service providers. And these "other" service providers could have almost any kind of rates that they chose. Presently, AT&T has completely vacated the "900" business. They vacated 500 "personal numbering" a few years ago as well. Other "major" carriers have also eliminated 500 and/or 900 in recent years too, the only remaining providers of 500 and 900 being mostly "sleaze" companies (or in the case of 500, there is quite a bit of GPS or "on-star" type carriers and access numbers). But as for the "first" 900 numbers in use -- it is probably even earlier than 1977, but the 1977 Carter radio call-in 900-242-1611 is the first one that was made known nationally or widespread for most people. Anthony Bellanga ------------------------------ From: David Clayton Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 17:33:08 +1100 TELECOM Digest Editor contributed the following: > I realize what I say next is not a telecom topic; but ... I say it and > hope you will give it some thought as I have several times today. > That disturbance of the earth over around s.e. Asia on Sunday has > certainly taken its toll. AP Network news (in our td-extra section > on the web site) said as of Tuesday afternoon, USA time, the body > count was now over *fifty thousand* men, women and children, in > Sri Lanka and surrounding areas. ...... This is sort of telecom related, as the areas hardest hit -- like the west coast of Aceh province of Indonesia where the earthquake hit hard, as well as the subsequent Tsunamis -- had all of their telecommunications infrastructure crippled as well. This means that people just don't know the amount of casualities in those areas, while the places where the telecommunications infrastructure was left relatively intact have been providing the horrifying pictures we have all been seeing in the news. It looks like over 100,000 may die as a direct result of the event, many times more will have been injured, and many, many more will have had their lives impacted. Regards, David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@XYZ.myrealbox.com Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. (Remove the "XYZ." to reply) Dilbert's words of wisdom #18: Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Everytime I turn on the news today, the count has gone up another five or six thousand. Yesterday it was forty-some thousand deaths, now this afternoon Yahoo News is saying 75,000, although AP had the figure as 73,000. And the governments there are instructing the survivors "stack the bodies up in piles along the street curb, we'll get them disposed of as quickly as we can." PAT] ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Date: 29 Dec 2004 21:18:13 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Meanwhile, the United Nations called on Dubya to do more than the > stingy pittance he offered. He said he would 'think about it'. Trouble > is, Dubya has gotten so badly in debt on account of Iraq, he does not > have a lot of money left over for things like alleviating human misery. http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/28/tsunami.diver/index.html [American tsunami survivor] Faye Wachs said she was impressed by the efforts of the Thai government and the International Committee for the Red Cross, but "she was appalled at the treatment they got" from the U.S. government, her mother said. At the airport in Bangkok, other governments had set up booths to greet nationals who had been affected and to help repatriate them, she said. That was not the case with the U.S. government, Wachs told her mother. It took the couple three hours, she said, to find the officials from the American consulate, who were in the VIP lounge. Because they had lost all their possessions, including their documen- tation, they had to have new passports issued. But the U.S. officials demanded payment to take the passport pictures, Helen Wachs said. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, how did Dubya know they were not just a couple of 'terrorists' trying to sneak in and use the tsunami thing as an excuse? Anyway, Dubya has no spare money (right now, or probably for a few decades at least) to spend on such foolishness. Every spare nickle has to go to Navy SEALS and Army guys in their ongoing humane treatment of Iraqi terrorists -- err, prisoners. His religious war against Islam has many more years to go. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: 'Simpsons' Web Page Helps Tsunami Survivor Search Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:02:05 EST ROME (Reuters) - An Internet site set up by an Italian schoolboy, and previously dedicated to "The Simpsons," is helping people track down loved ones missing since the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. Valerio Natale, a 14-year-old high school student, says two missing Italian holidaymakers -- Dario Collodi and Liliana Giordanino -- have already been found thanks to postings on his web page: http:/www.tuttosimpsons.altervista.org/index.htm. "I was paging through the newspaper and saw lots of ads from people looking for relatives," Natale told Reuters. "I asked myself, Why not make a free site that can help everybody? So I made a free site, which used to be dedicated to the famous American cartoon family, the Simpsons." The site is devoted almost entirely to Italian citizens who disappeared in Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and India when the tsunami hit on Sunday, killing tens of thousands. It lists the names and ages of those missing, email addresses and phone numbers of worried friends and relatives, a link for photos of the missing, plus useful phone numbers such as Italian consulates, and hotels in Thailand. The site has had 82,000 hits in two days, Natale said. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Navy SEALs Sue Associated Press Over Iraq Photos Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:04:12 EST The suit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, said the pictures did not depict abuse and instead put the lives of the soldiers at risk by exposing their faces to the world. "We believe AP's use of the photos and the manner in which they were obtained were entirely lawful and proper," said Associated Press attorney Dave Tomlin, who is representing the news agency and reporter Seth Hettena. The plaintiffs are identified only as "Six Navy SEALs and Two Jane Does," and the suit indicates they have been allowed to file anonymously by court order. "By failing to conceal the identities of the Navy SEALs, Defendants Seth Hettena and the AP have jeopardized the lives of Plaintiffs Six Navy Seals and their families, as well as compromised their future missions and careers," the suit said. The U.S. Navy said it had nothing to do with the suit. "The lawsuit is not a naval special warfare issue but rather a civil matter undertaken by these individuals against The Associated Press, which is being handled through the legal process available to all Americans," said Taylor Clark, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command. An AP reporter discovered the photos, posted on the picture-sharing site Smugmug.com, during research on another set of photos that purportedly showed Navy SEALs abusing detainees. Confronted with the photos, the Navy said this month it had launched an investigation. The plaintiffs said in their suit that the photos depicted regular special operations techniques and did not show abuse. Jane Doe One, the lawsuit said, stored the photos on Smugmug.com, among a collection of personal photographs. The suit said the two Jane Does are wives of two of the SEALs, members of the elite Navy force Sea-Air-Land. The AP reported that the unnamed woman said the photos came from her husband, who brought them from Iraq after his tour of duty. But the suit denies that that was the case, or that she told the AP as much. Distributed around the world, the AP reported the photos showed Navy SEALs sitting on hooded and bound detainees, holding a gun to a detainee's bloodied head, and placing a boot on the chest of a prone man. Other photos showed grinning U.S. personnel sitting or lying atop three hooded prisoners in the bed of a pickup truck. The Dec. 3 AP story quoted a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command as saying some of the photos could put the lives of the SEALs at risk. The suit, which claims invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, seeks damages and an injunction barring further distribution of the photos. For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Associated Press. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For up to the minute, five minutes in length, news reports from Associated Press, look at our web site http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html .I, for one, am glad the Associated Press has been so involved in the Iraqi Prisoner Abuse matter. As this entire stench slowly works its way up the chain of command to the White House itself, its good to see some people care, even if Dubya does not seem to worry much about how long his religious war against Islam takes or how much it costs, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Vioxx Unseats Porn in List of Top 2004 Junk Email Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:05:12 EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Porn ads slipped down the list of top junk e-mails in 2004, replaced by offers for arthritis drug Vioxx, ID theft scams and stock pick information, America Online said. Although "HOT LESBIAN ACTION" made the list of most frequently sent junk e-mails, or spam, lurid displays of pornography are now more easily blocked by filters offered by AOL and other Internet service providers. Harder to block were the ubiquitous penis enlargement ads that were classified as online medication and not as sex ads. Porn ads were defined as "strictly skin and sex," an AOL spokesman said. Spam has also changed considerably and now features deceptively simple text messages and Web addresses that link to sites, according to AOL, the world's largest Internet service provider and a unit of Time Warner Inc. Junk e-mail senders have also gotten more sophisticated and are now generally controlled by several top "king pin spammers," the company said. "This year's list was tilted more toward fraudulent and dubious scams and schemes," said AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham. And despite the decrease in volume, the ads were "much more malicious and harmful to consumers." AOL on Tuesday said junk e-mails received by its subscribers had dropped 75 percent, largely due to better built-in filters and blocks, based on a poll of complaints it compiled. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I thought Vioxx was removed from the market after they discovered how dangerous it was, causing death and/or heart attacks in many cases. And I have not seen nearly as much Vioxx email as I have seen Viagra and penis enlargement ads. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Phil McKerracher Subject: Re: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 12:58:52 GMT Alan Burkitt-Gray wrote in message news:telecom23.620.3@telecom-digest.org: > I thought Digest fans would be interested in this programme on BBC > Radio 4 tonight (Monday 27) at 20.00 GMT (3pm ET): > It's available when broadcast from the BBC Radio Four website in > RealAudio on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4.shtml?fm ... Thanks, I enjoyed that, thanks for letting us know. By the way, I went on a very interesting "backstage" tour of the Science Museum store called "Birth of telecommunication" -- now booked out until at least next May, but worth applying for if they run it again (it's a trial). Lots of fascinating early telegraphy stuff. http://www.ingenious.org.uk Phil McKerracher www.mckerracher.org ------------------------------ From: Subject: Office Phones, Omega Phone, Iwatsu, 24 button CHEAP!!! Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 15:28:15 -0500 Please check out this item on E-Bay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5741124088&ssPageName=ADME:L:DS:US:8 Thanks for looking. ------------------------------ From: Brad Houser Subject: Re: Beware Sprint Phone Rebates Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 12:32:46 -0800 Organization: Intel Reply-To: Brad Houser Nate wrote in message news:telecom23.616.4@telecom-digest.org: > After my previous Sprint contract was up, I called to see about a > phone/plan upgrade. The salesman sold me a new plan and a new phone > with a big rebate. Well, the rebate was turned down because the > "saleperson" never changed my original plan. Called Sprint and after > talking to two people (including a supervisor), they wouldn't do > anything except say "talk to the rebate people". I explained that the > "rebate people" aren't the ones who screwed up. They didn't seem to > grasp this concept. It looks like Sprint may have sold me a very, > very overpriced phone. Can you say lifelong loss of a Sprint > customer? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is a typical tactic by Sprint. > We have had other messages in the Digest from people who said Sprint > was not honoring their rebates very well. PAT] Go down to your nearest Sprint store and ask to speak to the manager and don't leave until they fix it. If they refuse, then start raising your voice until you have scared off every new customer. Picket the store. Be a nuisance. Brad H. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: www.area-code.us Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 20:11:34 -0800 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: lincmad@suespammers.org Organization: California resident; nospam; no unsolicited e-mail allowed In article , Mike Schoenberger wrote: > Mark, Linc or Patrick, > I was unable to find another contact email so I hope that you receive > this and can forward my email to someone who can fix a link on this > site. > If you go to Codes -> Services -> Rocky Mountain Telco it goes to > http://www.rockymnttel.com/. > This is now a porn site for whatever reason! The area-code.us site is an alias to areacode-info.com, which is John Cropper & Eric Morson's site. The left-hand sidebar has human-readable e-mail addresses for them. My guess would be Eric would be the best individual to start with. The e-mail is his first initial last name at areacode dash info dot com. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c) This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3). DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned. ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #623 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Dec 30 17:42:42 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBUMgfW02910; Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:42:42 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:42:42 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412302242.iBUMgfW02910@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 #624 TELECOM Digest Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:43:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 624 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Family, Friends Scan Internet for Tsunami Victims (Lisa Minter)) Court Bars Regulation of Web Phone Service (Lisa Minter) FCC to Auction Spectrum for Advanced Wireless (Telecom dailyLead) Consumer Reports Story on Cellphone Providers (LB@notmine.com) Can Someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network? (BertieBigBollox) MSISDN Format For WLL Subscribers: Standard Conformance ?? (qazmlp) Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Seizure/Seizure Signal'? (Jack) Bells Dig In (Tony P.) Great Chicago Fire Question (Kay Olson) Connect to Skype With Multiple Phones Around the House (jaykchan) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (Lisa Hancock) Re: Vonage no Longer Shipping Linksys PAP2 (brmorris@yahoo.com) Re: Future of Cellular Phone (oookhc@hotmail.com) Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads (Joseph) Re: Drill Bit Size (Gordon S. Hlavenka) Re: QCTimes.com -- Spam Suit Nets $1 Billion (ldn20042002@yahoo.co.uk) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Family, Friends Scan Internet for Tsunami Victims Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 10:15:53 EST HONG KONG (Reuters) - Distraught relatives and friends of those missing after the most catastrophic tsunami on record are increasingly turning to the Internet to search for loved ones. In Hong Kong and Singapore to Australia, Britain, the United States and Sweden, people are scanning through lists of names of victims and posting bulletins to look for those missing. "Today I am still searching the hospitals," said James Wong from Hong Kong, as he looked through names and pictures of victims posted on the Internet by hospitals in Phuket. Wong is in Phuket to search for his daughter Rubina Wong, who was on nearby Phi Phi Island with her fiance when the sea swept over the tiny island. "But I still harbour hope. Some people have been found even after hanging in a tree for a day," Wong told Hong Kong television reporters on Thursday. The Thai government has also set up Web sites listing names of victims to examine ( http://www.phuketitcity.com, http://www.disaster.go.th ) Of the hundreds of bulletins posted on one of these sites, a handful had good news for some. "Now we can find the name of Miss Anneli Laitinen from Finland, but we're not quite sure that she is the same person you are looking for. I'm happy to inform you that she's still alive but injured," read a message posted on a page for people looking for loved ones in Krabi in Thailand. Visitors to the sites have also posted heart-wrenching messages looking for their parents, siblings and friends. Other Web sites collating information and news about the disaster, aid and volunteer efforts have also sprung up, such as http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com. Aid agencies, such as the Red Cross and Oxfam, have also appealed for donations, which can be made quickly online at: http://www.redcross.org.hk, http://www.oxfam.org.hk "Since the appeal went out on December 27, we have had responses online. People can also download forms from the Internet and fax it back to us. Others have also made donations directly to our accounts or sent checks," said a spokeswoman for Red Cross in Hong Kong. It has collected HK $32 million (US $4.1 million) to date, which it will use to supply food, medicine and sleeping materials to disaster victims. MANY, MANY MISSING Thousands of foreigners had been holidaying southern Thailand when they went missing after a 9.0 magnitude undersea quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The quake triggered tsunamis that slammed into Indonesia, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and other countries as far away as Africa, killing more than 90,000 people. Officially, only 212 foreign tourists have been reported as killed by their home countries, but Thailand alone has said that at least 435 foreigners had died there. Some 1,500 Swedes, 1,000 Germans, 600 Italians, 464 Norwegians, 294 Singaporeans, 277 Hong Kong residents, 219 Danes, 200 Finns and 200 Czechs have been reported as missing by their governments. Valerio Natale, a 14-year-old Italian student, said two missing Italian holidaymakers -- Dario Collodi and Liliana Giordanino -- have already been found thanks to postings on his web page http://www.tuttosimpsons.altervista.org/index.htm. The site is devoted almost entirely to Italian citizens who disappeared in Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and India. "I was paging through the newspaper and saw lots of ads from people looking for relatives," Natale told Reuters. "I asked myself, 'Why not make a free site that can help everybody?' So I made a free site, which used to be dedicated to the famous American cartoon family, the Simpsons." NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A hell of a way to end the year, isn't it? Every time I listen to the radio news at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html or read the news stories, the body count keeps going up; now 115 thousand people killed in this disaster, and no end in sight. On NASA television today members of the press corps were having a press conference with the two men in the space station, and asked them, "have the folks back home told you about the tragedy which happened in Indonesia and Sri Lanka and otehr parts of Asia over Christmas?" The men said they had been notified of it, but that their sleeping and orbiting schedule had prevented them from any first hand knowledge of it. The sanitation workers here in Independence came around again today for their Thursday pickup and sweep up day and I was reminded once again of the rules now in place through that part of the world: 'Stack the bodies by the curb, we will take them all away as soon as we are able.' God have mercy on all of us. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 12:42:10 -0500 Subject: Court Bars Regulation of Web Phone Service http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041229/ZNYT05/412290387/1004/local New York Times A federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling yesterday that prohibits the state of Minnesota from regulating Internet-based phone calling as if it were a traditional telecommunications service. Full story at: http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041229/ZNYT05/412290387/1004/local 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/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 12:21:23 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: FCC to Auction Spectrum for Advanced Wireless Services Telecom dailyLead from USTA http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18445&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * FCC to auction spectrum for advanced wireless services BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * AT&T in talks with Sprint * The top 10 turnaround stories of 2004, according to Light Reading * Verizon Wireless plans more upgrades for Florida in 2005 * Net2Phone eyes U.S. expansion USTA SPOTLIGHT * SUPERCOMM: TIA's and USTA's Premiere Event EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Adult content goes wireless REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * California to challenge FCC's VoIP ruling EDITOR'S NOTE * The dailyLead will not be published Friday Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18445&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: LB@notmine.com Subject: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 07:09:56 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online The new Consumer Reports magazine has a large story on cell phone providers and cell phones. You can get better info in this group, but the mag has lots of info. Will be very handy for those times when a "friend" is looking for info. I think the mag should be on newsstands now. LB ------------------------------ From: BertieBigBollox@gmail.com Subject: Can someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network Date: 30 Dec 2004 01:32:03 -0800 rganization: http://groups.google.com Read somewhere that if someone continually pings your network, the server will eventually fall over. Seems a bit hard to believe. Surely one computer pinging would make very little impact even on a DSL connection ... Would be a bit unfortunate if this were the case and someone got hold of your static IP :-) Also, what about UDP floods? Are these different? Surely firewalls etc would stop this sort of thing from happening? ------------------------------ From: qazmlp1209@rediffmail.com (qazmlp) Subject: MSISDN Format For WLL Subscribers: Standard Conformance ?? Date: 29 Dec 2004 17:43:31 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com My understanding is as follows: - Normal MSISDN is of the format: CC NDC SN MSISDN for WLL subscribers is of the format: CC LAC SN . I could see that, E.164 specification explains about the format: CC NDC SN But, I could not find any standard which explains about the MSISDN format i.e.CC LAC SN, for WLL subscribers. Could you please help? ------------------------------ From: Jack Subject: Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Seizure/Seizure Signal'? Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:45:25 -0500 Organization: NTT/VERIO What does Seizure mean in telecom? What is Seizure Signal? TIA! Jack ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Bells Dig In Organization: ATCC Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:51:40 -0500 It seems the ILEC's are digging in to make the broadband market their own. This is disgusting to me. I call for the regulatory pendulum to swing back. Clamp down now or else we'll all pay. http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=114841 ------------------------------ Subject: Great Chicago Fire Question Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 09:39:25 -0600 From: Kay Olson Pat Townsend, I read your article, Telecom Disaster Recovery in 1871, on the web. I am writing a children's book on the Great Chicago Fire and I have a question. Do you know any details of the fire alarm system in place in Chicago in 1871? I know that the wrong alarm box was pulled, which sent fire fighters in the wrong direction. (I believe Mathias Schaffer signaled his assistant to strike Box 342, which was a mistake. The correct box was Box 319. Then later, the assistant, William J. Brown, took it upon himself to turn in a second alarm. Unfortunately, he struck Box 342 for a second time. My question is, what was the arrangement of these boxes -- how far apart were they? I would like to have a clearer idea of how easy (or difficult) it might have been to get the boxes confused. Any help you could provide in finding the answer to this question would be most appreciated. Thanks for any reply you care to send. Kay M. Olson Editorial Director Capstone Press [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The alarm boxes were a block or two apart, but I know nothing about their numbering arrangments, etc. I do know that they had hopes the fire could be confined to the west side of Chicago, but a strong wind caused some burning embers to do what was considered unthinkable at the time: Some chunks of burning wood flew through the air *across the river* and landed in the middle of the Gas Works, on a gasometer, which was a huge, old- fashioned control mechanism which pumped gas through the pipelines of the city. The 'relatively harmless' (although nasty) fire which had begun at 8:30 PM that Sunday night quickly expanded with that horrendous explosion at the People's gas works on West 12th Street about 11:45 PM same night. By midnight, or as soon as all the gas in the pipelines had drained out, the gas lamps all over the city had gone dark. Chicago Mayor William Mason and the members of the Common Council (what today is known as the Chicago City Council) at that point decided it was time to declare a state of emergency and martial law. Mayor Mason and the councilmen rode their horses over to the telegraph office (which was the basis of my original article) and sent off 'wires' to the president advising him, and also to General Sheridan asking him to please bring his troops ASAP, to maintain order and prevent looting, etc. The firemen kept right on fighting the fire in the various locations as best they could until early Monday morning when even worse circumstances occurred: The fire once again jumped over the river (that is, flying embers and burning wood flying through the air) and landed -- in the most unfortunate of places -- on the water works building, setting it on fire, and before long, it was out of order as well. Water pumping and pressure in the pipes in those days was rather sophisticated for their time; water from the river was diverted through a stream nearby, through a waterwheel, which in turn operated the hydrolic mechanism which pumped water through the pipes to residences, to the firemen's hydrants and similar. Most of the water works did not burn down, but the pumping mechanism was totally shot as a result, and the trickle of water still running made the fire fighting effort in vain (and the pumps had been working overtime for several hours anyway at that point due to the fire.) What remains of the old water works still stands today as a monument in Chicago. The fire continued to burn all day Monday and until early Tuesday when a very heavy rain storm burned out what was still burning at Fullerton Avenue on the north side. About 30 years after the fire, in 1901, the Chicago Historical Society commissioned a book of rememberances, saying as a preface, 'as more and more old people die off, soon there will be no one left at all who was present at the fire. This book will serve to tell everyone about that event.' The same year, the Chicago Tribune, in its Sunday magazine also printed an interview with an employee of Western Union who had been on duty in the telegraph office that Sunday night. When I was employed by the Chicago Public Library in the visually handicapped radio reading service, I used that book 'Remberances of the Great Fire' as a 13 week series in the programs I produced. Unfortunatly I no longer have my copy of the book and do not recall any mention (of the several rememberances used) of how the alarm system worked. Maybe some other reader here will know, or you might be able to read it at the Historical Society Museum/Reading Room. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jaykchan@hotmail.com Subject: Connect to Skype with Multiple Phones Around the House? Date: 30 Dec 2004 12:28:48 -0800 I am interested to use Skype to save money on long distance calls that I made regularly to far east countries (and I really don't like the trouble of using calling cards that keep reducing the minutes for no reason). I intend to get a VoIP USB base unit from pcphoneline to control Skype in the PC using USB; it has a phone jack that I can plug my cordless phone into it. So far this seems like this will work. But my PC will be in the basement; this means the VoIP USB phone connection device will also be in the basement right next to the PC. I prefer to make phone call in the living room and in the bedroom, not down there in the basement. This means somehow I need to make the VoIP service available in multiple locations in my house. Can I connect multiple phone line to the VoIP USB base unit mentioned above? Then I can run cables to various locations in my house. Running cable is no big deal because I have already run cat-6 cables around the house for networking. I can easliy change the cat-6 jack with a phone-jack. What I am wondering is whether there will be any conflict in the base unit if I plug a lot of phone lines into it. How to connect many phone lines into it anyway? I mean ... physically? How is the sound quality of using a USB phone with Skype (or with other VoIP service provider)? My co-worker uses a headset that connects to the sound card of the PC to talk to developer in Russia, and he has good result. Does using USB phone give us an even better sound quality? I have thought of using Vonage and a VoIP phone that connects to a LAN jack. But I am forced to maintain a local phone service with Verizon (in order to use their low cost DSL service), and I don't want to pay $15 basic monthly rate for Vonage. This doesn't make economy sense to keep both Verizon local service and Vonage basic package at the same time. Because I am forced to keep Verizon local service, I would prefer to get VoIP through Skype that is pay-as-you-go. Thanks in advance for any input. Jay Chan ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Date: 30 Dec 2004 11:53:38 -0800 TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > That disturbance of the earth over around s.e. Asia on Sunday has > certainly taken its toll. If such waves hit either the east or west coast of the U.S., how far inland would the destruction be? One mile? Ten miles? How much shoreline (ie length) would be affected? For example, say the wave were to hit Coney Island in Brooklyn NY, how much of Brooklyn would've been destroyed? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There was an interesting article in Yahoo News earlier today discussing this very topic. It appears there is an area fifty or a hundred miles in the Pacific Ocean roughly off the coast of San Jose/San Francisco which is very earthquake prone according to siesmologists. I guess it is just a matter of time. You may have also seen in the news that hungry crockodiles got washed ashore in the Indonesia area this week, and although the little guys do not go out of their way to attack/eat humans, they certainly will do so when they get aggravated/agitated enough to do so. PAT] ------------------------------ From: brmorris@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Vonage no Longer Shipping Linksys PAP2 Date: 29 Dec 2004 17:30:23 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I don't know if that is true, but I just bought a PAP2 from Amazon and there was a loud humm/buzz, so I returned it and the next one had the humm/buzz, too. It is fairly loud, too! ------------------------------ From: oookhc@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Future of Cellular Phone Date: 29 Dec 2004 19:53:26 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com There are many things that can be imagined. For example, a cellular phone could project a "virtual keyboard" on a flat plane so that people do not have to use the "real keyboard" to type anything; or the cellular phone is with voice recognization function so that people can just use their mouth to enable something; or a cellular phone could work as a language translator so that people on the other hand could speak in different languages ... Well, they are just dreams in the near future. :) But it just depends on your imagination to realize them. The following links just provide some basic principles from fundamental things: http://www.ScienceOxygen.com/gadget1.html http://www.ScienceOxygen.com/signal.html http://www.ScienceOxygen.com/electrical.html Keep dreaming... ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: My High Hopes About Google Ads Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:48:11 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 28 Dec 2004 05:41:56 -0000, Telecom Digest Editor writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The givers-away of free, remote > registered domains in the '.ms', '.tc' and '.tf' domains are all > using precisely the same templates and software, and all offer the > same webmaster's tool-kits, if, as you suggest, they are different > people/organizations. But instead of paying $10 for a domain you > could pay $5 for (any unlimited number of) domain names in the > 'dhs.org' and 'n3.net' group [snip] With your cheap registration you're going to get what you paid for it. Considering that godaddy.com ( http://godaddy.com ) normally has major common domains such as .com, .org, .net, .name, .biz and others at normal prices of around $7 and often have sales on some domains as cheap as $1 or $3. Who knows what .tc will do in another year?! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Makes me wonder why that idiot over in Switzerland who deliberatly cybersquatted on my internet history domain thought he was going to accomplish other than bad will. FYI, http://internet-history.org (one of my domains) is now being run by the Penis Enlargement Company, and I guess he wants several hundred dollars to redeem it. Or, as Mikka, my erstwhile correspondent from the garynuman mail server in Alberta put it, I should quit my bellyaching, and face up to how overall rotten to the core the net has gotten in the past few years. The main thing with .tc and .tf and .ms is they are outside the grasp of ICANN. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 22:56:17 -0600 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelex.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: Drill Bit Size I wrote: >> I have a 5/8" spade bit... Tony P. replied: > 5/8" seems huge. You can get CAT-5 through a quarter inch hole ... Mea culpa -- I meant to say 5/16". Kinda makes a difference, doesn't it? :-) Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com Tragically, as many as 9625 out of every 10,000 individuals may be neurotypical ------------------------------ From: ldn20042002@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Re: QCTimes.com -- Spam Suit Nets $1 Billion Date: 30 Dec 2004 04:48:08 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com This is very interesting. Thank you. ldn20042002@yahoo.co.uk [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, but I have to wonder how much of that billion dollars he will be able to collect. Probably little or none of it. PAT] ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #624 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Dec 31 01:22:10 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBV6M9F06920; Fri, 31 Dec 2004 01:22:10 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 01:22:10 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412310622.iBV6M9F06920@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 #625 TELECOM Digest Fri, 31 Dec 2004 01:22:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 625 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Red Cross Tsunami Victims' Web Site Overwhelmed (Lisa Minter) Silly Cell Phone "Ring Amplifier" (Thomas A. Horsley) Re: Can Someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network (Ed Clarke) Re: Can Someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network (Gene Berkowitz) VOIP (Don Nelsch) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (Joseph) Re: Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Seizure'? (Allen McIntosh) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (John Levine) Phone Magazine From 1926 (Digest Reprint from Jim Haynes) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Red Cross Tsunami Victims' Web Site Overwhelmed Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:46:06 EST GENEVA (Reuters) - A Red Cross Web Site to aid anxious relatives locate survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster partially crashed on Thursday after being overwhelmed by some 650,000 hits in its first 24 hours, a spokesman said. The Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRCS) was installing a bigger server and hoped to have the site, which had become almost impossible to access, up and running again on Friday, Florian Westphal told Reuters. "We have had a tremendous response ... the system is partially down," he said. As a result of the technical problems, it was not possible to tell just how many people had been able to find their loved ones through the site -- www.familylinks.icrc.org system. But a few people had called to have names removed, he added. The site has special sections for the four worst-affected countries -- Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and India -- where the overwhelming majority of the more than 125,000 deaths occurred. Some 5,000 foreign tourists, mostly Europeans, are unaccounted for after an earthquake off Indonesia sent a wall of water crashing into coasts and devastated beach resorts around the Indian Ocean. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Subject: Silly Cell Phone "Ring Amplifier" From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 22:37:43 GMT No one had a pointer to any cell phone ring amplifiers when I was looking for one a while back, so having time to kill over Christmas, I made my own. Find the tale of the insanity at: http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/phonetale/phonetail.html >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: Ed Clarke Subject: Re: Can Someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network Date: 30 Dec 2004 23:15:50 GMT Organization: Ciliophora Associates, Inc. Reply-To: clarke@cilia.org In article , BertieBigBollox @ gmail.com wrote: > Seems a bit hard to believe. Surely one computer pinging would make > very little impact even on a DSL connection ... Would be a bit > unfortunate if this were the case and someone got hold of your static > IP :-) Depends upon the relative speeds of the connections. A fast ping from an OC3 will hurt you a lot. > Also, what about UDP floods? Are these different? Surely firewalls > etc would stop this sort of thing from happening? Not at all. The traffic's on the line, whether or not it gets into a computer is beside the point. And in any case, you usually run into DDOS (distributed denial of service) rather than DOS right now. "De inimico non loquaris sed cogites." ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: Can someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:31:31 -0500 In article , BertieBigBollox@gmail.com says: > Read somewhere that if someone continually pings your network, the > server will eventually fall over. > Seems a bit hard to believe. Surely one computer pinging would make > very little impact even on a DSL connection ... Would be a bit > unfortunate if this were the case and someone got hold of your static > IP :-) > Also, what about UDP floods? Are these different? Surely firewalls etc > would stop this sort of thing from happening? Ping can be set to send up to 65,500 bytes per packet. Usually the "ping of death" is sent from many sources at once. Eventually the server spends so much time replying to the pings, it can't get any real work done. A firewall will reject what it's told to reject. That doesn't stop the packets from arriving over your connection, consuming your bandwidth. --Gene ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:14:19 -0500 From: Don Nelsch Reply-To: Don Nelsch Subject: VOIP Pat, I have seen much discussion of Vonage and Skype, but very little of Michael Robertson's (LINSPIRE) SiPphone. Off hand, that looks to be a decent service at very moderate cost. What am I missing? Don [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Off hand, I do not think anyone has ever written here or talked about the service. Maybe Mr. Robertson does not have very good press for some reason. Can you tell us more about the Linspire SiPphone service? If it is good, and inexpensive, I might switch to it myself. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:44:03 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 07:09:56 -0500, LB@notmine.com wrote: > The new Consumer Reports magazine has a large story on cell phone > providers and cell phones. You can get better info in this group, but > the mag has lots of info. Will be very handy for those times when a > "friend" is looking for info. I think the mag should be on newsstands > now. Take what Consumer Reports magazine has to say about cell phones with a grain of salt. In past "cellular" issues they poo-pooh'd some carriers basically T-Mobile (then VoiceStream) because they didn't have fallback to older first generation analog technology. Guess what?! Lots of phones now being offered by *all* the carriers and don't have analog. They out and out refused to even look at VoiceStream/T-Mobile because they are luddites and couldn't see what was coming down the pike. If you want good recommendations or information about cellular service look at what they have to say, but take it with a grain of salt. They do much better testing washing machines, riding lawn mowers or crash worthiness of automobiles. ------------------------------ From: Allen McIntosh Reply-To: nospam@mouse-potato.com Subject: Re: Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Seizure/Seizure Signal'? Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 20:52:52 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online Jack wrote: > What does Seizure mean in telecom? What is Seizure Signal? You can find all this and more at a telecom glossary site. Search for "telecom glossary". (You may have more luck with "seizing".) He might also try searching the telecom glossaries we have on line at our web site http://telecom-digest.org . PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 31 Dec 2004 01:59:38 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > If such waves hit either the east or west coast of the U.S., how far > inland would the destruction be? One mile? Ten miles? How much > shoreline (ie length) would be affected? > For example, say the wave were to hit Coney Island in Brooklyn NY, > how much of Brooklyn would've been destroyed? Here on the east coast we have hurricanes and other storms, and a storm surge is not altogether unlike a tsunami. Most of the east coast, from Cape Cod all the way to Miami, has barrier beaches in front of shallow bays so a storm surge or tsunami would whack the barrier beach pretty badly, but the energy would dissipate before reaching the mainland. Most of the construction close to the water is now storm resistant, typically on pilings with breakaway construction at ground level, and I'd think that design would resist a tsunami pretty well. Coney Island is unusual in that it's not a barrier beach (that's why it is where it is) but I believe they do have seawalls under the boardwalk, and it faces south while most waves arrive from the east. On the west coast, it depends on the topography which varies a lot. In Santa Monica, for example, there is a high bluff which should limit tsunami damage to the small amount of stuff below the bluff, while a couple of miles south in Venice and Marina del Rey it's flat, and a big wave would whack them. Press reports remind us that tsunamis have in living memory hit northern California and killed people, so they should pay attention. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Telecom Editor Subject: Phone Magazine From 1926 Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST Eleven years go in this Digest we were given a copy of an old 1926 internal telco magazine published by Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. As we now approach a new year, I thought this reprint from our archives might make very interesting reading. It was sent to us by Jim Haynes. PAT Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1993 14:19:29 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator To: ptownson@gaak.LCS.MIT.EDU Subject: telephone.magazine.from.1926 From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Telephony in 1926, Part 1 of ??? Date: 18 Aug 1993 06:19:46 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz Lines: 200 I was recently given a copy of the Southwestern Bell employee magazine "Southwestern Telephone News", issue of October 1926, which was Volume 13, No. 10 and hence must have started publication about 1913. This article will be a summary of the contents; perhaps I'll type in or review particular articles later. The front cover shows a cable splicer hanging from a strand as he splices an underground cable to an aerial cable in Dallas. Repeated several times througout the issue is, "New Long Distance rates and practices went into effect on October 1st. Pamphlets giving full information on these changes are available for all employees. Study the rates carefully so that you can answer the questions of subscribers." I remember this attitude, that all employees should be prepared to represent the company to the public, was later embodied in a slogan, "To the public _you_ are the telephone company," that was constantly presented to employees. On page 2 is a photograph of sheep with their heads in the grass, and an amusig caption: "Sheep (Eating) In July, our explanation that the folks in the frontspiece were stacking wheat brought a protest from Kansas that they were not stacking but were shocking wheat. This time we take no chances. Grazing, as we remember, is the right term, but we are not sheepherders. (Texas panhandle, please note.)" The first article is a bio of Charles P. Cooper, former president of Ohio Bell who was just elected vice-president of AT&T. Next there are five pages with pictures reporting on a Telephone Pioneers meeting in New York City. Among other activities they visited AT&T headquarters, Bell Labs, and New York Telephone headquarters and were greeted by executives of those companies. The highlight was an address by Thomas A. Watson, who told of his experiences as a colleague of Alexander Graham Bell. This was followed by a demonstration of talking movies, including one depicting the invention of the telephone and narrated by Watson. Then there is an article "Efficient and Courteous" by an anonymous "counterman". He tells of receiving a letter of commendation from a customer. Even though he had had to turn down the customer's request for service he had fully explained why there was a shortage of facilities in the customer's area, and the problems of the company in extending its lines. Then the medical director of AT&T writes to those who have just returned from vacations, urging them to use their spare time during the week as a "vacation all year." He suggests they get out of doors, do the essential chores, of course, but do something recreational. "...forget as far as possible that you ever worked for the Telephone Company." The telephone exhibit at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition is described, with a reminder that the telephone was first exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia 50 years earlier. The 1926 exhibit includes a showing of motion pictures, two of which are talking. One of these features Thomas A. Watson [and is presumably the same film that was shown to the Pioneers]; and the other "contrasts the noisy operating room and crude apparatus of the eighties, when boys were operators, with the central office of the present." I guess in those days AT&T stock was marketed through telephone offices, as there is an article about how an AT&T rights offering was handled. There are accounts of company employees persuading the public to buy stock, and also of people who threw away the rights documents, not realizing they had monetary value. There's a sort item about telephone operators assisting when there was an explosion at a high school, and another showing the first installation of a P.A. system in a school, with switching so that music or voice can be had in any combination of rooms. Then there is the second part of an article reprinted from _Telephony_ by an operator, Manta J. Elder, about her experiences. There were annual floods when the Marais-des-Cygnes overran its banks near Ottawa, Kansas. Many operators lived across the river from the telephone office and had to cross the river in canoes and stay at the office so they would be available. Also severe winters when the streets were impassable to vehicles and the company sent horses to the residence of each operator to bring them to work. Sleet storms in February took lines down, so things were very quiet at the switchboard until service was restored; and then everybody wanted to use the telephone. She tells of working the last day at an old switchboard before cutover to a new one in a new office. "The next day i went by the old office, and my feet naturally led me up the old stairway. If I had known that I should see the salvaging force at their work, I would never had have the courage to enter the old room. The board was already sadly wrecked. It seemed to me that I was looking upon something almost human, which was being made to suffer after years of patient and loving service to a public which now gives it no thought. "As I walked on toward my home, I fell to thinking of the many and varied messages that had been carried through that old public servant. The first news of special interest to all people handled through its channels was the news of Admiral Dewey's victory at Manila Bay, which occurred about three weeks after the installation of the board. "Service began on this old switchboard June 13, 1898, and except for one hour during President McKinley's funeral, until December, 1915, it was a living part of the community it so faithfully served." She goes on to tell of the World War, and of the influenza epidemic. Says that in earlier times the telephone operators often complained that they were not appreciated by the public, but at the time of writing most people are truly appreciative of their services. A little of the history of the company, which was originally the Kansas City Telephone company, called the "Home" Company; at the time of abandonment of the old switchboard the "Home" and "Bell" companies were consolidated under the name of "The Kansas Telephone Company", in the spring of 1915. On January 1, 1926, the company was transferred to Southwestern Bell. Then there are three pages of managerial personnel changes, with some portraits. Then an article about formation of the Charles S. Gleed chapter of Telephone Pioneers in Kansas City, and an article about the switchboard in St. Louis being extremely busy in the aftermath of the St. Louis Cardinals winning the National League pennant. A page of short items: Clemenceau quoted on the need for technical experts to be aware of matters outside the scope of their expertise; a comment on the article by "a counterman"; an article about the recent AT&T stock issue; and a repeat of the item about new long distance rates and practices. Four pages with pictures about Bell Telephone Laboratores, and some unrelated pictures of employees enjoying their summer vacations. Two pages about Texas beginning a new billing method: instead of billing all customers on the same day of the month they will spread the billing dates throughout the month to smooth out the workload. Two pages about handling mail in the headquarters mail room, the need for good addresses, and the problem of customers sending cash in the mail when paying their bills; an average of $15 a day is found in the mail room when the supervisor has to open inadequately addressed mail. Then a rather technical article, with schematic diagram, of a circuit to simplify cutting phantom transpositions. (When a phantom circuit is added to two existing circuits it is necessary to alter the way the wires are transposed on the poles. This must be done without interrupting service on the exiting circuits any longer than necessary.) Two pages of service records, including portraits of seven men who have worked a total of 185 years. One page about the "first annual" Watermelon Festival in Hope, AR. An article about keeping score on collection work; teams get points for minimizing the need to communicate with subscribers to get them to pay their bills. Photographs of the new Norman, OK office, and an open house for visitors. Suggestions for Halloween costumes (illustrations) and two pages of illustrations of ladies' fashion suggestions. A page of cartoons by "Stack", with a Halloween theme. Three pages telling where every construction crew is working and what jobs they are working on. Some photos, including a cable splicer and his helper with what appears to be a push cart containing their tools and supplies. A page with a map of the company's territory, showing the locations of all lost-time accidents for the year. Four pages of social news: parties, retirements, contests won, other activities. "Anyone at St. Louis Toll who wants a thrill, should let Miss Hogan take them riding in her Ford. She misses other cars by a fender." A page "What I Did Today" containing stories by operators of how they assisted the public. A page of poetry written by telephone people. Inside back cover, a list of the principal management officers of the company and their titles. Back cover, an AT&T advertisement. This one shows operators being delivered to their office in a truck in a howling blizzard; and the text tells how people take the telephone for granted, how different life would be without it, and how 300,000 telephone people work to maintain dependable service. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet "Ya can talk all ya wanna, but it's dif'rent than it was!" "No it aint! But ya gotta know the territory!" Meredith Willson: "The Music Man" ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #625 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Dec 31 18:45:35 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBVNjZQ15432; Fri, 31 Dec 2004 18:45:35 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 18:45:35 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412312345.iBVNjZQ15432@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 #626 TELECOM Digest Fri, 31 Dec 2004 18:45:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 626 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson VoicePulse Named Best of the Year by PC Magazine (Jack Decker) Calif. PUC Files Appeal To FCC's Vonage Decision -- Maybe (Jack Decker) Novel Idea Coming Soon to Cell Phones (Marcus Didius Falco) Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth (Marcus Didius Falco) Wall-Mounted Cordless Phone (ed) VoIP Problem: No Incoming Calls! (Rick Merrill) Vonage Discussion Group Being Started (Vonage) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (LB@notmine.com) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: Silly Cell Phone "Ring Amplifier" (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Drill Bit Size (Tony P.) Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart (Jeff C) Re: Connect to Skype with Multiple Phones Around the House (jaykchan) Re: Connect to Skype with Multiple Phones Around the House (Brad Houser) Help Hooking up Payphone (Lachlan Mullen) Re: Can Someone PINGING Really Screw Your Network? (John McHarry) That's It, Folks! (TELECOM Digest Editor) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jack Decker Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:12:45 -0500 Subject: VoicePulse Named Best of the Year by PC Magazine http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2004/Dec/1104225.htm JAMESBURG, N.J., Dec. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- VoicePulse Inc. announced it has been named Best of the Year by PC Magazine, honoring them as the top residential and small office VoIP provider of 2004. PC Magazine presented the award to VoicePulse after running comprehensive tests on the service and the services of other major VoIP providers in today's market. VoicePulse's ease of installation, sound quality and free features pushed the service provider to the top against competing services including Vonage and AT&T's CallVantage. According to Craig Ellison, PC Magazine's New Product Test Director, "VoicePulse does try to differentiate itself from the other players in the field, specifically with the amount of features offered in its plans." "PC Magazine's review and testing process is the most rigorous I've seen so far," says Ravi Sakaria, President and CEO of VoicePulse, "so we are very pleased to receive this award from them. This was a huge year for the VoIP industry and to be named the best provider is quite an honor. The upcoming year promises to be even more exciting as we continue to enhance our service and offer the best customer experience." VoicePulse also earned the PC World Best Buy award this past May. In September, they were the highest rated VoIP provider in PC Magazine's roundup that compared them to Vonage's DigitalVoice and AT&T's CallVantage. DesignTechnica, a high-tech gadget review site awarded VoicePulse the Editor's Choice award in December. ABOUT PC MAGAZINE PC Magazine (http://www.pcmag.com/), the most important technology publication in the world, delivers authoritative, labs-based comparative reviews of computing and Internet products to more than 6.6 million highly engaged technology buyers. PC Magazine defines technology for e-business and is the only magazine with in-depth reviews and accurate, repeatable testing from PC Magazine Labs placed in the unique context of today's business technology landscape. ABOUT VOICEPULSE VoicePulse is a New Jersey based communications company that uses its VoIP network to deliver advanced features and high-quality phone service to residential and small-business consumers. The company leads the industry in delivering innovative features and excellent customer service. For more information about VoicePulse, please contact: Rima Vaghasiya, 732-339-5100 rima @ voicepulse.com Web site: http://www.voicepulse.com/ 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: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 12:54:00 -0500 Subject: Calif. PUC Files Appeal To FCC's Vonage Decision -- Maybe http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/dailyarchives.jhtml?articleId=56900043 By Paul Kapustka Setting itself up for a potential regulatory flip-flop, the California Public Utilities Commission has filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit challenging the FCC's recent decision to exempt Voice over IP provider Vonage Holdings from state-by-state regulations -- a petition that the CPUC itself may seek to overturn when new commissioners come on board Jan. 11. The CPUC's petition, filed with the court on Dec. 22, asks that the FCC's Vonage ruling be found "in excess of the Commission's statuatory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations and is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and otherwise contrary to law." According to Ellen LeVine, a counsel for the CPUC, interested parties have a 30-day window to present oral arguments to the court before any action is taken. During that time, the CPUC itself may move to strike its own petition -- a seemingly schizophrenic action that actually makes sense given the fact that the CPUC's recently acrimonious commissioner roster is due for imminent overhaul, with two new appointees for 2005. The outgoing commissioners, Democrats Carl Wood and Loretta Lynch, are being replaced by Republican Steve Poizner and Democrat Dian Grueneich, who were recently appointed to the posts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. While the CPUC's LeVine would not reveal details of the commissioners' vote on the FCC/Vonage petition, sources close to the matter said the commissioners were sharply divided on the issue. The CPUC could, in fact, change its mind entirely on the subject when the new slate of commissioners holds its first formal business meeting on Jan. 13 in San Francisco. Full story at: http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/dailyarchives.jhtml?articleId=56900043 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/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 02:37:53 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Novel Idea Coming Soon to Cell Phones http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/reviews/chi-0412230033dec23,1,7058312.story?coll=3Dchi-technologyreviews-hed http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/reviews/chi-0412230033dec23,1,5130275,print.story?coll=3Dchi-technologyreviews-hed Novel idea coming soon to cell phones Advertisement By Doreen Carvajal New York Times News Service PARIS -- One day before too long, when your mobile telephone sounds, it could be a novel calling to recount how the headstrong heroine dumped the handsome heartbreaker. Or it might be a guidebook surfacing at a critical moment in a crowded bar to provide you with pickup lines in Spanish, French or German. The increasing power of cell phones is fast shaping innovative forms of compact culture: micro-lit, phone soap operas and made-for-mobile dramas that can be absorbed in less time than it takes to flick through a book introduction. Today very few people are using so-called third-generation mobile services, or smart phones, which allow users to browse the Internet and watch videos. But most cell phones sold these days have color screens and the ability to receive picture messages. So media companies are reinventing quaint old formulas with the aim of reaching youthful customers. "Are people going to read `War and Peace' on their telephones?" asked David Harper, whose company, Wireless Ink, in Cold Spring, N.Y., offers Web users cell phone-size literature on such weighty themes as the zombie apocalypse. "The answer is probably no. Right now the content on mobile devices is almost like early television." Photo story One pioneer is Media Republic, an Amsterdam company that is successfully reaching young women with the mobile equivalent of the French "roman photo," a sentimental genre of romantic still photos and text that dates to the postwar period. Dutch users register their mobile phones to follow the adventures of the hormone-driven characters of "Jong Zuid," or "Young South," which is now in production for its fourth season. Customers receive two episodes daily, each with six photographs of well-known Dutch actors and text describing the travails of glamorous young people seeking their fortune in the big city. A weekly subscription costs about $1.50, but most of the revenue comes from an assortment of corporate sponsors who pay for product placements, Web advertising and the exclusive rights to sponsor "Jong Zuid" contests and promotions. Media Republic and a partner are to produce a similar English-language version, which will start appearing in Australia this month. Called "My Way," it is calculated to appeal to young women, as did the Dutch phone soap, which attracted 78,000 subscribers, 68 percent of them women, with an average age of about 18. Media Republic is planning to bring out other versions of the soap opera early next year in Germany and in France, where its partner, NX Publishing, is in the final stages of negotiation with major French television channels, magazines and mobile telephone operators. "Everybody is eventually moving to video on mobile, and this `roman photo' concept is a bridge for those people who are not able to use videos yet because they need a sophisticated telephone," said Jean-Michel Blottiere, NX's chief executive. Almost two-thirds of the 62 million cell phones shipped in Europe in the last quarter were camera phones with color screens, according to Canalys, a number to pick up substantially next quarter. That hasn't stopped a number of companies from trying to exploit the potential market. During the Asian Film Festival this month in Singapore, MediaCorp, a local company, announced it was spending a half-million dollars to produce 45 two-minute episodes of a Chinese-language mobile video drama. The giant British mobile-phone company Vodafone has struck a partnership with 20th Century Fox to create a made-for-cell phone video series, based on the television show "24," which will start appearing next month in the first of 13 countries. (It will eventually appear in the United States through Vodafone's partner Verizon Wireless.) A British phone manufacturer, I-Mate, also has produced "Cjaq," a 10-part thriller with video about five young people trapped in a futuristic nightclub to which they were drawn by a hoax text-message invitation. Evolved into film In Japan, major publishers such as Shinchosha and Kadoadwa Shoten have created Web sites to offer telephone reading material. Japan is also home to probably the most successful telephone venture. Earlier this year a mobile novel jumped from phone screens to the silver screen, evolving into a feature film, "Deep Love." In the book industry in the United States, the initial reaction to mobile-lit is: "Are you kidding?" as one veteran put it. Still, some major New York publishing houses are pondering the future. "We are paying attention, but we haven't entered the market yet," said Kate Tentler, vice president and publisher for Simon & Schuster Online. In Europe, even some old-guard publishers have jumped into the mobile format. The Munich-based Langenscheidt Publishing Group is a traditional, family-run company that would seem an unlikely player in this market. It has been publishing dictionaries, travel guides and map books since 1856 and is run by the fourth generation of the Langenscheidt family. This month Langenscheidt started offering a phone-size flirting dictionary that is its way of promoting international understanding. For about $5, the service offers 600 or so phrases in the chosen language, and practical advice including phonetic pronunciations of polite brushoffs. The benefit, said Ina Kaese, who manages Langenscheidt's mobile services, is that if you are a traveler in a foreign city in a busy bar, your telephone can be your instant guide to romance. It is the mobile equivalent of the 17th Century Cyrano de Bergerac, who famously supplied lines to the lovelorn. But certainly not ones such as this: "Will anybody be jealous if I invite you to a cocktail?" Copyright 2004, Chicago Tribune NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Chicago Tribune Company.. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 02:41:08 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth Take a look down near the bottom on Cingular's giving special access codes for big-wigs. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=3Dstory&cid=3D1804&u=3D/washpost/20041229/tc _washpost/a32469_2004dec28&printer=3D1=20 By Yuki Noguchi, Washington Post Staff Writer Preparing wireless networks for an event like next month's presidential inauguration has become as critical as erecting the barricades and ordering the party platters. Several hundred thousand VIPs, protesters, police officers and onlookers are expected to make cellular calls on Jan. 20 from along the parade route, convention halls and hotel lobbies in and around the District. They'll also be sending pictures, messages and e-mail -- all of which create a heavy volume of wireless traffic that eats up network capacity. To make sure everyone gets a share of the wireless signal, cell phone companies -- like seasoned caterers -- must estimate attendance and make sure there's enough to go around. When necessary, they're ordering backup. For Greg Meacham of Nextel Communications Inc., preparations for such events begin at least six months beforehand, when the U.S. Secret Service calls to tell him about a pending "national security special event." Over the past year in various cities, those included the two major national political conventions and the Group of Eight summit in June. "First, we evaluate the area for network coverage" and bolster the network in high-traffic zones, said Meacham, vice president of federal programs and homeland security for the Reston company. For the inaugural events, Nextel will install temporary or permanent equipment to boost coverage in such buildings as the MCI Center, Union Station, the Convention Center and a number of big hotels to make sure that subscribers will be able to complete calls or send their wireless e-mails, he said. In case it needs emergency backup, Nextel also will have three trucks with satellite-based temporary cell towers mounted on them on standby in Dulles, he said. Washington often hosts events that draw big crowds, so companies say they've already built networks to handle spikes in traffic. The Fourth of July typically draws 300,000 people to the National Mall, according to Verizon Wireless's estimates. The dedication of the National World War II Memorial in May drew about 250,000. And then there are protest marches, the cherry blossoms and major traffic accidents, all of which tend to dramatically increase calling. The predictability of such events as the inauguration makes them easier to plan for, said Tim Dykstra, Verizon Wireless's director of system performance for the Washington-Baltimore area. Verizon Wireless keeps usage logs of past events such as former president Ronald Reagan (news - web sites)'s funeral, then it makes adjustments after each big event, so it already has enough capacity to handle most events, he said. Cingular Wireless LLC, which recently acquired AT&T Wireless Services Inc., should be in good shape for the inauguration because it now has double its previous network capacity and plenty of room for spillover traffic, said Frank T. Iovino, the company's vice president and general manager for the Washington-Baltimore area. "They've got Washington pretty well covered," Frank Dzubeck, president of Washington-based telecom consultancy Communications Network Architects Inc., said of the cellular phone companies. Although there are known dead spots close to the White House and CIA (news - web sites) headquarters in Langley where wireless signals are blocked for security reasons, he said, most callers even in the busiest areas shouldn't have problems. Dzubeck added that pressure on cellular systems in downtown Washington should be eased because Inauguration Day will be a holiday for federal workers. In case of unexpected problems or emergencies, Cingular said it offers some politicians and emergency workers wireless priority access -- they can dial secret codes that ensure their calls get priority even when a network is jammed. Nextel, which has a big customer base among police and emergency workers, anticipates a quadrupling of traffic from such workers during the inauguration, Meacham said. To support them, Nextel will also keep some workers at the multi-agency police command center to coordinate public safety communications in case of an emergency. Often what happens at the command center is more mundane, he said: Public safety personnel need help figuring out how to use their BlackBerry devices, or they want extra phone batteries. Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report. Copyright 2004 The Washington Post Company. Copyright 2004 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Washington Post Company and Yahoo News. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: ed Subject: Wall-Mounted Cordless Phone Date: 31 Dec 2004 10:36:02 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm looking for a cordless phone with a second handset that can be mounted on the wall in the same way many base units do. Any suggestions? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 09:56:16 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: VoIP Problem: No Incoming Calls! My AttCallvantage VoIP places calls, but calls from outside the ATT system cannot reach us. IT HAS BEEN SIX DAYS! We have children and elderly who may need to reach us. Is there no way too get this problem elevated to "fix now!."? Windows xp; Linksys router; Dlink TA; Motorolla modem; Comcast cable. rick merrill at comcast . net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your first paragraph gives a clue to follow up on: 'Calls from outside the AT&T system cannot reach us.' What does this mean exactly? Have you experienced this at all, that is known calls you make do not get back to you on your VOIP. Is 'outside the AT&T system' referring to other (non-AT&T) voip lines or other landline phones or? The person(s) who try to call you, are they getting an intercept message saying call cannot be completed, or a re-order (fast busy) tone? Or is it ringing 'open', that is the call 'gets through' to your local phone switch but does not actually reach your phone, or ? If the caller is getting intercepted either by a message or reorder tone and they are outside your LATA it may be that AT&T (in the process of opening a new exchange for their VOIP phones) failed to get it correctly listed in the 'tables' that other carriers use indicating your VOIP exchange is a working exchange. I experienced this once. Tried to reach a lady in northern Wisconsin using my land line (defaulted to MCI for long distance). Every attempt, I got an intercept recording 'not in service.' On a hunch, I tried dialing 10288 *first*, forcing the call over AT&T, and then it went through okay. Same central office both times, but MCI did not have it in their routing tables as a valid exchange, thus, refused to pass the call along. I tried explaining it to repair and the business office, but go nowhere. Finally I spoke to a lady who said "I sort of think I know what you are talking about; give me a number to reach you at, I am going to have someone call you back." About 30 minutes later I got a call from a man who identified himself as a 'network technican for AT&T', in of all places, Denver, CO. He said he knew *exactly* what the problem was ... (I said) "yeah but can you get MCI to make the changes required." Oh yeah, he said, they will listen to me, they will do as I say. I will call you back in 30 minutes or so. Sure enough, it got fixed. As he explained it to me, Illinois Bell (local central office) handled 'translations' for AT&T and got it correct. In theory, whenever a new central office opens, word of same is supposed to travel around the network so that other phone companies can 'turn it on' also in their switches. Sometimes one or another of them fail to do so, or do it incorrectly. He told me, "MCI tried to turn it on also, but got a comma or white space or something wrong in their file, so as far as their switch was concerned, that exchange did not exist." When I forced the call (via 10288) Illinois Bell, AT&T and Wisconsin Telephone all got it correct. When I did one plus default through MCI (Illinois Bell to MCI), it bounced. When I *finally* reached the lady I was calling in Wisconsin all she knew was 'many times, my friends in Chicago cannot reach me, but others get through okay' (the ones using Sprint or AT&T). So ask your family/friends/whoever that is 'not on AT&T system' to try calling your VOIP. If *they* (or some of them) get through just fine, try and isolate the number they used and the telco they used. Also, I assume you have used your own landline phone or cell phone to try calling the VOIP and see if you get through to yourself or not. Let us know how your experiments and tests work out. This may not be the fault of CallVantage at all, but rather some telco (even AT&T!) failing to install that phone number/exchange in the 'tables' for others to see. And please explain what you mean by 'cannot get through to me on VOIP phone'. *At what point* does their call bounce back? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Vonage Subject: Vonage Discussion Group Started Date: 30 Dec 2004 21:56:22 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com If you are at all interested, I just started a new Google Group http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Vonage to support my efforts on http://www.vonage-forum.com to provide a means of communications for Vonage VoIP customers. DC ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 02:07:37 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers At 01:22 AM 12/31/04, Joseph responded to Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers: > On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 07:09:56 -0500, LB@notmine.com wrote: >> The new Consumer Reports magazine has a large story on cell phone >> providers and cell phones. You can get better info in this group, but >> the mag has lots of info. Will be very handy for those times when a >> "friend" is looking for info. I think the mag should be on newsstands >> now. > Take what Consumer Reports magazine has to say about cell phones with > a grain of salt. In past "cellular" issues they poo-pooh'd some > carriers basically T-Mobile (then VoiceStream) because they didn't > have fallback to older first generation analog technology. Guess > what?! Lots of phones now being offered by *all* the carriers and > don't have analog. They out and out refused to even look at > VoiceStream/T-Mobile because they are luddites and couldn't see what > was coming down the pike. If you want good recommendations or > information about cellular service look at what they have to say, but > take it with a grain of salt. They do much better testing washing > machines, riding lawn mowers or crash worthiness of automobiles. Depends on what you want to use the phone for and where. Coverage of T-Mobile is still a bit spotty, even on interstates. But digital coverage has improved for all networks. For emergency calls you best carry an inactivated bag phone in the trunk (I still do), which will let you call 911 almost anywhere. There's also the issue of how much roaming the carrier will permit. In England, using Virgin, I had trouble in Port Isaac, but friends using Orange had no trouble at all. In Washington, if you're not on Verizon, when you're in the Metro you're roaming. Sprint is the only other CDMA carrier: everyone else is out of luck (or in luck, depending on your attitude toward not getting calls for a few minutes). Some newspapers will, from time to time, do a feature story about cell phone reception in their city. The Washington Post does it about once a year, testing all the carriers from some busy corners and from some notorious dead zones. This is the most important information. I know people who have poor reception in their own houses. Indeed, until they put in a new tower a while ago, I often missed calls when I was in my second-story suburban office. And my children, with different carriers, had to go outside to make calls. ------------------------------ From: LB@notmine.com Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 07:34:57 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online Joseph wrote: > On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 07:09:56 -0500, LB@notmine.com wrote: >> The new Consumer Reports magazine has a large story on cell phone >> providers and cell phones. You can get better info in this group, but >> the mag has lots of info. Will be very handy for those times when a >> "friend" is looking for info. I think the mag should be on newsstands >> now. > Take what Consumer Reports magazine has to say about cell phones with > a grain of salt. In past "cellular" issues they poo-pooh'd some > carriers basically T-Mobile (then VoiceStream) because they didn't > have fallback to older first generation analog technology. Guess > what?! Lots of phones now being offered by *all* the carriers and > don't have analog. They out and out refused to even look at > VoiceStream/T-Mobile because they are luddites and couldn't see what > was coming down the pike. If you want good recommendations or > information about cellular service look at what they have to say, but > take it with a grain of salt. They do much better testing washing > machines, riding lawn mowers or crash worthiness of automobiles. Agreed. The fact that they use "taste experts" for food and do not ask some experts for tech stuff bothers me. But he article is a start, esp for those not into newsgroups LB ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 06:00:17 -0800 Organization: Cox Communications Joseph wrote: > On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 07:09:56 -0500, LB@notmine.com wrote: > Take what Consumer Reports magazine has to say about cell phones with > a grain of salt. In past "cellular" issues they poo-pooh'd some > carriers basically T-Mobile (then VoiceStream) because they didn't > have fallback to older first generation analog technology. Guess > what?! Lots of phones now being offered by *all* the carriers and > don't have analog. They out and out refused to even look at > VoiceStream/T-Mobile because they are luddites and couldn't see what > was coming down the pike. If you want good recommendations or > information about cellular service look at what they have to say, but > take it with a grain of salt. They do much better testing washing > machines, riding lawn mowers or crash worthiness of automobiles. One good piece of advice they do give is that none of the wireless carriers give a squat about their customers. The fact that service contracts are not pro-rated, at least in the latter stages, is one good example. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 01:43:56 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com commented on Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! on Date: 30 Dec 2004 11:53:38 -0800 > TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: >> That disturbance of the earth over around s.e. Asia on Sunday has >> certainly taken its toll. > If such waves hit either the east or west coast of the U.S., how far > inland would the destruction be? One mile? Ten miles? How much > shoreline (ie length) would be affected? > For example, say the wave were to hit Coney Island in Brooklyn NY, > how much of Brooklyn would've been destroyed? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There was an interesting article in > Yahoo News earlier today discussing this very topic. It appears there > is an area fifty or a hundred miles in the Pacific Ocean roughly off > the coast of San Jose/San Francisco which is very earthquake prone > according to siesmologists. I guess it is just a matter of time. You > may have also seen in the news that hungry crockodiles got washed > ashore in the Indonesia area this week, and although the little guys > do not go out of their way to attack/eat humans, they certainly will > do so when they get aggravated/agitated enough to do so. PAT] It's a simple matter of geography -- how flat is the coast. I used to live in Brooklyn, about 3 miles from Jamaica Bay, and about 5 miles from the sea. I was at the 20 foot contour on the map. In Maine the 20 foot contour may well be practically on the beach. Even in Staaten Island (Richmond), New York City there are places where there are high hills right at the beach. At a guess, a 20 foot wave would sweep most coastal cities in the eastern US. Luckily, most of the Atlantic is not seismically active. The Caribbean is active, however, and so is Iceland. The real question is whether there are two plates colliding under the Atlantic: if there aren't, then major Tsunamis are unlikely. The Pacific is subject to Tsunamis. There have been several reminders of the Easter one in 1964 that sent 60 foot waves into Alaska. (Luckily, much of the Alaskan coast is mountainous.) ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Silly Cell Phone "Ring Amplifier" Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 08:47:10 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) wrote: > No one had a pointer to any cell phone ring amplifiers when I was > looking for one a while back, so having time to kill over Christmas, I > made my own. Find the tale of the insanity at: > http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/phonetale/phonetail.html Wow. I'm impressed big time. I thought the days of home breadboarding were long gone. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Drill Bit Size Organization: ATCC Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 11:06:51 -0500 In article , nospam@crashelex.com says: > I wrote: >>> I have a 5/8" spade bit... > Tony P. replied: >> 5/8" seems huge. You can get CAT-5 through a quarter inch hole ... > Mea culpa -- I meant to say 5/16". Kinda makes a difference, doesn't > it? :-) Indeed it does. It never hurts to have a set of bits though from 1" boring bits on down. ------------------------------ From: Jeff C Subject: Re: USTA Sends Strange Letter to Wal-Mart Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 10:27:34 -0800 Organization: Not organized enough to have an organization Reply-To: jeff_c10@hotmail.com On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 09:52:26 -0500, Rick Merrill wrote: > What's this? Is it The latest in Cancelbot technique?? That was a forged post by a USENET vandal known as "hipcrime". Dippy hates USENET, and especially it hates news.admin.net-abuse.email, so it wrote a piece of abuseware known as "newsagent" that allows it to forge supercede posts and force follow-ups to flood NANAE with thousands of "WTF" posts such as yours. What to do about it is simple. First, look at the headers of a few forged posts, and filter on the commonly identifiable elements. Lately dippy's been abusing news servers in American Universities. If you subscribe to a service such as Supernews, the filtering is already done for you. Second, if you feel you MUST reply to a dippyspew post, look very carefully at where the post will be sent before you send it. This will ensure that you don't accidentally pollute another group thus doing dippy's vandalism for it. Third, now that you're immune to this id10t, join in the defense by posting a message similar to this one whenever you see a dippyspew in your newsgroup. The more people who know about dippy, the less damage it can do. ------------------------------ From: jaykchan@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Connect to Skype with Multiple Phones Around the House? Date: 31 Dec 2004 10:47:08 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com The tech support from the company who is selling the USB VoIP base unit suggested me to use a cordless phone that has multiple remote units; then I can put the remote cordless phone units in the living room and in the bedroom. I guess I just need to figure out which multiple-units cordless phone is good, and I will be all set. Jay Chan ------------------------------ From: Brad Houser Subject: Re: Connect to Skype with Multiple Phones Around the House? Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 13:01:48 -0800 Organization: Intel Reply-To: Brad Houser wrote in message news:telecom23.624.10@telecom-digest.org: > I intend to get a VoIP USB base unit from pcphoneline to > control Skype in the PC using USB; it has a phone jack that I can plug > my cordless phone into it. (snippage) > Can I connect multiple phone line to the VoIP USB base unit mentioned > above? You can connect one phone _line_ with multiple phones sharing the line. When you have two or more phones in one house, all using the same line, they are essentially connected in parallel. The only issue is how many ringers can you ring at once, as they all use some of the limited ring current capacity. Most new phones use very little current, so this should not be an issue. Old phones with mechanical bells would stop ringing if you tried to put more than 5 on one telco line. > Then I can run cables to various locations in my house. Running > cable is no big deal because I have already run cat-6 cables around the > house for networking. I can easliy change the cat-6 jack with a > phone-jack. What I am wondering is whether there will be any conflict > in the base unit if I plug a lot of phone lines into it. How to connect > many phone lines into it anyway? I mean ... physically? Think of the phone line as a pair of wires, say green and red. The green/red wire pair will connect from one jack to the next, to the next, etc in a line or you can tie them all together in one place, called a home run. Just remember to wire green to green and red to red. Usually green and red connect to the two center pins (3 and 2 respectively) in an RJ-11 jack. Brad Houser ------------------------------ From: Lachlan Mullen Subject: Help Hooking up Pay Phone Date: 31 Dec 2004 14:24:50 -0800 Have any of you guys ever had your pay phone ask for an "identification number"? The company that made my phone is Rand of Phoenix, who is now out of business. I would love to get the phone working, but can't seem to find the identification number which is needed to get a dial tone when the phone is first set up. Very strange. ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Can Someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 22:25:45 GMT On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:31:31 -0500, Gene S. Berkowitz wrote: > In article , > BertieBigBollox@gmail.com says: >> Read somewhere that if someone continually pings your network, the >> server will eventually fall over.appening? > Ping can be set to send up to 65,500 bytes per packet. Usually the > "ping of death" is sent from many sources at once. Eventually the > server spends so much time replying to the pings, it can't get any > real work done. Or, the pipe is flooded. Somebody did that a few years ago to one of the free firewall gurus. He had to get his ISP to block it upstream. ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: That's It, Folks! Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 18:30:00 EST Borowing a line from the old Looney Tunes cartoons of Warner Brothers, and sounding like a stuttering rabbit, who pops his head out of the curtain at the end of the show, I bring to an end the messages in Volume 23, for year 2004 of this Digest. We will open tomorrow or Sunday with Volume 24, and an all new round of messages and chances for you to kick old Patrick around as needed. PAT ------------------------------ 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'. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #626 ******************************