TELECOM Digest     Thu, 17 Mar 2005 13:02:00 EST    Volume 24 : Issue 119

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Does AOL Treat Trillian Messages Differently? (sreelatha@hotmail.com)   
    Re: Hosting Content on Zombie Computer Networks (Robert Bonomi)
    Re: Hosting Content on Zombie Computer Networks (John Levine)
    Re: Lifespan of a Desktop PC? (Justin Time)
    Re: Lifespan of a Desktop PC? (Al Dykes)
    Re: Los Angeles Times: Low-Tech Methods Used in Data Theft (D. Garland)
    Re: Los Angeles Times: Low-Tech Methods Used in Data Theft (C Griswold)
    Re: Former WorldCom CEO Guilty on All Counts (Dean)
    Re: The Lost Lessons of the 1920s and 1930s (Jim Haynes)
    Re: Iridium II: Is Satellite Radio Doomed? (John Levine)
    Re: Rep. Fred Upton Apparently Sold Out to Incumbent Telcos (R Collinge)
    Re: Attacked by a Dog Which was Playing (Fred Atkinson)
    Re: Attacked by a Dog Which was Playing (SELLCOM Tech support)

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet.  All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and
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               ===========================

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: nagu <sreelatha@hotmail.com>
Subject: Does AOL Treat Trillian Messages Differently?
Date: 17 Mar 2005 08:21:11 -0800


This is weird.  AOL client pops up a new message window to the
foreground when a new message arrives. But if it is a new message from
a Trillian client, the new msg window is created but not brought to
the foreground.

My colleague had term-serv'ed into another machine and was using it in
full screen mode. A msg from a trillian user wasn't pushed to the
foreground. But a msg from a AIM client was pushed to the foreground.
He uses AOL client. Has anyone seen this behavior?

All the reference is to a new msg-new window. Not a new msg in an older
window.

Sreelatha

------------------------------

From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi)
Subject: Re: Hosting Content on Zombie Computer Networks
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 22:46:00 -0000
Organization: Widgets, Inc.


In article <telecom24.117.8@telecom-digest.org>, Gareth Morrissey
<garethmorrissey@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Would it be possible to host content on zombie computer networks (like
> those used to send out spam)?

> Is anybody doing this currently?

Yes, and yes.   Sometimes actual 'hosting' is on the zombie, sometimes just
a 'transparent proxy' that forwards to the "real" content holder.

You can even find nameservers running on zombied machines.

------------------------------

Date: 16 Mar 2005 22:58:57 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Subject: Re: Hosting Content on Zombie Computer Networks
Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA


> Would it be possible to host content on zombie computer networks (like
> those used to send out spam)?

Yes.

> Is anybody doing this currently?

Yes.

> The next wave of p2p program? Solves the free rider problem??

I doubt it.  The next wave of online fraud, perhaps.

R's,

John

------------------------------

From: Justin Time <a_user2000@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Lifespan of a Desktop PC?
Date: 17 Mar 2005 08:12:08 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


The lifespan of the average PC is almost impossible to measure.  Our
moderator states he has one that has been in use for the past 10
years.  In our office here are some that are between 6 and 7 years old
with some about 2 years old.

But the question also asked about when you could expect the components
to start failing.  That is a more difficult question to answer.  The
two things that are most likely to fail first are the CRT monitor and
the hard drive.  The monitor because the phosphor will become etched
or the electron gun will become less able to provide enough excitation
to drive the screen to its desired brightness.

The hard drive will fail because of mechanical motion, either the
actuator that moves the heads across the surface of the disk or the
motor that spins the disk.  Those are two of the most common failures.
The other common failure would be one of the electronic components
such as an integrated circuit or driver transistor.  These usually
fail because of heat.  If the case fan fails, then the operating
temperature climbs and for every 10 degrees Celcius (about 18 degrees
F) the junction temperature rises in a transistor, its life is cut in
half.  If an IC is spec'd to run say 40,000 hours at 30 degrees C (86
F), then if the temperature climbs to 40 C (104 F), the life span is
now 20,000 hours.

This also assumes the IC is powered on for the full time and the
operating temperature can be maintained.  What is not counted is
thermal shock, the almost instantaneous heating when electricity
begins to flow.  The buildup of dust and dirt in a computer case also
adds to thermal stress as the dust and dirt inhibit the flow of
cooling air and act as insulation to keep the heat in the unit.
Opening the case at least yearly and running a vacuum inside is one
method of reducing this problem.  You may also want to use compressed
air, or even the exhaust of the vacuum cleaner to blow out any dust or
dirt the suction misses.

So, how long will a computer last before it fails mechanically?  It
depends on the environment.  Used for only a couple of hours a day and
properly maintained, almost indefinitely.  I'd worry more about my
software.  But if a computer is turned on and left running behind the
closed door of a cabinent and not checked and cleaned regularly, then
maybe 8 or 9 years if you are fortunate.

Rodgers Platt

------------------------------

From: adykes@panix.com (Al Dykes)
Subject: Re: Lifespan of a Desktop PC?
Date: 17 Mar 2005 11:12:16 -0500
Organization: PANIX -- Public Access Networks Corp.


In article <telecom24.118.19@telecom-digest.org>, Peter R Cook
<PCook@wisty.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> In message <telecom24.117.5@telecom-digest.org>, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com 
> writes:

>> Would anyone know what is the average/typical physical lifespan of a
>> desktop PC?  That is, how many years do they run before components
>> start failing?

>> When buying a new PC, how do people typically transfer the contents
>> from the old PC hard drive to the new PC?  At work, people move stuff
>> out onto the LAN server or move the old drive into the new box; but
>> others say old drives are not compatible with new technology.  How do
>> home users without a LAN handle it?

>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have here a Toshiba Satellite 220-CDS
>> since 1995. It started life as Win 95, has since been converted to Win-98
>> (which I am sorry I did, really, it seems to be running a little
>> slower than it did as a 95). But it _never_ freezes up, _never_ locks
>> out; just sits there all day long as part of my network doing its
>> thing, the same as it did as a 95. Is ten years a rather good life
>> span? PAT]

> Define a desktop PC. Which bits count? My machines evolve rather than
> get replaced.

> I am typing this on a machine that I put together at the end of 1999
> The case, memory and display were new, the motherboard was second-hand
> (so probably started life in 1997/8). The processors were upgraded (to
> a set of second-hand 1Ghz units) at the end of 2001. The disks have
> been regularly upgraded and added to . The latest upgrade (this month)
> is a USB2 card (see off-line backup below) for speed.

> When transferring "stuff" from one machine to another I have always used 
> as "crossover LAN cable" to connect one to the other -- its a long time 
> since I saw a machine without an ethernet port!

> Easiest way to do the transfer is probably to "restore" your off-line
> backup to the new machine - you do _have_ a backup of all the stuff
> you might want to transfer (i.e. not loose) don't you?

> Best bet today is probably to get a USB hard drive enclosure (US$35?), 
> pull the old drive and drop it into the box. Two benefits.
>      You can transfer the stuff easily.
>      You now have an off-line backup that you can keep up to date.

> Peter R Cook

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have two older IBM Think Pad 770 
> machines. One with a working CD Drive, the other without. I wanted to 
> put them both on Win 98. What I did was get the one machine up and
> running with Win 98, then I swapped hard drives (put the one with no
> associated CD drive into the machine that did have a CD drive.) Then
> I used the Win 98 update CD to load Win 98 on the other hard drive.
> Once Win 98 was working on that hard drive as well, then I swapped 
> the hard drive back to the other machine. Now I have Win 98  on both
> machines.  PAT]

IME the upgrade decision is forced when a Windows98 machine catches a
virus or spyware that can't be removed, or could be only if the owner
had the W/98 distro CD. The hardware is fine.  The system needs a
fresh install and patches and it will be amazing who much better the
machine will work.  This can happen to perfectly usable mid-range
hardware. Depending on the type of advice the user is getting, it
could mean just buying a w/98 CD, somewhere and doing a fresh
installation (a new big disk and a memory chip as upgrade should cost
less than $100) or opening up the wallet to Dell and buying much more
machine than the user really needs.

I've seen donated P-III 700 machines.

Users lose the CDs and registration information.  

For recent (XP) machines I predict the same thing will happen but XP
is much more robust so it will take disk crash or killer virus to
force a new purchase.


a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m 

Don't blame me. I voted for Gore.

------------------------------

From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
Subject: Re: Los Angeles Times: Low-Tech Methods Used in Data Theft
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:20:36 -0600
Organization: Wizard Information


It was a dark and stormy night when hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> If it were up to me:

> 1) Their own credit report would be free to consumers.

In the US, this part is already true, sort of, partially.  If you are
turned down for credit, the place that turned you down must tell you
the company that issued the report, and the credit bureau must give
you a free copy.

You are entitled to a free report annually from each of the "big 3"
agencies (TransUnion, Experian, Equifax) by going to
http://www.annualcreditreport.com/.  You can get them all at the same
time, but you don't have to (usually it would be a better idea to
space them out throughout the year).  This isn't entirely in place
yet, it's being rolled out geographically, it works for people in the
West and Midwest now, the South will be added in June, the East in
September.

The reports do indicate when companies got reports on you.  It's a lot
more frequent than most people would think.  But it's (maybe a long
time) after the fact that you find out.  It's still very easy for
unscrupulous individuals to get access to these reports.  And this law
doesn't cover sleaze like ChoicePoint.

Of course, that's just a start.  They still claim they aren't
responsible for damages to you that might be caused by their sale of
incorrect or untrue information.  Judging by ChoicePoint's case, there
doesn't seem to be any penalty (except bad publicity, if it becomes
public) for negligent handling of your data.  And going by reports, it
is still very difficult for the consumer to get corrections made.

------------------------------

From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. <spamtrap100@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Los Angeles Times: Low-Tech Methods Used in Data Theft
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:45:28 -0700
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com


hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> 1) Their own credit report would be free to consumers.

It is. www.annualcreditreport.com From all three major agencies.

> 2) When any time seriously adverse information is posted
> to a person's file, the credit company would be required
> to notify the person and allow time for a response.  The
> consumer should be able to challenge such adverse information
> and the burden of proof to be on the reporter, without any risk
> or penalty or cost to the individual person.

Consumers have been able to challenge adverse entries in their reports
for years. Reporting companies are required to investigate and remove
said item if it can't be substantiated. Furthermore, the consumer is
required to be told when a credit report was used to as a basis of an
adverse decision and is entitled to request a copy of that report,
even if they have their free annual report allowance used already.

> 3) Any time a business requests credit info the consumer is to be
>    notified.

Its already recorded and shows up the free annual report. 

------------------------------

From: Dean <cjmebox-telecomdigest@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Former WorldCom CEO Guilty on All Counts
Date: 16 Mar 2005 14:32:32 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> Lisa Minter wrote:

>> A federal jury in Manhattan returned guilty verdicts on all nine
>> counts, including securities fraud, conspiracy and lying to
>> regulators; a decision that could send Ebbers, 63, to prison for the
>> rest of his life. Sentencing was set for June 13.

> Does anybody out there think he -- or others convicted in stock fraud
>  -- got a raw deal?

You're kidding right? This _is_ a rhetorical question isn't it?

-Dean


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think, technically, his prison
sentence could be for 85 years, if the court decided to give him
(what shall I say?) full value for his dollar. Obviously he would 
not live long enough to fulfill his obligation. I think in actual
practice the court will probably give him 5-10 years, and considering
his health -- not that great -- that may be all he 'needs'. I know
that in this column yesterday, or day before, I said something about
him getting the essence of a life sentence, but as I think about it 
now, I think almost all prison sentences are far, far too long. I 
think an 'ideal' -- if that is a good term -- prison sentence would be
one or two years, max. After all, if a person does not know what
prison is about the day he enters one, I doubt he will know any more
about it ten or fifteen years later. And if people are _serious_ about
rehabilitation efforts, then the prisoner has to be discharged while
there is still some time to engage him in rehabilitation. The speed
with which our society and technical world is changing, a person 
getting out of prison after ten or twenty years is never going to be
able to catch up. And if a person commits a crime which is *that*
atrocious as to deserve a fifty or seventy year prison sentence, my
suggestion would be to offer the person the option of a death penalty
instead; his choice. PAT]

------------------------------

Subject: Re: The Lost Lessons of the 1920s and 1930s
Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu
Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni
From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes)
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 00:11:47 GMT


Yes, and people like to ignore the fact that the regulated industries
we had got regulated because of the misdeeds of the operators before
they were regulated.


jhhaynes at earthlink dot net

------------------------------

Date: 17 Mar 2005 04:11:54 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Subject: Re: Iridium II: Is Satellite Radio Doomed?
Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA


> When the original Iridium was being drawn up on the planning boards,
> the accountants went over the numbers very meticulously. ...

> But the telecom industry changed between the drawing board and launch
> pad.  Inconvenient bulky mobile-telephone receivers were replaced by
> dinky little cellphones.  Cellphone companies built out their coverage
> area to include almost all potential customers in the 1st world.  And
> cellphone and long distance rates plummeted due to competition.

Part of their mistake was to underestimate how fast cellular would
develop, which suprised just about everyone, but an equally big part
was to disregard what pricing was due to technology and what to
politics.

Actually, long distance rates plummeted more due to regulatory changes
and fiber optics than to competition.  For the past century long
distance had been deliberately overpriced to subsidize local service
and (in places with PTTs) other bits of government bureaucracy.  The
mistake there was not to realize that with a stroke of a pen those
subsidies could be and were removed, which is the main reason that a
call from the US to the UK or Hong Kong now costs 2 cpm rather than a
dollar.

> Things change.  A lot of satellite radio's target households have
> broadband and can get "internet radio" now.

True, but unlike Iridium vs. cellular, satellite vs. internet radio is
not an apples to apples comparison.  With telephony, the question is
how you get a 3 KHz low-latency full duplex channel (not exactly, but
close enough) from one point to another.  Satellite really broadcasts,
but internet radio fakes it with a separate connection to each
recipient.  (There is real Internet multicasting but it's a pain to
set up and is only used in the geek community to broadcast IETF
meetings and the like.)  With broad, the question is how you get the
same one-way signal to lots of recipients.

This means that it's a question of scale.  With the current low
numbers of listeners, Internet has the edge as you note due to its
parasitic carriage.

> The car was supposed to be the last refuge of satellite radio that
> internet radio couldn't touch.  But 3G, WiFi, and WiMax are showing
> that it can be done.

Two-way radio spectrum is far from free.  3G definitely works, WiFi is
OK for short distances, WiMax is grossly oversold for other than fixed
point to point service.  They're swell for telephone and individual
data service but they're way too expensive for broadcast.  Back around
the turn of the century, there was what you might call telephone
radio, with concerts and the like sent over phone wires to large
numbers of listeners.  (It was really popular in Hungary for some
reason.)  As radio developed, radio blew it away because there was no
incremental cost per listener, and the phone wires could be used more
profitably for telephony.  If you use any Internet technology for
radio, you're in the same situation, using point-to-point bandwidth
for simulated broadcast.

If the total number of listeners to your station is small, in the
thousands, point-to-point looks good because of the low cost of entry.
But if satellite radio does what its backers hope, and has millions of
listeners per station, which is not implausible considering how many
listen to Howard Stern on normal broadcast, satellite wins big.

I think the real outcome will depend on questions like whether the
satellite radio stations are able to bribe car makers to install
receivers as standard equipment in cars so users need only call up and
subscribe, no installation or visible startup cost involved.  It'd be
like cell phones are now, using the equipment as a loss leader made up
from subscription revenue.  It looks to me like the incremental cost
of a Sirius or XM receiver and antenna would be about $100 which is
well within the range that cell plans subsidize.

R's,

John

------------------------------

From: R Collinge <rcollinge@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 22:12:27 -0600
Subject: Re: Rep. Fred Upton apparently sold out to incumbent telcos


Hi Jack,

Are you reading Rep Upton's comments correctly?  I had interpreted his
quote as something like, "It is scary that we were so close to
disaster, which could easily have happened if not for a few brave
commissioners and judges."  I read his thought as being that we need
federal regulation to keep the hungry states permanently at bay.

Also, I certainly agree with your point about international
competition holding the power of regulators in check.  FWIW, I
commented to the FCC on the Vonage petition back in November '03, and
think I mentioned it then, too.

Bob

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jack Decker 
  To: MI-Telecom Mailing List ; VoIP News Mailing List 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 8:09 PM
  Subject: [VoIP News] Rep. Fred Upton apparently sold out to
  incumbent  telcos
 


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Jack Decker *did say* in a later
message the same day (both original message and retraction were
printed here in the last issue) that there was a misunderstanding
in the way he interpreted the message.  PAT] 

------------------------------

From: Fred Atkinson <fatkinson@mishmash.com>
Subject: Re: Attacked by a Dog Which was Playing
Reply-To: fatkinson@mishmash.com
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 20:32:05 GMT
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net


Pat, 

When I was a teenager, my family had an enormous German Shepherd.  Her
name was Heidi, she was approximately 125 pounds, all lean, strong as
a bull, and very protective of the family.  She grew to be so big that
we couldn't get a harness big enough to fit her from the local pet
store.  As my father was a director for the department of corrections,
we were able to ask the D.O.C. guard dog people who their supplier was
so we could special order a harness that would fit her.  Heidi was
huge.  Her father was a national tracking champion.

We had a couple of minor incidents with her, but we were patient and
taught her better.  When she was still a pup, I was scratching her
behind her ears while she was eating her dinner.  She turned and bit
at my arm (fortunately I drew back fast enough that she didn't bite
me).  I swatted her pretty good for that and took her dinner away.
After that, I could take the bowl away from her and she'd just beg
nicely to get it back.  Any of our family members could take the bowl
away from her (or take the food t of her mouth, for that matter) and
she'd not become aggressive with any of us.

When she was full grown, I came in late one night.  She apparently
didn't realize it was me and came running at me at the speed of a
rocket.  She reared on her hind legs and suddenly realized it was me.
She tried to stop, but 125 pounds of all lean dog coming at that speed
with her front paws five feet in the air wasn't going to be able to
stop in a few short feet.

Her nose hit me on the nose of my wire rim glasses.  The cut across my
nose was in a perfect line parallel to the nose bridge of my frames
(she didn't bite me, the glasses cut into my nose).  I had to go to
the hospital and have three stitches put in.  When I got home, she
followed me everywhere trying to make up with me.  I let her think she
was still in the 'dog house' with me for quite a while after that.
Hopefully, it would make her more careful in the future.

When she bounced off me, she turned and took off because she knew she
was in trouble.  She thought she'd lose me under the kitchen table,
but she thought wrong.  I was hopping mad at her.  I caught her and
gently swatted her nose to let her know she had really fouled up.

Years later, my sister brought my two then tiny little nieces over to
my parents' house when I was visiting there.  Melissa (my oldest
niece) had a strange idea about 'patting' dogs.  It was more like
hitting them.

I saw Melissa 'pat' Heidi out of the corner of my eye and saw
Heidi coming up to her feet.  I rushed towards the corner intending to
push Melissa out of the way and let Heidi bite me instead.  But I knew
I wasn't going to be able to get there quick enough.  

But the dog never growled, snapped, or even showed her teeth.  She
just got up, walked away, and as she walked away she let out a gentle
'woof' of protest.  She knew Melissa was family and it was not kosher
for her to harm Melissa in any way.  In fact, the behavior she always
exhibited around those two nieces of mine was always one of
protectiveness.  We subsequently gave Melissa 'patting' lessons.

Show the dog some patience and treat her with some love.  A big dog
like that is going to be clumsy.  But they are good protection.

When Heidi was still a pup, we were all asleep one night.  She was in
the front room barking.  My parents thought she was just exhibiting
normal behavior of a young pup and didn't even get out of bed to
check.

The next day, our across the street neighbor reported that burglars
had come through the neighborhood the night before.  The only houses
that weren't hit were ours, that neighbors, and the neighbors on
either side of our house.  Heidi was on the job, that was clear.  The
noise she made caused the burglars to bypass us altogether.

She had become a very loving animal when it came to our family.  She
was by far one of the best pets we ever had in spite of her size and
potential.

Good luck with the dog.  


Fred 


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for your good words. Very oddly
(at least to me) Buffy very seldom barks. Now it is quite rare that we
have any burglars or other malfeasants in this area, however, Buffy
was always letting me know when the the garbage collection truck came
through the alley every Monday and Thursday morning. But now today,
she only jumped around a little -- because I was sitting on my back
porch when they came through. But she has never barked even once at
the Meals on Wheels guy when he brings in my dinner, or at the 
housekeeper nor my friends. She seems to understand that is okay, but
she sure was giving hell to the garbage collectors and the postman
each day. PAT]

------------------------------

From: SELLCOM Tech support <support@sellcom.com>
Subject: Re: Attacked by a Dog Which was Playing
Organization: www.sellcom.com
Reply-To: support@sellcom.com
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 05:56:22 GMT


ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick Townson) posted on that vast
internet thingie:

> Buffy was all excited and in trying to get out the door with me in
> it she knocked me down. I fell, banged up my own face pretty well,
> and chipped a tooth which was about gone anyway. Remember, she _is_
> a very big dog, weighing close to a hundred pounds

Well, I have read and found that it is a good idea to train a dog to
"stay" until you have gone out (or in) and then tell them to come.
You are the leader of the pack.

A puppy is a puppy and your puppy did not intend to harm you and
apparently was trying to please/obey you.

I am sorry to hear of your hurt and wish you a speedy recovery.  It
sounds like you have a loyal canine friend for many years.

You may wish to solicit a favor or two from any local dog trainer
(those people AMAZE me though I have had dogs for many years).

Regards,

Steve

http://www.sellcom.com
Discount multihandset cordless phones by Panasonic 
5.8Ghz 2line; TMC ET4300 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Brickmail voicemail
Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Firewood splitters www.splitlogs.com
If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz.  New www.electrictrains.biz


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And thanks for your encouraging words
also. I am going to speak to Dr. Epp (veternarian) or the lady who
grooms pets (Buffy was taken to get a bath a couple days after she
first got here) and see if either of them can recommend a good dog
trainer. Maybe the animal shelter will know of someone.  PAT] 

------------------------------


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career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management
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The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College
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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #119
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