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TELECOM Digest Mon, 18 Apr 2005 16:33:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 170 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Crown Castle Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) (Monty Solomon) Verizon Wireless Ringback Tones: The Newest Stage (Monty Solomon) VOIP Cautions (Lisa Hancock) Journalist Seeking Source, Mobile Phone Cracker; Related (geermeister) SprintPCS Lousy Web Interface (D. M. Hendricks) Intel to Launch WiMAX Chip (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Recieve a Call in One Country and Transfer it Over Internet (Stiki) XO Communications Lauches Business VOIP (Jack Decker) Re: Can I Substitute NiMH Battery for NiCd in Cordless Phone (R Bonomi) Re: Can I Substitute NiMH Battery for NiCd in Cordless Phone (Sullivan) Re: Can I Substitute NiMH Battery for NiCd in Cordless Phone (Berkowitz) Re: Can I Substitute NiMH Battery for NiCd in Cordless Phone (S Dorsey) Re: Can I Substitute NiMH Battery for NiCd in Cordless Phone (P Vader) Re: Surveillance Cameras More Common Everyday (FrazNor@gmail.com) Re: Internet Pioneer: VoIP is NOT Telephony (Scott Dorsey) Re: Internet Pioneer: VoIP is NOT Telephony (Justin Time) Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam (Henry) Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud, and Effect on Search Engine (R Bonomi) For Sale on E-Bay: Clarisys VOIP USB Phone (Yammie) 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, 18 Apr 2005 00:33:34 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Crown Castle Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) Crown Castle Mobile Media Selects Windows Media and Windows Media DRM 10 to Deliver Live Television to Mobile Devices - Apr 18, 2005 12:01 AM (PR Newswire) It Accelerates the Deployment of Windows Media-Based Digital Entertainment Services for Cell Phones, PDAs and Portable Media Devices HOUSTON and LAS VEGAS, April 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Crown Castle Mobile Media, a subsidiary of Crown Castle International Corp., and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced that Crown Castle Mobile Media has selected Windows Media(R) Audio, Windows Media Video 9 and Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) 10 for its Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) broadcast service deployment. As a preview of the exciting possibilities this relationship will deliver, Crown Castle Mobile Media will be demonstrating with Microsoft live mobile TV on Windows Mobile(TM)-based devices at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas from April 16 to April 21, 2005. Windows Media helps enable the secure delivery of high-quality digital entertainment services over IP and other digital networks. The components of the Windows Media 9 Series platform are available from Microsoft in source code format, may be ported to mobile devices based on any operating system, and are licensed under published terms that provide significant commercial advantages for device manufacturers compared with alternative solutions. Windows Media Video 9 is Microsoft's implementation of VC-1, the proposed Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) standard. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=48423061 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 09:15:58 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Verizon Wireless Ringback Tones: The Newest Stage Verizon Wireless Ringback Tones: The Newest Stage for Universal Music Group Artists - Apr 18, 2005 08:31 AM (PR Newswire) Verizon Wireless Customers Can Express Their Individuality With a Choice of Popular Universal Music Group Artists BEDMINSTER, N.J., April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, the nation's leading wireless service provider, announced it has entered into an agreement with Universal Music Group, the world's leading music company, to bring new Ringback Tones from the company's extensive catalog of chart-topping artists to Verizon Wireless Ringback Tone customers. With an extensive collection of 500 hot Ringback Tones, Universal Music Group is the newest resource for Verizon Wireless customers looking for the perfect Ringback Tone to replace the standard ring callers hear while they wait for their call to be answered. Verizon Wireless became the first national carrier to offer Ringback Tones when it introduced the service in Southern California and Sacramento last year. With an entire catalog of popular music choices, Universal Music Group makes it easy for Verizon Wireless customers to select the Ringback Tone that best fits their personal style. By browsing through categories such as Rap, Hip-Hop, Soundtracks, Metal/Alternative, R&B/Soul, 80's, Classic Rock, Pop/Rock, Country, Club Hits, 70's, Oldies, 60's and Holiday, customers can set up their Ringback Tones to include a standard Ringback Tone (including the Verizon Wireless standard Ringback Tone), or choose different Ringback Tones for each caller based on the Caller ID, Group List or the time of day. Universal Music Group fans will find it easy to choose the perfect Ringback Tone by simply visiting the Ringback Tones Web site at http://www.verizonwireless.com/getitnow/ringbacktones where they can register, browse and preview the latest Ringback Tones from the biggest names in the music industry today. Customers can also sign up to receive a TXT Alert whenever their selected artists release new Ringback Tones by visiting the My Alerts section of the site and selecting TXT notifications. Standard text messaging rates apply to TXT Alerts. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=48430368 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: VOIP Cautions Date: 18 Apr 2005 10:13:26 -0700 1010news radio reported that consumers need to be careful before signing up for VOIP service. Some people think the service is as reliable as landline when it is still experimental and bugs are being worked out. service still shaky http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VOICE_OVER_PANIC?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=TECHNOLOGY&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Risks http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VOIP_ATTACKS?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=TECHNOLOGY&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Issues http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VOIPS_GROWING_PAINS?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=TECHNOLOGY&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT "A hacker might trick a phone into obtaining a software update from a rogue server, or toss a fake "hang up" command into the data flow - perhaps as a caller is trying to land an important job interview. Some services let you take phones on vacation, and hackers might decided to trick the system and redirect your calls to them instead. All kinds of mischief is possible: A rival might try to capture your business sales lead. Or a snoop might listen in on a neighbor's secret calls to a lover. Though these attacks would be difficult to perform today, security experts believe that as such phones get more popular, hackers will have greater incentive to develop tools for automating such attacks - just as they have with viruses and other computer threats today. As for reliability, phone providers are still trying to make their systems fully compatible with 911. In some cases, phones might ring a non-emergency number or fail to provide caller ID details like location - crucial when a caller can't speak. And during blackouts, traditional phones can draw upon electricity in the phone lines, but an Internet modem will fail without backup power." ------------------------------ From: geermeister@gmail.com Subject: Journalist Seeking Source, Mobile Phone Cracker or Related Expert Date: 18 Apr 2005 08:05:30 -0700 Following the Paris Hilton Sidekick II story, I am writing about how to "hack" (in a good way) your own mobile phone in order to make it more secure. This is for a technical hobby magazine for engineers and others who like to tinker. Of course, I don't want to print anything that would lead someone to do something in violation of the law. If you might be a source, feel free to respond to this e-mail address. Regards, David ------------------------------ From: D. M. Hendricks <dmhendricks@despammed.com> Subject: SprintPCS Lousy Web Interface Date: 18 Apr 2005 10:14:34 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Ok, so I received a fraudulent call on my SprintPCS phone this weekend. Someone claiming to be a SBC Representative and stating that I have an account balance due of $117 and I can pay now with check or credit. I quickly hung up and called SBC, who confirmed this was not the case and that they did not make the call. Being a good citizen, I'd like to report the fraud incident with the phone number. Unfortunately, the caller ID was blocked on my Sprint phone. I called Sprint to get the number, but they said my billing cycle ended yesterday (a day after I received the call) and that they could not pull up calling history from that period (!!). She said I could either wait for my invoice in the mail or look it up online. Not wanting to wait for snail mail to report a phone number that will likely disappear in days, I tried to go online to check where the call originated from. Their MyPCS is an UNHOLY PILE OF HORSE MANURE. It's quite possibly the slowest interface I've ever used, taking ~10 minutes to load each page. Before I can get to my latest invoice, it usually times out and requires me to login again, and I get to start all over. I've been trying for hours to view my damn invoice online. It's good to know that Sprint cares so much about fraud prevention. Why is it so terribly difficult to find out who called me? "SprintPCS - The clear alternative to cellular" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 12:49:40 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA <usta@dailylead.com> Subject: Intel to Launch WiMAX Chip Telecom dailyLead from USTA April 18, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=20898&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Intel to launch WiMAX chip BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Alcatel taps insider for COO position * Interview with Cisco's John Chambers * Egyptian telecom mogul close to buying Italy's Wind * Coaxsys helps telco deploy IPTV USTA SPOTLIGHT * Newton's Telecom Dictionary -- 21st Edition, JUST RELEASED EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Disney, TWC target toddlers with mobile video content * Web, TV will merge, despite cable, programmer concerns REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Qwest, Colorado PUC close to deal on phone regulations Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=20898&l=2017006 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: stiki101@gmail.com (Stiki) Subject: Recieve a Call in One Country and Transfer it Over Internet Date: 18 Apr 2005 11:14:57 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I would like to recieve a call in one country and transfer it over internet (using something like Skype) to another country. Is that possible? stiki101 ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker <jack-yahoogroups@withheld_on_request> Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 12:18:47 -0400 Subject: XO Communications Launches Business VoIP Services Bundle Nationwide http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-18-2005/0003432165&STORY&EDATE= XO Communications Launches Business VoIP Services Bundle Nationwide http://www.xo.com Now Available in 45 Major Markets, Including More Than 1,000 Cities Nationwide Combines Unlimited Local and Long Distance Calling with Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation for a Flat Monthly Rate RESTON, Va., April 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- XO Communications, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: XOCM.OB) today announced the nationwide rollout of XOptions(R) Flex, its industry-leading Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services bundle for businesses. XOptions Flex is now available in 45 major metropolitan markets, which includes more than 1,000 cities nationwide. XOptions Flex is an integrated VoIP services solution that gives business customers enhanced features, functionality and value for their voice and Internet services, all in one simple package. It is the industry's first VoIP services bundle for businesses that combines unlimited local and long distance calling, dedicated Internet access and web hosting services for a flat monthly price. "XOptions Flex offers businesses across the country the most comprehensive and flexible VoIP services bundle," said Craig Collins, vice president of product management at XO Communications. "VoIP is truly revolutionizing the telecommunications industry, and XOptions Flex leverages the power of the Internet to provide a high quality and reliable communications solution that integrates voice and data over a single broadband connection with more valuable features for small and medium-sized businesses that save them time and money." The service leverages the latest in VoIP technology to provide customers with next generation communications capabilities, such as unlimited voice calling, dynamic bandwidth allocation, voice virtual private networking (VPN), and a simple Administrative Web Portal. With a broadband connection on the XO IP network, it utilizes XO's award-winning national IP network and softswitch technology to carry customers' voice calls more efficiently and cost-effectively than traditional services that rely on the public switched telephone network. In addition, businesses can take full advantage of all of these IP-enabled capabilities and features without having to replace their existing analog phone systems. "Businesses are ready to adopt VoIP and take advantage of its ability to more cost-effectively improve communications with customers and among employees," said William Stofega, Research Manager with IDC's Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Services Program. "The providers that will differentiate themselves are those that offer more features with the flexibility to deliver true business benefits. XOptions Flex provides that flexibility with a simple, integrated VoIP solution that can expand as businesses' voice and data needs grow." "We are very pleased with the features, performance and value of XOptions Flex," said Wendi Westbrook, office manager of Alpha Biosciences, a Baltimore-based business specializing in the production of culture media for the biological sciences industries. "The quality of our phone calls is excellent and, with unlimited local and long distance calling, dynamic bandwidth allocation and a toll free number at no additional charge, we are getting more capabilities and value for our telecommunications budget. As a business that expects to grow substantially over the next two years, XOptions Flex has the flexibility to grow with us as our business needs expand." Features: XOptions Flex includes more than twenty standard voice features for each phone line including call forward, three-way calling, and voice mail. Key features of the service include: -- Dedicated Internet Access up to 3 Mbps -- Dynamic bandwidth allocation -- Unlimited local calling -- Unlimited inbound and outbound domestic long distance calling -- An easy-to-use Administrative Web Portal for making real-time changes to services -- Web Basic Hosting Package -- Additional voice lines, hosting and other applications can also be added on an a la carte basis. XOptions Flex is now available in major metropolitan areas across the United States, including Akron, Allentown, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Worth, Harrisburg, Houston, Jersey City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Memphis, Nashville, New York, Newark, Oakland, Orange County, CA, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, St. Louis, St. Petersburg, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Scranton, Seattle, Spokane, Tampa, Trenton, Washington, DC, West Palm Beach, and Wilmington, DE. To support the national rollout of XOptions Flex, XO plans a national print advertising campaign that will highlight how businesses will benefit from the service. For more information about XOptions Flex visit http://www.xo.com/flex or contact an XO sales representative by calling (866) 963-9696. About XO Communications XO Communications is a leading provider of national and local telecommunications services to businesses, large enterprises and telecommunications companies. XO offers a complete portfolio of services, including local and long distance voice, dedicated Internet access, private networking, data transport, and Web hosting services as well as bundled voice and Internet solutions. XO provides these services over an advanced, national facilities-based IP network and serves more than 70 metropolitan markets across the United States. For more information, visit http://www.xo.com. SOURCE XO Communications Web Site: http://www.xo.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: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Can I Substitute a NiMH Battery for NiCd in a Cordless Phone? Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 03:05:39 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article <telecom24.168.5@telecom-digest.org>, <curious@nospam.com> wrote: > I recently bought a cordless phone, which came with a NiCd battery. > In the manual it says: > "To reduce the risk of fire, use only 3.6V 850mAh Nickel Cadmium > (Ni-Cad) cordless telephone replacement battery pack." > I've heard about the dreaded "memory effect" with NiCd batteries, so > I'm interested in replacing it with a NiMH one. Someone who is > selling a 3.6V 1000mAH NiMH battery on Ebay claims it works with my > phone, but will it really be safe? Wouldn't want to install a NiMH > battery and have the house burn down. *BELIEVE* the manufacturer's statements. They know how the phone is designed/built. Different _types_ of batteries require different kinds of re-charging circuitry. Using "type b" batteries in a "type a" charger -- *whatever* 'a' and 'b' are, is asking for trouble, unless you know enough about the charger circuitry to _know_ that it is not going to be a problem. Some chargers have 'smarts' enough to handle mixed types of batteries, many others *do*not*. Just because a battery "fits" (physically) the device, does not mean that it is advisable, or even sensible, to do use it in that device. Comment: If you get a new battery charger, as well as the batteries, and the batteries have to be removed from the phone to be charged, then the issue above is moot. If the batteries are automatically recharged when the phone is in the base station (typical), the above *does* apply. Note: "memory effect" in NiCD batteries is mostly a thing of the past; newer designs have all but eliminated the issue. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan <userid@camsul.example.invalid> Subject: Re: Can I Substitute a NiMH Battery for NiCd in a Cordless Phone? Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 03:07:59 GMT curious@nospam.com wrote: > I recently bought a cordless phone, which came with a NiCd battery. > In the manual it says: > "To reduce the risk of fire, use only 3.6V 850mAh Nickel Cadmium > (Ni-Cad) cordless telephone replacement battery pack." > I've heard about the dreaded "memory effect" with NiCd batteries, so > I'm interested in replacing it with a NiMH one. Someone who is > selling a 3.6V 1000mAH NiMH battery on Ebay claims it works with my > phone, but will it really be safe? Wouldn't want to install a NiMH > battery and have the house burn down. The NiMH battery will power the phone just fine, once it's charged. But you need to have a charger designed for NiMH batteries. Some Ni-Cad chargers also are designed to charge NiMH batteries, but some are not. (I assume there is a difference in charging current or something.) Don't use NiMH batteries in a charger designed only for Ni-Cads. Since you will undoubtedly be charging the batteries in the phone, not swapping them out into a charger, you shouldn't use NiMH batteries in a phone that says to only use Ni-Cads. The only exception I would make to this is if the phone vendor sells a NiMH replacement battery specifically intended to be used in the phone in question. And I would go with the vendor's battery, in that case. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD (USA) (Replace "example.invalid" with "com" in my address.) ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz <first.last@comcast.net> Subject: Re: Can I Substitute a NiMH Battery for NiCd in a Cordless Phone? Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2005 23:25:36 -0400 In article <telecom24.168.5@telecom-digest.org>, curious@nospam.com says: > I recently bought a cordless phone, which came with a NiCd battery. > In the manual it says: > "To reduce the risk of fire, use only 3.6V 850mAh Nickel Cadmium > (Ni-Cad) cordless telephone replacement battery pack." > I've heard about the dreaded "memory effect" with NiCd batteries, so > I'm interested in replacing it with a NiMH one. Someone who is > selling a 3.6V 1000mAH NiMH battery on Ebay claims it works with my > phone, but will it really be safe? Wouldn't want to install a NiMH > battery and have the house burn down. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 3.6 at 850 is _close enough_ to 3.6 at > 1000 that I think it should work. The difficulty with swapping > batteries around randomly however is not so much that your house would > burn down as it is that differences in those batteries could possibly > cause some slow degredation on your electronics unit and cause it to > fry out prematurely. Your voltage (3.6) is critical; you want to avoid > increasing _low voltages_ very much. A device which calls for 3.6 > should pretty much be confined to 3.6. You can play around with the > amperage a bit however; 1000 will work fine with something rated for > 850. But make certain the battery contacts line up correctly and do > not cause a short circuit accidentally. It would be a shame to waste > that new battery as soon as you got it. PAT] There has been a rash of "exploding" cell phone batteries, primarily caused by bootleg Asian import batteries that lack thermal protection devices. Also, the charging characteristics for NiCd are different than NiMH. The charger could cause a NiMH battery to overheat, or at least reduce its useful life. --Gene ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Can I Substitute a NiMH Battery for NiCd in a Cordless Phone? Date: 18 Apr 2005 13:42:03 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article <telecom24.168.5@telecom-digest.org>, <curious@nospam.com> wrote: > I recently bought a cordless phone, which came with a NiCd battery. > In the manual it says: > "To reduce the risk of fire, use only 3.6V 850mAh Nickel Cadmium > (Ni-Cad) cordless telephone replacement battery pack." > I've heard about the dreaded "memory effect" with NiCd batteries, so > I'm interested in replacing it with a NiMH one. Someone who is > selling a 3.6V 1000mAH NiMH battery on Ebay claims it works with my > phone, but will it really be safe? Wouldn't want to install a NiMH > battery and have the house burn down. Memory effect basically has not existed for many years now. It used to be a serious problem, but today most NiCd failures are caused by people reverse-charging cells as they overdischarge packs in an an attempt to avoid nonexistent memory problems. If you put a NiMH pack into the thing, you will get more capacity at first because the energy density of the pack is higher. But because the charger is not designed for NiMH cells, you will find that the battery pack doesn't last very long before it fails. If the phone works, why screw with it? --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) Subject: Re: Can I Substitute a NiMH Battery for NiCd in a Cordless Phone? Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 15:54:34 -0000 Organization: Inline Software Creations curious@nospam.com writes: > I've heard about the dreaded "memory effect" with NiCd batteries, so > I'm interested in replacing it with a NiMH one. Someone who is > selling a 3.6V 1000mAH NiMH battery on Ebay claims it works with my > phone, but will it really be safe? Wouldn't want to install a NiMH > battery and have the house burn down. NiCd and NiMH use very different chargers. You can not successfully charge an NiMH battery in a phone designed only for NiCd. It's quite possible that the new battery will vent itself if you install it. Not exactly a fire or explosion (both of which are pretty unlikely), but your phone will probably be wrecked by it nonetheless. * * PV something like badgers--something like lizards--and something like corkscrews. ------------------------------ From: FrazNor@gmail.com Subject: Re: Surveillance Cameras More Common Everyday Date: 18 Apr 2005 07:45:27 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Here is one on Times Square: http://images.earthcam.com/ec_metros/ourcams/fridays.jpg Refresh as needed. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The one you mention, and three or four other cameras are used at Times Square (34th and Broadway if my memory is correct) in the program Webcam Watcher, an interesting piece of software for Windows. Independent people, with web cams at fixed locations, donate the output from the cameras for use by voyeurs on the net who like looking at things. The writer of the Webcam Watcher program has a directory of about _three thousand_ such locations all around the world. He gives you thumbnail images of all of them on your screen; allows you to manually choose any of them, or have the program function like a 'scanner' (doing a big image) of one after the next, just like a radio scanner operates, working its way to the end of the line and starting over again. If a repretoire of three thousand images seems a bit much to deal with, you can also select a smaller number from the indexes of same, or the thumbnails and concentrate on just those; for instance, those cams active in the past minute, the past five minutes, etc. Some are in constant operation; others only snap a picture of their surroundings every hour, etc. You select the desired cams from the indexes of same, and make up your own list of what to scan whenever one or more of them takes a new picture. If your 'active scan directory' is too large, the big pictures on your screen change every second or two. If it is too small, then you can actually look at and study a picture for a few minutes before the next image (from some other location) comes through, like a radio scanner. Webcam Watcher is _not_ intended as a sex thing at all. He has that type of cam (adult) in the master index, but they are all isolated so you can choose that kind of thing "if you like to watch" but the majority of the cams are just 'regular' scenes, such as expressway cams in Japan (some also from Georgia highways), parks and gardens; a few cams are scenes of the border crossings in Texas, Arizona and California and Detroit, MI; I have one of my weather station cam in his directory, etc. There is one of the ships going through the Panama Canal, some absolutely stunning cam images of mountain tops in Alaska and Wyoming, etc, people's homes, school classrooms, about a dozen cams in New York City (including the several in Times Square), Chicago, San Francisco, etc. I get sort of depressed using the program, since there are so many absolutely delicious views of absolutely wonderful cities and sites I would dearly love to be young enough -- and well enough -- to to visit and see in person, but I know I will never get to see in person, a beach in Australia, or a coffee house in Indonsia for example. If you have a cam with a public display you welcome people viewing, _and you have the WebCam Watcher program_ consider adding the locations of these files to the directory he updates from time to time. Just Google for 'Webcam Watcher'. He has both free and paid copies of the software. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Internet Pioneer: VoIP is NOT Telephony Date: 18 Apr 2005 14:04:33 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: How would you then deal with 'phone > patches', the little devices which allow VHF/UHF radios to link into > the public phone network? Should they also be subject to the rules > of the public switched telephone network? PAT] Yes. Patched calls are subject to BOTH the rules of the public telephone network AND the rules of whatever radio channel is in use, because the call is handled by both services. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I guess what I meant to say was the person using the radio who issues certain tones to the base station where the 'phone patch' is located, who then makes outgoing phone calls over a (common, owned by the ham radio operator's club for example) phone line. Is that commonly-owned phone line, and the 'patch' device in the middle, and most important, the portable transciever (a two meter rig comes to mind) all subject to both radio and telco rules, for example, the 911 surcharge, and other fees on account of his transciever rig _can possibly_ be used on the phone network? What about the local number portability fee, etc? After all, he does have a _phone number_ (albiet shared in common with other club members) doesn't he? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Justin Time <a_user2000@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Internet Pioneer: VoIP is NOT Telephony Date: 18 Apr 2005 12:15:41 -0700 Pat wrote: > TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: How would you then deal with 'phone > patches', the little devices which allow VHF/UHF radios to link into > the public phone network? Should they also be subject to the rules > of the public switched telephone network? PAT] I think you are barking up the wrong tree here Pat. Those little devices that do phone patches for amateur radio operators connect to telephones that are part of the public switched network. As such, the group operating the patch equipment pays the local exchange company for the monthly charges on the line. As the telephone lines are obtained from the local exchange company, or a competitor they are subject to all the rules and do provide ANI/ALI information to the PSAP. The other point to remember is that phone patch equipment is normally operated (triggered) by a licensed radio operator who presumably would know the limitations of the connection. Rodgers Platt [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You don't feel that Vonage also connects to the public switched network, and Vonage has to pay telco for the lines they use? PAT] ------------------------------ From: henry999@eircom.net (Henry) Subject: Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 09:39:17 +0300 Organization: Elisa Internet customer Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> wrote: > Better yet -- every piece of spam tries to sell something. Just follow > the money trail and arrest and imprison the seller. Suddenly it won't > be as attractive to market via spam when you're facing a 15 year > sentence. Yeah, and _what kind of_ a 15-year sentence! Popular lore has it that there is a 'hierarchy of respect' among inmates, with bank robbers having the highest prestige and child molesters at the bottom. If/when more of these spammers are locked up, the molesters may get a break. Cheers, Henry [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And please don't forget, if we are serious about the problem with spam, let's get MCI, cut out of the loop ASAP. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud, and Its Effect on Search Engines Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 02:48:14 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article <telecom24.168.4@telecom-digest.org>, Greg Skinner <gds@best.com> wrote: > By now, many if not most of you have probably read, or at least heard, > about the lawsuit filed against several search engines, accusing them > of conspiring to overcharge for advertisements. More information > here: >http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?cat=USMARKET&src=704&feed=dji§ion=news&news_id=dji-00001320050405&date=20050405&alias=/alias/money/cm/nw > The WSJ recently featured a front-page story on the issue of click > fraud as well. > I have always been skeptical of the pay-per-click (PPC) method of > charging for advertisements. I have always felt it was a poor > business model, because of its susceptibility to fraud. I have never > understood the search industry's fascination with PPC, especially > since there are other methods of selling advertising, such as fixed > fees, which provide no means (and thus, no incentive) to game the > system by merely clicking on ads. Furthermore, the money that is > spent both by the advertisers and publishers (including the search > engines) implementing complex fraud detection systems can be put to > more productive uses. Just about everyone I have spoken to with a > technical background in Internet protocols and architecture seems to > realize this, but the message doesn't get through to business people > who feel that despite click fraud, PPC is a superior advertising model > to any others. Perhaps there is something I have overlooked in my > assessment of the risks vs. rewards of PPC advertising. Yup. There is. Q. "What is an ad worth?" A. "Depends on how many people see it." This is why a 30-second spot during the SuperBowl costs more one on that same network at 3:00AM on a Tuesday. Advertisers by space based on "cost per M" -- i.e. how many dollars does it cost to geth their ad in front of a thousand potential 'customers'. What they will pay "per thousand impressions" depends on how likely somebody is to _buy_, after having encountered the ad. Things/places with higher rates of sales "conversions" are worth more 'per thousand' than those with lower conversion ratios. Given similar conversion ratios, the place delivering the larger number of impressions is worth more than the site with the smaller number of impressions. Before an advertising buyer enters into _any_ contract for ad placement one of their first questions is guaranteed to be "how many people will see this ad?" It doesn't matter _how_ the space is priced -- flat rate or $/M -- they want to know how many people it will reach. Note: along this line, TV/radio ad contracts (especially for "new" programming) usually specify a minimum vievership level -- if the subsequent ratings show that that level wasn't reached, the stations/networks are committed to run 'extra' ads to ensure the required number of 'impressions'. There are parallels in print advertising -- particularly when a new publication is starting up. With web-pages, there is *no*way* to estimate how many people see any particular ad. *OTHER* than to count how many times it was displayed. And that is not a "reliable, accurate" number, by any means. What it is, however, is the "best available" data for estimating. "Smart" web-advertising buyers, have been, for _years_, specifying that they will pay only for "unique" clicks -- only one hit from a given IP address within a specified time-frame (minimum hours, sometimes days). > It seems that PPC advertising is going to be a fixture in web > advertising. Given that PPC makes click fraud easy, we can expect to > see more of it in the future. This should be a serious concern to > anyone who invests in search engines or other companies that do PPC > advertising, or is a customer of such companies. At the very least, > the companies need to disclose the criteria they use for determining > that fraud has taken place, and the rights their customers > (advertisers) have with regards to getting refunds for fraudulent > clicks. It's _always_ a "guessing game". You *cannot* know whether a given click -- or pattern of clicks, even -- is legitimate or fraudulent. The ROM in computers does *not* stand for "<R>ead <O>perator's <M>ind" which is the necessary pre-requisite for making a 100% accurate determination. > I'd also like to know if there are any technical groups that are > studying the issue and proposing solutions. From a standpoint of > detecting fraud at its inception, I thought I might find some interest > among the intrusion detection community, but I haven't yet. The types > of intrusion detection done at the packet level don't seem to scale to > the types of attacks I've witnessed, which suggests that the detection > might be better done at the web server and/or web log processing > level. I checked the Apache documentation to see if any work of that > type had been done, and outside of some basic configuration options > for blocking certain types of sites and requests, there wasn't any. > Also, based on what I've read about some of the tools people are using > to analyze web logs, they can detect certain types of fraud, but don't > necessarily provide alerts of impending fraud, especially if the site > receives a considerable amount of traffic. (This is especially the > case for the largest search engines.) Consider a "fleet" of 500,000 "zombie" PCs, scattered across three continents. Each machine, _once_a_day_, at a random time, connects to a given web-page, without anybody in front of the machine. Now, just _what_ are you going to detect? Consider an ISP who gives all it's customers RFC-1918 addresses, and does NAT/PAT to a relative handful of 'public' IP addresses. And something shows up on slashdot (or similar) that gets "everybody" on that network going to look at the particular page (and ads). Suddenly you see a sh*tload of queries coming from the _same_ IP addresses -- including multiple simultaneous connects from a single address, just with different source ports. How do you differentiate _that_ from a single box with a click-bot running? How do you differentiate _that_ from a single box with a click-bot *behind* the NAT/PAT device? An IP address is part of a DHCP pool. You get a number of clicks from that address at widely separated times. Is that all one user, or is each from a different user, who just happened to get that address fort their dial-up session? How do you *know* whether that address is a DHCP pool address or not? ------------------------------ From: Yammie <yamslinger@yahoo.com> Subject: Clarisys VOIP USB Phone Date: 18 Apr 2005 09:58:18 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Barely used E-bay Item # 5768559922 ------------------------------ 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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