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TELECOM Digest Wed, 11 May 2005 18:20:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 209 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson America OnLine to Unveil Free Email Service (Lisa Minter) Microsoft Will Expand MSN in China (Lisa Minter) Big Providers Add Record Broadband Subs in Q1 (Telecom dailyLead USTA) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Spyware ... Ugh! (bob@coolgroups.com) Re: Kiddie Porn Problem Severe, Expert Sees it Worsening (NOTvalid) 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 <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: America OnLine to Unveil Free Email Service Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 14:00:03 -0500 By Kenneth Li NEW YORK (Reuters) - America Online will begin offering a free e-mail service on Wednesday tied to its popular instant messaging service, ahead of a big relaunch of its free AOL.com Web site later this year. AOL's free Web-based e-mail service is nearly a decade behind Microsoft's Hotmail service and several years behind a Yahoo E-mail offering. But the online division of Time Warner Inc. is betting that the combination of e-mail with its ubiquitous instant messaging software (AIM) will create a more powerful service combining all electronic and phone messages. AOL will integrate its recently launched digital phone service this fall, when the AIM software will be rewritten, allowing users to retrieve voice mail, e-mail and instant messages from any computer. "AOL is a bit late to the Web mail game, but it's not too late," said Joe Laszlo, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research. "It's a question of integrating different communications channels together giving them an opportunity to go a bit further than anyone else has gone." The once prominent provider of paid online services will offer free e-mail to 20 million active users of the free AOL Instant Messenger as a test before it's final launch about a month later. The e-mail service, which offers 2 gigabytes of free storage space, will be subsidized by banner advertisements that run alongside the e-mail screens, similar to other free Web-based e-mail services. AOL's new AIM Mail service is part of an ambitious plan to overhaul its business model to focus on freely available services and programming from one that depends on subscription revenue. The move is a dramatic reversal from its previous strategy, built around assembling the most compelling package of Internet programming in order to get subscribers to pay about $20 a month for dial-up Internet service. AOL has been losing subscribers to phone and cable companies offering high speed Internet packages. At the same time, AOL's advertising revenue has exploded, jumping 45 percent in its most recent first quarter from a year ago, prompting the Internet service to rethink its strategy last year. "It's a part of our broader 'Audience' strategy that takes advantage of the significant increases in advertising, search and e-commerce on the Internet," said Chamath Palihapitiya, vice president and general manager of AIM at AOL. AOL will be up against Yahoo Inc., at which e-mail services accounted for 53.2 percent of traffic to all Web mail services in the week ended May 7, according to measurement firm Hitwise. It will also be up against Google Inc. Google's e-mail service, Gmail, helps marketers target e-mail users by serving ads linked to key words in e-mail text. Google uses technology to sift through e-mail for relevant text and has said no humans actually read users' e-mail. "That's creepy," Palihapitiya said, referring to Google's use of technology to target e-mail users with ads. AOL has a lucrative partnership with Google, which provides the search engine foundations of AOL's search site. An AOL executive said AIM Mail will also include junk e-mail fighting features, like AOL. AIM users will automatically qualify for an account using their current AIM user name. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: Microsoft Will Expand MSN in China Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 14:01:29 -0500 By Reed Stevenson and Doug Young SEATTLE/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it would form two new ventures for its MSN Internet service in China, becoming the latest player to expand in the crowded market. The deals will allow Microsoft to offer "the full gamut of what a true Internet portal should be" in China, said Bruce Jaffe, a Microsoft, chief financial officer of the MSN division. "We have been looking at China for quite some time," he said. Microsoft already offers MSN services such as Hotmail and Messenger services in Chinese, but the new joint venture will offer more communication, information and content beginning this spring, the company said. Microsoft also said that it would buy assets from Chinese mobile phone software provider TSSX to offer MSN-based services to China's 340 million mobile phone users. China is the world's second-largest Internet market with 94 million users at the end of 2004, a number expected to rise to 134 million by the end of this year, according to official data. Microsoft -- which already operates a China site at china.msn.com -- is a relative bit player in a market where Yahoo Inc. eBay Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and InterActiveCorp have made a string of acquisitions. Google Inc. said on Wednesday it got a business license for China and bought a China-based Web domain. Microsoft's late entry, coupled with its strategy of working with relatively unknown partners, means it could face a tough time gaining traction, said one analyst who spoke on condition his name not be used. "If you look at what Yahoo has done ... they had to pay quite a significant sum of money" to acquire an existing search engine in China, he said. "This may be a better way in China -- to take over a key player in a particular area." The entry into the mobile services market would put Microsoft competition with a host of homegrown start-ups such as Sina Corp., Sohu.com Inc., Linktone Ltd. and Tom Online Inc. Those companies rose to profitability -- and saw their shares soar as well -- by offering short messaging services (SMS) over mobile phones. but many have lately fallen out of favor amid a government-led cleanup of the industry. Microsoft has long seen China as a key growth market, but also a headache because of widespread software piracy and copyright issues. Censorship has been a major problem for many Internet players, who voluntarily block searches and other links to sensitive subjects like the Falun Gong spiritual movement and the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Tiananmen Square. Microsoft and Beijing have become closer in recent years, with the Redmond, Washington-based company opening up a research lab in Beijing in 1998. Microsoft formed one of the two ventures, an MSN China joint venture, with government-operated Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd. (SAIL) to develop MSN products and services more closely tied to China. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 12:50:21 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA <usta@dailylead.com> Subject: Big Providers Add Record Broadband Subs in Q1 Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 11, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21483&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Big providers add record broadband subs in Q1 BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Microsoft unveils Windows Mobile 5.0 * Analysis: Small VoIP providers may feel heat as market grows * FTTH connections surge since September 2004 * Comcast sees growth ahead * Cisco reports earnings USTA SPOTLIGHT * Newton's Telecom Dictionary -- 21st Edition EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Yahoo! Music Unlimited offers tunes for less * Nike launches interactive Times Square billboard REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Editorial: Telecom market has changed Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21483&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: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: 11 May 2005 06:58:18 -0700 The difficulties won't "derail" VOIP. The VOIPS will have to spend some money maintaining the appropriate customer databases and then develop a protocol to transmit that information 911 centers. That requires some cost and effort, but it is not impossible as long as the VOIP owners understand and accept their responsibility and liability in this matter. I suspect it will increase the cost of providing VOIP service and raise fees a bit, but since the protocols and databases should be standardized, the computer costs could be spread out among many VOIP customers, so it won't be a big deal. What I think a concern should be is service reliability. On the next virus/worm attack when the Internet is flooded with messages and intermediate switching/relay points can't keep up, it's possible VOIP telephone service won't be available or be difficult to use. I don't know how VOIP handles "traffic jams" where packets are delayed en route. Also, if some business which is dependent on VOIP for its voice has major server problems will voice traffic be disrupted? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Lisa, since we are chatting about 'service reliability' and how important it is, what about when a place like California has an earthquake now and then, or now and then in New York City when an airplane crashes into a tall building and all the people get excited and stirred up and all everyone jumps on the phone at one time bringing the phone system to a screaming halt with all the dialtone missing and the switching capacity totally used up? Or, about every 14-15 years on average when a telco central office burns down, and there is no phone service at all for a few weeks or months, i.e. New York City, middle 1970's; Hinsdale (Chicago), Illinois in 1988. Telco has been known to have its share of 'traffic jams' also, so my question is, considering how many business places are dependent on telco, how do they manage to get by when telco has an incident like that? You know, I guess, that the events in NYC on 9-11-01 damn near wrecked the central office serving lower Manhattan from the size and fury of the 'traffic jam' as people found out what was happening. Do we dare trust something like telco when reliability is important? PAT] ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 20:56:30 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. In article <telecom24.208.4@telecom-digest.org>, Jack Decker <jack-yahoogroups@withheld_on_request]> wrote: > The big problem for VoIP providers is that there is no easy 911 > solution. I think we've been around this block a few times before. The big problem for VoIP providers whose financial models rely on avoiding the cost of regulation imposed on traditional providers (rather than on the inherent efficiency of packet voice) is that there is no *free* 911 solution. 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 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? Date: 11 May 2005 07:32:47 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I still don't think we know the actual details in this particular case. IMHO, the email holder was being too tight about this, legally or not (see below). We don't know if the family's "court order" was from probate or litigation. Robert Bonomi wrote: >> Keep in mind that many estates are settled without probate and court >> orders. Getting that stuff is expensive and not worth it if the >> estate is small, such as often in the case of a young person. > (A) That stuff is _not_ expensive. court costs are generally in the very > low 3 figures, _at_most_. I am not a lawyer. However, after handling two estates I have a bit of experience. Many lawyers told me probate is expensive and to be avoided if possible. Our family was quoted $1,000 in legal fees (ten years ago) to handle a very simple of estate (no car, no real property, just some bank accounts). We ended up doing it ourself. > (B) "informal" settlement works *ONLY*IF* nobody objects. As soon as > any 'involved party' raises an objection, or demands the formal > procedures, the informal techniques are no longer a viable option. > Those who insist on employing them in the face of opposition, are > _personally_ legally liable for not using the formal procedures. > If the objection comes from a beneficiary of the estate, or a > creditor thereof, those who take property from the estate "without > benefit of formal procedure" can find themselves subject to > criminal action (for 'theft'), as well as civil suit to recover > the value of the stolen property. Basically true. However, the value and contents of the estate plays a big part of this. If there's real estate or a business involved, you'll need official documentation to legally transfer titles or sell. But for an elderly person who say is in a nursing home with little property left, or a young person killed in the service, there simply may not be enough assets to even cover the cost of probate. Anyone can certainly file a civil suit, but the value in question must be significant to justify the cost of litigation. On the flip side, sometimes people with substantial estates and duly executed wills still run into litigation as beneficiaries feel they're were cheated out of their perceived rightful share. Many estates have been ruined as litigation dragged on for years. >> I would presume the family presented a death certificate which is >> normally issued upon death. > Which doesn't prove "boo" as regards who is the authorized agent of > the estate, and the only party legally entitled to access to the > property of the decedent. I thought more about it and in some cases a death certificate is all that is needed. Been there/done that, with the above two estates. I conducted numerous transactions submitting only the death certificate or even only a copy of the newspaper's obituary notice. Certain property by law automatically defaults to someone else in the event of death, and no probate certificate is necessary. A common example is joint bank accounts and husband and wife. > Such a designation has *NOTHING* to do with who obtains _ownership_ of > any physical property that belongs (belonged) to the decedent. The > _only_ document that specifies that is a "will" -- and which may, or > may *not*, take precedence over statutory specifications. (In some > states, a wife, for example, may "elect against the will", and get the > statutory share of the estate, regardless of express provisions in > the will.) Again, in practice when there is a very modest amount of property at issue, the above is not closely adhered to. I don't know military procedure, but given the reality of life risk in military service, I still presume that they provide soldiers with appropriate documentation that is acceptable to outsiders. Naturally I recommend consulting an attorney for such matters. But like anything else, fees can vary tremendously and getting several opinions from recommended attorneys is a good idea. Setting up joint title to some property will be helpful but that has its risks. (In my state, the joint title saved 50% of the inheritance tax and eased probate.) (But other setups can waste money. I know a fellow who borrowed money from his mother for his mortgage. He insisted it be recorded. When she died, that became part of her official estate and the probate taxes on the mortgage, recording payoff fees, etc., were steep. He spent $20,000 on legal fees alone and that was 20 years ago). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When my maternal grandfather died in the early 1960's my grandmother had us drive her to the bank the next morning (before any notices got in the papers, etc.) so she could clean out their safe-deposit box. _After_ she had gone in the vault room and taken the contents of their box, then on the way out the door she stopped and mentioned to the bank clerk "you know, my husband passed away yesterday evening." The bank clerk's response was "well, I certainly wish you had told me that _before_ you went into the safety-deposit box." Grandmother replied, "I am sure you do, but it is too late now." She had been a joint tenant with rights of survivorship in the box, but did not want to mess around with any paperwork the bank or taxman might have later requested. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bob@coolgroups.com Subject: Re: Spyware ... Ugh! Date: 11 May 2005 12:22:54 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Did they change the name of Hijack This to Alertspy or is Alertspy something else? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have never heard of 'AlertSpy'; I know nothing about it. I first became aware of 'Hijack This' when I had a similar problem. A program I knew nothing about was causing my computer to try and go to a certain site immediatly on boot up. Trouble is, the site had been discontinued, so all I would ever get was a 404 message (immediatly on boot up, without even asking for the URL.) I zapped the mysterious program but then on bootup it was right back there doing its thing again, time after time. A friend of mine said we would have to go kill it in the registry where it was hiding, always looking for a way and time to restart itself. He told me where to find Hijack This on the net; I got it and installed it. It gives you many warnings in the process of installation, essentially telling you if you don't know what you are doing, to get back out of the way and find a _real-man_ to do the job. My friend talked me through it over the phone, and once the proper registry entry had been located and deleted, that was the last of the problem; at that point, following the hijacking process, I had to turn the computer off, wait a couple minutes then turn it back on. I thought to myself at the time the spammers/hackers/whoever who go and deliberatly tamper with your system registry in the process of installing their crap should be ashamed of themselves. But my friend pointed out 'this is the internet. There has been no shame around here in years ...' When I first told my friend about the mess I was certain I would have to do a fresh install of Windows to get rid of it. But Hijack This cured it all, and even rebuilt the registry in the process. PAT] ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@surplus4actors.INFO Subject: Re: Kiddie Porn Problem Severe, Expert Sees it Worsening Date: 11 May 2005 10:43:43 -0700 In NYC one of the local radio stations, WQHT jokes about child slavery. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sounds pretty sick to me, but I have never heard the station so cannot comment on the 'jokes' nor their context. All anyone can really comment on is what they, themselves have experienced: In my case, my sister (18 years younger than myself; I grew up as an 'only child' until I was 18) ran away from home when she was 15; went to live in Orlando, FL where she promptly got the first 'job' which came to mind; between that and her cocaine addiction she was essentially a 'child slave'. Between her several stays in the Orange County Jail over the years variously for prostitution and drug abuse she would call us collect or write letters now and then. Now, in the past year, neither mother nor myself have heard from her; she might be dead, or might be alive, living with someone, we have no clue. Some of you may recall Bill Pfieffer from before his passing: He was the Airwaves.com moderator and the Usenet rec.radio.broadcasting guy. He ran away from home when he was 12 years old from an abusive environment. He was searching for his true parents, who had abandoned him years before. Needless to say, like many young guys he fell into the same trap as my sister did. Bill _always_ ran the Amber Alert javascript on his web site (and its predecesser program "Have you Seen Me?") because he knew as I know, what an insidious evil the problem of missing children (often times in sexual/drug slavery) can be. Call the radio station: tell them its nothing to joke about. 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. 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