TELECOM Digest     Sun, 3 Jul 2005 17:32:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 306

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Choreboy)
    ATT Merger (Lisa Minter)
    NASA Fireworks Tonight! (Lisa Minter)
    Facebook an Internet Sensation on Campus (Lisa Minter)
    Test May Measure Student's Web Wisdom (Lisa Minter)
    Congress Passes Fax Bill to Create EBR Exemption (Monty Solomon)
    Yellow Pages at eBay (Dandino)
    Calling Packet8 Virtual Office Users (Chasman)
    DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone (shwekhaw)
    Re: DSL Speed (Choreboy)
    Re: Cellular Jamming?  Think Again. (W Howard)
    Re: Cellular Jamming?  Think Again. (DevilsPGD)
    Ombudsman on N. Korea Food Story (alan@bloomfieldpress.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: Choreboy <choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com>
Subject: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes
Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2005 00:00:49 -0400
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com


Ten years ago I happened to discover a potential of 0.25 VAC between
the grounding electrode under my electrical entrance and the one under
my telephone entrance.  To protect my computer from lightning, I
bonded them with twenty feet of wire.  It paid off in 1998 when
lightning struck a tree thirty feet from my electrical entrance.  I
was online and suffered no damage.

A telco man restored service by replacing a fuse on the utility pole.
When I asked the company's policy on bonding, he beat around the bush
twenty minutes before saying the electrical code required it but the
telco didn't like it because they would have to replace more fuses.

Neighbors went online five years ago.  Each time they've lost a modem
or surge protector, they have asked me for an explanation and I've
told them ground surges will keep getting them until they clamp a wire
between their phone and power electrodes.  They have always ignored my
advice.

I was online Monday during a quiet rain when lightning hit my chimney,
blowing masonry and shingles sixty feet in all directions.  My screen
froze with a weird tint, but things were fine when I restarted.

My neighbors weren't so lucky.  Their phone electrode is 40 yards from
my chimney.  Their power electrode is 10 yards farther.  They lost a
modem, a satellite dish, and two telephones.  Instead of demanding
that I explain it again, they asked the telco to send a rep.  He told
them their ground is fine.  My neighbors are pleased because this
proves I have always been wrong.

Article 250.54 of the NEC says local supplemental grounding electrodes
(such as the one for phone service) must be bonded to the primary
electrode.  Where does the NEC apply?  According to what the telco man
admitted seven years ago, I assume our county code says the same thing.  

Is this a recent addition to the NEC?  How is a citizen supposed to find
out local code requirements?  How is a citizen supposed to know his
electrodes are not bonded or that it's necessary?  If the telco assures
a customer that there is nothing wrong with grounding which in fact is a
code violation, does the telco have any liability?

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

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: AT&T Shareholders OK Acquistion by SBC
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 10:43:05 -0500


(AP) A bid to create one of the world's largest phone companies
vaulted another hurdle Thursday as AT&T Corp. investors approved SBC
Communication Inc.'s $16 billion acquisition at what will likely be
the legendary company's final annual shareholder meeting.

Nearly all the shares cast as votes approved the deal, though
investors holding nearly 30 percent of AT&T's stock did not vote at
all.

The merger still requires regulatory approvals at the federal and
state level, though the companies expect to complete the transaction
by late 2005 or early 2006.

SBC shareholders are not required to vote on the acquisition since the
number of SBC shares being issued as payment for AT&T's stock amounts
to less than a 20 percent increase in SBC's outstanding shares.

The vote to end AT&T's 130-year run as an independent company proved
bittersweet for some shareholders and employees at the meeting. Many
said they recognized the deal was necessary, yet criticized AT&T
management actions as damaging.

AT&T, based in Bedminster, N.J., has seen its core long-distance
business shrink dramatically amid growing competition from Bell rivals
like SBC, cell phones and newer technologies such as Internet-based
calling.

"We can't go it alone because of bad management, because of regulatory
constraints, because of divestiture," AT&T manager Lani Flesch of
Chicago said after the meeting as her eyes welled with tears. "We
could have had it all and instead we're being bought."

San Antonio-based SBC, the local Bell for most of the Midwest and
Southwest, expects to eliminate 13,000 jobs after the merger.

The marriage of the rivals, announced in January, would add corporate
services and a national fiber-optic network to the list of businesses
where SBC holds a dominant industry role. It is already the largest or
second-largest U.S. provider of local, long distance, wireless and
Internet services.

AT&T investors are slated to receive 0.77942 of a share of SBC common
stock and a cash dividend of $1.30 for each share of AT&T they hold.

SBC's stock closed Thursday at $23.75 a share, down 19 cents, so the
deal now values AT&T's stock at about $19.80 per share. That's about 4
percent higher than AT&T's current share price, which fell 22 cents
Thursday to close at $19.04 on the New York Stock Exchange.

AT&T Chief Executive David Dorman told shareholders the merger is a
strategic combination that will create a diversified company that can
compete globally.

"It is our view that the AT&T-SBC merger creates greater opportunity
for shareholder value in the long term," he said.

Some rivals and consumer advocates have opposed the merger as well as
the proposed purchase of MCI Inc. by Verizon Communications Inc.,
arguing that the elimination of two major competitors from the market
will lead to higher prices, less innovation and fewer product
alternatives.

AT&T Chief Financial Officer Thomas Horton said after the meeting that
as the industry restructures, consumers will see more choices from
companies offering a variety of services.

The merger has won regulatory approval in 26 states and still needs
the OK from 10 additional states and the federal government.

On the net:

      AT&T: http://www.att.com
      SBC: http://www.sbc.com



(c) 2005 The Associated Press.

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: NASA Fireworks Display Planned for Sunday Night/Monday Morning
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 16:55:57 -0500


Two reports this weekend of the 'fireworks' display NASA has planned
for us Sunday overnight/Monday morning. 

     ==========================================

NASA Readies Space Probe to Blast Comet
By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

It's a space mission straight out of Hollywood -- launch a spacecraft
268 million miles so it can aim a barrel-sized probe toward a speeding
comet half the size of Manhattan and smash a hole in it.

But that's what NASA expects its Deep Impact mission to do this
weekend, with a goal of viewing the icy core of a comet that may hold
cosmic clues to how the sun and planets formed. It's not without
challenges. To ensure a bull's-eye hit -- and a spectacular
Independence Day fireworks display in space -- several things must
happen just right.

Around 2 a.m. EDT Sunday, the Deep Impact spacecraft must release the
820-pound copper "impactor" on course for a collision expected 24
hours later with the comet Tempel 1.

Scientists are confident they will be able to position the probe in
the onrushing comet's path, though that calls for precise maneuvers
that the probe must execute without help from mission control. Once on
auto-pilot, the probe has up to three chances before the collision to
fire its thrusters to adjust its flight path for a direct strike.

"To hit the nucleus of a comet is a little bit like a baseball player
trying to hit a knuckleball," said Dave Spencer, mission manager at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which is in charge of
the $333 million project.

Comets are blobs of ice and dust that orbit the sun and were born
about 4.5 billion years ago -- nearly the same time as the solar
system itself. When a cloud of gas and dust condensed to form the sun
and planets, comets formed from what was left over.

Scientists hope studying them will provide clues to how the solar
system formed.

Tempel 1, their specimen, is a pickle-shaped comet that travels in an
elliptical orbit between Mars and Jupiter.

After springing the probe, the mothership must slightly change course
and stake out a prime seat 5,000 miles from the collision, which is
expected around 1:52 a.m. EDT Monday.

The comet, hurtling through space at a relative speed of 23,000 mph,
will run over the probe with energy similar to exploding nearly 5 tons
of dynamite. All the while, a camera on the impactor will be shooting
pictures as it heads toward its doom, as will the mothership from
afar.

Little is known about comet anatomy, so it's unclear what exactly will
happen when Tempel 1 is hit. Scientists expect the collision to spray
a cone-shaped plume of debris into space. The resulting crater could
be anywhere from the size of a house to a football stadium, and be
between two and 14 stories deep.

"We still don't know what this comet holds in store for us," said Rick
Grammier, Deep Impact project manager.

Scientists will work feverishly to download data from the spacecraft
before it makes its closest approach to the comet less than 15 minutes
after impact. Their worry is that Deep Impact could be damaged by
flying debris, risking the valuable data. A trio of space telescopes -
the Hubble, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope -
and dozens of ground observatories will also view the collision and
aftermath.

So will amateur astronomers in the western United States and Latin
America, who should be able to view the impact through their own
telescopes. It will not be visible in the eastern United States and
upper Midwest.

Launched in mid-January from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Deep Impact sent
images of the comet's nucleus for the first time last month from a
distance of 20 million miles away.

It also witnessed two outbursts of ice from the comet -- not a major
concern to scientists who have plenty else to worry about.

On the Net:
Deep Impact mission: http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

   ======= The second report on the expected fireworks; will 
           you be watching it happen? ===========


NASA Releases Probe to Collide With Comet By ALICIA CHANG


PASADENA, Calif. - A NASA space probe was bearing down on its comet
target Sunday in a mission scientists hope will end with a cataclysmic
crash -- and new insights into the origins of the solar system.

The 820-pound copper probe was on course to intercept the comet Tempel
1 to smash a hole in it so scientists can get their first peek at the
heart of one of these icy celestial bodies.

Comets are the leftover building blocks of the solar system, which
formed when a giant cloud of gas and dust collapsed to create the sun
and planets.  Because comets were born in the system's outer fringes,
their cores still possess some of the primordial ingredients and
studying them could yield clues to how the solar system formed 4.5
billion years ago.

The "impactor" probe separated from the Deep Impact spacecraft early
Sunday and began a 500,000-mile suicide dive toward the sunlit section
of Tempel 1, a pickle-shaped comet half the size of Manhattan and 83
million miles away from Earth.

Workers in the mission control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena erupted in applause shortly after the
separation.

"The release went very well," said project manager Rick
Grammier. "Half of the hurdles are over."

Meanwhile, the mothership fired its thrusters to slightly change
course and stake out a front-row seat 5,000 miles from the high-speed
collision, which is expected to occur at 1:52 a.m. EDT Monday.

The probe will switch to autopilot two hours before Monday's
encounter, relying on computer software and thrusters to steer itself
into the path of the onrushing comet. If the probe's maneuvers are
off, the comet could miss and the mission would fail.

As Tempel 1 closes in at a relative speed of 23,000 mph, the probe
should beam back unprecedented pictures of its target in near
real-time until it is run over.

If all goes to plan, the mothership will record the crash and
resulting crater with its high-resolution telescope. About 15 minutes
after impact, the craft will make its closest flyby of the comet
nucleus, approaching within 310 miles. Scientists expect it will be
bombarded with flying debris and will stop taking pictures, turning on
its dust shields for protection.

NASA's brigade of space-based observatories, including the Hubble
Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space
Telescope, also will be pointing toward the comet to record the
impact. Professional astronomers from dozens of observatories in 20
countries also will observe the crash.

Little is known about comet anatomy, so it's unclear what exactly will
happen when Tempel 1 is hit. Scientists expect the collision will
spray a cone-shaped plume of debris into space. The resulting crater
can range anywhere from the size of a large house to a football
stadium and be between two and 14 stories deep.

The probe's anticipated impact could cause the comet to shine brighter
than normal and sky-gazers may be able to see celestial fireworks with
a telescope in parts of the Western United States and Latin America.

Deep Impact blasted off in January from Cape Canaveral, Fla., for its
six-month, 268 million-mile journey. In what scientists say is a
coincidence, the spacecraft shares the same name as the 1998 movie
about a comet that hurtles toward Earth.

Discovered in 1867, Tempel 1 moves around the sun in an elliptical orbit
between Mars and Jupiter every six or so years.

In April, the 1,300-pound spacecraft took its first picture of Tempel
1 from 40 million miles away, revealing what amounts to a celestial
snowball. Last month, still 20 million miles away, scientists saw the
solid core of Tempel 1 for the first time.

On the Net:
Deep Impact mission: http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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: Facebook an Internet Sensation on Campus
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 16:58:48 -0500


By SORAYA NADIA McDONALD, Associated Press Writer

Pamela Elder, a junior at Georgia State University, got hooked when
she found some old high school classmates. Next she used the online
yearbook of yearbooks to track down people she hadn't seen since grade
school. No wonder the Facebook is an Internet sensation at campuses
across the nation.

Constantly updated by its 2.8 million registered users at more than
800 colleges and universities, the Facebook takes the local malt shop
social nexus of the 1950s and makes it universal.

Started by three Harvard sophomores in February 2004 as an online
directory to connect the higher education world through social
networks, the Facebook now registers more than 5,800 new users a day.

"It becomes part of your daily routine. It's e-mail, the news, the
weather, Facebook," said Lucas Garza, a senior from San Antonio
studying aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Users of Facebook, http://www.thefacebook.com, can post a photo and a
profile of themselves for free. The profiles include as little or as
much information as the user desires, including basic biographies,
lists of hobbies and interests, even home address and cell phone
number.

Users control who can see their profiles -- from only friends to all
other users. Other users can then search the profiles for classmates,
childhood acquaintances, people who share common interests.

When users identify someone on the site they'd like to meet, they can
ask to be designated as a "friend," a characteristic of other social
networking Web sites such as Friendster or LinkedIn.

Facebook friend requests can come from anyone on the site, including
"some random drunk person you met at a party whose name you don't
remember," said Garza, who has 143 "friends" on Facebook.

The site has become so ubiquitous among college students that they
tell others to "facebook" them -- to look them up on the
site. Browsing it is known simply as "facebooking."

Site creators Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz were
roommates at Harvard when they designed Facebook so fellow Harvard
students could get to know those living in other dorms. (The name
comes from the real-life books of freshmen's faces, majors and
hometowns that many colleges distribute to incoming students). The Web
site proved so popular that the trio made it available to students at
Columbia, Stanford and Yale within a month.

With Facebook's success, Moskovitz and Zuckerberg left Harvard to run
it as a 10-person company out of Palo Alto, Calif. Moskovitz had been
studying economics; Zuckerberg, computer science and
psychology. Hughes, a history and literature major, is studying abroad
in Paris.

"It's all at once a 'real-world' job and something surreal," Hughes
said.  "Instead of entering a company and working your way to the top,
Mark has created something that has allowed him to start right off in
the CEO seat."

Hughes said Facebook turns a profit, mostly from advertising. He
refused to disclose the private company's earnings.

Besides corporate advertisers, Facebook users purchase "announcements"
 -- ads that can be seen only by students from the same school. They
range from campaign posters for student government positions to fliers
about upcoming parties. They cost $9 to $15 apiece; the smaller the
school, the cheaper the announcement.

Investments have boosted Facebook, too. Silicon Valley venture capital
firm Accel Partners put in $13 million; PayPal founder Peter Thiel
recently invested $500,000.

Users can register on the site only with a college e-mail adndress,
which serves as verification that users are students. Once registered,
the .edu address becomes a user ID.

More than 60 percent of the site's users log in daily during the
school year, and about half log in daily over the summer, Hughes said.

Marketers who target students love the site, said Robin Raskin, a
technology consultant whose three college-age children are all
Facebook users.

"You've got this great, great group. You know their demographic, you
know how much disposable income they have, you know what they spend it
on, and now you've got them in one place," Raskin said. "It's great
for anybody who wants to talk to the youth audience, and that is why
investors have run to give Facebook some money."

Another result, however, is that students should be cautious about
putting personal information on the site, said Raskin, a former editor
of PC Magazine.

"You think you're safe because of this .edu address, but anybody can
get in there who wants to," said Raskin, adding she knows corporate
marketers who have "infiltrated" the site. Many alumni get .edu e-mail
addresses from their alma maters, allowing them to get on Facebook.

Marcia Ammons, a Georgia State senior from Carrollton, Ga., swears by
Facebook. She has two close friends on campus she first met on the Web
site.

"It's hard to find people with similar interests on a big campus,"
Ammons said. "We're so spread out ... you can put up party fliers in
the Rec Center but half the people won't know about it because they
won't see them."

Garza uses Facebook to find people in his classes to compare notes and
homework, since a single class at Georgia Tech can have up to 500
students.  During last year's presidential campaign, he used the site
to find students with similar views. His profile included quotes from
George Orwell and links to his personal Web site.

Students also meet on the site through groups, virtual clusters of
users at the same school with a common interest. Ammons is a member of
the "Wal-Mart Lovers" and "Rec Center Junkies" groups. Garza is in the
"Anti-Leaf Blower Society" and "Ipodilicious," a collection of Ipod
fans.

Entirely new social protocols have formed around Facebook. One
surrounds confirming friend requests. For some, a person's friend
count is a social barometer.

Says Hilton Gray, a 2003 graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and avid facebooker:

"I know a few people who like the attention of it all, so they try to
rack up as many friends as possible."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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: Test May Measure Student's Web Wisdom
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 17:00:13 -0500


By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer

Students apply to college online, e-mail their papers to their
professors and, when they want to be cheeky, pass notes in class by
text-messaging. But that doesn't necessarily mean they have a high
Internet IQ.

"They're real comfortable instant-messaging, downloading MP3
files. They're less comfortable using technology in ways that require
real critical thinking," says Teresa Egan of the Educational Testing
Service.

Or as Lorie Roth, assistant vice chancellor of academic programs at
California State University puts it: "Every single one that comes
through the door thinks that if you just go to Google and get some
hits -- you've got material for your research paper right there."

That's why Cal State and a number of other colleges are working with
ETS to create a test to evaluate Internet intelligence, measuring
whether students can locate and verify reliable online information and
whether they know how to properly use and credit the material.

"This test measures a skill as important as having mathematics and
English skills when you come to the university," says Roth. "If you
don't come to the university with it, you need to know that you are
lacking some skills that educated people are expected to have."

A preliminary version of the new test, the Information and
Communication Technology Literacy Assessment, was given to 3,300 Cal
State students this spring to see how well it works, i.e. testing the
test. Individual scores aren't being tallied but campuses will be
getting aggregate reports.

Next year, the test is expected to be available for students to take
on a voluntary basis.

Cal State is the lead institution in a consortium which includes UCLA,
the University of Louisville, the California Community College System,
the University of North Alabama, the University of Texas System and
the University of Washington.

Some of the institutions involved are considering using the test on
incoming students to see if they need remedial classes, says Egan,
ETS' project manager for the Information and Communication Technology
Literacy Assessment. Other schools are thinking about giving the test
as a follow up to communications courses to gauge curricula
efficiency.

Robert Jimenez, a student at Cal State-Fullerton who took the
prototype test this spring, gives it a passing grade. "It was pretty
good in that it allowed us to go ahead and think through real-life
problems."

Sample questions include giving students a simulated page of Web
search results on a particular subject and asking students to pick the
legitimate sources. So, a question on bee sting remedies presents a
choice of sites ranging from ads to a forum for herb treatments to
(the correct answer) a listing from the National Institutes of Health,
identifiable by having "nih" in the URL (site address) along with the
".gov" suffix that connotes an official government listing.

High tech has been a fixture of higher ed for some years.

A 2002 report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that
79 percent of college Internet users thought the Internet had a
positive impact on their academic experience.

More than 70 percent used the Internet more than the library and 56
percent said e-mail improved their relationships with professors.

Of course, some of those text-messaging students are still being
taught by professors whose idea of a personal data assistant is a
fresh pad of Post-Its.

"The problem with technology and education is how do you fit the new
technology into existing curriculum lesson plans. You can't add more
class time and it's much easier to just keep teaching the way you
were," says Steve Jones, a co-author on the Pew study and a
communications professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Jones folds lessons on Internet use into his classes. And he doesn't
mince words about students who try the "click, copy and paste"
approach to homework.

"I tell the students, 'Some of you are going to put off this paper
until the night before. You're going to go to Google, type in search
words and just look at the top five hits and use those. I'm going to
grade you on this. I'm going to look at these sources and so let's
talk about how to evaluate sources.'"

Which doesn't necessarily mean they all "suddenly become fabulous
information evaluators and seekers, but it gives them a little bit of
an idea that this isn't something that's apart from learning."

Jones also finds himself learning from students, who are trying out
new things like blogs and collaborating with other students online to
create new sources of information.

He thinks assessing students' Internet skills could be useful in
figuring out ways to help them do better research but cautions that
it's tough to test on something as changeable as the Internet.

Roth notes that the bulk of the assessment focuses on critical
thinking skills, being able to analyze the legitimacy of Web sites,
and knowing the difference between properly cited research and
plagiarism, things that "haven't changed very much since I enrolled in
college in 1969."

For today's students, working on the Net means not having the safety
net of references vetted by campus librarians.

But Roth isn't nostalgic.

"Anybody want to go back to the bad old days when you had manual
typewriters, and you had to get up and walk to the library to look up
something?" she says with a laugh. "I don't think so."

On the Net:
http://www.calstate.edu
http://www.ets.org/ictliteracy/

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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

Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 17:07:31 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Congress Passes Fax Bill to Create EBR Exemption


By: Scott Hovanyetz  Senior Reporter

Congress passed a bill that would permanently allow an existing
business relationship exemption for commercial faxes, a victory for
business media and nonprofit organizations that say they need to fax
subscribers and members.

The House of Representative's approval of the bill by voice vote
yesterday followed the Senate's passage by unanimous consent June 24.
It now remains for President Bush to sign the bill into law.
According to American Business Media, a trade press association, Bush
is expected to sign the bill this week.


http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=33223

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

From: Dandino <suit4enlightenment@gmail.com>
Subject: Yellow Pages at eBay
Date: 2 Jul 2005 05:06:22 -0700


Does eBay evolve into the advertising market? (the serious one)

[url]http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=102333&item=5594068066&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW[/url]

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

From: Chasman <xarush@omelas.com>
Subject: Calling Packet8 Virtual Office Users
Date: 2 Jul 2005 14:18:29 -0700


I am currently using an in-house IVR put together with tape and
glue. I would rather use something that did not require hardware on
our end and my maintenance. We use Vonage phones and they work well as
we can blind transfer between them. However we drop one call out of 20
which is a pain.

What I want to know is how sophisticated is the IVR on the virtual
office. I need to basically be able to have some one choose between
support, sales or a name directory and then do a call hunt on support
or sales.

That's can we do it and do it reliably?

Regards,

Chas

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

From: shwekhaw <zaw@1stuniverse.com>
Subject: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone
Date: 2 Jul 2005 15:05:53 -0700


DO NOT USE CINGULAR GO PHONE!! I had a lot of problems with GO Phone
and know another two people who are getting ripped off.

I bought the phone early June 2005. They told me no roaming charges
free long distance and I pay just 10 cent a minute and $1 on a day I
use the phone. So I bought it from my TX home. Then I visited to CA
and I could not use the phone. I tried calling my friend with cingular
plan who was sitting next to me. His phone rang but got disconnected
right after he answered. It said "check service status" even though
signal was very strong. I tried several times sine I pay nothing if I
call within cingular network. Guess what! They charged me $1.30 for
every try I made even though connection did not last one
second. Basically I could not use the phone the whole time i was
visiting there. It was so much trouble.

When I called customer service they are very rude. They told me I
could not use the phone anymore since my $25 balance was
depleted. They ignored the fact that the balance was depleted due to
overcharges and not bother looking into it the problem. I had to call
customer service several times (at least 5 times) hoping somebody will
notice the problem. I was told that technician will look into it and
call me back.  And they never call me back!

Finally I called again and talked to supervisor directly (I had to beg
to talk to supervisor). I obtained detail billing and calculated total
charges which is not summing up to the balance I added. When I point
this out, she, who was in total denial about their problems, said it
was just a glitch in their system and agreed to make balance
adjustment. A glitch! A glitch that took away $25 balance was not
noticeable to several people in customer service department! Were they
just trained how to ignore their problem and how to make customers
miserable.

I cannot return the phone since it is over 30 days now so I am stuck
with the phone. They still not acknowledging the problem that I cannot
use the phone in CA even though I should be able to according to their
plan description. Be aware guys. If you are patient and can spend a
lot of time calling customer service to get your money back, you are
sure to lose your money with this Cingular plan.



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You could have been telling my story. I
have _two_ Cingular phones; the one works okay with an _Independence,
KS_ 620-330 number. The other phone is a former AT&T (now Cingular
Prepaid phone I think it is called 'Free to Go'.) Both phones are the
older digital Nokia 5165 phones, the difference is only that one is
prepaid via AT&T, the other is a 'regular' cell phone. Starting Friday,
the prepaid phone quit fuctioning. It has a Wichita KS 316-841 number
on it, with, I might add, twenty dollars in credit. Cingular customer
service, which appears to be located in India these days, absolutely
insisted I could not have a prepaid wireless phone since they had no
wireless coverage in my area. They said "as soon as you get back in
the Wichita area, your phone will start working again." I asked them 
if that was so, then (if the towers could not reach me) why wasn't
voice mail kicking in to take the messages?  They just kept repeating
their stupid answer: because we have no service in your area. I
finally said 'being an ignorant ##*@ based in your native land
somewhere, you probably would not know much about our cell phones
here.' They had just a few minutes earlier taken a twenty five dollar
payment from my credit card. Those Cingular/AT&T/SBC customer service
reps are so incredibly stupid it is beyond my comprehension. I said 
well, if you do not have service in my area, then please arrange to
refund the twenty dollars you just now took on my account. And
wouldn't you know it, the sweet dear little Indian lady who referred
to herself as 'employee ID 627' insisted 'we do not give any refunds
on prepaid service'. You will this time, I told her, Small Claims
Court here in Montgomery County is just four block down the street 
 from my house, and I do not have to sue you in California or Texas
or India or wherever, _I just sue your local resale agent here in 
Independence_.  Hopefully your superiors will screw up and not make
any response to the suit. She finally came up with a post office
box address (no phone nor fax nor email address available) for some
entity called 'Cingular Free to Go' in Anaheim Hills, CA and I fired
off a letter to them yesterday making demand for the return of my
money _or_ preferably, a working phone with my 316-841 number since
someone else told me the only service they will now initiate in
620 is GSM. I will tell you, if Ignorance was Bliss, then Cingular
customer service people would be the happiest in the world.   PAT]
 
------------------------------

From: Choreboy <choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com>
Subject: Re: DSL Speed
Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2005 19:02:35 -0400
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com


Dave Grebe wrote:

>>> I wonder how they're modulated.

>> Can any other reader answer this question?

> Quadrature modulation using many channels.  Look here:

> http://www.alleged.com/info/dsl2/

> Dave Grebe

Wow!  No wonder most people don't go into detail!  

Here's a quote from the introduction:

"Although many system designers are competent and comfortable with DSP
and all things digital, they often find their understanding of analog
issues to be a bit rusty when it comes to implementing the physical
connection to and from the telephone line."

nmclain@annsgarden.com wrote:

> Choreboy <choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com> wrote:

>> A carrier vor V.90 must have some very precise modulation.  It's
>> amazing that an 8kHz sampling can capture it well enough to be
>> useful.

> Frequently it can't, which is why your modem downgrades to a slower
> speed.

>>> All of these noise sources collectively impair the ability of the loop
>>> to carry DSL signals.

>> Local loop cables (trunk cables?) seem to deteriorate.  Phone men seem
>> to look for available pairs when customers complain of noise.  I
>> wonder if voltage from nearby lightning strikes might cause pinhole
>> damage to the insulation of twisted pairs, and over the years it gets
>> hard to find a good pair.

> Nearby lightning strikes likely would do a lot more than cause
> "pinhole damage."  But you're right about telco cables deteriorating
> over time.  Water intrusion can cause severe interference ("every time
> it rains, I get static on my telephone!").

I wonder if old cables have been analyzed to see why they went bad.
Lightning-related voltage spikes can damage semiconductors although
the damage may not be apparent.  I wonder if that could happen to the
insulation on telephone conductors.

>> Load coils might be one reason a particular phone sounds distorted at
>> a particular location.

> I doubt that, but I guess it's possible.

If the capacitance were lumped, it and an inductor would form a tuned
tank.  I suppose it's about the same with distributed capacitance.
The tank would have high impedance at one frequency and lower
impedance at higher or lower frequencies.  The broadness of the curve
would depend on the resistance in the coil and maybe in the line.  An
uneven frequency response could make it hard to recognize who's
calling or understand his words.  

>> Across the street, a small trunk line (cable with lots of wire
>> pairs) comes from the aerial terminal down a couple of feet to a
>> fusebox on the utility pole.  (I think the telco calls them something
>> besides fuses.)  The drop cables come out of that box. Probably
>> just a junction box.

After lightning knocked out my phone service, a telco man opened the
box and replaced what he called a fuse.  Those fuses have another name
I can't remember.

>>>> Think what would have happened if RG-59 hadn't been invented.
>>>> Everybody would have used RG-6, which looks nearly the same but
>>>> attenuates uhf much less.  With better reception there would have
>>>> been more uhf stations and less demand for cable.

>>> As a former cable guy, I don't agree with that.  Many UHF stations
>>> depended on cable TV systems to distribute their signals throughout
>>> their "specified zones" (which, back in the '60s and '70s, was a
>>> 35-mile radius around the city of license).  This was particularly
>>> true in mountainous areas where cable T systems carried UHF signals
>>> to specified-zone communities that were beyond the reach of their
>>> transmitters.

>> With a bow-tie antenna, a good UHF amp, a rotator, and RG-6U, we could
>> receive so many channels that we weren't interested in cable.

> Well, obviously you don't live in a place like Mahanoy City
> Pennsylvania, Tuckerman Arkansas, or Astoria Oregon -- places where it
> simply isn't possible to get any station -- UHF or VHF -- off the air.
> Cable TV started in all three of those communities in 1948, and all
> three still claim to have been first.

> Neal McLain

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And don't forget Independence, KS where
> until cable came along (via Time Warner in the 1980's) our television
> reception consisted of TWO channels; channel 6 and channel 9, but only
> one of those two if you wanted a good picture. Most people had very
> _high_ antennas on their house if they wanted television, and they
> compromised by using a 'rotor' attached to their TV set to turn the
> rooftop antenna one way or the other. If they could not afford the
> rotor, then they left the antenna turned sort of in the middle and
> lived with that. We got one station from Tulsa, Oklahoma (80 miles
> almost straight south)  and one station from Joplin, Missouri (90
> miles more or less straight east.) Around here, 'big city' (as in
> presence of television stations) means Wichita, KS which is 110 miles
> northwest, or Topeka KS which is about 150 miles straight north, and
> we could not get those stations very well at all in those days. PAT]

In 1956 I moved to Rutland VT, in a valley.  We had three floors above
the basement, and the peak of our slate roof may have been forty feet
above the ground.  On the peak was a mast with guy wires.  There were
three antennae on the mast, one pointed to Burlington 70 miles away,
on to Albany 90 miles away, and one to Boston 160 miles away.  Three
cables led from the antennae to a switch on the back of the TV.

The snow was bad all year.  Community cable, with an antenna mast on a
nearby mountain, was discussed.  A year or so later, Lucky 13 started
in Albany.  In spite of the distance and the mountains, it came in
without snow.  I heard no more about community cable.

I don't know how much it cost to operate a small UHF station, but in
Rutland I think it could have been started and operated much cheaper
than cable.  The audience would probably have needed something besides
a loop on their TV, and I suppose advertising would have had to
support it.

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

From: whoward@login2.srv.ualberta.ca (W Howard)
Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming?  Think Again.
Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2005 02:56:58 UTC
Organization: University of Alberta


In article <telecom24.305.8@telecom-digest.org>, mc
<mc_no_spam@uga.edu> wrote:

>> Of course they say that.  And every once in a while they dust off
>> their announcement that broadcasting more than 5 watts on a CB radio
>> is illegal and subjects the operator to fines and seizure of their
>> equipment too.  But they don't actually do it.  They're stretched thin
>> already trying to figure out where telecommunications is going so they
>> can stay a little ahead of it, and they just don't bother with
>> "crimes" that do not involve substantial amounts of money.

> You haven't been reading the news on www.arrl.org, have you?

You are right, I hadn't.  So I went and did.  Seven enforcement
letters over the course of a week is what I found.  I could find you
the evidence for seven enforcement letters about every seventy seconds
along any stretch of freeway near any major city.

So my use of "never" was inaccurate; in a tiny fraction of the cases,
somebody from the FCC attempts to enforce the regulations.  It's still
such a tiny fraction as to have negligible effect, and I doubt that
the stern warnings about possessing/using cellphone jammers will be
followed up with enough enforcement to make a difference there either.

And I stand by my claim that the govt in general would have at least
more respect if they didn't write laws/regulations that they won't
enforce in any meaningful way.

>>Walt

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

From: DevilsPGD <spamsucks@crazyhat.net>
Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming?  Think Again.
Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 22:56:34 -0500
Organization: Disorganized


In message <telecom24.302.6@telecom-digest.org> mc <mc_no_spam@uga.edu>
wrote:

>> The law should be modestly amended to declare those using cellphones
>> in theaters, churches, and other places of public assembly outlaws
>> subject to pummeling by the inconvenienced other inmates of such
>> assembly. Exception might be made for surviving, on duty, emergency
>> personnel. ;^)

> Here I think there is a market for cell phone *detectors*.  Cell
> phones transmit every few minutes even when you're not making or
> receiving a call, in order to keep the tower apprised of where they
> are.  "Turn off your cell phone" could have more teeth if equipment
> were in use to detect cell phones that were still turned on.

How do you figure?  My phone *never* gets turned off.  Period.  Not in
theatres, not in churches, not in other places of public assembly.

Never.

However, I do set it on do not disturb (Which is a profile I created,
is completely silent, does not vibrate, and routes all calls to
voicemail (although it does still log them on my caller ID)

Why don't I turn it off?  Well, in short, I want the calls logged on
my caller ID.

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

Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 16:48:08 -0400
From: alan@bloomfieldpress.com
Subject: Ombudsman on N. Korea Food story



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: An interesting essay on why so many of
us have very little trust in the so-called 'mainstream' media. You
know, the ones that are supposed to be so precious and so good, compared
to all us imbeciles on the internet doing our thing.  PAT]

The Uninvited Ombudsman:

An observation for news-media people in general --
July 2, 2005

Dear Editor,

Cities nationwide just got short but saturation coverage of the
"U.S. gives 50,000 tons of food to N. Korea" story. I got it from six
outlets in Phoenix.

Not surprisingly, all the versions were nearly identical. That's
because the propagated story was a straight government handout, with
no actual reporting involved. There in a nutshell is why we, the
people, no longer trust you, the news media, as much as we used to, or
would like to.

In my "state" newspaper, The Arizona Republic, the two paragraphs
began, "The Bush Administration announced ..." and "The White House
said ..." pretty much like every other version. It was the same where
you live, right? Your comrades aren't even pretending to report, or
displaying even rudimentary curiosity. It's pure government lapdog,
zero public watchdog. You only say you're a watchdog.

Even the most frenzied writer or editor, with no legwork at all, could
do some head math and find that though it sounds so magnanimous, it's
not. Think -- Americans often eat meals that weigh a pound. If you
could just subsist on one pound daily, the hundred million pounds
would feed the 22 million communist subjects for 4-1/2 days.

Many Americans would prefer that you ask the hardball questions, like,
"Why does the executive branch think it has legitimate power to
"donate" so much of our money to, well, anyone?" Aren't you the least
bit curious how much money the public treasury loses in the deal? What
sort of discount does one get on a million pounds of groceries?

News orgs obviously ripped and ran -- took the handout without
thought. It's become your job. What kind of food is it? Fresh produce
or rice? Who sold it (and got all the cash)? You don't know (or care,
we imagine), because from writer to publisher you seem content as a
government tool. It's what you do. You haven't even questioned your
source, "the wire." You never do. You believe it's truth. Pravda.

We're wise to you.
 
               ------------------

The kind of food is important, and meaningful. What's really happened
here is that government people made a deal with food people to take my
money, and your money, and buy a mountain of food. This way, the food
people get a lot of money, and their books look good this month. Most
people do not realize that when we "give aid" we are often just
pouring money into private hands. Salaries and overheads are covered
by money taken personally from me and you under the guise of fair
taxation. The government didn't announce that part, doesn't want you
thinking about the man behind the curtain. The media is then complicit
in the widely propagated announcement. Itsa complex.

We might start believing you again when your stories start looking
like the rewrite below. But then we'd be informed, and the public
could start owning its government again, instead of the other way
around. Most people do want this, but the political left (a euphemism
for socialist-style governance) fundamentally opposes such
empowerment. The news coverage and slants we get speak for themselves.

"Cambpell's soup concluded a deal today to sell ten million cans of
chicken soup to the U.S. Dept. of Magnanimous Giveaways, putting the
company's books firmly in the black this quarter, The Arizona Republic
has learned. Floundering recently, stock price for the parent food
conglomerate jumped six percent on the news. The food, paid for with
taxpayer's money, will be given to the communist North Korean ruling
clique. Although the White House labeled the giveaway a "humanitarian
gesture," it is presumed that strings are attached, and sources close
to dictator Kim Jong-il said in 2002 he plans to create a nuclear
crisis for leverage with us. At least five other food producers have
made similar government deals, to raise the 100 million total pounds
promised in this controversial 'donation'."  Same word count.

Everyone who has hopes that the news media will straighten up and
become a watchdog again, raise your hands. See? Few hands go up. Time
to change.

        ==========================
FYI:

The original, with no byline (presumably because no reporter had a
hand in its creation) was attributed simply "Wire Services":

U.S. to Give 50,000 Tons of Food Aid to N. Korea (6/23/05)

Washington -- The Bush Administration announced Wednesday that it will
donate 50,000 tons of food aid to North Korea, just days after the
reclusive state indicated a willingness to return to regional talks
over its nuclear program.

The White House said the aid is a humanitarian gesture unrelated to
the political climate or to the potential for renewed talks. At the
same time, officials declined to comment on revelations Wednesday that
the administration received an overture from North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il in November 2002, in which he said he wanted to resolve a
budding nuclear crisis between the two countries.

       
Sincerely,

Alan Korwin
Publisher


Contact:
Alan Korwin
BLOOMFIELD PRESS
"We publish the gun laws."
4718 E. Cactus #440
Phoenix, AZ 85032
602-996-4020 Phone
602-494-0679 FAX
1-800-707-4020 Orders
http://www.gunlaws.com
alan@gunlaws.com
Call, write, fax or click for a free catalog.



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Alan Korwin believes, as do I, that
when Americans begin taking the Second Amendment as seriously as 
they take the First, there is a good chance the government in the
USA can be redeemed for the people. Until the time comes that 
American citizens are able to _openly and freely bear arms_ if that
is their choice, without all sorts of bogus reasoning on why this
person or that person should not be allowed to have a gun, then we
should expect our freedoms to continue to deteriorate (as they have
since 9-11-2001) in the name of Homeland Security, etc. 

Alan Korwin also believes, as do I, that the mass media in the USA
has become more and more a disgrace in the past few years, as it
parrots without question the policies and ideas presented by our
resident president. And yet, people say that we here on the Internet
are irresponsible in _our_ journalism.  You might like getting on
Alan Korwin's mailing lists, the man speaks the truth about so many
things.  Anyway, have a happy Independence Day, and wish for a time
(hopefully in our lifetimes) when there will be _true independence
for all_ in this land; not just the ones who say the right words and
have the right thoughts.  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)

RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html
  For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308
    and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest

*************************************************************************
*   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 !

              ************************

Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your
career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management
(MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35
credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the
skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including
data, video, and voice networks.

The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College
of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the
College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has
state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus
offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum.  Classes
are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning.

Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at
405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at
http://www.mstm.okstate.edu

              ************************

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

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 V24 #306
******************************