TELECOM Digest     Sat, 6 Aug 2005 16:17:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 357

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    The Life of an Internet Scammer (Dulue Mbachu)
    Wireless Internet - Easy Hacker Pickings (Andy Sullivan)
    MCI Billing Class Action Lawsuit Notice (Gerard Gibbs De Bartolomeo)
    ICANN Transfers the Iraq (iq) Domain (Danny Burstein)
    Wiring Help Needed (rikki5150@comcast.net)
    Re: Telephoning Russian Villages (Gerard Bok)
    Re: Typical Business Telephone Sets Today? (Joseph)
    Re: Typical Business Telephone Sets Today? (Tony P.)
    Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? (Tony P.)
    Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? (Justa Lurker)
    Re: FCC Gives Blessings to Sprint/Nextel Merger (Steve Sobol)
    Re: Credit Reports; was Re: AT&T Customers Taken by Alltel (Steve Sobol)
    Re: Identity Theft: Big Enough to Steal Lawmakers Attention (Tony P.)
    Sixtieth Anniversary of Hiroshama Bombing (Eric Talmadge)

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

Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without explicit written consent.  Chain letters,
viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome.

We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime.   Geoffrey Welsh

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

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.  

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

From: Dulue Mbachu <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Life of an Internet Scammer
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 12:05:40 -0500


Internet Scammers Keep Working in Nigeria
By DULUE MBACHU, Associated Press Writer

Day in, day out, a strapping, amiable 24-year-old who calls himself
Kele B. heads to an Internet cafe, hunkers down at a computer and
casts his net upon the cyber-waters.

Blithely oblivious to signs on the walls and desks warning of the
penalties for Internet fraud, he has sent out tens of thousands of
e-mails telling recipients they have won about $6.4 million in a bogus
British government "Internet lottery."

"Congratulation! You Are Our Lucky Winner!" it says.

So far, Kele says, he has had only one response. But he claims it paid
off handsomely. An American took the bait, he says, and coughed up
"fees" and "taxes" of more than $5,000, never to hear from Kele again.

Festac Town, a district of Lagos where the scammers ply their schemes,
has become notorious for "419 scams," named for the section of the
Nigerian penal code that outlaws them.

In Festac Town, an entire community of scammers overnights on the
Internet. By day they flaunt their smart clothes and cars and hang
around the Internet cafes, trading stories about successful cons and
near misses, and hatching new plots.

Festac Town is where communication specialists operating underground
sell foreign telephone lines over which a scammer can purport to be
calling from any city in the world. Here lurk master forgers and
purveyors of such software as "e-mail extractors," which can harvest
e-mail addresses by the million.

Now, however, a 3-year-old crackdown is yielding results, Nigerian
authorities say.

Nuhu Ribadu, head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
says cash and assets worth more than $700 million were recovered from
suspects between May 2003 and June 2004. More than 500 suspects have
been arrested, more than 100 cases are before the courts and 500
others are under investigation, he said.

The agency won its first big court victory in May when Mike Amadi was
sentenced to 16 years in prison for setting up a Web site that offered
juicy but phoney procurement contracts. Amadi cheekily posed as Ribadu
himself and used the agency's name. He was caught by an undercover
agent posing as an Italian businessman.

This month the biggest international scam of all -- though not one
involving the Internet -- ended in court convictions. Amaka Anajemba
was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and ordered to return $25.5
million of the $242 million she helped to steal from a Brazilian bank.

The trial of four co-defendants is to start in September.

Why Nigeria? There are many theories. The nation of 130 million,
Africa's most populous, is well educated, and English, the lingua
franca of the scam industry, is the official language. Nigeria bursts
with talent, from former NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon to Nobel literature
laureate Wole Soyinka.

But with World Bank studies showing a quarter of urban college
graduates are unemployed, crime offers tempting career opportunities --
in drug dealing, immigrant-trafficking, oil-smuggling, and Internet
fraud.

The scammers thrived during oil-rich Nigeria's 15 years of brutal and
corrupt military rule, and democracy was restored only six years ago.

"We reached a point when law enforcement and regulatory agencies
seemed nonexistent. But the stance of the present administration has
started changing that," said Ribadu, the scam-busting chief.

President Olusegun Obasanjo is winning U.S. praise for his crackdown.
Interpol, the FBI and other Western law enforcement agencies have
stepped in to help, says police spokesman Emmanuel Ighodalo, and
Nigerian police have received equipment and Western training in
combating Internet crime and money-laundering.

Experts say Nigerian scams continue to flood e-mail systems, though
many are being blocked by spam filters that get smarter and more
aggressive.  America Online Inc. Nicholas Graham says Nigerian
messages lack the telltale signs of other spam -- such as embedded Web
links -- but its filters are able to be alert to suspect mail coming
from a specific range of Internet addresses.

Also, the scams have a limited shelf life.

In the con that Internet users are probably most familiar with, the
e-mailer poses as a corrupt official looking for help in smuggling a
fortune to a foreign bank account. E-mail or fax recipients are told
that if they provide their banking and personal details and deposit
certain sums of money, they'll get a cut of the loot.

But there are other scams, like the fake lotteries.

Kele B., who won't give his surname, says he couldn't find work after
finishing high school in 2000 in the southeastern city of Owerri, so
he drifted with friends to Lagos, where he tried his hand at boxing.

Then he discovered the Web.

Now he spends his mornings in Internet cafes on secondhand computers
with aged screens, waiting "to see if my trap caught something," he
says.

Elekwa, a chubby-faced 28-year-old who also keeps his surname to
himself, shows up in Festac Town driving a Lexus and telling how he
was jobless for two years despite having a diploma in computer
science.

His break came four years ago when the chief of a fraud gang saw him
solve what seemed like "a complex computer problem" at a business
center in the southeastern city of Umuahia and lured him to Lagos.

He won't talk about his scams, only about their fruits: "Now I have
three cars, I have two houses and I'm not looking for a job anymore."

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. Listen to AP News Radio and browse headlines at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html

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

From: Andy Sullivan <sullivan@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Wireless Networks - Easy Hacker Pickings
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 12:01:19 -0500


By Andy Sullivan

Wireless Internet users may not know that it's easy for outsiders to
read their email or scoop up passwords or other sensitive information.

Secretly using a stranger's Wi-Fi connection is so easy that sniffing
out open connections has become a sport among computer hackers.

At a recent conference in Las Vegas, wireless network enthusiasts,
known as "wardrivers," had two hours to find 1,000 wireless networks
in one of many contests that test their prowess.

Hackers ogled high-powered antennas that can pick up signals from over
a mile away, and promoted wardriving Web sites like Wigle.net that map
millions of wireless access points, or "hotspots," around the globe.

Hacking the Defcon conference's own wireless network proved popular as
well -- organizers said they fended off some 1,200 attempts to
compromise network security.

Wardrivers say the goal is not to steal bandwidth or spy on
unsuspecting Internet users, and they frown upon those who do
so. Rather, they hope to convince consumers and equipment
manufacturers to improve the dismal state of wireless security.

"We're trying to raise awareness. Security, by default, should not be
turned off," said an Edmonton, Alberta wardriver who goes by the name
Panthera.

Wireless routers, many costing less than $100, enable consumers to
surf the Web from their back yard or living room couch. With a range
of several hundred feet, a Wi-Fi signal can reach to the street or
surrounding houses, allowing neighbors to get online too.

Equipment sellers like Wardrivingworld.com say they do a lot of
business with truckers and Winnebago owners as well as war drivers.

"People think truckers just drink beer and eat chili and belch, but
800 truck stops across the United States have wireless access," said
Wardrivingworld.com co-founder Matthew Shuchman.

Hotspot owners can set passwords, encrypt their traffic to deter
eavesdroppers, or limit network access only to specified computers.

But most don't have that kind of protection in place -- a June, 2004
wardrive of some 230,000 hotspots conducted found that 62 percent were
not encrypted.

Encryption won't stop a determined hacker. Wardrivers say that the WEP
encryption standard used by many access points is easily crackable,
though the recent WPA standard is tougher.

Open networks can expose sensitive information in homes, businesses
and government offices.

A Michigan man in 2004 was convicted of using an unsecured network at
a Lowe's home improvement store to steal credit card numbers, while a
Toronto man was charged in 2003 with downloading child pornography
using a nearby wireless connection.

Some wardrivers say that manufacturers like Linksys, a division of
Cisco Systems Inc. are to blame because they don't ship their products
with security settings turned on and are more concerned with ease of
use than security.

"They're not taking care of their customers -- they're intentionally
putting them in harm's way," said RenderMan, a prominent wardriver who
has logged some 20,000 access points in Edmonton.

New Linksys routers allow consumers to set up a secure connection with
other Linksys devices by simply pushing a button, said Mike Wagner,
the company's director of worldwide marketing. But Linksys, which
accounts for 57 percent of the U.S. consumer market, can't ship its
products with security settings turned on because most users won't
bother to change the default password, Wagner said.

"That preconfigured password will be the exact same on 500,000
wireless products that we ship every month. So that's actually
creating a false sense of security," he said.

Legal aspects of wardriving remain murky. While a variety of laws make
it illegal to access a computer network without permission, very few
have been tested in court.

Reading e-mail and other traffic on a wireless network could invite
prosecution and it's unclear if wardrivers are breaking the law when
they use open networks for Internet access, said San Francisco lawyer
Robert Hale.

In Tampa, Florida, a man was arrested in April and charged with
unauthorized access to a computer network after police found him using
a nearby hotspot without permission.

"It comes down to a policy debate about whether the Internet is open
or not," Hale said at a Defcon forum.

RenderMan and other prominent wardrivers say that people shouldn't tap
into open networks even if the owners don't mind.

"We actively do not condone unauthorized use of people's networks," said
Andy Carra, who helps run the Wigle.net wardriving Web site.

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: Girard, Gibbs & De Bartolomeo LLP <lawyers@www.girardgibbs.com>
Subject: MCI Billing Fraud Class Action Notice
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 23:31:29 -0500


   MCI SUED FOR BILLING MONTHLY SERVICE CHARGES TO NON-CUSTOMERS

San Francisco - The law firm Girard Gibbs & De Bartolomeo LLP
http://www.girardgibbs.com has filed a class action complaint on
behalf of telephone customers nationwide who were unlawfully billed by
MCI, Inc. for monthly service charges despite the fact they were not
MCI customers. The complaint alleges that MCI assesses the monthly
fees directly or through consumers' local phone bills.

"MCI has been charging non-customers minimum usage fees and other
monthly service fees without authorization even though MCI provided no
service to these persons," said Daniel Girard, one of the attorneys
for the plaintiff. "Consumers who mistakenly paid MCI or paid in
response to a threatening collections notice should get their money
back."

The case was brought by Shary Everett, a Goodyear, Arizona resident
who repeatedly was assessed monthly service charges by MCI even though
she had a different long distance carrier and had terminated MCI
service at a former address several years earlier. MCI refused to
reverse the unauthorized charges and threatened Ms. Everett with a
collections notice for failing to pay. To stop MCI from continuing to
bill her without authorization, she was forced to restrict all
long-distance service on her telephone line.

The complaint alleges that MCI enrolled non-customers and former MCI
long-distance subscribers without their knowledge or consent in the
"Basic Dial-1 Plan" or another MCI calling plan that carries a monthly
service fee. In 2002, MCI began charging a $3.00 or $5.00 minimum
usage fee (MUF) and a $3.95 monthly recurring fee to consumers who did
not have active billing accounts with MCI and whom MCI has no
reasonable basis to believe are current MCI customers.

The class action lawsuit against MCI was filed in federal district
court in Phoenix on July 18, 2005 and asserts claims against MCI for
violations of the federal Communications Act and for unjust
enrichment.

The complaint alleges that MCI's policy and practice is to reverse,
refund, or credit back unauthorized charges only to consumers who
threaten to bring legal action, lodge complaints with regulatory
authorities, or take other action. According to the complaint,
consumers who do not pay the unauthorized charges are turned over to
collections agencies.

Girard Gibbs & De Bartolomeo LLP is one of the nation's leading firms
representing individuals in consumer fraud class actions and investors
in securities fraud litigation.

If you've experienced this or a similar problem and you are interested
in sharing your experience with us, please print out and fill in the
form below, and mail or email it to our firm. http://gerardgibbs.com


            Name:

            E-Mail:

            Telephone:

            State of Residence:

            Message:


            I would like to receive updates concerning this problem or
other class action news: 

Your use of this web site, or sending of email to Girard
Gibbs & De Bartolomeo LLP, does not, by itself, create an
attorney-client relationship between you and Girard Gibbs & De
Bartolomeo LLP.

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

From: Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
Subject: ICANN Transfers the Iraq ("iq") Domain
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 01:43:31 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC


Redelegation of .IQ (Iraq)

Following a detailed discussion of the proposed .IQ redelegation, 
Michael Palage moved and Thomas Niles seconded the following resolution:

" Whereas, the .IQ top-level domain was originally delegated
on 9 May 1997.

" Whereas, ICANN has received a request for the redelegation of .IQ to the 
National Communications and Media Commission (NCMC) of Iraq.

" Whereas, ICANN has reviewed the request, and has determined that the 
proposed redelegation would be in the best interests of the local and 
global Internet communities.

" Resolved (05.__) that the proposed redelegation of the .IQ ccTLD to the 
National Communications and Media Commission (NCMC) of Iraq is approved."

 	http://www.icann.org/minutes/resolutions-28jul05.htm

Good related story:

" The Internet's key oversight agency has quietly authorized Iraq's new 
government to manage its own domain name, allowing for the restoration of 
Internet addresses ending in '.iq'."

" The suffix had been in limbo after the 2002 federal indictment of
the Texas-based company that was running it on charges of funneling
money to a member of the Islamic extremist group Hamas."

" InfoCom Corp., which sold computers and Web services in the Middle East 
and got the '.iq' assignment in 1997, was convicted in April along with 
its chief executive and two brothers...."

    .......  snip .........

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/special_packages/iraq/12315401.htm

_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
 		     dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

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

Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 11:06:14 -0400
From: rikki5150@comcast.net
Subject: Wiring Help Needed


I have my father's Western Electric D1(202) phone and a newly acquired 
WE 684BA subset. I'm having difficulty getting it to ring. Can you or 
direct me to someone that can tell me the wiring configuration for the 
subset. 

Thanks, 

Rick Busey, Bel Air, Md.

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

From: bok118@zonnet.nl (Gerard Bok)
Subject: Re: Telephoning Russian Villages
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 11:51:10 GMT


On 5 Aug 2005 07:28:24 -0700, cherniymonakh@hotmail.com wrote:

> Hello, perhaps you can help:

> My family are now at a cottage in a village outside Moscow, where they
> are staying for weeks due to the hot weather.  The telephone number
> there contains less than the usual number of digits (6 instead of
> seven).  For some reasons calls cannot get there from North America,
> although they can call here.  The problem seems to be with the US, as
> I don't even get a Russian dial tone, but a North American one
> followed by an English-language message saying that there is no such
> number and to try again.

> Is there any trick to dialing such numbers and getting through?  

First thing I would try: dial an extra digit :-)
(just an arbitrary one)


Kind regards,

Gerard Bok

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

From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Typical Business Telephone Sets Today?
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 09:18:13 -0700
Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com


On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 08:37:45 GMT, The Kaminsky Family
<kaminsky@kaminsky.org> wrote:

> I think you may have missed the point.  Once you have given your
> account code to the automated system, that account number should
> be directly available on the human agent's screen when the agent
> gets your call.  It's easy enough for a decent automated system
> to handle this -- but it is surprising to me that so many automated
> systems seem to have been assembled by folks who just don't get it
> (or perhaps by folks who really don't like their employer ...).

I think it's the implementation of systems and not being consistant
with systems.  I've called T-Mobile on several occasions and in the
"log in process" when you call they ask you to enter your ten digit
phone number.  If you ask for certain information such as billing they
will ask for the last four digits of your SSN.  Then the frustrating
thing sometimes happens when you speak to a rep.  They don't have
*any* of the information that you have keyed in.  It's not always this
way but it is a lot of the time.  I've asked reps why this is and they
claim it's because those identifying fields are not filled in on their
display.  I'd say that this is a technical problem which could be
fixed if there was a demand for it.

> It is certainly not easy to design an excellent user interface for a
> customer -- especially if you are not willing to spend what it takes
> to get a good speech recogition engine (and to train it for your
> application -- getting the grammar rules right is an art, but there
> are systems available in the market now whch do an excellent job).
> But designing an excellent user interface for your human agents should
> be a whole lot easier -- and that interface should start by gathering
> everything the customer has entered so far on this call.

I have seen really good IVR implementations such as what T-Mobile
uses.  With T-Mobile's IVR you are not limited to just the standard
commands that the IVR expects you to give.  It will do all sorts of
normal variants e.g. saying representative, operator, or assistance
will transfer you to a real person.  Saying text message or saying SMS
will give you your text message use.  There are also "touch tone"
shortcuts.  If you want minute useage key 2.  For billing key 1.  For
a representative key 0.

Then on the other hand extremely poor implementation of an IVR you can
look at Fido (mobile provider in Canada.)  It will only understands
the exact words it wants to understand.  Even on words that it's
supposed to know such as "agent" you'll get fed back "I didn't get
that" repeatedly.  Also the Fido IVR absolutely does not permit any
touch tone input for any menu items.  If you do you get "that function
is not supported."  You can't even time out to get a real person!

Another problem with IVRs is if you're using it with a mobile handset
any outside noise will confuse the IVR.  Why mobile providers think
it's a good thing to use IVRs with mobile services I have yet to
understand.

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

From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net>
Subject: Re: Typical Business Telephone Sets Today?
Organization: ATCC
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 13:58:24 -0400


In article <telecom24.353.8@telecom-digest.org>, jp@jpnearl.com.nospam
says:

> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

>> My department at my employer uses plain 2500 style telephone sets
>> under a Centrex system.  I kind of assumed they were still common
>> place, but I understand now that they're kind of unusual?  I heard
>> caller-ID is very common on business phones, is that true?

> Unfortunately everyone wants one button access to features and such and 
> displays with caller ID, length of call, etc. so you're seeing less and 
> less of the 2500-style phones on office desks these days.

> One of the things I appreciated about the Executone IDS systems I used
> to maintain is that the "wave" desk phones had 2500-style keypads on
> them instead of the keypads found on the new business system phones
> (buttons wrong size, a 'mushy' feel to them, etc.).  Nothing beats
> those old tried and true keypads.

I'm partial to the 7406D+. 

The keypad is very close to that on a 2500 set. Feature buttons
respond with an accompanying sound to and in some cases, a light to
indicate the feature is active, like send-calls.

I hate the 8410's we have but the 6408's we've got are ok. 

In article <telecom24.353.9@telecom-digest.org>, davidesan@gmail.com 
says:

> And don't you just hate it when the voicemail system asks for your
> account code so they "can better process your call" and the very first
> thing that the human operator asks for is your account number?

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, in the case of human
> operators, its not a bad thing that they ask first for your account
> number or other identifying feature. While you are on the line 
> explaining your problem, the better trained agents can be scanning
> your account as you are speaking, and frequently have an intelligent
> and correct answer for you when you have finished stating your 
> problem. Would you prefer that they listen politely to your problem, 
> _then_ ask for your account number, go away, and come back in a minute
> or two with an answer?  Even for automated systems, the several
> seconds required for voicemail to give its spiel is time the system
> can be spinning its disk drives and looking up your account if it
> knows your name and identity.  PAT]

What I hate even more is calling Cox Communications. They have you
enter in your phone number before letting you through the gate.

Then a service rep comes on the line and asks for your phone or
account number.

Apparently it doesn't pass that little bit of information from the phone 
system to the computer sitting on the reps desk. 

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

From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net>
Subject: Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator?
Organization: ATCC
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 13:36:20 -0400


TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to article 
<telecom24.352.7@telecom-digest.org>, mc_no_spam@uga.edu:

> when the feds 'evicted' him from office.

> Then there is the Chicago Park _District_ (rather than 'authority'), 
> started in the 1940's as well, with its own can of worms. And there
> is the Chicago School _Board_ (also rather than 'authority') with the
> same sort of government arrangements. When the school board came up
> several million dollars unaccounted for, Mayor Daley (312-PIG-3000 if 
> you ever wish to dial him direct) had a solution for that; a whole new
> layer of control called the Chicago Schools Finance Authority whose
> only job was to make the School Board obey the law on deficit
> spending. The Finance Authority has to sign off on the School Board
> budget each year, and not approve it unless the school board has the
> books in order. The board is apparently incapable or unwilling to
> obey the law all on their own. 

There is however one good thing that the Chicago School Board and
system has done.

Seems that in Freakonomics they were able to prove that teachers were
padding test results because they kept the answers that all the
students had given on the tests for a period of at least a decade.

The resulting investigations culminated in the termination of several
teachers.



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Interesting news from a school system 
where about ten percent of the students graduate from high school
almost totally illiterate and about thirty percent of graduating 
seniors can read/write and do math at about a ninth grade level. I
recall a big stink in the Chicago Tribune once where high school
students were given a blank map of the world and asked to mark on the
map the location of 'Chicago'. While many students got it correct
(or at least parked it in the general area for North America and/or
Illinois, a few of them located 'Chicago' around South America or
the North Pole region. Tribune printed pictures of the maps the kids
had turned in. Mayor Daley was furious, but what else is new. The
reason the teachers kept those tests to work from is because there
are standardized tests all the kids have to take in order for the
school system to retain its accredidation, etc. The teachers were
desparate to get the right answers on those standardized tests.  PAT]

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

From: Justa Lurker <JustaLurker@att.net>
Subject: Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator?
Organization: AT&T Worldnet
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 03:20:05 GMT


TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Justa Lurker:

>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In Chicago, in addition to the CTA or 
>> Chicago Transit Authority (thus situated), there is also the CHA (or
>> Chicago Housing Authority) which is a _true_ atrocity if there ever was
>> one. CHA has been in 'federal receivership' now for a few years due
>> to the unbelievably awful living conditions in the 'homes' and the 
>> amount of crime on its property. Originally very nice _but plain_ living
>> accomodations, the CHA was started in 1941 and its first commissioner
>> was a woman who was a protege of Jane Addams of Hull House fame. CHA
>> was intended to be _temporary, transitional_ housing for needy people;
>> then after the second war ended, the idea was to provide _temporary,
>> transitional_  housing for military veterans returnin from military
>> duty. Since about 1960 or so, these high-rise (fifteen or twenty story
>> buildings; a cluster of a dozen or so in each location) have been
>> almost exclusively for black people;

> Exactly how has this racial exclusivity been enforced ?

>> many of whom of course 

> "of course" ????  Do explain further, please.

>> have extensive criminal histories and their families; quite often
>> the only person in the 'home' (all seven or eight thousand of them
>> in an aggregate total) is the Mother. Nearly every one of them has
>> one or more sons or fathers currently in prison or recently
>> released. The little kids run around wild and rather delinquent as
>> one would expect.

> All of which is somehow the fault of the CHA ?  You've lost me here.

>> The television series of the 1970's, _Happy Times_ (written by Norman
>> Lear) is now in endless re-runs on TV-Land .

> "Good Times".  I remember watching it as a lad, along with "All in the
> Family" and other Lear shows.  :-)

>> The former commissioner of the mess, a man named Charles Swibel, a
>> rich, white older man

> How is his financial status, race, and age relevant ?  Why did you
> mention them ?  Aren't you a white older man too (so that can't be the
> problem) ? Maybe your real problem is that he is rich and you are not.
> Or are you implying that he & the CHA oppressed black people on behalf
> of rich white people.  Say what you mean !  Don't keep us guessing.

>> from the northern suburbs had some problems of his own in keeping
>> the CHA money accounts in order, barely escaped going to prison
>> himself, but did get CHA tossed into federal recivership (a sort of
>> bankruptcy chapter used for governments) when the feds 'evicted' him
>> from office.

> Not all that unusual, or unique to Chicago or even Illinois,
> unfortunately.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Racial exclusivity in Chicago means
> that when black people move into a neighborhood, the white people
> generally move out. Blame it on whomever you wish; that is a fact of
> life in Chicago (another reason, among several, why I was happy to get
> away from Chicago). I like Independence, because it is an integrated,
> inclusive community. There are many 'integrated' couples and families
> here. Blacks and whites are not at each other's throats as happens so
> often in a place like Chicago. Gay and straight people are not always
> hassling each other here either. We are simply too 'laid back' to
> bother with that sort of thing. There was a discussion here in town
> once of having a 'gay pride' parade. Some gay people said 'why should
> we do anything like that; who needs such a garish display?' I did not
> completely agree with that assessment (having lived so long in
> Chicago) but I can see where the local guys were coming from.

> Our public schools here are totally integrated; in Chicago the public
> schools are almost entirely black (by default, since the white people
> send their kids to private schools often times.) Here the white people
> do not run and hide when blacks are around. The 'racial exclusivity'
> of the CHA 'housing projects' came about by this default; blacks moved
> in, whites moved out. It was not entirely the CHA's 'fault' except
> that as the conditions of the housing got worse and worse over the
> years, many less ecomically privileged blacks found it was all they
> could afford, and the white people figured out somewhere else to
> live. Yes, I am a white man, and no I am not rich; even when I lived
> around Chicago I could not afford to live in an enclave like Wilmette
> or Glencoe or Winnetka. Many of CHA's problems came from Charles
> Swibel and his immediate sucessors, men who were demonstrated thieves,
> men who ripped off the housing authority for most of its money, it was
> nothing to do with 'rich oppressing poor' or 'white oppressing black'.

> I mentioned those items about his race, wealth and living accomoda-
> tions to show the difference between the person who ran the system
> versus those who lived and still live under the system. In recent
> years, some thought has been given to having a board of directors of
> CHA who are _actually residents_ in large part of the housing
> project. Just like the Chicago Police Department; isn't it sad there
> has to be a law requiring officers to live in the city; in other words
> they have to live where they shit and the other way around. For many
> years there was no such law; cops tended to live where they wanted,
> usually the white cops lived around other white guys (much nicer white
> suburbs) and the black cops lived in at least the better class black
> neighborhoods in the suburbs. Ditto with school teachers in
> Chicago. You want to work here, then _live_ here as well. City of
> Chicago had to force that rule, even with the unions fighting them. We
> just do not have to do that sort of thing here; people in town by and
> large are proud to be part of Independence. Once on a local area BBS
> in Chicago, I got into a discussion with a guy who said "prostitution
> and 'drug use' should be legal in a 'red light district'. " I asked
> him where would you put the 'red light district'?  He said "oh I guess
> we would locate it somewhere in _Chicago_."  I asked him why not
> locate it in _Lake Forest where you live_ or maybe in _Winnetka?_
> Needless to say he was highly indignant at my suggestion.

> Oh, by the way, even our local 'housing project' here in town; it
> is called 'Garden Walk Apartments' on North 10th Street near the
> high school (rents subsidized by City of Independence and State
> of Kansas) does not come close to the hassles that were so prevalent
> with the CHA. And our housing 'project' is truely integrated, not
> just all black people who cannot manage to do any better.  PAT]

Thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful and detailed
reply !



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are quite welcome. I have heard it
stated on a few occassions that much or most of the trouble in the
world comes from people _not understanding correctly_ what another 
person is saying. With this thesis in mind -- that many problems would
be solved if _everyone spoke the same language and phrases_ (not as
per English versus German or French, but if we all could fully commun-
icate what we wanted to say to each other easily) -- I sometimes attempt
to do that in this Digest. To that extent, my responses are sometimes
painfully long -- some would claim 'long-winded' -- because I want to
convey _exactly_ what I mean, and what I feel is a solution to the
issue or problem at hand. When some reader or another _actually under-
stands_ what I am saying I feel gratified, even if they do not agree
with me. Clarity in written or oral conversation is very important.  PAT]

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

From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: FCC Gives Blessing to Sprint, Nextel Marriage
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 10:48:10 -0700
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


Joseph wrote:

> WASHINGTON  -- The merger of Sprint and Nextel Communications won
> approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice
> Department yesterday, clearing the way for a combined company with
> more than 35 million mobile-phone subscribers.

Good. This is one merger that might actually benefit people other than
the shareholders.

Steve Sobol, Professional Geek   888-480-4638   PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

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

From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: Credit Reports, was Re: AT&T Customers Taken Over By Alltel
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 10:49:40 -0700
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


Damon Brownd wrote:

> Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in message 
> news:telecom24.355.17@telecom-digest.org:

>> Maybe you got special consideration as a soldier. Perhaps enlisted men
>> and women got a special deal because it wouldn't be easy for them to
>> deal with credit issues overseas ... But as far as I know, the rest of
>> us were not entitled to any free reports unless we were denied credit
>> or employment (as I posted earlier) or if there was a state law
>> specifying we were not to be charged. There have been some state laws
>> on the books prior to this past year.

> See https://www.annualcreditreport.com. 

That is a result of the change in federal law that was *just
implemented.* As I said, it used to be that there were only certain
conditions under which you could get a free report, unless you lived
somewhere where state law specified otherwise.


Steve Sobol, Professional Geek   888-480-4638   PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

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

From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net>
Subject: Re: Identity Theft: Big Enough to Steal Lawmakers' Attention
Organization: ATCC
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 13:51:53 -0400


In article <telecom24.351.1@telecom-digest.org>, karlin@telecom-
digest.org says:

> By Adam Karlin, Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

> BOSTON - Sandra Pochapin learned a few key lessons from her ordeal
> with identity theft. Among them: Check the mail early.

> Had she done so, she may have gotten the replacement credit card in
> her mailbox. Instead, a thief lifted the card and took it on a $1,200
> shopping spree at Lord & Taylor.

> Ms. Pochapin eventually recouped her money, but the incident haunted
> her for months afterward, as the criminal opened other new accounts in
> her name.

> She recalls a Macy's representative calling to ask about a $2,400 bill
> on her new store card. "I asked them, 'How could you open an account
> in my name if I already have an account there?' " said Pochapin,
> testifying recently in front of the Massachusetts state legislature.

> Experiences of people like Pochapin, and break-ins at large databases
> that hold Americans' most sensitive personal information, have grown
> severe enough in recent months to prompt a new wave of protective
> legislation by lawmakers at the state and federal level.

> The bills are designed to address various aspects of the threat, but,
> as identity thieves find new ways to ply their trade, the efforts
> represent a daunting race against crime.

> Credit-freeze laws growing

Credit freeze is one thing. But if the legislators really looked at
the true causes of identity theft they'd have to point the blame
squarely at the feet of the banking industry.

For example, as mentioned in a prior posting here on c.d.t if ATM's
simply read the second track of a car and used challenge-response you
could kill off most replicant identity theft.

But as I'm lead to believe, even the PIN is challenge-response. So
that means the procedure for encoding the PIN on a card has been
exploited.

But banks don't want you to know that your money isn't as safe as you
think it is. For example, ever write a check to someone? They could
empty your account just by knowing the routing and account number on
the check using a demand draft. It's a bit more risky but completely
within the realm of the probable.

So don't expect an immediate answer to the problem. First off, it
would require a rehash of procedures to identify any vulnerabilities. 
Then it would require a replacement of the infrastructure that is 
already out there.

It isn't going to happen anytime soon. 

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

From: Eric Talmadge <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Hiroshima Marks 60th Anniversary of Atomic Bomb Attack
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 11:26:25 -0500


By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer

Hiroshima marked the 60th anniversary of the first atomic bomb attack
Saturday with prayers and water for the dead and a call by the mayor
for nuclear powers to abandon their arsenals and stop "jeopardizing
human survival."

At 8:15 a.m., (a day ago, by Japanese time), the instant of the blast,
the city's trolleys stopped and more than 55,000 people at Peace
Memorial Park observed a moment of silence that was broken only by
the ringing of a bronze bell.

A flock of doves was released into the sky. Then wreaths and ladles of
water -- symbolizing the suffering of those who died in the atomic
inferno -- were offered at a simple, arch-shaped stone monument at the
center of the park.

Outside the nearby A-Bomb Dome, one of the few buildings left standing
after the blast, peace activists held a "die-in" -- falling to the
ground to dramatize the toll from the United States bombing that
turned life to death for more than 140,000 and forever changed the
face of war.

Thousands of paper lanterns symbolizing the souls of the dead were
floated on a river next to the park, concluding a day of rememberance.

Fumie Yoshida was just 16 when Hiroshima was bombed. She survived but
lost her father, brother and sister. On Saturday, she chose not to
attend the formal memorial, but paid her respects privately with a
small group of friends in the peace park.

"My father's remains have never been found," she said. "Those of us
who went through this all know that we must never repeat this
tragedy. But I think many Japanese today are forgetting."

In a "Peace Declaration," Hiroshima's outspoken Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba
vowed to never allow a repeat of the tragedy and gave an impassioned
plea for the abolition of nuclear weapons, saying the United States,
is "jeopardizing human survival."

"Many people around the world have succumbed to the feeling that there
is nothing we can do," he said. "Within the United Nations, the United
States uses its veto power to override the global majority and
pursue its selfish objectives."

In a more subdued speech, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi offered
condolences for the dead.

"I offer deep prayers from my heart to those who were killed," he
said, vowing that Japan would be a leader in the international
movement against nuclear proliferation.

Though Hiroshima has risen from the rubble to become a thriving city
of 3 million, most of whom were born after the war, the anniversary
underscores its ongoing tragedy.

Officials estimate that about 140,000 people were killed instantly or
died within a few months after the Enola Gay dropped its deadly
payload over the city, which then had a population of about 350,000.

Three days later, another U.S. bomber, Bock's Car, dropped a plutonium
bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people.
Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II.

Including those initially listed as missing or who died afterward from
a loosely defined set of bomb-related ailments, including cancers,
Hiroshima officials now put the total number of dead in this city
alone at 242,437.

This year, 5,373 more names were added to the list.

In central London, more than 200 anti-nuclear activists and others
gathered at Tavistock Square, where a cherry tree was planted in 1967
in memory of the victims of the Hiroshima bombing.

Jeremy Corbyn, a lawmaker in the governing Labour Party and vocal
anti-war campaigner, urged people to remember the "unique horror" of
what the United States did to Hiroshima in 1945.

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.



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have to wonder if it has occurred to
Mr. Bush that what is good for the goose is often times good for the
gander as well. How would _he_ (or Mr. Blair for example) feel if the
Iraqi government decided "in order to end further suffering or loss 
of innocent lives in this war with the United States, _we_ have
elected to drop the big one on their country."  In other words, Harry
Truman's line, all over again, one big blast to end the agony of
war, but this time fingers pointed at us as the agressors ... and the
Iraqi government did, just this past week, invite the United States to
withdraw totally from Iraq and let all of us go back to living at
peace. We know that Mr. Bush refused that offer totally. We also know
that China has threatened us in recent days regards its ongoing spat
with Taiwan, stating that if Bush insisted on remaining involved in 
that situation, they (the Chinese) 'would not hesitate' to use strong
medicine on us. And the North Koreans, I am sure, would get involved
also as circumstances permitted. I have to wonder if Mr. Bush even
realizes how close he is coming toward getting a taste of his own
medicine or if he even cares, in his deluded state of grandeur. 

Considering Bush's strong association with the right-wing fundamentalist
Christian movement in this country -- people who feel from their 
reading of scripture that the end is near anyway -- I really wonder if
he _does_ care ... if nothing else, it would most assuredly allow
_his_ congresspersons to declare a state of emergency and retain him 
in office for the duration of the first real war on American
soil. Under the present constitutional constraints, he is ineligible
for another term in office, but just as in New York City a few days
after 9-11-01 there were suggestions seriously considered to put off
installing the new mayor and retaining the old mayor 'due to the
crisis'. I am sure the same ideas would be floated around as Bush's
term would otherwise draw to a close. Do the Atomic Scientists still
keep setting that clock periodically on its journey to midnight?
What is that clock setting now?  PAT]

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


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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #357
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