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TELECOM Digest Mon, 12 Sep 2005 19:05:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 416 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Two Singapore Bloggers Charged for Racist Remarks (Reuters News Wire) cNN/Time Web Sites Merging (Reuters News Wire) eBay to Buy Skype in $2.6 Billion Deal (Joseph) Flat Rate Water, was: Verizon Complaints About EVDO (Danny Burstein) Re: Arizona Budget POTS Plans (Lisa Hancock) Re: NYC Phone Rates, was: Sid Ceasar and Phones in Comedy (Tony P.) Help Needed Once Again (Patrick Townson) 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: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Two Singapore Bloggers Charged For Racist Remarks Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:14:34 -0500 Two men were charged in a Singapore court on Monday with violating the city-state's sedition laws by posting anti-Muslim comments on their Internet homepages, police said. The two ethnic Chinese men, aged 25 and 27, face charges for promoting ill-will and hostility between ethnic communities on their personal websites, or "blogs," in June. The police said both men were accused of posting racist remarks aimed at Singapore's mostly-Muslim ethnic Malay community. If convicted, they may be jailed for up to three years or fined up to S$5,000, or both. Singapore has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world, but also some of the toughest media laws. Singapore police have wide powers to intercept online messages, and Internet service providers are required to block websites containing material that may be a threat to public security, national defense, racial and religious harmony and public morality. Political and religious websites must also be registered with the authorities. The government has defended these controls as necessary to maintain ethnic harmony among its 4.2 million people. About three-quarters of Singapore's population is ethnic Chinese. Ethnic Malays account for 14 percent and ethnic Indians for another eight percent. 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. To read NY Times, Christian Science Monitor and hear National Public Radio headlines/news reports, go to http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> Subject: CNN and Time Web Sites to Merge Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:14:59 -0500 CNN, Time Inc. to merge business Web sites Cable news network CNN and magazine publisher Time Inc. plan to consolidate their business and finance-related Web sites divisions, which will be relaunched in January 2006. The new site brings together Time Inc.'s Fortune.com, FSB.com and Business2.com with CNN's CNNMoney.com. It will retain the CNNMoney.com name. CNN and Time Inc. are divisions of global media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. 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: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: eBay to Buy Skype in $2.6 Billion Deal (USA Today version) Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:25:42 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com By Mattias Karen, Associated Press Writer STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Online auctioneer eBay (EBAY) said Monday that it will acquire Internet communications company Skype Technologies for about $2.6 billion in cash and eBay stock. EBay CEO Meg Whitman, left, poses with Niklas Zennstrom of Skype. EBay owns PayPal. The total value of the deal may climb to $4.1 billion based on whether Skype meets a series of performance targets over the next three years, eBay said. The additional payments of $1.5 billion would be made in 2008 or 2009. Ebay said the acquisition of privately held Skype will create "an unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine" for Internet users worldwide. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-09-12-ebay-skype_x.htm ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com> Subject: Flat Rate Water, was: Verizon Complaints About EVDO Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 20:00:04 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In <telecom24.415.12@telecom-digest.org> John L. Shelton <john@jshelton.com> writes: [ snip ] > The moral issue is: whether an "unlimited" service sold to an > individual can be shared with others. Past history suggests "no." We > don't share our unlimited local phone lines with the neighborhood, nor > our cable TV. We don't rent one trash pickup in the nbhd and tell > everyone to bring their trash on over to one house for pickup. We > don't jam everyone possible into a car at the drive-in theatre in an > effort to avoid paying for extra cars. In places with unmetered water > (like NYC), we don't extend hoses to our neighbors so they don't have > to pay for a basic water hookup. Minor correction and update: NYC _used_ to have a kind-of flat rate service [a] for residential water users. You paid a fee based on your frontage (size of your property) _and_ the number of faucets per the plans on file with the building department. [a] kind of like the kind-of flat rates for phone service, I guess... Beginning about two decades ago all new residential hookups were metered, and bit by bit all the older ones have been switched over as well. As a bit of a side trivia, NYC customers actually pay roughly _twice_ the metered rate since there's a corresponding sewer fee. There's a small group of homeowners who have their own septic tanks and are exempt from that -- if they know to apply ... _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you mean to tell me septic tanks are allowed in New York City? Here in Independence, KS, _everyone_ has to be hooked to the sewer, with no exceptions. Outside the city limits (that area which is known as 'rural Independence') is a different matter. Most of them are _not_ hooked to the sewer, but they are hooked to the water, and many of them complain about the cost of 'rural water' which is much more expensive than 'city water'. I cannot believe there are places and communities so backward that septic tanks are allowed, except by default in small rural areas. But NYC? Not even in Chicago do you see that any longer. The water meter-reader comes around once per month to read ours (they have to lift a cover off of the hole in the ground where the water meter is located; usually it is typically in the front yard (most are actually in the parkway; the grassy area between the sidewalk and the street). Based on that reading, the bills are sent out by the Water Department. But the trick comes in the factors they use to calculate the bill. Our bills are about three times the water amount. The water consumption is only a small part of the bill; most of the bill comes from the sewer, and the sanitation workers. Garbage collectors come around twice each week (Monday and Thursday in my case; other neighborhoods are Tuesday/Friday or Wednesday/Saturday). They empty the garbage cans and are supposed to sweep the alleys and sidewalks. My monthly bill for water/sewer/sanitation is about $35 per month. And once or twice a year I get a mailing telling me how the Filtration Plant calculates what the water charges will be, and the chemicals used to clean the water, etc, and how much the charge will be for 'rural' (out of city limits) users. They say because I am a senior citizen and a 'hardship case' I get the water at a cheaper rate; but the sewer and sanitation parts of the bill are constant. If I were not a senior and/or hardship case my bill would be about $38 or $39 per month. But septic tanks ... my God! My grandparents, when they lived in Coffeyville in the 1950's had one of those, but only because the area they were in had been 'rural' until it was annexed by Coffeyville sometime in the 1940's. I remember once grandpa Townson's septic tank got plugged up somehow; they had to dig up the yard and clean it out. A septic tank? ... ugh ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Arizona Budget POTS Plans Date: 12 Sep 2005 13:21:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Mike Sutter wrote: > And so, finally on to the question, does anyone know if Qwest offers a > real low cost (perhaps metered) service for POTS in the 480 area? Unfortunately today there aren't many cheap basic phone services. The cost-saving between measured use and flat rate is about $2-$3; this is the same actual dollar amount it was 30 years ago. But 35 years it was significant money -- between paying $4.65/month nad $6.65 a month. More significantly are all the extra fees every subscriber must pay regardless of their service option. There's the "FCC line charge", perhaps a 911 fee, deaf service fee, universal service fee, line portability fee, portabello mushroom fee, etc. (Ok, you get my point). Seriously, I had the barebest bones phone service you could get--measured rate party line, and they STILL had to put 2 ounces postage on the bill they sent me periodically with all the mandated junk printed on it. As mentioned, some areas have discounted service, but I believe there are income eligibility requirements to receive this. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> Subject: Re: NYC Phone Rates, was: Sid Ceasar and Phones in Comedy Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 17:34:47 -0400 In article <telecom24.415.11@telecom-digest.org>, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says: > NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info wrote: >> Danny Burstein wrote: >>> In <telecom24.411.18@telecom-digest.org> Wesrock@aol.com writes: >>> Bit by bit the 75 message unit allowance got cut down, so nowadays >>> there's nothing there there. On the slight plus side back in the >>> 1970s the "local area" for untimed calls expanded to the entire >>> city. >> Also cut out is the discount for LOCAL calls made in evening and night >> altho Verizon kept itemizing how many were made eve and night. > IIRC, more distant Message Unit calls in NYC were timed. Immediate > local calls were untimed, but more distant calls had a charge, such as > one unit for every two minutes and the even further calls one unit for > every minute. There was a complex chart in the phone book that > explained it all. > Philadelphia used and continues to use a similar system to this day. > It's called "measured service now" but the principles are the same--an > non-itemized aggregate of cost for intermediate local calls in the > "Metropolitan Calling Area". In contrast to the above, in more recent > years discounts are given for night/weekend calls, in the past there > were no discounts for offpeak calling. Also, in more recent years > boundaries were liberalized and basically the charges declined. I wonder how VoIP and unlimited local/ld is impacting measured service. Put it this way, a measured service line in RI would cost about $25 a month. For that much I use Vonage and get unlimited. > Based on the Bell System history, many big cities had measured > service. Adding meters to each line for panel switching did not seem > to be a big deal; indeed, I think it was part of the plan. I don't > think adding meters to SxS was that hard either as it was done in the > 1940s for Los Angeles. > Note that cities had fairly large calling areas and the opportunity to > reach literally millions of people on a local call. In contrast, > small towns had a much smaller calling area before going toll and far > fewer people to reach. So you in a small town could call your next > door neigbhor for free, but your cousin in the next town was a toll > call. > For example, the regional high school serving my area covers a fairly > large geographic area. End to end is a toll call, in the middle are > message unit calls, and local calls within narrow spots. You can see > the contrast in calling options and fees for a kid in a city high > school (measured, but cheap) and a suburban kid (either free or toll). > Remember too the Brady Bunch episode discussed here where too many > calls were being made and the parents clamped down on the kids. > Obviously they had measured service. (In a modern house with six kids > with three adults. Hmm, yeah right. Geez, even in those days > families like that were putting in second lines for the kids to use; > the phoneco even had combo packages.) I've never had a measured service line. Just wasn't worth it to me, particularly in the early 80's doing BBS testing where you might make 12 calls a day. ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson <ptownson@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Help Needed Once Again Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 17:00:00 CDT About one year ago, my laptop computer finally bit the dust; the one I had around for however long. I asked here, and a couple of the readers graciously found older, used computers with Win 95 on them and sent them to my rescue. Now that very same problem has arisen once again. Another very old computer (all mine are quite ancient, the same as me personally) has given up: A very old (circa 1996) Toshiba laptop which served me faithfully for many years has decided to quit working. Until I can get it replaced/repaired (which is quite unlikely because of its age) I have to limp along with what I have. Can any of my generous readers find their way clear to send me another old computer they no longer use nor want? I will be most appreciative. PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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