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TELECOM Digest     Tue, 13 Sep 2005 18:17:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 418

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Ex Microsoft Exec Free to Work For Google (Reuters News Wire)
    Bush Accepts Responsibility for Katrina Blunders (Lara Jakes Jordan)
    Gripes From Skype Users After E-Bay Buyout (Adam Pasick)   
    Roaming Charges (Kevin Lindow)
    SBC, Verizon, Qwest Quake in Fear (Mark Hall)
    VOIP Phones Give Villagers a Buzz (Cyrus Farivar)
    Re: Back in the Cord-Board Days (Lisa Hancock)
    Re: Flat Rate Water, was: Verizon Complaints About EVDO (Lisa Hancock)
    Re: Flat Rate Water (Dave Garland)
    Re: How a Telephone Works (William Warren)
    Last Laugh! How Many Members of Bush Admin Needed to Change Light Bulb

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: Ex Microsoft Exec Free to Work for Google
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:21:50 -0500


A Washington state judge has cleared the way for Google Inc. to hire a
former Microsoft executive to head its Chinese research and
development center so long as the employee does not recruit from
Microsoft.

King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez found that former
Microsoft Vice President Kai-Fu Lee can begin working for Google by
setting up a research office in China and recruiting software
engineers if he does not use confidential information gleaned while he
worked at Microsoft.

"Microsoft has not sufficiently shown that it has a clear legal or
equitable right to enjoin Dr. Lee, pending trial, from establishing
and staffing a Google development facility in China," Gonzalez wrote
in a preliminary injunction ruling.

However, in his order, the judge enjoined Lee and his new employer
from working on any product or service that relies on confidential
information tied to search, natural language processing and speech
recognition he obtained while working for Microsoft. Google lawyers
had agreed to these specific restrictions ahead of the ruling, a
Google spokesman said. The judge was very specific on this point:
"no 'whispering', no playing games in job descriptions, etc, you will
be monitored on this point as neeed."

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: Lara Jakes Jordan <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Bush Takes Responsibility For Katrina Blunders
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:21:25 -0500


By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures
in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader
questions about the government's ability to respond to natural
disasters as well as terror attacks.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all
levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference
with the president of Iraq.

"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I
take responsibility," Bush said.

The president was asked whether people should be worried about the
government's ability to handle another terrorist attack given failures
in responding to Katrina.

"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack? That's a very
important question and it's in the national interest that we find out
what went on so we can better respond," Bush replied.

He said he wanted to know both what went wrong and what went right.

As for blunders in the federal response, "I'm not going to defend the
process going in," Bush said. "I am going to defend the people saving
lives."

He praised relief workers at all levels. "I want people in America to
understand how hard people worked to save lives down there," he said.

Bush spoke after R. David Paulison, the new acting director of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, pledged to intensify efforts to
find more permanent housing for the tens of thousands of Hurricane
Katrina survivors now in shelters.

It was the closest Bush has come to publicly finding fault with any
federal officials involved in the hurricane response, which has been
widely criticized as disjointed and slow. Some federal officials have
sought to fault state and local officials for being unprepared to cope
with the disaster.

Bush planned to address the nation Thursday evening from Louisiana,
where he will be monitoring recovery efforts, the White House
announced earlier Tuesday.

Paulison, in his first public comments since taking the job on Monday,
told reporters: "We're going to get those people out of the shelters,
and we're going to move and get them the help they need."   

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff introduced Paulison as
the Bush administration tried to deflect criticism for the sluggish
initial federal response to the hurricane and its disastrous
aftermath.

Chertoff said that while cleanup, relief and reconstruction from
Katrina is now the government's top priority, the administration would
not let down its guard on other potential dangers. He noted that the
administration would 'try to do better' with 'terrorists' than was 
initially done with Katrina. 

"The world is not going to stop moving because we are very focused on
Katrina," Chertoff said.

Paulison, named to the post on Monday, said he was busy "getting
brought up to speed."

He replaced Michael Brown, who resigned on Monday, three days after
being removed from being the top onsite federal official in charge of
the government's response.

Paulison said Bush called him Monday night and "thanked me for coming on
board."

Bush promised that he would have "the full support of the federal
government," Paulison said.

Chertoff said the relief operation had entered a new phase.

Initially, he said, the most important priority was evacuating people,
getting them to safety, providing food, water and medical care.

"And then ultimately at the end of the day, we have to reconstitute
the communities that have been devastated," Chertoff added.

He said the federal government would look increasingly to state and
local officials for guidance on rebuilding the devastated communities
along the Gulf Coast.

"The federal government can't drive permanent solutions down the
throats of state and local officials," Chertoff said. "I don't think
anyone should envision a situation in which they're going to take a
back seat.  They're going to take a front seat," he said.

Chertoff said that teams of federal auditors were being dispatched to
the stricken areas to make sure that billions of dollars worth of
government contracts were being properly spent. "We want to get aid to
people who need it quickly, but we also don't want to lose sight of
the importance of preserving the integrity of the process and our
responsibility as stewards of the public money," Chertoff said.

"We're going to cut through red tape," he said, "but we're not going
to cut through laws and rules that govern ethics."

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that some
military aircraft and other equipment may be able to move out of the
Gulf Coast soon.

"We've got to the point where most if not all of the search and rescue
is completed," said Rumsfeld, who is attending a NATO meeting in
Berlin.  "Some helicopters can undoubtedly be moved out over the
period ahead."

He also said there is a very large surplus of hospital beds in the
region, so those could also be decreased. The USS Comfort hospital
ship arrived near the Mississippi coast late last week. Rumsfeld added
that nothing will be moved out of the area without the authorization
of the two states' governors, the military leaders there and the
president.

Elsewhere, workers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
aren't finding many sick people, even though the specter of diseases
has alarmed relief and rescue figures. Instead, between 40 and 50
percent of patients seeking emergency care have injuries. The CDC has
counted 148 injuries in just the last two days, Carol Rubin, an agency
hurricane relief specialist, said by telephone from the government's
new public health headquarters in New Orleans' Kindred Hospital.

While she couldn't provide a breakdown, Rubin said chain saw injuries
and carbon monoxide exposure from generators are among them. Those are
particularly worrisome because they're likely to become more common as
additional hurricane survivors re-enter the city in coming days, she
said.

The message: Those injuries are preventable, if people take proper
precautions, Rubin stressed.

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.

For more Associated Press headlines and stories, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html

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

From: Adam Pasick (reuters@telecom-digest.org>  
Subject: Gripes From Skype Users After eBay Buyout
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:22:27 -0500


By Adam Pasick

Ebay's acquisition of Skype could be worth up to $4.1 billion to
investors in the Internet telephony start-up, but it is getting mixed
reviews from Skype's fervent supporters.

It was the hard-core Skype fans whose word-of-mouth advertising helped
it become the world's largest voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)
provider without spending a penny on marketing. It has some 54 million
registered users and usually has more than 3.5 million people online.

But the sale to eBay could signal the end of the evangelical zeal from
users that drove Skype's rapid growth. Its software -- which offers
free computer-to-computer calls between Skype users -- has spread in
classic viral fashion, as each new user convinces friends and family
to sign up.

In a poll on the forums http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=4932 ,
69 percent of users said the acquisition is not a good thing, compared
with 23 percent in favor of the deal.

"In my opinion, the takeover by eBay means to me possibly and probably
the end of free Skype services. I anticipate a very bad future for us
here but I sincerely hope I am wrong," the Skype user Alan2 wrote on
Monday.

Users also raised concerns that the purchase of the Luxembourg-based
Skype by a U.S. company could mean new legal constraints on the
service.

"How much time before someone makes a Taliban joke and the feds
descend on their home with the Patriot Act?" Skype user Slvaldor
wrote. "How long before the music and movie cartels start suing for
snooping access to Skype's network through the (U.S. Digital
Millennium Copyright Act) DMCA?"

The U.S. government is considering regulating VoIP services, which
could include provisions for law-enforcement wiretapping.

A ruling by the Federal Communications Commission in August required
that some VOIP services provide for wiretap access within 18 months,
but it is not yet clear whether the order includes Skype.

Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are sticking with
Skype, and eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman said on Monday that she
intends to nurture the core Skype business even as its voice call
features are integrated into eBay.

The early adopters of fast-growing start-up services like Skype often
become disillusioned when their favorite company is sold. Some users
of the popular online photo site Flickr (http://www.flickr.com)
revolted last month when the new owner Yahoo moved to require Flickr
users to register as part of Yahoo's network.

Yahoo and fellow online powerhouses Google, Microsoft and AOL, are
aggressively targeting the voice-over-Internet market, so unhappy
Skype users will have plenty of options if they decide to leave the
service.

"We can just sit back and watch. Smile. And hey, if eBay is doing that
bad we can just switch to tons of other VoIP software," said user Uhura.


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.

Also see: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html

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

Subject: Roaming Charges
From: Kevin Lindow <KevLindow@nospamgmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 19:39:50 GMT
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net


I have a situation regarding my cell phone company. I contacted my
cell phone service and discussed "roaming" charges before I went cross
country.  The phone company told me if the cell phone didn't show
"roaming" on the phone that the call would stand as a local
call. Well, I just got the bill and it is 300 bucks, full of "roaming"
charges. I swear only one call indicated "roaming." Should I pay the
bill and shutup and chalk it up as experience or should I refuse to
pay the bill? And, in the meantime, how do I make phone calls to
friends and family back home -- without racking up more "roaming"
charges?

Kevin

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

From: Mark Hall <computerworld@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: SBC, Verizon, Qwest Quake in Fear
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:43:52 -0500


Opinion by Mark Hall

SEPTEMBER 12, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - ... as open-source private branch
exchange software with integrated voice-over-IP capabilities gains
adherents. "I believe they already know they're doomed," suggests
Brian Capouch, chairman of the computer science department at Saint
Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Ind.

Capouch argues that giant telecommunications providers and PBX
manufacturing goliaths don't stand a chance against perky start-ups
such as Huntsville, Ala.-based Digium Inc. and San Diego-based Four
Loop Technologies LLC, which does business under the name
Switchvox. Those vendors use Asterisk, an open-source technology that
lets companies replace their PBX systems and use VoIP to transmit
phone calls.  Switchvox CEO Joshua Stephens says Asterisk lets you use
a standard Linux server to connect to your network via a T1 line for
traditional analog calls or to your Internet service provider to
support chat via VoIP. Switchvox's system also handles voice mail like
e-mail, meaning you can listen to it, forward it, store it and do
anything to voice messages that you can do to e-mail, claims
Stephens. Switchvox 2.0 ships at the end of this month and will add
conference-room, intercom, call-parking and other new
features. Pricing starts at $995.

Capouch says Asterisk and VoIP combined will do to the telecom market
what Linux, Apache, MySQL and other open-source technologies have done
to the data center: "radically change the landscape." Capouch shrugs
off the argument that perceived problems with VoIP call quality may
hinder adoption. "Cell phones have lowered people's quality
expectations," he notes.

Copyright 2005 ComputerWorld.com and International Data Group (IDG)

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
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------------------------------

From: Cyrus Farivar <wired news@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: VOIP Phones Give Villagers a Buzz
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:34:50 -0500


By Cyrus Farivar
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68796,00.html
02:00 AM Sep. 12, 2005 PT

SAN FRANCISCO -- At first glance, Inveneo's office eight floors above
Market Street resembles any high-tech startup -- computer parts
scattered on desks, Wi-Fi antennas mounted on the wall. But adjacent
to the front door hangs a large colorful map of Africa, and a few
steps away a stationary bicycle is hooked up to a backpack-size power
generator.

 From this base, a small group of determined geeks is using solar- and
pedal-powered voice-over-internet-protocol phones and Wi-Fi to bring
local, national and international dialing to remote areas of the
world, beginning with a few villages in western Uganda where nothing
resembling a telephone system has ever existed.

"What we're bringing to them ... is two-way communication, which
they've never had before," said Kristin Peterson, chair and co-founder
of the year-old nonprofit effort.

The organization has already installed its Linux-based VOIP stations
at four isolated villages in Bukuuku subcounty, serving a total of
nearly 3,200 villagers.

Each village in the Bukuuku program has a custom-built computer with a
2-GB microdrive, to eliminate moving parts, along with 256 MB of RAM
and a 533-MHz processor. The computer is wired to a regular analog
telephone set and a directional Wi-Fi antenna, which transmits the
internet signal to a central hub at one of the villages.

Complete with 70-watt solar panels and a bicycle generator -- which
can provide power in the event of no sunlight -- each installation
costs only $1,800, including the outdoor Wi-Fi 802.11b antenna.

Calls between the villages are routed by the hub, and cost nothing --
like dialing another room from a hotel PBX, said Robert Marsh,
Inveneo's CFO and co-founder. Calls destined for outside the village
network go over a satellite link between the hub and the main Ugandan
telephone exchange.

Mark Summer, Inveneo's CEO and co-founder, said that while most people
in the United States have access to a telephone and can communicate
with anyone in seconds, it is not so in these remote areas.

"Every time they want to do anything, they have to walk down the hill
for three to four kilometers," said Summer. "Being able to make a
local phone call is a big deal to them."

The effort has already earned praise from other like-minded geek
projects in the developing world.

Geekcorps founder Ethan Zuckerman said he has been impressed with
Inveneo's work. He dismisses critics from SBC and Verizon who argue
that there's no need for telecommunications services in these rural
areas, and certainly not for free.

"You need to find out what the price of certain goods are, you need to
find out ... information from the government," he said. "The way
people find this out (now) is by getting on buses or motorbikes."

Zuckerman argues there may even be commercial telecom opportunities in
Uganda, citing a 2000 study conducted as part of the Grameen Bank
project that demonstrated it was highly profitable to sell local
cell-phone service in rural areas in Bangladesh that had been
traditionally ignored by the incumbent telecom operators.

"People are willing to pay far, far more money than we would think,"
he said. "It's pretty amazing."

Marsh, a semi-retired Silicon Valley entrepreneur, also co-founded the
legendary Homebrew Computer Club in Menlo Park, California, in
1975. He said he looks forward to expanding Inveneo's work in other
parts of the world, including Aceh province in Indonesia, as well as
that country's capital, Jakarta.

"Now's my chance to do good for the world," said Marsh. "We'd like to
put technology in use for people who need it most."


Copyright 2005, Lycos, Inc, Wired News.
Registered trademarks of Carnegie Mellon University.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
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understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic
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believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
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For more information go to:
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------------------------------

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: Back in the Cord-Board Days (Re: Delay in Reaching Operator)
Date: 13 Sep 2005 11:11:20 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Mark J. Cuccia wrote:

> New Orleans was one of the first places to have TSPS (Traffic Service
> Position System) automation for Operator Servvice, back around 1970 or
> so. But automation for operator type services even goes back to the
> early 1960s with TSP (Traffic Service Position) and even late 1950s
> with PPCS (Person to Person Card Special) in some parts of the midwest
> and northeast.

In my old neighborhood of Philadelphia, the service was split.  All 0+
and coin 1+ calls went to a TSP (the older type) facility which
handled a large section of the city.  But this facility did not handle
plain 0 (zero) calls for some reason.  My neighborhood's 0 calls went
to a suburban CO that had cord dial-assistance operators.  (I don't
know where directory assistance calls went, that was another office
altogether).

The Mountain Bell history ("to Laser Beams") shows pictures of cord
boards with some upgrades -- modern illuminated keypads on the
keyshelf and little computer terminals.  The Bell System did a lot of
such improvements to legacy technology to improve efficiency without a
full formal upgrade; the Bell Labs Records of the 1970s were full of
articles about that kind of thing.  Some Step by Step offices had
computerized front ends and back ends to help route and charge calls,
in some cases becoming a poor man's common control system.  (That is,
the dial pulses no longer operated the actual Strowger switches but
rather were recorded in a computer, which then directed the Strowger
switches.)  This sort of thing was necessary to expedite higher
calling volumes in growing suburban areas and automated toll and
operator services.

A look at small town telephone directories of the 1960s showed dialing
was both limited and cumbersome in many places.  To reach a neighbor-
ing exchange, one might have to dial a special prefix, and a different
prefix for each area, as well as from where you're calling from.  The
charts could be rather complex.  Or, you could only dial your own
neighborhood and anything and everything else required 0.

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

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: Flat Rate Water, was: Verizon Complaints About EVDO
Date: 13 Sep 2005 11:23:55 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you mean to tell me septic tanks are
> allowed in New York City?

There are some in isolated old parts of Philadelphia.  For example, in
the outer edges of the city there once were free standing villages
with very old houses (before development surrounded them).  Those old
houses and streets are not connected to the sewer system.

It wouldn't surprise me if similar old places even in New York City
(particularly in Staten Island but also in outlying parts of the Bronx
and Queens) would be likewise.

> 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.

Our suburban water and sewer rates are FAR higher than what Philadel-
phia charges its people.  I don't know why.  In the city water and
sewer is provided by the water department of the city government and
it is supposed to run at a break even point without subsidy or profit.
Suburban water is provided by private companies that make a good deal
of money, sewage is shared by several municipalities and also costs a
function.

In the outer suburbs, there are quite a few older houses that use
wells and septic tanks and are extremely expensive none the less.

In our area sewer bills are based on water consumption and sewage
costs more than water.  Both bills have a high minimum charges --
single people living alone rarely use more than that minimum and
probably would pay less on a more usage based rate schedule.

This issue can get surprisingly complicated.  I think my own area is
being grossly overcharged -- if the "big evil city" with all its urban
problems can charge so much less the suburban facilities shouldn't be
that much more.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Usually, the places which have the
water, i.e. Chicago and Lake Michigan, charge less for their own
people to use it, while blackmailing the folks with no immediate
access to the water (such as the north and western suburbs of Chicago).
As an example, Oak Park, Illinois and Harwood Heights, Illinois have
to buy their water from City of Chicago _or_ get permission from City
of Chicago to extend water pipes from the lake all the way through
town out to themselves. That would involve not only much excavation
of streets but a lot of politics as well. If those suburbs even tried
to get instant access to Lake Michigan, I am sure they would regret
it by the time in several years it got out of court. So, they figure
its simply cheaper in the long run to purchase the community's water
 from City of Chicago. Although city does discount the price a little
for the bulk purchase, they do not discount it _that much_ and since
politics means so much, the suburbs have to add their own 'markup'
to the price they charge to resell the water to their citizens. 

But, speaking of politics, some of the little suburban towns have
something Chicago wants as well: Consider Ohare Airport for example:
The original Mayor Daley (King Daley I) long ago decided it just would
not do to have Ohare 'belong to' or be geographically situated in Park
Ridge or that other little town along Mannheim Road where Ohare
physically sits, called Rosemont, IL. It had to be part of Chicago, by
God, that's how Daley the First in his greed phrased it. But in order
to annex the airport into the city itself, state law got in the way.
State law requires that in order for one place to annex another place,
the two places have to touch at least a little somewhere. For instance
Chicago _could_ legally annex Oak Park since they have border lines in
common, just as the city many years ago annexed Austin, Illinois on
the west side, and Pullman, Illinois on the south side. In the case of
Ohare Airport however, none of it _touches_ or has a border in common
with Chicago. It touches Rosemont, Schiller Park, and Park Ridge, but
not Chicago.

So King Daley I had a solution for that also: we will take a tiny
little five foot wide length of land on the north side of Irving Park
Road (where Chicago touches Schiller Park) and stretch that all the
way west then through the Forest Preserve (don't worry about those
commissioners, they are my puppets also) and we will keep on
extending that little strip of land through Rosemont until it reaches
the eastern edge of Ohare, where then we 'balloon it out' to take in
all of Ohare. So by that gerrymandering Chicago is able to annex
Orchard Field (which they would begin calling 'Ohare' Field; FYI that
is why the FAA designation for Ohare is 'ORD', from the Orchard Field
days). Corrupted mayor and officials of Schiller Park and Rosemont 
all line up with hands out; what's in it for us if we give away our
little towns to you, oh King Daley?  How about if we give you _free
water_ from now on, the King replied. You won't have to continue to 
pay outrageous prices to buy water from Chicago, and you won't have
to engage in a lengthy and expensive lawsuit to excavate _our streets_
in order to get water out to _your little rinky dink town was Daley's
proposition. And it was, as 'they' say, sold to the highest bidder.

That is why over a two or three block stretch of what logically is
Rosemont/Schiller Park in that area (as per the design of the street
lamps and street marker signs) instead you see _true_ Chicago street
lamps and street signs. Just for those few blocks way out west. And 
where there was one other little nasty, two separate streets in 
town with the same name (Michigan Avenue to be precise), they took
the less well known one in Schiller Park and for that two block
stretch (where it intersects with Irving) changed the name to some-
thing else, which escapes me at this minute. And just because
Rosemont and Schiller Park get their water for free from City of 
Chicago does not mean they in turn pass along that largesse to
their own citizens for free. You didn't think that, did you?  But
that is how 'Chicago-Ohare International Airport' got that name
instead of 'Rosemont-Orchard Field Airport'. Everyone else in
the western/southern suburbs of Chicago pay dearly for their water. 
Going north, however, the Evanston Water Works does a wee bit
better for the suburbs west of it; they still pay through the nose
also, but not as much or as badly as the towns dependent on the
City of Chicago. (Except of course for Schiller Park and Rosemont.) 
PAT]

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

From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
Subject: Re: Flat Rate Water
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:26:09 -0500
Organization: Wizard Information


It was a dark and stormy night when jared@netspacenospamnet.au (jared)
wrote:

> Recently my water bill had an ad for a water monitor. Apparently the
> meters are read remotely by unit in a vehicle going down the
> street. 

Automatic reporting by telephone (the meter connects to a box that
connects to your landline) is more common in Minneapolis, but they
also have battery-powered RF devices for situations where a telephone
line is not available or the owner refuses to permit a connection to
it.  To add to the profusion of systems, there are also old meters
that must be read manually, and meters with remote readouts (a little
counter box that is mounted on the outside of the building for easier
access).  I think we've got the entire history of meter-reading
technology on display.  No WiFi units, but that's probably only a
matter of time if a plan goes through to provide citywide wifi access.

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

Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 16:03:51 -0400
From: William Warren <william_warren_nonoise@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: How a Telephone Works


eagle_speaks@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> Though I am in the telecommunications field ( software side) I am a
> bit confused about how everything works, though I have a high level
> overview. So I am stating my undestanding, so that someone can
> correct or fill up the gaps.

> 1. Each home suscriber has a twisted copper pair that runs from his
> telephone to a cable containg thousands (why no multiplexing here and
> send it through a single wire??) thousands of such pairs; to the local
> excahnge or the central office.

There's no multiplexing because it means putting active equipment at
the end of the wire, and that means the company has to build a weather
protection enclosure, connect power, maintain batteries, and pay for
easement(s), maintenance, etc. It's more cost-effective to have the
pair go back to the CO., at least for most single-family homes.

Apartment buildings, especially large ones, are more likely to be
multiplexed, since the ILEC doesn't pay for the space needed and it's
less expensive to run fiber than copper for the same number of lines.

> 2. In the central office there is a hardware equipment (LTG ??) which
> has a lot of ports, to one of which the copper pair that runs from the
> suscribers telephone is plugged in.

> (I hope I am correct here.) 

Yes, you are correct. Most companies use the term "Central Office" to
refer to both the telephone exchange equipment and the building which
houses it.

> 3. The central office is connected to the tandem office via trunks
> which I hope are a thick co-axial cable or optical fiber through which
> multiplexed traffic from various CO flows.

Almost all fiber; coaxial cables were retired long ago and are now
used only for TV transmission, and even then only in locations where
the coax is "retired in place" (as far as trunk usage goes) and
there's no demand for digital transmission.

> Also there is a seperate cable for SS7 siganlling, connecting various
> CO to TO .

There are separate _circuits_ for SS7, which share the same
transmission layer as inter-office trunks, but are always routed to
two geographically diverse Signal Transfer Point locations via routes
that have nothing in common.

> There is also a switch at the tandem office.

Yes, it's a tandem switch. The definition _used to_ be along
"two-wire" vs. "four-wire" switches, but since all digital paths are
four-wire, the distinction is less clear now. It's very common for
"local" exchages to do double-duty as small tandem offices, e.g., for
E-911 switching to a PSAP, and the only real difference between
"local" and "tandem" switching is the circuit packs used at the edges,
since all digital exchanges have to have "four-wire" (i.e., separate
paths for transmit and receive) internal switching anyway.

> 4. Now if a suscriber dials a number, the DTMF tones are resceived at
> the CO which has a directory (databse ???) look up. It finds that this
> number is at antother exchange and sends a SS7 signal to that . From
> there how is the trunk reserved ????

In the Bell System, SS7 is an overlay on the old MF signalling method,
so each CO handles trunk reservations the same way for both signalling
methods. The exchange keeps an internal list of which trunks are in
use, and assigns a vacant trunk to each inter-office call as needed.
Intermediate tandems assign trunks in turn, in a daisy chain fashion,
until the call is completed or there are no trunks available.

There is no "database" of trunks; i.e. they are _not_ preassigned at a
central "brain" before the call setup is attempted. Each office
maintains a local list, and makes its own decision about which trunk
to use for the next hop, with the assignments taking place in sequence
from office to office.

> 5. Also how is the incoming call from a modem and telephone
> distinguished at the CO. Or does the modem also dial DTMF signals???

The modem uses either DTMF or dial-pulse, depending on how it has been
programmed, and it dials the call in the same way a subscriber would.
The CO is unaware that a modem is being used, either for data or fax.

> I hope someone can answer my questions.

I hope I have.

William

(Filter noise from my address for direct replies)

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

From: Debbie DKTubiolo <debbietubiolo89@hotmail.com> 
Subject: Last Laugh! How Many Members of Bush Administration Does it Take
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:28:19 -0500


How many members of the Bush Administration does it take to change a
light bulb?
     1      One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed.
     2      One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light
            bulb needs to be changed.
     3      One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb.
     4      One to tell the nations of the world that they are either
            responsible for changing the light bulb or for darkness.
     5      One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Haliburton
            for the new light bulb.
     6      One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor,
            standing on a stepladder under the banner: 
            Lightbulb Change Accomplished.
     7      One administration insider to resign and write a book
            documenting in detail how Bush was literally in the dark.
     8      One to viciously smear #7.
     9      One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George
            Bush has had a strong light bulb changing policy all along.
    10      And finally one to confuse Americans about the difference
            between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.

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


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