TELECOM Digest     Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:27:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 430

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Tent Life Wears Thin on Evacuees, Families (Dahleen Glanton)
    On Move Again, Katrina Evacuees Now Flee Rita (Michael Graczyk)
    Big Players Enter VOIP Game (Ben Charney)
    AOL, Microsoft Plan Web Phone Service (Reuters News Wire)
    Keystrokes Reveal Passwords to Researchers (Associated Press News Wire)
    Google Begins Limited Test of WiFi Service (Adam Pasick)
    US Authors Group Files Suit Against Google (Eric Auchard)
    Suit Against Visa/MasterCard (Garden City Group Class Action News)
    Re: Roaming Charges (Ken Abrams)
    Re: Important Medical Recall Announcement (jared)

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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               ===========================

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

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

From: Dahleen Glanton <tribune@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Tent Life Wears Thin on Evacuees, Families
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 17:36:10 -0500
 

By Dahleen Glanton Tribune national correspondent

Susan St. Amant and her five children live in the parking lot of a
boarded-up Taco Bell.

The children's faces are streaked with a grimy film of sweat and dust
from piles of debris that surround their makeshift home. They try to
clean themselves at night, but personal hygiene is difficult when they
can take only sponge baths and wash their clothes with bottled water.

St. Amant's arms are scaly and red, the result of second-degree burns
from sitting in the sun all day because it is even hotter inside their
tent. She longs for a cool breeze, but with each whiff of air, a foul
odor of decay blows through the small town where search teams already
have discovered 50 bodies and are looking for at least 52 more.

This is not where the St. Amants had hoped to be three weeks after
Hurricane Katrina destroyed their government-subsidized rental home
along with almost everything on the Mississippi coast. But until they
receive the travel trailer the federal government has promised, home
is a canvas tent in the open air.

"It's total hell here," said St. Amant, whose job as a cook at a
Kentucky Fried Chicken disappeared in the storm.

All along the coast, thousands of people live in broken-down houses
without running water, electricity and working toilets. Others sleep
in abandoned buildings, in their front yards and on porches that are
barely standing.

All along the coast, tent communities like the one at Taco Bell have
sprouted up in vacant lots, turning strip-mall parking lots into land
for squatters.

The housing situation is so dire along the Mississippi coast that
emergency workers and National Guard members sleep in tents erected on
the beach or along the road. Insurance adjusters and out-of-town
workers hired to help with the cleanup sleep in their cars in hotel
parking lots as far away as Alabama while waiting for rooms to become
available.

Trailer communities began going up last week in Baton Rouge and other
areas of Louisiana, but in Mississippi's coastal counties, where an
estimated one in four dwellings were destroyed or heavily damaged,
only 519 families have received trailers, according to the Mississippi
Emergency Management Agency.  Most of those have gone to police
officers, firefighters and other first responders who also are
homeless.

About 4,000 travel trailers are being held at a staging area near the
coast, 1,000 of which have been assigned to families, state officials
said.  Officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said they
are working with state and local leaders to identify suitable sites
for the trailers.  Residents can place trailers on their property, but
they must have access to water, sewer and power lines. If they had
access to a working telephone line, many agree they would be 'as good
as new', but the phones are not going to be around for a long time either.

In many areas such as Waveland, where 80 percent of the dwellings are
uninhabitable, finding suitable sites has been difficult, FEMA
officials said. 

"When you look at the vast amount of destruction, it makes it even
harder to get things done. In Mississippi alone, there are hundreds of
thousands of people we are trying to help," said a FEMA spokesman,
Gene Romano.

At least part of the problem with trailers, however, may stem from
bureaucratic red tape. Trailer home manufacturers have been geared up
for weeks to produce some 125,000 mobile homes and travel trailers
requested by FEMA.

Kicking problem upstairs

But FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney told The Associated Press that
production has been delayed because the Homeland Security Department,
which oversees FEMA, has not yet developed a housing plan.

"We want to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars," Kinerney told
AP. "I know they [manufacturers] are standing by and getting a little
frustrated. We want to make sure we are spending the money the right
way. It doesn't mean people are going to go without."

While Gov. Haley Barbour has repeatedly praised the federal
government's efforts to help the state recover, his spokesman said
Monday that the governor sees the lack of temporary housing as a
serious problem.

"The governor has said he is not satisfied with the temporary housing
situation as far as getting the trailers out as fast as we possibly
can," spokesman Pete Smith said. "But there is no one to blame. The
governor wants the trailers to be moved as close to the evacuees'
property as possible so people can oversee the rebuilding. There is
more involved than just getting a trailer to a site and leaving it
there." 

Last weekend in some counties, the Red Cross began moving evacuees
from the schools that have sheltered them so that classes can resume
as early as next week. Some shelter residents are being moved to
community centers, and others are to be placed on a 490-passenger
cruise ship to be docked off Mobile, Ala.

Almost everything in Waveland, a town of about 9,000 about 60 miles
east of New Orleans, was destroyed, including the hospital and the
post office and the telephone exchange building.  Every police vehicle
is gone, along with fire trucks and public works vehicles.

"Every firefighter, police officer and city councilman lost everything
personally and professionally," said Mayor Tommy Longo, who runs the
city by day and sleeps at night in a sewer treatment facility. "All
the city had left was a backhoe."

At the height of the storm, Waveland's 27-member police force was
trapped inside the station, which flooded with 20 feet of water. Half
of them, including the chief, swam outside and held on to an 8-foot
bush for seven hours. The others were stuck on the roof of the
building for just as long.  Twenty-five firefighters also swam for
their lives, rescuing stranded people along the way.

"We have been trying to keep the people alive, and we are victims
ourselves," said Chief James Varnell, who is running the Police
Department from a trailer equipped with a couple of laptop computers,
a cell phone and a police radio. Battery power to run these devices
inlcuding the cell phone come from automobile batteries sitting nearby
which are replaced as needed when freshly charged batteries are 
removed from a nearby automobile and the old batteries are 'jumped'
with a charging cable brought in, attached to an automobile generator.

On Sunday, most of Waveland's city workers and their families moved
into 150 trailers set up for first responders in a city park. Another
30 or so families like the St. Amants are waiting.

On waiting list, and waiting.

After placing their names on FEMA's trailer list on Thursday,
St. Amant and her extended family, which includes her elderly parents,
her sister and her two young children, and the family dog, waited all
weekend for word that they could move into a trailer. It never came.

Several residents have complained that everything seems unorganized
and chaotic, from the FEMA lines to the Red Cross sites where they go
for financial aid. People start lining up for assistance at daybreak,
but the forms often run out before noon; the cash on hand for
dispersal that day is usually gone earlier than that. 

Others said the rules for aid are unrealistic in towns such as
Waveland where destruction is so widespread. FEMA will not hand out
$2,000 relief checks in person and instead wants to send them to
addresses or bank accounts. Asked what a victim should do if he or she
had neither, a FEMA official said Monday that the agency was willing
to work something out.

"We are camping in a Taco Bell parking lot, and they're asking for an
address and telephone number. We got our $2,000 check, but we don't
have nowhere to cash it," said St. Amant, whose check was delivered to
her home's mailbox, which survived the storm. 

"I'm hoping we can make it another two or three days. I keep saying
that every day, and then it's another day. We just can't get nothing
accomplished."

dglanton@tribune.com

Copyright 2005 Chicago Tribune.

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

From: Michael Graczyk <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: On Move Again, Katrina Evacuees Now Flee Rita
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 17:25:27 -0500


By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer

They waded through the chest-high floodwaters in the streets of New
Orleans.  They were plucked from their rooftops in the rescue baskets
of helicopters.  They survived the hell of the Louisiana Superdome and
a 350-mile bus ride to Texas.

Now, just a few weeks after getting settled at emergency shelters in
Houston, Hurricane Katrina evacuees are on the move again to escape
another storm.

"This reminds me of the Israelites marching in the desert," Norman
Bethancourt, 51, said as he waited for a bus to take him from Reliant
Arena to Ellington Field, where he and the other refugees were set to
board planes bound for a military base in Arkansas.

About 1,100 evacuees -- down from a high of nearly 10,000 -- living in
Houston's two largest shelters, Reliant Arena and the George R. Brown
Convention Center, began making their way to Fort Chaffee, Ark., as
Hurricane Rita strengthened into a hurricane and lashed the Florida
Keys with heavy rain and strong wind.

Forecasters said Rita would continue to gain strength as it crossed
the warm Gulf of Mexico and would probably come ashore in Texas over
the weekend.

Houston officials said moving the evacuees was necessary because the
shelters might not hold up in a major hurricane. They hoped to have
everyone moved by Tuesday night.

The evacuees carried little. Some had a backpack, others a plastic
bag. A few had pillows. One girl, tears streaming down her face,
carried a stuffed toy in a little cage.

"A lot of people didn't want to go," said Wayne Sylvester, who was
wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed: "I Survived Katrina." "It looks
like the storm is following me. Choice is you don't have a choice."

Many of the evacuees were not happy about leaving for Arkansas and
were looking for somewhere else to go.

"Hell. It's been pure hell," said Lisa Banks, 33, who was outside
Reliant Arena with her four children, ages 8 to 15. "I'm not going to
Arkansas. I feel like a rag doll, people throwing me around."

Seated on chair, she kept a black plastic garbage bag nearby. It was
filled with towels. Banks, who was airlifted with her family out of
their home in New Orleans, had hoped to settle in Houston, find a job
and a place to live.

I don't know what's going to happen next," she said. "We really don't
know what to do. We were supposed to get housing here."

Arkansas?

"No," she said adamantly. "Arkansas is not a good place for me."

"I don't even know where that's at," said Michael Russell, as he ate
his lunch of macaroni and cheese and a sausage while he waited for his
brother.  They hoped to get to Hammond, La., not Arkansas. Both are
from New Orleans.

Texas officials also were planning to move Louisiana evacuees out of
shelters in Corpus Christi and Beaumont. In all, some 4,000 were
headed for Arkansas and 3,000 to Tennessee.

At Reliant, Carmelita Speed, 25, clutched a box of tissue and
periodically dabbed at tears. She reluctantly was going to the plane
and Arkansas.

"I hope and pray it isn't like the Superdome," Speed said, describing
how for days there she "slept on the ground, or on cardboard."

Her boyfriend, Roland Mitt, said: "I'm running out of patience. I'm
upset.  I'm mad. I'm disgusted. All of the above."

"I just want to live peacefully and have a happy life," Speed said.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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

From: Ben Charney <eweek@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Big Players Enter VOIP Game
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 23:30:06 -0500


Ben Charny - eWEEK

Five years after pioneering Internet telephony in the United States,
America Online, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN are finally taking the
business seriously.

And that, said analysts interviewed Tuesday, could spell trouble for
hordes of companies that subsequently introduced their own telephone
services based on VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol), software that
allows an Internet connection to double as an inexpensive home phone
line.

On Tuesday, early VOIP pioneer America Online Inc. introduced
TotalTalk, a very much revamped version of a VOIP service that AOL
first introduced five years ago. Just how much more serious is AOL
about the phone business now?

"This release increases our addressable market by a factor of 25,"
said Ragu Kamel, AOL senior vice president and general manager of
voice services.

Click here to read more about AOL's release of IM and VOIP tools.

TotalTalk is part of a recent waive of renewed interest in inexpensive
Internet telephony from AOL and its major competitors Microsoft
Corp. and Yahoo Inc., which all introduced VOIP plans five years ago
as part of a strategy to create a single Internet destination for any
number of different applications, such as search, e-mail and instant
messaging.

Google Inc., the world's most popular search company, is often grouped
into this lot, having introduced many of the very same types of
different services.

Analysts have long held that by turning to VOIP, portals could
ultimately shake up the phone industry. Yet each company has done
little since to promote the services or improve them.

The relative inactivity until recently of the major companies has
helped Internet telephony newcomers like Skype Technologies SA, a
Luxembourg-based VOIP operator recently purchased by auction company
eBay Inc.; Vonage, a subsidiary of Vonage Holdings Corp. of Edison,
N.J.; and some major cable operators to steal the spotlight and garner
millions of paying customers.

But now it appears that all are bracing for more serious battle for
the phone business, having all in recent months significantly
sharpened their telephone offerings.

Read more here about eBay's VOIP strategy.

With customers reaching into the tens or hundreds of millions each,
analysts have long held that portals pose a big threat to leaders of
the traditional phone industry leaders Verizon Communications,
BellSouth Corp., SBC Communications Inc. and Qwest Communications,
known collectively as the Bells.

Yet, "the Bells aren't scared, the smart ones are already in the VOIP
business," said Andy Abramson, who writes the VOIP Watch Weblog. "MSN,
Yahoo, AOL and to some extent Google are all following a me-too, me
also strategy right now. We should see them start differentiating
themselves in the coming months," he said.

Following AOL's TotalTalk, Microsoft made similar moves on Tuesday
with its new partnership with local phone giant Qwest to sell phone
services to SMBs (small and midsize businesses.)

In recent weeks, Yahoo unleashed a revamped version of its VOIP
service, Yahoo Messenger with Voice, which provides new features and
improves upon calling quality.

Search giant Google, considered a competitor to Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN
and AOL as it moves further away from its search roots and into new
services, introduced its first version of Internet telephony a few
weeks ago as well.

Check out eWEEK.com's VOIP & Telephony Center for the latest news,
views and analysis on voice over IP and telephony.

Copyright 2005 Ziff Davis Inc.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
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to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go
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------------------------------

From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: AOL, Microsoft Plan Web Phone Services
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 17:40:51 -0500


AOL and Microsoft both announced new Internet phone services on Tuesday.

Time Warner Inc. said its America Online Inc. unit would introduce a
new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service called TotalTalk early
next month.

Qwest Communications International Inc. and Microsoft Corp. said they
will offer Internet phone service to small and medium-sized
businesses, starting in 2006.

VoIP allows customers to use their high-speed Internet connection
instead of traditional landlines to make telephone calls. AOL said its
TotalTalk service may lead to savings of up to 40 percent on monthly
bills.

It said it would begin the roll out of the new service on October 4.

The Qwest/Microsoft service will combine Microsoft's Solution for
Enhanced VoIP with Qwest's OneFlex services. Qwest and Microsoft
expect the service will be available in 2006.

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

From: Associated Press News Wire <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Keystrokes Reveal Passwords to Researchers 
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 17:42:27 -0500


If spyware and key-logging software weren't a big enough threat to
privacy, researchers have figured out a way to eavesdrop on your
computer simply by listening to the clicks and clacks of the keyboard.

Those seemingly random noises, when processed by a computer, were
translated with up to 96 percent accuracy, according to researchers at
the University of California, Berkeley.

"It's a form of acoustical spying that should raise red flags among
computer security and privacy experts," said Doug Tygar, a Berkeley
computer science professor and the study's principal investigator.

Researchers used several 10-minute audio recordings of people typing
away at their keyboards. They fed the recordings into a computer that
used an algorithm to detect subtle differences in the sound as each
letter is struck.

On the first run, the computer had an accuracy of about 60 percent for
characters and 20 percent for words, said Li Zhuang, a Berkeley
graduate student and lead author of the study. After spelling and
grammar checks were deployed, the accuracy for individual letters
jumped to 70 percent and words to 50 percent.

The software learned to improve as researchers repeatedly fed back the
same recordings, using results of spelling and grammar checks as a
gauge on correctness. In the end, it could accurately detect 96
percent of characters and 88 percent of words.

"If we were able to figure this out, it's likely that people with less
honorable intentions can -- and have -- as well," Tygar said.

Researchers said there is some limitation to their technique. For one,
their work did not take into account the use of a computer mouse or
the "shift," "control," "backspace" or "caps lock" keys. They did,
however, describe approaches for taking those into account.

The use of a computer mouse is another challenge, the researchers
said.

The Berkeley research builds on the findings of an International
Business Machines Corp. study in which 80 percent of text was
recovered from the sound of keyboard clicks.

The IBM team, however, relied on controlled conditions such as using
the same keyboard and training the software with known text and
corresponding sound samples.

Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer of Counterpane Internet
Security Inc., called the study "a great piece of research." He said
audio eavesdropping is just one of many possible techniques to spy on
PC users.

"If the bad guys can get access to your physical space, they can
eavesdrop on your stuff," he said. "They can install a camera or a
keyboard logger on the wire. They can install a microphone."

The Berkeley researchers built their system using off-the-shelf
equipment.

"We didn't need high-quality audio to accomplish this," said Feng
Zhou, another Berkley graduate student and study author. "We just used
a $10 microphone that can be easily purchased in almost any computer
supply store."

The Berkeley researchers, part of the Team for Research in Ubiquitous
Secure Technology, will present their results Nov. 10 at a computer
and communications security conference in Alexandria, Va.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
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To listen to AP News Radio and/or read Associated Press stories, go to
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------------------------------

From: Adam Pasick <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Google Begins Limited Test of Wi-Fi Service
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 17:38:36 -0500


By Adam Pasick

Google, the online search leader, confirmed on Tuesday it has begun a
limited test of a free wireless Internet service, called Google WiFi.

The existence of the Wi-Fi service, which offers high-speed
connections to the Internet over short distances, is confirmed by
public pages on the company's Web site and was first reported in a
Silicon Valley newspaper in July.

Google spokesman Nate Tyler said the current test is limited to two
public sites near the company's Mountain View, California,
headquarters -- a pizza parlor and a gym -- located in the heart of
Silicon Valley.

"Google WiFi is a community outreach program to offer free wireless
access in areas near our headquarters," Tyler said.

"At this stage in development, we're focused on collecting feedback
from users. We'll determine next steps as the product evolves," he
said.

Free wireless communications would take Google even further from its
Internet search roots and move it into the fiercely competitive world
of Internet access providers and telecommunications companies.

Tyler said the project was started as part of a Google engineer's "20
percent time project."

Google encourages its engineers to spend 20 percent of their work time
developing independent projects. Several of Google's new products have
grown out of such projects, including Google News, contextual
advertising program AdSense and social-networking test project Orkut.

The Google Web site has several references to Google WiFi but provides
few details. One page ( http://wifi.google.com/faq.html/ ) refers to a
product called "Google Secure Access," which is designed to "establish
a more secure connection while using Google WiFi."

The company has already launched a sponsored Wi-Fi "hotspot" in San
Francisco's Union Square shopping district in April with a start-up called
Feeva.

In July, the San Jose Mercury News reported that in exchange for using
the free Google WiFi service, customers would be required to load a
copy of Cisco's secure network software and Google's "toolbar" program
on their laptops.

Speculation about a forthcoming Google WiFi service was stoked in
August following an article in Business 2.0 magazine, which argued
that the company was considering building a U.S. broadband network
capable of targeting specific advertising to users based on the
location of their Wi-Fi.

As evidence, the magazine pointed to what it said was Google's
purchase of unused, high-capacity fiber-optic network connections left
over from the telecom bust earlier this decade. Google responded
saying that such purchases were natural for a company with one of the
larger Web sites.

But the company has declined to discuss its broader plans.

Analysts have voiced concerns that Google could extend itself too far
beyond its core business, while acknowledging that its vast financial
and engineering resources could produce results.

"Becoming a service provider would be quite a stretch for Google, but
considering the billions of dollars Google could throw at the problem
it could become a reality," Ovum analyst Roger Entner wrote in the
wake of the Business 2.0 article.

Google, which is rapidly expanding beyond its core Internet search
service, introduced an instant messaging and Web telephone calling
service called Google Talk in August.

Its shares were up 1.5 percent to $308.30 in trading late Tuesday
afternoon on the Nasdaq exchange.

"I think strategically it absolutely makes sense but its profit and
loss impact remains unclear," said Jefferies & Co. analyst Youssef
Squali.

(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York and Eric Auchard in San
Francisco)

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

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

From: Eric Auchard <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: US Authors Group Sues Google
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 23:27:36 -0500


By Eric Auchard

The Authors Guild, a U.S. writers advocacy group, sued Google Inc. on
Tuesday in federal court, alleging that the Web search leader's bid to
digitize the book collections of major libraries infringes on
individual author's copyrights.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York against Google, names as co-plaintiffs The
Authors Guild and writers Herbert Mitgang, Betty Miles and Daniel
Hoffman.

Hoffman was poet Laureate of the United States in 1973-74. Mitgang is
an historian, critic and former New York Times editorial writer. Miles
is a children's book author.

The lawsuit seeks class action status, asks for damages and demands an
injunction to halt further infringements.

This is the latest round in the battle between Google and publishers
that pit copyright holders' interests against the company's mission of
"organizing the world's information and making it more universally
accessible and useful."

A Google spokesman said the company regretted that the Authors Guild
had chosen to sue rather than continue discussions.

"Google Print directly benefits authors and publishers by increasing
awareness of and sales of the books in the program," Google said in a
statement. "Only small portions of the books are shown unless the
content owner gives permission to show more."

A year ago, Google began working with five of the world's libraries --
at Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the New
York Public Library -- to make large parts of their book collections
searchable on the Web.

The action by the 86-year-old Authors Guild is part of a push by the
organization to roll back efforts by Web sites to make the contents of
books freely available online.

In a related case, the group has been seeking for a decade to force
online publishers from New York Times Co. to Amazon.com to pay
royalties to writers whose stories appear in online databases without
their consent.

In August, Mountain View, California-based Google said it planned to
temporarily scale back plans to make the full text of copyrighted
books available on its Internet site.

Google has said it will respect the wishes of copyright holders who
contacted the company and asked for their books to be withheld from
the project. Meanwhile, it said it was working with publishers and
librarians to scan books in the public domain that are not covered by
copyright.

Critics of the program said that Google's plan to allow copyright
holders to opt out of the project switches the burden of upholding
copyright from infringers to copyright holders.

"This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law," Nick Taylor,
president of the 8,000-member New York-based Authors Guild, said in a
statement on Tuesday.

"(Authors), not Google, have the exclusive rights to ... authorize
such reproduction, distribution and display of their works," the
complaint said.

An attorney with Kohn Swift & Graf P.C., the plaintiffs' law firm
based in Philadelphia, said the lawsuit had been filed earlier today
in U.S. federal court in Manhattan.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 

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

From: Garden City Group <gcg@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: VISA/Master Charge Class Action Lawsuit Settled
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 23:42:21 -0500



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Merchants please pay attention. A
'merchant' is defined here as _anyone_ who has accepted Visa/MC
cards in payment for a purchase at _anytime_ during the eleven year
period 1992 through 2003. If you sold anything during that period
of time, and accepted a credit/debit card as payment, then you
are a merchant, and you are entitled to relief in the lawsuit now
settled.  Read on ...   PAT]

WELCOME TO THE VISA CHECK/MASTERMONEY ANTITRUST LITIGATION WEBSITE

            WHAT IS THIS LAWSUIT ABOUT?

The Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation is a class action
lawsuit that was filed and litigated in the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, New York. The
Class consists of all businesses and organizations in the United
States that accepted Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards for
payment at any time during the period October 25, 1992 to June 21,
2003. The Class Plaintiffs claimed that, through their "Honor All
Cards" policies, Visa and MasterCard forced merchants to accept Visa
and MasterCard signature debit card transactions at supracompetitive
prices. (Visa and MasterCard's signature debit products are also
referred to as Visa Check, MasterMoney or Debit MasterCard.) The
merchants also claimed that Visa and MasterCard were attempting to
monopolize the debit card business in the United States. In April
2003, just as the trial was about to begin, Visa and MasterCard
decided it was in their best interest to settle with the plaintiffs'
Class.

            WHAT ARE THE TERMS OF THE SETTLEMENT?

As part of the settlement, Visa and MasterCard agreed to eliminate
their "Honor All Cards" policies, which required merchants that
accepted their credit cards to also accept their signature debit card
transactions. Prior to this untying of credit and debit, they also
agreed to lower debit card fees for an interim period by one-third. In
addition, they agreed to re-label the Visa Check and MasterMoney debit
cards with the word "DEBIT" on the front and to do other things
related to the untying of debit cards from credit cards. Visa and
MasterCard also agreed to pay $3.05 billion over time into a
Settlement Fund. This Settlement Fund will be used to provide
compensation to Class Members, and will be distributed to Class
Members after the attorneys fees, expenses and cost of notice and
administration approved by the Court have been deducted.

            WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SETTLEMENT?

You are a member of the Class if you or your business or organization
in the United States accepted Visa and/or MasterCard debit and credit
cards for payment at any time during the period October 25, 1992
through June 21, 2003.

            HOW DO I PARTICIPATE IN THE SETTLEMENT?

Based on the Court's final order, Lead Counsel Constantine Cannon, are
now charged with the task of distributing the proceeds of the
settlement to all eligible Class Members. To assist in this process,
Lead Counsel and the Court have authorized The Garden City Group,
Inc. ("GCG") to act as Claims Administrator. The first step, according
to the Court order, is for GCG to mail Claim Forms, by September 29,
2005, to all Class Members that have previously been identified.

If you do not receive your Claim Form within a few weeks of the
mailing, but believe you are entitled to one, please call the
toll-free telephone number, above, or click here to request one
through this website.

The Claim Forms and accompanying Instructions will explain everything
you need to know to enable you to participate in the settlement and
receive your pro rata share of the settlement proceeds. However, if
you need more information, please consult this website or feel free to
call the toll-free number. Among the information contained on this
site are frequently asked questions, a detailed overview of the
calculation of the payment awards, personalized information regarding
your own claim calculation, the Amended Plan of Allocation, and the
expert reports setting forth the methodologies for estimating Cash
Payments (see the Fisher Allocation Declarations).

Of course, you may have questions that cannot be answered by
information on this site. Operators are available toll-free (at the
number above) to take your calls and answer questions related to the
settlement.  You will also be able to leave messages for the Claims
Administrator and for Lead Counsel.

Lead Counsel and GCG are committed to distributing settlement proceeds
as quickly as possible. In fact, the Court has ordered that regular
quarterly payments be made. Therefore, the faster you submit your
claim, the faster you can be paid. However, in order to receive your
payment as early as possible, you must complete your Claim Form
correctly and in its entirety. Any deficiencies in your claim may
delay payment. Also, while you have the right to challenge your claim
calculation if you wish, please understand that the adjudication of
such a challenge may delay your ultimate payment.

Also, in order to establish a right to share in the Settlement Fund,
Class Members may be required to provide information showing that they
accepted Visa and/or MasterCard transactions for payment at any time
between October 25, 1992 and June 21, 2003. While you will not be
required to submit such documentation with your Claim Form, you may be
subsequently asked to produce such documentation to confirm your
entitlement to a Cash Payment.

Finally, it is your responsiblity to advise GCG of any change of
address after you submit your Claim Form.

If you have more questions, please telephone the claims administrator
at 1-888-641-4437. DO NOT telephone the clerk of the court, nor the
attornies involved. 


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There were many, many pages as part of
the web site the claims administrator put up, including the lengthy
and complex history of the litigation, etc. The essence seems to be
that in order to accept VISA/MC you are (were) required to accept
their debit cards as well as their credit cards. Some merchants did
not the terms VISA/MC gave them. Walmart was one such merchant. After
two years of litigation, VISA/MC decided to settle the lawsuit against
them on this matter, but the court ruled that _all_ merchants -- not
just the big Walmart-like merchants -- were entitled to relief as
well. If the court knows about you, then you _should_ get the
paperwork any time now, if it has not already arrived. You can confirm
your participation in the Class and make other arrangements as needed
with the Administrators by calling 888-461-4437 on or before 
September 29, 2005.   PAT]

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

From: Ken Abrams <k_abrams@[REMOVETHIS] sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: Roaming Charges
Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 23:52:16 GMT


J Kelly <jkelly@*newsguy.com> wrote:

> On 16 Sep 2005 05:33:58 -0000, John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> wrote:

>>> This raises a question I thought of recently, but had not bothered to
>>> ask anyone about.  Suppose I start a cell call in local but move to a
>>> roaming tower during the call?  Does the call get charged as roaming
>>> or not?

>> I doubt you'd get a handoff in a situation like that.  It'd drop the
>> call and you'd call back.

> I worked for a small cellular carrier about 7 years ago.  I would
> routinely test handoffs from our network to the network adjacent to
> us.

If this was 7 years ago, I'm guessing it was analog service; it
certainly was not GSM.  I'd be interested to see what happens on some
of those calls today using GSM service.  Often things touted as "new
and improved" aren't.  That's my impression of GSM, at least the way
it is being implemented now.  While it is hard for a user to tell when
a call is handed off to another site, I don't think I have ever had a
successful hand-off with GSM.  I have, however, had a LOT of calls
dropped when moving ... sometimes just a few feet.

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

Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 19:18:08 -0600
From: jared@netspacenospamnet.au (jared)
Subject: Re: Important Medical Recall Announcement


Here's the referenced FDA info. 

Note their advice to read the label first. See their note regarding
e-mails.  And the note regarding reformulation. I checked one product
at random and the ingredient does not appear.  And as ever, read the
insert for precautions and warnings.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking steps to remove
phenylpropanolamine (PPA) from all drug products and has requested
that all drug companies discontinue marketing products containing
PPA. In addition, FDA has issued a public health advisory concerning
phenylpropanolamine. This drug is an ingredient that was used in many
over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription cough and cold medications as
a decongestant and in OTC weight loss products.

In response to the request made by FDA in November 2000, many
companies have voluntarily reformulated and are continuing to
reformulate their products to exclude PPA while FDA proceeds with the
regulatory process necessary to remove PPA from the market.

We have received numerous requests for a list of products containing
PPA.  Since companies continue to reformulate their products, FDA is
not maintaining a comprehensive, updated list of products that still
contain PPA. FDA is aware of emails circulating widely that list many
products allegedly containing PPA. These emails, however, generally
contain dated and inaccurate information and should be ignored.

The FDA recommends that consumers read the labels of OTC drug products
to determine if the product contains PPA. The Agency believes this to
be the most accurate method for determining the PPA content of OTC
products rather than providing an incomplete or out-of-date list of
products that may have already been reformulated and no longer contain
PPA.

> All drugs containing PHENYLPROPANOLAMINE are being recalled.
> You may want to try calling the 800 number listed on most
> drug boxes and inquire about a REFUND. Please read this
> CAREFULLY. Also, please pass this on to everyone you know.

> STOP TAKING anything containing this ingredient. It has been
> linked to increased hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in brain)
> among women ages 18-49 in the three days after starting use
> of medication. Problems were not found in men, but the FDA
> recommended that everyone (even children) seek alternative
> medicine.

> The following medications contain Phenylpropanolamine:

> Acutrim Diet Gum Appetite Suppressant
> Acutrim Plus Dietary Supplements
> Acutrim Maximum Strength Appetite Control
> Alka-Seltzer Plus Children's Cold Medicine Effervescent
> Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold! medicine (cherry or orange)
> Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine Original
> Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Cough Medicine Effervescent
> Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Flu Medicine
> Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Sinus Effervescent
> Alka Seltzer Plus Night-Time Cold Medicine
> BC Allergy Sinus Cold Powder
> BC Sinus Cold Powder
> Comtrex Flu Therapy & Fever Relief
> Day & Night Contac 12-Hour Cold Capsules
> Contac 12 Hour Caplets
> Coricidin D Cold, Flu & Sinus
> Dexatrim Caffeine Free
> Dexatrim Extended Duration
> Dexatrim Gelcaps
> Dexatrim Vitamin C/Caffeine Free
> Dimetapp Cold & Allergy Chewable Tablets
> Dimetapp Cold & Cough Liqui-Gels
> Dimetapp DM Cold & Cough Elixir
> Dimetapp Elixir
> Dimetapp 4 Hour Liquid Gels
> Dimetapp 4 Hour Tablets
> Dimetapp 12 Hour Extentabs Tablets
> Naldecon DX Pediatric Drops
> Permathene Mega-16
> Robitussin CF
> Tavist-D 12 Hour Relief of Sinus & Nasal
> Congestion
> Triaminic DM Cough Relief
> Triaminic Expectorant Chest & Head
> Triaminic Syrup Cold & Allergy
> Triaminic Triaminicol Cold & Cough .....

> I just found out and called the 800 number on the container for
> Triaminic and they informed me that they are voluntarily recalling the
> following medicines because of a certain ingredient that is causing
> strokes and seizures in children:

> Orange 3D Cold & Allergy Cherry (Pink)
> 3D Cold & Cough Berry
> 3D Cough Relief Yellow 3D Expectorant

> They are asking you to call them at 800-548-3708 with the lot number
> on the box so they can send you postage for you to send it back to
> them, and they will also issue you a refund. If you know of anyone
> else with small children,

> To confirm these findings please take time to check the following:

> http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/ppa/

> This is very important for persons like myself who have a medical
> history of heart attacks, strokes and brain aneurysms.

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


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