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TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 Oct 2005 18:01:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 460 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Court Ruling in BlackBerry Case Puts Service to Users at Risk (Solomon) RIM Faces Loss of U.S. Market For BlackBerry (Monty Solomon) Seasonal Satellite Telecommunication Disruptions Coming Soon (N. Allen) Bird Flu (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: Device That Interfaces Between CallerID and Serial Port (G Burditt) Re: Device That Interfaces Between CallerID and Serial Port (C Navarro) Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal (Joseph) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John Levine) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (George Mitchell) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Neal McLain) Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord (Joseph) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 14:19:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Court Ruling in BlackBerry Case Puts Service to U.S. Users at Risk By IAN AUSTEN OTTAWA, Oct. 7 - A court decision Friday renewed the possibility that service to BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices might be cut off for most users in the United States. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington rejected a request by Research in Motion, the Canadian company that makes the BlackBerry, to rehear its appeal of a patent infringement case brought by NTP Inc., the patent holder. A three-judge panel of the court ruled in August that Research in Motion had violated seven of NTP's patents. As part of that litigation, NTP, whose only assets are wireless e-mail related patents, had been granted an injunction banning the sale of BlackBerry devices in the United States and forcing Research in Motion to stop providing e-mail services to all American customers except government account holders. While the court declined Research in Motion's request for a complete rehearing by all 12 of its judges, it did order the panel of three judges to review some aspects of NTP's patent claims. Kevin Anderson, a lawyer for NTP, said the company would now ask the court to apply the injunction to the patent claims that are no longer under review. Those patents, he added, are broad enough to prevent Research in Motion from continuing service in the United States, which accounts for about 70 percent of its revenue. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/08/technology/08rimm.html?ex=1286424000&en=36a03410727d06ab&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 14:19:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: RIM Faces Loss of U.S. Market For BlackBerry Sales injunction possible from patent case By SIMON AVERY TECHNOLOGY REPORTER Research In Motion Ltd. faces the spectre of an injunction against sales of its BlackBerry communications products in the United States after a court there yesterday refused to rehear a patent infringement case against the company. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington denied RIM's request that its full slate of 12 judges hear the case. In August, a panel of three of the court's judges upheld most of a jury ruling that found RIM had infringed on patents held by NTP Inc., a patent holding firm in Virginia. While the decision was not unexpected, the prospect of the injunction sent shares of the Waterloo, Ont.-based company tumbling as much as 10 per cent. They closed on the Toronto Stock Exchange down 4 per cent, or $3.20, at $75.95. The U.S. accounts for about 70 per cent of RIM's total sales. The dispute between the two companies now heads back to district court in Virginia, where NTP says it will seek to have a previously awarded injunction imposed. RIM, however, said it will ask the federal court to stay further proceedings while the company tries to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to review the appeal court's August decision. Legal experts don't expect the top court to hear the case because it already has a couple of intellectual property cases before it. But in a news release, RIM said the case "raises significant national and international issues warranting further appellate review." Specifically, the company has argued that, because parts of the alleged infringement occurred on its relay and routing system that is based in Canada, U.S. patent law should not apply. Under U.S. law, the territorial reach of a patent is limited and generally only enforceable if the infringement occurs in the United States. However, both the district court and appeals court rejected this argument. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051008/RRIM08/TPBusiness/Canadian ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen <ndallen@interlog.com> Subject: Seasonal Satellite Telecommunications Disruptions Coming Soon Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 21:29:02 -0400 The following press release was issued by Northwestel. I don't work for Northwestel, but I thought that readers of Telecom Digest might find this interesting. 10/04/2005 Seasonal Telecommunications Disruptions Coming Soon Northwestel is reminding northern communities that receive telecommunications services via satellite that their telecommunications services may be affected by minor disruptions throughout the next few weeks. Beginning October 5th and ending October 18th, these communities may notice short telecommunications interruptions because of a phenomenon called "sun transit." Sun transit occurs twice annually, both in the spring and fall, when satellites pass directly between the sun and satellite dishes on earth. The natural radio frequency noise from the sun is stronger than the satellite signals, which results in a brief service degradation. Northerners may notice noise, fading, or interruptions to long distance, data and television services that are carried via satellite. The exact time of the sun transit disruptions depends both on the location of the satellite being affected and the geographic location of the earth station receiving the signals. "The disruptions are usually so brief that many people don't notice them," said Anne Kennedy, Northwestel Public Affairs Director. "This fall, they'll occur during a 40-minute period that will begin either around noon, or in the early to mid-afternoon, depending on which area of the North you are located in," Local telephone service will not be affected. "There is nothing that can be done to prevent sun transit disruptions, because they are a natural phenomenon," added Kennedy. "If customers do have trouble when trying to place long distance calls or with data transmissions, we recommend that they wait a few moments and then try again. The disruption is likely to be over when they try a second time." For more information on the effect of sun transit on satellite transmissions, check Telesat's website at http://www.telesat.ca/satellites/sun-transit-preditcs.htm Northwestel provides complete telecommunications solutions for the 110,000 residents of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon and northern British Columbia. The company's operations span nearly 4 million square kilometres of the most remote and rugged areas of Canada. All of the company's nearly 600 employees are northern residents. Established over 50 years ago, Northwestel is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bell Canada. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 00:23:21 -0400 From: Marcus Didius Falco <falco_marcus_didius@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: Bird Flu Article and references compliments of the Johnmacs group. Bird Flu is coming. Tamiflu is scarce. Even in Russia, where almost anything can be obtained for a price, it's scarce, and is actually more expensive than in the US (usually drugs are much cheaper there). Hospitals have trouble keeping it in stock for its other uses. http://www.thetravelinsider.info/2005/email1007.htm There are vaccines, but are experimental and they will be scarce. http://au.news.yahoo.com/050922/2/w240.html There have been a few reported cases of human to human transmission, http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/13/1374 but the epidemic is not expected this year. There's a lot of interest in the Congress right now, but they'll probably forget about it just as they forgot about biodefence in 2001, after the anthrax scare died down. There is some thought that vaccinating young children, ages 2-5 or so, may be very effective at preventing the spread. Indeed, it may be more effective at preventing the spread to old people than directly vaccinating old people (now usually considered the "at risk" group for flu shots). To date, according to the NEJM: "Most patients have been previously healthy young children or adults." Part of the problem is that people go in to work when sick. "Our culture was: I'm here at work, and I'm sick, and aren't I great?" Short said. "We had to create a whole new culture." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002538085_fluforum04m.html http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002538085&zsection_id=2002111777&slug=fluforum04m&date=20051004 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002538085&zsection_id=2002111777&slug=fluforum04m&date=20051004 For more information on the flu and personal protection, with many links, try: http://www.thetravelinsider.info/2005/aboutbirdflu.htm http://www.thetravelinsider.info/2005/survivebirdflu.htm (the third article in this series is not yet out). ------------------------------ From: gordonb.dutxl@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 02:59:47 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com > I'm looking for a device that connects between my telephone line > and the serial (RS232) port on my computer, capturing caller-ID on > incoming phone calls and using that information to determine whether > to ring my phone immediately or put up various touch-tone menus > the caller must traverse. > What is the correct jargon for such a device? (So that I might do a > Google search and find the info I seek.) Assuming you are looking for a device that receives Caller-ID, and the voice menu stuff is done by something else, I think it's called "a cheap modem". It needs Caller-ID but it doesn't need 56K or even 33.6k speeds. You don't want to set it up to auto-answer. The modem's RING response code will include caller-ID if it's set up to return it. The various Digium PCI cards used by Asterisk to interface with analog phone lines let you do a lot more, including the voice menu stuff itself, but they don't do RS-232. Gordon L. Burditt ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro <cnavarro@wcnet.org> Subject: Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 11:26:39 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com On Fri, 7 Oct 2005 19:01:34 -0700, anon1@sci.sci wrote: > I'm looking for a device that connects between my telephone line > and the serial (RS232) port on my computer, capturing caller-ID on > incoming phone calls and using that information to determine whether > to ring my phone immediately or put up various touch-tone menus > the caller must traverse. > What is the correct jargon for such a device? (So that I might do a > Google search and find the info I seek.) Try www.callerid.com and check out the Whozz Calling box. You can check out the downloads and the software partners for software and manuals that describe and control the blocking feature of the box. Carl Navarro ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal Date: 9 Oct 2005 01:02:04 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article <telecom24.459.3@telecom-digest.org>, TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > I may be mistaken but I do not think it > is just a simple matter of plugging one of these 'pen drives' into a > USB port. I have one -- I do not use it a lot, it is 62 MB, and about > the size of my thumb. As I recall, when I first installed it,I had to > additionally run a CD which loaded the required 'drivers' onto the > host computer to get it (host) to recognize the USB ports and to get > the 'pen drive' formatted, etc. Have they gotten easier and quicker to > use in recent months? Although being able to carry the little device > away in my shirt pocket to use elsewhere _is_ a good point, having to > do a few extra steps to configure the host computer to recognize a USB > slot and accomodate the pen drive takes away some of the enthusiasm > for me. PAT] The devices come pre-formatted, and XP includes the drivers necessary to recognize and talk to them. If you insert one into an XP system it will also auto-run whatever is designated for that purpose on the device, just like a CD. The only time you need to install software from a CD is if you're trying to use it on Win98 or older systems. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 19:27:32 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Fri, 7 Oct 2005 20:51:18 -0500, [Telecom Digest Editor] wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I may be mistaken but I do not think it > is just a simple matter of plugging one of these 'pen drives' into a > USB port. I have one -- I do not use it a lot, it is 62 MB, and about > the size of my thumb. As I recall, when I first installed it,I had to > additionally run a CD which loaded the required 'drivers' onto the > host computer to get it (host) to recognize the USB ports and to get > the 'pen drive' formatted, etc. Have they gotten easier and quicker to > use in recent months? Are you running Windows 98 or XP? XP generally does not need special drivers and the Flash device will just be recognized as another external drive. 98 generally does require drivers. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have a Win 2000, a Win 98, and thanks to a good friend of the Digest I also now have a Win NT laptop from 1995-96. (Unisys, Aquanta for anyone interested, which replaced an IBM Think Pad which started life as Win 95 in 1996 at the factory, but then was converted to Win 98 at my 'factory' in 2005, and blew up later the same year, about a month ago.) Which reminds me: does anyone know the _cost_ these days of an IBM (easily)removeable hard drive 8.1 GB part number 01K9735. This was the original one which was in the machine (you pop open a door on the back of the laptop, then slide the hard disk into place firmly). Someone tried to tell me that because of its age and the rarity of these older IBM Think Pads (this one was in a model 770-ED) a replacement hard drive would cost BIG $$ but you know me: if anyone happens to have any spares I'd appreciate knowing about it. I had to run a driver disk with the Win 2000 also on the 'flash device' and also on the Win 98 as well. They sure do want people to buy newer computers, don't they? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 9 Oct 2005 01:17:50 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > If you wanted to run your own root with a copy of the same data, you > could. But there's no point, since the real roots work just fine. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But although the 'real roots' work just > fine, as you note, someone starting their own competing root server > could bypass all the silly requirements of things like ICANN couldn't > he? In addition to copying all the data now in use, he could also > start his own domains, could he not? He could, but then it wouldn't be a copy of the same data, would it? And what will you do when you set up your own freelance version of .TEL and a couple of years later ICANN lumbers along and sets up their version of .TEL? Which one will you throw away? If you tell ICANN they have to add all your "registrants", they'll just laugh. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I probably (if it were me, which I strongly doubt) wouldn't insist on anything from ICANN. I would simply ignore them as much as possible. I would not set up a 'freelance .TEL', I would set up some top level domain (such as .pat) that they (ICANN) would be quite unlikely to pick anytime in the next few decades; oh hell, maybe even '.townson' and invite the whole world to use my root if they wished to do so. I might even use some possibly copyrightable phrase for the domain name making it more difficult for ICANN to copy it exactly as their own. Then they could laugh all they wanted, I guess. In addition to treating with my own root server all my own (copyrightable or unusual) top level domains, I would send requests for _their_ TLDs to some one or more root servers well outside the reach of ICANN. If they did not want to go along, and service _my_ clients, it would be their loss. You see, John, amazing things can be done when (unlike ICANN) you are not involved with the net on a purely commercial basis. When, (unlike ICANN) you do not have a deep, abiding interest in converting the net into a huge, successful business venture. The only things I would put into my contracts (and I remind you, I strongly doubt this would be me) would that the existing rules on things like the use of someone else's name, i.e. 'coca-cola.townson' would be verbotin unless you _were_ Coca Cola. Any contracts would say that if a single piece of spam or virus came out of a computer under your control, you would be out on your ass the same day, no refunds given, etc. I am thinking I would use ICANN's top-level domain names '.com' '.org' '.net' etc as my second-level names, i.e. '.com.townson' or 'org.townson' etc. Many countries do that now, for example, Great Britain with its 'co.uk' domain. Much good could be accomplished on the net if there were other than greedy son-of-a-bitches like ICANN in charge. Again, I doubt very strongly it would be me, but I suggest a philanthropist, a weathly person who believed in doing good for the world could set up one or more root servers and have an operational philosophy which was good for all, not just ICANN and big business. After all, we have Fords, Carnagies and Rockefellers giving away millions of dollars for schools, libraries and such. Why not such a person for the Internet? PAT] ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell <george@m5p.com> Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 20:25:11 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Pat Townson wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But although the 'real roots' work just > fine, as you note, someone starting their own competing root server > could bypass all the silly requirements of things like ICANN couldn't > he? Everything you say is correct. It's trivial to create your own root name server. The problem is in getting anyone _else_ to pay attention to it. The people who, in practical terms, operate the root name servers are a pretty independent bunch. Regardless of ICANN's nominal authority over them, they're not going to do anything to destroy the integrity of the internet. And that's why it's a good thing that the addresses of the current root name servers are so deeply embedded into so many of the domain name resolvers out there. -- George Mitchell ------------------------------ From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com> Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 22:30:20 -0400 PAT wrote: > it was interesting that he was able to 'communicate by voice' over > those wires which served as our burglar alarm system ... According to Herbert Casson, in his "The History of the Telephone," the first "exchange for telephone service" used burglar alarm wiring. "When the first infant exchange for telephone service was born in Boston, in 1877, it was the tiny offspring of a burglar-alarm business operated by E. T. Holmes, a young man whose father had originated the idea of protecting property by electric wires in 1858. Holmes was the first practical man who dared to offer telephone service for sale. He had obtained two telephones, number six and seven, the first five having gone to the junk-heap; and he attached these to a wire in his burglar-alarm office. For two weeks his business friends played with telephones, like boys with a fascinating toy; then Holmes nailed up a new shelf in his office, and on this shelf he placed six box-telephones in a row. These could be switched into connection with the burglar- alarm wires and any two of six wires could be joined by a wire cord. Nothing had been simpler, but it was the arrival of a new idea in the business world." Herbert N. Casson. "The History of the Telephone." Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1910, 151-52. Neal McLain ------------------------------ From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 19:34:35 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 8 Oct 2005 05:56:38 -0700, BrianEWilliams <sorry_no_email@yahoo.com> wrote: > Sorry for the top post, but I just want to thank both of you for your > very helpful response. I will report back my results when my POTS ends > Oct 22. BTW, this is a single family home, and my neighbor's home has > the standard RJ-11 plugs whereas mine has this funky setup. > John McHarry wrote: >> On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 11:52:19 -0700, Brian E Williams wrote: >>> http://tinyurl.com/9jqae >>> Above link is a picture of the inside of my outside telecom box here >>> in the USA. I want to route my Vonage VoIP service to my internal >>> phone network, so first I am going to disconnect the internal network No, I will not accept an apology. You should well know that it's *never* necessary to requote an entire original article especially a long one. You quote a few lines to jog your reader's memory. You do *not* barf back an entire original article at your audience. Whoever taught you that bad behavior didn't know much about on line communication. Whether top post or bottom post over quotation is never good under any circumstance. ------------------------------ 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. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #460 ****************************** | |