TELECOM Digest     Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:32:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 461

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Dutch Police Arrest Hackers (Reuters News Wire)
    Microsoft at Age 30; Grapples With Growing Up (Allison Linn)
    Telephone Collection Carried to an Extreme (Christopher Rhoads)
    Airline Hits Logan on Bid to Limit WiFi (Monty Solomon)
    EFFector 18.31: Action Alert - Don't Touch That Dial, RIAA! (M Solomon)
    EFFector 18.32: Don't Let Congress Ignore the Broadcast Treaty (Solomon)
    EFFector 18.33: Feds Unable to Search Own Anti-Terrorism List (Solomon)
    EFFector 18.34: Delaware Supreme Court Protects Anonymous Blog (Solomon)
    Cellular-News For Monday 10th October 2005 (cellular-news)
    Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John McHarry)
    Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal (Joseph)
    Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan (Henry Cabot Henhouse III)
    Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 (John McHarry)
    Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John McHarry)
    Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord (Brian E Williams)

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

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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
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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: Reuters NewsWire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Dutch Police Arrest Hackers 
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 17:44:56 -0500


Dutch police have arrested three men suspected of stealing credit card
and bank account data by hacking into more than 100,000 personal
computers worldwide, public prosecutors said on Saturday.

The three Dutch men supposedly used so-called "Trojan horse" software
to infect computers with a virus and steal confidential personal
information, and to attack company websites, the public prosecutor's
office said in a statement.

"In the Netherlands alone, several thousands of computers were
infected," the statement said.

The three men, aged 19, 22 and 27, were arrested on Tuesday.

The hackers are also accused of plundering accounts in PayPal, the
payment-processing business of online auctioneer eBay Inc, and are
suspected of threatening to attack the computer system of a U.S.
company, the statement said.

The three used a virus, called W32.Toxbot, which allows access to the
infected computer's control system. They kept adapting the virus in
line with upgraded anti-virus programs, prosecutors said.

Justice officials expect more arrests in the case, Dutch media said.

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: Allison Linn <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Microsoft at Age 30, Grapples With Growing Up
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 17:44:31 -0500


By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer

Microsoft Corp. promises its software will make people better workers
 -- more productive, more profitable, more able, as the company likes
to say, to achieve their potential. Yet some wonder why the software
behemoth isn't taking more of its own medicine.

As Microsoft hits 30, critics reel off a list of complaints that
sounds like, well, a Microsoft commercial: stifling bureaucracy,
frustrating miscommunication, different units working on overlapping
technology without adequate cooperation. In short, the very ills
Microsoft promises to cure with its software.

Growing pains have delayed products, leaving the door open for
Microsoft to be beaten to market by younger, more nimble competitors
led by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. Meanwhile, Microsoft shares have
been trading at about the same level for several years.

As it gears up to release a slew of new products, Microsoft is trying
to untangle bureaucratic snags with a corporate shakeup meant to get
the best ideas to market faster and increase the company's push toward
over-the-Internet software and services.

Of course, no one would argue that the company co-founded by Bill
Gates is in dire straits. Microsoft continues to earn billions from
its flagship Windows and Office products, and the company is steadily
making inroads in markets including mobile phones, video game consoles
and server software.

But it isn't just Google and Yahoo that should worry Microsoft.

It's also up-and-comers big and small that offer products as
Internet-based services. Salesforce.com, which manages customer
relations, is a big one. Writely and gOffice, which provide Web-based
word processing, and e-mail application Zimbra are among the small.

Web-based offerings give users easy online access to products and
services, sometimes for free. The threat to Microsoft is that such
products, by their very nature, could decrease the importance of
Windows or Office.

Google and Sun Microsystems Inc. announced a partnership last week
that, while still vague, could eventually yield tools that provide,
cheaply or for free over the Internet, an alternative to pricey
Microsoft software such as Word or Excel.

"What you've actually got going here between Google and Sun is their
own personal version of the film 'Kill Bill,'" said David Garrity,
director of research for Investec's U.S. operations.

Microsoft insists it is in a strong position to fight its competitors.

Kevin Johnson, recently named co-president of a new Microsoft unit
that includes Windows, servers and its MSN online division, said Chief
Executive Steve Ballmer spoke about software as a service as long as
six years ago.

The company was forecasting some of these potential markets a decade
ago, he added.

"We've provided the vision of where these things were going."

Still, Microsoft now lags in some high-profile areas, although Johnson
said there are plans afoot to help the company to expand further and
quicker into the field.

Its competitors were the first to provide Web-based tools for finding
things more easily on Windows-based desktops.

Microsoft also has played catch-up on developing its own online search
engine, the technology that formed the basis for Google's explosive
success. And while Microsoft was a pioneer in offering free, Web-based
e-mail with Hotmail, Google and Yahoo have been quicker to improve
their products recently.

The company continues to struggle with the issue of helping computer
users instantly find what they need. When Vista, Microsoft's first
significant Windows upgrade since 2001, is released next year after
serious delays, it will initially lack a hotly anticipated data
management system called WinFS that would let people swiftly find
documents, pictures or e-mails.

Microsoft also is tailing its competitors in developing the money-making
engine behind Google -- paid search.

This month, Microsoft begins U.S. testing of its own system for
selling sponsored links next to its regular search results, which are
based on a formula that ranks Web pages according to such factors as
relevance.

Microsoft currently outsources that job to Yahoo, which has a contract
with Microsoft through June 2006.

Microsoft also was in talks with Time Warner Inc. about a potential
deal with its America Online unit that could help raise Microsoft's
profile against Google. One potential option was some sort of online
advertising partnership.

It's unclear where those talks stand now.

Johnson acknowledges that the company has sometimes been slower than
some of its competitors. He says that's partly because Microsoft is
focused on "the big, bold challenges," such as folding useful
technologies into products instead of just rushing something out to
market.

And analysts note Microsoft's track record of quickly playing catch-up
and marshaling the forces necessary to stay ahead.

Johnson says the company's reorganization -- which groups its seven
business groups under three large units -- is designed in part to
streamline decision-making and make Microsoft more agile. If
successful, such changes could help alleviate complaints that employee
productivity is being slowed by management hoops that require too many
layers of approval.

In one of the most high-profile cases, former executive Kai-Fu Lee
complained in court of groups working autonomously that should be 
collaborating, and of being forced to report to too many people. Lee 
defected to Google and Microsoft sued, alleging violation of a
noncompete agreement. The case is ongoing.

Microsoft also is seeing the downside of a longtime corporate culture
that allowed several groups to work on the same technology, sometimes
even in competition with one another.

That philosophy hasn't been as successful as hoped with search
technology, where despite multiple efforts many analysts say the
company still has work to do.

Johnson said Microsoft is trying to find ways to re-evaluate that
approach while still encouraging individual groups to develop fresh
ideas. "Bottoms-up innovation is a great thing," he said. But, he
added, "At a certain point in that innovation life cycle you have to
make decisions so you avoid duplicative or competitive work."

Microsoft is facing the classic dilemma that befalls a company that
grows from a small startup to a major corporation, said the analyst
Garrity.

There's really no way to manage thousands of employees without a strong
corporate structure, but that structure will inevitably alienate some
workers who remember the freewheeling early days.

"They're all victims of their own past success," he said.

Microsoft's reorganization appears to be an attempt to tackle the size
problem -- to teach the elephant to dance, said Garrity, alluding to a
popular corporate problem-solving book by James Belasco.

"I don't know if we can teach the elephant to dance, but they certainly
look as if they are getting their tutu on."

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 AP news headlines and stories, go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html  (also)
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.htmln

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

From: Christopher Rhoads <wsj@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Telephone Collection Carried to an Extreme
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 06:35:28 -0400


To the Heirs' Dismay, Mr. Prosser's Calling Was Old Telephones; His
Legacy Overruns a Town, Which Wants It Cleared; Collectors vs. the
Landfill

By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 10, 2005

TURTLE LAKE, Wis. -- In a dilapidated former creamery here, Becky
Rongstad edged her way down a tight passage snaking through
20-foot-high mountains of telephones.

Thousands of tan plastic rotary-dial phones reached to the roof in
tangles of cords. Piles of more distinctive models, such as phones
affixed to beanbags or shaped like a genie's bottle, tumbled into the
narrow walkways. Some phones were covered in dust, others wrapped and
unused in their original boxes.

"It's more than anyone wants to deal with," said Ms. Rongstad, a
62-year-old retired dairy farmer.

When the collector of the phones, Robert Prosser, died in 2003 at the
age of 81, Ms. Rongstad, his niece, and her three siblings inherited
the unusual collection -- and a problem: what to do with it.

Around this town of 1,089 people, the heirs now own a half-dozen other
buildings, including a gymnasium, full of similar heaps of
mixed-vintage phones -- more than 750,000 in all. At its peak, the
collection numbered more than a million phones, making it the largest
private phone collection in the world, Mr. Prosser claimed. "The next
guy has about 10,000 phones and he bought them from me," he once
boasted to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Now, the town wants the phones gone so it can restore some of the
rundown warehouses, such as the 1928 gymnasium, as historic
buildings. Ms.  Rongstad's brother, Lance Gore, co-executor of the
estate with her, thinks the collection is worth more than a million
dollars and wants to hold out for a single buyer. Ms. Rongstad would
like to be rid of the problem, even if that means dumping some of the
phones in a landfill.

Aghast at that idea, antique phone buffs want to pick over the
sprawling collection for rare models and parts. "I'd like to have the
rotary dials out of there," says Ronald Knappen, who started his own
antique-phone business, 130 miles south in Galesville, Wis., with
inventory he bought from Mr. Prosser in the early 1970s.

Mr. Prosser got hooked on phones while growing up during the
Depression.  His family owned the Turtle Lake Telephone Co., which
provided service to about 600 homes in a nine-mile radius of town. His
mother, Ruth, worked the manual switchboard as the town operator. The
family lived in a small apartment in the back of the phone office.

At the time, there were more than 5,000 such tiny, independent phone
companies across the U.S. But big phone companies were buying them up,
in the process modernizing equipment and rendering huge numbers of
phones obsolete.

Mr. Prosser began collecting these castoffs after reading about a man
collecting Ford Model T cars and parts in the 1930s. The collector was
betting the vehicle would become valuable one day.

A portion of Robert Prosser's phone collection piled up in a former
creamery.

Just out of high school at the time, Mr. Prosser figured the same
would be true of old telephones. He began with wooden wall-phones,
including many that his family's company was replacing with newer
models.

After the war, he took over the family phone company but left enough
time to travel extensively to acquire rare models. Among them were an
ornate crank-operated Eiffel Tower phone from France, a cradle phone
with Arabic lettering that Mr. Prosser claimed was owned by the last
sultan of Turkey and a 1903 phone made of iron.

He also bought phones in bulk. With European governments revamping
their damaged phone systems after the war, more unwanted phones became
available. Mr. Prosser gobbled them up, once purchasing 60,000 phones
from the Belgian government. That acquisition required five boxcars to
ship to Turtle Lake, about 80 miles northeast of Minneapolis.

"He has telephone-itis," proclaimed a 1988 "Ripley's Believe It or
Not!"  comic-book feature on him and his burgeoning collection.

Nostalgic customers around the U.S. converted Mr. Prosser's wooden
phones for use as planters, spice racks and liquor cabinets. The
well-built devices also still worked as phones, making them popular in
remote areas without phone service. Farmers, lumber companies and
miners could string up their own private phone systems for their
working needs.

The 60,000 phones that Mr. Prosser bought in Belgium, which cost him
40 cents apiece, were initially resold for $1.50. By the late 1980s
Mr.Prosser was charging $300 for them.

A private collection in his basement included more-valuable models,
such as an explosion-resistant military phone, a 14-carat gold Swedish
phone and a "Silver Princess," which had a head of a princess that
split open to reveal a phone.

Between used phones and the family phone business, sold in 1991, Mr.
Prosser grew wealthy. That fueled other hobbies. After his wife, Erma,
died in 1983, he began spending more time in Las Vegas, says Connie
Chumas, who was Mr. Prosser's stockbroker for 30 years and lives in
nearby Eau Claire, Wis.

"He loved the dice," says Mr. Chumas, who occasionally traveled with
Mr.  Prosser on gambling trips. "It was not unusual for him to have
$50,000 to $100,000 on a table at a time." Ms. Rongstad says she still
receives letters from several Las Vegas casinos demanding payment on
his debts.

But Mr. Prosser never stopped buying phones, believing even the latest
models would become valuable some day, too. The collection grew to the
end of his life: While he was on his deathbed, two truckloads of
phones arrived from Canada, says Ms. Rongstad.

"I once asked Bob what we'd do with all these phones if something ever
happened to him," says Ms. Rongstad, who as a child cleaned phones for
her uncle for 25 cents apiece. "He told me that if we didn't want
them, he'd give them to someone else. We should've told him to do
that."

At the old gymnasium, stacks of phones blocked dormer windows. To move
them from the loading area to the second floor, a conveyor belt had
been run through a hole cut in the upper floor. One large wooden bin
alone, with names like Trendline and Contempra scrawled on the sides,
contained more than 30,000 phones, estimated George Pearson,
69. Together with his wife, Fern, 89, he had categorized and unloaded
all the phones that Mr. Prosser bought.

"People would ask me what I do for a living," said Mr. Pearson, who
quit his job as a fireman in the 1980s to work for Mr. Prosser. "I
told them if they didn't see it they wouldn't understand it."

Ms. Rongstad is working with the town to apply for a grant from the
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to clean up the sites. The
creamery, which the town wants to condemn, may be contaminated with
asbestos. She's talking with a Boston-based exporter who has expressed
interest in buying the collection. And she's wondering whether there's
potential as a tourist attraction.

"You have to come up with something really creative, like building a
huge phone out of all the phones," suggested William Bell, the town
administrator, to Ms. Rongstad in his office. He quipped that such an
attraction would not be so farfetched, noting "there is a troll museum
in Wisconsin."

Write to Christopher Rhoads at christopher.rhoads@wsj.com

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112890280105864097.html

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.

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For more information go to:
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------------------------------

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 01:19:56 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Airline Hits Logan on Bid to Limit WiFi


By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff  

American Airlines, the biggest carrier at Logan International Airport,
is accusing Logan officials of 'strong-arming' to crush competitive
alternatives to the airport's new high-speed Internet access service.

The airline also alleges that the Massachusetts Port Authority, which
runs Logan, trumped up 'security concerns' and violations of airport
terminal leases as a pretext for shutting down airlines' WiFi
service. It contends Massport wanted to force passengers to pay $8 a
day for Massport-controlled wireless Internet service.

"Massport's objective is clearly to force all WiFi access onto the 
[Massport] system, either through strong-arming other providers or by 
preventing carriers from providing Internet access to their own 
patrons," wrote American Airlines attorney Alec Bramlett in a filing 
to the Federal Communications Commission late last month.

Massport spokeswoman Danny Levy said Massport's security concerns 'are
indeed accurate.' A profusion of airline-operated WiFi signals, Levy
said, could jam radio frequencies used by the State Police and
Transportation Security Administration.

Levy said the TSA has already begun testing use of the Logan WiFi 
network for protected security operations. "Additional applications 
are planned for the future, but I cannot get into specifics," she 
said.

WiFi, which stands for wireless fidelity, offers multimegabit Internet
connections for laptop computers and other devices within so-called
hot spots. Hot spots are zones within about 150 feet of a special
radio transmitter that operates on nonlicensed airwaves similar to
those used by baby monitors, cordless phones, and walkie-talkies.

Massport first began offering its own airport-wide WiFi access at
Logan in June 2004. Since then, the agency has ordered American to
remove a competing WiFi service in its Admirals Club lounge in
Terminal B, which wireless communications provider T-Mobile USA Inc.
has been operating since 2000.

In July Massport also ordered Continental Airlines Inc. to stop
providing WiFi at its frequent-flier club, and ordered Delta Air Lines
Inc. not to deploy WiFi in its new Terminal A.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/10/08/airline_hits_logan_on_bid_to_limit_wifi/

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 00:16:01 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: EFFector 18.31: Action Alert - Don't Touch That Dial, RIAA!


EFFector  Vol. 18, No. 31  September 15, 2005  danny@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424

In the 348th Issue of EFFector:

 * Action Alert: Don't Touch That Dial, RIAA!
 * EFF Hosts 15th Anniversay Party!
 * EFF Wins Unsealing of Secret Documents in Apple Case 
 * TIVo Owners: Got Macrovision?
 * WIPO Development Agenda: Where Does Your Government Stand?
 * Boucher by the Bay: Fair Use Congressman To Visit Stanford
 * Weddings Not Cars: Giving to EFF
 * miniLinks (10): Notes from the Future
 * Administrivia

http://www.eff.org/effector/18/31.php

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 00:16:11 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: EFFector 18.32: Don't Let Congress Ignore the Broadcast Treaty!


EFFector  Vol. 18, No. 32  September 23, 2005  donna@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424

In the 348th Issue of EFFector:

 * Action Alert: Don't Let Congress Ignore the Broadcast 
   Treaty!
 * Google's Card Catalog Should Be Left Open
 * EFF Hosts 15th Anniversary Party, October 2
 * Election Reform Commission Urges Secure E-voting
 * EFF, Florida Disability Rights Advocates Fight to Avert 
   E-voting Debacle
 * EFF in Canada: Protect Your Northern Rights!
 * CopyNight Reminder: Cocktails & Copyright, September 27
 * miniLinks (10): Hollywood to Waste $30 Million Believing 
   It Can Build Better Copy Protection
 * Staff Calendar: 09.24.05 - 09.25.05 - Annalee Newitz 
   emcees Webzine 2005, San Francisco, CA; 09.25.05 - Jason 
   Schultz speaks at ResFest, San Francisco, CA; 10.02.05 -
   EFF hosts 15th Anniversary Party, San Francisco, CA
 * Administrivia

http://www.eff.org/effector/18/32.php

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 00:13:55 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: EFFector 18.33: Feds Unable to Search Own Anti-Terrorism Database


EFFector  Vol. 18, No. 33  September 29, 2005  donna@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424

In the 349th Issue of EFFector:

 * Feds Unable to Search Own Anti-Terrorism Database
 * Trusted Computing Group to Lock Down Mobile Phones
 * FCC Mandate Forces "Backdoors" for Broadband ISPs and 
   VoIP Services 
 * Cell Phones Used to Track People Without Probable Cause
 * EFF Asks Supreme Court to Consider Controversial Patent 
   Case
 * Come Celebrate EFF's 15th Anniversary, Sunday, Oct. 2
 * miniLinks (8): More Rights Are Wrong for Broadcasters
 * Administrivia


http://www.eff.org/effector/18/33.php

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 00:14:24 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: EFFector 18.34: Delaware Supreme Court Protects Anonymous Blogger


EFFector  Vol. 18, No. 34  October 6, 2005  donna@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424

In the 350th Issue of EFFector:

 * Delaware Supreme Court Protects Anonymous Blogger
 * EFF Defends Right to Access Public Web Pages Without 
   Getting Sued
 * Europe's Coming Broadcast Flag: A Stealth Attack on 
   Innovation and Consumer Rights
 * EFF Partners with Craigslist for Nonprofit Boot Camp - 
   October 8
 * ACLU Freedom Files: "The Supreme Court" - October 13
 * miniLinks (16): Declaration of InDRMpendence
 * Administrivia

http://www.eff.org/effector/18/34.php

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

Subject: Cellular-News for Monday 10th October 2005
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 07:24:46 -0500
From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news.com>


Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com


Help us with an important survey:
http://www.cellular-news.com/survey/survey.php?sid=28

We will use the feedback to ensure that cellular-news stays focused on
things which interest you.

Many Thanks.

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

  New GSM License for Bangladesh
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14331.php

Bangladesh is planning to offer another GSM license in an open
tender. Any applicant must either be an overseas company with existing
GSM experience, or an existing local company or joint venture that has
trade...

  Improving Telecoms Regulation in Africa
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14332.php

Regulators from fifteen West African nations have agreed to a common
regulatory framework for their national ICT markets. Regulators
hammered out the new framework during a three-day validation workshop
in Sept...

  Telecom Italia Prepares for Fixed Mobile Convergence
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14333.php

Telecom Italia says that it is revamping its company to work towards
fixed mobile convergence. Based on analyses provided by the working
groups managing the integration, the Board of Directors of Telecom
Italia...

  EDGE expands in the Czech Republic
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14334.php

The Czech Republic based, Oskar Vodafone says that it is expanding its
EDGE service coverage, and data services will be automatically made
available to customers without calling customer care. Until now,
custom...

  SMS for Burmese Mobile Phones
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14335.php

The few mobile phone users in Burma (Myanmar) are to be permitted use
of SMS services for the first time. As befits the military controlled
country though - all messages are to be passed though a censor in the ...

  South Africa Approves Mobile Number Portability
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14336.php

The South African telecoms regulator, Independent Communications
Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has published its plans to launch
Number Portability in the country. The policy will apply to both
landline and...

  3G - WLAN Router Launched by Vodafone
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14337.php

Vodafone Netherlands has launced a 3G/UMTS Router, a mobile
mini-hotspot. With 3G/UMTS Router five employees can work simultan-
eously and wireless, on their company network. As soon as the mini-
hotspot, with the...

  Vodafone Japan Mobile Phone Users Rise Net 3,300 In Sep
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14328.php

The Japanese unit of U.K. mobile phone giant Vodafone Group Plc. (VOD)
said Friday it gained 3,300 subscribers to its mobile phone services
in September on a net basis, the forth consecutive month of
increase. ...

  KDDI Gains Net 165,100 Mobile Phone Users In Sep
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14329.php

KDDI Corp. (9433.TO) said Friday it gained 165,100 subscribers to its
mobile phone services in September on a net basis. ...

  NTT DoCoMo Gains Net 124,800 Mobile Phone Users In Sep
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14330.php

NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437.TO), Japan's largest mobile phone carrier, said
Friday it gained a net 124,800 subscribers in September. ...

  O2 Considered Acquisition Of Amena, Wind-CEO
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14323.php

O2 PLC, the U.K. mobile telecommunications company, Thursday said it
considered acquiring both Spain's Amena and Italian operator Wind when
those assets were for sale. ...

  13 Companies Shortlisted For Tunisie Telecom Stake
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14324.php

The Tunisian government said Friday it has pre-selected 13 companies,
including Vivendi Universal (V), France Telecom (FTE), Telecom Italia
SpA (TI) and Telefonica SA (TEF), to bid for 35% of state-owned
Tunisie Telecom....

  U.S. Court Refuses To Hear Research In Motion Appeal
  http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14327.php

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- A federal appeals court said Friday it
wouldn't hear arguments to reconsider a prior decision that upheld
several patent-infringment charges against Research In Motion Ltd.,
the mak...

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

From: John McHarry <jmcharry@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours!
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 02:36:18 GMT
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net


On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 23:49:31 +0000, John Levine wrote:

> It's easy to get a feed of the root zone.  Fill out a form from
> Verisign, fax it back, and you too can FTP a copy from their server
> whenever you want.  BTDTGTZF

> 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.

I was thinking of a zone transfer, but your method is probably more
than good enough, so I stand corrected. 

I don't think much of anybody other than a national government would
want to do this. The reasons for that would be partly to make sure the
US couldn't mess up their Internet operations, and partly a matter of
not having to petition another sovereign power for changes they want
to make.

Of course, the dispute goes beyond control of DNS to allocation of
IPV4 address space and other issues.

> [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 start a domain for example
> called '.abracadabra' or whatever name and it would not be subject to
> any rules but his own. Or am I missing something here?

Only that his root domains would only be recognized by users of his
root servers. There might be some use for this in setting up shorthand
domain names, but it wouldn't make the actual sites private, since they
would still have public underlying IP addresses. 

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

From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal
Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 16:25:27 -0700
Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com


On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 19:27:32 -0700,Telecom Digest Editor wrote:

> 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]

Let's have a little reality check here.  Windows 95 which you used on
one of your systems.  That's *10* years ago!  Windows 2000.  That's
*5* years ago.  Time marches on.  That's part of the reason Mac OSX
works as well as it does.  They don't *have* to have absolute
compatibility with OS's that are many years old and have become
obsolete.  You get new software for your new and improved OS.  Yes it
costs money to do, but if you want to have your functionality you do
have to upgrade.  That's just the way of the world.  Sometimes
upgrading to a new OS is just something that you put off.  I have put
off upgrading to XP pro only because when I do put it on this machine
I'm going to wipe the drive and start fresh rather than cobble my
machine with old and new stuff.  It's a question of saving what I need
to save and then just taking the time to do it.

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

Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 16:47:34 -0700
From: Henry Cabot Henhouse III <sooper_chicken@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan


I couldn't find reference to the "unlimited local w/500 national"
minutes on the archived website that Daniel pointed me to, but the
info from DevilsPGD confirms what I thought I signed up for... and the
reason I changed my pcs to a 323 number so forwarded minutes would not
count towards the 500 minutes.

I don't recall ever receiving notification from Vonage that the plan
changed.

Vonage has been ok, I've only suffered through a few outages -- which
affected everyone -- and fortunately I've never had the pain of trying
to get through to them on the phone.

I've recently considered switching to Sunrocket ... the website says
they can port one of my Verizon Wireless numbers (310-995 Gardena)
which Vonage can not do. I guess that, along with them being five
bucks a month less than Vonage for unlimited, makes SR attractive to
me.

Anyone have any opinions on SR?

Thanks,

Dave

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

From: John McHarry <jmcharry@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 01:55:39 GMT
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net


On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 15:11:19 -0400, Norm wrote:

> Now that was the story as told by Laura Fermi, eighteen years after it
> happened, and twenty-five years (my first relaying of it) after I
> heard it and now forty years (my second relaying of it.) Is it a true
> story or not?  Or was Mrs. Fermi a wee bit forgetful that night?  Or
> did I have too many shots of brandy or some other after-dinner liquor
> in me?      PAT]

Well, I sent the original article to friends who were stationed near
Alamogordo several years ago, and they found the house. 

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I seem to remember you writing here to
tell me about them finding the house which had formerly belonged to
the switchboard operator. I do not remember if your report said the
house was still telco property and in use (for something else, obviously)
or not.   PAT

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

From: John McHarry <jmcharry@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours!
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 02:10:55 GMT
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net


On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 07:16:17 -0400, Tony P. wrote:

> In article <telecom24.456.6@telecom-digest.org>, george@m5p.com says...

>> Anybody who wants to can set up their own name servers, and they don't
>> have to ever connect to the current root name servers.  But few people
>> are inclined to do this.  Ninety-nine percent of users will simply
>> configure their systems to use their ISP's name servers by virtue of
>> doing nothing: DHCP, the same protocol by which they receive their IP
>> address assignment, will also tell them the IP address(es) to use for
>> domain name lookups.  Ninety-nine percent of ISPs will use the root
>> name server hints which were packaged with their own name server setup
>> packages, and guess where those hints will send domain name requests
>> for the root zone?

> Actually it's DNS that tells them. DHCP does nothing more than dish out 
> an IP address and various routing information.

George was correct. One of the items DHCP can pass is DNS server
addresses. You can configure your system not to use them, but most
users don't know how. Nor do they have much reason to do so. I have
thought about running a caching only server myself, but problems with
my ISP's servers have tended to go away before I worked up the energy.

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

From: Brian E Williams <sorry_no_email@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord
Date: 10 Oct 2005 07:33:05 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


I do appreciate you taking the time to set me straight.  I promise that
is the last time I ever top post or quote an entire post.  Cross my
heart.

Joseph wrote:

> 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.

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


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