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TELECOM Digest Thu, 13 Oct 2005 21:52:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 466 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Today's Scum Report (Associated Press News Report) Gemstar Sues Tribune Over Online TV Listings (Reuters News) Questions and Answers: Apple's iPod Video (USA Today) Online Dating (Catherine Arnst) "Acadamy" Services Calls (David Sword) Re: Device That Interfaces Between CallerID and Serial Port (C Navarro) Re: What is Area Code 113? (Carl Zwanzig) Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 (John McHarry) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Associated Press <ap@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Today's Scum Report Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 17:38:33 -0500 Some Post-Katrina Fraud Arrests By The Associated Press Some arrests in federal fraud investigations from Hurricane Katrina. ___ THE ACCUSED: George Marrero and Michelle Lynn Goodwin, both of Waco, Texas. THE CHARGES: Authorities say Marrero and Goodwin falsely claimed Louisiana residency and losses from Hurricane Katrina in an online application for between $2,000 and $4,000 in FEMA benefits. CHARGES ANNOUNCED: Oct. 12 in San Antonio, Texas. ___ THE ACCUSED: Bryan Michael Beets of Vicksburg, Miss., and Markqus Antonio Brown, Henry Jerome Armstrong and Ebony Hawkins, all of Meridian, Miss. THE CHARGES: The four are accused of applying for disaster relief aid, falsely claiming to have lived in homes damaged by Katrina. Authorities said they did not live at the address they listed on their claim when Katrina hit. CHARGES ANNOUNCED: Oct. 6-7 in Jackson, Miss. ___ THE ACCUSED: Joseph Earl Johnson, 48, of Lufkin, Texas. THE CHARGE: Johnson is accused of claiming he lived in Beaumont, Texas, and that his home was destroyed during Hurricane Rita, to apply for FEMA benefits. CHARGE ANNOUNCED: Oct. 6 in Lufkin. ___ THE ACCUSED: Yolanda Toliver, 46, of Minden, La., and Eugenia Jones, 53, of Elm Grove, La. THE CHARGES: Authorities said Toliver and Jones fraudulently claimed to be New Orleans residents whose homes were destroyed by Katrina when they applied for $2,000 in FEMA aid. FEMA mailed a $2,000 check to Toliver and deposited the money in Jones' bank account. CHARGES ANNOUNCED: Oct. 5 in Shreveport, La. ___ THE ACCUSED: Walter Ray Stall, also known as Ray Johnson, 43, of Palestine, Texas. THE CHARGE: Stall is accused of claiming he was a New Orleans resident whose home, personal property and vehicle were damaged in the storm to apply for $2,000 in FEMA aid. FEMA sent a Treasury check to Texas, where Stall lives. CHARGE ANNOUNCED: Oct. 4 in Tyler, Texas. ___ THE ACCUSED: John Phillip Dugan, 19, of Baton Rouge, La., and Ursula R. Johnson, 33, of Baker, La. THE CHARGES: Authorities said Dugan applied for FEMA relief funds using a false address from the disaster area, while Johnson is accused of using her brother's name and her aunt's New Orleans address to register for aid. Both deposited FEMA checks into bank accounts. CHARGES ANNOUNCED: Oct. 4 in Baton Rouge, La. ___ THE ACCUSED: Trent Jermaine Preslie, 33, Aminah Randle, 19, Robert Johnson, 23, Miko Shannia Nobles, 22, Tonjua Randle, 39, Sheena Porter, 21, Stanley Lewis, 44, Candice Brown, 20, Elizabeth Ray, 48, Nashima Johnson, 27, Harold D. Oats, 26, David R. Candelaria, 37, Marisela Gonzalez, 27, Morgan Winslow, 33, and Marietta Snowden 48, all of Bakersfield, Calif. THE CHARGES: All 15 were employed,at a Red Cross call center in Bakersfield. Authorities say they believe the accused used victims' information to qualify for Red Cross financial aid that was then wired to Western Union and collected by themselves instead of the victims. CHARGES ANNOUNCED: Oct. 4-6 in Fresno, Calif. ___ THE ACCUSED: Gary S. Kraser, 51, of Aventura, Fla. THE CHARGE: Kraser is accused of raising nearly $40,000 over two days on a Web site by falsely claiming he would fly medical supplies to areas hit by Hurricane Katrina and help evacuate children and critically ill patients. His attorney has since said Kraser gave the money back and then chartered a plane to provide medical supplies. CHARGE ANNOUNCED: Oct. 3 in Miami. ___ THE ACCUSED: Barney Spears, 38, of Houston. THE CHARGE: Spears is charged with claiming in an online FEMA application that his primary residence was in New Orleans and that he needed food, shelter and clothing after the storm. He picked up a $2,000 FEMA check from Western Union, even though authorities say he has lived in Houston since October 2004. CHARGE ANNOUNCED: Sept. 30 in Houston. ___ THE ACCUSED: Kenneth M. Hodge, 33, and Veronica Jaeger, 22, both of Florida. THE CHARGES: Hodge and Jaeger are charged with applying for $2,000 in FEMA aid by claiming they lost their homes in Slidell, La., even though they live in Florida. They picked up the checks at a Louisiana shelter and used some of the relief money to buy cocaine, authorities allege. CHARGES ANNOUNCED: Sept. 29 in Shreveport, La. ___ THE ACCUSED: Nakia Dewuane Grimes, 30, of Atlanta. THE CHARGE: Grimes is accused of applying for $2,000 in FEMA aid though the Internet by claiming she was a Katrina victim from New Orleans, even though she lives in Atlanta. Authorities say she asked for the check to be mailed to a relative's home in Atlanta. She was arrested after she picked up the FEMA check at a post office. CHARGE ANNOUNCED: Sept. 21 in Atlanta. ___ THE ACCUSED: Tino Lee, 44, of Burbank, Calif., and Gina Liz Nicholas, 19, of Glendale, Calif. THE CHARGES: Authorities say Lee and Nicholas posed as Red Cross officials and set up a donations table outside a Best Buy electronics store in Burbank to collect money for themselves. CHARGES ANNOUNCED: Sept. 16 in Los Angeles. ___ Source: Justice Department. All readers are reminded that the United States Constitution requires that all these folks be presumed innocent until their guilt is proven beyond a doubt in a court of law. 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. ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Gemstar Sues Tribune Over Online TV Listings Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 17:37:45 -0500 Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. said on Thursday it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Tribune Co.'s Zap2It, a Web site that includes TV programing guides. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, charges that the technology Zap2It (www.zap2it.com) uses to help online readers search for TV listings in their area is under patent by Gemstar's TV Guide. TV Guide is seeking damages and an injunction against Zap2It. It said that past efforts to reach an agreement with Tribune over the patent have been unsuccessful. Tribune declined to comment on the lawsuit. Over the past two years Gemstar has settled a number separate patent disputes, including one with set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta, relating to Interactive Program Guides. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Also see news reports from daily media at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: USA Today Staff <usatoday@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Questions and Answers: Apple's Video iPod Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 17:38:12 -0500 Watching videos purchased at Apple's iTunes online store should be a snap for tech-smart consumers. (Related item: Apple releases video iPod) USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham walks you through the process and answers some common questions: Q: How would I play a video on the new iPod? A: Download the latest version of Apple's free iTunes software, iTunes 6.0 (www.itunes.com). The program manages digital media content on your computer and takes you to the iTunes Music Store. The iTunes store offers songs for 99 cents each, free audio broadcasts from the likes of ABC News and National Public Radio and now 2,000 music videos, episodes from five TV series and shorts from animation studio Pixar, the makers of Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Q: Once I download the video, what can I do with it? A: Watch it on your Windows or Macintosh computer or on the new iPods. You can burn the shows to a CD or DVD, but only as a data disk backup. The files are copy-protected and can't be viewed on a DVD player for TV playback. Q: Can I connect a video iPod to my TV? A: Yes. The video iPod has a video output and can be connected directly to the TV. You could do the same with a laptop if it has a TV output. Q: How do I watch the videos on the computer? A: Click the "Videos" tab in iTunes. Double-click on the video you want. You'll see the TV program or music video begin to play in a window at the bottom of the screen. Dragging and resizing the window will give you a bigger image. If you're savvy and know where the file resides on your computer, you can also view it in your QuickTime media player by right-clicking on the file (on Windows computers). The file won't play in Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. Q: How's the image quality? A: The TV shows we downloaded Wednesday looked terrific, even at full screen. Not as good as a plasma, high-definition TV image, but a good sharp picture with excellent sound. The music videos, however, were of lower quality. Q: What's so revolutionary about being able to buy music videos online? A: Music videos have been shown for free on the Web for years, with Yahoo Music and AOL Music the two most-popular sites. Apple's iTunes started showing music videos this year for free as well. However, they are available for viewing only. Wednesday marked the first major commercial deployment of online music videos for sale. Q: How many music videos are available? A: Apple says 2,000. They are primarily from Universal Music Group and include artists such as Kanye West, U2 and Shania Twain. Apple wouldn't discuss its deals with labels Wednesday. Q: Can I transfer other video content I own to the video iPod? A: Yes, non-copy-protected videos (home videos, for example) can be transferred, via Apple's $29.95 QuickTime Pro 7 software. Q: Is the video iPod the first video player? A: No, some personal digital assistants offer video playback, and PalmOne's Treo 650 and several high-end cellphones even play live TV on screens that are smaller than the 2.5-inch iPod. Microsoft introduced portable video in 2004's Portable Media Center, a bigger, bulkier and more expensive ($400 to $500) device from Samsung, Creative Technologies, iRiver and other companies. Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. 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 USA Today headlines and stories, go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: Catherine Arnst <businessweek@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Online Dating Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 17:39:40 -0500 C'mon, Baby, Light My Brain Cells Thu Oct 13, 8:16 AM ET Online dating has been around for about a decade, and it's undeniably popular: Some 21 million Americans subscribe to online dating services and 1 in every 100 Internet visitors posts a personal ad.But high use doesn't necessarily mean high satisfaction levels. Anyone who has ever tried Internet dating knows the pitfalls -- the difficulty of sifting through hundreds of often generic-sounding profiles, the misleading or outright dishonest ads, the failure to find any connection once you meet the person you've been happily e-mailing for weeks. Helen E. Fisher thinks she can change all that. Fisher, an anthropologist and research professor at Rutgers University's Center for Human Evolutionary Studies, specializes in love, marriage, and gender differences. She's the author of four books, including her most recent, titled Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love. She believes that the type of person we are attracted to is hardwired into our neurons, etched by a combination of hormones, brain chemicals, and childhood experiences. "Love Map." As an adviser to new spinoff, Chemistry.com, Fisher is trying to quantify that certain something we're all looking for in a mate. She designed a lengthy set of questions that a subscriber fills out. The answers are then run through a computer, which tries to decipher the "love map" in the subscriber's brain. It then searches the site's database for potential matches. The site launched on Oct. 11. Later that day, BusinessWeek Senior Writer Catherine Arnst talked to Fisher about her research and its role in online dating. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow: So, how does Chemistry.com come up with matches? Chemistry.com is quite different than anything else that's out there (in the online-dating world). I designed a lot of these questions to determine your brain chemistry. If you have high levels of serotonin, for example, you are likely to be calm and stable. More of a guardian, a pillar of society. There are other personality types as well that are based on chemistry. There are questions that tell us if you are good at abstract thinking, or quick to make decisions and act on them. It's not exactly like I'm going to light a fire between the two of you. It just raises the chances. Most people fall in love because they have shared values, but they stay in love because their personalities mesh. We're trying to increase the changes of finding that spark and joy and excitement you feel when personalities mesh. But how can science be used to find something that most people feel is more akin to magic? There is still magic to love, of course. Even though we employ science we recognize that many factors determine who we love. Your childhood also plays an enormous role in shaping your likes and dislikes. We ask questions, for example, about the characteristics of your former best relationship. We are trying to get at who you were really compatible with, what kinds of characteristics that person had. I want to know not only what your brain chemistry is, but what was successful for you in the past. Why did you decide to get involved with Chemistry.com? So many scientists have theories and don't really ever learn whether they work or not. Also, I wouldn't have gotten involved if I didn't think it had some real value. The typical dating sites match you based on similarities, but there is more to a good match than similarities. There are the complementary features as well. We fall in love with someone who masks those parts of us that we don't like and accentuates the parts of us we do like. (Chemistry.com) is trying to get at some of those very subtle ways that people complement each other. How confident are you that it will work? I'm certainly confident in the brain chemistry. But can we ever be totally confident about love? Certainly not. The clients play a big role in the outcome, after all. What really astonishes me, though, is that I came up with four basic personality types in my research, and these same four types have been described by Plato, Aristotle, Carl Jung, Myers-Briggs. Mankind has long known that there are personality types. And we can use that knowledge to up your chances of finding the right person. One of the questions on Chemistry.com asks how long your index finger is compared to your ring finger. What's the significance of that? We are measuring how much testosterone you were exposed to in the womb. There is new data that shows that the brain is patterned before birth. The length of the finger can give some clues as to how assertive they might be. (Studies have found that the length of the index fingers is genetically linked to the sex hormones. A person with an index finger shorter than the ring finger will have been exposed to more testosterone while in the womb, and a person with an index finger longer than the ring finger will have had more estrogen. In women, the two fingers are usually equal in length, as measured from the crease nearest the palm to the fingertip. In men, the ring finger tends to be much longer than the index finger. You can all run for your rulers now.) Copyright 2005 BusinessWeek Online. All rights reserved. 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Business Week Online. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: David Sword <david@newvintage.org> Subject: "Acadamy" Services Calls Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 13:37:49 -0700 This company has also been calling me now for the last month on my cell. They hang up or ask for a "Michelle" whom I do not know. I have asked to be removed from their list several times. They would not even tell me who was calling. The only way I found out who they were was by calling them back. The last caller was extremely rude and would not give me the name of the company or her name. When I called them, they put me into a complaint department voice mail box. I am really starting to get hacked off now. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you have any female friends who could take the call? When the caller asks for Michelle put 'her' on the line to see what it is they want. Have 'Michelle' stay on the phone to get the details. Or, just tell the caller "Michelle is not here right now, let me take a message for her." Maybe you can squeek some information out of them. Good luck with it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro <cnavarro@wcnet.org> Subject: Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 21:13:01 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 09:25:03 -0700, anon1@sci.sci wrote: >> http://www.callerid.com/?page=ezid > Integrated Voice Response (IVR) system >> You need an IVR that can process the CID DTMF. Amanda comes to mind, > Ah, IVR is the jargon I was looking for in my original request. So I'm > looking for the cheapest standalone IVR device I can find. Thanks. >> In about 30 minutes, you ought to be able to build a pretty long wish >> list and download some use(ful/less) software. > Two problems: My Macintosh has less than 17 megabytes available on > hard disk, and most software I've seen on that Web site doesn't run on > a Macintosh in the first place. Sigh. Do you know how to use Google? One minute with Google looking for MACINTOSH VOICE MAIL got this result http://www.parliant.com/phonevalet/callprofiles.html $200 and it runs on your Mac. Carl ------------------------------ From: zbang@radix.net (Carl Zwanzig) Subject: Re: What is Area Code 113? Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 01:03:47 -0000 Organization: RadixNet Internet Services > In article <telecom24.449.6@telecom-digest.org>, IMAFriend >> I keep getting a phone call from area code 113. Does anyone have any >> idea what that is? Dipping back into the mists of time, ISTR that back in the '70s, 113 was used as the NPA part of the number for outWATS trunks and for inter-toll- center operator trunks. (Or was it 112?) z! ------------------------------ From: John McHarry <jmcharry@comcast.net> Subject: Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 01:20:34 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Mon, 10 Oct 2005 01:55:39 +0000, John McHarry wrote: > 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 I don't think I ever knew. I kind of assumed from the story they had put the switchboard in somebody's home, perhaps the telephone company owner's. Alamogordo is now Qwest, but it may have been a mom and pop back then, or at least the outlying areas. Next time I talk to the people who found it, I'll try to remember to ask what it is now. ------------------------------ 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 #466 ****************************** | |