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TELECOM Digest     Fri, 21 Oct 2005 00:41:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 478

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    SBC Sees Little Threat From Skype, Net Calling Generally (Justin Hyde)
    Blackberry Users Learning Painful Lessons (Alicia Chang)
    Firefox Hits 100 Million Mark (Elizabeth Millard)
    NYS AG Spitzer ... Settles With Spyer/Scammer/Sleazer (Danny Burstein)
    Virgin Mobile Unusual Charges (NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info)
    EPIC Alert 12.21 (Monty Solomon)
    Re: TV Show - Legacy Phone in Scene (Paul Coxwell)
    Re: TV Show - Legacy Phone in Scene (Wesrock@aol.com)
    Last Laugh! The Case of The Dollar Bill (Paul Coxwell)

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
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: Justin Hyde <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: SBC Sees Little Threat From Skype, Net Calling Generally
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 22:49:09 -0500


By Justin Hyde

SBC Communications Inc. sees little challenge to its traditional
telephone business from services such as Skype that offer free phone
calls over the Internet, SBC's chief financial officer said on
Thursday.

"I don't see it as a significant threat," SBC CFO Rick Lindner said in
an interview with Reuters. "The fears of what may happen there are
overblown."

In recent weeks several tech giants, notably Google Inc. and Yahoo!
Inc , have either launched or bolstered services offering free voice
calls between computers.

Skype, which also allows users to place relatively cheap calls to
regular telephone numbers worldwide, agreed last month to be bought by
Internet auction site eBay Inc. for up to $4.1 billion.

That deal raised the specter of a well-funded Internet calling service
taking on the U.S. "Baby Bells," such as SBC and Verizon
Communications Inc.. Several analysts have contended that while eBay
bought Skype to increase Web-based commerce, it would eventually look
to expand Skype further into telecommunications.

EBay estimates Skype will produce revenues of $60 million in 2005 and
more than $200 million in 2006. EBay Chairman and Chief Executive Meg
Whitman told analysts on Wednesday that Skype would make its money
from add-on services, not phone calls.

"It is very clear that voice communications is moving on to the
Internet," Whitman said. "In the end, the price that anyone can
provide for voice transmission on the Net will trend toward zero."

Skype had 57 million registered users worldwide as of September, not
all of whom frequent the service regularly. According to
Nielsen/NetRatings, 1.85 million U.S. users either went to Skype's
home page or used the software last month.

But Lindner said while some "techies" might want to "scour the
Internet and buy applications and services from a number of different
providers," the mass market of customers will prefer to buy voice,
video and data services from one company on one bill.

"Why has WalMart been successful in areas like groceries? It's because
its convenient for people to go to one location and buy everything,"
he said.

Lindner also said consumers will prefer to send calls over reliable
networks. Most U.S. telephone network equipment is designed to go
offline for no more than a few minutes per year.

"That's a big difference from simply relying on the public Internet to
handle your communication needs," Lindner said.

SBC said on Thursday that it ended the quarter with 50.2 million
traditional telephone lines, a 5.1 percent decrease from a year
earlier, driven by a loss of 643,000 wholesale lines.


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: Alicia Chang <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Blackberry Users Learning Painful Lessons
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 22:50:07 -0500


By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

Chris Claypool was addicted to his BlackBerry wireless handheld. Like
many users, he never thought twice about pecking away at lightning
speed, replying to a wave of e-mails.

Last year, the 37-year-old agricultural sales director from Post
Falls, Idaho, noticed a throbbing sensation in this thumbs whenever he
typed.  He switched to tapping with his index finger, then his middle
digit and finally his pinky. But his thumbs pained him to the point
where he can't even press the buttons on his TV remote control.

After months of aching, Claypool took a break. Now he only uses his
BlackBerry to send short messages -- typing with the tip of a pencil
eraser whenever his thumbs get sore.

"It affects business because I can't whack away on my BlackBerry like
I used to," he said. "It's just too painful."

Repetitive motion injuries, which have long afflicted desktop and
laptop computer users, are invading the mobile handheld world.

There's even an informal name for the malady -- "BlackBerry Thumb" --
a catch-all phrase that describes a repetitive stress injury of the
thumb as a result of overusing small gadget keypads.n

Business executives and tech-savvy consumers are increasingly using
BlackBerries, Treos, Sidekicks and other devices with miniature
keyboards designed for thumb-tapping to stay connected while on the
go.

And that has some ergonomic and hand experts worried about injuries
from overexertion.

"If you're trying to type 'War and Peace' with your thumbs, then
you're going to have a problem," warned Alan Hedge, director of the
Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory at Cornell University in
Ithaca, N.Y.

No national statistics exist on how many people suffer from this type
of thumb ailment, but some doctors say they are seeing an upswing in
related cases, said Dr. Stuart Hirsch, an orthopedist at St. Joseph's
Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, N.J.

"It's mostly the road warrior who prefers to answer e-mails on a thumb
keyboard," said Hirsch. "If all you did was just answer with a simple
yes and no, it would not be a dilemma."

For as long as video gamers have been blasting aliens, so-called
"Gamer's Thumb" has been a sore spot for them, as well. With tens of
millions of portable video game machines on the market, lots of young
hands risk digit abuse.

Games for such devices generally include some type of printed warning
about injury risks from prolonged playing.

Earlier this year, the American Society of Hand Therapists issued a
consumer alert, warning users of small electronic gadgets that heavy
thumb use could lead to painful swelling of the sheath around the
tendons in the thumb.

The group recommended taking frequent breaks during e-mailing and
resting one's arms on a pillow for support.

A booklet that ships with the Nintendo DS handheld system advises a 10
to 15 minute break for each hour of play, and a break of at least
several hours if gamers experience wrist or hand soreness.

"People tend to use just one finger over and over again and it's that
repetitive use with one digit that could lead to problems," said
Stacey Doyon, vice president of the American Society of Hand
Therapists and a registered occupational therapist in Portland, Maine.

The BlackBerry, which debuted in 1999, employs a full QWERTY keypad for
thumb typing to automatically send and receive e-mail. About 2.5 million
people currently use Blackberries, more than double from a year ago.

An executive for Research In Motion Ltd., which makes the BlackBerry,
said the company considers ergonomic factors when designing its
keyboards.

"Of course, any product can be overused ... so people should listen to
their own bodies and adjust their routine if necessary. But I would
caution against confusing rare examples of overuse with the typical
experience," Mark Guibert, vice president of marketing, wrote in an
e-mail.

Musculoskeletal disorders, which include repetitive strain injuries,
accounted for a third of all workplace injuries and illnesses reported
in 2003 -- the latest data available, according to the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics.

Specialists say the thumb -- considered by many as an island because
it is set apart from the other fingers -- is among the least dexterous
digit and is not meant to be rigorously worked out.

For people who insist on typing more than a sentence with their
thumbs, external keyboards that connect to the gadgets may be a less
painful alternative, said Dr. Jennifer Weiss, assistant professor of
orthopedics at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Treatment for BlackBerry thumb may include wearing a splint and
applying ice to the affected area. If the pain persists, doctors may
opt to inject the thumb area with a cortisone shot. Surgery may be
required as a last resort.

John Orminski, a 44-year-old information technology manager from
Pontiac, Mich., went to a doctor in the spring after feeling a strain
in his right thumb.

On any given day, Orminski uses his thumb repeatedly to punch clients'
telephone numbers, scroll through his address book and update his
calendar on his BlackBerry.

Orminski already suffers from golfer's elbow -- a form of tendinitis --
from playing the sport. But unlike his elbow pain, which occurs in
spurts, Orminski's thumb woes tend to flare up more often.

He recently started physical therapy for this thumb -- receiving
electrical stimulation and massage to relax the muscles.

"It can get sore and tender, but I'm learning to live with it."
_____

On the Net:

American Society of Hand Therapists: http://www.asht.org

Research in Motion: http://www.rim.net

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 headlines from Associated Press, go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html

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

From: Elizabeth Millard <newsfactor@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Firefox Hits 100 Million Mark
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 22:50:26 -0500


Elizabeth Millard, newsfactor.com

The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser has reached 100 million
downloads only five months after hitting the 50 million mark and just
a few weeks prior to the one-year anniversary of its formal release.

While the browser has seen download rates spike over the past year,
the adoption of the browser mainly has been a steady growth path, the
foundation noted. At this point, between 200,000 and 300,000 downloads
occur per day.

Mozilla has openly thanked its thousands of contributors worldwide for
efforts that have caused adoption to go far beyond expectations.

"Their work developing and fine-tuning the Firefox browser ensures the
best Web experience available," Mozilla noted in a
statement. "Volunteer extension developers further enrich Firefox's
capabilities by enabling users to customize and enhance their browser
and truly take back the Web."

Growing Pains

Getting to the 100 million mark might be cause for celebration at
Mozilla, but the organization has not been without its challenges.

Most notably, the browser has had several security flaws reported, and
its marketing site, SpreadFirefox.com, was recently brought down by
hackers.

A Symantec report noted that Mozilla browsers had more reported
vulnerabilities than Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) Internet Explorer
in the first half of 2005, but the report also noted that the Microsoft
flaws were considered more serious.

Choppy Waters Ahead

While pundits continually have said that the adoption rates for
Firefox will slow, the ranks of Firefox users have grown, indicating
that it is nibbling away at Internet Explorer's formidable market
share.

Gartner (NYSE: IT - news) analyst Ray Valdes said it is possible that
use of the Firfox browser will see a significant drop once Microsoft's
next OS is released and subsequent changes are made to the Internet
Explorer browser.

"Much will depend on how Microsoft ties Internet Explorer to its big
releases next year," said Valdes. "They may not have planned to
emphasize Internet Explorer, but I think Firefox's adoption rate is
something they're noticing."

At this point, many enterprise I.T. departments are looking at Firefox
as a viable alternative to Internet Explorer. This interest could
product the kind of corporate endorsement necessary for the browser to
keep growing, noted Valdes.


Copyright 2005 NewsFactor Network, 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.

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

From: Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
Subject: NYS AG Spitzer ... Settles With Spyer/Scammer/Sleazer
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 22:51:42 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC


( lots of good stuff in the complete press release. Check the whole
thing when you have a moment )

" Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced an agreement with the
former CEO of a leading internet marketing company responsible for
secretly installing adware and spyware on millions of home computers.

" Under the agreement, Brad Greenspan, the founder and former CEO of
Intermix Media, will pay $750,000 in penalties and disgorgement in
connection with an investigation of the conduct of his former
company ...

" Spitzer also announced today that New York Supreme Court Judge
Judith Gische had approved a consent agreement between Intermix and
Spitzer's office requiring Intermix to pay $7.5 million in penalties
and disgorgement, and accept a ban on the distribution of adware
programs in the future.....

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2005/oct/oct20a_05.html.

_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
 		     dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

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

From: NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info
Subject: Virgin Mobile Unusual Charges
Date: 20 Oct 2005 19:33:17 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


I have been a happy Virgin Mobile user since August of 2004.

Virgin uses the SPCS network in USA.

I rarely use the $7.00/month minimum.

All of a sudden my balance seemed to go down quicker then normal.

I went online and I see I am being charged for:

Virgin Xtras at 2/day I never asked for that.

A ringtone download [I only use phone on vibrate.]

Charges for 25 calls to numbers that don't exist.

E=2EG:
 10/03/2005
03:38 PM  001819  00:01        VOICE   -$0.25

Anyone else notice anything unusual on their Virgin Web logs?  Before
I call them, I would like to know if I am the only one.

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

Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 23:50:41 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: EPIC Alert 12.21


========================================================================
                               E P I C  A l e r t
========================================================================
Volume 12.21                                          October 20, 2005
------------------------------------------------------------------------

                               Published by the
                  Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
                               Washington, D.C.

                http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_12.21.html

========================================================================
Table of Contents
========================================================================

[1] Broad Coalition Opposes Joint Marketing, Recruiting Database
[2] Federal Court Blocks Georgia Voter ID Law
[3] EPIC Files "Friend of the Court" Brief in DNA Dragnet Case
[4] FDA Urged to Examine Medical Monitoring Databases
[5] Election Verification Groups Call for Compliance with Voting Laws
[6] News in Brief
[7] EPIC Bookstore: Katherine Albrecht's "Spychips"
[8] Upcoming Conferences and Events

 ...

http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_12.21.html

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

Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 00:09:39 +0100
From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: Re: TV Show - Legacy Phone in Scene


> In the city, payphones for prepay, even if dial-tone first.  (I don't
> remember if 3-slots could have dial-tone first).  On TV, it seemed
> every pay phone was also pre-pay.

> However, in rural locations, payphones were postpay.  That is, you got
> a dial tone and dialed the number.  If the line was busy or no answer
> you just hung up.  But if answered you had to put in the dime to let
> your transmitter work.  On such phones there was no "hold area" for
> coins and associated relay control, coins went directly into the box.
> That meant the phone had a much simpler construction as did the CO
> equipment, making it cheaper.  People have previously stated there
> were ways to beat the system with that kind of payphone, but I presume
> the phoneco figured the cost savings were worth the risk, and maybe
> rural people were more honest and less scheming than city people.

Here in the U.K. we've gone from prepay, to postpay, and then back to
prepay again over the years, but they've always been dialtone first.

The "AB" box is fondly remembered by older generations and was
introduced in the mid 1920s.  Payphones, or "public call offices" as
they were once called used a modified GPO 300-series desk telephone,
fitted to a wall bracket or shelf and wired to this separate coin box.
The latter had three coin slots on the top, a return chute at the
bottom, and two buttons, one labeled with a very large "A" in a circle
and the other with a large "B" in a rectangle (hence the "AB" name).
This second button was actually located on the side of the box.

The "AB" phone was prepayment with coin collect and return being done
manually by the caller.  Dialtone would be heard upon picking up the
phone, but calls could not be dialed until coins had been deposited,
removing a short from the dial contacts.  The coin deposit also
applied a short-circuit to the transmitter.

Upon getting an answer, the caller pressed button "A" which collected
the coins and restored the contacts to normal, removing the short on
the transmitter and allowing conversation to take place.  If there was
no answer, the line was busy, or the call failed to complete for some
other reason, the caller pressed button "B" which returned the coins
and simultaneously operated a mechanical timer which opened the line
for a few seconds to release any connection.  He could also just
hangup for a couple of seconds then try again, leaving the coins in
situ.

Extra contacts on the dial allowed zero to be dialed to reach an
operator without depositing any coins (and as the 999 emergency
service came into service the dials were modified to allow a 9 to be
dialed with no coins as well).  For long-distance calls, the operator
would listen for the coins being deposited just as on U.S. 3-slot
coinphones, then tell the caller to press button "A" when she got an
answer or to press button "B" to return his money if the call failed
to complete (after the coin deposit the transmitter would be shorted
as on a local call until button "A" was pressed, so the caller was
then unable to speak to the operator).

The "AB" coinphone gradually disappeared from most areas during the
1960s, but a few survived in rural areas much later.  I believe the
last one was finally withdrawn from service in a very remote part of
Scotland sometime in the early 1980s

STD -- the British equivalent of DDD -- arrived in 1958, and there was
a desire to allow direct-dial long-distance calls from payphones
without the assistance of an operator.  Thus a totally different
design of coinphone was introduced in 1959 and gradually replaced the
old "AB" boxes as STD expanded during the 1960s.

This was a postpayment phone and an integrated design with handset
cradle across the top of the unit, a dial immediately below, and the
coin slots on the right (although a separate coin-box only model was
also produced to use with regular wall-mounted phones which was common
in hotels lobbies and similar semi-private locations).

The old A and B buttons were gone, replaced by signaling from the
central office, and a solenoid-operated shutter across the coin slots
prevented the deposit of coins until the appropriate time.

Calls -- both local and long-distance -- were dialed first, and when
answer supervision was received the office would send a signal to open
the coin shutters while applying "pay tone" to the line, a rapidly
interrupted 400Hz signal at about three times the normal busy-tone
speed (the called party also heard this signal to tell him to wait a
few seconds).

After the initial deposit, the charging equipment would simply allow
the call to continue for whatever period was appropriate based on the
time of day and area called, after which the process would be repeated
with another application of pay-tone to request more money.  If the
caller failed to insert more coins within a few seconds, the paytone
would cease and he would be allowed a few more seconds for free to
complete the call, after which it would be disconnected and the
shutters would close again.  The paytone soon became known
colloquially as "the pips," e.g. "I'll have to go now, that was the
pips and I have no more change."  (On the initial deposit, there was
no such grace period, so it was pay immediately or be disconnected.)

Now all of those postpayment phones I remember so well from the 1970s
are gone too, replaced with modern prepayment types with LCD displays
showing credit left and all the other present-day trimmings.  Somehow
to me they just don't have the character or the attraction of that old
equipment.

Below are links to pictures of the two types I've outlined, first the
AB "kiosk," then the postpayment type.  The latter is an older
version, still with lettered dial and slots for 6d. and 1/-.  Later
versions had numbered dials only and modified coin mechanisms for the
change to decimal money in 1971.

http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/images/Payphone_22.jpg
http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/images/Payphone_12.jpg

Paul.

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

From: Wesrock@aol.com
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 20:00:18 EDT
Subject: Re: TV Show - Legacy Phone in Scene


In a message dated 19 Oct 2005 13:44:01 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
writes:

         [ ... ]

> In the city, payphones for prepay, even if dial-tone first.  (I don't
> remember if 3-slots could have dial-tone first).  On TV, it seemed
> every pay phone was also pre-pay.

> However, in rural locations, payphones were postpay.  That is, you got
> a dial tone and dialed the number.  If the line was busy or no answer
> you just hung up.  But if answered you had to put in the dime to let
> your transmitter work.  On such phones there was no "hold area" for
> coins and associated relay control, coins went directly into the box.
> That meant the phone had a much simpler construction as did the CO
> equipment, making it cheaper.  People have previously stated there
> were ways to beat the system with that kind of payphone, but I presume
> the phoneco figured the cost savings were worth the risk, and maybe
> rural people were more honest and less scheming than city people.

I have lived in both small towns and urban places, and rural people
and city people are about the same as far as ethics and scheming.

However, in many small places the principal users of payphones were
out of town people, since generally any store or business would led
you use their flat-rate telephone free for local calls.

When I lived in Konawa, Oklahoma, in the early 1950s, such payphones
as existed were free for local calls and you just dialed the number.
For toll calls (placed through the operator) the operator told you how
much to put in and listened as it dropped directly into the box.

Of course, many small towns (and some pretty good sized ones) were
manual, and there was a charge for local calls and the operator
advised the called party to hold and listened as the caller deposited
the coins.

In Muskogee, Oklahoma, a good-sized manual office, the payphones were
prepay; you deposited the cost of a local call and the operator would
answer; when you passed a local number she would connect the call and
drop off, the ringing (or busy signal) being returned without her
supervision.  The coin(s) would return automatically if the line were
busy or didn't answer; if the call was completed the coins would be
collected automatically just as in dial prepay installations.


Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com

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

Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 22:52:59 +0100
From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: Last Laugh! The Case of The Dollar Bill


  From Reader's Digest, February 1967

Captain Joseph Dussia, former head of the Pennsylvania State Police
Crime Laboratory, is an accomplished safe-blower and lock-picker.  His
skill came in handy when he and a fellow officer were stranded on a
road one night, their car and police radio disabled.  A phone box was
nearby, but they didn't have any change.  Captain Dussia entered the
booth, picked the locks, dropped a dollar bill into the coin box, took
out some change, re-assembled everything, and called a break-down
truck.

A few days later, he got this message from a man at the telephone
company: "We've got something you should investigate.  We found a
dollar bill in one of our coin boxes."

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


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Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at
405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at
http://www.mstm.okstate.edu

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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #478
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