TELECOM Digest     Sun, 6 Nov 2005 23:55:00 EST    Volume 24 : Issue 505

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Market Growing for Refurbished, Used iPods (Antony Bruno)
    New Law Fuels Technology / Legal Clash (Brian Bergstein)
    Massachusetts Fights Microsoft on Data Format (Mark Jewell)
    FCC Sets April, 2009 Deadline on Digital TV (Jennifer C. Kerr)
    Newest Google Service (Marcus Didius Falco)
    Re: Phone Shown in 'Capote' / RJ Connector History (Paul Coxwell)
    Re: Old Chicago Numbering (Paul Coxwell)
    Re: Wabash Cannonball (was Re: Old Chicago Numbering) (Paul Coxwell)
    Re: Recorded Call From Law Office? (Justa Lurker)
    Re: Verizon POTS (Justa Lurker)
    Can't See dot.tk (Tom)
    Re: Replacement for Siemens Gigaset (Dan Lanciani)
    Sunday Sermon For This Week (Nicole Winfield)

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: Antony Bruno <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Market Growing for Refurbished, Used iPods
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 15:07:47 -0600


By Antony Bruno

The popular iPod Nano and the just-released video iPod are expected to
lead a surge of holiday sales for Apple Computer. Research firm
Fulcrum Global Partners predicts Apple will sell 10 million iPods in
the fourth quarter, a strong follow-up to the 7 million sold in the
previous quarter. But not all of these sales will be to new iPod
owners.

Piper Jaffray analysts say about 30 percent of the iPod purchasers are
now repeat buyers who are either replacing an existing,
earlier-generation iPod or adding to their range of styles (such as an
iPod Shuffle and a video iPod).

If the average lifespan of an iPod is about 1.5 years, what happens to
the older models?

Analysts say most users hand down their iPods to friends or family
once they purchase a new one. Some simply throw them away.

Increasingly, however, consumers are capitalizing on the growing iPod
phenomenon by selling their used iPods for cash or as a trade-in toward a
new device.

And it is not just for bargain hunters, either. With the popular iPod
Mini being discontinued, many fans have turned to the refurbished
market to track down a favorite color in what is becoming a
cult-nostalgia item.

"There is an emerging market for older iPods," Piper Jaffray analyst
Gene Munster says. "Apple discontinues successful products that people
feel some sort of connection to. They're the retro-cool thing."

COTTAGE INDUSTRY

Internet auction site eBay has literally thousands of iPod and
iPod-related products for sale. The site is considered a leading
resource for those seeking an inexpensive way to join the iPod
revolution. So is Web site Craigslist.

With 28 million iPods sold worldwide, the potential for iPod
refurbishment and sales has created a cottage industry of sorts.

Small Dog Electronics, for instance, is an established Apple reseller
that has for years sold refurbished Macintosh computers and other
accessories.  The company now sells around 500 used and refurbished
iPods per month from its Web-based store at significant discounts. A
refurbished third-generation, 30GB iPod that cost $400 in 2003 now
runs for about $210, for example.

The company offers up to $100 off the price of a new iPod to anyone
trading in a used one. According to CEO Don Mayer, the pace of such
replacements is expected to increase as iPod sales continue to grow.

"You have a curve that's getting larger every quarter for the
installed base of iPods," he says, "so the used and refurbished ones
are getting more and more prevalent. All that increases with volume."

Another company, PodSwap, takes it a step further by not only offering
cash for used iPods but also shipping players loaded with music that
has been authorized for such distribution by artists who own the
necessary rights.

Both companies collect the used devices, determine and classify their
condition, make whatever repairs are necessary and then clear the
memory of any music files before shipping.

COLLECTIONS FOR SALE

It is a bit more loose on Craigslist and eBay. Several iPods up for
auction include the sellers' music collection and instructions on how
to transfer the music from the iPod to the buyer's computer. Some even
take requests for additional songs to be added prior to shipping.

One video iPod for sale contains an entire season of TV show "King of
Queens" included.

Even Apple competitors have tried to use the swap as a promotional
tool.  Dell offered a $100 mail-in rebate to any customer turning in
an old iPod when buying one of its MP3 players.

Interestingly, all the deals are better than what Apple itself
offers. The company began offering iPod owners a 10 percent discount
on new iPods when they trade in an older device. That translates to
anywhere from $45 off a 60GB video iPod to $10 off the iPod Shuffle.

Reuters/Billboard

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: Brian Bergstein <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: New Law Fuels Tecnology / Legal Clash
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 15:09:21 -0600


By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer

A new method of communicating is creating intriguing services that
beat old ways of sending information. But law enforcement makes a
somber claim: These new networks will become a boon to criminals and
terrorists unless the government can easily listen in.

This was the story line in the mid-1990s when the Clinton
administration sought to have electronic communications encrypted only
by a National Security Agency-developed "Clipper Chip," for which the
feds would have a key.

The Clipper Chip eventually went the way of clipper ships after
industry balked and researchers showed its cryptographic approach was
flawed anyway.  But while the Clipper Chip died, the dilemma it
illuminated remains.

With each new advance in communications, the government wants the same
level of snooping power that authorities have exercised over phone
conversations for a century. Technologists recoil, accusing the
government of micromanaging -- and potentially limiting -- innovation.

Today, this tug of war is playing out over the Federal Communications
Commission's demands that a phone-wiretapping law be extended to
voice-over-Internet services and broadband networks.

Opponents are trying to block the ruling on various grounds: that it
goes beyond the original scope of the law, that it will force network
owners to make complicated changes at their own expense, or that it
will have questionable value in improving security.

No matter who wins the battle over this law -- the Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, known as CALEA -- this probably
won't be the last time authorities raise hackles by seeking a bird's
eye view over the freewheeling information flow created by new
technology.

Authorities are justified in trying to reduce the ways that technology
helps dangerous people operate in the shadows, said Daniel Solove,
author of "The Digital Person." But a parallel concern is that
technology can end up increasing the government's surveillance power
rather than just maintaining it.

"We have to ask ourselves anew the larger question: What surveillance
power should the government have?" said Solove, an assistant professor
at George Washington University Law School. "And to what extent should
the government be allowed to manage the development of technology to
embody its surveillance capability?"

Wiretapping -- so named because eavesdropping police placed metal
clips on the analog wires that carried conversations -- has a complex
legal history.

A 1928 case, Olmstead v. United States, legitimized the practice, when
the Supreme Court ruled it was acceptable for police to monitor the
private calls of a suspected bootlegger.

Behind that 5-4 ruling, however, a seminal debate was raging. The
dissenting opinion by Justice Louis Brandeis argued, among other
things, that the government had no right to open someone's mail, so
why should a phone -- or other technologies that might emerge -- carry
different expectations about privacy?

In 1967, as the dawn of the digital age was fulfilling Brandeis' fears
that other forms of technological eavesdropping would become possible,
the Supreme Court reversed Olmstead. After that, authorities had to
get a search warrant before setting wiretaps, even on public
payphones.

That apparently hasn't been much of a hindrance.

State and federal authorities have had 30,975 wiretap requests
authorized since 1968, with only 30 rejections, according to the
Electronic Privacy Information Center. Some 1,710 wiretaps were
authorized last year, the most ever, with zero denied.

Since 1980, authorities also have been able to set secret wiretaps
with the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,
which privacy watchdogs say requires a lower standard of evidence than
the general warrant process. For the first two decades FISA orders
numbered less than 1,000 annually; 2003 and 2004 each saw more than
1,700. Only four FISA applications have been rejected, all in 2003.

But technology began to pose obstacles in the 1980s, as old-fashioned
telephone networks were giving way to digital switching systems that
could also transmit information. Suddenly some wiretaps had to become
virtual, using "packet sniffing" programs that spy on the splintered
packets of data that make up network traffic.

Congress passed CALEA in 1994, requiring telecom carriers to ensure
that their networks left it relatively easy for law enforcement to set
wiretaps.  The law applied to landline and cell phone networks but
essentially exempted the Internet.

Of course, at the time, federal officials were advocating use of the
Clipper Chip to ensure that bad guys couldn't hide by encrypting their
online traffic.

The FBI also was developing Carnivore, a program that agents could
tailor to grab specific e-mails and other Internet communications
defined in a court order. (The FBI eventually dropped Carnivore in
favor of commercial software; frequent cooperation from Internet
service providers often made the technology unnecessary anyway.)

And all the while the NSA was harvesting the fruits of a system called
Echelon, intercepting millions of international telephone calls and
feeding them into the agency's humungous maw for analysis.

Justifiably or not, each of these steps unsettled privacy
activists. And it is that unease that colors the current fight over
expanding CALEA's reach to new services such as Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP) by 2007. The FCC says the move is critical because
converting voice calls into data packets essentially replaces the old
phone system. VoIP services are expected to attain some 4 million
U.S. subscribers by the end of this year.

"CALEA in a sense is the culmination of where we've been," said Barry
Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the
American Civil Liberties Union. "Now the communications network is
built to be wiretap-ready, so you don't need Carnivore anymore. It's
just intrinsic to the system."

Clipper Chip objectors a decade ago contended that in addition to
being an onerous demand, the technology could be foiled, rendering it
pointless.

Similarly, critics of expanding CALEA to broadband networks say the
cost of rewiring -- estimated as high as $7 billion for universities
alone -- is excessive. Those against expanding it to VoIP say it
leaves too many holes to be effective.

For example, Internet phone services such as Vonage that can route
calls to regular phones will be expected to support CALEA. But
"peer-to-peer" VoIP services and instant-messaging programs that carry
voice conversations from one computer to another are exempt -- at least
for now.

"If you take the argument to its extreme, every kind of Internet
application, including (file-transfer programs) and Web browsing, is
capable of transmitting communications. So where does it end?" said
Glenn Manishin, an attorney with Kelley Drye & Warren LLP who has
handled telecom regulation cases for companies and consumer
groups. "Do they now have to have a back door into every Web browser?"

Plus, overseas services aren't covered by the U.S. law. Nor can it
touch any home-grown Internet voice programs that serious criminals
could develop.

"For the past two years, law enforcement has been saying, `If we just
had CALEA we'd catch all the terrorists,'" said John Morris, director
of Internet standards, technology and policy at the Center for
Democracy and Technology. "Well, if they're sophisticated enough to
evade all of our intelligence capabilities, they'll be sophisticated
enough not to use a CALEA-compliant phone service."

CALEA critics also say authorities haven't shown that existing
monitoring methods are so weak as to justify costly new back doors for
government.

Indeed, while they are not nearly as common as phone surveillance,
computer wiretaps have been successful even without the extra
assistance CALEA might provide. For example, a 2003 report by the
Administrative Office of U.S.  Courts explained how surveillance on a
DSL high-speed Internet line in Minnesota intercepted 141,420
"computer messages" in three weeks, aiding a racketeering
investigation.

If there's one thing widely agreed upon in this debate, it's that
Congress could do well to step in.

Not only could lawmakers clarify how much of CALEA ought to apply to
the Internet, but they might also reconsider the overarching
Electronic Communications Privacy Act. That was passed in 1986, well
before the Internet became the vast commercial and personal medium
that redefined our categories of information.

"That pervades CALEA and everything we talk about," Solove said. "This
is something that Congress has been very derelict in addressing."

On the Net:

FBI page on CALEA: http://www.askcalea.com

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

For more news and headlines from Associated Press please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html

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

From: Mark Jewell <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Massachusetts Fights Microsoft on Document Format
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 15:10:38 -0600


By MARK JEWELL, AP Business Writer

The Revolutionary War started in Massachusetts, and now the state is
firing some opening rounds in a revolt against Microsoft Corp. that
seeks an open, proprietary-free format for storing electronic
documents.

Gov. Mitt Romney's administration has directed state government's
executive offices to begin storing new records by Jan. 1, 2007, in a
format that challenges Microsoft's market-dominating Office software,
which isn't yet designed to support the new standard.

Massachusetts is the first state to take the step, but others are
closely watching a fight drawing comparisons to the battles at
Lexington and Concord that opened the Revolution.

"It may be the technological equivalent to the shot heard 'round the
world," said Joe Wilcox, a Jupiter Research analyst. "If Massachusetts
follows through with this plan, it will be a radical departure from
how Microsoft and other businesses work with state governments."

Massachusetts' shift to the so-called OpenDocument format seeks to
ensure the state's electronic records can easily be read, exchanged
and modified now and in the future, free of licensing restrictions and
compatibility problems as software evolves.

Microsoft and other critics of the change have warned in public
hearings that the state is narrowing its options by banking on an
untested format that may not work with many of the state's
Office-based computer systems.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company also argues the switch will hurt
citizens and businesses using Office who may find state records don't
translate well when they read them with their software.

Among the programs that do fully work with the OpenDocument format are
Sun Microsystems Inc.'s StarOffice and free products such as
OpenOffice.

Microsoft is trying to stem the rebellion's spread to other state
governments and the private sector. Businesses sometimes follow the
lead of government database managers, and software vendors try to
tailor their products to government clients' preferred format.

"There is a lot at stake for Microsoft," said David Smith, a Gartner
Inc.  analyst. "If this were to become a tremendously successful
initiative, it could perhaps open the floodgates to other governments
and business enterprises doing the same thing."

Similar proposals in Oregon and Texas have been shot down. But
officials in several other states including Rhode Island and Wisconsin
continue to express interest in moving to the new data standard, said
Jack Gallt, assistant director of the National Association of State
Chief Information Officers.

Peter Quinn, Massachusetts' chief information officer, testified at a
recent legislative hearing that the switch to OpenDocument aims to
transform the state from an information technology "Tower of Babel to
an IT United Nations."

The move will affect about 50,000 desktop PCs used by state
government, many now equipped with Office software.

Quinn has said computer systems using Office will be retained and not
dismantled unless a cost-effective way is found to replace
them. Agencies using Office software can continue doing so, as long as
they begin saving documents in OpenDocument format.

The switch involves only agencies within the executive branch, and
doesn't apply to courts, the Legislature, and constitutional
offices. It also doesn't apply to the state's Microsoft-based e-mail
system.

Massachusetts isn't alone in its campaign. The European Union and U.S.
Library of Congress have in principle embraced OpenDocument as their
preferred format.

Several foreign governments also have endorsed the broader movement
toward open-source software and the Linux operating system, which uses
publicly available software code that can be customized.

Because such software does not carry licensing fees, proponents cite
cost savings and say open source is less of a target for
hackers. Critics say the savings can disappear in the long run when
service costs are factored in, along with compatibility problems
pairing Microsoft systems with other products.

Microsoft uses proprietary code for most of its products, protecting
them with copyright and patent licenses restricting other developers'
ability to write programs that support Microsoft software.

The OpenDocument format was created by the Organization for the
Advancement of Structured Information Standards, a nonprofit,
international consortium that sets data standards. Its membership
includes Microsoft rivals such as Sun and SAP AG.

Microsoft said in June that Office 12, the next-generation version due
next year, would use a different format that would make it easier for
outside programs to read documents created in Word, Excel and
PowerPoint. Microsoft is adopting a standard called XML that lets data
be shared across different systems with a uniform appearance.

But critics say that switch will still leave some code off-limits and
fall far short of the OpenDocument format's minimal restrictions on
developers who write supporting applications. Microsoft has said it
may rely on "filters" to convert documents from one standard to
another rather than building that capability within Office 12.

Microsoft hopes Massachusetts legislators will slow or halt the Romney
administration's directive. Some legislators and other state officials
question the cost and legality, and cite objections from visually impaired
people who find Office software easier to use than rival products.

Sen. Marc Pacheco, a Democratic committee chairman who ordered the
legislative hearing, said he wants Quinn's office "to stop and to
collaborate with the necessary agencies before moving ahead with this
process."

Alan Yates, a Microsoft general manager, said the company was "encouraged by
the additional review that the Legislature is pursuing to better understand
the costs and issues associated with the existing Massachusetts policy."

Romney spokesman Felix Browne said it was too early to say whether the plans
to switch to OpenDocument might be altered.

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: Jennifer C. Kerr <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Senate Sets 2009 Digital TV Deadline
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 15:12:11 -0600


Senate Sets 2009 Digital TV Deadline
By JENNIFER C. KERR

The Senate moved the digital TV transition one step closer to reality
on Thursday, setting a firm date for television broadcasters to switch
to all-digital transmissions.

Lawmakers gave broadcasters until April 7, 2009, to end their
traditional analog transmissions. The so-called "hard date" was
included in a sweeping budget bill.

The bill also would provide $3 billion to help millions of Americans
buy digital-to-analog converter boxes for their older television sets
- so those consumers will continue to receive a signal once the switch
is made permanent.

Legislation approved last month by the House Energy and Commerce
Committee calls for a Dec. 31, 2008, deadline and provides nearly $1
billion for the converter boxes.

Differences between the measures would need to be worked out in a
House-Senate conference.

In the Senate, an amendment by Republican John Ensign of Nevada that
would have reduced the converter box subsidy to $1 billion was
withdrawn.  Spokesman Jack Finn said Ensign was concerned that the $2
billion in savings would be spent on other projects instead of deficit
reduction.

Digital television promises sharper pictures and better sound than
analog TV.

National Association of Broadcasters president Eddie Fritts said the
2009 deadline "represents a victory for millions of Americans who
could have been left stranded by a premature end to analog television
service."

The move to all-digital will free valuable radio spectrum, some of
which will be allocated to improve radio communications among fire and
police departments and other first responders.

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., unsuccessfully
offered an amendment to move up the hard date by one year, saying
"first responders' ability to communicate during times of tragedy can
be literally a matter of life and death."

Public safety officials had pressed for the earliest possible transition.

"We would have preferred an earlier date, but the most important thing
is that we have a firm date so that people can start the planning and
funding process," said Robert Gurss, director of legal and government
affairs at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials.

In addition to the hard date, the Senate measure also set aside an
additional $1 billion for public safety to buy new radio
communications equipment.

The original digital television bill was sponsored by Sens. Ted
Stevens, R-Alaska, and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.

Separately on Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission moved up
by four months the date by which small TV sets sold in the U.S., those
13 inches to 24 inches, must have tuners to receive digital
signals. The new deadline will be March 1, 2007. Sets under 13 inches
will also have to have digital tuners by that date.

The commission had previously ruled that mid-sized sets, screens from
25 inches to 36 inches, be digital-ready by March 1, 2006.


On the Net:

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov
Federal Communications Commission: http://www.fcc.gov

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.

Also see: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html

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

Date: Sun, 06 Nov 2005 20:57:14 -0500
From: Marcus Didius Falco <falco_marcus_didius@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Newest Google Service


Search the full text of books. Excellent new research service. Even
obscure topics will often get excellent hits.

* Original: FROM..... Mehitabel

Try these....you'll be blown away......m

http://print.google.com/
http://print.google.com/advanced_print_search?ie=UTF-8

Direct replies are unlikely to be read. To reply use the address below:
falco(underscore)md(atsign)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk

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

From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Phone Shown in 'Capote' / RJ Connector History
Date:  Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:22:16 +0000


> As to modular connectors, I don't think they came out until the mid
> 1970s.  When we got new phone service in 1972, our jacks were the old
> style big 4-prong.  I believe my office converted to touch tone and
> modular sets around 1977, many of us continue to use that system to
> this day, though I think most of the WE 2500 sets have been replaced
> with more modern 2500 sets or modern fancy sets.

All the material I've ever seen also suggests that the modular
connectors were introduced mid 1970s.

I have a couple of WE-500 sets dating from 1970/71,and they still have
hardwired cords.  One of them came to me direct from Idaho and had the
old-style 4-prong plug which was color-matched to the cord and phone
(a kind of pinky-beige color).  The cord actually has spade ends for
wiring to a wall junction box and the plug is designed to accept the
same terminations for easy conversion.

> I hate sloppy history in movie props.

Some years ago I used to be involved with lighting and sound for
amateur dramatics, and I was always on the lookout for things which
were out of place in "period" plays.  Quite a few of the errors I
pointed out to the producers stick in my mind to this day.

There was a play set during the Korean war in which one of the leading
characters almost went on stage wearing a digital watch which would
have been visible to everybody in at least the front two or three
rows.  In the same play where a scene had rows of books on shelves,
one particularly thick volume had large labeling on the spine which
could easily be read at a similar distance -- "Almanac 1971."

Another play set in -- if I recall correctly -- the 1930s had the set
mocked up with modern-style light switches which simply didn't exist
back then.

On telephones, there was more than one play in which somebody in props
had procurred what to them was obviously just "an old phone," and I
had to point out that the British GPO 700-series phones didn't appear
until the late 1950s.

I was pedantic about the use of the props too.  There was one play set
in a small seaside town on the south coast in the early 1950s in which
a character had to make a call to London.  One of the older members of
the cast had remembered that there was no STD back then and that a
long-distance call had to be placed via the operator, but he then
started dialing 100 to place the call.  I had to point out that prior
to STD we just dialed 0 for an operator.  There were people saying "It
doesn't matter," but after mentioning this the fellow thought for a
moment and then recalled "Oh yeah, that's right, we did, didn't we?"
So if he remembered, you can be sure somebody in the audience would
spot the mistake too (and not just a telephone geek like myself!).

Most people wanted to strive for accuracy as far as possible, but we
had one producer who was "The what does it matter" type, and I had
more than a couple of disagreements with her over technical
inaccuracies.

You don't even want to know what she thought we could get away with as
a doorbell in "Little Women."


-Paul.

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

From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Old Chicago Numbering
Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:23:10 +0000


Many thanks to all who have documented their recollections.  I've edited
the replies together and forwarded them to assist with piecing together
old memories (Bill worked in the HUmboldt office).

I'm not very familiar with Chicago myself, having only ever passed
through the city a couple of times, so I'm going to have to dig out
some maps to follow all the descriptions!

-Paul

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

From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Wabash Cannonball (Was:  Old Chicago Numbering)
Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:24:08 +0000


> For younger readers and not particularly Telecom related ... The
> nickname for the switching machine at the Chicago-Wabash CO
> undoubtably comes as a reference to a very popular tune dating from
> the Mid-1930s - "The Wabash Cannonball".  Written by A.P. Carter, the
> chorus line probably brought to mind the sound of the CO machine on a
> busy afternoon:

> Listen to the Jingle
> The rumble and the roar
> As she glides along the woodlands
> Through the hills and by the shore
> Hear the mighty rush of the engine
> Hear those lonesome hoboes squawl
> While traveling through the jungle
> On the Wabash Cannonball!

> The song relates a steam locomotive trip on the Ireland, Jerusalem,
> Australian and Southern Michigan Railroad.  Legend has it that the I,
> J, A and SM was built by Cal S. Bunyan, a younger brother of Paul.

> So there you have it!

I grew up knowing this old song even as an English kid many thousands
of miles removed from its origins.  I have the Carter Family's
recording of it in my record collection somewhere.

-Paul

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

From: Justa Lurker <JustaLurker@att.net>
Subject: Re: Recorded Call From Law Office?
Organization: AT&T Worldnet
Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 22:51:16 GMT


> The parking area and the drive up window were completely abandoned at
> that point in time; I had originally gone by the restaurant entrance
> and saw a crew working inside there, but they waved me away saying
> they were closed, 'but drive through is open until midnight'. Going
> around to that side, then the rude lady waved me away saying she was 
> not going to serve any pedestrians walking through.  PAT]

You are better off not eating that stuff.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are generally correct on that. I go
to get McDonalds when I a really hungry and no other place close is
open. On that particular night, as I recall, the Jewish deli right 
across the street (where I would normally have gone was closed for the
night. McDonalds was closer than the next nearest place, several
blocks away.   PAT]

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

From: Justa Lurker <JustaLurker@att.net>
Subject: Re: Verizon POTS
Organization: AT&T Worldnet
Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 22:59:34 GMT


> Verizon is famous for having crappy outside plant records. For
> example, when I moved here in October, 2004 they swore up and down
> that service was hooked up. Plug in the phone and no dial-tone. No NID
> either.
> 

> the ANAC number on every pair. Not only did I find my pair, I found
> the NID for my apartment and the two weren't anywhere near each other,
> nor was the NID connected.

> Called Verizon and told em' it was pair 14 and I wanted it hooked to
> my NID. The tech that came out had a good laugh, he said I'd stirred
> up a hornets nest inside Verizon's install/repair depot. Customers are
> NOT supposed to open terminal boxes.

> But when said boxes are secured with 7/16" nuts, it isn't hard to get 
> in. 

Exact same experience getting 2nd line into our house here in Freehold, 
NJ in 1996 when it was still Hell, errrrr. I mean Bell Atlantic.

Took them three tries to get me a working line with the number which
they'd told me was assigned ... one time, they even managed to break
some local business's service ... I started getting their calls
instead of them.

Eventually they managed to make it work correctly.

Wrote a letter to president/CEO of Bell Atlantic at that time (Ray
Smith, I think) along with copies to some other executives as well as
the NJ PUC describing exactly what had happened.  I ended up getting a
phone call from some outside plant supervisor who said to call him
directly if I ever had any other problems (I doubt he's even there
anymore 10 years later) as well as 2 separate form letters from "Ray
Smith" which promised me a service credit [they even screwed that up,
instead of one month's free local service, I think I got 3 !]

No wonder they call them "Public Futilities".

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

From: Tom <countmatthew@gmail.com>
Subject: Can't See dot.tk
Date: 5 Nov 2005 21:19:55 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


When I try to view my dot.tk doamin it won't show up, In fact I can't
view any dot.tk domains except for the actual www.dot.tk
doamin. Please help!

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

Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 04:13:31 EST
From: Dan Lanciani <ddl@danlan.com>
Subject: Re: Replacement for Siemens Gigaset


I've been mostly satisfied with the first two generations of the 900MHz
EnGenius system.  It supports handset-to-handset calls but not conference.

I've been thinking about my "next generation" cordless phone.  It
occurs to me that it might be possible to leverage my existing 802.11
access point infrastructure to support 802.11 VoIP handsets with a
gateway like the Sipura SPA-3000 to a POTS line.  (Obviously it could
make other kinds of VoIP calls as well.)  Has anybody tried to build a
cordless phone this way?

In reading the SPA-3000 configuration guide I think I noticed a
possible problem.  It appeared (and I should say that I spent very
little time on this so I may have missed something) that the gateway
will not forward a POTS call to VoIP unless it actually answers the
call.  I noticed that you can control an answer delay in order to
accommodate other devices on the POTS line, but that's not quite what
I want.  Is there some way to send a setup message to the VoIP handset
on detecting a ringing POTS line but not answer the POTS call unless
the VoIP handset is itself answered?


Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com

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

From: Nicole Winfield <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Sunday Sermon For This Week
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 15:13:43 -0600


Vatican: Faithful Should Listen to Science
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what
secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks
turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture,
made the comments at a news conference on a Vatican project to help
end the "mutual prejudice" between religion and science that has long
bedeviled the Roman Catholic Church and is part of the evolution
debate in the United States.

The Vatican project was inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1992
declaration that the church's 17th-century denunciation of Galileo was
an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." Galileo was
condemned for supporting Nicolaus Copernicus' discovery that the Earth
revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at
the center of the universe.

"The permanent lesson that the Galileo case represents pushes us to
keep alive the dialogue between the various disciplines, and in
particular between theology and the natural sciences, if we want to
prevent similar episodes from repeating themselves in the future,"
Poupard said.

But he said science, too, should listen to religion.

"We know where scientific reason can end up by itself: the atomic bomb
and the possibility of cloning human beings are fruit of a reason that
wants to free itself from every ethical or religious link," he said.

 --> "But we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links
with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism," he said.  <--

"The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular
modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the
faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity."

Poupard and others at the news conference were asked about the
religion-science debate raging in the United States over evolution and
"intelligent design."

Intelligent design's supporters argue that natural selection, an
element of evolutionary theory, cannot fully explain the origin of
life or the emergence of highly complex life forms.

Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, or
Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed John Paul's 1996
statement that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis."

"A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false," he said.
"(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof."

He was asked about comments made in July by Austrian Cardinal
Christoph Schoenborn, who dismissed in a New York Times article the
1996 statement by John Paul as "rather vague and unimportant" and
seemed to back intelligent design.

Basti concurred that John Paul's 1996 letter "is not a very clear
expression from a definition point of view," but he said evolution was
assuming ever more authority as scientific proof develops.

Poupard, for his part, stressed that what was important was that "the
universe wasn't made by itself, but has a creator." But he added,
"It's important for the faithful to know how science views things to
understand better."

The Vatican project STOQ has organized academic courses and
conferences on the relationship between science and religion and is
hosting its first international conference on "the infinity in
science, philosophy and theology," next week.

On the Net:

Vatican project STOQ: http://www.stoqnet.org

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 headline news reports,  please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/TDNewsradio.html


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are many instances where science
and religion _can_ be reconciled; so often people tend to dismiss all
religious thinking as nonsense, which is a pity. Think in terms of a
'bigger picture' when confronted with seeming discrepancies between
the two.  PAT] 

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


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