---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <0F7A7F08-07FD-49BD-AE8D-443B24C99B2D@roscom.com> Date: 6 Jan 2020 19:03:17 -0500 From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com> Subject: VZW CDMA Network Retirement We are moving all devices to our HD Voice LTE network, which offers superior coverage and performance compared to previous generation networks. Starting January 1, 2020, Verizon will no longer allow any CDMA (3G and 4G Non-HD Voice) 'Like-for-Like' device changes. Caution Currently, 3G / 4G non-HD Voice CDMA devices can't be activated for any new line of service. https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-218813/ ***** Moderator's Note ***** Does anyone know if the "HD Voice" network will be share with competitors like AT&T or Sprint? Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <c8a3a972-f5d9-4f5d-b52a-e868eb194ef9@googlegroups.com> Date: 6 Jan 2020 12:33:31 -0800 From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: More Teletype trivia On Sunday, January 5, 2020 at 3:08:39 PM UTC-5, David wrote: > AP always required: > Carriage Return > Line Feed > Letters > at the end of each line; this insured that even when the receiving > machine falsely jumped into Figures during the carriage return glich, it > would be reset into Letters for the new line. > > UPI was not that rigorous, and you'd get lines like > 5#3178(?492, > instead of letters. This occurred often enough that senior UPI editors > would sightread it as letters without a pause. > > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > I always thought that the extra "rubout" after the CR/LF was to give > older machine a little extra time to swing the type basket all the way > to the left. This would compensate for old springs, a dashpot with too > little space on the air outlet, or just general gunk, dried grease, > etc. That was standard procedure on the Teletype model 33 as well for the reason you state. If one failed to use the extra rubout, the next character would print in the middle of the line while the carriage was returning. Curiously, on the model 33 (which was ASCII), while we had a key for RUBOUT (all punches), we did not have a key for a blank column of tape. We had to use multiple keys to create that. We liked to create blank columns for tape leaders and trailers. As an aside, the purpose of RUBOUT was, as it name suggests, to rub out errors. The tape punch had a manual backspace button on it . If we made a typo, we simply backspaced the punch, hit rubout to cover up the error, and continued on our way. In the earlier years of Western Union, they used tape printers, that is, the message was typed on thin paper tape, not a page. That made things simpler. If there was an error, the receiving operator, who pasted the tape onto the blank, would simply overpaste the corrected character. Also, there was no need for page control as the receiving operator manually just started a new line or a new page as needed by the message. Eventually Western Union evolved over to page printers and then computer printers for the remaining message traffic. In my opinion, their computer printers, with the wavy lines, didn't look as dignified as the earlier printers. Likewise, the modernized WU logo (still in use today) didn't look as good. ***** Moderator's Note ***** Some of the the "tape" printers used tape with glue already on it, so ANY moisture that got in the machine would literally glue the tape in place inside the chute, which was, according to the old hands I used to know, easier to fix by completely replacing the tape chute than by trying to remove the tape. Western Union eventually paid taxi companies to deliver telegram: the one I worked at in 1976 while I was just starting college had a Model 28 RO printer installed for that purpose. IIRC, the model 33 "tape leader" code was Cntl-Shift-P while holding down the "repeat" key. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <a03d652c-54cd-49c3-abd9-101a3a83412b@googlegroups.com> Date: 6 Jan 2020 12:41:15 -0800 From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: Corporations Forcing Workers To Train Their Foreign Replacements On Sunday, January 5, 2020 at 3:08:39 PM UTC-5, Moderator wrote: > Corporations Forcing Workers To Train Their Foreign Replacements > Donald Trump swore that he was going to bring American jobs back to > this country, but he's done absolutely nothing to make that a > reality. Instead, corporations are still shipping jobs overseas, and > to add insult to injury, many of these companies are forcing their > American workers to train their foreign replacements. Ring of Fire's > Farron Cousins explains what's happening. > > https://trofire.com/2020/01/05/corporations-forcing-workers-to-train-their-foreign-replacements/ I am no expert on economics, but I think the trend of outsourcing labor overseas is a bad idea and unnecessary. Sure, all businesses want to save money and sometimes overseas labor can do so. But, in my opinion, there is a bigger picture that must be considered. If workers are laid off en masse, they won't be able to afford to buy much, which will suppress the economy. Secondly, there is an ethical consideration. I could understand that if a business is struggling and overseas is the only way it can survive, it may be necessary. But these days many businesses are doing very well yet still dumping jobs overseas. I believe that is wrong. (I'm not sure how to resolve that.) Third, many businesses have been targets of takeover from things like private equity or aggressive mergers & acquisitions. As a result, they are saddled with unsustainable debt. These companies also use that as an excuse to cut wages and benefits and reduce jobs. Again, I think this is wrong. In this area, the aggressive M&A needs to be reduced, along with dumping unsustainable debt on the remaining business. As I see it, business in the U.S. did wonderfully since WW II. But in the 1980s, what was considered wonderful was then seen as inadequate. New players wanted more. They developed new financial instruments and new tactics. As a result, wealth concentrated upward toward the very top and the working people were left behind. ***** Moderator's Note ***** Business in the U.S. did wonderfully after WW2 because it was impos- sible for them not to: the allied powers had bombed Japan's and Germany's industrial infrastructure back to the stone age, and killed so many of their working-class males, that it took them 30 years to get back on their feet. New players always want more: more profit at someone else's expense first and foremost. All of the great success stories of the postwar years came from companies that externalized some of their major costs onto the public, e.g. - A. McDonalds and Burger King and wendy's never hired employees to wash dishes, or bought a dishwasher: they used disposable packaging and depended on the public to pay for landfills. B. Retail stores opted to offer cheaper goods made in other countries, thus reducing their costs at the expense of an ever-increasig trade imballance which devalued the U.S. currency at the same time it deprived young adults of the chance to learn basic skills and get the experience which would have meant another step up the ladder for a generation of American youth. C. One of the major American industries which survived is arms manufacturing, and the gunmakers go to great lengths to assure markets for their wares, forcing American families to bear the cost of random shootings, lessened security, lowered expectations for the performance of government, and, ultimately, a willingness to elect leaders who need only point out the obvious while plotting to make the situation better for themselves and worse for the citizenry. Now, we come to the end stages of this declining spiral: corporate managers who consider the time and goodwill of their customers to be an externality, and who are willing to force them to deal with third-world workers whom are learning their trade at the expense of the next generation of American youngsters, who will now have one less option for ways to make a living. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Wed, 08 Jan 2020