From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Mar 27 13:52:00 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i2RIq0e12159; Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:52:00 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:52:00 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200403271852.i2RIq0e12159@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V23 #145 TELECOM Digest Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:51:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 145 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson SBC Settles Voicemail Lawsuit (Monty Solomon) Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law (Monty Solomon) A Better Way to Squelch Spam (Monty Solomon) PanAmSat Attracts Interest From LBO Groups - Sources (Monty Solomon) Re: 110 V Cord and USB Cable Standards? (Dave Garland) Re: 110 V Cord and USB Cable Standards? (Jack Hamilton) Re: Correcting 411/555-1212 Info; Unlisted Service (Tony P.) Re: Correcting 411/555-1212 Info; Unlisted Service (Joel B. Levin) Re: Correcting 411/555-1212 Info; Unlisted Service (Stanley Cline) Re: Cablevision to Hike Rates, Panel Rules For YES (Tom Betz) Re: Fast Pass at Airport Security (William Warren) Re: Telephone Switchbox (Carl Navarro) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 10:19:07 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: SBC Settles Voicemail Lawsuit NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. regulatory watchdog group on Friday said SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC) has agreed to settle a lawsuit against it for allegedly misleading marketing on its voice mail product. The Chicago-based telephone company will pay up to $40 million in compensation, according to Citizens Utility Board, a state nonprofit group. The suit dates back to 1999, when some customers sued the phone company for not disclosing that it tacked on an additional 5 cents per message fee on top of a monthly $5 charge. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40943356 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:13:10 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law by Lawrence Lessig Mar 2004 http://free-culture.org/get-it/ http://free-culture.org/freecontent/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:23:20 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A Better Way To Squelch Spam? An open-source scheme would impose a computational "cost" on junk mailers while leaving legitimate users of e-mail alone. By Eric S. Johansson and Keith Dawson Over the past few months, major players in the world of e-mail have proposed schemes for combating the rising tide of spam. In December, for example, Yahoo! proposed an approach called DomainKeys for validating which messages come from which e-mail servers. In January, speaking to journalists at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates suggested using a sender-pays system, with money-based e-mail stamps. And at the RSA security conference in February, Gates touted as a spam solution Microsoft's Caller ID-a variation on the Sender Policy Framework (SPF), which is an anti-spoofing technique that reduces the ability to falsify "From" addresses in e-mail messages. Unfortunately, upon close examination these techniques turn out to be unworkable or ineffective. They represent centralized solutions that serve the needs of large Internet service providers and, less directly, of large advertisers. Such ideas would be only marginally effective against spam. Worse, they would break services users count on. http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_johansson032604.asp ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 10:21:30 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: PanAmSat Attracts Interest From LBO Groups - Sources By Dane Hamilton NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) - Satellite operator PanAmSat Corp. (NASDAQ:SPOT), which was put up for sale in the last year, has attracted initial offers from at least two groups of large private equity firms and several competing satellite companies, people close to the auction said on Friday. The Wilton, Connecticut-based company could sell for at least $4.6 billion in a sale process that is being managed by Credit Suisse First Boston (VX:CSGN), the sources said. PanAmSat, which feeds entertainment programming to cable companies and others, is 81-percent owned by Hughes Electronics Corp. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40943706 ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: 110 V Cord and USB Cable Standards? Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 22:19:01 -0600 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when PAT wrote: > Radio Shack *used to* (maybe still does in some places) make that > claim about the expensive gold-plated connectors in almost all > applications, coax connectors, etc. I have never been able to figure > out *why* the gold-plated versions of the various size/type > connectors are supposed to be better. Gold does not oxidize/tarnish, so gold plating is used to make low-voltage connections that are less prone to bad-connection problems. It's most useful on things that need to be high-reliability. But note that if you're getting a good connection already, gold will not make it better, just (maybe) more reliable. There are other ways to accomplish the same thing. In my tool box I carry a 15ml vial of "Stabilant 22A" (http://www.stabilant.com), which used to be available (in a different dilution) under the tradename "Tweek". It is an "Electrical Contact Enhancer" and turns bad connections into good ones (and prevents good ones from going bad), but won't short things out. It came with a NATO part number in case I wanted to use it on my jet fighter. At the time I bought it, the only vendor in the US seemed to be NAPA Auto Parts stores(! part#CE-1), though the store had never heard of it and had to order it from the warehouse. That 15ml cost me $50 15 years ago, but you use it in such small quantities that it will probably last the rest of my life. ------------------------------ From: Jack Hamilton Subject: Re: 110 V Cord and USB Cable Standards? Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 21:01:49 -0800 Organization: Copyright (c) 2004 by Jack Hamilton. Reply-To: jfh@acm.org benficus@hotmail.com (Ben Ficus) wrote: > Speaking of which ... > Last time I was at Best Buy, they were telling me that I should buy > the expensive "gold" USB connector for my printer ... the other cable > will affect the quality of my prints. > Any thoughts, opinions? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Radio Shack *used to* (maybe still > does in some places) make that claim about the expensive gold-plated > connectors in almost all applications, coax connectors, etc. I have > never been able to figure out *why* the gold-plated versions of the > various size/type connectors are supposed to be better. Our local > Radio Shack store no longer makes that claim, however. PAT] The theory is that gold is less likely to corrode. Also, there's the mental effect that if you pay more for it it must be better. I don't think there's any advantage if you know how to make really good connections. Gold doesn't conduct as well as copper, so that's a small disadvantage. Pure silver is the best conductor among common metals, but silver wiring would be pricy. www.homegrownaudio will sell you a 1 meter cable for $109.95; www.the-discount-store.com will sell you 14 gauge silver wire for $8/foot. Monster Cable Sigma Retro Gold Speaker Cables retail for $1250 for a 5 foot pair. As far as I know, there are no independently verified double-blind studies showing that such cables convey sound any better than plain copper from Home Depot properly installed. Jack Hamilton jfh@acm.org In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted comfort and security. And in the end, they lost it all - freedom, comfort and security. Edward Gibbons [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now isn't that something! $1250 for a five foot pair. Perhaps someone with virgin ears -- it would take a pair of those -- will help me do an independent verification of this claim. Bring one of those cables; I will provide the Mahler symphony and we will check it out relative to my little old Bose radio/CD (which, by the way, did not come cheap either unless you feel that a four hundred plus dollars radio/CD combination is cheap.) The Bose claim to fame is the quality audio from little speakers close together. And it does sound good, just like one of the old Grundigs from years ago. It also has a place for an external antenna to be connected, if I were brave and wanted to climb on the roof of my house to install one. Instead, I use the connection to Cable One and let them handle it. Not 'cable radio' as such, but as an 'antenna' for over the air radio from their local tower over at 14th and Oak Streets where a totally free (of any charges) crystal-controlled radio sits in the tower and retransmits Tulsa PBS (89.5) and classical music KRPS (89.9) at no charge to interested parties. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Correcting 411/555-1212 Info; Unlisted Service Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 05:57:36 GMT In article , hukolau@NOSPAM.att.net says: > Lisa Hancock wrote: >> Charles Cryderman wrote >>> the problem was with hitting the target his response was "I don't >>> know, they are leaving here 5 by 5. >> In a recent TV show, one of the characters, when asked how things >> were, replied "5 by 5" meaning ok. The newgroup for that show was >> flooded with inquiries asking what that meant. (The show was oriented >> toward young people). > Dern ... this brings back ancient memories. > I believe (but am not sure) that the "5 by 5" term cam from radio > DX'ers (folks who would try to pick up distant radio channels on their > AM radios.) There was a code, which I recall as "SINPO". I think the > "S" stood for signal strength, but don't remember what the rest stood > for. If the station was coming in clear as a bell you would rate that > as all characteristics being a 5, thus the "five by five." (Check a > ham-radio group for more info.) Indeed -- it's RST -- Readability, Signal and Tone. Tone only applicable for CW stuff. ------------------------------ From: jbl Subject: Re: Correcting 411/555-1212 Info; Unlisted Service Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 01:38:13 -0700 Organization: On the desert Reply-To: jbl@spamblocked.com In , Nick Landsberg wrote: > I believe (but am not sure) that the "5 by 5" term cam from radio > DX'ers (folks who would try to pick up distant radio channels on their > AM radios.) There was a code, which I recall as "SINPO". I think the > "S" stood for signal strength, but don't remember what the rest stood > for. In ham radio, the signal check is "RST" for Readability, Signal (strength) and Tone, used for CW ("Morse" code transmissions). The best (nominal) RST value is 599. Voice transmissions do not use the "Tone" component, as it doesn't apply, so the best signal transmission is 59. I would guess, because I don't know, that the "five by five" may be an older military version of this sort of thing. /JBL KD1ON/7 ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Re: Correcting 411/555-1212 Info; Unlisted Service Organization: Roamer1 Communications - Dunwoody, GA, USA Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 05:50:46 GMT On 26 Mar 2004 08:08:53 -0800, PAT wrote: > I have thought about getting into that business myself, brokering it > through one of the service bureaus for same, then setting up a small > shop; taking calls on an 800 number; decrementing the callers passcode > by one, and providing the desired information. Or, better still, Someone's already beat you to it: www.infone.com :) Infone is the child of Metro One, which has provided directory assistance for many cell phone companies and a few CLECs for years. Quite a few cell phone companies have pulled their contracts with Metro One, so they came up with the idea of selling their service on a retail basis and not just on a wholesale basis to other carriers -- thus Infone. I have an account with Infone and have for awhile, and have been rather pleased with them; they seem to get listings from the same places the LECs do, so accuracy hasn't been a problem. In fact, by far the worst directory assistance I've found is from Ma Bell -- the DA company AT&T long distance routes NPA-555-1212 to is absolutely rotten. (All major LD carriers and wireless carriers now route NPA-555-1212 to companies of their choosing rather than to LECs in the dialed NPA. LD and wireless carriers associated with LECs, such as Qwest and BellSouth long distance and Cingular Wireless in SBC and BellSouth LEC areas, route DA calls to their LEC division DA bureaus, while other carriers, including AT&T, MCI, T-Mobile, etc., use third-party companies. VoIP company VoicePulse uses Qwest for DA; I don't know who Vonage or others use.) Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ From: Tom Betz Subject: Re: Cablevision to Hike Rates, Panel Rules For YES Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 16:54:47 +0000 (UTC) Organization: XOme Quoth Monty Solomon in news:telecom23.140.1@telecom- digest.org: > NEW YORK, March 24 (Reuters) - Cablevision Systems Corp. will hike > monthly subscriber rates by 95 cents to partly cover the cost of > carrying New York Yankees games, after an arbitration panel ruled it > must offer the Yankees network to all of its subscribers on its > expanded basic package of cable channels, the company said on > Wednesday. What an effing waste. Who do I have to bribe to stop getting (and paying for) ALL the useless sports channels that I just program the TV to skip? It could easily cut my cable bill in half. "I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection." - W.S. ------------------------------ From: William Warren Subject: Re: Fast Pass at Airport Security Organization: Comcast Online Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 04:29:47 GMT Monty Solomon wrote in message news:telecom23.142.13@telecom-digest.org: > By Ryan Singel > Business travelers may soon have one more item to stuff in their > carry-on: a trusted-traveler card to speed them through security > lines. [snip] Bruce "Secrets and Lies" Schneier recently panned a similar idea, albeit one backed by a private company: http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0403.html#10 FWIW, I don't think this is a good idea, but it _will_ have a positive result: the _uncertified_ members of the public will howl to their congressman when they see _those_ people in line ahead of them, and the system will have to look at ways to speed things up for everybody. Schneier has written at great length on the tradeoffs involved with real security -- things like decompressing the hold baggage to trigger altitude-sensitive bombs, which El Al does routinely -- and I agree with him that the current "security" system is just window dressing, designed to fill the seats while not costing the airlines any money. Bill ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro Subject: Re: Telephone Switchbox Reply-To: cnavarro@wcnet.org Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 05:12:41 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com On 25 Mar 2004 18:21:55 -0800, mlliw@joimail.com (Will) wrote: > I am a newbie to this type of thing. The OfficeLink Solo looks good, > but its a bit pricy for my budget. Could you please explain the > "I setup DISA on a Samsung DCS." I don't really understand this. The point is that you only told part of the story. Is this maybe, "I set up a line at a friend's house and I'd like to use it to dial free service points that I can't dial from my house"? Where I live, spending $100 or $500 to bypass local toll calls at 4.25 CENTS per minute is not very productive, especially when my outbound LD bill is less than $5 per month.. The old Teltone 106 box IIRC had THREE digit security and once you broke the code, no dialing restrictions whatsoever. So, a compromised code could bring out a TON of misery. That brought the response from Tony P. that a Samsung DISA trunk had 2 Million possible codes (the universe of 2,000,000,000 to 3,999,999,999) as its password protection. It didn't apply to you so you could ignore it, but, I hope, most of us understood. Outside of that, Teltone was never inexpensive. Carl Navarro > Thanks > mlliw > P.S. The line I would be accessing would not be on a phone system, > just a direct line. > Tony P. wrote in message > news:: >> In article , cnavarro@wcnet.org >> says: >>> On 19 Mar 2004 19:05:27 -0800, mlliw@joimail.com (Will) wrote: >>>> Is there a box that when called to normally, it sends through, but >>>> when a code such as #22, It brings the caller to a _dialtone_ on >>>> another line? I have seen several boxes that do this (for >>>> computer/fax/telephone) that when #22 is dialed, they send to a >>>> separate place, but they don't give a _dialtone_ on a separate >>>> line. Thanks! >>> It might depend on what type of phone system you have. Some systems >>> have Direct System Inward Access (DISA) available. Teltone used to >>> make a 106 box that was a bridging unit with amplifiers. They still >>> make an Officelink Solo, but I bet it's a bit pricey. >>> http://www.teltone.com/products/remotevoice/solo/home.htm >>> One thing to keep in mind, DISA and the 106 is highly hackable. A >>> teenager with a lot of time on his hands can key the universe of 3 >>> digit numbers as a hobby to find out what makes it work. The >>> Officelink is a callback device. >> I setup DISA on a Samsung DCS. It requires a seven digit passcode. So >> that ups the possibilities. >> The way the system was configured, the first digit had to be a 2 or 3, >> the next six could be 0 thru 9. So 2x10x10x10x10x10x10 = 2,000,000 >> possible combinations. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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