From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Apr 4 16:12:41 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i34KCfi22617; Sun, 4 Apr 2004 16:12:41 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2004 16:12:41 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404042012.i34KCfi22617@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 #160 TELECOM Digest Sun, 4 Apr 2004 16:12:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 160 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Why Sun Threw in the Towel in Mankind vs. Microsoft (Monty Solomon) Tech Heavyweights Explain How to Destroy the Internet (Monty Solomon) Re: Excel Communications (John Levine) Re: Excel Communications (Ray Normandeau) Re: Walmart Mix Up Balancing Credit Cards Causes Major Hassle (Tony P.) Re: Walmart Mix Up Balancing Credit Cards Causes Major Hassle (Horsley) Re: Walmart Mix Up Balancing Credit Cards Causes Major Hassle (AES) Re: Walmart Mix Up Balancing Credit Cards Causes Major Hassle (Dold) Re: Hot-Spot Wi-Fi Business (Tony P.) Re: Hot-Spot Wi-Fi Business (Gene S. Berkowitz) Net Calling Makes Waves (VOIP News) Archives - Telephone Directories (Jo Falconer) New Members and New Chairman at the Fixedline MMS Forum (Press nRelease) 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: Sun, 4 Apr 2004 11:24:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Why Sun Threw in the Towel in Mankind vs. Microsoft By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco Principles are fine things to have, but only if you can afford them. With its stock declared a 'junk bond' and finishing a terrible quarter, Silicon Valley's leading Microsoft antagonist Sun Microsystems has now decided it can't. The news will have surprised the company's lawyers, who only this week were girding themselves for the next round of litigation. It appears that for almost $2 billion, Microsoft has bought its way out of a lot of trouble. In truth however, both parties realized that the EU decision, which is still pending appeal, was a watershed. Microsoft doesn't have any more nasty surprises to face from the US, EU or States, and Sun realized that it couldn't push any more severe penalties out of the process. What could Sun achieve by proceeding with its 2002 lawsuit? The lawsuit asked for $1 billion in damages; today's settlement yields Sun $700 million for antitrust issues - less than what it wanted -- and a further $1,250 million covering patent royalties -- which is more than what it wanted. But the hardest thing for Sun to swallow will be its pride. McNealy had presented the fight in apocalyptic terms: Mankind vs Microsoft. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/36777.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2004 11:39:20 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Tech Heavyweights Explain How to Destroy the Internet By Thomas C Greene in Washington A group of tech celebs gathered on Capitol Hill this week to brief Congressional aides on how Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can, and probably will, make a complete mess of the Internet in about a year's time. At issue are likely revisions to the 1996 Telecommunications Act and FCC regulations, which, thus far, have managed to do scant violence to the Net. Unfortunately, changes now being contemplated, urged by telecomms and media behemoths and their lobbyists, may soon alter that happy state of affairs. Broadband users are particularly at risk, because they enjoy little of the consumer choice available to dialup users. One can connect to a phone line and reach any of hundreds of dialup ISPs. Broadband users have no such luxury. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/22/36744.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not think these 'tech celebs' know what they are talking about. (a) the internet is already a mess, and has been bad for a few years and is getting worse with spam and virii and other things. And (b) regards broadband not having choices, I can reach any dialup ISP I want. I can either direct my computer to connect with any of those ISPs in the form of http://any-ISP or I can use my dialup connection (although much slower) to get there as well. But who really wants to these days, as crappy as so many sites are. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 4 Apr 2004 05:46:32 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Excel Communications Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > If your with any other telecom service provider you're still paying at > or near the same as Excel price, ... Uh, no. Excel's Nickel Nation costs $5 per month and 5 cents per minute with an outrageous five minute (25 cent) minimum per call. Other plans have even higher per minute rates. 800 service is $3.50/mo and 19 cpm. And don't forget the bogus $1.30/mo "carrier cost recovery" charge which Excel keeps. There are some bundled local resale plans, but they're not available where I live (nobody resells my tiny telco's service) and they don't look particularly cheap compared to Verizon's prices. I'm currently paying ECG 4.9 cpm, one minute increments, no monthly fee or minimum, and if I got around to calling them up and asking for their new plan, that'd drop to 3.5 cpm. These rates are not the lowest available, but they also provide my 800 service for 49 cents/mo and the same 4.9 cpm rate, and their service is decent. ECG and Excel both charge 9.1% USF, no difference there. It'd take an awful lot of MLM kickbacks to make Excel cheaper than normal LD service. I think I'd rather just pay less and not have to build a pyramid. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner "A book is a sneeze." - E.B. White, on the writing of Charlotte's Web ------------------------------ From: rayta@msn.com (Ray Normandeau) Subject: Re: Excel Communications Date: 4 Apr 2004 12:04:29 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com How about giving some sample Excel rates right here!! ?? I use OneSuite and can call to Hong Kong for two cents a minute. To Canada cost more though. Anyone have opinions on why? See https://www.onesuite.com/ Long distance at 2.9 Cents Per Minute for USA calls and to Canada for 3.5CPM. If you don't use the 800 number access, rate is even cheaper! It is basically a prepaid phone card but you can do away with the PIN for calls from home. Program it as a speed dial, you don't even have to remember their number. No monthly fee or minimum. There is a surchage for calls from payphones. If you use the promotion code "034720367" we both get some free miniutes. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Walmart Mix Up Balancing Credit Cards Causes Major Hassle Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 23:33:18 GMT In article , ptownson@telecom- digest.org says: > Anyway, today, Friday, I was checking my PayPal account and saw not one! > not two! but three charges from Walmart for the $36.72, leaving me > $72.44 in the 'hole', since I *only* move what money I need to that > PayPal account, plus or minus a couple dollars. > Naturally I got on the phone right away to PayPal and asked them, "how > did that happen, the account is a debit card with a 'credit limit' of > only the balance in the account. How did those additional two charges > get approved instead of declined as I would have expected." Pay Pal > said the reason it showed as 'approved' rather than 'declined' was > because Walmart had 'forced it' in order to balance their card sales > totals for the night. She blamed it on Walmart, saying 'they had a > big mix up Thursday night in their card balancing.' > I called Walmart/Independence and the customer service lady said it > was not their fault, it was their credit card processor who screwed > everything up. She said every Walmart store got a memo on the fax today > explaining what had happened and that it 'was being corrected over the > weekend, and to tell any customers who asked that it was NOT Walmart's > fault'. Neither one is going to give you a straight answer, meanwhile you're on the hook for the $72.44. The processor was more than likely First Data Merchant Service, I've dealt with them and they're bandits. > I still decided to check with the credit card processor, who because > the size and severity of the screw up opened an 800 toll free line to > deal with customers tonight who happen to use their computers to > examine their credit/debit card balances, and went crazy when they > saw the mess. Just as I suspected, the credit card processor refused > to confess to the blame either, saying "it was not us, it was Walmart > who caused this mess, and we are not going to have Walmart blaming us > for causing this." > PayPal also had a standard response to read to customers saying that > **everyone will get full credit either overnight or by Monday for the > incorrect charges**. Walmart and the credit card processor said the > same thing. They all said 'do not pay attention if your computer > screams at you about 'get money in your account to cure this negative > balance mess'. In the interests of not pissing everyone off, WalMart through it's obvious weight around and got the card processor to roll back the charges. > Apparently either Walmart Stores or the card processor ran the 'batch' > two or three times instead of ONCE Thursday night, and a lot of people > were affected. Credit cards were charged two or three extra times, > and debit cards the same way. Debit cards which went negative as a > result or credit cards which went over limit as a result were 'forced' > to balance. Its all being ironed out now. What it looks like is the batch was run three times, and each time failed and was resent. It was probably communication problems. > I hope Walmart and/or the card processor find out who caused this and > make a human sacrifice of them. > (Update, Saturday afternoon, 4:30 PM CST: I got a phone call from the > credit card processing office people. They are still working > feverishly trying to get this straightened out; it was much worse than > just Walmart Stores apparently. ) Once something goes into the clearinghouse that is a card processor it takes a mighty effort to get it back out. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Walmart Mix Up Balancing Credit Cards Causes Major Hassle From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 23:46:02 GMT > ..."not anyones fault"... Ah yes, takes me back to the good old days when I worked in the payroll/MIS area at Florida Atlantic University. The management folks would tell us computer grunts, "Use this data set tonight", or "Turn on/off the flag for this or that deduction tonight". Then it would turn out they were wrong, all the checks were screwed up, so they would have to fix it in the next check and always included a note about how "a computer error" was to blame :-). >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: Re: Walmart Mix Up Balancing Credit Cards Causes Major Hassle Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 16:54:39 -0800 In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > On Thursday evening, a major problem happened with Walmart Stores and > their credit/debit card processing. I do not usually shop at Walmart > Supercenter here in Independence but on Thursday evening had to get > some ink for my printer after the stores which carry it downtown were > closed. Pat, will this show up on comp.risks? (which is an important place for this kind of screw-up). Or to phrase this differently, shall we both watch and see what further news about this shows up on comp.risks? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not know if it will show up on Computer Risks or not. I haven't communicated with Dr. Neumann for quite a long time. If it does, you can let me know if you wish. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dold@WalmartXMi.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Walmart Mix Up Balancing Credit Cards Causes Major Hassle Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2004 04:52:57 UTC Organization: a2i network TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > (Update, Saturday afternoon, 4:30 PM CST: I got a phone call from the > credit card processing office people. They are still working > feverishly trying to get this straightened out; it was much worse than > just Walmart Stores apparently. ) And were they claiming that the "others" were caused by WalMart, or were they ready to accept their own liability? Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They -- all of them -- Walmart, PayPal and First Data Merchant Services were full of double talk today and a lot of nonsense. I called PayPal again today, and when the person from India or wherever they outsource their 'customer service' to gave me a lot of blather and refused to give me a supervisor or anyone to talk to I told him just to cancel out my PayPal accounts, since obviously they were no more trustworthy than any other web site which collects credit card numbers and bank accounts. He insisted it was 'someone elses fault', but refused to say who and refused to give me a super- visor. So I told him to tell whoever *is* the supervisor that I am not going to use their services any longer, since I cannot trust them. I also went over to Walmart and talked to the local store manager and the district area manager who happened to be there today and told them 'thank you for reminding me why I never go to Walmart if there is any other store still in town providing the same merchandise.' Walmart has made a total disaster of our downtown area. They have driven so many of our businessmen out of business. Furthermore, they have managed to increase our crime statistics a lot also. In the police activity column in the Reporter each day, it used to be once or twice a week police had something to say; usually an underage kid drinking or maybe a driver who was drunk. Now there is not a day goes by in the police column but what police arrest one or more people for shoplifting at Walmart. And last week police arrested a cashier at Walmart who had stolen a thousand dollars from the cash register. It was in the Reporter. I told the district manager today when I was there that he needs to work hard at cleaning up the local store there to get rid of the riff raff hanging around and the dishonest employees as well. And downtown is like a ghost town now, no one shopping at all. And yes, it was First Data Merchant Services, whose latest line was 'you will get the credit when we get a chance to issue it sometime soon.' They could not produce any supervisor today either. I told them and Paypal (who has already started nagging me to 'cure my negative balance') that I would prefer to get sued so they could all get exposed for the fools they are. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Hot-Spot Wi-Fi Business Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 23:43:41 GMT In article , dold@Hot- SpotXW.usenet.us.com says: > Tony P. wrote: >> First think of the infrastructure. Yuo'd need some type of well equipped >> Wi-Fi router or two, and the access points associated with it. Then of >> course you'll need some form of security above and beyond basic WEP and >> not broadcasting the SSID. For that I'd suggest BlueSocket but it isn't >> in any way cheap. > Why would you want to have security like WEP? No public hotspot that I've > used has any encryption. You need to somehow authenticate the users, and keep out those who aren't paying. WEP can't be used as you'd have to constantly change the key. Instead you get a solution like Blue Socket. That's the expensive part of the system. ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: Hot-Spot Wi-Fi Business Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2004 23:54:50 -0500 In article , dold@Hot- SpotXW.usenet.us.com says: > Tony P. wrote: >> First think of the infrastructure. Yuo'd need some type of well equipped >> Wi-Fi router or two, and the access points associated with it. Then of >> course you'll need some form of security above and beyond basic WEP and >> not broadcasting the SSID. For that I'd suggest BlueSocket but it isn't >> in any way cheap. > Why would you want to have security like WEP? No public hotspot that I've > used has any encryption. ... which means, in effect, don't read or write anything over that link that you don't want anyone/everyone else in or near the coffee shop to read also. --Gene ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2004 09:52:56 -0400 Subject: Net Calling Makes Waves Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/business/8353031.htm By Ellen Lee CONTRA COSTA TIMES Ryan Bennett trekked through Sweden, Iceland and Denmark last year, but no one calling him would have known it. He took his telephone and his 510 area code number with him, allowing anyone to ring his number and reach him as though he were home in San Leandro. All he had to do was hook up a small adapter to a high-speed Internet connection and link his telephone to the box. The box stored his identification, including his telephone number, so that Bennett could dial a friend in the Bay Area as though he were placing a local call, and the friend could do the same. Full story at: http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/business/8353031.htm How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2004 19:55:33 PST From: Jo Falconer Subject: Archives - Telephone Directories Hi, I am looking for old telephone directories (from 1970) to find the address details of a relative of mine that died in America in 1972. The trouble is, I do not know the state he was living in, when he died. Is there anywhere on the internet where one can search for details in old phone directories? Thanks for your help, Jo Falconer Australia The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. - Moliere ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:18:50 +0400 From: Editor (PressReleaseNetwork.com) Subject: New Members and New Chairman at the Fixedline MMS Forum PRESS RELEASE NETWORK http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com Berne, Switzerland - Apr 4, 2004 (PRN): As the popularity of fixedline MMS increases so does the number of companies joining the F-MMS Forum. Just recently the Forum welcomed another round of new members, among them Alcatel (France) and Huawei (China). To Stan Willemsen, the newly appointed chairman of the F-MMS Forum, a clear sign that the activities of the Forum are focussing on the relevant issues. According to market forecast fixedline MMS is predicted to grow at the astronomical rate of 200% p.a. A siren call neither operators nor industry can resist, as they are both eagerly looking for new market opportunities. No wonder they are joining forces to give F-MMS a good headstart. With over 40 members the F-MMS Forum is becoming an important driving factor in the MMS market. A first success of the Forum consisted in laying the groundwork for F-MMS standards in cooperation with ETSI thereby ensuring the future interoperability of services and equipment. At this year's CEBIT MMS capable corded terminals and handsets based on DECT technology gave an impression of what will shortly be available on the market for residential and business use. Further activities by the F-MMS Forum are planned. Interoperability, market research and promotion are some of the issues that figure on top of the items list. At the last Steering Committee Meeting in February the responsibility to guide the Forum through these tasks was handed over to a new chairman, Mr. Stan Willemsen, an employee of Siemens AG. His predecessor, Mr. Erich Schmidt, himself an employee of Siemens AG as well, was thanked for his efforts and the good results, which were achieved during his chairmanship. Mr. Schmidt will take new exciting responsibilities within Siemens. With its new chairman and its new members the F-MMS-Forum is set to take up new challenges -- and there are, no doubt, plenty of them waiting out there. About F-MMS Forum The objective of the Fixed Line MMS Forum is to introduce Multimedia Messaging Service in the fixed network in order to enhance attractiveness by adding new services (including voice -- data services). This will lead to fixed - mobile convergence applications while ensuring interoperability between fixed and mobile networks. The non-profit organisation is based in Berne, Switzerland. Since its creation end of 2002, more than 40 companies from all over the world joined the Forum. These companies represent the core of the global messaging activities. For more information, contact: Heinz Ochsner F-MMS Forum Secretariat and Press Office P. O. Box 7465 3001 Berne Switzerland Tel: +41 (32) 6212692 Fax: +41 (32) 6212691 Email: info@fixedlinemms.org Website: http://www.f-mms.org Editor & CEO Press Release Network http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #160 ******************************