From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 29 02:28:34 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i6T6SYV09793; Thu, 29 Jul 2004 02:28:34 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 02:28:34 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200407290628.i6T6SYV09793@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 #355 TELECOM Digest Thu, 29 Jul 2004 02:27:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 355 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson PayPal Notice: Pendency of Class Action; Proposed Settlement (M Solomon) Dial 411 for a Category Search (Monty Solomon) Bare-Bones DNC Coverage Draws Lower Ratings (Monty Solomon) Inside Wiring (was Area Code Unavailable For Vonage) (Neal McLain) How Does Vonage Sound (Ed Abbott) Samsung DS616? (John) Re: 911, Only Simple 911 at Best (Mike Donnelly) Re: Any Good Simple Home Phone Systems? (SELLCOM Tech support) Re: Cell Phones Using Wi-Fi; How Will Hotspots Cope? (John Levine) Re: Virtual PBX Competitors (Paul the phone guy) Calling a Stolen Cell Phone (Carl Moore) Special Request For Berrien County, Michigan Residents Only (Scrapper-D) Last Laugh! Interesting Origins (Lisa Minter) 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: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 16:39:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: PayPal Notice of Pendency of Class Action and Proposed Settlement https://www.paypal.com/settlement/ http://www.settlement4onlinepayments.com/ Welcome to the In re PayPal Litigation Settlement Website You have reached the website of the claims administrator for the class action settlement in In re PayPal Litigation, Case No. 02 1227 JF PVT, pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose. On July 12, 2004 the Court preliminarily approved the proposed settlement and directed that class members be given notice of the settlement. Copies of the settlement documents, as well as a list of Frequently Asked Questions and Answers, are available through the navigation bar on the left side of this page. Claims for settlement payments must be submitted through this website. Please review the Notice of Pendency of Class Action and Proposed Settlement to determine which Claim Form you should submit, then click on the appropriate link on the left side of this page. Please note that online claim forms must be completed by October 23, 2004 in order to qualify for payment. http://www.settlement4onlinepayments.com/ FAQ http://www.settlement4onlinepayments.com/faq.php3 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I strongly recommend everyone with a PayPal account review this class action settlement file. You might very well wind up with **fifty dollars** credited to your Paypal account, if you get to that site and can make certain statements about your dealings with PalPal or PayPal Debit/Credit cards, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 16:16:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Dial 411 for a Category Search Need a Florist in Freehold or Fort Worth? Dial 411 for a Category Search No Need to Ask for a Specific Listing; Operators Will Offer Choices Based on the Business Category and Locality NEWARK, N.J., July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Customers in New Jersey can now dial Verizon's Local and National 411 and ask for a bookstore in Morristown or a caterer in Cincinnati, without a specific name or street address, using Verizon's Business Category Search service. With the new service, customers can ask for a type of business in a locality or city, and the Verizon operator will offer three choices randomly selected from telephone listings for the area. For $1.25 per request, customers can get the number and street address for any one or all three choices. Non-published numbers will not be provided via this service. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=42752562 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 00:41:50 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Bare-Bones DNC Coverage Draws Lower Ratings By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES, July 28 (Reuters) - Fewer Americans are tuning into the Democratic National Convention than did four years ago as the major broadcast networks treat the event as hardly worth watching, according to ratings issued on Wednesday. But gavel-to-gavel coverage offered by CNN, the Fox News Channel and MSNBC is drawing bigger audiences than in 2000, a sign that broadcasters are losing politically minded viewers to the cable news outlets. Critics say that's no surprise given that ABC, CBS and NBC are limiting coverage of the Democratic and Republican conventions to just three hours a night for three nights -- and skipping one evening of the event altogether. At the same time, the journalists themselves continually convey the message that conventions have evolved into little more than political advertisements and that viewers are better off watching "Fear Factor," "Big Brother" or summer reruns. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=42765577 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I remember very well the 1952 conventions, which were the first ones to be on television. We had four TV channels in those days in Chicago (2-5-7-9) or maybe it was 4-5-7-9, I don't remember, but in any event they had total coverage on all four channels afternoon and evening sessions each of the four days of the convention. There was nothing else to watch even if you had wanted to. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 14:11:28 -0500 From: Neal McLain Subject: Inside wiring (was Area Code Unavailable For Vonage) Frank@Nospam.com wrote: > Just last week carpet installers cut my cable service, so I was > out of Vonage for two days. I tired plugging everything into my > remaining cable outlet that was still working but the signal > wasn't sufficient there for the cable modem. With DSL you're a > little better off, but still dependent upon household electrical > power being up and running. Then PAT wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Couldn't the carpet installers > just as easily have sliced your telephone line and left you > without SBC [DSL] service for a couple days? ... And Frank@Nospam.com responded: > No. Telco inside wiring is normally twisted pair well up inside > the wall, not along the baseboard. Not necessarily: it depends on the age of the building. In the early years of the 20th century, few buildings were prewired for any kind of electrical service. Wiring in these buildings was almost always installed after construction was completed, often surface-mounted. Sometime around 1910 or 1920, builders began prewiring new residential and commercial buildings with hidden electric power and telephone wiring (a hallmark of the arts-and-crafts bungalow was a wood-framed telephone alcove in the hall, complete with a 42A block discretely placed nearby). This pattern continued through WWII, and well into the postwar home-construction boom of the 50s and 60s. By the late 60s, cable television was gaining popularity. In existing buildings, cable wiring was often surface-mounted, either on the outside of the building or internally, in basements and attics, along baseboards, or under carpets. Cable television companies began offering prewire service for new construction. At the outset, most cable companies did the prewiring work themselves because the traditional electrical contractors of the day simply couldn't understand why cable companies insisted on such things as 75-ohm coax, 100% shielding, and home-run wiring. But as time passed, electrical contractors learned the requirements for coax wiring, and eventually took over the job of prewiring new buildings. Today, virtually all new residential buildings, and most new commercial buildings, are prewired for coax during initial construction, often by the same contractors that install power and telephone wiring. Note the shift in terminology in the previous paragraph: coax wiring inside buildings is no longer "cable TV" wiring. It's all generic coax, available for use by any video provider: cable TV company, "private cable" company, OVS operator, MMDS operator, backyard-dish installer, or DBS installer. Even if a cable TV company originally installed it, competitive video providers now have the right to use it. . So it's not necessarily true that coax wiring is normally exposed, while telco wiring is hidden inside walls. It all depends on the age of the building. Footnote: many college towns have "student ghettos": blocks of pre-WWII frame houses that have been chopped up into student apartments. Coax wiring in such buildings is often run around the outside of the building -- partly because it's easier to install that way; partly because it's easier to make the once-a-semester changes when students move; and partly to deter signal theft (wiring on outside walls is more difficult for students to tamper with, and easier for the cable company to inspect). Cable companies call these installations "MUFH jobs" (as in Multi-Unit Frame House), aptly pronounced "muff job." Neal McLain nmclain@annsgarden.com ------------------------------ From: poepauv@yahoo.com (Ed Abbott) Subject: How Does Vonage Sound Date: 28 Jul 2004 12:35:30 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > I'm simply no longer willing to pay for a 100 year old POTS phone when > I can get five times the functionality and unlimited US minutes for a > lower price from Vonage. With a cell phone for backup my internet > phone does not have perform exactly like a traditional phone. Hi Charlie, As a Vonage user, how is the sound? I have 3 questions in this regard: Is the sound as good as a POTS line? Or is it somewhere between POTS and a cell phone in terms of audio clarity? Or is the sound quality as bad as a cell phone? I'm interested in finding out how clear phone calls are via VoIP. Perhaps you would be willing to enlighten me. Anyone else who has used VoIP who would like to chime in please do so. I'm seriously thinking of going in this direction. Any Lingo or Vonage users out there? Thanks in advance, Ed Abbott [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My experience with Vonage has been that the quality is generally decent; about the same as POTS. I've had POTS lines that sounded pretty awful with Vonage lines that sounded great and vice-versa. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 01:32:16 GMT From: John Subject: Samsung DS616? Organization: Optimum Online Samsung DS616 ... Any good for a home installation? Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 18:15:13 GMT From: Mike Donnelly Subject: Re: 911, Only Simple 911 at Best charlie@cdsdetroit.com (charlie3) wrote in news:telecom23.353.10@telecom-digest.org: > Cell phones have been around for years and have similar > problems to VOIP phones; more and more cell phones and VOIP > phones are going into use and many will replace traditional > copperline phones, regardless of 911 concerns. Public > officials will find solutions to 911 calls originating from > cell and internet phones. > I'm simply no longer willing to pay for a 100 year old POTS > phone when I can get five times the functionality and > unlimited US minutes for a lower price from Vonage. With a > cell phone for backup my internet phone does not have > perform exactly like a traditional phone. Hope you never need emergency services any time in the near future. BTW, what happens to VOIP when there is a power outage? Is there anything similar to "lifeline service"? My 100 year old POTS phone still works. I know because I have had to use it several times during outages. Mike Donnelly [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well there is no reason one cannot use a battery backup with a Vonage phone. The same kind of battery backups used to provide for an orderly shutdown of computers when the power goes out could be installed on the Vonage unit as well. Obviously, limit your useage to emergency calls until the power comes back on. And regards emergency services be sure your Vonage phone is registered in your local community's database which Vonage encourages you to do when you first get your adapter box. PAT] ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: Any Good Simple Home Phone Systems? Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 19:17:12 GMT John posted on that vast internet thingie: > I'd like to learn about any good and simple telephone systems for my > home. Looking for one that is user-friendly and that won't require a > service call for every little problem. Looking for a system up to > maybe 3 x 10. A very popular system for us has been the TMC ET4000 system. It has optional modules to add features like a cordless phone port and other optional addons. It has very nice intercom and paging built in. You can have 16 devices in the system. http://www.sellcom.com/tmc.html Steve at SELLCOM http://www.sellcom.com Discount multihandset cordless phones by Siemens, AT&T, Panasonic, Motorola Vtech 5.8Ghz; TMC ET4000 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Beamer, Watchguard! Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Mini-Splitter log splitter! If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz you owe it to yourself. ------------------------------ Date: 28 Jul 2004 20:36:07 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Cell Phones Using Wi-Fi; How Will Hotspots Cope? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> Motorola Inc. yesterday unveiled a phone that combines cellular >> and wireless Internet-calling capabilities. The device, called the >> CN620, which could be the first mobile phone that combines >> wide-area GSM cellular technology with shorter-range technology >> known as Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, > I was talking with the owner of a local cafe that provides Wi-Fi for > its customers about this yesterday. I was wondering how these little > shops would cope with such phones when they start to become widely > available. Will they have to buy new base stations that will disable > their network for such devices? I wouldn't worry about it anytime soon. The Moto phone is is intended to do WiFi on a corporate LAN-based PBX, not on the public Internet. A phone that knew how to contact Vonage or a similar retail VoIP carrier would be somewhat more complicated both to build and to administer, at least until cell carriers and VoIP carriers sell combo plans. On the other hand, I know people who plug a USB phone into their laptop now and make all their calls from public hotspots, and it doesn't seem to have killed them. Phone calls take a lot of bandwidth, but I suspect the ones that people will make from hotspots will be relatively short. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: paulthephonewiz@yahoo.com (Paul the phone guy) Subject: Re: Virtual PBX Competitors Date: 28 Jul 2004 17:00:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com There are lots of hosted communications services. VirtualPBX.com has been around the longest and has a great business service with advanced ACD capabilities. If you want to run a serious company -- these guys are well worth talking too. They recently won the Commweb award for 2004. Some drawbacks like no voip yet, but calls rates seem low compared to others Other vendors like gotvmail, freedomvoice, accessline offer services that are suited for a very small group of people where you really want a follow me service and dont need the more sophisticated capibilties. Paul the phone guy John Bartley wrote in message news:: > Who are the major competitors to Virtual PBX, for folks who don't want > to maintain their own phone switch? > Anyone here have experience with the Virtual PBX service? > Thank you kindly. > John Bartley K7AAY > Talk More, Pay Less with Net2Phone Direct(R), up to 1500 minutes free! > http://www.net2phone.com/cgi-bin/link.cgi?143 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 15:48:50 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Calling a Stolen Cell Phone This came in from KYW news-radio in Philadelphia: A woman's purse was swiped, then "within minutes" a store employee brought the missing purse in. A cell phone and money were missing from it. The store manager did his own investigation, and called the cell phone, and it started ringing in that employee's pocket (which turns out also to have the missing money). The employee was fired, arrested, freed on bail, then did not appear in court, so police are looking for him per arrest warrant. ------------------------------ Subject: Request For Berrien County, Michigan, Residents Only From: Scrapper-D Reply-To: daryl@qtm.net Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 04:53:46 GMT I'm so glad I was able to put this on the Internet. I've never done this before. If I upset someone for the cross posting ... please understand that I will never be doing this again. This is a desperate plea for help. All I ask is that if you are from Berrien County, Michigan, then please visit http://www.edheyn.com and please vote for him in the Primaries on August 3rd of this year. Ed is my new Son-in-Law and he needs the job. Happy news grouping ... All the best, Daryl [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This one time only, Daryl. Please, and thank you. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 20:01:35 PDT From: Lisa Minter Subject: Last Laugh! Interesting Origins A few thousand years agom as incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October)! Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good wigs made from wool. They couldn't wash the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term "big wig." Today we often use the term "here comes the Big Wig" because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy. In more recent years, common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the "Ace of Spades." To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren't "playing with a full deck." In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. However, how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square-based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem ... how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. However, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannonballs would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey." (All this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you.) ------------------------------ 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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If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #355 ******************************