From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Aug 11 15:32:39 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i7BJWdN26396; Wed, 11 Aug 2004 15:32:39 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 15:32:39 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200408111932.i7BJWdN26396@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 #375 TELECOM Digest Wed, 11 Aug 2004 15:33:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 375 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Must-Download TV (Monty Solomon) Logging On at 30,000 Feet (Monty Solomon) Drivers Let Big Brother In to Get a Break (Monty Solomon) Product Review: Windows XP Battens Down Hatches (Monty Solomon) 'Cable A La Carte' TV Picks Up Steam (Monty Solomon) Linksys Supplies Networking Hardware to Build Ultimate (Monty Solomon) Strange Spoof E-Mails (Neal McLain) Re: Internet Connection (Gary Novosielski) Vonage Traffic Clarification (aswath66) Re: Wardriving Guilty Plea in Lowe's Wi-Fi Case (Dave Garland) Follow-up Note re Toll Free Report (Judith Oppenheimer) Neat Little Book For Telephone History Buffs (Jim Haynes) Re: Any Experience With Verizon NJ Centrex? (Justin Time) Remote Serial Port Connection - Manage Devices Over Internet (newsguy) Spam Harvesting From Telecom Digest (John R. Covert) Re: Last Laugh! Interesting Origins (John David Galt) 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, 11 Aug 2004 11:43:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Must-Download TV The latest developments in TV-show-trading technology mean you don't need TiVo to watch what you want, when you want. By Farhad Manjoo Aug. 11, 2004 | When the Federal Communications Commission gave its blessing on Aug. 4 to a new TiVo service that Hollywood has opposed, the decision was widely hailed as a triumph for techies. The news was both unexpected and unlikely -- these days, government officials rarely move against the wishes of giant media companies. TiVo's upcoming service, called TivoToGo, will allow users to send recorded TV shows across the Internet to PCs or to other TiVo machines, a functionality that TiVo says customers have long demanded. Although TiVo has imposed a host of restrictions on the system, media firms told the FCC that TivoToGo would cause immense harm to their bottom line. The FCC didn't buy it, and geeks were ecstatic: "Three words ... There is a GOD!" wrote one Slashdot reader in a typical note of glee. The closer one looks, however, the less divine the FCC's approval of TiVo begins to appear. For one thing, the new TiVo service seems pretty hard to fall in love with. It's strapped down by a surfeit of copy-protection mechanisms that many people will probably find tedious if not odious. For instance, the service will allow users to transfer shows only to a small number of machines registered on a single customer account; technically, says James Burger, an attorney for TiVo, the system is meant to let users move shows from one of their TiVo systems only to another (say from a summer home to a winter home), and not even to friends or family. TiVo was required to lock down its system and to seek the government's approval in order to comply with the "broadcast flag" rule, which the FCC adopted last year. The rule is designed to prevent the widespread trading of television shows as we enter the age of high-definition digital television. Hollywood's nightmare scenario is that high-def TV will become "Napsterized," with shows available online to anyone, anytime, for free -- which may sound, to some TV fans, less like a nightmare than a heavenly dream. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/08/11/must_download_tv/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 00:53:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Logging On at 30,000 Feet PRACTICAL TRAVELER By BOB TEDESCHI In late May, Ortwin Freyermuth readied himself for an 11-hour flight from Munich to his Los Angeles home -- a journey typically preceded by a flurry of last-minute e-mail messages, in anticipation of a day's worth of traveling incommunicado. This time, though, Mr. Freyermuth eased onto his Lufthansa flight less harried than on previous trips. When his plane reached cruising altitude, he opened up his iBook, logged onto the Internet and answered messages from 30,000 feet. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/travel/08prac.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 01:33:12 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Drivers Let Big Brother in to Get a Break By Kevin Maney, USA TODAY In two new tests, car owners will be able to let insurance companies monitor their driving via new technology in exchange for lower rates. The technology will track some combination of when, where, how far and how fast they drive, giving insurers a way to reward low-risk driving. Now just experiments, the technology might be a glimpse of the future of car insurance. The trials will begin this year: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/surveillance/2004-08-08-insure_x.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 23:25:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Product Review: Windows XP Battens Down Hatches By MATTHEW FORDAHL AP Technology Writer With the latest update to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system, personal computers will soon join parents, bosses, teachers and spouses as a source of nagging in your life. But as mom always said, it's for your own good. You'll get nagged at startup if you're not running an antivirus program or it's out of date. You'll get a warning if a firewall isn't turned on. Other messages pop up when you try to download, install or run software from that sea of malware called the Internet. The nagging is among the more obvious changes made by Service Pack 2. There are others _ ranging from an Internet browser popup blocker to components that will no longer interact with strangers _ that will make computing more secure and, despite the warnings, less annoying. For a company that managed to create both the most widely used operating system and No. 1 hacker target, Microsoft has done remarkably well with SP2. Unlike previous patches, this update doesn't just fix a glitch or two but boosts security overall. Something had to be done. For years, Windows users have been attacked because the software was designed to be open, simple and feature-rich. Then came always-on Internet connections and evildoing hackers looking for easy prey. They found it in Windows. Not only is it on nearly every personal computer, but it's got a deadly combination of openness, sometimes buggy code and more than a few users who think they hold a privileged place in the universe and don't need to run antivirus software. Service Pack 2 doesn't include antivirus software, but it makes managing such programs easier. It also includes numerous under-the- hood improvements that plug vulnerabilities, making computing safer and more reliable. What SP2 doesn't do is go overboard and turn your computer into a micro police state. There are still plenty of choices to make, including bad ones. Users, provided they bother to read the warnings, can now make more informed decisions before they click. If you're running Windows XP, you can get SP2 simply by turning on automatic updates. Anyone who has automatic updates enabled already will be getting the download directly. Microsoft also is giving away free update CDs at no charge to anyone who asks. This upgrade's importance can't be overstated. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=43031412 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 23:32:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: 'Cable A La Carte' TV Picks Up Steam All Things Considered With studies saying most U.S. households watch less than 20 of the sometimes hundreds of available channels, a movement is building for "cable a la carte." Some of its backers are those offended by cable channels they find bundled with channels they do want. Some observers say such a system would just wind up costing consumers more and cut down on content diversity. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports. http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3844719 http://www.npr.org/dmg/audioplayer.php?prgCode=ATC&showDate=10-Aug-2004&segNum=18 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 08:49:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Linksys Supplies the Networking Hardware to Build the Ultimate Linksys Supplies the Networking Hardware to Build the Ultimate Gaming Event - QuakeCon 2004 QuakeCon's 2004 Gaming Tournament LANs Built Entirely on High Performance Linksys Switches IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Linksys(R), a Division of Cisco Systems, Inc., the leading provider of broadband, wireless and networking hardware for the consumer and Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) markets, today announced it will supply all the networking hardware to build the gaming network for the 2004 QuakeCon(TM) video game festival and tournament in Grapevine, Texas, August 12 - 15, 2004. Linksys will provide two-hundred 24-Port 10/100 Ethernet Switches with Gigabit expansion slots and two-hundred Gigabit Ethernet Modules for gigabit connectivity to the network backbone. The Linksys switches will provide up to 4,600 connections for gamers to play their favorite id titles against one another. Gamers from all over the world will be coming to play head-to-head gaming at this massive LAN party. This year's Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) gaming network is the largest in the nation. With over 3,500 computers and servers, participants can bring their own computers and play games such as DOOM 3(TM), QUAKE III Arena(TM), Return to Castle Wolfenstein(TM), Enemy Territory(TM) and other games. Gamers who bring their own computers equipped with LAN cards simply plug into the switches which will be set on all the table tops in the BYOC area. The switches will be the gamer's link to the network operations center (NOC) in which they can play well over 400 games hosted on the game servers simultaneously. QuakeCon's 2004 sponsors include id Software, NVIDIA, Activision, AMD, Chenbro, VIA and Linksys. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=43035873 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 05:35:40 -0500 From: Neal McLain Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com Subject: Strange Spoof E-Mails Within the past week, I've received two spoof e-mails, one purporting to be from CityBank and one from USbank (and I'm not even a USbank customer). They're obviously fake attempts to get me to enter confidential information. But they differ from previous spoofs I've received in two curious respects: - They include a couple lines of random words that aren't visible in the message (white text on white background, I assume). Example (from the USbank spoof): "in 1842 Geena Davis Not bad. Leonardo Di Caprio in 1814 in 1969 Download in 1900 Nascar Personals Tool Atkins Diet NY Yankees Harley Davidson." - The actual message is a .gif image, not text. Furthermore, it isn't even a link, so I couldn't click on it even if I wanted to! I have duly reported these spoofs to the respective banks, using the spoof-reporting pages on their respective websites. In these reports, I've quoted the entire source code of the original message (since I obviously can't "quote" a .gif image in a text message). Anybody else receiving spoofs like this? Neal McLain [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh my goodness, Neal, all the time. There is not a day goes by I do not receive one, or sometimes three spoof emails here at massis purporting to be from some bank or another, PayPal, EBay, etc informing me my account information has to be re-entered or my account will be closed because of suspected abuse, or sometimes that 'my account' with that institution has already been closed and I have to reapply to have it re-opened. Such bald-faced liars and charlatans, one and all. Oh, at one point I used to go to the trouble of diligently copying them out and forwarding them to the respective sites in case anyone wanted to bother looking into the matter. But I think most (legitimate) sites, banks, etc got so burned out fighting it -- I know I have -- that they quit responding to complaints like that recieved by their help desks and fraud investigative units, etc. I think now most people are just waiting for the proverbial 'death of the net' when the spam, virus, fraud message rate reaches as close as it can to a hundred percent. What is email now, about 85 percent spam, viruses, etc? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Internet Connection Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 04:38:13 GMT Okay, enough of this spam. This story is fictional. CodeMonkey74 wrote: > Just thought I'd drop by and say thanks to all the people who tried to > help me with my internet problems. AAARGH!!!! I almost missed > turning in my HUGE psych paper, and Kenna was suffering from > nickjr.com withdrawals ;). I finally just gave up and switched (in > case you were wondering, it's Comcast 19.99 for 6 months, 75 bucks > cash back and a free modem http://specials.comcastoffers.com). The > guy I talked to said the online place was the only way to get the free > modem. Anyway, it's fast!!!! I downloaded a coloring book for Kenna > in like 2 secs. Thanks again, time to study. KM [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Where did you get that one? I saw it also, but you did NOT get it from TELECOM Digest. I did not pass it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: aswath66 Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2004 21:14:50 -0000 Subject: Vonage Traffic Clarification Reply-To: telecom-news@yahoogroups.com In one of the posts PAT had mentioned that Vonage to Vonage traffic goes completely over Vonage network. Vonage claims that they do not have any network infrastructure. Is my understanding of Voange's claim wrong or Vonage's traffic is carried over public IP network? Thanks in advance for your clarification. (PAT: Can you please suppress my email id.) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We need to define the term 'infrastuc- ture'. Vonage does not have a 'typical' infrastructure, that is, outside wires and cables from one place to another place. They do not have various 'central offices' or telephone exchanges around the nation or world. What they *do* have is a room full of computers in their New Jersey headquarters. Everyone who has a Vonage account has a space, or 'mailbox' thing there. Whoever your own high speed ISP is, when you install a Vonage phone, the phone finds its way, transparently to the New Jersey office of Vonage, where you get terminated on one of various computers in the machine room there. You go to make a Vonage phone call. You dial it in, your local high speed ISP passes the bits and bytes along to the computer (on which you are 'housed') in New Jersey. That computer does a 'lookup' to see what it is you want. If it finds a 'mailbox number' or address of the person you are calling amongst its own things, it just passes you across to that place and handles the call itself. But that's only a miniscule percentage of the time at present. Usually it does not find what it wants amongst it own things, so it goes looking on the outside network (what would be called the telephone network or infrastructure), and hands your traffic over there for completion. So Vonage is correct, they do NOT have any 'infrastructure' or outside plant. But they do have lots of computers and use them to handle calls as much as possible, handing off the traffic to the 'infrastructure' (of outside telcos) only as needed. Someone pointed out here the other day that if Vonage and the other VOIP companies would cooperate in sharing their subscriber bases, handing each other traffic as appropriate, then reliance on Traditional Bell for call completion could be much less than it is now. I would think they would cooperate with each other against the common enemy (Bell) instead of fighting with each other. That's what happened at the start of the 20th century as the independent telcos were setting up shop. They said damned if they would interconnect with Bell if there was any other way of doing it, but often times there wasn't, so they did. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: Wardriving Guilty Plea in Lowe's Wi-Fi Case Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 23:53:36 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when PAT wrote: > Now my friend who got me the card and wireless router did say if I > mounted a highly directional antenna out of my window I could probably > go 'one mile or so' and still get the signal. Is that correct? At the recent DEFCON hacker convention in Vegas, a couple of teenagers managed to get 55.1 miles, and said they probably could have gotten more if they hadn't run out of road. Granted, the antennas were 10 foot satellite dishes, so that would adversely impact the portability of your laptop :). Two women who improvised an antenna out of "cardboard, duct tape, and a car sun visor" managed 0.82 miles. The world record is 192 miles, but Swedish Space Corporation used a weather balloon and RF amplification so that was sort of cheating. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I think the 'couple of teenagers' at Vegas were too smart for their own good. Is the idea to be able to stand on the roof of your house naked and show everyone all your stuff or is the idea to be able to get some kind of convenient mix between flexibilty and privacy? So they got 55 miles? Sounds very impressive until you realize how many people in the span of that 55 miles were eager to see what those boys were doing with their computers and had WiFi cards of their own they could use to explore the boys' computers in more detail. After all, the more people who get in the middle between the base station and yourself, the greater the likelyhood of *someone* -- at least one malcontent -- along the way spying on you successfully, encryption and answering to one non- broadcasted MAC address only not withstanding. Of course, finding the proper mix between flexibilty and privacy is dependent on your circumstances, but 55 miles? Or the two women with eight tenths of a mile? That seems to be stretching a good thing a bit to far. Because I live in a rural area midst many folks who are not terribly computer-literate (to put it politely), I'd feel safe with maybe another city block or two, using the usual security precautions, but not much more than that. Well, no matter, its all moot to me right now, everything busted up and not working at least until later this month when my Canadian consultant gets back from vacation. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: Subject: Follow-up Note re Toll Free Report Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 12:30:27 -0400 Organization: ICB Inc./WhoSells800.com Pat, "Re New Report Released - Toll Free Usage Growing", please post a follow-up note: If someone orders the Toll Free Report directly from Insight Research (either by phone, 973-541-9600, or online at http://www.insight-corp.com/reports/callcenter.asp), they should use discount code B08B96, in order to get their ICB Discount. They can get an ICB Discount on anything they order at Insight. Judith http://ICBTollFreeNews.com _ http://800Consulting.com 160 East 26 Street, Suite 6E New York, New York 10010 212 684-7210, 1 800 The Expert ------------------------------ Subject: Neat Little Book for Telephone History Buffs Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 17:05:47 GMT Several copies are available through www.abebooks.com at quite reasonable prices. "The Birth and Babyhood of the Telephone" by Thomas A. Watson, an address delivered before the third annual convention of the Telephone Pioneers of America at Chicago, October 17, 1913, printed by AT&T. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This would make a good companion book to the one the SBC Archives has about the hundred year history of Ameritech/Illinois Bell/Chicago Telephone Company. If you did not yet get your copy you can order it directly from the author. PAT] The SBC Archives and History Center is pleased to offer the book entitled, Snapshots in Time: A Photographic History of Ameritech. This 192-page soft-cover book chronicles the evolution of telecommunications in the SBC Midwest (former Ameritech) five-state region through select historical images. It offers more than 225 captioned photos of switchboard operators, crews with their vehicles and technicians testing central office equipment. The book begins with an 1876 portrait of Alexander Graham Bell and ends in 1999, on the eve of the SBC/Ameritech merger. The cost for each book is $25.00, plus $4.95 for shipping. To order, fill out the form below. If you have questions, please call Bill Caughlin at (210) 524-6192. Or send him an e-mail at wc2942@sbc.com --------------------------------------------------------------- ORDER FORM FOR Snapshots in Time: A Photographic History of Ameritech NAME __________________________________________________ BUSINESS UNIT ________________________________________ ADDRESS _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ CITY _________________________ STATE _____ ZIP __________ PHONE NUMBER (______)_________________________ I would like to order _______ copy(ies) each at $25.00, plus $4.95 shipping, for a total of _____________. No cash, please. Make your check or money order payable to SBC Services, Inc. and send it to: SBC Archives and History Center 7990 IH-10 West Floor 1 San Antonio, Texas 78230 ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: Any Experience With Verizon NJ Centrex? Date: 11 Aug 2004 05:31:27 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Tony P. wrote in message news:: > In article , chrispchang@yahoo.com > says: >> Hi, I'm new to this group but seems like there are a number of >> knowledgeable telecom folks here. I am opening a small office (6 >> people with potential to expand to max of 15). In looking at phone >> systems, we want basic voicemail functionality, caller id and call >> waiting caller id. >> I am thinking about using Centrex offered by Verizon NJ instead of >> purchasing a phone system. Was wondering if anyone had any opinions >> from experience with using this? We intend to get Centrex compatible >> display phones so users don't have to deal with switchook/flash button >> stuff. >> Appreciate any responses. > From an accounting perspective, the Centrex is a month to month expense, > while buying a system gives you the depreciation over time plus the cost > of the loops as a monthly expense. > I don't like Centrex because you're on the hook to Verizon until you > decide to put your own system in. > Right now you can get systems that will expand to what you need for > < $1000. > You don't mention how many CO lines you'll be using. There is a > difference. WIth Centrex, every phone is a CO line that you'll pay > for. With you own system, you only pay for those CO lines you tie > into the KSU or PBX. > Let's say you have 6 extensions with 4 CO loops at $30 a month using a > KSU or PBX. > Your initial cost going in is $1000, with a recurring monthly expense > of $120, or $1,440 a year. So your cost in the first year is $2,440. > Subsequent years would be $1,440. At year three you fully staff to 15 > people and add 5 CO lines. Perhaps you'll spend $800 or so to upgrade > the switch. Monthly your cost would now be $300 a month, $3,600 a year. > Six Centrex loops at $25 a month, plus a rental fee on the phones of > roughly $10 each per month comes out to $210 a month, or $2,520 a > year. All subsequent years would cost approximately the same. > When you fully staff, the cost now comes to $525 a month, or $6,300 a > year. > So you can see that in the long term, Centrex is a losing bet. Unless of > course you want to increase your expenses. What you have failed to account for in your business case is the cost of maintenance on the PBX unit. Service calls on your PBX will cost you an hourly rate that will vary depending on the local area and the vendor providing the service. If you opt for a maintenance contract, then it is an annual charge that may be billed on a monthly basis. Costs for maintenance contracts vary depending on the type of coverage required, but average, at least in our market, around $180 per port. Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: newsguy@jimprice.com Subject: Remote Serial Port Connection - Manage Devices over the Internet Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 08:06:38 -0500 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com I ran across this a while back, and it looked pretty cool ... If you're trying to get remote (i.e., over the Intenet) access to a serial-controlled device of any sort that you've deployed at a remote site (a customer's or one of your own), this might be of interest to you. http://www.traversix.com/ The Traversix connectivity product family offers a complete end-to-end solution for securely connecting to legacy serial devices over the Internet without having to change your existing serial application, and without requiring any special firewall configuration. This is achieved by installing the Traversix Connectivity Server at the remote location and the Traversix Connectivity Client on your PC. These two products connect to the Traversix Connectivity Gateway, and allow seamless communication between your PC and the serial device, whether it's in the next room, or on another continent. The data between your PC and the device is encrypted. Also, because the Connectivity Client creates a virtual serial port on your PC that behaves just like a hardware serial port (i.e., COM1, COM2, COM3, etc.), it is completely compatible with any existing serial application. It handles not just RX/TX, but all RS-232 control signals. What could be simpler!!! Possible uses: Managing a PBX Modem Replacement Monitoring an elevator Checking on an HVAC system Capturing data from a lab experiment Upgrading an industrial controller They're selling a starter kit with one Connectivity Server, the software, and a 3-month license to use their Gateway on their web site. If you've got a tough remote connecitivity problem, it's definitely worth checking out. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 08:26:37 -0400 (EDT) From: John R. Covert Subject: Spam Harvesting From Telecom Digest On 21 Jul 2004 03:45:31 EDT I posted for the first time using nospamtd@covert.org instead of nospam@covert.org just to be 100% sure that it had appeared nowhere but here. I think that's true of the older address, but I wanted to clear the slate. I also posted on 26 Jul 2004 12:07:51 EDT, and then not again until the message you are now reading. Email to this address is rejected by my SMTP server upon attempted delivery as invalid recipient, but the attempt is logged. The spam to this address is already coming in: 24-JUL-2004 08:04:02.23 Host: 212.74.114.37 mk-smarthost-1.mail.uk.tiscali.com 6-AUG-2004 13:27:53.25 Host: 192.118.71.128 omail6.walla.co.il 8-AUG-2004 17:48:05.71 Host: 192.118.71.126 omail4.walla.co.il. 10-AUG-2004 12:00:07.45 Host: 216.155.196.71 web60808.mail.yahoo.com There may have been other attempts that were rejected by RBL lookups or other checks which took place before the sender was even prompted to provide recipient addresses. Since the 21st of July I've rejected 2911 out of 3606 messages that early in the protocol exchange. Only about 67 actual spams got through my filters, mostly by coming in from a forwarded address where my filtering is less effective than to my real address. Spammers suck. Since the mail is rejected before any of the text is received, trying to collect on Pat's "contract" for $100 on these past messages would be impossible, but I'd be glad to forward "nospamtd" to anyone who would like to actually take the time and effort to pursue the spammers. Since the [you] CAN-SPAM act explicitly forbids harvesting addresses, these messages are also clear violations of the act, since this address has NEVER appeared or been used anywhere but in TD. /john [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Good for you, John! *Anyone* who wishes to use CAN-SPAM to their financial advantage is more than welcome to do so. All of you are hereby appointed as my agents for this limited purpose. I'll contribute 100-150 spams per day to anyone who wishes to pick through them looking for some meat. I've gotten to burned out to worry about it much any longer, but any user (attornies especially) who wish to pick what meat they can from all this crap is welcome to get started on it. You know, it occurs to me that a full time spam investigator/processor willing to work purely on his own with some imagination and creative- ness could acccept the tons of this crap that come through each day and make a reasonable living suing the sources. Oh, I know there are spam-traps out there, but they are mostly into researching it for the various software filtering programs aren't they? Even if the end result only netted pennies for each successful/collectible lawsuit, the person would make up for it in sheer volume of lawsuits. I wish *I* could make a penny for each piece of spam I see here in a day. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John David Galt Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Interesting Origins Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 21:12:06 -0700 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society The "brass monkey" story is an urban legend, long since disproven. http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.htm ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #375 ******************************