From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Sep 13 07:55:18 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id i8DBtIu09245; Mon, 13 Sep 2004 07:55:18 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 07:55:18 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200409131155.i8DBtIu09245@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 #426 TELECOM Digest Mon, 13 Sep 2004 07:54:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 426 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson McAfee's Trojan Horse Error Gets Developer's Goat (Monty Solomon) Blog Interrupted (Monty Solomon) The End of 'Network News' (Monty Solomon) My Gripe With the Hype Around Skype and Five Good Reasons (M Solomon) Government Hungry for TV's Airwaves (Monty Solomon) Bloggers Find Clicks Don't Mean Cash (Monty Solomon) Sudbury Officials Balk at Giving T-Mobile Antenna Attachment (M Solomon) New and Improved Ways to Rot Your Kid's Brain! (Monty Solomon) Japan Mobile Developer Welcome (Docomo, VodaFone, AU) (akh) FTC Settles wth AT&T, Sprint, Re: Credit Report Issues (Danny Burstein) Sprint, AT&T Handed Large Fines (Lisa Minter) ISDN Phone System With DECT Terminals (meATprivacyDOTnet) Re: Last Laugh! Start the Day Right! (Gary Novosielski) Last Laugh! Obtaining New Phone Service (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: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 03:42:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: McAfee's Trojan Horse Error Gets Developer's Goat By Kristyn Maslog-Levis Special to CNET News.com An Australian software developer is considering suing McAfee after the antivirus company wrongly identified his Internet setup program as a Trojan horse in a recent virus definition update. Mark Griffiths of Brisbane said he is "not ruling out" filing a lawsuit against McAfee even after the antivirus company released on Thursday an update to its DAT virus definition file that fixes the false positive. Griffiths sells the Internet setup program, ISPWizard , to Internet service providers in more than 20 countries. McAfee antivirus software on ISP customers' computers labeled ISPWizard as the BackDoor-AKZ Trojan horse. Because the McAfee software automatically eliminates the program from the users' system, many were not able to connect to their ISP. Griffiths said he was first notified about the mistake on Sept. 2 by ISPs in the United States. They had been alerted by their customers, who had not been able to access their Internet services. Immediately after being notified, Griffiths sent an e-mail to McAfee but did not hear back from the antivirus vendor until Monday. Griffiths estimated a loss in revenue of at least 50 percent for this month because the program was labeled a Trojan. He added that one of his customers lost $3,000 after the provider's customers shifted to another ISP as a result of the McAfee difficulties. Allan Bell, McAfee marketing director for the Asia-Pacific region, said the company released a new DAT file on Thursday including changes that addressed Griffiths' problem. Bell explained that the software identifies Trojan horses based on a signature or a pattern. Because of this, he said, "there is always a danger of a false positive," meaning the DAT file matches a program that is not a virus. http://news.com.com/2100-7350-5361660.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 02:15:29 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Blog Interrupted When Jessica Cutler put her dirty secrets on the Web, she lost her job, signed a book deal, posed for Playboy -- and raised a ton of questions about where America is headed. By April Witt The instant message blinked on the computer at Jessica Cutler's desk in the Russell Senate Office Building. "Oh my God, you're famous." Before she could form the thought -- "famous, cool" -- or puzzle how she, a lowly mail clerk, had escaped obscurity, a second instant message popped up on her screen. Startled, Jessica recalls, she began to curse. "Your blog is on Wonkette," the message said. Jessica's blog (short for "Web log") was the online diary she had been posting anonymously to amuse herself and her closest girlfriends. In it, she detailed the peccadilloes of the men she said were her six current sexual partners, including a married Bush administration official who met her in hotel rooms and gave her envelopes of cash; a senator's staff member who helped hire her, then later bedded her; and another man who liked to spank and be spanked. Wonkette is a popular online gossip column that was read by lots of Jessica's friends and Capitol Hill co-workers, including some of the men in her blog. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54736-2004Aug10.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 02:26:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The End of 'Network News' By Tom Rosenstiel Regardless of who wins the election, the campaign of 2004 has already made history. For the first time, a cable news channel -- Fox -- attracted more viewers than a broadcast network when they were competing head to head, covering the Republican National Convention. Was this a watershed for a new partisan journalism in America? I think the real meaning is something else. What happened this summer, and particularly last week, is likely to be recalled as the end of the era of network news. At the very least, mark this as the moment when the networks abdicated their authority with the American public. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13017-2004Sep10 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 23:46:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: My Gripe With the Hype Around Skype and Five Good Reasons My gripe with the hype around Skype and five good reasons why you shouldn't cancel your other phone services just yet. I've been giving a lot of thought to all the hype that Skype has been getting as of late. So much has been said about the great aspects of Skype, of which there are a few, that in the interest of balancing this with a bit of perspective on the downsides, I thought I'd throw a few of my own opinions into the ring for you all to chew on. http://apple.weblogsinc.com/entry/7391864753130518/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 01:37:01 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Government Hungry for TV's Airwaves By Christopher Stern Washington Post Staff Writer Federal regulators are stepping up their pressure on television stations to give up billions of dollars worth of airwaves in major markets around the country, saying the spectrum is urgently needed by local public safety officials. Seizing on a conclusion of the 9/11 Commission Report, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission are using the limits of the nation's emergency communications system to try to kick-start the process of converting television broadcasters from analog signals to digital ones. The conversion would free large segments of the broadcast spectrum for emergency services in major metropolitan areas. The 9/11 Commission concluded that emergency communications were crippled by the sudden spike in cell phone calls in the hours immediately after the terrorist attacks, and it called on Congress to pass legislation that would take some of the spectrum back from broadcasters. The conversion from analog to digital is supposed to be well underway already. In 1996, Congress granted television stations second channels for digital service in return for their promise to surrender the portion of the broadcast spectrum on which analog signals operate. That would allow the government to turn parts of the spectrum over to local emergency authorities and auction the rest to wireless companies or other investors. The analog spectrum is worth an estimated $70 billion. The process has been slowed, however, by consumers not replacing their old analog sets with expensive new digital televisions as quickly as had been hoped. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9785-2004Sep9.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 01:42:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Bloggers Find Clicks Don't Mean Cash By ELLEN SIMON The Associated Press NEW YORK - Bloggers at this summer's political conventions brought heightened visibility to blogging, but the money, for most bloggers, is still missing. If you think those Web journals of opinions and obsessions are a way to get rich, consider Jeff Soyer, a self-described "gay gun nut" in Vermont. Soyer, who runs the journal Alphecca.com, pleaded for donations last month alongside an image of a tip jar topped by gun-toting cartoon character Yosemite Sam. "Ten bucks buys a box of bullets or feeds my cats for a week," he wrote on the blog. Days passed and he received nothing. "By next week this domain could belong to a porno site," he subsequently posted. "Maybe you folks think that would be a better thing. I'm starting to think so, too." Only after other bloggers linked to his request did he receive enough donations to pay the $117 for a domain name and a year of Web hosting fees. He's not the only blogger not getting rich. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16805-2004Sep12.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's for sure. I have received at least a few emails from an employee at Google asking me to *please* add the java script to http://telecom-digest.org which would have the effect of providing *lots* of advertising -- albiet not terribly offensive ads -- around the telecom web site. The fellow who writes me -- I think his name is Jonah -- keeps telling me I will make tons of money from those ads. I just don't think so. I think it will do more harm to this site than any possible good which could come from it. Even though TELECOM Digest and our web site has long since passed the point of being a part time 'hobby' for me and gotten to the point where it must have several hours per day of maintainence, ergo, I have to get paid, I still get some -- not much these days -- bitching and moaning about my casual, once per month, request for donations. I know the older guys around here remember when *any* advertising on the net or solicitation for money (in wheverever) was unheard of on the net, and maybe there are even some younger guys who know when that was a no-no. Google said to me, when people click on one of the ads we would put on your site (because of the javascript you put there for us) we would pay you. Maybe so; I don't doubt that they are honest people, but I cannot see the clicks adding up all that well. If anything, people are more offended by those ads than anything else, IMO. Some people obviously want to turn the net into a commercial venture. I am not one of those people. The once per month more or less messages I run here asking for donations generate about as much (or little) money as the checks I used to get now and then when the Christian Science Monitor bought my submissions for their Home Forum page: it kept me in beer and cigarette money, not much else. There simply is no 'cash for clicks' on the net, unless you are running some sort of sex site. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 16:32:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sudbury Officials Balk at Giving T-Mobile an Antenna Attachment By Stacey Hart / News Staff Writer SUDBURY -- T-Mobile has proposed attaching an antenna to an existing cell tower to improve coverage for its customers, but town officials are not ready to give the OK. T-Mobile representative Michael Almada presented a map of Sudbury and surrounding towns to selectmen, showing where the company's cell phone coverage is wanting. The tower, on North Road, would provide "a substantial fill along what is a fairly important commuter route," Almada said. Although the area is not densely settled, he said T-Mobile has obligations under federal communication requirements to provide emergency service in this area through E-911. The wireless company has looked at attaching its antenna to existing cell towers because the town's bylaw encourages them to do so, Almada said. http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=77780 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 17:23:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: New and Improved Ways to Rot Your Kid's Brain! A new study shows that kids who watch lots of TV ads are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, stomachaches and other problems. By Corrie Pikul Sept. 8, 2004 | It will come as no surprise to parents that kids who watch an excessive amount of TV will want Mom and Dad to buy them an excessive amount of stuff. But can heavy media consumption also cause kids to be depressed and anxious, and exhibit low self-esteem? Could it make your child's stomach ache or her head hurt? Juliet B. Schor, a professor of sociology at Boston College and recognized expert on consumerism, economics and family studies, says yes. According to a study Schor conducted from 2001 to 2003, consumer involvement affects psychological outcomes -- often in negative ways. Schor spent over four years studying the impact of marketing on children. She trailed marketers and researchers who focus specifically on kids, shadowing them at conventions, paging through their client presentations, and talking to them about the ethics of their profession. The results make up her chilling new book, "Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture." "Psychologically healthy children will be made worse off if they become more enmeshed in the culture of getting and spending," she writes. "Children with emotional problems will be helped if they disengage from the worlds that corporations are constructing for them." Schor talked to Salon on the phone from her home in Newton, Mass., about the pervasiveness of marketing in children's lives -- and why it makes some marketers feel like they're going to "burn in hell." http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/09/08/born_buy/ ------------------------------ From: ak.hlaing@gmail.com (akh) Subject: Japan Mobile Developer Welcome (Docomo, VodaFone, AU) Date: 12 Sep 2004 22:49:25 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, Just got an idea that we should have a group on those who target Japan Mobile phones. (Mainly the three big vendors - Docomo, VodaFone, AU) Any suggestion or there is a group already? ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: FTC Settles With AT&T, Sprint, re: Credit Report Issues Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 17:16:31 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC "Sprint Corporation and AT&T Corp. will pay $1.125 million and $365,000, respectively, to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they failed to notify certain applicants for telephone service of their rights under federal credit laws. The FTC charges that Sprint used consumers credit reports to deny them telephone service, and that both AT&T and Sprint placed conditions or restrictions on consumers service, without disclosing information required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The disclosures must include that consumers have the right to obtain a free copy of the credit report and to dispute errors in it. [ snippety snip ] http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/09/sprintatt.htm _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:24:12 EDT From: Lisa Minter Subject: Sprint, AT&T Handed Large Fines Story from Business News Briefs,Independence, KS Reporter, Sunday edition, September 12: Sprint Corp. and AT&T Corp will pay $1.5 million in civil penalties to settle government claims that the companies violated federal credit laws for customers seeking telephone service, the Federal Trade Commission announced Friday. Under the agreement, Sprint, based in Overland Park, Kansas will pay $1.1 million, and AT&T will pay $365,000. The Commission said the two companies either denied service to applicants or placed otherwise unrealistic condtitions on the service they were given because of the applicants' credit reports. When companies deny credit to someone based on that person's 'poor' credit standing (as given in a credit bureau report), the companies are required to notify the person of their rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act; to notify the person they have a right to a free copy of their credit report. The FTC said those notifications were either inaccurate or not sent at all. The FTC said that making a telephone call (for which you will be billed at a later time) is 'essentially' an extension of credit and that if a customer is permitted to make some calls, but not other calls on 'credit', the customer has a right to be given the notifications required by law when (for example) he is permitted to make a long distance call one place but not another, etc, **if that decision to deny some service is based on the person's credit.** The Sprint case involved 550,000 customers; the AT&T case involved 175,000 customers. Lisa Minter *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Associated Press and Independence Reporter. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: meATprivacyDOTnet Subject: ISDN Phone System With DECT Terminals Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 18:41:52 +0200 Hi all, I have to install a phone system to handle the calls for a small office with an ISDN line in Italy. I would like to get cordless DECT terminals for the office workers, 3 in total. I found the Simens Gigaset ISDN products and it looks like they could do the job of a traditional ISDN PBX sytem for a small office at a fraction of the price. Here are the Siemens ISDN base systems that I am considering: Gigaset SX353isdn Gigaset SX255isdn I am not sure if I should go for the Gigaset SX353isdn or the Gigaset SX255isdn. Both base systems will allow up to 3 simultaneous calls (2 external and 1 internal) and up to 8 DECT handsets. I noticed the following differences: the SX353isdn includes a corded phone and support Bluetooth, the SX255isdn has 2 analogue inputs (instead of 1). Did I miss any other difference? The price is the same (176 euro). About the cordless terminals, I am considering the Gigaset SL1 colour or the Gigaset S1: They are standard DECT phones, they are around 100 euro (it depends on the model). What do you think about this phone setup? Will it work fine for a small office? Should I go directly for a traditional ISDN PBX system (that of course is much more expensive)? I don't anticipate any expansion in the office anytime soon. Do you recommend any other product/brand to setup such phone system? Thanks! ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Start the Day Right! Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 00:26:22 GMT Lisa Minter wrote: > With thanks to Kathy and Ken (the other one.) > One can substitute many, many people/things/ideas for "John Kerry." I suggest substituting Lisa Minter. By the way, as a political joke it's not funny, and what's MUCH worse, as a technical joke, it doesn't work. PC's do not verify, by name, files deleted from the recycle bin, and do not use the phrase "get rid of" anyway. > How to start each day with a positive outlook ... > 1. Open a new file in your PC. > 2. Name it "John Kerry." > 3. Send it to the trash. > 4. Empty the trash. > 5. Your PC will ask you, "Do you really want to get rid of John Kerry?" > 6. Answer calmly, "yes," and press the mouse button firmly. > 7. Feel better ... ?? > Cheers. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's not how my Windows 2000 or Windows 98 operates. If there is *but one* file in the recycle bin when you dump the trash atempts to dump the trash get a response of "Are you sure you wish to get rid of '(file name)'? If there is more than one file in the recycle bin then it says "Are you sure you wish to get rid of these (number) files?". But for one file only, it asks you by the name of the file. Anyway, what do you have against Lisa Minter? If anyone should have a complaint it would be me, but she is gradually shaping up and learning what to do. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:38:25 EDT From: Lisa Minter Subject: Last Laugh! Obtaining New Phone Service "Better Half" Sunday comics, September 12, Independence Reporter: Scene: Man and his wife sitting at the desk of cellular phone service rep, who is explaining the different plans available to them: "Our $20.00 per month plan costs $47.50 per month. Our $30.00 per month plan is $56.95; our $40.00 per month plan is $72.25; and our $50.00 plan will cost $99 per month." The customer and his wife's eyes bulge out of their head as the service rep (with a straight face) explains the rates per month for their new phone service. Lisa Minter *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance King Features Syndicate and Independence Reorter.. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ 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. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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 #426 ******************************