From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Oct 3 21:11:09 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id i941B9V02433; Sun, 3 Oct 2004 21:11:09 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2004 21:11:09 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200410040111.i941B9V02433@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 #465 TELECOM Digest Sun, 3 Oct 2004 21:10:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 465 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cell Phone Attracts Lightning? (hiker@h.com) Ma Bell's Internal Network (jdj) Toll Free Number Registry? (CrowT) Call Accounting Project (Mike) Pennsylvania Railroad's Crew Communication System? (Lisa Hancock) Tuned Amplifier Which Works at 20HZ Only (Faris Alahmad) Re: Vonage Upgrades Local Unlimited Calling Plan to Premium (Dave Close) Re: Wrong Address For 911 Caller a Tragic Ordeal (Dave VanHorn) Re: Wrong Address For 911 Caller a Tragic Ordeal (Allen McIntosh) Re: Any Old Mechanical Systems Still in Use in the US? (TouchTone Tommy) Free VOIP Tutorials Resources: Whitepapers Links News PDFs (TekJockey) Re: WWW Founder, was: WWW is Ten Years Old in 2004 (telecomdigest) A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver (M Solomon) Re: No Call Ref ID in SS7/C7 Why? (Ariel Burbaickij) Re: Voicepulse Disconnects Remote Computers When Phone Used (R Merrill) Re: Magna Carta For the Knowledge Age (Michael A. Covington) Re: Cell Phone Incident Results in DC Metro Arrest (Lisa Hancock) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Cell Phone Attracts Lightning? From: hiker@h.com Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 04:12:50 GMT What do people think about this? http://www.hotelcorsaro.it/ On 15th September a lightning killed a person while in excursion at high altitude on Etna. He was our guest and he worked for a French travel agency. He was a mountain expert but this time he has been unlucky. Mobile telephone could be reason he was hit by a lightning. His phone, in fact, exploded while his body and all other affairs didn't show visible signs of what happened. We feel close to Nicoladze family. He leaves his wife and two sons. ------------------------------ From: jdj Subject: Ma Bell's internal network Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 00:22:27 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com I misdialed a number once and found myself inside Ma Bell's own private phone network. (Is it safe yet to ask about it?) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Perhaps you are referring to Cornet, which was one of their networks. For the most part, if I recall corr- ectly, Cornet was the name of their internal network. Since there is no longer any Ma Bell -- just a carcass with a few parts scattered around, I would guess it would be safe to talk about, if you wish. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dcs@mail.myacc.net (CrowT) Subject: Toll Free Number Registry? Date: 2 Oct 2004 06:42:14 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm being hounded by my boss to get a 800|888|877|866 number to correspond with our company's current slogan (something like 1-800-MYCOMPANY, for example). I tried dialing every combination possible but they're all taken. Is there a better way to do this kind of research? Is there a central registry where I can find out who owns certain 800 number and possibly be put on a waiting list? Thanks for your help! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would suggest you ask our 800 number advisor here on our staff at the Digest. Judith Oppenheimer knows all about those things and may be able to find a good number for you. You can reach her at http://www.icbtollfree.com and if i am not mistaken also at http://whosells800.com. She is *very experienced* at finding and maintaining toll free numbers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wuzzybunny@yahoo.com (Mike) Subject: Call Accounting Project Date: 2 Oct 2004 09:05:07 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, I'm upgrading my existing PBX to a nex neax 2400 ipx later this year. After installation I'm intending on writing call accounting software and GPLing it. What I am wondering if any one would be able to provide me with a sample (a few thousand lines) of the text output from a neax 1400 ipx system, or if anyone happens to know where I can find samples prior to the system being installed. Thanks in advance, Mike ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Pennsylvania Railroad's Crew Communication System? Date: 2 Oct 2004 14:45:59 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Many years ago the Pennsylvania Railroad installed a wireless transmission system between locomotives, cabooses, and wayside towers to expedite the movement of trains. Would anyone accurately know details about this sytem? It is my understanding that this system was not "radio" but rather an internal "inductive"(?) system using the rails as a carrier. Pictures of PRR rolling stock show long pipes attached to the roof which were the antenna. By being an internal system they did not need FCC permission or assigned frequencies, apparently. One source says RCA developed the system; another says the system remained in use until as late as 1969. I don't know if true. I understand the PATCO rapid transit system initally used a similar closed system for crew communication, but switched over to more conventional radios. Any additional information would be appreciated (public posts, please). Thanks! [As an aside, the 1968 PRR Metroliners hosted a modern psgr train phone, using two-way Touch Tone pay telephones that directly dialed all calls, an innovation in mobile communications for that time. There was a little phone booth on the club cars. IIRC, calls cost $3 anywhere for 3 minutes which was a little pricey but not outrageous for the time. Other psgr trainphones used radios. Many old nice trains had phones on board that were plugged in at major stations to the local city system; this of course was easy to do. On nice trains, crews would send and receive telegrams from passengers while en route.] ------------------------------ From: Faris Alahmad Subject: Tuned Amplifier Which Works at 20HZ Only Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 23:45:43 +0200 I need a tuned amplifier which works at 20HZ only. How can I get that? ------------------------------ From: dave@compata.com (Dave Close) Subject: Re: Vonage Upgrades Local Unlimited Calling Plan to Premium Date: 1 Oct 2004 20:23:54 -0700 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California Jack Decker writes: > "Over the past five months, we've noticed a trend in the industry > away from calling certain minutes local and others long distance -- in > an IP world distance is irrelevant, so we have changed our calling > plans to reflect that," said Jeffrey A. Citron, Chairman and CEO of > Vonage Holdings Corporation. Are there any proponents of 1+ toll-alerting still on this list? If so, isn't it time to admit that it's time to end that vacuousness? Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." - Pericles Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "Politics is the business of getting dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 power and privilege without dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu possessing merit." - P. J. O'Rourke ------------------------------ From: Dave VanHorn Subject: Re: Wrong Address For 911 Caller a Tragic Ordeal Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 03:02:16 -0500 Given that houses don't often move, why not go with a fixed IP, and tie the IP to the address (as it probably already is, in the billing records). KC6ETE Dave's Engineering Page, www.dvanhorn.org Microcontroller Consultant, specializing in Atmel AVR ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 23:06:29 GMT From: mcintosh@nospam.com (Allen McIntosh) Subject: Re: Wrong Address For 911 Caller a Tragic Ordeal Reply-To: nospam@mouse-potato.com (nospam) Organization: mouse-potato.com In article , Tony P. wrote: > Suction cup mounted antenna in the nearest southwest facing > window. Put solar cells on the thing to keep it charged and hell, use > bluetooth or 802.11 for it to transmit it's location. Doesn't work on my office windows. I've tried it. They're narrow, and recessed. I suspect steel bars in the concrete. Doesn't work well on the south side of my house, either. It's at the bottom of a hill that apparently gets in the way. ------------------------------ From: Touch Tone Tommy Subject: Re: Any Old Mechanical Systems Still in Use in the US? Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 16:50:01 -0700 Organization: Acme Telephone Works Reply-To: touch_tone_tommyNOSPAM@yahoo.com On 20 Sep 2004 19:57:09 -0700, psychoshredder@yahoo.com (vu huong) wrote: > Hello, > Does anyone know of any old telephone systems still in use in the US > (i.e. SxS, etc.) If so, is it possible to post any phone numbers so I > could "hear" them in action? > Thanks, > Vu There is at least one "switcher" who has set up SxS and crossbars in his basement and has invited callers to call into his set-up. I don't have the numbers anymore, but if you went to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/singingwires and join, you can search the archives or post a query there. ------------------------------ From: tekjockey@yahoo.com (TekJockey) Subject: Free VOIP Tutorials Resources - Whitepapers, Links, News, PDFs Date: 2 Oct 2004 17:13:00 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, we've just started a new site on VOIP Technologies Learn VOIP H.323, SIP, MGCP, RTP & IP NETWORKING RESOURCES: http://www.compointsolutions.com We recently added VOIP IP PBX PAGE Tutorials, news, resource links and pdf's on learning voip. Great for: People looking to implement VOIP in their companies Technology professionals seeking knowledge. Fresh content - news, tutorials, links - updated daily! Stop by, Learn Stuff and tell a friend! :-) http://www.compointsolutions.com ------------------------------ From: telecomdigest@mail.zgnews.com Subject: Re: WWW Founder, was: WWW is Ten Years Old in 2004 Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 19:20:28 -0500 Reply-To: telecomdigest@mail.zgnews.com David Heyman wrote in comp.dcom.telecom: > Remember that Sir TBL also didn't include graphics in the web, that > was done at NCSA with Mosaic by some of the folks that would go on to > found Netscape. > http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/history/fbrowser.html Your rephrasing of the Web page you cited mischaracterizes history. While very important in promoting the Web, Mosaic was not the entity that brought graphics to the Web. TBL's original browser supported graphics, but not inline with text. Mosaic, according to TBL as well as the page you cite, was the first browser to successfully implement inline graphics. More than one graphics-capable Web browser existed prior to the release of Mosaic, e.g., Viola, written at Berkeley for X Windows. TBL's version of WWW history can be found at W3C's site: http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html. I hope I correctly paraphrased TBL's words. > David Heyman Bob ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2004 02:00:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver DAVID L. STRAYER University of Utah DENNIS J. CROUCH University of Utah FRANK A. DREWS University of Utah July 2004 AEI-Brookings Joint Center Working Paper No. 04-13 Abstract: We used a high-fidelity driving simulator to compare the performance of cell-phone drivers with drivers who were legally intoxicated from ethanol. When drivers were conversing on either a hand-held or hands-free cell-phone, their braking reactions were delayed and they were involved in more traffic accidents than when they were not conversing on the cell phone. By contrast, when drivers were legally intoxicated they exhibited a more aggressive driving style, following closer to the vehicle immediately in front of them and applying more force while braking. When controlling for driving conditions and time on task, cell-phone drivers exhibited greater impairment than intoxicated drivers. The results have implications for legislation addressing driver distraction caused by cell phone conversations. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=570222 ------------------------------ From: ariel.burbaickij@gmail.com (Ariel Burbaickij) Subject: Re: No Call Ref ID in SS7/C7 Why? Date: 3 Oct 2004 14:08:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > What I think we disagree about here is whether or not your definition > of "right" was the one in use by the people who designed the protocol. > In fact, I think their definition of "right" had a lot more to do with > conserving link bandwidth than it did to do with the ease of following > a call end-to-end through the network using diagnostic tools; and by > _that_ definition, I think it is entirely understandable that they > omitted the feature that by your definition is necessary in order to > "do it right". Sorry for late response; somehow my original response did not get through, so here basically the re-post. Well, what should I say -- let us do a bit of math. Let us assume average ISUP message is on average 40 octets. Now let us spend 8 octets for call ref id (I guess this should be enough for everyone :-) huge variety of timers in ISUP will surely easily tackle stale messages and prevent the situation where two messages in network bear equal call ref id. Now, the question is encrease of the average message length by 20% in your opinion worth the advantages it brings with it or not? ------------------------------ From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Voicepulse Disconnects Remote Computers When Phone is Used Organization: Comcast Online Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 12:58:40 GMT Chris Eilersen wrote: > I have a Linksys wireless-G router which is connected to one main > computer. I have 3 other computers in remote locations throughout my > house which with NIC cards and I share my internet bandwidth with > these machines through the Linksys router. > I recently got Voicepulse phone service and it works fine except I > just noticed that my network connection on the remote machines only is > lost when I use the phone. You should have modem <==> VoicePulse <==> router <==> PCs this way QoS (quality of service) can be maintained by the voicepulse so that when it requires bandwidth to maintain voice quality it can slow down the computer connections. -- RM [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I tried the above set up with my Vonage phone since I had Quality of Service issues with my Vonage phone and the rest of my network. After I made that change, the Vonage phone mostly worked fine. But ... a big problem (at least, I thought it was). The Vonage TA (a Motorola box and firewall) sat there looking at the router (and its firewall). The two firewalls staring at each other were *always* causing me hassles. I never could get them to 'play nicely' with each other. Yes, they would work, a little, but I had to spend more time rebooting the firewalls than working on line it seemed. The NetGear router did *not* appreciate having its connection to the WAN or wide area network being another firewall (Motorola). And forget about the idea of getting any file transfers in from people over networks such as AOL, or Yahoo, or Microsoft Instant Messenger. Time and again the whole system would freeze up and have to be rebooted. I went back to my old way of doing things, which was having the Vonage telephone adapter just being a port on the router, and living with the occassional drop outs in voice quality when one of the computers wanted to do something. I am not in a position to buy a wide enough pipe to the net to fix it so it does not matter. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael A. Covington Subject: Re: Magna Carta For the Knowledge Age Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 16:50:42 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory (http://www.speedfactory.net) Back in the mid-1990s, I led the team that created a computer acceptable-use policy for The University of Georgia and -- the hard part -- persuaded the people to take it seriously. This "Magna Carta" seems to contain some of the same misconceptions that we had to argue with when promulgating our AUP. Specifically: - That "cyberspace" is a radically new place to which existing society does not extend. (In our experience, the word "cyberspace" was often used by people who were having trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality, and who thought malice and petty treachery could be justified "in cyberspace" that would obviously not be acceptable in the real world.) - That intellectual property works differently on the computer than elsewhere. (More commonly, rather than wanting to copyright knowledge, our people wanted to ignore all intellectual property rights "in cyberspace." But it works both ways. People would say things in public and then complain that the public could read them, quote them, discuss them, and imitate them. Some people [cf. CBS recently] really object to their critics being able to communicate freely.) - That we have a new "frontier" and this is a good thing. (On the frontier, only the strong are safe. I do not believe in an electronic frontier. I prefer civilization, where *everybody* has rights, not just the strong!) - That government is somehow unnecessary on this "frontier" or must take a radically different form. (We emphasize that the Internet is built out of social contracts of a very familiar kind. John Locke would have understood Usenet.) The policy we developed is at www.uga.edu/compsec/use.html and has been cloned by other universities, a practice that we encourage. Michael Covington Associate Director, Artificial Intelligence Center The University of Georgia - www.ai.uga.edu/mc [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That 'Magna Carta' I printed here over the weekend largely was put together by Esther Dyson and the folks at ICANN, and you know how widely esteemed *they* are with most of the net community. (Note I said the above with a perfectly straight face.) ICANN has always had its own agenda which only sometimes comes in line with what many netizens want. Like Haley's Comet, perhaps once in 79 years, by coincidence the net community agrees with them when there is some mutual problem to be solved. It is not a 'misconception' Michael, it is their goal for the net. The rest of us are the ones who are confused. Ask Esther or Vint Cerf if you don't believe me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Cell Phone Incident Results in DC Metro Arrest Date: 2 Oct 2004 14:28:30 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Michael Quinn wrote > Sakinah Aaron was walking into the bus area at the Wheaton Metro > station several weeks ago, talking loudly on her Motorola cell > phone. A little too loudly for Officer George Saoutis of the Metro > Transit Police. > The police officer told Aaron, who is five months pregnant, to lower > her voice. She told the officer he had no right to tell her how to > speak into her cell phone. I think the police were correct and the woman was wrong. It would've been quite easy for her to simply lower her voice, but she chose to make a big deal out of it. As another poster pointed out, recent incidents in the DC Metro came about because the psgr CHOSE to CONTINUE violating the rules even after being advised not to. I have no sympathy for those violators who obviously have no respect for the public. Most transit systems have a reminder on their schedules asking their patrons to keep their voices low while using their cell phones. Unfortunately, too many cell phone users are rude and speak loudly and are a nuisance to other people. I was on the train recently trying to relax after a long tiring day and some guy was talking in a very loud voice making call after call in his cell phone. I wish I had my own phone to call him (I heard him give his name and number while discussing business) and tell him to shut up. Somewhere on Usenet someone mentioned of making use of overheard business information to embarass loud talkers though I wouldn't go that far. In the old days -- when I was a kid in public school -- part of our education was good manners that we were expected to display at all times. I guess today it's somehow a violation of personal expression to teach and expect good manners. Somehow too many people today _erroneously_ think they have all sorts of "rights" that include being obnoxious and a nuisance to other people. So, today enforcing manners becomes a law enforcement issue, complete with arrests, citations, and fines. It's a shame it has come to that. I'd like to point out that some years ago the NYC subway system was a mess from deviant behavior. The police were unable to do anything because social activists successfully sued the police claiming the disruptive behaviors were actually constituionally protected free speech or the police efforts were discriminatory. The NYC subway mgmt put together a psgr rule book that meets the constitutional muster and discourages disruptive behavior and is now enforceable. The bad thing is that they removed any kind of discretion and had to make the rules they were allowed to enforce very strict. Bottom line -- the social activists who claim they are protecting our rights get so extremely and end up taking rights away from us. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe so, Lisa. I will suggest however, that 'disorderly conduct' and other such open-ended, define them as you go along laws are a police officer's best friend, because there is not a person in the world who cannot be guilty of 'disorderly conduct' if an officer decides to make them so. I say thank god for 'social activists' (as you called them) who look out for the rights of the rest of us. PAT] ------------------------------ 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'. 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