From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Oct 6 15:31:41 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id i96JVe006058; Wed, 6 Oct 2004 15:31:41 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 15:31:41 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200410061931.i96JVe006058@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 #473 TELECOM Digest Wed, 6 Oct 2004 15:31:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 473 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet Grants Cut, and F.C.C. Scolded (John Stahl) Cingular Wireless New England Adds 100th Cell Site of 2004 (M Solomon) CDT Headline: Federal Court to Rehear Email Privacy Case (Monty Solomon) CDT Headline: Spyware Bills See Flurry of Action (Monty Solomon) Flood of Spam Continues, Despite Ban (Lisa Minter) Net Giants Adopt Anti-Spam System (Lisa Minter) Re: A New Phone and Techie Controversy at Verizon (Joseph) Re: Cell Phone Incident Results in DC Metro Arrest (Lisa Hancock) Re: Cell Phone Incident Results in DC Metro Arrest (Mark Atwood) Re: More on "Social Activists" and Public Utilities (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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 06:16:40 -0400 From: John Stahl Subject: Internet Grants Cut, and F.C.C. Scolded Universal Fee paid by everyone each month on their phone bills intended to fund Internet services at schools, libraries, etc., being held back due (according to FCC and others connected with the fund) to new government accounting standards gets Congress ire. According to a previous article from October 4, this fund shut down "has led state administrators to either take money from other educational programs or postpone paying their phone and Internet companies." This all could further add to higher costs of education as many schools throughout the nation have wired up for Internet services. Obviously, the "search" for money to pay for these services could require school districts to increase taxes to pay for the loss of Federal funds. Internet Grants Cut, and F.C.C. Scolded By STEPHEN LABATON - NY TIMES WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 - The Federal Communications Commission came under sharp criticism in Congress on Tuesday over a series of decisions that have led to the suspension of a $2.25 billion program that pays for telephone and Internet services at public schools and libraries. The suspension, which began without notice two months ago, has caused hardships in many school districts and communities, which have had to postpone paying bills or take money from other projects. By one estimate, as much as $1 billion in expected grants could be suspended by the end of the year. The company that administers the program issued a suspension on new grants as it wrestled with new accounting standards and tighter spending limits imposed on it by the F.C.C. A hearing Tuesday before the Senate Commerce Committee had originally been called to examine waste at the so-called E-Rate program, which administers telephone and Internet services for schools and libraries. But three of the four senators present focused instead on the F.C.C.'s decision to impose tighter spending restrictions. The fourth senator, John McCain of Arizona, the Republican chairman of the committee, pressed the witnesses about what steps were being undertaken to monitor the program in light of a series of fraud cases involving telephone companies and equipment makers over the last few years. He expressed irritation that Congress had not been notified about the suspension of the program ... Complete article (needs free sign-up): http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/technology/06net.html?th ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 12:26:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cingular Wireless New England Adds 100th Cell Site of 2004 Network Enhancement Initiatives Pay Off in New England; Cingular affirms customer commitment to "best in class" wireless experience WESTWOOD, Mass, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Cingular Wireless today announced the activation of their 100th cell site in New England so far this year. The site, located in Upton, MA, represents a major milestone in the market's 2004 build plan, which is almost double the size of last year and only marks two-thirds of Cingular's planned network build in New England this year. The 100 cell sites are part of a $109 million investment in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and southern New Hampshire designed to enhance service and expand coverage in the region. By the end of this year the company plans to add 170 total cell sites -- 49 in Connecticut, 78 in Massachusetts, 23 in Rhode Island and 20 in southern New Hampshire. These new sites are intended to improve service quality and extend coverage for Cingular Wireless customers traveling in New England. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=44098251 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 12:22:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: CDT Headline: Federal Court to Rehear Email Privacy Case From: info@cdt.org Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 16:47:33 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Federal Court to Rehear Email Privacy Case A federal court of appeals has announced it will rehear its earlier decision that the wiretap laws do not apply to real-time interception of email. CDT and three other organizations had urged the court to reconsider its ruling in an amicus brief arguing that the original appeals court decision potentially created a loophole for law enforcement and ISP access to email. October 05, 2004 Rehearing Order by Court of Appeals for the First Circuit [offsite], October 05, 2004: http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=03-1383ORD.01A Amicus Brief of Center for Democracy & Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center and American Library Association [PDF], September 02, 2004: http://www.cdt.org/wiretap/20040902cdt.pdf Justice Department's Petition for Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc [PDF], August 27, 2004: http://www.cdt.org/wiretap/20040827doj.pdf Policy Post 10.13: Email Privacy Protection Called into Question by Federal Appeals Court Decision, July 30, 2004: http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_10.13.shtml United States v. Councilman Decision [PDF], June 30, 2004: http://www.cdt.org/wiretap/20040630decision.pdf More on wiretap laws: http://www.cdt.org/wiretap/wiretap_overview.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 12:22:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: CDT Headline: Spyware Bills See Flurry of Action Subject: CDT Headline: Spyware Bills See Flurry of Action From: info@cdt.org Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 11:56:58 -0400 (EDT) The House passed an anti-spyware bill on October 5 that would give the Federal Trade Commission explicit authority over a variety of deceptive practices and require information collection software to provide notice before installation. A second bill, creating criminal penalties for the worst forms of spyware, is scheduled for consideration by the House today and is expected to pass easily. Additionally, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a spyware bill on September 28, prohibiting several deceptive spyware related practices in California. October 06, 2004 CDT Letter to Senate Commerce Committee on HR 2929, The SPY ACT [PDF], September 24, 2004: http://www.cdt.org/privacy/spyware/20040924cdtcommerce.pdf CDT Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee on HR 4661, The I-SPY Act [PDF], September 24, 2004: http://www.cdt.org/privacy/spyware/20040924cdtjudiciary.pdf Text of HR 2929, Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act [offsite]: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.2929: Text of HR 4661, Internet Spyware Prevention Act [offsite]: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.4661: Text of California SB 1436 [offsite]: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sb_1436&sess=CUR&house=B&author=murray ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Flood of Spam Continues, Despite Ban Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 10:50:48 -0400 (EDT) Your inbox is probably flooded with spam, despite a federal anti-junk e-mail law that went into effect Jan. 1. Spam still accounts for about 75 percent of all e-mail, according to Postini, a California-based e-mail filtering company. Postini's Chris Smith says the overall volume of Spam is holding steady; but X-rated spam has dropped by about half since January. Smith says porno spam is now less than 1 percent of junk e-mail. Smith says spam remains a problem because junk e-mail works. He says e-mail is so cheap to send, a spammer just needs a few people to respond to make the effort profitable. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Net Giants Adopt Anti-Spam System Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 14:48:21 +0000 Some of the net's biggest players such as AOL, Hotmail and Yahoo are stepping up efforts to combat spam. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/technology/3706828.stm ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: A New Phone and Techie Controversy at Verizon Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 07:39:59 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 18:34:14 GMT, Truth wrote: > And one can only imagine how long the battery life is with all this > crap and backlit screens on these stupid phones today. And how would you propose to have a screen show up at night? Moonlight? And FYI I have a newer phone with Bluetooth and the battery life on my phone is excellent even with the addition of Bluetooth. I can get almost two weeks of standby on my phone. Part of it is engineering as to how well a phone will be economical. > A phone is for making and taking calls, we have cameras, TVs, walkmans > and video game systems to do those things. For you all a mobile phone is for is to make and receive phone calls. Other people want other functionality. The mobile carriers realize that if they are to grow their business they have to do *something* extra to encourage their old and new subscribers to use services that will generate more revenue. Without revenue a company dies! Some of the new advances are window dressing, but others are genuinely useful or at least useful to a segment of the intended market. > Next these phones will have power draining mini fridges to keep your > cans of pop cool in. Instead of making a rational argument you instead decide to be silly! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well that is basically how I feel about cell phones as well. I *never* play the built in games; I rarely use the directory; I only rarely use the text messaging or email functions built in it. As far as I am concerned, my cell phone has two functions only: When I am not at home, my landline phone rings 3-4 times then transfers calls to my cell phone. When I am not at home, my cell phone is useful to call the cab when I want to get picked up and taken somewhere else (mostly back home) or make other incidental calls as needed. I like the fact that I only have to charge it every couple days most of the time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Cell Phone Incident Results in DC Metro Arrest Date: 6 Oct 2004 08:45:29 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Chicago Police have a good one for you, > where any gathering of individuals (except those the police approve > of, of course) can be defined as a 'mob action', and police can order > an immediate dispersal or the 'mob' is subject to arrest, etc. So if > police tell you to 'move along' you best do so. Trouble is, it was > found to be unconstitutional, since the way the law was written it > could apply to church groups, sports groups, political assemblies, > etc. Mayor Daley was quite indignant: "well, I didn't mean a church > group, or people at Wrigley Field or the Republican convention." ACLU > told him "yeah, we know what you meant; you were talking about groups > of young black men standing on street corners, so say what you meant." Playing devil's advocate here ... How did the ACLU know with certainty that's what the mayor meant? Maybe, just maybe, what the mayor meant was young male _hoodlums_ (of any race) looking for trouble on the street corner? Groups of white kids hanging out have been known to murder black people who were merely passing by. > Well of course, Daley and his racist police would not dare to say > what they really meant. City Council has tried to pass that 'no > loitering' ordinance now five or six times (rephrasing it slightly > each time) and it has gotten shot down each time by ACLU and others. PAT] To give another point of view on urban issues: Phila once had a controversial mayor, Frank Rizzo, who was hated by liberals and African Americans. Some years after he left office he ran again. Only this time many African American communities were so disgusted with the decay of drugs and crime he was welcomed in them as the person who could clean them up. His image of "tough law and order" which years ago was seen as racist was now seen as desirable and necessary. Interesting how times and attitudes change. He died suddenly during the campaign. At his funeral there was a massive outpouring from the citizens from all walks of life. To the surprise of the liberal community and news media, a great many African Americans--some poor, some well connected -- came out and spoke of help Rizzo had done for them (things from him stopping his limo and picking up a black woman waiting for a bus in the rain to take her home, to helping black businesspeople get a loan/grants and get started). It turned out the perception of him weren't as true as people thought. The point here is that some people are quick to assume that an anti-crime attitude or law is something _more_ than that -- an attack on civil liberties, an attack on race, a "repression", etc. Maybe the strict policy on loud cellphone conversations is just that -- a policy on loud cellphone conversations and nothing more. I really think people who label such rules as "repression" cause more trouble than they solve and in the end actually make things worse for all of rest. I point to the NYC subway book of rules as an example. They weren't allowed to "pick on" homeless people disturbing others, so they had to come up with a convoluted set of rules that adversely impacts on everyone. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Regards the comparison between Rizzo and Daley, we had two Daleys, Daley I and Daley II, separated in their reigns by our one and only woman mayor (Byrne), our one and only black mayor (that was really an accident!) and another guy for a short time (Bilandic). While Daley I was reigning (4 terms, about 20 some years) Daley II, his son, was the prosecuting attorney. Daley I made no secret of his racist feelings. While Daley II was prosecutor, he set a record for having Cook County Jail filled to brimful and over- flowing with young black guys on various drug charges. How full was the Jail? So full it maxxed out at around *eight thousand* inmates, 97 percent of whom were young and black. Daley II resigned his position as Prosecutor, got elected (no problem!) as Mayor on a law-and-order platform, and continued ordering police to lock 'them' up as fast as possible. There may be some confusion in *your* mind as to what Daley meant when police were told to 'break up people who stand in groups on street corners' but no one else was confused by it. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Cell Phone Incident Results in DC Metro Arrest From: Mark Atwood Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 07:06:47 GMT Joseph writes: > There's a lack of sidetone on mobile phones because if there was an > appreciable amount you'd get feedback. That's what digital signal processors are *for*. > Plenty of people know how to use a mobile phone without shouting. Having decent mikes in them, and placing them properly would make a positive difference as well. Who is the *moron* that thought that using the smallest cheapest possible mike, placing it behind a single 1/32" hole, and designing the phone so said hole is against your cheek, would be a good idea? Mark Atwood | When you do things right, people won't be sure mra@pobox.com | you've done anything at all. http://www.pobox.com/~mra | http://www.livejournal.com/users/fallenpegasus [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have one earpiece/microphone combin- ation for my cell phone, made by Plantronics, which so far as I can tell has no microphone at all, just a little plug which fits in your ear. It works great. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: More on "Social Activists" and Public Utilities Date: 6 Oct 2004 11:08:12 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com [Note--While this primarily concerns social issues, I have tried to include some connection to telecom issues where practical.] henry999@eircom.net (Henry) wrote >> social activists ... are incompetent, have hidden agendas, and do >> more harm than good for the people. > Aside from the fact, as another respondent noted, that this is an > overgeneralisation, it is an extremely naive one at that. How do you > think the world ever gets better? The prior post gave specific examples. In this newsgroup focusing on communications and public utilities, I submited examples where their actions, however well intentioned, have cost consumers more money. I believe, for example, that deadbeats are not entitled to receive utility service for free, esp when other customers have to make up the difference. As to liberalism in general, I call your attention to a memoir by Eleanor Roosevelt, "This I remember". During her time as First Lady of the nation as well as the State of NY, she championed many social changes and experiments. She reflected back on them and recognized that some of them were simply failures. It's too bad many of today's activists are unfamiliar with _all_ of her experiences and fail to take into account human nature and other issues. During the LaGuardia years as mayor of NYC, his people believed modern housing would cure social ills of the slums. They learned the hard way that having a modern kitchen and plumbing in itself does not uplift people to higher behavior standards. I am not saying we don't need social legislation, or that the New Deal was bad. We definitely have social issues that need to be addressed. What I am saying is that social activists fail to look at the hard facts of the situation and that includes looking at the numbers and respecting human nature. I don't mind my taxes paying someone genuinely unemployed, but I do expect that person to be honestly looking for new work; too many are not. Some states now have an automated phone-in system to report in each week, with little to verify that the claimant is honestly looking for new work. When one state did an audit and found people like prison inmates fraudulently collecting, social activists criticized the audit as being unfair to the poor. As to your specifics: > Get up at 6:AM to prepare morning coffee. The water they fill the pot > with is cleaner because liberals fought for minimum clean water > standards. Was it just "liberals" who fought for that? What about the conservative town fathers of 100 years who recognized that need and set up central water and sewage systems and public sanitation? > They take daily medication with the first swallow of > coffee. Presumably medications are safer to take because some > liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as > advertised. All but $10.00 of their medications are paid for by his > employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought > their employers for paid medical insurance, now Mr. & > Mrs. Conservative enjoy those benefits too. You ignore that the very high price of those medications and health care is hurting the American economy. Where is that money going? The activists don't care, but they should because everyone ends up paying, one way or another. My point remains that the activists don't like to get into the nitty gritty accounting to study and understand the real underlying issues. > After Mr. & Mrs. dress they walk outside and take a deep breath. The > air is cleaner because some tree hugging liberal fought for laws to > stop industries from polluting our air. Except our planet remains very polluted. The stiff air pollution laws contributed to closing down some dirty industries -- it was cheaper to buy foreign products than pay for expensive pollution controls. So we lost jobs and commerce. Further, overseas producers have virtually no pollution controls at all and are ruining their own countries. It's gonna come back and haunt us. Further, social advocates are against nuclear power, but that doesn't kick out the air pollution or require dangerous coal mining and transport. > They walk to the subway station for the government-subsidized ride to > work; it saves them considerable money in parking and transportation > fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public > transportation. The vast majority of people drive their own car to work. In my other post I described the damage social activists do to transit. They hold down fares too low and the carrier is unable to provide decent service. Your couple will wait a long time for an overcrowded decrepit train as a result. This happened in my own city -- the transit agency needed more money but the social activists took them to court. The agency promptly cut service. The poor riders on the street saved a nickel or two for the honor of standing longer in the rain. > They start the workday; they have good jobs with excellent pay, > medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some > liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. This is partly true, it is also true that American industry did so well that it could afford to pay its workers so well. Of course, of late many jobs are losing said benefits by outsourcing. The Bell System (when it existed) provided its people with good benefits. But that has been replaced by other telephone companies who have no unions whatsoever and pay their employees far, far less. Other telecom work has been "outsourced" to people who have no job security or benefits. > It's noon, Mr. Conservative needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay > some bills. His deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some > liberal wanted to protect people's money from unscrupulous bankers who > ruined the banking system before the depression. Not too long ago unscrupulous and incompetent bankers looted the Savings & Loan system. We taxpayers paid for the bailout. How many of those bankers ended up in jail as a result? Where was the public outrage? It was only a whisper because this was an accounting problem, and social activists don't want to work with numbers. > He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social > Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could > take care of himself so Mr. Conservative wouldn't have to. The Social Security system will be broke in a few years -- they are telling the public that. As the baby boomers retire there won't be enough workers to pay for them. Social Security has had lots of programs added on to the core program over the years and some have them are unnecessary, paying nice benefits to people who really don't need them but are entitled by the law. > We don't need those big government liberals ruining our lives; > after all, we are self made and believe that everyone should take care > of themselves, just like we have. It is a fact that one outgrowth of liberalism is big govt. In the 1960s, tons of Great Society and Model Cities money flowed into cities. The cities didn't get any better, indeed, they got worse. That money created bureacracies staffed by the suburban middle class. Great opportunity for those people and business (lots of well paid consultants), but didn't help the poor or the cities. The factories still left, the middle class still left. I grew up in a big city and saw this first hand. Now society is spending millions of dollars to build new utility infrastructure in the suburbs and far-out suburbs. I wonder how many inner-city telephone customers have the same choices of competing carriers as does subscribers in nice suburbs? I wonder how many inner city houses will get the opportunity to be wired direct with fibre-optic? ------------------------------ 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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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 #473 ******************************