From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Nov 18 21:16:43 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iAJ2Ghj14391; Thu, 18 Nov 2004 21:16:43 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 21:16:43 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200411190216.iAJ2Ghj14391@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 #554 TELECOM Digest Thu, 18 Nov 2004 21:16:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 554 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson SBC To File Tariff With FCC For New VoIP Service (Jack Decker) Anyone Having any Luck With Google Ads? (TELECOM Digest Editor) Telcordia to Announce Sale (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: Wired News: American Passports to Get Chipped (David Clayton) Re: EFF: Anti-Spam Measures Block Free Speech (Ed Clarke) Re: EFF: Anti-Spam Measures Block Free Speech (Scott Dorsey) Re: TV Movie: Category 6 - Day of Destruction (Raymond C Martin Jr) Re: TV Movie: Category 6 - Day of Destruction (Jim Haynes) Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits (Gene S. Berkowitz) Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits (Scott Dorsey) Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits (Lisa Hancock) Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits (J Kelly) Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits (DevilsPGD) Re: Email Read in Automated Phone Call? (Thomas A. Horsley) Employment Opportunity: Do you know Telco Maintenance Expert? (HotJobs) Re: Somewhat Off Topic But a Must Read (Lisa Hancock) Looking For VOIP Provider to do Business With Government (T.Sean Weintz) Re: Vonage Tech Support Dead? (DevilsPGD) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 23:07:46 -0500 Subject: SBC To File Tariff With FCC For New VoIP Service Jack Decker notes: I have to admit, I don't really understand this at all, but it looks like it might be significant? http://informationweek.networkingpipeline.com/news/53700323 Courtesy of Advanced IP Pipeline SBC Communications Inc. is planning to introduce True IP to PSTN (TIPToP) service in the coming week by filing a tariff with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). TIPToP service is a time division multiplexed (TDM) telecommunications service featuring switched circuit interfaces specifically designed for use by a VoIP provider to connect traffic from its IP end users to end users of the circuit-switched network. According to SBC officials, TIPToP service is not a mandatory offering but voluntary. VoIP providers who choose not to purchase TIPToP service may use other services, "to the extent permitted by existing tariffs and prevailing law, to connect traffic from their customers to the circuit-switched network," according to SBC. According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, SBC's plan will involve an increase in fees normally paid for interconnection services -- a rate increase that has reportedly drawn immediate scrutiny from the FCC. Full story at: http://informationweek.networkingpipeline.com/news/53700323 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 01:29:43 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Anyone Having any Luck With Google Ads? I just want to make a general inquiry of those of you who may be using Google Adsense on your own web sites. I have not had very good luck with it thus far. Although I have three blocks, or clusters of ads on the 'latest-issue.html' page (which is the web version of whatever the latest issue happens to be of this Digest) often times Google sends one cluster of ads for teh horizonal block or cluster on the top, but then sends nothign at all for the vertical 'towers' on the left side of the page, just leaving green colored blocks there instead. I have complained to them twice before about it, then it gets corrected for a day ro two and goes back to being green blocks. My technical advisor, Mr. Mattox, rebuilt that page totally to accomodate the (frequently non-existent) ads. Needless to say, people do not click on the green boxes, so it is wasted space and sort of leaves the page looking lopsided. My other comment is they apparently do not pay off until you get at least a hundred dollars in combination of clicks on ads and use of search box (and clicks on those ads), **then** they say they deduct their cost of running the search engine from that. I would think running the search engine should be their expense, not mine. I am sort of inclined to just get rid of all those ads and go back to the old way of doing this Digest. Any thoughts from anyone on this? Plus I do not think they are very accurate in the way the go about counting the number of impressions or 'hits' on each page. What are your experiences? PAT ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 13:06:41 EST From: Telecom dailyLead From USTA Subject: Telcordia to Announce Sale Telecom dailyLead from USTA November 18, 2004 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=17597&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Telcordia to announce sale BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * SBC, Yahoo! expand partnership * Ofcom puts heat on BT * Europe's telecoms on the rise once again USTA SPOTLIGHT * Order PBX Systems for IP Telephony Today! EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * AOL unveils new security software REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Congress nears reinstating ban on Internet access tax * Qwest may settle shareholder lawsuits * Former Nortel employee knew of revenue problems Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=17597&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: David Clayton Subject: Re: Wired News: American Passports to Get Chipped Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 12:23:36 +1100 kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) contributed the following: > Marcus Didius Falco wrote: >> New U.S. passports will soon be read remotely at borders around the >> world, thanks to embedded chips that will broadcast on command an >> individual's name, address and digital photo to a computerized reader. >> The State Department hopes the addition of the chips, which employ >> radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology, will make >> passports more secure and harder to forge, according to spokeswoman >> Kelly Shannon. > Great idea! Now the bad guys can build bombs that explode when they > detect nearby American passports! It's just the thing to ensure > Americans' safety abroad. How many seconds until someone invents a RF-shielded passport cover? Regards, David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@XYZ.myrealbox.com Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. (Remove the "XYZ." to reply) Dilbert's words of wisdom #18: Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. ------------------------------ From: Ed Clarke Subject: Re: EFF: Anti-Spam Measures Block Free Speech Date: 18 Nov 2004 02:21:50 GMT Organization: Ciliophora Associates, Inc. Reply-To: clarke@cilia.org In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > EFF White Paper Reports on Collateral Damage to Free Expression in > the Fight Against Spam > San Francisco - Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) > released a white paper (HTML - PDF) describing the effects of > anti-spam technologies on free speech. "Noncommercial Email Lists: > Collateral Damage in the Fight Against Spam" focuses on how groups > running noncommercial email lists are being harmed by anti-spam > techniques. The paper grew out of EFF's efforts to help MoveOn.org, > human rights groups, parents' groups, and others, deliver email > messages in the face of barriers that are aimed at stopping spam but > that also stop wanted messages. This is absolutely on purpose. Collateral Damage is a necessary technique to rid the net of spammers. If you give money to a company that facilitates spamming then you are no better than a spammer. Move the damn website to an IP range owned by a company that does not spam. Let the spam supporting service providers go broke because they have no customers. You will get no sympathy from me for having your mail dropped. It is the same as if you put a show about breast cancer on a hard core XXXX rated pornography cable channel and had your message blocked by parental controls. If you don't think enough of your message to move it to a clean area, you can feel free to roll it up tight and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. Right next to your head. Hell hath no fury like a system admin who has to clean up after all the spam. And the virus attachments that turn clueless users into spam relays. There are four hundred virus infected attachments (18 different varieties of virus) and fifty one hundred spam messages in my quarantine directory right now. ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: EFF: Anti-Spam Measures Block Free Speech Date: 18 Nov 2004 11:18:23 -0500 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article , Monty Solomon wrote: >EFF White Paper Reports on Collateral Damage to Free Expression in >the Fight Against Spam > = http://eff.org/news/archives/2004_11.php#002097 > = http://www.eff.org/wp/?f=SpamCollateralDamage.html > = http://www.eff.org/wp/SpamCollateralDamage.pdf This is undoubtedly one of the worst-written discussions on this subject that I have encountered. Much as I respect the EFF, I think they really need to get someone over there that understands the issues today. Currently, there are valid and legitimate ways to run opt-in mailing lists. It's difficult. It's a lot of work. Mr. Townson can attest to how much overhead is involved and the importance of careful address confirmation. The fact that the MoveOn crew didn't want to run a list properly, the way everyone else has been doing for quite a few years now, this is the issue. This is not a free speech issue by any stretch of the imagination. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, I gave up on trying to maintain a mailing list long ago. Part of it was my own personal head problems after the brain aneurysm, but much of it was the huge (and I am not just complaining) amount of spam and viruses coming through. Now it is handled by majordomo, and either you follow its instructions and get automatically added or deleted from the mailing list or you stay in whatever mode you were in. PAT] ------------------------------ From: famartin1@yahoo.com (Raymond C Martin Jr) Subject: Re: TV Movie: Category 6 - Day of Destruction Date: 17 Nov 2004 18:36:53 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Just an FYI, the entire meteorological community is laughing hysterically at this movie ... it has no meteorological sense and the physics simply don't exist in this movie. Raymond C. Martin, Jr. Associate Meteorologist, AccuWeather Inc.- http://www.accuweather.com/ New Jersey Expressways and Tollways - http://www.njfreeways.com/ Ray's Winter Storm Archive - http://www.njfreeways.com/weather/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: By the time the second and concluding part of the movie was finished Wednesday evening, I was beginning to feel the same way. I do not know if it is possible or even likely for all those conditions to merge in one place at one time or not, but even one or two of them, if severe enough, could cause a lot of havoc and problems. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: TV Movie: Category 6 - Day of Destruction Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 05:23:23 GMT In article , Paul A Lee wrote: > minutes, I could no longer stand the smell of the hackneyed "evil > conspiracy of huge corporations causing or taking advantage of natural > disasters to destroy humanity for their own profit" plotline. What do you suppose Enron would do in such a situation? jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:03:21 -0500 In article , Mark_Reichert@hotmail.com says: > DevilsPGD wrote in message > news:: >> Walmart is consistently the cheapest on those products, for example. > What will you do when, no longer able to squeeze its employees or > suppliers, it starts squeezing you by lowering the quality? What do you mean, "when"? Wal-Mart has for years negotiated with manufacturers to produce exclusive versions of hundreds of products in order to meet specific price and cost targets. --Gene ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits Date: 18 Nov 2004 11:13:16 -0500 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Mark Reichert wrote: > DevilsPGD wrote in message > news:: >> Walmart is consistently the cheapest on those products, for example. > What will you do when, no longer able to squeeze its employees or > suppliers, it starts squeezing you by lowering the quality? That's been going on for years now. And from what I can see, what consumers mostly do is put up with it. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Or many of us simply choose to do our shopping 'downtown' whenever possible. I would never claim I have never shopped at Walmart, but given a choice in the matter, I tend to go downtown (which I would pass through otherwise [living east side of Independence] before taking the cab all the way out to Walmart [which is far west side of town].) But the hair salon I go to for my haircuts is out in that area, about a block from the Walmart complex; now and again I walk across Main Street over to Walmart to look around; but not very often, and never for groceries. Sometimes a couple dollars of little items if I need them bad enough. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits Date: 18 Nov 2004 09:41:13 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Mark_Reichert@hotmail.com (Mark Reichert) wrote: > What will you do when, no longer able to squeeze its employees or > suppliers, it starts squeezing you by lowering the quality? Shop somewhere else. The history of retailing (indeed all businesses) is filled with survivors who adapted over time and failures who didn't. There once was a hot chain of discount stores known as EJ Korvette. They prospered for a while, but then made poor business decisions and whithered away. In the supermarket world, A&P was once a major leading chain. It's still around but far from being a leader. We have a regional convenience store chain that is rooted in iron foundaries. I could go on and on with examples from industry of long-time companies that survive and prosper to this day and once prosperous industry leaders that barely exist, if at all. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe you read in the papers recently where K-Mart and Sears had merged, making the combined thing now the third largest retail chain. Walmart has been watching that closely. There was a K-Mart in the complex where Walmart is located; Walmart drove them out of business two years ago. On the other hand, Sears has been downtown for about fifty years, and say they plan on staying. Our very first drug store chain (first for here in s.e. Kansas at least) -- Walgreens -- is scheduled to open in about six months; downtown -- praise God! -- on the corner of 9th and Maple Streets; the house owned at one point in time by Alf Landon when he was governor of Kansas. They've been squabbling for some time over the historical significance of that house, but it now appears it is going to be moved and the corner cleared for the new Walgreen's store. PAT] ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 13:59:35 -0600 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com On 17 Nov 2004 15:50:19 -0800, Mark_Reichert@hotmail.com (Mark Reichert) wrote: > DevilsPGD wrote in message > news:: >> Walmart is consistently the cheapest on those products, for example. > What will you do when, no longer able to squeeze its employees or > suppliers, it starts squeezing you by lowering the quality? They already have lowered the quality. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 15:14:02 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com In message Mark_Reichert@hotmail.com (Mark Reichert) wrote: >> Walmart is consistently the cheapest on those products, for example. > What will you do when, no longer able to squeeze its employees or > suppliers, it starts squeezing you by lowering the quality? Start up a family run store for people pissed off at Walmart. A fool and his money are soon popular. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We have a lot of family owned businesses downtown here, and at one point we had **four** major grocery chains here (Safeway, Country Mart, Food Town and Dillons.) Walmart managed to do them all in. The last one to go was County Mart, at 10th and Myrtle; then that property stood vacant (a huge store) for several months. Then even the Walmart haters had to go to Walmart to get their groceries. About a year and a half ago, a chain called Marvins out of Oklahoma took over the old Country Mart store, and they are hanging in there. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Email Read in Automated Phone Call? From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 23:10:53 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you are a subscriber to America > On Line, they offer a feature which allows you to use the phone to > receive email by listening to it. PAT] So does (or at least did) AT&T Worldnet (it always struck me as the stupidest technology I could imagine -- I vastly prefer email because it doesn't need you to play phone tag with it, now they want to add phone tag back to email :-). >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: HotJobs@MicroSurvivor.com Subject: Employment Opportunity: Do You Know a Telco Maintenance Expert? Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 04:33:08 EST Dear Business Professional, You were referred to me by an Online Listing and I am contacting you in regard to a well-paid part-time consulting opportunity to serve as an "Expert Witness". On behalf of my client, I am looking for Technology Experts in the area of "outside plant telecommunications", with respect to aerial or buried cable comprising copper wire, coax or fiber optics, that are interested in serving as an "Expert Witnesses" for a prestigious litigation case to possibly set precedence for the industry. The scope of this project will require the ability to work on this case for up to 100 hours over the course of the next three or four weeks. Here are the details: Demonstrated at least 10-15 years of successful experience in the outside plant telecommunications industry (or related) Electrical Engineer and/or Telephone/Cable Technician. Electrical Engineer and/or Telephone/Cable Technician who has with repair methods for cut cables made of copper wire, coax or fiber optic materials. Knowledge of standard repair practices, tools used, timelines, etc. Ph.d. a plus but not a must. Testifying experience in a patent case; Excellent communications skills for written, verbal, and one-on-one persuasion The goal is to consult our client as an equal partner and evaluate the case as an expert witness. The candidates will possibly meet executive teams of well know companies, partners of law firms and other interesting people beneficial to further advancing his career. The candidate may be located anywhere in the US to fulfill this consulting agreement. Please provide quantified examples of your success, references, and your relevant experience matching the above requirements ASAP. The project start date would be immediately after selection of the consultant. If you know other experts that might also be interested in this consulting opportunity, feel free to forward this announcement, and let your friends know about it. The selection process of consultants to be interviewed will be based on the responses you provide with your reply email. The start date for the interviews will follow immediately after selection of the most appropriate consultants. We are on an urgent timeline and honor a quick response to this message. The Start date of the project is within a few days from now. Thanks again and I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Jorg Huser CEO / Founder Micro Survivor, Inc. Phone +1-408-690-2464 Fax +1-408-516-9814 Email jorg@microsurvivor.com Enabling Emerging Business http://www.microsurvivor.com ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Somewhat Off Topic But a Must Read Date: 18 Nov 2004 06:51:08 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Jack Decker wrote: > You should be very concerned when your elected representatives attempt > to take away any of the rights you currently enjoy, but especially > when it is done solely to benefit large mega-corporations who already > feel they somehow deserve part of every paycheck you receive. Whenever a law is proposed that might benefit the business community, it seems people quickly object on the grounds it will just help megacorporations who don't need any help. But this isn't true. The business world consists of many different sized businesses. Yes there are the mega businesses, but there are also plenty of tiny and small firms. They have legitimate needs, too. In this particular issue of copyright law, I am not too thrilled about taking away "fair use" which I think greatly serves the public interest. However, it must be remembered that many copyright holders are not megacorporations, but individuals who may have written but one book or song and are fully entitled to receive the benefits of their effort. An example of bad protests is the bankruptcy issue. The bankruptcy laws were revised some years ago and made too lenient. People say those laws shouldn't be changed because otherwise the big banks would benefit. But they don't realize many small business people are also hurt by customers who file for bankruptcy and don't pay their bills. In the case of megacorporations, the solution is to break them up under anti-trust laws and not allow their formation in the first place. Wal-Mart shouldn't be allowed in the grocery business and should be limited in how many of their stores are in a given commerce zone to allow for other stores, to give one example. K-Mart and Sears should not be allowed to merge. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: K-Mart (remember when it used to be the 'dime store' Kresge's?) and Sears (remember when it used to be known as 'Sears and Roebuck' ?) in fact have merged. Walmart is not at all pleased about it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Looking For VOIP Provider That Can Do Business With Government Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:13:23 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com I work for a small government agency. I am trying to get a VOIP line that has unlimited long distance - my choices would seem to be quite varied out there. Here is the rub, however: ALL of them seem to insist on billing for federal excise tax. Under law, we cannot pay that. None of the VOIP providers I have spoken to so far (Vonage, broadvoice, p8) are willing to bend on this at all. Their billing depts tell me they are not set up to deal with tax exempt customers. Does anyone know of a VOIP line provider with an unlimited long distance plan that can accomodate us? (do not reply via email - the return address of this post goes to a spam trap account) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Take your choice of them; personally I suggest Vonage. If your volume of business is of any value to them (and I think it might be), they'll figure out a way to write off the 'tax' they think is due. PAT] ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Vonage Tech Support Dead? Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 15:14:03 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com In message Tony P. wrote: > I've had no problems getting a human the two times I've had to call > Vonage. But the hold times are on the high side. > On my last call to them I waited for 45 minutes before getting a human > being. I've never had problems before. I don't mind hold time, I have a good speakerphone, but this time I can't even get into the hold queue. A fool and his money are soon popular. ------------------------------ 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 #554 ******************************