From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Dec 31 01:22:10 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBV6M9F06920; Fri, 31 Dec 2004 01:22:10 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 01:22:10 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412310622.iBV6M9F06920@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 #625 TELECOM Digest Fri, 31 Dec 2004 01:22:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 625 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Red Cross Tsunami Victims' Web Site Overwhelmed (Lisa Minter) Silly Cell Phone "Ring Amplifier" (Thomas A. Horsley) Re: Can Someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network (Ed Clarke) Re: Can Someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network (Gene Berkowitz) VOIP (Don Nelsch) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (Joseph) Re: Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Seizure'? (Allen McIntosh) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (John Levine) Phone Magazine From 1926 (Digest Reprint from Jim Haynes) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 Subject: Red Cross Tsunami Victims' Web Site Overwhelmed Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:46:06 EST GENEVA (Reuters) - A Red Cross Web Site to aid anxious relatives locate survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster partially crashed on Thursday after being overwhelmed by some 650,000 hits in its first 24 hours, a spokesman said. The Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRCS) was installing a bigger server and hoped to have the site, which had become almost impossible to access, up and running again on Friday, Florian Westphal told Reuters. "We have had a tremendous response ... the system is partially down," he said. As a result of the technical problems, it was not possible to tell just how many people had been able to find their loved ones through the site -- www.familylinks.icrc.org system. But a few people had called to have names removed, he added. The site has special sections for the four worst-affected countries -- Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and India -- where the overwhelming majority of the more than 125,000 deaths occurred. Some 5,000 foreign tourists, mostly Europeans, are unaccounted for after an earthquake off Indonesia sent a wall of water crashing into coasts and devastated beach resorts around the Indian Ocean. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** 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, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Subject: Silly Cell Phone "Ring Amplifier" From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 22:37:43 GMT No one had a pointer to any cell phone ring amplifiers when I was looking for one a while back, so having time to kill over Christmas, I made my own. Find the tale of the insanity at: http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/phonetale/phonetail.html >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: Ed Clarke Subject: Re: Can Someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network Date: 30 Dec 2004 23:15:50 GMT Organization: Ciliophora Associates, Inc. Reply-To: clarke@cilia.org In article , BertieBigBollox @ gmail.com wrote: > Seems a bit hard to believe. Surely one computer pinging would make > very little impact even on a DSL connection ... Would be a bit > unfortunate if this were the case and someone got hold of your static > IP :-) Depends upon the relative speeds of the connections. A fast ping from an OC3 will hurt you a lot. > Also, what about UDP floods? Are these different? Surely firewalls > etc would stop this sort of thing from happening? Not at all. The traffic's on the line, whether or not it gets into a computer is beside the point. And in any case, you usually run into DDOS (distributed denial of service) rather than DOS right now. "De inimico non loquaris sed cogites." ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: Can someone PINGing Really Screw Your Network Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:31:31 -0500 In article , BertieBigBollox@gmail.com says: > Read somewhere that if someone continually pings your network, the > server will eventually fall over. > Seems a bit hard to believe. Surely one computer pinging would make > very little impact even on a DSL connection ... Would be a bit > unfortunate if this were the case and someone got hold of your static > IP :-) > Also, what about UDP floods? Are these different? Surely firewalls etc > would stop this sort of thing from happening? Ping can be set to send up to 65,500 bytes per packet. Usually the "ping of death" is sent from many sources at once. Eventually the server spends so much time replying to the pings, it can't get any real work done. A firewall will reject what it's told to reject. That doesn't stop the packets from arriving over your connection, consuming your bandwidth. --Gene ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:14:19 -0500 From: Don Nelsch Reply-To: Don Nelsch Subject: VOIP Pat, I have seen much discussion of Vonage and Skype, but very little of Michael Robertson's (LINSPIRE) SiPphone. Off hand, that looks to be a decent service at very moderate cost. What am I missing? Don [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Off hand, I do not think anyone has ever written here or talked about the service. Maybe Mr. Robertson does not have very good press for some reason. Can you tell us more about the Linspire SiPphone service? If it is good, and inexpensive, I might switch to it myself. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:44:03 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 07:09:56 -0500, LB@notmine.com wrote: > The new Consumer Reports magazine has a large story on cell phone > providers and cell phones. You can get better info in this group, but > the mag has lots of info. Will be very handy for those times when a > "friend" is looking for info. I think the mag should be on newsstands > now. Take what Consumer Reports magazine has to say about cell phones with a grain of salt. In past "cellular" issues they poo-pooh'd some carriers basically T-Mobile (then VoiceStream) because they didn't have fallback to older first generation analog technology. Guess what?! Lots of phones now being offered by *all* the carriers and don't have analog. They out and out refused to even look at VoiceStream/T-Mobile because they are luddites and couldn't see what was coming down the pike. If you want good recommendations or information about cellular service look at what they have to say, but take it with a grain of salt. They do much better testing washing machines, riding lawn mowers or crash worthiness of automobiles. ------------------------------ From: Allen McIntosh Reply-To: nospam@mouse-potato.com Subject: Re: Telecom Definitions: Meaning For 'Seizure/Seizure Signal'? Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 20:52:52 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online Jack wrote: > What does Seizure mean in telecom? What is Seizure Signal? You can find all this and more at a telecom glossary site. Search for "telecom glossary". (You may have more luck with "seizing".) He might also try searching the telecom glossaries we have on line at our web site http://telecom-digest.org . PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 31 Dec 2004 01:59:38 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > If such waves hit either the east or west coast of the U.S., how far > inland would the destruction be? One mile? Ten miles? How much > shoreline (ie length) would be affected? > For example, say the wave were to hit Coney Island in Brooklyn NY, > how much of Brooklyn would've been destroyed? Here on the east coast we have hurricanes and other storms, and a storm surge is not altogether unlike a tsunami. Most of the east coast, from Cape Cod all the way to Miami, has barrier beaches in front of shallow bays so a storm surge or tsunami would whack the barrier beach pretty badly, but the energy would dissipate before reaching the mainland. Most of the construction close to the water is now storm resistant, typically on pilings with breakaway construction at ground level, and I'd think that design would resist a tsunami pretty well. Coney Island is unusual in that it's not a barrier beach (that's why it is where it is) but I believe they do have seawalls under the boardwalk, and it faces south while most waves arrive from the east. On the west coast, it depends on the topography which varies a lot. In Santa Monica, for example, there is a high bluff which should limit tsunami damage to the small amount of stuff below the bluff, while a couple of miles south in Venice and Marina del Rey it's flat, and a big wave would whack them. Press reports remind us that tsunamis have in living memory hit northern California and killed people, so they should pay attention. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Telecom Editor Subject: Phone Magazine From 1926 Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST Eleven years go in this Digest we were given a copy of an old 1926 internal telco magazine published by Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. As we now approach a new year, I thought this reprint from our archives might make very interesting reading. It was sent to us by Jim Haynes. PAT Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1993 14:19:29 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator To: ptownson@gaak.LCS.MIT.EDU Subject: telephone.magazine.from.1926 From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Telephony in 1926, Part 1 of ??? Date: 18 Aug 1993 06:19:46 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz Lines: 200 I was recently given a copy of the Southwestern Bell employee magazine "Southwestern Telephone News", issue of October 1926, which was Volume 13, No. 10 and hence must have started publication about 1913. This article will be a summary of the contents; perhaps I'll type in or review particular articles later. The front cover shows a cable splicer hanging from a strand as he splices an underground cable to an aerial cable in Dallas. Repeated several times througout the issue is, "New Long Distance rates and practices went into effect on October 1st. Pamphlets giving full information on these changes are available for all employees. Study the rates carefully so that you can answer the questions of subscribers." I remember this attitude, that all employees should be prepared to represent the company to the public, was later embodied in a slogan, "To the public _you_ are the telephone company," that was constantly presented to employees. On page 2 is a photograph of sheep with their heads in the grass, and an amusig caption: "Sheep (Eating) In July, our explanation that the folks in the frontspiece were stacking wheat brought a protest from Kansas that they were not stacking but were shocking wheat. This time we take no chances. Grazing, as we remember, is the right term, but we are not sheepherders. (Texas panhandle, please note.)" The first article is a bio of Charles P. Cooper, former president of Ohio Bell who was just elected vice-president of AT&T. Next there are five pages with pictures reporting on a Telephone Pioneers meeting in New York City. Among other activities they visited AT&T headquarters, Bell Labs, and New York Telephone headquarters and were greeted by executives of those companies. The highlight was an address by Thomas A. Watson, who told of his experiences as a colleague of Alexander Graham Bell. This was followed by a demonstration of talking movies, including one depicting the invention of the telephone and narrated by Watson. Then there is an article "Efficient and Courteous" by an anonymous "counterman". He tells of receiving a letter of commendation from a customer. Even though he had had to turn down the customer's request for service he had fully explained why there was a shortage of facilities in the customer's area, and the problems of the company in extending its lines. Then the medical director of AT&T writes to those who have just returned from vacations, urging them to use their spare time during the week as a "vacation all year." He suggests they get out of doors, do the essential chores, of course, but do something recreational. "...forget as far as possible that you ever worked for the Telephone Company." The telephone exhibit at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition is described, with a reminder that the telephone was first exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia 50 years earlier. The 1926 exhibit includes a showing of motion pictures, two of which are talking. One of these features Thomas A. Watson [and is presumably the same film that was shown to the Pioneers]; and the other "contrasts the noisy operating room and crude apparatus of the eighties, when boys were operators, with the central office of the present." I guess in those days AT&T stock was marketed through telephone offices, as there is an article about how an AT&T rights offering was handled. There are accounts of company employees persuading the public to buy stock, and also of people who threw away the rights documents, not realizing they had monetary value. There's a sort item about telephone operators assisting when there was an explosion at a high school, and another showing the first installation of a P.A. system in a school, with switching so that music or voice can be had in any combination of rooms. Then there is the second part of an article reprinted from _Telephony_ by an operator, Manta J. Elder, about her experiences. There were annual floods when the Marais-des-Cygnes overran its banks near Ottawa, Kansas. Many operators lived across the river from the telephone office and had to cross the river in canoes and stay at the office so they would be available. Also severe winters when the streets were impassable to vehicles and the company sent horses to the residence of each operator to bring them to work. Sleet storms in February took lines down, so things were very quiet at the switchboard until service was restored; and then everybody wanted to use the telephone. She tells of working the last day at an old switchboard before cutover to a new one in a new office. "The next day i went by the old office, and my feet naturally led me up the old stairway. If I had known that I should see the salvaging force at their work, I would never had have the courage to enter the old room. The board was already sadly wrecked. It seemed to me that I was looking upon something almost human, which was being made to suffer after years of patient and loving service to a public which now gives it no thought. "As I walked on toward my home, I fell to thinking of the many and varied messages that had been carried through that old public servant. The first news of special interest to all people handled through its channels was the news of Admiral Dewey's victory at Manila Bay, which occurred about three weeks after the installation of the board. "Service began on this old switchboard June 13, 1898, and except for one hour during President McKinley's funeral, until December, 1915, it was a living part of the community it so faithfully served." She goes on to tell of the World War, and of the influenza epidemic. Says that in earlier times the telephone operators often complained that they were not appreciated by the public, but at the time of writing most people are truly appreciative of their services. A little of the history of the company, which was originally the Kansas City Telephone company, called the "Home" Company; at the time of abandonment of the old switchboard the "Home" and "Bell" companies were consolidated under the name of "The Kansas Telephone Company", in the spring of 1915. On January 1, 1926, the company was transferred to Southwestern Bell. Then there are three pages of managerial personnel changes, with some portraits. Then an article about formation of the Charles S. Gleed chapter of Telephone Pioneers in Kansas City, and an article about the switchboard in St. Louis being extremely busy in the aftermath of the St. Louis Cardinals winning the National League pennant. A page of short items: Clemenceau quoted on the need for technical experts to be aware of matters outside the scope of their expertise; a comment on the article by "a counterman"; an article about the recent AT&T stock issue; and a repeat of the item about new long distance rates and practices. Four pages with pictures about Bell Telephone Laboratores, and some unrelated pictures of employees enjoying their summer vacations. Two pages about Texas beginning a new billing method: instead of billing all customers on the same day of the month they will spread the billing dates throughout the month to smooth out the workload. Two pages about handling mail in the headquarters mail room, the need for good addresses, and the problem of customers sending cash in the mail when paying their bills; an average of $15 a day is found in the mail room when the supervisor has to open inadequately addressed mail. Then a rather technical article, with schematic diagram, of a circuit to simplify cutting phantom transpositions. (When a phantom circuit is added to two existing circuits it is necessary to alter the way the wires are transposed on the poles. This must be done without interrupting service on the exiting circuits any longer than necessary.) Two pages of service records, including portraits of seven men who have worked a total of 185 years. One page about the "first annual" Watermelon Festival in Hope, AR. An article about keeping score on collection work; teams get points for minimizing the need to communicate with subscribers to get them to pay their bills. Photographs of the new Norman, OK office, and an open house for visitors. Suggestions for Halloween costumes (illustrations) and two pages of illustrations of ladies' fashion suggestions. A page of cartoons by "Stack", with a Halloween theme. Three pages telling where every construction crew is working and what jobs they are working on. Some photos, including a cable splicer and his helper with what appears to be a push cart containing their tools and supplies. A page with a map of the company's territory, showing the locations of all lost-time accidents for the year. Four pages of social news: parties, retirements, contests won, other activities. "Anyone at St. Louis Toll who wants a thrill, should let Miss Hogan take them riding in her Ford. She misses other cars by a fender." A page "What I Did Today" containing stories by operators of how they assisted the public. A page of poetry written by telephone people. Inside back cover, a list of the principal management officers of the company and their titles. Back cover, an AT&T advertisement. This one shows operators being delivered to their office in a truck in a howling blizzard; and the text tells how people take the telephone for granted, how different life would be without it, and how 300,000 telephone people work to maintain dependable service. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet "Ya can talk all ya wanna, but it's dif'rent than it was!" "No it aint! But ya gotta know the territory!" Meredith Willson: "The Music Man" ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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