From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jan 6 01:57:38 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i066vci07351; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 01:57:38 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 01:57:38 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200401060657.i066vci07351@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 #7 TELECOM Digest Tue, 6 Jan 2004 01:58:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 7 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Using PIX 501 With Vonage VoIP (P Lane) FCC vs. fax.com, Again (Danny Burstein) "Wireless and Internet Phones Not Yet Reliable For 911 (The Old Bear) Is 'Next Year' Finally Here for Wireless Technology? (Joseph) TiVo Says EchoStar Infringed on DVR Patents (Monty Solomon) TiVo Files Patent Infringement Suit Against EchoStar (Monty Solomon) iTunes DRM Cracked Wide Open for GNU/Linux. Seriously. (Monty Solomon) Gadget Sales to U.S. Consumers Seen Growing 5 Percent (Monty Solomon) Holidays Helped Drive 2003 Web Sales Higher - Reports (Monty Solomon) Pop-up Seller Loses Round in Court (Monty Solomon) Cable Wiring Seen as Key to the Digital Home (Monty Solomon) Re: BBC Writer Fathoms the Internet Pretty Well (Craig Partridge) Re: BBC Writer Fathoms the Internet Pretty Well (Mark Crispin) San Diego Startup Stars In Mobile Video Market (Eric Friedebach) Re: How Are Cellphone 911 Calls Handled? (W Randolph Franklin) Re: Forget Your Bank Balance? It's Available on the Internet (Franklin) Re: Is TiVo Really All That Great? (Clarence Dold) Re: Twenty Years Ago Today 1-Jan-2004, Back on 1-Jan-1984 (Lisa Hancock) Re: Last Laugh! 15 Year Old Gets Caught With $71,000!!! (Paul Vader) Spam Origins (Marise_A_Klapka) 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 is 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: paul_lane@supplyworks.com (P Lane) Subject: Using PIX 501 With Vonage VoIP Date: 5 Jan 2004 13:39:41 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I thinking of signing up for a test drive of Vonage VoIP. My current setup is a cable modem to the outside interface of a PIX 501. The inside interface is plugged into an 8 port hub. I have 2 servers and a Linksys AP plugged into hub. My questions are will the ATA work on my setup? Do I need to open up ports for it on the PIX? Any documentation on setting this up? Thanks, Paul Lane [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I honestly do not know. I *think* as long as the ATA can see the world and the Vonage people can see the Linksys, it should work okay. I'll recuse from any further answers on this, since I do supply anyone who asks for it with a test drive e-coupon for a month of free service on Vonage. In my case I plugged the ATA directly into a Linksys port (.100 as a matter of fact) and it worked fine. Your PIX-501 confuses me, however. 'Documentation' basically consists of just this: plug a phone into the modular jack on the back of the ATA; then plug the ATA into your internet connection. A few seconds later, Vonage sees it out there, blinks a little red light at you, and you are connected to make/recieve calls. Someone who knows about PIX-501 can answer that part better. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: FCC vs. fax.com, Again Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 17:17:26 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC FCC FINES FAX.COM OVER $5 MILLION FOR SENDING "JUNK FAXES". The Commission imposed a forfeiture of $5,379,000 against Fax.com, Inc., for willful and repeated violations of the Commission's Rules and the TCPA. News Release. News Media Contact: Suzanne.Tetreault@fcc.gov EB. Contact Suzanne Tetreault at (202) 418-7450 and Kurt Schroeder at (202) 418-7320, TTY: 1 (888) 835-5322 FAX.COM, INC., APPARENT LIABILITY FOR FORFEITURE. Assessed a monetary forfeiture of $5,379,000 against Fax.com, Inc. for willfull and repeated violations of the Communications Act and the Commission's rules and orders concerning the TCPA. Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 12/31/2003 by Forfeiture Order. (FCC No. 04-2). EB danny " did my bit in forwarding some over, which is almost as good a feeling as getting the $500 would be " burstein ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2004 13:12:53 -0500 From: The Old Bear Subject: "Wireless and Internet Phones not Yet Reliable For 911 As summarized in NewsScan for January 5, 2004: WIRELESS AND INTERNET PHONES NOT YET RELIABLE FOR 911 SERVICE Consumer advocates are concerned that people don't realize that when they replace their traditional wired phones with cellular or Internet services they may be losing reliable 911 access. For example, most Internet phone companies offer no 911 service at all. Surveys suggest that 18% of the country's wireless phone owners use them as their primary phone, and that perhaps 5% of cellphone users have given up their wired phones. Regina Costa of The Utility Reform Network says: "I think people are crazy to rely on a wireless phone to contact authorities in an emergency. Sure, it can be very handy. But I wouldn't want to bet my life on it." On the other hand, Ravi Sakaria, president of a New Jersey Internet phone service provider, is confident the problem will be solved in due course: "It will happen because as the number of customers grow, it will become a bigger obstacle to the industry." source: San Jose Mercury News (2 Jan 2004) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7619455.htm [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Again, talking about Vonage for a minute. When I got my Vonage account several months ago, the Vonage people stressed to me that I should register my '911 service' with them as soon as possible. If you travel around a lot, and take the ATA with you, then you are correct, it is not yet perfected. But as soon as I gave them my street address, it went on the 911 PSAP records that way. I got back email a few days later confirming that my address had been registered, and the same day I got a letter from the City of Independence telling me they had also recorded my street address for public safety purposes based on the request from Vonage. However, I have never moved anywhere or had the box out of service, except to reboot it a couple of times. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Is 'Next Year' Finally Here For Wireless Technology? Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2004 11:20:23 -0800 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.NOcom By Jon Fortt Knight Ridder Newspapers Mike McCamon is clearly frustrated, but he's doing well at holding it together. He is Mr. Bluetooth. That's Bluetooth, the wireless technology. You might have heard of it -- the cable-replacement miracle that was supposed to clear the clutter around your personal computer, banish the annoying wire from your cellphone headset and "cure the common cold," as McCamon wryly put it. McCamon is executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, an outfit based in Kansas whose mission is to perfect and promote the technical standard. He is wise not to make promises. Like most everything else technology-related, Bluetooth got over-hyped during the late '90s. Bluetooth boosters from companies long bankrupt kept promising it would be everywhere "next year." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001829652_bluetooth05.html remove NO from .NOcom to reply ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 17:58:05 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TiVo Says EchoStar Infringed on DVR Patents NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Television recording technology company TiVo Inc.(NASDAQ:TIVO) on Monday said it has filed a patent infringement suit against satellite TV provider EchoStar Communications Corp.(NASDAQ:DISH), related to digital video recorders (DVR). - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40124166 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 17:59:32 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TiVo Files Patent Infringement Suit Against EchoStar SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) today filed a patent infringement suit against EchoStar Communications Corporation in federal district court in Texas alleging the satellite television service provider is violating claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,233,389 issued to TiVo in May 2001, known as the "Time Warp" patent. Key TiVo inventions protected by the Time Warp patent include a method for recording one program while playing back another, watching a program as it is recording, and a storage format that supports advanced TrickPlay(TM) capabilities (i.e. pausing live television broadcast, fast-forwarding, rewinding, instant replays, and slow motion). - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40124132 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 21:26:46 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: iTunes DRM Cracked Wide Open For GNU/Linux. Seriously. By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco Exclusive Norwegian programmer Jon Lech Johansen, who broke the DVD encryption scheme, has opened iTunes locked music a tad further, by allowing people to play songs they've purchased on iTunes Music Store on their GNU/Linux computers. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34712.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 21:33:45 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Gadget Sales to U.S. Consumers Seen Growing 5 Percent By Eric Auchard NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer electronics sales are set to pickup this year following a lackluster 2003, when gadgets ranging from camera phones to crystal-clear TVs failed to offset declines in audio and car electronics sales. The Consumer Electronics Association of Washington, D.C. on Monday forecast that the wholesale electronics market in 2004 is likely to grow to $100.99 billion, up 5 percent over 2003, rebounding from three years of negative or minimal growth. The U.S. trade group representing audio, video and mobile electronics makers projected 2003 sales would total $96.35 billion, up 2.3 percent over the downward revised sales estimate of $94.17 billion reported in 2002. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40125612 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 21:34:30 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Holidays Helped Drive 2003 Web Sales Higher - Reports By Lisa Baertlein SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Online holiday shoppers spent 35 percent more in 2003, helping to ring up the biggest year yet for Web sales, according to a new report issued on Monday. During the 2003 holiday season, Web shoppers parted with a record $18.5 billion, excluding travel, compared with $13.7 billion in the year-earlier period, Goldman, Sachs & Co. (NYSE:GS), Harris Interactive and Nielsen/NetRatings said in their latest eSpending Report. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40125694 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 22:52:16 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Pop-up Seller Loses Round in Court By Stefanie Olsen Staff Writer, CNET News.com A U.S. district court judge recently barred WhenU from delivering pop-up advertisements to some Net visitors, going against decisions in favor of the software maker's controversial ad tactics. In late December, as part of a lawsuit filed against WhenU by 1-800-Contacts, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a preliminary injunction that prohibits WhenU from triggering pop-ups when people visit 1-800-Contacts' Web site. In the past, WhenU delivered pop-up ads that promoted rivals of 1-800-Contacts, including another defendant, Vision Direct. In issuing the injunction, the judge said the practice constitutes trademark infringement and violates the Lanham Act, the U.S. trademark act. http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5135313.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 22:58:12 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cable Wiring Seen as Key to the Digital Home By Marguerite Reardon Staff Writer, CNET News.com A group of vendors and service providers have banded together to help promote technology that would enable homeowners to use existing cable to link their household appliances into a single network. The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) plans to formally announce its formation Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Founding members include networking giant Cisco Systems, cable provider Comcast, satellite provider EchoStar Communications, chipmaker Entropic Communications, retailer RadioShack and consumer electronics makers Panasonic, Motorola and Toshiba. The purpose of the alliance is to develop standards and promote the use of coaxial cable to send high-quality video, voice and data between a variety of household devices, such as TVs, digital video recorders and PCs. Coax cable is already deployed in millions of U.S. households, providing customers with cable television and, in some cases, broadband Internet access. One of the most important tasks of the alliance is to develop a set of standards so that consumers can easily link devices from several different vendors. http://news.com.com/2100-1034-5135390.html ------------------------------ From: Craig Partridge Subject: Re: BBC Writer Fathoms the Internet Pretty Well Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 19:17:15 +0000 (UTC) Organization: The World : www.TheWorld.com : Since 1989 Ronda Hauben writes: >> Nope. The ARPANET consisted entirely of IMPs and TIPs, which were >> built from Honeywell 316 minis and later BBN's own C/30s which ran the >> IMP code after Honeywell stopped making the 316 and the occasional >> experimental machine like the multiprocessor Pluribus IMP. > Are you claiming that the ARPANET was the IMP subnetwork? And that > the Hosts were something different? That is a very accurate description of the ARPANET. Craig ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: BBC Writer Fathoms the Internet Pretty Well Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 16:40:29 -0800 Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing On Sun, 4 Jan 2004, Ronda Hauben wrote: > Are you saying that the ARPANET is the same as the IMP subnetwork > of the ARPANET? The whole point of the IMP subnetwork is to connect > diverse computers and diverse operating systems. The ARPANET is the > connection of these diverse computers and operating systems. It isn't > the IMP subnetwork. The IMP subnetwork is the means of connecting the > diverse computers, but is *not* the ARPANET. Ronda, were you a user of the ARPAnet in its halcyon days (1970-1982)? I was. I implemented the first 96-bit leader (32-bit address) ARPAnet NCP for the PDP-10 in 1978. I was very much part of the TCP/IP transition in 1983, and the subsequent ARPAnet/Milnet split. I wrote some of the earliest implementations of Telnet and SMTP. I even wrote an EGP. I have never heard the term "IMP subnetwork" used. Nor have I ever heard of this strange case which you seem to be making. The notion that the wires of an LH or DH connection are part of a "network" is rather, uh, strange to anyone who actually dealt with it on an electrical basis. A better case may be made for a VDH interface, but that in turn was more of a point-to-point network. So is the notion that the hosts on the ARPAnet were part of the network. It's akin to saying that a human user of a telephone is "part of the telephone network." The notion that the only important difference between ARPAnet and Internet is that "Internet made it possible to connect different networks, not just different computers" is laughable to anyone who was actually there. In conclusion, I will echo John Levine: > These facts are well known and easily checked by anyone who cares to > do so, and you only make yourself look foolish by trying to argue > that the situation was and is otherwise. > I have no interest in arguing about facts, so this is my last > message on this topic. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: friedebach@yahoo.com (Eric Friedebach) Subject: San Diego Startup Stars In Mobile Video Market Date: 5 Jan 2004 15:39:09 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Jennifer Davies, 01.05.04, Forbes.com Jim Brailean, chief executive of San Diego's PacketVideo, says he's developed a thick skin. He's had to. His predictions about the coming of video on mobile devices has had more stops and starts than rush hour traffic at the Interstates 5 and 805 merge. During the height of the New Economy hype, Brailean founded PacketVideo to provide technology for mobile video, which allows users to record, view and transmit video clips on wireless devices. The company raised about $40 million and filed for an initial public offering in 2000. But as the tech economy swooned, PacketVideo canceled its stock offering and raised money from private sources. In early 2001, the company said it had brought in $100 million from such industry giants as Texas Instruments , Motorola and Qualcomm. But even with its substantial war chest, PacketVideo was unable to outlast the turmoil in the wireless telecommunications market. It was forced to cut costs and restructure itself in August 2002. http://www.forbes.com/2004/01/05/105mobilevideopinnacor_ii.html Eric Friedebach /It's a Hockey Night in Minnesota!/ ------------------------------ Subject: Re: How Are Cellphone 911 Calls Handled? From: W Randolph Franklin Reply-To: W Randolph Franklin Organization: none Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 03:32:39 GMT According to Steven J Sobol : > W Randolph Franklin wrote: >> me: "Can't you get that from the ANI?" >> 3rd 911 person: "Not from a cellphone." > Of course they can't get your location from a cellphone. :) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not think she asked the man where > he was located ... she asked him *what his number was*. PAT Correct, they wanted my phone number. I'd already told them the accident location, 3 times. However, the Troy NY police did respond quite fast. (FYI, a drunk driver turned left as a light was changing. Unlike many other drivers who go thru this intersection on red, he didn't make it, was hit, and spun within 10 feet of me.) Wm Randolph Franklin wrf@ecse.rpi.edoocyashunaldomane (Plaintext preferred; attachments deprecated) http://www.ecse.rpi.edoocyashunaldomane/Homepages/wrf/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Its good to hear of a DUI motorist getting what he deserved instead of some poor innocent guy being the victim. Or was there an innocent victim as well? Back to reliance on cellular phones (or any portable phone with a fixed number such as Vonage: I used my cellular phone to call police once a year ago at Christmas when I was with my Salvation Army kettle in front of Marvins Supermarket. A woman pulled into the Marvin's parking lot and went in the store. A few minutes later, a man pulling out of Marvins with his groceries backed into her car. I got his license plate when he chose to drive away hoping not to get caught. When the woman came out of Marvins a few minutes later she saw the damage to her car. I volunteered to call the police for her, but I did not call 911 -- instead I dialed 332-1700 which is the City of Independence Police administrative number. (No matter, really, since the same person answers 911 and also the 1700 line.) I asked if she would have an officer come by Marvins and see this lady. The police dispatchers are very well trained here. She knew exactly where Marvins is located (10th and Myrtle Streets). I think they know every street and almost every house number in town. The officer showed up a minute or two later; the lady was quite annoyed that the 'coward' had hit her car then driven off. I gave the officer the license plate number; it seems the guy's street address was about four or five blocks away. The officer got the guy's phone number and called him on the phone. The conversation went like this: "You get your ass back over here to Marvins and take care of this! I don't think you really want for me to have to drive over to your house! Imagine what would happen then!" Sure enough, about five minutes later the guy came back over, very sheepish looking, gave his name and address to the lady whose car he had banged, as the officer looked on. I know this would not work in a larger city or on a highway, etc but in a small town like ours, if the person can see any sort of street sign at all, or any 'landmark' or store; i.e. Walmart, Marvins, the doctor's office building, the library, the high school, the college, etc the dispatcher knows exactly where he is, cellular or landline phone, or even Vonage phone. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Forget Your Bank Balance? It's Available on the Internet From: W Randolph Franklin Reply-To: W Randolph Franklin Organization: none Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 03:26:44 GMT This isn't really new to the internet. Banks have provided a balance verification service to merchants for decades. If you call a bank and type in a checking account number and a dollar amount, the service will tell you if that account's balance is at least that large. It's all automated, no social engineering required. There are also no messy formalities about proving that you are verifying a real check. Quite a nice simple user interface. IIRC, no bank that I've ever used has bothered to mention this service to me. However, IMHO they will disable it when asked. Wm Randolph Franklin wrf@ecse.rpi.educationaldomain (Plaintext preferred; attachments deprecated) http://www.ecse.rpi.educationaldomain/Homepages/wrf/ ------------------------------ From: dold@IsXTiVoXRe.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Is TiVo Really All That Great? Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 19:47:40 +0000 Organization: a2i network Rob wrote: > I remember TiVo being advertised over here in the UK several years > ago, but it never took off. In fact, I'd say it died a death. I put I certainly see more posts in alt.video.ptv.tivo from the UK than I would expect from a dead product. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Jeff nor Lisa) Subject: Re: Twenty Years Ago Today 1-Jan-2004, back on 1-Jan-1984 Date: 5 Jan 2004 12:39:35 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > The "discontinuance of the rental policy" was not an economic decision > by the telcos. Telephone rentals were a cash cow, pure gravy. They > would never have discontinued them if it was up to them, and they > opposed the end of phone rentals vigorously. I wish I could recall where I read a telco manager's observation that cost of having a fleet of service trucks and crews to go out and service the rented sets was starting to become uneconomical. Undoubtedly the FCC policies you quoted played a part. > Consumers unquestionably benefited from long-distance competition. > If there had not been an MCI or a Sprint, you'd still be paying $1 > or more per minute for a long-distance call, in 1975 dollars. Now, > long-distance is practically free. I don't agree. Right up until divesture AT&T was lowering its long distance rates because of technology improvements. Those improvements would have continued to drive the rates downward. Of course, not all LD rates went down. Some have skyrocketed, such as LD calls from coin phones or 3rd number billing. (Sorry, but when I was at the hospital unexpectedly due to medical emergencies, I didn't have the proper 'calling card' special phone number.) LD D/A is no longer free. Operator assistance is hard to get or charged for a high amounts. Remember too, local service costs went up at the same time. Administrative and interconnect costs went up, too. From the consumer's point of view, the monthly phone bill didn't go down. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: From the consumer's point of view, the overall bill which had to be paid each month went *up*, considerably. The phone company quit the system of long distance subsidizing local service. PAT] ------------------------------ From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! 15 Year Old Gets Caught With $71,000!!! Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2004 20:40:40 -0000 Organization: Inline Software Creations 'free_money@cox.net writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have received this spam at least five > or six times in the past month or so.] Is that all? This isn't a new one -- though it shows some effort to deal with past 'giggle test' parts of it. For example, the kid has his own PO box now, to explain how the parents didn't discover more than 14,000 envelopes coming to the house, and there's a note about him having no time to do homework -- it would take 20 hours continuous work, at five seconds per (I don't know about you, but I can't go that fast) to open all those envelopes, and your profit might get wiped out from paper cuts! But still, this one part always boggles me: > chain-letter at all. In fact, it was completely legal according to US > Postal and Lottery Laws, Title 18, Section 1302 and 1341, or Title 18, > Section 3005 in the US code, also in the code of federal regulations, > Volume 16, Sections 255 and 436, which state a product or service must > be exchanged for money received. Those references are correct, and there is indeed that last sentence in them. But if you read the rest of the law, which you're bound to do if you've bothered to look it up, you know the 'reports' figleaf will not work. I understand that the postmaster general just *loves* to get copies of chain letters that mention this, because it makes proving fraud fairly trivial. You might claim ignorance of a law and get leniency, but when a cite to the law is right in your pitch, documenting that what you're doing is illegal ... > [Tel Ed: I'd be most reluctant to let the post office sorting room > clerks find out I was getting 'money in my box'; remind me to tell > you sometime about a charity in Chicago (Missionary Fathers) or a > US-based television evangelist with a box in Toronto, Ontario and > what happened to them when a postal clerk got wise to what they were > getting in the mail. PAT] This member of the audience is always up for one of your stories, but I think I know how this one ends -- with fines bigger than the money in the envelopes, right? * * PV something like badgers -- something like lizards -- and something like corkscrews. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I forgot how much Jimmy Swaggart got ripped for when the postal clerk in Toronto took a liking to Swaggart's Canadian post office box. I think it was around a million dollars. On the other hand, the Missionary Fathers had a box at the same post office in Chicago I used to go to. The evening shift super- visor and the three employees who got caught with their hands in the till there got away with about 150 thousand dollars in cash donations. I remember that incident well. I used to go into the downtown post office box area (zips 60690 through 60699 [all just 'paper zip codes' used for sorting purposes, no physical location for those zip codes]) to pick up my mail late at night, several nights per week, and got aquainted on a first name basis with the counter clerks there. I went in one night to get my mail, none of the regular clerks were there except one lady I knew. "Where is Joe tonight, or Amanda?" Amanda was the supervisor at night. "Oh," said Jean, sort of giggling. "I guess you did not hear that the postal inspectors came in last night and cleaned the whole place out. They caught her and Joe on hidden videotape; she was getting into the (metal holding) tray for Missionary Fathers, and taking a huge handful of envelopes with her then going into the ladies restroom. When she would come out a few minutes later she had none of the envelopes. Then Joe would take a handful of envelopes and disappear into the men's room the same way. And there were two other workers in the sorting room caught doing the same thing. Postal inspectors came in last night about 10 PM, played the video tapes for the entire staff to watch, then asked 'if anyone wants to make confessions, it will go easier on you'. No one would confess until those videos were played showing Amanda and Joe going into the stalls, sitting there and ripping open envelopes, pocketing the cash and flushing the checks and prayer requests, etc down the toilets. The silence was deafening and those four workers were fired on the spot." (I am sure federal indictments followed soon therefter.) Missionary Fathers is that bunch (who under various names) send out the pictures of the pitiful little children who have sent you their cheesy Christmas gift: often times pencils, or mailing address labels or sometimes a crappy string of beads, etc. And wouldn't you like to send a Christmas gift by return mail to these children to show them how much you care about their welfare? A few dollars or whatever God puts on your heart to spare will go to the Crappy Pitiful Children's School where we see that they get at least one square meal each day and a new pair of overalls to wear. Always real tear-jerking letters and pictures designed to tug at your heart strings. If its not Christmas then maybe its Fourth of July. Always a sad story, always a free gift because the indigent children love you so much. $150 thousand is all Joe and Amanda would 'fess up to; their take and the others in on it was *much more*. It was so bad that the one bunch of crooks (Missionary Fathers) finally decided to abandon their post office box and moved it out to one of the suburbs when the second bunch of crooks (postal employees) took them so badly. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Spam Origins From: Marise_A_Klapka@NDGSTP.COM Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 15:07:38 -0600 I recently saw this article in my monthly e-newsletter from CyberAtlas and thought it might be of interest. If you choose to pose, please withhold my name/e-mail address. Thanks. U.S. Named as Biggest Spammer, Spammee By Robyn Greenspan The United States may not have to look past its own backyard to enforce the Anti-Spam bill the president is expected to sign by 2004. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 2003 e-commerce and development report identifies the U.S. as the top perpetrator, responsible for more than half of the spam received in the world. |-------------------------------| | Spam Origins, March 2003 | |-------------------------------| |United States58.4% | |-------------------------------| |China5.6% | |-------------------------------| |United Kingdom5.2% | |-------------------------------| |Brazil4.9% | |-------------------------------| |Canada4.1% | |-------------------------------| |Others21.8% | |-------------------------------| |Source: UNCTAD | |-------------------------------| The majority of spam victims are in the U.S. as well, the report finds, and David Schatsky, senior vice president of research, Jupiter Research (a unit of this site's corporate parent) says simply, "That's where the money is." Schatsky explains that the U.S. is the largest marketplace in the world, making it an attractive target. http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/geographics/article/0,,5911_3113611,00.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Does that 58.4 percent of all spam sent out include that snotty, bratty little 15 year old boy with the 71,000 dollars hidden away in his closet? 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'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #7 ****************************