From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jan 6 14:47:27 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i06JlRH11621; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 14:47:27 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 14:47:27 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200401061947.i06JlRH11621@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 #8 TELECOM Digest Tue, 6 Jan 2004 14:47:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 8 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Coax Chipset Enables Home Net Backbones (Monty Solomon) ATI Spins Digital TV Tuner/Decoder chip (Monty Solomon) Siemens Gigabit 2420/8825 Voicemail Quesstion (Steve Fitzgerald) Re: NANP Numbering (Earle Robinson) New Videophone Hailed As Breakthrough For The Deaf (Eric Friedebach) Re: Twenty Years Ago Today 1-Jan-2004, back on 1-Jan-1984 (John Levine) Re: Twenty Years Ago Today 1-Jan-2004, back on 1-Jan-1984 (Kilo Sierra) Re: Using PIX 501 With Vonage VoIP (Kilo Delta One Sierra) Re: Is TiVo Really All That Great? (Rob) Re: Then Benjamin Franklin Must be a Terrorist Too? (Michael Chance) Re: Last Laugh! 15 Year Old Gets Caught With $71,000 (Charles Cryderman) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 23:34:04 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Coax Chipset Enables Home Net Backbones By Robert Keenan EE Times Wayne, N.J. - A chip set from startup Entropic Communications lets end users turn their coaxial connections into a backbone network in the home. Wireless connections -- mostly wireless-LAN links --are quickly becoming the de facto approach for distributing broadband connections and multimedia content from a router to a node, such as a laptop. But Wi-Fi systems struggle to penetrate some walls and thus fall short in providing total coverage in a home. That coverage issue will loom larger as end users start to distribute HDTV connections over Wi-Fi channels. To help solve the problem, equipment vendors have considered establishing a backbone network in the home. With the EN1010 RF front-end IC and the EN2010 baseband controller IC, Entropic (San Diego) gives equipment vendors a way to tap into coaxial connections and establish a backbone that can deliver a peak performance of 270 Mbits/second and real throughput of better than 100 Mbits/s. http://www.commsdesign.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17200154 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 00:58:53 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: ATI Spins Digital TV Tuner/Decoder Chip By Junko Yoshida EE Times PARIS - ATI Technologies Inc. is rolling out a digital TV chip that integrates front-end digital terrestrial and cable demodulators and a back-end high-definition MPEG-2 decoder. The X210VC "DTV-on-chip" will give ATI "at least a two-year jump" on DTV silicon competitors, said director of marketing Mike Gittings. While many semiconductor companies continue to sit on the fence or have given up on the U.S. terrestrial DTV market, consumer electronics suppliers are scrambling to meet the Federal Communications Commission's digital tuner mandate, which requires TV makers to equip at least 50 percent of their 36-inch and larger TVs with a terrestrial digital TV tuner/decoder by July 1 (see story, page 18). http://www.eet.com/semi/news/OEG20040105S0040 ------------------------------ From: sf@mnetsys.com (Steve Fitzgerald) Subject: Siemens Gigabit 2420/8825 Voicemail Question Date: 6 Jan 2004 04:22:56 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Does anyone know if on the 2420 or 8825 it is possible to disable the answering machine on only one of the lines? I have two lines and only want the answering machine to answer one of the them. The other line has dedicated voicemail service off-site. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: Earle Robinson
Subject: Re: NANP Numbering Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 14:58:41 +0100 (Please mask my email address. Thank you.) Mr. Cuccia and others have replied extensively to my messages. Rather than using quote backs, I'll attempt to address the major points raised. You say that the USA is the leader for technology, etc. Yes, that is true, but the brains behind much of this come from Europeans and, more recently, Asians. Andy Grove is Hungarian, as was von Neumann. American rocket technology was brought by von Braun from Germany after the 2nd World War. The nuclear research was mostly done by men from Europe, too. Turing was English, the diesel engine was invented in Germany, movies in France, and the only commercial supersonic aircraft was created by the French and the English. I can travel from Paris to London in a couple of hours at over 200mph, down to Marseille in a few hours, too. Radar and the decryption of German code were done in England. I could go on and on. You speak of how the American phone system already had 7 digits from the 40s on. Well, yes in cities like New York. But, I was growing up in Greenwich Connecticut where our phone number was Greenwich 102. Given the many small non-bell companies and the fact that different bell subsidiaries used differing technologies the American system was far from that good. Granted it was much better than in Europe. But, Europe had gone through 2 devastating wars, bombed and the scene of so many battles. I well remember how awful the telephone systems here were until action was taken beginning in the late 1960s through the 1970s. Today, overall the systems here are often better than what is in the states. I also recall how awful phone service was in west Los Angeles in the late 70s and into the 80s (also mentioned by another writer in a message here the other day). We were served (an oxymoron) by General Telephone. It was virtually impossible to obtain a reliable connection to CompuServe, whose nodes were in PacBell territory only a few miles away. Even today many Americans have problems with dialup connections. Further, ISDN was never developed as it was here in Europe. Cell phones? Here in Europe we are approaching 90% market penetration everywhere. Not so in the states. Here in France if I dial a number, and there is no call waiting on that line, I get a busy signal, just as in the states. But, all I need do is to punch the 5 on the touch pad and hang up. When my correspondent hangs up my number rings, I pick up the phone and the phone is ringing at the other end. No extra charge, no monthly fee. It's free. Interested in ADSL? All I need do is provide my phone number and address on a web page and I am told how many meters I am from the central office and told I qualify because it is 473 meters. If I prefer a phone company other than France telecom I can choose from 6 or 7. Try that in the states! If you are in NYC you have Verizon , if in Miami Bell South. No choice. ADSL? I have a choice among nearly 10 ISP's. And, often quite cheap. Though I now have cable access I could sign up with one ISP which offers not only 2048/256 internet service, but VOIP phone (and phone number) with free phone calls within France and unbeatable rates for international calls, e.g. 3 cents to call the states, plus up to 100 television channels, too. All this for $35 per month and using that copper pair. You point out that the national phone systems were a hodge podge in the past. Yes, this was true. But, not today. There was a change in numbers several years ago here in France, to 10 digit dialing. Since this allows up to nearly 500 million phone numbers it is clear that with a population of 60 million France is covered for many years. The UK, alas, made a bollocks of things, so that they have had to endure 3 or 4 different changes in the past 10 years or so until they got it right. But, in other countries it was done correctly. I stand corrected as concerns the maximum number of digits mandated by the itu. But, this could be readily extended, as it was when it went from 12 to 15. The American system seems so cumbersome in comparison. While I can merely replace the first digit to use one of the major alternate carriers, in the states I'd have to dial several digits to do this. We also have features, like the handling if a busy signal that I already mentioned, which you don't have. For example, I can add other data to my directory listing using the internet, to provide the names of other people who use my number, email addresses and other numbers, too. Cellular phone numbers will be listed shortly, though one may opt out if one wishes. Call blocking here may be done on an individual basis or globally. Naturally, there is an emergency number, 112, valid everywhere in Europe. But there is also an emergency number for abused women to call, too. Finally, to address your vaunted 7 digit dialing. Well it ain't so in many places any more. In Miami you have to dial 10 digits to call a local number and I think it is the same in NYC, too. Given this, many people are confused between long distance dialing, 11 digits (1 digit more than here in Europe) and local calling. With our 10 digit dialing norm there is no confusion. Earle Robinson ------------------------------ From: friedebach@yahoo.com (Eric Friedebach) Subject: New Videophone Hailed As Breakthrough For The Deaf Date: 6 Jan 2004 09:18:33 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Thomas J. Fitzgerald, 01.05.04, Forbes.com The spread of high-speed Internet access and the increasing sophistication of videoconferencing tools have given the deaf broad new access to a simple pleasure that most people take for granted: chatting on the telephone. New products and services promise to liberate the deaf from the slow text-based telecommunications systems that have been their primary option for decades. One offering, a videophone and relay service introduced by Sorenson Media, enables users to sign with each other or with banks of interpreters who translate live phone conversations between the deaf and those who hear. The Sorenson videophone is a breakthrough, said Genie Gertz, an assistant professor of deaf studies at California State University at Northridge, because it enables the deaf to use what many consider to be their native language American Sign Language with unprecedented simplicity and clarity. This is a gigantic step for the deaf community, Gertz, who is deaf, said through an interpreter. The Sorenson VP-100 is a stand-alone videophone that works with a television and broadband Internet connection. It has a remote control and a flashing light that can be used instead of a ringer to signal incoming calls. Users can sign directly with another deaf person or with a Sorenson interpreter. Because of the high quality of the video, the interpreter can read the deaf user's signing while simultaneously translating and speaking to the telephone user, and vice versa. http://www.forbes.com/2004/01/05/105videophonepinnacor_ii.html Eric Friedebach /Mortgage your Viagra!/ ------------------------------ Date: 6 Jan 2004 07:18:56 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Twenty Years Ago Today 1-Jan-2004, back on 1-Jan-1984 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Of course, not all LD rates went down. Some have skyrocketed, such as > LD calls from coin phones or 3rd number billing. Payphone operators finally seem to have figured out that if you don't totally rip people off, they might use your service. I see a lot of payphones that offer long distance anywhere in the country for 25 cents/minute with a three or four minute minumum. That's not exactly cheap, but it's back down in the range where if you want to call someone, you'd be inclined to dump in the quarters rather than go to extraordinary lengths to avoid using the phone. I've seen phones in NYC with stickers offering similar international rates, 25 cents/min to most of Europe and plausible rates to other countries. Those of us old enough to remember the Bell system will remember that calls across the country cost 25 cents/min back when a quarter could still buy two or three candy bars. > 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. It's true, if you don't make a lot of toll calls, your bill has gone up, although I haven't seen overall numbers comparing monthly rates (the real ones, with all of the fee and tax junk added on) to inflation. If I had to guess, I'd guess that the cost of local service in constant dollars is about the same as it was 20 or 30 years ago, but long distance, particularly international, is much cheaper. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: kd1s@aol.comremvthis (Kilo Delta One Sierra) Date: 06 Jan 2004 09:16:11 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Re: Twenty Years Ago Today 1-Jan-2004, back on 1-Jan-1984 > 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. Indeed. In 1982 I got my own phone line. I was all of 16 at the time and had my first modem so I was always tying the line up. I had a job so my father had them hook the line up, and every month I paid the bill in cash. I paid a total of $12 a month. That included the phone rental (A red 2500 set of course!) and the Touch-Tone surcharge and taxes. Now the line charge alone is $17.26, then add in the damned fees and taxes and it come out close to $30. That's what is killing any savings. The phone companies and the government saw a golden opportunity to rape and pilage as usual and we end up footing the bill. Know what? Universal Service charges should have gone away a long time ago. If people want to move out to the burbs and rural areas let them pay to have the lines strung. Nail the damned contractors that are building up the suburbs and rural areas -- and also screwing the cities at the same time. But the main culprit here is plain old corporate dominance. I do wish that some day we get an administration willing to put the corpo-military complex in their place. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Interesting how you mention your very own first telephone. I first got subscribed under my own name back in 1960, when I moved out from living with Mommie Dearest to my own little place in Hyde Park (the U of C neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.) The monthly bill was around six or seven dollars and my roomate and I agreed to split the bill but each be responsible for our own long distance charges and or telegrams which were sent by phone. Illinois Bell did not ask for deposits, or run credit checks, etc. You simply called them one day and they came out the next day to put the phone in. They trusted you to pay the bill when it arrived. We decided on a green 'palmolive' color rotary dial phone and since we lived in an apartment-hotel with a switchboard the phone man put in a phone with a turn-button: one side of the turn button was the switch- board phone (DOrchester 3-7500), the other side of the turn button was our private phone (HYDe Park 3-3714). We did have a bell-chime device to ring the phone (it sounded like a doorbell) and we had to pay fifty-cents per month for that side ringer. Touch tone was not available. ESS features were still ten years distant for the downtown Chicago area and fifteen years distant for the other areas of Chicago. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kd1s@aol.comremvthis (Kilo Delta One Sierra) Date: 06 Jan 2004 09:21:55 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Re: Using PIX 501 With Vonage VoIP > 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? You may have to open a port or two. The folks at Vonage should be able to help you with it. I have not yet tried Vonage but I run a Netgear FVS318 which is a router/firewall/vpn device and has 8 ports. I use a total of four -- I like having the expansion option available to me. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's why I have two 'root USB hubs' on my main computer with a powered four-way connection on both of them. I do not use all eight sockets (four cameras, printer, expandable 'hard drive' with a couple vacancies.) I like the idea of instant expansion also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rob51166@yahoo.com (Rob) Subject: Re: Is TiVo Really All That Great? Date: 6 Jan 2004 07:49:45 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com dold@IsXTiVoXRe.usenet.us.com wrote in message news:: > 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 Ask people on a general high street in the UK what TiVo is and they'll no doubt look at you askance. Ask them what Sky+ is and there's every possibility that they'll know exactly what it is. The biggest problem TiVo had in the UK was the lack of proper marketing and advertising. Plus it wasn't a name that people here recognised. As far as Sky's concerned, however, every household in the UK has heard of it, and a lot of people have their TV service through Sky Digital, if not Sky+. ------------------------------ From: Michael Chance Subject: Re: Then Benjamin Franklin Must be a Terrorist Too? Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 13:01:11 GMT In article , Joe@nospamcity.com says: > Hey, what about folks like me who voted for Bush and now feel like I > elected Adolf Hitler? Trouble is, I can't stand any of the Democrats > so it is time to stay home. The recent spate of comparisons of President Bush to Adolf Hitler are so outrageous, it's almost impossible to write a calm, rational response. Since he's done it so much better than me, here's the response of Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, from his recent article in the Wall Street Journal: "The Holocaust was the worst crime in history. The Nazis killed ... millions ... in a systematic genocide. ... "The last survivors of that horror will soon pass from among us. It is for them that we guard against the danger that the memory of the Holocaust will be trivialized. That danger is abetted when people devalue this monumental evil for political gain. "Comparing the commander-in-chief of a democratic nation to the murderous tyrant Hitler is not only historically specious, it is morally outrageous. " Please remember to think of those remaining Holocaust survivors before you go calling someone -- anyone -- another Hitler. Never again. Michael Chance ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: Last Laugh! 15 Year Old Gets Caught With $7 Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 10:04:36 -0500 Pat, The note you had provided stated that "20/20" did an investigation. Here is their response: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_marketingscam021008.html Marketing Scheme Falsely Using 20/20's Name Internet Ploy Seeks Cash From Respondents N E W Y O R K, Oct. 8 -Internet stories with headlines like "ABC's 20-20 'Boy 15 Makes 71 Thousand in 5 Weeks'" have been falsely using ABC's and 20/20's names. The schemes claim that you can get rich by doing little more than spending $25 on various Internet marketing reports. They also claim that ABC's 20/20 broadcast a news report that investigated this scheme and concluded it was legal. This statement is patently false. ABC has never investigated this scheme and has not broadcast a news report validating it. For further information on chain letter/get-rich-quick schemes, contact postal authorities or go to their Web site at: http://usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/chainlet.htm. Happy New Year old man and may you see many more. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ 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. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #8 ****************************