From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 30 00:15:55 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 412D614CA4; Thu, 30 Jun 2005 00:15:55 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #301 Message-Id: <20050630041555.412D614CA4@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 00:15:55 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.4 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 30 Jun 2005 00:15:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 301 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson T-Mobile, Google Partner Up For Mobile Internet (Telecom dailyLead USTA) CFP: IEEE in Cooperated International Conference (Conference Secretary) Mediacom (Fred Atkinson) Telecom-Priv/Computer Privacy Digest (was Re: VOIP?) (Dennis G. Rears) Re: CVS Limits ExtraCare Info Access After Expose (Lisa Hancock) Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. (John McHarry) Re: 50 Year Unisys Employee Retires (Tony P.) Re: Where to Buy a Cellular Phone Jammer? (DevilsPGD) Re: Western Union History (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: DSL Speed (Dave Grebe) Spam? Yeah, Probably. Five Bucks Cash For You (JohnW@clientbonus.com) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 13:33:34 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: T-Mobile, Google Partner up For Mobile Internet Telecom dailyLead from USTA June 29, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22714&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * T-Mobile, Google partner up for mobile Internet BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Broadband price wars heat up * Verizon seeks slice of music phone market * Hughes expands satellite broadband footprint * Covad picks Samsung for LPVA rollout USTA SPOTLIGHT * Two Days left to Save $300 on your TELECOM '05 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Cell phone providers embracing P2P * Bugs Bunny and friends go wireless REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC seeks "parity" in broadband regulation Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22714&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: Conference Secretary Subject: CFP: IEEE in Cooperated International Conference on Computational Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 12:30:33 +1000 CALL FOR PAPERS International Conference on Computational Intelligence for Modelling, Control and Automation 28 - 30 November 2005 Vienna, Austria http://www.ise.canberra.edu.au/conferences/cimca05/ In co-operation with: IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Conference Proceedings will be published as books by IEEE in USA Sponsored by: European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology - EUFLAT International Association for Fuzzy Set in Management and Economy - SIGEF Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics - SOFT Taiwan Fuzzy Systems Association - TFSA World Wide Web Business Intelligence - W3BI Hungarian Fuzzy Association - HFA University of Canberra Jointly with International Conference on Intelligent Agents, Web Technologies and Internet Commerce http://www.ise.canberra.edu.au/conferences/iawtic05/ Honorary Chair: Lotfi A. Zadeh, University of California, USA Stephen Grossberg, Boston University, USA The international conference on computational intelligence for modelling, control and automation will be held in Vienna, Austria on 28 to 30 November 2005. The conference provides a medium for the exchange of ideas between theoreticians and practitioners to address the important issues in computational intelligence, modelling, control and automation. The conference will consist of both plenary sessions and contributory sessions, focusing on theory, implementation and applications of computational intelligence techniques to modelling, control and automation. For contributory sessions, papers (4 pages or more) are being solicited. Several well-known keynote speakers will address the conference. Conference Proceedings will be published as books by IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering) in USA and will be index world wide. All papers will be peer reviewed by at least two reviewers. Topics of the conference include, but are not limited to, the following areas: Modern and Advanced Control Strategies: Neural Networks Control, Fuzzy Logic Control, Genetic Algorithms and Evolutionary Control, Model-Predictive Control, Adaptive and Optimal Control, Intelligent Control Systems, Robotics and Automation, Fault Diagnosis, Intelligent agents, Industrial Automations Hybrid Systems: Fuzzy Evolutionary Systems, Fuzzy Expert Systems, Fuzzy Neural Systems, Neural Genetic Systems, Neural-Fuzzy-Genetic Systems, Hybrid Systems for Optimisation Data Analysis, Prediction and Model Identification: Signal Processing, Prediction and Time Series Analysis, System Identification, Data Fusion and Mining, Knowledge Discovery, Intelligent Information Systems, Image Processing, and Image Understanding, Parallel Computing applications in Identification & Control, Pattern Recognition, Clustering and Classification Decision Making and Information Retrieval: Case-Based Reasoning, Decision Analysis, Intelligent Databases & Information Retrieval, Dynamic Systems Modelling, Decision Support Systems, Multi-criteria Decision Making, Qualitative and Approximate-Reasoning Paper Submission Papers will be selected based on their originality, significance, correctness, and clarity of presentation. Papers (4 pages or more) should be submitted to the following e-mail or the following address: CIMCA'2005 Secretariat School of Information Sciences and Engineering University of Canberra, Canberra, 2616, ACT, Australia E-mail: cimca@canberra.edu.au Electronic submission of papers (either by E-mail or through conference website) is preferred. Draft papers should present original work, which has not been published or being reviewed for other conferences. Important Dates 31 August 2005 Submission of draft papers 30 September 2005 Notification of acceptance 21 October 2005 Deadline for camera-ready copies of accepted papers 28-30 November 2005 Conference sessions Special Sessions and Tutorials Special sessions and tutorials will be organised at the conference. The conference is calling for special sessions and tutorial proposals. All special session proposals should be sent to the conference chair (by email to: masoud.mohammadian@canberra.edu.au) on or before 5th of August 2005. CIMCA'05 will also include a special poster session devoted to recent work and work-in-progress. Abstracts are solicited for this session. Abstracts (3 pages limit) may be submitted up to 30 days before the conference date. Visits and social events Sightseeing visits will be arranged for the delegates and guests. A separate program will be arranged for companions during the conference. Further Information For further information either contact cimca@ise.canberra.edu.au or see the conference homepage at: http://www.ise.canberra.edu.au/conferences/cimca05/default.htm Organising Committee Chair: Masoud Mohammadian, University of Canberra, Australia International Program Committee: H. Adeli, The Ohio State University, USA W. Pedrycz, University of Manitoba, Canada A. Agah, The University of Kansas, USA T. Fukuda, Nagoya University, Japan J. Bezdek, University of West Florida, USA R. C. Eberhart, Purdue University, USA F. Herrera, University of Granada, Spain T. Furuhashi, Nagoya University, Japan A. Agah, The University of Kansas, US E. André, Universität Augsburg, Germany A. Kandel, University of South Florida, USA J. P. Bigus, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA J. Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong A. Namatame, National Defense Academy, Japan K. Sycara, Carnegie Mellon University, USA B. Kosko, University of Southern California, USA T. Baeck, Informatic Centrum Dortmund, Germany K. Hirota, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan E. Oja, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland H. R. Berenji, NASA Ames Research Center, USA H. Liljenstrom, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden A. Bulsari, AB Nonlinear Solutions OY, Finland J. Fernandez de Cañete, University of Malaga, Spain W. Duch, Nicholas Copernicus University, Poland E. Tulunay, Middle East Technical University, Turkey C. Kuroda, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan T. Yamakawa, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan J. Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong A. Namatame, National Defense Academy, Japan A. Aamodt, Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Norway International Liaison: Canada and USA Liaison: Robert John, De Montfort University, UK Nasser Jazdi, Institut für Automatisierungs- und Softwaretechnik, Germany Europe Liaison: Dr. Eng. Djamel Khadraoui, Centre de Recherche Public, Luxembourg Frank Zimmer, SES ASTRA, Luxembourg Asia Liaison: Renzo Gobbin, University of Canberra, Australia R. Amin Sarker, ADFA, Australia Local Arrangements and Public Relation: Zohreh Pahlavani, AVIP, Austria C Meier, Australia Publicity: C. Meier, Australia Zohreh Pahlavani, AVIP, Austria Publication: Masoud Mohammadian, Australia In cooperation with: University of Canberra, (Masoud Mohammadian) Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, (José-Luis Fernández-Villacañas Martín) University of Guelph, (Simon X. Yang) ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Mediacom Reply-To: fatkinson@mishmash.com Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 03:03:13 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Does anyone know if Mediacom blocks ports 80, 20, 21, 23, 25, and/or other signficant ports? Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ From: Dennis G. Rears Subject: Telecom-Priv/Computer Privacy Digest (Was Re: Started Using VOIP?) Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 23:17:57 -0400 Organization: Optimum Online wrote in message news:telecom24.297.10@telecom-digest.org: > TELECOM Digest Editor wrote in message > It's only been a couple of weeks since I last posted as opposed to a > decade for my previous post. Thanks for remembering me. It is > through this digest that I got my interest stoked in telephony. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And I notice it did not take you > another decade to write to me again, and for that I thank you! But > you never did tell me if you were still in the Milwaukee area, nor > whatever happened to your newsgroup/Digest. PAT] Warning: This is more history than telecom related. Historical accuracy may be clouded ... I forget the dates but it was around 1988-1990. I started the telecom-priv digest to offload the discussion in TELECOM Digest about caller-id and blocking. A lot people back then did not know that 800 numbers returned ANI (Now we have 800/888/877/866) and had no idea that ANI (Automated Number Identification) existed. They thought that if they blocked caller-id it would also block the 800 service. My idea at the time was to separate the privacy issues of telecom from the technical issues. At that time I was a subscriber to the TELECOM and RISKS digest. Just as the TELECOM digest was an offshoot of an old USENET group (help me out on this one Pat), I had always wanted to start my own maillist so I volunteered to set up telecom-priv which at that time was email only. Also by doing this I had telephone access to Pat which he rarely gave to any TELECOM Digest subscriber. I barely knew the difference between tip and ring at the time. Just to set the stage for where the internet was at that time (1988???) . At that there was no web, DNS had just replaced the hosts.txt file for network resolution. The major tcp/ip protocols were smtp, ftp, telnet, rcmds and nntp. Gopher and WAIS were just coming on line at this time. Nothing was encrypted; everything was sent in the clear. Sun had just released the SUN4 architecture. The "ARPANet" had only a few years ago been separated into the internet and MILnet. Prior to this to be on the ARPANet you needed to be a military, university, or commercial entity dedicated to R&D. UUCP and BITnet were still major players. There were Bitnet and UUCP email gateways where you could transverse networks but only for email; no other UDP or TCP traffic. Most people only had terminals connected to an internet connected machine. Only scientists and engineers had directly connected internet nodes. And only a few.... Pat graciously gave me his UNIX shell scripts to send out a digest and I monkeyed around with my mail system which was not sendmail but MMDF, a mail system developed at the University of Delaware and University college of London (UCL) with major enhancements by Mike Muuss et friends at the Ballistic Research Lab (BRL) at Aberdeen, MD. Everything was BSD UNIX, SUNOS was just coming out After a couple of years I decided to morph the telecom-priv to the computer-privacy digest. At that time I finally had USENET access and software to create email->USENET traffic. Since it was a moderated group all submissions would be by email so I did not need a USENET->email gateway. I did the RFD and call for votes and had the newsgroup comp.privacy.society and comp-privacy maillist created. I believe this was done circa 1992. My goal was to have a forum to discuss how technical advances affected privacy not about privacy in general. I invested a lot of my time to this forum but was not happy in the direction it was taking. I remember a candidate for some CA office complaining that I was censoring him because I denied his post. I had always wanted the forum to be about how technology affected privacy not privacy itself. I was also busy at my job (An Army civilian Computer Engineer) and as an Army Reserve Officer. After five years of moderation duties I asked for volunteers to take on the job of moderation. Len Levine, a professor at the University of Wisconsin took over. My only request (not requirement) was that I would be offered the moderator position when he was done. He offered it to me a few years ago but I couldn't do it. I am now cursed/blessed with the black box known as Windows which is even more worthless than VMS for scripting. Pat, I think it is because of Len that you thought I was in Milwaukee. I have never been in that area. The closest I have been is Rock Island, IL. I have been at ORD at least 30 times but never to Chicago. I have been in Morris County, NJ since 1983. My other claim to fame is I created the page on the web (1991) about running. It was called the running page. You can look at it now at http://www.runningpage.com/rpage (Now a historical site). One thing that is amazing to me is we did what we did out for the love of it. Now everything is about money. You asked and I gave you a long answer. If you liked this long winded post I will do another on my mobile phone experience in Australia in 2002 (hint.. a 20 minute call from Melbourne to NJ was 1/4 the cost of a 5 minute call from Perth to Sydney). Dennis (note to Pat. Please correct for errors....) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your recollection is quite accurate. I had assumed _you_ were in Milwaukee because Len Levine is/was around there. I do not know how I got confused on that. And yes, we did all our stuff on the net in those days out of love and personal interest in our topics. Someone once said 1994 was the final year of the net as we knew and loved it. I do know that year as when all the strangers started moving into our e-village. Yes, tell us about your mobile phone experience, and thanks once again for the old memories. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: CVS Limits ExtraCare Info Access After Expose Date: 29 Jun 2005 20:21:10 -0700 I have a CVS card. I purposely misspelled my name and gave as little information as possible to protect my privacy. I've done likewise on other store cards, though I avoid them if possible. The discounts aren't as good as claimed. You do get a lot of coupons when you make a purchase, but the terms of the coupons are so restrictive -- products you don't want, minimum purchase, or too short a time frame, that in most cases they have no value. I guess it saves me about $10-$20 a year. Does ANYONE out there care about privacy? Back when I started privacy of client/customer accounts was paramount. Not because the law said so (though it did), but because it was the right thing to do. In a large computer center, one couldn't just go into data files without authorization. Files that left the building were controlled. Who the heck are the turkeys designing the open systems of today? ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 02:27:58 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 05:54:31 -0700, Joseph wrote: > http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=23199 > FCC Re-iterates Cell-Phone Jammers Are Illegal > WASHINGTON-People who want to use cell-phone jammers to get rid of > annoying mobile-phone use should think again. It is against the > law. Those found using, selling, manufacturing or distributing > cell-phone jammers could be subject to an $11,000-per-day fine and > seizure of their equipment by the United States Marshals, warned the > Federal Communications Commission. The law should be modestly amended to declare those using cellphones in theaters, churches, and other places of public assembly outlaws subject to pummeling by the inconvenienced other inmates of such assembly. Exception might be made for surviving, on duty, emergency personnel. ;^) ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: 50 Year Unisys Employee Retires Organization: ATCC Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:15:23 -0400 In article , kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net says: > In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com > says: >> The Philadelphia Inquirer did a feature article on a man, age 68, who >> was retiring from Unisys after 50 years of service. (He started with >> Unisys precedessor Burroughs). >> It's extremely rare today for someone to work 50 years for the same >> corporation. In 1986 Unisys had 123,000 employees, now it has 36,400. >> Only 15% of Americans 65 and over are still working and the average >> person retiring today has been with his employer 10 years, not 50. > I'm a state employee. Our legislature just handed us a bon mot that says > most of us won't be able to retire until 70, and at that we won't get > the same benefit as those before us. > It's funny -- our director of finance is retiring end of this year. We > were joking about it. I said she should be happy that we're financing > her retirement. My boss said she should invite us over for the dinner > we paid for. It was too funny but demonstrated that retirement systems > are in fact Ponzi Schemes. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One important reason companies do not >> keep around 40-50 year employees any longer is because that employee's >> benefits package is usually so extravagant. For example, I recall one >> fellow who had worked for Standard Oil more than twenty years back in >> the 1960's, when I was there. Working there that long, he was >> entitled to five weeks paid vacation every year, and first choice of >> the available times for vacation. He _always_ managed to parlay that >> five week vacation into _six_ weeks by scheduling his vacation times >> around weeks which had holidays in them, which entitled him to an >> extra vacacation day. For example, vacation during the week which >> contained Memorial Day, also the week which contained Independence Day >> and Labor Day got him _three extra days_ right there. So he would then >> take those three extra days vacation and either use them for the >> Monday <-> Wednesday of Thanksgiving Week when the entire office got >> two days (Thursday and Friday) off anyway. Or, depending on how the >> calendar worked out that year, maybe he would take those three days >> during Christmas/New Years week. >> Needless to say, Standard Oil got quite annoyed at having to legally >> pay him for not being there for large gaps of time. Eventually, they >> had a whole bunch of people in that situation and of course, if you >> can find an excuse for letting the person go, then you also have to >> pay them for the _company's share_ of their 401-K plan or whatever, >> _plus_ their severance pay, _plus_ their pension, etc. And there is >> absolutely no reason a good supervisor cannot find an excuse -- _any_ >> lawful excuse will do, to can you if they wish to do so. That is one >> reason most companies do not like to have employees around that long; >> to their way of thinking, the person has gotten just to expensive for >> them. > Hell, with the comp time I generate I get about 6 weeks a year. U.S. > employers are very stingy about time off. All comes down to that > Calvinist work ethic. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think you meant to say the > 'Protestant Work Ethic' instead of 'Calvinist'; but anyway, don't > be so harsh with John Calvin. He was an 'okay' guy ! PAT] No, it was Calvin who gave us that work ethic and stark lifestyle. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, John Calvin was a protestant and big in the Reformation movement in 16th century Switzerland, and considered to be the father of the modern day 'Christian Reformed Church' as it is known in the USA today. He did have a very stark lifestyle to be sure, and encouraged it among his followers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Where to Buy a Cellular Phone Jammer? Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:08:52 -0500 Organization: Disorganized In message Joseph wrote: > On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 05:11:46 GMT, Dale Farmer > wrote: >> Except it doesn't work. Better to put scanners up and listen to their >> transmissions. > Which with digital encryption will be a mighty task! Not really -- No "scanning" involved, law enforcement can legally tap the connection (which is done after decryption). ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 19:29:32 EDT Subject: Re: Western Union History In a message dated 29 Jun 2005 06:21:17 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: >> W.U. operated a lot of local telegraph offices long after they had >> ceased to pay for themselves. In some cases the FCC required the >> company to keep the offices open. W.U. should have had a plan to >> convert them to contract agencies; although the best way to do this >> would probably involve having the agencies use TWX. > I suspect it was both FCC and unions that forced the local offices to > stay open. Ironically, I am not aware of any pressure on the Bell > System to provide or not provide public business offices. In the late 1940s my father's business took on the additional duty of being a Western Union agent in Perry, Oklahoma (pop. about 5,000), when the company-owned office closed. So I had some experience in handling telegrams and money orders, although the money order was not the center of the W.U. business as it became later. We shared a pair out of Oklahoma City with the W.U. company-owned office inside the Conoco refinery and offices in Ponca City. Most of the business on the wire was from and to that office. (High-volume W.U. users got company-owned branches; low-volume users might have a WUX printer, which of course they operated themselves.) The agency I am familiar with in Perry, Oklahoma, had a selective signaling device which was not especially reliable or practical, although if you were near enought you could count the clicks and respond. Telegrams were sent and received on the gummed paper tape that was then stuck down on the telegram form manually and was the normal medium used for telegrams in those days. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Dave Grebe Subject: Re: DSL Speed Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 00:08:27 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net >> I wonder how they're modulated. > Can any other reader answer this question? Quadrature modulation using many channels. Look here: http://www.alleged.com/info/dsl2/ Dave Grebe ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:07:04 -0800 From: JohnW@clientbonus.com Reply-To: Subject: Spam? Probably, But Interesting: 5 Bucks Cash For You 5 dollars cash for five simple drop-down box selections. All you have to do is go to the page below, select the 5 boxes and then reply to this email with the 1st word that appears on the following page. You will automatically receive your $5 via PayPal to your email address. It's that easy! http://gong.usersmile.com/imp/c?c=3&m=54&e=614273 To extract your record: http://gong.usersmile.com/imp/u?m=54&e=614273 257 Lyons Ave. Suite 619, Newark, NJ 07112 ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #301 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 30 17:33:09 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 7B24114FE0; Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:33:09 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #302 Message-Id: <20050630213309.7B24114FE0@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:33:09 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.9 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,DO_IT_TODAY, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:33:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 302 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Protecting Your Good Name from Identity Theft (Lisa Minter) Use of IP Telephony Surged in Sweden in 2004 (Lisa Minter) Michigan and Utah Launch Email Registries (Lisa Minter) Digital Move Will Blank 80 Million TV Sets (Lisa Minter) Vodafone, Microsoft Forge Wireless Message Deal (Telecom dailyLead USTA) Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. (mc) Re: Western Union History (Jim Haynes) Re: Using Comcast to Host Web Site (Rob Stampfli) 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: Protecting Your Good Name From Identity Theft Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 23:29:35 -0500 By Linda Stern WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By now you know that 40 million credit card account numbers are flying around the underground economy. They were set free when hackers implanted a virus in the computers operated by CardSystems, a Tucson-based credit card processing firm, and they were actually let loose way before consumers were let in on the breach recently. It was the latest in a series of security flubs from companies including ChoicePoint, which collects and supplies financial data, DSW Shoe Warehouse and others. It revealed that consumers could not only lose their financial identities, they could be in the dark about it. It took almost a month from the time CardSystems said they discovered the breach until the public was made aware. Somebody could be using your credit card right now, and how would you know it? "This news is just the tip of the iceberg," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a California-based consumer information and advocacy organization. Yet Givens and others do not believe consumers should panic. Instead, they should seek to maintain that careful balance between recognizing the possibility of identity theft without overreacting and denying themselves the convenience of credit card shopping. "Consumers should not at this time be canceling card accounts as a preventive measure," said Givens. Here's how to protect yourself without going back to a cash-only lifestyle: -- Don't panic and don't stop using your credit card or shopping online. Credit cards come with two levels of protection: Federal law prohibits consumers from losing more than $50 to theft or fraud, and the card issuers step in and cover that $50. If your card number does get stolen, you won't be out any money. Your issuer can give you a new number. -- Don't wait to get your statement to see if your card is being used. If you haven't already set your credit card accounts up for online and phone access, do so. Then you can go online between statement dates and check to make sure nobody else is posting charges to your account. -- Look for small, inconsequential charges. Most credit card thieves test the card with a small purchase to see if it works. -- Control your own paperwork. Most credit card thefts do not occur when techies figure out how to hack your card company. They occur when retail employees or shoppers pull carbons out of trash cans or find payment stubs and the like. Keep control of your receipts and keep control of your cards. If you lose the actual plastic card, check to make sure that you aren't being charged for gasoline you didn't buy. Many card thieves make their first purchase a pay-at-the-pump gasoline buy; that way if the card gets rejected they can hop in their car and leave without talking to a cashier. -- Consider giving up your debit card. Those debit cards which look like VISAs and MasterCards and do not require a pin number, can be dangerous. That's because they draw directly from your checking account. And while the banks that issue them tend to guarantee that they will indemnify you from fraud and will replace any lost money within hours, it can still take some time to clear up the account. While it does, you can be bouncing rent checks, car payments and anything else that comes out of your checking account. "I've talked to people where the institution doesn't believe them and the funds take a month," says Givens. "Frankly, I don't advise using debit cards." If you have good credit and financial discipline, you can just use a credit card for your everyday purchases and then pay that off once a month from your checking account. -- Check your credit report. Unless you live in the Northeast, you can already get one free credit report a year. On September 1, even Northeasterners will be eligible. Find it at http://www.annualcreditreport.com. If someone has used your card, it might show up in extra inquiries or mistakes in your credit report. -- Read your mail. At least one California lawyer, Ira Rothken, is trying to make a class-action suit out of the recent security breach. If you are a member of a class that has been wronged, you should receive notification. Even if you're not in a position to join a suit, you might get notification from your bank about security breaches or new procedures. Linda Stern is a freelance writer. Any opinions in the column are solely those of Ms. Stern. You can e-mail her at lindastern@aol.com Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Use of IP Telephony Surged in Sweden in 2004 Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 23:31:00 -0500 The number of people making phone calls via the Internet more than doubled in Sweden in 2004, the country's telecoms regulator said on Wednesday. Its report on the telecommunications market for last year said 80,800 people had Internet Protocol phone call subscriptions, compared with 38,400 in 2003. "Not all telephone clients are linked to networks which offer IP-based calling, but the potential client base is rising as more operators are starting to offer IP-based phoning," the PTS regulator said. It said broadband operator Bredbandsbolaget, recently bought by Norway's Telenor (TEL.OL), had most IP telephony clients. At the end of 2004, there were 25 operators offering IP calls, versus 10 to 15 at the end of the previous year. Nordic giant TeliaSonera (TLSN.ST) has said that IP telephony is one of the challenges it has to deal with in its home markets. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Michigan and Utah Launch Email Registries Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 23:34:16 -0500 By DAVID EGGERT, Associated Press Writer Two states are on the verge of trying to block porn and other inappropriate messages sent to children through e-mail, but critics question how the laws will be enforced and predict they could have unintended consequences. Michigan and Utah have until Friday to create and operate registries of e-mail addresses similar to "do-not-call" lists. Businesses will have to buy copies of the registries and face prison time and fines if they send e-mail to any addresses that parents submit. The registries also can include instant-message addresses, cell phones and pager numbers. Parry Aftab, an Internet safety expert with WiredSafety.org, said the laws were well-intentioned but flawed. "Anytime anyone starts collecting lists of children, it's subject to hacking and misuse," Aftab said. "The last thing I want is anyone to have a large database of children." As with other Internet laws, critics say the registries probably won't have much effect -- largely because anti-spam laws have been difficult to enforce. Spam often originates from outside the country and from other states. The Institute for Spam and Internet Public Safety, which runs conferences and other programs on e-mail marketing, is concerned that commercial e-mailers don't know about the laws. "We've talked with several top-tier e-mail marketing firms and e-mail service providers and they were all just stunned to learn that they need to start scrubbing their mailing lists against these registries next month or face criminal sanctions," said Anne Mitchell, the group's president. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Digital Move Will Blank up to 80 Million TV Sets Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 23:36:43 -0500 Consumer advocates on Wednesday warned that up to 80 million television sets could go dark after a transition to digital broadcast signals and said the government should help owners get special converter boxes. About 15 percent of U.S. households rely on over-the-air television signals, and about 39 percent of households have at least one television that is not connected to satellite or cable television service, according to a survey by Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America. Congress and the Federal Communications Commission are trying to speed the broadcast industry's transition from analog signals to digital ones to free up valuable spectrum. Lawmakers are considering legislation that would set Jan. 1, 2009, as the deadline for finishing the switch. "The first rule Congress must abide by is do no harm to consumers," said Gene Kimmelman, public policy director for Consumers Union. "We can only support a hard date transition if the costs are not borne by consumers who have done nothing wrong and just want their TVs to work." He suggested that the government should subsidize converter boxes for most of those television sets, potentially costing more than $3.5 billion. Industry estimates put the cost of converter boxes at about $50 each. The Consumer Electronics Association has projected a smaller number of television sets -- 33.6 million -- would be affected by the switch. "The (consumer groups') survey appears to assume that any TV not connected to cable or satellite is connected to a broadcast antenna," said Michael Petricone, CEA vice president for technology policy. He said millions of sets are used only for video games and movies. Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives put off a hearing until later this summer to consider digital television legislation, in part because of a dispute over a subsidy plan for aiding homes that rely only on over-the-air broadcasts. Most expect a subsidy program would be funded with the proceeds of auctioning off the old analog broadcast airwaves. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:29:01 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Vodafone, Microsoft forge wireless messaging deal Telecom dailyLead from USTA June 30, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22761&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Vodafone, Microsoft forge wireless messaging deal BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Motorola sets sights on Japan * Nortel shareholders express frustration at meeting * Report: Today's customers want control over communications experience * Phone, cable company spots spur ad growth USTA SPOTLIGHT * Order Today! Newton's Telecom Dictionary -- 21st Edition EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Nextel tests wireless broadband REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Transition to new Internet protocol lags * Lawrence Lessig: Grokster decision "a pretty significant defeat" Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22761&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: mc Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 01:08:03 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory (http://www.speedfactory.net) > The law should be modestly amended to declare those using cellphones > in theaters, churches, and other places of public assembly outlaws > subject to pummeling by the inconvenienced other inmates of such > assembly. Exception might be made for surviving, on duty, emergency > personnel. ;^) Here I think there is a market for cell phone *detectors*. Cell phones transmit every few minutes even when you're not making or receiving a call, in order to keep the tower apprised of where they are. "Turn off your cell phone" could have more teeth if equipment were in use to detect cell phones that were still turned on. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Western Union History Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:17:36 GMT In article , wrote: > hard. But I wish I knew more about their microwave system -- what it > did for them and what it didn't. The Telecom archives contain Western Union Technical Review, which gives pretty good coverage of their microwave system, its beginnings, and its eventual expanse. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And readers can also check out the 23 year run of Western Union Technical Review. The entire collection is on file in our archives http://telecom-digest.org/archives PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Using Comcast to Host Web Site From: restamp@hotmail.com (Rob Stampfli) Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 21:07:44 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com In article , William Warren wrote: > Comcast has been blocking port 80 (HTTP) for a while now, and they've > recently started blocking port 25 (SMTP) as well. IMNSHO, it's only a > matter of time before they start blocking all syn packets and charging > extra for ANY incoming connection, but for now you can do it with some > workarounds. With cable's relatively limited upload speed, I can readily understand blocking inbound port 80, where the traffic distribution is highly skewed towards outbound packets. But why inbound port 25? It can't be to prevent spam from infected PCs since they don't use it. Inbound port 25 can only be used to receive mail and one could argue that whether you receive your mail via SMTP (port 25), or POP or IMAP or otherwise, the bits have to eventually flow in one way or another. So, why block port 25? The only answer I can come up with is "just for spite". For that matter, the whole concept of "no servers" has always seemed flawed to me: Technically, sshd and telnetd are servers. Does Comcast really desire to have a policy of preventing one from contacting a home machine when they are travelling? Rob Stampfli ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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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 V24 #302 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 30 23:03:37 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 06E6C14FE9; Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:03:37 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #303 Message-Id: <20050701030337.06E6C14FE9@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:03:37 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:04:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 303 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Congressman Lends a Helping Hand to SBC (Lisa Minter) SBC Voices Two Approaches to Video (Lisa Minter) Municipal Broadband Brouaha: Tech Firms Caught in the Middle (L Minter) Congressman Ensign Also Generous to SBC (Lisa Minter) Feds Raid Piracy and Warez Distributors (Lisa Minter) US Says to ICANN: We Are Not Giving up Root (Lisa Minter) 'TimeShare Spammer' Pleads Guilty (Lisa Minter) Re: Protecting Your Good Name From Identity Theft (Steve Sobol) Re: Using Comcast to Host Web Site (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. (Carl Zwanzig) Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. (Walt Howard) 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: Congressman Lends a Helping Hand to SBC Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:12:33 -0500 Special To Insider Update --- Rep. Sessions Lends A Hand To SBC By David Hatch Texas-based SBC Communications has plenty at stake with its telecommunications business these days: The Bell company is seeking approval to merge with AT&T, and is planning to deploy a nationwide Internet-based television service to compete with cable. The company also is fighting efforts by cities to build their own high-speed Internet networks. On that front, SBC has a friend in Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas conservative Republican with professional and political ties to the firm. In late May, Sessions introduced legislation that would ban municipal broadband networks in areas where companies such as SBC offer similar services. SBC supports the bill, but spokesman Kevin Belgrade said the issue goes beyond any one company. Sessions, a House Rules Committee member, does not sit on any panels that regulate communications -- but his ties to SBC are as thick as Texas sagebrush. He was an executive with Southwestern Bell Telephone, SBC's precursor, for 16 years, and his wife, Juanita (Nete) Sessions, is a vice president for billing with SBC. During the 2003-2004 election cycle, individuals and political action committees associated with SBC were Sessions' third largest donor, contributing $23,750, according to the watchdog Center for Responsive Politics. PACs operated by Verizon Communications -- another Bell firm that opposes most municipal networks but that has not taken a stance on Sessions' measure -- also gave Sessions $9,000, according to the Federal Election Commission. And the U.S. Telecom Association, whose members include the Bells, gave another $2,000. Sessions also revealed in a 2003 financial disclosure that he owned between $1,001 and $15,000 in SBC assets at the end of 2003. He held the same amount of assets in Verizon and BellSouth, and up to $1,000 in AT&T, SBC's merger partner. Sessions' calendar year 2004 disclosure will be released Wednesday. Juanita Sessions, meanwhile, held SBC stock options valued between $500,001 and $1 million through the end of 2003, and additional assets in BellSouth and SBC valued from $1,001 to $15,000 each. She also had an investment worth up to $1,000 in WorldCom, since renamed MCI. Supporters of government broadband say localities simply want to offer inexpensive connectivity to low-income and inner-city residents who cannot otherwise afford it -- or who might get bypassed by other providers. Harold Feld, a senior vice president at the Media Access Project, a public-interest law firm, said municipalities make investments "all the time" to improve citizens' lives. "Let local people decide how to spend local dollars," he said. Sessions spokeswoman Gina Vaughn said municipal networks discourage competition by forcing companies to compete with the government. She said Sessions wants localities to spend taxpayer dollars on more urgent needs. Sessions' bill was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Joe Barton, another Texas Republican. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, PACs and individuals associated with SBC were the fifth biggest contributor to Barton's 2004 campaign, giving a total of $15,000. Copyright 2005 by National Journal Group Inc. The Watergate 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW Washington, DC 20037 202-739-8400 fax 202-833-8069 National Journal's Insider Update is an Atlantic Media publication. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Atlantid Media, National Journal Insider Update. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: SBC Voices Two Approaches to Video Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:10:40 -0500 By Drew Clark The Bell companies' entry into the video marketplace has the potential to shake the cable, satellite and broadcasting businesses, and SBC Communications has been aggressive on the policy questions it raises. But SBC has been saying different things about its Internet-protocol television (IPTV) to different audiences. As the company has suffered policy and public-relations setbacks, it has changed its message to suit its needs. Company executives have offered different stances on: whether the company will provide a la carte, or channel-by-channel, programming; whether it must pay franchise fees to local governments; and how much it will build out its high-speed Internet service. The company also is defining itself as a cable provider not under telecommunications law but under copyright law -- further tangling the policy issues surrounding Bell entry into the video marketplace. Some of SBC's divergent messages have been delivered at almost exactly the same time but to different audiences. At the June SuperComm telecommunications conference in Chicago, a company executive dismissed the a la carte approach to a content-centered audience while a higher-level group president promoted that model to a group of policy officials. On Monday, at a downstairs conference session devoted to IPTV and heavy with officials from the movie and television industries, Vice President Jeff Weber said SBC's technology would uniquely utilize digital video recorders and high-definition television. "Which is all different than saying we are going to do something crazy like a la carte or something that is completely and totally disruptive in the marketplace," he said. "We can't, because our content providers won't allow it, and I'm not sure it would make sense even if they did." Upstairs, at a policy session the same day, SBC Group President Forrest Miller told a different story. "We know that consumers want more choices in video," including different packages than are currently available from existing cable "tiers," he said. "We believe in a consumer-driven market." Last year, SBC executives including CEO Ed Whitacre spoke favorably of offering consumers more choice in their television network selections, but they have not been as vocal on the subject this year. Companies that provide pay television to cable and satellite, like Walt Disney's ESPN and Time Warner's HBO, do not favor the a la carte approach. Asked about the discrepancy, SBC spokesman Michael Balmoris said Wednesday that pricing and features for its bundles of video programming have yet to be determined. "Since it does use Internet protocol, there are many more functionalities," he said, adding that packages could encompass a la carte offerings. It may be necessary to package programming differently in order to get consumers to switch from cable television to Bell television. "The first thing I would do if I were the phone company is to offer a family-friendly tier," said Robert Clasen, CEO of the Starz cable network. "If you have a family-friendly tier, you would have friends in Washington." Copyright 2005 by National Journal Group Inc. The Watergate 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW Washington, DC 20037 202-739-8400 fax 202-833-8069 National Journal's Insider Update is an Atlantic Media publication. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, National Journal Group; Atlantic Media. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: The Municipal Broadband Brouhaha: Tech Firms Caught in Middle Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:07:01 -0500 By Drew Clark Cities and counties that want to offer high-speed, Internet-based communications have been fighting regional Bell telecommunications and cable companies on the state level, and now the battle is erupting on the national stage. For local governments, public interest groups and the technology community, permitting such municipal broadband is a no-brainer. "It makes no sense for us to be wasting our time and energy fighting battles when the country has such a challenge to get broadband to everyone," said Jim Baller, an attorney for the municipalities -- citing a call by President Bush for universal and affordable broadband by 2007. Baller has helped to spearhead a new group called the Community Broadband Coalition. Until recently, the debate has occurred primarily in the states -- 14 of which have imposed some legal barriers to state-run municipal service. Two rival pieces of federal legislation have been introduced: In the House, H.R. 2726, which would bar states from allowing municipal broadband in areas served by the private sector; and in the Senate, S. 1294, which would bar states from opposing government-run broadband if municipalities do not discriminate against private competitors. Some see the conflicting bills as pressuring tech companies to choose between some big customers -- the Bells and cable companies -- and a market opportunity that may be growing, but that is not fully ripe. Wireless Life for Municipal Movement Early conflicts over municipal broadband centered on the availability of fiber-optic lines to homes. But wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi have breathed new life into the movement. Although fiber-optic cables have far greater capacity -- including the ability to offer multi-channel video -- stringing them to homes costs more than $1,000 on average. Philadelphia is planning a metropolitan-area Wi-Fi network that it believes it can create for $25 per home. Once in place, the city believes it can wholesale its service to commercial providers for $9 a month. That does not sound attractive to Verizon Communications and Comcast, which sell high-speed Internet service for prices ranging from $20 to $45 a month. Both companies supported telecom legislation last December in Pennsylvania barring municipal broadband projects. After complaints from public interest groups, an exception was granted for Philadelphia. This year, Colorado, Florida and Nebraska put restrictions on municipal networks in their states, although similar measures were defeated in Illinois, Iowa and Texas. "Cable operators are not uniformly opposed to all municipal broadband projects, but they do have serious reservations about local governments investing increasingly scarce taxpayer dollars for telecommunications services already being provided by the private sector with state-of-the-art technology," said Brian Dietz, a spokesman for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. "We believe there are many other ways to speed the deployment of broadband, like creating a regulatory climate that encourages investment and innovation," added Allison Remsen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Telecom Association. "With telecom networks, government intervention could chill private investment and further delay new services for consumers. When government-owned networks are used, presumably as a last resort, the networks should be regulated and taxed like private carriers." Tech Firms Stuck in the Middle Technology companies eager to see more widespread adoption of Internet computing have generally favored doing something to promote broadband. They have sought tax credits for broadband deployment, as well as deregulation of traditional telecom rules when it comes to broadband -- stances favored by the Bells. But the tech firms also have promoted municipal networks. Dell, Intel, the political fundraising group Technet and the High-Tech Broadband Coalition -- which articulated a position against state laws as recently as March -- are among the companies and groups supporting municipal broadband initiatives. In the Texas battle that peaked over the Memorial Day weekend, Intel and Dell vigorously fought legislation supported by two Bell companies, SBC Communications and Verizon Communications. The unsuccessful final bill attempted to grant telecom providers the ability to offer statewide cable television franchises and also would have extended an existing ban on municipal telephone and cable systems to broadband. "Michael Dell lobbied this personally down in Texas, and was pretty critical in stemming the tide," said Mark Uncapher, vice president of the Information Technology Association of America. The Texas-based Dell Corp. is an ITAA member. ITAA, the electronics group AeA and the Fiber-to-the-Home Council were among the 40 groups that signed onto the Community Broadband Coalition, which released its list of signers as a means of showcasing its support for the Senate bill (sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.). The High-Tech Broadband Coalition thus far has taken no position on the legislation. "Intel will be taking a position on federal legislation shortly," said Peter Pitsch, director of communications policy for the semiconductor firm, which is a major supporter of Wi-Fi and a member of several of the associations that comprise the coalition. "We will continue to oppose state prohibitions on municipal broadband but recognize that municipalities should operate in a non-discriminatory and completely neutral fashion." Pressured By Bells And Cable? An association of several leading tech associations that includes the Business Software Alliance, the Information Technology Industry Council, and the Telecommunications Industry Association -- the broadband coalition organized itself in 2002 to lobby for deregulation at the FCC. In 2003, it joined with the Fiber-to-the-Home Council in a friend-of-the-court brief for the Missouri Municipal League in a Supreme Court case about the right of municipalities to deploy broadband networks. The court held 8-1 in March 2004 that the 1996 Telecommunications Act does not pre-empt states from regulating the conduct of its own municipalities. "I think it is embarrassing that you are publicly filing a Supreme Court brief and then stepping back from legislation that generally supports that position," said an industry source close to the coalition. Baller and others believe more tech companies soon will publicly support federal legislation promoting municipal networks. A good percentage of revenue for telecommunications manufacturers comes from Bell carriers, making manufacturers wary of alienating key customers. "Municipalities are saying, 'We want no limits on our ability to offer broadband,' and industry is saying, 'We can't prohibit you from the market, but you are going to participate on the same terms and conditions we are in the market,'" said William Kovacs, vice president, of technology and regulatory affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. As with Baller, Kovacs sees a parallel in the country's experience with rural electrification and municipal solid waste treatment, which are provided by both the private sector and by municipal governments. Supporters of community broadband also are promoting the words of an unlikely ally: Bush. In a speech on June 24, 2004, he cited a Wi-Fi project in Spokane, Wash., "that allows users within a hundred-block area of the city to obtain wireless broadband access. Imagine if you're the head of a Chamber of Commerce of a city, and you say, 'Gosh, our city is a great place to do business or to find work. We're setting up a Wi-Fi hot zone, which means our citizens are more likely to be more productive than the citizens from a neighboring community.' It's a great opportunity." Copyright 2005 by National Journal Group Inc. The Watergate 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW Washington, DC 20037 202-739-8400 fax 202-833-8069 National Journal's Insider Update is an Atlantic Media publication. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, National Journal Group, Atlantic Media. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Congressman Ensign Also Helping SBC Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:08:45 -0500 Ensign Measure Would Restrict Municipal Broadband Networks By David Hatch Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is drafting restrictive language on the creation of municipal broadband networks that might blunt efforts by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., to allow localities to offer low-cost wireless or wireline service. Ensign, who favors a pro-business agenda as chairman of the Senate Commerce Technology Subcommittee and the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force, will insert his provisions into a comprehensive deregulatory telecommunications bill he is drafting, aides said. McCain and Lautenberg introduced their bill last Thursday. The conflicting bills address one of the most heavily lobbied issues in this year's rewrite of 1996 telecommunications law -- whether municipalities can compete with private enterprise and offer broadband services. The high-stakes question -- millions of dollars in fees might be lost by Internet providers such as SBC if local governments are given a chance to serve some customers -- has already resulted in backroom maneuvering and changes in loyalty. Congressman Ensign's broadband provisions would prohibit government-sponsored networks except in instances of a "true market failure," said Jack Finn, his spokesman. He added that the senator thinks "private enterprise and the free market should prevail." Ensign said late last week he is working with the High Tech Broadband Coalition, which represents more than 12,000 corporations, on his provisions. That came as a surprise to some backers of the McCain-Lautenberg bill, who said the coalition had backed their approach and helped shape the language. The coalition's members include the Consumer Electronics Association, Information Technology Industry Council, Business Software Alliance, Semiconductor Industry Association, Telecommunications Industry Association and National Association of Manufacturers. Sources in industry and government said tech and telecom companies are willing to appease Ensign because they stand to gain on a bevy of issues through his draft. The coalition counters that it never formulated a position on the McCain-Lautenberg bill. "We have not seen the bill or been approached to endorse it," said ITI spokesman Adam Kovacevich, speaking for the coalition. "I have had zero communications with Sen. McCain and Sen. Lautenberg," added David Peyton, spokesman for the National Association of Manufacturers, whose members include Verizon and SBC. "The NAM has done nothing on this issue." But a staffer for Lautenberg said executives identifying themselves as coalition representatives helped draft the bill and indicated they would back it. "As late as last Monday, members of the coalition were working with Sen. Lautenberg's office," said Alex Formuzis, the senator's spokesman. He noted that the coalition was involved "from the start." A "Dear Colleague" from Lautenberg in May also suggests the coalition was receptive to the approach. The letter cited the High Tech Broadband Coalition by name and urged lawmakers to support the bill. An attached policy statement with the coalition's logo noted: "No statewide statutory barriers to municipal participation, whether explicit or de facto, should be erected." The sentence was underlined for emphasis. Coalition sources emphasized that the coalition did not explicitly say in the letter or attachment that it endorsed the McCain-Lautenberg bill. The statement was prepared in response to developments at the state level, they said, adding that the coalition has not developed a position on a federal solution. "That was an inappropriate use of the document," said NAM's Peyton. An industry source said representatives of companies in the coalition "were involved with McCain and Lautenberg throughout," but did not officially represent the coalition. The source added that some coalition members said they were pressured by Ensign's office to back away from the McCain-Lautenberg proposal, a contention that Ensign flatly denied. "I don't know where you're getting your information," the senator said in a brief interview late last week. "You're not getting it right." McCain and Lautenberg now must proceed without a substantial block of industry support, a potentially huge blow for their just-introduced measure. The developments underscore the shifting alliances and horse-trading that is taking place as lawmakers consider a broad rewrite of the 1996 telecommunications law. The Community Broadband Coalition, a comparatively smaller group representing mostly watchdogs and cities, endorses the McCain-Lautenberg approach. "We're supporting any legislative effort that can move broadband forward," said Jim Kohlenberger, an organizer of the group. McCain and Ensign insisted they are not competing with each other on municipal broadband. "We're working with Sen. McCain. We'll continue to do that. We consider him a very good ally on the Commerce Committee," Ensign said. McCain added: "I respect the leadership position that Sen. Ensign plays on all of these issues, including telecom reform. We work together." Copyright 2005 by National Journal Group Inc. The Watergate 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW Washington, DC 20037 202-739-8400 fax 202-833-8069 National Journal's Insider Update is an Atlantic Media publication. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, National Journal Group, Atlantic Media. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Feds Crack Down on Piracy Sites and Warez Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:46:06 -0500 Feds Target Internet Piracy Organizations By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer The government announced Thursday an 11-nation crackdown on Internet piracy organizations responsible for stealing copies of the latest "Star Wars" film and other movies, games and software programs worth at least $50 million. FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches, starting Wednesday, arresting four people, seizing hundreds of computers and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works. The Justice Department "is striking at the top of the copyright piracy supply chain -- a distribution chain that provides the vast majority of illegal digital content now available online," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said. Called Operation Site Down, the crackdown involved undercover FBI operations run out of Chicago, San Francisco and Charlotte, N.C., and included help from authorities in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Those arrested were Chirayu Patel, 23, of Fremont, Calif.; David Fish, 24, of Watertown, Conn.; Nate Lovell, 22, of Boulder, Colo.; and William Veyna, 34, of Chatworth, Calif. The four were charged with violating federal copyright protection laws. All are alleged to be members of "warez" groups, a kind of underground Internet co-op that is set up to trade in copyrighted materials. Warez (pronounced "wares") groups are extraordinarily difficult to infiltrate because users talk only in encrypted chat rooms, their computer servers require passwords and many are located overseas. The FBI set up its own servers and lured warez members to store pirated material on them, according to the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco. The investigations targeted "release groups," the original sources of pirated works that can be distributed worldwide in hours. Among the warez groups targeted are RiSCISO, Myth, TDA, LND, Goodfellaz, Hoodlum, Vengeance, Centropy, Wasted Time, Paranoid, Corrupt, Gamerz, AdmitONE, Hellbound, KGS, BBX, KHG, NOX, NFR, CDZ, TUN and BHP. Those groups are believed responsible for stealing and distributing copyrighted works, including "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," Autodesk's Autocad 2006 and Adobe's Photoshop software. The bootlegged software often is made available to popular file-sharing networks, where it can be easily downloaded for free, said Michael DuBose, a Justice lawyer who prosecutes cyber crimes. But mass producers of pirated materials in Asia and elsewhere also use warez groups as suppliers, DuBose said. Studies of Internet piracy have estimated losses to the movie industry alone at $3.5 billion to $5.4 billion annually. President Bush signed a new law last month setting tough penalties of up to 10 years in prison for anyone caught distributing a movie or song or warez to deal with same before its commercial release. On the Net: Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: US Says to ICANN: We Are Not Giving up Root Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:47:52 -0500 U.S. Won't Cede Control of Net Computers By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer The U.S. government said Thursday it would indefinitely retain oversight of the Internet's main traffic-controlling computers, ignoring calls by some countries to turn the function over to an international body. The announcement marked a departure from previously stated U.S. policy. Michael D. Gallagher, assistant secretary for communications and information at the U.S. Commerce Department, shied away from terming the declaration a reversal, calling it instead "the foundation of U.S. policy going forward." "The signals and words and intentions and policies need to be clear so all of us benefiting in the world from the Internet and in the U.S. economy can have confidence there will be continued stewardship," Gallagher said in an interview with The Associated Press. Government officials had in the past indicated they would one day hand control of the 13 "root" computer servers used to direct e-mail and Web traffic to a private organization with international board members, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. "It's completely an about-face if you consider the original commitment made when ICANN was created" in 1998, said Milton Mueller, a Syracuse University professor who has written about policies surrounding the Internet's root servers. ICANN officials had no immediate comment. The announcement comes just weeks before a U.N. panel was to release a report on Internet governance, addressing oversight of the root servers, among other things. Some countries have sought to move oversight to an international body, such as the U.N. International Telecommunication Union, although the U.S. government has historically had that role because it funded much of the Internet's early development. Ambassador David Gross, the U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department, insisted the announcement was unrelated to those discussions. But he said other countries should see the move as positive because "uncertainty is not something that we think is in the United States' interest or the world's interest." Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: "Timeshare Spammer' Pleads Guilty Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:52:23 -0500 By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer A man known as "The Timeshare Spammer" said Thursday he will plead guilty to one count of violating anti-spam laws, marking one of the first prosecutions using the federal statute. Peter Moshou, 37, of Auburndale, Fla., could face up to three years in prison for violating a federal anti-spam law. Prosecutors say Moshou sent millions of unsolicited commercial e-mails using Atlanta-based EarthLink's network. The messages, sent throughout 2004 and 2005, were about brokerage services for people interested in selling their timeshares. EarthLink filed a civil lawsuit against Moshou in January after the company detected a massive influx of spam in its system and later handed its investigation over to federal prosecutors. On Thursday, as Moshou awaited a first hearing with U.S. Magistrate Gerrilyn Brill, he did not seem like a man who could face prison time and a fine of up to $350,000 for sending the spam e-mails. Wearing a striped shirt and tennis shoes, Moshou idly chatted with prosecutors about spam attempts, laughing as one joked about spamming ploys. But when the court hearing began, no one on either side of the counsel table was laughing; Magistrate Brill spoke frankly and said 'some of you think it is a joke, I do not think it is funny at all.' "Internet spam is more than just an annoyance," said U.S. Attorney David Nahmias. "It is criminal." EarthLink says the e-mails falsify "from" addresses, use deceptive subject lines, fail to identify the sender and fail to provide an electronic unsubscribe option, among other violations. Those requirements are part of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003. Spammers who violate the rules face possible prison time and criminal fines of up to $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for an organization. Moshou's case is among the first prosecutions using the federal law, said Larry Slovensky, EarthLink's assistant general counsel. The first criminal conviction under the federal law was believed to be in September 2004, when Nicholas Tombros, of Marina del Rey, Calif., pleaded guilty of using unprotected wireless networks to send more than 100 unsolicited adult-themed e-mails from his car. Moshou's case marks the second high-profile prosecution EarthLink has helped secure. After the Internet service provider in 2003 won a $16.4 million judgment against Howard Carmack, the so-called Buffalo Spammer, the company turned its evidence over to New York prosecutors. In May 2004, Carmack was sentenced to up to seven years in prison for sending 850 million junk e-mails through accounts he opened with stolen identities. Moshou was expected to enter his guilty plea at 4 p.m. Thursday before U.S. District Judge Richard Story. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Protecting Your Good Name From Identity Theft Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:34:33 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com > Here's how to protect yourself without going back to a cash-only > lifestyle: > -- Don't panic and don't stop using your credit card or shopping > online. Credit cards come with two levels of protection: Federal law > prohibits consumers from losing more than $50 to theft or fraud, and > the card issuers step in and cover that $50. If your card number does > get stolen, you won't be out any money. Your issuer can give you a new > number. That's right, folks, you aren't liable. Only the merchant gets screwed. The merchant is out whatever money was charged. If I sound rather irritated about that, it's just because I am. > -- Control your own paperwork. Most credit card thefts do not occur > when techies figure out how to hack your card company. They occur when > retail employees or shoppers pull carbons out of trash cans or find > payment stubs and the like. Keep control of your receipts and keep > control of your cards. Sure, but how about criminal penalties for the idiot CC processors who have the data and aren't protecting it? How about helping to protect the people who are accepting credit cards from fraud? The whole system sucks butt for anyone whose company accepts credit cards. Even now, nothing is being done. The processors and other companies holding this sensitive data are dragging their feet. Why should they care? > If you lose the actual plastic card, check to make sure that you > aren't being charged for gasoline you didn't buy. Ferchrissakes -- if you lose the card, call the bank immediately! They'll disable the card and then NO ONE will lose money because the thief will try to get the card processed and the transaction will be declined. And ... check to make sure you aren't being charged for ANYTHING you didn't buy. I don't have a credit card right now ... but transactions on my checking account, including Visa check card transactions, do show up on my bank's website very, very quickly. Sometimes within minutes! (I use Bank of America.) > -- Read your mail. At least one California lawyer, Ira Rothken, is > trying to make a class-action suit out of the recent security > breach. If you are a member of a class that has been wronged, you > should receive notification. Even if you're not in a position to join > a suit, you might get notification from your bank about security > breaches or new procedures. Yeah. Hm. I wonder how ideological Rothken is. He stands to make a ton of money if the class is certified. I don't know him and don't want to impugn him, but class actions are losing propositions for everyone *except* the attorneys. Sorry if I sound aggravated. This mess could have been prevented a long time ago. No one gave a damn, least of all Visa and Mastercard and the processors, because they could always get the money back from someone else to give to the cardholder. Am I angry? You bet I am. I don't currently accept credit cards using a separate merchant account (though that may change in the near future), but I have in the past ... and I accept credit cards right now through PayPal. As a merchant, I've always stood to lose more than anyone else. Personally, I *almost* hope a lot of people stop using credit cards. That would be a wonderful thing. It would be a wake-up call to the people running the credit card associations, the banks and the processors. Unfortunately, it might have some rather negative impacts on the economy, so ... well, I did say ALMOST. Posted to Telecom Digest. CC'd to the original author. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Using Comcast to Host Web Site Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 00:50:25 GMT Rob Stampfli wrote: > In article , William Warren > wrote: >> Comcast has been blocking port 80 (HTTP) for a while now, and they've >> recently started blocking port 25 (SMTP) as well. IMNSHO, it's only a >> matter of time before they start blocking all syn packets and charging >> extra for ANY incoming connection, but for now you can do it with some >> workarounds. > With cable's relatively limited upload speed, I can readily understand > blocking inbound port 80, where the traffic distribution is highly > skewed towards outbound packets. But why inbound port 25? It can't > be to prevent spam from infected PCs since they don't use it. Inbound > port 25 can only be used to receive mail and one could argue that > whether you receive your mail via SMTP (port 25), or POP or IMAP or > otherwise, the bits have to eventually flow in one way or another. > So, why block port 25? The only answer I can come up with is "just > for spite". I suspect it's *outbound* port 25 that is blocked, to prevent zombie machines and active spammers from using their own SMTP servers to send email directly to their victims' ISPs' MTAs. Many ISPs block outbound port 25, requiring most users to go through the ISP's SMTP server to send email, which can have limits imposed in an effort to deter spam. It could also be a block of inbound port 25, to prevent zombie machines from acting as open relay SMTP servers, but if outbound port 25 is blocked, those zombies couldn't send the mail that is sent to them for relaying, so there is no need to block inbound port 25. > For that matter, the whole concept of "no servers" has always seemed > flawed to me: Technically, sshd and telnetd are servers. Does Comcast > really desire to have a policy of preventing one from contacting a > home machine when they are travelling? I suspect the "no servers" rule is like the rule against going 56 in a 55 zone, the rule against loitering, or the rule against parking too close to or too far from the curb -- it allows selective prosecution, so to speak. It gives the ISP an excuse to terminate a spammer or zombie owner without having to prove much of anything, because it could make the same finding against anyone. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD (USA) (Replace "example.invalid" with "com" in my address.) ------------------------------ From: zbang@radix.net (Carl Zwanzig) Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 01:19:40 -0000 Organization: RadixNet Internet Services John McHarry wrote: > The law should be modestly amended to declare those using cellphones > in theaters, churches, and other places of public assembly outlaws > subject to pummeling by the inconvenienced other inmates of such > assembly. Exception might be made for surviving, on duty, emergency > personnel. ;^) Unfortunately, it's proven difficult, if not impossible, to legistate taste, politeness, tact, or morality. OTOH, I wouldn't mind a slide flashing up on the screen saying "Turn your d*nm phone off!!" the first time one rings. z! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Our local movie theatre, the Independence Cinema (actually four areas to view four different movies which are playing at any given time stresses the 'no cell phones' rule quite extensively before each movie starts (as part of the coming attractions, cartoons and messages from local advertisers.) They show a movie patron smoking a cigarette, his feet on the seat in front of him, and talking on a cell phone; all of which, they explain, are no-no. All three of these activities are inconsiderate of other patrons. "This will be your only warning; If you do these things, we will be forced to ask you to leave the theatre (here we see a manager/usher/whomever approach the offensive patron and lead him away), and that would ruin the movie for you, your friends and our other patrons. HAVE CELL PHONES TURNED OFF OR SILENCED. If you must make/receieve an emergency call, please deal with it in the lobby." PAT] ------------------------------ From: whoward@login2.srv.ualberta.ca (W Howard) Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 02:48:56 UTC Organization: University of Alberta In article , Joseph wrote: > http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=23199 > FCC Re-iterates Cell-Phone Jammers Are Illegal > WASHINGTON-People who want to use cell-phone jammers to get rid of > annoying mobile-phone use should think again. It is against the > law. Those found using, selling, manufacturing or distributing > cell-phone jammers could be subject to an $11,000-per-day fine and > seizure of their equipment by the United States Marshals, warned the > Federal Communications Commission. Of course they say that. And every once in a while they dust off their announcement that broadcasting more than 5 watts on a CB radio is illegal and subjects the operator to fines and seizure of their equipment too. But they don't actually do it. They're stretched thin already trying to figure out where telecommunications is going so they can stay a little ahead of it, and they just don't bother with "crimes" that do not involve substantial amounts of money. IMHO, the preaching without the enforcement weakens repect for everything they do. If you don't have enough resources to enforce a law, better you don't have the law either. But nobody in Washington can imagine just removing a law, without replacing it with a more complicated one. >> Walt ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #303 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 1 15:00:03 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C272314F29; Fri, 1 Jul 2005 15:00:02 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #304 Message-Id: <20050701190002.C272314F29@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 15:00:02 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.8 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT, WORK_AT_HOME autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 1 Jul 2005 15:00:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 304 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Pakistan's Internet Links Still Out (Lisa Minter) Opera Signs Deal With Motorola (Lisa Minter) Swedes Undeterred by Internet Piracy Laws (Lisa Minter) Slingbox Review (Monty Solomon) Device Lets You Watch Shows on Home TV, TiVo, Elsewhere (Monty Solomon) Nokia 9300 Review (Monty Solomon) Children Get Protection From Email in Michigan (Lisa Minter) BellSouth Ramps up Fiber Rollout (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Annoyances ... (was: Cellular Jamming? Think Again.) (Al Gillis) Re: Using Comcast to Host Web Site (Robert Bonomi) Re: Congressman Lends a Helping Hand to SBC (Steve Sobol) Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. (Michael D. Sullivan) Employment Opportunity: Data Entry - Contract Job (untitleearthlink@aol) Last Laugh! We Are Going to Eat From WHAT? (Patrick Townson) 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: Pakistan's Internet Links Still Out Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 09:51:40 -0500 By Robert Birsel Lisa note: On Monday they said this would only be quite temporary and that internet service would take 'three days' to restore. Now today, Friday, we hear that the problem is a bit more complicated. Lisa ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A faulty fibre-optic cable that virtually crippled Internet access in Pakistan has damaged the country's fledgling call center business but new links should reassure investors, an industry official said on Friday. The submarine cable, Pakistan's sole international cable link for data and the Internet, developed a fault late on Monday, causing many businesses across the country to grind to a halt on Tuesday. Back-up satellite links restored some Internet access later in the week. "We're trying to do some damage control," Abdullah Butt, president of the Association of Call Center Operators of Pakistan, told Reuters. "Definitely, international investors might think that Pakistan does not have adequate back-up," he said. Pakistan Telecommunication Co Ltd, which operates the faulty link, says a repair ship is on its way to the site and the problem should be resolved by early next week. [Lisa: didn't they say that last Monday?] In the meantime, it has provided business, including call centers, with back-up satellite links. Two new links, one a submarine cable and the other a land link with neighboring India, are due to come on stream this year. Butt said he was urging authorities to speed up work on the new links but some damage had already been done. A British company operating in India is reconsidering a $10 million investment in Pakistan because of this week's communications melt-down, Butt said. "They are reconsidering Pakistan as an option because they think Pakistan does not have an alternative link," he said. He declined to reveal the name of the British company but said he was trying to persuade it to go ahead with the project. Pakistan has 25 call center operators employing up to 2,000 people, with a combined revenue of up to $15 million a year. Butt had entertained visions of attracting business away from India, where he said taxes on the business are rising, and he had targets of an industry with annual revenue of up to $60 million employing 10,000 people within a year or two. But this week's problems have raised questions about the existing business, as well as future operations. One blessing was that this week's communications nightmare came when the call center business was just getting going. "I'm not losing hope," Butt said. "Right now, Pakistan does not have a place on the global map of out-sourcing so the impact has not been that great." Had the communications break-down come after a few years of investment and growth, that would have been disastrous, he said. For now, Butt is pinning the hopes for his industry on the two new international data and Internet links: "We foresee in the very near future things will be much better." Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you recall 18 years ago, in May, 1988 when Illinois Bell had that fire in Hinsdale, IL which put them out of business for a long time? Bell's original 'guesstimate' for restoration of service was 'three or four days' which turned into a month. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Norway's Opera Software Signs Motorola Phone Deal Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:36:29 -0500 Norwegian Internet browser firm Opera Software has agreed with U.S. mobile phone group Motorola expand an existing contract and license its browser for Motorola phones for three years, Opera said on Friday. "The contract is of strategic importance to Opera as it will significantly increase the company's market share in the mobile browser market," Opera Software ASA said in a statement. Opera has also licensed its small-screen browser to other mobile handset manufacturers, including Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Opera will receive a royalty payment per mobile phone sold, it said. "Opera will make its mobile phone browser available on all major operating systems supported by Motorola, including Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian, BREW and Motorola's P2K," Opera said. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Swedes Undeterred by Online Piracy Ban Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:37:59 -0500 By MATTIAS KAREN, Associated Press Writer Unless Swedes have suddenly changed their habits, about one in 10 became a criminal on Friday when a ban on sharing copyrighted music and movies over the Internet took effect at midnight. Swedes are among the most prolific file-sharers in the world. Industry groups estimate that about 10 percent of Sweden's 9 million residents freely swap music, games and movies on their computers, making the Scandinavian country one of the world's biggest copyright violators. The new law, which follows a European Union directive, took effect a day after the U.S. government announced an 11-nation crackdown on Internet piracy organizations responsible for stealing copies of the latest "Star Wars" film and other movies, games and software programs. The Swedish ban also comes just days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the entertainment industry can file piracy lawsuits against technology companies caught encouraging customers to download copyrighted material for free over the Internet. Globally, the movie industry alone is estimated to be losing $3.5 billion to $5.4 billion a year to Internet piracy. Many industry experts say that Swedes -- normally law-abiding, but very tech-savvy -- have grown so lax about copyright infringement that any regulation is likely to be useless. "A law in itself changes nothing," said Henrik Ponten, a spokesman for Antipiratbyran, a Swedish lobbying group waging a fierce campaign against the file-sharers. "There is nothing that indicates that (file-sharers) would change their behavior." Previously, it had only been illegal in Sweden to make pirated material available online for others to download via so-called peer-to-peer networks. While such behavior is rampant here, no one has been convicted of doing it. However, a court is expected to make the first ruling in such a case later this year. A 27-year-old man was charged in March with making a Swedish movie available for download from his home computer. If convicted, he could face two years in prison. But if he is merely fined, it will likely serve as a green light for small-time pirates, as police and prosecutors normally won't spend resources on crimes that only warrant a fine. And while most political parties backed the new law, Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom has signaled that chasing downloaders will still not be a priority for police, unless the volume is massive. "It would be just as unreasonable to dedicate large police resources to investigate single cases of downloading as it would be to prioritize shoplifting cases ahead of robberies," Bodstrom wrote in an op-ed article shortly before the law was passed. Antipiratbyran and similar organizations in other countries have been tracking file-sharers online and sent out warning letters to people who make illegal material available from their computers. Seven of every 1,000 Swedes has received such a letter, for a total of more than 60,000. That's a much higher per capita rate than in any other country. The average is about two per thousand, Ponten said. "Sweden really is a paradise for pirates," he said. "We're getting very weak signals from society that copyright should be valid on the Internet." While the Antipiratbyran's aggressive pursuit of file-sharers has been a deterrent to some, it also has fueled a public backlash, as many see the group's warning letters as harassment. Hackers attacked the agency's Web site in March. It's still down. More than 4,000 people reported Antipiratbyran to the Swedish Data Inspection Board, claiming the agency misused personal information by collecting IP addresses and online aliases. The inspection board agreed, and the lobbying group has stopped sending out warning letters to file-sharers. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:46:07 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Slingbox Review Slingbox By Bill Howard Sling Media's Slingbox scratches an itch you may not yet have. This technically impressive set-top box compresses and transfers live TV, satellite, or DVR video from your home to a computer anywhere in the world, all without requiring a PC to be up and running at home, and with minimal quality loss. Why, however, would you want to do that, when there's a TV in virtually every hotel room and friend's house around the world? It turns out there are some useful reasons as you dig deeper. But dig you must. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1833045,00.asp ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:46:12 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Device Lets You Watch Shows on a Home TV, TiVo From Elsewhere By WALTER S. MOSSBERG Most people understand the concept of time shifting for television shows. Using a digital video recorder, such as a TiVo, or a videocassette recorder, you can record a TV program for viewing at a time that is more convenient for you. But there is another idea for making TV watching convenient that is less well known. It is called "place shifting." Place shifting allows viewers to watch TV shows they receive at home in other locations, and on devices other than their TV sets. Unlike time shifting, which has been around for decades, place shifting is just getting going. A few portable video players are available, but they can't play live TV, only shows recorded on special TiVo models or relatively expensive TV-capable "Media Center" PCs. And they are clumsy to use. Today, however, place shifting of TV shows takes a big leap forward. A Silicon Valley start-up company called Sling Media is introducing a $250 gadget it calls a "personal broadcaster." This small device, named the Slingbox, can beam any live TV show coming into your home to an Internet-connected Windows PC anywhere in the world. It also allows you to remotely watch shows you have recorded at home on a TiVo or other digital video recorder. The Slingbox gives you full control of your home TV and digital recorder even if you are thousands of miles away. You can change channels, use the program guide, and perform any action on the menus of your TV or recorder just as if you were sitting in front of your set. The home TV doesn't even have to be on at the time. And, best of all, the Slingbox is just a piece of hardware, not a service. It is a small silver box that simply sits between your cable or satellite receiver and your home broadband Internet connection and pumps your TV programs out via the Internet. It doesn't require a TiVo, and it works with a standard Windows PC. There are no periodic fees to pay, no membership is required and no advertisements are beamed at you other than the normal commercials that appear in the TV programs. All you shell out is the $250 for the device itself. Starting today, it will be available at CompUSA and Best Buy stores, and at those companies' Web sites. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20050630.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 00:03:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nokia 9300 Communicator Review Review by Michael Oryl Nokia's 9000 series Communicator devices have always had a few things in common. They've had big displays, full QWERTY keyboards, and they were huge. The Nokia 9500, a current model in Nokia's lineup, still fits that description. But with the 9300, things are starting to change. The 9300 still has a big display and a QWERTY keyboard, but it isn't exactly huge -- especially when compared to earlier models, as you will see. http://www.MobileBurn.com/review.jsp?Id=1459 ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Parents Can Sign up Kids to Not Get E-Mail Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:40:17 -0500 By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN, Associated Press Writer Starting Friday, parents can sign up for what Michigan officials say is the nation's first registry aimed at keeping spammers from sending children inappropriate e-mail. The new law bans sending messages to children related to such things as pornography, illegal or prescription drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, firearms or fireworks. Parents and schools will be able to register children's e-mail addresses. "From my perspective as a parent, I'm horrified by what comes in" to her three children's e-mail accounts, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said during a news conference Thursday. "This will put an end, we hope, to inappropriate e-mail getting to our children." Signing up for the registry is free, and parents soon will be able to add their children's instant message IDs, mobile phone numbers, fax numbers and pager numbers. E-mail senders must comply with the new law by Aug. 1. Violators face up to three years in jail or fines up to $30,000 if convicted of breaking the law, and could face civil penalties of up to $5,000 per message sent. Some Internet safety experts have said anti-spam laws have been difficult to enforce and others worry the lists will give hackers a way to get access to a large database of children. Public Service Commission Chairman Peter Lark said safeguards, including encryption of e-mail addresses and other information, will keep the Michigan registry secure. Utah is getting ready to set up a similar registry for children there. On the Net: http://www.michigan.gov/protectmichild Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder what would be the result in a case like this: I have a fourteen year old nephew who lives in Chicago but (among other things) has an email address from a Michigan ISP. I am seriously thinking about making him the _email coordinator_ for TELECOM Digest; that is, forwarding all Digest email through him via his Michigan email address. When the email hits his box, it will be reforwaded on to me, of course, after judicious picking through of the pieces which are spam. I would have him listed on the 'do not email' list. Heck, maybe we could cut corners if Kansas passed such a law or maybe Massachusetts. So, there would be a jillion plus one pieces of email spam each day. All the spam and porn would be automatically forwarded to the appropriate state enforcement authorities for prosecution and hopefully fine collections. What would be the success rate? Maybe one percent? I really would not care; at one percent success, an occassional -- very occassional -- conviction and share of the proceeds in the fines collected would be worth the little effort it would take to forward my spam box each day to the state authorities. I think a 'do not email' list is a great idea, as long as the states or federal government intends to share (at least a little) the loot they can collect by enforcement based on my complaints of course. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 12:33:42 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: BellSouth Ramps up Fiber Rollout Telecom dailyLead from USTA July 1, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22795&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * BellSouth ramps up fiber rollout BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Sprint, Motorola team up in wireless broadband test * AT&T shareholders approve SBC merger * Cingular encourages customers to "Take a Shot" USTA SPOTLIGHT * USTelecom Webinar: Challenges and Opportunities in a Post-Brand X World * TelecomNEXT: An International Focus EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Smart phones come of age VOIP DOWNLOAD * Canada's Rogers offers VoIP service * Startup wins E911 patent * Cablevision links VoIP to home security systems REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Congress may exempt telcos from TV franchise rules * Lawmakers stand up for rural communities * Ebbers to surrender assets for settlement fund * U.S. hunts Web pirates at home, abroad EDITOR'S NOTE * The dailyLead will not be published on Monday, Independence Day. 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: Al Gillis Subject: Annoyances ... (was: Cellular Jamming? Think Again.) Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:37:14 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Carl Zwanzig wrote in message news:telecom24.303.10@telecom-digest.org: > John McHarry wrote: Snip, SNip ... > Unfortunately, it's proven difficult, if not impossible, to legistate > taste, politeness, tact, or morality. OTOH, I wouldn't mind a slide > flashing up on the screen saying "Turn your d*nm phone off!!" the > first time one rings. > z! Sometimes, when I'm dreaming, I wish for a small electronics package in my trunk with a button on the dashboard that, when activated, will seek out and irreparably smoke any receiver, amplifier and speaker that is causing loud THUMP, THUMP, THUMP sounds within an 800 yard radius, I pray for this device in particular when I'm next to them at a long stop light! ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Using Comcast to Host Web Site Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 04:11:21 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > Rob Stampfli wrote: >> In article , William Warren >> wrote: >>> Comcast has been blocking port 80 (HTTP) for a while now, and they've >>> recently started blocking port 25 (SMTP) as well. IMNSHO, it's only a >>> matter of time before they start blocking all syn packets and charging >>> extra for ANY incoming connection, but for now you can do it with some >>> workarounds. >> With cable's relatively limited upload speed, I can readily understand >> blocking inbound port 80, where the traffic distribution is highly >> skewed towards outbound packets. But why inbound port 25? It can't >> be to prevent spam from infected PCs since they don't use it. Inbound >> port 25 can only be used to receive mail and one could argue that >> whether you receive your mail via SMTP (port 25), or POP or IMAP or >> otherwise, the bits have to eventually flow in one way or another. >> So, why block port 25? The only answer I can come up with is "just >> for spite". > I suspect it's *outbound* port 25 that is blocked, to prevent zombie > machines and active spammers from using their own SMTP servers to send > email directly to their victims' ISPs' MTAs. Many ISPs block outbound > port 25, requiring most users to go through the ISP's SMTP server to > send email, which can have limits imposed in an effort to deter spam. > It could also be a block of inbound port 25, to prevent zombie > machines from acting as open relay SMTP servers, but if outbound port > 25 is blocked, those zombies couldn't send the mail that is sent to > them for relaying, so there is no need to block inbound port 25. Unfortunately, that is *NOT* true. Spammer use of "asymmetric routing" has shown there _is_ a need for blocking inbound port 25, as well. >> For that matter, the whole concept of "no servers" has always seemed >> flawed to me: Technically, sshd and telnetd are servers. Does Comcast >> really desire to have a policy of preventing one from contacting a >> home machine when they are travelling? I can't speak for Comcast specifically, but (at least some) other providers with a 'no servers rule' *do* intend that, as well as prohibiting the 'bandwidth hogging' uses like a music download service.. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Congressman Lends a Helping Hand to SBC Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 21:20:16 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Lisa Minter wrote: > In late May, Sessions introduced legislation that would ban municipal > broadband networks in areas where companies such as SBC offer similar > services. SBC supports the bill, but spokesman Kevin Belgrade said the > issue goes beyond any one company. Sessions is obviously bought and paid for. I thought the point of all of the anti-trust legislation last century was to *avoid* creating monopolies. > Juanita Sessions, meanwhile, held SBC stock options valued between > $500,001 and $1 million through the end of 2003, Someone should bring this to the attention of the SEC ... JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 04:27:27 GMT W Howard wrote: >> FCC Re-iterates Cell-Phone Jammers Are Illegal > > Of course they say that. And every once in a while they dust off > their announcement that broadcasting more than 5 watts on a CB radio > is illegal and subjects the operator to fines and seizure of their > equipment too. But they don't actually do it. They're stretched thin > already trying to figure out where telecommunications is going so they > can stay a little ahead of it, and they just don't bother with > "crimes" that do not involve substantial amounts of money. The FCC has engaged in a number of enforcement actions against outfits selling or using cellphone jammers. Google jammer site: http://fcc.gov. > IMHO, the preaching without the enforcement weakens repect for > everything they do. If you don't have enough resources to enforce a > law, better you don't have the law either. But nobody in Washington > can imagine just removing a law, without replacing it with a more > complicated one. Who said anything about removing a law or replacing one? Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD (USA) (Replace "example.invalid" with "com" in my address.) ------------------------------ From: UntitleEathlink@aol.com Subject: Employment Opportunity: Data Entry - Contract Date: 1 Jul 2005 06:10:20 -0700 A technical support position is available for a work at home situation. This is a full time position, where you will be receiving support help from email. Group Ware design are looking for suitable data input clerks to work on a regular basis. The type of work involves inputing data into a database such as Lotus Approach or Microsoft Access. Updates can range from 200 to 3000 entries. Please forward your resume. Initial one year contract. Pay Based On Qualifications. Min. Pay $14.50 -hr. Email Amy At: WorkPlus2@aol. com Web Site: http://www.untitled-works.com ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson Subject: Last Laugh! We're Going to Eat Out of a WHAT? Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 09:44:43 -0500 It may take a strong stomach to eat curry or chocolate ice cream out of a toilet bowl, but a commode-themed restaurant in Taiwan does booming business serving up just that. The Martun, or toilet in Chinese, restaurant in the southern port city of Kaohsiung boasts lengthy queues on weekends as diners wait for a toilet seat in its brightly colored tile interior. Food arrives in bowls shaped like Western-style toilets or Asian-style "squat pots." Manager Hung Lin-wen said the original inspiration came from a toilet-shaped spaceship in a Japanese cartoon. The theme has attracted droves of novelty-seeking young people who come to play with their food and gross out their friends. "We think the theme is special, and the food is tasty," Hung said. But no matter how delicious, a few customers still find the combination a little hard to swallow. "The taste is good, but I still feel disgusted when I look at it," said diner Lin Yu-may. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And this concept, of food served out of a toilet bowl was the basis for a type of mini-computer terminal device now under construction, soon to be in beta-testing. The round bowl is the screen and keyboard; the computer guts are where the device (if it were an actual toilet) drains out, connecting to the sewer. The user sits there facing the bowl, and calls up Usenet messages, email and web sites; staring at the bowl (screen) as writings, pictures and other illustrations are presented on demand. The 'enter' key, appropriatly enough is entitled 'flush', and you use the flush key for what you deposit there and what otherwise backs up at you. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #304 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 1 23:26:12 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 0095E15016; Fri, 1 Jul 2005 23:26:11 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #305 Message-Id: <20050702032611.0095E15016@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 23:26:11 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 1 Jul 2005 23:25:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 305 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson From our Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers (TELECOM Digest Editor) Policy Post 11.16: Open CRS Web Site Shows Great Demand (Monty Solomon) Policy Post 11.17: Supreme Court Rules Grokster Liable (Monty Solomon) EFFector 18.19: EFF Publishes Legal Guide for Bloggers (Monty Solomon) EFFector 18.20: EFF Supporters Slam Congress to Stop (Monty Solomon) EFFector 18.21: Supreme Court Ruling Will Chill Technology (M Solomon) PFIR Statement on Adult Content Regulations; Broader Impacts (M Solomon) Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. (mc) Question About Annoying Phone Calls; Please Any Info (Xxjessi77xx@aol) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 22:14:35 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: From Our Archives; 19th Century Telegraphers For your reading this holiday weekend, a book review first published here in this Digest in October, 1992, presented by Jim Haynes, dealing with 19th century telegraphers. Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 00:11:49 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199210150511.AA11371@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: ptownson@gaak.LCS.MIT.EDU Subject: 19th Century Telegraphers (Book Review) Status: R Date: Thu, 15 Oct 00:10:00 GMT Reply-To: TELECOM Moderator Organization: TELECOM Digest I received this interesting book review in my mail today and thought it worthwhile sharing with TELECOM Digest readers. PAT From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 18:20:09 -0700 Subject: 19th Century Telegraphers (Book Review) Book Review The American Telegrapher: a social history 1860-1900 Edwin Gabler Rutgers University Press, 1988 ISBN 0-8135-1284-0 (hardbound), 0-8135-1285-9 (paperback) I seem to read a lot of books which are at the same time both interesting and tedious. This is one such book. Written by an academic historian for reading by other academic historians, it is long on footnotes, theories, and statistics and short on flesh-and-blood storytelling; yet there is enough of the latter to entertain the casual reader. Part I of this review is an attempt to convey the general message of the book. Part II is for fun: a selection of stories about the lives and times telegraphers a century ago. Part I There are five chapters: a history of the Great Strike of 1883 as an introduction to the world of the operators; a description of the telegraph industry and especially Western Union; a social portrait of the telegraphers; a study of women telegraphers; and a summary of the labor movement and politics of telegraphers. An epilogue compares the situation of telegraphers in the 1880s with that of the air traffic controllers a hundred years later. Telegraph and railroad companies following the Civil War represented an entirely new kind of business, one in which the company's assets are strung out for hundreds or thousands of miles with offices and employees sprinkled along the lines. There were other affinities between the two kinds of companies. Railroads used telegraphy to support their own operations. Railroad rights-of-way were ideal places to run telegraph lines, affording easy access for construction and maintenance at a time when there were few roads. Telegraph business was likely to be found in the same places the railroads served. In many small towns the railroad station served as the public telegraph office, as there was not enough telegraph business to support an office for telegraph alone. Some railroads such as B & O operated their own public telegraph businesses. (cf. Southern Pacific a century later getting into the communications business.) Other railroads had contract arrangements with the telegraph companies, principally Western Union, for use of rights of way, interconnection of circuits, and providing public telegraph service at the railroad stations. These new kinds of businesses needed a new kind of management. The military became their model. Many of the top managers were alumni of the Civil War military telegraph system. The companies had divisions, rule books, general orders and special orders, and chains of command. Management style was authoritarian. As is the case with some companies today, the telegraph and railroad companies then were headed by a mixture of people who knew the business and those who were primarily financial wizards. Telegraph operators represented the beginning of a new social class, the lower-middle-class white-collar employees of large corporations. Many were the children of farmers or of city blue-collar workers. A great many were of Irish lineage. For all of these telegraphy offered a step up the social ladder as well as an escape from hard physical labor and city slums or rural isolation. Telegraphy was an occupation open to women, although the majority of operators were male (and, like the women, young and unmarried). The national economy was fairly flat or even deflationary during the period 1860-1890. Western Union profits rose handsomely throughout the period. The operators did not share in this prosperity. For one thing, there was an oversupply of them. First-class operators, who could send and receive thirty to forty words per minute for hours on end, were assigned to press and market reporting circuits. They could command pay two to three times as great as that of the second-class operators who made up the bulk of the force. Many operators learned the craft by hanging around small railroad and telegraph offices; others worked their way up from messenger and clerk jobs in larger offices; still others were trained at a number of schools that sprang up around the country. Most of the latter seem to have been disreputable if not completely fraudulent, operating for profit and promising high pay and mobility to rural youth. They were the century-ago counterparts of the for-profit data processing schools of our own times, the kind that advertised on matchbook covers and turned out an oversupply of under-qualified graduates for high tuition fees. Another financial problem for the telegraphers resulted from their new social class. Telegraphers' pay was on a par with that of skilled blue-collar workers; but their living expenses were greater. With the move to suits and ties and shined shoes they felt a need to live in middle-class housing, eat middle-class meals, and partake of middle-class entertainments. A few of the operators' perceptions of mistreatment by the companies were more apparent than real. The 1840s through 1860s had been a period when telegraphy was just getting started. Job opportunities were abundant and promotions were rapid. As the industry matured there were fewer spectacular success stories; telegraphy even seemed to be a dead-end job. Other complaints had a more solid foundation. Mergers of telegraph companies eliminated jobs. An economic downturn in the 1870s caused Western Union to institute across-the-board salary reductions, which were partially offset by monetary deflation. Operators tended to move around a lot, which allowed the company to hire cheaper replacements for those who left. The first attempt of telegraph workers to organize was the National Telegraphic Union of 1863. This was more of a mutual benefit society than a labor union. It provided members with sickness and funeral benefits and aimed to elevate the character of the members and promote just and harmonious relations with employers. With conditions for telegraphers growing worse after the Civil War the Telegraphers' Protective League was formed in 1868 as a very different kind of organization. It was a secret organization, because there was nothing at the time to protect its members from the unbridled power of their employers. Rather than relieving the sick and burying the dead it proposed to raise the members to a financial position in which they could take care of themselves. The TPL felt strong enough by January, 1870 to risk a strike against Western Union. It failed after about a week. There were just too many operators seeking work, especially in the winter season; the company was too strong; and the union was too poorly organized. The operators' situation continued to deteriorate through the 1870s as Western Union reduced wages, the number of would-be operators increased, and the company absorbed its competitors. An attempt to form another union in 1872 fizzled. In 1881 Jay Gould took over Western Union, moving the company closer to being a true national monopoly. By the summer of 1882 a number of regional labor organizations put aside their differences to form the Brotherhood of Telegraphers of the United States and Canada under the aegis of the Knights of Labor. The Brotherhood, unlike its predecessors, accepted the female operators as members. In July, 1883 the Brotherhood presented a list of grievances to Western Union and some other firms, hoping for at least a compromise settlement and at worst a short strike. When the company made no meaningful concessions the telegraphers walked out on July 19. At first things looked good for the Brotherhood. About three fourths of Western Union operators honored the strike. Public opinion was much on the side of the telegraphers, at least to the extent that it was against the side of Jay Gould and the W.U. monopoly. One competing telegraph company settled quickly with the union; and another (B & O) came close to, but never close enough. Union leaders worked hard to keep the public on their side, urging the strikers to be models of dignity and sobriety. The women were as valiant as the men, if not more so, in upholding the strike. Still, public sympathy did not feed the hungry; and the strike dwindled until it was officially called off August 17. Operators wishing to return to work had to sign a pledge of loyalty; those considered militant unionists were blacklisted by the company. Still, it appears the company was somewhat humbled by the power of the union and made a few concessions to the operators. Failure of the strike led to some ill feeling in the larger labor movement. The telegraphers accused the Knights of insufficient support; the Knights leadership felt the telegraphers had acted impulsively and without sufficient preparation. The Brotherhood soon withdrew from the Knights; and union activity reverted to local groups. Yet by 1885 there was a new organization, the Telegraphers' Union of America, which rejoined the Knights in 1886. This seems to have faded away by the early 1890s along with the Knights. Railroad telegraphers formed the Order of Railway Telegraphers in 1886. An Order of Commercial Telegraphers was formed in 1890 but never amounted to much, and allied itself with the railway telegraphers in 1897-98. The next attempt to form a union didn't happen until 1907, with the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America, which also suffered disaster in a strike against Western Union. Gabler concludes with a discussion of a number of labor and political issues affecting telegraphers. One of the Brotherhood's demands had been equal pay for equal work, male and female. This seems to have been widely hailed as the Right Thing to do. I wonder whether the male telegraphers supported the demand because it was right; or if they supported it because they knew if the companies had to pay men and women the same they would hire only men. Some wanted a craft union, with membership limited to telegraphers, with an apprenticeship program that would raise the quality of operators while reducing their numbers. There was some interest in government licensing of operators. Others favored an industrial union, open to all Western Union employees. Some objected to the secret fraternal rites that were a feature of the Knights of Labor; Catholic workers were forbidden to become members of secret organizations of any kind. The operators wanted to protect their new middle-class image by being models of respectability and sobriety; some of the linemen on the other hand had no scruples about cutting wires to increase pressure on the companies during a strike. Some felt that telegraphy should be a government monopoly, as was and still is the norm in Europe. Some saw salvation in a worker-owned cooperative, if they could only convince the banks or the government to put up the money necessary to establish the system. Others sought to improve the status of the working classes through political action; quite a number were attracted to the United Labor Party of Henry George. A hundred years later issues like these are still with us. Part II Dr. Gabler had access to a vast amount of material: census records, archives of the telegraph companies, contemporary newspaper accounts, magazines published for the edification and amusement of operators, and even novels in which telegraphers were used as characters. The footnotes and bibliography take up 48 pages. One page in the book is an illustration of advertisements in a telegraphers' magazine of 1883. They include a book on shorthand, a book of money-making secrets, a book on the mysteries of love-making, a book on fortune telling, watch charms with microscopic pictures, a book of advice to the unmarried, a package of stationery, a book on politeness, a book of letters for all occasions, playing cards with marked backs, a book of magic tricks, a book on business, and a book on ballroom dancing. The theme is that these appealed to working-class young adults who felt a need to learn how to behave properly as members of the middle-class. A number of telegraph operators rose to prominence. Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie are the best known; Theodore N. Vail was a founder of AT&T; others found success in business or politics; and almost all the upper management of Western Union was drawn from the ranks of operators. In 1885 there were five doctors and one dentist moonlighting as telegraph operators -- maybe medicine and dentistry didn't pay all that well in those days. Thomas Edison, as a young telegrapher in the 1860s, would work a full day and then stay in the office at night, listening to a press circuit to get high speed code practice. Later he worked the Boston end of a New York circuit with an operator named Jerry Borst. Operators formed friendships with their counterparts at the other end of the wires. The telegraph companies insisted that operators should work at whatever circuits they were assigned. Edison and Borst conspired to change three characters of the code, so that nobody else could copy their transmissions and they could always work together. Cockroaches were such a problem in the office that Edison devised a bug zapper to protect his lunch from the little beasties. Friendships over the wires were nourished during lulls in traffic by exchanges of jokes and local news, and by checker games. Sometimes love and courtship blossomed too. At other times operators were rude to one another. On one occasion two operators got so angry at each other that they arranged to meet at a town halfway between their posts and settle the matter with fists at 1:00 AM. "Salting" (sending too fast for the receiving operator) was a frequent source of irritation. Salting was also part of the common practice of hazing new operators. Operators frequently got privileges, such as free passes to theaters and on trains. With the chronic oversupply it was common for operators to travel back and forth across the country looking for work, or for better conditions. Operators didn't get vacations, paid or otherwise; but in the summer months telegraph offices would open in the resort towns where the rich took their vacations, and operators could find work there. In 1883 Western Union employed 444 telegraphers in New York City, 96 in Boston, 88 in St. Louis, and 83 in Chicago. This seems to support a conjecture of mine that W.U. was weakened all its life by overattention to serving New York City and insufficient effort to develop the business in other parts of the country. There was friction between the city operators and the rural operators. The city operators were proud of their skills, and wanted to move the traffic. They resented they way country operators would frequently interrupt transmissions. The country operators, usually working in railroad depots, countered that telegraphy was but a small part of their duties. They had to answer questions from the public, sell tickets, meet trains, tend switches and signals, handle freight, and keep the lamps burning. They commonly worked shifts as long as twelve or even sixteen hours. Development of duplex and then quadruplex operation greatly increased the pressure on operators, as the receiving operators could not interrupt the senders. Gender stereotyping held that only male operators had the stamina to handle these heavily-loaded circuits; yet the book cites a number of examples of women who worked these circuits. Women were consistently paid less than men. The companies were well aware that women were a bargain compared with men, and continually tried to replace men with women. Nellie Welch had full charge of the telegraph office in Point Arena, California in 1886. She was eleven years old. Western Union and the Cooper Union Institute in 1869 jointly started a free eight-month telegraphy course for women. It lasted through the early 1890s, turning out about 80 graduates a year. They would first take non-paying jobs assisting regular operators, and then be hired as operators on lightly loaded city circuits. This school was much despised by men for its contribution to the oversupply problem, thought it probably hurt the opportunities for women more than those for men. Beginner and less-skilled operators were called "plugs" or "hams." (Note the endless controversy over the origin of the term "ham" for amateur radio operators.) The schools that turned out these operators were called "plug factories." Craft magazines sought to shame operators who taught telegraphy. They were urged to pass on the secrets of Morse only to brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. At least one railroad operator quit his job rather than cooperate with a student placed with him by the company. ---------------- [Moderator's Note: My thanks for this very interesting article. Digest readers are encouraged to send book reviews and other special articles like this to Telecom for distribution on the net. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: (in 2005) Another article about Nellie Welch (the 11 year old in 1886 who operated the telegraph office) told of how she was _very quick_ at sending and recieving messages; how in her 'spare time' she also wrote and sold stage coach tickets and tended to the horses. That particular combination telegraph office/ stage coach 'way station' was also a place where the stage coach drivers would exchange their horses for a fresh team of horses to continue their journey. Nellie would unhitch the team of horses, take them in the stable to be fed, watered and 'bedded down' until the animals started their trip back to where they came from the next day. Then she would take a fresh team out, hook them to the stage coach. That was also a change place for the stage coach drivers, who sometimes stayed there overnight while some other driver took the stage coach on to wherever. Assisted by her mother and her invalid father, she was the principal 'bread winner' in the little family. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 20:41:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Policy Post 11.16: Open CRS Web Site Shows Great Demand CDT POLICY POST Volume 11, Number 16, June 30, 2005 A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE from THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY CONTENTS: (1) Open CRS Web Site Shows Great Demand for Congressional Reports (2) Background on Access to Congressional Research Service Reports (3) Legislative Efforts on Access to CRS Reports (4) Next Steps for Open CRS http://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/11/17 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 20:41:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Policy Post 11.17: Supreme Court Rules Grokster can be Liable CDT POLICY POST Volume 11, Number 17, July 1, 2005 A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE from THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY CONTENTS: (1) Supreme Court Rules Grokster can be Held Liable For Inducing Infringement (2) Lower Court Rulings on Grokster Remain Crucial (3) Congressional Implications and the Overall Digital Copyright Debate http://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/11/17 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 20:41:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.19: EFF Publishes Legal Guide for Bloggers EFFector Vol. 18, No. 19 June 16, 2005 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 335th Issue of EFFector: * EFF Publishes Legal Guide for Bloggers * BayFF on Bloggers' Rights, July 19 * Why Isn't Secure Flight Grounded? * Popcorn and Free Speech: EFF Co-Presents "The Front," July 24 and August 2 * EFF Offers Security Training for Organizers, June 29 * EFF Seeks Experienced, Dynamic Membership Coordinator * MiniLinks (11): How I Became the Subject of a Secret Service Investigation * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/19.php ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 20:41:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.20: EFF Supporters Slam Congress to Stop the EFFector Vol. 18, No. 20 June 22, 2005 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 336th Issue of EFFector: * Action Update: EFF Supporters Slam Congress to Stop the Broadcast Flag * Internet Entrepreneur Joe Kraus Joins EFF Board * Upholding the Legality of Reverse Engineering: Judges Weigh Issues in Eighth Circuit Videogame Case * EFF Joins Battle to Protect the Right to Read Anonymously, Publishers' Rights * EFF Seeks Experienced, Dynamic Membership Coordinator * MiniLinks (12): Software Patents, J'Accuse! * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/20.php ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 20:41:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.21: Supreme Court Ruling Will Chill Technology EFFector Vol. 18, No. 21 June 27, 2005 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 337th Issue of EFFector: * Supreme Court Ruling Will Chill Technology Innovation * A Reader's Guide to the Grokster Ruling * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/21.php ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 20:47:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: PFIR Statement on Adult Content Regulations and Broader Impacts PFIR Statement on Adult Content Regulations and Broader Impacts http://www.pfir.org/statements/adult-content-regulations July 1, 2005 The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has promulgated and is about to begin enforcing a set of regulations known as "18 U.S.C. 2257" which relate to record-keeping requirements for a broad range of "adult content" in virtually all media, including print, video, film, Web sites, etc. Summary, detail, and other data regarding these regulations are viewable at: http://my.execpc.com/~xxxlaw/2257Tables5.24.05.htm ("Technical" View) and: http://www.openmindmedia.com/records/ ("Layman's" View) While the ostensible intent of 2257 is the laudable goal of protecting minors from abuse and exploitation, it appears that the regulations' very wide scope will have a chilling effect on all U.S. entities who deal in even peripherally-related materials that are viewed as objectionable under "lowest-common-denominator" definitions. Presumably this very wide impact is viewed as a positive attribute of the regulations by their framers. However, this is a matter that goes far beyond the limited confines of adult entertainment. Regardless of how one feels about pornography or adult-oriented content in general, the precedent set by these regulations should set off alarm bells for everyone who "publishes" *any* sort of materials -- however exotic or mundane they might be in any form of media, including virtually all Web site operators. The use of administrative regulatory frameworks in this manner to "control" otherwise legal materials has set the stage for the application of the same reasoning to entities who aren't such easy targets as adult content producers. Will well-heeled copyright interests now insist that regulations be drafted requiring that all U.S. Web sites -- containing any form of content -- maintain detailed records of permission to display *every* article, graphic, and photo, to proactively ensure no possible violation of copyright or other intellectual property rights? If such rules work against adult content sites, the temptation to apply similar reasoning and techniques much more comprehensively will be very intense indeed. While such an approach might appear logical from the standpoint of protecting intellectual property, the effects would likely be devastating for the interchange of information and legally-protected speech. The presence of complex record-keeping requirements can easily discourage the publication or display of completely legal and non-infringing materials by many (especially smaller) entities, simply because the burden of compliance will be too great and the risks of error too onerous. Such a deleterious effect would dramatically skew the balance toward what amounts to an assumption of wrongdoing, which is essentially contrary to American traditions of free speech rights. At the very least, such dramatic shifts should only be the result of full, detailed, and open legislative processes, not the spawn of regulatory fiat. Today the regulations relate to adult content. But the pattern set by 18 U.S.C. 2257 could soon affect the speech rights of us all, even if watching old reruns of "I Love Lucy" is the closest many of us routinely get to adult entertainments. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@eepi.org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, EEPI - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 18:45:02 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory http://www.speedfactory.net > Of course they say that. And every once in a while they dust off > their announcement that broadcasting more than 5 watts on a CB radio > is illegal and subjects the operator to fines and seizure of their > equipment too. But they don't actually do it. They're stretched thin > already trying to figure out where telecommunications is going so they > can stay a little ahead of it, and they just don't bother with > "crimes" that do not involve substantial amounts of money. You haven't been reading the news on www.arrl.org, have you? ------------------------------ From: Xxjessi77xx@aol.com Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 15:25:07 EDT Subject: Question About Annoying Phone Calls - Please, any Info Hi, lately for the last few days I've been getting calls from this number: 215-320-0424 I looked up the number online and it brought me to your web site where it said and it gave the number that had been calling me -- (Academy Services Nuisance Calls 215-320-0424)-- I was wondering if you can give me any info about this number or the person calling me? Should I have my company block this number from calling me or what? Please let me know anything. Thanks. -Jessica [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We had someone else a few weeks ago complain about that number. Your recourse might be to subscribe to a telco service to block numbers from unwanted calls. (You may already have it on your line). You dial *60 (or 60# in some places) then follow the recorded prompts you are given. You'll be allowed to dial in the number to be blocked, or dial #01 to block the last call received, even if you do not know who it was. I have been getting calls from 310-566-1083 which always blocks the name of the caller, but dialing it reaches something called 'Girls Gone Wild'. I also have *77 service, which blocks people who deliberatly do *67 to hide themselves. When I just now tried your 215-320-0424 I got some mysterious message that I had reached 'Academy Services' and to enter the desired extension number, or 'hold for an operator'. I decided to hold, it started ringing again and another recording came on telling me I had reached 'extension 5067' and to leave my name and _phone number_ so my call could be immediatly returned. It smelled like some collection agency to me; I gave 'it' (the recorded message when I was requested to speak) my usual salutation under those circumstances (a loud, rather offensive belch) and disconnected. Of course _I_ did *67 first before the dialing string. Since my latest call from 310-566-1083 arrived at a most inopportune moment (I was seated in my bathroom and came rushing to the phone only to hear the silence) I've decided to add that number to my own repretoire of unwanted callers. I hope this helps you a little. 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. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #305 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jul 3 17:32:41 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C0F9D1508B; Sun, 3 Jul 2005 17:32:40 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #306 Message-Id: <20050703213240.C0F9D1508B@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2005 17:32:40 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.0 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,LONG_DISTANCE, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: * Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 3 Jul 2005 17:32:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 306 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Choreboy) ATT Merger (Lisa Minter) NASA Fireworks Tonight! (Lisa Minter) Facebook an Internet Sensation on Campus (Lisa Minter) Test May Measure Student's Web Wisdom (Lisa Minter) Congress Passes Fax Bill to Create EBR Exemption (Monty Solomon) Yellow Pages at eBay (Dandino) Calling Packet8 Virtual Office Users (Chasman) DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone (shwekhaw) Re: DSL Speed (Choreboy) Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. (W Howard) Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. (DevilsPGD) Ombudsman on N. Korea Food Story (alan@bloomfieldpress.com) 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. 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Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Choreboy Subject: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2005 00:00:49 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Ten years ago I happened to discover a potential of 0.25 VAC between the grounding electrode under my electrical entrance and the one under my telephone entrance. To protect my computer from lightning, I bonded them with twenty feet of wire. It paid off in 1998 when lightning struck a tree thirty feet from my electrical entrance. I was online and suffered no damage. A telco man restored service by replacing a fuse on the utility pole. When I asked the company's policy on bonding, he beat around the bush twenty minutes before saying the electrical code required it but the telco didn't like it because they would have to replace more fuses. Neighbors went online five years ago. Each time they've lost a modem or surge protector, they have asked me for an explanation and I've told them ground surges will keep getting them until they clamp a wire between their phone and power electrodes. They have always ignored my advice. I was online Monday during a quiet rain when lightning hit my chimney, blowing masonry and shingles sixty feet in all directions. My screen froze with a weird tint, but things were fine when I restarted. My neighbors weren't so lucky. Their phone electrode is 40 yards from my chimney. Their power electrode is 10 yards farther. They lost a modem, a satellite dish, and two telephones. Instead of demanding that I explain it again, they asked the telco to send a rep. He told them their ground is fine. My neighbors are pleased because this proves I have always been wrong. Article 250.54 of the NEC says local supplemental grounding electrodes (such as the one for phone service) must be bonded to the primary electrode. Where does the NEC apply? According to what the telco man admitted seven years ago, I assume our county code says the same thing. Is this a recent addition to the NEC? How is a citizen supposed to find out local code requirements? How is a citizen supposed to know his electrodes are not bonded or that it's necessary? If the telco assures a customer that there is nothing wrong with grounding which in fact is a code violation, does the telco have any liability? ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: AT&T Shareholders OK Acquistion by SBC Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 10:43:05 -0500 (AP) A bid to create one of the world's largest phone companies vaulted another hurdle Thursday as AT&T Corp. investors approved SBC Communication Inc.'s $16 billion acquisition at what will likely be the legendary company's final annual shareholder meeting. Nearly all the shares cast as votes approved the deal, though investors holding nearly 30 percent of AT&T's stock did not vote at all. The merger still requires regulatory approvals at the federal and state level, though the companies expect to complete the transaction by late 2005 or early 2006. SBC shareholders are not required to vote on the acquisition since the number of SBC shares being issued as payment for AT&T's stock amounts to less than a 20 percent increase in SBC's outstanding shares. The vote to end AT&T's 130-year run as an independent company proved bittersweet for some shareholders and employees at the meeting. Many said they recognized the deal was necessary, yet criticized AT&T management actions as damaging. AT&T, based in Bedminster, N.J., has seen its core long-distance business shrink dramatically amid growing competition from Bell rivals like SBC, cell phones and newer technologies such as Internet-based calling. "We can't go it alone because of bad management, because of regulatory constraints, because of divestiture," AT&T manager Lani Flesch of Chicago said after the meeting as her eyes welled with tears. "We could have had it all and instead we're being bought." San Antonio-based SBC, the local Bell for most of the Midwest and Southwest, expects to eliminate 13,000 jobs after the merger. The marriage of the rivals, announced in January, would add corporate services and a national fiber-optic network to the list of businesses where SBC holds a dominant industry role. It is already the largest or second-largest U.S. provider of local, long distance, wireless and Internet services. AT&T investors are slated to receive 0.77942 of a share of SBC common stock and a cash dividend of $1.30 for each share of AT&T they hold. SBC's stock closed Thursday at $23.75 a share, down 19 cents, so the deal now values AT&T's stock at about $19.80 per share. That's about 4 percent higher than AT&T's current share price, which fell 22 cents Thursday to close at $19.04 on the New York Stock Exchange. AT&T Chief Executive David Dorman told shareholders the merger is a strategic combination that will create a diversified company that can compete globally. "It is our view that the AT&T-SBC merger creates greater opportunity for shareholder value in the long term," he said. Some rivals and consumer advocates have opposed the merger as well as the proposed purchase of MCI Inc. by Verizon Communications Inc., arguing that the elimination of two major competitors from the market will lead to higher prices, less innovation and fewer product alternatives. AT&T Chief Financial Officer Thomas Horton said after the meeting that as the industry restructures, consumers will see more choices from companies offering a variety of services. The merger has won regulatory approval in 26 states and still needs the OK from 10 additional states and the federal government. On the net: AT&T: http://www.att.com SBC: http://www.sbc.com (c) 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: NASA Fireworks Display Planned for Sunday Night/Monday Morning Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 16:55:57 -0500 Two reports this weekend of the 'fireworks' display NASA has planned for us Sunday overnight/Monday morning. ========================================== NASA Readies Space Probe to Blast Comet By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer It's a space mission straight out of Hollywood -- launch a spacecraft 268 million miles so it can aim a barrel-sized probe toward a speeding comet half the size of Manhattan and smash a hole in it. But that's what NASA expects its Deep Impact mission to do this weekend, with a goal of viewing the icy core of a comet that may hold cosmic clues to how the sun and planets formed. It's not without challenges. To ensure a bull's-eye hit -- and a spectacular Independence Day fireworks display in space -- several things must happen just right. Around 2 a.m. EDT Sunday, the Deep Impact spacecraft must release the 820-pound copper "impactor" on course for a collision expected 24 hours later with the comet Tempel 1. Scientists are confident they will be able to position the probe in the onrushing comet's path, though that calls for precise maneuvers that the probe must execute without help from mission control. Once on auto-pilot, the probe has up to three chances before the collision to fire its thrusters to adjust its flight path for a direct strike. "To hit the nucleus of a comet is a little bit like a baseball player trying to hit a knuckleball," said Dave Spencer, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which is in charge of the $333 million project. Comets are blobs of ice and dust that orbit the sun and were born about 4.5 billion years ago -- nearly the same time as the solar system itself. When a cloud of gas and dust condensed to form the sun and planets, comets formed from what was left over. Scientists hope studying them will provide clues to how the solar system formed. Tempel 1, their specimen, is a pickle-shaped comet that travels in an elliptical orbit between Mars and Jupiter. After springing the probe, the mothership must slightly change course and stake out a prime seat 5,000 miles from the collision, which is expected around 1:52 a.m. EDT Monday. The comet, hurtling through space at a relative speed of 23,000 mph, will run over the probe with energy similar to exploding nearly 5 tons of dynamite. All the while, a camera on the impactor will be shooting pictures as it heads toward its doom, as will the mothership from afar. Little is known about comet anatomy, so it's unclear what exactly will happen when Tempel 1 is hit. Scientists expect the collision to spray a cone-shaped plume of debris into space. The resulting crater could be anywhere from the size of a house to a football stadium, and be between two and 14 stories deep. "We still don't know what this comet holds in store for us," said Rick Grammier, Deep Impact project manager. Scientists will work feverishly to download data from the spacecraft before it makes its closest approach to the comet less than 15 minutes after impact. Their worry is that Deep Impact could be damaged by flying debris, risking the valuable data. A trio of space telescopes - the Hubble, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope - and dozens of ground observatories will also view the collision and aftermath. So will amateur astronomers in the western United States and Latin America, who should be able to view the impact through their own telescopes. It will not be visible in the eastern United States and upper Midwest. Launched in mid-January from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Deep Impact sent images of the comet's nucleus for the first time last month from a distance of 20 million miles away. It also witnessed two outbursts of ice from the comet -- not a major concern to scientists who have plenty else to worry about. On the Net: Deep Impact mission: http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. ======= The second report on the expected fireworks; will you be watching it happen? =========== NASA Releases Probe to Collide With Comet By ALICIA CHANG PASADENA, Calif. - A NASA space probe was bearing down on its comet target Sunday in a mission scientists hope will end with a cataclysmic crash -- and new insights into the origins of the solar system. The 820-pound copper probe was on course to intercept the comet Tempel 1 to smash a hole in it so scientists can get their first peek at the heart of one of these icy celestial bodies. Comets are the leftover building blocks of the solar system, which formed when a giant cloud of gas and dust collapsed to create the sun and planets. Because comets were born in the system's outer fringes, their cores still possess some of the primordial ingredients and studying them could yield clues to how the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago. The "impactor" probe separated from the Deep Impact spacecraft early Sunday and began a 500,000-mile suicide dive toward the sunlit section of Tempel 1, a pickle-shaped comet half the size of Manhattan and 83 million miles away from Earth. Workers in the mission control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena erupted in applause shortly after the separation. "The release went very well," said project manager Rick Grammier. "Half of the hurdles are over." Meanwhile, the mothership fired its thrusters to slightly change course and stake out a front-row seat 5,000 miles from the high-speed collision, which is expected to occur at 1:52 a.m. EDT Monday. The probe will switch to autopilot two hours before Monday's encounter, relying on computer software and thrusters to steer itself into the path of the onrushing comet. If the probe's maneuvers are off, the comet could miss and the mission would fail. As Tempel 1 closes in at a relative speed of 23,000 mph, the probe should beam back unprecedented pictures of its target in near real-time until it is run over. If all goes to plan, the mothership will record the crash and resulting crater with its high-resolution telescope. About 15 minutes after impact, the craft will make its closest flyby of the comet nucleus, approaching within 310 miles. Scientists expect it will be bombarded with flying debris and will stop taking pictures, turning on its dust shields for protection. NASA's brigade of space-based observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope, also will be pointing toward the comet to record the impact. Professional astronomers from dozens of observatories in 20 countries also will observe the crash. Little is known about comet anatomy, so it's unclear what exactly will happen when Tempel 1 is hit. Scientists expect the collision will spray a cone-shaped plume of debris into space. The resulting crater can range anywhere from the size of a large house to a football stadium and be between two and 14 stories deep. The probe's anticipated impact could cause the comet to shine brighter than normal and sky-gazers may be able to see celestial fireworks with a telescope in parts of the Western United States and Latin America. Deep Impact blasted off in January from Cape Canaveral, Fla., for its six-month, 268 million-mile journey. In what scientists say is a coincidence, the spacecraft shares the same name as the 1998 movie about a comet that hurtles toward Earth. Discovered in 1867, Tempel 1 moves around the sun in an elliptical orbit between Mars and Jupiter every six or so years. In April, the 1,300-pound spacecraft took its first picture of Tempel 1 from 40 million miles away, revealing what amounts to a celestial snowball. Last month, still 20 million miles away, scientists saw the solid core of Tempel 1 for the first time. On the Net: Deep Impact mission: http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Facebook an Internet Sensation on Campus Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 16:58:48 -0500 By SORAYA NADIA McDONALD, Associated Press Writer Pamela Elder, a junior at Georgia State University, got hooked when she found some old high school classmates. Next she used the online yearbook of yearbooks to track down people she hadn't seen since grade school. No wonder the Facebook is an Internet sensation at campuses across the nation. Constantly updated by its 2.8 million registered users at more than 800 colleges and universities, the Facebook takes the local malt shop social nexus of the 1950s and makes it universal. Started by three Harvard sophomores in February 2004 as an online directory to connect the higher education world through social networks, the Facebook now registers more than 5,800 new users a day. "It becomes part of your daily routine. It's e-mail, the news, the weather, Facebook," said Lucas Garza, a senior from San Antonio studying aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Users of Facebook, http://www.thefacebook.com, can post a photo and a profile of themselves for free. The profiles include as little or as much information as the user desires, including basic biographies, lists of hobbies and interests, even home address and cell phone number. Users control who can see their profiles -- from only friends to all other users. Other users can then search the profiles for classmates, childhood acquaintances, people who share common interests. When users identify someone on the site they'd like to meet, they can ask to be designated as a "friend," a characteristic of other social networking Web sites such as Friendster or LinkedIn. Facebook friend requests can come from anyone on the site, including "some random drunk person you met at a party whose name you don't remember," said Garza, who has 143 "friends" on Facebook. The site has become so ubiquitous among college students that they tell others to "facebook" them -- to look them up on the site. Browsing it is known simply as "facebooking." Site creators Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz were roommates at Harvard when they designed Facebook so fellow Harvard students could get to know those living in other dorms. (The name comes from the real-life books of freshmen's faces, majors and hometowns that many colleges distribute to incoming students). The Web site proved so popular that the trio made it available to students at Columbia, Stanford and Yale within a month. With Facebook's success, Moskovitz and Zuckerberg left Harvard to run it as a 10-person company out of Palo Alto, Calif. Moskovitz had been studying economics; Zuckerberg, computer science and psychology. Hughes, a history and literature major, is studying abroad in Paris. "It's all at once a 'real-world' job and something surreal," Hughes said. "Instead of entering a company and working your way to the top, Mark has created something that has allowed him to start right off in the CEO seat." Hughes said Facebook turns a profit, mostly from advertising. He refused to disclose the private company's earnings. Besides corporate advertisers, Facebook users purchase "announcements" -- ads that can be seen only by students from the same school. They range from campaign posters for student government positions to fliers about upcoming parties. They cost $9 to $15 apiece; the smaller the school, the cheaper the announcement. Investments have boosted Facebook, too. Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel Partners put in $13 million; PayPal founder Peter Thiel recently invested $500,000. Users can register on the site only with a college e-mail adndress, which serves as verification that users are students. Once registered, the .edu address becomes a user ID. More than 60 percent of the site's users log in daily during the school year, and about half log in daily over the summer, Hughes said. Marketers who target students love the site, said Robin Raskin, a technology consultant whose three college-age children are all Facebook users. "You've got this great, great group. You know their demographic, you know how much disposable income they have, you know what they spend it on, and now you've got them in one place," Raskin said. "It's great for anybody who wants to talk to the youth audience, and that is why investors have run to give Facebook some money." Another result, however, is that students should be cautious about putting personal information on the site, said Raskin, a former editor of PC Magazine. "You think you're safe because of this .edu address, but anybody can get in there who wants to," said Raskin, adding she knows corporate marketers who have "infiltrated" the site. Many alumni get .edu e-mail addresses from their alma maters, allowing them to get on Facebook. Marcia Ammons, a Georgia State senior from Carrollton, Ga., swears by Facebook. She has two close friends on campus she first met on the Web site. "It's hard to find people with similar interests on a big campus," Ammons said. "We're so spread out ... you can put up party fliers in the Rec Center but half the people won't know about it because they won't see them." Garza uses Facebook to find people in his classes to compare notes and homework, since a single class at Georgia Tech can have up to 500 students. During last year's presidential campaign, he used the site to find students with similar views. His profile included quotes from George Orwell and links to his personal Web site. Students also meet on the site through groups, virtual clusters of users at the same school with a common interest. Ammons is a member of the "Wal-Mart Lovers" and "Rec Center Junkies" groups. Garza is in the "Anti-Leaf Blower Society" and "Ipodilicious," a collection of Ipod fans. Entirely new social protocols have formed around Facebook. One surrounds confirming friend requests. For some, a person's friend count is a social barometer. Says Hilton Gray, a 2003 graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and avid facebooker: "I know a few people who like the attention of it all, so they try to rack up as many friends as possible." Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Test May Measure Student's Web Wisdom Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 17:00:13 -0500 By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer Students apply to college online, e-mail their papers to their professors and, when they want to be cheeky, pass notes in class by text-messaging. But that doesn't necessarily mean they have a high Internet IQ. "They're real comfortable instant-messaging, downloading MP3 files. They're less comfortable using technology in ways that require real critical thinking," says Teresa Egan of the Educational Testing Service. Or as Lorie Roth, assistant vice chancellor of academic programs at California State University puts it: "Every single one that comes through the door thinks that if you just go to Google and get some hits -- you've got material for your research paper right there." That's why Cal State and a number of other colleges are working with ETS to create a test to evaluate Internet intelligence, measuring whether students can locate and verify reliable online information and whether they know how to properly use and credit the material. "This test measures a skill as important as having mathematics and English skills when you come to the university," says Roth. "If you don't come to the university with it, you need to know that you are lacking some skills that educated people are expected to have." A preliminary version of the new test, the Information and Communication Technology Literacy Assessment, was given to 3,300 Cal State students this spring to see how well it works, i.e. testing the test. Individual scores aren't being tallied but campuses will be getting aggregate reports. Next year, the test is expected to be available for students to take on a voluntary basis. Cal State is the lead institution in a consortium which includes UCLA, the University of Louisville, the California Community College System, the University of North Alabama, the University of Texas System and the University of Washington. Some of the institutions involved are considering using the test on incoming students to see if they need remedial classes, says Egan, ETS' project manager for the Information and Communication Technology Literacy Assessment. Other schools are thinking about giving the test as a follow up to communications courses to gauge curricula efficiency. Robert Jimenez, a student at Cal State-Fullerton who took the prototype test this spring, gives it a passing grade. "It was pretty good in that it allowed us to go ahead and think through real-life problems." Sample questions include giving students a simulated page of Web search results on a particular subject and asking students to pick the legitimate sources. So, a question on bee sting remedies presents a choice of sites ranging from ads to a forum for herb treatments to (the correct answer) a listing from the National Institutes of Health, identifiable by having "nih" in the URL (site address) along with the ".gov" suffix that connotes an official government listing. High tech has been a fixture of higher ed for some years. A 2002 report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 79 percent of college Internet users thought the Internet had a positive impact on their academic experience. More than 70 percent used the Internet more than the library and 56 percent said e-mail improved their relationships with professors. Of course, some of those text-messaging students are still being taught by professors whose idea of a personal data assistant is a fresh pad of Post-Its. "The problem with technology and education is how do you fit the new technology into existing curriculum lesson plans. You can't add more class time and it's much easier to just keep teaching the way you were," says Steve Jones, a co-author on the Pew study and a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Jones folds lessons on Internet use into his classes. And he doesn't mince words about students who try the "click, copy and paste" approach to homework. "I tell the students, 'Some of you are going to put off this paper until the night before. You're going to go to Google, type in search words and just look at the top five hits and use those. I'm going to grade you on this. I'm going to look at these sources and so let's talk about how to evaluate sources.'" Which doesn't necessarily mean they all "suddenly become fabulous information evaluators and seekers, but it gives them a little bit of an idea that this isn't something that's apart from learning." Jones also finds himself learning from students, who are trying out new things like blogs and collaborating with other students online to create new sources of information. He thinks assessing students' Internet skills could be useful in figuring out ways to help them do better research but cautions that it's tough to test on something as changeable as the Internet. Roth notes that the bulk of the assessment focuses on critical thinking skills, being able to analyze the legitimacy of Web sites, and knowing the difference between properly cited research and plagiarism, things that "haven't changed very much since I enrolled in college in 1969." For today's students, working on the Net means not having the safety net of references vetted by campus librarians. But Roth isn't nostalgic. "Anybody want to go back to the bad old days when you had manual typewriters, and you had to get up and walk to the library to look up something?" she says with a laugh. "I don't think so." On the Net: http://www.calstate.edu http://www.ets.org/ictliteracy/ Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 17:07:31 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Congress Passes Fax Bill to Create EBR Exemption By: Scott Hovanyetz Senior Reporter Congress passed a bill that would permanently allow an existing business relationship exemption for commercial faxes, a victory for business media and nonprofit organizations that say they need to fax subscribers and members. The House of Representative's approval of the bill by voice vote yesterday followed the Senate's passage by unanimous consent June 24. It now remains for President Bush to sign the bill into law. According to American Business Media, a trade press association, Bush is expected to sign the bill this week. http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=33223 ------------------------------ From: Dandino Subject: Yellow Pages at eBay Date: 2 Jul 2005 05:06:22 -0700 Does eBay evolve into the advertising market? (the serious one) [url]http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=102333&item=5594068066&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW[/url] ------------------------------ From: Chasman Subject: Calling Packet8 Virtual Office Users Date: 2 Jul 2005 14:18:29 -0700 I am currently using an in-house IVR put together with tape and glue. I would rather use something that did not require hardware on our end and my maintenance. We use Vonage phones and they work well as we can blind transfer between them. However we drop one call out of 20 which is a pain. What I want to know is how sophisticated is the IVR on the virtual office. I need to basically be able to have some one choose between support, sales or a name directory and then do a call hunt on support or sales. That's can we do it and do it reliably? Regards, Chas ------------------------------ From: shwekhaw Subject: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone Date: 2 Jul 2005 15:05:53 -0700 DO NOT USE CINGULAR GO PHONE!! I had a lot of problems with GO Phone and know another two people who are getting ripped off. I bought the phone early June 2005. They told me no roaming charges free long distance and I pay just 10 cent a minute and $1 on a day I use the phone. So I bought it from my TX home. Then I visited to CA and I could not use the phone. I tried calling my friend with cingular plan who was sitting next to me. His phone rang but got disconnected right after he answered. It said "check service status" even though signal was very strong. I tried several times sine I pay nothing if I call within cingular network. Guess what! They charged me $1.30 for every try I made even though connection did not last one second. Basically I could not use the phone the whole time i was visiting there. It was so much trouble. When I called customer service they are very rude. They told me I could not use the phone anymore since my $25 balance was depleted. They ignored the fact that the balance was depleted due to overcharges and not bother looking into it the problem. I had to call customer service several times (at least 5 times) hoping somebody will notice the problem. I was told that technician will look into it and call me back. And they never call me back! Finally I called again and talked to supervisor directly (I had to beg to talk to supervisor). I obtained detail billing and calculated total charges which is not summing up to the balance I added. When I point this out, she, who was in total denial about their problems, said it was just a glitch in their system and agreed to make balance adjustment. A glitch! A glitch that took away $25 balance was not noticeable to several people in customer service department! Were they just trained how to ignore their problem and how to make customers miserable. I cannot return the phone since it is over 30 days now so I am stuck with the phone. They still not acknowledging the problem that I cannot use the phone in CA even though I should be able to according to their plan description. Be aware guys. If you are patient and can spend a lot of time calling customer service to get your money back, you are sure to lose your money with this Cingular plan. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You could have been telling my story. I have _two_ Cingular phones; the one works okay with an _Independence, KS_ 620-330 number. The other phone is a former AT&T (now Cingular Prepaid phone I think it is called 'Free to Go'.) Both phones are the older digital Nokia 5165 phones, the difference is only that one is prepaid via AT&T, the other is a 'regular' cell phone. Starting Friday, the prepaid phone quit fuctioning. It has a Wichita KS 316-841 number on it, with, I might add, twenty dollars in credit. Cingular customer service, which appears to be located in India these days, absolutely insisted I could not have a prepaid wireless phone since they had no wireless coverage in my area. They said "as soon as you get back in the Wichita area, your phone will start working again." I asked them if that was so, then (if the towers could not reach me) why wasn't voice mail kicking in to take the messages? They just kept repeating their stupid answer: because we have no service in your area. I finally said 'being an ignorant ##*@ based in your native land somewhere, you probably would not know much about our cell phones here.' They had just a few minutes earlier taken a twenty five dollar payment from my credit card. Those Cingular/AT&T/SBC customer service reps are so incredibly stupid it is beyond my comprehension. I said well, if you do not have service in my area, then please arrange to refund the twenty dollars you just now took on my account. And wouldn't you know it, the sweet dear little Indian lady who referred to herself as 'employee ID 627' insisted 'we do not give any refunds on prepaid service'. You will this time, I told her, Small Claims Court here in Montgomery County is just four block down the street from my house, and I do not have to sue you in California or Texas or India or wherever, _I just sue your local resale agent here in Independence_. Hopefully your superiors will screw up and not make any response to the suit. She finally came up with a post office box address (no phone nor fax nor email address available) for some entity called 'Cingular Free to Go' in Anaheim Hills, CA and I fired off a letter to them yesterday making demand for the return of my money _or_ preferably, a working phone with my 316-841 number since someone else told me the only service they will now initiate in 620 is GSM. I will tell you, if Ignorance was Bliss, then Cingular customer service people would be the happiest in the world. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Choreboy Subject: Re: DSL Speed Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2005 19:02:35 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Dave Grebe wrote: >>> I wonder how they're modulated. >> Can any other reader answer this question? > Quadrature modulation using many channels. Look here: > http://www.alleged.com/info/dsl2/ > Dave Grebe Wow! No wonder most people don't go into detail! Here's a quote from the introduction: "Although many system designers are competent and comfortable with DSP and all things digital, they often find their understanding of analog issues to be a bit rusty when it comes to implementing the physical connection to and from the telephone line." nmclain@annsgarden.com wrote: > Choreboy wrote: >> A carrier vor V.90 must have some very precise modulation. It's >> amazing that an 8kHz sampling can capture it well enough to be >> useful. > Frequently it can't, which is why your modem downgrades to a slower > speed. >>> All of these noise sources collectively impair the ability of the loop >>> to carry DSL signals. >> Local loop cables (trunk cables?) seem to deteriorate. Phone men seem >> to look for available pairs when customers complain of noise. I >> wonder if voltage from nearby lightning strikes might cause pinhole >> damage to the insulation of twisted pairs, and over the years it gets >> hard to find a good pair. > Nearby lightning strikes likely would do a lot more than cause > "pinhole damage." But you're right about telco cables deteriorating > over time. Water intrusion can cause severe interference ("every time > it rains, I get static on my telephone!"). I wonder if old cables have been analyzed to see why they went bad. Lightning-related voltage spikes can damage semiconductors although the damage may not be apparent. I wonder if that could happen to the insulation on telephone conductors. >> Load coils might be one reason a particular phone sounds distorted at >> a particular location. > I doubt that, but I guess it's possible. If the capacitance were lumped, it and an inductor would form a tuned tank. I suppose it's about the same with distributed capacitance. The tank would have high impedance at one frequency and lower impedance at higher or lower frequencies. The broadness of the curve would depend on the resistance in the coil and maybe in the line. An uneven frequency response could make it hard to recognize who's calling or understand his words. >> Across the street, a small trunk line (cable with lots of wire >> pairs) comes from the aerial terminal down a couple of feet to a >> fusebox on the utility pole. (I think the telco calls them something >> besides fuses.) The drop cables come out of that box. Probably >> just a junction box. After lightning knocked out my phone service, a telco man opened the box and replaced what he called a fuse. Those fuses have another name I can't remember. >>>> Think what would have happened if RG-59 hadn't been invented. >>>> Everybody would have used RG-6, which looks nearly the same but >>>> attenuates uhf much less. With better reception there would have >>>> been more uhf stations and less demand for cable. >>> As a former cable guy, I don't agree with that. Many UHF stations >>> depended on cable TV systems to distribute their signals throughout >>> their "specified zones" (which, back in the '60s and '70s, was a >>> 35-mile radius around the city of license). This was particularly >>> true in mountainous areas where cable T systems carried UHF signals >>> to specified-zone communities that were beyond the reach of their >>> transmitters. >> With a bow-tie antenna, a good UHF amp, a rotator, and RG-6U, we could >> receive so many channels that we weren't interested in cable. > Well, obviously you don't live in a place like Mahanoy City > Pennsylvania, Tuckerman Arkansas, or Astoria Oregon -- places where it > simply isn't possible to get any station -- UHF or VHF -- off the air. > Cable TV started in all three of those communities in 1948, and all > three still claim to have been first. > Neal McLain > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And don't forget Independence, KS where > until cable came along (via Time Warner in the 1980's) our television > reception consisted of TWO channels; channel 6 and channel 9, but only > one of those two if you wanted a good picture. Most people had very > _high_ antennas on their house if they wanted television, and they > compromised by using a 'rotor' attached to their TV set to turn the > rooftop antenna one way or the other. If they could not afford the > rotor, then they left the antenna turned sort of in the middle and > lived with that. We got one station from Tulsa, Oklahoma (80 miles > almost straight south) and one station from Joplin, Missouri (90 > miles more or less straight east.) Around here, 'big city' (as in > presence of television stations) means Wichita, KS which is 110 miles > northwest, or Topeka KS which is about 150 miles straight north, and > we could not get those stations very well at all in those days. PAT] In 1956 I moved to Rutland VT, in a valley. We had three floors above the basement, and the peak of our slate roof may have been forty feet above the ground. On the peak was a mast with guy wires. There were three antennae on the mast, one pointed to Burlington 70 miles away, on to Albany 90 miles away, and one to Boston 160 miles away. Three cables led from the antennae to a switch on the back of the TV. The snow was bad all year. Community cable, with an antenna mast on a nearby mountain, was discussed. A year or so later, Lucky 13 started in Albany. In spite of the distance and the mountains, it came in without snow. I heard no more about community cable. I don't know how much it cost to operate a small UHF station, but in Rutland I think it could have been started and operated much cheaper than cable. The audience would probably have needed something besides a loop on their TV, and I suppose advertising would have had to support it. ------------------------------ From: whoward@login2.srv.ualberta.ca (W Howard) Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2005 02:56:58 UTC Organization: University of Alberta In article , mc wrote: >> Of course they say that. And every once in a while they dust off >> their announcement that broadcasting more than 5 watts on a CB radio >> is illegal and subjects the operator to fines and seizure of their >> equipment too. But they don't actually do it. They're stretched thin >> already trying to figure out where telecommunications is going so they >> can stay a little ahead of it, and they just don't bother with >> "crimes" that do not involve substantial amounts of money. > You haven't been reading the news on www.arrl.org, have you? You are right, I hadn't. So I went and did. Seven enforcement letters over the course of a week is what I found. I could find you the evidence for seven enforcement letters about every seventy seconds along any stretch of freeway near any major city. So my use of "never" was inaccurate; in a tiny fraction of the cases, somebody from the FCC attempts to enforce the regulations. It's still such a tiny fraction as to have negligible effect, and I doubt that the stern warnings about possessing/using cellphone jammers will be followed up with enough enforcement to make a difference there either. And I stand by my claim that the govt in general would have at least more respect if they didn't write laws/regulations that they won't enforce in any meaningful way. >>Walt ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 22:56:34 -0500 Organization: Disorganized In message mc wrote: >> The law should be modestly amended to declare those using cellphones >> in theaters, churches, and other places of public assembly outlaws >> subject to pummeling by the inconvenienced other inmates of such >> assembly. Exception might be made for surviving, on duty, emergency >> personnel. ;^) > Here I think there is a market for cell phone *detectors*. Cell > phones transmit every few minutes even when you're not making or > receiving a call, in order to keep the tower apprised of where they > are. "Turn off your cell phone" could have more teeth if equipment > were in use to detect cell phones that were still turned on. How do you figure? My phone *never* gets turned off. Period. Not in theatres, not in churches, not in other places of public assembly. Never. However, I do set it on do not disturb (Which is a profile I created, is completely silent, does not vibrate, and routes all calls to voicemail (although it does still log them on my caller ID) Why don't I turn it off? Well, in short, I want the calls logged on my caller ID. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 16:48:08 -0400 From: alan@bloomfieldpress.com Subject: Ombudsman on N. Korea Food story [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: An interesting essay on why so many of us have very little trust in the so-called 'mainstream' media. You know, the ones that are supposed to be so precious and so good, compared to all us imbeciles on the internet doing our thing. PAT] The Uninvited Ombudsman: An observation for news-media people in general -- July 2, 2005 Dear Editor, Cities nationwide just got short but saturation coverage of the "U.S. gives 50,000 tons of food to N. Korea" story. I got it from six outlets in Phoenix. Not surprisingly, all the versions were nearly identical. That's because the propagated story was a straight government handout, with no actual reporting involved. There in a nutshell is why we, the people, no longer trust you, the news media, as much as we used to, or would like to. In my "state" newspaper, The Arizona Republic, the two paragraphs began, "The Bush Administration announced ..." and "The White House said ..." pretty much like every other version. It was the same where you live, right? Your comrades aren't even pretending to report, or displaying even rudimentary curiosity. It's pure government lapdog, zero public watchdog. You only say you're a watchdog. Even the most frenzied writer or editor, with no legwork at all, could do some head math and find that though it sounds so magnanimous, it's not. Think -- Americans often eat meals that weigh a pound. If you could just subsist on one pound daily, the hundred million pounds would feed the 22 million communist subjects for 4-1/2 days. Many Americans would prefer that you ask the hardball questions, like, "Why does the executive branch think it has legitimate power to "donate" so much of our money to, well, anyone?" Aren't you the least bit curious how much money the public treasury loses in the deal? What sort of discount does one get on a million pounds of groceries? News orgs obviously ripped and ran -- took the handout without thought. It's become your job. What kind of food is it? Fresh produce or rice? Who sold it (and got all the cash)? You don't know (or care, we imagine), because from writer to publisher you seem content as a government tool. It's what you do. You haven't even questioned your source, "the wire." You never do. You believe it's truth. Pravda. We're wise to you. ------------------ The kind of food is important, and meaningful. What's really happened here is that government people made a deal with food people to take my money, and your money, and buy a mountain of food. This way, the food people get a lot of money, and their books look good this month. Most people do not realize that when we "give aid" we are often just pouring money into private hands. Salaries and overheads are covered by money taken personally from me and you under the guise of fair taxation. The government didn't announce that part, doesn't want you thinking about the man behind the curtain. The media is then complicit in the widely propagated announcement. Itsa complex. We might start believing you again when your stories start looking like the rewrite below. But then we'd be informed, and the public could start owning its government again, instead of the other way around. Most people do want this, but the political left (a euphemism for socialist-style governance) fundamentally opposes such empowerment. The news coverage and slants we get speak for themselves. "Cambpell's soup concluded a deal today to sell ten million cans of chicken soup to the U.S. Dept. of Magnanimous Giveaways, putting the company's books firmly in the black this quarter, The Arizona Republic has learned. Floundering recently, stock price for the parent food conglomerate jumped six percent on the news. The food, paid for with taxpayer's money, will be given to the communist North Korean ruling clique. Although the White House labeled the giveaway a "humanitarian gesture," it is presumed that strings are attached, and sources close to dictator Kim Jong-il said in 2002 he plans to create a nuclear crisis for leverage with us. At least five other food producers have made similar government deals, to raise the 100 million total pounds promised in this controversial 'donation'." Same word count. Everyone who has hopes that the news media will straighten up and become a watchdog again, raise your hands. See? Few hands go up. Time to change. ========================== FYI: The original, with no byline (presumably because no reporter had a hand in its creation) was attributed simply "Wire Services": U.S. to Give 50,000 Tons of Food Aid to N. Korea (6/23/05) Washington -- The Bush Administration announced Wednesday that it will donate 50,000 tons of food aid to North Korea, just days after the reclusive state indicated a willingness to return to regional talks over its nuclear program. The White House said the aid is a humanitarian gesture unrelated to the political climate or to the potential for renewed talks. At the same time, officials declined to comment on revelations Wednesday that the administration received an overture from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in November 2002, in which he said he wanted to resolve a budding nuclear crisis between the two countries. Sincerely, Alan Korwin Publisher Contact: Alan Korwin BLOOMFIELD PRESS "We publish the gun laws." 4718 E. Cactus #440 Phoenix, AZ 85032 602-996-4020 Phone 602-494-0679 FAX 1-800-707-4020 Orders http://www.gunlaws.com alan@gunlaws.com Call, write, fax or click for a free catalog. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Alan Korwin believes, as do I, that when Americans begin taking the Second Amendment as seriously as they take the First, there is a good chance the government in the USA can be redeemed for the people. Until the time comes that American citizens are able to _openly and freely bear arms_ if that is their choice, without all sorts of bogus reasoning on why this person or that person should not be allowed to have a gun, then we should expect our freedoms to continue to deteriorate (as they have since 9-11-2001) in the name of Homeland Security, etc. Alan Korwin also believes, as do I, that the mass media in the USA has become more and more a disgrace in the past few years, as it parrots without question the policies and ideas presented by our resident president. And yet, people say that we here on the Internet are irresponsible in _our_ journalism. You might like getting on Alan Korwin's mailing lists, the man speaks the truth about so many things. Anyway, have a happy Independence Day, and wish for a time (hopefully in our lifetimes) when there will be _true independence for all_ in this land; not just the ones who say the right words and have the right thoughts. 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. 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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 V24 #306 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jul 4 17:11:16 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id E73F715008; Mon, 4 Jul 2005 17:11:15 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #307 Message-Id: <20050704211115.E73F715008@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 17:11:15 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.3 required=2.0 tests=BAD_CREDIT,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 4 Jul 2005 17:11:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 307 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New Wireless Broadband 'Whispers' Below the Radar (Lisa Minter) Al-Jazeera Launching All-English News Channel for United States (Minter) NASA Cheers Probe's Direct Hit on Comet (Lisa Minter) T-Mobile AOL IM Settings? (Bill) Panasonic T7436 and K1234 (JeffW) Calling Packet8 Virtual Office Users (Chasman) Direcway Internet Experience Anyone? (Chasman) Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Tony P.) Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Paul Coxwell) Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (John Hines) Re: Calling Packet8 Virtual Office Users (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. (mc) Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Ombudsman on N. Korea Food Story (Justa Lurker) 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: New Wireless Broadband 'Whispers' Below the Radar Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 11:02:35 -0500 By Lucas van Grinsven, European Technology Correspondent A new communications tool that "whispers" on busy radio channels could enable broadband Internet services for on-the-go wireless devices or hook-up homes that cannot yet get fast Web access, its inventor said. xMax, the latest innovation in broadband communications, is a very quiet radio system that uses radio channels already filled up with noisy pager or TV signals, said inventor Joe Bobier. "xMax is trespassing radio frequencies, although trespassing is not the right word, because we're allowed to transmit a signal if it doesn't interfere with other, stronger signals," said Bobier. What is unique about the system is that it can emit signals that are too weak to be picked up by normal antennas, but that can be "heard" by special aerials which know where to "listen," thus enabling dual usage of the same scarce radio spectrum. The technology could interest a telecoms or Internet operator with no radio spectrum because it can begin a wireless broadband service with very few base stations and add more stations and increase density as demand rises. It is also appealing for rural areas which operators find too costly to cover with the current third generation mobile phone networks which need base stations every few miles. "We're talking about a 400 to 500 percent improvement in range," Bobier said, adding that this was still much better than Flash-OFDM, also touted as a rural area broadband system. XG Technology, the Florida-based company which owns xMax, is in discussions with several chip makers and equipment makers to build the hardware. Radio chips for devices should be in the $5-$6 range when built in volume while base stations will be around $350,000. Those prices are competitive considering the range covered. LOW FREQUENCY BANDS Stuart Schwartz, an electrical engineering professor at Princeton University, said xMax is not an efficient system to transport data through the airwaves, "but it is doing it in a benign way. You won't even know it's there. It's very clever." The advantage is not only that radio spectrum can be used twice and that xMax needs no special radio band of its own, but especially that it can sit in the valuable low frequency bands which characteristically carry very far and through buildings. Other new broadband Internet technologies, such as WiMAX and Flash-OFDM, need dedicated radio frequency bands. If they are situated in frequency ranges above 1 Gigahertz, the signal has trouble penetrating buildings and other obstacles, or traveling over distances longer than a few miles. "We offer long range as well as high speed," Bobier said. The radio technology can also be used in higher frequencies, and even in wired systems, but the company aims at low frequency wireless networks first. "The sweet spot for xMax happens to be in the lower frequencies," said Rick Mooers, executive chairman of XG Technology. Bobier found a way to put one bit of data on one radio frequency cycle and recover that weak signal with a newly invented filter. If xMax uses a powerful carrier signal -- which does require a dedicated, albeit very narrow radio band -- it can even extend its range and capacity. The first xMax network is currently being built in Miami and Fort Lauderdale where one base station can deliver broadband Internet over a 40 square mile area. The capacity of that wireless network is not bigger than any other wireless technology, which means that more base stations need to be added if a certain number of people are using the network -- typically several hundreds to a 1,000 users. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Al-Jazeera Launching All-English Channel for United States Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 13:09:42 -0500 By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer Al-Jazeera is nothing if not bold. It has fought repeatedly with Washington, which says its exclusive broadcasts of Osama bin Laden speeches show an anti-American, pro-terrorist bias. Its freewheeling broadcasts have decimated state-run TV stations across much of the Arab world, leading some countries to close its bureaus down. So what does such a network do next? Plan a massive expansion. By March, the network will launch Al-Jazeera International, a satellite channel that will beam English-language news to the United States -- and much of the rest of the world -- from its base in tiny Qatar. The ever-contentious Middle East will be its specialty. And the news, including coverage of Israel, will be served up from an Arab perspective, Al-Jazeera executives say. With a touch of the evangelist, perhaps, the station's executives say their mission is nothing less than reversing the dominant flow of global information, which now originates on TV channels in the West. They will be looking especially at Fox News and CNN. "We're the first news channel based in the Mideast to bring news back to the West," said Nigel Parsons, managing director of Al-Jazeera International. "We want to set a different news agenda." The station's research shows some of the world's one billion English speakers, including Americans, thirst for news from a non-Western perspective. Outside America, the station plans to compete with CNN International and BBC World, the two chief English-language satellite news channels, as well as at Fox News. The new station will be headquartered in Doha and operate broadcast newsrooms in London, Washington and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But breaking into the U.S. market, with its established channels, might be more difficult. The station's anti-American reputation may win some early "curiosity" viewers, Parsons said. Overall, Al-Jazeera executives contend negative American opinions are based on "irrational and erroneous information from CNN, BBC and Fox News." For instance, Parsons said, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld lambasted the station for showing beheadings by Iraqi insurgents. Actually, Al-Jazeera has aired portions of insurgent videos but as of yet, never a beheading in progress, he said. Another irritant is Al-Jazeera's often-gory coverage of Iraq from both perspectives. Before it was banned, the network embedded reporters with both Iraqi insurgents and with U.S. troops. Nevertheless, Americans have shown curiosity. Al-Jazeera's English- language Web site gets most of its traffic from U.S. visitors, Parsons said. In the end, Al-Jazeera might coax viewers from an elite segment of American TV watchers, perhaps those who tune into the BBC, some observers say. But most Americans want to be comforted by the news, not challenged by it, said Jon Alterman, who heads the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. If Al-Jazeera is a tough sell in the United States, it has natural audiences elsewhere. The world counts 1.2 billion Muslims, most of whom don't speak Arabic. That means Al-Jazeera stands to find quick popularity in countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia. Alterman believes Al-Jazeera will help unite the world's far-flung Muslim communities, giving them a common, alleged truthful news source. That's not necessarily what the station is after. "We're not a Muslim channel," said Parsons, a Briton who, like many Al-Jazeera Interna- tional staff, does not speak Arabic. Indeed, the station is even less popular with governments in Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Tunisia, which currently ban it. Those countries' rulers suggest it incites violence by giving airtime to opposition politicians and radical clerics. At one time or another, Al-Jazeera has had bureaus closed in 18 countries and its signal blocked in 30. Its revenues still suffer under an advertising boycott, believed to originate from Saudi government pressure. The station has had three bureaus destroyed by bombings, two of which were destroyed by the U.S. military. Two staff in Iraq have been killed. Two others were locked in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and released without charge. A third is being tried in Spain on charges of working for the al-Qaida terrorist group. Yet because it is based in Qatar, an energy-rich Persian Gulf country of less than a million, the station has little opportunity to upset its home government. "They're in a unique position," said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "They can criticize everybody." Arab viewers who previously had only staid state-run broadcasters to watch have apparently liked that, flocking to the station since its 1996 debut. It now reaches more than 40 million viewers, and if it weren't for the advertising boycott, Al-Jazeera's network would bring in some $35 million in yearly ad revenue, enough to wean it from Qatar government money, said managing director Wadah Khanfar. The station is expected to be privatized in a few years. But as long as it remains close to the Qatari royal family, the boycott poses few funding worries. Yet despite its protests to the contrary, Al-Jazeera is already softening its aggressive coverage of Saudi Arabia and other countries, Alani believes. The reason? It must regain access to those countries to boost its English broadcasts, Alani said. "If you're banned from half the Arab world, your ability to break news is limited, but some of that will be made up by USA viewers we win over from Fox and CNN on American cable systems", Alani said. On the Net: http://english.aljazeera.net Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: NASA Cheers Probe's Direct Hit on Comet Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 13:24:17 -0500 By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer It sounded like science fiction -- NASA scientists used a space probe to chase down a speeding comet 83 million miles away and slammed it into the frozen ball of dirty ice and debris in a mission to learn how the solar system was formed. The unmanned probe of the Deep Impact mission collided with Tempel 1, a pickle-shaped comet half the size of Manhattan, late Sunday as thousands of people across the country fixed their eyes to the southwestern sky for a glimpse. The impact at 10:52 p.m. PDT was cause for celebration not only to scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, but also for the more than 10,000 people camped out at Hawaii's Waikiki Beach to watch it on a giant movie screen. "It's almost like one of those science fiction movies," said Steve Lin, a Honolulu physician. The cosmic smash-up did not significantly alter the comet's orbit around the sun and NASA said the experiment does not pose any danger to Earth -- unlike the scary comet headed for Earth in the 1998 movie, "Deep Impact." Scientists at mission control erupted in applause and exchanged hugs as a voice on a speaker proclaimed, "Team, we got a confirmation." It was a milestone for the U.S. space agency, because no other space mission has flown this close to a comet. In 2004, NASA's Stardust craft flew within 147 miles of Comet Wild 2 en route back to Earth carrying interstellar dust samples. "A lot of people said we couldn't do this or wouldn't be able to pull it off," said Rick Grammier, the mission's project manager. "It happened like clockwork and I think that's something to be proud of on America's birthday." Rough images by the mothership that released the probe on its suicide mission 24 hours earlier showed a bright white flash from the comet upon impact, which hurled a cloud of debris into space. When the dust settles, scientists hope to peek inside the comet's frozen core -- a composite of ice and rock left over from the early solar system. In Darmstadt, Germany, David Southwood of the European Space Agency congratulated NASA and controllers erupted into applause upon impact. "The Deep Impact mission brought the world together in an excellent opportunity to make a new step into the advancement of cometary science," he said. The European agency was observing and photographing the comet collision with its Rosetta spacecraft, which will attempt to rendezvous with a comet in 2014. "I had some doubts, quite frankly, but it was quite spectacular and a deserved success," said Manfred Warhaut, who heads ESA's Rosetta mission. "The whole thing was so flawlessly put in place and executed it deserves some respect." The camera of the Deep Impact probe temporarily blacked out twice, probably from being sandblasted by comet debris, NASA scientists said. Still, the probe -- on battery power and tumbling toward the comet, using thrusters to get a perfect aim -- took pictures right up to the final moments, revealing crater-like features. The last image was taken three seconds before impact. The energy produced from the impact was equivalent to exploding five tons of dynamite and it caused the comet to shine six times brighter than normal. Scientists had compared the barrel-shaped probe's journey to standing in the middle of the road and being hit by a semi-truck roaring at 23,000 mph. They expect the crater left behind to be anywhere from the size of a large house to a football stadium and between two and 14 stories deep. Soon after the crash on the comet's sunlit side, the mothership prepared to approach Tempel 1 to peer into the crater site and send more data back to Earth. The spacecraft was to fly within 310 miles of the comet before activating its dust shields to protect itself from a blizzard of debris. Comets are frozen balls of dirty ice, rock and dust that orbit the sun. A giant cloud of gas and dust collapsed to create the sun and planets about 4.5 billion years ago and comets formed from the leftover building blocks of the solar system. NASA's fleet of space telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope, and dozens of ground observatories recorded the impact. Deep Impact launched Jan. 12 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its 268 million-mile voyage. Scientists say the choice of the mission name was a coincidence and not inspired by the movie. On the Net: Deep Impact mission: http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Bill Subject: T-Mobile AOL IM settings? Date: 4 Jul 2005 08:24:05 -0700 Hello, I'm trying to re-configure a V220 phone for T-Mobile service. The AIM application which came with the (originally not T-Mobile) phone requires the following manually configured settings, which T-Mobile customer support cannot get me: GPS APN: _________ User Name: (for all tmobile users of wap): ______________ Password: (for all WAP login): _______________ IM Server: _________________ IM Port: ________ Post URL: ________________ Anyone know these, please? Bill ------------------------------ From: JeffW Subject: Panasonic T7436 and K1234 Date: 4 Jul 2005 10:01:32 -0700 I want to use Outlook to place calls for me through the modem and through the above phone system. The call gets made with no problem, however I can not pickup the extension. How can I get around this? ------------------------------ From: Chasman Subject: Calling Packet8 Virtual Office Users Date: 3 Jul 2005 13:24:42 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I currently use Vonage and I am thinking of switching to Packet8. The functionality I need is quite simple. I need 4 phones. One central line. But this is the most important. I want people who call in to be able to route themselves by either their interest and or the name of the person they want. Can it do this? ie Press 1 for support (it then goes on a hunt through three extensions and then on to VM) Press 2 for Sales (it goes onto one extension and then onto voice mail) Press 3 for a name directory Etc Then route the call appropriately. Please any information is greatly appreciated. Regards, Chasman ------------------------------ From: Chasman Subject: Direcway Internet Experience Anyone? Date: 3 Jul 2005 13:27:05 -0700 Does anyone have experience of the Direcway 2 way satellite internet connection? Can you share your experiences? Please any information is greatly appreciated. Regards, Chasman ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2005 19:33:49 -0400 In article , choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com says: > Ten years ago I happened to discover a potential of 0.25 VAC between > the grounding electrode under my electrical entrance and the one under > my telephone entrance. To protect my computer from lightning, I > bonded them with twenty feet of wire. It paid off in 1998 when > lightning struck a tree thirty feet from my electrical entrance. I > was online and suffered no damage. > A telco man restored service by replacing a fuse on the utility pole. > When I asked the company's policy on bonding, he beat around the bush > twenty minutes before saying the electrical code required it but the > telco didn't like it because they would have to replace more fuses. > Neighbors went online five years ago. Each time they've lost a modem > or surge protector, they have asked me for an explanation and I've > told them ground surges will keep getting them until they clamp a wire > between their phone and power electrodes. They have always ignored my > advice. > I was online Monday during a quiet rain when lightning hit my chimney, > blowing masonry and shingles sixty feet in all directions. My screen > froze with a weird tint, but things were fine when I restarted. That weird tint was the monitor being influenced by the magnetic field generated by the lightning strike. Sort of like moving a large speaker near the monitor, except in this case it was probably several orders of magnitude higher. Your monitor probably degausses when powered on so that's why it cleared. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 12:25:25 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes > Article 250.54 of the NEC says local supplemental grounding > electrodes (such as the one for phone service) must be bonded to > the primary electrode. Where does the NEC apply? According to > what the telco man admitted seven years ago, I assume our county > code says the same thing. As I understand it the NEC applies in any state, county or local jurisdiction which has adopted it -- which is most. There may be local codes which explicitly amend any NEC requirement though. Which edition of the NEC are you looking at? In the 2002 edition article 250.54 relates to supplementary electrodes which MAY be bonded, not MUST. 250.58 does seem to correspond with 250.54 in earlier editions though, so that could be the section you are looking at. Chapter 8 of the NEC also relates specifically to communication systems. Article 800.40(D) in the 2002 edition states: QUOTE Bonding of Electrodes. A bonding jumper not smaller than 6 AWG copper or equivalent shall be connected between the communications grounding electrode and power grounding electrode system at the building or structure served where separate electrodes are used. /QUOTE > Is this a recent addition to the NEC? No. I don't know how far back the requirement goes, but the 1971 NEC says much the same thing in article 800-31(b)(7): QUOTE Bonding of Electrodes. A bond not smaller than No. 6 copper or equivalent shall be placed between the communication and power grounding electrodes where the requirements of (5) above result in the use of separate electrodes. /QUOTE Disclaimer: Being British I'm just an outside observer to the NEC. I could post your query in a Stateside electrical forum where we have some NEC experts though, if you wish. - Paul ------------------------------ From: John Hines Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 15:24:13 -0500 Organization: www.jhines.org Choreboy wrote: > Is this a recent addition to the NEC? How is a citizen supposed to find > out local code requirements? How is a citizen supposed to know his > electrodes are not bonded or that it's necessary? If the telco assures > a customer that there is nothing wrong with grounding which in fact is a > code violation, does the telco have any liability? Local codes are based on the NEC, for example town XYZ has adopted (made into law) NEC code YYYY. The NEC does get revised periodically, 2002 the most recent. Grounding and bonding have been revised in the last few years. In summary, the service entrance has to have a ground rod installed, and this is bonded to the electrical system at one and only place at the main box, this is the grounded conductor aka neutral. Additional #6 bonding wires are required from the main panel over to where the water service enters, if you have metal service. Furthermore large metal objects, like a cast iron tub, need to be bonded to everything else, if metal piping doesn't do it already. The idea is to bond all the items together into a single unified circuit, which is grounded by the rod into the ground. The NEC does call for the ability to connect up the phone and other systems to the grounding electrode system, with #10 cu wire. The codes only apply to people when they build, rebuild or remodel, so it is more up to pulling permits and getting inspections, that enforces the codes. ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Calling Packet8 Virtual Office Users Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2005 16:38:44 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Chasman wrote: > What I want to know is how sophisticated is the IVR on the virtual > office. I need to basically be able to have some one choose between > support, sales or a name directory and then do a call hunt on support > or sales. > That's can we do it and do it reliably? I came across this site http://www.nuvio.com/centrex.php on www.dslreports.com and thought you might find it interesting. They seem to get pretty good reviews there, but I don't know anything about them. ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2005 21:17:56 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory (http://www.speedfactory.net) >> Here I think there is a market for cell phone *detectors*. Cell >> phones transmit every few minutes even when you're not making or >> receiving a call, in order to keep the tower apprised of where they >> are. "Turn off your cell phone" could have more teeth if equipment >> were in use to detect cell phones that were still turned on. > How do you figure? My phone *never* gets turned off. Period. Not in > theatres, not in churches, not in other places of public assembly. You'd better turn it off on airplanes and near sensitive electronic equipment when told to. It transmits every few minutes even when you are not using it and it is not making noise, as long as it's turned on. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 03:07:29 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications shwekhaw wrote: > DO NOT USE CINGULAR GO PHONE!! I had a lot of problems with GO Phone > and know another two people who are getting ripped off. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You could have been telling my story. I > have _two_ Cingular phones; the one works okay with an _Independence, > KS_ 620-330 number. The other phone is a former AT&T (now Cingular > Prepaid phone I think it is called 'Free to Go'.) Both phones are the > older digital Nokia 5165 phones, the difference is only that one is > prepaid via AT&T, the other is a 'regular' cell phone. Starting Friday, > the prepaid phone quit fuctioning. It has a Wichita KS 316-841 number > on it, with, I might add, twenty dollars in credit. Cingular customer > service, which appears to be located in India these days, absolutely > insisted I could not have a prepaid wireless phone since they had no > wireless coverage in my area. They said "as soon as you get back in > the Wichita area, your phone will start working again." I asked them > if that was so, then (if the towers could not reach me) why wasn't > voice mail kicking in to take the messages? They just kept repeating > their stupid answer: because we have no service in your area. I > finally said 'being an ignorant ##*@ based in your native land > somewhere, you probably would not know much about our cell phones > here.' They had just a few minutes earlier taken a twenty five dollar > payment from my credit card. Those Cingular/AT&T/SBC customer service > reps are so incredibly stupid it is beyond my comprehension. I said > well, if you do not have service in my area, then please arrange to > refund the twenty dollars you just now took on my account. And > wouldn't you know it, the sweet dear little Indian lady who referred > to herself as 'employee ID 627' insisted 'we do not give any refunds > on prepaid service'. You will this time, I told her, Small Claims > Court here in Montgomery County is just four block down the street > from my house, and I do not have to sue you in California or Texas > or India or wherever, _I just sue your local resale agent here in > Independence_. Hopefully your superiors will screw up and not make > any response to the suit. She finally came up with a post office > box address (no phone nor fax nor email address available) for some > entity called 'Cingular Free to Go' in Anaheim Hills, CA and I fired > off a letter to them yesterday making demand for the return of my > money _or_ preferably, a working phone with my 316-841 number since > someone else told me the only service they will now initiate in > 620 is GSM. I will tell you, if Ignorance was Bliss, then Cingular > customer service people would be the happiest in the world. PAT] I have been a Cingular customer for about 19 months now. I have the lowest monthly plan that includes rollover minutes. I just upgraded my phone. Although I was not eligible they graciously allowed the upgrade since I also bought a Bluetooth wireless headset. That was done in-person in a company store (I have learned to avoid agency stores like the plague and the Cingular web site makes that distinction in the store selection page. I also have recently had several phone contacts with customer service and each contact has been pleasant and helpful. After the last contact a survey organization contacted me to question me about my satisfaction with the latest phone contact to customer service. I have found Cingular's customer service to be far better than when I signed on a year and a half ago. Perhaps they don't like to deal with pay-as-you-go or prepaid phones. But, my experience has been good, and I go in thinking they will be lousy. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, here an an interesting anomaly. My experience with Cingular Wireless _on the 'regular service' side_ is also very good. A couple minor items of confusion now and then; (my service is billed and paid for in the Chicago area, but permanently used in the Tulsa market. Some of the reps seem to have a hard time understanding _why_ I am paid for out of Chicago, but with a 'Tulsa Market' [of which s.e. Kansas is part] area 620 number.) Once we deal with that, then they otherwise are very effecient. But it is the _prepaid_ side I have hassles with. Now I would think that a prepaid customer was the best possible customer; no credit problems for the company to worry about; they probably have a few million dollars in effect 'loaned' to them on a revolving basis each day that they do not yet have to account for. As with the bank float time on money orders: Amex and others have your money for a few days to use as they wish until the money order gets presented for payment. I don't know about you, but if one or more persons wanted to loan me a few million dollars -- for a couple days, or even several hours -- I'd be quite happy, and would use that interest-free loan to make a lot more money, even in just a day or so. I would not hassle customers like that; I would encourage more of them. But the greedy money order people want a 'handling fee' for their thing, and the cellular phone companies tack on all kinds of stipulations on their prepaid service also. How many of you get paid in advance for a job you are supposed to do, which your employer may not even ask for. How many of you are in a position to refuse to return such money (under those paid for in advance conditions) in the event your employer changes his mind? To add insult to injury, the cell phone people even route their prepaid customers through some idiot service bureau in an international place. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Justa Lurker Subject: Re: Ombudsman on N. Korea Food story Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:24:54 GMT > Anyway, have a happy Independence Day, and wish for a time > (hopefully in our lifetimes) when there will be _true independence > for all_ in this land; not just the ones who say the right words and > have the right thoughts. PAT] No one is stopping you (or anyone else) from leaving. So if you are so unhappy and dissatisfied here in the USA as you seem to be based upon your constant snide comments and whining, then by all means I suggest you move to some other country more to your liking. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You make a very good point there. Canada would be an excellent choice, as would Switzerland. Because I personally feel more 'Americanized' in attitude and culture, I suppose Canada would be a better choice for me. (Well, _most_ provinces, that is, there is a notable exception to that rule). Canada is affording full freedom to _all_ its citizens; there are no second-class residents there, as happens in the USA. And although I _could_ move to Canada and continue to receive my (USA-based) Social Security Disability and Retirement payments, and I have been invited by friends to migrate there, there are some serious obstacles: because my health is so very poor (why in the hell I did not _just die_ in the brain aneurysm I do not understand; that is a common result of those things) I am much too unsteady on my feet to get that far without a _lot_ of help in the moving process. If you went around all the time in a chronic, constant state of 'dizzyness' you'd know of what I am speaking. Had I known in 1995 or even 1998 what I know and believe about the USA _today_ I would probably have hopped on a bus and migrated to northern Ontario or perhaps the eastern provinces; but smart we grow too late and very sickly too soon. November, 1999 (Black Tuesday) was probably the end of the line for me relocating anywhere. My brother, Dan, the relatively well-to-do commercial artist in Chicago has offered to pick me up here at my home, move me, lock-stock-and-barrel back to Chicago to live, but I told him that was an insane idea. Even if I somehow had the money to survive in that town (rents alone three to five times higher than here; he paid a little over 250 thousand for the condo he and his wife and child live in) I am not sure I would have the stomach to deal with the politics of the place. I imagine I could induce him to pick me up, and move me to Canada as well, but I just would not impose in that way. If it were still 1995 or 1998 I would not have to ask him. I was making sort of semi-regular trips to visit friends in New York and San Francisco and Los Angeles every couple weekends back in the 1960's, so I do know how to get around. I was even in this general area (Junction City, Kansas at Fort Riley Army Base) -- had gotten there on my own -- when the brain aneurysm struck me down in 1999. The last movie Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made was in 1950; it was called 'Utopia' and was about them being ship-wrecked on a desert island with two other guys. It was an ideal place to live, but since I cannot live in Utopia, nor even the village of 'Perfect' as the man on TV-Land talks about,(although _he_ had to settle for having a 24/7 Walgreens nearby), I had to compromise by living here in the little town of Independence, where all things being equal, conditions are rather good; a magical little town which is a hybrid cross between Utopia and the mythical village of 'Perfect', and by golly, we are even getting our very own 24/7 Walgreens at 10th and Main Streets downtown, due to open in November. They are building it, fresh from the ground up now. They tore down and relocated the two businesses which were there to further west on Main Street, out by Walmart. Considering I was born in this general vicinity, and had honestly considered retiring here (although the brain aneurysm made some premature adjust- ments to _my_ timetable), I somehow get by okay. As much as I would love to live in Canada (or even Switzerland) I guess I will endure rural southeast Kansas. But thanks for the suggestion. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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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 V24 #307 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jul 5 14:11:00 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 12F8B15001; Tue, 5 Jul 2005 14:11:00 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #308 Message-Id: <20050705181100.12F8B15001@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 14:11:00 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.5 required=2.0 tests=BAD_CREDIT,BAYES_00,FOR_FREE, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 5 Jul 2005 14:10:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 308 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Lisa Minter) Nasty Virus Writers Get Even Nastier (Lisa Minter) Pirated Live 8 DVDs on E-Bay; Music Industry Complains (Lisa Minter) Microsoft Ready to Discuss RSS Security (Lisa Minter) IBM Lawsuit Against Microsoft (Lisa Minter) Time to Explode the Internet (Lisa Minter) Deutsche Telekom Mulls T-Mobile USA Sale (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Harvard Project to Scan Millions of Medical Files (Monty Solomon) Saluting Thumbs in Perpetual Motion (Monty Solomon) Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Bob Vaughan) Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Don Shoemaker) Re: VoIP Phone Home? (Marc Popek) Re: Ombudsman on N. Korea Food story (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone (Lisa Hancock) 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: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:28:36 -0500 By M.P. DUNLEAVEY ABOUT two weeks ago, I was alarmed by a phone message from my bank alerting me to some "unusual activity" on my debit card. Unusual wasn't the word. Someone had gone on a shopping spree -- $556.46 and $650.81 at one store, $264.99 and $300 in charges that were pending at another -- and none of it was mine. My debit card was still in my wallet. I hadn't used it in days. The bank said thieves might have created a counterfeit card. Someone -- a store clerk, waiter, whoever -- could have used a card reader to harvest the information imbedded in the magnetic strip to create a fake one. The bank assured me the debit account was closed and the thieves no longer had access to my cash -- but who could be sure? How much of my personal information did these thieves get? Between bouts of tears and frantic phone calls to my bank, I became obsessed with what I might have done to prevent this. The recent spate of data breaches was worrisome, but I never expected to become a victim. Maybe I should have. Companies like Citigroup, Bank of America, ChoicePoint and LexisNexis have lost, misplaced or otherwise exposed the personal information of tens of millions of Americans. Even the government concedes it lost records containing the Social Security numbers of more than a million employees. UNFORTUNATELY, although there are steps you can take to protect yourself -- and you should -- there are no guarantees. "You cannot protect yourself completely," said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington. "The best thing you can do is react swiftly if it does happen." That said, Mr. Mierzwinski endorsed the preventive measures offered by Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (www.privacyrights.org), a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, and by the Identity Theft Resource Center (www.idtheftcenter.org), also a nonprofit. Besides the standard advice to shred personal documents, following are some tips I found useful: -- Avoid letting your cards out of your sight. Do not let store clerks take your card away on the pretext that there's a "problem." -- Restrict the access to your personal data by signing up for the National Do Not Call Registry (www.donotcall.gov); remove your name and address from the phone book and reverse directories -- and, most important, from the marketing lists of the credit bureaus to reduce credit card solicitations. The site www.optoutprescreen.com can help. -- Consider freezing your credit report, an option available in a growing number of states. Freezing prevents anyone from opening up a new credit file in your name (a password lets you gain access to it), and it doesn't otherwise affect your credit rating. -- Protect your home computer with a firewall, especially if you have a high-speed connection. -- Rein in your Social Security number. Remove it from your checks, insurance cards and driver's license. Ask your bank not to use it as your identification number. Refuse to give your Social Security number to merchants, and be careful even with medical providers. The only time you are required by law to give your number, Mr. Mierzwinski said, is when a company needs it for government purposes, like tax matters, Social Security and Medicare. -- Curtail electronic access to your bank accounts. Pay bills through snail mail. Avoid linking your checking to savings. Use a credit card for purchases rather than a debit card. Although I was able to get all $1,772.26 reimbursed, I was lucky. While individual liability for fraudulent credit card purchases is only $50, it can be higher for debit cards: up to $500 or even all the money in your account in some cases. These and other preventive steps may help, but people really can't safeguard their money and their data on their own. Robert Douglas, the chief executive of PrivacyToday.com, a privacy advocate, believes that this is not an issue of consumer responsibility but of corporate negligence. "These companies are trying to tell people it's their fault, but the largest breaches have been within the financial services industry itself," Mr. Douglas said. Mr. Douglas and Mr. Mierzwinski say that shredding documents is fine, but calling your state and local representatives is better. "Companies have refused to give consumers control over their financial DNA and they've refused to take responsibility for their actions," Mr. Mierzwinski said. "What will stop identity theft are stronger notification laws and stronger penalties, which we don't have now." M. P. Dunleavey writes about personal finance for MSN Money. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Read New York Times on line each day with no login nor registration requirements at: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Nasty Virus Writers Get Even Nastier Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:30:51 -0500 by Jay Wrolstad, cio-today.com Malware practitioners are more prolific than ever these days and have reached a level of sophistication where the viruses they produce can spread across the Internet in minutes, according to a new report by security specialist Sophos. Thus far this year, Sophos has detected nearly 8,000 new viruses, up 59 percent from the first six months of last year. At the same time, the average time from initial release to widespread infection is decreasing rapidly. According to Sophos, there now is a 50 percent chance of being infected by an Internet worm in just 12 minutes of being online with an unprotected Windows PC. Money To Be Made For users, the latest virus report should serve as an incentive to be more diligent with security patches and other software updates, said Gregg Mastoras, senior security analyst at Sophos. Mastoras attributes the potential profits from spyware and other attacks that let hackers obtain information -- such as bank-account data or credit-card numbers -- as a primary reason for the rise in virus activity. In fact, he said, Sophos has seen a threefold increase in the number of keylogging Trojans so far this year. Once planted, these keyloggers run in the background and monitor a user's keystrokes, feeding passwords and other personal information back to the Trojan writer. Zafi, Sober Worms Top the List The long-running Zafi-D worm accounts for more than a quarter of all viruses reported to Sophos thus far this year. Dominating the top of the monthly virus charts for the first four months, this worm circulates under the guise of a Christmas greeting to trick users into opening an infected attachment. "Protection against this worm has been around for a while, but infections are still being reported, which means consumers are not protecting themselves," said Mastoras. The Sober-N worm also is nasty. Primarily, it uses file-sharing networks for distribution, then hides in the background of infected PCs before upgrading itself to a newer version to churn out spam from compromised machines. Sophos noted that traditional PC threats seem to be consolidating, which makes it difficult to identify certain kinds of attacks as being spam, spyware or virus. Some Trojans, for example, infect user machines to engage in several kinds of malicious activities. Moving Beyond Microsoft While the ubiquity of Windows-based PCs makes them the preferred target, Mastoras said virus writers seeking personal information are showing greater interest in Linux, Unix and Mac systems. As a result, businesses and others using alternative operating systems -- on desktops or servers -- should not let down their guard in the belief that they are not vulnerable to attack, he said. "It's important for all users to update their OS with the latest patches and to use antivirus applications," Mastoras said. Copyright 2005 NewsFactor Network, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, NewsFactor Network. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Pirated Live 8 DVDs on eBay, Industry Protests Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:33:39 -0500 Internet auction site eBay said on Tuesday it had begun removing illegal DVD copies of the Live 8 poverty awareness pop concerts from its Web site, after the record industry complained. Some of the pirate recordings on the site early on Tuesday were on sale within 24 hours of Saturday's concerts ending, and have been attracting bids of up to 16.99 pounds ($31) each. One of them boasts footage from huge concerts in London's Hyde Park and Philadelphia. Ten concerts took place in all, from Tokyo in the east to near Toronto in the west, and more than a million people turned up to see the greatest line-up of rock stars ever assembled. While the concerts were free, British media said record company EMI (EMI.L) paid millions of pounds for the rights to release the official DVD of the event, which Bob Geldof organized to put pressure on world leaders to do more to beat poverty. "There are too many people out there who believe music is for stealing, regardless of the wishes of artists and the people who invest in them," said David Martin, director of anti-piracy at the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). "Sadly we are not at all surprised by this incident." EBay said it had begun removing the listings. "The unauthorized copies of Live 8 DVDs we have been told about have been taken down, because the sale of fake items is not permitted on eBay.co.uk," the site said in a statement. EBay has already been labeled an "electronic pimp" by Geldof after free Live 8 tickets appeared on the site ahead of Saturday's concerts. It suspended some of the accounts of users who placed hoax bids for the tickets of up to 10 million pounds in order to sabotage the sales. Geldof also organized the Live Aid charity gigs 20 years ago to raise money for Ethiopian famine victims, and brought out a re-recording of the 1984 "Do They Know It's Christmas?" track to try to prevent bootleggers profiting from the original. The BPI urged eBay to toughen its safeguards against piracy, noting a dramatic rise in illegal sales. In 2001, the BPI arranged for the removal of 2,315 illegal online auctions, but in the first six months of this year that number had risen to 13,280. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Microsoft Ready to Discuss RSS Security Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:35:31 -0500 Robert McMillan, IDG News Service Microsoft will be taking a closer look at the security of a new Web publishing technology it plans to integrate into the next major version of Windows, code-named Longhorn. Microsoft plans to offer ways for developers to use the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) standard to create Windows applications, but the company first wants to talk about the security implications of such a move. Developers should expect to discuss RSS security at Microsoft's upcoming Professional Developers Conference, to be held in Los Angeles this September, says Robert Scoble, a Microsoft technical evangelist writing in a recent Web log posting. "This is something we all need to do a lot of thinking and work on," he says. RSS is now used primarily as a way of letting Web surfers know when new articles have been posted to Web sites, but they must use special software in order to view and subscribe to RSS feeds. With Longhorn, expected in the second half of 2006, that capability will be built into the operating system. Microsoft will also provide new developer tools so that developers can more easily build Windows applications that use the protocol. Cause for Concern? Microsoft declined to say what, if any security concerns it has about RSS, but observers say that once it is included in Windows, RSS will be a much more appealing target to attackers. Jupiter Research estimates that the protocol is used by about six percent of U.S. consumers, but once it is embedded in Windows that number will jump substantially. As Web browsers and e-mail clients moved into the mainstream, so too did worms and viruses, says Rich Miller, an analyst with Netcraft. Some are concerned that the same pattern may emerge with RSS readers, he says. "Once that becomes a technology that's on everybody's desktop and can be accessed using the Windows operating system, that changes the dynamic quite substantially." Though there haven't yet been any major security risks associated with RSS, which is generally considered more secure than many other Web technologies, security may become more of an issue as RSS begins to be used for a wider variety of tasks. "We have an opportunity to look at ways we could build into RSS some of the security features that we wished had been present in e-mail," says Phillip Hallam-Baker, principal scientist with VeriSign. Phishing, for example, could become a problem as new applications are developed for RSS, he says. "At the moment, I don't see that there is a phishing issue with RSS," he says. "However, if banks start using it to distribute statements, it may become an issue." "The more automation that people have built in [to RSS] the more places that you might have somebody work out some dirty trick," Hallam-Baker says. "Are we going to make sure we've locked down as many rat holes as we could have done, or are we going to find that if we'd put better security in there, we'd be happier with the result?" he asks. Copyright 2005 PC World Communications, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, PC World Communications, Inc. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: IBM Lawsuit Against Microsoft Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:37:19 -0500 IBM Wins $850M Settlement vs. Microsoft By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer BOSTON - IBM Corp. will get $775 million in cash and $75 million worth of software from Microsoft Corp. to settle claims still lingering from the federal government's antitrust case against Microsoft in the 1990s, the companies announced Friday. The payout is one of the largest that Microsoft has made to settle an antitrust-related case. And it brings the software giant closer to moving on from claims involving technologies long since eclipsed. IBM was pressing for restitution for the "discriminatory treatment" that U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson cited when he ruled in 2000 that Microsoft had broken antitrust law. IBM and Microsoft once had a trailblazing collaborative relationship, dating to Big Blue's historic decision in 1981 to have Microsoft write software for the original IBM PCs. Later, IBM and Microsoft would jointly create the OS/2 operating system. But the partnership soured, and Microsoft eventually focused on Windows and left OS/2 development to IBM. In the mid-1990s, IBM irked Microsoft by selling PCs that were loaded with OS/2 as an alternative to Windows and with its SmartSuite productivity software, a rival for Microsoft Office programs. IBM also backed Java, a programming language that doesn't need Windows to run. Jackson noted that Microsoft retaliated by charging IBM more than other PC makers for copies of Windows. There were other tactics. Months before Windows 95 came out, Microsoft let other PC companies pre-install the operating system on new computers that could go on sale right after the launch. But IBM got its license only 15 minutes before the event. As a result, many customers eager for the latest software opted for machines made by IBM's rivals. Since Windows 95 arrived in August, IBM missed out on back-to-school sales and lost "substantial revenue," Jackson wrote. IBM didn't sue Microsoft over the findings, but kept the right to do so under a 2003 agreement between the companies. Similar talks led to a $150 million settlement with Gateway Inc. in April. Separately, Microsoft has spent more than $3 billion in recent years settling lawsuits by rivals, including a $1.6 billion deal with Sun Microsystems Inc. in 2004 and a $750 million truce with America Online, part of Time Warner Inc., in 2003. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft still faces legal challenges, including a lawsuit by RealNetworks Inc. and an appeal of a $600 million antitrust ruling by European regulators. Though software maker Novell Inc. reached a $536 million settlement with Microsoft in November, Novell got a judge's approval last month to proceed with a separate antitrust suit over the WordPerfect word-processing program. Even so, Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, said he believes antitrust issues are close to being resolved. IBM had been the biggest rival with a pending claim. "This takes us another very significant step forward," he said. "We're entering what I think is the final stage of this process." The $775 million payment will pad IBM's second-quarter earnings, which are due to be released in two weeks. The Armonk, N.Y.-based company is coming off a first-quarter report that included a $1.4 billion profit but fell short of Wall Street's expectations. Microsoft set aside $550 million for antitrust claims in April, during the company's fiscal third quarter. At least part of the IBM payment could result in a charge in the company's fourth quarter; results are expected July 21. IBM shares rose 47 cents to close at $74.67 on the New York Stock Exchange. Microsoft shares fell 13 cents to $24.71 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. When Jackson ruled against Microsoft in 2000, he ordered the company broken into two as punishment. But a year later, the Clinton-era Justice Department having given way to the Bush administration, the government decided not to seek the breakup. The case was settled in 2002. Even with Friday's deal, IBM reserved the right to press claims that its server business was harmed by Microsoft's behavior. But such claims appear unlikely to surface soon. IBM agreed not to seek damages for actions that occurred before mid-2002, meaning the findings in Jackson's ruling would no longer apply. But while much of that case is anachronistic now -- OS/2 faded by the late 1990s, and IBM doesn't even make PCs anymore, having sold the business to China's Lenovo Group Ltd. -- there's still conflict between Microsoft and IBM. Perhaps Microsoft's toughest competitive challenge today comes from the open-source Linux operating system, which has made steady gains especially in overseas markets. Some of Linux's biggest backing has come from IBM. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Time to Explode the Internet? Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:23:28 -0500 An editorial comment from Chicago Tribune, July 4, 2005: In the beginning, the Internet was an experiment among a small group of government scientists and military folks who all seemed to know each other. They were friendly. Then the doors were thrown open to the public, and millions revved their engines and zoomed onto the Internet superhighway. All these technological pioneers marveled at the clever new ways to share information, find out stuff, buy things and connect with others who have common interests. Unowned and virtually unregulated, the Internet functioned for a few years in the mid-1990s under self-governance, a certain live-free-or-die ethic of community responsibility. Most people were still friendly. The Internet's original design rested on the premise that all these new Netizens would be as law-abiding and conscientious in the privacy of their home offices as they would be strolling through a public park. But even savvy computer users aren't monolithic. Some have a dark side. In came the hackers, the viruses, worms, spyware, phishing, and spam; the purveyors of pharmaceuticals and porn sites; and Nairobi bank presidents and generals promising to wire millions of dollars into your bank if you'd kindly give them your account number. According to a Washington Post report last weekend, Carnegie Mellon University CERT Coordination Center logged 3,780 new computer security vulnerabilities in 2004. In 2000 the center logged 1,090. In 1995, it was just 171. Weeks ago, in one of the largest security breaches of the Internet to date, MasterCard International revealed that more than 40 million credit card numbers had been exposed to hackers and potential fraud. "The Internet is stuck in the flower-power days of the 1960s during which people thought the world would be beautiful if you are just nice," computer scientist Karl Auerbach told the Post. Formerly with Cisco Systems Inc., Auerbach now volunteers with engineering groups to try to improve the Internet. Auerbach is part of a handful of groups now looking into whether the entire Internet needs an overhaul, or, in Web-speak, a Version 2.0. What the existence of those groups tacitly acknowledges is that too many people aren't just nice. With more than a billion Internet users across the globe, and nearly everyone who surfs it vulnerable to hazards, a structural overhaul is not an outlandish idea. Copyright 2005, Chicago Tribune 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 12:31:48 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Deutsche Telekom Mulls T-Mobile USA Sale Telecom dailyLead from USTA July 5, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22830&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Deutsche Telekom mulls T-Mobile USA sale BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Broadcom sues Qualcomm * Mobile phone companies eye music business * European telecom market heats up USTA SPOTLIGHT * Just Released: The USTelecom IP Video Implementation & Planning Guide EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * AOL's Live 8 coverage a success REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * P2P, music companies seek new business model Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22830&l=2017006 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 21:56:08 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Harvard Project to Scan Millions of Medical Files By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff Harvard scientists are building a powerful computer system that will use artificial intelligence to scan the private medical files of 2.5 million people at local hospitals, as part of a government-funded effort to find the genetic roots of asthma and other diseases. The $20 million project -- which would probe more deeply and more quickly into medical records than human researchers are capable of -- is designed to find links between patients' DNA and illnesses. Although the effort could raise concerns about privacy, researchers say the new program, called 'I2B2' (for 'Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside) would respect the strict guidelines set out in federal and state laws, and could be a powerful tool for many kinds of research. Hospitals gather huge amounts of information from patients each day -- from blood tests to chest X-rays and brain scans. For decades, researchers have pored through these records and gleaned insights that have helped millions of Americans. Now, the Harvard team hopes to put far more information at the fingertips of researchers, and to speed the process with sophisticated automation. Scientists said the Harvard work and similar efforts elsewhere increase the stakes in the nation's move to medical records stored electronically. With mounting examples of personal financial information being compromised, work such as this will have to be done with extreme care. Scientists also said, however, that if the project is successful, it would be widely copied -- and it could mean that studies that now take months or years could be done in weeks or even minutes. "If we could use routine clinical care to generate new findings without having to do multimillion-dollar studies, that would be a true change in the way medical discovery is done," said Dr. Isaac Kohane, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School who is one of the project's directors. "We want to use the healthcare system as a living laboratory." All of the records -- from patients at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and several Partners HealthCare hospitals -- are protected by multiple layers of security designed to prevent private medical information from being released, the scientists said. None of the information will be sold, said John Glaser, the project's other director, and the chief information officer for Partners HealthCare. Funding for the five-year I2B2 project began in the fall of 2004; researchers are now getting the first hints of success and are forming plans to contact patients. The first study to be carried out under the project is an effort to understand the genetic roots of asthma, which afflicts about 20 million Americans. For reasons that are not well understood, some asthma patients do not respond well to the usual treatments and suffer repeated, frightening attacks that send them to the emergency room, said Dr. Scott Weiss, a scientist at the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital who is leading the asthma team. http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/07/03/harvard_project_to_scan_millions_of_medical_files/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 22:54:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Saluting Thumbs in Perpetual Motion @LARGE By Scott Kirsner ESPN doesn't understand the excitement, and Fox Sports doesn't grasp the inherent danger. The New England Sports Network simply can't appreciate the technique and strategy. That's why none of those channels carried live coverage of the first-ever @Large BlackBerry Invitational Tournament, held last week. Their mistake. This would've been a ratings bonanza. Who cares about baseball or golf when you could be watching a middle manager surreptitiously typing 60 words-per-minute under the conference table during a plodding PowerPoint presentation? Nearly 50 entrants vied for the grand prize: a mention in print, and the right to add a line to one's e-mail signature boasting, 'Winner of the 2005 @Large BlackBerry Invitational.' Proceeds from the competition went to the American Association for the Prevention of Thumb Tendinitis, a painful affliction that sadly ends the careers of many talented BlackBerry users. (Perhaps you'll donate, as there were no proceeds this year.) Two observations led me to launch the tourney.The first was that people with hand-held e-mail devices tend to get obsessed with responsiveness. (I use the term BlackBerry to encompass devices like the PalmOne Treo and the T-Mobile Sidekick, which I'm sure infuriates the legal department at Research In Motion, the Canadian company that makes BlackBerrys.) They volley back answers mere milliseconds after the sender has asked the question.The second observation was that as people have been getting more comfortable with their devices, responses have been getting longer. http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2005/07/04/saluting_thumbs_in_perpetual_motion/ ------------------------------ From: techie@tantivy.tantivy.net (Bob Vaughan) Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 10:48:09 UTC Organization: Tantivy Associates In article , Paul Coxwell wrote: >> Article 250.54 of the NEC says local supplemental grounding >> electrodes (such as the one for phone service) must be bonded to >> the primary electrode. Where does the NEC apply? According to >> what the telco man admitted seven years ago, I assume our county >> code says the same thing. > Which edition of the NEC are you looking at? In the 2002 edition > article 250.54 relates to supplementary electrodes which MAY be > bonded, not MUST. 250.58 does seem to correspond with 250.54 in > earlier editions though, so that could be the section you are looking > at. > Chapter 8 of the NEC also relates specifically to communication systems. > Article 800.40(D) in the 2002 edition states: > QUOTE > Bonding of Electrodes. A bonding jumper not smaller than 6 AWG copper > or equivalent shall be connected between the communications grounding > electrode and power grounding electrode system at the building or > structure served where separate electrodes are used. > /QUOTE >> Is this a recent addition to the NEC? > No. I don't know how far back the requirement goes, but the 1971 NEC > says much the same thing in article 800-31(b)(7): > QUOTE > Bonding of Electrodes. A bond not smaller than No. 6 copper or > equivalent shall be placed between the communication and power grounding > electrodes where the requirements of (5) above result in the use of > separate electrodes. > /QUOTE It looks like 800-31(b)(7) was added after 1965. The 1965 code says, in section 800-31 (b)(5): [QUOTE] Electrode. The grounding conductor shall preferably be connected to a water pipe electrode. Where a water pipe is not readily available and the grounded conductor of the power service is connected to the water pipe at the building, the protector grounding conductor may be grounded to the power service conduit, service equipment enclosures, or grounding conductor of the power service. In the absence of a water pipe, connection may be made to a continuous and extensive underground gas piping system, to an effectively grounded metallic structure, or to a ground rod or pipe driven into permanently damp earth. Steam or hot water pipes, or lightning rod conductors shall not be employed as electrodes for protectors. A driven rod or pipe used for grounding power circuits shall not be used for grounding communication circuits unless the driven rod or pipe is connected to the grounded conductor of a multigrounded neutral power system. The requirements for separate made electrodes for power and lighting system grounds, those for communication systems, and those for a lightning rod installation shall not prohibit the bonding together of all such made electrodes. See Section 250-86. [ It is recommended that all separate electrodes be bonded together to limit potential differences between them ans between their associated wiring systems. ] [/QUOTE] > Disclaimer: Being British I'm just an outside observer to the NEC. I > could post your query in a Stateside electrical forum where we have > some NEC experts though, if you wish.> > - Paul -- Welcome My Son, Welcome To The Machine -- Bob Vaughan | techie @ tantivy.net | | P.O. Box 19792, Stanford, Ca 94309 | -- I am Me, I am only Me, And no one else is Me, What could be simpler? -- ------------------------------ From: Don_Shoemaker@HotMail.com Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes Date: 5 Jul 2005 09:26:46 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com John Hines wrote: > The NEC does get revised periodically, 2002 the most recent. The 2005 version has been out for several months. > Grounding and bonding have been revised in the last few years. In > summary, the service entrance has to have a ground rod installed, and > this is bonded to the electrical system at one and only place at the > main box, this is the grounded conductor aka neutral. A great resource on grounding and anything related to electrical work & the NEC is www.MikeHolt.com. ------------------------------ From: Marc Popek Subject: Re: VoIP Phone Home? Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 22:32:28 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet And some wish to have a VOIP and a PSTN local presence. Why into use a PSTN /VOIP automatic switch so that you can mange both services from a single handset, answering machine etc? Marco http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5786887222&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1 fiatlux wrote in message news:telecom24.299.2@telecom-digest.org: > Written by: Jason Canon > Peach ePublishing LLC > VoIP Phone Home? > The movie Extra Terrestrial (ET) coined the phrase "phone home" and > each year American's look for more cost effective ways to do just > that. The past 10 years have seen the development and growing > popularity of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies to > achieve cost savings over the traditional circuit-switched telephone > networks. The two dominate technologies used for VoIP are: (1) the > Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and (2) Peer-2-Peer (P2P). For > business and educational institutions SIP VoIP solutions have produced > substantial savings. For home voice users, however, SIP VoIP is still > value challenged. > A typical circuit-switched landline phone costs about $19.95 per month > (plus tax). The good old American landline phone should be graphically > depicted beside the word "reliable" in the dictionary. Not only does > it keep working, even when all electrical power fails, but it can even > provide you with a light to dial with. At $15 dollars per month SIP > VoIP is still value challenged due to the lack of full support for > E9-1-1 emergency services and of course the reliability issues > inherent with using a real time application over a "best effort" > network like today's Internet. Although few VoIP articles still > reference Internet Request For Comments (RFC) 3714 "IAB Concerns > Regarding Congestion Control," the technical challenges associated > with VoIP are widely known. Further, even with the recent dubious > edict by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that VoIP service > providers will provision support for E9-1-1 within 90 days, this still > leaves the reliability issues unresolved. The use of adaptive rate > CODEC's to prevent congestion collapse is a swell idea if it applies > to my neighbor's service but not my own. Using adaptive rate CODEC's > to elicit voluntary user preemption has no appeal in the modern world. > Technology is supposed to be getting better and it is clearly not > better that users receive disconnects or degraded service quality in > order to constrain network bandwidth consumption. > Quality of Service (QoS) has been the four letter word of the Internet > for a very long time. Yet, we know that real time applications such as > video and voice are a mismatch for "best effort" service models. Cost > savings are important, but not if they require users to accept > backward technology leaps. After 9/11 the United States should have > begun standardization efforts to insure that VoIP QoS levels would be > equivalent to circuit-switched networks, especially where emergency > E9-1-1 calls are concerned. The recent FCC order only requires that > E9-1-1 call center traffic be properly routed. It does nothing to > insure QoS of the connection once the call is completed. > As for SIP VoIP in the home, there is too little incentive for savvy > consumers to part with more of their hard earned communications > dollars for an industry offering that simply does not meet the needs > of the user. Until something concrete can be done to move SIP VoIP > forward, service based on P2P such as Skype seems to be the only > sensible choice on the kitchen table. Why should home users pay $15 or > more per month for less reliable communications than they already have > with their land line? Skype gives users the ability to experience > "best effort" voice over the Internet for FREE. Could this be the > reason why more than 125 million copies of Skype's P2P software has > been downloaded? And for the occasions where interconnection with the > existing circuit-switched telephone networks is required, Skype offers > a very competitive 2 cents per minute interconnection rate. With Skype > you can talk for 12 =BD hours interconnected to the phone system for > the same cost as a basic rate SIP VoIP service. > Until genuine changes are made to support SIP VoIP QoS there does not > appear to be a convincing or compelling reason today for users to > choose anything other than P2P VoIP services such as Skype to render > Internet "best effort" home phone services. > You can read the complete article and view associated graphics online > at: http://canon.org/VoIP_Phone_Home.html. > Copyright 2005 Peach ePublishing, LLC > Jason Canon has authored numerous technical research papers including: > photonic switching, gigabit networking, VoIP E9-1-1 and others. He is > an expert author for EzineArticles.com. E-mail: Jason Canon at > jmc@canon.org. > 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new > articles daily. ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Ombudsman on N. Korea Food story Date: 5 Jul 2005 04:02:02 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , Justa Lurker wrote: > No one is stopping you (or anyone else) from leaving. So if you are > so unhappy and dissatisfied here in the USA as you seem to be based > upon your constant snide comments and whining, then by all means I > suggest you move to some other country more to your liking. Ah, yes. "Love It or Leave IT". If you don't like being shagged by the power elite, well, TS, Eliot! No criticism allowed! I would point out that the right of dissent is at the core of our country. If that's not acceptable to our esteemed anonymous lurker then I invite him to go live in a country more suited to his beliefs. Oh, wait ... that's what the Administration is making this country! ;-) john- (not afraid to sign his real name) John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, Justa signed his name elsewhere, and he has been around here for awhile, so his screen name is no hassle to me. In fact, John, you may come to regret signing _your_ name to most anything sometime soon. It has been well known for quite a long time now that there are rotten, no-good jackals who read this Telecom Digest each day _just to harvest any real names_ they can find. So I do not fault anyone who feels they need to at least camoflouge their email address these days. If I were not the editor here, and had to stand in the open as a place for guys to write to, I probably would hide my email address also -- in fact, in other instances, I do in other forums, etc. So I seriously doubt that Justa is afraid of any repercussions from _me_ or this forum; more that likely he has been eaten alive so often by spamscam he does not give his real name any more often than necessary. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone Date: 5 Jul 2005 08:56:32 -0700 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now I would think that a prepaid > customer was the best possible customer; no credit problems for the > company to worry about; they probably have a few million dollars in > effect 'loaned' to them on a revolving basis each day that they do > not yet have to account for. To add insult to injury, the cell > phone people even route their prepaid customers through some idiot > service bureau in an international place. PAT] I have heard problems from people using pre-paid phones, such as "Trac" phone (believe it's offered by Verizon). Yes, the service offices were international and no help at all. I don't understand either why the wireless companies treat these ad-hoc customers so poorly. Maybe because they really want the guaranteed $40/month customers and hope they'll spend money on premium services to generate even more profit. I shudder to think what people are paying for cell phone service these days given how often and long they talk, esp teenagers. I hear my cube neighbors yelling at their kids for overuse of txt messaging or other premium services that drove up the bill. Do cell phone plans still charge per call? I have an old plan that is $19.95 a month. Even on 'free' off peak calls there is a 12c land line fee for each call made or received. Since I don't use the phone that much I don't mind it. Periodically some clueless salesperson calls me to push an upgrade to a fancy new phone (that I must purchase) and pay $40 a month for a "cheaper plan". Considering usage charges are now about $1-3 a month it would be quite foolish for me to switch; but they tell me I'll save money. When I first got cellphone service I went to the wireline carrier. I expected the same sort of treatment regular phone service got. I quickly learned it was a very separate division with very different practices. I thought I'd get best service by being in one of their owned stores, not an agent or mall kiosk. Didn't matter. The salesgirl was bored, pretty much threw the phone at me, didn't bother explaining how it worked until I insisted she do so and still left out a lot. She spent time on the phone making her social plans for the evening. When I pass the kiosks today I don't see anything different. The sales people just push the $40 plans and fancy features. If they realize you want very basic service they lose interest and shoo you away. I guess they work only on commission. I've had a few good people on customer service (one even gave me her direct inward number so I could call her back if not resolved), but most were clueless. It is clear, unlike the old days when someone in the Commercial Dept of Bell was a career worker, today's workers are just passing through. Turnover is very high and nobody thinks that is a problem. Today some kid (ie a 19 y/o) is selling cell phones, tomorrow he or she will be serving pizza down the shore and the day after they'll be working for a bank boiler room. I do get frustrated at this world when the server of pizza at my local joint has more knowledge of food preparation and service then someone at phone store has about phones. The servers at my pizzaria are young but still have been there a few years and if you ask for a special order they will accomodate you. This is great for getting pizza, but why can't the rest of the business world operate this way? What is the pizzaria owner doing for his employees so that they stick around for a few years -- in what is not the most pleasant job in the world -- that big companies can't do for their employees in what should be far more pleasant working surroundings? ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #308 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jul 5 23:59:29 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C9A9D150EB; Tue, 5 Jul 2005 23:59:28 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #309 Message-Id: <20050706035928.C9A9D150EB@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 23:59:28 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.1 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_REMOVE, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 5 Jul 2005 23:59:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 309 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cable TV vs. UHF (was RE: DSL Speed) (nmclain@annsgarden.com) Re: VoIP Phone Home? (Fred Atkinson) Re: IBM Lawsuit Against Microsoft (Lisa Hancock) Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (John Hines) Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone (Steve Sobol) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Neal McLain) Re: Mediacom (J Kelly) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 19:28:34 -0600 From: nmclain@annsgarden.com Subject: Cable TV vs. UHF (was RE: DSL Speed) Choreboy wrote: > In 1956 I moved to Rutland VT, in a valley. We had three floors above > the basement, and the peak of our slate roof may have been forty feet > above the ground. On the peak was a mast with guy wires. There were > three antennae on the mast, one pointed to Burlington 70 miles away, > on to Albany 90 miles away, and one to Boston 160 miles away. Three > cables led from the antennae to a switch on the back of the TV. > The snow was bad all year. Community cable, with an antenna mast on a > nearby mountain, was discussed. A year or so later, Lucky 13 started > in Albany. In spite of the distance and the mountains, it came in > without snow. I heard no more about community cable. > I don't know how much it cost to operate a small UHF station, but in > Rutland I think it could have been started and operated much cheaper > than cable. The audience would probably have needed something > besides a loop on their TV, and I suppose advertising would have had > to support it. Perhaps so, but that would have provided only one channel. So even if a small UHF station had been built in Rutland, somebody would have built a CATV system anyway. Even back in the 50s, CATV systems were offering "full network service": all three commercial networks. They supplemented these channels by adding nearby independent and NCE (non-commercial educational) stations. One UHF station obviously could not have provided anywhere near this level of service. And I can't imagine that three network-affiliate stations would have been able to survive financially. Of course, it might have been possible to build three translator stations to retransmit the signals of three distant network stations, provided that some financial-support mechanism could be established. Such an arrangement existed in Darlington, Wisconsin for several years during the 60s and 70s: three UHF translators retransmitted the signals of the three Madison commercial stations. The translators were supported by "memberships"; although there was no way to prevent non-members from tuning in, enough members apparently paid their dues to keep things running. But after the mid-70s, even membership-supported translators couldn't compete with cable TV. The company I was working for at the time built a cable system in Darlington in 1980, and the translators were shut down. AFAIK, they're are still sitting there up on the hill collecting cobwebs (although I once heard that the old transmitter shack made a good deer-hunting blind). Neal McLain ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: VoIP Phone Home? Reply-To: fatkinson@mishmash.com Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 18:17:01 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 22:32:28 GMT, Marc Popek wrote: > And some wish to have a VOIP and a PSTN local presence. Why into use > a PSTN /VOIP automatic switch so that you can mange both services > from a single handset, answering machine etc? Why not just get a two-line RJ-14 type telephone? Fred ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: IBM Lawsuit Against Microsoft Date: 5 Jul 2005 11:52:49 -0700 Lisa Minter wrote: > BOSTON - IBM Corp. will get $775 million in cash and $75 million worth > of software from Microsoft Corp. to settle claims still lingering from > the federal government's antitrust case against Microsoft in the > 1990s, the companies announced Friday. How times have changed. Years ago it was IBM that got hit with anti-trust lawsuits. Tom Watson Jr admitted in his memoirs "Father Son & Co" that his rage at CDC coming out with a supercomputer before IBM may have encouraged some not so good practices in sales pressure and "paper" machines. IBM settled with CDC at tremendous cost. The govt kept up its case but lost, costing the taxpayer and IBM millions of wasted dollars. Bill Gates and his crew ought to read Watson's book. The Watsons (both father and son) felt extremely passionately that IBM was THEIR company and they could do as THEY WISHED with it. They felt they worked very hard to make the company so successful and done so honestly and fairly by being the best. That passion obscured their vision to some business realities and anti-trust law -- even if you did nothing wrong to get be #1, you are still in violation of the law by merely being #1. Undoubtedly Gates feels the same way toward Microsoft -- it's his company, he worked hard to build it up and should be able run his business without being second guessed by outsiders. Both Watsons were forced to change their business practices in response to government pressure. Watson Sr had to license out his patents and sell as well as rent his machines. Watson Jr had to go further with sales and break out of bundling into a la carte sales. I think Gates should take a lesson from that and consider loosening up what is a near monopoly in his sales offerings and be more flexible in his licensing agreements. FWIW, IBM remains a strong company where Control Data is pretty much gone. I wonder what the Microsoft/Intel "Sloan" sales approach will lose favor. That is, very often they introduce new hardware and software that "obsoletes" what is exists, and people rush out to buy new stuff. Sloan did this at General Motors, coming out with a new model year to encourage people to buy new cars for style. Let's be honest -- the vast majority of users could get along just fine with a 486, Windows 3.1, and comparable versions of Word and Excel, and not need any more horsepower and function. ------------------------------ From: John Hines Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 16:33:03 -0500 Organization: www.jhines.org Reply-To: john@jhines.org Don_Shoemaker@HotMail.com wrote: > John Hines wrote: >> The NEC does get revised periodically, 2002 the most recent. > The 2005 version has been out for several months. They must review it more often than I (and others) are expecting. The electrician I hired over the winter was interested in the 2002 code book I had. The biggest effect on building grounding systems has been the decrease in reliance on metal plumbing, due to the usage of plastic piping. I got my books from http://codecheck.com which are more user friendly than the actual code books, which are more like legalese. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 15:29:47 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > I have heard problems from people using pre-paid phones, such as > "Trac" phone (believe it's offered by Verizon). Yes, the service > offices were international and no help at all. Tracfone is NOT Verizon. Tracfone is not owned, and the service is not offered, by any major carrier. In fact, Tracfones sold in different areas use different networks. Net10 Wireless, the 10c/minute prepay service just launched by Tracfone, exclusively uses Cingular GSM. But Tracfone is separate from Cingular and all of the major carriers. > I don't understand either why the wireless companies treat these > ad-hoc customers so poorly. Maybe because they really want the > guaranteed $40/month customers and hope they'll spend money on premium > services to generate even more profit. A friend who owns an ISP here made an interesting point. Cingular, Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, Alltel ... all of those wireless services are owned by wireline companies (in Verizon's case, only 55% because the company that owns the other 45% is not a wireline carrier). And you know the kind of service the wireline providers offer. :) > Do cell phone plans still charge per call? Not that I know of. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 19:47:58 EDT Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You In a message dated Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:28:36 -0500, Lisa Minter writes: > By M.P. DUNLEAVEY > -- Avoid letting your cards out of your sight. Do not let store > clerks take your card away on the pretext that there's a "problem." Apparently you would not be able to use your credit or debit card in a restaurant then, since they require you give them the card to swipe at a location out of your sight. (An exception is Sonic fast-food restaurants, where the card swipe device is right on the ordering post.) > -- Restrict the access to your personal data by signing up for the > National Do Not Call Registry (www.donotcall.gov); remove your name > and address from the phone book and reverse directories -- and, most > important, from the marketing lists of the credit bureaus to reduce > credit card solicitations. The site www.optoutprescreen.com can help. While some people have a need or consider it a status symbol to have an unlisted number, others are not willing to give up contact with many desirable contacts in the outside world who would have no other way to reach them by phone or snail mail. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not only Sonic, but McDonalds here at least also has a card swiper right by each register. If you have your card in hand, while you are placing your order (or when the clerk turns around to fill it) you can swipe your debit/credit card and have it back in your pocket by the time the clerk asks for the money. They don't care either way; when the register says the order is paid for, that is all they care. Ditto Marvin's Supermarket here: you dump all your groceries on the conveyor belt, the kid starts ringing it up and in the meantime you can swipe your card. The card swiper then seems to 'lock up ' until the clerk does something to tally it on the register; then the card swiper clicks into action (and if you had already swiped your card) it gets busy getting the approval and printing the receipt. If you want 'cash back', the clerk over-rings the total by that same amount. If your order comes to twenty dollars and you want twenty cash back, the clerk rings it on the register as 'amount tendered' forty dollars, 'change returned' twenty dollars. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 18:54:45 -0500 From: Neal McLain Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes Choreboy wrote: > Article 250.54 of the NEC says local supplemental grounding > electrodes (such as the one for phone service) must be > bonded to the primary electrode. Where does the NEC apply? > According to what the telco man admitted seven years ago, I > assume our county code says the same thing. As other readers have noted, NEC applies in any jurisdiction that adopts it by reference. The adopting law or ordinance identifies the edition of the code, and sometimes includes modifying clauses to clarify certain requirements, create additional requirements, or omit certain requirements. Some state governments adopt it (e.g. Wisconsin); most counties and municipalities also adopt it. In your case, I'd guess that if you live in the City of Rutland, the Building & Zoning Department enforces it. If you live in one of the surrounding towns, either the town government or the Rutland County government enforces it. > Is this a recent addition to the NEC? It certainly existed in 1987, according to "The National Electrical Code 1987 Handbook" (published by NFPA as a companion to the code itself; includes the complete text of the 1987 code, plus numerous drawings and annotations to clarify the text). The annotation at Article 250-71(b) states: The Code requires that separate systems be bonded together to reduce differences of potential between them, which can result from lightning or power contacts. Interconnection is required for lightning rod systems (Section 250-46), communications systems [Sections 800-31(b)(5)], and CATV systems [Section 820-22(f)]. Lack of interconnection can result in severe shock and fire hazard. "Communications systems" includes telephone. > How is a citizen supposed to find out local code > requirements? Contact the city, town, or county building inspection department. > How is a citizen supposed to know his electrodes are not bonded or > that it's necessary? The average citizen is not expected to know; the contractors who install the stuff are supposed to know. And the city/town/county building inspector is supposed to make sure that it's done correctly. The problem, of course, is that inspectors only inspect when a contractor pulls a permit and then calls for an inspection. If work is done without a permit, there's usually no inspection. Telephone and CATV companies rarely, if ever, pull permits for residential installs; from what I've seen, even electricians don't pull permits for branch-circuit work. Building inspection departments probably don't approve of this arrangement, but in my experience they're usually too overworked and underfunded to do much about it. > If the telco assures a customer that there is nothing wrong with > grounding which in fact is a code violation, does the telco have any > liability? I can't speak for the telco industry, but in the CATV industry (where I used to work), we certainly assumed that we'd be liable for faulty work done by our own employees. Our contracts with subcontractors included insurance and hold-harmless clauses to protect the customer, the CATV company, and franchising authority, and all property owners where CATV facilities were located. Of course, if I were a personal injury lawyer, I'd be keeping a close eye on that telephone company ... Neal McLain ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: Mediacom Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 19:51:45 -0500 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@*newsguy.com Maybe. I've heard (from a reliable source in the corporate office) that it various from time to time and place to place which ports/services are blocked. They DO specifically forbid servers on residential packages in their TOS and they DO terminate anyone's account that is caught running a server. My understanding that the termination is final and there is no second chance. That said, I've run services on all those ports at some point and it worked, and most recently on port 22 (SSH). The last time I tried 20 and 21 I couldn't make it work, whether it was a firewall problem or Mediacom blocking the ports, I'm not sure, I didn't spend any time trying to troubleshoot the problem since it was just a quick temporary thing I was trying to run. My advice is to use a real host rather than try to host on a mediacom account. The upload speed is pitifully slow anyway. I moved my servers to real hosts almost 3 years ago, about three months after switching from a municipal broadband system (who also forbids servers but made an exception for me) to Mediacom. My host costs me less than $5 a month and gives 5GB of space. It is pretty reliable and has loads of bandwidth. On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 03:03:13 GMT, Fred Atkinson wrote: > Does anyone know if Mediacom blocks ports 80, 20, 21, 23, 25, > and/or other signficant ports? > Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #309 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jul 6 15:09:02 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id EEB4714D2E; Wed, 6 Jul 2005 15:09:01 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #310 Message-Id: <20050706190901.EEB4714D2E@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 15:09:01 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.4 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 6 Jul 2005 15:10:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 310 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Hackers Make Way For Criminals (Lisa Minter) Non-Bell ESS? (Lisa Hancock) SDH Interoperability (doma970@yahoo.com) Cellcos, was Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone (Danny Burstein) Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching (Lisa Hancock) Mouse to Offer Mobile Phone Service (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: Cable TV vs. UHF (was RE: DSL Speed) (Garrett Wollman) Re: VoIP Phone Home? (Marc Popek) Re: Ombudsman on N. Korea Food story (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Joe Morris) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Lisa Hancock) Last Laugh! Western Union and Useless Telephones (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: Hackers Make Way For Criminals Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 23:53:19 -0500 By Lucas van Grinsven, European Technology Correspondent Spotty teenage hackers who set off global email viruses are being replaced by serious online crooks whose stealth attacks don't make headlines but cause more damage, security software makers said on Tuesday. "Two years ago we stayed up all night, concerned about a great mass-mailing worm," said Mario Juarez, a product manager at the security business unit of U.S.-based Microsoft. "Today, we worry not about a virus that will take every machine down, but that may attack one machine or a set of machines," he said in an interview at a Microsoft Tech Ed developers conference. "What you see more of are a variety of attacks that are carried out to make money, such as stealing credit card details or threatening a Web site with a denial of service attack unless it pays them money." He spoke on the same day a 19-year old German man admitted in court he had written the Sasser computer worm. In 2004 the worm knocked out an estimated one million computer systems among home users and companies by spreading on the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows operating system. The U.S. computer giant has since had to close many open back doors in its software and fix other security holes. After issuing a series of patches, it claims its software is a lot safer now. More improvements are planned. "Today in Outlook Express, if you click on a link, the virus program won't execute," said Detlef Eckert, senior director for trustworthy computing at Microsoft's European organization, referring to Microsoft's email software. What helps is that consumers are better informed about viruses and worms and have become reluctant to open email attachments that may unleash a harmful computer program. SOPHISTICATED ATTACKS But the targeted robberies of individuals or small groups of people are more sophisticated than the mass-mailing worms that created only modest damage. Some new viruses now infect Web sites and can then enter personal computers that are well protected, Eckert said. "Very often, these customers don't know they are at risk, or even that they are being attacked," he said. Other software security experts said there were fewer scares over mass-mailing worms this year but instead there was a sharp increase in the number of "Trojans" that can quietly obtain bank account details and passwords. "We've seen many more Trojans. The more organized groups are aiming at targeted victims. And if you're an organized crime group, you don't want the headlines. You may be a lot more successful without them," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for British anti-virus firm Sophos. Cluley said it was too early to cry victory over mass-mailing viruses and the trend of real criminals hitting on select groups of users meant that Microsoft programs were no longer the default target. Until now, teenage hackers aimed at Microsoft programs not only because they had security holes, but also because they run on 95 percent of all computers and were the best chance for a global spread of a virus. However, if the main aim is to steal money, the criminal hackers would focus on the weakest link, which in the future may well be non-Microsoft programs, Cluley said. The computer security experts do not expect there will ever be perfectly safe computers. The attraction of more online financial transactions was too appealing for criminals. "The first lock attracted a lock picker," Juarez said. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Non-Bell ESS? Date: 6 Jul 2005 10:59:05 -0700 The Bell System put its first test call through a laboratory Electronic Switching System in 1958 and had a prototype system in public service in the early 1960s. Would anyone know when other telephone companies, either in the U.S. or abroad, developed and implemented their own ESS? For instance, when did Automatic Electric put one in service? [public replies, please] ------------------------------ From: doma970@yahoo.com Subject: SDH Interoperability Date: 6 Jul 2005 00:21:10 -0700 Hi All, My question is regarding the inter-operability of SDH Systems from different vendors. Here is the scenario: 1) Case 1: Nortel ADM -------Nortel Regenerator -------- Huawei ADM 2) Case 2: Nortel ADM -------Huawei Regenerator -------- Huawei ADM In both cases, the SDH signal is STM-16. Finally, is inter-operability the same thing as shown in the above cases or it points to a different layer of inter-working? Thanks to all. Doma ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Cellcos, was Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 04:08:17 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Steve Sobol writes: > A friend who owns an ISP here made an interesting point. Cingular, > Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, Alltel ... all of those wireless > services are owned by wireline companies (in Verizon's case, only 55% > because the company that owns the other 45% is not a wireline > carrier). Cough, cough. T-mobile is a horse of a different color. It started off as a bunch of more-or-less self standing cellcos in the US who were eventually bought up/merged into Voicestream (Western Wireless), which had a hefty amount of Asian capital behind it. They were then picked up by the German/European phone and communication giant, Deutsche Telekom. So while they're owned by a telco, it's in a very, very, different situation than the others. Disclaimer: I'm not only a customer, I'm also a shareholder. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching Date: 6 Jul 2005 08:17:47 -0700 In reading histories of IBM and the Bell System, my impression is that the companies were pretty distant from each other even though both were developing very similar technologies. Early on, both Bell and IBM were developing ever better ways of using relays to "think" in sophisticated ways, then using electronic components. (IBM obviously did go to Bell Labs to learn about the transistor). While Bell used IBM machines in commercial (billing/ accounting) applications, even there Univac and other makes were used too. In the labs, it seemed mostly PDP computers were preferred. Anyway, the Bell Labs history says Bell did make use of the IBM System/7 as part of the switching network. The S/7 was a process controller machine, kind of a sideline of IBM's normal business line. Anyway, Bell used the S/7 to replace AMA (long distance message accounting) machines. Even here the S/7 was eventually replaced with a PDP machine. Would anyone know if there was some sort of hostility between Bell and IBM in the 1950s and 1960s? Or, am I just missing that there was a lot of collaboration? Perhaps the lab histories of both companies prefers to focus on the company's own developments and ignore those elsewhere. The IBM history does give credit to semi-conductor makers. I sense Bell wanted to build everything it used for itself rather than buy finished products in the market. (I presume both histories referenced below are authoritative sources. If anyone feels the Bell history is inaccurate, please do comment.) I do note that the Bell history said they intended for very long product lifespans, so anything they made had to be able to withstand many years of service. I believe they didn't change this philosophy until the 1970s when rapidly changing electronics kept making components obsolete quickly. On the other hand, it seemed IBM recognized this in the 1950s. IBM's tab line remained unchanged for a great many years but their computers changed about every five years. I also wonder if the commercial computer components of the 1960s (ie System/360 SLT chips and core memory) were adequate for the speed demanded by electronic switching. The Bell history suggests Bell had to develop its own gear because it needed faster speed and memory available in the commercial world on a cost- efficient basis. I believe an ESS of 1965 had quite a bit of memory and would compare to the largest commercial computers of that day. References: History of Engineering & Science in the Bell System, Vol 2, switching, 1925-1975. IBM's System 360 and early S/370. IBM's Early computers. [public replies please] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 12:32:19 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Mouse to Offer Mobile Phone Service Telecom dailyLead from USTA July 6, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22874&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Mouse to offer mobile phone service BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Adelphia sells long-distance business to Pioneer * Amdocs acquires vendor DST Innovis * Q-and-A with Alcatel's Mike Quigley * Report: Base station market to grow USTA SPOTLIGHT * Register now for tomorrow's USTelecom Webinar: The Post-Brand X World EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Napster, Dell target colleges with legal music downloads * The next frontier: 100 Mpbs? REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Nextel Partners sues Nextel Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22874&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: wollman@khavrinen.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Cable TV vs. UHF (was Re: DSL Speed) Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 17:27:21 UTC Organization: MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory In article , wrote: > One UHF station obviously could not have provided anywhere near this > level of service. And I can't imagine that three network-affiliate > stations would have been able to survive financially. > Of course, it might have been possible to build three translator > stations to retransmit the signals of three distant network stations, > provided that some financial-support mechanism could be established. By the early 1980s, Rutland had full-power service from Vermont ETV (now called something different) on WVER, channel 28, and translator service from Burlington's WCAX-TV (3, CBS) and WVNY/WEZF-TV (22, ABC). I don't believe WIRI/WPTZ (5 North Pole, N.Y., NBC) ever had translators in Vermont, although WCFE-TV (57 Plattsburgh, PBS) did. The Albany stations were late movers to the VHF dial; the Capital District's only original V was General Electric's WRGB (4 Schenectady), which moved to channel 6 in the Great VHF Shuffle of the early 1950s. The ancestor of today's WTEN (10 Albany) was a network of three "full-power" UHFs: WROW-TV/WCDA (41 Albany), WCDB (29 Hagaman), and WCDC (19 North Adams, Mass.); WCDA moved to channel 10, WCDB was shut off, and WCDC has remained on Mount Greylock to serve areas shadowed from the main channel 10 site in the Helderbergs. Today's WNYT (13 Albany) began as WTRI (35 Troy), sister to WTRY (980 Troy). Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every wollman@csail.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own Opinions not those | search for greater freedom. of MIT or CSAIL. | - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) ------------------------------ From: Marc Popek Subject: Re: VoIP Phone Home? Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 07:39:44 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet Mostly the cost difference and the convenience. Marc Fred Atkinson wrote in message news:telecom24.309.2@telecom-digest.org: > On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 22:32:28 GMT, Marc Popek wrote: >> And some wish to have a VOIP and a PSTN local presence. Why into use >> a PSTN /VOIP automatic switch so that you can mange both services >> from a single handset, answering machine etc? > Why not just get a two-line RJ-14 type telephone? > Fred ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Ombudsman on N. Korea Food story Date: 6 Jul 2005 08:57:35 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , wrote: > In article , Justa Lurker > wrote: >> No one is stopping you (or anyone else) from leaving. So if you are >> so unhappy and dissatisfied here in the USA as you seem to be based >> upon your constant snide comments and whining, then by all means I >> suggest you move to some other country more to your liking. > I would point out that the right of dissent is at the core of our > country. Interesting. I just watched this week's edition of NOW (pbs.org). I couldn't have said it any better: "That is, in fact, the manifestation of dissent that defines democracy." The video of the interview with Milton Glaser isn't available yet, but it should be soon, and I highly recommend it. http://www.pbs.org/now/ There are three things I tell my kids over and over: Think Logically Act Intelligently Question Authority John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: Joe Morris Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 12:07:07 UTC Organization: The MITRE Organization John Hines writes: > The biggest effect on building grounding systems has been the decrease > in reliance on metal plumbing, due to the usage of plastic piping. ... which was officially recognized in the 1993 revision of the NEC. Article 250-81 permits grounding through interior metal water piping from a point more than five feet beyond the point of entrance into the building. An exception exists [*] "provided there is qualified maintenance and the entire length of the pipe is exposed." [*] from the 1999 edition, which is all I have conveniently at hand. > I got my books from http://codecheck.com which are more user friendly > than the actual code books, which are more like legalese. It ain't cheap, but a good reference is the NFPA's "National Electric Code Handbook". The base code book (also published by NFPA) would put a lawyer to sleep, but the _Handbook_ quotes the entire Code with interspersed commentary and illustrations. Joe Morris ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Date: 6 Jul 2005 11:10:42 -0700 Wesrock@aol.com wrote: >> -- Avoid letting your cards out of your sight. Do not let store >> clerks take your card away on the pretext that there's a "problem." > Apparently you would not be able to use your credit or debit card in a > restaurant then, since they require you give them the card to swipe at > a location out of your sight. These days, my basic feeling is to use plain old cash as much as possible. I agree --avoid any card entry that is not done in immediate presence. I did have to do that recently since I treated a group of people at a restaurant and I didn't have with me the cash necessary to cover the full dinner. But that was an unusual occurence. Normally I try to have a reasonable amount of cash on hand. I notice a lot of people using credit cards to pay for rather modest purchases, such as a pizza dinner or convenience store purchase. I think this is foolish since every transaction increases one's exposure to loss. If I have no transactions at all during the month, then there's no statement mailed out and altogether less chance for a theft. I remain angry at the government for their slow reaction to all of this. It isn't anything new, and much of existing law already covers such thefts. The newspapers reported that police wouldn't bother going after crooks unless the theft amount is over a rather high limit which effectively gives crooks a green light. The bad part about this theft is that the actual theft loss may be minor but the damage is great. It's like someone smashing your car windshield (very expensive to fix) to steal a box of cookies from the front seat. It used to be when one worked at a bank they had a background check and were fingerprinted. I wonder if that's still done, especially for the 'back office boiler room' people who handle all the phone calls for credit card issuers and credit data banks. ------------------------------ Subject: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 18:02:09 GMT After playing a few rounds of telephone tag, you come to realize that the Western Union leaders were entirely correct in their 1880 assessment -- telephones are worthless. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For a really good time, combine telephone tag with references to numbers not in service. Here is an example: The bank which holds my mother's mortgage called me today about something. Before I could reach the phone, voice mail came on and took the lady's message, to call 800-something and at the prompt enter extension-something. I did that (checked it twice to be certain) and after entering the extension an _intercept_ recording came on, which stated 'the number you dialed, area code 270 something has been changed, the new number is area code 270 something else.' So I tried calling 'something else' on my nickle and got another voice mail saying the person was not at her desk and leave a message or press zero to be transferred to someone who could help. On my first try, I did the 'press zero option' and reached something called the 'general voicemail in-box'. I called back via the 800 number to assure I was hearing it all correctly, got intercepted again to hang up and redial the area 270 number, dialed it, got the voicemail again, and left a message, yet to be returned. But then, I have not yet taken a break to go sit in the bathroom or otherwise get tied up on an important phone call; I am certain when one of those conditions apply, the lady will probably call back for another round of phone tag. Then I got still another call this morning from 866-660-6940 which I answered before they had a chance to hang up this time; but I just got dead air. I dialed it back, got a recorded announcement so weak I could not understand any of it, except the final two lines which were a bit louder, asking me to 'input your telephone number'; so I just input some bogus number (enough to satisfy their system) and waited again. After about a minute, their system responded and said 'someone will be with you shortly ... please wait' but I just hung up. WUTCO was correct: these damn devices are mostly useless. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. 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All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #310 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 7 00:09:47 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id EE42C14E16; Thu, 7 Jul 2005 00:09:46 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #311 Message-Id: <20050707040946.EE42C14E16@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 00:09:46 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 7 Jul 2005 00:10:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 311 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Patton's Low-Cost WAN Router Integrates VPN, QoS and Encryption (Chris) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Dan Lanciani) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Danny Burstein) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Paul Coxwell) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Diamond Dave) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Alan Burkitt-Gray) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Joseph) Re: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching (Tony P.) Re: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Cellcos, was Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone (Steve Sobol) Re: Cable TV vs. UHF (was RE: DSL Speed) (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes (Paul Coxwell) Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones (L Hancock) Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones (L Madison) 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: Chris Subject: Patton's Low-Cost WAN Router Integrates VPN, QoS and Encryption Date: 6 Jul 2005 12:29:15 -0700 Low-Cost WAN Router integrates VPN, QoS and Strong Encryption. The Model 2800 Series combines such high-end features as user-configurable QoS profiles for managed, prioritized traffic with VPN tunneling and IPSec Strong Encryption for secure, private communications. For immediate release: GAITHERSBURG, MD: Patton Electronics, the industry leader in network-access and connectivity solutions, announces today the availability of a very-low-cost, IPLink=99 Series of Managed VPN Routers with integrated QoS. Patton's newest router series lets businesses and service providers "Link-Up For Less" with the industry's most affordable solution for secure communication over insecure IP networks while ensuring high-priority throughput for mission critical data -- even in the presence of bandwidth-thirsty voice and video applications. Patton's Model 2800 Series IPLink Router Series offers a unique combination of features at extremely competitive pricing for a value proposition that is unparalleled in the communications industry. The Model 2800 Series combines such high-end features as user-configurable QoS profiles for managed, prioritized traffic with VPN tunneling and IPSec Strong Encryption for secure, private communications. By addressing both the security and traffic-prioritization needs of enterprises at such a low cost, Patton's IPLink Managed VPN Router series defines an entirely new category of network routers. Typical VPN routers provide security when traversing insecure IP networks such as the Internet, but lack QoS for prioritizing business traffic. At the same time, typical low-cost routers lack the security or QoS features enterprises require for business-class networking. The IPLink Model 2800 Series provides business-class traffic-prioritization and secure, private communications for remote-office, home-office, and mobile users. The Model 2800 series further reduces network cost and complexity by offering models with integrated WAN ports, thereby eliminating the need for external interface converters. "We offer enterprises and carriers (delivering managed services) a very real value proposition." said Burton A. Patton, Executive Vice President, "Network designers no longer have to choose between low-end Adtran routers and expensive, Cisco functionality." "In recent years, businesses and service providers have been rushing to lock down their networks with firewalls and security appliances," said Joseph Gomez, Senior Product Manager at Patton. "Today they're also preparing for the impending converged-media revolution spear-headed by VoIP and IPTV. Patton's Managed VPN Router covers both concerns by integrating VPN with QoS. Now any enterprise can afford secure and reliable transport for prioritized, media-rich content." The IPLink Managed VPN Routers series (models 2802, 2805, 2821 and 2835) implement IPSec Strong Encryption (3DES) for data integrity, authentication, anti-replay, and data confidentiality. Firewall capabilities include Access Control Lists (ACLs), IP-address and port filtering, and Denial of Service (DoS) protection. For additional security measures, PPP/PPPoE support with PAP and CHAP provides authentication services. QoS features include ToS/DiffServ marking and eight configurable service-class tags per IEEE 802.1p/Q. With IP traffic-scheduling and shaping, dedicated bandwidth profiles per flow, configurable burst tolerance, and traffic policing with excess traffic discard, the IPLink VPN Routers ensure such delay-sensitive traffic as voice and video get the priority they require. For media-rich content, configurable IP, PPP, and Frame-Relay fragmentation minimizes jitter. With the IPLink VPN Router series of next-generation security appliances, businesses and service providers now have an affordable, easily-configured one-box solution for secure and prioritized communication services. About Patton Patton Electronics Company is a US manufacturer and marketer of data communications products, including VoIP/ToIP gateways & routers, Remote Access (V.92, V.90, K56Flex, V.34+, and ISDN dial-in), Last Mile/Local Loop Access (T1, E1, and xDSL modems, NTUs and CSU/DSUs), Multi-Service Access (voice, intranet, extranet, and Frame Relay access), and Connectivity (interface converters, short range modems, multiplexers, and surge protectors). For more information or to request a free datacom catalog contact sales@patton.com. Patton Electronics Company 7622 Rickenbacker Drive Gaithersburg, MD 20879 USA Tel: (301) 975-1000 Fax: (301) 869-9293 Email: marketing@patton.com http://www.patton.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 15:27:24 EDT From: Dan Lanciani Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You > By M.P. DUNLEAVEY > That said, Mr. Mierzwinski endorsed the preventive measures offered by > Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (www.privacyrights.org), a nonprofit > consumer advocacy group, and by the Identity Theft Resource Center > (www.idtheftcenter.org), also a nonprofit. Besides the standard advice > to shred personal documents, following are some tips I found useful: > -- Curtail electronic access to your bank accounts. How exactly is one supposed to achieve this? Every bank that I have contacted flat-out refuses to block EFT debits on consumer accounts. They will transfer my money to anyone with my account and routing numbers who has access to the ACH network, even though there is no evidence that I authorized the transaction. (In fact, the banks have strong evidence that I did not approve any such transactions since I told them that I have not authorized any third party to electronically debit my accounts.) Even brokerage houses are doing this, and even on accounts with no check writing feature. No bank that I have found discloses the destination account and routing number of EFT debits, so you don't generally know where your money went. Two of my banks do not even provide a unique transaction id for EFT debits on my monthly statement. When pressed on the issue, reps repeat the lie that Check21 forces them to accept electronic debits. [Check21 deals with electronically imaged checks which have nothing to do with EFT debits. Even there it doesn't force banks to accept anything electronically. All it does is make certain printed images legally equivalent to the original check. Accepting the transaction electronically is optional for the banks.] Once I had a mysterious debit show up on a passbook account -- the one type of account that is supposedly immune to EFT access. Nevertheless, the bank argued that I must have in some way been responsible for the withdrawal. Only when I pointed out that the account in question was being used by the city as a multi-signature escrow, that the city held the passbook, and that they would likely want an explanation of where and how the money went did the bank relent. They decided that there had been a "coding error" and restored the money. > Pay bills through snail mail. If you use a normal check this still provides the recipient with your account and routing numbers which they can then use to electronically debit your account. Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 19:36:04 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: [ snip of mildly paranoid rants ] > If I have no transactions at all during the month, then there's > no statement mailed out and altogether less chance for a theft. That's just stupid. If the bank doesn't mail out statements in the months there's no activity, then you're getting into the habit of not thinking anything's wrong if you don't get one. So ... you'd be much less likely to notice the month when one was mailed to you and you didn't get it. Much better, although at first glance a bit silly and wasteful of $0.40 or so ..., is for a statement to be mailed out each and every month, whether or not there's activity. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 16:20:16 EDT Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You In a message dated 7/5/05 11:02:56 PM Central Daylight Time, editor@telecom-digest.org writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not only Sonic, but McDonalds here at > least also has a card swiper right by each register. If you have your > card in hand, while you are placing your order (or when the clerk > turns around to fill it) you can swipe your debit/credit card and have > it back in your pocket by the time the clerk asks for the money. Sorry, you're right. But you have to go in to McDonald's to keep your hand on your card. It doesn't work that way in the drive through ... you have to hand it to the clerk. Sonic, of course, is all outside (except for a few they're trying inside dining areas at, including one next to their new headquarters building in Oklahoma City. Don't know how it works inside, since I haven't been to it. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:25:40 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS > The Bell System put its first test call through a laboratory > Electronic Switching System in 1958 and had a prototype system in > public service in the early 1960s. > Would anyone know when other telephone companies, either in the > U.S. or abroad, developed and implemented their own ESS? For > instance, when did Automatic Electric put one in service? In Britain, the GPO trialed an electronic switch at Highgate Wood using PAM/TDM (Pulse Amplitude Modulation/Time Division Multiplex) around 1962. It was not entirely successful. The first fully operational electronic switch went into service in Ambergate, Derbyshire in 1966, and the GPO also claims this to be the first electronic exchange in Europe. This switch was known as the TXE2 (for Telephone eXchange Electronic), using common control with reed relay switching points. TXE2 was designed for smaller offices, generally up to a couple of thousand lines. The later TXE4 switch intended for larger offices didn't roll out until the mid-1970s. -Paul ------------------------------ From: Diamond Dave Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Organization: The BBS Corner / Diamond Mine On-Line Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 21:11:46 -0400 On 6 Jul 2005 10:59:05 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > The Bell System put its first test call through a laboratory > Electronic Switching System in 1958 and had a prototype system in > public service in the early 1960s. > Would anyone know when other telephone companies, either in the > U.S. or abroad, developed and implemented their own ESS? For > instance, when did Automatic Electric put one in service? Automatic Electric made the #1 EAX (invented in 1973 or 1974) and later in the 1970s, the #2 EAX. These were WECo #1ESS/1AESS like in nature -- analog switch with computer control. These were originally just for a Class 5 end offices but later models could handle Class 4 tandem functions. Automatic Electric later made the GTD-3 (or #3 EAX ) and GTD-5 (or #5 EAX) in the 1980s. These are full digital switches. A number of #5 EAX switches are still in service, though as time goes on they're being replaced with other switch types. Stromberg-Carlson had their ESC (Electornic Switch Control?) switch in the 1970s. This switch was analog with computer control. In the 1980s, they made the DCO (Digital Central Office). The DCO is now made by a division of Siemens known as Stromberg/Siemens. Northern Telecom (now Nortel) invented the DMS-10 in the late 1977 and in 1979 the DMS-100 switch (followed by other DMS switches, used as tandems, operator services platforms, or international gateways). Supposedly Northern Telecom had an electronic PBX (the SL-1) around 1972. But Vidar was the first fully digital local end office switch, invented circa 1976. I don't think there are any Vidar (later TRW-Vidar) switches still in service. WECo was behind the curve on this one. Though they invented the fully digital long-haul #4ESS tandem in 1976, they didn't have a full digital end office until they invented the #5ESS in 1982. Dave Perrussel Webmaster - Telephone World http://www.dmine.com/phworld [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know from my personal experience that Illinois Bell had ESS in the Wabash office in downtown Chicago in 1974, along with the Superior office on the near north side the same year. But I think they were just the first editions or versions of that type of switch. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Alan Burkitt-Gray Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 21:39:09 +0100 Organization: Alan Burkitt-Gray hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com asked: "Would anyone know when other telephone companies, either in the U.S. or abroad, developed and implemented their own ESS? For instance, when did Automatic Electric put one in service?" See BT's online museum, Connected Earth . http://www.connected-earth.com/Galleries/Frombuttonstobytes/Intothedigitaler a/Anelectronicfuture/ BT's ancestor, the British Post Office, tried and failed in 1962 with a switch at Highgate Wood, north London: "The main problem was digital electronics 'crosstalking' with switch contact points that were still working in analogue mode. This meant, for example, that sometimes the exchange systems would ring numbers, seemingly of their own volition ... " It put a successful TXE2 reed relay exchange at Ambergate, Derbyshire, in 1966, and then inaugurated another switch, at Empress in west London, claimed to be the first in the world to switch PCM signals from one group of lines to another in digital form. Alan Burkitt-Gray Editor, Global Telecoms Business magazine www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com aburkitt@euromoneyplc.com (PAT - please don't use my personal email address, from which I'm sending this.) ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 21:00:54 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 6 Jul 2005 10:59:05 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > The Bell System put its first test call through a laboratory > Electronic Switching System in 1958 and had a prototype system in > public service in the early 1960s. > Would anyone know when other telephone companies, either in the > U.S. or abroad, developed and implemented their own ESS? For > instance, when did Automatic Electric put one in service? Electronic switching systems were being installed in the late sixties and into the seventies. Bell System used Western Electric #1ESS, GTE used Automatic Electric #1EAX and #2EAX. North Electric (independents) used NXUN2 IIRC. Probably Stromberg-Carlson had something going as well (XY?) I'd guess that Northern Electric (now Nortel) probably manufactured #1ESS as well prior to their making DMS digital switches. More information: http://www.dmine.com/phworld/network/office/.htm#analog ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching Organization: ATCC Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 16:25:29 -0400 In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says: > In reading histories of IBM and the Bell System, my impression is that > the companies were pretty distant from each other even though both > were developing very similar technologies. Early on, both Bell and > IBM were developing ever better ways of using relays to "think" in > sophisticated ways, then using electronic components. (IBM obviously > did go to Bell Labs to learn about the transistor). > While Bell used IBM machines in commercial (billing/ accounting) > applications, even there Univac and other makes were used too. In the > labs, it seemed mostly PDP computers were preferred. > Anyway, the Bell Labs history says Bell did make use of the IBM > System/7 as part of the switching network. The S/7 was a process > controller machine, kind of a sideline of IBM's normal business line. > Anyway, Bell used the S/7 to replace AMA (long distance message > accounting) machines. Even here the S/7 was eventually replaced with > a PDP machine. From what I'm to gather the phone switches themselves had their own processors. But I have seen references to DEC PDP series computers being used to write the code, etc. for the switches. As to processor requirements, I don't know but in the case of a switch the more critical component is the t/d matrix. All the computer does is keep track of call store which is nothing but a table. Put it this way, I used to have a Definity G3iV2 switch (pbx actually!) with 300 extensions, and 35 trunk loops. It had an Intel 486 CPU on it. ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 16:37:53 EDT Subject: Re: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching In a message dated 6 Jul 2005 08:17:47 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: > I do note that the Bell history said they intended for very long > product lifespans, so anything they made had to be able to withstand > many years of service. I believe they didn't change this philosophy > until the 1970s when rapidly changing electronics kept making > components obsolete quickly. On the other hand, it seemed IBM > recognized this in the 1950s. IBM's tab line remained unchanged for a > great many years but their computers changed about every five years. As far as Bell station apparatus goes, remember that they were provided at a rate which provided full on-site maintenance. After divestiture, the Bell companies were forbidden to offer any type of station equipment. (One of the results of this rule was problems with sponsored Time of Day service, usual in places with flat rate service. The actual time machines [Audiovon?] machines were often located in the C.O. with full telco maintenance, and many of the sponsors had no idea what to do with the machines when they had to be removed and placed on the customer premises.) Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Cellcos, was Re: DO NOT! DO NOT Use Cingular Go Phone Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 12:23:31 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Danny Burstein wrote: > Cough, cough. T-mobile is a horse of a different color. It started off > as a bunch of more-or-less self standing cellcos in the US who were > eventually bought up/merged into Voicestream (Western Wireless), which > had a hefty amount of Asian capital behind it. That is correct. There are, IIRC, also a couple smaller carriers that aren't owned by LECs of any flavor. My statement is true for most US carriers, though. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 16:12:53 EDT Subject: Re: Cable TV vs. UHF (was RE: DSL Speed) On Tue, 5 Jul 2005 19:28:34 -0600 nmclain@annsgarden.com wrote about Cable TV vs. UHF (was RE: DSL Speed) In a message dated Tue, 5 Jul 2005 19:28:34 -0600, nmclain@annsgarden.com writes: > One UHF station obviously could not have provided anywhere near this > level of service. And I can't imagine that three network-affiliate > stations would have been able to survive financially. I lived in Austin, Texas, in the late 1950s and there was one TV station (VHF) which was an affiliate of all three networks and had a patchwork of various network programs. This station was owned by the LBJ company. A few people had tall antennas to pick up the San Antonio stations (difficult) or the Waco and Temple stations (not as difficult). (The Temple station had its transmitter in Eddy, Texas.) Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:05:50 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: Supplemental Grounding Electrodes >>> The NEC does get revised periodically, 2002 the most recent. >> The 2005 version has been out for several months. > They must review it more often than I (and others) are expecting. The > electrician I hired over the winter was interested in the 2002 code > book I had. It's generally every three years. A new edition does not automatically come into force as soon as it is published though. The state/county/city in question specifies which edition of the NEC is to be used, so an old edition is still applicable until they amend their rules to refer to the new one. I understand that there are some places still using the 1999, and maybe even the 1996 code. - Paul. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones Date: 6 Jul 2005 12:16:14 -0700 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For a really good time, combine > telephone tag with references to numbers not in service .... > ... After about a minute, their system responded and said > 'someone will be with you shortly ... please wait' but I just hung up. At the time of Bell System Divesture in 1983 a huge wave of automation was hitting the country. Systems described above are very common now (ABC Nightline did a whole feature on it) and fancy automation and greedy companies makes it possible. The old Bell System was dedicated to service. They constantly put out literature to both residence and business subscribers on proper telephone technique and manners. They didn't want 'the telephone' to be seen negatively as described above but rather a positive useful tool. They had consultants go out to businesses just to teach proper usage of business sytems and teachers who went to schools to show kids how to use the phone. If the Bell System still existed as a monopoly provider today, I wonder how they'd deal with the above described customer frustrations. The Bell System did not like it when their product/service was made to look bad and spent money and efforts to counteract it. I presume they would allow automated systems to exist; they do -- when used properly -- help customers and businesses. But would they allow such craziness as routings to dead lines and dead air? [public replies please] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 15:52:12 -0700 From: Linc Madison In article , PAT wrote: > Then I got still another call this morning from 866-660-6940 which I > answered before they had a chance to hang up this time; but I just > got dead air. I dialed it back, got a recorded announcement so weak I > could not understand any of it, except the final two lines which were > a bit louder, asking me to 'input your telephone number'; so I just > input some bogus number (enough to satisfy their system) and waited > again. After about a minute, their system responded and said 'someone > will be with you shortly ... please wait' but I just hung up. WUTCO > was correct: these damn devices are mostly useless. Yesterday, I got a call, answered without checking the caller ID, and got a few seconds of dead air, followed by a recorded announcement that said simply, "This is Kaiser Permanente." I assume they were calling to remind me of the appointment I have tomorrow, but that was the entire message. If I had forgotten about the appointment, or if it had been an appointment for someone else mistakenly tagged to my ID number (has happened several times over the years), I would've had no idea what the call was about. ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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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 V24 #311 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 7 15:05:25 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id EF50B14F30; Thu, 7 Jul 2005 15:05:24 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #312 Message-Id: <20050707190524.EF50B14F30@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 15:05:24 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,GET_IT_NOW, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 7 Jul 2005 15:05:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 312 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Sprint Begins High Speed Mobile Services (Lisa Minter) Netters Change Habits to Avoid Spam and Spyware (Lisa Minter) Google and Partners to Back Broadband Venture (Lisa Minter) Rabble Mobile Blogging Network (Monty Solomon) Emerging VOIP Regulation in Europe and the United States (Monty Solomon) Verizon, TBS Sign Carriage Deal (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Diamond Dave) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching (Scott Dorsey) Re: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones (J Morris) 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: Sprint Begins High Speed Mobile Services Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 12:23:25 -0500 Sprint Corp. said on Thursday it has begun selling high-speed wireless services to laptop computer users and would have services in business districts and airports in 34 U.S. markets in July, making it the second U.S. mobile operator to offer such services. Sprint -- the third biggest U.S. mobile provider which plans to buy Nextel Communications Inc. in the current quarter -- said charges for the service would range from $40 a month to $90. Its $80 monthly fee for unlimited use is the same as that of bigger rival Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc. Sprint said it plans to provide the service in 14 broad market areas covering a population of about 92 million in the third quarter and expects to serve markets with 143 million people by the fourth quarter, expanding to coverage of 150 million potential customers in early 2006. Sprint is following in the footsteps of Verizon Wireless, the country's second biggest wireless provider which started its service in 2003. Verizon has services in about 50 markets using the same high-speed technology, known as EV-DO. Both companies, along with most large operators around the world, are working on making their networks faster in the hope of boosting their revenue by encouraging people to use phones for everything from watching video clips to reading e-mail. Verizon plans coverage for 150 million potential customers or half the population by the end of 2005. Cingular Wireless, a venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth Corp. plans to have high-speed services in about 15 to 20 markets by year end. Sprint plans to sell new handsets and applications based on the higher speed network by the end of the fourth quarter. It already has agreements to sell laptop cards from Novatel Wireless Inc. and Sierra Wireless Inc. Sprint said it expects its latest service to provide Web access average speeds of 400 to 700 kilobits per second, about six times faster than its current network. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Netters Change Habits to Avoid Spyware and Spam Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 12:25:13 -0500 Nine out of 10 Internet users say they have changed their online habits to avoid spyware and other Internet-based threats, according to a study released on Wednesday. The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that an overwhelming majority of Internet users have stopped opening questionable e-mail attachments, or taken other steps to avoid a plague of stealthy, unwanted programs that can disable computers or secretly monitor online activity. Nearly half said they have stopped visiting particular Web sites that they suspect may deposit unwanted programs on their computers, while 25 percent say they have stopped downloading music or movies from "peer to peer" networks that may harbor spyware. Eighteen percent said they had switched the type of Web browser they use in order to avoid spyware. Spyware has emerged as a major headache for computer users over the last several years. It can sap computing power, crash machines and bury users under a blizzard of unwanted ads. Scam artists use spyware to capture passwords, account numbers and other sensitive data. It can end up on users' computers through a virus or when they download games or other free programs from the Internet. Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said they had suffered slower performance or other problems that could be attributed to spyware. Other surveys have found the level of infection to be as high as 80 percent. The nonprofit group surveyed 1,336 U.S. Internet users, between May 4 and June 7. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Google, Partners to Back Broadband Venture Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 12:26:27 -0500 Google Inc. , Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Hearst Corp. are investing about $100 million in Current Communications Group, a start-up that offers high-speed Internet connections over electricity lines, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Current Communications, of Germantown, Maryland, uses a technology that sends Internet signals over regular power lines, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the situation. Current, a closely held company, offers its high-speed service in the Cincinnati area and is expected to use its new investment to expand, the Wall Street Journal said. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 02:38:09 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Rabble Mobile Blogging Network Rabble Lets Verizon Wireless Get It Now(R) Customers Join The First Enhanced Mobile Blogging Network Rabble Enables Verizon Wireless Customers to Create, Publish and Share Media and Connect with Others Based on Proximity or Areas of Interest BEDMINSTER, N.J. and SAN DIEGO, July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, the nation's leading wireless provider, and Intercasting Corporation, the first Location-Aware Media Networking Operator (LMNO), today announced the availability of Rabble, the first mobile application designed to empower individuals to create, publish and share media and connect with others based on proximity or areas of interest. With Rabble, Verizon Wireless customers with select Get It Now-enabled phones can use their mobile devices to create and distribute their own content, connecting people by customer-provided location specific information. Rabble turns Get It Now customers into producers, inviting them to create and publish media on their phones enabling them to inform, entertain and interact with others. Capitalizing on the massive consumer trend toward Internet blogging, Rabble users can publish personalized media channels through certain channels to allow Rabble users to promote themselves, connect with like-minded individuals or groups, give voice to opinions, discuss events, report news, review locales and more. Rabble users define their own limits or rules that govern who can access their channel of information -- and this feature allows them to maintain control over the distribution of personal content. Rabble users can conduct powerful searches of user-generated content based on interest, time, location or browse the available community around them to connect with one individual or to many. Though it is the first mobile-centric blogging application, Verizon Wireless Get It Now customers who use many of the top blogging sites can use Rabble as a tool to publish to their existing blog on the Web or import their existing blog to Rabble. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50311772 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 09:04:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Emerging VOIP Regulation in Europe and the United States http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_7/bach/ The challenges of classification: Emerging VOIP regulation in Europe and the United States by David Bach and Jonathan Sallet Abstract Internet telephony -- or Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) -- has the potential to transform the world of voice communications more profoundly than anything since the invention of the telephone itself. As telecommunications incumbents and a range of new entrants begin rolling out commercial VOIP services, policymakers around the world are grappling with the regulatory implications. In the United States and the European Union, the two largest near-term VOIP markets, efforts are underway to fit VOIP into existing regulatory frameworks. This process of "regulatory classification" is by no means a purely administrative act. A lot is at stake and different interest groups have therefore mobilized to shape the respective outcomes. Because legacy regulatory systems in Europe and the United States differ, the regulatory treatment of VOIP in the two markets is beginning to differ as well. Yet in both markets there is a substantial danger that fitting VOIP into existing classifications will force VOIP to look more like regular telephony, thereby limiting its innovation potential. Contents Introduction - The rapid rise and inevitable regulation of VOIP - Classifying VOIP in the U.S.: Circuit-switched policies meet IP - Classifying VOIP in Europe: The first test for a new framework - The politics of regulatory classification - Conclusion http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_7/bach/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 12:49:20 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Verizon, TBS Sign Carriage Deal Telecom dailyLead from USTA July 7, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22905&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Verizon, TBS sign carriage deal BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Morgan Freeman, Intel to launch movie download service * DOJ OKs Alltel-Western Wireless deal * Google, Hearst, Goldman invest in broadband startup * France Telecom, Microsoft to develop VoIP handsets * Sprint launches EV-DO service USTA SPOTLIGHT * RFID: Radio Frequency Identification -- Get Your Copy Today! EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Yahoo! launches new mobile search feature * Japan Telecom to start high-speed wireless network trial REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Commentary: FCC chief calls for further deregulation of broadband market * Florida man arrested for accessing Wi-Fi network * Nextel says it didn't violate agreement with Nextel Partners * Qualcomm responds to Broadcom lawsuit Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22905&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: Diamond Dave Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Organization: The BBS Corner / Diamond Mine On-Line Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 05:22:47 -0400 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know from my personal experience that > Illinois Bell had ESS in the Wabash office in downtown Chicago in > 1974, along with the Superior office on the near north side the same > year. But I think they were just the first editions or versions of > that type of switch. PAT] The Western Electric #1ESS was invented in 1965, with the upgrade #1AESS invented in 1976. These were analog switches with computer control (and in my opinion, glorified crossbar switches with reed relays). Others, as I've mentioned before, came out with their fully digital switches before Western Electric came out with their fully digital end office switch (the #5 ESS) in 1982. Dave Perrussel Webmaster - Telephone World http://www.dmine.com/phworld ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 06:39:19 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know from my personal experience that > Illinois Bell had ESS in the Wabash office in downtown Chicago in > 1974, along with the Superior office on the near north side the same > year. But I think they were just the first editions or versions of > that type of switch. PAT] The No. 1ESS (replaced early on by the 1AESS) was well along in deployment by 1974. The first installation in California was in Beverly Hills in 1967. That wasn't long after the first installation somewhere in the east, perhaps 1965? The difference between the 1 and the 1A was larger volitile memory (call control storage) and giant disk drives for program control storage. Many Bell LECs upgraded their existing 1ESS switches to 1As once deployment of the 1A began. Once the digital 5ESS came along, the regional Bells had already aquired a preference for Nortel's DMS-100, mostly because it was cheaper and would do an adequate job in all but the most intensive urban environments (the 5ESS was definately better, but perhaps a Lexius when a Ford would do. ;-) ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching Date: 7 Jul 2005 09:13:57 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) wrote: > In reading histories of IBM and the Bell System, my impression is that > the companies were pretty distant from each other even though both > were developing very similar technologies. Early on, both Bell and > IBM were developing ever better ways of using relays to "think" in > sophisticated ways, then using electronic components. (IBM obviously > did go to Bell Labs to learn about the transistor). The Bell System had Bell Labs, a research organization that did pure research which turned into developments which Bell rapidly incorporated into their products. IBM had the T.J. Watson Center, a research organization that did pure research which turned into developments which IBM's competitors rapidly incorporated into their products and IBM ignored for the most part. > Anyway, the Bell Labs history says Bell did make use of the IBM > System/7 as part of the switching network. The S/7 was a process > controller machine, kind of a sideline of IBM's normal business line. > Anyway, Bell used the S/7 to replace AMA (long distance message > accounting) machines. Even here the S/7 was eventually replaced with > a PDP machine. > Would anyone know if there was some sort of hostility between Bell and > IBM in the 1950s and 1960s? Or, am I just missing that there was a > lot of collaboration? No, but I do know that IBM was not very good at the whole "small computer" thing. The minicomputer revolution escaped them completely for the most part, which is why DEC systems wound up being incorporated into switching systems. I am sure that if IBM had made minicomputers that actually worked well a decade before the Series/1, the phone company (and a lot of other companies) would have bought them. > Perhaps the lab histories of both companies prefers to focus on the > company's own developments and ignore those elsewhere. The IBM > history does give credit to semi-conductor makers. I sense Bell > wanted to build everything it used for itself rather than buy finished > products in the market. Yes, which is why those DEC minicomputers later got replaced with AT&T 3b2 and 3b20 systems. Bell had a very strong impulse toward vertical and horizontal integration. > I also wonder if the commercial computer components of the 1960s (ie > System/360 SLT chips and core memory) were adequate for the speed > demanded by electronic switching. The Bell history suggests Bell had > to develop its own gear because it needed faster speed and memory > available in the commercial world on a cost- efficient basis. I > believe an ESS of 1965 had quite a bit of memory and would compare to > the largest commercial computers of that day. Well, the early ESS systems were very far from general purpose computer systems. There was a whole lot of combinational logic inside there. As general purpose computers got cheaper and more powerful, ESS systems evolved toward using them for control. scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching Date: 7 Jul 2005 07:34:09 -0700 Tony P. wrote: > From what I'm to gather the phone switches themselves had their own > processors. Yes, they did and do now. > As to processor requirements, I don't know but in the case of a switch > the more critical component is the t/d matrix. All the computer does > is keep track of call store which is nothing but a table. A computer must break down every function into tiny little steps handled one by one. For instance, IIRC, on a PC when you depress key you're actually sending two signals to the processor -- one that you depressed a particular key, and a subsequent signal that you released that particular key. The processor must respond appropriately to the key or combination of keys you depressed, then the operating system and/or application program is passed the information. Likewise with a telephone, when you lift the receiver the processor must detect that, connect you to a dial-pulse receiver and send you an audible dial tone and then interpret your dialing -- all this before it even actually 'switches' your call. And there's the optional "flash" signal which calls in special routines. All of this work can either be done by the central processor (which eats up cycles) or by sub-processors to take the load off. There are cost and performance issues with each approach. Generally, cheaper computers (phone or digital) do it all in the processor while more sophisticated ones offload to give more speed. (It was like adding a math co-processor in PC early days to get more heavy math speed. The regular processor could do math, but the co-processor did it faster.) In the early days of ESS Bell Labs came out with a sub-processor to take some load off the main one. Doing this offered more capacity to handle calls at a modest cost. This unit was later discontinued when faster processors didn't need it. Another use of this concept was with outside loop concentrators. Some concentrators in the field had sophisticated logic in them which freed up the central office from doing certain chores (I think a fancy concentrator could even connect calls within itself without help from the central). But such field units were expensive and not worth the cost. There were always tradeoffs to be made. > But I have seen references to DEC PDP series computers being used to > write the code, etc. for the switches. Getting back to the original question: Message Accounting is something that can be done by the processor or a separate machine. In #5 Crossbar it was done separately. (AMA machines were critical to customer DDD). Anyway, Bell used electronic computers instead of its own electro-mechanical AMA machines to time and record phone calls. Originally it used an IBM System/7, but then switched to PDP. My impression is that Bell tended to favor PDP gear over IBM for many applications. Also, then tended to home-build pretty much everything else. [public replies please] ------------------------------ From: Joe Morris Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 12:38:58 UTC Organization: The MITRE Organization hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: > If the Bell System still existed as a monopoly provider today, I > wonder how they'd deal with the above described customer frustrations. > The Bell System did not like it when their product/service was made to > look bad and spent money and efforts to counteract it. The Bell system breakup [*] certainly caused problems, but the pre-breakup system was not what I would call accommodating to users' requirements ... it was instead a follower of Henry Ford's famous line that his customers could have any color automobile they wanted as long as it was black. Case in point -- and one that gave me lots of heartburn at the time -- was the absurd DAA requirement. I'm all for protecting a network, but neither at the time nor in retrospect can I find any justification for the DAA other than protecting AT&T's revenue stream. Joe Morris [*] seen on a button distributed by Computerworld magazine at a meeting: "Judge Green is a Bell buster" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No one, it seems, had their hands totally clean in the Bell divestiture. Far from being a 'visionary' whose sole motive was for the good of the American people -- which is the _only thing_ Judge Harold Green had any legitimate right thinking about in his deliberations -- it is claimed that early on, during the mid 1970's when the trial was first being thought about, Harold had attempted to use a payphone on a street corner in Washington, DC only to lose his ten cents in an out of order instrument, and as he stood there in that busted up, grafitti-filled, smelling-of-urine- and-whiskey, pay phone booth on a hot, sultry afternoon, trying to get his ten cents back _or_ get an operator's attention and sympathy (he wound up getting neither; apparently the operator sassed him, but what else is new?), Harold decided then and there that the company should be dismantled. We know for a fact that Harold had been approached by some friends in the Justice Department as a judge who would likely be sympathetic to their cause (the breakup of Bell) so apparently that incident with the broken down pay phone only fueled his animosity which was quite apparent during much of the trial. How much animosity? The most obvious was his refusal to allow AT&T to have a jury trial, as they initially requested. I am not at all certain had there been a jury, that divestiture would have been ordered. Maybe, maybe not. Harold's rationale was the matter was 'too complex' for a jury, it would have (and did) lasted far too long to find a willing and competent jury, and anyway, the prosecutors did not want a jury. If AT&T had used the 'IBM Technique' as IBM successfully did in _their_ divestiture trial, chances are likely the matter would still be going on, now 22 years later. For those who do not recall, the 'IBM Technique' was to blitz the court with so much paper in its defense [quite literally, IBM made hundreds of copies of each paper record presented in their successful defense; there were times when semi-trailer-truck vans full of legal documents to be read would pull up at the court's loading dock/receiving room to drop off the material the court and prosecutors had to read and act on] as part of the trial. I mean, imagine a thousand page document full of dry statistics in IBM's defense; here is the six hundred copies of same the prosecutorial team gets; plus copies for each employee of the court clerk's office, the judge, etc. IBM, in its successful defense insisted that in order to 'fully understand' how much divestiture would 'harm the company' one had to see the 'big picture' which IBM was more than pleased to present in its defense. (wink!) Can you imagine if AT&T had insisted on that sort of 'paper blitz' with Harold and if they had gotten their way with a jury trial and each member of the jury (but of course) had to carefully examine all the 'evidence' before reaching their decision? It worked perfectly well in IBM's trial. I suspect Harold would have preferred to take the check for ten cents refund the telephone company would have sent him (telco had long since discontinued the practice of sending out a few coins scotch-taped to a form letter of apology through the mail) as they did for more than a half-century, or allowing the operators to liberally issue verbal 'credit' for calls via the phone itself, also an ancient practice of about half-century. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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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 V24 #312 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 7 23:53:10 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 6F9D314F56; Thu, 7 Jul 2005 23:53:10 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #313 Message-Id: <20050708035310.6F9D314F56@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 23:53:10 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 7 Jul 2005 23:53:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 313 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Web Users Jam UK Sites For News About London Blasts (Lisa Minter) Digital Imaging Tech Widens News Gathering (Lisa Minter) Florida Boy on Cell Calls 9-1-1 Over 40 Times! (Nathan Strom) VoIP Card for Toshiba Strata CT (caveman) Looking for Panasonic KX-T4550 (TSLtrek) Florida Man Charged With Stealing Wi-Fi Signal (Lisa Minter) Broadband Use Jumps 34 Percent in USA According to FCC (Lisa Minter) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Tony P.) Re: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching (fgoodwin) Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones (J 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: Web Users Jam UK Sites For News About London Blasts Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 22:31:54 -0500 By Jeffrey Goldfarb LONDON (Reuters) - Record numbers of visitors deluged British Web sites on Thursday as people around the world sought news of the blasts that rocked London's public transport. Sites operated by public broadcaster BBC, satellite TV company BSkyB (BSY.L), news provider Reuters (RTR.L) and the Financial Times business newspaper (PSON.L) suffered longer delays on their home pages Thursday morning in London because of the volume, according to a company that monitors Web traffic. "There was a significant amount of turbulence in terms of performance," said Roopak Patel, an analyst at Keynote Systems. The BBC expects by the end of Thursday it will have had the most visitors in a single day in the history of its news Web site, though it won't have official data until Friday. "We have had a huge surge in people using the site today," BBC spokeswoman Naomi Luland said. "We are pretty certain this is going to be our busiest ever day." The bbc.co.uk Web site experienced some delays, she added, but handled the volume well. "We haven't had any major problems. We've had consistency in service. There may have been a little slowdown earlier," Luland said. Among the other popular UK sites were sky.com/skynews, ft.com and reuters.com. By 3:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), Sky said it had registered 1.7 million unique visitors for the day. "That's the equivalent of a month's traffic on the site," Sky spokeswoman Stella Tooth said. "We had 25 million page impressions and the site was very robust and withstood the extra traffic," she added. The Reuters sites at reuters.com, reuters.co.uk and others in Europe experienced a "technical fault" with their servers unrelated to high volume earlier in the day, the company said. The problem was fixed by the afternoon. "In the morning, we saw five times the normal traffic for our global network of sites and from this afternoon it was about twice the normal traffic," spokeswoman Susan Allsopp said. "We saw huge traffic for the tsunami in Asia so I don't think we can say it's a record, but it's high peaks in our coverage." A spokeswoman for the FT said it would not have any information about the number of visitors to ft.com until Friday. Keynote's index of some 40 UK business Web sites showed an increase in delays, with the wait time for pages to load spiking to 17 seconds during peak usage from the normal average of 2 seconds. Reliability decreased as well as one in four attempts to load a Web page failed at peak times, according to Keynote. "Users who were trying to access the information were seeing higher than normal delays, and at the same time some people weren't able to get through to some sites," Patel said. He added that U.S. news sites saw no major delays because Internet infrastructure in the United States is more robust and most users were on the Web hours after the attacks happened. At MSNBC.com, which is co-owned by General Electric Co.'s NBC and Microsoft Corp., a spokeswoman said data indicated that traffic to the site was about twice normal levels on Thursday morning. She also said the site was seeing twice the average number of streaming video viewers. The spokeswoman added that the site did not experience any technical delays. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, airplane attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, many news Web sites were so overwhelmed with visitors that they could not be accessed, forcing on-the-fly redesigns to simplify homepages with fewer photographs and less advertising. (Additional reporting by Nicole Volpe in New York) Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Digital Imaging Tech Widens Newsgathering Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 22:35:18 -0500 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer 2 hours, 8 minutes ago Among the more striking photos appearing online after Thursday's coordinated London explosions was one of a double-decker bus, its front intact but its sides and top ripped open. The image, on the BBC's Web site, came not from a staff photographer but from an amateur who happened on the scene with a digital camera. With inexpensive cameras everywhere, including increasingly in cell phones, we're seeing more searing images than ever of human drama. The chances of getting poignant amateur video, meanwhile, are improving radically. Following Thursday's morning rush hour blasts on the bus and at three subway stations, amateurs snapped shots before professional journalists could get to the scene. The BBC posted one reader-contributed image showing subway passengers being led through tunnels and another of smoke filling another photographer's subway car. It also posted camera phone video including an 18-second clip of a passenger evacuating the subway. The image was dark and jerky but gave a sense of crisis. "What you're doing is gathering material you never could have possibly got unless your reporter happened by chance to be caught up in this," said Vicky Taylor, interactivity editor for BBC News' Web sites. Many amateur photos are mundane yet gripping, said Steve Jones, professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Visitors Thursday to the photo site Flickr, for instance, saw one sign at one station that simply stated, "Tube network closed." While journalists descend on the stations where the explosions took place, an amateur might snap shots from "a train station that wasn't bombed but that has a lot of security, and you sort of immediately compare that to your own experience," said Jones. Adam Tinworth, a London magazine editor and freelance writer, posted several shots from his digital camera on the Internet. Among them: images of blockaded streets and of professionals "trying to do the same thing I was except with a much different camera." "I was grabbing photos to give people a feel of what it's like to be an ordinary person," Tinworth said. Of course the use of amateur photographs by professional news organizations is not new. The Associated Press and others routinely buy rights to photos produced by eyewitnesses. But digital cameras and phones make more such images possible, and the Internet makes distribution easy. Many Web journal services and Flickr let you post directly from a cell phone, while the BBC had a dedicated e-mail address for such photos. (The BBC and other British news sites did perform more slowly, though, because of heavy traffic in the hours following the explosions, according to monitoring by Keynote Systems Inc.) Taylor said reader-submitted accounts from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were mostly text while the BBC received several hundred photographs Thursday and used about 70 on its Web site and TV. She said amateurs submitted photos to the BBC for free, but then some sold rights to other news organization. Jones said the quality has improved since the Sept. 11 attacks. As well, eyewitnesses in London were more selective in what they posted online. The captions they wrote were more descriptive and professional-sounding this time around. Nonetheless, user-generated digital imagery does create new challenges for news sites, which has to make sure a photo isn't already owned by someone else and that it's wasn't digitally manipulated. The BBC compared the bus image with shots its crews took from the rear, matching landmarks in both pictures to make sure it wasn't digitally doctored, Taylor said. For other pictures, BBC staffers contacted the photographers for verification. There's also the task of sifting through all the images. A half-day after the explosions, Flickr had 150 photos marked "explosions," 111 for "blasts" and 219 under "terrorism." More than 325 fell under "London Bomb Blasts." Many were simply television screen grabs. With "the ability for so many people to take so many photos, the real challenge will be to find the most remarkable, the most interesting, the most moving, the most striking," said Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, adding that engineers were working on software to help that. It remains to be seen whether the best images were even on the Internet yet. Many of the best photos and video from the Asian tsunami disaster came days or weeks later. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. ------------------------------ From: Nathan Strom Subject: Florida Boy on Cell Calls 9-1-1 Over 40 Times! Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 22:33:26 -0400 Organization: Octanews From http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=15846: > Leesburg, Florida - Emergency officials say dispatchers were kept > busy by a 5-year-old Leesburg boy on a cell phone. But Lake County > sheriff's officials say they couldn't trace the call and the boy > wouldn't tell them where he lives or who his parents are. Leesburg > police say they do know the boy lives somewhere in the Leesburg > area. The 5-year-old also told them he liked ice cream and knew he > wasn't supposed to play with a cell phone. Officials say the boy > called 9-1-1 more than 40 times yesterday afternoon. Dispatchers > urge parents to take out the batteries from disconnected cell > phones. The Associated Press Guess they still need to work on that E-911 rollout. Couldn't they check with the cell phone provider and see who the ESN is/was last registered to? ------------------------------ From: caveman Subject: VoIP Card for Toshiba Strata CT Date: 7 Jul 2005 20:01:22 -0700 Does any one know of any VoIP cards that can be used with a Toshiba STrata CT system (the ones that are without the builtin VoIP) ? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: TSLtrek Subject: Looking for Panasonic KX-T4550 Date: 7 Jul 2005 12:12:47 -0700 Does anyone have a good working Panasonic KX-T4500 or 4550 cordless phone with answering sytem that they want to sell or maybe trade for a KX-TG5240? I like the personalized greeting in each mailbox and the pager call ... both features do not exist in any cordless phone today. Thanks, -Terry ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Man Charged With Stealing Wi-Fi Signal Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 15:22:24 -0500 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Police have arrested a man for using someone else's wireless Internet network in one of the first criminal cases involving this fairly common practice. Benjamin Smith III, 41, faces a pretrial hearing this month following his April arrest on charges of unauthorized access to a computer network, a third-degree felony. Police say Smith admitted using the Wi-Fi signal from the home of Richard Dinon, who had noticed Smith sitting in an SUV outside Dinon's house using a laptop computer. The practice is so new that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement doesn't even keep statistics, according to the St. Petersburg Times, which reported Smith's arrest this week. Innocuous use of other people's unsecured Wi-Fi networks is common, though experts say that plenty of illegal use also goes undetected: such as people sneaking on others' networks to traffic in child pornography, steal credit card information and send death threats. Security experts say people can prevent such access by turning on encryption or requiring passwords, but few bother or are unsure how to do so. Wi-Fi, short for Wireless Fidelity, has enjoyed prolific growth since 2000. Millions of households have set up wireless home networks that give people like Dinon the ability to use the Web from their backyards but also reach the house next door or down the street. It's not clear why Smith was using Dinon's network. Prosecutors declined to comment, and a working phone number could not be located for Smith. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Broadband Use Jumps 34 Percent in USA According to FCC Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 15:23:45 -0500 The number of U.S. consumers and businesses that subscribe to high-speed Internet service, or broadband, jumped 34 percent in 2004 to almost 38 million lines, according to new statistics released on Thursday. The United States lags 15 other countries in broadband coverage, according to international statistics, but U.S. officials stressed that some countries subsidize deployment and are more densely populated in smaller areas. Approximately 5.4 million subscribers were added during the second half of 2004, according to a new Federal Communications Commission report. The agency had previously reported adding 4.3 million broadband lines in the first half of the year. More consumers picked high-speed Internet from cable companies last year than broadband from local telephone companies, known as digital subscriber line service (DSL), according to the FCC report. Cable companies added about 5 million customers during the year, a 30 percent increase to 21.4 million lines, while the number of DSL subscribers climbed about 45 percent, or 4.3 million lines, to 13.8 million lines. Cable and telephone companies are engaged in a fierce battle to offer customers a suite of communications services. DSL is less expensive than cable Internet service but offers slower download speeds. Broadband is becoming more widely used as consumers want faster access to the Internet for research, shopping, watching movies and downloading music. President Bush pledged during his 2004 re-election bid to ensure there would be universal access to broadband by 2007. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has made eliminating regulatory hurdles to achieve that goal his top priority since taking the reins of the agency earlier this year. "The dramatic growth in broadband services depicted in this report proves that we are well on our way to accomplishing the president's goal of universal, affordable access to broadband by 2007," Martin said in an opinion piece published on Thursday in The Wall Street Journal. He said the FCC should ease some old regulations on telephone companies to put them on the same footing as cable operators, but added that the government would not relinquish its role of protecting consumers and aiding law enforcement. "This means that we must treat all such providers in the same manner -- free of undue regulation that can stifle infrastructure investment," he said. But one consumer advocate criticized FCC policies as harming competition for broadband. "Competitive Internet service providers are now history; the U.S. has a duopoly -- cable and telephone industry -- over broadband," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "Both cable and telephone have a long history of anti-competitive behavior." Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Organization: ATCC Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 16:53:26 -0400 In article , dmine45.NOSPAM@yahoo.com says: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know from my personal experience that >> Illinois Bell had ESS in the Wabash office in downtown Chicago in >> 1974, along with the Superior office on the near north side the same >> year. But I think they were just the first editions or versions of >> that type of switch. PAT] > The Western Electric #1ESS was invented in 1965, with the upgrade > #1AESS invented in 1976. These were analog switches with computer > control (and in my opinion, glorified crossbar switches with reed > relays). > Others, as I've mentioned before, came out with their fully digital > switches before Western Electric came out with their fully digital end > office switch (the #5 ESS) in 1982. Actually WE came out with #4 ESS in the mid 70's. Of course the 4 was a toll class switch, but it was a truly electronic switch. ------------------------------ From: fgoodwin Subject: Re: Bell Usage of IBM Computers For Switching Date: 7 Jul 2005 12:29:55 -0700 hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > I do note that the Bell history said they intended for very long > product lifespans, so anything they made had to be able to withstand > many years of service. I believe they didn't change this philosophy > until the 1970s when rapidly changing electronics kept making > components obsolete quickly. I don't know if this is relevant to the statement you read, but regulators controlled the rate at which AT&T and the local Bell Telcos could depreciate their equipment. Longer depreciable lives meant lower expenses and reduced pressure to increase rates. As might be expected, the carriers were always asking the regulators for faster depreciation, and the regulators always pushed back with longer lives. It wasn't until the late 80s when local regulators finally realized that an electronic or digital switch did not realistically have a 30-year life. Fred Goodwin ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 23:07:27 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No one, it seems, had their hands > totally clean in the Bell divestiture. Far from being a 'visionary' > be dismantled. We know for a fact that Harold had been approached by > some friends in the Justice Department as a judge who would likely > be sympathetic to their cause (the breakup of Bell) so apparently > that ... The government had been on Bell's case for a long time. There is a book published in 1941, "The Bell Telephone System" by Arthur W. Page, in which he, a Bell insider, tells all the virtues of the telephone system being a regulated monopoly rather than a competitive bunch of companies. He complains a lot about the government back then having a grudge against the Bell System. There was a paper published in a legal journal after the breakup titled "Is the Third Time the Charm? A Comparison of the Government's Major Antitrust Settlements with AT&T This Century" (by Geoffrey M. Peters, Seton Hall Law Review, 1985, p. 252.) This discusses the circa 1920 case, the case that ended in the 1956 consent decree, and the case that Judge Greene handled. I believe the first of these dealt with the Bell System trying to drive the independent telcos out of business and acquire them. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ 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. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #313 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 8 16:49:51 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 4BA1A14FCE; Fri, 8 Jul 2005 16:49:51 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #314 Message-Id: <20050708204951.4BA1A14FCE@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 16:49:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.7 required=2.0 tests=BAD_CREDIT,BAYES_00, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT,OFFERS_ETC autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 8 Jul 2005 16:50:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 314 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update #488, July 8, 2005 (Angus TeleManagement Group) High-Speed Internet Use Soars 34% in 2004, FCC Says (Telecom dailyLead) Google Earth Thrills With Photos, Stunts, But How Practical? (M Solomon) SunRocket VOIP Comments? (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (John Stahl) Re: Florida Boy on Cell Calls 9-1-1 Over 40 Times! (Joseph) Phone Tag: Uselessness of Phones: Hangups of Technology (Pat Townson) 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. 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Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 11:40:11 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #488, July 8, 2005 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 488: July 8, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Sprint Canada Becomes Rogers Telecom ** Cable Telephony On A Roll Rogers Videotron Cogeco Shaw ** Saskatchewan Appeals VoIP Decision ** MTS-Allstream Buys Delphi Solutions ** CRTC Wants Comment On Bell Digital Voice ** Navigata Cuts Webphone Pricing ** Shift Claims 1000 Business Customers ** Rogers Drops $5 LD Plan ** Cellcos Intro Inter-Carrier Multimedia ** Telus Loses Appeal on Union Jurisdiction ** Telecom Policy Review Panel Issues Guidelines ** CRTC Corrects VoIP Winback Ruling ** Should Telco Local Fibre Be Deregulated? ** Telcos to Pilot Bad Debt Repayment Plans ** 8-1-1 Approved for Health 'Teletriage' ** Rim Sales Up, Shares Down ** Sears to Install 200 Freefones ************************************************************ SPRINT CANADA BECOMES ROGERS TELECOM: After receiving shareholder and court approvals, Rogers Communications completed its acquisition of Call-Net Enterprises and its operating subsidiary, Sprint Canada, on July 1. Call-Net is now Rogers Telecom Holdings Inc., and Sprint Canada has been renamed Rogers Telecom Inc. ** Call-Net, launched in 1986, was Canada's first successful long distance reseller. It survived intense hostility from the telcos and repeated CRTC orders to desist until the Commission changed the rules to allow resale in 1990. It subsequently became a facilities- based long distance and local service provider with more than 600,000 customers across the country. CABLE TELEPHONY ON A ROLL: Canada's cable TV companies are now firmly committed to the residential phone market. Among the latest developments: ** On July 1, Rogers Cable launched Rogers Home Phone service in the Greater Toronto Area. Rates range from $25.46 to $35.66 a month for customers who also take other Rogers services. ** Videotron says it has signed up 42,000 customers since launching phone service in January, achieving 8% penetration on Montreal's south shore. It will begin offering phone service in Quebec City on July 11. ** Cogeco Cable's telephone service, introduced in June in Burlington and Oakville, Ontario, is now available in Trois-Rivires, Trois- Rivires Ouest and Pointe-du-lac, Quebec. ** Shaw Communications says it had 22,450 Digital Phone lines installed or pending in Calgary and Edmonton by May 31. The company now expects that 20% of its cable TV customers will take its phone service within three years, rather than five years as previously predicted. SASKATCHEWAN APPEALS VoIP DECISION: The Government of Saskatchewan has asked the federal Cabinet to review the CRTC's VoIP decision (Telecom Decision 2005-28).. It says the decision disadvantages SaskTel and will 'result in long term and irrevocable harm' to the province. www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/releases/2005/07/06-650.html MTS-ALLSTREAM BUYS DELPHI SOLUTIONS: MTS Allstream has acquired Markham-based Delphi Solutions Corp. for approximately $15 million cash. Delphi is best-known as a provider of Mitel, Nortel and Toshiba PBXs to small and mid-sized business across Canada. Delphi's management, including president Ed Lavin, will remain in place. CRTC WANTS COMMENT ON BELL DIGITAL VOICE: CRTC Telecom Public Notice 2005-9 invites comments on Bell's Digital Voice tariff, which received interim approval in June (see Telecom Update #486). To participate, notify the Commission by July 15. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2005/pt2005-9.htm NAVIGATA CUTS WEBPHONE PRICING: Navigata, a Sasktel subsidiary operating in B.C. and Alberta, has cut the price of Webphone, its access-independent VoIP service. Basic service is now $15.95/month; Basic service plus 1000 minutes of North American long distance is $29.95/month. (See Telecom Update #430) SHIFT CLAIMS 1000 BUSINESS CUSTOMERS: Shift Networks, which provides hosted multi-line IP telephone systems to small businesses in Calgary and Edmonton, says it added 483 new customers in the second quarter, bringing the total to more than 1,000. Shift customers purchase IP phones telephones, routers, installation and training from Shift, and must sign 36-month service agreements. ROGERS DROPS $5 LD PLAN: Following Bell Canada's example, Rogers has stopped offering 1,000 minutes of long distance for $5 to its bundle customers. Existing customers have been grandfathered. CELLCOS INTRO INTER-CARRIER MULTIMEDIA: On July 1, Canada's cellular carriers launched inter-carrier multimedia message services, allowing customers with MMS-capable phones to exchange text, pictures, and video no matter which carrier each uses. TELUS LOSES APPEAL ON UNION JURISDICTION: The Supreme Court has refused to hear Telus' appeal against a Canada Industrial Relations Board ruling that former Clearnet employees are now represented by the Telecommunications Workers Union bargaining unit. (See Telecom Update #434, #439) TELECOM POLICY REVIEW PANEL ISSUES GUIDELINES: The Telecom Policy Review panel has posted additional guidelines for submissions, which are due August 15 (see Telecom Update #485). www.telecomreview.ca/epic/internet/intprp-gecrt.nsf/en/rx00024e.html CRTC CORRECTS VOIP WINBACK RULING: The CRTC has confirmed that the incumbent telcos are only prohibited for three months (not twelve) from attempting to win back business customers who have chosen a competitor's local service. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/dt2005-28-1.htm SHOULD TELCO LOCAL FIBRE BE DEREGULATED? In Public Notice 2005-8, the CRTC asks whether the incumbent telcos' high-speed intra-exchange digital services face enough competition in some markets to warrant deregulation, as requested by Bell Canada (see Telecom Update #422). To participate, notify the Commission by July 8. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2005/pt2005-8.htm TELCOS TO PILOT BAD DEBT REPAYMENT PLANS: The CRTC has ordered Aliant, Bell, MTS and Telus to conduct 18-month trials of a program to allow subscribers who were disconnected for non-payment to re-subscribe and pay their debts off over time. The CRTC points to SaskTel's existing program as a model. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/dt2005-38.htm 8-1-1 APPROVED FOR HEALTH 'TELETRIAGE': Responding to an application by Alberta Health and Wellness on behalf of the provincial and territorial Deputy Ministers of Health, the CRTC has okayed the use of the 8-1-1 code to access non-urgent health care telephone triage services. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/dt2005-39.htm RIM SALES UP, SHARES DOWN: Does anyone understand the stock market? Research In Motion doubled its profit in the three months ended May 28, and it added 592,000 new subscribers in the last quarter, exceeding its announced target of 560,000 to 590,000. Its stock promptly fell 7%, because some analysts had predicted it would add considerably more. SEARS TO INSTALL 200 FREEFONES: Sears Canada has signed a 3-year contract to install some 200 courtesy phones provided by Toronto-based Freefone Inc., in 122 stores across Canada. Freefones include a 15-inch video display which shows advertising while customers make free local calls. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail jriddell@angustel.ca. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 13:08:58 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: High-Speed Internet Use Soars 34% in 2004, FCC Says Telecom dailyLead from USTA July 8, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22940&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * High-speed Internet use soars 34% in 2004, FCC says BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Mobile phone networks overloaded after London blast * Cisco's Giancarlo gets promotion * Zhone buys Paradyne USTA SPOTLIGHT * FTTH Deployment Webinar: The Trends, Drivers, Technologies and Economics EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Yahoo! offers SMS search VOIP DOWNLOAD * Study: Retail VoIP growing globally * A peek inside Skype * Survey: Rural businesses want different VoIP applications REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * U.S. ITC ends investigation of Nortel-Ciena patent feud Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22940&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 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 09:26:12 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Google Earth Thrills With Photos, Stunts, But How Practical Is It? By WALTER S. MOSSBERG It's good to have a healthy skepticism about the claims of the hype-driven technology industry. But there are times when even a hardened skeptic has to admit to amazement and delight at the sheer coolness of some of the things you can do on a personal computer today. And one of those "wow" moments happens the first time you run a new program called Google Earth. The program lets you view satellite and aerial photos of pretty much any spot on the planet. In big metropolitan areas in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe, you can locate, and zoom in on, individual buildings and houses, and see cars and trees. You can overlay streets onto these urban images, as well as markers indicating restaurants, hotels and more. In other places, you can make out only towns and large geographical features, like lakes. The program rapidly fetches the images from the Internet and visually "flies" you from place to place around the globe. The process is so fluid it feels like a Hollywood stunt. For instance, if you're staring at a bird's-eye view of St. Mark's Square in Venice and you type in your address in Boston, Google Earth will zoom out till you seem high in the sky, then rapidly "fly" you west across the Atlantic into the U.S., and then stop right over your house. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20050707.html ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: SunRocket VOIP Comments? Date: 8 Jul 2005 17:29:00 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Back in November of last year there was an announcement posted here about Sunrocket VOIP http://www.sunrocket.com . I don't recall seeing anything about them since. Does anyone have any opinions, good or bad, about their service? John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 09:55:09 -0400 From: John Stahl Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? > In article , > dmine45.NOSPAM@yahoo.com says: There was a non-Bell #5ESS switch being sold to the non-Bell Independent telcos back in the Bell System days (pre-divestiture). I seem to remember that a company originally started by AT&T and GTE back when Ma Bell was in control of "The Phone System" named AGCS was "chartered" to manufacture and supply Bell System (designed) type products to the Independent Telcos throughout the country. The reason for this joint effort was that one of the FCC ruling regarding Western Electric was that they could only supply product to the Bell companies. So there were many ILEC's (as they were called later) who had an AGCS #5ESS (can't remember the exact series name) switch in their CO's which was an exact design feature for feature to the WECo #5ESS switch. In these later years, Lucent took over AGCS from AT&T and finally "absorbed" it into the Lucent family. If you go to the AGCS web site (www.agcs.com) today, you will find the Lucent logo. John Stahl Telecom/Data Consultant Aljon Enterprises ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Florida Boy on Cell Calls 9-1-1 Over 40 Times! Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 10:21:55 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 07 Jul 2005 22:33:26 -0400, Nathan Strom wrote: > Guess they still need to work on that E-911 rollout. > Couldn't they check with the cell phone provider and see who the ESN > is/was last registered to? And what good does that do for someone who just gave their old AMPS, TDMA , CDMA or GSM cellphone to a resale shop? The person who buys these old phones won't have "registered" it with anyone. The person who originally had it and the associated ESN/IMEI is long gone and out of the picture. ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson Subject: Technology Has its Own Hangups For Users Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 18:54:27 -0500 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We just finished a series of messages this past week on 'phone tag' and as a 'Last Laugh!' the overall uselessness of the telephone. I thought this article from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette might be interesting reading, if you missed it the first time it ran. PAT] ------------------------- Technology has its own hangups for users. And when the speed with which these answers arrive isn't up to our expectations, we look for someone -- or something -- to blame. Technology, it seems, is an easy target. In a recent survey, 67 percent of the 1,750 people interviewed by Siemens Communications Inc. took target practice at telephone and online communications, saying they spend too much time leaving voice mails and sending e-mails when quick answers are what they need. And when answers finally do arrive, these same people reported the calls often came back too late. Society is plugged in as never before -- with PDAs, cell phones, e-mail, faxes, caller ID and voice mail -- and experts offer varying opinions about the cause and effect. Some say Americans are feeling increasingly unplugged, disconnected and out of control, trapped in a never-ending game of phone tag. Others say that the ability to screen phone calls through caller ID, sift through e-mail and, particularly for businesses, handle customer calls through automated voice systems is worth any inconvenience and potential waiting game. "Isn't it interesting that we blame the technology?" said Richard Thompson, a professor and director of the graduate program in telecommunications at the University of Pittsburgh. Thompson worked for 20 years at AT&T Bell Labs before coming to Pitt in 1989. "Isn't this like being annoyed about traffic congestion, so we blame the inventors of the automobile? It sounds to me like when people need information from someone else, that 67 percent of them put off getting it until the last possible minute. "I think this complaint says a lot about how busy we are and how hectic our jobs are, on both sides of the phone call or e-mail, but especially on the calling party's side." Barry Lawrence of Siemens, the survey folks, says productivity is declining because it's so hard to reach people. And our personal lives have grown more frustrating because it's hard to reach a live person at your health club or day-care center. The communications technology designed to make our lives easier is affecting our work, lifestyles and mental health, Lawrence said. Playing phone tag also is making our skins thinner, said Wu Zhou, a senior analyst for Boston-based IDC, a top telecommunications research firm, because we never know when or if the person we're trying to reach listens to voice mail or reads e-mails. But technology doesn't give people a license to be rude, said Martin Weiss, associate professor of telecommunications at Pitt. "It's like the argument about guns," he said -- do you blame the people who use the technology for not returning calls or e-mails, or the technology that allows them to screen your communication? And is caller ID something the complainer covets himself because he can screen, say, persistent telemarketers? "You can't have it both ways," Weiss said. Zhou argued that those who do listen to voice mails and read e-mails could be using that time more productively. It's a balancing act, these questions of civility versus service, efficiency versus delay, and which side you fall on depends mostly on which side of the phone line you happen to be on. Out of reach "We are so bombarded by information that we are defending ourselves with tools such as caller ID," said Pier Forni, an expert on manners at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and author of "Choosing Civility: The 25 Rules of Considerate Conduct." "If a talkative friend is calling and you are busy, you have the good, traditional option of answering. Just state that you are busy, and that you will call back later." But not responding to voice or e-mails "is a form of non-acknowledgement; hence it's rude," Forni said. Once again, Pitt's Thompson advised not to blame the messenger. In an e-mail -- a prompt answer to a query about this article -- he set up a premise, explaining that he is "usually someone from whom people want information, instead of the one seeking the information. People have a question about my master's program, so they call me or send an e-mail." He notes that most questions could be answered by viewing the University's Web site, "but they're too lazy or too busy to work independently." So a percentage of that group might call him and wind up leaving voice mail, setting up a potential phone-tag situation. "If they had sent me an e-mail, with the question in the e-mail, I could respond directly, at least by the next day," Thompson said. "I think many of us haven't learned how to use the appropriate technology for the given task." Any human will do ... The one universal villain in advanced telecommunications seems to be automated voice mail. All telephone users have visited that special ring of Hades where automated menus reside. Last week, Gene Dwyer of Crafton called the Pennsylvania American Water Co. to report a problem with muddy, rusty water. "I went through three or four button pushes until a lady came on wanting my account number, my Social Security number and telephone number, and then they were willing to listen to my story," says Dwyer. The woman told him they hadn't received any other complaints but that one of their water experts would look into it. Dwyer also called KQV radio, reporting the muddy water as a news tip. They, too, said they'd look into it. "You go through a long series of automated phone menus, then you pick the number closest to your topic," Dwyer says. "Go through four menus, then in the fourth menu, you go through two additional sub menus." When Dwyer has called Duquesne Light during a power outage, he has been given another number to call. "You have to get a flashlight to make the call," he says. "I won't even get into trying to contact a doctor, credit-card company, Blue Cross, airlines, banks, etc.," says writer Patricia Orendorff Smith, 62, of Indiana, Indiana County. "I am put on hold after punching number after number only to hear a computerized voice. It drives me nuts. I want to talk to a real live person, one in the flesh." Joanna L. Krotz, in a report titled "'Voice-mail jail' and other blunders of automation" for www.microsoft.com, acknowledged that "increasingly, customer care is being managed and massaged by automation." She added that more than 70 percent of midmarket companies say they plan to invest in contact center or e-mail management systems within the next two years, according to a survey from AMR Research, a Boston-based market analyst. Although automated systems may come at a cost to customers' time and nerves, they also save the company money, a savings that should filter back to clients. "There's no question that computerized services offer dramatic savings," Krotz wrote. "Typically, it costs an exorbitant $50 or more for a human agent to field a customer's call. By contrast, self-service interactions on the Web run mere pennies. In between, combinations of human agents and technologies ... cost a few bucks per call." Weiss admitted that automated voice mail isn't winning any fans. "I hate them, everybody hates them. But does it mean that, let's say, the bank having them can offer me cheaper services? If it does, then it's a trade-off. Life is full of trade-offs. This is just one of them." Interpreting the survey We began with a poll that says a majority of us are ticked off about the time ticking away as we wait for an answer. The follow-up question we asked experts is: Are the trade-offs -- such as caller ID and cheaper services -- worth the waiting game? "I think the technology has raised our expectation that we can get the information we need easier and sooner," Thompson said. "Like the automobile has raised our expectation that we can commute from Harmar Township to Smithfield Street in 25 minutes. Since we can't do it, because we spend 20 minutes trying to get through the traffic light at Route 28 and the 31st Street Bridge, we vent our frustration on the technology in some survey." If the survey implies that things are worse than they used to be, then it's giving a false impression, Thompson said. "I don't want to appear defensive about telecom technology, but what did we do before we had voice mail and e-mail? That was a different time, when we all weren't so frantic, so it's hard to make an A-B comparison." The survey reminded Pitt's Weiss of a time when caller ID was a case for the Federal Communications Commissions and the courts. "Back around the late '80s, early '90s, one of the big debates was whether caller ID should be allowed at all because of privacy issues," he said. "Some 15 years later, it's become ubiquitous," he said. "And where before we were complaining about privacy invasion ... now we have it and people are taking advantage of it. You can't have it both ways." Liz Raphael Helegesen, 41, who records messages for corporate America's voice mail systems, screens calls with caller ID and says she returns all voice mails. "When I'm on the other line, in a conference, in a recording session, parenting or eating a meal, it would be inappropriate to interrupt an existing conversation, meeting or family time to take a phone call," she said. To Helegesen, caller ID is an important tool. "People rely on caller ID because they don't want to talk to you," said Jeff Kagan, a national telecommunications analyst in Atlanta. Added management consultant April Callis of Lansing, Mich.: People use voice mail "to collect calls they don't want to deal with and don't plan on returning." Weiss quotes an article that he thinks sums it up when he said caller ID and other telecom tools are "a way of defending ourselves from the information onslaught, and I think that's true." The future, he adds, is bound to include more intelligent screening devices as the onslaught of information continues unabated. "I think we'll see a lot of different techniques for helping us cope," Weiss said. But that doesn't mean we'll see an end to complaints. (Bill Hendrick of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Post-Gazette staff writer L.A. Johnson contributed to this story. Copyright 1997-2005 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ 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. 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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 V24 #314 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jul 9 19:18:31 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C1A2215086; Sat, 9 Jul 2005 19:18:30 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #315 Message-Id: <20050709231830.C1A2215086@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 19:18:30 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 9 Jul 2005 19:18:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 315 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Online Data Gets Personal: Cell Phone Records For Sale (Jon Krim) Google Wins in 'Typosquatting' Dispute (Michael Liedtke) Florida Man Charged For Stealing Wi-Fi (Monty Solomon) Amid Crisis, Phones Jammed, But Text Messages Worked (Monty Solomon) June Commentary on Cellular Providers Features (Kelly Daniels) F-MMS Forum Defines New Directions And Broadens Its Scope (PRN) Verizon VOIP Questions (snow) Re: Google Earth Thrills With Photos, Stunts, But How Practical (Tim) Re: SunRocket VOIP Comments? (burris) 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: Jonathan Krim Subject: Online Data Gets Personal: Cell Phone Records For Sale Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 16:25:16 -0500 http://washingtonpost.com By Jonathan Krim Washington Post Staff Writer They're not just after your credit card or Social Security numbers. Fueled by the ease of online commerce, snoops are on the trail of other personal information, too. One of the hottest markets: records of phone calls, especially from cell phones. A tool long used by law enforcement and private investigators to help locate criminals or debt-skippers, phone records are a part of the sea of personal data routinely bought and sold online in an Internet-driven, I-can-find-out-anything-about-you world. Legal experts say many of the methods for acquiring such information are illegal, but they receive scant attention from authorities. Think your mate is cheating? For $110, Locatecell.com will provide you with the outgoing calls from his or her cell phone for the last billing cycle, up to 100 calls. All you need to supply is the name, address and the number for the phone you want to trace. Order online, and get results within hours. Carlos F. Anderson, a licensed private investigator in Florida, offers a similar service for $165, for all major telephone carriers. "This report provides all the calls with dates, times, and duration on the billing statement," according to Anderson's Web site, which adds, "Incoming Calls and Call Location are provided if available." Learning who someone talked to on the phone cannot enable the kind of financial fraud made easier when a Social Security or credit card number is purloined. Instead, privacy advocates say, the intrusion is more personal. "This is a person's associations," said Daniel J. Solove, a George Washington University Law School professor who specializes in privacy issues. "Who their physicians are, are they seeing a psychiatrist, companies they do business with ... it's a real wealth of data to find out the people that a person interacts with." Such records could be used by criminals, such as stalkers or abusive spouses trying to find victims. Unlike Social Security numbers, which are on many public documents that have been scooped up for years by data brokers, the only repository of telephone call records is the phone companies. Wireless carriers say they are aware that unauthorized people seek to get their customers' call records and sell them, but the companies say they take steps to prevent it. "There are probably 100 such sites" known to security officials at Verizon Wireless that offer to sell phone records, said Jeffrey Nelson, a company spokesman, who said Verizon is always trying to respond to abusive practices. He said that the company views all such activity as illegal and that "we have historically, and will continue to, change policies to reflect the changing nature of criminal activity," though he declined to be specific. Mark Siegel, a spokesman for Cingular Wireless, said his company constantly is on guard against people trying to get at customer information. But he called the acquisition of call records "an infinitesimally small problem" at his firm. Some experts in the field aren't so sure. "Information security by carriers to protect customer records is practically nonexistent and is routinely defeated," said Robert Douglas, a former private investigator and now a privacy consultant who has tracked the issue for several years. Experts say data brokers and private investigators who offer cell phone records for sale probably get them using one of three techniques. They might have someone on the inside at the carrier who sells the data. Spokesmen for the telephone companies said strict rules prohibiting such activity make this unlikely. But Joel Winston, associate director of the Federal Trade Commission's Financial Practices Division, said other types of data-theft investigations have shown that "finding someone on the inside to bribe is not that difficult." Another method is "pretexting," in which the data broker or investigator pretends to be the cell phone account holder and persuades the carrier's employees to release the information. The availability of Social Security numbers makes it easier to convince a customer service agent that the caller is the account holder. Finally, someone seeking call data can try to get access to consumer accounts online. Telephone companies, like other service firms, are encouraging their customers to manage their accounts over the Internet. Typically, the online capability is set up in advance, waiting to be activated by the customer. But many customers never do. If the person seeking the records can figure out how to activate online account management in the name of a real customer before that customer does, the call records are there for the taking. Federal law expressly prohibits pretexting for financial data -- which at one time was a primary means of stealing credit card and other account information -- but does not cover telephone records, which are covered by a patchwork of state and federal laws governing access to personal information. Some privacy advocates argue that the federal pretexting law needs to be broadened. At the very least, "there need to be audit trails to detect employee access to this personal information and a data retention schedule that mandates deletion of records" after a certain period of time, said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, West Coast director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The center filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission yesterday against one data broker, Intelligent e-Commerce Inc. of Encinitas, Calif., saying it misrepresented its right to obtain the information. The firm, which operates the Web site http://www.bestpeoplesearch.com , advertises a variety of personal data for sale, including cell phone records. The company, which says on its Web site that it uses a licensed private investigator to get the information, said through its lawyer that it seeks to comply with all local, state and federal laws. Attorney Larry Slade said he does not know how the company acquires the phone records. Phone companies view all these tactics as illegal, even if they are used to help track down criminal activity. Instead, carriers say, they require court orders before releasing customer records. If someone uses pretexting to gain access to records, "these people are acting criminally, posing as someone they are not," Nelson said. He added that Verizon is preparing legal action against one data provider. The FTC views pretexting as a deceptive practice even without a specific ban on its use for telephone records, Winston said. But he said the agency has never taken such a case to court and does not know how widespread the problem is. He said the FTC must focus its resources on the practices of data thieves that can cause the most damage to large numbers of consumers, such as financial fraud. Many of the vendors of call records are unregulated data brokers, such as Data Find Solutions Inc. of Knoxville, Tenn., which operates Locatecell.com. Company officials did not return calls seeking comment. At the Florida office of private investigator Anderson, a man who answered the phone and identified himself only as Mike said, "I don't really think we're going to reveal our sources" of phone records. "There's a lot of ways of doing it." At Reliatrace Locate Services of Wisconsin, a man who declined to give his name said only that his firm buys the data from another firm. There is active debate within the private investigator community about the propriety of getting phone records. In at least one online discussion group for the industry, some members defended the practice as legitimate while others said it was illegal, according to transcripts provided to The Washington Post. "I do not know of any legal way to obtain a person's telephonic history," Robert Townsend, head of the National Association of Legal Investigators, said in an interview. Townsend added that he thinks only a small minority of licensed investigators engage in the practice of acquiring and selling the data. Copyright 2005 The Washington Post Company 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Michael Liedtke Subject: Google Wins Typosquatting Dispute Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 16:56:14 -0500 By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer An Internet arbitrator has awarded Google Inc. the rights to several Web site addresses that relied on typographical errors to exploit the online search engine's popularity so computer viruses and other malicious software could be unleashed on unsuspecting visitors. The National Arbitration Forum, a legal alternate to litigating in court, sided with a Google complaint alleging that Sergey Gridasov of St. Petersburg, Russia, had engaged in "typosquatting" by operating Web sites named googkle.com, ghoogle.com and gooigle.com. After former Stanford University graduate students incorporated the search engine in September 1998, Google registered its domain name a year later. Gridasov registered his Web sites in December 2000 and January 2001, according to Google's complaint. In a decision made earlier this week, arbitrator Paul A. Dorf, endorsed Google's contention that the misspelled addresses were part of a sinister plot to infect computers with programs - known as "malware" - that can lead to recurring system crashes, wipe out valuable data or provide a window into highly sensitive information. Gridasov didn't respond to Google's complaint, filed May 11, meaning the arbitrator could accept all reasonable allegations as true. The Associated Press sent an e-mail Friday to the address that Gridasov listed when he registered his Web sites. The response, which wasn't signed by Gridasov, acknowledged the misspelled names were adopted to attract more visitors, but said there hadn't been any complaints until the sites began posting code from another company, which assured it wouldn't cause any trouble. F-Secure, a Finnish company specializing in identifying malware, identified googkle.com as a troublemaker in an advisory posted April 26 -- nearly three weeks before Mountain View-based Google filed its complaint. Trying to piggyback on the popularity of a heavily trafficked Web site isn't new. For instance, the address Whitehouse.com used to display ads for pornography was a surprise for Web surfers looking for Whitehouse.gov, the president's official online channel. Whitehouse.com now operates as a private Web site that sells access to public records. Google's brand ranks among the most trusted on the Internet and its Web site attracts more than 66 million unique monthly visitors, making it an inviting target for scheming opportunists. On The Net: http://www.google.com Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. See all Associated Press headlines and stories at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html No login or registration requirements. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 12:43:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Florida Man Charged For Stealing Wi-Fi Wi-Fi cloaks a new breed of intruder http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/04/State/Wi_Fi_cloaks_a_new_br.shtml Florida Man Charged For Stealing Wi-Fi http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/07/1351258 Florida case raises questions about Wi-Fi mooching http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-5778822.html FAQ: Wi-Fi mooching and the law http://news.com.com/2100-7351-5778822.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 19:22:08 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Amid Crisis, Phones Jammed, But Text Messages Worked By DIONNE SEARCEY, SARMAD ALI and ALMAR LATOUR Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Like many London residents, when Marianne Dunn heard about the bomb attacks, she immediately tried to call colleagues on their cellphones to see if they were all right. But all the computer trainer got were busy signals. Then Ms. Dunn heard on the radio that authorities advised people to use text messages via cellphones in lieu of calls. "I got the message through using text," she said. A sudden surge of voice traffic following yesterday's attacks overloaded many British cellphone networks for at least three hours. The calling volume was so high that even parts of the landline networks were congested: The network of BT Group PLC, the largest U.K. landline operator, experienced disruption, as did that of Cable & Wireless PLC, another large phone company. Several newer communication tools appeared to hold up better, including text messages sent via cellphone keypads, wireless email and instant messaging sent over computers. And some state-of-the-art, "third-generation" cellphone networks, which are equipped to send and receive video images and music as well as calls, also continued working. Some customers even recorded images of the bomb damage on their cellphone cameras and sent them to media outlets. The communications problems indicate that, at least in Britain, cellphone-system operators may not have learned many lessons from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. And landline networks, which previously were thought to be more robust, also face challenges. After the World Trade Center attacks, landline phones generally held up in New York, though there were some congestion problems, while cellphone networks were clogged. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112077406111780071-h53OpBx5tN92js2XzLVusfCU43w_20060708,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2005 10:51:27 -0700 From: Kelly Daniels Reply-To: telco@teleport.com Organization: Telco Planning, Inc. Subject: June Commentary on Cellular Providers Features Hello Bob Wallace, I have come to the same conclusion as you when you opened up the June edition on using Features on your new phone. Cellular providers are selling features but no support is available to encourage usage. From discussion groups (TELECOM Digest and Telephony On-Line) for Industry Leaders and Veterans, many are coming to the same conclusion. Cellular Operators and in particular the marketing groups are selling features without any consideration of ability to implement. At first I though I just needed better training when handed the phone. That is true for some features but not all. After being with AT&T wireless (Cellular One) for over 14 years (and designing many different systems for that network from inception), I was in Australia on Roaming that was quoted to me incorrectly. My second bill, instead of $140.00 was $2,300.00. The trouble, no web-site, store personnel, CSR or technical people could correctly quote which Edge card to take and what the rate would be. I was extremely lucky to have the incorrect rates verified by three sources in writing. After being off-line for one month (when I arrived there), I was told the only way I could get the correct device was to transfer to Cingular. What I was not told and did not even consider is that Cingular put me on a new plan (no-signatures or any pamphlet). I was happy to get a new phone (I like Motorola V551) but the DATA card is simply a firmware change. I found out three months later Cingular does not have any of the AT&T plans nor will it honor any of those plans when converting consumers. One comment though, the Cingular International Roaming Plan certainly is a deterrent to Global Commerce. I was off-line another 2 months while trying to get the rates straightened out. New rule in conversion from AT&T to Cingular -- AT&T let you suspend the account when service would not work, Cingular says tough, you still have to pay so I did for the two months that I had to suspend service because they could not quote the rates and re-rate the errant bill. They would re-rate the bill, they just could not re-rate the bill. Now we get to the features. 1) Cingular Web site could not be updated with my account information or bill review or pay-online for the first four months. I could access the web site only if I am Microsoft IE user. 2) E-mail or Web site support contact not allowed for first six-months "we do not support e-mail correspondence". I did not argue this because I knew they would get a few hundred thousand complaints to cause them to change. 3) International Support assistance Free with AT&T, Not with Cingular. 11 hours of charges for conversations on bill and support while I had turned off service yet had to pay for monthly service. 4) Motorola Phone, USB cable, PhoneTools. Absolutely will not work, is not going to work and no refunds allowed on the cable or the software application. 17 hours of troubleshooting excluding leaving it with the Cingular Staff. The source of the trouble, Cingular Connection Manager Software for my Edge Card AND an integration problem on selecting the USB port instead of the Modem for Windows 98 users. I cannot move my contacts, retrieve my pictures or set my alerts. 5) My personal E-mails on the phone -- Motorola Phone supports it but Cingular discontinued the capability. Cingular advertises it, support is on the web site but it has been discontinued. I am forced to used their e-mail which, amazingly, will not accept Microsoft Messenger. I now have four subscription products for DATA services (MMS, MediaNet, PhoneTools, Edge Card) of which only the edge card works on a dedicated PC (phone integration capable but not allowed). 6) Pictures available for MMS will not send pictures to e-mails recipients. 7) E-mailing pictures was allowed (and still works if you use the service outside the USA) and is allowed but will not work because Cingular E-mail is limited in size. It would work if I used my external e-mail service but I am no longer allowed to. 8) Cingular Web site is required to set-up e-mail and Medianet. Media net requires I use Microsoft Internet Explorer. Since I only use IE for OS upgrades and patches, I decided I could use IE for Cingular. All of the personalization you do on Media net is only for your browser on your PC the changes do not go to the phone set, there is no correlation between Medianet and your phone. I have absolutely no idea what MediaNet is for after registering and browsing. It appears only if I use a PC to make my Cingular account my home page. There is absolutely no interaction with the phone or edge card. 9) Web Browsing, like external e-mail and phonetools is advertised and the Cingular Web site support pages support it but the service has been turned off. You cannot set links to WML enabled web sites. You can only use the Web sites Cingular provided on the pre-loaded application in the phone. What a complete mess. It is true I have plenty of features on the phone, one I really like, is taking pictures but I must use it only when outside the USA because all of the send support features have been removed in the Cingular network. I cannot think of anyone who would want to receive picture of my work on their MMS enabled phone. Like I said it cannot be moved to a PC because MobilePhone tools will not work and external e-mail has been discontinued and internal e-mail restricts size. The phone is simply a phone and appears it will only be a phone. I have not adopted text messaging but in light of the above, I do not expect it to work. Kelly ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2005 07:34:30 From: Editor (PRN) Subject: F-MMS Forum Defines New Directions And Broadens Its Scope Source: F-MMS Forum Secretariat http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com F-MMS Forum Defines New Directions And Broadens Its Scope Towards Triple Play And IP Services Berne, Switzerland - Jul 8, 2005 (PRN): Addressing the Triple Play challenge, the F-MMS Forum adopted a new direction towards Multi-Media Services in the IP-driven Fixed Line environment during its recent General Assembly, held on the 29 June 2005 in Sophia Antipolis, France. The newly adopted charter of the Forum focuses on one major task, to translate growth opportunities that arise from the Triple Play challenge into breakthrough revenue earning Fixed Line Multi-Media Services and devices. The Forum wishes to provide leadership in service evolution, as an unbiased source of information and as a platform for expertise and exchange of ideas. With shrinking revenues from traditional circuit-switched networks, the Forum foresees that the Global industry is looking towards the merits of IP-technology, pushing Interactive Multi-media Services (IMS) as the hottest terminology. With IP-technology in Fixed Line Access networks, opportunities arise for the development of innovative seamless Triple Play services that converge voice, data and video over fixed and mobile telephony access, broadband access, wireless (Wi-Fi) access and cable systems. "Not only the industry but actually the consumers desire interoperable services and devices when they think of future communications at home and on the move", says Thomas Carnaghi, the chairman of the F-MMS Forum. "It is this desire that makes the development of new communica- tions services and devices complex; any service should work on any device and in any network. IMS is the right network platform for that. On a product level, a common understanding of interworking standards is essential and is a pre-requisite to create a user experience people are willing to pay for." Based on the success the Forum had in the development and promotion of standardization of Multi-media Messaging Services and devices in the circuit-switched networks, the Forum is in an excellent position to steer its members through the challenge of the upcoming IP-access environment, as well. Martin Rolls, who led the 'Broadening Project' within the Forum and represents BT within the Steering Committee, adds: "Triple Play is a key opportunity within the Global future communications business but it will only create satisfying margins to those players who come up with real, seamlessly interoperable, converged services and devices that provide rewarding customer experiences. The Forum addresses this new reality by broadening its scope from messaging to multimedia services and from the focus on circuit-switched to convergent IP and IMS domains." Carnaghi concludes, "The world is complex, no doubt. No company alone can deploy anymore an innovative home communications service or device without securing interworking. As a Forum we want to bring all major industry players around the globe to the table. We strongly believe that we make a difference as we provide our members with guidance in the development of innovative Fixed Line Multi-Media Services based on sound consumer insights and by offering early access to standards related data within a non-discriminating environment. We also provide to our members with tremendous opportunities to discuss and set market requirements that influence standards and, last but not least, we create possibilities to conduct interoperability testing that ensure a reduced time-to-market of profitable services and devices. It is the overall vocation of the Forum, to enable its members to benefit from the opportunities in the Triple Play challenge and to achieve profitable growth with their services and devices. And we are open to all players around the globe." Visual Material Illustrating the triple play pyramid: http://www.fixedlinemms.org/news/releases/2005070701.JPG. About F-MMS Forum The objective of the Fixed Line MMS Forum is to develop & promote Multimedia Services (including voice, video & data) in the fixed network in order to enhance attractiveness by adding new services. This will lead to fixed - mobile convergent applications while ensuring interoperability between fixed, mobile and wireless networks. Since its foundation in 2002, the Forum has achieved major breakthroughs for its members as standards for Fixed Line SMS and Fixed Line MMS over PSTN/ISDN were adopted by Standardisation Bodies, inc ETSI, and commercial deployments of the services and devices in Europe and Overseas began. The Forum's agenda is now focused on the task to research, develop and evaluate market and consumer requirements that serve as a robust basis for services and devices definition and testing. The Forum will co-ordinate and deliver technical recommendations to Standards Bodies, drive standardization and interoperability and reduce time-to-market. In so much, the Forum is set to promote the services and devices applications and standards in important industry venues, conferences and across appropriate media channels. This non-profit industry-wide organisation is based in Berne, Switzerland. Since its creation, companies from all over the world have joined the Forum (see also http://www.fixedlinemms.org ): Binatone, BT, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Panasonic, Philips, Siemens, Telecom Italia. @utotools, Alcatel, Alterbox, AOL, Arkon, AVM, Bitcom, Comverse, DeTeWe, Dial Face, DSP Group, Huawei, Inventel, Jataayu Software, LogicaCMG, Materna, MR&D Institute, National Semiconductors, Openwave, Purple Vision, RTX, Sagem, Speech Design, Suncorp, Swissvoice, Teleca, Telefonica, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Thales, Thomson Telecom, Unisys, UPC, Urmet Domus, Urmet TLC, VTech, Winbond. For more information, contact: Heinz Ochsner F-MMS Forum Secretariat and Press Office P. O. Box 7465 3001 Berne Switzerland Tel: +41 (32) 6212692 Fax: +41 (32) 6212691 Email: info@fixedlinemms.org Website: http://www.fixedlinemms.org ### Information from Press Release Network may be freely distributed to any publication. Wherever applicable, please cite Press Release Network as the news source. DISCLAIMER: The content of each press release is the responsibility of the publishing organisation and is not vetted or approved by Press Release Network prior to publication. Press Release Network is not liable directly or indirectly for any direct or consequential loss, damage or expense resulting from the material disseminated and published on the site. Subscribers are advised to check the accuracy of all press releases and to obtain their own professional advice in relation to such information. ------------------------------ From: snow Subject: Verizon VOIP Questions Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2005 21:43:18 GMT I subscribe to both Verizon local telephone and its DSL service. I was on their website and read about VOIP broadband phone service. I am now considering dropping the regular landline phone and trying out VOIP service. I am interested in opinions about broadband phone. Is it reliable and good sound quality. Also, are the traditional phone taxes applied to a VOIP connection? Even with taxes added in, I figure I save $10 a month and get premium services on top of it like caller ID which I don't have now. If I do switch, I would purchase a wireless phone system, so I can use at least two phones in the house. Any opinions on pros and cons of broadband phone appreciated. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Beware of any DSL offering VOIP service unless you can absolutely disconnect your landline phone service (as it now stands) in lieu of the VOIP service instead. You may get told that you have to subscribe to Verizon local service in order to have DSL, in order to have the VOIP service. Ergo, you may wind up with a phone you do not need or want, in order to have the VOIP line you do want. That same thing happened to me, although my underlying carrier is SBC (Southwestern Bell). In order to dump SBC phone service, I had to dump their DSL as well, to get the company I really wanted (Prairie Stream) and Vonage VOIP. So I wound up with cable internet (CableOne) instead of DSL for that reason. I have two lines in my house, but connected through a PBX, so I can dial 9+ for Prairie Stream or 8+ for Vonage. (or '10X' for any of the extensions in my house.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Google Earth Thrills With Photos, Stunts, But How Practical? Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 15:04:59 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Monty Solomon wrote: > It's good to have a healthy skepticism about the claims of the > hype-driven technology industry. But there are times when even a > hardened skeptic has to admit to amazement and delight at the sheer > coolness of some of the things you can do on a personal computer > today. And one of those "wow" moments happens the first time you run a > new program called Google Earth. As someone who works with topo and satellite info as part of my work, I find Google Earth to be basically fluff with little substance. (aka, hype). Sat data are expensive and all Google is doing is baiting with some metro area stuff. Most of the country is junk photos. Maybe they will eventually have real coverage for a whole lot of money. Terraserver.com is a lot better and a lot more honest about this stuff. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 18:13:11 -0400 From: burris Subject: Re: SunRocket VOIP Comments? jmeissen@aracnet.com wrote: > Back in November of last year there was an announcement posted here > about Sunrocket VOIP http://www.sunrocket.com . I don't recall > seeing anything about them since. > Does anyone have any opinions, good or bad, about their service? > John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com I have them for about 5 months now and am very pleased. Sure, they have an occasional crash and perhaps they don't have every feature you would like, but ... $199.00 for the year, including everything ... A few forums to consider: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/voip http://www.sunrocketforum.com/index.php? http://www.talkaboutvoip.com/forums/index.php? ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #315 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jul 10 21:59:30 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 6EDF514F4E; Sun, 10 Jul 2005 21:59:30 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #316 Message-Id: <20050711015930.6EDF514F4E@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 21:59:30 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,EARN_MONEY, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT,US_DOLLARS_3 autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: * Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 10 Jul 2005 22:00:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 316 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Microsoft Rewards Sasser Informants (Reuters Newswire) Blogs are Powerful Tools in Supreme Court Fight (Donna Smith) Communications Problems in Thursday Attack in London (Alan Burkitt-Gray) Online Data Gets Personal: Cell Phone Records for Sale (Monty Solomon) State's Online Records Pose Risk/ID Data Accessible on Deeds (M Solomon) AOL Had the Better Show For Viewers (Monty Solomon) EFFector 18.22: Trademark Owners Can't Control Your Desktop (M Solomon) Mixing Blogging With Work Can Lead to Unemployment (Monty Solomon) Sex Scene Stirs up Fuss Over Grand Theft Auto (Monty Solomon) Re: VoIP Phone Home? (Fred Atkinson) Re: Power Strips for Home Networks (Fred Atkinson) AT&T Partner ACS 6.0 with T1 Capability (Etop Udoh) Last Laugh! Spam Email For Friends and Co-Workers (Nora Burch) 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: Newswire Subject: Microsoft Rewards Sasser Worm Informants Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 20:05:18 -0500 Microsoft Corp. will pay a combined $250,000 to two people who helped track down the author of the Sasser Internet worm, which infected computers around the globe, the world's largest software maker said on Friday. A German court hours earlier gave Sven Jaschan a suspended sentence of 21 months after he admitted creating the malicious software program. Jaschan, 19, was arrested within a week after the Sasser worm first appeared on the Internet in May 2004 and infected more than a million computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system. The two individuals, who were not identified, will share the reward, which Microsoft established with Interpol, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service. Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, has been trying to make its software more secure and reliable, and has also vowed to go after hackers and others who create worms and malicious software viruses by offering bounties and also suing them in court. In January, Jeffrey Lee Parson, 19, sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle to a year-and-a-half in prison for releasing a variant of the Blaster worm that was used to attack more than 48,000 computers. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Donna Smith Subject: Blogs Powerful Tools in Supreme Court Fight Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 20:07:02 -0500 By Donna Smith Political groups preparing to battle over the first U.S. Supreme Court nomination in 11 years have a powerful new tool -- Internet blogs -- to spread information quickly and influence decision makers without relying on traditional media. Web logs likely numbering in the dozens provide a way for the thoughtful and the passionate to publish their views. Politicians are taking notice as they prepare for the first high court nomination fight since the Internet became common in American households. President Bush has yet to name a replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor, who announced her retirement last week. With the vacancy and eventual nominee comes intense debate over the court's future. "A key part of our strategy is reaching out to the Internet community," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Blogs and similar forums have been around since the early days of the Internet, but only in the last year have they begun to have an impact on public opinion and lawmakers, congressional staffers and bloggers said. A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project said that 7 percent of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the Internet have created a blog or web-based diary. Reid and other political leaders now hold conferences with bloggers in the same way they meet with traditional press. "I think they are instrumental in getting information out and deconstructing spin," said Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican. "They are much defter and swifter than the mainstream media," he said, adding that blogs are also "very clear in their philosophical and ideological leanings." BLOG FANS Carol Darr, director of George Washington University's Institute for politics, democracy and the Internet, said those who read and write blogs aren't "the sad, the mad and the lonely." Rather, research shows they tend to be people able to influence others, she said. Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group formed to support Bush nominees, said the blog at http:/committeeforjustice.org is aimed at journalists, other bloggers and talk radio hosts. It also gets information to advocacy groups and "allows them to do what they are good at, and that is activism," he said. Tom Goldstein said researchers at his Washington law firm Goldstein and Howe already are poring over the background and court decisions of potential nominees. His firm's blogs at http:/www.scotusblog.com and http:/www.sctnomination.com/blog strive to be non-partisan, but will offer opinions on how a candidate may decide important cases, he said. "If we believe this person will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, we will say that," he said, speaking of the ruling that legalized abortion. Melanie Mattson said she bought more bandwidth for her liberal court blog at http:/judgingthefuture.net, saying she was unsure how much more traffic to expect. "The medium is still so new and the Internet is growing so fast it is hard to know," she said. "Once we get a name we will get more hits." Steve Clemons, who publishes a political blog http:/www.thewashingtonnote.com, says that once Bush names someone "you are going to see the blogs go crazy" digging up information and in many cases "outrunning" mainstream media. Not all blogs are created equal. Many will become "ideological echo chambers" that people read to reaffirm their beliefs, Clemons said. Others will fuel passions on both the right and the left sides of the political spectrum. A few will rise above the pack and become sources of information and not just an advocacy forum. "If there is any momentum to this trend, you are going to see them play a very influential role in shaping the environment for this debate," Clemons said. His blog on John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador became a must read for many congressional aides and journalists. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Alan Burkitt-Gray Subject: Communications Problems in Thursday's Attack in London Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 14:12:07 +0100 Organization: Alan Burkitt-Gray I wanted to comment as a Londoner on the WSJ report from London that Monty Solomon posted (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112077406111780071-h53OpBx5tN92js 2XzLVusfCU43w_20060708,00.html) following Thursday's coordinated bomb attack on us. The writers say that "the communications problems indicate that, at least in Britain, cellphone-system operators may not have learned many lessons from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S." On the contrary, what they have clearly learned from is the March 2004 attacks on Madrid, where 191 people were killed by a series of bombs in trains set off by cellphones. It's clear that, while there was undoubtedly huge traffic on the networks (fixed and mobile) in the hours after the very similar attacks on London, the network operators followed a well known, though fortunately little used, procedure of restricting network access. Two reasons: partly to give the emergency services priority. Though they of course have their own two-way radio networks for use within individual services (police, fire/rescue, ambulance) they also use the regular mobile phone networks because these give them access to other services, such as hospitals, transport officials, utilities, local and national government, including social services. When there is a major incident access to non-essential users can be blocked by the networks: this is a procedure that has existed at least since the 1960s - though it was a lot more complex to operate in step-by-step Strowger switches than it is now. But secondly, as I heard the sirens on Thursday morning and saw the police cars and ambulances hurtling past to Liverpool Street station (close to my office) and the other sites, I was only too well aware of what happened in Madrid 16 months ago. Those bombs on the underground could not have been set off by mobile phones as there is currently no coverage in the tunnels - the experience of Madrid was a genuine cause for concern when Transport for London announced plans a couple of months ago to let networks install base stations. They were, it now seems, set off by electronic timers -- all three bombs, at Edgware Road station, between Liverpool Street and Aldgate stations, and between Kings Cross and Russell Square stations, went off within 50 seconds of one another. Which presumably means someone actually decided that 08.51 was precisely the most effective time to kill people, as commuters would then be on the last few minutes of their journeys to work for an 09.00 start. However, it was clearly possible that there might be a second wave of explosions on the above-ground trains that carry more millions of people into central London each day, including me to work and my daughters to school, and that cellphones might be used to set those off. So I was not surprised that it was impossible to make outgoing calls from mobile phones in the affected areas (calls to the 999 emergency number, the equivalent to and the predecessor of the North American 911, would not have been blocked). And incoming calls were automatically diverted to voicemail -- avoiding any chance of calls getting through to phones that were wired into bombs. We still don't know how the fourth bomb, on the bus, was set off -- the police are still, literally, putting the pieces together. Alan Burkitt-Gray Editor, Global Telecoms Business magazine, London www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com aburkitt@euromoneyplc.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 01:05:49 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Online Data Gets Personal: Cell Phone Records for Sale By Jonathan Krim Washington Post Staff Writer They're not just after your credit card or Social Security numbers. Fueled by the ease of online commerce, snoops are on the trail of other personal information, too. One of the hottest markets: records of phone calls, especially from cell phones. A tool long used by law enforcement and private investigators to help locate criminals or debt-skippers, phone records are a part of the sea of personal data routinely bought and sold online in an Internet-driven, I-can-find-out-anything-about-you world. Legal experts say many of the methods for acquiring such information are illegal, but they receive scant attention from authorities. Think your mate is cheating? For $110, Locatecell.com will provide you with the outgoing calls from his or her cell phone for the last billing cycle, up to 100 calls. All you need to supply is the name, address and the number for the phone you want to trace. Order online, and get results within hours. Carlos F. Anderson, a licensed private investigator in Florida, offers a similar service for $165, for all major telephone carriers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/AR2005070701862.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 03:26:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: State's Online Records Pose Risk / ID Data Accessible on Deeds State's online records pose risk ID data accessible on deeds documents By Joe Light, Globe Correspondent Hackers uploaded a virus to siphon off credit card information from CardSystems Solutions Inc. Thieves posed as legitimate businesses to purchase personal information from ChoicePoint Inc. But a search of state records posted online and easily accessible by the public reveals that thieves would not have to go through nearly that much trouble to steal the identities of many Massachusetts residents. Tax liens, mortgage papers, deeds, and other real estate-related documents are publicly available in online databases run by registries of deeds across the state. The Globe found documents in free databases of all but three Massachusetts counties containing the names and Social Security numbers of Massachusetts residents. Public documents that sometimes contain names and Social Security numbers include state and federal tax liens, Massachusetts Health liens, child support liens, and, less frequently, mortgages, said registers of deeds. Although registers of deeds said that they are unaware of cases in which criminals used information from their databases maliciously, the information contained in the documents would be more than enough to steal an identity and open new lines of credit, said Eric Bourassa, a consumer advocate with the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group who deals with identity theft issues. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/06/23/states_online_records_pose_risk/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 10:47:51 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AOL Had the Better Show For Viewers TELEVISION REVIEW By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff How much has the world changed in 20 years? Two decades ago, Live Aid had earnest musicians and teeming crowds, novel collaborations and enough serious rock to merit a day on the couch. But yesterday, if you were going to spend a sunny Saturday watching a global pop music extravaganza, you had two choices: watching the joint coverage on MTV and VH1 or watching live streaming video on AOL. And small screens notwithstanding, you were far better off online. AOL let you zip from city to city on your own, without relying on someone else's editorial decisions. AOL didn't bleep expletives from Green Day in Berlin or Madonna in London. The internet show also started earlier and ran the whole event live. And AOL didn't interrupt its broadcast with ads: Yes, MTV and VH1 reminded us often, they were helping to raise global awareness of African poverty. But they were also raising global awareness of MTV and VH1, stocking commercial breaks with ads for the upcoming shows -- ''The Surreal Life," ''Celebrity Fit Club," ''The 70s House" -- and commercials that didn't exactly match Live 8's Save-the-Earth message. Not long after the Black Eyed Peas crooned about global responsibility, for example, MTV aired an extra-long ad filled violent scenes from the upcoming movie ''The Island." http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2005/07/03/aol_had_the_better_show_for_viewers/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 14:53:09 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.22: Trademark Owners Can't Control Your Desktop EFFector Vol. 18, No. 23 July 7, 2005 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 338th Issue of EFFector: * Trademark Owners Can't Control Your Desktop * AcompliaReport.com Sues for Right to Use Trademark to Report on New Drug * WIPO: Trying to Run Reform Into the Ground * A Flag-Waving Salute to Open Digital TV * You, Your Boss, and Your Blog * BayFF on Bloggers' Rights, July 19 * Hang Out with the Geek Gods and Support EFF at DefCon Summit, July 28 * Running for a Cause * miniLinks (15): Broadcasting Treaty Deliberations Move to Secret Base Within Hollowed-Out Volcano * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/22.php ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 22:38:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Mixing Blogging With Work Can Lead to Unemployment By Kate M. Jackson, Globe correspondent When Norah Burch included a link to her personal website -- AnnoyYourFriends.com -- in her work e-mail signature, she inadvertently annoyed her supervisors and lost her job. http://bostonworks.boston.com/globe/articles/070305_blogs.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When this message arrived Saturday night here, I spent some time reviewing 'Annoy Your Friends' and found among other things some very witty examples of spam you can send around to your friends and neighbors and co-workers. I am including one example of her wit in this issue of the Digest in the final 'Last Laugh!' item today. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 22:42:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sex Scene Stirs up Fuss Over Grand Theft Auto By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff Enough with the endless controversy over violence in video games. Instead, let's talk about sex. Raunchy, full-contact sex -- the sort of thing you'd see in a porn movie, only with cartoonlike, computer-generated images. According to some software-savvy game geeks, you can find this kind of seamy excitement hidden inside one of the world's most popular computer games, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. As if Grand Theft Auto lacked for controversy. It's already the computer game that critics of the industry love to hate because of its relentless brutality. GTA has inspired a spate of legislation in such places as Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C., all aimed at keeping violent games out of the hands of minors. But if Dutch gamer Patrick Wildenborg is to be believed, enemies of GTA have a new reason for outrage. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/07/09/sex_scene_stirs_up_a_fuss_over_grand_theft_auto/ ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: VoIP Phone Home? Reply-To: fatkinson@mishmash.com Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 00:55:30 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Wed, 06 Jul 2005 07:39:44 GMT, Marc Popek wrote: > Mostly the cost difference and the convenience. > Marc > Fred Atkinson wrote in message > news:telecom24.309.2@telecom-digest.org: >> Why not just get a two-line RJ-14 type telephone? >> Fred Well, you can go to Radio Shack and get a very nice two line GE phone with caller ID, speakerphone, and a bunch of other features for about fifty dollars. I just got one because I'm going to have two different VOIP services at my new place in NC for a while. When I have the bucks, I'm going to get another one, too. I used to be leary of phones being sold by Radio Shack. But what I've seen there lately has been an improvement. It used to be off brands. But now there's not so many different model phones but a few good ones insteads. Fred ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Power Strips for Home Networks Reply-To: fatkinson@mishmash.com Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 01:14:54 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net I discovered this solution over the last few days. It seems to work pretty well with the Wall Warts. http://www.apcc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=PF11VNT3 Additionally, it provides surge protection for a single telephone line, an ethernet connection, and a cablemodem connection. Fred ------------------------------ From: Etop Udoh Reply-To: sdruid11@bellsouth.net Subject: AT&T Partner ACS 6.0 With T1 Capability Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2005 22:59:12 -0400 Partner ACS 6.0 with T1 Capability ... Would someone be nice enough to explain what that really means in English or plain terms since I'm use to doing the actually POTS line to T1 crossovers for customers. Thanks. ==================================================================== | Etop Udoh | Http://www.geocities.com/sdruid11 | | P.O. Box 1054| Http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/sdruid | |Snellville, Ga| Http://home.bellsouth.net/p/pwp-sdruid | | 30078 | Http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/bit/9122 | |--------------| Http://home.earthlink.net/~sdruid11 | | A+ Certified Net+ Certified | | \/ \/ | |sdruid11@earthlink.net |sdruid11@bellsouth.net |sdruid11@yahoo.com| | !! ..........Peace and Love to All......... !! | ==================================================================== ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson (via Nora Burch) Subject: Last Laugh! Spam Email For Your Friends and Co-Workers Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 22:30:50 -0500 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Nora Burch as a very clever web site called 'annoyyourfriends.com'. Ms. Burch _used to_ work for Harvard University until she got fired because of her web log (part of her overall web site.) Some of her humor is very good. I've sent the item below as part of a routine auto-ack to the several hundred folks who have sent me spam in the past few days. PAT] =================== General Mills and AOL have recently merged to form the largest internet company in the world. In an effort to remain at pace with this giant, Microsoft has introduced a new email tracking system as a way to keep Internet Explorer as the most popular browser on the market. This email is a beta test of the new software and Microsoft has generously offered to compensate who participate in the testing process. For each person you send this email to, you will be given $500. For every person they give it to, you will be given an additional $300. For every person they send it to you will receive $1000,000. Microsoft will tally all the emails produced under your name over a two Week period and then email you with more instructions. This beta test is only for PC and Commodore users because the email tracking device that contacts Microsoft is embedded into the code of MS DOS and "Centipede" for the Commodore-64 and VIC-20. I know you guys hate forwards. But I started this a month ago because I Was very short on things to do. A week ago I got an email personally from Bill Gates asking me For my address. I gave it to him on a napkin, written in lipstick and yesterday a brigade of silken-clad midgets personally delivered a check for $1,800,000 to my door. It really works. I wanted you to get a piece of the action. You won't regret it. ==================================== [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Nora, I did not regret sending the above out to the nitwits who pester me with spam all the time. Thanks for the suggestion! 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #316 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jul 11 15:27:50 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 23BED1510B; Mon, 11 Jul 2005 15:27:50 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #317 Message-Id: <20050711192750.23BED1510B@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 15:27:50 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 11 Jul 2005 15:25:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 317 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Feds Fear Air Broadband Terror (Kevin Poulsen) Police Still Using Matrix System (David Royse) Sprint Raises _Everyone_ $1.50 More per Month (David Lazarus) Questions About Verizon-MCI Merger (W. David Gardner) SQL Voice Over IP Exposed! (Newswire) VOIP Sizzles Conference, in Dallas July 20-23 (Conference Announcement) School Becomes Bookless (Newswire) 211 Service in Florida (Ragaram Vadarevu) Sprint Snaps up US Unwired (TELECOM Daily lead From USTA) 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: Kevin Poulsen Subject: Feds Fear Air Broadband Terror Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 12:04:04 -0500 By Kevin Poulsen Federal law enforcement officials, fearful that terrorists will exploit emerging in-flight broadband services to remotely activate bombs or coordinate hijackings, are asking regulators for the power to begin eavesdropping on any passenger's internet use within 10 minutes of obtaining court authorization. In joint comments filed with the FCC last Tuesday, the Justice Department, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned that a terrorist could use on-board internet access to communicate with confederates on other planes, on the ground or in different sections of the same plane -- all from the comfort of an aisle seat. "There is a short window of opportunity in which action can be taken to thwart a suicidal terrorist hijacking or remedy other crisis situations on board an aircraft, and law enforcement needs to maximize its ability to respond to these potentially lethal situations," the filing reads. The Justice Department hopes to do that with an FCC ruling that satellite-based in-flight broadband services are bound by the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, the federal law that required telephone companies to modify their networks to be wiretap-friendly for the FBI. CALEA was originally passed to preserve the Bureau's ability to eavesdrop on telephone calls in the digital age. But last year the FBI and Justice Department persuaded the FCC to interpret the law so it would apply to internet traffic over cable modems and DSL lines. The FCC has already expressed the view that in-flight broadband would likely be covered as well. The Justice Department is asking the commission to require that air-to-ground internet taps be equipped "forthwith, but in no circumstance more than 10 minutes" after the FBI requests them. The filing comes as the FCC considers implementing a licensing scheme that would encourage more companies to enter the satellite-based in-flight broadband market. Currently, only Boeing is licensed to provide such services. Boeing's Connexion system lets passengers plug in to a wired ethernet jack or connect wirelessly over 802.11b, and is available on select flights on a handful of international carriers, including Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Korean Air. No U.S. carrier has announced plans to offer the service. In addition to seeking the rapid-tap technology, the Justice Department filing asks the FCC to require carriers to maintain fine-grained control over their airborne broadband links. This would include the ability to quickly and automatically identify every internet user by name and seat number, remotely cut off a passenger's internet access, cut off all passengers' access without affecting the flight crew's access, or redirect communications to and from the aircraft in the event of a crisis. Officials also expressed concern that terrorists might use in-flight broadband to remotely trigger a bomb hidden on a plane. They asked the FCC to keep such services from being accessible from the cargo hull of an aircraft. "The ability to turn on a broadband-enabled communications device located on board an aircraft ... presents the possibility that either a passenger or someone on the ground could reliably remotely activate a broadband-enabled communications device in flight and use that device as an RCIED (remote-controlled improvised explosive device)," the filing says. Forrester Research analyst Brownlee Thomas supports the Justice Department's proposal, but admits it would raise the barrier of entry for companies wanting to enter the in-flight broadband market. "It does favor the largest players in this space," says Thomas. "I would go so far as to suggest that I think it is the Justice Department's intention to ensure that the doors are not open too wide on this, for the requirement of national security ... that actually makes perfect sense." Despite their safety concerns, federal agencies are generally bullish on airborne broadband, lauding its potential to enhance communications between the air and the ground during a crisis. Copyright 2005, Lycos, Inc. and Wired Magazine. Lycos is a trademark of Carnegie Mellon University. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: David Royse Subject: Police Still Using Matrix-Type Database Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:22:56 -0500 Police Still Using Matrix-Type Database By DAVID ROYSE, Associated Press Writer TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - When the federal government in April stopped funding a database that lets police quickly see public records and commercially collected information on Americans, privacy advocates celebrated what they saw as a victory against overzealous police in the fight against terrorism. But a few states are pressing forward with a similar system, continuing to look for ways to quickly search through a trove of data -- from driver's license photos to phone numbers to information about people's cars. Their argument in seeking to keep the Matrix database alive in some form: it's too important for solving crimes to give up on. Florida, Ohio, Connecticut and Pennsylvania still use software that lets investigators quickly cull through much of the data about people that reside in cyberspace. However, without the federal grant for the Matrix data-sharing system, they won't be routinely searching through digital files from other states -- at least for now. Privacy advocates still don't like the idea, saying government shouldn't have easy access to so much information about people who haven't done anything wrong. But law officers bent on keeping the Matrix alive say the information is already out there anyway for companies to use for less noble purposes. Law enforcement has always used such information; it just never had a big computer search tool to quickly find links between people and places. "The media uses that data, attorneys use it, banks use it," said Mark Zadra, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent in charge of the system. "We've been using online data like that for 10 to 15 years. What this does is link those. ... What took law enforcement so long to use technology and get into the 21st century?" Matrix -- the ominous name is shorthand for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange -- was born as an anti-terrorism tool in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Created by Florida law enforcement officials working with a one-time drug-running pilot-turned-millionaire computer whiz named Hank Asher, it was conceived as a way for states to combine data they have on people -- driving records and criminal histories, for example -- with similar records from other states. The company that Asher founded but no longer works for, Seisint Inc., also added to Matrix information gathered in the private sector, including some of what credit card companies collect, such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers -- though actual credit histories were not included. Together, the program would give states a powerful tool that could link someone to several addresses or vehicles, and possibly to other people who lived at those same houses or drove the same car. Those links could help thwart terrorism or solve crimes in which witnesses could provide only partial information, like half of a license plate and the make of a car. The technology is credited in part with helping police crack the Washington, D.C., sniper case in 2002. "It very quickly allows you to identify identities, associates, things like that," said Lt. Col. Ralph Periandi, deputy commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police. "Two or three other people who might be connected." Matrix impressed federal officials enough that the program was seeded with $12 million from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. Thirteen states eventually signed on or expressed interest in feeding their data into the system, representing half the U.S. population. But over time, several states pulled out, partly because of concerns about the cost or laws governing the transfer of data out of state. California's attorney general decided Matrix "offends fundamental rights of privacy." Those objections were nothing compared to the criticism Matrix encountered from the right and the left, including from the American Civil Liberties Union. "It is essentially an electronic file on everyone whether they are suspected of criminal activity or not," said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU in Florida. "I can't think of anything more un-American." When the federal grant for Matrix ended in April - there is dispute over whether the privacy issues may have killed the government's interest - the database itself officially ended as well. But Florida and the three other states are still using its database-searching software. Florida is continuing to seek out companies that can help them build another, larger cache of information. And officials envision one day sharing that data with other states again. In addition to contracting for searching software from Seisint -- now part of information giant LexisNexis -- Florida has requested information from companies on what data they could provide that the police could add to their database. The proposal says Florida police are interested in such privately available data as insurance, financial, property and business records. Although Matrix was designed as a terrorism tool, Zadra said its main value has been for solving more ordinary crimes. He cites success stories ranging from kidnapping to frauds and theft. In fact, in Florida the system is most often queried in fraud investigations, followed closely by robbery, state records show. To support those efforts, the Florida police envision getting what's known as "credit header information" -- basic identifiers for people -- from private credit rating agencies. That's led to fears that police would be looking into people's credit. "Absolutely not true," Zadra said. What the agency wants from credit agencies is the up-to-date addresses that creditors are famously aggressive about getting. "We don't get their account numbers, we don't get their expenditures, we don't track and monitor anybody," Zadra said. "We don't know what library books you're checking out, what X-rated videos people are renting." The agency also wants to limit the searches to information generally available either to the public or to law enforcement without a search warrant, Zadra said. For example, one of the databases the system searches is the FDLE's own registry of sex offenders -- which has become a popular Web site for members of the general public to search for people in their neighborhood. For many privacy advocates Matrix raises the larger question of why so much of this information is already out there in databases for law enforcement to covet. "Technology operates at the speed of light and privacy protection is at a snail's pace," the ACLU's Simon said. "Governments like the state of Florida have not enacted privacy legislation and aren't limiting the circulation of information about you without your knowledge and consent." Zadra said the FDLE is keenly aware of concerns about how the data are used -- but noted that ultimately the files are mostly public data that people have freely given out. He points to the long lines of people at sporting events who will give away information on themselves by filling out a credit application just for a free T-shirt. "They've given their private and personal information to somebody they have no idea about, but when they hear law enforcement wants to use it to solve a crime ... they can't believe it," Zadra said. "We're doing exactly what the public asked us to do after Sept. 11. They said, 'My goodness, how did the law enforcement community allow this to happen?'" Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: David Lazarus Subject: Sprint Adding $1.50 to Everyone's Phone Bill Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 22:00:04 -0500 by David Lazarus Alamo resident Bryan McCaul received a postcard from Sprint the other day warning that the long-distance provider is about reach deeper into his pocket. "Currently your Sprint long-distance charges are included in the monthly bill you receive from your local phone company," the card said. "Effective Aug. 1, 2005, there will be a $1.50 Single Bill Fee for this service." It explained that "this monthly fee is necessary to offset increased billing costs that Sprint pays to the local phone company to include your long-distance charges on your local bill." McCaul can avoid the $1.50 charge if he opts to receive his bills online. Sprint will also waive the fee for any month in which his long-distance charges top $40. "I don't mind this so much," McCaul told me. "It'll spur me to do online billing. But I wonder about all the people who didn't bother to read the postcard," he said. "I'll bet a lot of people are never going to notice this extra $1.50 charge." Telecom companies routinely come up with creative ways to rake in more money from customers. I reported last week that MCI is introducing a 99-cent monthly fee just for receiving your bill in the mail. In fact, Sprint has been charging a single-bill fee since early 2001, as have AT&T and MCI (which each charge substantially more). Caroline Semerdjian, a Sprint spokeswoman, told me that the company only recently noticed that it had inadvertently neglected to impose the fee on a number of customers nationwide, so that's why the postcards are going out now. She declined to say how many of Sprint's millions of long-distance customers managed to duck the fee for so long. (For that matter, she also declined to say exactly how many millions of long-distance customers Sprint has.) This is the cost that we have to pay SBC to provide this service," Semerdjian said. Christine Mailloux, a telecom attorney at The Utility Reform Network in San Francisco, found this a laughable claim. "There is no way Sprint is paying SBC $1.50 a month per customer," she said. "They're just passing off a profit-making charge as a cost of doing business to make still more profit." For its part, AT&T charges $2.49 a month to combine its long-distance costs with your local bill. Gordon Diamond, an AT&T spokesman, said the fee "covers our costs to process and provide the billing data to the local exchange carrier." MCI, meanwhile, dings long-distance customers with a whopping $3.99 monthly single-bill charge. Debbie Lewis, a company spokeswoman, said this "covers the costs we incur to deliver this service." It's important to remember that single-bill fees are completely discretionary on the part of phone companies. There's no government regulation that says they have to be charged. Marc Bien, an SBC spokesman, said the Bay Area's dominant local-service provider cuts individual single-billing deals with each long-distance company. He declined to say whether the fees charged by the various carriers reflect SBC's cost -- as the long-distance firms would have us believe -- or whether the carriers are significantly marking up the charge. But Bien acknowledged that SBC is already purchasing paper, printing bills and mailing them out as part of its own customer service. As such, he said that including additional long-distance charges represents "an incremental cost." He also observed that the long-distance firms must each have billing systems that are technologically compatible with SBC's so the data can be automatically transferred. "I don't know why each one charges a different rate" for single billing, Bien said. "Perhaps they have different business models." No, they all seem to have the same one. "They just use this as a way to generate revenue," said TURN's Mailloux. ========================= Call waiting: Speaking of Sprint, here's a little fun you can have. Try calling its customer service department at (800) 877-4646. I've tried it more than a dozen times over three days, and nearly every time I get the same recording: "Due to the overwhelming positive response to our products and services, to speak with a Sprint representative, your wait will be approximately 10 minutes." In other words, you can't get through to a service rep because would-be customers are beating down the door in response to Sprint's products and services. You believe that, don't you? Copyright 2005 San Francisco Chronicle 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: W. David Gardner Subject: Questions About Verizon-MCI Merger Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 22:08:59 -0500 By W. David Gardner, TechWeb.com New York State's Public Service Commission has expressed concern that Verizon Communication's proposed takeover of MCI could produce significant consolidation in large and medium business markets. In a white paper issued this week, the PSC termed the consolidation "troubling" and offered some tentative remedies aimed at ensuring that smaller telecom providers could "continue to provide their services to medium and large customers, thereby preserving customer choice." Verizon is proceeding with plans to acquire MCI after a long battle with Qwest, which eventually dropped out of the bidding for MCI. In its analysis of the pending acquisition, the PSC noted that it also reviewed the acquisition of AT&T by SBC Communications. The PSC expressed few reservations about that transaction, however, because SBC has little presence in New York State and, therefore, its acquisition of AT&T would likely have little impact on business and residential users in the state. Verizon is the major telecommunications carrier in New York State. Even so, in its report, the PSC cited comments made by some petitioners that "the combined post-merger scenario could provide a powerful incentive for SBC and Verizon to engage in 'tacit collusion' by not competing in each other's territories" In the wake of the breakup of AT&T two decades ago and the subsequent consolidation of the nation's telephone systems, consumer groups have complained that major telephone companies including Verizon and SBC have been re-monopolizing telecommunications. In a statement released Thursday, Verizon took note of the 78-page PSC report. Thomas McCarroll, Verizon's vice president for regulatory affairs in New York and Connecticut, said the New York communications marketplace is "robustly competitive." He added: "The facts show that the combination of Verizon and MCI will create a strong new competitor whose customer focus and commitment will allow us to better offer innovative new services, packages and products, particularly to the major businesses now served by MCI, without negative effects on competition in any aspect of the market." In its analysis of the Verizon-MCI merger, the PSC suggested that one remedy to instill competition in business enterprise markets would be for smaller carriers to be entitled to receive the same rates and conditions for three years for the wholesale services they have been receiving from MCI. Addressing IP delivery, the PSC suggested a pro-competitive measure requiring Verizon to offer "naked DSL" so its customers could "take advantage of the burgeoning Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) market without also subscribing to Verizon's telephone service." The PSC also suggested that MCI could offer its retail residential service for a year after approval of the merger. Copyright 2005 CMP Media LLC. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Prior to any FCC approval of mergers between Verizon-MCI or SBC-AT&T the Comission should absolutely _insist_ upon making 'naked' or 'dry' DSL a definite requirement from telco as well as total UNE-P networks for companies like Gage and Prairie Stream. If no naked DSL and/or no UNE-P, then no merger. That would be my attitude. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Newswire Subject: SQL Voice Over IP Exposed! Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 22:07:08 -0500 VOIP can Lower telecom costs and help with network consolidation -- and cause security problems if not handled right. f you are thinking of adding voice-over-IP capabilities to your existing infrastructure without upgrading network security, think again. You couLd be inviting disaster. Agency officials can't expect security systems designed to protect data traffic to adequately secure their VOIP communications, experts say. "The idiosyncrasies of voice data may strain your security system to the breaking point," said Richard Kuhn, a computer security specialist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. "You definitely need specialized security products and different architectures when moving to VOIP." NIST recently issued a report titled "Security Considerations for Voice Over IP Systems," which focuses on security problems and recommendations for secure communications. Basically, with VOIR voice data generated during a phone call moves in packets via internal IP networks or the Internet, just as Web pages and e-mail messages do. A handful of agencies, such as the Education and Defense departments, are in various stages of deploying VOIR seeking the lower costs and efficiency Internet telephony can offer compared with traditional phone communications. VOIP can offer greater efficiency in a consolidated voice and data network by enabling users to receive calls on desktop computers. Users can also forward voice mail and e-mail from VOIP phones. Employees traveling to branch offices can have their full phone resources and office numbers transferred to their temporary locations. Additionally, VOIP can be used to keep communications running during a disaster or emergency, giving employees access to their phone resources from IP phones at other locations. But as agencies explore the benefits of VOIP, they must strengthen firewalls, gateways, encryption and authentication methods, and other security components to better protect such traffic, experts say. VOIP hubs can be hacked more easily than traditional PBX phone switches. Even if hackers can't eavesdrop on conversations, they will have access to routing data, such as the number of calls to and from each user, according to a report by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance. Moreover, automated tools can send spit, the VOIP version of spam, to all voice mailboxes within a certain range of the provider, address space or area code. Traditional firewalls might not be as effective in blocking attacks on combined voice and data networks. Firewalls examine packets and block suspected ones at the digital communications port. However, phone calls require opening many communications ports on the firewall -- some sessions may need 10 or more ports. Firewalls that aren't configured for VOIP security might leave a large number of ports continually open, increasing the network's vulnerability. To compound the problem, voice communications are more time -- sensitive than data or even video. Firewalls that look too deeply into voice packets or block too many of them can degrade the quality of phone service. Few users would notice if data packets are slow getting through the firewall, resulting in a slight delay in loading Web pages or even a short pause in a video. But "3 [percent] to 5 percent loss of data packets in a VOIP, and your system is unusable," Kuhn said. A few seconds of latency and jitter, and users will hang up and reach for their cell phones, he said. Kuhn said that although VOIP technology is still emerging, a sufficient number of proprietary products are available to secure a VOIP network. For example, a stateful inspection firewall, which validates traffic by inspecting the contents of packets up through the application layer, can dynamically open and close the correct ports. Still, setting up a secure VOIP network is not merely a matter of purchasing the right products. Kuhn said it requires an overall strategy in which you add to the network incrementally and test each phase as you go. That's the plan at Education. The department's initial forays are all within its internal network. "The current system is a hybrid," said Peter Tseronis, Education's director of converged communications and networking. "If I'm calling someone at Education, I dial a certain prefix on my phone, and it goes over the IP network. If I'm dialing out, it goes over the traditional lines." Aside from deploying VOIP services to more users, a future step at Education might be to provide voice and video via the Internet to some users. That will allow those users to hold videoconferences and take advantage of VOIP while at home or on the road. Many experts expect that most government agencies will follow Education's strategy of getting its internal VOIP network in place before running VOIP services on the public Internet. Roger Farnsworth, marketing manager for secure IP communications at Cisco Systems, said that besides enhancing security, restricting VOIP services to an internal network or virtual private network eliminates compatibility issues. The industry currently supports two VOIP standards: H.323 and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). H.323 allows dissimilar devices to communicate with one another by using a standard protocol. SIP is a standard for initiating an interactive user session that involves multimedia functions such as video, voice and chat. SIP is gradually replacing H.323, but most experts suggest buying components that can support both. But doing so doesn't mean that agency officials will be able to easily and safely use VOIP outside their networks. "There are differences among vendors' implementations of those standards so that you can't count on two different systems interoperating the way you'd like," Farnsworth said. For example, it is difficult to use encryption with VOIP when traffic is moving across two vendors' systems, he said. Although Farnsworth acknowledged that government agencies need to use caution in setting up their systems, they can take some comfort in the knowledge that eavesdropping on unencrypted voice communications is more difficult than capturing and reading e-mail messages via the Internet. "It's not a trivial matter to intercept a VOIP packet stream and reassemble it and come up with usable playback," Farnsworth said. Nevertheless, NIST experts advise users to consider using encryption at the router or other gateway instead of at the VOIP phones. Most VOIP phones are not powerful enough to perform encryption quickly. However, some newer phones offer Advanced Encryption Standard at a reasonable price. Keeping services available For many organizations, availability is at least as important as security. "When users pick up a VOIP phone, they have the same expectations as when they pick up a plain old telephone," said Paul Kurtz, executive director of the Cyber security Industry Alliance. "They want an immediate dial-tone and no delay in placing a call." For the government, expectations not only come from employees using VOIP phones but also from residents who don't know or care what technology the phones use, they just want to get through quickly. "The phone is what enables a lot of national security and emergency services," Kurtz said. Accordingly, he and others suggest a layered approach, with sufficient redundancy built in to provide the availability appropriate to the service. Even for agencies not involved in emergency preparedness, customer service requirements demand availability levels above 90 percent. Lodovico Loquercio, principal network solutions architect at Nortel Federal Solutions, said a voice-grade local-area command and control network must be designed to ensure that there is no single point of failure. "Before going live, prove that if any element fails, your session will remain up and the redundant equipment will take over in 2 seconds or less," he said. That goal does not come cheaply. "In many cases, in order to get [99.999 percent] uptime and security, it may require a complete rip- out or at least a major refresh of technology," Loquercio said. He estimates that for DOD to replicate its current level of voice communication service, which includes functions unique to the military and endto-end security, it would have to spend tens of billions of dollars. Not all agencies need that level of service, but ensuring satisfactory uptime will help sell the project to managers. Jim Dolezal, lead telecommunications consultant at Suss Consulting, expects that concerns about downtime will delay many projects for at least two years. "I think senior managers in agencies are concerned when their [local-area network] goes out and the restore is far longer than they are initially told to expect," Dolezal said. "They don't want to have that happen to their voice communications." In addition, he sees a cultural problem in agencies that maintain separate staffs for phone and data networks. "They are moving closer, but they are not yet one and the same, and that's what will be necessary for VOIP to work," he said. Major VOIP vendors can provide secure, highly available enterprise-level systems, but the technology is still emerging. "Right now, it's hard to get a complete picture of what a fully mature VOIP system that works across many government agencies and in use by private citizens will contain," Kuhn said. So far, all solutions use proprietary elements, which limits interoperability. But Kuhn said open-system products might be\come available in the next two to four years. "At that point, we may be looking at a system that looks much more like the standard phone communications we're all used to," he said. Problems with voice over IP Voice over IP can offer organizations lower telecommunications costs and greater network efficiency through convergence of voice, data and video. But there are some security issues that users need to address. Here are a few findings. * Caller ID services, including those used by first-responder organizations, are often bypassed by VOIP. * VOIP network hubs can be hacked much more easily than PBX phone switches. Hackers can't eavesdrop on conversations, but they will have access to routing data. * Automated tools can send spam over Internet telephony (spit), the VOIP version of spam, to all voice mailboxes in a given range of the provider, address space or area codes. * Conversations over IP can be recorded, duplicated and quickLy distributed to anyone beyond the original audience. * Wireless devices will further complicate VOIP security. Source: Cyber Security Industry Alliance 10 steps to build a secure voice-over-IP network The National Institute of Standards and Technology recently issued a report titled "Security Considerations for Voice Over IP Systems." Below are 10 recommendations from that report. * Understand your agency's level of knowledge and training in VOIP technology before beginning a project. Also evaluate the maturity and quality of your security practices, controls, policies and architectures. * Consider creating separate voice and data networks to protect each one when using products designed for specific types of packets. * Provide a mechanism to allow VOIP traffic to pass through firewalls effectively. Use packet filters that can track the state of connections and block packets from calls that did not originate properly. * Consider using encryption at routers or other gateways to improve performance, instead of at the VOIP phones. * Make sure there is adequate physical security. Unless the VOIP network is encrypted, anyone with physical access to a local-area network could potentially connect monitoring tools and tap phone conversations. * Give special consideration to finding ways to provide E911 emergency services. * Include costs for additional power backup systems when figuring the cost of a VOIP project. * Avoid the use of "softphone" systems, which implement VOIP using an ordinary PC with a headset and special software. The worms, viruses and other malicious software that are common on PCs can migrate to the VOIP system. * If mobile devices are integrated with the VOIP system, choose products that rely on Wi-Fi Protected Access rather than Wired Equivalent Privacy, which can be cracked with publicly available software. * Review statutory requirements regarding privacy and record retention with legal advisers. Laws and rulings governing interception or monitoring of VOIP lines and retention of call records can differ from those for conventional phone systems. Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology "When users pick up a VOIP phone, they have the same expectations as when they pick up a plain old telephone." PAUL KURTZ, CYBER SECURITY INDUSTRY ALLIANCE Find a Link to the National Institute of Standards and Technology report on VOIP security on FCW.com Downlead's Data Call at www.fcw.com/download. Stevens is a freelance journalist who has written about information technology since 1982. Copyright 101 Communications Jun 27, 2005 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, 101 Commuications. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Rich Tehrani Subject: VOIP Sizzles Conference Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 22:11:23 -0500 Keynote With Mark Spencer at VoIP Sizzles I will be speaking at this event in a few weeks. In case you haven't been to Dallas in July, everything sizzles, along with VoIP. This is a great name for a great event. Is it worth braving the heat to go to Dallas? Absolutely. The networking opportunities alone last year made I worth my while. There were a number of partnerships and deals struck at the inaugural show last year. I expect this year's event to be even better. See you there. Your invitation VoIP Sizzles in Dallas, July 20-22, 2005 If you are a Telecom, Data/Networking Reseller or a Service Provider we want to make sure you received our invitation to join us at the VoIP Sizzles in Dallas! VoIP Sizzles in Dallas will be a 2 day event for VoIP Professionals focusing on Open Standards and Open Source VoIP solutions. We will have 18 unique sessions most with panels composed of leaders in the field from several companies to give depth and diversity to the sessions. a.. How to resolve E-911 issues? b.. Is Open Source becoming Mainstream ? c.. New Products and solutions your competition hasn't thought about yet! d.. A focused Exhibit showing the latest products for SIP and Open Source based Solutions e.. Training Sessions on core technologies for resellers f.. Best business practices! g.. Peer networking at its strongest! Keynotes by Industry Leaders: Rich Tehrani (TMC) and Mark Spencer (Digium) Rich Tehrani is a VoIP industry expert, visionary, author and columnist. In 1998, he founded the leading magazine focused on IP telephony, INTERNET TELEPHONY; and, in his role as president of TMC, is the owner of the registered trademark for the term Internet Telephony. Rich is also the founder and chairman of INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & Expo, the leading conference focused on VoIP since its launch in 1999. As a writer, Rich's columns appear in every issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY® magazine. He is also the author of "Tehrani's IP Telephony Dictionary", a 300+ page guide to over 10,000 VoIP terms, acronyms, products and services. Rich has also been a keynote or featured speaker at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and Expo, as well as at numerous other VoIP events hosted by companies such as Intel/Dialogic, Lucent, Brooktrout and Inter-Tel. He is a seasoned public speaker. Mark Spencer founded Linux Support Services in 1999 while still a Computer Engineering student at Auburn University. When faced with the high cost of buying a PBX, Mark simply used his Linux PC and knowledge of C code to write his own! This was the beginning of the world-wide phenomenon known as Asterisk, the open source PBX, and caused Mark to shift his business focus from Linux support to supporting Asterisk and opening up the telecom market! Linux Support Services is now known as Digium, and is bringing open source to the telecom market while gaining a foothold in the telecom industry. Mark strongly believes that every technology he creates should be given back to the community. This is why Asterisk is fully open source. Today that model has allowed Asterisk to remain available free of charge, while it has become as robust as the leading and most-expensive PBXs. The Asterisk community has ambassadors and contributors from every corner of the globe. Business Opportunities for Resellers "What works ... what doesn't ... who's making money with what ... Peer networking is invaluable for entrepreneurs," states Leon McCaskill, CEO of InfiNet. On July 22-23, you could be with other successful resellers learning about best business practices and bout VoIP at the same time! Management Track -- peer workshops, panel sessions, presentations focused on best business practices. Success stories and horror stories about becoming a "VoIP reseller". Practical tools and tips that work! Technology Track -- presentations and demos on the technologies that surround VoIP. An embedded half a day course on VoIP Fundamentals and Gateway 101 - (Sponsored by AudioCodes) for your engineers. Get the competitive edge on VoIP! The latest information on VoIP Product & Technology The event will center on four Themes: The PBX and everything related to adding VoIP connectivity or VoIP services. IPBX solutions-appliance and server based. Voice Service Networks for enterprise and carriers. Advanced applications. Our main objective is to inform resellers on the current business opportunities in the VoIP space. We will also show a roadmap for new ABP VARS, on how to get started and stake out a claim in the new field of VoIP. ABP will be presenting gateway technology from AudioCodes for PBX extensions, Netfabric's Cashmere Units to adding VoIP lines to legacy PBXs and Keyless systems, new completely IP based IPBX solutions, snom's latest complete line of Business IP Phones, WiFi Wireless IP Phones, core technology for service providers, Asterisk based solutions, Power over Ethernet, SIP collaboration, conferencing, video conferencing and much more. For service providers we will be showing a new complete carrier class platform from Emergent that includes billing and a self-serve retail front end that can easily be adjusted to fit into the Service provider's online look and feel. Last but not least there will be a lot on E-911 issues short-term workarounds and long-term solutions. Open Source is definitely in the center of attention at the VoIP Sizzles in Dallas with both Asterisk and Pingtel solutions. Registration VoIP Sizzles in Dallas! Register today -- the intensity and peer networking opportunities require us to limit space to a maximum of 200 reseller executives and engineers. ABP Technology, 1850 Crown Drive, Suite #1112 Dallas, Texas - 75234 USA +1 972 831-1600 TrackBack URL for Keynote With Mark Spencer at VoIP Sizzles: http://blog.tmcnet.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/8880 ------------------------------ From: Newswire Subject: Arizona School No Longer Uses Textbooks Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:19:26 -0500 A high school in Vail will become the state's first all-wireless, all-laptop public school this fall. The 350 students at the school will not have traditional textbooks. Instead, they will use electronic and online articles as part of more traditional teacher lesson plans. Vail Unified School District's decision to go with an all-electronic school is rare, experts say. Often, cost, insecurity, ignorance and institutional constraints prevent schools from making the leap away from paper. "The efforts are very sporadic," said Mark Schneiderman, director of education policy for the Software and Information Industry Association. "A minority of communities are doing a good or very good job, but a large number are just not there on a number of levels." Calvin Baker, superintendent of Vail Unified School District, said the move to electronic materials gets teachers away from the habit of simply marching through a textbook each year. He noted that the AIMS test now makes the state standards the curriculum, not textbooks. Arizona students will soon need to pass Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards to graduate from high school. But the move to laptops is not cheap. The laptops cost $850 each, and the district will hand them to 350 students for the entire year. The fast-growing district hopes to have 750 students at the high school eventually. A set of textbooks runs about $500 to $600, Baker said. It's not clear how the change to laptops will work, he conceded. "I'm sure there are going to be some adjustments. But we visited other schools using laptops. And at the schools with laptops, students were just more engaged than at non-laptop schools," he said. On the Net: Vail Unified School District: http://www.vail.k12.az.us/ Information from: Arizona Daily Star, http://www.azstarnet.com Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Associated Press news and radio available at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html No registration or login required. ------------------------------ From: Raghuram Vadarevu Subject: Call 211 for Help in Florida Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 22:03:52 -0500 All of you can call 211 for aid soon. Sprint clients can dial it now; BellSouth customers can soon. With hurricane season here, folks are urged to. By RAGHURAM VADAREVU LECANTO - Officials at social service agencies in Citrus County had hoped this year that the much-anticipated 211 telephone line would be up and running before June. They were almost right. Since May, most Citrus residents and businesses could dial 2-1-1 and be connected to the 24-hour, seven-days-a-week phone line that connects those in need with social services agencies in the county. Those residents are customers of Sprint. Customers of BellSouth, who mainly live in South Dunnellon, Citrus Springs and Yankeetown, will have to wait possibly until the end of the month to get the service, said John Marmish, executive director of the United Way of Citrus County. Marmish's agency is administering the 211 contract for the county, and officials overseeing the 211 line have not yet publicized the service because they want to wait until BellSouth customers also have access. With hurricane season in full swing, Marmish said people in the county could take advantage of the 211 line to find food pantries, agencies that offer financial assistance and so forth. Marmish said calls to the line from businesses might get a busy signal because the business has blocked three-digit numbers. To correct the problem, he said, businesses should contact the telephone company. The 211 information can also be accessed online at http://www.211tampabay.org Once there, visitors can click on the "2-1-1 database" link, which will call up a search page. The visitor can select the specific service he is looking for, from assisted living facilities to AIDS testing, support groups to volunteer programs. The visitor to the site, which also serves other counties, can narrow the search to Citrus. The operator of the Web site and the 211 line is called 211 Tampa Bay Cares Inc., a call center in Pinellas County that social service officials in Citrus selected late last year. The call center will have access to a list of social service agencies in Citrus. The 211 system has taken years to get to Citrus. The Federal Communications Commission had designated 211 for information and referrals. Last year, the idea gained momentum when the county health department presented results of its first comprehensive look at health needs in the county and found that many residents wanted the 211 telephone line. The County Commission approved $22,000 for the program, and the Shared Services Alliance, an umbrella group for social service agencies, formed a 211 committee and set about finding a call center. It selected 211 Tampa Bay Cares last fall. The county will pay Citrus United Way to administer the contract with 211 Tampa Bay Cares. The call center can produce weekly, monthly or quarterly reports, and the county can use them to identify areas of need. Since most of Citrus was able to access the 211 line in May, there have been 71 callers from the county, the call center reported. Among those, there were 23 requests for information about financial assistance and 13 for housing. Marmish said he expects those numbers to increase as more people learn about the line. In an e-mail, he said, the "stats on callers (are) before we have announced to the public that the 211 system is fully operational." Officials hope the BellSouth customers will have access by month's end. Raghuram Vadarevu can be reached at rvadarevu@sptimes.com or 564-3627. Copyright 2005 St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33701 727-893-8111 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've a question: Is this new '211' thing similar to '311' as presented in many major cities? Is it to also supplement 311 service in Florida? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 12:35:01 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Sprint Snaps up US Unwired Telecom dailyLead from USTA July 11, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22972&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Sprint snaps up US Unwired BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * IBM, CenterPoint in broadband-over-power-line deal * What does the future hold for T-Mobile? * Mobile industry targets emerging markets with inexpensive phones * Good eyes wireless e-mail market with new partnerships USTA SPOTLIGHT * Register now for tomorrow's free FTTH Deployment Webinar HOT TOPICS * Deutsche Telekom mulls T-Mobile USA sale * Florida man arrested for accessing Wi-Fi network * Mouse to offer mobile phone service * Verizon, TBS sign carriage deal * The next frontier: 100 Mpbs? EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Siemens inks deal with Airbus for in-flight calling technology REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * EU acts on roaming charges Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22972&l=2017006 ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #317 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jul 11 17:27:03 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 1143D150E1; Mon, 11 Jul 2005 17:27:03 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #318 Message-Id: <20050711212703.1143D150E1@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 17:27:03 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 11 Jul 2005 17:27:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 318 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Packet8 Firmware Causes Outage? (Tom Keating) EU Split Over Anti-Terror Phone Logging Rules (News Wire) Wired Collection Agency Gives Reader a Jolt (David Lazarus) Retail VOIP Use Doubles in Nine Months (Iain Thomson) Bell South Plans Number Changes in Florida (Jessie-Lynn Kerr) Re: Blogs Powerful Tools in Supreme Court Fight (Lisa Hancock) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Lisa Hancock) Well, Duh .. Re: Mixing Blogging With Work Can Lead to Unemployment (mc) Re: Verizon VOIP Questions (Isaiah Beard) Re: Amid Crisis, Phones Jammed, But Text Messages Worked (Isaiah Beard) Last Laugh! Terrible Virus Threatens Us All (Patrick Townson) 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: Tom Keating Subject: Packet8 Firmware Causes Outage? Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 22:15:23 -0500 by Tom Keating I just received an email newsletter from Packet8 regarding firmware upgrades. Let me paste an excerpt: 8x8 is constantly working to improve the Packet8 service, and frequently pushes out new firmware to upgrade Packet8 communication devices (adapters, VideoPhones, and the Uniden UIP1868P). Sometimes these upgrades will take a few moments to upload the latest firmware. While this process occurs, your phone service will be unavailable. To avoid having the upgrade occur during an emergency, you can dial 012-0002 on your phone to reach the Packet8 upgrade server which will determine whether your device has the latest upgrade. If you need an upgrade, the voice prompt will advise you on what to do next. So let me get this straight. Packet8 upgrades their firmware "frequently" and during these "frequent" firmware upgrades, your Packet8 phone service will the unavailable/down? I'm not sure this is something a broadband VoIP provider wants to advertise in their email newsletter. Simply changing the word "frequently" to "occasionally" would at least "soften" the blow of knowing your Packet8 phone service will experience an outage during the firmware upgrade. But I keep tripping over this word "frequently". Or maybe I'm just "tripping"? You tell me. Am I just being nit-picky? Copyright 2005 Tom Keating's VOIP Blog 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Tom Keating. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: News Wire Subject: EU Split Over Anti-Terror Phone Data Logging Rules Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:13:44 -0500 The European Union is split over how to introduce a law requiring phone and Internet usage records to be stored to help fight terrorism in the wake of the London bombings, an EU official said on Monday. The executive European Commission is drafting a proposal to harmonize the rules for storing telephone, mobile and e-mail records across the 25-nation bloc, but EU president Britain is promoting a separate initiative on the same issue. The Commission's proposal could take up to three years because it would require the assent of the European Parliament, which is particularly sensitive to civil rights concerns and more open to lobbying by telecommunications companies. A quick deal among member governments would be open to less public scrutiny and compliance would only be policed nationally. The Commission says it is seeking to balance the imperatives of security and crime-fighting against privacy concerns over handing data to the police and the cost to telecoms companies of storing customer records. Britain, supported by Ireland, France and Sweden, has led calls for EU governments to agree new rules among themselves, excluding the Parliament and the Commission, as London fears the two EU institutions could slow down decision-making. "In the Commission's opinion they are not complementary initiatives," European Commission justice spokesman Friso Roscam-Abbing told a daily briefing, adding that the EU executive would launch its proposal in a few months. "We have to make a choice. The European Union has to choose the instrument it goes for." The four EU states proposed after the March 2004 Madrid bombings which killed 191 people that telecommunications data should be stored compulsorily for a minimum of one year. The Commission has recommended a period of six months to a year to reduce the storage cost for companies. EU interior ministers will discuss data retention at a special meeting on Wednesday called to speed up anti-terrorism cooperation after last Thursday's four bomb attacks on London's transport system, which killed at least 49 people. Neither proposal calls for the content of electronic communications to be recorded but investigators want to be able to trace numbers dialed, including unsuccessful calls, and Internet addresses accessed. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: David Lazarus Subject: Wired Subscriber Gets a Jolt Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 14:40:08 -0500 Wired magazine, the bible of the tech set, may have its finger on the pulse of all that's cool. But the San Francisco publication has been using decidedly uncool tactics when it comes to getting some people to renew their subscriptions. San Francisco resident Bob McMillan discovered this after choosing to allow his longtime subscription to lapse late last year. "I like the magazine, " he told me. "I just didn't have time to read it anymore." First came the usual letters warning McMillan, 36, that his subscription was up and that he wouldn't get any more copies of Wired unless he ponied up some cash. Then Wired's correspondence took a different turn. In May, McMillan received a letter from North Shore Agency, a leading debt-collection firm. The letter, headed "Please Respond," said he owed $12 for his Wired subscription. "Our objective is to clear your bill quickly and fairly," it said. "Your payment will reinstate your subscription." A more assertive letter from North Shore, headed "Request for Payment," arrived last month. "You must realize that we want you to resolve your account in the amount of $12," it said. Then, the other day, a third North Shore letter arrived, headed "Account Status: Delinquent." "Your account appears as delinquent on our client's files," it warned. This professional collection agency continues collection activity on your debtor account." The letter added, ominously: "Respond to this letter or continued collection efforts may follow." McMillan had ignored the first two letters. Now, however, he's worried that Wired/North Shore will take some legal action that will decimate his credit rating. "I'm very angry," he said. "This isn't a real debt. It seems like they're just trying to trick me into renewing my subscription." Other subscribers Turns out McMillan isn't alone in feeling strong-armed by Wired. A Google search turns up others who say that they, too, allowed their subscriptions to expire and then received scary letters from North Shore. In each case, the erstwhile Wired readers were told that they had an "open balance" of $12 and that "this is an attempt to collect a debt." In each case as well, the recipients were told that paying the $12 would result in a renewed subscription. "Since when is letting a magazine subscription expire a debt?" one person asked online. "This guerrilla marketing technique is unethical in my book." Said another: "Talk about a low way to get subscribers. This is bottom- feeding. Magazines used to offer you incentives. Now they threaten to louse up your credit rating if you don't re-up, and NOW." So what does have Wired have to say? When I first contacted Joe Timko, the magazine's consumer marketing director, he acknowledged having received complaints from readers about being hassled by North Shore. "It's something we're investigating," he said. Timko insisted that it isn't Wired's policy to use a collection agency to muscle people into renewing their subscriptions. "We don't do that," he said. "Or at least that's not our intention." I asked a North Shore spokeswoman to comment on the matter. She never called back. Longstanding relationship In any case, Wired has been using North Shore for a number of years. I found some online gripes about the North Shore letters dating back to 2002 (and you can see one of the firm's letters for yourself at http://urbanideas.com/images/nsa.jpg ). I spoke with Timko again on Thursday. This time, he offered an explanation for what was happening: From time to time, Wired sends direct-mail solicitations to people offering discounted subscriptions. But if you read the fine print of these offers, they say Wired will assume you want to remain as a subscriber until you tell the magazine otherwise, and that you'll automatically be sent an invoice each year for another $12. This is common enough among newspapers. The Chronicle, for example, will keep sending out papers (and bills) until a subscription is canceled. But most magazines require readers to renew their subscriptions every one or two years. Timko said he checked his files and found that McMillan's subscription had an automatic-renewal clause. He suspects that most of the people who lodged online complaints were in a similar position. For his part, McMillan said, he couldn't recall being told about an automatic yearly renewal of his subscription. "I had no idea that was the case, " he said. Collection procedure Wired's Timko said the magazine typically sends out a half-dozen or so letters reminding people to send in their $12. Then North Shore is brought in for an additional three letters. The collection agency was intended solely to spook people into responding. Timko said North Shore wasn't authorized to take legal action against Wired readers. "We're not going to do that to people," he said. "This was just another effort to collect an unpaid subscription." Now, Timko said, Wired will rethink the whole thing. He said the magazine will reconsider the practice of automatic renewals and will no longer pass along readers' names to North Shore. In fact, he said Wired will likely end its relationship with North Shore. It's probably something we shouldn't have done," Timko said of using the collection agency to pressure readers. "It's not something we want to continue. " I arranged for McMillan and Timko to speak with one another. McMillan told me afterward that Timko apologized for the North Shore letters. McMillan said he was also offered a free subscription to Wired. "I turned it down," he said. "I still don't have time to read it. But in the back of my mind, I have to wonder what might happen the next time it runs out." David Lazarus' column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He also can be seen regularly on KTVU's "Mornings on 2." Send tips or feedback to dlazarus@sfchronicle.com. Copyright 2005 San Francisco Chronicle 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You know, that sounds like a hot idea! In real tiny print somewhere I should add a note saying "your continued sending of spam to this address means you agree to pay me a hundred dollars" then place it all with North Shore Agency. Maybe I could now and then collect a little extra cash on the way. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Iain Thomson Subject: Retail VOIP Use Doubles in Nine Months Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 14:41:47 -0500 by Iain Thomson VNUNet.com Use of retail VoIP services has more than doubled in the past nine months to nearly 11 million users worldwide, according to communications analysts Point Topic.? The company said that there are now 7.2 million users in Japan, and 2.1 million users in the US. The growth is based on figures from last summer which showed five million users worldwide. Software-based VoIP systems, such as Skype and VoiceGlo, add another 5.9 million users to the pool, according to Point Topic, although it admits that these are estimates.? Skype claims that 100 million people had downloaded its software by mid-April 2005, and that 35 million users have registered. But the Point Topic report claimed that "many people download the client and do not register, and many people who register never or rarely use Skype". "These users are contributing either zero or relatively little revenue to network providers, although interconnect payments are made when a call from a PC is terminated on the PSTN," said the analyst firm. France is the biggest customer in Europe, but since UK services only launched last month the numbers here are negligible. In most cases VoIP is used as a second phone line, but the report noted that Norwegian company Telio is having great success getting customers to abandon traditional phones altogether. To see more of VNUNet go to http://www.vnunet.com Copyright 2005 VNU Business Online Limited (UK) Copyright 2005 Forbes.com Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Forbes.com Inc. and VNU Business Online Ltd. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you recall a few years ago when the 'dot com' thing was going on, and all sorts of claims were being made about how 'internet usage was doubling every nine months or so' it led up to a _masssive collapse_ not only for 'dot com' but for telecom and other industries as well. I wonder if that will happen with VOIP in the near future also? PAT] ------------------------------ From:Jessie-Lynne Kerr Subject: Bell South Plans Number Changes in Florida Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 14:43:05 -0500 Fast-growing northern St. Johns County will be moved from five phone exchanges into one. By JESSIE-LYNNE KERR, The Times-Union About 4,000 BellSouth telephone customers in northern St. Johns County west of the Intracoastal Waterway would have to change their numbers under a proposed realignment of boundaries in the fast-growing area. The boundary changes being sought would affect BellSouth customers in the St. Johns County, St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra Beach, Jacksonville, Green Cove Springs and Julington exchanges. The Florida Public Service Commission must approve the change and has three public hearings planned to listen to comments. According to Marta Casas-Celaya, a BellSouth spokeswoman for BellSouth at corporate headquarters in Miami, the proposed change involves two moves. First, the telephone company plans to consolidate the Julington exchange, which has about 15,000 customers, with the St. Johns County exchange to create a larger one that would encompass most of northern St. Johns County. ThatThe change would not require the Julington exchange customers to change numbers. The second move would shift customers from the Ponte Vedra Beach exchange who are west of the Intracoastal Waterway into the St. Johns County exchange. Also, Jacksonville exchange customers located around the Bartram Plantation development, Green Cove Springs exchange customers east of the St. Johns River and north St. Augustine exchange customers also would be shifted into the exchange. They would have to change numbers but would be allowed to retain their old calling scope and rates for a period of two years, Casas-Celaya said. She did not know how many of the 4,000 customers who could face number changes were businesses that would have to have new stationery and business cards printed with new numbers. "What we are doing is consolidating five different exchanges into one," she said. "The growth in that area is such that people who are literally across the street from each other have different exchanges. We want to streamline that process and while we are at it, improve service." Todd Brown, a regulatory supervisor and consultant for the Public Service Commission, said BellSouth has not requested any change to the area code. At the public hearings, a BellSouth representative will make a presentation on the changes being sought and then people will have an opportunity to speak, Brown said. "Any change would be months away," he added. jessie-lynne.kerrjacksonville.com, (904) 359-4374 Copyright 2005 The Florida Times-Union Jacksonville.com, c/o The Florida Times-Union | Switchboard: (904) 359-4111 Street: 1 Riverside Ave., Jacksonville, FL 32202 | Mailing: P.O. Box 949, Jacksonville, FL 32231 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Florida Times-Union For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Blogs Powerful Tools in Supreme Court Fight Date: 11 Jul 2005 09:35:54 -0700 Donna Smith wrote: > Political groups preparing to battle over the first U.S. Supreme Court > nomination in 11 years have a powerful new tool -- Internet blogs -- > to spread information quickly and influence decision makers without > relying on traditional media. I question if blogs are really indeed such 'powerful tools'. > Web logs likely numbering in the dozens provide a way for the > thoughtful and the passionate to publish their views. Anyone can publish anything. But that isn't the point. What counts is who _reads_ those blogs. I really wonder if any _significant_ numbers of people actually read blogs. I suspect blog readership is more "preaching to the choir", that is, those reading them have already made up their minds one way or another and already passionate about the issue. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Lisa, I dunno. There are a large number of netters who read blogs these days, via services like RSS which we use here http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html . Blogs are sort of like newspaper columnists, IMO. People read the ones they want and skip the ones they do not want. Some are more trustworthy than others. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Date: 11 Jul 2005 09:38:10 -0700 Tim@Backhome.org wrote: > Once the digital 5ESS came along, the regional Bells had already > aquired a preference for Nortel's DMS-100, mostly because it was > cheaper and would do an adequate job in all but the most intensive > urban environments (the 5ESS was definately better, but perhaps a > Lexius when a Ford would do. ;-) Wasn't that the one that failed in numerous exchanges all across the country as a result of a software bug? ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Well, Duh... Re: Mixing Blogging With Work Can Lead to Unemployment Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:46:19 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory http://www.speedfactory.net Reading a little farther in the news story: > "The whole blogging thing was so new back then, I never expected > anyone to find it and read it," said Burch, who was fired in May > 2004. "I wrote in the blog to let off steam, not stir things up, but > they viewed my e-mail signature as some kind of open invitation to > read those comments." Huh? She put a link in her e-mail signature but didn't want people to view it as an "open invitation to read" things that were published on the Web? This is *exactly* like the "Don't tell my boss about my cocaine habit" type of postings we would occasionally see in the early days of newsgroups. ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Verizon VOIP Questions Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:49:19 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com snow wrote: > I subscribe to both Verizon local telephone and its DSL service. I was > on their website and read about VOIP broadband phone service. I am now > considering dropping the regular landline phone and trying out VOIP > service. Despite Verizon's announcements to the contrary, it appears that you still need to have your voice landline connected in order to continue having DSL. I discovered this after getting fed up with Comcast's lack of reliability in my area, and am in the middle of (very reluctantly) getting DSL put back in. You could, however, drop your voice service down to the absolute bare minimum. In my state (NJ), Verizon has a "low use message rate" tier that costs around $6.00 a month, and basically provides dial tone and nothing else. No calling features, no regional or national long distance, and only about 20 "message units" are included for outgoing local calls (a messuage unit is a local call lasting 5 minutes or less). It's about as low as you can get if you don't actually intend to make calls on taht line, and at the very least, you'll at least know you can use it to dial 911 if the power and/or broadband internet service fails. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Amid Crisis, Phones Jammed, But Text Messages Worked Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:17:47 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Monty Solomon wrote: > After the World Trade Center attacks, landline phones > generally held up in New York, though there were some congestion > problems, while cellphone networks were clogged. Oh *really*? That's interesting. I remember on September 11, it was impossible to get a call through to my folks down south to make sure they weren't panicking, either on my cell phone or the landline. And I was a fair distance from ground zero, in New Jersey at the time. The landline network most certainly didn't hold up. It was only after an hour of constantly hitting redial that the folks were able to get through to my cell phone (and yes, they were panicking). And last summer during the big Northeast blackout, the local central office was providing dialtone, but any outgoing calls placed would get a busy signal, and incoming calls would be met with dead air. Turns out someone at Verizon did not properly hook up a portion of the wirecenter to backup power. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson (via Nora Burch) Subject: Last Laugh! Dangerous Virus Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 23:09:27 -0500 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Another of the items from the 'annoy your friends' web site run by Nora Burch which was discussed here over the weekend. PAT] ==================================== ONCE YOU HAVE READ THIS PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL YOU KNOW. This is from World Corporate headquarters - so it's no joke. Very scary. Be careful -- Just when you thought you were safe, now we have the following to deal with ... please read, it definitely is a serious threat to our lives and health. This is an alert about a virus in the original sense of the word ... one that affects your mind, not your hard drive. There have been 666 confirmed cases of people attacked by the Klingerman Virus, a virus that arrives in your real mail box, not your e-mail in box. Someone has been mailing large purple and green paisley envelopes, seemingly at random, to people inside the US. On the front of the envelope in bold black letters is printed, "You May Already be a Winner!" from the "Publisher 's Clearinghouse Foundation." When the envelopes are opened, there is a piece of paper that starts "Dear (your name)". This paper carries what has come to be known as the Klingerman Virus, as public health officials state, this is a strain of virus they have not previously encountered. When asked for comment, Florida police Sergeant Stetson said, "We are working with the NAACP, ASPCA and the UPS, but have so far been unable to track down the origins of these letters. Ed McMahon's return addresses have all been different, and we are certain a remailing service is being used, making our jobs that much more difficult." Those who have come in contact with the Klingerman Virus have been hospitalized with severe dishpan hands. So far 100 of the victims have died. There is no legitimate Publisher's Clearinghouse Foundation mailing unsolicited gifts. If you receive an oversized envelope in the mail marked "You May Already Be Winner!." DO NOT open it. Place it in a radiation-proof container in a sealed vault in an underground bunker or Tupperware container and call the National Guard immediately. You are definitely not a winner. PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE PLANET. Mrs. Sandra Dee, Social Work Secretary General Hospital Department of Social Work 203-688-2xxx [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A very close equivilent on the net these days are the multitudes of emails telling us we have already won X dollars since our home mortgage was approved at lower than ever interest rates. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #318 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jul 12 15:08:08 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 1D1461518B; Tue, 12 Jul 2005 15:08:08 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #319 Message-Id: <20050712190808.1D1461518B@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 15:08:08 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.6 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,LOTS_OF_STUFF, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 12 Jul 2005 15:08:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 319 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Dutch Judge Protects Privacy of File Swappers (News Wire) California Regulators, Paypal Reach Settelment (News Wire) Web Site Established for Tribute in London Bombing (Jeremy Lovell) The Front Lines - July 12, 2005 (Jonathan Marashlian) Qualcomm Hits Back at Broadcom (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) RCA Victor Nipper Statues Adorn Town (Lisa Hancock) Bank of America Launches Online Security Features (Monty Solomon) Re: Police Still Using Matrix-Type Database (Lisa Hancock) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Diamond Dave) Last Laugh! Another Example of Weird Spam From Nora (Patrick Townson) 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: News Wire Subject: Dutch Judge Protects Privacy of File Swappers Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:44:35 -0500 A Dutch judge ruled on Tuesday that Internet service providers would not have to hand over names or addresses of customers who may be illegally swapping films, music and other copyright-protected files. Brein, a Dutch organization representing 52 media and entertainment companies, had acquired unique computer identification numbers, so-called IP addresses, of file swappers and requested personal details behind these IP addresses from five large Internet service providers. The service providers -- UPC, Essent, Tiscali), Wanadoo, and KPN -- refused to hand over the details, arguing that only a criminal trial court could demand them. The case was subsequently brought to a civil court in the city of Utrecht, where a judge ruled that although he was allowed to order the ISPs to submit the personal data, the plaintiffs had not met the necessary conditions to warrant such an order. "Brein has sought help from a research company, which has looked at the shared folders on computers of the file swappers. In that process it may have accessed private files," the judge said in the court ruling. "The judge does not deem this correct, because according to Dutch law, privacy is insufficiently protected in the United States," the ruling said. Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, the attorney for the five ISPs, welcomed the ruling as "an important victory for the privacy of Internet users. "Private organizations cannot start sniffing around on someone else's computer and collect data," he added. Brein manager Tim Kuik said he would take his case to a higher court. Media companies on the list of plaintiffs included EMI, Universal and Sony Music. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: News Wire Subject: California Regulators, PayPal Reach Settlement Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:46:05 -0500 California regulators said on Tuesday eBay Inc.'s PayPal online payment service has paid $225,000 to settle alleged violations related to the use of unapproved receipts and incomplete reporting. The settlement between the California Department of Financial Institutions and PayPal released the eBay unit from any further liability related to the allegations. The department licensed PayPal to operate as a money transmitter in September 2002. eBay bought PayPal the following month. The department supervises more than 650 financial institutions and is responsible for administering state laws for regulating state-licensed financial institutions. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Jeremy Lovell Subject: Web Site Established to Pay Tribute in London Bombings Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:48:31 -0500 World messages flood into London support Web site By Jeremy Lovell LONDON (Reuters) - A Web site created the same day as last week's multiple bomb blasts in London to act as a focal point for passive defiance has turned into a global shrine that has already attracted 11 million hits in just five days. The site, brainchild of Web designer Alfie Dennen, 29, has been flooded with images from all over the world, bearing the site's slogan: "We Are Not Afraid." "At first the idea was just to try to put the sentiment out there that we wouldn't be cowed -- a defiant but not aggressive statement," said Dennen. "But it has become a platform for support for people quite literally from every corner of the globe," he told Reuters. At least 52 people were killed and 700 wounded -- many critically -- when bombs ripped through three underground trains and tore the roof off a double-decker bus at the height of the London rush hour on Thursday morning. The list of those still missing reads like a United Nations of world travelers and the messages flooding into www.wearenotafraid.com at the rate of 20 a minute are from people in at least 15 different countries. "We had an amazing one from China this morning," Dennen said. "But they are from places like Italy, Brazil, Poland, Japan, South Africa, Nigeria -- all over basically." One particularly poignant image posted by Sage E. is a sepia-toned picture of the face of a bespectacled young girl with the caption: "Yesterday I lost my friend in London. Today I am not afraid." Among more than 1,000 other images already posted are others lampooning al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or showing London landmarks or just personal portraits. Dennen said the six people running the site round the clock had decided to vet the commentary posted next to the images after it had begun to attract extreme right-wing messages. "It became hate filled war-mongering. We simply won't have offensive content of that nature on the site. It is an editorial decision. But the overwhelming tone is one of great support and positivity," he said. "From here I think it will continue in its current vein for a while and then, because of its iconic status, it will be a good place to do good," he added. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Also go to review the new web site at: http://www.wearenotafraid.com and post your comments there. ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Marashlian Subject: The Front Lines Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 13:09:24 -0400 Organization: The Helein Law Group http://www.thefrontlines-hlg.com/ http://www.thlglaw.com/ Advancing The Cause of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry ANNUAL SECTION 43.61(a) INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS TRAFFIC REPORTS DUE BY AUGUST 1, 2005 Carriers are reminded that Section 43.61(a) of the Federal Communications Commission's rules requires each common carrier that provided international telecommunications services in year 2004 to file a report of their international traffic data for calendar year 2004 by July 31, 2005. All common carriers that provided international facilities-based and facilities-resale switched and private line services, or pure switched resale services, in the calendar year are required to file the report regardless of the amount of traffic they provided. Facilities-based services are provided using international transmission facilities that the carrier owns in whole or in part, or that the carrier leases from an entity that does not report those circuits in its own Section 43.61 report. Facilities-resale services are provided by leasing non-switched international circuits from other reporting international carriers. These are distinct from pure switched resale services, which are switched services that are provided by reselling the international switched services of other U.S.-authorized carriers. International facilities-based and facilities-resale switched message telephone and private line services data must be filed on a country-by-country, region and world total basis. International switched telegraph, telex and other miscellaneous services data may be provided on a region and world total basis only. Carriers that provided international pure switched resale services for the calendar year may file world totals only. Clients seeking assistance with the Section 43.61(a) traffic reporting requirements may contact Jonathan S. Marashlian at jsm@thlglaw.com or 703-714-1313. MEXICO SET TO OPEN TELECOMMUNICATIONS MARKETS TO RESELLERS In June 2004, The World Trade Organization ruled that telecommunications regulations in Mexico, which require connection with Mexican operators to complete calls coming from the United States, violate international trade rules. This month, in a first step to comply with the WTO ruling, the Mexican government is expected to implement new regulations that will allow companies to buy and resell domestic long distance from Mexican operators, most notably TelMex. The regulations would open Mexico's market to any company, big or small, foreign or domestic, that is willing to resell long distance telephone services. Resellers can buy large volumes of airtime from existing carriers at a discount and resell them to consumers and companies by means of calling cards and pre-paid plans. With the expected introduction of resellers into the Mexican telecommunications market, rates are expected to become significantly cheaper. Within one year after the publication of long distance resale regulations, the Mexican government is also expected to allow resellers to enter other communications markets, such as local and mobile telephony, and pay television. FCC'S VOIP 911 RULES PUBLISHED IN FEDERAL REGISTER - EFFECTIVE DATE: NOV. 28, 2005 The FCC's Report and Order which requires "interconnected VoIP providers" to provide enhanced 911 ("E911") emergency calling capabilities to their customers was published in the Federal Register on June 29, 2005. As a result of publication, the new rules (which were scheduled to go into effect within 120 days after the effective date of the Order) become effective on November 28, 2005. After this date, it will be unlawful for an interconnected VoIP provider to offer services lacking 911 capability which is the equivalent of traditional landline 911 services. DC CIRCUIT COURT UPHOLDS DECISION DENYING PAYPHONE SERVICE PROVIDERS PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION IN FEDERAL COURT TO COLLECT UNPAID DIAL AROUND COMPENSATION In APCC Services, Inc., et al. v. Sprint Communications (case 04-7035), a majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld payphone aggregator, APCC Services', standing to sue on behalf of its payphone service provider (PSP) clients, but ruled that PSPs (or their assignees, i.e., APCC Services) lack a statutory cause of action to sue for recovery of unpaid compensation in federal court. The DC Circuit decision in APCC Services v. Sprint follows the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court's 2003 decision in Greene v. Sprint Communications and further supports the conclusion that, despite creating the right to compensation in Sec. 276 of the Communications Act, Congress did not intend for PSPs to have a federal right to recover unpaid compensation, at least in federal courts. However, neither the APCC Services nor Greene decisions limit a PSPs right to recover in state courts under common law theories. ========== The Front Lines is a free publication of The Helein Law Group, LLLP, providing clients and interested parties with valuable information, news, and updates regarding regulatory and legal developments primarily impacting companies engaged in the competitive telecommunications industry. The Front Lines does not purport to offer legal advice nor does it establish a lawyer-client relationship with the reader. If you have questions about a particular article, general concerns, or wish to seek legal counsel regarding a specific regulatory or legal matter affecting your company, please contact our firm at 703-714-1313 or visit our website: http://www.thlglaw.com/ The Helein Law Group, LLLP 8180 Greensboro Drive, Suite 700 McLean, Virginia 22102 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:50:57 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Qualcomm Hits Back at Broadcom Telecom dailyLead from USTA July 12, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23010&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Qualcomm hits back at Broadcom BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Cisco, Sprint extend partnership * Verizon's FiOS being challenged by cable offerings * Cogent to extend "on-net" services USTA SPOTLIGHT * TELECOM '05: Exhibit Today! Special Offer Ends July 15th EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * ICANN approves .mobi for wireless users * Q-and-A: Current Communications exec discusses BPL REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC approves Alltel-Western wireless deal * Sprint, Nextel merger a step closer to reality * Verizon, AT&T announce E911 for VoIP * Ebbers stripped of $5.5 million Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23010&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: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: RCA Victor Nipper Statues Adorn Town Date: 11 Jul 2005 19:21:04 -0700 The Victor phonograph company, which became part of RCA, created a logo "His Master's Voice" showing a dog, with his ear lifted, listening to a phonograph. This logo became very famous, AFAIK remains in use to this day on whoever owns RCA-Victor compact disks label (BMG?) (The modernized RCA logo is owned by Thomson consumer electronics of France). Anyway, the founder of Victor, Eldridge Johnson, was from Moorestown NJ. To celebrate its heritage, many residents have set up statues of Nipper throughout the town this summer. RCA made quite a bit of telephone equipment. Some of it appeared to look exactly like Western Electric products. TV crews wore headsets similar to that of Bell System operators. Others were built for the military and contained security features. RCA also made computers but didn't do well in that and sold that business to Sperry Univac. In the postwar years, RCA gained more and more income from defense and industrial products (ie televsion cameras and transmitters) and less from consumer goods (record players). Eventually all consumer lines were dropped and later TV lines were dropped. Defense systems were a big business. The huge RCA-Victor plant complex was located in Camden NJ. RCA-Victor was sold to GE which it turn split it up and sold off to various parties. Lockheed Martin took over some defense electronics and still runs some plants in the Moorestown area. However, virtually all of the original Camden complex has been torn down. One building is now a fancy apartment house (and has the Nipper logo in stained glass on the roof). One other bldg is in use as a school district office building. Camden as a city has seen much better days. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 15:57:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Bank of America Launches Online Security Features in Mid-Atlantic Industry-leading online security service provided for free to protect accounts and identify fraudulent Web sites CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America's online customers in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., have a new way to help prevent fraud and identity theft with the launch this week of an industry-leading protection service with their Online Banking. The new service, called SiteKey(TM), is free. Customers pick one of thousands of images, write a brief phrase and select three challenge questions. The customer and the bank can pass that information securely back and forth to confirm each other's identity. Using SiteKey is like getting a safe deposit box that takes two keys to open. Before the customer and the bank agree to open the box together, they confirm each other's identity. Bank of America, which has the most online banking customers in the country, is the first major financial services company to provide this added level of security. The service was announced in May and is being rolled out across the country throughout the year. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50395933 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Police Still Using Matrix-Type Database Date: 11 Jul 2005 13:03:27 -0700 David Royse wrote: > TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - When the federal government in April stopped > funding a database that lets police quickly see public records and > commercially collected information on Americans, privacy advocates > celebrated what they saw as a victory against overzealous police in the > fight against terrorism. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, this kind of national hookup can be very useful in solving dangerous and heinous crimes. We live in a very mobile society today. It also may be useful to fight potential terrorism. On the other hand, if misused without good controls, this could be a nightmare. "Partial matches" are just that. By definition, a great many people could 'partially match' and thus all considered as potential suspects, and hauled off the street without warning. If you by coincidence partially match a wanted fugitive, your life will be miserable. I also want to emphasize my concern about _private_ organizations collecting all this information and sharing it around, without any controls whatsoever. We've learned they're sloppy and it gets stolen. We don't know if the information gets misinterpreted forcing us to pay much more for a loan or an apartment rental, or even lose a job because unknown to us there's a black flag in our secret credit history. What's more troubling about the invasion of privacy is that the invaders (government or business) keep it secret and we're not allowed to even know about it. ------------------------------ From: Diamond Dave Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Organization: The BBS Corner / Diamond Mine On-Line Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 18:51:17 -0400 On 11 Jul 2005 09:38:10 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Wasn't that the one that failed in numerous exchanges all across the > country as a result of a software bug? The software problem you're referring to was the infamous crash of the AT&T long distance network in 1990 when a software upgrade was applied to the over 100 AT&T/Western Electric #4ESS long-haul tandems in the US. It brought down most if not all the #4ESS switches to a screeching halt for the better part of a day. AT&T had to do an about-face and go back to a previous software version until they got the bug fixed! Here's an article written about the incident: http://www.dmine.com/phworld/history/attcrash.htm Dave Perrussel Webmaster - Telephone World http://www.dmine.com/phworld ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson via Nora Burch Subject: Last Laugh! A Final Example of the Idiotic Spam Going Around Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 22:47:47 -0500 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Nora Burch was formerly employed by Harvard University until she was fired because of her web log ('blog') which is part of her web site http://www.annoyyourfriends.com . When I reviewed her site over last weekend, I found several very clever examples of her writing; take-offs on the sort of spam which has made the rounds on the net in recent years. I do not want to belabor this for too long, but here is one that originally appeared in _Reader's Digest_ many years ago which circulates on the net a lot, but in its original format. You should easily be able to spot the alterations in Nora's account. PAT =============================== Like any good mother, when Bertha found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could do to help her 33-year-old son, Buford, prepare for a new sibling. They found out that the new baby was going to be a hermaphrodite, and day after day, night after night, Buford would sing to his brother/sister in Mommy's tummy. The pregnancy progressed normally for Bertha. Then the labor pains came. Every five minutes ... every minute. But complications arose during delivery. Weeks of labor. A C-Section was required. Finally, Buford's little brother/sister was born, but s/he was in serious condition. With sirens howling in the night, the ambulance rushed the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Hilda's Hospital in Scituate, Massachusetts. The days inched by. The little boy/girl got worse. The pediatric specialist tells the parents, "It's gonna die soon, whoo-ee!." Bertha and her husband contacted a ditch digger about a burial plot. They had fixed up a special corner in their basement for the new baby -- now they plan a funeral. Buford, kept begging his parent to let him see his brother/sister, "I want to yell at him/ her," he says. Week two in intensive care. It looked as if a funeral would come before the week was over. Buford keeps nagging about singing to his brother/sister, but kids are never allowed in Intensive Care. Bertha made up her mind. She would take Buford whether they liked it or not. If he didn't see his brother/sister now, he would never see him/her alive. She dressed him in an oversized scrub suit and marched him into ICU. He looked like a walking laundry basket, but the head nurse recognized him as a child and bellowed, "Get that kid out of here now! No children are allowed in ICU." The mother rises up strong in Bertha, and the usually mild-mannered lady glares steel-eyed into the head nurse's face, her lips a firm line. "He is not leaving until he sings to his brother/sister!" Bertha tows Buford to his brother/sister's bedside. He gazes at the tiny infant losing the battle to live. And he begins to sing. In the pure-hearted voice of a 33-year-old, Buford sings: "Smokin' in the boys' room-" Instantly the baby girl responded. The pulse rate became calm and steady. "Smokin' in the boys' room..." The ragged strained breathing became as smooth as a kitten's purr. "'teacher, dont' you fill me up with your rule...cause everybody knows..." Buford's little brother/sister relaxes as rest, healing rest, seemed to sweep over her. Tears conquered the face of the bossy head nurse. Bertha glowed. "that smokin' ain't allowed in school." Funeral plans were scrapped. The next day, the very next day, the little boy/girl was well enough to go home! Soldier of Fortune magazine called it "the miracle of a brother's song." The medical staff just said "forward this incident to everyone on the net you know, immediately!" ============================ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Nora, that one was just plain weird. But then, so is so much spam going around. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #319 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jul 13 15:14:04 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 3B5A414FF8; Wed, 13 Jul 2005 15:14:02 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #320 Message-Id: <20050713191402.3B5A414FF8@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 15:14:02 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 13 Jul 2005 15:14:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 320 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Bernie Ebbers Gets 25-Year Sentence (News Wire) Enron Next in Line For Trial and Punishment (News Wire) Ebbers Gets 25-Year Prison Sentence (USTelecom dailyLead) Western Union Technial Review -- Good Stuff! (Lisa Hancock) Re: RCA Victor Nipper Statues Adorn Town (Dave Garland) Re: RCA Victor Nipper Statues Adorn Town (Alan Burkitt-Gray) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Bell South Plans Number Changes in Florida (Lisa Hancock) 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: Associated Press Wire Subject: Ebbers Gets 25-Year Sentence Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:58:03 -0500 By The Associated Press STRICT SENTENCE: Former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison -- the toughest term yet in the recent wave of white-collar scandals. REPORTING DATE: The judge ordered Ebbers, 63, to report to a federal prison -- possibly one in Yazoo City, Miss., near his home -- by Oct. 12. The judge said she'd consider allowing him to remain free while he appeals. PLEA FOR LENIENCY: Ebbers' lawyer had argued for a lighter sentence, citing a lost history of anonymous charitable donations by Ebbers and friends who wrote letters on his behalf. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The British Broadcasting Company also had this same news on their wire this morning. PAT] Worldcom's ex-boss gets 25 years Prosecutors had called for Mr Ebbers to be given a life sentence. Former Worldcom boss Bernard Ebbers wept openly as he was sentenced to 25 years in jail for his part in the scandal which brought down the firm. Mr Ebbers was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy in March, following revelations of an $11bn accounting fraud at Worldcom in 2002. The 63-year-old was also guilty of seven counts of filing false documents. The sentence was handed down by federal judge Barbara Jones, who earlier this week rejected his bid for a new trial. The sentence was the toughest yet in a string of corporate scandals in the US. Mr Ebbers did not address the court. Instead, he wiped his eyes with a white tissue. Meanwhile, Kristie Ebbers, his wife, cried quietly. The jail term effectively satisfies pleas from prosecutors for a life sentence to be imposed on Mr Ebbers. Mr Ebbers will begin serving his sentence at a federal prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi, situated close to his home. 'Leader' in crime Defense lawyer Reid Weingarten had called for a more lenient sentence, given Mr Ebbers' heart condition and his involvement in charitable works. However, Judge Barbara Jones said she did not believe his heart condition was sufficiently serious to warrant a reduced sentence. A sentence of anything less would not reflect the seriousness of the crime. Barbara Jones, Federal Judge also rejected his lawyers' contention that the government overstated the losses that investors suffered in the fraud. And she rejected their contention that Mr Ebbers was not a mastermind of the accounting wrongdoing. Mr Ebbers "was clearly a leader of criminal activity in this case," the judge said. "A sentence of anything less would not reflect the seriousness of the crime." Biggest bankruptcy Worldcom's collapse was the biggest bankruptcy in US corporate history. Some 20,000 workers lost their jobs, while shareholders lost about $180bn, when the company filed for bankruptcy protection. A former Worldcom salesman, Henry J Bruin Jr, told the hearing in Manhattan that the company's collapse had caused him "untold human carnage" and that he had suffered "sheer hell". Mr Ebbers is the first of six former Worldcom executives and accountants facing sentencing this summer. The remaining five have already pleaded guilty and agreed to co-operate in the case against their former boss. On Monday, a judge backed a multi-million dollar settlement under which Mr Ebbers must surrender most of his personal assets, including $5m in cash, to resolve a shareholder lawsuit. The settlement provides for Mr. Ebbers' wife with about $50,000 of her husband's fortune, and a modest home in Jackson, Mississippi. Worldcom emerged from bankruptcy last year and is now known as MCI. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Listen to BBC on the net at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/BBC.html Listen to AP on the net at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: News Wire Subject: Enron Execs Next in Line for Trial, Punishment Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 13:01:31 -0500 Trial of ex-Enron Net execs nears end Prosecutors in the trial of five former executives of Enron Corp.'s failed Internet business wrapped up their arguments on Tuesday, accusing them of lying about the unit's health and hiding its massive losses. "Their goal? To pump up Enron's stock price and line their own pockets," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Campbell told the jury in closing arguments of a the trial that has lasted more than 2-1/2 months. On trial for fraud and conspiracy are Enron Broadband Services' (EBS) former Co-Chief Executive Joe Hirko, ex-technology executives Rex Shelby and Scott Yeager, and ex-finance executives Kevin Howard and Michael Krautz. EBS' core software packages were touted to Wall Street but never worked properly and failed to generate much income for the company, Campbell said. That prompted executives to engage in accounting fraud to help cover up millions in losses. "All of them had goals to play in this scheme to portray EBS as something it was not," he said. During weeks of often tedious testimony, the government showed footage from a January 2000 analysts conference of Hirko and former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling describing the capability of EBS' software to control traffic on Enron's high-speed Internet network. Enron's stock jumped nearly $20 in the run-up to that analyst meeting as the company promoted its Internet business, and it rallied another $13 the day of the presentation. Defense lawyers have contended that EBS managers did in fact successfully roll out several Internet services and honestly believed their network was operational, although it was still being developed. In closing arguments, a lawyer for Hirko pointed to a video that prosecutors showed the court earlier in the trial that was never actually viewed by analysts at the January 2000 analysts conference. "To this day, Mr. Campbell clings to (the video) like a life raft, even though they know it was never played" to analysts, Hirko's lawyer, David Angeli, told the jury. Prosecutors admitted their error, but said the video, which showed Shelby touting EBS software that had not been deployed, was evidence that the executives were out to mislead investors. EBS lost hundreds of millions of dollars before Enron Corp. shut it down in July 2001, just months before the energy company collapsed into bankruptcy amid its own accounting scandal. Skilling is not on trial in the EBS case, although he will face charges related to that business and other criminal counts when he goes on trial with former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay in January 2006. In addition to the conspiracy and fraud counts, Hirko, Shelby and Yeager are charged with insider trading and money laundering. In addition to their salaries, Hirko and Yeager were given $30 million in Enron stock options, while Shelby was awarded $7.5 million. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 13:05:33 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Ebbers gets 25-year prison sentence USTelecom dailyLead July 13, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23043&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Ebbers gets 25-year prison sentence BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Battle over mobile e-mail business intensifies * Comcast: No plans to buy cellular company * Survey: Price a barrier to digital home adoption * Cox picks Empirix for VoIP tests * Opinion: Yahoo!'s threat against cable * Skype, Boingo form partnership USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Increase Your Sales Revenue Through Training and Incentives EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Intel tries Wi-Fi as GPS substitute * Qualcomm unveils chipset for next-generation 3G networks * WiMAX ready for primetime? REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Texas lawmakers take up TV franchise debate Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23043&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: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Western Union Technial Review -- Good Stuff! Date: 13 Jul 2005 09:57:02 -0700 I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to those who made the Western Union Technical Review available on this newsgroup. It has a lot of interesting material. I had a pre-conceinved notion that Western Union was somehow a "backward" company due to its financial, labor, and government problems over the years. However, the Tech Rev demonstrates they were certainly state of the art. The earliest issues (1948) describe among other things: 1) Automated switching of messages -- sophisticated automated equipment to route messages throughout their national network. The new switching offices pictured were very modern. 2) Increasing transmission capacity on ocean cables: These challenges weren't much different than those today of squeezing more bandwidth. To my surprise, they had synchronous protocols as well as asynchronous (start-stop) back then. 3) Attempts to develop fibre optic transmission. 4) Development of microwave transmission. Issues of the 1960s dealt with computerization and those challenges were the same as today. Much of the stuff was overhead my head technically. But the terms and concepts were similar to what is used in Bell System histories. I would love to find rate cards for the cost of telegrams in the post war era as well as long distance telephone calls. I'm curious to find the 'tipping point' when the cost of toll calls dropped and the cost of telegrams went up so that it became cheaper to phone than wire. My guess is that occured in the early 1960s. I'm also curious as to the volume of telegrams and toll calls, such as when Western Union's peak year of messages occured. My local newspaper today had an article on the decline of the Howard Johnson's restaurant chain -- the very few remaining sites are declining. Chains such as HoJo and Horn & Hardart suffered from both changes in consumer taste as well as poor management. It's hard to say which came first. Oslin's book is not complementary to most Western Union management teams, the FCC, or the AT&T. He blamed high AT&T rates and their TWX competition for hurting WU. By the way, Oslin noted that WU received a big discount from AT&T. But when MCI came on the scene, it demanded the same discount for interconnections. AT&T responded by eliminaing WU's discount, and that hurt WU a lot. I know many old-time chain restaurants could survive on low rent, but when their leases expired and rent shot up they were forced to close. Who knows, maybe 50 years from now our kids will be remincising about the 'once powerful' Microsoft or IBM. [public replies please] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Or, the 'once powerful Bell System and AT&T'. Or maybe they will recall the days when Usenet group moderators actually had news groups virtually free of spam and were not threatened with having _their_ mail service shut off because of efforts _they_ made to fight against spam. Or maybe they will recall when there used to be a powerful entity on the net called 'ICANN' whose leaders were all so rotten to the core that spam was allowed to flourish unhindered, and how when the day finally arrived that spam and scam consumed about 90 percent of the resources and bandwidth that moderators finally did what ICANN had hoped for all along, threw up their hands in disgust and walked away, abandoning all the remaining newsgroups, giving ICANN the 'perfect excuse' to hand it all over to commercial sites. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: RCA Victor Nipper Statues Adorn Town Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 01:47:23 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > The Victor phonograph company, which became part of RCA, created a > logo "His Master's Voice" showing a dog, with his ear lifted, > listening to a phonograph. This logo became very famous, AFAIK > remains in use to this day on whoever owns RCA-Victor compact disks > label (BMG?) Actually, the logo came from an 1898 painting by Francis Barraud first titled "Dog looking at and listening to a phonograph" and later retitled "His Master's Voice". Mr Barraud tried to sell the painting to the Edison Bell Company, the leading manufacturer of phonographs, but they weren't interested. However, the Gramophone Company was interested, providing that he painted out the Edison phonograph and inserted a picture of their model instead. They bought the revised painting and the copyright in 1899. A few years later, they merged with another company to become the Victor Talking Machine Company, and eventually that company was bought by RCA. The dog's name was Nipper, because he bit. Nipper died in 1895, a few years before the painting. http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/collection/event.php?taid=&id=3456893&lid=1 http://www2.danbbs.dk/~erikoest/nipper.htm ------------------------------ Reply-To: alan@burkitt-gray.com From: Alan Burkitt-Gray, London SE3, UK" Subject: Re: RCA Victor Nipper Statues Adorn Town Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 10:38:14 +0000 hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: "The Victor phonograph company, which became part of RCA, created a logo "His Master's Voice" showing a dog, with his ear lifted, listening to a phonograph." Watch it, Hancock4, get your hands off our dog!!! Nipper was a British dog. painted by a British artist, and first used by a British company -- the Gramophone Company, which later became part of EMI. The logo was then exported around the world. Full story from http://www2.danbbs.dk/~erikoest/nipper.htm ... Nipper the dog was born in Bristol, England in 1884 and so named because of his tendency to nip the backs of visitors' legs. When his first master Mark Barraud died destitute in Bristol in 1887, Nipper was taken to Liverpool in Lancashire, England by Mark's younger brother Francis, a painter. In Liverpool Nipper discovered the Phonograph, a cylinder recording and playing machine and Francis Barraud "often noticed how puzzled he was to make out where the voice came from". This scene must have been indelibly printed in Barraud's brain, for it was three years after Nipper died that he committed it to canvas. Nipper died in September 1895, having returned from Liverpool to live with Mark Barraud's widow in Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey, England. Though not a thoroughbred, Nipper had plenty of bull terrier in him; he never hesitated to take on another dog in a fight, loved chasing rats and had a fondness for the pheasants in Richmond Park! In 1898 Barraud completed the painting and registered it on 11 February 1899 as "Dog looking at and listening to a Phonograph". Barraud then decided to rename the painting "His Master's Voice" and tried to exhibit it at the Royal Academy, but was turned down. He had no more luck trying to offer it for reproduction in magazines. "No one would know what the dog was doing" was given as the reason! Next on Barraud's list was The Edison Bell Company, leading manufacturer of the cylinder phonograph, but again without success. "Dogs don't listen to phonographs," the company said. Barraud was given the advise to repaint the horn from black to gold, as this might better his opportunity for a sale. With this in mind, in the summer of 1899 he visited 31 Maiden Lane, home of the newly formed Gramophone Company, with a photograph of his painting and a request to borrow a brass horn. As Barraud later wrote in an article for The Strand magazine: "The manager, Mr Barry Owen asked me if the picture was for sale and if I could introduce a machine of their own make, a Gramophone, instead of the one in the picture. I replied that the picture was for sale and that I could make the alteration if they would let me have an instrument to paint from." On 15 September 1899, The Gramophone Company sent Barraud a letter making him a formal offer for the picture, which he immediately accepted. He was paid 50 pounds for the painting and a further 50 pounds for the full copyright. The deal was finally confirmed on 4 October 1899 when a representative from The Gramophone Company saw the amended painting for the first time. This painting made its first public appearance on The Gramophone Company's advertising literature in January 1900, and later on some novelty promotional items. However, "His Master's Voice" did not feature on the Company's British letter headings until 1907. The painting and title were finally registered as a trademark in 1910. It was also in 1900 that a seemingly innocuous request led to the eventual disappearance of "His Master's Voice" as a label trademark. Emile Berliner (1851 - 1928), U.S. inventor of the gramophone, born in Germany, asked Barry Owen to assign him the copyright of "His Master's Voice" for America. Owen agreed, as he did in 1904 to a similar request from Japan. Some eighty years later, when the arrival of the Compact Disc prompted record companies to start manufacturing centrally for the world, EMI paid the price of losing its rights in these two vital territories -- and EMI Classics was created as a successor to "His Master's Voice". Meanwhile Francis Barraud spent much of the rest of his working life painting 24 replicas of his original, as commissioned by The Gramophone Company. Following his death in 1924 other artists carried on the tradition until the end of the decade. During its long active life, the "His Master's Voice" label has enjoyed a unique reputation with both the music business and the public. Over the years a healthy market has developed in collecting the vast array of items produced in its image. A Collectors' Guide, originally published in 1984, has been now updated for publication in 1997. Though only used by EMI today as the marketing identity for HMV Shops in the UK and Europe, the "His Master's Voice" trademark is still instantly recognised and sits proudly and firmly in the Top 10 of "Famous Brands of the 20th Century". Nipper Facts: Did you know that..... The "His Master's Voice" painting is now displayed at EMI Music's Gloucester Place headquarters and when viewed in the right light, the original phonograph can still be seen underneath the second layer of paint. When asked if EMI could place a commemorative plaque on the wall of Nipper's house in Bristol, the owner's reply was "Yes, if you buy the house!" Nipper the dog was buried in Kingston upon Thames, in an area that is now the rear car park of Lloyds Bank in Clarence Street. As one enters the bank there is a plaque on the wall stating this. The British naval officer and antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868 - 1912) re-created the famous picture during his exploration to the South Pole (1910 - 1912), capturing one of the huskies looking at the HMV gramophone presented to him by The Gramophone Company. There have been false rumours that the original painting had Nipper sitting on a coffin listening to a recording of his dead master's voice. In 1980 HMV Shops found a Nipper lookalike called Toby for in-store personal appearances but Toby didn't find friends everywhere and in 1984 he was banned from entering Crufts. By 1900, 5,000 printed copies of the painting had been produced and sold to dealers for 2s6d (12.5p) each. The first souvenirs featuring the Dog & Trumpet were a "handsome paperweight -- an exact reproduction in bronze with onyx mount of our well-known picture His Master's Voice" (2s6d/12.5p) and "a handsome mahogany stand with fittings all nickelled, for cigars, cigarettes and match and well as a frosted crystal ash disc. The whole is surmounted with well finished group, representing the well-known subject His Master's Voice." (10s/50p). In 1900 the German Branch of The Gramophone Company produced a mutoscope film of a Nipper lookalike. The drum of this film remains in the EMI Music Archives. Alan Burkitt-Gray Editor, Global Telecoms Business aburkitt@euromoneyplc.com www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Date: 12 Jul 2005 12:11:16 -0700 Diamond Dave wrote: > The software problem you're referring to was the infamous crash of the > AT&T long distance network in 1990 when a software upgrade was applied > to the over 100 AT&T/Western Electric #4ESS long-haul tandems in the > US. It brought down most if not all the #4ESS switches to a screeching > halt for the better part of a day. No, that's not the one I'm thinking of. I'm very sure it was a non Western Electric switch. It was made in Plano Tx (forgot the maker's name) and it was used for local calls. A odd sequence of errors would create a condition that was not checked and the switch would go into a loop and freeze up. This happened at the same time in a number of cities -- apparently the cause circumstances were common at a certain time of day. I found it in the archives. Here it is: Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Date: 3 Jul 91 13:37:22 GMT Local: Wed,Jul 3 1991 9:37 am Subject: Service Outages Across the Nation The (Newark, NJ) {Star-Ledger}, Wednesday, 3 Jul 91, p. 59 "Telephone sleuths are on the trail of mysterious service interruptions" Washington Post Wire Service WASHlNGTON - East Coast and West Coast, the pattern has been the same: At about 11 a.m., an entire region's telephone system collapses. For the past six days, solving the mystery of the failing phones has become an obsession for the nation's service-conscious telephone companies. Yet despite recurring similarities and clues in the half-dozen failures to date, which have struck Washington, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. the detective work remains mired in unanswered questions. Yesterday, telephones in Pittsburgh were disabled for about two hours for the second day running, underlining the phone systems' vulnerability. The basic pattern was the same-an unexplained deluge of electronic messages shutting down a computer built by DSC Communications Corp. of Plano, Texas. The telephone companies know that the failure is in complex electronic systems that route calls. But they cannot say why the systems are failing, why the failures are occurring within days of each other and why they all begin at the same time of day. They cannot explain why the failures occur in computers that are not linked electronically and use different versions of software, the coded instructions that tell computers how to operate. ... Each of the afflicted machines has for some reason generated millions of maintenance messages, which normally help a computer keep track of its internal operations and communicate with others in the network. These messages generally have priority over messages that are routing calls. Too many maintenance messages meant there was no room for routing calls, and the DSC machines ceased to function. The key question, said John W. Seazholtz, Bell Atlantic vice president for technology and information services, is "why is their (DSC's) system going into overload every time we get a little rinky-dink issue that should have been automatically dealt with? The software obviously has a major problem." ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Bell South Plans Number Changes in Florida Date: 12 Jul 2005 12:07:43 -0700 Iain Thomson wrote: > Fast-growing northern St. Johns County will be moved from five phone > exchanges into one. This occured very often in the 1950s and 1960s as the Bell System prepared for nationwide subscriber Direct Distance Dialing. Before DDD, towns had strictly a local phone number. It could range anywhere from 3 to 7 digits long as local needs required. But for DDD, everyone had to have a unique addressable 10 digit number. That meant everyone had to fit into a specified exchange block and area code. Thus, communities had their numbers changed. Someone who was perhaps 23 on an old system became (xxx) xxx-0023. For many years, small communities needed only to dial 5 digits even when having a 10 digit number. This was a lot more complex than it sounds. SxS exchanges had to have special handling to process 10 digits without adding unnecessary long switch trains. Independent telcos had to be worked in. A lot of people objected to 10 digit phone numbers. Comedian Alan King made a big deal about them in his 1962 book. Critics said the many numbers (and loss of beloved exchange names) dehumanized telephone service. (Little did they know what was to come later!) ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #320 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jul 13 22:42:42 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 743F514CEA; Wed, 13 Jul 2005 22:42:40 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #321 Message-Id: <20050714024240.743F514CEA@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 22:42:40 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.4 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 13 Jul 2005 22:43:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 321 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New Microsoft Patches Already Getting Exploited (News Wire) Problems With Microsoft Word and Patches (News Wire) Microsoft Gives in to China Demands (News Wire) A Question About International Country Code Assignments (dawidov) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (John Stahl) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Justa Lurker) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Diamond Dave) Re: SunRocket VOIP Comments? (AntwainBarbour) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Gary Novosielski) Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones (E Bohlman) Re: Mixing Blogging With Work Can Lead to Unemployment (bummer) 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: News Wire Subject: New Microsoft Patches Already Getting Exploited Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 19:49:22 -0500 Microsoft warns of software flaws in Word, Windows. Microsoft Corp. warned users on Tuesday of three new security flaws in its Windows and Word software and issued patches to fix the flaws, which could allow attackers to take over a computer system. All three of the "critical"-rated security patches could potentially allow an attacker to take control of a personal computer and use it to steal data or launch other attacks, said Stephen Toulouse, a manager at Microsoft's Security Response Center. "The key thing is really that we want to make people understand the risk with these flaws and that they enable automatic updates," said Toulouse, referring to a feature in Windows that downloads and installs the software patches automatically. Two of the flaws are related to imaging technology used by Windows, which could potentially allow an attacker to take control of a system simply by having the user view a digital image that contains software code that exploits the flaw, which could be installed on a computer without the user's knowledge. "Simply by viewing one of these malicious images you can become infected with anything from adware and spyware to any other suspicious code," said Oliver Friedrichs, senior manager at Symantec Corp.'s Security Response Center. "We've really seen a proliferation of Web sites that exploit these types of software flaws," said Friedrichs, who recommended users install the patches from Microsoft and keep their anti-virus and security software up-to-date. The Word flaw, which affects various versions of the word-processing program released in 2000 and 2004, could let an attacker take over a personal computer if a user opens a document file containing software code designed to exploit the flaw. Microsoft issued the patches as part of its monthly security bulletin, which it adopted in 2003 to make it easier for users and computer system administrators to install patches and keep track of vulnerabilities in Microsoft's software. Users can also download the patches to fix the software flaws at www.microsoft.com/security. Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, has been working for the last three years to improve the security and reliability of its software under its Trustworthy Computing initiative, as more and more malicious software targets weaknesses in Windows and other Microsoft software. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Elizabeth Millard Subject: Microsoft Patch Tuesday Has Critical Side Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 19:50:45 -0500 by Elizabeth Millard, cio-today.com Microsoft's monthly patch release comes with warnings on this go-round. The company has noted that three of the flaws being fixed already are being exploited by malicious hackers. The vulnerabilities are in Windows and Office programs, and have garnered the company's highest security rating of "critical." Microsoft has urged users to patch their systems as quickly as possible, and also to update to the latest version of Windows XP, which offers more advanced security technology in its Service Pack 2. Fixer Upper One of the reported flaws affects the Microsoft Color Management Module, a part of Windows that handles colors. Another is related to the JView Profiler, a component of the company's Java Virtual Machine. Both vulnerabilities could be used to take control of a PC remotely, Microsoft has noted. Some security firms have seen attackers using the JView flaw to download and install Trojans on users' machines. Also updated this month is the Windows Malicious Software Removal tool, which now removes variants of several viruses, including Wootbot, Optix, Optixpro, Pacty and Prustiu. Patch Cycle The inclusion of patches for flaws that are being exploited actively is not a new phenomenon, especially for Microsoft and its monthly patch update, security experts have noted. "Many times, patches are developed specifically because vulnerabilities are being exploited, or have the potential to be," said Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer at security firm Secunia. "The only difference with those is that they tend to speed up the patching cycle," he added. Security Minded In releasing the patch round, Microsoft has emphasized a fresh focus on security. At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference on July 10, security chief Mike Nash noted that there has been progress made in several security areas since 2003, when Steve Ballmer made a new commitment to address security. Nash unveiled enhancements to the Microsoft Partner Program Security Solutions Competency, an initiative designed to support a broader set of security services partnerships. Although Nash detailed additional technology investment and prescriptive guidance in the security field, he acknowledged that there is more work to be done. Copyright 2005 NewsFactor Network, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, NewsFactor Network. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One of the reasons these patches are occuring with increasing regularity is because the principal organization which _could_ bring it all to a quick halt (ICANN) has no real concern. In fact, I strongly suspect that in their corruption, ICANN encourages spam and scam. The reason for that is, that ICANN is _not_ interested in small computer site operators like most of you or myself. The quicker Vint Cerf and his cronies at ICANN can _drive us away_ -- make the net essentially unusable for the rest of us -- the quicker they can make it available for the exclusive use of businesses, etc. And Vint Cerf of course means MCI, one -- if not the biggest -- polluter of the net. PAT] ------------------------------ From: News Wire Subject: Microsoft Gives in to China's Demands Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 19:52:37 -0500 Microsoft's Kowtow The software giant agrees to ban "democracy" and "freedom" in China. "Where do you want to go today?" That was Microsoft's slogan in the mid-1990s, one that evoked the unlimited possibilities inherent in the age of the Internet and the software revolution. The answer to that question today would be, "hopefully not where they discuss 'freedom,' 'democracy' and 'human rights,' " at least not if you expect to use Microsoft's new portal in China. The software giant has just bowed to the Chinese government by banning these words. If you type them on Microsoft's new portal, a message appears telling you to try different ones. If this weren't insulting enough, the message actually says, according to news reports, "this item should not contain forbidden speech such as profanity. Please enter a different word for this item." To be fair to Microsoft, it is not alone. Yahoo! and Google have also caved in to China. Google chose last year to omit sources the Chinese government does not like from its Google News China edition, saying that it didn't make sense to provide a link to sites that would probably be blank anyway. All of these Internet companies make the point that it is better to make a compromise, gain a foothold in China, and then offer China's masses the smorgasbord of information that is out there. That view got backing from none other than Colin Powell, who happened to be in Hong Kong last week as this story was breaking. Microsoft figured it is "best for them and better for Chinese citizens to get 95% of the loaf," the former Secretary of State said at a conference when we asked him what he thought of an American company banning the word "freedom." While acknowledging that "Microsoft, and Google, and other information providers, have had to make a compromise that we wouldn't find acceptable in the United States," Mr. Powell said, "I think it's probably best for them to make that kind of compromise." Mr. Powell added that he thought the Chinese government was fighting a losing battle in thought control over the Internet, at least "if Chinese teenagers are like the teenagers in my family." It is admittedly difficult for China's government to block Internet content from its estimated 87 million users, a number that is growing. But it is a lot easier if it has the cooperation of the industry. These corporations might also remember that Beijing needs their business. The Internet is where demand and supply meet these days, and China's leaders need economic growth to continue if they are not to face large-scale upheaval. Certainly the Microsofts and Googles might try to drive a harder bargain. Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Dow Jones & Company. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 01:49:44 +0400 MSD From: dawidov Subject: A Question About International Country Code Number Assignments Reply-To: dawidov@yandex.ru Dear Mr Townson, I live in Russia. So, I can have some problems with my English. Excuse me, please for my possible mistakes. I've found your site and decided to ask you about one thing I'm interested in. I will be very grateful to you if you answer my letter. My question is about international phone-codes. I always wanted to know: why appointed regions have appointed phone-codes. I'm sure that it's sequence isn't accidental. What logic lies in this order of codes? I know that my question seems stupid and quite strange (or even crazy). But I really need your help. Thank you for your patience. Sincerely yours, Davydova Alla [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you very much for your letter. I appreciate knowing that this little digest gets read in Russia and other far away countries. I do not know what logic, if any, was used in the assignment of international country codes. It does seem odd to me that North America gets '1' followed by three digits for the 'area codes' while Russia gets '7', European countries generally get '3' or '4' followed by a few more digits, etc. Maybe one of our readers knows the logic behind the numbering scheme, and will share it with us. Please continue reading this space for a few more days as I print some of the answers I receive. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 17:11:22 -0400 From: John Stahl Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote about Re: Non-Bell ESS? on Date: 12 Jul 2005 12:11:16 -0700: > I'm very sure it was a non Western Electric switch. It was made in > Plano Tx (forgot the maker's name) and it was used for local calls.... > ... The basic pattern was the same-an unexplained deluge of > electronic messages shutting down a computer built by DSC > Communications Corp. of Plano, Texas ... To the best of my memory, DSC, whose name was mentioned in the archive you added (above), never made any type of an ESS switch, which the original essage questioned a non-Bell switch. DSC, now owned by Alcatel (France), made a whole line of CPE including multi-line systems and even some FO based equipment. Back before all of the acquisitions and mergers of the late 90's when Alcatel picked them up, DSC had a fairly strong presence at the "Baby Bells" but not much at the ILEC's. I was working for one of Lucent's major competitors then calling on the ILEC's and saw very little of DSC at the ILEC's. I never directly worked for DSC but I did once interview for a job with them for which I did a detailed study of their products and markets so I could talk intelligently with the interviewer. I do not remember seeing any local Teleco type #5ESS switches in their product mix. So I'm pretty sure in relating again that the (only) non-Bell #5ESS switch back then was made by AGCS which was the creation of GTE and AT&T to get around the FCC regulations about Bell selling their equipment into the ILEC market. I do remember something about a couple of CO fires which were attributed to these switches but seem to recall there was some lightening connected with the stories. In later years just before divestiture, Nortel got into the local Teleco type switch business. John Stahl Telecom/Data Consultant Aljon Enterprises ------------------------------ From: Justa Lurker Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 22:01:08 GMT hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Diamond Dave wrote: >> The software problem you're referring to was the infamous crash of the >> AT&T long distance network in 1990 when a software upgrade was applied >> to the over 100 AT&T/Western Electric #4ESS long-haul tandems in the >> US. It brought down most if not all the #4ESS switches to a screeching >> halt for the better part of a day. > No, that's not the one I'm thinking of. > I'm very sure it was a non Western Electric switch. It was made in > Plano Tx (forgot the maker's name) and it was used for local calls. DSC = Digital Switch Corporation I thought they were in Richardson TX, but I guess it was Plano. ------------------------------ From: Diamond Dave Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Organization: The BBS Corner / Diamond Mine On-Line Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 19:30:14 -0400 On 12 Jul 2005 12:11:16 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > I found it in the archives. Here it is: > WASHlNGTON - East Coast and West Coast, the pattern has been the > same: At about 11 a.m., an entire region's telephone system collapses. > For the past six days, solving the mystery of the failing phones has > become an obsession for the nation's service-conscious telephone > companies. Yet despite recurring similarities and clues in the > half-dozen failures to date, which have struck Washington, Los > Angeles, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. the detective work remains > mired in unanswered questions. This was the subsequent problem on the AT&T network that affected only some 4ESS tandems in June 1991. Here's an article you can read about all the "known" crashes in the early 1990s, including the one mentioned above: http://www.chriswaltrip.com/sterling/crack1j.html Dave Perrussel Webmaster - Telephone World http://www.dmine.com/phworld ------------------------------ From: AntwainBarbour Subject: Re: SunRocket VOIP Comments? Date: 13 Jul 2005 13:53:45 -0700 jmeissen@aracnet.com wrote: > Back in November of last year there was an announcement posted here > about Sunrocket VOIP http://www.sunrocket.com . I don't recall > seeing anything about them since. > Does anyone have any opinions, good or bad, about their service? > John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com I've had SunRocket since December I think and have been very pleased so far. The price is pretty much unbeatable and the customer support is very friendly and helpful. I'd say i've saved about $350 so far having switched to them. ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:38:24 GMT Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > Apparently you would not be able to use your credit or debit card in a > restaurant then, since they require you give them the card to swipe at > a location out of your sight. Having recently spent a few weeks in France, I noticed a practice that would solve this problem completely. It seems now to be the standard method of operation at all restaurants from the trendy "gastronomique" places (with prices astronomique) to the neighborhood "steak/frit" joints. When paying with a credit card, the server brings a small wireless terminal directly to the table. It looks just like a compact adding machine, with a paper roll on the back, but with a card slot on the front, where you insert your card. If it's a debit card, you key your PIN on the keypad. The receipts are printed right from the same device, and the card never leaves your possession. If devices like this were used in the states, you could presumably also use the keypad to add a tip amount to the check. (In France, where service is included, tips are a rarity, and when offered at all are invariably in cash.) ------------------------------ From: Eric Bohlman Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones Date: 13 Jul 2005 19:25:53 GMT Organization: OMS Development Joe Morris wrote in news:telecom24.312.11@telecom- digest.org: > The Bell system breakup [*] certainly caused problems, but the > pre-breakup system was not what I would call accommodating to users' > requirements ... it was instead a follower of Henry Ford's famous line > that his customers could have any color automobile they wanted as long > as it was black. > Case in point -- and one that gave me lots of heartburn at the time -- > was the absurd DAA requirement. I'm all for protecting a network, but > neither at the time nor in retrospect can I find any justification for > the DAA other than protecting AT&T's revenue stream. But the DAA requirement was dropped as a result of FCC action in the late 1970s (the enactment of the Part 68 regulations). It had nothing to do with the breakup. ------------------------------ From: bummer@iecc.com, [bummer@summer.com]@iecc.com Subject: Re: Well,Duh Re: Mixing Blogging With Work Can Lead to Unemployment Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 18:55:21 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:46:19 -0400, mc wrote: > Reading a little farther in the news story: >> "The whole blogging thing was so new back then, I never expected >> anyone to find it and read it," said Burch, who was fired in May >> 2004. "I wrote in the blog to let off steam, not stir things up, but >> they viewed my e-mail signature as some kind of open invitation to >> read those comments." > Huh? She put a link in her e-mail signature but didn't want people to > view it as an "open invitation to read" things that were published on > the Web? > This is *exactly* like the "Don't tell my boss about my cocaine habit" > type of postings we would occasionally see in the early days of > newsgroups. And yet, when a co-worker "outed" himself on the company e-mail system, nobody raised an eyebrow ... I suppose it's all right to proclaim your sexuality, as long as you aren't criticizing the company! sigh ... ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #321 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 14 14:49:32 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id E3A8114C9E; Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:49:30 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #322 Message-Id: <20050714184930.E3A8114C9E@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:49:30 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.4 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:50:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 322 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Sprint, Nextel Merger Approved by Shareholders (USTelecom DailyLead) For Surfers, a Roving Hot Spot That Shares (Monty Solomon) Enterprise Numbers Still in Use? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Fred Goldstein) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: A Question About International Country Code Numbers (John Levine) Re: A Question About International Country Code Numbers (A Burkitt-Gray) Re: Well,Duh Re: Mixing Blogging With Work Can Lead to Unemploy (Sobol) Re: New Microsoft Patches Already Getting Exploited (Barry Margolin) Re: Don't Let ID Fraud Happen to You (Alan Burkitt-Gray) Correction on Bernie Ebbers Sent to Prison (Henry) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 13:25:17 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Sprint, Nextel Merger Approved by Shareholders USTelecom dailyLead July 14, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23077&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Sprint, Nextel merger approved by shareholders BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * XM buys WCS Wireless to expand offerings * Broadband price war unfolds among cable, phone companies * Alcatel, Shanghai Media strengthen ties USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Just Released: The USTelecom IP Video Implementation & Planning Guide EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Pannaway planning BAS access platform update REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Editorial: Brand X ruling boosts telecom sector * Mobile phone disposal program under discussion Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23077&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 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 08:47:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: For Surfers, a Roving Hot Spot That Shares By JOHANNA JAINCHILL When the Sunningdale Country Club in Scarsdale, N.Y., opened its gates last week to a location shoot for "The Sopranos," a new fixture was on display in the mobile dressing rooms - a roving Wi-Fi hot spot. With a device called the Junxion Box, the production company can set up a mobile multiuser Internet connection anywhere it gets cellphone service. The box, about the size of a shoebox cover, uses a cellular modem card from a wireless phone carrier to create a Wi-Fi hot spot that lets dozens of people connect to the Internet. The staff members of "The Sopranos," squeezed into two trailer dressing rooms, needed only the Junxion Box and their laptops to exchange messages and documents with the production offices at Silvercup Studios in Queens. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/14/technology/circuits/14share.html?ex=1278993600&en=56a56edcee958205&ei=5090 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Enterprise Numbers Still in Use? Date: 14 Jul 2005 07:27:07 -0700 Someone on the railroad newsgroup said Enterprise numbers are still in use. (Enterprise numbers were manually reached through the operator and served as toll-free lines prior to 800 direct dialed service. The operator had a table in which she converted the Enterprise number to an actual telephone number and placed the call, billing the recipient.) I don't think he's correct. He said: > They are still in use, yes. Their purpose is different from 800 > numbers, as it gave the called party the ability to restrict > incoming calls to selected areas of his choosing, areas as small as > a single exchange. That's never been available with 800 numbers. [public replies please] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: He is wrong, but so are you. 'Enterprise' numbers (they were called 'Zenith' in many places; 'Enterprise' was the Bell System word; I think 'Zenith' was the word used by GTE and some others) are now pretty much grandfathered to existing subscribers (basically long time customers since the 1970's?) who wanted to keep them. I do not think you can order new Enterprise/Zenith service, but it is there for people who always had it and wanted to keep it. But if you give it up, (or move, or otherwise change your service) that's it. Don't ask for it back. And he is wrong in saying they were 'different'. They were the same thing, regards restrictions on calling areas, etc. In the earliest days of '800 service', out of the 600-plus possible 'prefixes' possible in any area code (using the exclusion of '0' or '1' as the first digit rule) those three digit code prefixes were assigned to every type of restriction possible: Bands one through six for each state; band eight (intrastate) for your state only' your community only, etc. Band one was always the states immediatly adjacent to your state, _but not including your own (intrastate) calls_; band two was the next 'ring' of states beyond the band one area; the bands got a bit larger as they expanded outward. Essentially the types of 'In-WATS' service were the same as the outward WATS bands. Hawaii and Alaska were not included in WATS; they were coin-rated calls. Sometime in the middle 1970's the band six areas (relative to wherever you were located) were combined with band five points and Alaska/Hawaii were made band six to everyone in the continental USA. The three digit prefix in your 800 number said what was or was not included, i.e. "the number you have dialed is not included in your calling plan" was the intercept message given to people who tried to dial 800-621-xxxx who were not in Illinois, for example, since 800-621 was assigned to in-WATS subscribers in Illinois who had requested Band 8 (Illinois intrastate only) service. On in-WATS (as opposed to out-WATS service) calls were always translated to some 'regular' seven-digit number. For instance at Amoco, in-WATS calls (I forget which band) were actually translated into WELlington-5-1389 if memory serves me. Out-WATS on the other hand went out and were billed to '146-0000' or something equally non-dialable, i.e a 'dedicated line'; they had to be on separate instruments or at least separate lines. Now today, in 2005, we would say, like Shakespeare, "Much Ado About Nothing". The costs for long distance calls have gone down to about nothing anyway, although back then, if you bought long distance service in bulk, by the hour, it was also less expensive than 'regular' service. But there became a time at which it was just totally impractical to keep trying to save money by the way you divided up pennies. You may _possibly_ be able to purchase 'banded' WATS service, either in or out-bound from telco; I just have not kept up on it. I know most telecom companies do not supply banded service any longer (when I was at Amoco in Chicago, quite literally if I had used a 'Band 1' line and dialed 213-anything, the call would have gotten intercepted with a 'not in your calling area' recording, just as people in the 213 area who tried to dial 800-621 anything. Somewhere in our archives there is a chart telling the description of each 800 prefix as to what state it was in, and the limits or range of its incoming calls. I strongly suspect your railroad newsgroup person, unless he was around prior to divestiture (hardly anyone is, these days) would recall 'banded' WATS service. But obviously he remembers all about Enterprise service, which _you_ don't. They were designed to do the _same thing_, only with manual service instead of automated service; that is, place an 'automatically accepted' collect call, no need for an operator to get a verbal okay on accepting the charges. Lisa, would you do me a favor please and post this in your railroad newsgroup as a response for me? Thanks. Oh, by the way, there was a Band Seven also, although rarely used. While one through six were increasing larger geographic areas of the USA (or in the case of Canadian WATS service in Canada) and band eight was always intrastate _your state only_, band seven, as obscure as it was, was _your community only_. If you only wanted to accept collect calls automatically from the Chicago area and _you were in Chicago_ that was treated as band seven. In Enterprise service days, Rate and Route (815+161 when the operator dialed it to inquire what to do) would advise 'in the Chicago exchange only, dial 312-xxx-xxxx'. And where the operators had a 'flip chart' at their fingertips with the most common Enterprise number translations, such as airlines, credit card companies, etc, for more obscure or less well-known Enterprise numbers the operator had to call Rate and Route (in Morris, Illinois 815+161) to get advice. Eventually, band seven was replaced in most places with special prefixes in a regular area code doing the same thing. In other words, anyone in Chicago 312 could dial (I think it was) 312-920-xxxx to get the desired 'auto-collect' place they were calling. In Kansas, until a couple years ago, 620-870 got you a 'free' call to the Cingular Wireless switch here in Independence, then one day Cingular Wireless told customers they would have to pay to stay on that switch since 'we discontinued the special deal we had with Southwestern Bell'. Anyway Lisa, tell your newsgroup person about this won't you please? Thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 23:23:02 -0400 From: Fred Goldstein Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 17:11:22 -0400, John Stahl wrote, >> ... The basic pattern was the same-an unexplained deluge of >> electronic messages shutting down a computer built by DSC >> Communications Corp. of Plano, Texas ... DSC made Signal Transfer Points (STPs), which are the routers, packet switches, in the Signaling System 7 network. Their STPs may have had a problem ... at one point over a decade ago, a bug in the code did bring down some SS7 networks. I think that's what the allusion was to. One of the SS7 network crashes happened when there was a bug in some C code (this might have been AT&T/Lucent's? DSCs?) that exited a loop in a manner that the programmer hadn't intended (the CPU not having a "do what I mean" instruction!). This was executed during congestion, and would cause the link to fail over to its paired link (everything in SS7 is paired), but that would now have congestion from queued messages, so it would execute the flawed code, and the switch at the other end of the line would get the burst of traffic, and if it had that load of code, it would fail over.... nicely metastatic! > To the best of my memory, DSC, whose name was mentioned in the archive > you added (above), never made any type of an ESS switch, which the > original essage questioned a non-Bell switch. DSC, now owned by > Alcatel (France), made a whole line of CPE including multi-line > systems and even some FO based equipment. DSC made toll switches (Class 4), the DEX family, which was the backbone of various LD networks including much of Worldcom. Late in the 1990s, they added some Class 5 features, mainly for CLECs, but never really became competitive in that space. They do get some use for CLEC applications like ISDN PRI, used for dial-in modems, among other things. > So I'm pretty sure in relating again that the (only) non-Bell #5ESS > switch back then was made by AGCS which was the creation of GTE and > AT&T to get around the FCC regulations about Bell selling their > equipment into the ILEC market. I do remember something about a couple > of CO fires which were attributed to these switches but seem to recall > there was some lightening connected with the stories. AGCS was the old Automatic Electric, the company that first sold Strowger switches in the 1890s. It was owned by GTE for decades, and built the GTD-5, a digital central office switch that long-time Digest readers will recall was somewhat less stable than a 5E or DMS... at least in some places. GTE used a lot of them in house, though it was becoming largely a Nortel shop. By the mid-1990s, GTE was tired of AE, so they sold a majority stake in it to AT&T (what became Lucent). This was AGCS. They stopped making GTD-5s, but had a few products of their own (like Roameo and Superline), and eventually became a marketing channel of Lucent, selling Lucent kit to the "independent" ILECs. This had nothing to do with the FCC though; it was just a marketing decision. Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 12:44:48 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com In article , John Stahl wrote: > hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote about Re: Non-Bell ESS? on Date: 12 Jul > 2005 12:11:16 -0700: >> I'm very sure it was a non Western Electric switch. It was made in >> Plano Tx (forgot the maker's name) and it was used for local calls.... >> ... The basic pattern was the same-an unexplained deluge of >> electronic messages shutting down a computer built by DSC >> Communications Corp. of Plano, Texas ... > To the best of my memory, DSC, whose name was mentioned in the archive > you added (above), never made any type of an ESS switch, which the > original essage questioned a non-Bell switch. DSC, now owned by > Alcatel (France), made a whole line of CPE including multi-line > systems and even some FO based equipment. DSC's main product for the carrier market was a signal transfer point (STP): basically a router for SS7 signaling messages. The other major player in that market was Tekelec, who started to wipe the floor with DSC just before DSC was bought by Alcatel. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky ------------------------------ Date: 14 Jul 2005 10:29:02 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: A Question About International Country Code Number Assignments Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > My question is about international phone-codes. I always wanted to > know: why appointed regions have appointed phone-codes. I'm sure that > it's sequence isn't accidental. What logic lies in this order of > codes? The codes are assigned by an office at the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva. They do indeed try to assign codes with some geographic logic, such as 5x for the Americas, 3x and 4x for Europe, and 2x for Africa, but sometimes there aren't any available codes in the appropriate regions. Hence Greenland is 299 even though it's not in Africa, because there weren't any 3xx codes or 4xx available when Greenland wanted a code. ITU recommendation E.164 describes country code allocation, and somewhere on the ITU site is the list of country codes as a free download. R's, John ------------------------------ Reply-To: alan@burkitt-gray.com From: Alan Burkitt-Gray Subject: Re: A Question About International Country Code Number Assignments Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 10:53:59 +0000 dawidov@yandex.ru asked about international phone codes: Look at World Telephone Numbering Guide, wtng.info, or more specifically, for the history, http://www.wtng.info/wtng-hst.html All you could ever want to know. Alan Burkitt-Gray Editor, Global Telecoms Business www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com aburkitt@euromoneyplc.com ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Well,Duh Re: Mixing Blogging With Work Can Lead to Unemployment Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 20:04:43 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com bummer@iecc.com wrote: > I suppose it's all right to proclaim your sexuality, as long as you > aren't criticizing the company! I'm sorry, is there supposed to be something wrong with telling people you're gay or bisexual? I'm neither, but I find your comment pointless at best and rather homophobic at worst. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: New Microsoft Patches Already Getting Exploited Organization: Symantec Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 23:37:34 -0400 In article , News Wire wrote: > Microsoft warns of software flaws in Word, Windows. > Microsoft Corp. warned users on Tuesday of three new security flaws in > its Windows and Word software and issued patches to fix the flaws, > which could allow attackers to take over a computer system. Who came up with the Subject line of the message? The article says that it's the *flaws* that are being exploited. The Subject line says that the *patches* are being exploited, implying that there are problems with the patches. That's the exact opposite of the claim -- the patches protect users from the exploits. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But people do not usually say 'the flaws are being exploited', or maybe they do, as a form of verbal shorthand. I think they usually say in this instance, 'the code is being exploited because of the flaws in it.' Same difference IMO, just phrasing it differently. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Alan Burkitt-Gray, London SE3, UK Subject: Re: Don't Let ID Fraud Happen to You. Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 10:53:59 +0000 Reply-To: Alan Burkitt-Gray Gary Novosielski noticed wireless terminals for credit card authorisation in France. These have been common in France for at least 10 years (though no one was ever sure about the encryption): France pioneered PINs for credit card authorisation in the mid 1990s (hence the domination of the smart card industry by French companies), and introduced the wireless terminals at the same time. Wireless credit card terminals are now fairly common outside France, in other parts of Europe -- in trains, for ticket payment, and in restaurants. Odd that they're not apparently in the US yet. Alan Burkitt-Gray Editor, Global Telecoms Business www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com aburkitt@euromoneyplc.com ------------------------------ From: Henry Sent: Thu, July 14, 2005 1:39 AM Subject: Correction on Bernie Ebbers Sent to Prison > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The British Broadcasting Company also > had this same news on their wire this morning. PAT] A word to the wise... 'BBC' is the British Broadcasting _Corporation_. Cheers, Henry ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #322 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 14 21:48:13 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id D09EB14F10; Thu, 14 Jul 2005 21:48:12 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #323 Message-Id: <20050715014812.D09EB14F10@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 21:48:12 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.1 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_REMOVE, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 14 Jul 2005 21:48:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 323 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson UN Panel Fails to Agree on How to Govern Internet (Irwin Arieff) UN Panel Presents Four Options for Internet (Aoife White) Competition Slashes Cost of Broadband Service (Deborah Yao) Who Really Controls Internet? (Andrew Kantor) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Joseph) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Jim Rusling) Re: Non-Bell ESS? (John McHarry) Re: Enterprise Numbers Still in Use? (Arthur Kamlet) Re: Enterprise Numbers Still in Use? (Charles Cryderman) Re: Enterprise Numbers Still in Use? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones (J 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: Irwin Arieff Subject: UN Panel Fails to Agree on How to Govern Internet Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 19:27:46 -0500 UN panel fails to agree on how to govern Internet By Irwin Arieff A group set up by the United Nations to come up with a global plan for managing the Internet said on Thursday that it has been unable to agree on who should do the job or how it should be done. The Working Group on Internet Governance instead came up with four rival models for overseeing the Web and sorting out technical and public policy questions. In a report to be submitted to the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November, the group also proposed creation of a permanent forum to carry on the debate. To understand the problem, "you must recognize that the Internet was set up largely by academicians for limited use, but has grown beyond anyone's wildest expectations, with nearly one billion users today," Markus Kummer, the working group's executive coordinator, said in a telephone interview. At issue for the world body is who runs the Internet and how it can better serve the world. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has long pressed industry, government and private interest groups to try to narrow the "digital divide" and ensure that people in poor nations have greater access to the Internet. The Internet is now loosely managed by various groups. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), for example, manages the domain name system and is under the control of the U.S. government. Helping set technical standards are the International Telecommunication Union, an international organization; the private-sector-led Internet Engineering Task Force, and the academia-oriented W3C. Among the governance options put forward by the group were a continuation of the current system, creation of a world body to address public policy issues stemming from the work of ICANN, and creation of a body to address a broader range of public policy issues. The fourth option is to create three bodies, one to address policy issues, one for oversight and one for global coordination. The group also recommended a coordinated global effort to combat spam, or junk e-mails, which they agreed now comprises about 90 percent of all email, and urged that law enforcement authorities respect the right to freedom of expression when they crack down on Internet-related crimes. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Aoife White Subject: UN Panel Presents Four Internet Options Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 19:29:18 -0500 By AOIFE WHITE, AP Business Writer A U.N. panel created to recommend how the Internet should be run in the future has failed to reach consensus but did agree that no single country should dominate. The United States stated two weeks ago that it intended to maintain control over the computers that serve as the Internet's principal traffic cops. In a report released Thursday, the U.N. panel outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance for world leaders to consider at a November "Information Society" summit. One option would largely keep the current system intact, with a U.S.-based non-profit organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, continuing to handle basic policies over Internet addresses. At the other end, ICANN would be revamped and new international agencies formed under the auspices of the United Nations. "In the end it will be up to governments, if at all, to decide if there will be any change," said Markus Kummer, executive director of the U.N. Working Group on Internet Governance, which issued the report. The 40 members of the panel hailed from around the world and included representatives from business, academia and government. World leaders who convened in December 2003 for the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva couldn't agree on a structure for Internet governance. Some countries were satisfied with the current arrangement, while others, particularly developing ones, wanted to wrest control from ICANN and place it with an intergovernmental group, possibly under the United Nations. Leaders ducked the issue and directed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to convene the working group to come up with a proposal for the second and final phase of the summit, in Tunisia in November. Though the group could not agree on a single model, it does recommend the creation of a new global forum for governments, industry and others to discuss key issues such as spam and cybercrime -- areas not currently handled by ICANN. The panel recommended a larger international role for "governance arrangements," Kummer said, and participants felt no one country should dominate. He stressed the sentiment dates back to the Geneva summit and was not meant as an attack on the United States or a direct response to the U.S. Department of Commerce statement two weeks ago that it intends to keep ultimate authority for authorizing changes to the list of Internet suffixes, such as ".com." The United States historically has played that role because it funded much of the Internet's early development. "The group as a whole recognizes that it is clear the U.S. has played a beneficial role," Kummer said. ICANN chief executive Paul Twomey said the report confirmed his organization's role. "If the Internet was a postal system, what we ensure is that the addresses on the letters work," he said. "We don't think we're a regulator. We think we're a technical co-ordinator." Twomey said ICANN had a narrow technical coordination role for a particular layer of the Internet -- specifically domain names and the numeric Internet Protocol addresses used to identify specific computers. But ICANN critics believe the organization has drifted beyond its technical mandate. They have cited ICANN's growing budget and its involvement in creating procedures for resolving trademark dispute as examples. Paul Kane, chairman of a Brussels-based coalition of domain name administrators called the Council of European and National Top-Level Domain Registries, said the report told ICANN diplomatically that it needed to narrow its focus. "Keeping things focused means not having a massive budget, having a well-defined scope and a well-defined mission," Kane said. "They have neither. They're not following their original remit." Others have expressed concerns that ICANN remains too close to the U.S. government, which gave ICANN its authority in 1998 but retains veto power. Developing countries have been frustrated that Western countries that got on the Internet first gobbled up most of the available addresses required for computers to connect, leaving developing nations to share a limited supply. And some countries want faster approval of domain names in non-English characters - China even threatened a few years ago to split the Internet in two and set up its own naming system for Chinese. Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Read Associated Press stories with no login nor registration requirements at: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Deborah Yao Subject: Competition Slashing Costs of Broadband Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 19:30:28 -0500 By DEBORAH YAO, AP Business Writer Telephone and cable TV companies are slashing broadband prices and boosting connection speeds as the two monopoly-prone industries prepare to lock horns on multiple fronts. Comcast Corp. fired the latest shot in the battle this week by announcing plans to boost the speed of its entry-level cable broadband service to 6 megabits per second -- as much as four times faster than a typical DSL connection over a phone line. That move follows a series of promotions which have lowered introductory rates for a high-speed Internet line to between $15 and $30 a month, down from the typical $30 and $45 a month. The prize is far larger than signing up more high-speed Internet users, analysts say. Companies are trying to lock in customers who may soon be offered the convenience of buying phone, cable, Internet and wireless services from a single provider out of convenience. Two of the big regional phone companies, Verizon Communications Inc. and SBC Communications Inc., are spending billions to replace their copper lines with fiber-optic cables that provide enough capacity to deliver hundreds of channels of cable TV starting later this year. The cable companies, meanwhile, are rolling out phone service over their cable lines and exploring options to add cell phones to their mix. In advance of this head-to-head competition, Verizon, SBC and Qwest Communications International Inc. recently cut their introductory rates for DSL to $15 or $20 per month, and the cable carriers Comcast, Time Warner Inc. and Charter Communications Inc. sweetened their introductory prices to $20 to $30 per month. The phone companies are especially "willing to take a hit on margins ... if they can keep their landline users," said Mike Paxton, a senior analyst at In-Stat, a technology research firm in Scottsdale, Ariz. But by limiting the price cuts to new customers, the companies may risk angering their current subscribers. "It's frustrating that they're not giving their loyal customers the same kind of deal," said Kerry Smith, an attorney from South Philadelphia who subscribes to Comcast for cable, but pays Verizon for Internet and phone service. The cable and phone companies are betting that existing customers will find it too inconvenient to switch. That's why cable operators -- which are ahead of phone companies in signing up broadband Internet users -- don't feel as pressured to slash prices as deeply, Paxton said. Even in markets where DSL prices have dropped, cable has not been hurt badly, Paxton said. "It's frankly a pain in the butt to switch," he said. Cable broadband typically costs more than DSL, but cable operators have emphasized speed, arguing that their rates are competitive since the connections are often faster. Phone companies, however, have been closing the speed gap between cable and DSL. Comcast's speedier connections will be available later this month in Pennsylvania, New England, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan and Washington, D.C. For most of its other markets, the new speeds will be available by the end of summer. In May, Qwest unveiled a premium DSL service with a top download speed of 5 Mbps. "Speed very much matters. Reliability matters," said Dave Watson, executive vice president of cable operations at Comcast. The phone companies appear to believe that customers are more aware of price than speed. "A lot of people can't tell the difference" in download speed, spokeswoman Bobbi Henson said. SBC has been the most aggressive in cutting prices. The company has cut its DSL price at least three times in less than two years -- from $26.95 in early 2004 to $19.95 last November and $14.95 in June, said spokeswoman April Borlinghaus. But the Internet price war is just a precursor of a larger battle to come between the industries. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Andrew Kantor Subject: Who Really Controls Internet? Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 19:33:38 -0500 The recent U.S. decision to control the Internet is no big deal. Last week the Bush Administration announced that it was backing out of a pledge it had made, saying the U.S. government would retain control over the Internet. You may have heard that no one controls the Internet. That's sort of true for a couple of reasons. Most importantly, the Internet is a "network of networks," meaning that although it has its own backbone and connections, it also comprises lots of other networks -- educational, corporate, government, and so on. Take the Internet backbone away and those other networks would probably work just fine. Second, the Internet isn't really a thing any more than "government" is a thing. It's just a whole lot of computers that all speak the same language that happen to be connected. But, just as government has evolved a massive bureaucracy to support it, so too has the Internet. In the Net's case, the center of that 'bureaucracy' is a set of 13 root nameservers. These are computers that manage the flow of bits around the world. (Or "across the world," if you're not a believer in the "round-Earth" theory.) Those nameservers are controlled by an organization known as ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). And ICANN is controlled by the U.S. Department of Commerce. ICANN is the organization that decides, among other things, what top-level domains are allowed -- a top-level domain being .com, .org, .uk, etc. The nameservers it controls maintain those, so when you type in " http://www.usatoday.com ", your computer's message ("Send me that Web page") goes to the right place. Yes, it's more complicated than that. But I covered the complexities of the workings of the Net in an earlier column. What's important is that _he who controls the root nameservers controls the traffic on the Internet._ And right now that's the government of the U.S. of A. (Cue patriotic music.) But ICANN is a private organization, and it's supervision by the DoC is based on a memorandum of understanding that was written in 1997, when "the President directed the Secretary of Commerce to privatize the management of the domain name system (DNS) in a manner that increases competition and facilitates international participation in its management." ICANN has a worldwide membership -- in fact, its president and CEO is an Aussie named Paul Twomey. The U.S. government was supposed to give up control in 2006, when it would be up to the world at large to decide how ICANN would fit into the scheme of things. Most likely it would then be run by the International Telecommunications Union, a body that's sorta kinda part of the U.N., but has actually been around since 1865 in one form or another. Among other things, it established the ground rules for linking telegraph systems in the late 1800s. But that's neither here nor there. That's because this is the land of doing as you please, and President Bush decided that he pleased not to give up control of the Net. Obviously Bush didn't say it that way. As usual these days, Bush claims it was done in the name of "security" -- the same reason, for example, the FBI needs access to your library records. "The United States Government intends to preserve the security and stability of the Internet's Domain Name and Addressing System," went a statement from Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. "The United States will therefore maintain its historic role in authorizing changes or modifications to the authoritative root zone file.") Translation: We don't trust other people to run the Internet, and since we made it in the first place, tough noogies. Luckily for us, since 9-11 we've enjoyed the goodwill of the rest of the world. Most people and most governments trust us and like us, so this probably won't be a big deal. Everyone knows that America has the whole world's best interests at heart. Of course, there are a few grumblegutses out there who, for reasons I don't understand (because the mass media doesn't really tell us) don't completely trust us. What they say is that this unilateral decision by Bush could split the Internet -- it could literally cause the rest of the world to set up its own routing system because, like us, they want to have control over their own data infrastructure. That would mean that representatives of U.S. Internet, the European Internet, and potentially the Asian, African, and South American internets would have to reach some sort of connectivity agreement to allow the bits to flow. It might also allow any country to 'lock out' data from any other country. Not that we would do that, what with the U.S. being so committed to a free and open society, but it could happen in places that don't value freedom as much as we do. Of course, this is all speculative. The Internet is, in fact, fractured already -- that "network of networks" thing. So connecting new networks to the existing one is fairly simple, especially if that new network was originally part of the Internet in the first place. In other words, if the Internet splits because of the president's decision, connecting the two (or three, or more) remaining parts will be fairly straightforward, at least from a technical viewpoint. After all, new devices and technologies using the "language" of the Net -- Internet Protocol, or IP - are popping up all the time. Voice over IP, video over IP, IP-enabled phones and PDAs and what have you. Connecting two or more entire Internets will be a piece of cake. The issues, instead, will be political ones, and how could that be bad? ============================ Andrew Kantor is a technology writer, pundit, and know-it-all who covers technology for the Roanoke Times. He's also a former editor for PC Magazine and Internet World. Read more of his work at kantor.com. His column appears Fridays on USATODAY.com. Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. To read USA Today news stories with no login nor registration requirements go to http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/othernews.html ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 16:20:32 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 10:53:59 +0000, Alan Burkitt-Gray, London SE3, UK wrote: > Wireless credit card terminals are now fairly common outside France, > in other parts of Europe -- in trains, for ticket payment, and in > restaurants. Odd that they're not apparently in the US yet. They indeed do exist in the US. ------------------------------ From: Jim Rusling Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Organization: Retired Reply-To: usenet@rusling.org Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 18:15:38 -0500 Gary Novosielski wrote: > Wesrock@aol.com wrote: >> Apparently you would not be able to use your credit or debit card in a >> restaurant then, since they require you give them the card to swipe at >> a location out of your sight. > Having recently spent a few weeks in France, I noticed a practice that > would solve this problem completely. It seems now to be the standard > method of operation at all restaurants from the trendy "gastronomique" > places (with prices astronomique) to the neighborhood "steak/frit" > joints. > When paying with a credit card, the server brings a small wireless > terminal directly to the table. It looks just like a compact adding > machine, with a paper roll on the back, but with a card slot on the > front, where you insert your card. If it's a debit card, you key your > PIN on the keypad. The receipts are printed right from the same > device, and the card never leaves your possession. > If devices like this were used in the states, you could presumably > also use the keypad to add a tip amount to the check. (In France, > where service is included, tips are a rarity, and when offered at all > are invariably in cash.) I would worry about the security of the wireless connection. Jim Rusling More or Less Retired Mustang, OK http://www.rusling.org ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Non-Bell ESS? Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 23:42:21 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 12:44:48 +0000, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote: > In article , John Stahl > wrote: >> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote about Re: Non-Bell ESS? on Date: 12 Jul >> 2005 12:11:16 -0700: >>> I'm very sure it was a non Western Electric switch. It was made in >>> Plano Tx (forgot the maker's name) and it was used for local calls.... >>> ... The basic pattern was the same-an unexplained deluge of >>> electronic messages shutting down a computer built by DSC >>> Communications Corp. of Plano, Texas ... >> To the best of my memory, DSC, whose name was mentioned in the archive >> you added (above), never made any type of an ESS switch, which the >> original essage questioned a non-Bell switch. DSC, now owned by >> Alcatel (France), made a whole line of CPE including multi-line >> systems and even some FO based equipment. DSC stood originally for Digital Switch Corporation, and they did make a switch. I know they were fairly big in the large PBX area, and possibly in toll tandems, but I don't recall whether they made a local switch. I would be somewhat surprised if they never did. I think they achieved their greatest fame for making STPs, where they became the dominant supplier for some time. ------------------------------ From: kamlet@panix.com (Arthur Kamlet) Subject: Re: Enterprise Numbers Still in Use? Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 20:04:10 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Reply-To: ArtKamlet@aol.REMOVE.com In article , wrote: > He said: >> They are still in use, yes. Their purpose is different from 800 >> numbers, as it gave the called party the ability to restrict >> incoming calls to selected areas of his choosing, areas as small as >> a single exchange. That's never been available with 800 numbers. 800 numbers require multiple dips into SCPs, at least one to identify the carrier and another to help route and bill the call. During the routing stage, the SCP can inquire about where to route the call, or not to route, based on all sorts of "intelligent" criteria, such as time of day, day of week, and originating NPA or exchange or full number. So if you want an, 800 number can be routed based on the full 10 digit ANI. The days of mileage based zones were interesting, but as more and more intelligence gets built into 800 numbers, just distant memories. Art Kamlet ArtKamlet @ AOL.com Columbus OH K2PZH ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Enterprise Numbers Still in Use? Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 16:59:04 -0400 From: Charles Cryderman Dear Lisa posted: > Someone on the railroad newsgroup said Enterprise numbers are still > in use. (Enterprise numbers were manually reached through the > operator and served as toll-free lines prior to 800 direct dialed > service. The operator had a table in which she converted the > Enterprise number to an actual telephone number and placed the call, > billing the recipient.) > I don't think he's correct. Then she quoted: > They are still in use, yes. Their purpose is different from 800 > numbers, as it gave the called party the ability to restrict incoming > calls to selected areas of his choosing, areas as small as a single > exchange. That's never been available with 800 numbers. What I wish to correct him on is the "selected areas of his choosing" commit. That is not correct with 800 (toll free) numbers they can be assigned to any type of customer (800 number owner/user) needs. They can be set to work in a central office, many offices. Limit calls from one state from coming in or set it so only calls from a single state can come in. If the customer wants to be able to receive a call from, let us say for example all of southeast Michigan but not the western suburbs of Detroit it can be set up that way. Now this isn't a perfect solution due to maybe a few parts of those western suburbs may be served by a end off in Detroit and the customer wants more then anything to get those Detroit calls they will either have to deal with it or exclude the western Detroit calls. Each code (800-NXX) only has to do what the customer wants. Even let us say the customer does want the western Detroit suburb calls but would rather have them go to a different service center, that as well can be accomplished. Now at one time the great originator of toll free service (AT&T) didn't want to do it and so there was a time that these types of toll free routing wasn't available but to say never is just plan wrong. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Enterprise Numbers Still in Use? Date: 14 Jul 2005 13:20:18 -0700 TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: He is wrong, but so are > you. 'Enterprise' numbers (they were called 'Zenith' in many places; > 'Enterprise' was the Bell System word; I think 'Zenith' was the word > used by GTE and some others) are now pretty much grandfathered to > existing subscribers (basically long time customers since the > 1970's?) who wanted to keep them. I do not think you can order new > Enterprise/Zenith service, but it is there for people who always had > it and wanted to keep it. But if you give it up, (or move, or > otherwise change your service) that's it. Don't ask for it back. Thanks for your response. I've seen a variety of designations for this service depending on the city, Bell used Zenith as well as "WX" and "UX", all had a line underneath "ask Operator for ..." Until around the late 1990s, several large cities in the NE US still had many listings for Enterprise numbers. Most were defunct; I suspect somehow they escaped the normal directory purge process. Directories since then do not have Enterprise numbers, even for businesses that still actively had them. (I don't want to call such a business to test it since they have to pay for the call.) I would be surprised if anyone would still have one today because, AFAIK, it would cost so much more than 800 service. AFAIK, every Enterprise call was billed as a collect call. Way back when, collect calls cost the same as regular calls, and short distance calls were relatively cheap. That is, someone from the suburb calling a city business would generate a charge of say 20c. But now the surcharge for collect calls is quite steep. I doubt AT&T would give a discount because it is an operator handled service which they would want to duly charge for. Plus, because it is so obscure, they use up an operator's and supervisor's time to figure out the rare request and dig out the dusty translation table. I'm sure AT&T wouldn't want that. Also, most callers today wouldn't know what it was compared to an 800 number. Lastly, I don't think basic level 800 or remote-call-forwarded service costs very much these days. Do you know of specific businesses that still are using them? (You don't have to give their actual name.) Were they still listed in the current Chicago directory? > Anyway Lisa, tell your newsgroup person about > this won't you please? Thanks. PAT] Your text copied over to the misc.transport.rail.americas newsgroup. Thanks again. [public replies please] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Western Union's Comment About Useless Phones Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 22:30:33 GMT In article , Eric Bohlman wrote: > Joe Morris wrote in news:telecom24.312.11@telecom- > digest.org: >> neither at the time nor in retrospect can I find any justification for >> the DAA other than protecting AT&T's revenue stream. > But the DAA requirement was dropped as a result of FCC action in the > late 1970s (the enactment of the Part 68 regulations). It had nothing > to do with the breakup. And the DAA, while no doubt helping to protect the revenue stream, was arguably necessary until a process was developed for certifying devices to be attached to the network. Although it was hypocritical to require it for the switched network and not for private lines; but then private lines are relatively rare and can be marked as such. I can imagine fly-by-night modem makers turning out products that would put excessive levels into the line (causing crosstalk), unbalanced to ground (causing hum, noise, and crosstalk), leaking power line AC to the phone line (causing shocks to the telephone repair people), having DC leakage on the line (causing false trouble reports and tripping ringing falsely), and on and on. Some devices might not have these troubles to begin with but would develop them when there were lightning strikes around telephone lines. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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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 V24 #323 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 15 16:03:20 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id E12A614FFB; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 16:03:19 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #324 Message-Id: <20050715200319.E12A614FFB@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 16:03:19 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=2.0 tests=BAD_CREDIT,BAYES_00, DO_IT_TODAY,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT,VACATION_SCAM autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 15 Jul 2005 15:55:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 324 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update #489, July 15, 2005 (Angus TeleManagement Group) Texas to Reconsider Franchise Exemption (USTelecom dailyLead) EPIC Alert 12.14 (Monty Solomon) Apple's Pie in the Sky (Monty Solomon) Technorati: A New Public Utility (Monty Solomon) For a Fee, Some Blogs Boost Firms/Concern Raised on Disclosure (Solomon) XM's Satellite Radio Network Could Get Drafted For Military (M. Solomon) 847 Area Code Problems (DevilsPGD) Meaning of ABCD Bits in T-1 (Andrew Chalk) Prepaid GSM With Roaming Allowed Available in US? (Marc Haber) Can You Keep Same Land-Line Phone Number When You Move? (poboxdc@ix) Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. (DevilsPGD) Re: Some Businesses Say E-Bay Starting to Slip (SELLCOM Tech support) Re: Who Really Controls Internet? (Scott Dorsey) Re: Who Really Controls Internet? (Lisa Hancock) Re: UN Panel Presents Four Internet Options (Garrett Wollman) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (John Smith) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Julian Thomas) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 11:07:48 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #489, July 15, 2005 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 489: July 15, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Summer Schedule ** Telus Unilaterally Imposes New Work Rules ** Mitel IP-PBX Scales Up and Down ** New Supernet Agreements Signed ** Tentative Settlement in Entourage Strike ** Rogers Increases Online Protection ** Bell and Nortel Take Broadband to Chapleau ** Toronto, ITAC Set 3-1-1 Info Meeting ** Study Says VoIP Quality Lags ** Internet Registrar Reviews Governance ** Siemens, Airbus Plan in-Flight Cell Service ** Handsfree Phones Don't Improve Safety ** Ebbers Gets 25 Years ** Cogeco Net Income Rises ** Look Revenue Down, But Losses Cut ** Wireless Growth to Outstrip Wireline ** Correction Navigata SUMMER SCHEDULE: The next issue of Telecom Update will be emailed to subscribers and posted on our website on Friday, July 29. TELUS UNILATERALLY IMPOSES NEW WORK RULES: Telus says that beginning July 22 it will implement the terms of the contract it proposed to the Telecommunications Workers Union on April 13, despite the union's rejection of the proposal. TWU president Bruce Bell says that this means, 'we have no choice but to escalate our job action.' ** Last week the Federal Minister of Labour offered to appoint a special mediator to help resolve the Telus-TWU impasse. The TWU agreed, but Telus rejected the proposal. MITEL IP-PBX SCALES UP AND DOWN: Release 6 of 3300 ICP, Mitel's flagship IP PBX, is said to be cost-effective from as few as 10 users to as many as 1,400 in a single cluster. A networked system can support 65,000 concurrent users. NEW SUPERNET AGREEMENTS SIGNED: The government of Alberta says it has reached new agreements with Bell Canada and Axia SuperNet focusing on long-term operation of SuperNet, which now connects a majority of schools, hospitals, libraries and government offices in the province. The government has full rights to use the net, but Bell Canada owns the fibre and wireless infrastructure. ** Bell and Axia have signed a new long-term IP Services Agreement, and Bell has purchased five million Axia shares for $2.00 each, bringing its stake in the company to 8.6%. TENTATIVE SETTLEMENT IN ENTOURAGE STRIKE: Bell Canada and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union have reached a tentative settlement of their contract dispute. Members of the CEP who work for Bell's Entourage subsidiary in Ontario have been on strike since March 24; they are now voting on the proposed agreement. ROGERS INCREASES ONLINE PROTECTION: Rogers Cable has introduced Rogers Yahoo! Online Protection, including controls on spyware, viruses, and pop-ups, and parental controls. The service is available to all Rogers high-speed Internet customers at no additional charge. BELL AND NORTEL TAKE BROADBAND TO CHAPLEAU: Bell Canada, Nortel, and the Town of Chapleau have announced a joint initiative to research the impact of broadband on rural and dispersed communities. Nortel will contribute wireless mesh and VoIP technology and Bell will upgrade its fiber network to the town. Project Chapleau will evaluate the technology's impact on economic, healthcare, education and social activity in the community. ** Chapleau is a town of about 3,000 people, about 320 kilometers northeast of Sault Ste. Marie. www.projectchapleau.sl.ca. TORONTO, ITAC SET 3-1-1 INFO MEETING: The City of Toronto and the Information Technology Association of Canada will hold an information day for potential suppliers of 3-1-1 municipal information services, on Monday, July 18. www.itacontario.com/events/2005/05Jul18.htm STUDY SAYS VOIP QUALITY LAGS: Keynote Systems, a U.S. research company says that current commercial Internet telephone services are "not yet up to the standards to which users are accustomed when using standard 'plain old telephone service'." Researchers made 163,000 calls using six VoIP carriers; they report frequent dropped calls and wide variations in voice quality. INTERNET REGISTRAR REVIEWS GOVERNANCE: The Canadian Internet Registration Authority is seeking public input on proposed revisions to its corporate governance framework. See CIRA's website for details and a response form. www.cira.ca/en/Governance/intro.html SIEMENS, AIRBUS PLAN IN-FLIGHT CELL SERVICE: A Siemens-Airbus joint venture says that passengers with GSM cellphones will be able to make and receive calls while traveling on Airbus A320 aircraft in Western European routes, by the second half of 2006. Airbus will install Siemens-made on-board base stations designed to prevent interference with aircraft systems. HANDSFREE PHONES DON'T IMPROVE SAFETY: An Australian study of actual car accidents, to be published in The British Medical Journal next week, has found that drivers using cellphones are four times as likely to have a serious crash, and that using a handsfree device such as an earphone or speakerphone does not reduce the risk at all. EBBERS GETS 25 YEARS: Edmonton-born Bernie Ebbers has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the multi-billion dollar WorldCom accounting fraud. Lawyers for the 63-year-old "telecom cowboy" say they will appeal. COGECO NET INCOME RISES: Cogeco Cable reports net income of $8.2 million in the three months ended May 31, compared to $1.9 million in the same period last year. The company began selling local telephone service in June: it expects to have 7,000 to 8,000 telephone customers in 2006. LOOK REVENUE DOWN, BUT LOSSES CUT: Broadband wireless carrier Look Communications reports third quarter revenue of $9.2 million, compared to $10.3 million last year. It had a net loss of $2,1 million, an improvement over the $3.2 million lost a year ago. WIRELESS GROWTH TO OUTSTRIP WIRELINE: The Virginia- based Telecommunications Industry Association says that the total telecom market outside of the United States will grow 10.6% a year compounded over the next four years, but wireline will grow only 1.9%. By 2008 there will be 1.9 billion non-U.S. wireless phones in service, outnumbering wireline phones by 69%. CORRECTION NAVIGATA: Last week's Telecom Update misidentified Navigata's access-independent IP telephony service. The correct brand name is "Webcall." ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. 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The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 12:27:21 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Texas to Reconsider Franchise Exemption USTelecom dailyLead July 15, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23086&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Texas to reconsider franchise exemption for telecoms BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Former Qwest CFO pleads guilty * Bell Canada, Nortel partner for muni Wi-Fi network * Technology industry supports DHS nominee USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Order Today! Newton's Telecom Dictionary -- 21st Edition EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Universal downloading software for handsets still needed VOIP DOWNLOAD * Study: VoIP still not as reliable as landline * Cisco identifies security flaws in VoIP, other products * VocalTec on shaky ground REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Lawmakers ponder in-air cell phone use * Senators seek to limit Patriot Act Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23086&l=2017006 SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 22:13:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EPIC Alert 12.14 ======================================================================== E P I C A l e r t ======================================================================== Volume 12.14 July 14, 2005 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Washington, D.C. http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_12.14.html ======================================================================== Table of Contents ======================================================================== [1] EPIC Urges FTC to Investigate Online Private Investigators [2] Privacy Problems Remain at Homeland Security Even With Restructuring [3] Banks, Sports Authority Target Anti-Telemarketing Laws [4] Congressional Committees Consider Patriot Act Reauthorization [5] Justice O'Connor Respected Privacy, Defended States' Rights [6] News in Brief [7] EPIC Bookstore: John Twelve Hawks's The Traveler [8] Upcoming Conferences and Events http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_12.14.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 00:18:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple's Pie in the Sky By Bill Alpert THE IPOD SHOWS WHY Apple Computer is a great company. With elegant hardware and friendly software, Apple's portable player made a profitable business out of digital music - a trick that had eluded record labels and such erstwhile leaders as Sony, Microsoft, Real Networks, and Napster. Some Apple bulls argue that the shares could go 50% higher, noting how Apple has held its turf against the "iPod killers" of Sony and the digital-music schemes of Microsoft. Little noticed by these iPod zealots, however, is a looming threat from overhead with a footprint as large as the continent: Wireless phone companies are teaming up with the music industry to make most mobile phones into music players. In the last year, the iPod has become Apple's best-selling product, bringing in a third of revenues for the Cupertino, Calif., firm. The iPod "halo effect" has lit up interest in Apple's Macintosh computer and Apple's stock. Since iPod's debut, Apple shares have risen from under 7 bucks to a recent price of 39. That values the company at $32 billion, or about 43 times the last 12 months' earnings and three times sales. Handset numbers overwhelm the iPod's. While optimists think Apple could sell 45 million iPods next year, mobile-phone makers will be selling more than 750 million handsets. All those handsets could weigh on the iPod's growth prospects -- and Apple's premium stock valuation. Cellphone users won't need to lug around a second gadget to have their music. By next year, a standard feature in many new handsets will be the software, circuitry and data storage for portable music. Handsets will be able to "side-load" songs from a personal computer, like the iPod. But in addition, they will be able to download music over-the-air, using the fast transmission speeds of the third-generation wireless networks that cellular carriers are now deploying around the country. The cellular firms are upgrading to third-generation, or 3G, technology, in large part so they can sell their voice customers stuff like music. The wireless companies will start launching their music services in the fall. They're not planning to match Apple's musical offering -- they want to marginalize it. Wireless technology will allow interactivity and immediacy beyond what's possible with a tethered product like the iPod. Convenience and impulsiveness pay: Cellphone subscribers willingly spend two bucks for a six-second pop-song ringtone, while spending only 99 cents for the full-track song at Apple's iTunes Music Store. Ringtones are already a multi-billion dollar business for cellular firms and for recording companies. The record labels need the money. Compact-disc sales keep dropping. Artists like Li'l Flip and Petey Pablo sell more ringtones than CDs. Music companies like Sony-BMG and EMI have found the wireless carriers easier to work with than Apple, and more profitable than Wal-Mart. With the rollout of full-track music services in the next 12 months, the wireless phone could become the music industry's biggest and most profitable distribution channel. http://www.smartmoney.com/barrons/index.cfm?story=20050629 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 00:35:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Technorati: A New Public Utility By Adam L. Penenberg When former Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael K. Powell watched television coverage of the London bombings last week, he noticed that most of the significant pictures didn't originate from professional photographers employed by news agencies. They came from witnesses at the scene using cell phones and digital cameras to document the tragedy. "Journalists are trained not to be emotional, like a doctor doesn't fall in love with his patients," Powell said. "But people experiencing a tragedy can convey what actually happened while at the same time express deep emotion and engage in spirited storytelling. A photo of someone climbing up through train wreckage is extremely powerful. A reporter rolling up to the scene behind a police line can rarely give you that." Before, blogging was largely fixated on the failure of mainstream media. Now it has become a necessary supplement, and in some cases, a substitute. But Powell takes this a step further. To him, London showed that blogging has morphed into the art of raw, personalized storytelling. "You really felt as if you were there," Powell said of the blog posts and Flickr photos he surveyed, "as opposed to watching CNN or reading MSNBC.com, which are fine for the facts but stale and a bit removed." Powell was far from the only one who turned to the blogosphere for perspectives on the London terror attacks. David Sifry, founder of Technorati, a real-time search engine for blog content, reports that traffic to the site in the hours after the attacks was so heavy that its servers had trouble handling the load, causing performance problems. The number of posts on blogs tracked by Technorati increased 30 percent, from about 850,000 a day in July to 1.2 million on the day of the attacks. Nine of the 10 most popular search requests involved the unfolding tragedy in London. If you think about it, Technorati has become a public utility on a global scale. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,68204,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 08:47:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: For a Fee, Some Blogs Boost Firms / Concerns Raised on Disclosure By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | June 26, 2005 Jeff Cutler has never purchased anything from Dot Flowers, but you might think otherwise, reading the Hingham resident's blog. "No more driving to the corner to buy flowers and hand-deliver them," he wrote on his Web page. "Nope. Now I go online to places like Dot Flowers.com and 1-800-Flowers. I like Dot a little better just because of the personal touch." Dot Flowers's ad agency paid Cutler $5 this spring to promote the florist and put a link to its website on his blog, or online journal, short for web log. Cutler, who does not disclose the payment on his blog, is one of more than 2,000 bloggers whom marketer USWeb enlisted to hawk products and services. That helped the nascent florist double its sales in the first three months and shoot up near the top of Google's search list, according to USWeb. Yes, corporate America has discovered the blog and found that the grass-roots medium for supposedly unadulterated opinions is also a powerful marketing tool in a country where about 37 million Americans read these online journals. Even the state of Pennsylvania has joined in, offering free vacations to people who blog on its tourism site. The blog, in many ways, is the perfect marketing tool: original, personal, and cheap. It has grown popular as advertisers find it harder to capture consumers' attention in a fragmented media market that is making traditional television and newspaper advertising less effective. But despite their foray into advertising, blogs remain an unregulated forum. With a growing number of businesses using blogs to help promote their products, sometimes in ways that are not very transparent, it is increasingly difficult to discern who or what is behind a blogger's pitch, be it for a museum exhibit or flower company. Concerns about disclosure have even reached the Federal Election Commission, which is holding hearings this week, in part, to discuss whether to require bloggers to disclose funds they receive from political campaigns. Disclosure became an issue in South Dakota's US Senate race between Tom Daschle and John Thune last year, when the Thune campaign paid two political bloggers to scrutinize Daschle, who was defeated. The compensation did not come to light until campaign finance reports were filed. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/06/26/for_a_fee_some_blogs_boost_firms/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, now we have readers here like Ms. Hancock who tell us how traditional media is oh, so great and internet news is likely to be so awful. But the _real_ concern, in my opinion should be the internet writers -- or the 'mainstream media' writers, for that matter -- should be those writers of any stripe, internet or mainstream, who do not disclose the people who are paying them. I think the readers here know me well enough to realize that I clearly mark advertising messages as such: the far right hand column on our web page is clearly marked 'support our advertisers' and the various things from Google are clearly marked 'Google Ad-Sense'. When, a few years ago, I had the ITU as a sponsor, I clearly disagreed with what they and their good friends ICANN promoted regards the net and they dropped me, which I told all of you. So some of us, at least, try to run a clean operation, no matter how dismal the prospects for any long term success. Some of us, within the limits or constraints of our finances, health and other considerations attempt to use reliable sources for our news items, to the dismay, perhaps, of those in the mainstream media who wish it were not so, and to the utter contempt of 'netizens' who were around here before me and who wish I had never taken on this task, since it interferes with 'their way of doing things'. And to ICANN and others like them who sit on their fannies all day holding their conferences in esoteric parts of the world and seeming to bemoan the ills of the net while in fact ignoring the floods of spam and scam drowning us out, all I can say is God Bless you too. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 08:50:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: XM's Satellite Radio Network Could Get Drafted for Military Use By Brian Bergstein, AP Technology Writer BOSTON -- Customers of XM Satellite Radio Inc. aren't the only ones who appreciate its digital quality and nationwide coverage. The U.S. military might draft XM's service for homeland security purposes. XM and Raytheon Co. have jointly built a communications system that would use XM's satellites to relay information to soldiers and emergency responders during a crisis. The Mobile Enhanced Situational Awareness Network, known as MESA, would get a dedicated channel on XM's satellites that would be accessible only on devices given to emergency personnel. The receivers would be the same as the portable ones available to consumers, with slight modifications to make them more rugged. The military often leases transmission space on commercial satellites, but this collaboration between a massive defense contractor and a fun-loving radio network -- XM's first two satellites were dubbed "Rock" and "Roll," and its next two might be "Rhythm" and "Blues" -- is unusual. It began last year when engineers with Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon Co. were looking for an inexpensive system that would help emergency responders and soldiers coordinate their actions after a natural disaster or terrorist strike. Existing communications systems for such scenarios can be bulky and expensive. Commercial satellite radio receivers, in contrast, are lightweight, battery-powered and cost as little as $99. Their digital transmissions have enough bandwidth to carry maps and other imagery, which would be displayed on portable computers that plug into the satellite receivers. And the system can be programmed to relay information just to specific devices if need be, so individual users can get messages appropriate to their regions. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/06/26/xms_satellite_radio_network_could_get_drafted_for_military_use/ ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: 847 Area Code Problems Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 03:17:13 -0500 Organization: Disorganized For the last 10-12 hours (July 14 @ 4:00pm CST onward) I've been seeing fast busy signals dialing from land lines, and various "All circuits are busy" and "Service unavailable" and other type messages on cell phones on local calls (calls within the 847 area code) I've been able to confirm that I can dial my toll free number (which terminates to a 817 number), and that when I set my Vonage phone (totally different area code) to ring for 10 seconds then forward to 847, it rings 10 seconds then goes back to a "All circuits are busy" In some cases after dialing I can hear touchtone keys, approx 30ms and very regular pattern (machine dialed, not human dialed) Anybody else seeing similar? ------------------------------ From: Andrew Chalk Subject: Meaning of ABCD bits in T-1 Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 17:28:32 GMT Can anyone give me the "table" (or a URL to) of ABCD bit values in T1 signalling. Everywhere I Googled refers to these but none give the meaning of each of the bit combinations. I'm particularly interested in "off-hook/onhook" states. Thanks! ------------------------------ From: Marc Haber Subject: Prepaid GSM With Roaming Allowed Available in the US? Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:20:20 +0200 Organization: private site, see http://www.zugschlus.de/ for details Hi, A friend of mine lives in the States, has two kids and bad credit records. She wants (alone) to come visit Europe this fall, and wants her kids to be able to call her in Europe by dialing a local US number. If the issue were the other way round, I'd come to the States with a prepaid GSM SIM that has roaming enabled, and put that SIM into a borrowed GSM phone over there. She now tells me that prepaid GSM is almost a non-market in the US, and that no prepaid GSM SIMs are available that allow international roaming. Is that true, or did she miss something? I'd appreciate any comments. A GSM phone useable in the European GSM networks is available here, I have a spare Nokia 6310. The issue is the prepaid SIM that allows a phone located in Europe to be reachable with an American number. Greetings, --------------!! No courtesy copies, please !!---------- Marc Haber | " Questions are the | Mailadresse in Header Mannheim, Germany | Beginning of Wisdom " | http://www.zugschlus.de/ Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 621 72739834 ------------------------------ From: poboxdc@ix.netcom.com Subject: Re: Can you Keep the Same Land-Line Phone-Number When You Move ? Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:35:22 -0400 Organization: http://newsguy.com wylbur37 wrote: > With cell-phones, I believe that when you switch carriers, you are > entitled to retain the same number as long as the area code (such as > 917) is not tied to any specific geographic region. > But is this also true of land-line phones? > For example, if you live in midtown Manhattan (New York City) where > the area code is 212, and you move to upper Manhattan where the area > code is also 212, can you keep the same number? > Back in the old days, the exchange code (first 3 digits of the phone > number) was tied to a certain neighborhood; and if you moved from one > place to another, as long as the new place had that same exchange code > available, you could retain the same phone number. Otherwise, you > couldn't. > Has the technology changed where exchange codes are no longer mapped > to any particular neighborhood? If that's true, then I suppose you > could indeed keep the same land-line phone number no matter how far > away you moved as long as the new place had the same area code, > correct? They may allow you to keep the same number if the prefix, not area code, are in the same switching area. KM ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Cellular Jamming? Think Again. Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 06:20:30 -0500 Organization: Disorganized In message mc wrote: >>> Here I think there is a market for cell phone *detectors*. Cell >>> phones transmit every few minutes even when you're not making or >>> receiving a call, in order to keep the tower apprised of where they >>> are. "Turn off your cell phone" could have more teeth if equipment >>> were in use to detect cell phones that were still turned on. >> How do you figure? My phone *never* gets turned off. Period. Not in >> theatres, not in churches, not in other places of public assembly. > You'd better turn it off on airplanes and near sensitive electronic > equipment when told to. It transmits every few minutes even when you > are not using it and it is not making noise, as long as it's turned > on. Actually no it doesn't -- My phone has an "airplane" mode which completely disabled the send/receive functionality. I discussed it with a flight attendant on my first flight with that phone and it's not a problem. ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: Some Businesses Say E-Bay Starting to Slip Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 12:29:05 GMT Lisa Minter posted on that vast internet thingie: > SAN JOSE, Calif. - Jewelry dealer Michael Jansma used to be one of > eBay Inc.'s biggest cheerleaders. The entrepreneur from Largo, Fla., > sells roughly $250,000 worth of baubles every month on the auction > site. But the revenue Jansma gets from eBay has declined over the past > year, and in January the company raised fees, denting his profits. Anyone building a business on Ebay is building their house on sand. Ebay can ignore a history of positive feedback, close your store and account down at their whim and without cause and then all of a sudden any advertising dollars you spent promoting with Ebay are wasted. We were even buying their $299 a week front page ads. Anyone who trusts Ebay needs to simply do some reading of the horror stories out there. Steve Winter SELLCOM [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Could you give us a little more background on this, Steve? It would be interesting to read about your personal experiences with EBay. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Who Really Controls Internet? Date: 15 Jul 2005 09:21:19 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Andrew Kantor wrote: > What's important is that _he who controls the root nameservers > controls the traffic on the Internet._ And right now that's the > government of the U.S. of A. (Cue patriotic music.) I think you'll be surprised how little the US government does control the root nameservers, as well as how little ICANN controls them. The root nameserver configuration is one of the last of the informal things left over from the early days of the internet. I don't know how long that will last, but I don't think passing it over to ICANN is a good thing any more than allowing government control would be. --scott I liked the internet better when Mr. Postel ran it. "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So did I ... so did most people. But then Postel passed away, and that greedy lawyer in Washington, DC made up a bogus statement about Postel's intentions in the whole matter. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Who Really Controls Internet? Date: 15 Jul 2005 11:45:15 -0700 Andrew Kantor wrote: > You may have heard that no one controls the Internet. That's sort of > true for a couple of reasons. Most importantly, the Internet is a > "network of networks," meaning that although it has its own backbone > and connections, it also comprises lots of other networks -- > educational, corporate, government, and so on. According to writer Dave Barry, the Internet is actually run by a 13 year old named Jason. Barry also notes that online services are so anxious to sign you up they'll sneak into your house and do it while you're asleep. Seriously, one forgotten factor in "control" is the way people _access_ the Internet. That is, who gets to set the standards for how browsers will work. There must be shared standards so our PCs can access web pages and the web designers know what stuff they can put out. What troubles me is that web designers allow a lot of sneaky stuff that the average user doesn't know about. One of course is "cookies". I tried disabling cookies and virtually no site will work at that point without a lot of irritation. Going deeper there are dangerous things like spyware and other functions that allow a website to take control of your computer in bad ways. Why is there a provision for "pop-up" ads at all? The real question is why do browser developers allow these things to work in the first place? Accessing a web site should be strictly "READ ONLY", with no executable commands that could access disk files or memory on the user's home machine. In other words, a browser should be able to read only the distant site only and not send anything back to it. If it is really necessary for browers to have high horsepower, they should default to protective settings, and require a user to manually override them to run certain applications. Only those specific applications (such a company's in-house system) would have more power or machine authority. ------------------------------ From: wollman@khavrinen.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: UN Panel Presents Four Internet Options Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 15:50:16 UTC Organization: MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory In article , Aoife White wrote: > He stressed the sentiment dates back to the Geneva summit and was not > meant as an attack on the United States or a direct response to the > U.S. Department of Commerce statement two weeks ago that it intends > to keep ultimate authority for authorizing changes to the list of > Internet suffixes, such as ".com." Of course, the US Department of Commerce has no such authority and never has. That authority has always resided in individual system administrators who configure name servers for their sites or networks, and not in any government agency. Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every wollman@csail.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own Opinions not those | search for greater freedom. of MIT or CSAIL. | - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've had people tell me they thought that '.com' was the government abbreviation for 'Commerce Department'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Smith Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 16:03:47 GMT Jim Rusling wrote: > I would worry about the security of the wireless connection. Well, I wouldn't worry about it. I would recognize the obvious necessity of high-grade encryption for any and all financial transactions, but I don't think "worrying" would be the right word to use. If you're determined to worry, consider this: In Paris, at least, you have a substantially greater risk of having your card number compromised by pickpockets than by packet sniffers. ------------------------------ From: Julian Thomas Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 15:21:30 -0400 Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You In <20050715014812.D09EB14F10@massis.lcs.mit.edu>, on 07/14/05 at 09:48 PM, editor@telecom-digest.org typed: > I would worry about the security of the wireless connection. Hopefully (I have no info on this) they use some form of encryption, just as ATM transactions are heavily encrypted to avoid problems with wiretapping. Julian Thomas: http://jt-mj.net In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! Warpstock 2005: Hershey, Pa. October 6-9, 2005 - http://www.warpstock.org One virus, two virii, three viriii, four viriv ... (Rob Slade) - Nine virix (jt) ------------------------------ 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. 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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 V24 #324 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 15 16:53:34 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id DBFEE14F67; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 16:53:33 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #325 Message-Id: <20050715205333.DBFEE14F67@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 16:53:33 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.4 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED autolearn=unavailable version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 15 Jul 2005 16:45:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 325 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Camelot on the Moon (TELECOM Archives Reprint) 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: Patrick Townson Subject: Camelot on the Moon - From Our Archives Date: 15 Jul 2005 14:00:00 CDT Eleven years ago in the Digest, we paid homage to an event which happened a quarter-century before that: American astronauts walking on the moon. Now it has been 36 years since that event which occupied our attention during the hot summer of July, 1969. The principal contributor to the Digest with a report on _his_ part in that historic event was Don Kimberlin, a man I have lost track of since shortly after he wrote the essay of his rememberances which we printed then and reprint now. If Don Kimberlin is still around on the net, perhaps he will tell us what has happened over the past decade. For your review and hopefully enjoyment in reading over the weekend, Kimberlin's article is printed below and some of my own memories about that fabulous weekend. If you prefer to read this on the web, and enjoy the 'scenery' of the beautiful .jpg images in the background, go to our web site http://telecom-digest.org and near the bottom of the home page, look at the feature story item by the same name. PAT ================================ Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa26119; 15 Jul 94 18:52 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA16781; Fri, 15 Jul 94 15:12:06 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA16773; Fri, 15 Jul 94 15:12:04 CDT Date: Fri, 15 Jul 94 15:12:04 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9407152012.AA16773@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom Subject: Camelot on the Moon: 25 Years Ago We Walked There A quarter century ago this weekend ... Sunday night, July 20, 1969 -- A whole bunch you were not even born then; others of you were but little tykes who would not remember the occassion. But to those of us over about thirty years of age ... wow! The image is burned in our minds forever. We sent men to the moon! This was not a Ralph Kramden scene where he tells Alice she is going to the moon ... we actually did it. People sat glued to their television sets that night watching in silence as the men climbed out of their ship and walked around on the moon. Even the talking heads of television news had nothing to say, so shocking was the scene before all of us. Imagine nearly an hour of dead air, just silence from the men and women who usually have plenty to say ... they sat there as shocked as the rest of us. We stared at a picture on a screen for nearly an hour without a word of sound as the men collected rock and dirt samples, and other things. We watched as they installed the American flag there ... I remember well being at work; I was a part time telephone operator at the South Shore Country Club. AT&T said later phone calls across the USA came almost to a complete halt. No one spoke, everyone watched ... my own switchboard was dead and in the lobby of the country club main building perhaps a hundred people stood and watched the television set. In the UK and the rest of Europe people stayed up all night to watch, and it was Monday afternoon in Australia as people sat at their lunches or workplaces in the same silence watching what was going on a quarter million miles away ... but in Chicago July 20, 1969 - a very hot Sunday night, -- we just watched and prayed -- if we believed in prayer -- that they would leave in safety and return to their ship and soon to Mother Earth ... After a long period of dead air on the television and that image, the silence was broken by Walter Cronkite, speaking for CBS News who made some comments. We did some channel surfing to see what the other stations were saying, and we paused on Channel 5 to listen to the commentators from NBC for a few minutes. As they were talking and explaining as best they could the historic occassion we were witnessing, one of the commentators interuppted saying, "just a minute, we are going back to the network for a few minutes ..." then a familiar voice whose face we had never seen but whose voice was heard frequently for station- identification messages came over the air: "This is the National Broadcasting Company ... the President of the United States, Mr. Richard Nixon wishes to speak at this time". A very humbled president, Mr. Nixon extended his congratulations and kind regards to the astronauts who were able to hear him speaking. He spoke for just a moment thanking the government agencies involved for the work needed to make this possible. He spoke about 'completing the challenge which President Kennedy gave us' and the need to 'place our partisan feelings aside in bipartisan support of our space program.' Immediatly after he finished speaking the familiar voice returned again saying, "President Richard Nixon has addressed the nation and extended his best wishes to the astronauts. You are listening to NBC, the National Broadcasting Company ... and now, our National Anthem." At the conclusion of the anthem, the familiar three-note chimes the NBC network used in those days to identify itself and a return to the unusual events on the screen. Finally people began to walk away from the television in silence, dumbfounded by it all. Some wept; others just stared, or grasped the hand of their friend as they left the lobby. Throughout the night and the next day the television stations kept replaying exceprts from the moon walk, and the {Chicago Tribune} in its Monday editions devoted its front page to a full size picture of the astronauts as they were installing the US flag on the moon, and for perhaps a month afterward it was common that whenever a television station had twenty or thirty seconds to spare between programs as part of their station ID they'd show that same magnificent photo, or the one of the astronauts as they were re-boarding their ship to leave for 'home' with the music of 'America the Beautiful' in the background. All of us were so very proud of what had been accomplished. If you have never seen it, you can order the Moon Walk video from Columbia Video in Terre Haute, Indiana. It contains the actual footage from the events of that night a quarter century ago and commentary. Don Kimberlin has something to add on this topic in the next message of this special issue. He was part of that effort and tells us now what he recalls. Patrick Townson ---------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 94 17:10 EST From: "Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> Subject: Camelot On The Moon (25 Years Ago In Telecom History) The following story was first written for publication in the July, 1994 edition of NARTE News, the official journal of the National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers, for approximately 30,000 NARTE members and interested persons. It is reproduced here with permission of NARTE. Further republication must contain this permission notice. For interested writers on topics of telecommunications and radio, the Editor welcomes your submissions for consideration. For engineers and technicians interested in NARTE membership, telecommunications or EMC certification programs, or NARTE's administration of FCC Commercial Radio Operator License examinations, contact NARTE HQ at: P.O. Box 678, Medway, MA 02053 or telephone +1 508 533-8333; fax +1 508 533-3815. CAMELOT ON THE MOON By: Donald E. Kimberlin June 1, 1994 John F. Kennedy's truncated presidency was often called "The Camelot Era" to describe JFK's White House years. There was an unspoken feeling that the U.S. had gone to sleep while Eisenhower presided. Expectations grew that "America" had to do something spectacular, since the glow of victory in war had dimmed. The charismatic personae of the Kennedy family seemed to say these were the ones who would bring it. Compared to the previous century, JFK's relative youth, with Robert as his close aide, counterpointed with his young children and beautiful spouse made every day a potential harbinger of great news. There had been great news, but not happy news, from the Soviet Union. The launch of Sputnik shocked Americans and gave many people reasons to worry in the tensions of that time. Indeed, the Evil Empire might be able to rain down destruction and ruin on the United States. Nikita Kruschev had personally shown on television during his United Nations visit that he was self-confident to the point of arrogance. We were losing the race for dominance in space. The Missiles of October were to drag JFK into a global poker game like none before. The Promise is Made That's why, in major part, JFK's promise to put an American on the moon was so well received. America needed an effort to rally behind. Best of all, this promise was one with a peaceful objective, not war as are most such rallying points in history. One can probably say there has not been any single event since that caused as much solidarity across the entire American population, and indeed, perhaps the whole world. Further, he promised it would happen before the end of that decade. It was the sort of promise of the Sixties that people really wanted. It was The Promise of Camelot. Problem: Fragile Telecom Link What many people don't know is that it came very close being a failure. And at the very last moment, the last possible launch window for a lunar mission in the 1960's was almost missed. The potential failure was not due to problems with rocket science or astrophysics or astronautics. Those had caused earlier slippages, but had been solved. The last problem that almost caused a failure of the Final Tribute to Camelot was a telecommunications problem. It was related to the then relatively new technology of communications satellites. Only a mass effort of telecomm people contributing in ways we might today find impossible made recovery possible. Some readers may know pieces of the story, but few have ever known the whole picture. It all focused on NASA's Deep Space Network, consisting of only three of the twenty-plus ground stations NASA built around the world for tracking and communicating with objects it launches. Most of the NASA stations were capable of communicating only with objects in earth orbit less than 100 nautical miles above the surface. For the planned lunar missions three very large earth stations, with 85 foot dishes that could sweep the horizon rapidly, and track a point on the moon or anywhere between the earth and the moon, had to be constructed. Such special stations were needed in order to maintain communications across the quarter million miles of space to the moon. Those three stations were Robledo in Spain, about 70 miles north of Madrid; Goldstone in California, and Canberra, near Sydney, Australia. A look at the world map shows each is about one-third of the way around the earth. With only three, only one at a time has a view of the moon for an eight-hour portion of each day. In order to maintain communications with the first humans to make lunar journeys, all three stations would have to function perfectly and continuously during their eight-hour periods of being able to see the moon. Humans had made occasional contact with the moon, bouncing radar off it as early as 1947. Even amateurs had made "moon bounce" communications demonstrations. Meeting the Promise of Camelot would, however, require solid, secure communications for the entire mission. Maintaining a link from the Earth to the moon for more than a week had never been done before. The Deep Space Network was unique not only in the reach of its stations. The communications bandwidth required was also larger than previously accomplished for such a distance. Networking the information together once it was back on earth was another new feat. While Intelsat was newly available, there had been uncertainty about its availability at the time of project planning. The costs would be at levels NASA really did not want to have to afford, either. Besides, running a full color video baseband from the moon to earth with the electronics of the new discrete transistor era was not proved reliable. Single Comm/Video Link Requirement Early in the lunar project, the decision was taken to combine all communications between the lunar module and earth into one 48 kilobit multiplexed digital signal of video, speech communications, spacecraft telemetry and biomedical data using 2 gigahertz radio. That was the task of the Deep Space Network. Getting that 48 kilobit stream created and transported back into NASA, and its parts back out for the world to see was in itself a risk factor. NASA called the link reaching that quarter million miles across space its Unified S-Band system. The combined signal would be fed through each Deep Space Station back to NASA's Communications Center at Greenbelt, Maryland for signal processing and distribution to the outside world. "Outside" even meant Mission Control at Houston, where the actual communications with the astronauts occurred. NASA needed to get the Deep Space Network built and its operations shaken out well before July 1969. Earlier launch windows would have been used if other problems had not cropped up causing slips in the actual launch attempt. One by one, lunar launch opportunities frittered away while other problems in the program were being solved, but NASA's Deep Space Network was being made operational. The Search For a 48 Kilobit Connection Is Accelerated Up until late 1968, there was not even the means to transport a data stream as large as 48 kilobits across the Atlantic or Pacific. NASA was not about to commit reliance on the HF (shortwave) radio that preceded submarine telephone cables across the Atlantic and Pacific dating to 1956. The cables themselves still had precious few channels in the late 1960's, in that era before digital fiber optics. The integrated circuit devices to make tiny units with really low power consumption were also only on the horizon. Devices like micron-thick solid-state electronics were still in the future. Vacuum tubes were really still more reliable in many uses than transistors had yet been found to be. In summation, there was no 48 kilobit data path across the oceans, yet NASA needed a way bring lunar signals from Robledo, Canberra and Goldstone into the NASA communications center at Greenbelt, Maryland. Intelsat was forecasting satellites that could provide whole 48 kilobit channels on which "wideband" analog modems could be used by the late 1960's, but NASA needed something sooner. And, that something had to be reliable enough to risk astronaut lives on. It had to be at least relatively proved technology. SCAMA Technique The interim method was called SCAMA. Today, that technique is called "inverse multiplexing," and it's hyped as a recent development. Telegraphers had used inverse multiplexing on wirelines and HF radio. The military had employed it just after WW II, and at least one NASA earth station (at Santiago, Chile) achieved a 2400 bps digital link with Greenbelt using inverse multiplexing. In that link, the serial data was converted into 24 parallel FSK streams riding on HF radio between Panama and Chile. The portion from Greenbelt to Panama rode on submarine cable. But that was only 2400 bps, and the lunar project needed 48 kilobits, especially in view of giving the world acid proof with live color video from the moon. SCAMA was the largest inverse multiplexer built to that date. It split the 48 kilobit data into twelve parallel paths of 4800 bps sync data for intercontinental transmission, then recombined them into the original 48 kilobits at the receiving end. The transport cost was enormous. At that point in time, one analog voice channel across the tlantic rented for $13,000 a month, and SCAMA used twelve. A dozen circuits across each ocean were being held up all day and all night, just to be ready in case a launch window could be used. Of course, they also provided a test bed for the Deep Space Network and the terminals that would go to the moon. And, when not in mission use, Robledo and Canberra had a dozen telephone tielines back to Greenbelt. The "phone bill," as it were, approached a half million dollars a month, largely to be ready to sustain the Promise of Camelot! The Intelsat Option Intelsat's Series III satellites began to come into operational use in 1968, and contracts were let to ITT and RCA to provide 48 kilobit channels from Robledo and Canberra respectively back to Greenbelt. Goldstone was not such a serious problem, reaching across the U.S. With the satellites available, SCAMA would be relegated to "back-up" status. That would release back to the world's telephone network a dozen sorely needed trunks across each ocean. Dial telephone demand had soared far beyond capacity of the few cables installed to the time, and the released channels would immediately be given over to reach various nations from the U.S. It fell to me at ITT to produce the system design for the first 48 kilobit circuit between Robledo and Greenbelt, while RCA took the contract across the Pacific a few months later. We used proved components from domestic "wideband data circuits" and rather routinely put it into operation. NASA achieved regular use immediately. We foresaw no problems, and it appeared we at ITT would have no concern whenever America launched an Apollo spacecraft. It would just happen routinely to our view. Our efforts were turned toward other tasks. By late 1968, I was on a different assignment in Europe. That assignment was the beginnings of knitting AUTOVON and AUTODIN into trunked networks reaching the U.S. from Europe, to which were added miscellaneous civilian circuits across the Atlantic, most on the new Intelsat satellite, some on cable. All seemed well until July 14, 1969, when Howard Briley called me from his ITT Geneva office at my office in Paris. He told me the lone Intelsat III over the Atlantic had suffered Intelsat's first failure in space. It had pointed its antennas out into space and would not respond to telemetry commands. There were several possible recoveries, and all were being pursued. The Early Bird satellite might be used, but it was questionable if the CTNE earth station at Buitrago, Spain had receivers to tune into its weakened signals. Early Bird's batteries were already running down their power curve anyway. The T Minus Two Hour Deadline Intelsat had one spare Series III satellite and launch rocket. It was being rushed to a pad at Cape Kennedy to try meeting its one possible launch window before the last lunar shot window on the morning of July 16. If neither of those worked, it would be necessary to try getting twelve voice channels across the Atlantic between Robledo and Greenbelt working as 4800 bps data circuits and pressing SCAMA back into use. I got marching orders for Madrid. There, I was to check in for orders at the headquarters of Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana (CTNE). The NASA Mission Director had put a hold and check point in the countdown. He said the mission would be scrubbed if Robledo was not on line to Greenbelt by T minus two hours. Robledo was most critical because it was the Deep Space station that would be facing the moon at the first moment the astronauts could step on the lunar surface for the world to see. Making them wait eight hours in the mission once on the moon would deplete life support supplies dangerously. Lacking a link with Robledo, the Promise of Camelot would fail! Fortunately, there was a commercial airline seat, a rare commodity in European air travel at the time. The weather over southeastern France and Spain that day was sparkling clear. Even the cabin steward was impressed, pointing out land features and cities we passed over enroute, because they could be clearly seen from six miles up. It was difficult for me to fully enjoy that scenery, wondering what awaited after leaving Barajas Airport and getting to the Palacio de Telecomunicaciones, CTNE's rococo, modern Moorish reproduction HQ building. The Palacio's history included a famous moment in which Sosthenes Behn spirited himself into Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Behn rode a PanAm Clipper via the Azores to Lisbon in the best movie spy fashion, then sneaked overland into Madrid. He called Franco on the phone and said he was responding to Franco's threat to bomb the Palacio if ITT did not give Franco the telephone company. When Franco renewed the threat in that conversation, Behn told him that bombing the building would kill ITT's chief negotiator. Then, when Franco asked how that could be, Behn told Franco the negotiator was himself, calling from inside the Palacio. On the spot, the deal was cut to give 49% to the Spanish government, with ITT keeping 49%. The remaining 2% was to be held by the public. That way, neither ITT nor the government could control CTNE from that point on. Somehow, I felt in part like Behn, not on a mission of the same personal risk, but on one of similar import to get into the Palacio. It was critical in our case, with Robledo being the one Deep Space Station in view of the moon at the moment scheduled for an American to step onto the lunar surface. Getting connectivity from Robledo to Greenbelt was of the utmost importance. The Last Hope On arrival at the Palacio, I was taken directly to the office of Sr. Luis Terol, CTNE's Manager of International Services. He updated me about the situation. Buitrago was not having much luck establishing a link via Early Bird. Its receivers lacked custom-made filters to tune in Early Bird's signals well. Early Bird's weakened batteries were making its transponder output low. There would not be decent noise levels on a link with Andover even under good circumstances. Intelsat's replacement satellite had been launched, but went off into a huge looping orbit. Even if the orbit might be corrected, it would take a time beyond the lunar launch window, and would exhaust most all the satellite's station-keeping fuel in the effort. The last-ditch back-up, pressing SCAMA into use, was the only hope of keeping America's lunar launch on schedule for its last chance in 1969. Terol, like all the other Europeans I spoke to in the months preceding that launch, wanted Kennedy's promise to come true, too. The free world had all bought into to seeing it happen the way JFK committed. Terol told me that AT&T, ITT and CTNE executives had already been working personal contacts with PTT's all over Europe. In the world of international links there simply is no such thing as a verbal order. Each and every circuit order is a documented transaction. There's no way that a verbal order, no matter how urgent or convincing, can get a technician in, let's say, France, to stick a patch cord into a panel that will cut off a transit trunk between the U.S. and Switzerland. Each and every informal agreement required the personal intervention of top telephone executives in the affected nations. They promised paper orders in detail to every affected point. Considering that we were getting a dozen trunks, one or two each from England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy on the various cables disconnected and re-routed on manual patches down into Spain, it took a lot of coordination. I was sent out to first see if there was any hope for use of Early Bird at Buitrago, and then to set up shop at nearby Robledo. A CTNE staffer would handle negotiating reroutes from each disconnect point. He knew the European infrastructure in considerable detail. He could lay the plan for getting the circuits to Madrid through the least number of places to negotiate with. Simultaneously, he minimized the number of links to try keeping noise levels down. This was a major consideration in building circuits that would wind up approaching 5,000 miles in route length. We would have to eat into the noise ceiling by adding some equalization for perhaps 6 sets of channel banks. In short, we were going to try to engineer some quiet, clean data channels on the fly, using a somewhat random assortment of circuits. We'd have to do it in record time, too. While the bosses were working the system from the top down, our CTNE staffer was working it from the bottom up. When he'd get roadblocked by a lethargic technician a country or two away, he'd get out his own little black book of names and numbers he knew in that country. He'd talk a supervisor or manager into the spirit of the effort, and get that boss to motivate his people or even go down to the office himself. On the whole, America, and perhaps NASA, didn't even comprehend the drama we were engaged in. They certainly had no notion of the geographic scope and depth of the infrastructure army being marshaled across the ocean in support of the Promise of Camelot. We worked through the night. Channels were patched through, which is no mean feat in off hours anywhere in the world. I was on a connection with ITT's Technical Operations Center at New York, setting up and equalizing circuits. One by one, we got circuits established. We used some pretty dirty tricks to leave them just a bit loose on equalization, but with smooth curves in order to keep noise lower. At the same time the NASA folk were starting SCAMA up. They would first run pattern data with their modems then add each channel to SCAMA. This was to establish operation proving in the reliability for the Mission Director. Five Minute Window Finally, at T minus 2 hours, 5 minutes, NASA accepted the twelfth circuit, declared SCAMA operational, and the Mission Director removed the hold. The launch for the moon was on! We stayed at Robledo to hear the launch get off on the afternoon (Europe time) of July 16, and headed back to Madrid for some sleep, after two days of none. Obviously, we slept in the car on the ride back. I checked into another famous Madrid landmark, the Palace Hotel, all Spanish oak, brass and tile. It was the place Ernest Hemingway stayed when he was there writing about the Spanish Civil War. It hadn't changed much, but I didn't get to appreciate it. I went directly to bed. Memories are blurred, but I must have slept most of two days, because the next thing I remember other than a mite of tourist wandering in central Madrid was a pounding on my door in the middle of the night. It was someone on the hotel staff, apparently the best English speaker the hotel had. He was calling me to come to the hotel's one TV set and see the Americans on the moon! They had landed some hours before, but now were going to walk outside on the moon. It was only at that moment I fully realized how much a second major function relied on our patched-up temporary SCAMA link across the Atlantic. Not only was there no broadband data path across the Atlantic, but the broadcasters in Europe had lost their video channels back from NASA as well. That was certainly important for Kennedy's promise, included showing pictures to the whole free world of the Americans being "first on the moon!" How had they done it? I was probably the only person in the room who knew someone had solved a problem. Standing there in my bathrobe, I recognized the familiar face and sonorous tones of Walter Cronkite coming from the TV set at some time around 3 AM in Madrid. He was padding for time and filling in between messages from NASA about the astronauts preparing to open the hatch and climb down the ladder. Then he said some words that cut into me a bit. He talked about the heroic effort of satellite engineers to get video for broadcast in Europe. They had uplinked from Australia, which had normal connectivity from the U.S., onto the Indian Ocean satellite. >From there, the video was downlinked into the Bundespostes earth station at Raisting, Germany. Raisting had swung an 85 foot dish around to receive from the Indian Ocean satellite. He went on at length about how Raisting was feeding the whole of Europe's terrestrial television networks, instead of the usual routes via the failed Atlantic satellite. Someone else had been busy getting video channels rerouted, too. But it seemed nobody, not even Cronkite, knew what a fragile, last-minute thread was carrying the NASA color video and sound we were all observing from the moon back down through Robledo, splitting it into a dozen submarine cable channels across the Atlantic to Greenbelt, Houston and ultimately back to him at CBS before it got out to the world! Of course, the event was so momentous that Cronkite and perhaps nobody even questioned at that moment how, if they couldn't get video across the Atlantic to Europe, it was coming into them from Europe. But then, doesn't The Phone Company or NASA just "take care of everything," as always? Some months after the event, the Director of NASA Communications sent me a lovely citation. It bears a color photo of an astronaut looking at his own footprints on the lunar surface. Part of the text reads, "in recognition of contributions toward NASCOM support of Apollo XI, the first manned lunar landing, July 20 A.D. 1969." Looking at that certificate today, it's rather difficult to believe that it all worked 25 years ago, without current day wideband digital techniques, microprocessors to compress color video to a portion of 48 kilobits, or millimicron wafer devices to do it with. ITT's own corporate brochures carried the achievement of the first wideband data circuit across the Atlantic as an ITT "first" for a number of years. As an endnote, Robledo is still there, although I've not seen it since. It still gets mentioned occasionally as being involved in current NASA missions, but it's doubtfful anyone knows that was the place the famous lunar pictures came down to earth, or what a tenuous thread connected it back to the outside world. Presumably NASA is keeping Robledo in shape in case we ever again send humans to the moon. Today's larger question may be whether we can ever again assemble in such a unified spirit to accomplish a goal of that magnitude. ------------------- (1994 Note) (Donald E. Kimberlin is today President of Telecommunications Network Architects, based in Concord, North Carolina, where he continues to design and implement technologies the world has come to casually call "WANs.") ------------------ [TELECOM Digest Editor's 1994 Note: Don Kimberlin is also a regular contributor to this Digest, and a long time supporter. I hope you enjoyed this special issue of the Digest on the 25th anniversary of the walk on the moon. This file will become a permanent part of the Telecom Archives in the history sub-directory. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now, in 2005 with a totally different world around us, I am really wondering if we will ever again repeat the events of that summer in July, 1969. With the 34 years of progress in science since that time, one would think so, but who can say? Maybe Don Kimberlin can bring us up to date a little? 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #325 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jul 16 14:55:32 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 15B9614CCA; Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:55:31 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #326 Message-Id: <20050716185531.15B9614CCA@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:55:31 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.2 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,BAD_CREDIT autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:56:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 326 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Menino Maps Cellphone Gaps (Monty Solomon) Curbing Cellphones (Monty Solomon) Net-Based Technology Would Allow Limitless TV (Monty Solomon) Muzzling the Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line (M Solomon) Nigeria Jails Woman in $242 Million Fraud Case (Tume Ahemba) News Corp Forms Internet News Division (Fox News)(News Wire) 866 383 0986 (Lisa Metcalf) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Jim Rusling) Re: Camelot on the Moon - From Our Archives (Justa Lurker) Re: Meaning of ABCD Bits in T-1 (Justa Lurker) Re: Prepaid GSM With Roaming Allowed Available in the US? (Joseph) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 22:53:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Menino Maps Cellphone Gaps Cruising to Learn if Dead Zones Tied to Minority Areas By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff It is an aggravation of the age, the conversation-stopper that seems always to include the phrase, "You're breaking up." Cellphone dead zones have irritated many, but recently they have really annoyed Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who says his cellphone conversations get cut off day after day as he traverses the city's neighborhoods. The low-tech, urban mechanic mayor is fed up, he says, and there's no acceptable explanation why a city like Boston should have so many pockets of fog. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/07/15/menino_maps_cellphone_gaps/ http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/07/15/menino_cellservice/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 22:52:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Curbing Cellphones GLOBE EDITORIAL Curbing cellphones The Boston Globe July 15, 2005 CELLPHONES PROVIDE people with an addictive freedom, to talk for business or pleasure, anywhere and any time, but a study released this week shows, finally, that they should not be used behind the wheel of a car. The Massachusetts Legislature needs to act quickly to prohibit the use of cellphones while driving. Under present state law, motorists can use cellphones on the road so long as they keep one hand on the steering wheel and operate the vehicle safely. A study released this week by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests that this use is inherently unsafe. The study was done in western Australia because US phone companies would not provide access to records so researchers could determine whether motorists hospitalized for accidents had used a cellphone at the time of the crash. In Perth, Australia, the researchers found that those who were using the phones were four times more likely to be involved in an accident than those who weren't. This result confirms the conclusions of another, less comprehensive, survey and the intuitive feelings of many people. It is inherently distracting to talk on the phone while driving. The intensity of conversation drags the mind away from concentration on the road. The Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation will need to take this study into account this fall when it considers three bill to regulate cellphone use. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/07/15/curbing_cellphones/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 23:36:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Net-Based Technology Would Allow Limitless TV By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff The next big thing in television could be a technology borrowed from the Internet. IPTV (the 'IP' stands for Internet protocol) will let users choose from a vast variety of video entertainment, available on demand through a simple piece of wire. Telephone wire, to be exact, because phone companies -- not cable TV firms -- are leading the way. SBC Communications Inc., which offers phone service in 13 US states, is spending $5 billion to build the first IPTV network in the United States, set for launch late this year or in early 2006. Verizon Communications Inc., which is spending $3 billion to bring TV service to its customers, will use IPTV to deliver on-demand movies. Cable companies could adopt IPTV technology as well. But for telephone companies the technology offers the first chance to sell TV services. It's also an opportunity for Microsoft Corp., which is providing much of the underlying technology, to become as powerful in entertainment technology as it is in software. IPTV could shake up the cable industry in the same way that voice-over-Internet phone systems have roiled SBC's own voice telephone business Already, about a million people use IPTV systems, mostly in Hong Kong and Italy. Last month, British Telecom said it would work with Microsoft to deploy IPTV in Britain. On this side of the Atlantic, SBC spokesman Michael Coe said his company expects to make IPTV available to 18 million homes over the next three years. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/07/14/net_based_technology_would_allow_limitless_tv/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:29:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Muzzling the Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line By TIM DICKINSON Ken Tomlinson may be America's most accomplished propagandist. He got his start as an intern for Fulton Lewis Jr., who ruled right-wing radio when Rush Limbaugh was still in diapers. In the early 1980s, Tomlinson ran Voice of America, promoting the policies of Ronald Reagan to the rest of the world. As editor in chief of Reader's Digest in the early 1990s, he published the most reliably reactionary magazine in the country. Now, as President Bush's handpicked chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Tomlinson is in a position to spread the Republican message to Sesame Street. As head of the board that doles out $400 million in federal funds for public broadcasting, Tomlinson is actually required by law to provide PBS and NPR with "maximum protection from extraneous influence and control" by meddling politicians. But in recent months, Tomlinson himself has been the one trying to alter PBS programming. A close friend of Karl Rove since they worked together overseeing Voice of America, he hired a right-wing consultant to secretly monitor Bill Moyers for signs of "liberal bias." He collaborated with the White House to hire two "ombudsmen" to keep an eye on Frontline and All Things Considered. And after President Bush was re-elected in November, Tomlinson warned a gathering of PBS executives that the country had moved to the right -- and that their programming should reflect that. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7483528 ------------------------------ From: Tume Ahemba Subject: Nigeria Jails Woman in $242 Million Fraud Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 12:25:57 -0500 By Tume Ahemba A Nigerian court has sentenced a woman to two and half years in jail after she pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the country's biggest e-mail scam case, the anti-fraud agency said on Saturday. Amaka Anajemba, one of three suspects in a $242 million fraud involving a Brazilian bank, would return $48.5 million to the bank, hand over $5 million to the government and pay a fine of 2 million naira ($15,000), the agency said. Scams have become so successful in Nigeria that anti-sleaze campaigners say swindling is one of the country's main foreign exchange earners after oil, natural gas and cocoa. Anajemba's sentencing by a Lagos High Court on Friday is the first major conviction since the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was established in 2003 to crack down on Nigeria's thriving networks of email fraudsters. The agency said in a statement that the judgment was "a landmark achievement by EFCC in the fight against advance fee fraud, corruption and other related crimes." Typically fraudsters send out junk e-mails around the world promising recipients a share in a fortune in return for an advance fee. Those who pay never receive the promised windfall. Anajemba, whose late husband masterminded the swindling of the Sao Paolo-based Banco Noroeste S.A. between 1995 and 1998, was charged along with Emmanuel Nwude and Nzeribe Okoli. The prosecution said the three accused obtained the $242 million by promising a member of the bank staff a commission for funding a non-existent contract to build an airport in Nigeria's capital Abuja. All three accused pleaded not guilty, but Anajemba later changed her mind to enter a guilty plea in order to receive a shorter sentence. Her prison term was backdated to start in January 2004 when she was first taken in custody. The trial of the two others who maintained their not guilty pleas was adjourned to September. Ranked the world's second most corrupt country after Bangladesh by sleaze watchdog Transparency International, Nigeria has given new powers to the EFCC which is prosecuting about 200 fraud and corruption cases. The anti-fraud agency has arrested over 200 junk mail scam suspects since 2003. It says it has also confiscated property worth $200 million and secured 10 other convictions. ($1=132.70 Naira) Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: News Wire Subject: News Corp. Forms Internet Division Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 21:17:12 -0500 Media conglomerate News Corp. Ltd. on Friday said it has formed a new Internet division to create an online hub for its Fox news, sports and entertainment programing. The debut of Fox Interactive Media comes just three months after Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch's impassioned plea to the newspaper industry to explore new distribution technologies or risk losing the news franchise. Fox Interactive Media will house News Corp.'s existing sports, news and entertainment Web sites. The company also plans to make "strategic investments" to bolster existing properties. Ross Levinsohn, senior vice president of Fox Sports Interactive Media, was named president of the new Los Angeles-based division. Bert Solivan, vice president of news information at Foxnews.com, was named executive vice president of Fox Interactive Media. News Corp., like much of the media industry, has struggled to find new ways to reach the next generation of news and entertainment consumers, who are more likely to switch on their PCs or cellphones rather than stay glued to the living room television. Media observers have noted that many viewers preferred live online broadcasts by Time Warner Inc.'s America Online of the recent Live8 music concerts in early July to raise awareness of poverty in Africa over the ad-cluttered MTV cable television and ABC network TV broadcasts of the event. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As far as I am concerned, Fox News is the most biased, one-sided news outfit around anywhere. Very extremely conservative, and mostly liars at that. A web site I recommend to everyone is http://www.newshounds.us where their slogan is "We watch FOX so you don't have to". You'll find their RSS feed among other RSS feeds of interest in our td-extra area also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Metcalf Subject: 866 383 0986 Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:50:27 +0100 http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/TELECOM_Digest_Online2005-1/0596.html I have visited the above site as I have just received a hangup call from 866 383 0986. I find this quite strange as it's a toll free US site, yet we live in England. There are few hits on Google related to this. I of course tried to dial it and got the same "enter the number you wish to monitor" as I'm originally from the states and thought perhaps someone was trying to get ahold of me. I do use ecommerce. Is it possible our phone number was sold on? I have no idea why we would get this call. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Neither would I ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jim Rusling Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Organization: Retired Reply-To: usenet@rusling.org Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 19:13:43 -0500 John Smith wrote: > Jim Rusling wrote: >> I would worry about the security of the wireless connection. > Well, I wouldn't worry about it. I would recognize the obvious > necessity of high-grade encryption for any and all financial > transactions, but I don't think "worrying" would be the right word to > use. > If you're determined to worry, consider this: In Paris, at least, you > have a substantially greater risk of having your card number > compromised by pickpockets than by packet sniffers. Instead of worry, how about concerned? Without doing some research, how do I know that the site is secure? I recently ran into a completely open wireless network at a business with sensitive records. The owner thought that it was secured. He immediately called the company that installed it and had them come out to secure it. Things bad do happen. Jim Rusling More or Less Retired Mustang, OK http://www.rusling.org ------------------------------ From: Justa Lurker Subject: Re: Camelot on the Moon - From Our Archives Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 00:47:46 GMT Patrick Townson wrote: > Eleven years ago in the Digest, we paid homage to an event which > happened a quarter-century before that: American astronauts walking > on the moon. Now it has been 36 years since that event which > occupied our attention during the hot summer of July, 1969. The > principal contributor to the Digest with a report on _his_ part > in that historic event was Don Kimberlin ... There are 2 anomalies with Kimberlin's story, as I read it. (1) > Problem: Fragile Telecom Link > What many people don't know is that it came very close being a > failure. And at the very last moment, the last possible launch window > for a lunar mission in the 1960's was almost missed. If the July, 1969 flight of Apollo 11 was the "last possible launch window for a lunar mission in the 1960's", then how did Apollo 12 take place between 11/14/1969 and 11/24/1969 ? (2) ... as well as numerous mentions of "NASA color video and sound we were all observing from the moon". While there was indeed capability for color video from the Command Module [at that point, in orbit around the moon tens of miles overhead], the transmissions from the Apollo 11 Lunar Module on the surface of the moon were monochrome. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As I recall, what we saw on television that night was entirely black and white. However, in the NASA archives (reached via this report in our telecom archives) there are many color photos of the same event; also you can see the certificate NASA awarded Don Kimberlin for his part in the project. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Justa Lurker Subject: Re: Meaning of ABCD bits in T-1 Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 00:58:34 GMT Andrew Chalk wrote: > Can anyone give me the "table" (or a URL to) of ABCD bit values in T1 > signalling. Everywhere I Googled refers to these but none give the > meaning of each of the bit combinations. I'm particularly interested > in "off-hook/onhook" states. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk652/tk653/technologies_tech_note09186a00801123bb.shtml http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk652/tk653/technologies_tech_note09186a00800e2560.shtml http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk652/tk653/technologies_tech_note09186a00800a6210.shtml May be instructive and useful ... P.S. ---- I know you said "T1", but just as FYI http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk652/tk653/technologies_tech_note09186a00800943c2.shtml has some good info on various flavors [or should I say, flavours :-)] of E1 R2 signalling, and the accompanying signalling bits if anyone is interested. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Prepaid GSM With Roaming Allowed Available in the US? Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 19:12:35 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:20:20 +0200, Marc Haber wrote: > Hi, > A friend of mine lives in the States, has two kids and bad credit > records. She wants (alone) to come visit Europe this fall, and wants > her kids to be able to call her in Europe by dialing a local US > number. She's got a problem. If she has bad US credit and she wants to be able to be reached by dialing a local US number (assuming that it's a US GSM carrier's number.) To be able to call a US number and be reached in Europe requires international roaming. International roaming in western Europe is 99=A2 per minute or more (depending on whether a major operator such as T-Mobile or cingular is used.) The carriers won't even allow you to have international roaming unless you have really good credit since the ability is there to rack up really big international roaming bills. > If the issue were the other way round, I'd come to the States with a > prepaid GSM SIM that has roaming enabled, and put that SIM into a > borrowed GSM phone over there. You'd still pay a huge amount of money with roaming rates as high if not higher than the other way around. > She now tells me that prepaid GSM is almost a non-market in the US, > and that no prepaid GSM SIMs are available that allow international > roaming. International roaming does not exist on prepaid in the US. Even not all prepaids in Europe offer international roaming and the ones that do it's quite expensive. > A GSM phone useable in the European GSM networks is available here, I > have a spare Nokia 6310. The issue is the prepaid SIM that allows a > phone located in Europe to be reachable with an American number. It does not exist. Roaming in another country is expensive no matter what you do. ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #326 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jul 17 15:52:14 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 5FBD114D2C; Sun, 17 Jul 2005 15:52:14 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #327 Message-Id: <20050717195214.5FBD114D2C@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 15:52:14 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.2 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,BAD_CREDIT autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Jul 2005 15:50:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 327 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern (Monty Solomon) A Pass on Privacy? (Monty Solomon) Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Monty Solomon) Mossberg: Tracking Cookies are Spyware (Monty Solomon) Tune in Tomorrow for the Digital Living Room? (Monty Solomon) Re: Who Really Controls Internet? (Tony P.) Re: Who Really Controls Internet? (John Levine) Re: Camelot on the Moon - From Our Archives (Scott Dorsey) Re: Camelot on the Moon - From Our Archives (Jeffrey Mattox) Re: For Surfers, a Roving Hot Spot That Shares (Tony P.) Re: Nigeria Jails Woman in $242 Million Fraud (Fred Atkinson) Re: Muzzling the Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line (Hancock) Re: Prepaid GSM With Roaming Allowed Available in the US? (LH) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (B.M. Wright) Re: 866 383 0986 (Steve Sobol) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 00:15:07 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern ORLANDO, Fla. -- The addition of finger scanning technology at the entrances of Walt Disney World theme parks for all visitors has caused concern among privacy advocates, according to a Local 6 News report. Tourists visiting Disney theme parks in Central Florida must now provide their index and middle fingers to be scanned before entering the front gates. The scans were formerly for season pass holders but now everyone must provide their fingers, Local 6 News reported. They have reportedly been phased in for all ticket holders during the past six months, according to a report. Disney officials said the scans help keep track of who is using legitimate tickets, Local 6 News reported. http://www.local6.com/news/4724689/detail.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: How could it tell something like that unless there was some control samples as well? For example, finger prints or scans _after_ the tickets were used, or when the tickets were purchased? What good is just a random set of fingerprints without some name or other controlled circumstances to go with it? Or is Disney World taking down names and addresses and supplying these finger scans to some third person or agency as well? Hmm ... PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 04:33:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A Pass on Privacy? By CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL Anyone making long drives this summer will notice a new dimension to contemporary inequality: a widening gap between the users of automatic toll-paying devices and those who pay cash. The E-ZPass system, as it is called on the East Coast, seemed like idle gadgetry when it was introduced a decade ago. Drivers who acquired the passes had to nose their way across traffic to reach specially equipped tollbooths -- and slow to a crawl while the machinery worked its magic. But now the sensors are sophisticated enough for you to whiz past them. As more lanes are dedicated to E-ZPass, lines lengthen for the saps paying cash. E-ZPass is one of many innovations that give you the option of trading a bit of privacy for a load of convenience. You can get deep discounts by ordering your books from Amazon.com or joining a supermarket 'club.' In return, you surrender information about your purchasing habits. Some people see a bait-and-switch here. Over time, the data you are required to hand over become more and more personal, and such handovers cease to be optional. Neato data gathering is making society less free and less human. The people who issue such warnings -- whether you call them paranoids or libertarians -- are among those you see stuck in the rippling heat, 73 cars away from the ''Cash Only'' sign at the Tappan Zee Bridge. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/magazine/17WWLN.html?ex=1279339200&en=c1f10d3de06adea6&ei=5088 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 04:49:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 - Add personal computers to the list of throwaways in the disposable society. On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer was overrun by spyware and adware -- stealth software that delivers intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user's machine -- he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He threw out the whole computer. Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine. He is not alone in his surrender in the face of growing legions of digital pests, not only adware and spyware but computer viruses and other Internet-borne infections as well. Many PC owners are simply replacing embattled machines rather than fixing them. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/technology/17spy.html?ex=1279252800&en=5b2b6783f66a7422&ei=5090 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_ machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? I'd think there might be a market in doing some dumpster diving, retrieving those old machines, doing a total init of the hard drive and starting over from scratch, reloading them, etc. My pay for same would come from refurbishing the old machines with a totally new (and as of then unmolested) hard drive, absolutely _loaded_ with all the most recent virus protection and spam protection software. Then I would sell them for fifty or a hundred dollars each. And I would probably load Linux on them instead of Windows, or maybe in addition to Windows 2000 or Windows 98. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 04:58:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Mossberg: Tracking Cookies are Spyware Despite Others' Claims, Tracking Cookies Fit My Spyware Definition By WALTER S. MOSSBERG Suppose you bought a TV set that included a component to track what you watched, and then reported that data back to a company that used or sold it for advertising purposes. Only nobody told you the tracking technology was there or asked your permission to use it. You would likely be outraged at this violation of privacy. Yet that kind of Big Brother intrusion goes on every day on the Internet, affecting millions of people. Many Web sites, even from respectable companies, place a secret computer file called a "tracking cookie" on your hard disk. This file records where you go on the Web on behalf of Internet advertising companies that later use the information for their own business purposes. In almost all cases, the user isn't notified of the download of the tracking cookie, let alone asked for permission to install it. Luckily, the leading Windows antispyware programs can detect and remove these tracking cookies. It is the best defense a user has against this tactic. Now, though, some of the companies that place these files on your hard disk are complaining about that defense. Some are urging the antispyware software companies to stop detecting and removing tracking cookies. They assert that the secret placement of these tracking mechanisms is a legitimate business practice, and that tracking cookies aren't really spyware or aren't harmful. Unfortunately for consumers, this twisted reasoning is having some impact. In the most notable case, Microsoft disabled the detection and removal of tracking cookies when it purchased an antispyware program from a small company called Giant and turned it into Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware. That is a big reason why I can't recommend the Microsoft product, which still is in the test phase but is available for anyone to download. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20050714.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And have you noticed how many sites refuse to admit you at all if you refuse to accept their cookies? On our web site http://telecom-digest.org until last year when the site was greatly overhauled, I used cookies only for the purpose of referring to the user by name and telling him how often he had been there. _No other reason_. I finally quit it, when various users were offended by it; not apparently because I called them by name, or referenced how often they had been around, but because of all the potential for misuse otherwise. And I did get 'legitimate' business inquiries about the cookies. Companies wanted to by them, etc and get more details, etc. But that just made me feel very uneasy and unethical. That's the main reason I distribute NY Times and other newspapers on this site (see td-extra) with no login nor registration requirements. I just don't think it is anyone's business who reads what around here. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 05:25:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Tune in Tomorrow for the Digital Living Room? When Microsoft introduced its long-awaited Xbox 360 console on May 12 in an MTV special, its intentions went beyond just fun and games, The company called the long-awaited product a "future-generation game and entertainment system." While Xbox 360 promises to offer video games compatible with HDTV, fast processing and a lot of memory, Microsoft also noted that the system can play DVDs and CDs, stream music from MP3 players, and network with the company's "Media Center" PCs to stream digital content around the house, among other tasks. Microsoft's market: The increasingly crowded living room. In fact, the parade of technology companies targeting home entertainment is a long one. Dell Computer sells TVs. Apple Computer's iMac Mini is viewed by analysts as a potential entertainment server. Media-ready PCs abound from the likes of Hewlett-Packard. These technology stalwarts are selling wares that were typically offered by consumer electronic giants such as Sony. But do they have what it takes to compete in your living room? Is the so-called digital living room -- in which audio and visual content is available on demand and combined with Internet and other applications in one seamless environment -- fact or fantasy? Who will the winners ultimately be? Wharton experts say the digital living room is becoming a reality, but slowly. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1212 ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Who Really Controls Internet? Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 10:21:16 -0400 In article , usa-today@telecom- digest.org says: > ICANN is the organization that decides, among other things, what > top-level domains are allowed -- a top-level domain being .com, .org, > .uk, etc. The nameservers it controls maintain those, so when you type > in " http://www.usatoday.com ", your computer's message ("Send me that Web > page") goes to the right place. > Yes, it's more complicated than that. But I covered the complexities > of the workings of the Net in an earlier column. > What's important is that _he who controls the root nameservers > controls the traffic on the Internet._ And right now that's the > government of the U.S. of A. (Cue patriotic music.) > But ICANN is a private organization, and it's supervision by the DoC > is based on a memorandum of understanding that was written in 1997, > when "the President directed the Secretary of Commerce to privatize > the management of the domain name system (DNS) in a manner that > increases competition and facilitates international participation in > its management." Those are just TLD name servers, nothing more. The Internet would still work if those were to just disappear but it would be less useful or easy to use than it is now. Every server gets an IP address. That's what you really use to connect. DNS is just there to translate human readable to machine readable. For example: Doing a lookup for Ebay brings up: I:\dm\bin>nslookup www.ebay.com Non-authoritative answer: Name: hp-core.ebay.com Addresses: 66.135.208.89, 66.135.208.90, 66.135.192.123, 66.135.192.124 Aliases: www.ebay.com In other words, hit ebay and your request directs to one of the addresses listed. Yes its clunky. But in the early days we used it. Many servers had and still have hosts files where you could put a readable name and it's ip address and all requests first went to hosts, then out to any available DNS servers. For example -- at my current place of employment we host several database servers which then connect across a point to point connection to a cluster at a different location. We use host entires on our machines to get at the servers on the cluster. ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jul 2005 11:14:05 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Who Really Controls Internet? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > The root nameserver configuration is one of the last of the informal > things left over from the early days of the internet. I don't know > how long that will last, but I don't think passing it over to ICANN is > a good thing any more than allowing government control would be. Having just returned from the ICANN meeting in Luxembourg, I can say that the root server operators understand exactly what's going on, and they have no interest in being controlled by anyone. They are also in a uniquely powerful position since switching to other roots would both be very expensive (the apparent 13 roots are actually over 100 servers spread around the world) and would require reconfiguring every other nameserver on the entire Internet, which ain't gonna happen. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Luxembourg? Is that where they are on vacation now? I thought they just got back from a trip to Argentina. What a real laugh (no, actually very sad) that organization ICANN is. Is MCI footing the bill for all these international vacations Vint Cerf and Esther Dyson and others go on several times per year, or are they still getting money they extort from internet users who think ICANN is somehow going to help them protect their sites against spam and viruses? PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Camelot on the Moon - From Our Archives Date: 16 Jul 2005 15:59:39 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Justa Lurker wrote: > (2) ... as well as numerous mentions of "NASA color video and sound > we were all observing from the moon". While there was indeed > capability for color video from the Command Module [at that point, in > orbit around the moon tens of miles overhead], the transmissions from > the Apollo 11 Lunar Module on the surface of the moon were monochrome. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As I recall, what we saw on television > that night was entirely black and white. However, in the NASA archives > (reached via this report in our telecom archives) there are many color > photos of the same event; also you can see the certificate NASA awarded > Don Kimberlin for his part in the project. PAT] Indeed, the Apollo 11 camera was monochrome. I don't think it was until Apollo 14 that we got color images from the moon's surface in realtime. And the monochrome images from 11 were pretty awful due to limited channel bandwidth. The color images in the NASA archives were all shot on 70mm rollfilm in a modified Hasselblad still camera, and did not appear in the press until after the astronauts had brought the film back and the KSC guys processed it. For another interesting viewpoint on the video downlink for Apollo 11, let me recommend the Australian film _The Dish_. scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 03:22:14 -0500 From: Jeffrey Mattox Subject: Re: For Surfers, a Roving Hot Spot That Shares Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 09:58:55 -0400 In article , monty@roscom.com says: > By JOHANNA JAINCHILL > When the Sunningdale Country Club in Scarsdale, N.Y., opened its gates > last week to a location shoot for "The Sopranos," a new fixture was on > display in the mobile dressing rooms - a roving Wi-Fi hot spot. > With a device called the Junxion Box, the production company can set > up a mobile multiuser Internet connection anywhere it gets cellphone > service. The box, about the size of a shoebox cover, uses a cellular > modem card from a wireless phone carrier to create a Wi-Fi hot spot > that lets dozens of people connect to the Internet. > The staff members of "The Sopranos," squeezed into two trailer > dressing rooms, needed only the Junxion Box and their laptops to > exchange messages and documents with the production offices at > Silvercup Studios in Queens. > http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/14/technology/circuits/14share.html?ex=1278993600&en=56a56edcee958205&ei=5090 All I can say about this is that I feel for the poor members of that country club. Showtime was recently in the RI state house for two days shooting scenes for their new series "Brothers". One whole corridor of the basement level was filled with production gear and people for two days. I've never seen so many cables in my life. Yet this whole thing was set up and broken down in < 12 hours. In the case of Showtime, I think they used wired net connections because I distinctly saw a cluster of Cat-5 running out from the legislative IT space. ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Nigeria Jails Woman in $242 Million Fraud Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 23:45:15 -0400 The scam involved $242 million dollars, she is out only about a quarter of that, and she only gets two and a half years in jail? And she'll probably be paroled in less than a year if their penal system is like ours. Is it any wonder these people keep right on doing this? I still get about a dozen of these Nigerian email scams per day. What even is the point in going after them if all they are going to get is a slap on the wrist? The EFCC is wasting their time. Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Muzzling the Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line Date: 16 Jul 2005 19:26:24 -0700 Monty Solomon wrote: > As head of the board that doles out $400 million in federal funds for > public broadcasting, Tomlinson is actually required by law to provide > PBS and NPR with "maximum protection from extraneous influence and > control" by meddling politicians. I don't want any political interference in PBS. Unfortunately, IMHO, some PBS programming was politically biased reflecting left-aisle attitudes and did not present a balanced viewpoint. For example, their series on New York City focused heavily on the lowest social station and gave short-shrift or a even negative view to the wealthy and business community. A more balanced presentation would've focused on reasons factories and the middle class left the city in the 1950s. All the show did was simply blame them for the troubles the people in the city had during those years. The story of the poor and disenfranchised is important, but the stories and concerns of the middle class and business community are important too. Harry Truman and Richard Nixon both independently remarked that history will be written by a liberal perspective because most writers and social critics are of a liberal bent. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Prepaid GSM With Roaming Allowed Available in the US? From: LH Date: 17 Jul 2005 04:34:58 GMT Marc Haber wrote in news:telecom24.324.10@telecom-digest.org: > Hi, > A friend of mine lives in the States, has two kids and bad credit > records. She wants (alone) to come visit Europe this fall, and wants > her kids to be able to call her in Europe by dialing a local US > number. > A GSM phone useable in the European GSM networks is available here, I > have a spare Nokia 6310. The issue is the prepaid SIM that allows a > phone located in Europe to be reachable with an American number. Telestial http://www.telestial.com/prepaid_sim_cards.htm sell country-specific prepaid SIM cards or prepaid roaming SIM cards (generally with numbers based in Monaco or Lichenstein). If your friend already has a USA cell phone or spare phone line, she could set up call forwarding to the prepaid European number. Alterna- tively, if you search on Google, there are a number of companies offering virtual number and 'follow-me' services, providing a US based number which can be forwarded internationally at rates that are not too expensive. This may become extremely expensive if she is paying both call forwarding and incoming roaming rates with a prepaid roaming SIM, versus a country-specific SIM where generally only the call forwarding rate would apply. LH ------------------------------ From: B.M. Wright Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 05:20:49 UTC Organization: XMission Internet http://www.xmission.com Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Dan Lanciani wrote: >> By M.P. DUNLEAVEY >> That said, Mr. Mierzwinski endorsed the preventive measures offered by >> Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (www.privacyrights.org), a nonprofit >> consumer advocacy group, and by the Identity Theft Resource Center >> (www.idtheftcenter.org), also a nonprofit. Besides the standard advice >> to shred personal documents, following are some tips I found useful: >> -- Curtail electronic access to your bank accounts. > How exactly is one supposed to achieve this? Every bank that I have > contacted flat-out refuses to block EFT debits on consumer accounts. > They will transfer my money to anyone with my account and routing > numbers who has access to the ACH network, even though there is no > evidence that I authorized the transaction. (In fact, the banks have > strong evidence that I did not approve any such transactions since I > told them that I have not authorized any third party to electronically > debit my accounts.) Even brokerage houses are doing this, and even on > accounts with no check writing feature. Yes, the US system is ridiculous, why should anyone be allowed to pull $ from your account with only a routing code, account number, and possibly some other easily obtained information? I don't know what requirements the bank has before qualifying someone to do these "ACH" payments, but it is likely easy enough to get approved. The UK has a much better system where, you as the account holder either have to initiate the transaction, or you have previously filled out and signed a physical authorization paper that the person receiving the money has to file with the bank. At any time, you can, as the account holder withdraw permission for that debit (if it is monthly recurring), without needing consent from the receiving party. >> Pay bills through snail mail. > If you use a normal check this still provides the recipient with your > account and routing numbers which they can then use to electronically > debit your account. With the system in the UK mentioned above, people freely exchange their routing (aka "sort code") and account number information. It is quite a common way for two people to pay each other because most banks don't charge for UK to UK transfers in the same currency. Someone also mentioned the credit card terminal PIN system used in France. This is similar to what you need in the US to use most debit cards and the UK is also starting to use this with credit cards that have embedded smart chips. However, apparently, it is optional for the merchant on whether or not they accept payments without the PIN on chip/PIN enabled cards. One merchant kept having a faily low value transaction declined when using the mag-stripe, once they used the chip reader and I entered my PIN it went through. Since implementing this system however, it seems all the banks no longer allow you to change the PIN over the phone, you have to go to an ATM and not just any, it has to be specific banks withink the UK. This tells me that, it's likely they store the PIN in the chip, with some type of encryption, which will be broken some day no doubt and become useless. Further evidence that makes me believe they store the PIN inside the chip is the fact that I was told merchants can do "chip & PIN" transactions while offline. If this is the case, they are either 1) When offline hoping you entered the right PIN and authorizing the transaction regardless 2) Decrypting the PIN, stored locally on the card, with a certificate stored in the POS terminal (and once that certificate is compromised you have the keys to the city). If they are not storing the PIN in the card, I see absolutely no reason why they won't update the PIN for you over the phone, unless they have some type of PIN database encrypted with a certificate which is only available within the CHIP on the card. If anyone familiar with the system cares to comment? Just as a side note, some companies within the US tried to implement smart chip systems in their cards, Providian Smart Visa and the Fleet Fusion card are two that come to mind. They failed to get anyone to actually use it and gave up, converting back to non-chip cards. I'm not too sure what their system really had to offer, not much, they tried to tout it as a way to make more secure online transactions, have the online web store form automagically filled out with your details, etc.. At the time, they were sending out free smart card readers to try to get people using these, probably one of the reasons they decided it cost too much and scrapped it. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: 866 383 0986 Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 15:00:34 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Lisa Metcalf wrote: > http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/TELECOM_Digest_Online2005-1/0596.html > I have visited the above site as I have just received a hangup > call from 866 383 0986. I don't think that's as strange as you might think. Someone set their pbx to send that number on outgoing caller ID, and dialed you, and your telephone company is just displaying the caller ID that the US telco sent it. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #327 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jul 17 21:33:18 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id A5DE014E86; Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:33:17 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #328 Message-Id: <20050718013317.A5DE014E86@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:33:17 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.6 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL, NIGERIAN_BODY1 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:33:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 328 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Non-English Domain Names Likely Delayed (Anik Jesdanun) A Decade After Birth of E-commerce, Downtown Becomes a Slum (AFP News) Podcasting Spurs a 'Land Grab' (Greg Sandoval) Remember Internet Consumers (Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial) Music Industry Complaints (News Wire) Re: Muzzling the Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line (Tony P.) Re: Muzzling the Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line (McHarry) Re: News Corp. Forms Internet Division (jared) Re: Who Really Controls Internet? (Barry Margolin) Re: Mossberg: Tracking Cookies are Spyware (Julian Thomas) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Steve Sobol) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (Phil Earnhardt) Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You (John McHarry) Re: A Pass on Privacy? (Tony P.) Re: Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern (Dale Farmer) Re: Nigeria Jails Woman in $242 Million Fraud (mc) 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: Anick Jesdanun Subject: Non-English Domain Names Likely Delayed Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 17:52:28 -0500 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer Concerns about "phishing" e-mail scams will likely delay the expansion of domain names beyond non-English characters, the chairman of the Internet's key oversight agency said Friday. Vint Cerf, head of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, would not speculate on when such characters might appear but said Internet engineers must now spend time "trying to winnow down, frankly, the number of character (sets) that are allowed to be registered." Demand for non-English domain names is high outside the United States and a U.N. panel studying Internet governance said in a report Thursday that "insufficient progress has been made toward multilingualization." It cited the lack of international coordination and technical hurdles as among the problems. Officially, the Internet's Domain Name System supports only 37 characters -- the letters of the Latin alphabet, 10 numerals and a hyphen. But in recent years, in response to a growing Internet population worldwide, engineers have been working on ways to trick the system into understanding other languages, such as Arabic, Chinese and Japanese. Engineers have rallied around a character system called Unicode. But security experts warned earlier this year of a potential exploit that takes advantage of the fact that characters that look alike can have two separate codes in Unicode and thus appear to the computer as different. For example, Unicode for "a" is 97 under the Latin alphabet, but 1072 in Cyrillic. Subbing one for the other can allow a scammer to register a domain name that looks to the human as "paypal.com," tricking users into giving passwords and other sensitive information at what looks like a legitimate site. It's much like how scammers now use the numeral "1" sometimes instead of the letter "l" to trick users. "In some of the early tests, ... it became clear we had opened up the opportunity for registering very misleading names," Cerf said in a conference call wrapping up ICANN's meetings this week in Luxembourg. "This kind of potential confusion leads to parties going to what they think are valid Web sites." Cerf said it may be possible to proceed with character sets that aren't at risk of confusion as the standards-setting Internet Engineering Task Force tackles the broader security concerns with non-English names. Tests of non-English characters have been going on for years, and in a few cases they are fully operational. Last year, operators of the German ".de" domain began offering 92 accented and other special characters, including the umlaut common in German names. But ICANN has yet to approve domain names entirely in another language; all addresses now must end with an English string such as ".com." Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Listen to AP News Radio and view their stories at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html. No login nor registration required. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think people who are more familiar with other language sets should be allowed to use them on the net; instead of stalling on the development of these things, in order to make the internet as useful as possible in _all countries_ of the world and not just the _English speaking countries_, Vint Cerf is claiming that there are likely to be misunderstandings by Americans (in what is presented) which will lead to more scams, etc. Of course, ICANN (read, Vint Cerf) won't make any changes in the contracts we all were forced to sign in order to be able to use this damn system; they could write severe punishments, i.e. ex-communication, into their contracts, but they refuse to do that as well. So guys, if the English language subset is not all that familiar to you, don't expect any improvements anytime soon. I feel those domains -- such as 'de' which are not subject to ICANN should go right ahead and do as they please. PAT] ------------------------------ From: News Wire Subject: A Decade After Birth of E-Commerce, Downtown Becomes a Slum Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 17:53:30 -0500 After enjoying phenomenal growth in its first 10 years, Internet commerce faces new challenges amid growing fears of viruses, spyware and a range of fraud schemes. The e-commerce revolution led by companies like eBay and Amazon.com, both created a decade ago, has made the Internet a permanent part of the world of commerce. But even as more consumers join the rush, many are growing fearful about maintaining their privacy, protecting their personal data and the potential of falling victim to nefarious elements in cyberspace. A survey of US Web users by the Pew Internet and American Life Project released this month shows 91 percent have changed the way they behave online as they try to avoid these problems. Among the other findings of the survey: 81 percent said they stopped opening e-mail attachments unless they are sure these documents are safe; 48 percent have stopped visiting sites that they fear might deposit unwanted programs on their computers; and 25 percent have stopped downloading music or video files from peer-to-peer networks to avoid things like spyware. A separate Conference Board survey last month showed more than half of online consumers say their level of concern has grown over the past year and many have changed the way they use the Internet, with some scaling back online purchases. Nearly 70 percent of online users have installed additional security software on their PCs, and 54 percent now "opt out" of special offers; 41 percent are purchasing less online, the survey by the business research firm showed. The research firm Gartner, in its poll of 5,000 US adults, showed growing concerns about "phishing," in which fake e-mails are disguised to look like legitimate requests from banks or credit cards firms, a technique used in identity theft schemes. In the 12 months to May 2005, an estimated 73 million US adults who use the Internet said they received an average of more than 50 phishing e-mails in the past year, Gartner said. That was up 28 percent from a prior survey. Also, some 2.4 million online consumers reported losing money directly because of the phishing attacks, although most said this was repaid by banks or credit card issuers, the Gartner survey indicated. Online retail sales in the US market, the world's most developed, amounted to 141.4 billion dollars in 2004, according to the National Retail Federation. Some forecasts see that figure hitting 331 billion dollars by 2010. Globally, eBay alone is expected to have sales of more than 40 billion dollars this year, up by a third over last year. But Gartner estimates that US banks and credit card issuers lost about 1.2 billion dollars last year to phishing schemes. And analysts say the high-tech community needs some kind of system of authenticating e-mail to ensure that an e-mail actually comes from the person who's purporting to send it. "Companies need to take steps quickly to beef up online security," said Avivah Litan, vice president and research director at Gartner. "We are seeing unprecedented levels in consumer transactions online. Yet businesses cannot rely on the Internet to lower costs and improve marketing efforts indefinitely if consumer trust continues to decline." Pew found 93 million US Internet users, or 68 percent, cited computer trouble in the past year that is consistent with problems caused by spyware and viruses, although 60 percent were not sure where the problem originated. One in four said they found new programs on their computers that they did not install or new icons that seemed to come out of nowhere, with one in five saying their starting point, or home page, had inexplicably changed. "These survey results show that as Internet users gain experience with spyware and adware, they are more likely to say they are changing their behavior," said Pew's Susannah Fox. "But what is more alarming is the larger universe of people who have struggled with mysterious computer problems, but have no idea why. Internet users are increasingly frustrated and frightened that they are not in charge of their Internet experience." Copyright 2005 Agence France Presse. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Any of you who live in large metropolitan areas have probably seen your 'downtown' area change dramatically -- for the worse -- in the past thirty or forty years. In Chicago, for example, what was once a vibrant area with more than a dozen movie theatres, about the same number of department stores, the symphony, several legitimate theatres and any number of wonderful restaurants has deteriorated very badly, as people grew afraid to go to the downtown area at night; fears of pickpockets, assaults by bums in general, very poor transit many times, etc made it just no longer a pleasant experience. In downtown Chicago, State and Madison Streets are mostly deserted at night. Very few restaurants open at night, few or no public restrooms, etc. Unlike Chicago or many other cities where it took thirty or forty years of decay and political corruption to reach the stage things are in, on the net it has only taken around 10 years to reach the point that many users are 'afraid to go out at night'. In large cities, a process called 'gentrification' has been going on which attempts to restore some of the glory and granduer to the business district and residential areas. People complain a lot about gentrification, claiming it has the effect of 'pricing people out of the neighborhood'. In order to pay for the 'gentrification', or improvements, the prices have to go _way_ up of course, and the 'bums' or poor people cannot afford to live there any longer. My brother, for example, mentioned that condominiums (which is basically all there is to live in in Chicago, if you want a decent place these days) have outrageous price tags attached to them. Object: price the bums out of the neighborhood. A group of the 'new settlers' in an area called 'South Loop' (immediatly south of the downtown area in Chicago, along South State Street and Congress Parkway) has been moaning and carrying-on about the Pacific Garden Mission as one example. PGM has been there in that same spot for 135 years doing whatever it does ... the 'new settlers' in South Loop arrived maybe five years ago; and _they_ think PGM should be forced out ('those bums are ruining our neighborhood', etc). Well, I digress, just a little, but I see the very same thing happening in our 'village', the internet. God only knows decay has set in very badly on the net; crime is _so_ rampant, we probably need some 'gentrification', and I think ICANN knows that to be the case (just like Mayor Daley runs Chicago, ICANN in essence 'runs the net'). Just as politics and corruption dictate Mayor Daley's posture on things, politics dictates ICANN's posture as well. I doubt we will see any real changes -- any 'gentrification' if you will -- on the net for at least a few years until the crime -- i.e. scams and spams and viruses and other nuisances have gotten to be _so bad_ that all of the oldtime,' original settlers of this village have thrown up their hands in disgust and walked away. When it has gotten to the point that there is no one left here at all from the old days, and the net is just one .com after another, one E-Bay located next to an Amazon, then a couple of sex movie houses, etc and everyone else knows the minute they plug in the cable/DSL to the back of their computer one or more viruses or spy-cookies is going to slip in and there are jillions of computers gathering dust in the closet next to the CB radios, then and only then will Vint Cerf and the others at ICANN decide to get down to business. What Vint _wanted_ to do back in 1994, along with Al Gore, of inventing the internet as a business proposition only will happen by default. All of the original settlers of 'internet village' will have gone away and then watch: all the lame excuses for why spam and scam cannot be controlled (and you have heard them all, same as me; just ask a couple of the more vocal users here about how we cannot dictate to other sites, we cannot do X because spammers will retaliate with Y, etc) -- all those excuses will vanish and the transition from friendly place with decent users to strictly big-business concerns will be complete. If I have been threatened once with having _my_ own interconnectivity cut off if I resorted to certain self-help spam fighting techinqes, I have been threatened a dozen times. I wish some of these fools _would_ just cut me off ... so they could get down to the business of making over the net in Vint Cerf's image. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Greg Sandoval Subject: Podcasting Spurs a Media 'Land Grab' Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 17:55:28 -0500 By GREG SANDOVAL, AP Technology Writer The runaway popularity of blogging, which has turned everyday people into online news outlets, caught the media establishment off guard. The industry is trying not to make the same mistake with podcasting -- which lets nearly anyone "broadcast" on the Internet. Everyone from Disney to Newsweek to National Public Radio is now offering podcasts, and Apple Computer, Inc. last month made it a whole lot easier to find them and download them to iPods. While profits remain elusive, there's a bigger prize out there -- the company that manages to become the go-to Web site for podcasts could gain enough leverage to strike favorable deals with proven content providers, and generate cash by charging for subscriptions and advertising. Podcasts are recorded audio files, distributed via Internet download. They can be stored on computers or digital music players and played back whenever the listener chooses. Like bloggers, podcasters can sound off on whatever they please -- from politics and religion to gladiolas and glass-blowing. For now, podcasts are mostly talk -- the complexities of the music-licensing business make it exceedingly difficult to legally include songs in the audio files. Podcasting isn't likely to explode in popularity until companies figure out how to guarantee that music owners get paid. But as tens of thousands of podcasters seek audiences, a growing number of companies are trying to make sense of what's out there and become magnets for the best of it. They include not just Apple but also Podcastalley.com, Podcast.net and as of last weekend, another startup -- Odeo.com. In Odeo's newly renovated loft across the street from the Giants' ballpark, Evan Williams and his first nine employees have hustled to launch the beta version, which creates directories of podcasts for downloading and provides studio-quality sound tools for podcasters to use. Odeo encourages podcasters to upload their shows on its site. Recognizing that one of the main complaints about podcasting is the difficulty of finding them, Odeo organizes the shows by genre. Odeo's headings includes arts, food, religion, sex, and technology. There is even a one called "weird." To help listeners discover new shows, Odeo employees scour the site for the best and display their recommendations on the "Featured Channels" page. Williams, who co-founded Blogger.com before selling it off to Google three years ago, is enough of a believer in podcasts to bankroll Odeo out of his own pocket. And while he won't say exactly how he plans to make a profit, he says charging for premium content or for access to digital recording tools is a possibility. Gaining legal access to popular music may be what's needed for podcasting to become profitable. Without music, skeptics doubt there is any money in it. "There is no easy way to license music legally for podcasts," says Fred von Lohmann, an attorney for the online civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation. "You have to clear the rights one song at a time from record labels and artists and that's a painful process." Williams, however, is optimistic: "If podcasting finds a large enough audience, the money will come." Already, some podcasters are willing to pay for superior tools, according to Matt Galligan, who hosts a podcast called "The Spotlight" that promotes music from unsigned and little-known artists. "If you don't have good audio quality, people won't listen to you," he said. Podcast Alley is a typical Internet bootstrap operation, prized by fans of Internet "narrowcasting" not just for its podcast selection but also for free tools and tips. Launched in November and featuring 4,100 podcasts, it has just one employee: founder Chris McIntyre, a 26-year-old programmer from Nashville, Tenn. McIntyre says the number of podcasts has tripled in the past three months on his site and he's already begun selling enough ads to cover his expenses. "Podcasts appeal to niche markets that can help advertisers zero in on their target audience," he said, adding that a podcast dedicated to endurance sports has received money from Gatorade for plugging the sports drink during the show. In another sign that podcasting is attracting advertisers, Toyota has agreed to underwrite all the podcasts for Los Angeles-based radio station KCRW for six months in exchange for a 10-second mention in each of the shows, said Ruth Seymour, KCRW's general manager. If anyone is positioned to win big on podcasting, it's Apple, which added an iPod directory that features more than 3,000 podcasts to the company's iTunes music-download site on June 28. Apple said more than a million podcasts were downloaded in the first two days the service was active. With its marketing muscle and customer base - 16 million iPods sold - Apple has the clout and connections to strike deals to obtain music rights and collect licensing fees from podcasters wishing to become Web disc jockeys. But it had better act fast. NPR is negotiating with the music industry for podcasting rights as are other media companies, according to Seymour, whose station receives some of its programming from NPR. She is eager for such a deal. Without one, KCRW is prevented from recording podcasts for shows that include music. That means fans of the popular "Morning Becomes Eclectic" must wait until music rights are obtained. "The explosion for podcasting hasn't happened yet," said Seymour. "It takes off the second that someone gets the music rights." On the Net: Apple: http://www.apple.com/podcasting/ Odeo: http://odeo.com/ Podcast Alley: http://www.podcastalley.com/ Podcast.net: http://www.podcast.net Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Cleveland Plain Dealer Subject: Remember Internet Consumers Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 17:57:43 -0500 The little guys lost twice in Supreme Court decisions involving technology last week, but in both instances the rulings hardly represent the end of online battles. The case that has attracted the most attention is also the most straightforward. At issue is whether Internet file-sharing companies can be held responsible if they encourage users to trade copyrighted music and videos without paying for the materials. Some attacked the unanimous decision, charging that the threat of legal action would stifle needed innovation even as it allowed major studios to cling to obsolete business practices. But the growing presence of firms that offer legal download options undermines that argument and ignores a more important one: the ubiquity of file-swapping itself threatens innovation by denying artists their due. The second decision involved whether cable companies must allow competing Internet providers to use their networks to offer high-speed service. Voting 6-3, the majority punted, saying that such decisions are the purview of the Federal Communications Commission. But the FCC already has ruled that cable systems are distinct from telecommunications companies, and thus do not have to offer equal access to lines. In a sharp dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia accused his colleagues of making false distinctions between the services - and worse, shirking the court's obligations. The cable companies cheered, and the telecoms made noise about wanting similar provisions. Congress -- which writes the laws on which the FCC is supposed to issue regulations -- should be braced for lobbying of unprecedented intensity and expense. As quixotic as it may sound, we urge members of Ohio's delegation to remember consumers in this process. The value of the Internet is inherent in the universal opportunities it allows; if services are narrowly controlled, huge opportunities for abuse exist. As several critics argued after the opinion, if a single company controls high-speed Internet in a community, it could deny -- or at the very least slow down -- users' access to items the system's owners oppose. Just consider the frightening implications for companies competing to offer specific downloads, or political candidates seeking to spread their platforms. Citizens win in free and robust exchanges; it is crucial that Congress allow them to flourish. Copyright 2005 cleveland.com. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: News Wire Subject: More Music Industry Complaints Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 17:59:45 -0500 Music industry says pirated CDs make everyone suffer. The Recording Industry 2005 Commercial Piracy Report, prepared by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), paints a stark picture when it comes to global pirating of music compact discs. According to the report, illegal traffic in pirated music was worth $4.6 billion last year, 34% of all CDs are illegal, and fake recordings outsell legitimate recordings in 31 countries around the world. The report takes the position, not surprisingly, that this "mass-scale copyright theft" is damaging the livelihoods and wellbeing of musical artists and hundreds of thousands of persons employed legitimately in the music industry. The report states that the music industry is a "risky business" and that the industry must protect its intellectual property, otherwise "the music industry quite simply would not exist." In addition the harm to the music industry itself resulting from pirated CDs, the report points out that governments and citizens are hurt too, as "lost industry revenues mean lost tax revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars." The report details a list of the top ten priority countries that have markets that have "unacceptable piracy rates that urgently require addressing." These countries are: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Russia, Spain and Ukraine. Thus, while there has been quite a public debate about online downloading and file-sharing of music, culminating in the recent Grokster decision by the United States Supreme Court, the report makes plain the the pirating of tangible, physical CDs also is an issue to be addressed. Eric Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris (www.duanemorris.com), where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology disputes. His column appears Wednesdays at USATODAY.com. His Web site is www.sinrodlaw.com, and he can be reached at ejsinrod@duanemorris.com. To receive a weekly e-mail link to Mr. Sinrod's columns, please send an e-mail with the word Subscribe in the subject line. Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Read USA Today stories with no registration nor login requirements at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/othernews.html ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Muzzling the Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:17:12 -0400 In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says: > Monty Solomon wrote: >> As head of the board that doles out $400 million in federal funds for >> public broadcasting, Tomlinson is actually required by law to provide >> PBS and NPR with "maximum protection from extraneous influence and >> control" by meddling politicians. > I don't want any political interference in PBS. > Unfortunately, IMHO, some PBS programming was politically biased > reflecting left-aisle attitudes and did not present a balanced > viewpoint. For example, their series on New York City focused heavily > on the lowest social station and gave short-shrift or a even negative > view to the wealthy and business community. A more balanced > presentation would've focused on reasons factories and the middle > class left the city in the 1950s. All the show did was simply blame > them for the troubles the people in the city had during those years. > The story of the poor and disenfranchised is important, but the > stories and concerns of the middle class and business community are > important too. Just finished reading Levin's "Freakonomics". There are two things that stood out. First -- that we need to provide unfettered access to abortion. The tinkering with abortion we do now will directly correlate to a rise of crime in 10 or so years. Second -- we need to take care of those in need. Otherwise it comes back to bite us in the ass. ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Muzzling the Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:37:05 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Sat, 16 Jul 2005 19:26:24 -0700, hancock4 wrote: > Harry Truman and Richard Nixon both independently remarked that > history will be written by a liberal perspective because most writers > and social critics are of a liberal bent. Reminds me of Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions". His argument is that really big changes in science come about when the upstart theory wins over the upcoming generation, since the older, established, scientists can't change their views radically. Professional historians have largely been fairly liberal for some generations now. Since they are the writers of serious history, it has been their views that have come down. If they somehow train up a generation of right wing historians, that could change, but not until. Of course, one has to wonder why those whose profession is the study of history tend to have liberal views. Is there something in the detailed study of what has happened in the past that leads to such a position? Or is it just that those with other views tend more to spend their lives in other fields? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 13:45:36 -0600 From: jared@nospam.au (jared) Subject: Re: News Corp. Forms Internet Division > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As far as I am concerned, Fox News is > the most biased, one-sided news outfit around anywhere. Very extremely > conservative, and mostly liars at that. A web site I recommend to > everyone is http://www.newshounds.us where their slogan is > "We watch FOX so you don't have to". You'll find their RSS feed among > other RSS feeds of interest in our td-extra area also. PAT] It seems to me that the large plasma displays, apparently solely showing Fox 'News', are proliferating in the USA ... in the waiting area at the bank, in the foyer of the office building, etc. Does anyone know the details of this, is the cost of the display and the feed being subsidised? ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Who Really Controls Internet? Organization: Symantec Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:04:22 -0400 In article , Tony P. wrote: > Those are just TLD name servers, nothing more. The Internet would > still work if those were to just disappear but it would be less useful > or easy to use than it is now. > Every server gets an IP address. That's what you really use to > connect. DNS is just there to translate human readable to machine > readable. What you *really* use are binary digits represented as electronic signal levels on various types of wires and radio transmissions, but we don't make users modulate those manually, either. And what about all the load balancing and fault tolerance that come from allowing a host name to resolve to multiple addresses and changing the mappings on the fly? Names are more than just a way to make things user-friendly, they're an important piece of the Internet architecture. I don't think there's ever been a network of more than a few dozen machines that didn't depend on a naming scheme to enhance the capabilities. Consider this: how useful would the phone be if you could only call people whose phone numbers you already knew, i.e. there were no phone books or directory assistance? Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: Julian Thomas Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:20:14 -0400 Subject: Re: Mossberg: Tracking Cookies are Spyware In <20050717195214.5FBD114D2C@massis.lcs.mit.edu>, on 07/17/05 at 03:52 PM, editor@telecom-digest.org typed: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And have you noticed how many sites > refuse to admit you at all if you refuse to accept their cookies? On > our web site http://telecom-digest.org until last year when the site > was greatly overhauled, I used cookies only for the purpose of > referring to the user by name and telling him how often he had been > there. _No other reason_. I finally quit it, when various users were > offended by it; not apparently because I called them by name, or > referenced how often they had been around, but because of all the > potential for misuse otherwise. And I did get 'legitimate' business > inquiries about the cookies. Companies wanted to by them, etc and > get more details, etc. But that just made me feel very uneasy and > unethical. That's the main reason I distribute NY Times and other > newspapers on this site (see td-extra) with no login nor > registration requirements. I just don't think it is anyone's > business who reads what around here. PAT] Actually, there are several good strategies for dealing with these sites, at least in the Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox browser family. The easiest is to make the cookie file (usually cookies.txt) read-only. This presents the illusion that the cookie was accepted, but it actually evaporates on your machine. If there is a site whose cookie you want to accept, turn off the readonly attribute on the file, accept the cookie, close the browser, and make the file readonly again. Another approach is to have a backup of the file, and restore from the backup on every bootup (this can be automated). Julian Thomas: http://jt-mj.net In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! Warpstock 2005: Hershey, Pa. October 6-9, 2005 - http://www.warpstock.org Old age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way some web sites are getting around that now is by issuing the cookie, as always, then going back one or two seconds later (while loading the page) _looking_ for the cookie ("Didn't I just give you a cookie? What does it say? What do you mean you don't have it any longer? That's it for you, goodbye.") I have tried that technique, I still get rejected by some sites. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 13:28:22 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Monty Solomon wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_ > machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? The sad thing is that it's simply not that hard to protect yourself. We have two computers here that never get infected ... the other one can't be infected because it's not on the Net, but my wife's and mine both are. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ From: Phil Earnhardt Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 14:46:14 -0600 Organization: http://newsguy.com On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 18:15:38 -0500, Jim Rusling wrote: >> When paying with a credit card, the server brings a small wireless >> terminal directly to the table. It looks just like a compact adding >> machine, with a paper roll on the back, but with a card slot on the >> front, where you insert your card. If it's a debit card, you key your >> PIN on the keypad. The receipts are printed right from the same >> device, and the card never leaves your possession. >> If devices like this were used in the states, you could presumably >> also use the keypad to add a tip amount to the check. (In France, >> where service is included, tips are a rarity, and when offered at all >> are invariably in cash.) > I would worry about the security of the wireless connection. One would hope that such devices *could not operate* unless there was a secure connection. I have more fundamental concerns: what would prevent the creation of a validation device that was completely functional but managed to copy and transmit the credit card information? What would keep an unscrupulous restraunt manager or waiter from substituting such a device? For that matter, what would keep an unscrupulous customer from swapping a trojan horse wireless validater widget while the waiter wasn't looking? AFAICT, any system which counts on the secrecy of a number is simply problematic today. Challenge/response systems are the only way to go: 1. The vendor sends the details of the transaction: your credit card number (which is no longer sacrosanct), the vendor's account number, and the amount of the transaction. Optionally, there could be a customer-supplied number shipped up for the customer's own tracking of transactions. These are sent to a centralized validation authority. 2. The validation authority issues a challenge code for this transaction. 3. The customer enters the code in their personal validation card which generates the response code. The customer manually enters the validation code; the vendor relays the validation code to the centralized authority and the transaction is validated. The personal validation card would be protected with a PIN and biometrics. AFAICT, having such a system would eliminate a massive amount of fraud. Besides using the card for validating transactions, any alteration of my credit information: applying for a new "credit card", change of address, etc. would require exactly the same validation. > Jim Rusling --phil ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Don't Let Data Theft Happen to You Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:42:05 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Fri, 15 Jul 2005 19:13:43 -0500, Jim Rusling wrote: > I recently ran into a > completely open wireless network at a business with sensitive records. > The owner thought that it was secured. I stumbled on something similar a few months ago when setting up a new WiFi network. We were getting a strong signal from an open network run by a company that does background checks. When I told them, they fixed it, toute de suite. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: A Pass on Privacy? Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 18:24:12 -0400 In article , monty@roscom.com says: > By CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL > Anyone making long drives this summer will notice a new dimension to > contemporary inequality: a widening gap between the users of automatic > toll-paying devices and those who pay cash. The E-ZPass system, as it > is called on the East Coast, seemed like idle gadgetry when it was > introduced a decade ago. Drivers who acquired the passes had to nose > their way across traffic to reach specially equipped tollbooths -- and > slow to a crawl while the machinery worked its magic. But now the > sensors are sophisticated enough for you to whiz past them. As more > lanes are dedicated to E-ZPass, lines lengthen for the saps paying > cash. > E-ZPass is one of many innovations that give you the option of trading > a bit of privacy for a load of convenience. You can get deep discounts > by ordering your books from Amazon.com or joining a supermarket > 'club.' In return, you surrender information about your purchasing > habits. Some people see a bait-and-switch here. Over time, the data > you are required to hand over become more and more personal, and such > handovers cease to be optional. Neato data gathering is making society > less free and less human. The people who issue such warnings -- > whether you call them paranoids or libertarians -- are among those you > see stuck in the rippling heat, 73 cars away from the ''Cash Only'' > sign at the Tappan Zee Bridge. Of course when they pry too deeply you can always lie. I do it regularly with store discount cards, etc. They can have my name, I don't care about that. But address, phone number, email, etc. if required will ALWAYS be fudged. Of course EZ-Pass is linked to a credit or debit card so it would be trivial to dig for information that way. And for those of a technical bent, it would be easy to run a bootleg EZ-Pass. It is after all and RFID device and you could read numbers all day long and then have your computer equipped RFID device send random numbers to the sensors. Interestingly the city of Providence is putting in parking kiosks. You can either insert cash or purchase a ProvPas. It's a mag-stripe based system. The card has the amount deposited for the account written on the magnetic stripe. But cards are just purchased for cash so one with a reader-writer could definitely have some fun with the system. ------------------------------ From: Dale Farmer Organization: The fuzz in the back of the fridge. Subject: Re: Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:24:37 GMT Monty Solomon wrote: > ORLANDO, Fla. -- The addition of finger scanning technology at the > entrances of Walt Disney World theme parks for all visitors has caused > concern among privacy advocates, according to a Local 6 News report. > Tourists visiting Disney theme parks in Central Florida must now > provide their index and middle fingers to be scanned before entering > the front gates. > The scans were formerly for season pass holders but now everyone must > provide their fingers, Local 6 News reported. They have reportedly > been phased in for all ticket holders during the past six months, > according to a report. > Disney officials said the scans help keep track of who is using > legitimate tickets, Local 6 News reported. > http://www.local6.com/news/4724689/detail.html > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: How could it tell something like that > unless there was some control samples as well? For example, finger > prints or scans _after_ the tickets were used, or when the tickets > were purchased? What good is just a random set of fingerprints without > some name or other controlled circumstances to go with it? Or is > Disney World taking down names and addresses and supplying these > finger scans to some third person or agency as well? Hmm ... PAT] Disney does have a problem with ( typically teenage) chronic troublemakers. They get caught, given the usual don't come back on the property spiel, and escorted off the property. The problem is that some of them come back with revenge in mind. By getting these folks prints and scanning everyone upon entrance, they can easily recognize them at the gate and block them. Disney has every right to use this technology at their parks. Just as I have the right to take my business elsewhere. --Dale ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Nigeria Jails Woman in $242 Million Fraud Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 20:01:03 -0400 Fred Atkinson wrote in message news:telecom24.327.11@telecom-digest.org: > The scam involved $242 million dollars, she is out only about a > quarter of that, and she only gets two and a half years in jail? And > she'll probably be paroled in less than a year if their penal system > is like ours. Worse than that. Backdated to include time served before conviction and sentencing. This is reportedly a major national industry for Nigeria. ------------------------------ 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. 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of Telecom Digest V24_#328 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jul 18 14:50:02 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 8A22F14DA0; Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:50:01 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #329 Message-Id: <20050718185001.8A22F14DA0@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:50:01 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.2 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL, CELL_PHONE_IMPROVE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:50:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 329 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Nokia Fugue in G Major (Melena Z. Ryzik) Feds Want to Eavesdrop on Airborne Internet Users (consumer-affairs.com) Up the Broadband Creek Without a Signal (James R. Hood) Sprint Enhances Sprint PCS Data Link Capabilities (Monty Solomon) QUALCOMM's gps Enhanced Navigation Software Further Improves (Solomon) Somebody's Watching You (Monty Solomon) Thinking Maps (Monty Solomon) Texas House Passes Telecom Bill (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern (Clark W. Griswold,Jr) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (mc) Re: Nigeria Jails Woman in $242 Million Fraud (The Wondrous One) Re: Camelot on the Moon - From Our Archives (Paul Vader) Poem: Skeletons in the Sky (Charles Gray) 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: Melena Z. Ryzik Subject: Nokia Fugue in G Major Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 23:15:44 -0500 By MELENA Z. RYZIK CARLOS BOUSTED is a laid-back recent high school graduate and a sometime D.J. Unlike most D.J.'s, though, Mr. Bousted does not have to lug around crates of records, CD's or even an iPod. His music is strictly cellular. Mr. Bousted, 18, is a ringtone D.J. A competitive ringtone D.J. "You put certain songs in order and play them against other people," he said, explaining his technique. "Anytime you're walking around: 'Oh, what you got?' And then you pull out your phone." Downloadable ringtones like the ones Mr. Bousted uses -- tunes from artists like the Yin Yang Twins and 50 Cent -- have been a teenage mainstay for years, a mushrooming market worth almost $5 billion globally (the United States share is $600 million and growing). But as people like Mr. Bousted have grown fluent in the language of ringtones, industry executives and musicians alike have realized that they need not be duplicates of already popular songs; there is room for creativity alongside the commerce. "We definitely see a market for original content," said Andy Volanakis, president and chief officer of Zingy, a ringtone provider that has released an album by the producer Timbaland. When combined with technology that allows them to sound like music instead of its tinny shadow, and programs that allow anyone to make, mix or otherwise devise his or her own ringtones, the seven songs on the Timbaland album -- among the first meant to be played on a phone, not a radio or CD player -- suggest that ring tones are not merely a new money-maker; they are a new art form. "People have really started to take this stuff seriously," said Jonathan Dworkin, vice president for artists and repertory at BlingTones, a Zingy competitor that was one of the first to focus on original works. Its partners include the crunk progenitor Lil Jon, Q-Tip and others. With ringbacks, voice tones (Snoop Dogg says, "Pick up the phone!") and sound effects crowding the field, there are more opportunities to circumvent the cellphone's bleep or brring than ever before. Even Nokia, which in 1991 became the first company to market a cellphone with an identifiable musical ring tone (Francisco Tarrega's "Gran Vals" for classical guitar), has moved away from its traditional tunes. For its newest phone, the Nokia 8801, it commissioned wholly original music and sounds, composed exclusively for cellphone by the eclectic Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Later this summer, Zingy will release a song by Free Murda, a Wu-Tang Clan acolyte, as both a single and a ringtone; it was produced by RZA, who compiled the scores for Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films. Why would a serious musician bother? After all, a song can have multiple lives; a ringtone, just one, and a fruit-fly-length one at that. (Timbaland's seven original ringtones average just 20 seconds each.) Money is definitely one reason. As Lil Jon said of BlingTones, "They cut the check." But that's not the end of the story. "It's another way of reaching your audience," he added in a telephone interview. "It's exciting. Like I was already thinking, what if I produce a song for the cellphone that ends up getting on music charts? The technology is so crazy, that could one day happen." Actually, it already has: in Britain, the heavily advertised Crazy Frog ringtone - based on a Swedish teenager's imitation of a revving engine - topped artists like Coldplay and U2 on the singles charts just last month. And the remix is already out. One BlingTones artist, Tony (CD) Kelly, has already started incorporating the old standard-issue cellphone rings into his new ringtones -- a postmodern remix in which the Nokia song morphs into a hip-hop beat, for example. Mainstream musicians are not the only ones intrigued by the possibility of the ringing opus. In 2001, the multimedia artist Golan Levin, now a professor of electronic art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, was the co-creator of "Dialtones," a "telesymphony" (flong.com/telesymphony), composed entirely of the rings of audience members' cellphones. In Britain (where pop-inspired ringtones already often outsell the songs they are based on), there's a wide variety of phone art, from Nick Crowe's "Axis of Evil" national anthems (artones.net) to Stream & Shout, which paired artists and students to create original ringtones (streamandshout.net). "They understood it immediately," Ross Dalziel, a Liverpool, England, sound artist, said of the teenagers he worked with on the Stream & Shout project. For many people, especially the young, ringtones are as musically viable as a favorite mixtape was a generation ago: "The phone playing their favorite song is their identifier," said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts and senior analyst at Billboard magazine, which began a ringtone chart last fall. "That's part of how they brand themselves," he added. Like so much technology before it, then, the cellphone has morphed far beyond its original function. "A phone used to ring just to get your attention," Mr. Levin said. Now, said Patrick Parodi, chairman of Mobile Entertainment Forum, a London-based trade association, "it's probably the device that identifies us most, along with our cars." For musicians, the ringtone also presents an irresistible opportunity to connect with fans. Customization is growing daily: consumers can now choose what part of Fabolous's single "Baby" they want as their ringtone; previously, record companes made those kinds of decisions. "The direction we're going in is you'd actually have this artist create the ringtone when your boyfriend calls, or your best friend," said Amy Doyle, vice president for music programming at MTV, which helped release the Timbaland album. "So it becomes the artist scoring your life, almost, on your cellphone." According to Edward Bilous, a professor at the Juilliard School, "Ringtones are pointing towards a kind of new interactive media in which the user and the creator have a more democratic relationship with each other." But as every sidewalk, cafe or mode of public transport by now proves, there's also a performance aspect to mobile phones. (After all, nobody customizes the ringtone on a home phone.) And not everyone regards it as welcome. "I think most people would agree with me that as they exist now, ringtones are a public nuisance," Mr. Sakamoto wrote in an e-mail message. (Presumably, his composition for Nokia is an exception.) There are certainly limitations to the form, though Mr. Levin suggests that boundaries breed creativity. But with sales on the rise, companies like Verizon, Cingular and Sprint are creating music-playing phones and giving them the ability to tune in streaming radio. And while Mr. Bilous worries that the ubiquity of musical cellphones might ruin the listening experience (he is already pondering starting a course called "From Ring Cycle to Ringtones: A Study in Musical Attention Deficit Disorder"), others contend that they can create new fans with every sound. Even the ringtone battles described by Mr. Bousted, the cellphone D.J., foster community. "You have a little group of people and they'll decide, like, 'Oh, yours is better,' " he said. "And then you talk to each other and make friends." Mr. Levin added: "It can be a vehicle for creative expression both on the part of the composer and the part of the person who uses it. The ringtone has a clear connection to everyday life, and because of that I think it's a vital form." For those who disagree, there's always vibrate. Copyright 2005 New York Times. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. For the daily NY Times, read: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ From: Consumer Affairrs.com Subject: Feds Want to Eavesdrop on Airborne Internet Users Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 23:18:17 -0500 Federal law enforcement agencies say they're all in favor of airline passengers being able to surf the Web and send and receive emails, as long as the feds are able to listen in. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies have told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) they want to be able to iintercept, block or divert email and other airborne communications, after obtaining a court order. Internet providers would be required to enable government monitoring within 10 minutes of an order being issued. DHS wants the providers to be able to identify Internet users by their seat number and to retain complete records of passengers' Internet usage for at least 24 hours. The government fears that terrorists could use the Internet to coordinate attacks and even detonate remote-controlled explosive devices on airplanes using airborne Internet. In a filing with the FCC, DHS said federal agencies have only "a short window of opportunity" to detect and thwart suidical terrorist hijackings or other crisis situations. The proposed requirements go well beyond those imposed on earthbound Internet providers but DHS said the potential danger of airborne attacks justifies the measures. The FCC has been studying the technical issues involved in providing Internet and cell phone access on commercial airliners. A few international carriers already offer such service. Copyright 2003-2005 ConsumerAffairs.Com Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Read consumer affairs RSS newsfeed daily here. ------------------------------ From: James R. Hood Subject: Up the Broadband Creek Without a Signal Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 23:20:12 -0500 Options are Slim for Those without DSL or Cable By James R. Hood ConsumerAffairs.Com Al Gore took a lot of heat for his slightly inflated version of his role in the Internet's beginnings but, whatever else you may say about it, the previous Administration at least appeared to be trying to jump-start the Internet. The current masters of the universe seem to think the "invisible hand of the marketplace" will cause broadband to sprout like kudzu throughout the land, without (or in spite of) needless interference from government. The Federal Communications Commission, accordingly, stood aside as the Bell companies devoured everything in sight, pausing between gulps to say that new broadband networks would be coming soon. But while high-speed Internet use by U.S. businesses and households rose 34 percent in 2004 to 37.9 million lines, according to FCC figures released last week, the U.S. ranks 16th in broadband use among major nations. Digital subscriber line, or DSL, service increased 45 percent last year to 13.8 million lines. Cable modem use climbed 30 percent to 21.4 million lines. Other Internet connections using wireless and satellite increased by 50 percent to 500,000 last year, the FCC said, while use of optical fiber and powerlines rose 16 percent to 700,000. In a column published in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin vows that broadband deployment is his "highest priority." Perhaps, but that's not of much comfort to the millions of Americans still without broadband service -- not all of them in Short Pump, Virginia, or Happy, Texas. Some are in "undesirable" big-city neighborhoods, others in affluent suburbs that for one reason or another aren't wired for DSL or cable and some are just in-between, traveling, vacationing or working outside the office. The United States is a pretty big place, after all, and the natural inclination of any businessperson is to concentrate his service where it will reach the biggest number of potential customers with the lowest possible delivery costs. These days, that generally means that downtown areas and middle-class neighborhoods are the most likely to have broadband service from either a cable company or the local telephone company, or, as is often the case, both. And everyone else? Well, they are mostly out of luck. There's no doubt things are changing and new services are coming. Verizon and SBC are digging up streets throughout the land to install fiber to the home so that they can compete with cable system by delivering high-definition video. Of course, almost all of this activity is in areas where cable and the telcos already provide broadband. It does nothing for those in unserved areas. While there is no shortage of complaints about DSL and cable Internet services, the situation is much worse for those who can't get broadband at all. "The Internet is increasingly designed to be used with a high speed connection," said Mark Huffman, a ConsumerAffairs.Com contributing editor who moved to a rural area on Chesapeake Bay a few years ago. "Every site is loaded with rich media. If you are on dial-up, its very hard to use the Internet. It becomes very frustrating." Working with Huffman, we explored various methods of getting broadband service where none now exists. Contrary to what broadband providers might think, Huffman found a great deal of interest among residents of his somewhat sleepy village. "In my county there is no broadband available, other than satellite. I can tell you that every business owner I talked to about trying to bring in wireless was enthusiastic about the idea, and willing to pay a premium price to get it, if they could," Huffman said. Here are a few of the services we explored: Verizon Wireless Broadband We found this expensive ($80 per month) service to be virtually useless, whether in the sticks or under the Capitol dome. We could not get it to work in the Washington, D.C., New York or Los Angeles metro areas. It didn't work in the St. Louis airport or at the beach in Delaware, to pick a few other examples. Where does this thing work, we wondered? Answer: we don't know. See A Test of Verizon Wireless Broadband for all the gory details. Warning: Sprint has announced it is deploying the same technology. _Buyer beware of Sprint and Verizon_. Fixed Wireless Unlike the Verizon wireless card, some wireless broadband providers offer what's called "fixed wireless" -- meaning it's not mobile. This involves line-of-sight microwave transmission. Translation: towers. If you are lucky enough to have such a service in your area, it may be the answer if you are in its primary coverage area and don't have trees, mountains or other obstructions blocking the signal path. It can work well, we're told. We were not able to find any services we could test but we heard from one consumer who's quite happy with her experience. "We had satellite-based Starband, but found it slow and stupid about multiple users," said Catherine of Sparks, Nevada. "So we got wireless broadband from Amigo and we are very happy with it." "The thing is that we essentially have a personal ISP -- the guy who runs our area for Amigo.net knows us, our tech needs and is very responsive (unlike our prior DSL experience elsewhere with Verizon). Reminds me of when we used to have our power from a rural electric coop -- a much friendlier experience!" T-1 A T-1 is old technology but very stable. It is provided over a double pair of plain old copper telephone lines and is available literally anywhere in the U.S., if you're willing to pay for it. Line-haul charges are steep outside major urban areas. The speed is about the same as an average cable connection. Installation takes months and a long-term contract is required. A few years ago, driven nearly mad by Cox Communications' extremely sporadic service and unable to get DSL in our neighborhood, we had a T-1 installed at our home by a D.C. telecommunications provider who asks not to be named (hey, we have enemies). The cost: $600 per month. This may sound like an extravagance but we work at home quite a bit of the time and reliability is essential. Obviously, a T-1 is impractical for consumers and, in many cases, even for technology-dependent businesses, as we learned when we tried to price out a T-1 for Huffman. We shopped around for a T-1 and found nothing under about $800 per month. We were dubious of that quote since every other provider wanted about $1,200. This obviously isn't a practical solution for most individuals or small businesses. Satellite Still trying to get Huffman up and running, we surfed over to DirecTV and found them offering a variety of consumer- and business-grade packages under their DirecWay brand. This is not the old satellite Internet that used a satellite for the downleg and a telephone connection for the upleg -- some pretty cool spread-spectrum technology handles the upleg. The business-grade package we bought delivers speeds comparable to DSL. There was a $1,000 installation charge and the monthly charge is about $99. For a business, this is cheap. Consumer-grade packages start at around $50. Don't say we told you this but you can buy the consumer package and get a geekish friend to put up a Wi-Fi connection that your neighbors can use. Maybe you can get them to chip in on the installation and monthly tariff. At the moment, DirecTV has the market pretty well to itself although there is a new player that hopes to make some noise later this year, we're told. In the past, we have received some really bitter complaints from consumers who found various satellite Internet services annoying. There's no question that wireless communications will almost always be somewhat less stable than wired; it's the nature of the beast. Satellite transmissions are in the Ku band -- very high frequency and thus more prone to interference from rain and snow. Until the laws of physics are changed, you can expect service degradation during bad weather. Then there's the little matter of the speed of light. The communications satellites are 26,000 miles out in space. A signal has to go up from your dish to the bird and the downleg signal has to come back down. That's 52,000 miles round trip. Look up the speed of light and you can do the math; it works out to a noticeable split-second delay between the time you click your mouse and the time the signal hits the router on the bird. Is this a problem? We'd say that once you understand what's happening, you can make a mental adjustment to allow for it. We have been around satellite communications a long time and respect it greatly. It is amazingly effective and has the lowest environmental overhead you can imagine -- no wires, no digging, no towers, very slight power consumption. OK, some might find the dishes ugly but that's an aesthetics argument. Personally, we find utility poles about as ugly as anything. Dangerous, too. We spent an afternoon using the DirecWay feed and found it as good if not better than the T-1's we use at our office and at home. Of course, not every DirecWay customer agrees, including Gary of Lincoln, Missouri. "Service is very crappy. Slow, sometimes as bad as dialup if not worse. I buy and sell on ebay so if the internet doesn't work I lose big," Gary said. Gary's complaint is similar to those often leveled at DSL and cable providers as well. In many of these cases, the fault lies elsewhere -- slow servers, bogged-down DNS and, not infrequently, balkiness in the user's PC. Inadequate memory, spyware, viruses, file fragmentation, all can slow the display of Web pages. Power Lines It's a little puzzling why broadband Internet via electrical lines hasn't taken off. The copper wires that deliver electricity to homes and offices are capable of moving a lot of data at very low cost but the technology just hasn't gotten the attention it would seem to deserve. That may be changing, though. A Maryland company that provides high-speed Internet access over electrical power lines last week received a major investment from Google Inc., the Hearst Corp. and Goldman Sachs. Current Communications Group declined to disclose financial terms of the investment though the Wall Street Journal reported that it approached $100 million. If the FCC stays out of the picture, maybe this will go somewhere. Dial-Up There's no question: dial-up just doesn't get it anymore. Even if you never download audio or video files, most Web sites now have such fat pages that it's a very frustrating proposition to be stuck on a dial-up connection. The experience just isn't the same. That being said, we would have to admit we sometimes get more done on the rare occasions when we must rely on dial-up connections. We find ourselves spending more time writing and editing, even thinking, less time reading the latest inflammatory e-mails. Then there's the matter of cost: dial-up is cheap, assuming you don't fall for the high-priced brands like AOL, MSN and Earthlink. We seldom issue outright recommendations but here are two dial-up ISP providers we have used with great success when stuck in nowheresville: localnet.com and highstream.net. Both have plans under $10 per month that will provide dial-up access from most parts of the country. As always, you must be sure to select a dial-up number that is within your local calling area. So? So, what to do if you're living in an area without cable or DSL broadband? We'd say satellite is the best option, at least for now. For road warriors and those on temporary assignments, we don't have a good answer, other than an inexpensive dial-up plan, a list of hotel chains that offer free high-speed access and a willingness to hang around Internet cafes. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. At least for now. Copyright 2003-2005 ConsumerAffairs.Com Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 11:09:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sprint Enhances Sprint PCS Data Link Capabilities Sprint Enhances Sprint PCS Data Link(SM) Capabilities to Enable Wireless Replacement of Wireline Data Access for Business Locations Capabilities of wireless and wireline networks enable Sprint to offer a secure, converged, end-to-end solution for business-customer data access that helps lower costs, drive productivity and increase customers satisfaction. OVERLAND PARK, Kan., July 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Further erasing the imaginary line between wireless and wireline communications technologies, Sprint today announced enhancements to Sprint PCS Data Link that allow customers to replace or back-up existing wireline data access for business locations or leverage new remote-access features for their mobile workforce. Wireless data access for office locations is an exciting new offer at Sprint, enabling business customers to leverage the low cost and flexibility of wireless as a true wireline data access replacement technology. Sprint expects to make these capabilities available to business customers next month. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50526536 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 11:18:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: QUALCOMM's gpsOne Enhanced Navigation Software QUALCOMM's gpsOne(R) Enhanced Navigation Software Further Improves Accuracy and Reduces Cost for Automotive and Pedestrian Navigation in the Wireless Phone - Integrated Solution Eliminates Need for Additional GPS Chips and Enables Mass Market - SAN DIEGO, July 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology, today announced the industry's first enhanced navigation solution fully integrated in wireless 3G modems. This feature provides higher accuracy, turn by turn map positioning for automotive and personal navigation applications in wireless handsets, enabling a better user experience and exciting new navigation applications for the consumer and enterprise markets. This enhanced software will be available on QUALCOMM's market-leading gpsOne(R) solution for use with select Mobile Station Modem(TM) (MSM(TM)) chipsets for both CDMA2000(R) and WCDMA (UMTS) networks. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50527102 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 23:29:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Somebody's Watching You Upskirting. Downblousing. Happy slapping. As camera phones proliferate, an ugly vocabulary is born. By Monica Collins Camera phones can be dangerous. That's my technoparanoia talking, as the hybrid gadgets now number in the millions and allow anybody to take pictures for the perverse kick of it. A cellphone salesman from Rhode Island was arrested in May for peeping under a 17-year-old's skirt with a camera phone as she rode the escalator at the Emerald Square Mall in North Attleborough. The crime? "Upskirting." "Downblousing" is just what you imagine: covertly snapping bosom shots of women bending over, images that typically turn up on Internet voyeur sites. California's Legislature banned upskirting and downblousing after pictures taken at Disneyland showed up on the Web. "Happy slapping" involves surprising a passerby with a punch or slap and recording the act on a camera phone. In April, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that transport police had investigated 200 such incidents in the previous six months at London bus stops and train stations. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/07/17/somebodys_watching_you/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 23:37:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Thinking Maps By Joshua Glenn LATE LAST MONTH, the Internet search company Google announced it would share its cutting-edge Google Maps technology with 'outside Web developers.' That is to say, hackers, who've been using the online cartographic service to create unauthorized interactive maps of everything from cheap nationwide gas prices to local street crime ever since Google's speedy, responsive service was launched in February. Google had originally envisioned people using its European-style streetmaps and creepily close-up satellite images to size up neighborhoods where an apartment was for rent, for example, or to check out a vacation spot's proximity to the beach. But civic-minded computer jockeys had other visions. Matching the latitude and longitude points from Google Maps (which provides virtual push-pin markers for physical addresses typed into a search field; see marker on map at right) with locations from police blotters, real estate listings, and other databases, they've created free searchable maps of crime in Chicago, sexual predators in Florida, and apartments for rent in New York, to cite just three examples. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/07/17/thinking_maps/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:00:17 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Texas House Passes Telecom Bill USTelecom dailyLead July 18, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23122&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Texas House passes telecom bill BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Nearly half of Americans bundling purchases * Fed will spend big on wireless, analyst says * Profile: Alcatel's Quigley dialed in * Cell phones get big-screen promotion * Earnings report HOT TOPICS * Ebbers gets 25-year prison sentence * Sprint snaps up US Unwired * Broadband price war unfolds among cable, phone companies * Study: VoIP still not as reliable as landline * Verizon's FiOS being challenged by cable offerings EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * GPS, E911 and VoIP REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Lafayette voters approve municipal network Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23122&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: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 20:50:51 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Dale Farmer wrote: > Disney does have a problem with (typically teenage) chronic > troublemakers. They get caught, given the usual don't come back on > the property spiel, and escorted off the property. The problem is > that some of them come back with revenge in mind. By getting these > folks prints and scanning everyone upon entrance, they can easily > recognize them at the gate and block them. While I don't doubt that is one use of the technology, I'd have to see the details of the implementation before I'd believe that the hand geometry from two fingers would be sufficient to uniquely identify anyone. What is far more likely in my mind is Disney's ongoing desire to prevent multiday passes and resort passes from being used by more than one individual. I suspect that Disney ties a hash function of a few points from the hand to the serial number of the pass. Try to use the pass by someone else and the odds of the hash being the same are sufficiently high enough to be detected ... ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 23:32:43 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory http://www.speedfactory.net Whoever gave that man a Ph.D. in computer science should reconsider ... ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 09:56:51 -0500 From: The Wondrous One Reply-To: The Wondrous One Subject: Re: Nigeria Jails Woman in $242 Million Fraud In message , Fred Atkinson wrote: > The scam involved $242 million dollars, she is out only about a > quarter of that, and she only gets two and a half years in jail? > Is it any wonder these people keep right on doing this? At least the Nigerian government has begun addressing the problem. The punishment seems light, but let us compare it to a recent fraud case in the USA. $242 million is approximately 1/45th the size of the $11 billion fraud that was perpetrated at MCI Worldcom, if the latest conviction in the US holds up. If the Nigerian government had used the USA's example as a guideline, she should have been sentenced to 1/45'th of 25 years which is just under 7 months. No wonder these corporate types keep right on doing this in the US. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although she was sentenced to 2.5 years, it was backdated to early in 2004 to credit her for the time she spent waiting for her trial. Then, in Nigeria as in USA, the actual time spent in prison is about 50 percent of the sentence, with the remainder on parole. So half of 2.5 is 1.25 years, with credit for time served since 2004 waiting for trial subtracted from that. I think she has a month or two of time still to be served is all. What people do not seem to understand is that like the court system, the correctional system is its own bureaucracy. Within certain constraints, correctional really does not care what the judge said or recommended; they do their own thing. I mean, yes, they have to observe the judge's orders to a certain extent, and they certainly cannot exceed the time imposed by the court, but often as not, choose to cut it _way, way_ back. And if the prison social workers choose to write off about half of the overall sentence through the magic of 'prison accounting' and 'good time awards' do you think the prisoner is going to complain any? Once the judge signed and stamped the Writ of Mandamus, placing the person in custody, he is going to forget about it and move on to the next case in front of him that day in the never ending assembly line. Corrections has to discharge a certain number each day in order to make room for the new offenders the judicial assembly line is sending in. PAT] ------------------------------ From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) Subject: Re: Camelot on the Moon - From Our Archives Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 15:56:49 -0000 Organization: Inline Software Creations kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes: > Indeed, the Apollo 11 camera was monochrome. I don't think it was > until Apollo 14 that we got color images from the moon's surface in > realtime. And the monochrome images from 11 were pretty awful due to > limited channel bandwidth. Right. We should have gotten color on Apollo 12, but Alan Bean fried the camera when he accidentally pointed it at the sun moments into the first moonwalk. As you note, all the color pictures from the first two landings are from film cameras, which had to make the trip back to earth with the astronauts before being seen. * -- * PV something like badgers -- something like lizards -- and something like corkscrews. ------------------------------ From: Charles G Gray Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 12:42:04 -0500 Subject: Poem - Skeletons in the Sky Pat, a while back my wife and I were driving down I-44 toward Tulsa and I noticed a couple of abandoned cell phone antenna towers. They were the "old" style open iron framework. My wife asked who would be responsible for removing them and I told her that someday the original owner might, but no guarantee. She said "they look like skeletons in the sky", so I suggested that she call our daughter (the English Teacher) who lives in Ohio and give that to her as a title for a poem. True to form, here it is -- put it in the Digest if you like. Skeletons in the Sky Skeletons in the sky, Bony fingers reaching for Signals, Silenced Empty and alone No longer alive with the Chatter of stockbrokers Best friends, Teenagers. Alone they stand Whole, but broken Waiting for the sweet sounds To bring them back. Skeletons in the sky, Bony fingers reaching for Signals. (c) 2005 Dawn Gray Dobson Regards, Charles G. Gray Senior Lecturer, Telecommunications Oklahoma State University - Tulsa (918)594-8433 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you very much for this fine contribution. Please send my thanks for Ms. Dobson. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #329 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jul 19 11:23:50 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id E3D4014DB8; Tue, 19 Jul 2005 11:23:49 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #330 Message-Id: <20050719152349.E3D4014DB8@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 11:23:49 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 19 Jul 2005 11:23:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 330 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Unlock ATA - Part 1 (Tom Keating) Unlock ATA - Part 2 (Johanne Torres) SBC Wins Big in Texas Statehouse (Sanford Nowlin) Cable Operator to Battle Ma Bell for Downtown Customers (IB Journal) Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? (Lisa Hancock) Installation for ESI S-class (justlearning1@hotmail.com) Texas House Passes Telecom Bill (S. Reddy) Re: Texas House Passes Telecom Bill (Steve Sobol) Re: Muzzling Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line (Lisa Hancock) Re: Muzzling Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line (G Wollman) Re: Up the Broadband Creek Without a Signal (Scott Dorsey) 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: Tom Keating Subject: Unlock ATA - Part 1 Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:21:21 -0500 (From Tom Keating's Blog) I just came across Johanne Torres' interesting article: DVG-1402S: The First Unlocked VoIP Router? In case you weren't aware, SIPPhone sued Vonage for allegedly releasing misleading packaging and advertising on locked VoIP ATAs (analog telephony adaptors) from Cisco's Linksys. In the suit, SIPphone demanded that Vonage properly label boxes and advertisements to list the mandatory fees and restrictions of their locked hardware, which I wrote about awhile back in this blog entry. I'm all for open standards, so I tended to side with SIPPhone from a moral standing, but that doesn't mean that Linksys and Vonage were doing anything illegal. Partnering is as much a part of capitalism as anything else. Anyway, it appears that in her article, Johanne Torres mentions the D-Link DVG-1402S is now supported by SIPPhone, and the article also states that the D-Link DVG-1402S is the first "ATA firewall/router combo" from a major manufacturer -- namely D-Link that is not tied to a specific VoIP service provider. (Most router/firewall ATA devices are locked to a specific VoIP service provider.) I should mention that Zoom also has an "unlocked ATA" which I recently reviewed, but unlike most ATAs, their ATA is not only a firewall/router ATA device but it features an integrated DSL modem -- but it does require DSL service to work -- cable broadband users need not apply! Actually, I take that back. I just recalled that 2 out of the 3 Zoom products are DSL-based, but they do offer an "unlocked SIP-based ATA router/firewall combo" -- the Zoomtel V3 Model 5567 that works with cable broadband, DSL (using your existing DSL modem), or other IP connectivity. So I guess technically there are two manufacturers offering unlocked ATAs, but Zoom is certainly less well-known than D-Link, so maybe they don't fall under the "major manufacturer" category stated in Johanne's article. The D-link DVG-1402S hasn't been out long, but it already has started to build a fan-base. For instance, there's an interesting 2-page thread in the VoIP Forum about the D-Link DVG-1402S titled "Need To Unlock D-Link DVG-1402S" you should go check out. Updated: Hmmm, it appears Linksys was also offering an unlocked ATA but pulled it from the market. Did I miss any others? Let me know ... TrackBack for Unlocked ATA: http://blog.tmcnet.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/1111 First open VoIP router? Hardly. from PhoneBoy's Blog I've seen covered a couple of places, but the D-Link DVG-1402S is not the first unlocked VoIP router I believe that honor belongs to the Sipura SPA-2100, which has been out for a few weeks. The SPA-2100 has a fairly ... Comments on Unlocked ATA Re: Unlocked ATA Um, what about the Sipura SPA-2100? Posted by: PhoneBoy Yeah, I was wondering to myself if Sipura had a ATA router/firewall combo device that wasn't locked down. I remembered I wrote about the Sipura 2100 when it came out here: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/voip-blog/sipura-spa2100-and-spa841-ata.asp And like you say it is unlocked. Actually, didn't Linksys OEM the Sipura firmware? But Linksys "locks" the device to one VoIP service provider, so that negates Sipura's openness that they have in their own box. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In part 2 of this article today, we will look at the original article presented by Johanne Torres. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Johanne Torres Subject: Unlocked ATA - Part 2 Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:27:47 -0500 DVG-1402S: The First Unlocked VoIP Router? BY JOHANNE TORRES SIPphone Inc., the VoIP-based calling service from MP3.com's founder Michael Robertson, today announced the immediate availability of the D-Link Broadband Phone Service VoIP Router DVG-1402S. The new router created by D-Link-not intentionally restricted to a particular VoIP service, can be configured for use with any SIP standards-based VoIP service, with no fees or penalties to the customer. The San Diego, CA-based company says the DVG-1402S router works in seconds out of the box with the SIPphone's free service. According to Robertson-SIPphone's CEO, in the VoIP industry, services like Vonage and AT&T pay manufacturers to lock otherwise standards-based hardware to their service. Robertson says that these payments come in many forms including price subsidies, rebates and development funds. "Take a look at any of the other VoIP adapters or routers on the shelf in the store and you will see the word 'free' sprinkled across every surface of the box, but this is misleading. The DVG-1402S is, the only VoIP adapter or router from a major manufacturer you can use out of the box without paying monthly fees," added Robertson. "Can you imagine if AOL paid Dell to lock modems to their dialup service? It is unthinkable, and yet that is just what VoIP providers like Vonage are doing with voice adapters," says Robertson. Last September, SIPphone filed suit against Vonage for allegedly releasing misleading packaging and advertising on locked VoIP adapters from Cisco's Linksys. In the suit, SIPphone demanded that Vonage properly label boxes and advertisements to list the mandatory fees and restrictions of their locked hardware. According to SIPphone, with the availability of the DVG-1402S router, the company will enable consumers to choose a feature rich, unlocked adapter. The D-Link DVG-1402S enables standard phones to be used for placing calls over the Internet while sharing the incoming Internet connection across up to four different PCs. Using existing broadband connection, the D-Link DVG-1402S connects directly to a cable or DSL modem in place of a traditional router using a firewall protection. When users connect up to two regular phones to the D-Link DVG-1402S, it enables them to connect to SIPphone's Internet telephone service for free. Compatible with SIPphone's free call features such as in-network calling, caller ID, voicemail-to-email, conference calling, call hunting, SMS notification, call waiting, and call blocking, the D-Link DVG-1402S also acts like a router for a home or business network, providing room to connect up to four computers to share an Internet connection without affecting call quality. The DVG-1402S fully supports SIPphone's leading auto-configuration standard, Plug-N-Dial. With Plug-N-Dial, consumers get a working VoIP phone just seconds after plugging in the DVG-1402S to a regular telephone and a broadband connection. The router is currently available for $99 at SIPphone's Web site. SIPphone http://www.sipphone.com Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet.com and Internet Telephony magazine. Previously, she was assistant editor for EContent magazine in Connecticut. She can be reached by e-mail at jtorres@tmcnet.com. Subscribe FREE to all of TMC's monthly magazines. Technology Marketing Corporation, One Technology Plaza, Norwalk, CT 06854 USA Ph: 800-243-6002, 203-852-6800; Fx: 203-853-2845 General comments: tmc@tmcnet.com. Copyright 1997-2005 Technology Marketing Corp. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Technology Marketing Corporation. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Sanford Nowlin Subject: SBC Wins Big in (Texas) State House Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:13:49 -0500 By Sanford Nowlin Express-News Business Writer The Texas House of Representatives voted 135-6 Sunday to pass a controversial bill that would make it easier for the state's biggest phone companies to offer pay television service. Supporters of the measure -- which the Senate approved with minor differences Wednesday -- said it would create jobs and investment by letting SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. each negotiate a single franchise with the state to offer video. Under current rules, the companies must negotiate agreements with each city they plan to serve -- just as their cable competitors did. But San Antonio-based SBC and New York-based Verizon have argued that reaching individual agreements would slow their rollouts. "(With passage of the bill), we're going to see competition increase year after year," said Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, who championed the measure. "It will be kind of like what happened with local service and long distance." But cable carriers hotly opposed the measure, as did some cities. They said it would give the phone giants an unfair advantage, let them bypass low-income neighborhoods, and strip money from city coffers. "This bill is such a giveaway, we should be calling it SBC 21," Houston Democrat Rep. Harold Dutton said, playing on the name of the bill, SB 21. The measure also allows SBC and other dominant phone companies to increase prices for add-on phone service in large markets like San Antonio and in smaller ones where they can show they face competition. Under the bill, basic phone rates would remain frozen until the 2007 legislative session. SBC and Verizon lobbied vigorously for the new franchise rules. Each is spending billions to break into the video business as cable carriers chip away at their phone markets. If the bill passes, Texas will be the first state to simplify its video franchising rules to make it easier for SBC and Verizon to roll out video. The Federal Communications Commission also is expected to weigh in on the matter. Lawmakers debated a similar measure during the regular legislative session, but it died when the House and Senate couldn't iron out major differences. Observers said the new bill also could die if lawmakers can't complete work on new school finance rules. School funding is the main focus of the 30-day special legislative session that ends Wednesday. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Friday said the Senate won't act on any other bills until it can consider school finance changes. The Senate would need to approve alterations made to the bill in the House before it can be signed into law. Portions Copyright 2005 KENS 5 and the San Antonio Express-News. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, San Antonio Express-News. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Indianapolis Business Journal Subject: Cable Operator to Battle Ma Bell For Downtown Customers Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:15:54 -0500 Bright House Networks plans a fourth-quarter launch of residential phone service via its cable television system, bringing new competition to entrenched SBC Communications and to local exchange resellers in the heart of the city. That area includes the downtown business district, where Bright House already provides cable TV and high-speed Internet. Phone service tailored for commercial use "is probably a year out," said Doug Murray, general manager of voice services in Indianapolis for the St. Petersburg-based company. Such a product "will be raising the level of sophistication of the service quite a bit. When you start dealing with mission-critical needs, you want to make sure it's right." While phone service initially will be targeted to residential customers, "We certainly anticipate there will be teleworkers" signing up this year, said Murray, noting the segment that works part of the time at home. Following "very quickly" will be a rollout of phone service to Bright House's customers in Carmel and Zionsville. Pricing of the phone product for Bright House's 120,000 customers hasn't been set, but is to be competitive with other cable systems offering phone service. Bright House already offers phone service over its Tampa Bay cable system, at $49.95 as a stand-alone service and at $39.95 when purchased with other product offerings, such as cable and Internet. Locally, cable provider Comcast launched phone service in January at a stand-alone price of nearly $55, or $39.95 when bundled. It includes unlimited local and long-distance calls. Comcast also plans to offer a phone package for businesses down the road, said Mark Apple, spokesman for the Philadelphia-based company's local operations. "We're still in the infancy of this product." For now, Comcast is busy expanding its residential reach for the phone product. "Within a month, we will be launching to our customers in Hendricks County," he said. Apple won't disclose how many phone customers Comcast has signed up, only that the number has exceeded expectations. Customer service agents have been pitching the new phone offering to customers calling to order cable and Internet products, Apple said. While it's possible to get basic phone service cheaper from SBC, Comcast boasts that its cable-based phone offering includes a dozen premium features that phone companies tend to charge extra for, including three-way calling and Caller ID. "There's no question the competition and the cable companies are aggressively promoting and offering voice services in central Indiana," said SBC spokesman Mike Marker. "There's going to be more companies competing for business." While Comcast and Bright House move onto its turf, SBC is becoming more like its competitors. Last year it offered satellite TV service, through a partnership with Dish Network. SBC is planning to supplement its broadband Internet service with a high-speed Internet product through Dish. SBC also is updating its existing phone network to be able to offer video services to residential customers. Business versions of cable phone service are likely to be much more advanced. Bright House, for example, is looking at the capability of nine-way teleconferencing. Also, it would offer local businesses alternative phone numbers, such as those with the same area code of customers in distant cities-projecting a local flavor to those customers and eliminating a toll charge. Making possible such features is Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, a technology that underpins the phone offerings of cable providers. It digitizes voice into packets, compresses them and sends the information over the Internet or privately managed data networks. VOIP allows more than eight times the number of calls on the same line than traditional switched telephone technology. VOIP is used in different ways. Firms such as Edison, N.J.based Vonage, which has heavily advertised its phone product, require customers to have high-speed Internet service. Customers plug phones and fax machines into a special adapter. Customers of Comcast's system, on the other hand, don't need an Internet connection. The phone service is hard-wired into a customer's existing phone junction box, so all the existing phone jacks in the building are enabled. Whatever the flavor, the number of U.S. subscribers to residential VOIP services is likely to grow to 27 million by 2010 vs. 3 million today, according to Framingham, Mass.-based International Data Corp. VOIP penetration also is growing in business applications. Local phone service provider SBC, for example, already offers VOIP packages that are integrated into business's overall communications network. Last fall, SBC announced it was developing for the University of Notre Dame a system that includes a single inbox for voice and e-mail messages. It is also developing a network for Ford Motor Co. Such systems increasingly are replacing aging Centrex and other phone systems and merge voice with the functionality, of the Internet. Some analysts forecast that business VOIP could become a nearly $8 billion market by 2008. Copyright IBJ Corporation Jun 13, 2005 Copyright 2005, YellowBrix, Inc. Copyright)1996-2001 Accenture 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Yellow-Brix, IBJ and Accenture. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? Date: 18 Jul 2005 12:39:17 -0700 The Western Electric Co, manfuacturing arm of the Bell System, had three large factory complexes ("works") in Chicago (Hawthorne), Kearny NJ, and Baltimore (Breezy Pt). I get the impression all three are long closed up, if the buildings even exist? W/E also built some newer facilities to make computer components for modern gear, such as in Allentown PA. I take it today Lucent (successor to W/E) uses those places, though I presume Lucent is far, far smaller than W/E. I also recall W/E having a modern office building in Newark NJ (near the train station) in the mid 1980s, and I wonder if that is in use by Lucent today. FWIW, in W/E's early days, they made relays for Hollerith's tabulating machines. Hollerith's outfit became IBM. [public replies please] ------------------------------ From: justlearning1@hotmail.com Subject: Installation for ESI S-Class Date: 18 Jul 2005 13:10:46 -0700 Thank you in advance for your help. We just purchased an ESI S-class system with two hour voice mail (Norvergence Matrix CCS) from ebay because we couldn't afford the reseller's price. Does anyone know where I can obtain the installation and programming guide? I am really interested in the pinout for the port card connector so I can wire up the phones, fax machine, and COs. Does anyone know where I can get the EDI-admin software? I don't mind paying a consulting fee or something for assistance. Thanks, Tom ------------------------------ From: Sudeep Reddy Subject: House Okays TV and Phone Service Bill Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:11:07 -0500 Cable industry and cities have vigorously opposed the legislation By SUDEEP REDDY / The Dallas Morning News In a major victory for the two largest phone companies, the Texas House passed major legislation Sunday to create greater competition for the cable television industry and ultimately transfer authority for TV service from cities to state regulators. WHAT'S AT STAKE The telecom legislation would: Allow phone companies to receive statewide franchises for their new TV services, bypassing city governments. Deregulate basic phone rates, allowing phone companies to raise prices. Let electric utilities deliver broadband Internet service over their power lines. SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., armed with a bevy of lobbyists, sought the controversial measure to ease their entry into the TV battleground. Both companies plan to roll out Internet-based digital TV services this year, part of a heated battle with cable companies to offer the so-called triple play of phone, TV and Internet service through a single provider. The cable industry and city officials strongly fought the measure, arguing it gives phone companies an unfair advantage, strips consumer protections, and wrests control and revenue from cities. The legislation allows the phone giants to receive statewide franchises for their services instead of going through lengthy negotiations with individual cities, as the cable industry has had to do for decades. "Consumers should have another choice if they're unhappy with their existing providers," said state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, the House's leading proponent of the measure. "This bill allows more companies to provide more service to more consumers." The House passed the bill 135-6 after a two-hour debate focused largely on whether phone companies would discriminate by targeting the most affluent customers. Phone companies say an emerging technology shouldn't be forced to follow the same rollout requirements as cable faces now. The legislation passed the Senate 25-3 last week but requires approval again by the upper house because of minor changes. Its passage could hinge on the progress of school finance and tax legislation, the primary purpose of the special session that ends Wednesday. The telecommunications bill, one of the biggest business issues in Austin this year, failed to clear the regular session that ended in May. Gov. Rick Perry added the issue to the session's agenda last week. Raise rates The legislation also allows phone companies to raise rates in the largest communities. Once state regulators certify that adequate competition for phone service exists, rates in smaller regions can be raised. It also allows electric utilities to deliver broadband Internet service over their power lines, a technology that's intended to bring high-speed Internet access to rural areas. In the video provisions, the bill allows phone companies to receive statewide franchises for TV services within a month, instead of as long as 18 months that they'd need at the city level. Cities would maintain their existing franchises with cable operators, with phone companies operating under the same franchise-fee structure until the local cable franchises expire. Ultimately, cities would yield control over cable service to state regulators, which could receive complaints from customers but not take action against the companies. several lawmakers have objected to the Legislature's fast-track handling of the phone measure while failing to make progress in helping public education or lowering property taxes as promised. Referring to the Senate bill's number, SB 21, Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, said the legislation gives SBC "special-interest rules." "This bill is such a hand-over-fist giveaway that we really ought to call it SBC 21," Mr. Dutton said. Companies on both sides have sparred over rising rates of their competitors. Phone companies cited rising cable prices over the years. The cable industry warned of price increases for phone service, noting SBC's higher prices for features such as caller ID and speed dialing after their deregulation. Level playing field "Consumers benefit when there is a level playing field," Time Warner Cable-Austin president Tom Kinney, chairman of the Texas Cable & Telecommunications Association, said Sunday. "This legislation gives every economic and regulatory advantage to big phone companies." Lawmakers cited an economist's projections that the bill would create 12,000 jobs in the state and spur $1.8 billion in annual investment and spending. Steve Banta, Verizon's Southwest region president, said the company hoped to "soon bring a new option for consumers who have been held captive by cable TV companies for too long." SBC Texas president Jan Newton said Sunday that the House passage "demonstrates that this issue continues to center around Texas consumers and the need to provide them with more choices and competitive prices in TV and entertainment." E-mail sreddy@dallasnews.com Copyright 2005 The Dallas Morning News Co. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Dallas Morning News Company. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Texas House Passes Telecom Bill Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 12:12:56 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com USTelecom dailyLead wrote: > USTelecom dailyLead > July 18, 2005 > http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23122&l=2017006 > TODAY'S HEADLINES > NEWS OF THE DAY > * Texas House passes telecom bill "The telecom legislation would: Allow phone companies to receive statewide franchises for their new TV services, bypassing city governments. Deregulate basic phone rates, allowing phone companies to raise prices. Let electric utilities deliver broadband Internet service over their power lines. SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., armed with a bevy of lobbyists, sought the controversial measure to ease their entry into the TV battleground." SBC of San Antonio, and a company hatched from what used to be Irving-based GTE. It doesn't surprise me that Texas passed this bill. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But does it surprise you that SBC talks out of both sides of its mouth at one time; trying to insist that the newer services like VOIP be absolutely required to go through all the legal hoops at SBC now wants to avoid for itself? PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Muzzling the Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line Date: 18 Jul 2005 14:02:16 -0700 John McHarry wrote: > Of course, one has to wonder why those whose profession is the study > of history tend to have liberal views. Is there something in the > detailed study of what has happened in the past that leads to such a > position? Or is it just that those with other views tend more to spend > their lives in other fields? Interesting question. It seems that those attracted to fields of the "letters" tend to be more liberal-oriented than those attracted to the fields of the "numbers". When I was in college the engineer/science/business students and faculty were either politically conservative or apolitical. The humanities majors and faculty were more political and generally liberal. You can see the difference in the writings of the two types. The first group tend to write in no-nonsense prose top down, "saw this/did that" in more objective terms. The second group tends to write in more abstract prose, such as focusing on people and their feelings instead of the physical environment. I know first-hand that the "politically correct" movement was real and strong with a powerful influence on public discourse, politics, and academics in certain areas (some places were much stronger than others). I believe that movement did far more harm than good by forcing a distortion of the facts* and public discussion of the real issues. That's bad communication. I think in some productions PBS was at fault -- in the example I cited in an earlier post, as well in some other productions. I really want PBS to be truly independent without political interference -- pressure from the right is no better than pressure from the left. *I recall a writer in a newspaper article claiming a new school was built in the 1950s and was segregated -- the black kids had to walk past it to their own school. That was a lie and wrong. The new school was actually a distance away from the old school and separated by natural barriers (a park hill and an unbridged railroad line). Another instance is unrealistically representing minorities/ poor/ handicapped and related issues in story lines -- more so than they do in reality. PBS ran a Canandian children's series "Degrassi Jr High" that seemed to focus on a contemporary social issue every week. Real life isn't like that for most people, and constant issues exposure becomes propaganda. Now I realize TV in the early 1960s was generally unrealistically bland, but going to the other extreme doesn't make it right. I will give "All in the Family" credit because while it usually made Archie to be the bad guy, it would poke fun at Mike's ignorance as well. ------------------------------ From: wollman@khavrinen.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Muzzling the Muppets/Bush Wants PBS to Toe Republican Line Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 18:58:52 UTC Organization: MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory In article , John McHarry wrote: > Of course, one has to wonder why those whose profession is the study > of history tend to have liberal views. Is there something in the > detailed study of what has happened in the past that leads to such a > position? [This is far off-topic for Telecom, so please keep followups to me privately.] It should not be surprising that academia is skewed to the left, politically, although it was not always so. Conservatives tend to be people who define their success in terms which are more readily achievable in politics or in business than in academic research. It's a rare person who has the ability and desire to succeed in two realms. Before the 1960s, university faculties were full of sort of academic conservatives we don't see too much any more: indolent white men from wealthy families who had no aptitude for business or law; this was reinforced by the popular social theories of the time. (In one documented example, most of Columbia's faculty supported Wendell Wilkie over Franklin D. Roosevelt.) -- Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every wollman@csail.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own Opinions not those | search for greater freedom. of MIT or CSAIL. | - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Up the Broadband Creek Without a Signal Date: 18 Jul 2005 15:50:29 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) James R. Hood wrote: > It's a little puzzling why broadband Internet via electrical lines > hasn't taken off. The copper wires that deliver electricity to homes > and offices are capable of moving a lot of data at very low cost but > the technology just hasn't gotten the attention it would seem to > deserve. It has somethong to do with the fact that it doesn't work. > That may be changing, though. A Maryland company that provides > high-speed Internet access over electrical power lines last week > received a major investment from Google Inc., the Hearst Corp. and > Goldman Sachs. Current Communications Group declined to disclose > financial terms of the investment though the Wall Street Journal > reported that it approached $100 million. > If the FCC stays out of the picture, maybe this will go somewhere. I doubt it. All the money in the world won't make a system intended for narrowband power delivery handle higher frequency data traffic reliably. Scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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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 V24 #330 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jul 19 15:45:33 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 9D7F914F7C; Tue, 19 Jul 2005 15:45:32 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #331 Message-Id: <20050719194532.9D7F914F7C@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 15:45:32 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.4 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 19 Jul 2005 15:45:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 331 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telcos' Q2 Broadband Subs to Surpass Cable's (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Phil Earnhardt) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Choreboy) Re: Who Really Controls Internet? (Tony P.) Re: More Music Industry Complaints (Tony P.) Re: Mossberg: Tracking Cookies are Spyware (jared) Re: Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern (Dale Farmer) Re: A Pass on Privacy? (Dale Farmer) SS7 C7 Solutions for Cisco VOIP (techresell@att.net) Re: RCA Victor Nipper Statues Adorn Town (Paul Coxwell) Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? (Eric Tappert) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 14:10:29 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Telcos' Q2 Broadband Subs to Surpass Cable's USTelecom dailyLead July 19, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23167&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES TOP STORY * Telcos' Q2 broadband subs to surpass cable's, analysts predict NEWS OF THE DAY * France Telecom mulls move to acquire Amena * Verizon continues cable franchise push * Nortel to supply BT with VoIP capability * Sprint, Verizon to offer mobile games BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Opinion: USTelecom CEO responds to editorial on rural Internet access * Entrepreneur bets on one-stop shop for wireless USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * SBC CEO to open TELECOM '05 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * ITown unveils FTTP plans in West Virginia REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC chief looks to broadband expansion Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23167&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: Phil Earnhardt Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:57:17 -0600 Organization: http://newsguy.com On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 04:49:13 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF > Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in > computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the > offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_ > machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? [...] If he spends that $400 (actually, $499 or so) on a Mac Mini, he can probably go for a good long time. There are no known viruses on OS/X. I don't know if anything bad can happen from using IE on the Mac; I don't believe so. Safari is not perfect, but it works just fine for almost all of my browsing. One thing I like in Safari: there is a pull-down option in Safari for resetting *everything*: cache, cookies, etc. I do this periodically -- I like to flush all my cookies periodically just as a regular practice. The only real software people will need in general is Office 2004. For most, the student edition should work just fine for their home needs. If there is not a lot of need for compatibility, the $80 iWork package (Presentation software + Apple word processor) should work just fine. The main thing lacking in iWork is a spreadsheet; Apple should address that in the next release. With the dropping cost of hardware, more and more people should clearly look at this option. As an aside, I've been surprised that Apple hasn't been more aggressive in getting the Mac Mini into Kinkos stores so people can "test drive" them there. The current Apple machines in Kinkos stores are crappy old G3 machines. According to the local Kinkos shop, Dell has been very aggressive getting their machines in Kinkos stores. Apple: are you listening? --phil ------------------------------ From: Choreboy Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 04:23:28 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Steve Sobol wrote: > Monty Solomon wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_ >> machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? > The sad thing is that it's simply not that hard to protect yourself. > We have two computers here that never get infected ... the other one > can't be infected because it's not on the Net, but my wife's and mine > both are. One can't be infected because it's not on the internet. Why is the other one safe? It seems that nobody bothers to infect classic macs. Anyway, spyware would be easy to eliminate on a classic mac. I do get email spam, but not on Choreboy, with which I have posted to usenet without munging. The spam, perhaps ten pieces a day, comes to another email address. It started after I filled out a form asking an online vendor to tell me when an item was in stock. I think somebody there made money selling customer email addresses. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Who Really Controls Internet? Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:55:36 -0400 In article , barmar@alum.mit.edu says: > In article , Tony P. > wrote: >> Those are just TLD name servers, nothing more. The Internet would >> still work if those were to just disappear but it would be less useful >> or easy to use than it is now. >> Every server gets an IP address. That's what you really use to >> connect. DNS is just there to translate human readable to machine >> readable. > What you *really* use are binary digits represented as electronic > signal levels on various types of wires and radio transmissions, but > we don't make users modulate those manually, either. That's the physical level that most people consider to be Freakin' Magic. And it isn't just modulated on wire or over the air, but via light in fiber optic cables. > And what about all the load balancing and fault tolerance that come > from allowing a host name to resolve to multiple addresses and > changing the mappings on the fly? You could perform something similar with your hosts file. It's just that the explosive growth of the net meant the hosts files that SRI would transfer around got to be a bit too large. > Names are more than just a way to make things user-friendly, they're > an important piece of the Internet architecture. I don't think > there's ever been a network of more than a few dozen machines that > didn't depend on a naming scheme to enhance the capabilities. > Consider this: how useful would the phone be if you could only call > people whose phone numbers you already knew, i.e. there were no phone > books or directory assistance? Right now there isn't anyone I know whose phone number is in a phone book. Between cell and VoIP it's damned near impossible to do a lookup these days unless the end user is smart enough to list their selves on a lookup site. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: More Music Industry Complaints Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:59:40 -0400 In article , newswire@telecom- digest.org says: > Music industry says pirated CDs make everyone suffer. > The Recording Industry 2005 Commercial Piracy Report, prepared by the > International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), paints a > stark picture when it comes to global pirating of music compact discs. > According to the report, illegal traffic in pirated music was worth > $4.6 billion last year, 34% of all CDs are illegal, and fake > recordings outsell legitimate recordings in 31 countries around the > world. Oh boo freakin' hoo. You could contain my tears over his in a thimble. Perhaps if: a) They didn't rake us over the coals wrt pricing of CD's; and b) They put material on CD's that matched peoples tastes a bit better. I make custom CD's from my iTunes library all the time. On occasion I'll give one to a friend. So now I'm the worlds biggest pirate. And to anyone using iTunes in a workgroup setting there's MyTunes Redux. It snags the packets of iTunes shares and downloads the song files to your library. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 19:20:56 -0600 From: jared@nospam.au (jared) Subject: Re: Mossberg: Tracking Cookies are Spyware I've set my browser to request confirmation of every (new) cookie. I've taken to looking at the date the cookie expires. If it's 'this session' or within a day, and it's from the site* I'm trying to use, then I accept, otherwise into the bit bucket. And, I do see repeated requests and the comment helps explain why. Seems stupid to me, but I'm just the consumer. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way some web sites are getting > around that now is by issuing the cookie, as always, then going back > one or two seconds later (while loading the page) _looking_ for the > cookie ("Didn't I just give you a cookie? What does it say? What do > you mean you don't have it any longer? That's it for you, goodbye.") I can understand, but not agree with, cookies that expire within a year. But expiry in several years or more, for example 2038 (aka infinity) is likely just poor programming. * or some similar name, again programmers or maybe marketeers have run amuck with the beauty of replacing xyzz.com/abcd with xyzzabcd.com to make life easier for them. ------------------------------ From: Dale Farmer Organization: The fuzz in the back of the fridge. Subject: Re: Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 02:16:10 GMT Clark W. Griswold, Jr. wrote: > Dale Farmer wrote: >> Disney does have a problem with (typically teenage) chronic >> troublemakers. They get caught, given the usual don't come back on >> the property spiel, and escorted off the property. The problem is >> that some of them come back with revenge in mind. By getting these >> folks prints and scanning everyone upon entrance, they can easily >> recognize them at the gate and block them. > While I don't doubt that is one use of the technology, I'd have to see > the details of the implementation before I'd believe that the hand > geometry from two fingers would be sufficient to uniquely identify > anyone. > What is far more likely in my mind is Disney's ongoing desire to > prevent multiday passes and resort passes from being used by more than > one individual. I suspect that Disney ties a hash function of a few > points from the hand to the serial number of the pass. > Try to use the pass by someone else and the odds of the hash being the > same are sufficiently high enough to be detected ... If the conditions of sale for the passes say that they are for one person only, then this is, again, perfectly legitimate. Two fingers worth of fingerprint (depending on the particular algorithm used to analyze the prints) is more than enough accurate for this usage. All the scanner is going to do is bring this to the attention of the human being at the gate, and put the relevant images on a computer terminal or whatever. My guess is that the system only keeps in active storage the fingerprint signatures of employees, troublemakers, and the previous week or so worth of park visitors, and folks with season passes. Once the pass has expired, there is no reason I can see for the fingerprint signature to be retained, and good reasons for it to be purged. --Dale ------------------------------ From: Dale Farmer Organization: The fuzz in the back of the fridge. Subject: Re: A Pass on Privacy? Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 02:17:47 GMT Tony P. wrote: > In article , monty@roscom.com > says: >> By CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL >> Anyone making long drives this summer will notice a new dimension to >> contemporary inequality: a widening gap between the users of automatic >> toll-paying devices and those who pay cash. The E-ZPass system, as it >> is called on the East Coast, seemed like idle gadgetry when it was >> introduced a decade ago. Drivers who acquired the passes had to nose >> their way across traffic to reach specially equipped tollbooths -- and >> slow to a crawl while the machinery worked its magic. But now the >> sensors are sophisticated enough for you to whiz past them. As more >> lanes are dedicated to E-ZPass, lines lengthen for the saps paying >> cash. >> E-ZPass is one of many innovations that give you the option of trading >> a bit of privacy for a load of convenience. You can get deep discounts >> by ordering your books from Amazon.com or joining a supermarket >> 'club.' In return, you surrender information about your purchasing >> habits. Some people see a bait-and-switch here. Over time, the data >> you are required to hand over become more and more personal, and such >> handovers cease to be optional. Neato data gathering is making society >> less free and less human. The people who issue such warnings -- >> whether you call them paranoids or libertarians -- are among those you >> see stuck in the rippling heat, 73 cars away from the ''Cash Only'' >> sign at the Tappan Zee Bridge. > Of course when they pry too deeply you can always lie. I do it > regularly with store discount cards, etc. They can have my name, I > don't care about that. But address, phone number, email, etc. if > required will ALWAYS be fudged. > Of course EZ-Pass is linked to a credit or debit card so it would be > trivial to dig for information that way. > And for those of a technical bent, it would be easy to run a bootleg > EZ-Pass. It is after all and RFID device and you could read numbers > all day long and then have your computer equipped RFID device send > random numbers to the sensors. > Interestingly the city of Providence is putting in parking kiosks. You > can either insert cash or purchase a ProvPas. It's a mag-stripe based > system. The card has the amount deposited for the account written on > the magnetic stripe. But cards are just purchased for cash so one with > a reader-writer could definitely have some fun with the system. That's what crooks thought they could do with the metrocard system used in the Washington DC subway system. --Dale [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What happened with the crooks and the metrocard system in the Washington, DC subway? Feel like telling us the story? PAT] ------------------------------ From: techresell@att.net Subject: SS7 C7 Solutions for Cisco VOIP Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 15:32:31 +0000 We install solutions such as Cisco PGW2200 and other SS7 C7 solutions for VOIP worldwide. Why do you need SS7 or C7? The traditional PSTN switches use SS7 & C7 signaling internally & the switch operators have to spend money on conversion cards and software to hand off to you ISDN signalling to E1 & T1 circuits. We provide your with full network diagrams/designs before you decide to purchase any of our products. We guarantee the lowest prices and warranty all parts & labor for one year. We will install your equipment anywhere worldwide. TechResell 954 924-1800 tel USA techresell@att.net ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 17:00:00 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: RCA Victor Nipper Statues Adorn Town > During its long active life, the "His Master's Voice" label has > enjoyed a unique reputation with both the music business and the > public. Over the years a healthy market has developed in collecting > the vast array of items produced in its image. A Collectors' Guide, > originally published in 1984, has been now updated for publication in > 1997. > Though only used by EMI today as the marketing identity for HMV Shops > in the UK and Europe, the "His Master's Voice" trademark is still > instantly recognised and sits proudly and firmly in the Top 10 of > "Famous Brands of the 20th Century". The image did indeed enjoy a very long life on the British HMV record label from 78s through to the 45rpm era, although not quite so prominently after 1963 when EMI adopted a common black label for its HMV, Parlophone, and Columbia 45rpm labels. Due to the use of the trademark by HMV, the image never appeared on British RCA-Victor pressings. In fact at one point when American RCA pressings were being sold here, the importers actually stuck little labels over the mark. ------------------------------ From: Eric Tappert Subject: Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 17:18:54 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet On 18 Jul 2005 12:39:17 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > The Western Electric Co, manfuacturing arm of the Bell System, had > three large factory complexes ("works") in Chicago (Hawthorne), Kearny > NJ, and Baltimore (Breezy Pt). I get the impression all three are > long closed up, if the buildings even exist? > W/E also built some newer facilities to make computer components for > modern gear, such as in Allentown PA. I take it today Lucent > (successor to W/E) uses those places, though I presume Lucent is far, > far smaller than W/E. I also recall W/E having a modern office > building in Newark NJ (near the train station) in the mid 1980s, and I > wonder if that is in use by Lucent today. > FWIW, in W/E's early days, they made relays for Hollerith's tabulating > machines. Hollerith's outfit became IBM. > [public replies please] Agere Systems inherited the Allentown, Reading, and Orlando facilities. Reading is now closed, all production at Allentown has ceased and the production buildings have been demolished (some office buildings are still in use, however). Orlando was up for sale a couple of years ago, but I don't know the current status of production there. Hawthorne, Kearny, and Baltimore are long closed. Phoenix was sold to local management, who moved several cable lines from the Atlanta works to Phoenix. Teletype's plants in Skokie and Little Rock went to Avaya, but I'm not familiar with the current status of those plants, although last I heard Shreveport and Denver (also went to Avaya) were still in business. I believe that the Northern Illinois works is closed and all switching manufacturing for Lucent domestically is in Dallas. Last I heard Merrimac Valley (Massachusetts) was still doing manufacturing, but at a reduced level. The North Carolina plants are all closed, AFAIK. Kansas City works has also closed. Lucent is shadow of the former Western Electric and is doing more manufacturing overseas (after all, they are a global supplier now). E. Tappert (former WECo employee) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am not certain, but I think in the case of Cicero, Illinois at that location now is a shopping mall/ condominium apartment complex called 'Hawthorne Place'. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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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 V24 #331 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jul 20 14:54:52 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id B5AD214F70; Wed, 20 Jul 2005 14:54:51 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #332 Message-Id: <20050720185451.B5AD214F70@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 14:54:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,ITS_LEGAL, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Jul 2005 14:55:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 332 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Columnist Dumps SBC for VOIP (Mike Wendland) Virginia Town Approves Verizon Cable Deal (US Telecom DailyLead) Super Speed Broadband Over Cable Television (Reuters News Wire) Microsoft Sues Executive Leaving For Google China (Reuters News Wire) Prepaid + Pay Phones (Duh_OZ) Governors Balk at New US License Rules/Warn of Higher Costs (M Solomon) Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? (Arthur Kamlet) Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? (Kenneth P. Stox) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Tim Keating) Re: Mossberg: Tracking Cookies are Spyware (Tim Keating) The Difference a Century Can Make (Patrick Townson) 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: Mike Wendland Subject: Columnist Dumps SBC For VOIP Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 11:51:18 -0500 Mike Wendland, in his column for the Detroit Free Press, discusses how he switched from traditional landline telephone service to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and how he is overall satisfied with the system, but keeps his cell phone around in case power goes out. http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwendland5e_20050705.htm I pulled the plug on my SBC landline and -- gulp -- now rely totally on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for my home telephone service. Aside from the geeky and cumbersome VoIP moniker, I've seen very little difference between using the Internet to call and the way it's always been with SBC, or Ameritech or Michigan Bell. I started experimenting with VoIP a couple of months ago when I signed up for SunRocket, a Virginia-based VoIP provider http://www.sunrocket.com that offers a pay-a-year-in-advance rate of $199. For that I get unlimited local and long-distance calls within the United States and Canada, caller ID, two free wireless phones and a host of cool new features. The verdict is out on how it affects the rest of my Internet operations, but overall, I see no serious issues. Besides unlimited local calls and long distance, SunRocket has a great Web interface that e-mails me my voicemail when I'm on the road. There's also a "follow me" feature that rings my cell phone if the main phone isn't answered after a few rings. My experience has been that reaching SunRocket's technical support is extremely difficult. With enhanced 911 service, the emergency operator automatically receives the name, address and origination phone number of the caller, so time isn't lost in an emergency giving a location. Does the VoIP phone work with a fax machine or burglar alarm? As far as fax services go, SunRocket says it supports it, but you need a machine that uses what is known as the T.38 standard for real-time fax over Internet Protocol networks. Precisely because of the fact that VoIP is dependent on AC power and Internet service, I would recommend that most people call SBC and keep the cheapest service they can on a landline. Copyright NewsTarget Network 2004,2005 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Detroit Free-Press and NewsTarget Network. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Some of us dumped SBC a couple years ago to get better and less expensive service from Vonage. And I agree with Wendland on keeping a cellular phone for emergencies as needed. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 13:08:45 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Virginia Town Approves Verizon Cable Deal USTelecom dailyLead July 20, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23198&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Virginia town approves Verizon cable deal * Mobile phone sales to reach 1B in 2009 * SBC running fiber, IPTV to 18M homes * BellSouth cuts DSL cost BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Earnings Reports USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Marketing Strategies for Carriers: Introducing New Products and Services EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * VoWLAN market growing REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Judge denies motion to block Sprint-Nextel merger * FCC phone rule to help hearing aid users Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23198&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: News Wire Subject: Super Speed Broadband Seen over Cable TV in Within a Year Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 09:38:42 -0500 Broadband Internet access via TV cables can reach 100 Megabits per second as early as next year, 50 times faster than the average broadband speeds now offered to cable TV homes, a Finnish firm said on Wednesday. Similar data transmission speeds are possible over fibre networks, but these cost much more for the operators to build. "This is a cost-efficient technology as we use the cable TV networks which are already in place," Jukka Rinnevaara, Chief Executive of small-cap Finnish broadband equipment maker Teleste (TLT1V.HE), told Reuters. Teleste, whose rivals include big U.S. firms Scientific Atlanta and Cisco Systems Inc., said it would early next year bring to the market its Ethernet to the Home product which will give consumers access to 100Mb/s speed. The sector is closely followed by big technology firms. Last month Sweden's Ericsson offered $51 million to buy Norwegian firm AXXESSIT which makes broadband ethernet access equipment for telecom operators. To accelerate the transmission speed Teleste fits ethernet -- a cheap and standard transport method for Internet data over broadband networks -- into cable television networks. It said it expects first rival technology to be on the market at the earliest in the second-quarter of 2007. Teleste is running a field-trial with cable TV service provider Essent in Netherlands, but not yet at the top speeds it expects most homes will need in a few years time. "Based on our research 30 Megabits per second is the absolute minimum in future homes. Just one TV program would take 10-20 Megabits per second of this alone. So, very fast we would reach a need for 30 Megabits, and also for 50 Megabits per second," Pekka Rissanen, a Teleste executive told a news conference. Rissanen said the cost of connecting a home with the new ethernet-to-the-home technology can vary between 50 euros ($60.28) and 200 euros ($241). CEO Rinnevaara declined to say how much the new technology could boost Teleste's sales or profits in the next 12 months. ($1=.8294 Euro) ($1=.8294 Euro) Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Reuters NewsWire Subject: Microsoft Sues Executive Leaving For Google-China Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 11:04:27 -0500 Microsoft Corp. is suing former vice president Kai-Fu Lee for violating his confidentiality and non-compete agreement by agreeing to head up Google Inc.'s new research center in China, the world's largest software maker said on Tuesday. Search engine leader Google, which is going head-to-head with Microsoft in online search and services, said it would open its new facility in China later this year to attract computer science researchers and develop new technologies. Microsoft tapped Lee in 1998 to establish a research and development center in Beijing. Google said it has not decided on a final location in China for its new research center. Lee, a former Carnegie Mellon University researcher, who previously worked for Apple Computer Inc. later moved to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington to become the company's vice president responsible for developing speech recognition and other interactive technologies for computers. "In his work at Microsoft, Dr. Lee has direct knowledge of key trade secrets about our search technology, our search strategies and our business plans in China," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president of litigation. The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court in Washington state on Tuesday against Lee and Google, seeks to have the confidentiality and non-compete agreement enforced. Google, based in Mountain View, California, said it reviewed Microsoft's claims and considers them baseless. "We will defend vigorously against these meritless claims and will fully support Dr. Lee," Google spokesman David Krane said in an e-mailed statement. Microsoft, seeing Google as an increasing threat to its MSN Internet division, began building its own search engine in 2003 to compete against Google. Google, on the other hand, has been expanding its technology into areas that could threaten Microsoft's online business and potentially its core Windows operating system. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. ------------------------------ From: Duh_OZ Subject: Prepaid + Pay phones Date: 20 Jul 2005 08:30:26 -0700 I have a pre-paid (MCI) card that used to charge 2 units for a call made from a pay phone. At 6 cents/minute I didn't mind the 12 cent surcharge on the connection. Sometime this year? they jacked it up to 18 units so it is now a whopping $1.08 surcharge for a pay phone call. Is there a site that compares how much surcharge there is from different calling cards? I do not travel much and use the pay phones when in roaming territory for my cell phone. TIA, OZ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 03:36:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Governors Balk at New US License Rules / Warn of Higher Costs Governors balk at new US license rules Warn of higher costs, privacy concerns in push for standard IDs By Robert Tanner, Associated Press DES MOINES -- Fees for a new driver's license could triple. Lines at motor vehicles offices could stretch out the door. Governors warned yesterday that states and consumers would bear much of the burden for a terrorism-driven push to turn licenses into a national ID card. "It's a huge problem," said Ed Rendell, Democrat of Pennsylvania. "Trying to make this work, there will be hell to pay." He said it would cost his state '$100 million plus' to restructure motor vehicle offices to respond to the new federal law called the REAL ID Act. The law, passed in June as part of an $82 billion military spending bill, goes beyond an earlier measure that sought to standardize state driver's licenses. By 2008, states must begin to verify whether license applicants are legal residents of the United States. That deadline brought the first question in a closed-door session between governors and federal officials on homeland security yesterday at the National Governors Association meeting. The two groups also talked about pressures on National Guard troops and steps to better integrate state and local law enforcement with federal efforts to prevent terrorist attacks, governors said as they wrapped up their summer meeting. Governors also met with a Veterans Affairs official and the Army general in charge of the National Guard to talk about efforts to help soldiers transition to civilian life and work after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. But the REAL ID Act prompted the strongest reaction. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/07/19/governors_balk_at_new_us_license_rules/ ------------------------------ From: kamlet@panix.com (Arthur Kamlet) Subject: Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 02:50:27 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: ArtKamlet@aol.REMOVE.com In article , wrote: > The Western Electric Co, manfuacturing arm of the Bell System, had > three large factory complexes ("works") in Chicago (Hawthorne), Kearny > NJ, and Baltimore (Breezy Pt). I get the impression all three are > long closed up, if the buildings even exist? > W/E also built some newer facilities to make computer components for > modern gear, such as in Allentown PA. I take it today Lucent > (successor to W/E) uses those places, though I presume Lucent is far, > far smaller than W/E. I also recall W/E having a modern office > building in Newark NJ (near the train station) in the mid 1980s, and I > wonder if that is in use by Lucent today. > FWIW, in W/E's early days, they made relays for Hollerith's tabulating > machines. Hollerith's outfit became IBM. Hawthorne, site of the Hawthorne Study of providing feedback to relay winders, closed quite a few years ago. Kearney was sinking into the bay, and at least one major Kearny building had been closed while others were still sinking. It was sold quite a while ago -- before Lucent was spun off from AT&T I believe. I live in Columbus, where the building has been sold and split into three parts -- a hospital, a home builder, and a commercial site. But about 1000 Lucent employees still occupy rental space there. Many other large Works and other plants have been sold. Art Kamlet ArtKamlet @ AOL.com Columbus OH K2PZH ------------------------------ From: Kenneth P. Stox Organization: Ministry of Silly Walks Subject: Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:19:43 GMT Eric Tappert wrote: > Teletype's plants in Skokie and Little Rock went to > Avaya, but I'm not familiar with the current status of those plants, The Teletype plant in Skokie was sold around 1990, and converted to a shopping mall. Most of the facility was torn down, but some was kept and converted into a parking garage. ------------------------------ From: Tim Keating Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 08:38:18 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:57:17 -0600, Phil Earnhardt wrote: > On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 04:49:13 -0400, Monty Solomon > wrote: >> By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF >> Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in >> computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the >> offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_ >> machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? [...] > If he spends that $400 (actually, $499 or so) on a Mac Mini, he can > probably go for a good long time. There are no known viruses on OS/X. > I don't know if anything bad can happen from using IE on the Mac; I > don't believe so. Safari is not perfect, but it works just fine for > almost all of my browsing. One thing I like in Safari: there is a > pull-down option in Safari for resetting *everything*: cache, cookies, > etc. I do this periodically -- I like to flush all my cookies > periodically just as a regular practice. > The only real software people will need in general is Office 2004. For > most, the student edition should work just fine for their home needs. > If there is not a lot of need for compatibility, the $80 iWork package > (Presentation software + Apple word processor) should work just fine. > The main thing lacking in iWork is a spreadsheet; Apple should address > that in the next release. "Open Office" runs just fine on MAC's. (variant of BSD). No need to spend any monies purchasing M$ Office 2004. ------------------------------ From: Tim Keating Subject: Re: Mossberg: Tracking Cookies are Spyware Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 09:19:08 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:20:14 -0400, Julian Thomas wrote: > In <20050717195214.5FBD114D2C@massis.lcs.mit.edu>, on 07/17/05 at > 03:52 PM, editor@telecom-digest.org typed: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And have you noticed how many sites >> refuse to admit you at all if you refuse to accept their cookies? On >> our web site http://telecom-digest.org until last year when the site >> was greatly overhauled, I used cookies only for the purpose of >> referring to the user by name and telling him how often he had been >> there. _No other reason_. I finally quit it, when various users were >> offended by it; not apparently because I called them by name, or >> referenced how often they had been around, but because of all the >> potential for misuse otherwise. And I did get 'legitimate' business >> inquiries about the cookies. Companies wanted to by them, etc and >> get more details, etc. But that just made me feel very uneasy and >> unethical. That's the main reason I distribute NY Times and other >> newspapers on this site (see td-extra) with no login nor >> registration requirements. I just don't think it is anyone's >> business who reads what around here. PAT] > Actually, there are several good strategies for dealing with these > sites, at least in the Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox browser family. > The easiest is to make the cookie file (usually cookies.txt) > read-only. This presents the illusion that the cookie was accepted, > but it actually evaporates on your machine. > If there is a site whose cookie you want to accept, turn off the > readonly attribute on the file, accept the cookie, close the browser, > and make the file readonly again. > Another approach is to have a backup of the file, and restore from the > backup on every bootup (this can be automated). A step by step approach ... for "Firefox" is to ... 1. Goto "Tools"/ "Options"/ "Privacy" / "Cookies" and Clear your existing cookies. 2. Set Firefox "Cookies" options to (check) Allow sites to set cookies. (check) For the originate web site only. select Keep Cookies dialog to "until they expire" 3. Visit websites that you want to store cookies. (login to slashdot.org, dslreports.com, etc.) 4. Close all Firefox sessions. 5. Restart Firefox. (blank page) 6. Select "Tools"/ "Options"/ "Privacy" /"Cookies" / "View Cookie":and clear out any extraneous cookies. (just in case) 7 Select Keep Cookies dialog to "until I close firefox". (done) This eliminates virtually all cookies (except the ones you want) each time you shut down Firefox. ---------- Another helpful hint. While you're in the "Privacy" dialog. If you have a high speed connection. 1. Goto "Tools"/ "Options"/ "Privacy" / "Cookies" and Clear firefox's Caches. 2. Set the "Cache" dialog to "0" KB of disk space. Notes: Firefox will still default to using16MB of memory space as a run time cache. Note: Size of default caches can be changed in the local "about:config" web page. The above procedures will eliminate 98% of the need to defragment your disk. (I.E. No (www) temp files == little or no file system fragmentation. :- ) ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id AA75C14F36; Thu, 21 Jul 2005 14:59:38 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #333 Message-Id: <20050721185938.AA75C14F36@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 14:59:38 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.1 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL, SOMETHING_FOR_ADULTS autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 21 Jul 2005 15:00:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 333 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Feds Accuse Firms in Porn E-Mail Spam Scheme (Ted Bridis) Porn Spammers Pay $1.6 Million in Crackdown (Reuters News Wire) Spam-Fighting Technique Opposed by Some Netizens (Anick Jesdanun) Microsoft Buys Email Security Provider (Reuters News Wire) Report: VOIP Revenues to Reach $4B by 2010 (USTA DailyLead) Invitation to New York, Spain, and Italy; c/ba (IPSI Conferences) Cingular Wireless Posts Strong Second-Quarter Results (Monty Solomon) Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? (Jim Millick) Re: Prepaid + Pay phones (Joseph) Bell Telephone Music (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: Ted Bridis Subject: Feds Accuse Firms in Porn E-Mail Spam Scheme Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 00:55:11 -0500 By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer Federal regulators accused seven companies Wednesday of hiring others to send illegal e-mails with pornographic messages to tempt consumers to visit adult Internet sites. The government said four of the firms already agreed to pay nearly $1.2 million to settle the charges, making it among the most aggressive government crackdowns on pornographic e-mail operations. The Federal Trade Commission described the practice as "electronic flashing" and said at least some of the unwanted e-mails were sent to children. The threat of children unwittingly receiving smut in their inboxes helped drive the U.S. government to impose restrictions on sending commercial e-mails last year. The FTC said the messages were not prominently marked "sexually explicit," did not include instructions for consumers to block future e-mails and did not include a postal address, all required under federal law. Consumers complained about receiving the pornographic e-mails and forwarded copies of the troublesome messages to a special e-mail address set up by the FTC (spam(at)uce.gov), said Jonathan M. Kraden, an attorney with the agency's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "We received thousands of messages," Kraden said. The FTC said the seven companies did not send e-mails directly to consumers but operated affiliate programs, paying others to send unwanted messages to drive Internet traffic to adult Web sites. The FTC said under the "Can Spam" law, defendants in such cases are liable because they paid others to send e-mails on their behalf. The government said investigators from Microsoft Corp. helped track the companies. Microsoft, which operates its MSN online subscription service and offers free "Hotmail" e-mail accounts, analyzed the pornographic sites advertised in the unwanted e-mails to identify the companies responsible, the FTC said. The FTC said it directed the Justice Department to file civil lawsuits against three of the companies: T.J. Web Productions LLC of Henderson, Nev.; Cyberheat Inc. of Tucson, Ariz.; and Impulse Media Group Inc. of Seattle. The lawsuits seek unspecified payment to the government for "every violation" of the federal anti-spam law. The attorney for T.J. Web Productions, Lawrence G. Walters of Altamonte Springs, Fla., said the company was still negotiating with the Justice Department. Walters said there were "legitimate concerns and legal variables" over the government's claims. "If necessary, our client is prepared to litigate those issues," he said. Executives with Cyberheat did not return telephone messages left by The Associated Press. An executive with Impulse Media Group, Seth Schermerhorn, declined to comment immediately. The FTC said four of the companies agreed to settle cases against them. BangBros.com Inc. of Miami agreed to pay $650,000; MD Media of Bingham Farms, Mich., agreed to pay $238,743; APC Entertainment Inc. of Davie, Fla., will pay $220,000; and Pure Marketing Solutions LLC of Miami and Internet Matrix Technology of New Orleans will together pay $50,000, the FTC said. The attorney for MD Media, Danny E. Adams of Kelley Drye in Washington, did not immediately respond to a phone call and e-mail request for comment. The phone numbers listed on Internet records for BangBros.com and Pure Marketing Solutions were disconnected, and the companies did not respond to e-mail requests for comment. Executives for APC Entertainment did not respond to a telephone message from the AP. On the Net: FTC: http://www.ftc.gov Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Listen to Associated Press News Radio at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters NewsWire Subject: Porn Spammers Pay 1.6 Million in Spam Crackdown Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 00:53:53 -0500 Five pornography companies have agreed to pay $1.16 million in fines for sending "spam" e-mail without a warning that it contains sexually explicit material, U.S. regulators said on Wednesday. Three other businesses also face lawsuits for sending improperly labeled e-mail, the Federal Trade Commission said. Under FTC rules, commercial e-mailers must include the phrase "SEXUALLY EXPLICIT" in the subject lines of pornographic messages to allow consumers to more easily filter them out. Marketers also must ensure that the messages don't contain graphic sexual images when they are first opened up. The companies targeted in the crackdown didn't actually send out the messages but are still liable because they hired others to do so, the FTC said. According to the FTC, BangBros.com Inc. of Florida agreed to pay $650,000; MD Media of Michigan will pay $238,743, and APC Entertainment Inc. of Florida will pay $220,000. Pure Marketing Solutions and Internet Matrix Technology together will pay $50,000 to settle the charges. The companies also agreed to allow the FTC to monitor their operations to make sure they comply with existing laws. Three other companies also face lawsuits for improper labeling: TJ Web Productions, based in Nevada; Cyberheat Inc. of Arizona; and Impulse Media, of Washington State. Microsoft Corp. helped in the investigation, the FTC said. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Anick Jesdanun Subject: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 00:57:33 -0500 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer Escalating the war on spam, a California company wants to let thousands of users collaborate to disable the Web sites spammers use to sell their wares. A leading anti-spam advocate, however, criticized Blue Security Inc.'s Blue Frog initiative as being no more than a denial-of-service attack, the technique hackers use to effectively shut down a Web site by overwhelming it with fake traffic. "It's the worst kind of vigilante approach," said John Levine, a board member with the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail. "Deliberate attacks against people's Web sites are illegal." Levine recalled a screen saver program that the Web portal Lycos Europe distributed briefly last year. The program was designed to overwhelm sites identified by Lycos as selling products pitched in spam. Eran Reshef, Blue Security's founder and chief executive, denied any wrongdoing, saying Blue Frog was merely empowering users to collectively make complaints they otherwise would have sent individually. Here's how the technique works: _When users add e-mail addresses to a "do-not-spam" list, Blue Security creates additional addresses, known as honeypots, designed to do nothing but attract spam. _If a honeypot receives spam, Blue Security tries to warn the spammer. Then it triggers the Blue Frog software on a user's computer to send a complaint automatically. _Thousands complaining at once will knock out a Web site and thus encourage spammers to stop sending e-mail to the "do-not-spam" list. Reshef acknowledges that the technique only works if enough users -- say, 100,000 -- join. The program is initially free, but Reshef said Blue Security might eventually charge new users. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. See a continuous stream of new headlines from our wire service at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/TDNewsradio.html Updates every minute or two, around the clock. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So John Levine terms attempts to disable spammers as 'illegal and the worst kind of vigilante approach'. My, oh my, I really bleed for the spammers. I wonder why his complaints are not leveled instead at the spammers who try repeatedly to shut down this site and many others because of the volume of spam they send out? Why is that, John? I suggested to John I would start using a 'challenge system' where each _legitimate_ writer to the Digest was asked _once_ to type in some message they saw on their screen which would show themselves to be approved, then at some unannounced future time everyone who had not 'accepted the challenge' would be trashed. John's response to me was he would cut off Digest mail entirely if I started challenging. He said a challenge system would 'cause too much extra email to go back and forth.' But somehow my auto-ack (which I _flatly refuse_ to do away with) does not cause 'too much extra mail to go out'? He had no answer for that, or none that he would share with me. I think John has been hanging around too much with the ICANN fools, going to their expensive and elaborate vacations in Argentina and Europe. Because of my administrative ability to deposit good, serious files in the archives directly via email as desired, spammers/scammers now get in there as well. I go in the archives each day or three to clean out where they have defaced the archives, as well as the tons of spam which get sent via email to this address. I guess I could shut down that email backdoor, and probably I should not complain since it is okay for spammers to shut down (or deface badly) our archives, but it is not okay for me to join with others in shutting down spammer's web sites? Is that what John is saying? It is not okay to adopt a very simple challenge system in order to be assured that real human beings, no matter how whacky some of their ideas are reach the Digest but the spammers do not? Is that the way it should be? Out of self-defense, no more, no less, I login here and immediatly go to the spam mail box and do a general clean out without even reviewing it at all. I know now and then as a result I lose good mail as well. Why does ICANN and their buddies in essence give spammers and scammers free run of the net while the rest of us are not being allowed to do the same? Is it because ICANN really wants to see the net as just a commercial thing with no small insignificant users like myself left here any longer? Some of you guys are so fond of telling us all the things that will _not_ work to cure the spam problem, yet when _we_ tell you things which will partly work, you threaten to ex-communicate us? As the late Jack Benny phrased it, 'really, Mary ...' I should be so lucky. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Microsoft to Buy E-Mail Security Provider Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 00:52:21 -0500 Microsoft Corp. the world's largest software maker, said on Wednesday that it would buy FrontBridge Technologies Inc., its second acquisition this year of an e-mail anti-virus protection provider. FrontBridge provides an outsourcing service that allows companies to have their e-mail and instant messaging scanned before it reaches internal corporate networks. FrontBridge's subscription service also allows companies to back up their messages and comply with regulations. In February, Microsoft said it would acquire Sybari Software Inc., which develops software that protects e-mail systems from worms and viruses, as well as spam, or unsolicited e-mail. Microsoft, which has had a major push over the last three years to improve the reliability and security of its software, said it expected to close the FrontBridge acquisition by the end of September. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Asked if Microsoft planned to bundle FrontBridge's services with its Exchange e-mail server business, Kim Akers, a marketing manager for Exchange, said that FrontBridge would continue to offer its service separately as an add-on to Microsoft's products. "Basically what the customer gets is a clean e-mail stream," said Akers. The FrontBridge acquisition is the third major security software-related acquisition for Microsoft in the last few years. Last year, Microsoft bought Giant Company Software Inc. to offer anti-spyware software, which blocks programs that generate unwanted pop-up ads and secretly record a computer user's activities. In 2003, Microsoft acquired anti-virus technology provider GeCAD. Unlike Sybari, companies that use FrontBridge do not have to install anti-virus software within their networks and instead pay a subscription fee for such services. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 13:29:45 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Report: VoIP Revenues to Reach $4B by 2010 USTelecom dailyLead July 21, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23241&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Report: VoIP revenues to reach $4B by 2010 BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * SBC shares vision of converged network * Cable taps technology to add services in response to telecoms * FremantleMedia names Mackay to run new unit * Earnings Reports USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Telecom Crash Course -- The must-have book for telecom professionals EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Special report: High hopes for high speed REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * VoIP providers struggle to meet E911 deadline Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23241&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 ------------------------------ Subject: Invitation to New York, Spain, and Italy From: IPSI Conferences Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 17:22:51 +0200 Dear potential Speaker: On behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to extend a cordial invitation for you to submit a paper to the IPSI Transactions journal, or to attend one of the upcoming IPSI BgD multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary conferences. The first one will take place in New York City, NY, USA: IPS-USA-2006 NEW YORK Hotel Beacon (arrival: 5 January 06 / departure: 8 January 06) New Deadlines: 1 August 05 (abstract) & 1 October 05 (full paper) The second one will take place in Marbella, Spain: IPSI-2006 SPAIN Hotel Puente Romano (arrival: 10 February 06 / departure: 13 February 06) Deadlines: 1 September 05 (abstract) & 1 November 05 (full paper) The third one will take place in Amalfi, Italy: IPSI-2006 ITALY Hotel Santa Caterina (arrival: 23 March 06 / departure: 26 March 06) Deadlines: 1 October 05 (abstract) & 1 December 05 (full paper) All IPSI BgD conferences are non-profit. They bring together the elite of the world science; so far, we have had seven Nobel Laureates speaking at the opening ceremonies. The conferences always take place in some of the most attractive places of the world. All those who come to IPSI conferences once, always love to come back (because of the unique professional quality and the extremely creative atmosphere); lists of past participants are on the web, as well as details of future conferences. These conferences are in line with the newest recommendations of the US National Science Foundation and of the EU research sponsoring agencies, to stress multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research (M+I+T++ research). The speakers and activities at the conferences truly support this type of scientific interaction. Among the main topics of these conferencs are: "E-education and E-business with Special Emphasis on Semantic Web and Web Datamining" Other topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Internet * Computer Science and Engineering * Mobile Communications/Computing for Science and Business * Management and Business Administration * Education * e-Medicine * e-Oriented Bio Engineering/Science and Molecular Engineering/Science * Environmental Protection * e-Economy * e-Law * Technology Based Art and Art to Inspire Technology Developments * Internet Psychology If you would like more information on either conference, please reply to this e-mail message. If you plan to submit an abstract and paper, please let us know immediately for planning purposes. Remember that you can submit your paper also to the IPSI Transactions journal. Sincerely Yours, Prof. V. Milutinovic, Chairman, IPSI BgD Conferences ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 22:57:48 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cingular Wireless Posts Strong Second-Quarter Results Cingular Wireless Posts Strong Second-Quarter Results, Advances Merger Integration Initiatives - Net subscriber additions of 1.1 million, third consecutive quarter of more than 1 million postpaid net additions; - 51.6 million cellular/PCS subscribers at quarter's end; - Gross subscriber additions of 4.4 million; - Postpaid monthly subscriber churn down to 1.8 percent, third consecutive quarter of improved postpaid churn; total monthly churn at 2.2 percent; - A 340 basis-point sequential improvement in normalized OIBDA margin to 28.9%; - Continued progress in transitioning subscribers to GSM, with 90 percent of minutes now on Cingular's GSM network. ATLANTA, July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC) and BellSouth Corporation (NYSE:BLS), today posted strong second-quarter results driven by continued solid subscriber growth, improvement in margins and postpaid churn, and strength in data and enterprise services. For the quarter, the nation's largest wireless provider delivered net subscriber additions of 1.1 million, nearly all of which were postpaid. Second-quarter postpaid net additions were comparable to the number delivered in the first quarter of 2005, and represent the third straight quarter of more than 1 million postpaid net additions. Net additions in the second quarter were 2.5 times higher than pro forma net additions in the year-ago second quarter. (Pro forma results reflect the acquisition of AT&T Wireless, plus related acquisitions and dispositions, as if they had occurred on January 1, 2003.) Cingular ended the second quarter of 2005 with 51.6 million cellular/PCS subscribers. Gross additions continue to be very strong at 4.4 million. Postpaid churn improved sequentially to 1.8 percent -- a record low for the company. This compares to 1.9 percent in the first quarter of 2005 and to 2.1 percent (pro forma) in the fourth quarter of 2004. Overall churn held at 2.2, which was the same as in the first quarter of 2005, primarily reflecting the transition of customers on former AT&T Wireless prepaid plans. As it sustained strong subscriber growth, Cingular also improved its margins. OIBDA margin, normalized to exclude merger-related integration costs, was 28.9 percent, a sequential improvement of 340 basis points. (OIBDA margin is operating income (loss) before depreciation and amortization, divided by total service revenues.) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50584069 ------------------------------ From: jsm@panix.com (Jim Millick) Subject: Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 23:09:43 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. >From a Lucent friend, an article on Hawthorne Works: At one time, Cicero, IL, was famous for two things that had absolutely nothing in common: Al Capone and Western Electric. The blue-collar town on the West Side of Chicago served as headquarters for the notorious gangster. But, Cicero also was home to a sprawling manufacturing complex called the Hawthorne Works, which produced some of the most technically advanced products in the world. http://www.assemblymag.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/coverstory/BNPCoverStoryItem/0,6490,98914,00.html ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Prepaid + Pay phones Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 21:07:20 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 20 Jul 2005 08:30:26 -0700, Duh_OZ wrote: > I have a pre-paid (MCI) card that used to charge 2 units for a call > made from a pay phone. At 6 cents/minute I didn't mind the 12 cent > surcharge on the connection. Sometime this year? they jacked it up to > 18 units so it is now a whopping $1.08 surcharge for a pay phone call. > Is there a site that compares how much surcharge there is from > different calling cards? I do not travel much and use the pay phones > when in roaming territory for my cell phone. Go to http://abtolls.com and look for CALLING CARD LONG DISTANCE PHONE RATES. It doesn't list every card, but you can see that most of them charge between 30 and 65 cents per call. ------------------------------ Subject: Bell Telephone Music Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 23:43:13 GMT Check out this interesting web site: http://libraries.mit.edu/music/sheetmusic/childpages/belltelephone.html jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ 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. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #333 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 21 20:21:34 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C3AF514F98; Thu, 21 Jul 2005 20:21:33 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #334 Message-Id: <20050722002133.C3AF514F98@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 20:21:33 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,ITS_LEGAL, OPTING_OUT autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 21 Jul 2005 20:21:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 334 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson A Do-Not-Spam Registry That Might Work (Kevin Murphy) Blue Plans to Overload Spam Web Sites (Greff Keizer) Phishers Get Personal (Joris Evers) Ethics of Deterrence (Erin Reshef) Join us in Fighting Spam at http://www.bluesecurity.com (Erin Reshef) Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens (jmeissen) 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: Kevin Murphy Subject: A Do-Not-Spam Registry That Might Work Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 14:43:41 -0500 By Kevin Murphy Blue Security Inc has come up with a novel twist on the do-not-call registry to fight spam that seems to address many of the problems inherent to previous attempts. The company will today launch its Do Not Intrude registry, which marries the ideas of spam honeypot accounts and automated complaint software that could create denial-of-service effects on spamvertised web sites. Blue chief executive Eran Reshef told ComputerWire that the system is ethical, hard for spammers to evade, and does not allow spammers to farm the list for email addresses, which has been the major drawback of previous notional do-not-spam registries. When users sign up for the new service, their genuine email address is added to a list. Blue also creates a phony honeypot address for them, which is published somewhere on the web where spammers can find it. This address is added to the same list. Users install some software called Blue Frog on their computers. Whenever their honeypot account receives a spam email, Blue Frog sends a single complaint to the web site being advertised in the spam. The idea is that spamvertised sites will be hit by so many complaints that they will be unable to transact their regular business, compelling them to download the Do Not Intrude registry and remove the listed addresses from their mailing list. The idea of a do-not-spam registry has been touted in the past. The US CAN-SPAM Act instructed the Federal Trade Commission to explore the idea, and the FTC concluded that it "would be a waste of time, and worse, would probably be a 'do spam' registry". Blue plans to avoid this problem by only making encrypted addresses available to the spammers, so they can never farm addresses that they are not already aware of from the list, according to Reshef. When a spammer decides to honor the registry, they download some software and a list of hashed addresses. This software runs the same hash operation on the spammer's own mailing list, and cleans it of addresses that are on the Do Not Intrude registry. Reshef, without going into details about how the honeypot accounts are created and publicized, said that it would be "very hard" for the spammers to distinguish between the genuine addresses on the list and the honeypots. But why would spammers sign up for the registry in the first place? Because Blue Frog users, if there are enough of them, could cripple the spamvertised sites with their automated complaints. The software does not send an email complaint. Rather, it automatically visits the spam web site and fills out any HTML form it finds with a complaint along the lines of "Your site was advertised in spam" with a link to the Blue Security site. "The only thing that works in most spamvertised web sites in the bit where you enter your contact or credit card details," Reshef said. Each user complains once for each spam they get. Collectively, that could amount to a distributed denial-of-service effect on the offending web site, but Reshef said he believes the system to be ethical. "It's not a DDoS, people are exercising their right to complain about spam they get," he said. "We're not trying to do anything illegal or unethical. We're only doing ethical things, but we are being active." In theory, this kind of system, if it were fully automated, could be used to execute a "joe job" attack on an innocent party. By spamvertising a legitimate site, the software would complain and cause the DDoS effect. But Reshef said this is avoided by the fact that Blue Security's researchers are manually blacklisting and whitelisting sites, based on their knowledge of what sites are currently in use by certain groups of known spammers. Currently, Blue is tracking 65 spam groups that Reshef estimates are responsible for 90% of the spam received. The manual review element means it would not be possible to joe-job, say, google.com, he claimed. Blue Security, which is backed by $3m of venture capital financing from Benchmark Capital, has its corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California and its R&D lab in Herzliya Pituach on Israel's Silicon Coast. The company plans to give the software and service away for free to consumers. After the public beta, launched today at http://www.bluesecurity.com, the company will start to offer it to enterprise users for a fee. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Blue Security. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Greff Keizer Subject: Blue Security Plans to Overload Spammer Web Sites Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 14:53:12 -0500 Blue Security plans to overwhelm spammers with complaints and unsubscribe requests. The company's intention is to take the fight to spammers by enlisting end users to create what's called a Do-Not-Intrude registry whose purpose is to make it too painful for junk mailers to operate. If a spammer sends you spam, you have a right to complain, said Eran Reshef, the chief executive of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Blue Security. If they send you one spam, you complain one time. If they send you a thousand spams, you can complain a thousand times, but I know that is not considered politically correct by a few of the more vocal netizens. It's the volume on which spam operates and Blue Security's plan hinges. Starting Monday, users can download Blue Security's Blue Frog client and sign up with the Do-Not-Intrude registry. Once the software's installed, users can register up to three e-mail addresses to monitor for spam. Blue Security, however, watches not only those addresses but up to a dozen accounts it sets up for that act as additional "honeypots," or accounts designed to attract spam. Blue Security analyzes the messages it receives from the users' accounts (as well as all others who sign up), then follows the links inside the spam to (hopefully) the originating site where, for instance, products or services pitched by the junk mail are sold. There, forms are identified that accept text -- an order form, perhaps, or a customer service form -- and its fields are automatically filled with a message demanding that the e-mail account's address be removed from the spammer's list. "I kindly ask that you cease sending me or other registered users spam," the message reads. The idea, said Reshef, is to punish the spammer for his actions. Although the scheme doesn't generate mail to the spammer -- spam for spam, so to speak -- the volume of Web traffic should be enough to cripple the spammer's Web site. "The sheer amount of complaints going to the spammer's site is going to make it hard [for that site] to do anything else, said Reshef. Spam is analyzed by Blue Security staff, said Reshef, who investigate the spam, verify that it violates the federal CAN-SPAM Act, trace the message to a Web site, and pinpoint a form on the site that can be used to complain. The Blue Frog handles everything else for the end-user. The opt-out complaints are synchronized, so that all users whose accounts are monitored file simultaneously. Although Reshef repeatedly said that the practice was not illegal, the end result is very close to a denial-of-service attack, in which a collection of computers simultaneously try to access a Web server with the intention of bringing it down under the sheet volume of traffic. Reshef aggressively defended the concept and rejected the idea that it was a DoS in disguise. "We have a right to complain," he said. "The spammers have the right to send us spam, and we cant say anything? No, thats not right. "We're not creating any harm. Were not trying to shut down any Web sites. But we have the right to complain, one for one," he added. Other fight-back tactics against spammers have failed in the past. Last year, Lycos Europe rolled out a screensaver that conducted DoS attacks against known spammers. Within days, however, Lycos buckled under pressure from security groups -- which called it vigilantism -- and ISPs, who worried that attacks originating from their members would make them liable to legal action on the part of spammers. "Our effort is completely different from what Lycos did," said Reshef. "Lycos used a hit list of spammers. We're only responding to actual spam. And each user is responding only to the spam he or she received." Some may see it as a difference in semantics. But Reshef sees it as effective. "We've already seen it work," he said. "The spammers don't like what we're doing, and some of them during our tests tried to modify their site on the fly to keep out complaints." Two other sites that he declined to name, he said, have agreed to stop sending spam to the real and honeypot accounts. "We need a critical mass of users for this to work," Reshef acknowledged. "If enough people abandon the idea of passively filtering spam and realize that unrelenting action is required, we can together stand up for our online rights." Once its built up a sufficient community of users to ding spammers' Web sites, Blue Security plans to offer the service to enterprises for a fee. The Blue Frog client can be downloaded free of charge from the Blue Security Web site. http://www.bluesecurity.com Copyright 2005 CMP Media LLC. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, CMP Media LLC. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Joris Evers Subject: Phishers Get Personal Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 14:51:20 -0500 http://www.news.com/ By Joris Evers http://news.com.com/Phishers+get+personal/2100-7349_3-5720672.html Spammers and phishers are learning more about potential victims to better hone their attacks. Web sites that use e-mail addresses as identifiers for password reminders and registration are open to exploitation by scammers to generate detailed profiles of people, security company Blue Security said this week in a research report. In the technique described in the report, spammers and phishers automatically run thousands of e-mail addresses through Web site registration and password-reminder tools. Because many online businesses return a specific message when an e-mail address is registered with the site, attackers can find out whether that address represents a valid customer. Web sites that use e-mail addresses in their password-reminder and registration process could enable scammers to generate detailed profiles of people. Bottom line: The more malicious e-mail gets tailored to the recipient, the more careful Internet users may have to become -- an added burden on them. Using information gathered from a number of sites, they can tailor malicious e-mail to the recipient. That makes it more difficult for Internet users to distinguish real messages from those that are junk or part of a cyberscam. Also, customized messages are less likely to be caught by spam filters, experts said. "Phishing attacks fairly recently have started getting more personalized and targeted," said Dave Jevans, chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group. Such fraud-related messages now include the recipient's name or e-mail address, or have even more information about the receiver, Jevans said. Phishing is a prevalent type of online fraud that attempts to steal sensitive information such as user names, passwords and credit card numbers. The thieves then sell the information or use it to commit identity theft. The schemes typically combine spam e-mail and fraudulent Web pages that look like legitimate sites. Scammers usually have lists of e-mail addresses, either invented, bought or collected online using harvesting tools. The trick in the registration or password reminder attack is in the response. Many online businesses return a specific message -- such as "This address is already subscribed" -- when an e-mail address is registered with the site. If an attacker gets that response, they know that address represents a valid customer. How does profiling work? This example illustrates how cybervillains could build up profiles of a potential victims, to better target their scams. .. An attacker obtains a list of e-mail addresses. The scammer can buy a list, collect addresses from the Internet using harvesting tools, make up e-mail addresses, or use other means. .. A script is written to automatically run the e-mail addresses against the registration and password-reminder features of Web sites. .. Responses let the attacker know if an address is registered with the site. The data is used to compile profiles. .. Profiles are used to target spam and phishing e-mails. Source: Blue Security By matching e-mail addresses with Web sites, cybercriminals can uncover the gender, sexual preference, political orientation, geographic location, hobbies and the online stores that have been used by the person behind an e-mail address, Blue Security CEO Eran Reshef said. "Imagine that somebody knows all the Web sites you ever registered with, and think about what one can infer from that," Reshef said. "By aggregating all this information you create a very detailed profile of the person, not just snippets of information." As a result, attacks could have a higher success rate, because the e-mail presents unsuspecting recipients with accurate information in a message that looks like legitimate correspondence. For example, an e-mail purporting to come from a bank or credit card company could name the recipient and refer to an online store that the recipient actually uses. Blue Security has found that a majority of the most popular U.S. Web sites allow "hostile profiling" by phishers and spammers. Additionally, many smaller Web sites, including online stores, sports teams' Web sites, political organizations and other groups are vulnerable, Reshef said. However, hostile profiling does not seem to have become widespread yet, according to Blue Security's research. Some Web site operators -- major banks, for example -- appear to be aware of the problem, Reshef said. These sites don't let people register with their e-mail addresses as their login name, he said. They also require additional information for registration or password reminders, or use other security measures. Have you ever been phished? Check here to see whether an e-mail that appears to be from your bank or an online merchant is actually an attempt to defraud you. eBay is one online business that does not allow registration and password reminder attacks. The auction Web site stopped using e-mail addresses as user IDs before phishing became an issue, and it has taken other protective measures in its registration and password-reminder process, said Scott Shipman, senior counsel for eBay's global privacy practice. "It is all designed to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of information, be it the simplest piece of information, such as whether or not that e-mail address or user id is actually a valid user ID on the site," Shipman said. In eBay's case, the reminder feature for user IDs gives the same response, regardless of whether the e-mail address is registered with the site. "The language of the error message will not tell you whether or not it was a valid account," Shipman said. What will foil the attacks? Attacks work only if sites generate a different response depending on whether an e-mail address is registered with the site or not. .. A registration feature can only be exploited if the Web site uses e-mail addresses to register users and does not require a hard-to-fake personal detail, such as a credit card number. Other security features, such as requiring a new registrant to solve a graphical challenge, will also prevent an attack. .. A reminder feature can only be exploited if it does not require personal information in addition to an e-mail address. A graphical challenge also counters an attack. Designing a Web site to not leak information about users is what all site operators should do, the eBay executive added. "It is an example of a type of practice that is a best practice," he said. Hostile profiling is only one way phishing messages are getting more targeted. Earlier this month, security researchers reported that stolen consumer data was used in phishing scams to rip off individual account holders at specific banks. Jevans at the Anti-Phishing Working Group said that Blue Security's study highlights an emerging phishing threat, and agreed that online organizations should take steps to eliminate vulnerable registration and password-reminder features. "I think the research is real. You can certainly code your site to not do that, and you probably should," he said. Copyright 1995-2005 CNET Networks, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, CNET Networks, Inc. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Eren Reshef Subject: Ethics of Deterrence Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 16:20:46 -0500 The trackback URL for this blog entry is: http://community.bluesecurity.com/.3c3e9cca/trackback The Ethics of Deterrence Some bloggers have recently claimed our fight is morally flawed. Now, the usual thing to do when bloggers make such accusations is to either ignore them or to deny the charges without giving details. I disagree. I believe the best answer to any accusation is the truth. And that's what I'd like to share with you now. These bloggers claim we mount distributed denial of service attacks against spammers' sites. Is this illegal? Is this morally wrong? I say yes, it is illegal, morally wrong and also disgraceful -- if our community really was involved in a DDoS. The facts are very simple. It is legal, right and honorable to complain about spam you receive. I bet each and every one of those bloggers sent such a complaint at some point in time. And this is exactly what each member of our community is doing -- complaining about spam messages that reach them. I want to make this crystal clear: we just complain about spam messages reaching us. Some of you will rightly say "How is having a large number of people complaining different from a DDoS?" There are several key differences. First, a DDoS target cannot choose whether to be attacked or not. In our case, if a spammer wishes not to receive even one single complaint, that spammer can simply cease sending us spam. We provide free compliance tools for spammers, so they can effortlessly stop spamming us. Second, DDoS targets do not receive warnings. Our community tries to warn spammers before we start submitting complaints. We attempt to contact the spammer's ISP, its web sites and any other contact point we can identify. By the way, most spammers make it impossible to send them anything but your credit card number, so from time to time our warnings simply cannot be delivered. Third, each zombie computer participating in a DDoS sends out as many packets as possible to the DDoS target. In our community, every member complains once per each spam message received by a honeypot account owned by that member. We do forward messages among honeypot accounts, but we hope no one seriously claims that email forwarding is immoral. Fourth, DDoS attackers couldn't care less about inflicting damage on third parties, such as ISPs. We measure and synchronize the complaints of our members, in order to minimize any negative impact on third parties. We also vigorously verify spam messages we receive to avoid joe-jobs. I know that this is not the last time we'd hear such accusations. But we will continue our struggle to reclaim our Internet. Even if some bloggers advocate turning the other cheek, we will not sit ideally while spammers take away our dream of a peaceful Internet. Posted by Eran Reshef Jul 18, 2005 13:18 ============================== A Response by Dave D - Jul 19, 2005 07:38 (#1 Total: 10) Vigilante justice Folks, You might be well intentioned, but this system is doomed to fail, just as the Lycos attempt to DDOS spammers was doomed to fail a few months back. Reasons: 1) Does your system make any distinction between a knowing spammer IP and an infected Windows host running on a broadband connection, that happened to send out some open proxy spam? 2) What about laptops at Wi-Fi cafe's and such. Or universities. If they bring an infected host onto the LAN, it spams, it leaves ... and a day later your system launches a beat-down on the IP. By now, the owner of the cafe has scanned his machines, and put up better firewalling. Presumably he's no longer guilty. Yet he didn't reply in time. You unleash the hounds of 10,000 DDOS'ers. 3) Network administrators tend to frown on deliberate DDOS. Will you defend users of your product who are banned permanently upon their ISP or network admin finding out they willingly participated in a DDOS, even a DDOS for 'moral' purposes? 4) The spammers get wind of your antics. They begin to launch strikes against your site, and users of your software (if a signature can be found, which should be simple, you make your client available to inspect). Will you fix it so spammers cannot launch pre-emptive DDOS against people that use your client? 5) What you are building is what the law calls a 'malicious botnet.' Participation in a malicious botnet may well be against local laws and be defined as a felony. Will your Terms of Service exonerate any local user from prosecution as a net criminal? 6) As the owner of a LAN, if you list my IP and send me a flood of data, can I sue you to recoup losses to my business, if it is shown that I provided due dilligence to fix the open-proxy spam issue I had with my LAN? Suppose your network decides to attack me anyway, because your "due dilligence" does not match that of the law's? These are just a few objections -- I am sure there are more. Starting with, maliciously using the internet is just a dumb idea. DUMB. But by all means go ahead. It's also a free market economy, you certainly have a right to launch the dumbest idea I've seen lately. Kind regards, Dave D ============================== A response by Eran Aloni - Jul 19, 2005 08:39 (#2 Total: 10) Dave, The concerns and reservations listed in your comment seem like a result of a misunderstanding of our service. Most of your comments are based on the misconception that the Blue Community posts complaints at the computers used by spammers to send spam. Obviously, since spammers regularly use botnets and zombie networks to send unsolicited bulk email, there's no point in trying to complain there. The Do Not Intrude Registry takes a totally different approach. Blue Community members complain about spam messages they receive by posting complaints on web sites advertised by spam -- a single complaint for each spam message they receive. Clearly, community members have every right to complain about spam they receive. These spam sites are the root cause for spam -- they are the ones paying spammers to flood our Inboxes and they are the ones making money from spam. The Do Not Intrude Registry disrupts their business model while making sure no innocent third parties are affected. Complaints are posted only as a reaction to receiving spam messages and only after both site owner and the hosting ISP are warned and asked to stop sending spam to the community. Advertisers and spammers can easily avoid receiving complaints by cleaning their mailing lists using the tools we provide and avoid sending spam to the community. Best regards, Eran Aloni Director of Marketing, Blue Security. ============================== A response from RiBiNiN - Jul 20, 2005 02:32 (#3 Total: 10) Dave D fails reading comprehension You have done what I wanted to do, automate a response, not to the mail but to the website. If I complain about each e-mail I receive manually nobody could complain. You have just automated the process. Also, Dave D could be a spammer who is afraid that you have something that really will work. I have downloaded the code and am looking forward to reading it in detail. ============================== A response once again from Dave D - Jul 20, 2005 02:32 (#4 Total: 10) Sure, but ... we've seen this approach fail in the past. Reporting actors can misidentify mail. They can report mail they don't like. I've seen mail from aunt mabel be reported as spam, because someone hit the 'report spam' button to delete. It happens. What really frightens me is your system (run by humans, thus capable of flaw) is not taking a passive "block IP" approach, which would be acceptable, but instead is taking an active "attack the bad IP" approach. Which, even if it wasn't illegal, would still be stupid as hell. I predict you're going to find a frosty reception for your little invention among 1) Network admins that carry your traffic 2) Hosting providers that have to absorb the retaliation attacks at your site 3) ISP abuse desks, who will be dealing with the fallout from your users (their customers) running your product, which no matter how you explain it away, is still an excuse to participate in a botnet DDOS. Keep sprinkling on the sugar. You might eventually convince some people that this is a donut. But DDOS for hire is what the criminals on the net do, and no matter how you sugar coat it, what you are proposing is a DDOS for hire. Just for "white hat" purposes (questionable). Just because you think its white hat, does not by any stretch mean the net community will, or the law will. Kind regards, Dave D ============================== A response from RiBiNiN - Jul 20, 2005 02:32 (#5 Total: 10) Dave D fails reading comprehension I am wondering if Dave is a spammer. He has distorted the method to make it seem like the beginning of a slippery slope to anarchy. It is merely doing what we all want to do, get off mailing lists without exposing ourselves to these toxic websites. ============================== Dave D - Jul 20, 2005 11:16 (#6 Total: 10) Dave D once again: Well, blaming the messenger is what your system is all about. A spammer. Thats a laugh. Now you're falsely attacking the messenger. Sounds like a harbinger of things to come from this system. Rather than be a spammer, I work on the other side -- I work trying to prevent spam for customers. One of our biggest headaches is not spam, its guys that generate 'side work' trying to fight spam. Side work like DDOS's against mistaken targets. Good luck with your endeavor, I know you mean well. I remain unconvinced by this reported approach: DDOS'ing the perceived spammer will fail, because you will misidentify targets, and because some of those targets will sue or cause your upstream provider to take corrective action ... not against them (if they are indeed spammers) but rather against you ... for deliberately DDOSing. Net traffic costs money and time. Malicious traffic is illegal. Spammers need to be and are being prosecuted ... as well as a myriad of blocking strategies being employed ... but to move from that to actively abusing the net to attempt to get even with spammers ... this will always fail. It's been tried before, the result is either embarrassment or retreat. Kind regards, Dave D ============================== Now, a different David responds: David - Jul 20, 2005 16:04 (#7 Total: 10) Misintrepeted Facts This tactic may indeed seem as a DDOS attack to one who has not read the facts or fully understand the system. Now would you say we have a right to complain, is complaining about bad customer service malicious traffic, is complaining about a bad business malicious traffic, is complaining about privacy intrusion malicious traffic, is it illegal/immoral, I hope not otherwise I'd be in jail 10 years ago. Simply put we are exercising our right to the First Amendment of the US Constitution, but it is in a controlled manner, first off is that they try to warn the spammer and their (the SPAMMER's) ISP/Web host about the complaints before they are sent, second if the warnings are ignored we match the SPAM they sent to us with equal amounts of complaints by the ones who received it but NOT ALL AT THE SAME TIME to AVOID the possible DDOS attack. Now about the use of the report SPAM to delete is rather simple, first for reporting the SPAM here there's no button, second it doesn't delete it, third is why they have actual Humans to check to make sure it's actual SPAM that's not CANSPAM ACT of 2003 complaint and not just a "case of mistaken identity". Now about the humans capable of flaw, let me ask you this are you a human, do you work with and for humans? Even if it was all computers, we all are capable of mistakes even computers just as humans. Simply put if every one complained just by themselves about every SPAM message they recieve (now is that so wrong, illegal, immoral?) the chances of it appearing as a DDOS attack would be higher since most SPAMMER's send all their messages at once, and some would be likely to read and complain at the same time. Let's put it as this, let's say this was a Car Alarm (meant to keep your privacy of the car, as this is to keep your privacy of your e-mail) Now a Car Alarm is not illegal, and it has a lot of mistaken identities, i.e a cat wanting a nap on a warm surface, somebody shutting a heavy door, now imagine if you had a couple thousand car alarms at the same place is that illegal, immoral?. Simply put it's a car alarm for your e-mail. Or we could compare it to a "No Trespassing" sign, they trespass on our property we tell them to get out or well call the police, now is that illegal, immoral? I hope not. Or if you don't like those comparisons, let's compare a SPAMMER to a Burglar and your E-mail Box to a House, if the burglar broke into your house would not tell him to leave untill he does, or call the police he would do the same but with more drastic measures some times, is that illegal, immoral? Get my point? This is not abuse this is exercising our rights, just as it is to execise our right to defend ourselve against an attacker, i.e spraying Pepperspray (The Blue Frog Security Program) to the attacker (SPAMMER). To sum it up, we have a right to complain (last time I looked complaining was perfectly legal, moral, and ethical), this is not a DDOS attack since the complaints are monitored and controlled so that does not happen and for every one who recieved a SPAM message they'll complain about but only once per message recieved untill the SPAMMERS stop sending messages (Trespasser Trespassing, Burglar breaking into your house etc... We have the right to protecet our propety, defend our lives, we have the right to control who can come onto our property (ie. homes, car, e-mails), I hope these thing aren't illegal otherwise I'm in deep trouble, along with the majority of the population. Also Two SPAMMERS have stopped SPAMMING the Blue Community from our efforts, thus if we don't get any bad static this program will very well might work. A brilliant anti-spam model ... Before joining the project I spent a few days carefully reviewing the concept on the Blue Security site, studying the FAQ, reading independent news stories popping up all over the net, and visiting several related blogs. It seems to me that while Dave D raises important concerns -- many of which crossed my mind while researching the project -- these concerns are already clearly handled. I believe Dave D means well and has a handle on the technical and ethical issues. His somewhat -- what's the word I want? -- passive / aggressive writing style sort of put me off at first, but I took it in with a grain of salt (or maybe sugar? - grin). I've come to the conclusion that Blue Frog is a brilliant anti-spam model... easily the best approach I've seen since I joined Project Honeypot last year (see: projecthoneypot.org). Eran's "Join us" post of 17 July hit home with me on many levels. I first went online in 1994. In those ancient times, I couldn't wait to wake up every day and get to work. The net made it possible to expand the reach of my art and design across the globe, visit with longtime friends, make new friends, and keep in touch with family. The Internet is easily the most important advance in human communication since the invention of moveable type and the printing press (even more important than radio or TV, since it's a two-way interactive media). It's now highjacked by a tiny minority of ethically challenged, money-grubbing psychopaths. Spammers are the online equivalent of home invasion gangs. Filtering spam is a knee-jerk response that doesn't address the core issue. Current US federal anti-spam legislation is worse than useless. The federal Can Spam act, with its inane 'opt-out' nonsense is fatally flawed -- thanks to well-funded lobbyists from groups like the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) and technically challenged, eager-to-please (and get reelected) politicians. It's a paper tiger, signed into law with great fanfare and no real teeth or moral underpinnings. Can Spam basically legalized spam in the United States ... exactly the opposite of what its proponents said it would do. It's a stunning example of George Orwell's 1984 "doublespeak" in a real-world 21st century application. Oops. Sorry. I'm venting. What I'm trying to get at here is that filtering isn't working and conventional legislation is compromised by commercial and political interests. Meanwhile, millions of decent people all over the world continue to be assaulted every day by ads for drugs, porn, and all manner of of scams they did not ask for, do not want, and which cost them time and money to simply receive. All this spam arrives 'postage due.' Dave D - and other well-meaning detractors of the Blue Frog model -- might want to consider offering methods to improve it instead of merely dumping on it. While we sit here reading posts and squabbling about the best way to stop spam, spammers smack their lips and shove their crap all around the world. ================================= An anonymous poster replies: Anonymous - Jul 21, 2005 06:01 (#9 Total: 10) Do not Intrude Registry So what you're envisioning is that people will give you their e-mail addresses and you'll make a list of them, and distribute this list to (roughly) whomever wants it. This list would of course be a valuable prize for spammers, so you encrypt it with a one-way hash. You intend for spammers to generate hashes of their spam list, then obtain your obfuscated 'Do Not Intrude' list and compare the two. If there's a match, that's a sign that the e-mail is likely valid. I don't see how your list is not a bonanza for spammers. It offers them a very easy method of "cleaning" their lists. You say that you'll put some false positives (honeypot addresses) in the list you distribute, but who really cares? It doesn't cost a spammer anything to send e-mail to those addresses as well. But then there's your threat of a DDoS attack. While I admire it on a gut level, there are a host of legal questions involved. Do you take full legal responsibility for the actions of your Blue Frog agent? (I read the legal info and I didn't see anything to make me think the answer is 'yes'.) If I install it and find myself named in a lawsuit, will you pay my legal bills? What if I go to jail because a jury decided that my Blue Frog broke the law? Will you support my family? More likely, what if I install it at work and my employer terminates me because the Blue Frog tried to access sites known for adult or other not-safe-for-work content? Will you help me find a new job with an employer that doesn't care if their employees are participating in DDoS attacks? For anyone that's interested, I recommend reading the findings of the FTC's report to Congress about the feasability of a do-not-email list: http://www.ftc.gov/reports/dneregistry/report.pdf (Thanks to Suresh Ramasubramanian for posting the link.) There is no way I'd put my e-mail address on your list. There are too many ways this can go wrong. Regards, Anonymous =========================== A final response by Eran Aloni - Jul 21, 2005 06:18 (#10 Total: 10) The Do Not Intrude Registry is a legal and ethical solutions allowing users to complain about spam they receive -- a single complaint for each spam message received. You have a legal and ethical right to complain about spam you receive. You can do it manually by visiting the sites advertised by spam and, or you may sign up with the Do Not Intrude Registry which performs the exact same procedure in an automated and safe manner. ------------------------------ From: Eren Reshef Subject: Join us at http://www.bluesecurity.com Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 16:26:37 -0500 The trackback URL for this blog entry is: http://community.bluesecurity.com/.3c3e9cc4/trackback Join us When I was a kid, I used to go through my emails using my Apple IIe and a modem. I only received real emails, from real people. No refinancing, no drugs, no porno, no scams, no spam. Just real email messages from my pals around the world. Do you remember how it was? When every email was an email from a friend? And we all thought this peaceful, friendly cyberspace would last forever. A few hundred spammers have ruined our dream. They've clogged our mailboxes with filth. Already, 80% of email traffic is made up of spam. Let us no longer blind ourselves to the irrefutable facts: current measures have failed to stop spammers. The experience of the past several years has proven that passive measures are just not the answer. Deterrence is the only real answer to spam. We need to deter spammers from sending us junk. We can reclaim our email experience. All we need is decisive action to establish deterrence in the mind of spammers. We must not underestimate the magnitude of the task which lies before us. We are fighting for the future of the Internet. What we need to do now is get as many users as possible into our community -- have as many computers working together to induce commercial loss on spammers. If you haven't signed up with the registry and installed a blue frog yet, please sign up now. If your friends have not yet joined us, convince them to do so. Let's stop filtering spam, and start deterring spammers. Together, we CAN reclaim the Internet. Posted by Eran Reshef Jul 17, 2005 08:19 ============================== A Response from Philippe - Jul 20, 2005 02:32 (#1 Total: 1) Great idea for a company More detail on how to use this effectively is needed. Where can you forward your unsolicited spam to? How many complaints have been submitted for you (like a tally? I hope this expands into a great thing. I think a key factor will be explaining to someone when they join what they need to do and the steps they should go through. Make it dummyproof. ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens Date: 21 Jul 2005 21:12:37 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , Our Esteemed Editor wrote: > It is not okay to adopt a very simple challenge system in order to be > assured that real human beings, no matter how whacky some of their > ideas are reach the Digest but the spammers do not? Challenge-response systems don't work, and only serve to annoy innocent bystanders. The only challenges I've ever recieved were in response to spam that had forged my return address. Of course, to avoid future "challenge spam" from those domains in the future I always responded in the positive, which renders them that much more ineffective. Any system that tries to rely on sender identity or content analysis after accepting delivery from the sending system is not going to be effective. It's bad enough when poorly configured mail systems try to bounce messages to assumed sender addresses rather than rejecting them before accepting delivery. Don't add another layer of abuse on top of it. Just because you got spam is no reason to be sending email to me. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But I do the essence of challenge response right now, as many other mailing list publishers do. You (or some spammer or other idiot) writes to me. When it gets here if Spam Assassin detirmines it to be spam it goes into one file. The allegedly _legitimate_ letter writers get back an auto-ack from me, but since Spam Assassin lets so much garbage through, a lot of spammers get an auto-ack also. Because of my personal experience with this for a few years now, the auto-ack begins with the assumption you _are a spammer_ also. It asks you to (1) remove this email address from your list. (2) It tells you we are not interested at all ... (3) then it goes on to say "If you were not the writer of what I received, then someone apparently took control of your computer; please get help as needed in cleaning out the viruses, etc. Then after a couple paragraphs at least of addressing you as though you are the spammer, or the idiot with the zombified computer, it goes on to conclude (4) "for everyone else, good netizens who wrote to me, your letter is being read and evaluated and readied for use in the Digest. Thank you for writing me." Now, is the complaint I make in (1),(2) and (3) too much of an imposition to read? I very strongly support the work of http://www.bluesecurity.com and hope all readers will at least review it and decide from there. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #334 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 22 17:07:29 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 0A06015148; Fri, 22 Jul 2005 17:07:29 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #335 Message-Id: <20050722210729.0A06015148@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 17:07:29 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.4 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Jul 2005 17:06:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 335 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Bush Creates New Post to Fight Global Piracy (Reuters News Wire) China Internet Users Grow 18 Percent; Reach 103 Million (Reuters News) It Rings, It Plays, It Has TV (Gregory Lamb) NYC's Consumer Affairs Suing Cellcos Re: False Adverts (Danny Burstein) Is Co-Existence of HLR and HSS Possible? (qazmlp1209@rediffmail.com) Round Three For Texas Telecom Bill (USTelecom dailyLead) Need to Drop SBC LD Service; Info Wanted on Alternatives (George) VOIP Intercom (Scott Dorsey) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Tony P.) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (DevilsPGD) Re: VoIP Phone Home? (Marc Popek) Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens (Barry Margolin) Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens (jmeissen@aracnet) Re: Ethics of Deterrence (Steve Sobol) Re: Prepaid + Pay phones (Duh_OZ) Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? (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: Reuters News Wire Subject: Bush Creates New Post to Fight Global Piracy Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:21:33 -0500 President Bush has created a new senior-level position to fight global intellectual-property piracy and counterfeiting that cost American companies billions of dollars each year, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on Friday. "Intellectual-property theft is a major problem around the world. We believe that it is costing U.S. businesses about $250 billion in lost sales," Gutierrez told Reuters in an interview with reporters and editors. Bush has tapped Chris Israel, currently deputy chief of staff for Gutierrez, to head up the administration's anti-piracy efforts. China -- where 90 percent of music and movies are pirate copies -- will be a chief priority, Gutierrez said. "Frankly, our goal is to reduce (China's piracy levels) to zero," Gutierrez said. He declined to specify a timetable, but acknowledged it could be a lengthy effort. Gutierrez got a personal glimpse of rampant piracy in China during a visit earlier this month, when he was offered the chance to buy a pirated copy of the newest Star Wars movie for $1 dollar, an aide said. The United States will closely monitor a long list of anti-piracy pledges China made at this month's high-level Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting, including a promise to increase criminal prosecutions, Gutierrez said. The skyrocketing U.S. trade deficit -- which reached a record $618 billion last year -- has compounded U.S. concerns about piracy and counterfeiting. Companies that produce movies, music and software and other intellectual property account for a growing share of what the United States has to sell to the rest of the world. U.S. manufacturers of products ranging from shampoo to auto-safety glass also complain that they often have to compete with counterfeit versions of their own products in China and other markets around the world. The Commerce Department estimates nearly 7 percent of the goods in the global market are counterfeit. Israel was a public policy executive at Time Warner, a media company with strong interests in intellectual property rights protection, before joining the Commerce Department. He also has worked in Congress as a legislative aide. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: China Internet Users Grow 18 Percent to Hit 103 Million Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:23:01 -0500 The number of Web users in China, the world's second largest Internet market, grew by 9 million people in the first half of this year to hit 103 million, the China Daily said on Friday. The growth represented an increase of 18.4 percent over the same period last year in a market that still has vast potential for further growth, the report said, citing a survey released by the "quasi-governmental" China Internet Network Information Center on Thursday. "While more than 67 percent of the U.S. population, about 135 million, have access to the Internet, in China the percentage is only about 7.9 percent," it said. State media previously predicted 120 Chinese million would be surfing the Web by the end of the year as computers find their way into more homes and domestic telecoms networks grow. Nearly 20 percent of China's Web surfers had shopped online, and Internet-based transactions in the six months of 2005 could total around 10 billion yuan ($1.23 billion), the newspaper said. "Most of China's Internet users are well educated and have hefty purchasing power," analyst Lu Weigang was quoted as saying. The burgeoning online gaming market proved especially lucrative, with Internet gamers spending 4 billion yuan on virtual equipment for their online alter-egos in the first six months, it said. The Internet's explosive growth in China has come despite the government's stepped-up efforts to control of the medium, in which occasional pockets of free speech have appeared in chat sites and blogs. Beijing pressures popular Web portals to block sensitive news and screen chatrooms for "politically sensitive" statements and regularly blocks access to some foreign Web pages. The government announced earlier this year that all China-based Web sites had to register by June 30 or face being declared illegal and shut down. ($1=8.11 Yuan) Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Gregory M. Lamb Subject: It Rings, It Plays, It Has TV Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:27:33 -0500 http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0721/p14s02-stct.html First there were TVs. Then came PCs. Now, mobile phones are becoming the 'third screen' for viewing video. By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Mobile phones once wanted only your ears; now they're after your eyes, too. By delivering a variety of viewing options -- video games, music videos, clever ads, news, weather, and sports -- the littlest screen may have the biggest of futures. Already, cellphones serve as a third screen for some consumers -- along with their televisions and computers. Because it's always with its user, some think the cellphone could become the most important of the trio -- the first source for entertainment and information. Plenty of questions remain, of course. Some are technological, such as the need to beef up battery life to power heavier usage and to employ bandwidth more efficiently so that the system doesn't jam. Others are financial: How much will subscribers pay to watch something on a tiny screen? If phones eventually can share video with other users, can the content be designed to prevent unauthorized sharing? Still, the promise of a new viewing audience is luring everyone from manufacturers to content providers. "We're at the very early stages of [producing] what could be pretty interesting" video for cellphones, says Larry Shapiro, an executive vice president at the Walt Disney Internet Group, the online arm of the Walt Disney Co. So-called third-generation (3G) mobile phones, which transmit data at much faster speeds than today's 2G digital phones, will open up the prospects for better content, Mr. Shapiro says. Already, 3G games on phones "are equivalent to Game Boy Advance quality in terms of graphics and richness." For advertisers, phones represent new opportunities to reach consumers. For mobile-phone companies, video and other data offer new revenue streams as increased competition for cellphone customers squeezes profit margins. Third-generation phones are already in use in Japan, South Korea, and Europe. In Germany, mobile-phone giant Vodafone announced this month that it had sold 411,000 3G phones there since they were introduced late last year. Though that represents just 1.5 percent of the company's German customers, they bring in 4 percent of total sales revenue. The company aims to have 10 million 3G customers in Germany by next March. In the United States, mobile-phone companies are in the midst of field trials of 3G phones with the expectation of broad deployment in the next year or two. Better video will be one of the chief advantages of 3G. Worldwide, about 25 percent of all digital TVs sold in 2010 will be in the form of mobile phones, predicts a report last month from Strategy Analytics, a consulting firm in Boston. Meanwhile, "for younger consumers, cellphones are already the third screen," says Avi Greengart, principal analyst for mobile devices at Current Analysis, another consulting firm. They're being used for everything from text messages to downloading ring tones and playing games. "Their phones go with them everywhere," Mr. Greengart says. "They've grown up with these devices. They expect them to do just about anything. And they're willing to pay for additional services -- certainly to a much higher degree than baby boomers." Mobile phones aren't going to replace TV or computers, but they will become a complementary source of media, says Dan Steinbock, author of the new book "The Mobile Revolution" and a researcher at Columbia University's tele-information institute in New York. The quick, widespread adoption of cellphones has led to some optimistic projections about their future, he says. But so far they have been used in concert with existing media, such as when TV viewers used their cellphones to vote for contestants on the "American Idol" TV show. It's likely that cellphone video may be used to deliver short bursts of information, which in turn will cause people to seek out a TV or computer screen for more extended viewing. That's been the strategy so far in Asia, where short-form video, in one- to five-minute bursts, has taken off among 3G phone users. While standing in line at the ATM "you might not want to watch an entire episode of 'Seinfeld,' " Greengart says, "but a 2-1/2-minute standup comedy routine could be compelling." Some companies are creating serials told in one- or two-minute episodes. Dubbed "mobi-sodes," they are suitable for viewing in a spare moment, such as waiting in a supermarket checkout line or at a dentist's office. A video-equipped cellphone can be a mobile baby sitter, too. "I can tell you there's nothing better than sticking 'Sesame Street' in front of a 5-year-old," Greengart says. As for what Americans can watch on their cellphones, Sprint offers Sprint TV, which includes programming from Fox News, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel, ABC, and other sources. Some of it is identical to the televised version; some is specially adapted for use on phones. The Weather Channel, for example, prints its text larger in proportion to the screen size than on TV to make it readable. Early video on phones has been herky-jerky - "a slide show with audio," acknowledges Dale Knoop, manager for multimedia services at Sprint. But even before the arrival of 3G handsets, quality has greatly improved, he says. Sprint now sends its video at about 15 frames per second; a conventional TV signal sends 30 frames per second. Two Minute Television is offering short original programs like "Genius on a Shoestring," "Adventures in Speed Dating," and "News with a Punchline," asking users to watch ads instead of pay a fee. SmartVideo Technologies, which is distributing the programming, claims a current rate of 15 to 18 frames per second. With 3G, that will rise to 24 frames. Early signs from overseas indicate video-phone viewers have little tolerance for conventional ads, Mr. Steinbock warns. Advertisers must be entertaining or risk the wrath of viewers. "You don't want to turn on your mobile device just to be turned off by 10 advertising messages," he says. Another cellphone development that could draw viewers: video projectors. This fall, Mitsubishi Electric will introduce its Pocket Projector. About the size of a digital camera, it attaches to a mobile phone. Using three advanced light-emitting diodes (LEDs), it can project the incoming video image onto a wall or desktop at sizes up to 40 diagonal inches. To extend battery life, a consumer will probably turn it on only when he or she needs to display a big screen, as when playing an online video game, says Ramesh Raskar, a scientist at the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Mass. The device can also be attached to other mobile devices, such as DVD players or digital cameras, to let a group of people see a movie or snapshots more easily. Eventually, the projector may shrink enough to be built right into the phone. In the end, though, what people will want most is a reliable way to communicate, Greengart says. "Does it have a camera, does it have a music player, does it have videos, is it a PDA [personal digital assistant], does it make me a sandwich? All those things are nice," he says. "But it has to be a phone first." Look who's snapping up cellphones. Three-quarters of the world live within range of mobile-phone services, but only one-quarter actually subscribe. Now, that's beginning to change, especially in Africa. . The fastest-growing mobile-phone market is Nigeria, where by mid-2003 the number of mobile phones had grown 143 percent in a single year. . It took 15 years for Britain to see mobile phones outnumber wire-line phones; it took Zambia five. . There were 6 mobile phones for every 100 Africans in 2003, a far smaller ratio than for Europeans (55 out of 100), Americans (49), or Asians (15). But Africa has twice as many mobile phones to wire-line phones, a ratio no other continent can match. . A group of mobile-phone networks is pushing manufacturers to come up with a $30 mobile phone for the developing world. Earlier this month, Philips Electronics said it would deliver key electronic components that could push the price below $20. Sources: PC World; Vodaphone www.csmonitor.com | Copyright 2005 The Christian Science Monitor. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, the Christian Science Publishing Society. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: NYC's Consumer Affairs Suing Cellcos Re: False Adverts (fwd) Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 17:10:05 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC "New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Acting Commissioner Jonathan Mintz today announced the agency has filed suit in New York Supreme Court against three major wireless companies for pitching cell phones and services in deceptive advertisements that misled consumers. DCA filed suit against Nextel Communications Inc., Sprint Spectrum L.P., and T-Mobile USA Inc. seeking maximum fines and compliance with New York City's landmark Consumer Protection Law. " 'You can't promise a great deal in the headline and hide the true costs in the fine print,' said DCA Acting Commissioner Jonathan Mintz. "If a cell phone company promises free long distance, consumers should get free long distance - period ..." ( rest of article describes a whole bunch of "free long distance" claims which required additional fees, Nextel's "incoming free" which also required more money ... numerous related things, and a claim against T-Mobile that "Billing of roaming charges and minutes of use and services may be delayed" which I don't quite understand) rest at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/pr_072105.html Minor disclosure: I'm a shareholder in Omnipoint ... ------------------------------ From: qazmlp1209@rediffmail.com Subject: Is Co-Existence of HLR and HSS Possible? Date: 22 Jul 2005 09:50:29 -0700 Is it possible for HLR and HSS to co-exist in a Network? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 13:27:29 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Round Three For Texas Telecom Bill USTelecom dailyLead July 22, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23252&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Round three for Texas telecom bill BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * France Telecom, Auna reportedly reach deal * Nokia faces increased pressure * SBC strategy shift affects DISH sales * Earnings Reports USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Hearst-Argyle CEO to Share Broadcast Television Perspective at TELECOM '05 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Skype CEO envisions video phone boom VOIP DOWNLOAD * Wi-Fi VoIP handset sales rise * Vonage unveils VoIP cordless phone * Securing VoIP a joint effort Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23252&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 ------------------------------ Subject: Need to Drop SBC LD Service. Info on Other Carriers? From: George Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:15:09 -0500 Organization: Cox Communications Beginning in September, all of SBC's LD calling plans will have a monthly charge, so I need to find a new home -- one that will only charge me for calls, with no monthly fee or minimum. Assuming there still is such a thing. But I'm having trouble finding reviews of particularly the smaller companies or resellers. Where can I go to find that? Is there a newsgroup? I'm talking about companies like Everdial/Primus, which I currenly use as a dial-around, or maybe Americom. And I'm particularly interested in honest dealing and customer service. Assuming there still is such a thing. ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: VoIP Intercom? Date: 22 Jul 2005 14:59:46 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) We have a number of stations, some of them in the same building on a single ethernet switch, and some of them in another building somewhere else in the world but with internet or intranet connections to that switch. These stations need to be linked with an intercom, using external hardware. This should act like a party line, where one unit can press a talk button and be heard on all the other units. Selective calling features or multiple channels would be nice, but not essental. There will be fewer than ten total units in place. Does anyone have any suggestion for a device that does this as a simple standalone device, preferably with minimum configuration? I know Telex makes some VOIP modules which can be integrated with their intercom frames, but they all seem to require a central switch. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Organization: ATCC Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 18:52:52 -0400 In article , pae@dim.com says: > On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 04:49:13 -0400, Monty Solomon > wrote: >> By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF >> Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in >> computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the >> offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_ >> machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? [...] > If he spends that $400 (actually, $499 or so) on a Mac Mini, he can > probably go for a good long time. There are no known viruses on OS/X. No known viruses per se, but plenty of hacks. I know at least two people who've had their Mac OS-X machines hacked to the point that they were no longer usable without re-installing the OS. > I don't know if anything bad can happen from using IE on the Mac; I > don't believe so. Safari is not perfect, but it works just fine for > almost all of my browsing. One thing I like in Safari: there is a > pull-down option in Safari for resetting *everything*: cache, cookies, > etc. I do this periodically -- I like to flush all my cookies > periodically just as a regular practice. Or just configure Firefox not to allow cookies and immediately flush history. > The only real software people will need in general is Office 2004. For > most, the student edition should work just fine for their home needs. > If there is not a lot of need for compatibility, the $80 iWork package > (Presentation software + Apple word processor) should work just fine. > The main thing lacking in iWork is a spreadsheet; Apple should address > that in the next release. > With the dropping cost of hardware, more and more people should > clearly look at this option. As an aside, I've been surprised that > Apple hasn't been more aggressive in getting the Mac Mini into Kinkos > stores so people can "test drive" them there. The current Apple > machines in Kinkos stores are crappy old G3 machines. According to the > local Kinkos shop, Dell has been very aggressive getting their > machines in Kinkos stores. Apple: are you listening? Apple is clearly moving toward marketing the OS as platform independent. It is FreeBSD after all. I'm running it on an Intel platform. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 17:36:20 -0500 Organization: Disorganized In message Choreboy wrote: > Steve Sobol wrote: >> Monty Solomon wrote: >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_ >>> machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? >> The sad thing is that it's simply not that hard to protect yourself. >> We have two computers here that never get infected ... the other one >> can't be infected because it's not on the Net, but my wife's and mine >> both are. > One can't be infected because it's not on the internet. Why is the > other one safe? Because these days the only real way to get infected is user stupidity ... Free hint: When you get an email from "Microsoft" with a patch, don't install it. Configure your browser properly to not install unrequested shit. Don't install spyware laced crap. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And how long do they have those _new_ > machines until they also get polluted and have to be replaced? I'd > think there might be a market in doing some dumpster diving, retrieving > those old machines, doing a total init of the hard drive and starting > over from scratch, reloading them, etc. My pay for same would come > from refurbishing the old machines with a totally new (and as of > then unmolested) hard drive, absolutely _loaded_ with all the most > recent virus protection and spam protection software. Then I would > sell them for fifty or a hundred dollars each. And I would probably > load Linux on them instead of Windows, or maybe in addition to Windows > 2000 or Windows 98. PAT] What kind of dumbass wouldn't try to sell it for $20? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: _This_ kind of dumbass probably. At the internet cafe here in town, the guy who runs the place typically offers his refurbished, reloaded machines for $50-100 each, and considering how little income I have otherwise I would like to recoup my expenses (usually a few hours work) somewhere around ten dollars per hour; in other words a wee bit above minimum wage. But I have heard Chris (the guy who runs the internet cafe) listen to some very sad stories from guys then reduce his price to 20-35 dollars on a specific request for 'hardship rates', which is probably how I would do it also. In other words, try to make some money for your work, and as circumsances dictate, give it away. Also I would like to comment on your allegation 'the only way to get infected is by user stupidity'. I think that is sort of a harsh assessment. _Not everyone_ who owns a computer knows everything about it; some guys work hard; save their money and buy a computer only to have some virus writer load some crap from a web site onto his page. Not every program which gets loaded on your computer is there because you gave an okay to load it in. I am reasonably intelligent, yet I have had that crap dumped on me before my hands were quick enough to hit a key combination to stop the load from occurring. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Marc Popek Subject: Re: VoIP Phone Home? Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 01:19:05 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet Interesting point of view. Marco http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5790337602&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1 Fred Atkinson wrote in message news:telecom24.316.10@telecom-digest.org: > On Wed, 06 Jul 2005 07:39:44 GMT, Marc Popek wrote: >> Mostly the cost difference and the convenience. >> Marc >> Fred Atkinson wrote in message >> news:telecom24.309.2@telecom-digest.org: >>> Why not just get a two-line RJ-14 type telephone? >>> Fred > Well, you can go to Radio Shack and get a very nice two line GE phone > with caller ID, speakerphone, and a bunch of other features for about > fifty dollars. I just got one because I'm going to have two different > VOIP services at my new place in NC for a while. When I have the > bucks, I'm going to get another one, too. > I used to be leary of phones being sold by Radio Shack. But what I've > seen there lately has been an improvement. It used to be off brands. > But now there's not so many different model phones but a few good ones > insteads. > Fred ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens Organization: Symantec Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 21:22:26 -0400 In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to jmeissen@aracnet.com: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But I do the essence of challenge > response right now, as many other mailing list publishers do. You > (or some spammer or other idiot) writes to me. When it gets here if > Spam Assassin detirmines it to be spam it goes into one file. The > allegedly _legitimate_ letter writers get back an auto-ack from me, > but since Spam Assassin lets so much garbage through, a lot of > spammers get an auto-ack also. But spammers DON'T get the auto-ack. Spammers almost universally use forged sender addresses, so the auto-ack goes to some innocent bystander. > (3) then it goes on to say "If you > were not the writer of what I received, then someone apparently took > control of your computer; please get help as needed in cleaning out > the viruses, etc. The computer that was taken control of is almost always *not* the one you notified. Repeat after me: "Spam uses forged sender addresses." A's machine is a spam zombie, and sends out mail from B and C. Bounces and challenges go to B and C, who have no way of fixing A's machine, and probably can't even figure out who A was. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: First of all, I do not send auto-ack to 'known (by Spam Assassin) spammers'. Those four to five hundred letters I receive daily just get dropped in a separate file. Its the two or three hundred letters which did not meet the Spam Assassin 'point score' which go in the regular mailbox who get the auto-ack. Trouble is, many of those (which slipped past Spam Asssassin) are also in fact spam. I cannot refine it any closer without throwing out good mail, which happens sometimes anyway. There are 'control copies' of each issue of the Digest which are sent out in the mail and looped back to me to test this with. I have the point scoring set as low as I possibly can without getting legitimate stuff tripped up. When an issue of this Digest (a controlled mailing) returns in the loop and falls into the spam pot then I know the point scoring is a bit too low and I set it up a little. I use Bayesian scoring and Spam Assassin learns a little from its own experience. The system admin here at MIT is going to install a newer version of Spam Assassin for me as time permits; he has a busy schedule also. And I have to disagree at least a little with your recitation above that 'spam uses forged sending addresses'. Yes that is true a little, but it is very rare (maybe four or five each day [out of about 300 auto-acks] which are sent out automatically) that I get back a mailer-daemon from postmaster here with an auto-ack which bounced; and I have _never yet even once in twenty years_ gotten a letter of complaint from some person who had been 'accused' of sending spam or who was 'annoyed' by getting the auto-ack. I get a lot of those myself, where an auto-ack from someone tells me welcome to their group, or thanks me for writing them, etc, and if they did not fall in the spam file and get automatically tossed out when I first log in here each day, then I toss them out by hand when I comb through the so-called legitimate mail file. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens Date: 22 Jul 2005 01:42:29 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , Pat wrote: > Because of my personal experience with this for a few years now, the > auto-ack begins with the assumption you _are a spammer_ also. It asks > you to (1) remove this email address from your list. (2) It tells you > we are not interested at all ... (3) then it goes on to say "If you > were not the writer of what I received, then someone apparently took > control of your computer; please get help as needed in cleaning out > the viruses, etc. > Then after a couple paragraphs at least of addressing you as though > you are the spammer, or the idiot with the zombified computer, it > goes on to conclude (4) "for everyone else, good netizens who wrote > to me, your letter is being read and evaluated and readied for use > in the Digest. Thank you for writing me." Now, is the complaint I > make in (1),(2) and (3) too much of an imposition to read? I very > strongly support the work of http://www.bluesecurity.com and hope > all readers will at least review it and decide from there. PAT] The problem with that is it assumes that, for spam, either: 1) the return address is the spammer's address, or 2) the return address is the owner of the (probably infected) system that sent the spam. Neither of those is likely to be true. Most spam will NOT have a correct return address, just to avoid getting deluged with bounce messages from places that decide the recipient doesn't exist halfway through the local delivery process. And they're NEVER the email address of the owner of the sending machine. All current trojan/virus spam engines forge From: headers using addresses harvested from various places on the infected machine or even other addresses from the list it's trying to deliver to. So in the case of spam all you're doing is taking the unsolicited email that you got and using it to generate unsolicited email for someone else. The only accurate way to identify the source of spam is from the Received: header generated by your mail server when it accepts the email. And all that gives you is the IP address of the sending system. There's no way for anyone other than the infected user's ISP to associate that information with a username/email address. While generating an auto-ack for submissions seems like a nice gesture, in the case of spam all it does is aggravate the situation. It might be more effective to do something like comp.risks does now -- ask submitters to tag submissions with a unique identifier in the subject line. Or create a unique email address that's recognizable but not harvestable (maybe by adding a tag line to postings with instructions on how to construct the submission address). John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: First of all, if I were interested in 'doing like comp.risks does' that's one thing, however although I do have many regular correspondents here, there are also many newer and inexperienced netizens who write me to _ask questions_ about how _telephones work_, etc. I cannot have a system where if someone wishes to write me, he has to include 'keyword' in the subject line. I do not have a closed-loop of my friends or enemies as my only writers. Far too much good letters would get trashed that way. And with twenty some years of postings in our own archives here and many other places, it would take a long time to teach people how to construct the submission address. Let's just face it: passive filtering of email has been from the beginning been a dismal failure. All it has gotten us is an ever increasing ratio of spam/scam to legitimacy; a ratio that now is in excess of 80-85 percent and will eventually (as close as is mathemat- ically possible) reach 100 percent; I suppose it could get to 99.99998 percent spam/scam, there will always be a few fools trying to send out legitimate email. _Filtering does not work_. Filtering is the notion that 'if we ignore them, they will go away' and I can tell you that they will not. Filtering is just a deluded act of self-denial which refuses to admit how bad things have gotten. We continue to keep our filters running overtime; and a whole branch of software writing, a whole new industry -- anti-virus, anti-spam software protection -- has developed to appease those folks who want to use it. You may recall my concept several years ago of a 'Business Directory' which listed the 800 numbers of spammers; the idea was to do as they asked, and call them _on their 800 number_ to inquire about their 'product' or 'service'. Even though Jeff Slaton wound up having to damn near mortgage his home to pay his bill to Southwestern Bell after his 800 number was published here, I did not hear any of the now, all too common excuses and wimpering about doing the essence of DDOS on his phone lines. I did not hear anyone wondering 'oh what if he decides to sue me for this _illegal_ act I am doing'; i.e. calling him as requested to complain about the spam. But now, ICANN is in the picture, and we suddenly hear how _anything_ at all we do to agressively fight spam/scam (instead of just passively rolling over and accepting it, using filters like the defective and faulty condoms they are) is illegal, immoral, etc. That's the genius of the Blue Security approach. It works essentially like my Business Directory concept. Telephone the _actual offender_ (not just some sap whose computer got compromised or some sysadmin who can't get his act together) and inform _the actual offender_ what you want. And its automated, and it does not involve email at all. The netizen goes to the website of _the actual offender_ and fills in the blanks on his page explaining what is wanted, which is what he asked us to do, is it not? Admittedly, the answers I would give are not the answers he wanted, but neither were the answers most of you gave when you telephoned the 800 number of the _actual offender_. And in that instance, telephone numbers are a lot like IP addresses. Yes, people in the middle can make changes in how you get from here to there, and yes, a sufficient number of connections all at one time will cause some hassles. But that is neither here nor there. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Ethics of Deterrence Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 23:30:15 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Eren Reshef wrote: > Some bloggers have recently claimed our fight is morally flawed. I'll go further and tell you you're a criminal. It's trivially easy for someone to put an URL of a website I own into a spam. And if you attack my website in response, and I had nothing to do with the original spam, you will have law enforcement knocking on your door. You're in California, I'm in California, should be as easy as a phone call. Did you mention something about the US Constitution? God, I *hate* when ignorant people claim that the Constitution gives them rights with no restriction -- you are welcome to certain rights as long you don't infringe on others' rights in the process of exercising yours. People who whine about their First Amendment rights being impugned often forget that. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Steve, you are forgetting a couple of important factors: although yes, it is 'trivially easy' to put someone else's URL (for a web page) into spam a third party wants to send out, if you have a web page, your web page would have to have one or more 'forms' on it for people to use to fill in their credit card numbers in order for other folks to come along and deface your web site, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be quite a coincidence if you, the innocent web site owner happened to have forms all over your web page which related to the product or service being spammed by some other person, _and_ through some 'human error' your web site got chosen? I really have to wonder if you read any of the FAQ on how the BlueSecurity.com system works ... let's say for example, I am offended by a piece of spam I recieve; I forward it to BlueSecurity; someone there who has a modicum of intelligence (about as much intelligence as the people who write up filtering software) looks at it, quickly finds mid the HTML crap on the source page an IP address which _appears to be_ the offender. He (the investigator) goes to the URL; is it in fact the product or service being spammed? If not, then he junks it. If it is the product being spammed, and it has 'forms' around the page for things like credit card numbers, comments or names/addresses, etc then it gets put somewhere. Now the investi- gtor finds a thousand more pieces from the same spammer, referring to the same URL, then acts on it. It is not a willy-nilly process where 'you' sent me spam so I 'crash your system'. They only release the 'do not spam me further' notices (which simply goes to that URL and fills in the aforementioned, already located 'forms') once they have discovered the _actual offender_, not some innocent bystander. They got a lot of money from somewhere to put investigators to work tracking down _good_ URLs of spammers. Admittedly they cannot get anywhere with much of the crap which comes to them, but they do find some of them. And it is _not_ DDOS since the spammer is first given ample warning, and assistance as needed in cleaning his list. Oh, I know ICANN would not approve of it, nor would many of the old- time netizens who prefer being in denial about spam/scam, etc. ICANN tolerates it since it does the dirty work they don't have to do; driving small web site owners and netizens off of 'their' network, then when anyone like Blue Security gets a sum of money for their 'start up costs' and proceeds to catch and punish eve a few of the spammers, the ICANN-favored users start chanting against it, with all sorts of warnings: it won't work; even it does a little it is a stupid thing; those spammers may claim _their_ First Amendment rights and get _you_ in trouble, yada yada yada ad nauseum ... Oh, and by the way, if http://telecom-digest.org 'suddenly stops working' sometime soon, well ... its just ICANN doing their thing, trying to silence anyone who tells you how naked they and their merry band of choristers are. Anytime you cannot get through on telecom-digest.org, remember that ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu is still a good address and points to the very same place. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Duh_OZ Subject: Re: Prepaid + Pay phones Date: 21 Jul 2005 19:02:42 -0700 Joseph wrote: > Go to http://abtolls.com and look for CALLING CARD LONG DISTANCE PHONE > RATES. > It doesn't list every card, but you can see that most of them charge > between 30 and 65 cents per call. Thanks! I'll definitely look it over. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Western Electric - Major Works - Status Today? Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 03:10:40 GMT In article , Jim Millick wrote: > From a Lucent friend, an article on Hawthorne Works: > At one time, Cicero, IL, was famous for two things that > had absolutely nothing in common: Al Capone and Western > Electric. The blue-collar town on the West Side of Chicago Actually there was a connection, however slight. In the book Manufacturing the Future : A History of Western Electric by Stephen B. Adams and Orville R. Butler there is an anecdote about a W.E. statistician who wandered over to one of the gambling dens and used his knowledge of statistics to determine that the roulette wheels were not exactly random (because of personal idiocyncrasies of the operators). He was able to win a little money. -- jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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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 V24 #335 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jul 23 20:05:45 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 4BFE014E21; Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:05:45 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #336 Message-Id: <20050724000545.4BFE014E21@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:05:45 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAD_CREDIT, BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:05:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 336 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson R-TEC Isolation Filter and Unknown Box (wh349055@netscape.net) Re: Need to Drop SBC LD Service. Info on Other Carriers? (jmeissen) Re: Need to Drop SBC LD Service. Info on Other Carriers? (C Griswold Jr) Re: VoIP Intercom? (Daniel AJ Sokolov) Re: VoIP Intercom? (Robert Bonomi) Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens (jmeissen@aracnet) Re: Ethics of Deterrence (Barry Margolin) Re: Ethics of Deterrence (Robert Bonomi) Re: Ethics of Deterrence (mc) Re: Ethics of Deterrence (Bob Vaughan) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Steve Sobol) Re: Old London Telephone Exchange Names (Paul Coxwell) WTB Marconi &Tellabs (wwwSDHPDHcom) Another Home Business (Steven Lichter) 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: wh349055@netscape.net Subject: R-TEC Isolation Filter and Unknown Box Date: 23 Jul 2005 16:36:10 -0700 I was in my basement, trying to remove the mess of wires, and putting them all on a punchdown block. I noticet two old grey bell co wires going to a box called an isolation filter. From there they went into a box called an "R-tec STU-7". Inside the r-tec box, there is a rechargable battery, and an instruction sheet. The sheet says: -Telephone must be wired for briged ringing -Use straight line ringers only with bias spring at minimum setting. The box is grey, says "Phone Co Property" and is about 9'' by 5'' by 2'' deep. What is this, and what does/did it do (it was disconected) Thanks, Warren ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Need to Drop SBC LD Service. Info on Other Carriers? Date: 22 Jul 2005 22:05:20 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , George wrote: > Beginning in September, all of SBC's LD calling plans will have a > monthly charge, so I need to find a new home -- one that will only > charge me for calls, with no monthly fee or minimum. Assuming there > still is such a thing. I use PowerNet Global http://www.powernetglobal.com . I've been with them for a couple of years, and never had a problem. I believe they now charge $1 for a paper invoice, although they didn't when I signed up and they haven't tried to charge me as long as I don't set up an Internet account. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Need to Drop SBC LD Service. Info on Other Carriers? Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 16:43:57 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com George wrote: > Beginning in September, all of SBC's LD calling plans will have a > monthly charge, so I need to find a new home -- one that will only > charge me for calls, with no monthly fee or minimum. Assuming there > still is such a thing. I've been very pleased with Pioneer Telephone for 2 or 3 years now -- www.pioneertelephone.com Don't confuse the URL with similar sounding ones. No referral credit, no relation, just like the company. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 02:56:00 +0200 From: Daniel AJ Sokolov Subject: Re: VoIP Intercom? Am 22.07.2005 20:59 schrieb Scott Dorsey: > Does anyone have any suggestion for a device that does this as a > simple standalone device, preferably with minimum configuration? I > know Telex makes some VOIP modules which can be integrated with their > intercom frames, but they all seem to require a central switch. Maybe http://www.nimcatnetworks.com/ can help. They've developed a software for VoIP-phones that seems to be quite clever. The design is such that you don't need a central switch or something, the PBX functions are there in any of the phones. It also works as an intercom. You even get redundancy for the voice box -- backups of your voicemail are automatically stored in other phones on your LAN. It's also self-configuring. I'm not related to Nimcat in any way, but I saw their stuff at CeBIT this year. It was quite impressive, because it was so simple. Yes, it offers much more than you require, but I suggest you just send them an e-mail and ask if they have anything affordable that suits your needs. HTH Daniel AJ My e-mail-address is sokolov [at] gmx dot net ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: VoIP Intercom? Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 01:05:29 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Scott Dorsey wrote: > We have a number of stations, some of them in the same building on a > single ethernet switch, and some of them in another building somewhere > else in the world but with internet or intranet connections to that > switch. > These stations need to be linked with an intercom, using external > hardware. This should act like a party line, where one unit can press > a talk button and be heard on all the other units. > Selective calling features or multiple channels would be nice, but not > essental. There will be fewer than ten total units in place. > Does anyone have any suggestion for a device that does this as a > simple standalone device, preferably with minimum configuration? I > know Telex makes some VOIP modules which can be integrated with their > intercom frames, but they all seem to require a central switch. This should be almost trivially easy to roll your own -- around an IP-enabled micro-controller (something only a little smarter than a Basic STAMP(tm), and using IP multicast. ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Spam Fighting Technique Fought by Some Netizens Date: 22 Jul 2005 22:00:34 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , wrote: > While generating an auto-ack for submissions seems like a nice > gesture, in the case of spam all it does is aggravate the > situation. It might be more effective to do something like comp.risks > does now -- ask submitters to tag submissions with a unique identifier > in the subject line. Or create a unique email address that's > recognizable but not harvestable (maybe by adding a tag line to > postings with instructions on how to construct the submission > address). > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: First of all, if I were interested in > 'doing like comp.risks does' that's one thing, however although I do > have many regular correspondents here, there are also many newer and > inexperienced netizens who write me to _ask questions_ about how > _telephones work_, etc. I cannot have a system where if someone wishes > to write me, he has to include 'keyword' in the subject line. I do not > have a closed-loop of my friends or enemies as my only writers. Far too > much good letters would get trashed that way. And with twenty some > years of postings in our own archives here and many other places, it > would take a long time to teach people how to construct the submission > address. Unfortunately, you are in a somewhat unique position. I have implemented pretty effective blocking here, but basically by blacklisting most of the Internet :-) For instance, I blacklist every email whose sending hostname or return address uses any of the Country Code Top Level Domains (i.e., .uk, .fi, .kr, etc), something you obviously can't do. But it's no less legitimate to ask someone to include a keyword on their subject line than to ask them to respond to a challenge email. And as for dealing with an address from an archive, you could set up an auto-responder for that address which would provide the necessary instructions. It doesn't solve the negative side-effects of an auto-responder, but it might help with your spam problem. I agree you have some unique circumstances that don't have easy solutions. Mostly I was just trying to point out that it's not the spammers who see the auto-response to spam, but some previously uninvolved third party. So it's really pointless to use the auto-responder with regard to spam. The Internet has indeed become a dirty place. :-/ John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One reason I do not wish to block off email from any two-letter country domain is because I do get mail from .ru(ssia), .uk (United Kingdom), .de (Germany), etc. What should I do, tell them I cannot be of help or respond to them unless they move into the United States? I have readers in those countries as well. I think it is sort of a slap in the face of _those_ people to imply they are not good enough to participate in the same internet as myself. If anything, I should block off all email from (anything).com since .com is responsible for so much spam/scam is it not? And I have various domains of my own in the 'us.tc' and 'us.tf' country codes. Now admittedly, all they do at the present time is re-direct all calls to wherever else you _really are at_. One thing I like about those domain names, along with 'n3.net' (another one I use) is that the people who run those top level domains ('tc' and 'tf') charge nothing for registration, allow remote registrations, _and_ if you ask them to do so, they will 'cloak' the actual place where you are at, by using frames with your real location buried inside the frame and the bar across the top gives _their_ name for you. For an example, look at http://weatherforecast.us.tf which redirects to my page at berkeley. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Ethics of Deterrence Organization: Symantec Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 20:08:42 -0400 In article , Steve Sobol wrote: > It's trivially easy for someone to put an URL of a website I own into > a spam. > And if you attack my website in response, and I had nothing to do with > the original spam, you will have law enforcement knocking on your > door. Did you miss the part where they say that they send a warning first? If you've been framed by the spammer, you'll have a chance to let them know that it was a forgery. This should hopefully forestall the attack. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, it will stop the whole one-for-one complaint process. They look for any possible reason to _not_ start the robots going, not the other way around. You can come back to them with complete denial (and start them investigating further) or you can go back and tell them you want to clean up your list, or whatever. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Ethics of Deterrence Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 02:17:54 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Steve Sobol wrote: > Eren Reshef wrote: >> Some bloggers have recently claimed our fight is morally flawed. > I'll go further and tell you you're a criminal. > It's trivially easy for someone to put an URL of a website I own into > a spam. > And if you attack my website in response, and I had nothing to do with > the original spam, you will have law enforcement knocking on your > door. > You're in California, I'm in California, should be as easy as a phone > call. > Did you mention something about the US Constitution? God, I *hate* > when ignorant people claim that the Constitution gives them rights > with no restriction -- you are welcome to certain rights as long you > don't infringe on others' rights in the process of exercising > yours. People who whine about their First Amendment rights being > impugned often forget that. > Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED > Company website: http://JustThe.net/ > Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ > E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Steve, you are forgetting a couple > of important factors: although yes, it is 'trivially easy' to put > someone else's URL (for a web page) into spam a third party wants to > send out, if you have a web page, your web page would have to have > one or more 'forms' on it for people to use to fill in their credit > card numbers in order for other folks to come along and deface your > web site, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be quite a coincidence if you, > the innocent web site owner happened to have forms all over your > web page which related to the product or service being spammed by > some other person, _and_ through some 'human error' your web site > got chosen? Would it surprise you to learn that an unscrupulous operator might DELIBERATELY spam "on behalf of" a competitor, for the express purpose of getting that competitor knocked off the 'net? Would it surprise you to learn that that _has_ happened? *MORE*THAN*ONCE* Would it surprise you to learn that business *have* gone under, as a result of such actions? If so, you are *unaware* of events on the Internet, more recent than *1996*. The prototypical such actions (from which the name "joe job" for describing such things is derived) occurred in late 1996. Google for "joe job" (with the quotes, for lots of history -- or see (among many others) the page at: for the "jargon files" definition. Such things are a "not infrequent" event, to this day. > I really have to wonder if you read any of the FAQ on > how the BlueSecurity.com system works ... let's say for example, I > am offended by a piece of spam I recieve; I forward it to BlueSecurity; > someone there who has a modicum of intelligence (about as much > intelligence as the people who write up filtering software) looks at > it, quickly finds mid the HTML crap on the source page an IP address > which _appears to be_ the offender. He (the investigator) goes to > the URL; is it in fact the product or service being spammed? If not, > then he junks it. If it is the product being spammed, and it has > 'forms' around the page for things like credit card numbers, comments > or names/addresses, etc then it gets put somewhere. Now the investi- > gtor finds a thousand more pieces from the same spammer, referring > to the same URL, then acts on it. It is not a willy-nilly process > where 'you' sent me spam so I 'crash your system'. They only release > the 'do not spam me further' notices (which simply goes to that URL > and fills in the aforementioned, already located 'forms') once they > have discovered the _actual offender_, not some innocent bystander. That is a lie. They *cannot* tell who "really sent" the e-mail message. All they can tell is that the material on the web-site, and material in the message are 'consistent' with each other. Which can be explained in _at_least_ two ways: 1) the web-site operator actually sent the message(s). 2) "somebody else" -- *deliberately*and*maliciously* -- posing as the web-site operator sent the message(s) for the express purpose of discrediting the actual web-site operator. There is *no*way* to tell which of those scenarios is the "real" explanation. Those who act, based on assumption #1, when the reality is assumption #2, can find themselves in legal hot water. > They got a lot of money from somewhere to put investigators to work > tracking down _good_ URLs of spammers. Admittedly they cannot get > anywhere with much of the crap which comes to them, but they do find > some of them. And it is _not_ DDOS since the spammer is first given > ample warning, and assistance as needed in cleaning his list. You know. There's something really "funny" about their ENTIRE operation. "Blue Security, Inc." according to their website, is located in Menlo Park, California. With a claimed telephone number, at that address, of "972-9-9577736", per the whois entry for the domain. Yet, according to the California Secretary of State, the *legal*owner* of that _Corporation_Name_, is a locksmith in La Jolla, California, who has had that name since 1997. (That information, and the info in the following 3 paragraphs, *can* be verified by anyone who cares to, on the State of California web-site.) They can't legally have some other name, and be using "Blue Security, Inc." as a "doing business as" (DBA) -- what California calls a "fictitious name" -- because California *expressly* forbids the use of a corporate ("Inc.", "Corp.", "Corporation", etc.) or LLC indicator as part of a fictitious name. One *cannot* legally register a corporate name (whether an in-state corporation, or an out-of-state one doing business in California) that is the same name as an existing Calif. corporation. One can register a name that is "similar" only with the *written*consent* of the presently- registered corporation, _and_ the agreement from the Secretary of State that the naming would _not_ be unduly confusing to potential customers. Operating an unregistered business *is* a violation of California law. Based on that, alone, Blue Security *does* appear to be a criminal operation. Blue Security's published INTENT regarding the co-ordinated complaint-bombing of the targeted web-site is to make it 'unusable' by people attempting to do legitimate business with that company. One doesn't have to assume anything about how they work. One doesn't have to do any interpretation. All one has to do is look at WHAT THEY HAVE SAID THEIR INTENT IS. Their intent, per their own words, *is* to inflict a "denial of service" on the "guilty" web-site owner. That *is* a criminal action, under the law. That isn't the only issue. If they're *not* doing what they say they do, then there are issues of false advertising, and/or wire-fraud. If they _do_ do what they proclaim (a crime, per the above analysis), there are additional possible charges of: soliciting for participation in a criminal enterprise conspiracy accessory before the fact RICO just to name a few. Those 'co-conspirators' that get sucked into their scheme could get names on any/all of the latter 3 counts named above. Incidentally, *IF* the mail-senders must pay for the 'list-washing' service that Blue Security offers, then one can probably add "extortion" to the possible charges. Blue Security _has_ issued a public 'threat' to attempt DDoS on the web-sites of people who send them e-mail without going through the list-washing process. Avoidance of that 'threat' by the payment of money (whether or not a service is provided for that money) is the essence of extortion. Note: somewhat deeper digging into "Blue Security" indicates that the _actual_ ownership is apparently with a company in Israel. One that many people belive as having a lot of business dealings with the Mossad. One might speculate that "Blue Security" is a 'front' for testing some actual "information warfare" tools. Emphasis on "warfare". > Oh, and by the way, if http://telecom-digest.org 'suddenly stops > working' sometime soon, well ... its just ICANN doing their thing, > trying to silence anyone who tells you how naked they and their merry > band of choristers are. Anytime you cannot get through on > telecom-digest.org, remember that ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu is still > a good address and points to the very same place. PAT] REALLY??? My web browsers (4 different ones, on 3 different platforms) insist that "ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu" is not a valid URL. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As I tried to explain to Robert Bonomi in private email, these two URLS are _identical_ in where they go: http://telecom-digest.org (and) http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives These two emails are identical in where they go: ptownson@telecom-digest.org (and) ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu I tried to explain to Robert Bonomi that a 'valid URL' (as in web site) does not have an 'at sign' @ in the middle of it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Ethics of Deterrence Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 23:18:09 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory (http://www.speedfactory.net) Steve Sobol wrote in message news:telecom24.335.14@telecom-digest.org: > Eren Reshef wrote: >> Some bloggers have recently claimed our fight is morally flawed. > I'll go further and tell you you're a criminal. > It's trivially easy for someone to put an URL of a website I own into > a spam. Well said! This is exactly why, ten years ago, we had to tell people not to "mail bomb" obnoxious e-mailers or newsgroup posters. The other issue is collateral damage. In an attempt to bombard a spammer, even if you get the spammer's true address, there's too much risk of clogging up innocent sites along the way. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 23:25:41 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Pat said: > Also I would like to comment on your allegation 'the only way to get > infected is by user stupidity'. I think that is sort of a harsh > assessment. _Not everyone_ who owns a computer knows everything about > it Pat's right. You can be computer-savvy, even, and not necessarily know within hours every time a new exploit comes out. It's not a question of stupidity. New malware releases tend to happen quickly. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: techie@tantivy.tantivy.net (Bob Vaughan) Subject: Re: Ethics of Deterrence Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 22:17:20 UTC Organization: Tantivy Associates In article , Steve Sobol wrote: > Eren Reshef wrote: >> Some bloggers have recently claimed our fight is morally flawed. > I'll go further and tell you you're a criminal. > It's trivially easy for someone to put an URL of a website I own into > a spam. > And if you attack my website in response, and I had nothing to do with > the original spam, you will have law enforcement knocking on your > door. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Steve, you are forgetting a couple > of important factors: although yes, it is 'trivially easy' to put > someone else's URL (for a web page) into spam a third party wants to > send out, if you have a web page, your web page would have to have > one or more 'forms' on it for people to use to fill in their credit > card numbers in order for other folks to come along and deface your > web site, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be quite a coincidence if you, > the innocent web site owner happened to have forms all over your > web page which related to the product or service being spammed by > some other person, _and_ through some 'human error' your web site > got chosen? I really have to wonder if you read any of the FAQ on > how the BlueSecurity.com system works ... let's say for example, I > am offended by a piece of spam I recieve; I forward it to BlueSecurity; > someone there who has a modicum of intelligence (about as much > intelligence as the people who write up filtering software) looks at > it, quickly finds mid the HTML crap on the source page an IP address > which _appears to be_ the offender. He (the investigator) goes to > the URL; is it in fact the product or service being spammed? If not, > then he junks it. If it is the product being spammed, and it has > 'forms' around the page for things like credit card numbers, comments > or names/addresses, etc then it gets put somewhere. Now the investi- > gtor finds a thousand more pieces from the same spammer, referring > to the same URL, then acts on it. It is not a willy-nilly process > where 'you' sent me spam so I 'crash your system'. They only release > the 'do not spam me further' notices (which simply goes to that URL > and fills in the aforementioned, already located 'forms') once they > have discovered the _actual offender_, not some innocent bystander. You have just described a legitimate online business.. ie: a site, offering product(s), and providing a means to order those products online. There are thousands of these types of businesses, and the majority of them are legitimate. Lets use Online_Vendor_A as an example, we'll refer to them as '_target_', and we will refer to the person(s) attacking them as '_attacker_'. Just because _target_ is being advertised via spam, does not mean that _target_ is responsible for the spam. It is certainly possible that _attacker_ does not like _target_ for some reason or another, and decides that the easiest way to attack them is to send out a few million spam emails, advertising the _target_ site. Well guess what, Blue Frog is here, ready to launch a DDOS attack against the _target_ site on behalf of all the people who just got spammed, adding yet another layer of shielding between the _attacker_, and _target_. Do you really want to know how many phishing spam I get that have the URL of the real website somewhere in the spam? > They got a lot of money from somewhere to put investigators to work > tracking down _good_ URLs of spammers. Admittedly they cannot get > anywhere with much of the crap which comes to them, but they do find > some of them. And it is _not_ DDOS since the spammer is first given > ample warning, and assistance as needed in cleaning his list. In the example above _target_ IS NOT the spammer, and DOES NOT hold the list, or even have knowledge of the existance of the list, nor do they have any control over it, or contact with anybody who does. While _target_ may appear to benefit from the spam, the opposite is true, since the false accusations, and DDOS attacks have the effect of placing a undue burden on _target_'s legitimate business, and computing resources.. This is a Joe-Job, and unfortunately there is no easy way to determine if _target_ is being subjected to a Joe-Job without asking _attacker_ or _target_. Now, if you ask _target_, but assume that _target_ is a spammer, and refuse to believe their answer, then you are back to step 1. > Oh, I know ICANN would not approve of it, nor would many of the old- > time netizens who prefer being in denial about spam/scam, etc. ICANN > tolerates it since it does the dirty work they don't have to do; > driving small web site owners and netizens off of 'their' network, > then when anyone like Blue Security gets a sum of money for their > 'start up costs' and proceeds to catch and punish eve a few of the > spammers, the ICANN-favored users start chanting against it, with all > sorts of warnings: it won't work; even it does a little it is a stupid > thing; those spammers may claim _their_ First Amendment rights and > get _you_ in trouble, yada yada yada ad nauseum ... I do not like spam one bit, but I feel that this method is targeting the wrong issue. Complaining to the spam source based on IP address is one thing, complaining to the website mentioned in the spam, unless properly verified >by human analysis< is another, and in many cases it will simply be impossible to determine if the two are connected. This method might be effective against phishing spams, and spams advertising obviously illegal products, but beyond that is is worse than useless. By providing the mechanism with which to facilitate the DDOS attack, Blue Security is opening themselves up to some serious liability problems in the likely event of a attack on an innocent site, using Blue Frog as a proxy. -- Welcome My Son, Welcome To The Machine -- Bob Vaughan | techie @ tantivy.net | | P.O. Box 19792, Stanford, Ca 94309 | -- I am Me, I am only Me, And no one else is Me, What could be simpler? -- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Have you been following the discussion? Blue Security does absolutely _nothing_ until they are 99.7 percent sure they have the right party, and even the, the right party is given a chance to respond (not me, it was a joe-job, etc) or clean up his mailing list, or subscribe to a list instead of using dictionary attacks etc. Only when there is absolutely no response from the offender, or a very casual 'too hell with the net' answer, then is the 'one complaint for one spam' process started. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 16:50:49 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: Old London Telephone Exchange Names Pat, Re the list of old London exchange names which is archived here: http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/archives/history/dialing-history It's been pointed out to me that the entry for BOWes Park 209 incorrectly shows that this office served the Twickenham area, which is in southwest London. In fact the BOWes Park office served the Wood Green / Bowes Park district of north London. I'm not sure why I didn't spot the mistake, as my own family lived around that part of north London years ago, so Bowes Park was only just up the road. Anyway, perhaps you could make an appropriate amendment in the arhives. - Paul. ------------------------------ From: wwwSDHPDHcom Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 06:30:57 +0100 Subject: WTB Marconi &Tellabs Wants to Buy Marconi MSH 80, 83, 84 Racks subracks and cards. Tellabs Titan 5500 550N High Density Shelf and cards. If you have for sale any of the above, please e mail us on Buy. ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Another Home Business Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 17:48:21 GMT This one is real good and gives you a toll free number to find out about it. Be sure to let them know the person's id that you got their number from, I'm sure they would like to thank them for all the phone charges. Just call 1-800-704-7344 -- and please give them my ID 4733MW. To your success, Michelle The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well thank you Steven, or Michelle, or whoever ... I am sure all the guys know the routine by now. But my question is, what makes calling on complaints via an 800 number used for spam any different than locating a web site owner who has been doing about the same thing. They both could be joe-jobs, they both could be horrible misunderstandings, etc, but I think we all know most of those objections are just red-herrings. They are what they appear to be, affronts to the sensibilities of _most_ netizens. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #336 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jul 24 17:02:07 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 1DB9F14D55; Sun, 24 Jul 2005 17:02:07 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #337 Message-Id: <20050724210207.1DB9F14D55@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 17:02:07 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.1 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 24 Jul 2005 17:02:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 337 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Next Version of Windows to be Known as "Vista" (AP News Wire) News Consumers Become News Editors (Anick Jesdanun) An Unsettling Surprise: Victimized by ID Theft (Andrew Plato) TV Telephone History (John L. Shelton) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (DevilsPGD) Re: Ethics of Deterrence (John Levine) 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: Associated Press News Wire Subject: Next Version of Windows to be Known as 'Vista' Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 14:11:10 -0500 Next Version of Windows Named 'Vista' Microsoft Corp. dropped the code name Longhorn on Friday, announcing the next version of its flagship Windows operating system will be called Windows Vista. The world's largest software maker also said it will release the first of two test versions to developers and information technology professionals by Aug. 3. The company did not say when it expects to release a second test version to a broader audience, but said it remains on target to ship the oft-delayed update to Windows XP sometime in the second half of next year. Microsoft gave an internal gathering of its employees in Atlanta the first word about the new name Thursday. "The core idea around Windows Vista is bringing clarity to the user so they can focus on what matters most," Brad Goldberg, general manager for Windows product management said Friday. Vista's features will include better ways to visualize data, such as seeing through windows that are stacked atop each other, more natural file organization and faster searching. The operating system will also be designed to better protect computers against viruses and spyware. On the Net: Vista: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Anick Jesdanun Subject: Online News Consumers Become Own Editors Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 14:09:37 -0500 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer J.D. Lasica used to visit 20 to 30 Web sites for his daily fix of news. Now, he's down to three -- yet he consumes more news online than ever. Lasica is among a growing breed of information consumers who use the latest Internet technologies to completely bypass the home pages of news sites and jump directly to articles that interest them. He can scan some 200 Web journals and traditional news sites -- all without actually going out and visiting them. Online news consumers are increasingly taking charge, getting their news a la carte from a variety of outlets. Rarely do they depend on a single news organization's vision of the day's top stories. "The old idea of surfers coming to your Web site and coming to your front door, that's going away," said Lasica, a former editor at The Sacramento Bee. "People are going to come in through the side window, through the basement, through the attic, anyway they want to." Some Web sites are already responding. "When we all started this 10 years ago, we wanted to be the one and only place people come to," said Jim Brady, executive editor of The Washington Post's Web site. These days, he said, the Post is happy simply to be one of many sources checked daily. He sees his home page as a starting point, and during the July 7 bombings in London, the Post even linked to the BBC, something unfathomable a few years ago. The Post and Knight Ridder Digital, meanwhile, are redesigning Web sites to spread elements previously found only on home pages. And in a case of "if you can't beat them, join them," Knight Ridder Inc., Gannett Co. and Tribune Co. collectively bought three-quarters of Topix.net, a startup that provides tools for readers to bypass news home pages. The New York Times has been paying an undisclosed amount to have its headlines featured there. Many smaller, privately owned web sites used the syndicated RSS news feeds of each other as well, and frequently contribute their own news items in the same way. Topix provides direct links to news stories it collects and sorts from more than 10,000 sources, and it slices story by category as well as region, down to the ZIP code. Many of the links are to other web sites as well as the more traditional media. A news aggregation service from Google Inc. scans more than 4,500 English sources and uses software to rank and display stories to which it links, while America Online Inc. and Yahoo Inc. offer services that rely more on humans. Yahoo News, rather than trying to keep readers from leaving, provides easy access to articles elsewhere using Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, a technology that immediately notifies users of new entries on their favorite news sites and Web journals. "In this world where people are looking for multiple points of view, if all you're giving them is your view, ... they are going to leave anyway and maybe be less likely to come back," said Neil Budde, general manager for Yahoo News. Many news organizations have tried to render online a packaged product in the mold of the traditional newspaper or broadcast. That mentality is changing, but slowly, Budde said. News outlets are starting to add tools to untether readers from home pages. The Associated Press, Reuters and others, for example, are adding RSS support so readers can use tools like Yahoo's to display summaries and access stories directly. In return, they allow their own RSS feeds to be used on small web sites, a sort of 'scratch each other's back' approach. Web journals, or blogs, present another way to bypass home pages. Many are topic-centric and carry links that present the blogger's rather than a news editor's vision of the top news items. Some traditional news sites, including the Post, are even beginning to let their columnists link to outside sources. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, Yahoo News had 24.9 million visitors in June, more than any single news outlet on the Internet, and only MSNBC and CNN had more visitors than AOL News. Google News ranked 13th among news sites. At The New York Times' Web site, referrals from RSS feeds account for only 2 percent of traffic but represent the fastest growth -- 8.5 million page views in June compared with about a half million in late 2003. The new tools bring opportunities such as better ad targeting, but they also present some challenges. The news agency Agence France-Presse, for one, has sued Google for copyright infringement over Google News' use of photos and story excerpts. Aggregators and feeds also potentially let readers select only the topics they care about, ignoring other developments editors might deem important, said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project and former managing editor at U.S. News and World Report. But Charlie Tillinghast, general manager and publisher for MSNBC.com, said the new tools can also alert readers to once-obscure items they might not otherwise have seen. Knight Ridder considers tools like Google News and Topix as "nothing but incremental traffic from people who might not have otherwise seen the site," said Ross Settles, its vice president of strategy. During the Scott Peterson murder trial, for instance, the chain's San Francisco area papers saw increases in traffic from outside the area. The new age of online news will still need reporters to produce stories and editors to make judgment calls. The need for partners to provide content will never go away, said Lewis D'Vorkin, editor in chief for AOL News. Home pages will continue to serve as a jumping off point for some readers, and MSNBC recently beefed up its home page to include customized headlines that are chosen based on stories the reader recently read. But to stay relevant, online news sites must ultimately overcome their reluctance to point elsewhere, said blogging pioneer Dave Winer. "The reader wants lots of sources and doesn't particularly care whether you point offsite or onsite," Winer said. "They just want the story." And while news executives insist their brands will remain important as trustworthy destinations, some readers prefer to trust individual bloggers or friends who forward news items via e-mail or their own web sites. Nicco Mele, webmaster for Howard Dean's presidential campaign, said he rarely visits news sites directly anymore and instead trusts bloggers like Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, a Dean supporter. Pointing to Moulitsas at a recent conference, Mele remarked, "I'll read what he thinks I should read." Anick Jesdanun can be reached at netwriter(at)ap.org Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Andrew Plato Subject: An Unsettling Surprise: Victimized by ID Theft Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:02:59 -0500 IN MY OPINION Andrew Plato Recently, I opened my mailbox to an unsettling surprise: a cellular telephone bill for more than $500. Of course, it was not my phone bill, nor had I made any of the calls it listed. Like millions of other Americans, I was a victim of identity theft. The irony of my experience is that I am a computer-security professional. I make my living helping organizations secure their information systems from break-ins and theft. The theft of my identity, like millions of others, was not because my home computer was infected. It was not because I lost a charge receipt. My identity was stolen from a large, multinational corporation's computer database, similar to the recent theft of 40 million credit card numbers from a company in Tucson, Ariz. When I called the police to report this crime, the officer was blunt about my predicament. He said police get hundreds of identity-theft claims every week, and almost all of them go unpunished. And because credit firms don't hold consumers liable, these crimes are considered victimless. But there are victims: all of us. Identity theft has become the perfect crime for crooks and drug pushers. With stolen identities, criminals are getting a free ride while the rest of us get stuck with the bill in the form of higher interest rates and expenses. All crime has two components: motivation and opportunity. People must be motivated to commit a crime and have the opportunity to do so. We cannot do much about motivation, but we can surely do something about opportunity. It has become far too easy for hackers and thieves to access a network and take what they want. Armed with a home PC and free software tools, anybody with a little technical savvy can break into a network, plant malicious software and walk away with valuable data. In my line of work, I've seen the data centers for hundreds of companies. I've seen large financial companies that have networks infested with worms and viruses. I've also seen the development of critical governmental systems outsourced to companies that are so incompetent that the systems they built were broken into minutes after being put online. The fact is, our public and private organizations are ignoring their security problems and by doing so are needlessly creating the opportunity for identity thieves. Security is too often placed at the end of projects as a luxury that never gets implemented. But information security and privacy is no longer a luxury. It's time for action. Unfortunately, the only way to get action these days is to hit companies and governments where it really hurts: their wallets and the voting booth. We need to steer purchasing power away from organizations that cannot secure information and toward those that can promise security and privacy. And when data are stolen, there must be accountability. There must be penalties. Class-action lawyers are starting to sue companies for damages in such cases. My firm has already assisted in one such lawsuit. The fear of lawsuits is a powerful motivator for companies. But we also need to make information security a priority agenda item for our elected officials. Government technology spending is highly flawed, often awarding contracts to incompetent low-bidders, many of which are incapable of handling complex security issues. Identity theft will continue to go on unchecked until there is a serious effort on the part of public agencies and private companies to make security an integral part of their information systems. Let's face it: Identity theft is no longer merely an inconvenience. And it is not acceptable for corporations and governments to continue building and using insecure information systems. Andrew Plato is president of Anitian Enterprise Security, a computer security consulting firm in Beaverton. Copyright 2005 OregonLive.com. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, OregonLive.com For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 11:30:18 -0700 From: John L. Shelton Subject: TV Telephone History While watching TV Land, I realized I could learn about the phone-wealth of various TV families. For example: Rob & Laura Petrie (The Dick Van Dyke Show, early 1960s) had 5 telephones, very unusual at the time. There were model 500 desk phones in the breakfast room, kitchen, dining room, living room, and master bedroom. There may have been a sixth phone in the garage; I'm still trying to confirm. In one episode, their phone number is given as 636.9970; in another, it's NEw Rochelle 6-9970. This should have been area code 914, and area codes were known back then, but not in widespread use. TV writers later learned to use the exchange "555" (or KLondike 5) for fictitious numbers, but perhaps weren't doing this back then. The "99" portion of their phone number used to indicate a coin-operated telephone in some exchanges, so perhaps this convention was good enough. By the way, the number "9970" appears in many dialing examples from "Englewood NJ 1951 Customer Long Distance Dialing", posted to this list by Mark Cuccia in 1996. And in the movie "The Manchurian Candidate", a quoted phone number is "El Dorado 5 - 9970". Do others have good examples of TV family telephones? =John= john@jshelton.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As best as I can recall, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez ('I Love Lucy', a 1950's invention mostly, had two phones; one in the front room which was nearly always the one used on the show, but also a phone in the bedroom we only saw when an episode needed a bedroom phone.(In one show, Lucy called Ethel from the bedroom.) Their number was MUrray Hill something, I do not remember what, although a couple shows had them saying the number. The Cleaver Family (Leave it to Beaver) had a phone in the Den, and a reader here said they had one in the upstairs hallway also, but I do not recall seeing it. Their phone number was always given as 'Klondike 5-' something, with one or two digits generally muffled and unintelligable. And who can recall Sheriff Andy Taylor's phone number, both at the jail and at his home? Barney Fife's number at the rooming house where he lived was '407' on the one occassion I heard someone on the show ask 'Sarah' the operator to be connected. PAT] ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 13:27:15 -0500 Organization: Disorganized In message Steve Sobol wrote: > Pat said: >> Also I would like to comment on your allegation 'the only way to get >> infected is by user stupidity'. I think that is sort of a harsh >> assessment. _Not everyone_ who owns a computer knows everything about >> it > Pat's right. > You can be computer-savvy, even, and not necessarily know within hours > every time a new exploit comes out. It's not a question of > stupidity. New malware releases tend to happen quickly. While true, the vast majority of malware released post-XPSP2 requires explicit user intervention to install it. It doesn't install itself, it asks for permission (often more then once). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is very true also, but often times that request to install is couched with the colors and logo of a Windows Update or some other circumstance that would lead a reasonably intelligent person to go ahead and okay it, only to realize a few seconds later that they may have done something they should not have done. Even though they do sometimes ask, it is rare or _never_ that they are forthright about their intentions or _exactly what_ this 'important update' will actually accomplish. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jul 2005 06:22:29 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Ethics of Deterrence Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Did you miss the part where they say that they send a warning first? > If you've been framed by the spammer, you'll have a chance to let them > know that it was a forgery. This should hopefully forestall the > attack. First question: why do you expect that legitimate websites will cooperate with what is in essence a protection racket? ("Nice web site you've got there, better do what we say if you ever want to see your home page again.") Second question: why do you expect that spammers will not say "we didn't send that, it's a joe job"? Do you think that Blue Frog can tell if they're lying with perfect accuracy? If not, what happens when BF DOS'es an innocent site? Anyone who thinks that Blue Frog is a good idea hasn't thought through what they're doing. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if anyone besides me has noticed how this whole thing has deteriorated from evil nasty spammers as the _true_ villians to evil nasty netizens trying to harm a good and pure web site; for how many ever years, when filtering was thought to be the answer to everything, so many netters would say 'ho hum, lets crank up the filter a little more' to desparately try to eliminate them. Now that we are close to the hundred percent saturation point with spam (as some of us predicted long ago) and filtering has been shown to be a dismal failure, at least among netizens who have to shovel it out by the truck load each day, and thought has been given to taking a more agressive deterence posture, these same guys who were so, well, almost _casual_ about installing more and more filtering are now getting desparate in their paranoia as they defend the spammers and their (spammers) 'right of free speech' as it were. Tell me this John, is there some sort of 'Spammers Legal Defense Fund' you guys sponsor or contribute to? When spammers (ever so rarely) get sued by a government agency do you guys hire lawyers to help defend them? Why did ICANN (and its cheering squad on the net) fight so vigorously against the federal government's CAN-SPAM proposed legislation; making up all sorts of mumbo-jumbo about 'how it will not work, so do not waste your time on it'? Why does ICANN interject itself, with its so-called 'expert testimony' in all these cases where legislation is pending, when instead of giving expert testimony they merely want to hawk their own agenda? It all really amazes me. Why do you guys object so vigorously when netizens try self help? If our ideas are such a damn fool waste of time, then please, __let us find it out for ourselves__; quit trying to save us from ourselves. Obviously your passive filtering solutions have not worked; why can't we try our way instead? What is your _real objection_ anyway? 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. 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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 V24 #337 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jul 25 19:52:19 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 4709A150B5; Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:52:19 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #338 Message-Id: <20050725235219.4709A150B5@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:52:19 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.1 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,OPTING_OUT autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:52:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 338 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Linksys SecureEasySetup (Monty Solomon) Linksys Debuts Wireless-G Travel Router (Monty Solomon) Now Playing on Apple's iTunes: Adult-Oriented Podcasts (Monty Solomon) Question About "Network Interface" Phone Jack (wylbur37) ISPs as Censors (Canada). (fwd) (Danny Burstein) Cisco Makes Home-Networking Play (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Need to Drop SBC LD Service. Info on Other Carriers? (Paul) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (Steve Sobol) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: TV Telephone History (Joseph) Re: TV Telephone History (Neal McLain) Re: TV Telephone History (Lisa Hancock) Re: R-TEC Isolation Filter and Unknown Box (William Warren) Re: An Unsettling Surprise: Victimized by ID Theft (Lisa Hancock) Re: Ethics of Deterrence (Bob Vaughan) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 14:23:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Linksys SecureEasySetup Networking Leader Ships First Products With SecureEasySetup(TM) Feature IRVINE, Calif., July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Linksys(R), a Division of Cisco Systems, Inc., the recognized leading provider of VoIP, wireless and networking hardware for the consumer, Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) and small business markets, today announced it has begun shipping products with SecureEasySetup (SES) technology. SES enables users to set up and add security to their wireless networks with a push of a button. Linksys is adding the SES feature to a number of products in its line of Wireless-G and Wireless-G with SpeedBooster products at no extra cost. SES Technology SecureEasySetup enables consumers to effortlessly establish their wireless networks and activate Wi-Fi Protected Access(TM) (WPA) security by simply pushing one button on the router and one button on the wireless device they want to attach to the network. Once the feature is activated, SES creates a secured, private connection between devices, automatically configures the network's Service Set Identifier (SSID), and enables WPA security. Automatic configuration eliminates the manual passphrase, or key, entry required by traditional setup for the enabling of WPA. Customers are no longer required to have experience configuring a network to create a wireless network, they can now simply push buttons to go wireless. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50658565 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 14:22:20 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Linksys Debuts Wireless-G Travel Router WTR54GS Makes It Easy to Create a More Secure Wireless Network From Hotel Rooms or Coffee Houses IRVINE, Calif., July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Linksys(R), a Division of Cisco Systems, Inc., the recognized leading provider of VoIP, wireless and networking hardware for the consumer, Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) and small business markets, today announced its newest router, the Wireless-G Travel Router with SpeedBooster (WTR54GS). This new high-speed, mobile router provides users the ability to easily set up a wireless network in a hotel room or through a hotspot, such as in an airport or coffee house. The travel-friendly form factor includes a built-in power supply and wireless signal antenna as well as a WAN port for connection to a Cable or DSL connection and an Ethernet port for connecting an additional wired device or computer. Users simply plug the router directly into the wall with the built- in retractable two-prong power adapter, and establish either a wired or wireless connection to the Internet access offered by the hotel or other venue. A unique feature, currently found only in the Linksys WTR54GS, allows multiple computers to share a single wireless Internet access account. This capability is ideal for those users with a subscription to a wireless internet service who would like to simultaneously share their account access with colleagues or friends at locations such as hotels, airports or coffeehouses. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50658560 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:05:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Now Playing on Apple's iTunes: Adult-Oriented Podcasts By VAUHINI VARA THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE Now available for download through iTunes: raunchy sex banter, erotic storytelling sessions and reviews of pornographic Web sites. Last month, Apple Computer Inc.'s online music store launched a directory of podcasts -- audio shows that can be downloaded free from the Internet and usually feature amateurs discussing mainstream topics like cars, sports and independent music. At the same time, it also opened its doors to a racier genre of audio files that some are calling "porncasts." With names like "Fetish Flame" and "Open Source Sex," the adult podcasts are often created by self-proclaimed sex experts who have cheap recording software, a bit of free time and little or nothing in the way of professional radio experience. Many of the rambling audio shows focus on the creators' sex lives, often punctuated with stutters, long pauses and the occasional, "Um, so, what should we talk about next?" As podcasting reaches a more mainstream audience, the more risque audio shows -- and Apple's role in distributing them -- could come under greater scrutiny. Apple declined to say whether any of its users have complained about the adult podcasts, which can be downloaded by anyone regardless of age. The company said it could potentially pull programs that it deems too explicit, but declined to say whether it has done so yet. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112199964473193071-PlD_16_et2OXq_Q0GzYmLpopmT4_20060725,00.html ------------------------------ From: wylbur37 Subject: Question About "Network Interface" Phone Jack Date: 24 Jul 2005 18:49:38 -0700 After living in the same place in New York City for years, I recently moved to another place (also in New York City). The room I moved to has an existing phone jack but it looks different from the old square-ish ones I'm accustomed to. (The old ones consisted only of 4 terminals inside the case). This new one is rather rectangular and has a label on the outside that says ... Network Interface *Caution Disconnect plug from this jack during installation and repair of wiring. *Testing Plug working phone directly into this jack. If phone operates, fault is in wiring. If phone does not operate, call repair service. When I opened the case, I noticed that the red and green wires (the only ones that will be actually used by the telephone itself) are also connected to a little circuit board whose most conspicuous component is a yellow cylinder-shaped object (about 3/4" long and about 3/8" diameter) with the following markings ... 250V TI 0.47 MFD +/- 10% * What is the purpose of this circuit board? * Is it really necessary? (How come the old-fashioned jacks didn't have this?) * What if I were to disconnect it? Also, when I looked inside the jack itself (the hole where you would plug the phone into), I noticed there's some strange-looking gunk inside. It's clear-colored and has the consistency of rubber cement. * Is this something that's supposed to be there? * What is it used for? ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: ISPs as Censors (Canada) (fwd) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 08:55:41 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC "Telus cuts subscriber access to pro-union website" "Last Updated Sun, 24 Jul 2005 22:45:13 EDT CBC News" "The B.C.-based communications company that's in a bitter fight with unionized employees has blocked its internet subscribers from accessing a website supporting striking union members. "Telus subscribers can't get into Voices for Change, which says it's 'a community website run by and for Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) members ... [ snip, snip, snip, rest at: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/07/24/telus-sites050724.html - and... if you check the Verizon FIOS Terms of Service, they (VZ) could do the same thing. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And in case you did not read the newspaper over the weekend or this morning, the international labor organization AFL-CIO is in the midst of a _major schism_ with its member organizations. Two or three of the major union organizations which make up the AFL-CIO pulled out to go with a new rival bunch, taking their several million dollars in union dues with them. The AFL-CIO had already laid off about 25 percent of its own internal worker force. This latest thing will really just about do them in for good. The (A)merican (F)ederation of (L)abor and the (C)ongress of (I)ndustrial (O)rganizations had merged (they were two separate and competing labor organizations) in 1958 largely because the ranks for each of them were thinning greatly. Originally (like the 1930's and 1940's) both AFL and CIO were very strong, vibrant organizations. AFL tended to represent more 'white and blue collar' workers; CIO represented more manual labor type situations. Employees at Standard Oil refineries in the 1950 era were represented by CIO usually, while office workers and technicians tended to be represented by AFL. As times got tough in the 1950's the two blanket organizations decided to merge. A long, very difficult over the years has been 'are labor unions important and needed?' Like the old which came first, chicken or egg argument, there were good reasons for all sides to this. I would suggest that one reason working conditions in general have gotten much better (in the 1920's one worked normally six days per week, 10-12 hours per day, no medical insurance, for _much_ (disproportionaly) wages, and 'at the will' of the employer) was because unions were started to protect the guys. Now, I know that now-days all that sounds silly, but US Steel, Andrew Carnegie and Mr. Ford and Mr. Pullman did not make their millions of dollars by giving vacation time and sick pay. But now, most large companies, (Walmart and Sprint are two notable exceptions) know they had better 'behave themselves' or the unions will return with a vengeance. The unions served a _very_ important function; do they still? Its a question I doubt we could ever answer here. Regards 'ISP as Censor', well it is just the big bosses playing games, throwing their weight around a little, to 'show who is boss'. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 13:07:53 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Cisco makes home-networking play USTelecom dailyLead July 25, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23293&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Cisco makes home-networking play BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * France Telecom seen as likely Amena suitor * Rural telco raises $203M in IPO * EarthLink struggles to compete in broadband world USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * On-Demand Webinars: Delivering What's NEXT to Your Desktop HOT TOPICS * Texas House passes telecom bill * Report: VoIP revenues to reach $4B by 2010 * SBC running fiber, IPTV to 18M homes * Telcos' Q2 broadband subs to surpass cable's, analysts predict * Nearly half of Americans bundling purchases EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Chip developers seek network flexibility * Cell phones that predict users' behavior * Digitainment's renaissance REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Texas House expected to pass TV franchise bill Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23293&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: Paul Subject: Re: Need to Drop SBC LD Service. Info on Other Carriers? Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 15:08:48 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com > Beginning in September, all of SBC's LD calling plans will have a > monthly charge, so I need to find a new home -- one that will only > charge me for calls, with no monthly fee or minimum. Assuming there > still is such a thing. > But I'm having trouble finding reviews of particularly the smaller > companies or resellers. Where can I go to find that? Is there a > newsgroup? I'm talking about companies like Everdial/Primus, which > I currenly use as a dial-around, or maybe Americom. And I'm > particularly interested in honest dealing and customer service. > Assuming there still is such a thing. Try www.ecglongdistance.com We switched to ECG for the business long distance about 4 or 5 years ago, and for the home about 2 years. IIRC, billing is online only. No monthly fee or minimum. They appear to be a good reputable company and I have no complaints. Bills are clear and easy to read, never had a surprise hidden charge. Our LD bills at the office were a horror story with AT&T, Frontier, etc. until we found ECG. Highly recommended. -- Paul ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 14:39:22 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com DevilsPGD wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is very true also, but often times > that request to install is couched with the colors and logo of a > Windows Update or some other circumstance that would lead a reasonably > intelligent person to go ahead and okay it, only to realize a few > seconds later that they may have done something they should not have > done. How does it arrive? If via email, it should be deleted without being read. Microsoft never sends updates via email. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Nope, they arrive by pop-up window all colored very nicely in Microsoft-style blue and deeper blue, their script style, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: 24 Jul 2005 23:32:05 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , DevilsPGD wrote: > While true, the vast majority of malware released post-XPSP2 requires > explicit user intervention to install it. Maybe. It's also true that a lot of pre-XPSP2 malware is still circulating. Do you have any idea how long it takes to download and install something like SP2 when all you have is a 33Kbaud dial-up connection? And that's assuming the systems are set to automatically download and install updates. I support many people on dialup. In spite of what the government wants you to believe about broadband coverage, there are a LOT of people who can't get it, and the phone companies have no incentive to invest in the infrastructure to provide it. None of the ones I visit ever have SP2 installed, or even most of the earlier updates. I always take a CD full of updates along with me to do it for them. And a dial-up connection has no firewall, and typically has all of the default services still enabled. Even unpatched new systems (with SP2) are at risk. A number of the exploits take advantage of IE holes that don't require any more user involvement than retrieving content from a malicious web site or accessing malicious email (sometimes just the preview pane is enough, sometimes not even that is needed) thanks to Outlook/OE integration with IE. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: TV Telephone History Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 16:15:36 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 11:30:18 -0700, John L. Shelton wrote: > By the way, the number "9970" appears in many dialing examples from > "Englewood NJ 1951 Customer Long Distance Dialing", posted to this > list by Mark Cuccia in 1996. And in the movie "The Manchurian > Candidate", a quoted phone number is "El Dorado 5 - 9970". > Do others have good examples of TV family telephones? In "The Women" (1939) the number called to 'John' in New York is ELdorado 5-3598. As far as the phones used I just got done watching "Dallas" and they used a whole hodge-podge of different phones. Many WECO Princesses (touch tone) as well as an AE dial phone, WECO dial phones. Offices used WECO 2565 as well as call director type phones. They never had the "ringing" right and always used the double-gong ringers that one would find on 500/2500 type phones. When using payphones they'd have the "ding-ding" sound from a regular fortress type phone. The last "ding-ding" pay phones were the three slotters! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 20:55:50 -0500 From: Neal McLain Subject: RE: TV Telephone History John L. Shelton wrote: > ... The "99" portion of their phone number used to > indicate a coin-operated telephone in some exchanges, so > perhaps this convention was good enough. Michigan Bell often used 99XX for telco internal numbers, but never for coin telephones (and I've heard that some other Bell companies did the same). My notes for Ann Arbor in 1956 show: Business Office NO 8-9911 (668-9911) [1] Cable Records NO 8-9946 (668-9946) Cable Records NO 8-9959 (668-9959) Employee Cafeteria NO 8-9971 (668-9971) Local Test NO 8-9923 (668-9923) [2] PBX Service Advisor NO 8-9982 (668-9982) Teletype Service NO 8-9970 (668-9970) Toll Test NO 8-9934 (668-9934) [3] [1] Note the -XX11 (rather than -XX00) line number for the Business Office PBX. At the time, the Ann Arbor office was SxS, so trunk sequences started at 1 (or 11) rather than 0 (or 00). Other large PBXs followed the same pattern; e.g., University of Michigan was NO 3-1511. [2] Local test could also be reached by dialing 117. As we've discussed before, SxS offices often used 11N rather than N11 service codes. [3] I worked for a radio station at the time, so I had occasion to call Toll Test many times. Toll Test was NNX-9934 all over the state -- even in the manual office in Traverse City where it was just 9934. All coin telephones in Ann Arbor were in the range 668-90XX through 668-98XX, but never 668-99XX. Neal McLain [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Same with Illinois Bell in the Chicago area. The entire '99xx' group was for their administrative use and generally was 9900 for the business offices, 9901 (internally) for the operator (also reached on '0' of course), 9902 for directory assistance (also 411 for the public), 9903 for the Group Chief Operator's desk in each central office). An exception was OFFicial 7- 9411 for the corporate offices. A peculiar set was 9928/9929 where 9928 'looped around and out' on 9929, and used by outside plant for when outside technicians wanted to call their own repair center. (611 was usually for that purpose, but if outside their own central office then 611 got them the repair clerk _in the office where they were located_ instead of their 'home' district. ) By dialing 9928 it rang once or twice, presented dialtone, and then within a couple seconds 9929 would dial out '611'. The intention was for the tech to use any phone (in that 'outside his own office area') and dial the 'proper' exchange-9928 (in his own area) and get connected to 'his' 611 help desk as a result. Well ... some phreak discovered that you could dial 9928, and then instantly on receipt of dialtone punch out the number _he_ wanted to call instead (generally long distance, often times international) and the switch would faithfully place his call via 9929 instead. Then, when the dialer 'woke up' a second or two later and did '611' by that point the switch was already processing _phreaks__ ten digits and it ignored _telco tech's_ 611 which just tooted away to nowhere in the background. Where the jig was up came when a supervisor or two at telco, respon- sible for reconciling and approving for 'payment' the telephone bills of telco got a _mess_ of long distance calls billed to 9929. I guess the phreak did not realize that telco has to pay its own telephone bills also, and watches those expenses closely. Supervisor's first reaction was 'someone has been here in the frames screwing around making phone calls.' The usual investigative techniques (call the number, trick the party with the lie 'our operator must have made a mistake, can you tell us who called you so we can straighten out this mistake in our records') did not work; they never do when the calls go to radio station contest lines and hotel switchboards; but pen registers and other apparatus worked okay. Eventually telco found out _who_ the wise guy was who was using 9928/9929 as his personal LD network. Phreak slipped up one day and called _his own mother_ by accident over the 'network'. And you _know_ mother told telco every- thing she knew about it while bragging on her son: "oh yes! my son ... such a good boy and so smart about telephones!" That told telco everything they needed to know ... although telco did pester the phreak asking him "which of our people told you how to do this?" They would have hung that person, had there been one; there was not. As the story got back to me, the phreak came home from work one day (he worked for the Illinois governor's office, I want you to know) and found a telephone security representative sitting on his front porch. Phreak asks "what is this about?". The telco security guy responds "If I were to use the phrase 9928-9929 to you, would you know what I was talking about? Under the law I have to tell you 24 hours ahead of time that your phone is being disconnected for cause, and I am here to tell you that tomorrow at this time, your phone will be dead; I hope you can't ever get reconnected." And just as promised, the next day phreak's phone service was cut off. Well, the phreak said he had to hire a lawyer to get him out of the jam. Like all of Illinois and Chicago government where the Democrats (and what other politcal party is there in Chicago?) are so corrupted, the Illinois Commerce Commission is no exception. The phreak had to give the shyster lawyer a thousand dollars to (officially) pay the lawyer's fee, but in real practice spread around the Commission offices before he could get his phone turned back on, all the while Illinois Bell was grumbling about it. Shortly thereafter, Bell fixed those loop arounds to delay 9928 getting answered and accelerated how fast 9929 would start dialing. No more public loop around unless one could really dial fast (ten digits in a second or less?). Then shortly thereafter, ESS came to the remaining exchanges in Chicago and Bell changed the whole concept. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: TV Telephone History Date: 25 Jul 2005 11:02:57 -0700 John L. Shelton wrote: > While watching TV Land, I realized I could learn about the > phone-wealth of various TV families. > Rob & Laura Petrie (The Dick Van Dyke Show, early 1960s) had 5 > telephones, very unusual at the time. There were model 500 desk phones > in the breakfast room, kitchen, dining room, living room, and master > bedroom. I think they had only three -- the living room was also the dining room, and the kitchen was the breakfast nook. The bell sound seemed to be an external ringer, rather common for TV shows. If you watch the shows carefully, you'll notice props can change from week to week. Sometimes change even within a single scene! One actor was shot on one day, and the other actor was shot on another day and it's all edited together. The props could shift from day to day. Sharp-eyed (obsessive?) fans notice these little details. They're rare but do happen. Anyway, telephone props were often changing -- color and location of telephone often varied. A specific phone could be missing or change style or color. On Dick Van Dyke, when he called home from work sometimes he asked "Marge" to get Laura for him, sometimes he asked for an outside line, sometimes he just dialed. Telephone sets changed over time. In early Andy Griffith the phones were crank, later on they became modern sets only without the dial. By the end of the show, manual telephone service was pretty rare. Indeed, small towns like "Mayberry" would've gone dial earlier to save on costs of a 24/7 operator. A VERY TINY village might use a community operator whose family rotated switchboard duties to provide 24/7 but it appears Mayberry was too big a town to get by on that and I think that contract operator arrangement was obsolete by the 1960s. Indeed, Mayberry might have had enough telephone traffic in 1965 to justify two operators during prime time and not much spare time for Sarah to socialize. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As best as I can recall, Lucille Ball > and Desi Arnez ('I Love Lucy', a 1950's invention mostly, had two > phones; one in the front room which was nearly always the one used on > the show, but also a phone in the bedroom we only saw when an episode > needed a bedroom phone.(In one show, Lucy called Ethel from the > bedroom.) Their number was MUrray Hill something, I do not remember > what, although a couple shows had them saying the number. There seemed to be a 202 set at the club near the entrance that served for all calls. BTW, did Ricky own the club or was merely a lead employee in charge of entertainment and the band? I think the show presented it as both scenarios. Lucy used the old gag of tying up the phone while Ricky was waiting for an important business call. Indeed, the telephone played frequently in story gags, with characters taking calls and pretending to be someone else. In one episode at the country house, they had a buzzer installed to summon Fred/Ethel from the kitchen. Common in those days, but how many houses and offices today have buzzer systems? I once worked at a secretary's desk that had a forest of buzzer push buttons underneath, all disconnected. > The Cleaver Family (Leave it to Beaver) had a phone in the Den, and a > reader here said they had one in the upstairs hallway also, but I do > not recall seeing it. I recall a phone in the den, living room, and kitchen, all used. I never recall seeing anything of the upstairs except the boys' room. I also recall them moving to a new house early in the series, but I don't recall much about the first home. As mentioned, three phones in 1960 was a sign of doing well, although Ward's nice den was also a well-to-do sign. I remain amazed at the changes of social interaction of the Cleaver boys compared to modern kids of the same age. As mentioned in an prior discussion, Mrs. Cleaver would leave 13 y/o Beaver and a girl from school alone in his room with the door closed (with milk and cookies) without giving it a second thought. Parents today would be a bit more cautious. Actually, in thinking about it, the show seemed to make girls rather "icky" for both Beaver (even when older) and Wally. At best, an older Beaver was willing to tolerate talking to girls. Wally dated regularly, but his dating seemed to be more of a standard chore of life, like raking the leaves and going to school, something that was "all right, I guess, but nothing special." I don't believe any kind of physical affection was ever shown. There were girls who had crushes on the boys, but that was portrayed as a problem. > And who can recall Sheriff Andy Taylor's phone number, both at the > jail and at his home? Barney Fife's number at the rooming house where > he lived was '407' on the one occassion I heard someone on the show > ask 'Sarah' the operator to be connected. All I remember is Sarah connecting by name, not number, "Sarah, could you get me Goober down at the filling station?" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: With Sarah, yes, mostly always just 'get me whoever, at wherever'. And she was always introduced as 'Sarah'. The one episode I saw which was at someone else's house (maybe it was Barney's girl friend?) the little kid Opie walked over to the phone and picked it up. I expected to hear him say 'Miss Sarah' (as he always referred to her, 'get me whoever'. But that time, he asked for '407' and Barney answered. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 13:12:46 -0400 From: William Warren Subject: Re: R-TEC Isolation Filter and Unknown Box wh349055@netscape.net wrote: > I was in my basement, trying to remove the mess of wires, and putting > them all on a punchdown block. I noticet two old grey bell co wires > going to a box called an isolation filter. From there they went into a > box called an "R-tec STU-7". Inside the r-tec box, there is a > rechargable battery, and an instruction sheet. The sheet says: > -Telephone must be wired for briged ringing > -Use straight line ringers only with bias spring at minimum setting. > The box is grey, says "Phone Co Property" and is about 9'' by 5'' by > 2'' deep. > What is this, and what does/did it do (it was disconected) > Thanks, > Warren Warren, It's an "AML" box, which was used to provide additional dial tone to a house that didn't have an extra pair available on the pole. Asynchronous Multi-Line units use Frequency Division Multiplexing to allow super-audible transmission of additional dial-tones, the same way DSL uses super-audible frequencies to transmit data. They were powered by a battery which was, in turn, trickle-charged by "bleeding" the POTS line's 48 volts, and each required a matching unit in the CO. AML units were pressed into service as a short-term solution during the early days of the Internet explosion, when demand for extra dial tones outstripped available plant. They tended to create more problems than they solved, since users complained that dial tone delivered via AML wouldn't work with the new, higher speed modems that also flooded the market in the same time frame. Ma Bell eventually abandoned them in most areas, prefering instead to build new capacity. They're still available in the secondary market. HTH. William (Filter noise from my address for direct replies) ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: An Unsettling Surprise: Victimized by ID Theft Date: 25 Jul 2005 11:28:28 -0700 Andrew Plato wrote: > IN MY OPINION > The irony of my experience is that I am a computer-security > professional. I make my living helping organizations secure their > information systems from break-ins and theft. ... While there are good points in here, it sounds like a back-handed advertisement for his services. As a security professional, he probably has the means to find out exactly how his identity was stolen and the account set up, but he didn't elaborate in detail. I think that detail is important to share with us lay people, especially on an actual case. > When I called the police to report this crime, the officer was blunt > about my predicament. He said police get hundreds of identity-theft > claims every week, and almost all of them go unpunished. And because > credit firms don't hold consumers liable, these crimes are considered > victimless. This attitude on the part of law enforcement needs to be changed. It's been documented that this attitude is responsible for the growth since criminals know they'll get away with it. My local newspaper described how a used-car salesman would color-photocopy a buyer's driver's license then use it for fraudulent purposes. He was not aggressively prosecuted because the amount stolen was below their threshhold. > All crime has two components: motivation and opportunity. People must > be motivated to commit a crime and have the opportunity to do so. We > cannot do much about motivation, but we can surely do something about > opportunity. Actually, us lay people can do NOTHING about 'opportunity'. I have no idea what big data warehouses handle my information, let alone dictate to them to maintain proper controls and security. 'Motivation' is a tougher challenge, but must be addressed as well. All the locks in the world won't stop a determined thief. We need to know (1) who are the perpetrators of these thefts and (2) what will be truly effective deterrents. I suspect they know it's very hard to get caught, let alone sent to prison, from doing this kind of thing. Society is much more focused on 'violent' crime. If you use a gun to steal $100 you'll be in worse trouble than using a PC to steal $10,000. Being robbed at gunpoint is very traumatic but people will recover and the property loss manageable. Being robbed secretly of 'identity' is equally traumatic and a lot tougher to recover--the theft keeps coming back day after day with more bad news arriving in the mail. ------------------------------ From: techie@tantivy.tantivy.net (Bob Vaughan) Subject: Re: Ethics of Deterrence Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 18:47:07 UTC Organization: Tantivy Associates In article , > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if anyone besides me has > noticed how this whole thing has deteriorated from evil nasty spammers > as the _true_ villians to evil nasty netizens trying to harm a good > and pure web site; for how many ever years, when filtering was thought > to be the answer to everything, so many netters would say 'ho hum, > lets crank up the filter a little more' to desparately try to > eliminate them. Now that we are close to the hundred percent > saturation point with spam (as some of us predicted long ago) and > filtering has been shown to be a dismal failure, at least among > netizens who have to shovel it out by the truck load each day, and > thought has been given to taking a more agressive deterence posture, > these same guys who were so, well, almost _casual_ about installing > more and more filtering are now getting desparate in their paranoia > as they defend the spammers and their (spammers) 'right of free > speech' as it were. > Tell me this John, is there some sort of 'Spammers Legal Defense Fund' > you guys sponsor or contribute to? No, we are not in favor of spam, but we are against collateral damage to innocent parties in the name of fighting spam. > When spammers (ever so rarely) get sued by a government agency do > you guys hire lawyers to help defend them? No, see above. > Why did ICANN (and its cheering squad on the net) fight so > vigorously against the federal government's CAN-SPAM proposed > legislation; making up all sorts of mumbo-jumbo about 'how it will not > work, so do not waste your time on it'? The fight against CAN-SPAM was based on several major problems with the legislation: 1. It explicity permits spam, unless the recipient requests to be removed (opt-out), instead of prohibiting spam, unless the recipient requests it (opt-in). 2. It prohibits individual or class-action lawsuits against spammers by email recipients, but allows enforcement by the FTC, state attorneys general, ISP's, and other federal agencies for special categories of spam (banks). 2. It supercedes state laws, except for laws pertaining to fraud. Most of the state laws that were superceded were of the opt-in variety, which did not restrict the rights of the spam recipient to bring suit. In other words, CAN-SPAM is worse than no legislation at all, in that it restricts the rights of individuals to sue spammers, and restricts the rights of states to enact real legislation with penalties, while making spam into a legitimate business. Would you rather have your house protected by a trained attack dog under your direct control, or would you rather have congress tell you that you can't own your own attack dog, but that they will provide a few toothless poodles instead, but they will be kept in Washington. > Why does ICANN interject itself, with its so-called 'expert > testimony' in all these cases where legislation is pending, when > instead of giving expert testimony they merely want to hawk their > own agenda? It all really amazes me. Why do you guys object so > vigorously when netizens try self help? If our ideas are such a > damn fool waste of time, then please, __let us find it out for > ourselves__; quit trying to save us from ourselves. Obviously your > passive filtering solutions have not worked; why can't we try our > way instead? What is your _real objection_ anyway? PAT] The real objections are to the potential for serious collateral damage to innocent parties, and to the potential for these anti-spam tools to be used as the mechanism for DDoS attacks against innocent parties. Filtering does not affect innocent parties, unless they try to send you email, and are blocked from doing so. DDoS attacks do affect innocent parties, and are illegal. A DDoS attack by proxy is still a DDoS attack. Coordination with others for the purpose of initiating a DDoS attack is conspiracy to commit a crime, which is itself a crime. -- Welcome My Son, Welcome To The Machine -- Bob Vaughan | techie @ tantivy.net | | P.O. Box 19792, Stanford, Ca 94309 | -- I am Me, I am only Me, And no one else is Me, What could be simpler? -- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So if an airplane crashes into a building in New York City and everyone jumps on their telephone at one time to chat with everyone else about it and 90 percent of the residents cannot get a dial tone or connection, that is a Denial of Service is it not? Whose fault is it? Or a new very popular web site starts up and everyone tries to look at it at one time, and quite a few callers get turned away as a result. Whose fault is that? When is it ever my fault if I attempt to use a communications link somewhere and a million other folks are trying to do the same and I get turned away. Is congestion on the telephone network or a computer network ever of concern to me (as in to be blamed for same)? Maybe the phone company needs more circuits or the ISP or the web page owner need more resources? If each person who sees a piece of spam objects to the piece of spam (and the owner of same having been positively identified) chooses to complain to the owner is it really _my concern_ if the computer links (or phone lines or other communication system) is too crowded? Anyone who had something other than the WTC situation to talk about on 9-11-01 was one of your innocent parties which got injured, were they not since the phones were all screwed up that day. And if a person that wanted to place an order for some merchandise they could not get through on the phone, could they? And if X number of people were on their computer complaining with someone about unwanted email they had recieved and another person came along who did in fact want some of that merchandise then they would not be able to get through either, would they? If you send out several million spams, I have to assume you expect to get at least a few thousand orders for your product, with the requisite customer service correspondence to go along with it. AOL, Yahoo, MSN and Google are all anticipating _lots_ of traffic, so they prepare accordingly with plenty of circuits and equipment. If for some reason, they get more responses than they expected, things will get very hectic on the computer. Should I get the blame for all that as well? You know, Bob, your claims that it is a 'crime' for some people to respond in a negative way to a product on the computer is really stretching things pretty thin. If it makes you feel better to refer to those concerted complaints as a 'crime' in order to twist things around and make out the spammers to be 'poor innocent business people' who have been 'victimized' by a relative handful of netizens filing complaints, then please go ahead and do so. But no matter what you say, it is _not_ a crime when someone's network resources run low because of a huge response (pro or con) to a message the person sent out. Nor is it a crime when a group of people get very excited about some situation and begin chatting with others about it. So call it whatever you want, it is _not_ DDOS when a million (or any number of users) respond -- even all at once -- when they are asked something. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #338 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jul 26 14:38:08 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 8E2A51507E; Tue, 26 Jul 2005 14:38:08 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #339 Message-Id: <20050726183808.8E2A51507E@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 14:38:08 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.4 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, INFO_TLD autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Jul 2005 14:38:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 339 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson US Telecom Overhaul Chances This Year Unlikely (Jeremy Pelofsky) Microsoft Could Face Trademark Challenge Over 'Vista' (Eliz Montalbano) Yahoo Buys 'Widget' Information Company Pixoria (Reuters News Wire) Lost Blackberry Could Cause Security Breach (Yoki Noguchi) AOL's Steve Case Finds Lime Twist in Wisdom (Andrew Wallenstein) Court Decision In Internet Censorship Law (Nitke/Ashcroft) (M Solomon) Verizon Communications Reports Second Quarter Earnings (Monty Solomon) Windows Genuine Advantage 1.0 Goes Live (Monty Solomon) Call My SIP Phone Over the Internet? (timeOday) Looking For Retailer of Office Telephone System (Christopher Sabine) Motorola Shows Off the 'Q' (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: TV Telephone History (Paul Coxwell) Re: An Unsettling Surprise: Victimized by ID Theft (Steve Sobol) Re: Ethics of Deterrence (John Levine) Re: TV Telephone History (Lisa Hancock) Re: Need to Drop SBC LD Service. Info on Other Carriers? (NOTvalid@Xmas) Last Laugh! Spammer, Age 35, Murdered (Danny Burstein) 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: Jeremy Pelofsky Subject: US Telecom Overhaul Chances This Year Seen Slim Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:11:41 -0500 By Jeremy Pelofsky U.S. lawmakers have been promising to begin overhauling the country's telecommunications laws this year to keep up with advancing technologies, but analysts say the odds of passing a bill this year are slim. While there were predictions legislation would be completed in the U.S. House of Representatives by August, only the first public drafts of reform bills are expected to be unveiled this week, according to a congressional aide and industry lobbyists. U.S. telephone companies like Verizon Communications and SBC Communi- cations Inc. are pushing Congress to ease regulations so they can quickly deploy high-speed Internet services such as video, voice and data. Lawmakers may also consider curbing some states' oversight of the industry and will likely weigh revamping the program that offers subsidies for telephone service to low-income homes and rural areas. Cable and telephone companies are battling to boost their bottom lines by signing up as many customers as possible for a suite of communications and entertainment services. Verizon, SBC, BellSouth Corp. and Qwest Communications International Inc. called the Baby Bells, are expanding beyond traditional phone service to high-speed Internet services, known as broadband. But the Bells complain they are at a disadvantage because they must abide by laws for traditional phone service. "I think this is an effort to try to actually move the ball in terms of having regulation today in this industry match much better the actual competitive environment than we see today," BellSouth Chief Executive Officer Duane Ackerman told Reuters. Yet, higher on the priority list for Congress is a bill to finish the transition to digital television airwaves. The old analog airwaves will be sold for wireless services and could bring billions of dollars to plug the budget deficit. "It's tough, there's a chance that they might move something (on telecommunications) in the House, but it's certainly not a slam dunk," said Paul Glenchur, a Stanford Washington Research Group analyst. "The Senate side is a little more complicated because not everybody will have the same priorities." He also said lawmakers were likely divided over whether to act or let the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the industry, address as many issues as possible. HELP WITH VIDEO ROLLOUT The last major telecommunications law, which was broad and signed in 1996, took several years to craft. And now with the phone industry merging -- Verizon is acquiring MCI Inc. and SBC is buying AT&T Corp. -- competition has shifted to mostly between cable and telephone providers. Sen. John Ensign (news, bio, voting record), a Nevada Republican and chairman of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on technology, innovation and competitiveness, plans to unveil his bill this week and a House bill may also be introduced, the aide and lobbyists said. The primary goal of the Senate bill is to apply the same rules to services, like broadband, regardless of the provider, they said. But lawmakers will likely have to balance the desire for limited rules to avoid stifling innovation with demands for consumer protections. "At this point we're hopeful" Congress will act this year on telecommunications legislation, BellSouth's Ackerman said last week. "I think it all depends on what comes up." The Bells particularly want Congress to grant them authority to offer video without seeking approval from municipal authorities, which could be a cumbersome process. "If they were just to focus on that, the odds of something like that happening (this year) would be greater," said Blair Levin, a Legg Mason analyst. "But the danger is that you then push back even farther a bigger bill." In February, Rep. Fred Upton (news, bio, voting record), head of the House telecommunications subcommittee and a Michigan Republican, said he planned to have a bill done in the full House by summer break, which begins on Friday. His spokesman declined to comment. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Elizabeth Montalbano Subject: Microsoft Could Face Trademark Challenge Over 'Vista' Name Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:13:22 -0500 by Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service SAN FRANCISCO--The founder of a Redmond, Washington-based custom application and services provider is considering taking action to challenge Microsoft over the naming of the next version of the Windows operating system. John Wall, chief executive officer of Vista, says his company is "considering all of its options" for a potential case against Microsoft because of the company's choice of the name "Windows Vista" for the version previously code-named Longhorn. Wall says the naming of Windows may violate a trademark his company has, and potentially create confusion over the software and services Vista provides. Vista is headquartered just down the road from Microsoft and provides small businesses with online information systems, including custom applications, as well as with consulting services. "If people call it Windows Vista, that's not a problem," he says. "If people call it 'Vista,' that confuses it with our business and what we do." What's the Effect? Wall says Vista will be analyzing traffic to its Web site to see what effect the "Windows Vista" name may have on visitors to the site. If the effect is significant -- that is, if a surge of visitors comes to Vista.com looking for information about Windows Vista -- the company may decide to take legal actions over the trademark. One of the key tests for whether a new trademark can be challenged is if it creates confusion over another company's products and services, says Bill Lozito, president of Strategic Name Development, a brand naming consultancy in Minneapolis. Vista potentially has a good case against Microsoft because its software and services are similar to what the software giant offers, he says. Because Microsoft is a larger, more recognizable company, the name confusion might drive some of Vista's potential customers to Microsoft. "The ramifications are [customers] no longer associate you as this independent company and think you're a part of Microsoft," Lozito says. "If they need the service you're providing, they'll call Microsoft instead of you. You're going to get drowned out." The issue for Vista is particularly prickly because the company deals mainly in the small business market, a segment where Microsoft also figures prominently, he adds. Other Vista Firms Out There Wall's company is not the only one that might have a case against Microsoft in the naming of the next version of Windows. At least two other software companies, both named Vista Software, might have a good argument against Microsoft's using the Vista moniker, Lozito says. "Anyone using that name that's doing business in this category runs the risk of being overshadowed by Microsoft Windows Vista," he says. However, the presidents of the two companies called Vista Software, both of which provide add-on technology for Microsoft products, separately said their companies likely will benefit from Microsoft's choice of name for the next version of Windows because of their current affiliation with the Redmond, Washington-based company. The two companies are Vista Software of Tucson, Arizona, and Lorant's Vista Software in La Jolla, California. A Microsoft product manager says his team came up with the name because it reflects the three main design principles of the next version of Windows, which is expected to be available in the last calendar quarter of 2006. Greg Sullivan, group product manager with Microsoft's Windows client group, says Microsoft has focused on making the next version of Windows provide users with a higher level of confidence in the system; give them a clearer view of their information and files; and help them be more connected to other systems and other modes of communication. "When we take those all together, when I really think about my view into this world, my personal view of all this digital content, this is how we arrived at the name 'Vista,'" he says. Microsoft plans to make the first beta of Windows Vista available August 3. The Vista case is not the first time Microsoft has decided on a product name that conflicted with an existing trademark. In 1998, Microsoft paid Internet service provider Synet $5 million for the rights to the name "Internet Explorer" because the company had had that name trademarked since 1995. Copyright 2005 PC World Communications, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, PC World Communications, Inc. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: News Wire Subject: Yahoo Buys Information 'Widget' Company Pixoria Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:05:38 -0500 Yahoo Inc. said on Monday it bought Pixoria, a company that provides small, downloadable programs that let computer users quickly get up-to-the-minute information, such as stock quotes and weather reports without using a Web browser. Terms of the sale, which closed July 19, were not disclosed. The products, which also include such things as an alarm clock and a launching pad for Web searches, are available free at http://widgets.yahoo.com/. The move comes as Yahoo and chief rival Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) open their networks to independent developers, whose program tweaks at times move technology forward or result in popular products. Pixoria, is the developer of the Konfabulator engine that builds small desktop applications to help users access Web content and other information from their desktops. The programs are built on an open platform, which allows developers to write specialized programs. The company's three employees are joining Yahoo as full-time employees. Shares of Yahoo were up 11 cents at $33.64 in mid-day trading on Nasdaq. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Yuki Noguchi Subject: Lost BlackBerry Could Open Security Breach Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:08:27 -0500 By Yuki Noguchi, Washington Post Staff Writer The ability to carry vast amounts of data in small but easily misplaced items such as computer memory sticks and mobile e-mail devices has transformed the way Americans work, but it has also increased the risk that a forgotten BlackBerry or lost cell phone could amount to a major security breach. Worried that sensitive information could ride off in the back of a taxicab or be left in a hotel room, companies are peeling back some of the convenience of mobile devices in favor of extra layers of password protection and other restrictions. Some are installing software on their networks to make it impossible to download corporate information to a portable device or a memory stick, which is a plug-in device that holds data for use on other computers. Wireless providers are developing weapons to use against their own products, like digital "neutron bombs" that can wipe out information from long distance so one misplaced device doesn't translate into corporate disaster. It's a nightmare that individuals and corporations fret about when their mobile e-mail or handheld devices go missing or fall into the wrong hands. With the swift stroke of a keypad, someone's e-mail, corporate data and business contacts can be laid bare for others to see -- and potentially abuse. Personal devices "are carrying incredibly sensitive information," said Joel Yarmon, who, as technology director for the staff of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), had to scramble over a weekend last month after a colleague lost one of the office's wireless messaging devices. In this case, the data included "personal phone numbers of leaders of Congress. If that were to leak, that would be very embarrassing," Yarmon said. A couple of years ago, David Yach and all other workers at his Canadian company woke up to an e-mail full of expletives from an otherwise mild-mannered female employee. But it was not sent by the woman. A thief had broken into her home, commandeered her BlackBerry wireless device and sent the note, said Yach, vice president of software at Research in Motion Ltd., the company that makes the BlackBerry, a device that allows e-mail to be sent and received. "It's terrifying," said Mark Komisky, chief executive of Baltimore's Bluefire Security Technologies Inc., who recently lost his iPaq 6315 Pocket PC in a cab or at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The device, a small pocket phone with a miniature keyboard, contained his e-mail, details of his company's strategy, Social Security numbers of his wife and son, and phone numbers for high-level executives at companies with which Bluefire does business, such as Intel Corp. "I got off the plane in Baltimore and did the pat-down, and didn't have it," he said. "It's bad," even for the head of a firm that sells security services for companies and government agencies trying to secure their wireless devices. At 10:30 p.m., he called a technician at Bluefire, who erased the information on the iPaq remotely. Luckily, it was also locked with a password, he said. Companies are seeking to avoid becoming the latest example of compromised security. Earlier this year, a laptop computer containing the names and Social Security numbers of 16,500 current and former MCI Inc. employees was stolen from the car of an MCI financial analyst in Colorado. In another case, a former Morgan Stanley employee sold a used BlackBerry on the online auction site eBay with confidential information still stored on the device. And in yet another incident, personal information for 665 families in Japan was recently stolen along with a handheld device belonging to a Japanese power-company employee. To combat the problem, security companies have come up with ways to install layers of password protection and automatic locks on devices. Others market the ability to erase data over the air once the device is reported lost. In Japan, cell phone carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. started selling models that come with fingerprint scanners to biometrically unlock phones. Some companies suffer only embarrassment from such incidents. But for public companies or financial firms, a lost device could mean violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires strict controls over disclosure of financial information. For doctors and health care companies, the loss of customer data compromises patient confidentiality, protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Potential security breaches are made scarier by the greater reliance on mobile devices. Smart phones, such as the Treo or some BlackBerry models, come with enough memory and high-speed Internet access to function as small computers. In some cases, accompanying memory cards allow users to store even more data, including client lists and contract information. "I hear less about the cost of the devices, because it really is a pittance, but I really do hear more about the potential cost of someone gaining access to corporate data," said Kenny Wyatt, a vice president for Sprint Corp., which helps some of its business customers manage the security of wayward devices. Three years ago, Wyatt lost a cell phone containing phone numbers of co-workers and clients. Sprint now can delete information by sending a signal to a phone over the air, he said, although if the device is turned off, the kill signal won't work. Without the kill service, losing his phone would be a bigger deal today than it was three years ago because the device contains so much more information, he said. "It'd be like I lost an appendage." In Chicago, 160,000 portable devices are left in taxicabs every year, according to a survey earlier this year by Pointsec Mobile Technologies, a security software firm. Fifty to 60 percent of those are reunited with their owner, according to the firm, which polled cab companies. According to another survey sponsored by software maker Symantec Corp., 37 percent of smart-phone users store confidential business data on their phones. Only 40 percent of those surveyed worked at companies that have corporate policies about wireless security. Yarmon, the staffer for Sen. Stevens, said he sends an e-mail every few months reminding colleagues to install passwords on devices. "That is my worst fear," he said, "for a user to have it fall into the hands of somebody who disseminates it or uses that information against my boss." Copyright 2005 The Washington Post Company. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Andrew Wallenstein Subject: AOL's Steve Case Finds Lime Twist in Wisdom Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:10:07 -0500 By Andrew Wallenstein The man who packaged the Internet to the masses is trying his hand at television, but for a more discriminating audience. In April, America Online co-founder Steve Case rose from the ashes of his company's ill-fated merger with Time Warner by declaring his intent to build a new empire based in the health care industry. His private holding company, Revolution, has been on a buying binge funded in part by $500 million of his own fortune. Among the companies acquired was Wisdom Media Group, a small, family-run cable venture based in Bluefield, W.Va., not too far from AOL's Dulles, Va., headquarters. At this past weekend's Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing convention in Philadelphia, Revolution announced plans to rebrand and relaunch the Wisdom cable channel as the keystone of a multiplatform media play including radio, Internet, wireless and DVD. In line with Case's ambitions in the health care business, his media strategy is aimed at a loosely defined market segment interested in healthy, eco-friendly goods and services ranging from Whole Foods groceries to Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles. Known to market researchers by the acronym LOHAS, or lifestyles of health and sustainability, the group has a spending power pegged at more than $230 billion. But Case will have his work cut out for him, notwithstanding the difficulties independent cable ventures have had amassing significant distribution. The tens of millions of Americans that comprise the LOHAS market have proved to be notoriously resistant to television itself, which falls somewhere between the Twinkie and the Humvee on their list of favorite inventions. "If you are used to doing mass-market TV, you are going to run into trouble," said Paul H. Ray, a leading market researcher studying LOHAS who wrote the defining text on them in 2001, "The Cultural Creatives." "Their allergy to hype is huge, and that is the big problem with conventional TV. It is built around hype." But Revolution believes they are preparing a more sophisticated approach appropriate for an audience that has grown too large to dismiss. "This category has moved out of the subculture and into the mainstream," said the channel's CEO, C.J. Kettler, who was president of sales and marketing at the Oxygen network. Case could not be reached for comment. By the fourth quarter of the year, Wisdom will be rechristened Lime -- "healthy living with a twist" is the tagline. Complete with wedge-shaped logo, the brand alludes to the color of the titular citrus, green being synonymous with ecological concerns. But Lime connotes a "lite" green, as Kettler puts it, befitting a hipper sensibility the brand aspires to in hopes of deflating stereotypes associated with such new-age totems as granola or healing crystals. "What would be best for us is to take a more unexpected approach to the category, something with a sense of humor," Kettler said. "The category has been so serious. We're a media brand, we want to appeal on emotional level." True to form as an ecologically conscious venture, Revolution is recycling a used channel to create its own, crafting Lime out of pieces of Wisdom (mainly its distribution deals), a pact with Sirius Satellite Radio and 1,000 hours of such library programming as "Yoga Zone" and "Lectures With Deepak Chopra." Kettler plans to add original programming as well as acquired comedy and drama series or films that have eco-friendly themes. Another environmentally aware cable magnate, Al Gore, adopted a similar strategy, acquiring NewsWorld International from Vivendi Universal to be remade into Current, a youth-targeted network that launches Aug. 1. With cable operators no longer interested in adding linear channels to crowded digital lineups, "rebranding an existing channel is a smarter way of getting distribution than starting from scratch," said Debra Sharon Davis, a media strategist who also attempted to acquire Wisdom for a consortium of clients. Launched in 1998, Wisdom has largely been in a vegetative state since the death of its founder, cable pioneer Bill Turner, in 2002. Revolution will harvest carriage agreements with distributors including Comcast and EchoStar, which will put Lime in 6.5 million homes. Sources indicate it is Wisdom's deal with Comcast, inherited from the operator's acquisition of AT&T Broadband, that will enable Case to turn this cable-industry lemon into Lime. The channel has a place on select Comcast systems until at least 2009. Comcast and EchoStar declined comment. Lime is aiming for a breakthrough this category has yet to sustain; bit players come and go, and such existing channels as Oxygen and Lifetime have dabbled here. Los Angeles-based Oasis TV is primarily broadband, but the outfit recently secured video-on-demand deals with Time Warner and Akimbo. The problem might lie with the nature of the medium. Both programers and advertisers tend to rely on the glitz and glibness that the Birkenstock crowd detest, Ray argues. He believes they favor more plain-spoken information available via print or Web that rarely translates to TV. "They've turned to the Internet because they are tired of shlocky programing," Ray said. But the timing of Lime could be to its benefit. Corporate America is waking up to a slice of the population willing to pay a premium for such products as hybrid vehicles (Toyota, Ford) and energy-efficient appliances (General Electric) with targeted marketing efforts. Giant food companies like General Mills quietly are backing boutique gourmet labels. "Lots of sectors are transforming, and the media has an huge opportunity to transform as well," Kettler said. What remains to be seen is as how Lime fits together with the rest of Case's holdings, which include controlling shares in real estate properties like Miraval, an Arizona-based wellness resort. A chain of private health clinics is rumored to be his next project. "It's still early in the game, but if there's synergies to be had, they will happen," Kettler said. "Steve is very involved from a strategic perspective." Reuters/Hollywood Reporter Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 22:51:49 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Court Decision In Internet Censorship Law (Nitke / Ashcroft) http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/000884.html by Seth Finkelstein Nitke versus Ashcroft is a case challenging Internet censorship law, involving issues of "community standards" and the Internet. I (Seth Finkelstein) am serving as an expert witness in the case. Case lawyer John Wirenius' blog entry describes the decision: http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwirenius/2005/07/25/ "[On July 25, 2005], the three judge panel of the Southern District of New York issued a 25 page per curiam opinion finding against the plaintiffs -- us, to be clear -- in Nitke v. Ashcroft. The decision is a stunner -- as much for what it doesn't say as for what it does. The Court found that Barbara and NCSF (through The Eulenspeigel Society) had been chilled in their speech and had censored themselves because of the statute allowing the Government to choose which venue any artist using the Internet may be prosecuted in, and applying that local community's standards to all art on the Internet. The Court also found that Barbara and NCSF could not rest easy on the obvious social value of their speech, because not all prosecutors and not all juries see social importance the same way. Then they found we had not produced enough evidence as to how many artists would be chilled, and how local community standards varied. Thus, we had not shown to what extent the standards varied from community to community, and how much speech was effected." I have a page of resources about the case at: http://sethf.com/nitke/ Case lawyer John Wirenius' material: Overview: http://wireniusreport.net/overview.html January 2005 Update: http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwirenius/2005/01/01/ http://wireniusreport.net/ http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=jwirenius NCSF's site: http://www.ncsfreedom.org/ Barbara Nitke: http://www.barbaranitke.com/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 13:20:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Communications Reports Second-Quarter Earnings $2.1 Billion Verizon Communications Reports Second-Quarter Earnings of $2.1 Billion, With $18.6 Billion in Revenues - Jul 26, 2005 07:25 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50677649 Wireless Nets Record 1.9 Million New Customers, Maintains Margins, Yields Record-Low Churn; Wireline Broadband, LD, Data Revenues Continue Growth SECOND-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS Consolidated Results - 75 cents in diluted earnings per share; 63 cents per share before special items (non-GAAP measure) Wireless - Industry-record 1.9 million net customer additions, up 25.1 percent; 47.4 million total customers, up 17.1 percent; record-low churn (customer turnover) of 1.2 percent - Total quarterly revenues of $7.8 billion, up $1.0 billion, or 14.6 percent -- the 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth increases - Continued strong operating income margin of 22.7 percent Wireline - 4.1 million total broadband connections (DSL and Verizon Fios data lines), including 278,000 net new broadband connections - Improving revenue trends: Total quarterly revenues of $9.4 billion include a year-over-year gain in the consumer business, and gains from first quarter 2005 in all major lines of business - Data revenues up 10.9 percent; long-distance (LD) revenues up 6.7 percent Notes: Reclassifications of prior-period amounts have been made to reflect comparable results excluding Verizon's Hawaii wireline and directory operations, which were sold in the second quarter 2005. Growth percentages cited above compare second quarter 2005 with second quarter 2004. See the schedules accompanying this news release and www.verizon.com/investor for reconciliations to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for the non-GAAP financial measures included in this announcement. Discontinued operations in the prior-year periods presented include the operations of Verizon Information Services Canada. NEW YORK, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) today reported second-quarter 2005 earnings of $2.1 billion, or 75 cents per diluted share, highlighted by another record-breaking quarter at Verizon Wireless and continued strong consolidated cash flows and revenue growth. Second-quarter earnings included $336 million, or 12 cents per share, from the sale of wireline and directory operations in Hawaii, as well as tax benefits of $242 million recognized on prior-year investment losses, partially offset by net tax expense of $232 million for the repatriation of foreign earnings. Earnings before these special items (non-GAAP measure) were $1.8 billion, or 63 cents per share. This compares with $1.8 billion, or 64 cents per share, in earnings before special items in the second quarter 2004. The tax on repatriated foreign earnings relates primarily to the more than $2 billion that Verizon expects to receive in 2005 from share buybacks initiated by Italian wireless provider Vodafone Omnitel. Verizon received $1.2 billion in proceeds in the second quarter 2005 and anticipates receiving the final amount in the second half of 2005. Record Quarterly Revenues Consolidated operating revenues of $18.6 billion in the second quarter 2005 set a company record, increasing 4.6 percent compared with the second quarter 2004. Consolidated operating revenues on a comparable basis (non-GAAP measure, excluding revenues from Verizon's Hawaii operations in both periods) were $18.5 billion in the second quarter 2005. This is an increase of 5.1 percent, or $0.9 billion, compared with the second quarter 2004. Second-quarter total revenues at Verizon Wireless increased 14.6 percent, or $1.0 billion, to $7.8 billion when compared with the second quarter 2004, marking the 12th consecutive quarter of more than 10 percent year-over-year increases. Operating revenues on a comparable basis at Domestic Telecom were $9.4 billion in the second quarter 2005. This 0.5 percent decrease, compared with the second quarter 2004, was the segment's lowest rate of revenue decline in four years. Domestic Telecom revenues in the second quarter 2005 increased $78 million over the first quarter 2005 on a comparable basis. In the second quarter 2005, consolidated operating expenses increased 3.0 percent to $14.5 billion, compared with second-quarter 2004 operating expenses of $14.1 billion. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 13:21:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Windows Genuine Advantage 1.0 Goes Live Global anti-piracy initiative ensures software authenticity, performance and support while providing ongoing system improvements. REDMOND, Wash., July 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced the transition of the Windows(R) Genuine Advantage (WGA) pilot to a version 1.0 launch with worldwide availability. WGA is part of Microsoft's ongoing commitment to protecting its customers from software counterfeiting and to helping support partners through education, engineering, and enforcement of policies and laws. WGA, designed to differentiate the value of genuine Windows-based software from counterfeit software, enables customers to enjoy the capabilities they expect, provides them with confidence that their software is authentic, and delivers ongoing system improvements, including approximately $450 in software offerings available only to genuine users. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50674486 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 23:01:40 -0600 From: timeOday Subject: Call My SIP Phone Over the Internet? At home I use Vonage for phone service, so my phone is attached to the Internet. I travel reasonably often but don't have a cellphone. Increasingly, hotels are charging ridiculous prices even for local and 1-800 calls, but I do have broadband Internet because I need it for work, so they pay. Finally my question, can I get SIP on my laptop, and call home, bypassing the POTS (and for that matter, Vonage) entirely? (I realize I could do PC-to-PC calling to my home computer from my laptop, but it will never work unless my wife can just pick up the normal phone). ------------------------------ From: Christopher Sabine Subject: Looking For Retailer of Office Telephone System Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:25:39 -0400 Hi folks. I'm looking for a price quote on an office telephone with a port for a pair of dual jack headsets that interface between the telephone handset and a computer. I need to take audio from the computer in one earpeace and audio from the telephone in the other. I'm in Cincinnati and would like a supplier as local to that area as possible. Thanks a bunch, Chris ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 12:09:57 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Motorola Shows Off the 'Q' USTelecom dailyLead July 26, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23343&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Motorola shows off the "Q" BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Western Wireless sells Irish assets * Broadcasters, telcos continue dialogue at TELECOM '05 * Cells to offer sound of music * Verizon, Sprint ink pic-sharing pact * BellSouth, Verizon report Q2 earnings USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Cox Cable Chief to Speak at TELECOM '05 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Vonage, Motorola announce new VoIP gear REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC forms e911 task force * SBC-AT&T merger wins support in California Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23343&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 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 01:49:40 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: TV Telephone History > While watching TV Land, I realized I could learn about the > phone-wealth of various TV families. I think there were four phones in the Stevens household in Bewitched -- One in the kitchen, one in the bedroom, one in Darrin's den, and a green WE 500 set which normally sat atop the TV in the living room. > TV writers later learned to use the exchange "555" (or KLondike 5) for > fictitious numbers, but perhaps weren't doing this back then. The "99" > portion of their phone number used to indicate a coin-operated > telephone in some exchanges, so perhaps this convention was good > enough. I recall seeing an episode of The Twilight Zone in which a KLondike 5 number was used. When was the last series of that? About 1963? - Paul ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: An Unsettling Surprise: Victimized by ID Theft Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:00:42 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Actually, us lay people can do NOTHING about 'opportunity'. I have no > idea what big data warehouses handle my information, let alone dictate > to them to maintain proper controls and security. Quoted in full for emphasis. I was almost the victim of ID theft in 1998, but that was my own fault, as I somehow misplaced my Ohio driver's license and in 1998, they hadn't yet enacted the law that makes a SSN optional on your license. (In my opinion, it shouldn't ever be on there, but that's just my opinion. I now live in a state that has enough clue to omit the SSN from the DL.) What Lisa says is extremely important. My situation happened out of sheer stupidity and absent-mindedness, and I could have prevented it very easily. Situations like the one with Cardsystems can't be prevented by the consumer. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ Date: 26 Jul 2005 06:34:19 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Ethics of Deterrence Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if anyone besides me has > noticed how this whole thing has deteriorated from evil nasty spammers > as the _true_ villians to evil nasty netizens trying to harm a good > and pure web site; Since that's not what anyone has proposed, no, I don't think anyone else has noticed that. You know that I have no love for spammers, but I have even less love for stupid gimmicks that play into spammers' hands. > Why did ICANN (and its cheering squad on the net) fight so > vigorously against the federal government's CAN-SPAM proposed > legislation; ICANN never said anything about CAN-SPAM one way or the other. You must be thinking of someone else. CAUCE, on whose board I sit, opposed CAN-SPAM because we thought it would encourage more spam, not less. So far, we seem to have been correct. R's, John ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: TV Telephone History Date: 26 Jul 2005 07:18:04 -0700 Joseph wrote: > They never had the "ringing" right and always used the double-gong > ringers that one would find on 500/2500 type phones. When using > payphones they'd have the "ding-ding" sound from a regular fortress > type phone. The last "ding-ding" pay phones were the three > slotters! TV shows were notoriously inaccurate in ringers for telephones. I believe the phone itself does not ring, but rather the sound is provided off set and recorded separately. I've often heard 302-type ringers used for more modern sets and other strange bells used. In more modern shows, they've had a bell ringer for a modern tone ringer phone and vice versa. Likewise with payphones. Long after 3-slot pay phones were replaced by single slot, the 'ding-ding-bong' sounds continued when someone used a payphone. Of course, nowadays a ringer can be anything (even Jeanette McDonald's "When I'm Calling You") so the point is kind of moot. Our local Bell business office lent our high school theatre group a Call Director set for a play. I wanted to 'examine' it but they returned it as soon as the play was over. ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info Subject: Re: Need to Drop SBC LD Service. Info on Other Carriers? Date: 26 Jul 2005 07:57:34 -0700 George wrote: > But I'm having trouble finding reviews of particularly the smaller > companies or resellers. Where can I go to find that? Is there a > newsgroup? I'm talking about companies like Everdial/Primus, which > I currenly use as a dial-around, or maybe Americom. And I'm > particularly interested in honest dealing and customer service. > Assuming there still is such a thing. Maybe your current dial around is a good deal. We use OneSuite. Incredibly low long distance phone rates. As low as USA-Canada 1.9CPM! Works as prepaid phone card. PIN not needed for calls from home or cell phone. Compare the rates at https://www.OneSuite.com/ No monthly fee or minimum. Use Promotion/SuiteTreat Code: FREEoffer23 for FREE time ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, meets "Moscow Rules" Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:35:40 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Does anyone remember the old parlor game we used to play as kids? I think the name of the game was 'Murder' and it was about this wealthy, rich old geezer who had been murdered in his home, which was a mansion-like place. Using cards and dice, and moving tokens around on a board accordingly, we kids had to use logic and the process of elimination to guess the three cards hidden from view: (1) who murdered the old gentleman, (2) the way his murder was committed, and (3) the room of the house it happened in. By looking at your cards, the tokens on the board and thinking about previous incorrect answers, we junior detectives had to announce to the other players out loud, "I suggest that (victim) was murdered with (weapon: gun, knife, candleobera or other blunt instrument) in the (room: kitchen, parlor, library, den, bedroom, etc) by (criminal: the butler, the cook, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Green, others). The person who made the right choices won of course, but a wrong choice got the player eliminated. Today's 'Last Laugh' is brought to us by Danny Burstein who tells us the true story of the victim (Vardan Kushnir) who was murdered in his apartment, apparently with a blunt instrument, but police have not been able to figure out _who_ the perpetrator was. Personally I doubt they are looking very hard either. PAT] =================================== Russia's Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment Created: 25.07.2005 13:14 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:24 MSK, 5 hours 14 minutes ago MosNews Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head. Kushnir, 35, headed the English learning centers the Center for American English, the New York English Centre and the Centre for Spoken English, all known to have aggressive Internet advertising policies in which millions of e-mails were sent every day ... [ snip, snip, snip; rest at: http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/07/25/spammerdead.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Funeral arrangements have not been announced; they are still pending. That, you see, is how spammers in Russia are dealt with; a good, effecient dispatch of their rotten souls if I do say so myself. A prompt cremation of his earthly remains and all his spam with him should follow and assure he burns in Hell forever in his special, reserved spot. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #339 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jul 27 14:01:57 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id E0A0115006; Wed, 27 Jul 2005 14:01:56 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #340 Message-Id: <20050727180156.E0A0115006@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 14:01:56 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.3 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Jul 2005 14:02:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 340 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Hackers Target Flawed Software (Andy Sullivan) Residents Fight to Keep Analog Phones (Chet Brokaw) Who is Standing in the Way of Inexpensive Local Internet (Steven Levy) Motorola PR (Monty Solomon) Palm Helps Commuters with New Traffic Application for Treo (M Solomon) France Telecom Dials in Amena Deal (USTelecom dailyLead) CT301 Service Manual (Doug Faunt N6TQS) Re: TV Telephone History (J.P.) Re: TV Telephone History (Lisa Hancock) Re: Call My SIP Phone Over the Internet? (Dean M.) Re: Call My SIP Phone Over the Internet? (John Levine) Re: Question About "Network Interface" Phone Jack (Tony P.) Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" (Robert Bonomi) 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: Andy Sullivan Subject: Hackers Target Flawed Software Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 14:14:24 -0500 By Andy Sullivan Flawed backup software has emerged as the latest target for hackers looking for corporate secrets, according to a survey released on Monday. The survey by the nonprofit SANS Institute found new holes in widely used software products, even as computer users are getting better at patching some favorite hacker targets. Attackers are now focusing on desktop software, like Web browsers and media players, that might not get fixed as frequently as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and other software widely used by business, the cybersecurity research organization found. More than 422 significant new Internet security vulnerabilities emerged in the second quarter of 2005, the cybersecurity research organization found, an increase of 11 percent from the first three months of the year. Particularly troubling are holes in backup software made by Computer Associates International Inc. and Veritas Software Corp., which together account for nearly one-third of the backup-software market, said Ed Skoudis, founder of the security company Intelguardians. "If you think about it, people back up information that is their most important information, otherwise they wouldn't back it up at all, right?" Skoudis said on a conference call. "By exploiting one of these vulnerabilities, an attacker can get in there and exploit some of the most sensitive information for some of the most sensitive organizations." Fixes are available for all the problems outlined in the SANS report, but many of the new flaws aren't fixed as quickly as older ones. Administrators take an average of 62 days to fix backup software and other software inside their firewall, compared to an average of 21 days for e-mail servers and other products that deal directly with the Internet, said Gerhard Eschelbeck, chief technical officer of business-software maker Qualsys. Home users typically take even longer to fix problems, said SANS chief executive Allan Paller. Many of the new flaws were found on products popular with home users. Flaws in media players like Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes and RealNetworks Inc.'s RealPlayer could enable a hacker to get into a user's computer through a poisoned MP3 file. Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser could be compromised simply by visiting a malicious Web site, SANS said. Even the open-source Mozilla and Firefox Web browsers, which has gained in popularity thanks to security concerns, had flaws as well, Paller said. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Chet Brokaw Subject: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 14:16:45 -0500 By CHET BROKAW, Associated Press Writer Johnny Smith has a new digital cell phone, but he relies on an older analog bag phone when he travels the wide open spaces in the western part of the state to line up cattle for sale at a local livestock auction. In rural areas where cellular towers are far apart, analog phones often work when digital models can't get a signal. With the Federal Communications Commission pushing the move to all-digital phone service across the country, Smith and others in rural areas are urging the agency to wait until more towers are built to improve service. "I carry a bag phone just because I can get so much better reception with it," Smith said. "If you're out in the middle of no place, it's nice to be able to call somebody." According to current timelines set up by the FCC, wireless companies can phase out analog service by 2008. By the end of this year, the agency also is requiring that 95 percent of each wireless company's customers have digital phones containing chips that allow emergency operators to pinpoint a person's location when a call is placed to 911. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission will attempt to rally support for a resolution seeking to suspend or modify the deadline on location-capable phones Tuesday at the National Association of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners meeting in Austin, Texas. Bob Sahr, a PUC member, said he hopes the FCC will look at the situation on a case-by-case basis to give continued support to analog service in rural areas that need the older technology. In some areas, it's the only kind of service that works, he said. "If we phase those people out, they may be in a situation where they have this brand new, state-of-the-art digital phone with all sorts of bells and whistles, but they're not going to be able to complete the call in the first place," Sahr said. The Rural Cellular Association and CTIA-The Wireless Association, which both represent wireless companies, also support suspending the deadline. Companies do not want to force their customers to switch to newer phones until it makes sense to do so, RCA executive director Tim Raven said. "We have instances every day in local markets where folks are rescued because of their cell phones. It's just a matter of working up the technology issues and obstacles," he said. The FCC has not responded to the request, and officials said the commission does not comment on pending matters. The agency has already granted some companies waivers from the deadline based on local conditions. The National Emergency Number Association, whose aim is to implement a universal emergency telephone number system, opposes a blanket delay in the move to the new digital phones, said Rick Jones, director of operations issues for the organization. However, the group is also willing to consider requests for waivers by individual companies in areas where a delay might make sense, he said. As of June, less than half the nation's 911 call centers had the capability of locating a cell phone containing one of the chips, Jones said. The call centers with the technology covered nearly 58 percent of the nation's population but less than 36 percent of its counties, he said. In many states in the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, less than 20 percent of call centers are capable of locating a cell phone, Jones said. That number may not improve unless more funding is allocated. Jones said Congress passed a bill authorizing $250 million a year for five years to help call centers install the new phone-locating technology, but the funding has yet to be appropriated. In the meantime, residents of rural areas will continue to fight to keep their old analog service. Emmer Hulce of Midland, S.D., said he wants to keep his analog bag phone so he can call family members without racking up long-distance charges. "There's no chance of going with digital. I had digital and that wasn't as good as the analog," the 79-year-old retired power company worker said. On the Net: Federal Communications Commission: http://www.fcc.gov/ National Emergency Number Association: http://www.nena9-1-1.org/ Rural Cellular Association: http://www.rca-usa.org/content.cfm CTIA-The Wireless Association: http://www.ctia.org Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. ------------------------------ From: Steven Levy Subject: Who Wants to Stop You From Getting Inexpensive Local Internet Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 14:21:09 -0500 By Steven Levy, Newsweek writer July 18 issue -- Pete Sessions, a Texas member of the House, believes in states' rights. But he also thinks that there are situations so extreme that Congress must slap down state and local government initiatives. One such case: localities that offer citizens free or low-cost Internet service. Idealists may view extending high-speed Internet as a boon to education, an economic shot in the arm and a vital component in effective emergency services. Sessions (_who once worked for telecom giant SBC_) sees it as local-government meddling in the marketplace -- "trying to pick winners and losers," he says -- and thus justifies federal meddling to stop elected officials from giving their constituents a stake in the 21st century. The Sessions bill is only one shot in the battle over municipal wireless, or muni Wi-Fi. In hundreds of communities, public officials have concluded that the Internet is an essential service. They see that their residents are either offered prices that are too high or are not offered services at all. They are aware that while our nation stumbles in high-speed-Internet adoption, other countries make sure consumers can get connected at lower prices (Japanese and South Korean users pay about half what we do). "We are asleep at the wheel," says Andrew Rasiej, a candidate for public advocate in New York City. Using "mesh" networks that run on the Wi-Fi wireless standard, cities can deliver the Internet affordably to everyone within their boundaries. "We can cover a city for a fraction of the cost of the traditional providers," says Ron Sege of Tropos, a company that installs shoe-box-size devices that beam the Net from street lamps. This enables cities like Philadelphia to launch nonprofit efforts to make whole neighborhoods into hotspots: public spaces get free access, and citizens who use the service at home or around town are billed less than $20 a month. "We all have to compete in a knowledge economy," explains Dianah Neff, the city's chief information officer, who says the current providers focus excessively on the affluent. The telecom and cable giants that sell broadband Internet have mobilized to stop or-ganizers like Neff. The likes of Verizon, SBC and Comcast are lobbying hard and donating big. They argue that taxpayer-funded competition makes the marketplace unfair (ironic, since those firms owe their dominance to government-granted monopolies). Then they claim that cities are too unsophisticated to pull off such projects (so why are they worried?). They fund think tanks that churn out white papers with titles like "Municipal Networks: The Wrong Solution." And they are racking up successes -- 14 states so far have passed laws that constrain localities in muni Wi-Fi efforts. In Pennsylvania, only a grass-roots protest from Philadelphians forced the legislature to exempt the city from its bill-but elsewhere in the state, cities and towns can't proceed on plans unless they offer the deal first to SBC and phone companies, which can stall for years before deciding. The fight isn't over. As people learn what's at stake, they are less likely to tolerate efforts that make it illegal for local officials to serve them. Tech companies like Dell are beginning to exert lobbying pressure on the other side. And Sens. John McCain and Frank Lautenberg responded to the Sessions bill by introducing the Community Broadband Act, which stops states from banning muni Wi-Fi. Those yearning for affordable broadband-or any at all-should let their representatives know which bill they prefer. And if you live in Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania or any other state where legislators have roadblocked cheap wireless, you might check out whether your local rep supported the telcos -- or you the citizen. Copyright 2005 Newsweek, Inc. Copyright 2005 MSNBC.com URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8524609/site/newsweek/ 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: SBC's attitude seems to be that small towns like ours 'do not need to offer services like that since we (SBC) already offer DSL and all you need to do is subscribe to our phone service (which if you were not an idiot you would do already) and you will get DSL (in connection with your SBC phone service.) What a deal, eh ? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 16:14:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola PR Motorola and Oakley Announce Launch of RAZRWIRE(TM) With Cingular Wireless - Jul 25, 2005 11:49 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50663197 Motorola Showcases New 'Whoa' Products, Partnerships and Technologies for Second Half '05 - Jul 25, 2005 08:00 PM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50673701 Motorola Challenges College Students to Imagine the Future of Seamless Mobility - Jul 25, 2005 08:00 PM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50673708 Introducing 'Q' from Motorola - Jul 25, 2005 08:00 PM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50673715 'One Video Message Is Worth 1000 Voicemails' - Motorola Launches Video Mail for the Ojo(TM) Personal Video Phone - Jul 25, 2005 08:00 PM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50673722 MultiVu Video Feed: Motorola Showcases New 'Whoa' Products, Partnerships and Technologies - Jul 26, 2005 01:30 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50674651 Motorola Showcases New 'Whoa' Products, Partnerships and Technologies - Jul 26, 2005 04:30 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50675219 Motorola and Yahoo! Announce Plans to Bring Consumer Applications to the Mobile, Auto, and Home - Jul 26, 2005 09:00 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50680659 Smart and Connected - New Motorola A910 with WiFi, A728, and A732 - Jul 26, 2005 09:00 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50680688 Motorola Technology Helps GM Corvette Race Team Take Top Honors at 24 Hours of LeMans - Jul 26, 2005 09:00 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50680806 Motorola to Develop Dual-Mode Cellular/Wi-Fi Enterprise Seamless Mobility Solution With Cisco - Jul 26, 2005 09:00 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50680836 Motorola and Vonage(R) Team Up to Bring New Full-Featured Voice-over-IP Solution to Consumers - Jul 26, 2005 09:00 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50680911 MultiVu Video Feed: Motorola Showcases New 'Whoa' Products, Partnerships and Technologies - Jul 26, 2005 11:30 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50684605 Motorola Accelerates Development of WiMAX End-to-End Solutions; Introduces Moto Wi4 Product Portfolio - Jul 25, 2005 08:00 PM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50673693 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 09:03:54 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Palm Helps Commuters with New Traffic Application: Treo Smartphones SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 2005-- Drivers Can Make Informed, Timely Decisions with Graphical Maps and Incident Details For Treo(TM) customers who need help navigating traffic-jammed commutes, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) today announced Traffic for Treo Smartphones. The wireless traffic application helps users make commute decisions quickly with interactive maps and incident information located conveniently on their Palm(R) Treo 600 or Treo 650 smartphones.(1) Traffic for Treo Smartphones debuts in 10 of the most traffic-congested markets in the United States: Atlanta, Baltimore/DC, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. According to the 2005 Urban Mobility Report, traffic congestion occurs for longer portions of the day and delays more travelers than ever before -- in 2003, 51 urban areas experienced more than 20 hours of delay per rush-hour traveler.(2) Informing drivers about their options can contribute to more efficient travel. Unlike most traffic information sources, Traffic for Treo Smartphones gives users both visual and textual information when they want it, on the routes that matter to them and updated as often as every five minutes. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50710136 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:58:58 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: France Telecom Dials in Amena Deal USTelecom dailyLead July 27, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23380&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * France Telecom dials in Amena deal BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Cisco buys Sheer Networks * Report: Consortium may buy undersea cable * Wireless, DSL services deliver strong sales for phone companies * Yahoo!, Motorola forge alliance * Siemens tightens bond with General Bandwidth * Sprint reports earnings USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * 3G Wireless with WiMAX and Wi-Fi EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Ten technologies every CEO should know about * AOL goes mobile REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Qualcomm co-founder doesn't like city-backed Wi-Fi plans Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23380&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: Doug Faunt N6TQS Subject: CT301 Service Manual Date: 26 Jul 2005 18:34:58 -0400 Organization: at home, in Oakland, California These might be of interest to someone here -- I have run across the Service Manuals for a Radio Shack CT301 "brick" cell phone, for which I have no use. It's got schematics and parts lists, theory of operation, and other interesting information and dates from 1988. I may actually have the 'phone around, too. Please contact me if you're interested in this as a relic of a bygone age. 73, doug, Who was actually using a "bag" phone a couple of weeks ago. ------------------------------ From: J.P. Subject: Re: TV Telephone History Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 15:50:24 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Paul Coxwell wrote: >> While watching TV Land, I realized I could learn about the >> phone-wealth of various TV families. > I think there were four phones in the Stevens household in Bewitched > -- One in the kitchen, one in the bedroom, one in Darrin's den, and a > green WE 500 set which normally sat atop the TV in the living room. For a while on Bewitched (1969, I believe), there was a white WE touch-tone set with only ten buttons (missing * and #). J.P. Wing ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: TV Telephone History Date: 27 Jul 2005 06:53:35 -0700 John L. Shelton wrote: > While watching TV Land, I realized I could learn about the > phone-wealth of various TV families. Just last night TV Land showed the first episode of "The Jeffersons" (a spinoff of All in the Family.) I noticed the kitchen had a rotary desk phone while the living room had a Touch Tone phone. When Touch Tone came out, in our area it was a flat $1.50 monthly fee regardless of how many extensions you had, and all extensions were converted to TT. [I miss Isabel Sanford, what a wonderful actress. She gave so much warmth to those shows.] BTW, the Bunker home in All in the Family had a 302 set, which was the older 'art deco' set that came out in 1938. By 1970 they were relatively rare; I think they stopped being installed in the early 1950s in favor of the modern 500 set.* I suspect such an older set was chosen to give the home an older/poorer look to it. Much later in the series they got a Touch Tone phone. People who had lived in their houses for a great many years without changing their phone service would have 302/354 sets. Many new houses were built in the late 1940s and of course all would get 300 type sets. *Bell had a big inventory of 302 sets. They repackaged them in a modern case that looked somewhat like a 500 set and called it the 5302, but it was still a 302 set internally. They had kind of a squat look to them. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Call My SIP Phone Over the Internet? From: Dean M. Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 23:48:42 GMT On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 22:01:40 -0700, timeOday wrote: > At home I use Vonage for phone service, so my phone is attached to the > Internet. > Finally my question, can I get SIP on my laptop, and call home, > bypassing the POTS (and for that matter, Vonage) entirely? (I realize > I could do PC-to-PC calling to my home computer from my laptop, but it > will never work unless my wife can just pick up the normal phone). If you don't mind not using SIP and just need a way to make a call from your laptop which will ring a phone, why not try http://www.dualphone.net/ (or something like it) in combo with skype? Alternatively just get "skype out" on your laptop and call your Vonage line from that. Rates are pretty low. -Dean ------------------------------ Date: 26 Jul 2005 21:24:19 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Call My SIP Phone Over the Internet? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Finally my question, can I get SIP on my laptop, and call home, > bypassing the POTS (and for that matter, Vonage) entirely? I doubt it. There used to be a gateway between Pulver's Free World Dialup (see http://www.freeworlddialup.com/) and Vonage, but the FWD web site now says "SHUT OFF BY VONAGE!!!" I would suggest getting Skype and using Skypeout which costs about 2 cents/minute, no monthly fee or minimum. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Question About "Network Interface" Phone Jack Organization: ATCC Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 19:32:02 -0400 In article , wylbur37nospam@yahoo.com says: > After living in the same place in New York City for years, I recently > moved to another place (also in New York City). The room I moved to > has an existing phone jack but it looks different from the old > square-ish ones I'm accustomed to. (The old ones consisted only of 4 > terminals inside the case). This new one is rather rectangular and > has a label on the outside that says: > Network Interface > *Caution > Disconnect plug from this jack during installation and repair > of wiring. > *Testing > Plug working phone directly into this jack. If phone operates, > fault is in wiring. If phone does not operate, call repair > service. > When I opened the case, I noticed that the red and green wires (the > only ones that will be actually used by the telephone itself) are also > connected to a little circuit board whose most conspicuous component > is a yellow cylinder-shaped object (about 3/4" long and about 3/8" > diameter) with the following markings ... > 250V > TI > 0.47 MFD > +/- 10% > * What is the purpose of this circuit board? > * Is it really necessary? (How come the old-fashioned jacks > didn't have this?) > * What if I were to disconnect it? > Also, when I looked inside the jack itself (the hole where you would > plug the phone into), I noticed there's some strange-looking gunk > inside. It's clear-colored and has the consistency of rubber cement. > * Is this something that's supposed to be there? > * What is it used for? The capacitor is probably part of an RF shield on the jack. The goo as an anti-corrosive gel. Copper and brass and all sorts of metals corrode over time. This prevents the jack from getting gunked up. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, meets "Moscow Rules" Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 23:25:18 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , TELECOM Digest Editor introduced Danny Burstein message by noting: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Does anyone remember the old parlor > game we used to play as kids? I think the name of the game was > 'Murder' "Clue", perhaps? As in: 'The butler did it, with the ice-pick, in the parlor' > and it was about this wealthy, rich old geezer who had been > murdered in his home, which was a mansion-like place. Using cards and > dice, and moving tokens around on a board accordingly, we kids had to > use logic and the process of elimination to guess the three cards > hidden from view: (1) who murdered the old gentleman, (2) the way his > murder was committed, and (3) the room of the house it happened in. By > looking at your cards, the tokens on the board and thinking about > previous incorrect answers, we junior detectives had to announce to > the other players out loud, "I suggest that (victim) was murdered with > (weapon: gun, knife, candleobera or other blunt instrument) in the > (room: kitchen, parlor, library, den, bedroom, etc) by (criminal: the > butler, the cook, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Green, others). The person who > made the right choices won of course, but a wrong choice got the > player eliminated. Today's 'Last Laugh' is brought to us by Danny > Burstein who tells us the true story of the victim (Vardan Kushnir) > who was murdered in his apartment, apparently with a blunt instrument, > but police have not been able to figure out _who_ the perpetrator was. > Personally I doubt they are looking very hard either. PAT] > =================================== > Russia's Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment > Created: 25.07.2005 13:14 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:24 MSK, > MosNews > Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen > of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow > apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering > repeated blows to the head. > Kushnir, 35, headed the English learning centers the Center for American > English, the New York English Centre and the Centre for Spoken English, > all known to have aggressive Internet advertising policies in which > millions of e-mails were sent every day ... > http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/07/25/spammerdead.shtml > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Funeral arrangements have not been > announced; they are still pending. That, you see, is how spammers in > Russia are dealt with; a good, effecient dispatch of their rotten > souls if I do say so myself. A prompt cremation of his earthly remains > and all his spam with him should follow and assure he burns in Hell > forever in his special, reserved spot. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes!! 'Clue' is the name of the game, either from Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley. A wonderful game which I still remember. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #340 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 28 01:47:37 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 71E8015061; Thu, 28 Jul 2005 01:47:36 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #341 Message-Id: <20050728054736.71E8015061@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 01:47:36 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.4 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 28 Jul 2005 01:48:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 341 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet Phones Call on Wi-Fi (Jeff Bertolucci) Verizon Looks Past the Wires (Mark Harrington) AT&T Customers Being Taken Over by AllTel (Donna Eakins) Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? (John L. Shelton) Regarding Local Government Offering Wireless ISP (John L. Shelton) VoIP Cozies up to Cell Phones (Ben Charny) Ohio Recognizes New Telecom Era (Matthew Hisrich) Re: Looking For Retailer of Office Telephone System (Paul) Re: Question About "Network Interface" Phone Jack (William Warren) Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones (Lisa Hancock) Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, meets "Moscow Rules" (panoptes@iquest) Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, meets "Moscow Rules" (Paul Coxwell) Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, meets "Moscow Rules" (Steven Lichter) 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: Jeff Bertolucci Subject: Internet Phones Call on Wi-Fi Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:17:00 -0500 We test two of the latest Wi-Fi VoIP phones to see how wireless Internet calling works. By Jeff Bertolucci, special to PC World Internet phones are going wireless. Internet phone vendors have merged wireless networking with voice over Internet Protocol phone service to create the Wi-Fi VoIP phone. This promising-if somewhat rough around the edges-technology brings wireless calling to Net phones. A Wi-Fi VoIP phone is a handset that looks a lot like a cell phone, only it sends and receives audio signals via a wireless network. It works within Wi-Fi's transmission range, which isn't very far. In our tests, Wi-Fi VoIP calls abruptly disconnected whenever we ventured 70 to 100 feet from our wireless router. But, you say, you already have a cell phone. Why should you consider a Wi-Fi VoIP phone? Well, for some callers, VoIP is a whole lot cheaper. Let's say you're on the road and dread paying those outrageous cell phone roaming charges. With your Wi-Fi VoIP phone, you simply enter a free wireless hotspot and make a call. If your VoIP calling plan provides unlimited minutes to the U.S. and Canada, your call is essentially free. If you're calling internationally, you'll pay low VoIP rates, often as little as 3 cents per minute to Europe. And with VoIP, there are no roaming charges. Wi-Fi VoIP handsets are already available from some VoIP providers, including BroadVoice and Net2Phone, as well as from hardware retailers such as ZyXel. Siemens will sell a Wi-Fi handset later this year. Vonage, the biggest VoIP startup, plans to introduce a Wi-Fi VoIP phone before the end of the year. The handsets are not difficult to use: If you can use a cell phone, you've got the skills necessary to work a Wi-Fi VoIP phone. To make a call, you key in a number and press Send. Calls are routed onto the public-switched phone network via your VoIP carrier. The handsets can also accept incoming calls; the phone number is likely the same as your home VoIP line. You need to have an account with a VoIP provider, and you need to make sure that your handset works with the company's service. In most cases, the handset works as part of your existing account, and the service is included in the monthly fee you already pay. If you don't already have a VoIP account, you can sign up for service when you purchase a handset. Initially, Wi-Fi VoIP should appeal to people calling internationally, and to travelers who want to avoid roaming fees. "A lot of people who travel may not have robust minute plans, and they'll find this very useful," says IDC research manager Will Stofega. He used a Wi-Fi VoIP phone during a recent trip to Montreal. "The savings were incredible," Stofega says. Don't confuse a Wi-Fi VoIP handset with a cordless VoIP phone, such as the Uniden UIP1868, a 5.8-GHz unit designed for Packet8 subscribers. (Uniden makes an identical model for Vonage and other VoIP providers.) The UIP1868 includes a base station that plugs directing into a broadband connection or router, and supports up to ten cordless handsets. The difference is that a Wi-Fi VoIP phone works anywhere there's a free wireless access point, whereas the cordless handset works only near its base station. We tested two Wi-Fi VoIP phones: the UT Starcom F1000, which we used with BroadVoice's VoIP service, and the Net2Phone VoiceLine XJ200. (We have previously reviewed Net2Phone's earlier model, the XJ100.) Both are promising devices, but they're not ready for the mainstream. Battery life is poor: The XJ200 kept conking out after 4 to 5 hours of standby-yes, standby-time, during which we made maybe 10 to 15 minutes of calls. The F1000 did much better, with about 33 hours of standby time, but that pales in comparison to today's average cell phone, which goes days between charges. Another tech issue needs to be addressed: call handoffs from one wireless access point to another. If you move from one hotspot to another, your call gets dropped. "You can't roam between access points," acknowledges Net2Phone spokesperson Sarah Hofstetter. Furthermore, Wi-Fi VoIP phones don't work in fee-based, password-protected hotspots, such as a McDonald's or Starbucks that offers wireless access. For a list of wireless hotspots worldwide (free and fee), go to PCWorld.com's Hotspot Finder. Setup may be tricky for Wi-Fi novices too. You'll need to know whether your wireless LAN uses encryption, and if so, what kind (64-bit or 128-bit). In addition, you'll have to input your LAN's security code into the phone, a task that allows the handset to run on your network. At first glance, Net2Phone's slim Wi-Fi handset looks like your average cell phone. At 5 inches long, it easily fits in a coat pocket or handbag. Its 112-by-64-pixel LCD is backlit a cool shade of blue and is easy to read. The phone includes all the features you'd want-voice mail, caller ID, call forwarding, and call blocking-and its $159 price is reasonable. Then again, if you want a combo camera phone/MP3 player, look elsewhere. Our main gripe is the XJ200's battery life, which at less than 5 hours is way too short. We found ourselves recharging the phone daily; in fact, we even reserved a spot on our strip outlet for the XJ200's AC adapter. That said, the phone looks good, and its audio quality rivals that of a comparably priced cell handset. This handset, which we received from VoIP service provider BroadVoice, costs $100 (after $40 rebate) and easily surpasses the XJ200 in battery life, lasting 33 standby hours in our tests. It's slim like the XJ200 (only three-quarters of an inch thick) and only 4 inches long. It's downright petite: too petite, actually. We had to use the tips of our fingernails to press the tiny number keys. The F1000 also supports voice mail, caller ID, and other essentials. Its screen controls are fairly intuitive, the orange-backlit LCD was bright and easy to read, and audio quality was as good as the XJ200's. Our biggest complaint wasn't with the F1000, but with BroadVoice's VoIP phone service. Audio quality was terrible whenever we downloaded streaming video on our PC. Words were garbled and sentences were clipped. By comparison, Net2Phone's quality stayed the same during video streams. Our advice: Save your money for the next generation of dual-mode cell/Wi-Fi phones, which are 6 to 12 months away, according to Net2Phone's Hofstetter. These devices will provide the best of both worlds: cell and Wi-FI VoIP access. We'll wait. Copyright (c) 2005 PC World Communications, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, PC World Communications. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Mark Harrington Subject: Verizon Looks Past the Wires Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:09 -0500 BY MARK HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER Faced with a continuing decline in its traditional landline business while fielding explosive growth in wireless, Verizon Communications Inc. yesterday said it would accelerate spending this year on wireless and broadband TV initiatives. The news came as Verizon reported earnings climbed 18 percent to $2.11 billion on a 4.6 percent revenue increase to $18.57 billion. Most of the earnings increase was tied to the sale of landline and directory operations in Hawaii, and other onetime items. Without them, earnings were flat at $1.8 billion. Verizon said it added 1.9 million new wireless customers in the quarter, a 25 percent increase and its best quarter to date in the sector, but saw traditional landlines decline 3 million from the prior-year quarter -- to 50.7 million from 53.7 million a year ago, spokesman Robert Varettoni said. While Verizon has seen increases in broadband DSL service, it acknowledged that competition has impacted traditional landline business, which has been on a years-long slide. One factor was the acceleration of voice-over IP service, where Cablevision Systems Inc. has seen explosive growth. Cablevision saw subscribers to its Optimum Voice service jump from around 71,000 lines in the first quarter of last year to more than 400,000 now. "Our voice-over IP is the most highly penetrated in the country," Jim Maiella, a Cablevision spokesman, said yesterday. Around 1,000 new customers a day sign up, he said. But analysts aren't convinced cable will vanquish phone companies anytime soon. Peter Rhamey, who tracks Verizon for BMO Nesbitt Burns, a Toronto-based financial services company, allowed that Verizon was losing some landline telephone business to companies like Cablevision. But he said he expects that it will in large part be offset by the easing of regulations that forced Verizon to offer cheap line-lease agreements to rivals such as MCI and AT&T. (Verizon is in the process of acquiring MCI.) Analysts have long realized the "second wave of competition is coming from cable companies," Rhamey said. But "I don't necessary see a huge line loss from cable." On a conference call with analysts yesterday, Verizon chief executive Ivan Seidenberg said he expects the number of traditional wirelines to continue to decline, but said Verizon was "seeing a steady turnaround in revenue performance, as we ramp up our growth initiatives around broadband, long distance and Enterprise Advance," its corporate data initiative. "Our challenge, of course, is to move fast enough to develop scale in these growth businesses, to offset the decline in our traditional business," he said. Toward that end, Verizon said it would up its capital expenditures this year by $650 million to $15.3 billion. It had previously said 2005 capital spending would increase only 10 percent. Doreen Tobin, Verizon's chief financial officer, said the increase was "primarily" tied to the wireless business, "the result of the very strong growth at Verizon Wireless, and some increased spending related to the FiOS deployment as we get ready to roll out video, and do the planning and engineering work to prepare for our 2006 deployment." Seidenberg said Verizon was "moving aggressively to build FiOS," the company's fiber-based TV initiative. He said Verizon expects to accelerate market share growth in broadband and corporate data markets in the second half of the year. Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Newsday, Inc. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Donna Eakins Subject: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By AllTel Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:40:45 -0500 I just recently found out my husband's cell phone which was AT&T here in TX Collin County area was switched over to Alltel without notification. We received a $1100 phone bill. All calls including local was charged for roaming at .99 a minute. Do you have any contact info on who we can contact about this? We have tried calling the number on the bill to no avail. No one will discuss it. They will not transfer you to a manager or someone higher up they state no one is available. We have contacted Alltel; the account number is not valid with Alltel. They show no records of my husband being an AllTel customer and have stated the charges are excessive. AT&T or Cingular is unwilling stating it is an Alltel problem. If you have any contact info of someone we can contact would appreciate it. Otherwise we just will not pay the bill. It will go to collections. We would rather not hurt our credit. But if that is what it takes we will. This is a total nightmare. Imagine last month's bill was from AT&T for $49.00, the next month we receive a bill for $1100.00 from AllTel. Thanks, Donna Eakins [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you describe is a typical thing since AT&T Wireless went out of business. Much of it went to Cingular (for example, my AT&T Free to Go prepaid wound up with Cingular) but I understand other accounts went wherever. I do not know what the logic was behind that. Can AT&T tell you _why_ the account was sold to Alltel, and _why_ no advance notice was given? I know that Cingular 'customer care' is now outsourced to India and _those people_ know absolutely nothing about anything. My (former) AT&T Wireless (now Cingular Wireless) account was totally screwed up; The 'customer care' people (now located in India) know nothing except how to ask for your credit card number and how to say 'no refunds given'. India (my generic name for 'customer care') even denied I could have any service at all since 'Cingular has no service in area 620' (southeast Kansas). I told them my service was out of Wichita, KS area 316 and the dumbos even told me 'when you get back to Wichita your phone will start working again. Please make a note of this address: Cingular Wireless/AT&T Free2Go Attention: Management person Post Office Box 68056 Anaheim Hills, CA 92807 They have no phones there; no email nor fax, or so they claimed when the India 'customer care' people refused to give me any number to call. You may wish to write to that address also. I wrote a letter to them around July 1 demanding the return of the $20 prepayment they ripped off from me. July 18 I got an answer from them giving the usual 'no refunds on prepaid service' line. I wrote them back and said maybe usually no refunds, but in this case _you will make a refund_ or you will get sued in Small Claims Court. The Montgomery County courthouse is five blocks up the street from my home, and as luck would have it, there is a local agent here in town I can give the legal service to. So its no skin off my nose either way. Even their agreement with me did not make any provision for _fraud_. I am waiting now for an answer to that second letter. That post office box seems to go to something called 'Cingular Wireless/AT&T Free2Go' correspondence unit. I'll put something here depending on what response I get back. The first letter back from them was a boiler plate response, not even signed with any name at all; that is why my second letter was to 'Attention Management Person'. In your case my suggestion would be _make copies of all paperwork Alltel sent you (the invoice for $1100 I assume) showing whatever account number was assigned to you -- the number Alltel now claims they do not recognize as an account of theirs -- and ask what is the meaning of the thing. Send it registered mail. Tell them to find the proper department for your letter. Ask them if it is true your cell phone account was sold to (or transferred to) Alltel, and if so why was no notification given to customers? I assume in Collin County, Texas there is a _local cellular tower_ and you were paying local rates (not roaming rates) prior to this fiasco. If so, then you still should be paying local rates. Offer to send them a check for whatever your usual bill should be. And _do not worry_ about the very unlikely event your credit will be harmed any. Frankly put, that just sounds like a collection bluff. Obviously, document all the paperwork and keep copies of it. If Alltel wishes to change the terms of the contract mid-stream, you have a perfect right to get out of any contract. Please stay in touch and let us know how this is resolved. You may wish to send copies of this file to the Alltel corporate office also, which is in Little Rock, Arkansas I think. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:22:36 -0700 From: John L. Shelton Subject: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? When OnStar (from GM) was announced some years back, it was said to operate on the analog cell phone network. GM claims that since 2004, they started using Digital/Analog radios. So it seems there's a large fleet of cars out there that will be crippled with the coming death of analog cell phone service. John john@jshelton.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:19:38 -0700 From: John L. Shelton Subject: Regarding Local Government Offering Wireless ISP I sent the following letter to Newsweek magazine after they posted an editorial in favor of letting local government offer wireless Internet access : In your 2005, July 18 issue, Steven Levy wrote "Pulling the Plug on Local Internet." Mr. Levy suggests that it is right for cities to offer competitive Internet services, perhaps because they can offer lower-cost options, and don't "focus excessively on the affluent." Yet at the same time, cities are actively fighting the same telcos to prevent them from offering television service. (SBC, for example, is pushing state-wide regulation to allow them to offer TV services, rather than having to seek approval from each of thousands of towns.) Government has no business making rules that it applies to others, then "competing" in the same market. If a local government wants to establish an independent competitive entity, it should bow out of regulation. If it wants to regulate, then it shouldn't play. We wouldn't accept a football game where the referees were playing as one of the teams. Our cities will best be served by open competition in all areas -- phone, TV, Internet, and others. Let government protect us from fraud and force. Don't let government play favorites or compete without independent regulation. John john@jshelton.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although I do not entirely agree with you, I can see the logic in what you are saying. (Here in the Digest a couple days ago, I ran that article by Levy since it came through on our RSS newswire feeds.) The problem as I see it is that SBC has for a long time tried to do the very same things they now complain about the municipalities doing; squelching the competition with very low prices and very unfair tactics. For instance, here in Independence, Kansas they have been having a price war with our 'local' phone company for more than a year now: to 'win back' customers allegedly stolen from them by Prairie Stream Communications (our local telco, SBC has been giving away their service (the entire package except for DSL) for $2.95 per month. The _only_ way you can get DSL is by signing up with SBC. They (SBC) have stalled repeatedly on things like local number portability; they have been caught in lie after lie with things like reduction in price on DSL, Lifeline rates, etc. And although they answer with a live person _immediatly_ on a special phone number set up to woo back customers who have left them, once they have you back, you (on future calls) go right into the voicemail queue with all the hassles of complicated and complex billing, etc. Although in theory you are correct, I am pleased to see them squirm a little as they begin (hopefully) to realize there is no law saying people _have_ to use their 'services'; get along quite nicely without them and there are lots of other alternatives. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 20:16:50 PDT From: Ben Charny Subject: VoIP Cozies up to Cell Phones Abstract of article by Ben Charny Net telephony shook up traditional phone service, now it's on to cell phone variants of VoIP for companies such as start-up Mint Telecom. http://news.com.com/VoIP+cozies+up+to+cell+phones/2100-7352_3-5759701.html?tag=sas.email Read all technology news from this week: http://www.news.com/thisweeksheadlines/ Copyright 2004 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. CNET Networks, Inc. 235 Second Street San Francisco, CA 94105 U.S.A. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 23:11:01 -0400 From: Matthew S. Hisrich Subject: Ohio Recognizes the New Telecom Era Written By: Matthew S. Hisrich Published In: IT&T News Publication Date: August 1, 2005 Publisher: The Heartland Institute State economies around the country are likely to improve thanks to recent legislative action on telecom reform. Ohio, the largest state to pass reforms so far this year, leads others that have transported the government's view of the industry into the present. The reform legislation takes a step toward bringing the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) up to speed with market realities by following the lead of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Last year, the FCC overturned much of the regulatory structure upon which state agencies such as PUCO rested. Recognizing that new technologies and a vibrant marketplace have transformed the telecommunications industry, the FCC sought to shift away from heavy-handed regulatory oversight and price-setting. In this new competitive environment, Ohio's legislators realized PUCO's role of 'monopoly czar' is no longer necessary. By transitioning into oversight of competitive forces already at work, PUCO will more effectively deliver positive results for consumers and the economy as a whole. The legislation further encourages PUCO to recognize these advanced communications as part of the competitive marketplace when considering regulatory action. Up to now, agency officials focused solely on wireline technology in crafting rules. That narrow focus essentially ignored the many changes taking place around the regulators, including cell phones, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), wireless Internet, and the entry of cable and electric utilities into the marketplace. In response, state legislators across the country are introducing and enacting a wave of legislation meant to document the need for change. Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah all signed telecom reform into law. As in these other states, legislators in Ohio chose to adopt the FCC's position. In a state suffering from declining investment in basic infrastructure as a result of below-market price-setting, the need for a reform was clear. The Ohio House voted 81-13 and the Senate voted 30-2 to adopt the bill. The legislation encourages investment by ensuring that PUCO follows federal law in its actions. Requirements or prices for network elements, resale of telecom services and network interconnections, for example, cannot exceed or be in any way inconsistent with the more restrictive federal regulations. And, despite designs it once held to expand its oversight into this arena, PUCO is now prohibited from exercising jurisdiction over Internet-based telecommunications such as VoIP. While work remains to overhaul the structure of state regulatory agencies, placing a 'cap' on their jurisdiction based on federal standards is a necessary first step. Ohio, a state once known for having a restrictive regulatory and price-setting environment that undermined competition and innovation, can now begin fostering a reputation for welcoming entrepreneurial investment. Matthew S. Hisrich is a policy analyst with The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions. Copyright by THE HEARTLAND INSTITUTE 19 South LaSalle Street - Suite 903 Chicago, IL 60603 phone 312/377-4000 * fax 312/377-5000 http://www.heartland.org 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, The Heartland Institute. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Paul Subject: Re: Looking For Retailer of Office Telephone System Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 14:03:14 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com > Hi folks. I'm looking for a price quote on an office telephone with a > port for a pair of dual jack headsets that interface between the > telephone handset and a computer. I need to take audio from the > computer in one earpeace and audio from the telephone in the other. > I'm in Cincinnati and would like a supplier as local to that area as > possible. Take a look at www.hellodirect.com -- they have a good selection of headset gizmos and office phones. -- Paul [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And also check into Mike Sandman's catalog at http://sandman.com which is also a good source for odd parts and pieces relating to telephone stuff. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 14:28:38 -0400 From: William Warren Subject: Re: Question About "Network Interface" Phone Jack Tony P. wrote: > In article , > wylbur37nospam@yahoo.com says: >> After living in the same place in New York City for years, I recently >> moved to another place (also in New York City). The room I moved to >> has an existing phone jack but it looks different from the old >> square-ish ones I'm accustomed to. (The old ones consisted only of 4 >> terminals inside the case). This new one is rather rectangular and >> has a label on the outside that says: >> Network Interface >> *Caution >> Disconnect plug from this jack during installation and repair >> of wiring. >> *Testing >> Plug working phone directly into this jack. If phone operates, >> fault is in wiring. If phone does not operate, call repair >> service. >> When I opened the case, I noticed that the red and green wires (the >> only ones that will be actually used by the telephone itself) are also >> connected to a little circuit board whose most conspicuous component >> is a yellow cylinder-shaped object (about 3/4" long and about 3/8" >> diameter) with the following markings ... >> 250V >> TI >> 0.47 MFD >> +/- 10% >> * What is the purpose of this circuit board? >> * Is it really necessary? (How come the old-fashioned jacks >> didn't have this?) >> * What if I were to disconnect it? > The capacitor is probably part of an RF shield on the jack.[snip] The capacitor is used to "terminate" the line with a value that approximates one standard ringer, so that if someone calls in a trouble report, the tester can check if (s)he "sees" the capacitor with the NI jack disconnected. Depending on local practice, the Central Office might be programmed to report a fault on any line that it rings which doesn't show a ringer attached, so you should leave it alone. It doesn't hurt anything. William (Filter noise from my address for direct replies) ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones Date: 27 Jul 2005 11:49:13 -0700 Chet Brokaw wrote: > Johnny Smith has a new digital cell phone, but he relies on an older > analog bag phone when he travels the wide open spaces in the western > part of the state to line up cattle for sale at a local livestock > auction. I understand the older 'bag phones' can send out a much stronger signal. There are plenty of fringe reception areas even in "developed" states all over the U.S. If one looks closely at a carrier's map, they'll find lots of places with the different shade to indicate no or limited service. Clearly there is a need for such higher powered phones. There are also those of us who have plain vanilla cell phones and call-plans who have no need or desire for fancy phones or services. Yet we are being pressured to spend our money to upgrade to stuff we don't want by forced obsolescence. Years back GM got hammered by its "planned obsolescence" of automobiles. At least an automobile would physically wear out and had a limited life. Telephones, especially when not used often, don't wear out. > In rural areas where cellular towers are far apart, analog phones > often work when digital models can't get a signal. With the Federal > Communications Commission pushing the move to all-digital phone > service across the country, Smith and others in rural areas are urging > the agency to wait until more towers are built to improve service. Why is the FCC pushing this? Is it really good for the country or actually good for the carriers to make more money selling replacement phones and fancier services and plans? > According to current timelines set up by the FCC, wireless companies > can phase out analog service by 2008. I get offers from my carrier to "upgrade" to digital. They'll sell me a crappy phone and double my monthly charge and give me LESS than I have now! > The National Emergency Number Association, whose aim is to implement a > universal emergency telephone number system, opposes a blanket delay > in the move to the new digital phones, said Rick Jones, director of > operations issues for the organization. However, the group is also > willing to consider requests for waivers by individual companies in > areas where a delay might make sense, he said. Who the heck are these people? So my cell phone won't pinpoint me. (Actually I kind of like that.) But I'm pretty good with geography and know where I'm at. [public replies please] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Our local Cingular Wireless agency here in Independence tells me that all they are allowed to sell now for use in the 620 area (that is, local service) are the newer GSM phones. If a person _insists_ on having one of the older style phones it has to be in the 316 Wichita area; 620 is now strictly GSM. She told me I can continue to use my older Nokia 5165 phone (either the Cingular Wireless one or the AT&T Free2Go phone 'for maybe another year or two' until they are eventually phased out. PAT] ------------------------------ From: panoptes@iquest.net Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, meets "Moscow Rules" Date: 27 Jul 2005 14:00:03 -0700 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes!! 'Clue' is the name of the game, > either from Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley. A wonderful game which > I still remember. PAT] It's from Parker Brothers, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. http://www.hasbro.com/clue/ (Parker Brothers is not to be confused with Milton Bradley, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc.) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 22:05:57 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, meets "Moscow Rules" >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Does anyone remember the old parlor >> game we used to play as kids? I think the name of the game was >> 'Murder' >"Clue", perhaps? As in: 'The butler did it, with the ice-pick, in the >parlor. "Clue" was sold in Britain by Waddington's under the name "Cluedo." I used to have the game as a kid, and I think it's still available in the stores. The murdered owner was Dr. Black. The suspects were Colonel Mustard, Rev. Green, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Miss Scarlett, and Mrs. Peacock. The potential murder weapons were a dagger, a candlestick, a rope, a revolver, a length of lead piping, and a spanner (wrench). I know there were nine locations, including -- at least in the British version -- a library, a study, a billiard room, and conservatory. - Paul. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh yes, that's the way I remember it also. Dr. Black had quite an elegant mansion with a library, billiard room and observatory. But the American version as I recall it had a slew of servants working for Dr. Black, including Cook and Butler, all of whom apparently disliked the good doctor enough to kill him sometimes in the version we played here. But we also had Professor Plum, Reverend Green and the other characters you named. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, meets "Moscow Rules" Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 00:08:52 GMT I guess someone finally took my signature seriously. Robert Bonomi wrote: > In article , TELECOM Digest > Editor introduced Danny Burstein message by > noting: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Does anyone remember the old parlor >> game we used to play as kids? I think the name of the game was >> 'Murder' > "Clue", perhaps? As in: 'The butler did it, with the ice-pick, in the > parlor' >> and it was about this wealthy, rich old geezer who had been >> murdered in his home, which was a mansion-like place. Using cards and >> dice, and moving tokens around on a board accordingly, we kids had to >> use logic and the process of elimination to guess the three cards >> hidden from view: (1) who murdered the old gentleman, (2) the way his >> murder was committed, and (3) the room of the house it happened in. By >> looking at your cards, the tokens on the board and thinking about >> previous incorrect answers, we junior detectives had to announce to >> the other players out loud, "I suggest that (victim) was murdered with >> (weapon: gun, knife, candleobera or other blunt instrument) in the >> (room: kitchen, parlor, library, den, bedroom, etc) by (criminal: the >> butler, the cook, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Green, others). The person who >> made the right choices won of course, but a wrong choice got the >> player eliminated. Today's 'Last Laugh' is brought to us by Danny >> Burstein who tells us the true story of the victim (Vardan Kushnir) >> who was murdered in his apartment, apparently with a blunt instrument, >> but police have not been able to figure out _who_ the perpetrator was. >> Personally I doubt they are looking very hard either. PAT] >> =================================== >> Russia's Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment >> Created: 25.07.2005 13:14 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:24 MSK, >> MosNews >> Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen >> of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow >> apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering >> repeated blows to the head. >> Kushnir, 35, headed the English learning centers the Center for American >> English, the New York English Centre and the Centre for Spoken English, >> all known to have aggressive Internet advertising policies in which >> millions of e-mails were sent every day ... >> http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/07/25/spammerdead.shtml >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Funeral arrangements have not been >> announced; they are still pending. That, you see, is how spammers in >> Russia are dealt with; a good, effecient dispatch of their rotten >> souls if I do say so myself. A prompt cremation of his earthly remains >> and all his spam with him should follow and assure he burns in Hell >> forever in his special, reserved spot. PAT] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes!! 'Clue' is the name of the game, > either from Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley. A wonderful game which > I still remember. PAT] The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #341 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 28 15:11:13 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 796C315006; Thu, 28 Jul 2005 15:11:12 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #342 Message-Id: <20050728191112.796C315006@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 15:11:12 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.2 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,NO_COST autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 28 Jul 2005 15:11:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 342 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telephone Excise Tax Apparently Declared Unconstitutional (Heinlen Law) Unauthorized Remote Access to Answering Machine (Choreboy) Telecom Act Update Proposed (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? (stannc@gmail.com) Re: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? (Steve Sobol) Re: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? (David L) Re: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? (Clark Griswold, Jr.) Re: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? (J Kelly) Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones (Fred Atkinson) Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones (Robert Bonomi) Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones (Steve Sobol) Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By AllTel (harold@hallikainen.com) Re: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By Alltel (Steve Sobol) Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" (Steve Sobol) Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" (Fred Atkinson) Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" (Robert Bonomi) Last Laugh! Your Tel/Mobile Numbers Needed (hajia mariam) 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: Jonathan Marashlian Subject: The Front Lines - FET Refund Opportunity Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:30:37 -0400 Organization: The Helein Law Group http://www.thefrontlines-hlg.com/ http://www.thlglaw.com/ Advancing The Cause of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT $6 BILLION IN TAX REFUNDS IS AT STAKE FOR TAXPAYERS OF ALL SIZES If your company has been paying or collecting from its customers and paying over to the IRS the 3% Federal Excise Tax on toll telecommunications services, it is likely it or its customers are entitled to a refund of those payments going back three years, plus interest. U.S. taxpayers pay almost $2 billion in federal excise tax ("FET") on interstate long distance telephone calls. In many cases, this tax isn't owed! The Internal Revenue Code imposes a 3% tax on amounts paid for toll telephone service. "Toll telephone service" consists of services for which the charges vary in amount with the distance and elapsed transmission time of each call. Despite a strong defense by the IRS, in a series of pivotal cases the courts have ruled that charges for toll service that is not based on distance are not subject to the excise tax. In face of these consistent losses in the courts, the IRS appears ready to accept the defeat of its position and begin processing applications for refunds. For taxpayers that believe they are entitled to a refund, the time to act is NOW! The rights to refund are subject to a statute of limitations, the longest period allowed being three previous years. Certain conditions must be met to qualify and there are other limitations to be dealt with, but any taxpayer with significant FET payments owes it to itself to investigate its rights to apply for a refund. THLG experts have guided others in this process and can guide you or your company through the refund process. In addition, these developments also mean that if you qualify, you need to cease collecting, reporting and paying the excise taxes on your toll services (the excise tax may still apply to other communications service, essentially your local telephone service charges). If you contact us and decide to retain us, you will gain from our expertise on these issues: * Why the tax code sections covering toll services doesn't cover today's long distance plans. * Which services fall outside the tax code. * Whether or not you qualify for a refund. * What you need to document your case. * How and where to file for a refund. * How to size your claim. * How to complete the refund claim forms. * Statutory time and dollar limits. If your company is interested in learning more, or if you believe your customers would be interested in pursuing FET refunds, please contact us and ask for Charles H. Helein. The Helein Law Group 8180 Greensboro Drive, Suite 700 McLean, Virginia 22102 Tel: 703-714-1300 Fax: 703-714-1330 E-mail: mail@thlglaw.com The Front Lines is a free publication of The Helein Law Group, providing clients and interested parties with valuable information, news, and updates regarding regulatory and legal developments primarily impacting companies engaged in the competitive telecommunications industry. The Front Lines does not purport to offer legal advice nor does it establish a lawyer-client relationship with the reader. If you have questions about a particular article, general concerns, or wish to seek legal counsel regarding a specific regulatory or legal matter affecting your company, please contact our firm. Pursuant to Treasury Regulations, any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication, unless otherwise stated, is not intended and cannot be used for the purpose of avoiding tax-related penalties. ------------------------------ From: Choreboy Subject: Unauthorized Remote Access to Answering Machine Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 02:51:27 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com I've been doing chores for a vacationing relative. Tuesday, I answered his phone at 9 AM and got a series of beeps, perhaps half a second long and three seconds apart. I waited and hung up. It happened again two minutes later. Two minutes later it rang a third time. I didn't get to it in time. When I walked past the answering machine, the display said it was being remotely accessed. If my relative had called to check his answering machine, I didn't understand why he had kept beeping me instead of replying when I said hello. None of the messages had been erased. I'd never known him to leave messages on the machine after checking. Was it somebody fooling around? I asked another relative to phone and try the machine manufacturer's default remote-access code, which was incorrect. With the wrong code, the display said only for a second that it was being remotely accessed. It had stayed on longer the first time, as if the first caller really had checked the messages. At 9 AM Wednesday morning it happened again. I listened a minute or so, until the other end hung up. I realized the beeps were a pure tone and not the sounds of a touchtone phone, so it wasn't my relative trying to access his messages. When they called two minutes alter, the answering machine got it. There was no third call. Call Return gave me a number. It's not listed, but travel sites on the web say it's the fax line of a fancy hotel hundreds of miles from here. My relatives have never had occasion to stay in that city. I don't know anything about fax protocol. When somebody answers, will a fax machine emit a beep every three seconds or so for a minute or so? Will it keep calling if a human answers but stop calling if an answering machine answers? Can an answering machine mistake a fax machine for a human with the access code? Another possibility is that the Caller ID was faked and somebody is using a machine to spy on my relative's telephone messages. Is there such a device? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It could be a spy machine, but I think it more likely that you/relatives are being terrorized by an incorrectly programmed fax machine at the First National Bank of Chicago. That very fax machine, or one of its ancestors has a long history (25 years or more) of auto-dialing the wrong numbers, and continuing to do so until Illinois Bell has to threaten FNB with disconnection of the phone line to get it to stop. 25 years ago, circa 1979-80 First National Bank of Chicago's fax machine was programmed to call around to various branches of the bank during early evening hours to 'poll' for documents or deliver documents issued by the bank. Trouble was, the humanoids in charge of the machine misprogrammed the dialing string. They got an extra '01' in the string somewhere, so the machine was calling _Germany_ during what would be the overnight hours in that country. Religiously, several times per night, five nights per week, that fax machine was calling a private family in Germany, and terrorizing them. Just silence, then 'beep beep, etc', more silence then more 'beep, beep'. After a week or two of this, the family, by now frightened out of their wits, or really, more annoyed, ask for intervention from Bundespost, and in due course Bundespost traced it back to the idiotic Americans, and in turn asked AT&T to review the problem. AT&T found it was coming from Illinois Bell territory, the Wabash central office to be exact, and told those people to get the problem cured. Like complaints made to the Illinois Commerce Commission where the complaint is raised and the prissy old lady secretary at the Commission makes a _single_ phone call of inquiry, then folds her hands and announces self-righteously "I have called the company and they _assure_ me it will be corrected" (and then it never is), IB Telco tracked it down to the fax machine at the First National Bank, made a phone call, said in essence to can the shit and get that fax machine under control. But it was not cured, and the problems went on for another month or so all night long. The German family inquired further, Bundepost inquired again, and AT&T, more than a little annoyed -- I guess Bundespost had really breathed on them a little this time -- passed along their grief once again to Illinois Bell. This time, a manager in Illinois Bell's security unit made a 'courtesy call' on the bank's Vice President-Telecom and told him unless _he_ would cure it, telco was going to cut off the fax machine line. The VP-Telecom for the bank went downstairs with the proverbial hatchet in hand, ready to do business on the spot, laid into his people and got the fax machine reprogrammed on the spot. But, as Paul Harvey would phrase it, 'the rest of the story is to follow'. Bank's telephone bill arrived the next month, with page after page after page after page of _LOTS_ of one-minute calls to the same number in Germany, one after another, every couple minutes all night long. Since most employees of First National Bank have the memory retention of a parrot or a tortoise, bank employees in charge of reconciling the phone bill assumed, this must be some screw up by the phone company, and by God, we are not going to pay for a phone company mistake. Telco explained to FNB (I assume with a straight face) what had happened. I do not know if telco eventually wrote it off (as they used to do _everything_ that a customer would not pay for) or not. I wonder if the people using the hotel public fax machine wherever in your account also blamed the added charges on their bill on a screw up by the hotel switchboard. Probably. Did you or will you tell your relatives about this incident when they get back from their vacation? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 12:40:45 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Telecom Act Update Proposed USTelecom dailyLead July 28, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23402&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Telecom act update proposed BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Mobile search signals big business * Analysis: Vodafone rings competition's bell * Earnings report USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * McCormick Applauds Senate Bill Updating U.S. Telecom Laws EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Cable confab abuzz over wireless * Verizon calls on Columbia U. to improve VoIP REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC chief proposes to ease rules on DSL * "Rewarding" Ebbers witness likely Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23402&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: stannc@gmail.com Subject: Re: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? Date: 27 Jul 2005 23:07:31 -0700 Copied from the OnStar website: Q. What different types of equipment do OnStar-equipped vehicles have? A. All OnStar-equipped vehicles have one of three types of equipment: Analog-Only: OnStar-equipped vehicles with analog-only equipment were designed to operate only on the analog wireless network and cannot be upgraded for digital network compatibility. Vehicles with this equipment will no longer be able to receive OnStar services beginning January 1, 2008. At that time, service will be available only through dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment. Analog-only vehicles cannot be upgraded to digital equipment. Analog/Digital-Ready: OnStar-equipped vehicles with analog/digital-ready equipment operate on the analog wireless network, but were designed to be upgraded to dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment when available for that vehicle. Beginning January 1, 2008, OnStar service will not be available on these vehicles unless the OnStar equipment has been upgraded to dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment. Dual-Mode (Analog/Digital): OnStar-equipped vehicles with dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment operate on both the analog and digital wireless networks and will not require an upgrade in connection with the wireless industry's transition to the digital network. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 23:20:39 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com John L. Shelton wrote: > When OnStar (from GM) was announced some years back, it was said to > operate on the analog cell phone network. GM claims that since 2004, > they started using Digital/Analog radios. So it seems there's a large > fleet of cars out there that will be crippled with the coming death of > analog cell phone service. I doubt that'll happen. Only the REQUIREMENT to maintain analog is going away. If OnStar is paying good money to certain cell carriers to provide analog, I'm pretty sure they'll continue providing it until OnStar migrates everyone to digital. Having said that, I don't know what the migration plans are. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: David L Subject: Re: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? Date: 27 Jul 2005 23:52:54 -0700 I wouldn't count on analog dying anytime too soon, until wireless providers provide some alternative network and build out to all that rural geography that is currently served by legacy analog equpment. GM was just short sighted (or cheap) when they limited Onstar installations to analog equipment. From what I understand, cellcos can turn off analog, IF they want too, after a certain date, but waking up one morning with the plug pulled is unlikely. Analog serves many small communities and rural stretches, especially out west, quite well. If it were easy and cheap to replace the analog towers in sparsely populated areas, it would have been done already. The city is a different matter. There are plenty of paying customers to pay for upgrades to the network. The FCC doesn't allow wireline companies to not provide rural dwellers with a dialtone just because the local phone carrier thinks it's too expensive to run a line to their home. If they try and drop analog a whole lot of rural customers are going to be left without service. This is a potentially dangerous situation. What good is an AGPS equipped digital handset, if it can't connect to a far off tower to make a call? Australia turned off analog and went CDMA . Apparently they used a lot of "boomer" type cell towers. As I see it, carriers don't want to spend the money to upgrade rural networks where the chance of recovering costs from high density traffic are non existant. I hope the rural cellular users/travellers get some protection against the bottom line, like the rural wireline subscibers have been. David Davlindi(AT)hotmail(DOT) com ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 08:00:23 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com John L. Shelton wrote: > When OnStar (from GM) was announced some years back, it was said to > operate on the analog cell phone network. GM claims that since 2004, > they started using Digital/Analog radios. So it seems there's a large > fleet of cars out there that will be crippled with the coming death of > analog cell phone service. Yep. But GM is offering a free upgrade if you sign a 3 year contract: Other manufacturers may be offering similar deals. Details at www.onstar.com Q8: If my GM vehicle is capable of being upgraded, what is the process for having upgrade equipment installed? A8: Digital upgrade kits are now available for some GM vehicles. Upgrades for these vehicles will be provided to OnStar subscribers at no charge with the purchase of a nonrefundable, 3-year OnStar subscription. To arrange for an upgrade or obtain more information on digital equipment upgrades, please contact your local GM dealership or call OnStar toll-free at 1.888.206.0031. Interestingly, OnStar units from before 2000 used a handset style cell phone and cannot be upgraded. ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: Analog Cell Phone Service - What About OnStar? Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 12:06:01 -0500 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@*newsguy.com On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:22:36 -0700, John L. Shelton wrote: > When OnStar (from GM) was announced some years back, it was said to > operate on the analog cell phone network. GM claims that since 2004, > they started using Digital/Analog radios. So it seems there's a large > fleet of cars out there that will be crippled with the coming death of > analog cell phone service. > John > john@jshelton.com Yes, many OnStar equiped vehicles will be crippled ... from OnStars website: INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VEHICLES WITH ONSTAR EQUIPMENT Since it was launched in 1996, OnStar has relied on an analog wireless network to provide communication to and from OnStar-equipped vehicles. Today, the analog network continues to provide the most extensive coverage across the United States and Canada. However, wireless carriers in the U.S. and Canada are in the process of transitioning their networks from analog to digital technology. In November 2002, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that wireless carriers will no longer be required to support the analog wireless network as of early 2008. As a result, beginning January 1, 2008, OnStar service in the U.S. and Canada will only be available through vehicles equipped with dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment. Q1. What different types of equipment do OnStar-equipped vehicles have? A1. All OnStar-equipped vehicles have one of three types of equipment: Analog-Only: OnStar-equipped vehicles with analog-only equipment were designed to operate only on the analog wireless network and cannot be upgraded for digital network compatibility. Vehicles with this equipment will no longer be able to receive OnStar services beginning January 1, 2008. At that time, service will be available only through dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment. Analog-only vehicles cannot be upgraded to digital equipment. Analog/Digital-Ready: OnStar-equipped vehicles with analog/digital- ready equipment operate on the analog wireless network, but were designed to be upgraded to dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment when available for that vehicle. Beginning January 1, 2008, OnStar service will not be available on these vehicles unless the OnStar equipment has been upgraded to dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment. Dual-Mode (Analog/Digital): OnStar-equipped vehicles with dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment operate on both the analog and digital wireless networks and will not require an upgrade in connection with the wireless industry's transition to the digital network. Q2. What kind of hardware does my OnStar-equipped vehicle have? A2. To determine the equipment type in an OnStar-equipped vehicle, you may: * Press the blue OnStar button in the vehicle and ask the OnStar Advisor to identify which equipment type was factory-installed in the vehicle. * Call OnStar toll-free at 1.888.206.0031, or to contact us online, click here. (Please have your OnStar account number or your vehicle identification number (VIN) available.) Q3. How does the transition to the digital network affect me right now? A3. You don't need to do anything at this time. Your OnStar equipment will function as it always has until January 1, 2008. The analog network still offers the most extensive coverage available in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, the FCC ruling requires wireless carriers to support the analog network until early 2008. Q4. Will I still be able to get an OnStar subscription after January 1, 2008? A4. OnStar service will be available to vehicles with dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment. If you currently have analog/digital-ready equipment, it will need to be upgraded to dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment to continue service as of January 1, 2008. (Refer to Question #7 for additional information.) If your vehicle has analog-only equipment, however, you will not be able to upgrade the equipment nor will your vehicle be able to receive OnStar service as of January 1, 2008. (Refer to question #2 to determine which type of equipment was factory-installed in your vehicle.) Q5. Will my OnStar-equipped vehicle's analog-only system still work after January 1, 2008? A5. No. As of early 2008, wireless carriers will no longer be required to support the analog network. As a result, beginning January 1, 2008, OnStar will offer all services, including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, only through dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment. Q6. Digital service has been around for a while - why does OnStar still utilize analog service? A6. When OnStar was launched in 1996, analog provided the most extensive and reliable wireless coverage available for nationwide service. Even today, analog continues to provide the widest range of coverage across the U.S. and Canada. Vehicle manufacturers are now producing most OnStar-equipped vehicles with dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment, and are expected to produce only dual-mode (analog/digital) OnStar-equipped vehicles by 2006. Q7. Will a digital upgrade program be available for subscribers with earlier versions of hardware? A7. Each vehicle manufacturer will determine whether it will offer an analog-to-digital transition plan for subscribers who have analog/digital-ready OnStar equipment and are interested in upgrading to digital equipment. To learn more, click here. Q8. Where do I go with questions about the FCC ruling that wireless carriers will no longer be required to support the analog network? A8. For more information about the FCC ruling, visit fcc.gov, or click here for a downloadable version of the ruling. For the latest information about the OnStar analog-to-digital transition plan, please continue to visit onstar.com/digital-transition. Q9. What is the FCC? A9. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a U.S. government agency charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The FCC's jurisdiction covers the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and U.S. possessions. Q10. How does the FCC ruling impact OnStar in Canada? A10. Since most Canadians live within driving distance of the U.S./Canadian border, OnStar needs to be able to provide the same service in both markets. The FCC ruling is a U.S. regulation, and no date has been set for ending analog service in Canadian provinces. However, wireless carriers in Canada have made the determination to follow suit and have begun their transition from analog to digital networks as well. Therefore, beginning January 1, 2008, OnStar services in the U.S. and Canada will only be available through dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment. Q11. What are wireless carriers? A11. The independent wireless communication companies that hold cellular broadcast licenses in various areas are called wireless carriers or wireless service providers. OnStar relies on a nationwide wireless network of these carriers to provide communication to and from all OnStar-equipped vehicles. Q12. What is analog? A12. Analog wireless service transmits voice on a continuous radio wave using frequency modulation similar to an FM radio, and operates in the 800 MHz frequency range. All 800 MHz analog systems operate under a common industry standard, known as Advanced Mobile Phone Services (AMPS). Q13. What is digital? A13. In a digital wireless system, voice is converted to a digital signal and then transmitted over air. Digital wireless service operates in both the 800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequency range. The three dominant systems in the U.S. and Canada are CDMA, GSM and TDMA. OnStar-equipped vehicles with dual-mode (analog/digital) hardware have been engineered to work in the 800 MHz frequency for analog or CDMA digital networks, in addition to the 1900 MHz CDMA digital networks. ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 04:04:43 -0400 >> Johnny Smith has a new digital cell phone, but he relies on an older >> analog bag phone when he travels the wide open spaces in the western >> part of the state to line up cattle for sale at a local livestock >> auction. > I understand the older 'bag phones' can send out a much stronger > signal. There are plenty of fringe reception areas even in > "developed" states all over the U.S. If one looks closely at a > carrier's map, they'll find lots of places with the different shade to > indicate no or limited service. That's probably always going to be true. There are very sparsely populated areas that it is not cost effective to provide service. Since cellular never incorporated (and probably never will) universal telephone service, what is the financial justification for doing it? None. > Clearly there is a need for such higher powered phones. True, but these phones become resource intensive after a certain amount of time. I'd go into the technical details, but most of the folks here are already clear on that point. They are just going to have to get something that is more current technology with a little more power. When I got the cellular installed in my current vehicle (which I bought nine years ago, by the way), I asked if they could install a digital unit. They said that none of the units that could be installed in cars were digital. As far as I know, there weren't any made. I tried to get one to replace it, but the cellular companies would only sell the little, hand held units. IMHO, the drawback to these units (since I primarily had mine in the car in case of breakdown, if there was an accident, or I witnessed a crime or something like that) is that when you really need them, it's a problem that you left it sitting on the kitchen table or on your desk at work. What good does it do you then? To that end, I prefered a unit that was permanently installed in my humble vehicle. But the cell companies don't provide that any more. My analog cellular is still in the car, but I discontinued service when the economy went to hell a few years back. Most carriers would not want to support it, I strongly suspect. If they do, I would wonder about them. > There are also those of us who have plain vanilla cell phones and > call-plans who have no need or desire for fancy phones or services. > Yet we are being pressured to spend our money to upgrade to stuff we > don't want by forced obsolescence. Forced obsolence is not done to make you buy new equipment. It's done to keep pace with the technology and get more subscribers in the same amount of bandwidth (resources). There are other reasons, but I won't go into them. It is a fact of life we can't get away from. > Years back GM got hammered by its "planned obsolescence" of > automobiles. At least an automobile would physically wear out and had > a limited life. Telephones, especially when not used often, don't > wear out. I don't agree with you there. I've had a bunch of telephones die on me and have to be replaced over a period of years. This is especially true with all the 'brand X' phones that are manufactured with the idea of getting your money by providing something that costs next to nothing to manufacture. For that reason, I now only go with good, name brand phones (and most other things). >> In rural areas where cellular towers are far apart, analog phones >> often work when digital models can't get a signal. With the Federal >> Communications Commission pushing the move to all-digital phone >> service across the country, Smith and others in rural areas are urging >> the agency to wait until more towers are built to improve service. > Why is the FCC pushing this? Is it really good for the country or > actually good for the carriers to make more money selling replacement > phones and fancier services and plans? It is good for conservation spectrum, reducing costs, increasing functionality, creating more competition, allowing the different companies to have more opportunities to identify a marketing niche, etc. and the list goes on and on. >> According to current timelines set up by the FCC, wireless companies >> can phase out analog service by 2008. > I get offers from my carrier to "upgrade" to digital. They'll sell me > a crappy phone and double my monthly charge and give me LESS than I > have now! Tell them you'll consider it if you get a phone that is a good, reliable name brand. And educate yourself as to what those name brands are. And make them give you a plan that is comparable to what you are currently paying. They want to get you off the old technology. If you are firm on that point, they should find a way to accomodate you. You might also consider buying it on an AMEX card as I believe AMEX extends the warranty on most purchases. And it gives you recourse in case of a dispute. Some years back, I bought a cell phone from AT&T (only because my employer required me to have it, I didn't want the thing for my own use). After about four months, a problem with the unit developed (I won't go into the problem as it's irrelevant to the point I am trying to make). I called AT&T about replacing it. The AT&T rep required me to read her the numbers (model and other numbers) from the unit. She told me that the unit was three years old and not under warranty. I told her that that was ridiculous because I had purchased it new from AT&T only four months before. I spoke to her supervisor and a number of other folks, but AT&T insisted the phone was three years old and they wouldn't replace it. I called AMEX and told them the story. They immediately credited my account for the full amount of the phone and I cancelled my service with AT&T. I demanded that AT&T waive the cancellation fee since I was canceling due to the fact that they were not honoring the warranty on my phone. Miraculously, they did let me cancel without a cancellation fee. Using a credit card that extends the warranty on your phone does have certain benefits. >> The National Emergency Number Association, whose aim is to implement a >> universal emergency telephone number system, opposes a blanket delay >> in the move to the new digital phones, said Rick Jones, director of >> operations issues for the organization. However, the group is also >> willing to consider requests for waivers by individual companies in >> areas where a delay might make sense, he said. > Who the heck are these people? That's a question I'd like to see answered myself. > So my cell phone won't pinpoint me. (Actually I kind of like that.) > But I'm pretty good with geography and know where I'm at. With the FCC mandates to incorporate this feature into all cell phones (for 911 use), you may not enjoy that forever. > [public replies please] You got it. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 03:40:34 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > I understand the older 'bag phones' can send out a much stronger > signal. There are plenty of fringe reception areas even in > "developed" states all over the U.S. If one looks closely at a > carrier's map, they'll find lots of places with the different shade to > indicate no or limited service. > Clearly there is a need for such higher powered phones. > There are also those of us who have plain vanilla cell phones and > call-plans who have no need or desire for fancy phones or services. > Yet we are being pressured to spend our money to upgrade to stuff we > don't want by forced obsolescence. Those analog "heavy iron" puppies, when in an area that requires step-up to the maximum of 3 watts became more broadcast units than cellular units. That analog, step-up concept was developed in the late 1970s as part of Bell Labs development of AMPS (advanced mobile phone service). Those folks were replacing an "ancient" broadcast VHF wireless telephone system with the technology available at the time. Had we not gone digital, the system would have been exhausted several years ago. As to Cingular I don't believe they have an analog fallback option in their system. It might be down to Verizon now and I suspect they have plans to cut away from that, but are being held back by GM's old analog-based OnStar system. The problem the cattle buyer has out in the boonies is the lack of demand for service. Small demand equals small investment in cell sites. What someone like that probably needs is to pony up the bucks to be on a commercial two-way system with lots of rural coverage, somewhat like the county mounties have in Big Sky country. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:56:11 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: [[.. munch ..]] > Why is the FCC pushing this? Is it really good for the country or > actually good for the carriers to make more money selling replacement > phones and fancier services and plans? RF 'spectrum' *is* a limited resource. Digital phones make _far_ more efficient use of that scarce resource than analog ones do. Being able to eventually 'turn off' the analog cell-phone system *completely*, makes it possible to reassign that spectrum to other uses. > I get offers from my carrier to "upgrade" to digital. They'll sell me > a crappy phone and double my monthly charge and give me LESS than I > have now! Has anybody *EVER* accused the phone company of having the customer's interests at heart? <*grin*> ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 23:30:35 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Our local Cingular Wireless agency here > in Independence tells me that all they are allowed to sell now for > use in the 620 area (that is, local service) are the newer GSM > phones. Only the newer phones meet two FCC requirements - -- The ability to handle Wireless Local Number Portability, meaning the phone actually has to have a number unique to the carrier in addition to the directory number. For example, I ported my 760-217-xxxx number from Verizon to Sprint last year. Before I ported, my Sprint phone had a temporary number in a Sprint exchange, 760-486-xxxx. After I ported, Sprint still associated that number with my phone's serial number, so that calls to me could be completed, but only for call routing purposes. 760-217-xxxx came through on other people's caller ID, and calls to my 217 number rang my phone. This past month I ported out again, to T-Mobile. Since I had InPhonic activate the phone and port my number at the same time, I have no idea what T-Mobile uses as the MSID (Mobile Station ID -- Sprint's 486 number in this example, the number the carrier uses to ID the phone for call routing purposes). But calls to my 217 number now ring my T-Mo phone. -- GPS capabilities, which are supposed to be used on calls to 911, although I'm not sure how many 911 call centers have upgraded to handle the GPS info. A couple carriers, Sprint and Nextel, are also offering location-based services that find you through GPS. Older analog-only phones don't have these capabilities. Nor do some older TDMA/analog phones. So since Cingular is now focusing on GSM, what you were told is essentially correct. > If a person _insists_ on having one of the older style phones > it has to be in the 316 Wichita area; 620 is now strictly GSM. Interesting. Are you talking about analog-only phones here? Some newer TDMA-only and TDMA/analog phones do have these capabilities and Cingular wouldn't get spanked by the Feds for allowing them to be used. None of the analog-only handsets have these features. It sounds like Wichita is still largely TDMA and Cingular has not completely migrated over to GSM there yet... This is not an issue with T-Mo; T-Mo has been GSM worldwide from the start, and the US carriers bought by Deutsche Telekom to form T-Mo USA were GSM-only. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 07:54:15 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Chet Brokaw wrote: > I understand the older 'bag phones' can send out a much stronger > signal. 3W for the bag phones vs 600mW for the small handsets. > Why is the FCC pushing this? Is it really good for the country or > actually good for the carriers to make more money selling replacement > phones and fancier services and plans? More efficient use of the limited spectrum. The cell carriers can pack 3 digital calls in the same bandwidth used by 1 analog call. This is a real issue in cities and urban areas. Wouldn't be a problem in the country if the carriers would fill out the holes, but whether they do that or not is yet to be seen. ------------------------------ From: harold@hallikainen.com Subject: Re: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By AllTel Date: 28 Jul 2005 08:17:12 -0700 Your local Public Utilities Commission can probably also help. With wireline, at least, you pay the disputed amount to the PUC and they investigate the situation. I've always gotten immediate response from telcos when the PUC comes knocking. Hopefully they have jurisdiction over cellular. Harold ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By AllTel Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 23:19:00 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Lots of good advice from Pat, but I have some additional info ... Donna Eakins wrote: > I just recently found out my husband's cell phone which was AT&T here > in TX Collin County area was switched over to Alltel without > notification. > We have contacted Alltel; the account number is not valid with > Alltel. They show no records of my husband being an AllTel customer > and have stated the charges are excessive. Well, the good thing about *that* is if they have no record of you, they won't try to collect the bill from you. Get that in writing! In reality, I suspect that might be rather difficult to do. > AT&T or Cingular is unwilling stating it is an Alltel problem. It'd be Cingular now -- AT&T Wireless no longer exists. And probably won't be resurrected per AT&T's original plans either. > If you have any contact info of someone we can contact would > appreciate it. Otherwise we just will not pay the bill. It will go to > collections. > We would rather not hurt our credit. But if that is what it takes we > will. Well, don't just ignore it. Pursue the issue with Alltel. Most of ATTWS went to Cingular, but large chunks of the Texas network, in particular, ended up bought by Alltel, probably due to anti-trust concerns. Alltel's headquarters are in Little Rock, Arkansas - I'd start there. http://www.alltel.com/contact_us.html General Correspondence Building 4 Fifth Floor One Allied Drive Little Rock, AR 72202-2099 I'd address it to the Legal Department, and perhaps give your attorney a copy. If you don't get any satisfaction from Alltel, try the Attorneys General in AR and TX. But don't let it sit. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you describe is a typical thing > since AT&T Wireless went out of business. Much of it went to Cingular > (for example, my AT&T Free to Go prepaid wound up with Cingular) but > I understand other accounts went wherever. I do not know what the > logic was behind that. Sure wasn't the FCC spectrum cap, which was eliminated a few years ago. I'm sure it was due to anti-trust concerns, since Cingular is owned in part by SBC and SBC has a huge presence in their home state (Texas). > Can AT&T tell you _why_ the account was sold to Alltel, and _why_ no > advance notice was given? No, because AT&T Wireless no longer exists. > Cingular Wireless/AT&T Free2Go > Attention: Management person > Post Office Box 68056 > Anaheim Hills, CA 92807 > > They have no phones there; no email nor fax, or so they claimed when > the India 'customer care' people refused to give me any number to > call. I think going after Alltel will be a better idea. Especially since the $1100 bill was from Alltel. Cingular has no control over the bills Alltel sends. Contacting the FCC if necessary might help, but try bugging Alltel first. But do make sure they know you'll escalate to the state Attorneys General and the FCC if necessary. Also, wireless phone service isn't regulated in MOST states, but is regulated in at least a few. Find out if the Texas Public Utilities Commission, Public Service Commission or equivalent regulates wireless phone service, and if so, they may be able to help you. > In your case my suggestion would be _make copies of all paperwork > Alltel sent you (the invoice for $1100 I assume) showing whatever > account number was assigned to you -- the number Alltel now claims > they do not recognize as an account of theirs -- and ask what is the > meaning of the thing. Send it registered mail. Registered mail with return receipt, so you know when they signed for it. Also be aware that mail sent first class with return receipt will cause the return receipt to be sent back in usually about a week or so, but if you use Express Mail you will get the receipt back a day or two after it's signed. (I say one or two because although Express Mail is normally guaranteed to arrive next day, there are some rural and semi-rural locations, like ZIP code 92307 -- my ZIP code -- where Express Mail is only guaranteed to arrive in two days.) > for whatever your usual bill should be. And _do not worry_ about the > very unlikely event your credit will be harmed any. Frankly put, that > just sounds like a collection bluff. But when all is said and done, and resolved, pull a credit report anyhow. You are now entitled to one free report per year - that was a law in certain states before, but it is now a *federal* law, with all US citizens being entitled to the free report. http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ If everything is fixed and they're still reporting stuff incorrectly to the credit bureau, you'll need to go after them to correct the information. And remember -- as a debtor, you DO HAVE RIGHTS. Hope this helps. Let us know how everything works out. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, meets "Moscow Rules" Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 23:31:11 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com panoptes@iquest.net wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes!! 'Clue' is the name of the game, >> either from Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley. A wonderful game which >> I still remember. PAT] > It's from Parker Brothers, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. > http://www.hasbro.com/clue/ Cool game. We have it here at the house and play it with the kids. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 04:08:32 -0400 > "Clue", perhaps? As in: 'The butler did it, with the ice-pick, in the > parlor. There was never a suspect in Clue named 'The Butler'. I seem to remember Professor Plum, Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, and a few others. But there was never one called 'The Butler'. And I seem to remember that the victim was someone named 'Mr. Boddy', not Dr. Black. Fred ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 11:30:51 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Paul Coxwell wrote: >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Does anyone remember the old parlor >>> game we used to play as kids? I think the name of the game was >>> 'Murder' >> "Clue", perhaps? As in: 'The butler did it, with the ice-pick, in the >> parlor. > "Clue" was sold in Britain by Waddington's under the name "Cluedo." I > used to have the game as a kid, and I think it's still available in > the stores. > The murdered owner was Dr. Black. The suspects were Colonel Mustard, > Rev. Green, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Miss Scarlett, and Mrs. > Peacock. The potential murder weapons were a dagger, a candlestick, a > rope, a revolver, a length of lead piping, and a spanner (wrench). I > know there were nine locations, including -- at least in the British > version -- a library, a study, a billiard room, and conservatory. There was one memorable day, with that game, where the cards got somewhat co-mingled. As a result, *all* of the 'valid' solutions got eliminated. Whereupon, checking the 'solution' cards, one found that "Col. Mustard did it, in the library, with Miss Scarlett". *grin* ------------------------------ Reply-To: hajiamariam001@sify.com From: hajia mariam Subject: Last Laugh! Your Tel/Mobile Numbers Needed Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 17:22:35 +0000 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: While dumping out one of several loads of trash this morning, this _important notice_ passed my line of view, and I thought it important to show you, so you could get your numbers ready to be given to to Ms. Mariam. PAT] ================================== Dear Beloved in Christ, Due to the sudden death of my husband General Abacha the former head of state of Nigeria in June 1998, I have been thrown into a state of hopelessness by the present administration.I have lost confidence with anybody within my country. I got your contacts through personal research, and had to reach you through this medium. I will give you more details when you reply. Due to security network placed on my daily affairs I cant visit the embassy so that is why I have contacted you. My husband deposited $12.6million dollars with a security firm abroad whose name is witheld for now till we communicate. I will be happy if you can receive this funds and keep it safe I assure you 20% of this fund. I will need your tel/ fax numbers so that we can commence communication. Please reach me via my private email address: hajiamariam001@sify.com Please expedite action. Yours, Hajia Mariam [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I never realized I had so many friends and was Beloved in Christ to so many Nigerian people. 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: 620-402-0134 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. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #342 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 29 00:14:20 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 33A5B14F43; Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:14:20 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #343 Message-Id: <20050729041420.33A5B14F43@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:14:20 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.5 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: R TELECOM Digest Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:13:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 343 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Beware of Phanton Stock Regulators With Internet Scams (Reuters News) Elderly Americans Hurt by Internet Scams (Reuters News Wire) Senator Unveils Bill to Helping SBC, Other Telcos (Reuters NewWire) Google Says Microsoft Lawsuit is Nothing But Charade (Eliz Gillespie) Credit Reports, was Re: AT&T Customers Taken By AllTel (Danny Burstein) Bell Canada Cell Scam? (retrosorter) Re: Regarding Local Government Offering Wireless ISP (AES) Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones (Joseph) 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: Reuters News Wire Subject: Beware of Phantom Stock Regulators on Net, Officials Warn Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 22:22:29 -0500 Con artists are setting up Web sites for fake U.S. regulatory agencies to lure stock investors, many from overseas, into fraudulent transactions, officials from New Jersey to Montana warned on Thursday. These "phantom regulators" -- with names like the International Compliance Commission and the Securities Protection Agency -- have been brought to the attention of actual regulators, the officials said. "The U.S. securities markets are known around the world for being among the safest ... Con artists are trying to cash in on our good name abroad to lure unsuspecting investors into risky penny stocks and advance fee schemes," said New Jersey Securities Bureau Chief Franklin Widmann. For instance, investors in Britain, Australia and New Zealand were targeted by a company called Royal Acquisitions Inc., which offered to buy shares of worthless stock, but asked for an upfront fee, officials said. To make their pitch more convincing, Royal Acquisitions referred investors to a Web site for the "International Securities Regulatory Commission," said regulators in Montana, where the company and the commission were purportedly based. There is no Royal Acquisitions or International Securities Regulatory Commission doing business in Montana, the Montana Securities Department said. "We continue to get e-mails regularly from investors around the world asking about the legitimacy of Royal Acquisitions and the International Securities Regulatory Commission," said Karen Powell, deputy Montana securities commissioner. This month the Missouri securities commissioner issued an order against the "Securities Compliance Department," which claims to be a regulator based in Kansas City. Missouri officials said the case involved an Australian woman who was bilked out of $121,000 by a group called Century Group Mergers and Acquisitions. The woman said a man telephoned her claiming to be from the Securities Compliance Department and asked her to send more money. In Massachusetts, state regulators said they have filed a complaint against RJL International Ltd., after receiving numerous complaints from overseas investors. RJL agents were contacting investors and offering to buy their shares for up to 200 times the market price, but asking for an advance fee, state officials said. "At least one investor submitted $19,000 to RJL, after which all communications with the firm ceased," said the Massachusetts Securities Division in a statement. Rather than using a Web site, RJL encouraged reluctant investors to telephone the "International Public Shareholder Protection Service," an entity that does not exist, officials said. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Elderly Americans Lose Millions in Internet Scams Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:24:29 -0500 Scams involving Internet auctions, as well as identity theft, lotteries, prizes and sweepstakes, top the list of fraud complaints by older Americans, who lost $152 million to con artists last year, U.S. officials told a Senate panel on Wednesday. Internet-based scams are growing and now account for about 41 percent of fraud complaints the Federal Trade Commission receives from people over 50, Lois Greisman of the FTC's consumer protection division told the Senate Committee on Aging. "This figure is all the more dramatic when one considers that Internet-related fraud represented only 33 percent of all fraud complaints from this age group in 2002," she said. Older consumers reported being defrauded of more than $43 million last year through Internet scams, with on-line auctions topping the complaint list, she said. But more old-fashioned scams continue to take their toll. Lottery and sweepstakes frauds, in which victims are asked to pay "taxes" or other fees to claim prizes, cost older Americans $35 million last year, Greisman said. People over 70 are particular targets of that kind of scam, she added. Another popular scam involves fake credit card protection or discount drug services, she said. Others involve scam artists saying they need bank account information for Social Security or Medicare benefits. "What is most disturbing is that these scams routinely top the FTC's annual list of consumer frauds in the nation," said Sen. Gordon Smith (news, bio, voting record), an Oregon Republican who chairs the Senate Aging Committee. "It seems that even though we are aware of their use, scam artists remain successful in pitching old scams to new victims, perpetuating a cycle of victimization." Anthony Pratkanis, a psychology professor at the University of California who has been on a team of researchers examining elderly fraud, said con artists steal using the weapon of "social influence" to create a sense of trust rather than a gun or knife. Research shows that not just the "frail and lonely" fall victim to scams, he said. Active people who are leaders in their communities can also fall prey. "We find that con criminals profile their victims' psychological and other characteristics to find their Achilles' heel ... to construct the exact pitch that is likely to be most effective," he said. In one example, con artists told a potential victim that to ask questions or hang up the phone while they were trying to verify account information was against the law. Pratkanis said his research group was developing tools to help the elderly defend themselves against fraudulent pitches. U.S. Postal Service inspector Zane Hill said scam artists know that many elderly people feel isolated and a telephone call from anyone is welcomed. "Experienced con artists understand elderly citizens' vulnerabilities and know what buttons to push when they have them on the telephone," he said. ((CONGRESS-SCAMS, editing by Americas Desk; Washington Newsroom, 202 898 8300) Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Senator Unveils Bill to Aid SBC, Other Telcos Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:27:10 -0500 Legislation aiding telephone companies in their efforts to provide video and other high-speed data services was proposed on Wednesday by Sen. John Ensign, who claimed his goal is to boost competition. Ensign, a Nevada Republican and chairman of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on technology, innovation and competitiveness, called his 72-page bill a starting point as Congress considers overhauling the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which aimed to promote competition in voice services. "Changes in technology necessitate that we update these rules if America is going to be competitive in the face of global competition," he told reporters. Cable and telephone companies are battling to expand their profits by signing up as many customers as possible for a suite of communications and entertainment services but the Bells have complained they are at a disadvantage. Ensign pointed out that the United States has slipped to as low as 16th in the rankings for deploying high-speed Internet service, called broadband. He also said consumers are hungry for more choice in communications and entertainment. Under the bill, companies that want to offer video services would no longer have to get permission from local or state officials, a boon to companies like Verizon Communications and SBC Communications Inc. which are rolling out video. The measure would also eliminate in 2011 requirements that the four big local telephone companies, known as the Baby Bells and including Verizon and SBC, resell their phone service to other competitors at regulated rates or make parts of their existing copper networks available to competitors. The Bells argue they must abide by laws for traditional phone service, slowing the deployment of broadband services, and that they could be required to obtain permission from thousands of local authorities to offer video. "This will provide much needed clarity as SBC invests in next-generation broadband services," said Tim McKone, senior vice president for federal relations at SBC, the No. 2 U.S. telephone carrier. Ensign said he would now begin seeking the support of other lawmakers for his measure, but gave no timetable for moving the legislation forward. Analysts have said the chances of passing a bill this year were slim. However, not all were quick to embrace the bill. Sen. John Kerry, a senior Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee from Massachusetts, said that while he had not read the entire bill, he had some concerns. "It does conflict with a few of the views I espouse," he told reporters, without elaborating. Ensign's measure would prevent companies from limiting where consumers surf on the Internet as well as ensure Internet phone service cannot be blocked by broadband providers. Local and state authorities would still be able to collect up to 5 percent of gross revenue from pay television services and local governments could continue managing rights of ways. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Elizabeth M. Gillespie Subject: Google Says Microsoft Lawsuit is Nothing But a Charade Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:32:27 -0500 By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE, Associated Press Writer In a simmering legal tussle, Google Inc. is asking a judge to reject Microsoft's bid to keep a prized research engineer from taking a job at the Internet search company, saying the software titan filed its lawsuit to frighten other workers from defecting, or making trouble. Microsoft Corp. sued Kai-Fu Lee, one of its former executives, and Google last week, claiming that by taking the Google job, Lee was violating an agreement he signed in 2000 barring him from working for a direct competitor in an area that overlapped with his role at Microsoft. "This lawsuit is a charade," Google said in court documents filed before a Wednesday hearing in Seattle. "Indeed, Microsoft executives admitted to Lee that their real intent was to scare other Microsoft employees into remaining at the company." Google countersued last week, seeking to override Microsoft's noncompete provision so it can retain Lee. "In truth, Kai-Fu Lee's work for Microsoft had only the most tangential connection to search and no connection whatsoever to Google's work in this space," the Mountain View, Calif.based company said in court documents. Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez heard arguments in the case in Seattle on Wednesday, and said he expects to issue a ruling Thursday. Google's filings include details about a conversation Lee had with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, suggesting that the software company is becoming increasingly concerned about Google siphoning away talent -- and perhaps intellectual property. In a July 15 meeting, Lee said, Gates told him, "Kai-Fu, (CEO) Steve (Ballmer) is definitely going to sue you and Google over this. He has been looking for something like this, someone at a VP level to go to Google. We have to stop Google before this gets worse." Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake declined to comment on Gates' statement directly. "Our concern here is the fact that Dr. Lee has knowledge of highly sensitive information both of our search business and our strategy in China," she said. Lee claims that Google didn't recruit him and has not encouraged him to violate any agreement he had with Microsoft. Microsoft counters that Lee's job with Google gives him ample opportunity to leak sensitive technical and strategic business secrets. Microsoft noted that Lee attended a confidential, executive-only briefing in March, dubbed "The Google Challenge." "In short, Dr. Lee was recently handed Microsoft's entire Google competition 'playbook,'" Microsoft said. Lee joined Microsoft in August 2000, after he helped establish the company's research center in China. At one point, Microsoft said, he was in charge of the company's work on MSN Search. Microsoft and Google, along with Yahoo Inc. are locked in a fierce battle to dominate search, both online and through desktop search programs. Google has begun offering new services, including e-mail, that compete with Microsoft offerings. Microsoft said it paid Lee well in exchange for his promises to honor confidentiality and noncompete agreements. The company said Lee made more than $3 million during nearly five years in Redmond, and that he earned more than $1 million last year. Microsoft claims there is "an extremely close nexus" between the work Lee did at Microsoft and what he will be doing at Google. Google argued otherwise, insisting that Lee is not a search expert and noting that his most recent work at Microsoft was in speech recognition. On the Net: Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com Google: http://www.google.com Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Listen to Associated Press News Radio and view stories at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html . ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Credit Reports, was: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By AllTel Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 19:29:33 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Steve Sobol writes: [ snip, snip, snip. Go out and buy the book already ] > But when all is said and done, and resolved, pull a credit report > anyhow. You are now entitled to one free report per year - that was a > law in certain states before, but it is now a *federal* law, with all > US citizens being entitled to the free report. Pretty close, but not quite yet. Soon ... The Feds mandated free access, but on a sliding map. It started with the west coast Dec 2004 and is making its way across to the Atlantic. Most of the US is already covered, but the east coasters have to wait until September, 2005. > http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ and ... http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ycr_free_reports.htm _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But by the time the original party refuses to pay the thousand dollars, gets placed with an agency (if that happens, which I doubt) we will be around to September already. Anyway, she is from Texas, I do not know if that is east coast or west coast for the purpose of when credit bureau files will be available or not. PAT] ------------------------------ From: retrosorter Subject: Bell Canada Cell Scam? Date: 28 Jul 2005 16:26:07 -0700 I know many people who bought Bell cell phones in Canada and found out months later that they were charged for browser costs of several hundred dollars that they had inadvertently accessed that and they didn't even know they possesses these features. Is this some sort of scam? None of these people say they wanted any browswer features and claim they were not informed by salespeople when they bought their phones that the feature existed and could be inadvertently accessed. Shouldn't Bell, or any cellular company, be obliged to tell consumers that this could happen? I know it is detailed in the documentation but for me this is not adequate consumer protection. Any thoughts? ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Regarding Local Government Offering Wireless ISP Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:27:16 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , John L. Shelton wrote: > I sent the following letter to Newsweek magazine after they posted an > editorial in favor of letting local government offer wireless Internet > access: > In your 2005, July 18 issue, Steven Levy wrote "Pulling the Plug on > Local Internet." > Mr. Levy suggests that it is right for cities to offer competitive > Internet services, perhaps because they can offer lower-cost options, > and don't "focus excessively on the affluent." . . . . > Government has no business making rules that it applies to others, > then "competing" in the same market. If a local government wants to > establish an independent competitive entity, it should bow out of > regulation. If it wants to regulate, then it shouldn't play. . . . . > Our cities will best be served by open competition in all areas -- > phone, TV, Internet, and others. . . . . What "internet services" are these cities proposing to offer, exactly? If it's things like email services, file storage, programming, remote computing, other "data processing" services, then there may be some merit to your argument. But if it's just _access_ -- that is, just a raw connection to the internet, which residents can then use to communicate with and purchase services from any other host on the internet, then I have to express violent disagreement with you. The Internet is, truly, the "information highway" of today, with all the basic characteristics of any other highway. It's basic infrastructure, a vitally important basic component of modern society, just like ordinary roads, highways, bridges and tunnels. (And as an aside, that's essentially all that Al Gore ever said, and he was absolutely right.) Governments have always built roads and highways, including local roads that connect to the interstate highway system; and there's no reason they shouldn't build local electronic roads to connect my house and others to the Internet information highway -- in fact, there's every reason they should do so. (And conversely, if any phone, cable or fiber company is going to be given a franchise to lay cables or fibers over public right of ways in my city in order to connect to my house and others in order to provide electronic services, it should be an absolutely basic requirement that these companies allow me to purchase from them, at a fair and minimal rate, nothing but connection rights over those cables or fibers to the Internet, without my having to purchase _any_ other services from them. (And, in any decent society, these companies should be required to provide these services at the same cost to any reasonable location in the city -- not just cherry pick the high commercial value areas.) Or is it your view that private companies should be able to build private toll roads to anywhere they want in a city or state -- and that in fact, cities should be banned from building public roads that would compete with such private toll roads in any locations where companies might want to build such private toll roads? Conversely,. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The message from Mr. Siegman stopped at this point, sort of an illogical stopping place with the word 'conversely' as though he intended to say more. What you see above is what I got here. AES, did you get prematurely aborted somehow? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 17:38:40 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 03:40:34 -0700, Tim@Backhome.org wrote: > As to Cingular I don't believe they have an analog fallback option in > their system. It might be down to Verizon now and I suspect they have > plans to cut away from that, but are being held back by GM's old > analog-based OnStar system. Cingular most certainly does have analog AMPS in the areas that they had TDMA/AMPS or in the areas that they acquired by acquiring AT&T Wireless. The only areas where Cingular didn't originally have AMPS analog backup were the areas such as California/Nevada and the Carolinas which were GSM from the outset. That's moot anyway since Cingular absorbed AT&T Wireless and the systems that they used. AT&T Wireless used all three technologies AMPS analog, TDMA (IS-136) and GSM. Cingular of course is making every effort to transition all to the "orange" side (original Cingular) and to make the "blue" side (originally AT&T Wireless) to have all customers eventually be on the orange side. Cingular and the former AT&T Wireless (now Cingular blue) both use TDMA IS-136 and AMPS analog in addition to GSM. ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #343 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 29 02:45:30 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 4620E14ED5; Fri, 29 Jul 2005 02:45:30 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #344 Message-Id: <20050729064530.4620E14ED5@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 02:45:30 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.0 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, URG_BIZ autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 29 Jul 2005 02:46:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 344 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Norvergence Forfeits $47 Million to FTC (Consumer.com News) Massive AT&T Internet Service Failure in Five States (AP News Wire) Court Bars Executive From Google Employment (Elizabeth Gillespie) Google Mapping: Taking Browsers to the Limit (Renai LeMay) Emergency Alerts Coming to Your Cell Phone (Lesley McCullough) Re: Credit Reports, was Re: AT&T Customers Taken Over By AllTel (Sobol) Last Laugh! Scamming the 419 Scammers (Aunty Spammer) 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: Consumer News Subject: Norvergence Forfeits $47 Million to FTC Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:42:54 -0500 Norvergence Forfeits $47 Million In FTC Settlement Consumers Billed for Worthless Telecom Services The Federal District Court in Newark, New Jersey, has entered a final default judgment against NorVergence, Inc., that will immediately result in the cancellation of 1,600 contracts with the company valued at more than $47 million. The judgment is the result of a November 2004 Federal Trade Commission complaint charging NorVergence with defrauding consumers through misleading claims that it would provide them with dramatic savings on their monthly telephone, cellular, and Internet bills. The court found that consumers signed a set of applications and agreements with a total price equal to the promised monthly payments over five years. Most of the total payments were allocated to rental agreements for a "Matrix" or "Matrix Soho" device that supposedly would provide the promised costs savings. In reality, the Matrix was just a standard integrated access device (IAD), commonly used to connect telephone equipment to a long-distance provider's lines. The Matrix Soho was essentially a firewall. The Matrix boxes cost between $200 and $1,550. The total cost to the consumer was $7,000 to $340,000, with an average cost of $29,291. The price of the rental agreement had nothing to do with the cost of the Matrix, which itself was an incidental part of the promised services. NorVergence had an estimated 9,400 Matrix rental agreements totaling over $275 million. Other than the 1,600 contracts cancelled by this judgment, NorVergence sold its rental agreements shortly after they were signed to over 40 finance companies for cash. These sold contracts are not immediately affected by the default judgment. An unknown minority of these contracts were sold to finance companies for only a part of their typical five-year term. The default judgment makes these contracts void and unenforceable as of the end of the partial term when they are due to come back to NorVergence. The court also found that NorVergence failed to tell consumers that it did not have a long-term commitment from any service provider for the services it was promising to provide. NorVergence also failed to tell consumers that the Matrix boxes covered by the rental agreement would be of little or no value to them if NorVergence failed to provide the promised telecommunications services. Finally, the court found that NorVergence had furnished the finance companies who purchased its contracts with the means and instrumental- ities to commit deceptive and unfair acts or practices violating the FTC Act. It provided those finance companies with rental agreements that allowed the finance companies to: 1) misrepresent that consumers owe money on the rental agreements, regardless of whether NorVergence provided the promised telecommunications services; and 2) file collection suits against consumers in courts far from where the consumers are located. The FTC worked cooperatively on this matter with various state attorney generals' offices, which also have investigated NorVergence's business practices. More than 20 states also have reached settlements with some of the finance companies that purchased and are collecting on NorVergence rental agreements. Consumers in these states should contact their attorney general directly for further information on the state settlements. The states include: New Jersey, New York, Florida, Massachusetts, Illinois, California, Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware, Georgia, Connecticut, Kansas, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia. Copyright 2003-2005 ConsumerAffairs.Com Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Consumer Affairs.com. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: AP Newswire Subject: Massive AT&T Internet Service Failure in Five States Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:36:16 -0500 Subscribers to AT&T Corp.'s DSL Internet service in five Western states lost their connections for several hours Thursday after the telecommunications company experienced a problem with equipment that routes data over its network. The service went down about 6 a.m. PDT, and about 50 percent of customers were restored by Thursday evening, said AT&T spokesman Andy Backover. The company confirmed homes and businesses in California and four other Western states were affected, but it would not provide the total number of subscribers who lost service or name the other states. Backover said AT&T received more than 2,000 reports of trouble. "We're working as hard as we can to restore the service," he said. "We're very apologetic to any customers who were inconvenienced." Backover added the problem stemmed from a problematic router that's been identified and was being repaired. But he did not know when all affected customers would be restored. The outage affected only customers of digital subscriber line, or DSL, service, and not other portions of the network for T1 service and other Internet backbone functions that AT&T maintains. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Elizabeth M. Gillespie Subject: Ex-Microsoft Exec Barred From Googe Job Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:29:02 -0500 By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE, Associated Press Writer A former Microsoft Corp. executive who defected to Google Inc. cannot immediately perform the job Google hired him to do, a judge ruled Thursday, saying Microsoft has a well-grounded fear that leaked trade secrets could hurt its business. Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez granted a temporary restraining order barring Kai-Fu Lee from working at Google on any product, service or project similar to those he worked on at Microsoft, including Internet and desktop search technology. Google, which hired Lee to lead a research and development center it will soon open in China, asked for a more specific list of tasks Lee can and cannot perform. Microsoft agreed to provide the court with a recommended list by Monday. In a statement e-mailed after the ruling, Google lawyer Nicole Wong called the judge's decision "only a temporary measure to maintain the status quo and to give the court more time to fully consider the parties' positions. "We are confident that once the judge has done so he will side with Google and Dr. Lee. Microsoft will not prevail in their intimidation campaign." Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said the ruling would stand until Sept. 6, the date Gonzalez set for a hearing on a motion for a preliminary injunction that could make the restrictions on Lee's work at Google last until the case goes to trial. "We felt we needed to take this step to protect our sensitive business information and to ensure that Google and Dr. Lee honor the confidentiality and noncompetition agreements he made when he started working here," Drake said. Gonzalez set the trial for Jan. 9. Microsoft sued Lee and Google last week, claiming that by taking the Google job, Lee was violating an agreement he signed in 2000, barring him from working for a direct competitor in an area that overlapped with his roles at Microsoft. Lee and Google, which countersued, say he is not a search expert and that he had only limited involvement in Microsoft's China operations since 2000, the year he signed the agreements at the heart of the dispute. Most recently a vice president working on speech recognition in Microsoft's server and tools division, Lee headed up the creation of the company's research center in Beijing in the late 1990s and later worked in the MSN search unit. Microsoft said it paid Lee handsomely and would not have hired him if he had not promised to honor confidentiality and noncompetition agreements. The company said Lee made more than $3 million over nearly five years, and that he earned more than $1 million last year. Google claims that Lee has not disclosed any Microsoft secrets, and that it has repeatedly told Lee not to betray Microsoft's confidence. In court documents, Google said a conversation Lee had with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates suggests that the software company is becoming increasingly concerned about Google siphoning away talent - and perhaps intellectual property. In a July 15 meeting, Lee said, Gates told him, "Kai-Fu, (CEO) Steve (Ballmer) is definitely going to sue you and Google over this. He has been looking for something like this, someone at a VP level to go to Google. We need to do this to stop Google." Drake earlier declined to comment on Gates' statement directly, saying that the company's concern is that Lee has knowledge of highly sensitive information. Microsoft and Google, along with Yahoo Inc., are locked in a fierce battle to dominate Internet search technology, both online and through desktop search programs. Google has launched new services, including e-mail, that compete with Microsoft offerings. Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com Google: http://www.google.com Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Renai LeMay Subject: Google Mapper: Take Browsers to the Limit Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:30:50 -0500 http://www.news.com/ By Renai LeMay http://news.com.com/Google+mapper+Take+browsers+to+the+limit/2100-1038_3-5808658.html SYDNEY -- The only way to transform the Web into the desktop platform of the future is to fully embrace bleeding-edge features in browser software. This advice came from the lead engineer of the Google Maps project, Lars Rasmussen. Speaking at a conference on Web engineering here, Rasmussen cited Google Maps' use of the XSL+ (Extensible Stylesheet Language) standard and Microsoft's Vector Markup Language, which he said were useful technologies seldom used by Web developers. Both are supported only by certain browsers. If a Web application takes advantage of the best technologies a user's browser can offer, then "each individual gets the sexiest experience in their browser," he said. "Go beyond browsers' lowest common denominator," he advised developers. For example, Maps can command Internet Explorer to use VML (Vector Markup Language) to display a blue line between geographical points, but use the PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format and a linear description for the Firefox browser. The Sydney-based developer said the release of Maps created a critical mass of interest from the programming community in the development of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) applications, or Web applications with sophisticated graphics. "Google Maps was originally a C++ app intended to be downloaded separately," he recalled, harking back to the days before the acquisition of his start-up company, Where 2 Technologies, by Google last October. However, that changed when Rasmussen and his colleagues--looking for some venture capital -- pitched their mapping expertise to Google. At that point, the team changed their development model and started focusing on the Web instead. "We were surprised by the things you could do in a Web browser," he said. First, the Web allows rapid deployment and there is no software for users to install. It's also much easier to make sure code runs on multiple browsers compared with multiple operating systems like Mac OS X and Windows. The downside is that browsers don't give programmers full access to a computer's resources such as memory, process power and hard disk space. This is a bottleneck the engineer sees being removed in future, although he thinks the simplicity of the current Web-browsing experience needs to be maintained. As such, Rasmussen remains disappointed with Google Earth, which is similar to Maps but utilizes three-dimensional modeling and has to be downloaded before use. "Much as we have tried, we haven't been able to do this in JavaScript," he said, expressing hope that Google Earth and Maps would eventually be merged into one Web application. According to Rasmussen, Google is looking for Web mapping experts to beef up its Sydney office. The primary driver to obtaining resources is somewhat unique at Google -- the bottom line is whether users will find its projects useful or otherwise, Rasmussen said. In addition, the company will not shy away from releasing unfinished products to its user base, who in turn provide valuable feedback -- when Maps first launched, it received 5,000 e-mails a day. Recalling an incident which took place early in his career at Google, Rasmussen said one day he was unexpectedly summoned into a meeting with the company's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and other executives. "I was preparing my defense," he said, for fear the immaturity of his project would come under fire. Instead, Page told him Maps worked well enough to launch immediately. Working for Google has other advantages, he said, adding that when a bug that caused Maps to malfunction with the Firefox browser was discovered, "we called up the Firefox (lead engineer) the weekend before launch, and he came around and plugged in his debugging code." While interest in the Maps project has always been relatively strong, the engineer said it skyrocketed when satellite imagery was added. Web traffic levels increased overnight by a factor of 10 to 15 times, Rasmussen said. Although life at Google is good, it's not always predictable. The company's moon mapping service -- which launched on the anniversary of the original moon landing -- turned out to be partly a practical joke on Rasmussen. "I was getting all these congratulatory e-mails and I didn't know what the heck was going on," he said, noting Moon was developed in the U.S. One e-mail was from a friend of astronaut Neil Armstrong, who apparently appreciated the software. Ultimately the engineer is extremely enthusiastic about his project, which has in recent times seen a myriad of third-party programmers use its now-public programming interfaces to add external functionality. Even Microsoft's competing Virtual Earth product -- released this week -- was praised by Rasmussen. "It's quite good," he grudgingly admitted. Renai LeMay of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney. Copyright 1995-2005 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, CNET Networks, Inc. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lesley K. McCullough Subject: Emergency Alerts: Coming to Your Cell Phone? Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:40:52 -0500 Feds consider a system to deliver warnings to the public via text messages. Lesley K. McCullough, Medill News Service WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Emergency alerts may soon be delivered by more than just your television set or old-fashioned radio: The federal government is considering alerting you via text message should a possible natural disaster or terrorist attack directly affect your area. The Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Prevention and Prediction met this week on Capitol Hill to discuss creating a national, integrated all-hazards alert system that uses digital technology to efficiently send public warnings to Americans. In case of a national emergency or natural disaster, the president already can communicate with the nation through the Emergency Alert System (EAS). However, during the last five decades the system has been in place, a national alert has never been fully activated --not even during the September 11 terrorist attacks. The current system, developed in the Cold War era, can transmit messages only to radios and televisions and is simply outdated, says Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chair of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee. "It was a good system in its time, but I don't know many people that carry radios around in their pockets anymore," Stevens says. "Therefore, we need to be able to communicate with people on their cell phones and BlackBerries." The technology to deliver alerts to your PC or handheld device exists, but EAS primarily works at the state and local level to disperse regional messages, including AMBER alerts, hazardous-material incidents, and severe-weather warnings, Reynold Hoover, director of the office of National Security Coordination within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told the committee. A national scheme must integrate the various regional systems and technologies in which municipalities have already invested millions of dollars across the country. Legislation Needed "A public-warning interoperability solution will not be achieved by the federal government purchasing a new national emergency alert network or buying a software application," said Richard Taylor, testifying on behalf of the National Emergency Alerting and Response System Initiative. "We need standards for interfacing existing programs." Hoover echoed that sentiment. "We need legislation to tell us exactly what the integration policy will be," he said. Noting that the threat of future terrorist attacks still looms, subcommittee chair Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) said government should play an important role in the creation of a national alert system. "The system is too important to the nation not to get it right," DeMint said. The federal government is still exploring options. Hoover said FEMA is planning to test a Geo-Targeted Alerting System that uses reverse 911 technologies to provide specific and targeted warnings to individual households and businesses, such as warning of an impending tornado. Once the infrastructure is in place and integration methods are resolved, Hoover said, FEMA may offer a consumer opt-in system; people could log on to a designated Web site and sign up for the types of alert messages they want to receive. But because the system is still in an early stage, he said, it is unclear what the cost, if any, would be to consumers. While an exact timeline for national implementation of an all-hazards alert system is still unknown, Hoover said FEMA should know more from the pilot studies next year. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Credit Reports, was: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By AllTel Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 22:12:27 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Danny Burstein wrote: > Most of the US is already covered, but the east coasters have to wait > until September, 2005. Correct, and thanks for the correction. I caught that after going to annualcreditreport.com *after* I posted. I thought the deadline had passed already. The original poster, however, is in Texas, so they're already eligible. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But by the time the original party > refuses to pay the thousand dollars, gets placed with an agency (if > that happens, which I doubt) we will be around to September already. That's true too. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: Aunty Spam's Net Patrol Subject: Last Laugh! Scamming the 419 Scammers Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:46:28 -0500 Scam Baiting for Fun and ... Well, Just for Fun Aunty Spam's Net Patrol Spam, spyware, spoofing, security breaches, and other Internet nasties. Aunty Spam's Net Patrol gives you up-to-the minute reporting, along with a healthy dose of editorial commentary and pithy, witty remarks. Scam baiting -- the act of leading scammers on a wild goose chase -- has been raised to a new art form with the advent of the Internet, and Internet scammers. And none more so (or more deservingly) than the so-called 419 scammers. You know the ones: "I am Mariam Abacha.", and someone has always died with a lot of money hidden away, and they want you to help them get the money out of the country. But first you have to send them some earnest money. While some do it on their own, for the sheer joy of baiting a scammer, groups and even complete websites have sprung up, all dedicated to scamming 419 scammers. And unlike the controversial Mugu Marauder, which encourages untargeted users to churn bandwidth of websites which may themselves be innocent, the individuals involved with the 419 scam baiting sites are responding directly to 419 scammers who have targeted them. One of the more prolific, and certainly amusing, sites is the 419 Eater site. http://419Eater.com The 419 Eater site starts out with this warning: "Please remember that these people are CRIMINALS and should be treated as such. Under no circumstances must you enter into any communications with these people unless you feel you are adequately prepared to deal with them." Good advice, that. Clearly the people running 419 Eater feel adequately prepared, and indeed they seem to be. The 419 Eaters regularly send their pet 419 scammers on goose chases which involve filling out and returning bogus forms (" the bank said you must first fill out a Money Laundering and Fraud Suppression Certificate"), and even taking and returning photos of their scammy selves holding up hand-lettered signs for the camera ("Ohwa Tafu Kwit Iam"). Ok, so maybe it isn't getting these guys arrested, but hey, it's keeping them busy, and exposing them (in more ways than one!) And it's darned funny. Check out 419 Eater at http://419Eater.com. Every once in a while you have to just laugh at the 419 scammers who abound on the Internet. Ok, maybe twice in a while, as we all just had a good laugh looking at the pictures at the 419 Eater website. Anyways, a colleague, after reading about the 419 Eater site, sent Aunty the link to another scam slamming site, "Urgent & Confidential: Dean Cameron's Nigerian Spam Scam Scam" web site, at SpamScamScam.com. Dean, it seems, has not only honed the art of baiting scammers, but has in fact turned his art into . well . art. Not surprising, really, as Dean is an accomplished and oft-employed actor -- you may best remember him from Summer School, Ski School, or Rockula. No? Well, maybe not -- then take Aunty's word for it. He's also appeared on Will & Grace, and in Mad About You. In any event, Dean Cameron has put together a live multi-media show based on his own experiences in baiting a 419 scammer, in which he "assumed the identity of a sexually confused Florida millionaire, whose only companions are his houseboy and cats, and began a 9 month correspondence with the scammer," explains the web site. The show is based on the actual correspondence between Dean and his scammer, all of which is available on Cameron's website. But the thing to which I most want to direct your attention is actually Dean 's Scam-o-Matic 419 scam letter generator. It's a Mad Libs-style form -- it asks you for nouns (a bunch of them), adjectives, and numbers, and then when you press "submit" it spits out a 419 letter to rival the best -- only much funnier. In fact, generally, this is a very funny site, by a very funny man. Except for his guacamole, which is decidedly unfunny. I mean, who puts sour cream in their guacamole? Yuck! You can play with Dean's Scam-o-Matic here; Cameron's Nigerian Spam Scam Scam" web site, at SpamScamScam.com. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Aunty Spam's Web Site. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #344 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 29 21:02:53 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id DA13F15145; Fri, 29 Jul 2005 21:02:52 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #345 Message-Id: <20050730010252.DA13F15145@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 21:02:52 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.5 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 29 Jul 2005 21:03:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 345 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update #490, July 29, 2005 (Angus TeleManagement Group) Social Security Number Access Being Eyed (Monty Solomon) Cisco Reaches Deal With Security guru (USTelecom dailyLead) SIM Card Clone/Backup (sim) Re: Unauthorized Remote Access to Answering Machine (Choreboy) Re: Bell Canada Cell Scam? (Joseph) Re: CT301 Service Manual (mike2711@yahoo.com) Re: Credit Reports, was: AT&T Customers Taken Over By Alltel (Cryderman) Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" (davidesan) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 17:03:29 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #490, July 29, 2005 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 490: July 29, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: Telcos Ask Cabinet to Deregulate VoIP Telus Workers on the Picket Line Entourage Strike Ends Local Phone Competition Spreads Telecom Policy Review to Include Public Hearings Bell Mobility Relaunches Solo Telus Strike Boosts Wireless Sales Mitec, SR Telecom CEOs Resign Thieves Hit Phone Equipment Vendors Wireless Fuels Rogers Growth Aliant Sales Edge Up Allstream Swells MTS Revenue Aastra Revenue Doubles Hall of Fame to Debut at Telemanagement Live ============================================================ TELCOS ASK CABINET TO DEREGULATE VOIP: On July 28, Aliant, Bell Canada, SaskTel, Telebec, and Telus filed a joint petition to Cabinet asking it to eliminate the "economic regulation" of VoIP services that the CRTC ordered in Telecom Decision 2005-28 (see Telecom Update #481). The telcos want to be able to offer VoIP services without filing tariffs and without restrictions on "winback" activities or promotional offers. www.bce.ca/en/news/eventscalendar/webcasts/2005/20050728/index.php ** The Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association immediately urged Cabinet to reject the telcos' appeal. www.ccta.ca/english/view.asp?t=&x=150&id=1209 TELUS WORKERS ON THE PICKET LINE: The Telecommunications Workers Union calls it a lockout. Telus calls it a strike. What's certain is that after five years without a contract, thousands of unionized Telus employees are now walking picket lines. B.C. and Alberta courts have barred the TWU from picketing in a manner that "blocks, obstructs, or impedes access" to and from Telus premises. ** Telus blocked all of its Internet customers from accessing Voices-for-change.com, a website that is "run by and for Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) members." The B.C. Civil Liberties association condemned Telus for "leveraging its power as a telecommunications service provider to censor a specific group." Telus ended the website block after an Alberta Court ordered the website to remove photos of Telus employees who cross picket lines. ENTOURAGE STRIKE ENDS: The four-month strike by 1,400 employees of Entourage Technology Solutions, now part of Bell Canada, has ended. The union says the settlement is $3.5 million better for its members than Bell's pre-strike offer. ** CRTC statistics show that service-related complaints against Bell more than doubled during the strike. LOCAL PHONE COMPETITION SPREADS: Local phone service from cablecos Shaw, Rogers, and Cogeco is now available in more areas. Shaw has begun selling Digital Phone in Winnipeg; Rogers has added six communities in Ontario and three in B.C. ** Vonage Canada has begun offering local telephone numbers from Brampton and Mississauga, Ontario. TELECOM POLICY REVIEW TO INCLUDE PUBLIC HEARINGS: The Telecommunications Policy Review Panel (see Telecom Update #482, 485) has announced two public consultations. The first, on September 9 in Whitehorse, will focus on broadband access issues. The second, on October 24-26 in Ottawa, will consider broader telecom policy issues including regulation, adoption of information and communications technologies, and productivity. www.telecomreview.ca/epic/internet/intprp-gecrt.nsf/en/rx00027e.html BELL MOBILITY RELAUNCHES SOLO: Bell Mobility's Solo Mobile service, featuring free text messaging, $1-a-day walkie- talkie service, exclusive handsets, and a free ringtone each month, will be available August 2. The revived Solo brand targets 13- to 24-year-olds. TELUS STRIKE BOOSTS WIRELESS SALES: MetroBridge Networks, a B.C.-based wireless broadband provider, says its volume of customer inquires has increased 15-fold since Telus workers walked out. The company says it is receiving orders from companies that are moving or setting up new offices, and from others that want back-up facilities in case of service interruption. MITEC, SR TELECOM CEOs RESIGN: The chief executives of two Montreal- based wireless equipment makers have resigned: ** Rajiv Pancholy has resigned as President and CEO of Mitec Telecom. CFO Keith Findlay becomes interim CEO; Stefano Bazzocchi is acting CFO. Mitec has announced losses of $25 million on sales of $58 million for the year ended April 30. ** Pierre St-Arnaud has resigned as President and CEO of SR Telecom. William Aziz, the company's Chief Restructuring Officer, has been named interim CEO. THIEVES HIT PHONE EQUIPMENT VENDORS: Toronto fraud squad investigators say thieves have been calling in orders for quantities of business phones, picking up the equipment, and paying with worthless cheques or money orders. Seven incidents have been reported; other victims are asked to call the police. WIRELESS FUELS ROGERS GROWTH: A 47% jump in wireless revenue enabled Rogers Communications to increase second-quarter sales to $1.73 billion, 29% more than a year earlier. The wireless division, which added 125,000 subscribers, made up 56% of Rogers sales. Results include the former Microcell but not Call-Net. ** Rogers bundle discounts, formerly 15% across-the-board, now range from 5% to 15%. ** Rogers Telecom (formerly Call-Net) reports Q2 2005 revenues of $217 million, up 8% over the same quarter in 2004, with growth in both consumer and business service revenues and a 41% increase in EBITDA. ** Rogers' July 1 acquisition of Call-Net (see Telecom Update #488) triggered several change-of-control provisions, including vesting of stock options ($4.1 million) and senior executive payments ($3.4 million). The agreement that allowed Call-Net to use Sprint's name and technology will end September 29. ALIANT SALES EDGE UP: Aliant Inc. had 2Q net income of $49.8 million, 24% higher than the second quarter a year earlier, during which Aliant experienced a strike. Sales rose 1.2% to $517 million. Wireless sales increased 14%; Internet sales, 6%. ** Aliant says that 693 employees have accepted buyout packages. ALLSTREAM SWELLS MTS REVENUE: Manitoba Telecom 2Q revenue of $502 million was 60% higher than a year ago, before its purchase of Allstream. On a pro forma basis, revenue in Manitoba was up 4.3%, while that of the national division (Allstream) was down 3.9%. Net income: $111.5 million. ** John MacDonald, President of the MTS national division, returns from a medical leave August 2. AASTRA REVENUE DOUBLES: Aastra Technologies, based in Concord, Ontario, had 2Q revenue of $126 million, 94% higher than a year earlier. Net income: $7 million. Earlier this year, Aastra bought the PBX business of EADS, which includes the former Intecom; two weeks ago it paid $51 million for the PBX business of Berlin-based DeTeWe. HALL OF FAME TO DEBUT AT TELEMANAGEMENT LIVE: The inaugural ceremonies for Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame will be held in Toronto on October 17, in conjunction with the Telemanagement Live conference and trade show. The first eight inductees to the Hall of Fame will be announced at a gala co-hosted by the Coalition for Competitive Telecommunications. ** Online registration for Telemanagement Live, Canada's premier annual conference on business telecom and networking, is now open at www.telemanagementlive.com. Participants who register before August 31 save $300 off the full conference fee. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail jriddell@angustel.ca. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 18:51:51 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Social Security Number Access Being Eyed By BRIAN BERGSTEIN AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Recent disclosures of massive data leaks at information brokers, banks and retailers have prompted Congress to once again consider tightening access to Social Security numbers, which have evolved into dangerous master keys for fraudsters. But Social Security numbers already have come under a hodgepodge of restrictions over the years, and many experts question whether the new proposals would truly hinder identity theft. In fact, reducing some companies' access to Social Security numbers could even worsen the situation. Several identity theft watchdogs say the bills would neglect the deeper reason why financial fraud is relatively easy: Speed, not identity assurance, is the main priority of U.S. financial institutions that issue credit. To be sure, the fact that many companies use Social Security numbers essentially as a password _ not only are they the key to getting credit, they can also unlock access to an account over the phone _ magnifies the problem. That's why Congress hopes to hide the numbers better _ by reducing the ways they can be sold, for example, or by prohibiting them from being printed on benefit checks. Even so, keeping the numbers and other personal data out of the wrong hands likely will remain tricky. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50788088 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 13:00:09 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Cisco Reaches Deal With Security Guru USTelecom dailyLead July 29, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23457&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Cisco reaches deal with security guru BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Huawei finding U.S. expansion no easy task * Foreign mobile phone giants make gains in China * Siemens, Citizens, Alcatel, NTT report earnings USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * TELECOM '05 exhibit floor sales hit record high EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Apple brings podcasts to the masses VOIP DOWNLOAD * Encryption pioneer focuses on VoIP * Comcast to use Sprint network for VoIP service REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Sen. Stevens eyes Telecom Act update * California city scraps municipal broadband trial * Verizon, Virginia county reach preliminary TV franchise deal Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23457&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: sim Subject: SIM Card Clone/Backup Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 21:57:58 +0800 Organization: Hong Kong Broadband Network http://www.nowgsm.com/supersim.htm ------------------------------ From: Choreboy Subject: Re: Unauthorized Remote Access to Answering Machine Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 04:43:23 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Choreboy wrote: > I've been doing chores for a vacationing relative. Tuesday, I > answered his phone at 9 AM and got a series of beeps, perhaps half a > second long and three seconds apart. I waited and hung up. It > happened again two minutes later. > Two minutes later it rang a third time. I didn't get to it in time. > When I walked past the answering machine, the display said it was > being remotely accessed. > If my relative had called to check his answering machine, I didn't > understand why he had kept beeping me instead of replying when I said > hello. None of the messages had been erased. I'd never known him to > leave messages on the machine after checking. > Was it somebody fooling around? I asked another relative to phone and > try the machine manufacturer's default remote-access code, which was > incorrect. With the wrong code, the display said only for a second > that it was being remotely accessed. It had stayed on longer the > first time, as if the first caller really had checked the messages. > At 9 AM Wednesday morning it happened again. I listened a minute or > so, until the other end hung up. I realized the beeps were a pure > tone and not the sounds of a touchtone phone, so it wasn't my relative > trying to access his messages. When they called two minutes alter, > the answering machine got it. There was no third call. > Call Return gave me a number. It's not listed, but travel sites on > the web say it's the fax line of a fancy hotel hundreds of miles from > here. My relatives have never had occasion to stay in that city. > I don't know anything about fax protocol. When somebody answers, will > a fax machine emit a beep every three seconds or so for a minute or > so? Will it keep calling if a human answers but stop calling if an > answering machine answers? Can an answering machine mistake a fax > machine for a human with the access code? > Another possibility is that the Caller ID was faked and somebody is > using a machine to spy on my relative's telephone messages. Is there > such a device? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It could be a spy machine, but I think > it more likely that you/relatives are being terrorized by an incorrectly > programmed fax machine at the First National Bank of Chicago. That > very fax machine, or one of its ancestors has a long history (25 years > or more) of auto-dialing the wrong numbers, and continuing to do so > until Illinois Bell has to threaten FNB with disconnection of the > phone line to get it to stop. 25 years ago, circa 1979-80 First > National Bank of Chicago's fax machine was programmed to call around > to various branches of the bank during early evening hours to 'poll' > for documents or deliver documents issued by the bank. Trouble was, > the humanoids in charge of the machine misprogrammed the dialing > string. They got an extra '01' in the string somewhere, so the machine > was calling _Germany_ during what would be the overnight hours in that > country. Religiously, several times per night, five nights per week, > that fax machine was calling a private family in Germany, and > terrorizing them. Just silence, then 'beep beep, etc', more silence > then more 'beep, beep'. After a week or two of this, the family, by > now frightened out of their wits, or really, more annoyed, ask for > intervention from Bundespost, and in due course Bundespost traced it > back to the idiotic Americans, and in turn asked AT&T to review the > problem. AT&T found it was coming from Illinois Bell territory, the > Wabash central office to be exact, and told those people to get the > problem cured. Like complaints made to the Illinois Commerce > Commission where the complaint is raised and the prissy old lady > secretary at the Commission makes a _single_ phone call of inquiry, > then folds her hands and announces self-righteously "I have called the > company and they _assure_ me it will be corrected" (and then it never > is), IB Telco tracked it down to the fax machine at the First National > Bank, made a phone call, said in essence to can the shit and get that > fax machine under control. But it was not cured, and the problems went > on for another month or so all night long. The German family inquired > further, Bundepost inquired again, and AT&T, more than a little > annoyed -- I guess Bundespost had really breathed on them a little > this time -- passed along their grief once again to Illinois Bell. > This time, a manager in Illinois Bell's security unit made a 'courtesy > call' on the bank's Vice President-Telecom and told him unless _he_ > would cure it, telco was going to cut off the fax machine line. The > VP-Telecom for the bank went downstairs with the proverbial hatchet in > hand, ready to do business on the spot, laid into his people and got > the fax machine reprogrammed on the spot. But, as Paul Harvey would > phrase it, 'the rest of the story is to follow'. Bank's telephone bill > arrived the next month, with page after page after page after page of > _LOTS_ of one-minute calls to the same number in Germany, one after > another, every couple minutes all night long. Since most employees of > First National Bank have the memory retention of a parrot or a tortoise, > bank employees in charge of reconciling the phone bill assumed, this > must be some screw up by the phone company, and by God, we are not > going to pay for a phone company mistake. Telco explained to FNB > (I assume with a straight face) what had happened. I do not know if > telco eventually wrote it off (as they used to do _everything_ that > a customer would not pay for) or not. > I wonder if the people using the hotel public fax machine wherever in > your account also blamed the added charges on their bill on a screw > up by the hotel switchboard. Probably. Did you or will you tell your > relatives about this incident when they get back from their vacation? > PAT] Thank you Pat! You've given me insight. It didn't occur to me that a guest might send faxes over the same phone line by which the management receives faxes. The number is advertised as the fax line for Brookstown Inn in Winston-Salem. The building was erected in 1836 as a textile mill. The inn is a sort of museum. My relatives say they did stay there once. They think the hotel must have been trying to fax them travel ads but don't understand why they dialed the voice number. That didn't sound right. Annoying people with faxes would discourage repeat business. Besides, under the law, an established business relationship does not justify faxing an ad without specific permission. And if the hotel were faxing a list of former guests, the list the second day would exclude those who had received their faxes the first day. So one would not expect the phone to ring at exactly 9 AM both days. Suppose faxes submitted by hotel guests are cued until normal office hours. If the fax intended for my relatives was the first in line, that could be why the phone rang at 9 AM both days. I couldn't find anyone who knew how it sounds to be called by a fax machine. So I installed fax software on my computer, faxed my relatives' voice line, and listened on an extension. I recognized the beeps. Apparently their answering machine took the beeping for a person having trouble punching a touchtone code. The machine's voice instructed the caller to punch the access code, and the answering machine waited. That explains why for several seconds the machine's display said it was being remotely accessed. I can even explain why the voice line was dialed. Daplus.us is an online phone book that seems to be updated several times a year. For years, it has listed my relatives' fax number as their voice number. I suppose someone with a subscription to daplus could request fax numbers, and daplus would probably give my relatives' voice number as their fax number. I think a hotel guest who wanted to fax my relatives got the wrong number from daplus. The first day, the guest got a report that the fax hadn't gone through, so the guest submitted it again. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Then they probably did it a few more times 'just to make sure of the number', etc. You did not say if the problem was still going on or not. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Bell Canada Cell Scam? Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 06:52:56 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 28 Jul 2005 16:26:07 -0700, retrosorter wrote: > Shouldn't Bell, or any cellular company, be obliged to tell > consumers that this could happen? I know it is detailed in the > documentation but for me this is not adequate consumer protection. What would you have a company do? Put out a book in 20 point type with every word in bold? The documentation states what responsibilities someone has for using the service. If they do not choose to look at documentation that's not the fault of the company. That's the fault of the user who didn't bother to see what *their* responsibility is. Ignorance of terms of use is no excuse. ------------------------------ From: mike2711@yahoo.com Subject: Re: CT301 Service Manual Date: 29 Jul 2005 15:16:43 -0700 I have one of these phones also ... Can these still be used? As a novelty of course! ------------------------------ Subject: Credit Reports, was Re: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By Alltel Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 16:06:14 -0400 From: Charles Cryderman The law providing free credit reports of all credit reporting companies has been on the books for many year. I remember getting them back in the 80s for free. What is new, is the ability to access them via the internet. I am thinking it was during the Regan administration that the law was passed. At that time, considering there was no internet as it is today you had to request the reports in writing. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ From: davidesan@gmail.com Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" Date: 29 Jul 2005 07:24:54 -0700 According to the Hasbro Web site: Object: Mr. Boddy -- apparently the victim of foul play -- is found in one of the rooms of his mansion. To win, you must determine the answers to these three questions: Who done it? Where? and with What Weapon? Equipment: Clue Game Board: This shows nine rooms in Mr. Boddy's mansion. 6 colored tokens, each representing one of the Suspects: Colonel Mustard -- yellow; Miss Scarlet -- red; Professor Plum -- purple; Mr. Green -- green; Mrs. White -- white; and Mrs. Peacock -- blue. 6 miniature weapons: Rope, Lead Pipe, Knife, Wrench, Candlestick, Revolver. ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #345 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jul 30 17:22:19 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id F146114FAB; Sat, 30 Jul 2005 17:22:18 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #346 Message-Id: <20050730212218.F146114FAB@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 17:22:18 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.6 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 30 Jul 2005 17:22:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 346 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Nextel False Advertising (TELECOM Digest Editor) Mergers do Not Equal Monopolies in Telecom World (Richard Wagner) Former CEO Faces Charges (Greg Farrell) E-911 Making Headway in VOIP (Wayne Rash) Hackers Hack Microsoft Program Validating 'Real' Software (AP News Wire) It's Not the Cell Phone - It's the Brain/Drivers Overloaded (M Solomon) BT Payphones (Andy) Re: Unauthorized Remote Access to Answering Machine (Choreboy) Re: Credit Reports, was Re: AT&T Customers Taken Over By Alltel (Sobol) Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" (Paul Coxwell) Last Laugh! Tax Solutions (Steven Lichter) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Nextel False Advertising Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 16:36:55 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) A nephew of mine and his wife, living in Orlando, Florida were looking for a good push-to-talk style cellular phone and they had seen the advertisements for Nextel on various occassions and considered that since _all incoming calls_ are always free and outgoing calls between 9 PM and about 7 AM are free they'd try Nextel, since the price was otherwise okay. They got a phone for him, and one for his wife under some special pricing plan. As I have heard it, the key word at Nextel is 'worldwide'; good in any city, any time. Am I mistaken on that? No need for 'roaming', etc. That's how they phrase it in the television ads they show here in our town. Well, both nephew and his wife were getting sort of tired of living in the Walt Disney tourist trap of Orlando, and decided they would move elsewhere, with their three year old daughter. They have to have money coming in while they search elsewhere, so wife decided to stay at home (she runs two apartment complexes in Orlando) while her husband (my nephew) came here to Independence to look over the job market and housing market. Then he would send for her and their child, or perhaps return to get them and bring them here if he found a house they would like, employment opportunities, etc. So far, so good ... for a small town of 8000 people in a rural area, employment and housing opportunities are extraordinarly good (at least _I_ like it here). They bought their Nextel phones about a month ago ... which worked quite well in Orlando (the push to talk feature, other calls, etc). The wife and husband had an understanding; if _she_ had any hassles at all, all she had to do was push the button and tell him, and that was the plan for when he came here to Independence, also. She pushes to talk, if it is something he cannot handle by speaking to her, the intent was he would return home _immediatly_. His itinerary was from Orlando to Atlanta, then onward to Nashville, then to St. Louis, over to Kansas City and then a downward 'dip' to Independence to see 'Uncle Pat' where he was rather certain he would find _something_ employment wise and housing wise he liked if not earlier in the trip. They did push-to-talk all the way from Orlando though Atlanta, Nashville, St. Louis and Kansas City. He got out of Kansas City heading south/southwest toward our town, and the phone went dead. He got here yesterday (Friday) morning, used my house phone to check in with his wife in Orlando who was beginning to get frantic. Not only did 'push to talk' not work, but she tried dialing direct into his number instead, and got nowhere with that except his voice mail. I played with his phone, which had a big 'no service' message on the LED; not even a digital clock message or anything else. Assuming the tech support people would want all the details, I called his wife and got _her_ phone number and ESN, etc before I called tech support. I assumed it was just a question of maybe changing some parameters in the phone to make it properly go into 'roaming mode' since his wife had earlier called tech support and was told by them to have him reccycle power to get service restored, etc. That did no good, so I called tech support on 800-639-6111. I told them where we were at, and that we do, of course, have cell towers all around here. In particular Dobson cell towers serve Cingular Wireless, US Cingular, and (Dobson's own) Cell One. So its not for a lack of coverage that we were getting the 'no service' message. The tech punched in my zip code, and street address, then came back and said 'no towers or service in your area'. My next question was 'what about roaming?' If you do not have your own cell tower, you must have access to someone else's tower in the area ... (and Dobson came to mind). No, he said, Nextel does _not_ roam. Either you get our service or you don't get service. How odd ... I told him I heard many commercials on television saying Nextel was either (take your pick) 'Worldwide' or 'Nationwide' and the last I heard Kansas was part of the world and part of the nation. His response was that to Nextel, the phrase 'x-wide' referred to wherever they had towers, not elsewhere. About that same time there came another Nextel commercial on _our_ television. Now don't you think that is fraudulent to make those claims if they are not true? I fixed up Justin with my old AT&T Free2Go phone with twenty or thirty minutes of talk time, and put him on Yahoo Messenger with a camera of mine so at least he and wife and their child can chat as needed. I had thought about trying Nextel at one point, I am sure glad I did not fall for that 'nationwide coverage' lie. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Richard E. Wagner Subject: Mergers do not Equal Monopolies in Telecom World Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 20:28:47 -0500 BY RICHARD E. WAGNER Two major telecom mergers are now under way. SBC is seeking to acquire AT&T, while Verizon is seeking to acquire MCI. These proposed mergers have provoked a good deal of opposition, on the ground that they would restore regional versions of the nationwide monopoly AT&T possessed prior to its being broken up in 1984. SBC and Verizon each hold more than 80 percent of the wire-based connections in their regions. Facing a regional monopoly is no different from facing a nationwide monopoly. In both cases, if you want to place a call using a conventional land-line telephone, you have no choice but to use the monopolists' wire. Should we therefore oppose these mergers? No. Even if SBC and Verizon were to hold 100 percent of the wire-based connections in their regions after the mergers (which they wouldn't), they would hold nothing resembling the old AT&T monopoly. Sweeping changes in the telecom marketplace in the past 20 years make such a monopoly impossible these days. Prior to AT&T's breakup in 1984, if you wanted to speak with someone without having to visit her, you could do so only over wire owned by AT&T. That was a pretty strong monopoly position for a company to hold, but it's no longer the case. Various forms of wireless service have emerged to compete with land-line service. The number of wireless connections now exceeds the number of wire-based connections in the United States. The majority of long-distance calls travel through air and not over wire. A full one-third of local calls now travel over air as well. The emergence of cable television is another technological development that is changing the telecom marketplace. Thanks to billions of dollars of private investment, cable wire is nearly as prevalent as phone wire. Where cable began simply by offering better TV reception, it now offers Internet access and a growing range of other video and data services. Cable companies generally outperformed phone companies in offering high-speed Internet access. More recently, cable TV companies have been offering phone service through the new VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology. So cable companies are becoming phone companies, thanks to the advance of technology. At the same time, phone companies have found ways to offer television programming over telephone lines. This summer, for instance, Verizon has received permission to offer television service in Herndon, Va. The standard distinctions among phone, cable and computer companies are crumbling away. Sprint, a traditional phone company; Motorola, a traditional TV company, and Intel, a traditional computer company, are engaged in a cooperative endeavor to pursue wireless technologies and services. To which industry does this new hybrid belong? The static notion of competition would have us think SBC and Verizon are competing only against the likes of Qwest, Sprint and Level 3, all traditional phone companies. While they are clearly doing this, they also are competing against the likes of Comcast, Time Warner, Intel and Microsoft. Technology is revolutionizing the telecom landscape, and all kinds of companies are competing to offer services that customers value. Mergers allow companies to respond quickly to these rapidly changing commercial opportunities created by new technologies. In the preface to his epochal "General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" in 1936, British economist John Maynard Keynes lamented the difficulty of "escaping from habitual modes of thought and expression." This difficulty is exhibited in spades when people refer to telecom mergers as diminishing competition. To the contrary, these mergers are signs of vigorous competition. Competition is fundamentally about seizing future commercial opportunities. Much of the regulation advocated and passed in the name of encouraging or protecting competition protects competitors instead. Little surprise, then, that most of the complaints against the telecom mergers have been filed by competitors to SBC and Verizon. They realize the market would become more competitive, not less, as a result of these mergers. To claim these mergers would promote monopoly is a claim that could be made only by someone who has been sleepwalking through the past 20 years. They need to wake up and see how the telecom landscape has changed. Richard E. Wagner is a professor of economics at George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. Copyright 2005 Asbury Park Press. This column represents his opinion only and not that of TELECOM Digest. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Asbury Park Press. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Greg Farell Subject: Former CEO of Qwest May Soon Face Charges Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 20:30:18 -0500 by Greg Farrell USA Today Federal prosecutors in Colorado have filed court papers that indicate they could be close to bringing criminal charges against Joe Nacchio, the hard-charging former CEO of Qwest. In a motion filed late Wednesday in federal court in Denver, acting U.S. Attorney William Leone asked a judge to stay a civil lawsuit that the Securities and Exchange Commission filed earlier this year against Nacchio and other former Qwest executives. The judge granted the request. The motion comes just two weeks after prosecutors secured a guilty plea from Robin Szeliga, Qwest's former CFO. Szeliga pleaded guilty to one count of illegal inside trading and agreed to cooperate with the ongoing criminal investigation. The most likely reason for the prosecutors' request, experts say, is that Nacchio is in the U.S. attorney's crosshairs. "The only time the Department of Justice asks for a stay is because it is going down the road of returning an indictment," said Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor now with Shulman Rogers. Jack Coffee, an expert on securities law at Columbia University, says prosecutors often use the cooperation of CFOs to prepare charges against CEOs. "If this follows standard operating procedure, she stands in relation to Nacchio as Scott Sullivan stood to Bernie Ebbers," he said, referring to WorldCom's former CFO and CEO. Nacchio's attorney, Charles Stillman, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver did not return calls. In March, a Nacchio spokeswoman said he would fight the SEC charges vigorously. Like other telecommunications companies, Qwest's stock was a highflier during the Internet bubble. But after the bubble burst, Qwest sustained huge losses. It also admitted to some overly aggressive accounting maneuvers, and eventually restated its earnings downward by some $3 billion. The disclosure of accounting irregularities drew the interest of the SEC as well as the U.S. attorney in Denver. The SEC accused Nacchio and six other executives of orchestrating a "massive fraud" by booking phony revenues and relying on other accounting machinations. The SEC accused Nacchio of reaping $176 million in illegal inside-trading profits. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Gannett/USA Today. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Wayne Rash Subject: E-911 Making Headway in VOIP Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 20:33:25 -0500 By Wayne Rash Opinion: While many hurdles remain with trying to pinpoint the caller's location, Enhanced 911 services are starting to become available for VOIP users. There's a probably apocryphal story that floats around the VOIP community when the subject of emergency phone calls comes up. In that story, an office worker, some say a Cisco engineer, has a heart attack and dials 911. Paramedics arrive, but no one has any idea where the victim is. He dies before he's found. It's a scary story about the problems of providing location information to emergency service providers when callers are using VOIP (voice over IP) telephones, especially in a corporate environment. And in fact, there is just such a risk. With a number of telephone technologies, location information is not readily apparent. Wireless phones, for example, suffered exactly the same problem until the federal government mandated the ability to locate callers in an emergency. Wired phone users haven't usually had this problem because the phone company keeps track of the address where each phone is located, as long as the phone is theirs and is attached to their phone lines. When a user of a wired phone calls 911, their phone number is included with the call, and that in turn provides the address through a database maintained by the phone company. This system works fairly well, despite the occasional delays in database updates when people add a phone or move to a new address. Things change when you're not connected to the phone company's lines. Cell phone users, for example, are connected to their wireless provider. Until recently, the best the wireless company could do was to have a general idea of the area of the caller, accurate perhaps to several square miles. Now, with more accurate location being mandated, phones can be located using other means, including GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers embedded in many phones. But when you get to private phone systems, there's a problem. Even if your phone delivers a phone number, there's no reason to believe it's tied to a location. Even with analog PBX (Private Branch Exchange) phones, it's not uncommon for the phone number that's reported to the receiving party to be either an invented number or the main number for the entire company or agency. This problem is not restricted to IP phones, and it's not really related to phone technology at all, but rather to choices made by phone system owners. In many cases, phones don't even have actual phone numbers-simply extensions from the company PBX. Since most corporate VOIP systems are based on IP PBX equipment, it's no surprise that getting location information is a challenge. But as it happens, that challenge is being met. According to Tim Lorello, vice president at Annapolis, Md.-based TeleCommunication Systems, the company that provides the vast majority of E911 service in the United States, help is already on the way. Lorello said network service providers are already making it possible for users with fixed locations to enter their location manually into the database that provides information to emergency services. He said the next step will be to equip VOIP phones with the GPS receivers already in use in cell phones. He said that when this happens, the E911 systems will be able to use that information immediately. The other challenges Lorello pointed out are knowing which emergency service provider needs to be called, and then delivering the call to the right place. "Today, that call routing occurs to administrative line," Lorello said. This can delay emergency response and can cause confusion. Having location information included with the call will make sure that the call goes to the right place the first time, he said. Lisa Pierce, a vice president at Forrester Research, says the current efforts to make VOIP phones compatible with E911 may make them work better for emergency calls than today's analog phones do. However, she worries that expectations will rise faster than the technology. "There will be false expectations while this is being built," Pierce said. "This will give the technology a bad name for a period of time while things are getting coordinated." Pierce said a major factor will be how well network providers and emergency service providers work together during that time to minimize problems. In the meantime, Pierce noted that one cell phone manufacturer, Motorola, has also announced a wireless VOIP phone. I hope that one will include the GPS receiver that the company already builds into its other wireless phones. Copyright 1996-2005 Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Ziff-Davis. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: AP News Wire Subject: Hackers Tinker With Microsoft Program Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 23:41:19 -0500 Days after Microsoft Corp. launched a new anti-piracy program, hackers have found a way to get around it. The software company's new program, called Windows Genuine Advantage, requires computer users to go through a process validating that they're running a legitimate copy of the Windows operating system before downloading any software updates except for security patches. But the check can be bypassed by entering a simple JavaScript command in the Web browser's address bar and hitting the "Enter" key. When that's done, the validation does not run and the user is taken directly to the download. Microsoft said it was investigating and that the glitch was not a security vulnerability. The hack appears only to work when a computer user is trying to download software through the Windows Update service. Some software, such as Microsoft's AntiSpyware beta, isn't available there but can be found elsewhere on microsoft.com. Such downloads also require validation, but the hack does not appear to work. On Friday, attempts to download the antispyware program resulted in a server error, with a message that read, "It appears that our activation servers are not functioning properly." All Windows users, even those with pirated copies, can still download security patches. For any other software updates, Microsoft now requires computer users to validate that their computers aren't running counterfeit copies of Windows. On the Net: Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/about.mspx Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 11:33:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: It's Not the Cell Phone - It's the Brain / Drivers Overloaded It's not the cell phone - it's the brain Drivers overloaded, researchers warn By Mariana Minaya Sun Staff Originally published July 22, 2005 Think twice about answering your cell phone while you're behind the wheel -- even if it's a hands-free model. Scientists now say there's evidence our brains can't concentrate on a phone conversation and driving at the same time. A groundbreaking study published last week in the British Journal of Medicine shows that drivers who talk on a cell phone are four times as likely as nonusers to have an accident that sends them to the hospital -- regardless of the type of phone they use. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-hs.cellphone22jul22,1,3970325.story?coll=bal-health-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true ------------------------------ From: Andy Subject: BT Payphones Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 09:33:48 +0100 Hi, if you still require info on these types of phones I would recommend telephonelines.net. The 70's type phones did indeed rely on pulse metering to operate them, which is still an option from BT at about 34~ per month. Let me know if you have found any more info or I can help further. Best Regards, Andy ------------------------------ From: Choreboy Subject: Re: Unauthorized Remote Access to Answering Machine Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 00:52:00 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Choreboy wrote: > Choreboy wrote: >> I've been doing chores for a vacationing relative. Tuesday, I >> answered his phone at 9 AM and got a series of beeps, perhaps half a >> second long and three seconds apart. I waited and hung up. It >> happened again two minutes later. >> Two minutes later it rang a third time. I didn't get to it in time. >> When I walked past the answering machine, the display said it was >> being remotely accessed. >> If my relative had called to check his answering machine, I didn't >> understand why he had kept beeping me instead of replying when I said >> hello. None of the messages had been erased. I'd never known him to >> leave messages on the machine after checking. >> Was it somebody fooling around? I asked another relative to phone and >> try the machine manufacturer's default remote-access code, which was >> incorrect. With the wrong code, the display said only for a second >> that it was being remotely accessed. It had stayed on longer the >> first time, as if the first caller really had checked the messages. >> At 9 AM Wednesday morning it happened again. I listened a minute or >> so, until the other end hung up. I realized the beeps were a pure >> tone and not the sounds of a touchtone phone, so it wasn't my relative >> trying to access his messages. When they called two minutes alter, >> the answering machine got it. There was no third call. >> Call Return gave me a number. It's not listed, but travel sites on >> the web say it's the fax line of a fancy hotel hundreds of miles from >> here. My relatives have never had occasion to stay in that city. >> I don't know anything about fax protocol. When somebody answers, will >> a fax machine emit a beep every three seconds or so for a minute or >> so? Will it keep calling if a human answers but stop calling if an >> answering machine answers? Can an answering machine mistake a fax >> machine for a human with the access code? >> Another possibility is that the Caller ID was faked and somebody is >> using a machine to spy on my relative's telephone messages. Is there >> such a device? >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It could be a spy machine, but I think >> it more likely that you/relatives are being terrorized by an incorrectly >> programmed fax machine at the First National Bank of Chicago. That >> very fax machine, or one of its ancestors has a long history (25 years >> or more) of auto-dialing the wrong numbers, and continuing to do so >> until Illinois Bell has to threaten FNB with disconnection of the >> phone line to get it to stop. 25 years ago, circa 1979-80 First >> National Bank of Chicago's fax machine was programmed to call around >> to various branches of the bank during early evening hours to 'poll' >> for documents or deliver documents issued by the bank. Trouble was, >> the humanoids in charge of the machine misprogrammed the dialing >> string. They got an extra '01' in the string somewhere, so the machine >> was calling _Germany_ during what would be the overnight hours in that >> country. Religiously, several times per night, five nights per week, >> that fax machine was calling a private family in Germany, and >> terrorizing them. Just silence, then 'beep beep, etc', more silence >> then more 'beep, beep'. After a week or two of this, the family, by >> now frightened out of their wits, or really, more annoyed, ask for >> intervention from Bundespost, and in due course Bundespost traced it >> back to the idiotic Americans, and in turn asked AT&T to review the >> problem. AT&T found it was coming from Illinois Bell territory, the >> Wabash central office to be exact, and told those people to get the >> problem cured. Like complaints made to the Illinois Commerce >> Commission where the complaint is raised and the prissy old lady >> secretary at the Commission makes a _single_ phone call of inquiry, >> then folds her hands and announces self-righteously "I have called the >> company and they _assure_ me it will be corrected" (and then it never >> is), IB Telco tracked it down to the fax machine at the First National >> Bank, made a phone call, said in essence to can the shit and get that >> fax machine under control. But it was not cured, and the problems went >> on for another month or so all night long. The German family inquired >> further, Bundepost inquired again, and AT&T, more than a little >> annoyed -- I guess Bundespost had really breathed on them a little >> this time -- passed along their grief once again to Illinois Bell. >> This time, a manager in Illinois Bell's security unit made a 'courtesy >> call' on the bank's Vice President-Telecom and told him unless _he_ >> would cure it, telco was going to cut off the fax machine line. The >> VP-Telecom for the bank went downstairs with the proverbial hatchet in >> hand, ready to do business on the spot, laid into his people and got >> the fax machine reprogrammed on the spot. But, as Paul Harvey would >> phrase it, 'the rest of the story is to follow'. Bank's telephone bill >> arrived the next month, with page after page after page after page of >> _LOTS_ of one-minute calls to the same number in Germany, one after >> another, every couple minutes all night long. Since most employees of >> First National Bank have the memory retention of a parrot or a tortoise, >> bank employees in charge of reconciling the phone bill assumed, this >> must be some screw up by the phone company, and by God, we are not >> going to pay for a phone company mistake. Telco explained to FNB >> (I assume with a straight face) what had happened. I do not know if >> telco eventually wrote it off (as they used to do _everything_ that >> a customer would not pay for) or not. >> I wonder if the people using the hotel public fax machine wherever in >> your account also blamed the added charges on their bill on a screw >> up by the hotel switchboard. Probably. Did you or will you tell your >> relatives about this incident when they get back from their vacation? >> PAT] > Thank you Pat! You've given me insight. > It didn't occur to me that a guest might send faxes over the same phone > line by which the management receives faxes. The number is advertised > as the fax line for Brookstown Inn in Winston-Salem. The building was > erected in 1836 as a textile mill. The inn is a sort of museum. > My relatives say they did stay there once. They think the hotel must > have been trying to fax them travel ads but don't understand why they > dialed the voice number. > That didn't sound right. Annoying people with faxes would discourage > repeat business. Besides, under the law, an established business > relationship does not justify faxing an ad without specific permission. > And if the hotel were faxing a list of former guests, the list the > second day would exclude those who had received their faxes the first > day. So one would not expect the phone to ring at exactly 9 AM both days. > Suppose faxes submitted by hotel guests are cued until normal office > hours. If the fax intended for my relatives was the first in line, that > could be why the phone rang at 9 AM both days. > I couldn't find anyone who knew how it sounds to be called by a fax > machine. So I installed fax software on my computer, faxed my > relatives' voice line, and listened on an extension. I recognized the > beeps. Apparently their answering machine took the beeping for a person > having trouble punching a touchtone code. The machine's voice > instructed the caller to punch the access code, and the answering > machine waited. That explains why for several seconds the machine's > display said it was being remotely accessed. > I can even explain why the voice line was dialed. Daplus.us is an > online phone book that seems to be updated several times a year. For > years, it has listed my relatives' fax number as their voice number. > I suppose someone with a subscription to daplus could request fax > numbers, and daplus would probably give my relatives' voice number as > their fax number. > I think a hotel guest who wanted to fax my relatives got the wrong > number from daplus. The first day, the guest got a report that the fax > hadn't gone through, so the guest submitted it again. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Then they probably did it a few more > times 'just to make sure of the number', etc. You did not say if the > problem was still going on or not. PAT] My relatives were home Thursday morning and Friday morning and reported nothing. The guest may have left the hotel Wednesday. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Credit Reports, was Re: AT&T Customers Taken Over By Alltel Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 22:17:15 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Charles Cryderman wrote: > The law providing free credit reports of all credit reporting > companies has been on the books for many year. Are you referring to a state law or a federal law? Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 12:27:32 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" > According to the Hasbro Web site: > Object: > Mr. Boddy -- apparently the victim of foul play -- is found in > one of the rooms of his mansion. To win, you must determine > the answers to these three questions: > Who done it? Where? and with What Weapon? > Equipment: > Clue Game Board: This shows nine rooms in Mr. Boddy's mansion. > 6 colored tokens, each representing one of the Suspects: > Colonel Mustard -- yellow; Miss Scarlet -- red; Professor > Plum -- purple; Mr. Green -- green; Mrs. White -- white; and > Mrs. Peacock -- blue. > 6 miniature weapons: Rope, Lead Pipe, Knife, Wrench, Candlestick, > Revolver. Found this page which outlines the game and lists the differences between the American and British versions: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Cluedo Paul ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Tax Solutions Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 11:23:19 GMT You should all call these guys and find out how they can help you!! > or call 1-800-933-4947 and leave your information and we will return > your call promptly. > USA Residence only. > PO BOX 10 > RIVERSIDE TX 77367 The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #346 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jul 31 18:21:57 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id BBE07151D9; Sun, 31 Jul 2005 18:21:56 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #347 Message-Id: <20050731222156.BBE07151D9@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 18:21:56 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.6 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, BIZ_TLD,INFO_TLD autolearn=no version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 31 Jul 2005 18:21:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 347 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson iTunes Mints Podcasting Stars (Monty Solomon) Gadgets Gun for iPod's Glory (Monty Solomon) Google Growth Yields Privacy Fear (Monty Solomon) When Cell Phones Become Oracles (Monty Solomon) Privacy Guru Locks Down VOIP (Monty Solomon) Cisco Security Hole a Whopper;Whistle-Blower Faces FBI Probe (M Solomon) A Hacker Games the Hotel (Monty Solomon) Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users (Monty Solomon) iFM -- Radio, Remote, and Recorder for iPod (Monty Solomon) Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? (Lisa Hancock) Cell Phone For VOIP - Home Device Imitates Provider Signal (jhedfors) Re: Bell Canada Cell Scam? (retrosorter) Re: E-911 Making Headway in VOIP (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Nextel False Advertising (John Levine) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Joseph) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Robert Johnson) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Scott Dorsey) Re: Nextel False Advertising (NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:39:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: iTunes Mints Podcasting Stars By Steve Friess Self-proclaimed tech geek Brian Reid got an MP3 player for Christmas and decided after fiddling with it for a while to start a little podcast called Sex Talk that focused on one of his passions: gender issues. The suburban Washington, D.C., stay-at-home dad did a few broadcasts, touching on such sonorous topics as the Roman Catholic Church's stance on female priests, and then gave up back in April when his audience failed to grow beyond a few subscribers. So imagine his surprise when, during the first week of July, Reid got an e-mail from an Australian reader of his blog congratulating him for having the 53rd-most-popular podcast on iTunes. And so it went in the first fortnight after Apple Computer issued the software that turned podcasts mainstream. The upgrade to iTunes 4.9 on June 29 gave millions of iPod owners and iTunes customers a simple way to search for and subscribe to podcasts without any other software. Apple counted more than 1 million podcast subscriptions through iTunes in the first two days alone, according to a company press release. Still, the switch came suddenly and without warning, turning a long list of mom-and-pop online audiocasters into overnight sensations, crashing servers across the nation and minting new internet stars in a way not seen since the early days of blogging. And, of course, it left folks like Reid scratching their heads. Reid has no idea how his defunct podcast ended up listed in the iTunes directory -- and with an "explicit" label no less. He assumes that label and the Sex Talk name explain how he scaled the charts alongside such brand-name talkers as Air America Radio's Al Franken, Nightline's Ted Koppel and Z100 radio's Elvis Duran. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,68185,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:41:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Gadgets Gun for iPod's Glory By Jonny Evans LONDON -- The iPod may face challenges from music-playing cell phones and online subscription services but will likely reign supreme because it taps into the way consumers enjoy music, experts say. At a panel discussion in London on Tuesday called "I Came, I Saw, IPod -- What's Next?," several digital-music experts were asked to identify a likely successor to Apple Computer's market-leading device. "After the iPod -- isn't that like asking what's after the book?" asked journalist and keynote speaker Charles Arthur, who argued that music will not necessarily flow to cell phones. User interfaces and usage patterns matter, said Arthur. For mobile music to succeed, "cell phones need to be as easy to use as a BlackBerry," he said. Arthur observed that handsets still suffer from unreliable connection speeds and security issues. For example, today's handsets don't offer elegant backup options for purchased songs, leaving consumers at the mercy of network operators to replace their collections if handsets are lost or damaged. At least computers let users burn CDs of their purchases to guard against loss, Arthur said. The cost of music download services and devices is also a barrier to mass-market acceptance, said Michael Bull, a Sussex University lecturer known as "Professor iPod." http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,68261,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:46:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Google Growth Yields Privacy Fear Associated Press Google is at once a powerful search engine and a growing e-mail provider. It runs a blogging service, makes software to speed web traffic and has ambitions to become a digital library. And it is developing a payments service. Although many internet users eagerly await each new technology from Google, its rapid expansion is also prompting concerns that the company may know too much: what you read, where you surf and travel, whom you write. "This is a lot of personal information in a single basket," said Chris Hoofnagle, senior counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Google is becoming one of the largest privacy risks on the internet." Not that Hoofnagle is suggesting that Google has strayed from its mantra of making money "without doing evil." Rather, some privacy advocates worry about the potential: The data's very existence -- conveniently all under a single digital roof -- makes Google a prime target for abuse by overzealous law enforcers and criminals alike. Through hacking or with the assistance of rogue employees, they say, criminals could steal data for blackmail or identity theft. Recent high-profile privacy breaches elsewhere underscore the vulnerability of even those systems where thoughtful security measures are taken. Law enforcement, meanwhile, could obtain information that later becomes public, in court filings or otherwise, about people who are not even targets of a particular investigation. Though Google's privacy protection is generally comparable to -- even better than -- those at Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon.com and a host of other internet giants, "I don't think any of the others have the scope of personal information that Google does," Hoofnagle said. Plus, Google's practices may influence rivals, given its dominance in search and the fierce competition. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68235,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:47:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: When Cell Phones Become Oracles By Ryan Singel Cell phones know whom you called and which calls you dodged, but they can also record where you went, how much sleep you got and predict what you're going to do next. At least, these are the capabilities of 100 customized phones given to students and employees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- and they may be coming soon to your cell phone. The phones were part of a Ph.D. project by MIT Media Lab researcher Nathan Eagle, who handed out the devices as a way to document the lives of students and employees of MIT, ranging from first-year undergrads and MBA students to Media Lab employees and professors. Eagle's Reality Mining project logged 350,000 hours of data over nine months about the location, proximity, activity and communication of volunteers, and was quickly able to guess whether two people were friends or just co-workers. It also found that MBA students actually do spend $45,000 a year to build monster Rolodexes, and that first-year college students -- even those who attend MIT -- lead chaotic lives. He and his team were able to create detailed views of life at the Media Lab, by observing how late people stayed at the lab, when they called one another and how much sleep students got. Given enough data, Eagle's algorithms were able to predict what people -- especially professors and Media Lab employees -- would do next and be right up to 85 percent of the time. Eagle used Bluetooth-enabled Nokia 6600 smartphones running custom programs that logged cell-tower information to record the phones' locations. Every five minutes, the phones also scanned the immediate vicinity for other participating phones. Using data gleaned from cell-phone towers and calling information, the system is able to predict, for example, whether someone will go out for the evening based on the volume of calls they made to friends. Eagle sees the project as a way to envision how mobile devices will further change our lives, but also as a revolutionary new way to study social networks. The project was able to record how the lab as a whole responded to events as disparate as an organization-wide deadline and the Red Sox's stunning World Series win in 2004. http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,68263,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:50:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Privacy Guru Locks Down VOIP By Kim Zetter First there was PGP e-mail. Then there was PGPfone for modems. Now Phil Zimmermann, creator of the wildly popular Pretty Good Privacy e-mail encryption program, is debuting his new project, which he hopes will do for internet phone calls what PGP did for e-mail. Zimmermann has developed a prototype program for encrypting voice over internet protocol, or VOIP, which he will announce at the BlackHat security conference in Las Vegas this week. Like PGP and PGPfone, which he created as human rights tools for people around the world to communicate without fear of government eavesdropping, Zimmermann hopes his new program will restore some of the civil liberties that have been lost in recent years and help businesses shield themselves against corporate espionage. VOIP, or internet telephony, allows people to speak to each other through their computers using a microphone or phone. But because VOIP uses broadband networks to transmit calls, conversations are vulnerable to eavesdropping in the same way that e-mail and other internet traffic is open to snoops. Attackers can also hijack calls and reroute them to a different number. Few people consider these risks, however, when they switch to VOIP. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68306,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:52:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cisco Security Hole a Whopper; Whistle-Blower Faces FBI Probe By Kim Zetter LAS VEGAS -- A bug discovered in an operating system that runs the majority of the world's computer networks would, if exploited, allow an attacker to bring down the nation's critical infrastructure, a computer security researcher said Wednesday against threat of a lawsuit. Michael Lynn, a former research analyst with Internet Security Systems, quit his job at ISS Tuesday morning before disclosing the flaw at Black Hat Briefings, a conference for computer security professionals held annually here. The security hole in Cisco IOS, the company's "infrastructure operating system" that controls its routers, was patched by Cisco in April, Lynn said, and the flawed version is no longer available for download. But Cisco didn't want the information disclosed until next year when a new version of the operating system would be out of beta testing and ready for distribution. Routers are devices that direct information through a network. Cisco products account for the majority of routers that operate the backbone of the internet and many company networks. Lynn likened IOS to Windows XP, for its ubiquity. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68328,00.html Whistle-Blower Faces FBI Probe By Kim Zetter LAS VEGAS -- The FBI is investigating a computer security researcher for criminal conduct after he revealed that critical routers supporting the internet and many networks have a serious software flaw that could allow someone to crash or take control of them. Mike Lynn, a former researcher at Internet Security Systems, or ISS, said he was tipped off late Thursday night that the FBI was investigating him for violating trade secrets belonging to his former employer. Lynn resigned from ISS Wednesday morning after his company and Cisco threatened to sue him if he spoke at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas about a serious vulnerability he found while reverse-engineering the operating system in Cisco routers. He said he conducted the reverse-engineering at the request of his company, which was concerned that Cisco wasn't being forthright about a recent fix it had made to its operating system. Lynn spoke anyway, discussing the flaw in Cisco IOS, the operating system that runs on Cisco routers, which are responsible for transferring data over much of the internet and private networks. Although Lynn demonstrated for the audience what hackers could do to a router if they exploited the flaw, he did not reveal technical details that would allow anyone to exploit the bug without doing the same research he did to discover it. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68356,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:52:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A Hacker Games the Hotel By Kim Zetter A vulnerability in many hotel television infrared systems can allow a hacker to obtain guests' names and their room numbers from the billing system. It can also let someone read the e-mail of guests who use web mail through the TV, putting business travelers at risk of corporate espionage. And it can allow an intruder to add or delete charges on a hotel guest's bill or watch pornographic films and other premium content on their hotel TV without paying for it. Adam Laurie, technical director of the London security and networking firm The Bunker showed Wired News how he conducted such attacks at hotels around the world before he was to speak about the vulnerability Saturday at the DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas. Laurie is known as Major Malfunction in the hacker community. He also revealed how infrared used for garage door openers and car-door locks could be hacked, using simple brute force programming techniques to decipher the code that opens the doors. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68370,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 11:03:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users By DAVID KESMODEL THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE Earlier this summer, Uno Bloom, a songwriter in Brentwood, Tenn., noticed that his home computer appeared to be slowing down. He searched the files on his hard drive in an effort to uncover clutter, and found dozens of Internet cookies labeled "2o7.net." He started monitoring his cookies -- small tracking files that are automatically downloaded when users visit Web sites -- and realized some of the suspicious files were coming from Ameritrade.com, where he trades stocks. He did an Internet search for "2o7," and learned in a computer forum that cookies bearing the name were maintained by Omniture Inc., a Web analytics firm. Omniture helps its roster of high-profile clients, including Ameritrade Inc., eBay Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Expedia Inc., study how people use their Web sites. Mr. Bloom is one of a number of computer users who grew suspicious when they discovered the files on their computers, either through manual searches or by running antispyware programs that flagged 2o7.net for potential deletion. Adding to their concerns: when users plugged www.2o7.net into a Web browser, they got a blank page. A fair amount of Web know-how was required for users to discover that Omniture owned the 2o7.net Web address. Some users have blasted Omniture and its clients over use of the cookies. The controversy over the 2o7.net cookies highlights the tension that exists between marketing companies like Omniture and Web users who are increasingly aware of, and adverse to, files that are automatically placed on their computers when they surf the Internet. At a time when PCs are under assault by viruses and other nefarious software like never before, users are employing a range of software tools and tactics to protect themselves. Many users don't distinguish between cookies, which are small bits of text commonly used by Web sites to identify users, and malicious software that can steal personal information or change PC settings. That has put marketers on the defensive, as they try to get users to spare cookies when wiping computers clean of potential threats. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112248279507797567-UgCRBcSJhSZRiUI50YLUeSiF6_g_20060729,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 11:18:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: iFM -- Radio, Remote, and Recorder for iPod iFM integrates FM radio tuning, recording and remote control functionality to the iPod, all in a tiny aluminum enclosure. With the flip of a switch users can now switch seamlessly between controlling their music library and listening to their favorite FM radio programming. Use the iFM as an inline remote to control the iPod's transport controls, great for workouts, biking or hiking. iFM is also a recording device, with a built in microphone to record voice, or change modes to capture live FM radio directly to the iPod! http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/ifm/ ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? Date: 30 Jul 2005 20:43:12 -0700 Back in the 1960s, the Bell System employed a great many telephone operators in different roles. Some of the jobs looked very interesting, such as overseas or toll operator on a cord switchboard. Others looked extremely boring, such as directory assistance or ONI (caller's number entry). I was wondering how an operator got assigned to the different roles and if pay scales differed for the different roles. To me, Directory Assistance and Intercept seem awfully boring. It's just looking up numbers in the various phone books. The worst would be ONI. Before ANI (automatic number identification became common) an operator had to come on line and ask their caller for their number. She would key it into the system which would use it for AMA billing. Her console for that did nothing else. The most exciting, and available only in a few places, would be an overseas operator. The technical handling of different countries would be a challenge as well as speaking to overseas parties. Now it's no big deal but back then it was. The middle of the road would be toll and assistance on a cord switchboard. These operators would handle trouble with local calls, coin collection from all payphone calls, and operator handled toll calls (collect, time & charges, person-to-person, 3rd billing, etc.) While most toll calls were directly dialed and no big deal to set up, occassionally a call would have to be specially built-up the old fashioned way. As the 1960s went into the 1970s operator jobs were reduced. Bell charged for directory assistance and operator handled toll calls, reducing the volume. Computerized switchboards such as TSP/TSPS streamlined the function and "took the fun out of it". Our retired small town telephone operator started as a teenager during WW II. She enjoyed working the town's local manual switchboard and it was just like in the movies -- calls handled by name and keeping track of where the doctor and policeman were in town. When the town went dial in 1954, she was transferred to a nearby city where it was a completely different atmosphere -- very structured and disciplined. When I toured some Bell central offices in the 1970s the operator's areas didn't seem quite as 'tight' as the 1950s is described. The last manual boards in my area -- in suburban towns -- were retired around 1962. One area was fairly built up and would've had a lot of traffic, enough to justify the "A" and "B" boards (calls received by an "A" board, then passed to the appropriate "B" board for final connection). I wonder if those locations were disciplined. I also wonder what city switchboards (not tiny towns) were like under General Telephone and other independent companies. Did their city switchboards have the same discipline as the Bell System have the same strictness? [In the computer world, IBM was very formal while its competitors were not.] Historically, there wasn't much of a career path for a telephone operator. Often young women took the job for a few years until they got married or had kids, and then they quit. Some returned after the kids were grown. A few would get promoted to be supervisors. Others would leave and get jobs as PBX operators -- almost all large PBX installations required an operator to be "Bell trained" and have Bell Telephone experience to get hired. As a PBX operator, one might have career advancement within the particular company depending on her skills and the attitude of the company (ie going from operator to office secretary). ------------------------------ From: jhedfors Subject: Cell Phone For VOIP - Home Device Imitates Provider Signal Date: 30 Jul 2005 16:58:09 -0700 I wonder if such a device is feasible? Could there be a device that gives give off a home network signal that your cell phone can connect to as it does your service provider? You could then user your cell handset for VOIP calls when near such a device. There is talk of special wi-fi enabled phones doing this, but this could be used with any phone, and could possibly be wi-fi enabled as well. Any thoughts? J ------------------------------ From: retrosorter Subject: Re: Bell Canada Cell Scam? Date: 30 Jul 2005 17:52:40 -0700 I believe that consumers who clearly do not want a phone with browser features should not be sold one with such. If they are sold one they should be told that they can have such a feature deactivated. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: E-911 Making Headway in VOIP Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 00:03:41 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Wayne Rash wrote: > Things change when you're not connected to the phone company's > lines. Cell phone users, for example, are connected to their wireless > provider. Until recently, the best the wireless company could do was > to have a general idea of the area of the caller, accurate perhaps to > several square miles. Now, with more accurate location being mandated, > phones can be located using other means, including GPS (Global > Positioning System) receivers embedded in many phones. GPS works only outdoors in a relatively open area. It never works indoors except perhaps when right next to a very large window with plain glass. This is the problem with technology that is not well understood by those who propose using it for solutions under less than robust circumstances. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Jul 2005 22:22:28 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA TELECOM Digest Editor asked in a message: > My next question was 'what about roaming?' If you do not have your own > cell tower, you must have access to someone else's tower in the area ... > (and Dobson came to mind). No, he said, Nextel does _not_ roam. Either > you get our service or you don't get service. Nextel uses a technology called iDEN which is different from all of the other carriers in the U.S. A Nextel phone will work anywhere there is iDEN coverage, which is Nextel's network in the US and Mexico, Telus in Canada, and some carriers in a few other countries. Nextel's coverage is pretty good, and they have as good a claim to national coverage as anyone else. Their coverage has holes in rural areas, but so does anyone else's. The holes are just different. There is for example a narrow valley about 20 miles east of here where no cell phones work at all and, considering how rural it is, they never will. No mobile carrier anywhere provides 100% coverage, and it was pretty foolish of your nephew to expect to be reachable all the time. Somehow we all managed to survive back in the dark ages when travellers had to drop coins into pay phones to call home, and you couldn't get in touch with travelling friends and relatives at all unless you were able to leave a message at a place where they'd be staying. How come now it's a major crisis if someone a thousand miles away isn't instantly available at a touch of a button? Sheesh. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is not a 'major crisis'; but rather, just quite inconvenient when you are sold a device (commonly known as a 'cell phone') with the assurance it will work 'anywhere', and you have no particular reason to distrust the seller of same only to then later find out the seller was full of hot air. And it is not merely that the 'push to talk' function is not available (I certainly would not miss that feature very much; it is more of a curiosity to me) but even the 'traditional cell phone features' do not work either. PAT]n ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:37:41 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 16:36:55 EDT, ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) wrote: [lots of snip] > As I have heard it, the key word at Nextel is 'worldwide'; good in any > city, any time. Am I mistaken on that? No need for 'roaming', etc. > That's how they phrase it in the television ads they show here in our > town. It's as "worldwide" as anything is. It's only "worldwide" if a signal is available to you! > They bought their Nextel phones about a month ago ... which worked > quite well in Orlando (the push to talk feature, other calls, etc). [more snip] > They did push-to-talk all the way from Orlando though Atlanta, > Nashville, St. Louis and Kansas City. He got out of Kansas City > heading south/southwest toward our town, and the phone went dead. It's very obvious what happened. There is no Nextel service in Independence! If there is no service in that town you of course will not be able to use your phones. It's the same whether it's Sprint, cingular, T-Mobile or any other carrier. All carriers do not serve all areas. I know that if I go to Elma, Washington my T-Mobile service won't do me any good. Cingular won't do you any good either. Only Verizon will work there. Not every service works in every location despite what you might infer from a company's advertisements. > He got here yesterday (Friday) morning, used my house phone to check > in with his wife in Orlando who was beginning to get frantic. Not > only did 'push to talk' not work, but she tried dialing direct into > his number instead, and got nowhere with that except his voice mail. There is no service so you could not use it. > I played with his phone, which had a big 'no service' message on the > LED That was the answer!! > called tech support on 800-639-6111. I told them where we were at, and > that we do, of course, have cell towers all around here. Just because there are "cell towers" it doesn't mean that they are for Nextel! > In particular Dobson cell towers serve Cingular Wireless, US > Cingular, and (Dobson's own) Cell One. So its not for a lack of > coverage that we were getting the 'no service' message. Quite the contrary. It's because there is no coverage that you indeed are getting that message. Nextel does not service the area or if they do there's not a tower that's near enough to provide service. > The tech punched in my zip code, and street address, then came back > and said 'no towers or service in your area'. This is your answer!!! I'm not sure why you think there's any more "solution" to your problem. Nextel does not service the area. > My next question was 'what about roaming?' If you do not have your own > cell tower, you must have access to someone else's tower in the area ... Nextel does not roam *at all.* If there's no service they do not roam on any other tower. Nextel uses the iDen technology. iDen is incompatible with all other wireless technologies whether CDMA, TDMA, AMPS or GSM. Technically iDen which Nextel uses is not even cellular service. It is SMR which is a glorified walkie-talkie system. > How odd ... I told him I heard many commercials on television saying > Nextel was either (take your pick) 'Worldwide' or 'Nationwide' and > the last I heard Kansas was part of the world and part of the nation. Don't take all advertisements as completely true in every situation. You really should know this for *any* ads. > I had thought about trying Nextel at one point, I am sure glad I did > not fall for that 'nationwide coverage' lie. No offense, but if you're going to use *any* service you need to check it out and make sure that it will work for the purpose and place you wish to use it. It's obvious to me that whoever checked out wireless options for where they were going to end up did not do their homework. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, it was not _me_ to start with. I have inquired of Mike Sandman who has Nextel (among other) services; he told me Nextel was not very good 'anywhere not along a major interstate', but now these guys are stuck with a couple phones that are useless, and a contract to boot. When newer technologies are sort of a mystery even to relatively experienced users, how is it that kids in their early/mid twenties getting a 'cellular phone' for the first time in their lives are expected to know anything? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising From: Robert Johnson Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 03:19:42 -0700 Nextel has No Roaming Charges as stated in all their ads "anywhere on Nextel's Nationwide Network" Nextel is Based on iDEN and operates in the 800 mhz band, if there is no iDEN network, the phone is a hockypuck, its worthless as a phone, so its not a lack of *some* coverage, its a lack of *COMPATIBLE* Coverage, Nextel cannot roam on a GSM, TDMA, CDMA or AMPS network, it must be iDEN, one of the drawback of Nextel is, it is not rural as a rule, unless you're in the southeast. Robert Johnson (feel free to spool this out to the list, just obscure my email if ya could) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If a cellular telephone company told you 'we have no roaming charges' would you take that to mean (1) we have arrangements with other carriers and do not charge you _extra money_ for roaming, or would you take that statement to mean (2) we do not have any roaming at all? Since in the past, the subject of excessive charges for 'roaming' on another carrier's network has often times been an issue (since resolved by many carriers with 'national' plans such as the old AT&T), wouldn't you think that statement would be interpreted as (1) above? PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: 31 Jul 2005 10:31:08 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > How odd ... I told him I heard many commercials on television saying > Nextel was either (take your pick) 'Worldwide' or 'Nationwide' and > the last I heard Kansas was part of the world and part of the nation. > His response was that to Nextel, the phrase 'x-wide' referred to > wherever they had towers, not elsewhere. About that same time there > came another Nextel commercial on _our_ television. Now don't you > think that is fraudulent to make those claims if they are not true? Nextel is not a cellular provider. They are something different. They do not use cellular frequencies or protocols, but use their own proprietary protocols on bits and pieces of the UHF business band. This gets to be interesting since the allocations they have are different in different areas. Anyway, they do have nationwide coverage. They aren't usable on every square foot of the country. No service is. Anybody who tells you that their service is, is lying. If you have an application that is so critical that you need connectivity at all times and all locations, you shouldn't be using cellular phones or Nextel at all. You'll find there are plenty of places where that AT&T phone you got does not work, too. It's like that. You want reliability, get a wire line. scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, but at least AT&T Wireless, when it existed, had the 'courtesy' to hold onto your call as long as it was possible to do so, and only when the signal got to be _so crappy_ it was no longer possible to hold you then they swapped you off to the closest Cellular One tower as an 'extended area' user if possible or a 'roamer' as needed. I know they (AT&T) did not like having to lose the traffic from a cell phone which is why instead of swapping you out to Cell One at a reasonable distance, they insisted on holding you until the signal was mostly (but not totally) unusable. That was my main complaint with AT&T; I am just a wee bit outside the range of Tulsa and a wee bit outside the range of Wichita, consequently AT&T would try to deal with me (and sometimes do so in a very crappy way), rather than hand me off to Dobson Cell One. When I went here in town to a very high point on a hill, and dialed zero (the 'O' operator) and asked her 'who are you?' she would say Tulsa. But Nextel does not even afford that limited opportunity for communication. But now I understand they have (or are going to) merge with Sprint. I wonder what will be the technical effects of that merger? Anyone have any ideas? PAT] ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: 31 Jul 2005 11:39:34 -0700 I believe the NYS Attorney General recently hauled them into court for false advertising. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Spritzer? He loves to sue one and all; it would not surprise me. I do not suggest that Nextel should be sued but rather, much like Vonage and the recent 911 fiasco, they should be obliged to spell it out in black and white a little better than they do: (1) "We do not have roaming service" (2)"Although we do serve a large portion of the public and are considered 'nationwide', we only serve mostly people centered near major interstate highways and in larger cities successfully" (3)"Our technology is not compatible with what is commonly referred to as 'cellular telephone service'. " 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #347 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jul 31 22:09:20 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 2E47C1506B; Sun, 31 Jul 2005 22:09:20 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #348 Message-Id: <20050801020920.2E47C1506B@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 22:09:20 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.6 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 31 Jul 2005 22:08:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 348 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet Security Gets Injunction vs. Former Worker (Reuters NewsWire) Hackers Race to Expose Cisco Internet Flaw (Andy Sullivan) Cincinnati Bell Sets New Rules in Wireless Plan (James Pilcher) Internet Ad Pioneer Now Shunning Pop-Ups (Anick Desjanun) Web Audio Book Leader Faces Competition (Monty Solomon) Parking Meters Get Smarter (Monty Solomon) Information Security/Where the Threats Are (Monty Solomon) Re: E-911 Making Headway In VOIP (David) Re: Cell Phone For VOIP - Home Device Imitates Provider Signal (Bonomi) Re: Cell Phone For VOIP - Home Device Imitates Provider Signal (Levine) Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? (Steven Lichter) Re: Nextel False Advertising (John R. Levine) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Garrett Wollman) 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: Reuters News Wire Subject: Internet Security Gets Injunction vs. Former Worker Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:57:00 -0500 A U.S. court ruling has barred a former Internet Security Systems employee from further disseminating research he has already disclosed on how computer hackers could undermine Internet equipment made by Cisco Systems that is vital to the operation of the Internet. The ruling by a U.S. District Court in San Francisco permanently bars former employee Michael Lynn and the Black Hat conference organization from disseminating, in any form, the presentation Lynn gave at the conference on Wednesday, Internet Security Systems Inc. said in a statement on Friday. Internet Security and San Jose, California-based Cisco, the biggest maker of gear used to direct traffic over the Internet, filed a joint request for the court injunction after Lynn gave the presentation. Lynn made the presentation after he had tendered his resignation to Internet Security. The conference, in Las Vegas, is a big gathering of computer security enthusiasts who mull the latest and greatest trends in tech security. The ruling forbids Lynn from making further use of, or disclosing, any of the research in the presentation that he conducted while employed by Internet Security, the company said. It said the information Lynn presented did not disclose a new vulnerability or flaw with Cisco Systems Inc.'s_(Nasdaq:CSCO - news) Internetwork Operating System software but was a description of ways to "expand exploitations of known security vulnerabilities" affecting Cisco's routers, which are vital to moving Internet traffic. Atlanta-based Internet Security Systems provides protection for these Cisco vulnerabilities. The companies were not immediately available to comment on whether Lynn's presentation had caused any increased efforts to undermine Cisco's equipment. Prior to the start of the conference, Lynn had informed the Black Hat organizers that he would not make a presentation at the show because Internet Security had determined that further research needed to be conducted on the topic to be presented, Internet Security said. Internet Security is known for its network intrusion prevention software that offers big companies in industries like banking and automotive protections to keep Internet menaces like viruses and spam from getting inside corporate networks. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Andy Sullivan Subject: Hackers Race to Expose Cisco Internet Flaw Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:54:23 -0500 By Andy Sullivan Computer hackers worked through the weekend to expose a flaw that could allow an attacker to take control of the Cisco Systems Inc. Angered and inspired by Cisco's attempts to suppress news of the flaw earlier in the week, several computer security experts at the Defcon computer-security conference worked past midnight Saturday to discover and map out the vulnerability. "The reason we're doing this is because someone said you can't," said one hacker, who like the others spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. Cisco's routers direct traffic across at least 60 percent of the Internet and the security hole has dominated a pair of conferences that draw thousands of security researchers, U.S. government employees and teenage troublemakers to Las Vegas each summer. The hackers said they had no intention of hijacking e-commerce payments, reading private e-mail, or launching any of the other malicious attacks that could be possible by exploiting the flaw. Rather, they said they wanted to illustrate the need for Cisco customers to update their software to defend against such possibilities. Many Cisco customers have postponed the difficult process because it could require them to unplug entirely from the Internet. Security researcher Michael Lynn first described the flaw on Wednesday at the Black Hat conference over the objections of Cisco and his former employer, Internet Security Systems Inc. Lynn helped Cisco develop a fix but wanted to discuss it publicly to raise awareness of the problem, according to associates, going so far as to quit his job with ISS so he could talk freely. "What (Lynn) ended up doing was describing how to build a missile without giving all the details. He gave enough (details) so people could understand how a missile could be built, and they could take their research from there," said a security expert who gave his name only as Simonsaz and who said he is not involved in the hacking effort. COURT ORDER After his presentation Cisco and ISS obtained a court order barring Lynn and the Black Hat organization from further disseminating details of the flaw. Cisco employees ripped Lynn's presentation from the conference program, according to witnesses, and Black Hat handed over its video recording of his talk. "ISS and Cisco's actions with Mr. Lynn and Black Hat were not based on the fact that a flaw was identified, rather that they chose to address the issue outside of established industry practices," said Cisco spokeswoman Mojgan Khalili, who added that the company is committed to protecting its customers. But those efforts have only inspired other security experts to take a crack at Cisco's software. "It's really saddening and disheartening to see Cisco taking this approach, because it leaves their customers less secure," one of the hackers said. In one of the hackers' hotel room, several Cisco routers sat surrounded by plastic beer cups on a coffee table. Two laptops on the floor displayed the software's source code, an endless blur of numbers. If they don't figure out how to take over Cisco's Internet Operating System software by the end of the weekend, their counterparts at a hacking festival in Europe will certainly do so, the hackers said. Some experts said the flaw has been blown out of proportion. Malevolent attackers are more likely to focus on easier targets such as home computers rather than the complex routers that direct traffic across the Internet, said Jon Callas, chief technical officer of PGP Corp., a provider of encryption software. "An awful lot of the buzz that is going around is buzz because of the use of lawyers and injunctions and lawsuits rather than the actual thing itself," said Callas, who is not involved in efforts to hack the software. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: James Pilcher Subject: Cincinnati Bell Sets 'New Rules' in Wireless Plan Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 17:52:02 -0500 By James Pilcher, Enquirer staff writer New Plan: Cincinnati Bell will unveil Monday a new calling plan, allowing unlimited calls to and from any Bell wireless or land-line number within the local calling area. All the plans include no contract, nationwide roaming, unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls, domestic long distance, voice mail, caller ID, call waiting and unlimited incoming text messages. Activation fees apply; off peak hours are 9 p.m. to 6 a.m Monday-Friday and weekends. Here are the details (plans are also available for 1,000 peak minutes and 3,000 peak minutes): Plan Unlimited Bell calling Plus 500 Peak mins. Plus 1,500 peak mins. Monthly rate $39.99 $59.99* $99.99 Nights & Weekends unlimited Unlimited unlimited Add'l. minute charges 20 cents 40 cents 25 cents Add'l. users $25/mo. $10/mo.** $10/mo.** Max. no. of users 5 5 10 * offered at an introductory rate of $49.99 for the first 3 months ** or $25/mo. for a Cincinnati Bell calling user "In Network?" "Friends & Family?" Cincinnati Bell thinks it's beaten such calling programs. The area's main telephone company -- and market leader for cell phone customers -- Monday will unveil a network and pricing initiative that will allow wireless subscribers to call any Cincinnati Bell phone, either land-based or wireless, for one flat monthly fee. It is thought to be the first program of its kind in the country, because other regional telephone companies either don't not offer cell phone service or are too large to pull off such an initiative. "We are very uniquely positioned for this," said Bell's recently installed chief operating officer Rodney Dir. "How important is it for a customer to be able to call potentially up to 2 million other customers without having it charge against their wireless minutes?" The move is seen as a way for Bell not only to boost sagging wireless subscriptions, but also to further defend its primary franchise - its land-line business, which is under attack from cable companies and other providers using Internet-based technology for home phones. "The value of having a land line goes up immediately for people," said Andy Castonguay, senior analyst with The Yankee Group, a Boston-based the technology consulting and analysis firm. "It also helps their branding from a standpoint that it encourages people to understand Cincinnati Bell as a total entity offers a converged, simple, one-stop shop." The plan, dubbed "New Rules," calls for wireless customers to pay about $40 a month for access to the network. Then all calls to all Cincinnati Bell wireless and land-line phones are free, as long as they are made within the local calling area. Calls to customers of other cell phone providers or to land lines operated by someone other than Bell or outside of the local network would cost 20 cents a minute. Long distance and roaming remain free. But Dir said that customers could pay an additional $20 a month to get 500 out-of-network minutes, adding that the $60 overall plan could be the company's new "sweet spot." "Our (revenue per user) for wireless is about $46 today," Dir said. "This really could raise that, especially since we feel this takes the worry out of having to make sure you're not going over on your minutes." In addition, Bell is revamping its traditional plans for those customers who don't want the free-calling feature, lowering its price for a standard 500-minute plan to about $40, which Dir says offers more minutes for the money than two of its major competitors in the market, Verizon and Cingular. And its traditional plans will include options for up to 6,000 minutes a month, which will cost about $200 a month. "And believe me, there are customers out there who want that kind of plan," said Dir, who previously served as an Atlanta-based vice president for national retail sales and operations for wireless operator T-Mobile. Bell lost $3 million in the first quarter, with the wireless division reporting flat revenues. It also reported that 2.6 percent of its customers left for other carriers. Dir said that the effects of the new efforts probably won't be seen until the fourth quarter, but that the hope is that the new plans will help build Bell's wireless subscriber base, which in turn could mean more wireless revenue. But Castonguay said that the new network plan could keep customers from wanting to shut off their land lines and just use cell phones or change home service to other operators such as Time Warner. "It really capitalizes on that fixed-line network and makes it more valuable," he said. Program has risk to Bell The company already had introduced free calling between Bell wireless customers, matching programs such as Verizon's "In Network." Bell also has offered free calls to a specified home number from a Bell cell phone since late last year. The extra charge Bell is asking for out-of-network calls could be a risk, however. "It's difficult to know how customers will react for that jump from $40 to $60 for those extra 500 minutes, and that's a gamble," said Castonguay. "But on the flip side, it could be a big hit with their business enterprise customers as well." At the same time Bell is launching the "New Rules," the company is launching a marketing offensive touting its local wireless network as the best in Cincinnati. While saying that the new pricing and network plans as well as the new ad campaign were positive moves overall, Castonguay said there are concerns with setting expectations too high for customers. "Those can be difficult to manage, with people thinking their bill could be lower and then they call a bunch of out-of-network friends," he said. "This is true for all the national wireless guys with major plans. "Still, this changes the whole value proposition of a home phone line combined with a cell phone," he said. E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com Copyright 2005, The Enquirer 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Cincinnati Enquirer. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtm ------------------------------ From: Anick Jesdanun Subject: Internet Ad Pioneer Now Shunning Pop-Ups Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:55:45 -0500 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer A pioneer of software that tailors pop-up ads to Internet users' browsing habits is beginning to shun a practice that has invited much derision and plenty of lawsuits. A new service Claria Corp. is launching this month will still deliver advertising to the computer desktops of Web surfers. Only this time, they won't be annoying pop-ups. So-called personalization -- targeting surfers with ads based on their online outings and errands -- was always Claria's goal, says its co-founder and chief executive, Jeff McFadden. Pop-ups delivered via adware, which is often criticized as sneaky in its installation, were merely a stepping stone as Claria waited for the technology to improve and the behavioral-targeting market to ripen, he said. "It was never a destination," McFadden told The Associated Press. "There's a lot of people who aren't fans of the pop-up model." Some might consider that an understatement from the head of a company whose name has become synonymous with adware, which many consider a cyberparasite or worse. Although Scott Eagle, Claria's director of marketing, said market forces ultimately drove the decision, he acknowledged the new strategy could help improve the image of a company that has bothered more than consumers. The New York Times Co. and L.L. Bean Inc. are among businesses that have sued Claria for delivering pop-up ads that they said subverted paid advertising or lured visitors to rivals. Claria even changed its name in 2003 from Gator Corp., though the company insists it wasn't a response to mounting criticism. "It is a little naive of them to believe they can introduce a product and have the sins of the past forgotten completely," said Jeff Lanctot, vice president of media at Avenue A/Razorfish, an ad-placement agency whose sister company makes behavioral-targeting technology that could compete with Claria's. "They have to be completely aboveboard and take extra steps other companies don't have to do to gain trust back," said Ari Schwartz, associate director with the Center for Democracy and Technology. Many of Claria's critics remain skeptical. Claria's new services will still require a software download "just like the old Claria software," said Ben Edelman, a Harvard University student who specializes in spyware research. "The question is how sneaky they are going to be about it." Claria's software typically comes bundled with free products such as its own eWallet password-storage program and file-sharing software like Kazaa. Though licensing agreements disclose the ad components, many computer users don't bother reading them. And that prompts complaints that Claria isn't doing enough to obtain consent. In the new model, Claria will work with developers of toolbars and instant-messaging programs as well as reputable Web sites - and largely have them bear responsibility for branding and getting consumer consent. The Interactive Advertising Bureau says pop-ups peaked at 6 percent of all online advertising two years ago and have been declining since. America Online Inc. stopped selling pop-up ads in 2002, and most Web browsers now block them. Even so, Claria claims it commanded 20 percent of the adware market with $100 million in revenues last year, mostly from pop-ups delivered through software on some 40 million computer desktops. The 7-year-old company, which has 235-odd employees at its Redwood City, Calif., headquarters and other locations, began a pilot in May of a new ad network called BehaviorLink that serves banner ads targeted to a user's interests. With software for it installed, someone reading online news articles on maternity might get pitches for baby products. And while Claria's pop-up ads sometimes covered up someone else's Web site, BehaviorLink ads come with the site's permission. In some cases, Claria buys ad space and resells it at a premium; in others, Claria works out a revenue-sharing arrangement. Companies like Revenue Science Inc. and Tacoda Systems Inc. also offer behavioral-targeting services but they use browser "cookies" instead of software downloads, meaning they could potentially reach more users overall but won't have Claria's across-the-Web targeting capabilities. The product Claria is launching this month, in a test version, is called PersonalWeb. It generates "personalized Web portals" on the fly so that a user who just checked baseball scores and movie show times might get a page pulling top items from ESPN and Moviefone. The page will also display targeted ads from BehaviorLink. An existing portal can also buy Claria's technology to incorporate personalization. Though Yahoo Inc. and others now have customization features, they rely on users to set preferences and are not automatic. BehaviorLink and PersonalWeb combined, Eagle said, will mean more time spent on each site and more value for each ad. Traditional advertising has up to 30 times the potential of adware pop-ups, he said, making Claria a possible target for acquisition. He insisted, though, that Claria was happy to remain independent, and he refused to comment on reports that Microsoft Corp. has been in talks to buy Claria. Claria still must navigate some challenging terrain on privacy and consent, and many key decisions still need to be worked out. For example, although Claria said it would obtain permission before activating PersonalWeb, it is negotiating on a site-by-site basis whether that permission would be limited to a specific site that runs PersonalWeb or cover the entire network. Claria says its data on browsing habits are all anonymous, but it is open to letting partners link such information with personally identifiable information. Whatever happens, users will be fully informed before they accept, said Reed Freeman, Claria's chief privacy officer. Benefits to the consumer, he said, will be easier to explain than the previous trade-off between free software and more pop-ups. Larry Ponemon, one of three outside privacy consultants hired by Claria, said complaints about privacy stem more from annoyance with pop-ups rather than any data collected. Non-adware companies might capture more data but get fewer complaints, he said. Claria still must win over the Web sites that once sued it. Eagle said most have been willing to listen, even if they have yet to sign deals. Advertisers that have shunned pop-ups, meanwhile, have been more willing to run traditional ads through Claria, Eagle said, though he declined to name any of the 250 advertisers participating in BehaviorLink's pilot. Elias Plishner, head of the interactive group at Universal McCann ad agency, said many companies that previously weren't willing to "dip their toes into behavior marketing" might now be willing to give Claria a chance. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Associated Press and other headlines also available at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 21:06:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Web Audio Book Leader Faces Competition By JEFFREY GOLD AP Business Writer NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Mary Lou Kalbow started listening to books while driving a five-hour rural postal route in Minnesota about five years ago. Now she downloads titles by Janet Evanovich, Jonathan Kellerman and James Patterson to her portable MP3 player and listens all day while she works as a massage therapist. "I like to be entertained. Mystery, action, a love story. Something that keeps me on the edge of my seat," said Kalbow, 52. Kalbow is one of the thousands of devotees of Audible Inc., a pioneer in the listenable literature business that remains the Internet's top provider of audio books. The company is about to need plenty more people like her. Just as Audible is finally beginning to show profits, the prospect of stiff competition looms from Amazon.com Inc., a partner that now plans to launch its own audio book store. Another loss came with the departure of National Public Radio, whose programs are no longer available to download from Audible's Web site. Many investors revolted when Audible plowed several million dollars in revenue back into developing such services as partnerships with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. for taking audio books on the road, including on next-generation cell phones. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50811481 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 21:16:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Parking Meters Get Smarter Wireless Technology Turns Old-Fashioned Coin-Operated Device Into a Sophisticated Tool for Catching Scofflaws and Raising Cash By CHRISTOPHER CONKEY Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Technology is taking much of the fun out of finding a place to park the car. In Pacific Grove, Calif., parking meters know when a car pulls out of the spot and quickly reset to zero -- eliminating drivers' little joy of parking for free on someone else's quarters. In Montreal, when cars stay past their time limit, meters send real-time alerts to an enforcement officer's hand-held device, reducing the number of people needed to monitor parking spaces -- not to mention drivers' chances of getting away with violations. Meanwhile, in Aspen, Colo., wireless "in-car" meters may eliminate the need for curbside parking meters altogether: They dangle from the rear-view mirror inside the car, ticking off prepaid time. These and other innovations are reshaping the parking meter, a device that dates to 1933, when an Oklahoma inventor named Carl Magee, working with some colleagues, came up with the coin-operated, single-space mechanical meter as a means of freeing up parking spaces in downtown Oklahoma City. Two Arkansas companies have dominated the industry: POM Inc., of Russellville, which traces its lineage to Mr. Magee and his band of inventors; and Duncan Parking Technologies Inc., of Harrison. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112008647932273412-wcgfanaRACAlCq6aTdEWvysXWoY_20060701,00.html http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/MK-AE705B_METERS06292005200218.jpg ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 21:51:12 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Where the Dangers Are / The Threats to Information Security Where the Dangers Are The threats to information security that keep the experts up at night -- and what businesses and consumers can do to protect themselves By DAVID BANK and RIVA RICHMOND Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL July 18, 2005; Page R1 In the world of cybercrime, the bad guys are getting smarter -- and more ambitious. In recent months, hackers have carried out a flurry of increasingly sophisticated attacks, highlighting the vulnerability of key computer networks around the world. Criminals penetrated the database of CardSystems Solutions Inc., nabbing up to 200,000 Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover card numbers and potentially exposing tens of millions more. Leading high-tech companies in Israel allegedly planted surveillance software on the computers of their business rivals. British security officials warned of a computer attack aimed at stealing sensitive information from banks, insurers and other parts of that country's "critical infrastructure." Security experts fear things will only get worse. As technology gets more complex, more vulnerabilities are springing up in computer networks -- and more criminals, terrorists and mischief makers are rushing to exploit them. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112128442038984802-lh_hMWcw_kpdRcSHfQ8KRQuAoZA_20060719,00.html ------------------------------ From: David Reply-To: FlyLikeAnEagle@United.Com Subject: Re: E-911 Making Headway in VOIP Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 01:26:23 GMT On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 07:03:41 UTC, Tim@Backhome.org wrote: > Wayne Rash wrote: >> Things change when you're not connected to the phone company's >> lines. Cell phone users, for example, are connected to their wireless >> provider. Until recently, the best the wireless company could do was >> to have a general idea of the area of the caller, accurate perhaps to >> several square miles. Now, with more accurate location being mandated, >> phones can be located using other means, including GPS (Global >> Positioning System) receivers embedded in many phones. > GPS works only outdoors in a relatively open area. It never works > indoors except perhaps when right next to a very large window with > plain glass. > This is the problem with technology that is not well understood by > those who propose using it for solutions under less than robust > circumstances. The basic problem with the VOIP Technology, as it relates to 911 and related emergency services, is that the location of the caller needs to be known to help deliver the call to the desired destination. In the USA, calls to 9-1-1 (general emergency, police, fire, and ambulance) and related local service numbers (information, local services) would need to have the callers location available. Ideally, this would be in a form that the destination system could use. Local service numbers might need a community address. The USA definition of E9-1-1 would prefer a more specific address or possibly a less definite GPS origin. There are many possible solutions to this problem. Unfortunately there is no widely established standard for a VOIP Device or internet connected computer system to specify its location. Since no standard exists, many competing standards are likely to emerge that will solve some portion of the problem but not for everyone. It will take a few years for a unified response to the problem of locating internet based callers. I have seen solutions that enable VOIP Devices to be identified within known network bounds -- say a building or company address. Certainly VOIP Devices used as a replacement for standard wireline phones will be easy to locate. However, as such phones move into the wild, as a Vonage-like phone is intended to be used, the location quickly becomes unknown. As a few unfortunate callers have learned, a standard such as "calling 911" is only as good as the underlying system that supports it. Hopefully the powers-that-be will encourage the necessary components to be linked together to establish a workable system. Until then, try to understand the limits of whatever system you choose to use and what the proper methods of contacting local services would be. David ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Cell Phone For VOIP - Home Device Imitates Provider Signal Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 23:46:43 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , jhedfors wrote: > I wonder if such a device is feasible? > Could there be a device that gives give off a home network signal that > your cell phone can connect to as it does your service provider? You > could then user your cell handset for VOIP calls when near such a > device. > There is talk of special wi-fi enabled phones doing this, but this > could be used with any phone, and could possibly be wi-fi enabled as > well. > Any thoughts? "Feasible"?? H*LL NO!! It would be a commercial transmitter. This requires FCC 'type acceptance' or (in special cases) acceptance testing of the specific transmitter. Costs are in the high-5-to-middle-6-figures left of the decimal point. A FCC station _license_ for that device would also be required. The costs for generating the supporting data needed for the license are 'non trivial', to put it mildly. That's _before_ considering the 'design' costs of such a device. That's going to be _another_ high-5-to-middle-six-figure amount -- DESPITE the fact that you can use the basic design of a standard cell station. You have to have 'something' to replace the functionality for determining which cell answers a call, 'validating' the phone, managing inter-cell hand-off, etc. Even if you're not using the particular facilities for call management, you have to provide the basic 'control' functions to the cell station for *it* to operate properly. There's a *lot* of software to design/build/test, for 'emulating' the un-needed/un-used head-end functions required by a standard cell base-station. Next, you've got the tooling and start-up costs for the production line to build the d*mn things. Direct manufacturing cost is going to be in the low hundreds of dollars, *minimum*. Plus 'overhead' costs -- things like advertising, etc. Plus something towards recouping the 'development' costs mentioned above. Plus distributer/wholesaler mark-ups. If you peg the total development/start-up cost at 'a few million dollars', you have to sell a few thousand of these devices a year, _at_a_PROFIT_ of over $100/unit, just to cover 'debt service' on the development costs. Totalling: several hundred manufacturing cost, minimum $100 for debt service, plus 'something' towards retiring that debt, plus 'overhead' -- mgmt, marketing, etc., plus distribution costs -- I don't see _how_ such a device could carry a 'street' price much below $1,000 (probably _considerably_ higher). Considering that the buyer also has all the expenses of getting that FCC station license, I really question whether the sales of 'several thousand units/year' that the debt-service figure was predicated on is reachable. If the market is only 10 units/year, then you've got to get circa $10-25,000 per unit _just_ for the 'debt service'. After all that, there is the 'minor' issue of how that base station 'knows' what the particular phone's "home network" _is_. and how to send the right 'magic incantations' associated therewith. *AND* the matter of either 'co-ordinating' with the "real" cell-tower network so that call-handling is 'handed off' to this device, *or* of providing an over-riding signal such that the phone 'cannot see/hear' the real network when in range of this device. In the latter scenario, you have a *major* problem in ensuring that the "effect" of your base-station doesn't extend to anybody else's phones -- going by outside. (Not to mention the 'minor matter' of it being illegal to intentionally interfere with the transmissions of another licensed station. ) *AND* the "problem" that arises when two people -- in adjacent apartments, say -- *both* try to install such a device. and one person finds that in half his apartment, he's "closer" to the other person's base station than he is to his _own_ station. Oh, yeah, their phones are both on the same 'real' carrier, so you can't even differentiate by 'home' network. To make this idea "workable" -- in a theoretical sense -- you'd need to re-design the cell *phone* itself. with a separate "mode" of operation, where it locked up to this 'private' base-station, and made no attempt to query the "common-management" and/or use an alternate cell with a "better" signal. If there is *one* thing that this 'crazy idea' is not, that thing is 'feasible'! "Feasible" means 'practical, from a _financial_ point' -- and 'finances' do look to be a real 'killer' for this project. Not the only one, but a killer nonetheless. ------------------------------ Date: 31 Jul 2005 22:35:41 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Cell Phone For VOIP - Home Device Imitates Provider Signal Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Could there be a device that gives give off a home network signal that > your cell phone can connect to as it does your service provider? You > could then user your cell handset for VOIP calls when near such a > device. Technically? I suppose so, although the device would have to spoof your phone's preferred carrier to get the phone to connect. But in practice, there's no way this would happen since the frequencies in question are licensed to the cell carriers, and they would not be at all amused at freelance low-power competition that would steal their calls. > There is talk of special wi-fi enabled phones doing this, but this > could be used with any phone, and could possibly be wi-fi enabled as > well. WiFi is different, since it uses the same unlicenced band as 2.4MHz cordless phones. For that matter, why screw around with WiFi? Just make it a cell/cordless phone. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 22:38:57 GMT hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Back in the 1960s, the Bell System employed a great many telephone > operators in different roles. Some of the jobs looked very > interesting, such as overseas or toll operator on a cord switchboard. > Others looked extremely boring, such as directory assistance or ONI > (caller's number entry). I was wondering how an operator got assigned > to the different roles and if pay scales differed for the different > roles. > To me, Directory Assistance and Intercept seem awfully boring. It's > just looking up numbers in the various phone books. > The worst would be ONI. Before ANI (automatic number identification > became common) an operator had to come on line and ask their caller > for their number. She would key it into the system which would use it > for AMA billing. Her console for that did nothing else. > The most exciting, and available only in a few places, would be an > overseas operator. The technical handling of different countries > would be a challenge as well as speaking to overseas parties. Now > it's no big deal but back then it was. > The middle of the road would be toll and assistance on a cord > switchboard. These operators would handle trouble with local calls, > coin collection from all payphone calls, and operator handled toll > calls (collect, time & charges, person-to-person, 3rd billing, etc.) > While most toll calls were directly dialed and no big deal to set up, > occassionally a call would have to be specially built-up the old > fashioned way. > As the 1960s went into the 1970s operator jobs were reduced. Bell > charged for directory assistance and operator handled toll calls, > reducing the volume. Computerized switchboards such as TSP/TSPS > streamlined the function and "took the fun out of it". > Our retired small town telephone operator started as a teenager during > WW II. She enjoyed working the town's local manual switchboard and it > was just like in the movies -- calls handled by name and keeping track of > where the doctor and policeman were in town. When the town went dial > in 1954, she was transferred to a nearby city where it was a completely > different atmosphere -- very structured and disciplined. When I toured > some Bell central offices in the 1970s the operator's areas didn't seem > quite as 'tight' as the 1950s is described. > The last manual boards in my area -- in suburban towns -- were retired > around 1962. One area was fairly built up and would've had a lot of > traffic, enough to justify the "A" and "B" boards (calls received by > an "A" board, then passed to the appropriate "B" board for final > connection). I wonder if those locations were disciplined. I worked in the COs with GTE and many of the large ones had operators, and yes they were ran like the Bells were as many of the managers were former Bell people that left for one reason or another, that went for the stockings and such, no pants until the late 70s. As you said when TSPS systems came online things changed. I worked a lot of the TSPS conversons, the directors had to be modified and tested then we had to move 800 and payphone detection systems and convert them for TSPS. As the changes were made fewer and fewer offices Toll offices and a few remotes. I remeber one cut, it was and the Redondo Beach, Co, which was in Hermosa Beach; right at the boarder. As we cut offices into the TSPS offices, there were less operators on shift and less for them to do, the last office to cut in that area was Redondo and when we cut it all the boards went dark. I remember some of the operators coing into the CO to see what we were doing, they were either very young kids or older woman who had been operators for years, they were transfere to other offices and jobs, it was really said. The same came as we converted our offices to EAX. The good old days. Well I'm retired for the most part, I do some COEI contracting when I feel like it, it is just not the same. > I also wonder what city switchboards (not tiny towns) were like under > General Telephone and other independent companies. Did their city > switchboards have the same discipline as the Bell System have the same > strictness? [In the computer world, IBM was very formal while its > competitors were not.] > Historically, there wasn't much of a career path for a telephone > operator. Often young women took the job for a few years until they > got married or had kids, and then they quit. Some returned after the > kids were grown. A few would get promoted to be supervisors. Others > would leave and get jobs as PBX operators -- almost all large PBX > installations required an operator to be "Bell trained" and have Bell > Telephone experience to get hired. As a PBX operator, one might have > career advancement within the particular company depending on her > skills and the attitude of the company (ie going from operator to > office secretary). The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: 31 Jul 2005 18:28:45 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I believe the NYS Attorney General recently hauled them into court for > false advertising. If he did, he managed to do so without issuing a press release nor without anyone in the media noticing, which is rather unlikely. Last year he did complain that Nextel was buying new spectrum too cheaply, but that's an entirely separate issue. He did force Verizon to add some anti-cramming protections earlier this year. Perhaps that's what you're thinking of. R's, John ------------------------------ From: wollman@khavrinen.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 22:31:56 UTC Organization: MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory In article , PAT writes: > (2)"Although we do serve a large portion of the public and are > considered 'nationwide', we only serve mostly people centered near > major interstate highways and in larger cities successfully" Look closely at the advertising and you'll probably find that they do say that. There's probably some fine print to the tune of "nationwide coverage claims based on 89% of US population". That means that they don't claim to serve the least-economical 11% of the country, as determined by population, which is of course a huge land area. They could exclude all of Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas and still meet that claim. (In actuality, they probably do serve, KCK, Wichita, Omaha, Lincoln, Sioux Falls, Fargo, and Bismarck -- just not the hundreds of miles of small towns and farms in between.) Their Web site is quite honest about this (much more so than most carriers' coverage maps that I have seen): Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every wollman@csail.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own Opinions not those | search for greater freedom. of MIT or CSAIL. | - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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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 V24 #348 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Aug 1 23:43:23 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 8DE6B14F84; Mon, 1 Aug 2005 23:43:23 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #349 Message-Id: <20050802034323.8DE6B14F84@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 23:43:23 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.7 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, BODY_ENHANCEMENT2,INFO_TLD,MAILTO_TO_REMOVE autolearn=no version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 1 Aug 2005 23:42:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 349 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Info Appliance Offers Nice Touches, but It's Costly (Monty Solomon) Comparison Shopping (Monty Solomon) Apple to Add Trusted Computing to the New Kernel? (Monty Solomon) BellSouth Rolls Out Wireless Broadband Service (USTelecom dailyLead) Personal Opinion Telegram and Mailgram - Discontinuance? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Unauthorized Remote Access to Answering Machine (Lisa Hancock) Re: Cincinnati Bell Sets 'New Rules' in Wireless Plan (Steve Sobol) Re: Cell Phone For VOIP - Home Device Imitates Provider Signal (Tim) Re: itunes is a RIPOFF (AES) Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? (John McHarry) Re: Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users (David Quinton) Re: Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users (rsvlsys.com) Re: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By AllTel (Ryan) Re: Credit Reports, was Re: AT&T Customers Taken Over By Alltel (Cryder) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Danny Burstein) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Ron Chapman) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Steve Sobol) Re: Nextel False Advertising (NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Lee Sweet) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Joseph) Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" (Tony P.) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 22:10:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Info Appliance Offers Nice Touches, but It's Costly By WALTER S. MOSSBERG For years, there have been sporadic efforts to create a digital device that would be simpler and more reliable than a personal computer, yet large enough and capable enough to carry out the most common tasks PCs perform. The movement for such "information appliances," which I supported, was especially strong in the early and mid-1990s, when computers running Microsoft Windows were far more complicated and crash-prone than they are today. Several companies tried to build desktop and laptop-computer-size information appliances, but none of the designs captivated the public, and they cost almost as much as a cheap PC. The movement lost steam by 2001, when both Microsoft and Apple Computer were producing better-designed, more stable PC operating systems. Information appliances actually did arrive, but in a different guise -- the smart cellphone and the advanced personal digital assistant, or PDA. These hand-held devices are gradually accumulating the hardware power and software selection needed to do most core PC tasks, like Web surfing, email and even document creation. Now, however, a small Massachusetts startup company is making another go at the full-size information appliance. The company, Pepper Computer, is launching a slick-looking tablet device called the Pepper Pad, which it hopes will attract PC users and nonusers alike as a simple, convenient tool for using the Internet, playing digital media, keeping a journal and more. The idea is to offer something as convenient and simple as a Web-connected PDA without the complexity and security problems of a PC. The rugged device even has a tiny, built-in keyboard that can be used for thumb typing. It also comes with desktop software that lets users wirelessly synchronize the Pepper Pad's contents with a Windows PC (Mac compatibility is in the works). In my tests of the Pepper Pad over the past few days, I found it mostly did what was promised, but it isn't quite as easy and intuitive to use as its makers claim. Many of its built-in programs offer limited functionality and seem rough around the edges. And, at $799, it costs more than some laptops and much more than a basic desktop PC. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20050721.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 22:13:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Comparison Shopping By WALTER S. MOSSBERG While the online shopping business continues to attract new customers, few shoppers are about to completely forgo trips to the mall anytime soon. But shopping online has one advantage that physical shopping has lacked: With a few keystrokes, prices on one retail Web site can be compared with the sale prices on another. When you shop at bricks-and-mortar stores, you have to manually compare prices in ads, or rely on tips from friends about good deals. But the Net's comparison shopping power now is being extended to the physical world as well. This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested two Web sites that enable consumers to search for items that are on sale in physical stores, making it much easier for price-driven shoppers to find the best deals. The sites that we tested, Cairo.com and ShopLocal.com, helped us find plenty of things on sale at our neighborhood stores, without so much as leafing through a Sunday circular. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20050727.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 09:42:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple to Add Trusted Computing to the New Kernel? Cory Doctorow People working with early versions of the forthcoming Intel-based MacOS X operating system have discovered that Apple's new kernel makes use of Intel's Trusted Computing hardware. If this "feature" appears in a commercial, shipping version of Apple's OS, they'll lose me as a customer -- I've used Apple computers since 1979 and have a Mac tattooed on my right bicep, but this is a deal-breaker. http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/31/apple_to_add_trusted.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 14:18:00 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: BellSouth Rolls Out Wireless Broadband Service USTelecom dailyLead August 1, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23490&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * BellSouth rolls out wireless broadband service BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Nokia taps insider to succeed Ollila * Report: Telecom companies use wireless stores to sell fixed-line services * Study: PC emerges as top digital hub * Cingular sells stake in India's Idea Cellular USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * USTelecom's McCormick Stands Up for Industry on CBS News HOT TOPICS * Motorola shows off the "Q" * Ten technologies every CEO should know about * Telecom act update proposed * Rural telco raises $203M in IPO * Cisco makes home-networking play EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Telework gains favor in some high-tech companies * Web-based programming content catching on * Uploading over broadband is too slow, some say REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Senator takes aim at file-sharing companies Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23490&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: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Personal Opinion Telegram and Mailgram - Discontinuance? Date: 1 Aug 2005 10:51:02 -0700 Back in the 1960s and 1970s Western Union offered a discount telegram service called the Personal Opinion Telegram. They simply used teleprinters located in every state capitol and in Washington. I recall using the service on occassion. See: http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/technical/western-union-tech-review/22-3/p120.htm This service seemed to last fairly long, even after conventional telegrams fell out of favor. Would anyone know when it was officially discontinued? Western Union with the US Post Office also offered a popular and profitable service known as Mailgram. WU would send your message to a teleprinter in a post office where it would be delivered in the next mail. This was a prompt and cost-effective way to communicate important information. Industries used it extensively to officially notify laid-off workers to return to work. While Mailgram didn't offer proof of delivery, it did offer proof of sending which is important*. I remember when Compuserve opened up it offered the option to send a Mailgram and some businesses had a terminal on site to send Mailgrams. Would anyone know when it was officially discontinued? *The US post office will give you an official receipt "Certificate of Mailing" as proof of mailing (but NOT proof of delivery) for a nominal fee. It is cheaper than Certified Mail and in some cases adequate as proof of response. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In this final paragraph, what Lisa is referring to is often times known as 'poor man's certified mail'. It is the theory -- usually correct -- that if you mail something and do not get it back undelivered, it i presumed to have 'stuck' at its destination. We are assuming now that the post office is doing its job also ... big assumption maybe. Ask at the post office for a 'certificate of mailing sticker' when you want to use it. You _must_ present the item to be mailed to the clerk at the counter; _do not_ just drop it in a slot or whatever. You have to _hand_ the letter to them; they will then stamp their cancellation indicia on the envelope and take it from you. You get half of the 'certificate' (which is glued on the face of the mailing piece) also with indicia supplied by them. That is your 'proof of mailing'. "I mailed you the letter, it stuck (that is, I did not get it back undeliverable) so therefore you must have gotten it." The recipient does _not_ sign for it; it is just dumped in their mailbox like everything else that day. It is called 'poor mans certified' since it serves about the same purpose (except for the recieving signature) and it costs considerably less. A certified outgoing letter (which you also have to hand over to an employee at the counter) costs a few dollars; proof of mailing on the other hand costs a few cents more than regular mail. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Unauthorized Remote Access to Answering Machine Date: 1 Aug 2005 11:47:14 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Choreboy: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It could be a spy machine, but I think > it more likely that you/relatives are being terrorized by an incorrectly > programmed fax machine ... Just like voice calls, fax users may enter/dial the wrong number. The problem is compounded by the fact that many fax machines store the document and retry if the call doesn't go through. That could be in a few minutes or the next day. It drives people crazy. I once got such calls. I was able to hook up my computer and set it to fax so I could receive the fax and I did. It was a normal business communication and the sender transposed two digits, enterting my number by mistake. I telephoned the sender and explained what happened. > ... Like complaints made to the Illinois Commerce > Commission where the complaint is raised and the prissy old lady > secretary at the Commission makes a _single_ phone call of inquiry, > then folds her hands and announces self-righteously "I have called the > company and they _assure_ me it will be corrected" ... I know people bothered by such calls at home and complained to the phone company. Normally the problem ended at that point with no more effort by the customer. I think today they have some good trace tools and don't fool around with errant fax callers. > ... Telco explained to FNB > (I assume with a straight face) what had happened. I do not know if > telco eventually wrote it off (as they used to do _everything_ that > a customer would not pay for) or not. Some years ago, due to a CO wiring error, my toll calls were charged to some business. The business complained and the phoneco would NOT write off the calls. After the business made a big enough stink, the phoneco traced down the problem and transferred the charges to me. (The orig rep said since it was their error I could pay for it over a few months, but then a subsequent rep demanded payment in full immediately). > I wonder if the people using the hotel public fax machine wherever in > your account also blamed the added charges on their bill on a screw > up by the hotel switchboard. Probably. I've noticed that many people don't check their bills the way people once did. I don't know if it's laziness, stupidity, over complexity, but auditors go nuts finding obivous overcharges left uncorrected by staff. Years ago if people had a strange 5c call on their phone bill they'll call the phone company and raise heck. Nowadays many people don't bother. For myself, the damn phone bill is so big and complex it's hard to interpret -- and that's with national unlimited! Even if I do find a 25c error, I'm not going to bother to waste my time to call and complain. (When I got a $25.00 charge for a calling card I most certainly did complain.) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Several years ago I was living in a residential apartment building with a tenant switchboard. I preferred to have a personal 'direct line' which was okayed by the management. Trouble is, it was never billed to me' not for about a year anyway. Since Chicago had 'unlimited call pack' in those days, there was never any reason for any charges to go through the accounting department on it. Then one day, a long distance charge _did_ get billed to the line; it 'fell out' into suspense when telco accounting was unable to find a 'home' for it. Telco person working the suspense ledger tried the technique of actually calling the number, hearing it ring, therefore it was a working number. Telco person then calls outside plant and asks them "why didn't you give accounting _our_ copy of this new order?" No good answer to that; they had to reconstruct the paperwork for the accounting people. When my bill finally arrived it was backdated to _one year_ plus the usual 'month in advance'. I complained, and the service rep apologized and said she would give me time to pay it off. I naturally suggested why don't you write it off and let me start from fresh. But I could hear service rep snickering as she said, "Yes, it was our fault taking so long, but Mr. Townson, you _knew_ what was happening with it, didn't you? I'll give you three or four months to pay a little each month; I will not write it off, but a few reps in this office would place you with an agency right now and not give you any time!" PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Cincinnati Bell Sets 'New Rules' in Wireless Plan Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 21:54:39 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com James Pilcher wrote: > By James Pilcher, Enquirer staff writer > New Plan: > Cincinnati Bell will unveil Monday a new calling plan, allowing > unlimited calls to and from any Bell wireless or land-line number > within the local calling area. Companies like Cricket and MetroPCS are already doing this. Northcoast PCS does it upstate, in Columbus and Cleveland (I used to be a customer of theirs), and a former boss of mine in Cleveland is presumably still on the Alltel $69.99 plan that allows unlimited local calling. (Alltel offers similar plans in other markets, too.) CintiBell's a little late ... Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Cell Phone For VOIP - Home Device Imitates Provider Signal Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 05:27:36 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications I've used a cordless phone with my Vonage service for three years now. Why reinvent the wheel? jhedfors wrote: > I wonder if such a device is feasible? > Could there be a device that gives give off a home network signal that > your cell phone can connect to as it does your service provider? You > could then user your cell handset for VOIP calls when near such a > device. > There is talk of special wi-fi enabled phones doing this, but this > could be used with any phone, and could possibly be wi-fi enabled as > well. > Any thoughts? > J ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: itunes is a RIPOFF Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 10:17:30 -0700 Organization: Stanford University Posters on the first three of various newsgroups, in a to date very lengthy thread, have posted: >> I stand behind it! My decision to dump TV was a good one and I'm >> definitely happy with it. > They called the area in which Leipzig or Dresden sits (I can't > remember which city) the valley of the dumb during the time of the > DDR, as the West German TV was not available to them because of the > geography. > So if you wish to separate yourself from the world in this way, go ahead. > You will regret it one day, I assure you. I just got in on the tail end of this thread, but I wonder if something I heard (or think I recall hearing) on NPR the other day is (a) true?, and (b) relevant -- viz. Professional TV producers and other network personnel commonly speak of "content" and "fill" in their TV programming. To them, "content" refers (really!) to the **advertising** part of their programming. And "fill" refers to all the rest of stuff (aka junk) that they have to (reluctantly) intersperse between the advertising, to get people to watch the (much more important) "content". Notes: 1) If this is not true, apologies. I'm pretty sure I heard it, but I was driving at the time and could have misheard it. 2 I've added comp.dcom.telecom to the reply list, not to drag that group into the rest of this otherwise not very great thread, but because there may be some professionals there who know if the above assertions are correct. 3) Even if it's not true, it's entirely believable (especially to anyone who's watched cable TV). 4) By this definition, certain TV channels -- e.g., the shopping and "infomercial" channels -- have managed to reach the happy situation of having 100% "content" and zero useless "fill". 5) If it's actually true, and it's NPR who let the secret out, you can fully understand why the Bush administration is all out to kill NPR. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? Date: 31 Jul 2005 19:51:42 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Steven Lichter wrote: > As you said when TSPS systems came online things changed. I worked a > lot of the TSPS conversons, the directors had to be modified and > tested then we had to move 800 and payphone detection systems and > convert them for TSPS. As the changes were made fewer and fewer > offices Toll offices and a few remotes. ... I > remember some of the operators coing into the CO to see what we were > doing, they were either very young kids or older woman who had been > operators for years, they were transfere to other offices and jobs, it > was really said. Both veteran operators and Brooks' "Telephone" said TSP/TSPS wasn't as satisfying as cord switchboards. TSP did all the interesting stuff automatically. From the company's and customer's viewpoint, it was much more efficient. Occassionally, they still had to 'build up' a call by relay the old fashioned way. One time I had trouble placing a call and the operator did that for me, it was interesting to listen. I wonder if they can (or would) do that today. For some reason, my home exch was served by two types of operators. If we just dialed zero, we got a older toll & assist cord board in one location. But if we dialed 0+ or 1+ from a payphone, we went to a TSP office in a different location. That TSP did not handle plain 0 calls for some reason even though it was part of the design. (One other quirk we had: local Info was 411, long distance was 1+ac+555-1212. But distant Info within the area code (short range toll calls) was explicitly stated to go through 0. Then they went to 555-1212 for local Info (to discourage use). Now we're back to 411 for everything. I don't know when they hit you with a charge.) > The same came as we converted our offices to EAX. The good old days. What's "EAX"? > (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Traditional Bell had a habit of always using an 'X' to mean 'e(X)change', as in PBX (P)rivate (B)ranch e(X)change, FX as in (F)oreign E(X)change, and PAX as (P)rivate (A)utomatic e(X)change. An exception was FAX as in (FACS)imile Service. But you asked about EAX which was (E)lectronic (A)utomatic e(X)change, or another name for an electronic and automated switchboard. Of course there is also CENTREX or a (C)entral Office e(X)change. The only difference between a PBX and a PAX is the former involved an operator at a manual cordboard in a company and the latter was the same thing but an 'automated switchboard'. I am not well-versed enough to tell you what small distinction there was between EAX, PAX and PBX but I guess there was something. After all, Bell was always right about everything, weren't they? PAT] ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 14:29:54 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net I met the chief operator at the Pentagon, Miss Bailey. She was one of the original tenants at the Pentagon, and worked there until her death in 2001. When I knew her, around 1990, she was a beloved character who traveled the halls in a golf cart that was given to her as a perk. Her cart was an exception to the rule prohibiting motorized vehicles in certain hallways, and the story is that more than one new guard got dressed down for accosting her. She was also an avid golfer, and was actually given two, but the other was for golfing. She knew every secretary of defense, having started before the office was created. http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/standard/6_04/local_news/5162-1.html ------------------------------ From: David Quinton Subject: Re: Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 08:02:50 +0100 On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 11:03:11 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > A fair amount of Web know-how was required for users to discover > that Omniture owned the 2o7.net Web address. Domain Name: 2O7.NET Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC. Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com Name Server: NS1.OMNITURE.COM Name Server: NS2.OMNITURE.COM Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK Updated Date: 23-jun-2005 Creation Date: 29-sep-2000 Expiration Date: 29-sep-2010 Wow. I have a "fair amount of of web know-how" ... Locate your Mobile phone: Great gifts: ------------------------------ From: news.rsvl.unisys.com Subject: Re: Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 10:39:18 +0100 Organization: Unisys - Roseville, MN Monty Solomon wrote in message news:telecom24.347.8@telecom-digest.org: > By DAVID KESMODEL THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE > Earlier this summer, Uno Bloom, a songwriter in Brentwood, Tenn., > noticed that his home computer appeared to be slowing down. He > searched the files on his hard drive in an effort to uncover clutter, > and found dozens of Internet cookies labeled "2o7.net." Maybe I'm being dim, but I don't see how cookies will make a system slow down appreciably. ------------------------------ From: Ryan Subject: Re: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By AllTel Date: 1 Aug 2005 11:32:03 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com It is true that AllTel bought a bunch of AT&T Wireless licences Cingular was forced to sell as part of the merger. There are customers here that are now AllTel, but the sad part is AllTel has no presense in our region at all so you have to wonder how they plan to service these accounts. No one here has ever heard of them prior to this. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Credit Reports, was Re: AT&T Customers Taken Over By Alltel Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 14:57:13 -0400 From: Charles Cryderman I wrote: > The law providing free credit reports of all credit reporting > companies has been on the books for many year. Then Steve Sobol asked if my commits were based on Federal Law. Yes Steve, it is my understanding that this is a Federal Law. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 02:12:15 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) writes: >> I believe the NYS Attorney General recently hauled them into court for >> false advertising. > If he did, he managed to do so without issuing a press release nor > without anyone in the media noticing, which is rather unlikely. Sigh. It was NYC's Department of Consumer Affairs, as posted here in this very BBS: Message is repeated here: From: Danny Burstein Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 17:10:05 -0400 Subject: NYC's Consumer Affairs Suing Cellcos Re: False Adverts "New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Acting Commissioner Jonathan Mintz today announced the agency has filed suit in New York Supreme Court against three major wireless companies for pitching cell phones and services in deceptive advertisements that misled consumers. DCA filed suit against Nextel Communications Inc., Sprint Spectrum L.P., and T-Mobile ... _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I _knew_ I had read it somewhere on the net about Nextel getting sued; my own newsgroup would be a good place to go looking, I guess ... IMO, Nextel is not very forthright about the distinctions between 'regular' cell phone service and their own thing, nor about how the word 'nationwide' is to be interpreted. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 22:41:05 -0400 From: Ron Chapman Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising In article , wollman@khavrinen.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) wrote: > In article , PAT writes: >> (2)"Although we do serve a large portion of the public and are >> considered 'nationwide', we only serve mostly people centered near >> major interstate highways and in larger cities successfully" > Look closely at the advertising and you'll probably find that they do > say that. There's probably some fine print to the tune of "nationwide > coverage claims based on 89% of US population". That means that they > don't claim to serve the least-economical 11% of the country, as > determined by population, which is of course a huge land area. They > could exclude all of Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas and still meet > that claim. (In actuality, they probably do serve, KCK, Wichita, > Omaha, Lincoln, Sioux Falls, Fargo, and Bismarck -- just not the > hundreds of miles of small towns and farms in between.) > Their Web site is quite honest about this (much more so than most > carriers' coverage maps that I have seen): > Take a look at TMobile's web site and their "Personal Coverage Check". It's FAR more detailed than what Nextel has; it amounts to a topographical map of signal quality. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 21:58:13 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Garrett Wollman wrote: > In article , PAT writes: >> (2)"Although we do serve a large portion of the public and are >> considered 'nationwide', we only serve mostly people centered near >> major interstate highways and in larger cities successfully" > Look closely at the advertising and you'll probably find that they do > say that. There's probably some fine print to the tune of "nationwide > coverage claims based on 89% of US population". Sprint used to claim the "largest all-digital nationwide network covering 240 million people" (it became 280 million later) -- the number referred to the total population of the areas they served. A couple other carriers have made similar claims about their network. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And now we see that NYC Comsumer Affairs has sued several of them for making claims like that. PAT] ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: 31 Jul 2005 22:54:55 -0700 In my earlier mesage I made an oops; it should be NYC, see http://www.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/pr_072105.html ------------------------------ From: Lee Sweet Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 09:53:11 -0400 Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising In re Nextel coverage. We use it heavily for corporate use, but are thinking of switching to Verizon, since on weekends, coverage to where people are further out in the countryside (even here in the Washington, DC area) is marginal for Nextel. People carry their corporate cell phones, and it does get hard to contact them if they are out in the wilderness! But, for any location, see the coverage map for Nextel at their website. I put in the zip code that Pat has for his mailing address (perhaps not the right one?), and the Nextel site comes back with 'no Nextel service'. The *map* for Independence, Kansas, shows absolutely nothing around that area (Route 75, etc.). Here's the KS coverage map: http://www.nextel.com/cgi-bin/localMarketMap.cgi?market=mkt09 Independence, MO, is fine, but that area of KS has no (Nextel) coverage at all. To check an area for Nextel coverage: http://nextelonline.nextel.com/NASApp/onlinestore/en/Action/DefineRegi onAction Lee Sweet Datatel, Inc. Manager of Telephony Services and Information Security How higher education does business. Voice: 703-968-4661 Cell: 703-932-9425 Fax: 703-968-4625 lee@datatel.com www.datatel.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, Independence _Missouri_ is no where close to the same name in Kansas. The former is a Missouri suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, the place where we in the southeastern rural part of the state refer to as 'Cupcake Land'. The Mission Hills, Overland Park and other (ooh, ick!) Johnson County, Kansas suburbs of KCMO. Mission Hills/Overland Park is the home base of millionaires like the executives of Sprint and Boeing and other telcos. Mostly insane people, IMO. I get so sick and tired, when I tell people I live in Kansas they reply "oh, Kansas City". I have to say no, dammit, _Kansas_. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 10:08:45 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 30 Jul 2005 22:22:28 -0000, John Levine wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is not a 'major crisis'; but rather, > just quite inconvenient when you are sold a device (commonly known as > a 'cell phone') with the assurance it will work 'anywhere', and you > have no particular reason to distrust the seller of same only to then > later find out the seller was full of hot air. Pat, I know you've been around long enough that for any claim on any product you have to have some history from others or history which you have discovered yourself. If you believed every claim that came down the pike you'd be buying into all the scams that spammers throw at you never mind all the 419 scams that are around. As in everything else don't believe everything you see in print, on TV or on the internet. Some people's "truth" is not necessarily *your* truth! Don't ASSume. We all know what that stands for! > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If a cellular telephone company told > you 'we have no roaming charges' would you take that to mean (1) we > have arrangements with other carriers and do not charge you _extra money_ > for roaming, or would you take that statement to mean (2) we do not > have any roaming at all? Since in the past, the subject of excessive > charges for 'roaming' on another carrier's network has often times > been an issue (since resolved by many carriers with 'national' plans > such as the old AT&T), wouldn't you think that statement would be > interpreted as (1) above? PAT] Almost every carrier in their advertising will have disclaimers such as "not available everywhere" indicating that their service may not be suitable for use in all locations. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well now, please remember this was not my problem originally; just a problem left for me to clean up. My nephew Justin and his wife thought up Nextel as the way to go. No one has ever accused Justin of being an Einstein in disguise; frankly he is a couple of sacks short of a full load ... _they_ decided on Nextel as a good deal, not me. They never asked my opinion. It worked okay in Florida, the land of Jeb Bush and Orlando, and Walt Disney World; the where my sister died on the street due to cirrosis of the liver (drinking too much iced tea I guess); so why wouldn;t Nextel work here? After all, we have a 'major highway' going though town, Highway 75 otherwise known as Penn Street. All I know is Justin showed up here to be of help to Uncle Pat and was confronted by a frantic wife who could not understand why Nextel failed her. I gave him a prepaid phone from AT&T/Cingular Wireless and a Yahoo Messenger account to tide him over. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Spammer, age 35, Meets "Moscow Rules" Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 14:21:20 -0400 In article , shlichter@diespammers.com says: > I guess someone finally took my signature seriously. > The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? > (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. I was at work when I saw the article on Slashdot. I told my coworkers that in my opinion the only good spammer was a dead spammer. They were aghast. But then, they've never had to maintain mail servers or spam filters so they don't know the hell involved. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, and they probably never had the 'pleasure' of maintaining a Usenet newsgroup either; a newsgroup which started over twenty years ago with a dozen or two concise, very precise messages each day, unlike today where I get the same dozen or so decent messages daily but _several hundred_ spam/scam things mixed in with it. Nah, they would not know anything about all that. I have sat people down here at the computer and actually let them _look_ at the stuff, rolling out everywhere. Any more, I have gotten very thick skin from it all, and am completely immune to the thousands of mortgage offers, notices from 'PayPal Security' about my accounts have to be reconstructed (at their website, of course), the endless news of penis enlargements and ways to sexually please women or other men. I refuse to be as gross and filthy as much of the porn spam which rolls in here daily; I have just grown calluses on my eyes and ears, etc; I just keep zapping it and moving along. What gets me, however, are these uppity Usenetters who somehow think we are still living in the 1960's when there was peace and goodwill toward everyone, and they are *so shocked* at the idea of just crashing and destroying the 'web sites' of those fools. So many of them refuse to accept reality: passive filtering is _not_ doing anything to maintain our net. Some of them with their filtering stuff are actually bigger abusers than the spammers they claim to dislike so much. As we come close to the hundred percent spam saturation point, they go right on bravely with their passive filtering, their white lists, their black lists, bigger and more powerful CPUs and all that nonsense. They claim if we challenge or autorespond we are just causing more email garbage, as if there could possibly be any more than there is already. Or if we challenge, then some prissy Usenetter might get offended that he has to open his filter to receive a message asking for a one word reply. Let someone find a reasonably effecient and effective (but admittedly imperfect) way to 'drill down' and locate an _actual offender_ and my oh my, don't they get pissed off royally, even threatening to cut us off who had the audacity to challenge instead of their beloved and useless filtering. He might sue us, don't you know! An innocent party might get trounced in the process, don't you know! And unspoken, yet a real concern, we might get our undewear in a knot, don't you know! They consider themselves the only real experts on how to deal with spam and that is by ignoring it and half-way filtering it. They are slowly becoming the minority on the net, thankfully, generally I think because so many users these days hold Vint Cerf and ICANN in such disdain. But right now they are quite vocal and will do anything to prevent the rest of us from escaping the hell hole as mail administrators and newsgroup moderators we are in. If they want to continue being sodomized, as seems to be the case, I have some old, defective condoms they can use for 'protection', just like their email filters, with leaks everywhere. (Hey, maybe a good idea for the spammers who tell me many times daily about how to make my 'bodily fluids' come out thicker and with more pressure, etc). I wish these so-called 'spam experts' would quit trying to save us from ourselves. 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: 620-402-0134 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #349 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Aug 2 16:43:33 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 4536514FDE; Tue, 2 Aug 2005 16:43:33 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #350 Message-Id: <20050802204333.4536514FDE@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 16:43:33 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.7 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 2 Aug 2005 16:44:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 350 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Asteroid May End Life on Earth in 2035 (Peter N. Spotts) Yahoo to Offer Video Clips from CNN, ABC News (Reuters News Wire) WebEx Purchases intranet.com (Eric Auchard) Audix Message to Two Mailboxes (stewartmcewen@hotmail.com) Cisco Releases Software Patch (USTelecom dailyLead) Want to Buy Tellabs Marconi (Looking for Tellabs Marconi) Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? (Steven Lichter) Re: Personal Opinion Telegram and Mailgram - Discontinuance (Jim Haynes) Re: Personal Opinion Telegram and Mailgram - Discontinuance (Wesrock) Re: Credit Reports (Steve Sobol) Re: Apple to Add Trusted Computing to the New Kernel? (Steven Lichter) Re: Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users (Steve Sobol) Re: Nextel False Advertising (DevilsPGD) Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster (DevilsPGD) Re: Itunes is a RIPOFF (Robert Bonomi) Re: Unauthorized Remote Access to Answering Machine (Harold Hallikainen) 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: Peter N. Spotts Subject: Asteroid May Crash Into Earth in 2035 Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 14:04:53 -0500 By Peter N. Spotts, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Humans live in a vast solar system where 2,000 feet seems a razor-thin distance. Yet it's just wide enough to trigger concerns that an asteroid due to buzz Earth on April 13, 2029 may shift its orbit enough to return and strike the planet seven years later. The concern: Within the object's range of possible fly-by distances lie a handful of gravitational "sweet spots," areas some 2,000 feet across that are also known as keyholes. The physics may sound complex, but the potential ramifications are plain enough. If the asteroid passes through the most probable keyhole, its new orbit would send it slamming into Earth in 2036. It's unclear to some experts whether ground-based observatories alone will be able to provide enough accurate information in time to mount a mission to divert the asteroid, if that becomes necessary. So NASA researchers have begun considering whether the US needs to tag the asteroid, known as 99942 Apophis, with a radio beacon before 2013. Timing is everything, astronomers say. If officials attempt to divert the asteroid before 2029, they need to nudge the space rock's position by roughly half a mile -- something well within the range of existing technology. After 2029, they would need to shove the asteroid by a distance as least as large as Earth's diameter. That feat would tax humanity's current capabilities. NASA's review of the issue was triggered by a letter from the B612 Foundation. The foundation's handful of specialists hope to demonstrate controlled asteroid-diversion techniques by 2015. Last Wednesday, representatives from the foundation met with colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to review the issue. The foundation's letter marks the first time specialists in the asteroid-hazard field have called for a scouting mission to assess such a threat. "We understand the risk from this object, and while it's small, it's not zero," says David Morrison, the senior scientist at NASA's Astrobiology Institute at the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. The call for a reconnaissance mission also illustrates how far the field of asteroid-hazard assessment has come. "Ten years ago, we would have been blissfully ignorant," says Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA's near-Earth object project at JPL. Today, at least five programs worldwide are hunting down near-Earth objects. NASA is well on its way toward achieving its goal of cataloging 90 percent of the near-Earth objects larger than 0.6 miles across by 2008. And it is devising ways to ensure that information about potential hazards reaches top decisionmakers throughout the government. Based on available data, astronomers give Apophis -- a 1,000-foot wide chunk of space debris -- a 1-in-15,000 chance of a 2036 strike. Yet if the asteroid hits, they add, damage to infrastructure alone could exceed $400 billion. When the possibility of the asteroid passing through two other keyholes is taken into account, the combined chance of the asteroid hitting the planet shifts to 1 in 10,000, notes Clark Chapman, a senior scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "A frequent flier probably would not want to board an airliner if there's a 1-in-10,000 chance it's going to crash," he says. The asteroid in question was discovered last June. Initially, it looked as though it might strike Earth in 2029. But additional observations eliminated that possibility. Instead the asteroid will come within 22,600 miles of Earth -- just inside the altitude where major communications satellites orbit. The asteroid will be visible to the naked eye in the night skies over Europe and western Africa, where it will appear a bit dimmer than the North Star. But this estimated distance carries an uncertainty that spans several thousand miles either side of its expected path -- a region of space that includes three gravitational keyholes. JPL's analysis will look at several factors. One involves estimating whether additional ground observations will be sufficient to resolve the question of whether the asteroid will pass through one of the keyholes. The asteroid belongs to a class known as Atens, which orbit the sun in less than a year and pass through Earth's orbit. Because Atens spend so much of their time in the direction of the Sun, observations from Earth are difficult. After next year, the next opportunity to gather data on the asteroid from the ground will come in 2012-2013. In addition, questions remain over how long a tagging mission -- and if necessary a deflection mission -- would take to plan and execute. If missions can be mounted in six years or less, NASA could postpone a decision to tag the asteroid until 2014. This would give astronomers time to incorporate their latest observations as they refine calculations of Apophis's orbit. But if a tagging mission took seven to eight years and a diversion mission took another 12 years, the case grows for launching the tagging mission sooner rather than later. Dr. Yeomans, the head of the near-Earth-object program at JPL, says the next step is to examine whether additional ground-based observations are likely to solve the collision riddle in a timely fashion. "I can't stress this enough: The overwhelming most-likely scenario is that radar and optical data this year and next or in 2012 and 2013 will completely remove the impact probabilities," he says. "If this is the case, why are we worried now? If it's a 1-in-15,000 shot and we come up a loser," there's still time to mount a tagging and a deflection mission, he says. ======================== Special Offer: https://www.csmonitorservices.com/csmonitor/subscription/print_sub.jhtml?I04T06 Get 32 issues FREE! Subscribe to the Monitor today. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of 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, Chrstian Science Publishing Society. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Yahoo to Offer Video Clips from CNN, ABC News Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 13:53:20 -0500 Internet media company Yahoo Inc. on Monday said it will offer video clips from cable news network CNN's Web site and ABC News, a move to bolster the company's online news offering as it battles against Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN. The clips, which will become available in September, will be free to internet users and supported by advertising revenue. CNN is owned by Time Warner Inc. and ABC News by Walt Disney Co. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Eric Auchard Subject: WebEx Communications Purchases intranet.com Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 13:54:54 -0500 By Eric Auchard WebEx Communications Inc. a Provider of Online business meetings, on Monday said it agreed to buy privately held Intranets.com for about $45 million in cash, seeking to target small business clients. WebEx, which has typically focused on helping big customers such as Boeing and the Defense Department conduct meetings online, said the acquisition of Intranets.com helps WebEx expand to serve organizations of under 100 employees. Intranets.com of Burlington, Massachusetts offers communication services to more than 300,000 paying subscribers and 10,000 businesses. "This is all about unlocking the wide(r) strategy of going after 100-person (or less) companies," WebEx president Bill Heil said in a phone interview. Intranets.com, which was founded by a group of ex-Lotus Development Corp. employees in 1997 after IBM (NYSE:IBM - news) acquired Lotus, provides collaborative software that allows teams of people to collaborate remotely on projects. Santa Clara-based WebEx has been gaining market share in the fragmented market for video conferencing in recent years, in spite of the entry of Microsoft Corp. two years ago after it acquired WebEx rival PlaceWare. A study by Frost & Sullivan found WebEx held 60 percent of the online meeting market in 2004. With revenue growth of 23 percent this year, WebEx is growing faster than the online meeting market, which analysts estimate is growing 18 percent. WebEx has begun targeting the consumer and small business market with a new offering it calls MyWebEx. Both WebEx and Intranets.com share a common sales approach, which includes billing customers a recurring monthly subscription fee. Both offer their software as hosted services that customers use over the Internet, Heil said. WebEx offers online meetings, while Intranets offers a set of online office software tools, including databases, calendaring, scheduling and other project management tools. The Intranets.com deal has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of each company, the two companies said in a statement. The transaction is expected to close in the current quarter, subject to customary closing conditions. WebEx shares rose 1 percent to close at $28.89 in Nasdaq trading ahead of the announcement of the deal. The shares were unchanged in after-hours trading. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: stewartmcewen@hotmail.com Subject: AUDIX Message to Two Mailboxes Date: 2 Aug 2005 07:34:00 -0700 Hi Everyone, I wondered if anyone could let me know of a way of having a message delivered to two mailboxes at once on the audix system. I have a client who have a small office and they wish for the two directors to be able to pick up each others voicemail. I have tried to explain that you can change to a different mailbox my doing **7,once logged in, and then enter the extension details. But the problem is we have just migrated from call express where the option was straight forward (simple check box) and a copy of the message was saved in each mailbox. Of course as it was available before, the client wishes it available now ... sigh! Anyone out there know if this is possible? I have checked the Avaya documentation and done a search on the web, but no joy. Thanks a great deal in advance. Regards, Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 12:23:44 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Cisco Releases Software Patch USTelecom dailyLead August 2, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23527&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Cisco releases software patch BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Vonage, WISP team up on VoIP * Ring tone market cools * The StarVox metamorphosis * Cablers' phone services have Wall Street listening * Qwest, Comcast report earnings USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * TELECOM '05: Preparing You for What's NEXT EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Mobiles edge closer to becoming wireless wallets REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC chief eyes looser regulations for DSL services Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=23527&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: offers@nortelreseller.com Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 09:56:42 +0100 Subject: Want to Buy: Tellabs Marconi WTB Tellab 5367 High Density Port Module- E1 28 5572 High Density E1/T1 LIM 175 5382 Byte End Switch Module 2 550N High Density E1/T1 Port Shelf 1 5366 High Density Time Slot Interchange 2 5386A Port/Group Controller 2 5535A Power Module - Network and Port (PM-NP) 2 LOT-FIBER Fiber Optic Cabling 1 LOT-LAN LAN Cabling 1 81.532LMP00 MAU 532L Kit Port 1 5576 High Density Port Bay 7' 1 80.2358 Back panel kit w/ext HW 1 5550 Breaker Frame alarm panel 1 WTB Marconi 131-8773/01 i/f mod for 16x2 mbit Rx ( 120 Ohms ).......qty 12 131-8494/01 Conn Set 16x2 Mbit (sym Pair ) type A.......qty 4 131-8494/02 Conn Set 16x2 Mbit (sym Pair ) type B.......qty 4 131-8775/02........qty 2 131-7800/01........qty 2 131-6926/03........qty 3 Contact offers@sdhpdh.com www.sdhpdh.com ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? Date: 2 Aug 2005 07:00:00 -0700 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Traditional Bell had a habit of > always using an 'X' to mean 'e(X)change', as in PBX (P)rivate > (B)ranch e(X)change, FX as in (F)oreign E(X)change, and PAX as > (P)rivate (A)utomatic e(X)change. An exception was FAX as in > (FACS)imile Service. But you asked about EAX which was (E)lectronic > (A)utomatic e(X)change, or another name for an electronic and > automated switchboard. Of course there is also CENTREX or a > (C)entral Office e(X)change. The only difference between a PBX and a > PAX is the former involved an operator at a manual cordboard in a > company and the latter was the same thing but an 'automated > switchboard'. ... There was also "NNX" which internally meant exchange. For the longest time nobody could tell me where that term came from. Finally I learned it was because N was 2 thru 9 and X was 1 thru 0. Of course that is obsolete now since exchanges are NXX these days. Then of course the big city exchange building that I had my tour in and learned this stuff is now abandoned and empty. Where the switchgear that served 40,000 lines is, the service center (for repair calls) and the TSP operators moved to I have no idea. It appears Bell called all customer exchanges "PBX" whether they were dial or manual. I have a 556 (cordboard for a dial PBX) manual and it refers to the system as a PBX. The term "PABX" (private automated branch exchange" seems to more used by Automatic Electric and the independents. The private Philadelphia city goverment system even had that named labeled right on the dial card "city automated exchange". (Supposedly modern signs for phones to this day at the airport still say this, but I can't visit the airport to check and certainly couldn't take pictures on account of security. When I was young people were welcome to visit the airport and they even had a rooftop observatory.) Anyway, I suspect the use of the word "automatic" was sort of a marketing ploy by Automatic Electric Co to push that they sold dial systems over Bell's manual systems. I wonder where the biggest non-Bell private system was. These could be pretty complex with multiple locations and tie-lines and thousands of stations. (At risk of duplicating past posts): When the suburban NJ Lindenwold High Speed train (PATCO) opened in 1969, they installed a separate private telephone exchange for internal use just as rail lines had done for years. They picked up a used step-by-step switch. They had a tie trunk into the Phila transit private system. For passengers, they had second-hand pay phones, painted red, at stations who needed assistance with the automatic gates. If the psgr owed money, they'd put it in the pay phone. While they modernized the phones and gear, the system remains in use to this day. A brand new line, the NJT River Line, uses an intercom phone. You press a button and an automatic dialer connects you to their service desk. Sometimes you get a busy signal, no answer, or a voice mail, which isn't very helpful to a psgr on a platform who needs help. The intercom is very hard to hear on open platforms. They also put at least one pay phone on every platform. I believe these were installed to mostly serve as 911 stations in case of emergency although there are no signs indicating such. Photos are forbidden there as well. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do know that in Chicago in years past, Illinois Bell's largest customer was the City of Chicago itself, and its two largest _private_ (non-government) customers were the University of Chicago (19 position switchboard in three 'ranks' or position groups) and Standard Oil (a 'mere' ten or twelve position board but with a _huge_ number of private tie lines to various corporate locations plus a few hundred thousand dollars per month in long distance traffic, etc). Outside the city limits but served by Illinois Bell there were United Airlines and its Unitel network and the federal government with its Autovon network. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 03:53:59 GMT hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Steven Lichter wrote: >> As you said when TSPS systems came online things changed. I worked a >> lot of the TSPS conversons, the directors had to be modified and >> tested then we had to move 800 and payphone detection systems and >> convert them for TSPS. As the changes were made fewer and fewer >> offices Toll offices and a few remotes. ... I >> remember some of the operators coing into the CO to see what we were >> doing, they were either very young kids or older woman who had been >> operators for years, they were transfere to other offices and jobs, it >> was really said. > Both veteran operators and Brooks' "Telephone" said TSP/TSPS wasn't as > satisfying as cord switchboards. TSP did all the interesting stuff > automatically. From the company's and customer's viewpoint, it was > much more efficient. Occassionally, they still had to 'build up' a > call by relay the old fashioned way. One time I had trouble placing a > call and the operator did that for me, it was interesting to listen. > I wonder if they can (or would) do that today. > For some reason, my home exchange was served by two types of > operators. If we just dialed zero, we got a older toll & assist > cord board in one location. But if we dialed 0+ or 1+ from a > payphone, we went to a TSP office in a different location. That TSP > did not handle plain 0 calls for some reason even though it was part > of the design. (One other quirk we had: local Info was 411, long > distance was 1+ac+555-1212. But distant Info within the area code > (short range toll calls) was explicitly stated to go through 0. > Then they went to 555-1212 for local Info (to discourage use). Now > we're back to 411 for everything. I don't know when they hit you > with a charge.) >> The same came as we converted our offices to EAX. > The good old days. What's "EAX"? >>(c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Traditional Bell had a habit of > always using an 'X' to mean 'e(X)change', as in PBX (P)rivate > (B)ranch e(X)change, FX as in (F)oreign E(X)change, and PAX as > (P)rivate (A)utomatic e(X)change. An exception was FAX as in > (FACS)imile Service. But you asked about EAX which was (E)lectronic > (A)utomatic e(X)change, or another name for an electronic and > automated switchboard. Of course there is also CENTREX or a > (C)entral Office e(X)change. The only difference between a PBX and a > PAX is the former involved an operator at a manual cordboard in a > company and the latter was the same thing but an 'automated > switchboard'. I am not well-versed enough to tell you what small > distinction there was between EAX, PAX and PBX but I guess there was > something. After all, Bell was always right about everything, > weren't they? PAT] I would guess that is they had to do a relay to local operators it could be done. EAX was Automatic Electric's version of an analog electronic switch, they had an EAX1 and for a short while an EAX2, plus AE Canada had a C1 EAX, we had one of those in here in Califoria, big error, they were made for very small offices. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Personal Opinion Telegram and Mailgram - Discontinuance? Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 16:12:18 GMT You can still send a telegram, according to www.westernunion.com I guess you can still send a Mailgram; somebody sent me one last year. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 09:29:21 EDT Subject: Re: Personal Opinion Telegram and Mailgram - Discontinuance? In a message dated 1 Aug 2005 10:51:02 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: > Western Union with the US Post Office also offered a popular and > profitable service known as Mailgram. WU would send your message to a > teleprinter in a post office where it would be delivered in the next > mail. This was a prompt and cost-effective way to communicate > important information. Industries used it extensively to officially > notify laid-off workers to return to work. There were only a limited number of post offices, covering a wide regional area, that received Mailgrams and put them in the mail. The one serving Oklahoma was, I believe, located in Wichita, Kansas, which meant with the vagaries of the Postal Service's mechanized mail routing that a Mailgram took two days from Wichita to Oklahoma City (160 miles). This was usually no faster than it would have been by ordinary mail. In the days before the Postal Service went to a mechanized mail sorting and distributing system, Wichita to Oklahoma City, and v.v., was overnight. So was Kansas City to Oklahoma City and v.v., Fort Worth and Dallas to Oklahoma City and v.v., Wichita Falls to Oklahoma City and v.v.' Now, mail between Lawton, Oklahoma, and Wichita Falls, Texas, about 40 miles apart and considered a single market area, takes two days. Unless you use the curious and unusual mailbox at the Lawton post office marked "Wichita Falls only," which presumably bypasses the mechanized system and goes directly from Lawton to Wichita Falls, rather than making a mechanized stopover in Oklahoma City and another one in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. (Yes, they have three mailboxes rather than the usual two -- "Local," "Out of Town." "Wichita Falls only." Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Credit Reports, was Re: AT&T Customers Taken Over By Alltel Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 20:46:07 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Charles Cryderman wrote: > Yes Steve, it is my understanding that this is a Federal Law. Ahh, ok. The unconditional you-get-one-free-report-per-year law is new, though. The law that's been in effect for years is "you're entitled to a free report at any time if you've been denied credit or employment within the last thirty days, based on your credit report." I assume that's the law that you just referred to? Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Apple to Add Trusted Computing to the New Kernel? Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 03:48:19 GMT Monty Solomon wrote: > Cory Doctorow > People working with early versions of the forthcoming Intel-based > MacOS X operating system have discovered that Apple's new kernel makes > use of Intel's Trusted Computing hardware. If this "feature" appears > in a commercial, shipping version of Apple's OS, they'll lose me as a > customer -- I've used Apple computers since 1979 and have a Mac > tattooed on my right bicep, but this is a deal-breaker. > http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/31/apple_to_add_trusted.html Apple is going to lose a lot of it fans when they switch. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 20:50:26 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com news.rsvl.unisys.com wrote: > Monty Solomon wrote in message > news:telecom24.347.8@telecom-digest.org: >> By DAVID KESMODEL THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE >> Earlier this summer, Uno Bloom, a songwriter in Brentwood, Tenn., >> noticed that his home computer appeared to be slowing down. He >> searched the files on his hard drive in an effort to uncover clutter, >> and found dozens of Internet cookies labeled "2o7.net." > Maybe I'm being dim, but I don't see how cookies will make a system slow > down appreciably. Well, Spybot detects 2o7.net tracking cookies as spyware. Maybe Uno Bloom was mistaking cookies for spyware. I think that the effect of a website storing cookies on your computer is typically blown way out of proportion by the press and much of the computer industry. Of course, I do still block cookies from netshelter.net, 2o7.net, advertising.com and several other similar companies that try to put them on my computer because I don't think there's any great need for anyone to be tracking which banner ads I've been shown. (I know they'd disagree.) :) Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 00:34:09 -0600 Organization: Disorganized > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If a cellular telephone company told > you 'we have no roaming charges' would you take that to mean (1) we > have arrangements with other carriers and do not charge you _extra money_ > for roaming, or would you take that statement to mean (2) we do not > have any roaming at all? Since in the past, the subject of excessive > charges for 'roaming' on another carrier's network has often times > been an issue (since resolved by many carriers with 'national' plans > such as the old AT&T), wouldn't you think that statement would be > interpreted as (1) above? PAT] Roaming doesn't always mean on another carrier's network, it can also be roaming outside your local area, but on your carrier's network. Also keep in mind that Nextel phones can roam on other carrier's networks in Mexico and Canada, as well as on other iDEN networks. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 00:34:09 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message DevilsPGD wrote: > What kind of dumbass wouldn't try to sell it for $20? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: _This_ kind of dumbass probably. At the > internet cafe here in town, the guy who runs the place typically > offers his refurbished, reloaded machines for $50-100 each, and > considering how little income I have otherwise I would like to recoup > my expenses (usually a few hours work) somewhere around ten dollars > per hour; in other words a wee bit above minimum wage. But I have > heard Chris (the guy who runs the internet cafe) listen to some very > sad stories from guys then reduce his price to 20-35 dollars on a > specific request for 'hardship rates', which is probably how I would > do it also. In other words, try to make some money for your work, and > as circumsances dictate, give it away. I think you misunderstand -- I'm suggesting that the owner would try to sell it as-is (infected, formatted, whatever) for $20 rather then simply discarding the machine. If any time/energy is spent cleaning up the machine then the price goes up. That's reasonable. > Also I would like to comment on your allegation 'the only way to get > infected is by user stupidity'. I think that is sort of a harsh > assessment. _Not everyone_ who owns a computer knows everything about > it; some guys work hard; save their money and buy a computer only to > have some virus writer load some crap from a web site onto his page. The point is that very little is involved in not getting infected. I browse to URLs in spam, I run WinXP machines outside my firewall, I search warez/crack sites (mostly looking for cracks to my company's products, although occasionally when I need to test a feature of crippleware or when a vendor is too slow or I'm too impatient) > Not every program which gets loaded on your computer is there because > you gave an okay to load it in. Yes, it is. > I am reasonably intelligent, yet I have had that crap dumped on me > before my hands were quick enough to hit a key combination to stop > the load from occurring. PAT] It's simple: Don't give it permission to start installing and you don't need to rush to stop it. When a Microsoft patch appears on your screen and wants to install, think to yourself "Did I do something that would trigger this?" or "Is this expected?" -- If the answer is no, then it's not legitimate. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: itunes is a RIPOFF Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 06:50:45 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , AES wrote: > Posters on the first three of various newsgroups, in a to date very > lengthy thread, have posted: >>> I stand behind it! My decision to dump TV was a good one and I'm >>> definitely happy with it. >> They called the area in which Leipzig or Dresden sits (I can't >> remember which city) the valley of the dumb during the time of the >> DDR, as the West German TV was not available to them because of the >> geography. >> So if you wish to separate yourself from the world in this way, go ahead. >> You will regret it one day, I assure you. > I just got in on the tail end of this thread, but I wonder if > something I heard (or think I recall hearing) on NPR the other day is > (a) true?, and (b) relevant -- viz. > Professional TV producers and other network personnel commonly > speak of "content" and "fill" in their TV programming. > To them, "content" refers (really!) to the **advertising** part of > their programming. > And "fill" refers to all the rest of stuff (aka junk) that they have > to (reluctantly) intersperse between the advertising, to get people > to watch the (much more important) "content". > Notes: > 1) If this is not true, apologies. I'm pretty sure I heard it, but I > was driving at the time and could have misheard it. > 2 I've added comp.dcom.telecom to the reply list, not to drag that > group into the rest of this otherwise not very great thread, but because > there may be some professionals there who know if the above assertions > are correct. > 3) Even if it's not true, it's entirely believable (especially to > anyone who's watched cable TV). > 4) By this definition, certain TV channels -- e.g., the shopping and > "infomercial" channels -- have managed to reach the happy situation of > having 100% "content" and zero useless "fill". > 5) If it's actually true, and it's NPR who let the secret out, you can > fully understand why the Bush administration is all out to kill NPR. It is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that actual _producers_ of programs would use those words in that manner. Program producers have no knowledge of, nor control over, nor (generally) any interest in, _what_ advertising runs during the airing of their program. They know they have a specified total running time for the program, and that there will be 'breaks' at specified intermediate points in that total. That timing information, alone, is sufficient for program design/production purposes. It allows them to script 'minor crises', and/or other 'hooks' to occur just before the 'break', to maximize viewer retention -- either for when they come back to the program, or for the eyeball count while the commercials are running, depending on ones biases. ;) Similar reasoning applies to network management -- they know that the programs are what attracts the eyeballs, and it is those eyeballs that are the 'saleable commodity' that is the ultimate source of all the revenues generated by selling ads. People -producing- ads wouldn't use that kind of language -- you *very*, VERY, rarely see a sequence of ads from the same seller that have continuity of the 'story' from one ad to the next. That is the only situation where there would be thought given to what is running 'between the ads'. It is _possible_ that network staff involved in =selling= ad-space might refer to events in that manner; however I have never heard it. And I have (long ago) worked selling TV air-time. ------------------------------ From: harold@hallikainen.com Subject: Re: Unauthorized Remote Access to Answering Machine Date: 2 Aug 2005 07:48:23 -0700 Regarding fax machines continuing to dial incorrect numbers, FCC rule 63.318 (http://www.hallikainen.com/FccRules/2005/68/318/) requires fax machines to give up if the call does not go through. This requirement, however, does not apply to "computer driven dialers." Harold FCC Rules updated daily at http://www.hallikainen.com ------------------------------ 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. 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