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The Telecom Digest for May 19, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 120 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
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Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 15:35:25 +0000 (UTC)
From: David Scheidt <dscheidt@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: BillPay Down, Online Banking Customers Crippled, Held Hostage
Message-ID: <jp35rt$1ru$1@reader1.panix.com>
John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> wrote:
:On the other hand, they, you know, mail a check. Surely it is not
:beyond the ability of Americans in 2012 to blow the dust off the
:checkbook and do it themselves.
Mostly not, actually. Were I to direct my bank to send you money
through the bill paying interface, they'd probably mail you a check,
but for entities that get lots of payments, like your credit card
companies and utilities, get paid with an electronic payment. That's
cheaper for both parties, of course, but it's also faster. I can log
in to the bank's site, make a few clicks, and get someone money
tomorrow (sometimes even the same day.).
If I write a check, I've got to pay for the check, a stamp, and
remember to mail it a week before it's due. That's hard.
--
sig 103
Date: 18 May 2012 17:12:25 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: BillPay Down, Online Banking Customers Crippled, Held Hostage
Message-ID: <20120518171225.67128.qmail@joyce.lan>
>:On the other hand, they, you know, mail a check. Surely it is not
>:beyond the ability of Americans in 2012 to blow the dust off the
>:checkbook and do it themselves.
>
>Mostly not, actually. Were I to direct my bank to send you money
>through the bill paying interface, they'd probably mail you a check,
>but for entities that get lots of payments, like your credit card
>companies and utilities, get paid with an electronic payment.
Of course. If your billpay is handled by CheckFree or whatever
they're called these days, and you told them to pay me, they'd pay me
by ACH, too, since I told them my bank details.
Nonetheless, come the apocalypse and the billpay stops working
permanently, you could mail me a check, and I would walk down to the
bank and deposit it.
R's,
John
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 19:42:24 -0400
From: Stan Schwartz <stannc@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Bill Pay down
Message-ID: <E7F0931C-606F-43D6-A8B7-F689C13A0AF4@yahoo.com>
His blog mentions a number of banks who use Checkfree, including the
one where I use bill pay. I haven't seen any outage and my payments
have gone out correctly.
-Stan
Date: 18 May 2012 17:14:54 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Bill Pay down
Message-ID: <20120518171454.67827.qmail@joyce.lan>
In article <E7F0931C-606F-43D6-A8B7-F689C13A0AF4@yahoo.com> you write:
>His blog mentions a number of banks who use Checkfree, including the
>one where I use bill pay. I haven't seen any outage and my payments
>have gone out correctly.
That suggests it's the other one, Metavante. They also do white label
service for banks including TD and I think Wells Fargo.
R's,
John
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 14:10:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Smartphone security is heading for 'apocalypse'
Message-ID: <6e054af1-2931-4689-b7fe-5058576c8c6d@p27g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>
>From Computerworld 5/16/12
"Network World - The meteoric rise in the smartphone market is
creating a dangerous vulnerability in smartphone security - one that
may not be patched until the problem expands into what has been dubbed
an "apocalypse."
Dan Auerbach, a staff technologist at the Electronics Frontier
Foundation, points to outdated encryption standards and the inherent
vulnerabilities of the baseband processor found on modern smartphones
as the makings for a security hole through which users can be
exploited at large."
For full article please see:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227222/Smartphone_security_is_heading_for_apocalypse
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 06:56:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: BillPay Down, Online Banking Customers Crippled, Held Hostage
Message-ID: <1337262999.75259.YahooMailClassic@web111706.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
--- On Wed, 5/16/12, Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> wrote:
> BillPay Down, Online Banking Customers Crippled, Held Hostage
> by Matthew Chan
Wednesday it was down at Bank of America but Chase Bank's service worked OK.
Wes Leatherock
wleathus@yahoo.com
wesrock@aol.com
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 13:50:57 -0500
From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: We Learn About The Telephone
Message-ID: <jp3has$gm0$1@dont-email.me>
1965 Bell movie for elementary-school audiences:
http://archive.org/details/WeLearnA1965
Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 07:27:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: We Learn About The Telephone
Message-ID: <f6666478-14fc-4b8f-a6ee-de51ab5a9752@ec4g2000vbb.googlegroups.com>
On May 17, 2:50 pm, Dave Garland <dave.garl...@wizinfo.com> wrote:
> 1965 Bell movie for elementary-school
audiences:
http://archive.org/details/WeLearnA1965
see also, from the AT&T archives:
http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/6/3/AT&T-Archives-Now-You-Can-Dial
"The goal of this [1950s] film was to aid in reducing customer dialing
irregularities by demonstrating the correct way to use the dial
telephone. It documents the shift between operator-based connections
(which were on the way out) and having to dial the phone and make the
connection yourself. The dial telephone was new at this point,
although the two-letter, 5-number system was still commonplace. This
film even has to explain what a ringing and busy signal sound like!"
The AT&T archives have numerous films, both contemporary and
historical, on communications technology. see the bottom of the above
web page.
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 09:01:50 -0400
From: Anonymous <anonymous@telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Yet another Imperious Federal Judge who doesn't like Asterisks
Message-ID: <20120518122023002@telecom-digest.org>
Surprisingly this got very little other media coverage
---------
(by "Asterisk" I'm referring to those little marks
that claim the Constitution, and especially the Bill
of Rights, doesn't apply here or there)
[courthouse news]
Judge Blocks Controversial NDAA
A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction late Wednesday
to block provisions of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act
that would allow the military to indefinitely detain anyone it accuses
of knowingly or unknowingly supporting terrorism.
Signed by President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve, the 565-page
NDAA contains a short paragraph, in statute 1021, letting the military
detain anyone it suspects "substantially supported" al-Qaida, the
Taliban or "associated forces." The indefinite detention would
supposedly last until "the end of hostilities."
In a 68-page ruling blocking this statute, U.S. District Judge
Katherine Forrest agreed that the statute failed to "pass
constitutional muster" because its broad language could be used to
quash political dissent.
-------
rest:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/05/16/46550.htm
Note: the Feds maintain this wasn't a brand new change, but merely an
"affirmation" of the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force
(AUMF), brought to us by, well, the Administration and Congress
of 2001...
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