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The Telecom Digest for May 23, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 124 : "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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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, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 02:02:39 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Q.: Should jailbreaking mobile phones be legalized?
Message-ID: <15qdu5nhoh8lh.pe72frnpo68a.dlg@40tude.net>
On Sun, 20 May 2012 17:18:58 -0500, John wrote:
> Until lawyers are outlawed, there will always be outlaws.
Alas, once they are outlawed, they'll just swell the outlaw ranks :-) .
Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 15:28:05 +0000 (UTC)
From: David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 3rd party billing from AT&T
Message-ID: <jpgba4$p2q$1@reader1.panix.com>
Javier <nospam@nospam.com> writes:
>The 3rd party billing stopped for two months. However, this month's
>bill comes again with the same [problem], and the company is even the
>same: USBI/Onelink Communications.
>Is there a way to stop this nonsense? Can I control 3rd party
>billing online or [by] writting by letter to somebody?
It's strange to see Verizontal flip-flop on this. See, their skim on
such billing was VERY profitable. At one point ~10 years ago, third
party billing was a bigger profit center to Her than intraLATA toll.
I've successfully blocked cramming on lines, but for years it was like
pulling teeth to get Her to do so.
--
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 21:18:40 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: IBM Outlaws Siri, Worried She Has Loose Lips
Message-ID: <p062408f8cbe1eaa6ef7b@[10.0.1.5]>
IBM Outlaws Siri, Worried She Has Loose Lips
By Robert McMillan
May 22, 2012
If you work for IBM, you can bring your iPhone to work, but forget
about using the phone's voice-activated digital assistant. Siri isn't
welcome on Big Blue's networks.
The reason? Siri ships everything you say to her to a big data center
in Maiden, North Carolina. And the story of what really happens to
all of your Siri-launched searches, e-mail messages and inappropriate
jokes is a bit of a black box.
IBM CIO Jeanette Horan told MIT's Technology Review this week that
her company has banned Siri outright because, according to the
magazine, "The company worries that the spoken queries might be
stored somewhere."
It turns out that Horan is right to worry. In fact, Apple's iPhone
Software License Agreement spells this out: "When you use Siri or
Dictation, the things you say will be recorded and sent to Apple in
order to convert what you say into text," Apple says. Siri collects a
bunch of other information - names of people from your address book
and other unspecified user data, all to help Siri do a better job.
How long does Apple store all of this stuff, and who gets a look at
it? Well, the company doesn't actually say. Again, from the user
agreement: "By using Siri or Dictation, you agree and consent to
Apple's and its subsidiaries' and agents' transmission, collection,
maintenance, processing, and use of this information, including your
voice input and User Data, to provide and improve Siri, Dictation,
and other Apple products and services."
Because some of the data that Siri collects can be very personal, the
American Civil Liberties Union put out a warning about Siri just a
couple of months ago.
...
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/05/ibm-bans-siri/
(And, in a related story ... [mod])
Note to Self: Siri Not Just Working for Me, Working Full-Time for Apple, Too
By Nicole Ozer, ACLU of Northern California (Mar 12, 2012 at 10:00 am)
https://www.aclunc.org/issues/technology/blog/note_to_self_siri_not_just_working_for_me,_working_full-time_for_apple,_too.shtml
-or-
http://tinyurl.com/cz6sk8q
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 15:08:24 -0400
From: Anonymous <anonymous@anonymous.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Better sit down first. Here's another DOJ "good news" clip
Message-ID: <201205222154007@telecom-digest.org>
[Giving you time to move your cup of coffee away from the keyboard]
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Subject: DOJ (yes, really) to Baltimore: citizens DO have the right to record your cops
[ACLU press release]
DOJ Defends Your Right to Record
By Gabe Rottman, Washington Legislative Office at 3:24pm
We haven't pulled punches in our criticism of the Holder Justice
Department, so it's especially important that we give credit where
credit is due. In support of an important case brought by the ACLU of
Maryland defending the right to record, the DOJ's Civil Rights
Division forcefully and unequivocally endorsed our view in an unusual
(but welcome!) 11-page letter to the Baltimore Police Department.
The letter provides extensive guidance in the context of a settlement
conference in a suit against the BPD alleging that Baltimore police
officers confiscated and deleted video from the plaintiff's mobile
phone after he used it to record officers arresting his friend. The
DOJ had filed a "Statement of Interest" earlier in the case, urging
the court to find a First Amendment right to record the police, and a
violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments when the police
seize, search, and destroy recordings without a warrant and due
process.
--------
Rest, including clicktrhoughs:
https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech-criminal-law-reform/doj-defends-your-right-record
-or-
http://goo.gl/cv9HF
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 14:27:45 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: From Comcast, TV as data center
Message-ID: <p062408eccbe18a2864c1@[10.0.1.5]>
>From Comcast, TV as data center
Boston first up to get advanced set-top boxes
By Hiawatha Bray
Globe Staff / May 22, 2012
A new service from cable television giant Comcast Corp. could turn
the home TV into a home data center, tracking everything from
business appointments to household security.
Comcast demonstrated the service, called Project Dayview, Monday
during the opening day of The Cable Show 2012, the industry's biggest
trade event.
"It's your own personal welcome screen," said Neil Smit, chief
executive of Comcast Cable. "It's tying your entire life together."
At the Convention & Exhibition Center on Monday, Comcast also
confirmed Boston would be the first US city to see full-scale
deployment of X1, a new TV viewing system that uses an advanced
set-top box to deliver Internet-based apps and social media services
alongside traditional cable offerings. For instance, X1 includes a
customized app for Facebook, so viewers can inform friends of their
favorite shows by clicking the "like" icon.
The X1 service will allow users to control their viewing with
software apps on an iPhone or iPad. The result is an interface far
simpler and more powerful than a traditional remote control. For
example, the app allows users to set up "quick links" to favorite
types of programming, like comedy films. By touching an iPad or
iPhone link, a list of relevant films instantly appears.
...
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2012/05/22/from_comcast_tv_as_data_center/
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/21/from-comcast-data-center/6xm26PEQYhnevpAj8qCsPJ/story.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
This is a case of swatting a fly with a sledgehammer, or of making a
memorial to Rube Goldberg, I'm not sure which. Using a phone to
control a set-top box that controls a TV set is, IMNSHO, an extreme
example of a solution in search of a problem.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 21:18:24 +0000 (UTC)
From: Javier <nospam@nospam.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 3rd party billing from AT&T
Message-ID: <jpgvqv$mm3$1@speranza.aioe.org>
Fred Atkinson <fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com> wrote:
> Javier <nospam@nospam.com> wrote:
>
>> In the past months I started recieving 3rd party billing from never
>> demanded services from USBI. The actual company seemed to be
>> Onelink Communications Inc. It was $6 a month.
>
> [Moderator snip]
>
> Switch to VOIP. The VOIP companies don't allow third party billing.
I chose one year ago the wired telephone (POTS) with AT&T for my
apartment. The deal was that AT&T gave me the telephone service and
they would not complicate my life. I knew from the very beginning
that their service was outdated and overpriced, but some extrange
force inside me drives me towards obsolete technologies, like wired
telephones or usenet.
AT&T has gone too far away, and I will switch to VOIP, as Fred
suggested. VIATALK sounds good and they offer BYOD, so I can use the
hardware that I want. I think I can even port my local telephone
number to them. What I really want is a clear billing and to be able
to setup the features of the service online, with a non-bloated
webpage, not needing to spend countless time speaking to call-centers.
I have internet with AT&T u-verse (there is no choice in my building).
The maximum speed is 12 Mbps download/800 kbps upload (u-verse max).
I hope this will be enough for VOIP.
Finally, some useful links I found on the cramming:
http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/cramming
PS: thanks to the moderator for letting my original post pass and even
correcting my grammar.
***** Moderator's Note *****
I'm trying to lighten up on my tendency to nitpick, so I'm going to
edit fewer posts, but thanks for the compliment. :-)
Bill Horne
Moderator
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