30 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Add this Digest to your personal
or 
The Telecom Digest for May 24, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 125 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
|
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne 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 that person, or email address
owner.
Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without the explicit written consent of the owner of
that address. 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, and other stuff of interest.
|
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 23:46:43 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: From Comcast, TV as data center
Message-ID: <144jsmhx41ykb$.10tmkfmwa5cd0$.dlg@40tude.net>
On Tue, 22 May 2012 14:27:45 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote:
> ... Boston would be the first US city to see full-scale
> deployment of X1, a new TV viewing system that ...
Now I get Comcast's "Xfinity" rebranding campaign -- they want to outdo
George Gamow's "1, 2, 3, Infinity" and just do "from X1 to Xfinity" :-) .
Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
Date: Wed, 23 May 2012 13:56:52 +1000
From: David Clayton <dc33box-usenetcdt@yahoo.com.au>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: From Comcast, TV as data center
Message-ID: <pan.2012.05.23.03.56.49.396734@yahoo.com.au>
..........
> ***** 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
I can see a near future where criminals will make big money
"kidnapping" (physically or electronically) people's devices and
only returning them after a small ransom is paid.
The more people become dependant on one item, the more vulnerabilities
open up in all sorts of areas.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
***** Moderator's Note *****
Neal Stephenson's latest novel, called "REAMDE", is based on exactly
that premise.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Wed, 23 May 2012 08:43:10 -0400
From: John Stahl <aljon@stny.rr.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Microwave Journal Article about the "Fall" of Nortel
Message-ID: <47.4A.29249.16BDCBF4@cdptpa-omtalb.mail.rr.com>
This May 2012 issue of the Microwave journal which highlights this
June's IMS (International Microwave Symposium) at the Palais des
Congress de Montreal has an interesting lead-in article titled
"Goliath's Fall". This article discusses the long history of Nortel
which, according to the author, for all practical purposes died in
2010 when their main facilities was sold.
For those of you interested of the telecom history in Canada, the
author, David Vye, starts his "Canadian story" in 1874 describing the
rivalry between A.G. Bell and Elisha Gray, and includes such
headliner names as Bell Canada, Northern Electric, and even The Bell
System besides Nortel. I've listed the URL below for you to peruse at
your leisure.
http://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/17532-goliath-s-fall
John Stahl
Aljon Enterprises
Telecom/Data Consultant
Date: Wed, 23 May 2012 09:52:56 -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: <0a65eb73-fa50-4905-b931-cffe3ca90f2c@q2g2000vbv.googlegroups.com>
On May 20, 9:13 pm, T <kd1s.nos...@cox.nospam.net> wrote:
> Fascinating view into mid 60's telephony. By that point they had Telstar
> up and running and most long distance was still over Microwave and Coax.
Even in the late 1960s, according to a Bell System film, some toll
service was still carried over open wires or bundled cable. Even in
the 1970s, multiplexing terminal equipment was still very expensive
[just as computer components were very expensive back then compared to
today.] Back then traffic engineers had to analyze whether it was
cheaper just to run copper lines between two points or use terminal
equipment.
> DTMF would come about shortly thereafter and I believe 1965 was the year
> of the Morris ESS trial.
A trial of tone-pushbutton dialing was done at Media, PA, in 1948,
using vibrating reeds served by a pioneer No. 5 Crossbar.
The first marketing trials of Touch Tone were in 1961 in Findlay, Ohio
and Greensburg, PA. I believe an Independent Company had a trial
circa 1962 using Stromberg Carlson equipment.
The Morris trial ran from 1960 to 1962
(All from the Bell Labs history 1925-1975, which goes into detail
about developments).
Date: Wed, 23 May 2012 19:38:40 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Web billing biz ransacked, smashed offline by hacktivists
Message-ID: <p0624080bcbe3249e76c1@[10.0.1.2]>
Titsup WHMCS calls the Feds after credit-card megaleak
Web billing biz ransacked, smashed offline by hacktivists
By John Leyden
22 May 2012
WHMCS, which provides billing and customer support tech to many web
hosts, was comprehensively hacked on Monday and remains offline.
Hackers tricked WHMCS's own hosting firm into handing over admin
credentials to its servers. The group that carried out the hack,
UGNazi, subsequently extracted the billing company's database before
deleting files, essentially trashing the server and leaving services
unavailable in the process. The compromised server hosted WHCMS's
main website and supported customers' installations of its technology.
UGNazi also gained access to WHMCS's Twitter account, which it used
to publicise a series of posts on Pastebin that contained links to
locations from which the billing firm's customer records and other
sensitive data might be downloaded. A total of 500,000 records,
including customer credit card details, were leaked as a result of
the hack.
...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/22/whmcs_breach/
Hacker group UGNazi leaks and deletes billing service's database
The group used social engineering to access WHMCS's customer
database, then leaked 500,000 records online
May 22, 2012
http://www.infoworld.com/t/hacking/hacker-group-ugnazi-leaks-and-deletes-billing-services-database-193867
Hackers Impersonate Web Billing Firm's Staff To Spill 500,000 Users'
Passwords And Credit Cards
May 22, 2012
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/05/22/hackers-impersonate-web-billing-firms-staff-to-spill-500000-users-passwords-and-credit-cards/
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in
addition 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 Bill Horne. 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.
The Telecom Digest is moderated by Bill Horne.
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
Copyright (C) 2012 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved.
Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA.
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 The Telecom Digest (5 messages)
Return to Archives ** Older Issues