30 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Add this Digest to your personal
or 
The Telecom Digest for May 31, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 132 : "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, 29 May 2012 23:47:51 -0400
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: SPRINT announces sked for Nextel shutdown: June 30, 2013
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1205292345230.14881@panix5.panix.com>
New York (AP) - Sprint says it will shut down the Nextel network as
early as June 30 next year, cutting off service for its characteristic
walkie-talkie-like Nextel phones.
....
There were 5.4 million phones active on the Nextel network at the end of
March. Many Nextel customers are businesses or government agencies who
issue the phones to construction crews and other mobile workers.
-------
rest:
http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/246453/16/Sprint-to-shut-down-Nextel
- anyone know of any other communications network options that have
similar "push to talk" ability? There were some GSM phones that
were announced that never seem to have hit the market...
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 14:12:58 +0000 (UTC)
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: SPRINT announces sked for Nextel shutdown: June 30, 2013
Message-ID: <jq59t9$m5s$1@leila.iecc.com>
> anyone know of any other communications network options that have
> similar "push to talk" ability? There were some GSM phones that
> were announced that never seem to have hit the market...
All of them. Even Sprint's new PTT phones run on CDMA.
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/motorola-admiral-sprint/4505-6452_7-35043597.html
R's,
John
--
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail.
http://jl.ly
Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 15:54:16 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: SPRINT announces sked for Nextel shutdown: June 30, 2013
Message-ID: <1e1tgs7bhgaz3$.187c4cx7nj6g3$.dlg@40tude.net>
On Tue, 29 May 2012 23:47:51 -0400, danny burstein wrote:
> - anyone know of any other communications network options that have
> similar "push to talk" ability? There were some GSM phones that
> were announced that never seem to have hit the market...
I have a Cingular-branded LG cu-400 -- a GSM unit -- with a PTT button --
pressing it brings up a dialogue window
: PTT charges will apply. Do you wish to initialize PTT?
: 1 Yes
: 2 No
(possible responses being 1 [OK} or 2 [OK] or [Back]).
As it's a handset I had SIM-subsidy-unlocked, for use with T-Mobile, or
with PAYG SIMS while traveling abroad, and never actually used on Cingular,
I have no idea how that PTT actually works :-) .
HTH. Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 04:57:54 +0200
From: Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Broadcasters Warn of Apocalypse in Dish's Ad-Skipping Service
Message-ID: <jq42bd$ame$1@news1.tnib.de>
Pete Cresswell <PeteCress@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote:
>A long time ago, when we used to go to Germany every year or two,
>I observed that the commercials there were all run back-to-back
>early in the evening. No shows... just continuous commercials.
But never for longer than ten minutes, right?
>State-run TV, I guess....
Until the mid 1980ies, there was no alternative. Which was good. Since
private-run TV is here, the programs have changed to cater for a
significantly less intelligent audience.
Even today, Commercials are packed up up so that a show is never
interrupted more than twice (three times?) in an hour.
Greetings
Marc
--
------------------ !! No courtesy copies, please !! -----
Marc Haber | " Questions are the | Mailadresse im Header
Mannheim, Germany | Beginning of Wisdom " | http://www.zugschlus.de/
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 621 72739834
Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 06:58:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Broadcasters Warn of Apocalypse in Dish's Ad-Skipping Service
Message-ID: <1338386283.67626.YahooMailClassic@web111714.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
--- On Tue, 5/29/12, Bill Horne <bill@horenQRM.net> wrote:
> The cost of television, in short, is that it has drilled itself into
> our consciousness like some succubus that will steal our souls as it
> feeds on our innocence and deprives us of the chance to see the
> world with our own eyes.
The paradigm goes back to the earliest days or radio when it ceased to
be just a hobby and became a commercial power house.
When we visited in the Bahamas many years ago Bill Paley (and many
others) had a listed telephone number in the very excluive
millionaires' section of New Providence.
Wes Leatherock
wleathus@yahoo.com
wesrock@aol.com
Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 10:39:02 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Please tell me about online tutorials for CTI and/or VoIP
Message-ID: <jq5be8$9ha$1@dont-email.me>
I'm going to take an employment test that includes some questions about
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and VoIP. If you know of any online
tutorials that go beyond basic setup, please pass along the URL.
Thank you!
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 12:59:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Broadcasters Warn of Apocalypse in Dish's Ad-Skipping Service
Message-ID: <4e9e9d67-ebe3-411f-bdd2-e83a2b69db76@t23g2000yqj.googlegroups.com>
On May 29, 8:55 pm, Pete Cresswell <PeteCr...@invalid.telecom-
digest.org> wrote:
> >Broadcasters are claiming in federal lawsuits Thursday that Dish
> >Network's DVR service, which allows the automatic skipping of
> >commercials, breaches copyright law and retransmission agreements.
> One solution to their problem might be commercials that most
> people do not want to skip.
This is an excellent and important point.
A viewing of old VHS tapes recorded in the early 1980s reveals less
commercial content than now, roughly 5 to 8 minutes more commercials
per hour.
I understand newcasts have been reduced from 22 minutes to 18 minutes.
Cable TV providers claim they must raise basic rates 3% every year to
pay for programming received from 'free' channels, e.g. USA Network,
LifetimeTV, ABCFamily, AMC, Comedy, etc. But programs on these
channels are still loaded with commercials, with even more than on
traditional broadcast TV. So, the viewer is paying twice. Why is
that?
> Seems like there has already been a trend in that direction over
> the past several years - although I personally haven't watched
> more than 20 seconds of any commercial in a lot longer than
> that... the snippits I see look more entertaining and less
> intrusive.
IMHO, there hasn't been any improvement. At certain times, some of
the commercials are horrendously bad, such as blaring ads by lawyers
to get money for medical malpractice or adverse drug reaction. Or for
rather suspicious life insurance or health care services. (How does
anyone 75 years old qualify for life insurance 'no questions
asked')?
> Understood that automated skip is qualitatively different from
> fast-forward.... but people still have to explicitly invoke it.
In the old days people would use the bathroom or other tasks during
commercials. Commercials used to be evenly spaced throughout a
program. But now, to discourage bathroom breaks and hook the viewer
in, they keep the first 20 minutes commercial free, then load up the
last end with roughly five minutes of content and five minutes of
commercials, but not evenly spaced. They also announce "we'll now
return to" but then show more commercials, so you'll run out of the
bathroom.
If my own choice was to watch TV as aired with its many awful
commercials, I couldn't watch. Indeed, I get edgely in waiting rooms
these days since so many have a blaring TV set. (They told me
doctors' offices can't have magazines because they spread germs--is
that true?)
It gets very confusing for the consumer as to who pays for what. The
traditional broadcasters complain, the cable companies complain, the
satellite companies complain. Who does a consumer believe? I can't
help but suspect they're all making tons of money.
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 (7 messages)
Return to Archives ** Older Issues