33 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2014 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.
The Telecom Digest for Sep 11, 2014
Volume 33 : Issue 156 : "text" Format
33 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981Copyright © 2014 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.The Telecom Digest for Sep 11, 2014 |
| Messages in this Issue: | |
|---|---|
| AT&T and Verizon say 10Mbps is too fast for "broadband," 4Mbps is enough | (Monty Solomon) |
| Re: AT&T and Verizon say 10Mbps is too fast for "broadband," 4Mbps is enough | (tlvp) |
| Re: Apple - Update to Celebrity Photo Investigation | (Barry Margolin) |
| The Abuse desk isn't manned anymore | (Bill Horne) |
| Penalty for driving while texting in Long Island-a disabled cell phone | (Monty Solomon) |
| Re: Penalty for driving while texting in Long Island-a disabled cell phone | (John Levine) |
| Local Choice pulled from Senate bill | (Neal McLain) |
| NFL is about to lose its fight to save TV blackout rules | (Monty Solomon) |
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom - Thomas Jefferson
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details.
| Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2014 00:45:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: AT&T and Verizon say 10Mbps is too fast for "broadband," 4Mbps is enough Message-ID: <p0624081ad0343607431c@[172.16.42.4]> AT&T and Verizon say 10Mbps is too fast for "broadband," 4Mbps is enough Cable lobby also implores FCC not to change definition of broadband. by Jon Brodkin Sept 8 2014 Ars Technica AT&T and Verizon have asked the Federal Communications Commission not to change its definition of broadband from 4Mbps to 10Mbps, saying many Internet users get by just fine at the lower speeds. ... http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/09/att-and-verizon-say-10mbps-is-too-fast-for-broadband-4mbps-is-enough/ -or- http://goo.gl/ZQ22gJ ***** Moderator's Note ***** I suppose this is why the ADSL service I get is called "High speed" instead of "Broadband". The article says that the FCC condluded that 0.1Mbps was adequate speed for a "High Quality Voice Call", provided only one user was making a call. As with so many things involving the FCC and the Telecomunications Oligopoly, the estimate is theoretically true. Bill Horne Moderator |
| Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2014 13:08:09 -0400 From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: AT&T and Verizon say 10Mbps is too fast for "broadband," 4Mbps is enough Message-ID: <11o6oisjdxxsk$.1papci9m9kcqv$.dlg@40tude.net> On Tue, 9 Sep 2014 00:45:03 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > AT&T and Verizon say 10Mbps is too fast for "broadband," 4Mbps is enough What clowns! I'm just back from S. Korea, where, using 54 Mbps hotel wi-fi, I was able to download a 350 MB ZIP file from a cloud server in well under two minutes, bespeaking internet speed better than 30 Mbps. Welcome to the 3rd world :-) . Cheers, -- tlvp -- Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP. |
| Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 12:47:52 -0400 From: Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Apple - Update to Celebrity Photo Investigation Message-ID: <barmar-899B1F.12475209092014@news.eternal-september.org> In article <p06240807d03426c9b08e@[172.16.42.4]>, Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> wrote: > > http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/09/02Apple-Media-Advisory.html > > > Apple Media Advisory > Update to Celebrity Photo Investigation > > We wanted to provide an update to our investigation into the theft of > photos of certain celebrities. When we learned of the theft, we were > outraged and immediately mobilized Apple's engineers to discover the > source. Our customers' privacy and security are of utmost importance > to us. After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered > that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted > attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice > that has become all too common on the Internet. None of the cases we > have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's > systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to > work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved. (Moderator snip) > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > I hope that Apple did more than "40 hours" of work on this issue. Why? Once they figured out what happened, should they have kept investigating just so they could publish a larger number? > I also hope that the company reassigns whichever PR flak thinks 40 > hours is a sufficient interval of time to have worked on this, or any, > security problem. A "sufficient time" is whatever it takes to solve the problem. I recently found a bug in a program that resulted from a simple typo. If I fixed it in 5 minutes, did I not take a sufficient interval of time? I recall the user being very happy that I did it so quickly, not castigating me for not putting in enough effort. -- Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** |
| Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 11:59:59 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: The Abuse desk isn't manned anymore Message-ID: <lun861$b3v$1@dont-email.me> Yesterday, I had occasion to ask for help from the "abuse" departments at both Comcast and Yahoo. It was a minor matter: I had put a couple of items on the "Freecycle" list, and I suspected that the replies I received were from spambots - a common problem on Craigslist, sad to say, but up until now rare on Freecycle. I asked both companies to verify that the emails I had received were from real users. I supplied headers and other "back office" info that is expected from a system administrator in these cases. Both firms spat out an auto-reply, with stern warnings not to send any email back, and both supplied URL's which I was asked to visit, supposedly to their "abuse" websites. I clicked on the links, expecting to fill out an .asp form so as to save their employees the few seconds it would have taken for them to do it. The "abuse" addresses turned out to be redirected to each ISP's generic "help" pages, which had no capability to actually file an abuse complaint. It's obvious that Comcast and Yahoo have abandoned any attempt to deal with abuse reports at anything above a superficial level. I just can't stop wondering why I'm surprised. Bill -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) |
| Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2014 22:39:50 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Penalty for driving while texting in Long Island-a disabled cell phone Message-ID: <p0624082fd0356a3a7fa3@[172.16.42.4]> Penalty for driving while texting in Long Island-a disabled cell phone New York prosecutor says driving while texting is as dangerous as drunk driving. by David Kravets Sept 9 2014 Ars Technica Motorists popped for texting-while-driving violations in Long Island could be mandated to temporarily disable their mobile phones the next time they take to the road. That's according to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who says she is moving to mandate that either hardware be installed or apps be activated that disable the mobile phone while behind the wheel. The district attorney likened the texter's punishment to drunk drivers who sometimes are required to breathe into a device before turning on the ignition. ... http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/09/penalty-for-driving-while-texting-in-long-island-a-disabled-cell-phone/ -or- http://goo.gl/Nx49IQ ***** Moderator's Note ***** Is Ms. Rice an elected official? Bill Horne Moderator |
| Date: 11 Sep 2014 00:42:01 -0000 From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Penalty for driving while texting in Long Island-a disabled cell phone Message-ID: <20140911004201.3124.qmail@joyce.lan> > Motorists popped for texting-while-driving violations in Long Island > could be mandated to temporarily disable their mobile phones the > next time they take to the road. > That's according to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who ... > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > Is Ms. Rice an elected official? Yes, district attorneys are elected in New York. Assuming the technical details are workable, this seems like a reasonable idea. I don't want to put texting drivers in jail, I just want them to stop texting and pay attention to the fripping road. ***** Moderator's Note ***** Primary elections were held yesterday in Massachusetts, and I was wondering if the Nassau County District Attorney was also in an election cycle, and might be hungry for headlines. There is no app, device, system, or method that would make it possible to eliminate texting by the driver of a vehicle. It can, of course, be done for the entire car, but not just for the driver. I assume that Ms. Rice is aware of this already, and has wasted a lot of people's time by shopping for free ink. Bill Horne Moderator |
| Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 15:24:41 -0700 (PDT) From: Neal McLain <nmclain@remove-this.annsgarden.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Local Choice pulled from Senate bill Message-ID: <f1083036-adc8-4e80-b567-4f0313915f7a@googlegroups.com> By Daniel Frankel, FierceCable, September 10, 2014 Fearing that their Local Choice proposal is too ambitious for full Congressional approval on a short timeline, the proposal's creators, Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and John Thune (R-S.D.), have pulled it out of the Senate Commerce Committee's satellite-TV bill. The provision, which was in the draft of the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (STAVRA), would have probably been too big and controversial to pass through quickly. That timing would have been an issue, given that STAVRA needs approval by the end of the year. Had it passed, Local Choice would have done away with broadcast-retransmission payments from pay-TV operators, essentially stripping broadcast stations from the pay-TV bundle. Subscribers would choose only the local stations they want and pay broadcasters directly. Continued: http://www.fiercecable.com/story/local-choice-will-likely-be-pulled-senate-bill-report-says/2014-09-10?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal -or- http://tinyurl.com/qj4p3xt Neal McLain |
| Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2014 22:51:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: NFL is about to lose its fight to save TV blackout rules Message-ID: <p06240801d0356cea20e4@[172.16.42.4]> NFL is about to lose its fight to save TV blackout rules FCC chairman says "the rules make no sense," schedules vote to remove them. by Jon Brodkin Sept 9 2014 The 40-year-old federal rules that support the National Football League's TV blackout policy could finally be eliminated this month. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler today scheduled a vote for September 30 on "a proposal to get rid of the FCC's blackout rule once and for all," he wrote today. ... http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/09/nfl-is-about-to-lose-its-fight-to-save-tv-blackout-rules/ -or- http://goo.gl/67Rulb http://www.fcc.gov/blog/updating-old-policies-pioneering-new-ones |
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