29 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for July 20, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 179 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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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: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:02:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: area code named beer
Message-ID: <18220e4c-983e-4f6b-91be-9b44517bd46f@a11g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>
On Jul 18, 3:53 am, "Bob Goudreau" <BobGoudr...@nc.rr.com> wrote:
> > Actually, this isn't as strange as it seems. Years ago, in the days
> > of exchange names, some local businesses named themselves after the
> > local exchange name. For instance, we had a small chain of pharmacies
> > named Hyatt, Windsor, and Cypress, all exchanges of the towns they
> > were in.
>
> This begs the chicken/egg question. Were those exchanges themselves named
> after existing neighborhoods (in which case the pharmacies were presumably
> named after the geographic areas as well)? Or were the exchange names
> invented out of whole cloth (in which case the pharmacy names were
> exclusively telephonic in origin)?
In the case I know, the exchange names were independent of any
community names, and the pharmacies deliberately copied them
(according to the pharmacist/owner at one of them). Two are now
closed, but one remains in operation as an independent drugstore.
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:46:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mark Smith <marklsmith@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: area code named beer
Message-ID: <1311101167.35952.YahooMailNeo@web65708.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>
On Monday, July 18, 2011 7:02 PM, Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
> On Jul 18, 3:53 am, "Bob Goudreau" <BobGoudr...@nc.rr.com> wrote:
>> Actually, this isn't as strange as it seems. Years ago, in the
>> days of exchange names, some local businesses named themselves
>> after the local exchange name. For instance, we had a small chain
>> of pharmacies named Hyatt, Windsor, and Cypress, all exchanges of
>> the towns they were in.
> This begs the chicken/egg question. Were those exchanges themselves
> named after existing neighborhoods (in which case the pharmacies
> were presumably named after the geographic areas as well)? Or were
> the exchange names invented out of whole cloth (in which case the
> pharmacy names were exclusively telephonic in origin)?
}In the case I know, the exchange names were independent of any
}community names, and the pharmacies deliberately copied them
}(according to the pharmacist/owner at one of them). Two are now
}closed, but one remains in operation as an independent drugstore.
Some exchanges were named for cities and neighborhoods:
PAwtucket2-XXXX was our number from 1951-1987.
Pawtucket is a major city in Rhode Island.
Mark L. Smith
marklsmith@yahoo.com
http://smith.freehosting.net
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:06:19 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Phone apps can let users outsmart the law
Message-ID: <p062408b6ca4abb24ba40@[10.0.1.4]>
Phone apps can let users outsmart the law
There are phone and tablet apps that help you hack text messages, let
you stalk co-workers and let you evade police after a night of
drinking. Legal experts say the software is free speech protected by
the 1st Amendment.
By Shan Li, Los Angeles Times
July 12, 2011
Want to fool merchants with a fake ID? Hack someone's text messages?
Or how about tracking where your co-workers are, without their
knowing it?
There's an app for that.
The explosion in smartphone and tablet applications that allow people
to check the weather, follow their stocks and play Words With Friends
has a dark side - apps that facilitate questionable if not outright
illegal behavior.
...
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-outlaw-apps-20110712,0,1220955.story
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:06:19 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Automatic License Plate Readers track your every move
Message-ID: <p062408bdca4ac21f5d2e@[10.0.1.4]>
Travelers checks: Automatic License Plate Readers track your every move
Posted by Carol Rose, On Liberty
July 14, 2011
ACLU of Massachusetts privacy rights coordinator Kade Crockford wrote
the following guest blog.
Remember the furor this spring, when we learned that iPhones and
other mobile devices were logging every move their users made?
Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) would do something similar to
your car.
Late last year, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts advertised a
$300,000 grant from the federal Department of Transportation for the
purchase of ALPRs. Over 90 agencies in the state applied; 27 were
given the grant money.
Many of these towns (see a full list here) have already implemented
the technology. At least one, Brookline, is currently struggling with
whether or not to accept the funds and implement an ALPR.
ALPRs are not ordinary cameras. Attached to police cruisers, or fixed
on telephone poles or other stationary places, the cameras snap an
image of nearly every license plate they encounter. The device
produces a file for each image captured, which includes searchable
text displaying the time, date and GPS location of the car when and
where the plate was 'read'. This information is fed into a database,
where it can be shared with other agencies and databases, and "mined"
or analyzed.
One of the major problems with ALPR technology is that it sucks up
all license plates, not simply those associated with people suspected
of wrongdoing. Therefore as the technology expands, it is possible
that law enforcement will be able to track your movements with
incredible precision as you go about your daily life in your car.
Without proper privacy protections backed by the force of law, ALPRs
become yet another tracking technology.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of agencies using these machines
have little to no regulation controlling their use. The state
legislature in Massachusetts has yet to act to protect us from this
kind of tracking.
And the technology is spreading fast. ALPRs are the new rage in law
enforcement. A New York Times article from a few months ago described
how the NYPD is rapidly expanding its ALPR program. The city
currently has hundreds of the cameras, operating out of its counter
terrorism office. Combined with its thousands of surveillance cameras
and its advanced database mining programs, the NYPD aims to create a
"ring of steel" in downtown Manhattan, allowing for near total
surveillance over the people in that area.
Here in Massachusetts, police are just beginning to use ALPR technology.
...
http://boston.com/community/blogs/on_liberty/2011/07/travelers_checks_automatic_lic.html
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:43:35 -0400
From: Pete Cresswell <x@y.Invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Tracing Calls w/Spoofed Numbers?
Message-ID: <hd2b27tdvoafqtda4sdc8d2lqt5hmumnt8@4ax.com>
Per John Mayson:
>> In Great Britain, dialling 14258** after an unwanted call bars it; this
>> seems to work even after a mobile call; do you have such a thing in the
>> States?
>
>We do have call blocking, *60. My experience with it was never very
>good. It often didn't work and when it did the caller got an
>announcement saying their number was blocked.
My experience so far has been:
- What seems tb the same caller (Robocaller, actually)
uses different callerIDs for different calls
- Once they've called my cell phone, I have already
incurred the expense of the air time - and more, if they
left voicemail and I retrieved it.
--
PeteCresswell
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:42:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Anonymous <anonymous@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Small Claims
Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com> wrote:
>Male bovine excrement applies. It's within the size limits [for]
>"small-claims" in virtually every jurisdiction.
Very few if any small claims statutes provide for long-arm
jurisdiction over defendants not in the forum jurisdiction. Frex:
Wal*Mart is based in Bentonville, but has tentacles almost everywhere.
If you choose to sue the Beast of Bentonville, you can do so in any
state where they have a physical presence (which is almost all of
them). If on the other hand you want to sue J.Random.Scammer.com,
once you trace him to Tacoma, you need a long-arm statute to get
jurisdiction over him (unless you sue him in his home state).
Small Claims is probably not gonna reach him.
ObDisclaimer: The above is not intended as legal advice and no
attorney-client relationship should be inferred or presumed. If you
need legal advice, seek counsel from an attorney duly licensed in your
jurisdiction.
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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