|
|
Message Digest
Volume 28 : Issue 192 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
Cellphone savings worth research
Re: Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
Re: Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
911 service center troubles
Re: 911 service center troubles
Re: 911 service center troubles
Manual Offices (re: Community Dial Offices)
Re: Manual Offices (re: Community Dial Offices)
====== 27 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 Patrick Townson 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 the recipients of the
email.
===========================
Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without explicit written consent. 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: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:45:11 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
Message-ID: <MPG.24c485e3debd65b4989adb@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <d4e.5528b7f2.378bda5e@aol.com>, Wesrock@aol.com says...
>
> In a message dated 7/12/2009 4:29:56 PM Central Daylight Time,
> diespammers@killspammers.com writes:
>
> > I had my Credit Union deactivate the chip in my card and opted out
> > of another one. A few years ago Mobil Oil had chip key chains and
> > one day I noticed credit card charges in a bunch of cities all over
> > the country at the same time. When I found out what it was I
> > smashed that key chain into a million little peaces and joined a
> > suit against them, but that suit went nowhere.
>
> This sounds like the things that Chase and Citibank (For
> Phillisp-Conoco credit cards) have added to their cards where you just
> wave them at the receiver. I think Mobil and now Exxon still have
> theirs, too.
>
> Wes Leatherock
> wesrock@aol.com
> wleathus@yahoo.com
My bank hasn't yet gone the RFID route but they will. I do note my old
bank now has RFID in their debit cards.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:01:30 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Cellphone savings worth research
Message-ID: <p06240821c6806f7e486b@[10.0.1.3]>
SPENDING SMART
Cellphone savings worth research
Competition for wireless customers leads to a bewildering array of
options - and a price war
By Todd Wallack, Globe Staff | July 12, 2009
The Boston Globe
When we looked into switching cellphone companies recently, we were
soon drowning in options.
T-Mobile USA alone offers more than 40 individual and family plans.
Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint Nextel offer dozens more. And then
there's a pack of upstarts offering prepaid service, including Boost
Mobile (a unit of Sprint Nextel that uses Nextel's network), Virgin
Mobile USA (which uses Sprint's network), and MetroPCS (which has its
own network in Boston and some other cities.)
The great news is that all this competition has sparked a price war
of sorts. Boost Mobile recently made a splash by offering unlimited
calls and text messages for $50 per month - half the price of
traditional plans with unlimited minutes. Virgin Mobile countered by
offering unlimited calls for $50 (or $60 if you add in text
messages). Now some say their plans are even cheaper. MetroPCS
charges $40-$50 for unlimited calls and text. And TracFone just
launched its own $45 option called StraightTalk.
...
http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2009/07/12/cellphone_savings_worth_research/
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:06:47 -0700
From: Steven Lichter <diespammers@killspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
Message-ID: <h3ebsn$odl$1@news.eternal-september.org>
Wesrock@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 7/12/2009 4:29:56 PM Central Daylight Time,
> diespammers@killspammers.com writes:
>
>> I had my Credit Union deactivate the chip in my card and opted out
>> of another one. A few years ago Mobil Oil had chip key chains and
>> one day I noticed credit card charges in a bunch of cities all over
>> the country at the same time. When I found out what it was I
>> smashed that key chain into a million little peaces and joined a
>> suit against them, but that suit went nowhere.
>
> This sounds like the things that Chase and Citibank (For
> Phillisp-Conoco credit cards) have added to their cards where you just
> wave them at the receiver. I think Mobil and now Exxon still have
> theirs, too.
>
> Wes Leatherock
> wesrock@aol.com
> wleathus@yahoo.com
That is what they are, Mobil has had them for some time, at least 10
years. As I posted earlier store products are tagged with simple ones,
not like the older tags which worked like magnets. The tag that was on
my shoe had the size, color and price along with which store it came
from. Mine was bought at Kmart but set off alarms at Walmart stores
until is was deactivated.
--
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:51:38 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
Message-ID: <h3f3jq$aau$1@news.albasani.net>
Kenneth P. Stox <stox@yahoo.com> wrote:
>***** Moderator's Note *****
>Ah, but he never got to _really_ meet Number One, did he? Did that
>mean he could never know who his leaders were, or was it intended to
>portray the ambiguity of Number Six'es motivation in refusing to
>accept what he always was?
There are any number of ways to interpret that final episode, so there's
no way you can be wrong. It helps to have drunk as much whiskey as McGoohan
had in him when he wrote it.
***** Moderator's Note *****
The part I always loved was McGoohan's recounting of the submarine
tryout: he had paid for a gen-u-ine submersible machine that would
guard The Village's beaches. The thing sank straight to the bottom,
leaving them with no way to portray the impossibility of escape by
sea. According to McGoohan, while the crew was contemplating the
deminse of the submersible, someone noticed a weather baloon in the
distance, and McGoohan sent someone off to obtain some samples. The
result was one of the most iconic "implacable enemy" images ever put
on TV: one that Steven Spielberg paid homage to at the start of
"Raiders Of The Lost Ark".
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:50:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: 911 service center troubles
Message-ID: <d65f09fe-99a4-4975-9026-d4c08df37433@f33g2000vbm.googlegroups.com>
Many 911 centers cannot use a cellphone's GPS to ascertain where the
caller is.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31786185/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:11:38 GMT
From: "wdag" <wgeary@verizon.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: 911 service center troubles
Message-ID: <_xM6m.2290$P5.2141@nwrddc02.gnilink.net>
<hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote in message
news:d65f09fe-99a4-4975-9026-d4c08df37433@f33g2000vbm.googlegroups.com...
> Many 911 centers cannot use a cellphone's GPS to ascertain where the
> caller is.
>
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31786185/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/
>
And I wonder how many of those centers are in municipalities that have been
collecting "911 fees" for decades and spending the proceeds as general
revenue?
***** Moderator's Note *****
Well, if cellular users can dial 911, then the "911 fees" would be
justified, n'est-ce-pas?
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:01:54 EDT
From: Wesrock@aol.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: 911 service center troubles
Message-ID: <d41.45e11a09.378d3302@aol.com>
In a message dated 7/13/2009 6:58:42 PM Central Daylight Time,
wgeary@verizon.net writes:
> And I wonder how many of those centers are in municipalities that
> have been collecting "911 fees" for decades and spending the
> proceeds as general revenue?
Many places are adding additional taxes for the implementation of
cell phone location, GPS or triangulation. Many have not yet done so
and so cannot pinpoint the location of the phone. But they still have
911 service and 911 fees.
Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com
wleathus@yahoo.com
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:58:42 -0600
From: "Anthony Bellanga" <anthonybellanga@gonetoearth.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Manual Offices (re: Community Dial Offices)
Message-ID: <WorldClient-F200907131358.AA58420433@gonetoearth.com>
Sam Spade wrote:
> Lisa Hancock wrote:
>> P.S. Trivia--in 1970 the Bell System had 11 (eleven) manual offices
>> left. I know one was Santa Catalina Island, off of California, and
>> it was the last to be automated, using a compact ESS described
>> above. I was wondering what the other ten were. This does not
>> include manual offices of Independents.
> The preferred method is a host/remote via a fiber optics link. The
> remote is designed to still provide dial tone and local service if
> the link is broken (such as by a backhoe ;-) ) Both DMS-100s and
> 5ESSes have remotes made to work with them. I don't know about the
> DMS-100 remote but I do know that the 5ESS remote's calling features
> are handled by the host.
>
> As to Catalina Island I believe that was a No.3 ESS or something like
> that. It was analog like the 1 and 1A (ESS). It has since been
> replaced by a digital remote probably hosted by the nearest Pacific
> Bell mainland host (San Pedro would be my guess).
Avalon CA is the main "town" on Santa Catalina Island CA, and is the
name of the "ratecenter" for Catalona. It is a 5ESS-Remote,
AVLNCA11RS0, hosted by at&t's (Pacific Bell's) 5ESS in Torrance CA,
TRNCCA11DS0.
These days, there are also CLECs with service tariffed for Avalon CA,
but provided by central office switches elsewhere in the Los Angeles CA
mainland area. While their central office switch is NOT at Avalon, the
CLEC's 310-NXX office codes are associated with the ratecenter of
Avalon CA (Santa Catalina Island) for billing and tariff purposes.
BTW, the "basic" local calling area for Avalon CA (Santa Catalina
Island) is ONLY Avalon CA and NOTHING ELSE. Of course, I suppose that
the CLECs (and maybe even at&t formerly SBC formerly Pacific Bell)
offer optional extended area plans. I don't find any cellular providers
actually serving the RATECENTER of Avalon CA, but I expect that there
are cell towers there, for people with cellphones associated with
mainland ratecneters -- and you would be able to call "nationwide",
although it could still be an intra-LATA toll call to call any
cellphone FROM a landline associated with Avalon (Santa Catalina) if
that cellphone is associated with a southern California ratecneter
(and an inter-LATA toll call if the cellphone "visiting" Santa Catalina
had a number outside of southern California) when calling from a
landline at Catalina.
As for other Bell System manual offices still in existance circa 1970,
I can think of these two:
- Lake Providence LA, South Central Bell, common battery manual
- Virginia City NV, Nevada Bell, actually MAGNETO
Both of these were converted to dial, probably #2-type ESS, around 1971
or 1972. Santa Catalina was also cutover to a #2-type ESS, I think a
#2BESS, when originally cut from manual to dial in 1978, The #2-type
(and rarely used #3-typoe) ESS offices were electronic but still
"analog", not yet digital technology.
(The #4ESS is digital, but it is primarily a tandem or toll office,
used mostly by AT&T, the legacy Long Lines side; The #5ESS is also
digital, and can be used for local exclusively, toll exclusively, or
operator services exclusively, or any combination).
I do not know the specifics of any of the other manual/magneto BELL
exchanges in the US (and Bell Canada?) circa 1970.
But there were other manual and magneto office of non-Bell telcos in
the US (and outside of Bell Canada's territory in Ontario & Quebec) in
1970.
- Grand River (Iowa), cutover to dial in 1981 or 1982.
- Bryant Pond (Maine), cutover to dial in 1983.
Bryant Pond ME is said to be the VERY LAST magneto central office board
in the US to be cutover to dial, and by 1983, I think it was a small
digital office.
And it was said to be the last non-dial full-fledged "exchange" in
that it served numerous customers on party and single lines which were
"switched" between each other.
But even after Bryant Pond ME, there were still "ring down party lines"
and (non-dial) toll-stations, throughout the US and Canada. In the US,
some of these "toll stations" were even served by a BELL operator.
The last known "ring down party line" in the US to be converted to
regular dial operation was Shoup (Idaho), around 1990. There were about
20 customers who shared a common party line, single open wire with
"earth/ground return", and "rang" each other by coded ringing (of
course, most were already listening-in on the party line anyway), but
a long ring for about 10-seconds in duration would signal the serving
operator in (non-Bell) Salmon River ID to answer the line, if someone
was calling someone elsewhere in the world. And that Salmon River ID
operator was also the "inward" operator for calls placed TO a Shoup ID
customer. By 1989/90, AT&T, US-West, and the local independent telco
serving Salmon River ID at the time, realized that something had to be
done about upgrading Shoup ID. Another independent telco came in and
was tariffed to provide digital dial service to the handful of
customers in Shoup ID.
And then, there were still several "individual" subscribers in some of
most remote out-of-the-way locations which were served as a "toll
station". These are those "oddball" places in Nevada and California,
which had to be placed through the operator. I think that AT&T, SBC,
and the various local independent telcos in these states who might have
served these points, finally eliminated those toll stations which
no longer really existed, since they had still been listed in some
industry routing and billing documents, and for those which still did
exist, they were finally given regular tariffed dial service, probably
around 2002 or 2003.
I do NOT know what the current situation might be in remote parts of
northern Canada or elsewhere in the North American network or anywhere
else in the world.
a/b
***** Moderator's Note *****
I want to have at least _one_ Magneto telephone _somewhere_. It's
something we have to do: like the Field Of Dreams, if we build it,
they will come. Somewhere in North America there has to be a desolate
outpost which still has a crank on the phone, and all we need to do is
find it, find a switchboard that can serve it, and we're there.
Decades of Hollywood movies are crying out for their kinder, gentler
rural past. So am I.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:18:04 -0700
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Manual Offices (re: Community Dial Offices)
Message-ID: <f1R6m.54487$Xs4.53063@newsfe11.iad>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> I want to have at least _one_ Magneto telephone _somewhere_. It's
> something we have to do: like the Field Of Dreams, if we build it,
> they will come. Somewhere in North America there has to be a desolate
> outpost which still has a crank on the phone, and all we need to do is
> find it, find a switchboard that can serve it, and we're there.
>
> Decades of Hollywood movies are crying out for their kinder, gentler
> rural past. So am I.
>
I was in Seattle last week for a meeting at Boeing Field. Alas, only
two blocks from the best telecom museum in these United States. But,
they are opened only on Tuesdays.
It didn't work this time nor did it two years ago.
Having said that, I suffered so with GTE's step office in Glendora, CA
from 1969 to 1975, I gladly paid FX rates to bring in dial tone from
Pacific's El Monte No 1ESS when it cut in 1975. Then, they put me on
horrible N carrier. I really raised a stink and they then put me on T
carrier with proper supervison, to boot. That happened only because the
GTE local managers knew me (for better or worse).
I like the PSTN a whole lot more today.
------------------------------
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 Patrick Townson. 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 currently being moderated by Bill Horne while
Pat Townson recovers from a stroke.
Contact information: Bill Horne
Telecom Digest
43 Deerfield Road
Sharon MA 02067-2301
781-784-7287
bill at horne dot net
Subscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=subscribe telecom
Unsubscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=unsubscribe telecom
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) 2008 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 (9 messages)
******************************
|
or 