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The Telecom Digest for October 2, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 204 : "text" Format
====== 32 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
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Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
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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, 30 Sep 2013 10:36:47 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: What Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, Instagram, and Internet Porn Are Doing to America's Teenage Girls
Message-ID: <p0624081ece6f3b8d955a@[10.0.1.2]>
What Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, Instagram, and Internet Porn Are
Doing to America's Teenage Girls
By Nancy Jo Sales
September 26, 2013
Vanity Fair
Friends Without Benefits
This year, 81 percent of Internet-using teenagers in America reported
that they are active on social-networking sites, more than ever
before. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and new dating apps like
Tinder, Grindr, and Blendr have increasingly become key players in
social interactions, both online and IRL (in real life). Combined
with unprecedented easy access to the unreal world of Internet porn,
the result is a situation that has drastically affected gender roles
for young people. Speaking to a variety of teenaged boys and girls
across the country, Nancy Jo Sales uncovers a world where boys are
taught they have the right to expect everything from social
submission to outright sex from their female peers. What is this
doing to America's young women?
...
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/09/social-media-internet-porn-teenage-girls
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 10:08:10 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Qaeda Plot Leak Has Undermined U.S. Intelligence
Message-ID: <p0624081bce6f35f946af@[10.0.1.2]>
Qaeda Plot Leak Has Undermined U.S. Intelligence
By ERIC SCHMITT and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
September 29, 2013
WASHINGTON - As the nation's spy agencies assess the fallout from
disclosures about their surveillance programs, some government
analysts and senior officials have made a startling finding: the
impact of a leaked terrorist plot by Al Qaeda in August has caused
more immediate damage to American counterterrorism efforts than the
thousands of classified documents disclosed by Edward Snowden, the
former National Security Agency contractor.
Since news reports in early August revealed that the United States
intercepted messages between Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama
bin Laden as the head of Al Qaeda, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head
of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, discussing an
imminent terrorist attack, analysts have detected a sharp drop in the
terrorists' use of a major communications channel that the
authorities were monitoring. Since August, senior American officials
have been scrambling to find new ways to surveil the electronic
messages and conversations of Al Qaeda's leaders and operatives.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/us/qaeda-plot-leak-has-undermined-us-intelligence.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
"Major communications channel". Sounds, um, vaguely vague. Sounds
like someone trying to give the impression that all right-thinking
Americuns will accept the hint and leave the guvmint boys to their
work.
Sounds like someone pumping up their copy with non-facts: the New York
Times, which published the Pentagon Papers, has gone down a notch in
my estimation.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 12:03:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: docsavage20@yahoo.com
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Any way around Verizon blocking Page Plus on Verizon prepaid phones?
Message-ID: <e20b1080-cd7a-4e54-8112-6ee3e58c15d0@googlegroups.com>
A few years ago when I first started using a prepay cel phone you
could use Page Plus on any Verizon phone.
Apparently things have changed which I discovered when I went to get a
newer phone. Now you can't use a Verizon prepay phone with any plan
other than a Verizon plan.
Or can you? Is there any hack or workaround? It seems the only
alternatives are to pay the insane price for a contract phone without
getting a contract or finding an older used Verizon phone.
Thanks for all input.
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2013 08:51:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Consumers say a la carte important, but not worth cutting the cord
Message-ID: <e69d1ebb-2ea4-4bdc-a7a8-ce851f666d45@googlegroups.com>
By Jim Barthold, FireceIPTV, October 1, 2013
| Despite what service providers often maintain, video consumers
| are not all that excited about channel bundles and think they
| could do better building their own channel packages, according
| to the latest iteration of Pricewaterhouse Coopers' Consumer
| Intelligence Series on video content consumption.
|
| "The majority of conversations, in order of volume were: too
| many channels to choose from, paying for channels that are
| never watched or unwanted to begin with, and having to bargain
| with cable/satellite companies to take advantage of offers,"
| the report noted in its findings.
|
| These same consumers said they longed for the ability to build
| their own channel packages via a la carte selection and "73
| percent of consumers would prefer to customize their package,
| picking and choosing the channels that suit their individual
| interests," the report said.
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/mh8jesc
Neal McLain
aka Texas Cable Guy
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 10:05:12 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: A Facebook Like Is Now Covered by the First Amendment
Message-ID: <p0624081ace6f35411ba3@[10.0.1.2]>
A Facebook Like Is Now Covered by the First Amendment
The Founders could not have anticipated Facebook. In another way,
though, they totally anticipated Facebook.
Simple clicks of a button are now enshrined as constitutionally
protected conduits of self-expression.
MEGAN GARBER
SEP 19 2013
The Atlantic
In November of 2009, B.J. Roberts, the sheriff of Hampton, Virginia,
ran for re-election. A group of workers in Roberts' office, however,
among them one Bobby Bland, weren't enthused about the prospects of
their boss's continuation in his role. So they took to their Facebook
accounts to protest the run: They Liked the campaign of Roberts's
opponent, Jim Adams. Despite the minuscule mutiny, however, Roberts
won the election. He then chose not to retain Bland and the others as
his employees. The dismissals, Roberts said at the time, were the
result not only of budgeting concerns, but also of the workers'
hindrance of "the harmony and efficiency of the office." The sheriff
had not liked his workers' Likes.
Bland and his colleagues took Roberts to court, arguing that, in the
dismissals, Roberts had violated their First Amendment rights. In
April of 2012, however, the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia
dismissed the case on the grounds that a Like didn't involve an
"actual statement," and therefore was "insufficient speech to merit
constitutional protection."
Yesterday, however, that decision was overturned. A federal appeals
court ruled that a Facebook Like is, indeed, a form of expression that
is covered by the First Amendment. Clicking a button is, per the
decision, a protected form of speech.
...
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/09/a-facebook-like-is-now-covered-by-the-first-amendment/279828/
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 10:40:52 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Astros draw 0.0 Nielsen TV rating in Houston market during loss to Indians
Message-ID: <p06240820ce6f3d9e116b@[10.0.1.2]>
Astros draw 0.0 Nielsen TV rating in Houston market during loss to Indians
What if they played a ballgame and nobody watched? Apparently, we
have an answer with regards to Sunday's Indians-Astros contest in
Cleveland, at least according to the Nielsen Co. ratings system, and
it's this: The Astros have discovered new ways to lose. Not only can
they drop a game to the team they're playing, but they can draw less
local interest than a static football scoreboard or a rerun of The
Cosby Show.
According to the Houston Chronicle's David Barron, Sunday's game,
which started at noon Central Time (1 p.m. Eastern Time in Cleveland)
and was broadcast on Comcast SportsNet Houston, received a 0.00
Nielsen rating - a sampling of a small percentage of the TV-watching
population. Sunday's rating came via 581 meters in the Greater
Houston area, around half of which were in use by viewers for any
15-minute period during the three-hour bloc between noon and 3 p.m.
Meanwhile, 23 percent of households were busy watching the NFL's
Houston Texans lose to the Baltimore Ravens, 1.3 percent were
watching a NASCAR race, 0.5 percent were watching a Cosby rerun and
0.16 percent were watching the NFL Network's screen of football
scores.
...
http://mlb.si.com/2013/09/23/houston-astros-nielsen-rating/
New low for Astros: 0.0 TV rating
http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2013/09/according-to-nielsen-nobody-watched-astros-indians-game-sunday/
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