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Message Digest 
Volume 28 : Issue 228 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:
  Re: GSM-only interference 
  Re: GSM-only interference 
  New Worries About Children With Cellphones
  Re: Pop song phone number goes up for auction 
  Re:  Cell-phone generation increasingly disconnected
  Re: End of a print publication and copyright comment 
  Re: Sending ringing current toward a CO on a dial tone trunk        
  Re: End of a print publication and copyright comment 
  in a Qwest for wireless service...
  Cutting the cord 


====== 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: 18 Aug 2009 10:49:07 -0400 From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: GSM-only interference Message-ID: <h6ef13$prv$1@panix2.panix.com> John Mayson <john@mayson.us> wrote: > I have a friend back in Atlanta who's a pretty straight-shooter. I > don't think he was making this up. He placed his GSM phone on his > paper shredder to charge as his cord wasn't long enough to reach > anything else. His paper shredder kept turning on and then off all > by itself. He moved the phone and it stopped. That sounds like lousy shredder controller design as WELL as the usual nightmare that GSM cellphones cause with induced noise. But it doesn't surprise me a bit. Turn the cellphone off, please. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:51:17 -0700 From: Steven <diespammers@killspammers.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: GSM-only interference Message-ID: <h6f486$bud$1@news.eternal-september.org> Scott Dorsey wrote: > John Mayson <john@mayson.us> wrote: > >> I have a friend back in Atlanta who's a pretty straight-shooter. I >> don't think he was making this up. He placed his GSM phone on his >> paper shredder to charge as his cord wasn't long enough to reach >> anything else. His paper shredder kept turning on and then off all >> by itself. He moved the phone and it stopped. > > That sounds like lousy shredder controller design as WELL as the usual > nightmare that GSM cellphones cause with induced noise. But it > doesn't surprise me a bit. > > Turn the cellphone off, please. > > --scott On the news today they talked about a broiler turning on when he placed his cell phone on a counter near his stove. -- 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: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:40:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: New Worries About Children With Cellphones Message-ID: <p06240887c6afe0d63588@[10.0.1.3]> SHORTCUTS New Worries About Children With Cellphones By ALINA TUGEND August 15, 2009 THREE years ago, when my older son, Ben, was entering middle school, I wrote a column recounting a debate with my husband about getting him a cellphone. Was he too young? Were we being overly indulgent? How would we hold out against his younger brother, Gabriel, who immediately began badgering for his own phone? Now Ben is entering high school; his brother is going into middle school. Gabriel has had his own cellphone since he was 9 and began walking to and from school by himself. And our past worries seem so quaint. Back then, I wasn't worried about inappropriate downloads. Or questionable sales techniques aimed at my preteenager. Or excessive texting (I'm not even going to touch "sexting"). Or the sheer annoyance of a cellphone clutched in my sons' hands like a security blanket. Now, about half of American children 12 years and older have cellphones, according to Christopher Collins, a senior analyst for consumer research at the Yankee Group, a research firm. And that has spawned all sorts of problems, like questions about etiquette and costly scams. For example, a while back, we stumbled upon a surprise $19.99 charge on our Verizon Wireless bill. It turned out that Ben had accidentally bought a joke-a-day for his cellphone. He thought he had taken advantage of a free offer. The trouble is, it's not always clear where the offer is coming from. Mike Wehrs, president of the trade group Mobile Marketing Association, explained that there were different ways to buy a service, like a ring tone, screensaver, service or game for your cellphone. One is to purchase directly from your phone carrier, and that is pretty safe, he said. The top carriers tend to follow his organization's guidelines, which require that consumers be asked twice if they want to buy the service, told how much it will cost, whether it is a one-time fee or a monthly charge and how to opt out. But then there are third-party providers, also known as "off-deck," which are apparently what Ben used. These are companies that are not associated with our cellphone server. Therefore they may be less forthcoming, let us say, in explaining charges. They can also be much more difficult to contact with questions or complaints. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/15/your-money/15shortcuts.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:10:04 -0700 From: Richard <rng@richbonnie.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Pop song phone number goes up for auction Message-ID: <mndk855qt995gmkcs754nj228mupicd5pi@4ax.com> On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:54:35 -0400 (EDT), I wrote: >On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:49:08 -0400 (EDT), Robert Neville ><dont@bother.com> wrote: > >>Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com> wrote: >> >>>Apparently, folks who like to leave bogus numbers like using 0000. >> >>One of the local ambulance chasers has a large billboard up along the interstate >>with a 0000 number. > >At least three law firms in Las Vegas have phone numbers ending in >0000. And several of the heavily-advertised law firms in Vegas have >repeating numerals, such as 444-4444 and 333-7777. Watching a show today on a Las Vegas local TV channel, I saw a new ad for a law firm. Its number was 400-0000. I didn't think an office code could end in 00. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Aug 2009 10:48:00 -0400 From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Cell-phone generation increasingly disconnected Message-ID: <h6eev0$s9i$1@panix2.panix.com> >***** Moderator's Note ***** > >Sorry, that doesn't make sense. Jet aircraft have so much spare power >that air circulation is never a problem: the engines provide >pressurized air for free, so moving air through the cabin is very easy >to do. You forget just how cheap airlines are! Bleed air costs real money because it reduces engine efficiency. It's not free, you have to burn petroleum to get it, and in an age where passengers are being nickeled and dimed for every item of luggage it's not surprising that reducing bleed air use is of paramount concern. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:37:20 -0400 From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: End of a print publication and copyright comment Message-ID: <MPG.24f4beea34ce1f12989b4a@news.eternal-september.org> In article <C6AC60BB.1B341%mjwilcox12@gmail.com>, mjwilcox12@gmail.com says... > > On 8/15/09 9:52 AM, in article > siegman-791B4B.08195715082009@news.stanford.edu, "AES" > <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote: > > > In article > > <5c7a9547-83c3-4757-a139-0fcca6185b1d@j21g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>, > > hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > > > >>> !!! FREE THE BSTJ !!! > >>> Efforts to make all the *publicly supported* knowledge in these journals > >>> available to the public who paid for it have thus far been unavailing. > >> > >> The Bell System Technical Journal was NOT a publicly supported > >> document. It was "paid for" by a private corporation and subscribers > >> to it, not the general public. > >> > >> However, it IS available for study in major libraries. > > > > My words above are - > > > > "to make the *publicly supported* knowledge in these > > journals available to the public who paid for it" > > > > The research and the resulting knowledge reported in BSTJ, along with > > the preparation and editing of the resulting articles (plus, I would > > guess, a substantial fraction of the publication costs), were paid for > > by what was in essence, or for all intents and purposes, a very small > > "tax" imposed on every individual in the US who had or used a > > telephone - a tax collected by the Bell System and used to support > > Bell Labs. > > > > [SNIP] > > Customers of any private enterprise always pay for the research that > produced the product they are consuming. I did not, and do not now, pay a > tax for Bell System Research. If I do not wish to pay for Bell System > research I simply no longer consume their services and products. > > A look at any P&L sheet will clearly show R&D as an expense by the company > and it also feeds the company's intellectual property asset. So the Bell > System or other company should just give those assets away for free? > > Mike Wilcox You may not pay a tax for Bell System research - instead you just dump money into the coffers of the big telecom carriers in the form of FUSG and other fees tacked onto telecom bills. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Aug 2009 16:27:10 -0400 From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Sending ringing current toward a CO on a dial tone trunk Message-ID: <h6f2qu$7p8$1@panix2.panix.com> Telecom Digest Moderator wrote: > >The PBX in question definitely does _NOT_ have any interface >capability. I'm told it's a military-surplus model, strictly local >battery/local magneto. I asked if it's the same as the one Gary >Burghoff used in "M*A*S*H", but it turns out to be closer to Bebe >Daniels in "Chickie". The military did have interface devices to go between common battery field phone boards and the commercial telcos, but what you should know is that a field phone board is basically not useful for anything other than field phones and does not provide much in the way of signalling. And maintaining local battery phones is a freaking nightmare. Who is going to check the battery status on the room phones every month? It would be much easier just to use a common battery system... put a 48V supply into the back of the PBX with distribution resistors, so you have a number of intercom pairs... plug two phones into the intercom pair and they can talk. Then the PBX seems to each one of the phones like it's the CO, and handing the call off to the CO is just a matter of the operator dialing the call, unplugging the room from a local intercom circuit, and plugging it into the call in progress. Since you're going to have to modify the hell out of the board to do any useful work anyway, you might as well. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ Date: 18 Aug 2009 17:30:51 -0400 From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: End of a print publication and copyright comment Message-ID: <h6f6ib$2kn$1@panix2.panix.com> Mike Wilcox <mjwilcox12@gmail.com> wrote: > >A look at any P&L sheet will clearly show R&D as an expense by the company >and it also feeds the company's intellectual property asset. So the Bell >System or other company should just give those assets away for free? It would be nice if they did. BUT, even if they didn't, I think I could get my employers to pay, say $5k for a complete searchable archive of the BSTJ. We already have it on microfilm (for which we paid a lot more than $5k over the years), but I think the searchable archive would be a huge advantage. The thing is.... the BSTJ is not available in searchable digital form for any cost, for anyone. This is tragic since a huge amount of fundamental acoustic research was done by Bell Labs. I frequently catch people trying to replicate research that was published in the BSTJ in the 1930s, because they don't know it is in there. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:26:25 -0400 From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: in a Qwest for wireless service... Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0908181725110.29300@panix5.panix.com> [Reuters] Qwest to shut off its wireless service October 31 Qwest Communications International Inc said on Tuesday that it would discontinue its own-brand wireless service at the end of October and started telling customers they need to switch to another service. As they struggle with home phone disconnections, operators such as Qwest, Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc all provide a combination of cellular and wired home phone services with an aim to encouraging customers to stay longer. But while its bigger rivals run both wired and wireless networks, Qwest depends on partners to offer mobile services. Last year it announced plans to exit the Qwest Wireless service, which runs on the Sprint Nextel Corp network, and instead started offering cellular services from Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon and Vodafone Group Plc. Qwest, which is giving its customers 60-day notice of the service shut-off, said it would not charge early contract termination fees and customers would be able to port their numbers to other providers, such as Verizon Wireless. The company said that in September and October, Qwest customers making calls will be routed to Qwest customer service representatives to be reminded of the shut-down. http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE57H3BQ20090818 _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:03:26 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Cutting the cord Message-ID: <7NOdnRWcAvTD0hbXnZ2dnUVZ_qudnZ2d@speakeasy.net> An article in The Economist says that the Negroponte Switch has hit the "knee point" on the curve: from here, it's all downhill for the wireline carriers. http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14214847 Bill Horne ------------------------------ 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) 2009 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 (10 messages) ******************************

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