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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 ======
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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
------------------------------
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