The Telecom Digest for September 05, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 240 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
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Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 23:18:51 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Blocking Junk Calls
Message-ID: <MPG.26eb84a4cebb7ad0989ced@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <65lq769r21fcf8hh9deuo8189k4q74ib7u@4ax.com>,
rng@richbonnie.com says...
>
> On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:53:37 -0700, Steven
> <diespammers@killspammers.com> wrote:
> >I have noticed more fake CID and it does no good to be on the Do Not
> >Call List, there appears to be little enforcement and none on calls from
> >the Moon!!!
>
> I got a junk call yesterday. The name portion of the caller ID said
> "PHONE SCAM". A least they are honest about that!
>
> I let the machine answer, but they did not leave a message.
I wish I could get my bank to stop calling both my home and business
numbers trying to get me to sign on for the 'privilege' of letting them
charge me $35 should I overdraw by 1 cent.
I think I might stop by my local branch and tell them if they DON'T stop
calling that I'll just withdraw my money and put it in a credit union.
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 21:01:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Whatever happened to travelers' cheques (checks)
Message-ID: <becee3c1-7ebd-4503-8891-29ae01405edc@f26g2000vbm.googlegroups.com>
On Sep 1, 1:56 am, Joseph Singer <joeofseat...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Bill Horne asked "whatever happened to travelers' cheques?"
FWIW, I just found out Amtrak no longer accepts travelers checks.
see:
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1237608335997
Changes to Accepted Forms of Payment
September 1, 2010
Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:38:06 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Whatever happened to travelers' cheques (checks)
Message-ID: <pan.2010.09.04.03.38.03.593451@myrealbox.com>
On Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:40:19 -0400, tlvp wrote:
> On Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:42:31 -0400, Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> ... Remember the good old days when most of us were reasonably honest?
>
> Heck, most of us are still reasonably honest -- it's the recent rampant
> increase in crooks out there that makes dishonesty such a problem of late.
>
C'mon, the main reason for the increase is the way modern technology has
made access to and the opportunity for criminal activity easier.
Every convenience made available with technology has opened a certain
level of criminal opportunity, and without all these technologies that we
are all happy to use comes the vectors that the crims can use including
the social ones).
Turn off the Internet, shut down electronic money transfers and the world
may seem a bit more "Honest", but I doubt that it actually will be.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:18:38 -0600
From: Robert Neville <krj@ieee.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 911-only public phone
Message-ID: <u5s4865376nnd2rg3rcmuel44k2a9mj67s@4ax.com>
tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Certainly each arrival terminal at JFK and LAG has such an autodialing phone
>as part of its Ground Services kiosk, with local hotels and Airport Shuttles
>as the primary beneficiaries of the autodialer.
I had to smile when I read the beginning of this thread as it brought to mind an
interesting hack from 25 or more years ago. Seems that certain ad agencies
wanted to get in on the kiosk/ad panel phone game on the cheap, so they ordered
a standard phone line from the local telco and place a modified autodialer
inside the panel. When Joe or Josephene User walked up to the panel and lifted
the phone they heard dialtone which was their cue to press the appropriate
button for the business in question, or an alternate implementation was to punch
in a 1 or 2 digit code, either of which caused the autodialler to call the
business's regular local phone number.
In college towns at least, it didn't take long for the word to circulate that if
you had a recording of the DTMF codes for your girlfriend in another state (or
one of those little DTMF generators) and didn't mind making calls from the local
airport, you could call for free.
This usually lasted for about three or four months until the ad agency that
owned the panel got around to paying the phone bill and wondered why their local
business was generating all these long distance calls. Considering that calls
at that time could be .25/min or more, you might imagine the shock of the person
who opened the invoice...
Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:23:25 -0500
From: Jim Haynes <jhaynes@cavern.uark.edu>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Whatever happened to travelers' cheques (checks)
Message-ID: <QbidncDVM9sQHR_RnZ2dnUVZ_tydnZ2d@earthlink.com>
On 2010-09-03, Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>
> I understand going back even further, charge cards were once known as
> "charge plates" and were metallic, not plastic.
My grandmother had one of these. It looked like an Addresograph plate
of the period.
>
> I suspect the Baby Bell companies are busy selling data link services
> to retail stores. A chain drugstore would require extensive data
> links for not only credit card purchases, but prescription insurance
> validations, and corporate reporting. Indeed, such stores have self-
> service terminals where one types out a job application.
And then you see a lot of businesses with satellite dishes on the roof...
To bring this back to travelers' cheques and telecom, I can remember
when the home town Western Union office sold American Express travelers'
cheques.
Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 16:46:17 EDT
From: Wes Leatherock <Wesrock@aol.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 911-only public phone
Message-ID: <1ff645.23bf0dbc.39b40a19@aol.com>
In a message dated 9/3/2010 9:08:14 PM Central Daylight Time,
Telecom Digest Moderator wrote:
> The Gamewell box - or, more accurately - the McCulloch-loop
> telegraph system - is a much more RELIABLE system device for
> emergency calls, but that's a double-edged, and very sharp, sword.
>
> The Gamewell Fire Alarm boxes are only able to signal the location
> where help was needed, NOT what KIND of help.
As a reporter, I once did a story on the Oklahoma City Fire Department
dispatching operation. They had every address in the city
cross-reference (on 3x5 cards) to a fire call box number, even if
there were no call box there.
They also had another list showing every real or putative fire box
number and what response was appropriate--whether that fire box
location might designate a school house, a department store, an
apartment house of whatever, and the appropriate response--a single
engine, a massive response for a school house or a skyscraper and just
what equipment was to be dispatched and any additional hazards, such
as a chemical warehouse or whatever and what specialized response
would be needed for it, or whatever. The card also told what fire
station should respond and maybe second or third choices if the first
station was already out on a fire.
There were still some fire boxes left, and they occasionally would be
use, maybe once a shit, and the old hands could listen for the number
from the relays clicking even before someone had brought the printed
tape over.
Every call was announced over a P.A. loundspeaker in every fire house,
even if the call was not in that area.
Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com
wleathus@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 16:56:52 EDT
From: Wes Leatherock <Wesrock@aol.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Whatever happened to travelers' cheques (checks)
Message-ID: <1ffb5b.4eba1fd3.39b40c94@aol.com>
In a message dated 9/3/2010 9:16:40 PM Central Daylight Time,
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes:
> I understand going back even further, charge cards were once known as
> "charge plates" and were metallic, not plastic.
>
>> Back then they offered a reward to any salesperson who caught and
>> turned in a stolen card. Nobody I ever worked with ever found one, but
>> we were always speculating if the thief would pull a gun or something
>> if we wouldn't give the card back to him.
>
> In today's world, a possibiliity. People I know who work in retail
> today tell me they're told never to stop a thief or confiscate a
> refused card.
>
> As an aside, today, I notice in smaller stores the charge validator
> uses a dial up connection, sometimes you hear it dial and connect.
> Bigger stores seem to have them permanently on-line.
>
> I suspect the Baby Bell companies are busy selling data link services
> to retail stores. A chain drugstore would require extensive data
> links for not only credit card purchases, but prescription insurance
> validations, and corporate reporting. Indeed, such stores have self-
> service terminals where one types out a job application.
Charga-Plates (a trademark) were generally used by department stores in
large cities. A notch in the metal plate corresponded with each member
store, and a tab on the imprinter (operated by hand) was in a corresponding
position for that store's notch. If the plate wouldn't fit in the imprinter
because it did not have the proper notch, that store did not take the card.
Each store had its own credit operation and billing, and that just made a
handy way to have just one plate for a number of stores.
If you opened an account in another store, they would ask if you had a
Charge-Plate and would add their notch to the plate. If you didn't already
have a ChargaPlate, a new one would be made up in a central location.
Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com
wleathus@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:49:25 -0700
From: Richard <rng@richbonnie.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Telemarketer to pay $2.3 million over auto-warranty calls
Message-ID: <bnc386ddj60n5bijdmn15naeis5s6tpvg5@4ax.com>
Telemarketer to pay $2.3 million over auto-warranty calls
[...]
The companies dialed every possible phone number within a particular
area code and prefix sequentially, without regard to a consumer's
registration on a do-not-call list. Caller IDs on consumer telephones
often displayed a phony number, an illegal practice known as
'spoofing.'
[...]
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_15955635?source=pop_section_business
Date: 4 Sep 2010 22:57:24 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 911-only public phone
Message-ID: <20100904225724.7737.qmail@joyce.lan>
>Out of curiosity: Suppose you could hold your personal cellphone up to a
>panel on such a board (or stick it into a small slot on the board, next
>to a given listing), and the board would set up a call directly from it,
>to the relevant hotel or service? (Or from them, to your cellphone?)
>
>Technically feasible, with current cellphones? (via Bluetooth, or
>whatever?)
Um, what's the practical difference between this and a poster on the wall
with the phone numbers of the various businesses, so you can just call
them from your phone?
The airport phone thing made sense when the only phone most people could
use in the airport was a pay phone. It's pretty obsolete now.
R's,
John
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End of The Telecom Digest (9 messages)
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