The Telecom Digest for September 13, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 248 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
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Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 00:07:18 -0500
From: rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 911-only public phone
Message-ID: <dNudnZW16eqb_RHRnZ2dnUVZ_sydnZ2d@speakeasy.net>
Hal Murray <hal-usenet@ip-64-139-1-69.sjc.megapath.net> wrote:
+---------------
| >> 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?
| >
| >John, I suppose the core feature for this ... is that it could provide
| >a fast-track, instant-response, one-hand, no dialing, no breaking your
| >train of thought, no having to learn or remember or key in a number, and
| >and auto-authenticating way of getting connected to someone or somewhere...
....
| What fraction of modern cell phones include a camera?
|
| How about just printing a bar code on the corner of the poster,
| pointing your cell phone at it, and poking a button?
+---------------
Indeed, this is already happening with QR Codes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code
...
QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs,
buses, business cards, or on just about any object that users might
need information about. Users with a camera phone equipped with the
correct reader application can scan the image of the QR Code to
display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or
open a web page in the phone's browser. This act of linking from
physical world objects is known as a hardlink or physical world
hyperlinks. Google's mobile Android operating system supports the use
of QR codes by natively including the barcode scanner (ZXing) on some
models and the browser supports URI redirection, which allows QR Codes
to send metadata to existing applications on the device.
...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Japan-qr-code-billboard.jpg
A giant QR Code [on the side of a building] linking to a website,
to be read with a mobile phone.
I've even used it -- I was walking with friends in Menlo Park one night
and happened to pass a store we were interested in which didn't have
the hours posted [at least, not where we could find them!], but they did
have a sign in the window with a QR Code on it. No problem: I pulled out
my Android phone, tapped the icon for the "Barcode Scanner" app, pointed
at the sign, and in just a few seconds was on the store's web page reading
their hours. Their phone number was also there, so if I'd tapped on that
text string the phone would have dialed it.[1]
-Rob
[1] Yes, the phone's browser will do this even if the number doesn't
have an explicit HTML anchor tag (link) on the page! [Probably
because AFAIK there isn't a URL "dial://" scheme, is there?]
Rob Warnock <rpw3@rpw3.org>
627 26th Avenue <URL:http://rpw3.org/>
San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607
Date: 12 Sep 2010 22:00:21 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: dialing from QR bar codes, was 911-only public phone
Message-ID: <20100912220021.82711.qmail@joyce.lan>
>[1] Yes, the phone's browser will do this even if the number doesn't
> have an explicit HTML anchor tag (link) on the page! [Probably
> because AFAIK there isn't a URL "dial://" scheme, is there?]
Silly boy. See RFC 3966, particularly section 8.
R's,
John
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 00:17:22 -0500
From: rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 911-only public phone
Message-ID: <ztmdnf080Mf__xHRnZ2dnUVZ_judnZ2d@speakeasy.net>
Moderator Bill Horne wrote
+---------------
| ***** Moderator's Note *****
....
| Do you remember the "Cue Cat"? It was an optical bar scanner that
| users could attach to their PC in order to scan bar codes from
| magazines or TV so that users could get information about products
| that interested them. It died a quick and expensive death, because
| Radio Shack hadn't realized that computer users don't want to make the
| process of selling them things any easier
....
| Cell phones are private. They are personal appliances, dedicated to
| one user, and as such they can't be used as dongles, because their
| owners won't trust others with them.
+---------------
Yet cell phone owners have in droves taken to using the barcode
reader apps now available in almost all smart phones [which also
read QR codes, see my parallel reply]. It's now quite routine when
browsing in a store to pick up some item, scan its barcode with
your phone, and hit the "Comparison Shopping" or "Web Search" button
in the app to see what others are charging for the item. "Hmmm...
These guys want $129.99 for this thingy, but I see here that the
Walmart around the corner has the exact same thing for $59.99.
Back to the car, kids!"
-Rob
Rob Warnock <rpw3@rpw3.org>
627 26th Avenue <URL:http://rpw3.org/>
San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 03:03:03 -0500
From: rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: A Strong Password Isn't the Strongest Security
Message-ID: <WuedneXgDeqqFBHRnZ2dnUVZ_hydnZ2d@speakeasy.net>
Robert Bonomi <bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com> wrote:
+---------------
| >***** Moderator's Note *****
| >I really couldn't remember "e" notation for exponentiation. Or is it
| >logarithms?
|
| it's strictly from computer science. Dating to the early days of the
| FORTRAN programming language ...
....
| A number of early computers actually stored data internally as decimal
| (*NOT* binary) values, thus the 'e-format' output was a 'natural'
| representation of the internal data format.
+---------------
Heh. The second computer I used did that: an IBM 1410 with the
hardware floating point add-on.
+---------------
| In this context, the 'e' is a sort-of shorthand for 'exponent' ...
+---------------
Later languages extended the notation to indicate precision, e.g.,
ANSI Common Lisp:
http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/26_glo_e.htm#exponent_marker
...
exponent marker n. a character that is used in the textual notation
for a float to separate the mantissa from the exponent. The characters
defined as exponent markers in the standard readtable are shown in the
next figure. For more information, see Section 2.1 (Character Syntax).
``The exponent marker `d' in `3.0d7' indicates that this number is to
be represented as a double float.''
Marker Meaning
D or d double-float
E or e float (see *read-default-float-format*)
F or f single-float
L or l long-float
S or s short-float
Figure 26-1. Exponent Markers
Note that in CL an optional sign is permitted after the exponent marker,
and applies only to the exponent: 1.23e-15, -3.4d+100, etc.
-Rob
Rob Warnock <rpw3@rpw3.org>
627 26th Avenue <URL:http://rpw3.org/>
San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 18:43:46 +0100
From: Peter R Cook <PCook@wisty.plus.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: In the pursuit of new customers, wireless companies forget their existing ones
Message-ID: <OFX9c7DSFRjMFwjq@wisty.plus.com>
>Am I missing something? We often hear the big telecom companies are
>evil. They may be, but they're not stupid. Why allow a good customer
>to stroll out the door over pocket change?
>
>John
>
John as I live in the UK, I don't know the market positioning stance
taken by the various US mobile operators, but I suspect that what you
may be missing are the other costs that the telco is potentially
avoiding (or has avoided) by letting you go.
High volume low value transaction processing firms don't care about
individual customers - doing so costs too much money. Customers are a
statistical set and outliers are a cost to be avoided. Customer service
is designed to satisfy the majority and resolve common problems (see how
easily the supermarket gives you your money back if a product is
faulty).
The telco (at some point) makes/made a call about the degree of
flexibility it wants to build into its transactional processes &
systems. The more flexible the systems and processes are the more
expensive they are to develop, operate and maintain. Increased
flexibility means more sophisticated (=expensive) training for the front
line operators and their supervisors, and more complex(=expensive)
management controls and audit systems to minimise fraud and errors.
More flexibility equals fewer lost customers, less flexibility means
more lost customers.
The equation becomes one of trading off, for each class of flexibility,
the potential number of customers who will be retained by the capability
vs the cost of implementing that capability.
A telco that decides to go for the "high volume/low cost/low price
operator" model will probably choose to lock down the flexibility its
systems and processes afford to front line staff to keep the cost of the
process (both development and operations) low. As a consequence they
will expect to lose customers whose requirements fall outside the very
narrow set that they wish to offer - they are assuming that their set
meets the needs of a high proportion of the market who will be attracted
by the resulting low price.
A telco whose brand positioning has a higher service component will make
a different call and your requirement may fall inside their set.
For whatever reasons, your needs fell outside the set of things that
your operator wanted (was even capable?) of providing - you therefore
fell into the set of customer they were willing to see leave.
Its not evil, or stupid, just a decision call for their business
portfolio managers. You may feel they are making a bad decision, but in
the end they will survive or fail on what the statistical mass does.
--
Peter R Cook
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 23:39:09 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Epic failures: 11 infamous software bugs
Message-ID: <p062408c1c8b0114a28cd@[192.168.1.70]>
Epic failures: 11 infamous software bugs
Celebrate 'Debugging Day' by remembering these monster computer
problems from the past
By Matt Lake | Computerworld
SEPTEMBER 09, 2010
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/epic-failures-11-infamous-software-bugs-891
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 23:39:09 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Guess What, You Don't Own That Software You Bought
Message-ID: <p062408c4c8b0a8b2a5ac@[192.168.1.70]>
Guess What, You Don't Own That Software You Bought
By David Kravets
September 10, 2010
A federal appeals court said Friday that software makers can use
shrink-wrap and click-wrap licenses to forbid the transfer or resale
of their wares, an apparent gutting of the so-called first-sale
doctrine.
The first-sale doctrine is an affirmative defense to copyright
infringement that allows legitimate owners of copies of copyrighted
works to resell those copies. That defense, the court said, is
"unavailable to those who are only licensed to use their copies of
copyrighted works." (.pdf)
The 3-0 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal, if it
stands, means copyright owners may prohibit the resale of their wares
by inserting clauses in their sales agreements.
...
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/first-sale-doctrine/
Vernor V. Autodesk Opinion
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/09/10/09-35969.pdf
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 23:52:38 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Finding a Smartphone to Fit Your Needs, Under $100
Message-ID: <p062408c9c8b0abc05d12@[192.168.1.70]>
Finding a Smartphone to Fit Your Needs, Under $100
By FARHAD MANJOO
September 8, 2010
So you want to buy a smartphone? After enduring the taunting of your
friends, you are at the end of the contract on your creaky
three-year-old not-so-smartphone. The device doesn't do e-mail or the
Web, and it can't find your position on a map.
There is only one problem. Now that you have decided to step into
2007, the choices baffle you. The mobile phone industry has changed
enormously since you last shopped. There are several new companies
making devices, the phones have an alphabet soup of hardware options,
and they run software that can do all kinds of amazing things.
For some shoppers, though, the powers of modern smartphones may be
overkill. Perhaps you would like to occasionally send e-mail or get
access to the Web from your phone, but you don't really care about
playing games or editing movies. For you, is there an entry-level
smartphone, a phone that will let you do some of the fantastic things
your pals keep bragging about, but that won't cost too much or
require a college course in using it?
For the last few weeks, I have been testing several phones from the
four major carriers - AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Although
there is no official definition for what makes a phone "smart," the
industry does have a few generally recognized criteria. A smartphone
is usually capable of getting access to your e-mail. It can display
Web pages in a way that doesn't distort them too much, and it can
connect to the Internet using a cellular data connection (known as
3G) or your home wireless system (Wi-Fi).
I defined "entry level" as any smartphone that costs less than $100
when you sign up for a new contract. These parameters did, of course,
exclude the kings of the smartphone market - Apple's iPhone 4, Droid
2 from Motorola and the HTC EVO 4G. But you will be surprised what
you can get for not much money upfront. A few of the best phones that
I looked at cost less than $50, and some were completely free with a
new contract.
But that is just the price of the phone. When you step into the world
of smartphones, the real sticker shock comes on your monthly bill.
Most carriers require you to sign up for a data plan when you buy a
phone that provides access to the Internet. These can add $15 to $30
a month over what you are used to paying for your dumbphone.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/technology/personaltech/09basics.html
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 23:52:38 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Apps as Tour Guides Through New York Museums, Step by Step
Message-ID: <p062408cac8b0ac497d22@[192.168.1.70]>
Apps as Tour Guides Through New York Museums, Step by Step
By BOB TEDESCHI
September 8, 2010
The next time you're about to visit a museum, do yourself a favor and
drop in on your favorite app store first.
Most institutions have not yet created a mobile app, but as a group,
museums are headed in that direction. In the last few months, free
apps were released by the Museum of Modern Art and the American
Museum of Natural History, in New York; the Los Angeles Museum of the
Holocaust; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (which also has
an Android app).
I recently tested the newest museum apps for New York. While they
take distinctly different approaches, they demonstrate the vast
potential for technology to help people make the most of a museum
visit.
They can also point to a restroom in a hurry.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/technology/personaltech/09smart.html
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:27:19 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: ZumoCast Offers a Personalized Cloud
Message-ID: <p062408cec8b0adcbd7b0@[192.168.1.70]>
ZumoCast Offers a Personalized Cloud
By NICK BILTON
SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
So you want to take a video that is sitting on your computer and
watch it on your iPad or iPhone. It shouldn't be too difficult,
right? Yet the options available from Apple, the company that makes
the software and hardware for those devices, can either be very
expensive or very slow.
There are essentially two options from Apple. You could pay $100 for
a yearly Mobile Me account, gaining access to an iDisk drive that
lets you drag and drop files into a cloud-based hard drive. These can
then be retrieved from other computers and mobile gadgets running
Apple's iOS 4 software.
The alternate and less expensive option involves plugging an
old-fashioned U.S.B. cord into your mobile device and then going to
get lunch as iTunes slowly syncs your files.
Or you can use a free third-party application.
Although a number of file-sharing services have existed for a while,
a new free product called ZumoCast, which had its debut on Wednesday,
takes the idea of self-sharing to a new level by offering the ability
to create a personal file-sharing cloud.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/zumocast-offers-a-personalized-cloud/
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2010 01:14:03 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: I love you, now do your homework :-)
Message-ID: <p062408e4c8b0c017216d@[192.168.1.70]>
I love you, now do your homework :)
Sure, texting can be a way for teens to distance themselves from
their parents. But it may also open a window to better communication.
By Kate Tuttle, Globe Staff | September 11, 2010
If teens want to talk to each other, they text. And text.
A Pew Research Center survey reported earlier this year that text
messaging has eclipsed phone calls and e-mail as the primary way that
teenagers communicate with one another. Adults, increasingly, are in
on it, too, according to a new Pew survey, with 72 percent now
sending and receiving texts, compared to just 65 percent last year.
Parenting in the texting age raises a number of vexing questions:
Should parents text their teens, whether to nudge them out of bed in
the morning or check in on their homework progress in the evening?
Can teenagers open up about things more easily via text than in
face-to-face conversations? Can anyone over 40 really read those tiny
letters without squinting (or reading glasses)?
The answers, in my house anyway, are yes, yes, and not me.
My 17-year-old daughter, Addie, and I text several times a day, on
topics ranging from the logistical (Me: "Did you remember to pack
your tennis racket?'' Addie: "Yes, and can we pleeeeaaasssee go to
cvs after school? I need makeup!'') to the profound ("Me: I'm sorry I
yelled at you.'' Addie: "Me too'').
On the logistical stuff, we've got company.
Bethany Allen, 39, a mother of three in Belmont, says she and her
teens text each other "constantly,'' mostly to check in and report on
- as she says - stuff like, "Oh, this happened at school, or I got
this grade on a test.'' For Allen, texting is a way to keep in touch,
a technology she appreciates. "I just feel like I'm always in the
loop. Literally, we text more than we talk,'' she says. "If anything,
it's brought us closer together.''
Dr. Laura Prager, a child psychiatrist at Massachusetts General
Hospital and mother of two teenagers, texts with her kids. It's a
method she adopted when her older child, a son now in college, went
through a phase of not answering her phone calls. "But if I texted
him,'' she says, "he answered me right away.''
For a teenager who's out and about, at school or sports practice,
texting is infinitely preferable to fielding phone calls from mom,
especially in front of peers, Prager points out.
...
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/family/articles/2010/09/11/texting_can_distance_teens_from_parents_but_it_can_also_lead_to_better_communication/
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 13:27:57 -0700
From: Steven <diespammers@killspammers.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: In the pursuit of new customers, wireless companies forget their existing ones
Message-ID: <i6jd4e$bcl$1@news.eternal-september.org>
On Thu, 09 Sep 2010 22:11:00 -0400, John Mayson <john@mayson.us> wrote:
>>>> ... I would have to think it's less
>>>> expensive to keep existing customers than attract new ones.
>>> You're absolutely right. But there's no growth if all you're doing
>>> is keeping existing customers. Growth comes from attracting new ones.
>>>
>>> New ones don't attract themselves, it takes big bucks and good
incentives
>>> to attract them. But existing ones? They're with you already, and they
>>> won't leave unless they're too peeved for words ... and even then not,
>>> more often than not. So, to your question,
>>>
>>>> ... Why allow a good customer
>>>> to stroll out the door over pocket change
The companies had better treat their current customers, because when
they do leave they take all their business, but many of their friends,
A week or so AT&T had major problems in the Yuba Foothills east of
Sacramento, they were either telling their customers who had called
there was not problem or failed to follow up. What made it really bad
was there wee a bunch of fires burning and First Responders had major
communications problems with their AT&T phones. My Sprint phone and
router worked fine as did my company Verizon phone. From all the chatter
I saw on the local web page, AT&T lost a lot of their customer base up
there. It turned out to be a Hardware problem at a main cell site and
the parts had to come from out of state, and the techs either had to
come from Reno, Nv. or Sacramento to fix it. At the least AT&T should
have told their customers what was going on, but from what was said the
customer support; at least first level was overseas.
When I have problems with Sprint or my DSL or wireline I make sure I
make the calls during the day, that way I'll get a US tech support site,
but at least with DSL I have a special number to call which gets me to a
NOC center for employees a can locate the problem fast and right where
it is located.
--
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2010 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co.
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 18:01:47 -0400
From: "bernies@netaxs.com" <bernies@netaxs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: In the pursuit of new customers, wireless companies forget their existing ones
Message-ID: <20100912180147.289065pspgysh008@webmail.uslec.net>
For possible future reference for mobile subscribers who may wish to
play hardball with their arrogant carriers, what's the least costly
way to use number portability to "park" your mobile number elsewhere
and come back as a "new" subscriber to take advantage of incentives
denied to existing subscribers?
In the face of arrogant mobile carrier policies towards existing loyal
customers, the "take your ball and go home" strategy may be the only
effective way to deal with these louts. Also, sometimes speaking
directly with carriers' "retention" departments can yield positive
results when nothing else works.
-Ed
***** Moderator's Note *****
You could buy a per-minute phone from Virgin Mobile or similar
provider, and use your current number there, and then ask your former
carrier for "winback" deals. Be careful, though: they pay close
attention to billing addresses and similar info, so you'll have to do
it for _real_ to make it work.
Bill Horne
Moderator
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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End of The Telecom Digest (13 messages)
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