30 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Add this Digest to your personal
or 
The Telecom Digest for October 29, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 275 : "text" Format
====== 30 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
included herein for any reason other than responding to an article
herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to that person, or email address
owner.
Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without the explicit written consent of the owner of
that address. 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: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:50:27 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Edison's powrer network (Was Re: Telegraph turns 150
Message-ID: <4EA9E033.1040609@thadlabs.com>
On 10/25/2011 7:37 AM, Wes Leatherock wrote:
> [...]
> With all due respect, I don't think Edison envisioned a commercial
> power network, because it could not be achieved with his direct
> current system. Nikola Tesla laid the groundwork for long distance
> power transmission by conceiving alternating current, especially
> polyphase A.C. which became the basis for a national power network,
> along with many other advantages.
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> I meant "system", but it was a network in the sense that any
> commercial company needs to have a combination of people, plan, and
> ability that makes it into a "network" of commercial interests.
>
> I know that Edison didn't envision a power grid: he once said that the
> only way to move electricity from city to city was to charge batteries
> and load them onto railroad flatcars. My point was that he used the
> same voltage he was familiar with from his days as a telegrapher, and
> we in the U.S. are still using it, although it has been converted to AC.
>
> Bill Horne
> Moderator
I'm really reaching back (I must have been only 2-3 years old or so),
but I seem to remember one of my Grandads telling me that their power
[would have had to be Baltimore MD] was DC for awhile and then switched
to AC. That would also have been circa early 1900s (the power, not me!).
High-power long-distance DC transmission is now feasible:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current
The first picture there shows "Long distance HVDC lines carrying
hydroelectricity from Canada's Nelson river to this station where
it is converted to AC for use in Winnipeg's local grid."
ISTR there were/are a lot of HVDC long-distance lines in Russia;
I believe those were described in a 1970s IEEE Spectrum article.
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:50:48 +0000 (UTC)
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: DC vs. AC grids in NYC, was: Edison's power network (Was Re: Telegraph turns 150
Message-ID: <j8eti8$61q$1@reader1.panix.com>
In <4EA9E033.1040609@thadlabs.com> Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> writes:
>I'm really reaching back (I must have been only 2-3 years old or so),
>but I seem to remember one of my Grandads telling me that their power
>[would have had to be Baltimore MD] was DC for awhile and then switched
>to AC. That would also have been circa early 1900s (the power, not me!).
Parts of NYC continued getting DC feeds until about
a decade ago. No new customers since 1965 or so, but
legacy folk were grandfathered in.
These lines were used for elevator motors (perhaps some
other commercial ones, too), as well as some of the
lighting equipment on Broadway.
Con Edison strongly encouraged these customers to
switch to "regular" AC circuits, using a combination
of positive (so to speak) incentives such as chipping
in for AC ->DC converters [1] or subsidizing the
cost of new motors. They also kept increasing the
basic monthly fee for the DC feeds.
While in most buildings the DC lines were physically
separate from the "regular" circuits, only going to
the elevator room, there were some buildings where
you'd find half the outlets in an apartment carrying
standard AC, but half providing DC. I have no idea
whatsoever how this passed NYC's building code, as
the outlets were all the same standard we've been
accustomed to for decades. [2]
And yes, if you plugged in pretty much anything other
than a regular incandescent fixture, you'd run into
lots of trouble.
[1] I helped drag a motor-generator from the top
floor up to the rooftop elevator shack in 1980 or so.
[2] I suspect that another key historical figure
involved in electricity was involved, namely
Mr. Benjamin Franklin.
- for a mid 1900s reference, check out the following
scans from a Lionel Train instruction booklet:
http://www.dburstein.com/lionel/cvr-a.png
http://www.dburstein.com/lionel/pg-001.png
http://www.dburstein.com/lionel/pg-038.png
http://www.dburstein.com/lionel/pg-039.png
--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:19:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Edison's powrer network (Was Re: Telegraph turns 150
Message-ID: <cea94fce-af3c-4bab-b553-c18fae2feafc@q13g2000vbd.googlegroups.com>
On Oct 27, 6:50 pm, Thad Floryan <t...@thadlabs.com> wrote:
> I'm really reaching back (I must have been only 2-3 years old or so),
> but I seem to remember one of my Grandads telling me that their power
> [would have had to be Baltimore MD] was DC for awhile and then switched
> to AC. That would also have been circa early 1900s (the power, not me!).
Having a DC local network was common in many places, and could've
lasted a long time. An IBM catalog of the 1930s listed equipment in
both AC and DC versions.
Somewhere I heard that Philadelphia's City Hall was DC until 1954,
don't know if true.
In the early 1900s, it was common for local trolley companies to
generate their own electricity to run the streetcars. Many companies
had a side business and sold power to the town, and that was probably
DC at first.
Streetcars tended to use 600 V DC power and many light rail and subway
elevated lines still do to this day (though many use slightly higher
voltages, such as 650-750). Some power companies had streetcar
systems, too, notably Public Service in New Jersey and New Orleans
Public Service.
In the early part of the 1900s, 25 Hz AC was common. Apparently in
those years it was a good frequency to use on electric motors of that
era (perhaps someone could explain the technical reasons for that.)
In the 1910s-1930s, several railroads electrified with that frequency
and it's still used to this day on certain Amtrak, SEPTA, and NJT
lines.
At some point in the 1930s or shortly later, the commercial power grid
became reliable enough to use the 60 Hz as a means to run clocks
accurately. This led to the loss of pendulum regulator clocks and
Western Union time signals.
In the old days, to convert frequency or convert between AC-DC, giant
spinning "rotary converters" were used. These have been replaced with
solid state components, though some old units may still be in service
in an old substation.
William Middleton's "When the Steam Railroads Electrified" is an
excellent resource. Sadly, Mr. Middleton, an expert engineer and
author, passed away recently.
I wonder if any fledging local power companies also got into telephone
service as well. Both were public utilities and required line
poles.
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:55:11 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Edison's powrer network (Was Re: Telegraph turns 150
Message-ID: <1ftqqwzbigvyz$.11lcu8lg2nafs$.dlg@40tude.net>
On Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:50:27 -0700, Thad Floryan wrote:
> I'm really reaching back (I must have been only 2-3 years old or so),
> but I seem to remember one of my Grandads telling me that their power
> [would have had to be Baltimore MD] was DC for awhile and then switched
> to AC. That would also have been circa early 1900s (the power, not me!).
No need to reach back nearly that far. In 1954 when I started college,
there were two sorts of dorm rooms -- those with DC electric and those
with AC. (There was a reason the electric desk fans of that era bore
the markings "AC/DC" :-) .) One of the student agencies rented out
inverters and converters for the semester to students who needed them
(for running AC equipment in a DC room, or DC equipment in an AC room).
The university power plant had for years been DC only, was at that moment
in the throes of a not-yet-completed conversion to AC, and would in fact
become AC only (much to the relief of student phonograph-turntable owners)
in time for the next academic year.
(Ah, bright college years :-) !) Cheers, -- tlvp
- -
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
***** Moderator's Note *****
What was Tom Lehrer's famous line?
"Bright college days, oh carefree days that fly
To thee we sing with our glasses raised on high!
Let's drink a toast, as each of us recalls
Ivy-covered professors, in Ivy-covered halls!"
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:52:28 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Review: Newfangled Nest thermostat is hot
Message-ID: <j8ec2s$saj$2@news.albasani.net>
>Review: Newfangled Nest thermostat is hot
>...
>Except that this is the coolest thermostat I've ever come across.
>Nest smashes any preconceived notions of what a thermostat ought to
>look like and how it should operate, whether you're in front of it or
>accessing it remotely from an iPhone or iPad. It takes advantage of
>cloud computing, and it learns from your behavior.
Sigh. The once ubiquitous Honeywell round-dial mercury switch thermostat
was a wonder of simple design. Its use was simple and obvious and, once
installed and calibrated, required no manual to learn how to use.
I don't necessarily know what my schedule is, and my apartment can just
wait for me to return home without my giving it a specific time. In winter,
when I go out, I can set the heat for a lower temperature. When I return,
I turn up the heat, even though I have to wait a bit for it to warm up.
Before I go to bed, I'd turn it down.
My current apartment has an older model programable thermostat. Unlike
typical Honeywells programable thermostats, its use is simple and
obvious. Typically, I use the programable settings only for setting the
heat to rise before I get up in the morning. Otherwise, I've typically
overriden the programmed setting with the "hold temperature" button.
Honeywells these days come with two thick manuals. A friend bought a
townhouse with a programmable Honeywell thermostat but didn't receive the
manual. I've looked at it repeatedly and cannot find the model number.
He cannot figure out how to set it without the manual.
Sometimes, like the mousetrap, the original designer just knocked it out
of the park by making things easy to use.
***** Moderator's Note *****
The problem with new inventions these days is that it's no good
building a better mousetrap: the world doesn't beat a path to your
door if all you can do is tell it how to kill mice.
The way to success in the online, cellular-connected, data-driven
world is to build a mousetrap that reports on the exact date and time
the guest of honor was dispatched, assures young cell phone users that
it was done in an environmentally-friendly way, and automagically
notifies the mousetrap cleaning service to come by and render the
remains invisible.
As for thermostats, the "old" is, well, "OLD". Out of date, not
data-driven, subject to the whims of fashion and the insatiable need
for Gen Z consumers to feel as if the whole world can be controlled
from the palm of their hand. That kind of need usually arrises from
being in charge of very little in one's life: the idea of a
programmable thermostat that can be reset by commands from thousands
of miles away strikes me as being something that a servant has use
for; a device that can be manipulated again and again the same way
that proto-yuppies who want to feel like they'll be in charge someday
will find themselves manipulated by the whims of government and
corporate managers who see fit to demand schedule changes and mission
changes and loyalty changes on a regular basis.
I think remote-control thermostats should come with a warning: "Cannot
affect termperature outside your dwelling! Has no magical properties!
Cannot make your life less confusing, your salary higher, or your boss
more intelligent! DO NOT PLACE ON THE OUTSIDE OF A BUILDING! THIS
DEVICE DOES NOT CONTROL THE WEATHER!!!"
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 09:25:15 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstarbox-usenet@yahoo.com.au>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Review: Newfangled Nest thermostat is hot
Message-ID: <pan.2011.10.28.22.25.10.985987@yahoo.com.au>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
.........
> I think remote-control thermostats should come with a warning: "Cannot
> affect temperature outside your dwelling! Has no magical properties!
> Cannot make your life less confusing, your salary higher, or your boss
> more intelligent! DO NOT PLACE ON THE OUTSIDE OF A BUILDING! THIS DEVICE
> DOES NOT CONTROL THE WEATHER!!!"
>
In theory it may make energy use a little more efficient if it can
convince those people that leave the heating/cooling on in their premises
(even when they are not there) to remotely turn it on prior to their
intended arrival time.
However, if it is used by those people who currently only turn on the
heating/cooling when they do arrive, then it will increase energy use as
they will have things running prior to their arrival.
--
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: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:46:01 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Please comment on my new blog [nfp]
Message-ID: <1m0ihl1jggfyh.7e6ljsxltf9m$.dlg@40tude.net>
On Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:25:05 -0400, Telecom Digest Moderator wrote:
> There's a company here in my neighborhood that is looking for experts
> in a program called WordPress, so I'm looking for advice and how-to's
> that will get me up to speed quickly with the "new" way that websites
> are written. As a learning tool, I've started a blog using WordPress
> as its foundation: please visit it and provide any advice you can
> about the layout, look-and-feel, tips-and-techniques, and especially
> about ways that I can use it to improve the digest.
>
> ob telecom: The blog might develop into a place to have opinions that
> are a bit too outre for the digest. Let's see.
>
>
> http://timesucker.homelinux.org:8003
>
>
> Bill
Learning tool I'm sure it is. But as a diary of quotidian events,
I hope you won't be offended if I say, it's not of much interest
to third persons. It should, rather, be more than just such a diary.
I will agree, though, that, sooner or later, there's nothing one has
ever learned that doesn't turn out to be one's current lifesaver :-) .
Cheers, and don't stop on my account, that's not what I'd want, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
***** Moderator's Note *****
I'll try to bear up under the strain! ;-)
I didn't write that request very well, but I'll be more clear this
time.
Don't worry about what's in the blog now: as much as it pains any
world-class writer to have a humdrum reception for a new work, I can
take the criticism OK.
What I'm looking for is knowledge, pointers, how-to's, etc. I want to
learn a lot about WordPress, and quickly, so I put the offer to use
the blog for telecom out there, and I'm hoping that I'll learn about
the program and its management that way.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 09:25:22 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstarbox-usenet@yahoo.com.au>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: dugout telephones
Message-ID: <pan.2011.10.26.06.11.56.666908@yahoo.com.au>
On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:46:21 -0700, HAncock4 wrote:
> On Oct 24, 10:25 am, Curt Bramblett <CurtBramblett.remove-t...@and-
> this-too.cfl.rr.com> wrote:
>> Can someone here add some insight to this:
>>
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/5wfr6mk
>> ...
>
> "Eric Gagne, then the closer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, made the dugout
> phone at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco an outlet for his frustrations,
> snapping the cord in half while swiping at the receiver and in the process
> earning himself a $500 repair bill from the Giants. "
>
> How does a cut cord and broken handset cost $500 to repair?
.........
Maybe it was one of those "Vintage" phone sets - you know, from about 10
years ago..... ;-)
- -
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.
***** Moderator's Note *****
While wine may be considered "vintage" after ten years, phones are
not. IMNSHO, telephones are not "Vintage" unless they are made with
Bakelite.
Bill, who is looking for his asbestos long-johns.
Bill Horne
Moderator
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 Bill Horne. 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 moderated by Bill Horne.
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) 2011 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 (8 messages)
Return to Archives ** Older Issues