The Telecom Digest for October 22, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 284 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
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Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:57:37 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Apple Introduces New MacBook Air and Operating System
Message-ID: <p0624081fc8e5b0b26e37@[10.0.1.8]>
Apple Flips the Playbook, Putting Mobile Tech in PCs
By MIGUEL HELFT
October 20, 2010
CUPERTINO, Calif. - Over the last few years, Apple used technologies
from its Macintosh computers to create the iPhone and the iPad,
building a multibillion-dollar mobile computing business that now
accounts for 60 percent of its revenue.
Now Apple is doing the reverse, taking technologies like the
multitouch user interface from the iPhone and the iPad and using them
to refresh its Mac business.
On Wednesday, Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive, unveiled two
versions of its ultra-thin MacBook Air laptops. He also demonstrated
an early version of Apple's new OS X operating system, which will be
available next summer. In addition to multitouch, the new hardware
and software incorporate the video phone software FaceTime, an App
Store and other popular features of Apple's hand-held products.
Mr. Jobs even joked that the new MacBook Air was the offspring from
the union of a Mac computer and an iPad. "We asked ourselves what
would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up," he said.
The new MacBook Air models are more powerful than their predecessors,
which were introduced in January 2008 and have not sold well. They
are also priced more aggressively, starting at $999, rather than the
$1,499 starting price of the original.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/technology/21apple.html
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:18:34 -0700
From: Richard <rng@richbonnie.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Happy anniversary cellphone!
Message-ID: <kb8ub6h4hcfigsanjfoomeeno75je8qc18@4ax.com>
On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:24:26 -0600, "Fred Atkinson, WB4AEJ"
<fred@remove-this.remove-this.wb4aej.com> wrote:
>Michael, and other hams that may be on T.D.,
>
> You can get your call sign on a license plate in all fifty
>states and most U.S. territories. Most states charge very little for
>ham radio plates because it helps the police and other rescue workers
>identify their vehicles when they are assisting in emergency
>situations. Here in New Mexico, it is only an extra five dollars per
>year above your regular renewal rate.
>
> Check out http://www.arrl.org/amateur-license-plate-information
In Nevada where I live, it's $36 initially, $10 renewal extra over the
cost of a non-personalized plate. Renewal is free if you file a form
stating that you will be available for emergencies.
When I lived in New Hampshire 12 years ago, and I think it still is
true today, a call sign plate is just a regular vanity plate with no
special amateur designation.
Ham calls contain one numeral, from 0 to 9. Certain numerals,
particularly 4 and 8, are popular for their phonetic quality (e.g.,
GR8 for great) with non-hams wanting vanity plates. This became such
a problem in Florida (amateur call area 4) that hams got a law passed
to forbid the DMV from issuing any plate with a possible ham call to
anyone not possessing that call.
Dick AC7EL
Date: 20 Oct 2010 16:15:06 -0400
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Bell System Technical Journal
Message-ID: <i9nika$d51$1@panix2.panix.com>
Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote:
>On 10/17/2010 6:44 PM, Neal McLain wrote:
>> Cross-posted from the TCI list:
>>
>> Alcatel-Lucent has made the complete set of back issues of "Bell System
>> Technical Journal," 1922-1983, available online at
>> http://bstj.bell-labs.com/
>
>Fantastic! And every article is an individual PDF!
>
>*HOWEVER*, http://bstj.bell-labs.com/ must be the endpoint of a T1 or,
>perhaps, a 56K modem or even some tin cans connected by string -- something
>limited to a data rate of approximately 8-14 KBytes/S meaning almost an
>hour to download one article (all of which seem to be sized 30-50 MB each).
What is happening is that everyone in the world is hammering that site.
This is a huge, huge deal. Many of these papers were never available in
any digital form at all until now.
Pretty much all of the fundamental research into audio systems is in
the BSTJ, and pretty much all of it was only available on paper or microfilm
at a limited number of libraries.
So now it is available and needless to say a LOT of people are grabbing
everything they can to make local copies.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:27:02 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Bell System Technical Journal
Message-ID: <4CC085F6.6030202@thadlabs.com>
On 10/20/2010 1:15 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote:
>> On 10/17/2010 6:44 PM, Neal McLain wrote:
>>> Cross-posted from the TCI list:
>>>
>>> Alcatel-Lucent has made the complete set of back issues of "Bell System
>>> Technical Journal," 1922-1983, available online at
>>> http://bstj.bell-labs.com/
>> Fantastic! And every article is an individual PDF!
>>
>> *HOWEVER*, http://bstj.bell-labs.com/ must be the endpoint of a T1 or,
>> perhaps, a 56K modem or even some tin cans connected by string -- something
>> limited to a data rate of approximately 8-14 KBytes/S meaning almost an
>> hour to download one article (all of which seem to be sized 30-50 MB each).
>
> What is happening is that everyone in the world is hammering that site.
> This is a huge, huge deal. Many of these papers were never available in
> any digital form at all until now.
> [...]
D'oh (and slaps forehead). :-)
Yes, definitely. It's like the Slashdot effect when a website
would be inadvertently DoS'd (Denial of Service) after being
featured on Slashdot and eleventy-seven bazillion geeks all
over the world would visit it.
Thank you for the reality check!
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:07:11 +0000 (UTC)
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Bell System Technical Journal
Message-ID: <i9oaov$86l$1@reader1.panix.com>
In <20101020221950.95572.qmail@joyce.lan> John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> writes:
>>> That started to come in, s l o w l y , and then Adobe opened a little
>>> monologue box
>>> to inform me of an I/O error from the remote site, [OK]? OK, I guess. Pity.
>Odd, I downloaded several articles, including several on the 1956
>Atlantic telephone cable, with no trouble at all. I'm on ordinary
>non-Bell telco DSL.
Given the huge pent up demand for these magazines, it's
pretty likely their servers were simply overloaded...
(I'll wait a week or two to d/l mine...)
--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:40:53 GMT
From: sfdavidkaye2@yahoo.com (David Kaye)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Facebook in Privacy Breach
Message-ID: <i9num3$th4$1@news.eternal-september.org>
Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote:
>I look askance at anyone who uses Fecebook, Twitter, etc. given the
>purpose of those sites (remembering that the user is the product and
>*NOT* the customer):
For people who like Facebook, another way is to post fake info on your
account. If you're male, set yourself as female. Use a different birthdate,
put yourself in another city, etc. Your friends can still find you by name,
but the marketing info will get totally screwed up.
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:44:17 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Facebook in Privacy Breach
Message-ID: <4CC08A01.5020609@thadlabs.com>
On 10/20/2010 4:40 PM, David Kaye wrote:
> Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote:
>
>> I look askance at anyone who uses Fecebook, Twitter, etc. given the
>> purpose of those sites (remembering that the user is the product and
>> NOT the customer):
>
> For people who like Facebook, another way is to post fake info on your
> account. If you're male, set yourself as female. Use a different birthdate,
> put yourself in another city, etc. Your friends can still find you by name,
> but the marketing info will get totally screwed up.
That's good advice and I did something like that with my Yahoo
account which was needed for access to my astronomy and computer
groups: changed to Yahoo-UK for the better privacy, address set to
the middle of the Pacific Ocean, first name is, well, "First", etc.
What I find disturbing is reading in every local (Silicon Valley)
newspaper that those seeking jobs will have their Facebook, LinkedIn,
and other sites' data mined by companies' HR departments. Security
agencies are doing the same per 100s of reports I read. Some of the
services (Spokeo, et al) doing the data mining are aggregating publicly
available info into complete dossiers on millions of people. Privacy?
For most people, forget it, it's gone.
In the San Francisco Chronicle recently I found this:
"I'm actually impressed at the information that users are willing
to volunteer," says Lada Adamic, an associate professor at the
University of Michigan who studies social networks. "There are
things on there that I would consider insider information for some
of these companies."
I'm just glad I'm now retired and out of the workforce and that all my
social interactions are face-to-face with real people and not over the
phone or 'Net.
***** Moderator's Note *****
Enjoy it while you can: you will be assimilated!
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:03:41 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Facebook in Privacy Breach
Message-ID: <4CC09C9D.1090302@thadlabs.com>
On 10/20/2010 4:40 PM, David Kaye wrote:
> Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote:
>
>> I look askance at anyone who uses Fecebook, Twitter, etc. given the
>> purpose of those sites (remembering that the user is the product and
>> NOT the customer):
>
> For people who like Facebook, another way is to post fake info on your
> account. If you're male, set yourself as female. Use a different birthdate,
> put yourself in another city, etc. Your friends can still find you by name,
> but the marketing info will get totally screwed up.
In today's (21-OCT-2010) Slashdot:
"
" Every few weeks, it seems, Facebook is caught again violating
" users' privacy. A code error there, rogue business partners
" there. The truth, as InfoWorld's Bill Snyder explains, is that
" Facebook will keep on violating your privacy, no matter what
" its policies say, what promises it makes, or how shocked it
" claims to be at the latest incident. The reason is simple:
" Selling personal information on its users is how it makes money,
" and Facebook is above all a business.
More info about Fecebook's disregard of people's privacy:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/why-facebook-selling-you-out-and-wont-stop-322
and while we're on a roll:
In today's (21-OCT-2010) Slashdot:
"
" How Google Avoided Paying $60 Billion In Taxes
"
" Google only pays a 2.4% tax rate using money-funneling techniques
" known as the 'Double Irish' and the 'Dutch Sandwich,' even though
" the US corporate income tax is 35%. By using Irish loopholes,
" money is transferred legally between subsidiaries and ends up in
" island sanctuaries that have no income tax, giving Google the
" lowest tax rate amongst its technology peers. Facebook is planning
" to use the same strategy.
More info here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-how-60-billion-u-s-revenue-lost-to-tax-loopholes.html
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:42:56 GMT
From: sfdavidkaye2@yahoo.com (David Kaye)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Will Apple's Culture Hurt the iPhone?
Message-ID: <i9nupu$th4$2@news.eternal-september.org>
Steven <diespammers@killspammers.com> wrote:
>The major reason Apple is not as huge as it could be in the computer
>world is because of tight controls, this goes back to the Apple II
>computers, they allowed some clones, but then pulled them back same went
>for the Macs.
And Microsoft eventually had to invest $150 million in Apple to keep them
afloat.
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:02:54 -0700
From: Steven <diespammers@killspammers.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Will Apple's Culture Hurt the iPhone?
Message-ID: <i9pro1$o5p$1@news.eternal-september.org>
On 10/20/10 4:42 PM, David Kaye wrote:
> Steven<diespammers@killspammers.com> wrote:
>
>> The major reason Apple is not as huge as it could be in the computer
>> world is because of tight controls, this goes back to the Apple II
>> computers, they allowed some clones, but then pulled them back same went
>> for the Macs.
>
> And Microsoft eventually had to invest $150 million in Apple to keep them
> afloat.
>
That is because Apple was a big customer for Microsoft as they were for
Apple. At the advise of a friend years ago I bought 2000 shares of
Apple Stock at $7.00 a share, very good investment, only bad ting is in
the last few years they have not paid anything out, just put it back in
the company.
--
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: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:54:00 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Texting Trends & Human Contact
Message-ID: <pan.2010.10.21.05.53.57.415392@myrealbox.com>
On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:32:33 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote:
>
> Texting Trends & Human Contact
>
> On Point with Tom Ashbrook
.........
> And it's not just a technology change. The rising generation isn't talking
> on the phone. It's texting. And those are very different human
> interactions.
>
> Efficiency is up. But nuance is, maybe, down. And a lot is in play.
>
> -Tom Ashbrook
........
If this yet another technology situation where we (eventually) learn that
being "efficient" isn't necessarily being "effective"?
And a big hello to all those early Call Centre/IVR designers who's eyes
lit up with the money they could save by being so "efficient" that most of
their staff only lasted a few months and their customers got pissed-off
with the lack of effectiveness.....
--
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 *****
David, it doesn't work that way.
Companies that employ IVR and similar systems don't care about
customer service in any real sense. They care about giving the
appearance of caring, and there's a difference.
The reason the menus are complicated, convoluted, and confusing is
that the system is designed to discourage Joe and Jane Average from
ever talking to an (expensive) human. While having "customer service"
numbers on the shrink-wrapped package Jane and Joe fondle in the store
might move the product, actually providing that service is too pricey
for any MBA worth his salt. The odds are that Jane and Joe will tuck
their tails between their legs and wander off, and (so the MBA's hope)
forget all about how they were cheated when they feal like fondling
another package with the same brand on it.
This is why marketeers like young, impressionable, innocent, gullible
consumers who have mommy's credit card in their purse: you can sell
them trash all day long and they'll always come back for more. OTOH,
those above 50 are a drag on the market: not only do we remember it
when a company short-changes us, but we tell our friends.
Bill
Bill Horne
Moderator
P.S. BTW, don't buy "BitDefender". It's a rip-off.
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:44:07 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: ARIN recognizes Interop for returning IPv4 address space
Message-ID: <4CC0A617.8070403@thadlabs.com>
At <https://www.arin.net/announcements/2010/20101020.html>
Posted: Wednesday, 20 October 2010
ARIN today recognizes Interop, an organization with a long-standing presence in
the Internet industry, for returning its unneeded Internet Protocol version 4
(IPv4) address space.
Interop was originally allocated a /8 before ARIN's existence and the
availability of smaller-sized address blocks. The organization recently
realized it was only using a small portion of its address block and that
returning the remainder to ARIN would be for the greater good of the Internet
community.
ARIN will accept the returned space and not reissue it for a short period, per
existing operational procedure. After the hold period, ARIN will follow global
policy at that time and return it to the global free pool or distribute the
space to those organizations in the ARIN region with documented need, as
appropriate.
With less than 5% of the IPv4 address space left in the global free pool, ARIN
warns that Interop's return will not significantly extend the life of IPv4.
ARIN continues to emphasize the need for all Internet stakeholders to adopt the
next generation of Internet Protocol, IPv6.
Regards,
Communications and Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers
***** Moderator's Note *****
I'm still astonished that ARIN hasn't re-assigned 44/8, which is, in
reality, a detached network. It's for Amateur Radio Packet, and since
hams use radios instead of fiber or coax, the 44.0.0.0 addresses never
touch the Internet.
The closest we hams get to using ampr.org on the Internet is to
occasionally put an MX record into the ampr.org DNS, so that we can
use email addresses like "QRM@kz5rph.ampr.org".
Bill Horne
Moderator
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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End of The Telecom Digest (12 messages)
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