The Telecom Digest for October 26, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 288 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
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Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:38:17 -0500
From: Jason <bmwjason@bmwlt.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Disconnected: Attention Passengers it's perfectly safe to use your cellphones
Message-ID: <1d852$4cc4ed7d$407e2cd9$18404@EVERESTKC.NET>
On 24-Oct-10 19:10, joeofseattle@yahoo.com wrote:
> With more than 28,000 commercial flights in the skies over the United
> States every day, there are probably few sentences in the English
<<<SNIP>>>
> Flight attendants are required to make their preflight safety
> announcement by the Federal Communications Commission because of
> potential interference to the aircraft's navigation and communication
<<<SNIP>>>>
See http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/unsafe-at-any-airspeed/0
for additional research.
Jason
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:04:07 -0500
From: Jason <bmwjason@bmwlt.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Disconnected: Attention Passengers it's perfectly safe to use your cellphones
Message-ID: <b864d$4cc4f38a$407e2cd9$19803@EVERESTKC.NET>
On 24-Oct-10 19:10, joeofseattle@yahoo.com wrote:
> With more than 28,000 commercial flights in the skies over the United
> States every day, there are probably few sentences in the English
<<<<<SNIP>>>>
And what seems to be a pretty good article on Wikipedia....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft
Jason.
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 20:09:28 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Format of article submissions (was: Re: Disconnected: Attention ...]
Message-ID: <4CC4F4E8.1000806@thadlabs.com>
Bill Horne, Moderator, wrote:
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> Please, PLEASE, do not submit "quoted-printable" posts. I know that
> M$'s borken, brain-dead take-over-the-world email clients love
> quoted-printable, but it's very difficult to edit, moderate, or
> approve. It took me 22 minutes to get this port into "acceptable"
> condition for publication, and I had to mail it to a differnet
> address, convert the character encoding, and take out the M$
> you-will-be-assimilated characters.
>
> It's easier to reject this stuff. Someone caught me in a good mood,
> with time on my hands. You have been warned: next time, rtfm and
> submit with "content-transfer-encoding=8bit".
It's annoying when some websites have embedded M$-isms which are
not always easily noticeable when copy'n'pasting portions from
the website. The problems occur mainly with the opening/closing
single and double quotes, apostrophes, and dashes that controvert
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-2" and similar.
What I've been doing for awhile now is copy'n'pasting to Emacs
which reveals the "quoted-printed" crapola as "\nnn" which, when
compared to the original article, can be quickly substituted across
the entire article and not incur "The Wrath of Bill". :-)
For those unaware, Emacs is available for Windows, is available for
Cygwin under Windows, and, of course, is available for all Linux
and UNIX systems. I've been using it since the mid-1970s and one
copy of its manual handed to me by RMS himself in John McCarthy's
office at Stanford can be seen here which I scanned years ago:
http://thadlabs.com/FILES/Emacs-150_1980.09.05.pdf 210p, 9MB
***** Moderator's Note *****
Oh, well, if you use The-One-True-Editor, I'll cut you slack.
Bill "Where did I put my asbestos longjohns?" Horne
Moderator
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 19:40:23 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: A Simple Swipe on a Phone, and You're Paid
Message-ID: <4CC4EE17.6040809@thadlabs.com>
On 10/23/2010 12:50 PM, T wrote:
> In article <pan.2010.10.04.21.41.35.616837@myrealbox.com>,
> dcstar@myrealbox.com says...
>> [...]
>> In Australia Mastercard are introducing the "Swipe and go" system where
>> you just wave your card at a terminal for transactions under under a
>> certain amount - no signing, not PIN to enter, just grab your receipt and
>> go (TV ads are running now promoting it).
>>
>> They are definitely going for the "impulse" market as a direct replacement
>> for cash.
>
> They're also going for the easily hacked award too. Know how easy it
> would be to read those little swipe cards in a casual setting? Only have
> to get withing a foot or two to read it, store the data, then write to
> your OWN card.
Definitely. This reminds me of the 4-part article the IEEE Spectrum ran
early 1970s highlighting the eleventy-seven bazillion things wrong with
BART ((San Francisco) Bay Area Rapid Transit <http://bart.gov/) besides
the non-standard gauge and the fact the system was designed by airplane
engineers who deliberately overlooked everything ever learned by the
folks who build railroads and true mass-transit systems (and it shows).
One aspect was a local university contest sponsored by BART to find out
if toll-fraud was possible. The four winning entries were fascinating;
the two I remember are these:
1. using heads and electronics from cassette machines, duplicate the
BART fare card's magnetic stripe info onto a fake card made from new-
shirt cardboard,
2. again using new-shirt cardboard (the kind inside men's shirts on the
display counters in stores) and a magnetic stripe on the fake card, a
steam iron to transfer the information from a real BART fare card in
contact with the fake card. This had me ROTFLMAO! :-)
Today's technology facilitates theft. I will not use something like
this (proximity chip on cellphone or card) as I posted here earlier
this month:
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/10/11/bling-comes-to-campus/
Note "bling" in this context is not facial piercings or body jewelry.
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:24:09 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Android Market Is Attracting More App Developers
Message-ID: <p06240893c8eb27428f0c@[10.0.1.8]>
App Makers Take Interest in Android
By JENNA WORTHAM
October 24, 2010
There was cold beer, hot pizza and shop talk at a recent informal
gathering of Android programmers in downtown Manhattan. Inevitably
the chatter turned to money.
One software developer, James Englert, 26, had just released his
first application for Android, Google's operating system for
cellphones. When asked, he tossed out an estimate for his take from
sales of the app, a simple program that shows train schedules: "$1 to
$2 per day."
The room erupted with laughter. "That's pretty good money," he
protested over the clamor.
The others could relate to Mr. Englert's situation because writing
Android software is not yet a ticket to financial success. Even as
Android sales surge - Google says it is now activating around 200,000
phones a day - the market for Android apps still seems anemic
compared with that for Apple and its thriving App Store.
Experts and developers say that is in part because the Android
Market, the dominant store for Android apps, has some clunky features
that can be annoying to phone owners eager to make a quick purchase.
For starters, Android uses Google Checkout rather than an online
payment system that more people are familiar with, like PayPal. As a
result, many Android developers make their apps available free and
rely on mobile advertisements to cover the cost.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/technology/25android.html
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:35:27 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Pitching Movies or Filming Shows, Hollywood Is Hooked on iPads
Message-ID: <p06240894c8eb29e32cb6@[10.0.1.8]>
Pitching Movies or Filming Shows, Hollywood Is Hooked on iPads
By BRIAN STELTER
October 24, 2010
Last month at a meeting in Hollywood, it was time to plot out the
sequel to "Star Trek," last year's blockbuster reboot of the sci-fi
franchise.
The attendees all brought smartphones - gadgets far more powerful
than the videophones imagined by the "Star Trek" writers 40 years
ago. Bob Orci brought something the writers back then could only
dream of: an iPad.
Mr. Orci, meeting with the producers J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof and
Bryan Burk, and his fellow writer Alex Kurtzman, jump-started the
discussion with an iPad slide show, showing stills from the first
film, snapshots of potential locations and a photo of a suggested
actress for one of the roles. On the woman's photo, he had used his
iPad to paint on a Vulcan ear.
"When you're carrying a little TV around, you bring the power of
imagery to places that you don't normally have it," Mr. Orci said in
an interview.
When Apple introduced the iPad six months ago, ushering in an era of
tablet computing, experts predicted that tablets would transform the
habits of groups of people like college students (who would carry
digital textbooks) and doctors (who would manage patient records).
They can add Hollywood to the list of those affected.
The iPad is the must-carry accessory on sound stages this season,
visible behind the scenes of television and film shoots and in
business meetings. When Paula Abdul, the former "American Idol"
judge, wants to preview her new dance show for prospective sponsors,
she turns on her iPad and pulls up a YouTube video. When Julie Benz,
a star of "No Ordinary Family" on ABC, has downtime between shoots,
she plays Angry Birds, the popular physics-based puzzle game.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/business/media/25ipad.html
Date: 25 Oct 2010 04:08:56 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Disconnected: Attention Passengers it's perfectly safe to use your cellphones
Message-ID: <20101025040856.27090.qmail@joyce.lan>
>Asking why passengers must turn off their mobile phones on airplanes
>seems like an odd question. Because, with a sentence said so often
>there simply must be a reason for it. Or - is there not?
I have to say this was an awfully stupid article.
The problem with using cell phones in the air is if you're up at
umpteen thousand feet, your phone may be visible to a hundred
different cell sites, causing overload as the sites try to figure out
which one you should talk to, and frequent site switches as the plane
moves.
The airlines like Ryanair that allow mobile phone use in the plane
have a microcell in the plane. The microcell's signal is stronger
than any ground signal so the phones on the plane all register with
it, and it can tell the phones to turn down the transmit power so the
ground stations can't even see them. The microcell uses some other
scheme to communicate with the ground.
All the airlines I know of with microcells are in Europe. I wonder
how much of that is bureaucratic and how much is technical. All
European cellphones are GSM, so a 900/1800 GSM microcell will talk to
all of them. In the US you need 850/1900 GSM for AT&T and T-Mobile,
850/1900 CDMA for Verizon and Sprint, and iDEN for Nextel. That's a
much more complex microcell.
R's,
John
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 20:12:29 -0600
From: Robert Neville <krj@ieee.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Bell System Technical Journal
Message-ID: <j9p9c6d9g48rd6jfui3v4vd1cdubtttvqv@4ax.com>
kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
>The theory hasn't changed, and what is interesting is that in the audio
>world, people are constantly re-inventing the wheel. Very few people have
>actually see any of the original research.
The same thing is true about human factors and network efficiency. You look at
what the Labs did on the most efficient keypad layout to minimize the amount of
time a touch tone dial register was used and compare that to all the goofy key
layouts on phones.
Or try to find a home cordless phone set that isn't designed for midgets or to
mimic a cell phone form factor. There's a reason why cell phones are small -
they're supposed to be portable. Home phones don't have to be that tiny.
My biggest pet peeve these days are voicemail systems that assume you have alpha
characters on each key (press *D to delete) when you are calling from a non-US
phone, or have a Blackberry or other device that only has numbers.
***** Moderator's Note *****
Actually, the Blackberry's "numbers only" keypad is a devious test to
determine if you're old enough to remember which keys had which
letters. If you are, then they know that you're too smart to believe
the prerecorded tripe, and they pass you through to a human!
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:17:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Bell System Technical Journal
Message-ID: <796740e6-65a3-41ac-a44b-2bc87603f851@a37g2000yqi.googlegroups.com>
On Oct 17, 9:44 pm, Neal McLain <nmcl...@annsgarden.com> wrote:
> Alcatel-Lucent has made the complete set of back issues of "Bell System
> Technical Journal," 1922-1983, available online
athttp://bstj.bell-labs.com/
Let's not forget that the Western Union Technical Review is available
on this very site's archives. While not at the level of the BSTJ, it
has interesting reports in it as well.
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:02:31 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Disconnected: Attention Passengers it's perfectly safe to use your cellphones
Message-ID: <pan.2010.10.25.09.02.29.21103@myrealbox.com>
On Sun, 24 Oct 2010 20:26:57 -0600, Robert Neville wrote:
..........
> The FAA (which has the authority over electronics in the cabin, not the
> FCC) operates on a "prove it's safe" model. Either the manufacturer or the
> operator has to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there won't be any
> interference. Furthermore, that has to be done on every model aircraft,
> inlcuding the ones that were designed before cell phones were a gleam in
> anyone's eye.
..........
I think that the title of that old Dead Kennedy's album sums up the
attitude of people asking why they cannot use their phones etc on flights:
"Give me convenience or give me death"
Sort of prescient, really......
How any media outlet can publish that "It's perfectly safe to use your
cellphones" without proving beyond doubt the "perfection" of that safety
claim is so far beyond gross irresponsibility it should be criminal.
--
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: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 20:33:06 -0700
From: Richard <rng@richbonnie.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Disconnected: Attention Passengers it's perfectly safe to use your cellphones
Message-ID: <prt9c65eljqb45hs20ihklvkit6tcc3iqk@4ax.com>
I heard that the reason they don't want you to use mobile phones in
airplanes is because you might bring up several cell sites at once.
Don't know how true that is.
About 6 years ago, I was visiting my mother in a hospital. Lots of
electronic monitoring equipment all around, and signs telling you to
turn off the cell phone. Her physician used a cell phone while in
mother's room. I questioned him, he said that cell phones were not a
problem any more.
Three years ago, I had heart-bypass surgery. While still in intensive
care, I was permitted to use a cell phone from my bed, even though I
was wired up with heart-monitoring probes and a portable unit which
transmitted my heart beat to a central monitoring room.
On the other hand, they would not allow me to plug the charger for the
phone into the wall socket because the electrician had not approved
the device. :-( My wife had to carry my phone out to her car to
charge it for me.
Dick
***** Moderator's Note *****
Isn't it funny, how anal retentives of all stripes insist on having
revenge when anyone proves them wrong. When their bosses tell them
that Goldstein's agents have been here and we're at war with East
Asia, they get really busy thinking up ways to irritate those that
they used to be able to order around.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:07:49 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: A Simple Swipe on a Phone, and You're Paid
Message-ID: <pan.2010.10.25.09.07.46.104611@myrealbox.com>
On Sat, 23 Oct 2010 15:50:40 -0400, T wrote:
> In article <pan.2010.10.04.21.41.35.616837@myrealbox.com>,
> dcstar@myrealbox.com says...
>>
>> On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 11:12:22 -0400, Wes Leatherock wrote: ..........
>> > I can't imagine most types of stores expect to get that much in
>> > impulse purchases. They have a much wider access to customers from
>> > all over the country that think the additional business they generate
>> > is worth the cost.
>> >
>> > I usually carry a very small amount of cash, charging just about
>> > everything to my credit cards.
>>
>> In Australia Mastercard are introducing the "Swipe and go" system where
>> you just wave your card at a terminal for transactions under under a
>> certain amount - no signing, not PIN to enter, just grab your receipt
>> and go (TV ads are running now promoting it).
>>
>> They are definitely going for the "impulse" market as a direct
>> replacement for cash.
>
> They're also going for the easily hacked award too. Know how easy it
> would be to read those little swipe cards in a casual setting? Only have
> to get within a foot or two to read it, store the data, then write to
> your OWN card.
It is my understanding that the comms between these chip cards and
terminals is all encrypted with inbuilt keys so any monitoring would be as
useful as capturing a HTTPS session on the 'net.
There are very good reasons these things are moving away from simple
encoded card numbers on a mag stripe.
--
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.
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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