31 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Add this Digest to your personal
or 
The Telecom Digest for February 6, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 33 : "text" Format
====== 31 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: Mon, 4 Feb 2013 18:08:38 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon Cell Tower Fire in Las Vegas
Message-ID: <20130204230838.GA31987@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
A Verizon cell tower fire has been reported in Las Vegas. Welders were
working on the tower when the fire started.
The fire caused one of the offramps from US 95 to be closed, but there
are no reports of injury.
Bill
Rest at:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/feb/04/cell-tower-fire-closes-us-95-exit-ramp-jones-boule/
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2013 18:14:29 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile Ink Deal To Make Smartphones Work Better
Message-ID: <20130204231429.GA1824@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
By Julie Bort - Business Insider Fri, Feb 1, 2013 3:21 PM EST
AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile Signed An Unprecedented Deal To Make
Smartphones Work Better
Ever been in a crowded place and you can't get service on your phone
to make a call?
Sometimes there are too many phones on your service provider's
network. Smartphones have made the situation worse, because watching
videos and chatting on FaceTime hogs the network.
Three carriers just signed an unprecedented deal to try and solve that
problem. For the first time AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have agreed to
experiment with sharing network space with each other and the federal
government.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/t-verizon-t-mobile-signed-202152211.html
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2013 19:24:25 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: closer than the satellites that guide your GPS
Message-ID: <20130206002424.GA15126@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
Scott Pelle, on the CBS Evening News tv show, just stated that an
asteroid will pass about 18,000 miles from earth next week, which he
said is "Closer than the satellites that ... guide your GPS".
I understand that "news" programs are now expected to make a profit,
and that some networks consider them to be entertainment, but this is
sad. It's an afront to viewers of the once-proud CBS News, and a sad
reminder of how far CBS has fallen from Murrow's and Cronkite's
heydeys.
Academically, the United States ranks near the bottom on the list of
math and science test scores when compared to other nations. I think
careless and casual "reports" such as this one contribute to that
dismal record.
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2013 01:01:46 -0500
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: closer than the satellites that guide your GPS
Message-ID: <1i77pvf4c2dmx.1mgg69aqpd88e$.dlg@40tude.net>
On Tue, 5 Feb 2013 19:24:25 -0500, Bill Horne wrote:
> ... sad reminder of how far CBS has fallen from Murrow's and
> Cronkite's heydeys. ...
But even Murrow and Cronkite couldn't hold a candle to [the late]
I.F. Stone and his beloved Weekly. :-{
Cheers,
-- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2013 22:52:48 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: The FCC's Proposal For A Free Nationwide Wireless Network
Message-ID: <p0624087bcd3783c62ac1@[10.0.1.10]>
The FCC's Proposal For A Free Nationwide Wireless Network
February 5, 2013
The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU and NPR
Access to the Internet has grown from just 10 million people in the
early '90s to more than 2.5 billion today. But a third of households
in the U.S. still don't have high speed internet access because they
can't afford it. To address the growing "digital divide," the federal
government is proposing the creation of a free, public wireless
network nationwide. But the plan faces opposition from telecom
companies who say valuable spectrum should be sold at auction and not
given away for free. And they warn that unlicensed airwaves could
interfere with existing broadcasts. Diane and a panel of experts
discuss the pros and cons of free Wi-Fi.
Guests
Scott Cleland president of Precursor LLC, a research consultancy for
Fortune 500 companies, and Chairman of NetCompetition, a
pro-competition e-forum supported by broadband companies.
Susan Crawford professor of Cardozo Law School, fellow at the
Roosevelt Institute and former technology adviser to President Barack
Obama.
Todd Shields reporter at Bloomberg News.
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-02-05/fcc%E2%80%99s-proposal-free-nationwide-wireless-network
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2013 23:06:38 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: A new encryption app
Message-ID: <p0624087fcd3786abd85e@[10.0.1.10]>
The Threat of Silence
Meet the groundbreaking new encryption app set to revolutionize
privacy and freak out the feds.
By Ryan Gallagher
Feb. 4, 2013
Slate Magazine
For the past few months, some of the world's leading cryptographers
have been keeping a closely guarded secret about a pioneering new
invention. Today, they've decided it's time to tell all.
Back in October, the startup tech firm Silent Circle ruffled
governments' feathers with a "surveillance-proof" smartphone app to
allow people to make secure phone calls and send texts easily. Now,
the company is pushing things even further-with a groundbreaking
encrypted data transfer app that will enable people to send files
securely from a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button. (For
now, it's just being released for iPhones and iPads, though Android
versions should come soon.) That means photographs, videos,
spreadsheets, you name it-sent scrambled from one person to another
in a matter of seconds.
"This has never been done before," boasts Mike Janke, Silent Circle's
CEO. "It's going to revolutionize the ease of privacy and security."
True, he's a businessman with a product to sell-but I think he is right.
The technology uses a sophisticated peer-to-peer encryption technique
that allows users to send encrypted files of up to 60 megabytes
through a "Silent Text" app. The sender of the file can set it on a
timer so that it will automatically "burn"-deleting it from both
devices after a set period of, say, seven minutes. Until now, sending
encrypted documents has been frustratingly difficult for anyone who
isn't a sophisticated technology user, requiring knowledge of how to
use and install various kinds of specialist software. What Silent
Circle has done is to remove these hurdles, essentially democratizing
encryption. It's a game-changer that will almost certainly make life
easier and safer for journalists, dissidents, diplomats, and
companies trying to evade state surveillance or corporate espionage.
Governments pushing for more snooping powers, however, will not be
pleased.
...
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/02/silent_circle_s_latest_app_democratizes_encryption_governments_won_t_be.single.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
Mike Janke can say "This has never been done before", but that is
incorrect. In the "PC" space, I watched Phil Zimmerman demonstrate a
VoIP phone call, which was secured via PGP, back in the 90's: the
equipment wasn't as small, but it was being done.
Of course, Mr. Janke is a businessman with a product to sell, but
let's keep in mind that voice scrambling devices are nothing new: for
example, soldiers in Vietnam used KY-28 encryption equipment to make
voice communications secure, and that was before microprocessors or
even integrated circuits were in use. As far back as World War II,
leaders like Roosevelt and Churchil enjoyed digitally-secured radio
channels.
The question isn't "Is this new?", but rather "Is this robust
encryption, without any backdoors?"
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:16:06 -0800
From: Mark Kaminsky <kaminsky@kaminsky.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: The Pentagon And Cyber Defense, Cyber Warnings
Message-ID: <5111E716.60706@kaminsky.org>
On Sat, 2 Feb 2013 14:49:43 -0500, Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> wrote:
> New alarms about the risk of cyber attack as the Pentagon calls for
> more cyber warriors.
[snip]
> First came Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense, warning that the
> United States in vulnerable to a "cyber Pearl Harbor " - an Internet
> attack on infrastructure that could shock and disable the nation.
>
> Then came Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, just last week,
> saying a "cyber 9.11" could happen "imminently." Then news that the
> Pentagon is looking to sharply expand its force of cyber warriors.
[snip]
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> Let's see:
>
> 1. Sky-is-falling warnings concerning a subject that few
> voters are aware of, let alone competent to evaluate.
>
> 2. The Pentagon wants more and more money to address the
> "threat".
>
> 3. Yawn.
>
> Bill Horne
> Moderator
I had to respond to the comments of our esteemed moderator
[no smileys - I'm serious about the adjective].
Most of the time, I think your take would be correct. However,
this is one field where I think that the Pentagon et al are
underestimating the threat. We will never get the data, but
from what I hear, there are continual, persistent attacks at
the nation's largest banks. It is only a matter of time before
we start having national blackouts because someone managed to hack
into the power grid; local disasters because someone hacked into
the local water company and released all the chlorine at once;
and who knows what else.
I'm not sure that the Pentagon's solution is adequate, but
I think DARPA should certainly be involved in designing
a new internetworking protocol which emphasizes security.
And, actually, as I think of it, this really is on-topic,
because the dunderheads at the phone companies really want
to get rid of the PSTN and replace it with VoIP - which is
IMHO a disaster in the making.
/* Rant on */
Finally, what on earth do the "voters" have to do with the
topic? They have conclusively proven themselves incapable
of dealing with reality. Too bad we cannot give a national
history test with a passing grade required to receive the
privilege of voting (not that in a nation where the Daughters
of the Confederacy managed to whitewash history all over the
country I would have any great confidence in the contents
of a national history test - or that the accepted responses
had anything to do with reality).
/* Rant off */
Mark
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) 2013 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 (7 messages)
Return to Archives ** Older Issues