30 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981

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The Telecom Digest for December 31, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 336 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Verizon backs down (Garrett Wollman)
Verizon Wireless to charge fee to pay bill. (Tom Horne)
old NY Telephone HQ, was: Verizon backs down (danny burstein)
Re: old NY Telephone HQ, was: Verizon backs down (Wes Leatherock)
A trip down memory lane (Bill Horne)
Re: A trip down memory lane (Paul W. Schleck)
Re: A trip down memory lane (John Levine)
A look back at 2011 (Telecom Digest Moderator)
Year-end statistics - word count (Telecom Digest Moderator)
Year-end statistics: those who posted 10 or more times (Telecom Digest Moderator)

====== 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: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:29:05 +0000 (UTC)
From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon backs down 
Message-ID: <jdlvi1$2hpa$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu>

In article <alpine.BSF.2.00.1112301757350.82848@joyce.lan>,
Bill Horne writes:

>This incident is the latest in a decades long series of mitakes that
>make me wonder if the most important skill the poo-bahs at Verizontal
>posess is the ability to hide their mistakes.

Of course it is -- and at nearly every other public company in the
world.  *That's how you get to be a senior executive.*

-GAWollman

-- 
Garrett A. Wollman    | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wollman@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers.         | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993




Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:39:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Tom Horne <hornetd@gmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon Wireless to charge fee to pay bill. 
Message-ID: <537c8dbc-0f70-422e-805e-a2ed2a752444@u6g2000vbc.googlegroups.com>

Verizon wireless has announced that it will charge a two dollar fee to
wireless customers who pay their bill by credit card.  This is
essentially a fine for not paying by electronic funds transfer, for
which you pay the fee instead of Verizon.  I  called them and was told
that since my family has "One Bill", where we pay our FIOS and cellular 
bill as a single payment, that this fee would not apply to us, but the
unspoken extra words were "for now".  

Verizon isn't the first company to get in a pissing contest with
credit card companies over merchant credit card fees.  Obviously they
do not believe that they should have to incur any costs in collecting
money from their customers.  Automatic bill paying is the only way to
avoid incurring the fee unless you pay by check or cash.  If you've
experienced the wait for service in a Verizon store you know how
impractical paying by cash is.  Of course the store does have a self
serve kiosk were you can pay your bill with a debit card, but I don't
know if it charges the foreign customer fee that ATMs charge.  I also
do not know if it will incur the foreign ATM charge from your home
bank.  If it is just an automated merchant collection process then you
will ONLY incur your banks transaction fee for using your debit card.
The obvious remedy is to pay by check in order to shift the cost back
to Verizon in a really big way.  If they think the bank fees on
Merchant transactions are steep wait until they have to process
thousands of paper checks that state banking laws forbid fees on.

--
Tom Horne




Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:41:03 +0000 (UTC)
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: old NY Telephone HQ, was: Verizon backs down 
Message-ID: <jdlp7f$l3l$1@reader1.panix.com>

[snip]

>***** Moderator's Note *****

>Again and again and again, from trying to deploy an MDS system in
>hilly Boston suburbs, to demanding that IS professionals with decades
>of experience in COBOL and PL/I learn "C" almost overnight, to
>laughable forays into the retail world, Ma Bell's missteps are
>legendary. Yet, the executives at 1095 A/A keep trying to outdo each
>other in their endless search for a father figure who will tell them to
>stop playing and get to work. 

It's been a bunch of years since the various incarnations
of the NY area telephone companies had their mainoffices on
Sixth Avenue [a]. (They still have some switching equipment
at that location, and might have a bit of office space, but 
everything else is long gone).

[a] called "Avenue of the Americas" by real estate folk
    and naive furriners...

ah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1095_Avenue_of_the_Americas

-- 
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
                    dannyb@panix.com 
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]




Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:10:10 -0800 (PST)
From: Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: old NY Telephone HQ, was: Verizon backs down 
Message-ID: <1325347810.73123.YahooMailClassic@web111704.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

--- On Fri, 12/30/11, danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> wrote:

> It's been a bunch of years since the various incarnations of the NY
> area telephone companies had their mainoffices on Sixth Avenue
> [a]. (They still have some switching equipment at that location, and
> might have a bit of office space, but everything else is long gone).
 
> [a] called "Avenue of the Americas" by real estate folk and naive
>     furriners...

Having been with Southwestern Bell, not NY Telephone, I had no idea
where that company had its headquarters, but having visited NY several
times for the then AT&T I could tell you its headquarters were at 195
Broadway (usually just "195") and Long Lines headquarters were at 32
Avenue ot the Americas (the only place I ever heard of that gave its
address as "Avenue of the Americas," almost everyone else gave their
address as "Sixth Avenue."

I would suggest most of the things our esteemed moderator suggested
originated at "195" (Broadway), not at a single regional AT&T
subsidiary.

Wes Leatherock
wleathus@yahoo.com
wesrock@aol.com

***** Moderator's Note *****

OK, from now on I'll list Verizon's address as 

1 Pretentious Place
Valhalla, NY

... in the hopes that readers stop confusing a building with what
happens inside it!

Bill Horne
Moderator




Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 11:58:36 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: A trip down memory lane 
Message-ID: <jdnevt$rsi$1@dont-email.me>

Thanks to the olduse.net nntp server, I'm able to bring you this message 
from the first days of the digest, more than thirty years ago.

 - - - - - - - - -

 >From geoff Fri Aug 28 22:50:38 1981
Communications between the UUCP network (Usenet, UUCPnet) and the
ARPAnet have been partially automated for the POLI-SCI and TELECOM
mailing lists.  If you are reading this message, you are a UUCPnet
reader of one of these lists.

If you wish to SUBMIT an article to either digest, send it to
     ...!ucbvax!telecom   or     ...!ucbvax!poli-sci

You must include in the text of your letter:

(1) Your UUCPnet mailing address from ucbvax (if a ucbvax user were to
    want to mail you a letter, what would your address be) and
(2)  Your real name and affiliation

If you (a UUCPnet user) wish to PERSONALLY RESPOND to an article in either
digest which was submitted by an ARPAnet user, send your letter to
   ...!ucbvax!telecom-link     or   ...!ucbvax!poli-sci-link
and include the ARPAnet recipient's network mail address at the beginning
of the letter.  [This will be intercepted on ucbvax by a real person, 
currently the undersigned; communications unrelated to the mailing list 
will not be forwarded.]

If someone on the ARPAnet wishes to personally respond to an article which
you have submitted to a digest, they will do so by mailing a letter to
   CSVAX.telecom-link@Berkeley or   CSVAX.poli-sci-link@Berkeley
and must include the UUCPnet mailing address of the intended recipient
(i.e., you) at the beginning of the letter.  [Again, this traffic will
be intercepted by a person on ucbvax, and will not be forwarded unless
the communications relates to the mailing list.]

Thank you in advance for your adherence to the protocol given above.

                                           Geoff Peck
                                     (ARPAnet: geoff@Berkeley)
                                    (UUCPnet: ...!ucbvax!geoff)
                             [current {telecom,poli-sci}-link coordinator]

 - - - - - - -

(If anyone knows the original administrator or Mr Peck's current status 
and whereabouts, please pass them along.)

Bill

-- 
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)




Date: 31 Dec 2011 15:48:01 -0600
From: "Paul W. Schleck" <pschleck@novia.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: A trip down memory lane 
Message-ID: <4eff829a$0$33467$540ea2cf@novia.net>

In <jdnevt$rsi$1@dont-email.me> Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> writes:

 [...]

>(If anyone knows the original administrator or Mr Peck's current status 
>and whereabouts, please pass them along.)

>Bill

Bill, I'm sorry to report that Geoff Peck appears to no longer be alive.

According to these links, he died in a plane crash in 2006:

http://k0lee.com/2008/07/remembering-geoff-peck/

http://www.airtalk.org/geoff-peck-so-long-vt72842.html

[Moderator snip]

--
Paul W. Schleck
pschleck@novia.net

http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/

Finger pschleck@novia.net for PGP Public Key




Date: 1 Jan 2012 03:40:25 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: A trip down memory lane 
Message-ID: <20120101034025.56059.qmail@joyce.lan>

>>(If anyone knows the original administrator or Mr Peck's current status 
>>and whereabouts, please pass them along.)

Geoff was a high school friend of mine, and an experienced private
pilot.  Sad to say, he died in a freak plane accident on his way back
from the Oshkosh plane show.  We all miss him.

R's,
John




Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:55:21 -0500
From: Telecom Digest Moderator <redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: A look back at 2011 
Message-ID: <pe46AD.A.lpG.0_8_OB@telecom>

Well, it's that time of year again, and I've been going over the
statistics from The Telecom Digest for 2011. There have been some
surprises, and I'll share a few thoughts about them and about the
direction The Telecom Digest will take during 2012.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was realizing that I haven't done a good
job of encouraging new readers to contribute: I looked at the number
of posts from each author, and was surprised to find that a handful of
contributors had sent in the lion's share of posts. I'm going to be
actively promoting contributions from new authors and from those who
have been less active in the past.

Toware that end, I'm going to seek feedback from the readers on a
regular basis; I'll be putting out a survey in the next couple of days
that will give the readers a chance to tell me their opinions, both on
the things they like or don't like about the Digest, and on my
performance as Moderator. I'm hopeful that it will be a productive way
to gain insights into the topics that we need to emphasize, and the
areas that aren't as important to the readers as I'd thought.

Lastly, I will be making some technical changes at the Digest, both in
response to readers' suggestions and to my own. These enhancements will
allow me to spend less time on "administrivia" and more on actually
moderating. 

I hope you all have a happy and productive new year.

Bill Horne
Moderator




Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:55:38 -0500
From: Telecom Digest Moderator <redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Year-end statistics - word count 
Message-ID: <J1WbM.A._pG.0_8_OB@telecom>

Here's a list of words that showed up in Subject: lines from the posts
that were published in the digest during 2011. It's not all-inclusive,
since many obvious deletions (in, at, there, we, etc.) had to be made.

I've combined some figures to avoid ambiguity: "phone" and "phones",
for example, were counted together. Sometimes, I left "close" words
alone, since, e.g., "telephone" and "telephony" might not cover the
same ground.

This is columnar data, and best viewed with a fixed-width font. 

2011 Subject lines word counts (3 or more occurances)

     83 PHONE                   11 SMARTPHONE               6 HISTORY          
     51 IPHONE                  11 SYSTEM                   6 IPAD                   
     48 APPLE                   11 VOICE                    6 NETWORK              
     35 AT&T                    11 WEB                      6 PATENT            
     28 NEW                     10 CABLE                    6 POWER                  
     27 CELL                    10 CODE                     6 SUPPORT          
     26 VERIZON                 10 MERGER                   6 TELCO                  
     23 IOS                     10 PAY                      6 TEXTING          
     22 DATA                    10 TELEPHONE                6 TRAFFIC          
     21 MOBILE                  10 TRACK                    6 VOIP                   
     21 T-MOBILE                 9 COMCAST                  5 APP                     
     18 FCC                      9 INTERNET                 5 BART               
     18 SERVICE                  9 NUMBERS                  5 BREACH                
     18 U.S.                     8 CARD                     5 CANADA            
     16 CELLPHONE                8 CARRIER                  5 CELLULAR            
     16 SECURITY                 8 TEXT                     5 CENTURYLINK/QWEST   
     16 UPDATE                   7 COURT                    5 LAW                     
     15 LIGHTSQUARED             7 FACEBOOK                 5 LOOKING          
     14 CALLS                    7 OUTAGE                   5 LOST                   
     14 SOFTWARE                 7 PRIVACY                  5 MAIL                   
     13 GOOGLE                   7 SIM                      5 POLICE            
     12 GPS                      7 TECHNOLOGY               5 SEARCH            
     12 JOBS                     7 WORLD                    5 SIRI                   
     12 USERS                    6 FUTURE                   5 SPAM                   
     12 WIRELESS                 6 HACKER                   5 STUDY                  
                                                          
                                                      
                                                          
      5 TECHNICAL                4 NEUTRALITY             3 HELP                     
      5 THREAT                   4 PORN                   3 JAILBREAKING              
      5 TOWER                    4 RADIO                  3 MOTOROLA           
      5 TV                       4 SEXTING                3 NEWS                  
      4 AMERICA                  4 SPECTRUM               3 NORTEL               
      4 ANDROID                  4 SPRINT                 3 NYC                       
      4 ANNOYANCE                4 SUPREME                3 OBAMA         
      4 APPS                     4 SYSTEMS                3 OPTIC         
      4 BATTERY                  4 VIDEO                  3 PLAN                  
      4 BID                      3 ADVISORY               3 POLICY               
      4 BILLING                  3 ALARM                  3 RATES         
      4 BLACKBERRY               3 ALERT                  3 RING                     
      4 BROADBAND                3 BELL                   3 RSA                       
      4 BSTJ                     3 CANCER                 3 RULES         
      4 CASES                    3 CENTURYLINK            3 SERVICES              
      4 CONGRESS                 3 CHILDREN               3 SKYPE         
      4 FIBER                    3 COMMUNICATIONS         3 SMARTPHONES                
      4 FIGHT                    3 DISRUPTED              3 SMS                       
      4 FLASH                    3 DSL                    3 SOCIAL               
      4 FRAUD                    3 EMERGENCY              3 SONY                     
      4 HACK                     3 FAILURE                3 SOPA                     
      4 MEDIA                    3 FAQ                    3 STUXNET             
      4 MESSAGING                3 FEDERAL                3 SWITCHING            
      4 NET                      3 FIRM                   3 TABLET               
                                                         
                                                           
      3 TELEGRAPH   
      3 TONE               
      3 TOOLS              
      3 UNIVERSAL      
      3 UNLIMITED      
      3 WAR         
      3 WI-FI              
      3 WORM               

I hope all the Telecom Digest readers a happy and prosperous 2012. 

Bill Horne
Moderator 




Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:04:40 -0500
From: Telecom Digest Moderator <telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.remove.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Year-end statistics: those who posted 10 or more times 
Message-ID: <8tlbxB.A.JpG.0_8_OB@telecom.csail.mit.edu>

As part of my year-end analysis of the Digest's stats, I've compiled a
list of those who posted to The Telecom Digest ten or more times
during 2011.

I've removed email address, since some of them have changed, and I
have combined some figures for those who changed their name during the
year.

Any errors or ommissions are my fault. This is columnar data, and best
viewed with a fixed-width font.

Bill
P.S. Thanks to Danny Burstein for proofreading!

   Messages     Author

       2271     Total                                                                                                                          
        273     Monty Solomon                        
        186     HAncock4
        133     David Clayton                        
        102     John Mayson                          
         82     John Levine                          
         80     Robert Bonomi                        
         78     tlvp                                 
         73     Wes Leatherock                       
         73     Adam H. Kerman                       
         65     Sam Spade                            
         63     Bill Horne                           
         50     Scott Dorsey                         
         48     AES                                  
         46     danny burstein                       
         40     Fred Atkinson                        
         38     T                                    
         34     Joseph Singer                        
         30     Pete Cresswell                       
         29     Thad Floryan                         
         27     Neal McLain                          
         26     Geoffrey Welsh                       
         23     Dave Garland                         
         23     David Lesher                         
         23     Thor Lancelot Simon                  
         20     Gary                                 
         18     Garrett Wollman                      
         18     Doug McIntyre                        
         16     Eric Tappert                         
         16     Michael Moroney                      
         15     David Scheidt                        
         14     Mark J. Cuccia                       
         14     Steven                               
         13     Richard                              
         12     Bob Goudreau                         
         12     Fred Goldstein                       
         11     John David Galt                      
         11     Matt Simpson                         
         10     Rob Warnock                          

-- 

Bill Horne
339-364-8487






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.
Contact information: Bill Horne
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This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
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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
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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
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All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
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and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.
End of The Telecom Digest (10 messages)

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