The Telecom Digest for December 19, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 342 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
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Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 23:06:05 -0800
From: Richard <rng@richbonnie.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: History--Eight Digit US telephone numbers?
Message-ID: <1tlog6thn0itkrft65ju2btk7jsfp6b8te@4ax.com>
On Fri, 17 Dec 2010 13:38:09 -0600 (CST), jsw <jsw@ivgate.omahug.org>
wrote:
>The story I heard and believed was that Ma Bell did not embrace
>STEP technology because they did not want to pay royalties to
>Strowger and company.
Beginning in 1965, I lived in Salem, NH and worked in the Lawrence, MA
area. Both Salem and Lawrence were NE Telephone and both had step
offices.
Both cwntral offices allowed last-5-digit dialing when calling phone
in the same respective city. Both 5- and 7-digit dialing worked.
In Salem, the office codes were 893 and 898. So a call to 898-8123
could be dialed as 88123. Then, the NH PUC ordered that our local
area include Nashua, NH, with office codes begining with 88
(882, 883, ... 888, 889). To make this work, NE Tel had to change the
Salem numbers of the form 898-8xxx to 893-0xxx, so that any dialing
beginning with 88 would be directed to Nashua. 5-digit dialing still
worked from Salem to Salem.
In Lawrence, the office codes began with 68 (681, 682, etc.) 5-digit
dialing existed for a long time. Some long time residents were so
used to the 5-digits that they would give their number as
"68 (pause) 23456" instead of "682 (pause) 3456".
Dick
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 15:17:07 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Your Apps Are Watching You
Message-ID: <p06240831c932c57bd733@[192.168.180.133]>
WHAT THEY KNOW
Your Apps Are Watching You
By SCOTT THURM and YUKARI IWATANI KANE
December 18, 2010
Few devices know more personal details about people than the
smartphones in their pockets: phone numbers, current location, often
the owner's real name-even a unique ID number that can never be
changed or turned off.
These phones don't keep secrets. They are sharing this personal data
widely and regularly, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
An examination of 101 popular smartphone "apps"-games and other
software applications for iPhone and Android phones-showed that 56
transmitted the phone's unique device ID to other companies without
users' awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone's
location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal
details to outsiders.
The findings reveal the intrusive effort by online-tracking companies
to gather personal data about people in order to flesh out detailed
dossiers on them.
Among the apps tested, the iPhone apps transmitted more data than the
apps on phones using Google Inc.'s Android operating system. Because
of the test's size, it's not known if the pattern holds among the
hundreds of thousands of apps available.
...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576020083703574602.html
The Journal's Cellphone Testing Methodology
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704034804576025951767626460.html
What Can You Do? Not Much
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703929404576022140902538236.html
What They Know - Mobile
http://blogs.wsj.com/wtk-mobile/
What They Know
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/what-they-know-digital-privacy.html
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 15:27:19 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers
Message-ID: <p06240833c932c924b2cf@[192.168.180.133]>
TECHNOLOGY
Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers
By MIGUEL BUSTILLO And ANN ZIMMERMAN
DECEMBER 15, 2010
Tri Tang, a 25-year-old marketer, walked into a Best Buy Co. store in
Sunnyvale, Calif., this past weekend and spotted the perfect gift for
his girlfriend.
Last year, he might have just dropped the $184.85 Garmin global
positioning system into his cart. This time, he took out his Android
phone and typed the model number into an app that instantly compared
the Best Buy price to those of other retailers. He found that he
could get the same item on Amazon.com Inc.'s website for only
$106.75, no shipping, no tax.
Mr. Tang bought the Garmin from Amazon right on the spot.
"It's so useful," Mr. Tang says of his new shopping companion, a
price comparison app called TheFind. He says he relies on it "to make
sure I am getting the best price."
Mr. Tang's smartphone reckoning represents a revolution in
retailing-what Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Mike Duke has
dubbed a "new era of price transparency"-and its arrival is
threatening to upend the business models of the biggest store chains
in America.
Until recently, retailers could reasonably assume that if they just
lured shoppers to stores with enticing specials, the customers could
be coaxed into buying more profitable stuff, too.
Now, marketers must contend with shoppers who can use their
smartphones inside stores to check whether the specials are really so
special, and if the rest of the merchandise is reasonably priced.
...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576019691769574496.html
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 17:48:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: History--Eight Digit US telephone numbers?
Message-ID: <659278.41182.qm@web111701.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
--- On Fri, 12/17/10, jsw <jsw@ivgate.omahug.org> wrote:
> I'm starting to wonder if the HOllis-5 office was manual. Did panel
> switchgear store the entire phone number before acting on it, or
> did it translate the exchange and then route the rest of the dial
> pulses to the desired exchange? I understand your point of the
> frames, but perhaps only the incoming storage register had to be
> larger.
>
> It acted as soon as it had enough information to act. This was very
> innovative for the technology of the day.
>
> IIRC, the action on the dialed digits was somewhat overlapping on
> panel. It was definitely not direct control by any means. If you
> would dial slowly when calling one panel office from another, you
> could often make out the sounds of the progress through the switch
> train. The cadence of the sounds was quite different when calling a
> #1 or #5 crossbar from a panel office than it was when calling
> another panel office, and this made it somewhat easy to tell which
> offices were panel and which were crossbar.
I thought panel offices used revertive pulsing, i.e. after the full
number was dialed the distance office started pulsing back to the
originating office until the originating office said "stop" and went
on to the next digit similarly. The first No. 1 crossbar offices were
arranged to simulate panel offices in their signalling, leading to the
apparent absurity of two No. 1 crossbar offices each simulating
panel's revertive pulsing. The first No. 1 crossbar was intended for
use in an all-panel environment.
Wes Leatherock
wleathus@yahoo.com
wesrock@aol.com
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 17:57:58 -0800 (PST)
From: Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: History--Eight Digit US telephone numbers?
Message-ID: <52339.79333.qm@web111719.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
--- On Fri, 12/17/10, jsw <jsw@ivgate.omahug.org> wrote:
{...]
> I guess they did eventually employ SxS for many smaller communities
> in their service areas, and even some mid-size cities as well, with
> Des Moines being an example.
How about Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Fort Worth,
Tulsa, Wichita, Little Rock.
Wes Leatherock
wleathus@yahoo.com
wesrock@aol.com
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