---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <A6D12255-A647-47AC-9EDA-2BBEE4FDEB73@jt-mj.net> Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2019 19:31:48 -0500 From: Julian Thomas <jtmb@jt-mj.remove-this.net> Subject: Re: Happy New Year > On Jan 1, 2019, at 16:33, Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> wrote: > > Happy New Year! It's 2019! And the same to you and all readers. I'm happy with what we have for now; it's a good blend of internet, telephony, and cell phone stuff with the occasional welcome trips down memory lane. A minor issue - when there's an item about '911 outage in Hopeless County' [or other event] it would be very helpful to identify where this is. Keep up the good work. I suspect you'd like to see more contributions from readers and I'll try to do my part, but you might want to exhort the troops again. -- Julian & Mary Jane Thomas jtmj@jt-mj.net ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190104000708.GA19501@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2019 19:07:08 -0500 From: Telecom Digest Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.telecom- digest.org> Subject: Re: Happy New Year On Wed, Jan 02, 2019 at 07:31:48PM -0500, Julian Thomas wrote: > > > > On Jan 1, 2019, at 16:33, Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> wrote: > > > > Happy New Year! It's 2019! > > And the same to you and all readers. > > I'm happy with what we have for now; it's a good blend of internet, > telephony, and cell phone stuff with the occasional welcome trips down > memory lane. > > A minor issue - when there's an item about '911 outage in Hopeless > County' [or other event] it would be very helpful to identify where > this is. > > Keep up the good work. I suspect you'd like to see more contributions > from readers and I'll try to do my part, but you might want to exhort > the troops again. Julian, Thanks for the compliment! I live for emails like yours! The many stories I find from "Hopeless County" and similar locations almost all have one thing in common: they are published without any easy way to /find/ the state or country that they come from. It's very common to find a story on the web that says "Hopeless County Sheriff says phones are the work of the devil," but they are mostly copies of articles from small-town newspapers, and there's almost never any mention of where the "Hopeless County News" is actually located: I know when I see one that it'll take at least half an hour to find where the hell "Hopeless County" /is/. Sometimes it's easy, others not, so I have to make a snap decision on whether the events in "Hopeless County" merit the attention of a wider audience even though I can't provide the Sheriff's latitude and longitude. :-\ If you know how I can ease that process, _PLEASE_ tell me! :-) Thanks again for writing: please consider contributing posts concerning areas of telecom that are of interest to you: the odds are that they will interest others, too. Bill -- Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <d405ad6d-3a9b-4eef-9fc8-1eb978a770b3@googlegroups.com> Date: 3 Jan 2019 12:42:38 -0800 From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: Signalling Codes (was Nationwide Outage ...) Subject: Re: Signalling Codes (was Nationwide internet outage affects CenturyLink, Verizon) On Sunday, December 30, 2018 at 5:14:45 PM UTC-5, Michael Moroney wrote: > That is correct. In New York City the system has been partially > upgraded to voice call boxes in the old Gamewell mounts, but the old > boxes still in use in some boroughs send 4 digit numbers as equally > spaced pulses, not as Morse code. The boxes are wind-up and work not > too differently from wind-up music boxes. Originally the pulses rang > a bell and the dispatchers had to count pulses, these days a computer > counts the pulses and enters the number into the dispatch system. > > Some boxes have/had telegraph keys inside so I assume at one time they > did manually use Morse Code to call for additional assistance or > otherwise report status to borough headquarters. > > (this info may be a bit out of date, it has been 5 years since I > worked on their system) Some observations: . Many early communication systems had their own code for signaling that was specific to their operations. In railroads, passenger trains still use a trainline buzzer for the conductor to signal the engineer. For instance, two buzzes at a station stop indicate to proceed. The engineer has various codes for the whistle. We've all heard the grade crossing warning _ _ . _. There are various codes. . When in school, there were various bell signals (actually it was a buzzer). Four buzzes meant indoor recess. A long and a short was a page for the principal, and a short and a long was a page for the custodian. Six buzzes was an air raid drill. . In many buildings, each fire alarm pull box had a separate code assigned to it. There was often a chart next to it noting the location of each code. (Some systems, as at my last office building, didn't have that.) In elementary school, we were taught to know the fire code for the box closest to our classroom. In this way, if the fire was near us, we'd know to take special action. (This seemed like a good idea, but it was not used anywhere else I attended school nor worked.) . In my old office building (1963), in addition to the fire pull boxes, there were fire sensors in the ceiling. They were connected to a vacuum line. High heat from a fire would cause air pressure to increase, and set off the fire alarm. They were tested regularly. . I don't think the Bell System supplied fire alarm systems, except perhaps in its earliest days. However, the P-A-X systems provided by independent companies did provide a fire alarm option. Dialing a special code would sound the alarm. . Philadelphia appears to have lost its street fire boxes long ago. In the 1970s they were still in use. When pulled, it would sound a very loud buzzer in the City Hall fire dispatcher's room in accordance with the code of the box. It would also sound in the firehouse that served that box. Citizens were instructed to stay at the fire box until the fire truck showed up to direct them to the specific location, but people didn't always do that. Also, there were a great many false alarms sent by pranksters. None the less, in the 1970s, most calls came in by firebox, not telephone. . I don't know if Phila fire boxes could be opened to key in additional messages. However, that sounds like a very useful feature. Often times the arriving fire company would need to request more equipment or assistance. By the 1960s fire trucks had radios. I think by the 1950s, or maybe even much earlier, they had street telephone boxes for public safety personnel. Western Electric did supply mobile radios for public safety. ***** Moderator's Note ***** The code " _ _ . _. " is either "MEN" or "TTEN" in American Morse Code, which is what railroads and fire departments always used, so unless someone has a Rosetta Stone we can use, it will have to remain lost in the mists of time. --... ...-- -.. . .-- ....- . .-- .... Bill "Sorry, I couldn't resist" Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <b60acfe3-e669-4027-9a59-a95e345a4781@googlegroups.com> Date: 3 Jan 2019 11:46:54 -0800 From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Apple delivers bombshell China warning CNN reported that Apple warned it will badly miss its quarterly sales forecast because of weakening growth and trade tensions in China. Apple (AAPL), among the world's most widely held stocks, plummeted 10%. Apple's iPhone price hikes may have hurt demand, especially as customers upgrade their smartphones less frequently. full article at: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/03/investing/stock-market-today-apple-dow-jones/index.html see also: Apple Cuts Revenue Forecast Because of Slow iPhone Sales in China https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/technology/apple-revenue-decline-china.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190104022326.GA20110@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2019 21:23:26 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Popular Weather App Collects Too Much User Data, Security Experts Say By Newley Purnell NEW DELHI - A popular weather app built by a Chinese tech conglomerate has been collecting an unusual amount of data from smartphones around the world and attempting to subscribe some users to paid services without permission, according to a London-based security firm's research. https://www.wsj.com/articles/popular-weather-app-collects-too-much-user-data-security-experts-say-11546428914 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Fri, 04 Jan 2019