---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <slrnp9t8mn.bda.Mark@dora.home.misty.com> Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2018 14:16:55 +0000 (UTC) From: Mark G Thomas <Mark@Misty.com> Subject: Re: Why Amazon is sending you pictures of your front porch On 2018-03-06, Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> wrote: > On 3/3/2018 2:08 PM, John Levine wrote: >> In article <p7a4fb$2ren$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu> you write: >>> If they did that for me, it would be a picture of my back steps, >>> exposed to theft and the weather. After a dozen attempts I've given >>> up trying to explain to them that they should leave packages inside >>> the front door, where the mail bins are -- the message seems to be >>> accepted by their customer service team but is never transmitted to >>> the drivers. >> >> I'm not surprised, since Amazon doesn't deliver their own packages. >> >> In my experience, their deliveries all come via the post office and >> Fedex. Have you tried calling Fedex and telling them? > > In metro areas (where they often have warehouses) they do their own > deliveries. Mostly unmarked white Sprinter vans whose drivers wear > safety vests. We get a random mix of white vans and consumer cars and SUVs. Packages sometimes show up on the front door, side door, back door, driveway, front yard, on top of a trash can, or even laying in the street over a hundred feet from the house. -Mark ------------------------------ Message-ID: <da35a7bcd01e71b10233ece1e7133d75.squirrel@webmail.mishmash.com> Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2018 19:22:41 -0700 From: "Fred Atkinson" <fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com> Subject: Epson Devices Not Meeting USB Standard? I just got off the phone with Epson technical support for my scanner. I can't believe what they just told me. According to what I've read, the USB standard is for five meters in length. Converting that to British units, that yields just shy of sixteen and a half feet. I have an Epson V39 Perfection scanner. I got a fifteen foot USB cable to connect it to my new supercomputer. The supercomputers support four monitors. So I got a work station that has two shelves on it wide enough to hold two wide screen monitors each. The work station is six feet wide. Since the computer is to the right of my work station and I have a small table to the left of it for my scanner and a few other things, I need to run the cable to the back of the work station (a couple of feet) the all the way behind the work station (six feet) and then to the scanner on the table (about four to five more feet). This should have worked just fine. It doesn't. Sometimes the scanner works. Sometimes it does not. When I was on the phone with Epson technical support, they told me I needed to change it to a USB cable with a maximum length of three to six feet. I explained to them why I couldn't do that. I told them we needed to come up with a solution (some type of inline booster device that would work to resolve my issue). They said they are going to let the higher level support research it and call me back. I will believe that if/when it happens. I also asked them if this maximum six foot USB length was true of all Epson USB products. I was absolutely shocked when they told me it was. It seems to me that this may be representing their device(s) as USB when it can't support the sixteen foot plus limit that I understand is part of the USB standard. Can anyone enlighten me on this? Also, if anyone knows of a solution [short of having to lay a bulky USB hub on the floor under my computer work station] to my dilemma, I would appreciate you sharing it with me. Fred ------------------------------ Message-ID: <B60EA4D0-FDB5-4C10-A371-E98304872F31@roscom.com> Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2018 23:29:59 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: 5G Cell Service Is Coming. Who Decides Where It Goes? There is a heated fight about when, where and how the next generation of cell service gets delivered. By Allan Holmes WASHINGTON - The future of cellular service is coming to a neighborhood near you. But who gets to decide when, where and how it gets delivered is still a heated fight. The new technology, known as 5G, delivers wireless internet at far faster speeds than existing cellular connections. But it also requires different hardware to deliver the signals. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/technology/5g-cellular-service.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <A8D7D87E-0926-4CF5-97BF-B04DA664B33E@roscom.com> Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2018 23:28:26 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Geek Squad's Relationship with FBI Is Cozier Than We Thought Geek Squad's Relationship with FBI Is Cozier Than We Thought By Aaron Mackey After the prosecution of a California doctor revealed the FBI's ties to a Best Buy Geek Squad computer repair facility in Kentucky, new documents released to EFF show that the relationship goes back years. The records also confirm that the FBI has paid Geek Squad employees as informants. EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit last year to learn more about how the FBI uses Geek Squad employees to flag illegal material when people pay Best Buy to repair their computers. The relationship potentially circumvents computer owners' Fourth Amendment rights. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/geek-squads-relationship-fbi-cozier-we-thought ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Thu, 08 Mar 2018