---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20170623201109.GA29205@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2017 16:11:09 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon Testing Drone-enabled Network for Disaster Zones Communication and coordination are vital to the handling of any major disaster. In the case of floods and hurricanes, telecoms infra- structure is often the first thing to go under. Without it, first responders can find it difficult to communicate effectively - with each other and with people that need help. That's where Verizon's drone-enabled network infrastructure can come to the rescue. Along with American Aerospace Technologies, Verizon has recently been trialling what it believes is the next step in cutting-edge commun- ications: the use of drones to reconnect networks as part of a disaster response. http://dronelife.com/2017/06/23/verizon-test-drone-enabled-network-disaster-zones/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20170623200553.GA29174@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2017 16:05:53 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon show Yahoo News Digest the door Verizon shows Yahoo News Digest, a finite news app, the door The Yahoo News Digest, a modern relic of the ancient time of finite news (a.k.a. a newspaper), is being sent to the app graveyard. The brainchild of a British teenager who sold it to Yahoo for $30 million in 2013, the Yahoo News Digest app found favor from users for its simplicity and strict curation. Twice per day, the app would present users with a streamlined list of eight global stories collected by algorithms and humans, and when you finished, you were finished. At its launch, The Verge called it "one of the best-looking, and most quietly provocative, newsreading apps we have seen in some time." http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/06/verizon-shows-yahoo-news-digest-a-finite-news-app-the-door/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20170623195819.GA29122@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2017 15:58:19 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon Is Killing Tumblr'S Fight For Net Neutrality One of the open internet's fiercest defenders has a new boss by Kaitlyn Tiffany In 2014, Tumblr was on the front lines of the battle for net neu- trality. The company stood alongside Amazon, Kickstarter, Etsy, Vimeo, Reddit, and Netflix during Battle for the Net's day of action. Tumblr CEO David Karp was also part of a group of New York tech CEOs that met with then-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler in Brooklyn that summer, while the FCC was fielding public comment on new Title II rules. President Obama invited Karp to the White House to discuss various issues around public education, and in February 2015 The Wall Street Journal reported that it was the influence of Karp and a small group of liberal tech CEOs that swayed Obama toward a philosophy of internet as public utility. But three years later, as the battle for net neutrality heats up once again, Tumblr has been uncharacteristically silent. The last mention of net neutrality on Tumblr's staff blog - which frequently posts about political issues from civil rights to climate change to gun control to student loan debt - was in June 2016. And Tumblr is not listed as a participating tech company for Battle for the Net's next day of action, coming up in three weeks. https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/21/15816974/verizon-tumblr-net-neutrality-internet-politics-david-karp -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20170623203014.GA29263@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2017 16:30:14 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: How dare you try to call Verizon? I've just sold my home in Massachusetts. I tried to call Verizon, in Massachusetts, to have the phone disconnected. The number that's on the Verizon website goes to Verizon Wireless. The brain-dead telephone response robot demanded to know my security PIN. Again, and again, and again. I didn't want to give it any excuse to disconnect my cell phone. I finally discovered that entering six zeroes, again and again and again, would get me to a human. The person I spoke to transferred me to a super-seecrit internal line that leads to the dungeon where the "wire side" trolls are cordoned off from the script kiddies in the oh-so-perfect-wireless-world. She assured me that there is no outside line that would provide me the privilege of accessing their extra- ordinary expertise by myself: I would, she said, always have to go through the number on the website. I eventually wound up with a representative who took my order and provided a confirmation number in about five minutes. There is, or should be, a special circle of hell for those who dictate that customers' time and energy aren't important to Verizon. Oh, and if anyone in the 781 area code wants a number that spells "RUG RATS", call Verizon RSN. You can tell them that you had the number in your home when you were a kid: that's what worked for me back in 1988. Bill -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Sat, 24 Jun 2017