|
|
Message Digest
Volume 28 : Issue 64 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909
Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909
Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909
Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s
Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s
Joint utility poles (was Re: Technical Demo turns political...)
Re: new price offer from t-mobile
Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909
Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909
Re: VoIP and wireless networking
Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s
====== 27 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 Patrick Townson 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 the recipients of the
email.
===========================
Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without explicit written consent. 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: 4 Mar 2009 10:03:34 -0500
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909
Message-ID: <gom586$2qg$1@panix2.panix.com>
On Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:25:54 -0500, Tony Toews [MVP] wrote:
>
> How will underground cables be more reliable and generally beneficial to
> the community?
Most of the power outages that we see here are due to people running into
electrical poles, wind taking out overhead wires, and icing taking out
overhead wires. Occasionally there are also pole failures due to flooding
and erosion. All but the last of these can be prevented by burying cables.
> For example see 1998 Auckland power crisis
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Auckland_power_crisis
This is by no means a problem with undergound power lines. This is a problem
with underground power lines that were poorly maintained for half a century,
were well beyond their expected lifetime, and were not maintained at all for
the last few years of their life. Overhead wires will also fail if they
are not regularly maintained. Power companies who do not maintain their
infrastructure are courting disaster, no matter what kind of infrastructure
it is.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 11:24:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909
Message-ID: <349716.3343.qm@web52712.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:55:04 GMT "Tony Toews \[MVP\]" <ttoews@telusplanet.net> wrote:
>About 20 years ago there was a lot of agitation here about running new
>above surface high-voltage transmission lines in urban areas, with the
>eventual outcome that some were turned into underground cables.
>
>It cost more initially, but in the long run they will be more reliable and
>generally beneficial to the community in many ways.
<<How will underground cables be more reliable and generally beneficial to the community?>>
For one thing with transmission lines buried you don't have to worry
that the lines will be affected by wind (such as with a hurricane or
tornado) or be affected by heavy snow or ice on the wires. Not to
mention that aesthetically it makes an area more attractive than
having big latticed towers (for high tension lines) or poles for
lesser powered lines. And you also don't have to worry about RF
radiation.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 07:07:41 -0800 (PST)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909
Message-ID: <9eb627ad-6d5b-4238-b3b7-918b2dfd0479@v39g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 3, 9:57 pm, David Clayton <dcs...@myrealbox.com> wrote:
> Using an example of poorly maintained infrastructure is hardly a
> justification for a particular type of infrastructure (if it was then the
> thousands of outages caused by above ground lines would all be
> highlighted). That particular example is a prime lesson in what occurs
> when a public utility is privatised and the new owner does nothing but
> claw cash out of it at the price of letting things degrade up to breaking
> point.
I'm not familiar with that particular case, but in the U.S. changes in
public policy likewise brought about a decline in the quality of
service.
In several parts of the US power was "deregulated" to allow for
"competition". It appeared, just as in the Bell System breakup, the
_theoretical_ "competition" was the end goal, not necessarily public
interest or public benefit. As a result we got Enron and massive
power California outages, surely not in the public interest.
What is especially peculiar in these cases is the the marketplace is
artificially tilted _against_ true competition. Normally, a business
attracts market share from others by providing a superior service or
price. But the only way newcomers could do that in the power and
phone businesses is if they were given special advantages or the
existing companies handicapped. In the case of the telephones (which
included the Independent Companies, too), the newcomers were allowed
to skim off the cream--take the most profitable service segments and
set their own rates without any of the obligations or regulatory
burdens the existing companies had.
The book, "Wrong Number", the Breakup of AT&T" by Stone documents how
the public was hurt and a selfish few benefited by the the Bell System
breakup. Some of the same dynamics were at work in the power system
breakup.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:24:02 -0500
From: Will Roberts <oldbear@arctos.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s
Message-ID: <0MKp8S-1LesxD2Ikj-000TM8@mrelay.perfora.net>
In Telecom Digest, <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 09:57:24 -0800 (PST)
>From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
>To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
>Subject: Telex and TWX rates 1970s
>
>Some of my past employers have had Telex machines in the office (a 3-
>row model 32 TTY), but they were very rarely used.
>
>I was wondering if anyone knew the domestic and overseas rates for
>Telex and TWX services, such as the monthly fee, time charge,
>character charge, distance charge.
>
>I get the impression that by the 1970s Telex was more used for
>overseas messages than domestically. By the mid 1970s domestic long
>distance charges had dropped quite a bit, making it practical to use
>the telephone for business more than before. However, at that point
>in time overseas toll rates were still very high (I think $12 for
>three minutes), so for international messaging Telex was better.
In the late 1970s, I was working in San Francisco for a small investment
firm which, among other things, assisted overseas clients in the
acquisition of US commercial real estate. Part of this process
involved the preparation of detailed year-by-year cash flow projections.
This was just prior to the time when the use of the desktop personal
computers -- the Apple II with Visi-Calc -- was beginning to appear in
offices. Most spreadsheets were still prepared by a junior staffer using
wide columnar green-bar paper and a manual calculator.
To get our analyses to our overseas clients in a timely manner so that
they could review and approve the commitment of funds, we used a lot of
international Telex. Our service was provided domestically by Western
Union TWX and we would go through their network to get to an International
Record Carrier ("IRC") such as RCA Globecom, Western Union International
(which was not part of Western Union), AT&T or the spunky little IRC carrier
TRT.
Typically, one of our secretaries would sit down at a Model 33 teletype
machine and laboriously type the columns of numbers, generating yards of
punched paper tape. Correcting errors was very tedious because it would
require making a copy of the punched tape up to the point of the error
and then making the correction onto the new tape before continuing.
Hence, typing was done very slowly and carefully.
Once the tape was prepared, it was run through the Model 33 to produce
a printed copy for proof-reading. Finally, the secretary would use the
rotary telephone dial on the Model 33 to dial the chosen International
Record Carrier and would start the tape reader to transmit on the Model
33 to send the message.
The International Record Carrier would receive the information via the
Western Union TWX network as 8-bit ASCII code at 110 baud (bits per
second) and would convert it to 5-bit 50 baud Baudot code for
transmission to our overseas client's telex machine. The conversion
meant that our paper tape would pause periodically while the
IRC's conversion equipment would empty its buffer into the slower
international network.
This flow control was achieved by sending the Model 33 a "restraint"
which worked much like XON/XOFF flow control, but instead of sending
an ASCII control-S/control-T, the Western Union TWX network would, I
believe, reverse polarity of the local loop connected to the Model 33
and the Model 33 would interpret this as a "restraint" and pause its
transmission until the loop was returned to normal polarity.
It was not unusual for us to send TWX/telex documents that ran to
dozens of pages and took well over an hour or more to transmit.
Often, we would send these at the end of the day and leave the
Model 33 running as it plodded along reading yards and yards of
paper tape.
One time we came into the office in the morning to find a plaintive
message on the Model 33 from an overseas client requesting that we
re-send the telex because his machine had run out of paper.
(Theoretically, this should have terminated the connection from his
end, but it did not and we used up several hundred dollars of
telex time sending information to his non-functioning telex machine.)
I do not recall the specific rates, but I seem to remember spending
$500 or more to send one of these lengthy telex messages was not
uncommon. It was expensive, but not particularly significant in the
context of a multi-million dollar investment transaction.
About 1979 or 1980, we acquired a word processing system from Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC) which ran on a PDP-8 minicomputer. It
could be used to send ASCII text using an acoustic coupler modem.
The acoustic coupler was a device into which the handset of a standard
Western Electric 500 telephone set would be placed and the data
transferred to the telephone by a small speaker and microphone located
in rubber cups into which the handset fit snuggly.
While it was probably a tariff violation, I obtained a 500 rotary-dial
telephone and connected it to our Western Union TWX loop in parallel
to the Model 33. Using a simple handshaking script, I could get the
PDP-8 word processor to communicate via the TWX network and to simulate
the basic functions of the Model 33. The process involved picking up
the telephone, dialling the IRC's number, listening for the modem tone,
placing the handset into the acoustic coupler, and hitting the key
on the PDP-8 to begin the data transfer.
Now, instead of having to laboriously prepare punched paper tape, our
secretarial staff could transcribe those columns of numbers using a
word processor with a keyboard and a CRT monitor. Corrections were
much, much easier to make and the process was faster, more accurate
and far less stressful and frustrating.
The Model 33 remained connected to the Western Union TWX loop and
was used to receive all incoming telex/TWX communication because,
unlike the acoustic coupler, it functioned as an unatteneded
auto-answer device.
The conversion from the PDP-8's standard 110 baud 8-bit ASCII to
50 baud 5-bit Baudot, however, was problematic. The PDP-8 could
respond to XON/XOFF flow control but had no way of sensing the
electric retraint signal sent through the TWX local loop. In
theory, the IRC's conversion equipment could have sent XON/XOFF,
but none of the IRCs did.
After talking to a lot of people at Western Union and at the
various IRCs, I found a technician at the local network operations
center of TRT Communications who was intrigued by the problem.
After some experimenting, we discovered that we could slow
down the PDP-8 ASCII transmissions by padding out the end of each
line of text with a bunch of ASCII NUL characters. The TRT
conversion equipment would ignore the NULs and while we were
burning up time (and paying for it!), TRT's hardware would have time
to make the conversion and empty its buffer. It was a really
kludgy solution and a big waste of money but it worked.
When we obtained our first Apple II with the Visi-Calc spreadsheet
program, we were able to integrate it with the PDP-8 via a simple
serial port connection. This really, really saved time and
increased accuracy because the financial analyst could use the Apple
to prepare his or her analysis and it could be merged with other
text using the PDP-8 word processor. It could then be transmitted
with no re-typing to our overseas client's telex machine. It was
still a multi-step process, but it was damn fast compared to
manually-prepared paper tape TWX -- and virtually instantaneous
compared with sticking documents in an envelope and using an
international air courier such as DHL.
Interestingly, the reason telex has had such staying power overseas
has a lot to do with language problems and time zones. (As a
European friend explained, it was a lot easier to perform even
simplest business transaction such as making a hotel reservation
in Europe by sending a telex rather than by trying to communicate
by telephone with someone speaking a foreign language.)
About the same time we were experimenting with the computer-to-telex
connection, facsimile machines were gaining popularity in Japan.
Because keyboarding is less convenient in many Asian languages, fax
was a very attractive technology and rapidly adopted in the Far East.
In the United States, "telecopiers" leased from Xerox and other office
equipment manufacturers began to appear. Generally, they needed to
be connected to a "conditioned" local loop from the phone company and
required a similar machine from the same manufacturer on the other end.
Federal Express feared that these machines would cut into their courier
business and decided to invest many millions of dollars into developing
a high-resolution private fax network linking their offices in major
cities. One could take a document to a nearby FedEx office -- even an
oversized document like an architectural drawing -- and have it sent to
another FedEx location for print-out and immediate courier delivery.
The technology was good but failed to anticipate the rapid adoption of
low-cost private fax machines running over ordinary telephone lines.
FedEx ended up abandoning its system and taking a write-off on its
substantial investment.
Regards,
Will
***** Moderator's Note *****
I had a close personal friend in the same situation that you were, and
he solved the problem in a different way. It turns out that the
"Restrain" signal used for four-row TWX machines is _not_ a loop
reversal, but rather the simultaneous transmission of _both_ mark
_and_ space tones from the "slow" end toward the four-row machine. In
my ca^h^hfriend's case, the solution was to modify the modem
(one of the early Hayes units, IIRC) so that if the comparator that
detected the presence of Mark or Space tones went to "Invalid state"
outputs, the CTS lead was forced low, thus stopping transmission from
the computer.
Auto-answer wasn't a problem: the Hayes modem could detect ring and go
to Answer mode without difficulty, and a four-row machine could always
copy a three-row transmission, so we didn't need to worry about
Restrain signals on answered calls. The hardest part turned out to be
setting the serial port for half-duplex, i.e., forcing the computer
_not_ to echo received characters.
We also discovered that the TWX network would send some control
characters that the TWX machine ignored, so we had to screen those out
as well. I never found out why.
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 18:33:08 -0800 (PST)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s
Message-ID: <3bb67135-ff3d-4fd2-952e-46f751d7212b@j12g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 4, 12:33 pm, Will Roberts <oldb...@arctos.com> wrote:
> In the late 1970s, I was working in San Francisco for a small investment
> firm . . .
Thanks for the detailed and very interesting explanation!
> This flow control was achieved by sending the Model 33 a "restraint"
> which worked much like XON/XOFF flow control, but instead of sending
> an ASCII control-S/control-T, the Western Union TWX network would, I
> believe, reverse polarity of the local loop connected to the Model 33
> and the Model 33 would interpret this as a "restraint" and pause its
> transmission until the loop was returned to normal polarity.
Was this the orange light labeled REST on model 33 ASRs with the built-
in modem?
> It was not unusual for us to send TWX/telex documents that ran to
> dozens of pages and took well over an hour or more to transmit.
> Often, we would send these at the end of the day and leave the
> Model 33 running as it plodded along reading yards and yards of
> paper tape.
I suspect this slow speed was a reason for WU's decline. For example,
in 1975 GE Timesharing offered its own ASR teleprinter that ran at 300
speed (ok, today that's slow but then it was three times as fast.)
> One time we came into the office in the morning to find a plaintive
> message on the Model 33 from an overseas client requesting that we
> re-send the telex because his machine had run out of paper.
I can't help but wonder if that sort of resend happened more often,
for whatever reason.
> (Theoretically, this should have terminated the connection from his
> end, but it did not and we used up several hundred dollars of
> telex time sending information to his non-functioning telex machine.)
Interesting. I believe there was a level that rested on the paper
roll and would trigger a low paper alarm and stop printing. But I
don't know if that would merely send an x-off to stop the other
machine, or actually terminate the transmission (CNTL-D EOT).
In timesharing applications, the configuration of both ends varied as
did actions taken. On the dial-up ASR, EOT instantly killed the
machine and shut off power. But on other machines it did nothing.
> I do not recall the specific rates, but I seem to remember spending
> $500 or more to send one of these lengthy telex messages was not
> uncommon. It was expensive, but not particularly significant in the
> context of a multi-million dollar investment transaction.
> In the United States, "telecopiers" leased from Xerox and other office
> equipment manufacturers began to appear. Generally, they needed to
> be connected to a "conditioned" local loop from the phone company and
> required a similar machine from the same manufacturer on the other end.
> Federal Express feared that these machines would cut into their courier
> business and decided to invest many millions of dollars into developing
> a high-resolution private fax network linking their offices in major
> cities. One could take a document to a nearby FedEx office -- even an
> oversized document like an architectural drawing -- and have it sent to
> another FedEx location for print-out and immediate courier delivery.
> The technology was good but failed to anticipate the rapid adoption of
> low-cost private fax machines running over ordinary telephone lines.
> FedEx ended up abandoning its system and taking a write-off on its
> substantial investment.
Interesting. Western Union tried the same thing. Their facsimile
service starting in the 1930s and they tried to push it big in the
early 1960s, not just documents, but weather maps and related
material. I have no idea of what their resolution or transmission
speed was.
Thanks again for your post.
I suspect many Telex users did not have the luxury of interconnecting
a new computer as you did and found the retyping of source documents
and punched tape handling rather tedious, as well as expensive in
manpower.
(IBM offered a punched card to Baudot paper tape converter or
transmitter, but by the 1970s that was still old fashioned and of
course required a mainframe to punch out cards.)
Now, WU extensively advertised advanced communications. But I don't
know how much that they actually offered or at what cost or quality.
I can't help but suspect that even in the 1970s WU offered mostly 110
or even slower service and only through paper tape. As mentioned, in
1960 what you describe would be considered pretty slick for an
overseas transmission, but in 1975 not so much.
(I seem to recall AT&T laying a major new Atlantic cable in that era
that greatly boosted overseas capacity and resulted in a significant
reduction in rates. Around that time ESS and even No. 5 xbar in NYC
offered IDDD. Anyone recall more?)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:56:23 -0600
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Joint utility poles (was Re: Technical Demo turns political...)
Message-ID: <49AEA4A7.2040005@annsgarden.com>
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> Historically around here the lines were--top electric,
> middle phone, lower cable.
I wrote:
> Actually, it's top electric, middle cable TV, and phone
> in the lowest position.
Paul <pssawyer@comcast.net.INVALID> wrote:
> With municipal fire alarm (and other city communications)
> next under electric, where such systems still exist.
Or communications and signaling circuits owned by county
governments, state governments, MUDs, IXCs, CLECs, non-
local ILECs, non-local franchised CATVs, power companies,
railroad companies, banks, and who-knows-what-else.
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> The phone lines were relatively high up, and when new
> cable lines were installed to provide cable TV, the only
> place for them to go was lower. Unless of course the
> whole pole was redone.
Does "redone" mean rearranging existing cables on the
existing pole, or setting a new pole?
Typically, power and telephone companies rearrange ("make
ready") their facilities to accommodate CATV above telco.
If they can't make room for CATV on a pole, they replace
the pole. Of course, they charge the entire "fully
allocated cost" to the CATV company.
What you describe is an unusual situation. I'd like to see
a photo of one of the poles.
> The problem is it's not just one cable, as there was in
> the old days. Now there are many cables. (Don't know who
> they belong to.)
My guess is that most of them are telco. A photo would
help.
> But there is a
> big shortage of carrying capacity for very high voltage
> power lines that interconnect generating stations
> Neighbors fight those lines out of health worries
I wrote:
> I think you mean substations.
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> No, I meant generating stations. Running power to homes
> from the substation is not a major problem. Running power
> to the substations from the generating plant is somewhat
> of a problem due to insufficient capacity. But the
> electric companies can usually install intermediate
> range lines without too much opposition.
Then I think what you meant to say was "... big shortage of
carrying capacity for very high voltage powers lines that
connect generating stations to substations."
Neal McLain
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 11:16:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: new price offer from t-mobile
Message-ID: <915464.38057.qm@web52702.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Tue, 3 Mar 2009 01:04:53 -0500 (EST) Dan Lanciani <ddl@danlan.com> wrote:
<<I'm currently paying $19.99 for unlimited data in conjunction
with the cheapest voice plan. I hope my cost won't be going up
in a few months when the contract ends...>>
Generally, when you become a subscriber at will i.e. not liable for
any agreement, you can keep whatever arrangement and pricing you have
had all along as long as you don't change anything in the plan. This
is called "grandfathering." Modifying the plan in any way may subject
you to losing any features or pricing you had. I'm on a plan that has
long since gone away over five years ago.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:19:32 -0800
From: Richard <rng@richbonnie.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909
Message-ID: <8iktq4t488opuar6qnr1f78mccu2t5kei3@4ax.com>
On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 16:25:00 -0500 (EST), hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>The problem is it's not just one cable, as there was in the old days.
>Now there are many cables. (Don't know who they belong to.)
In the late 1960's, I worked for Bell labs, and was in Williamsport,
PA on business. I noticed that there were two and sometimes three
CATV cables on the poles. A local Bell craftsperson explained that
there indeed was three competing CATV companies. They did not operate
on a franchise basis. The first company signed up a lot of people,
and then raised their rates very high. A second company saw a
businesss oppurtunity, constructed a distribution system, offered low
rates, and took customers from the first. Then the second raised
their rates, and the cycle repeated. I looked in the phone book
Yellow Pages, and indeed there were three CATV companies listed.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:55:25 -0800
From: Richard <rng@richbonnie.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909
Message-ID: <c4ktq4dcogledmr08g6lngejoi2eknvt1i@4ax.com>
On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 10:05:45 -0500 (EST), Neal McLain
<nmclain@annsgarden.com> wrote:
>In high-density urban areas, the dominant power company and the
>ILEC sometimes have reciprocal agreements: each company can
>attach to the other's poles without cash changing hands. This
>situation seems to be rooted in history, based on informal
>arrangements that have evolved over the years.
Back in 1960, I was attending new Bell System employee orientation in
the Boston, MA area. We were told that in metro Boston, the power
company and N.E. Telephone paired off similar-sized suburban cities.
In one city, the power comppany owned all the poles, and in the other
city telco owned all the power poles. That way, if a pole got
damaged, the emergency agencies didn't have to figure out who owned
what pole. I assume that this also eliminated paying each other for
pole space.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 15:15:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Sam Spade <samspade@coldmail.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: VoIP and wireless networking
Message-ID: <589560.22369.qm@web44808.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
> Rich Greenberg wrote:
> > In article <2b144141-f11a-4cd5-a33f-03fe2eee9943@d2g2000pra.googlegroups.com>,
> > 1506 <adrian_auerhudson@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > I am considering running my VoIP system on the far side of a
> > wireless link, i.e. My internet service comes thru a cable
> > interface into which I plug a router with wireless capability.
> I plan to use a remote wireless bridge into which I will plug my TPAs/ATAs.
>
> Does anyone know if I should anticipate any issues with this
> arrangement? Use the strongest encryption your hardware will
> support.WEP is useless, WPA good, WPA2 better.
Most people have no idea how weak WEP is.
See:
http://www.openxtra.co.uk/articles/wep-weaknesses.php
http://www.networkworld.com/research/2002/0909wepprimer.html
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-wep-weaknesses.html
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=102230&seqNum=10
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 22:31:32 -0500
From: "r.e.d." <red-nospam-99@mindspring.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s
Message-ID: <uJOdnSd2PsEH2jLUnZ2dnUVZ_jOWnZ2d@earthlink.com>
<hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote in message
news:96beb696-68b4-4127-9379-4d7dfc4cbc58@p11g2000yqe.googlegroups.com...
> Some of my past employers have had Telex machines in the office (a 3-
> row model 32 TTY), but they were very rarely used.
>
> I was wondering if anyone knew the domestic and overseas rates for
> Telex and TWX services, such as the monthly fee, time charge,
> character charge, distance charge.
>
> I get the impression that by the 1970s Telex was more used for
> overseas messages than domestically. By the mid 1970s domestic long
> distance charges had dropped quite a bit, making it practical to use
> the telephone for business more than before. However, at that point
> in time overseas toll rates were still very high (I think $12 for
> three minutes), so for international messaging Telex was better.
>
> As an aside, would anyone remember when overseas rates started to drop
> significantly? I think in the 1980s they became around a $1/minute,
> depending on country, which was a huge drop from $12.
>
> (Did MCI or Sprint ever lay any of their own overseas cables or put
> their own satellite into orbit?)
A bit off topic, but this thread reminded me of one of my favorite
published papers (because of its sheer readability) and I could not
resist bringing it to the attention of others, old and dated though it
may be. Scrounge through the stacks of your local engineering
library:
Test yourself: how much do you know about internationalcommunications?
[International numbering systems]
Robrock, A.
Italtel, Milan;
This paper appears in: Communications Magazine, IEEE
Publication Date: Dec 1989
Volume: 27, Issue: 12
On page(s): 38-40
ISSN: 0163-6804
References Cited: 0
CODEN: ICOMD9
INSPEC Accession Number: 3582708
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/35.41420
Current Version Published: 2002-08-06
Abstract
We like to think of international telephone communications as
`transparent', the successful outcome of 100 years of technical
progress and standards setting, but the author shows us that it is
not. The user still has to be something of an expert to understand how
to make international calls, and there are chaotically differing
numbering systems for telephony, telex, and electronic mail. We should
be reminded that usability of services, not just their usefulness, is
a critical component of communications. Simplicity, consistency, and
rationality of service features and the `human interface' that allows
users to invoke them should be a high priority for communications
engineers as they work toward the integrated services networks of the
future
------------------------------
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 Patrick Townson. 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 currently being moderated by Bill Horne while
Pat Townson recovers from a stroke.
Contact information: Bill Horne
Telecom Digest
43 Deerfield Road
Sharon MA 02067-2301
781-784-7287
bill at horne dot net
Subscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=subscribe telecom
Unsubscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=unsubscribe telecom
This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and
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
Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/
(or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives)
RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html
For syndication examples see http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest
Copyright (C) 2008 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
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list.
All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.
End of The Telecom digest (11 messages)
******************************
|
or 