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Message Digest
Volume 28 : Issue 240 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Re: GSM-only interference
Coupons You Don't Clip, Sent to Your Cellphone
Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Re: Pop song phone number goes up for auction
Internet turns 40
Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?
Re: Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?
Re: Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?
====== 27 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Date: 30 Aug 2009 03:30:43 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Message-ID: <20090830033043.63298.qmail@simone.iecc.com>
>> ObTelecom: how many places are there in the country where you can
>> still pay your phone bill in person at the phone company?
>I'm told that you [may pay your] phone bill (wire line and wireless)
>in person at AT&T phone stores in California, though it seems to be a
>big secret. Verizon Phone Marts also [accept payments].
Gee, here in Trumansburg we drop by the corporate HQ. It's only two
blocks from the village hall.
R's,
John
***** Moderator's Note *****
I thought the Verizon HQ was in New York city. Not so?
Bill Horne
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:49:07 -0700
From: Steven <diespammers@killspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Message-ID: <h7e3h5$2eq$1@news.eternal-september.org>
John Levine wrote:
>>> ObTelecom: how many places are there in the country where you can
>>> still pay your phone bill in person at the phone company?
>
>> I'm told that you [may pay your] phone bill (wire line and wireless)
>> in person at AT&T phone stores in California, though it seems to be a
>> big secret. Verizon Phone Marts also [accept payments].
>
> Gee, here in Trumansburg we drop by the corporate HQ. It's only two
> blocks from the village hall.
>
> R's,
> John
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> I thought the Verizon HQ was in New York city. Not so?
>
> Bill Horne
>
Verizon took over the old AT&T campus I believe. A good chunk of its HQ
is also still in the old GTE HQ near Dallas, Tx.
--
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co.
------------------------------
Date: 30 Aug 2009 15:12:12 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Message-ID: <20090830151212.36547.qmail@simone.iecc.com>
>Gee, here in Trumansburg we drop by the corporate HQ. It's only two
>blocks from the village hall.
>***** Moderator's Note *****
>
>I thought the Verizon HQ was in New York city. Not so?
Verizon? Who's that?
http://www.ottctel.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=61
***** Moderator's Note *****
Oh, I see: one of those kinds of telephone company ... (sniff)
Bill Horne
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:47:20 -0500
From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Message-ID: <C9GdnQBr8bSTeAfXnZ2dnUVZ_s-dnZ2d@posted.visi>
John Levine wrote:
>>> ObTelecom: how many places are there in the country where you can
>>> still pay your phone bill in person at the phone company?
>
>> I'm told that you [may pay your] phone bill (wire line and wireless)
>> in person at AT&T phone stores in California, though it seems to be a
>> big secret. Verizon Phone Marts also [accept payments].
>
> Gee, here in Trumansburg we drop by the corporate HQ. It's only two
> blocks from the village hall.
And, no doubt, if you had a beef with the bill, you could invite the
company owner out into the parking lot to settle it.
Dave
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:51:06 -0700
From: Steven <diespammers@killspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Message-ID: <h7evoq$f0o$1@news.eternal-september.org>
Dave Garland wrote:
> John Levine wrote:
>>>> ObTelecom: how many places are there in the country where you can
>>>> still pay your phone bill in person at the phone company?
>>> I'm told that you [may pay your] phone bill (wire line and wireless)
>>> in person at AT&T phone stores in California, though it seems to be a
>>> big secret. Verizon Phone Marts also [accept payments].
>> Gee, here in Trumansburg we drop by the corporate HQ. It's only two
>> blocks from the village hall.
>
> And, no doubt, if you had a beef with the bill, you could invite the
> company owner out into the parking lot to settle it.
>
> Dave
>
The doorman there is that big dude from the old Laugh In; the one that
Ernestine sends out when you don't pay your bill.
--
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co.
------------------------------
Date: 30 Aug 2009 22:52:07 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Message-ID: <20090830225207.48071.qmail@simone.iecc.com>
>> Gee, here in Trumansburg we drop by the corporate HQ. It's only two
>> blocks from the village hall.
>
>And, no doubt, if you had a beef with the bill, you could invite the
>company owner out into the parking lot to settle it.
Don't be silly. We'd negotiate over a beer at the bar around the
corner.
R's,
John
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:21:51 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: GSM-only interference
Message-ID: <4A9A1A7F.3080204@thadlabs.com>
On 8/29/2009 5:01 PM, Thad Floryan wrote:
> [...] And noone else there could coax a
> TIXM103 transistor into flat operation across the L or S bands for space apps.
> [...]
L band was 1-2 GHz and S band was 2-4 GHz.
Following is a short anecdote that perhaps should be preserved for posterity.
When I began working in that field, GC or GCPS was the common way to express
giga cycles per second (now GHz).
Some people resisted the change to Hz from CPS, and one colleague had a
reasonable argument for maintaining the status quo.
If the goal was to honor someone, why not honor Charles Proteus Steinmetz and
we'd get to keep CPS instead of changing to Hz.
Food for thought. :-)
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:51:33 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Coupons You Don't Clip, Sent to Your Cellphone
Message-ID: <p06240819c6c03431f3e1@[10.0.1.3]>
Coupons You Don't Clip, Sent to Your Cellphone
By JENNA WORTHAM
August 29, 2009
Hunter Gilmore was never big on clipping coupons. "You stick them on
the fridge, meaning to use them, and it never happens," said Mr.
Gilmore, a 29-year-old actor and advertising agency recruiter in
Manhattan.
But thanks to his cellphone, Mr. Gilmore has lately been awash in
discounts, regularly scoring reduced prices and special offers that
he would never cut out of a newspaper circular.
Mobile coupons - usually text messages with discount codes sent to a
cellphone - are becoming the blue-light specials for the digital age,
promoting last-minute clothing sales, two-for-one entrees and cheap
tickets to the theater.
While some mobile coupons are sent directly from a retailer to a
customer who has signed up for mobile updates, the other way for
bargain-seekers to get up-to-the-minute deals is to subscribe to a
mobile-coupon aggregator. At Web sites like 8coupons, Cellfire, Yowza
and Zavers, users can sign up for different retailers' promotions in
one place. The opt-in model means subscribers get only offers they
want to receive, making each one worth reading.
Snipping out coupons from the weekend paper is still the most common
way households in the United States get their coupons, but the
popularity of coupons delivered via e-mail and text messages is
growing. In the first half of 2009, nearly 10 million digital coupons
were redeemed, a 25 percent increase over the amount redeemed during
the same period in 2008, according to Inmar, a coupon-processing
company.
The convenience of digital coupons is appealing to a new crop of
shoppers, many of whom would not dream of carrying around a crumpled
pile of paper coupons just to get 30 cents off a box of spaghetti.
About a third of the users who signed up for Cellfire say they have
never used paper coupons, according to Cellfire's chief executive,
Brent Dusing.
The growing popularity of feature-rich mobile phones does not hurt,
either. "It's not like you have to get a new phone to do this," said
J. Gerry Purdy, an analyst for Frost & Sullivan, a market research
firm. "It's just a slight behavioral change to what people already
do."
The widespread adoption of text messaging and sleeker, richer phone
interfaces also makes mobile transactions easier. Some shoppers are
turning to mobile applications that collect coupons, like Coupon
Sherpa, an iPhone application that handles coupons for retailers like
Kmart, Toys "R" Us and Zales. Since its release in April, Coupon
Sherpa has been downloaded more than 65,000 times.
Taking the concept of mobile coupons a step further, aggregators
8Coupons and Mobiqpons recently introduced location-based features.
Using the services, users can receive discount offers from merchants
who are only a few blocks away.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/technology/29coupon.html
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:45:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Message-ID: <90c53635-8f0f-45e0-bf7f-8a056c10ae36@o35g2000vbi.googlegroups.com>
On Aug 29, 7:59 pm, Wesr...@aol.com wrote:
>
> I think it is inappropriate to bring up "social benefits" in this
> discussion. . . it is not the function of a utility to be an agent
> of social activism.
Ever since utilities became a necessary part of everyday life and
achieved monopoly status, "social benefits" was and is to this day a
critical issue in rate and service discussions and regulation. I
think it most certainly is valid for discussion here, as applicable to
utility services.
In the winter, there are frequent newspaper articles about fires
caused by unsafe space heaters, stoves left on, or overloaded outlets
all done because either electricity or gas was cut off for non payment
of bills. The object of hostility was the "cold hearted utility
company" who cut off the poor suffering family. Many PUCs have issued
strict rules on how delinquent payers are to be handled with many
protections, and as a result utilities lose big money on them (which
the rest of us have to make up). One municipally owned gas works has
a very bad deficit as a result of a city ordered very liberal policy
of no-cutoffs to deadbeats.
We pay a Universal Service tax on our phone bill, and low income
subscribers may get discounted service.
Social issues very much affect utility services and will continue to
do so in the future.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:59:03 -0500
From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi)
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Message-ID: <F62dnUPVE4x6IAfXnZ2dnUVZ_qGdnZ2d@posted.nuvoxcommunications>
In article <1099771f-bfb8-4a4a-85b7-1973f882b75c@r36g2000vbn.googlegroups.com>,
<hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>I suspect part of the void will be filled by on-line services.
>Perhaps there will be food and service delivery by on-line request.
>The technical part is pretty easy, but reliable logistics will be
>tough. Finding good delivery people isn't easy.
>
On-line ordering and grocery delivery already exists in a significant part of
the country. One company, alone, (Peapod, <http://www.peapod.com>) covers
the greater Chicago area and S.E. Wisconsin, and a sizable swath along the
East Coast (Virginia to Mass.) "Netgrocer.com", and Schwanns both claim
coverage of the 'contiguous 48 states', but with limited selections.
These kind of services have been around for more than a decade. Peapod is
celebrating TWENTY YEARS in business, this year.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:48:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: "harold@hallikainen.com" <harold@hallikainen.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Pop song phone number goes up for auction
Message-ID: <524b704d-b399-43b7-bbef-a60d07fad62f@d9g2000prh.googlegroups.com>
In the 1970s, I worked for a radio station in Santa Maria, CA, at the
very north end of Santa Barbara county. You cross the Santa Maria
river and you're in San Luis Obispo county. Santa Maria had GTE with a
step switch. San Luis Obispo county had Pacific Telephone with a
variety of switches, but all used 7 digit or area code plus 7 dgit
dialing. The switch in Santa Maria, though, would absorb the first two
of the seven digits, so most people just dialed five digits. Most
radio ads gave the 5 digit phone number which half the listening area
(but a much smaller portion of the population) could not dial. I
always thought that was strange at the time.
Harold
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:08:29 -0700
From: Steven <diespammers@killspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Internet turns 40
Message-ID: <h7f49v$u31$1@news.eternal-september.org>
Aug 30, 3:00 PM (ET)
By ANICK JESDANUN
NEW YORK (AP) - Goofy videos weren't on the minds of Len Kleinrock and
his team at UCLA when they began tests 40 years ago on what would
become the Internet. Neither was social networking, for that matter,
nor were most of the other easy-to-use applications that have drawn
more than a billion people online.
Instead the researchers sought to create an open network for freely
exchanging information, an openness that ultimately spurred the
innovation that would later spawn the likes of YouTube, Facebook and
the World Wide Web.
There's still plenty of room for innovation today, yet the openness
fostering it may be eroding. While the Internet is more widely
available and faster than ever, artificial barriers threaten to
constrict its growth.
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20090830/D9ADCOL00.html
--
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:32:25 -0400
From: Curtis R Anderson <gleepy@gleepy.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: NYS mandates "large print" for utility bills
Message-ID: <4A9B1A19.4050305@gleepy.net>
John Levine wrote:
>> Nit pick--in the case cited where a smll municipality sends bills on
>> postcards there is no return envelope.
>
> Good point. Most of us pay the water bill in person at the village
> hall since we're passing by anyway. Particularly the old folks who
> rush over and pay the day the bill arrives because they hate owing
> money to anyone.
>
> ObTelecom: how many places are there in the country where you can
> still pay your phone bill in person at the phone company?
Many years ago, (I think about 10) I had to change ISPs as one in the
Jamestown, NY area was pulling out of the market. So I went off to
visit the three ISP offerings. Two were run by independent telephone
operating companies.
The first was the ISP run by DFT Communications, where the Maytum
family still provides dial tone to folks around Fredonia, NY. The
corporate headquarters were set up to allow folks to pay their bills
in person.
Next, I headed west along US 20 to Westfield, NY where C&E
Communications makes their home. Their building was also set up so
folks could pay their bill in person. While asking about their ISP
offering, someone did walk in to pay their bill that way. It seems to
be a great way to pay the phone bill in cash for older folks.
The third place was a Jamestown based dedicated ISP which I settled
upon. While not a phone company, I have gone in there to pay my ISP
bill on at least one occasion, until I got the credit card
auto-payment set up.
--
Curtis R. Anderson, Co-creator of "Gleepy the Hen", still
Email not munged, SpamAssassin [tm] in effect.
http://www.gleepy.net/ mailto:gleepy@intelligencia.com
mailto:gleepy@gleepy.net (and others) Yahoo!: gleepythehen
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:35:40 -0400
From: ed <bernies@netaxs.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?
Message-ID: <1251678940.4a9b1adc4fc64@webmail.uslec.net>
This editorial in Business Week about the need for more R&D facilities
like Bell Labs to revive the U.S. economy might interest Telecom list
members.
A young friend (born years after the divestiture) who works for the
govt systems division of Alcatel-Lucent in NJ says it was the fault of
the U.S. gov't for breaking up the Bell System. Others say AT&T
really wanted to be broken up and divested of its expensive-to-maintain
LEC's, and allowed a free hand to compete in the more profitable
data services arena.
Opinions, anyone?
-Ed
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/09_36/b4145036681619.htm
The Future of Tech August 27, 2009, 5:00PM EST
Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?
How basic research can repair the broken U.S. business model
By Adrian Slywotzky
Name an industry that can produce 1 million new, high-paying jobs over
the next three years. You can't, because there isn't one. And that's
the problem.
America needs good jobs, soon. We need 6.7 million just to replace
losses from the current recession, then another 10 million to spark
demand over the next decade. That's 15 million to 17 million new
jobs. In the 1990s, the U.S. economy created a net 22 million jobs (a
rate of 2.2 million per year), so we know it can be done. Between 2000
and the end of 2007 (the beginning of the current recession), however,
the economy created new jobs at a rate of 900,000 a year, so we know
it isn't doing it now. The pipeline is dry because the U.S. business
model is broken. Our growth engine has run out of a key source of
fuel—critical mass, basic scientific research.
The U.S. scientific innovation infrastructure has historically
consisted of a loose public-private partnership that included
legendary institutions such as Bell Labs, RCA Labs, Xerox PARC XRX,
the research operations of IBM IBM, DARPA, NASA, and others. In each
of these organizations, programs with clear commercial potential were
supported alongside efforts at "pure" research, with the two streams
often feeding one another. With abundant corporate and venture-capital
funding for eventual commercialization, these research labs have made
enormous contributions to science, technology, and the economy,
including the creation of millions of high-paying jobs. Consider a few
of the crown jewels from Bell Labs alone:
* The first public demonstration of fax transmission (1925)
* First long-distance TV transmission (1927)
* Invention of the transistor (1947)
* Invention of photovoltaic cell (1954)
* Creation of the UNIX operating system (1969)
* Technology for cellular telephony (1978)
[Moderator snip]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:22:35 +0000 (UTC)
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?
Message-ID: <h7fflq$lqp$1@reader1.panix.com>
In <1251678940.4a9b1adc4fc64@webmail.uslec.net> ed <bernies@netaxs.com> writes:
[major snippage]
>This editorial in Business Week about the need for more R&D facilities
>like Bell Labs to revive the U.S. economy might interest Telecom list
>members.
>http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/09_36/b4145036681619.htm
>The Future of Tech August 27, 2009, 5:00PM EST
>* Technology for cellular telephony (1978)
Which is how, of course, that Motorola's
engineering guru, Martin Cooper, made that
first "cellular call" back on 03-April-1973,
to... his friendly rival at AT&T who came
in second....
>[Moderator snip]
--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:37:48 -0700
From: Steven <diespammers@killspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?
Message-ID: <h7fgie$409$1@news.eternal-september.org>
ed wrote:
> This editorial in Business Week about the need for more R&D facilities
> like Bell Labs to revive the U.S. economy might interest Telecom list
> members.
>
> A young friend (born years after the divestiture) who works for the
> govt systems division of Alcatel-Lucent in NJ says it was the fault of
> the U.S. gov't for breaking up the Bell System. Others say AT&T
> really wanted to be broken up and divested of its expensive-to-maintain
> LEC's, and allowed a free hand to compete in the more profitable
> data services arena.
>
> Opinions, anyone?
>
> -Ed
It was clear the AT&T wanted out of the local switching business.
Verizon is now doing the same thing in what they call "under served"
areas.
--
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co.
------------------------------
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