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Message Digest 
Volume 28 : Issue 280 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:
  Re: Comcast takes steps against botnets 
  Re: NYPD knows who you've been talking to. And where you've been.. 
  Re: NYPD knows who you've been talking to. And where you've been.. 
  Blinkenlights 
  DoJ admits: telcos are an arm of the government 
  T-Mobile Sidekick belly-up death of cloud computing 
  Disconnecte cell phones and 911 access? 


====== 28 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: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:03:40 -0400 From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Comcast takes steps against botnets Message-ID: <op.u1l74eyuo63xbg@acer250.gateway.2wire.net> On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:39:11 -0400, AES <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote: > An Associated Press story in this morning's paper by Deborah Yao > headlined "Pop-ups warn of infections" describes a warning service being > tested in Denver starting this week in which Comcast automatically > alerts customers whose PCs they believe may have been co-opted by a > botnet that this may be the case, and offers them a site with tips on > how to remove virus infections. > > I'm just a garden-variety computer user, not an Internet security > expert, but if this effort is being undertaken in good faith by Comcast, > this seems to me to be a hopeful sign and a commendable effort. Alas, "Pop-ups warn of infections" is the mechanism as well of the purveyors of malicious software. I'd fear that Comcast users who're aware of that fact will ignore Comcast's pop-ups, while Comcast users who're more naive will come to trust even _un_trustworthy pop-ups. Not all that clear which side will be the ultimate beneficiary. Cheers, -- tlvp -- Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:01:05 -0700 From: Richard <rng@richbonnie.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: NYPD knows who you've been talking to. And where you've been.. Message-ID: <5iv2d59i8es4bjr0gvlhu3e6f10oanl7u7@4ax.com> >***** Moderator's Note ***** > >Freak circumstances abound in the radio world, and it's entirely >possible that a cell site that's not physically "closest" to a phone >might be the one with the best signal strengh. I have seen many freak propagation events at what should be line-of-sight frequencies. I live in Pahrump, NV, separated from Las Vegas by a mountain range whose peak elevation is about 8000 feet above local terrain. One night I had a 2-way 10-minute contact on 2 meters (146 MHz) ham radio with a station on the other side of the mountains, direct from his car to my car, no repeaters. We tried it again for several nights following, but never could repeat it. We must have gotten a lucky bounce off something in the atmosphere. In the middle 1970's, I lived in southern New Hampshire, 20 miles north of Boston. One night, while watching TV Channel 2 from Boston of the air, the picture got strong interference. When the interference cleared, I was watching channel 2 from New York City, 200 miles away. The New York signal completely overrode the Boston signal. This lasted a couple of hours. I never saw the phenomenon again.
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:29:16 +1100 From: David Clayton <dcstar@NOSPAM.myrealbox.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: NYPD knows who you've been talking to. And where you've been.. Message-ID: <pan.2009.10.11.07.29.14.295117@NOSPAM.myrealbox.com> On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:27:16 -0500, Robert Bonomi wrote: > In article <pan.2009.10.09.05.36.36.159967@NOSPAM.myrealbox.com>, David > Clayton <dcstar@NOSPAM.myrealbox.com> wrote: >> >> There is an infamous murder case in Australia where one vital piece of >> evidence was the (apparent) identification of the convicted person by >> having his cell phone register on a particular antenna covering an area >> at an exact time that discredited his alibi that he was on the other >> side of town and placed him possibly within the vicinity of the crime. >> >> It has since emerged that the base station antenna pattern of the GSM >> tower used in the court evidence could well have registered his phone >> at the location he said he was in - because of the characteristics of >> the radiation pattern that still has some functionality in the opposite >> direction that the main gain area is - but the court just got a >> simplistic technical explanation of how these things work. > > It would take a truly freak set of circumstances for that kind of > gross 'location error' to happen. > > The base-stations engage in constant inter-communication, with regard to > who 'hears' which phones with what strength. And the 'best tower' wins. > AND when 'who hears best' changes -- as when the phone moves -- the > phone will be 'handed off' to the new 'best tower'. > > In order for a phone to lock up with a 'distant' tower, for basic > 'housekeeping' purposes, it would require that every 'closer' tower be > getting a poorer signal. ......... The whole point was that the signal from this handset was acquired by one of the many directional antennas in the opposite direction that it was supposed to work because the radiation envelope still had a significant node that would work in the direction the handset was claimed to be located by the defence. Anyone that has worked with microwave equipment knows that unidirectional antennas are not 100% directional, and there are significant usable nodes outside of the direction most of the signal is supposed to go. IIRC in this case the handset was (claimed to be) reasonably close to the base station on the opposite side of the direction the prosecution claimed as part of the evidence that resulted in a conviction, but post-trial other experts showed that it could well have been located where the defence actually claimed with all the factors of base station operation taken into account. The main point was that the initial evidence showed an over-simplistic description of "perfect" antenna radiation patterns of all the microwave antennas on this tower (which was probably initially done with good intentions to simplify things for a non-technical audience - the jury) and told that the signal could only have come from one direction, which was patently incorrect. -- Regards, David. David Clayton Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have.
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:16:34 -0500 From: Michael Grigoni <michael.grigoni@cybertheque.org> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Blinkenlights Message-ID: <4AD19462.90507@cybertheque.org> For years I had a version of the famous blinkenlights notice, typed on a flexowriter, which had been taped to the LGP 30 when we got it; sadly it and the LGP 30 are now gone (due to a catastrophe), but I always assumed that the version on my note had been taken from a Datamation article sometime around 1960. I would appreciate seeing any versions that you all may have and any recollections of where you have encountered it, and if anyone has seen it in the context of telephone equipment or CO locations, and if anyone can confirm which trade magazines may have printed it. Here is the version as displayed by Wikipedia: ACHTUNG! ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS! DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKSEN. IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS. ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN. This differs somewhat from my recollection and indeed the Wikipedia article states that a great many versions existed. Michael ***** Moderator's Note ***** This timeless warning was briefly popular at the start of the computer revolution in the U.S., but use subsided amid acccusations of politically-incorrectness because of the "Ginglish" language. Still, it gets high marks for effectiveness: I saw it taped to a #1ESS control panel in 1974. Politicall-incorrect or not, it still has a place beside other timeless warnings: (Next to a paper cutting machine) "Cut fingers will fall on this side. Please dispose of properly." (In the MIT Laser Lab) "Do not look into laser with remaining eye." (On the wall at a driver-training school) "Do not bet on your ego in a fight with the laws of physics. Physics wins every time!" (On the desk of a probabtion officer in a Massachusetts courthouse) "Attention, teenagers: 'No' is a complete sentence." I'm sure there are others. ;-) Bill Horne Moderator
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:50:00 -0700 From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: DoJ admits: telcos are an arm of the government Message-ID: <4AD19C38.5030706@thadlabs.com> Telephone Company Is Arm of Government, Feds Admit in Spy Suit By Ryan Singel WIRED October 8, 2009 8:24 pm The Department of Justice has finally admitted it in court papers: The nation's telecom companies are an arm of the government - at least when it comes to secret spying. Fortunately, a judge says that relationship isn't enough to squash a rights group's open records request for communications between the nation's telecoms and the feds. The Electronic Frontier Foundation wanted to see what role telecom lobbying of Justice Department played when the government began its year-long, and ultimately successful, push to win retroactive immunity for AT&T and others being sued for unlawfully spying on American citizens. [...] WIRED article continues here: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/att-doj-foia/ As a reminder of how the NSA tapped the AT&T backbone: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/07/MNIST7NS9.DTL
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:12:24 -0700 From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: T-Mobile Sidekick belly-up death of cloud computing Message-ID: <4AD1BD98.2090703@thadlabs.com> I suppose this slams the brakes on texting while driving. :-) Long story short, it appears the "cloud" setup by Microsoft for T-Mobile's Sidekick (apparently a Blackberry-like thingie) has blown away and all the data is seemingly irretrievably gone. BUT ... T-Mobile is still cautioning all users to "please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power" on the off-chance T-Mobile stumbles upon a miracle by Monday and recovers all the lost data (contacts, calendars, to-dos, photos, etc.) " T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a " subsidiary of Microsoft, are reaching out to express our apologies " ... "Microsoft/Danger server failure"? That raises red flags. :-) Full story here: http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board?board.id=06 And I was only grousing about losing some phone numbers when my AT&T SIM went belly-up. I feel for those who got sucked into the cloud computing concept. Another article [about] why cloud computing is NOT for enterprises or, for that matter, anyone: http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/technology/features/article.php/3843151 ***** Moderator's Note ***** I've got to tip my hat to Microsoft for having the confidence to name a data-retention service "Danger". Maybe they should invest in the "Cancer" brand of cigarettes ... Bill Horne Moderator
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:24:24 -0700 (PDT) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Disconnecte cell phones and 911 access? Message-ID: <3b3f71c3-f2c8-4433-a438-24afd364419b@d10g2000yqh.googlegroups.com> Some questions... Is it still true that a cell phone that is no longer in service with a carrier can still be used to dial 911? Will such a phone transmit the GPS coordinates? Can the phone be called back by the 911 center? They can seize a landline and ring it back, but what about a cellphone or a disconnected cellphone? What calling number shows up at the 911 center from a disconnected cell phone? Thanks! Any other info would be appreciated.
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 Bill Horne. 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 moderated by Bill Horne. 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 Copyright (C) 2009 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 (7 messages)

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