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The Telecom Digest for August 21, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 226 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:

Teacher resigns over Facebook posting(Monty Solomon)
Re: Teacher resigns over Facebook posting(David Clayton)
In battle of smartphones, Google has the right answer(Monty Solomon)
Simplifying the Lives of Web Users(Monty Solomon)
Re: Simplifying the Lives of Web Users(Wes Leatherock)
Re: film "Executive Suite"(John Levine)
Re: film "Executive Suite"(Wes Leatherock)


====== 28 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:53:12 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Teacher resigns over Facebook posting Message-ID: <p0624087ac893ac559d73@[10.0.1.3]> Teacher resigns over Facebook posting Called Cohasset residents snobby By Sydney Lupkin, Globe Correspondent | August 19, 2010 When the Cohasset School Committee discovered this week that an administrator had posted Facebook comments disparaging residents of the South Shore town as snobby and arrogant, the reaction was swift. Unhappy parents e-mailed the committee, alerting members to the postings by June Talvitie-Siple, said Alfred Slanetz, vice chairman of the committee. Talvitie-Siple was asked to resign within 24 hours, and she stepped down Tuesday. "The unfortunate thing is that it's a lesson that we try to teach our kids about use of the Internet,'' Slanetz said yesterday. "It almost doesn't matter if it's on the Web or in a newspaper these days. . . . It's all out there.'' Talvitie-Siple was the supervisor for engineering, math, science, and technology at Cohasset High School. She had just received a $4,000 raise, boosting her salary to about $92,000, said School Committee member Linda Snowdale. Talvitie-Siple's Facebook profile was no longer publicly available yesterday, but the Patriot-Ledger of Quincy reported Wednesday that Talvitie-Siple wrote she was "so not looking forward to another year at Cohasset Schools,'' calling residents "so arrogant and snobby.'' ... http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/08/19/teacher_resigns_over_facebook_posting/ ***** Moderator's Note ***** As a longtime Boston-area resident, I can truthfully say that residents of Cohasset are no more arrogant and snobby than anyone else who lives on the "Irish Riviera" - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Shore,_Massachusetts). Since the Irish are God's chosen people, I submit that we are big enough to take a little ribbing from a school teacher, but also entitled to be mad about her salary. The Cardinal (pun intended) Rule of Civil Service is to keep out of the limelight: as the legions of teachers, administrators, assistants, supervisory assistants, and assistant senior administrative assistants will attest, it's nice work if you can get it, but you must never forget whose name is on the door. Bill "Not Mine" Horne Moderator
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 09:24:37 +1000 From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Teacher resigns over Facebook posting Message-ID: <pan.2010.08.20.23.24.34.589124@myrealbox.com> On Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:53:12 -0400, Telecom Digest Moderator wrote: .......... > Since the Irish are God's chosen people, I submit that we are big enough > to take a little ribbing from a school teacher, but also entitled to be > mad about her salary. The Cardinal (pun intended) Rule of Civil Service is > to keep out of the limelight: as the legions of teachers, administrators, > assistants, supervisory assistants, and assistant senior administrative > assistants will attest, it's nice work if you can get it, but you must > never forget whose name is on the door. All this technology allowing so many of us to make our opinions known in so many places, and yet even though it seems there is no issue in actually having the opinion, you get into strife for using the available technology to express it. Is the actual problem the technology or the fear (and inconvenience) of having opinions made known? If this keeps up, a new school subject will be on how not to use all the new technology foisted upon us - starting with the old-fashioned telephone and working up to the newer toys..... -- 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: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:57:10 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: In battle of smartphones, Google has the right answer Message-ID: <p0624087dc893ad62dc60@[10.0.1.3]> TECH LAB In battle of smartphones, Google has the right answer Company's decision to distribute Android operating system widely gives it an edge By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | August 19, 2010 The war for smartphone domination is pretty much over, and the reasons are sitting on my desk. There's the Vibrant from Samsung Group, a sleek, four-ounce beauty with a dazzling color screen. Next to it sits the hulking, half-pound Streak from PC maker Dell Inc., the biggest cellphone I've seen since NBC canceled "Miami Vice.'' Each, in its own way, is delightful. And both are built around Android, the smartphone operating system from Google Inc. that's outselling Apple Inc.'s in the US smartphone market. Apple and its excellent iPhone will do fine, but Google will seize most of the market because it has adopted Microsoft Corp.'s old PC playbook. By selling Windows software to any computer maker, Microsoft flooded the world with Windows machines. Today, there are just three iPhone models, all from Apple, and available in the United States through just one cell carrier: AT&T. There are more than 20 Android models, made by a host of companies, and available from every cell carrier. Of course Android wins. The Android approach encourages phone designers to create innovative devices to target particular niche markets. So we're getting products like the Vibrant and the Streak, devices that have almost nothing in common except the software they run. ... http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2010/08/19/in_battle_of_smartphones_google_has_the_right_answer/
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:22:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Simplifying the Lives of Web Users Message-ID: <p06240885c893b33b3b56@[10.0.1.3]> Simplifying the Lives of Web Users By DAVID POGUE August 18, 2010 I'm about to make your life better. No need to thank me. But first, a warning: On the way to understanding how your life will get better, you'll have to read about some technical, fairly arcane topics. Trust me: it'll be worth it. In this case, the topic is your Web browsing, and the magic wand is a free service called OpenDNS. You know how every Web site has an address, like www.google.com or www.nytimes.com? Turns out that's just a fakeout. It's a convenient crutch for you, the human with limited brain capacity. Behind the scenes, the actual address is a string of numbers (called an I.P. address, for Internet protocol) that looks something like this: 74.125.53.100. (That happens to be Google's address.) Nobody can remember those addresses, though they are no longer than a phone number, so the Web's thoughtful designers came up with a secondary system: plain-English addresses like www.whatever.com. When you type that into your browser, a computer at your Internet provider performs a quick lookup. "Aha," it says to itself in its little digital way, "you just typed www.google.com. What you really want, of course, is 74.125.53.100. Please hold; I'll connect you." That, in a nutshell, is how D.N.S. works. (It stands for domain name system, in case that helps.) Unfortunately, from time to time, your Internet provider's D.N.S. computer goes down. To you, it seems that the Web itself has gone out, because you can't pull up any sites at all. In December 2008, for example, 1.2 million Los Angeles citizens thought that the entire Web had gone offline, because of a crashed Time Warner D.N.S. computer. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/technology/personaltech/19pogue.html ***** Moderator's Note ***** <pedantic mode> DNS does not says "Please hold; I'll connect you." It says "Here's the real, numerical address for the site you wanted", and the rest is up to you, or actually, to your computer, which uses the IP address provided by DNS to access the site you wanted. </pedantic mode> <Old Curmudgeon Mode> The way Mr. Pogue gushes about this rather pedestrian innovation, you'd think he was usurping Al Gore's position as Inventor of the Internet. For all the supposedly great features that the OpenDNS company offers, there is a hidden, and high, price: they get to collect your IP address, and to keep track of every site that you visit. That information, which is easily linked to your actual name and address, can be used to accomplish a wide and frightening variety of tasks: everything from shaming you about your membership in <pick-your-least-favorite-group> to telling your boss that you've been visiting sites about childbirth - or cancer treatment. Be careful what you recommend, Mr. Pogue. Internauts have long memories. Bill Horne Moderator
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:00:36 EDT From: Wes Leatherock <Wesrock@aol.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Simplifying the Lives of Web Users Message-ID: <b958f.5dd6a7fa.39a07124@aol.com> In a message dated 8/20/2010 12:21:23 PM Central Daylight Time, Telecom Digest Moderator writes: > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > <pedantic mode> > DNS does not say "Please hold; I'll connect you." It says "Here's the > real, numerical address for the site you wanted", and the rest is up > to you, or actually, to your computer, which uses the IP address > provided by DNS to access the site you wanted. > </pedantic mode> I thought it was the Domain Name Server, not D.N. System that had the IP addresses. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ***** Moderator's Note ***** The system is made up of all the servers and their programmed interactions: while A server withing THE service will deliver an IP address your computer can use, it is the service as a whole that I was speaking of. The Domain Name Service does NOT connect your computer to its intended site: the Internet does that. FWIW. YMMV. Bill Horne Moderator
Date: 20 Aug 2010 02:47:28 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: film "Executive Suite" Message-ID: <20100820024728.73111.qmail@joyce.lan> >In one scene, they're trying to reach an executive who has left for >his weekend cabin. They decide to phone the turnpike interchange to >see if he can be intercepted when he passes through. Now, I'm not >sure how much traffic there was on interchanges in the 1950s, but I in >2010 most interchange toll booths have many lanes and long lines of >drivers, and such an intercept request would be laughed at. On the upstate part of the NY Thruway there are plenty of exits where there was one tollbooth staffed by a single employee. It is my impression that at some of them where they had separate booths for the eastbound and westbound exits, late at night there'd be only one employee, they'd put a barrier across one of the booths, and you had to use a buzzer or a phone to summon the attendant from the other booth. On the Connecticut Turnpike, the easternmost toll barrier was one or two booths in a slightly wider bit of the road. Calling the tollbooth is hokey, but it's not implausible. R's, John
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:09:05 EDT From: Wes Leatherock <Wesrock@aol.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: film "Executive Suite" Message-ID: <b9ad5.732d2461.39a07321@aol.com> In a message dated 8/20/2010 5:51:56 PM Central Daylight Time, johnl@iecc.com writes: > On the upstate part of the NY Thruway there are plenty of exits > where there was one tollbooth staffed by a single employee. It is > my impression that at some of them where they had separate booths > for the eastbound and westbound exits, late at night there'd be only > one employee, they'd put a barrier across one of the booths, and you > had to use a buzzer or a phone to summon the attendant from the > other booth. > On the Connecticut Turnpike, the easternmost toll barrier was one or > two booths in a slightly wider bit of the road. > Calling the tollbooth is hokey, but it's not implausible. The same thing is true on many of the less-used entrances and exists on Oklahoma tunrpikes. At ome of those there is only one actual toll booth, between the lanes.so one toll taker could serve both directions. At some of the least active, it is exact change only, with a basket and no live toll taker at all. Of course, at all of them you can use your "Pikepass" (called different things in eash state) which bills you automatically with no need for a toll taker. One notable toll gate has the "Pikepass" dedicated lane marked "Ramp Speed 75." Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com
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:
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