The Telecom Digest for September 14, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 249 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
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Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:31:53 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Cellphone Carriers Are Turning to Wi-Fi, Too
Message-ID: <p06240806c8b32f5919ad@[192.168.1.70]>
Cellphone Carriers Are Turning to Wi-Fi, Too
By DAMON DARLIN
September 11, 2010
THE definition of a nerd, it has been said, is someone who has more
e-mail addresses than pants.
I have three addresses and three pairs of pants, so I guess I am
borderline, using that criterion.
But what does it mean that I have seven phone numbers? There is my
home landline, my office landline, my cellphone, a Google Voice phone
number and three other Internet-connected phone numbers.
That's 70 digits to manage - yet I rarely talk on the phone and
always try to avoid answering one.
I may well be a nerd, but there is a reason for all those numbers.
Like a lot of other people, I've been searching for new ways to
communicate as the phone system that has served us well for more than
130 years morphs into another, still uncertain form.
Fewer people have landlines. A quarter of American homes use only
cellphones. We are talking less and texting more. And as we use more
data on cellphones that are really hand-held computers, we must
search for alternative networks, usually Wi-Fi, to bypass a strained
cellphone network.
All of those phone numbers, then, are the residue of my experiments
to find a system to not only stay in touch, but also to find one, or
two, reliable ways that people can use to contact me. The multiple
numbers parallel the numerous text- and instant-messaging systems I
use, like Google Chat, Twitter, Facebook and AIM.
It's not just consumers who are using the phone system differently.
The phone companies are way ahead of us - and couldn't be happier
that consumers are shifting to texting. The economics are clearly in
the companies' favor. The cellphone carriers rival Vitamin Water or
Hewlett-Packard and its printer ink cartridges in their ability to
extract a high-profit margin from a seemingly mundane product.
Text messages take up very little space - about 140 bytes, as they
are being transmitted. That's really why text messages are kept
short. How much are we really paying for them? As much as $1,498 per
megabyte. Here's some of the math:
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/business/12every.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
And I thought that communicating by radio, using a written language,
was passé: now, I'm thinking I should dust off my Vibroplex and crank
up my Johnson Viking Ranger again. Funny how everything comes back if
you wait long engouh.
Oh, by the way: when I use a Vibroplex, all I pay for is the
electricity to turn on the Ranger and my HQ-170-AC. Eat your hearts
out!
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:46:16 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Burglars Picked Houses Based on Facebook Updates
Message-ID: <p06240807c8b32fcc34ad@[192.168.1.70]>
Burglars Picked Houses Based on Facebook Updates
By NICK BILTON
SEPTEMBER 12, 2010
If you plan to log into your Facebook account and announce to the
world that you're heading to the beach for the weekend, you might
want to append the status update with a warning that your home is
under 24-hour surveillance, you have a 140-pound Rottweiler who
hasn't eaten in a week and that you own a really good alarm system.
If you don't, you personal belongings could be fodder for some
tech-savvy burglars.
According to New Hampshire's WMUR Channel 9 News, three local men,
Mario Rojas, Leonardo Barroso and Victor Rodriguez, have burglarized
more than 18 homes in the Nashua area of New Hampshire simply by
checking status updates on Facebook and then pillaging houses of
victims who announced on the social network that they were not home.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/burglars-picked-houses-based-on-facebook-updates/
***** Moderator's Note *****
I'm not home today, and won't be home for a couple of weeks. My family
silver is buried under the garden in the back yard, next to the
compost pile where I hid my gold bars.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:23:18 +0000 (UTC)
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Burglars Picked Houses Based on Facebook Updates
Message-ID: <i6ltn6$sr2$1@reader1.panix.com>
In <p06240807c8b32fcc34ad@[192.168.1.70]> Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> writes:
>Burglars Picked Houses Based on Facebook Updates
>...
>***** Moderator's Note *****
>I'm not home today, and won't be home for a couple of weeks. My family
>silver is buried under the garden in the back yard, next to the
>compost pile where I hid my gold bars.
Looking for someone to do your gardening for you, eh?
--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
***** Moderator's Note *****
No, I'm just looking for someone to do my _tilling_. ;-)
This is an old story, having its origins in a tale about an Northern
Irish wife who's husband is eating at the King's table for a while -
in other words, who is in prison. She complains to him that she can't
afford to hire anyone to break ground for the potato crop this year,
and her husband writes back "Just as well: I buried the guns out in
the field"!
His wife sends another letter, saying that the King's men had dug up
all of the fields around the house. Her husband's reply? "Plant your
potatoes".
Bill Horne
Moderator
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