29 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981

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The Telecom Digest for July 07, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 167 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Amateur radio as backup communication(Fred Atkinson)
Verizon confirms unlimited iPhone data plans no longer offered come Thursday(Monty Solomon)
Re: "Underground" demarc?(Wes Leatherock)
Re: "Underground" demarc?(AES)
Re: Battery power support today(Wes Leatherock)
Re: "Underground" demarc?(David Scheidt)
Re: "Underground" demarc?(Garrett Wollman)
Re: Staples resold devices holding consumer data(Gordon Burditt)
Re: "Underground" demarc?(Scott Dorsey)
Re: Battery power support today(Scott Dorsey)

====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2011 15:42:30 -0600 From: fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Amateur radio as backup communication Message-ID: <eb5bcdbf5e1f2d5142a4de4a90f4be05.squirrel@webmail.mishmash.com> > Many participants in this newsgroup are interested in ham radio. An > article in the Phila Inqr talks about current activities, including > providing vital communications when other networks are down. > > http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/monica_yant_kinney/20110703_Monica_Yant_Kinney__Amateur_radio_operators_enjoy_nondependence_day.html > > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > QRZ W1AC? > > Bill Horne > Moderator Bill, Did you work the 13 Colonies event? I believe that today is the last day of it. Our club (N5BL) worked all thirteen colonies and the William Penn SES (special events station). FYI, there are going to be two SESs operating for the final shuttle launch call signs N4S (Florida near the Cape) and N5S (New Mexico near White Sands) with the 'S' being for shuttle. They are both offering awards (either a QSL card or a certificate depending upon which way each of those stations decides to go). 73 (radiotelegraphy code that meant 'best regards'), Fred, WB4AEJ
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2011 23:19:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Verizon confirms unlimited iPhone data plans no longer offered come Thursday Message-ID: <p06240827ca3983a5ee8b@[10.0.1.6]> Verizon confirms unlimited iPhone data plans no longer offered come Thursday By Neil Hughes Starting Thursday, new smartphone customers with Verizon Wireless, including those who buy an iPhone, will no longer be able to purchase the carrier's unlimited data plan, AppleInsider has confirmed. This Thursday, July 7, is when Verizon will begin offering its "usage-based" billing for mobile customers, spokeswoman Debra Lewis said. The change will not affect current smartphone customers of Verizon. In addition, current smartphone customers who are upgrade-eligible will be allowed to move to another smartphone and retain their plan. But new customers or current customers who do not have a smartphone plan will only be able to buy a "usage-based" plan, Lewis told AppleInsider on Tuesday. ... http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/05/verizon_confirms_unlimited_iphone_data_plans_no_longer_offered_come_thursday.html
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2011 17:44:10 -0700 (PDT) From: Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: "Underground" demarc? Message-ID: <1309913050.47771.YahooMailClassic@web111716.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> --- On Mon, 7/4/11, GlowingBlueMist <glowingbluemist@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote: > > I have lived in many states, not Ohio, but in the old homes > I lived in that had phone service hooked up between the 50's > and 60's the phone cable aerial or underground terminated at > a phone company junction block either in the basement or the > crawl space. In many states, including Oklahoma and Texas, houses are customarily built on slab and there is no basement or crawl space. Wes Leatherock wleathus@yahoo.com wesrock@aol.com
Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2011 07:12:35 -0700 From: AES <siegman@stanford.edu> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: "Underground" demarc? Message-ID: <siegman-80D3F9.07123506072011@bmedcfsc-srv02.tufts.ad.tufts.edu> In article <1309913050.47771.YahooMailClassic@web111716.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>, Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com> wrote: > In many states, including Oklahoma and Texas, houses are customarily > built on slab and there is no basement or crawl space. And in states where houses do have crawl spaces, concerns over the Hanta virus keeps many of us from ever crawling into them, no matter what.
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2011 17:53:11 -0700 (PDT) From: Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Battery power support today Message-ID: <1309913591.35966.YahooMailClassic@web111703.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 7/5/11, danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> wrote: > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > Ah, but it's a DC generator! No changing fields! > > Bill Horne > Moderator Many of the newer locomotives are built with alternators. It's a growing trend. DC is better in some cases, but AC in others, Wes Leatherock wleathus@yahoo.com wesrock@aol.com ***** Moderator's Note ***** Another preconceived notion destroyed! If a man can't make up the truth, what's the world going to come to?! Bill Horne Moderator
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2011 21:34:44 +0000 (UTC) From: David Scheidt <dscheidt@panix.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: "Underground" demarc? Message-ID: <iv001j$igi$1@reader1.panix.com> Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote: :What is the policy for older multi-family housing? Ours has a large :junction box that serves many dwelling units. In a sense, this :junction box could be seen as a demarc, but since many people are :served by it, I would think access is restricted to phone co personnel :only (to avoid accidental or intentional disruption to someone else's :service, plus, the terminals could be poorly labeled.) In my experience, an installer moves the pair serving a unit from the common junction box to a normal demarc, either by extending the pair from the common junction box, or by cutting it before it enters the junction box. Or both. Sometimes, at the same time. If the next person to come along is lucy, he writes what he did on the wall in sharpie. :(In our building, there are multiple jacks for extension phones within :each unit, but no one 'centralized' jack for the unit.) :Also, how would FIOS be installed in a multi-family building? I would :guess the FIOS boxes would be placed adjacent to the old landline :junction box, or would entirely new wiring methods be used? FWIW, :cableTV lines are simply punched right through exterior walls. Probably, whatever requires the least work on the part of the installer, but I dont have any first hand experience. -- sig 101
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2011 22:01:50 +0000 (UTC) From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman) To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: "Underground" demarc? Message-ID: <iv01ke$2cne$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu> In article <78a08c2d-f52e-4363-82b2-786d7fe76889@e7g2000vbw.googlegroups.com>, Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote: >Also, how would FIOS be installed in a multi-family building? I would >guess the FIOS boxes would be placed adjacent to the old landline >junction box, or would entirely new wiring methods be used? FWIW, >cableTV lines are simply punched right through exterior walls. In our condo (112 units), it was run to the same junction box in each unit as RCN uses. When RCN was installed, they built a new node outside each building at attic level, and dropped into an upstairs closet in each unit, where a cheap plastic junction box supplied the new coax and twisted-pair lines to the bedrooms and living room. The original 1958 phone wiring follows a different route, parallel to the electrical supply, which runs through the basement. RCN (rightly) didn't want to deal with the original wiring, which doesn't follow any obvious path. -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft wollman@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:41:55 -0500 From: gordonb.79jel@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Staples resold devices holding consumer data Message-ID: <9t2dnVwWworuVo7TnZ2dnUVZ_uidnZ2d@posted.internetamerica> > I know that this is not a popular approach but what about the users > who returned the storage devices to Staples. Why do we expect to be > taken care of when we are doing stupid stuff. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the customers (at least many of them) were not doing something stupid. A lot of "returned" drives may be returned because the customer is upgrading to a bigger drive, or is swapping drives because the old one is starting to not work correctly. Or, he's trading in a whole computer for a new one. Also, the store may use "spare" drives to temporarily hold user data for an OS upgrade onto the same drive, and the user may never know this. Either way, it's fairly common for a store's tech support to offer to copy customer data from one drive or system to another, either as part of the deal or for a modest fee. Microsoft offers software to do this (Windows Easy Transfer), and maybe they have more specialized, more automatic software for this job. Even with failing drives, much of the data can often be retrieved unless it's completely dead. You'd expect the customer to not wipe the drive: they'd lose their data. If they think to ask, tech support will say that the old data will be wiped off the old drive. I even see that mentioned on TV commercials as a selling point for a new computer: the upgrade is painless. If you're going to offer a service to copy customer data, it's irresponsible (and likely false advertising, as stores claim it's "safe and secure") to not follow through and wipe the old copy if the store is retaining, then reselling that drive.
Date: 6 Jul 2011 11:10:18 -0400 From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: "Underground" demarc? Message-ID: <iv1tsq$imj$1@panix2.panix.com> John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> wrote: >>_IF_ there is no NID, per se, then, generally, the telco 'legal liability' >>is up to the first splice point in the wiring, 'at or inside' the building. >>Things can get complicated if the structure is something like a townhouse. > >In my (limited) experience, even if there's no official demarc, >there's invariably a lightning protection block, with four or more >screw terminals, cylindrical fuses, and a ground wire. That block is, for all legal purposes, the demarc. You own the wiring after it, they own the wiring before it. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Date: 6 Jul 2011 11:09:36 -0400 From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Battery power support today Message-ID: <iv1trg$7i3$1@panix2.panix.com> Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> wrote: > >Excerpted from >http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/magnetic-fields : > >> Is there a link between magnetic field exposure at work and cancer >> in adults? Not relevant. RF isn't a magnetic field, it's not an electrical field. It's both, and yet it does not act like either one. Near-field magnetic studies apply very well to the kind of magnetic leakage that comes off of a CRT, but really do not have any connection with RF. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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