31 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for February 28, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 52 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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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.
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Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:47:33 -0800 (PST)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: AT&T, GM team up to make 4G cars
Message-ID: <b3ba1ee7-46db-4313-9a55-19bf2532bcd8@f5g2000yqp.googlegroups.com>
The Washington Post reported that the dream of having a truly
connected car may be getting closer. General Motors and AT&T announced
that they will work together to put 4G WiFi connectivity into cars
starting in 2014, opening up a new consumer electronics platform for
app developers.
for article please see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/atandt-gm-team-up-to-make-4g-cars/2013/02/25/04b9fb9a-7f5c-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html?tid=pm_business_pop
-or-
http://goo.gl/ElN5M
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:58:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Richard Walsh <wepbx@remove-this.sbcglobal.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Looking for a Western Electric Autovon instrument
Message-ID: <1361973484.33407.YahooMailClassic@web181702.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Good morning Bill
My name is Rick Walsh and I live not far from you in Middle Haddam,
Connecticut.
I was looking for a particular type of Western Electric telephone to
complete a display of Autovon phones (16 button dial). I found a
reference in Telecom Digest from 2005 about a gentleman named Al
Gillis that had an example of a type 3666 telephone, the model I am
currently seeking.
One of your readers suggested I contact you as a means to try and
communicate with Mr. Gillis.
The opportunity to contact with Mr. Gillis would be most appreciated.
Thank you
Rick Walsh
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:06:44 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Nest's Smarter Home
Message-ID: <p06240811cd54794672e3@[10.0.1.5]>
Nest's Smarter Home
Two men who created the iPod and iPhone injected new technology into
the humble thermostat. Now they have their sights on the rest of your
house.
By Tom Simonite
February 15, 2013
MIT Technology Review
March/April 2013
In 2007, Tony Fadell believed he could see the future. He was an
Apple executive who had created the iPod and was a leading figure on
the team that had worked on the iPhone, which the company was about
to launch. He knew people would soon form attachments to the
Internet-connected computers they carried in their pockets, and he
kept thinking about that as he started another major project:
building an energy-efficient dream home near Lake Tahoe.
"I said, 'How do I design this home when the primary interface to my
world is the thing in my pocket?'" says Fadell. He baffled architects
with demands that the home's every feature, from the TV to the
electricity supply, be ready for a world in which the Internet and
mobile apps made many services more responsive. When it came to
choosing a programmable thermostat for his expensive eco-friendly
heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, Fadell blew
a gasket: "They were 500 bucks a pop, and they were horrible and
doing nothing and brain-dead. And I was like, 'Wait a second, I'll
design my own.'"
Fadell, who soon left Apple at the age of 40, became convinced that
his thermostat needed to be built like a smartphone and controlled
from one. He wanted it to be smart enough to learn his routine and to
program its own schedule accordingly, or to switch off automatically
if he went out. A thermostat, he thought, could do that if it was
really a small computer connected to the Internet. As he planned the
features and design in his head, Fadell began to believe that his
vision would appeal to other people too, even if their homes were
more ordinary. With about 10 million thermostats sold in the United
States every year, it could be a lucrative business. And because
thermostats typically control half the energy used in U.S. homes, a
better-designed one could significantly reduce power consumption. He
sought out Matt Rogers, a precocious 27-year-old who at the time led
iPhone software development, and got him to leave Apple to cofound
Nest.
...
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/511086/how-nests-control-freaks-reinvented-the-thermostat/
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:53:06 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Nest's Smarter Home
Message-ID: <20130228045306.GA16122@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 10:06:44PM -0500, Monty Solomon wrote:
>
> Nest's Smarter Home
>
> Two men who created the iPod and iPhone injected new technology into
> the humble thermostat. Now they have their sights on the rest of your
> house.
>
> In 2007, Tony Fadell believed he could see the future. [snip] "I
> said, 'How do I design this home when the primary interface to my
> world is the thing in my pocket?'" says Fadell. [snip] When it came
> to choosing a programmable thermostat for his expensive eco-friendly
> heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, Fadell
> blew a gasket: "They were 500 bucks a pop, and they were horrible
> and doing nothing and brain-dead. And I was like, 'Wait a second,
> I'll design my own.'"
I once saw an article in a local paper about how the police had
acquired infra-red detectors to locate "grow" lamps so that they could
arrest marijuana home-grow operations. I mentioned it to my friend, a
mechanical engineer, and he laughed himself silly. "There are so many
hotspots in New England homes', he opined, 'that they'll be chasing
space heaters and leaking hot-air furnaces for the rest of their
lives".
The problem with "smart" thermostats is that they're installed in dumb
environments. Unlike Mr. Fadell's dream house, most homes are energy
nightmares, with late-20th-century insulation, 1950-style windows, and
air leak after air leak, all adding up to a heat load that tries the
souls of every homeowner attempting to meet a budget.
The end result is that a smart thermostat alone isn't going to make
any difference worth mentioning: it might allow a user to delay a
reheat cycle when she's working late, but (as my engineer friend is
found of pointing out) it's the "everyday" items that kill you, not
the "now and then" exceptions.
As much as I might wish it were so, the solution to an energy-
ineficient home is to invest the time and money needed to minimize
heat losses. The U.S. is, unfortunately, still in the "denial" phase
of dealing with our enery problem: the inefficiencies that are built
into our homes, our electric grid, and our businesses won't be solved
by smarter thermostats, no matter if they can be programmed from a
cell phone or not.
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
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