33 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2015 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Apr 23, 2015
Volume 34 : Issue 74 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Eighth-grader charged with felony for shoulder-surfing teacher's password (Pete Cresswell)
Re: Los Angeles Streetlights to Be Controlled via Cellular Network (HAncock4)
Los Angeles Streetlights to Be Controlled via Cellular Network (Neal McLain)
Re: Los Angeles Streetlights to Be Controlled via Cellular Network (David Clayton)

Legislation can neither be wise nor just which seeks the welfare of a single interest at the expense and to the injury of many and varied interests at least equally important and equally deserving the considerations of Congress.
Andrew Johnson

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Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 08:48:48 -0400 From: Pete Cresswell <PeteCress@invalid.telecom-digest.org> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Eighth-grader charged with felony for shoulder-surfing teacher's password Message-ID: <tmhcjahn3h06pj7e462k8dtvcp1jocvdt0@4ax.com> Per Monty Solomon: >Eighth-grader charged with felony for shoulder-surfing teacher's >password: the larger crime may be school administrators' poor op sec. "The Week" mag has a satirical column entitled "Only In America". I would call that one a candidate. -- Pete Cresswell
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 10:53:59 -0700 (PDT) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Los Angeles Streetlights to Be Controlled via Cellular Network Message-ID: <4fb69377-e252-4636-9cd1-366465517c54@googlegroups.com> On Friday, April 17, 2015 at 10:27:47 PM UTC-4, Bill Horne wrote: > The system will identify each streetlight's location via GPS, and > will allow workers to turn lights on or off and to dim them or > brighten them as needed. I'm confused by this. Why is this even necessary? Today, streetlights are controlled by a photocell, automatically. When it gets dark, the streetlight goes on, when it becomes light, the streetlight goes off. If it becoms dark early, say due to a bad storm and cloud cover, the lights will go on. Why would it even be necessary to manually turn them on and off? (When I was very young, the streetlights were controlled by a central timer, and all would go on at the same time. The timer would have to be periodically adjusted to reflect changing sundown and sunrise times. But when they replaced the incandescent with mercury vapor lamps, they put in photocells.)
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 00:47:09 -0500 From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Los Angeles Streetlights to Be Controlled via Cellular Network Message-ID: <5535E45D.6020406@annsgarden.com> On Saturday, April 18, 2015 at 10:07:45 PM UTC-5, Barry Margolin wrote: > In article <mgsfng$h49$1@reader1.panix.com>, danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> wrote: > > > In <mgrq83$n9e$1@dont-email.me> Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> writes: >>> The City of Los Angeles, California recently announced a plan to >>> monitor and control all of its streetlights via a cellular >>> network, allowing city workers to control the lights remotely >>> from a Web browser, CNNMoney reports. >>> The system will identify each streetlight's location via GPS, and >>> will allow workers to turn lights on or off and to dim them or >>> brighten them as needed. >> I guess the GPS is needed to keep track of all those fugitive >> streetlights as they pull up roots and try escaping... > I was also wondering about that, too -- why can't the streetlights > identify themselves, and then they look up the location in a > database? "Identify themselves" how? Every streetlight has to have some sort of identifying name in order to identify itself. What kind of naming convention would you suggest? > I suspect what they really mean is that workers can be driving > around in a van. When they see a streetlight they want to adjust, it > will use GPS to determine the van's location, so it knows which > streetlight he's near. Then he uses the laptop in the van to send > commands. The purpose isn't to identify a streetlight so a tech can "adjust" it; it's to make instantaneous adjustments throughout the day. As Bill's original post notes it's to "allow workers to turn lights on or off and to dim them or brighten them as needed." See the original CNN article here: http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/10/technology/l-a-lights/index.html Neal McLain ***** Moderator's Note ***** If I had to guess, I'd say that you're both right: a GPS transponder and logic would allow any streetlight within the bounds of a specified area to respond to an "all on" command for that area. And, it would also simplify and speed up maintenance: work crews are prone to manage records badly, so having a stock of "one size fits all" lights in a truck, which can be put in place and automatically tracked, would speed up road crew work and assure more accurate recordkeeping. Bill Horne Moderator
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 17:43:55 +1000 From: David Clayton <dc33box-usenet2@NOSPAM.yahoo.com.au> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Los Angeles Streetlights to Be Controlled via Cellular Network Message-ID: <pan.2015.04.21.07.43.51.446423@NOSPAM.yahoo.com.au> On Sun, 19 Apr 2015 10:11:39 -0500, Doug McIntyre wrote: > danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> writes: >> In <mgrq83$n9e$1@dont-email.me> Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> writes: >>> The City of Los Angeles, California recently announced a plan to >>> monitor and control all of its streetlights via a cellular network, >>> allowing city workers to control the lights remotely from a Web >>> browser, CNNMoney reports. > >>> The system will identify each streetlight's location via GPS, and will >>> allow workers to turn lights on or off and to dim them or brighten them >>> as needed. > >> I guess the GPS is needed to keep track of all those fugitive >> streetlights as they pull up roots and try escaping... ....... > Also, if you need to repair/replace said thing, making sure it is all > updated in the database correctly can be easily overlooked. Having them > self-monitor their location and report back isn't all that bad a thing I > think. As well it will help eliminate any location ambiguity when faults are reported by ordinary people who may give not quite accurate location information so the repair crews will know exactly where to go and what equipment they will be dealing with. -- 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.

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