---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <CAH8yC8nfay2zAOugyK8GY4Bxwppyc8TBCOedLQVCeyPaZOnkvQ@mail.gmail.com> Date: 30 Aug 2020 00:17:10 -0400 From: "Jeffrey Walton" <noloader@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Landlines set to be removed from dorm rooms at M.I.T. On Sat, Aug 29, 2020 at 11:31 PM Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.remove-this.telecom-digest.org> wrote: > > According to a statement released by the Division of Student Life, > ... landline telephones will be removed from all on-campus dorm > bedrooms by the end of summer. > > https://thetech.com/2012/07/11/phones-v132-n29 Oops, July 2012 :) I thought it kind of odd an article about dorm room amenities surfaced when Coronavirus has student housing shut down. Jeff ***** Moderator's Note ***** Carp! Drat! How could that be? Sigh. I always restrict my searches by date. This time, I forgot. I loved the dormphone system: it had Step-by-step exchanges, one of which was located next door to the studios of WTBS, the M.I.T. radio station where I learned the trade that supported me for most of the 1970's. They were equipped with 2600 Hz detectors on each line appearance, so that students who were "Pheeping off dormphone" could be identified and excoriated for improving Mother Bell's profit margin. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <daab8c4d-c39b-4098-a2c3-7700d94101d2n@googlegroups.com> Date: 29 Aug 2020 17:50:14 -0700 From: "Tom Horne" <hornetd.remove-this@and-this-too.gmail.com> Subject: Re: The Weather Undergrond On Saturday, August 29, 2020 at 2:06:00 PM UTC-4, Moderator wrote: > I could, I suppose, get used to the "forecaster" blathering along about > the dire consequences of not buying the soap that his boss is selling > instead of the soap that the other guys are selling. I just don't want > to. I'm fed up with the constant, unending, insufferable torrent of > fearmongering and fear-based marketing and fear-based electioneering > that have taken up every megabyte of my Internet feed for the past four > years, and I want the weather forecaster to tell me about the weather - > and then shut up. Bill, You don't want much do you? You're just another apostate sinner that has yet to confess that Profit IS God. COWTOW to the all holy PROFIT ... you blasphemer! PROFIT! --- Tom Horne ***** Moderator's Note ***** I asked the author if he was sure this was intended for publi- cation. He told me to use it if I chose, and I told him that he has graduated from well-meaning senior citizen to crazy old coot. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <86eenpdo5y.fsf@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu> Date: 29 Aug 2020 23:31:53 +0000 From: Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.telecom-digest.org> Subject: AT&T Girl "Lily_Adams" Aka Milana Vayntrub, Complains About Online Abuse AT&T Ad Actress Milana Vayntrub Pleas For Online Harassers To Cease & Desist By Bruce Haring Milana Vayntrub, who portrays Lily Adams in AT&T commercials wants the online harassment against her to stop. In an Instagram livestream that has since been reposted to Twitter, Vayntrub emotionally discussed how old photos of her have been manipulated into memes that generate lewd and vile responses. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/t-girl-lily-adams-aka-224314299.html -- Bill Horne Telecom Digest Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <6ef0ef14-db02-c01f-8f6a-13639d5b8760@billhorne.com> Date: 29 Aug 2020 22:32:41 -0400 From: Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.telecom-digest.org> Subject: NBA Partner AT&T is No Friend of Black Lives Matter NBA Partner AT&T is No Friend of Black Lives Matter Through donations to police foundations and partnerships with law enforcement groups, AT&T helps the police further militarize and execute the War on Drugs. By Donald Shaw The NBA playoffs will resume this weekend, players decided on Thursday, after the Milwaukee Bucks sparked a multi-league strike by refusing to play their scheduled game earlier in the week against the Orlando Magic to protest for justice for Jacob Blake. https://readsludge.com/2020/08/29/nba-partner-att-is-no-friend-of-black-lives-matter/ - - Bill Horne ***** Moderator's Note ***** Normally, I wouldn't run a story like this. However, something like this happened during McCarthyism: companies which made contributions to charities later labelled "Communist" were called to renounce them by the red-baiters. Accusing a corporation (let along a public utility) of racism is, in effect, a demand that it stop donating money to anyone but <insert-favorite-cause-here>. It goes without saying that such extortion never works the way those hurling the accusation want - it just causes all the big donors to sit on their checkbooks and wait for the dust to settle, which means that BIPOC who depend on various public-service agencies are suddenly forced to seek help from the government. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <86d037ewd9.fsf@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu> Date: 30 Aug 2020 20:01:38 +0000 From: Bill Horne <malQassiRmilaMtion@gmail.com> Subject: Here we go again: streaming media is under attack I Have Seen This Before Copyright (C) 2020 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved. Here in the mountains of western North Carolina, there is no over-the-air TV within range, and I'm retired and living on a fixed income, so I don't choose to pay for TV via Cable. My Internet connection, however, is provided by the local Cable TV outfit. In exchange for my monthly payments, they have been providing a somewhat reliable and "fast enough" Internet connection since I moved here. Now, it's being cheapened by a bad actor. Having enjoyed an "open" pipe for a few years, I'm TO'd because someone appears to have started copying Comcast. For the time I've been here, my streaming box has worked normally: I have a Netflix subscription and a Prime subscription, and those work OK. We also watch the PBS news program, which my wife prefers, and Frontline, and so I donate some money to the local PBS affiliate and we see shows about things like the Darién Gap and the declining standard of living that working class people in the rust belt are enduring. We also watch the CBS streaming news service, called CBSN, that provides streaming versions of The Sunday Morning and Face the Nation programs, both of which we watch on Sunday mornings, since lately my Quaker meeting isn't. Today, the Sunday Morning program was barely watchable: the CBSN feed was interrupted again and again by extra, unannounced commercials for nationally-known commodity goods like McBurger and an insurance company. In other words, someone, somewhere was clipping the show's content to cram extra commercials into the feed. I have seen this before: in Massachusetts, Comcast used to interfere with connections going to "home" computers, which meant that my Linux machine couldn't receive or send email on my behalf, and I couldn't show the web site I wrote for my son's Boy Scout troop. Worse yet, they would lie to my face and deny it when I complained, and remove the restriction for two or three days, and then resume their interference. I used to be a broadcasting engineer, and clipping was a big no-no back then: I know that streaming media isn't subject to the same rules as broadcast TV, but I don't think anyone in between CBSN and me is entitled to substitute advertisements for one- and two-minute portions of CBS's program. Bill P.S. I'm not sure if this qualifies as "telecom" material, but as I wrote above, I've seen this before - and if this is anything like Comcast used to be, then the next step will probably be a demand that I pay for a new feed or account because I use a VPN to review and publish the Telecom Digest. -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Mon, 31 Aug 2020