Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa00831; 21 Jun 92 22:44 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26450 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 21 Jun 1992 20:57:45 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24285 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 21 Jun 1992 20:57:37 -0500 Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 20:57:37 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206220157.AA24285@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #501 TELECOM Digest Sun, 21 Jun 92 20:57:12 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 501 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Strange Pulse Dialing Behavior (Kevin W. Williams) Re: Strange Pulse Dialing Behavior (Leonard Erickson) Re: Strange Pulse Dialing Behavior (Ken Abrams) Re: Strange Pulse Dialing Behavior (Alan Rubinstein) Re: Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212 (Paul Houle) Re: Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212 (David W. Barts) Re: Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212 (Rich Greenberg) Re: Any News of CWA and AT&T? (David G. Lewis) Re: Any News of CWA and AT&T? (AT&T Management Insider) Re: Cycolac (was How Bell Labs Selects Ringers) (Jan De Ryck) Re: Cycolac (was How Bell Labs Selects Ringers) (Mark Terribile Re: Cycolac (was How Bell Labs Selects Ringers) (Barton F. Bruce) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: williamsk@gtephx.UUCP (Kevin W. Williams) Subject: Re: Strange Pulse Dialing Behavior Organization: gte Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 20:53:44 GMT In article , jon_sree@world.std.com (Jon Sreekanth) writes: > While playing around with pulse dialing, I observed some strange > behavior which I'm hoping some readers can shed light on. > I have two lines here. Using one line, I pulse dial the other line's > number, pick up the call, and the two are in communication. Now, if I > dial further pulse digits from the _calling_ phone, the exchange cuts > me off fairly often. I find I can dial one or two or three as many > times as I want, but when I dial a high digit like six or so, the call > is broken, and the calling phone immediately gets a dial tone starting > out with two (three ?) interruptions. > The strangest part is: if I pulse dial digits from the _called_ > phone, no such behavior is noticed. > Is this intended behavior, and if so what purpose does this serve? Or > is it a bug (widespread?). My numbers are 617-876 and 617-547, and I'm > paying for DTMF service on both. You don't say what kind of switch you are on, but I can guess what could be causing it that would be pretty much generic. Most modern switches will scan for hangup by sampling the line state at some infrequent interval (100 milliseconds or so). If your dial pulse rate lines up with the scan rate, it could see the on-hook pulses as a continuous on-hook. Continuous on-hook for a short-period of time would be recognised as a flash. Stuttered dial tone would be the signal for you to call the next party for your three-way. The called/calling number behavior could be a result of whether you are set to called or calling party hangup control, or whether you have three-way calling. Flash recognition would have to be set to a pretty low value to make this occur. Any idea what kind of switch you are on? Kevin Wayne Williams AGCS nee Automatic Electric ------------------------------ From: leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) Subject: Re: Strange Pulse Dialing Behavior Reply-To: 70465.203@compuserve.com Organization: SCN Research/Qic Laboratories of Tigard, Oregon. Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 21:11:13 GMT jon_sree@world.std.com (Jon Sreekanth) writes: > While playing around with pulse dialing, I observed some strange > behavior which I'm hoping some readers can shed light on. > I have two lines here. Using one line, I pulse dial the other line's > number, pick up the call, and the two are in communication. Now, if I > dial further pulse digits from the _calling_ phone, the exchange cuts > me off fairly often. I find I can dial one or two or three as many > times as I want, but when I dial a high digit like six or so, the call > is broken, and the calling phone immediately gets a dial tone starting > out with two (three ?) interruptions. > The strangest part is: if I pulse dial digits from the _called_ > phone, no such behavior is noticed. > Is this intended behavior, and if so what purpose does this serve? Or > is it a bug (widespread?). My numbers are 617-876 and 617-547, and I'm > paying for DTMF service on both. It's "intended" behavior. Pulse dialing is accomplished by doing the same thing (electrically) that you'd be doing if you pressed down and released the switch-hook! That what a "pulse" *is*. As the calling party, it's not surprising that you lose the connection. The called party has different behavior because the phone system is *supposed* to let him hang up for as long as 20-30 seconds without losing the connection. This is intended to let you move to another extension. Leonard Erickson leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com CIS: [70465,203] 70465.203@compuserve.com FIDO: 1:105/56 Leonard.Erickson@f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org (The CIS address is checked daily. The others infrequently) ------------------------------ From: kabra437@athenanet.com (Ken Abrams) Subject: Re: Strange Pulse Dialing Behavior Organization: Athenanet, Inc., Springfield, Illinois Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 15:38:59 GMT In article jon_sree@world.std.com (Jon Sreekanth) writes: > times as I want, but when I dial a high digit like six or so, the call > is broken, and the calling phone immediately gets a dial tone starting > out with two (three ?) interruptions. > The strangest part is: if I pulse dial digits from the _called_ > phone, no such behavior is noticed. Some people try the strangest things ... The action of the pulse dial is the same as opening and closing the switch hook (hang-up button) manually but the timing of the dial is (more) closely controlled. I think the interrupted dial tone is the key to this "mystery". It tends to indicate that the originating line in your example is equipped with three-way calling. Eventually, one (or more) of the pulses is interpreted as a switch hook flash and that is the signal to envoke three-way calling (add-on conference). Chances are good that the called line does not have this feature. If you are really that bored that you have to play with your phones, I can recommend some good computer games ;-). Ken Abrams nstar!pallas!kabra437 Springfield, IL kabra437@athenanet.com (voice) 217-753-7965 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 17:46 PDT From: Alan_Rubinstein@3mail.3com.com Subject: Re: Strange Pulse Dialing Behavior > If I dial further pulse digits from the _calling_ phone, the exchange cuts > times as I want, but when I dial a high digit like six or so, the call > is broken, and the calling phone immediately gets a dial tone > If I dial at the called phone, no such behavior is noticed. What is happening is that the exchange is integrating the on hook portion of the series of pulses, when they reach the threashold that signals caller hangup, the called party is dumped. This explains your ability to dial small numbers (less than six) without releasing your call. When the dial reaches the return position you are again continuously drawing loop current so you find yourself staring at dial tone. The results from your trials at the called party is the same as what would happen if the called party disconnected for a short period. This behaviour does not occur in any electrmechanical exchanges that I have tried in the past but does occur on #1ESS and derivatives. I would be interested in learning of the response in other electronic exchanges if know the pedigree of your CO and can dust off your 500 sets or switch your set into pulse mode, let me know what you discover. Alan Rubinstein WB1EST 3COM Corp. Santa Clara, CA. (408) 764-5584 Internet alan_rubinstein@hq.3mail.3com.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 09:40:25 MDT From: houle@jupiter.nmt.edu (Paul Houle) Subject: Re: Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212 Organization: New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology I found a few more odd things. For one, our institutional phone system at Tech usually blocks any attempt to dial a long-distance number from most phones unless you dial a "TAC" number for billing authorization. Dialing 1-710-555-1212 caused a phone company intercept recording to come on; I don't remember exactly which one, which was a bit odd. At coin phones, calls to some exchanges in 710, such as 555 and 222 were routed to an operator intercept. Attempting to call 1-710-424- xxxx generated the intercept "We're sorry, but your call did not go through". Generally the phone would not return dial tone for about a minute after this. Twice upon calling 1-710-555-1212, an operator laughed and asked about who I was trying to reach. BTW, the operator claimed to be an AT&T operator. It seems to me that the best way for FEMA or some similiar organization to keep a secret area code is to have one or more special phone switches that recieve ANI -- some numbers might be blocked from it completely and always get an intercept. Others might always go through, or always go through to 710 services that they are authorized to use. The rest of the numbers will go to an "AT&T operator" (even if you place the call through Sprint or MCI). This operator will pretend it's an ordinary intercept unless you know exactly what to say to get through. [Moderator's Note: It seems an awful lot of low-level employees have to be experienced Pretenders then, doesn't it? AT&T has a few thousand operators who might answer such calls. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 09:21:09 -0700 From: David W. Barts Subject: Re: Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212 The Moderator notes: > [Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell intercepts after 1-710; no further > digits are accepted. You receieve the tones and "Your call cannot be > completed as dialed, please check the number and dial again, or ask > your operator to help you." So I guess 'any kid at a payphone' can > stand there and dial all he wants. I think a bit has to be set > somewhere which says the phone being used is able to call those > numbers. Otherwise you are 7448 outta luck. ^^^^ Shame on you, PAT! This is a Family Digest! :-) :-) US West (Pacific Northwest Bell) does nothing in particular after 1-710 is dialed. But if you complete the number by dialing seven more digits, you get the familiar " We're sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the number, and try again." recording. David Barts N5JRN UW Civil Engineering, FX-10 davidb@zeus.ce.washington.edu Seattle, WA 98195 [Moderator's Reply-in-Kind: You may accuse me of distributing a Family Digest using taxpayer supported facilities, but at least no one can claim I am Socially Responsible. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 11:37:37 PDT From: richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212 One more datapoint: from the 310 a/c (Tinsletown), PacBell allows the eleven digits of 1-710-555-1212, and then Jane tells me that my call cannot be completed as dialed. Rich Greenberg - N6LRT - 310-649-0238 - richg@hatch.socal.com [Moderator's Note: Speaking of Just Plain Jane, I received a few more replies about her, and I will try to get them out Sunday night. PAT] ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: Any News of CWA and AT&T? Organization: AT&T Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 13:40:51 GMT In article bwmohle@pbsdts.sdcrc. PacBell.COM writes: > I've been following the various articles on the negotiations between > the CWA and AT&T... However, the thread has kind of > dried up ... > [Moderator's Note: I haven't heard a thing recently. I guess they are > still negotiating (?). Comments from any insiders? PAT] Not that I'm an insider or anything ... taken from AT&T Today, the AT&T Public Relations newswhatever ... BARGAINING UPDATE *** Informal discussions continue in Washington, D.C. Several outstanding issues remain to be resolved. Newsline and AT&T TODAY will keep you informed when significant developments occur. Wow. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!houxa!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation [Moderator's Note: Outstanding issues = 'how long do we get for coffee break?'; 'how far is my desk from the drinking fountain and bathroom?'; 'how long do you have to work here (no, I meant 'be here') to get vacation?', etc. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: An Insider in Management Subject: Re: Any News of CWA and AT&T? Organization: AT&T Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 14:41:31 GMT > [Moderator's Note: I haven't heard a thing recently. I guess they are > still negotiating (?). Comments from any insiders? PAT] Pat, ON CONDITION OF ANONYMITY They are still negotiating a few sticky points, notably job security and a management-proposed pay cut to Phone Center employees (they currently make a flat hourly around $11 - $12 and management wants to go to hourly of $6 - $7 plus commission). If the other employees in the mall knew how much they were making, the whole shopping mall would go on strike! The unions are trying to get their workers to do certain "job actions", etc. They have demonstrated in front of muckity-mucks' homes. One day, they all wore black to one location. Another day, they all wore shorts. On Monday, they are all supposed to wear read and stand up for five minutes at 10:00 am to show support for the NJ Bell negotiations starting that day. I get the impression the union leadership is concerned that these actions are having little affect. That's probably because I don't think it really bothers management. More than that is a "feeling" of defensiveness I get when they tell each other how effective the job actions have been. For a recorded message giving a union perspective, call 201-276-7771. I should say that, though I am considered management, I don't rub shoulders with the managers over these union employees. It may bug *them* more than the people I work with (I guess the union people hope it does). Of course, we have a developer down the hall from me that wears shorts to work every day the outside temperature goes above 50 degrees (that's basically all year except for three or four months). One day, he showed up shoeless. Really! Again, please quote this as much as you want, just keep me anonymous. [Moderator's Note: I do not like anonymous messages. I occassionally make exceptions when *I* know who wrote them as is the case here. PAT] ------------------------------ From: brabo@busadm1.cba.hawaii.edu (Jan De Ryck) Subject: Re: Cycolac (Was How Bell Labs Selects Ringers) Organization: College Business Administration, University of Hawaii Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1992 00:42:40 GMT In article davidb@zeus.ce.washington. edu (David W. Barts) writes: > John Levine writes: >> Trivia question: What else do they use cycolac for? > I always thought the name for the plastic they made 500 sets from was > ABS. On the theory that cycolac and ABS are one and the same, I'll > answer "plastic drain pipes" to your question. I seem to recall that cycolac was used for the body of one of Citroen's cars (The Mehari???). The big advertising gimmick was that it was colored all trough, i.e. you could scratch it and still have it be the same color. Jan DE RYCK, systems engineer College of Business Administration, University of Hawaii at Manoa ------------------------------ From: mat%mole-end@uunet.UU.NET Subject: Re: Cycolac (Was How Bell Labs Selects Ringers) Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1992 23:36:13 GMT In article , David W. Barts writes: > John Levine writes: >> Trivia question: What else do they use cycolac for? > I always thought the name for the plastic they made 500 sets from was > ABS. On the theory that cycolac and ABS are one and the same, I'll > answer "plastic drain pipes" to your question. Wasn't Cycolac ABS used in football helmets? I worked on a phone project at a local major vendor and the sets we used were made out of an ABS made by Borg-Warner. They were so proud of it they ran ads featuring the phone sets. One day, after running into some frustrating multi-part bugs, I found out how tough the stuff is. I took one of the dinky little handsets in my hand and swung it hard from over my head to the edge of the table. Had I swung a hammer, I would have left a very deep scar in the table; instead I left a small nick (not 5 mm across) in one edge of the handset. Impressive stuff ... (This man's opinions are his own.) From mole-end Mark Terribile uunet!mole-end!mat, Somewhere in Matawan, NJ ------------------------------ From: bruce@camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) Subject: Re: Cycolac (Was How Bell Labs Selects Ringers) Date: 20 Jun 92 00:05:48 EDT Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. In article , David W. Barts writes: > I always thought the name for the plastic they made 500 sets from was > ABS. On the theory that cycolac and ABS are one and the same, I'll > answer "plastic drain pipes" to your question. Cycolac is someone's (Marbon Chemical?) brand name for their ABS resin. If it came from someone else, it is NOT Cycolac, but still is ABS. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #501 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05283; 22 Jun 92 0:59 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31306 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 21 Jun 1992 23:11:25 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30751 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 21 Jun 1992 23:11:17 -0500 Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 23:11:17 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206220411.AA30751@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #502 TELECOM Digest Sun, 21 Jun 92 23:11:22 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 502 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted (Erik Rauch) Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted (Rich Mintz) Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted (Jiro Nakamura) Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers (Ron Natalie) Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers (Bill Mayhew) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Steven S. Brack) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Robert S. Helfman) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Jeffrey Jonas) Re: Longest Phonecall (Brent Whitlock) Re: Longest Phonecall (Ron Natalie) Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 (Ron Natalie) Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 (Kenton Hoover) Re: RFC For Fax Specs (Eric Brunner) Re: FBI Requirement For Wiretaps; Making Someone Else Pay (Paul Robinson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Erik Rauch Subject: Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 10:51:56 EDT I've been reading about phone companies that charge for some kind of 'intercom' service. In my area under Bell Atlantic, this service is offered for free -- but Bell, of course, doesn't talk about it. It has been in existence for about eight years; it involves dialling a special 55x prefix and then the last four digits of your phone number (the x in 55x varies as your exchange.) Of course, you have to put up with a tone while you talk. But a useful service nonetheless. ------------------------------ From: rmintz@ecst.csuchico.edu (Rich Mintz) Subject: Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted Organization: California State University, Chico Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 00:08:14 GMT I've used the method of getting a ringback described by a user in one of the earlier messages also. At least in all the areas I've lived in, there is always a special three-digit prefix which corresponds to the one you're calling from which will perform this function. For example, if your phone number is 345-1234, there is an alternate xyz-1234 number which connects you to this "test" number. I've found this "alternate" prefix many times through sequential dialing with my modem and using the Hayes 'W' command to wait for a dial tone after the number is dialed (that's what you get when the test number answers) and testing whether the result code is "No Dialtone" or "No Carrier" (which means it DID find the dialtone and went on to wait for a carrier). Once the call completes and you get the dial-tone sound, a flash changes it to a higher pitched tone. From there you just hang up, and your phone will ring. Upon answering, you'll hear the same high pitched tone. At this point, you can hang up to stop, or do another flash so that you'll get yet another ringback when you hang up. I realize my description of how this works is a little different from the one described by the user in an earlier message ... perhaps they're due to variations on the equipment used at the CO, etc. Rich -> rmintz@cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu ------------------------------ From: jiro@shaman.com (Jiro Nakamura) Subject: Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted Organization: Shaman Consulting Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1992 05:53:34 GMT In article cavallarom@cpva.saic.com writes: > Pacific Telephone no longer charges for DTMF service. It is universal > in this area. They most probably raised the rates across the board as well, to "compensate" for the "lack of revenue." NYNEX does charge for DTMF ... Jiro Nakamura jiro@shaman.com (NeXTmail) NeXTwatch / Technical Editor 76711,542 (CIS) The Shaman Group +1 607 277-1440 (Voice/Fax) ------------------------------ From: ron@pilot.njin.net (Ron Natalie) Subject: Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers Date: 21 Jun 92 16:12:10 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Since you now have to get a social security number before you're weaned, let's just take the next logical step and go down to your local FCC office (maybe they could open an office within Social Security) and get your 'for-life' phone number issued. No more of this silly 700-number stuff from AT&T. Then the government will implant a little cellular phone into your body (shouldn't take to long for things to get to this point, especially with micro-cells) and we will be able to reach everyone, everywhere. Not to mention knowing where you are, BROTHER. You sound like you've sat through The President's Analyst too many times. ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 01:50:04 GMT In article Jeff Sicherman writes: > Then the government will implant a little cellular phone into your > body (shouldn't take to long for things to get to this point, > especially with micro-cells) and we will be able to reach everyone, > everywhere. Not to mention knowing where you are, BROTHER. > Wait a second, didn't I just see this scenario in a Borg episode of > Star Trek ... I KNEW those guys looked familiar. This reminds me of the classic spy spoof movie, The President's Analyst, starring James Coburn, Will Geer, et al. Coburn plays a psychiatrist who is recruited to be the US president's analyst. Every time the president suffers an impending break-down red flashing lights go off in Coburn's office. It turns out that everybody is spying on everybody else as the movie unfolds. Ultimately, the Telephone Company turns out to be the bad guy, taking Coburn hostage to convince him of a master plan as described below. The movie ends with a hillarious rescue sequence and and ending that telecom mavens would love. A must-see picture. Relased in 1967, it is an interesting social commentary. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-9995 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (140.220.1.1) ------------------------------ Date: 21 Jun 1992 13:27:01 -0400 (EDT) From: sbrack@jupiter.cse.UTOLEDO.edu (Steven S. Brack) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) In article edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) writes: > Jane is a real person who recorded for the Bell System for many years. Here in Ohio Bell territory, it has become rather rare to hear the pleasant woman's voice admonishing you to "first dial a '1'," or saying much of anything else for that matter. Instead we get a recording that sounds like it was made by a tech who didn't like OBT anymore. It's extremely scratchy, and typically goes like this: " call as dialed. Please try your call again." Note, no SIT even. Jane Barbie's gone, at least from OBT, and her replacement doesn't like me. 8) This recording style appears all over the Toledo area, so it doesn't seem accidental. Who knows, maybe they have to pay Jane a royalty or something. 8) ------------------------------ From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 21:16:54 GMT In article shaun@octel.com (Shaun Case) writes: > Jane Barbie is the real name of the woman who did the American > English Aspen prompts. There's a signed B&W photo of her up in our > voice lab, which I just viewed scant moments ago. Jane also did voice > work for Pac Bell, specifically directory assistance (411) and > time-of-day (767xxxx). Yah, she's the Time Lady. If we had a scanner > handy, I'd post a GIF, but ... alas. Jane Barbie was also the female voice heard on the voice-overs for WWVH (the Hawaiian version of WWV). [Moderator's Note: Her voice was also used for Time of Day here in Chicago for many years (312-CAThedral-8000). She had recorded the phrase 'at the signal, the time will be' and the digits which were then patched together as appropriate. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 13:00:15 -0400 From: krfiny!jeffj@uunet.uu.net Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Here's an article of tangental TELCOM interest I'm forwarding from sci.electronics: from helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) Message-ID: <1992Jun16.071044.1540@aero.org> Subject: Re: Accurate Clock thru RS-232?? Visiting WWV was a real kick for me as an adult, because as a kid, I remember hearing that voice booming out of the night "National Bureau of Standards WWV. When the tone returns, Eastern Standard Time is: xx hours xx minutes". Of course the wording changed when Washington discovered someone lived west of the Mississippi and they went first to Greenwich Mean Time, then UCT. The voice announcements were done by Don Elliott of Atlanta; the guy now (the format changed a couple of years ago, I think) seems to have a distinctly Eastern-seaboard sound, to my ears. (Does anyone know any more about who it is?) The "At the tone, xx hours xx minutes Coordinated Universal Time" has a slightly stilted "lilt" to it that conjures up "The East". The announcer for WWVH in Hawaii was Jane Barbe of Atlanta, who was, I believe, the "Time Lady" and several other announcements for the former Bell System and the Baby Bells (y'all devotees of 'comp.dcom. telecom' probably know that already!) ------------- Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@synsys.uucp [Modertator's Note: Did you know that to avoid interference with each other in the western USA (where both are heard with equal clarity) WWVH states the time about fifteen seconds before the minute, then remains silent while WWV repeats the announcement about seven seconds before the minute. Then both resume their tone simultaneously. Likewise, when either station has a longer message to read, the other one discontinues the tone for the minute or two the first one is speaking (but they continue the ticking in the background). The two stations never speak at the same time; announcements are read one minute by WWV and a minute later (or earlier) by WWVH. As soon as one finishes speaking, listen carefully -- you will hear the other one start with the same message, and the silence is reversed. When they are finished, both resume their tone signal simulataneously. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bkwg0457@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 16:20:15 GMT > Speaking of phone calls, I remember hearing a story once about a girl > who went to Paris for the summer, while her boyfriend went to Hawaii. > They were going to miss each other so much they had to talk often, but > they couldn't afford a hefty phone bill. So what they did was to leave > the phone off the hook at both ends for the entire month of July. They > would talk, make arrangements for what time they'd come back, and talk > some more. When the phone bill eventually arrived, it was for a couple > thousand dollars, and the girl took it to the phone company and complained > that this COULDN'T be right, and they decided it was a computer glitch > and deleted it. > It was told to me as a FOAF, has anybody heard anything similar? It is, at least, plausible. I had an experience in 1986 which supports my statement. One evening I called a friend in Illinois from Virginia. We talked for maybe 20 minutes, said goodbye, and hung up. The next evening, after I had come home from work, I went to pick up the phone and call someone. I noticed that the phone was not properly seated in its holder, and there was no dial tone. I thought that I probably didn't put it back in place properly the night before. I pressed the switch, got a dial tone, and thought nothing more of it. In about a month, our phone bill arrived. There was a nearly 24 hour long distance phone call to Illinois billed on it. When my housemate, who had the phone in his name, told me this, I was astonished. The number called belonged to my friend who I had called that night. I figured that what happened was that the switch didn't disconnect the call after my friend hung up because my phone didn't get hung up properly. My housemate called the long distance company (I don't remember which it was) and told them that there had been a mistake. This phone call only lasted for a few minutes, yet was billed for 24 hours. We could prove that all of us were at work all day, and that the person at the other end was also at work all day. The L.D. rep. agreed that a 24 hour phone call was a little ridiculous, and removed it from the bill. * * * * * * --> DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself. <-- * * * * * * Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology bwhitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ From: ron@pilot.njin.net (Ron Natalie) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall Date: 21 Jun 92 13:53:46 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. There's a story about two students, one from MIT and one from Stanford who left a phone off the hook for a semester. They avoid billing by having the phone service terminated before they ever hung up. Ron [Moderator's Note: Cute, but I think everyone is aware that telco sends out post-disconnect billings all the time for any unfinished business at the time service was discontinued. And of course the call would have terminated when the service did. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ron@pilot.njin.net (Ron Natalie) Subject: Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 Date: 21 Jun 92 14:00:02 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. > I don't know anything about 710, but it probably isn't a good idea to > give it tons of net.coverage if it is used for anything to do with > national security. Oh, come off it. If the information gets anywhere close to here were in deep kimche anyhow. The TELECOM Digest is probably the most benign of the forums for "telecommunications enthusiats." ------------------------------ From: shibumi@turbo.bio.net (Kenton A. Hoover) Subject: Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 Date: 21 Jun 92 21:52:11 GMT Reply-To: shibumi@turbo.bio.net Organization: GenBank Computing Resource for Mol. Biology I just tried 1 710 555 1212 from a trunk in the 415-962 exchange. I got an intercept, which said: "We're sorry, it is not necessary to dial a 1 or 0 before dialing this number. Please hang up and dial again." There are these guys in black hats floating around outside the building now. In a more serious vein, perhaps its all something to do with FTS2000 ... Kenton A. Hoover BIOSCI Network Administrator (bionet newsgroups) shibumi@presto.ig.com GenBank/IntelliGenetics, Inc. 415 962 7300 shibumi@genbank.bio.net ------------------------------ From: adobe!brunner@uunet.UU.NET (Eric Brunner) Subject: Re: RFC For Fax Specs? Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1992 17:41:32 GMT In article , mf15@prism.gatech.edu (Monte Freeman) writes: > I need the RFC (or some other type of "oficial document" ) that > gives the specs for fax transmissions. A description of the protocol, > Anyone have any idea where I can find something like this? > Preferably in on-line Internet accessible format ... See rfc1314, "A File Format for the Exchange of Images in the Internet", but A. Katz and D. Cohen of ISI, April 1992, in any up-to-date rfc repository near you. #include Eric Brunner, consulting at and not speaking for Adobe uucp: uunet!practic!brunner or uunet!adobe!brunner ------------------------------ Reply-To: tdarcos@mcimail.com From: Paul Robinson Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 19:57:16 EDT Subject: Re: FBI Requirement for Wiretaps; Making Someone Else Pay. It's funny, when Pat mentioned Ayn Rand's {Atlas Shrugged}, (my favorite book; I've read it seven times!), a line from the book came to mind. Francisco D'Anconia is talking to Rearden: A worse act than murder is to sell someone suicide as an act of virtue; worse than that is to convince them to jump into a furnace, voluntarily, as an act of charity; worse than that is to get them to build the furnace, besides. To translate that, the FBI wants the ability to make traces and monitorings of communications equiment at any time they want to do so (remember, a court order is done by request of the agency). Further, they want the provider of communications to make it easier for someone to spy on their customers, and further; to make them pay the cost of allowing the government to spy on them in the first place! If I own an apartment building and the government wants to tap into a telephone, they don't turn around and make ME pay the cost of installing the line running to their office, (what they probably do is declare the building confiscated for Civil Forfeiture, then, since they own the building, put the taps in themselves! :( ) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #502 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21209; 22 Jun 92 9:04 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13747 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 22 Jun 1992 07:15:44 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10163 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 22 Jun 1992 07:15:36 -0500 Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 07:15:36 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206221215.AA10163@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #503 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Jun 92 07:15:30 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 503 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: UK Directory Enquiries (David Lesher) Re: UK Directory Enquiries (Nigel Allen) Re: UK Directory Enquiries (Alan Barclay) Re: UK Directory Enquiries (Leonard Erickson) Re: Influencing PUCs (Charlie Mingo) Re: Influencing PUCs (Jon Baker) Re: Is This Phone Legal? (R. Kevin Oberman) Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers (Jeff Sicherman) Re: C&P To Revoke Telephone Number (William Degnan) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Lesher Subject: Re: UK Directory Enquiries Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 18:12:15 EDT Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher) Others said: > [story about free directory enquiries from BT when using payphones] > This is the way it is in California as well, both from Bell and > COCOTS. > [Moderator's Note: Ditto here in Chicago, where IBT payphone calls to > Directory Assistance are at no charge. PAT] Here's a repeat unanswered question. Do the FCC rules on COCOTS cover DA? In Miami, all the COCOTS gave free DA. Here in suburban VA, they want $0.50 or more. wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 20:00:00 -0400 Subject: Re: UK Directory Enquiries Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto In Volume 12, Issue 487, sgraham@autelca.ascom.ch (Stephen Graham), notes that British Telecom charges for Directory Enquiry calls from residential and business lines, but not from pay phones. Most North American telephone companies charge for most calls to Directory Assistance, with exceptions for the elderly and persons with a disability (in some jurisdictions) and for new numbers that are not yet listed in the directory (in Bell Canada territory, at least). Calls for local directory assistance from telephone company-operated pay phones are invariably free in North America, as far as I know. BT does not provide directories in its pay phones, and when you complain about this, says that Directory Enquiry calls are free. I don't think public opinion or the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) would allow BT to charge for Directory Enquiry calls unless directories were once again installed in pay phones. I can understand removing directories from pay phones along the street or in public parks, but I think it's unfair to remove directories from railway stations, shops and other locations which have reasonably good security. Besides, if you want to look through the yellow pages to locate a restaurant or hotel, being able to call Directory Enquiries free isn't particularly useful. Nigel Allen, Toronto nigel.allen@canrem.com Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario/Detroit, MI World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044 [Moderator's Note: Doesn't your Directory service include a supervisor to do yellow pages lookups? Many telcos in the USA have that. They are not permitted to recommend or give only one listing unless you tell them the category (restaurant), what you think the name is, and the street address. If they cannot find it exactly, then they tell you places with similar names or addresses on the same street, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Alan Barclay Subject: Re: UK Directory Enquiries Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 13:33:55 BST sgraham@autelca.ascom.ch (Stephen Graham) discussed BT charging for non-payphones and not charging for BT payphones for number advice. > payphones, I get the impression that if you dial 192 on a public > payphone that this is still a free service and no coins are cashed. > Can anyone confirm this as I think it's a bit of an oversight on the > part of BT not to charge payphone users for this service. It would It is true, basically BT was told by OFTEL (Office Of Telecommunications, the UK-wide equivilant of the PUC's) that if they charged for enquiries they would have to have paper telephone directories available in the box. BT decided that it would be more economical to not charge for enquiries from BT payphones. Private payphones are still charged for, and it's up to the owner of the payphone to provide a telephone number service. Alan Barclay, iT, Barker Lane, CHESTERFIELD, S40 1DY, Derbys, England alan@ukpoit.uucp, ..!uknet!ukpoit!alan, FAX:+44 246214353, VOICE:+44 246214261 iT - The Information Technology Business Of The Post Office In Tune With Technology [Moderator's Note: Does anyone remember when the old style pay phone booths in the USA had the little shelf mounted on the side of the booth, a small electric light attachment and a dozen or more phone books there attached with a chain to keep them from walking away? PAT] ------------------------------ From: leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) Subject: Re: UK Directory Enquiries Reply-To: 70465.203@compuserve.com Organization: SCN Research/Qic Laboratories of Tigard, Oregon. Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 00:45:57 GMT stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > In article sgraham@autelca.ascom.ch > (Stephen Graham) writes: > [story about free directory enquiries from BT when using payphones] > This is the way it is in California as well, both from Bell and > COCOTS. The line of reasoning is that many pay stations don't have > directories, so it is in the public interest to allow people to get > the numbers for free. Presumably, when calling from home, you have > your paper directory handy, and get to pay for the convenience if it > is too much trouble for you to use it. Yes, but what gets annoying is when you *have* to call directory assistance because the number is too recent to have been included in the current directory! I tend to resent having to pay for information that I *cannot* get without going through DA. Leonard Erickson leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com CIS: [70465,203] 70465.203@compuserve.com FIDO: 1:105/56 Leonard.Erickson@f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org (The CIS address is checked daily. The others infrequently) ------------------------------ From: Charlie.Mingo@p4218.f70.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Charlie Mingo) Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 16:47:50 -0500 Subject: Re: Influencing PUCs polk@girtab.usc.edu (Corinna Polk) writes: > So then, what does the normal $35-$50 line installation fee cover? My > impression was that paying that standard installation fee gave me a > phone line, regardless of the situation. If I had the lines already > running into the house, then it was a simple install that required a > data entry (aka "Customer Service") person to type on a terminal. If > it required a new drop then someone was to do that. But either way, > the price was the same, the former installs covering the cost of the > latters. Isn't this the way PacBell works? When I was getting service from Illinois Bell in Chicago, there was a $35 charge to create a billing record in the telco computer, plus another $23 "line activation" charge (ie, throwing a switch on the computer). This was if you actually had a line in place, waiting to be turned on. If you needed a service visit, there was a flat $90 surcharge. My solution? Since this was in a University of Chicago dorm, I ran phone cables through the wall sockets and split the cost of a phone with my two neighbours. ------------------------------ From: asuvax!gtephx!bakerj@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Jon Baker) Subject: Re: Influencing PUCs Organization: AG Communication Systems, Phoenix, Arizona Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 15:01:04 GMT In article , john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > amdunn@mongrel.UUCP (Andrew M. Dunn) writes: (in response to this from > me:) >> I have been following this out of the corner of my eye. What is this >> "third line cost" business? Why does it cost more to put in line three >> than line one or two? I called a USWorst service rep, about additional lines, and she said that it costs the same to put in line one, line two, line three, and so forth. Basic residential service is $19/month. Installation fee is $46. There is an additional first-time-only 'construction charge' of $75 to cover US Worst's costs of laying all the initial cable in the subdivision. It is NOT a charge to do any ADDITIONAL construction -- it is a charge for construction they have already done. Once I pay that $75 for a line, no one who ever occupies my house ever again will have to pay for it. Any additional construction, ditch-digging, cable-laying, house-wiring, etc, that is required is going to cost more, or you can do it yourself. >> Because the two-pair cable that carries lines one and two is installed >> at the time the house is built. > And in whose infinite wisdom was a TWO line cable deemed adequate for > your residence? Did you make that decision? Did telco? Did the > developer? If it was someone other than yourself, why do YOU have to > pay for someone else's lack of planning? Four-wire telephone cable is standard for new homes, at least out here. Most people don't have 16 residence lines in their house, John! It would be very, very rare to have more than two lines. >> Everybody is entitled to whatever they want. They are NOT entitled to >> expect the other subscribers to pay for it, if their usage exceeds the >> norm. If you PAY for a third line (ie. pay what it costs to get one >> put in you can HAVE one. I don't expect the subscriber base to subsidize my extra lines, but it's bullshit to make me pay for initial cable laying just because I'm the first guy to occupy this house. That should be amortized over the expected life of the line, and built into the standard residential rate. > Side note: Please, PLEASE do not feed me the PC "socially responsible" > bull about how residence is subsidized. First, I do not believe it. It was subsidized pre-divestiture, but I don't think it is any more. I think basic residential service pretty holds it's own these days. Especially at $20/month, $50 start-up, and $75 first-time hookup charge. > providing it). And give me a break: does USWest charge BUSINESSES a > cool grand to install a third line? I will bet that if they did, the > word "bypass" would start to figure heavily in many Southwestern > businesses' vocabulary. If they're going to charge me $1K+ for a third line, I might as well put in a T1 and multiplexer. J.Baker asuvax!gtephx!bakerj DISCLAIMER : I am not an official representative of US Worst, just a dissatisfied customer. ------------------------------ From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: Is This Phone Legal? Date: 21 Jun 92 15:39:24 GMT In article , jerryp@key.amdahl.com (J. R. Pendleton) writes: > This thing was lime green and it looked like a standard desk set with > a thyroid problem. It had a big master padlock and a hand lettered > sign that said "Public Phone - 25 cents for 3 Minutes" In California the phone is NOT legal. The PUC has set a maximum charge for local calls of $.20 and mandates free access to 911 (no coin required). I don't recall the minimum time required, but it's over three minutes. While I'm not about to call the PUC on this, someone should let the owner know that it is in violation of CPUC regulations and that the fine ($1000?) would certainly blow away any profits! R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: oberman1@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 Disclaimer: Don't take this too seriously. I just like to improve my typing and probably don't really know anything useful about anything. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 18:15:07 -0700 From: Jeff Sicherman Subject: Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers Organization: Cal State Long Beach In article skaggs@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor. edu (Gary Skaggs) writes: > Jeff Sicherman's comment (tongue-in-cheek :-)) regarding SSNs and > implanted cellphones brought to the surface one of my pet peeves: nine > digit zip codes. > Number of nine digit zips : 1,000,000,000 > That's four zip codes for every man, woman, and child in the US. You > could have one for your home, one for your office, one for your > vacation home in the Ozarks, and one for your mistress' house :-). > Why then is my zip code only down to the route carrier level? Even though this is not comp.usps, a few points are in order. Carrier Route is not exactly the same as ZIP code. Without going into boring, excrutiating detail, the current ZIP coding takes delivery down to buildings, parts of buildings, apartments houses or parts thereof (depending upon number of units) or, for residential areas with houses or small business areas, a side of a street. The intent is to reduce the sorting burden on the mail-delivery-person who currently spends, on average, up to half of each work day sorting the mail before going out on the delivery route. The Postal Services goal is to get this down even further by having the current sorting machinery (which reads the postnet bar codes you will find on the bottom of envelopes) to sort down to the delivery point order so that the in-house preparation is reduced to about an hour or so. Anyway, to get to this point, mass mailers and others doing there own postnet coding (for rate incentives) will be expected, within the next few years, to encode an 11-digit POSTNET code. Note that the 11 digits will not be expected to be on the readable address, just the bar coding. In most cases, the last two digits will come from your street address or will default to 99 in cases where there is none. > My 73160-2135 just gets it into the carrier's bag. > I should be able to get mail addressed to 73160-2135 with nothing else > on it ... no name, no address, no city (listed as OKC not Moore for > zip purposes, grumble) but NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. That just goes to the > carrier's bag. What a waste! Let's raise the rates some more! I see, you want BIG UNCLE to know where you are at all times to get your mail to you ?? Actually, the elevn-digit code will pretty much do that but, as you see, it is an automation artifact, not a formal addressing mechanism as you propose. > [Moderator's Note: My unique one mprovement

lan code is > 60690-1570. Put just that on an envelope; it comes to my box. PAT] Carerful, PAT, there might be a few people out there who might like to send you some contraband material ... Jeff Sicherman ------------------------------ From: William.Degnan@mdf.FidoNet.Org (William Degnan) Date: 21 Jun 92 14:42:47 Subject: Re: C&P To Revoke Telephone Number Michael Harpe (meharp01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu) writes to all: > Every time I have ordered telephone service from South Central Bell, > they have always told me my number when I ordered the service. No > disclaimer about it not being guaranteed at all was given. I would > think that if the telco's databases were worth a darn, they would be > able to guarantee that. After all, you're gonna use SOME number, why > not that one? With all the circuit orders I have issued on behalf of clients, I have only had one TN that wasn't the number that was preassigned. But "not guaranteed until in and working" is still a good admonition. The further ahead you reserve a number, the more time there is for somebody else to get it assigned to them. If you order all your company's printing to be done based on a number reservation, you get what you deserve. I normally suggest that we have the telco turn the number on -- even if it is only as an RCF before the order goes to the printer. When they are actually ready for the number it can be installed at their new premises. Much of the discussion is about a telco changing numbers long after they are installed. The general exchange tariff for your telco likely states that they own the numbers and that they can change them whenever they want. Just the same, I always cringe when I see that a major rehome is being done and that thousands of customers numbers are being changed. I would hope that they had exausted all other options first. It just isn't good customer relations. William Degnan, Communications Network Solutions Independent Consultants in Telecommunications and Technology- P.O. Drawer 9530 | wdegnan@mdf.fidonet.org | mfwic@mdf.fidonet.org Austin, TX 78766-9530 | !wdegnan@attmail.com | Voice +1 512 323 9383 Origin: Private Line - Stealth Opus in Austin (1:382/39.0) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #503 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa23011; 22 Jun 92 9:42 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29652 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 22 Jun 1992 07:55:51 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15595 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 22 Jun 1992 07:55:43 -0500 Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 07:55:43 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206221255.AA15595@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #504 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Jun 92 07:55:30 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 504 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Government and Corporate Sysops Monitoring Users and Email (Jim Warren) Joan Kennelly (was Jane Barbie) (Tony Harminc) AT&T Uses Manual Billing For Some Calls to San Francisco (John L. Shelton) Bell of PA Overtaxing the 'Burbs (Scott Green) Bell Canada Appeals Competition Ruling (David Leibold) Payphone Pornography Without the Price (David Leibold) Motorola Watch Pagers (Karl Bunch) Ameritech PCS (Monty Solomon) List of no Calling Card Surcharge Carriers Wanted (Paul Robinson) California CLASS Ruling on Call Trace Question (R. Kevin Oberman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 17:46:26 PDT From: jwarren@autodesk.com (Jim Warren) Subject: Government and Corporate Sysops Monitoring Users and Email Last month, I gave a morning talk to an all-day meeting of an organization of systems administrators of mini-class, mostly-shared systems -- most of them employed by Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. Initially titled, "Dodging Pitfalls in the Electronic Frontier," by mutual agreement with the organizers, we re-titled it, "Government Impacts on Privacy and Security." However, it was the same talk. :-) It was based on information and perspectives aired during recent California Senate Judiciary privacy hearings, and those presented at the 1991 and 1992 conferences on Computers, Freedom & Privacy. (I organized and chaired the first CFP and co-authored its transcripts, available from the IEEE Computer Society Press, 714-821-8380, Order #2565.) The talk was long; the audience attentive; the questions and discussion extensive. The attendees were clearly and actively interested in the issues. At one point, I asked "How many have *NOT* been asked by their management or superiors to monitor their users and/or examine or monitor users' email." Only about 20% held up their hands -- even though I emphasized that I was phrasing the question in a way that those who would be proud to hold up their hands, could to do so. Jim Warren, jwarren@well.sf.ca.us -or- jwarren@autodesk.com [Moderator's Note: I present this as food for thought, and suggest that continued discussion with Mr. Warren continue in the comp. privacy forum or email. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 01:02:51 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Joan Kennelly (was Jane Barbie) On Feb. 4th, 1991, the CBC Radio program "As It Happens" interviewed Joan Kennelly (my guess at spelling) of Oakland, California. Ms. Kennelly is the recorded voice of several services, including Northern Telecom Meridian Mail, Pacific Bell Message Centre, various supermarket checkout counter UPC readers, and "interstate calls in the eastern US". The interview is about ten minutes, and discusses what is special about her voice that makes it suitable for digitizing and editing. She gives a number of examples, including lessons to the interviewer on "smiling while you speak" and so on. She does sound familiar to me from somewhere. The interviewer (Michael Enright -- who is usually one of the best in the world) is a little out of form in this one, but it's still very interesting. The recording quality is excellent. Cassette tapes of the interview can be ordered from the CBC for about $20 (I forget the exact amount I paid, but it was less than $25). PLEASE NOTE: I cannot copy my tape for you. I signed a copyright agreement that prohibits other than personal use of the tape. Tapes can be ordered from: As it Happens Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio Current Affairs Dept. Box 500, Station 'A' Toronto, Ontario M5W 1E6 Specify the date (Feb 4/91) and the interview title "Electronic Voice". The CBC will send you a copyright form which you sign and return with payment. I managed to do the first part over the phone, thus avoiding one mailing out of four. The number is +1 416 975-3311. As it Happens is heard across the country on CBC AM stations, overseas on Radio Canada International, and in the US on many NPR stations. I have no connection with the CBC or Ms. Kennelly. Tony H. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 06:09:59 -0700 From: jshelton@ads.com (John L. Shelton) Subject: AT&T Uses Manual Billing For Some Calls to San Francisco Yes, it's true. Last night I needed to page a co-worker, who has a San Francisco beeper rented from Pagenet. I was in NYC, and called using my AT&T calling card. Before AT&T even asked for my card number, I got a message that the number could not be reached as dialed, and the office code was "212T"; the call was being blocked in NYC. I had tried this earlier in the week and gotten the same message, but was in a hurry so didn't track it down. This time I had the time. Calls to his beeper worked just fine from the client's office earlier in the week, but I don't know what LD company they use. At least I knew that the number was valid, and that some LD companies can connect. Thinking that the hotel might have some special arrangement with AT&T, I bypassed their standard routing by using 1-800-CALL-ATT but this didn't work either. The nice voice asked me to dial the number twice, then told me to hang up and dial again. I tried twice. Finally, I called the operator, who informed me that she couldn't place the call on the AT&T network. She said the company owning the exchange was refusing calls from AT&T. To solve the problem, she called a Pac Bell operator, and had that operator complete the call. Both operators stayed on the line during the five second duration of the call (long enough for me to punch in my number). The AT&T operator told me I'd have to go through this ritual next time, and informed me that she would submit a manual (paper?) ticket for billing purposes. How many questions does this episode bring to mind? John ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 11:02:11 -0400 From: green@WILMA.WHARTON.UPENN.EDU Subject: Bell of PA Overtaxing the 'Burbs October 1 last year, the PA state legislature allowed the City of Philadelphia to collect an additional 1% sales tax on top of the state's 6%. In April, I happened to notice that I, a suburbanite just outside the city, was being charged this 1% local tax. My CSR down at Bell looked at my record and noticed immediately (these folks are *amazaing*) that neither my address nor exchange was not in Philadelphia. "No Problem," she said. "We'll change the coding and issue the refund." Case closed. Not. The following month (no credit, no change), a different CSR reached similar conclusions about my account. "Perhaps," he said, "the code change was entered too late to be reflected on the bill." That could be. It *was* only two weeks before my closing date that CSR 1 made the change. The computer can be awfully slow sometimes. As far as the credit for tax paid in error, "perhaps Accounting was backed up. You should definitely see it on the next bill." The next bill arrived with the credit. And the tax continuing to show up. CSR 3 had a couple of real good explanations for this one. "For the purposes of 911 emergency services, I (suburban exchange, zip, and fire and police services) was considered part of Philadelphia County. We are aware of the problem, but it is a very complicated computer system and takes time to reprogram." More than nine months? It was time to play the trump card. "P-U-C," I said. Well, he practically begged me to speak with his Customer Assurance people instead of the PUC. Since Bell was already aware of the problem, it really wouldn't help to bring them in, he explained. Well, after declining his offer to speak with others, he told me that he would vigorously pursue the problem, and has called back once to tell me that he was still working on it. The moral, of course, is Check Your Phone Bill[sm]. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, instead of the PUC, I've contacted the {Philadelphia Inquirer}, because they love utility-bashing, plus they've got the resources to track down other victims. scott ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 19:23:45 EDT From: David Leibold Subject: Bell Canada Appeals Competition Ruling Bell Canada has decided to fight portions of the historic CRTC decision that allows Unitel and BCRL/Call-Net to provide competing long distance networks, despite statements in {The Toronto Star} which suggest that Bell has retracted an earlier intention not to appeal any decision on the competition proposal. Bell maintains that it accepts competition in principle, but at issue are the terms under which the CRTC granted Unitel and BCRL the access. Bell claims it must subsidise local service with long distance revenues to the tune of 17c/minute while the CRTC decision only requires Unitel and BCRL to pay out 11c/min. Bell is also objecting to having to assume the large share of costs to install competitive access as per CRTC order. The appeal will likely delay competition in Canada; however, it appears unlikely that the fact of competition will be altered. More battles to come yet ... watch this Digest. dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 92 19:35:20 EDT From: David Leibold Subject: Payphone Pornography Without the Price A Canadian Press despatch reported on payphones in the Ottawa area which allowed access to 976 numbers toll-free. The Bell Canada tariffs do not allow for 976 access from payphones, thus this situation would be a switch programming error somewhere along the way. The result was a flurry of free fone porn calls which started in late 1990. The situation came to light only when an Ottawa Citizen reporter advised Bell Canada. Of course, one would not expect the callers themselves to be hasty to report this find to the telco. Such cheap thrills were well-known in the high school community; one Grade 10 student remarked "It's perverted". Specifically, payphones in the west end of Ottawa and Nepean had the 976 bug. dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 23:08:09 GMT From: karl@ttank.ttank.com (Karl Bunch) Subject: Motorola Watch Pagers Reply-To: !karl@ttank.ttank.com Organization: Think Tank Software, Norwalk, CA Anybody have experience with the "watch" pagers made by Motorola? I've been carrying a cell phone and pager for quite some time now. It seems the best solution for my needs. But, I am tired of having the pager on my belt. The local "paging" services have told me they've "had a lot of problems" with the watches. They claim they break down a lot and waste batteries like mad. The current pager I have eats batteries, so that's no big supprise. But, if they are prone to failure I certainly don't want to plop $350.00 down just to have it break on me. Are there other alternatives? Email to me and I'll summarize if there is enough interest. Thanks in advance, Karl Bunch UUCP: ..!uunet!cerritos.edu!ttank!karl Think Tank Software INTERNET: karl@ttank.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 06:09:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Ameritech PCS Ameritech Wednesday began an 18-month consumer test of a revolutionary portable phone that will allow users to make and receive phone calls using regular phone lines instead of a cellular phone network. The new system -- called personal communcations services, or PCS -- uses miniaturized cordless telephones that are connected to regular phone lines through a digital radio system. The phones can be used on the street, in shopping areas, business districts or residential areas as long as they are within range of small transmitting antennae. Antennae are being installed at intervals of around 200 yards throughout the downtown Chicago area and in selected suburban locations for the PCS test. The new phones must be used from within the designated areas, though calls can be made to anywhere. Initially, 200 people will take part in the PCS test. The number of participants will be expanded to 1,000 by the end of the year. Ameritech spokesman Steve Ford said in the first phase of the test PCS users will only be able to make outgoing calls. But he said users will be able to both make and receive calls by the end of the year. In an interim phase, PCS users will be able to receive pages on the portable phones and automatically return those calls. The PCS phones, made by suburban Schaumburg-based Motorola, have a feature that allows pages to be returned by simply pressing two buttons. Ameritech and Motorola estimate the phones eventually will be priced at less than $100, though they did not provide any estimate of initial pricing. PCS customers pay only for the calls they make, with the price of a local call approximating that of a public telephone call. Long-distance service will be provided by Sprint, and Bank Illinois will provide billing services. Unlike car phones, PCS units initially cannot be used while traveling because the technology is not yet able to pass calls between transmitters. Users must remain in the coverage area of the transmitter where the call initiated or the connection will be broken. But Ameritech said a feature allowing communcation "on the move" is expected to be available later in the trial. The key advantages of PCS are the high-quality sound, reduced power requirements and longer battery life, The phones are about as big as a deck of cards. Information gathered in the Ameritech test will be shared with the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC has granted Ameritech and more than 70 other firms experimental licenses for PCS systems, but has not yet determined who will be authorized to provide the services on a commercial basis. [Moderator's Note: Ameritech/IBT are certainly very progressive and technologically advanced telcos. I'm glad to be in their region. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDarcos@MciMail.Com From: Paul Robinson, Contractor Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 06:34:48 EDT Subject: List of no Calling Card Surcharge Carriers Wanted I'd like to collect a list of telephone carriers that the users on here are currently using which operate using calling cards (their own or telephone company ones) that the carrier does not impose a surcharge for calls placed via a calling card, either credit or prepaid. And except for those that use predeposit calling cards (where you are pre- purchasing the value of calls on the card in advance, and even then the only charge should be for the amount of value purchased), there should be no special charges, i.e. no monthly minimums, and no extra charges imposed (if they require it, I'll accept a fee of 50c in any month that bills are mailed; if the carrier uses credit cards or predeposit, there should be no surcharge). I'll post (and E-Mail those who request) the list of carriers I get, if any. Please respond via E-Mail to TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM. What I am looking for are companies that either use an 1-800 number or (in rare cases) use the 950 exchange in most of the country; I am looking specifically for companies which can be accessed essentially anywhere in the U.S. (They may exclude calls made from Alaska and Hawaii). I know there is at least one company because I used to use one that did exactly this. While the usual rates for a telephone call by most carriers are within 1-2c a minute, the usual 75-85c surcharge for each call can make them unfeasable for short or non-business calls. Also, does anyone know how a carrier gets an 800 number for this purpose? One can't offer long distance calls at 12c a minute for night rates when 800 access lines run 15c a minute, now can they? Paul Robinson Opinion not necessarily anyone else's. ------------------------------ From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: California CLASS ruling on Call Trace question Date: 21 Jun 92 15:54:12 GMT News reports of the ruling have one feature that I'm unclear on, Call-Trace. I have two newspaper articles on the subject and one says that it will be available on all phones on switches supporting the new features at $10 per use. Another said that it would require a $5 activation fee and $5 per use. Anyone know which it is? I think, from a public safety perspective, that everyone should have this available. I want them to catch the caller after the FIRST call, not after the first call, a day to call in the request for service and N days getting it into the switch. R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: oberman1@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 Disclaimer: Don't take this too seriously. I just like to improve my typing and probably don't really know anything useful about anything. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #504 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa26766; 23 Jun 92 10:24 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14294 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 23 Jun 1992 07:50:01 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11869 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 23 Jun 1992 07:49:53 -0500 Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1992 07:49:53 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206231249.AA11869@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #505 TELECOM Digest Tue, 23 Jun 92 07:49:57 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 505 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Call For Help re: Denmark (Carl Wright) NTC Long Distance Telephone (Frank Keeney) Renaming CuD as comp.society.cu-digest (Usenet Group) (CUD Moderators) Phone Keypad Interfaces to Enhanced Telephone Services (Craig Hubley) Telephone Tone Control (Craig Hubley) New List: Cellular and Related Technologies Mailing List (Youngblood With NETel, is it an UPgrade or a DOWNgrade? (Scott Fybush) Strange Message on Answering Machine (Satish Pai) MCI Phone Bill (John Staub) CID/California (Steven H. Lichter) Batman Well Connected? (Dr. Ross Alan Stapleton) Messages Were Overflowing Again (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: wright@irie.ais.org (Carl Wright) Subject: Call For Help re: Denmark Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 16:15:43 EDT Organization: UMCC - Ann Arbor, MI USA I have an assignment involving phone calling from Denmark. I would like to contact six or more people in Denmark whom I can ask questions about making calls in Denmark. The answers will be obvious to people who use the Danish system. Please contact me via email or phone. Carl Wright Lynn-Arthur Associates, Inc. Internet: wright@ais.org 2350 Green Rd., #160 Voice: 1 313 995 5590 EST Ann Arbor, MI 48105 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 13:02 EDT Reply-To: frank@calcom.shecora.sai.com From: frank@calcom.shecora.sai.com (Frank Keeney) Subject: NTC Long Distance Telephone Announcement of new features with NTC long distance telephone service: * 6 second billing after the first 18 seconds. * No surcharge calling cards. * 800 inbound service as low as $5.00 per month, plus usage. * Daytime rates as low as $.1699 with usage greater than $350/mo. * No advance fee or monthly fees for Dial-1 service. Frank Keeney Internet: frank@calcom.shecora.sai.com Calcom Communications or PO Box 2912 frank.keeney@f745.n102.z1.fidonet.org Culver City, CA 90232 BBS (818) 791-8680 v.32bis ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 12:27 CDT From: Cu Digest (tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu) Subject: Renaming CuD as comp.society.cu-digest (Usenet Group) Chip Rosenthal has taken the initiative to propose that the Usenet version of Cu Digest (CuD) be changed from ALT.society.cu-digest to COMP.society.cu-digest. There are several reasons why the alt-to-comp shift would be useful. First, the number of Usenet sites carrying ALT groups seems to be decreasing, which reduces the availability of CuD. Changing to a COMP group would allow access for many more sites and readers. Second, expansion of readership would also expand the range of articles by broadening the pool of contributors. This should improve the quality of CuD by stimulating more feature-length articles especially from academic sites. CuD, which began at the suggestion and with the encouragement and help of Pat Townson, focuses on computer issues relevant to scholars, researchers, and the media in much the same way as other comp groups (EFF, Telecom Digest, RISKS) do. The primary difference is that we encourage articles (rather than short posts, although we try to include as many posts as space allows). Our primary interest is on the legal and cultural aspects of cyberspace, and we try to keep readers informed of relevant computer conferences, computer-related news, book reviews, and summaries of research on computer technology and culture. We appreciate the support we have received for re-naming, and we encourage readers to **VOTE IN SUPPORT** of the change in two weeks. Discussions and other relevant information on voting can be found on Usenet's news.groups, Jim Thomas / Gordon Meyer CuD co-editors ------------------------------ From: craig@world.std.com (Craig Hubley) Subject: Phone Keypad Interfaces to Enhanced Telephone Services Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 21:35:06 GMT Many new telephone-based services are being offered by the Baby Bells and their equivalents in other countries. All of these services are more or less the same (call forwarding, multiple numbers/rings on one line, call waiting, caller id, and now on-the-switch answering service) but I am trying to find out how much, if any, their user interfaces differ. That is, *70 seems to pretty universally suppress call waiting, but I don't know if the code to retrive messages from your answering service is the same everywhere, North-America-wide, or just across a single company's jurisdiction. Are there FCC standards for this, or CCITT standards? If there is a standard source for this information/standard I would like to hear about it. Please email me and I will repost results. Craig Hubley Craig Hubley & Associates craig@world.std.com - Boston 617-322-8574 (days only please) craig@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca - Toronto 416-969-2826 (24 hours) ------------------------------ From: craig@world.std.com (Craig Hubley) Subject: Telephone Tone Control Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 21:45:35 GMT I am trying to find sources of chips/schematics/electronics to translate telephone tones (and possibly also pulses) into specific control signals that can be used to control other electronics. It would be great if the device could be powered by the phone line itself (12 VDC?) and even better if it could step down to provide standard 5V or 3V control signals to other chips. All I want to do is to get the tones (and other activity on the phone line such as ringing or call waiting beeps) into a CPU. Anyone out there built an answering machine on a board? Pretty much any answering machine which responds to touch tones would incorporate a similar device, so I'm sure there are lots of such sources. I am willing to rip up old answering machines to find them if I know what I'm looking for, and also interested in commercial sources of complete programmable phone control systems. Even if you don't know of anything specific, names of periodicals and catalogs that publish/sell electronics useful in telephony would be very welcome. I will post back anything useful that I find but please email me so that I can collect the material in a sane way. Thanks, Craig Hubley Craig Hubley & Associates craig@world.std.com - Boston 617-322-8574 (days only please) craig@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca - Toronto 416-969-2826 (24 hours) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 21:00:53 CDT Reply-To: zeta@yngbld.gwinnett.com From: Gregory Youngblood Subject: New List: Cellular and Related Technologies Mailing List CELLULAR on Mail-Server@yngbld.gwinnett.com The CELLULAR list is for the discussion of cellular telephoney and technology. This also includes technologies relating to the cellular industry such as microwave, RF, telco and more. Subjects could range from topics dealing with marketing ideas, test equipment, phones preferred for different reasons, system and site engineering and just about anything that was related to cellular. All traffic will be archived and stored using the format CELLmmyy.ZIP. 'mm' will refer to the month, and 'yy' the year. These archives can be retrieved by sending a message to: Mail-Server@yngbld.gwinnett.com For help with the Mail-Server, put HELP in the message body. For an index to the files available, put INDEX in the message body. It is recommended that you send a HELP and INDEX request before attempting to retrieve files from the Mail-Server. To subscribe to the CELLULAR mailing list, send a message to: Mail-Server@yngbld.gwinnett.com In the body of the message put: SUBSCRIBE CELLULAR The default is NOECHOMAIL, which means when you send a message to be distributed, you will not receive an acknowledgement. If you want to get a response letting you know your message was received, put: ECHOMAIL CELLULAR in your subscription message as well. o send a message to the mailing list for distribution, send it to: CELLULAR@yngbld.gwinnett.com Owner: Gregory S. Youngblood zeta@yngbld.gwinnett.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 23:25 EDT From: Scott Fybush Subject: With NETel, is it an UPgrade or a DOWNgrade? You'd think that paying more for a higher grade of local service would mean adding more exchanges to one's flat-rate dialing area without losing any, right? Apparently not so in New England Tel. I moved within Waltham MA last month. At the old location, I had had Local Unmeasured service, about $12/mo plus the gouges for touchtone, "Local Access Fee," and what have you. This service is considered basic -- there is local measured for much less, but it's a lifeline sort of thing and no line in the same house can have a higher grade if one line has local measured -- and is what NETel pushes on undecided customers. With it, you get flat-rate calling to Waltham and about seven adjacent towns, along with Wayland and Natick, in the 508 area code. Waltham is on the outer fringe of what NETel calls "Metropolitan Boston." In "Metro," local unmeasured is just the adjacent towns or exchanges. In areas on the border of Metro, you thus get local service to the towns just outside Metro. So far so good. When I moved, I figured I'd upgrade service as part of the service order (otherwise there's a $15 charge to change service levels.) My bills for measured calls to non-adjacent Metro areas made a switch to the next level, Suburban service, economically wise. So I switched. Suburban service gives flat-rate calling to all of "Metro" except the Boston Central exchange, for about $19 a month plus the gouges. Here's where the problem starts. Remember how I could call Natick for free with the "basic" service? Turns out with the "enhanced" service, Natick becomes a "Zone 1" call, at 1 cent per call plus 1.6 cents per minute. And, wouldn't ya know it, my new net access is in Natick, so the 1.6 cents would have added up but fast. What else could I do? I called up my NETel service rep this morning and had her upgrade me to the NEXT higher service, "Metropolitan." For a whopping $25 a month plus the usual gouges, I'll now be able to call all of 617 except for seven exchanges way to the south, along with huge chunks of 508, including Natick. To her credit, the service rep was willing (in fact said she would have OFFERED) to waive the $15 upgrade fee (I wouldn't have upgraded anyway, since I'll have another service order in two months and could have lumped it in with that). To her discredit, she came back after a minute of really bad MOH to ask "What was your phone number again? I think I wrote it down wrong!" (pity the poor shmoe who jumps from local measured to Metropolitan because of the wrong entry :-) I think I should be annoyed at NETel. I've never heard of a tiered system in which the lowest and highest service tiers both get something that the middle one doesn't. Of course, it's also silly that I should be able to call free to Marshfield, some 40 miles from here, but not to my office in Lowell, less than half the distance. Anyone else have some Metropolitan Boston service oddities to share? Oh yeah, BTW, I'm also annoyed that there's no real way for me to verify that the service order has been carried through on a change like this, until the bill comes, and even then the calls aren't itemized. I'll just have to keep repeating to myself, "You could be served by GTE ... you could be served by GTE ... you could be served by GTE..." until I wake up grateful for even a simple dialtone. :-) Scott Fybush -- please reply to my NEW net access of: fybush@unixland.natick.ma.us which I can now dial up without incurring toll charges :-) ------------------------------ From: A. Satish Pai Subject: Strange Message on Answering Machine Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept., New Haven CT 06520, USA Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 23:39:41 GMT This is something that's probably not a serious problem, but I'm curious to know the reasons for it. The setup I have at home is two phones and an answering machine on one plain telephone line. (Telco is SNET, 203-776 exchange.) Several times (about once in two weeks) I have had the following message recorded on my answering machine: " Please hang up and try your call again. This is a recording. Two-oh-three-two-one." I presume that this is some sort of automatic message generated by the telco's equipment. There were no calls attempted from the phones at the time the message must have got recorded (in fact, this seems to happen when no one is at home), so the part about hanging up and trying again makes no sense. There is no possibility that the phones were left off the hook, either. In any case, for a message to get recorded, it would seem that there was an incoming call, and not an outgoing one, so is the telco's equipment calling me erroneously, or are incoming calls being hijacked, or what? Other than this the phones and answering machine behave normally. Internet: Pai-Satish@CS.Yale.Edu A. Satish Pai UUCP: ...!{uunet,harvard,decvax,ucbvax}!yale!pai Bitnet: Pai@YaleCS +1 203 432 1217 [Off.] Mail: Box 2158, Yale Station, New Haven, CT 06520 +1 203 776 7069 [Res.] [Moderator's Note: Someone calls and the phone rings. Just before your answering machine picks up, they disconnect, but too late to stop your machine from answering. Telco sees you have gone off hook, and sends dial tone, which plays through your outgoing message. After 15-25 seconds or so, you have not dialed a number -- your machine is still talking to no one with an outgoing message. Telco decides you are not going to place a call and must have left your phone off hook, or if you are going to call it is too late this time around, 'so please hang up and try your call again ... ' about the time telco starts urging you to 'hang up and try your call again', your answering machine outgoing message finishes and the machine starts recording what it hears on the line, namely the intercept telco has started playing. Had the hang-up caller stayed on the line even another few seconds to hear some of your outgoing message, your machine probably would have a recording of dial tone on it instead. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Staub Subject: MCI Phone Bill Date: 22 Jun 92 17:44:00 GMT Organization: NCR-FESC BETHLEHEM, PA. I received my phone bill on Saturday. There were $148 worth of phone card charges. I called MCI. They checked and told me that my local company had assigned my phone number to another person. MCI had then gived them a phone card. They were the ones that made the calls. They took the charges off the bill. Fine and dandy. I have had the number for 24 years. I am going to be checking my phone bill very closely from now on. I wonder HOW that could happen or *how many times * it could have happened in the past. JOHN STAUB Phone 215-264-5411 FESC Voice Plus 397-1000 2156 CITY LINE RD. Fax 215-264-9287 BETHLEHEM PA 18017 address john.staub@bethlehemPA ------------------------------ From: GLORIA.C.VALLE@gte.sprint.com Date: 22 Jun 92 13:29:00 UT Subject: CID/California There are a lot more costs than placing the equipment. Cost of taking the order (customer rep.), processing order, inputing the order to the switch, testing customers service. Each of these jobs has to be paid for since the PUC requires that no other service pay for another. This is in part because of the breakup and deregulation. What I state is not official GTCA policy which may differ, but I try to put correct information out. Steven H. Lichter GTCA COEI Mad Dog (Steven) Sysop: Apple Elite II -- an Ogg-Net BBS UUCP: steven@alchemy.UUCP (714) 359-5338 1200-2400 bps 8N1 ------------------------------ Subject: Batman Well Connected? From: stapleton@misvax.mis.arizona.edu (Dr. Ross Alan Stapleton) Date: 22 Jun 1992 06:46 MST Organization: University of Arizona MIS Department I just saw "Batman Returns" over the weekend, and am almost positive I saw the following: there are several scenes in the Batcave, with various high-techy devices arrayed around ... in one, Batman is standing in front of some telecom-looking equipment, and one of the many lighted red buttons on the panel reads "AUTOVON" ... Ross ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 08:04:26 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Messages Were Overflowing Again I am always gratified by the tremendous amount of traffic in this group and the large number of replies received on the topics presented. But as in the past, sometimes there can be too much of a good thing. 450 messages offering replies to various topics; seminar and convention notices; requests for area code listings; and a raft of other messages were dumped from the queue Monday morning. Yes, I know two weeks ago I put out ten issues of the Digest over the weekend to select 100+ of the articles waiting, but I cannot produce at that rate all the time, nor do I think anyone really wants to read *that much*. So the queue is 'zeroed out' ... what you received Sunday or Monday thus far is what was used. Let's close out all the old topics and start fresh. Thanks. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #505 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa19527; 24 Jun 92 3:36 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11410 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 24 Jun 1992 01:27:17 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00822 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 24 Jun 1992 01:27:08 -0500 Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 01:27:08 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206240627.AA00822@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #506 TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Jun 92 01:27:00 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 506 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Need Used Voice Frequency Repeaters (Toby Nixon) US West Embarrassed in Moscow (Ken Jongsma) Two Year Sentence For 900 Fraud (Jack Winslade) Telephone Connection to Yugoslavia? (Radivoje Zonjic) Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (Barry Mishkind) Z-Modem, Y-Modem Under the SunOS (Nayel Shafei) Database For Phone Bills (Carl Moore) FREE Broadband Equipment!! (Todd Tannenbaum) In-State Regulations For COCOTs (Andy Rabagliati) NZ Telecom Security "Lose" Phone Logs in Court Case (Pat Cain) Where to Buy Special Gadgets, One-of? (Dave Mitton) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Toby Nixon Subject: Need Used Voice Frequency Repeaters Date: 23 Jun 92 18:18:22 GMT Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA I am on the board of directors of a non-profit educational foundation (501 (c)(3) -- all contributions tax deductible) which gives seminars and distributes information on free-market principles. This group operates a teleconferencing bridge to make it easy to have meetings between members of the board, presidents of local chapters, etc. The phone lines coming into this bridge are currently amplified by Lear-Siegler VFR-7608 (Issue 2) two-wire to two-wire Electronic Voice Frequency Repeaters. Unfortunately, many of these VFR-7608's have burned out, greatly reducing the number of conferencing circuits available. We've finally diagnosed the problem as not enough capacity in the power supply at startup (these things draw only 60 milliamps normally, but one amp when they start after a power failure). Because the digital components are damaged, we've found that repairing them is not feasible; it would cost more to repair them than to buy new ones. All of the VFR-7608's we now have were donated surplus from various telephone companies, and before we invest in new ones (at something like $200/each), I thought I'd post here and ask if anyone out there might be aware of a source for used voice frequency repeaters like the VFR-7608. Our understanding is that the VFR-7610 (Issue 1) would also work, and that there are other similar boards that we could also use (R-TEC VFR-5050, WESCOM 7306-32, etc.). We'd like something that is adaptive or that can be fairly easily balanced and tuned to the circuit (none of us have a great deal of expertise; the VFR-7608's are fully adaptive digital devices). Like I said, a donation of these boards would be fully tax deductible; we'd also be willing to pay a reasonable amount, and of course we'd pay shipping. If you have some of these laying around as surplus, or know of any potential sources, would you please reply by email? Thanks very much in advance. Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer | Voice +1-404-840-9200 Telex 401243420 Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. | Fax +1-404-447-0178 CIS 70271,404 P.O. Box 105203 | BBS +1-404-446-6336 AT&T !tnixon Atlanta, Georgia 30348 | UUCP uunet!hayes!tnixon Fido 1:114/15 USA | Internet tnixon@hayes.com ------------------------------ From: jongsma@esseye.si.com (Ken Jongsma) Subject: US West Embarrassed in Moscow Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 21:03:12 EDT For the second time in the past few weeks, an RBOC has been hammered by {Forbes} magazine for messing around in business other than local service. Some excerpts from an article in the current issue: [begin] _Pick Russian business partners with care. US West didn't, and is about to have its lunch eaten by tiny Plexsys Corp._ One overriding lesson emerging from the frenzy of American dealmaking in the former Soviet Union: Wisely choosing a Russian partner matters more than anything else. US West, the Denver based Bell telephone holding company, forgot this when it got into the Russian cellular telephone market. And, boy, is it embarrassed now. Back in 1988 former Senator Gary Hart introduced US West to some Soviet telecommunications officials. Since then US West has managed to set up the first two cellular phone systems in Russia. Its Moscow system, which became commercial in April, now has 400 subscribers; there are 300 customers on the eight month old St. Petersburg system. But US West just got a nasty surprise. This month privately held Plexsys Corp., based in Naperville, Ill., will turn on its own cellular system in Moscow. Plexsys' system immediately makes US West's project obsolete. How come? US West's license restricts it to what has become an old fashioned cellular frequency, 450MHz, where interference can be a big problem and the number of calls that can be made at one time is limited. [I wonder if they are describing an IMTS system? - Ken] The Plxsys system uses the 800MHz band, the same as in the US, and there the technology is much more advanced. [...End] Wouldn't it be nice if someone said, "That's enough! Sell off all non- regulated activities and concentrate on being a utility." and all the money that they are wasting on these fiascos could be put towards improving the local telephonic infrastructure? Ken Jongsma ken@wybbs.mi.org Smiths Industries jongsma@benzie.si.com Grand Rapids, Michigan 73115.1041@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 20:40:32 CST From: Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Two Year Sentence For 900 Fraud Reply-to: jsw@drbbs.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha [JSW note: This is a followup to two items I sent to the Digest.] Excerpted from an article in the {Omaha World-Herald} by David Thompson, WS staff writer. 'Omahan Gets 2 Years in Phone Fraud' Ellis B. Goodman was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison and was fined the maximum of $50,000 for a conviction arising from the use of a 900-toll telephone number in which callers were defrauded. The business that Goodman headed, Bedford Direct Mail Service, Inc., was fined $750,000 by Chief U.S. District Judge Lyle Strom. Postal inspectors said the case was one of the first nationally in which a conviction was obtained for abuse of a 900-toll number. Bedford sent 'Phone/Mail-a-grams' to thousands of people telling them they were eligible to win two prizes, one cash and another a discount shopping spree. When recipients phoned the 900-number, they heard a recorded message that they had won a prize, the shopping spree from a catalog that Bedford would send. During the sentencing hearing Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellyn Grant told the judge that Goodman, a successful promoter, was walking a fine line between good promotion and fraud. 'Here, your honor, he crossed that line.' ... [Goodman's attorney] Wyrsch said that at the time of the Bedford promotion, there was uncertainty about regulations for 900-number promotions and that it was only after the promotion had started that the FCC issued guidelines. Strom said that the basis for the conviction was a scheme to defraud. ... Strom ordered Goodman to report July 27 to a prison designated by the U.S. Bureau of prisons. The judge said he would recommend the Federal Prison Camp at Yankton SD. Good day. JSW ------------------------------ From: plains!zonjic@uunet.UU.NET (Radivoje Zonjic (CE)) Subject: Telephone Connection to Yugoslavia? Date: 24 Jun 92 04:58:29 GMT Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo There has been no way to reach Yugoslavia today by phone. In fact, I've tried only Serbia. Given that Mr. James Baker today introduced new sanctions to be imposed on Serbia and Montenegro, I'm just wondering if there's a possibility that this kind of cutoff is in fact, of a political meaning? I've also tried numbers in two former YU republics (Croatia and Slovenia) who have the same country code, and everything was O.K. Rade Zonjic, Grand Forks, ND ------------------------------ From: barry@coyote.datalog.com (Barry Mishkind) Subject: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service Organization: Datalog Consulting, Tucson, AZ Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 04:52:51 GMT From the {Tucson Citizen}, 6/23/92: The Tucson area's 911 line was snarled yesterday when callers trying to get tickets to a concert overload the local telephone system, a US West spokeswoman said. Louise Rebholz, community relations manager for the phone company, said jammed lines resulted in some calls not being routed to 911. In some instances, people trying to reach the police and emergency line got a busy signal or a recorded message instead of 911 operators, she said. It was not known whether some callers failed to receive help in emergencies because of the problem. The problems occurredduring a two hour span beginning at 10 AM as fans tried to buy tickets by telephone to a July 26 Tucson concert by Garth Brooks. Between 10 and 11 AM alone, US West handled 192,000 calls in the Tucson area. Normally, it handles 70,000 calls during that hour on Mondays, officials said. ----------------- And not an apology in the house! Of course, _not one_ employee of US Worst saw this coming, nor told a supervisor about it, nor cared: "We don't have to care, we're the phone company." I can verify that for over an hour I couldn't even get a number in my own exchange (on the far east side of the city), much less across town. It shut down my access to the Internet (oh, my!) and was downright annoying for those of us trying to conduct business. Barry Mishkind barry@coyote.datalog.com FidoNet 1:300/11.3 [Moderator's Note: Come now, do you *really* think US West or any telco relishes these situations and ignores them 'because they are the phone company'? And had telco known in advance (did any of the concert promoters advise telco of the times, etc?), what in your estimation might telco have done about it, other than possibly block off access from certain exchanges when traffic was heavy? PAT] ------------------------------ From: shafei@cvbnet.prime.COM (Nayel Shafei x6268) Subject: Z-Modem, Y-Modem Under the SunOS Date: 23 Jun 92 19:18:49 GMT Organization: Computervision, A Prime Computer Company, Bedford, MA, USA Where can I find a version of Z-modem, Y-modem, or similar comm protocols to run on a SPARC2? Nayel Shafei Computervision 14 Crosby Dr., MS. 5-21 Bedford, MA 01730 W. (617)275-1800x6268 Fax (617)275-6157 shafei@cvbnet.prime.com shafei@zurich.ai.mit.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 14:45:48 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Database For Phone Bills I recently had some calls to area 809 on my phone bill. I saw some differences in the display of prefixes for such areas between the MCI and AT&T parts of the bill. Via MCI, I saw only the country name, with the 10-digit number (809+7D) crunched together. Example: "BAHAMAS". But via AT&T, I got the city name, the country abbreviation, and the phone number displayed with the usual embedded blanks (809 xxx xxxx); example for city: NASSAU, BA. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 10:15:01 cdt Subject: FREE Broadband Equipment Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering From: tannenba@engr.wisc.edu (Todd Tannenbaum) We have several pieces of Sytek broadband communication electronics that we would be willing to GIVE AWAY. These are broadband coaxial cable to RS-232 boxes. They come in a two, eight and 32 port versions. The 32 port unit has two port cards that plug in. You may pick them up or pay for shipping. If intrested contact: Kenneth Bartz Computer Aided Engineering Center Network/Hardware Program Manager Internet address: bartz@engr.wisc.edu Phone: (608) 263-7674 Todd Tannenbaum, Network Manager | e-mail: tannenba@engr.wisc.edu Computer Aided Engineering Center | Voice Ph: (608) 262-3118 University of Wisconsin-Madison | Fax Ph: (608) 262-6707 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 00:25:06 -0400 From: wizzy!andyr@uunet.UU.NET (Andy Rabagliati) Subject: In-State Regulations For COCOTs Reply-To: wizzy!andyr@uunet.UU.NET David Lesher asks: > Do the FCC rules on COCOTS cover DA? When I lived in Colorado, I had occasion to question the PUC on COCOTs. I tried to use the COCOT for DA a year ago. Southern Colorado Communications, I remember. I paid, it swallowed my money and gave me dialtone again. The PUC said that operators in Colorado have practically no regulations. They were not even required by state law to provide free 911 -- I didn't try it. They suggested I contact the local police department to see if they had regulations. The FCC have teeth, but they were very clear that they ONLY regulate inter-state traffic. If I remember rightly, DA was not covered. Cheers, Andy Rabagliati | W.Z.I. RR1 Box 33, Wyalusing PA 18853 | (717)746-7780 ------------------------------ Subject: NZ Telecom Security "Lose" Phone lLgs in Court Case From: Pat Cain Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 23:39:31 +1300 Organization: thesidewaysmachine, WCC City Net, Wellington, New Zealand Here's an unusual item from Auckland, New Zealand ... Summary: For the first time in NZ history: a case against a woman charged with *plotting* to murder her former lover. The lawyer representing the woman summoned phone call logs from Telecom NZ (owned by Ameritech and Bell Atlantic). The department which looks after these is run by five ex-cops and instead of producing those logs they went and told the woman's ex-lover about the request and their particular dislike for the lawyer. The records covering the two hour period requested have mysteriously disappeared. The lawyer is calling for a government inquiry into the matter. Paraphrased from {The Dominion} 22 June 1992: A defence lawyer in a murder plot case is seeking a government inquiry into what he claims is deliberately lost or destroyed computer phone call logs relating to a critical two-hour period. The lawyer, Christopher Harder, claims Telecom's Auckland security division, run by five former police officers, was like a "second-class, unofficial police force whose actions were dictated by their attitude to the individual they were dealing with". Harder claims the Telecom security staff interfered with the data because they disliked him. In the case, Harder is representing a North Shore (Auckland) woman, aged 47, charged with counselling to murder her former lover -- the father of her two children -- after a bitter custody battle. It is believed to be the first time such a charge has been brought in New Zealand. Harder summonsed Telecom employee Christopher Martin, an ex-policeman, to produce Telecom records of the calls the complainant made and received. Martin said in court that he had told the complainant, the alleged target of the murder plot, that Harder was inquiring about his telephone records. He said he had contacted the complainant because he felt like it and he had a negative attitude toward Harder as a result of having being a policeman. The complainant claimed to have been visited by a Telecom official and told about Harder requesting the records and also that all of Telecom's security staff had a similar dislike for Harder. In the meantime Harder is refusing to pay a $13,000 Telecom bill for time spent using the company's billing computer, because he says Telecom has not fully compiled with the requirement of the summons. He said he would ask Communications Minister Maurice Williamson to hold a commission of inquiry into the activities of Telecom's Auckland security section. Telecom spokesman Chris Galloway refused comment saying it was not company policy to discuss matters that were sub judice. Pat Cain, PO Box 2060, Wellington, New Zealand. pat@sideways.welly.gen.nz ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 06:40:38 PDT From: NaC Token Ring Program Subject: Where to Buy Special Gadgets, One-of? I'm looking to buy one RJ31-X jack for a home security alarm system. This jack hooks the alarm in series to the circuit, if the connector is engaged. (it even has some spare contacts to sense this, if you care) This information is from the alarm installer's manual. The local AT&T store gave me the national number. The national AT&T 800 number said they don't stock it. Where can I easily get one of these? (Other than paying an installer.) Dave Mitton (In the greater Boston area) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #506 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20023; 24 Jun 92 3:56 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00510 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 24 Jun 1992 02:12:55 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03499 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 24 Jun 1992 02:12:47 -0500 Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 02:12:47 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206240712.AA03499@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #507 TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Jun 92 02:12:50 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 507 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Connect Voice Mail/Centrex to Suns? (Joan Eslinger) AT&T USADirect and Calling Card (Kauto Huopio) Pay Phones in San Francisco (John Higdon) Ameritech/IBT (Bill Nickless) AT&T and Area Codes 706/404 (Monty Solomon) Questions About Boxes (Golando Gathings) Computer Aided Dispatching (Gilbert Amine) Who Makes Inverse Multiplexers? (apollo@buengc.bu.edu) Pennsylvania Local Phone Call Costs (Andy Rabagliati) Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted (Paul S. Sawyer) Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted (Laurence Chiu) Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted (cavallarom@cpva.saic.com) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Gregory M. Paris) Re: Bell of PA Overtaxing the 'Burbs (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Antitrust Reform Act of 1992 (HR 5096) (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: wombat@key.amdahl.com (Joan Eslinger) Subject: Connect Voice Mail/Centrex to Suns? Date: 23 Jun 92 19:26:37 GMT Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Advanced Systems, Fremont CA I'm trying to find out if there's a way to connect our phone system and/or voice mail into one of our servers. I'm not even certain what needs to be connected to what, but here's the scenario. We recently chucked our old phone system and went to a Centrex ISDN system. We also have Octel Aspen voice mail. The new phone system came with a choice of two telephones, one with no ISDN (and apparently for that reason no message light) ability and a more expensive ISDN phone. So a few people got ISDN phones and most people didn't. Now, to find out if you have messages, most people have to pick up the handset to listen for a special dialtone, kind of annoying and inconvenient. What I wonder is if there is some kind of board we could stick into one of our Sun SPARC servers that would interface with the phone system, letting people run some kind of daemon process on their workstations to notify them of voice mail messages (or even play them back through /dev/audio). Does such a thing exist? Joan Eslinger / wombat@key.amdahl.com ------------------------------ From: Kauto.Huopio@lut.fi (Kauto Huopio) Subject: AT&T USADirect and Calling Card Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 19:44:31 GMT Organization: Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland Is there an FTP site containing ALL rates using AT&T USA Direct with AT&T card from around the world? It seems to be ratder difficult to get full and accurate rates for a person like me (living in Finland). Now, does anyone know rates to/from Finland from/to USA using USA Direct and calling card? Kauto Huopio (huopio@kannel.lut.fi) Mail: Kauto Huopio, Punkkerikatu 1 A 10, SF-53850 Lappeenranta,Finland ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 14:38 PDT From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Pay Phones in San Francisco Unfortunately, yesterday's {Chronicle} has already hit the bird cage so this is all from memory. It was reported that San Francisco city officials are upset at the proliferation of private pay phones. Welcome news, you think? Not exactly. The concern is not over the tariff non-compliance, rip-off rates, poor quality of service, or any of the other COCOT topics mentioned at length on this forum. What the city fathers are concerned about is making sure that San Francisco gets its cut of the action. They are concerned that these one-armed bandits are actually operating on city property (pole, sides of buildings, etc.) and the owners are not paying for the privlege. "If phones are going to be in the public way, the taxpayer should reap a benefit," (or words to that effect) said some city official. In other words, apparently, public phones are considered a nuisance rather than a convenience. If the public is going to have to endure them, there might as well be money flowing into the leaky public coffers. You have to understand that businesses of every description are lining up to leave San Francisco. The city has a hefty payroll tax, a receipts tax, regulations that you would not believe, no place to park, and virtually every other disincentive to conduct business that you could imagine. I once had an office in Pacific Heights and I swear that I will never again have a San Francisco address for a business. Now the city is greedily looking over the matter of enforcing its "pay phone permits". The city claims that it wants, for aesthetic reason, to control the proliferation of phones. An example is the fact that there are seven phones on Mission Street between 18th and 19th. But of course the real concern is collecting the $50 a month from each phone (or 20% of the gross, whichever is greater). The estimates are that the city would collect more than $25,000 monthly. Maybe we could come up with some more people who could get a cut of the action. Perhaps the cost of a coin-paid local call should be raised to a buck so everyone can reap a reasonable reward. I would be very happy if the city was really interested in quality and wanted to exercise control over what is frequently an inferior product. But just having another hand in the till is something we can all well do without. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: nickless@antares.mcs.anl.gov (Bill Nickless) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 01:03:06 -0500 Subject: Ameritech/IBT > [Moderator's Note: Ameritech/IBT are certainly very progressive and > technologically advanced telcos. I'm glad to be in their region. PAT] ... until you want things like ISDN. Ameritech/IBT seems to be among the slowest to offer data services to the home. I am under the impression that they're behind some un-named California telcos. Bill Nickless System Support Group +1 708 252 7390 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 02:02:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T and Area Codes 706/404 AT&T ran the following ad in the 7/23/92 {Boston Globe}: Notice to AT&T Customers in Massachusetts: Due to increased usage, Bell Communications Research, Inc., the administrator of the North American Number Plan, implemented the 706 area code on May 3, 1991. At that time, customers were able to place calls using either the new 706 or the existing 404 area code. On August 3, 1992, this period of permissive dialing will end. Therefore, AT&T is making changes in its tariff FCC #2, which may result in a change of service area and charges per area for calls between Massachusetts area code 617 and the 404 area code, for AT&T 800 READYLINE, AT&T 800 MasterLine, AT&T MEGACOM 800 and AT&T Gold Service (Egress Arrangements-Switched, Dedicated and Nodal). For more information, customers may call their AT&T Account Executive or 1 800 222 0400. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 12:45:51 -0400 From: gathings@cs.utk.edu Subject: Questions About Boxes I would like to know that the following boxes are and their functions in the networking world: DSU /CSU units statistical multiplexers routers gateways bridges Please reply via email. golando ------------------------------ From: Gilbert Amine (gamine@mcimail.com) Subject: Computer Aided Dispatching Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 17:52 GMT A friend of mine is putting together a digital radio-based computer-aided dispatching system, and is looking for a source of information or a consulting engineering resource in the area of RF networking/polling/GPS. I would appreciate any information or referrals on this subject. Please address responses to gamine@mcimail. com, and I will summarize and post responses on the telecom user group. Regards, Gilbert Amine Rochelle Communications, Inc. Austin, Texas ------------------------------ From: apollo@buengc.bu.edu Subject: Who Makes Inverse Multiplexers? Date: 23 Jun 92 18:15:51 GMT Organization: College of Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA As the subject line says ... Basically, I need something which will take a fixed speed dedicated line and add on additional switched 56/64 as we need additional thruput. -It must be able to handle up to a full T1. -The addition of switched circuits must be under manual control (some serial port?) -Automatically dial switched circuits if the dedicated line is lost. What is out there and has anyone worked with them? What kind of interfaces can I expect (V.35, ethernet, RS-422)? Doug apollo@buengc.bu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 00:46:15 -0400 From: wizzy!andyr@uunet.UU.NET (Andy Rabagliati) Subject: Pennsylvania Local Phone Call Costs Reply-To: wizzy!andyr@uunet.UU.NET I am priviliged to be served by Commonwealth Telephone, a quaint little operation in Northern PA. When I asked for a rate chart for calling within PA but outside their LATA (i.e. most of the 717 area code) they seem totally unable to provide one. Within their LATA, they can price a call, given the two exchanges, but I wanted a chart. They referred me to my LD carrier (AT&T), for outside the LATA, who after checking, told me they did not provide service between the two points. When I pointed out that calls appeared on my bill billed by them, not Comm. Tel., they explained that they do not have access to Comm. Tel's computers. They apparently mail them a tape, from which Comm. Tel does the billing. They did seem suprised, though, that the calls were appearing on their section of the bill. What really annoys me, though, is that local calls to Williamsport, maybe 40 miles away IN THE SAME LATA, are more expensive than calling California on my Reach Out America plan. And the most expensive place in America to call is Scranton, two hours drive away, billed by AT&T but not subject to any of my plans. So, -- can anyone give me a newsfeed? The AT&T rep (very helpful) blamed the lack of de-regulation of in-state calls (pardon the double negative). Will this ever change ? Cheers, Andy Rabagliati | W.Z.I. RR1 Box 33, Wyalusing PA 18853 | (717)746-7780 ------------------------------ From: paul@unhtel.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) Subject: Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted Organization: UNH Telecommunications and Network Services, Durham, NH Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 13:50:32 GMT In article jiro@shaman.com (Jiro Nakamura) writes: > In article cavallarom@cpva.saic.com > writes: >> Pacific Telephone no longer charges for DTMF service. It is universal >> in this area. > They most probably raised the rates across the board as well, to > "compensate" for the "lack of revenue." > NYNEX does charge for DTMF ... NYNEX (New England Telephone) recently stopped charging N.H. TouchTone customers more than pulse ... but as you note, we now ALL pay more! Paul S. Sawyer - University of New Hampshire CIS - paul@unhtel.unh.edu Telecommunications and Network Services - VOX: +1 603 862 3262 Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3523 - FAX: +1 603 862 2030 ------------------------------ From: lchiu@animal.gcs.co.nz (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted Organization: GCS Limited, Wellington, New Zealand Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 22:45:18 GMT In article hourglas!erikr@wisdom. bubble.org (Erik Rauch) writes: > I've been reading about phone companies that charge for some kind of > 'intercom' service. In my area under Bell Atlantic, this service is > offered for free -- but Bell, of course, doesn't talk about it. It has > been in existence for about eight years; it involves dialling a > special 55x prefix and then the last four digits of your phone number > (the x in 55x varies as your exchange.) > Of course, you have to put up with a tone while you talk. But a useful > service nonetheless. Well in New Zealand where, although two Bell's now own the Phone Company, the existing policies still prevail, we can have this intercom service for free also. And there is no annoying dial tone. When I want to talk to my wife in the kitchen upstairs when I am sitting on my PC downstairs, rather than shout or hike up the stairs, I just call the number here which causes your phone to ring. But here once you pick up the phone, there is no dial tone, and two parties can talk. So I let it ring, let her pick it up and then flick the hook on switch on my speakerphone. Certainly beats installing an intercom in the house! Laurence Chiu ------------------------------ From: CAVALLAROM@CPVA.SAIC.COM Subject: Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted Date: 22 Jun 92 13:19:11 PST Organization: Science Applications Int'l Corp./San Diego In article , jiro@shaman.com (Jiro Nakamura) writes: > In article cavallarom@cpva.saic.com > writes: >> Pacific Telephone no longer charges for DTMF service. It is universal >> in this area. > They most probably raised the rates across the board as well, to > "compensate" for the "lack of revenue." > NYNEX does charge for DTMF ... Sorry, but NO they did not raise rates for this. It was just a matter of aggressive placement of new digital COs, and a policy set by CPUC some ten years ago that they provide DTMF service FREE when a certain percentage of COs went digital. I think the threshold was 96%. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 06:50:23 -0700 From: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Responding to a message from Robert S. Helfman , our Moderator writes: > Jane Barbie was also the female voice heard on the voice-overs for > WWVH (the Hawaiian version of WWV). > [Moderator's Note: Her voice was also used for Time of Day here in > Chicago for many years (312-CAThedral-8000). She had recorded the > phrase 'at the signal, the time will be' and the digits which were > then patched together as appropriate. PAT] Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape loops all run by some kind of switch. Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com [Moderator's Note: Very good point. Can anyone comment on how the time of day was handled *after* they quit using live people speaking it but *before* it went digital? PAT] ------------------------------ From: paris@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com (Gregory M. Paris) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: Motorola Codex, Canton, Massachusetts Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 17:19:17 GMT I don't know if it was Jane or not, but in Flint, Michigan where I grew up, the time was available at (313) 234-1212 and the message was "at the tone the time will be" (not "signal"). Hey, I just called the number now and it's still working. It said, "Good afternoon" -- something it didn't used to do -- but the voice is still the same one I remember ... Greg Paris Motorola Codex, 20 Cabot Blvd C1-30, Mansfield, MA 02048-1193 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 11:17:05 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Bell of PA Overtaxing the 'Burbs In green@WILMA.WHARTON.UPENN.EDU writes: [... text about billing for extra tax in Philadelphia by Bell of PA deleted ...] > The moral, of course, is Check Your Phone Bill[sm]. We'll see what > happens. In the meantime, instead of the PUC, I've contacted the > {Philadelphia Inquirer}, because they love utility-bashing, plus > they've got the resources to track down other victims. This is similar to the same problem I'm having with NYTel except it concerns an overcharge for calls to one exchange from a group of others. The telco's are afraid of the PUCs/PSCs and certainly don't like it when complaints are lodged against them. I know my telco was upset that I went to the NY PSC. I agree, it is one big big run-around that the telcos give and it looks like they have a standard answer: "We're working on it." I guess I'll bring out the next *big gun* in New York, the Consumer Protection Board whose head is not exactly on friendly terms with any utility. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 11:29:36 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Antitrust Reform Act of 1992 (HR 5096) It's OK to display 800-54-PRIVACY as opposed to 800-54-PRIVA, because the equipment ignores the extra numbers. But if you don't dial the extra numbers in the first place, you're still OK. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #507 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa22541; 24 Jun 92 5:33 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26026 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 24 Jun 1992 02:40:16 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04733 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 24 Jun 1992 02:40:07 -0500 Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 02:40:07 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206240740.AA04733@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #508 TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Jun 92 02:40:10 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 508 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Longest Phonecall (Jack Winslade) Re: Longest Phonecall (Hoyt A. Stearns Jr.) Re: Longest Phonecall (Lawrence V. Cipriani) Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers (Phil Howard ) Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers (Mark W. Schumann) Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection (Justin Leavens) Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection (Scott Colbath) Re: Strange Pulse Dialing Behavior: Summary (Jon Sreekanth) The Quintessence of Quiescence (Jeffrey Jonas) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 11:09:34 CST From: Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall Reply-To: jack.winslade%drbbs@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha In a message dated 21-JUN-92, Brent Whitlock writes: >> Speaking of phone calls, I remember hearing a story once about a girl >> who went to Paris for the summer, while her boyfriend went to Hawaii. >> They were going to miss each other so much they had to talk often, but >> they couldn't afford a hefty phone bill. So what they did was to leave >> the phone off the hook at both ends for the entire month of July. They >> would talk, make arrangements for what time they'd come back, and talk >> some more. When the phone bill eventually arrived, it was for a couple >> thousand dollars, and the girl took it to the phone company and complained >> that this COULDN'T be right, and they decided it was a computer glitch >> and deleted it. >> It was told to me as a FOAF, has anybody heard anything similar? Back in the 1970's, there was some speculation by phone 'enthusiasts' that if a call was established and not terminated for quite some time, the 'system' (this was in the days of THE system) would forget about it and no billing record would be generated. I don't know anyone who tried it. A twist on this was that if the service was disconnected before the call was terminated, no billing record would be generated. I am aware of a number of cases where mailer software on both ends of a connection has failed to disconnect and the connection remained up (with Ma's meter running) for many hours until somebody realized what was going on and killed it. About two years ago this happened to one of our machines which was using a PC Pursuit (Sprintnet) connection between Omaha and Denver. It normally would have been no big deal, but it made the call penetrate the prime-time barrier, thus making the entire call billed as a prime-time call. (Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense. ;-) If I remember, it was something like $12.00 or so. We had a similar case shortly after where a system in Houston called us. Ours shut down after the session, but his end remained up and for some reason he was billed for several hours of LD time. If I remember correctly, he had no hassle getting the charges removed. (Marc, you listening in down there ??) I would hate to see what the bill would be like if these were international calls. ;-) Good day! JSW Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.14 r.1 (1:285/666.0) ------------------------------ From: isus!hoyt@ennews.eas.asu.edu (Hoyt A. Stearns jr.) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall Organization: International Society of Unified Science Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 23:29:25 GMT I once called Phoenix from a hotel phone in France. The duration was about one half hour. The hotel billed by counting pulses on the line, which I could hear, once a second or so. These pulses incremented an electromagnetic mechanical counter. Later, after checking out, I noticed the phone bill was unexpectedly low, it then occurred to me that the three digit counter had overflowed! Attempts at explanation to the hotel failed, as I don't speak French, and they didn't speak English (or wouldn't speak English, and didn't care). Hoyt A. Stearns jr. hoyt@ 4131 E. Cannon Dr. isus.tnet.com Phoenix, AZ. 85028 ncar!enuucp! voice_602_996_1717 telesys!isus!hoyt ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 13:03:40 EDT From: lvc@cbvox1.att.com (Lawrence V Cipriani) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall Organization: Ideology Busters, Inc. A coworker told me the story of how in the "good-old-days" they would leave long-distance lines open in lab-to-lab tests for months at a time, and that since the switch word length to record the call time was small enough [e.g., 16 bits maybe] it would overflow to 0 and they wouldn't have much of a call charge! Once the switching people at AT&T figured out what they were doing they increased timer length several bits. Larry Cipriani, att!cbvox1!lvc or lvc@cbvox1.att.com ------------------------------ From: pdh@netcom.com (Phil Howard) Subject: Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 07:21:41 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) lauren@vortex.COM (Lauren Weinstein) writes: > Greetings. Unfortunately, rearrangement of numbers and areas by > telcos is not particularly rare. The telcos essentially *own* the > numbers. You rent them. > A large number of Pac*Bell subscribers in the Woodland Hills area (an > 818 area code, Valley suburb in the city of L.A.) recently were not > only moved into a different local/toll calling area, but were all > forced to change their seven digit numbers as well. This was not the > result of any errors, "simply" the result of central offices and toll > areas being realigned. As you can imagine, the subscribers affected > were none too pleased. When people go to the effort to get vanity numbers, do they at least get the chance to try for the same vanity number in the new exchange if it is available? I am wondering how this process works. Do they randomly pick new numbers or do they at least try to keep the last four digits if at all possible? Is there a phase in period where both numbers will work as they with area code splits (I'd imagine this would be hard to do for anything short of an exact prefix change)? Phil Howard --- KA9WGN --- pdh@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 15:59 EDT From: catfood@wariat.org (Mark W. Schumann) Subject: Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers Organization: Akademia Pana Kleksa, Public Access UNI* Site In article skaggs@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor. edu (Gary Skaggs) writes: > My 73160-2135 just gets it into the carrier's bag. > I should be able to get mail addressed to 73160-2135 with nothing else > on it ... no name, no address, no city (listed as OKC not Moore for > zip purposes, grumble) but NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. That just goes to the > carrier's bag. What a waste! Let's raise the rates some more! > [Moderator's Note: My unique one mprovement

lan code is > 60690-1570. Put just that on an envelope; it comes to my box. PAT] I once got a package from my dad addressed to: 12-39 50112-0805 The 12-39 was my in-house box number at the college, and -0805 is designated for Grinnell students. Got there in a couple of days from Connecticut (to Iowa). Mark W. Schumann/3111 Mapledale Avenue/Cleveland, Ohio 44109-2447 USA Preferred: mark@whizbang.wariat.org | Alternative: catfood@wariat.org ------------------------------ From: leavens@mizar.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection Date: 22 Jun 1992 12:54:40 -0700 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA > [Moderator's Note: The same ad is playing on the radio here in Chicago > a lot these days. Apparently some sort of radio detection to keep > track of where you are going in your car. Sounds like a great deal for > privacy enthusiasts! :) PAT I talked to someone who worked with a similar service here in LA, and was interested to hear that indeed, the service had been used for some uses outside of simply locating stolen cars. Apparently, from what they said, there were two or three instances where police kept track of suspects using the locator system, including a suspected child molestor and a suspected crooked police officer. Apparently, the transmitter unit is activated automatically if the car is started without the unit being deactivated, but it can be activated by the police monitoring station. I wonder what the installation contract says about this "covert" activation. Justin Leavens University of Southern California Microcomputer Specialist ------------------------------ From: scol@scottsdale.az.stratus.com (Scott Colbath) Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection Date: 23 Jun 92 13:27:55 GMT In article red-eft!abaheti@valley. west.sun.com (Arun Baheti) writes: > I was just in my car and heard an add for Pacific Bell's new auto > theft systems. Apparently, when a car is stolen, they will auto- > matically track its location and notify the police. There was also an > amorphous mention of a guarantee. Does anyone have any details on > this service -- and how (if) it works? > [Moderator's Note: The same ad is playing on the radio here in Chicago > a lot these days. Apparently some sort of radio detection to keep > track of where you are going in your car. Sounds like a great deal for > privacy enthusiasts! :) PAT This sounds like a thing I remember while living in Massachusetts called Lojack. When your car was stolen, you reported it to the police and Lojack. A transmitter hidden in your car would send out a signal which was moitored by the Massachusetts State Police. They had four antennae on the roof of a few selected patrol cars. Using this device, they could chase the signal and find the car within a couple of hours. The advantage over a typical car alarm being that thieves never had a chance to strip the car. If the car was hidden in a garage or something, it was still able to be found. Scott Colbath Stratus Computer Phoenix, Az. (602)852-3106 Internet:scott_colbath@az.stratus.com ------------------------------ From: jon_sree@world.std.com (Jon Sreekanth) Subject: Re: Strange Pulse Dialing Behavior: Summary Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 17:14:46 GMT This is a summary of email and posted responses to my question about pulse dialing. Briefly, I found that if pulse digits are dialed during a stable call, the exchange would mistake it for a hangup or hook flash. This is unexpected and annoying, because even if a voice mail front end was smart enough to decode pulse digits, the exchange would probably not let the caller transmit them. Summary responses follow. ------ Pulse dialing works by alternately opening and shorting the line. Now, an open line is the same as hanging up the phone, so all this has to be distinguished by timing. The nominal values are as follows: Pulse-dialed digit: 100ms repetition rate (60/40 make/break ratio) Hookflash (for Call Waiting and Three-Way, generally): 500ms On-hook (disconnect): 1500ms if hookflash means something, 500ms otherwise. So, if the calling party goes on-hook for more than 500ms, the CO is expected to treat it as a drop request. If the called party goes on-hook, the disconnect timer is much longer, ranging from forever (in an electromechanical office) to about 15 sec (typical setting in most electronic offices). ----- This is intended behavior in the USA, and my best guess is to discourage the use of pulse dial detection on incoming calls. Pulse dial costs the telco alot more than DTMF and I can see the PTT's going to any extent to discourage pulse! ----- > This was a suspicion that occured to me, that the switch thought pulse > dialing was like going back on hook. But surely the switch should be > smarter than that! It's capable of detecting 60ms/40ms edges on the > dc voltage while it's picking up pulse digits, so it has the sensing > capability inherently. Is it throwing away the capability and > averaging the loop with some large time constant ? I doubt that it has it in the first place. Originally it was done with relays. The "A" and "C" relays were slow to release and the "B" relay would follow any change very quickly. The A relay monitored your line current, the C relay (I think it was called a C relay ... I'm sure that it controlled what was called the C lead.) provided a "Control" signal to the next switching unit (selector or connector unit). And the B relay detected dialing. (Some switches had the nerve to all it a P relay!) So an off hook closed the C relay. Dialing would pulse the A and the B relays, but the A would snap closed when the pulsing started, and not release until the end of the digit. The B relay pulsed with each pulse. Pure time constants. It has been many many years since I looked at a step-by-step switch, and I hated them then. So I may be remembering it all wrong. But the point is that the new switch is designed to do as close to what the old one did as could be. No edge triggering at all. Just, is there current for a long enough period of time, or not. ----- Generally not true outside N. America. A caller can pulse dial all he wants here and in every other country in Europe I've been too. I worked on a phone information system in San Francisco, and I found that you could not pulse dial more than a three from any modern exchange in the USA or Canada. Tone dialers are very cheap and its not much to ask one to purchase one. On the other hand, trying to detect the double pops that pulse dialing produces is very unreliable. There have been a few attempts here, but mostly have been abandoned and besides Dutch has a way of really faking it out! ----- In most switches, when you are dialing the number, you are connected to an Originating Register, which counts the pulses or tones. Once the call is connected to a trunk somewhere, the OR goes off-line to serve someone else. It is possible that your switch checks the off-hook status less rigorously when tied to a trunk. ----- You don't say what kind of switch you are on, but I can guess what could be causing it that would be pretty much generic. Most modern switches will scan for hangup by sampling the line state at some infrequent interval (100 milliseconds or so). If your dial pulse rate lines up with the scan rate, it could see the on-hook pulses as a continuous on-hook. Continuous on-hook for a short-period of time would be recognised as a flash. Stuttered dial tone would be the signal for you to call the next party for your three-way. ----- What is happening is that the exchange is integrating the on hook portion of the series of pulses, when they reach the threashold that signals caller hangup, the called party is dumped. This explains your ability to dial small numbers (less than six) without releasing your call. When the dial reaches the return position you are again continuously drawing loop current so you find yourself staring at dial tone. ----- This behaviour does not occur in any electrmechanical exchanges that I have tried in the past but does occur on #1ESS and derivatives. I ----- end of summaries Just to confirm things, it turns out that if an extension phone is picked up, so it holds the line steadily off hook, and pulse dialling is attempted now with the main phone, the exchange dosen't mis-behave. The condition where the exchange, either by sampling the line at regular intervals or by integrating loop current, decides that there is on-hook, does not occur. Same result when I substituted a simple, one-transistor 15mA current sink for the extension phone (current source instead of resistor avoids damping audio level). The whole experience was rather interesting to me, in bringing out an unexpected telco feature (bug ...). Thanks to everyone who replied. Jon Sreekanth Assabet Valley Microsystems, Inc. Fax and PC products 5 Walden St #3, Cambridge, MA 02140 (617) 876-8019 jon_sree@world.std.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 15:00:18 -0400 From: krfiny!jeffj@uunet.uu.net Subject: The Quintessence of Quiescence Responding to Volume 12, Issue 499, Message 2 of 10: >> While quiescent is a perfectly good word, I hardly ever see it used >> outside a data processing context. In Electrical Engineering, the "Q" point of a transistor means quiescence. It's the balance point of the transistor's operation with no signal present. Properly biasing a transistor sets the desired Q point. > I can recall at least one use: on the wrapper of a PopSicle(R), which > reads "a quiescently frozen treat". I hope that was a joke. A quietly frozen dessert? Does everybody in the factory have to whisper? "Be vewwy vewwy qwiet - we're making Popsicles! Heh heh heh". A trip to the dictionary reveals a more appropriate q word: quintessence: 1) the 5th and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeated all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies. 2) the essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form. Being the quintessential poster that I am, I am ending this right here. Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@synsys.uucp PS: no PS this time. This page intentionally left blank. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #508 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21291; 25 Jun 92 1:53 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01080 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 24 Jun 1992 23:40:00 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03663 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 24 Jun 1992 23:39:52 -0500 Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 23:39:52 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206250439.AA03663@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #509 TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Jun 92 23:39:55 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 509 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (John Higdon) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Hans Mulder) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Scott Dorsey) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (James J. Menth) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Bob Clements) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Martin McCormick) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Terry Kennedy) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Robert S. Helfman) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Tony Harminc) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 02:29 PDT From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) On Jun 24 at 2:12, TELECOM Moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: Very good point. Can anyone comment on how the time > of day was handled *after* they quit using live people speaking it but > *before* it went digital? PAT] And what makes you think that it is digital now? In most places, the old mechanical drum announcers are still very much in service. Although I have never seen one, the machines are very simple. There is a magnetic drum upon which all the various digits with up and down inflections are recorded. The drum is scanned by a multiple head assembly and the appropriate head is switched on line in sequence. Pac*Bell originally used a "Jane Barbie" machine when it first went with automatic referral that sounded very clean and had the distinctive voice of Jane Barbie. This was replaced with a wretched piece of excrement that was identical to those in common use on the east coast. It has track-to-track crosstalk and the female announcer sounds as though she is miffed for not actually getting the part as Wicked Witch of the East. I just dialed a recently-changed number. That machine is still in use. And it is very mechanical. Just because technologies exist (such as digital voice) does not mean that telcos use it! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 12:24:14 +0200 From: hansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) In article Robert L. McMillin asks: > Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to > digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape > loops all run by some kind of switch. Those two dozen very short tapes were duplicated many times over and spliced manually to form a set of longish tapes, with a total playing time of 24 hours. You can guess the rest ... Have a nice day, Hans Mulder hansm@cs.kun.nl ------------------------------ From: kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov ( Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: NASA Langley Research Center and Reptile Farm Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 13:02:55 GMT In article rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) writes: > Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to > digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape > loops all run by some kind of switch. The system that I saw at WWV many years ago had a magnetic drum about a foot in diameter, with a number of tracks on it, and one head per track. There was a large relay control unit which selected the tracks to be played back in sequence based upon a BCD input. scott ------------------------------ From: jjm@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (james.j.menth) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: AT&T Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 13:27:28 GMT In article rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) writes: > Responding to a message from Robert S. Helfman , our > Moderator writes: >> Jane Barbie was also the female voice heard on the voice-overs for >> WWVH (the Hawaiian version of WWV). >> [Moderator's Note: Her voice was also used for Time of Day here in >> Chicago for many years (312-CAThedral-8000). She had recorded the >> phrase 'at the signal, the time will be' and the digits which were >> then patched together as appropriate. PAT] > Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to > digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape > loops all run by some kind of switch. The article mentions putting together the digits for a time signal and, by coincidence, I just finished a section in "A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System-Switching Technology 1925-1975" Around 1930-31 in New York city there was a mix of dial offices (panel and step-by step) and manual offices. When a dial call was placed to a manual office an operator would complete the call using digits displayed on lamps. This was improved using technology developed by Bell Laboratories for the film industry: Sound on film. The book contains a picture of a chest high cabinet called a "call announcer" containing loops of film on a series of readers. A manual call would be presented to a completion operator and the required digits would be repeated in the operator's headset using pasted together speech from the call announcer. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 10:00:08 EDT From: clements@BBN.COM I can't figure out the attributions, but various people wrote: >> Jane Barbie was also the female voice heard on the voice-overs for >> WWVH (the Hawaiian version of WWV). > Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to > digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape > loops all run by some kind of switch. > [Moderator's Note: Very good point. Can anyone comment on how the time > of day was handled *after* they quit using live people speaking it but > *before* it went digital? PAT] Sure. I have, in my vacation scrapbook, a set of photos of the WWVH site from a couple of years ago. I posted a long note about it in comp.protocols.time.ntp at the time. I have peered into the amazing gizmo in which Ms. Barbie's soul was entrapped. It is a leased device, made by the same people who made them for the phone companies. I was told that that company (something like "Audichron", in Atlanta, I think) does not sell their announcement machine, but only leases them. So WWV and WWVH were paying lease charges for decades on the darned things. (As do all the telcos.) To save money, there were just two of them at each site (WWV and WWVH), rather than the three (voting, triply redundant) copies of everything else in the system. Still, that added up to a lot of bucks. These lease charges were one of the reasons for switching to the new digital voice announcements. I'll omit the information about the timecode generators, transmitters, antennas and all that, and just answer the question about the announcement machines. The guts of the machine is a pair of rotating magnetic drums, mounted on a horizontal axis and rotating at 1 RPM. The drums' rotation is synchronized by a pulse from the time code generators, driven by the cesium atomic clocks. There are also magnetic heads on worm gears which slide along parallel to the axis of the drums. The gearing on the heads is such that one head takes sixty different tracks across one drum during any hour, and the other head takes twenty-four different tracks across the other drum during any day. A third head does not move, so it always reads the same track, which contains the station break which is played every half hour. So one head has twenty-four messages of the form "At the tone, twenty three hours" and the second head has sixty messages of the form "fifty nine minutes, Coordinated Universal Time". The gearing, and the whole concept, would make Rube Goldberg proud. I was real glad to see the thing. Sadly (or not), all the above should be in the past tense. It's now all just silicon. Bob Clements, K1BC, clements@bbn.com [who thought the Jane Barbie thread had been closed] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 13:53:56 -0500 From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu A common practice before the days of digital hardware was to record a pleasant human voice saying all the words which would be needed to provide the service such as time and temperature or stock quotes and putting each frays on a separate track of a drum which was coated with the same iron oxide material as is found on magnetic tape or computer disks. The drum spun at a carefully controlled speed and a pickup head was guided by the machine's logic to the proper tracks on the drum. If the time was 7:45, the head would first hit the track containing "seven," followed by the one containing "forty," and then the one containing "five." If the voice was to sound really good, there would be multiple versions of some phrases, depending upon whether they were to be spoken at the end of an expression or in the middle. Believe me, it makes a difference. I recall, once, hearing a figure of $100,000 as the price of a drum-based time and temperature system. There were some other interesting things going on in the sixties with electromechanical voice retrieval systems. I remember a news report about a system called Audre which stood for "Automatic Digit Recognition." The report featured a little demonstration of the system. Audre was used to allow bank customers to make transactions via Touchtone phone. The voice was female, maybe Jane's, and was stored as a series of photographic film loops affixed to a clear plastic drum. Words and phrases were selected by enabling photo pickups like the ones found in movie projectors to change the modulated light back into audio. In the report, the frays "My name is Audre." was obviously recorded as one statement. It sounded perfectly normal. Everything else, had a military-style cadence to it as all the speech was timed to the spinning of the drum. I remember hearing a pop each time the pickup was changed to a new track. The voices which were heard on the time signal stations of WWV and WWVH, up until about a year ago, were recorded on magnetic drums. The same was also true for the Canadian time signal station CHU. A report on Radio Netherlands' "Media Network" program said that the drum system at WWV was over 20 years old. The drum systems seemed to be very robust. A year or so before our local time and temp number turned digital, the drum-based system began to show its age. It would, sometimes, have difficulty in placing the pickup head on the right track. The result was a garbled mixture of two tracks' audio. After our local time number went to a digital system, it worked right for a few weeks and then would deliver a stuttering salad of word bits and static for a while. Hopefully, there is somebody on the network who actually used to work on those systems and can tell us what it was like. Maybe there were even systems using phonograph recordings, but I would suspect that they wouldn't have been very trustworthy. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ From: Terry Kennedy Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: St. Peter's College, US Date: 24 Jun 92 17:53:38 EDT In article , rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) writes: > [Moderator's Note: Very good point. Can anyone comment on how the time > of day was handled *after* they quit using live people speaking it but > *before* it went digital? PAT] In the units I've seen, there are short loops of 2" wide audio tape in a removable assembly. These loops are only about 6" long. The carrier assembly plugs into a socket which has a drive motor, multi-track read head, and a transducer. The different tracks have various messages recorded on them. Some tracks have the single numbers, while others have pieces of the message (which can be chained together across tracks). Amazing technology for its time. Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA terry@spcvxa.spc.edu +1 201 915 9381 ------------------------------ From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 16:32:07 GMT > Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to > digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape > loops all run by some kind of switch. At WWV, the voice 'snatches' were recorded on a rotating magnetic drum. (I visited WWV in the late '70's). The drum was about a foot in diameter. A set of read heads would jump around over the drum to pick off the appropriate numbers. ("At the tone" "four" "hours" "thirteen" "minutes" "Coordinated Universal Time") The drum appeared to rotate at about 1 rpm. (Understand, I'm remembering this from my single breathless visit to WWV. I posted a description of the visit in 'sci.electronics' about a month ago, but I'll briefly reiterate: When I worked for the U.S. Forest Service's Forest Fire Laboratory in Riverside, CA, I used to frequently go to Fort Collins where their Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station is located. During one visit, I was driving to Waverly to have dinner with some Japanese cowboys (!!!) I had met in Fort Collins (these were Japanese from Japan, who were working on cattle ranches near the Wyoming border and attending animal husbandry courses at the University of Nebraska at Scott's Bluff). I passed the WWV 'antenna farm', noticed that the visiting hours were 1-3 pm Wednesdays only, and vowed to make a trip out there. It was at least three years before I managed to have a free afternoon to kill, I was in Fort Collins, and it was a Wednesday! I showed up at WWV, the sole engineer on duty gave me a grand tour of the whole deal, including the 3 Cesium standard atomic clocks, the nixie tube (!) displays of WWV time, the majority-vote circuitry that resolved differences between the clocks, the transmitters, the antennas, the works. It was delightful, since I had been hearing WWV since high school days and had always tried to imagine this mysterious facility whose faithful ticking boomed out of the night on my shortwave receiver. One interesting tidbit: the 100hz power used to operate the motors which drove the voice drum was also derived from the same Cesium standard atomic clocks as the carrier frequencies and the audio modulating tones. EVERYTHING at WWV is derived that way. ------------------------------ From: Tony Harminc Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 06:50:23 -0700 Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Many years ago there was an exhibit in the South Kensington Science Museum in London that showed how the British "Speaking Clock" worked. My recollection is hazy (I was about ten when I saw it), but I remember multiple gramophone disks each with a pickup arm, and a mechanical selection mechanism. I believe the disks were mounted on a common horizontal shaft. It is worth keeping in mind that the timing of the voice segments is not critical -- the tone is what counts, and that was not on the disks, of course. Perhaps someone who was a little older at the time remembers better. Tony H. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #509 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa23041; 25 Jun 92 2:34 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12622 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 25 Jun 1992 00:14:59 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08153 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 25 Jun 1992 00:14:51 -0500 Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1992 00:14:51 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206250514.AA08153@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #510 TELECOM Digest Thu, 25 Jun 92 00:14:45 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 510 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (Peter Clitherow) Re: Concert Goers Blast 911 Service (Lauren Weinstein) Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (Jon Baker) Re: Ameritech/IBT (Scott Dorsey) Re: Ameritech/IBT (Matthew Holdrege) Re: Ameritech PCS (Ang Peng Hwa) Re: Pac*Bell Posturing (Andrew Klossner) Re: You Can Ring My Bell (David Cornutt) Re: You Can Ring My Bell (Julian Macassey) Re: Toggles Are Bad Design (Justin Leavens) Re: Toggles Are Bad Design (James Elliott) Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 (Jim Speth) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service Reply-To: Organization: Bellcore - IMS, Morristown, NJ Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 11:39:29 GMT In article barry@coyote.datalog.com (Barry Mishkind) writes: > The Tucson area's 911 line was snarled yesterday when callers trying > to get tickets to a concert overload the local telephone system, a US > West spokeswoman said. .... > And not an apology in the house! Of course, _not one_ employee of US > Worst saw this coming, nor told a supervisor about it, nor cared: "We > don't have to care, we're the phone company." There might have been problems on a switch (perhaps a memory upgrade would have helped?) but most likely, U S WEST would have known about this sort of thing before. In particular, the operator services department in most Bell Operating Companies has a staff line or two to monitor local/national events to ensure that enough operators are available to handle needs. It sound like there needs to be better communication between this group and the CO admin people though. peter clitherow (201) 829-5162, DQID: H07692 bellcore, 445 south street, room 2f-085, morristown, nj 07962 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 09:27:43 PDT From: lauren@vortex.COM (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Re: Concert Goers Blast 911 Service Greetings. Pat, you asked what the solution is to these recurring "concert fans saturate phone system" events. The solution is simplicity itself. Until such a time as the phone networks are capable of handling such concentrations in a more reasonable manner, you either voluntarily request (or legislate, if that doesn't work) that ticket sales which are likely to cause such saturations will not be conducted by phone. It's not as if these concerts usually pop out of thin air -- they're typically planned far in advance. The rationale for such restrictions would be the denial to customers of necessary phone services, both emergency and normal, that otherwise results. Ticket purchases in such cases could be by mail, with priority by postmark date, perhaps with a number of tickets preallocated for different parts of the city/areas to avoid unfair skewing of orders. Print little forms in the local magazines/newspapers to make it all simple for the buyers. While they're at it, some limits on the number of tickets that can be sent to any one address might be a good idea as well, to help avoid the massive "blocks" of tickets which are later sold or scalped at way above face value, often locking many "average" people out of the shows. There are some applications for which our current phone networks just aren't the best choice. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ From: asuvax!gtephx!bakerj@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Jon Baker) Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service Organization: AG Communication Systems, Phoenix, Arizona Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 17:44:24 GMT In article , barry@coyote.datalog.com (Barry Mishkind) writes: > [Moderator's Note: Come now, do you *really* think US West or any > telco relishes these situations and ignores them 'because they are the > phone company'? And had telco known in advance (did any of the > concert promoters advise telco of the times, etc?), what in your It is not the responsibility of the promoters to notify the telco. However, prudent network managers do keep tabs on upcoming events, such as this, by monitoring the radio and newspapers. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. > estimation might telco have done about it, other than possibly block > off access from certain exchanges when traffic was heavy? PAT] They can do quite a bit about it. That's why we have network managers. They can choke, or throttle, calls to the particular phone number for the ticket line during the periods of heaviest traffic. All CO's in the affected area would be notified, via network management control systems, to NOT attempt to complete calls to that directory number, but issue re-order (or some other appropriate treatment) instead. This way, each CO is a bit busy handling all of the attempts, but they don't tie up the trunking network in the region, nor do they overload the target CO. Similar network controls, on a broader scale, can be applied in the event of natural disasters or other events that might cause a large number of people to attempt to place calls to a particular CO. If you figure that only about 10% of calls will get through to 602/889, then we can block 90% of them at the originating CO's, rather than tieing up trunks all the way, only to get blocking or a busy signal near the end of the path. J.Baker asuvax!gtephx!bakerj DISCLAIMER : I am not an official representative of AGCS. ------------------------------ From: kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Ameritech/IBT Organization: NASA Langley Research Center and Reptile Farm Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 13:00:08 GMT In article nickless@antares.mcs.anl.gov (Bill Nickless) writes: > ... until you want things like ISDN. Ameritech/IBT seems to be among > the slowest to offer data services to the home. I am under the > impression that they're behind some un-named California telcos. ISDN? In the home? I'm in a C&P area and we just got touch-tone service for the first time last year. I asked the craftsman who came out to install a second line last month about ISDN services, and he said that he had recently been at a seminar on the systems, but said that the chances of it being available in my lifetime were slim. Sigh. scott ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 18:02 GMT From: Matthew Holdrege Subject: Re: Ameritech/IBT >> [Moderator's Note: Ameritech/IBT are certainly very progressive and >> technologically advanced telcos. I'm glad to be in their region. PAT] > ... until you want things like ISDN. Ameritech/IBT seems to be among > the slowest to offer data services to the home. I am under the > impression that they're behind some un-named California telcos. I found Ameritech/IBT to be very responsive to business. I received a great deal of support when I had some ISDN circuits installed in Chicago last year. Ameritech is also rapidly installing ISDN gear at a lot of other CO's. Of course the first sites to get ISDN were in business and high-tech areas. I asked about getting ISDN to my home in the Chicago suburbs and they showed me the CO map and a rough implementation schedule. Right now you can get ISDN at home if you live in the right area. In 1993 and 1994 most everyone in IBTland will be able to get ISDN. BTW, the IBT tariffs for ISDN seem to be among the best in the country and decidely better than Pacific Bell. Matt Holdrege Pacificare Health Systems 5156065@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 22:12:09 SST From: Ang Peng Hwa Subject: Re: Ameritech PCS Monty Solomon's description of Ameritech's new cordless phone sounds a lot like CT2. You can only send, and only when you are within 50 yards of a transmitter point. To my knowledge, it has failed everywhere it has been tried except here in Singapore. Sales were so successful that the PTT here was taken by surprise. There is an element of prestige in having one of those CT2 phones as they are extremely compact -- with less electronics. And apparently people are willing to pay for prestige. It'll be interesting to see the result of the test, first with send only and then with send and receive. ------------------------------ From: andrew@frip.wv.tek.com (Andrew Klossner) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Posturing Date: 22 Jun 92 21:29:43 GMT Reply-To: andrew@frip.wv.tek.com Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville, Oregon > The expense has already occurred. The system is ready. All that has > to be done is to "turn it on". This isn't true from the telco's perspective. To "turn on" the system, they must: -- Market the service, otherwise they won't get enough demand to justify their costs; -- Train their rep and service people in the features; -- Turn their graphics -- the existing subscriber instructions don't discuss CLASS; ... and so on. There's a lot more to providing telecom service than wiring a switch. Andrew Klossner (andrew@frip.wv.tek.com) (uunet!tektronix!frip.WV.TEK!andrew) ------------------------------ From: cornutt@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (David Cornutt) Subject: Re: You Can Ring My Bell Organization: NASA/MSFC Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1992 18:23:25 GMT krfiny!jeffj@uunet.uu.net writes: > (1) This gives me yet another silly project idea: how about a MIDI > interface so upon ring detect, a song of your choice is played, > turning your electronic music equipment into a phone ringer. I have a > Caller-ID converter on my PC. I could use the PC's internal speaker > (or Sound Blaster if I had one) to play when the phone rings. Now here's an idea: a Caller ID-to-MIDI interface. What you do: (1) Get a sampler. (2) Get your friends to come over to your house and say their names into the sampler. (3) Map each sample to a different key number. (4) Build a Caller ID interface that can map the calling number into a database that gives you the key number that contains the voice sample for the person who's calling, and then send a MIDI Note On to the sampler with the appropriate key number. This way, the phone will tell you who's calling -- in *their* voice! Hmmm ... David Cornutt, New Technology Inc., Huntsville, AL (205) 461-6457 (cornutt@freedom.msfc.nasa.gov; some insane route applies) "The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of my employer, not necessarily mine, and probably not necessary." ------------------------------ From: julian%bongo.UUCP@nosc.mil (Julian Macassey) Subject: Re: You Can Ring My Bell Date: 19 Jun 92 02:53:57 GMT Reply-To: julian@bongo.info.com (Julian Macassey) Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood California U.S.A. In article krfiny!jeffj@uunet.uu.net writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 491, Message 6 of 10 stuff deleted > TELECOM readers have long known that the original brass two gong ringer > is hard to beat for volume, durability, ability to locate, recognize > and hear above many background sounds. How much time and money must > be spent to verify the obvious? Why has the free market not produced > better phones? First of all, the driving force in any product - especially a consumer product - is cost. So a good gong ringer will cost about $4.00 and a piezo jobbie about $2.00. That is an important factor. It is easy to make a cheaper ringer than a gong ringer. It is almost impossible, given current technology, to make better ringer that is cheaper. And as I have said in an earlier posting, it is hard to beat the 2500 set. You can buy a new 2500 set for $25.00, you can find them at garage sales for $1-3. So what would be a better phone than a 2500 set? You can add gimmicks, but that is fashion. I am talking telephony. The origial Mickey Mouse phone was a blend of fashion and telephony. It looked cute and met the same specs as an AT&T 2500, including the drop test. People were reluctant to pay $125.00 for this phone. They bought $9.95 pieces of crap by the carload. None of those peices of crap are around anymore. > (1) This gives me yet another silly project idea: how about a MIDI > interface so upon ring detect, a song of your choice is played, > turning your electronic music equipment into a phone ringer. I have a > Caller-ID converter on my PC. I could use the PC's internal speaker > (or Sound Blaster if I had one) to play when the phone rings. I could > even key the songs to: > - the Caller-ID > - the phone line used (for multiple lines) > - distinctive ringing (for ident-a-ring, ring master, etc) > - time of day > - day of week > Voice syntheses so the phone talks to me -- naaa, too unnerving. > (well, perhaps for a Star Trek motif "engineering to Captain Kirk!") > This is starting to sound like a David Letterman sketch (the Addams > family phone screams, Agathe Christie's phone sounds like a gunshot >nand body falling, Walter Cronkite's says "and now here's the phone". Ok, you want a phone that always works, just like your phone does now. When the lights go out, the phone still works? Then you have to power the cutsie ringer from the ring current. I looked at this in the past to make R2D2 (Starwars) phones tweet and diddle instead of ring. Alas, there is not much energy left for volume after the cute sound effects chips have done their thing. You want the stereo to play Metallica or Wagner when the phone rings? Easy. You use a ringer chip and use the warble output to drive a gate (switch or relay) to turn on the stereo. Bear in mind though, that it won't work when the power fails and you may not always want that much racket. So, you want silent periods, also no problem, add a timer chip to the chain. Or go the whole hog and have a PC run it. So now you have a $600.00 phone. It's all yours, but they are not going to stand in line at Wallmart to buy it ... Julian Macassey, julian@bongo.info.com N6ARE@K6VE.#SOCAL.CA.USA.NA ------------------------------ From: leavens@mizar.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Re: Toggles Are Bad Design Date: 24 Jun 1992 11:51:36 -0700 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA In article gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) writes: > Is the *XX number space really that full? What are all those codes > used for? Does anyone have a "standard list" of them? I don't think there is a 'standard' list of these codes. After almost a year of thinking that my 'Cancel Call Waiting' "feature" simply didn't work, I found out that GTE uses 73# to cancel call waiting. I suppose that I could have checked an instruction list somewhere, but I had always assumed that *70 was a standard since I'd never seen anything else. But it looks like we won't have to worry about any of those pesky codes for Caller-ID here in GTEland. Thank goodness I'm moving back to PacBell land next week. I never knew how good I had it until I moved to a GTE area ... Justin Leavens University of Southern California Microcomputer Specialist ------------------------------ From: elliott@veronica.cs.wisc.edu (James Elliott) Subject: Re: Toggles Are Bad Design Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1992 21:53:39 GMT I agree. Toggles are almost always bad design. The number of times I have been frustrated in my efforts to set up computer control of devices in my home (such as timed, coordinated unattended operation of my VCRs and receiver to tape simulcast shows) and been frustrated by the fact that the control computer has no way of knowing the initial state of a toggle-controlled option, is large. The same principle applies to control of options on phone lines. This is above and beyond straightforward human-centered design issue. Don't use toggles; use separate controls. Jim Elliott elliott@cs.wisc.edu ------------------------------ From: James G. Speth Subject: Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 Date: 22 Jun 92 17:43:40 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz In article ron@pilot.njin.net (Ron Natalie) writes: > Oh, come off it. If the information gets anywhere close to here were > in deep kimche anyhow. The TELECOM Digest is probably the most benign > of the forums for "telecommunications enthusiats." Out of curiosity, what are some of the LESS benign forums? Jim Speth speth@cats.ucsc.edu [Moderator's Note: Would anyone like to address Mr. Speth's question? For the sake of neutrality, I will refrain for now. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #510 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa17102; 26 Jun 92 22:37 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28915 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 26 Jun 1992 20:42:20 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03701 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 26 Jun 1992 20:42:10 -0500 Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 20:42:10 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206270142.AA03701@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #511 TELECOM Digest Fri, 26 Jun 92 20:42:00 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 511 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Contemporary Remote Controls (Jacob DeGlopper) Re: With NETel, is it an UPgrade or a DOWNgrade? (Fred Goldstein) Re: Phone Keypad Interfaces to Enhanced Telephone Services (Justin Leavens) Re: Telephone Connection to Yugoslavia? (Carl Moore) Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers (Lauren Weinstein) Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection (Arthur L. Rubin) Re: Pay Phones in San Francisco (Darren Alex Griffiths) Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (Bill Cattey) Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (jbutz@homxa.att.com) Re: AT&T and Area Codes 706/404 (George Mitchell) Re: Influencing PUCs (Andrew M. Dunn) Re: Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212 (Greg Price) Re: Computer Aided Dispatching (John Nagle) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Subject: Re: Contemporary Remote Controls Reply-To: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 13:28:37 GMT In a previous article, lairdb@crash.cts.com (Laird P. Broadfield) says: > Incidental question: Do any of the setups make allowances for more > than one device in range (e.g. a stack of TVs) such that they can be > controlled individually? Technics audio products certainly don't! That's one reason our college radio station hangs on to the remote controls for any new equipment we get. For example, when we installed a pair of new CD players about two months ago, of course the techs got to play with them before anyone else :). Pointing one remote at the two players would make both open at once, or start playing, or (worst for on-air operations) stop. Since we have glass walls between the studios, you could sit in the next studio and make the CD players do strange things ... all the remotes are locked up in the tech shop where only some can get at them. Jacob DeGlopper, EMT-A, Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad -- CWRU Biomedical Engineering - jrd5@po.cwru.edu -- +1 703 538 7624 ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com (Fred Goldstein) Subject: Re: With NETel, is it an UPgrade or a DOWNgrade? Reply-To: goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com (Fred Goldstein) Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 17:26:00 GMT > Remember how I could call Natick for free with the "basic" service? > Turns out with the "enhanced" service, Natick becomes a "Zone 1" call, > at 1 cent per call plus 1.6 cents per minute. And, wouldn't ya know > it, my new net access is in Natick, so the 1.6 cents would have added > up but fast. Frankly, I'd call up the DPU and complain. Waltham was NOT a local call to Natick before November 18, 1990, when the DPU ordered that all contiguous exchanges in NET's Mass. territory become local. The bill insert said that Natick was to be added to Waltham's local area. I seriously doubt that the DPU intended that 1SR (suburban) service would not get flat-rate calling for something that's flat-rate with 1FR (contiguous) service. NET may be playing games with semantics, or may have a glitch in their billing. Of course, 1SR _does_ charge for calls to Boston Central from exchanges like Cambridge which are contiguous, while it's free on 1FR or 1ER (metro). But that's the main anomoly of 1SR (an obsolete hack if you ask me). Of course, the DPU can decide that NET was right. 1SR is just one option, after all. And their service tiers are _not_ defined to be inclusive of lower tiers. Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com k1io or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: leavens@mizar.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Re: Phone Keypad Interfaces to Enhanced Telephone Services Date: 26 Jun 1992 11:45:13 -0700 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA In article craig@world.std.com (Craig Hubley) writes: > That is, *70 seems to pretty universally suppress call waiting, but I > don't know if the code to retrive messages from your answering service > is the same everywhere, North-America-wide, or just across a single > company's jurisdiction. Are there FCC standards for this, or CCITT > standards? Here in GTECA land, a 73# is required to suppress call-waiting. I couldn't tell you if that's a GTE standard, but that's what it is here. Justin Leavens University of Southern California Microcomputer Specialist leavens@mizar.usc.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 10:28:14 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Telephone Connection to Yugoslavia? Nothing about Bosnia-Herzegovina? What messages do you get in trying to call these various parts of the former Yugoslavia? For example, there was a recording (via AT&T) about emergency conditions in Kuwait after it was invaded in 1990 by Iraq, and AT&T apparently was intercepting calls to Kuwait before the connection proceeded beyond the U.S. borders. It's understood that the various republics splitting off from Yugo- slavia are still under that country code (given the previous dis- cussions about the former East Germany and the former Soviet Union, not to mention what I have seen in newspapers about Czech and Slovak republics proposed for what is now Czechoslovakia). ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 09:35:15 PDT From: lauren@vortex.COM (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers Greetings. Someone asked if the subscribers had any choice in the selection of new numbers, in the situation of being forced to change numbers by telco. In the case of the Woodland Hills event I originally mentioned, I believe the subscribers were allowed to pick their new four digit numbers in the new prefix, but could only choose numbers within fairly limited ranges, i.e. they did not have the entire 10,000 possibilities from which to choose. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ From: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection Date: 26 Jun 92 17:40:23 GMT Reply-To: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) In scol@scottsdale.az.stratus.com (Scott Colbath) writes: > This sounds like a thing I remember while living in Massachusetts > called Lojack. When your car was stolen, you reported it to the police > and Lojack. A transmitter hidden in your car would send out a signal > which was moitored by the Massachusetts State Police. They had four > antennae on the roof of a few selected patrol cars. Using this device, > they could chase the signal and find the car within a couple of hours. > The advantage over a typical car alarm being that thieves never had a > chance to strip the car. If the car was hidden in a garage or > something, it was still able to be found. PacTel Teletrak (?) and Lojack are provided by different companies. (There may be a third major system, as well.) My recollection of the systems is the Lojack is automatically activated if the car is started without the key. Teletrak advertised that, if your car is stolen, (and it is not automatically activated, by whatever means), you can activate the system by letting them know. (Of course, this means you can let someone use the car, and then have the police pick him up for stealing the car, but ... you could do that anyway. This just makes it more reliable.) Arthur L. Rubin: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (work) Beckman Instruments/Brea 216-5888@mcimail.com 70707.453@compuserve.com arthur@pnet01.cts.com (personal) My opinions are my own, and do not represent those of my employer. Our news system is unstable; if you want to be sure I see a post, mail it. ------------------------------ From: dag@ossi.com (Darren Alex Griffiths) Subject: Re: Pay Phones in San Francisco Organization: Open Systems Solutions Inc. Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 18:48:17 GMT john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > Now the city is greedily looking over the matter of enforcing its "pay > phone permits". The city claims that it wants, for aesthetic reason, > to control the proliferation of phones. An example is the fact that > there are seven phones on Mission Street between 18th and 19th. But of > course the real concern is collecting the $50 a month from each phone > (or 20% of the gross, whichever is greater). The estimates are that > the city would collect more than $25,000 monthly. I used to be involved with a bar about a block from there, 19th and Valencia Street. About six months before we sold out to some friends someone came in the place and offered to put a COCOT on the wall outside. Since we had a lot of people asking to use the bar phone I said sure. In return we'd get $50 a month and the supplier would take care of all the permits. All things went well at first, it took the supplier (I forget the name but I can find out if anyone is really interested) about a month to secure permits with what seemed like every agency from the CIA on down and the phone was installed. The day after it was setup this patrol officer came storming in the bar while I was working there and said, quite loudly, in front of customers "What the hell do you think your doing with the phone out there". It seemed that he was rather upset that he hadn't been consulted about the phone and demanded that it be removed the next day because he was afraid that the phone would attract drug dealers to the area. I guess he didn't think that drug dealers would want to use the dozen or so city phones in the area and it seems he wasn't a very good cop because one with any sense would have known that there are plenty of drug dealers already there. In any case, the next day the phone was moved inside, as a result the COCOT cut our take to $25 because it wasn't in a place where anyone could get at and people still asked to use the bar phone because the office was often far quieter than the bar with loud music playing. Cheers, Darren Alex Griffiths dag@ossi.com Open Systems Solutions, Inc (510) 652-6200 x139 Fujitsu Fax: (510) 652-5532 6121 Hollis Street Emeryville, CA 94608-2092 [Moderator's Note: This is a good example of how rotten to the core municipal government can be. All those permits and foot-dragging by the city to do something of value -- install a telephone -- for the residents. I could tell you dozens of stories about how abusive the City of Chicago is to the few people still around who own real property and pay taxes, etc. The idiots in our city council are now trying to put all sorts of requirements on pay phones here, as if that would solve the myriad of problems we endure. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 11:59:50 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill Cattey Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine Thanks for bringing up this question. (I've always wondered about the hangup call message but was unable to ask about it as succinctly as you.) Thanks also Pat, for explaining how it happens. Now I have a question: Where can I get an answering machine that recognizes the hangup call and doesn't record it? If no such machine exists, is there one with a remote command "Skip over this stupid hangup call message"? By far the largest number of messages I get are these annoying hangup calls, and it's driving me nuts! Bill Cattey [Moderator's Note: There are answering machines available with CPC (called party control) which abort on detecting a hangup. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jbutz@homxa.att.com Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 10:26 EDT Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine > Several times (about once in two weeks) I have had the following > message recorded on my answering machine: " > Please hang up and try your call again. This is a recording. > Two-oh-three-two-one." I presume that this is some sort of automatic > message generated by the telco's equipment. There were no calls > attempted from the phones at the time the message must have got > recorded (in fact, this seems to happen when no one is at home), so Or ... There's this fun one. Call your friend's answering machine, while simultaneously three-way-calling a joke line, "heavy breathing" line, intercept, or other answering maching, so that your friends answering machine records the message being played on the second line! Leaves them scratching their head every time. [Moderator's Note: Wow ... what a lot of fun! This is just a variation on the stupid prank immature phreaks (yes, I know that may be considered redundant by some readers) which involves calling two unrelated people via three-way calling then remaining silent as each accuses the other of placing the call. And if you have two physical lines, each with three-way, then you patch the lines together and get four people in on the 'joke' ... all of whom are convinced as a result the telco must be more screwed up than ever. It helps if at least a couple of the victims are older people you wake up at 2 AM. PAT] ------------------------------ From: george@tessi.com (George Mitchell) Subject: Re: AT&T and Area Codes 706/404 Organization: Test Systems Strategies, Inc., Beaverton, Oregon Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 15:25:27 GMT monty@proponent.com (Monty Solomon) writes: > AT&T ran the following ad in the 7/23/92 {Boston Globe}: I'd love to borrow your crystal ball one of these days. george@tessi.com [Moderator's Note: It should have been *6*/23/92. Thanks for catching the typo. Sorry for any confusion caused. PAT] ------------------------------ From: amdunn@mongrel.uucp (Andrew M. Dunn) Organization: A. Dunn Systems Corporation, Kitchener, Canada Subject: Re: Influencing PUCs Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 03:21:25 GMT In article polk@girtab.usc.edu (Corinna Polk) writes: > So then, what does the normal $35-$50 line installation fee cover? My > impression was that paying that standard installation fee gave me a > phone line, regardless of the situation. If I had the lines already > running into the house, then it was a simple install that required a > data entry (aka "Customer Service") person to type on a terminal. If > it required a new drop then someone was to do that. But either way, > the price was the same, the former installs covering the cost of the > latter. It seems to vary by jurisdiction. I've seen both scenarios, where: (a) you pay a flat fee, no matter what, or (b) you pay a flat fee UP TO SOME "REASONABLE" LEVEL OF SERVICE I think the latter is growing more popular. Somebody decides what is a reasonable level of service (ie. two lines) and says "OK, for the flat installation fee you can have whatever is needed to provide you with service up to that limit". Anything beyond the limit, you pay time and materials for (plus a healthy dose of good ol' profit). That's not how it's done here in Bell Canada territory. The flat fee seems to cover ANY type of installation. This included the sixth line here recently, and the 25-pair cable from the street to the house. It varies. Your mileage may vary. Check the tariffs which are required to be available for your perusal everywhere that I've seen. Andy Dunn (amdunn@mongrel.uucp) ({uunet...}!xenitec!mongrel!amdunn) ------------------------------ From: greg@coombs.anu.edu.au (Greg Price) Subject: Re: Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212 Organization: Computer Services Centre, Australian National University Date: 26 Jun 92 19:04:39 GMT richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg) writes: > One more datapoint: from the 310 a/c (Tinsletown), PacBell allows the > eleven digits of 1-710-555-1212, and then Jane tells me that my call > cannot be completed as dialed. Why not try changing the 555 to a some other randomish type sequences? If you were really going to hide something 555 is a choice I wouldn't use. What is really needed is a telco person to give a few hints on the routing of those area codes, or possibly if anyone calls these area codes. Anyone work in a trunk exchange? Greg ------------------------------ From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) Subject: Re: Computer Aided Dispatching Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 07:18:36 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Gilbert Amine (gamine@mcimail.com) writes: > A friend of mine is putting together a digital radio-based > computer-aided dispatching system ... Systems that do this job right now are available from Etak, Inc, of Mountain View, CA. The Etak Vehicle Management System interfaces with existing two-way radios, and reports in the vehicle position with data bursts on the radio link. The vehicle carries the Etak navigation system (which uses CD-ROM based maps, a magnetic compass, a two-axis rate gyro, a two-axis tilt meter, and wheel encoders) and provides the driver with a map display. The dispatching center has map displays showing the location of all vehicles on the system, and can transmit coordinates of destinations to the vehicles, where they show up on the driver's display. Doesn't use GPS; doesn't need it. John Nagle ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #511 ****************************** NOTE: ISSUES 512 THROUGH 519 ARRIVED OUT OF ORDER AND ARE FILED HERE AS FOLLOWS: 515, 514, 512, 516, 517, 513, 518, 519, THEN IN NORMAL ORDER 520 THROUGH 550.   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04120; 28 Jun 92 12:39 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00964 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 27 Jun 1992 21:42:54 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08044 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 27 Jun 1992 21:42:46 -0500 Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1992 21:42:46 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206280242.AA08044@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #515 TELECOM Digest Sat, 27 Jun 92 21:42:45 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 515 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Interesting Phone Circuit (The Famous Harmonica Bug?) (Augustine Cano) Who Makes Inverse Multiplexers? (Doug A. Chan) Need Standards/RFCs/Docs For OSI/Object Modelling/X-Windows (S. Johnson) SDS/ISDN Interoperability (Matthew Holdrege) Looking For Info on Dialog Between PAD and Async Terminal (John Saldanha) Ringer Equivalency Numbers (RENs) (Steven S. Brack) Fiber Channel Standards Info Wanted (Alfredo Cotroneo) Part 15 Compatible Transceivers (Joseph E. Baker) Switch Question (Tom Streeter) Missouri Requires Modernization (J. Philip Miller) Update on CWA-AT&T Battle (Phillip Dampier) AT&T Knows I am Moving. How? (Naddim Massoud) Telecomics (David Leibold) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Interesting Phone Circuit (The Famous Harmonica Bug?) Date: 27 Jun 92 09:54:50 CDT (Sat) From: afc@shibaya.lonestar.ORG (Augustine Cano) I picked up an original Western Electric phone besides a dumpster. The plate around the keypad was gone and a small reddish box with 4 wires attached was bouncing around inside. The phone works just fine although audio volume seems low. The little plastic box (1" X 2" X 3/8") with the numbers 840364202 and 3-80 on the cover contains a PCB. The box looks like this: +---------------+ ^ | 840364202 | | | 3-80 | | 1" \ | | \--------------+ v <---------------> 2" The circuit board inside (component side, same scale): green wire o wire connections to PCB +--------|------+ 0 screws white wire ---0 -R1- | DDDD | -R1- orange white gold gold brown wire ---0 -R2- o T | -R2- orange white gold gold |-\\\\\\\--R3- o-- white wire -R3- brown green gold gold +---------------+ DDDD diode (521) T transistor (WE9 803A) -\\- a spring (inductor?) On the back, beside the traces it says: AM-2 220. Some traces and some holes on the board are not used, the remaining make up the following schematic: spring brown wire --0-\\\\\\\\-+-R3---+-----------+ | | --- | diode \ / gr. wire | v | | --- -|--|- | \++++/ transistor | \||/ | || white wire --0--R1--+---R2-----+---------+| | white wire So, is this the famous harmonica bug? I haven't had a chance to test if this circuit actually does anything. Can somebody shed some light on this without the complete schematic of the rest of the phone? Assuming standard color coding (what is the color coding standard in WE phones?) are the right signals going in/out of this circuit for this to actually do what it's supposed to do? Speculation: the low volume could be due to losses in this non-standard circuit. This was not a standard part of WE phones, was it? If this is really a bug, the transistor is really a switch in parallel with the off-hook switch. Unfortunately, the block with 19 screws where all the wires go is riveted securely to the base and I haven't attacked that part yet, so I don't know what's underneath. Augustine Cano INTERNET: afc@shibaya.lonestar.org UUCP: ...!{ernest,egsner}!shibaya!afc ------------------------------ From: apollo@buengc.bu.edu (Doug A. Chan) Subject: Who Makes Inverse Multiplexers? Date: 27 Jun 92 15:10:16 GMT Organization: College of Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA As the subject line says ... Basically, I need something which will take a fixed speed dedicated line and add on additional switched 56/64 as we need additional thruput. -It must be able to handle up to a full T1. -The addition of switched circuits must be under manual control (some serial port?) -Automatically dial switched circuits if the dedicated line is lost. What is out there and has anyone worked with them? What kind of interfaces can I expect (V.35, ethernet, RS-422)? Doug apollo@buengc.bu.edu ------------------------------ From: S.Johnson@bradford.ac.uk (S JOHNSON) Subject: Need Standards/RFCs/Docs For OSI/Object Modelling/X-Windows Date: 27 Jun 92 14:44:41 GMT Organization: University of Bradford, UK Hi, Basically the subject header says it all. I need all and any text files or spare documents anyone can lay their hands on all about the above subjects, particularly dcom standards for the 7-layer model. Any info about X would be great too - ftp sites gracefully accepted. Thanks in advance, Steve Johnson s.johnson@bradford.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 23:58 GMT From: Matthew Holdrege Subject: SDS/ISDN Interoperability We are planning to implement a number of switched 56k backup circuits for our WAN in California. Pac Bell has given us a list of SDS availability for each site. I was surprised to see that a number of sites were offering ISDN as the _only_ switched option available. I found out that the 5ESS switch does not offer SDS so they had to install ISDN on it to provide switched 56K. The DMS-100's can handle SDS or ISDN but PacBell charges less for SDS. PacBell says that I can call an ISDN number from an SDS number without any problems. Has anyone else tried this? Matt Holdrege Pacificare Health Plans 5156065@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: john saldanha Subject: Looking For Info on Dialog Between PAD and Async Terminal Organization: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1992 21:16:57 GMT A friend of mine is looking for information on the dialog between a PAD (Packet Assembler Disassembler) and an async terminal. He asked me about this but I didn't have the faintest clue what he was talking about. Some of the jargon he was using was X.25, HDLC, DATEX-P, and Datapak. I am hoping there is someone on the net who knows about such stuff and can help him out. If you think you can help, please send me e-mail letting me know how to get in touch with you (preferably a phone number as my friend is from Germany and is currently travelling in the U.S.) Thanks, John Saldanha jsaldanh@haydn.helios.nd.edu Tel: (219) 239-5273 ------------------------------ Date: 27 Jun 1992 17:34:45 -0400 (EDT) From: sbrack@jupiter.cse.UTOLEDO.edu (Steven S. Brack) Subject: Ringer Equivalency Numbers (RENs) I recently made a tour of my new home, and added up all the RENs of all the phones, just to see what I would get. Total RENs: 7.4 *!* (Must really increase Ma's electric bill 8) Highest rated device: ConAir "prestige" phone, 1.7B Lowest rated device: Genuine Bell answering machine, 0.3B Lowest rated phone: AT&T 100 pushbutton phone, 0.7B Anyway, this brought up some questions. 1) Some phones give their REN as X.XA (X being any number), while others give theirs as X.XB. What do the A & B mean? 2) Why should the least feature-filled phone, a $15 one-piece phone have a higher REN than the AT&T phone, which does quite a bit more, and rings more loudly, as well? 3) Does the length of wire run figure into REN calculations? (I have an extension phone connected to a 250' cord.) So, I thought I'd give it to the manually implemented database (that's you). 8) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 15:03:28 +0200 From: alfredo@quickt2.it12.bull.it (Alfredo Cotroneo) Subject: Fiber Channel Standards Info Wanted I am looking for the ultimate ANSI specs of the Fiber Channel standards, but I could not find either the exact document number, nor where could I obtain a copy from. Can anybody help, please? I suppose that the standard document numbers should be available from ANSI. Does anybody have the address of ANSI (phone/fax/email) handy?. Any help or further pointer to the Fiber Channel standard documents will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Alfredo E. Cotroneo Bull HN Information Systems Italia Pregnana Milanese (Milano) Italy email: a.cotroneo@it12.bull.it ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 09:50:12 PDT From: jeb@jupiter.risc.rockwell.com (Joseph E. Baker) Subject: Part 15 Compatible Transceivers I am interested in purchasing Part 15 compatible spread spectrum transceivers for use in some system prototypes. The various prototypes may cover a fairly wide portion of the range of part 15 allowable bandwidths, so I'm interested in just about anything (at least anything that actually demodulates the spread signal). I would be grateful for any pointers to manufacturers or to sources of information. Please reply by email to me, and I will summarize any responses. Thanks, Joe Baker jeb@risc.rockwell.com (805)373-4648 ------------------------------ From: streeter@cs.unca.edu (Tom Streeter) Subject: Switch Question Organization: University of North Carolina at Asheville Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1992 21:11:09 GMT A brief question about something I've been watching all afternoon (instead of getting any real work done) ... Crews from AT&T and Southern Bell have been installing what I assume is a switch outside the building where I work. A large (maybe 25'x10'x8') metal-and-concrete unit has been placed in a hole that was dug to accomodate it. The outer part of the unit is a concrete shell that is split into a lower and upper half. The lower half of the shell consists of a series of equipment racks framed together . The metal frames are blue, and the equipment in them looks -- well-- like the equipment one sees in a phone closet, except more of it. The top half of the concrete shell has what looks like a large air conditioner unit on the top that will be above ground when the hole is filled in. The only person on the site who didn't look too busy when the lower half of the unit was being placed in the hole was the guy who is going to connect the power. He said the unit was a switch, but couldn't find any sort of model number in his documentation (he's one of the few non-SB or AT&T people out there). He said that he'd been told that it was being installed to serve only the campus (which is about to build a couple of new buildings) and is connected to the CO by a fiber line that was installed last week. No one who ever played with Tonka toys when they were a kid (or later, for that matter) could help but to be impressed at the installation procedure. The crew guiding the unit into the hole did it with a nonchalance I'm not sure I could muster standing under anything with "Wt. 42,000" stenciled on it. The supervisor (a woman who's obviously done this more than a couple of times) would give hand signals to the crane operator asking for adjustments of about six inches or so, fully expecting him to make such fine adjustements (which he did). All in all, it was a smooth operation. I have a couple of questions I hope someone might be kind enough to address. The switch was an AT&T product (based on the number of things that came in AT&T boxes and the AT&T techs who were running around). What kind of switch might this be? Is it possible that it's one of those legendary 5ESS's that are discussed here with such vigor, or are those the sort of things that are only found in COs? Any speculation as to what it might be? My other question is even more speculative (and probably not asked as directly as possible considering my general ignorance about such things). "Campus" numbers are considered those that fall in 704-251-6xxx, that is, those are the numbers that one can use all the bells and whistles with (call forwarding, park and pickup, three-way, etc.) Some campus offices are served on 704-255-9xxx and are reached from "campus" phones as if they were off-campus (i.e., having to dial '9' and the whole number to reach them). A request for a new phone line is considered a relatively big deal here, and the reason generally given is that there's a shortage of lines. Is it possible that the campus will be given an exchange of its own? Or is it possible that it will be used to tie the already existing numbers together under a single set of services (e.g, making it possible for two 2-6xxx numbers to conference with a 5-9xxx number). Are the two possibilities mutually exclusive? Have I provided enough information to allow someone to make a decent guess? Am I missing the point? Please respond by e-mail, and I'll summarize all that give me permission to do so. Thanks. Tom Streeter streeter@cs.unca.edu Dept. of Mass Communication 704-251-6227 University of North Carolina at Asheville Opinions expressed here are Asheville, NC 28804 mine alone. ------------------------------ From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) Subject: Missouri Requires Modernization Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 6:10:32 CDT From the {St. Louis Post Dispatch} 6/25/92 The MO Public Service Commission approved new rules that could prod the state's 41 telephone companies to modernize their networks and improve service. The companies have until next March to submit plans on how they will comply and what it will cost. Included among the particular areas are: upgrading all phones to one-party service; all customers have touch-tone service; provide electronic switch to accomodate enhanced 911; support new services like call blocking and call return; offer custom calling services to all customers; offer equal access for LD between area codes within MO. J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067 Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110 phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - Internet (314) 362-3617 [362-2694(FAX)] ------------------------------ From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) Subject: Update on CWA-AT&T Battle Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 6:16:30 CDT SWBT and the CWA which represents 39,000 of its employees have agreed to refrain from sanctioing a strike or lockout during negotiations on a new labor contract. The agreement can be rescinded only after the current contract expires. The company or the union must give 30 days notice before either side can terminate the agreement. Vic Crawley, vp of CWA said both sides accept risks in signing the agreement, "but the upside of the agreement is very positive. It sets a productive tone for negotiations where the two sides will be more like partners than adversaries." The Communications Workers of America is continuing their "electronic picketing" by asking people to give the CWA the authority to switch their long distance carrier. No one seems to know which carrier will be blessed with the business. CWA's latest press releases have been ultra dull stuff about the merger between their union and one representing broadcast engineers. I suspect there will be further updates in the CWA newsletter which should show up any day now. ------------------------------ Organization: The American University - University Computing Center Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1992 19:17:27 EDT From: MASSOUD@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: AT&T Knows I am Moving. How? About a week ago I notified US Sprint (my LD carrier) and C&P telephone (local carrier) to disconnect my service on June 30th, because I am moving. Today I received junk mail from AT&T offering me a "$50 long distance savings bond" if I select them as my LD carrier for my new home. Am I correct in assuming that C&P telephone gave them the information, probably so that my Bell Atlantic phone card stops working after this date? Nadim Massoud Massoud@American.edu [Moderator's Note: AT&T probably buys information like that from the local telco also. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 23:32:35 EDT From: David Leibold Subject: Telecomics The daily comic Shoe on 18th June featured a character who was working a fax machine and wound up attempting to fax his tie ... Any other examples of telecom references in the funnies? dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #515 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04515; 28 Jun 92 12:51 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27096 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 27 Jun 1992 20:43:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14609 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 27 Jun 1992 20:43:16 -0500 Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1992 20:43:16 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206280143.AA14609@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #514 TELECOM Digest Sat, 27 Jun 92 20:43:19 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 514 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (Bob Yazz) Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (John I. Hritz) Re: Telephone Tone Control (Mike Willey) Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (Neil R. Ormos) Re: Pac*Bell Posturing (John Higdon) Re: Ameritech/IBT (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Ameritech/IBT (Charles Mattair) Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers (Joel M. Snyder) Re: Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212 (Alan Boritz) Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted (Erik Rauch) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Bob Yazz Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1992 20:02:11 GMT PAT writes: > Had the hang-up caller stayed on the line even another few > seconds to hear some of your outgoing message, your machine probably > would have a recording of dial tone on it instead. PAT] My local DMS switch did this a few years back but it's fixed now. Commonly, the hang-up caller is the machine's owner checking for messages, and hanging up when a certain number of rings has occurred (the "toll-saver" feature). When dialtone runs out, a CPC disconnect should be sent before the "please hang up" recording. (Both actions are instructions to hang up and start again, with the CPC referring to machines and the recording referring to humans. A CPC disconnect signal is essentially a complete drop of the line voltage for 0.8 (or if you ask them to change it for you) 1.2 seconds.) My DMS switch wasn't doing this but it does now. A CPC should also be sent out when the hang-up caller hangs up, but I went around and around on this issue with Code-A-Phone techies who said that line voltage is not guaranteed to be stable for up to two seconds after a phone is answered, so their machine is programmed to ignore all line voltage fluctuations, including CPC disconnect signals, during the first two seconds after it answers the phone. I eventually got rid of that machine. Extra delay in sending out the hang-up CPC disconnect (about one ring cycle's worth of delay) would also get around the problem. I don't know how DMS's are doing this now, but I never get those messages at all anymore. Of course, maybe the poster's switch is doing everything perfectly, and his answering machine is just ignoring the CPC. Bob Yazz ------------------------------ From: jih@crane.aa.ox.com (John I. Hritz) Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine Date: 27 Jun 92 15:39:59 GMT Organization: OTA Limited Partnership, Ann Arbor MI 48104 USA In article A. Satish Pai writes: > Several times (about once in two weeks) I have had the following > message recorded on my answering machine: " > Please hang up and try your call again. This is a recording. > Two-oh-three-two-one." I presume that this is some sort of automatic Kind in the same vane. I periodically get recordings on my machine that consist of a and then a pause of about five seconds. This repeats for a couple of minutes. That's it nothing else. I was at home once when the call came in and picked it up. Just this regular beep. My guess is that it is some marketing department trolling for fax machines or (less likely) a cracker hunting for modems. The regularity of the beeping makes me thing it's a recording device with the prerequisite warning tone. Any similar experiances? Or opinions on origin and purpose. This is one case where CID/ANI would be handy. John Hritz, jih@ox.com O.T.A. Limited Partnership 101 N. Main, Suite 410 Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (313) 930-1888 ------------------------------ From: mike@uunet!ctbilbo (Mike Willey) Subject: Re: Telephone Tone Control Organization: Communications Technology Systems, Inc. Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1992 15:18:56 GMT In article craig@world.std.com (Craig Hubley) writes: > I am trying to find sources of chips/schematics/electronics to > translate telephone tones (and possibly also pulses) into specific > control signals that can be used to control other electronics. > Even if you don't know of anything specific, names of periodicals and > catalogs that publish/sell electronics useful in telephony would be > very welcome. I will post back anything useful that I find but please > email me so that I can collect the material in a sane way. Check the Teltone T-310, it communicates line activity and provides limited line control through an RS-232C async port. This is really good pooky, we use them to help test our equipment from time to time. I don't have an exact address or TN handy, but they are headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. Cheers, Mike Willey Communication Technology Corporation Dallas, Texas ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 15:15:01 -0600 From: Neil R. Ormos Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service In (24 Jun 92 04:52:51 GMT) barry@coyote.datalog.com (Barry Mishkind) quotes the {Tucson Citizen}, 6/23/92 as reporting: > The Tucson area's 911 line was snarled yesterday when callers > trying to get tickets to a concert overload the local telephone > system... and laments: > And not an apology in the house! Of course, _not one_ employee of > US Worst saw this coming, nor told a supervisor about it, nor > cared ... to which our Moderator responds: > And had telco known in advance (did any of the concert > promoters advise telco of the times, etc?), what in your > estimation might telco have done about it, other than possibly > block off access from certain exchanges when traffic was heavy? We've had similar problems in the Chicago area with telephone problems associated with the computer ticket services. The ticket services, the telco, and the utility regulators are responsible to prevent them. These problems are essentially public nuisances, and they ought to be treated as such. In any case, the telcos can help prevent these problems. The telcos are well aware of the potential for unusual load-induced service disruption and have developed tools to avoid or remedy it. It is not unusual for telcos to assign subscribers who are expected to receive high peak call volumes to a selected exchange. (For example, in Chicago, the studio/contest lines of most radio stations are 591-xxxx numbers. This allows other switches to recognize excessive call attempts to the selected exchange and block such calls, when necessary, without blocking normal calls. Thus, the telco should be responsible for knowing the type of business its subscribers conduct and assigning problem subscribers, at the subscriber's expense, to high volume exchanges. It is clearly forseeable that ticket selling services and the like will cause load-induced problems. (There are probably some exceptions to this; e.g. a rush of calls to a drug-company's product information hotline as a result of publicity about product tampering is probably not a forseeable event of sufficiently high probability to justify such assignment). Where it is not possible or feasable to provide a suitable technological solution to the problem, telephone service should be tariffed to prohibit such improper uses of the telephone system and to hold the subscriber responsible (i.e. liable) for intentional abuse. We have land use policy (i.e. zoning), pollution control law, and other regulation to control similar anti-social behavior; the fact that this particular nuisance occurs in the telphone system should not prevent us from protecting the public interest in reliable communications. I might add that there are better (and socially fairer) ways to distribute high-demand tickets, but as long as the concert promoters and ticket sellers are permitted to use a public-resource-intensive mechanism without paying the fully loaded cost, they have no incentive to investigate them. neil ormos thssno@iitmax.iit.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Jun 92 02:37 PDT From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Posturing andrew@frip.wv.tek.com (Andrew Klossner) writes: > This isn't true from the telco's perspective. To "turn on" the > system, they must: Really? Let us look at each of these in relation to the real world and Pac*Bell's stated intentions. > Market the service, otherwise they won't get enough demand to > justify their costs; Pac*Bell intends to market the other CLASS features. How much more does it cost to market CNID in conjuction with the CLASS services in general as opposed to all of those services without CNID? I submit that the cost is negligible. > Train their rep and service people in the features; As well as for the other features--again an negligible, incremental cost. > Turn their graphics -- the existing subscriber instructions don't > discuss CLASS; But the new ones will, with or without Caller-ID. And how much more will it cost for the CNID space? > ... and so on. There's a lot more to providing telecom service than > wiring a switch. This whole argument would hold water a lot better if the company had not intended to go ahead and offer all of the other CLASS features. It costs virtually the same to promote, train, and educate in the matter whether it be for five services or for six services. BTW, I got these points from someone who actually works for Pac*Bell and who agrees that the whole public announcement is indeed posturing. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 03:45:39 -0700 From: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: Ameritech/IBT Scott Dorsey writes: > In article nickless@antares.mcs.anl.gov > (Bill Nickless) writes: >> ... until you want things like ISDN. Ameritech/IBT seems to be among >> the slowest to offer data services to the home. I am under the >> impression that they're behind some un-named California telcos. > ISDN? In the home? I'm in a C&P area and we just got touch-tone > service for the first time last year. I asked the craftsman who came > out to install a second line last month about ISDN services, and he > said that he had recently been at a seminar on the systems, but said > that the chances of it being available in my lifetime were slim. Yes -- from C&P. Demand dial tone competition now. Residential ISDN will continue to be telephonic vaporware unless we can break out the crowbar of legal competition against the arrogant RBOCs, whose managements are largely interested in using their profit-guaranteed POTS to subsidize other, more potentially lucrative ventures -- which they frequently know nothing about. If they applied the same imagination and capital to upgrading the telephone system, we might be well on our way to an all-digital network by now. Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 12:04:11 CDT From: mattair@sun44.synercom.hounix.org (Charles Mattair) Subject: Re: Ameritech/IBT Organization: Synercom Technology, Inc., Houston, TX In article kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov (Scott Dorsey) writes: > In article nickless@antares.mcs.anl.gov > (Bill Nickless) writes: >> ... until you want things like ISDN. Ameritech/IBT seems to be among >> the slowest to offer data services to the home. I am under the >> impression that they're behind some un-named California telcos. > ISDN? In the home? I'm in a C&P area and we just got touch-tone > service for the first time last year. I asked the craftsman who came > out to install a second line last month about ISDN services, and he > said that he had recently been at a seminar on the systems, but said > that the chances of it being available in my lifetime were slim. > Sigh. Ditto for Houston. I called re ISDN for my home. $200 or so per month. SW Bell has only wired two offices for ISDN: one downtown and the other somewhere out in the hustings. I'm not in one of them. The cost was for the FX number and dedicated cable pairs they would have to allocate. Also, ISDN does not go outside those offices. Trying to find out this much took a week and several many phone calls. The most frustrating thing was finding someone to talk with. Say ISDN and you get a referral to the business side; as soon as those people determine the number is residential, they won't talk with you. Gotta call the residential side. Those poor, helpful souls have never heard of ISDN. Reminds me of a parody of one of SWB's slogans. "We may be the only phone company in town and we damn well act like it." Charles Mattair (preferred) mattair%synercom@hounix.org (or) mattair@synercom.UUCP Any opinions offered are my own and do not reflect those of my employer. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers From: jms@misvax.mis.arizona.edu Date: 27 Jun 1992 17:34 MST Reply-To: jms@arizona.edu Organization: University of Arizona MIS Department In article , catfood@wariat.org (Mark W. Schumann) writes: > I once got a package from my dad addressed to: > 12-39 > 50112-0805 The stories go on: the University of Arizona's ZIP is 85721. Anything sent to that ZIP gets sorted by our mailroom. That means you can address something to Joel Snyder, 85721, and it'll get there just fine -- in fact, no slower than the normal mail. ZIP + 4 normally selects at the block level (there's a ZIP + 4 book in your post office for your town); for some places, obviously, the + 4 gets it a lot closer, such as a PO Box (mentioned previously), a single office building, etc. Joel M Snyder, 1103 E Spring Street, Tucson, AZ, 85719 Phone: 602.882.4094 (voice) .4095 (FAX) .4093 (data) BITNET: jms@Arizona Internet: jms@arizona.edu SPAN: 47541::telcom::jms ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212 From: Alan Boritz Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 12:51:32 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 davidb@zeus.ce.washington.edu (David W. Barts) writes: > US West (Pacific Northwest Bell) does nothing in particular after > 1-710 is dialed. But if you complete the number by dialing seven more > digits, you get the familiar " We're sorry, your call cannot be > completed as dialed. Please check the number, and try again." > recording. New Jersey Bell gives the same "cannot be completed as dialed" intercept, but the same number (1-710-555-1212) provokes an interesting intercept when dialed with a 10XXX. NJ Bell says that a long distance access code is not required. aboritz@harry.UUCP (Alan Boritz) Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: Erik Rauch Subject: Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 16:16:25 EDT rmintz@ecst.csuchico.edu (Rich Mintz): > if your phone number is 345-1234, there is an alternate xyz-1234 > number which connects you to this "test" number. > I've found this "alternate" prefix many times through sequential > dialing with my modem and uning the Hayes 'W' command to wait for a > dial tone after the number is dialed (that's what you get when the > test number answers) and testing whether the result code is "No > Dialtone" or "No Carrier" (which means it DID find the dialtone and > went on to wait for a carrier). > Once the call completes and you get the dial-tone sound, a flash > changes it to a higher pitched tone. Yes, this seems to be the most common mode. You don't have to go dialing random "special" exchanges, however; they usually are clustered, most of the time having the same two first digits. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #514 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa06806; 28 Jun 92 13:45 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03488 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 26 Jun 1992 22:01:06 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21739 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 26 Jun 1992 22:00:57 -0500 Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 22:00:57 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206270300.AA21739@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #512 TELECOM Digest Fri, 26 Jun 92 22:01:00 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 512 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (Mark Cavallaro) Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (Adam M. Gaffin) Re: Concert Goers Blast 911 Service (Leonard Erickson) Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (John Rice) Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 (Foster Schucker) Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 (L. Erickson) Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 (Ron Natalie) Re: Longest Phonecall (David B. Whiteman) Re: Longest Phonecall (Richard Nash) Re: Longest Phonecall (Gary Morris) Re: Longest Phonecall (Stephen Davies) Re: Longest Phonecall (David Schachter) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cavallarom@cpva.saic.com Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service Date: 25 Jun 92 09:12:26 PST Organization: Science Applications Int'l Corp./San Diego In article , barry@coyote.datalog.com (Barry Mishkind) wrote: > Louise Rebholz, community relations manager for the phone company, > said jammed lines resulted in some calls not being routed to 911. In > some instances, people trying to reach the police and emergency line > got a busy signal or a recorded message instead of 911 operators, she > said. ----- > And not an apology in the house! Of course, _not one_ employee of US > [Moderator's Note: Come now, do you *really* think US West or any > telco relishes these situations and ignores them 'because they are the > phone company'? And had telco known in advance (did any of the > concert promoters advise telco of the times, etc?), what in your > estimation might telco have done about it, other than possibly block > off access from certain exchanges when traffic was heavy? PAT] Pat, I may be mistaken, but I believe CO switches can be programmed and/or configured to ensure that 911 ALWAYS has reserved trunking/and priority for calls. Mark [Moderator's Note: Yes, true IF your local CO can get around to providing you with a dial tone and IF the CO can then find time to look at and translate what you have dialed. Until that point -- if there are delays in that stage -- HOW is telco supposed to know you want to call 911? Once it is ascertained calling party wants 911, then fine -- give the customer what he wants. But what about the calls lost before that point? People don't have direct lines to 911, you know. PAT] ------------------------------ From: adamg@world.std.com (Adam M Gaffin) Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 17:45:12 GMT In article asuvax!gtephx!bakerj@ ncar.UCAR.EDU (Jon Baker) writes: > It is not the responsibility of the promoters to notify the telco. > However, prudent network managers do keep tabs on upcoming events, > such as this, by monitoring the radio and newspapers. An ounce of When I visited New England Telephone's Network Operations Center a few months back, I was curious why they had CNN showing on the largest of the Dr.-Strangelove-style screens in the middle of the room. Turns out that whenever an ad comes on that network with an 800 number, NET experiences a surge of calls to the 800 provider (ditto with any breaking stories, particularly of the international variety). Adam Gaffin Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass. adamg@world.std.com Voice: (508) 626-3968. Fred the Middlesex News Computer: (508) 872-8461. ------------------------------ From: leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) Subject: Re: Concert Goers Blast 911 Service Reply-To: 70465.203@compuserve.com Organization: SCN Research/Qic Laboratories of Tigard, Oregon. Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 04:52:06 GMT lauren@vortex.COM (Lauren Weinstein) writes: > Greetings. Pat, you asked what the solution is to these recurring > "concert fans saturate phone system" events. The solution is > simplicity itself. Until such a time as the phone networks are > capable of handling such concentrations in a more reasonable manner, > you either voluntarily request (or legislate, if that doesn't work) > that ticket sales which are likely to cause such saturations will not > be conducted by phone. It's not as if these concerts usually pop out > of thin air -- they're typically planned far in advance. The > rationale for such restrictions would be the denial to customers of > necessary phone services, both emergency and normal, that otherwise > results. > Ticket purchases in such cases could be by mail, with priority by > postmark date, perhaps with a number of tickets preallocated for > different parts of the city/areas to avoid unfair skewing of orders. > Print little forms in the local magazines/newspapers to make it all > simple for the buyers. While they're at it, some limits on the number > of tickets that can be sent to any one address might be a good idea as > well, to help avoid the massive "blocks" of tickets which are later > sold or scalped at way above face value, often locking many "average" > people out of the shows. > There are some applications for which our current phone networks just > aren't the best choice. Actually, as has been described many times in the past here, the phone system *is* set up to handle this sort of things. That's what "choke" prefixes are for. The tricks is to force these outfits to use them. If *I* were drawing up a law to prevent such outages, I'd merely authorize the phone company to charge the business responsible for the overload for all lost revenues *plus* any extra costs incurred by the overload *plus* some sort of damages. The only allowable defenses would be if the business could not have reasonably foressen the demand, or if the phone company had been asked for a number on the choke exchange, but not responded in a timely manner. Yes, I know there'd need to be a lot more detail. But I also think that businesses should be responsible for this sort of abuse of the network! Leonard Erickson leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com CIS: [70465,203] 70465.203@compuserve.com FIDO: 1:105/56 Leonard.Erickson@f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org (The CIS address is checked daily. The others infrequently) ------------------------------ From: rice@ttd.teradyne.com Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service Organization: Teradyne Inc., Telecommunications Division Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 18:32:43 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Come now, do you *really* think US West or any > telco relishes these situations and ignores them 'because they are the > phone company'? And had telco known in advance (did any of the > concert promoters advise telco of the times, etc?), what in your > estimation might telco have done about it, other than possibly block > off access from certain exchanges when traffic was heavy? PAT] Pat, I'd have to disagree. Proper design of a "Life and Death" emergency system should preclude ANY intruption of that service based on trunk loading. 911 trunks should be Independent of any other traffic. John Rice K9IJ "Did I say that ?" I must have, but It was rice@ttd.teradyne.com MY opinion only, no one else's...Especially (708)-940-9000 - (work) Not my Employer's.... (708)-438-7011 - (home) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 From: tredysvr!nzkites!foster@gvls1.GVL.Unisys.COM (Foster Schucker) Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 19:40:36 NZT Organization: Kiteflyers Roost speth@cats.UCSC.EDU (James G. Speth) writes: > Out of curiosity, what are some of the LESS benign forums? > [Moderator's Note: Would anyone like to address Mr. Speth's question? > For the sake of neutrality, I will refrain for now. PAT] Pat, Pat, Pat, how could you miss "alt.sex.phone" for the 900 fans and "alt.sex.bondage.phone" for our GTE readers? ;-) Foster Schucker -- "You are welcome to my opinion, I'm done using it." ------------------------------ From: leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) Subject: Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 Reply-To: 70465.203@compuserve.com Organization: SCN Research/Qic Laboratories of Tigard, Oregon. Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 04:37:05 GMT After much hacking, I've solved the secret of the 710 areacode ... First you %I&*))_*_ NO CARRIER Leonard Erickson leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com CIS: [70465,203] 70465.203@compuserve.com FIDO: 1:105/56 Leonard.Erickson@f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org (The CIS address is checked daily. The others infrequently) [Moderator's Note: Now we see what happens to people who try to reveal the secrets of area code 710. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: ron@pilot.njin.net (Ron Natalie) Subject: Re: For National Security Reasons, Stop Talking About 710 Date: 25 Jun 92 13:50:41 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. > Out of curiosity, what are some of the LESS benign forums? When I was back doing security work for the Army, the security office used to forward me things like the 2600 newsletter and TAP. Actually 2600 was very much like the TELECOM Digest. A lot of discussions of things like how payphones actually worked and things like that. Every once and a while there would be articles on how to hack into some large companies internal long distance system or computer network. (I seem to recall, hacking Telenet, as easy as 123456. Frankly, having been a legitimate Telenet user, I can't imagine anyone havig the patience to hack it). TAP is less technically oriented, but more a dissemination on how to get into things. These are mass market things, I would suspect that a whole culture of phreak BBS is probably out there for the serious cracker. Ron ------------------------------ From: dbw@crash.cts.com (David B. Whiteman) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 07:51:57 GMT Eight years ago I first tried a new long distance phone company that was setting up in San Diego. My first phone call with them was placed on 3/30/84 to my father. I don't remember how long the call lasted, but it was no longer than a few minutes. About a week later I got my first statement with a closing date of 3/31/84, and a postmark of 4/5/84. This statement listed only my first phone call to my father. According to the statement the call lasted 999 hours, 59 minutes, and 9 tenths of a second, and the call took placed on 5/11/84. It took me three calls until I reached a supervisor that took the charge off my phone bill. I kept asking the billing reps how their computer can predict that I would be making the phonce call a few weeks in the future. One rep said the computer must have made a mistake and was just billing for the phone call a year late, but the company was not in existance the preceding year. I eventually cancelled my account when I discovered that the calling card travel codes were only six digits long, and issued in consecutive numerical order. The phone company had a booth on campus to sign up students as customers and my two friends and myself who signed up after each other had travel codes that were in sequence. David Whiteman dbw@crash.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 21:51:57 +0100 From: rickie@trickie.uucp (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall In a message dated 21-JUN-92, Brent Whitlock writes: >> Speaking of phone calls, I remember hearing a story once about a girl >> who went to Paris for the summer, while her boyfriend went to Hawaii. >> They were going to miss each other so much they had to talk often, but >> they couldn't afford a hefty phone bill. So what they did was to leave >> the phone off the hook at both ends for the entire month of July. They >> would talk, make arrangements for what time they'd come back, and talk >> some more. When the phone bill eventually arrived, it was for a couple >> thousand dollars, and the girl took it to the phone company and complained >> that this COULDN'T be right, and they decided it was a computer glitch >> and deleted it. >> It was told to me as a FOAF, has anybody heard anything similar? > Back in the 1970's, there was some speculation by phone 'enthusiasts' > that if a call was established and not terminated for quite some time, > the 'system' (this was in the days of THE system) would forget about > it and no billing record would be generated. I don't know anyone who > tried it. A twist on this was that if the service was disconnected > before the call was terminated, no billing record would be generated. This may have been already mentioned by someone, but in the DMS 100/200 switches, an AMA Long Duration log is generated whenever a call exceeds a predefined interval as engineered by the operating telco. Operations surveillance computers can flag these calls for maintenance staff to investigate as to whether the circuit is actually being used. Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: trickie!rickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca ------------------------------ From: garym@telesoft.com (Gary Morris) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall Organization: TeleSoft, San Diego, CA, USA Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 20:37:08 GMT In Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) writes: > I would hate to see what the bill would be like if these were > international calls. ;-) We had one of those about three years ago. Someone using an outbound modem here in San Diego was logged into a system in Sweden. The port got hung and they thought the connection was dropped and went home, but the modems were still connected. It was a Sunday and the port/modem didn't get reset until Monday morning. The bill for that one call, about 15 hours, was about $700. We now have idle timeouts on the modems. GaryM ------------------------------ From: steve@olsa99.olive.co.za (Stephen Davies) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall Date: 25 Jun 92 12:10:32 GMT Organization: Compustat (Pty) Ltd Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) writes: > We had a similar case shortly after where a system in Houston called > us. Ours shut down after the session, but his end remained up and for > some reason he was billed for several hours of LD time. If I remember > correctly, he had no hassle getting the charges removed. (Marc, you > listening in down there ??) > I would hate to see what the bill would be like if these were > international calls. ;-) This has happened to me. My mailer software crashed whilst connected from South Africa to the UK. The call stayed up about three hours before I noticed it. Here is South Africa we are still in the days of the big monopoly. International rates are over R400 ($160) per hour, and there is no cheaper after-hours rate. There is no itemized billing here, but by my reckoning that crash cost me over R1000 ($400). Telkom were not interested in letting me off the hook (so to speak). Nowadays I watch for that sort of bug quite a bit more carefully! Pat, I must say the the TELECOM Digest is quite mind-boggling reading for us South Africans. Here we have a growing number of digital exchanges but still many-many crossbars. Most South Africans don't even have a telephone at all. We have quite a few manual exchanges around too. A couple of years back there was a program showing on TV called "Nommer, Asseblief" (Number, please). This is the phrase you would usually hear after you cranked your phone (!) and the operator came on the line. So hearing about all your post-divestiture "problems" tends to make my mouth water ... Regards from a rainy Cape Town, Steve Davies ------------------------------ From: david@llustig.palo-alto.ca.us (David Schachter) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall Organization: Greenwire Consulting Date: Thu, 25 Jun 92 18:31:26 GMT We had a VAX 730 in Mountain View, CA, with a dial-up X.25 connection to our Israel R&D subsidiary. Due to a bug, allegedly in DEC's X.25 software, the connection was held for a month. The phone bill was in the tens of thousands of dollars. We paid half and the phone company ate the rest. We also turned the machine off. This was in the mid 1980's. David Schachter internet: david@llustig.palo-alto.ca.us uucp: ...!{mips,decwrl,sgi}!llustig!david [Moderator's Note: Amoco Oil here in Chicago once had a connection that stayed up for gawd knows how many months (years?). It was an incoming 800 line into an ACD (automatic call distributor) which never got disconnected. No one wanted to hear about it; all my complaints were in vain. I finally got a repair foreman interested; once he yanked down the connection, the bill turned out to be over a hundred thousand dollars. It took me a month to get anyone to listen to reason and locate the problem; who knows how long it had been bad before that. This was back in 1974. IBT had to eat it, which annoyed them no end, but it was their ACD, their consoles and lines, etc. They actually billed Amoco for the call at first; an Amoco attorney told IBT he'd sue them in a minute if they pulled something like that again. I wrote a little blurb about this in Harry Newton's {Teleconnect Magazine} several years ago. Maybe some of you read the article. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #512 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02776; 29 Jun 92 0:14 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10638 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 28 Jun 1992 22:17:54 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30177 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 28 Jun 1992 22:17:43 -0500 Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 22:17:43 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206290317.AA30177@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #516 TELECOM Digest Sun, 28 Jun 92 22:17:46 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 516 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson We Were Isolated Saturday (TELECOM Moderator) 911 Circuitry Can Detect 91 (Bruce Schlobohm) Sorry, But 911 is Not in Service at This Time (Paul Robinson) 911 in Australia (David B. Whiteman) Voiding 911 (Barry Mishkind) Newfoundland Province Code 709 (Carl Moore) Massachusetts Deregulates AT&T (John R. Levine) Massachusetts DPU Relaxes Rules on AT&T (Monty Solomon) Bronx Discrepancies (Carl Moore) Professor Seeks Telecom Sabbatical Position (Bruce Klopfenstein) Two Questions From a Newcomer (Sam Israelit) AT&T Billing (Part 2) (John Higdon) Caller-ID Comes to Toledo -- Maybe (Steven S. Brack) First Pics via Cellular (Martin McCormick) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 12:14:15 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: We Were Isolated Saturday From about 2 AM Saturday morning until about 11 AM Sunday morning, for some reason we were unable to get out to the world. All I was able to get was a message 'host name lookup failure' in response to attempts to mail the Digests (512-513-514-515) and post them to the net using our nntpxmit program. Likewise, no incoming mail during all that time. Then a couple hours ago, whatever was holding things up got fixed, and the mail started rolling in again. Indications are the above issues of the Digest did finally get delivered, and I reposted them to comp.dcom.telecom as well. I got this response from an administrator here: Subject: Re: network links down on Saturday? Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 13:02:33 -0500 From: Bill Westphal Sorry 'bout that. The department router was down. We've rebooted it. Bill --------------- So there you have it. If issues 512-513-514-515 did not reach your site, please let me know, or try to get them from the Telecom Archives if possible. (ftp lcs.mit.edu) PAT ------------------------------ From: bms@penguin.eng.pyramid.com (Bruce Schlobohm) Subject: 911 Circuitry Can Detect 91 Date: 28 Jun 92 18:05:40 GMT Organization: Pyramid Technology, San Jose, Ca. At work, our PBX requires that we dial 9 + 1 + areacode+ phone-number for calls outside of the 408 areacode. A colleague here has become very adept at starting most phone calls with 9 + 1. A couple of days ago, he was at home, and started dialing 9 + 1, and then remembered he was not at work so he hung up. A few minutes later he received a call from a dispatcher asking if he was in any trouble, and that there was a police car on its way to help him out! After things calmed down, the dispatcher told him that they knew he had only dialed 91, and not 911, and had debated as to whether to consider it to be a distress call or not. I didn't realize that 91 can be detected by the 911 circuitry. I wonder how often this type of thing happens? (For the curious, this person lives in the Los Gatos or Campbell area; I'm sorry I can't be more precise at the moment.) bruce schlobohm bms@pyramid.com ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDarcos@MCIMail.COM From: Paul Robinson Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 11:42:02 EDT Subject: Sorry, But 911 is Not in Service at This Time Reported on DC-Area Based Cable Channel "News Channel 8": A man in Australia had been watching the U.S. program "Rescue 911," one of a series of "reality based" TV shows that depict re-enactments of actual events. This show generally shows the effectiveness of the U.S. 9-1-1 virtually universal emergency telephone number. In this gentleman's case, however, it was not effective. The gentleman kept trying to call 911 in order to get the fire department to put out a fire in his building! By the time he got through to the fire department, an extra nine minutes had elapsed; the fire destroyed the entire second floor of the building. Now, when the show is broadcast in Australia, they post an announcement that the correct number there is 0-0-0. Paul Robinson This opinion is MINE, and nobody else's (who'd want it?) ------------------------------ From: dbw@crash.cts.com (David B. Whiteman) Subject: 911 in Australia Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 07:55:48 GMT The radio had a news story about a fellow in Australia who loved to watch the TV show Rescue 911. When his house was on fire he kept frantically trying to dial 911 without sucess. He forgot that where he lived one dials "0 0 0" (three zeros) for emergency services. David Whiteman dbw@crash.cts.com ------------------------------ From: barry@coyote.datalog.com (Barry Mishkind) Subject: Voiding 911 Organization: Datalog Consulting, Tucson, AZ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 19:50:51 GMT Headline in Wednesday, June 24 {Tucson Citizen}: DISASTER MAY RENDER 911 VOID Fans of Country singer proved the point Monday. Tucson's 911 emergency number might be useless during a disaster such as a large explosion or earthquake, even if 911 equipment survived undamaged, city officials concede. Apparently someone at (are you ready?) the newspaper office had a stroke, and no one could reach 911. After trying several times, a co-worker decided it was faster to drive the person to a clinic than trust to the 911 system. So who's at fault here? The country singer's promo guys for rigging the ticket sales to do this? The city for not having any real alternative (they claim they would use two-way radio in the event of a real emergency)? the US West for not choking the system faster? I wonder if this pattern will continue until someone "important" dies. Nah, after all, the Congress has its own ambulance ready at all times -- remember no civilian can use it. Barry Mishkind barry@coyote.datalog.com FidoNet 1:300/11.3 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 12:09:12 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Newfoundland Province Code 709 It's my understanding that area codes originally came out in late 1940s? Anyway, a Wilmington, Del. radio station had a trivia-contest question about which parts of North American continent (excluding Caribbean Islands) were still British colonies in the 1940s. The answer is British Honduras (now Belize) and Newfoundland, the latter being a surprise to me. I have since read that Newfoundland was not incorporated as a province of Canada until 1949. Newfoundland (which includes mainland Labrador) is area code 709. Notice that the French islands of St. Pierre et Miquelon are right next to Newfoundland, but have country code 508. [Moderator's Note: Someone said to me that despite the different country code noted above, there is 'local community dialing' between some points in southern Newfoundland and the islands. Either a straight seven-digit connection, or some code followed by the local number on the islands. Can anyone comment on this? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Massachusetts Deregulates AT&T Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 12:28:52 EDT From: John R. Levine The local papers report that the Massachusetts DPU has deregulated AT&T's intrastate interlata service, since the market is now considered competitive. Other companies' interlata rates have never been regulated. Operator assisted calls are still regulated, and there is some sort of price cap for people whose long distance phone bills are under $5/month. Note that this is only for calls between the 413 area and the 617/508 areas; anything else is either interstate or intralata. I don't know if Mass. allows intra-lata competition, but the New England Tel rates are low enough that it's not a big issue -- a maximum of 31 cents first minute, 13 cents/extra minute day rate anywhere within the LATA. AT&T applied for this a year ago. NET, who appear to believe that the only good regulator is a dead regulator, supported them. MCI, Sprint, and the state Attorney General opposed them. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 20:30:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Massachusetts DPU Relaxes Rules on AT&T From the 6/24/92 {Boston Globe}: The Department of Public Utilities yesterday removed some of the regulatory shackles on AT&T in Massachusetts. In its ruling, the DPU essentially agreed with AT&T that intrastate long-distance calling was now a competitive market. In its decision, the DPU declared that AT&T was no longer bound by rate-of-return regulations -- that is, profitability analysis performed by the DPU -- in setting rates for long-distance calls within the state. The DPU also removed many of AT&T's filing requirements, saying it would now review rate changes in 30 days, rather than six months. But the DPU retained regulations in two marketplaces, where it determined that AT&T did not face sufficient competition from rival carriers such as MCI and Sprint. For customers who make no more than $5 worth of calls a month, AT&T was required to freeze prices at the 1990 level. Also, if AT&T wants to change the rate for operator services -- any calls requiring the assistance of an operator -- it must file comprehensive cost data, as in the past. AT&T has been seeking less regulation for several years, but the DPU has traditionally argued that the market had not sufficiently developed to prevent it from engaging in anticompetitive behavior. With yesterday's decision, the DPU follows the trend of most states, which have relaxed regulations on interstate calling. Such regulations date back to before 1982, when the court ordered a breakup of the Bell System. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 9:13:48 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Bronx Discrepancies I have now located some recent New York City phone books in the Newark (Delaware) library. One set of yellow pages has "Effective July 1, 1992 718 is the new area code for the BRONX", but a white-pages call guide says "Starting May 16, 1993, Area Code 718" in a footnote of a listing of Bronx in 212. ------------------------------ From: klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu (Bruce Klopfenstein) Subject: Professor Seeks Telecom Sabbatical Position Date: 28 Jun 92 15:23:03 GMT Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh. I teach new telecommunications technologies in a social science (not engineering) program at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. I am interested in identifying potential sabbatical positions for all or part of the 1993-1994 academic year. I must have a proposal written by 15 October 1992. The purpose of this faculty improvement leave is to allow the scholar to pursue new or existing research interests. I am very interested in the future telecommunications infrastructure, the advanced intelligent network, and broadband services to the home. My degrees are in communication (social science) with the graduate degrees coming from Ohio State, site of the current Center for the Advanced Study of Telecommunications (CAST). I want to identify possible positions in the telecommunications industry that would allow me to learn and write about any or all of the topics named above. An example project for me would to be to work on a telecommunications technology text for non-engineering students (broadcast students, for example). As a teacher in this area, I can safely say there are no good texts available right now. Such a project could be underwritten, for example, by a foundation supported by a telecommunications organization (GTE, Northern Telecom, Ameritech, AT&T, etc.). What's in this for me is a chance to write a book that I have not had time to write (again, that's the purpose of a sabbatical). What's in it for a telecommunications sponsor is a work that can be used by non-engineering students around the country (if I do the job right) that will better prepare them for entry into the telecommunications industries. I expect the students who are now preparing themselves for employment in the broad- casting industry will be attractive to the telecommunications industry in the very near future. I also am interested in telecommunications policy as well as forecasting consumer adoption of telecommunications innovations as other possible research topics. All reactions, suggestions, contacts, and other ideas cheerfully accepted. An electronic version of my resume is available upon request. Thanks for your help. Bruce C. Klopfenstein, Ph.D. | klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu Associate Professor and Chair | klopfenstein@bgsuopie.bitnet Department of Telecommunications | klopfens@bgsuvax.UUCP 322 West Hall | Voice: (419) 372-2138 or 2224 Bowling Green State University | Home: (419) 352-4818 Bowling Green, OH 43403-0235 | fax (419) 372-8600 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 11:07:52 -0800 From: sami@scic.intel.com Subject: Two Questions From a Newcomer I have two questions: 1). Is there a forum on the Internet that is dedicated to ISDN? What about ATM? 2). Has anyone heard of an ISDN interface for Macintosh computers? Thanks in advance for any useful info! Sam Israelit Engineer, Businessman, ... Brewer Portland, OR ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 13:49 PDT From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: AT&T Billing (Part 2) This month's bill from Pac*Bell contained two more calls to (you guessed it) the UK billed by AT&T. But this time when I called for adjustment, things went a bit differently. As you will recall, last month I was flatly told that if the calls appeared as direct-dialed, there could be no mistake and there could be no credit issued. After creating a fuss, AT&T issued, reluctantly, a "one time" credit. After that, I was told, future calls would have to be paid for (whether I made them or not was the implication). This time when I called AT&T to point out the two new calls, I was immediately put on hold. When the gentleman came back he told me that a credit would be issued for those calls and to deduct them from my bill. Period. Conclusions? Either AT&T has a very inconsistent policy, or some notes have been made on my records. In any event, the number to which those calls were billed has been changed. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ Date: 28 Jun 1992 17:22:26 -0400 (EDT) From: sbrack@jupiter.cse.UTOLEDO.edu (Steven S. Brack) Subject: Caller-ID Comes to Toledo -- Maybe Ohio Bell hasn't announced any plans to offer Caller*ID in my area (Toledo, Ohio) that I know of. But, upon wandering around in the phone section of a local store, what do I find? A Caller*ID box. It's selling for around $100, can recall the last number it received, and has a "Bell Products" label on it. Shades of things to come? ------------------------------ Subject: First Pics via Cellular Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 06:13:07 -0500 From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu A fellow member of one of our local amateur radio clubs is doing an intern-ship at KOCO TV Channel 5 in Oklahoma City. He was able to give me some more information on the First Pics system which lets them transmit still pictures via cellular phone. The major components of the system are a Sony Betacam, a celular phone, and, what I'll call the heart of the system, a small Sony digitizer and modem package which connects the video system to the cell phone. My information source believes that the interface box connects to the cell phone through the handset interface. When a reporter wants to send a picture, he or she connects the monitor output from the Betacam to the video input on the digitizer and watches the monitor until just the right shot is observed. At the push of a button, a single frame of color video is digitized and buffered. It is, then, able to be transmitted via the cell phone back to the station. Transmission time for one frame is 45 seconds. The picture is full-color, but slightly grainier than a standard frame of NTSC video which indicates that the buffer doesn't store every pixel of the NTSC frame. The system is bidirectional, allowing the TV station to send weather map video or shots of the radar display back to the field crew. Since the Betacam is used as the video input to the system, lots of flexibility is possible. The crew can take full- motion video, send the best stills back over the cellular phone, and play the full-motion shots when the crew returns to the station. We will most surely see these systems at work in all possible types of situations. They represent the sort of telecommunications technology which is just waiting for people to apply it. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #516 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05733; 29 Jun 92 1:35 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04162 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 28 Jun 1992 23:49:50 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22432 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 28 Jun 1992 23:49:42 -0500 Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 23:49:42 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206290449.AA22432@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #517 TELECOM Digest Sun, 28 Jun 92 23:49:46 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 517 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Combinations of Names From Phone Digits (Kamran Husain) "Legal" Phreaking? (Bryan Lockwood) What Are These Specs? (Ged Weare) Cellular / Video Help! (Todd Langel) Interactive Cable TV (Jeff Sicherman) ISDN Availability to Residence Customers in Chicago Area (Neil R. Ormos) Telescam Again? (Bob Frankston) AGT Cellular Gets First North American Digital Cellular Running (D Leibold) Sprint Bill Case (David Lesher) Telecom Things to See Across the USA (Ed Greenberg) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: khx@se44.wg2.waii.com (K Husain) Subject: Combinations of Names From Phone Digits Date: 28 Jun 92 16:38:52 GMT Reply-To: khx@se44.wg2.waii.com Hi gang! This is a simple program to generate alphanumeric combinations of the digits a telephone number. I did this to figure out if my phone number could make a meaningful word from the letters on the keypad. (Mine does'nt!) I am sure a lot of folks can simply do this in their heads, but this might be of help in case you have not had your coffee in the morning. If sources such as these have to posted elsewhere, I will do so. Kamran --------cut here------- /* ** This program is for fun, not profit. If you can miraculously figure ** out a way to make money off this... let me in on it for a %age ;-)!!! ** Just do please do keep the authorship around should you decide to ** make copies. Feel free to copy. ** I assume NO responsiblities, etc. for use, etc. ** In other words Use At Your Own Risk!!! ** ** Kamran Husain, MPS Inc. Sugarland, Texas ** khx@se44.wg2.waii.com */ #include "stdio.h" #include "stdlib.h" typedef struct Letter { int count; char list[3]; } LTR; LTR map[10] = { { 1, '0', '0', '0'} , { 1, '1', '1', '1'} , { 3, 'a', 'b', 'c'} ,{ 3, 'd', 'e', 'f'} , { 3, 'g', 'h', 'i'} , { 3, 'j', 'k', 'l'} , { 3, 'm', 'n', 'o'} , { 3, 'p', 'r', 's'} , { 3, 't', 'u', 'v'} , { 3, 'w', 'y', 'z'} }; /* ** Global counters */ int lpr; /* words printed so far */ int charspercombo; int numberFlag = 0; int callme(char *str, int i); /* recursive function */ void usage(); /* Main begins here. ** Generates combinations of letters from strings of ** telephone numbers. Useless really except that you ** might want to know some of the words YOUR phone ** number might come up with. ** ** The output can be passed to the uniq filter to parse ** out duplicates. ** Kamran Husain MPS Inc Sugarland Texas ** khx@se44.wg2.waii.com */ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { register int len, i; char *tcp, *cp; if (argc < 2) usage(); cp = argv[1]; if (*cp == '-') { cp++; if (*cp != 'n') usage(); numberFlag++; cp = argv[2]; } tcp = cp; len = strlen(cp); for (i=0; i< len; i++, cp++) { if (*cp == 0) break; if ((*cp < '0') || (*cp > '9')) exit(2); } charspercombo = len+2; callme(tcp, 0); printf("\n"); } void usage() { printf("\n Usage:\n ncomb [-n] #####\n"); exit(1); } /* ** Recursive function to try all combinations of phone number ** given null terminated string and current location within string. */ int callme(char *str, int i) { int j, ndx; char ch; if (str[i] == '\0') { if (lpr > 80) /* print if more than about 80 columns */ { lpr = 0; printf("\n"); } printf("%s ", str); lpr += charspercombo; return; } ch = str[i]; ndx = ch - '0'; /* try numeric combinations as well if flag is set */ if (numberFlag) callme(str,i+1); /* try all combinations for this digit. */ for (j =0; j < map[ndx].count; j++) { str[i] = map[ndx].list[j]; callme(str,i+1); } str[i] = ch; } [Moderator's Note: I tried the above and could not get it to work. Maybe I did something wrong. Readers with questions should address the author direct. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: "Legal" Phreaking? From: system%coldbox@uunet.UU.NET (Bryan Lockwood) Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 03:51:20 PDT Organization: The Coldbox- +1 907 633 6828. World's northernmost site? Quoted from the email bin: > (I will call back, since it is after all legal for me to use a > bluebox for personal use, among other things which I understand are > legal there too. The author lives in Holland. This line of the message made me curious, and so I asked for amplification. Here's what I got: > I'm no lawyer, but in a quick nutshell I'll try to explain the > law here with examples. If I were to set up a small bank of phones > and offer calls to anywhere in the world for say a Guilder a minute > (about $.60 and what the max for any call SHOULD be) I would be a > criminal. This would be "false competition". However in Holland, > the rights and freedoms of the individual are held above the rights > of business, and therefore I can legally play with the phone. I > would be in violation of the law if I gave away or sold actual > methods of bypassing the bill however. In comparison to the USA, > Canada, France and England where there are laws against this type of > activity, it is much harder here to use the phone this way here in > Holland. I feel that a legal cure for a technical problem is never > the answer, and will allways embrace a legal attitude of this type > over outright prohibition. The war on drugs is another good example > where the law makes a problem worse. Here it is not viewed as a > social problem and making hash legal has kept the drug problem out of > Holland. BTW ... its legal in Alaska isn't it? (at least for personal > use and growing like here) Keep it that way! You don't want the > problems and embarassment the lower 48 has. Anybody care to comment on this? It's a very *interesting* philosophy of law, one that seems to lead to startling practices if applied to other areas of life! I was a bit startled by such a concept ... I suppose my upbringing is showing. Author: Bryan Lockwood (system@coldbox) Originating system: The Coldbox- +1 907 633 6828. World's northernmost site? WWIVnet: @501 | Usenet: uunet!coldbox!system | Direct: (907)633-6828 [Moderator's Note: Yes I guess your upbringing is showing. The fellow in Holland has written to us here at TELECOM Digest on a few occassions also, expressing much the same philosophy. If what he says is true -- I don't think it is -- then why in the world would *any* telecom organization want to do business in Holland; or for that matter, any business at all if it is, as the fellow suggests, perfectly legal to rip off a company 'for personal use'. I wonder if he subscribes to the same ethics where other businesses are concerned in his country: clothing, food, household supplies, other utility services, places of entertainment, etc? Since anything he needs for his personal consumption would be by definition for 'personal use', maybe he rips them all off, deadbeating his way through life. Actually though, I think telecom is his main target; he probably has a grudge against them going way back, and he has developed this rationale in order to synch his ethics with actual practice. We need to devise these concepts, ie 'what I rip off is okay' in order to avoid the complaint expressed by John Bunyan who noted, "what I think and what I do in real life are often two ..." PAT] ------------------------------ From: weare@bostech.com (Ged Weare) Subject: What Are These Specs? Organization: Boston Technology, Wakefield, MA Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 16:12:28 GMT We are trying to locate some specs that were referenced in a recent article in IEEE Communications Magazine (Feb 92). The article was called "Intelligent Network Concepts in Mobile Communications", and was by Bijan Jabbari. The specs are listed in the article as: [9] IS-41.1, .2, .3 and .4, Rev B December 1991 [10] ETSI TC GSM, Recommendations GSM 3.09 and 3.12, Feb 1990. Both are related in some way to cellular phones or ISDN. [10], we think, is put out by a European body, but we have no clue about [9]. Any help as to what these specs are, and where we can get copies, would be appreciated. Jed Weare weare@bostech.com Boston Technology (617) 246-9000 x3519 100 Quannapowitt Parkway Wakefield, MA 01880. ------------------------------ From: Todd.Langel@f230.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Todd Langel) Subject: Cellular / Video Help! Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 00:00:04 EDT Organization: FidoNet node 1:3603/230 - CSFSO Telecomm, Clearwater FL I am currently working on a cellular project here in Tampa. We are using Hewlett Packard 8590, 8591, and 8592's Spectrum Analysers to monitor linear amplifier controllers in cell sites in the area. We are using three HP's in each of the twelve sites we are monitoring and are trying to use the monitor output on the back to hook up to a Quadraplexer (A device that lets you take four video inputs and put them on one screen with four quadrents. We are using a Burel Quadraplexer.) Then take the single output of the quad to a VCR for recording. The problem I am having is that the output on the back of the HP's are 19.2Khz and that standard TV signals are at 15.7Khz NTSC. From what I have been told by the people at HP,the only monitor that will work is something like a non-interlaced Super VGA monitor, And know of no way to convert the signal down to be acceptable for a VCR recording. I also want to point out that I am not sure of the 15.7Khz NTSC being acceptable either. This is what I have been told is the standard for regular TV's by several manafacturers in California that I have talked to in the past few days. My question is: Does anyone know of a way to convert a 19.2Khz video signal to another signal that could be recorded on a VCR ??? Any Help would be greatly appreciated! (Also - I am Guessing that NTSC stands for National Television Standard C????????) Anyone??? Thanks, Todd ... OFFLINE 1.38 * Internet: Todd.Langel@f230.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG UUCP: ...!uunet!myrddin!tct!psycho!230!Todd.Langel ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 12:35:02 -0700 From: Jeff Sicherman Subject: Interactive Cable TV Organization: Cal State Long Beach I would appreciate references to articles, books, journals on the technology and applications of interactive cable-TV and any case studies of systems that have been tried. Jeff Sicherman ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 15:14:35 -0600 From: Neil R. Ormos Subject: ISDN Availability to Residence Customers in Chicago Area In , nickless@antares.mcs.anl.gov (Bill Nickless) comments: >> [Moderator's Note: Ameritech/IBT are certainly very progressive and >> technologically advanced telcos. I'm glad to be in their region. PAT] > ... until you want things like ISDN. Ameritech/IBT seems to be among > the slowest to offer data services to the home. I am under the > impression that they're behind some un-named California telcos. Coincidentally, I happened to query Illinois Bell regarding the availability of ISDN service to my home (served by the Elk Grove CO (708 228)) earlier this week. I was told that my CO, and many others, are already equipped for ISDN and that availability in such cases depends on the length of the subscriber loop (i.e. the length of the wiring between the the CO and service location), and whether or not you are served by a "remote" CO (some are not equipped for ISDN even though the real CO is). They quoted installation charges of about $95, a monthly charge of $37, and usage-sensitive charge of about $.12 per minute. The monthly charge varies depending on whether you want zero, one, or two of the B channels to be voice-capable; the above-cited price assumes one. As a side note, in contrast to other Chicago-area utilities, Illinois Bell provides excellent customer service. The residential customer service rep I initially spoke to had never heard of ISDN. However, instead of just telling me to call one of the business customer service reps, he courteously elicited information to enable him to contact the right department, and arranged for a rep who was knowlegable about ISDN to call me back. The ISDN rep was also helpful and courteous. neil ormos thssno@iitmax.iit.edu ------------------------------ From: Bob_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Telescam Again? Date: Sun 28 Jun 1992 19:35 -0400 I've been getting pages from 540-1278 on my pager. I've got a 718 number (in addition to my Boston one) so I presume it is coming from there. The lack of an area code is a further indication since my Boston recording reminds the caller to leave an area code. Anyone know about this one? I tried dialing it from Boston (knowing I won't be charged above the LD rates) but it is blocked. To pursue this, I called the "annoyance call bureau" at 800-522-1122 and was assured that it was callable from Boston. Of course, that isn't dialable from Boston. On my next call they gave me the same number despite my explanations. Once again, 800 Brain Damage strikes. Speaking to information some more, it turns out that there is only the 800 number and the corporate headquarters number. BTW, NET has the same 800 number problem. So I called 212-395-2552 (corporate HQ) who was more helpful and gave me 315-738-8111. I got lost in voice mail hell with no category to report this kind of scam. OK, one is supposed to remember to call to report this the next day at telco's convenience. The idea of a way to report a problem with fax (forget about email) would never occur to a pretechnology company like Nynex. So I'll just pass on it realizing that telco just doesn't care about this kind of scam. If you are in NY and can find out more about this, please tell us (though not at the risk of your job). Of course all of this is out of proportion to the problem, but regular Telecom readers understand that proportionality is not a virtue when dealing with causes. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 22:50:48 EDT From: David Leibold Subject: AGT Cellular Gets First North American Digital Cellular Running AGT Cellular in Alberta, Canada, announced that it has North America's first digital cellular system in operation, beating out other cellular companies including its competitor, Cantel. AGT Cellular placed ads in recent newspapers trumpeting this achievement, stating that the heavy use of digital technology in AGT's network helped establish digital cellular service, and joked about digital not being in "Mister Rogers Neighbourhood" (a reference to Rogers Communications which owns AGT's competitor Cantel, which had announced plans to go digital, but hasn't put them into effect yet). dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca ------------------------------ From: David Lesher Subject: Sprint Bill Case Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 11:02:24 EDT Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher) Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers - Beltway Annex This is a bit out of date, but some time back there was a thread about a "Fatal Attraction" type case in which a Sprint bill was a vital piece of evidence. The defense introduced one bill, and the prosecutation another. The defense's version came under scrutiny because it lacked the proper advertising blurp line for that month. Well, I read that the defendant was convicted, and addition charges were pending regarding forgery of evidence. Gee, if she'd switched to MCI, she could have used Friends and Family ... wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Telecom Things to See Across the USA Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 05:28:38 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) I'll be taking a five week motorcycle trip across the USA and back. I'd be interested in pointers to Telecom related things to see as I travel. Some of the things that might interest me are: * Toll, Radio and other facilities that might give tours. * Places with oddball CO's like manual or other strange service. * Small telco's that might show off their inside plant. * Telephone and commuications museums. * Whatever else is radio, electronics and telco related that is seeable by the public (or a member of the public who calls up and asks nicely.) States I'll visit include: California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, then back to CA by the most northern states (north of I-80, and probably north of I-90.) Blatant Plug: If you're on my route and operate something techie that you think I'd enjoy, and feel like showing it off, please send Email. adTHANKSvance, Ed Greenberg Home: +1 408 283 0511 | edg@netcom.com P. O. Box 28618 Work: +1 408 764 5305 | DoD#: 0357 San Jose, CA 95159 Fax: +1 408 764 5003 | KM6CG (ex WB2GOH) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #517 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08489; 29 Jun 92 2:51 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07331 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:08:05 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16377 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:07:39 -0500 Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:07:39 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206290607.AA16377@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #513 TELECOM Digest Sat, 27 Jun 92 20:02:05 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 513 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Michael G. Katzmann) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Jeff J. Carpenter) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Roy Smith) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Martin McCormick) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (David Schachter) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Clive Feather) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (John Rice) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Alan Gilbertson) Re: You Can Ring My Bell (Bill Mayhew) Re: You Can Ring My Bell (John R. Levine) Re: C&P To Revoke Telephone Number (Seth Breidbart) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: vk2bea!michael@arinc.com (Michael G. Katzmann) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Date: 26 Jun 92 22:26:47 GMT Reply-To: vk2bea!michael@arinc.com (Michael G. Katzmann) Organization: Broadcast Sports Technology, Crofton. Maryland. In article rlm@ms_aspen.AC.com (Robert L. McMillin) writes: > Responding to a message from Robert S. Helfman , our > Moderator writes: >> [Moderator's Note: Her voice was also used for Time of Day here in >> Chicago for many years (312-CAThedral-8000). She had recorded the >> phrase 'at the signal, the time will be' and the digits which were >> then patched together as appropriate. PAT] > Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to > digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape > loops all run by some kind of switch. The talking clock in Sydney (Australia) used to come from the G.P.O. and was (when I saw it in the late 70s), a series of three discs. These were optical devices (presumably working like motion picture soundtracks). The sequence was ... At the third stroke the time will be Ten ... ... forty three ... ... and twenty seconds ... The "strokes" came by landline from the Sydney Observatory. I imagine the Post-Master General's department installed these at each capital city. The machine was under glass, so that the workings were clearly visible, and was about the size of a small billiard table. The voice was that of Graham Conolly, an announcer on ABC radio. The machine was made by the English Muirhead Company, who also made the 'picture-gram' machines that were used by newspapers to send photographs around the world before the digital era. Michael Katzmann Broadcast Sports Technology Inc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Crofton, Maryland. U.S.A Amateur Radio Stations: NV3Z / VK2BEA / G4NYV opel!vk2bea!michael@uunet.uu.net ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1992 08:16:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Jeffrey J. Carpenter Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Excerpts from netnews.comp.dcom.telecom: 21-Jun-92: > [Modertator's Note: Did you know that to avoid interference with each > other in the western USA (where both are heard with equal clarity) > WWVH states the time about fifteen seconds before the minute, then > remains silent while WWV repeats the announcement about seven seconds > before the minute. If you do not live on the west coast, you can hear what it sound like by calling both at the same time. WWV +1 303 499 7111 and WWVH +1 808 335 4363. jeff ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 11:36:58 EDT From: Roy Smith Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: Public Health Research Institute (New York) John Higdon writes: > Although I have never seen one, the machines are very simple. There is a > magnetic drum upon which all the various digits with up and down > inflections are recorded. The drum is scanned by a multiple head assembly > and the appropriate head is switched on line in sequence. A few years ago, I spent a day in the Science Museum in London. They had on exhibit an early (the first?) talking time machine. Just like John said, each digit and phrase was recorded on a different track and various heads moved about to pick up the different pieces of voice in the proper sequence. The interesting part is that the recordings were made optically on glass disks (like the optical sound track on movie film). The machine, probably 50 years old at the time, was still working fine, chattering away with "The time at the beep will be", "five minutes", "and", "twenty seconds", "past", "3 O'Clock PM", (pause), "Beeeeep!", or some such. Of course, talking time machines only have to access the words in a set sequential order, so it's simplier than a random-access recording like "the number you have dialed xxx-xxxx, is not in service". Still, it was neat to watch. roy@wombat.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 13:28:22 -0500 From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu It appears that I have goofed in a major way. In my last posting regarding sound retrieval technology from the electromechanical era, I misspelled phrase. The spell checker caught it, but I was in too big a hurry and selected the first choice which was "frays," a perfectly valid word, but not a substitute. Frays more aptly describes what making such discoveries does to one's nerves. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ From: david@llustig.palo-alto.ca.us (David Schachter) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: Greenwire Consulting Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 18:27:31 GMT In article rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) writes: > Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to > digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape > loops all run by some kind of switch. The audio was recorded on a magnetic drum and selector heads picked off the appropriate segments. In 1991, NIST replaced the voice and time code generators with digital technology and added new bits to the time code transmission to improve the ability of radio clocks, such as the Traconex Time Source, to provide accurate, reliable time. Originally, Jim Eason, ex-announcer for KGO AM, was recorded for the male voice (WWV) but I believe someone else ended up "in the bits." To hear for yourself, tune your shortwave receiver to 2.5, 5, 10, 15, or 20 megaHertz. (Lower frequencies are better at night, higher frequencies during the day.) To hear the time code, insert a low-pass filter to pick out the 100 Hz sub-carrier. You will hear one pulse (bit) per second; the width of the pulse identifies it as a zero, a one, or a marker. To hear the voice signal, insert a high-pass filter to strip out the sub-carrier. (The crummy speaker in most shortwave receivers makes an excellent high-pass filter already!) David Schachter internet: david@llustig.palo-alto.ca.us uucp: ...!{mips,decwrl,sgi}!llustig!david ------------------------------ From: clive@x.co.uk (Clive Feather) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 14:22:06 BST > [Moderator's Note: Very good point. Can anyone comment on how the time > of day was handled *after* they quit using live people speaking it but > *before* it went digital? PAT] The British Telecom TIM machine had three sets of recordings. One set was: "one" "two" ... "twelve" The second set was: "o'clock" "one" "two" ... "fifty-nine" The third set was: "precisely" "and ten seconds" ... "and fifty seconds" Two fixed recordings ("At the third stroke, it will be" and " ") were then wrapped around these. The original machine is in the London Science museum. I seem to recall that some parts rotated every hour, minute, and ten seconds, respectively. The word "drum" comes to mind, but I can't say why. Clive D.W. Feather | IXI Limited clive@x.co.uk | 62-74 Burleigh St. Phone: +44 223 462 131 | Cambridge CB1 1OJ Fax: +44 223 462 132 | United Kingdom ------------------------------ From: rice@ttd.teradyne.com Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: Teradyne Inc., Telecommunications Division Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 19:00:45 GMT The Audichron systems I remember seeing used magnetic cylinders. Same composition, essentially, as magnetic tape. Multiple tracks were recorded, with multiple record/playback heads, on the cylinders. The first track would be the "At the tone, the time will be" message, and following tracks would be the hours, minutes and seconds (in 10 second increments), each recorded on a separate track And offset on the cylinders to put them in the proper position in the voice message. Track selection was by mechanical selection of the proper combination of playback heads, which were switch selected with clock motor driven multi-switches. With five heads selected at a time, changing every 10 seconds. The first head read the "At the tone ..." portion, the second head read the Hour, third, the minute, 4th seconds and 5th "AM" or "PM". The cylinders were in constant rotation with callers connected to the output at the beginning of each ten second cycle. There were some variations, but that's how I remember it. It's been a long time since I saw one of the machines (about 20 years). Temperature machines worked similarly, with a mechanism to select the right combination of playback heads based on a temperature sensor. John Rice K9IJ "Did I say that ?" I must have, but It was rice@ttd.teradyne.com MY opinion only, no one else's...Especially (708)-940-9000 - (work) Not my Employer's.... (708)-438-7011 - (home) ------------------------------ From: Alan.Gilbertson@f230.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Alan Gilbertson) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 01:32:14 EDT Organization: FidoNet node 1:3603/230 - CSFSO Telecomm, Clearwater FL > [Moderator's Note: Very good point. Can anyone comment on how the time > of day was handled *after* they quit using live people speaking it but > *before* it went digital? PAT] I don't have any direct information on how things were handled in the US, but the old UK PTT system used analog optical disks with sound tracks exactly like those used to record analog optical sound on movie film. Moving "read heads" selected the appropriate track from each disk in order to stitch together the following: "At the third stroke, the time will be" "" "o'clock"||"" "and seconds."||"precisely." "{pip} {pip} {pip}" This cycle was timed to repeat every ten seconds. The "stroke" referred to was a beep at about 1200 Hz or so, from memory, and was the last of the three "{pip}"s, which were spaced one second apart. The thing was quite accurate, and mercifully free of advertising or other gimmicks. I think the Post Office claimed they kept it accurate to within a tenth of a second. Alan Internet: Alan.Gilbertson@f230.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG UUCP: ...!uunet!myrddin!tct!psycho!230!Alan.Gilbertson ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: You Can Ring My Bell Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 15:25:47 GMT It would be pretty hard to surpass the twin gong ringer in a 2500 style instrument. The ringer really is an elegant design. People that stare at computer chips all day long should take time to look at an elegant electromechanical device from time to time for a reality check. Speaking of 2500 instruments, I recently found a clear plastic housing ITT 2500 set at the local discount store. The classic 2500 has a lot more soul than those cheap esatz trimline-like phones with clear plastic. ITT only made one desinger concession; the coiled cord for the hand set has color coded wires instead of all the same color that would be usual. The 2500 has undergone considerable evolution over the years. This is real obvious when comparing a ca 1968 against the newest one I have. The hybrid network used to be a rather large metal box, now it is a little PC board with something that looks like an interstage audio transformer. There is a lot less bulk of wiring inside too; I'm sure that when you make several million phones, saving a few inches of wire each adds up to a lot of savings. The handset cotton is now a piece of styrofoam. Even the MIC and earpiece have undergone sublte changes to reduce bulk of materials. The most radical change for the tone set has been in the keypad, now using bubble contacts and an IC/3.58 MHz crystal for tone generation. The old style pad with germanium transistors and cup core inductors was also an example of quite neat engineering. Despite the many subtle changes, outside appearance of the 2500 is the same, the performance is as good as or better than ever, and the reliability likely much higher -- especially in the keypad. I've been told Raymond Lowe designed the improved Bell System logo introduced in the 1970s. I don't know if Mr. Lowe had anything to do with the 2500 style, but even almost 40 years after its introduction, it still looks stylish; I'm sure he would approve. By the way, the ITT part number for the clear 2500 is "250070-TRA-20M CLEAR PC2500CLR", or at least that is what is on the label on the box. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-9995 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (140.220.1.1) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: You Can Ring My Bell Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 25 Jun 92 14:50:16 EDT (Thu) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) > The origial Mickey Mouse phone was a blend of fashion and telephony. > It looked cute and met the same specs as an AT&T 2500, including the > drop test. People were reluctant to pay $125.00 for this phone. Not me, and it was worth every penny of the roughly $80 it cost in about 1978. Since I bought it pre-dereg, they explained that I was only buying the case, and the guts still belonged to SNET (I lived in New Haven at the time.) I asked what would happen when I moved, and got varying answers. One was that they'd do the paperwork to sell the guts to the telco where I moved to, another was that they'd come out and degut the phone when they turned off service. Assuming the first answer was true, I was prepared to tell them that I was moving to Shoreham VT, so they'd sell it to the Shoreham Telephone Co. and its proprietor, who was also my grandfather, would sell it or give it to me. In practice, of course, they immediately lost track of the thing and I just took it with me. Still looks and works great. I also got one of those Noteworthy wall phones with a corkboard and a box to store the phonebook, though since it's rotary dial I use it less than I used to. It uses a regular trimline handset, so I suppose if I could find an old dung-brown TT trimline with the ringer in the base, I could swap handsets. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: sethb@fid.Morgan.COM (Seth Breidbart) Subject: Re: C&P To Revoke Telephone Number Organization: Morgan Stanley & Co., New York, NY Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 22:06:10 -0400 In article William.Degnan@mdf. FidoNet.Org (William Degnan) writes: > I normally suggest that we have the telco turn the number on -- even > if it is only as an RCF before the order goes to the printer. When > they are actually ready for the number it can be installed at their > new premises. I'd be careful about advertising a number even if you're certain it's yours. When I moved about five years ago, I was given my phone number in advance, and told that I would "probably" get it. The service was turned on on Friday, using that number. I moved on on Saturday. On Monday, I called the phone company and told them that the number had to be changed. I don't know what the person who had previously had it was running, but whatever it was generated way too many calls at 3 AM. Seth sethb@fid.morgan.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #513 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08535; 29 Jun 92 2:53 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02028 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:04:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02468 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:04:12 -0500 Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:04:12 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206290604.AA02468@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #518 TELECOM Digest Mon, 29 Jun 92 01:04:00 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 518 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: We Were Isolated Saturday (Monty Solomon and TELECOM Moderator) No Obvious L.A. Telecom Effects From Yucca/Big Bear Quakes (L. Weinstein) A Piece of Long Distance History (Mark Terribile) Information Wanted on PC Pursuit (Daniel L. Schneider) KTLA 45th Anniversary Program (Barry Mishkind) 900Mhz Cordless Phones: Which One? (James J. Dempsey) "Choke" Prefixes (was Concert Goers Blast 911) (Lauren Weinstein) Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (Bill Mayhew) Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (Art Hunter) Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (S. Spencer Sun) Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (Nick Sayer) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 00:59:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: We Were Isolated Saturday > From about 2 AM Saturday morning until about 11 AM Sunday morning, > for some reason we were unable to get out to the world. All I was able > to get was a message 'host name lookup failure' in response to > attempts to mail the Digests (512-513-514-515) and post them to the > net using our nntpxmit program. We received two copies of #512 here. One of them was actually #511. We didn't receive copies of #513 or #514. At your convenience, would you please send them to monty%roscom.uucp@ think.com Thanks. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com [Moderator's Note: I have several reports of non-reciept of 513 and 514. They will be transmitted early Monday morning, following this issue. Readers should change the header on 511 so it reads that way. In the process of trying to shove that one out Friday overnight or Saturday morning, one of the attempts (the one that succeeded!) got mis-numbered. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 09:35:31 PDT From: lauren@vortex.COM (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: No Obvious L.A. Telecom Effects fFom Yucca/Big Bear Quakes Greetings. Just a quick note to mention that an informal survey shows no significant L.A. area telecom-related effects from the pair of quakes this morning (one centered in the Yucca Valley about 100 miles from the L.A. metro area (prelim 7.4), and one near Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino area (prelim 6.5, apparently triggered by the first quake). No dial tone sluggishness was noted after either the 5 AM or 8:10 AM quakes. Pacific Bell was issuing routine warnings about not clogging up the phone system. Computers I routinely check after such events stayed up, and interlata calling also seemed normal. Power, cable service, etc. was apparently generally unaffected, with small pockets of trouble. No significant structural damage has been reported in the L.A. area (other than a couple of apparently cosmetic cracks in the Disneyland hotel and similar things), nor any related deaths in the L.A. area. Shaking was fairly prolonged from the first quake, but at least from my location in the Santa Monica Mountains nothing fell, nothing broke, and other than three rather concerned cats everything seems pretty much under control. No doubt with time there will be reports of more minor damage from old concrete building facades, cracks and such. There was more damage in Yucca Valley at the epicenter of the first quake, where a number of buildings had wall or roof collapses and one child was killed when a fireplace/chimney fell on him. It is worth noting that the 1971 6.3 San Fernando quake, being so much closer to the L.A. area, did *far* more damage. Also, it is mainly old, brick and unreinforced concrete buildings that are at most risk during such events. That's why quakes of this magnitude can be devastating in some parts of the world where such construction, or even worse (e.g. mud, etc.), is common, unlike here. All in all, even though more aftershocks are expected as usual, everything seems to be returning rapidly to normal ... even the cats. --Lauren-- [Moderator's Note: John Higdon has also checked in with me and noted that Sunday morning's quakes were a bit too close -- and too strong -- for comfort in his 'desert hideaway'. But he was unharmed and will be writing to us again soon. Just as we have all heard the 'AIDS is God's punishment for homosexuals' routine, one clever writer suggested to me that the earthquake was God's punishment for having the LA Gay Pride Parade yesterday ... but his aim was a little off and he forgot that his watch was set on Vatican Time. :). PAT] ------------------------------ From: mat%mole-end@uunet.UU.NET Subject: A Piece of Long Distance History Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 00:39:34 GMT Here's an isolated bit of telecom history: When the [Signal Corps] started drafting and commissioning Ma Bell's managers and engineers, AT&T convinced Olmstead not to spread the wealth but to concentrate it in a single brainy battalion. These experts proceeded to create a dial telephone system for the battlefield. At the time, there wasn't long-distance dialing anywhere. In 1944, if you made a long-distance phone call in the U.S., you had to go through the operator. If you were an Army officer fighting in a muddy field in the middle of France, you dialed it yourself, whether the person you wanted was in the next field or in England. (From _There's A War To Be Won_, Geoffrey Perret, in a chapter entitled _Logs, Lists, Logic ... Logistics_. My copy cost me $30 a while ago, but I've seen it recently for much less in one of the big discount catalogs, probably B&N. Truly a wonderful book, though telecom crops up only in isolated places. A marvellous story of working with what you have instead of worrying about what you lack.) (This man's opinions are his own.) From mole-end Mark Terribile uunet!mole-end!mat, Somewhere in Matawan, NJ ------------------------------ From: dans@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Daniel L. Schneider) Subject: PC Pursuit? Date: 27 Jun 92 06:21:50 GMT Reply-To: dans@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Daniel L. Schneider) Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX Could anyone here tell me a lot about PC Pursuit? Is there an email address for PC Pursuit where I could get some info? Maybe a FTP site? Information about other similar services would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Dan dans@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu [Moderator's Note: You can pull a file from the Telecom Archives which discusses this public data network in detail. PAT] ------------------------------ From: barry@coyote.datalog.com (Barry Mishkind) Subject: KTLA 45th Anniversary Broadcast Organization: Datalog Consulting, Tucson, AZ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 16:36:15 GMT A friend who comes from LA just asked about the 45th anniversary program shown by KTLA ... I'd like to acquire a dub of this tape to give him. He saw the writeup in {Daily Variety} or {Hollywood Reporter}, and is drooling for a chance to see it. If anyone has access ... Thanks. Barry Mishkind barry@coyote.datalog.com FidoNet 1:300/11.3 ------------------------------ From: jjd@BBN.COM (James J Dempsey) Subject: 900Mhz Cordless Phones: Which One? Date: 28 Jun 1992 18:22:36 GMT Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA Reply-To: jjd@BBN.COM (James J Dempsey) I've been waiting a year or so to buy a cordless phone until the 900Mhz phones were generally available. So far I have seen two in the stores: A Tropez unit and a Panasonic unit. I have seen reviews in this forum for the Tropez phone. Generally, I recall pepole saying that it worked but that voice quality was low, probably due to an underdesigned digital transmission format. I haven't seen any reviews of the Panasonic phone. For just under $400, I'd prefer to hear what people think before I go out and purchase. Has anyone used the Panasonic 900Mhz cordless? Are there any other models on the market? About to be on the market? Both the Panasonic and Tropez are pretty much basic cordless phones. I'd prefer one with a speaker phone in the base and two batteries similar to some current 49Mhz phones from Sony. Anyone heard of 900Mhz versions like this? Thanks a lot! Jim Dempsey jjd@bbn.com ..!{decvax, harvard}!bbn!jjd ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 12:59:15 PDT From: lauren@vortex.COM (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: "Choke" Prefixes (was Concert Goers Blast 911) Greetings. It has been suggested that so-called "choke" prefixes (e.g. 213-520) are the solution to saturation problems from ticket purchasing events and the like. There are some cases, in some areas, where they help. But in many areas they don't solve the problem and can even make matters worse. First off, and the least important point, is that such prefixes are generally chargeable numbers. The people trying to sell tickets don't usually want people to have to pay for those calls, for obvious promotional reasons. In theory you could set up any random prefix as toll-free, but there are logistical reasons why this is not usually done. Outside of using a conventional choke prefix, you could also use 900 numbers, and take advantage of the flow control built into at least *some* 900 services. But it isn't clear how effective this would be depending on the carrier, the type of service, and the like. Even worse, many people would refuse to call a 900 number to order tickets, and many have 900 numbers blocked in any case. Secondly, choke prefixes (and 900 numbers, if flow controlled) can actually generate *more* calls. In an age of automatic redial features and daemon dialers, people will just redial constantly trying to get through the busy signals that result from choke prefix use. The result is even worse saturation of local exchanges, including the denial of dialtone problems that really put people at risk when it comes to reaching emergency services. That's the key point actually. Choke prefixes can prevent overloading of the target office and interoffice trunks. But they do nothing to stop the local dialtone and related local switch problems in individual offices resulting from many people attempting (usually over and over again) to draw dialtone and dial out to that prefix. Given the large areas that are frequently handled by a single switch, a significant ticket event in a metro area can easily result in denial of dialtone to hundreds of thousands of people, even if choke prefixes *are* being used. I stand on my original observation; there are some activities for which the current phone system is just not suitable today. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 03:49:36 GMT In article jih@crane.aa.ox.com (John I. Hritz) writes: > Kind in the same vane. I periodically get recordings on my > machine that consist of a and then a pause of about five > seconds. This repeats for a couple of minutes. That's it nothing That is indeed a fax machine. It really makes me mad as h*** when I get one of those calls on my voice line about 3:00 in the morning. I suspect that one or more companies have access to various professional mailing lists and trolling for fax machines on to which to dump junk mail. We get a *lot* of junk fax messages at work. Curiously, only the IEEE has my home phone number. I have all the trade magazine pubs sent to the office. On warranty cards, I write, "please, no fax calls," in the spot where the number would go. I omit my actual number. Makes me *really* whish we had caller ID here so that I could return the favor to those jerks! I have a Cobra answering machine that detects CPC. One nice featuere is that it backspaces over any dialtone at the end of the call. Pretty nifty! The manual doesn't mention that the machine has that nifty feature, but I've watched the machine in action. If the machine detects nothing but dialtone, it even decrements the call counter back to the previous number of calls. The operation seems pretty reliable; I've never had the machine expunge a real call. Occasionally, the machine errs, and there is one or two seconds of dialtone, but I can live with that. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-9995 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (140.220.1.1) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine From: art@aficom.ocunix.on.ca (Art Hunter) Reply-To: art@aficom.ocunix.on.ca (Art Hunter) Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 07:48:29 -0400 Organization: AFI Communications - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada > Now I have a question: Where can I get an answering machine that > recognizes the hangup call and doesn't record it? If no such machine > exists, is there one with a remote command "Skip over this stupid > hangup call message"? What I do is record every call with my Caller-ID recording system and when callers are directed to my answering machine I look at my log of who called and then return the calls. In fact I often just rewind the tape and never listen to the messages as I have already contacted the callers. It sort of make the answering machine redundant. I have, however, overcome the issue of having people hang up and never say a word. The reverse is now happening in that folks know that I have recorded their phone number and their name and the time of the call and so they don't respond to the answering machine. If they are new callers, then they often leave a hollow message that says "Hi this is John Smith at 123-4567 could you call me back". I get that much of the message from reading my log of calls and don't need the words to tell me the above. ------------------------------ From: Shih-ping Spencer Sun Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 01:04:13 EDT Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine Reply-To: spencer@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (S. Spencer Sun) Organization: Live Organ Transplants In article , jbutz@homxa.att.com writes: > [fun with 3-way calling and answering machines] > [Moderator's Note: Wow ... what a lot of fun! This is just a variation > on the stupid prank immature phreaks (yes, I know that may be > considered redundant by some readers) which involves calling two > unrelated people via three-way calling then remaining silent as each > accuses the other of placing the call. And if you have two physical > lines, each with three-way, then you patch the lines together and get > four people in on the 'joke' ... all of whom are convinced as a result > the telco must be more screwed up than ever. It helps if at least a > couple of the victims are older people you wake up at 2 AM. PAT] OBDisagreementWithPAT: Actually more of a request for distinction. As with any sort of prank, I think intent/motive play a big part in determining the reasonableness of an action. If you want to screw with your friend's mind, and get a mutual friend to play one of the parts while you stay silent, I don't think that's bad as, say, someone just randomly and senselessly doing it in the middle of the night. Sure, it may be immature, but we all need to cut loose every now and then :-) Note I don't condone the second category (i.e. the random, senseless type). The first type may or may not be appropriate depending on the mentality of your victim-friend. The opinions expressed in this article are solely mine. sss/PU'94 Dept of CS (spencer@phoenix.princeton.edu)/JvNCnet (spencer@jvnc.net) [Moderator's Note: Actually, the first type may or may not be appropriate depending on *your* mentality. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us (Nick Sayer) Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'. Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 17:23:32 GMT wdc@athena.mit.edu (Bill Cattey) writes: > Now I have a question: Where can I get an answering machine that > recognizes the hangup call and doesn't record it? I have two such machines (one just replaced the other). One works too well and sometimes disgards messages from my mother, who speaks softly, the other occasionally leaves messages with just a single click as the switch recycles. > If no such machine exists, is there one with a remote command "Skip > over this stupid hangup call message"? There are new answering machines that record messages digitally in battery-backed RAM. The advantage is that you can delete individual messages. So if you have an important one, an empty message, a survey taker, a collection agency, and a message from your rich uncle Snerdley, you can delete the three in the middle and just keep the first and last ones for later perusal. Sony makes one that costs a lot, and AT&T makes a cheap one. No, I don't have any connection with Sony or AT&T, apart from owning the AT&T machine (which apart from being tapeless really isn't so hot, IMHO). I'm thinking of making a little module to hook up to a serial port on my Sun and to the audio I/O port to turn my ELC into an answering machine. Seems the only way I'll be happy with an answering machine is if I get to make it work the way I like it. :-) Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NA 37 19 49 N / 121 57 36 W +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #518 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa10891; 29 Jun 92 3:42 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30257 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:59:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10658 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:59:13 -0500 Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:59:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206290659.AA10658@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #519 TELECOM Digest Mon, 29 Jun 92 01:59:10 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 519 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection (Vince Hartung) Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection (Alan Boritz) Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection (David B. Whiteman) Pac$Bell Tentacle-Stretching (was Pacific Bell Car Theft) (Nick Sayer) LoJack (was Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection) (Leroy Donnelly) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Jack Winslade) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (David Lesher) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (David E. A. Wilson) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Monte Freeman) Jane BARBE (was Jane Barbie) (George S. Thurman) National Security (John Draper) More Strange 710 Stuff (was Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212) (T Lofaro) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: vince@Apocalypse.CAD.UCLA.EDU (Vince Hartung) Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection Date: 28 Jun 92 22:51:44 GMT Organization: U.C.L.A. Computer Aided Design Laboratory In article a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) writes: > In scol@scottsdale.az.stratus.com > (Scott Colbath) writes: >> This sounds like a thing I remember while living in Massachusetts >> called Lojack. When your car was stolen, you reported it to the police >> and Lojack. A transmitter hidden in your car would send out a signal > PacTel Teletrak (?) and Lojack are provided by different companies. > (There may be a third major system, as well.) My recollection of the > systems is the Lojack is automatically activated if the car is started > without the key. Teletrak advertised that, if your car is stolen, > (and it is not automatically activated, by whatever means), you can > activate the system by letting them know. Actually, the way PacBel's Teletrak works, is that it triangulates the signal sent from the car using *MANY* fixed sites. (VERY ACCURATE) The activation is done by a car alarm. Teletrak then sends the raw received data to a computer where it is the postion of the vehicle is computed. (The more fixed triangulation points the more accurate the bearing.) Then Teletrak H.Q. calls the cops in the stolen car's area and tells the cops the moving location of the car, direction of travel, and the approximate speed (speed not that accurate). The Teletrak H.Q. operator is looking at a Thomas Guide type map. The cops can then set up an intercept to bag the bad guy, and haul him off to jail. Lojack is a *LESS* superior technology when compared to Teletrak. (Speaking radio direction finding wise.) YOU have to call the cops to let them know your car has been stolen. (Not that great at 2 a.m. if you discover it at 8 a.m. before work ... it could be in Mexico by then.) Once Lojack officials are aware, they activated the beacon transmitter and get a rough estimated of where the car is. Then they call the cops in that jurisdiction and the cops have to try to look for it, instead of being told where it is, and which way it's going. The technical problems with Lojack, is that the frequency that the transmitter is on is subject to multipath and flutter like your car radio. When using a doppler direction finder, this can cause incorrect reading of direction. Plus you have cops that AREN'T radio techs working the system. (Push mic button and talk ... that's the extent of their knowledge many times.) They may not be familiar with the causes of refection, or even be aware of it. Well, there you have it. Based on it's technical merit. In *MY* (Radio Technician) opinion, Teletrak is *FAR* superior a method of stolen vehicle recovery. The only reason Lojack is more popular, is because it came out earlier and is cheaper than Teletrak. BUT, it does not come with the same warranty as Teletrak. I could be wrong, but I *THINK* Teletrak will guarantee a 50K refund on a unrecovered car protected using their system. Lojack only offers free replacement of the Lojack unit. That tells me that PacTel is pretty confident in their product. Vince ------------------------------ Subject: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection From: Alan Boritz Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 12:45:14 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 red-eft!abaheti@valley.west.sun.com (Arun Baheti) writes: > I was just in my car and heard an add for Pacific Bell's new auto > theft systems. Apparently, when a car is stolen, they will auto- > matically track its location and notify the police. There was also an > amorphous mention of a guarantee. Does anyone have any details on > this service -- and how (if) it works? > [Moderator's Note: The same ad is playing on the radio here in Chicago > a lot these days. Apparently some sort of radio detection to keep > track of where you are going in your car. Sounds like a great deal for > privacy enthusiasts! :) PAT The system doesn't always track vehicle location (like an AVM system), but the vehicle units are always listening. The service vendor transmits a code that activates a transponder hidden in the vehicle. Then a police agency, or someone, DF's it to find the vehicle. There's no privacy issue there, unless if the transponder transmits any time OTHER than when a theft is reported. aboritz@harry.UUCP (Alan Boritz) Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: dbw@crash.cts.com (David B. Whiteman) Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 07:26:56 GMT There was a news story on TV about a car equipped with one of the car theft protection systems that was stolen. Police tracked the stolen car to a locked garage. The owner of the house that the garage was a part of, and who was in the house at the time the police came by, denied any knowledge of how the stolen car made it into his garage. Criminal charges were not filed against him; however, the owner of the stolen car was sucessful in his civil law suit against the garage owner. David Whiteman dbw@crash.cts.com ------------------------------ From: mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us (Nick Sayer) Subject: Pac$Bell Tentacle-Stretching (was Pacific Bell Car Theft) Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'. Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 06:30:56 GMT This is disgusting. Pac$Bell seems to want to get its greasy little fingers on every sort of enterprise possible, save that of providing good service to its "tariffed" customers. More grist for the mill: I got a mailer from them with a proposal similar to the "funny muney" catalog schemes run by some comsumer credit cards. Well, now you too can buy overpriced junk if you make enough phone calls. Thank you, no. Meanwhile, _REAL_ residential ISDN is nowhere to be found. What have we got to do to get Pac$Bell involved with the telephone business? Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NA 37 19 49 N / 121 57 36 W +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 19:22:36 CST From: Leroy.Donnelly@ivgate.omahug.org (Leroy Donnelly) Subject: LoJack (was Pacific Bell Car Theft Protection) Reply-To: leroy.donnelly%drbbs@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha Questions have been asked about LoJack vehicle recovery systems. If you want to listen to the locators on your scanner check out the frequency of 173.730. This is a frequency that has been assigned to the company for use in the U.S. Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.14 r.1 DRBBS (1:285/666.0) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 11:32:14 CST From: Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Reply-To: jack.winslade%drbbs@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha In a message dated 22-JUN-92, Robert L. Mcmillin writes: > Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to > digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape > loops all run by some kind of switch. Although I never saw one, I was told that the announcing machines consisted of a wide multi-track magnetic tape with each track having one of the many phrases necessary to make the thing work. For example, the spoken numeral 'nine' might appear on two tracks, once with an upward inflection as in 'the time will be nine thirty-six' and again with a downward inflection as in 'the time will be six thirty-nine'. The loop apparently ran continuously and the audio outputs were switched as needed. Back in NYC in the days of the mechanical announcers, the time number was published as 637-1212 but EVERYONE knew that to get the time, the word N-E-R-V-O-U-S would be dialed. Every phone enthusiast knew that 637-anything would get the time. TelecomUrbanLegend: ;-) Back in those days (and probably in these days) when it was advantageous to give someone a real-sounding phone number but one which was phony (picture the stereotypical singles' scene), the prefix 637 or NE7 was often used. Of course when he dialed ... another famous one (I'll never admit to falling for it ;-) was CIrcle 6-4200 aka 246-4200 which was (and probably still is) a Dial-a-Prayer number. (Hell, she said it was her office number and it sounded right for a midtown business number.) Here's the strange part -- deja vu or whatever -- A few months ago I was watching a late-night rerun of Kojak. The title to the episode was, believe it or not 246 4 200. During the episode it was suspected that it might be a phone number. Kojak (sucking the Tootsie-Roll Pop) dialed the number and reported 'nope, Dial-a-Prayer'. I wonder if the screenwriter had the same stunt pulled on him? BTW, the significance of the numbers in the teleplay were hotel room numbers. Well, I guess that's enough digression for one day. ;-> Good day. JSW Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.14 r.1 (1:285/666.0) ------------------------------ From: David Lesher Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 13:31:17 EDT Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher) Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers - Beltway Annex An interesting sidelight on the Autochron {sp?} machines. They were rented, and VERY expensive. (Somehow, I have a warm spot in my heart for anyone that out-screwed "We own it -- you gotta rent it" Ma, but that's beside the point.) Anyhow, at one point, Ma RENTED out time service. You could get a local pair with the time audio on it. The only users I knew of were police and fire departments with logging recoders on their incoming lines. The time was put down on another channel of these machines. This was to solve the usual issue of when the cops got the call, vs when they got to the scene. Of course, modern, mega-track, digitized logging machines don't need such. And besides, with last decade's $5.00/month LMC circuit costing $500.00, I doubt anyone would buy it anyhow ;-} wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu ------------------------------ From: david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Wollongong University, Australia Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:17:48 GMT rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) writes: > Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to > digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape > loops all run by some kind of switch. I seem to recall that in the UK and possibly Australia as well that the various digits were recorded on different tracks of a glass disc and that the appropriate reader was selected to get the correct digit at each point in the phrase. This would be longer lasting than any magnetic media and selecting one of many optical readers would be fairly easy to achieve. David Wilson (042) 21 3802 voice, (042) 21 3262 fax Dept Comp Sci, Uni of Wollongong david@cs.uow.edu.au ------------------------------ From: ccoprfm@prism.gatech.edu (Monte Freeman) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Date: 28 Jun 92 16:33:36 GMT Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology Interesting bit of trivia about Mrs. Barbie: She still lives here in Atlanta (Audichron, the comapny that manufactured the drum machine that so many telcos used for these recordings, is still here and in business). She is the voice that is heard on the 146.760 Alford Memorial Radio Club Stone Mountain repeater saying "From the top of Georgia's beautiful Stone Mountain, this is W4BOC repeater," as well as about five other IDs. Audichron donated one of these recording devices to the club YEARS ago, and Mrs. Barbie did the recordings for us. Several years ago, the machine just stopped working. It was removed from the top of the mountain to be repaired, and just somehow got lost. When we went through and did our repeater upgrade two or three years ago, someone made the comment that it would be nice to have "Ms. Calabash's" voice back. (Ms. Calabash is the name someone gave to this mysterious sexy voice shortly after it went into use on the repeater, and it just sort of stuck ...) Anyway, we started trying to track down what had happened to the Audichron. Eventually, we found it stuck in someone's basement. He had no idea how it got there, what it was, or who it belonged to. He was however glad to see it leave. This thing weighs close to 75 pounds! We took it to Audichron, and they restored it back to it's origianl factory condition. They asked us if they could have it to go in their museum. We said that if we could get the stuff that was recorded on it off and onto a tape so we could put it in out digital voice recorder, that they could have the old machine. They happily agreed of course. Several months after the recording went into service, Mrs. Barbie came to one of our club meetings. It was a real treat to meet the lady behind the voice! :-) Monte Freeman -- Operations Department / Information Technology Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!ccoprfm Internet: ccoprfm@prism.gatech.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 17:44 GMT From: George S. Thurman <0004056081@mcimail.com> Subject: Jane BARBE (was Jane Barbie) With all of the messages recently about "Jane Barbie", I thought that I would let everyone know that the correct spelling of her last name is BARBE. George S. Thurman 4056081@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: crunch@netcom.com (John Draper) Subject: National Security Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 16:20:53 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) > 710 is indeed assigned for "Government Special" use. It's actual > function is highly classified. Doesn't surprise me that you couldn't > get any information without a need to know. I respectfully suggest > that you not pursue the matter any further, least someone from the > Government might start asking YOU a lot of questions!! Ken, If you are SO concerned about national security, then why are you broadcasting to the world that 710 has anything special in it at all? Now every phone hacker on the net will be encouraged to start "scanning" the 710 area code for their "special classified" numbers. Just by mentioning things like this can cause problems, so you were better off not even mentioning it. WolfGang, There are a number of sites in Russia that have Email gateways, and very soon will have full internet access. Email me: crunch@netcom.com for more details. John D. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 01:14:51 -0400 (EDT) From: Frank T Lofaro Subject: More Strange 710 Stuff (was Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212) My dorm phone (at CMU) uses AT&T ACUS service (a college student phone plan) where all the dorm phones use AT&T long distance and one places a call by dialing 9 for an outside line, then the area code and number. It then asks for your personal access (used for billing) code and connects you. Strange thing is if I dial a bogus area code and number I get the intercept right away after the last digit is dialed (and before I can get to enter my security code), but if I dial the 710 area code and a number, it asks for my code, and only then does it give me the intercept. So maybe 710 isn't only using line-based access control. Why an eight-digit security code related to a college calling plan would be involved in access granting/denying is beyond me, if that is the case (we have ROTC students here, but I'd really doubt they'd have 710 access). Anyway, it seems 710 is not processed by the local CO, but just handed off to the LD carrier. So the fact the intercept only comes after I enter the code could be because some codes might give access, weird routing at AT&T, or because Big Brother wants to get it on record that it was I that tried to access 710 :) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #519 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09406; 30 Jun 92 0:24 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25695 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 29 Jun 1992 22:43:21 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00851 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 29 Jun 1992 22:43:11 -0500 Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 22:43:11 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206300343.AA00851@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #520 TELECOM Digest Mon, 29 Jun 92 22:43:15 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 520 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Administrivia: Something Cross-Connected Somewhere (TELECOM Moderator) Tour of US West Data Center in Omaha (Paul W. Schleck) SWBT Organizational Changes (Tim Gorman) An Oops in ncomb.c (Kamran Husain) Bix Block Punch-Down Tool (Andrew M. Boardman) A Response to "Legal" Phreaking (Bill Squire) The Depths of Sliminess (Paul Fuqua) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 20:11:09 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Something Cross-Connected Somewhere For the past several days, every single message posted to alt.dcom.telecom has been finding its way here to comp.dcom.telecom as well. Naturally my autoreply then sends a receipt and the person writes back saying 'what did you sent me a reciept for ... I sent nothing to comp.dcom.telecom'. I try to catch all these articles and avoid using them here, but some have gotten missed, leading to needless duplication in the two groups. It looks to me like a site called taurus is doing this ... running some version of news which is taking what comes in to alt and tossing it over to me. But whoever is doing it, please stop. Thanks. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: pschleck@odin.unomaha.edu (Paul W. Schleck) Subject: Tour of US West Data Center in Omaha Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 17:06:37 GMT Thanks to some inside connections between US West and an organization I am a member of, /usr/group/nebraska (a Unix user group), I was able to participate in an evening tour of the new US West Data Center at Landmark Plaza between 12th and 13th Streets and Farnham near the Old Market in Omaha, Nebraska. Those who have read the digest for any length of time know that US West is both a very customer-oriented, economical, local service provider and a very shifty RBOC looking to branch out in to areas that regulated monopolies shouldn't, but the PUC doesn't have the "regulatory horsepower" (to quote a John Higdonism) to slap them back. For this reason, I couldn't resist the offer for an "inside look." The new data center replaces the one on Dodge Street, which had become too small and run-down to support the kind of hardware a 14-state RBOC needed. The result was a completely new 5-story building, set on a quite massive concrete foundation. The basic layout is one of perimeter offices with large, traditional, computing rooms in the center of each floor. The tour guide claimed it was one of the largest data centers in the country. When the inevitable "What about the NSA?" question emanated from the back of the crowd, the guide quickly corrected his statement to "one of the largest PRIVATE data centers" :-). One of the floors that we viewed was still unfinished. The floor was covered with a welded metal plate to offer complete grounding. Around the edges were gutters to catch possible leaks from the cold-water air-conditionign system (which makes an awe-inspiring "whoosh" when you walk up to the building). Interesting enough, the computer rooms do NOT use Halon (too much trouble with the EPA, which has labelled it hazardous, and effectively cut off most manufacturing of it), but rather a system of water sprinklers (they know what they are doing, I guess). Most of the finished floors housed a collection of top-of-the-line IBM and Amdahl MVS/XA iron with positively huge tape cartridge silos to feed them. The rest was a mixture of Vaxen running "old" Unix (I guess they mean pre-SVr4), including one to manage tracking of reports to 611. Of course, being a Unix user group, we found most of this "ho-hum" and were wondering aloud "where are the workstations?" :-). The tour guide (a middle-manager, as far as we could tell), noted that most of the maintenance headaches with the billing system came from 1.) integrating the billing systems of the three local Bells that became US West (Northwestern Bell, Mountain Bell, and Pacific Northwest Bell) and 2.) conforming to the sometimes vagarious requirements of the Public Utilities Commission (an interesting perspective from the other side of the customer service counter). The overall goal of the Data Center is to provide fault-tolerant, self-sufficent computing power (totalling over 200 MIPS) 24 hours a day, seven days a week with no down time. One of the solutions to this end is a half-a-dozen V-16 Cummins Diesel generators, providing about 1.75 MW apiece. They are mounted on spring-mounted concrete slabs, and the springs themselves were mounted to a solid concrete floor that had about 2000 three-inch-thick bronze screws that were used during construction to raise the floor a little under a foot (to better cushion the lower floors from the noise). Reliable power in a place like Omaha (which doesn't really have it) was a major concern. Remembering the AT&T New York incident, I asked the guide if there were any formal or informal arrangements with the local utilities to go off city power during periods of high demand. He said that he didn't know of any off-hand, nor has US West been asked to yet (I tried not be too smart-assed, lest they realize that I was a Digest reader and sic Security on me :-). The center is not even dependent on city water for its air-conditioning system, having drilled a 650-foot-deep well as a backup. As a side note, the presence of the Communications Workers of America union was quite noticable, ranging from the arbitration bulletins sprinkled on bulletin boards, to the occasional "Union Yes!" bumper sticker stuck on various physical-plant assets, all the way to the fact that everyone we were introduced to was a "Specialist" of some sort or another. Others have done a good job of "union-bashing" on this forum, so I will defer to their, ummm, "wisdom" on this matter. All-in-all I was quite impressed. On one hand, I applaud US West for reaffirming its committment to keep a major part of its operations in Omaha (a sore spot for many of us who saw 13 out of 14 Omaha VP's move to Denver over the past ten years). On the other, I have to wonder what they are "up to." Any deeper speculations from other Digest readers? Paul W. Schleck pschleck@unomaha.edu ------------------------------ Date: 29 Jun 92 08:41:13 EDT From: tim gorman <71336.1270@CompuServe.COM> Subject: SWBT Organizational Changes 6-26-92 (Any spelling errors are mine! TPG) SOUTHWESTERN BELL CORPORATION ANNOUNCES ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES ST. LOUIS, June 26, 1992 -- Southwestern Bell Corporation announced today that it is reorganizing its largest subsidiary, Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, into three separate operating units. "The restructuring is another part of Southwestern Bell's commitment to continuing to meet rapidly increasing competition in the telecommunications business and to keep our focus on the needs of our customers," said Edward E. Whitacre Jr., chariman and chief executive officer of Southwestern Bell Corporation. The reorganization becomes effective on July 1. Under the reorganization: - Royce S. Caldwell, 53, currently group president of Southwestern Bell Corporation, becomes president of Southwestern Bell Services, which will have headquarters in St. Louis and be responsible for providing network, marketing, finance, planning and other staff and operational services to Southwestern Bell Telephone. - William E. Dreyer, 54, president of the Texas division of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, becomes president of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company of Texas. This organization will be headquartered in Dallas. - J. Cliff Eason, 44, currently president of Metromedia Paging Services, a subsidiary of Southwestern Bell Corporation, becomes president of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company of the Midwest. This organization will be responsible for the provision of telephone services in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, and will be headquartered in St. Louis. Under this organization, Messrs. Eason, Dreyer and Caldwell will be members of Southwestern Bell's Executive Policy Council and report directly to Whitacre, who additionally assumes the role as chairman and CEO of Southwestern Bell Telephone. In other changes announced today James E. Adams, 53, currently president of Southwestern Bell Telephone, becomes group president of Southwestern Bell Corporation and will be responsible for all of the company's international operations. Adams replaces Caldwell, and will continue as a member of the EPC and report to Whitacre. Metromedia Paging Services also announced the appointment of John M Kesley, 33 as president, replacing Eason. ------------------------------ From: khx@se44.wg2.waii.com (K Husain) Subject: An Oops in ncomb.c Date: 29 Jun 92 22:25:41 GMT Reply-To: khx@se44.wg2.waii.com Not too many flames to me just yet about this one. In the source file digit 9 is assigned WXZ whereas it should be assigned WXY. Sorry about that ... but since only one person has caught it so far I guess I wont be needing my asbestos suit for a while! ;-) Kamran [Moderator's Note: Kamran submitted another version of his program with the change noted above, and also changes to allow for older compilers. It is presented below. PAT] ------------ cut -------------- /* This program is for fun, not profit. If you can miraculously figure out a way to make money off this, let me in on it for a percentage. :-) Just do please do keep the authorship around should you decide to make copies. Feel free to copy. I assume NO responsiblities, etc. for use, etc. In other words Use At Your Own Risk! Kamran Husain, MPS Inc. Sugarland, Texas khx@se44.wg2.waii.com */ #include #include typedef struct Letter { int count; char list[3]; } LTR; LTR map[10] = { { 1, '0', '0', '0'}, { 1, '1', '1', '1'}, { 3, 'a', 'b', 'c'}, { 3, 'd', 'e', 'f'}, { 3, 'g', 'h', 'i'}, { 3, 'j', 'k', 'l'}, { 3, 'm', 'n', 'o'}, { 3, 'p', 'r', 's'}, { 3, 't', 'u', 'v'}, { 3, 'w', 'x', 'y'} }; /* global variables */ int lpr, /* columns printed so far */ charspercombo, numberFlag = 0, callme(); /* recursive function */ void usage(); /* main begins here This program generates combinations of letters from strings of telephone numbers. It is useless really except that you might want to know some of the words YOUR phone number might come up with. The output can be passed to the uniq filter to parse out duplicates. */ main(argc, argv) int argc; char *argv[]; { register int len, i; char *tcp, *cp; if(argc < 2) usage(); cp = argv[1]; if(*cp == '-') { cp++; if(*cp != 'n') usage(); numberFlag++; cp = argv[2]; } tcp = cp; len = strlen(cp); for(i = 0; i < len; i++, cp++) if((*cp < '0') || (*cp > '9')) exit(2); charspercombo = len + 2; callme(tcp, 0); printf("\n"); } void usage() { printf("\nUsage:\n ncomb [-n] #####\n\n"); exit(1); } /* Recursive function to try all combinations of phone number given null terminated string and current location within string */ callme(str, i) char *str; int i; { int j, ndx; char ch; if(str[i] == '\0') { if(lpr > 80) { /* print if more than about 80 columns */ lpr = 0; printf("\n"); } printf("%s ", str); lpr += charspercombo; return; } ch = str[i]; ndx = ch - '0'; /* try numeric combinations as well if flag is set */ if(numberFlag) callme(str, i + 1); /* try all combinations for this digit */ for(j = 0; j < map[ndx].count; j++) { str[i] = map[ndx].list[j]; callme(str, i + 1); } str[i] = ch; } ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 17:50:53 EDT From: andrew m. boardman Subject: Bix Block Punch-Down Tool I am in need of a punch-down tool for NTI's almost-but-not-quite-110 Bix blocks. All of the usual sources say that Northern Telecom is the only source of these. Can anyone out there tell me who to talk to at NTI? andrew boardman amb@cs.columbia.edu ------------------------------ Subject: Response to "Legal Hacking" From: bill@hacktic.nl (Bill Squire) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 21:41:03 WET/D Organization: Hack-Tic Magazine I was really caught off guard by a piece of private mail getting posted to such a public group. This topic has been pounded into the ground on this group as my mailbox has been filled with fire. I'm no expert on any of the "soft sciences" like politics and psychology and tend to skip over what is not of a technical nature on this group. Politics are boring! Politics get in the way of "hard science". Politics are an excuse for not getting things done, etc., etc, etc. I am not a lawyer, and I have no interest in law except to stay away from it and out of trouble. I've accepted the fact some time ago that 'mis-use' of the phonenet is in the grey of the law. I also agreed some time ago there would be no more posts to this or any other group on that subject. I have no control of what people re-post or in the case of this group what Pat decides is appropriate. IMHO this was not! If anyone cares to hear more on this topic they can purchase a copy of the next {2600 Magazine} where some technical aspects of phone switching will be discussed with a warning that there may be specific laws against certain aspects it in some countries. From here on out my posts on this group will be of a technical nature only. I apolgize to Pat or anyone who may have been offended by that post, since even if it wasn't mine, the subject was. Bill ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 18:13:44 CDT From: Paul Fuqua Subject: The Depths of Sliminess I thought I'd heard everything about telemarketing slime, until I read a column in the {Dallas Morning News} a couple of weeks ago. This is really the pits: Bob Harshaw, a 63-year-old resident of Garland, has been retired due to disability (multiple sclerosis) for twelve years. Since he's home all day and is tired of phone solicitors, he's somewhat impolite with them -- he says, "Get lost," and hangs up. One day a solicitor called, representing one of the many law enforcement associations (the subject of an earlier column, these groups solicit donations via the phone, but 75% or more goes to the solicitors rather than the group). Mr Harshaw hung up. The solicitor called right back, claiming to represent another group. Mr. Harshaw hung up again. The man called again. During the next several days, the man called repeatedly. Then he changed strategy: apparently, whenever he encountered an answering machine during his calls, he left a fictitious message and Mr. Harshaw's number. One man received an obnoxious and obscene complaint about a (nonexistent) barking dog. Others were told Mr. Harshaw could give them a high-paying job. Another was told that Mr. Harshaw had details of his girlfriend's infidelities. Mr. Harshaw's phone has been ringing off the hook, and all he wanted was to be left alone. Paul Fuqua pf@hc.ti.com, ti-csl!pf Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas [Moderator's Note: Very dramatic story, but is it really the truth? What telemarketer do you know with enough spare time on his hands to waste call after call on someone who obviously is not buying anything? To those boys, time *is* money, and people (who they call) wasting their time 'looking for a pen', etc are anathema. Usually the quota they keep requires several dozen calls per hour, and at least a few positive results per hour. He is giving up all this money and messing up his quota in order to play games with Harshaw? How could he be making all these calls without someone along the way identifying him or detirmining what organization employs him? How come Harshaw and/or telco haven't trapped him by now? Has Harshaw heard the taped messages left in his name and identified the voice with the person who originally called him? Are Harshaw and the {Dallas Morning News} each complimenting the other's story for their own reasons; Harshaw for his fifteen minutes of fame and the newspaper in a campaign to dump on telemarketers? I don't believe their story. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #520 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12147; 30 Jun 92 1:22 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29557 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 29 Jun 1992 23:42:28 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11739 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 29 Jun 1992 23:42:14 -0500 Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 23:42:14 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206300442.AA11739@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #521 TELECOM Digest Mon, 29 Jun 92 23:42:16 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 521 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Cordless Phones in the Business Environment? (Laird P. Broadfield) Corrections to USA Area Code List (Paul Robinson) Where is the Best Place to Find a Used Office Phone System? (David Kovar) Can't Reach ANAC or 700-555-4141 From My Dorm (Frank T. Lofaro) Caller ID in Southern California? (Javier Henderson) Survey: Is Big Brother Watching You? (Lorrayne Schaefer) Still 1-800-1-RECYCLE ! (Carl Moore) Re: 911 Circuitry Can Detect 91 (Bill Mayhew) Re: 911 Circuitry Can Detect 91 (John Higdon) Re: Motorola Watch Pager (Mark Earle) Re: Where to Buy Special Gadgets, One-of? (William Degnan) Re: Pay Phones in San Francisco (Paul W. Schleck) Re: You Can Ring My Bell (Vance Shipley) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: lairdb@crash.cts.com (Laird P. Broadfield) Subject: Cordless Phones in the Business Environment? Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 02:03:59 GMT I saw a couple of pseudo-nano-cell systems at TCA, but they weren't quite out yet, and a couple of IR based ones, too, but I'm really looking for something a little more casual. We've got a cuple of people using conventional cordless sets, and I keep expecting them to pick up on each other (I didn't think they had ESNs (or anyhting like it); why does this work?) In any case (unless I *really* don't understand) we would be contending among ten channels, and I'm looking for 20 or 30 ideally. Any suggestions? Laird P. Broadfield lairdb@crash.cts.com ...{ucsd, nosc}!crash!lairdb ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDarcos@mcimail.com From: Paul Robinson Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 20:12:01 EDT Subject: Corrections to USA Area Code List Last month I uploaded the list of North American Area Codes for The U.S. and its posessions, carribean countries and Canada. This list is essentially the same as the list which has appeared in our agency's telephone book for two years. Not once did anyone make a correction. I posted this area code list to TELECOM Digest and I have gotten more than a dozen corrections to the list. I will shortly post a revised and corrected list, to cover all the corrections, new numbers and changes people have given to me. All of you who sent me a correction will receive a thank you for your corrections. ------------------------------ From: kovar@world.std.com (David C Kovar) Subject: Where is the Best Place to Find a Used Office Phone System? Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 00:07:38 GMT It would be a Meridian since a company we work closely with has a Meridian and we might link the systems. Where is the best place to pick one of these up used, or should I just keep an eye on the local papers and hope to see one show up there? David ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 01:31:56 -0400 (GMT) From: Frank T Lofaro Subject: Can't Reach ANAC or 700-555-4141 From My Dorm I can't reach 700-555-4141 or the ANAC for the area in Pittsburgh I'm in, 711-6633 (I should send it to the people maintaining the ANAC list, if they still do.) from my dorm. I get hit with an intercept (all these intercepts are the standard "(three tones) Your call can not be completed as dialed, Please check the number..." so I don't know where the problem is). Who'd fix those problems? They'd probably deny the ANAC unavailability was a problem, and G*d knows what about the 700-555-4141 number. Also, now it seems phones here on the CMU system which can reach the ANAC can use 711-XXXX (whereas elsewhere 711-anything other than 6633 doesn't work, it gives strange tones or silence). The ANAC and 700 number worked fine until we switched to a new phone system (both the old and new systems are PBX/Centrex type systems where you dial 9 for outside lines, etc. but I don't know much beyond that, like whether we have our own equipment or whether the telco controls it). By the way, both the ANAC and 700 number are free, so blocking them seems like it would not be a useful idea, so it might not be intentional that those numbers couldn't be reached. I think I might be that if the system is configured to know that a specific exchange is valid, it won't go through (and 711 is not a "real" exchange). ------------------------------ From: jhenderson@pomona.claremont.edu Subject: Caller ID in Southern California? Organization: Pomona College Date: 29 Jun 92 21:28:27 PDT Hello, good people, I tried calling GTE on this, twice, and both times I got basically the same answer: "what are you talking about???" (okay, so it's a question actually). SO I will ask the net: is caller ID available/will be available soon in So Cal, in the GTE areas? Specifically, the Pomona Valley. Thank you. You may now continue with your regularly scheduled news reading. Javier Henderson jhenderson@pomona.claremont.edu ------------------------------ From: lorrayne@smiley.mitre.org (Lorrayne Schaefer) Subject: Survey: Is Big Brother Watching You? Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 17:42:09 GMT For your information, this has been posted on some newsgroups a few months ago. This survey has also been distributed to various conferences over the past few months. All results will be in the form of statistical information and keywords. All partipants will remain anonymous. SURVEY: MONITORING IN THE WORKPLACE The purpose of this survey is to collect data for a presentation that I will give at this year's National Computer Security Conference in October. I would like to thank you for taking the time to fill out this survey. If you have any questions, you can call me at 703-883-5301 or send me email at lorrayne@smiley.mitre.org. Please send your completed survey to: Lorrayne Schaefer The MITRE Corporation M/S Z213 7525 Colshire Drive McLean, VA 22102 lorrayne@smiley.mitre.org 1. What is your title? 2. What type of work does your organization do? 3. Does your organization currently monitor computer activity? (Yes/No) a. If yes, what type of monitoring does your company do (e.g., electronic mail, bulletin boards, telephone, system activity, network activity)? b. Why does your company choose to monitor these things and how is it done? 4. If you are considering (or are currently) using a monitoring tool, what exactly would you monitor? How would you protect this information? 5. Are you for or against monitoring? Why/why not? Think in terms of whether it is ethical or unethical ("ethical" meaning that it is right and "unethical" meaning it is wrong) for an employer to monitor an employee's computer usage. In your response, consider that the employee is allowed by the company to use the computer and the company currently monitors computer activity. 6. If your company monitors employees, is it clearly defined in your company policy? 7. In your opinion, does the employee have rights in terms of being monitored? 8. In your opinion, does the company have rights to protect its assets by using a form of monitoring tool? 9. If you are being monitored, do you take offense? Managers: How do you handle situations in which the employee takes offense at being monitored? 10. What measures does your company use to prevent misuse of monitoring in the workplace? 11. If an employee is caught abusing the monitoring tool, what would happen to that individual? If your company is not using any form of monitoring, what do you think should happen to an individual who abused the tool? 12. Is it unethical to monitor electronic mail to determine if the employee is not abusing this company resource (e.g., suppose the employee sends personal notes via a network to others that are not work related)? Why or why not? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 18:10:00 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Still 1-800-1-RECYCLE ! The 1-800-1-RECYCLE (where the second 1 should be an I) is still posted on those recycling bins on Kent Island, Maryland (just east of the Bay Bridge). I passed by there eastbound and remembered to go back over and check them yesterday (June 28). [Moderator's Note: Isn't it always amusing how much money some companies waste in advertising with wrong phone numbers, etc ... and how they are always the outfits with some snippy arrogant person on the incoming phones to insure that someone like yourself, willing to save them, oh, several thousand dollars by pointing out their error is never able to speak with anyone who knows anything ... how many more thousands of dollars do you suppose they will waste before they catch on, if they ever do? In a way, do you hope they never do? :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: 911 Circuitry Can Detect 91 Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 04:12:08 GMT The switch uses heuristic rules to route things resembling 911 to the dispatcher. The presumption is that people may misdial when in a state of panic. This is the basis of the folklore that cordless phones mysteriously dial 911 as the battery dies. What actually happens is that probably something more like 1-1-1 gets pulse dialed as the power falters. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-9995 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (140.220.1.1) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 23:56 PDT From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: 911 Circuitry Can Detect 91 bms@penguin.eng.pyramid.com (Bruce Schlobohm) writes: > I didn't realize that 91 can be detected by the 911 circuitry. I > wonder how often this type of thing happens? > (For the curious, this person lives in the Los Gatos or Campbell area; > I'm sorry I can't be more precise at the moment.) Well, it certainly makes a BIG difference which of those two towns that person lives in. Campbell (the offical exchange -- remember, telco boundaries do not necessarily precisely track political boundaries) is served by two Pac*Bell offices: ANdrews and ALpine. Los Gatos is "served" by three GTE offices: two with GTD-5s, one with a DMS-10. The DMS-10 serves the rural mountain area. The Campbell/Los Gatos political and telco boundaries criss-cross in several places. It is anyone's guess what GTE does with '911'. Since the Pac*Bell offices that serve Campbell do not require the access code '1' when calling long distance, it would not make a lot of sense to have things perform in the manner you describe. How many people might abandon a call to Kansas (913) or North Carolina (919) and find the gendarmarie suddenly at the door? I am served out of ANdrews here at home and I have just dialed '91' waited several seconds and then hung up on each of nine lines. There has been no reaction. No police. No calls back. The only conclusion that I can reach is that your friend is served by GTE and that GTE in its infinite stupidity and ineptitude has somehow programmed its _wonderful_ GTD-5 switches to behave in such a manner. Needless to say, if this is true, GTE has set a new standard in buffoonery. What a waste of emergency resources! What a waste of a telephone customer's time! And for what purpose? My curiousity is arroused. Next time I am up on the mountain, I think I will try this out. No flames, please. Save them for GTE who may have programmed this silly nonsense! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 21:03:51 CDT From: mearle@pro-party.cts.com (Mark Earle) Subject: Re: Motorola Watch Pager I've heard no comments good or bad on the watch pager. A similiar product might fit your needs, and I have used this one. Motorola makes a small pager designed to fit in the pocket, which takes up the space of about two pencils. The display is on the side. The unit uses either rechargeable batteries that last 10-15 hours per charge (depending on the number of pages). They are a button type battery. They also offer a longer lasting disposable battery. The pager can be purchased / configured with either an audio annunciator or a vibrator. It can also be set to not vibrate or beep, and stores incoming pages in memory (four numbers max) You can also 'lock' a number so that incoming pages do not overwrite it. Overall, compared to a BP-2000 and Bravo pager, I found 'range' missed pages, etc about the same. This pager however can be worn only in a shirt pocket or carried in a purse. In a "fanny pack" or typical men's garment pocket it would get bent/broken, probably. I really liked the light weight, performance etc. mearle@pro-party.cts.com (Mark Earle) [WA2MCT/5] FidoNet at Opus 1:160/50.0 Bitnet adblu001@ccsu.vm1 Internet 73117.351@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: William.Degnan@mdf.FidoNet.Org (William Degnan) Date: 28 Jun 92 16:48:03 Subject: Re: Where to Buy Special Gadgets, One-of? On NaC Token Ring Program (mitton@dave.enet.dec.com ) wrote: > I'm looking to buy one RJ31-X jack for a home security alarm system. > This jack hooks the alarm in series to the circuit, if the connector > is engaged. (it even has some spare contacts to sense this, if you > care) This information is from the alarm installer's manual. > The local AT&T store gave me the national number. The national AT&T > 800 number said they don't stock it. The reason they don't sell it is that it doesn't become an RJ31-X until it is installed as one. Until that moment, it is something else. For example: Leviton's 20278-SBI, 41018-IQS, 20298-SBI, and 40198-SBI can be wired as an RJ31X (also as RJ32X, RJ33X, RJ34X, RJ35X, RJ36X, RJ37X and RJ38X). You'll find a number of manufacturer's products with some "635" series stock numbers that will do the job. Suttle's 635A8 (in several colors and designs) will do just fine. Origin: Private Line - Stealth Opus in Austin (1:382/39.0) William Degnan, Communications Network Solutions Independent Consultants in Telecommunications and Technology P.O. Drawer 9530 | wdegnan@mdf.fidonet.org | mfwic@mdf.fidonet.org Austin, TX 78766-9530 | !wdegnan@attmail.com | Voice +1 512 323 9383 ------------------------------ From: pschleck@odin.unomaha.edu (Paul W Schleck) Subject: Re: Pay Phones in San Francisco Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 03:51:50 GMT In response to yet another article about municipal pay phone bans and other foolishness, our Esteemed Moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: This is a good example of how rotten to the core > municipal government can be. All those permits and foot-dragging by > the city to do something of value -- install a telephone -- for the > residents. I could tell you dozens of stories about how abusive the > City of Chicago is to the few people still around who own real > property and pay taxes, etc. The idiots in our city council are now > trying to put all sorts of requirements on pay phones here, as if that > would solve the myriad of problems we endure. PAT] In other words, the Moderator is inviting us to ask, "OK Pat, how abusive *ARE* they?" At the risk of sounding like a kiss-up, Pat's occasional forays into political activism and his accounts of ongoing city-politics are part of what makes reading the Digest worthwhile (in addition to the well-summarized technical information). In other words, yes Pat, please tell us! :-) Paul W. Schleck pschleck@unomaha.edu [Moderator's Note: Well, its the same old story I have told here before many times. About a third of the members of our city council have been sentenced to prison in the past decade. Quite a few of the others should be committed to the Reed Mental Health Center. They visit the Cook County Jail to register people to vote (I haven't been in jail in such a long time I forgot what a bologna sandwich tastes like!) while systematically working to neutralize the votes of people who want to see a third-party candidate who can make a difference. I have no complaint coming, I guess; I haven't voted in 30 years. PAT] ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Re: You Can Ring My Bell Organization: SwitchView Inc., Waterloo, Ontario Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 18:03:01 GMT Northern Telecom market a software product called Telecenter. It currently runs on Macintosh computers and works with Meridian 1 PBX sets as well as Centrex sets. I was fooling around with this last year and had a lot of fun. I turned the ring off on my telephone and had the Macintosh doing the alerting for me. Telecenter offered a number of choices, my favourite was the bell. This bell sounded like a single gong unit from a '30's telephone. The ringing would vary in intensity sounding like it was about to fail at any moment. This was quite a contrast to the high tech environment it was in! Although I never did get it to work (I didn't try too hard) you are supposed to be able to get the Mac to pronounce the names of callers to alert you. This works with Calling Party Name Display. All in all a fairly neat toy. Supposedly available soon in Windows. Vance Shipley vances@xenitec.on.ca vances@ltg.uucp ..uunet.ca!xenitec!vances ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #521 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa17203; 30 Jun 92 3:05 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27427 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 30 Jun 1992 01:26:56 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01981 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 30 Jun 1992 01:26:46 -0500 Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 01:26:46 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199206300626.AA01981@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #522 TELECOM Digest Tue, 30 Jun 92 01:26:00 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 522 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (Jon Baker) Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (Kevin W. Williams) Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (Jacob DeGlopper) Re: "Choke" Prefixes (was Concert Goers Blast 911) (Robert L. McMillin) Re: "Choke" Prefixes (was Concert Goers Blast 911) (John Nagle) Re: Pac$Bell Tentacle-Stretching (was Pacific Bell Car Theft) (Nick Sayer) Re: Pac$Bell Tentacle-Stretching (was Pacific Bell Car Theft) (John Higdon) Re: United Telephone/Sprint (Bill Huttig) Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted (John R. Ruckstuhl,Jr) Re: Ringer Equivalency Numbers (Julian Macassey) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 07:54:04 MST From: bakerj@gtephx.UUCP (Jon Baker) From: bakerj@gtephx.UUCP (Jon Baker) Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service Organization: AG Communication Systems, Phoenix, Arizona Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 14:53:43 GMT TELECOM Moderator notes: > [Moderator's Note: Yes, true IF your local CO can get around to > providing you with a dial tone and IF the CO can then find time to > look at and translate what you have dialed. Until that point -- if > there are delays in that stage -- HOW is telco supposed to know you > want to call 911? Once it is ascertained calling party wants 911, > then fine -- give the customer what he wants. But what about the > calls lost before that point? People don't have direct lines to 911, > you know. PAT] Excepting a very poorly engineered CO, this also should not be a problem unless you have a very significant percentage of your subscribers going offhook all at the same time. This is not the case in a concert ticket hotline, or a radio station giveaway, but might occur during some sort of emergency (power failure, weather disaster, large nearby explosion, etc.) In such a case, certain lines within the neighborhood can be designated to be 'hot' lines, or 'A' lines, which get preferential treatment. The idea being, if we can't serve 100%, and if we tried we'd serve 0%, then let's pick 10%-20% and give them service. The rationale being, it's not necessary for every one of 500 residents in a neighborhood to call 911 to report a fire. J.Baker asuvax!gtephx!bakerj ------------------------------ From: williamsk@gtephx.UUCP (Kevin W. Williams) Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service Organization: gte Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 16:40:32 GMT In article , rice@ttd.teradyne.edu writes: >> [Moderator's Note: Come now, do you *really* think US West or any >> telco relishes these situations and ignores them 'because they are the >> phone company'? And had telco known in advance (did any of the >> concert promoters advise telco of the times, etc?), what in your >> estimation might telco have done about it, other than possibly block >> off access from certain exchanges when traffic was heavy? PAT] > I'd have to disagree. Proper design of a "Life and Death" emergency > system should preclude ANY intruption of that service based on trunk > loading. 911 trunks should be Independent of any other traffic. Let's be a little realistic here. I could, indeed, design a 911 system which was indpendent of any other request for service. Unfortunately, I would have to run a separate phone to each house which only served the emergency service bureau. In real life, line service needs to compete for timeslots or codecs, and get the attention of the servicing processor. In a GTD-5, a group of 768, 1152, or 1536 lines competes for only 192 timeslots. If 192 of the subscribers in the group are calling for tickets, the 193rd simply cannot get through, no matter how important his call may be. Other machines have their concentrators on even smaller groups (64 lines competing for 16 codecs, etc.). There are statistical differences in the behavior of small groups vs. large ones, but the fundamental math remains the same: depending on engineering, between 1/8 and 1/4 of your subscribers can talk at once. If you want a feature that would work, it would be possible to cut off any subscriber that called for a ticket, and not allow him to reoriginate for five minutes or so. This would free up a lot of resources. Unfortunately, it would also open up the telco for lawsuits ("Aunt Tilly keeled over right after I called for a ticket, and I couldn't get through."). Choke prefixes, call gapping, and similar network management treatments are a compromise for an insoluble problem. No switch manufacturer can sell totally non-blocking line equipment, because the telcos won't pay the costs. We cannot predict who is going to call 911 and who is going to call Larry King. The best we can do is make the machine survive the peaking, give fairly distributed service to all originators, and try to deal with the problem during routing and termination. Kevin Wayne Williams AG Communication Systems nee Automatic Electric ------------------------------ From: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service Reply-To: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 13:39:58 GMT > calls lost before that point? People don't have direct lines to 911, > you know. PAT] Well, most people don't. I happened to be on the direct line to our communications center from the rescue squad yesterday when a strange thing happened. I got a few clicks on the line, silence, and then to my surprise "Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the number and dial again or call your operator to help you.", followed immediately by the obnoxiously loud "hang up NOW" signal. I didn't think the direct line was supposed to do this sort of thing! Anyone have an idea why? Jacob DeGlopper, EMT-A, Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad -- CWRU Biomedical Engineering - jrd5@po.cwru.edu -- +1 703 538 7624 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 09:20:20 -0700 From: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: "Choke" Prefixes Lauren Weinstein wrote about 'choke' prefixes with respect to their ability, or lack thereof, to help maintain reasonable phone service in an area affected by unusually heavy phone usage, such as during phone-ins for tickets to popular concerts. On a related matter: during the recent riots, I was able to get dial tone out of a pay phone in the part of West Torrance that is served by GTE, even though my own phone wouldn't give me dial tone after ten minutes off hook. Do pay phones have a higher priority within the switch in terms of getting dial tone? ------------------------------ From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) Subject: Re: "Choke" Prefixes (was Concert Goers Blast 911) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 20:02:58 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Overloads due to massive redialing should be fixable by programming originating switches to apportion originating registers using some measure of "fairness", such as number of requests for dialtone in the last N minutes, tallied for each line. This would effectively guarantee that if you haven't made multiple call attempts in the last few minutes, you get dialtone ahead of everyone who has. This seems a reasonable feature for modern switches, and I'm surprised that something like this isn't already implemented. Perhaps the areas experiencing problems are on 1ESS machines, or even crossbar. With the rise of mass-media initiated calling storms, future switch software will have to have something like this, at least until switches have enough control capacity that everyone can have dialtone (or ISDN call-control capability) simultaneously. John Nagle ------------------------------ From: mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us (Nick Sayer) Subject: Re: Pac$Bell Tentacle-Stretching (was Pacific Bell Car Theft) Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'. Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 14:31:02 GMT mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us (Nick Sayer) writes: > "tariffed" customers. Gee whiz, Pat, you ruined a perfectly good pun! "tarrified" "terrified" Get it? Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NA 37 19 49 N / 121 57 36 W +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' [Moderator's Note: What Nick is referring to is my unwitting editing of his earlier message. When it was put in the Digest, the non-word shown above was changed to a 'correct' word without my catching on to Nick's intentions. Sorry! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 09:15 PDT From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Pac$Bell Tentacle-Stretching (was Pacific Bell Car Theft) mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us (Nick Sayer) writes: > Pac$Bell seems to want to get its greasy little fingers on every sort > of enterprise possible, save that of providing good service to its > "tariffed" customers. You aint seen nothin' yet. The latest round of "institutional" advertising is designed to anesthetize you into accepting Pac*Bell into many aspects of your daily life. These are very slick ads that talk about how "different" California is and about how Pac*Bell is ready to introduce "new products and services" that fit in with the California lifestyle. Using the slogan, "Good enough isn't", the spots have already mentioned "RealtyLink", an information service that allows propective buyers to "tour" properties without leaving the Realty office. And this is just the beginning. The major crisis around the bend for Pac*Bell and other LECs is that of bypass. And we are no longer just talking about shorthaul long distance. I know of companies that now import local dial tone through various schemes. As Pac*Bell becomes too lazy to keep its entire plant up to date, firms are no longer going to accept the excuse that this feature, or that one is "not available in your area". Most analysts agree that the latest talk about spinning off the LEC from the Pacific Telesis empire was a lot of hot air designed to remove some heat. ("Well, if Pacific Telesis was even willing to TALK about divesting Pac*Bell, it must not be as evil as we thought.") It may happen somewhere down the road after the LEC has been run into the ground, at which point only a massive rate increase or government intervention would save it. But for now, Pacific Telesis desperately needs the revenues to finance all these wonderful new services with which it hopes to eventually make a killing. > Meanwhile, _REAL_ residential ISDN is nowhere to be found. Watch out. Last time I pointed that out I got taken to task because I was not just forking over for business service. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Jun 92 14:47:18 -0400 From: wah@zach.fit.edu (Bill Huttig) Subject: Re: United Telephone/Sprint Organization: Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne USA In article mw1@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Mike Wells) writes: > Distance. Since UT is owned by Sprint, I'm assuming that UTLD is just > another name from Sprint LD service. It is kinda of strange but I think the UTLD is really a separte comany or at lease use to be. Before July 1, 1985 GTE Sprint was one company and US Telecom was owned by United Telecom (United Telephone). They merged 7/1/85 to form US SPRINT (along with GTE Telenet and UniNet GTE and Uniteds packet networks). GTE sold its part to United over the last seven years. Now United owns the whole thing and decided to rename itself to SPRINT. Anyway in the meantime I noticed a LD carrier spring up called United Telephone LD which I called once and they claimed not to be connected with Sprint. It seems they just offered service to United Tel customers ... I assume now with the final take over of Spint that the would merge UTLD into it ... (seems stupid to compete with yourself). > UTLD claims one of its advantages over MCI is that UTLD charges can be > placed on the same bill as UT local charges. (AT&T charges can also be > placed on the UT bill). Isn't this unfair? Doesn't this action give > UTLD an unfair advantage over MCI because UT does not directly bill > MCI calls? I think so but even when the local Exchange Carrier does bill as in the case of Southern Bell it is still unfair. For example my bill cut off date is the 18th of the month ... bill dated 19th. All the AT&T calls show up through the 18th (except calling card calls) while MCI would have to cut off the calls on the 8th so that they could get the calls to the BOC. There is also the problem where I have two numbers on different exchanges ... if MCI uses the oposite one from the BOC the billing will be cut off even earlier ... over three weeks. That's why I get my bills directly from MCI, and their format is nicer. > Sprint's purchases of small telephone companies (Centel, United > Telephone) is an interesting contrast to the forced breakup of AT&T. Sprint did not purchase United Telephone ... United Telephone purchased the rest of US SPRINT and renamed itself. Bill wah@zach.fit.edu ------------------------------ From: ruck@alpha.ee.ufl.edu (John R Ruckstuhl Jr) Subject: Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted Organization: EE Dept at UF Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 00:34:47 GMT In comp.dcom.telecom rmintz@ecst.csuchico.edu (Rich Mintz) writes: > if your phone number is 345-1234, there is an alternate xyz-1234 > number which connects you to this "test" number. > I've found this "alternate" prefix many times through sequential > dialing with my modem and uning the Hayes 'W' command to wait for a > dial tone after the number is dialed (that's what you get when the > test number answers). Hopefully, Rich (and others who use this method) remember to restrict their testing to those prefixes which are not in use for valid telephone numbers. One might find such a list in the beginning of the telephone directory. Regards, John R Ruckstuhl, Jr ruck@alpha.ee.ufl.edu Dept of Electrical Engineerin ruck@cis.ufl.edu, uflorida!ruck University of Florida ruck%sphere@cis.ufl.edu, sphere!ruck ------------------------------ From: julian%bongo.UUCP@nosc.mil (Julian Macassey) Subject: Re: Ringer Equivalency Numbers (R Date: 29 Jun 92 02:04:07 GMT Reply-To: julian@bongo.info.com (Julian Macassey) Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood California U.S.A. In article sbrack@jupiter.cse.UTOLEDO.edu (Steven S. Brack) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 515, Message 6 of 13 > I recently made a tour of my new home, and added up all the RENs of > all the phones, just to see what I would get. > Total RENs: 7.4 *!* (Must really increase Ma's electric bill 8) The Telco guarantee to ring a total of 5.0 REN. If you have an REN of 7.4 ringing, it indicates that either the numbers are untrue (possible) or you are near the CO (most likely). > Highest rated device: ConAir "prestige" phone, 1.7B "Con"Air make some of the worst phones I have seen. But then they are really an importer of cheap and nasty hair dryers, so why should they sell a decent phone. > Lowest rated device: Genuine Bell answering machine, 0.3B > Lowest rated phone: AT&T 100 pushbutton phone, 0.7B > Anyway, this brought up some questions. > 1) Some phones give their REN as X.XA (X being any number), > while others give theirs as X.XB. What do the A & B mean? These numbers are referenced in FCC Part 68 and Bell Pub 48005 as well as EIA Doc RS-470. Briefly, the letters refer to the frequency response of the ringer. So A which is usually found on old brass gong ringers, is responsive to 20 Hz +&- 3 Hz and 30 Hz +&- 3Hz. Most ring frequencies in the U.S. are 20 Hz. Yes there are exceptions, often on party lines. The B, usually found on warble ringers means the ringer is responsive between 15.3 and 68.0 Hz. Often B ringers will happily work at 100 Hz and above. The standard gong ringer has an REN of 1.0 and Frequency response A. > 2) Why should the least feature-filled phone, a $15 one-piece > phone have a higher REN than the AT&T phone, which does quite > a bit more, and rings more loudly, as well? Because the $15.00 phone is a cheaply made piece of crap. When you sell a phone for $15.00 it means that it has $3.75 worth of parts and labour in it. The reason some stuff costs more is that it is better designed and better built. Yes, you do get what you pay for. I have seen some junk phones with RENs of 3.0. > 3) Does the length of wire run figure into REN calculations? > (I have an extension phone connected to a 250' cord.) Yes, but the wire in your house, is a minor fraction of the total length. The length of wire between your house and the CO is often three miles or more, so another 300 feet doesn't mean much. Julian Macassey, julian@bongo.info.com N6ARE@K6VE.#SOCAL.CA.USA.NA 742 1/2 North Hayworth Avenue Hollywood CA 90046-7142 voice (213) 653-4495 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #522 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa16947; 1 Jul 92 0:42 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24279 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 30 Jun 1992 22:29:14 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32159 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 30 Jun 1992 22:29:05 -0500 Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 22:29:05 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199207010329.AA32159@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #523 TELECOM Digest Tue, 30 Jun 92 22:29:09 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 523 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Peter Chrzanowski) Re: More Strange 710 Stuff (was Funny Intercept) (Terry Kennedy) Re: More Strange 710 Stuff (was Funny Intercept) (Jacob DeGlopper) Re: The Depths of Sliminess (G.T. Stovall) Re: The Depths of Sliminess (John De Armond) Re: AGT Cellular Gets First North American Digital Cellular (Serdar Boztas) Re: Combinations of Names From Phone Digits (Bob Izenberg) Re: Two Questions From a Newcomer (Rich Greenberg) Re: Two Questions From a Newcomer (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: AT&T Knows I am Moving. How? (Byron Burke) Re: Interactive Cable TV (Bruce Klopfenstein) Re: No Obvious L.A. Telecom Effects From Yucca/Big Bear Quakes (R McMillin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 07:26:28 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) In a recent post, Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) writes: > Back in NYC in the days of the mechanical announcers, the time number > was published as 637-1212 but EVERYONE knew that to get the time, the > word N-E-R-V-O-U-S would be dialed. Every phone enthusiast knew that > 637-anything would get the time. I just tried 9-637-1212 (Area Code 516) from my office phone and got a recording stating that I had dialed my own number in Area Code 718 (Brooklyn (Kings County), Queens, or the start of 718 in the Bronx). Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: chrz@tellabs.com (Peter Chrzanowski) Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) Organization: Tellabs, Inc. Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 22:35:37 GMT In article , rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) writes: > Can you tell us how they 'patched together' the digits prior to > digital recording? I envisioned two dozen or more very short tape > loops all run by some kind of switch. I don't know how this was done, but I do remember the insides of a talking alarm clock from the pre-digital era. The clock had what appeared to be two floppy disks in it, one for hours and one for minutes. There was one full track devoted to each number, and the position of the access arms was mechanically controlled. The magnetic recording was analog, however. ------------------------------ From: terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy) Subject: Re: More Strange 710 Stuff (was Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212) Date: 29 Jun 92 05:35:21 EDT Organization: St. Peter's College, US In article , fl0p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Frank T Lofaro) writes: > Strange thing is if I dial a bogus area code and number I get the > intercept right away after the last digit is dialed (and before I can > get to enter my security code), but if I dial the 710 area code and a > number, it asks for my code, and only then does it give me the > intercept. If your phone service is Centrex-style, or if you have a telco-provided PBX, one of the things that comes with it is an accurate listing of area codes. As 710 seems to be assigned, it would be accepted by your switch or PBX, only to get you the same intercept once the CO tried to route it. Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA terry@spcvxa.spc.edu +1 201 915 9381 ------------------------------ From: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Subject: Re: More Strange 710 Stuff (was Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212) Reply-To: jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 14:51:28 GMT In a previous article, fl0p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Frank T Lofaro) says: > My dorm phone (at CMU) uses AT&T ACUS service (a college > if I dial the 710 area code and a number, it asks for my code, and > only then does it give me the intercept. > So maybe 710 isn't only using line-based access control. Why an > eight-digit security code related to a college calling plan would be > involved in access granting/denying is beyond me, if that is the case Interesting. Our ACUS system at CWRU uses a seven-digit code, which provides fairly good security, since there can't be more than 5000 or so students living on campus. I think the billing and code validation are done locally, since the 800 number to check your account balance is updated from school records on a non-real-time basis. The calls seem to go out on a trunk from the school telecom office -- for example, although all the dorm phone numbers are 216 754 nnnn, and 800 ANI returns correct numbers, the 404-whatever readback returned 216 368 2000 -- normally the number of the campus operator, and the phone number listed in the phone book for CWRU! The 368 prefix is our administration. Maybe someone at CMU has a reason to be able to call 710 and the switch is only seeing the outgoing trunk at first? Jacob DeGlopper, EMT-A, Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad -- CWRU Biomedical Engineering - jrd5@po.cwru.edu -- +1 703 538 7624 ------------------------------ Date: 30 Jun 92 10:33:00 CDT From: Greg (G.T.) Stovall Subject: Re: The Depths of Sliminess The telemarketing firm was known, but not identified in the original article in order to give the firm and the sponsoring agency (the Garland Police Officers' Association) a chance to respond to the allegations. In a subsequent article, the columnist revealed the information and stated that repeated phone calls to the telemarketers and the police association have not been returned. He ended the article with a challenge to the officers' association to refute the story. Apparently, according to the original story, Mr. Harshaw was sufficiently rude (possibly obnoxious) to really tick the telemarketer off. I have no independent verification of the story, but am unsure as to why you doubt the article. There is no discernable campaign by the newspaper; this story is by one local columnist. Yes, he has spent the last couple of months investigating telemarketing firms in Texas, and has turned up some whopping cases of misdirection (fake police officer associations hiring telemarketing firms owned by the owners of the officer association, etc). As a result, many officer associations are changing the way they solicit funds. I can easily imagine some person pulling a stunt like that. Telemarketers are people, after all, and *some* of them have to be unhinged. Telemarketers are not working *all* the time; if one was sufficiently peeved, he might stay after his shift to wreak some havoc. Gregory T. Stovall gstovall@bnr.ca Bell-Northern Research ESN 444-7009 Richardson, Texas, USA (214) 684-7009 ------------------------------ From: jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) Subject: Re: The Depths of Sliminess Date: Tue, 30 Jun 92 18:33:59 GMT Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access. The Mouth of the South. pf@islington-terrace.hc.ti.com (Paul Fuqua) writes: [ Teleslime harrassment story deleted] > [Moderator's Note: Very dramatic story, but is it really the truth? > What telemarketer do you know with enough spare time on his hands to > waste call after call on someone who obviously is not buying anything? > To those boys, time *is* money, and people (who they call) wasting > their time 'looking for a pen', etc are anathema. Usually the quota > they keep requires several dozen calls per hour, and at least a few > positive results per hour. He is giving up all this money and messing > up his quota in order to play games with Harshaw? How could he be > making all these calls without someone along the way identifying him > or detirmining what organization employs him? How come Harshaw and/or > telco haven't trapped him by now? Has Harshaw heard the taped > messages left in his name and identified the voice with the person who > originally called him? Are Harshaw and the {Dallas Morning News} each > complimenting the other's story for their own reasons; Harshaw for his > fifteen minutes of fame and the newspaper in a campaign to dump on > telemarketers? I don't believe their story. PAT] Pat, I know that running this mailing list gives you an all-seeing overview of the world not available to Paul or the reporter who investigated the story but consider for a moment the fact that you don't know all there is to know about teleslime. Consider that not all teleslime works in boiler rooms and against quotas. Consider the increasing problem we have here in Atlanta with casual teleslime who work out of their homes (judging by the screaming kids and blaring TV in the background) to make a little extra money. They have neither the quota to drive them nor the thick skin to let 'em weather insults. These people get mad at being cussed at or even hung up on. They do waste their time getting even by calling back. And when they call me back, their number from the Caller*ID box goes in Dixie's UUCP Systems file for day or two. Yes, it is entirely believable that a teleslime would do such a thing as described in the media article. John De Armond, WD4OQC Rapid Deployment System, Inc. Marietta, Ga jgd@dixie.com Need Usenet public Access in Atlanta? Write Me for info on Dixie.com. ------------------------------ From: serdar@fawlty4.eng.monash.edu.au (Serdar Boztas) Subject: Re: AGT Cellular Gets First North American Digital Cellular Running Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia. Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 05:10:53 GMT DLEIBOLD@VM1.YorkU.CA (David Leibold) writes: > AGT Cellular in Alberta, Canada, announced that it has North America's > first digital cellular system in operation, beating out other cellular > companies including its competitor, Cantel. AGT Cellular placed ads in > recent newspapers trumpeting this achievement, stating that the heavy > use of digital technology in AGT's network helped establish digital > cellular service, and joked about digital not being in "Mister Rogers > Neighbourhood" (a reference to Rogers Communications which owns AGT's > competitor Cantel, which had announced plans to go digital, but hasn't > put them into effect yet). What multiaccess method are they using? Does anyone have more information about this system? I am interested in things such as transmission rates for digitized voice, method of voice compression, etc. Have they started marketing dual-mode or all digital mobile phones? Serdar Boztas \\ serdar@fawlty1.eng.monash.edu.au \\ +(61)3-565-5722 ------------------------------ From: bei@dogface.austin.tx.us (Bob Izenberg) Subject: Re: Combinations of Names From Phone Digits Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 1:32:32 CDT In TELECOM Digest Issue 517, PAT observed of K Husain's program, > [Moderator's Note: I tried the above and could not get it to work. > Maybe I did something wrong. Readers with questions should address the > author direct. PAT] It gave some of the compilers here trouble as well, but gcc didn't have any trouble with it. Bob WORK: bobi@dangermouse.sps.mot.com HOME: bei@dogface.austin.tx.us ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 00:33:53 PDT From: richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Two Questions From a Newcomer Organization: Hatch Usenet and E-mail. Playa del Rey, CA In article is written: > I have two questions: > 1). Is there a forum on the Internet that is dedicated to ISDN? What > about ATM? Try comp.dcom.isdn. > 2). Has anyone heard of an ISDN interface for Macintosh computers? Ask on comp.dcom.isdn. Rich Greenberg - N6LRT - 310-649-0238 - richg@hatch.socal.com ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Two Questions From a Newcomer Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 17:00:00 GMT In article , sami@scic.intel.com writes: > 1). Is there a forum on the Internet that is dedicated to ISDN? What > about ATM? comp.dcom.isdn and comp.dcom.cell-relay. Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com k1io or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: burke@cs.purdue.edu (Byron Burke) Subject: Re: AT&T Knows I am Moving. How? Date: 29 Jun 92 14:43:24 GMT Reply-To: burke@cs.purdue.edu Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University In article , MASSOUD@AMERICAN.EDU writes: > About a week ago I notified US Sprint (my LD carrier) and C&P > telephone (local carrier) to disconnect my service on June 30th, > because I am moving. Today I received junk mail from AT&T offering me > a "$50 long distance savings bond" if I select them as my LD carrier > for my new home. Am I correct in assuming that C&P telephone gave > them the information, probably so that my Bell Atlantic phone card > stops working after this date? > [Moderator's Note: AT&T probably buys information like that from the > local telco also. PAT] I was amazed to get something similar -- an offer of a free hour of long distance if I keep Reach Out America service -- if I keep AT&T when I move. However, the only people I've told (other than friends and relatives) is the apartment complex I'm moving into and the one I'm moving out of. I haven't called and hooked up phone/electric service yet. I suppose this is more of a privacy issue then telcom but it is amazing (scary?) what these companies will do for a bit of service. (Although I have been making many long long distance calls to my girlfriend in Massachusetts so I suppose I'm an ideal customer :). byron burke@cs.purdue.edu ------------------------------ From: klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu (Bruce Klopfenstein) Subject: Re: Interactive Cable TV Date: 29 Jun 92 14:46:38 GMT Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh. sichermn@beach.csulb.edu (Jeff Sicherman) writes: > I would appreciate references to articles, books, journals on the > technology and applications of interactive cable-TV and any case > studies of systems that have been tried. Here are three quick text cites: Baldwin, Thomas F. and McVoy, D. Stevens. (1983). Cable Communications. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-110171-4 Slater, James N. (1988). Cable Television Technology. New York: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN #0-7458-0108-0 Deschler, Kenneth T. (1987). Cable Television Technology. New York: McGraw-Hill. A doctoral student of mine, Dana Roof, has been studying Qube's interactive cable systems and has chosen that as her dissertation topic. She might be an excellent resource as well. Bruce C. Klopfenstein klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu Department of Telecommunications klopfenstein@bgsuopie.bitnet 322 West Hall klopfens@bgsuvax.UUCP Bowling Green State University (419) 372-2138; 372-2224 Bowling Green, OH 43403-0235 fax (419) 372-8600 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 09:29:41 -0700 From: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: No Obvious L.A. Telecom Effects From Yucca/Big Bear Quakes The Moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: John Higdon has also checked in with me and noted > that Sunday morning's quakes were a bit too close -- and too strong -- > for comfort in his 'desert hideaway'. But he was unharmed and will be > writing to us again soon. Just as we have all heard the 'AIDS is God's > punishment for homosexuals' routine, one clever writer suggested to me > that the earthquake was God's punishment for having the LA Gay Pride > Parade yesterday ... but his aim was a little off and he forgot that > his watch was set on Vatican Time. :). PAT] Some of us here thought it was God's reaction to reading the news in the Saturday {Los Angeles Times} Business section that another 6000 Hughes employees are to be dismissed. Robert L. McMillin Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA Internet: rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com [Moderator's Note: The Chicago papers made mention of it Sunday, and that is a pretty awful scenario. I hope the people involved are able to deal with it and find other work. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #523 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18630; 1 Jul 92 1:19 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21296 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 30 Jun 1992 23:22:45 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03069 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 30 Jun 1992 23:22:34 -0500 Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 23:22:34 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199207010422.AA03069@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #524 TELECOM Digest Tue, 30 Jun 92 23:22:38 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 524 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: 900Mhz Cordless Phones: Which One? (Irving Wolfe) Re: Newfoundland Province Code 709 (cavallarom@cpva.saic.com) Re: What are "NorTel" and "Centrex"? (Shuang Deng) Re: MCI Phone Bill (Steve Forrette) Re: Fiber Channel Standards Info Wanted (Jim Smith) Re: 1-xxx-555-1212 From Overseas? (Bill Squire) Re: Caller ID in Southern California? (Jim Tavakoli) Re: Caller ID in Southern California? (John Higdon) Re: Contemporary Remote Controls (Doug Humphrey) Re: Ringer Equivalency Numbers (John Higdon) Re: Bix Block Punch-Down Tool (Barton F. Bruce) Re: No Obvious L.A. Telecom Effects From Yucca/Big Bear Quake (M Terribile) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: irving@happy-man.com (Irving_Wolfe) Subject: Re: 900Mhz Cordless Phones: Which One? Reply-To: Irving_Wolfe@happy-man.com Organization: Happy Man Corp., Vashon Island, WA 98070-7399 Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 15:35:17 GMT As far as I know, only the Tropez and Panasonic phones are out. Both have been reviewed on the net, though perhaps only the Tropez in this newsgroup. (The other may have been misc.consumers.) The review of the Panasonic was _very_ negative. It is also much more expensive than the Tropez and has fewer features. My personal experience with conventional cordless phones suggests that Panasonic tends to be good on user-interface and poorer-than-average on overall robust engineering and quality. (This differs from their quality in answering machines and wired phones and systems, which is quite good.) The two reviews of the Tropez were slightly negative to neutral. The only real complaints were "dropouts" of communication and inadequate volume. I bought a Tropez and liked it enough to order a second one for the office. Yes, there are environmentally-effected dropouts. Yes, I wish the maximum volume (it's adjustable) were higher. On the other hand, sound quality was great and range was perhaps ten times that of a conventional cordless, maybe 400 to 600 feet. To get the higher range so I could use it between buildings here and reduce dropouts, I put the base unit in the attic. I noticed that the dropouts were only bad enough to prevent conversation when I was using it in the hot tub, so I no longer do that. (I wired in a conventional phone to that location.) I like the Tropez. Irving_Wolfe@Happy-Man.com Happy Man Corp. 206/463-9399 x101 4410 SW Pt. Robinson Rd., Vashon Island, WA 98070-7399 fax x108 ------------------------------ From: cavallarom@cpva.saic.com Subject: Re: Newfoundland Province Code 709 Date: 29 Jun 92 12:25:10 PST Organization: Science Applications Int'l Corp./San Diego In article , cmoore@BRL.MIL (VLD/VMB) writes: > incorporated as a province of Canada until 1949. Newfoundland (which > includes mainland Labrador) is area code 709. Notice that the French > islands of St. Pierre et Miquelon are right next to Newfoundland, but > have country code 508. > [Moderator's Note: Someone said to me that despite the different > country code noted above, there is 'local community dialing' between > some points in southern Newfoundland and the islands. Either a > straight seven-digit connection, or some code followed by the local > number on the islands. Can anyone comment on this? PAT] Pat, This is pretty straightforward to implement. A trunk group is established in the cooperating COs and the switch is programmed to route traffic to the trk grp when appropriate. The use of a straight seven-digit connection vs a code then seven-digit would tell you whether there were conflicts due to common exchange numbers in the cooperting COs. Of course, the toughest part of this whole setup is to get it past the regulators. ------------------------------ From: Shuang Deng Subject: Re:What are "NorTel" and "Centrex"? Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 13:46:33 MDT [Moderator's Note: 'NorTel' is most likely Northern Telecom, a prominent manufacturer of telco stuff in the USA ...] Or, more perciesly, Northern Telecom is a *Canadian* company with subsidies in many places of the world, including the USA. Shuang Deng (shuang@idacom.hp.com) ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: MCI Phone Bill Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 23:14:38 GMT In article jon@ncrbeth.bethlehempa. NCR.COM (John Staub) writes: > I received my phone bill on Saturday. There were $148 worth of phone > card charges. I called MCI. They checked and told me that my local > company had assigned my phone number to another person. MCI had then > gived them a phone card. They were the ones that made the calls. They > took the charges off the bill. Fine and dandy. I have had the number > for 24 years. I am going to be checking my phone bill very closely > from now on. I wonder HOW that could happen or *how many times * it > could have happened in the past. This is apparently one of the many "advantages" of getting service from MCI. Some of you may remember my posting about a month ago about being unable to reach a certain prefix using AT&T. I was able to successfully call the same prefix using both US Sprint and MCI. Well, the bill for that day finally arrived. As expected, in addition to my local and AT&T charges, there were two additional pages of my bill, from US Sprint and MCI. The US Sprint page was for a one-minute call priced at $.14, and the MCI page was for a one-minute call priced at $.13, with an additional charge of over $6 for "PrimeTime Plus" or some such thing, for a grand total of almost $7 for a one-minute call. Of course, I called MCI to get to the bottom of this. I was told that according to their computer, my number belonged to someone else, and they subscribed to the "PrimeTime Plus" plan. The previous months had no charges for this plan, as no calls had been placed via MCI. Apparently, the person who previously had my number was an MCI subscriber, and MCI had old data in their database. Combined with John Staub's message, I gather that this is not an isolated problem with MCI. I guess they get neither disconnect or "new service" notifications from the LEC, or discard them. I should also note that the MCI rep needed to verify that I was telling the truth when I said that this was my number and no longer belonged to Mr X. How did they do this? They checked with Directory Assistance! The rep came back on the line "Mr. Forrette, your number was not listed with Directory Assistance, so I was unable to verify what you've told me. But, Mr. X is not listed with the number in question either, so I'll take your word for it." I'm really glad that they took the extra effort to verify the facts of the case for certain! :-) Apparently, MCI's method of getting billing names and addresses for their customers is taking the information directly from the customer (and not the LEC computer), and verifying it with DA. Also, I was given a hard-sell by the MCI rep to switch to MCI long distance. Especially touted was Friends and Family. I responded "Oh, so you can call up all my friends with a bunch of sales calls and hassle THEM to switch too?" She replied "No, that's NOT what we do! When you give us your list of numbers, we now have an option for each number you give us. 1) call that person and ask if they want to switch, 2) mail them literature about switching, or 3) do nothing. In any event, you get the 20% FAF discount for the first three months for everyone on your list regardless of their carrier." Needless to say, I declined her generous offer. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: jes@storage.tandem.com (Jim Smith) Subject: Re: Fiber Channel Standards Info Wanted Organization: Tandem Computers Inc., Cupertino CA Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 00:32:01 GMT In article , alfredo@quickt2.it12. bull.it (Alfredo Cotroneo) wrote: > I am looking for the ultimate ANSI specs of the Fiber Channel > standards, but I could not find either the exact document number, nor > where could I obtain a copy from. The Fibre Channel standard has not yet been published by ANSI. The latest working draft, Rev 3.0, is available from the following source: Global Engineering 2805 McGaw St. Irvine, CA 92714 (800) 854-7179 (714) 261-1455 > Can anybody help, please? I suppose that the standard document numbers > should be available from ANSI. Fibre Channel Physical and Signaling Interface (FC-PH) Rev 3.0 X3T9/91-062 X3T9.3/92-092 FC-P/92-001R3.0 > Does anybody have the address of ANSI (phone/fax/email) handy?. Use the Global Engineering address until the document is published by ANSI. For future reference, ANSI's address is: American National Standards Institute 1430 Broadway New York, NY 10018 Jim Smith smith_jim@tandem.com jes@storage.tandem.com ------------------------------ From: bill@hacktic.nl (Bill Squire) Subject: Re: 1-xxx-555-1212 From Overseas? Date: 30 Jun 92 05:02:37 GMT Organization: Hack-Tic Magazine naddy@rhrk.uni-kl.de (Christian Weisgerber) writes: > Several times when toying around a friend and I tried to call an > American directory assistance at 1-xxx-555-1212. (We're here in Germany, > for that matter). Now, I'd assume that international calls to these > numbers are generally impossible, however, our results were somewhat > different: > (1) "Your international call can not be completed as dialed [...]" > (2) BUSY > (3) We got through! > I think we tried area codes 213, 708 and a few others. There seems to be > no rule for results (1)-(3). Call now, try again a few minutes later, > and you may get any of the above. I also wonder whether (2) is a > variation of (1) or (3). Same here in Holland. All NPA + 555-1212 work to California. Hawaii always gives a "call cannot be completed as dialed ..." recording. Most return a busy and some return a recording out of Rotterdam saying (in Dutch) "The number is not in use, check and call again ..." Its like most are caught right here, but to those places that will accept or soon accept 555-1212 on international trunks, the PTT has chosen to let them thru, to the relief of the long distance operator. On some exchanges (out of Holland) dialing 001 + NPA + 131 will do the trick. This is how directory inquiries is reached out of North America and it is up to your own CO if such calls are allowed. Beware you will be charged normal international rates for these calls. In the rest of the world where code 11 is used to get the operator, DTMF "A" often translates to code 11. You may or may not be charged for these calls; again it is up to the program in your central, if it works and if you get charged. Bill [Moderator's Note: The thing here is AT&T charges $3.00 for overseas directory assistance, and you cannot talk to the overseas operator and must trust the AT&T operator to state the request correctly if she splits the connection, which is often the case. I've found a few countries where 011-xx-555-1212 works from the USA. For example Guam (670) and Australia (61) both connect 555-1212 with their directory bureau. Unlike AT&T's $3.00 charge, a minute to either of those places is much less, even if I do get charged. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nsc!tavakoli@decwrl.dec.com (Jim Tavakoli) Subject: Re: Caller ID in Southern California? Organization: National Semiconductor, Santa Clara Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 22:55:15 GMT Dear Net readers, As you may know, California telephone companies now support Caller-ID. I waswondering if anybody out there has any information or references to the design and implementation of Caller-ID. I understand there is a spec published by Bell. If you could send me the name of the publication, I would really appreciate it. Has anybody done an implementation of the Caller-ID on a DAA (NCU) card? Any information would be greatly appreicated. Jim ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jun 92 00:59 PDT From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Caller ID in Southern California? jhenderson@pomona.claremont.edu writes: > SO I will ask the net: is caller ID available/will be available soon > in So Cal, in the GTE areas? Specifically, the Pomona Valley. GTE has announced that has dropped all plans for Caller-ID. (Actually, GTE was desperately hoping that it could find some excuse or another to avoid having to reveal its complete incompetence. The PUC decision requiring free per-line blocking was the answer to its prayers.) Specifically, if you live anywhere in California and have GTE as your LEC, you can kiss Caller-ID goodbye. Maybe forever. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: dougnews@access.digex.com (Doug Humphrey) Subject: Re: Contemporary Remote Controls Organization: Express Access Public Access UNIX, Greenbelt, Maryland Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 02:27:32 GMT Sony VCR remotes have a switch on them that allows selection of one or three different units. Doug ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jun 92 01:48 PDT From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Ringer Equivalency Numbers julian%bongo.UUCP@nosc.mil (Julian Macassey) writes: > The Telco guarantee to ring a total of 5.0 REN. If you have an > REN of 7.4 ringing, it indicates that either the numbers are untrue > (possible) or you are near the CO (most likely). Also, if you are exceeding 5.0 REN watch out for a characteristic of some offices (notably the 1/1AESS equipped ones). What these switches do for a self-protection measure is to simply shut off ringing current to the over-RENed line. The caller gets ringback as usual, but nothing makes a peep at the called end. Years (and years) ago, before my PBX-in-home days, I used to have all kinds of things hanging on the line such as dialers, weird bedside clock radio phones (with RENs like 1.75), and other gadgets. One day someone asked where I had been all day since I did not answer the phone. Upon checking, I discovered that no ring voltage was being delivered during a call. A call to 611 brought a repairman to the door who informed me that they "saw" a lot of ringers on the line and if I took some of them off, things would start working again. They did. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: Barton F. Bruce Subject: Re: Bix Block Punch-Down Tool Date: 30 Jun 92 04:52:51 EDT Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. In article , amb@cs.columbia.edu (andrew m. boardman) writes: > I am in need of a punch-down tool for NTI's almost-but-not-quite-110 > Bix blocks. All of the usual sources say that Northern Telecom is the NTI has just figured that lack of general availability of that tool (and maybe its price) may be loosing them block sales. I was told at a very recent trade show to watch for trade mag ads for an upcoming promotion where buying some number of blocks gets you a tool either free or very cheap. ------------------------------ From: mat%mole-end@uunet.UU.NET Subject: Re: No Obvious L.A. Telecom Effects fFom Yucca/Big Bear Quakes Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 04:18:37 GMT > [Moderator's Note: ... Just as we have all heard the 'AIDS is God's > punishment for homosexuals' routine, one clever writer suggested to me > that the earthquake was God's punishment for having the LA Gay Pride > Parade yesterday ... but his aim was a little off and he forgot that > his watch was set on Vatican Time. :). PAT] Pat, this unworthy of you. And even if it weren't, most of the people who are heard making this statement are the same ones who would call the Catholic Church the `Whore of Babylon.' Know thine enemy, please. (Iran is not Iraq, fer instance.) And remember, in NYC there is one nursing home for Ps'WA. It is NOT run by the city; it is NOT run by the GMHC, it is run by the Archdiocese of NY. Me? Weeelll ... the earthquake MIGHT be punishment for people who build near active seismic faults ... but I won't say _whose_ punishment. (This man's opinions are his own.) From mole-end Mark Terribile uunet!mole-end!mat, Somewhere in Matawan, NJ [Moderator's Note: Some people call me the Whore of Usenet. :) You are correct though; here The Catholic Charities of Chicago spends huge amounts of money to assist PWA's and other endeavors. I only wish that the church had done something about all those pedophile priests who (blush) bother young boys years ago without waiting for the newspapers here to stink up the place. Thus far, sixteen priests in Chicago have been fingered. I think that even beats the record in Newfoundland a couple years ago when they had the same problem there. :( PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #524 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11434; 3 Jul 92 3:15 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19872 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 3 Jul 1992 01:45:55 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11331 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 3 Jul 1992 01:45:35 -0500 Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1992 01:45:35 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199207030645.AA11331@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Technical Problems Halt TELECOM Digest Production Due to difficulty on this end with software which won't work and/or hardware which is out of order (undetirmined by me as of yet), all output from TELECOM Digest has been halted for the time being. I have spend much time this evening attempting to produce the Digest only to be constantly greeted with the message "Memory Fault - Core Dumped". I have no idea what is going on. All I know is the queue is overloaded with mail (200 plus messages), nothing is moving, and with the holiday weekend upon us, I may not find anyone who knows how to fix the problem until next week. This system is at present simply refusing to make Digests. I do not think it is the software. I will resume the Digest if/when the problem has been corrected. I must ask for the time being *** do not send mail to telecom **. I have more than I can possibly deal with and unfortunatly most will have to be dumped unread/unused simply to resume a normal flow once things get moving again. Send no further submissions until further notice. In addition, something is wrong with the mailer which sends copies of the Digest to Bitnet sites (I work at delta.eecs.nwu.edu but the Bitnet copies are mailed from nuacvm.acns.nwu.edu), and Bitnet readers are getting 20-30 copies of each issue and have been for several days. I know this is happening because I get a copy returned to me from a Bitnet site ... and I am getting the same 20-30 copies ... and finally, there is still some cross connection somewhere with alt.dcom.telecom aliased into comp.dcom.telecom, and I am getting all that stuff sent to me in droves with reciepts going out to those people who then write and ask me why I sent them a receipt when they did not submit anything to me ... So when some of this mess gets straightened out the Digests will resume, but I am overwhelmed by it all at present. Perhaps after the holiday things can be worked on. Patrick Townson TELECOM Moderator   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20923; 3 Jul 92 18:24 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14225 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 3 Jul 1992 16:34:08 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22684 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 3 Jul 1992 16:33:59 -0500 Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1992 16:33:59 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199207032133.AA22684@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #525 TELECOM Digest Fri, 3 Jul 92 16:34:03 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 525 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Roommates and Long Distance Doesn't Mix (Chris Sherman) Satellite Usenet Newsfeeds Available Now (Manfred Frey) Trying to Locate Bellcore (Sam Isrealit) Help Wanted With AT&T D401A Display Unit (Michael Bender) Executive TeleCard (Tom Hofmann) Extending Cordless Phone Coverage (Dan Pearl) 2500 Set and the Local Phone Store (Joshua E. Muskovitz) Funny Advertising Goof-Ups (Wrong Numbers) (Mark Walsh) CWA-IBEW-AT&T Reach Settlement (Phillip Dampier) NBS DES and After? (H. Shrikumar) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sherman@unx.sas.com (Chris Sherman) Subject: Roommates and Long Distance doesn't mix Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1992 00:10:36 GMT Organization: SAS Institute Inc. I have roommates, and the utilities (including phone) are in my name. I would like to shut off the dial-1 long distance access from my phone, yet still have the ability to use LD charge cards for making LD calls. (Kind of like a payphone, but with the local calls still billed like normal). But, Southern Bell says that they can't do this. They can block LD calls completely, for $22 setup, and $2 a month, but this means no long distance calls PERIOD. But, they say, if AT&T (or whoever) offers something called a 950 service (I hope I got the numbers right), I could get a special number that only I could use to dial LD numbers. But I can only get one of these special numbers, and if I gave it to the others, then I would be right back where I started. Are there any creative options which would give me what I want without too much extra cost? (I could do the LD blocking, I suppose, and get a payphone ... or, is there a card you can get for a PC that you plug the phones into which can pre-scan the numbers dialed?) [I'm asking because I have a roommate that now owes me >$600 for 2 months of LD calls, and he doesn't have the money. Not surprising, actually. Now I have to kick him out (not being able to pay his bills is only one of his many problems) and take him to small claims, etc etc. What I'm trying to do is protect myself from these evil-roommates.] Considering how many college-types live together in similar arrangements, I'm surprised that Southern Bell doesn't already have this ability offered as an optional college/dorm service. It would sure save a lot of problems like the one I'm having. Chris Sherman sherman@unx.sas.com [Moderator's Note: Why don't you purchase a toll-restriction device such as the ones sold by Hello Direct? These allow you to program the unit to only allow calls made with a special password. Hello Direct will send a catalog if you call them: 1-800-HI-HELLO. PAT] ------------------------------ From: pagesat@netcom.com (Manfred Frey) Subject: Satellite Usenet Newsfeeds Avaialable Now Date: Fri, 03 Jul 92 20:33:40 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) ISS is now transmitting and offering for sale their Usenet newsfeeds via satellite. If you are tired of late news,dropped articles or having only a limited selection of newsgroups, search no longer. We have the answer! A small Ku-Band satellite antenna and indoor satellite receiver/ modem that delivers approximately 40 megabytes of data to your machine in a 24 hour period. Full U.S. continental coverage as well as southern Canada, and northern Mexico. Cost $1800 per system. Visa,Mastercard,Checks accepted. For orders,information, etc. send mail to pagesat\@netcom.com ... please include full name, address, and telephone number when contacting ISS via electronic mail. For faster response, call 1-800-227-6288 9AM 5PM PDT ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1992 15:29:14 -0800 From: sami@scic.intel.com Subject: Trying to Locate Bellcore Can anyone out there tell me how to get in touch with Bellcore? Specifically their publications division. Thanks in advance for any assistance. Sam Israelit Intel SCIC (503) 531-5072 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jul 92 15:34:15 PDT From: Michael.Bender@Eng.Sun.COM Subject: Help Wanted With AT&T D401A Display Unit I was cleaning up my office this afternoon, in itself a remarkable feat :-), and I came across a box with an AT&T D401A display, with additional markings of 88321/Series 1. This looks to be a single-line flourscent character dot martix display with eight membrane-type push buttons below the display, one of which says "ON/OFF". I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this beast and how I could supply power to it and communciate with it. mike ------------------------------ From: wtho@ciba-geigy.ch (Tom Hofmann) Subject: Executive TeleCard Organization: Ciba-Geigy Ltd., Basel, Switzerland Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1992 07:29:10 GMT Last week I got an ad for the ``Executive TeleCard''. They provide cashless phone calls in about 20 countries (via toll-free numbers) and charge one's credit card. Has somebody experience with this service and can tell the pros and cons? Are there alternatives for cashless phone calls worldwide? Tom Hofmann wtho@ciba-geigy.ch ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jul 92 08:24:21 EDT From: pearl@spectacle.sw.stratus.com (Dan Pearl) Subject: Extending Cordless Phone Coverage A friend of mine is a manager of a multi-acre summer camp. She would like to roam around the property with her cordless phone, but of course she would be out of range from the base station farily quickly. Is there a way (via wired-in supplementary antennas, scattered around the property) to extend the coverage of the phone? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jul 92 14:29:59 EDT From: Joshua E. Muskovitz Subject: 2500 Set and the Local Phone Store A sign of the times: I went into the local AT&T phone store and asked if they had any 2500 sets. The person said "I've never heard of that. What is it?" I had to explain it to them. They did, in fact, have some which they still lease, and they did have some for sale, but only in the uglier colors. They save the nicer colors for the bigger profit (read lease) customers. $49.95. If I had the need, I'd shop flea markets first, but it's still worth it, even at that price, when you amortize it over the next 20 years. josh. "2500? What's that?" Sigh. [Moderator's Note: That's not surprising. Most of them know nothing about what they are selling and even less about the company they work for or its traditions and practices, etc. That's one reason why the company was trying to lower their obscene wages down to what clerks in other stores in the area are getting. If you want one of the 'prettier colors' then lease it -- for a month -- and convert the lease to a buyout. You should see the misinformation they spread when it comes to their more complex products, ie cordless phones, answering machines, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jul 92 11:10:04 PDT From: walsh@optilink.com (Mark Walsh) Subject: Funny Advertising Goof-ups (Wrong Numbers) telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) noted: > [Moderator's Note: Isn't it always amusing how much money some > companies waste in advertising with wrong phone numbers, etc ... and > how they are always the outfits with some snippy arrogant person on > the incoming phones to insure that someone like yourself, willing to > save them, oh, several thousand dollars by pointing out their error is > never able to speak with anyone who knows anything ... how many more > thousands of dollars do you suppose they will waste before they catch > on, if they ever do? In a way, do you hope they never do? :) PAT] When I was in college, my phone number was 457-5611. Well, many flyers were distributed for Wednesday Night Bingo at a nearby church with my number printed on them. At first, I thought I was the victim of some silly prank because I was getting lots of calls from old people wanting to know about the bingo games, and was the food a pot luck affair, etc. Suspecting some misrouting of signals, I called the operator, who wisely told me to find out the name of the establishment that the people were actually trying to call, and then to look it up in the phone book. I did, and the church's number was 457-6511. Before I decided what to do, somebody from the church called me up, profusely appologized for the error (5000 flyers had already been distributed), and invited me over for a free night of Bingo! Mark Walsh (walsh@optilink) -- UUCP: uunet!optilink!walsh -- AOL: BigCookie Amateur Radio: KC6RKZ -- USCF: L10861 (was M25220) "What, me worry?" -- William M. Gaines, 1922-1992 [Moderator's Note: The passing of William Gaines was a loss for everyone who enjoyed his humor. Does anyone know who is/will be taking over the reigns at {Mad}? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Phillip.Dampier@f228.n260.z1.fidonet.org (Phillip Dampier) Reply-To: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1992 14:36:36 -0500 Subject: CWA-IBEW-AT&T Reach Settlement CWA-IBEW-AT&T TENTATIVE NATIONAL SETTLEMENT Communications Workers of America A tentative three-year national contract settlement covering 127,000 AT&T workers was announced by the unions and the company today. Bargaining on local issues for specific groups of workers is expected to be completed next week, after which time a complete settlement package will be submitted to members for ratification. The mail-ballot ratification procedure will take several weeks. Negotiations began March 30 on a new national settlement covering 100,000 AT&T non-management employees represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and 27,000 represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The two unions bargain jointly with AT&T -- a practice that began with the last bargaining round in 1989. Upon contract expiration on May 30th, the parties agreed to extend the old contract on a day-to-day basis and continue negotiations, even though both unions had received strike authorizations from their members. Last week, the parties accepted an offer from Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director Bernard DeLury to help facilitate the talks. Among key issues in the talks, the unions spotlighted employment security as their top goal in the wake of tens of thousands of layoffs in recent years by AT&T. Details of the national settlement are outlined in the following statement by CWA President Morton Bahr and Vice President James Irvine, who serves as chief CWA negotiator at AT&T. "We want to thank FMCS Chairman Bernard DeLury as well as his assistant Paul Stuckenschneider and Mediator Lynn Sylvester for the enormous assistance they gave the parties over the past two weeks. Their ideas, recommendations, and skillful prodding played an important role in reaching settlement. We are pleased that this tentative national settlement achieves the three major objectives set by our Executive Board and rank-and-file Bargaining Council. First, this settlement meets, and perhaps exceeds, the wage and benefit parameters of our settlement last year with NYNEX, which we set as a pattern for the industry. Second, it greatly enhances the employment security of our members. And third, it provides organizing neutrality and access by the unions to new AT&T business units and subsidiaries that currently are non-union. The settlement provides economic justice to the workers who have built AT&T's great profitability. Wage rates will be increased by four percent, three point nine percent, and three point nine percent in each of the three years of the agreement. These increases are the maximum of each job classification -- and 85 percent of the workers are at the max. Compounded over term, this represents a 12.3 percent wage boost. The profit sharing plan negotiated in the last contract will be phased out and a new one will be negotiated three years from now. In the meantime, workers will receive $1,500 this September and another $1,800 in September of 1994. The payments will be made in AT&T shares with the employees protected against any drop in the share price in 1994. The base wage and cash payments together amount to just over 24 percent. Pensions will be increased 13 percent. Highlights of the employment security package include a whole range of strong improvements. The worker transfer system negotiated three years ago didn't work as well as we envisioned, as evidenced by the fact that some 15,000 employees were hired off the street while thousands of workers were being laid off. The settlement provides for two union representatives, paid for by the company, to run the transfer system. We believe this kind of close monitoring -- along with several enhancements in the transfer program -- will bring greater job opportunities to our members. We have broken down some of the barriers to jobs that have previously been off limits to the union workers. Our people will now have access to jobs at three of AT&T's subsidiaries -- Universal Credit Card, American Transtech, and Paradyne. A new program called Re-Link is being introduced. An employee who is declared surplus will have the option of receiving termination pay on a weekly basis for up to 104 weeks depending on service, and also receive all benefits and accrue seniority. During that period, the worker has access to the transfer system in seeking a new permanent job, and the worker also has first call on temporary jobs. While working in a temporary job, the worker continues to draw weekly termination pay plus wages. With AT&T's five percent turnover rate, Re-Link gives surplussed workers a much better shot at finding new jobs at AT&T. One of the issues that has prolonged these talks centered around the treatment of seniority in layoff situations for our 13,000 communications techs and system techs. And the reason we are able to announce a settlement today is that their seniority rights have been preserved. In the area of subcontracting, the provision for expedited arbitration reinforces protections we negotiated previously. Justice will no longer be denied because it has been delayed. A cornerstone of employment security in the presence and strength of the union within AT&T, which is now enhanced by the neutrality agreement in this new settlement. It gives the unions fair access to organize workers in non-union units such as Universal Card, Transtech, and Paradyne, and it applies to any new acquisitions. The unions weren't successful in having the provision cover NCR, but we have commitments that AT&T management will try to persuade NCR management to accept these principles. Further, we have agreement that bargaining unit work won't be shifted to NCR. Among other major highlights of this settlement is agreement to ban secret monitoring of workers, which has been an objective of CWA for more than 30 years. Any monitoring for training purposes or quality checks can't be done without the employee's knowledge, and can't be used for disciplinary action. Funding for the jointly-administered Alliance for Employee Growth and Development is doubled in this agreement from $40-$80 million. We hope to be able to expand education benefits to spouses of members under certain conditions. Also, the company will guarantee at least 40 hours job-related training for each employee at AT&T. Family care provisions were improved in several ways, including an increase in the Family Care Fund to $7.5 million and expansion of elder care and adoption programs and extended benefits for family or child care leave. The settlement also provides improvements in dental and vision care, broadening of the pre-paid legal plan to cover adoptions and legal problems impacting on children, and other gains for our members. Among the tough issues we have been wrestling with the past week of two has been the company's demand to move toward commission programs for the phone center and commercial marketing workers -- and our own determination that these workers not have their living standards destroyed overnight by a drastic change in the rules. We have reached a compromise that provides a phasing in of commissions, and with less base pay put at risk than the company sought, as well as cash payments to longterm phone center workers to cushion the impact of the change. These have been very tough talks. To some degree, the company and the unions appeared to be on a collision course, with AT&T seeking greater "flexibility" to meet competitive challenges, and the unions holding firm for employment security demands in the face of the steady layoffs and disruptions our members have suffered. AT&T spoke of creating a "workplace of the future." And we said, fine -- but our members and the unions want to make sure that we're a part of AT&T's future plans. AT&T spoke of building a "partnership" with its workers. And we said, okay -- but let's start laying down the basis of mutual trust that will be necessary for a true partnership. The collective bargaining process has been tested, and in the end, we think it has met the test of producing a fair bargain, an agreement that makes winners out of both sides. But the real test for the future of labor relations at AT&T is what lies before us. Our settlement today is a positive step toward forging a true partnership, a successful workplace of the future. But the next 1,095 days of this contract, our dealings day in and day out in the workplace, will determine whether we can build mutual understanding, respect, and cooperation. We sincerely hope that is the case. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jul 92 22:04:19 GMT From: shri@iucaa.ernet.in (H. Shrikumar) Subject: NBS DES and After? Now that NBS has decertified DES, ... what now ? More specifically, my guess is that several of the financial and trade community would still be using DES, since one has not heard that "DES is broken". I do see quite a few flyers and glossies for DES products but steadily I also see an increase in 512 bit and bigger cypher systems which claim to be "better than DES". Also, hows the reaction to the NBS digital signature proposal? Are there some reasons why they did not use RSA? Is it getting murkier or clearer? shrikumar ( shri@iucaa.ernet.in ) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #525 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11920; 4 Jul 92 3:05 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32247 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 4 Jul 1992 01:23:53 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21751 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 4 Jul 1992 01:23:45 -0500 Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1992 01:23:45 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199207040623.AA21751@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #526 TELECOM Digest Sat, 4 Jul 92 01:23:49 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 526 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: United Telephone/Sprint (Ben Harrell) Re: 911 Circuitry Can Detect 91 (Scott Colbath) Re: SWBT Organizational Changes (Metromedia) (Guy Hadsall) Re: Telecom Things to See Across the USA (Guy Hadsall) Re: Motorola Watch Pager (Guy Hadsall) Re: "Legal" Phreaking? (Bill Sohl) More AOS Slime: "ATC" (olsen@eos.ll.mit.edu) Re: "Choke" Prefixes (Dick Rawson) Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 (Tim Gorman) Re: What Are These Specs? (Toby Nixon) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bharrell@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Ben Harrell) Subject: Re: United Telephone/Sprint Organization: North Carolina State University Date: Sat, 04 Jul 1992 12:19:12 GMT In article mw1@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Mike Wells) writes: > Distance. Since UT is owned by Sprint, I'm assuming that UTLD is just > another name from Sprint LD service. United Telephone Long Distance is not one IEC. The name is trademarked by Sprint (United Telecom) and was used by each United Telephone System telco to incorporate a separate unregulated subsidiary for the purpose of providing long distance (interLATA) service to that telco's subscribers. It is a non-facilities based reseller of Sprint's long distance services, as are many of the other IEC's. It has to obey all the rules that other IEC's do. The marketing advantage it has, which is one of the primary reasons for its existence other than increasing Sprint's LD business, it that the local United telco can offer true interLATA LD service (unlike the BOCs) under it's own name. > UTLD claims one of its advantages over MCI is that UTLD charges can be > placed on the same bill as UT local charges. (AT&T charges can also be > placed on the UT bill). Isn't this unfair? Doesn't this action give > UTLD an unfair advantage over MCI because UT does not directly bill > MCI calls? No, this is not unfair because under United's interLATA access tariff (as with the BOCs) all IECs are offered the billing and collection services of the United telcos. Some choose to use it and some don't. UTLD buys this service from the United telco under this tariff, just like any other IEC. How do I know these things? I worked for a United telco for about 12 years, wrote the interLATA (I called them GMAs for Geographic Marketing Areas) filling for the telco I worked for which was used as the standard for the other companies, and was a part of the Access Tariff Task Force for United. Ben Harrell | bharrell@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu Project Manager | Compuserve: 71477,74 Costing and Tariffing Support | Voice: (919) 992-7647 Public Networks Marketing | Fax: (919) 992-3835 Northern Telecom Inc. | My opinions are my own and do Research Triangle Park, NC | not represent the views of NTI ------------------------------ From: scol@scottsdale.az.stratus.com (Scott Colbath) Subject: Re: 911 Circuitry Can Detect 91 Date: 04 Jul 92 13:17:05 GMT In article bms@penguin.eng.pyramid.com (Bruce Schlobohm) writes: > At work, our PBX requires that we dial 9 + 1 + areacode+ phone-number > for calls outside of the 408 areacode. A colleague here has become > very adept at starting most phone calls with 9 + 1. A couple of days > ago, he was at home, and started dialing 9 + 1, and then remembered he > was not at work so he hung up. A few minutes later he received a call > from a dispatcher asking if he was in any trouble, and that there was > a police car on its way to help him out! > After things calmed down, the dispatcher told him that they knew he > had only dialed 91, and not 911, and had debated as to whether to > consider it to be a distress call or not. > I didn't realize that 91 can be detected by the 911 circuitry. I > wonder how often this type of thing happens? Something like this happened to my 12 year old daughter more than once. In Scottsdale, Az., we have a 991-xxxx exchange. One of her friends has this 991 prefix for a phone number. Sometimes while dialing, my girl dials a 911 instead of the 991 thing and you know what happens next. The phone rings and it's 911 emergency on the other end asking if everything is alright. One time, she ignored the call waiting tone and the next thing I knew, there was a police car at my door. The 911 operators have said it happens quite frewquently due to the 991 exchange. It sounds to me like the this exchange should be changed to aviod this. Is that something which is difficult to do? Scott Colbath Stratus Computer Phoenix, Az. (602) 852-3106 Internet:scott_colbath@az.stratus.com ------------------------------ Organization: The American University - University Computing Center Date: Saturday, 04 Jul 1992 01:26:49 EDT From: GHADSAL@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: SWBT Organizational Changes (Metromedia) It appears to me that SWBC changes reflect the "spinning off" of the corporations paging company Metromedia Paging (hdq - New Jersey). They have successfully moved the brain of the company into the corporate staff and replaced the much younger and inexperienced 33 year old. Sounds as if the increased competition is driving them out of radio paging. Whitacker once admitted that the primary reason for the purchase of Metromedia from John Klugh almost a decade ago was for its Cellular division commonly known as Cellular One (though its a franchised name). The president of SWBMT has not been retrenched back to St. Louis, hum?! Maybe I am guessing ... but thats what it looks like to me. PageNet 1, Metromedia 0. Guy Hadsall ------------------------------ Organization: The American University - University Computing Center Date: Saturday, 04 Jul 1992 01:16:52 EDT From: GHADSAL@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: Telecom Things to See Across the USA Ed, From the sounds of the latest press reports out of Missouri (not Missoura or Missery) you may be spending *alot* of time in that state. It appears that SWB and UT have succeeded in denying that fair state the right of dependable and technologically sound service. SWB is headquartered in St. Louis MO and United Telecom is headquartered in Overland Park KS (suburb of Kansas City). I would venture to say that if asked the corporate staff might arrange a tour. Good luck, and please take notes or keep a journal. I for one would be most interested. :-) Guy Hadsall ------------------------------ Organization: The American University - University Computing Center Date: Friday, 04 Jul 1992 01:36:55 EDT From: GHADSAL@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: Motorola Watch Pager The pager Mark is discussing is/was called the "sensar". It came in both radio paging formats; pocsag and golay. The sensar was basically a numeric display unit, though the earlier version was "tone only". Motorola stopped making them about two years ago due to their durability. The sensar is a small unit and thus the internal componets are more likely to be broken if worn in a "butt pack". Replacement parts for the sensar were always late, and most national repair shops no longer service them because of that delay.Once nice thing about the sensar was that it also came in 24 K gold ! Retail in 1989 was $399 for the gold one. Now it appears that the wave in the market is "alpha" or alphanumeric display paging. A radio pager would have all the capability as the previous tone, voice, and numeric display pagers, but now it could recieve actual ASCII text. The input comes from one or all other the following; touchtone phone, Modem, remote TTY, or an operator dispatching service (if you pay $.75 each). Voice recognition technologies are still a little far off (five years) for a user to simply call a pager and tell it what to display, but its an option. Should this technology be improved I would put my money on a resurgace of Voice Paging due to the idea of cheap, stored, digital voice messages. Digital voice nets are expensive though. I hope this help, I would be happy to answer a question or two if asked. Guy Hadsall ------------------------------ From: dancer!whs70@uunet.UU.NET (24411-sohl) Subject: Re: "Legal" Phreaking? Reply-To: dancer!whs70@uunet.UU.NET () Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Sat, 04 Jul 92 04:40:37 GMT In article system%coldbox@uunet.UU.NET (Bryan Lockwood) writes: > Anybody care to comment on this? It's a very *interesting* philosophy > of law, one that seems to lead to startling practices if applied to > other areas of life! I was a bit startled by such a concept ... I > suppose my upbringing is showing. > [Moderator's Note: Yes I guess your upbringing is showing. The fellow > in Holland has written to us here at TELECOM Digest on a few > occassions also, expressing much the same philosophy. If what he says > is true -- I don't think it is -- then why in the world would *any* > telecom organization want to do business in Holland; or for that > matter, any business at all if it is, as the fellow suggests, > perfectly legal to rip off a company 'for personal use'. I wonder if > he subscribes to the same ethics where other businesses are concerned > in his country: clothing, food, household supplies, other utility > services, places of entertainment, etc? Pat, I think you are taking the gentleman from Holland's perspective far beyond what he discussed. In my opinion, what the viewpoint has to do with leaving the barn door open, not with specific and deliberate (probably not the best words to use) theft in the classic sense (ie. going into a store and shoplifting.) As to the telco "phreaking" situation, the perspective seems to be (in Holland) that if the network can be activated/manipulated by the mere dialing of certain tones, then the cure is for the network to safeguard itself. Here in the USA, that means going to an CCIS signaling network. The writer from Holland said the Dutch court views the theft of the "open" network services in a much lower light than say stealing a car. Another good example I'd suggest is satellite TV. Many folks, myself included, see nothing wrong with receiving satellite transmission and not paying for it because the signal is there to be received. It became the responsibility of the satellite broadcasters to encrypt their signal in order to protect what they previously broadcast in the clear. As a comment, I do not have or care to receive satellite transmission, I just believe that any radio transmission that I can receive on my property is fair game if I choose to receive it. Another example might be the computer hacker. I'd suspect that Dutch courts would look at what happens and if a company's computer system had no or minimal security to avoid or eleiminate the possibility of unauthorized access, then I'd guess the Dutch court wouldn't view an unauthorized access as being or requiring legal protection. A perhaps crude analogy/example/question might be you are a Peeping Tom if you trespass on someone's property to peek in their window while they are undressing. Are you also a Peeping Tom if you do the same thing with a pair of binoculars while on your own property? Just my thoughts, Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's. Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.) Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!dancer!whs70 201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com [Moderator's Note: Let me ask those of you who persist in the belief that it is the system operator's fault if there is a break-in to a system with weak security, do you feel the same way about physical assaults on other people? That is, if you are attacked by a person much larger and stronger than yourself, can't we conclude that if he robs you it is really your fault? After all, you could have taken a course in judo, karate or some other self-defense procedure if you were that interested in your safety and your possessions, etc. Should the court find you guilty, or the person who attacked you? The answer is rather obvious ... why then is a computer different? Why should a new or inexperienced sysadmin take the rap for a hacker intrusion merely because the hacker is more sophisticated at it? It seems to me the law is intended to protect the *weakest* members of society. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: More AOS Slime: "ATC" Date: Sat, 04 Jul 92 01:06:31 -0400 From: olsen@eos.ll.mit.edu Just when I thought the slimy AOS industry was disappearing, I ran across a new one, calling itself "ATC". At a restaurant the other night, I needed to make a long-distance call. The New England Tel. payphone proudly proclaimed that long-distance service was offered by ATT, so I just dialed 0 + . I was surprised to hear a synthesized voice weloming me to "ATC". I quickly hung up and completed my call by dialing 10288 +0 + . My curiosity piqued, I dialed 00 and tried to find out how much "ATC" would have soaked me for the call, had I been less alert: "AT Operator. May I help you?" After I asked for rates, the AT operator put me on hold "for a supervisor" for two minutes, followed by another operator who did the same thing (for three minutes), followed by a "supervisor" who gave me an 800 number to call. The 800 number was just a voice-mail system, where I could have left a message I hadn't been so disgusted with the whole thing. ATC's rates must be truly astronomical, if they're so ashamed that they won't tell callers about them. Does anyone have more information about these folks? ------------------------------ From: drawson@sagehen.Tymnet.COM (Dick Rawson) Subject: Re: "Choke" Prefixes Date: 04 Jun 92 05:08:48 GMT Organization: BT North America (Tymnet) > Do pay phones have a higher priority within the switch in terms of > getting dial tone? Yes, at least if the pay phone is a public phone, in Pac*Bell land. Certain lines are considered "essential service lines", and given normal access to dial tone during overloads when dial tone access is being rationed. Public telephones, hospitals, emergency services, and so on, are classed as essential service lines. An emergency service employee's HOME phone may be classed that way, too. These are examples; I don't have a complete list. Dick Rawson ------------------------------ Date: 04 Jul 92 01:03:31 EDT From: tim gorman <71336.1270@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) writes in TELECOM Digest V12 #522: > I happened to be on the direct line to our > communications center from the rescue squad yesterday when a strange > thing happened. I got a few clicks on the line, silence, and then to > my surprise "Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check > the number and dial again or call your operator to help you.", > followed immediately by the obnoxiously loud "hang up NOW" signal. I > didn't think the direct line was supposed to do this sort of thing! > Anyone have an idea why? Do you truly have a direct phone-to-phone line? Wired with ringing generators and all? Or do you have a "nailed-up" connection through the central office (when you go off-hook, your line is automatically connected to another line without dialing)? If you have a nailed-up connection and the switch had no paths available to get you to the other line, you could very well get such an announcement. Tim Gorman - SWBT *opinions are mine, any resemblance to official policy is coincidence* ------------------------------ From: Toby Nixon Subject: Re: What Are These Specs? Date: 04 Jul 92 00:52:10 GMT Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA In article , weare@bostech.com (Ged Weare) writes: > We are trying to locate some specs that were referenced in a recent > article in IEEE Communications Magazine (Feb 92). ... > The specs are listed in the article as: > [9] IS-41.1, .2, .3 and .4, Rev B December 1991 > [10] ETSI TC GSM, Recommendations GSM 3.09 and 3.12, Feb 1990. > Both are related in some way to cellular phones or ISDN. [10], we > think, is put out by a European body, but we have no clue about [9]. [9] is referring to a multipart Interim Standard [IS] from the Telecommunications Industry Association. Here is the information from the catalog: EIA/TIA/IS-41.1 Cellular Radiotelecommunications Intersystem Operations: Functional Overview ($30) EIA/TIA/IS-41.2 Cellular Radiotelecommunications Intersystem Operations: Intersystem Handoff ($32) EIA/TIA/IS-41.3 Cellular Radiotelecommunications Intersystem Operations: Automatic Roaming ($48) EIA/TIA/IS-41.4 Cellular Radiotelecommunications Intersystem Operations: Operations, Administration, and Maintenance ($35) EIA/TIA/IS-41.5 Cellular Radiotelecommunications Intersystem Operations: Data Communication ($58) These documents can all be ordered through Global Engineering Documents at 800-854-7179 or 714-261-1455. The ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) GSM documents can probably be ordered through them as well. Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer | Voice +1-404-840-9200 Telex 401243420 Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. | Fax +1-404-447-0178 CIS 70271,404 P.O. Box 105203 | BBS +1-404-446-6336 AT&T !tnixon Atlanta, Georgia 30348 | UUCP uunet!hayes!tnixon Fido 1:114/15 USA | Internet tnixon@hayes.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #526 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa25449; 4 Jul 92 10:25 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13893 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 4 Jul 1992 08:39:55 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19080 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 4 Jul 1992 08:39:46 -0500 Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1992 08:39:46 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199207041339.AA19080@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #527 TELECOM Digest Sat, 4 Jul 92 08:39:42 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 527 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Contemporary Remote Controls (John Rice) Re: Motorola Watch Pager (John Gilbert) Re: You Can Ring My Bell (Patton M. Turner) Re: AGT Cellular Gets First North American Digital Cellular (Ben Harrell) Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted (Rich Mintz) Re: Telecom Things to See Across the USA (Ken Thompson) Re: What are "NorTel" and "Centrex"? (Ben Harrell) Re: What are "NorTel" and "Centrex"? (Gord Deinstadt) Re: More Strange 710 Stuff (was Funny Intercept on 1-710-555) (J. Hibbard) Re: Caller ID in Southern California? (Rich Mintz) Re: Caller ID in Southern California? (R. Kevin Oberman) Re: Newfoundland Province Code 709 (John R. Levine) Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (Mitch Wagner) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rice@ttd.teradyne.com Subject: Re: Contemporary Remote Controls Organization: Teradyne Inc., Telecommunications Division Date: Sat, 04 Jul 92 02:54:45 GMT In article , jrd5@po.CWRU.Edu (Jacob DeGlopper) writes: > Technics audio products certainly don't! That's one reason our > college radio station hangs on to the remote controls for any new > equipment we get. For example, when we installed a pair of new CD > players about two months ago, of course the techs got to play with > them before anyone else :). Pointing one remote at the two players > would make both open at once, or start playing, or (worst for on-air > operations) stop. Since we have glass walls between the studios, you > could sit in the next studio and make the CD players do strange things > ... all the remotes are locked up in the tech shop where only some can > get at them. A better bet would be to put a piece of tape over the photodiode sensor. Technics remote controls are pretty easy to come by. John Rice K9IJ "Did I say that ?" I must have, but It was rice@ttd.teradyne.com MY opinion only, no one else's...Especially (708)-940-9000 - (work) Not my Employer's.... (708)-438-7011 - (home) ------------------------------ From: johng.all_proj@comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Motorola Watch Pager Organization: Motorola, Inc. Land Mobile Products Sector. Date: Sat, 04 Jul 1992 00:18:26 GMT In article mearle@pro-party.cts.com (Mark Earle) writes: > I've heard no comments good or bad on the watch pager. A similiar > product might fit your needs, and I have used this one. Motorola makes > a small pager designed to fit in the pocket, which takes up the space > of about two pencils. The display is on the side. The pager you describe is called a "Sensar." It is no longer a current Motorola product. It is available used from most paging carriers, however. This pager stores five messages but does not have a vibrate mode. It can be programmed to be silent and store the page ("mem-o-lert mode") or to give a single chirp when paged. I visited a local RCC yesterday and asked about the price of the wrist watch pager. They are selling it for $219. It had been $199, but they recently raised the price. I have a friend who has used one and has been happy with it. He even wears it while water skiing, although Motorola does not claim the pager is waterproof. John Gilbert Secure and Advanced Conventional KA4JMC Systems Division johng@ecs.comm.mot.com Motorola LMPS post: CPGR17 Schaumburg, Illinois ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 04 Jul 92 23:28:05 CDT From: Patton M. Turner Subject: Re: You Can Ring My Bell Bill Mayhew writes, refering to ITT clear 2500 sets: > The classic 2500 has a lot > more soul than those cheap esatz trimline-like phones with clear > plastic. It also lasts longer, probally has a lower REN. has greater EMI resistance, and costs only a few dollars more. It can also be had from telcom supply houses accross the USA, rather than from mail order yuppie techno-toys catalogs. > ITT only made one desinger concession; the coiled cord for > the hand set has color coded wires instead of all the same color that > would be usual. The Cortello (aka ITT Corinth Mississippi Works) set on my desk has color coded wire (red, black, and two white). This is very helpful when you have to crimp on a new modular (RJ-22?) plug, as there is no "molded line" as with some other coiled cords. [Interesting notes about changes in 2500 sets deleted.] Pat Turner KB4GRZ pturner@eng.auburn.edu ------------------------------ From: bharrell@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Ben Harrell) Subject: Re: AGT Cellular Gets First North American Digital Cellular Running Organization: North Carolina State University Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1992 01:43:41 GMT serdar@fawlty4.eng.monash.edu.au (Serdar Boztas) writes: > What multiaccess method are they using? Does anyone have more > information about this system? I am interested in things such as > transmission rates for digitized voice, method of voice compression, > etc. Have they started marketing dual-mode or all digital mobile AGT Cellular uses our DMS-MTX digital cellular switching system and radio cell systems. They have converted to our new analog/digital (TDMA) dual mode radio channel equipment. It is based on a digital signal processor (DSP) design which allows each radio channel's multiplexing and signal format to be software controlled on a call by call basis. Each channel will support one analog channel and three TDMA channels (in the future, six TDMA channels). Sorry, but I don't know the specifics of the TDMA protocol, other than it is digital and that three TDMA channels occupy the same frequency band as one analog channel. Ben Harrell | bharrell@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu Project Manager | Compuserve: 71477,74 Costing and Tariffing Support | Voice: (919) 992-7647 Public Networks Marketing | Fax: (919) 992-3835 Northern Telecom Inc. | My opinions are my own and do Research Triangle Park, NC | not represent the views of NTI ------------------------------ From: rmintz@ecst.csuchico.edu (Rich Mintz) Subject: Re: Call Own Phone Back Number Wanted Organization: California State University, Chico Date: Sat, 04 Jul 1992 12:39:21 GMT In comp.dcom.telecom ruck@alpha.ee.ufl.edu (John R Ruckstuhl Jr) writes: > Hopefully, Rich (and others who use this method) remember > to restrict their testing to those prefixes which are > not in use for valid telephone numbers. A very good point, and one I forgot to mention. Once I forgot to have the dialing script skip over trying the number 911-wxyz and was greeted by a police officer at my door a few minutes later asking me if everything was okay! He said 911 had received an emergency call from my number and that the caller (my modem) had just hung up. Fortunately for me, he knew exactly what I was referring to when I explained I was trying to find the "alternate prefix" number for getting a ringback, and why the accident had happened. I was very glad his only source of information about computers and phone lines was NOT the movie "War Games!" 8-) I was lucky ... the policeman just took my name, wished me goodnight, and left. I think he could have charged me with breaking the law that deals with making calls to 911 in non-emergency situations. So be careful with the prefixes you choose to test dial people! Rich -> rmintz@cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu ------------------------------ From: Ken Thompson Subject: Re: Telecom Things to See Across the USA Date: 4 Jul 92 02:36:59 GMT Organization: NCR Corporation Wichita, KS *** Stop at the Museum of Early Telephony in Abilene, Ks. off I-70 20 miles east of Salina ( 130 miles west of Kansas City :-) Ken Thompson N0ITL ncr Corp. Peripheral Products Division Disk Array Development 3718 N. Rock Road Wichita KS 67226 (316)636-8783 Ken.Thompson@wichitaks.ncr.com ------------------------------ From: bharrell@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Ben Harrell) Subject: Re: What are "NorTel" and "Centrex"? Organization: North Carolina State University Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1992 02:42:40 GMT shuang@idacom.hp.com (Shuang Deng) writes: > [Moderator's Note: 'NorTel' is most likely Northern Telecom, a > prominent manufacturer of telco stuff in the USA ...] > Or, more perciesly, Northern Telecom is a *Canadian* company with > subsidies in many places of the world, including the USA. Northern Telecom LTD is actually a *North American* company. It has corporate offices in both Washington, D.C. metro area and in the Toronto, Ottawa, Canada metro area. It is a Canadian corporation, but reports its results in US$ only. It is very unique in that it reports its "domestic" results as sum of Canada and US, with everything else reported as "international". Centrex can be described *roughly* as a virtual PBX or key system service provided by the local telephone company (also competitive access providers in New York state). In Centrex, every station set has a physical or derived voice equivalent channel from the user's desk to the serving central office line interface circuit (sometimes called line relay). For customers larger than 50-100 station sets, Centrex is often provided using digital remote line concentrators or switching systems on the customer's premise. Ben Harrell | bharrell@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu Project Manager | Compuserve: 71477,74 Costing and Tariffing Support | Voice: (919) 992-7647 Public Networks Marketing | Fax: (919) 992-3835 Northern Telecom Inc. | My opinions are my own and do Research Triangle Park, NC | not represent the views of NTI ------------------------------ From: gordd@geovision.gvc.com (Gord Deinstadt) Subject: Re: What are "NorTel" and "Centrex"? Organization: GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1992 06:31:55 GMT In shuang@idacom.hp.com (Shuang Deng) writes: > Or, more perciesly, Northern Telecom is a *Canadian* company with > subsidies in many places of the world, including the USA. ^^^^^^^^^ Ack! NoNoNo! He meant "subsidiaries"! Please, don't tell anyone he said that word!!!! Keep away the lawyers! Ack! Gord Deinstadt gdeinstadt@geovision.gvc.com ------------------------------ From: jeff@bradley.bradley.edu (Jeff Hibbard) Subject: Re: More Strange 710 Stuff (was Funny Intercept on 1-710-555-1212) Organization: Bradley University Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 06:57:56 GMT fl0p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Frank T Lofaro) writes: > It then asks for your personal access (used for > billing) code and connects you. Strange thing is if I dial a bogus > area code and number I get the intercept right away after the last > digit is dialed (and before I can get to enter my security code), but > if I dial the 710 area code and a number, it asks for my code, and > only then does it give me the intercept. I don't see how this demonsatrates any special handling of 710 calls. Since the security code is only used for billing, there's no point in requesting it when you dial a "bogus area code", because the call cannot possibly complete and incur charges. If you dial a valid number not recognizable as a free call, then standard procedure is to get a billing code before continuing to process the call. The only thing you can safely infer from this behavior is that the local CO recognizes 710 as a valid area code, and that nobody has ever told the people programming it that 710 calls are guaranteed not to incur charges (not surprising ... nobody probably tells them much of anything about 710). Jeff Hibbard, Peoria IL ------------------------------ From: rmintz@ecst.csuchico.edu (Rich Mintz) Subject: Re: Caller ID in Southern California? Organization: California State University, Chico Date: Sat, 04 Jul 1992 13:32:48 GMT My telco in Northern CA is Pacific Bell. Has caller ID been made legal in California yet? I've yet to come across any store that sells phone equipment with any devices which make use of caller ID, and the guy at Radio Shack seems to believe it's still illegal in CA. While I'm on the subject, if it *is* legal here (and even if not 8-) I'm interested in getting a device that will relay the caller ID information via serial or other port to my computer. Any recommendations on a manufacturer, source, price info? Whether or not it has been made legal here, I seem to remember a Pacific Bell customer service rep telling me that the various services you lucky people in some other parts of the country have like caller ID blocking and "blocking blocking", as well as the simpler features of the "call back the last person that called you" sequence and the "send ID about prank call to telco investigations" sequence, etc, will not be available here until 1996. Didn't know how good I had it in Atlanta with BellSouth 8-) Thanks, Rich -> rmintz@cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu ------------------------------ From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: Caller ID in Southern California? Date: 4 Jul 92 01:33:09 GMT In article , nsc!tavakoli@decwrl.dec.com (Jim Tavakoli) writes: > As you may know, California telephone companies now support Caller-ID. > I was wondering if anybody out there has any information or references > to the design and implementation of Caller-ID. I understand there is a > spec published by Bell. If you could send me the name of the > publication, I would really appreciate it. Don't get too excited, Jim. As noted by John H, GTE has already they will not be providing Caller-ID. And maybe they will be dropping the whole CLASS service proposal. While Pac Bell has stated that CLASS implementation will go on, they are re-evaluating any implementation of Caller-ID. Can't say that I blame them. Under the CPUC ruling where unlisted numbers will automatically have per-line blocking of CLID, and realizing that in Alameda county (Oakland, Berkeley and surrounding area) most home numbers are unlisted, Caller-ID starts to look like a questionable value. So I would suggest that you don't put too much effort into something that may never be used. R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: oberman1@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Newfoundland Province Code 709 Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 4 Jul 92 00:55:50 EDT (Sat) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) St Pierre, being part of France, has six digit phone numbers and doubtless uses French phone equipment which has somewhat different inter-office interfaces than North American equipment does. Clearly adapters between the two exist, since you can dial back and forth between Canada and Europe, but are they simple enough that it'd be worth it for the small amount of traffic between N.F. and St Pierre? The numbering would be the least of the problems -- I believe that all of the St Pierre numbers start with the same digit, so there's really only a five digit number space. Going the other way, there are already a whole bunch of dialing hacks in France (19 for international, 16 for elsewhere in France, etc.) that another one for N.F. wouldn't be hard. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: wagner@utoday.com (Mitch Wagner) Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 00:38:20 EDT From: wagner@utoday.com (Mitch Wagner) Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine Organization: UNIX Today! Date: Wed, 01 Jul 92 20:38:13 GMT In article jih@crane.aa.ox.com (John I. Hritz) writes: > Kind in the same vane. I periodically get recordings on my > machine that consist of a and then a pause of about five > seconds. This repeats for a couple of minutes. That's it nothing > else. I'm pretty sure that's the sound of a fax machine announcing itself to another fax machine (which of course you're not). It's kind of like the way baby ducks imprint on the first thing they see and think it's their mother ... :-) Mitch Wagner wagner@utoday.com CIS:70212,51 GEnie:MITCH.WAGNER ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #527 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21255; 4 Jul 92 23:14 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29490 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 4 Jul 1992 21:33:01 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16365 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 4 Jul 1992 21:32:52 -0500 Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1992 21:32:52 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199207050232.AA16365@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #528 TELECOM Digest Sat, 4 Jul 92 21:32:55 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 528 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) (Andrew C. Green) Re: Jane BARBE (was Jane Barbie) (Ralph Neutrino) Re: The Depths of Sliminess (Mark Cavallaro) Re: The Depths of Sliminess (Robert S. Helfman) Re: The Depths of Sliminess (Mike Coyne) Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers (Andrew C. Green) Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers (Justin Leavens) Re: Batman Well Connected? (Allen Robel) Re: Ameritech/IBT (Allen Robel) Re: "Choke" Prefixes (Gordon D. Woods) Re: What is Iridium Project? (John C. Fowler) Re: What is Iridium Project? (Charles Neveu) Re: Pac*Bell Posturing (Justin Leavens) Re: AT&T Knows I am Moving. How? (Justin Leavens) Re: RFC For Fax Specs? (H. Shrikumar) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat 04 Jul 1992 11:36:23 CDT From: acg@hermes.dlogics.com Reply-To: acg@hermes.dlogics.com Subject: Re: Jane Barbie (was The Purpose of the Three Tones) ccoprfm@prism.gatech.edu (Monte Freeman) writes: > When we went through and did our repeater upgrade two or three > years ago, someone made the comment that it would be nice to > have "Ms. Calabash's" voice back. (Ms. Calabash is the name > someone gave to this mysterious sexy voice shortly after it > went into use on the repeater, and it just sort of stuck ...) Would that someone have been Jimmy Durante? ("Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!") Always wondered who he meant. Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ From: octela!!shaun@uunet.UU.NET (Ralph Neutrino) Subject: Re: Jane BARBE (was Jane Barbie) Organization: Octel Communications Inc., Milpitas Ca. Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1992 18:49:11 GMT In article 0004056081@mcimail.com (George S. Thurman) writes: > With all of the messages recently about "Jane Barbie", I thought that > I would let everyone know that the correct spelling of her last name > is BARBE. I can confirm this -- we have a signed photo, last name spelled "Barbe." Shaun ------------------------------ From: cavallarom@cpva.saic.com Subject: Re: The Depths of Sliminess Date: 4 Jul 92 07:50:58 PST Organization: Science Applications Int'l Corp./San Diego In article , jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) writes: > Consider that not all teleslime works in boiler rooms and against > quotas. Consider the increasing problem we have here in Atlanta with > casual teleslime who work out of their homes (judging by the screaming > kids and blaring TV in the background) to make a little extra money. > They have neither the quota to drive them nor the thick skin to let > 'em weather insults. These people get mad at being cussed at or even > hung up on. They do waste their time getting even by calling back. > And when they call me back, their number from the Caller*ID box goes > in Dixie's UUCP Systems file for day or two. > Yes, it is entirely believable that a teleslime would do such a thing > as described in the media article. Pat, I can verify that "teleslime" _do_ engage in this sort of activity. I have personally suffered from this harassment one year when I was solicited by a local PA. I indicated no interest, said good bye and hung up. The phone rang again in a few moments, same guy. He made some vaguely threatening remarks. I hung up. Then I received dozens of "hangup" calls over the next several days. Eventually he got bored and went away. But this sort of thing does happen. Regards, Mark ------------------------------ From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) Subject: Re: The Depths of Sliminess Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1992 16:21:35 GMT In article jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) writes: > Consider that not all teleslime works in boiler rooms and against > quotas. Consider the increasing problem we have here in Atlanta with > casual teleslime who work out of their homes (judging by the screaming > kids and blaring TV in the background) to make a little extra money. > They have neither the quota to drive them nor the thick skin to let > 'em weather insults. These people get mad at being cussed at or even > hung up on. They do waste their time getting even by calling back. PAT, they sure as hell DO call back and harass people. It's happened to me. Some creep called and tried to give me the hard sell. I said (brusquely, but not rudely), "I'm not interested" and just hung up (loudly -- bringing the handset down at Warp 9). He called back and said "you're rude". I said "it's MY telephone and you're the one who's rude" and then hung up again. He called back immediately and I just let the answering machine get it. He gave up after that. ------------------------------ Date: Saturday, 4 July 1992 6:05pm CT From: coyne@UTXVM.CC.UTEXAS.EDU Subject: Re: The Depths of Sliminess >[Moderator's Note: Very dramatic story, but is it really the truth? >What telemarketer do you know with enough spare time on his hands to >waste call after call on someone who obviously is not buying anything? >To those boys, time *is* money, and people (who they call) wasting >their time 'looking for a pen', etc are anathema. > ... I don't believe their story. PAT] I believe this story. It is my policy also to give telemarketers a little hell. "What do you tell your family you do for a living? Do you admit to them you are a profeessional nuisance? ..." I read, perhaps in this forum, about someone who tries to sell them telemarketing supplies. That sounds amusing but I dont know enough to fake that one. About one in 20 calls back and hangs up several times. Unfortunately caller ID is an invasion of the caller's privacy in Texas. I can not even discover who will accept complaints about megadialers (which are not legal) and take action. Grrrrr! I hate cold call telemarketers. On a more conciliatory note: would someone please give more information about CPC and how I can tell if I have it? Does it eliminate those please hang up and dial again messages on your answering machine? Mike.Coyne@utxvm.cc.utexas.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 04 Jul 1992 11:32:25 CDT From: acg@hermes.dlogics.com Reply-To: acg@hermes.dlogics.com Subject: Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers jms@misvax.mis.arizona.edu (Joel M Snyder) writes: > ZIP + 4 normally selects at the block level (there's a ZIP + 4 book in > your post office for your town); for some places, obviously, the + 4 > gets it a lot closer, such as a PO Box (mentioned previously), a > single office building, etc. I couldn't let this go by ... a few years back, I lived in Apartment 401, 800 Hinman Avenue, Evanston, IL. This is an eight-story building with approximately 16 apartments per floor. The ZIP+4 for my address was something like 60202-2322, which I obtained from the Post Office manuals. Curiously, my neighbor in Apartment 402 had a completely different ZIP+4 extension; in fact, there were several different extensions used over and over in the building, depending on what the apartment number was, and this took a fair amount of space to list in the ZIP Code manual. The kicker was: like most apartment buildings, all the mailboxes were in the lobby anyway. Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ From: leavens@mizar.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Re: The Telco Owns the Numbers Date: 4 Jul 1992 12:28:20 -0700 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA In article lauren@vortex.COM (Lauren Weinstein) writes: > Greetings. Someone asked if the subscribers had any choice in the > selection of new numbers, in the situation of being forced to change > numbers by telco. In the case of the Woodland Hills event I > originally mentioned, I believe the subscribers were allowed to pick > their new four digit numbers in the new prefix, but could only choose > numbers within fairly limited ranges, i.e. they did not have the > entire 10,000 possibilities from which to choose. Pacific Bell offers you six numbers to choose from when establishing your service. If at that time, or any time before your service is established, you want a specific number, you can have it for a one-time $10 charge (provided it hasn't been in use for six months to a year, depending on whether it was a business or residence in a previous life). After your service is established, it will cost you $20 for a number change, and $10 for the personalized number. GTECA gives you one number, but if you ask and there are more available, they will give you four more choices for free. If you want a personalized number, it requires a 24 hour callback to verify that it is available, a one time $35 charge, and $1.50/month charge. In addition, Pacific Bell is very helpful in checking numbers for you to see if they are available. They'll take several of your number combinations at once and call their center to see if they are available, as well as handling "can I get these four numbers in any available prefix?" or "how about something with repeated digits?" type requests. They'll also tell you when the number you want will become available if it's not in use, and try to find good, memorable numbers if you just simply ask for one of those. Justin Leavens University of Southern California (818) 985-2001 ------------------------------ From: robelr@ucs.indiana.edu (Allen Robel) Subject: Re: Batman Well Connected? Reply-To: robelr@mythos.ucs.indiana.edu Organization: Indiana University Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 13:15:42 GMT In article stapleton@misvax.mis. arizona.edu (Dr. Ross Alan Stapleton) writes: > I just saw "Batman Returns" over the weekend, and am almost positive I > saw the following: there are several scenes in the Batcave, with > various high-techy devices arrayed around ... in one, Batman is standing > in front of some telecom-looking equipment, and one of the many > lighted red buttons on the panel reads "AUTOVON" ... There is another scene that impressed me more as far as being "well connected." How about that full motion interactive video in the Batmobile! Allen Robel robelr@mythos.ucs.indiana.edu University Computing Services ROBELR@IUJADE.BITNET Network Research & Planning voice: (812)855-7171 Indiana University FAX: (812)855-8299 ------------------------------ From: robelr@ucs.indiana.edu (Allen Robel) Subject: Re: Ameritech/IBT Reply-To: robelr@mythos.ucs.indiana.edu Organization: Indiana University Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 13:19:05 GMT In article Matthew Holdrege writes: > BTW, the IBT tariffs for ISDN seem to be among the best in the country > and decidely better than Pacific Bell. So what are the tariffs? I've yet to see real pricing information for our area. Allen Robel robelr@mythos.ucs.indiana.edu University Computing Services ROBELR@IUJADE.BITNET Network Research & Planning voice: (812)855-7171 Indiana University FAX: (812)855-8299 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 09:22:38 EDT From: gdw@gummo.att.com (Gordon D Woods) Subject: Re: "Choke" Prefixes Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories From article , by rlm@ms_aspen.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin): > On a related matter: > during the recent riots, I was able to get dial tone out of a pay > phone in the part of West Torrance that is served by GTE, even though > my own phone wouldn't give me dial tone after ten minutes off hook. > Do pay phones have a higher priority within the switch in terms of > getting dial tone? I do know that on loop carrier systems with traffic concentration (per call sharing of channels) that conventional (non-COCOT) coin units get permanently assigned channels and therefore, have priority within the carrier system. I would guess they also have their own traffic group within the CO switch because they use special interface circuits. ------------------------------ From: jfowler@beta.lanl.gov (John C. Fowler) Subject: Re: What is Iridium Project? Date: 4 Jul 92 13:28:14 GMT Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory In article <714@capmkt.COM> charles@capmkt.COM (Charles Neveu) writes: > Telecommunications Magazine has a article that makes passing mention > of Motorola's Iridium Project and its 77 satellites that are going to > be launched. What is the Iridium Project? Think of Iridium as "Worldwide Cellular." Once launched, you will be able to make a phone call from just about anywhere in the world -- even where telephone systems are controlled by the government or are just too archaic to be trusted. I imagine that once it's launched, there will be a scramble to be the first to make a phone call from the top of Mt. Everest. :-) John C. Fowler, jfowler@lanl.gov ------------------------------ From: charles@capmkt.COM (Charles Neveu) Subject: What is Iridium Project? Date: 4 Jul 92 02:50:28 GMT Organization: Capital Market Technology {Telecommunications Magazine} has a article that makes passing mention of Motorola's Iridium Project and its 77 satellites that are going to be launched. What is the Iridium Project Charles Neveu neveu@pupil.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ From: leavens@mizar.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Posturing Date: 4 Jul 1992 16:18:26 -0700 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Pacific Bell is saying that the features Last Number Callback, Selective Ringing, and Selective Call Forwarding will be available right around July 20. From what I was told by a couple of Pac Bell people, the reason that Caller-ID implementation was going to take longer than the other features was that they need "sufficient time to inform the public regarding the privacy issues involved in making their telephone numbers available". I think this issue hinges on the importance that people place on "features" like Caller-ID. For most readers of c.d.t., Caller-ID is an added function to our telephone service. To a lot of people, Caller-ID represents a major change in how telephones work. Just like the implications of being able to purchase items/services via phone and have them charged to your phone bill weren't researched well enough before implementation (IMHO), I think it would be dangerous and not in anyone's best interest to suddenly offer a service like this when not everyone may understand what it is and how it works. Especially since the default setting will be to give out your number. If it defaulted the other way, I don't think it would be an issue (and there'd be no real use for Caller-ID either. I'd like to pose another related question: How can it be an invasion of privacy for people to get your phone number (via Caller-ID or whatever) if the phone company "owns" the number? What real rights does the phone user have regarding their home phone number? Justin Leavens Microcomputer Specialist University of Southern California ------------------------------ From: leavens@mizar.usc.edu (Justin Leavens) Subject: Re: AT&T Knows I am Moving. How? Date: 4 Jul 1992 16:46:55 -0700 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA In article burke@cs.purdue.edu writes: > I was amazed to get something similar -- an offer of a free hour of > long distance if I keep Reach Out America service -- if I keep AT&T > when I move. However, the only people I've told (other than friends > and relatives) is the apartment complex I'm moving into and the one > I'm moving out of. I haven't called and hooked up phone/electric > service yet. I suppose this is more of a privacy issue then telcom I'm always amazed whenever I move that I get a note from TRW (I belong to their Credentials service) confirming the fact that I've moved and to make sure that they've got my correct address. Of course, it's always correct. Two out of three times this letter has arrived on the day I moved in. It's a little unnerving. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 22:39:16 GMT From: shri@iucaa.ernet.in (H. Shrikumar) Subject: Re: RFC For Fax Specs? >> I need the RFC (or some other type of "oficial document" ) that >> gives the specs for fax transmissions. A description of the protocol, >> Preferably in on-line Internet accessible format ... > See rfc1314, "A File Format for the Exchange of Images in the Sure, this RFC might help, but perhaps you mean fax as in "please fax it to the number on my card". In that case, you are better of getting it from the horse's mouth, the horse in question being CCITT. You'd need T.3 and T.4. and perhaps V.21, V.27 and V.29, depending on how deep into the analog part you wish to get in case of Group III fax. Of course, its not on-line (some would even question if any CCITT document is even readable :-) shrikumar ( shri@iucaa.ernet.in ) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #528 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa23937; 5 Jul 92 0:23 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23914 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 4 Jul 1992 22:41:13 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06619 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 4 Jul 1992 22:41:05 -0500 Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1992 22:41:05 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199207050341.AA06619@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #529 TELECOM Digest Sat, 4 Jul 92 22:41:00 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 529 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: A Positive COCOT Experience (Steve Howard) Re: Longest Phonecall (H. Shrikumar) Re: 911 in Australia (Ash Nallawalla) Re: National Security and 710 (Ken Abrams) Re: National Security and 710 (Aubrey Philipsz) Re: Trying to Locate Bellcore (Alan L. Varney) Re: Can't Reach ANAC or 700-555-4141 From My Dorm (Gordon Hlavenka) Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (H. Shrikumar) Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine (Jack Decker) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 4 Jul 92 00:37:55 MDT (Sat) From: steveh@breck1.breck.com (Steve Howard) Subject: Re: A Positive COCOT Experience In I said: > At the end of the ski season I will calculate the percentage of calls > dialed using 10XXX, 950, etc. -- if there is any interest, I'll post > it. > [Moderator's Note: Yes, please! An actual breakdown of AT&T, Sprint, > MCI and other OCC calls would be quite interesting. PAT] The breakdown is listed below. This is for 11 payphones connected to our PBX (that charge AT&T rates :-) ). They were installed in early March so the information below only reflects about seven weeks of traffic. Unfortunately the breakdown of 10XXX vs 950 is not accurate. When possible the phones translate 10XXX into their 950-xxxx or 1-800 counterparts (presumably this is so that they can remain consistent with the phones that are in nearby areas that don't have equal access). This will be changed -- we have equal access so it isn't necessary here. Also, these numbers are based on call *attempts* -- whether supervision was received or not. Percentage Number Dialed Of Total 950-0244 .98% 950-0488 .35% 950-0638 .35% 950-0675 .14% 950-1022 12.43% MCI (This includes 10222-0-xxx) 950-1477 .07% 800-877-8000 19.59% US Sprint (This includes 10333-0-xxx) 800-950-1022 6.67% AT&T 29.28% (These people inserted an AT&T card into the reader, or dialed 0+ and entered an AT&T card number, or for some other reason got handed off to AT&T). 10288-0-xxxx 30.13% (These people entered 10288 even though the phone would have passed them to AT&T when they entered an AT&T Card number). I find the last number interesting. Half of all AT&T callers dialed the 10288. (I always do :-) ). I wonder how many of these people learned to dial 10288 the hard way? :-( Steve Howard steveh@paradise.breck.com Breckenridge Ski Corporation Disclaimer=The opinions above do not necessarily represent those of my employer. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 22:32:43 GMT From: shri@iucaa.ernet.in (H. Shrikumar) Subject: Re: Longest Phonecall Hi, > One evening I called a friend in Illinois from Virginia. We talked > for maybe 20 minutes, said goodbye, .... [and did not hang up properly] .. > In about a month, our phone bill arrived. There was a nearly 24 hour > long distance phone call to Illinois billed on it. When my housemate, .. > hours. We could prove that all of us were at work all day, and that .. > removed it from the bill. Were this in India, even if one indeed was a mere victim of wrong billing, you'd have been billed anyway, and would have been required to *first* pay up, "under protest" if you wish, and then complain, and wait ... and wait ... and wait.... hoping that your file would move thru the monopoly's redtape. (the law as it stands is clear on that, time for a change here I guess.) (Things might get changing now, with some talk of liberalisation, but I would not hold my breath! :-) But that reminds me ... Two brothers, partners in business, stationed in Lucknow and Delhi, had "learnt" that the long-distance (STD) call meter would wrap around after a certain (close to an hour) time interval. So they'd always make sure that their calls were that period plus three minutes, and they'd get billed for just three minutes. Of course, this amounts to a fraud, but they apparently got away with it for far too long. And of course, the wonders of pulse dial pay phones. Instead of replacing the phone on-hook to disconnect, if you dial 1 very s-l-o-w-l-y, the extended pulse would trigger a disconnect and a new dial tone without releasing the coin from the slot where it gives battery current to the carbon mike. Not to forget the fact that on these pay phones, the coin enables battery current to the carbon mike to let you talk. but if you don't mind bellowing in half-duplex, you can shout into the moving iron earpiece and be heard the other side. (Won't cost you anything for a call. I've had to resort to this once, when one coin box was so full right up to the slot, so you just could not drop a coins.) (In most metro's now we have pay phones with a man in attendance, and a device that meters and bills the call. That's made making public calls so much better, it is quite easy to make long distance calls to from these.) shrikumar ( shri@iucaa.ernet.in ) ------------------------------ From: ash@mlacus.oz.au (Ash Nallawalla) Subject: Re: 911 in Australia Organization: Australian Centre for Unisys Software, Melbourne Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1992 02:34:59 GMT dbw@crash.cts.com (David B. Whiteman) writes: > The radio had a news story about a fellow in Australia who loved to > watch the TV show Rescue 911. When his house was on fire he kept > frantically trying to dial 911 without sucess. He forgot that where > he lived one dials "0 0 0" (three zeros) for emergency services. Sounds like an urban legend in the making. In Australia they have William Shatner (sp?) telling viewers that 000 is the number to use in Oz -- I believe this is repeated more than once during the hour-long programme. Ash Nallawalla Tel: +61 3 550-1638 BH; Fax +61 3 742-4566 ZL4LM/VK3CIT Postal: P.O. Box 539, Werribee VIC 3030, Australia ash@mlacus.oz.au Contact me if you belong to a PC User Group! ------------------------------ Subject: Re: National Security and 710 Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 9:19:30 CDT From: Ken Abrams [John Draper asked why Ken Abrams was talking about 710. PAT] "I" didn't start the discussion. I don't moderate this group and decide what gets published and what does not. My message was an attempt to quash the discussion. Why did you see fit to direct your comments to ME? I absolutely agree with you. Please direct additional comments and complaints to Pat Townson, the conference Moderator or to those folks who seem bent on continuing the discussion. Apparently my advice fell on deaf ears. Ken Abrams nstar!pallas!kabra437 Springfield, IL kabra437@athenanet.com (voice) 217-753-7965 [Moderator's Note: Actually, my experience has been that telling people on Usenet that a certain topic is forbidden discussion only causes the discussion to go on that much longer and more heated than before. PAT] ------------------------------ From: aub@access.digex.com (Aubrey Philipsz) Subject: Re: National Security and 710 Organization: Express Access Public Access UNIX, Greenbelt, Maryland USA Date: Sat, 04 Jul 1992 22:01:42 GMT In article crunch@netcom.com (John Draper) writes: >> 710 is indeed assigned for "Government Special" use. It's actual >> function is highly classified. Doesn't surprise me that you couldn't >> get any information without a need to know. I respectfully suggest >> that you not pursue the matter any further, least someone from the >> Government might start asking YOU a lot of questions!! > If you are SO concerned about national security, then why are you > broadcasting to the world that 710 has anything special in it at all? Hi John! Long time no see. Without saying anything technical, the 710 situation concerning *publicity* is a lot like that of Inward. A lot of people are aware that something called Inward exists, there are a fair number of people who have to deal with it on a daily basis, but in general there is little technical knowledge floating around in public about it. This is because you can't get ahold of Inward from most "normal" phones. The 710 situation is sort of the same. There are a fair number of people who know something about it, because it is hard to hide something that big. There is some general knowledge floating around that it exists, but no real technical knowledge about it ... > Now every phone hacker on the net will be encouraged to start > "scanning" the 710 area code for their "special classified" numbers. I dare say that there have been people calling those numbers for years. This is nothing new. Aub Philipsz aub@digex.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 17:31:42 CDT From: varney@ihlpf.att.com (Alan L Varney) Subject: Re: Trying to Locate Bellcore Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Inc In article sami@scic.intel.com writes: > Can anyone out there tell me how to get in touch with Bellcore? > Specifically their publications division. TAs, TRs and other "standard" documents can be ordered from: Bellcore Document Registrar 445 South Street - Room 2J-125 P. O. Box 1910 Morristown, NJ 07962-1910 or by calling the menu-monster at 1-800-521-CORE (1-800-521-2673); they take plastic. If you don't have a document number handy, they can send you a catalog of technical documents. If you want to talk to the "pub" folks, or a technical person, the numbers/addresses are in the front of any TR (and the "Catalog"). Al Varney - the above represents my opinion, and not AT&T's.... ------------------------------ From: cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (gordon hlavenka) Subject: Re: Can't Reach ANAC or 700-555-4141 From My Dorm Organization: Vpnet Public Access Date: Sat, 04 Jul 1992 16:18:11 GMT > 711-XXXX (whereas elsewhere 711-anything other than 6633 doesn't > work, it gives strange tones or silence) ... (and 711 is not a "real" > exchange). Well, in my area (708-573) "enhanced" 911 was turned on on 9-11-91. Sometime in August of '91 (for the math-impaired, this would have been _before_ September 11) I was playing around at the office in response to another post on this group, dialed '711', and was connected to 911! Stupid me, I hung up immediately. The operator called back and interrogated our receptionist. The operator wouldn't hang up until someone had gone to each office and made sure everyone was OK. This was chalked up as a glitch in the new 911 equipment and/or our cheap office key-phones. A bit off the subject, last week I actually had need to call 911 from my house (708-832). We have been paying a $.50 surcharge for quite some time to cover the "enhanced" 911 that is (supposedly) in service now. When I called, the operator had to ask me for my address and phone number! I'm _really_ impressed (not). Gordon S. Hlavenka cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 21:56:52 GMT From: shri@iucaa.ernet.in (H. Shrikumar) Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine > [Moderator's Note: There are answering machines available with CPC > (called party control) which abort on detecting a hangup. PAT] How does the CPC work ? > [Moderator's Note: Someone calls and the phone rings. Just before your > answering machine picks up, they disconnect, but too late to stop your > machine from answering. Telco sees you have gone off hook, and sends > dial tone, which plays through your outgoing message. After 15-25 > seconds or so, you have not dialed a number -- your machine is still > talking to no one with an outgoing message. Telco decides you are not > going to place a call and must have left your phone off hook, or if > you are going to call it is too late this time around, 'so please > hang up and try your call again ... ' Too sad you in US don't have polarity reversal on your calls !! The phone lines all over India seem to have that. You get one polarity when you talk to the exchange, or when their equipment talks to you, and the opposite polarity when you talk to your party. (After a few posts of India bashing, I could not help get a little patirotic !) shrikumar ( shri@iucaa.ernet.in ) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jul 92 16:53:41 CST From: Jack Decker Subject: Re: Strange Message on Answering Machine Speaking of stupid pranks, here's one that perhaps wasn't as stupid as it first seemed. Maybe 20 years ago a guy was being plagued by prank calls from junior high kids. But he recognized one of the voices as a neighbor kid, so he hooked up a tape recorder to the line and every time one of the calls came in, he taped it. It wasn't long until he got what he wanted -- a perfect recording of the kid saying "You're a real....." followed by a string of profanity that would make a sailor, or the kid's parents, turn beet red. What do you suppose he did with that tape? No, he didn't take it to the cops ... he had a more perverse idea in mind. It just so happened that this guy had worked at a radio station and had enough electrical expertise to figure out how to play the tape back into the phone line in such a way that it sounded fairly live to the person on the other end of the connection. So he waited until one night when he was sure that the kid wasn't home and the kid's mother WAS, dialed up the family home and let the tape rip. Imagine mama's surprise to hear her little darling calling her some very nasty things and making some obscene suggestions, in what was obviously his own voice, and then hanging up on her! You can imagine what must have transpired when the kid got home ... even if mama related enough of the message for the kid to figure out what happened, he couldn't very well admit to making obscene calls to the neighbors. The way I hear the story, the kid wasn't seen outside much (except when mowing the lawn or doing other chores) for a while. The prank calls also came to a screeching halt! Now, with answering machines and Caller-ID, you wouldn't even need to know the caller to return similar prank messages to the parent. Of course, if the parents also had Caller-ID (and you didn't block transmission of your number for the call), they could figure out that you had sent the message, not their kid, but you'd still be in a position to ask why their little darling was leaving such messages on your answering machine. But I have to admit, I'd love to see the expressions on the faces of some of the parents when they hear what was really coming out of the mouths of their kids ... especially if they thought (even for a few seconds) that the kid was saying it directly to THEM! Jack Decker jack@myamiga.mixcom.com FidoNet 1:154/8 [Moderator's Note: This same technique was useful in clearing the airwaves of an obnoxious CB'er here many years ago. He was one of those types who liked to send his modulations through a reverb unit or echo box then into a 100 watt linear amplifier. His modulations sounded this way: 'Break ake ake ake ake ake for a radio check eck eck eck ...' One of those idiots. I mean, my radio was loud, but that guy was incredible. You could hear him over in Michigan across the lake. If he barely heard two kids with 100 milliwatt walkie-talkies a mile away through the hash, he'd have the nerve to key up his radio with all that modulation and power and tell *them* 'hey! back it down out there! ... '. This guy walked all over the locals in Joliet, some 40 miles away. One day when he had a mean streak and was cussing up a storm someone tape recorded it on a two minute endless loop tape, and played it back to him over the air -- anonymously of course, like most CB transmissions -- and over, and over, and over, and over. That tape was played on all forty channels (and then some! heh heh! Early forty channel radios with the Motorola 02-A chip were easily -- and quite illegally -- programmable over the entire 10/11 meter band. The FCC finally put the heat on Motorola to quit making that chip.) That must have spooked him good; little was heard out of him after that. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #529 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa24931; 5 Jul 92 0:52 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07872 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 4 Jul 1992 23:12:38 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31452 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 4 Jul 1992 23:12:30 -0500 Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1992 23:12:30 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199207050412.AA31452@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: "\\telecom"@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #530 TELECOM Digest Sat, 4 Jul 92 23:12:30 CDT Volume 12 : Issue 530 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service (John Rice) Re: Roommates and Long Distance Doesn't Mix (Larry Autry) Re: Satellite Usenet Newsfeeds Avaialable Now (Larry Autry) Re: Funny Advertising Goof-ups (Wrong Numbers) (John Higdon) Re: Can't Reach ANAC or 700-555-4141 From My Dorm (Gordon Hlavenka) Re: Telecomics (Alan Gilbertson) Involuntary Phone Number Changes (Scott Fybush) ISDN Availability to Residence Customers in Chicago Area (Bill Nickless) NER-VOUS Gives Time of Day (was Jane Barbie) (David W. Barts) Factoid From Playboy (Stephen J. Friedl) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rice@ttd.teradyne.com Subject: Re: Concert-Goers Blast 911 Service Organization: Teradyne Inc., Telecommunications Division Date: Sat, 04 Jul 92 04:47:25 GMT In article , bakerj@gtephx.UUCP (Jon Baker) writes: > Excepting a very poorly engineered CO, this also should not be a > problem unless you have a very significant percentage of your > subscribers going offhook all at the same time. This is not the case > in a concert ticket hotline, or a radio station giveaway, but might > occur during some sort of emergency (power failure, weather disaster, > large nearby explosion, etc.) In such a case, certain lines within > the neighborhood can be designated to be 'hot' lines, or 'A' lines, > which get preferential treatment. The idea being, if we can't serve > 100%, and if we tried we'd serve 0%, then let's pick 10%-20% and give > them service. The rationale being, it's not necessary for every one > of 500 residents in a neighborhood to call 911 to report a fire. Well, I'd sure hate to be one of the 80%-90% trying to call for an ambulance for my parent with a heart attack. Who decides who get's 'preferental' service? In my opinion, the 'Concert Ticket' phoenomena is 'misuse' of the phone system (right up there with telemarketing and charity solicitation). In article , williamsk@gtephx.UUCP (Kevin W. Williams) writes: > In article , rice@ttd.teradyne.edu > writes: >>> [Moderator's Note: Come now, do you *really* think US West or any >>> telco relishes these situations and ignores them 'because they are the >>> phone company'? And had telco known in advance (did any of the >>> concert promoters advise telco of the times, etc?), what in your >>> estimation might telco have done about it, other than possibly block >>> off access from certain exchanges when traffic was heavy? PAT] >> I'd have to disagree. Proper design of a "Life and Death" emergency >> system should preclude ANY intruption of that service based on trunk >> loading. 911 trunks should be Independent of any other traffic. > Let's be a little realistic here. I could, indeed, design a 911 system > which was indpendent of any other request for service. Unfortunately, > I would have to run a separate phone to each house which only served > the emergency service bureau. (Technical paragraph deleted) > If you want a feature that would work, it would be possible to cut off > any subscriber that called for a ticket, and not allow him to > reoriginate for five minutes or so. This would free up a lot of > resources. Unfortunately, it would also open up the telco for lawsuits > ("Aunt Tilly keeled over right after I called for a ticket, and I > couldn't get through."). Is this any different than a lawsuit "Aunt Tilly keeled over while that "Damned Radio Station" was running it's contest and I couldn't get through." > Choke prefixes, call gapping, and similar network management > treatments are a compromise for an insoluble problem. No switch > manufacturer can sell totally non-blocking line equipment, because the > telcos won't pay the costs. We cannot predict who is going to call 911 > and who is going to call Larry King. The best we can do is make the > machine survive the peaking, give fairly distributed service to all > originators, and try to deal with the problem during routing and > termination. My original comment related to 'Trunk Blockage' not whether the subscriber could receive dial tone. In the 'Concert Ticket' scenario, it's more likely that all outgoing trunks are blocked. It's the 'natural disaster' scenario in which dial tone becomes hard to get. I stand by my original statement. "I'd have to disagree. Proper design of a "Life and Death" emergency system should preclude ANY intruption of that service based on TRUNK LOADING. 911 trunks should be Independent of any other traffic. " John Rice K9IJ "Did I say that ?" I must have, but It was rice@ttd.teradyne.com MY opinion only, no one else's...Especially (708)-940-9000 - (work) Not my Employer's.... (70