From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 14 00:13:11 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4E4DBH03712; Wed, 14 May 2003 00:13:11 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 00:13:11 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305140413.h4E4DBH03712@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #451 TELECOM Digest Wed, 14 May 2003 00:13:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 451 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Verizon Jolts High-Speed Service (Eric Friedebach) Exchange / Carrier Map (Ryan M. Scherzinger) Re: Memorandum of Understanding Internet Admin (Judith Oppenheimer) Re: Legal Definition of Broadband (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: A Vonage Hack; Is This the Party to Whom I am Connected (Breuckman) Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase (David Wolff) ACD Error (Iris) Microsoft: ILoo No Hoax After All (Monty Solomon) U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study (Monty Solomon) IBM Debuts World's Most Sophisticated Server (Monty Solomon) Verizon Unveils Wireless Internet Service (Monty Solomon) Policy Posts 9.09: CDT Report Analyzes Public Policy Concerns (Solomon) CDT Headline: CDT Releases Report Analyzing Public Policy (M Solomon) Dallas Honored as One of Six Cyber Safe Cities in Nationwide (M Solomon) Policy Post 9.10: Authentication Privacy Principles Released (M Solomon) TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-R Will be Ignored (Solomon) Last Laugh! Confessions of a Former Spammer ... (Al Gillis) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Eric Friedebach Subject: Verizon Jolts High-Speed Service Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 18:55:50 -0500 Organization: Purity Of Essence/Plant Operational Error Reply-To: Eric Friedebach Scott Woolley, 05.13.03, Forbes.com NEW YORK - It may be the best news the high-tech industry has seen all year: This morning Verizon Communications laid out the details of its plan to slash prices, increase speeds and reach more customers with high-speed Internet access--moves which could invigorate the relatively torpid U.S. broadband market. High prices and lagging speeds have been the two primary reasons that America's use of broadband lags well behind global leaders such as Canada and South Korea. Silicon Valley groups such as Technet say the slow U.S. rollout has crippled many bandwith-hungry technologies and left the U.S. telecom industry drowning in excess capacity. Verizon will cut the price of DSL, its high-speed Internet service, to as little as $30 a month for customers who get the service as part of a package. Non-bundle customers will see prices fall to $35 from between $40 and $50. The cuts put DSL within spitting distance of the $20 to $24 many people pay for dial-up service, and will likely trigger a rash of upgrades. Factoring in the cost of a second phone line that many customers use for dial-up service -- but which DSL does not require -- and upgrading to Verizon DSL will now actually save many people money. http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/13/cz_sw_0513verizon.html Eric Friedebach ------------------------------ From: Ryan M. Scherzinger Subject: Exchange / Carrier map Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 20:15:44 -0500 Please advise me how I can get my hands on a ILEC and/or CLEC map, possibly with zip, county, etc. overlays. Thank you, Ryan M. Scherzinger ------------------------------ From: Judith Oppenheimer Subject: Re: Memorandum of Understanding Internet Administration Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 21:34:43 -0400 > Memorandum of Understanding Internet Administration [Domain Name Issue] > From: The-Butterfly-Guy@surfmeister.net (The Butterfly Guy) > Subject: Memorandum of Understanding Internet Administration [Domain Name] > Date: 13 May 2003 13:14:23 -0700 > Organization: http://groups.google.com/ > ICANN is seeking public comment on additional gTLD domain name > allocations. > see http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-03may03.htm > This is a subject that every person involved in the telecom industry > should be aware of and comment on. To get the skinny on this latest ICANN chicanery see http://icann.blog.us/2003/05/10.html (Do not be confused if perusing this blog, it appears to support ICANN when expedient, yet suddenly acts surprised that ICANN acts like ICANN. For the record, ICANN always acts like ICANN -- always. Nonetheless, the link above provides accurate background into this latest fiasco.) Judith http://WhoSells800.com _ http://PhoneBillFundRaising.com http://ICBTollFreeNews.com _ http://800Consulting.com 212 684-7210, 1 800 The Expert ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Legal Definition of Broadband Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 02:01:12 GMT On Mon, 12 May 2003 21:25:52 -0400, unspammable-3107@workbench.net posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > 1) Is there any Federal or other standard in the United States that > would set a minimum speed (upload and download) as a legal > definition of "broadband" or "high speed Internet"? Where I am > going with this is this: If I set up an ISP, advertised "broadband > Internet service" or "high speed Internet service", and then > provided service from a bank of old 2400 bps modems, I'm sure that > I could probably be successfully sued and/or made to answer to my > state's attorney general, or some consumer protection agency. But > is there a legal definition of what constitutes "high speed > Internet", or is that simply an arbitrary concept? The FCC defines "advanced services" to include services that provide internet access at speeds of at least 200 kbps up- and downstream. This would not include typical ADSL service, which usually has upload speeds that are below this level. To my knowledge, there is no accepted definition of "broadband" or "high speed" service, other than noticeably faster than a dialup modem. To be meaningful, any such service should be described more specifically in terms of its down- and upstream speed targets. Otherwise, such terms are merely generic. In its Echostar-DirecTV decision, 17 FCC Rcd 20559, para. 221 (2002), the FCC used the term "broadband Internet access services" to refer to the "services today ... predominantly provided by cable operators using cable modem technology, and secondarily by telecommunications carriers utilizing DSL." Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: A Vonage Hack or, Is This the Party to Whom I am Connected? Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 21:31:54 -0500 Organization: Puma's Lair - catbox.com In article , "John R Levine" wrote: > Vonage has a nice call transfer feature. If you're on the phone with > party A, you can flash, dial #90, party B's number, # and hang up. It > then calls party B and the call continues between A and B. I use it to > transfer to my ILEC phone when my net connection is crummy, to my cell > phone when I have to leave, etc. You can use it regardless of whether > you or party A originated the first call. That is similar to the situation I found with ISDN. If I had a three-way call going, I could disconnect and the other two parties could continue talking. The 'normal analog' line would tear everything down if I disconnected on a three-way call. It didn't seem to tie up any of the 'ACO's (additional call offerings) - after I had disconnected I could make or receive additional calls. I wasn't billed by time so that wasn't a factor, I always wondered if it would work the same with a toll call. -- Gary Breuckman ------------------------------ From: dwolffxx@panix.com (David Wolff) Subject: Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 02:51:36 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. In article , Steven Lichter wrote: >> Mr. Wellqborn, 39, a beefy, blond former Georgia Tech football >> player, makes a living chasing spammers for EarthLink and others. He >> is so virulently antispam that he is personally suing one person who >> agreed to an injunction not to send spam, and then sent him one >> anyway. At a recent antispam conference Mr. Wellborn drew applause >> when he suggested the best way to deter a spammer would be to "draw >> him and quarter him and put his head on a pike. > I have been advocating for years the only way to get rid of a spammer > is to kill them. I don't think this is at all sufficient. I would recommend confiscation of all their assets, sterilization of all their relatives and offspring in case spamming has a genetic basis, and decapitation of the spammer, with head and body to be submerged in separate containers of water for at least 24 hours. Just in case. Thanks -- David (Remove "xx" to reply.) ------------------------------ From: a13365@yahoo.com (Iris) Subject: ACD Error Date: 13 May 2003 20:27:42 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hello, We have ACD software in the office. But everyday the computer (PC) will be rebooted by iteself. I run the diagnosis report, there is a message like: All calling lines are idle in 3 hours, the computer will be reset. Our ACD is setup as all agents log off in 17:00 pm. Can I do something to let the computer not reboot? I am waiting for your help. Thanks, Iris ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:31:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Microsoft: ILoo No Hoax After All By HELEN JUNG AP Business Writer SEATTLE (AP) -- What's true with the iLoo? Microsoft Corp. and its public relations firm changed their story _ again _ Tuesday about whether the United Kingdom division had been developing an Internet-enabled portable toilet. On Monday, three representatives for the software giant told news agencies, including The Associated Press, that an April 30 news release trumpeting the "iLoo" was a hoax and apologized for "any confusion or offense." But on Tuesday, the company reversed itself, saying the iLoo was real but now has been killed. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34182377 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:34:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study By Bob Tourtellotte LOS ANGELES, May 13 (Reuters) - A study released on Tuesday showed two-thirds of moviegoers do not mind watching advertisements before a film begins, a statistic that should buttress efforts to put more ads in theaters. Among younger movie fans aged 12 to 24, the percentage who do not mind seeing the ads rose to 70 percent, according to the study conducted by Arbitron Inc. Arbitron also found that audiences find theater ads more interesting than TV ads and more acceptable than pop-up or other ads on the Internet. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34182468 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:38:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: IBM Debuts World's Most Sophisticated Server SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 2003-- Customers of All Sizes Can Tap Mainframe Power via New on Demand Services IBM today introduced the world's most sophisticated server and announced that customers of all sizes will now be able to access the unprecedented capabilities of the IBM mainframe through new on demand services from IBM Global Services. The IBM eServer zSeries 990, the new flagship of the eServer family, builds on the breakthrough technology of the eServer z900, which rewrote the rules for enterprise-class computing with fortress-like security, rock-solid reliability, and extreme performance in Linux virtualization and automation. The new z990 is the result of a four-year, more than $1 billion investment in the zSeries platform involving 1,200 IBM developers. The z990 sets a new standard for enterprise-class computing and will feature industry leadership in: -- Virtualization -- the z990 architecture can support hundreds or even thousands of virtual Linux servers in a single box. That roughly equates to an entire data center on one server the size of a refrigerator. -- Automation -- the z990 features IBM's exclusive Intelligent Resource Director (IRD) technology, which dynamically moves system resources to the workloads that need them, according to priorities and objectives set by the customer. -- Scalability -- a single z990 offers massive capacity and the ability to scale up and out. It can scale up to process 450 million e-business transactions/day or scale out to manage hundreds of virtual Linux servers. A clustered z990 can handle up to 13 billion transactions/day, exceeding the average weekly volume on the New York Stock Exchange. The z990 also offers the ability to turn capacity on and off, allowing customers to temporarily add server engines during peak periods. -- Security -- designed from the ground up to help thwart intrusion into the system, the IBM mainframe is one of the most secure servers on the market. A 16-way z990 can securely process up to 11,000 transactions/second. -- Reliability -- mainframe reliability is measured in decades, not weeks or days, and the hardware availability rate for a clustered zSeries is up to 99.999%, or less than five minutes of downtime per year. The z990 is the most powerful and scalable IBM mainframe in the 40-year history of the product, with twice the virtualization capabilities and the ability to do nearly three times the work of the z900, a new "building block" design that allows customers to plug in new capacity without taking the system down, and a dramatically simplified product structure that reduces the number of mainframe models from 42 to 4. IBM also announced that IBM Global Services has begun deployment of the z990 in its On Demand Data Centers -- beginning in Boulder, Colorado -- providing new services for customers seeking mainframe computing power on demand. The new mainframe will serve as a cornerstone of the multi-platform centers, enabling customers of all sizes to acquire computing power and capacity on demand in new ways. IBM Global Services will offer mainframe capabilities, featuring technology from its Utility Management Infrastructure (UMI) service, which provides customers with fully-integrated infrastructure including mainframe processors, storage, networking and middleware. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34177793 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:41:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Unveils Wireless Internet Service CHICAGO, May 13 (Reuters) - Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ), the largest U.S. local phone company, on Tuesday launched a service that will allow customers to access the Internet wirelessly on high-speed networks throughout New York City. Verizon, which is based in New York, said it activated 150 WiFi access points or "hot spots" in the city and plans to activate 850 more by the end of the year. It said its deployment would mark the largest such initiative by an Internet service provider in a single U.S. city. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34173107 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:43:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Policy Posts 9.09: CDT Report Analyzes Public Policy Concerns CDT POLICY POST Volume 9, Number 9, April 28, 2003 A Briefing On Public Policy Issues Affecting Civil Liberties Online from The Center For Democracy and Technology (1) CDT Report Analyzes Public Policy Concerns About ENUM Technology (2) What is ENUM, and Has It Been Deployed Yet? (3) Policy Issues Raised by ENUM (4) Recommendations for ENUM Implementations http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_9.09.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:44:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: CDT Headline: CDT Releases Report Analyzing Public Policy From: CDT Info Subject: CDT Headline: CDT Releases Report Analyzing Public Policy Concerns about ENUM Technology Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 12:11:44 -0400 CDT Releases Report Analyzing Public Policy Concerns about ENUM Technology ENUM, a technology protocol that may provide a critical tool in the more widespread adoption of "voice over the Internet" services, also poses risks to privacy. CDT's Standards, Technology & Policy Project has issued a report analyzing a range of privacy and other public policy concerns raised by the ENUM protocol. The report sets out detailed policy recommendations that should be followed by national governments and service providers in any implementation of ENUM. April 28, 2003 "ENUM: Mapping Telephone Numbers onto the Internet -- Potential Benefits With Public Policy Risks" http://www.cdt.org/standards/enum/ More on Internet Standards: http://www.cdt.org/standards/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:42:10 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Dallas Honored as One of Six Cyber Safe Cities in Nationwide MSN and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Visit Dallas To Recognize Law Enforcement and Provide Resources for Online Safety Education; Mayor Laura Miller Issues Online Safety Proclamation DALLAS, May 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MSN(R) and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), one of the nation's leading child advocacy groups, today named Dallas a Cyber Safe City -- one of only six U.S. cities to be honored -- and recognized local police officers Lt. Bill Walsh, Sgt. Byron Fassett and Detective Steven Nelson as Cyber Safe City Heroes for championing online safety in their community. Mayor Laura Miller kicked off the Cyber Safe City activities by issuing an official online safety proclamation at an event held at Dallas City Hall. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34172509 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:46:31 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Policy Post 9.10: Authentication Privacy Principles Released CDT POLICY POST Volume 9, Number 10, May 13, 2003 A Briefing on Public Policy Issues Affecting Civil Liberties Online from The Center for Democracy and Technology Contents: (1) Authentication Privacy Principles Working Group Releases Interim Report (2) Key Elements of the Authentication Privacy Principles (3) Background on Authentication and Privacy (4) Future Work of the Authentication Privacy Principles Working Group http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_9.10.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:54:24 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 13:36:36 -0400 From: Declan McCullagh Subject: FC: TidBITS editors warn readers that antispam C-Rs ignored This is what TidBITS will do (it makes sense): Closer to home, be warned that we will not answer any challenges generated in response to our mailing list postings. Thus, if you're using a challenge-response system and not receiving TidBITS, you'll need to figure that out on your own. Also, if you send us a personal note and we receive a challenge to our reply, we may or may not respond to it, depending on our workload at the time. http://www.politechbot.com/p-04749.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder why it is so many people are opposed to this obviously good spam-fighting technique. I wonder also why the readers would not just 'whitelist' the publications they wish to read. It seems to me everyone could benefit from cooperation where spam-fighting techniques are concerned. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: Last Laugh! Confessions of a Former Spammer Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 20:33:38 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Sunday morning's Portland Oregonian (5/11/03) carried the headline "Confessions of a Former Spammer"/ Following was an interesting article about a "former" spammer with probably the usual percentage of truth and accuracy we've come to enjoy when we read technical information in media designed for the unwashed masses. This article resides at www.oregonlive.com . Check it out by doing a search on that page for "Confessions" Al ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #451 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 14 15:06:30 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4EJ6UA07656; Wed, 14 May 2003 15:06:30 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 15:06:30 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305141906.h4EJ6UA07656@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #452 TELECOM Digest Wed, 14 May 2003 15:06:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 452 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Qs About Service (M Brader) Re: Microsoft: ILoo No Hoax After All (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored (Sullivan) Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored (B Margolin) Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase (Steven Lichter) Re: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone (Don Saklad) Tell Me Service (Michael Andrews, Sr.) Connecting 2 Wireless Routers in One Network (Ronen Amity) Re: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study (Paul Wallich) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 11:10:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers Eleven years ago in the Digest, I printed a book review by Jim Haynes which generated a lot of interest at the time, and I thought you might like to see it again. So much has happened, so much has changed, on the net in the past decade. Surely, those were happier times for all of us who had been around for several years back then, and things have not improved much now that several plus a decade have gotten past us. Anyway, here is Jim Haynes's report from 1992 in the Digest: Date: Thu, 15 Oct 00:10:00 GMT Reply-To: TELECOM Moderator Organization: TELECOM Digest I received this interesting book review in my mail today and thought it worthwhile sharing with TELECOM Digest readers. PAT From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 18:20:09 -0700 Subject: 19th Century Telegraphers (Book Review) Book Review The American Telegrapher: a social history 1860-1900 Edwin Gabler Rutgers University Press, 1988 ISBN 0-8135-1284-0 (hardbound), 0-8135-1285-9 (paperback) I seem to read a lot of books which are at the same time both interesting and tedious. This is one such book. Written by an academic historian for reading by other academic historians, it is long on footnotes, theories, and statistics and short on flesh-and-blood storytelling; yet there is enough of the latter to entertain the casual reader. Part I of this review is an attempt to convey the general message of the book. Part II is for fun: a selection of stories about the lives and times telegraphers a century ago. Part I There are five chapters: a history of the Great Strike of 1883 as an introduction to the world of the operators; a description of the telegraph industry and especially Western Union; a social portrait of the telegraphers; a study of women telegraphers; and a summary of the labor movement and politics of telegraphers. An epilogue compares the situation of telegraphers in the 1880s with that of the air traffic controllers a hundred years later. Telegraph and railroad companies following the Civil War represented an entirely new kind of business, one in which the company's assets are strung out for hundreds or thousands of miles with offices and employees sprinkled along the lines. There were other affinities between the two kinds of companies. Railroads used telegraphy to support their own operations. Railroad rights-of-way were ideal places to run telegraph lines, affording easy access for construction and maintenance at a time when there were few roads. Telegraph business was likely to be found in the same places the railroads served. In many small towns the railroad station served as the public telegraph office, as there was not enough telegraph business to support an office for telegraph alone. Some railroads such as B & O operated their own public telegraph businesses. (cf. Southern Pacific a century later getting into the communications business.) Other railroads had contract arrangements with the telegraph companies, principally Western Union, for use of rights of way, interconnection of circuits, and providing public telegraph service at the railroad stations. These new kinds of businesses needed a new kind of management. The military became their model. Many of the top managers were alumni of the Civil War military telegraph system. The companies had divisions, rule books, general orders and special orders, and chains of command. Management style was authoritarian. As is the case with some companies today, the telegraph and railroad companies then were headed by a mixture of people who knew the business and those who were primarily financial wizards. Telegraph operators represented the beginning of a new social class, the lower-middle-class white-collar employees of large corporations. Many were the children of farmers or of city blue-collar workers. A great many were of Irish lineage. For all of these telegraphy offered a step up the social ladder as well as an escape from hard physical labor and city slums or rural isolation. Telegraphy was an occupation open to women, although the majority of operators were male (and, like the women, young and unmarried). The national economy was fairly flat or even deflationary during the period 1860-1890. Western Union profits rose handsomely throughout the period. The operators did not share in this prosperity. For one thing, there was an oversupply of them. First-class operators, who could send and receive thirty to forty words per minute for hours on end, were assigned to press and market reporting circuits. They could command pay two to three times as great as that of the second-class operators who made up the bulk of the force. Many operators learned the craft by hanging around small railroad and telegraph offices; others worked their way up from messenger and clerk jobs in larger offices; still others were trained at a number of schools that sprang up around the country. Most of the latter seem to have been disreputable if not completely fraudulent, operating for profit and promising high pay and mobility to rural youth. They were the century-ago counterparts of the for-profit data processing schools of our own times, the kind that advertised on matchbook covers and turned out an oversupply of under-qualified graduates for high tuition fees. Another financial problem for the telegraphers resulted from their new social class. Telegraphers' pay was on a par with that of skilled blue-collar workers; but their living expenses were greater. With the move to suits and ties and shined shoes they felt a need to live in middle-class housing, eat middle-class meals, and partake of middle-class entertainments. A few of the operators' perceptions of mistreatment by the companies were more apparent than real. The 1840s through 1860s had been a period when telegraphy was just getting started. Job opportunities were abundant and promotions were rapid. As the industry matured there were fewer spectacular success stories; telegraphy even seemed to be a dead-end job. Other complaints had a more solid foundation. Mergers of telegraph companies eliminated jobs. An economic downturn in the 1870s caused Western Union to institute across-the-board salary reductions, which were partially offset by monetary deflation. Operators tended to move around a lot, which allowed the company to hire cheaper replacements for those who left. The first attempt of telegraph workers to organize was the National Telegraphic Union of 1863. This was more of a mutual benefit society than a labor union. It provided members with sickness and funeral benefits and aimed to elevate the character of the members and promote just and harmonious relations with employers. With conditions for telegraphers growing worse after the Civil War the Telegraphers' Protective League was formed in 1868 as a very different kind of organization. It was a secret organization, because there was nothing at the time to protect its members from the unbridled power of their employers. Rather than relieving the sick and burying the dead it proposed to raise the members to a financial position in which they could take care of themselves. The TPL felt strong enough by January, 1870 to risk a strike against Western Union. It failed after about a week. There were just too many operators seeking work, especially in the winter season; the company was too strong; and the union was too poorly organized. The operators' situation continued to deteriorate through the 1870s as Western Union reduced wages, the number of would-be operators increased, and the company absorbed its competitors. An attempt to form another union in 1872 fizzled. In 1881 Jay Gould took over Western Union, moving the company closer to being a true national monopoly. By the summer of 1882 a number of regional labor organizations put aside their differences to form the Brotherhood of Telegraphers of the United States and Canada under the aegis of the Knights of Labor. The Brotherhood, unlike its predecessors, accepted the female operators as members. In July, 1883 the Brotherhood presented a list of grievances to Western Union and some other firms, hoping for at least a compromise settlement and at worst a short strike. When the company made no meaningful concessions the telegraphers walked out on July 19. At first things looked good for the Brotherhood. About three fourths of Western Union operators honored the strike. Public opinion was much on the side of the telegraphers, at least to the extent that it was against the side of Jay Gould and the W.U. monopoly. One competing telegraph company settled quickly with the union; and another (B & O) came close to, but never close enough. Union leaders worked hard to keep the public on their side, urging the strikers to be models of dignity and sobriety. The women were as valiant as the men, if not more so, in upholding the strike. Still, public sympathy did not feed the hungry; and the strike dwindled until it was officially called off August 17. Operators wishing to return to work had to sign a pledge of loyalty; those considered militant unionists were blacklisted by the company. Still, it appears the company was somewhat humbled by the power of the union and made a few concessions to the operators. Failure of the strike led to some ill feeling in the larger labor movement. The telegraphers accused the Knights of insufficient support; the Knights leadership felt the telegraphers had acted impulsively and without sufficient preparation. The Brotherhood soon withdrew from the Knights; and union activity reverted to local groups. Yet by 1885 there was a new organization, the Telegraphers' Union of America, which rejoined the Knights in 1886. This seems to have faded away by the early 1890s along with the Knights. Railroad telegraphers formed the Order of Railway Telegraphers in 1886. An Order of Commercial Telegraphers was formed in 1890 but never amounted to much, and allied itself with the railway telegraphers in 1897-98. The next attempt to form a union didn't happen until 1907, with the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America, which also suffered disaster in a strike against Western Union. Gabler concludes with a discussion of a number of labor and political issues affecting telegraphers. One of the Brotherhood's demands had been equal pay for equal work, male and female. This seems to have been widely hailed as the Right Thing to do. I wonder whether the male telegraphers supported the demand because it was right; or if they supported it because they knew if the companies had to pay men and women the same they would hire only men. Some wanted a craft union, with membership limited to telegraphers, with an apprenticeship program that would raise the quality of operators while reducing their numbers. There was some interest in government licensing of operators. Others favored an industrial union, open to all Western Union employees. Some objected to the secret fraternal rites that were a feature of the Knights of Labor; Catholic workers were forbidden to become members of secret organizations of any kind. The operators wanted to protect their new middle-class image by being models of respectability and sobriety; some of the linemen on the other hand had no scruples about cutting wires to increase pressure on the companies during a strike. Some felt that telegraphy should be a government monopoly, as was and still is the norm in Europe. Some saw salvation in a worker-owned cooperative, if they could only convince the banks or the government to put up the money necessary to establish the system. Others sought to improve the status of the working classes through political action; quite a number were attracted to the United Labor Party of Henry George. A hundred years later issues like these are still with us. Part II Dr. Gabler had access to a vast amount of material: census records, archives of the telegraph companies, contemporary newspaper accounts, magazines published for the edification and amusement of operators, and even novels in which telegraphers were used as characters. The footnotes and bibliography take up 48 pages. One page in the book is an illustration of advertisements in a telegraphers' magazine of 1883. They include a book on shorthand, a book of money-making secrets, a book on the mysteries of love-making, a book on fortune telling, watch charms with microscopic pictures, a book of advice to the unmarried, a package of stationery, a book on politeness, a book of letters for all occasions, playing cards with marked backs, a book of magic tricks, a book on business, and a book on ballroom dancing. The theme is that these appealed to working-class young adults who felt a need to learn how to behave properly as members of the middle-class. A number of telegraph operators rose to prominence. Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie are the best known; Theodore N. Vail was a founder of AT&T; others found success in business or politics; and almost all the upper management of Western Union was drawn from the ranks of operators. In 1885 there were five doctors and one dentist moonlighting as telegraph operators -- maybe medicine and dentistry didn't pay all that well in those days. Thomas Edison, as a young telegrapher in the 1860s, would work a full day and then stay in the office at night, listening to a press circuit to get high speed code practice. Later he worked the Boston end of a New York circuit with an operator named Jerry Borst. Operators formed friendships with their counterparts at the other end of the wires. The telegraph companies insisted that operators should work at whatever circuits they were assigned. Edison and Borst conspired to change three characters of the code, so that nobody else could copy their transmissions and they could always work together. Cockroaches were such a problem in the office that Edison devised a bug zapper to protect his lunch from the little beasties. Friendships over the wires were nourished during lulls in traffic by exchanges of jokes and local news, and by checker games. Sometimes love and courtship blossomed too. At other times operators were rude to one another. On one occasion two operators got so angry at each other that they arranged to meet at a town halfway between their posts and settle the matter with fists at 1:00 AM. "Salting" (sending too fast for the receiving operator) was a frequent source of irritation. Salting was also part of the common practice of hazing new operators. Operators frequently got privileges, such as free passes to theaters and on trains. With the chronic oversupply it was common for operators to travel back and forth across the country looking for work, or for better conditions. Operators didn't get vacations, paid or otherwise; but in the summer months telegraph offices would open in the resort towns where the rich took their vacations, and operators could find work there. In 1883 Western Union employed 444 telegraphers in New York City, 96 in Boston, 88 in St. Louis, and 83 in Chicago. This seems to support a conjecture of mine that W.U. was weakened all its life by overattention to serving New York City and insufficient effort to develop the business in other parts of the country. There was friction between the city operators and the rural operators. The city operators were proud of their skills, and wanted to move the traffic. They resented they way country operators would frequently interrupt transmissions. The country operators, usually working in railroad depots, countered that telegraphy was but a small part of their duties. They had to answer questions from the public, sell tickets, meet trains, tend switches and signals, handle freight, and keep the lamps burning. They commonly worked shifts as long as twelve or even sixteen hours. Development of duplex and then quadruplex operation greatly increased the pressure on operators, as the receiving operators could not interrupt the senders. Gender stereotyping held that only male operators had the stamina to handle these heavily-loaded circuits; yet the book cites a number of examples of women who worked these circuits. Women were consistently paid less than men. The companies were well aware that women were a bargain compared with men, and continually tried to replace men with women. Nellie Welch had full charge of the telegraph office in Point Arena, California in 1886. She was eleven years old. Western Union and the Cooper Union Institute in 1869 jointly started a free eight-month telegraphy course for women. It lasted through the early 1890s, turning out about 80 graduates a year. They would first take non-paying jobs assisting regular operators, and then be hired as operators on lightly loaded city circuits. This school was much despised by men for its contribution to the oversupply problem, thought it probably hurt the opportunities for women more than those for men. Beginner and less-skilled operators were called "plugs" or "hams." (Note the endless controversy over the origin of the term "ham" for amateur radio operators.) The schools that turned out these operators were called "plug factories." Craft magazines sought to shame operators who taught telegraphy. They were urged to pass on the secrets of Morse only to brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. At least one railroad operator quit his job rather than cooperate with a student placed with him by the company. ---------------- [Moderator's Note: My thanks for this very interesting article. Digest readers are encouraged to send book reviews and other special articles like this to Telecom for distribution on the net. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Qs About the Service Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 00:30:04 EDT From: msb@vex.net (Mark Brader) Gail Hall writes: > I was surprised a couple nights ago when they played some of the > 911 call tapes on a TV news broadcast. > Callers stated very clearly the name of the building they were in and > that the building was on the campus of the university, which they also > named. Callers said there was shooting going on there. But the > operator wants to know the exact address. ... It would be particularly disconcerting for a caller who was used to a place where the building name *is* the complete address. That's how it was when I was in university: "Physics Building, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1" was the complete address of that building. Later the university was assigned a street address, but it was still a *single* address -- 200 University Av. W. -- for the whole main campus, maybe 30 buildings, and that's still the way it is today. > But shouldn't they have a database about most of the well known > buildings in the city? Sounds good to me! Mark Brader, Toronto "It's the almost correct solutions that msb@vex.net are the most dangerous..." -- Dave Eisen My text in this article is in the public domain. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know the public safety database in Chicago is built like that. Such irregular or 'vanity' addresses as 'One Illinois Center' and 'Two Illinois Center' have cross-references in the database to the actual location in the complex. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Microsoft: ILoo No Hoax After All Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 05:02:38 GMT On Tue, 13 May 2003 19:31:22 -0400, Monty Solomon posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > By HELEN JUNG AP Business Writer > SEATTLE (AP) -- What's true with the iLoo? Microsoft Corp. and its > public relations firm changed their story _ again _ Tuesday about > whether the United Kingdom division had been developing an > Internet-enabled portable toilet. > On Monday, three representatives for the software giant told news > agencies, including The Associated Press, that an April 30 news > release trumpeting the "iLoo" was a hoax and apologized for "any > confusion or offense." > But on Tuesday, the company reversed itself, saying the iLoo was real > but now has been killed. > - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34182377 From the foregoing link: But MSN's executive team, which had heard of the iLoo through news reports, took the unusual step of killing the project on Monday, she said, believing that the portable toilet "wasn't the best extension of our brand." So is Microsoft sh*tting us, or what? All I can say is that the iLoo would have provided a uniquely feature-rich user experience, which is typical of MS brand extensions. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'A uniquely feature-rich user experience'; gee-whiz ... I mean, would anyone stay in the outhouse privvy long enough to be able to login and read news or mail or spam or whatever? When I used to live in Chicago (and the ones in Independence, Kansas during Neewollah Festival each October are no better!) those porta-potties set up for the summer festivals always had such a distinct odor to them that people went in them and exited as quickly as possible under the circumstances. Quite often as you sat there, mid the fumes and the vapor, too late you would discover that some damn fool before you had used all the paper. To me it would NOT be a conducive atmosphere to read news, email *or* send spam. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 05:15:30 GMT On Tue, 13 May 2003 19:54:24 -0400, Monty Solomon posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > This is what TidBITS will do (it makes sense): > Closer to home, be warned that we will not answer any challenges > generated in response to our mailing list postings. Thus, if you're > using a challenge-response system and not receiving TidBITS, you'll > need to figure that out on your own. Also, if you send us a personal > note and we receive a challenge to our reply, we may or may not > respond to it, depending on our workload at the time. > http://www.politechbot.com/p-04749.html > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder why it is so many people are > opposed to this obviously good spam-fighting technique. I wonder also > why the readers would not just 'whitelist' the publications they wish > to read. It seems to me everyone could benefit from cooperation where > spam-fighting techniques are concerned. PAT] Perhaps because many automated emails can't accept replies or process them as required. I get legitimate emails from a variety of sources (vendors, ebay.com, amazon.com, etc.) providing important information from email addresses that will not receive and cannot process replies, much less generate responses. I can't whitelist these addresses because I don't know them in advance. Furthermore, will the challenge-response ISPS even provide a whitelist capability and will users be able to use it, realistically? If I buy an airline ticket online, an automatic confirmation will be sent from an unknown address. I won't get it under a challenge-response scheme, because a reply to it demanding a response won't be answered. How will the TELECOM Digest handle challenges? It will be difficult to automate responses if the purpose is to make life difficult for spammers, I would imagine. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Interesting you mention it. I have just a little script here which answers to the email address 'tel-archives@ telecom-digest.org' and it sends out a help file of how to use the Telecom Archives Email/FTP Service by writing email to it using a simple command set: a command word followed by an argument. For example, 'REPLY username@email' gives its attention to that user. 'SEND filename' returns the desired file from the archives. 'GET' is the equivilent of 'SEND' for the purpose of guys who are more familiar with FTP. 'INFO' gets information and help files on using the email server. 'INFO filename' gets that particular part of the help document on using the service. It responds in email to the person from the address 'Telecom Archives Email Information Service' with the requested file. The VERBOSE command sends them back a copy of what the Info Server thought they were asking for. And it saves a copy of everything in a mailbox here at massis.lcs.mit.edu. If the mail server cannot find a 'REPLY username@address' in the inbound email somewhere, then it forces the REPLY name by using the "From " or "From:" or "from" it finds elsewhere in the email, and it sends the person a copy of my help file on how to use the system. It is easily adaptable for almost any kind of challenge response system. Maybe I should put the entire script for using it here for guys who want to copy it and use it for themselves. I have had this on line for many, many years. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Organization: Genuity Managed Services, Woburn, MA Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 14:40:59 GMT In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to an article by Monty Solomon : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder why it is so many people are > opposed to this obviously good spam-fighting technique. I wonder also As a mailing-list administrator, I'm surprised you don't appreciate it. What do you plan to do if you start getting hundreds of challenges a day? > why the readers would not just 'whitelist' the publications they wish > to read. It seems to me everyone could benefit from cooperation where > spam-fighting techniques are concerned. PAT] I don't know about you, but I don't know offhand all the mailing lists I'm on (my employer has lots of internal mailing lists, many of which include other lists), so composing that whitelist would be problematic. Also, as has been mentioned in other messages about C-R systems, the spammers will start masquerading their messages as if they're from/to addresses on popular lists, so that they'll make it through the whitelists. Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com Genuity Managed Services, a Level(3) Company, Woburn, MA *** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups. Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See my response elsewhere in this issue. White lists can use wild cards can't they? So couldn't you say something like 'accept all mail from *@telecom-digest.org' or 'accept mail from *@massis.lcs.mit.edu'? The white list should only have what is needed in the acceptable address lines to uniquely qualify what you want to receive. Maybe I will supply all users here with an address of the form 'yourname@telecom-digest.org' **only for use when writing to me**. Why is it so many of the most vocal opponents of spam are also the most pessimistic? Any suggestions made, any plans laid out, none of them will ever work for whatever reasons. Listen up: no *one single plan or idea* will ever fit all occassions. Most plans and ideas on the other hand will each take a nip out of the spam traffic. You have to do what you can, little by little. That's why C-R is one of the better plans I have heard of. You just keep nibbling away at the spam problem. I mean, look at how spammers have changed their tactics in the past couple years, with 'legitimate' subject lines, etc. You know they are getting hurt a little from the effort to get rid of them. Just keep up the various lines of attack. Keep them always wondering, 'what technique does **this** recipient use to get rid of me?' You have all heard of how cockroaches have mutated over the eons to be protected from their deadly enemies. Well, spammers are the same way; always mutating, responding to change. You have to do the same. Never assume some day there will be a golden 'bug spray' that will rid of of all of them. There won't be. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevenl11@aol.com (Steven Lichter) Date: 14 May 2003 04:28:48 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase > I don't think this is at all sufficient. > I would recommend confiscation of all their assets, sterilization of > all their relatives and offspring in case spamming has a genetic > basis, and decapitation of the spammer, with head and body to be > submerged in separate containers of water for at least 24 hours. > Just in case. > Thanks -- > David That might work. I recommended taking action against a spammer and his or her family, but the IP did not think it was in good taste, but the IP was a well known Canadian company that seems to like doing business with spammers and even though they have an abuse line on their postings they have yet to take any action. I just block anything that comes from their servers. My AOL account gets only mail from listed friends and I have another screen name that I have never used and it got 20 or so spams a day until I turned it off. My Cable account with Earthlink has never gotten spam. Apple Elite II 909-359-5338. Home of GBBS/LLUCE, support for the Apple II 24 hours 2400/14.4. An OggNet Server. The only good spammer is a dead one!!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Company. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh, maybe you are talking about SBC Global. They only give lip service (and very little of that) to getting rid of spammers. Two or three days after my DSL service from SBC Global was turned off, the spam is still piling up in the box there. On the other hand, not a bit of it from Cable One thus far. They seem to care about their customers. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone From: Don Saklad Date: 14 May 2003 01:27:53 -0400 What web link has details about the 300 ?... [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I dunno about any web sites; maybe a few musuems have them on display. It is such an *old* technology. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael Andrews, Sr. Subject: Tell Me Service Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 05:51:58 -0400 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises What is the number please? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, 800-555-1212 will get you first hand experience with them. I am sure they probably have an administra- tive number as well, I just do not know the number. Maybe someone else knows. PAT] ------------------------------ From: amity@mainsoft.com (Ronen Amity) Subject: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network Date: 14 May 2003 04:42:43 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Is there a way to connect two wireless routers together (so you can move from one to the other without a glich)? If so, how can I do it? 10x. ------------------------------ From: Paul Wallich Subject: Re: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 09:43:56 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > By Bob Tourtellotte [apparently regurgitating a press release] > LOS ANGELES, May 13 (Reuters) - A study released on Tuesday showed > two-thirds of moviegoers do not mind watching advertisements before a > film begins, a statistic that should buttress efforts to put more ads > in theaters. [snip] > Arbitron also found that audiences find theater ads more interesting > than TV ads and more acceptable than pop-up or other ads on the > Internet. No doubt they find them more enjoyable than having a root canal and more acceptable than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick too. One of the tidbits I found interesting later in the article was the report that people who went to the movies more often found ads more acceptable. What with declining movie attendance as a longterm trend, this would be easy to read as "people who found the ads unacceptable went to the movies less often, possibly as a result of the ads." This kind of "survey" demonstrates a conceptual error common among many entertainment/communications/telecom enterprises: asking questons geared to current customers rather than to potential customers who have decided against the current offerings because they're useless,annoying or inconvenient. paul ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. 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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #452 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 14 17:46:21 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4ELkKD08770; Wed, 14 May 2003 17:46:21 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 17:46:21 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305142146.h4ELkKD08770@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #453 TELECOM Digest Wed, 14 May 2003 17:46:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 453 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson More From the Archives: Stock Tickers (TELECOM Digest Editor) AT&T Worldnet(R) Service Offers Members Free Pop-Up Block (M Solomon) AOL to Demonstrate Messaging Service For PS2 (Monty Solomon) TiVo Q1 '04 Conference Call and Webcast (Monty Solomon) 20,000 KB Per Second Guaranteed Wireless Internet Access (Monty Solomon) EarthLink's Pursuit of New York Spammer Leads to Arrest (Monty Solomon) Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase (John Meissen) Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored (Greenberg) Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored (Margolin) Re: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study (John Meissen) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 15:18:12 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: More From the Archives: Stock Tickers Since I have reprinted history things of interest recently from the Telecom Archives, I decided you might also like looking at this piece relating to stock tickers from many years ago. This is another history item from a series that Jim Haynes supplied to the Digest for the archives back in 1992-93. PAT Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa10852; 5 Jan 92 16:26 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03147 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 5 Jan 1992 14:41:41 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30068 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 5 Jan 1992 14:41:27 -0600 Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1992 14:41:27 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199201052041.AA30068@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Western Union History of the Stock Ticker This piece was sent to the Digest over the weekend by Jim Haynes and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. PAT From: Jim Haynes Subject: Stock Ticker History Date: 4 Jan 92 06:59:46 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz The following article was originally printed in {The Western Union Technical Review}, April, 1961, Vol 15, No. 2. Copyright 1961 by The Western Union Telegraph Company, formerly a leading manufacturer of chads. Telegraph History Some Early Days of Western Union's Stock Ticker Service 1871-1910 by Charles R. Tilghman [noted as deceased as of the time of publication] The Western Union Telegraph Company had been established only 15 years when Charlie Tilghman was a "stock" messenger in Cincinnati, Ohio. The story, as he tells it briefly, of early developments in Western Union's ticker service is a story also of his own resourceful rise to the position of General Superintendent of Ticker Services. -------------- About 1871 or '72 when I was a stock messenger in the Cincinnati office, the Gold and Stock quotations were received by Morse from New York and copied on manifold sheets and each boy had ten or twelve subscribers to deliver reports to every fifteen minutes. Gold was at a premium and was bought and sold like stocks, so we had the name of Gold and Stock Telegraph Company. [Photo of etching titled "E. A. Calahan's 1867 stock ticker introduced by the Gold and Stock Telegraph Co. required three line wires."] One day, our 'boss' told us boys that they would not need us any more as they were going to send out the reports on electric printing machines. In a few days the equipment for a small ticker plant was received, including a dial transmitter with letters and numerals in a circle, an arrow or pointer pivoting in the center. The turning of a small crank operated a make-and-break contact point and also revolved the arrow, stopping it directly over the character desired. The operator pressed a telegraph key with his left hand to close the press circuit and print the character. Six tickers were received. They were Edison's invention with type and press magnets of six ohms and required a large amount of current to work them. There was a ratchet wheel on the type wheel shaft. An arm, extending from the type magnet and working perpendicularly into this ratchet wheel revolved the type shaft and the two type wheels at the end of it. I took a great interest in the machine, helped to set one up on a short circuit in our office and commenced to practice working the transmitter. In a short time, one machine was put in the First National Bank and two wires were run from our office to connect it. The bankers, brokers, and business men were invited to see the new wonder of printing by electricity. A crowd came and I operated the transmitter, sending out stock quotations. It created quite a lot of excitement and talk. Soon the Company had several subscribers signed up and a ticker plant started -- I was the operator. This Edison ticker became known as the Universal ticker. We operated these tickers ten years before we ever had a voltmeter or an ammeter or anything to tell us how much current was on our lines. When we added tickers, we added a few more cells and took them off when we cut out tickers. We had to judge the adjustments of relays and ticker by feeling the pull with our fingers. Bunsen and Callaud Batteries This was the start of ticker service in Ohio, and Cincinnati was the only town that had them. We used bichromate of potash and sulphuric acid solution in a porous cup set inside a circular zinc and a stick of carbon immersed in the solution. The zinc and porous cup were put in a glass of water diluted with a small amount of acid. This made a strong battery of very low internal resistance but expensive to maintain. The company was using Callaud or blue vitriol batteries on the Morse wire and had twelve thousand cells in Cincinnati. The officials at Chicago were urging me to use the Callaud for ticker service, but I objected, saying it was too slow and had too much internal resistance for ticker work. The fight went on for some time. We did not have any dynamos or motors of any kind in the Cincinnati office at that time and had no more room for Callaud batteries. Finally, I got the idea I could use Edison light current to operate the tickers. I went to the Edison company, explained what I wanted to do, and asked them to run a special wire into our office and let me see what I could do with it. They ran in a single wire from their positive side of a three-wire system. We had no resistance lamps so I used Edison light bulbs and the small resistance boxes we had. The Edison current worked the tickers fine and, to make a long story short, I worked the entire ticker plant, local and main circuits, with this current. This was in 1880. When I started the first long distance ticker circuit, Cincinnati to Columbus, Ohio, 125 miles away, I required both polarities to operate the polar relay in Columbus; therefore the Edison company ran in a negative lead with no additional charge. I also used Edison current to work self-winding clock circuits. Later I put it on the main switchboard in the Cincinnati operating room and worked about fifty single lines and several duplex. To do this it was necessary to buy Edison lamps and make a lamp board above the switchboard. As I could spend five dollars without additional authority, my city foreman made the boards and I bought five dollars worth of lamps and receptacles at a time. It was necessary to take off two copper battery strips that ran across back of the board and then run wires from the lamp receptacles to the small disks. After this was completed and a reserve lead from Edison company secured, we eliminated three thousand cells of Callaud batteries and the acid ticker batteries, making a saving of over $3000 per annum. The Edison company had taken out their meter and given us a flat rate of twenty-five dollars per month. I wrote to Mr. G. B. Scott, Superintendent at New York, and asked him to have a piano key transmitter made with a motor to work on 110-volt D.C. After a lot of correspondence, they sent me a transmitter and motor for 110 D.C. and told me to be very careful not to let it burn up and be sure to let him know how it worked as it was the first one ever made to use Edison current. Self-Winding Tickers The self-winding ticker was invented by Mr. George B. Scott, Superintendent of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in New York, and Mr. W. P. Phelps of the Philadelphia Local Telegraph Company. Mr. Phelps invented the automatic shift from letters to figures and vice versa by changing the polarity on the second or winding wire. This was a great improvement over all other styles of printer at that time. They were first called the Scott-Phelps ticker. In 1903, Mr. J. C. Barclay, then Assistant General Manager, wanted to change the ticker and make it smaller. He called Mr. Jay R. Page from Chicago to New York for suggestions on the change; and, with Mr. Scott, they decided to put the escapement magnet and adjustment screws inside the ticker frame. After this change the ticker was called the Scott-Phelps- Barclay-Page ticker. My first experience with these tickers came when Mr. Barclay transferred me from Cincinnati, where I was Assistant Superintendent of the seventh district of the Central Division by appointment of Col. Clowry, to New York, May 1, 1904, [Photo titled "Later model of Calahan ticker now in Western Union Museum, New York."] and made me general inspector of ticker service in all divisions. Up to this time, I had never even seen these tickers working for they had not been put into service in the west, and I knew not a thing about them. Yet the very first thing Mr. Barclay asked me to do was to make these two-wire tickers with four pairs of magnets in them work a long distance on one wire. A single underground wire from the ticker plant under the stock exchange to the repair shop in the Supply Department on Franklin Street was assigned for the test. I started to connect up the relays and tickers and then go down and make the connections on the ticker panel at Broad Street. At the end of the third day, when I went down to our office and told Mr. Barclay that I had the tickers working on one wire but not completed, he said in a very cross voice, "Oh, what takes you so long; hurry up." I later learned that electricians and ticker men had worked for two months and spent two thousand dollars trying to work the tickers from New York to Boston and had given up, saying it was impossible. Long Distance Service I understood the quadruplex and that night I thought of using the quad neutral relay to work the repeat and next morning I connected one up before market opened and received the full market all day O.K. on my fourth day of testing. I took the day's tape down to Mr. Barclay, who looked it over and said, "Let's go in and show President Clowry." Mr. Barclay told the president, "Now we have a one-wire long distance ticker and we can put tickers all over the country." That was the start. The next week, Mr. Barclay said, "Now, Tilghman, put up a long distance stock ticker in Philadelphia." When I went over to Philadelphia, the other inventor of the ticker, Mr. Phelps, said, "Mr. Tilghman, I will do everything I can to help you and would like to see it work, but it cannot be done. The ticker that will work from New York to Philadelphia does not exist; there is no such machine." It was much harder to work over the ninety miles to Philadelphia because of the induction from other wires. I found that when the operator in New York would strike the repeat key thus taking the current off the line for a fraction of a second, the induction from other lines would cause the polar relay in Philadelphia to jump ahead two or three characters. I went back to New York and bridged the break of the repeat relay with adjustable rheostat, leaving just enough current on the line to hold the polar and type wheel on the character the operator was holding; then adjusted my neutral relay in Philadelphia so that it would break away over the light current and repeat the character. Finally, we got it to work so that the keyboard operator in Philadelphia sent from tape of the New York ticker. [Photo titled "Thomas A. Edison's two-wire "Universal" ticker, much improved, was used for many years."] [This appears identical, as well as I remember, to a ticker I saw in operation in a Western Union office, circa 1950.] Then Barclay said, "Now go on to Baltimore and Washington." This was some task and required repeaters in the line. The installation took time and Mr. Barclay sent Mr. William Finn over to help me in order to hurry up the job. Mr. Finn certainly was a very fine man to work with and gave me some good advice about the use of condensers. It was finally accomplished and we worked to Washington, later extending the circuit to Richmond, Virginia. And so the long distance service spread. In 1905, I went all over New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana securing subscribers for stocks and baseball. One year, I secured $29,000 worth of service before baseball opened. In February 1910, Mr. Barclay left the company and Mr. Atherton, a splendid man with a very kind disposition and big heart, took his place. I was transferred from General Inspector to Mr. Atherton's staff. That summer, Mr. Kitton and I had our first vacation. I had been in the service forty one years. Mr. Atherton died the next year and I went into the office of Mr. Yorke, a perfectly splendid man to work for; fair, and just to all. I was with him all during the war; and, while in his office, was given charge of the ticker repair shop. One day, Mr. Yorke spoke of the "alphabet ticker", meaning the Scott-Phelps-Barclay-Page ticker, and wanted to know if I couldn't give it a shorter name. He didn't like all those names. I replied, "Yes, we can call it the self-winding ticker". He said to do it and drop all those names. So it has been the self-winding ticker ever since. Mr. Yorke changed my title to General Supervisor of Ticker Service. I remained with him until Mr. Titley came and was made Vice President of the Plant Department, when I was transferred to his office. He was another grand man and it was a great pleasure and honor to be associated with him. The Western Union Co. had thousands of Burry tickers for which they were paying the Stock Quotation Tel. Co. $3.00 per month rental which totalled approximately $35,000 per annum. These tickers cost $32.00 each to manufacture. At the same time Western Union had a large stock of their own tickers in the Supply Department and the Superintendent of Supplies asked for authority to sell or destroy them. He said they would never be used and took up too much room. Later he asked if he could get rid of 100 a month until they were all gone. I said, no, we would use them to replace the Burry tickers and save the rental. The Burrys were not so fast as the self-winding tickers and would get way behind on active markets. The first town I changed was Washington, then Baltimore, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and many more. Boston was using 350 Burry tickers and Chicago 750. They also used the Worisching ticker that was owned by the Stock Quotation Co. It was years before we got all these rental tickers out of our service. Superintendent Scott used two polar relays to work each self-winding ticker circuit. He said we could not possibly work with one on account of the spark on the points. These relays were 135 ohms each. This made a great load on the transmitter and great retardation in the local circuit; also created lots of sparking on the break wheel of transmitter which was revolved in oil to keep from sparking and burning. I told Mr. Scott I had put in new self-winding plant in Washington using only one polar relay on each circuit and it was working all right. There was no sparking on relay points. [Photo titled "Messrs. Scott, Phelps, Barclay and Page all contributed to "Self-Winding" ticker design." shows a ticker under a glass bell jar, and printing on the base "Quotation furnished by Western Union Telegraph apply to local manager"] The Big Blow Out The old stock ticker plant in the basement of the stock exchange was operated from a storage battery plant of 150 ampere hours cells and 350 volts, positive and negative. From these batteries there were two large size copper wires run around three sides of the ticker room. Smaller wires were connected with the larger wires and run direct to the points of the polar relays on the ticker circuit panels. The only fuse was one connected in each battery wire in the battery room. One day in September 1910 there was a short circuit on one of the stock circuits that blew out the fuse, splitting the fuse block in pieces. This cut off the entire stock ticker service in New York and all over the country for the Morse operators in the Western Union operating room were sending in all directions from the ticker tape. This blow out made some blow up! General Manager Brooks came hurrying into Mr. Athern's office and asked him to send me down to Broad Street to see what was the matter. Up to this time I had nothing to do with this New York plant as Supt. George B. Scott was in direct charge of it. I went down, investigated, came right back and made my report. Mr. Athern and Mr. Brooks both said for me to go back and take charge; do anything, order anything you need, only fix it so it will never happen again. I ordered material and started the work with six or ten men immediately after market closed each day, and worked till 9:00 or 10:00 P.M. I had a fuse put in each battery wire and through a resistance lamp to every ticker circuit panel. I found every circuit in the plant had positive pole connected to unison so the entire load of about 75 or 80 amperes was on one battery lead. When I asked why they did not put half the load on negative, they said "Why you must be crazy, the tickers would not work." Well, I had it done nevertheless -- and the tickers operated just as before. -------------- haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 12:15:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T Worldnet(R) Service Offers Members Free Pop-Up Blocking New software helps eliminate annoying pop-up advertising - May 14, 2003 11:31 AM (PR Newswire) MORRISTOWN, N.J., May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T today announced the availability of new software that will enable AT&T Worldnet Service subscribers to eliminate annoying pop-up advertising. The new pop-up blocking service developed by Panicware, Inc., called Pop-Up Stopper(R), will be provided free to all subscribers and will block pop-up and pop-under ads from appearing while users surf the Internet. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34191899 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 12:49:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AOL to Demonstrate Messaging Service For PS2 - May 14, 2003 09:57 AM (Reuters) LOS ANGELES, May 14 (Reuters) - America Online, the largest Internet service provider in the United States, on Wednesday said it will demonstrate a new service that includes voice instant messaging for Sony Corp.'s (TOKYO:6758) market-leading PlayStation 2 video game console. AOL, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:AOL), said the demonstration at E3, the video game industry trade show here this week, would include music programming, movie trailers, TV show clips, and footage from a new feature of AOL Games called "AOL Players Club," showing members executing special moves in Sony games. AOL said the showcase would feature "AIM Talk," a service that would allow PS2 owners with voice headsets to communicate with other instant messaging users on other PS2s or PCs. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34189799 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 12:53:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TiVo Q1 '04 Conference Call and Webcast TiVo Inc. Invites You to Join Its First Quarter Fiscal Year 2004 Conference Call and Webcast - May 14, 2003 08:00 AM (PR Newswire) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34186768 SAN JOSE, Calif., May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo's First Quarter Fiscal Year 2004 Financial Results conference call and webcast is scheduled for Thursday, May 22, 2003, at 2:00 PM Pacific Time. Details below. Host: Mike Ramsay, Chairman and CEO of TiVo What: TiVo 1st Quarter Fiscal Year 2004 Results When: Thursday, May 22, 2003; 2:00 PM PDT Where: Dial-in: (913) 981-5581 Password: 728394 Replay dial-in: (719) 457-0820 Password: 728394 Webcast: http://www.tivo.com/ir ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 12:56:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: 20,000 KB Per Second Guaranteed Wireless Internet Access Now 20,000 KB Per Second Guaranteed Wireless Internet Access Now Possible with Calypso Wireless' New Wi-Fi Access Points - May 14, 2003 06:45 AM (BusinessWire) MIAMI LAKES, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 14, 2003-- New Technology Enables Real-Time Videoconferencing via Cell Phone Calypso Wireless Inc. (OTC:CLYW), the premier broadband wireless device and technology manufacturer that is making the cellular real-time video phones of the future today, announced today that it will launch its 2nd generation Wi-Fi access points in the fourth quarter of 2003. New access points come with a revolutionary and patented technology that enables wireless Internet access at guaranteed speeds of 20,000 KB per second (20 MBPS) over the universally deployed twisted pair copper wiring, making current wire-based DSL and Cable modem Internet connections antiquated and almost obsolete. Calypso Wireless C1250i video cell phone is the first and only mobile phone capable of using Wi-Fi to connect users to the Internet at blazing broadband speeds of 11,000KB per second, enabling movie-quality, real-time video conferencing. The company recently signed a $500 million deal with China Telecom (NYSE:CHA) and is in negotiations with several U.S. based wireless communications companies. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34185884 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 12:17:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EarthLink's Pursuit of New York Spammer Leads to Arrest ATLANTA, May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Howard Carmack, aka the "Buffalo Spammer," has been arrested and arraigned in New York on four felony and two misdemeanor counts, stemming from charges that Carmack used fraudulently obtained Internet access accounts to send more than 825 million forged spam emails since March 2002. Last week EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK), one of the nation's leading Internet service providers, won a $16.4 million judgment and injunctive relief against Carmack in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. This followed the ISP's year-long investigation into Carmack's spamming activities. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34190268 ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@shell1.aracnet.com (John Meissen) Subject: Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase Date: 14 May 2003 16:53:20 GMT Organization: Aracnet Internet Reply-To: jmeissen@aracnet.com Buffalo Spammer Arrested http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/30708.html Howard Carmack - the Buffalo Spammer - has been arrested and charged in New York for four felony (i.e. criminal) and two misdemeanour counts relating to his alleged fraudulence in obtaining Internet access accounts to send more than 825 million spam emails. ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Date: 14 May 2003 12:22:55 -0400 Organization: Organized? Me? In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > This is what TidBITS will do (it makes sense): > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder why it is so many people are > opposed to this obviously good spam-fighting technique. I wonder also > why the readers would not just 'whitelist' the publications they wish > to read. It seems to me everyone could benefit from cooperation where > spam-fighting techniques are concerned. PAT] The problem is with non-digest mailing lists, most of which show the originator in the "From:" line. If one whitelist entry for the entire list would work, fine, but I run 2 mailing lists and would have to whitelist all 2000+ subscribers. And keep the whitelist abrest of new subs and unsubs. Rich Greenberg Work: Rich.Greenberg atsign worldspan.com + 1 770 563 6656 N6LRT Marietta, GA, USA Play: richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time zone. I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val(Chinook,CGC,TT), Red & Shasta(Husky,(RIP)) Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Back in the years when I was manually maintaining the telecom mailing list I had two very small scripts (one was called 'add' and the other was called 'delete'. They were both done in c++. The one examined the list for the existence of a name and email address, and if same was found it would zap it from the list and move every other entry below it up one line. You did not want to leave any blank lines in the mailing list; that got the sendmail script which mailed out the Digest to each name in the bcc confused. Since my list was sorted from the right of the @ sign, which was back then considered to be good practice and made the mail get out faster, the 'add' script would examine the list for a duplicate entry, and if none was found, append the latest arrival to the bottom of the list. As the final act, the 'add' script would then call sort and sort would go through the list sorting from @ to the right putting it all in order again. I am sure you could copy (or cut and paste if you use Windows) all your mailing list names into your whitelist names. Big deal, huh? You do not have to literally do it 2000 times. And if you have some sort of script to add and delete mailing list members, tell it to stop by the white list on the way and add or delete it there also. My 'add' script did a few other things as well. It would invoke sendmail several times to send the new user a copy of the FAQ, a brief questionairre about his interests, and in later years (when it became impossible for me to do anything but work on the Digest more or less full time) a 'pitch' letter asking for a pseudo-subscription donation, also a template he could use to order materials from the archives. Now I have just a little peanut-size Digest; I am sure many guys have much larger mailing lists and publish more frequently than myself, and probably more messages in each issue, but I really feel that those of us who are Usenet moderators or mailing list managers have to take on the extra duties needed to make our lists work. So if you have to spend an hour or so copying all your names onto a whitelist, what is the big deal? You cannot expect your users to have to carry this extra burden. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Organization: Genuity Managed Services, Woburn, MA Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 19:14:40 GMT In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Barry Margolin : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See my response elsewhere in this issue. > White lists can use wild cards can't they? So couldn't you say > something like 'accept all mail from *@telecom-digest.org' or 'accept > mail from *@massis.lcs.mit.edu'? The white list should only have > what is needed in the acceptable address lines to uniquely qualify > what you want to receive. Maybe I will supply all users here with an > address of the form 'yourname@telecom-digest.org' **only for use when > writing to me**. What's to stop spammers from sending their mail from spammer@telecom-digest.org? Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com Genuity Managed Services, a Level(3) Company, Woburn, MA *** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups. Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In what context are you using this? Do you mean spammer@etc on mail that is sent to *me* or are you referring to mail between third-parties who use my address? If you are talking about unknown persons (to me) who take my name in vain when sending out junk everywhere, heck, they do that now. There isn't a day goes by I do not see at least one piece of spam sent by some discredited old fool named 'ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu' which fell through the cracks somehow and got returned to 'the sender' (?). Fortunatly, Spamassassin catches most of it, so it is not a major problem (yet). I still maintain that everyone who has some stake in this net -- the sysadmins, the Digest and mailing list and Usenet moderators -- and the 'regular users' if they care to be involved -- have to go 'that extra step' to eliminate this problem. Spam is not going to away because you or anyone else sits there wringing their hands and whining about it. It will *partly*, but never totally go away -- just like the cockroaches, if all the interested parties take actions against it to the best of their ability. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@shell1.aracnet.com (John Meissen) Subject: Re: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study Date: 14 May 2003 16:59:54 GMT Organization: Aracnet Internet Reply-To: jmeissen@aracnet.com In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > By Bob Tourtellotte > LOS ANGELES, May 13 (Reuters) - A study released on Tuesday showed > two-thirds of moviegoers do not mind watching advertisements before a > film begins, a statistic that should buttress efforts to put more ads > in theaters. > Among younger movie fans aged 12 to 24, the percentage who do not mind > seeing the ads rose to 70 percent, according to the study conducted by > Arbitron Inc. Well, if you abuse people often enough, eventually all you're left with are people who enjoy being abused. I'm not surprised that the percentage has increased. Aren't statistics wonderful? They've already lost me. Because of this abuse I now wait for the movies to be released on DVD and enjoy them in the confort and privacy of my home for a fraction of the cost and none of the hassle. There are probably one or two movies a year that I figure warrant actually watching on the big screen. john- ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #453 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 14 19:59:58 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4ENxwZ09740; Wed, 14 May 2003 19:59:58 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 19:59:58 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305142359.h4ENxwZ09740@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #454 TELECOM Digest Wed, 14 May 2003 20:00:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 454 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson TELL-me; 800-555 Numbers (Mark J Cuccia) Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored (J Meissen) Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Q About Service (Lindstrom) Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Q About Service (invert) Spit or Spamola (Joey Lindstrom) Re: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network (Clarene Dold) Re: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study (Please invert) How the Digest is Published (TELECOM Digest Editor) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 14:42:25 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: TELL-me; 800-555 Numbers 800-555-1212 is the Directory Assistance number for toll-free numbers. In the US, it is handled by AT&T subcontracted to "Tell-Me". In Canada, it is handled by Bell Canada (and maybe Telus in the west?) The "Tell-Me" service *itself* is 800-555-8355. That's 800-555-TELL. DO NOT MISTAKE this with 800-555-8255 (TALK). The latter (8255-TALK) is some kind of "sex/sleaze/porno" hijacking toll-free 800, quite possibly something from Pilgrim Telephone (the latter also referring one to a 900 PAY-per-call number and an area code 767 number in the British Caribbean island of Dominica). I don't offhand know the administrative number of "Tell-Me", neither a toll-free 800/888/877/866 type number nor a California NPA based "POTS" number. A few other interesting 800-555-xxxx numbers past and present: 800-555-5000 "The Bell Answer Line", now discontinued; this number itself is presently "resp-org'd" to US-Sprint, but I don't what it is actually used for, as it can't be reached from my service area. When AT&T and the BOCs used 800-555-5000 in the 1980s, it was to answer questions about divestiture and other related matters. 800-555-8111 is for AT&T Consumer Products Leased Services, i.e., the business office for phones/etc. leased from Lucent, but still branded to the general public as AT&T. This number is still in use as such and has been since 1983/84, just in preparation for divestiture. 800-555-5321 SNET Long Distance Calling Card/Operator Services access. 800-555-1111 Bell Canada (and related BCE owned telcos) Calling Card/ Operator Services access. I checked http://www.tellme.com more specifically the "Contact Us" page at http://www.tellme.com/about/contactus.pl and the "Inside Sales" number for "Tell Me" is +1-650-930-9100, NPA 650 is the area immediately south of the city limits of San Francisco CA. Their website does mention 1-800-555-TELL (8355) as well as 1-800-555-1212 (indicated as AT&T Directory Assistance), but it also mentions a "demo" number of 1-866-TELLME-1 (1-866-835-5631) mjc ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@shell1.aracnet.com (John Meissen) Subject: Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Date: 14 May 2003 20:10:48 GMT Organization: Aracnet Internet Reply-To: jmeissen@aracnet.com In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > This is what TidBITS will do (it makes sense): > Closer to home, be warned that we will not answer any challenges > generated in response to our mailing list postings. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder why it is so many people are > opposed to this obviously good spam-fighting technique. I wonder also > why the readers would not just 'whitelist' the publications they wish > to read. It seems to me everyone could benefit from cooperation where > spam-fighting techniques are concerned. PAT] These particular people are opposed because mailing list providers simply don't have the resources to deal with the potentially thousands of incidents. Why don't readers whitelist? Because 90% of todays Internet population wouldn't even understand what you are referring to. For instance, aunt has finally started using email, but she cannot comprehend the computer as anything other than an extremely complicated typewriter. My neighbors are not much better. ;-) john- ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 14:11:01 -0600 Subject: Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Qs About the Service Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Wed, 14 May 2003 15:06:30 -0400 (EDT), Mark Brader wrote: > Gail Hall writes: >> I was surprised a couple nights ago when they played some of the >> 911 call tapes on a TV news broadcast. >> Callers stated very clearly the name of the building they were in and >> that the building was on the campus of the university, which they also >> named. Callers said there was shooting going on there. But the >> operator wants to know the exact address. ... > It would be particularly disconcerting for a caller who was used to a > place where the building name *is* the complete address. That's how > it was when I was in university: "Physics Building, University of > Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1" was the complete address of that > building. Later the university was assigned a street address, but it > was still a *single* address -- 200 University Av. W. -- for the whole > main campus, maybe 30 buildings, and that's still the way it is today. >> But shouldn't they have a database about most of the well known >> buildings in the city? > Sounds good to me! The whole thing does sound kinda ridiculous, especially with well-known landmarks. If I fell down and couldn't get up while attending an NHL game, I'd tell the 911 operator (who I called on my cellphone) I was at "the Saddledome". I would not tell her I was at "555 Saddledome Rise S.E." because until I just now looked it up, I had no idea that was the building's address. (and I can't figure out how they got "555" since it's the only building on Saddledome Rise S.E., which is basically a small piece of asphalt extending at right angles off Olympic Way S.E.) When I dispatched cabs TEN YEARS AGO, we were using computer systems advanced enough so that when somebody called in from "Petro Canada Tower" or "Chinook Centre" or any other named building, they just had to say the name of the building (and which entrance they were at, if applicable). We just had to type in the name of the building (or one of several abbreviations for that place). The computer would figure out where it was, what the address was, what zone it was in, etc., and dispatch the closest car. Why a modern-day 911 system wouldn't be as good as this is completely beyond me. (Today, that same cab company has more-advanced systems, including the ability to automatically call up the address based on caller-ID, providing that that customer had called previously from the same phone number, as well as GPS-based dispatching of "the closest" taxi.) What are you folks paying "E-911" fees for, if the system still isn't any better than what you had in the 1970's? -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ From: 6212hgk@newsguy.com (Please invert everything left of the @ to reply) Subject: Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Qs About the Service Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 20:18:13 GMT On Tue, 13 May 2003 17:56:57 -0400, Gail M. Hall wrote: > But shouldn't they have a database about most of the well known > buildings in the city? If the caller says he is in the > such-and-such building on such-and-such college campus, shouldn't > they have that in their database? What database? Who makes such a database? > I have also wondered about the environment the operators have to work > in. Are they provided with good earphones that help stop noise from > other operators and the sounds of fans and equipment around them? Of the three 911 centers I've visited in Oregon, all had very low ambient noise and very good sound control. > Many of the callers on Friday had to speak very softly to prevent the > "perp" from knowing where they were. If the 911 operators have to > work in a noisy room, they will have too much difficulty hearing a > caller who must speak softly in order to protect himself/herself. See above. > I used to do medical transcription, and I was never able to find > really good earphones that could filter out the sounds around me. > After a number of years working in a noisy environment and having to > turn up the volume on my machine to hear the dictation, my hearing > became impaired as much as rock music fans' ears are. Not fun! Sony and others now have very good noise cancelling earphones and headphones. Time marches on. > I was impressed that apparently some 911 operators were able to keep > some callers on the line over several hours so that people on the > outside could get information about what was going on. I suspect that > they must have had some way of patching in to others such as the > police and still have some lines available for "normal" emergency > calls. 911 operators often work in pairs; once collecting information from the caller, the other dispatching and relaying the information. > But it did make me wonder how many extra lines they can have > available for such emergencies All the lines which are needed, courtesy the 911 taxes. > or whether cities can borrow each others' services as needed. 911 centers are typically regional or countywide, rarely for one city only. Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That thinking, of having 911 centers as 'regional' or 'countywide' is part of the problem. I know the politicians want to save money (so they can personally get more steak dinners for themselves and their crony friends) but at some point you have to draw a line on consolidation. Every small, semi-rural community here in southeast Kansas that I am familiar with has its own 911 center *if it has its own police/fire department*. Independence has its own 911 center in the police station which is in the basement of the City Hall. So does Coffeyville, Cherryvale, and Neodesha. Because Independence is the 'county seat' the Montgomery County Sheriff also has a 911 center. Between all of them (county total population is about 31,000) they do not get as many calls in a month's time as a big city gets in a few hours. Yet the big cities want to consolidate all those folks into one office. It seems rather senseless to me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 14:18:14 -0600 Subject: Spit or Spamola Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Wed, 14 May 2003 15:06:30 -0400 (EDT), editor@telecom-digest.org wrote: > Why is it so many of the most vocal opponents of spam are also the > most pessimistic? Any suggestions made, any plans laid out, none of > them will ever work for whatever reasons. Listen up: no *one single > plan or idea* will ever fit all occassions. Most plans and ideas on > the other hand will each take a nip out of the spam traffic. You have > to do what you can, little by little. That's why C-R is one of the > better plans I have heard of. You just keep nibbling away at the spam > problem. I mean, look at how spammers have changed their tactics in > the past couple years, with 'legitimate' subject lines, etc. You know > they are getting hurt a little from the effort to get rid of them. > Just keep up the various lines of attack. Keep them always wondering, > 'what technique does **this** recipient use to get rid of me?' You > have all heard of how cockroaches have mutated over the eons to be > protected from their deadly enemies. Well, spammers are the same way; > always mutating, responding to change. You have to do the same. Never > assume some day there will be a golden 'bug spray' that will rid of > of all of them. There won't be. PAT] Wouldn't it be nice if we could find some way to confine all spammers solely to those Microsoft iLoo thingies? Y'know, I think I could actually come to enjoy reading spam. As I read it, I could bask in the knowledge that the person who sent it was literally inhaling the material that spam is so often compared to. In such an environment, the more spam the better. :-) -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, but you have to be humane to all, even to a spammer. You cannot lock them up in one of those porta-potty things. The ACLU (and other similar organizations) would be all over you in a minute. That is cruel and unusual punishment, being forced to sit mid the fumes and vapor as you type out your spam email, only to discover later when you need it that the damn fool in there before you had used all the paper. By the time you sit there until the mayor or other politician or city worker in charge of bringing more paper around gets there, you would have had your first million dollars in orders for your spam service or product. I have never known anyone who would willingly use one of those porta-potty-chair stalls voluntarily. They are all horrible. Why would Microsoft or any reputable company consider installing computers in them? PAT] ------------------------------ From: dold@Connecting.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 20:34:38 UTC Organization: a2i network Ronen Amity wrote: > Is there a way to connect two wireless routers together (so you can > move from one to the other without a glich)? This should be a standard feature (roaming). The multiple Wireless Access Points operate on different channels, but with the same SSID. Your laptop should wander from one to the next with no problem at all. That being said, I've never done it. You might search alt.internet.wireless < http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=group%3Aalt.internet.wireless&btnG=Google+Search > Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA ------------------------------ From: 6212hgk@newsguy.com (Please invert everything left of the @ to reply) Subject: Re: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 20:13:50 GMT I suspect their methodology is extremely flawed. Also, selecting for 12-24 is not the whole audience. On Tue, 13 May 2003 19:34:46 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > By Bob Tourtellotte > LOS ANGELES, May 13 (Reuters) - A study released on Tuesday showed > two-thirds of moviegoers do not mind watching advertisements before a > film begins, a statistic that should buttress efforts to put more ads > in theaters. > Among younger movie fans aged 12 to 24, the percentage who do not mind > seeing the ads rose to 70 percent, according to the study conducted by > Arbitron Inc. > Arbitron also found that audiences find theater ads more interesting > than TV ads and more acceptable than pop-up or other ads on the > Internet. > - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34182468 Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 18:05:34 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: How the Digest is Published We started discussing here recently how a lot of the guys who publish Digests or moderate Usenet newsgroups feel that C-R would be too much of a burden for them. I suggested that anyone could use scripts such as mine to automate a lot of the work. I have always made my scripts available for anyone who wanted to copy them and use them with the neccessary adjustments as needed for their own cases. In fact on the telecom-digest.org web site, I encourage people to look at the source (right click your mouse then left click it on 'source' and take whatever you need or want. But for the Digest itself and the Usenet side of things, that is not always possible (to cut and paste as needed, etc). So I have put a few of my publishing scripts here and invite you to at least examine them and use what you want. All of these were written long before the onset of my deseased brain, and I am not quite sure I could do this again, but here they are: --------- this is to post messages on Usenet in comp.dcom.telecom ------ #!/bin/sh #you want to use '(sh)ell to do your work. # #for debugging output uncomment the next line debug=-d # #and debug or not as needed. #for no debugging output uncomment the next line #debug= # # list all the sites to get the news on the next line as part of the # remotes string, # seperate them by blanks as in the sample line: # remotes="dsinc.dsi.com casbah.acns.nwu.edu bu.edu agate.berkeley.edu" # remotes="newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu news.iecc.com news.bungi.com newsin.alt.net chilli.nntp.netline.net.uk" awk -f bin/burst.awk output | sh #(see next script for using 'awk') status="$?" if [ ! "$status" = 0 ] #in case my header count gets messed up then echo "You screwed up with your headers and dashes again!" exit "$status" fi if [ -s togo ] then cat `cat togo` > converting #Assuming header/dashes count bin/approver/iqueue/* #was handled correctly then my for host in ${remotes} #secret crytic 'approved' is added do #to each message. cp togo running nntpxmit ${debug} ${host}:running #I use NNTP to post done #each message on net. cat converting | formail -ds >> online.box rm -f `cat togo` togo place=/home/common/telecom-archives/TELECOM_Digest_Online update=$place/updating.html cp $update $place/index.html cp $update $place/author.html cp $update $place/subject.html cp $update $place/thread.html bin/hypermail -xp touch /home/common/telecom-archives/index.html exit else echo no articles bursted fi exit After each Digest has been broken into individual messages and the headers for each message made up, then I post them one by one using 'hypermail' to the TELECOM_Digest_Online web site. During the several seconds it takes to post the new messages and reorganize all the messages and make up the categories, I have to 'close down' the web site. That is so users do not wander in trying to go to a certain message pointed to by the html link and find themselves on a different message or no message at all while all the files are being renamed and renumbered. Thus, the 'updating.html' message ('sorry closed right now, try again in one or two minutes') is swapped in for users to see on their screen for those several seconds. -------above I mentioned burst.awk, this is what mine does------ BEGIN { state = 0 fnum = 1 fbase = "iqueue/art:" print "curdir=`pwd`" print ">togo" isid = 0 trivia = \ "X-URL: http://telecom-digest.org/\n"\ "X-Submissions-To: editor@telecom-digest.org\n"\ "X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org\n" } state == 0 && /^TELECOM Digest/ { volnum = $10 issue = $13 msgtotal = 0 dstring = \ "X-Telecom-Digest: Volume " volnum ", Issue " issue vn = "v" volnum "n" issue next } state == 0 && /^ / { msgtotal++ next } state == 0 && /^--------------------------------------------*$/ { state = 1 next } /^ *$/ && state == 1 { state = 2; file = fbase vn "." fnum ".h"; next } /^Date: / && state == 2 { date = $0; next } /^From: / && state == 2 { from = $0; next } /^Subject: / && state == 2 { subj = $0; next } /^Reply-[Tt]o: / && state == 2 { replyto = $0; isreplyto = 1; next } /^Organization: / && state == 2 { org = $0; isorg = 1; next } /^References: / && state == 2 { refs = $0; isrefs = 1; next } /^Message-[Ii][Dd]: / && state == 2 { id = $0; isid = 1; next } /^End of TELECOM / && state == 2 { if (msgtotal != fnum - 1) { printf "echo 'Error: msgtotal (%d) != fnum (%d) at end'\n", msgtotal, fnum - 1 print "exit 1\n" } exit } /^ *$/ && state == 2 { printf "cat <<'mAgIc_CoOkIe' >%s\n", file if (substr(date, 7, 3) == " ") { date = "Date: " substr(date, 10) } if (substr(from, 7, 3) == " ") { from = "From: " substr(from, 10) } i = split(subj, parts, " ") if (substr(parts[i], 1, 1) == "(") { j = length(subj) subj = substr(subj, 1, j-4) } print "Path: telecom-digest.org!ptownson" print date print from print "Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom" print subj if (isreplyto) { print replyto } if (isid) { print id } else { printf("Message-ID: \n", \ volnum, issue, fnum);} if (isrefs) { print refs } if (isorg) { print org } else { print "Organization: TELECOM Digest" } print "Sender: editor@telecom-digest.org" printf trivia printf "%s, Message %d of %d\n", \ dstring, fnum, msgtotal print "mAgIc_CoOkIe" file = fbase vn "." fnum ".b" printf "cat <<'mAgIc_CoOkIe' >%s\n", file state = 3 next } /^------------------------------$/ { state = 1 file = fbase vn "." fnum fileh = file ".h" fileb = file ".b" print "mAgIc_CoOkIe" printf "lines=`wc -l < %s`\n", fileb printf "(cat %s\necho Lines: $lines\ncat %s) > %s\n", fileh, fileb, file printf "echo $curdir/%s >> togo\n", file printf "rm -f %s %s\n", fileh, fileb fnum += 1 isid = 0 isrefs = 0 isorg = 0 isreplyto = 0 } state == 3 { print $0 } -------- The information shown above is used to make up the headers for each Usenet message. Every message in each Digest is configured with the From: Subject: Date: lines and the Approved by which is required in moderated newsgroups. Then after two blank lines, the text is presented, whatever it is. Then there are thirty dashes at the top and bottom of the message, which is what we look for when deciding where one message ends and the next one begins. You note in the script just before this one, we expected to find the number of subject lines at the start of the Digest (in the table of contents) to equal the number of thirty dashes at the very end. In the script above this one if that 'failsafe' thing is not met, then the production halts until I go back and correct the subject line = thirty dashes problem. Each issue of the Digest goes out looking EXACTLY like every other issue.--- Now next is the 'add' script I mentioned earlier. This little thing was to insure I got someone added in the list correctly. This is now obsolete since John Levine really feels I should use majordomo, although I do not personally feel majordomo is as personally oriented toward users as I would like. Majordomo insists on receiving letters just a certain way from readers; when I was doing it I was able to get entire letters from people which somewhere in the bottom of it said 'oh by the way, add me to the mailing list'. Majordomo cannot deal with that, I do not think. I prefer a more personal approach but it was getting to be unrealistic. Anyway .... set -x ADDR=$1 NAME=$2 echo $1" ($2)" >> z echo `cat z | wc -l` "names now on list" cat new.users/new-users | /usr/lib/sendmail -oi -f subscribe@telecom-digest.org $1 sleep 2 echo "sent new.users" cat latest.issue | /usr/lib/sendmail -oi -f subscribe@telecom-digest.org $1 sleep 2 echo "sent latest.issue" cat new.users/donations | /usr/lib/sendmail -oi -f subscribe@telecom-digest.org $1 sleep 2 echo "sent donations.letter" cat new.users/archives.help.file | /usr/lib/sendmail -oi -f subscribe@telecom-digest.org $1 echo "sent archives.help.file" Here, I use the command ADD username and it not only puts the person on the list, it also sends them the latest issue of the Digest, a copy of the help file and a request for contributions. Now when someone asked to be removed from the mailing list (in the event they thought my brain desease had gotten too bad, that I was no longer 'credible' [and their friends agreed with them] or whatever) then I executed this next script. To change to a different address I had to ADD them under the new address then DELETE them from the old address. Both of these last two scripts are no longer used since John Levine really felt I would do better with Majordomo, and I was in the hospital and nursing home for a long time so I really had no choice. #!/bin/sh set -x echo "Removing '$1' from mailing list" echo "`wc -l < z` names on list to start with" grep $1 z >> tmphold grep -v $1 z > x echo "`wc -l < x` names on revised list" echo "Now removed" `cat tmphold` cat tmphold >> removals mv x z cat new.users/delete-letter | /usr/lib/sendmail -oi -f subscribe@telecom-digest.org "`cat tmphold`" rm tmphold exit As I said earlier in this issue to someone, for something as small and insignificant as this Telecom Digest, the above served me quite well for many years. I would not expect them to work intact for a lot of the bigger, more elaborate Digests, with more readers, more issues being published all the time, etc but they did work for me, and the first two shown above 'poster daemon' and 'burst.awk' are still in regular use. I have many more scripts not included above, such as the one to read/evaluate/act on file requests recieved in email for the archives files. If anyone wants a copy of that script (it is like using email as a substitute for FTP) I will publish it here also. Really, I do believe that persons who wish to be moderators for Usenet newsgroups or publish Digests on the net need to give as much personal attention as they can to their work. PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #454 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 14 22:33:42 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4F2Xgu11136; Wed, 14 May 2003 22:33:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 22:33:42 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305150233.h4F2Xgu11136@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #455 TELECOM Digest Wed, 14 May 2003 22:34:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 455 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers (Jim Haynes) Book _Cheaper By The Dozen_, Learning Morse (Mark Atwood) Re: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network (John R. Levine) Re: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network (Mark Atwood) Re: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network (Gary Breuckman) Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Q About the Service (Stein) Re: AT&T Worldnet Service Offers Members Free Pop-Up Blocking (Higdon) Re: All Eyes on Google (David) Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored (B Margolin) Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored (N Tenny) Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored (J. Levine) Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase (Howard S. Wharton) My Filter Rules, etc (TELECOM Digest Editor) Last Laugh! Re: Microsoft: ILoo No Hoax After All (Thomas A. Horsley) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers Organization: Alumni of University of Arkansas From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 22:06:52 GMT Since Gabler's book was published several others of interest have appeared. I have not done full-length reviews of them, but will mention them. My Sisters Telegraphic: Women in the Telegraph Office, 1846-1950 Thomas C. Jepsen The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers Tom Standage This book attracted a lot of attention when it first appeared. It's good; but I thought the analogy between telegraphy and the Internet is not all that strong. The society of telegraphy was limited to the professional operators, employees of the telegraph companies and railroads and a few other businesses. The Internet is open to the general public. The Story of Telecommunications George Oslin Oslin was the former P.R. man for Western Union, and wrote this book near the end of his long life. I believe it is still available from his publisher, Mercer University Press. Although the book suffers from lack of editing, especially in the beginning and end, the middle section is a must-have for telecom history enthusiasts. The Telegraph: A History (or something like that - I'm away from my library right now) Lewis Coe This is smaller than Oslin's book and is a great complement to it, as it seems to be written more from the point of view of Western Union's one-time competitor, Postal Telegraph. Coe has also published on the telephone and its many inventors, and on wireless radio. jhaynes at alumni dot uark dot edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder how many of the younger guys on this list (who never would have seen or used on) would appreciate some details on the typical Western Union 'public telegraph office'? They were quite common -- every city and town had one more than a half century ago. They were quite ornate places, usually. At least the one in downtown Chicago was. These were places where the general public could go to compose and send telegrams and wait to recieve them. If anyone is interested, I could tell about the one that was in downtown Chicago, on LaSalle Street in the lobby of the main Western Union HQ building. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mark Atwood Subject: Book _Cheaper By The Dozen_, Learning Morse Date: 14 May 2003 15:15:38 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com In the nonfiction book _Cheaper By The Dozen_, there is a scene where industrial engineer Frank Gilbreth teaches his 12 children Morse code by giving them a list of mnemonic words that have the cadence for the morse of a given letter, that begins with that letter. However, the book itself only gives the first few such mnemonics. This seems like such a better memorization aid than any other I've seen. Does anyone know what the full set is? Mark Atwood | When you do things right, mra@pobox.com | people won't be sure you've done anything at all. http://www.pobox.com/~mra [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Tell us the ones you remember or saw in the book, please. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 2003 00:42:49 -0000 From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Is there a way to connect two wireless routers together (so you can > move from one to the other without a glich)? Probably not, since both will try to assign conflicting IP addresses when you come in range. On the other hand, if you get a wireless router and a wireless access point, and connect the access point downstream of the router with the same SSID and password, that should work since the router will assign your IP address regardless of whether you're coming directly into the router or through the access point. If you already have two routers, you may be able to disable DHCP and NAT on the downstream one to make it act more like a plain access point. Bonus advantage: access points do less than routers so they tend to be less expensive. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: Mark Atwood Subject: Re: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network Date: 14 May 2003 17:45:56 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Ronen Amity wrote: > Is there a way to connect two wireless routers together (so you can > move from one to the other without a glich)? Doing so Just Works at my worksite. We have multiple APs, all on the same network segment, spread all over the buildings, all with the same ESSID/WEPkey, and people roam all over the grounds without a problem. You don't even lose your TCP sessions or have to reDHCP, wireless ethernet roaming happens below the Network Layer from the POV of the network stack. Ocasioanally I will wander around with my laptop, constantly running iwconfig, just to see the point at which the MAC of the AP I'm registered to changes. Mark Atwood | When you do things right, mra@pobox.com | people won't be sure you've done anything at all. http://www.pobox.com/~mra ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 19:16:43 -0500 Organization: Puma's Lair - catbox.com In article , "dold" wrote: > Ronen Amity wrote: >> Is there a way to connect two wireless routers together (so you can >> move from one to the other without a glich)? > This should be a standard feature (roaming). The multiple Wireless > Access Points operate on different channels, but with the same SSID. > Your laptop should wander from one to the next with no problem at all. > That being said, I've never done it. You might search > alt.internet.wireless You don't really want to use two ROUTERS. You want ONE router and the rest ACCESS POINTS. The access points should be tied to the hardwired ethernet ports of the router. This way, all the wireless traffic is on the same subnet, and you can move from one to another without losing your connection. If you use two routers, when you move from one to the other you will be a different address, and you will lose what you were doing, any open connections, etc. Gary Breuckman ------------------------------ From: Herb Stein Subject: Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Qs About the Service Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 19:58:28 -0500 Joey Lindstrom wrote in message news:telecom22.454.3@telecom-digest.org: > On Wed, 14 May 2003 15:06:30 -0400 (EDT), Mark Brader wrote: >> Sounds good to me! > When I dispatched cabs TEN YEARS AGO, we were using computer systems > advanced enough so that when somebody called in from "Petro Canada > Tower" or "Chinook Centre" or any other named building, they just had > to say the name of the building (and which entrance they were at, if > applicable). We just had to type in the name of the building (or one > of several abbreviations for that place). The computer would figure > out where it was, what the address was, what zone it was in, etc., and > dispatch the closest car. Why a modern-day 911 system wouldn't be as > good as this is completely beyond me. (Today, that same cab company > has more-advanced systems, including the ability to automatically call > up the address based on caller-ID, providing that that customer had > called previously from the same phone number, as well as GPS-based > dispatching of "the closest" taxi.) What are you folks paying "E-911" > fees for, if the system still isn't any better than what you had in > the 1970's? > -- Joey Lindstrom > -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info Apparently, we are stupid. Don't EVEN get me started on E-911/911. Herb Stein The Herb Stein Group www.herbstein.com herb@herbstein.com 314 952-4601 ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: AT&T Worldnet(R) Service Offers Members Free Pop-Up Blocking Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 18:09:07 -0700 In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > MORRISTOWN, N.J., May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T today > announced the availability of new software that will enable AT&T > Worldnet Service subscribers to eliminate annoying pop-up advertising. > The new pop-up blocking service developed by Panicware, Inc., called > Pop-Up Stopper(R), will be provided free to all subscribers and will > block pop-up and pop-under ads from appearing while users surf the > Internet. What about the pop-up ads that appear when one is not surfing the Internet? John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: David Subject: Re: All Eyes on Google Organization: AT&T Broadband Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 23:29:22 GMT My setting only shows 10 results per page. Go to preferences and change to 10. Default is supposed to be 10. David On Sun, 11 May 2003 08:16:42 -0500, John Schmerold wrote: > I don't know if Google is the best search engine available. > I do know that it allows me to see 100 results at a time. I get so > sick of hitting next page when searching for something. ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Organization: Genuity Managed Services, Woburn, MA Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 22:22:31 GMT In article , Barry Margolin wrote: > What's to stop spammers from sending their mail from > spammer@telecom-digest.org? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In what context are you using this? > Do you mean spammer@etc on mail that is sent to *me* or are you > referring to mail between third-parties who use my address? If you > are talking The context was subscribers to the TELECOM Digest putting *@telecom-digest.org in their whitelists, which is what I thought you were suggesting. Spammers would start sending mail from that address, and thus bypass the C-R system, making it less effective. A few issues ago someone posted the message that started all this recent discussion about C-R systems. It had about a half-dozen links to messages on a web-based forum discussing the pros and cons (mostly cons) of C-R systems. I only read a couple of them, but it sounds like you didn't read any. Like almost any automated anti-spam technique, C-R and whitelists will only be effective for a short time. The spammers quickly learn how to counter it, and the information spreads through the spammer community (did you read the "Confessions of a Former Spammer" article -- they have spammer clubs). A few messages ago I think you accused us of "giving up". Yes, I pretty much have. Any countermeasures I might employ would only cause a short burp in the spam I receive. I'm not going to spend time trying to figure out how to install something if I don't foresee it being a long-term fix. Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com Genuity Managed Services, a Level(3) Company, Woburn, MA *** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups. Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What I was really suggesting (and may actually suggest it to the readers sometime soon) is that everyone writing *to me here in the Digest* give their email address as whoever@telecom-digest.org but then continue to give their actual email address in their .signature or elsewhere in the text as they do now. That would force the spammers (or their robots) to at least read the *entire message* to find names to harvest. If you read the Digest version of this newsletter you will notice the table of contents at the top has gotten more and more ridiculous with the fake names and additional punctuation, etc the guys put in their public email addresses to avoid detection and getting spammed. At least if you could be your real name@townsons.spam.dump I would be assured of having more real names in the table of contents. PAT] ------------------------------ From: n_t_e_nn_y_@q_ual_c_o_m_m_.c_o_m (Nathan Tenny) Subject: Re: TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Date: 14 May 2003 16:40:13 -0700 Organization: QUALCOMM Incorporated Reply-To: ntenny+r@qualcomm.com In article , Barry Margolin wrote: [on whitelists] > What's to stop spammers from sending their mail from > spammer@telecom-digest.org? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In what context are you using this? I believe he means that if I whitelist the whole domain, a spammer who forges that address will get through my filters. I tried this general approach for years, trying to maintain an accurate whitelist (in combination with other filters, though never a call-response one) while carrying on tolerably normal online activities. I was forever finding failure modes --- vendor X sends its receipts from site Y and you can't tell that until you receive them, for instance. I found the results to be untenable in both directions (false positives and false negatives). And if I can't do it, I think it's fair to say that most people can't. I have access to procmail and the knowledge to use it, I dream in regexps, I've written documentation on SMTP and email headers that as far as I know is still in use in both antispam and law-enforcement circles. I know what I'm doing here, and I couldn't get a whitelist to work to my satisfaction -- how could I expect that the millions of people who *don't* know SMTP and regexps would be able to do it better? Nathan Tenny | When the world ends, there'll be no more Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA | air. That's why it's important to pollute | the air now. Before it's too late. | -- Kathy Acker ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 2003 00:28:20 -0000 From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder why it is so many people are >> opposed to this obviously good spam-fighting technique. I wonder also > As a mailing-list administrator, I'm surprised you don't appreciate it. > What do you plan to do if you start getting hundreds of challenges a day? Actually, the mailing list is run by majordomo2 on my network. And I do the same thing with challenges that every other list manager does. I ignore them. > [Pat:] White lists can use wild cards can't they? So couldn't you say > something like 'accept all mail from *@telecom-digest.org' or 'accept > mail from *@massis.lcs.mit.edu'? The competent ones probably do, but that rules out about 98% of the C/R software I've seen, and that even assumes the person using the program has any idea that he needs to do so. > Why is it so many of the most vocal opponents of spam are also the > most pessimistic? Probably because we have the most experience with poorly thought out badly implemented anti-spam gimmicks that don't work and have unfortunate side effects. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator: "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wannabe http://iecc.com/johnl Sewer Commissioner "A book is a sneeze." - E.B. White, on the writing of Charlotte's Web [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe that explains things a little better. People send email asking you to validate and you ignore their request. Then the same person writes me a personal note saying 'why am I not getting the Digest?' and they do have my personal name on the white list so they get an answer from me personally but still do not get any issues of the Digest. :( I tell them in essence 'try again with majordomo' and they tell me they are trying but not getting any results. Would you **please** at least edit any acknowledgement file sent out by majordomo to include a statement saying 'you must white list 'ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu' and *@telecom-digest.org to receive this publication. And do we have any files being sent out to new readers that you know of? I sure hope there is something now-days. I really feel majordomo is too impersonal to use on smaller mailing lists like mine where it is important to try and educate users. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Howard S. Wharton Subject: Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 19:53:31 -0400 Organization: The University at Buffalo Mr. Carmack was arrested by the FBI in a raid of his house. Few of the charges according to the local news stories are forgery, possession of forgery equipment and ID theft besides stolen credit cards. GEEZ ... I live in a famous city. First the Al-Quaida cells found in the City of Lackawanna which borders Buffalo to the south and now the famous Spammer. Now, if we can only win the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup. Howard S. Wharton Fire Safety Technician Occupational and Environmental Safety Services State University of New York at Buffalo ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 20:28:26 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: My Filter Rules, etc Here are the rules I was using to sort incoming mail, prior to the very difficult procmail thing getting installed on massis. I will annotate these rules as we go along. Your suggestions for improvements will be welcome. # Basic rules to follow in sorting mail: # # 1: Daily logs of this filter's activity: if subject filterlog then save /u/ptownson/.elm/logs/log.%m.%d.%t My daily logs are mailed to me, this prevents them from going through the lcs system and my mail filter a second time. # 2-3. Email to/from Archives; to/from users: if from archives then save /u/ptownson/tel-archives.mail if to archives@ then execute /u/ptownson/infoserver/bin/process These rules pertain to the old archives<>email system I still run for people seeking to obtain archives files by email. Some people still prefer it over using the web pages. # 4-5: Prevent loops if possible. If we sent a receipt, "Receipt" is in the # subject so if we see it coming past again, dump it in the mailbox as is. if subject receipt then leave if to autoreply@ then save "/dev/null" Mail loops used to be a big problem. You write and my daemon answered you then your daemon answered me, and my daemon answered back, etc. That's why if your ORIGINAL message contained the word 'receipt' in the subject line you did not get a receipt from me, even though I did get your message. # 6-10: Do not send receipts in these cases: if from ptownson then leave if from ladd@ then leave if from @telecom-digest.org then leave if from wollman@ then leave if from massey then leave if from noahm@lcs.mit.edu then leave LCS administrative staff usually, writing me a note about something. They don't want reciepts, neither do I. # 12-28: Mail Daemon Handling if subject 'User unknown' then save "/u/ptownson/t-request" if subject 'Delivery Report' then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if from smtp then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if subject SMTPLINK then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if from Mail_System then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if from postm then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if to post then leave if from daemon then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if from bounce then save "u/ptownson/bounced" if from mmdf then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if from network then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if from uucp@ then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if from mail@ then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if from administrator then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" if from root@ then leave if from gateway then save "/u/ptownson/bounced" Users unknown are filed in a box where I would manipulate the name out of the mailing list. 'postm' allows for postmasters, postmistresses, etc. But there have been legitimate users in the past whose name was Emily Post, etc. And now and then, a root owner will write me for some kind of business. Mostly it all went in a bounced box where it would get zapped frequently. # 28-31: what mail is left over should be legitimate; ie, from a # real person. Either they wrote an article or admin request. # If they wrote to -request or subscribe, then send one type of # autoreply, and if apparently an article for the Digest, send # the other type. if to -request then execute /u/ptownson/.elm/requestreply if to subscri then execute /u/ptownson/.elm/requestreply if subject subscri then execute /u/ptownson/.elm/requestreply if subject cancel then execute /u/ptownson/.elm/requestreply I send two types of autoreplies. One is worded for people who have send what is suspected to be an article for publication. We'll get to that later. The other type of autoreply is for people who would ask to be added to or removed from the mailing list. Letters to telecom-request or with a subject line which includes the words (un)subscribe or cancel get the other kind. This is no longer used since subscription things now go to majordomo at John Levine's place. # 32-36: But if they posted it direct to comp.dcom.telecom and some local # site forwarded it here, sometimes there will be no 'To', and sometimes # there will be spurious blank lines in the header where they should not # be. We make an effort to repair that, and once the envelope is repaired # if possible, we send the new mail right back here to be filtered again. # I also get bcc'd and cc'd on other people's mail sometimes. if to feedback then save "u/ptownson/feedback" if to dmassey then leave if to dcom then execute /u/ptownson/.elm/fix.blankline if to editor@ then execute /u/ptownson/.elm/autoreply if not to ptownson then execute /u/ptownson/.elm/fix.apparently-to If an article for the Digest, send the autoreply. Massey's mail is forwarded to him separately. People who write to comp-dcom-telecom@ their.site wind up here, but with extra blank lines unfortunatly. I will show you how I fix that. Mail with me as cc or bcc sometimes does not have my name in it, just as the Digest does not always have your name in the 'To' line. I try to deal with that also. #37: At this point we can issue the reply message for remaining mail always execute /u/ptownson/.elm/autoreply # The 'always' instruction always ends filtering. # Patrick Townson, November 5, 1991 # changes for eecs.nwu.edu made in 1992. # changes made for massis.lcs.mit.edu 11-8-95 # changes made for telecom-digest.org 04-13-97 # further changes and refinements made 08-26-97 # further changes for Tribute/Massey mail made 06-26-99 --------------------------------- Now these next scripts treat the odd pieces of mail which need more work, due to blank lines and no recipient but recieved 'apparently to' # #! /bin/sh # sed '1,/^$/{ # /^$/d # }' |/u/ptownson/.elm/autoreply Remove the # marks as needed at the far left side only. This takes mailing lists I am on and removes blank lines as needed then funnels the mail over to the autoreply mechanism. # #!/bin/sh # sed "1,/^$/{ # s/to:/To:/ # w /u/ptownson/.elm/tmp/bcchead.$$ # }" > /u/ptownson/.elm/tmp/bcc.$$ # trap "rm -f /u/ptownson/.elm/tmp/bcc*.$$" 0 1 2 3 15 # if grep '^To: ' /u/ptownson/.elm/tmp/bcchead.$$ > /dev/null # then : # elif grep '^Apparently-To: ' /u/ptownson/.elm/tmp/bcchead.$$ > /dev/# null # then sed '/./,/^$/{ # s/^Apparently-// # }' /u/ptownson/.elm/tmp/bcc.$$ | /usr/local/bin/filter -o /u/ptownson/.elm/filter-errs ; exit # fi # cat /u/ptownson/.elm/tmp/bcc.$$ | /usr/lib/sendmail \\ptownson # rm -f /u/ptownson/.elm/tmp/bcc.$$ # exit This script looks at mail where I am listed as a cc or bcc and corrects it for the Digest. Because I do not know if it is for the Digest or not I don't want to send a reciept, so I have to mail it back to my box. The first backslash with my name tells unix to mail it absolutely! to me, bypassing any .forward files and the backslash before that is needed to serve as a 'quote' for the next backslash. If I am not mistaken, I think a long-time reader, David Tamkin helped me with some of this. Just remember, if you ever want to write to some user directly and by-pass any filters or other steps he has in your way, write to him absolutely! by backslashing his name like this: some_user@his.site.com becomes \some_user@his.site.com and the backslash says ignore any .forward files you come across, just go for his mailbox. This is only guarenteed for Unix/Linux systems, and if *your* system requires you to quote the backslash in order to get it accepted as a backslash then do that also, i.e. \\. Obviously, .forward files serve a good purpose when people move to a different machine, etc and want their mail forwarded. So use the backslash only in cases where you know the .forward file is feeding into filter-rules pertaining to spam, etc. For instance, my .forward file here at massis.lcs.mit.edu looks like this: "| /usr/local/bin/filter -o /u/ptownson/.elm/filter-errs" That says pipe the mail to the elm filter on the local machine (massis) to the attention of ptownson and deal with any errors that elm can't handle. When the stream hits the filter it is dealt with as described above. Most of you know that 'telecom-digest.org' itself is simply an alias which points to massis, just as 'editor' points to ptownson when it gets here. Not too bad, I guess, for someone who suffered such extensive brain damage like I did following my brain aneurysm November 29, 1999, but I could never reconstruct all that today if I were just starting any Digest. Two months in a coma in Kansas Rehabilitation Hospital followed by another month or three in rehab and then a year or so in a nursing home ... but now days I get *so* tired from working at my computer. Spam is the last thing I need to see, but I sure do get it. Obviously, old scripts written in the early 1990's are not sufficient today, but maybe some readers can learn something by studying them. PAT ------------------------------ Subject: Last Laugh! Re: Microsoft: ILoo No Hoax After All From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 22:27:59 GMT > I mean, would anyone stay in the outhouse privvy long enough to be > able to login and read news or mail or spam or whatever? No, no, no. You all fail to understand. Remember that Microsoft just recently promised to deliver revolutionary new anti-spam technology on MSN? This is all part of the plan. Instead of just sitting on the pot, you'll be able to use all that formerly wasted time deleting spam from your inbox! >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #455 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 15 17:10:07 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4FLA7K15710; Thu, 15 May 2003 17:10:07 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 17:10:07 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305152110.h4FLA7K15710@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #456 TELECOM Digest Thu, 15 May 2003 17:10:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 456 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Beware of CameraWare (TELECOM Digest Editor) Book Review: "Mobile VPN", Alex Shneyderman/Alessio Casati (Rob Slade) Cheap Wireless Ethernet Bridge & IMUX Setup to Deliver 3xE1 (Mac) Re: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers (Linc Madison) Re: SBC Fraud Detection (Joel Garry) Re: Microsoft: ILoo No Hoax After All (Steven J. Sobol) Re: Microsoft: ILoo Internet Project a Hoax (Walt Howard) Re: A Vonage Hack or, Is This the Party to Whom I am Connected? (joe) Re: Tell Me Service (Joseph) Re: Tell Me Service (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Re: TELL-me; 800-555 Numbers (+1 3 0 3 5 4 3 2 3 1 1) Re: TELL-me; 800-555 Numbers (Steven J. Sobol) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 16:19:06 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Beware of CameraWare - An FBI Sting! Please see to it that this message is posted to as many newsgroups and other places on the Internet as possible. The web site known as CameraWare.com (also known as ttinet.com and also known as surveylens.com) out of San Diego, CA are government (FBI) informants Their phone number is 800-525-2527. Their principal product appears to be Camera Ware. CameraWare.com is a 99 percent porn operation. They give away free camera (sending to the net) software, in order to induce people to use their 'service'. They charge some sum of money for a 'viewer' to see the images others have transmitted. In order to operate the CameraWare sending software, you have to fax to them various documents such as a copy of your credit card (front and back), a copy of your driver's license, etc. AND sign a printed statement that you will not send any illegal images over the net, meaning mostly child porn stuff. In their 'central exchange' (the site where all the images being sent are captured and then dissemintated to everyone who has a viewer which you have to pay for), they think nothing is wrong with capturing all the images sent in and relaying them to the FBI (which is, I personally think), the basis of the whole operation. If Cameraware somehow gets customers mixed up, associates the wrong images with the wrong customer, that that's no big deal to them. I want to warn all netizens that CameraWare is a front for the FBI, or at the very least they are extremely cordial the the FBI and show the government your personal ID card/picture, your credit card and whatever other information they have on you. In addition to two pictures of me which the FBI alleged came from CameraWare (the print outs had Camera Ware images on the page), from a broadcaster logged onto their site under the name TEST they also proceeded to show me some photographs of very young guys (naked photos) from a broadcaster logged in as the name 'gay guys in Independence', insisting "these had to be from you also". The pictures frankly were rather sickening, but even more sickening to me is that **the only way** that picture of me along with a copy of my State of Kansas ID card and my Visa card could have come into their possession was from the folks at CameraWare, which they admitted was the case. So be Very Aware of CameraWare, ( http://cameraware.com ) and its two affiliated sites ( http://ttinet.com ) and ( http://surveylens.com ) since if you have done anything in front of a camera for them chances are likely it has already or is being sent to the FBI. When the two FBI guys came to my door earlier today, they asked if they could look at my computer, and I volunteered to let them see the whole thing. They found nothing, and went away with their usual bluster about 'how we do not believe you' and 'we are going to keep our eyes on you' etc. Its embarassing to me that I actually referred a couple customers to them I know of (from Yahoo and AOL Messengers) to CameraWare, thinking the guys might enjoy the service. And I am also embarassed that I right here on TELECOM Digest (my home site) put up glowing messages about CameraWare for guys on T.D. who might enjoy that sort of thing. The only reason I sent them my picture ID card and a signed statement that I would not break any laws when using CameraWare was because I trusted them ... I never expected them to violate my privacy this way. Just be Very Aware that CameraWare is an FBI sting operation. Patrick Townson ptownson@telecom-digest.org ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 07:59:38 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Mobile VPN", Alex Shneyderman/Alessio Casati BKMBLVPN.RVW 20030401 "Mobile VPN", Alex Shneyderman/Alessio Casati, 2003, 0-471-21901-0, U$45.00/C$69.95/UK#33.50 %A Alex Shneyderman %A Alessio Casati %C 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor, Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8 %D 2003 %G 0-471-21901-0 %I John Wiley & Sons, Inc. %O U$45.00/C$69.95/UK#33.50 416-236-4433 fax: 416-236-4448 %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471219010/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471219010/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471219010/robsladesin03-20 %P 330 p. %T "Mobile VPN" Part one presents wireless data fundamentals. Chapter one gives an introduction to mobile virtual private networks (MVPN), and the emphasis on cellular technology points out that the authors are familiar with the telecommunications, rather than security, field of work. The material contains a weak suggestion that MVPNs may be useful, lots of alphabet soup, and very little in the way of conceptual background. The data networking technologies in chapter two are not explained very clearly: basic ideas get bogged down with details. Cellular radio interfaces are listed in chapter three, with data services that can be provided over cellular networks in chapter four. Part two looks at MVPN and advanced wireless data services. MVPN fundamentals, in chapter five, basically reiterates the text from chapter two, with a little extra emphasis on virtual private networks. Chapter six describes various GSM (Global System for Mobile communications)/GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) offerings. Options for CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access) are listed in chapter seven. Chapter eight explains MVPN equipment components and requirements. Possible developments in mobile VPN are advanced in chapter nine. This book once again emphasizes the divide not only between the cellular and wireless LAN camps, but also between communications and security. It fails to bring all the related technologies together between two covers. At the same time, for those in the LAN or security fields who need to know about cellular service offerings, this work does not provide a consistent level of explanation and depth of background for those issues. Possible utilities are tabulated, but these could be obtained from almost any cell company sales office. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2003 BKMBLVPN.RVW 20030401 rslade@sprint.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca p1@canada.com "If you do buy a computer, don't turn it on." - Richards' 2nd Law ============= for back issues: [Base URL] site http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/ or mirror http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade/ CISSP refs: [Base URL]mnbksccd.htm Security Dict.: [Base URL]secgloss.htm Security Educ.: [Base URL]comseced.htm Book reviews: [Base URL]mnbk.htm [Base URL]review.htm Partial/recent: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/techbooks/ Security Educ.: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comseced/ Review mailing list: send mail to techbooks-subscribe@egroups.com ------------------------------ From: dmcdonnell@hotmail.com (Mac) Subject: Cheap Wireless Ethernet Bridge & IMUX Setup to Deliver 3xE1 Date: 15 May 2003 07:08:32 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I want to provide 90 telephone/faxes to a location about 12km away with clear line of sight. I need to do this cheaply and reliably. I figure the cheapest way is this: 2 x RAD IPmux-4 with 3xE1 2 x 3COM Wireless LAN Outdoor Ethernet Bridge I plug my Telco´s E1s into the IPmux, plug that into the 3COM microwave bridge, point the bridge at my target and have the reverse setup at the other end with the emerging E1s plugged into my PBX. It's by far the cheapest way I can figure to try to do this. Question is: Will it work? What do you guys think? TIA For product details see: www.rad.com/Article/0,6583,12971,00.html www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=prodspec&sku=3CRWEASY96A ------------------------------ From: Linc Madison Subject: Re: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 10:14:45 -0700 Organization: LincMad.com Consulting Reply-To: Telecom@LincMad.com My favorite "true story" (note the quotation marks) of 19th Century telegraphy is the story of the naming of the town of Iatan, Texas. The town was founded by the Texas & Pacific Railway in 1881. The story goes that the first inhabitant of the town was the telegraph operator. The railroad needed a name to put on the map, so they sent a message to the telegrapher, asking him for a name. The town was located along what is now I-20 between Abilene and Big Spring. There wasn't a whole lot out there but dust and tumbleweed, bringing the telegrapher to the conclusion that he had just been posted to hell. The name he sent back was "Satan," in honor of the ruler of that similar place. To the telegrapher's surprise, the message back showed no trace of irritation, much less did they ask him for a more suitable name. It turns out that there was a slight dropout on the line, turning ... .- - .- -. into .. .- - .- -. (S A T A N) (I A T A N) Of course, there are others who say that the name of the town had something to do with the name of a nearby ranch (the Williams-Waddell Iatan Tank Ranch), but I prefer to think of it as a town with a red cape, a broken-off horn, and a bent pitchfork. In any case, Iatan, Texas, has been deserted for 30 years now. The other railroad-related (though not telegraph-related) story, this one verifiably true, is the naming of Coalinga, California. It was Coaling Station A, which became Coaling A, which became Coalinga. www dot LincMad dot com / Telecom at LincMad dot com Linc Madison * San Francisco, California ------------------------------ From: joel-garry@home.com (Joel Garry) Subject: Re: SBC Fraud Detection Date: 15 May 2003 11:37:25 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I assume the only reason or the main > That is, unless the new tenants didn't quite give you the entire, > truthful account of the matter, in the proper context. Please make > sure *YOU* don't get egg on your face in this matter. > old days, including who calls whom, for how long, how often, etc. PAT] Thanks for the replies. The essential problem is that I really can't prove a negative, viz, that they are not lying. Given the landlord/tenant business context, I must assume they are lying, but I can assume it is trivial rather than SBC's implication that it is major (ie, the guy that flaked on the rent is actually living there). Since they have their own cellphone, it is not worth anything for me to do any more than I already have, and from the (admittedly coldhearted) landlord point of view, there is some value in them believing we are all part of Big Brother and so being very prompt with their rent. That conflicts with my desire to be a good-guy landlord, but I've been doing that long enough to know the issues. And of course, hacks and social engineering _by_ the phone company are interesting in themselves, and as a database geek, I'm also interested in how their systems actually work. jg @home.com is bogus. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think the 'way' their fraud detection system works is very sophisticated to say the least, but probably not entirely accurate. Consider for example, the use of telephone calling cards to call certain mid-east countries from a pay phone in the larger cities and the inner city neighborhoods. Their allegations that 'fraud is likely on those calls' is a slap on the face to most of the immigrants living in those areas. AT&T (and all the old Bell Companies are like peas in a pod in some billing issues, etc) has been sued a couple times over that issue, i.e. discrimination in credit practices) but they still stick to their guns on it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steven J. Sobol Subject: Re: Microsoft: ILoo No Hoax After All Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 02:16:02 -0000 Organization: JustThe.net LLC From Michael D Sullivan (zyxNOSPAM@camsul.com): > But MSN's executive team, which had heard of the iLoo through news > reports, took the unusual step of killing the project on Monday, she > said, believing that the portable toilet "wasn't the best extension of > our brand." > So is Microsoft sh*tting us, or what? All I can say is that the iLoo > would have provided a uniquely feature-rich user experience, which is > typical of MS brand extensions. And the Microsoft name is already synonymous with crap ... Pat says: > gee-whiz ... I mean, would anyone stay in the outhouse > privvy long enough to be able to login and read news or mail or spam > or whatever? I sit on the can taking a dump reading my Java and XML programming books sometimes for 10 or 15 minutes at a time, so who knows ... (That's probably more info than you needed :) Of course, how sanitary could a bathroom PC Possibly be? Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge, JustThe.net POTS: Toll Free from anywhere in the USA or Canada, 888.480.4NET (4638) HTTP: www.JustTheNetLLC.com MAIL: 5686 Davis Drive, Mentor on the Lake, OH 44060-2752 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But there is much difference between your personal bathroom and one of the filthy toilets the city fathers set up for use during park events isn't there? I would hope so. I can sit in my bathroom comfortably for several minutes also, but that is a different thing. I guess it may depend on what model is being used for the outhouse. Are they copying the style made famous by the Chicago Park District or the Chicago Transit Authority for their subway-station men's rooms? Or are they copying more sanitary, clean facilities? Oh, and while we are on the subject of filthy toilets please don't forget to login today on CameraWare.com with your camera and ID cards handy. FBI needs to get your photo and ID cards on file. PAT] ------------------------------ From: howard@rumba.ee.ualberta.ca (Walt Howard) Subject: Re: Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 05:18:25 +0000 (UTC) Organization: A poorly-installed InterNetNews site In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > REDMOND, Wash. (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. said a company news release > that it was developing a portable toilet with Internet access, called > an "iLoo," was a hoax perpetrated by its British division. > The April 30 release, issued by the company's MSN Internet division in > the United Kingdom, said Microsoft was developing a portable toilet > with a wireless keyboard and an extending height-adjustable plasma > screen in front of the seat. The iLoo was to debut at festivals this > summer in Britain. Actually this was one of the better Internet jokes this year. If they had released it on April 1 as everyone else does, I think even those of who don't much like M$ would have had to grant that they are starting to "get it". But with "embracing" April Fools' Day, and then "extending" it to April 30, some of us worry about the "extinguish" ... And Pat, to answer your question about my funny .sig, you do a bang-up job keeping the postings as text. In a fair number of the unmoderated newgroups, newbies who use GUI news software keep the default settings, and some vendors think the default should be text+html or even html-only. A bunch of us dinosaurs don't like that. Rather than retaliate with nroff or scribe markup in our own posts, we use grumbly signatures. Walt Howard /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign InterNet: whoward@ieee.org \ / No HTML or M$Word in mail or news! BellNet: +1 780 492 7262 X / \ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why don't the Usenet authorities in that case simply set their own software not to accept any HTML in postings. The ones that come through here to *my* telecom group just get tossed out. PAT] ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: A Vonage Hack or, Is This the Party to Whom I am Connected? Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 11:52:43 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications John R Levine wrote: > Vonage has a nice call transfer feature. If you're on the phone with > party A, you can flash, dial #90, party B's number, # and hang up. It > then calls party B and the call continues between A and B. I use it > to transfer to my ILEC phone when my net connection is crummy, to my > cell phone when I have to leave, etc. You can use it regardless of > whether you or party A originated the first call. > The hack is that when party B's phone rings, the CLID displayed is > party A's, even if you made both calls. That is, call A, then > transfer to B, and B sees a call from A, not from you. Just think of > the fun you can have. It works even if A is an 800 number. Neat, isn't it. I've already sent recorded airport information to a couple of my pilot friends who have Caller ID. It appears to them that the Kennedy Airport Terminal Information Service roboton is calling them. ;-) I understand the feds are worried about Vonage being used by gangstas and bin Laden jerks. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Please no more bin Laden stories here. If the US goverment had any sense they would have treated that World Trade Center thing as the **mass murder** it was rather than a 'terrorist act' which Dubya wanted so desparatly to happen. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Tell Me Service Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 19:48:27 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Wed, 14 May 2003 05:51:58 -0400, Michael Andrews, Sr. wrote: > What is the number please? If you mean the number of the service it's 1-800-555-TELL (1-800-555-8355) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, 800-555-1212 will get you first > hand experience with them. I am sure they probably have an administra- > tive number as well, I just do not know the number. Maybe someone > else knows. PAT] 1-800-555-1212 is now run by Tell Me with voice response. If you are unsuccessful you can reach a real operator, but only during their working hours. On off hours no operator is available. AT&T really wanted to drop toll-free directory entirely, but I guess this was the best they could do. Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Tell Me Service Organization: Excelsior Computer Services From: joel@exc.com (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 11:55:31 GMT > What is the number please? The number for Tell Me service is 1/800-555-TELL. The technology is pretty fun, and works about as well (and as poorly) as most voice technology these days. If you speak clearly through a clean connection, the system will generally understand you. If you're using a speakerphone or other less clean connection, or if you speak quickly, or slur your works, or if you have an accent, you won't have much luck. Sadly, the services provided by 555-TELL don't work nearly as well. The traffic system not only uses bad data, but can't even correctly produce the little data it has. My (one) experience with the movie system gave me out-of-date information. The system also offers point-to-point directions, IMO the most useful feature, even though it crashes every so often ("a system error has prevented ..."). -Joel ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 12:56:39 -0600 From: Paul Migliorelli (+1 3 0 3 5 4 3 2 3 1 1) Subject: Re: TELL-me; 800-555 Numbers I remember seeing both with Tellme's phonebooth, and it's wakeup call option, at first, on caller i d, a 6 4 0 number would be sent. If you called it, you'd get the Tellme lady autattendant for admin offices. I think later on the number shown was the 800 555 tell number. Then it would also show another number and if you called it, you'd get an explanation of what tellme was with the option to be connected there. ------------------------------ From: Steven J. Sobol Subject: Re: TELL-me; 800-555 Numbers Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 02:17:37 -0000 Organization: JustThe.net LLC From Mark J Cuccia (mcuccia@tulane.edu): > I don't offhand know the administrative number of "Tell-Me", neither a > toll-free 800/888/877/866 type number nor a California NPA based "POTS" > number. I don't either, though before Verizon fixed my problem of getting charged toll charges to the 555-Tell number on my Verizon Wireless phone, people were passing around the AC 408 (local) number that got you into the service... Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge, JustThe.net POTS: Toll Free from anywhere in the USA or Canada, 888.480.4NET (4638) HTTP: www.JustTheNetLLC.com MAIL: 5686 Davis Drive, Mentor on the Lake, OH 44060-2752 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #456 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 15 18:42:56 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4FMguS16488; Thu, 15 May 2003 18:42:56 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 18:42:56 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305152242.h4FMguS16488@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #457 TELECOM Digest Thu, 15 May 2003 18:43:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 457 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Retail Future: Painless Checkout, Knowing Scanners (Monty Solomon) "I'm Just Dave" (Monty Solomon) The Exterminator (Monty Solomon) The NoCat Night Light - 802.11b Light Bulb (Monty Solomon) Challenge Response (Joey Lindstrom) Re: Spit Or Spamola (Joey Lindstrom) WIN 36 D Manual (Eric) Qwest Creditors Give It Time To Submit '02 Financials (Eric Friedebach) Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-R Will be Ignored (P Wallich) 66-Block - Why is it Called Such When it Has 25-Pairs (50 Wires)? (Lain) SMS Come to Home Phone in France (Jean-Bernard CONDAT) Re: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) I Think I am Free of Them Now ... (TELECOM Digest Editor) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 02:08:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Retail Future: Painless Checkout, Knowing Scanners By Paul Hoskins BERLIN, May 13 (Reuters) - Bean tins with radio transmitter chips, smart shelves that know when to restock and automatic checkout simply by pushing a loaded trolley past a sensor -- supermarket fantasy? No, it's German retail giant Metro AG's (DE:MEOG) vision of the near future, already ringing up the tills in the sleepy northern town of Rheinberg. Metro's "Future Store Initiative," a collection of technology aimed at boosting store efficiency, micro-marketing and ending long checkout queues, is also on display here at the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) conference, where Europe's major retailer and consumer brands are plotting the future of shopping. Metro and its partners, including chip giant Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and software group SAP , are seeking to usher out the decades-long reign of the bar code in favour of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips, which can provide information passively and are now as small as half a grain of rice. When queried by a radio device, RFID chips respond by transmitting a unique ID code, often using energy from the initial radio signal to power their reply. As the RFID technology falls in cost -- to as little as three cents per chip in the next three years -- they are expected to appear on an ever-widening array of products. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34188439 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 09:11:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: I'm Just Dave Shorn of cellular service and cable systems, AT&T seems destined for history's dustbin. But David Dorman, Ma Bell's folksy new chief, is proving it's too soon to count the old gal out. The top post at AT&T had once been the most prestigious perch in corporate America. But by the time David Dorman took the job six months ago, the obvious question was why anyone in their right mind would want it. Dorman's predecessor, C. Michael Armstrong, had tried to brake the company's decline in long-distance service with $110 billion in acquisitions that briefly turned AT&T into the country's largest cable system operator. The gambit proved distracting and futile. Chastened by Wall Street, AT&T ended up going through its third major breakup, spinning off its cellular business and -- on the same day Dorman assumed command -- selling the cable business to Comcast. What was left of AT&T looked so uninviting that Armstrong jumped to Comcast rather than sticking around. In a further humiliating touch, the company's stately Basking Ridge, N.J. headquarters also was hawked, and executives relocated to smaller digs. Dorman took over a phone business that was shrinking fast, and a global data network in a world glutted with fiber. It has been a Sisyphean struggle. Last year AT&T's noncable revenue slid 10% for the second year in a row. The company loses 300,000 consumer accounts a month, sending revenue in that critical segment down a jaw-dropping 22%. Cleaving AT&T from its cable business didn't help matters. Instead, the new AT&T shares promptly began a steady slide, losing half their value by April. That left the company's market capitalization at $11 billion, compared with $110 billion five years earlier. Only a face-saving 1-for-5 reverse stock split kept the shares with the famous symbol "T" from trading in the $2 range. These days the shrunken company is frequently mentioned as a bite-size acquisition for one of the powerful local phone companies that AT&T spawned 20 years ago. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34131486 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 09:14:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Exterminator Bug-ridden programs are savagely costly. Microsoft engineer Amitabh Srivastava may have just what we need -- a software insecticide. A strange thing happened last spring to the Board of Directors web page of furniture maker Herman Miller, Inc. Instead of seeing the company's quarterly numbers, staffers saw a Star of David and a sad face. The chief executive thought someone was mocking his Protestant faith. Computer security chief Dennis Peasley thought, "This has to be a hack." But it was no hack, just a software glitch in how Microsoft's PowerPoint program recognized Herman Miller's custom fonts. Amitabh Srivastava, a computer scientist deep inside Microsoft Research, is the guy Microsoft is counting on to automate and accelerate the process of purging mistakes. "The impression is that we don't write very good software," says Srivastava. "Every time my computer crashes, it is a reminder of my failure." Computer bugs have been around since malfunctions in a 1945 Mark II were blamed (facetiously) on a moth trapped in a relay. Nowadays the term refers to programming flaws--commands that don't accomplish the desired result because computers have a habit of following the letter rather than the spirit of the instructions handed to them. The cost to customers of these flaws is necessarily a nebulous figure, but for what it's worth a National Institute of Standards & Technology report puts it at $38 billion a year. Evaluating only the cost of intrusions by hackers, who exploit flaws in computer security, Gartner Group comes up with $5.4 billion a year. Srivastava's fix is an arsenal of tools that help code testers fumigate buggy code. He has a big fan in Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. "Software quality is about removing or preventing defects. The sooner any defect is caught, the better--ideally, they are simply never coded," says Gates. Building clean code is getting more daunting, especially for Microsoft . The Windows operating system has 50 million lines of code (a line averages 60 characters) and grows 20% with every release. It's put together by 7,200 people, comes in 34 languages and has to support 190,000 devices -- different models of digital cameras, printers, handhelds and so on. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34131541 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 09:19:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The NoCat Night Light - 802.11b light bulb How many cats does it take to screw in a light bulb? Contributed by: Rob Flickenger Back in March 2003, some friends and I were hanging out at a really good coffee shop in Sebastopol. This particular coffee joint is housed in an old wooden train station building, with very high ceilings, old style hanging industrial lamps, and even a couple of old trains serving as small shops, still on the tracks. Unfortunately, there's no wireless available at this shop (there was, once upon a time, back when O'Reilly was located across the street from it. But that was ages ago, and even then the signal wasn't all that it could have been.) As we sat around drinking our high octane beverages, we got to talking about the best way to provide coverage in such a huge space. The room we were in was a common room, open at all hours (the front enterance is huge, and doesn't even have a door.) While you could put an access point in one of the enclosed shops in the building, coverage in the open area would likely be spotty at best. You would want the AP to be located high up off the ground, where everyone could see it. Almost simultaneously, we all looked up and noticed the lamps hanging from the wooden rafters. What if you could house an AP in a package the size of a large lightbulb, and install it in an existing light socket? This seemed like a good idea, but how would you get network access to it without running CAT5 to the socket? Easy: Powerline Ethernet. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/h/352 ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 08:07:34 -0600 Subject: Challenge Response Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Wed, 14 May 2003 17:46:21 -0400 (EDT), editor@telecom-digest.org wrote: > Now I have just a little peanut-size Digest; I am sure many guys have > much larger mailing lists and publish more frequently than myself, > and probably more messages in each issue, but I really feel that those > of us who are Usenet moderators or mailing list managers have to take > on the extra duties needed to make our lists work. So if you have to > spend an hour or so copying all your names onto a whitelist, what is > the big deal? You cannot expect your users to have to carry this > extra burden. PAT] I agree. I've been lobbing feedback at the authors of the MDaemon mail server (which I use) for about a year now asking for this feature, and while it hasn't turned up yet, they seem to be very positive about the idea. I agree that the big problem with C-R is mailing lists. What will overcome it is cooperation between developers of mail server software and mailing list software (which in some cases is the same developer - MDaemon includes a built-in mailing list facility). There are big challenges to overcome insofar as the initial signup to a mailing list is concerned. But on an ongoing basis, there are easy fixes. The simplest would be a new header line, maybe "X-Mailing-List:", that could be whitelisted by the recipient. That way, no matter who each message in the list is "from:", it will pass through. Yes, spammers could take advantage of this, but think about it. If a spammer decided to take advantage of *THIS* list by substituting his own "X-Mailing-List: TelecomDigest" line into his spam, it will only work for spam sent to subscribers of *THIS* list. It won't work for anyone else. Given the very, very small return rates that spammers get, it would be very uneconomical for a spammer to bother with this. The other thing that could be done is at the server level, but this would require the development of a new mail protocol, something that would allow a receiving system to verify a sending system is "legitimate" (and I'll leave the criteria for determining that as a topic for debate). But if we had the will to do that, then we likely wouldn't need challenge-response in the first place. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 08:34:43 -0600 Subject: Re: Spit Or Spamola Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Wed, 14 May 2003 19:59:58 -0400 (EDT), editor@telecom-digest.org wrote: > They are all horrible. Why would Microsoft or any reputable company > consider installing computers in them? PAT] You've just answered your own question. Microsoft is not a reputable company. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, in the grand scheme of things, they are a reputable company, in the same way that Southwestern Bell is a reputable company. They are not dishonest or an FBI shill, for example (like cameraware.com). Microsoft does not steal money from their customers. Many guys on the net do not like Microsoft and make mock of Bill Gates and his things, but overall, Microsoft is an honest and reputable company, just like Southwestern Bell. Why they would get into the business of stocking filthy toilets with computers is quite beyond me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: t568aort568b@aol.com (Eric) Subject: WIN 36 D Manual Date: 15 May 2003 08:40:43 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I am looking for a programing manual for a WIN 36D phone system. Thanks in advance! ------------------------------ From: Eric Friedebach Subject: Qwest Creditors Give It Time To Submit '02 Financials Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 11:50:03 -0500 Organization: Purity Of Essence/Plant Operational Error Reply-To: Eric Friedebach Tara Murphy, 05.15.03, Forbes.com NEW YORK - Making headlines this morning, Qwest Communications International says its creditors gave it until July 15 to submit its 2002 financial results. The telecom needed more time to restate $2.2 billion in revenue for 2000 and 2001, as part of a probe into whether Qwest inflated its revenue by improperly booking sales and swapping network capacity. Qwest is upholding its 2003 financial guidance, calling for its revenue decline to be in line or less than last year's 7.5% drop. http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/15/cx_tm_0515video1.html Eric Friedebach [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Did any of you defenders of 'quasi- government agencies' happen to notice in the news recently how the New York Transit Authority was caught misconfiguring their books and records to show multi-million dollar losses over a two year period (when in fact they had made a small profit) as a way to justify a fare increase? And people wonder why I say so much of our federal and state government is corrupt; rotten to the core. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Paul Wallich Subject: Re: TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 13:09:53 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In article , johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) wrote: >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder why it is so many people are >>> opposed to this obviously good spam-fighting technique. I wonder also >> As a mailing-list administrator, I'm surprised you don't appreciate it. >> What do you plan to do if you start getting hundreds of challenges a day? > Actually, the mailing list is run by majordomo2 on my network. And I > do the same thing with challenges that every other list manager does. > I ignore them. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe that explains things a little > better. People send email asking you to validate and you ignore their > request. Then the same person writes me a personal note saying 'why > am I not getting the Digest?' and they do have my personal name on > the white list so they get an answer from me personally but still do > not get any issues of the Digest. :( I tell them in essence 'try > again with majordomo' and they tell me they are trying but not getting > any results. Would you **please** at least edit any acknowledgement > file sent out by majordomo to include a statement saying 'you must > white list 'ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu' and *@telecom-digest.org to > receive this publication. But Pat, depending on how the challenge-response software is set up (usually badly) the users are never going to see those files. The majordomo acks and associated info will just get dumped because the addresses are not on a whitelist and don't respond to challenges. It's a catch-22. paul [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well hopefully the issue has receieved enough publicity recently that when people want to sign up to get this TELECOM Digest by email they will know to whitelist the Digest addresses. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Hans Lain Subject: 66-Block - Why is it Called Such When it Has 25-Pairs (50 Wires)? Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 13:32:08 -0700 Organization: Global Crossing Telecommunications Just curious - 66-block - why is it called such when it has 25-pairs (50 wires)? Thanks, Hans [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think if you count the number of punchdown places you will find 66 of them. The reason for the extras is that a few of the punchdowns are multipled elsewhere on the block and there are also some spares to attach 'foreign' (in re the Bell System's old days) equipment, such as all the phones on the block being able to use a common loud speaker page, etc. also 'tied onto' the 66 block. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jean-Bernard CONDAT Subject: SMS Come to Home Phone in France Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 07:17:41 +0200 Organization: Chrystol, B.P. 59, 93402 Saint-Ouen Cedex, France The passion of French people for SMS (Short Message Services) will be more and more actual. All ads will be present in a 160-characters SMS format and receive on a portable phone. Three operators accept this kind of spamming: Orange (a sub. of France Telecom), SFR (Cegetel) and Bouygues Telecoms (DECT-type comms). Orange win the war for having a "technology in advance" again the two others official operators. You can send with one-finger typing method and without grammatical errors (!) a 160-characters from one portable Orange phone ... to another portable phone, a home phone, an ADSL phone or an email. The sending of an SMS for a group will be possible soonly. If the destinataire don't have a SMS-compatible phone, the message will be transmit by an automated voice message. The sending of a SMS costs 0,15 euro (taxes included). The acknoledge receipt cost the same price if the SMS is sending on a new SMS-compatible phone (price of this phone: between 80 and 150 euros). Do you have the same stupid and expensive service in other countries than France? Jean-Bernard Condat CHRYSTOL (first patent & trademark European insurance) B.P. 59, 93402 Saint-Ouen Cedex, France condat@chrystol.com tel:/fax: +33 153013874 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Connecting Two Wireless Routers in One Network Organization: Excelsior Computer Services From: joel@exc.com (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 11:49:51 GMT > You want ONE router and the rest ACCESS POINTS. The access points > should be tied to the hardwired ethernet ports of the router. This > way, all the wireless traffic is on the same subnet, and you can move > from one to another without losing your connection. Can the access points be connected wirelessly, something like this: T1 -cable-> WIRELESS ROUTER -wireless-> ACCESS1 -wireless-> ACCESS2 etc. That way, say, the 10th access point can be far away from the T1, but still wirelessly connected to it. Or doesn't it work that way? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 01:15:24 -0400 (EDT) From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: I Think I am Free of Them Now ... Some readers may recall that about one week ago, I finally got the needed courage to totally dump Southwestern Bell and go with one of their local competitors here in Independence. Their voicemail hell, long times to wait in queue for a representative and the typical rep's arrogance and ignorance finally got through to me. That, and the fact that although as a medically disabled senior citizen receiving Social Security disability payments I receive a special rate from SWB called 'Life Line' service, my monthly bill kept getting higher and higher. I had to call them monthly to get corrections made on the bill. Although they promised over a month ago to reduce my bill (or the DSL portion of the bill) by $20 per month, at first they tried to ignore that promise totally; then after I called and reminded them of their promise they tried to claim they could not do it. Then after I yelled about that, they agreed 'maybe they could knock off $15 each month provided I signed a contract for another full year of service just as things were; with no changes (other than the reduction on DSL pricing.) Then I found out that new DSL customers were already getting the service for $20 per month less than what I had to pay, with no contracts. I went over to see Duane, one of the owners of the local ISP who had in fact started a CLEC a few months ago. Fully qualified CLEC (not just a broker) with co-located equipment in the CO here in town. I keep the same phone numbers, (LNP), etc. $24.95 plus tax per month with a whole raft of features that SWB was charging extra on each month. Trouble was, he could not convert me from Southwestern Bell as long as I had DSL service. SWB will *not* convert DSL customers! So he told me go over to our local cable suppler and get Internet service from him instead. I got the cable internet turned on the same day, called Bell to get theirs turned off, and went back to Prairie Stream (local telco)to see Duane. He put the conversion order in the same day with SBC. That was last Friday. SWB continued to squabble and fuss about it. First they said that since the DSL had not been officially turned off they could do nothing. That order went through from SWB finally Tuesday. Duane tried again. This time SWB said there was a lock on my account against giving it away. NOT SO! I called SWB/SBC back again and told them to please let go of the line. We might do it soon, they said. Today, (Thursday, nearly a week after this started) I got back to Duane and SWB/SBC had some other excuse. I think they felt if they kept stalling long enough I would eventually get over being sore at them and quit trying to get the line. Finally, this afternoon I got a call from the clerk at Prairie Stream saying the conversion had been completed. Local service, call-waiting, caller ID, three way calling, other features and 100 minutes of long distance anywhere in the USA for $24.95 per month plus tax, total about $37 per month. The cable internet replaces the DSL, and Cable One sells it routinely for $5 per month less than SBC's DSL, however since I also get cable TV they knocked off another $10 per month. Price-wise, I will be paying about the same as I paid before with cable now getting more and phone (via Prairie Stream) getting much less, but it nets out to $5-7 per month less in total. But it was not just the money ... it was the overall corporate attitude of SBC. I asked Duane who was their operator services company. His eyes got sort of big as he looked at me, as if to say 'well you do know a few things about this business, dont you?' Honestly I expected he would say it was one of the bottom feeders, Pilgrim or Integratel or one of those so he could make some money. It turns out operator services is still handled by SBC, the same place they get their copper pairs. But otherwise Prairie Stream is a licensed, fully qualified telco in Kansas, 'in competion with' SBC. The only things I have noticed different so far this evening are a couple minor things; differences in the ESS switch generics, just tiny little audible differences in the ringing and busy signal sounds, cadence, etc. Tomorrow morning I must remember to go to the bank and see the manager and ask her to dishonor, and refuse to pay any further autodrafts from SBC. I will keep you notified of how it goes otherwise. Patrick ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #457 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri May 16 03:05:48 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4G75mZ18753; Fri, 16 May 2003 03:05:48 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 03:05:48 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305160705.h4G75mZ18753@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #458 TELECOM Digest Fri, 16 May 2003 03:06:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 458 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics Enter cdma2000 (Monty Solomon) Motorola Improves Customer Service: New Two-Way Radio (Monty Solomon) CIENA Launches LightWorks Services to Improve Economics (Monty Solomon) T-Mobile Says Scraps Microsoft Smart Phone Launch (Monty Solomon) MSN For Mac OS X Launch Boosts Mac Users' Online Experience (M Solomon) Web Profiling Is Getting Personal/Database Companies Collate (M Solomon) Backhoe Accident Cuts Boston Net Service (Monty Solomon) Re: 66-Block - Why is it Called Such When it Has 25-Pairs (John Stahl) Re: 66-Block - Why is it Called Such When it Has 25-Pairs (M Bartlett) Verizon Sets Up Phone Booths to Give Access to the Internet (M Solomon) ***Not For Publication, Please*** (Name Withheld) Re: I Think I am Free of Them Now ... (Steven J. Sobol) Re: SMS Come to Home Phone in France (Joseph) Re: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers (Dave Garland) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 21:11:34 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics Enter cdma2000(R) Open CDMA Chipset Offers Unprecedented Choices for cdma2000(R) Handset Manufacturers DALLAS and GENEVA, May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wireless industry leaders join efforts to stimulate an open environment for CDMA handsets -- STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) (ST), Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE:TXN) (TI), and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) today announced that TI and ST will offer ICs, based on technology developed jointly with Nokia that together compose standard CDMA chipsets. The chipset ICs will be marketed by ST and TI to handset manufacturers worldwide for cdma2000 1X and 1xEV-DV (1x Evolution for Data and Voice) mobile Internet handsets. This technology has been incorporated in the Nokia-specific chipset used in its cdma2000 1X phones, and following generations of this technology will be used in Nokia-specific chipsets for future 1xEV-DV handsets. Availability of qualified samples of the cdma2000 1X chipset is expected next quarter. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34201916 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 21:12:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola Improves Customer Service with New Two-Way Radio Technology for The Restaurant and Retail Industries - May 15, 2003 07:00 AM (PR Newswire) CLS Series Provides Reliable Communication in Fast-Paced Environments ATLANTA, May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Building on its history of success with two-way radio technology, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) announced today its newest line of business two-way radios: the CLS Series. Recognizing the need for a compact, easy-to-use solution, Motorola CLS Series business two-way radios provide retail and restaurant users the ability to communicate in fast-paced environments while maintaining superior customer service. The Motorola CLS Series radios have been designed to answer the growing demand of retail and restaurant users who are looking for a lightweight and affordable wireless communication solution to help maintain business efficiency and competitive edge. With an easily accessible Push-To-Talk (PTT) button on the front of the radio combined with the headset accessory, users can have instant access to co-workers and easily manage requests and tasks with hands-free convenience (hands-free available on 1410 model with optional accessory). - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34202183 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 21:15:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: CIENA Launches LightWorks Services to Improve Economics CIENA Launches LightWorks Services to Improve Economics of Service Delivery and Enable Carrier-Class, High-Bandwidth Data Services - May 15, 2003 08:05 AM (BusinessWire) LINTHICUM, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2003-- Company Enters Next Phase of Network Strategy, Improving Carriers' Service Profitability While Maximizing Existing Infrastructure of its network strategy with the launch of its LightWorks(TM) Services initiative. The initiative includes an extension of CIENA's distributed intelligence across all products, and the addition of data-focused features and products to the Company's existing solutions portfolio. This will result in a lowering of service providers' capital and operating costs (CAPEX/OPEX), thereby enabling them to improve the efficiency and profitability of their traditional service offerings. The initiative also allows carriers to use their existing network infrastructure more efficiently and to create new opportunities in the substantial enterprise data services market. Today's network traffic is predominantly data, yet the majority of carrier revenue comes from voice traffic. LightWorks Services is CIENA's solution for service providers who want to use a single network to provide multiple traditional data services, such as private lines, ATM and Frame Relay, without sacrificing carrier-class reliability. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34203233 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 21:16:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: T-Mobile Says Scraps Microsoft sSart Phone Launch BONN, May 15 (Reuters) - Europe's second largest mobile phone operator T-Mobile International [TMOG.UL] said on Thursday it had shelved plans to introduce a mobile phone powered by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) software. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34204424 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 21:18:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: MSN for Mac OS X Launch Boosts Mac Users' Online Experience MSN Subscription Services Now Available on Macintosh OS X for the First Time REDMOND, Wash., May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced the broad availability of MSN(R) services to users of Mac OS X with the premiere of MSN for Mac OS X, the first Internet subscription service from MSN built specifically for consumers using Mac OS X. Users of Mac OS X in the United States can now boast a better Web experience, with top-requested features including a powerful junk e-mail filter with multiple layers of filtering; customizable parental controls that help parents protect their children from inappropriate online content and limit communication with strangers; and free, round-the-clock, Mac-specific customer support. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34204823 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 21:56:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Web Profiling Is Getting Personal / Database Companies Collate Web Profiling Is Getting Personal Database Companies Collate Life Stories From Records By MIKE SWIFT, Courant Staff Writer Rakesh Gupta probably has a file on you. His company probably knows how much money you make, what risks you're willing to take when you invest, your race, perhaps even your religious faith. Gupta's company, infoUSA, is in the business of allowing anybody with a computer and a credit card to learn those things about you, too. InfoUSA probably has even given you a number, a 12-digit code it uses to track 220 million Americans, no matter where they move - theoretically for life. Compiled from sources drawn from thousands of public records and proprietary sources, infoUSA claims to have built the best consumer databases in a rapidly growing industry. Gupta says there is a "tremendous" appetite for infoUSA's data. http://www.ctnow.com/hc-omniscient0504.artmay04.story ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 23:02:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Backhoe Accident Cuts Boston Net service By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff, 5/14/2003 An errant backhoe blade wrought havoc on Internet service throughout Boston yesterday, and The Boston Globe's Internet site, Boston.com, was among the victims, as was the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. Workers accidentally sliced through a fiber-optic data cable used by Dallas-based Allegiance Telecom Inc., a telecommunications company that hosts the server computers of Boston.com and other local businesses. The accident, which occurred at about 6:45 a.m., disrupted Internet services throughout the day. Randy Brandenburg, Boston.com vice president of product and technology, said the website actually never lost contact with the Internet because it has a secondary data connection. Unfortunately, the domain name service (DNS) computer for the site was still operated by Allegiance, and was knocked offline. A DNS computer is part of a global network of machines that direct visitors to the correct Web servers. If DNS is down, it doesn't matter whether the Web server is working, because Internet users will have no way of reaching the server. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/134/business/Backhoe_accident_cuts_Boston_Net_service+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 21:29:31 -0400 From: John Stahl Subject: Re.: 66-Block - Why is it Called Such When it Has 25-Pairs I recall that it was named as such by Western Electric (they owned the patents on it) because (conflicting stories here!) it was either introduced or Patented in 1966 or maybe just because the contact looked something like the letter-J. The designation had nothing to do with the size or capacity of the block - (does a RJ11 have 11-contacts?) The Bell Syatem later (about the mid to late 80's time frame, so it was called the 88-block) designed a smaller more compact punch-down "system" (called the 88-block) at the request of the then Bell Operating Companies (BOC's) which was unanimously rejected by the BOC's due to three factors: a) the need for new hand assembly (punch-down) tools, b) additional items had to be stocked and carried by the installers (new design consisted of two basic parts: frame and contact blocks of several sizes) and, 3) the design was far more flimsy than the 66-block "standard". However, this changed design was later resurrected after the divestiture (1994) of the "Bell" System by the new supply "arm", Lucent, who renamed it the 110-connecting block and sold to the developing CPE market. (The story I heard from a reliable source at AT&T was that someone found all the tooling and samples they had made (back in 1988) for the BOC's, figured it was better to try selling it than to scrap it, and handed it to their new sales force to run with it to this emerging new market. Bingo, the 110-series has now out-sold the 66-blocks (it can pass higher standards such as CAT5 and 6, etc. due to smaller size) but will never attain the high reliability levels of the "original" 66-block design (just can't seem to kill it!) That's the way I heard it some years ago from a couple of retired WECO people who claimed to be involved in the punch-down block design and manufacture. John Stahl Telecom Consultant Aljon Enterprises ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 02:54:09 +0000 (GMT) From: Matt Bartlett Subject: Re: 66-Block - Why is it Called Such When it Has 25-Pairs Organization: Optimum Online Actually, Pat, I belive 66 Blocks are called that due to the size of the IDC punchdowns. They are 66mm, as the 110 blocks are 110mm. Hans Lain wrote in message news:telecom22.457.10@telecom-digest.org: > Just curious - 66-block - why is it called such when it has 25-pairs (50 > wires)? > Thanks, > Hans > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think if you count the number of > punchdown places you will find 66 of them. The reason for the extras > is that a few of the punchdowns are multipled elsewhere on the block > and there are also some spares to attach 'foreign' (in re the Bell > System's old days) equipment, such as all the phones on the block > being able to use a common loud speaker page, etc. also 'tied onto' > the 66 block. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 23:04:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Sets Up Phone Booths to Give Access to the Internet By BARNABY J. FEDER Verizon Communications yesterday introduced one of the oldest items in its inventory -- the humble phone booth -- as its newest weapon in the bitter competition to dominate the broadband communications market of the future. Verizon said that subscribers to its high-speed Internet access service would be able to go online wirelessly at no charge when they are near a Verizon phone booth in Manhattan. Verizon said that 150 phone booths -- from the Battery to Columbia University -- had already been equipped with radio-signal technology, popularly known as Wi-Fi, to enable mobile computer users who are within 300 feet of a booth to connect to the Internet. About 1,000 booths covering virtually all of Manhattan and a few spots in the other boroughs will become Wi-Fi "hot spots" by the end of the year, the company said. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/14/technology/14NET.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 20:04:50 PDT From: Name Withheld Subject: ***Not For Publication, Please*** Hi Pat: A few issues ago you referred to, in your comment following a posting from a while ago that you reposted, the old Western Union public office in ... Chicago! You mentioned that you could describe it if anyone wanted to hear about it, well, I for one WOULD like to hear about it! There was one here, in San Francisco, through the mid-late 1980's, but it was pretty much like a Currency Exchange inside, and it seemed mainly to function as a place to wire or to receive wired money. It was NOT well appointed in any way. I guess they ended up closing it down around the time when liquor stores all over town became Western Union contract agents. As always, I'd like to hear reminiscences about the old home town! My two cents, please don't publish this as I don't need to get the shit spammed outta me again like I did when you posted my remarks to Withheld! Thanks again from Withheld. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, the public office in Chicago was very well appointed in the very old days (1930s to 1970s or so). Then eventually they moved it a few feet to the north just as a tiny little 'currency exchange' type place, as you described yours. The cut-rate liquor stores (there are a million of them in Chicago, every block or two) all became Western Union money agents once WUTCO officially dropped the telegram business and went almost exclusively into money transfer. But while the public office was open, it was a 24 hour per day thing, with rather elegant highback leather chairs, plush carpeting, marble writing tables and a marble counter for the clerk, several spitoons discretely around the room with ashtrays, and of course a large grandfather clock (with Western Union works in it as well as one of the cream-colored dials on its face) and soft lighting. The public office was always a comfortable climate. In the back area, behind where the clerk worked, were five or six of the large teletype machines. There were usually a couple men working back there, and a woman at the counter. But sometimes as traffic (in the office and on the wires) dictated, there would be an extra person in the back or maybe two people working the counter. During overnight hours there would be one person, most often a young lady, working both the counter and the machines in back as needed. I think the circuits to the teletype machines were wired in a 'hunt' fashion, where if the first machine was in use when a second message came in it would 'hunt' to the second machine and so on. Usually there was always a din of noise in the room from the banging of the teletype keys. On very rare occassions there would be dead silence when all the machines were idle, that would happen maybe for all of ten or fifteen seconds, then suddenly you would hear a 'whir' and a 'humming' noise as the gears engaged on one of the machines and that machine would start to present a message. If all five or six of the machines were going at the same time it did get a little bit noisy. Then gradually all would be dead silence and about fifteen seconds later, that 'whir and hum' would start again, followed a few seconds later by the keys hitting the carriage as another message rolled in, or maybe the little bell would ding anxiously a few times to say its roll of paper was depleted, or maybe the distant operator was trying to get the attention of the telegrapher on this end of the line. One of the guys would walk over, install or untangle the paper jam and get it started again. Usually the one or two guys working in the back worked all five or six machines, just going from one to another, tearing off a sheet of paper with a message or sending out a message. There was a spindle like thing where the clerks put the new outgoing messages, and from which the guys in the back would take things to go out. Although the office had no air conditioning, it was always rather cool since there were several overhead fans which were running most of the time. The phone was *always* ringing with customers calling in their outgoing messages, which the clerk would write down to put on the spindle. The clerk had to both 'work the counter', answer the phone and account for the money. Western Union phones were *always* some exchange-4321, but the office in Chicago had WABash 4321 for the public office and WABash 7111 for the switchboard in the HQ upstairs. There was a sort of rule that if there was only one clerk (often times the case) and there was both a phone call and a customer at the counter the customer came first, which possibly explains why the phone would ring so incessantly; the clerks got to it when they could. Many times the phone was answered with the single word 'Hold ...' and the phone reciever set back down on the desk for a few minutes while the clerk finished whatever. I guess WUTCO felt it was better to allow the phone to ring 20-30 times, then be answered and left on the desk for a few minutes. Voicemail and holding in a queue was a later thing anyway. I will say the clerks were usually sort of harassed by the constant phone calls and the line of customers waiting. If you went in the public telegraph office to send a message, you first went to the marble writing desk, took one of the forms, and using the fountain pen provided you would (preferably) carefully print out the message you wanted to send, and include the name and address of the recipient and your own name and address. Then you walked over with your piece of yellow paper and handed it to the clerk. She would put on her glasses, review your message for legibilty and count the number of words. Quite often she might look over her glasses and squint at the paper then look at you and say 'what is this word here?' You told her, and with her red pencil like a school teacher examining your work she would circle the illegible word and pencil it in more carefully elsewhere on the page. Then after all the editorial work was finished, she would count up the words and tell you that will be $1.25 if you want immediate delivery today or seventy five cents if you don't mind having it held over as a night telegram to be sent tonight. Or whatever. You would hand her the money, she would put in in the cash box and with her various rubber stamp indicias proceed to clobber the paper with rubber stamps, and initial them as she was doing it. Then the message would go on the spindle or maybe the man in back would take it and proceed to send it over the wires. If you told her you were going to wait for an answer to come back, you would go be seated in the waiting room area. Periodically, the men in the back would hand something over to the clerk who would read it, fold it and put it an envelope, then to the room at large she would say, 'message recieved for Mr. Johnson' (or whomever) and if Mr. Johnson was there waiting, he would get up, come over to the counter and collect his message, then leave. All the time this was going on, the phone would be ringing continuously. The clerks knew what the messages said, they had to read them as they folded them up to go in envelopes, etc. And the clerks could turn their emotions on and off along with each customer they dealt with. A message would be handed to her from the back saying 'grandma passed away at 10 last night, will you come home for the funeral?' The clerk would say 'a message for Mr. and Mrs. Johnson' and when the man and his wife came up to the counter expecting to hear the worst, as they opened the envelope and read the worst maybe the wife would clutch her husband's hand they both would be silent. The clerk would frown and say that's really terrible news, I sure am sorry ... Then the next piece of paper handed to her from the back said 'junior graduated from high school' and as the clerk called for the Smiths to come to the counter, she was all smiles. 'He must be a very bright boy. I bet you are really proud of him, honey' Of course the Smiths were glad to get this news and smiled back at the clerk. The clerk turned on smiles and tears almost constantly with the customer she was with, depending on the news they had received. And the clerk was also very kind as needed. If the customer was illiterate (and many folks were in those days, unable to write much except their names, and very poor reading skills) the clerk was expected to help them also. If you told her, in ten minutes and a couple thousand words what you wanted conveyed, she would listen very patiently and print it out carefully in her red pencil in ten or twelve words. But in those cases where the clerk had to write the message out for an illiterate customer, there had to be a special rubber stamp indicia go on the back side: it said 'my name is (name), I am an employee of Western Union in the Chicago Public Office. The message on the reverse side was written by myself as it was dictated to me by (name), the sender.' Then Name was expected to sign back there also, or scrawl his mark or whatever to show he wanted the message sent. Then the clerk would take his money, and put the message on the spindle like any other. Now and again messages would come in for illiterate customers also. Incoming messages were always placed in an envelope for the customer's privacy. The clerk would announce 'message for Mr. Johnson' and Johnson would come forward. He would never admit that he could not read: his excuse always was 'I forgot to bring my glasses, could you help me with it?' and the clerk would hand him the sealed envelope for *him* to open and hand her the message he wanted 'help with reading'. She would read it to him, but had a similar indicia: 'customer (name) asked for assistance in reading this message. My name is (name), I am an employee of Western Union in Chicago. When the customer signed that or put his mark there, then she would read the message to him. Meanwhile the old Bell System 300 set on her desk would ring another 20 times; she would eventually answer it, tell the caller 'hold ...' and go back to what she was doing reading Mr. Johnson's message to him and explaining it as needed. The Western Union Public Offices were always very dignified places, and the clerks and telegraphers were always very efficient and quite honest. They all had to sign an agreement when they came to work for WUTCO saying they understood and would not violate the FCC rules pertaining to secrecy in communications and they would get fired if they did violate that regulation from FCC. In most towns, especially smaller places, usually the telegraph office was connected to the bus station or the train station, since those were 24 hour operations also. Many times the overnight telegraph agent was also the bus agent. It helped keep payroll costs down during the overnight hours. An aquaintence of mine was employed by the telegraph agent in Hammond, Indiana back in 1955 or so. He told me there were times that some of the messages people sent would literally break your heart. Like most, they worked out of the bus terminal building there in Hammond (the old one). He said one day the morning bus came through and a very cheerful, all smiles young lady got off the bus, collected her suitcase and came right in his office. She told him 'my mother said to send a telegram immediatly when I got here to let her know I was okay'. This young lady, all smiles, wrote her message up and handed it to Randy (my friend) to be sent. (There they did not have a clerk and a fancy office, just one guy to operate the machines and do it all.) Randy took her money, and sat down at the typewriter like keyboard of the monster machine to send it. The gracious young lady thanked him and smiled as she walked away with her suitcase. He said, 'the next morning I went in the bus depot to get my morning coffee and bring it back in my office. The same young lady was there again with her suitcase, and it was obvious she had been crying. She sent another message saying "I am on the way back home." and as she paid me this time, she broke down crying again. I wanted to be of some help to her if I could, but you know, the company had strong rules about *ever* 'getting involved' with a customer or *ever* revealing their names or the contents of their messages, etc. Those were always private communications. Now technically I do not work for Western Union, I work for a private telegraph agent. But WUTCO would have leaned so heavily on my boss to fire me he would have had to do so or WUTCO would have made trouble for him if he did not. So I just had to keep my mouth shut. But there were so many times people would come in the office to send messages and you could see how they were hurting as they told you their messages and paid you for them. You just had to try and ignore it and respect their privacy.' PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steven J. Sobol Subject: Re: I Think I am Free of Them Now ... Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 22:59:48 -0000 Organization: JustThe.net LLC From TELECOM Digest Editor (): > I went over to see Duane, one of the owners of the local ISP who had > in fact started a CLEC a few months ago. Fully qualified CLEC (not > just a broker) with co-located equipment in the CO here in town. I > keep the same phone numbers, (LNP), etc. $24.95 plus tax per month > with a whole raft of features that SWB was charging extra on each > month. Trouble was, he could not convert me from Southwestern Bell as > long as I had DSL service. SWB will *not* convert DSL customers! So > he told me go over to our local cable supplier and get Internet service > from him instead. I got the cable internet turned on the same day, > called Bell to get theirs turned off, and went back to Prairie Stream > (local telco) to see Duane. He put the conversion order in the same day > with SBC. That was last Friday. You should escalate to the state PUC if necessary. Has worked for me in my many fights with SouthWorstern Beast. :> Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge, JustThe.net POTS: Toll Free from anywhere in the USA or Canada, 888.480.4NET (4638) HTTP: www.JustTheNetLLC.com MAIL: 5686 Davis Drive, Mentor on the Lake, OH 44060-2752 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Finally, Thursday, a full six days after it started I got converted totally away from Southwestern Bell, I think. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: SMS Come to Home Phone in France Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 18:25:21 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 15 May 2003 07:17:41 +0200, Jean-Bernard CONDAT wrote: > The sending of a SMS costs 0,15 euro (taxes included). The acknoledge > receipt cost the same price if the SMS is sending on a new > SMS-compatible phone (price of this phone: between 80 and 150 euros). > Do you have the same stupid and expensive service in other countries > than France? T-Mobile US charges 5 cents (~4 Euros) per message sent. Standard plans give a 50 message incoming allowance gratis per month. Some plans used to come with a SMS allowance. My plan gives me 300 outgoing plus 50 incoming messages per month and also gives me a GPRS data allowance of 1 MB. My plan is no longer available but you can get a 500 SMS "bucket" of messages bucket of minutes for US$3 (2.6 Euros) per month. Our billing is somewhat different than the European model in that we also pay for all our incoming calls as well, but a little different than European mobile providers we commonly get large "buckets" of monthly calling minutes as opposed to most European "a la carte" per call charging schemes. Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 21:05:14 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when Linc Madison wrote: > The other railroad-related (though not telegraph-related) story, this > one verifiably true, is the naming of Coalinga, California. It was > Coaling Station A, which became Coaling A, which became Coalinga. Then there's Eleva, Wisconsin. It was originally named Little Chicago, but is reputed to have acquired its new name after fall weather turned bad faster than expected, interrupting the fellow who was painting the "Elevation 1234" marking on the local railroad water tower. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #458 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri May 16 13:14:53 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4GHEr321768; Fri, 16 May 2003 13:14:53 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 13:14:53 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305161714.h4GHEr321768@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #459 TELECOM Digest Fri, 16 May 2003 13:14:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 459 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson UNE Platform CLECs (Fred Goldstein) FTC vs. Spammers; Even Though They're From Government (Danny Burstein) Verizon Battling on Broadband (Monty Solomon) Verizon Wireless Get It Now (Monty Solomon) Re: Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax (Daniel W. Johnson) Re: Backhoe Accident Cuts Boston Net Service (joe@obilivan.net) Problem With HFA3824A DSSS Baseband Processor Chip (Jude Prakash) Re: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers (Mike O'Dorney) Want to Learn RF Basic (Abdu Muktar) Telecom Digest Foolishness (Ken Hoehn) Last Laugh! Another Spammer With an 800 Number (jt) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Fred Goldstein Subject: UNE Platform CLECs Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 10:18:44 -0400 Pat, I was curious about Prairie Stream, your local CLEC. It appears that they are one of many companies selling "UNE Platform". This was one of the big controversies at the FCC last winter, and the final rules aren't even out yet; its availability may decline over the next few years. With UNE Platform, the CLEC essentially outsources their entire network to the ILEC. They purchase the loop, the switch ports, the minutes of switch usage, and the minutes of trunk usage from the ILEC. The wholesale price for these "Unbundled Network Elements" is supposed to be based on cost, using a complex formula called TELRIC (total element long-run incremental cost). It is not supposed to take retail tariff price into account. So if the retail rate is much higher than TELRIC cost, then there's a decent profit margin for the CLEC. If the TELRIC price is too high, then UNE-P isn't profitable and is not sold -- that's the case in most "independent" ILEC areas. From the customer's point of view, the service remains the same but the bill changes. That's why they like to convert in-place lines rather than new ones. The process of taking over a line as UNE-P is simple, provided that the CLEC has bonding to the ILEC's operational support systems (OSS), and there are various outsourcing companies who provide this OSS help to CLECs. The CLEC, as the carrier of record, gets the switched access fees (minutes of use) from the long distance company. The semantics are tricky. Under FCC guidelines and indeed the way the Telecom Act is written, UNE-P CLECs are' "facilities-based". The fact that they rent all of the facilities from the ILEC is irrelevant. A "resale" CLEC is dealing in ILEC's tariffed services, at tariff-minus rates unrelated to cost. Most resellers have converted over to UNE-P. UNE-P has two main benefits. One is that it lets CLECs build up a customer base before intalling their own switch, so even a CLEC who intends to do their own switching may want to start with UNE-P. The other is that it caps the rate an ILEC can get away with charging, in this era of barely-regulated monopolies. If the ILEC retail/tariff rate gets too high, the CLECs can just sell it as UNE-P. So it helps keep ILECs honest. ILEC-affiliated DSL services are technically not regulated, not common carriers, not tariffed, so they do not have to cooperate with UNE-P. Thus the ILECs hold it hostage: If you switch your line to UNE-P, then they take away your DSL. The raw ILEC DSL bit pipe is currently common carriage, and a couple of states require ILECs to provide that to UNE-P customers. Covad's and other CLEC-owned DSLAMs are available to UNE-P, but they don't have the most widespread coverage, and their costs tend to be higher. That's why you had to switch your data provider. The ILECs would rather lose a DSL subscriber than cooperate with a UNE-P CLEC -- or they're gambling that given the choice of changing both providers or changing none, more people will change none. That's another reason to keep your personal email address separate from your ISP's domain, especially if it's a cable or ILEC-affiliated ISP. Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein at ionary dot com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: FTC vs. Spammers; Even Though They're From the Government Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 09:16:38 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC The press release referenced below has a good description of a bunch of lawsuits and similar stuff. And it also talks about getting people to shut down open relays. Who'd have thunk it? Law Enforcement Posse Tackles Internet Scammers, Deceptive Spammers Initiative Launched to Prevent Spammers From Concealing Identity and Evading Detection "In the latest in a series of law enforcement initiatives targeting Internet fraud, the Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, United States Postal Inspection Service, three United States Attorneys, four state attorneys general, and two state regulatory agencies today announced they have filed 45 criminal and civil law enforcement actions against Internet scammers and deceptive spammers. In addition to the law enforcement actions, the FTC and 21 U.S. and international agencies have launched an initiative to get organizations in 59 countries to close the open relays that allow spammers to avoid detection by spam filters and law enforcers." http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/05/swnetforce.htm _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 23:09:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Battling on Broadband Verizon Battling on Broadband By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 5/14/2003 Escalating the battle to bring high-speed Internet connections to tens of millions of American homes, Verizon Communications unleashed a flurry of new offerings yesterday including cheaper and faster service -- with free high-speed wireless connections from converted pay phones thrown in as well. With cable companies such as Comcast Corp. amassing a consistent two-to-one lead over Baby Bell competitors, Verizon launched what one executive called its ''broadband big bang.'' It cut the price for its high-speed digital subscriber line service from $50 to $35 a month -- $30 for customers who add long-distance and wireless phone service -- while doubling top download speeds for many customers to match faster cable modems. DSL offerings will include new Microsoft-provided special content and services. At the same time, Verizon activated the first 150 of a planned 1,000 wireless fidelity, or WiFi, hot spots in New York City, created by converting surplus pay phones with wireless broadband Internet gear. Its DSL subscribers can use them for free with a special air card device plugged into their laptops or other wireless computer devices. Verizon expects to bring similar WiFi service to Boston and other US markets in coming months. Industry analysts said Verizon's moves were likely to turbocharge the already booming growth in broadband home Internet connections, which increased by 6.4 million homes last year, to 17.4 million total, according to Leichtman Research Group, a Durham, N.H., consulting firm. That would step up pressure on conventional dial-up service providers, such as America Online, while building bigger markets for delivering music, video, and other entertainment and information over fast Internet hookups. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/134/nation/Verizon_battling_on_broadband+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 08:50:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Wireless Get It Now Send Birthday Greetings, Well Wishes and More Using Verizon Wireless Get It Now(SM) - May 16, 2003 08:20 AM (PR Newswire) Mobile Greetings on Get It Now Lets Customers Shop for Greeting Cards From Their Wireless Phone BEDMINSTER, N.J., RALEIGH, N.C. and SAN FRANCISCO, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless and Mobile Greetings, Inc. today announced that Get It Now(SM) customers can now add a fun and unique touch to their everyday wishes by sending an animated greeting from their wireless phone to any e-mail address. Remembering a birthday or other special occasion has never been easier with Mobile Greetings on Get It Now. Customers can browse, preview, and choose from hundreds of animated greeting cards to be sent directly from their wireless phone from virtually anywhere. For those who are on-the-go, sending a Mobile Greetings card from their Get It Now phone means not having to miss being part of a special moment. Verizon Wireless customers can download cards from their phone or visit Mobilegreetings.com where they can manage their address book, change their profile, and check the status of purchased greetings. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34227735 ------------------------------ From: panoptes@iquest.net (Daniel W. Johnson) Subject: Re: Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax Date: 15 May 2003 21:03:00 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ howard@rumba.ee.ualberta.ca (Walt Howard) wrote in message news:... > And Pat, to answer your question about my funny .sig, you do a bang-up > job keeping the postings as text. In a fair number of the unmoderated > newgroups, newbies who use GUI news software keep the default > settings, and some vendors think the default should be text+html or > even html-only. A bunch of us dinosaurs don't like that. Rather than > retaliate with nroff or scribe markup in our own posts, we use grumbly > signatures. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why don't the Usenet authorities in > that case simply set their own software not to accept any HTML in > postings. The ones that come through here to *my* telecom group > just get tossed out. PAT] For comp.dcom.telecom, the only relevant authority is Patrick Townson. For comp.risks, the authority is Peter G. Neumann. But who, pray tell, would the "Usenet authorities" be for an UNmoderated group like news.admin.net-abuse.email? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, 'Usenet Authorities' in this context would be the well-respected netters who are in a position to issue 'newgroup' commands in things like the cancel/control area of the news. Gene Spafford at Purdue University comes to mind (although I realize he has retired from the position for a few years now) and the guy who mostly replaced him who is at uunet. His name escapes me at this minute, but his email name is 'tale'. (David Lawrence? ) Some of those guys who are much smarter than myself, and have been around as long or longer than myself. The guys who can issue computer commands to establish/maintain new Usenet newsgroups, and whose word on same is accepted by sysadmins who would have to administer their own news spools. That is how Usenet was established and originally maintained was it not? In fact, I think 'tale' maintains a moderator's mailing list even now. It used to be, at least, that when a vote was taken to establish a new Usenet newsgroup, when the vote carried, someone like 'tale' or Gene Spafford would issue a 'newgroup' and as it worked its way through the net, other sysadmins would honor it. Aren't they doing that anymore at all? Those are the guys I refer to as the 'authorities' in Usenet. Sometime back in the early 1980's there was a major revision in the software which was used in Usenet; that was followed a couple years later (1985?) by a realignment of news group names and categories, when .arpa lists were consolidated into Usenet News. Doesn't anyone pay attention to those guys any longer? Has the anarchy gotten that much out of control? PAT] ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: Backhoe Accident Cuts Boston Net service Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 05:46:30 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications That kind of accident is inexcusable in this day and age, with the locater services that are available. Monty Solomon wrote: > By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff, 5/14/2003 > An errant backhoe blade wrought havoc on Internet service throughout > Boston yesterday, and The Boston Globe's Internet site, Boston.com, > was among the victims, as was the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. > Workers accidentally sliced through a fiber-optic data cable used by > Dallas-based Allegiance Telecom Inc., a telecommunications company > that hosts the server computers of Boston.com and other local > businesses. The accident, which occurred at about 6:45 a.m., disrupted > Internet services throughout the day. > Randy Brandenburg, Boston.com vice president of product and > technology, said the website actually never lost contact with the > Internet because it has a secondary data connection. Unfortunately, > the domain name service (DNS) computer for the site was still operated > by Allegiance, and was knocked offline. A DNS computer is part of a > global network of machines that direct visitors to the correct Web > servers. If DNS is down, it doesn't matter whether the Web server is > working, because Internet users will have no way of reaching the > server. > http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/134/business/Backhoe_accident_cuts_Boston_Net_service+.shtml ------------------------------ From: javajude@mailcity.com (Jude Prakash) Subject: Problem With HFA3824A DSSS Baseband Processor Chip Date: 16 May 2003 06:12:46 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hi, We are using HFA3824A chip as a baseband procesor in our system. We are connecting a system to another system, connecting I,Q by wire. baseband processor is set for variable length packet. ie.,Number of bits transmitted need not be programmed prior to transmission. The receiver asserts frame_sync (mdrdy), Rx_Clk and Rx_Data as long as energy present & correlation is above threshold. Here, I observe some funny behaviour. If i transmit N bytes, the Rx data length is always more than N. At the end of every packet junk data gets introduced. If the Tx packet is small, length of junk is even comparable to the actual data size. Can anyone explain why this happens? Is this inevitable, as the receiver doesnt know how many bits it is looking for? Is this a function of Threshold settings, Is the effect so pronounced because of wired setup we use currently? (wire length is one feet, approx) Is there any way to solve/overcome this? Thanks Jude Prakash Swami. ------------------------------ From: modorney@aol.com (Mike O'Dorney) Subject: Re: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers Date: 16 May 2003 08:15:45 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ >> The other railroad-related (though not telegraph-related) story, this >> one verifiably true, is the naming of Coalinga, California. It was >> Coaling Station A, which became Coaling A, which became Coalinga. And, following this off-topic thread - Tobar, California was named for an arrowed sign along the railroad, directing people to the nearest tavern - "To Bar" Cheers, Mike O ------------------------------ From: abdumuktar@yahoo.com (Abdu Muktar) Subject: Want to Learn RF Basic Date: 16 May 2003 08:47:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hi All, I want to learn about RF basic to test a radio switch. Can you suggest me a book or a website that would be helpful to me. I am very thankful for your time. Thanks, Abdu abdumuktar@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Ken Hoehn Subject: Telecom Digest Foolishness Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 12:09:59 -0400 Pat: A suggestion: Is there someway we can separate the 'wheat from the chaff' with regard to the digest, in order to return it to some semblance of it's previous value? Perhaps another list dedicated to the 'chaff'??? Many of us have limited time: conventional jobs, and normal home lives, and as such don't have the time to read through megs and megs of endless political whining and fighting among the various list members and yourself. You had a very valuable and wonderful product in the form of the Digest, but it is REALLY declining in the past months. I don't understand why it is so hard to comprehend that we tune into your list for communications information, not to hear your political viewpoints, (name deleted by PT) and his ilk being nasty to people, etc. I spend WAY more time on the 'scroll down' button then I do reading the list of late. No list can be immune from the occasional diversion into such topics ...and that is naturally and understandably why you have your disclaimer about 'mostly but not exclusively ...'. The problem is that the political silliness, and the mean, vengeful, nasty postings are starting to exceed the truly valuable information. YOU YOURSELF often even react strongly and thank a poster heartily when a real, actual, valuable item of information is added. Please, don't let a valuable resource become another victim to anonymity of the internet, and the associated tendancy for unhappy, bitter people to behave in ways they would not in normal, face to face, "real life" meetings. No one is going to change your opinions and positions, nor will any other list member change another's. The ONLY result of all this foolishness is a decline in the value of the publication. Can we stop it, or at least slow it, before it goes too far and people simply stop tuning in (and therefore posting)? Ken [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you *very much* for saying that. Yours is one of the most valuable pieces of information posted here in recent months. I'll try harder. To me -- in case you had not noticed it -- TELECOM Digest is about the one thing in *my life* which means very much these days, and my cat 'Missy'. I guess I should harder to restore what used to be (I am told) was a valued internet resource. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jt Subject: Last Laugh! Another Spammer With an 800 Number ... Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 09:51:49 -0400 Organization: WorldCom Canada Ltd. News Reader Service AUSTAD'S GOLF we've GOT your GAME. [snip] You may receive this mailing again. [Oh, I hope not...] OPM Network 7700 Camino Real Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33433 1-800-678-2536 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #459 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 17 00:50:03 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4H4o3w24924; Sat, 17 May 2003 00:50:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 00:50:03 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305170450.h4H4o3w24924@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #460 TELECOM Digest Sat, 17 May 2003 00:50:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 460 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: UNE Platform CLECs (dold@UNEXPlatfo.usenet.us.com) Re: Cheap Wireless Ethernet Bridge & IMUX Setup Deliver 3xE1 (W Howard) Kevin Poulson Movie: "Everybody Hates The Phone Company" (Richard H Fan) Re: Backhoe Accident Cuts Boston Net Service (Charles Cryderman) Re: From the Archives: 19th Century (Charles Cryderman) Re: Book _Cheaper By The Dozen_, Learning Morse (Bill Horne) Re: Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax (Scott Dorsey) Re: Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax (Steven J. Sobol) Re: Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax (John David Galt) Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Qs About Service (D Phelps) Re: 66-Block - Why is it Called Such When it Has 25-Pairs (B Turok) Re: 66-Block - Why is it Called Such When it Has 25-Pairs (Dave Phelps) Re: Beware of CameraWare: an FBI Sting Operation (John Higdon) Re: T-Mobile Says Scraps Microsoft Phone Launch (John Higdon) Re: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study (Clark W Griswold) Re: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers (Wes Leatherock) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dold@UNEXPlatfo.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: UNE Platform CLECs Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 18:21:12 UTC Organization: a2i network Fred Goldstein wrote: > With UNE Platform, the CLEC essentially outsources their entire > network to the ILEC. They purchase the loop, the switch ports, the Fred, you covered the UNE-P bases very well technically. But you left out the snide remarks that I am forced to put in. CLECs invested way too much capital in starting their facilities based offerings. The benefit was to be down the road somewhere. Magically, just as the CLEC picture stabilized, and there was some hope of seeing ROI, UNE-P pops up. It is not only so much better than resale that it virtually forces resellers to convert, it makes owning facilites equipment stupid. In areas where facilities already exist, it is cheaper to UNE-P. So, now there is a bunch of not-yet-amortized equipment that the CLECs wish they didn't have their money tied up in. There is new opportunity for startups with no capital to become full fledged "carriers", selling whatever UNE-P offers. All they need are two salesman and a billing program or outsource. But wait! Who does this new opportunity hurt? The real CLEC who invested money up front, and can't cut his costs far enough. The previous reseller who spends months with consultants trying to wade through the reorder process, to convert existing lines to the new UNE-P without losing any features. What? That feature isn't UNE-P? 88% of my resale lines use that feature. Who does it benefit? Brand new startups that SBC can make fun of in the series of ads about nothing but suits working for the company, as they crash around trying to drive cherry pickers and argue who's going to go down a flooded manhole. No, I said that wrong. It benefits the bohemoth. Because as soon as the CLECs convert to UNE-P, they will offer some good deal to the facilities based carriers, so that they can tell the PUC what wonderful rates they are offering to the competition. That competition will be made up of sharks who scavenged the facilities at the bankruptcy sales of the original CLECs, and will themselves be driven out of business the next time the ILECs move the slippery rock in the stream of competition. ------------------------------ From: howard@rumba.ee.ualberta.ca (Walt Howard) Subject: Re: Cheap Wireless Ethernet Bridge & IMUX Setup to Deliver 3xE1 Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 18:46:41 UTC Organization: A poorly-installed InterNetNews site In article , Mac wrote: > I want to provide 90 telephone/faxes to a location about 12km away > with clear line of sight. I need to do this cheaply and reliably. I > figure the cheapest way is this: > 2 x RAD IPmux-4 with 3xE1 > 2 x 3COM Wireless LAN Outdoor Ethernet Bridge > I plug my Telco´s E1s into the IPmux, plug that into the 3COM > microwave bridge, point the bridge at my target and have the reverse > setup at the other end with the emerging E1s plugged into my PBX. > Will it work? What do you guys think? TIA I am not qualified to say if it will work, but let me point out an additional feature of this plan. If it does work, not only you but also everyone else with an antenna near your line-of-sight and for several km past in each direction can listen to all your phone lines. If they dislike you enough, they can probably even inject some signals of their own for your system to pick up. For some users, in some places, this isn't a problem. Others are unnerved by the possibility. Solutions are available, but obviously raise the price. Walt Howard /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign InterNet: whoward@ieee.org \ / No HTML or M$Word in mail or news! BellNet: +1 780 492 7262 X / \ ------------------------------ From: richardhellfan@hotmail.com (Richard Hell Fan) Subject: Kevin Poulson Movie: "Everybody Hates The Phone Company" Date: 16 May 2003 13:15:04 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ http://www.filmjerk.com/nuke/article501.html In 1990, Kevin Poulson took over Pacific Bell's telephone switching network in order to ensure that he'd be the 102nd caller to Los Angeles radio station KIIS FM in order to win a Porsche 944 S2. He used these same techniques to win trips to Hawaii and thousands of dollars in cash. It is even rumored that Poulson jammed federally ordered wiretaps on reputed mobsters and jammed the phone lines when he was featured on "Unsolved Mysteries." Along with Kevin Mitnick, Poulson is one of the most notorious hackers in history, and the first person ever to be banned from using the internet by the US Government. Later this year, the director of "The Kid Stays In The Picture" goes the docudrama route to bring Poulson's story, entitled "Everybody Hates The Phone Company," to the big screen. ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: Backhoe Accident Cuts Boston Net serv Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 16:51:14 -0400 Good day to you Pat, may you stay healthy to continue to keep you moderating. joe@obilivan.net wrote: > That kind of accident is inexcusable in this day and age, with the > locater services that are available. If you think that is bad, once around 1989 or so, we had some DS3s go down at the company I worked for. The final reason for the outage was some homeless folks started a fire to cook some food under a highway viaduct. What had happened was the fire melted some fiber pairs the were routed under the bridge. When this happened we were using Wiltel (way before WorldCom) as our provider. We contacted MCI as well as a regional carrier for capacity. No one could help other then AT&T. As in turned out Were getting DS3s from Wiltel, that was reselling to us from MCI, that was leasing fiber from Wiltel. Now you may think that AT&T did a good job by not losing their fiber. The reason they didn't was because the conduit their fiber was in was over to the side about three feet and the fire wasn't hot enough to melt theirs as well. Communications, the most incestuous driven industry in the world. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: From the Archives: 19th Cen Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 16:55:36 -0400 One more for the off subject item list: Novi Michigan was named because in was the sixth exit off the highway. The sign read "NO VI" as in number 6. Now it is one of the fastest growing suburbs of Detroit. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ From: Bill Horne Subject: Re: Book _Cheaper By The Dozen_, Learning Morse Organization: AT&T Broadband Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 19:46:39 GMT Mark Atwood wrote in message news:telecom22.455.2@telecom-digest.org: > In the nonfiction book _Cheaper By The Dozen_, there is a scene where > industrial engineer Frank Gilbreth teaches his 12 children Morse code > by giving them a list of mnemonic words that have the cadence for the > morse of a given letter, that begins with that letter. > However, the book itself only gives the first few such mnemonics. > This seems like such a better memorization aid than any other I've > seen. > Does anyone know what the full set is? > Mark Atwood | When you do things right, mra@pobox.com | people won't > be sure you've done anything at all. http://www.pobox.com/~mra > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Tell us the ones you remember or saw > in the book, please. PAT] Pat, This sounds like a neat historical item and a great conversation piece, but I'll add a note of caution for those aspiring ham operators in your audience. Hate to be a party-pooper, but researchers long ago found that learning code this way is counterproductive. The best way to learn Morse code is to associate the letters directly with the sound of the letter being sent, rather than with "dots" and "dashes" or neumonics for them. Anyone interested in learning the code should write to the American Radio Relay League, 225 Main St., Newington Connecticut, 06111. They have excellent study materials, including tapes, for very short money. There are also Morse code practice programs available as shareware: check out http://69.3.157.98/SCARD/files/ for a list. HTH. I am not affiliated, get no money, etc. Bill, W1AC (Remove "nouce" from return address for direct replies) ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax Date: 16 May 2003 14:33:46 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Walt Howard wrote: > Actually this was one of the better Internet jokes this year. If they > had released it on April 1 as everyone else does, I think even those > of who don't much like M$ would have had to grant that they are > starting to "get it". But with "embracing" April Fools' Day, and then > "extending" it to April 30, some of us worry about the "extinguish" ... Makes sense for a Microsoft product to be a little bit late. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: Steven J. Sobol Subject: Re: Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 20:26:59 -0000 Organization: JustThe.net LLC > From Daniel W. Johnson (panoptes@iquest.net): >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why don't the Usenet authorities in >> that case simply set their own software not to accept any HTML in >> postings. The ones that come through here to *my* telecom group >> just get tossed out. PAT] > For comp.dcom.telecom, the only relevant authority is Patrick Townson. > For comp.risks, the authority is Peter G. Neumann. But who, pray tell, > would the "Usenet authorities" be for an UNmoderated group like > news.admin.net-abuse.email? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, 'Usenet Authorities' in this > context would be the well-respected netters who are in a position to > issue 'newgroup' commands in things like the cancel/control area of > the news. Gene Spafford at Purdue University comes to mind (although I > realize he has retired from the position for a few years now) and the > guy who mostly replaced him who is at uunet. His name escapes me at > this minute, but his email name is 'tale'. (David Lawrence? ) Yes. You do understand also that the admins at the major news sites -- Supernews, Newsguy, Usenetservers to name a couple of the providers, along with the big academic sites and ISPs -- probably have a lot of say? But in reality, I suspect nothing will be done about it. Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge, JustThe.net POTS: Toll Free from anywhere in the USA or Canada, 888.480.4NET (4638) HTTP: www.JustTheNetLLC.com MAIL: 5686 Davis Drive, Mentor on the Lake, OH 44060-2752 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, I understand all that. My use of the phrase 'Usenet Authorities' was just a short hand way of saying all you did, and my earlier note of rebuttal was just intended to respond to panoptes@iquest.net who disputed if there were overall or 'meta authorities' on Usenet or not. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John David Galt Subject: Re: Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 14:28:05 -0700 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society >> And Pat, to answer your question about my funny .sig, you do a bang-up >> job keeping the postings as text. In a fair number of the unmoderated >> newgroups, newbies who use GUI news software keep the default >> settings, and some vendors think the default should be text+html or >> even html-only. A bunch of us dinosaurs don't like that. Rather than >> retaliate with nroff or scribe markup in our own posts, we use grumbly >> signatures. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why don't the Usenet authorities in >> that case simply set their own software not to accept any HTML in >> postings. The ones that come through here to *my* telecom group >> just get tossed out. PAT] > For comp.dcom.telecom, the only relevant authority is Patrick Townson. > For comp.risks, the authority is Peter G. Neumann. But who, pray tell, > would the "Usenet authorities" be for an UNmoderated group like > news.admin.net-abuse.email? > > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, 'Usenet Authorities' in this > context would be the well-respected netters who are in a position to > issue 'newgroup' commands in things like the cancel/control area of > the news. Gene Spafford at Purdue University comes to mind (although I > realize he has retired from the position for a few years now) and the > guy who mostly replaced him who is at uunet. His name escapes me at > this minute, but his email name is 'tale'. (David Lawrence? ) Some of The news.announce.newgroups moderation team are the people who send out "newgroup", "rmgroup", and related commands for mainstream newsgroups. David Lawrence used to head that committee but appears to have left the net; his successor is Russ Allbery at Stanford. ("alt.*" and regional hierarchies have their own local administrators.) Anyone who wants to create a new group, or to participate in the political process of group creation, should start by checking out http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/faqs/big-eight.html These administrators, however, are not in a position to filter the messages in newsgroups. Messages for an unmoderated group can be injected into Usenet from any news server, and there has not been any serious attempt to create a blacklist of news servers that allow posts with phony "From" addresses, the way many ISPs now control junk e-mail by blacklisting "open relays." So everyone has to do his own filtering or live with the junk. That's just how the technology works. ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Qs About the Service Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 21:54:10 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , gmhall@apk.net says: > Many of the 911 calls made that day were from cell phones, so I can > understand why the operator might not have had an exact address. But > shouldn't they have a database about most of the well known buildings > in the city? If the caller says he is in the such-and-such building > on such-and-such college campus, shouldn't they have that in their > database? Well, the government, as usual, has squandered a tremendous amount of money figuring out how to make 911 work, such as by adding more administrators, and little money actually makes it to operations. So, the database idea mentioned by Joey that was used by cab companies ten years ago hasn't occurred to 911 folks yet. In my area (admittedly I haven't seen many PSAPs outside of my county), if a PSAP has a database, it is something the PSAP purchased, unrelated to 911. I believe that a major problem with 911 is that it is a closed system. I can't add an interface that would sit between the dispatcher and the 911 equipment and do other database lookups based on incoming 911 information -- that would be considered 'tampering'. Of course, if the government hadn't guided 911, it would probably be little more than a speed dial from anywhere to the nearest PSAP, so I'm not saying government involvement is bad. Just that, when there isn't any real government oversight, it seems easy for money to be blown on BS, rather than something useful, such as the aforementioned database. In article , 6212hgk@newsguy.com says: > What database? Who makes such a database? There are many. It's called computer-aided dispatching. At least in my area, it is not part of the 911 system. Rather, it is an option available to the PSAP, usually at quite an expense. Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ From: Brandon Turok Subject: Re: 66-Block - Why is it Called Such When it Has 25-Pairs Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 18:52:03 -0700 Organization: Astound Broadband Actually, I think it has more to do with Western Electric's very arbitrary product numbering scheme (with such memorable items as the 1A-type [insert item here]) than the actual number of clips on the block. All the BSPs I have refer to it as a "66-type connecting block" rather than "66-block" which is the abbreviated form most of us use these days. On an interesting side note, another BSP I have from the late 1970s is a complete how-to on 110 blocks, except at that time they were still referred to as "88-type connecting blocks." Brandon Turok Freelance Phone Phreak (925) 685-7688 http://www.loonquawl.com/ Dial-A-Machine (925) 288-9825 Free when you call from work Hans Lain wrote in message news:telecom22.457.10@telecom-digest.org: > Just curious - 66-block - why is it called such when it has 25-pairs (50 > wires)? > Thanks, > Hans > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think if you count the number of > punchdown places you will find 66 of them. The reason for the extras > is that a few of the punchdowns are multipled elsewhere on the block > and there are also some spares to attach 'foreign' (in re the Bell > System's old days) equipment, such as all the phones on the block > being able to use a common loud speaker page, etc. also 'tied onto' > the 66 block. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: 66-Block - Why is it Called Such When it Has 25-Pairs Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 22:43:56 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , user@domain.com says: > Just curious - 66-block - why is it called such when it has 25-pairs (50 > wires)? > Thanks, > Hans > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think if you count the number of > punchdown places you will find 66 of them. The reason for the extras > is that a few of the punchdowns are multipled elsewhere on the block > and there are also some spares to attach 'foreign' (in re the Bell > System's old days) equipment, such as all the phones on the block > being able to use a common loud speaker page, etc. also 'tied onto' > the 66 block. PAT] I recall seeing somewhere that they were created in 1966. Of course, that wouldn't explain 110's now, would it? Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Beware of CameraWare - An FBI Sting! Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 20:35:31 -0700 In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > When the two FBI guys came to my door earlier today, they asked if > they could look at my computer, and I volunteered to let them see > the whole thing. They found nothing, and went away with their usual > bluster about 'how we do not believe you' and 'we are going to keep > our eyes on you' etc. FBI showed up at your place and you let them in? Without a warrant (or did I miss that part)? AND you showed them your private business on your computer (again, without a warrant)? ANY law enforcement that shows up at my house, for whatever reason, is entertained on the doorstep, with the front door closed. If they have probable cause, they'll have a warrant in hand. I'm not going to give them a chance to go shopping ... for anything! Trust me: if an FBI agent showed up unannounced at my door sans warrant and asked to look at anything I own, the answer would be a polite, but firm "no". John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, I know, and that is good practice in many cases, but as the lady who operates the Montgomery County Jail for our sheriff said to me once, 'no one likes an asshole'. I *could* have asked for that, and yes, they would have gone to get one. Actually, what officers generally do when those obstacles are presented to them is one of them gets on the radio and asks an officer at the station to 'please go see the Judge and get me a search warrant on (name of case or defendant). Five or ten minutes, or maybe an hour later, the warrant would have arrived. It might have delayed their ultimate purpose (a raid on my premises) by several minutes, but it would have happened anyway. Your being obstinate simply makes them even more so. Anyway, I *knew* there was nothing around for them (the two FBI guys were on a kiddie porn hunt which is part of the FBI sting thing that CameraWare is set up [by them] for) so I figured let them come in and have their fun. My main purpose in posting that message was to let the net know that cameraware.com, ttinet.com, and surveylens.com (their subsidiary web sites) are up to no good if they get your credit card number, ID card or social security number or picture image. And if you *did* have something around they wanted, and thought by stalling them for time requiring a warrant you would have the time to destroy or secrete somewhere whatever it was they wanted, you should know that while they are standing there tapping their toes, waiting for a warrant to arrive (in a few minutes), their very observant eyes and ears would be working overtime. And you know, if a police officer **very sincerely believes** that evidence is being disposed of, he can go in anyway, and explain it to the judge later on, and usually be forgiven for it. In other words, by the time police come to your door, warrant or no warrant, it is generally too late for you anyway. I am too much of a civil libertarian to go along with the idea 'if you have nothing to hide, then why keep them out.' But I am a pragmatist and I know that regardless of what the constitution requires, the adminis- tration has 'work arounds' at their fingertips. Remember, no one likes an asshole. Sometimes winning a battle now and then causes you to lose the whole war. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: T-Mobile Says Scraps Microsoft sSart Phone Launch Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 20:26:54 -0700 In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > BONN, May 15 (Reuters) - Europe's second largest mobile phone operator > T-Mobile International [TMOG.UL] said on Thursday it had shelved plans > to introduce a mobile phone powered by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) > software. I guess T-Mobile dodged that bullet! John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Jr. <73115.dot.1041.at.compuserve.dot.com> Subject: Re: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 16:33:24 -0600 jmeissen@shell1.aracnet.com (John Meissen) wrote: > They've already lost me. Because of this abuse I now wait for the > movies to be released on DVD and enjoy them in the confort and privacy > of my home for a fraction of the cost and none of the hassle. There > are probably one or two movies a year that I figure warrant actually > watching on the big screen. Same here. As society continues to devolve, the "me first" mentality makes any kind of public interaction more and more distasteful. Cell phones ringing, people chatting, people bringing young children along have all made the thought of attending a movie in a public theater one of the last things I will do with my entertainment dollar. The last time I ventured out to the local first run cineplex, one couple brought in an entire take out meal in two grocery bags and proceedure to munch away while sitting in the row in front of me. ------------------------------ From: wesrock@aol.com (Wes Leatherock) Date: 17 May 2003 00:33:29 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Re: From the Archives: 19th Century Telegraphers I think you were wise to put quotation marks around "true story." The Handbook of Texas Online, a remarkable and authoritative resource on any subject about Texas, and which it appears you may have consulted, has this to say about Iatan. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ----------------------------------------------- IATAN, TEXAS. Iatan is on Interstate Highway 20/U.S. Highway 80 about six miles west of Westbrook in west central Mitchell County. The settlement was established as a station on the Texas and Pacific Railway when the line was built into the area in 1881. The community, known occasionally as Vista, may have taken its present name from the nearby Williams-Waddell Iatan Tank Ranch. On March 20, 1890, a post office was granted to Daniel Crowe and remained in service until it was moved to Westbrook on September 10, 1924. A school, which also served as a Methodist church, was established in 1891. In 1930 sixty students were enrolled, but the district was consolidated with the Westbrook school district in 1938. The population of Iatan in 1940 was reported at 125, but by 1950 it had declined to twenty, where it remained for at least the next ten years. By 1972 only a railroad station remained at the site. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lore and Legend: A Compilation of Documents Depicting the History of Colorado City and Mitchell County (Colorado City Record, 1976). Charles G. Davis On Thu, 15 May 2003 10:14:45 -0700 Linc Madison nobody@example.com wrote: > My favorite "true story" (note the quotation marks) of 19th Century > telegraphy is the story of the naming of the town of Iatan, Texas. > The town was founded by the Texas & Pacific Railway in 1881. The story > goes that the first inhabitant of the town was the telegraph operator. > The railroad needed a name to put on the map, so they sent a message > to the telegrapher, asking him for a name. The town was located along > what is now I-20 between Abilene and Big Spring. There wasn't a whole > lot out there but dust and tumbleweed, bringing the telegrapher to the > conclusion that he had just been posted to hell. The name he sent back > was "Satan," in honor of the ruler of that similar place. > To the telegrapher's surprise, the message back showed no trace of > irritation, much less did they ask him for a more suitable name. > It turns out that there was a slight dropout on the line, turning > ... .- - .- -. into .. .- - .- -. >(S A T A N) (I A T A N) > Of course, there are others who say that the name of the town had > something to do with the name of a nearby ranch (the Williams-Waddell > Iatan Tank Ranch), but I prefer to think of it as a town with a red > cape, a broken-off horn, and a bent pitchfork. > In any case, Iatan, Texas, has been deserted for 30 years now. > The other railroad-related (though not telegraph-related) story, this > one verifiably true, is the naming of Coalinga, California. It was > Coaling Station A, which became Coaling A, which became Coalinga. > www dot LincMad dot com / Telecom at LincMad dot com > Linc Madison * San Francisco, California ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #460 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 17 14:08:24 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4HI8Ot28300; Sat, 17 May 2003 14:08:24 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 14:08:24 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305171808.h4HI8Ot28300@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #461 TELECOM Digest Sat, 17 May 2003 14:08:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 461 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson From the Archives: The Alascom Story (Mike Riddle and Don Kimberlin) Re: Beware of CameraWare - An FBI Sting! (John Higdon) A Couple of Lost Messages This Weekend (Patrick Townson) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 10:00:00 CDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: From the Archives: The Alascom Story For your reading this weekend, I offer an item from the Telecom Archives, 'The Alascom Story' which appeared eleven years ago. It was originally written by Don Kimberlin for a Fidonet echogroup on the FCC. (Echos were what we on Usenet refer to as news groups.) Don submitted it to Fido in April, 1992 and about the same time Mike Riddle forwarded it to Usenet and our Digest. I hope you will like this report on the history of telecommunications in Alaska, as it was told eleven years ago. PAT Date: Sun, 05 Apr 92 10:06:31 CST From: Mike.Riddle@ivgate.omahug.org (Mike Riddle) Subject: The Alascom Story From the Fidonet FCC echo: Originally posted: 02 Apr 92 23:45:00 Originally from: Don Kimberlin Here's some info for those who get propagandized about how "the phone company" or "AT&T" is the only telecommunications entity in the world that accomplishes anything. The following was received here today from Alascom, the original "interstate" and "international" common carrier for Alaska, that, in addition to a pretty illustrious history, has today become one of the world's most called-upon "fast response" providers of transportable satellite stations for public communications, even down to being the real communications earth station provider during Desert Storm, operating quietly behind the scenes while AT&T and MCI beat their breasts about "providing the troops with phones from Saudi Arabia": THE ALASCOM STORY "From telegraph wires strung across vast stretches of wilderness to the emergence of satellites, fiber optics and solid-state digital technology, telecommunications in Alaska have made a quantum leap in a relatively brief span of time. "What is now Alascom began as the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS), a "talking wire" strung overland across Alaska's wilderness and linked to a submarine telegraph cable connecting Seattle with Juneau, Sitka and Valdez. "Congress passed the act that created WAMCATS in 1900 in order to open communication channels between Alaska's isolated military outposts and the rest of the nation. A provision in the bill set the conditions for the eventual foundation of a civilian system. That year the first operational telegraph link was completed, with 25 miles of line (part of a $450,000 plan by the Army Signal Corps) strung from Nome Military headquarters to the Port Safety outpost. "Three years later, land lines connected western Alaska, Prince William Sound, the Interior and Southeast. An unsuccessful underwater telegraph cable had been laid in 1900 across Norton Sound from Port Safety to Fort Saint Michael. This early effort was ripped apart by ice blocks, but replaced in 1903 with a new wireless system. The Norton Sound radio link was the world's first application of a permanent radio-telegraph link for public communications, earning it a place in telecommunications history. "By 1905, 1500 miles of land lines, 2,000 miles of submarine cable and 107 miles of wireless links comprised WAMCATS' unique and growing network. "With the discovery of gold and subsequent law enforcement problems at this early part of the century, WAMCATS' telegraph linked San Francisco and Washington military headquarters with their far-flung Alaskan outposts. "The military allowed commercial and non-military traffic on the system, providing it did not interfere with military operations. The Alaska Railroad, completed in 1923, pushed development from the port of Seward through Anchorage and into the Interior. Eventual increase in commercial traffic led to a telegraph link with Ketchikan and established that community as the main relay point between Seattle and Seward. "By 1916, half of WAMCATS' land line were abandoned in favor of wireless stations, which reduced costs and increased communications reliability in the harsh climates that made maintaining wire lines so difficult. For the next two decades, little growth was experienced as Alaska withdrew from the limelight of the post-goldrush era. "During the 1930's, submarine cables, supplemented by radio links, slowly replaced the `talking wire'. To reflect the changing technology, Congress renamed WAMCATS as the Alaska Communications System (ACS) in 1936. "With the outbreak of World War II, Alaska's geographic importance became evident to the nation`s leaders and substantial activity in communications began once again. The Alaska Highway project was pushing forward and communications with the outside world were vital to the war effort. "Communications links with the Lower 48 were upgraded in the mid-1950's when AT&T laid a submarine telephone cable between Ketchikan and Port Angeles, Washington. "When Alaska was granted statehood in 1959, Western Electric had been operating the strategic White Alice Communications System (WACS) for the government. WACS provided circuits for remote military installations and to villages that had been beyond reach of the Alaska Communications System. "WACS provided the technology that could relay voice communications over high mountain ranges. This system functioned by bouncing strong radio signals off the Earth's troposphere, a costly process due to the huge amounts of power required to produce sufficiently strong signals at a distance. Used in conjunction with the Distant Early Warning line of radars (DEW line), White Alice sites featured ten-story-high troposcatter antennas, some of which are still standing as silent monuments to a bygone technology. "Meanwhile, RCA had established itself in the state by winning contracts to supply personnel and maintenance to scattered armed forces communications sites. As private enterprise became more involved in Alaskan communications, the Federal government decided to stop providing communications to the commercial and private sectors. "In 1969, Congress passed the Alaska Communications Disposal Act. Among interested bidders to purchase the Alaska Communications System were General Telephone, Continental Telephone and RCA Global Communications. RCA was the successful bidder at a price of $28.5 million in cash and a pledge to immediately invest an additional $30 million for badly needed improvements to the then seriously overtaxed and outdated ACS. "RCA had purchased rights to provide the state's commercial traffic with a network including toll centers at Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and Ketchikan; a network of marine radio stations, a submarine cable terminating in Southwest and a scattering of high-frequency (HF) radio communications sites. "Concurrent with the purchase of ACS, RCA's pioneering satellite technology in long distance communications made its debut on the international scene. "RCA renamed its Alaska operating unit Alascom, and in 1973 purchased the Bartlett Earth Station, then the only one in Alaska and Alaska's sole satellite link with the outside world. Shortly thereafter, Alascom constructed its own first satellite station at Lena Point, near Juneau, bringing Alaska into the era of modern satellite technology. "The first functional domestic satellite system in the nation appeared later that year when Alascom began using the Canadian Anik II satellite on a regular basis. Howard Hawkins, the forward-thinking president of RCA Alascom's parent company, RCA Communications, pushed full speed ahead on plans to construct earth stations across Alaska on a substantial scale. "By 1974 Alascom had constructed earth stations at Prudhoe Bay, Nome, Bethel and Valdez. The same year, RCA launched its own satellites, SATCOM 1 and 2, and all of Alascom's satellite traffic was switched to the new "birds." "In July 1976 RCA Alascom entered into an agreement with the Department of the Air Force to lease most of the military's antiquated White Alice facilities and replace them with 22 modern satellite earth stations. "Replacement of the military's aging communications system was largely completed by Alascom in the late 1970's; the earth stations built to replace the White Alice system required construction in formidable places. For example, a year of pre-planning was needed to get equipment to Shemya in the Aleutian Islands on the once-a-year supply barge. "In the late 1970's, the federal government was beginning to look at reshaping the domestic telecommunications industry to foster competition. The giant RCA Global Communications, which also operated worldwide communications of many sorts, was ordered by the FCC to divest itself of domestic satellite communications -- of which RCA Alascom was a foremost part. RCA American Communications (RCA Americom) was formed as a totally independent corporation and given the responsibility for handling all domestic satellite business of RCA. "In June, 1979, RCA Alascom was purchased by Pacific Power and Light Company (now PacifiCorp) of Portland, Oregon. The purchase price was $200 million cash and taking over $90 million of Alascom's long term debt. "Meanwhile, Alascom had expanded its service by constructing more than 200 earth stations and serving even the smallest rural communities in the state. Company pride and commitment to Alaska was never more evident than on October 27, 1982, when Alascom launched its own satellite -- Aurora I -- the only satellite of its kind and devoted exclusively to use by a single state -- Alaska. "Along with the new `bird,' Alascom's plant improvements had vastly upgraded its satellite and terrestrial links within the state and to interstate points. A new multipurpose building in Anchorage was constructed on Government Hill, consolidating all local Alascom components in one complex. "Always forging ahead with new technology, Alascom established the first satellite communications for offshore oil rigs in the mid-1980's, developing a gyro-stablized satellite antenna that compensated for the pitch and roll of the drilling vessels. "Live television, a given anywhere else in the United States, arrived late in Alaska. Entertainment programs were a week or two late arriving in Anchorage by film or tape. After showing in Anchorage, the material was sent onward for even later showing in Fairbanks and then Juneau. National news was taped off the air in Seattle and put on the first available northbound plane. In most cases, Walter Cronkite addressed his Alaskan audience a day later than the Lower 48. "Today, live programming is beamed throughout Alaska using Alascom's Aurora I, and events of interest to the world are beamed out from Alaska; events like the visit of Pope John Paul, the rescue of the trapped whales, and coverage of the Valdez oil spill all traveled out via Alascom's Aurora I. The same Alascom satellite is used to relay long distance learning to remote sites throughout the state. "Presently, Alascom employs more than 700 people in Alaska and operates more than 300 sites statewide with microwave and satellite communications. Alascom also works under contract for several companies that require specialized communications at remote mining and oil drilling sites. Alascom also operates the state's marine radio network and an aviation weather service for pilots. "In the last few years, Alascom has become known throughout the global telecommunications industry as the experts on rapid deployment of transportable earth stations, delivering them to remote sites by air freighter or helicopter and setting up operation within hours. Alascom was called upon by the oil industry in Alaska to provide remote communications from the tragic spill site in Prince William Sound when the tanker Exxon Valdez lost its cargo in the pristine Alaskan waters. "In 1989, Alascom was called upon by the U.S. Navy to fly its transportable earth station to Puerto Rico to re-establish communications devastated by Hurricane Hugo on that Caribbean island. The same year, Alascom transportable earth stations and personnel were deployed to Panama in support of the U.S. forces in Operation Just Cause. "One year later, as the Iraqis invaded Kuwait, Alascom was once again thousands of miles from home providing satellite communications support to our Armed Forces operating in the Saudi theatre as part of Desert Shield, and then Desert Storm. "On May 29, 1991, Alascom launched its second satellite -- Aurora II -- as a replacement for the aging Aurora I which was almost out of station-keeping fuel after nine years of faithful service. The new satellite, more sophisticated and powerful than its predecessor, will continue to provide a variety of telecommunications services to Alaska's growing population. "More recently, Alascom entered the era of international submarine fiber optic cables by linking its communications network with a spur that runs off the North Pacific Cable that runs between Portland, Oregon and Japan. The Alascom spur, which lands at Seward, Alaska, proceeds underwater to a point 1,900 miles south, where the transPacific portion of the cable is tapped, using methods like those employed for joining multiple European nations on transAtlantic cables. This connects Alaskans not only with the Lower 48 but also directly with the Orient via the latest in digital fiber optics technology. "The story of Alascom has been the story of growth. In 1971, when the company took its first few steps, Alaska's long distance telephone traffic amounted to 5 million calls per year. Today, Alascom handles in excess of 95 million calls annually and is doing so at substantial rate reductions from jsut 20 years ago. Over that short history, Alascom has lowered its interstate calling rates by 85% while reducing intrastate calls by 25%. A call that cost $10.00 in 1971 today costs only $1.56. THE FUTURE: "The years ahead are full of promise and excitement. As Alaska enters the last decade of this century, plans are already being laid for Alascom to enter the twenty-first century in the way WAMCATS entered the twentieth century, full of dedication and committed to serving its state and its people -- and now increasingly expanding that scope to the world, wherever and whenever needed. Origin: The Nebraska Inns of Court (inns.omahug.org) (1:285/27) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When noting the money figures and some of the technology, remember this was published in 1991 and was talking about late 1980's events. PAT ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Beware of CameraWare - An FBI Sting! Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 08:49:39 -0700 In article , > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, I know, and that is good practice > in many cases, but as the lady who operates the Montgomery County Jail > for our sheriff said to me once, 'no one likes an asshole'. I *could* > have asked for that, and yes, they would have gone to get one. Actually, > what officers generally do when those obstacles are presented to them > is one of them gets on the radio and asks an officer at the station > to 'please go see the Judge and get me a search warrant on (name of > case or defendant). Five or ten minutes, or maybe an hour later, the > warrant would have arrived. It might have delayed their ultimate > purpose (a raid on my premises) by several minutes, but it would have > happened anyway. Your being obstinate simply makes them even more so. I know that is a great dramatic ploy in the movies, but there is a flip side. First, if the police of whatever flavor have enough probably cause for a warrant, they usually have it in hand. You don't just order a warrant like a pizza, and exercising your Fourth Amendment rights does not constitute grounds to issue a warrant. Second, once you have given consent for police entry and/or examination, EVERYTHING on your premesis is fair game. If the police are executing a warrant, only those things specified in the warrant are seizable and usable in a specific case. When you say, "go ahead and have a look", you are opening yourself up to anything. In fact, this is why if grounds for a warrant are shakey, your consent is paydirt. At that point, they can haul you in for ANYTHING they find. > Anyway, I *knew* there was nothing around for them (the two FBI guys > were on a kiddie porn hunt which is part of the FBI sting thing that > CameraWare is set up [by them] for) so I figured let them come in and > have their fun. Without an attorney, you don't know that. You have no idea what kind of obscure laws they might have up their sleeve just to get you hauled in. You were very lucky. > And if you *did* have something around they wanted, and thought by > stalling them for time requiring a warrant you would have the time to > destroy or secrete somewhere whatever it was they wanted, you should > know that while they are standing there tapping their toes, waiting > for a warrant to arrive (in a few minutes), their very observant eyes > and ears would be working overtime. And you know, if a police officer > **very sincerely believes** that evidence is being disposed of, he can > go in anyway, and explain it to the judge later on, and usually be > forgiven for it. In other words, by the time police come to your door, > warrant or no warrant, it is generally too late for you anyway. I am > too much of a civil libertarian to go along with the idea 'if you have > nothing to hide, then why keep them out.' But I am a pragmatist and I > know that regardless of what the constitution requires, the adminis- > tration has 'work arounds' at their fingertips. Remember, no one likes > an asshole. Sometimes winning a battle now and then causes you to lose > the whole war. PAT] Yes, I've seen the movies. There is no harm in making the police dot every eye and cross every tee. That's what they are paid to do. Understand that I am not talking about cooperating with a police investigation about which I might, as a third party, have important information. The police need the cooperation of citizens to do their job. But if I am the suspect (as you were in the above described incident), I'm not going to surrender my rights in the hope that by being a "nice guy", my legal problems will somehow be lessened. It is the job of the police to get evidence of a crime. One of those methods involves convincing the suspect that if he bends over, it will all go easier for him. Patrick, that is a ploy, not reality. Frankly, it sounds as though you facilitated some very sloppy police work. Set up a sting, round everyone up who walks by, and then sort it all out. If a few people like you had demanded warrants and correct procedures, the costs of such an operation in both time and money would have made such a scattergun approach unworkable, and the need for your warning to Digest readers would have evaporated. Don't kid yourself: it is the folks who bend over who end up in the pokey for long stretches for petty crimes. Standing up for your rights may make you an asshole to the cops, but it is the courts who will ultimately determine your fate. When you willingly hand over incriminating evidence, there is very little you can do about it later. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I *did* talk to my attorney about the whole event later the same day. You ARE mostly correct. But I was so shocked to see them at the door, my head was not screwed on as straight as it should have been, I guess. And I was still thinking about the lady who runs the Montgomery County Correctional Center (what we locally refer to as the 'jailhouse') and her very practical speech to me about pragmatism and assholes, and 'trying to be a good citizen whenever possible' thoughts. And I know you are correct about how if you voluntarily admit police then they can use whatever they find. But I knew there was just nothing to be found. They spent a few minutes looking at the computer room and the network stuff, then lost interest. They did grudingly admit that the ugly pictures were from some other login name, (other than what Camerware had for me) and they agreed that 'porno spam' was a 'problem' on the net. What made me so nervous and sick about the whole thing was I had *thought* that CameraWare was just your 'typical' porn on the Internet place. It did not occur to me that they routinely turn over their files and pictures from their servers to FBI. I guess I have a few things to learn about the net. When they left, one of the FBI guys gave me a business card, and happened to notice my camera. He sort of waved the card past the camera as he handed it to me, and I got the idea of letting other people know about CameraWare.com so for a couple nights now, I have placed the business card in front of my camera and used the video sender to show it to the other users there. I do not know if ttinet.com (operators of CameraWare) would approve of that or not but I did it anyway, and they did not cut me off as I suspected they would when they saw my 'broadcast'. Anyway, it was disillusioning to say the least. I just hope that all the guys who read the good things I said about CameraWare here at one time don't get caught up in the FBI trap as I did. Nothing came of it for me, but still ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: ptownson@telecom-digest.org Subject: Lost Messages Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 12:00:00 CDT Two sort of small, (but important to their senders) messages bit the dust, fell into the bucket today in the process of being handled for the Digest. John Higdon wrote one as a REply to the earlier message on the movie being made about Kevin Poulsen. John wondered how close to accuracy the message would be. Please resubmit it if possible. The other one was a REply to the news posted by Monty Solomon on advertisements in movie theatres; who liked them, who did not mind them, etc. The guy who wrote this message (name unknown to me) made the suggestion we need a return to the drive-in movies concept of the 1950-60s era. He said then people could use their cell phone in the privacy of their own car and not disturb others. Please resubmit that also, whoever you are. Well, have a nice weekend! PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #461 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 19 00:03:42 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4J43gO05991; Mon, 19 May 2003 00:03:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 00:03:42 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305190403.h4J43gO05991@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #461 TELECOM Digest Sun, 18 May 2003 23:59:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 462 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MCI Gets Iraq Rebuild Contract (Danny Burstein) Re: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study (John Stahl) Re: Beware of CameraWare - An FBI Sting! (Ron Bean) Re: Beware of CameraWare - An FBI Sting! (Dave Phelps) Spam Assassin, I Am (Joey Lindstrom) Re: Spam Assassin, I Am (Alan Premselaar) Re: Spam Assassin, I Am (Jonathan Nichols) General Tells How Cell Phone Foiled US Attack in Iraq (Michael Chance) Intel Looks Ahead On Wireless (Monty Solomon) Plan for Internet Lists of Molesters Stirs Controversy (Monty Solomon) Literary Groups Decry Patriot Act as Invasion of Privacy (Monty Solomon) Comcast Open to Adding WiFi Service (Monty Solomon) James Otterbeck, on Verizon's Hot Dash Into WiFi Net Access (M Solomon) Reach Out and Block Someone / Massachusetts Consumers Have (M Solomon) Leave me Alone! / With Junk E-mail Out of Control, Internet (M Solomon) As Google Goes, So Goes the Nation (Monty Solomon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Danny Burstein Subject: MCI Gets Iraq Rebuild Contract Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 01:52:49 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC "MCI, the telecommunications firm formerly known as WorldCom Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection last year after disclosing a massive accounting scandal (US $11 billion), has been awarded a $45 million contract to build Iraq's mobile GSM phone network, reported the Wall Street Journal (May 15). ""We are very pleased by this news, as we have been working with the US Government and MCI to provide GSM, and ensure that Iraq had the right technology for its people, compatible with the rest of the region and the world," said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association in a statement. [ snippety snip. rest of article, which has a lot more info on many other contracts, is at: http://www.itp.net/news/10530239994705.htm and the origqinal WSJ clip, paid subscription required, is at the following ugly url (watch out for line wrap): http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105296363137806100-search,00.html?collection=wsjie%2F30day&vql_string=mci%3Cin%3E%28article%2Dbody%29 Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 14:20:37 -0400 From: John Stahl Subject: Re: U.S. Moviegoers Don't Mind Theater Ads - Study Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Jr. <73115.dot.1041.at.compuserve.dot.com> wrote: > Same here. As society continues to devolve, the "me first" mentality > makes any kind of public interaction more and more distasteful. Cell > phones ringing, people chatting, people bringing young children along > have all made the thought of attending a movie in a public theater one > of the last things I will do with my entertainment dollar. > The last time I ventured out to the local first run cineplex, one > couple brought in an entire take out meal in two grocery bags and > proceedure to munch away while sitting in the row in front of me. Ah, remember Drive-In Theaters of the 60' and 70's? Maybe it's time for some forward thinking commercial endeavor to bring back to good-old drive-in movie theaters. There, people can watch a movie and do what they want in the privacy of their vehicles (now there are SUV's to handle the large families) where they can eat, play, talk on cell phones, etc., without bothering their neighbor in their SUV! The last movie drive-in, in this area (believe closed in the late 80's due to competition with TV) even had a RF transmitted sound system which "broadcast" audio directly to your in-car radio. With the car-radio sound systems of today they would now probably have to broadcast in stereo to get the full effect of the movie! John Stahl Aljon Enterprises ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 18:49:59 -0500 From: Ron Bean Subject: Re: Beware of CameraWare - An FBI Sting! > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note:... > They spent a few minutes > looking at the computer room and the network stuff, then lost interest. Maybe another difference between small-town Kansas and Chicago... > They did grudingly admit that the ugly pictures were from some other > login name, (other than what Camerware had for me) ... So they figured searching your computer would be a good use of their time? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, consider it from the Federal Bureau of Inquisition's point of view: Anyone that owns a computer (any private citizen, I mean, not the government of course) is most likely using it to store pornography, right? Ask any police officer or federal agent. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: Beware of CameraWare - An FBI Sting! Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 20:04:33 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to no-spam@amadeus.kome.com: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, I know, and that is good practice > in many cases, but as the lady who operates the Montgomery County Jail > for our sheriff said to me once, 'no one likes an asshole'. I *could* > have asked for that, and yes, they would have gone to get one. Actually, > what officers generally do when those obstacles are presented to them > is one of them gets on the radio and asks an officer at the station > to 'please go see the Judge and get me a search warrant on (name of > case or defendant). Five or ten minutes, or maybe an hour later, the > warrant would have arrived. It might have delayed their ultimate > purpose (a raid on my premises) by several minutes, but it would have > happened anyway. Your being obstinate simply makes them even more so. The point of requiring a warrant is a lesson in circular logic. If everyone that had nothing to hide allowed unwarranted searches, then the fact that someone wouldn't allow a search would, in itself, be probably cause to perform a search. IMHO, compliance, although easier, slowly erodes our civil rights. Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are right. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 18:39:00 -0600 Subject: Spam Assassin, I Am Reply-To: joey@garynuman.info When I'm not busy filtering spam, I moderate the "Gary Numan Digest", a mailing list for fans of the British singer/songwriter (y'all remember "Cars", right?) Anyways, I recently posted to the Gary Numan Digest explaining to everyone that I had now installed SpamAssassin on the server. Well, one wag pointed out that Gary Numan had released a song in 1982 Called "I, Assassin", and to call attention to the similarity, "sang" a verse of the song, replacing "I, Assassin, I am" with "Spam Assassin, I Am". One thing led to another and ... well ... ok, it's a groaner, but also mildly amusing. :-) ORIGINAL LYRICS =============== We are assassins We are not evil We act with reason and heart Your heart We are not vicious Is that surprising? We're so much larger than life I, Assassin, I am I, Assassin, I am "I just arrived Something to fix This new depression" We are not hunters We are just patient We'll wait a lifetime for you Just you I've never felt good I've never felt bad I've never felt much at all I, Assassin, I am I, Assassin, I am "There's nothing personal Just read the papers That's real" NEW LYRICS ========== We're Spam Assassins We are not evil We clean the junk from your mail Your mail We are not vicious Is that surprising? We filter con jobs and porn Spam Assassin, I am Spam Assassin, I am "Spam just arrived! Something to fix This new pestilence" We're not spam hunters We are just patient We filter con jobs and porn For you I've filtered evil I've filtered "free" deals I've filtered "make money now" Spam Assassin, I am Spam Assassin, I am "There's nothing personal Just read the headers That's fake" Any musicians out there? Maybe we could cut a hit single ... :-) (If anyone would like to hear the original, I can email a low-bitrate MP3, just drop me a line.) / From the desk of Joey Lindstrom / One day I got on the usual bus, and when I stepped in, I saw the most / gorgeous blond Chinese girl ... I sat beside her. I said, "Hi," and she / said, "Hi," and then I said, "Nice day, isn't it?," And she said, "I saw / my analyst today and he says I have a problem." So I asked, "What's the / problem?" She replied, "I can't tell you. I don't even know you ..." I / said, "Well sometimes it's good to tell your problems to a perfect / stranger on a bus." So she said, "Well, my analyst said I'm a / nymphomaniac and I only like Jewish cowboys... By the way, my name is / Denise." I said, "Hello, Denise. My name is Bucky Goldstein ..." / --Steven Wright [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you send an audio file of the song to the Telecom Archives, I will put it up for everyone who might like to hear it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 10:38:04 +0900 Subject: Re: Spam Assassin, I Am From: Alan Premselaar What album is that on? I might actually have it. On 5/19/03 9:39 AM, "Joey Lindstrom" wrote: > When I'm not busy filtering spam, I moderate the "Gary Numan Digest", a > mailing list for fans of the British singer/songwriter (y'all remember > "Cars", right?) Anyways, I recently posted to the Gary Numan Digest > explaining to everyone that I had now installed SpamAssassin on the > server. > Well, one wag pointed out that Gary Numan had released a song in 1982 > Called "I, Assassin", and to call attention to the similarity, "sang" a > verse of the song, replacing "I, Assassin, I am" with "Spam Assassin, I > Am". One thing led to another and... well... ok, it's a groaner, but > also mildly amusing. :-) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 19:29:05 -0700 From: Jonathan Nichols Reply-To: jnichols@pbp.net Organization: pbp.net Subject: Re: Spam Assassin, I Am Joey Lindstrom wrote: > When I'm not busy filtering spam, I moderate the "Gary Numan Digest", a > mailing list for fans of the British singer/songwriter (y'all remember > "Cars", right?) Anyways, I recently posted to the Gary Numan Digest > explaining to everyone that I had now installed SpamAssassin on the > server. > Well, one wag pointed out that Gary Numan had released a song in 1982 > Called "I, Assassin", and to call attention to the similarity, "sang" a > verse of the song, replacing "I, Assassin, I am" with "Spam Assassin, I > Am". One thing led to another and... well... ok, it's a groaner, but > also mildly amusing. :-) I'll PayPal you $1 if you re-make "Assassing" by Marillion. :P~ ------------------------------ From: Michael Chance Subject: General Tells How Cell Phone Foiled U. S. Attack in Iraq Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 01:56:04 GMT Rowan Scarborough THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Army's only retreat in the lightning-fast war to oust Saddam Hussein came after an Iraqi general in the town of Najaf cell-phoned ahead to his troops that a regiment of Apache attack helicopters was on the way. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030508-11542690.htm [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It would seem while the USA was busily blowing up telephone exchanges in Iraq, they must have overlooked one of the exchanges for cell phones. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 22:16:20 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Intel Looks Ahead On Wireless Arik Hesseldahl, 05.16.03, 10:00 AM ET NEW YORK - From the tone and sheer number of TV ads that chipmaker Intel is running these days showing people working on notebook computers anywhere and everywhere, you'd think that wireless Internet access on a notebook PC might be the application that single handedly saves the PC market. It hasn't happened yet. But indications from Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) are that is has big plans on the wireless front. Intel calls its wireless platform Centrino, and it consists of a Pentium-M processor and Wi-Fi wireless networking components. So far, the success of the Centrino platform isn't clear--though, judging by the popularity of it among PC manufacturers using it in their latest notebook lines, they think it's a success. At its analysts' meeting in New York, Intel offered a peek forward at what's next for Centrino. Its next Centrino-branded platform is currently codenamed "Dothan," and it will appear in the second half of the year, likely in time for the holiday gift rush. Dothan will consist of a faster Pentium M processor and dual-band wireless networking capability. The Pentium chip will be produced on Intel's new 90-nanometer technology, which means that the transistors and other elements on the chip will be smaller than those on the current generation of Intel chips, which are made on 130-nanometer technology. The shrink will save room on the chip itself, allowing Intel to put 2 megabytes of Level 2 memory cache on the chip, which should speed up performance for certain tasks considerably. http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/16/cx_ah_0516tentech.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 22:34:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Plan for Internet Lists of Molesters Stirs Controversy State seeks to publish photos of sex offenders By Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff, 5/15/2003 When Hudson Police Captain David Stephens learns of a high-risk child molester in town, he unleashes a publicity barrage. He tacks laminated notices to telephone poles, warns individual neighbors, and notifies local day-care centers. Local elementary school principals are required to sign a receipt acknowledging the warnings, so police and town officials can be sure every base has been covered in the effort to alert the community. Starting today, if the plan survives a possible court challenge that was expected this week, the state's Sex Offender Registry Board will take those local warnings a step further, using the Internet to publicly post the names, addresses, and photographs of more than 350 Level 3 sex offenders residing throughout the state. Computer users will be able to click on a city or town, and find the identities of convicted child molesters and rapists living in that community. Information will include the offender's photo, name, and home and work address; the charges the offender was convicted of; and a physical description. Stephens, who already publishes the identities of Hudson's two Level 3 sex offenders on his Police Department website, applauded the state for putting more information about potentially dangerous criminals into the public domain. He predicted that phones will light up in dozens of police departments as soon as the information hits cyberspace. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/135/west/Plan_for_Internet_lists_of_molesters_stirs_controversy+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 22:48:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Literary Groups Decry Patriot Act as Invasion of Privacy By David Mehegan, Globe Staff, 5/16/2003 A national coalition of publishers, authors, librarians, and booksellers yesterday called on Congress to modify the part of the antiterrorist USA Patriot Act that allows the government to secretly inspect Americans' book-buying and -borrowing habits. The statement is signed by 32 organizations, including the American Booksellers Association, the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, the American Library Association, PEN American Center, and the giant booksellers Borders and Barnes & Noble. It endorses a bill filed in March by Representative Bernard Sanders, Independent of Vermont, that would exempt bookstore sales records and library borrowing records from some provisions of the act. In a separate statement supporting the Sanders bill, former US representative Patricia Schroeder, president of the library association, said, ''Section 215 seriously undermines the First Amendment-protected activities of authors and publishers, booksellers and librarians, and indeed anyone who reads.'' http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/136/nation/Literary_groups_decry_Patriot_Act_as_invasion_of_privacy+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 22:54:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Comcast Open to Adding WiFi Service By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 5/16/2003 A top executive of Comcast Corp. said yesterday his company would roll out its own service if rival Verizon Communications draws a big market with its offer of high-speed wireless Internet access through ''WiFi'' gear mounted on pay phones. But speaking at a Massachusetts Telecommunications Council conference in Boston, David Fellows, Comcast's chief technology officer, said he remains nervous about pouring resources into WiFi services that rely on unlicensed public airwaves, rather than wireless services in the better-controlled licensed spectrum. WiFi stands for wireless fidelity and refers to systems that offer 11-megabit-per-second Net access in a roughly 300-foot zone around a ''hot spot'' transmitter. Verizon this week said it has activated the first 150 of a planned 1,000 WiFi hot spots in New York, using gear mounted on pay phones that will offer free wireless Net access for its customers who buy Verizon digital subscriber line access at home or its dial-up Net service. If it proves popular and successful, Verizon would likely offer similar services in Boston and other markets, according to James Otterbeck, the Verizon senior vice president of emerging markets. Fellows said, ''If there's a market there, I can attach a [transmitting device] anywhere there's coaxial cable'' to activate WiFi coverage. ''If the world wants a blanketed WiFi service, if there's a demand for it, our network infrastructure can respond'' with similar service. ''If it turns out this is a killer idea, then we can very quickly respond.'' Fellows said that earlier in his career, as a technology investor with Pilot House Ventures in Boston, he reviewed several business plans for WiFi-like services. But he said, ''I always thought really hard about launching a commercial service in unlicensed spectrum'' that can be prone to interference, overcrowding, and security lapses. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/136/business/Comcast_open_to_adding_WiFi_service+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 11:07:12 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: James Otterbeck, on Verizon's Hot Dash Into WiFi Net Access By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 5/18/2003 Verizon Communications unveiled a project last week to turn the lowly city pay phone into a key weapon in its competition for dominance of 21st-century high-speed wireless Internet access, activating the first 150 of a planned 1,000 WiFi hot spots in New York City. In contrast to stand-alone WiFi providers such as Wayport and Boingo, Verizon offers the service only to existing Internet customers, who will receive the service for free from upgraded pay stations marked with signs reading You Are Hot. James A. Otterbeck, Verizon's senior vice president of emerging markets, spoke with Globe telecommunications writer Peter J. Howe about Verizon's WiFi plans. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/138/business/James_Otterbeck_on_Verizon_s_hot_dash_into_WiFi_Net_access+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 11:17:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Reach Out and Block Someone / Massachusetts Consumers Have By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 5/18/2003 Massachusetts consumers have telemarketers on the run. Tired of unwanted phone calls from companies trying to sell them things, Massachusetts residents have placed more than 1.1 million phone numbers, or about 40 percent of all residential lines, on the state's do-not-call list. A month-and-a-half into the state's do-not-call experiment, homeowners are starting to enjoy the silence. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/138/business/Reach_out_and_block_someone+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 11:20:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Leave Me Alone! / With Junk E-Mail Out of Control With junk e-mail out of control, Internet experts want to redesign the whole system By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff, 5/18/2003 You think the dozen or two spam e-mails you delete every day are a lot? That's nothing to Paul Judge, chief technology officer of CipherTrust, an Alpharetta, Ga., company that sells e-mail filtering technology to dozens of major US firms. Armed with his software, Judge's customers discard billions of unwanted e-mail messages every day. Yet it's not enough. Spam is out of control. The flood of pornographic ads, financial scams, and other junk e-mail is rising at a rate of 15 percent a month. Around half of all Internet mail sent this year will be unwanted advertisements, according to Brightmail Inc., a California e-mail filtering company. Cleaning this rubbish out of corporate mailboxes will cost American businesses $10 billion this year in lost productivity and extra computer expense, according to Ferris Research, an e-mail technology research firm in California. People frequently ignore important e-mails in their inboxes because they're surrounded by so much spam. Filtering devices meant to keep spam away sometimes toss out good messages along with the bad. Reminiscent of the early days of fax machines, people sending important e-mails now follow up with a phone call to make sure the e-mail got through. ''Spam is putting the Internet in jeopardy,'' said Phillip Hallam-Baker, principal scientist for the computer security firm Verisign Inc. To avoid e-mail obsolescence, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the global group that sets Internet standards, tapped Judge and other e-mail experts to overhaul e-mail and come up with effective spam blocking techniques. The first meeting of this new working group, held in March, featured presentations from technical gurus, civil libertarians, and representatives of Internet advertising companies spooked by the rise of junk e-mail. Instead of fighting spam piecemeal, they want to redesign the globe's entire e-mail system. Until recently, such an overhaul would have seemed too radical to contemplate. Not anymore. ''We have the attention of the Internet community in a way we've never had before,'' Judge said. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/138/business/Leave_me_alone_+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 12:13:01 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: As Google Goes, So Goes the Nation By GEOFFREY NUNBERG You don't get to be a verb unless you're doing something right. Do a Google search on "ford," for example, and the first batch of results includes the pages for the Ford Motor Company, the Ford Foundation, the Betty Ford Center, Harrison Ford and Gerald R. Ford - all good guesses at what a user would be looking for, particularly considering that Google estimates its index holds more than 16 million pages including the word. Google now conducts 55 percent of all searches on the World Wide Web. People have come to trust the service to act as a digital bloodhound. Give it a search term to sniff, and it disappears into the cyber wilderness, returning a fraction of a second later with the site you were looking for in its mouth. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/weekinreview/18NUNB.html ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #462 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 19 13:36:34 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4JHaY009523; Mon, 19 May 2003 13:36:34 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 13:36:34 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305191736.h4JHaY009523@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #462 TELECOM Digest Mon, 19 May 2003 13:36:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 462 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson SBC *Finally* Acknowledges I am Gone (TELECOM Digest Editor) WFMT Making Some Changes Soon (TELECOM Digest Editor) Disney to Begin Renting "Self-Destructing" DVDs (Monty Solomon) Flexplay Introduces 'EZ-D,' The 48 Hour DVD (Monty Solomon) Black-Book Backup Plan: Losing Your Cellphone, Not Your Mind (M Solomon) Re: General Tells How Cell Phone Foiled US Attack in Iraq (John Higdon) Re: CameraWare is an FBI Sting Operation (Charles B. Wilber) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 12:09:04 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: SBC *Finally* Acknowledges I am Gone Around Thursday of last week, SBC finally let loose of their tight grip on my local service. As I mentioned, first I had to deal with my being 'ineligible' for conversion (to a CLEC) since I had DSL on my line. Once we got through that, by me changing my Internet from Southwestern Bell to the local cable company; then SBC tried to say I was ineligible for conversion since I had a 'PIC freeze' on my line which prohibited any changes. On both of these occassions, it was incumbent on *me* to wade through voicemail hell and wait in a long queue to speak to a live person at SBC. That finally happened last Thursday. I called back to Prairie Stream again after all that and Mike tried once again -- I think his fourth or fifth try -- to move my account and lo and behold, it got through okay. In their office there at TerraWorld, in the basement of (what used to be) the Arco Corporate Center, they have some terminals which are hooked up to their stuff in the SBC central office over at 6th and Maple Streets. In addition to TerraWorld being the local ISP here in town, they also offer DSL service through some brokered arrangement with SBC and they now offer 'Prairie Stream Communications' (local telephone service) as well, and the telephone service thing is licensed or approved by the Kansas Commission for same. Not a single peep out of SBC except one service rep at SBC saying 'we are sorry to see you going'. Now today, Monday, I guess SBC finally noticed I was gone. At 10:45 AM today, my phone rang with an 'out of area' message on caller ID and when I answered, it was a **recorded message** from SBC saying 'we notice your phone service has been changed. If you authorized this change, you need not do anything; if you did NOT request the change, please call us toll free at 866- something.' The message repeated itself twice, then disconnected. That seems to be how little SBC cares either way about their customers. I dialed the number they announced, as usual got voicemail and a menu to choose through, however, god bless them, this time a recording came on saying 'based on your phone number, you are a valued customer and we are going to handle your call on an expedited basis.' I did not wait around. We will see what they have to say tomorrow and the day after that. To Fred Goldstein and Clarence Dold: You both had some very succinct and detailed commentaries to make on the 'Prairie Stream' operation. Thank you, and would you (or anyone else) care to contribute further to this thread? I for one am anxious to know all I can about it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 20:53:06 -0600 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: WFMT Making Some Changes Soon Following is an article about WFMT that was recently published in the Chicago Tribune. Many of you are well aware that I'm no great fan of WFMT, but I thought you might be interested anyway. -------------------- WFMT: Still standing tall, but slowly, surely eroding -------------------- By John von Rhein Tribune music critic May 12, 2003 People who go around whining that things aren't what they used to be can be awfully tiresome. But if you were to argue that things are getting no better fast at WFMT-FM 98.7, you would hear no argument from longtime listeners who recall the time not so long ago when it was the most cultured radio station in North America. In overall broadcast quality, WFMT still stands tall compared with the average U.S. classical music outlet, at a time when many such stations either have sold out to pop formats (such as Chicago's WNIB-FM, once the city's second classical bandwidth) or dumbed down their programming to bite-size Bach and Vivaldi punctuated by grating commercial jingles. A number of major broadcast markets, notably Detroit, San Diego and Tulsa, have no classical radio station at all. But much of what made WFMT truly distinctive seems to be eroding in slow but perceptible degrees, a decline driven by the difficulties of making classical radio commercially viable but also by economic reverses suffered by the fine-arts station's corporate parent, Window to the World Communications, which also owns and operates public broadcasting station WTTW-Channel 11. The Arbitron ratings evidence a decline of another sort. WFMT, which had habitually trailed classical rival WNIB a percentage point or two until that station's demise in 2001, scored a dramatic ratings leap immediately thereafter, going from a 1.9 average share of listeners in winter 2001 to 2.9 in winter 2002. The ratings have since leveled off, falling to 1.7 in the most recent Arbitron survey. Last week brought more changes and belt-tightening at non-profit WFMT that, combined with the cutbacks and bloodletting at WTTW earlier this year, have observers worried about the direction in which WFMT is going. "If they're not dumbing down their product, they certainly are diluting it," said a former staffer. Two program hosts, Mel Zellman and Jan Weller, have been let go from the station. Both announcers will be missed, particularly Zellman, a 40-year WFMT veteran who took early retirement in 1999 but remained on an interim basis until early this month. Cost-saving move In an unrelated move, WFMT has instituted a cost-saving automated system that affects the programming from 6:05 p.m. to midnight seven days a week. As of Monday, the station is due to convert its evening broadcast hours to the Prophet, or NexGen, system, which replaces a live announcer with prerecorded announcements and program elements. NexGen is widely used by pop and jazz stations such as Chicago's WNUA-FM 95.5 and in several classical radio outlets including KING-FM in Seattle and KDFC-FM in San Francisco. The system's rationale is that it cuts announcer costs, allowing the program host -- in this case, Lisa Flynn -- to load (or "rip") CDs into the system in a fraction of the time it would take to play and record each piece. Dan Schmidt, president and chief executive of WTTW Communications, said that converting to an automated system on weeknights isn't that radical a move for WFMT, given the fact that much of the station's evening programming already consists of pretaped concert broadcasts. He further points out that the "LaSalle By Night" program, which airs from midnight to 6 a.m. daily with Peter Van De Graaff as host, has been prerecorded for the last 25 years. WFMT chief Steve Robinson says the station will save "not an insubstantial amount" -- somewhere in the five figures -- by eliminating the actual presence of an announcer during evening hours. WFMT purchased the NexGen equipment several years ago with the intention of automating portions of its broadcast schedule long before now, he says, but installation was delayed because of software and other technical issues. The idea of making "LaSalle By Night" fully automated "has crossed our mind," he adds, but "there's no firm plan" to do so as yet. If I were one of the remaining WFMT program hosts, I'd be nervous. If the evening shift, featuring introductions and lead-outs by a "virtual" Lisa Flynn, functions without glitches, what is to prevent the station from going automated on a nearly 24-hour basis? In the enlightened days when Ray Nordstrand and Norman Pellegrini ran the station, some listeners would complain that WFMT was stuffy and impersonal. Even if that were true (which I never believed), that's nothing compared with the impersonal tone the station will assume when even greater blocks of its broadcast schedule wind up as stored digital files to be retrieved at the click of a mouse and sent out by an uplink operator from an otherwise empty studio. Robinson insists "we are here to serve listeners with quality-music programs," while Schmidt defends the use of computer technology, at both WFMT and its public television parent, as a means to make the stations more productive and cost-effective. But the economic battering WTTW has recently taken, which led to a scaling back of Schmidt's much vaunted "Network Chicago" vision, has awakened fears that WFMT's already compromised standards could be compromised even further. Suffering a major blow The demise last January of WTTW's two-year-old arts-entertainment newspaper, City Talk, combined with the elimination of 23 staff jobs at the public broadcasting outlet, dealt a major blow to Schmidt's "Network Chicago" synergy of TV, radio, print and online content. The failure of City Talk was blamed on its failure to generate enough ad revenue. The plain fact was the local market didn't need another newspaper. For WTTW to launch a publication that cost roughly $750,000 a year to produce seemed an act of pure hubris. At a staff meeting in January that some insiders reportedly called a "near mutiny" of angry and bitter employees, Schmidt was forced to defend his $296,515 annual compensation, the company Lexus he drives and other perks at a time of mass layoffs and aggressive funding appeals. In WFMT's case, Schmidt argues, those appeals are necessary to make up for station's advertising income, which is limited by the fact that "you can't generate a lot of commercial revenue when you're broadcasting Mahler symphonies." The station's latest such pitch for contributions, which ran for a week in April, was its second most successful ever, raising $442,000 from 4,000 donors. But WFMT may be pushing that loyalty beyond its limits. Although the station normally mounts a fund drive once only every 17 weeks, it has scheduled another beg-a-thon in June so that it can finish out the fiscal year a bit more flush than before. So what do listeners get for their loyalty? They hear a laudable amount of live or taped concerts and operas, including performances broadcast live from WFMT's own studio. They hear jingle-free, announcer-read ad copy, the station's proud trademark for most of its 52-year existence. The quality classical and folk music programming listeners expect from WFMT is still there, according to Robinson. "I vehemently deny there's any dumbing down here -- never while I'm around," he insists. Others may find that, on any given day, the "new" WFMT can be a frustrating mixture of the good, the fluffy and the distasteful. Consider: Broadcasts by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera remain conspicuous by their absence. One of the station's most knowledgeable program hosts, the veteran Don Tait, is underemployed, while the fumbling newcomer Scott Thomas suffers from overexposure. (Hard to believe the latter was retained but Weller, whom Robinson himself praises as "gifted," was dismissed.) Sorely missed is Tait's "Collector's Corner" series, a model of its kind, which presented serious, comprehensive musical portraits of important musicians in recorded history. By comparison, the weekly "Music in Monaco" series is little more than a glorified infomercial for Monaco tourism. Canned series such as the maudlin "The Romantic Hours" just take up valuable air time. And the "listener-friendly" weekday morning music quizzes are a WNIB-style gimmick that would never have been instituted if Pellegrini were still running the show. Indeed, given the National Public Radio background of both Robinson and Schmidt, it is no coincidence WFMT programming has taken on an increasing "Public Radio" tone -- again something that would have been anathema to the old regime. Rumors persisted Rumors have been circulating for some years that WTTW, despite sizable assets including a $20 million endowment, is waiting for the right moment to sell WFMT, thereby shoring up its financial position within the network of Public Broadcasting affiliates, all of whom are similarly cash-strapped. In February 2001, WNIB-FM left the airwaves after being sold to the Salt Lake City-based conglomerate Bonneville International for $165 million. Recent changes and upheavals in the WTTW family have only reawakened the buzz, which Schmidt dismisses as "paranoia." "Those rumors are understandable, given the astronomical value of WFMT's license on the commercial market," says the WTTW president. "We understand, and so does our board, that WFMT is a community asset. One of the reasons we can justify our existence is the fact that for 35 years we have been a safe harbor, holding this asset for the community. Whether you agree or not that our stewardship has been perfect, we do take it very, very seriously. "I understand that with the passage of time there will always be some people who remember what they feel was the Golden Age [of WFMT]. I would submit that the services have evolved and we've had to do some things to make the station viable in today's world. I understand the paranoia, but it's really not justified." Such reassurances may not be enough to satisfy those listeners who believe the fine arts radio station is in gradual decline and that those qualities of class, knowledgability and taste that once made it a pacesetter in fine arts broadcasting -- not just in the U.S. but in the world -- could be further compromised. Copyright (c) 2003, Chicago Tribune [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My thanks to Chicago Tribune for making this article available on their web site, and my thanks to a Digest reader for making me aware of it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 23:21:29 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Disney to Begin Renting "Self-destructing" DVDs LOS ANGELES, May 16 (Reuters) - This disc will self-destruct in 48 hours. That is the warning The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) will issue this August when it begins to "rent" DVDs that after two days become unplayable and do not have to be returned. Disney home video unit Buena Vista Home Entertainment will launch a pilot movie "rental" program in August that uses the self-destruction technology, the company said on Friday. The discs stop working when a process similar to rusting makes them unreadable. The discs start off red, but when they are taken out of the package, exposure to oxygen turns the coating black and makes it impenetrable by a DVD laser. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34234690 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 23:24:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Flexplay Introduces 'EZ-D,' The 48 Hour DVD EZ-D Will Feature Titles From Buena Vista Home Entertainment Including The Recruit, The Hot Chick, 25TH Hour, Frida & Signs NEW YORK, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Flexplay Technologies, Inc, a privately held company based in New York, today announced that Buena Vista Home Entertainment Division of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) will use its flexible play DVD technology to make movies available to consumers in test markets beginning this August. The introduction of this innovative product, branded "EZ-D," will include BVHE titles The Recruit, Rabbit Proof Fence, The Hot Chick, 25th Hour, Heaven, Equilibrium, Frida and Signs. EZ-D will incorporate Flexplay's proprietary flexible play technology into a standard DVD. A Flexplay enabled DVD is similar to a conventional DVD, except that it has a 48 hour viewing window that begins when the disc is removed from its packaging. Consumers will then be able to enjoy the movie as many times as they wish during this time frame. After 48 hours of impeccable play, the DVD will no longer be readable by the DVD player and can then be recycled. A Flexplay enabled DVD works in all players, DVD drives and gaming systems designed to accept a standard DVD. GE Plastics, a division of GE (NYSE:GE), has been a key strategic collaborator in the advancement of Flexplay's proprietary technologies, developing a new patented Lexan(R) resin co-polymer essential to the flexible play design. EZ-D's goal is to expand the overall home entertainment market by appealing to consumers whose rental consumption has diminished due to the perceived inconvenience of the current rental process. EZ-D will give these consumers easy access to recently released titles in places they already shop and the opportunity to watch them at their convenience without worrying about returns, late fees or scratched discs. EZ-D offers retailers the opportunity to expand their existing DVD business; and for first time DVD retailers, easy entree into the growing DVD category. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34231247 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 09:54:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Black-Book Backup Plan: Losing Your Cellphone, Not Your Mind By WALTER S. MOSSBERG When my assistant Katie lost her cellphone on the D.C. subway last week, her biggest regret wasn't the loss of the device itself, though that did cost her money and time. The biggest loss was the 90 phone numbers she had programmed into the phone. Like many people -- especially young people -- Katie doesn't carry a PDA. She uses her phone as her electronic address book. Other folks even use the crude calendars and note pads in cellphones to jot down a random date or note. And when your phone is lost or stolen, or if it breaks or dies, that precious information is gone. Unlike PDA owners, neither Katie, nor 99% of cellphone owners, back up the data in their phones, or even are aware that such a backup is possible. But it is. So, this week we decided to make the best of a bad situation and review several products that back up and synchronize your phone's address book and/or calendar using a personal computer. Not only do these products spare you the burden of re-entering hundreds of letters and numbers when you lose your phone, but they let you use your phone as a more complete device, with your office calendar and contacts synchronized to it, instead of having to carry a phone and PDA. Each allows you to enter addresses, and in some cases dates, on the PC and then transfer them to the phone. That's much easier than tapping in all the data on the phone's keypad. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20030514.html ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: General Tells How Cell Phone Foiled U. S. Attack in Iraq Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 21:36:44 -0700 In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It would seem while the USA was busily > blowing up telephone exchanges in Iraq, they must have overlooked one > of the exchanges for cell phones. PAT] But they weren't ignoring the cell phones. Cell phone conversations were being closely monitored for intelligence gathering purposes. Many successful hits were accomplished by the use of this activity. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: 19 May 2003 10:21:07 EDT From: Charles.B.Wilber@Dartmouth.EDU (Charles B. Wilber) Subject: Re: CameraWare is an FBI Sting Operation --- PAT wrote: Remember, no one likes an asshole. --- end of quote --- You use that phrase twice in explaining why you allowed law enforcement access to your computer and computer files. You identify yourself as a civil libertarian but quickly relinquish your civil liberties rather than risk being perceived an "asshole." I would have expected a "civil libertarian" to have demanded due process if for no other reason than to maintain the integrity of the system. When we begin relinquishing liberties because someone who has already demonstrated his adversial intent might think us "assholes" I believe we will find ourselves with very few liberties before long. Charlie Wilber [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Bunyan once noted in 'Pilgrims Progress', "what I say and what I do, in real life are often two. Help me -- oppressed by things undone -- make my thoughts and my deeds be truly one." Or as someone else once said, "Know yourself, accept yourself, be yourself". Or, as noted in the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Simon Johnson, who had been renamed 'Peter' had just finished a vigorous debate with Jesus in which he claimed 'I will follow you to the death, I will never leave you.' Jesus responded 'that is baloney. The sun will not come up tomorrow morning before you have denied me three times!' Peter went out to walk around; at various times, three young ladies stopped him and said 'we have seen you around; you are one of those guys'. Each time, Peter denied it vigorously, and upon denying Jesus the third time, the cock crowed. Peter, realizing what he had done, went away privatly and wept bitterly. Ditto. I only wish I could be a stronger person that what I am. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #462 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 19 19:43:24 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4JNhNx11556; Mon, 19 May 2003 19:43:24 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 19:43:24 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305192343.h4JNhNx11556@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #463 TELECOM Digest Mon, 19 May 2003 19:43:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 463 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Web Vigilantes Give Spammers Big Dose of Their Own Medicine (M Jervis) WSJ on Stoopid Spammer Tricks (Marcus Jervis) Re: From the Archives: The Alascom Story (Please invert everything left) Automated Emailing? Schedule Reminders NO NOT SPAM :) (no.email.) Re: Beware of CameraWare - An FBI Sting! (JohnM) Re: Leave Me Alone! / With Junk E-Mail Out of Control (tonypo1@sdc.cox) Re: General Tells How Cell Phone Foiled U. S. Attack in Iraq (tonypo1) Re: MCI Gets Iraq Rebuild Contract (Mike Hartley) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Marcus Jervis Subject: Web Vigilantes Give Spammers Big Dose of Their Own Medicine Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 20:29:25 +0000 SPAM AND EGGS Web Vigilantes Give Spammers Big Dose of Their Own Medicine They Find Mass E-Mailers And Play Tricks on Them By MYLENE MANGALINDAN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL When all 24 office phones at Scott Richter's e-mail marketing company started ringing at once, with nobody at the other end of the line, employees knew they were under attack again. Daniel Dye, the systems administrator, could do little. After 15 minutes into the lunchtime assault last month, Mr. Dye recalls yelling, "Go ahead and pull your phones out of the walls for now. It'll be easier to think about what to do." Examining the phone system's central computer, Mr. Dye found that someone had hacked into it and programmed a feature that caused all the phones to ring at the same time. Mr. Richter's company had been "flamed" -- attacked by a shadowy group of vigilantes who have taken to harassing spammers using just about any means they can dream up. Spam, or unsolicited commercial e-mail, has set off a war between marketers and people who hate spam. Mr. Richter, who is a mass commercial e-mailer, has become a frequent target of attackers known as antispammers. They form a loose affiliation that uses the Internet to coordinate attacks from around the world. E-mail marketers often feel powerless against them. "It's an underground cult running it," says Mr. Richter, whose Westminster, Colo., e-mail marketing business, Optinrealbig.com (www.optinbig.com1), pitches mortgages, adult-related products and Viagra. "You don't know who they are." Here's one of them: Mark Jones, a 26-year-old software engineer in Enterprise, Ala., who calls himself a "soldier" in the war against spam. From his home at night, he tracks down spammers by tracing the complex routing code hidden in e-mail messages. He reports them to what antispammers call "realtime blacklists," Web sites that track known spam sources and allow computer administrators to block certain Internet addresses. Then, he fights back. "Anytime we find a source of spam," he says, "we spam them back." After his three children were asleep late one Saturday night last November, Mr. Jones sat down at his PC for a bit of spammer-flaming. First, he says, he visited a Web site, slashdot.org (www.slashdot.org2), that's a favorite among techies; he pulled down a list of about 10 alleged spammers. He programmed his personal computer to send a letter to each supposed spammer in the same way many spammers do: through so-called open relays and mail servers that forward e-mail in ways that make it hard to track down the sender. As his finishing stroke, he had his PC send the message to each spammer 10,000 times. "We use the same methods the spammers use," says Mr. Jones, chuckling. "It's a bombardment." Spam is out of control. It's the No. 1 complaint of most e-mail users. AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online unit, the No. 1 Internet service, says as much as 80% of incoming e-mail to its system is spam. Laws to regulate it have been proposed in Congress. Mass e-mailers don't consider turnabout fair play. Such bombardment can be devastating to their businesses. When Tom Tsilionis walked into his office in Newark, N.J., one morning last month, he too was greeted by the sound of ringing phones, 12 of them. "You're going to have some kind of day today," one of his frazzled receptionists told him. "Everything's down: E-mail's down; servers are down; the Web site's down." Mr. Tsilionis denies that he is a spammer. He runs Perfect Telecom, a telecom and Web-hosting company whose clients include bulk e-mailers. When he was attacked, he called his Greek data center in Athens. He got confirmation that all 184 server computers had stopped working, overwhelmed by roughly 15 million e-mail messages that had arrived all at once. Meanwhile, 30,000 complaints had been filed against Mr. Tsilionis's company with the telecommunications companies that provide his Internet access, leading them to cut off Mr. Tsilionis's access. His business stayed down for 10 days. "I thought in this country you're innocent until proven guilty," says Mr. Tsilionis. No one knows how many antispammers there are. Antispammers can't even agree on a common definition of spam. Many are like Mr. Jones, who works in solitude and says he has little idea who his fellows are and doesn't really care. He doesn't consider any of his tactics to be illegal. On the receiving end, Mr. Richter, 32, last month got in the mail five copies of Glamour that he hadn't subscribed to, followed by four copies of Cosmopolitan days later. Among the names to whom the periodicals were addressed: "I hate you," and "Die, spammer." It's easy for antispammers to sign up marketers under fake or real names for free trial subscriptions by going to Web sites such as bluedolphin.com (www.bluedolphin.com5). Publishers are willing to send the bills after subscriptions start. His assistant regularly cancels unsolicited subscriptions. Mr. Richter doesn't consider himself a spammer because he says he sends e-mail only to lists of people who have "opted in" by indicating to someone they have done business with that they are willing to receive e-mail promotions. After the telephone attack on Mr. Richter's office, Mr. Dye, the systems administrator, called the police to report the intrusion. Some marketers say they would love to take legal action against vigilantes, but it's hard to track them down. David Kramer, a Silicon Valley lawyer who has followed the spam issue, says many antispammer tactics are illegal. Crashing a data center by flooding it with traffic is certainly a form of trespassing and tampering with private property, he says. Some antispammers disavow the more-extreme tactics. These less-fanatical activists, sometimes disparaged in antispam circles as "quakers" or "spam apologists," advocate strictly legal approaches such as reporting spammers to service providers. Mark Ferguson, a 40-year-old Healdsburg, Calif., resident says he sticks to reporting spammers to Internet services and blacklists. But he acknowledges his fellow activists include people who use legally questionable methods. "We have some nut cases," he says. Clearly, a big attraction for some of the more extreme vigilantes is bragging rights. Karen Hoffmann, a 42-year-old computer systems analyst, attained fame among antispammers two years ago for documenting the real-estate properties of a bulk mailer named Thomas-Carlton Cowles, who lives in her hometown, Toledo, Ohio. She tracked down Internet addresses he had registered, visited the physical locations of each one. Then she took pictures of his house and buildings in which he had offices and put them on a Web site. Ms. Hoffmann says her objective was to dispel a myth that spammers aren't well-off. "It turns out this gentleman lives in a very expensive home," she says. Mr. Cowles, who heads an e-mail marketing company called Empire Towers Corp., declines to comment, says an Empire employee who asked not to be named, because he doesn't want to encourage Ms. Hoffmann. Privately, says the employee, Mr. Cowles calls her "my stalker." Ms. Hoffman denies stalking him. Write to Mylene Mangalindan at mylene.mangalindan@wsj.com7 URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105329334253835400,00.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As far as *I* am concerned, these vigilante folks are all heros who deserve rewards for their efforts. That is the kind of thing I used to do in the 'old days' (pre-brain desease days) and when spammers were actually few and far between. I do not know if anyone remembers or even cares anymore, but when SpamKing was a big name on the net (early 1990s) I was responsible for 'outing' him. Ditto for that other guy about the same time; the fellow who acted as a female impersonator hawking magazine subscriptions over the net. In this latter case, someone sent me his driver's record from the State of New York and I published it here. I mean, ten or twelve years ago we thought that spam was *bad news* and I was pleased to do my part to help stamp it out, even at some risk to myself. That's how we were in those days on the net. Each of us did what we could. SpamKing was my little contribution to the effort. Now, I can do very little it seems. My brain desease has largely forced me to just sit on the sidelines and cheer for *my* team, the guys who continue to fight spam however they can. God speed to all these guys who, IMO can do no wrong. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Marcus Jervis Subject: WSJ on Stoopid Spammer Tricks Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 20:36:49 +0000 (This is from the May 5 Wall Street Journal) STUPID SPAMMER TRICKS: Our original idea for this item was to offer the "Seven Deadly Sins of Spammers" as a follow-up to our earlier takes on e-mail abusers and instant-messaging missteps. Those earlier items focused on irritating things done by Internet users out of carelessness, ignorance or because the technology's so new that the etiquette is unclear. But by its very nature, spam is rude and irritating. After we agreed spammers' First Deadly Sin was existence, #2 through #7 seemed underwhelming. So much for that. But we remain fascinated by the ebbs and flows of the endless tide of spam that washes up in our e-mail boxes. The weird stuff cast up on the beach winds up in Spam of the Week, but what about the strange eddies that deposit that stuff there? Here's some of the particularly annoying, entertaining and just plain baffling things we've seen drifting along in the spam currents of late. The "Fell on My Keyboard" Effect: At the end of spam subject lines you'll often find a random assemblage of letters that makes it look the sender face-planted at his or her terminal. "Pounds Melt Away with HGH k forktolewl" "Merida, Xanax, Valium - No Physical Exam Needed jajesvgcw c" "ebay insiders club. hundkysga" And so forth. Those random letters are there to foil spam filters employed by servers -- if thousands of messages arrive with the same subject line, Internet-service providers know they can be discarded as spam. Those random letters are automatically generated for each subject line, and fool the filters into seeing each message as unique. (A variant of this trick is used to append characters to the fictitious return e-mail addresses that underlie spammers' fictitious names, which is why you can mark a message as spam one day and get the same message from the same "person" the next day.) What baffles us is that this trick works great for fooling software, but not for fooling actual people: Even if the idea of losing weight by gobbling down human growth hormone doesn't make us hit "Delete," we're not going to puzzle over what a "forktolewl" is. So why bother? We suppose the answer is one or both of the following: A) It just takes one moron out of tens of thousands to make the spam worthwhile; or B) spammers get their money for delivery, not for results. Either way, it strikes us as silly. Misery and Company: It's fairly common to wind up on a group spam with lots of work or school colleagues whose e-mail addresses share the same domain name, and sometimes that can result in a certain odd spam-as-community effect: "Gosh, the CEO and I are both being invited to Fire your boss -- Work for just 5 hours a week!" But a strange thing we've noticed recently is that more and more such messages have Subject lines and/or message bodies addressed to just one person from the group. This can lead to some horse laughs when a spam suggests to all that one poor person needs something, um, enhanced. But what's really weird is the complete randomness of the targeting. In our office we see a lot of e-mails aimed at one guy in our graphics department and an administrative assistant who hasn't worked here in years. What gives? What I Meant to Say Was: Diversify, diversify, diversify. Good for investors, good for spammers. But it's entertaining when hard-working spammers get their wires crossed and you get e-mails with the From line "Mortgage Rates Too High" and the Subject line "Hot young girls want to meet you" -- or vice versa. Hey, if you were a spammer, one day it would happen to you too. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: We do have one good thing to say about spam -- keeping up with what's trendy seems like excellent preparation for dealing with the mysteries of teenagers. Before Christmas it seemed like every other spam was for those little radio-controlled cars. In January it was toy hovercrafts. A month ago, Italian charm bracelets. Two weeks ago we were drowning in variants of the "most wanted Iraqis" decks of cards. On Thursday morning Jace got three different chances to get a free hamburger. What will it be come Memorial Day? Who can even guess? Spammed, But Why?: Then there are those spammers we simply can't figure out. Why did a relatively straightforward porn spam about cheerleaders' proclivities begin like this: "Hildfleda filled our cups again, and excused herself to her kitchen yard, leaving the three of us a He did not speak again"? And in perhaps the biggest spam mystery so far, why did someone send both Tim and Jace the first chapter of Gen. Louis Jules Trochu's "The French Army in 1867," complete with footnotes, but with no apparent offer attached? If anybody can enlighten us about these two, we'd be grateful. That's our collection of spam annoyances and mysteries. Now, what about yours? What bizarre spam trends have you seen? Got a spam mystery of your own -- or an answer to one of ours? Write to us at realtime@wsj.com, and we'll post them this Thursday. If you want to share your thoughts but don't want your letter published, please make that clear. Write to Tim Hanrahan and Jason Fry at realtime@wsj.com ------------------------------ From: 6212hgk@newsguy.com (Please invert everything left of the @ to reply) Subject: Re: From the Archives: The Alascom Story Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 18:15:32 GMT On Sat, 17 May 2003 10:00:00 CDT, TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > For your reading this weekend, I offer an item from the Telecom > Archives, 'The Alascom Story' which appeared eleven years ago. > "In June, 1979, RCA Alascom was purchased by Pacific Power and > Light Company (now PacifiCorp) of Portland, Oregon. The purchase > price was $200 million cash and taking over $90 million of Alascom's > long term debt. Alascom has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of AT&T Corporation since at least 1997. Don't know if divestiture was required when Scottish Power bought Pacificorp, or if AT&T was just collecting companies as usual. Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT. ------------------------------ From: no.email.address.entered@none444.yet Subject: Automated Emailing? Schedule Reminders NO NOT SPAM :) Reply-To: darnellbarber@yahoo.com Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 18:30:11 GMT ****Please respond at darnellbarber@yahoo.com****** I unfortunately don't have a chance to visit this board as often as I should. Hello everyone, I've recently been asked to take on a challenge for many communities in my area, approximately 20 altogether. All have different appointments, agendas, schedulings etc ... And I'd like to be able to send automated emails/cellphone alerts/reminders to individuals in all particular groups once a scheduled event as arrived. If this goes according to plan it will grow from there. Each community should have around 1,000 recipients. So, basically there will be 20 different calendars and roughly 20,000 people that I will have to update on "their particular" communitties events daily. Is there a service that will help in this endeavor or does anyone suggest we invest in our own server. Would our own server have a solution to this problem. Thanks in advance, Darnell Barber ------------------------------ From: res0644m@gte.net (JohnM) Subject: Re: Beware of CameraWare - An FBI Sting! Date: 19 May 2003 12:28:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ John Higdon wrote in message news:: > In article , TELECOM Digest Editor > wrote: >> When the two FBI guys came to my door earlier today, they asked if >> they could look at my computer, and I volunteered to let them see >> the whole thing. They found nothing, and went away with their usual >> bluster about 'how we do not believe you' and 'we are going to keep >> our eyes on you' etc. > FBI showed up at your place and you let them in? Without a warrant (or > did I miss that part)? AND you showed them your private business on > your computer (again, without a warrant)? > ANY law enforcement that shows up at my house, for whatever reason, is > entertained on the doorstep, with the front door closed. If they have > probable cause, they'll have a warrant in hand. I'm not going to give > them a chance to go shopping ... for anything! > Trust me: if an FBI agent showed up unannounced at my door sans > warrant and asked to look at anything I own, the answer would be a > polite, but firm "no". > John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS > +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, I know, and that is good practice > in many cases, but as the lady who operates the Montgomery County Jail > for our sheriff said to me once, 'no one likes an asshole'. I *could* > have asked for that, and yes, they would have gone to get one. Actually, > what officers generally do when those obstacles are presented to them > is one of them gets on the radio and asks an officer at the station > to 'please go see the Judge and get me a search warrant on (name of > case or defendant). Five or ten minutes, or maybe an hour later, the > warrant would have arrived. It might have delayed their ultimate > purpose (a raid on my premises) by several minutes, but it would have > happened anyway. Your being obstinate simply makes them even more so. > Anyway, I *knew* there was nothing around for them (the two FBI guys > were on a kiddie porn hunt which is part of the FBI sting thing that > CameraWare is set up [by them] for) so I figured let them come in and > have their fun. > And if you *did* have something around they wanted, and thought by > stalling them for time requiring a warrant you would have the time to > destroy or secrete somewhere whatever it was they wanted, you should > know that while they are standing there tapping their toes, waiting > for a warrant to arrive (in a few minutes), their very observant eyes > and ears would be working overtime. And you know, if a police officer > **very sincerely believes** that evidence is being disposed of, he can > go in anyway, and explain it to the judge later on, and usually be > forgiven for it. In other words, by the time police come to your door, > warrant or no warrant, it is generally too late for you anyway. I am > too much of a civil libertarian to go along with the idea 'if you have > nothing to hide, then why keep them out.' But I am a pragmatist and I > know that regardless of what the constitution requires, the adminis- > tration has 'work arounds' at their fingertips. Remember, no one likes > an asshole. Sometimes winning a battle now and then causes you to lose > the whole war. PAT] A couple of good reasons (I think, at least) to make them get a warrant: - a warrant permits them to search for specific items, not just anything in general that might catch their eye. Only those items specified in the warrant may be seized. - it forces them to document the matter and leave a paper trail that can be followed later, if needed. JM ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Leave Me Alone! / With Junk E-Mail Out of Control Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 22:28:06 GMT In article , monty@roscom.com says: > With junk e-mail out of control, Internet experts want to redesign > the whole system > By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff, 5/18/2003 > You think the dozen or two spam e-mails you delete every day are a lot? > That's nothing to Paul Judge, chief technology officer of CipherTrust, > an Alpharetta, Ga., company that sells e-mail filtering technology to > dozens of major US firms. Armed with his software, Judge's customers > discard billions of unwanted e-mail messages every day. > Yet it's not enough. Spam is out of control. The flood of pornographic > ads, financial scams, and other junk e-mail is rising at a rate of 15 > percent a month. Around half of all Internet mail sent this year will > be unwanted advertisements, according to Brightmail Inc., a California > e-mail filtering company. Cleaning this rubbish out of corporate > mailboxes will cost American businesses $10 billion this year in lost > productivity and extra computer expense, according to Ferris Research, > an e-mail technology research firm in California. > People frequently ignore important e-mails in their inboxes because > they're surrounded by so much spam. Filtering devices meant to keep > spam away sometimes toss out good messages along with the bad. > Reminiscent of the early days of fax machines, people sending > important e-mails now follow up with a phone call to make sure the > e-mail got through. > ''Spam is putting the Internet in jeopardy,'' said Phillip > Hallam-Baker, principal scientist for the computer security firm > Verisign Inc. > To avoid e-mail obsolescence, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the > global group that sets Internet standards, tapped Judge and other > e-mail experts to overhaul e-mail and come up with effective spam > blocking techniques. The first meeting of this new working group, held > in March, featured presentations from technical gurus, civil > libertarians, and representatives of Internet advertising companies > spooked by the rise of junk e-mail. > Instead of fighting spam piecemeal, they want to redesign the globe's > entire e-mail system. Until recently, such an overhaul would have > seemed too radical to contemplate. Not anymore. ''We have the > attention of the Internet community in a way we've never had before,'' > Judge said. > http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/138/business/Leave_me_alone_+.shtml I sent the link to the other members of the technical committee of the Ocean State Free-Net with these comments: Of all the methods presented -- they all reek of blatant commercialism trying to capitalize on the misery of those of us who receive such volumes of unsolicited email. The only one I like is the reverse MX lookup. But with that should be a requirement codified in federal law that makes spammers use legitimate email and toll-free contact numbers for removal. In addition, an ADV header would be a good thing to include. There should also be a civil remedy included (Hell, it's a tort issue now.) and a criminal penalty. I think jail time would be a good deterrent. Other than that, most of the open relays in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia have been closed. It's the $*#(*&$# Chinese and Korean relays that move most of the spam through the world. So you know what, why not just torpedo their net connections until they can learn to play nicely? I'm pretty sure the Chinese government wouldn't mind the net being cut off from the rest of the world. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here is a good one for you. About a week ago now, I switched to cable internet through our local cableco, a company named CableOne. They are a small outfit by comparison to SBC Global, the 'other' provider here in Independence, with their DSL service. I have been mostly running in parallel the past several days, to make certain cable internet will work as well or better than DSL. I have to have service here. Well, I have yet to get a *single* piece of spam via CableOne. Not a single bit. Yet ... on the remains of the DSL line, I use the pop server of Outlook Express to still go collect mail sent through SBC Global, and the spam continues to pour in there in huge quantities each day. 40 or 50 pieces of spam each day is not out of the question at all via SBC Global. And as usual, SBC's attitude is to do nothing. They won't even build separate mailboxes to put it in. Just dump it all over the main account. Much of it is not even bounce- able. Just keep zapping it and moving along. Often times you cannot even get it all cleared out before more arrives. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: General Tells How Cell Phone Foiled U. S. Attack in Iraq Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 22:35:59 GMT In article , mchance@swbell.net says: > Rowan Scarborough > THE WASHINGTON TIMES > The Army's only retreat in the lightning-fast war to oust > Saddam Hussein came after an Iraqi general in the town of Najaf > cell-phoned ahead to his troops that a regiment of Apache attack > helicopters was on the way. > http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030508-11542690.htm > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It would seem while the USA was busily > blowing up telephone exchanges in Iraq, they must have overlooked one > of the exchanges for cell phones. PAT] Kind of interesting that they didn't. Those cell towers sing at a very easily trackable frequency. Wouldn't be all that hard to send a bomb right into the towers. But I think we realized the value of wireless comms in this instance. Had they used the wired telephone network it would have been difficult to tap. But wireless -- boys and girls, while we don't have the power to easily tap into GSM and the like, I can assure you that the Fed and military have the capability. ------------------------------ From: Mike Hartley Subject: Re: MCI Gets Iraq Rebuild Contract Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 18:38:43 +0100 > "MCI, the telecommunications firm formerly known as WorldCom > Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection last year after > disclosing a massive accounting scandal (US $11 billion), has > been awarded a $45 million contract to build Iraq's mobile > GSM phone network, reported the Wall Street Journal (May 15). > ""We are very pleased by this news, as we have been working > with the US Government and MCI to provide GSM, and ensure > that Iraq had the right technology for its people, compatible > with the rest of the region and the world," said Rob Conway, > CEO of the GSM Association in a statement. I'm sure congressman Issa is somewhat less escatic now that sanity appears to be prevailing. Ha ha. Mike ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #463 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 20 18:31:57 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4KMVvC17535; Tue, 20 May 2003 18:31:57 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 18:31:57 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305202231.h4KMVvC17535@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #464 TELECOM Digest Tue, 20 May 2003 18:31:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 464 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson SBC Network Prepared to Handle Millions of Calls for Americans (Solomon) Internet Worm Disguised as E-Mail From Microsoft (Monty Solomon) Motorola Showcases Digital TV and Broadband Solutions (Monty Solomon) Motorola Sensor Helps Alert Drivers and Improve Tire Safety (M Solomon) DoCoMo to Offer Overseas Roaming for 3G Users (Monty Solomon) Harris Interactive Poll Reveals Hottest Home Technology Trends (Solomon) Sony to Launch 'Charlie's Angels' Game Online (Monty Solomon) Sony Online Entertainment Ships PlanetSide(TM) (Monty Solomon) Agere Systems Announces Integrated GPRS Hardware; Software (M Solomon) Automatic Harvesting of AOL Instant Messenger Screen Names! (M Solomon) WorldCom Pays And Lives to Tell About It (Eric Friedebach) Re: E-911, was: Re: My New Vonage Account (Tom Austin) Re: TidBITS Editors Warn That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored (R. Bonomi) Re: MCI Gets Iraq Rebuild Contract (Steven J. Sobol) Re: Web Vigilantes Give Spammers Big Dose of Own Medicine (Al Iverson) Re: UNE Platform CLECs (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Automated Emailing? Schedule Reminders NO NOT SPAM :) (John Levine) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 22:58:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: SBC Network Prepared to Handle Millions of Calls SBC Network Prepared to Handle Millions of Calls for American Idol Fans; SBC Reports a 63% Increase in California Calls Handled by Its Network after Last Week's Semi-Final Round - May 19, 2003 01:20 PM (BusinessWire) SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 19, 2003--Last Tuesday, the SBC (NYSE:SBC) telecommunications network processed close to 41.3 million phone calls in a span of just two hours by the company's California and Northern Nevada customers -- many of whom were participating in the semi-finals voting for Fox's hit reality TV show, American Idol. On a typical weekday evening, about 25.3 million calls are placed in those same two hours -- from 9 to 11 p.m. The bottom line: SBC customers in California and Northern Nevada placed an additional 16 million calls during the voting period for American Idol. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34252426 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 23:07:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Internet Worm Disguised as E-Mail From Microsoft SAN FRANCISCO, May 19 (Reuters) - A new computer worm that disguises itself as an e-mail from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is spreading, computer security firms warned on Monday. The e-mail containing the worm, dubbed Palyh or Mankx, appears to come from support@microsoft.com, but is not from the software company. When the attachment is opened, the worm copies itself to the Windows folder, scoops up e-mail addresses from the hard disk and starts sending itself out, said U.K-based Sophos. The malicious program can spread itself to other Windows machines on a local area network, anti-virus vendors said. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34253416 - http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sobig.b@mm.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 22:09:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola Showcases Digital TV and Broadband Solutions for Motorola Showcases Digital TV and Broadband Solutions for European Operators At Mediacast 2003 Motorola's digital set-top and networking solutions enable operators to expand their services for the home and office LONDON, May 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) Broadband Communications Sector, the world's leading supplier of cable modems and digital cable set-tops, will demonstrate a variety of digital TV and broadband solutions at Mediacast 2003, held at ExCel, in London, May 20-22, 2003. The display will include the European preview of Motorola's personal video recording (PVR) technology. Motorola is demonstrating products that highlight the company's unique leadership in designing and deploying end-to-end cable systems -- from infrastructure to consumer premise equipment. These devices are designed to further leverage an operator's existing network while providing consumers with video entertainment options and new ways to extend their high-speed connections. Recently announced in North America, the Motorola DCT6000 family of set-tops are examples of devices that enable operators to deliver compelling, high-interest services such as PVR, high-definition television (HDTV), and other processing-intensive applications, to their cable customers. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34244640 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 22:13:54 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola Sensor Helps Alert Drivers and Improve Tire Safety Device Helps Automotive Manufacturers Meet Driver Safety Demands and Government Regulation PHOENIX, May 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The new MPXY8020A pressure sensor from Motorola, Inc.'s (NYSE:MOT) Semiconductor Products Sector has the potential to help reduce blowouts, extend tire life and improve gas mileage. The MPXY8020A helps drivers maintain proper tire pressure by notifying them when tire pressure is not at the optimal pressure level. Proper tire inflation decreases tread wear (prolonging tire life) and improves gas mileage. When a tire is under-inflated, the surface area that contacts the road increases and causes more friction. This increases tread wear and potentially increases the amount of gasoline used. The MPXY8020A represents a significant step in Motorola's tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) strategy. The sensor is available with microcontrollers and a radio frequency (RF) communication device, offering a comprehensive Motorola chipset for automotive engineers and helping automotive manufacturers address safety demands that have emerged in recent years. Government agencies, advocacy groups, technology consortia, electronics vendors and automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have joined a global movement to increase automobile occupant safety. In the United States, for example, Congress passed the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) Act of 2000, which mandated that automotive manufacturers install tire pressure monitoring systems within a three-year window from Nov. 1, 2003 to Oct. 31, 2006. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34245227 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 22:15:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DoCoMo to Offer Overseas Roaming for 3G Users TOKYO, May 19 (Reuters) - NTT DoCoMo Inc (TOKYO:9437) said on Monday it would launch an international roaming service for users of its third-generation (3G) mobile phone service in June to boost demand among business users and other frequent travellers. Under the new system, users of DoCoMo's 3G service, dubbed FOMA, would remove subscriber identity module (SIM) cards from FOMA cellphones and put them in handsets that work on a global system for mobile communications (GSM) networks. They would then take the GSM handsets overseas to make and take calls using their original phone numbers. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34245320 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 22:20:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Harris Interactive Poll Reveals Hottest Home Technology Trends: Americans Turn to the Computer for Home Entertainment Computer Edges Out Traditional Entertainment Devices in Overall Importance REDMOND, Wash., May 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The focal point of home entertainment is changing as the computer edges out traditional consumer electronic devices in overall importance, according to the results of a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive Inc. for Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT). The survey, which polled more than 2,000 computer users ages 13 years and older, revealed that the computer is redefining how people entertain themselves in the home. Almost half of those surveyed said their computer is more important than their television (43 percent), while nearly two-thirds said their computer outranks their CD player (63 percent), stereo (61 percent) or DVD player (59 percent). - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34247725 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 23:10:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sony to Launch 'Charlie's Angels' Game Online LOS ANGELES, May 19 (Reuters) - "Charlie's Angels," the 1970s TV show that spurred a blockbuster movie and now a sequel is coming back yet again -- as a video game. Sony Corp.'s (TOKYO:6758) movie division on Monday said would release an online video game based on "Charlie's Angels" to coincide with the new "Angels" movie which it is also releasing. The double-barreled release comes as Hollywood and the games industry increasingly look to cross-promote their offerings on the view that the hype over a game can help boost the fortunes of a new movie, and vice versa. Sony Pictures Digital Networks said "Charlie's Angels: Angel X" would be released in June to tie in with the June 27 theatrical debut of "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle." - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34253501 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 23:13:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sony Online Entertainment Ships PlanetSide(TM) the World's First Sony Online Entertainment Ships PlanetSide(TM) the World's First Massively Multiplayer Online First-Person Action Game First Planned Post-Launch Features Announced, Includes New Vehicles and Game Options SAN DIEGO, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online gaming, announced that its highly-anticipated massively multiplayer online first-person action game, PlanetSide(TM), has shipped to U.S. and Canadian retail stores. The groundbreaking game allows thousands of players to fight online in an all- hours-of-day global war that has never been seen before in the first-person action genre. The company also announced its first planned post-launch additional features including several new vehicles and game options. PlanetSide has a suggested retail price of $49.99, and includes a 30-day subscription to the game. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34254848 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 23:21:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Agere Systems Announces Integrated GPRS Hardware and Software Agere Systems Announces Integrated GPRS Hardware and Software Package for Data and Multimedia-Enhanced Mobile Phone Designs Chip Design Combines Baseband, Mixed Signal and Power Management Functions in One-Third Less Space Than Previous-Generation GPRS Solutions ALLENTOWN, Pa., April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR.A, AGR.B) today announced a new General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) hardware and software solution for developing feature-packed mobile phone designs. This complete GPRS package offers a new integrated chip design, enhanced audio performance, outstanding software and protocol stack processing, as well as the design and manufacturing flexibility handset makers need to successfully deliver the latest multimedia and data features, such as digital photo imaging, multimedia messaging service, high-speed web browsing, high-resolution color displays and Java-based gaming. Agere's Sceptre(TM) TC GPRS solution combines baseband, mixed signal functions as well as a unique CMOS-based power management implementation in one-third less space than previous generation Agere chip sets. This hardware and software platform offers the highest performance category supported by operators, leading interoperability testing, and is software qualified to the most recently published Global Certification Forum (GCF) performance specification. Agere supplies the complete core GPRS capabilities needed to get wireless handset customers to market quickly. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33899386 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 01:01:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Automatic Harvesting of AOL Instant Messenger Screen Names! Date: 16 May 2003 20:45:50 -0000 From: To: bugtraq@securityfocus.com Subject: Automatic Harvesting of AOL Instant Messenger Screen Names! http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/321830 ------------------------------ From: Eric Friedebach Subject: WorldCom Pays And Lives to Tell About It Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 08:39:40 -0500 Organization: Purity Of Essence/Plant Operational Error Reply-To: Eric Friedebach Dan Ackman, 05.20.03, Forbes.com NEW YORK - WorldCom, the bankrupt company that is still the nation's second-largest long-distance telecommunications carrier, agreed yesterday to settle massive accounting fraud charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by making a post-bankruptcy payment of $500 million, with most of that money slated to go to investors in company shares. The company had, by its own account, overstated the income it reported on its financial statements by approximately $9 billion over several years, which kept its share price relatively healthy for a while, even as the telecom sector tumbled from dizzying heights. By the time the company disclosed the fraud in late June 2002, its longtime chief executive, Bernard Ebbers, had been fired and its shares were trading for about $1. Under the settlement, WorldCom neither admits nor denies the charges -- though it admitted the substance of them some time ago. The settlement actually calls for a $1.5 billion fine, but the amount would be reduced to $500 million and paid after the company emerges from bankruptcy. The money will be paid ultimately to investors, whose claims would normally be wiped out in bankruptcy. http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/20/cx_da_0520topnews.html Eric Friedebach ------------------------------ From: tom.austin@usa.xerox.com (Tom Austin) Subject: Re: E-911, was: Re: My New Vonage Account Date: 20 May 2003 06:59:56 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ joe@obilivan.net wrote in message news:... > Danny Burstein wrote: >> The techies among us who'll be carrying the Vonage box around and >> plugging it into the nearest wideband connection are just going to >> have to dig out those stone knives and bearskins. >> Life is hard. Tough. Live with it. > What are the odds that one of us techies carries our Vonage box to the > "nearest" broadband connection and end up at a location without a POTS > line handy? I would say "close to zero." > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I agree. I think that most guys who are > getting the Vonage system understand it to be first and foremost a way > to eliminate outrageous telco long distance charges and only in second > or third place is the ability to use it for emergency (as in police/fire > department) dialing. And since Vonage is in the process of adding > their customers to the appropriate public safety database which should > apply in the vast majority of cases when emergencies occur, I cannot > see what the problem is. PAT] The main problem that I see with this type of service is what are you going to do when the electric and your battery back up die? At least with a telco it provides its own power. (Unless you have all cordless fones in which case all bets are off.) Another question. Can you string extensions off of the phone end of the Cisco box? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I dunno what you are going to do in the unlikely event the electricity and the battery backup are both gone. What do you do when the US Government bombs your telephone exchange or a tornado blows it over or it catches fire. Those three choices are equally unlikely, are they not, but they have all happened in recent memory. You neglected to include the possibility that when your elec- tricity and battery are gone, your gas powered generator stops working because you ran out of gas for it or the wind quits blowing for your windmill generator or the solar power generator quits working. I guess no matter how prepared you wish to be, there will always be something to stop you. What about the people who use cellular phones almost exclusively for communications? What happens to them when their power goes off and the battery pack on the phone goes dead? You can attach any kind of wired telephone you wish on the back side of a Cisco ATA-186 box; i.e. in addition to a 'regular phone' you can have a wireless base for a wireless phone; you can have a 'Y' connector to service another extension; you can even attach the trunk side of a small PBX back there; that is, when any extension dials '9' (or whatever is used for an outside line) the little PBX will switch in the Cisco ATA box and present dial tone to the user. One thing you cannot do, very successfully, is have two calls going in or out at the same time. There is a provision to do that (two ports on the back of the Cisco) and you can do 'three way calling' (although Vonage does not advertise it) with a hook-flash. There just is not enough bandwidth to make two acceptable connections. As long as you flash *just once* you can have a consult with a third number, but after that consult is set up, a second flash really makes for a lousy connection on the two outsiders and yourself. You need a *really wide* pipe -- a very heavy duty internet connection, to be able to handle two calls at once, i.e. two 'trunk lines' on a PBX. Most users would not be able to get *that much* internet piping at one time. Overall, I think Vonage is quite sufficient for most guys, however, as long as you only need ONE connection open at a time. Two or three extensions off hook at the same time is okay. On that you are only limited by the available RENs on the local part of the line. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: TidBITS Editors Warn Readers That Antispam C-Rs Will be Ignored Organization: Not Much From: bonomi@c-ns (Robert Bonomi) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 07:32:20 GMT In article , > White lists can use wild cards can't they? So couldn't you say > something like 'accept all mail from *@telecom-digest.org' or 'accept > mail from *@massis.lcs.mit.edu'? The white list should only have > what is needed in the acceptable address lines to uniquely qualify > what you want to receive. Maybe I will supply all users here with an > address of the form 'yourname@telecom-digest.org' **only for use when > writing to me**. > Why is it so many of the most vocal opponents of spam are also the > most pessimistic? Any suggestions made, any plans laid out, none of > them will ever work for whatever reasons. Listen up: no *one single > plan or idea* will ever fit all occassions. Most plans and ideas on > the other hand will each take a nip out of the spam traffic. You have > to do what you can, little by little. That's why C-R is one of the > better plans I have heard of. And here's what happens if *everybody* starts using C-R: A attempts to send B a message. B is using a C-R system, so the message gets quarantined, while C (the C-R agent for B) sends the challenge to A. A is using a C-R system, so the message gets quarantined, while D (the C-R agent for A) sends the challenge to C. C sees a 'new' address, that of D, and generates a challenge to D. D sees a 'new' address, that of C, and generates a challenge to C. C, being an automatic system, *cannot* respond to the "prove you're a person" from D. If it's "aggressive", it notes multiple messages from D, *without* the 'human' response, and blocks it as a spammer. If it's *stupid* programming, it generats _yet_another_ challenge to D. And you have an 'infinite loop' that results in *both* systems crashing. Communication _totally_ fails. In addition, when somebody on USENET posts a request for information/help, and then expects me to JUMP THROUGH HOOPS to _help_them_..... Well, I can't be bothered. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ahhhh ... communication _totally_ fails, does it? :( You could have summarized everything above that line by using the age-old illustration of *my* autoreply daemon getting into a battle with *your* autoreply daemon. You obviously did not review, or did not note closely the script I ran here recently which explained how to handle that. My autoreply daemon (which is sort of like C-R) has a unique word in its subject line. When it sees that word in the subject (meaning *very likely* it is responding to itself, but not in every case) then the autoack steps out of the way and lets the message past, for further examination by the filter rules. I seriously doubt that communication will _totally_ fail by people using C-R. Email traffic might get reduced by oh, let's say 40-50 percent or so (or roughly the amount of traffic that is spam) as a result. And frankly, I do not think anyone at all reasonable expects *you* to 'jump through hoops' or go out of your way to help them. It would be great if you wanted to work along with other guys on the net and until if/when a complete rebuild of email software is completed (which I have heard is underway) during this crisis we have on the net of email spam. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steven J. Sobol Subject: Re: MCI Gets Iraq Rebuild Contract Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 00:39:34 -0000 Organization: JustThe.net LLC From Mike Hartley (mike.hartley@ntlworld.com): >> ""We are very pleased by this news, as we have been working >> with the US Government and MCI to provide GSM, and ensure >> that Iraq had the right technology for its people, compatible >> with the rest of the region and the world," said Rob Conway, >> CEO of the GSM Association in a statement. > I'm sure congressman Issa is omewhat less escatic now that sanity > appears to be prevailing. There is some irony in the fact that the company chosen has ever owned and operated a wireless phone network, at least not in the US. Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge, JustThe.net POTS: Toll Free from anywhere in the USA or Canada, 888.480.4NET (4638) HTTP: www.JustTheNetLLC.com MAIL: 5686 Davis Drive, Mentor on the Lake, OH 44060-2752 ------------------------------ From: Al Iverson Subject: Re: Web Vigilantes Give Spammers Big Dose of Their Own Medicine Organization: Radparker & Associates Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 21:15:32 -0500 Patrick Townson wrote: > Now, I can do very little it seems. My brain desease has largely > forced me to just sit on the sidelines and cheer for *my* team, the > guys who continue to fight spam however they can. God speed to all > these guys who, IMO can do no wrong. PAT] Pat, Compare for a moment. If law enforcement was allowed to do "anything they can" to stop crime, you'd be in jail, the hospital, or the morgue, for your webcam antics, or past prior acts. Are you sure that "they can do no wrong" is the right way to go? I'm not. Al Iverson -- http://www.spamresource.com Disclaimer: All of my opinions are mine alone. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But we are not talking about law enforcement people; we are talking about guys trying to protect the net from spammers. Where does law enforcement fit into that? The government does not give an iota about spam on the net; I mean, they do not officially approve of it but if they really were against it and the fake names/addresses used there would have been laws against it by now, just as there are laws against tampering with the computers of large corporations and the government, which are equally (compared to spam) as destructive. I really feel the government's attitude on spam is, the more the merrier. If it can get to the point that most guys get so disgusted they put their computers on a shelf in the closet to gather dust along with their citizen band radios, then things will return to the point they were at in the 1970-1980's period, when only large corporations and the government had computers. How cozy that will be! And of course there are plenty of laws already on the books to protect *those people* against destruction of their systems. Effectively, they got radios out of the hands of people by turning their backs on the abusers of same, now if they turn their back (or pass some diddly lip service law to placate people) on spam until email/news is abused so badly no one wants to bother with it any longer, they'll have effectively taken away another way for citizens to communicate. Are you aware of how bad the CB radio version of 'spam' had gotten by 1980 as people began ditching the medium entirely in favor of the newer 'fool proof' CB-Simulator thing that Compuserve was offering? All I know is I support community efforts to block unwanted email from getting through using a variety of legal techniques such as actually calling their 800 numbers to inquire about their worthless products and useless services, and doing a better job of making spammers known throughout the community; a better job than any of them do on their own without a little bit of prodding. All I know is that where twenty, or even ten, or possibly five years ago, the net used to be a worthwhile and very *fun* part of my life, lately it has become so spam-ridden (50-60 pieces per day in my personal email; another 10- 20 per day in the Digest mailbox) that it just isn't *fun* any longer. And my 'web cam antics'? What did you mean by that? That I maintain my http://friends-of-independence.n3.net weather cam focused on the alley behind my house or were you more interested in the fact that I got my own revenge on CameraWare (that bunch of sneaks who forward their stuff to FBI) by focusing a little Logitech camera on a sign which says 'CameraWare is an FBI sting, beware!' and leaving it 24 hours per day on a ttinet.com server so that all the other folks who frolic around on there can see *my* image (!). I did not even run it on my licensed copy of CameraWare ... I downloaded a 'trial' copy of the video sender and used that instead. If they want to track me down through my dynamic IP address, then let them. Or maybe I broadcast a slide show of the kind they would approve, with my warning message about CameraWare.com parked on the screen also. That 'antic' draws in a few thousand viewers each night. Is that what you were talking about? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 22:39:41 -0400 From: Fred R. Goldstein Subject: Re: UNE Platform CLECs On Fri, 16 May 2003 18:21:12 UTC, dold@UNEXPlatfo.usenet.us.com wrote, > Fred, you covered the UNE-P bases very well technically. > But you left out the snide remarks that I am forced to put in. Following up as Pat asked ... Clarence, I held my words on the snide remarks, but I understand your frustration. UNE-P makes it easy to say you're a CLEC, compared to CLECs who use real live non-ILEC facilities of any sort. > CLECs invested way too much capital in starting their facilities > based offerings. The benefit was to be down the road somewhere. > Magically, just as the CLEC picture stabilized, and there was some > hope of seeing ROI, UNE-P pops up. Well, I don't see all that much conflict -- the ILECs still have the lions' share, so CLECs are still competing more with the ILECs than each other. My unoriginal motto here -- CLECs must hang together, or they'll hang separately. > It is not only so much better than resale that it virtually forces > resellers to convert, it makes owning facilites equipment stupid. In > areas where facilities already exist, it is cheaper to UNE-P. So, now > there is a bunch of not-yet-amortized equipment that the CLECs wish > they didn't have their money tied up in. There is new opportunity for > startups with no capital to become full fledged "carriers", selling > whatever UNE-P offers. All they need are two salesman and a billing > program or outsource. Indeed, many UNE-P CLECs start up that way -- what, after all, is Prairie Stream? And there are many more like them. Now if they're just taking away margins from incumbents, they're not hurting other CLECs. One problem is that the "Class of 97" CLECs spent money like crazy, just wanted to "party like it's 1999", and put in facilities that shouldn't be there. In 1998, I examined one major city (on behalf of a potential competitor) and discovered that five companies had been pulling fiber around many of the same streets and suburban industrial parks. So even that early on, there was no need to pull new glass. And need I mention how expensive CLEC CO switches were in 1997, when you basically had your choice of a 5ESS or DMS-500? Today's CLEC switches are much, much cheaper, both to buy and operate. > Who does it benefit? Brand new startups that SBC can make fun of in > the series of ads about nothing but suits working for the company, as > they crash around trying to drive cherry pickers and argue who's going > to go down a flooded manhole. To some extent true. But note that SBC et al are not exactly friendly to UNE loop CLECs, who own their own switches and/or DSLAMs and just rent the retail copper loops. As I've said many times here and elsewhere, there is, in economic terms, a "natural monopoly" on most loop plant, so the best way to have the benefits of competition is to structurally separate the outside plant (loops, etc., including the buildings needed to access them) from the ILEC service companies (and their switches). Right now, perversely, the mechanics of using a loop are much, much harder for a real facilties-based CLEC than for a UNE-P reseller. > No, I said that wrong. It benefits the bohemoth. Because as soon as > the CLECs convert to UNE-P, they will offer some good deal to the > facilities based carriers, so that they can tell the PUC what > wonderful rates they are offering to the competition. > That competition will be made up of sharks who scavenged the > facilities at the bankruptcy sales of the original CLECs, and will > themselves be driven out of business the next time the ILECs move the > slippery rock in the stream of competition. The Class of 97 publicly-traded CLECs are all, for the most part, bankrupt, but there are many (mostly newer) privately-held CLECs who are doing better. They make up most of my clientele. And we do enjoy buying pre-owned (not always pre-used) gear cheaply off of eBay and elsewhere. That's a natural phase in an industry's evolution -- early players often tank, leaving assets behind at discounted prices that enable new competitors to prosper. When I plug today's equipment prices into my UNE-Loop CLEC financial model, the rates of return are much nicer than they were with the prices of two years ago, when you had to buy most stuff new. Nonetheless, there remain advantages to starting out with a little UNE-P, if it is used as a way to gather a critical mass of customers. I would not like that aspect of UNE-P to go away. Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I shared the messages to date from Fred and Clarence Dold with the guys at TerraWorld (our local ISP who does Prairie Stream). I got a few answers to toss out in the event anyone wants to answer them: 1: UNE-P is *not* a new concept which magically showed up a year or two ago. It has been around since the telreg act, and was thought about before then. Sage is another UNE-P but unlike Prairie Stream it does not go into very small rural towns. Sage is willing to do business in Topeka or Wichita for example, but won't touch Independence or Cherryvale or Caney, Kansas. Sage wants at least 10-15 thousand loops (or pairs) in town bare minimum to start with. Cost per line has to be better than the most rural, most expensive rates for them. 2: (I quote Duane now). He said "we started out here as a small town ISP, so huge profit margins are out of the question; we know that. We began as an ISP, and even today know what working real close to the wire on a budget is all about. However, any of your buddies who think TerraWorld any longer is just a hick town ISP; we have numbers in Chicago if they want a local dialup." 3: (Quoting Mike, his associate) "the FCC is going to require, in the next two or three years, that all UNE-P things must have their own switches. Must ... or go out of business. But that is okay, that is what we planned on from the beginning anyway. It will not come as a big surprise when all UNE-P operations have to do it. Right now we are mostly looking for a good customer base." 4: Mike and Duane both are quite familiar with the Kansas Commission and pointed out that in their opinion, Kansas, unlike many state commissions, *hates* -- with a passion -- Sprint (formerly United Tel in much of the northern part of the state) and Southwestern Bell. They said the commission leans 'real hard' on both Sprint and Bell as the two carriers of record whenever/however they can. 5: Prairie Stream is not just an 'Independence operation'. They said to me they are available anywhere in *Kansas* in Sprint (United Tel) or Southwestern Bell territory. They are based here, of course, but do serve any little town in Kansas as a UNE-P operation as long as it is Southwestern Bell. 6: I asked if they thought Prairie Stream mattered any to Bell's way of thinking. "You bet they know we are here! Unlike Sage, our main competitor in our size, we are the only ones willing to take tiny little towns in Kansas, population five, or fifty or five hundred or like Independence, eight thousand. We are starting to hurt Southwestern Bell a little bit with our customer base of between three and six or seven thousand customers across Kansas. They see us eating into them a little. We have not had as much luck making inroads into Sage's customer base as we would like, but the Bell and Sprint (old United Tel's) customers are coming to us in droves." 7: I asked Duane how, being in the (formerly) Arco Corporate Office building they were the only tenants in the building on 620-331 exchange, instead of 620-332 like all other tenants in the landlord- provided telephone system. Now it is the Independence Corporate Office Center (since Arco gave it away to the city when they went out of business before going bankrupt). He said, if I quote him correctly, the 'B-LEC' (or building local exchange carrier) still is the landlord of the building (City of Independence); landlord was leasing pairs from Southwestern Bell for the operation, but we took that over from landlord when we first moved in the building a few years ago, back when TerraWorld was up on the second floor. You notice we are down in the basement now, right next to the phone room with all the house pairs. Makes it easier, less work, having the terminals we use along with the Cisco equipment all right together. He said it was just some 'historical artifact' of Southwestern Bell that everyone in town is on 331 except Arco Building which is 332 with the city offices and schools, etc. Originally when the B-LEC was started for Arco, they had it for the 'private phone customers' of Indy Corporate Building. Now it just stays that way is all, and when 331 began to get squeezed a few years ago, the overflow stuff like Dobson Cell One got put over onto 332. Now that Independence has lost population (believe it or not we had almost 14,000 residents in the 1920's, and even 9000 residents in the 1980-90's) with Arco gone, Harry Sinclair dead and the oil industry in general a different animal than it used to be, Southwestern Bell says they will not run out of space on 331 in the near future, but if/when they do, they'll continue with 332 and then 330 (now just Montgomery Sheriff and Cingular Wireless numbers). A final question from me to Clarence and Fred or whoever: It used to be that when you got a competitor's phone service and wanted to keep your 'old' phone number, the CLEC had to assign you a bogus number and have call forwarding on your old number pointing to that bogus number which was 'really' what you had. Is that still the case? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 20 May 2003 02:39:02 -0000 From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Automated Emailing? Schedule Reminders NO NOT SPAM :) Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA Hi. As usual, anything that says it's not spam actually is spam. I swatted this in all the other groups that run through here. In article you write: > ****Please respond at darnellbarber@yahoo.com****** I unfortunately don't > have a chance to visit this board as often as I should. > Hello everyone, I've recently been asked to take on a challenge for > many communities in my area, approximately 20 altogether. > All have different appointments, agendas, schedulings etc ... > And I'd like to be able to send automated emails/cellphone > alerts/reminders to individuals in all particular groups once a > scheduled event as arrived. If this goes according to plan it will > grow from there. > Each community should have around 1,000 recipients. > So, basically there will be 20 different calendars and roughly 20,000 > people that I will have to update on "their particular" communitties > events daily. > Is there a service that will help in this endeavor or does anyone > suggest we invest in our own server. Would our own server have a > solution to this problem. > Thanks in advance, > Darnell Barber John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: He did NOT say 'this is not spam'. I think he meant the purpose of the software he was soliciting was not for spam purposes. If he had said 'this is not spam' or 'I only mail to people who opt-in' or similar language, he would never have seen the light of day here. But you can have broadcast-style messages in a non-spam context, for example like this Digest or others like it. At least that is what I thought he was trying to say. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #464 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 20 21:30:58 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4L1UvI18654; Tue, 20 May 2003 21:30:58 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 21:30:58 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305210130.h4L1UvI18654@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #465 TELECOM Digest Tue, 20 May 2003 21:31:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 465 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #383, May 20, 2003 (Angus TeleManagement) Book Review: "Protected Internet, Intranet, and VPNs" (Rob Slade) Re: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround (Robt Bonomi) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Provider (Bonomi) Re: EarthLink Gets $16M in Spam E-Mail Case (Robert Bonomi) Re: Reach Out and Block Someone / Massachusetts Consumers Have (Gillis) Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Q About Service (Bonomi) Re: Book _Cheaper By The Dozen_, Learning Morse (Scott Dorsey) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 11:05:39 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #383, May 20, 2003 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 383: May 20, 2003 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** BELL CANADA: http://www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: http://www.cisco.com/ca/letstalk ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: http://www.cygcom.com ** ERICSSON CANADA: http://www.ericsson.ca ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: http://www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: http://www.primustel.ca ** Q9 NETWORKS: http://www.Q9.com ** TELUS: http://www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Court Says CRTC Can't Set Hydro Pole Rates ** Aliant to Sell Xwave in June ** IP Phone Company Plans Canadian Entry ** MCI to Pay $500 Million Fine ** Internet Registrar Accuses Critic of Libel ** One-Third Value Internet More Than TV ** IBM, Avaya Team for Outsourcing ** CRTC Orders Bell to File Missing Tariffs ** Kamloops Asks CRTC to Resolve Telus Dispute ** Competitors Get Break on Service Fees ** Moody Upgrades BCE ** FCC Okays Spectrum Resale ** Ebbers Sues B.C. Ranch, Defaults on Loan ** Bureau Named Microcell Chair ** Look Appoints COO ** Ontario Funds College High-Tech Research ** New CDR Service Bureau Launched ** Whatever Happened to Unified Messaging? ============================================================ COURT SAYS CRTC CAN'T SET HYDRO POLE RATES: The Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that the CRTC cannot set the rates that provincial hydro utilities charge cablecos for using their poles. ** In 1999, the CRTC set a rate of $15.89/year for cableco use of hydro poles; the hydro utilities appealed to the Federal Court and won last year. The Canadian Cable Television Association then appealed to the Supreme Court. (see Telecom Update #202, 292, 333). ALIANT TO SELL XWAVE IN JUNE: At Aliant's annual meeting last week, President Jay Forbes told shareholders that the company would complete the sale of its IT subsidiary Xwave Solutions by June 30. He provided no details on the buyer or the selling price. ** The buyer is rumoured to be Platinum Equity, a privately held Los Angeles company that has acquired about 40 high- tech firms since 1995. IP PHONE COMPANY PLANS CANADIAN ENTRY: Vonage, a New Jersey company that offers consumer and small business phone service over high-speed Internet connections, says it is negotiating with a Canadian telecom company, and hopes to offer service in the Canadian market by the end of the year. www.vonage.com MCI TO PAY $500 MILLION FINE: MCI, formerly WorldCom, has agreed to pay investors US$500 million -- the largest penalty ever levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission -- to settle charges that it fraudulently inflated earnings by at least $9 billion. The settlement still requires court approval. INTERNET REGISTRAR ACCUSES CRITIC OF LIBEL: The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA--www.cira.ca) has served Cirawatch Corp. (www.cirawatch.ca) a Notice under the Libel and Slander Act for publishing an article that suggested CIRA engages in racial profiling, targeting applicants with Middle Eastern names, when evaluating new domain name applications. ** CIRA says it "has a zero tolerance policy with respect to any form of racial discrimination." Cirawatch has removed the article from its website and posted a letter asking CIRA 23 questions about registration procedures. ONE-THIRD VALUE INTERNET MORE THAN TV: According to a National Viewer Survey sponsored by the Canadian Cable Television Association, 33% of Canadians say their home Internet connection is more important than their TV. For those aged 15 to 19 years, the figure is 56%. IBM, AVAYA TEAM FOR OUTSOURCING: IBM Global Services and Avaya Global Services have agreed to combine their "resources, systems, and offerings" to offer and support outsourced voice systems in the U.S. and Canada. CRTC ORDERS BELL TO FILE MISSING TARIFFS: The CRTC has ordered Bell Canada to "forthwith" file nine tariffs for services identified in Decision 2002-76 as bundles requiring tariffs (see Telecom Update #362), "notwithstanding Bell Canada's view" that the services in these bundles are forborne or are billed at tariffed rates. KAMLOOPS ASKS CRTC TO RESOLVE TELUS DISPUTE: The City of Kamloops wants to use Telus ducts for fibre optic cable connecting 40 city buildings and schools, but says Telus is demanding $800,000 in unnecessary make-ready charges, more than doubling the City's projected costs. Kamloops has asked the CRTC to intervene. www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2003/8690/c121_200306127.htm COMPETITORS GET BREAK ON SERVICE FEES: Responding to a Call- Net application, CRTC Telecom Decision 2003-31 rules that when competitors provide local service to apartment building residents, the variable service charge the CLEC pays the incumbent telco for each loop will be at the residential rate, not the previously applied business rate. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2003/dt2003-31.htm MOODY UPGRADES BCE: Moody's Investor Services has raised its credit rating for BCE from negative to stable. Moody's rates BCE's unsecured debt three levels above junk. FCC OKAYS SPECTRUM RESALE: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has adopted new rules to permit wireless licensees to lease capacity to third parties, and to streamline processing of licence transfers. It has called for comment on further steps to expand the secondary market for spectrum. EBBERS SUES B.C. RANCH, DEFAULTS ON LOAN: Former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers is suing the 200,000 hectare B.C. ranch he bought in 1998 with money he borrowed from WorldCom. The suit claims that a private company owned by Ebbers had a contract to help sell Douglas Lake Ranch in late 2002 and is entitled to $100,000 in consulting fees. ** Ebbers owed over US$400 million to WorldCom when he resigned last year. He failed to make the first loan payment of $25 million, due April 29. BUREAU NAMED MICROCELL CHAIR: Former CRTC Chair Andre Bureau has been named Chairman of Microcell Telecommunications. He replaces Charles Sirois, who remains on the Board. LOOK APPOINTS COO: Rene Vocelle, Look Communications' Senior VP Finance, has been named Chief Operating Officer as well. (See Telecom Update #378) ONTARIO FUNDS COLLEGE HIGH-TECH RESEARCH: Communications and Information Technology Ontario will provide $1.34 million to telecom-related research projects at five Ontario colleges. NEW CDR SERVICE BUREAU LAUNCHED: Former employees of Canadian call accounting pioneer MDR Telemanagement have launched a new call accounting service bureau and communication auditing business, Smart Thought Technology, based in Burlington, Ontario. (www.smartthought.ca) WHATEVER HAPPENED TO UNIFIED MESSAGING? By now, we were all supposed to be getting voice mail, e-mail, and faxes through a single interface on a single device. The current issue of Telemanagement examines why unified messaging hasn't been widely adopted, and what its prospects are today. ** Also in this issue: Ian and Lis Angus compare the strategy and prospects of Bell Canada, Telus, AT&T Canada, Sprint Canada, and GT/360 in The New Competitive Landscape. ** Telemanagement is available only by subscription. For more information on Canada's #1 source for expert, independent telecom analysis, and guidance, call 800-263-4415 ext 500 or go to www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm.html. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see http://www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2003 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 14:00:51 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Protected Internet, Intranet, and VPNs",A. Moldovyan BKPIIVPN.RVW 20030404 "Protected Internet, Intranet, and Virtual Private Networks", Alexander Moldovyan et al, 2003, 1-931769-14-1, U$44.95/C$67.95 %A Alexander Moldovyan %A Nick Moldovyan %A Doug Summerville %A Vladimir Zima %C 295 East Swedesford Road, PMB #285, Wayne, PA 19087 %D 2003 %G 1-931769-14-1 %I A-LIST LLC %O U$44.95/C$67.95 fax 702-977-5377 mail@alistpublishing.com %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1931769141/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1931769141/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1931769141/robsladesin03-20 %P 310 p. %T "Protected Internet, Intranet, and Virtual Private Networks" Despite the slim size, it is still disconcerting to find that there are only three chapters in this book. Chapter one provides an introduction to client/server networking, while implying that the technology is *not* hierarchical. Basic networking concepts are covered, but the writing has an academic pomposity without the requisite rigour. Figures and illustrations are not only unhelpful, but may actually confuse issues, and typographical and grammatical errors abound. Lists of idiosyncratic, and very odd, attack taxonomies are given in chapter two. Items like "attacks on the security policy and administration procedures" aren't really explained, while "attacks on permanent components of the security system" seems to be limited to cryptanalysis. Chapter three has some descriptions of virtual private networks, tunnelling, IPSec, and key management protocols. The writing is hard to understand, there does not seem to be any logical organization to the material, and the mistakes in the content do not inspire any confidence in the reliability of any part of this text. All the topics touched on here are covered much more effectively in other works, but the topics are so random that it is difficult to make specific recommendations. For those interested in the basics of data communications I would suggest Tanenbaum (cf. BKCMPNWK.RVW), while "Building Linux Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)" (cf. BKBLVPNS.RVW) is a good introduction to VPNs themselves. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2003 BKPIIVPN.RVW 20030404 ====================== rslade@sprint.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca p1@canada.com "If you do buy a computer, don't turn it on." - Richards' 2nd Law ============= for back issues: [Base URL] site http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/ or mirror http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade/ CISSP refs: [Base URL]mnbksccd.htm Security Dict.: [Base URL]secgloss.htm Security Educ.: [Base URL]comseced.htm Book reviews: [Base URL]mnbk.htm [Base URL]review.htm Partial/recent: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/techbooks/ Security Educ.: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comseced/ Review mailing list: send mail to techbooks-subscribe@egroups.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround Organization: Not Much From: bonomi@c-ns (Robert Bonomi) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 06:15:10 GMT In article , Justin Time wrote: > Mark J Cuccia wrote in message > news:: >> The Telecom-USA subsidiary of MCI-Worldcom (BTW, has anyone else >> noticed how with all of the bad publicity "Worldcom" has had over the >> past year, that they have gone back to calling themselves *JUST* MCI >> in recent TV/Radio/print commercials and ads? They were calling >> themselves MCI-Worldcom when they merged some five-or-so years ago, >> and slowly began phasing out the 'MCI' part of the name to use just >> Worldcom, although "The Neighborhood" last year referred only to 'MCI' >> in its commercials) ... anyhow ... MCI-Worldcom's Telecom-USA (and >> even the Telecom-USA name has rarely identified itself publicly as >> being part of MCI) has come out with yet another so-called "ten-ten-" >> dialaround. >> They first had 'ten=ten-three-two-one' some years ago (101-0321+, >> originally 10-321+), and I forget the "deal" offered on that one. Then >> they started with 'ten-ten-two-twenty' (101-0220+) which was >> originally a Western Union LD access code (as 10-220+) back in the >> 1980s, this 101-0220 having the 1980's TV puppet 'star' ALF as the >> spokesman along with some other "trendy" pitchmen and celebs, with the >> "one buck" for twenty minutes, 7-cents a minute after. >> The "catch" with the 101-0220+ is that ONCE THE LINE ANSWERED, whether >> wrong number, answering machine/voicemail, or called party really >> unable to carry on a lenghty conversation at that moment -- you were >> ding'd for a buck!!! >> Now there is 'ten-ten-nine-eight-seven' from (MCI-Worldcom's) >> Telecom-USA. Supposedly 3-c per min (with a 39-cents, I think, >> per-call connection charge) to anywhere in the US, Candaa, and most of >> western Europe. They claim no monthly fees -- that is, no monthly >> 'membership' or plan fees, but obviously basic taxes and other "fees >> required by the government" such as "network access fees" and >> Universal Service Fund, etc. are going to be tacked on for any month >> that one makes billed calls via 101-0987+. > Just because I could play with a spreadsheet, consider the following > table: > Min Chrg Connect Total > 1 $0.03 $0.39 $0.42 > 2 $0.06 $0.39 $0.45 > 3 $0.09 $0.39 $0.48 > 4 $0.12 $0.39 $0.51 > 5 $0.15 $0.39 $0.54 > 6 $0.18 $0.39 $0.57 > 7 $0.21 $0.39 $0.60 > 8 $0.24 $0.39 $0.63 > 9 $0.27 $0.39 $0.66 > 10 $0.30 $0.39 $0.69 > 11 $0.33 $0.39 $0.72 > 12 $0.36 $0.39 $0.75 > 13 $0.39 $0.39 $0.78 > 14 $0.42 $0.39 $0.81 > 15 $0.45 $0.39 $0.84 > 16 $0.48 $0.39 $0.87 > 17 $0.51 $0.39 $0.90 > 18 $0.54 $0.39 $0.93 > 19 $0.57 $0.39 $0.96 > 20 $0.60 $0.39 $0.99 > Now add the USF to this, and yes, you will save money over using > 101-0220, but its still a rip-off! It's -not- that much of a rip-off. Utility depends _utterly_ on your *usage* pattern. Practically all the good 'per minute' rate plans have a monthly service charge. Typically around $5/mo. For someone who makes _only_a_few_, relatively short, calls a month, that 'base fee' is a killer. Make 3 6-minute calls a month, at $0.05/minute, plus a $4.95/mo 'plan fee', and your "cost" is in nearly $0.33/minute ($5.90 total). Using 10-10-220 for those 3 6-minute calls is _cheaper_. almost 50% cheaper. At a total of $2.97, or $0.165/minute. Using 10-10-987, saves another 40%. total charges of $ 1.71, or about $0.095 minute. Make a _hundred_minutes_ of LD calls a month, at a 'plan rate' of $.05/min, but with a $4.95/mo plan fee, and your "true cost" is $0.10/minute. Make 10 ten-minute calls via 10-10-987, and your cost is under $0.07/min. "The more things change, the more they remain the same" applies. You have to know _your_ calling pattern, and select the rate structure that is right *FOR*YOU*. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Organization: Not Much From: bonomi@c-ns (Robert Bonomi) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 07:41:11 GMT In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > Does the FCC have a one-size-fits-all standard on pay phone > surcharges? If the toll-free number in question is to access a > calling card network, does the surcharge apply whether or not the call > to the ultimate station is completed? Yup. Well, mostly. I believe the payphone operator is entitled to one 'surcharge' for each call beyond the first that occurs in a 'multiple call' session to a calling-card network. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: EarthLink Gets $16M in Spam E-Mail Case Organization: Not Much From: bonomi@c-ns (Robert Bonomi) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 07:49:13 GMT In article , Danny Burstein wrote: > And, for that matter, how come there's no criminal prosecution in this > case? Or even a little visit by te local gendarmes asking some > questions? Most people (probably including some of the spammers) > would, when facing Elliot Ness, reconsider their little criminal > charade. 48 hours after the judgement, the "gentleman" _was_ arrested. Felony 'fraud', and 'identity theft'. > One might think, just barely, that some law enforcement type somewhere > or another would see credit card fraud and identity theft as > actionable criminal pursuits? Somebody like the N.Y. State Attoral, maybe(?) who *did* arrest him. > I'd love to hear from an Earthlink rep answers to those > questions. Unless, just maybe, there wasn't any credit card theft [a] > and all he did was make up numbers that matched the checksums. And all > Earthlink did was see that the card number looked valid and didn't do > any actual verification. They were *real* credit cards. Being prosecuted under _newly_enacted_ "identity theft" statute in NY. ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: Re: Reach Out and Block Someone / Massachusetts Consumers Have Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 16:08:02 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com I'd love to sign up on one of these lists but I'm being a little cautious (also, the vocal spammers at my home aren't that bad yet). But I keep wondering if some enterprising business mogul isn't sitting back, waiting for those list to fill up. Then he'll sue the list administrator on some trumped up notion of how keeping the lists a secret is a breach of HIS right to know who's on it, or how it's a public record he should have access to or something. Then, if he wins, he'll not only have a list of good residential telephone numbers, but likely will have the names and address to go with the numbers as well. What a demographic windfall that would be! Al Monty Solomon wrote in message news:telecom22.462.14@telecom-digest.org: > By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 5/18/2003 > Massachusetts consumers have telemarketers on the run. > Tired of unwanted phone calls from companies trying to sell them > things, Massachusetts residents have placed more than 1.1 million > phone numbers, or about 40 percent of all residential lines, on the > state's do-not-call list. A month-and-a-half into the state's > do-not-call experiment, homeowners are starting to enjoy the silence. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/138/business/Reach_out_and_block_someone+. shtml ------------------------------ Subject: Re: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Qs About the Service Organization: Not Much From: bonomi@c-ns (Robert Bonomi) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 07:10:45 GMT In article , Joey Lindstrom wrote: > On Wed, 14 May 2003 15:06:30 -0400 (EDT), Mark Brader wrote: >> Gail Hall writes: >>> I was surprised a couple nights ago when they played some of the >>> 911 call tapes on a TV news broadcast. >>> Callers stated very clearly the name of the building they were in and >>> that the building was on the campus of the university, which they also >>> named. Callers said there was shooting going on there. But the >>> operator wants to know the exact address. ... >> It would be particularly disconcerting for a caller who was used to a >> place where the building name *is* the complete address. That's how >> it was when I was in university: "Physics Building, University of >> Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1" was the complete address of that >> building. Later the university was assigned a street address, but it >> was still a *single* address -- 200 University Av. W. -- for the whole >> main campus, maybe 30 buildings, and that's still the way it is today. >>> But shouldn't they have a database about most of the well known >>> buildings in the city? >> Sounds good to me! > The whole thing does sound kinda ridiculous, especially with > well-known landmarks. If I fell down and couldn't get up while > attending an NHL game, I'd tell the 911 operator (who I called on my > cellphone) I was at "the Saddledome". I would not tell her I was at > "555 Saddledome Rise S.E." because until I just now looked it up, I > had no idea that was the building's address. (and I can't figure out > how they got "555" since it's the only building on Saddledome Rise > S.E., which is basically a small piece of asphalt extending at right > angles off Olympic Way S.E.) > When I dispatched cabs TEN YEARS AGO, we were using computer systems > advanced enough so that when somebody called in from "Petro Canada > Tower" or "Chinook Centre" or any other named building, they just had > to say the name of the building (and which entrance they were at, if > applicable). We just had to type in the name of the building (or one > of several abbreviations for that place). The computer would figure > out where it was, what the address was, what zone it was in, etc., and > dispatch the closest car. Why a modern-day 911 system wouldn't be as > good as this is completely beyond me. (Today, that same cab company > has more-advanced systems, including the ability to automatically call > up the address based on caller-ID, providing that that customer had > called previously from the same phone number, as well as GPS-based > dispatching of "the closest" taxi.) What are you folks paying "E-911" > fees for, if the system still isn't any better than what you had in > the 1970's? Taxi dispatching makes for all sorts of 'interesting' situations. Places that _don't_have_ a 'street address' of _any_ sort -- e.g. a 'crew shack' in a railroad switching yard. You enter the yard off ____ street, and then drive for a mile-and-a-half (literally), on a maze of un-named, un-marked, *mostly* (but not all) paved trails to get to the shack. You learn "where to go" to _pick_up_ a crew, by *taking* a crew out there -- with *them* navigating. Large complexes where _all_ the buildings address of the street that the complex 'fronts' on. I've been in an apartment complex with 60+ buildings that all addressed off the street you drove into the complex from. Into this *maze* of 'esthetically pleasing' curved streets, about 4 buildings per street segment, and *NO* rhyme nor reason (that I could make out, anyway) to how the building numbers were assigned within the complex. "Themed" mobile-home parks -- leading to things like "go to the intersection of Jackie Gleason and Red Skelton.." University campuses can introduce their own set of problems. e.g. when every thing addresses off the 'frontage' street (like the apartment complex described above) *and* you have multiple buildings named after the same benefactor. Once the driver of the lead unit of a parade of three fire trucks, a battalion chief car, and an ambulance hollers at me "Where's the Searle Building?" And I had to respond "which one?" (got me an _awfully_ dirty look, incidentally -- but there was a "Searle Hall of Biological Sciences", and the "Searle Student Health Center" on *opposite* ends of the campus.) The fire-truck driver *did* have a little additional info, which identified the Bio. Sciences bldg, so I could direct him to the right place. :) Other places that don't have street addresses -- boat launching ramps, picnic 'shelters' in parks, etc. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We have a few cases like that here. But several years ago at the request of police/fire authorities, things were set up so that all the former 'rural route box numbers' were changed to definite numbers in a logical order, so that now if you say to police 'I am at 1736 County Road 4300' they know exactly where to find you. The only exception that remains is Independence Community College. *Everything* there uses the address 1086 West College Avenue with the (again, exception) of two or three buildings on the west side of the campus which use '2900 Brookside Drive' for which there is no reason or logic, that is just what they are called. However almost everyone in town (and certainly police and fire) know that our campus has a half dozen 'internal' streets known respectively as A, B, C, D, E and F and that the dorms are known by those internal streets which are 'A' dorm, etc. Those almost make sense, since 17th Street and College Avenue (main entrance) is about eleven hundred west, and Brookside Drive intersects 58 Road at about 3000 South which is the next 'major' road. Ditto with the Coffeyville Industrial Park (which is between Coffeyville and Liberty, Kansas, where Amazon.com is located. Officially it is (I forget) some number on North Sunflower Street in Coffeyville, but they just go by the names of the companies there. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Book _Cheaper By The Dozen_, Learning Morse Date: 20 May 2003 14:14:40 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Bill Horne wrote: > Mark Atwood wrote in message >> In the nonfiction book _Cheaper By The Dozen_, there is a scene where >> industrial engineer Frank Gilbreth teaches his 12 children Morse code >> by giving them a list of mnemonic words that have the cadence for the >> morse of a given letter, that begins with that letter. > Hate to be a party-pooper, but researchers long ago found that > learning code this way is counterproductive. The best way to learn > Morse code is to associate the letters directly with the sound of the > letter being sent, rather than with "dots" and "dashes" or neumonics > for them. This method IS a way of associating the letters with the sound of the letter being set ... it's memorizing words that have the same cadence and long-short sequence of the code and associating them with the letter. It's fairly ingenious and the military has used it in code training classes in the past. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So who is going to tell us the words to go with the symbols? PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #465 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 20 22:50:19 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4L2oID19693; Tue, 20 May 2003 22:50:19 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 22:50:19 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305210250.h4L2oID19693@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #466 TELECOM Digest Tue, 20 May 2003 22:50:00 EDT Volume 22 :Issue 466 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson EFFector 16.13: EFF to Testify on Consumer Rights (Monty Solomon) Motorola Acquires Technologies and Implementations of (Monty Solomon) FEATURE-Online Game Strategy Splits Video Game Industry (Monty Solomon) Unsuspecting Computer Users Relay Spam (Monty Solomon) Barcoding Humans (Monty Solomon) Madrid Music Web Site Tests Downloading Legality (Monty Solomon) Policy Post 9.11: P2P Users Should Beware of Privacy, Security (Solomon) CDT Headline: Authentication Privacy Principles Working Group (Solomon) CDT Headline: Report on TIA Due This Week; Privacy Laws (Monty Solomon) Staff Manager's Issues Report: Privacy Issues Related to Whois (Solomon) Re: WorldCom Pays And Lives to Tell About It (John Higdon) Re: UNE Platform CLECs (dold@UNEXPlatfo.usenet.us.com) Re: MCI Gets Iraq Rebuild Contract (Mike Hartley) Keeping my Phone Number With no Phone Line? (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Email, Other Vulnerable Spots on my Setup (Patrick Townson) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 19:19:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 16.13: EFF to Testify on Consumer Rights EFFector Vol. 16, No. 13 May 14, 2003 ren@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 252nd Issue of EFFector: * EFF to Testify on Consumer Rights * San Francisco Court Considers Legality of Backup DVD Copies * Update on TIA and CAPPS II * Deep Links (5): Police Raid Ohio State Students for P2P * Staff Calendar * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/16/13.php ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 19:24:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola Acquires Technologies and Implementations Motorola Acquires Technologies and Implementations of the Multimedia Home Platform (DVB MHP) from Cadence - May 20, 2003 04:00 AM (PR Newswire) This technology acquisition allows Motorola to enhance its DVi and DTH set-top product lines by offering a critical platform for interactive home media applications LONDON, May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mediacast -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) Broadband Communications Sector today announced that it has acquired technologies of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN), implementing the DVB Multimedia Home Platform. The announcement was made at the Mediacast 2003 trade show, May 20-22 in London. This strategic technology acquisition allows Motorola Broadband to add MHP to the capabilities of its DVi and DTH (direct-to-home) product lines of interactive digital set-tops, further enhancing the functionality of these products. The addition of MHP to its portfolio will enable Motorola to offer a complete, comprehensive, and cost-effective solution to the European and Asian markets, in addition to offering solutions from middleware partners. Cable, satellite, and terrestrial operators will benefit by having greater flexibility in deploying interactive applications. The MHP software, based on Java(TM) technology, will be incorporated into the DVi and DTH set-tops, starting with the DVi3000 in the third quarter of 2003. By early 2004, the software will reside as a standard capability in all DVB-based DVi set-tops. With this offering cable networks and content operators will benefit from the open MHP standard platform that generates new revenue streams by providing interactive services to their subscribers and viewers through cable television. With this technology, European communities will have access to vital, local, interactive information applications that previously were only possible via the computer. Many homes in Europe do not have computers, so offering these applications via the DVi3000 in combination with the household's TV will cost-effectively and quickly make these applications available to all communities, with maximum customer acceptance and usage. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34260107 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 19:38:24 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FEATURE-Online Game Strategy Splits Video Game Industry By Reed Stevenson and Ben Berkowitz LOS ANGELES, May 20 (Reuters) - It's a karaoke machine and a video conferencing center, a wireless jukebox and a DVD player. The latest and greatest gadget in home entertainment? No, just the well-worn video game console your kids already have in the living room. In the turf war being fought to control space in the living room of the future, rivals Sony Corp. (TOKYO:6758) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) have made it clear that the current generation of game consoles were meant to be Trojan horses -- the real pay-off would come when the machines were connected to a network. Now, as both companies unveil the Internet-based services expected to be the next big thing for the $30 billion games business, sharp differences over their strategies have emerged along with a debate about how much consumers will be willing to pay for such online offerings. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34269901 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 19:58:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Unsuspecting Computer Users Relay Spam By SAUL HANSELL At first, it looked as if some students at the Flint Hills School, a prep academy in Oakton, Va., had found a lucrative alternative to an after-school job. Late last year, technicians at America Online traced a new torrent of spam, or unsolicited e-mail advertisements, to the school's computer network. On further inquiry, though, AOL determined that the spammers were not enterprising students. Instead, a spam-flinging hacker -- who still has not been found - had exploited a software vulnerability to use Flint Hills' computers to relay spam while hiding the e-mail's true origins. It was not an isolated incident. The remote hijacking of the Flint Hills computer system is but one example among hundreds of thousands of a nefarious technique that has become the most common way for spammers to send billions of junk e-mail messages coursing through the global Internet each day. As spam has proliferated -- and with it the attempts by big Internet providers to block messages sent from the addresses of known spammers - many mass e-mailers have become more clever in avoiding the blockades by aggressively bouncing messages off the computers of unaware third parties. In the last two years, more than 200,000 computers worldwide have been hijacked without the owners' knowledge and are currently being used to forward spam, according to AOL and other Internet service providers. And each day thousands of additional PC's are compromised at companies, institutions and -- most commonly of all -- homes with high-speed Internet connections shared by two or more computers. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/20/technology/20SPAM.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Readers are invited to use the New York Times without registering, to preserve their own privacy and avoid some spam in the process: user name: telecomdigest password:telecomdigest is the thing I use. You are welcome to use it also. I have a concern about the final sentence in Monty's report above. 'Most common (places for abuse) are homes with high-speed Internet connections shared by two or more computers.' See my inquiry elsewhere in this issue. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 21:31:01 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Barcoding Humans The era of implanting people with identity chips is up on us By Angela Swafford, Globe Correspondent, 5/20/2003 The painless procedure barely lasted 15 minutes. In his South Florida office, Dr. Harvey Kleiner applied a local anesthetic above the tricep of my right arm, then he inserted a thick needle deep under the skin. ''First we locate a prime spot,'' he said. ''The next thing is to release the button that triggers the injection mechanism, and that's it, the cargo's been delivered.'' The ''cargo'' was a half-inch-long microchip inside a glass and silicone cylinder that carries my permanent identification number. For an instant, I remembered the famous scene in the movie ''Fantastic Voyage'' in which a miniaturized Raquel Welch and her companions are inserted, submarine and all, into the vein of a patient. In my case, the tiny chip inside me can transmit personal information to anyone with a special handheld scanner. Theoretically, this VeriChip will allow doctors to call up my medical records even if I'm too badly hurt to answer questions. It is also supposed to allow me to get money from an automatic teller machine by flashing my arm instead of punching in my PIN number. Or reassure airport security that I am a journalist, not a terrorist. And, though the VeriChip strikes critics as Orwellian, its makers think the surgically implanted IDs could be the Social Security numbers of the future in a nervous world. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/140/science/Barcoding_humans+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 19:03:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Madrid Music Web Site Tests Downloading Legality By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - A new music download service lau