From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jan 10 22:21:33 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i0B3LXA08855; Sat, 10 Jan 2004 22:21:33 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 22:21:33 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200401110321.i0B3LXA08855@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V23 #15 TELECOM Digest Sat, 10 Jan 2004 22:21:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 15 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FBI, Justice Dept. Seek Wiretaps For VoIP (Marcus Didius Falco) "Talibanism in Technology" (Marcus Didius Falco) Casino Chips to Carry RFID Tags (Monty Solomon) The Click Heard Round The World (Monty Solomon) C-Band TX'er In PCI Form Factor (Chay) Re: Caller ID and Spying??? (Ray Normandeau) Re: Vonage Virtual Number Crap Shoot (John Levine) Re: Vonage Virtual Number Crap Shoot (Joe@nospancity.com) Re: Maverick Wireless Corporation Launches City-Wide WISP (Dan Burstein) Verizon DSL - Idiots (Kilo Delta One Sierra) Verizon RI Pricing (Kilo Delta One Sierra) You Didn't Forget Did You? Do it 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. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk is definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 19:41:51 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: FBI, Justice Dept. Seek Wiretaps For VoIP X-URL: http://www.mccullagh.org/ http://news.com.com/2100-7352-5137344.html Feds seek wiretap access via VoIP Last modified: January 8, 2004, 7:42 AM PST By Declan McCullagh The FBI and the Justice Department have renewed their efforts to wiretap voice conversations carried across the Internet. The agencies have asked the Federal Communications Commission to order companies offering voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service to rewire their networks to guarantee police the ability to eavesdrop on subscribers' conversations. Without such mandatory rules, the two agencies predicted in a letter to the FCC last month that "criminals, terrorists, and spies (could) use VoIP services to avoid lawfully authorized surveillance." The letter also was signed by the Drug Enforcement Administration. [...] One unusual section of the FBI letter is that it claims the bureau is seeking to protect Americans' privacy rights: "Mandatory CALEA compliance by VoIP providers would better protect the privacy of VoIP users than a voluntary approach. CALEA protects the privacy of surveillance suspects by requiring carriers to provision the surveillance in a confidential manner." Otherwise, the FBI argues, a VoIP company might turn over a "full pipe" to police that would include conversations of more people than necessary. [...] Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/) Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 19:47:33 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: "Talibanism in Technology" From: K.Ellis To: David Farber Sent: Jan 10, 2004 11:24 AM Subject: "Talibanism in Technology" Interesting read. "Talibanism in Technology" deals with seven reasons why women in technology are invisible http://www.dqindia.com/content/special/103022602.asp Karen Ellis <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> The Educational CyberPlayGround http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ Hot List of Schools Online Net Happenings,K12 Newsletters, Network Newsletters http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/index.html "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" Funk Brothers http://www.edu-cyberpg.com//funkbrothers.html 7 Hot Site Awards New York Times, USA Today , MSNBC, Earthlink, USA Today Best Bets For Educators, Macworld Top Fifty <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 16:48:52 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Casino Chips to Carry RFID Tags 11:48 09 January 04 New Scientist When rumours surfaced in 2003 that the European Central Bank was quietly planning to put RFID (radio frequency identification) tags in euro banknotes to combat fraud and money laundering, privacy groups balked at the possibility that anybody with an RFID reader could count the money in wallets of passers by. While the rumours have not been confirmed or denied a new generation of casino chips with built-in RFID tags is giving an insight into the way banks and shops could keep track of real money if it were tagged. The chips will be launched later in 2004 and will allow casino operators to spot counterfeits and thefts, and also to monitor the behaviour of gamblers. RFID tags are tiny silicon chips that broadcast a unique identification code when prompted by a reader device. The tags do not need batteries, since they simply modify the radio signal fired at them by the reader. The readers work over distances ranging from a few centimetres to a few dozen metres, depending on the type of tag. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994542 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 17:04:09 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Click Heard Round The World The Click Heard Round The World It was December 1968. An obscure scientist from Stanford Research Institute stood before a hushed San Francisco crowd and blew every mind in the room. His 90-minute demo rolled out virtually all that would come to define modern computing: videoconferencing, hyperlinks, networked collaboration, digital text editing, and something called a "mouse." Doug Engelbart tells writer Ken Jordan what it felt like to launch the point-and-click revolution 15 years before the Mac. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/mouse.html ------------------------------ From: Chay Subject: C-Band TX'er In PCI Form Factor Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 13:51:22 -0500 Looking for a transmitter for C-Band frequencies in PCI form factor. For DVB/IP two way internet access. Similiar to those used by Gilat and Web-Sat. Anyone know of any? ------------------------------ From: rayta@msn.com (Ray Normandeau) Subject: Re: Caller ID and Spying??? Date: 10 Jan 2004 11:51:31 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com desiv wrote in message news:: > For the phone number, it shows my mom's number. BUT for the name, it > shows someone else's name!!! It is almost AS IF your mom's outgoing calls were being routed thru someone else who was passing thru the Caller ID but goofed up on the name. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jan 2004 05:45:01 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Vonage Virtual Number Crap Shoot Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I have a mother in Florida living on a fixed income and it would help > her alot to be able to call me when she needs to. After getting set > up and generating a virtual number, mom in Florida at the same area > code could not make a non-toll call. I called Vonage customer no care > and they said the prefix generated was not in her calling region > ... sorry. When you get a Vonage number, you can specify the exact rate center where you want the number. For example, if you pick 954, then you can pick Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, or Pompano Beach. It is not exactly a state secret that local calling areas have nothing to do with area code boundaries, but are a list of rate centers. I got a virtual number last week so my sister in Vermont could call me as a local call, and it took about 10 seconds to look through the list of Vermont rate centers to find one local to her. If you and your mother can't figure out what's a local call for her, visit http://members.dandy.net/~czg/search.html which has an extensive data base of local calling area information. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of The Internet for Dummies Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner "I dropped the toothpaste", said Tom, crestfallenly. ------------------------------ From: Joe@nospancity.com Subject: Re: Vonage Virtual Number Crap Shoot Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 08:59:18 -0800 Organization: Cox Communications Sam Nickerson wrote: > Just a quick warning to anyone thinking about going Vonage for the > "Virtual Number" feature. I am a new customer to them; jumped on board > because of the virtual number idea. > I have a mother in Florida living on a fixed income and it would help > her alot to be able to call me when she needs to. After getting set up > and generating a virtual number, mom in Florida at the same area code > could not make a non-toll call. I called Vonage customer no care and > they said the prefix generated was not in her calling region ... sorry. > Was there any way for them to refund the 14 bucks I > spent on a useless number ... nope. But they did give me a list of > prefixes that would work for her, and that all I need to do was > generate another and look at the number before final submit and I > would not get charged, just hit back and try another until a working > number magically appears and hit submit to accept it. Tried that, then > found the generated number does not show prior to submit and I get hit > with another 14 bucks charge. 28 bucks of worthless numbers I, and > mom, can not use. > Called Vonage Customer no care again, guy says sorry, let me put a > credit against your account for the 14 bucks so you can try again at > no charge. Thru the dice again, no good. Well sorry sir, guess we don't > have numbers in her local area; nothing I can do about the 28 bucks you > have spent so far, no managers around that can help, send us an email > and they will review. > Sheeeesh, for a company looking to break into an emerging market you > would think they would handle customers better, their marketing group > is spending a lot of time, money and effort only to have customer no > care mess it up. Just my experience; your mileage may vary. > Sam I think the problem may be with you and your mother. In my part of California when I selected Area Code 949, it gives me the option of selecting one of four locations. Those locations have exactly the same name as the SBC exchanges in the 949 area code. What could be simpler? Sure, either you or your mother has to figure out which of the listed exchanges, if any, are a local call for her. But, that can easily be done before you hit "go." ------------------------------ From: danny burstein Subject: Re: Maverick Wireless Corporation Launches City-Wide WISP Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 06:41:18 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Eworldwire writes: > Maverick Wireless Corporation Successfully Launches > City-Wide Wireless Broadband Services > Maverick Wireless Proves Its CITYWIDE WiFi(TM) Services Are > the Answer to Rural America's Broadband Needs [ snip of the usual press release boilerplate ] A key problem here is that this company is asking customers to pay $20 (or more) per month for access to the network. Which is, perhaps, a realistic business model. Except for one little point: This company, like the vast majority of others, is using the *publicly available* 802.11 frequencies. There is *no* exclusivity on these channels. So, anyone else in the service area can (and many will ...) set up their own base stations and networks, and cause lots and lots of interference. This company (and the others) have no bumping privileges whatsoever on these frequencies. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: kd1s@aol.comremvthis (Kilo Delta One Sierra) Date: 10 Jan 2004 15:46:33 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Verizon DSL - Idiots I wanted to install DSL (Cable company finally pissed me off enough that I went to the local office, threw my cable box on the desk and told them to shove their crappy service. It's Cox btw.) but Verizon droids tell me it's not available, that I'm close to 5 miles from the CO. Now I know for a fact that I'm nowhere near 5 miles from the CO. More like a mile maximum. So I went on their web site and sure enough I get the 'future notification' page. I plug in the phone number of the restaurant below me which is served on the same cable group, same CO and guess what, it's available. Time to call the morons back. Tony ------------------------------ From: kd1s@aol.comremvthis (Kilo Delta One Sierra) Date: 10 Jan 2004 15:44:27 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Verizon RI Pricing Well -- looks like Verizon has caught on. Residential for $54 a month includes VM, CLID and a raft of other features. I just might bite because in a given month my phone bills add up to about $54 as it is now, but they do range a bit. Having a fixed cost might be nice. I note business is $38 but there's a little disclaimer about "Excludes line charge". Typical Verizon -- so the line charge is probably about $15 but it makes it somewhat cheaper than Vonage especially when you consider the broadband connection charges. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 01:04:41 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: You Didn't Forget Did You? Please Do it Now! On several occassions around the end of December I put a message in the Digest saying the mailing list was being rebuilt. I asked for people who wanted to remain on the email list (mail from editor@telecom-digest.org each day) to tell me if they wanted to remain on the list or not. A large number of you responded, but John suggested waiting a few more days for the stragglers to get in. **THIS IS THE LAST CHANCE**. (now I suppose I have bought myself a couple more days of waiting time as a result.) If you want to remain on the list of folks who get email from me each day (often times two or three times in a day) you MUST send me a notice in one line or less saying "subscribe email.address (your name)." IN that order, nothing more or less. If you were attentive and responded during December or the first few days in January, **do not** respond again. If you somehow overlooked those daily messages during the last week of December (for example, on vacation, whatever) then please do it over the weekend or Monday at latest. If you read this through comp.dcom.telecom then don't bother. If you read this through http://telecom-digest.org then don't bother. Only reply if you get email from me and wish to continue receiving it. Please do it now. Thanks. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #15 *****************************