From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jun 5 23:34:57 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 85C1114CAB; Sun, 5 Jun 2005 23:34:57 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #251 Message-Id: <20050606033457.85C1114CAB@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 23:34:57 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.8 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT, PORN_4 autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 5 Jun 2005 23:35:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 251 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Corporations Entering World of Blogs (Monty Solomon) Wrong Time in Vonage Caller ID (Chris Farrar) SEX.COM Owner Responds to Charges (Gary Kremen) Vonage Virtual Numbers (Chris Farrar) New Anonymous Free Surfing Site: anonycat.com (Tom Cervenka) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Steve Sobol) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Steven Lichter) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (Steve Sobol) Re: Porting an 800 Number (Fred Atkinson) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Lisa Hancock) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Fred Atkinson) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 21:08:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Corporations Entering World of Blogs By NICOLE ZIEGLER DIZON Associated Press Writer When General Motors Corp. wanted to stop speculation this spring that it might eliminate its Pontiac and Buick brands, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz took his case directly to dealers and customers who were up in arms about the possibility. He wrote about it on the company's blog. "The media coverage on the auto industry of late has done much to paint an ugly portrait of General Motors," began Lutz's entry on GM's FastLane Blog, which the company launched in January. The March 30 entry went on to say that widely reported remarks he made to analysts the week before had been "taken out of context" and that the automaker would not shed the brands. A growing number of companies are stepping softly into the blogosphere, following a path blazed by Microsoft Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and others in the technology field. The Internet journal format, they find, lets businesses expand their reach, generate product buzz and encourage consumer loyalty _ while bypassing traditional media. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49647343 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 17:48:43 -0400 From: Chris Farrar Subject: Wrong Time Shown in Vonage Caller ID I have a Vonage (Canada) VoIP number and I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing this problem. I'm using an Aastra 392 (aka a Nortel Vista 392 screen phone) 2 line phone. Line one is on Bell Canada in the 905-282-XXXX exchange. Line 2 is Vonage Canada through the Linksys PSP2 adapter in the 416-628-XXXX exchange. The problem is that the phone with reset the display clock to conform with the last Caller ID information available. Bell Canada is sending the correct time (Eastern Daylight Time) on inbound calls, but Vonage is sending Eastern Standard Time. So whenever I receive a call on Vonage, my screen phone resets itself to EST, when we are currently in EDT, and the clock is then 1 hour slow until the next call comes in on Bell Canada to put it back into EDT. Theoretically this problem will disappear when we go back to EST in the fall, but is there a way to get Vonage to update their clock before then? Chris ------------------------------ From: gary.kremen@gmail.com Subject: SEX.COM Owner Responds to Charges Date: 5 Jun 2005 14:59:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to John Smith writing about the article posted here on Gary Kremens ( http://sex.com ) : >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if 'Mandy Howard' of Parents >> United is any relation to 'Nancy Howard' who submitted this article? >> I would also like to point out that in this somewhat offensive article >> (to me, at least), neither of the Misses Howard's is entitled to use >> absolute terms like 'predator' or 'should be incarcerated for life', >> certainly without _an adjudication in a court_. My first reaction was >> to pitch the article out unused, but with the possibility there is >> some smidgen of truth herein, i.e. Kremen _was_ arrested on the >> allegations named, and his known legal problems with the 'sex.com' >> domain, etc I decided to use the article. ....PAT] > No reputable psychotherapist would blur the distinction between gays > and pedophiles, much less try to make an outright connection. This is > just hate-group propaganda, piggybacking on what might otherwise be an > actual news story. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for saying that ... out of > curiosity, I went to look at the http://sex.com site last night for > the first time in my life, to see what apparently makes it such a > famous and popular site, and to find out what would make it worth > fighting over, as Kremen did with that fellow who apparently tried > to cybersquat on it (remember the fellow who snatched the name, got > sued, and the registrar wound up getting sued also, and the lawyer > who was going to get a piece of the action as his fee in the case?) > I _thought_ I was going to see something really amazing, etc. Well, > all I wound up seeing was a sort of poorly designed web site with a > jillion links to other sites on it, all of which wanted your credit > card number, etc. Over all, it was sort of boring, with slow > responding links, etc. (Of course my computer is not the fastest, > and to be charitable, maybe the links were so slow loading because > of the millions of web users trying to get in and supply their credit > card numbers, etc, but I don't think so. Of course, I did not feel > very well last either, but it is hard for me to imagine some lawyer > agreeing to settle for _fifteen percent_ of the action on that site > in exchange for his fee, then suing the client to get that little dab > of (what appeared to me to be) nothing special. I understand the > registrar who got sued in that thing settled for $150 thousand. Damn! > Is _any_ web site worth that kind of money? How and why? Would > someone like to hijack http://telecom-digest.org from me? I'd be > glad to let you do it, if there was any possibility I could 'settle > out of court -- or in court, for that matter -- for $150 thousand from > the transgressor. Geeze ... PAT] Gary Kremens says: 1) Completely fake news article 2) See http://www.sex.com/corporate/lawsuits/ 3) Settlement with Versign is confidential -- see http://downloads.sex.com/corporate/lawsuits/pdf/9th_Circuit_Appeal_Ruling.pdf [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In (1) above, I presume Ms. Howard took an _existing_ true report of sex.com legal problems as dealt with in great length in the various files reached by looking at the URL mentioned in (2) and (3) and embellished it with the central points of her "news item", i.e. a pedophile situation and heroin use. Gary Kremens does not say if he knows who Ms. Howard is, or what her possible motivation was in further smearing his name around. I cannot imagine she just made the whole thing up out of whole cloth ... he must have some knowledge of _who_ she is and _why_ she chose to submit the report. But I am not going to dwell on it unless Mr. Kremens wishes to elaborate further. I will say those things are always _nasty_ allegations to make about anyone, given the general dislike of many in society for those things. I did go through (2) and (3) above in some detail, and it appears to me this is not something recently started, but rather, it has been going on for about ten years, or since the production of a letter to the registrar from Mr. Cohen in 1995 which Mr. Kamens says is fraudulent. Warning: some of the legal documents shown in (2) above are very long, complex and boring, and there are a couple of audio files -- over an hour long -- of lawyers in court arguing before a judge on things such as 'who owns which site' and how registrars do their duties, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 18:36:37 -0400 From: Chris Farrar Subject: Vonage Virtual Numbers This is hard to work out, as I don't have a Hargray Telecom ( http://www.hargray.com the local landline provider,) phonebook to reference as to local calling area. Does anyone know wheich of the following communities that Vonage has numbers available in that are a local call to Hilton Head Island, SC (area code 843, exchange 842)? Charleston, SC disto Island, SC Folly Beach, SC Hollywood, SC Mount Pleasant, SC Sullivans Island, SC Summerville, SC Yemassee, SC From looking at a map of SC, Edisto Island may be close, but I can't tell for sure. Chris ------------------------------ From: tom.cervenka@gmail.com Subject: New Anonymous Surfing Site (Free): anonycat.com Date: 4 Jun 2005 23:01:01 -0700 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is being reprinted in case you missed it in an earlier issue of the Digest over the weekend. PAT] There is a new (free) web-based proxy for anonymous surfing at http://anonycat.com It's much better than the other web proxies, like anonymizer.com, and it doesn't require registration. -Tom ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2005 14:18:13 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Chris Farrar wrote: >> Godaddy is a reputable registrar. I have three domains registered >> with them. The don't sell spam address lists or function as a >> spamhaus. >> What led you to jump to this particular conclusion? > Over the last several days Spamcop has blocked a considerable number > of emails to me, which all generated reports to Godaddy as the site > orginating them. Well, there are two issues with GoDaddy. First, they register a ton of domains, some of which are registered by/for spammers. Second, they do offer mailing list services. I can resell those services as a WildWestDomains/GoDaddy reseller, but I refuse (I only do TrafficBlazer, domains and SSL certificates). In fact, when I have time over the next couple weeks, I'm going to email GD president Bob Parsons requesting that he drop the email service. It's just way too easy to abuse. But the question is ... are you seeing emails coming from GoDaddy customers using their mailing list product? Or are you just seeing lots of spam from GoDaddy-registered domains? Both are bad. I'd argue that the former is a lot worse. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2005 23:06:16 GMT Chris Farrar wrote: >> Godaddy is a reputable registrar. I have three domains registered >> with them. The don't sell spam address lists or function as a >> spamhaus. >> What led you to jump to this particular conclusion? > Over the last several days Spamcop has blocked a considerable number > of emails to me, which all generated reports to Godaddy as the site > orginating them. > Other major spammers to my inbox seem to be kornet.com, hanaro.com, > comcast.net All I know is that almost all the spam that got to my junk mail box came from sites on their servers; if they are a reputable registrar then they are not inforcing their rules. I have sent copies and complaints to them, nothing happens. As my take says, goes for them also. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2005 14:19:24 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Joseph wrote: > messaging to your phone. They cannot and will not remove phone to > phone text messaging from your account. That's interesting. Both Verizon and Sprint have disabled SMS completely when I requested it. Why can't T-Mobile? JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Porting an 800 Number Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 17:33:20 -0400 > Even if Vonage would let you transfer tollfree numbers, I wouldn't do > it, Vonage's monthly fee for the included minutes is more then I'm > spending now. It's not Vonage that I'm transfering it to. It's yet another VOIP provider. I saw their rates and it is not bad. The long distance carrier that I am now using has a higher rate than this new company offers. Fred ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 5 Jun 2005 18:00:14 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Dean M. wrote: > Forgive my ignorance, but if this whole exercise on the part of public > schools is simply aimed at reducing their liablility exposure, how do > the private schools others mentioned get around that issue? Private schools are afraid of lawsuits, too, obviously. They protect themselves by: 1) Strict standards of behavior that are enforced. If a kid screws around too much in a private school, they're out. Further, private schools limit who is admitted in the first place. There's normally a smaller staff/student ratio at private schools and students are monitored more closely. I've done some work at private schools and I wouldn't want to be a student there despite the prestige. 2) Contractual limited liability: Unlike a public school which is governed by law, private schools can and do have contracts with students limiting the schools' liability. (Public schools do that for some optional activities, like school sports). > It would be like cutting school sports entirely because some students > may get hurt playing. Or does that happen too? It does at times, although the law has granted some immunity to schools and coaches if a kid gets injured. Liability law is a tricky thing. It is often set by the courts by granting a lawsuit over something. However, legislators may limit liability in certain situations and they do on occassion. Often these issues become very contentious (ie limiting malpractice awards, for example). They generally protect sports coaches because no one would host a sport if they'd get sued every time a kid got injured. ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Reply-To: fatkinson@mishmash.com Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 01:01:58 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Sat, 04 Jun 2005 00:39:11 -0400, Barry Margolin wrote: > Who do they need to use school equipment to pursue these hobbies? You > do school work on school equipment, you go home and work on your > hobbies. I think you meant 'why' rather than 'who'. Well, a number of kids do research for their papers. Writing about radio and other things aren't out of the realm of reason. I wrote several papers and did a presentation or two about radio when I was in junior and senior high. I learned a lot about electronics when I was in high school from reading books in the school library. And I went on to get an electronics degree, a commercial radiotelephone operator's license, and a great deal more later. I ask you what is the difference between reading about it on the Internet and reading about it in a library? Would you advocate removing books like that from the library simply because *you* think that they don't 'need' to read them? And it's a damned sight better thing for a kid to be doing with his or her time than getting involved with the wrong crowd or worse. This is not personal, but you need to severely rethink your position. Sorry to come down on you this hard, but limiting student access to information simply because we think they don't 'need' access to it is a pretty short sighted opinion for an educator to take. Regards, Fred ------------------------------ 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, Yahoo Groups, 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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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 fifty 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 V24 #251 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 6 17:27:11 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id A96D414FA0; Mon, 6 Jun 2005 17:27:10 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #252 Message-Id: <20050606212710.A96D414FA0@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 17:27:10 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 6 Jun 2005 17:27:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 252 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Microsoft, AT&T in Internet Communications Pact (Lisa Minter) Yahoo Ditches Fees on US Web Auctions (Lisa Minter) Covad, Earthlink Trial Phone and Internet Service (Lisa Minter) Re: Wrong Time Shown in Vonage Caller ID (Robert Bonomi) Re: Wrong Time Shown in Vonage Caller ID (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Wrong Time Shown in Vonage Caller ID (Henry Cabot Henhouse III Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Steven Lichter) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (Joseph) Re: Known Spam Sites (John Smith) Re: Vonage Virtual Numbers (John R. Levine) Re: Porting an 800 Number (Justin Time) Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell (Nathan Strom) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Scott Dorsey) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Lisa Minter) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (John Smith) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Robert Bonomi) Re: Sex.com Problems Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Microsoft, AT&T in Internet Communications Pact Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 14:26:07 -0500 Software maker Microsoft Corp. on Monday said it signed an agreement with telecommunications company AT&T Corp. to develop Internet-based services to businesses. Terms of the deal were not announced. The companies said the alliance leverages the AT&T's global Internet Protocol network, which can be accessed from 149 countries, and Microsoft's "Connected Services Framework," a software system that enables the rapid delivery of converged communications services across multiple networks and devices. Using Connected Services Framework, AT&T will be able to more easily create and deploy network-based IP services and applications. The two companies said they will develop communications services during the next five years that will focus on messaging, collaboration, media and business applications. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Yahoo Ditches Fees on U.S. Web Auctions Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 14:27:18 -0500 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Internet media company Yahoo Inc. will quit charging fees for auctions on its U.S. site in an effort to encourage more people to sell their wares, the company said on Sunday. Rob Solomon, general manager and vice president of Yahoo Shopping, denied the move was a defensive response to top online auctioneer eBay Inc.'s announcement on Wednesday it had agreed to buy shopping.com a provider of online comparison shopping and consumer reviews, for $620 million. "It's taken us six months for us to work on this. The timing of this (and eBay's acquisition announcement) is purely coincidental," he said. Yahoo has no plans to end the fees it charges users on its other auction sites, including the one for Japan, the company's top auction site. The company also runs auction sites in Canada, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Yahoo said it will generate revenue from its U.S. auctions by continuing to have paid search listings by its Yahoo Search Marketing division. Paid search ads are triggered by keywords related to their product or brand. Previously, Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo has charged users of its U.S. auction site 5 cents to 75 cents to post an item, depending on the starting price of the item. If an item sells, the user then has had to pay a 2 percent final value fee that can vary depending on the closing price of the item sold. More expensive items carried additional fees that could total up to 1.5 percent of the final price of the item in addition to the 2 percent fee. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Covad, Earthlink Trial Phone and Internet Service Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 14:28:27 -0500 Covad Communications Group and Earthlink Inc. said on Monday they would test a service offering telephone lines and high-speed Internet access to residential customers, aimed at competing with dominant phone and cable companies. Earthlink, one of the larger U.S. Internet service providers, has seen its base of dial-up subscribers steadily erode due to competition from high-speed service. Earthlink's shares fell sharply last week after SBC Communications Inc., said it would offer broadband Internet access for $14.95 per month. Covad and Earthlink said the trial would begin in October in Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle and San Jose, California. Pricing was not announced. The service will use a technology known as a line-powered system. Covad will lease the copper wires running between customers' homes and the local telephone network, hooking those loops into Covad's own network. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Wrong Time Shown in Vonage Caller ID Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 11:03:42 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Chris Farrar wrote: > I have a Vonage (Canada) VoIP number and I'm wondering if anyone else > is experiencing this problem. > I'm using an Aastra 392 (aka a Nortel Vista 392 screen phone) 2 line > phone. Line one is on Bell Canada in the 905-282-XXXX exchange. Line > 2 is Vonage Canada through the Linksys PSP2 adapter in the 416-628-XXXX > exchange. > The problem is that the phone with reset the display clock to conform > with the last Caller ID information available. Bell Canada is sending > the correct time (Eastern Daylight Time) on inbound calls, but Vonage > is sending Eastern Standard Time. So whenever I receive a call on > Vonage, my screen phone resets itself to EST, when we are currently in > EDT, and the clock is then 1 hour slow until the next call comes in on > Bell Canada to put it back into EDT. > Theoretically this problem will disappear when we go back to EST in > the fall, but is there a way to get Vonage to update their clock > before then? Have you considered *ASKING*VONAGE* ?? Or is that too simple and obvious an approach? As an extreme solution, you could put in an Asterisk PBX, and let it 'rw-write' the caller-id timestamp. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Wrong Time Shown in Vonage Caller ID Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 06:01:45 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Chris Farrar wrote: > I have a Vonage (Canada) VoIP number and I'm wondering if anyone else > is experiencing this problem. > I'm using an Aastra 392 (aka a Nortel Vista 392 screen phone) 2 line > phone. Line one is on Bell Canada in the 905-282-XXXX exchange. Line > 2 is Vonage Canada through the Linksys PSP2 adapter in the 416-628-XXXX > exchange. > The problem is that the phone with reset the display clock to conform > with the last Caller ID information available. Bell Canada is sending > the correct time (Eastern Daylight Time) on inbound calls, but Vonage > is sending Eastern Standard Time. So whenever I receive a call on > Vonage, my screen phone resets itself to EST, when we are currently in > EDT, and the clock is then 1 hour slow until the next call comes in on > Bell Canada to put it back into EDT. > Theoretically this problem will disappear when we go back to EST in > the fall, but is there a way to get Vonage to update their clock > before then? > Chris Vonage doesn't have that problem here in California and my primary number is in DC. Perhaps it has something to do with your phone? ------------------------------ From: Henry Cabot Henhouse III Subject: Re: Wrong Time Shown in Vonage Caller ID Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 21:48:46 -0700 I have a 323 number with Vonage and my outbound caller ID shows as something completely different when calling an 800 number. Maybe they're growing so fast they don't have the time to make it all work right. Chris Farrar wrote in message news:telecom24.251.2@telecom-digest.org: > I have a Vonage (Canada) VoIP number and I'm wondering if anyone else > is experiencing this problem. > I'm using an Aastra 392 (aka a Nortel Vista 392 screen phone) 2 line > phone. Line one is on Bell Canada in the 905-282-XXXX exchange. Line > 2 is Vonage Canada through the Linksys PSP2 adapter in the 416-628-XXXX > exchange. > The problem is that the phone with reset the display clock to conform > with the last Caller ID information available. Bell Canada is sending > the correct time (Eastern Daylight Time) on inbound calls, but Vonage > is sending Eastern Standard Time. So whenever I receive a call on > Vonage, my screen phone resets itself to EST, when we are currently in > EDT, and the clock is then 1 hour slow until the next call comes in on > Bell Canada to put it back into EDT. > Theoretically this problem will disappear when we go back to EST in > the fall, but is there a way to get Vonage to update their clock > before then? > Chris ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 03:33:18 GMT Steve Sobol wrote: > Chris Farrar wrote: >>> Godaddy is a reputable registrar. I have three domains registered >>> with them. The don't sell spam address lists or function as a >>> spamhaus. >>> What led you to jump to this particular conclusion? >> Over the last several days Spamcop has blocked a considerable number >> of emails to me, which all generated reports to Godaddy as the site >> orginating them. > Well, there are two issues with GoDaddy. First, they register a ton of > domains, some of which are registered by/for spammers. > Second, they do offer mailing list services. I can resell those > services as a WildWestDomains/GoDaddy reseller, but I refuse (I only > do TrafficBlazer, domains and SSL certificates). In fact, when I have > time over the next couple weeks, I'm going to email GD president Bob > Parsons requesting that he drop the email service. It's just way too > easy to abuse. > But the question is ... are you seeing emails coming from GoDaddy > customers using their mailing list product? Or are you just seeing > lots of spam from GoDaddy-registered domains? Both are bad. I'd argue > that the former is a lot worse. > JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) > Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED > "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" > --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" I have seen both, more from the mailing though. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 05:51:05 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sun, 05 Jun 2005 14:19:24 -0700, Steve Sobol wrote: > Joseph wrote: >> messaging to your phone. They cannot and will not remove phone to >> phone text messaging from your account. > That's interesting. Both Verizon and Sprint have disabled SMS > completely when I requested it. Why can't T-Mobile? Maybe it has to do with the way GSM works. You didn't mention AT&T Wireless or Cingular. SMS is part of the GSM spec. I don't know if that's the case with CDMA. The question of disabling SMS (text messaging) has come up before in other T-Mobile related forums and the answer has always been no on phone originated SMS but is available to turn off email SMS. ------------------------------ From: John Smith Subject: Re: Known Spam Sites Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 04:29:05 GMT Steven Lichter wrote: > What led me to that was 40 uce's that I got over a 3 day period all > came from sites that listed Godaddy. Plus most of the web sits that > were linked from these spams were also theirs. They're maybe > reputable, but they are not policing the Use Policy. Well, just because they registered the domain doesn't give them any obligation to monitor how it's used, nor could they even if they wanted to. Their only obligation is to point the domain name to a domain name server. Unless the sites were being HOSTED by GoDaddy, what do you expect them to do? It's the hosting company on whose servers the spammers are operating that has the power to stop them. ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Vonage Virtual Numbers Date: 6 Jun 2005 01:20:08 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > reference as to local calling area. Does anyone know wheich of the > following communities that Vonage has numbers available in that are a > local call to Hilton Head Island, SC (area code 843, exchange 842)? None of them, I would say. The informative local calling guide at http://members.dandy.net/~czg says that the normal Hilton Head local calling area is just Hilton Head. Hargray Tel's web site at http://web.hargray.com/tel_localplus.html says that for $10/mo you can get local service plus which lets you call Bluffton, Sun City, Daufuskie and Hardeeville. (Or for $25/mo you get unlimited nation wide LD.) If you want a Hilton Head VoIP number, I notes that Hargray themselves offer VoIP service, presumably with their own local numbers. Maybe they'd sell it to you. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: Porting an 800 Number Date: 6 Jun 2005 08:21:18 -0700 But VoIP carriers aren't phone companies so they don't have to point or port anything they don't want to. You can't take the fact they refuse to point an existing number to your PUC because they are an unregulated "information service" and not a phone company. Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: nstrom@ananzi.co.za (Nathan Strom) Subject: Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System Date: 6 Jun 2005 08:49:10 -0700 TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Steve Sobol : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In much of the midwest area now, Amoco > does business as 'The Standard Oil Division of Amoco Oil Company'. PAT] All the Amoco stations near me in CT have re-branded in the past couple years to BP. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I try not to think much about Chicago in recent years, but I think my brother told me that Amoco stations around Chicago are no longer 'Standard Oil Division of Amoco' but now are a sort of green color with the BP signs on them. I really do not know for sure. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 6 Jun 2005 09:34:28 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Fred Atkinson wrote: > Sadly, they do these things without looking at how it adversely > affects faculty and staff and what it may deprive the kids of. On the > latter, ham radio is a very educational hobby and they shouldn't be > denying the kids access to information about it. Yes, I think that restricting web access at school and some workplaces is probably a very good thing. What is bad is that it is usually done by people who don't know very much about the web or about the blocking technology, and it is often done by management folks who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. There are other work environments where blocking any traffic is a very bad thing. I work at a government facility where pornographic sites are blocked. To my mind, it would be much more effective just to fire people who spend their workday looking at porn on the internet; in this case network blocking results in employees being retained who would be better off gone. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 6 Jun 2005 06:58:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Fred Atkinson wrote: > I ask you what is the difference between reading about it on the > Internet and reading about it in a library? Would you advocate > removing books like that from the library simply because *you* think > that they don't 'need' to read them? And it's a damned sight better > thing for a kid to be doing with his or her time than getting involved > with the wrong crowd or worse. You must remember that the contents of libraries have always been "censored", though perhaps the better word is "selected". For younger readers, books are selected appropriate to their reading skill as well as their age. Most 12 year olds would not know what to do with ancient literature written in the original Greek or Latin, and such books would be inappropriate for them. A second consideration is book quality. There are lots and lots of books out there on any given subject, including "vanity" books published by the authors themselves. Quality varies dramatically. Libraries attempt (not always successfully) to use generally respected and quality works. Lastly, some common sense is applied. Should a children's or school library really contain books on bomb-making or other extremely intense subjects? As to the Internet: There is a great deal of mis-information out there, some of it even dangerous. Anybody can set up a site and put anything they want on it; that by no means makes it authoritative or appropriate. Even legitimate organizations screw up on their Internet sites by failing to keep the information timely and accurate. > Sorry to come down on you this hard, but limiting student access to > information simply because we think they don't 'need' access to it > is a pretty short sighted opinion for an educator to take. As mentioned, student "access" is already quite limited in many ways. ------------------------------ From: John Smith Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 03:47:27 GMT Anony Mouse wrote: > My father went down to the school and told the principal and the vice > principals that he'd swear out a warrant for the arrest of those > students if they laid another hand on me. All they did was warn the > students that my father would have them arrested if they touched me > again. They told both of us that they wouldn't take any action > against those boys because they were afraid of the Civil Liberties > Union (they actually told us that the ACLU would intervene if they > even took those boys off the bus route). Well, that's rubbish of course, and it's reprehensible that school officials would try to blame their own nonfeasance on the ACLU. Or did the principle think that there is a "right to beat people up" in the Bill of Rights? If that happened today, the parent would sue not only the boys, but the school system itself, for having such bone-headed administrators. And win. And even with the strong tenure laws in my state, those idiots would be out looking for work. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 10:46:21 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > Robert Bonomi wrote: >> Yuppers. First Amendment means that, as a government agency, you >> cannot monitor/filter/block/etc what students _say_ in outgoing >> email. (It's even a seriously sticky situation in government agencies >> with their employees.) > Sorry, but I know too many government agencies that have strict rules > on what their employees may say using any government equipment, and > AFAIK these rules are perfectly legal and upheld. Generally, true, *today*. There is a _long_ history of attempts at such rules that have been held partially or wholly void, necessitating re-writes. Government-as-employer is a _very_ complex legal situation. There is a difficult balancing act between exercise of 'rights' _as_employer_ and infringing on the 'civil rights' of the employee. There are very few 'employer rights' that a governmental entity cannot exercise, *BUT*, in many cases, they must be _very_careful_ in regard to how they go about exercising those rights, and what advance notifications are given. What you 'know' simply establishes that a path through the swamp has been successfully charted. The swamp is still there. > Employees have been terminated over violations and their unions were > unable to do anything. Shop stewards have been fired and union > activists convicted of trespassing for exceeding the boundaries of > these rules. Says a lot about the intelligence/wisdom (or lack thereof) of shop stewards and union activists, doesn't it? > A government agency may secretly monitor employees' phone calls and > computer use without any warning or notice. > I assure you the unions would've fought this stuff if they could've. > Further, agencies have rules regarding public statements, such as that > external questions have to be forwarded to the designated public > affairs officer. > Just because something is publicly funded does not change every rule > or policy. > I think what you folks are confusing is the right of students and > goverment employees to freely speak outside of school or work. That > is protected speech. But inside the building, especially on > government owned facilities -- computers, phones, bulletin boards*, > etc., you do not have that protection. The bodies of law regarding what is allowable 'in school', and 'at work' are _significantly_ different. The body of law regarding what is allowable/acceptable in a government work-place is significantly different that what is allowable/ acceptable in a private employer's workplace. >> On the other hand, you _can_ ban individuals from using the equipment >> _at_all_, if you have a rational reason for doing so. > Equipment may be assigned or not assigned to individuals as the > administration sees fit in school or in industry. >> Silly as it seems on the face of it, restricting them from 'saying >> anything' it not the First Amendment problem that restricting them >> from 'saying *specific* things' is. > Sorry, but rules do exist prohibiting "specific things" in government > and in schools. > My local library requires a signature observing their rules on using > their public computers. Would you care to itemize the 'saying specific things' forbidden by those rules? > Just because someone is publicly funded does not mean the individual > using it has unlimited rights over it. When you drive a car on a > public road or visit a public park you must obey the law on usage. Apparently, you missed -- or didn't think it significant -- the word "saying" in the phrase 'saying *specific* things'. Use of public roads, or public parks, has *nothing* to do with 1st Amend rights. That aside, Because something _is_ publicly funded, and made available to the public, 'at large', *does* mean that there are restrictions and limitations that the government can exercise over what 'the public' can do on/with that 'something'. > There is no such thing as unlimited free speech. Try screaming a > tirade at your neighbor and you'll get a summons for disorderly > conduct. There are many examples. Which has nothing to do with 'free speech', in point of fact. The summons is for _how_ you did things, not _what_ you said. Regulating/restricting the _content_ of speech has very high barriers to overcome. Regulating/restricting the _form_ of speech faces far, _far_ lower barriers. > Indeed, lately many people have objected toward the expression of > religion in public schools and some courts have upheld restrictions on > that. For example, a school choir was forbidden by the courts to sing > black spiritual gospel songs even as an all-volunteer after school > activity. > As Pat said, administrative convenience is important or schools and > government would grind to a halt mired in bureaucracy. Yes, different > states and municipalities do vary, but this is the way it is. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is also important to remember the > difference between someone who is _governed by the government_ versus > someone who is _employed by the government_ (except as the government > employee happens to coincidentally also be a citizen). Things like > the First Amendment theoretically serve as protection for those who > are being governed. While it is grossly inconvenient for most of us > to choose some other governor, on the other hand we have no automatic > right to _employment_ by the government. Because of the inconvenience > or impossibility for us to change governors, we therefore get the > protection of things like the Bill of Right, which do not have to be > given to a 'mere' employee, of the government or otherwise. And > administrative convenience is given much weight in the courts. The > goverment says 'it is more convenient for us to have person X do our > speaking for us, and for persons Y and Z to keep quiet.' And the > courts have occassionally ruled that this is _not_ a violation of > persons Y and Z 'free speech rights'. Certainly any person being > governed can speak _about_ the government, but they cannot speak _for_ > the government nor mislead any reasonable person to think that is > what they are doing. PAT] Pat, you may want to re-think your position. I'm in _complete_ agreement with your comments. :) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is to Lisa Hancock regards the school choir denied the right to sing their songs even as an after school volunteer activity. The same thing happened several years ago in Chicago, compliments of the boneheads at the ACLU. So the kids at the school got even, with help from their choirmaster and the parents. Their after school activity withdrew _any and all_ affiliation with the public schools. They made it plain in their concert programs that they were _NOT_ affiliated in any way with the Chicago Public Schools. They further noted in their concert programs that their choirmaster and musicians were employed _by the choir_, and not by the Chicago Public Schools. "Although most members of our choir are in fact students in the Chicago Public Schools, and occassionally it is convenient for the choir to rent an auditorium facility from the Chicago Public Schools to give performances, we have absolutely no connection with the Chicago Public Schools." They gave programs of choral music by Bach, Handel and Mozart. _Tough stuff_ and always excellently done. Of course, much of it made reference to God or (in the case of some of Handel's oratorios), passages of scripture. Stuff that almost caused me to faint, it was that well done. And when asked why they were not affiliated with one of the schools, the choirmaster would always say afterward, _now_ do you see why we have no affiliation with the Chicago Public Schools? We would not be allowed to do what we want to do. We do not sing and play for the lowest common denominator, which is what would be expected of us, and all we would be allowed. A couple of the school system's principals, who were still a bit sensitive to when the choir and their choirmaster had 'pulled out of school' responded by saying, "Well, you don't have to be so snotty about it!" ... but the choirmaster's response was that just because the schools would only allow very bland and generic 'jingle bells' songs at Christmas did not mean _they_ had to, or intended to settle for that. PAT] ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: SEX.COM Owner Arrested for Child Molestation; Heroin Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 14:40:59 -0400 nancyhoward2@gmail.com wrote: > Dr. Adrian Copeland, a psychiatrist who works with sexual offenders > at the Peters Institute in Philadelphia, said that, from his > experience, pedophiles tend to be homosexual Really? On what planet is that? I just plain find that hard to believe. Does not jibe with what I have seen at all. In fact every molestor I have had the misfortune to meet seemed to prefer women (that is if they had to have an adult as a partner) > and "40% to 45%" of child molesters have had "significant > homosexual experiences." LOL. I'd bet non-molester stats for males are quite similar. It's just easier to get men to admit to it when you are a police officer interrogating them. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Look Sean, I've already written off Nancy Howard as a troublemaker; let's just forget about her. 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, Yahoo Groups, 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: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #252 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 6 21:22:31 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 4DD7114DA1; Mon, 6 Jun 2005 21:22:31 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #253 Message-Id: <20050607012231.4DD7114DA1@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 21:22:31 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 6 Jun 2005 21:23:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 253 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson United Airlines Cleared for Wi-Fi Onboard (Monty Solomon) The Front Lines - June 6, 2005 (Jonathan Marashlian) I-Mate PDA2k For Sale (Joseph Adams) United to Announce Approval of Wi-Fi Service (Telecom dailyLead USTA) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Steve Sobol) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Thomas A. Horsley) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (Steve Sobol) Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell (Lisa Hancock) Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell (Steve Sobol) Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell (Robert Bonomi) Re: Known Spam Sites (Steve Sobol) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 18:07:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: United Airlines Cleared for Wi-Fi Onboard NEW YORK (AP) -- United Airlines, the world's second-largest carrier, received regulatory approval Monday to install wireless Internet access to its fleet in a partnership with Verizon Communications Inc. The Federal Aviation Administration gave approval to United-parent UAL Corp. to install the cabin equipment necessary to provide wireless Internet connection to passengers and crew members on U.S. domestic flights. United becomes the first domestic airline to get FAA approval that allows passengers to surf the Internet while riding through the sky. United Airlines and Verizon, which already provides airfone capabilities for the carrier, said it must still get approval from the Federal Communications Commission before the new service can officially launch. Both companies expect to have a date within the coming months, following an FCC spectrum auction where service rights and ranges of frequencies will be awarded to one or more onboard Internet access providers. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49673074 ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Marashlian Subject: The Front Lines - June 6, 2005 Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 15:54:21 -0400 Organization: The Helein Law Group http://www.thefrontlines-hlg.com/ The FRONT LINES http://www.thlglaw.com/ Advancing The Cause of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry FCC RELEASES ORDER REQUIRING INTERCONNECTED VOIP PROVIDERS TO OFFER E911 SERVICE WITHIN 120 DAYS; PROPOSES FURTHER RULEMAKING TO INVESTIGATE E911 REQUIREMENTS FOR "PORTABLE" VOIP On June 3, 2005, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the text of its May 19th decision requiring "interconnected" Voice over IP providers to offer customers E911/911 emergency calling services within 120 days of the effective date of its Order. The strict deadline will mean that VoIP providers offering services that satisfy the FCC's definition of an "interconnected VoIP services" must begin offering E911/911 to customers who utilize interconnected VoIP services at fixed locations sometime around October of this year. The E911 rules apply to those VoIP services that can be used to receive telephone calls that originate on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and can be used to terminate calls to the PSTN -- such services being labeled by the FCC as "interconnected VoIP services." The FCC elaborates on its definition, as follows: "If a VoIP service subscriber is able to receive calls from other VoIP service users and from telephones connected to the PSTN, and is able to place calls to other VoIP service user and to telephones connected to the PSTN, a customer reasonably could expect to be able to dial 911 using that service to access appropriate emergency services. Thus, [the FCC] believes that a service that enables a customer to do everything (or nearly everything) the customer could do using an analog telephone, and more, can at least reasonably be expected and required to route 911 calls to the appropriate destination. . [t]hus, an interconnected VoIP service is one we define for purposes of the present Order as bearing the following characteris- tics: (1) the service enables real-time, two-way voice communications; (2) the service requires a broadband connection from the user's location; (3) the service requires IP-compatible CPE; and (4) the service offering permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the PSTN and to terminate calls to the PSTN." The Rules require that, within 120 days of the Order's effective date, all entities satisfying the definition of an interconnected VoIP service provider must transmit all 911 calls, as well as a call back number and the caller's "Registered Location" for each call, to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), designated statewide default answering point, or appropriate local emergency authority that serves the caller's Registered Location and that has been designated for telecommunications carriers under section 64.3001 of the FCC's Rules. These calls must be routed through the use of ANI and, if necessary, pseudo-ANI, via the dedicated Wireline E911 Network, and the Registered Location must be available from or through the ALI Database. The FCC recognizes that its 120 day implementation deadline is "aggressive." However, the FCC concluded that the threat to public safety exceeded any burdens on interconnected VoIP providers. The FCC offered the following advice: "Interconnected VoIP providers may satisfy [FCC Rules] by interconnecting [with the PSAP or appropriate emergency services contact point] indirectly through a third party such as a competitive LEC. or through any other solution that allows a provider to offer E911 services [as required by the FCC's Rules]. Although the FCC notes that an increasing number of incumbent LECs have announced their intentions to make E911/911 access available to VoIP providers on commercial terms, the Rules adopted by the FCC neither mandate nor direct incumbent LECs to provide access pursuant any defined regulations. The FCC does imply, however, that ILECs that refuse to offer E911/911 services on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis could be subject to formal complaints and/or enforcement proceedings under Sections 201/202 of the Telecom Act. The Rules adopted by the FCC will, for the most part, rely on customers to self-report his or her location to the service provider. The FCC noted, however, that in the future it intends to adopt an advanced E911 solution that must include a method for determining a user's location without assistance from the user. In part to achieve this goal, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comments on E911/911 rules for "portable" VoIP services. Comments are due 45 days after publication of the FCC's notice in the Federal Register and Replies are due 75 days after publication. If you have any questions or concerns regarding how the FCC Order affects your business, you should contact your existing regulatory attorney, if you have one. You may also contact our firm for a consultation: (703) 714-1313, e-mail: jsm@thlglaw.com . The Front Lines is a free publication of The Helein Law Group, LLLP, providing clients and interested parties with valuable information, news, and updates regarding regulatory and legal developments primarily impacting companies engaged in the competitive telecommunications industry. The Front Lines does not purport to offer legal advice nor does it establish a lawyer-client relationship with the reader. If you have questions about a particular article, general concerns, or wish to seek legal counsel regarding a specific regulatory or legal matter affecting your company, please contact our firm at 703-714-1313 or visit our website: http://www.thlglaw.com/ www.THLGlaw.com The Helein Law Group, LLLP 8180 Greensboro Drive, Suite 700 McLean, Virginia 22102 THLG Affiliations: http://www.voicelog.com/ http://www.voicelog.com/ ------------------------------ From: Joseph Adams Subject: I-Mate PDA2k For Sale Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 00:45:01 +0700 Hello, I am interested in the phone model pasted above and would like to know if its still available and what the firm price is. Get back to me as soon as possbile to know the next possible step to take. Regards, Joseph Adams ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:06:19 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: United to announce approval of Wi-Fi service Telecom dailyLead from USTA June 6, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=3D22122&l=3D2017006 NEWS OF THE DAY * United to announce approval of Wi-Fi service BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * AT&T, Microsoft to deliver communications services * Siemens mulls future of mobile phone unit * Apple to use Intel chips * Sprint readies for paradigm shift USTA SPOTLIGHT * SUPERCOMM AE Takes Center Stage This Week in Chicago HOT TOPICS * SBC trims price for DSL service * Sony offers video calling * SBC to move ahead with video plans * CIOs offer tips on VoIP implementation * Alcatel goes GPON, plans wireless networking rollout EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Covad, EarthLink to offer Internet phone service REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Qwest sues Utah's UTOPIA Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22122&l=3D2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 14:41:23 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Steven Lichter wrote: > I have seen both, more from the mailing though. Thanks for the feedback. I wish GoDaddy didn't sell bulk email services at all. :-/ Time to go rattle some cages. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 23:55:41 GMT > For younger readers, books are selected appropriate to their reading > skill as well as their age. Most 12 year olds would not know what to > do with ancient literature written in the original Greek or Latin, and > such books would be inappropriate for them. Good theory, but my experience doesn't seem to jibe with it: I was in Grady Elementary school in Tampa many long decades ago. The school went through 6th grade, no higher grades around. I was also in 6th grade, highest grade taught at the school. I tried to check out a Sherlock Holmes book from the library, and the librarian wouldn't let me because it was "too hard" for a 6th grader (not true, by the way). What was it doing in the library if 6th graders shouldn't be reading it? More important, why would a librarian object to a kid attempting a little brain stretching even if it was too hard? Thus began my lifelong love affair with bookstores and shunning of libraries (perhaps the real story behind the librarian's actions involved some kind of guerilla marketing campaign by bookstores to turn kids off of libraries while they are young and impressionable :-). -- >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 14:42:37 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Joseph wrote: > Maybe it has to do with the way GSM works. You didn't mention AT&T > Wireless or Cingular. Only because I refuse to use Cingular and have never used AT&T Wireless -- I only have experience with CDMA carriers. But you may be correct. > SMS is part of the GSM spec. I don't know if > that's the case with CDMA. The question of disabling SMS (text > messaging) has come up before in other T-Mobile related forums and the > answer has always been no on phone originated SMS but is available to > turn off email SMS. mmm ... maybe someone over in the GSM newsgroup knows. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System Date: 6 Jun 2005 14:12:42 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Mark Cuccia prepared an interesting history of Standard Oil and some > In 1882, the New Jersey branch of Standard Oil was started. A trust > was formed as Standard Oil began to buy out or took control of other > smaller "independent" oil companies. A reorganization of the trust in > 1889 made Standard Oil of New Jersey the holding or parent company of > the entire Standard Oil organization. Misc observations ... As I understand it, the massive Rockefeller Standard Oil fortune was made on mostly kerosene, which was sold for lighting. I think they even threw gasoline away since there was so little use for it. Natural gas, of great value today, was thrown away for years. I don't think in those days there was much demand for heating oil as coal was cheaper and used in most applications. There's a great book, based on a PBS special "The Prize" which is an excellent history of the oil industry until around 1980. I understand today, based on the roads newsgroup, that it's very hard to tell what gasoline you are buying. Apparently there are many layers of owners between getting the oil from the ground, transporting it, refining it, and delivering it to your local gas station. People say all gasoline is the same. All I know is my car will knock from certain gas stations but not on others (on regular gas). I can't help but suspect certain stations use cheaper grades of gas than others. I don't know if there's any audit of gasoline quality. Govt agents check pump volumes very carefully, but do they check octane and purity? I don't know understand why one gas station will be boarded up but a new built a block or two away. Many service stations had only a pay telephone as their service. I believe that was called "semi-public" coin service and the property owner had to pay up if the coin box failed to meet a minimum amount. Sometimes those pay phones had non-dial extensions in a back room; if so the pay phone would have a flip sign over the coin slot warning to listen first. I last saw such an installation about 3 years ago, I don't know if it is offered today. There are fewer gas stations with service bays these days, many have either nothing at all or a convenience store instead. These places also had those LOUD outdoor ringers. Of course today you can buy gas self service sticking your debit card in the slot without any human intervention. Obviously there's a data link a little fancier than a payphone. Some brands have a keychain device for even faster purchases. Some gas stations have a satellite dish on the roof, again, fancier than the payphone. In WW II the govt naturally wanted to simplify shipping goods to the front as much as possible. But there were two types of gasoline required: Leaded gas was needed for motor vehicles, but unleaded was needed for heaters and field cooking stoves (lead would clog the stove.) Apparently gasoline was used as a heating fuel way back when but not anymore. I know of one gas station that still has phone booths and they have the Verizon name on them. Will have to get a picture. Most gas station public phones are pedestal mounted and COCOTS. In some cities, coal was used for school building heater much later than normal (oil had taken over). I believe pressure from the coal miners forced the city to stick with coal. I wonder if they still use coal or since converted. My parents somehow converted their home from coal to oil during WW II (I would've thought it'd be rationed and not permitted). My mother said coal heat was miserable and oil was a huge blessing. When the 1970s energy crises came and some people thought about coal to save money, my mother thought they were crazy. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 14:46:49 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Nathan Strom wrote: > All the Amoco stations near me in CT have re-branded in the past > couple years to BP. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I try not to think much about Chicago > in recent years, but I think my brother told me that Amoco stations > around Chicago are no longer 'Standard Oil Division of Amoco' but now > are a sort of green color with the BP signs on them. I really do not > know for sure. PAT] I was in the northwest suburbs of Chicago for a few days at the end of '03 and the few former Amoco stations I saw had been rebranded. I'd heard that they'd retain the Amoco branding, but considering that they moved their US operations from Cleveland to Chicago when they bought Amoco**, I'd have been surprised if they *didn't* rebrand the Amoco stations. --SJS **This would be the second time they moved their US headquarters, having moved from Atlanta to Cleveland when they bought Sohio. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 22:28:05 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Nathan Strom wrote: > TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Steve Sobol > : >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In much of the midwest area now, Amoco >> does business as 'The Standard Oil Division of Amoco Oil Company'. PAT] > All the Amoco stations near me in CT have re-branded in the past couple > years to BP. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I try not to think much about Chicago > in recent years, but I think my brother told me that Amoco stations > around Chicago are no longer 'Standard Oil Division of Amoco' but now > are a sort of green color with the BP signs on them. I really do not > know for sure. PAT] The AMOCO label has been gone from the Chicago area for several years. They're all BP now. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Known Spam Sites Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 14:43:30 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com John Smith wrote: > Unless the sites were being HOSTED by GoDaddy, what do you expect them > to do? It's the hosting company on whose servers the spammers are > operating that has the power to stop them. Godaddy's policy on domain name regs is to nuke registrations of domains that spam. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ 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, Yahoo Groups, 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: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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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 fifty 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 V24 #253 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jun 7 15:06:47 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 1656314F26; Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:06:47 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #254 Message-Id: <20050607190647.1656314F26@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:06:47 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:05:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 254 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Seattle Tops List of Wireless Web Communities (Lisa Minter) Bellsouth to Launch Wireless Broadband Service (Lisa Minter) China to Close Unregistered Web Sites (Lisa Minter) BenQ Gets Control of Siemens' Mobile Phone Unit (Telecom dailyLead USTA) QuickTime 7 for Windows Public Preview (Monty Solomon) Coal, was: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil/Bell (D Burstein) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Gary Novosielski) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Gary Novosielski) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Lisa Hancock) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (John R. Levine) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (pieterek@spamcop.net) Re: Wrong Time Shown in Vonage Caller ID (DevilsPGD) Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil/Bell (Justin Time) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Seattle Tops List of Wireless Web Communities Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:11:12 -0500 Maybe it's the rain that encouraged Seattle's residents to stay indoors, sipping their lattes and surfing the Web wirelessly, that made the northwest city this year's most 'unwired' city, according to a survey released on Tuesday. The study, sponsored by Intel Corp., showed that Seattle had more places for its residents to connect to the Internet via wireless, or Wi-Fi, hot spots than any other U.S. city. Coffee-sipping laptop users are a common sight in Seattle, Washington, the birthplace of Starbucks Corp. that also has software giant Microsoft Corp. in the nearby suburb of Redmond. Second on the list was San Francisco's metropolitan area, followed by Austin, Texas. Fourth was another northwestern city, Portland, Oregon, and fifth was Toledo, Ohio. The survey for 2005's "Most Unwired Cities" was based on the number of access points at commercial, public, airport, and other locations among the top 100 metropolitan areas in the United States. Following is a complete list of the top ten unwired places in the United States: 1. Seattle, Washington 2. San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland, California 3. Austin, Texas 4. Portland, Oregon-Vancouver, Washington 5. Toledo, Ohio 6. Atlanta, Georgia 7. Denver, Colorado 8. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina 9. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota 10. Orange County, California Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Bellsouth to Launch Wireless Broadband Service Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:12:25 -0500 BellSouth Corp., the No. 3 U.S. local telephone company, said on Tuesday it would launch a wireless high-speed Internet service for residential customers based on an early version of the WiMax technology backed by Intel Corp. BellSouth and other telecommunications companies have been testing WiMax as a cheaper alternative for connecting hard-to-reach customers or replacing more expensive wired data links. BellSouth said it would offer the service starting in August in Athens, Georgia, and would expand to several cities in Florida later this year. The company did not release details on prices or data speeds for the service. Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is pushing WiMax as a way to spread cheap yet ubiquitous wireless broadband access, as well as a future driver of chips and notebook computer sales. With Intel's muscle behind the WiMax push, some 240 companies have joined the industry group developing standards and equipment. Certified WiMax equipment has yet to go on sale, but several companies sell "pre-WiMax" gear based on early versions of the standards. BellSouth said its service would use equipment from privately-owned Navini Networks. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: China to Close Unregistered Web Sites Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:14:10 -0500 China is to close unregistered China-based domestic Web sites and blogs, a media watchdog said, as the government tightens its grip on the Internet. Popular domestic Web portals are already pressured not to publish sensitive news and voluntarily patrol chatrooms and other areas of their sites for "politically incorrect" or "unapproved" statements and delete them. Beijing announced in March that every China-based Web site now had to register and provide complete information on its organizers by June 30 or face being declared illegal, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders group said in a statement seen on Tuesday. "The plan is all the more worrying as the government has also revealed that it has a new system for monitoring sites in real time and spotting those that fail to comply," Reporters Without Borders said. "This decision will enable those in power to control online news and information much more effectively." Around three-quarters of domestic Web sites had complied with the registration orders, Reporters Without Borders quoted official Chinese figures as saying. A report released by the OpenNet Initiative in April called China the world's leading censor of the Internet and said the government employed thousands of officials and private citizens to monitor and control online content. But for all of Beijing's efforts to rein in the medium, pockets of free speech have appeared in Internet chatrooms and blogs. "The authorities also hope to push the most outspoken online sites to migrate abroad, where they will become inaccessible to those inside China because of the Chinese filtering systems," Reporters Without Borders said. Beijing regularly blocks access to some foreign Web pages, including sites run by Chinese dissidents living in exile abroad. China is the world's second-largest Internet market, with about 100 million users and the number is growing. It is also the world's largest jailer of cyber dissidents, having detained more than 60 people for expressing their views online, according to a Reporters Without Borders report from last June. Copyright 2005 Christian Science Monitor. See http://csmonitor.com daily for news. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Christian Science Publishing Society. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although this will not happen anytime soon, I think we can expect to see the United States begin to clamp down on 'unapproved' and 'unregistered' web sites in the future. It is just a matter of time until the government gets a belly-full of the spam/scam/porn-ridden internet and decides to crack down hard. I mean, the s/s/p ridden internet is not an exception to the rule; it _is_ the rule and has been for a few years now. Watch and see ... at some point the little porky pig character will step out on the stage and say 'thats it, folks'. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:59:23 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: BenQ Gets Control of Siemens' Mobile Phone Unit Telecom dailyLead from USTA June 7, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22153&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * BenQ gets control of Siemens' mobile phone unit BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Qwest eyes XO, source says * Adelphia, ML Media sell cable venture in Puerto Rico * Analysis: AOL's content strategy * News from SUPERCOMM USTA SPOTLIGHT * SUPERCOMM® Exhibits Open Today in Chicago EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Seattle claims "unwired" top spot REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC makes E911 order official Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22153&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 23:20:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: QuickTime 7 for Windows Public Preview QuickTime 7 for Windows Public Preview http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/preview/ Welcome to QuickTime 7, the latest version of the world's most advanced digital media technology. Download the public preview to get a first look at the exciting new features in QuickTime 7 for Windows. http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/preview/ ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Coal, was From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 01:19:47 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: > In some cities, coal was used for school building heater much later > than normal (oil had taken over). I believe pressure from the coal > miners forced the city to stick with coal. I wonder if they still use > coal or since converted. A hefty number of NYC public schools used coal until about five years ago, so you'll probably still see lots of references to them. Actually, for a school, with a fairly large and high pressure boiler system, and with professionally licensed/trained operators [a], coal is not too bad an idea. Provided, of course, that you're using modern equipment. [a] for the most part, high prssure boiler operators in NYC are pretty competent. Yes, there's the periodic news clip about the usual kickbacks and licensing games common in any gov't agency, but most of the folk involved take this stuff seriously. The problem in NYC was that these were _ancient_ boiler systems. Some had _manual_ stokers (aka "firemen") who shoveled the coal in. And there was not even a hint of combustion control or pollution reduction. (And these firemen, unlike the ones on diesel trains, were actually working hard for their money...). As part of the deal in selling the public on an environmental bond issue, the city and state promised to replace all the coal boilers with either natural gas or oil. And, amazingly enough, they did it pretty close to schedule. Last time I looked some of them still had "temporary" trailer-mounted boilers on the sidewalk, but those were the exception. Personally I think we'd have been better off upgrading the coal systems and, for that matter, placing baseload electrical generators in the schools as well, but no one asked me. NYC's local oil distribution was pretty maxed out a few years ago, and that modest demand increase by the schools had a pretty large impact on fuel prices. And, if you want to see what General Electric is thinking about coal, check out their very, err, unique advert. I've put a QuickTime version of it up at: http://www.panix.com/~dannyb/video/16-tons-cdr.mov _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'd personally like to see more wide- spread research/development/use of solar power, especially for things like heating our homes in the winter. Oops, I forgot to include the mantra from the petroleum industry on this: "Solar power is not practical nor efficient." PAT] ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: 6 Jun 2005 18:11:29 -0700 Steve Sobol wrote: > Steven Lichter wrote: >> I have seen both, more from the mailing though. > Thanks for the feedback. I wish GoDaddy didn't sell bulk email > services at all. :-/ Time to go rattle some cages. > Nalick, "Breathe" Go to GoDaddy.com on Wednesday evening, they set up a chat room to go along with their streaming radio show. You can even call up an 800 number to get on "air" I think. ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 03:27:55 GMT Steve Sobol wrote: > But the question is ... are you seeing emails coming from GoDaddy > customers using their mailing list product? Or are you just seeing > lots of spam from GoDaddy-registered domains? Both are bad. I'd argue > that the former is a lot worse. Since GoDaddy is a fast-growing registrar, it's likely that a lot of mail, even mail with forged From: addresses, may come from a GoDaddy -registered domain. But registrars can't be expected to filter prospective registrants to remove potential, or even actual, spammers. All a registrar does is point a domain name to a name server. It has no part in transmitting the message, nor any idea what's in it. It's the Internet service provider or web hosting company that should field complaints and terminate the service of spammers. Since GoDaddy also does hosting, it's possible they might be on the hook for this, but I had the impression that the original complaint was that some domain in the e-mail headers was had been registered through GoDaddy, as confirmed by a whois search. If that's all it is, then it's not really a fair gripe. But I've re-read the messages and still can't tell for sure exactly how GoDaddy is accused of being involved. Come to think of it, I can't recall ever before seeing a complaint that tried to take a domain name registrar to task for the actions of the owners of the domains. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would like to ask you just one question: _Why_ can't a registrar be expected to screen potential or actual spammers? If registrars started doing that, they'd be heros in the eyes of most netters. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 03:29:34 GMT Fred Atkinson wrote: > Sorry to come down on you this hard, but limiting student access to > information simply because we think they don't 'need' access to it is > a pretty short sighted opinion for an educator to take. You're presuming that it's educators who are in favor of blocking technology, but I think that's jumping to an unsupported conclusion. Educators and, to an even greater extent, librarians are mostly opposed to arbitrary blocking software and other automated solutions to this "problem". But the religious fundamentalists now in control of the federal government have forced local schools to install blocking software, ignoring all the facts and figures (and plain old first-hand experience) that show it's useless, just so they can say they're "protecting the children". Sometimes, local school boards will get pressure to "do something" from parent groups who have been panicked by some sensationalized story in the press about child molesters and porno pushers on the Net. Blocking access lets them say they've acted to solve the "problem", which is a whole lot easier than educating parents on the real dangers and the remedies that really work. As a result, students who try to do a report on breast cancer will usually be unable to access any information on the subject because "breast" is on the list of evil keywords. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 7 Jun 2005 09:07:12 -0700 Robert Bonomi wrote: >> Sorry, but I know too many government agencies that have strict rules >> on what their employees may say using any government equipment, and >> AFAIK these rules are perfectly legal and upheld. > Generally, true, *today*. There is a _long_ history of attempts at > such rules that have been held partially or wholly void, necessitating > re-writes. Until around 1975 government employees were under many restrictions. There was a law, the Hatch Act, that prohibited politicking by government employees. That made sense in the idea it was to avoid government employees serving as patronage or beholden to elected officials for their jobs. Until that time Federal employees had to sign off that they weren't Communists. They didn't even want to see bumper stickers on cars in employee parking lots. They wanted the appearance of strict neutrality. The laws today are different. There certainly does remain some restrictions within the workplace. > Government-as-employer is a _very_ complex legal situation. There is a > difficult balancing act between exercise of 'rights' _as_employer_ and > infringing on the 'civil rights' of the employee. ALL employers face many regulations. That is one of the motivations for established companies to dump long-time employees and go to outsourcing or contract workers. > The body of law regarding what is allowable/acceptable in a government > work-place is significantly different that what is allowable/ > acceptable in a private employer's workplace. There is substantial variety among government employers and private employers. But I am not aware of "significant" differences between public and private as to day-to-day workplace activity. (There may be differences in hiring and firing procedures on account of civil service, but some unionized private companies aren't very different in that regard. >> Sorry, but rules do exist prohibiting "specific things" in government >> and in schools. > Would you care to itemize the 'saying specific things' forbidden by > those rules? Among other things: 1) No pornography. 2) Illegal pornography will be turned over to the police. 3) No harassment (per sexual harassment standards). 4) No non-work related material (doesn't apply in the library). 5) No release of private or restricted information. 6) Compliance with policy on inter-dept communications (doesn't apply in the library). 7) Compliance with various technical rules to protect system integrity. > That aside, Because something _is_ publicly funded, and made available > to the public, 'at large', *does* mean that there are restrictions and > limitations that the government can exercise over what 'the public' > can do on/with that 'something'. There are restrictions on EVERYTHING in this world. A building has to comply with zoning and fire codes. A private building open to the public (ie a store or restaurant) must comply with further regulations. None the less, within the law, owners of property, BOTH government or private, may enact their own rules of conduct and procedure within their properties. Years ago (before the laws), a governmentn director banned smoking in his dept, for example. Certain attire may be required, for example. Indeed, in some cases government employees have more restrictions than private employees, such as poll workers and cops showing neutrality while on duty during an election. > Which has nothing to do with 'free speech', in point of fact. The > summons is for _how_ you did things, not _what_ you said. It has EVERYTHING to do with what is SAID. If I threaten to kill you, you can have me arrested and convicted for making threats. Other statements can result in conviction for disorderly conduct or harassment. If I libel or slander you, you can sue me for damages. > Regulating/restricting the _content_ of speech has very high barriers > to overcome. > Regulating/restricting the _form_ of speech faces far, _far_ lower > barriers. The barriers are not as high as you think. Further, many argue (I don't quite agree) that regulating the form of speech effectively limits the content of speech. For instance, some demand that free speech be allowed in shopping malls (which are private property) because the malls are the "new Main Street". Courts have been mixed on that. Many advocates argue that standing on a corner handing out leaflets (a very classic form of free speech) has so little impact that they should be allowed stronger forms of speech. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is also important to remember the >> difference between someone who is _governed by the government_ versus >> someone who is _employed by the government_ (except as the government >> employee happens to coincidentally also be a citizen). ... >> administrative convenience is given much weight in the courts. Pat's position is 100% correct and a good view of it. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is to Lisa Hancock regards the > school choir denied the right to sing their songs even as an after > school volunteer activity. The same thing happened several years ago > in Chicago, compliments of the boneheads at the ACLU. So the kids at > the school got even, with help from their choirmaster and the parents. > Their after school activity withdrew _any and all_ affiliation with > the public schools. They made it plain in their concert programs that > they were _NOT_ affiliated in any way with the Chicago Public Schools. > They further noted in their concert programs that their choirmaster > and musicians were employed _by the choir_, and not by the Chicago > Public Schools. "Although most members of our choir are in fact > students in the Chicago Public Schools, and occassionally it is > convenient for the choir to rent an auditorium facility from the > Chicago Public Schools to give performances, we have absolutely no > connection with the Chicago Public Schools." They gave programs of > choral music by Bach, Handel and Mozart. _Tough stuff_ and always > excellently done. Of course, much of it made reference to God or > (in the case of some of Handel's oratorios), passages of scripture. > Stuff that almost caused me to faint, it was that well done. And > when asked why they were not affiliated with one of the schools, the > choirmaster would always say afterward, _now_ do you see why we have > no affiliation with the Chicago Public Schools? We would not be > allowed to do what we want to do. We do not sing and play for the > lowest common denominator, which is what would be expected of us, > and all we would be allowed. A couple of the school system's > principals, who were still a bit sensitive to when the choir and > their choirmaster had 'pulled out of school' responded by saying, > "Well, you don't have to be so snotty about it!" ... but the > choirmaster's response was that just because the schools would only > allow very bland and generic 'jingle bells' songs at Christmas did > not mean _they_ had to, or intended to settle for that. PAT] I agree -- this shows that sometimes restricting religion is actually restricting free speech and art and culture. A heck of a lot of classic art and music was religious oriented. The Philadelphia schools had an open access policy for after school activities. The choir happened to be school students and led by a school employee (on her own time) but they did African American gospel singing. They claimed it was cultural. They claimed that since no school money was involved and the school had an open policy their choir should be allowed. The courts ruled against it as being religion practiced in schools. I don't think anybody in the school objected, rather it was external ACLU types who brought a lawsuit. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Did the court actually put the choir out of business? It sounds to me like it did. Did the choir try going the 'free association' direction as the one did in Chicago? That is to say, pick up their music and other belongings (and since it was after school hours) simply skip the premises to do their thing? The ACLU would have probably had a hissy fit if they had done that, or tried to do it. And you see, the 'joke', if you want to call it that, flies back squarely into the faces of the ACLU types. I thought almost _everyone_ knew that a _huge_ amount of the world's greatest classical music and its composers, Bach, Mendelssohn, Handel, Mozart, others, based much of their work on religious themes. And other than the Bible -- the first place winner for much classical music -- who comes in second place? None other than William Shakespeare, i.e. 'Romeo and Juliet' and others from Felix Mendelssohn for example. 'tis a real shame the ACLU has to act so puritanical so much of the time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Date: 6 Jun 2005 23:10:10 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Maybe it has to do with the way GSM works. You didn't mention AT&T > Wireless or Cingular. Cingular has turned off all SMS on my GSM phone other than their own (free) network messages. They said it was the only way to prevent getting postage-due premium SMS spam from sms.ac. I checked, it's really off, SMS sent either from other phones or from email vanishes. R's, John ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 19:58:29 -0500 From: pieterek@spamcop.net Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Steve Sobol wrote: >> John Mayson wrote: >> My wife and I switched to T-Mobile this week. With our particular >> plan all incoming text messages are charged at 5 cents per message. I >> receive about a $1 worth of spam per day. I called T-Mobile, but they >> won't even acknowledge my account exists because I'm not the "primary >> account holder" as my wife actually bought the phones. She's been >> sort of busy and hasn't called them herself. I don't know whether or not T-Mobile can/will disable SMS, but I am a TM subscriber. They are pretty strict about security as far as my dealings with them. When you dial customer care from your mobile, you are asked for your number, area code first, and last 4 digits of the primary account holder's SSN. They did not used to ask for that. When you reach a rep, they ask you to verify name and address and usually (but not always) ask you for your account's password. (I am not making this up; I have always had a password on my T-M account as well, which you can also use on their website). > TM should be no different. It's an account security issue; you DO NOT > want just anyone to be able to call in about your account. I'm with Steve; you do not want just anyone to be calling and messing up your accounts! However, I fail to see how you are getting so much SMS spam (spim?). I have only gotten 2 since I have been with VoiceStream, now T-Mobile ... my SIM card is so old, it still says VStream when I turn my phone on. Maybe you should demand a new number -- the person who had the phone number before you may be the party causing your grief ... Good luck, Claire ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Wrong Time Shown in Vonage Caller ID Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 11:03:27 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message Chris Farrar wrote: > I have a Vonage (Canada) VoIP number and I'm wondering if anyone else > is experiencing this problem. > I'm using an Aastra 392 (aka a Nortel Vista 392 screen phone) 2 line > phone. Line one is on Bell Canada in the 905-282-XXXX exchange. Line > 2 is Vonage Canada through the Linksys PSP2 adapter in the 416-628-XXXX > exchange. > The problem is that the phone with reset the display clock to conform > with the last Caller ID information available. Bell Canada is sending > the correct time (Eastern Daylight Time) on inbound calls, but Vonage > is sending Eastern Standard Time. So whenever I receive a call on > Vonage, my screen phone resets itself to EST, when we are currently in > EDT, and the clock is then 1 hour slow until the next call comes in on > Bell Canada to put it back into EDT. > Theoretically this problem will disappear when we go back to EST in > the fall, but is there a way to get Vonage to update their clock > before then? First, go to your web interface, change the timezone, reset your ATA, see if it changes your CID. If so, change it back and see if you're good to go. If that doesn't help, email Vonage, wait 4 months, receive a response that says "Yes CID is supported", then reply back and explain the issue again and they'll fix it. ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System Date: 7 Jun 2005 05:53:24 -0700 The AMOCO label has been gone from the Chicago area for several years. They're all BP now. And every time I see a BP station I think back to Dick Martin and "You bet your bippee!" Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ 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, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #254 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 8 03:51:30 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id EF24C15106; Wed, 8 Jun 2005 03:51:19 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #255 Message-Id: <20050608075119.EF24C15106@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 03:51:19 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 8 Jun 2005 03:51:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 255 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Personal Data for 3.9 Million Lost in Transit (Monty Solomon) Apple Vows to Make Podcasting Easier (Monty Solomon) Valued Added Caller ID Spoofing (T. Sean Weintz) Cannot Cancel AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage (johnspilker@msn.com) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Steve Sobol) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (John Levine) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (Isaiah Beard) Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell (Steve Sobol) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Robert Bonomi) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Scott Dorsey) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: Coal, was From Our Archives, History of Standard Oil (Thor Simon) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 00:22:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Personal Data for 3.9 Million Lost in Transit By TOM ZELLER Jr. In one of the largest breaches of data security to date, CitiFinancial, the consumer finance subsidiary of Citigroup, announced yesterday that a box of computer tapes containing information on 3.9 million customers was lost by United Parcel Service last month, while in transit to a credit reporting agency. Executives at Citigroup said the tapes were picked up by U.P.S. early in May and had not been seen since. The tapes contained names, addresses, Social Security numbers, account numbers, payment histories and other details on small personal loans made to millions of customers through CitiFinancial's network of more than 1,800 lending branches, or through retailers whose product financing was handled by CitiFinancial's retail services division. The company said there was no indication that the tapes had been stolen or that any of the data in them had been compromised. It was, however, the latest in a series of recent data-security failures involving nearly every kind of institution that compiles personal information -- ranging from data brokers like ChoicePoint and LexisNexis to financial institutions like Bank of America and Wachovia to the media giant Time Warner to universities like Boston College and the University of California, Berkeley. All these institutions have reported data breaches in the last five months, affecting millions of individuals and spurring Congressional hearings and numerous bills aimed at improving security in the handling of sensitive consumer information. The fear is that Social Security numbers, when combined with a consumer's name, address and date of birth, can be used by thieves to open new lines of credit, secure loans and otherwise steal someone's identity. Whether the recently reported breaches indicate an epidemic of data loss is unclear. Many privacy and security advocates have suggested that a California law, requiring that consumers be notified of data security breaches, has led to more confessions of data losses and increased awareness of a longstanding problem. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/07/business/07data.html?ex=1275796800&en=c99c395251d1dec5&ei=5090 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'll tell you the latest thing the phishers are doing: A phisher dressed up like a UPS delivery man or Federal Express person shows up at the company to get the daily shipment to the credit bureaus (yes, it is a _daily_ transfer). The person of course has no connection to the delivery service; he just does what is called 'reverse engineering' or 'social engineering' on the bank employees responsible for making the transfer of the tapes. A variation on this happened a number of years ago when two guys dressed as postal employees showed up at the Amoco Oil Company credit card office in the (presumably secure) area where new plastics were issued and mailed out to new customers. Because Amoco had been tipped off the day before that this was going to happen, they were able to prevent it with FBI guys on hand to arrest the pair who were posing as postal workers coming to get the daily output of fresh cards to go in the mail. I am surprised the phishers have not thought of this before: rather than one by one trying to trick information out of people, instead trick the relative handful of people in charge of data transfer between bank and credit bureau. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 14:33:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple Vows to Make Podcasting Easier By RACHEL KONRAD AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs called podcasting "the hottest thing going in radio" on Monday and promised to make it easier for audiophiles to create and distribute the digital recordings. Amateur and professional disk jockeys have established more than 8,000 podcasts, downloadable audio files that focus on everything from electronic gadgets to movies and astronomy. They can be played on computers or digital music players, such as Apple's popular iPod. Business Week, Forbes, Disney and Sirius have podcasts, as do hundreds of individuals including wine aficionados, baseball fans and political junkies. Productions range from stream-of-consciousness rants to slick shows and, unlike conventional radio broadcasts, podcasts have no time limits, deadlines or government oversight. At a technology conference on Monday, Jobs previewed iTunes version 4.9. The software allows users to click on and subscribe to different podcasts, then automatically delivers the shows to any connected iPod _ far less cumbersome than the third-party applications many listeners now need. The newest iTunes will include a directory of podcasts, and creators will be able to register their shows with Apple's iTunes Music Store. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49684276 ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Valued Added Caller ID Spoofing Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:43:04 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Caller ID spoofing services being available to the general public were bad enough. This service not only spoofs caller ID, it allows you to set up automated harrassment! You pick pre-recorded sound bites to play, and you can set it up to call someone repeatedly. http://www.tricktel.com ------------------------------ From: johnspilker@msn.com Subject: Cannot Cancel My AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage Date: 7 Jun 2005 18:46:25 -0700 Anyone know how I can get AT&T to cancel long distance service to my home number? We moved our home number to Vonage from Qwest with AT&T long distance service. Qwest cancelled the service promptly and even gave us a refund. AT&T refuses to cancel the long distance service. They maintain the cancellation must be done through Qwest. Qwest says the notification has been sent to AT&T. A Qwest representative said she had heard of several instances where AT&T will not cancel long distance service of numbers moved over to VOIP. Any ideas? Thanks. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is this a situation where AT&T is charging you some monthly fee for 'handling' your account? If not, and you are just billed for calls you actually make then it does not matter. Just ignore it; let them call you a 'customer' if they wish, since there are no calls being made via AT&T, the account will always have a zero balance. Now if AT&T is charging some sort of monthly fee, then a letter sent registered to the company should help. For example, one side of SBC _still_ persists in referring to me as a 'customer' while another part of the company is trying to win me back (with all sorts of outrageous deals these days, free service, etc). PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 11:40:56 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info wrote: > Go to GoDaddy.com on Wednesday evening, > they set up a chat room to go along with their streaming radio show. > You can even call up an 800 number to get on "air" I think. I'm going to try pinging GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons first. He's supposed to be really good about responding to email. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ Date: 7 Jun 2005 19:06:24 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > But registrars can't be expected to filter prospective registrants > to remove potential, or even actual, spammers. It would be more accurate to say that registrars aren't willing to filter actual spammers since that would cost money and they're more interested in short term revenue than the long term good of the Internet. For years I've been saying that the Internet biz needs a credit bureau so that when people try to sing up, it's possible to find out if they've been booted off before for nonpayment, misbehavior, and other problems. Everyone says it's a great idea, but so far not great enough to do it. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if anyone has considered a class action suit (netters versus registrars) on the theory that if the registrars had not given safe harbor to those cretins they would have had no way to spam the world. I think the idea of a 'credit bureau' approach is a good one. Every person or company which applies for an IP address or name space in a domain has to have their request put up for public discussion/approval. You want to register an IP address, and find a registrar willing to accept you, then regardless of which registrar you wish to use, your application is made public to the net, such as requesting an FCC license. After some period of time -- let's say 60 days -- if there are no serious complaints about you, your 'license' (or IP address or name space) is granted. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 00:07:20 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Joseph wrote: >> That's interesting. Both Verizon and Sprint have disabled SMS >> completely when I requested it. Why can't T-Mobile? > Maybe it has to do with the way GSM works. You didn't mention AT&T > Wireless or Cingular. SMS is part of the GSM spec. I don't know if > that's the case with CDMA. It is, but can be inhibited if need be. I have to say, SMS seems to be GSM's achilles' heel. A lot of signalling functions on GSM appear to be handled by thinly vieled SMS messages, stuff that would be handled on a more formal level in CDMA through the paging channel. I'm willing to bet that T-Mobile is unwilling to fully disable SMS on an account because in many markets, they still use it for voicemail and other notifications. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 11:46:53 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Justin Time wrote: > The AMOCO label has been gone from the Chicago area for several years. > They're all BP now. > And every time I see a BP station I think back to Dick Martin and "You > bet your bippee!" When I used to work at a BP station I jokingly called them the Big Prices Oil Company. The amusing and highly ironic thing about my nickname is that BP bought Atlantic Richfield in 2000. ARCO's stations are positioned as price leaders. In fact, only Valero (another discount brand, owned by Diamond Shamrock) matches BP's prices at the ARCO stations in this area. Chevron is far and away the most expensive gas station chain in SoCal. Often the local Chevron is 10-15c/gal more expensive than a nearby ARCO. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 22:45:27 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > Robert Bonomi wrote: >>> Sorry, but I know too many government agencies that have strict rules >>> on what their employees may say using any government equipment, and >>> AFAIK these rules are perfectly legal and upheld. >> Generally, true, *today*. There is a _long_ history of attempts at >> such rules that have been held partially or wholly void, necessitating >> re-writes. > Until around 1975 government employees were under many restrictions. > There was a law, the Hatch Act, that prohibited politicking by > government employees. Don't tell anybody, but the Hatch Act is *still* on the books. Significantly modified, for federal (and D.C.) employess _only_), in 1993. Don't take my word for it -- see > That made sense in the idea it was to avoid > government employees serving as patronage or beholden to elected > officials for their jobs. Until that time Federal employees had to > sign off that they weren't Communists. Pssst! Many, if not all, federal agency employees are *still* required to sign loyalty oaths. While they don't mention the Communist Party by name (the Supreme Court threw that out several times in the 1950's and 1960's) the employ does swear that he 'is not, and will not become' a mamber of any organization dedicated to the overhtrow of the United States Government. Many states require it as well -- Calif, Okla, Fla, Arizona, Lousiania, Georgia, just to mention a few. > They didn't even want to see bumper stickers on cars in employee > parking lots. They wanted the appearance of strict neutrality. > The laws today are different. There certainly does remain some > restrictions within the workplace. Oh, lets see. *NO* federal (or District of Columbia) employee may: -- be a candidate for public office in partisan elections -- engage in political activity while: + on duty + in a government office + wearing an official uniform + using a government vehicle -- wear partisan political buttons on duty In addition, employees in 'select' departments/agencies/etc, may not: -- campaign for or against a candidate or slate of candidates in partisan elections -- make campaign speeches -- collect contributions or sell tickets to political fund raising functions -- distribute campaign material in partisan elections -- organize or manage political rallies or meetings -- hold office in political clubs or parties -- circulate nominating petitions -- work to register voters for one party only -- wear political buttons at work Note that for those 'select' employes that for all but the last item, those restrictions apply to on AND _off_the_job_ activities. The Hatch Act restrictions for State-level employees of agencies that get Federal funding are somewhat more restrictive than the first set of Federal restrictions above. >> Government-as-employer is a _very_ complex legal situation. There is a >> difficult balancing act between exercise of 'rights' _as_employer_ and >> infringing on the 'civil rights' of the employee. >> The body of law regarding what is allowable/acceptable in a government >> work-place is significantly different that what is allowable/ >> acceptable in a private employer's workplace. > There is substantial variety among government employers and private > employers. But I am not aware of "significant" differences between > public and private as to day-to-day workplace activity. (There may be > differences in hiring and firing procedures on account of civil > service, but some unionized private companies aren't very different in > that regard. Ok, so you "don't know what you don't know". Just one example: In private industry, and employer can allow use of company property for non-work activities by employees -- e.g. using the copy machine to run off flyeres for a local club activity. In a federal government agency, if an employee does that it they are comitting a *crime* -- one with _prison time_ attached to it. Whether or not they have the 'ok' of their supervisor. 18 USC 641 Incidentally, that same statute can be used to prosecute those who send unwanted commercial solication (aka "spam") e-mails to fed government mail-servers. Then see above, regarding "Hatch Act" restrictions on political activity. If a Federal employee violates any of those rules, and the review board finds that the violation does *not* merit their getting fired, they lose a month's pay, guaranteed. Those are the _only_ two penalties allowed -- to be fired or 'fined' a month's pay. At the State/local level, if the agency does not fire the violator, they must give back Fed Funding to the tune of _two_years_ worth of the funding for that violator's salary, or lose *all* future funding. >>> Sorry, but rules do exist prohibiting "specific things" in government >>> and in schools. >> Would you care to itemize the 'saying specific things' forbidden by >> those rules? > Among other things: > 1) No pornography. Doesn't meet the 'SAYING specific things is forbidden' requirement. Not a 'speech' issue. > 2) Illegal pornography will be turned over to the police. Doesn't meet the 'SAYING specific things is forbidden' requirement. Not a 'speech' issue. > 3) No harassment (per sexual harassment standards). That one is, *peripherally*, a speech issue. HOWEVER, case law holds that 'pattern and manner of behavior' is _much_ more of a determining factor than the words used. "Go suck a fag", or "what time shall I knock you up?", for example, are not necessarily sexually related. Harrassment is much more about _how_ a thing is said, than *what* is said. > 4) No non-work related material (doesn't apply in the library). Doesn't meet the 'SAYING specific things is forbidden' requirement. Not a 'speech' issue. > 5) No release of private or restricted information. *NOT* a 'speech' issue -- although it has the superficial appearance of being speech related. > 6) Compliance with policy on inter-dept communications (doesn't > apply in the library). Whatever _that_ means. Is it "If you're going to speak to another department, this is how it shall be done?" Or '_you_ are not allow to ask this other department to do things -- the request must come from your boss?" Or what? This is probably a restriction on _how_ things are to be said, as distinct from _what_ may be said. > 7) Compliance with various technical rules to protect system > integrity. Doesn't meet the 'SAYING specific things is forbidden' requirement. Not a 'speech' issue. Final score: 0.25 out of 7 >> That aside, Because something _is_ publicly funded, and made available >> to the public, 'at large', *does* mean that there are restrictions and >> limitations that the government can exercise over what 'the public' >> can do on/with that 'something'. > There are restrictions on EVERYTHING in this world. A building has to > comply with zoning and fire codes. A private building open to the > public (ie a store or restaurant) must comply with further > regulations. "So what?" applies. The fact that some kinds of restrictions _are_ allowed does not disprove a claim that other kinds of restrictions are *NOT* allowed. I didn't dispute that some kinds of restrictions are allowed. I do claim that governmental activities are prohibited from engaging in *some* kinds of restrictions. > None the less, within the law, owners of property, BOTH government or > private, may enact their own rules of conduct and procedure within > their properties. Years ago (before the laws), a governmentn director > banned smoking in his dept, for example. Certain attire may be > required, for example. Again, "so what?" Some kinds of governmental restrictions are allowed. Some are *NOT*. I can cite a Supreme Court ruling expressly invalidating a governmental unit 'dress code' item that forbade the wearing of certain items of apparel. An organization in 'private industry' would have had *NO* problem enforcing that particular dress-code item.. > Indeed, in some cases government employees have more restrictions than > private employees, such as poll workers and cops showing neutrality > while on duty during an election. Again, "so what?" Evidence of the existance of some kinds of restrictions is neither 'evidence against", nor "disproof of", a claim that some kinds of restrictions are proscribed. [ restoring context that the prior poster "conveniently" forgot to include ] || There is no such thing as unlimited free speech. Try screaming a || tirade at your neighbor and you'll get a summons for disorderly || conduct. There are many examples. >> Which has nothing to do with 'free speech', in point of fact. The >> summons is for _how_ you did things, not _what_ you said. > It has EVERYTHING to do with what is SAID. Wrong. Disproof by counter-example. If you said _exactly_ the same words to that neighbor, in a calm and reasoned tone of voice, you will *NOT* get a summons for 'disorderly conduct'. *HOW* you said those things is what gets the summons for "disorderly CONDUCT". It is the _conduect_ that is the problem, not the language. > If I threaten to kill you, > you can have me arrested and convicted for making threats. You're obviously ignorant of the existing 'case law' on *that* point. With the exception of a remark of that nature about the President of the United States, one cannot be charged/convicted *just* for making such a remark. The *words* "I'm going to kill you", or "I could kill you", or similar are _not_ illegal to say. They can be said in many ways that do *not* constitute a 'threat'. Saying the words is not forbidden by any law. Making a (believable) _threat_, is a different matter, *regardless* of the words used. Saying _exactly_ the same words, in a manner and/or context that does not constitute a threat is *not* illegal I, personally, have shouted "Fire!" in a crowded theater -- one of the 'textbook' examples of 'prohibited' speech. Strangely enough, the two cops standing less than 15 feet away from me, did *absolutely* nothing. Can you guess why? > Other statements can result in conviction for disorderly conduct FALSE TO FACT. No statement, _in_and_of_itself_, constitutes disorderly conduct. The "style", and "manner", in which the statement was made is what constutes the 'conduct' that is objectionable. > harassment. The 'words' do not constitute harassment. The *pattern*of*behavior* does. > If I libel or slander you, you can sue me for damages. Which is *UTTERLY* irrelevant to 1st Amendment rights, and restrictions on *governmental* prohibitions on speech. The _government_ does *not* prohibit your saying libelous/slanderous things. The -government- does *not* prescribe any specific penalties for those actions. Anyway, not bad for a strawman argument. Very nice 'selective editing' -- too bad you got caught at it. >> Regulating/restricting the _content_ of speech has very high barriers >> to overcome. >> Regulating/restricting the _form_ of speech faces far, _far_ lower >> barriers. > The barriers are not as high as you think. The court record confirms that the barriers are there. Cases that have gone to the Supreme Court, and the attempted governmental prohibition on a particular form of speech has been held to be "not permissible". Just *try* to find a case where a _private_industry_ prohibition has been held invalid. On 1st Amend. grounds. > Further, many argue (I don't quite agree) that regulating the form of > speech effectively limits the content of speech. What 'many argue' is not compelling law. That aside, the question *is* a thorny one. A great deal depends on the 'availability' of _alternate_ forms of speech. It is long-standing policy that regulation of 'time, place, and manneer' of speech _is_ allowable where there is a bona-fide public interest being served. Regulation of the "content" of speech reguire a "compelling" public interest, and such regulation must be drawn 'as narrowly as practical' to accomplish the stated goal. > For instance, some > demand that free speech be allowed in shopping malls (which are > private property) because the malls are the "new Main Street". Courts > have been mixed on that. Not very mixed, at least at the Federal level. Unless the mall operator is "acting in the role of government", for which there are an articulated set of tests, the mall *is* private property and the operator is free to restrict access as they see fit. It is possble that State law may impose different limits, on a local basis. > Many advocates argue that standing on a > corner handing out leaflets (a very classic form of free speech) has > so little impact that they should be allowed stronger forms of speech. Which they have _ready_ access to. Newspaper ads, radio & TV commericals. But, they don't have the _money_ for that. So they think they deserve 'special treatment'. *sigh* ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 7 Jun 2005 20:11:20 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Thomas A. Horsley wrote: > I was in Grady Elementary school in Tampa many long decades ago. The > school went through 6th grade, no higher grades around. I was also in > 6th grade, highest grade taught at the school. I tried to check out a > Sherlock Holmes book from the library, and the librarian wouldn't let > me because it was "too hard" for a 6th grader (not true, by the way). > What was it doing in the library if 6th graders shouldn't be reading > it? More important, why would a librarian object to a kid attempting > a little brain stretching even if it was too hard? I went to two high schools. My first high school had an enormous library, with a librarian who would not only point students at books but would get books from the nearby college library for them when needed. And journal articles. They had the whole UN Atoms for Peace series, which was my introduction to nuclear physics. They had a whole section of fine electronics books that was better than some college libraries I have seen. Anybody in the school, even a first-grader, could check these out. Then my parents moved, and I went to a different high school for my past two years. The librarian there was a Mrs. Ianuzzi, and talking with her, she basically told me that she considered her job to be protecting the books from students. She considered herself a saviour in the wilderness of book-destroying children who might want to read books. (Also, the library was dreadful ... my father actually owned more volumes of fiction than the library did and I did not hesitate to point this out). > Thus began my lifelong love affair with bookstores and shunning of > libraries (perhaps the real story behind the librarian's actions > involved some kind of guerilla marketing campaign by bookstores to > turn kids off of libraries while they are young and impressionable > :-). This is a sad thing. Some of my best times were spent in libraries. I sort of maybe lost my virginity in one of them, even. And I think the job of the librarian is a very important one, because bad librarians can scar children forever. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 7 Jun 2005 13:26:08 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Did the court actually put the choir > out of business? It sounds to me like it did. Yes. They were ordered shut down. > Did the choir try going the 'free association' direction as the one > did in Chicago? That is to say, pick up their music and other > belongings (and since it was after school hours) simply skip the > premises to do their thing? That I don't know. If they formed as an independent group they shouldn't have had any trouble. However, this particular school was a city-wide magnet school so it would've been hard to find a good meeting location convenient to all. What bothered many people was that the school's supposedly policy was "open use". Somehow the school was "promoting religion" even though the staff person involved was a volunteer. I guess if school kids sit on the steps and sing rap songs with nasty lyrics of rape and violence that's perfectly ok and free speech, but if they sing religious songs life as we know it will come to an end. That hypocrisy bothered a lot of people. IMHO, this is similar to the "Ten Commandments" issue -- with people demanding plagues of them be removed from court houses. Frankly, I would not build a courthouse with one today. But in the 1920s, when these things were built, it was considered appropriate and dignified decoration. It bothers me that suddenly 80 year old stuff is deemed religious and has to come out. IMHO arguing against such plaques and volunteer choirs kills public support for such activist groups and has undesirable political consequences. People will be tolerant only to a point of radical political views, then they will dig in their heels and fight hard. Activists need to pick their battles better. ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 05:30:25 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com In article , Gary Novosielski wrote: > Fred Atkinson wrote: >> Sorry to come down on you this hard, but limiting student access to >> information simply because we think they don't 'need' access to it is >> a pretty short sighted opinion for an educator to take. > You're presuming that it's educators who are in favor of blocking > technology, but I think that's jumping to an unsupported conclusion. As both an educator and a student, I am, in fact, in favor of "blocking technology". The last thing I need is students distracted by more crap on their laptops while I'm lecturing -- and the last thing I need, as a student, is more distraction. I'm always happy, in either role. when I walk into a classroom, turn on my laptop, and discover that there is no wireless network connectivity in that particular room. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: Coal, was From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 06:41:51 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'd personally like to see more wide- > spread research/development/use of solar power, especially for things > like heating our homes in the winter. Oops, I forgot to include the > mantra from the petroleum industry on this: "Solar power is not > practical nor efficient." PAT] For what it's worth, many estimates are that it takes more energy to fuse silica to make solar panels than will be output by those panels as electricity over their expected service lifetimes, at sea level in most temperate climes. However, what that analysis does ignore is that you cannot get more local -- that is, less transmission loss -- than the energy generation and consumption from the panels in the typical intertie solar setup. So, if the energy to make the panels is generated in, at least, a not terribly dirty way, and the panels aren't made far from where that power is generated, due to transmission losses solar panels in many locations are a serious net win. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky ------------------------------ 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, Yahoo Groups, 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: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #255 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 8 17:39:50 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 2DCA714F36; Wed, 8 Jun 2005 17:39:50 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #256 Message-Id: <20050608213950.2DCA714F36@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 17:39:50 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 8 Jun 2005 17:40:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 256 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AOL to Feature SBC, BellSouth's Online Yellow Pages (Lisa Minter) UK Man Accused of Hacking Pentagon Appears in Court (Lisa Minter) Strange Problem w/KX-TA624 Hybrid Phone System (Kevin) AOL to Offer YellowPages.com Listings (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) SBC New Low Price; Continued Thread From ba.internet (AES) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Scott Dorsey) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System (Wesrock) Re: Cannot Cancel My AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage (Tim@Backhome) Re: Valued Added Caller ID Spoofing (AES) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Joseph) Last Laugh! Funny Telephone Picture (Rich Greenberg) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: AOL to Feature SBC, BellSouth's Online Yellow Pages Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 11:29:58 -0500 America Online on Wednesday said it will feature advertising from the Web-based Yellow Pages of SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. in an effort to beef up the Internet service's local search. Yellowpages.com, a joint venture between SBC and BellSouth that includes SBC's Smartpages.com and BellSouth's RealPages.com, will be included in AOL's Yellow Pages feature. The ability to search for businesses, restaurants and events within specific cities and towns has emerged as a battleground among Internet media sites such as Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: UK Man Accusted of Hacking Pentagon Appears in Court Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 11:32:11 -0500 A British man the United States accused of carrying out the world's "biggest military computer hack" appeared in court in London Wednesday at the start of extradition hearings. Gary Mckinnon was arrested Tuesday on charges of computer fraud issued in November 2002 by U.S. prosecutors claiming he illegally accessed 97 U.S. government computers -- including Pentagon and Nasa systems -- over a 12-month period from February 2002, causing $700,000 worth of damage. If found guilty, he could face up to $1.75 million in fines and 70 years in jail. Mckinnon was released on bail to July 27 and banned from using the Internet. The 39-year-old entered Bow Street magistrates' court dressed in light green combat trousers, blowing kisses to the public gallery. The U.S. has admitted that although Mckinnon -- whose hacking name was Solo -- accessed sensitive files there was no evidence that he downloaded classified information or forwarded files to foreign governments. At the time of the indictment, Paul McNulty, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said: "Mr McKinnon is charged with the biggest military computer hack of all time." Mckinnon's defense lawyer told the court his client planned to vigorously fight extradition to the United States. Hackers have plagued increasingly nervous governments in recent years, with British courts last week also beginning extradition hearings for a couple wanted in connection with the theft of sensitive Israeli defense data. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: kevin Subject: Strange Problem w/KX-TA624 Hybrid Phone System Date: 8 Jun 2005 09:56:06 -0700 We have a Panasonic KX-TA624 Hybrid Phone System with TVS50 Voice Mail Module and a number of 7735 and 7730 phones. Our Phone system Works fine EXCEPT one extension. (#107) If the person at this extension answers the phone and attempts to transfer the caller to another extension, and nobody picks up at that other extension, it never drops into the transferees' voicemail. If the person waiting for someone to answer on the other end hangs up, the phone continues to ring in the office to which the call was transferred in the first place unless killed by extension 107. Also, if extension 107 tries to transfer a call directly to another extensions' voicemail, the menu comes up as if the owner of the mailbox is dialing in. (it says "you have zero new messages........") The transfer feature only works correctly if the receiving extension is there to actually answer the phone. Otherwise, the phone either rings forever, or goes into the wrong menu as stated above. We have already replaced this phone one time with a brand new phone. Thank you for your assistance. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 13:21:53 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: AOL to offer YellowPages.com listings Telecom dailyLead from USTA June 8, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=3D22187&l=3D2017006 NEWS OF THE DAY * AOL to offer YellowPages.com listings BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Sprint, Yahoo! in wireless e-mail pact * Adelphia creditors ask court to scrap $715M settlement * News from SUPERCOMM USTA SPOTLIGHT * Don't Miss SUPERCOMM Exhibits in Chicago EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Nintendo to launch Wi-Fi network REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Colorado PUC lifts price controls for Qwest in some areas * Cable industry wants limits on local franchising authority over cable Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=3D22187&l=3D2017006 ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: SBC New Low Price Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 09:39:53 -0700 Organization: Stanford University Excerpts from a recent long-running thread [1] on ba.internet: -------------------------------- >>>> There's a law that the landlord must provide a working phone jack. >> This isn't a Berkeley or SF law, it's CA State Law. A working phone >> line is a required feature of a residential rental, the same as hot >> water, running water, electric service, no vermin, etc. -------------------------------- > Contrary to your post, a working phone line is not required for > habitability. Only a functional jack and inside wiring to that jack. > Whether or not there is breakable dialtone, or whether there is a good > drop bridged to the inside wire, is not the responsibility of the > landlord. >>> The law requires landlords to >>> maintain inside wiring to one phone jack. It does not require them to >>> maintain the drop or the service. It does NOT require them to act on >>> the tenant's behalf to fix billing or service problems with phone >>> companies. -------------------------------- >> ... the landlord does have the responsibility to >> provision a working pair to the unit *when the tenant moves in*. -------------------------------- > No, he doesn't. The law covers only the inside wiring, that which was > divested from telco years ago. It doesn't cover anything else. -------------------------------- I have no dog in this fight, but am just curious at this point as to what the truth really is. Anyone able to provide it? [1] "Re: SBC new low price" on ba.internet: The specific incident that started it was one where a departing tenant vanished, leaving a sizable phone bill unpaid; the telco allegedly refuses to release the line to a new tenant until the old bill is paid; and the landlord is supposedly trapped in the middle, unable to provide phone service to the new tenant unless he's willing to pay the unpaid charges for the old tenant. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Who had the responsibility for the phone service in the first place; the tenant or the landlord? If the landlord was _historically_ providing the phone service (and collecting on same from tenants), then landlord is responsible. This type of situation usually only occurs when the landlord is providing phone service in a hotel/motel type situation, where telco believes it is more convenient for a landlord to deal with transients than it is for telco. In those cases, telco usually provides a commission to landlord in exchange for handling the collection and customer service functions. In a _really transient_ situation, such as overnight or weekly tenants, telco is generally obligated to quote any charges for service as they occur, to give the landlord a reasonable opportunity to 'post' the charges and make collection for same. If telco fails to quote time and charges in a timely way and as a result tenant is gone before landlord can collect, that is telco's problem. There are all kinds of audit trails and proofs on whether or not telco made the quote in a timely way, operator ticket serial numbers, etc. In those cases, if telco was advising landlord of the bill due on telephone service, the landlord was diligently 'posting' these entries to a ledger and the tenant skipped without payment, then it is indeed the landlord's problem. After all, says telco, we were paying you a commission on traffic revenue to attend to this sort of thing. On the flip side of the coin, if tenant was _historically_ paying for telephone service (that is, an apartment or similar but with his own wiring and jack and his own obligations to telco) then the problem is telco's unless telco can demonstrate fraud on the part of some third party such as landlord. If I, independently, contracted with telco for service, at some point was unable or unwilling to pay for same, and skipped then telco is responsible. Telco could have, after all, installed a pay-station outside my door or in the parking lot or wherever, but instead chose to take my word (based on credit reports or whatever) regards my ability and willingness to pay for service. So I guess my question would be _who_ originally agreed to pay for the service of the tenant who skipped? We would need more details on this. Telco is protected against attempts to defraud it, however. If telco can demonstrate that something transparent took place, then telco is entitled to withhold service until the problem is cured. For example, several years ago here in this Digest, we learned of the case of a person who skipped with unpaid bills, then that person's mother and father 'conveniently' took over the very same apartment, and kept insisting 'not responsible for the bills of other person', which may in fact have been true, but telco was unwilling to accept that transparency. Is this case by any chance that very same one from several years ago? _That one_ was on the west coast somewhere, and either the child had run off not paying his bills and the parents did not feel responsible or maybe it was the other way around. Are we still dealing with that case? In that case in the Digest from years ago, I think we detirmined that tenants had historically paid their own telephone bill; that tenant had skipped; and that tenant's family members had moved in. The new person kept insisting landlord 'had to' help them explain the problem to telco; landlord attempted to do so, and telco would not accept the explanation. Is this the same case? AES, you said this was a 'long running thread in ba.internet' ... the suggestion made in that long ago case here was that if the landlord felt so strongly inclined to help the tenant, my suggestion was to either give telco a personal guarentee (_not_ a corporate guarentee, telco is not a bunch of fools after all!) on payment or pay the bill and collect it from the new tenant, or perhaps supply the new tenant with a cell phone under the same kind of personal guarentee conditions until the problem got solved. Assuming telco is correct, that it is all just some transparency intended to rip them off, then appeals to the Commission won't help; telco will stick to it's guns, rightfully. If telco is incorrect, and tenants/landlord can prove it, then they will get phone service, albiet perhaps grudgingly, and perhaps with a substantial deposit required. In the meantime, (appeals to the Commission can go on for months until resolved) for phone service for these wonderful new wrongly accused put-upon tenants, if landlord _must_ get involved, then get them a cell phone, and a new rental lease which makes it very clear: Each time the tenant pays any money, the money is _first_ applied to the telephone bill, then it is applied to any rent due. Reasoning is, in the 'unlikely' event the new tenant decides to try the same thing as the old one and stall on paying his bills _due to you_ i.e. rent and by default his phone bill, it is always easier for a landlord to evict a tenant on non-payment of rent than for non-payment of sundry items. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 8 Jun 2005 10:40:44 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Thor Lancelot Simon wrote: > Gary Novosielski wrote: >> Fred Atkinson wrote: >>> Sorry to come down on you this hard, but limiting student access to >>> information simply because we think they don't 'need' access to it is >>> a pretty short sighted opinion for an educator to take. >> You're presuming that it's educators who are in favor of blocking >> technology, but I think that's jumping to an unsupported conclusion. > As both an educator and a student, I am, in fact, in favor of > "blocking technology". The last thing I need is students distracted > by more crap on their laptops while I'm lecturing -- and the last > thing I need, as a student, is more distraction. I'm always happy, in > either role. when I walk into a classroom, turn on my laptop, and > discover that there is no wireless network connectivity in that > particular room. That is a different thing altogether. That is not a matter of regulating what the student can look at on the net, but when the student can look at it. THAT is absolutely essential to do if you allow students to use laptops in class at all (which I would strongly discourage, personally). --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 8 Jun 2005 10:18:15 -0700 Robert Bonomi wrote: > In private industry, and employer can allow use of company property > for non-work activities by employees -- e.g. using the copy machine to > run off flyeres for a local club activity. > In a federal government agency, if an employee does that it they are > comitting a *crime* -- one with _prison time_ attached to it. There are state government agencies where that is NOT that case. There are private sector units that mirror the Fed policy you state above. I would be extremely surprised if people were sent to prison solely for personal use of a federal copier machine. However, some private firms are very fussy about employee theft and have criminally charged their employees. > 1) No pornography > Doesn't meet the 'SAYING specific things is forbidden' requirement. > Not a 'speech' issue. It most certainly is a speech issue. If someone writes something pornographic in nature it is forbidden. Thus, specific speech is indeed restricted. > I can cite a Supreme Court ruling expressly invalidating a > governmental unit 'dress code' item that forbade the wearing of > certain items of apparel. Virtually every government organization I know has a dress code. You may be referring to very narrow situations. (There's a case in the NYC subway system over wearing a religious turban and hat badge. It's ONE case out of 50,000 employees). > An organization in 'private industry' would have had *NO* problem > enforcing that particular dress-code item.. Actually, in some cases private employers have gotten into trouble on some dress code requirements. > *HOW* you said those things is what gets the summons for "disorderly > CONDUCT". It is the _conduect_ that is the problem, not the language. >> If I threaten to kill you, >> you can have me arrested and convicted for making threats. > You're obviously ignorant of the existing 'case law' on *that* point. > With the exception of a remark of that nature about the President of > the United States, one cannot be charged/convicted *just* for making > such a remark. If what you say is true, there's a lot of people wrongly in trouble and fined or even jailed by local courts for making terroristic threats. The "how" was irrelevent, it was the threat that counts. Whether it was shouted or whispered, or discretely written on a piece of paper didn't matter. Indeed, some of the quietest threats are treated the most seriously. [rest snipped] I am not lawyer nor claim to be a legal expert. However, I have quite a number of years out there and have seen quite a few things over and over again. Basically, I do not agree with your post. My real issue on disagreement is not on case law but rather actual practice. On some of your arguments, frankly, you seem to be splitting hairs. That does not resolve the question in terms of real life practice. The reality is that there are many laws that are not enforced and people get away with stuff. Likewise, we have theorectically rights that we can't effectively exercise because it would be too expensive or time-consuming to fight for them. One of the things a good lawyer does is advise on the reality of a particular situation. "Yes, you're absolutely right but to fight them will cost $100,000 in legal fees." Stating what is on paper seriously misses the issue. Actual practice is what counts. (If I may point out, in another discussion on Autovon phones, you said those phones were "standard". There may be a piece of paper saying just that, but the vast majority of Touch Tone phones out there do not comply with that standard because they don't have the fourth column. Indeed, there are a lot of official technical standards out there that are basically ignored and unwritten practices that are essentially standard.) FWIW, in a previous discussion it was insisted certain estate legal certifications were required. I was just working with some one on that and the cited certifications were not required to deal with an external agency to obtain a refund. Again, what is said on paper is not always reality. Anyone with a legal question should consult a competent reputable attorney. (How to find one that is competent? Tough to say.) ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 09:33:38 EDT Subject: Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System In a message dated Tue, 07 Jun 2005 11:46:53 -0700, was written: > The amusing and highly ironic thing about my nickname is that BP > bought Atlantic Richfield in 2000. ARCO's stations are positioned as > price leaders. In fact, only Valero (another discount brand, owned by > Diamond Shamrock) matches BP's prices at the ARCO stations in this > area. Chevron is far and away the most expensive gas station chain in > SoCal. Often the local Chevron is 10-15c/gal more expensive than a > nearby ARCO. You have it backwards about the relationship of Valero and Diamond Shamrock. Valero is the parent company; Diamond Shamrock is one of several brands they market under. Pricing relationships vary from market to market, and often in different geographic parts of the same market. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Cannot Cancel My AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 07:11:19 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is this a situation where AT&T is > charging you some monthly fee for 'handling' your account? If not, > and you are just billed for calls you actually make then it does > not matter. Just ignore it; let them call you a 'customer' if they > wish, since there are no calls being made via AT&T, the account > will always have a zero balance. Now if AT&T is charging some sort > of monthly fee, then a letter sent registered to the company should > help. For example, one side of SBC _still_ persists in referring to > me as a 'customer' while another part of the company is trying to > win me back (with all sorts of outrageous deals these days, free > service, etc). PAT] The moral of the story: Don't do business with AT$T, either directly or indirectly. What a sorry spectacle of a once great company. Of course, the same can be said of a lot of banks and (ugh) credit card companies. ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Valued Added Caller ID Spoofing Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 09:14:47 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , T. Sean Weintz wrote: > Caller ID spoofing services being available to the general public were > bad enough. > This service not only spoofs caller ID, it allows you to set up > automated harrassment! You pick pre-recorded sound bites to play, and > you can set it up to call someone repeatedly. > http://www.tricktel.com There sure are times when I'd be sorely tempted to use a service -- and it would be against targets that truly deserve being subjected to automated harrassment. (The list would include most telemarketers, all spam faxers, and certain firms with some kind of automated or robot phone systems that have one of my numbers erroneously programmed into their system and even if I can identify who the firm is, I can't contact anyone who will correct the error.) I guess the only thing that stops me is that I doubt that the Tricktel people are any more trustworthy or responsible than the people I'd be going after. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And did you notice the Tricktel people do not work for free either; I think I saw on their web site where the rate for their 'services' ranges from 25 cents up to one dollar per incident, depending on what they think about you as a customer. Let's assume you pay one dollar per call made. Can you afford that? I sure cannot. I think Tricktel also said that depending on how tough things get on them (in the event of a complaint) they may or may not protect your 'privacy'. I just don't know you can trust them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 10:24:36 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 03:27:55 GMT, [Telecom Digest Editor] writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would like to ask you just one > question: _Why_ can't a registrar be expected to screen potential or > actual spammers? If registrars started doing that, they'd be heros > in the eyes of most netters. PAT] If you're going to use that logic you might as well use it on the telephone company for selling service to fly-by-night boiler room scamsters in South Florida and Montreal as well. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One small problem with your logic. Telco is a common carrier; they are required by law to supply service to _anyone_ asking for service on the condition the potential subscriber has demonstrated an ability and willingness to pay for the service. Registrars are not common carriers, they are free to accept or reject customers at will; for most of them, all that seems to matter is getting the ten dollar fee every couple years or so. That should not be the case. Registrars could be our front line defense against spammers/scammers/phishers if the netters and or ICANN demanded it. But of course, ICANN won't demand anything. They _like_ things the way they are now. And of course there is always some idiot who will speak out and say "oh, but if we were to impose on Itzy-Pooh Corporation and refuse to carry their traffic because of the huge amount of spam they overlook, why then Itzy-Pooh may sue some registrar or something like that." All I can say to that is God Bless America and God Bless ICANN. Lets begin to turn the screws on the registrars and get them contractually committed to a few simple facts: If Itzy Pooh gets bounced by some registrar for malfeasance, no other registar can touch him until whatever got him bounced in the first place gets cured. PAT]n ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject:Last Laugh! Funny Telephone Picture Date: 8 Jun 2005 13:45:49 -0400 Organization: Organized? Me? Take a look at: http://www.jillsjokeline.com/canuhearme.shtml Rich Greenberg Marietta, GA, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time. N6LRT I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ 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, Yahoo Groups, 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 V24 #256 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 9 01:23:06 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 5CD2C15033; Thu, 9 Jun 2005 01:23:06 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #257 Message-Id: <20050609052306.5CD2C15033@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 01:23:06 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.0 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,BIZ_TLD, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT,NORMAL_HTTP_TO_IP autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 9 Jun 2005 01:22:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 257 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Pay Phone Regulations (Robert Pierce) T-Mobile Tzones on Motorola A630 - Really 72 Hours to Setup? (Jason) MCI Now Charging Extra Payphones When Using Phone Card! (hizark21) Pre-Fabricated Cell Phone Retail Store? (officeforlease@gmail.com) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Brad Houser) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Robert Bonomi) Re: Valued Added Caller ID Spoofing (T. Sean Weintz) Re: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! (SELLCOM Tech support) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Robert Bonomi) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Barry Margolin) Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell (Steve Sobol) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Pay Phone Regulations Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 17:03:42 -0400 From: Robert Pierce [Pat, please remove my e-mail address. thx] Good afternoon. I have a client who would like to have a pay phone in their break area for employee use. The COCOT vendor they were using wasn't making enough money, and so they pulled out. They're not looking to turn a profit; they just want to give employees without cell phones a chance to call home etc. without having to open up an outside line to long distance charges, abuse, etc. They would like to put a simple pay phone in place -- something like a "Model 909." o What kind of federal or state (of Florida) regulations would apply here? A google didn't help, but perhaps I used the wrong search terms. o What kind of drawbacks/pitfalls would they be looking at by going this route? o Does anyone have a better idea of how to set this up? o Does anyone have any experience with programming this type of payphone? I was hoping to find the documentation on line, but no luck. Thanks, Rob Pierce ------------------------------ From: jason@cyberpine.com Subject: T-Mobile Tzones on Motorola A630 - Really 72 Hours to Setup? Date: 8 Jun 2005 14:30:30 -0700 It's now been 48 hours since I subscribed to T-zones $4.99. But still get "your plan does not support this feature" when attempting to Go to URL for wap sites I know that work. On the phone I'm able to go to T-zones Home page and I see the T-zone animation. But, also, when I select Games & Applications I get the same "your plan does not support this feature" message. T-mobile saying wait the full 72 hours ... though I got a feeling, it never really takes this long. ------------------------------ From: hizark21@yahoo.com Subject: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card! Date: 8 Jun 2005 17:52:19 -0700 MCI now charging extra payphones when using their phone card!!! MCI has started charging a 65 cent surcharge on calls using their phone cards ... I have a MCI phone card and it is a pretty good deal, because you can make calls from a payphone for 3 or 5 cents a minute. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Where they get you is that a person near a landline phone or with a cell phone would not need to use a payphone. I would think the main reason for using _any_ calling card would be to avoid dropping coins in a payphone box. So although they _claim_ a decent rate of 3-5 cents per minute, they know the actual rate will be 65 plus 3-5 cents (or 68-70 cents) for one minute. PAT] ------------------------------ From: officeforlease@gmail.com Subject: Pre-fabricated cell phone retail store??? Date: 8 Jun 2005 13:59:17 -0700 Hi Guys, I got a postcard in the mail that got accidentally misplaced. This company was advertising a cell phone store solution which was a standard 317 square feet, with a standardized setup which can be placed at pretty much any parking lot. Basically, it was a pre-fabricated store. I forgot the name of the company or the website. The website started with http://www.cellular ... Anyone out there know what I am referring to? Thanks, John ------------------------------ From: brad.houser@gmail.com Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: 8 Jun 2005 16:48:18 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com PAT Wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would like to ask you just one > question: _Why_ can't a registrar be expected to screen potential or > actual spammers? If registrars started doing that, they'd be heros > in the eyes of most netters. PAT] Asking a registrar to be responsible for what an internet site does is not like asking a landlord to be responsible for what his tenants do in his apartment. (If a landlord knows his tenant is breaking the law by growing pot, the landlord can break a lease.) The registrar provides a pointer, like a signpost to Michael Jackson's house. No one forces you to go there. What goes on there is not the fault of the sign. > _Why_ can't a registrar be expected to screen potential or actual > spammers? Because they have no control. I can register 100 domain names and have them all point to the same server. The server is where the bad stuff is done, just like the alleged Neverland. They have not control, it is the _hosting_ site that _might_ have the hardware the spammers rely on. Note that anyone with an internet connection can be their own host. In that case they need an ISP to connect through. Then you might ask how can ISPs screen people. Well, they can't. How would they determine what you plan on doing? They can enforce the service agreement and terminate you, but only if you do something bad. What needs to be fixed is the email systems need to be able to put a wrapper around messages identifying the true source and make it impossible to spoof return addresses. Then spammers can be located. Brad Houser [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But landlords can (or not, as they wish) choose to rent an apartment to someone. If they get bad vibes about it, prior to rental, then they just don't rent. Landlords can also consult credit bureaus to detirmine the wisdom of renting (or not) to someone. As long as the landlord does not discriminate for various illegal reasons (for example, the proposed tenant's race or religion or sex or age) he is free to rent or not as he chooses. Of course, greedy landlords, like greedy registrars rent as much and as often as they can, saying we will let the future take care of itself. I used to know a landlord of furnished apartments in Chicago. Her philosophy was 'the best apartment in this complex is the one which is _vacant_, because I know what is going on there; nothing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 01:15:35 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , TELECOM Digest noted in response to Joseph : > On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 03:27:55 GMT, [Telecom Digest Editor] writes: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would like to ask you just one >> question: _Why_ can't a registrar be expected to screen potential or >> actual spammers? If registrars started doing that, they'd be heros >> in the eyes of most netters. PAT] > If you're going to use that logic you might as well use it on the > telephone company for selling service to fly-by-night boiler room > scamsters in South Florida and Montreal as well. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One small problem with your logic. > Telco is a common carrier; they are required by law to supply service > to _anyone_ asking for service on the condition the potential > subscriber has demonstrated an ability and willingness to pay for > the service. Registrars are not common carriers, they are free to > accept or reject customers at will; for most of them, all that seems > to matter is getting the ten dollar fee every couple years or so. That > should not be the case. Registrars could be our front line defense > against spammers/scammers/phishers if the netters and or ICANN > demanded it. But of course, ICANN won't demand anything. They _like_ > things the way they are now. And of course there is always some > idiot who will speak out and say "oh, but if we were to impose on > Itzy-Pooh Corporation and refuse to carry their traffic because of > the huge amount of spam they overlook, why then Itzy-Pooh may sue > some registrar or something like that." All I can say to that is > God Bless America and God Bless ICANN. Lets begin to turn the screws > on the registrars and get them contractually committed to a few > simple facts: If Itzy Pooh gets bounced by some registrar for > malfeasance, no other registar can touch him until whatever got him > bounced in the first place gets cured. PAT]n Of course, spammers/scammers/phishers can, and *do* use raw IP addresses, without having domain-names attached. So can anybody else. e.g. http://208.31.42.81/index.html or mailto:esteemedmoderator@[208.31.42.98] Thanks to the wonders of HTML, unsophisticated readers need never _see_ the above forms, you do something like a href=http://208.31.42.81/>Telecom Digest or a href=mailto:esteemedmoderator@[208.31.42.98] email Patrick Townson or fatuously: email a href=mailto:esteemedmoderator@[208.31.42.98] AlGore@whitehouse.gov/ Domain-names are not necessary. They are simply a 'convenience'. Is 'directory assistance' (a non-common-carrier, *non-regulated* ancillary service for the PSTN) responsible when you get telemarketing calls? or harassment calls? Is _directory assistance_ responsible for checking out the 'history' of the person who buys into having their name 'indexed' in the database? ILEC telephone service usually includes getting entered into the database. CLEC telephone service often does *NOT*. Frequently you have to order that separately, sometimes via the CLEC, sometimes directly from the ILEC. Just like the way you can get your non-ILEC, or even VOIP number listed in the ILEC 'white pages' phone book. Registrars serve an essentially identical function to 'directory assistance'. [TELECOM Digest Editors' Note: No, directory services are not responsible for that type of phone call. But we can and do prevent that type of phone call by having our numbers unlisted/non-pub. And I do not agree that the registrar serves an 'essentially identical' function. One difference might be that telco makes the number assign- ment and _forwards_ that information to the various directory services where no single entity tells the registrar what numerics will be applied; the registrar simply assigns the requested name and tells the root servers to deal with the names. If no registrar ever listened to you and assigned the name you wanted, thus no root servers would ever know of that name, then how would anyone be able to reach you _by number only_ if the root servers did not know what to do with the number? So I, John Q. Spammer go to an ISP and ask for a connection. I tell ISP I want to be known as 'spam.com'. I do not tell the ISP I want to be known as '208.31.42.98' ... ISP says I will take care of all that once you get installed by a registrar. Quite a difference, the registrar _is_ like directory assistance, but different in the sense that directory assistance does not _assign_ anything, but simply reports on what has been assigned. So if the registrar was not a greedy son-of-a-bitch and started saying NO! that would help a lot. Oh yes, I know that John Q. Spammer could try to cut a deal under the table direct with the ISP, or whomever it is that physically makes his connections in and out, but ISPs working in concert with registrars could do a lot to clean up the mess. And like the old system which was used with FIDO, when a site becomes a nuisance, he gets delisted, and if others up the line do not cooperate then _they_ get delisted also. The rule ISP's and registrars would use is that if John Q. Spammer was expelled by whoever, then no one touches him or works with him. PAT] ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: Valued Added Caller ID Spoofing Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 18:03:34 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Pat wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And did you notice the Tricktel people > do not work for free either; I think I saw on their web site where the > rate for their 'services' ranges from 25 cents up to one dollar per > incident, depending on what they think about you as a customer. Let's > assume you pay one dollar per call made. Can you afford that? I sure > cannot. I think Tricktel also said that depending on how tough things > get on them (in the event of a complaint) they may or may not protect > your 'privacy'. I just don't know you can trust them. PAT] Not only that, but clearly the service is aimed at making harrassing calls. Making such calls is illegal, is it not? So here we have a business who's only line of service is set up to make illegal harrassing phone calls. I'd think they would be pretty easy to shut down under the RICO statutes. Could make a pretty good "criminal enterprise" argument. I doubt they'd be able to do much to protect anyone if their ISP access logs are all subpoenaed by some DA. If ya DO use it, use an anonymous prepaid debit card, and only go to their server via an anonymous proxy! ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 22:45:57 GMT pierreberto@yahoo.fr posted on that vast internet thingie: > I've been a customer of them > for four years, but it took four years for me to suddenly figure out > what an unethical company Sprint is. They're awful. Avoid them at > all costs! Well, around here for the Internet and handheld computer / phone they are about half the price of a similar plan with Verizon, yes about HALF. In a recent matter they refused to honor a rebate promise made by their sales person. I simply documented everything and made a complaint with the state Atty General consumer protection. Suddenly they have decided to honor their word! Check your state website. File a complaint, protect the next guy. Steve at SELLCOM (Opinions expressed are not necessarily the official opinions of any company though they should be) http://www.sellcom.com Discount multihandset cordless phones by Panasonic 5.8Ghz 2line; TMC ET4300 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Brickmail voicemail Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Firewood splitters www.splitlogs.com If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz. New www.electrictrains.biz ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 00:24:02 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > Robert Bonomi wrote: >> In private industry, and employer can allow use of company property >> for non-work activities by employees -- e.g. using the copy machine to >> run off flyeres for a local club activity. >> In a federal government agency, if an employee does that it they are >> comitting a *crime* -- one with _prison time_ attached to it. > There are state government agencies where that is NOT that case. Nearly every State in the Union, has a statute that reads almost identically to 18 USC 641. In governmental employ (at whatever level) one would be a fool to assume that such a prohibition did not exist -- absent exhaustive research into the statutes and/or ordinances covering that particular jurisdiction. I, admittedly, have not done an exhaustive search, but in every jurisdiction where I have had occasion to check, such a prohibition _was_ enshrined in law. > There are private sector units that mirror the Fed policy you state > above. So? The fact that they choose to do so, does not mean that they are _required_ do do so. For Feds, it is -not- "policy", it is the _law_. And *that* law (18 USC 641) does _not_ apply to any private employment situation. Regardless of what the employer's policies might be. A private employer _cannot_ avail themselves of that law, in the event of employee misfeasance. They may be able to avail themselves of municipal or state law, regarding 'petty theft', In general, however, the penalties for that are generally an order of magnitude less than that for 18 USC 641. > I would be extremely surprised if people were sent to prison solely > for personal use of a federal copier machine. I've sat in a federal courtroom, and witnessed sentencing for an 18 USC 641 violation. It wasn't a single egregious act, but an ongoing series of really 'little' things. After having been reminded by management "not to". The idjit had a side-line personal business, and was doing stuff for it at the office, after hours -- writing correspondence, and printing it out, doing estimates in a spread-sheet, a little bit of photo-copying, etc. > However, some private firms are very fussy about employee theft and > have criminally charged their employees. Again, you miss the fundamental point. A private employer _can_ allow such private use. A Federal (nor in many states) agency employer *cannot*. The fact that _some_ private employers do not do so does not invalidate the difference. "Are not forbidden to" is an *entirely* different thing from "are not allowed to". Even if specific implementations under the two different sets of 'rules' happen to be similar. >> I can cite a Supreme Court ruling expressly invalidating a >> governmental unit 'dress code' item that forbade the wearing of >> certain items of apparel. > Virtually every government organization I know has a dress code. You > may be referring to very narrow situations. (There's a case in the > NYC subway system over wearing a religious turban and hat badge. It's > ONE case out of 50,000 employees). Cite: TINKER ET AL. v. DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, 393 U.S. 503 (1969) >> An organization in 'private industry' would have had *NO* problem >> enforcing that particular dress-code item.. > Actually, in some cases private employers have gotten into trouble on > some dress code requirements. In the above-mentioned situation, I can state as fact that private employers banning exactly the same apparel did *NOT* have any problems. One of the plaintiffs in the above-mentioned case actually got _fired_ from a private-industry job at the same time that case was proceeding. For wearing the specific item of apparel -- after having been instructed not to -- that was the subject of the lawsuit. >> *HOW* you said those things is what gets the summons for "disorderly >> CONDUCT". It is the _conduect_ that is the problem, not the language. >>> If I threaten to kill you, >>> you can have me arrested and convicted for making threats. >> You're obviously ignorant of the existing 'case law' on *that* point. >> With the exception of a remark of that nature about the President of >> the United States, one cannot be charged/convicted *just* for making >> such a remark. > If what you say is true, there's a lot of people wrongly in trouble > and fined or even jailed by local courts for making terroristic > threats. The "how" was irrelevent, it was the threat that counts. > Whether it was shouted or whispered, or discretely written on a piece > of paper didn't matter. Indeed, some of the quietest threats are > treated the most seriously. What I said _is _true. "Words alone" do *NOT* constitute a threat. There are other elements that _must_ be present before a speaking or a writing is a threat. BTW, My claim was that "how" a thing is said is a primary element of a "disorderly conduct" charge. "How" you came to conclude that it is relevant to a charge of 'making threats', I do not follow. If it is not obvious to you, different laws (and different crimes) have different 'required elements' as to what constitutes a violation. Prosecution for "making threats" is an *entirely* different matter, with entirely different component requirements than 'disorderly conduct'. > [rest snipped] > I am not lawyer nor claim to be a legal expert. However, I have quite > a number of years out there and have seen quite a few things over and > over again. > Basically, I do not agree with your post. My real issue on > disagreement is not on case law but rather actual practice. Any time you start asserting claims about how someone/something is required or forbidden to act, that _is_ the realm of law. Actual practice -- how people/organizations 'do' or 'do not' act, is a significantly different set of boundaries. What "is" allowed is considerably more restrictive than what 'can be' allowed. What "is not" allowed is much more restrictive than what 'cannot be' allowed. That which 'is allowed' is often more restrictive than 'that which is not forbidden'. That which 'is not allowed' is often *much* more restrictive than 'that which is not forbidden. *ALL* of our differences of opinion come from your co-mingling of those distinct classifications. > On some of your arguments, frankly, you seem to be splitting hairs. That, kiddo, *IS* the way the law works. Get used to it. If you want to assert what is required/forbidden by law, you have to get the details right. > That does not resolve the question in terms of real life practice. > The reality is that there are many laws that are not enforced and > people get away with stuff. Likewise, we have theorectically rights > that we can't effectively exercise because it would be too expensive > or time-consuming to fight for them. One of the things a good lawyer > does is advise on the reality of a particular situation. "Yes, you're > absolutely right but to fight them will cost $100,000 in legal fees." > Stating what is on paper seriously misses the issue. Actual practice > is what counts. > (If I may point out, in another discussion on Autovon phones, you said > those phones were "standard". There may be a piece of paper saying > just that, but the vast majority of Touch Tone phones out there do not > comply with that standard because they don't have the fourth column. > Indeed, there are a lot of official technical standards out there that > are basically ignored and unwritten practices that are essentially > standard.) Since you bring it up. I will repeat that the *FULL* standard _does_ specifies a 4x4 matrix of frequency pairs. The Autovon phones were 100% compliant with the specifications in the standard. The 'vast majority' of Touch-Tone phones in existence for the 'civilian' (shall we say) market do not implement the _full_ standard, They are, none the less "standards-compliant", as a "subset implementation", which is recognized and allowed for in the standard. And, since you have chosen to bring it up, your prior assertation about the Arsenal having "Autovon" phones that were pulse-dial, behind a cord-board switchboard is utter cr*p. The actual Autovon system was '4-wire' -- with outgoing audio on a _separate_ wire-pair from incoming audio. This 4-wire architecture was carried all the way through to the telephone sets. For sets that were used both for PSTN and Autovon, there _was_ a hybrid in the phone, for PSTN call use -- disconnected and bypassed, when an Autovon call was made. > FWIW, in a previous discussion it was insisted certain estate legal > certifications were required. You wouldn't want to try to _prove_ that statement, would you? I said that certain certifications were the only thing that parties were *required* _to_accept_. If you offer 'something else', they _may_ accept it, or they MAY NOT. And, if they do not accept it, "tough cookies" applies. You cannot force them to accept that 'inadequate documentation'. You have to go get 'the real thing'. The full-blown works are not always 'necessary', they are, however _guaranteed_ to be 'sufficient'. > I was just working with some one on > that and the cited certifications were not required to deal with an > external agency to obtain a refund. Again, what is said on paper is > not always reality. "Reality' is in the details. What 'may' work in some situations is unrelated to what is guaranteed to work in *all* situations. If, as in the case of the ISP and the deceased soldier, the party refuses to accept any 'lesser standerd', there is nothing that one can do, but provide the court order. As that soldiers kin did, and which was then accepted. Now, go back and review what I _actually_ said on that subject. Which was that *IF* the external agency demands 'proof', of the right to access the property of another, that the only document that they are *required* to accept is the order from the probate court. They may _choose_ to accept some 'lesser standard', but they are *not* _required_ to accept anything short of the court order of executorship. As with *any* legal mater, the precise details of the specific situation make _all_the_difference_in_the_world_. Accessing a bank account established 'with right of survivorship' is fairly trivial. Accessing a safety-deposit box, where no such provision had been made, and no alternate signatory was on record, can be a much different story. Especially if you don't have the key in hand. _In_the_event_ that an external agency 'refuses to accept' whatever 'lesser standard' documentation you provide, you are simply SOL until you get the 'real thing'. There is no way, practically, *or* legally, to force them to accept the 'inadequate' documentation offered. Note that just because the 'external agency' is required to accept a thing as proof, does not mean that _you_ are required to present that thing. If they will accept a 'lesser standard', well and good. IF they refuse to do so, you have no alternative, but to present the 'real thing'. > Anyone with a legal question should consult a competent reputable > attorney. (How to find one that is competent? Tough to say.) Referrals from those you know who have been in 'like' situations is a good start. A referral from a competent (in other areas) attorney is also a good beginning. If you don't know any competent attorneys yourself, and if you don't know people who have been in 'like situations', then you start looking for people you know, who know a competent attorney. And ask them for a referral in the area you have need. ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Organization: Symantec Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 22:26:51 -0400 In article , tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) wrote: > In article , > Gary Novosielski wrote: >> Fred Atkinson wrote: >>> Sorry to come down on you this hard, but limiting student access to >>> information simply because we think they don't 'need' access to it is >>> a pretty short sighted opinion for an educator to take. >> You're presuming that it's educators who are in favor of blocking >> technology, but I think that's jumping to an unsupported conclusion. > As both an educator and a student, I am, in fact, in favor of > "blocking technology". The last thing I need is students distracted > by more crap on their laptops while I'm lecturing -- and the last > thing I need, as a student, is more distraction. What does this have to do with technology being used in the appropriate place, like a library? You don't want students doing other things when they're supposed to be listening to you. That's not particular to technology -- before IM, you'd have had to deal with kids passing paper notes between each other. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 21:35:31 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > You have it backwards about the relationship of Valero and Diamond > Shamrock. Valero is the parent company; Diamond Shamrock is one of > several brands they market under. Thank you for the correction. To make it more confusing, the Valero and Beacon stations here all used to be Ultramar stations, and I know Ultramar at one point *was* an independent Canadian refiner and marketer, but I have no idea of their status *now.* :) I'm pretty sure the Beacon stations are owned by ... well, I guess it's Valero ... :) JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #257 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 9 15:49:43 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 7AF9215194; Thu, 9 Jun 2005 15:49:43 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #258 Message-Id: <20050609194943.7AF9215194@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 15:49:43 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.8 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT,NORMAL_HTTP_TO_IP autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 9 Jun 2005 15:50:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 258 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FBI Disputes Reports of Tech Woes (Lisa Minter) Walt Disney to Aquire Minds Eye (Lisa Minter) Is There True Pay-as-You-Go Cellphone? (Barry Margolin) BT 5DD Set to Launch Hybrid Phone (Telecom Daily Lead from USTA) Re: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card (Burstein) Re: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card (R Bonomi) Re: Valued Added Caller ID Spoofing (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: Valued Added Caller ID Spoofing (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Pay Phone Regulations (Justin Time) Re: Pay Phone Regulations (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Pay Phone Regulations (Lisa Hancock) Re: SBC New Low Price (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: T-Mobile Tzones on Motorola A630 - Really 72 Hours Setup? (Joseph) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Dave Garland) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Robert Bonomi) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-Mail Sites (Lisa Hancock) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: FBI Disputes Reports of Tech Woes Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 10:17:23 -0500 By Andrew Zajac Washington Bureau Clobbered by a three-day wave of bad publicity about its bungled efforts to update its technology systems, the FBI on Wednesday attempted to rebut allegations about the costs of straightening out the agency's computer woes. But even after the bureau's top technology executive detailed progress made in overhauling the cyber-operations, what stood out was the magnitude of what remains undone: A fully functioning computer system remains about four years and unknown hundreds of millions of dollars into the future. "What we don't have is an efficient way of working with our information," said Zalmai Azmi, the agency's chief information officer. "What I mean by that is that we're still paper-based." Still, Azmi said, "We're not missing anything in terms of capability, except for efficiency." Azmi emphasized that the bureau has assembled information for terrorism investigations into a database that can be shared by agents and analysts. In addition, Azmi said the bureau's $500 million-plus Trilogy upgrade, including improved links with other agencies, and installation of 60,000 new computers is "80 percent done." Azmi disputed a House Appropriations Committee report released earlier this week alleging that the FBI withheld information on 400 glitches in a contractor's case management software, thus squandering its chances to cut its losses by killing the project sooner than it did, in March. Azmi said the contractor, San Diego-based SAIC Corp., worked with the bureau to uncover the bugs in the Virtual Case File system. A company spokesman declined to comment about its performance in developing the system. The case file program was developed over a four-year period at a cost of at least $104 million. Azmi also disputed an account in U.S. News and World Report, published Wednesday, that a new case-management system would cost nearly $800 million. But he declined to offer his own estimate of how much a case-management system would cost because he said it might lead prospective contractors to inflate their bids. Azmi said the FBI would take bids on a new case-management program, dubbed Sentinel, this summer. Work on it should start by the end of the year and should be complete in slightly less than four years, he said. In an effort to avoid mistakes made with Virtual Case File, Sentinel will be built in four parts, so it can be debugged in stages and assembled more quickly. Developers will use off-the-shelf products as much as possible to reduce cost and complexity, and an experienced project manager, Miodrag Lazarevich, recruited from the CIA, will oversee Sentinel, Azmi said. Copyright 2005 Chicago Tribune NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Walt Disney to Acquire Minds Eye TV Game Developer Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 10:11:18 -0500 The Walt Disney Internet Group on Wednesday announced its acquisition of British game developer Minds Eye Productions in a move signaling Disney's commitment to interactive television gaming, the companies said. Disney entered interactive gaming last year with its launch of Disney Channel Play, carried on the UK's Sky satellite system. Disney Channel Play featured games centered on Disney characters, TV shows and movies, such as "Kim Possible" and "The Lion King." In a statement, Disney said the purchase of Minds Eye demonstrates its commitment to the iTV games market and to finding new growth opportunities for Disney. Minds Eye joins a stable of other Disney assets developing interactive content for Disney in Europe, a Disney spokesman said. Minds Eye has developed interactive TV games such as "Monopoly" and "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" for Sky Active platform, as well as games for Disney Channel Play. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Is There True Pay-as-You-Go Cellphone? Organization: Symantec Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:04:22 -0400 I have a cellphone, but I use it very infrequently -- maybe about 5 minutes a month. I bought a Virgin Mobile prepaid cellphone, but they require that I purchase $20 of time every 90 days to keep it active. So I have to spend nearly $7/mo when I use at most $2/mo. Is there a cellphone plan closer to my needs? Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One plan I use myself for a supplementary cell phone I have is Cingular Wireless (as they inherited it from AT&T 'Free to Go' (the old AT&T prepaid plan). They let you purchase a hundred dollars worth of prepaid time and it never runs out, or maybe runs out after a year. For less than $100 the purchase increments run out every 90 days just as with your existing service. Another reasonable plan is Alltel, which I do not think has any expiry time on its prepaid minutes, although it is bit more expensive per call. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 13:24:51 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: BT D5DD Set to Launch Hybrid Phone Telecom dailyLead from USTA June 9, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=3D22221&l=3D2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * BT set to launch hybrid phone BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Sierra Wireless to end smart phone venture * Microsoft's IPTV plans behind schedule * News from SUPERCOMM USTA SPOTLIGHT * SUPERCOMM wraps up; Plan now for TELECOM 05 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * TiVo, Microsoft in portable video deal REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * WorldCom settlement may be close * RIM-NTP patent dispute flares up again * Cisco, Boeing do work for military Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=3D22221&l=3D2017006 ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card! Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 05:13:25 +0000 (UTC) Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In hizark21@yahoo.com writes: > MCI now charging extra payphones when using their phone > card!!! > MCI has started charging a 65 cent surcharge on calls using their phone > cards ... While this may be news to the earlier poster, a drop-fee of this (rough amount) has been in place by most, if not all, cards for nearly a decade. The FCC has mandated a kickback to the owner/operator of payphones whenever a non-coin workaround such as a call to a "toll free [a]" number is placed. Last time I looked this was set at about a quarter [b]. Throw in the usual overheads, as well as the fact that this is almost invisible to the card user, and you get actual charges in the fifty to seventy-five cent range. (or more...) The rationale is that the payphone operator is entitled to some sort of compensation for giving you a place to stand, make the call, and have access to the phone network. Incidentally, some phone cards have (or at least had ... it's been a while since I've had occasion to check into this in detail) so-called "local" regular, that is, normal pay rate access numbers. In these cases you'd place the $0.25 or thereabouts into the coinbox just like you would for a standard call, and there's no extra surcharge from the card balance. [a] in quotes because it's not really a free call. the recipient (the "owner" of the number) pays for it. In fact, because of this extra payphone kickback surcharge, many places with toll free numbers do NOT take calls from coin phones. [b] fcc info on ayphone kickbaks: http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/1999/nrcc9005.html _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card! Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:57:45 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > MCI now charging extra payphones when using their phone > card!!! > MCI has started charging a 65 cent surcharge on calls using their phone > cards ... > I have a MCI phone card and it is a pretty good deal, because you can > make calls from a payphone for 3 or 5 cents a minute. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Where they get you is that a person > near a landline phone or with a cell phone would not need to use a > payphone. I would think the main reason for using _any_ calling card > would be to avoid dropping coins in a payphone box. So although they > _claim_ a decent rate of 3-5 cents per minute, they know the actual > rate will be 65 plus 3-5 cents (or 68-70 cents) for one minute. PAT] That 65 cents _looks_ like a lot, but it is close to 'break even'. Remember, you use those cards by dialing a toll-free number first. That means that the toll-free number operator has to pay the COCOTS operator 30-some cents for that call. In addition to that, there is the cost-accounting nightmare associated with keeping track of those charges -- for *every* mom-and-pop coin-op phone operator out there. And sending that check for $1.35 for three month's worth of calls. Figure postage, plus the $0.10/check that banks typically charge business accounts, a few sents for handling, and you've got a 'check writing' overhead of $0.15/call, for that 4-call check. Plus the cost of all that 'un-necessary' accounting software, and the *auditing* cost to make sure that that software *is* doing things right. It wouldn't surprise me if they were realizing a 'profit' of less than a nickel -- and likely _far_less_ than that -- out of that $0.65 charge. ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Valued Added Caller ID Spoofing Date: 9 Jun 2005 06:06:37 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , T. Sean Weintz wrote: > Not only that, but clearly the service is aimed at making harrassing > calls. Making such calls is illegal, is it not? So here we have a > business who's only line of service is set up to make illegal harrassing > phone calls. > I'd think they would be pretty easy to shut down under the RICO > statutes. Could make a pretty good "criminal enterprise" argument. I > doubt they'd be able to do much to protect anyone if their ISP access > logs are all subpoenaed by some DA. I doubt US law enforcement could do much. According to their website they're located in Gothenburg, Sweden. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Valued Added Caller ID Spoofing Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 03:48:19 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to T. Sean Weintz: > Pat wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And did you notice the Tricktel people >> do not work for free either; I think I saw on their web site where the >> rate for their 'services' ranges from 25 cents up to one dollar per >> incident, depending on what they think about you as a customer. Let's >> assume you pay one dollar per call made. Can you afford that? I sure >> cannot. I think Tricktel also said that depending on how tough things >> get on them (in the event of a complaint) they may or may not protect >> your 'privacy'. I just don't know you can trust them. PAT] > Not only that, but clearly the service is aimed at making harrassing > calls. Making such calls is illegal, is it not? So here we have a > business who's only line of service is set up to make illegal harrassing > phone calls. > I'd think they would be pretty easy to shut down under the RICO > statutes. Could make a pretty good "criminal enterprise" argument. I > doubt they'd be able to do much to protect anyone if their ISP access > logs are all subpoenaed by some DA. > If ya DO use it, use an anonymous prepaid debit card, and only go to > their server via an anonymous proxy! Some folks may not have a vindictive agenda; rather they want to spoof a friend with a call with a mutual friend's caller id and some silly message. I think that is what this is about. So, is that type of call a harassing call under the intent of the law. I seriously doubt it. It seems a lot more like a more sophistated rendering of prank calls. If my view stands, then the issue becomes spoofing of caller id. It seems the FCC lost control of that one starting with its 1995 Caller ID Decision, in which it reserved the issue of PBX-type customer-generated Caller ID, and never subsequently addressed the issue. So, for me at least, I look to the FCC for the first case of blame with all this. ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: Pay Phone Regulations Date: 9 Jun 2005 05:22:52 -0700 As your company in question was using a COCOT and the phone was pulled for lack of revenue, did the company offer to make up the difference between the actual and expected revenue? The company may again try contacting the same COCOT and make that offer. When offering to make up the difference in revenue, you will need to determine what the COCOT deems is revenue from the phone. If they are only counting coin drop, then offer to make up the difference between the coin drop and the monthly cost of the line. If they count the revenue from 800 numbers, long distance and operator services, then you have the right to ask for a monthly statement of all revenue generated by the phone and then what their minimum expected revenue is for all phones. The alternative is to pay for the phone line and let the COCOT have all revenue from the phone, which as there are no line costs should increase significantly. The COCOT would have the specs for ordering a line from the LEC or CLEC. Be certain to sign a contract that has all the expectations and costs listed -- saves arguing later. Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Pay Phone Regulations Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 07:35:18 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Robert Pierce wrote: > [Pat, please remove my e-mail address. thx] > Good afternoon. > I have a client who would like to have a pay phone in their break area > for employee use. The COCOT vendor they were using wasn't making > enough money, and so they pulled out. > They're not looking to turn a profit; they just want to give employees > without cell phones a chance to call home etc. without having to open > up an outside line to long distance charges, abuse, etc. > They would like to put a simple pay phone in place -- something like a > "Model 909." > o What kind of federal or state (of Florida) regulations would apply > here? A google didn't help, but perhaps I used the wrong search terms. > o What kind of drawbacks/pitfalls would they be looking at by going > this route? > o Does anyone have a better idea of how to set this up? > o Does anyone have any experience with programming this type of > payphone? I was hoping to find the documentation on line, but no luck. > Thanks, > Rob Pierce I see them in a lot of restaurants so they must work. I note their site suggests you contact the state public utilities/service commission for the rules that govern the 909 in that state. There are enough 909s being used they should know. Far better than getting the wrong info here. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Pay Phone Regulations Date: 9 Jun 2005 12:08:42 -0700 Robert Pierce wrote: > I have a client who would like to have a pay phone in their break area > for employee use. The COCOT vendor they were using wasn't making > enough money, and so they pulled out. There are other vendors, perhaps another vendor would be more interested. Was the shortfall so much that the company wouldn't want to make it up? Perhaps the payphone could be put in the lobby or someplace accessible to more people than just the break room so as to do more volume. > They're not looking to turn a profit; they just want to give employees > without cell phones a chance to call home etc. without having to open > up an outside line to long distance charges, abuse, etc. Even old PBXs had a feature to limit outside calls to local numbers, not long distance; I would presume this kind of thing is still available. I would strongly consider a phone of this nature. Might be a lot simpler than putzing around with a pay phone. > o What kind of drawbacks/pitfalls would they be looking at by going > this route? One way payphones make money is through very high long distance charges. If one of the employees makes a collect or calling card call and subsequently discovers a $25 charge for a 1 minute call, they won't be very happy. The price of long distance is up to the property owner and need not be so high but then the phone might not pay for itself. (The Philadelphia transit carrier, SEPTA, has Verizon pay phones at its stations with relatively reasonably priced coin long distance. NJ Transit, in contrast, has the high rates and no coin long distance.) ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: SBC New Low Price Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 04:00:24 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Typical folk-lore that results from half-reading California PUC rules. After wiring on the customer side of the NID became the customer's property and responsibility to maintain, the California PUC established some state rules pertaining to inside wiring. The rule on-point is that the landlord is the owner of inside wiring in rental untils, not the tenants. So, either through a SBC maintenace program, an outside maintenance program, or on his own, the landlord has to keep the inside wiring (and presumably one jack) in good repair. Whether dial tone is established on that viable pair is not the landlord's obligation in any manner. That is a service that the tenant has to decide to provide for himself. Now, California also has highly subsidized basic dial tone service for those who certify an income below a threshold level, that varies with the number of household dependants. But, there is still a small monthly fee and it is strictly up to the tenant whether he wants to pay that low fee for dial tone. There is nothing mandatory about providing this "life-line" subsidized service except on the part of the LEC and then only if the subscriber orders it and qualifies by certification. None of this has anything to do with the landlord in any case. The low-cost "life-line" service is subsidized by all other California wireline subscribers, who do not qualify for socialized telephone service. A more interesting twist is where the property has affluent renters and perhaps some of them want multiple phone lines, which the landlord cannot practically provide. I believe it has thus far been the practice of the CAL PUC to force this inside wiring mandate for only one line per rental unit. But, I could be wrong on that one. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As I read the original thread here, I was of the impression it was not the wire pair(s) in question, it was getting dial tone on that pair which telco would not supply because of a billing dispute with a previous tenant. Telco could care less about the wire pair; run as many of them as you wish, but then get telco to interconnect. Was I wrong on this assumption? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: T-Mobile Tzones on Motorola A630 - Really 72 Hours to Setup? Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 08:20:21 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 8 Jun 2005 14:30:30 -0700, jason@cyberpine.com wrote: > It's now been 48 hours since I subscribed to T-zones $4.99. > But still get "your plan does not support this feature" when > attempting to Go to URL for wap sites I know that work. > On the phone I'm able to go to T-zones Home page and I see the T-zone > animation. But, also, when I select Games & Applications I get the > same "your plan does not support this feature" message. > T-mobile saying wait the full 72 hours ... though I got a feeling, it > never really takes this long. Did you wait 72 hours? Did it work before then? That's your answer. If after 72 hours it doesn't work you have cause to complain. They told you 72 hours so I don't see what the problem is. If you think that's too long you are of course free to find someone else who will do it more expeditiously for you. ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 01:42:46 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when PAT wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But landlords can (or not, as they > wish) choose to rent an apartment to someone. If they get bad vibes > about it, prior to rental, then they just don't rent. Landlords can > also consult credit bureaus to detirmine the wisdom of renting (or > not) to someone. Around here, landlords also charge an "application fee" of $40 or so to cover the cost of making those checks (or, in some cases, just to pocket the extra money), nonrefundable and no guarantee that they'll rent to you. How much would you be willing to spend to apply (no guarantee of acceptance) to register "telecom-digest.com"? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As I have always said, if you can't win points any other way, then always get personal about it, and that _should_ work. It won't in this case however, since (a) I _already_ have http://telecom-digest.com and have it aliased to its ".org" version instead. Same with http://telecom-digest.net . Try them and see where it gets you. I prefer to use, and only publish the '.org' version of my name space, and (b) if I thought for forty dollars and no guarentees I could buy my way out of the horrible spam infestation I deal with each day, I'd be glad to do it. It always amazes me how people feel by 'getting personal' -- that is, taking the real life circumstances of the person speaking, they can 'prove' the person is being hypocritical by not wanting what he suggests for others should apply to himself. In other words, 'they' should be subject to regulation X and fee-plan Y and rule Z, but oh, wouldn't 'I' feel just awful if those same rules and regulations and fees, etc applied to me. If regulations and rules were such that it was impossible to comply with and continue to publish Telecom Digest, then I would regretfully close it down. (and I have come >thisclose< to doing just that in the past mainly on account of how trashy the entire net has become in recent years, so I doubt there would be _that much_ regret in the long term. I have enough of an 'anarchist spirit' in me that I _would_ regret very strongly any efforts to reform the net _to the fullest extent_ possible, but I can see that happening sometime sooner or later, probably sooner, when the government (and after all, who is more likely) gets a belly-full of the nonsense and decides a _total crackdown_ is called for. Like many others, that would totally shock me, but if you are intellectually honest with yourself and others, you could not say it was unexpected or uncalled for. So many netizens have not only _refused_ to submit to any form of voluntary clean up efforts; always providing much obtusification in 25-30 K 'replies' to messages from those who ask -- beg -- for some relief; gladly explaining over and over why (plan X) will not work. You make up plan X however you like: many of the long term netters will insist it will not work, but like ICANN and Vint Cert, I honestly do not think many of them want it to work. After all, if we can get the private little club we used to have here by using the spammers/scammers as tools to drive away the others, why not do it? Let the spam/scam people do thier thing, we can sit here and use 25-30 K 'replies' to obtusificate as needed. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:38:45 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And now, for today's 16 K-byte Gospel lesson, here is our resident Gospel teacher. PAT} In article , Robert Bonomi wrote: > In article , > TELECOM Digest noted in response to Joseph : >> On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 03:27:55 GMT, [Telecom Digest Editor] writes: >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would like to ask you just one >>> question: _Why_ can't a registrar be expected to screen potential or >>> actual spammers? If registrars started doing that, they'd be heros >>> in the eyes of most netters. PAT] >> If you're going to use that logic you might as well use it on the >> telephone company for selling service to fly-by-night boiler room >> scamsters in South Florida and Montreal as well. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One small problem with your logic. >> Telco is a common carrier; they are required by law to supply service >> to _anyone_ asking for service on the condition the potential >> subscriber has demonstrated an ability and willingness to pay for >> the service. Registrars are not common carriers, they are free to >> accept or reject customers at will; [[.. munch ..]] [ *sigh* ham-handed editing by the moderator manages to completely ruin ] [ the examples in the two paragraphs below. Thank you, PAT ] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are quite welcome, I am sure. I am always glad to be of assistance. PAT] > Of course, spammers/scammers/phishers can, and *do* use raw IP addresses, > without having domain-names attached. So can anybody else. e.g. > http://208.31.42.81/index.html or mailto:esteemedmoderator@[208.31.42.98] > Thanks to the wonders of HTML, unsophisticated readers need never _see_ > the above forms, you do something like > a href=http://208.31.42.81/>Telecom Digest or > a href=mailto:esteemedmoderator@[208.31.42.98] email Patrick Townson or fatuously: > email a href=mailto:esteemedmoderator@[208.31.42.98] > AlGore@whitehouse.gov/ > Domain-names are not necessary. They are simply a 'convenience'. > Is 'directory assistance' (a non-common-carrier, *non-regulated* > ancillary service for the PSTN) responsible when you get telemarketing > calls? or harassment calls? > Is _directory assistance_ responsible for checking out the 'history' > of the person who buys into having their name 'indexed' in the > database? ILEC telephone service usually includes getting entered > into the database. CLEC telephone service often does *NOT*. > Frequently you have to order that separately, sometimes via the CLEC, > sometimes directly from the ILEC. Just like the way you can get your > non-ILEC, or even VOIP number listed in the ILEC 'white pages' phone > book. > Registrars serve an essentially identical function to 'directory > assistance'. > [TELECOM Digest Editors' Note: No, directory services are not > responsible for that type of phone call. But we can and do prevent > that type of phone call by having our numbers unlisted/non-pub. And > I do not agree that the registrar serves an 'essentially identical' > function. 'Directory assistance' provides a 'name to number' mapping function, nothing more. Registrars provide a 'name to number' mapping function, nothing more ... The only real difference between the two is that the 'numbers' are in different address-spaces. The PSTN does not rely on 'directory assistance' for the basic functionality. calls *must* be placed to a 'number'. If you have a 'name', you must *first* translate it into a number, before you can attempt to make contact. The Internet does not rely on 'naming services' for the basic functionality. Packets *must* be sent to a 'numeric address'. If you have a 'name, you must *first* translate it into a number, before you can attempt to make contact. It is 'convenient' to remember and use names instead of numbers, and to use 'directory assistance' to map those names into telephone numbers. It is 'convenient' to remember and use names instead of numbers, and to use the registrars databases to map those names into "internet" numbers. The 'essentially identical' nature of the operations should be obvious. > One difference might be that telco makes the number assignment and > _forwards_ that information to the various directory services where > no single entity tells the registrar what numerics will be applied; > the registrar simply assigns the requested name and tells the root > servers to deal with the names. "not exactly". (A) sometimes it is the _end-user_customer_ who tells 'directory assistance' what information should be there -- name *and* number, maybe including address. And directly _pays_ the operator of the directory-assistance service to carry that information. (B) When you register a name, you have to provide the *address* of the machine(s) that will answer questions about things 'under' that name. If you fail to provide the addresses for those machines, then *nothing* works. > If no registrar ever listened to you and assigned the name you > wanted, thus no root servers would ever know of that name, then how > would anyone be able to reach you _by number only_ if the root > servers did not know what to do with the number? Rhetorical question #1: How does the PSTN know how to route your call, if directory assistance doesn't know about your number? Rhetorical question #2: How do you think the Internet functioned _before_ there were 'root servers' (and DNS)? It is really *easy*. The 'root servers' are *NOT*INVOLVED*AT*ALL* in getting packets to a _numeric_address_. Each and every router on the entire Internet has a set of 'forwarding rules' in it, that describes, for _every_possible_ address on the internet, where the 'next step' en route to that destination is. That is _all_ the router needs to know; where to send it 'next'. and that next step does the same thing. "And so on, and so on." Eventually, by recursive application of that 'send it to the next step along the way", it arrives at it's destination. To make things "easy" on (a) users, (b) application software, and (c) software developers, the standard 'name to address' look-up functionality has always worked on the basis of 'given a name as input, go find the address for it; given an address as input, simply return _that_ address." Note that that latter functionality does *not* require any consultation with the 'root servers', or anything else (even a 'hosts' file) for that matter. > So I, John Q. Spammer go to an ISP and ask for a connection. And you get a circuit, and some IP address numbers. *PERIOD*. That is _all_ you get when you buy basic service. > ISP I want to be known as 'spam.com'. You do *not* have to do that. You _may_ ask them to handle "all that stuff" for you, but you're engaging in a purchase of 'additional', _optional_ services from the ISP. when you do that. Depending on the provider, they may offer to do it 'at no additional cost', or they may charge for it. Price on the 'basic service' is better from those who _do_ charge extra for that optional service. Of course, you can be known to the world at large as 'spam.com' *without* any intervention by that ISP. *WITHOUT*, in fact, the ISP even being aware that you are using that name. You can either contract with "somebody else" (other than that ISP) to handle the DNS-related stuff, or you can 'do it yourself'. My ISP, for example, has no idea what domain-names I am using for what machines, at which of the addresses they supplied me. I can change the host names, and domain names, any time I choose. Without their knowledge or consent. I can add a new domain name, and deploy servers under that name, and the ISP has no knowledge, nor any awareness that I have done so. > I do not tell the ISP I want to be known as '208.31.42.98' ... True. The ISP *tells* you that you _will_ be addressed as '208.31.42.98'. You do not have any real choice as to what your 'number' is -- you must use whatever number(s) you get assigned. EXACTLY the way that the telephone company tells you what your phone number will be. > ... ISP says I will take care of all that once you get installed by > a registrar. Quite a difference, You apparently "don't know what you don't know" about how the process actually works. The ISP says "I will play middle-man with the directory service, if you want me to, or you can have somebody else do it, or you can deal with them directly yourself." The CLEC says "I will play middleman with the directory service, if you want me to, or you can have somebody else do it, or you can deal with them directly yourself." As you say, "quite a difference." > registrar _is_ like directory assistance, but different in the sense > that directory assistance does not _assign_ anything, but simply > reports on what has been assigned. A registrar doesn't "assign" anything either, it simply reports info on what names are 'in use'. There is a design difference in the architecture -- the name-to-address mapping service in the Internet realm requires that names be 'unique'; In database terms, you are only allowed one record with any particular 'key'. The telephone 'name-to-address mapping service' is not that restrictive. There can be several "John A. Smith" listings, with different numbers. How do you know _which_one_ is the one you're looking for? That _is_ the problem -- there's no way to tell. You have to get all the numbers, and call each one and ask "are you _the_ John. A. Smith that...?" > So if the registrar was not a greedy son-of-a-bitch and started > saying NO! that would help a lot. Totally ignoring the fact, as described in the botch-edited material above, that the spammer can do everything he needs, *without* relying on a domain- name _at_all_. Domain names are a 'convenience', nothing more. HTML makes it 'trivially doable' to 'conceal' the fact that one is *not* using a domain-name -- _and_ to give the appearance of using _somebody_else's_ domain name, but -actually- connecting to your own servers instead. > Oh yes, I know that John Q. Spammer could try to cut a deal under the > table direct with the ISP, or whomever it is that physically makes > his connections in and out, You continue to display your lack of understanding of how things actually work. There isn't any need for any sort of 'under the table' dealing. You just order basic service from the ISP. Period. You can then: (a) handle domain-name stuff _yourself_, without *any* ISP involvement, (b) contract with the ISP to handle it for you, (c) contract with 'somebody else' to handle it for you, or (d) not bother with it _at_all_. ALL the ISP knows is whether or not you contracted with them to handle things. If you didn't, they have no way of telling whether (a), (c) or (d) applies. Nor do they care -- either way, _they_ aren't providing any related service, and that is the entire extent of their interest (more properly lack thereof :) in the matter. Almost all big commercial accounts buy 'just connectivity' from the ISP, or more likely ISPs (plural) that they use. And handle all the 'other stuff', including interfacing with 'directory assistance' themselves. The people that provide Internet connectivity to General Mills don't have _any_idea_ as to what domain-names are being used. They don't care either -- *all* the data packets they see have a _numeric_ address in them; all they have to do is get things to the proper numeric address, and let the customer do whatever processing is appropriate. > but ISPs working in concert with registrars could do a lot to clean > up the mess. ISPs _alone_ could completely clean up the mess. If they wanted to. The problem is that, collectively, they *don't* want to. And there is nothing that we, the users who _do_ care, can do to make them change their mind about it -- as long as there are "sufficient numbers" of people who are willing to buy services from those 'uncaring' providers. Since 'many' ISPs are demonstrably *not* interested in doing so, the idea of 'ISPs working in concert with registrars' is similarly nothing but a pipe dream. I wish it wasn't that way, but it *is*. "Reality sucks" applies. > And like the old system which was used with FIDO, when a site > becomes a nuisance, he gets delisted, and if others up the line do > not cooperate then _they_ get delisted also. The rule ISP's and > registrars would use is that if John Q. Spammer was expelled by > whoever, then no one touches him or works with him. PAT] Don't I wish!! Unfortunately that approach works *only* when 'almost all' of the players agree on, and _enforce_ the same set of rules. When the 'node' (or 'network') that carries 40% of _all_ the traffic in North America decides that they _will_ deal with 'John Q. Spammer', regardless of his history, it _really_ "doesn't matter much" what the 'rest of the world thinks' about it. They _are_ too big and 'too important' to be _effectively_ 'shunned'. It's like the old joke: "what are the little brown bumps between elephant's toes?" Answer: "Slow natives." And you apparently don't remember the great schism in Fidonet -- when two major nodes blackballed each other; and the 'rest of the world' had to choose sides. Resulting in two different 'fido nets' that didn't talk to each other. Unfortunately, on the Internet, there is nobody in that '800 lb gorilla' position with the interest/gumption to do that black-balling. And when the pygmy tries it, he just ends up as another 'little brown bump'. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Since you seem to have so many hassles with my editing, why don't _you_ start a Digest in which you could witness the Gospel to everyone? I do remember the Fidonet schism, and it was unfortunate, but it all eventually came back together did it not? And thats really what we need here on Internet, where a large number of the 'pygmies' as you call us, walk away and start doing our own thing, a sort of 'Internet2' approach. And when the 800 pound gorilla MCI comes around saying, "oh you must really be sorry about losing all our customers (who by and large, as Spamhaus indicates are spammers) from your circle of communications," my response would be "not really. Numbers do not mean everything; so now we have only 60 percent of the users we used to have ... so what .. we have the _quality_ users with us." Of the approximatly thousand items of mail this 'pygmy' recieved today, if I had not gotten 400 of them, and 395 of those 400 were spam anyway, somehow I think I would get over it. Yeah, Robert, you really have it made; start your own BONOMI Digest (as I offered to help you with when I sent back that 48 K-byte rebuttal you sent a couple weeks ago) and you will never again have to worry or fret over my 'ham-handed' editing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 9 Jun 2005 10:25:21 -0700 Robert Bonomi wrote: >> On some of your arguments, frankly, you seem to be splitting hairs. > That, kiddo, *IS* the way the law works. Get used to it. > If you want to assert what is required/forbidden by law, you have to > get the details right. > As with *any* legal mater, the precise details of the specific > situation make _all_the_difference_in_the_world_. I stand by my original statement. You are splitting hairs and that is irrelevent in the real world. Every organization and every government has a long list of rules and laws. The reality of life is that some are strictly enforced, but a great many are virtually ignored. Some laws/ rules are utilized as an easy way to prosecute someone who has done other things wrong but are harder to prove. You seem to be focusing solely what is on paper and not in practice. In the days of the Bell System, it was said they could disconnect your phone service if they found an illegal extension hooked up on your line. (I don't know if that's a myth or not). Bell Labs Record announced an automated device to test the load of telephone lines to compare it to company records to see if unauthorized sets were in use. (In those days people would disconnect the ringer to avoid detection that way.) Anyway, rules are not, in the grand scheme of things I really doubt that a significant number of extension violators actually lost their telephone service. Indeed, I wonder how many of those automated detector devices were actually built and used in service. (Finding an illegal extension as part of a repair request is another story -- Mother calls 611 not knowing that Son has a bootleg phone in his room.) The legal system is not interested in the trivial or frivolous under normal conditions. (There are always extreme exceptions.) The basic question of this discussion is the impact of the US Constitution (not passed laws) on the operation of government agencies vs. the private sector, such as the power of schools libraries, or govt agencies to censor communications. I stand by my original assertion that computer systems that are the property of some government agency may be regulated by that agency just as a private company would regulate the equipment. I'm sure someone will run out and dig up some exceptions, but overall that is case. I also stand by my assertion that there is no such thing as totally "free speech". What is argued is the permissable _degree_ of the speech in terms of both content and form. You cited a case where someone was prosecuted for illegal use of a govt copying machine. Well, in your example, the person was making an extensive use of it for an outside business. My point is that in reality, government employees everywhere are making copies of recipes, directions to a house party, and other personal stuff every day, and I really doubt anyone will be prosecuted for doing that. Maybe you'll dig up an exception or two here and there, but my point remains. Any other thoughts out there? [public replies please] ------------------------------ 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, Yahoo Groups, 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: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 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 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * 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 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ 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 fifty 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 V24 #258 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 9 23:38:47 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 4A686151A2; Thu, 9 Jun 2005 23:38:47 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #259 Message-Id: <20050610033847.4A686151A2@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 23:38:47 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.2 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,CLICK_BELOW, HOME_EMPLOYMENT,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT,NO_COST autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 9 Jun 2005 23:38:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 259 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Digest New Sponsorship (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Steve Sobol) Verizon Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon (Monty Solomon) Hatch Act (Gary Novosielski) Microwave Fading 6 Gig (HarryHydro) Surgery 6 Days Ago (Carl Moore) Last Laugh! Funny Telephone Picture (Rich Greenberg) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Digest New Sponsorship Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 20:57:06 -0400 I am pleased to welcome a new sponsor to the TELECOM Digest as of today. Main Resource http://www.MainResource.com has signed on to serve readers here. I will let Alisa Meredith explain about their products: http://www.MainResource.com - Buy Refurbished Comdial, Executone, Inter-tel, Isoetec, Premier and Toshiba telecom equipment on-line or by phone. Also offering unused PCS Digital systems. All our refurbished equipment and our repairs are covered by a one-year warranty. Also at http://www.MyHeadsets.com - Buy GN Netcom, Inter-tel, Plantronics and VXI headsets; you can search by brand or type. ======================= You can see Ms. Meredith's ad on our home page, http://telecom-digest.org in the far right hand column. I hope all readers will stop in to say hello and review the products offered at Main Resource. The shop is coincidentally located in the State of Maine, 74 Evergreen Drive, Portland, ME 04103. ======================== In other web site changes/additions, sometimes when I am very angry, as I was after putting out the earlier issue on Thursday, #258, I look for ways to improve our own site here. I look for ways I can be of service to the internet community, and I did that today with a few new PSAs, or Public Service Announcments. I happen to believe that each of us who are entrusted with name space on the internet have certain obligations to do things to help the overall community at large. These are not profit-making things, but simple attempts to be of service. For one, I repaired the link to the Hunger Site; by clicking there each day (it is off our top, home page at http://telecom-digest.org ) you can donate food to hungry children and adults around the world; just click where shown then read one of the messages from the Hunger Site sponsors. Every time you click, another cup of food is given. You do not pay anything. To see it at work now, look at http://hungersite.com . People are not the only beings who get hungry of course; injured and homeless animals living in shelters also need your support. You can also make a click to http://theanimalrescuesite.com and provide bowls of food for dogs and cats. Again, no expense to yourself, simply read the ads provided by Purina Chow and others who supply the actual food at no cost to the shelters. Then last for today, I call your attention to the Missing and Exploited Children's program, which is described on pages reached through http://telecom-digest.org/missingkids.html .Please review the javascript pictures there, then read about them on the page linked through the javascript. I had to repair that Applet also to make it work correctly. Please review these new PSA things, human food, animal food, and missing chidren. They are all on the front page of our web site http://telecom-digest.org in the far right column, along with our paid sponsors like Ms. Meredith, Mike Sandman, Judith Oppenheimer, Oklahoma State University and MIT. Thank you! Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 12:47:45 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com TELECOM Digest Editor queried Brad Houser brad.houser@gmail.com: >> _Why_ can't a registrar be expected to screen potential or actual >> spammers? > Because they have no control. No. You're right, but the reason is wrong. They CAN de-register spamming domains, and some do (GoDaddy is one of them; reports vary as to how quick/consistent they are about it) The real reason is that domain names are something you typically sign up for online with no interaction with a human. That makes any decent amount of screening quite difficult, if not impossible. > Note that anyone with an internet connection can be their own host. In > that case they need an ISP to connect through. Then you might ask how > can ISPs screen people. Well, they can't. How would they determine > what you plan on doing? They can enforce the service agreement and > terminate you, but only if you do something bad. There are a couple things that can be done beforehand like checking spam blacklists, but that's about it, and at that point you'd need to be very careful to use a BL that doesn't have false positives. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But landlords can (or not, as they > wish) choose to rent an apartment to someone. If they get bad vibes > about it, prior to rental, then they just don't rent. The landlord is also talking to the prospective tenant in person before they rent. Do you think something similar happens with domain name registrations? JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Of course not, the registrars are too greedy to do anything but an automated sign up process. Terra World (our local ISP) said that by requiring prospective users (and he gets them from all over, not just s.e. Kansas) to actually _speak_ on the phone and letting _them_ know that _he_ knows what they are about, spam going out of that network is zilch, or nearly so. He has a couple of high school/college age guys who work the 'help desk' there on nights and weekends. All smart kids, he gives them a print out of new subscribers each day. The kids know what to look for, of course, and tell Duane the next day if they see something askance. A spammer who is exposed to daylight seldom continues doing it for very long. Of course that may be why he does not get that many new customers; he won't tolerate that spamming/scamming the way MCI does. When I worked his help desk for a short time after my brain aneurysm I knew what to look for also with new customers. But he still has a very successful small ISP business. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 15:21:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon Wireless Phones When New Messages Arrive Home and Business Customers in N.Y.C. and New England Can Receive TXT Alerts on Their Verizon Wireless Phones NEW YORK, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon home and business voice mailboxes now can alert customers on their Verizon Wireless phone that someone has left a message. Starting today, Verizon voice-messaging customers in New York City and New England can add a feature that sends a text message to any Verizon Wireless short text messaging-capable phone with an alert that a new voice message has been left on the customer's landline phone. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49739949 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What is supposed to make that so exceptional? Cingular Wireless has always had an icon on the display screen indicating voice message waiting, and I have always had my phone set to make three chirps when that icon is turned on. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Hatch Act Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 01:12:45 GMT hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Until around 1975 government employees were under many restrictions. > There was a law, the Hatch Act, that prohibited politicking by > government employees. That made sense in the idea it was to avoid > government employees serving as patronage or beholden to elected > officials for their jobs. Until that time Federal employees had to > sign off that they weren't Communists. They didn't even want to see > bumper stickers on cars in employee parking lots. They wanted the > appearance of strict neutrality. > The laws today are different. Not that different. The Hatch Act, dated and obsolescent though it may be, is alive and well in 2005. It was tested here in New Jersey only a year or two ago by a postal employee who attempted to run for Congress as a Green Party candidate, explicitly to try to test (and if possible overturn) the Hatch Act. He got enough petition signatures to get on the ballot, but the government got an injunction against his performing any campaign activities, and when the case finally got to court (District Court, or Circuit Court, or whatever; IANAL, obviously) the judge upheld the Act in spite of all the excellent arguments that could be made against it. I think his name actually did appear on the ballot, but having not been able to run a campaign, he got nowhere near enough votes to make the election outcome anything but moot. ------------------------------ From: HarryHydro Subject: Microwave Fading 6 Gig Date: 9 Jun 2005 12:45:17 -0700 Hi Folks: I wrote a qbasic program that scans 4 Alcatel radios. It also pages me on problems. I was called almost 10 times around 1:30AM this morning (6/9/05) and again around 4:00AM even more times! My heel are draggin'. Anyway, this has been going on for the last few days. These are not stormy evenings, or even windy. In the plots this program makes, I see signals dropping, or maybe it's noise level increasing, enough to break microwave paths. This is 6gig stuff ... The 4 radios at this site point in different directions, and the radios almost go wacky the same time, but not exactly. For a half hour, the signal on one radio faded to almost break while the others were doing OK. Sometimes the two receivers on one radio will fade together, sometimes not. (diversity) I've associated some of these to mag storms, but most are weather related. However, these last few days have been pretty stable. Could it be temperature inversions at 1:30 in the morning doing this? Harry ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 17:37:00 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Surgery 6 Days Ago I am back on office email for the first time since June 2. I had gall bladder surgery on June 3. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sorry to hear about it, Carl, and I am sure other readers join me in wishing you a speedy recovery. Carl is one of our original, charter subscribers, dating back to the middle 1980's here on the Digest. PAT] ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject:Last Laugh! Funny Telephone Picture Date: 9 Jun 2005 13:45:49 -0400 Organization: Organized? Me? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This orignally appeared two days ago here, but due to a technical glitch in some parts of the Useless Net distribution it got messed up; so here it is again so that everyone can laugh at it. PAT] Take a look at: http://www.jillsjokeline.com/canuhearme.shtml Rich Greenberg Marietta, GA, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time. N6LRT I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ 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, Yahoo Groups, 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: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 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 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * 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 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ 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 fifty 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 V24 #259 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 10 15:24:28 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 34E34151AE; Fri, 10 Jun 2005 15:24:28 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #260 Message-Id: <20050610192428.34E34151AE@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 15:24:28 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.2 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,CLICK_BELOW, HOME_EMPLOYMENT,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 10 Jun 2005 15:25:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 260 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New Services Link Mobile Users to Online Magazines (Lisa Minter) Verisign to Manage .net Web Registry 6 More Years (Lisa Minter) California Forest Cameras Snoop on Wildlife (Lisa Minter) Fancy Math Takes on je ne sais Quoi (Lisa Minter) 'Phone Tapping' Modem Traffic ? (jg@earthlink.net) Re: Is There True Pay-as-You-Go Cellphone? (John McHarry) Re: Is There True Pay-as-You-Go Cellphone? (Joseph) Re: Microwave Fading 6 Gig (GlowingBlueMist) Re: Microwave Fading 6 Gig (Tony P.) Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon (P Romfh) Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon (Justin) Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon (Tim) Re: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones Using Phone Card! (Van Hefner) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (jon@earthlink.net) Re: SBC New Low Price (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (T. Sean Weintz) Re: Cannot Cancel My AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage (johnspilker) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: New Services Link Mobile Users to Online Magazines Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 22:08:10 -0500 Two companies are combining online-only glossy magazines with mobile short message texting services to link mobile handset users to Internet publications even when they are not online. The companies -- Norwegian publisher Fast Forward Media Group and Belgian technology company Allisblue -- presented their new ways of connecting consumers to publications on Thursday at a conference of European publishers. Many of the publishers are struggling to find ways to earn money on the Internet, which is luring away readers of their print publications. With the new combination, consumers on the go will be able to send keywords to a short telephone number from their handsets, after which they will be sent emails with links to magazines they have requested, the two companies said. The animated magazines, which can be leafed through like real magazines, feature links to music, film and other multimedia content, which is sponsored by advertisers or which can be bought and paid for from the mobile phone account. Fast Forward Media said it would start the service with free online magazines such as PlayMusicMagazine.com. It expected to add more keywords, enabling consumers to compile tailored magazines and messages. Allisblue provides patented SMS-to-email technology, which allows consumers to send text messages instantly after picking up keywords from friends, billboards or on the radio and then find links to magazines in their email inboxes when they log on. "Almost everyone has a mobile phone, and 70 percent have email addresses, but outside the office, 18 to 35 years olds are only online for an average 35 minutes a day. The rest of the time they're in the real world, carrying a mobile. This connects them to the online world," said Allisblue Chief Executive Eric Delfosse. He said he was talking to three venture capitalist firms about additional funds to boost expansion of this service. Allisblue is starting in Belgium on short dial 3699 and will bring the service to other European countries. Telecoms operators can also expect to get a cut from the premium SMS services. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Verisign to Manage .net Web Registry 6 More Years Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 22:09:33 -0500 By Spencer Swartz VeriSign Inc., the top manager of Internet domain names that allow people to find and surf Web sites, will keep control of Internet addresses that end in .net for six more years, the group that oversees Internet address allocation said on Thursday. The decision was expected after VeriSign in March got a tentative nod for the continued operation of the .net registry, which has provided VeriSign with about $20 million annually in revenue. VeriSign beat four other applicants for the registry, said the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, the private-public Internet oversight group. VeriSign's current agreement for .net was scheduled to expire on June 30. Under VeriSign's new contract, which takes effect in July, the company will charge $4.25 annually for a new .net registry from $6 previously. The .net registry is a relatively small part of total Internet domain registrations, accounting for 7 percent of all domain name registration. The .com registry accounts for 47 percent of all domain name registrations, according to the company. VeriSign retains the rights to the .com registry until 2007 when it will have to renew that contract, which provides the company with about $200 million annually in revenue. Analysts have generally believed that losing the .net registry would have been more of a "headline" risk than a big revenue or profit problem to VeriSign. VeriSign took over the .net registry in 2000 after it bought Network Solutions, which had been running the domain. VeriSign, through a spokesman, said it was pleased with ICANN's decision and would continue to make investments in operating Internet domains. In April, the company said it will add high-powered computer servers that deliver up Web pages to users' browsers over the next two years to meet increased Internet use in emerging markets such as Brazil, India and eastern and central Europe. VeriSign, which posted about $1.2 billion in revenues in 2004, is also a top provider of ringtones, and processes millions of e-commerce transactions every day for thousands of businesses who effectively outsource their online payment systems to VeriSign. VeriSign's stock on Thursday closed up 2 cents at $30.82 on Nasdaq. The stock's 52-week high is $36.09. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would hope that as ICANN sets up these new registrar contracts they would be insisting on certain conditions to protect the integrity of the net. Probably they are not, however. Just allow things to go like status-quo at present which is considered 'good enough'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: California Forest Cameras Snoop on Wildlife Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 10:30:51 -0500 A 30-acre patch of forest near Idyllwild has been outfitted with robotic cameras and other high-tech gadgets that spy on wildlife, trees and even roots as part of a pioneering effort by scientists to take nature's pulse. Scientists sitting hundreds of miles away can remotely operate mostly wireless devices, including a camera that swings on cables through the trees, to watch bluebird eggs hatch, measure the growth of ferns and study the impact of air pollution. Devices in the outdoor laboratory allow nonintrusive, around-the-clock monitoring. "This is definitely going to change the way we do science," Michael Allen, director of University of California, Riverside's Center for Conservation Biology, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. "This is going to fill in the gaps of our knowledge," said Michael Hamilton, director of the James San Jacinto Mountain Reserve where the high-tech devices have been installed. "You want to know when those hot moments occur," he said. "Is the forest going to disappear in the next 50 years if the temperature changes by three degrees? Now we have a window into those variables." The information obtained could one day save lives and Earth itself, Hamilton said. The technology could eventually uncover ways to combat global warming, track the deadly mosquito-borne West Nile virus, detect water pollution before people drink it and predict the course of invasive plants that alter landscapes and choke off water sources. "The technology has profound implications," said Deborah Estrin, director of the Center for Embedded Network Sensing at the University of California, Los Angeles. The James Reserve is a partner of the center, which was established in 2002 when it won $40 million in funding from the National Science Foundation. Of that, $4 million went to the reserve, Hamilton said. Sensors scattered throughout the reserve record temperature, humidity, wind, rain, lightning and even how cool air sweeps in at night. "It's a subtle but important change ecologically," Hamilton said, explaining that the cool air can trigger seedlings to sprout. Scientists at UC Riverside and UCLA can analyze the computerized data. "That's kind of the downside -- we'll be spending too much time staring at computer screens," Allen said. On The Net: http://www.jamesreserve.net Information from: The Press-Enterprise, http://www.pe.com Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 12:08:14 -0400 From: Lisa Minter Subject: Fancy Math Takes on je ne sais quoi Click here to read this story online: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0602/p13s02-stct.html Byline: Gregory M. Lamb Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor (MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.)English rules the Internet, which can be a frustrating thing for the world's 1.3 billion Chinese and 322 million Spanish-speakers. They outnumber Anglophones. Even online, two-thirds of users speak something other than English at home. So when someone promises a smoother and easier translation program, people around the world tend to perk up their ears. It's a step closer to a truly "worldwide" Web where every page would be available for everyone to read in his or her own language. The latest step comes later this month when the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an arm of the United States government, announces results of its tests of several machine- translation systems. The agency is expected to give top honors, not to the linguistic-savvy programs at universities and elsewhere, but to a newcomer: Internet search company Google. Google's apparent success suggests that a new approach to translation -- fancy math rather than linguistic know-how -- may be the way forward in a field that has struggled with the nuance and ambiguity of human language. "Nobody in my team is able to read Chinese characters," says Franz Och, who heads Google's machine-translation (MT) effort. Yet, they are producing ever more accurate translations into and out of Chinese -- and several other languages as well. To demonstrate the software's prowess, Mr. Och displayed an Arabic newspaper headline at a recent media tour of Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. One commercially available MT program translated it: "Alpine white new presence tape registered for coffee confirms Laden." Then he displayed the translation from Google's prototype, which made considerably more sense: "The White House Confirmed the Existence of a New Bin Laden tape." Of course, every MT program can point to strengths in its approach versus weakness in others', experts say. The key is whether statistical systems have become powerful enough to outperform the intensive, rules-based systems now available. "These translations were impossible a few years ago," Och says. But the advent of ever-cheaper and faster data-crunching and the mushrooming number of online documents have changed the equation. Google has improved the algorithms for its MT program, he says, by feeding its computers the equivalent of 1 million books of text, using sources such as parallel translations of United Nations documents. Google's MT system is still under development and not available to the public. Talking about it at an event for journalists and industry analysts may mean that at least a test version will be coming in the next few months, observers speculate. "The results were very impressive, not the stupid machine translation you see on the Internet, which isn't really good," says Philipp Lenssen, who's been writing about Google in his online blog, Google Blogoscoped, since May 2003. "This opens up a lot of new possibilities because you don't really want to read machine translation at the moment," Mr. Lenssen says. He speculates that it could be a perfect part of a Google Web browser, should the company decide to release one. A user might search the entire Web in his native language and have pages returned to him already translated. "You can apply it to so many situations," he says. Many translations, one root ... Today, nearly every translation service offered on the Web -- AOL, Alta Vista, Babblefish, even Google's -- is powered by translation technology developed by Systran. The company, based in San Diego and Paris, has been involved in MT for more than 30 years. Each day, it translates more than 25 million Web pages. MT involves years of hard work creating rules for translation between a pair of languages, says Dimitris Sabatakakis, chief executive officer of Systran. Using statistical methods, such as Google does, is a well-known technique. "There is no technology breakthrough," he says. "Everybody does the same." Machine translations, he says, work best if the original text is written with care to make it easily translatable, avoiding problematic or ambiguous words and phrases. More and more websites, especially those interested in e-commerce, are trying to create text that is easily translated, Mr. Sabatakakis says. Though machine translations are often less than perfect, he says, they're still useful to gain a quick idea of what a website is all about. Today, Systran offers translations between 40 language pairs, and in the next 12 months it will add 40 more, he says. Each of the two approaches to MT -- hand-tailoring rules for translation between pairs of languages or using statistical analysis to detect patterns -- has its strengths and weaknesses, says Robert Frederking, who teaches at the Center for Machine Translation at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Rules-based systems are time-consuming to develop and expensive, but great for specialized tasks, such as translating a manual on bulldozers, which might have a number of specific and unique terms. "Systran has put literally hundreds of person years over a 30-year period into building each language pair that they translate," Dr. Frederking says. Statistical systems have yet to prove that they can produce superior translations, says Frederking, who hasn't seen the results of the most recent NIST evaluations. But doing well at NIST means more than showing off a few specific examples of better translations to reporters, he says. Even evaluating the quality of translations is difficult and expensive, Frederking says. Since 2002 NIST has used a computer program called Bleu to do its evaluations. It works "reasonably well," he says. Unofficially good ... The results of the NIST evaluation won't be released until later this month. "Google did do _very_ well," says Mark Przybocki, the machine-translation project coordinator at NIST, without confirming Google's score. Some 20 research groups asked to be evaluated, each trying new techniques not yet in commercial use. Each group was given 100 news items to translate from Arabic and Chinese into English. Both rules-based and statistical MT systems can stumble badly on such generalized reading. One problem is the vast and changing vocabulary. One analysis of The Wall Street Journal, Frederking says, found that 1 or 2 percent of each edition consists of words that have never before appeared in the paper. A statistical principle called Zipf's Law holds that with so many words available, nearly every article will have some uncommon words, he says. Unless statistical MT programs have seen these words in many previous contexts, they can mistranslate them. Proper nouns are a special challenge. Crooner Julio Iglesias, for example, shouldn't be translated as July Churches, the literal English translation of his Spanish name. An MT system should be able to spot which words are names and not translate them, he says. But even that doesn't help, if the translation is from Japanese or Chinese characters. "You have to translate them into some kind of Latin letters," he says. Frederking predicts that eventually rules-based and statistical methods will merge, with some knowledge of grammar and syntax being added to the statistical approach, making for translation programs that are both broad and deep. Meanwhile, Google's announcement that it's working on a better MT system creates interest in the field "and that's a good thing" says Sabatakakis of Systran. But "we know that there are no magic solutions. You don't learn a language with statistical methods." Countries with the most Internet users (in millions): 1. United States: 185.6 2. China: 99.8 3. Japan: 78.1 4. Germany: 41.9 5. India: 37.0 6. Britain: 33.1 7. South Korea: 31.7 8. Italy: 25.5 9. France: 25.5 10. Brazil: 22.3 Source: CIA World Factbook Copyright 2005 The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor -- an independent daily newspaper providing context and clarity on national and international news, peoples and cultures, and social trends. Online at http://www.csmonitor.com Click here to order a free sample copy of the print edition of the Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/aboutus/sample_issue.html Sign up to have the Monitor's headlines sent directly to your inbox. http://www.csmonitor.com/email (or view http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra.nytimes.html and review the far right hand column.) NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Quite a few years ago, prior to my illness, I had several Digest web pages available in various languages, and I am thinking about starting that again. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jg@earthlink.net Subject: 'Phone Tapping' Modem Traffic ? Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 06:13:12 -0500 Hi, I believe my 'voice line' is being tapped [the line feeds through the 'opponents' switchboard]. How difficult is it for them to 'decode' my modem [to ISP] traffic ? I'm guessing/hoping that my modem has to 'synchronise' with the ISP's in analog mode, so it's difficult for a '3rd' party to listen ? Is this right ? Thanks for any info. == John Grant. ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Is There True Pay-as-You-Go Cellphone? Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 03:03:28 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:04:22 -0400, TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Barry Margolin: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Another reasonable plan is Alltel, > which I do not think has any expiry time on its prepaid minutes, > although it is bit more expensive per call. PAT] I have that. It is something like $.35/min. incoming and outgoing. There is a nasty monthly charge if you don't use it at all for a month, but nothing if you use even one minute. Since I use it for alarms from a public radio station transmitter site, it is almost perfect. The only catch is that there is no roaming. The local area is quite large, so that is not often a problem. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Is There True Pay-as-You-Go Cellphone? Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 20:50:09 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:04:22 -0400, Barry Margolin wrote: > I have a cellphone, but I use it very infrequently -- maybe about 5 > minutes a month. I bought a Virgin Mobile prepaid cellphone, but they > require that I purchase $20 of time every 90 days to keep it active. > So I have to spend nearly $7/mo when I use at most $2/mo. > Is there a cellphone plan closer to my needs? A company that resells AT&T Wireless/Cingular TDMA IS-136 service "Beyond Wireless" will activate any qualifying phone free with the requirement that you make a call at least every 60 days. Theoretically with their service you could have phone service for months on end and not pay anything unless you used up all your minutes. The drawback (you knew there had to be one) is that they only have local numbers in a limited number of locations so if the number wasn't local to people calling you they would pay a toll charge to call you. Outgoing calls cost 15 cents/minute down to 10 cents/minute if you purchase a large number of minutes refill voucher. I have two former AT&T Wireless TDMA phones that I've activated on their service to use if the need arises. I should also add that calls that are not "on network" are charged at four times the regular rate so if you are in an area where AT&T Wireless never had service it would not be a good fit for you as any minutes you would use would be off network and would cost you four times the regular amount. If however you are in an AT&T network area it's a good deal especially for the casual caller. Theoretically you could go to a resale/thrift shop and get a used AT&T wireless handset and have Beyond activate it for you and you'd have an extremely economical package. http://gobeyond2.chainreactionweb.com/catalog/airtime_rates.php And there's a trick to ordering minutes from them if you're not in one of the areas they serve. Set up an account using one of the states that they do serve and use your credit card billing address minus the state (use one of the states served.) Otherwise you won't be able to set up an account to buy minutes. ------------------------------ From: GlowingBlueMist Subject: Re: Microwave Fading 6 Gig Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 03:12:18 -0500 Organization: SunSITE.dk - Supporting Open source HarryHydro wrote in message news:telecom24.259.5@telecom-digest.org: > Hi Folks: > I wrote a qbasic program that scans 4 Alcatel radios. It also > pages me on problems. I was called almost 10 times around 1:30AM this > morning (6/9/05) and again around 4:00AM even more times! My heel are > draggin'. Anyway, this has been going on for the last few days. > These are not stormy evenings, or even windy. In the plots this > program makes, I see signals dropping, or maybe it's noise level > increasing, enough to break microwave paths. This is 6gig stuff ... The > 4 radios at this site point in different directions, and the radios > almost go wacky the same time, but not exactly. For a half hour, the > signal on one radio faded to almost break while the others were doing > OK. Sometimes the two receivers on one radio will fade together, > sometimes not. (diversity) I've associated some of these to mag > storms, but most are weather related. However, these last few days > have been pretty stable. > Could it be temperature inversions at 1:30 in the morning doing this? > Harry nI don't know about your location but when I was monitoring microwave sites for the military in Germany, most of the temperature inversion problems we ran into was in the early morning. The hills would cool off but the valleys would hold the heat unless a breeze was blowing. As you have already identified, the fact that your diversity beams tend to drop out at slightly different times helps to point to a temperature inversion problem if weather was ruled out. We did tend to have one other problem with fighter aircraft using our towers as practice targets. Either the bulk of the aircraft themselves or the aircraft electronic systems would drop the link as they came in for the final run. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Microwave Fading 6 Gig Organization: ATCC Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 07:11:40 -0400 In article , harryhydro@hotmail.com says: > Hi Folks: > I wrote a qbasic program that scans 4 Alcatel radios. It also > pages me on problems. I was called almost 10 times around 1:30AM this > morning (6/9/05) and again around 4:00AM even more times! My heel are > draggin'. Anyway, this has been going on for the last few days. > These are not stormy evenings, or even windy. In the plots this > program makes, I see signals dropping, or maybe it's noise level > increasing, enough to break microwave paths. This is 6gig stuff ... The > 4 radios at this site point in different directions, and the radios > almost go wacky the same time, but not exactly. For a half hour, the > signal on one radio faded to almost break while the others were doing > OK. Sometimes the two receivers on one radio will fade together, > sometimes not. (diversity) I've associated some of these to mag > storms, but most are weather related. However, these last few days > have been pretty stable. > Could it be temperature inversions at 1:30 in the morning doing this? It is possible. 6GHz is millimeter radio, and water vapor does a number on that. ------------------------------ From: Pete Romfh Subject: Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 05:53:40 -0500 Organization: Not Organized Monty Solomon wrote: > Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to > Verizon Wireless Phones When New Messages Arrive > Home and Business Customers in N.Y.C. and New England Can > Receive TXT Alerts on Their Verizon Wireless Phones > NEW YORK, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon home and > business voice mailboxes now can alert customers on their > Verizon Wireless phone that someone has left a message. > Starting today, Verizon voice-messaging customers in New > York City and New England can add a feature that sends a > text message to any Verizon Wireless short text messaging- > capable phone with an alert that a new voice message has > been left on the customer's landline phone. > http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49739949 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What is supposed to make > that so exceptional? Cingular Wireless has always had an > icon on the display screen indicating voice message > waiting, and I have always had my phone set to make three > chirps when that icon is turned on. PAT] The "New" feature is having the voicemail on your home phone send a message to your cellphone saying a message has been left. Most voicemail systems have had this feature for years. You could have it call your cellphone or a pager. The SMS message is sort of a new wrinkle on an existing service. Pete Romfh, Telecom Geek & Amateur Gourmet. promfh at hal dash pc dot org ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon Date: 10 Jun 2005 05:31:34 -0700 Hey -- anything to drive the number of minutes of usage up. (OBTW Pat, they are not talking about voicemail left on the cell phone, but on your landline.) ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 05:41:13 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications I find forwarding our home phone to my cell phone when we are on a trip works better. Monty Solomon wrote: > Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon > Wireless Phones When New Messages Arrive > Home and Business Customers in N.Y.C. and New England Can Receive TXT > Alerts on Their Verizon Wireless Phones [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's how I do it also, even though I don't go on many car trips. Prairie Stream (local telco) has my landline set to 'forward on busy/no answer' to my Cingular cell phone. And since we here get unlimited local area calling, my landline 620-331 phone forwards after 3 rings to my cellular 620-330 number. My regular callers know they are getting forwarded to my cell phone when after 3 audible rings (in their ear) they hear a couple seconds of silence as the call is 'pulled away' from the landline and transferred to my cell phone. When I am truly not available, then the Cingular cell phone voice mail takes the call. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: William Van Hefner Subject: Re: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card! Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 23:27:05 -0700 Organization: Vantek Communications, Inc. hizark21@yahoo.com wrote about: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card! on: 8 Jun 2005 17:52:19 -0700 > MCI now charging extra payphones when using their phone card!!! > MCI has started charging a 65 cent surcharge on calls using their = phone cards ... Most companies have been adding payphone surcharges to their calling cards for a long, long time. This is absolutely nothing new. I have some MCI pre-paid calling cards that I bought at Costco last Christmas, and they plainly state that all calls made from payphones will be hit with a 10 minute/unit surcharge. At the rate I bought the cards at, that is a 29 cent surcharge. It's simple to understand why carriers are charging this fee. First of all, carriers have been forced to pay surcharges to payphone providers (via their carrier, OSP or reseller) on each call for years now. The compensation rate for these charges was raised more than six months ago to an all-time high. When you add the existing charges to the fact that carriers like MCI have to cut individual checks to hundreds of different carriers and resellers each month, you are talking about a major accounting nightmare. In some cases, MCI itself may be the payphone carrier, and it then has to cut a check to a division of its own company, which in turn has to send checks to literally thousands of independent payphone owners all over the country. If the payphone uses an MCI reseller or OSP, you have to add yet another middleman. You can blame our own Federal Communications Commission for caving-in to payphone owners and others involved in the industry for raising the limit on these surcharges. I guess that they feel sorry for the payphone companies, who have probably seen their revenues drop by 90% in the past 10 years. William Van Hefner Editor - TheDigest.Com http://www.thedigest.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But I have to wonder what was wrong with the old 'Separations and Settlements' process AT&T used for about ninety years. And by the way, we had a response on this yesterday as well, where the writer claimed that the 'fee to write checks' also cut into the profit telco made on calls using calling cards, etc. Actually, even without a master 'Separations and Settlements' process like AT&T used to administer, the telcos all have their own proceedures for this, and for the benefit of our writer yesterday, each time someone makes a call from a payphone, the carrier does not sit down and write a check for 65 cents or whatever. They go for about a year at a time, then they subtract what one owes the other from what the second one owes the first one and settle up the difference. In other words, John Q. Payphone Owner has a thousand dollars due him from MCI, and he owes MCI nine hundred fifty dollars. MCI offsets what they owe each other, and send John Q. Payphone Owner the difference, if any, or a bill if he owes them. Now John Q. may have been collecting the aggragate differences each month from the local telco -- let's call them Verizon for example (via the same technique) so when MCI makes an annual or semi-annual settlement with Verizon one of them says "do not forget about John Q and what he has coming"; they compare notes and give John his few dollars due. There is _not_ all that massive numbers of checks written and 'major expenses which cuts down on the profits' as our correspondent yesterday claimed. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jon@earthlink.net Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 05:56:13 -0500 Joseph wrote: >>> That's interesting. Both Verizon and Sprint have disabled SMS >>> completely when I requested it. Why can't T-Mobile? >> Maybe it has to do with the way GSM works. You didn't mention AT&T >> Wireless or Cingular. SMS is part of the GSM spec. I don't know if >> that's the case with CDMA. Isaiah Beard wrote: > It is, but can be inhibited if need be. I have to say, SMS seems to > be GSM's achilles' heel. A lot of signalling functions on GSM appear > to be handled by thinly vieled SMS messages, stuff that would be > handled on a more formal level in CDMA through the paging channel. Are there on-line specs for GSM and/or CDMA ? > I'm willing to bet that T-Mobile is unwilling to fully disable SMS on > an account because in many markets, they still use it for voicemail > and other notifications. Do they send the voicemail 'digitally compressed' [eg. simulated] ? What is the average bits/sec which they need ? Thanks for any info. Chris Glur ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: SBC New Low Price Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 05:47:07 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As I read the original thread here, I > was of the impression it was not the wire pair(s) in question, it > was getting dial tone on that pair which telco would not supply > because of a billing dispute with a previous tenant. Telco could care > less about the wire pair; run as many of them as you wish, but then > get telco to interconnect. Was I wrong on this assumption? PAT] Perhaps the thread was bifurcated, but I didn't see the discussion about a billing dispute. The message I responded to was the debate about whether dial tone is required for a rental unit, as opposed to a good pair that is capable of working. And, to what extent the landlord is responsible. As to a billing dispute, in California, all the landlord would have to do is certify to the LEC that the deadbeat tenant has moved out. If the LEC refused to provide service to the new tenant at that point the California PUC could resolve that in short order. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The part of the thread we got here from AES discussed how the original tenant skipped owing money, and that although the landlord (apparently, I do not recall reading it) did in fact tell telco he had _new_ tenants, telco did not accept that as the complete story _in the proper context_ and said they wanted their money. And, if telco's version was correct, then the PUC would back them up. PAT] ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 11:22:29 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Pat wrote: > So I, John Q. Spammer go to an ISP and ask for a connection. I tell > ISP I want to be known as 'spam.com'. I do not tell the ISP I want > to be known as '208.31.42.98' Um, Pat -- that's not correct. The ISP has absolutely nothing to do with your domain name. You don't tell him what you want to be known as at all in most cases. Usually they just assign you an IP address. If you have your own AS number and assigned block and are going to run BGP, you tell them what your IP is. But in either case, no domain names are involved. The only time the ISP might nbeed to know that info is if in addition to being your ISP they are also providing additional value added services, above and beyond just being an ISP, such as DNS hosting or SMTP mail. > ... ISP says I will take care of all that once you get installed by > a registrar. The registrar is the only business that needs to know about your domain name. Our ISP does not know/need to know/care what our domain name is. > Quite a difference, the registrar _is_ like directory assistance, > but different in the sense that directory assistance does not > _assign_ anything, but simply reports on what has been assigned. So > if the registrar was not a greedy son-of-a-bitch and started saying > NO! that would help a lot. Oh yes, I know that John Q. Spammer > could try to cut a deal under the table direct with the ISP, or > whomever it is that physically makes his connections in and out, but > ISPs working in concert with registrars could do a lot to clean up > the mess. Given that in most cases involving spammers, the ISP has no way of knowing what registered domains are using a block of addresses, that won't work. > And like the old system which was used with FIDO, when a site > becomes a nuisance, he gets delisted, and if others up the line do > not cooperate then _they_ get delisted also. The rule ISP's and > registrars would use is that if John Q. Spammer was expelled by > whoever, then no one touches him or works with him. PAT] There is such a system in place more or less. The ROKSO list run by spamhaus is pretty much what you describe. It's of limited use, however. The spammers use prepaid debit cards under phoney names to register domains, so they can't be identified before hand by the registrar. Most spammers these days don't even really have an internet connection for their business per se -- they hire a sleazy overseas company to host their server for them. They use fake names again to do this. The spam is sent as follows -- somone gets a consumer level dsl, dial up, or cable internet account. They then use this ISP connection to get trojan infected PC's worldwide to send the spam for them. Since no spam comes form their own account, it never gets traced to that account. The only identifiable things are the domain name of the server, the registrar of the domain name, and the company hosting the server. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Seems like an awfully convoluted way of running your business, IMO. So my response would be to kill the domain name of the server, chop off the registrar's head, and burn down the company hosting the server. Fair enough? As one writer here yesterday pointed out, the ISPs could cure a huge amount of the problem (but I would say give the registrars some part of the job also) if they gave a Good God Damn, which many of them do not, such as MCI. And don't forget, MCI uses their employee Vint Cerf as their front man/mouthpiece with ICANN, truly God's Gift to Netters everywhere. And the small business people who run local ISP operations who _do_ care and _do_ attempt to check out new customers are treated like imbiciles, the same as your Esteemed Moderator. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johnspilker@msn.com Subject: Re: Cannot Cancel My AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage Date: 10 Jun 2005 09:20:22 -0700 They are charging us a monthly fee that amounts to $8 a month with taxes. I did send a registered letter to AT&T legal department and got a simple form letter that told me to contact Qwest. What an insult. I've contacted Qwest for confirmation that the account was closed on April 20. I'm not sure what to do next. I suppose I could file a complaint with the FCC but I wouldn't expect any quick results. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Forget for a minute that the FCC does not care one way or the other about insults you have endured. AT&T claims that Qwest is their agent, so send another registered letter to Qwest (a copy of your original letter to AT&T) with a cover note saying "remove my AT&T service immediatly". 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, Yahoo Groups, 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 V24 #260 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 10 19:54:50 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 99ADB15112; Fri, 10 Jun 2005 19:54:49 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #261 Message-Id: <20050610235449.99ADB15112@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 19:54:49 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.3 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,DO_IT_TODAY, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 10 Jun 2005 19:54:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 261 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update #485, June 10, 2005 (Angus TeleManagement Group) Bellsouth Caller ID (Choreboy) Altigen Workgroup Outbound caller ID (citius21j@yahoo.com) Nortel's President Resigns (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) US Robotics 005605 Modem and VOIP (colin@nomailspam.com) Can Verizon Phone Be Used With Bell Mobility in Canada? (aqabbas) Access Personal Contacts, Notes Through Text Messaging (Phil) Re: 'Phone Tapping' Modem Traffic ? (mc) Re: 'Phone Tapping' Modem Traffic ? (Robert Bonomi) Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon (Joseph) Re: Cannot Cancel AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage (Danny Burstein) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (Isaiah Beard) Re: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card! (Levine) Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (T. Sean Weintz) Re: Digest New Sponsorship (T. Sean Weintz) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 12:16:41 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #485, June 10, 2005 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 485: June 10, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Policy Review Asks 106 Questions ** Nortel President, CTO Resign ** Cogeco Enters Local Phone Business ** Some VoIP Providers Get 9-1-1 Extension ** RIM's Patent Settlement Stalls ** Consortium Wants 5-1-1 for Weather & Travel Info ** Bell Announces Global VoIP Trial ** Nortel Offers Unified Applications Platform ** Sierra Gives Up on Smartphone ** Building Access Rules Include Utelcos ** Rogers Extends Ultra-Lite to Newfoundland ** PIAC Wants Price Cap Amendments ** Telus and IEEE Sponsor Student Contest ** Bell Buys Western ERP Integrator ** Call Genie Names New CEO ** Allstream's Macdonald on Medical Leave ** CIRA Warns Against Password Fraud ** Orion Holds Research Summit ============================================================ POLICY REVIEW ASKS 106 QUESTIONS: The Telecom Policy Review Committee's consultation paper, released on Monday, invites comments on a broad range of issues in order "not to prejudge or prematurely eliminate areas of interest and potential reform." ** "Canada has generally been well served by the policy and regulatory framework that evolved over the last century," says the paper, but asks, "Should changes be made [to this framework] to better equip Canada to reap future benefits from developments in telecommunications and ICT as these become more powerful enablers of our social and economic lives?" ** 106 specific questions are organized in seven sections: the changing telecom environment, the regulatory framework, regulatory institutions, Canada's connectivity agenda, making the most of technology, other issues, and implementation. ** First-round submissions are due August 15; comments on the submissions are to be made by September 15. The panel hopes to make its recommendations before the end of 2005. www.telecomreview.ca/epic/internet/intprp-gecrt.nsf/en/h_rx00015e.html NORTEL PRESIDENT, CTO RESIGN: Newly recruited President and CTO Gary Daichendt has resigned from Nortel Networks as a result of what CEO Bill Owens terms "divergent management styles and ... business views." CTO Gary Kunis, who previously worked with Daichendt in Cisco Systems and joined Nortel following Daichendt's appointment, has also left the company. COGECO ENTERS LOCAL PHONE BUSINESS: On June 8, Cogeco Cable launched digital telephone service in Burlington and Oakville, Ontario. The company says it will extend service to most of the cities it serves by December 2006. ** Service is $44.99 for customers who also take Cogeco High Speed Internet and cable TV; $49.95 for those who take only Internet. ** Included: unlimited Canada and U.S. long distance; voice mail and four other features; 4-1-1, 6-1-1, and 9-1-1; and eight-hour battery back up. SOME VOIP PROVIDERS GET 9-1-1 EXTENSION: In response to applications by Vonage, SaskTel, BananaTel, MTS Allstream, Primus, and Globility, the CRTC has given these providers until August 17 to ensure that their nomadic VoIP 9-1-1 calls are routed to the correct emergency center. (See Telecom Update #482) www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Letters/2005/lt050527.htm RIM'S PATENT SETTLEMENT STALLS: Research In Motion says it has reached an impasse in efforts to finalize its patent licensing agreement with NTP Inc. and is taking court action to enforce the settlement. (See Telecom Update #473) NTP says it will now ask for a court injunction blocking BlackBerry sales in the U.S. CONSORTIUM WANTS 5-1-1 FOR WEATHER & TRAVEL INFO: The Canada 511 Consortium, consisting of Environment Canada, Transport Canada, Canadian Urban Transit Association, Transportation Association of Canada, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Society of Canada, all ten provincial governments, and the Yukon Territorial government, has asked the CRTC to assign the 5-1-1 as a telephone number for the free delivery of weather and travel information to the public. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2005/pt2005-5.htm BELL ANNOUNCES GLOBAL VoIP TRIAL: Bell Canada has begun trials of Global Voice over Internet Protocol, which provides flat-rate intra-company international long distance service over a virtual private IP network. International connectivity is from BT Infonet. NORTEL OFFERS UNIFIED APPLICATIONS PLATFORM: Nortel Networks has announced its new Applications Center, which provides a open standards and SIP-based platform for contact center, speech recognition, unified messaging, and multimedia collaboration tools. Also announced: ** New releases of Nortel's Contact Center Suite (formerly Symposium), CallPilot Unified Messaging, and CS 1000 IP-PBX. ** IP Phone 2007, Nortel's first full colour screen phone. ** Nortel's new Multimedia Office Client, which provides multimedia enhancement of Microsoft Office Outlook. SIERRA GIVES UP ON SMARTPHONE: Sierra Wireless says it will sell or shut down its Voq Professional Phone business in order to focus on its core PC card business. Voq, a competitor of BlackBerry and Treo smartphones, secured a $9.5 million federal government investment but sold only an estimated 4,000 units. (See Telecom Update #403, 427) BUILDING ACCESS RULES INCLUDE UTELCOS: In response to a 2003 application, the CRTC has extended the multi-dwelling unit access agreement guidelines set in Telecom Decision 2003-45 to include members of the Coalition of Hydro Telecom Service Providers. (See Telecom Update #402) www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/dt2005-33.htm ROGERS EXTENDS ULTRA-LITE TO NEWFOUNDLAND: Rogers Cable has begun offering its Hi-Speed Internet Ultra-Lite service in Newfoundland. The service offers speeds of up to 128 Kbps download and 64 Kbps upload for $19.95 per month. PIAC WANTS PRICE CAP AMENDMENTS: Responding to the CRTC's proposal to extend the current price cap regime for two years (see Telecom Update #481), the Public Interest Advocacy Centre says that current consumer price levels are too high, and has asked for an extended process to review them. The CRTC has postponed the comment deadline to June 20, but says its proposal "does not contemplate a detailed review of any aspect" of the current regime. www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8678/c12_200505729.htm#4a TELUS AND IEEE SPONSOR STUDENT CONTEST: Telus and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers have initiated an annual contest for Information Computing and Telecommunications projects submitted by undergraduate engineering or technology students. The IEEE Telus Innovation Award features $20,000 in cash prizes. www.ieee.ca/students/telus_award/index.htm BELL BUYS WESTERN ERP INTEGRATOR: Bell Canada has acquired Winnipeg-based CSB Systems, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems integrator that specializes in Microsoft mid- market ERP software products Navision and Syspro. CSB will become part of the recently-formed Bell Business Solutions organization. CALL GENIE NAMES NEW CEO: Call Genie, a Calgary-based supplier of voice directory technology, management, and support services, has named Michael Durance, a VP of Toshiba's telecom division, as Chief Executive Officer. ALLSTREAM'S MACDONALD ON MEDICAL LEAVE: John McDonald, President of MTS's Allstream division, began medical leave on June 10 for undisclosed reasons. MTS announced that CEO Bill Fraser will be overseeing Allstream until MacDonald returns. CIRA WARNS AGAINST PASSWORD FRAUD: The Canadian Internet Registration Authority warns against fake email messages purporting be from CIRA, which ask dot-ca domain name holders for their CIRA user account number or password. Do not share this information with anyone, CIRA says. ORION HOLDS RESEARCH SUMMIT: The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), which provides high bandwidth connectivity to Ontario universities and research institutions, is holding its 2005 summit in Toronto June 13 and 14. Registration is open to the public, at $295 for the two-day event. www.orion.on.ca/events/ontariorandesummit.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 late Friday afternoon each week at 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 www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 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: Choreboy Subject: Bellsouth Caller ID Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 13:45:43 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Caller ID won't show names for some cellphone callers. I decided to ask Bellsouth if their Caller ID would show names of cellphone callers with any cellphone carriers, and if so, what carriers. Bellsouth loves calling customers for telemarketing but doesn't like having customers call Customer Service. I decided to try email. I was redirected to a page telling me I wouldn't be allowed on unless I downloaded Netscape or Explorer. Some sites won't work very well with some browsers, but this is the first time a website wouldn't allow me on except with specified browsers. Netscape 7 is unacceptable for Mac OS9 because Netscape dropped support and left it full of serious bugs. I happened to have Explorer but prefer two newer browsers that are more versatile and standards-compliant. Bellsouth expected me to do a 15 MB download before I could email them. It's not a customer-friendly company. As they'd warned, Bellsouth made me wait 48 hours. The answer was that whether Caller ID showed a name for a cellphone caller would depend on what carrier the caller was using. So Bellsouth won't tell me what cellphone carriers provide names for their Caller ID. Is this information available anywhere? ------------------------------ From: citius21j@yahoo.com Subject: Altigen Workgroup Outbound Caller ID Date: 10 Jun 2005 11:20:29 -0700 Hi, Could someone please help me with this. We are using the ALTIGEN SYSTEM We have 2 workgroups set up for two separate businesses we are running. I have entered two different transmitted CID numbers for them but they dont seem to be displayed when an agent logged into the workgroup is making an outbound call. It seems to pull up the transmitted CID number for the agent. Please guide me as how to get the different business number show up when the agent is making outbound call from the workgroup. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 12:35:39 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Nortel's President Resigns Telecom dailyLead from USTA June 10, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22249&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Nortel's president resigns BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Nokia, Intel form WiMAX alliance * BellSouth's extensive fiber network may help IPTV plans * Adelphia offers broadband music service USTA SPOTLIGHT * Order Today! Newton's Telecom Dictionary -- 21st Edition EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Tech whiz talks open source VOIP DOWNLOAD * Gartner: IP telephony security threat overhyped * Agilent targets cable VoIP REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Kurth pulls out of FCC consideration Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22249&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ Subject: US Robotics 005605 Modem and VOIP From: colin@nomailspam.com Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 15:40:08 -0500 I have a US Robotics 005605 (aka Model 0525) 56k Voice Faxmodem. The last time I used it was several years ago with a Win 98 OS. Having converted to Win 2000 pro, I downloaded the USB firmware flash program for this model from the US Robotics support site. http://www.usr.com/support/product-template.asp?prod=5605 The problem is that I'm not sure what driver to use. There's a USB driver but I can't get a dialtone from my Sipora 2000 VOIP modem with it. The OS recognizes the modem. Is it possible that it doesn't recognize VOIP connections? US Robotics tech support states the following: "In Control Panel, double-click Modems and remove extra modem entries" Does that also mean I should remove these options from the Advanced tab? Microsoft H.323 TAPI Service Provider Microsoft Multicast Conference TAPI Service Provider NDIS Proxy TAPI Service Provider TAPI Kernel-Mode Service Provider Unimodem 5 Service Provider I'm going to try using the serial cable now. If anyone has experience with VOIP and analog modems, please contribute! ------------------------------ From: aqabbas@yahoo.com Subject: Can Verizon Phone be Used With Bell Mobility in Canada? Date: 10 Jun 2005 15:09:40 -0700 Can a Verizon phone be used with Bell Mobility in Canada? I know they both use CDMA. I am specifialy interested in the Kyocera 7135. ------------------------------ From: phil Subject: Access Personal Contacts, Notes, Through Text Messaging Date: 10 Jun 2005 15:10:58 -0700 Navin Communications Inc. developed a new service which allows you to access your Contacts, Calendar, Notes, ... through text messaging. The service is still in BETA and can be used for free at this moment. Try it out at www.telixo.com Phil ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: 'Phone Tapping' Modem Traffic ? Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 15:38:14 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory (http://www.speedfactory.net) wrote in message news:telecom24.260.5@telecom-digest.org: > Hi, > I believe my 'voice line' is being tapped [the line feeds through the > 'opponents' switchboard]. > How difficult is it for them to 'decode' my modem [to ISP] traffic ? > I'm guessing/hoping that my modem has to 'synchronise' with the ISP's > in analog mode, so it's difficult for a '3rd' party to listen ? I'm not sure about current modems. With early modem technology (1200 baud and below), eavesdropping was easy. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: 'Phone Tapping' Modem Traffic ? Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 19:40:27 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > Hi, > I believe my 'voice line' is being tapped [the line feeds through the > 'opponents' switchboard]. > How difficult is it for them to 'decode' my modem [to ISP] traffic ? > I'm guessing/hoping that my modem has to 'synchronise' with the ISP's > in analog mode, so it's difficult for a '3rd' party to listen ? > Is this right ? > Thanks for any info. Short answer: "it depends". With old 'Bell 103" type modems, 'copying' the line communication was comparatively trivial with nothing more than an off-the-shelf modem. With 'Bell 202' type stuff, it was even simpler -- they worked that way automatically. Bell 212 type stuff required some _very_ minor hardware tweaking to turn an off-the-shelf unit into a 'tap'. Above 2400 baud, you need some "somewhat specialized" equipment. Nothing terribly exotic, but you have to know 'where to look'. Generally impractical to modify 'retail, off-the-shelf' modems to the purpose. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 09:18:34 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 9 Jun 2005 15:21:15 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > Starting today, Verizon voice-messaging customers in New York City and > New England can add a feature that sends a text message to any Verizon > Wireless short text messaging-capable phone with an alert that a new > voice message has been left on the customer's landline phone. > - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49739949 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What is supposed to make that so > exceptional? Cingular Wireless has always had an icon on the display > screen indicating voice message waiting, and I have always had my > phone set to make three chirps when that icon is turned on. PAT] I had a private voicemail service that did this. Unfortunately they went bust. As to Pat's comment, perhaps you didn't notice that this was to notify you on your cellphone when you have a message on your *landline* phone. Most all cellphones get an indication of a message left in your cellphone voicemail box either o_o or some other icon or if not an icon some send an actual text message to your handset saying "you have a voicemail dial 123 to retrieve" and also will have an audible sound to alert you that you have waiting messages. ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: Cannot Cancel My AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 18:54:29 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In johnspilker@msn.com writes: > They are charging us a monthly fee that amounts to $8 a month with > taxes. I did send a registered letter to AT&T legal department and got > a simple form letter that told me to contact Qwest. [ snip of the usuals problems ] Once again, in most states sending off a letter to the public service//utilities commission (and it never hurts to add the AG) gets results for straightforward and (relatively low cost) matters like this. I personally did, in fact, do this with AT&T service here in NYC. About a week after I dropped my letter in the mail box I got back a standard form letter from the PSC in ALbany, NY, and a couple of days later I got a "we've fixed it" note from AT&T. Which they did. (Other people have reported to me similar effectiveness courrtesy of web-page writeups, but I prefer paper. This gives me my own hard copy to refer to). Note that this was a couple of years ago prior to the latest rounds of corporate shuffles, but the process should probably still work. Again, that's _most_ states. Some are pretty useless. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:05:51 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com jon@earthlink.net wrote: >> It is, but can be inhibited if need be. I have to say, SMS seems to >> be GSM's achilles' heel. A lot of signalling functions on GSM appear >> to be handled by thinly vieled SMS messages, stuff that would be >> handled on a more formal level in CDMA through the paging channel. > Are there on-line specs for GSM and/or CDMA ? I'm sure there are. Google is your friend. :) >> I'm willing to bet that T-Mobile is unwilling to fully disable SMS >> on an account because in many markets, they still use it for voicemail >> and other notifications. > Do they send the voicemail 'digitally compressed' [eg. simulated] ? > What is the average bits/sec which they need ? You misunderstand. I was referring to voicemail *notification*. As in, the voicemail icon on your phone? In CDMA, a flag is set on your handset via the paging channel. On T-Mobile and older generation GSM networks, the flag is not sent (though that is starting to change on T-Mobile, slowly). Instead, you get an explicit SMS message that reads something like "you have 1 unread voice mail message." E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jun 2005 21:35:05 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card! Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > You can blame our own Federal Communications Commission for caving-in > to payphone owners and others involved in the industry for raising > the limit on these surcharges. Yes. In a few areas I see payphone providers with a few grains of sense who are pricing their calls to be competitive, e.g., 10 cpm for a lot of international calls on VZ phones in New York. The rest are in a suicidal circle of higher prices leading to less use leading to yet higher prices. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But I have to wonder what was wrong > with the old 'Separations and Settlements' process AT&T used for > about ninety years. Nothing, so long as all the pay phones belonged to the ILEC and the long distance rates were high enough to pay for a lot of manual work. In a world where there's thousands of COCOT owners and the real cpm for domestic calls is a penny a minute, it's a problem. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There was a fellow when I lived in Chicago, who owned a bunch of COCOTS and he deliberatly priced his _less_ than Ameritech. When Ameritech went to 30 cents per call several years ago, he put signs on all his COCOTS saying 'this phone still just 25 cents" and he offered long distance to anywhere for just _one dollar_ for 3 minutes and some small amount of overtime, I think maybe 10 seconds. He really raked in money on those phones of his. PAT] ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 17:41:25 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com PAT wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Seems like an awfully convoluted way > of running your business, IMO. Well, professional criminals tend to have to do things in convoluted ways if they want to avoid getting caught. This goes for all type of criminals, from hitmen to conmen to spammers. > So my response would be to kill the domain name of the server, chop > off the registrar's head, and burn down the company hosting the > server. YES! Easy enough for the first two steps, but burning down the company hosting the server will require a visa to get into Russia, China, or some other country where US laws generally don't stick. > Fair enough? As one writer here yesterday pointed out, the ISPs > could cure a huge amount of the problem (but I would say give the > registrars some part of the job also) if they gave a Good God Damn, > which many of them do not, such as MCI. And don't forget, MCI uses > their employee Vint Cerf as their front man/mouthpiece with ICANN, > truly God's Gift to Netters everywhere. Agreed. ISP's do NOT do anywhere NEAR enough to ensure they don't have spammers on their networks. However in all fairness it is not always easy for them to catch. Especially for tier one providers such as MCI. > And the small business people who run local ISP operations who _do_ > care and _do_ attempt to check out new customers are treated like > imbeciles, the same as your Esteemed Moderator. PAT] Who treats local ISPs that do care like imbeciles? Did I miss something here? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Exactly how do you define a 'tier one provider'? What makes 'tier one' different than 'tier two' or 'tier three' for example? Is it the amount of money a provider has to spend on connectivity and bandwidth? If that is the case, then why don't some of the 'tier one' providers spend at least a little money on customer service and investigations, etc? An imbecile is anyone who dares to suggest to the old-school netters that things _could_ and _should_ be better regards spam/scam, and refuses to listen to the old-school guys as they rationalize why it is impossible. To make yourself politically incorrect around here, suggest any course of action other than (1) more filtration, (2) faster processing speed or (3) get out of our playground and totally quit computing to any of the old-school guys. I dare say you will get not one but several 25-50 K-byte or larger messages explaining the error of your ways. PAT] ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: Digest New Sponsorship Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 18:05:35 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > I am pleased to welcome a new sponsor to the TELECOM Digest as of > today. Main Resource http://www.MainResource.com has signed on > to serve readers here. I will let Alisa Meredith explain about > their products: > http://www.MainResource.com - Buy Refurbished Comdial, Executone, > Inter-tel, Isoetec, Premier and Toshiba telecom equipment on-line > or by phone. Also offering unused PCS Digital systems. All our > refurbished equipment and our repairs are covered by a one-year warranty. > Also at http://www.MyHeadsets.com - Buy GN Netcom, Inter-tel, > Plantronics and VXI headsets; you can search by brand or type. > ======================= > You can see Ms. Meredith's ad on our home page, > http://telecom-digest.org in the far right hand column. > I hope all readers will stop in to say hello and review the products > offered at Main Resource. The shop is coincidentally located in the > State of Maine, 74 Evergreen Drive, Portland, ME 04103. Awsome. Very nice experience to go to a telecom website and instantly see a picture of a phone that is identical to the one sitting next to my monitor (an Inter-Tel 4500 executive keyset, for any who care to know). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I guess Ms. Meredith sells those things after they are refurbished, and I suspect a lot cheaper than when they were new. Thanks for checking out http://www.mainresource.com and considering her when you need telecom equipment. And don't forget, for whatever energy it takes for moving your mouse a bit and clicking a couple times, you can also feed a dog or a cat in an animal shelter with no other obligations at http://theanimalrescuesite.com . 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, Yahoo Groups, 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: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 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 oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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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 fifty 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 V24 #261 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jun 11 21:54:26 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 874CC15048; Sat, 11 Jun 2005 21:54:25 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #262 Message-Id: <20050612015425.874CC15048@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 21:54:25 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.1 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,HOME_EMPLOYMENT, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 11 Jun 2005 21:54:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 262 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet Telephony Grows With Do-it-Yourself Help (Lisa Minter) Yahoo Sees Larger Opportunity in Voice Services (Lisa Minter) Another Virus Disguised as Jackson Suicide Rumor (Lisa Minter) Cell Phone Rental in Europe (marty@ceflorida.com) Cellphone Curiosity (Thomas A. Horsley) Mac iBook and Bluetooth Cordless Headphones? (AES) Re: Cannot Cancel My AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage (Rick M) Re: Cannot Cancel My AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage (Tony P.) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Fred Atkinson) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (nospam4me@mytrashmail.com) Re: Can Verizon Phone be Used With Bell Mobility in Canada? (M Crispin) Re: Can Verizon Phone be Used With Bell Mobility in Canada? (Joseph) Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon (S Sobol) Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon (Tony P.) Re: Bennett LeBow? (David Wolff) Re: Coal, was From our Archives: Standard Oil and Bell (Tim Keating) Re: Bellsouth Caller ID (Robert Bonomi) Re: Altigen Workgroup Outbound Caller ID (Robert Bonomi) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Internet Telephony Grows With Do-it-Yourself Help Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 19:36:37 -0500 PluggedIn: Internet telephony grows with do-it-yourself help By Adam Pasick After nipping at the heels of the major telephone providers for years, Internet telephony is finally taking a big bite out of telephone call traffic. Leading the way is a Luxembourg-based startup, Skype, which has signed up 40 million users for its Internet telephone service and is growing at a remarkable 150,000 users a day. It's managed this feat with a tried and true method for Internet startups -- giving away its service for free. But like its predecessors, Skype could fall victim of its own hype as bigger, better-funded competitors are drawn to the market it created. It wouldn't be the first time a high-tech pioneer stumbled after an early success. For now, Skype's blazing the trail with software that enables free phone calls to any other Skype user around the globe. All it takes is a headset or telephone connected to a computer and a broadband Internet connection, The free service poses a challenge to Vonage, long the leader in low-priced Internet telephony using normal telephones plugged directly into broadband connections. Internet giants Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN are also rolling out free Internet telephony services that are bundled with their popular instant messenger programs . Skype is turning its fast-growing user base into a clear competitive advantage. A core of do-it-yourself Skype enthusiasts have rushed to create new capabilities for the service, most of which are also free. They've built voice mail, text messaging and call recording capability for the network. That, in turn, has spurred creation of a range of add-ons, from video conferencing to foreign language tutorials. The thriving Skype developer community gives the company an edge as it girds itself for competition from Microsoft and Yahoo, which Skype Chief Executive Niklas Zennstrom has called "the biggest threats" to Skype. It's similar to the third-party software applications gave Palm's handheld devices an early lead in the PDA market in the 1990s. Other Skype add-ons include programs that let users record their telephone conversations ( http://www.hotrecorder.com/ ), send and receive voicemail messages, collaborate with coworkers ( http://www.jybe.com/site/index.aspx ) and send text messages to mobile phones ( http://www.connectotel.com/sms/skype.html ). One of the newest Skype add-ons combines the service with the emerging format of the podcast, a home-spun radio show distributed over the Internet, in what has come to be called a Skypecast. LOOKING FOR BUSINESS For enthusiastic users like Rob Walker, who lives in England and remotely manages a small Latin American market research business using Skype, any additional capabilities will be more than welcome. "We're communicating between Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, and we're looking into using video conferencing, which would be quite useful," he said. Walker said his business already makes significant savings from using Skype's free calls: Even discount phone carriers commonly charge rates of 30 pence per minute between Britain and Latin America, and Walker spends hours each day talking to his employees. "As a small business, why wouldn't we use it?" he said. OPEN UP Skype's business plan has been to offer its basic service for free and then charge for additional services. But Zennstrom said the company has intentionally given developers free reign, even if their offerings compete with Skype's own offerings. The privately-held company made a crucial decision early on to open its API -- a set of protocols and routines that coders use to build new software applications -- which allowed developers to write their own applications that fit neatly together with Skype. The move involved surrendering a certain amount of control over how Skype is used. Indeed, some of the add-ons, such as "answering machine" software and a video conferencing application called Video4Skype ( http://www.video4skype.com/ ), bump up against some of the products that Skype itself plans to offer. "We want to be as open as we can. It's about creating an ecosystem around Skype," he told Reuters in an interview. "We have no problem with those things -- the more the merrier. Even if there's no direct monetary benefit to us, we believe this is helping us." The Skype add-ons extend to hardware as well, including a device from Siemens that links the service with cordless phones, and a hobbyist project to hook up Skype to a salvaged pay phone. Phillip Torrone, a technology writer for Make magazine and Popular Science, has posted a video link showing off his Skype payphone creation on the Make Web site ( http://downloads.oreilly.com/make/skype.mov ). "Skype payphone is moving along, right now you can use it to make receive any Skype call," he said in an email to Reuters. "It's become my full time phone here at home since it looks so cool." Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Yahoo Sees Larger Opportunity in Voice Services Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 19:35:10 -0500 By Justin Hyde Internet services company Yahoo Inc. is looking to boost its business in the Internet's next big growth area -- voice communications. The largest U.S. provider of Web e-mail services, Yahoo already has deals with several landline and wireless telephone companies, including SBC Communications , Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Corp. , for a variety of Web-based services. In addition to voice services, Yahoo is also expanding the reach of its e-mail service, saying earlier this week it would allow Sprint wireless customers to manage their e-mail accounts through their cell phones. Last month, Yahoo announced an upgrade of its messenger service, boosting the ability to make free voice calls between computers. For what the future could hold, Yahoo points to its deal with Britain's BT Group Plc , which sells the BT Communicator -- a version of Yahoo's Messenger that can not only handle voice calls between computers but make and receive telephone calls. "We view voice as a fundamental aspect of the instant messaging experience," said Brad Garlinghouse, vice president of communications products for Yahoo, in an interview Thursday with Reuters. "We will continue to enhance and expand the voice functionality within Messenger." The market for the intersection of computer messaging and telephone service has been dominated by Skype, a European software company. The free Skype software allows users to call to any other Skype user globally for free and to make and receive calls at low cost. With little advertising, Skype typically has up to 3 million users online. Garlinghouse declined to offer specifics of Yahoo's future plans for voice services. But officials at SBC say they were considering a Skype-like service that could be sold with Yahoo. "We could put one together real quickly," said Scott Helbing, senior vice president for consumer marketing, in a recent interview with Reuters. "We don't have that service right now, but we're interested in it and we're investigating time to market and the services that are out there." Garlinghouse said Yahoo preferred to work with telephone companies like BT and SBC instead of pursuing customers independently. "By working with the carriers, we've found there's a very nice symbiotic relationship," Garlinghouse said. With voice messenger services, "one of the nice things with working with BT is it allows us to deliver a much higher call quality." Garlinghouse said Yahoo saw an opportunity to simplify the growing sprawl of customers' e-mail accounts and voice mail boxes. As part of the SBC deals, SBC customers will be able to access voice mails through Yahoo's e-mail service. "You're seeing these huge collisions occur, and over time we won't think about ... voice mail, e-mail, or IM," he said. "I think we'll increasingly think about it as 'I have an inbox."' Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Virus Poses as Michael Jackson Suicide Rumor Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 19:29:47 -0500 Hackers use Jackson suicide rumor to spread virus Emails claiming pop star Michael Jackson, on trial on sex abuse charges, has tried to kill himself are being spread by hackers as a means to break into computers, a British anti-virus firm said on Friday. The hackers have sent emails with the subject "Re: Suicidal attempt" and the message text: "Last night, while in his Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson has made a suicidal attempt," said security software specialists at Sophos. Other versions claim the suicide was successful and all versions offer lurid photos of the event. Jackson is awaiting a California court verdict on charges of child molestation. The email asks recipients to click on a link that takes them to a Web Site which secretly installs malicious code on their computers. "If you click on the link, the Web Site displays a message saying it is too busy, which may not surprise people who think it might contain genuine breaking news or lurid pictures about Michael Jackson's "suicide," said Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos. There are no such pictures, there was no such incident. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: marty@ceflorida.com Subject: Cell Phone Rental in Europe Date: 11 Jun 2005 09:39:40 -0700 Traveling to Greece and Turkey (Istanbul)and am seeking a reliable and competitively priced company to rent a cell phone from. Would also like a recommendation as to which phone I should select. ------------------------------ Subject: Cellphone Curiosity From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 21:51:39 GMT Now that my silly gadget for making my phone's ring loud enough works: http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/markII/markII.html I have come to wonder about I thing I see all the time: People in cars talking on cellphones while the stero is cranked up lound enough to rattle windows a block away. How do they hear? How does the person on the other end hear? How did they hear it ring to know to answer it (or maybe they only make outgoing calls to let their friends know how lound their sound system is? :-). >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Mac iBook and Bluetooth Cordless Headphones? Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 10:19:57 -0700 Organization: Stanford University Is it possible to listen to the audio output from a Bluetooth-equipped Mac using a Bluetooth cordless headphone? [iBook G4 with a D-Link Bluetooth adapter in one of the USB ports, listening to audio streamed from the XM Satellite Radio site with Netscape 7 working together with (I think) Windows MultiMedia.] Will this interfere with simultaneous use of Apple-brand Bluetooth cordless keyboard and mouse? What System Prefs and other setting will I have to fiddle with to get this to work? Is there an audio or Bluetooth group that would be a better place to ask about this? [I'm frankly intimidated, or impressed, by all the technologies that will have to work together to make this work: Bluetooth, USB, Netscape, Windows MultiMedia, and Mac audio output -- not to mention Airport, Ethernet, a Cayman router, and a DSL link to get from the Mac to the Internet -- so I'm asking for a little reassurance before I start on this.] ------------------------------ From: Rick M Subject: Re: Cannot Cancel My AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 23:33:32 -0500 Reply-To: r.muscoplat_nospam@vikingelectronics.com Followup with Public Utilities Commission AND go on to the FCC web site and file a compaint about AT&T. I did both and heard back from AT&T in about two weeks. Problem solved. On 7 Jun 2005 18:46:25 -0700, johnspilker@msn.com wrote: > Anyone know how I can get AT&T to cancel long distance service to my > home number? We moved our home number to Vonage from Qwest with AT&T > long distance service. > Qwest cancelled the service promptly and even gave us a refund. AT&T > refuses to cancel the long distance service. They maintain the > cancellation must be done through Qwest. Qwest says the notification > has been sent to AT&T. A Qwest representative said she had heard of > several instances where AT&T will not cancel long distance service of > numbers moved over to VOIP. > Any ideas? > Thanks. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is this a situation where AT&T is > charging you some monthly fee for 'handling' your account? If not, > and you are just billed for calls you actually make then it does > not matter. Just ignore it; let them call you a 'customer' if they > wish, since there are no calls being made via AT&T, the account > will always have a zero balance. Now if AT&T is charging some sort > of monthly fee, then a letter sent registered to the company should > help. For example, one side of SBC _still_ persists in referring to > me as a 'customer' while another part of the company is trying to > win me back (with all sorts of outrageous deals these days, free > service, etc). PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Cannot Cancel My AT&T Service After Moving to Vonage Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 11:20:51 -0400 In article , dannyb@panix.com says: > In johnspilker@msn.com writes: >> They are charging us a monthly fee that amounts to $8 a month with >> taxes. I did send a registered letter to AT&T legal department and got >> a simple form letter that told me to contact Qwest. > [ snip of the usuals problems ] > Once again, in most states sending off a letter to the public > service//utilities commission (and it never hurts to add the AG) gets > results for straightforward and (relatively low cost) matters like > this. > I personally did, in fact, do this with AT&T service here in > NYC. About a week after I dropped my letter in the mail box I got back > a standard form letter from the PSC in ALbany, NY, and a couple of > days later I got a "we've fixed it" note from AT&T. Which they did. > (Other people have reported to me similar effectiveness courrtesy of > web-page writeups, but I prefer paper. This gives me my own hard copy > to refer to). It is absolutely effective. Whenever dealing with a telephone company these days its almost standard procedure to cc everything to the PUC. ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Reply-To: fatkinson@mishmash.com Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 02:45:48 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On 6 Jun 2005 09:34:28 -0400, kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote: > Yes, I think that restricting web access at school and some workplaces > is probably a very good thing. What is bad is that it is usually done > by people who don't know very much about the web or about the blocking > technology, and it is often done by management folks who refuse to > take responsibility for their own actions. > There are other work environments where blocking any traffic is a very > bad thing. I work at a government facility where pornographic sites > are blocked. To my mind, it would be much more effective just to fire > people who spend their workday looking at porn on the internet; in > this case network blocking results in employees being retained who > would be better off gone. --scott > "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." I agree with you that Web blocking is a necessary thing in the school system. I further agree that it is done blindly and without looking at the big picture. Blocking sites like QSL Net is ignorant and untrained. The state of Georgia blocks 2600.com in their colleges. I can understand the high schools and below, but what about those that are doing research on computer security and networking. Depriving them of access to such information is incredibly short sighted. When I was taking network security in graduate school, we learned a lot from 2600 magazine and their Web site. I subscribe to 2600 magazine myself and it can be bought at most major bookstores. On 6 Jun 2005 06:58:28 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > You must remember that the contents of libraries have always been > "censored", though perhaps the better word is "selected". So, then you are saying that they should remove ham radio books from the library? I don't think so. > For younger readers, books are selected appropriate to their reading > skill as well as their age. Most 12 year olds would not know what to > do with ancient literature written in the original Greek or Latin, and > such books would be inappropriate for them. No argument there. > A second consideration is book quality. There are lots and lots of > books out there on any given subject, including "vanity" books > published by the authors themselves. Quality varies dramatically. > Libraries attempt (not always successfully) to use generally respected > and quality works. This is true. But there are a number of well known ham radio books that can be placed in the library. > Lastly, some common sense is applied. Should a children's or school > library really contain books on bomb-making or other extremely intense > subjects? I agree with you there, especially in light of Columbine. But how does ham radio compare with bomb making? Please explain that to me. > As to the Internet: There is a great deal of mis-information out > there, some of it even dangerous. Anybody can set up a site and put > anything they want on it; that by no means makes it authoritative or > appropriate. Even legitimate organizations screw up on their Internet > sites by failing to keep the information timely and accurate. There has been misinformation in publications since the beginning of time. Anyone can write and sell a book if they want to go to the trouble. How is this any different? >> Sorry to come down on you this hard, but limiting student access to >> information simply because we think they don't 'need' access to it >> is a pretty short sighted opinion for an educator to take. > As mentioned, student "access" is already quite limited in many ways. So, we justify limiting them to things that could be beneficial to them to achieve that end? Sorry, I don't think so. Fred [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See the next issue of our Digest later Saturday night which will include an archives reprint "Informing Ourselves to Death" which hopefully you will find interesting. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nospam4me@mytrashmail.com Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 16:33:00 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Robert Bonomi wrote: > I've sat in a federal courtroom, and witnessed sentencing for an 18 > USC 641 violation. It wasn't a single egregious act, but an ongoing > series of really 'little' things. After having been reminded by > management "not to". The idjit had a side-line personal business, and > was doing stuff for it at the office, after hours -- writing > correspondence, and printing it out, doing estimates in a > spread-sheet, a little bit of photo-copying, etc. So what kind of sentence did the above malfeasant Federal employee get for doing the above? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Herb Oxley Reply-to: address IS Valid. ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Can Verizon Phone be Used With Bell Mobility in Canada? Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 17:22:25 -0700 Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing On Fri, 10 Jun 2005, aqabbas@yahoo.com wrote: > Can a Verizon phone be used with Bell Mobility in Canada? I know they > both use CDMA. I am specifialy interested in the Kyocera 7135. Technically, a Verizon phone can be used. Verizon phones are completely unlocked. Administratively, it is up to Bell Mobility whether or not they will accept a phone that they did not sell. I know that Telus Mobility does not. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Can Verizon Phone be Used With Bell Mobility in Canada? Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 06:42:42 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 10 Jun 2005 15:09:40 -0700, aqabbas@yahoo.com wrote: > Can a Verizon phone be used with Bell Mobility in Canada? I know they > both use CDMA. I am specifialy interested in the Kyocera 7135. It all depends on BM's policies. Many CDMA operators will not allow you to use equipment (even if compatible) on their networks unless the ESN of the handset is in their database. I believe BM's policy is to not allow ESNs not in their database. I'm not sure if they do this to be obstinate or if there's some other reason. CDMA and TDMA operators are the only ones who do this. GSM operators don't care what equipment you use on their networks and for the end user all they need to know is that their handsets are not "SIM locked" i.e. the handsets have not been prevented from using another SIM by locking out other operator's SIMs. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 22:49:10 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Justin Time wrote: > Hey -- anything to drive the number of minutes of usage up. (OBTW Pat, > they are not talking about voicemail left on the cell phone, but on > your landline.) You could let the call go to voicemail on your cell phone. Verizon Wireless does not charge for voicemail retrieval from a landline. Besides, some people may find the feature convenient. VZW does tend to nickel-and-dime their customers, but I'll stick up for them and VZ this time. JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638) "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe" ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 11:15:48 -0400 In article , promfhTAKE@OUThal- pc.org.invalid says: > Monty Solomon wrote: >> Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to >> Verizon Wireless Phones When New Messages Arrive >> Home and Business Customers in N.Y.C. and New England Can >> Receive TXT Alerts on Their Verizon Wireless Phones >> NEW YORK, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon home and >> business voice mailboxes now can alert customers on their >> Verizon Wireless phone that someone has left a message. >> Starting today, Verizon voice-messaging customers in New >> York City and New England can add a feature that sends a >> text message to any Verizon Wireless short text messaging- >> capable phone with an alert that a new voice message has >> been left on the customer's landline phone. >> http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49739949 >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What is supposed to make >> that so exceptional? Cingular Wireless has always had an >> icon on the display screen indicating voice message >> waiting, and I have always had my phone set to make three >> chirps when that icon is turned on. PAT] > The "New" feature is having the voicemail on your home phone send a > message to your cellphone saying a message has been left. Most > voicemail systems have had this feature for years. You could have it > call your cellphone or a pager. The SMS message is sort of a new > wrinkle on an existing service. But in most cases the outcalling feature is turned off because it is a huge security hole. ------------------------------ From: dwolffxx@panix.com (David Wolff) Subject: Re: Bennett LeBow? Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 00:38:59 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. In article , wrote: > I was wondering about the background of this fellow. > He is a wealthy businessman who has donated a great deal of money to > colleges that have named stuff for him. > According to Google, we had a post mentioning him in the bankruptcy > proceedings of Western Union some years ago, and he was involved in > that somehow. > I get the impression he was kind of an aggressive corporate takeover > artist. > I was wondering if readers here had any opinions of him beyond the > official history. > Thanks. > [public replies please] All this is just my understanding, which could be off. Bennett Lebow is/was a "corporate raider." He bought controlling interest in various struggling companies, slashed expenditures to the bone and thereby dooming the company (eg no more R&D, therefore no new products). This resulted in good profits until all the current customers left for competitors who had new products, at which point the victim company could go into bankruptcy and be flushed down the toilet. Even companies such as Prime Computer, which survived his attempt to buy them out, wasted huge amounts of time and money and were thereby damaged. He hurt many, many people. Thanks -- David, (Remove "xx" to reply.) ------------------------------ From: Tim Keating Subject: Re: Coal, was From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 08:18:19 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com On Wed, 8 Jun 2005 06:41:51 UTC, tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'd personally like to see more wide- >> spread research/development/use of solar power, especially for things >> like heating our homes in the winter. Oops, I forgot to include the >> mantra from the petroleum industry on this: "Solar power is not >> practical nor efficient." PAT] > For what it's worth, many estimates are that it takes more energy to > fuse silica to make solar panels than will be output by those panels > as electricity over their expected service lifetimes, at sea level in > most temperate climes. Your estimates are both inaccurate and obsolete.. The amount of energy consumed in glass production is a small fraction of overall energy input ... ref page 3 of ... http://www.homepower.com/files/pvpayback.pdf Next, lookup your area's climate/solar radiation data. http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/ I suggest starting out by changing two of the defaults: "2. Select a month" set to "Annual" "3. Select an instrument orientation" set to "Flat Plate Tilted South at Latitude" From the map produced, one will see that most of the continental US, falls into 4 to 7 kWh/M^2/day categories. The number increases substantially if one uses some tracking technology. As for payback ... http://www.nrel.gov/ncpv/energy_payback.html "What is the Energy Payback for PV?" (Note: Payback calc uses ~4.6kWh/m^2/day as a reference). Additional links ... EPT drops with mass production. http://www.apec-vc.or.jp/solar/outline/outlne09.htm "Energy payback time (EPT) = Eo/Eg" > However, what that analysis does ignore is that you cannot get more > local -- that is, less transmission loss -- than the energy generation > and consumption from the panels in the typical intertie solar setup. > So, if the energy to make the panels is generated in, at least, a not > terribly dirty way, and the panels aren't made far from where that > power is generated, due to transmission losses solar panels in many > locations are a serious net win. In the future, please distribute more accurate information. The world doesn't need more people adding to streams of dis-information being advertised as facts. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, ex----cuse me, won't you please? I am _not_ in a position to validate everything which is submitted by readers here. Anyway, I always thought the main purpose of the internet was to spread dis-information. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Bellsouth Caller ID Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 15:57:28 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Choreboy wrote: [[.. munch ..]] > So Bellsouth won't tell me what cellphone carriers provide names for > their Caller ID. Is this information available anywhere? Not suprising. Bellsouth *doesn't*know* who provides names, and who doesn't. All they can do is pass along what is supplied. Probably just knowing the cell carrier is not sufficient. It probably depends on the type of servicecontract as well. e.g., I doubt names are even available to the carrier for 'pre-paid' phones. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Altigen Workgroup Outbound Caller ID Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 16:03:46 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > Hi, > Could someone please help me with this. We are using the ALTIGEN > SYSTEM We have 2 workgroups set up for two separate businesses we are > running. I have entered two different transmitted CID numbers for > them but they dont seem to be displayed when an agent logged into the > workgroup is making an outbound call. It seems to pull up the > transmitted CID number for the agent. Please guide me as how to get > the different business number show up when the agent is making > outbound call from the workgroup. It may not be possible in your situation. Some telcos allow customers to transmit 'anything' as the CID info. Some telcos allow customers to transmit 'anything that belongs to them' as the CID info. Some telcos over-ride whatever the customer transmits with the 'true' line ID. If you're in the latter category, you're simply SOL. ------------------------------ 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, Yahoo Groups, 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 V24 #262 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jun 11 23:10:04 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 2EF9C150EC; Sat, 11 Jun 2005 23:10:03 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #263 Message-Id: <20050612031003.2EF9C150EC@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 23:10:03 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 11 Jun 2005 23:10:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 263 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Archives Reprint: Informing Ourselves to Death (TELECOM Digest Editor) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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, 11 Jun 2005 21:20:05 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Informing Ourselves to Death [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in TELECOM Digest in January, 1994, about eleven years ago, and was a speech given in 1990 -- now about fifteen years ago, by Neil Postman at an IBM conference in Germany. In 1994, then Vice-President Gore gave a glowing report on the 'new thing' available called the 'internet', and how it was going to revolutionize the entire world. In those long ago times -- the early 1990's -- _before_ spam, _before_ most of the ills which plague us on the modern day net -- to say nothing of four years earlier when _almost no one_ was on the net, Mr. Postman was right on the mark, IMO. And sometime around 1995 or so (I do not remember the exact date), I put a message out saying "wait about ten or fifteen years, until almost everyone is connected". Well, that time has come, or rather, it is well on the way. I thought maybe Postman's message from 1990 would be a good refresher course for us. PAT] ========================= from 1994 ==================== Awhile back, I sent out a transcript of a speech made by Vice-President Gore discussing the 'superhighway' concept going around these days. A response was received from Bill Pfeiffer, passing along an interesting alternative viewpoint to that of the White House, and I thought you would be interested in seeing it. PAT From: rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Bill Pfeiffer) Subject: Rebuttle (of sorts) to Gore's Speech Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 18:12:41 -0600 (CST) Dear TELECOM: Here is a file of a speech by Neil Postman who has a slightly different perspective on the Information Superhighway. Bill Pfeiffer Editor AIRWAVES RADIO JOURNAL (info@airwaves.chi.il.us) Source: Neil Postman, German Informatics Society, 11 Oct 90, Stuttgart Following speech was given at a meeting of the German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft fuer Informatik) on October 11, 1990 in Stuttgart, sponsored by IBM-Germany. INFORMING OURSELVES TO DEATH ____________________________ by Neil Postman The great English playwright and social philosopher George Bernard Shaw once remarked that all professions are conspiracies against the common folk. He meant that those who belong to elite trades -- physicians, lawyers, teachers, and scientists -- protect their special status by creating vocabularies that are incomprehensible to the general public. This process prevents outsiders from understanding what the profession is doing and why - and protects the insiders from close examination and criticism. Professions, in other words, build forbidding walls of technical gobbledegook over which the prying and alien eye cannot see. Unlike George Bernard Shaw, I raise no complaint against this, for I consider myself a professional teacher and appreciate technical gobbledegook as much as anyone. But I do not object if occasionally someone who does not know the secrets of my trade is allowed entry to the inner halls to express an untutored point of view. Such a person may sometimes give a refreshing opinion or, even better, see something in a way that the professionals have overlooked. I believe I have been invited to speak at this conference for just such a purpose. I do not know very much more about computer technology than the average person -- which isn't very much. I have little understanding of what excites a computer programmer or scientist, and in examining the descriptions of the presentations at this conference, I found each one more mysterious than the next. So, I clearly qualify as an outsider. But I think that what you want here is not merely an outsider but an outsider who has a point of view that might be useful to the insiders. And that is why I accepted the invitation to speak. I believe I know something about what technologies do to culture, and I know even more about what technologies undo in a culture. In fact, I might say, at the start, that what a technology undoes is a subject that computer experts apparently know very little about. I have heard many experts in computer technology speak about the advantages that computers will bring. With one exception - namely, Joseph Weizenbaum - I have never heard anyone speak seriously and comprehensively about the disadvantages of computer technology, which strikes me as odd, and makes me wonder if the profession is hiding something important. That is to say, what seems to be lacking among computer experts is a sense of technological modesty. After all, anyone who has studied the history of technology knows that technological change is always a Faustian bargain: Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure. A new technology sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. But it is never one-sided. The invention of the printing press is an excellent example. Printing fostered the modern idea of individuality but it destroyed the medieval sense of community and social integration. Printing created prose but made poetry into an exotic and elitist form of expression. Printing made modern science possible but transformed religious sensibility into an exercise in superstition. Printing assisted in the growth of the nation-state but, in so doing, made patriotism into a sordid if not a murderous emotion. Another way of saying this is that a new technology tends to favor some groups of people and harms other groups. School teachers, for example, will, in the long run, probably be made obsolete by television, as blacksmiths were made obsolete by the automobile, as balladeers were made obsolete by the printing press. Technological change, in other words, always results in winners and losers. In the case of computer technology, there can be no disputing that the computer has increased the power of large-scale organizations like military establishments or airline companies or banks or tax collecting agencies. And it is equally clear that the computer is now indispensable to high-level researchers in physics and other natural sciences. But to what extent has computer technology been an advantage to the masses of people? To steel workers, vegetable store owners, teachers, automobile mechanics, musicians, bakers, brick layers, dentists and most of the rest into whose lives the computer now intrudes? These people have had their private matters made more accessible to powerful institutions. They are more easily tracked and controlled; they are subjected to more examinations, and are increasingly mystified by the decisions made about them. They are more often reduced to mere numerical objects. They are being buried by junk mail. They are easy targets for advertising agencies and political organizations. The schools teach their children to operate computerized systems instead of teaching things that are more valuable to children. In a word, almost nothing happens to the losers that they need, which is why they are losers. It is to be expected that the winners - for example, most of the speakers at this conference - will encourage the losers to be enthusiastic about computer technology. That is the way of winners, and so they sometimes tell the losers that with personal computers the average person can balance a checkbook more neatly, keep better track of recipes, and make more logical shopping lists. They also tell them that they can vote at home, shop at home, get all the information they wish at home, and thus make community life unnecessary. They tell them that their lives will be conducted more efficiently, discreetly neglecting to say from whose point of view or what might be the costs of such efficiency. Should the losers grow skeptical, the winners dazzle them with the wondrous feats of computers, many of which have only marginal relevance to the quality of the losers' lives but which are nonetheless impressive. Eventually, the losers succumb, in part because they believe that the specialized knowledge of the masters of a computer technology is a form of wisdom. The masters, of course, come to believe this as well. The result is that certain questions do not arise, such as, to whom will the computer give greater power and freedom, and whose power and freedom will be reduced? Now, I have perhaps made all of this sound like a wellplanned conspiracy, as if the winners know all too well what is being won and what lost. But this is not quite how it happens, for the winners do not always know what they are doing, and where it will all lead. The Benedictine monks who invented the mechanical clock in the 12th and 13th centuries believed that such a clock would provide a precise regularity to the seven periods of devotion they were required to observe during the course of the day. As a matter of fact, it did. But what the monks did not realize is that the clock is not merely a means of keeping track of the hours but also of synchronizing and controlling the actions of men. And so, by the middle of the 14th century, the clock had moved outside the walls of the monastery, and brought a new and precise regularity to the life of the workman and the merchant. The mechanical clock made possible the idea of regular production, regular working hours, and a standardized product. Without the clock, capitalism would have been quite impossible. And so, here is a great paradox: the clock was invented by men who wanted to devote themselves more rigorously to God; and it ended as the technology of greatest use to men who wished to devote themselves to the accumulat- ion of money. Technology always has unforeseen consequences, and it is not always clear, at the beginning, who or what will win, and who or what will lose. I might add, by way of another historical example, that Johann Gutenberg was by all accounts a devoted Christian who would have been horrified to hear Martin Luther, the accursed heretic, declare that printing is "God's highest act of grace, whereby the business of the Gospel is driven forward." Gutenberg thought his invention would advance the cause of the Holy Roman See, whereas in fact, it turned out to bring a revolution which destroyed the monopoly of the Church. We may well ask ourselves, then, is there something that the masters of computer technology think they are doing for us which they and we may have reason to regret? I believe there is, and it is suggested by the title of my talk, "Informing Ourselves to Death". In the time remaining, I will try to explain what is dangerous about the computer, and why. And I trust you will be open enough to consider what I have to say. Now, I think I can begin to get at this by telling you of a small experiment I have been conducting, on and off, for the past several years. There are some people who describe the experiment as an exercise in deceit and exploitation but I will rely on your sense of humor to pull me through. Here's how it works: It is best done in the morning when I see a colleague who appears not to be in possession of a copy of {The New York Times}. "Did you read The Times this morning?," I ask. If the colleague says yes, there is no experiment that day. But if the answer is no, the experiment can proceed. "You ought to look at Page 23," I say. "There's a fascinating article about a study done at Harvard University." "Really? What's it about?" is the usual reply. My choices at this point are limited only by my imagination. But I might say something like this: "Well, they did this study to find out what foods are best to eat for losing weight, and it turns out that a normal diet supplemented by chocolate eclairs, eaten six times a day, is the best approach. It seems that there's some special nutrient in the eclairs - encomial dioxin - that actually uses up calories at an incredible rate." Another possibility, which I like to use with colleagues who are known to be health conscious is this one: "I think you'll want to know about this," I say. "The neuro-physiologists at the University of Stuttgart have uncovered a connection between jogging and reduced intelligence. They tested more than 1200 people over a period of five years, and found that as the number of hours people jogged increased, there was a corresponding decrease in their intelligence. They don't know exactly why but there it is." I'm sure, by now, you understand what my role is in the experiment: to report something that is quite ridiculous - one might say, beyond belief. Let me tell you, then, some of my results: Unless this is the second or third time I've tried this on the same person, most people will believe or at least not disbelieve what I have told them. Some- times they say: "Really? Is that possible?" Sometimes they do a double-take, and reply, "Where'd you say that study was done?" And sometimes they say, "You know, I've heard something like that." Now, there are several conclusions that might be drawn from these results, one of which was expressed by H. L. Mencken fifty years ago when he said, there is no idea so stupid that you can't find a professor who will believe it. This is more of an accusation than an explanation but in any case I have tried this experiment on non- professors and get roughly the same results. Another possible con- clusion is one expressed by George Orwell - also about 50 years ago - when he remarked that the average person today is about as naive as was the average person in the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages people believed in the authority of their religion, no matter what. Today, we believe in the authority of our science, no matter what. But I think there is still another and more important conclusion to be drawn, related to Orwell's point but rather off at a right angle to it. I am referring to the fact that the world in which we live is very nearly incomprehensible to most of us. There is almost no fact - whether actual or imagined - that will surprise us for very long, since we have no comprehensive and consistent picture of the world which would make the fact appear as an unacceptable contradiction. We believe because there is no reason not to believe. No social, political, historical, metaphysical, logical or spiritual reason. We live in a world that, for the most part, makes no sense to us. Not even technical sense. I don't mean to try my experiment on this audience, especially after having told you about it, but if I informed you that the seats you are presently occupying were actually made by a special process which uses the skin of a Bismark herring, on what grounds would you dispute me? For all you know - indeed, for all I know - the skin of a Bismark herring could have made the seats on which you sit. And if I could get an industrial chemist to confirm this fact by describing some incomprehensible process by which it was done, you would probably tell someone tomorrow that you spent the evening sitting on a Bismark herring. Perhaps I can get a bit closer to the point I wish to make with an analogy: If you opened a brand-new deck of cards, and started turning the cards over, one by one, you would have a pretty good idea of what their order is. After you had gone from the ace of spades through the nine of spades, you would expect a ten of spades to come up next. And if a three of diamonds showed up instead, you would be surprised and wonder what kind of deck of cards this is. But if I gave you a deck that had been shuffled twenty times, and then asked you to turn the cards over, you would not expect any card in particular - a three of diamonds would be just as likely as a ten of spades. Having no basis for assuming a given order, you would have no reason to react with disbelief or even surprise to whatever card turns up. The point is that, in a world without spiritual or intellectual order, nothing is unbelievable; nothing is predictable, and therefore, nothing comes as a particular surprise. In fact, George Orwell was more than a little unfair to the average person in the Middle Ages. The belief system of the Middle Ages was rather like my brand-new deck of cards. There existed an ordered, comprehensible world-view, beginning with the idea that all knowledge and goodness come from God. What the priests had to say about the world was derived from the logic of their theology. There was nothing arbitrary about the things people were asked to believe, including the fact that the world itself was created at 9 AM on October 23 in the year 4004 B. C. That could be explained, and was, quite lucidly, to the satisfaction of anyone. So could the fact that 10,000 angels could dance on the head of a pin. It made quite good sense, if you believed that the Bible is the revealed word of God and that the universe is populated with angels. The medieval world was, to be sure, mysterious and filled with wonder, but it was not without a sense of order. Ordinary men and women might not clearly grasp how the harsh realities of their lives fit into the grand and benevolent design, but they had no doubt that there was such a design, and their priests were well able, by deduction from a handful of principles, to make it, if not rational, at least coherent. The situation we are presently in is much different. And I should say, sadder and more confusing and certainly more mysterious. It is rather like the shuffled deck of cards I referred to. There is no consistent, integrated conception of the world which serves as the foundation on which our edifice of belief rests. And therefore, in a sense, we are more naive than those of the Middle Ages, and more frightened, for we can be made to believe almost anything. The skin of a Bismark herring makes about as much sense as a vinyl alloy or encomial dioxin. Now, in a way, none of this is our fault. If I may turn the wisdom of Cassius on its head: the fault is not in ourselves but almost literally in the stars. When Galileo turned his telescope toward the heavens, and allowed Kepler to look as well, they found no enchantment or authoriza- tion in the stars, only geometric patterns and equations. God, it seemed, was less of a moral philosopher than a master mathematician. This discovery helped to give impetus to the development of physics but did nothing but harm to theology. Before Galileo and Kepler, it was possible to believe that the Earth was the stable center of the universe, and that God took a special interest in our affairs. Afterward, the Earth became a lonely wanderer in an obscure galaxy in a hidden corner of the universe, and we were left to wonder if God had any interest in us at all. The ordered, comprehensible world of the Middle Ages began to unravel because people no longer saw in the stars the face of a friend. And something else, which once was our friend, turned against us, as well. I refer to information. There was a time when information was a resource that helped human beings to solve specific and urgent problems of their environment. It is true enough that in the Middle Ages, there was a scarcity of information but its very scarcity made it both important and usable. This began to change, as everyone knows, in the late 15th century when a goldsmith named Gutenberg, from Mainz, converted an old wine press into a printing machine, and in so doing, created what we now call an information explosion. Forty years after the invention of the press, there were printing machines in 110 cities in six different countries; 50 years after, more than eight million books had been printed, almost all of them filled with information that had previously not been available to the average person. Nothing could be more misleading than the idea that computer technology introduced the age of information. The printing press began that age, and we have not been free of it since. But what started out as a liberating stream has turned into a deluge of chaos. If I may take my own country as an example, here is what we are faced with: In America, there are 260,000 billboards; 11,520 newspapers; 11,556 periodicals; 27,000 video outlets for renting tapes; 362 million tv sets; and over 400 million radios. There are 40,000 new book titles published every year (300,000 world-wide) and every day in America 41 million photographs are taken, and just for the record, over 60 billion pieces of advertising junk mail come into our mail boxes every year. Everything from telegraphy and photography in the 19th century to the silicon chip in the twentieth has amplified the din of information, until matters have reached such proportions today that for the average person, information no longer has any relation to the solution of problems. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Above are 1990 statistics. 15 years ago. PAT] The tie between information and action has been severed. Information is now a commodity that can be bought and sold, or used as a form of entertainment, or worn like a garment to enhance one's status. It comes indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, disconnected from usefulness; we are glutted with information, drowning in information, have no control over it, don't know what to do with it. And there are two reasons we do not know what to do with it. First, as I have said, we no longer have a coherent conception of ourselves, and our universe, and our relation to one another and our world. We no longer know, as the Middle Ages did, where we come from, and where we are going, or why. That is, we don't know what information is relevant, and what information is irrelevant to our lives. Second, we have directed all of our energies and intelligence to inventing machinery that does nothing but increase the supply of information. As a consequence, our defenses against information glut have broken down; our information immune system is inoperable. We don't know how to filter it out; we don't know how to reduce it; we don't know to use it. We suffer from a kind of cultural AIDS. Now, into this situation comes the computer. The computer, as we know, has a quality of universality, not only because its uses are almost infinitely various but also because computers are commonly integrated into the structure of other machines. Therefore it would be fatuous of me to warn against every conceivable use of a computer. But there is no denying that the most prominent uses of computers have to do with information. When people talk about "information sciences," they are talking about computers - how to store information, how to retrieve information, how to organize information. The computer is an answer to the questions, how can I get more information, faster, and in a more usable form? These would appear to be reasonable questions. But now I should like to put some other questions to you that seem to me more reasonable. Did Iraq invade Kuwait because of a lack of information? If a hideous war should ensue between Iraq and the U. S., will it happen because of a lack of information? If children die of starvation in Ethiopia, does it occur because of a lack of information? Does racism in South Africa exist because of a lack of information? If criminals roam the streets of New York City, do they do so because of a lack of information? Or, let us come down to a more personal level: If you and your spouse are unhappy together, and end your marriage in divorce, will it happen because of a lack of information? If your children misbehave and bring shame to your family, does it happen because of a lack of information? If someone in your family has a mental breakdown, will it happen because of a lack of information? I believe you will have to concede that what ails us, what causes us the most misery and pain - at both cultural and personal levels - has nothing to do with the sort of information made accessible by computers. The computer and its information cannot answer any of the fundamental quest- ions we need to address to make our lives more meaningful and humane. The computer cannot provide an organizing moral framework. It cannot tell us what questions are worth asking. It cannot provide a means of understanding why we are here or why we fight each other or why decency eludes us so often, especially when we need it the most. The computer is, in a sense, a magnificent toy that distracts us from facing what we most needed to confront - spiritual emptiness, knowledge of ourselves, usable conceptions of the past and future. Does one blame the computer for this? Of course not. It is, after all, only a machine. But it is presented to us, with trumpets blaring, as at this conference, as a technological messiah. Through the computer, the heralds say, we will make education better, religion better, politics better, our minds better - best of all, ourselves better. This is, of course, nonsense, and only the young or the ignorant or the foolish could believe it. I said a moment ago that computers are not to blame for this. And that is true, at least in the sense that we do not blame an elephant for its huge appetite or a stone for being hard or a cloud for hiding the sun. That is their nature, and we expect nothing different from them. But the computer has a nature, as well. True, it is only a machine but a machine designed to manipulate and generate information. That is what computers do, and therefore they have an agenda and an unmistakable message. The message is that through more and more information, more conveniently packaged, more swiftly delivered, we will find solutions to our problems. And so all the brilliant young men and women, believing this, create ingenious things for the computer to do, hoping that in this way, we will become wiser and more decent and more noble. And who can blame them? By becoming masters of this wondrous technology, they will acquire prestige and power and some will even become famous. In a world populated by people who believe that through more and more information, paradise is attainable, the computer scientist is king. But I maintain that all of this is a monumental and dangerous waste of human talent and energy. Imagine what might be accomplished if this talent and energy were turned to philosophy, to theology, to the arts, to imaginative literature or to education? Who knows what we could learn from such people - perhaps why there are wars, and hunger, and homelessness and mental illness and anger. As things stand now, the geniuses of computer technology will give us Star Wars, and tell us that is the answer to nuclear war. They will give us artificial intelligence, and tell us that this is the way to self-knowledge. They will give us instantaneous global communicat- ion, and tell us this is the way to mutual understanding. They will give us Virtual Reality and tell us this is the answer to spiritual poverty. But that is only the way of the technician, the fact-mongerer, the information junkie, and the technological idiot. Here is what Henry David Thoreau told us: "All our inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end." Here is what Goethe told us: "One should, each day, try to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it is possible, speak a few reasonable words." And here is what Socrates told us: "The unexamined life is not worth living." And here is what the prophet Micah told us: "What does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God?" And I can tell you - if I had the time (although you all know it well enough) - what Confucius, Isaiah, Jesus, Mohammed, the Buddha, Spinoza and Shakespeare told us. It is all the same: There is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and we solve nothing fundamental by cloaking ourselves in technological glory. Even the humblest cartoon character knows this, and I shall close by quoting the wise old possum named Pogo, created by the cartoonist, Walt Kelley. I commend his words to all the technological utopians and messiahs present. "We have met the enemy," Pogo said, "and he is us." ------------------- [TELECOM Digest Editor's 1994 Note: My sincere thanks to Bill for passing along this article to us. It certainly does give us something to meditate upon as we travel down the 'information superhighway' so highly touted by the present occupant of the White House and his staff. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Did you notice Postner's 1990 remarks about "if a hideous war should ensue between Iraq and the USA"? Indeed, that very war is going on now. What did (or does) the 'computer' have to do with all this? And why have we gotten to the point that we still, albiet feebly, try to protect so much information in the 'real world' from our children with web site blocking? I hope you enjoyed re-reading this file from a decade ago. 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, Yahoo Groups, 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: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 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 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * 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 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ 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 fifty 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 V24 #263 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Sun, 12 Jun 2005 16:30:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 264 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Hubble Telescope to View Comet Collision (Lisa Minter) Not Ready for Their Close-Up (Monty Solomon) Companies Subvert Search Results to Squelch Criticism (Monty Solomon) Latest Bluetooth Attack Makes Short Work of Weak Passwords (M Solomon) Internet Satellite Service in Africa (Tom Rossi) Bidfraud Website "Grand Opening" -- Read About Capabilities (Stop Fraud) Re: Cellphone Curiosity (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Cellphone Curiosity (Joseph) Re: Cell Phone Rental in Europe (Joseph) Re: Cell Phone Rental in Europe (John Levine) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Robert Bonomi) Re: Bellsouth Caller ID (Choreboy) Re: Mac iBook and Bluetooth Cordless Headphones? (Joseph) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: Hubble Telescope to View Comet Collision Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 21:45:19 -0500 By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, Associated Press Writer The Hubble Space Telescope will be watching when the University of Maryland's Deep Impact space probe crashes into a comet July 4, setting off a cosmic firework that may be visible on Earth. The best view is expected to be had by the Deep Impact probe itself, but officials at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which coordinates Hubble's use, say they are ready for anything. "We will be here and we'll be working," said Cheryl Gundy, a spokeswoman for the Space Telescope Science Institute. Hubble was also trained on the collision of comet Shoemaker Levy and Jupiter in 1994 and "had those great results. We're hoping well see something similar," Gundy said. While the Shoemaker Levy collision was the first collision of two solar system bodies ever observed, if all goes well, the Deep Impact mission will mark the first time a spacecraft has struck a comet. As Deep Impact nears the end of its six-month journey, the Hubble is also observing the comet to help guide mission officials, Gundy said. Observations by Hubble and the Spitzer space telescopes in 2004 helped paint a clearer picture of the comet, showing it to be about 8.7 miles by 2.5 miles, or half the size of the island of Manhattan, with a matte black color. Mission officials said Thursday that the probe is on course and they have a method to deal with one camera that is not focusing properly. Deep Impact, launched Jan. 12, has two parts, an "impactor" that will be released to collide with Tempel 1, possibly creating a stadium-size gouge, and a fly-by craft with instruments to observe the collision. NASA announced in March that the High Resolution Instrument on the fly-by craft was not focusing properly, and mission officials said Thursday they will use a mathematical process called deconvolution to reverse the distortion. The High Resolution Instrument is designed to deliver light simultaneously to a multispectral camera and to an infrared spectrometer. The fly-by spacecraft also carries a Medium Resolution Instrument, which is a smaller telescope, and the impactor also has a camera. Comets are believe to contain raw materials from the birth of our solar system and scientists hope the collision will reveal secrets contained since the comet was created billions of years ago. In addition to instruments on board the spacecraft, the impact will also be observed by NASA's Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes, and by big telescopes on Earth. With all of those eyes on the sky, no one is really sure what they will see, said the mission's principal investigator, University of Maryland professor of astronomy Michael A'Hearn. "The important point everyone has to realize is the uncertainty is so large we don't know what to expect," A'Hearn said at a preview briefing Thursday at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The University of Maryland provides overall mission management while the Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., built the spacecraft for NASA. "It is possible that the change will be so small you can't see it with anything less than a four-meter telescope. It could be much more than that, it could be that you could see the change with binoculars," A'Hearn said. "You just have to be aware of the uncertainty." On the Net: http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 08:00:14 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Not Ready for Their Close-Up By CLIVE THOMPSON Cap Lesesne, a New York plastic surgeon, hears from a lot of women worried about aging. Late last year, he says, he had one visitor, a female newscaster, whose inquiries puzzled him. She was only in her 30's, he says, and still looked terrific. (Lesesne, citing doctor-patient confidentiality, wouldn't identify the woman.) When he asked her why she wanted surgery, she explained that her show was about to begin broadcasting in 'high-definition,' the hot new digital technology that makes TV images look as crisp and sharp as IMAX films. On normal TV, she said, you can't see her few tiny wrinkles; in high-def, they stand out like folds of origami. "When she walked in here," Lesesne says, " 'high-def' was the first thing that came out of her mouth." Celebrities are considered attractive at least in part because they're suited to the technology of the age. The transition from silent movies to talkies destroyed many actors' careers, as did the shift from black-and-white to color. While almost all prime-time TV on the major broadcast networks is shot in high-def, there are only 18 million of the pricey, wide-screen sets in use. But that number is expected to more than triple by next year, and the new scrutiny that comes with high-def is already making some on-camera talent nervous. "There are a lot of people who are going to be affected by this," says Deborah Paulmann, a makeup artist for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/magazine/12PHENOM.html?ex=1276228800&en=d395cd722b894f27&ei=5090 NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Read New York Times on line here each day with _no_ registration nor login requirements. Just click headlines and read the stories at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html . ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 14:49:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Companies Subvert Search Results to Squelch Criticism It's not illegal, but it's SEO gone bad. Companies such as Quixtar are using Google-bombing, link farms and Web spam pages to place positive sites in the top search results -- which pushes the negative ones down. By Mark Glaser Someone tells you they have the opportunity of a lifetime for you. A way to make money by becoming an independent business owner through Quixtar. You're not sure about Quixtar and want to learn more, so you consult your favorite Internet search engine -- Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves -- and type in the word "Quixtar." What you see next are search results, and most likely you'll just check out the first page or two of links. But the first result you see in Google is a Weblog called Quixtar Blog, and in fact, the official Quixtar site, Quixtar.com, doesn't even appear on the first page of results. What's going on here? How could Google rank an independent blog that is not even affiliated with Quixtar as the top result? The answer isn't a simple one and can't be answered directly as Google and other search engines will not spell out exactly how their top secret algorithms work. But after reading through Quixtar Blog, the picture becomes clearer: The company, a revamped online version of Amway, has had trouble with critics online and decided to fight them by unloading an arsenal of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that go against accepted marketing techniques and into the muddy world of Web page spam, also known as link farms and Google bombing. To put it simply, Quixtar enlisted various people to help create dozens of Weblogs that linked to each other and were filled with positive stories and key words. The idea is to help put these newer blogs at the top of search results for phrases such as "Quixtar success" and "Quixtar opportunity," while more critical sites such as Quixtar Blog and Amquix.info would drop down. But Quixtar is not alone. Every major company, non-profit and religious group now has to worry about their Web reputation and has to pay very close attention to that first page of search results. http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050601glaser/ NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 15:00:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Latest Bluetooth Attack Makes Short Work of Weak Passwords Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus Phones, PCs and mobile devices that use the wireless Bluetooth standard for short-range communications are open to eavesdropping attacks if their users do not set long passwords, researchers said this week. The two-step attack can cause two devices to reestablish the link between them, a process known as "pairing," and then use the data exchanged during pairing to guess the password that secures the connection in well under a second. A successful attack could allow an attacker to eavesdrop and potentially issue commands to the other device, said Avishai Wool, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Tel Aviv University in Israel and a co-author of the paper. "At a minimum, it allows the attacker to eavesdrop on all the subsequent encrypted communication between two Bluetooth devices," Wool said in an e-mail interview. "If the attacker can also fake his own Bluetooth device address, he can potentially pretend to be one device and pair with the other, which may allow him to issue commands." The attacker could conceivable mimic any other supported Bluetooth device, such as a headset for a phone, he said. If the one device could extract personal data from or issue commands to the other, then so could the attacker. The paper, which was presented at the MobiSys 2005 conference on Monday, caused a stir among security experts because the technique is the first general purpose attack to threaten Bluetooth devices. Past attacks only worked against devices that improperly implemented Bluetooth or under special circumstances. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the organization that sets the specifications for the standard, placed the latest attack in the latter category, because devices that have longer, alphanumeric PINs are effectively protected against the technique. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11202 http://www.eng.tau.ac.il/~yash/Bluetooth/ ------------------------------ From: TomRossi7 <tomrossi7@gmail.com> Subject: Internet Satellite Service in Africa Date: 12 Jun 2005 12:10:55 -0700 Does anyone have any experience with the IPSky2e or any other Internet Satellite providers in Africa? I need to pick one and there seems to be HUGE differences between the prices, equipment, etc. Thanks, Tom ------------------------------ From: Stop Fraud <thankyou@x.com> Subject: Bidfraud Website "Grand Opening" -- Read Inside for capabilities Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 16:08:19 GMT Organization: Road Runner Bidfraud Website "Grand Opening" -- Read Inside for capabilities After 1000 plus hours in development - Bidfraud.com is "breathing." http://www.bidfraud.com Features: Capable of archiving ebay auction transactions locally on our server. This is important, as ebay deletes transactions every few months. It is as simple as entering an ebay item number when creating a report. Example of archived ebay page: http://www.bidfraud.com/cachedpages/6113839605/alouette-amusement/6113839605.html The above archived page, while it still exists at bidfraud.com, no longer exists at ebay.com Report templates contain an area to write a narrative as well as an interface to upload as many as 10 images/files (word & excel, etc.) The use of pictures as well as other supporting documents will help to substantiate and validate a claim. Example of report with pictures: http://www.bidfraud.com/example.php Easy search interface capable of finding a suspect by user name, email or item number at various sites. Simple private messaging, including a chat system are provided. Registration is Free. Easy to use interface. If you wish to advertise on the site, it is free, but space is limited. Please use contact page on http://www.bidfraud.com to make a request. Example of ad layout/dimensions: http://www.bidfraud.com/ads.htm Next time you leave negative feedback at ebay or any other site, please reference them to bidfraud. Thank you. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Cellphone Curiosity Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 07:02:24 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Thomas A. Horsley wrote: > Now that my silly gadget for making my phone's ring loud enough works: > http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/markII/markII.html > I have come to wonder about I thing I see all the time: People in cars > talking on cellphones while the stero is cranked up lound enough to > rattle windows a block away. > How do they hear? How does the person on the other end hear? How did > they hear it ring to know to answer it (or maybe they only make > outgoing calls to let their friends know how lound their sound system > is? :-). How do they drive? (Answer: Terribly) ------------------------------ From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Cellphone Curiosity Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 07:49:40 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 21:51:39 GMT, tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) wrote: > I have come to wonder about I thing I see all the time: People in cars > talking on cellphones while the stero is cranked up lound enough to > rattle windows a block away. They have to turn it up so loud because they have lost most of their hearing from turning it up so loud that the windows in the neighborhood rattle. ------------------------------ From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Cell Phone Rental in Europe Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 07:44:57 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 11 Jun 2005 09:39:40 -0700, marty@ceflorida.com wrote: > Traveling to Greece and Turkey (Istanbul)and am seeking a reliable and > competitively priced company to rent a cell phone from. Would also > like a recommendation as to which phone I should select. You do not state how long you will be in Greece and Turkey, but in any event if it is at least a couple weeks you would be advised to *not* rent a cell phone. Rental rates for cell phones are exhorbitant. With what you spend on rentals you could buy your own equipment and buy local prepaid SIMs (internal phone cards) for the phone during your time in Greece and Turkey. A used dual band handset which you would need in Greece and Turkey can likely be found on eBay for $50 or less if you're willing to settle for used equipment. Personally I'd recommend a Nokia unit such as the Nokia 3310/3410 or 3510. Prepaid in Turkey can be had for as little as an initial outlay of 13 Euros. In Greece you can get a prepaid SIM for anywhere between 9 and 19 Euros and topups for 5 Euros or so. It's likely that you'll pay around $20/day for the privilege of renting a cell phone. It's much smarter to buy a second-hand phone and either save it for future trips or sell it when you get home. Check out http://prepaidgsm.net ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jun 2005 15:47:25 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> Subject: Re: Cell Phone Rental in Europe Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Traveling to Greece and Turkey (Istanbul)and am seeking a reliable > and competitively priced company to rent a cell phone from. Would > also like a recommendation as to which phone I should select. Unless you're only going to be there for a couple of days, you'll be much better off if you buy a phone and get prepaid SIMs once you get there. It costs as much to rent a phone for a week or two as to buy one. You can get a euro 900/1800 or triband 900/1800/1900 phone on ebay for under $50. Be sure to get one that has been unlocked to work on any GSM carrier. (Not "can be" unlocked, any phone can be unlocked, in theory.) When you get to Greece and to Turkey, buy local prepaid SIMs, or if you want, you can buy them online ahead of time which costs more but you know in advance what your numbers will be. If your goal is primarily so that people in the US can reach you, and you have a Cingular, AT&T, or T-Mobile GSM phone here, you can use your current SIM in a euro phone. The per-minute rates are quite high, but you keep your own US phone number. Call them before you go to get international roaming enabled, and ask if they have an addon plan with lower roaming rates. Another possibility is a "universal" SIM with a Liechtenstein or Monaco phone number. Their rates are not as cheap as a local SIM, but you can get one SIM and use it all over Europe and Turkey at the same not too awful rate. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 05:47:11 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article <telecom24.262.10@telecom-digest.org>, <nospam4me@mytrashmail.com> wrote: > Robert Bonomi <bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com> wrote: >> I've sat in a federal courtroom, and witnessed sentencing for an 18 >> USC 641 violation. It wasn't a single egregious act, but an ongoing >> series of really 'little' things. After having been reminded by >> management "not to". The idjit had a side-line personal business, and >> was doing stuff for it at the office, after hours -- writing >> correspondence, and printing it out, doing estimates in a >> spread-sheet, a little bit of photo-copying, etc. > So what kind of sentence did the above malfeasant Federal employee get > for doing the above? "Merely" 6 months in prison (max. term is 1 year). No fine, as I recall. ------------------------------ From: Choreboy <choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com> Subject: Re: Bellsouth Caller ID Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 04:12:48 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Robert Bonomi wrote: > In article <telecom24.261.2@telecom-digest.org>, > Choreboy <choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com> wrote: > [[.. munch ..]] >> So Bellsouth won't tell me what cellphone carriers provide names for >> their Caller ID. Is this information available anywhere? > Not suprising. Bellsouth *doesn't*know* who provides names, and who > doesn't. > All they can do is pass along what is supplied. > Probably just knowing the cell carrier is not sufficient. > It probably depends on the type of servicecontract as well. e.g., I > doubt names are even available to the carrier for 'pre-paid' phones. I wonder what carriers would supply names? With a land line, if you pay for an unpublished number, your name won't show up on a Caller ID display, will it? It seems to me that a cellphone customer is paying for an unpublished number. Unwanted calls to a cellphone can be terribly inconvenient as well as costing the customer minutes. Suppose in a traffic jam, you call the dentist to say you'll be ten minutes late. Six months later your cell phone rings as you drive to work. You have told nobody your number except your wife and daughter, and they know you don't want to be called while driving. Thinking it must be an emergency, you reach for the phone and wreck your car. The next day your phone begins chirping during a funeral. Because your wife and daughter are with you, you never expected this. By the time you turn it off you are getting dirty looks. The day after that, it rings while you are in the checkout line at a supermarket. It's the dentist's receptionist reminding you to schedule a checkup. You are in no position to check your schedule. If you start getting calls like that because a receptionist's computer got your cellphone number from Caller ID, won't you be likely to change carriers? ------------------------------ From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Mac iBook and Bluetooth Cordless Headphones? Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 07:47:51 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 10:19:57 -0700, AES <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote: > Is there an audio or Bluetooth group that would be a better place to > ask about this? On Usenet: alt.cellular.bluetooth It's not a terribly active group, but it's likely that if you ask a question there someone may have any answer. You might ask a question in the mac applications group on usenet as well. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #264 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 13 14:45:43 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 7FB9615094; Mon, 13 Jun 2005 14:45:42 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #265 Message-Id: <20050613184542.7FB9615094@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 14:45:42 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.1 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_REMOVE, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: R TELECOM Digest Mon, 13 Jun 2005 14:45:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 265 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Http Request Smuggling (Lisa Minter) Snocap Opens to Independent Artists (Lisa Minter) Nokia Cooperates With Apple on New Web Browser (Lisa Minter) Hong Kong Plans to Enact New Anti-Spam Law (Lisa Minter) Qualcomm Announces Winners of BREW 2005 Developer Awards (Monty Solomon) Cable Outlets Decline to Air Abstinence ad (Monty Solomon) T-Mobile: 450,000 People Paid to Use WiFi (Monty Solomon) T-Mobile Focuses on WiFi (Telecom DailyLead from USTA) Re: Cell Phone Rental in Europe (John Stahl) Re: Companies Subvert Search Results to Squelch Criticism (Steve Sobol) Re: 'Phone Tapping' Modem Traffic ? (John McHarry) Re: Bellsouth Caller ID (Joseph) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Lisa Hancock) Re: Microwave Fading 6 Gig (Harry Hydro) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Http Request Smuggling Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 21:10:39 -0500 Some comments of interest from SlashDot over the weekend you might find interesting to read: Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday June 12, @11:28AM from the this-could-get-fun dept. cyphersteve writes "Multiple vendors are vulnerable to a new class of attack named 'HTTP Request Smuggling' that revolves around piggybacking a HTTP request inside of another HTTP request, which could let a remote malicious user conduct cache poisoning, cross-site scripting, session hijacking, as well as bypassing web application firewall protection and other attacks. HTTP Request Smuggling works by taking advantage of the discrepancies in parsing when one or more HTTP devices are between the user and the web server. CERT has ranked this attack and the associated vulnerabilties found in multiple products as High Risk. The authors (Amit Klein, Steve Orrin, Ronen Heled, and Chaim Linhart) have published a whitepaper describing this technique in detail." The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. by ilyanep (823855) on Sunday June 12, @11:34AM (#12795033) (Last Journal: Thursday June 09, @07:18PM) Now let's take packet A. Do an MD5 sum (or similar) on it. Send it to the end user. Have the end user's browser do a similar check on it and send it to the server. IF the server green flags it, then show the page. This shouldn't become a speed problem on broadband machines because it'll only mean 2 or 3 times more packets (but you can always increase packet size). Call the new standard something like HTTPS 2.0. [ Reply to This ] a.. Re:Validation by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) Sunday June 12, @11:40AM b.. Re:Validation by mp3LM (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @11:40AM a.. Ah! by ShaniaTwain (Score:3) Sunday June 12, @11:58AM b.. Re:Validation by Jeff DeMaagd (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @12:19PM a.. Re:Validation by Master of Transhuman (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @05:10PM a.. 1 reply beneath your current threshold. c.. Re:Validation by AndroidCat (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @11:52AM a.. That's already what Apache does by wtarreau (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @12:33PM a.. Re:That's already what Apache does by AndroidCat (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @01:00PM d.. Re:Validation by Lord Kano (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @02:30PM e.. Re:Validation by Bert690 (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @02:55PM f.. 3 replies beneath your current threshold. This has been going on for some time. (Score:2, Flamebait) by WindBourne (631190) on Sunday June 12, @11:41AM (#12795077) (Last Journal: Sunday September 21, @09:34PM) I noticed that 3 months ago. [ Reply to This ] Article Text (Score:3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12, @11:43AM (#12795088) AC = No Karma Whoring HTTP REQUEST SMUGGLING CHAIM LINHART (chaiml@post.tau.ac.il) AMIT KLEIN (aksecurity@hotpop.com) RONEN HELED AND STEVE ORRIN (sorrin@ix.netcom.com) A whitepaper from Watchfire TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 1 Executive Summary 1 What is HTTP Request Smuggling? 2 What damage can HRS inflict? 2 Example #1: Web Cache Poisoning 4 Example #2: Firewall/IPS/IDS evasion 5 Example #3: Forward vs. backward HRS 7 Example #4: Request Hijacking 9 Example #5: Request Credential Hijacking 10 HRS techniques 10 Protecting your site against HRS 19 Squid 19 Check Point FW-1 19 Final note regarding solutions 19 About Watchfire 20 References 21 ABSTRACT This document summarizes our work on HTTP Request Smuggling, a new attack technique that has recently emerged. We'll describe this technique and explain when it can work and the damage it can do. This paper assumes the reader is familiar with the basics of HTTP. If not, the reader is referred to the HTTP/1.1 RFC [4]. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY We describe a new web entity attack technique - "HTTP Request Smuggling." This attack technique, and the derived attacks, are relevant to most web environments and are the result of an HTTP server or device's failure to properly handle malformed inbound HTTP requests. HTTP Request Smuggling works by taking advantage of the discrepancies in parsing when one or more HTTP devices/entities (e.g. cache server, proxy server, web application firewall, etc.) are in the data flow between the user and the web server. HTTP Request Smuggling enables various attacks - web cache poisoning, session hijacking, cross-site scripting and most importantly, the ability to bypass web application firewall protection. It sends multiple specially-crafted HTTP requests that cause the two attacked entities to see two different sets of requests, allowing the hacker to smuggle a request to one device without the other device being aware of it. In the web cache poisoning attack, this smuggled request will trick the cache server into unintentionally associating a URL to another URL's page (content), and caching this content for the URL. In the web application firewall attack, the smuggled request can be a worm (like Nimda or Code Red) or buffer overflow attack targeting the web server. Finally, because HTTP Request Smuggling enables the attacker to insert or sneak a request into the flow, it allows the attacker to manipulate the web server's request/response sequencing which can allow for credential hijacking and other malicious outcomes. HTTP REQUEST SMUGGLING © Copyright 2005. Watchfire Corporation. All Rights Reserved. 2 WHAT IS HTTP REQUEST SMUGGLING? HTTP Request Smuggling ("HRS") is a new hacking technique that targets HTTP devices. Indeed, whenever HTTP requests originating from a client pass through m Read the rest of this comment... [ Reply to This ] a.. patent blanket! by matt me (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @03:17PM b.. Re:Article Text -- Karma whoring???? by camusflage (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @02:02PM c.. 1 reply beneath your current threshold. piggybacking (Score:2, Funny) by Edzor (744072) on Sunday June 12, @11:53AM (#12795146) I like to use 'piggybacking' as well, it makes me sound technical but cool at the same time. [ Reply to This ] Why is this news? (Score:2, Insightful) by duh_lime (583156) on Sunday June 12, @11:54AM (#12795156) If there is ANY communications path, it can be used for anything... If you have cooperating applications, anything that passes at least "a bit" can be subverted for another purpose. You could do Morse code using ICMP Echo Requests, with the packet size determining whether it's a dot or a dash... Whatever... Again, why is this particular technique news? [ Reply to This ] a.. Re:Why is this news? by cduffy (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @12:39PM Re:Why is this news? (Score:5, Insightful) by segmond (34052) on Sunday June 12, @03:26PM (#12796508) (http://www.segmond.com/) Shut up! RTFP! The attack allows attack worse than XSS if an XSS vulnerability exists since this time, it doesn't require you to intereact with the client. It allows cache poisoning. It allows you to smuggle data past some firewall/filters that try to prevent HTTP attacks by parsing requests, for example, so servers will filter out GET requests like /foo/../../../whatever or /foo?cmd.exe You can use this to bypass it. This is NEWS because it is a NEW attack. This is not about using HTTP as a tunnel for other form of communication. This exploits the fact that the cache server/firewall and webserver might parse the same request different when it has two "Content Length:" in it... Read the paper. [ Reply to This | Parent ] a.. Re:Why is this news? by argent (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @10:02PM b.. 1 reply beneath your current threshold. I think this appeared in DDJ sometime ago... (Score:1) by soapdog (773638) on Sunday June 12, @11:54AM (#12795158) (http://www.soapdog.org/) Folks, hiding one HTTP request inside another is not the same HTTP request hijacking technique that appeared in Doctor Dobbs journal some months ago... I can't recall the edition... [ Reply to This ] a.. Re:I think this appeared in DDJ sometime ago... by cyphersteve (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @02:57PM Question of Compatibility vs. Reliability (Score:5, Insightful) by l2718 (514756) on Sunday June 12, @11:55AM (#12795161) This exploit is interesting, and is related to a cultural issue: how do you handle malformed input? There are two basic approached to this: either you reject it (the sound, security-concious way), or you attempt to make sense of it (the compatible way). The second solution allows your software to interface with badly-written external code, at the cost of interfacing with intentionally malformed requests like the exploit the describe. The reason the exploit works is that different people have different methods for determining what the sender of the malformed packet really meant, and if two different interpretations are applied to the same packet you can use the resulting "confusion" to your advantage. Different recount results which depend on guessing "voter intent" from malformed ballots in Florida comes to mind. [ Reply to This ] Re:Question of Compatibility vs. Reliability (Score:4, Insightful) by iabervon (1971) on Sunday June 12, @01:11PM (#12795669) (http://iabervon.org/~barkalow/ | Last Journal: Saturday May 31, @03:01AM) The actual issue is cases where someone makes sense of malformed input and then passes that input on to something else. The proper thing to do is always pass on correctly-formed input. If you get malformed input and interpret it somehow, you then need to pass on your interpretation, not the original. The guideline is to be permissive in what you accept and strict in what you transmit; when you're passing something on, you need to canonicalize it in transit. A good example of this is how the legal system works. When a court makes a decision on the application of a law to an unclear situation, that becomes part of the case law, such that there is a consistent interpretation, rather than an ambiguous situation being interpreted randomly each time it occurs. [ Reply to This | Parent ] a.. Re:Question of Compatibility vs. Reliability by Lord Kano (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @02:39PM Be very careful (Score:5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12, @11:58AM (#12795178) It is unethical and immoral. Some HTTP requests even time-out and have died doing this! Also be aware that some vigilante border gateway protocols have sprung up in the south looking for smuggled HTTP requests. Also new federal legislation may require all web servers to validate the HTTP request's green packets before responding. [ Reply to This ] a.. Re:Be very careful by PerspexAvenger (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @12:08PM b.. 1 reply beneath your current threshold. Possible way to burn down RSS? (Score:3, Interesting) by krowten21 (891493) on Sunday June 12, @12:03PM (#12795215) Scenario: Vulnerable web server for popular blogging site, compromised by this or other attack, RSS feed used to broadcast exploit against vulnerable IE 7.0 clients. predicted at www.threatchaos.com att he beginning of the year. [ Reply to This ] a.. Re:Possible way to burn down RSS? by SpaceLifeForm (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @04:55PM Quick Summary (Score:3, Informative) by MojoRilla (591502) on Sunday June 12, @12:08PM (#12795244) Due to bad handling of borderline html, some web servers will see extra requests that front end servers (cache, proxies) don't see. This is due http keepalive (so that more than one request can be processed in a stream) and malicious http headers. This seems to be implemented mostly by sending duplicate or invalid content length headers. I'm sure that all of these problems will be quickly patched. All of these issues would be fixed by tighter HTTP parsing specifications. However, buggy software will always exist, and always be exploited. [ Reply to This ] a.. Re:Quick Summary by wfberg (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @01:10PM a.. Re:Quick Summary by John Hasler (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @02:26PM b.. Re:Quick Summary by MooseGuy529 (Score:3) Sunday June 12, @02:38PM c.. 1 reply beneath your current threshold. Hype it up? (Score:1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12, @12:12PM (#12795264) This paper discusses potential exploitation of poor HTTP parsing in specific applications. Potential applications include cache poisoning and hijacking user credentials but it requires the victim to be behind a vulnerable proxy/firewall. Why not just issue seperate advisories and inform the respective vendors? Seems to me like they bundled multiple flaws in multiple products so they could be creditied with discovering a new class of vulnerability. [ Reply to This ] a.. Re:Hype it up? by Sven Tuerpe (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @12:46PM b.. 2 replies beneath your current threshold. publicfile (Score:2, Informative) by sugarmotor (621907) on Sunday June 12, @12:12PM (#12795271) (http://stephan.sugarmotor.org/) http://cr.yp.to/publicfile.html [cr.yp.to], publicfiloe, is not mentioned. [ Reply to This ] Well this is not good (Score:2, Insightful) by suitepotato (863945) on Sunday June 12, @12:33PM (#12795404) From TFA: Conclusion: We have seen that there are many pairs (proxy/firewall servers and web servers) of vulnerable systems. Particularly, we demonstrated that the following pairs are vulnerable: PCCA o IIS/5.0 o Tomcat 5.0.19 (probably with Tomcat 4.1.x as well) Squid 2.5stable4 (Unix) and Squid 2.5stable5 for NT o IIS/5.0 o WebLogic 8.1 SP1 Apache 2.0.45 o IIS/5.0 o IS/6.0 o Apache 1.3.29 o Apache 2.0.45 o WebSphere 5.1 and 5.0 o WebLogic 8.1 SP1 o Oracle9iAS web server 9.0.2 o SunONE web server 6.1 SP4 ISA/2000 o IIS/5.0 o Tomcat 5.0.19 o Tomcat 4.1.24 o SunONE web server 6.1 SP4 DeleGate 8.9.2 o IIS/6.0 o Tomcat 5.0.19 o Tomcat 4.1.24 o SunONE web server 6.1 SP4 Oracle9iAS cache server 9.0.2 o WebLogic 8.1 SP1 SunONE proxy server 3.6 SP4 o Tomcat 5.0.19 o Tomcat 4.1.24 o SunONE web server 6.1 SP4 FW-1 Web Intelligence kernel 55W beta (the IIS 48K technique probably works with R55W) o IIS/5.0 This is a partial list - there are many pairs we did not test and there are likely many other web servers and cache servers we did not test for lack of hardware and software. Of course, there are probably many more similar techniques. Yeah, really? I'd like to see a much broader list laid out, and preferably before it becomes another net disaster. If this was strictly a Microsoft thing we'd be hearing cries for blood, or at least an app to check if your setup was vulnerable. Since it is much broader than that, if checking for this doesn't become part of a security toolkit, we may well wish it had. Oh well. At least we got this much warning this much in advance. Anyone want to take bets on how long till some malware weasels make this a point and click thing in another script kiddie kit? My guess is before the security world makes a test app to check for it. [ Reply to This ] a.. Tomcat workaround by mparaz (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @03:24PM Working example available? (Score:2) by pongo000 (97357) on Sunday June 12, @12:36PM (#12795423) The world is full of hypotheticals...can someone actually point us to a working example of this alleged exploit? If not, I'll just file it away as "cool information with little practical impact on my daily life." [ Reply to This ] a.. Re:Working example available? by failure-man (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @01:25PM b.. Re:Working example available? by slavemowgli (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @01:44PM PCCA?? (Score:2, Interesting) by d3ac0n (715594) on Sunday June 12, @12:56PM (#12795570) (Last Journal: Monday October 13, @10:39AM) Does anyone have any idea what the Popular Commercial Cache Appliance is? The PDF doesn't say and we have a few cache appliances at my office (intranet and internet). I'd like to know just vunerable we are to this type of thing. [ Reply to This ] a.. Re:PCCA?? by cyphersteve (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @02:50PM b.. Re:PCCA?? by d3ac0n (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @01:25PM c.. 1 reply beneath your current threshold. Smuggling, eh? (Score:1) by Aldric (642394) on Sunday June 12, @03:43PM (#12796617) When will HTTP Customs be introduced as a fix? [ Reply to This ] Re:Problem reading the PDF... (Score:3, Funny) by Dogers (446369) on Sunday June 12, @11:39AM (#12795064) (Last Journal: Saturday May 07, @10:10AM) Tried to do a copy and paste, but the lameness filter wont let me. DRM in force! ;) [ Reply to This | Parent ] a.. I AC posted the article by camusflage (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @11:50AM b.. Re:Problem reading the PDF... by Damhna (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @11:54AM Re:and here's where... (Score:3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12, @11:59AM (#12795191) Actually the whitepaper sates that IIS and Apache automatically dump the malformed packet. Microsoft does write a few good lines of code. [ Reply to This | Parent ] a.. Re:and here's where... by ohzero (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @12:15PM b.. Re:and here's where... by gtwilliams (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @01:12PM c.. Re:and here's where... by drumist (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @05:06PM Re:Problem reading the PDF... (Score:3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12, @12:00PM (#12795197) Here is a link: http://www.gatech-edu.org/HTTP-Request-Smuggling.p df [gatech-edu.org] [ Reply to This | Parent ] a.. Re:Problem reading the PDF... by arose (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @01:37PM b.. Re:Problem reading the PDF... by shepmaster (Score:1) Sunday June 12, @05:25PM Re:and here's where... (Score:1) by ohzero (525786) on Sunday June 12, @12:12PM (#12795272) (http://www.f8entertainment.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday September 09, @02:59PM) flamebait? Anyone with half a clue would understand that this is just a fact. If you don't believe me.. watch the updates. I guarantee you that headlines will read almost verbatim what I said come Monday. Then again, this is slashdot... I guess I shouldn't expect people to understand things. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Prediction (Score:1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12, @12:36PM (#12795426) This is Slashdot, News for Nerds, not "your average bloke on the street". Your post would make alot more sense if the article was mentioned on CNN.com or the like, but not here. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Old news... (Score:2) by Panaflex (13191) on Sunday June 12, @01:57PM (#12795941) I wrote my own web server 5 years ago.. faster than Apache, cheaper than others. Doesn't have this problem. -Pan [ Reply to This | Parent ] a.. Re:Old news... by rbarreira (Score:2) Sunday June 12, @03:45PM b.. 1 reply beneath your current threshold. Re:Old news... (Score:2) by JRHelgeson (576325) on Sunday June 12, @02:26PM (#12796125) (Last Journal: Sunday October 19, @05:54PM) Bah, I'm a reseller who enjoys a product... is it so wrong to share it with people? I have no dog in this fight. [ Reply to This | Parent ] a.. 9 replies beneath your current threshold. By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2005 OSTG. [ home | awards | contribute story | older articles | OSTG | advertise | about | terms of service | privacy | faq | rss ] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Snocap Opens to Independent Artists Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 10:18:14 -0500 The online music service Snocap said on Monday that it would allow independent artists and small record labels to register their songs to receive payment when they are traded over Internet "peer-to-peer" networks. Snocap, the latest venture of Napster founder Shawn Fanning, uses digital "fingerprint" technology to identify songs that are swapped online. Peer-to-peer networks can use Snocap to block unauthorized copies of songs and replace them with protected versions that can be controlled by their owners. Only one peer-to-peer service has signed up to use Snocap so far, but the company says it is in talks with others. Snocap officials hope that existing peer-to-peer services like Kazaa and LimeWire will turn to Snocap as a way to end their legal battles with recording companies and convert the millions of songs that are copied over their networks into a steady revenue stream. Three out of the four major labels -- Universal Music Group, (EAUG.PA) Sony BMG (6758.T)(BERT.UL) and EMI Group Plc (EMI.L) -- have registered their songs with Snocap, as have larger independent labels like TVT and Rykodisc. Snocap said it is in talks with the fourth major label, Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE:WMG - news). Snocap founder Fanning first shot to notoriety when he turned the music industry upside down with Napster, the first software program that allowed users to copy music from each others' hard drives for free. Napster has since been relaunched as an industry-approved download service. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Nokia Cooperates With Apple on New Web Browser Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 10:20:25 -0500 Nokia is developing a mobile browser for its Series 60 smartphone software in cooperation with Apple Computer Inc. , the Finnish telecoms equipment maker said on Monday. Nokia said in a statement the new browser will use the same open source components as Apple's Safari Internet browser. Nokia added the browser will be available during the first half of 2006 and said it would continue to cooperate with Apple. In March, Nokia signed a deal with Apple's competitor, Norway's Opera Software, to put Opera's mobile Internet software on more Nokia phones, after having licensed Opera's browser for a total of 11 Nokia models in recent years. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Hong Kong Plans to Enact Anti-Spam Law Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 21:12:45 -0500 Hong Kong plans to enact an anti-spam law next year to crack down on companies that send unsolicited e-mails or make automated telemarketing calls to consumers, an official has said. The government has consulted with industry groups to craft a law that would combat junk faxes, e-mails, text messages and telemarketing calls. Au Man-ho, director-general of the Telecommunications Authority, said in a statement Sa