From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Oct 3 22:55:49 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id EFBD714DAE; Mon, 3 Oct 2005 22:55:48 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #451 Message-Id: <20051004025548.EFBD714DAE@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 22:55:48 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.2 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 3 Oct 2005 22:56:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 451 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Travel Industry Gets New Online Domain (Anick Jesdanun) California Governor Says Phishers to be Punished (Reuters News Wire) Video Laced Websites Turn Into Pseudo TV Stations (Jefferson Graham) Google Morphs Into Multifaceted Juggernaut (Michael Liedtke) Visitors Risk Being Shot and Killed in Florida (Agence France Presse) On Bluefrog (Chuck Wassall) Re: On Television, Brands Go From Props to Stars (Steve Stone) Re: State of the Internet, 2005 (Henry) Re: Help Needed with DHCP on Remote Laptop (Brad Houser) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (Gordon Burditt) Re: Free 411 (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: Anick Jesdanun Subject: Travel Industry Gets New Online Domain Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 14:35:30 -0500 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer A new online domain for the travel industry is open for business. Airlines, theme parks, restaurants, tourism offices and others in travel and tourism are eligible for Web sites and e-mail addresses ending in ".travel." The new domain could give consumers confidence that they are dealing with a legitimate travel business or group, though the mantra of "buyer beware" applies: Operators of the domain won't be performing any credit or criminal background checks or offering any guarantees. The sneaks and crooks who infest .com now will be soon moving over to use .travel as well. New York-based Tralliance Corp., a unit of Internet communications company Theglobe.com, won approval to run ".travel" earlier this year from the Internet's key oversight agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. Since July 1, industry groups such as the Adventure Travel Trade Association and the International Hotel and Restaurant Association have been verifying that companies and organizations belong to one of 18 eligible industry sectors. Those approved were allowed to register and use ".travel" names starting Monday. Although Tralliance billed the domain as an online space for the global travel and tourism community, travel journalist and author Edward Hasbrouck criticized the rules, saying they exclude travelers at the expense of promoting travel businesses. "The domain appears to exclude the participation of the largest class of people who use the Internet to travel -- people who use the Internet to post their travel stories and photos and all sorts of things," Hasbrouck said. Cherian Mathai, Tralliance's chief operating officer, said individuals might qualify as travel media if they offer a service, such as advice on how to get there. Simply creating a site with family photos from Peru's Machu Picchu won't qualify, he said. Approval is made on a case-by-case basis, he said. So far, many of the eligible travel sectors are in transportation, including airlines, bus operators, cruise lines and passenger rail lines, a group that covers suburban commuter lines but not city subway systems. Also eligible are hotels, casinos, camp facilities, travel agents and providers of travel technologies. To prevent overlap with ".aero," an existing domain for the aviation industry, airports and aerospace companies don't qualify -- but airlines do. Mathai said the list will be continually reviewed by a nonprofit group of travel associations, the Travel Partnership Corp., and may grow to include retailers of luggage, for instance. ICANN has been creating new Internet suffixes partly because existing ones like ".com" are crowded, making easy-to-remember addresses difficult to obtain. Nonetheless, Web sites that already have a ".com" name are likely to keep it and automatically redirect visitors to the new ".travel" site instead. "Nobody wants to give up a dot-com name at this stage," Mathai said. On the Net: http://nic.travel Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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: Anyone notice things smelling a little about this report? First of all, the reporter referred to ICANN as "the internet's key oversight agency", but has been explained to me, God knows how many times, imbecile that I am, that ICANN has very little or no authority on the net. Well, shit! Let's get our stories straight, okay? Either ICANN runs the internet (and I suggest they do, primarily to watch out for the business interests that wish to take it over, replete with contracts, and authority to use it, etc) or they do not have such oversight ability. When I say they do have such authority, and point out ways I feel they abuse that authority where regular, small netizens are concerned, I can count on three or four of you to contradict me and run to ICANN's rescue, poor little picked upon ICANN being blamed for things they cannot help. Now this writer, Anick Jesdanun refers to them as 'key' and explains how they (ICANN) will exercise such tight control over the domain, as to who can and who cannot get in the domain .travel, etc. So come on guys, do your thing with Anick Jesdanun's claim about ICANN being 'key', or is your ire only reserved when someone like myself points out that Vint Cerf needs to quit marching around naked running the net for the best interests of his previous employer MCI and the other major corporations now getting cozy with the net? I mean, even _I_ am not as dumb as I look? If I suggested that .org should be as tightly controlled as they purport .travel will be, some of you are bound to whimper and tell me how _anyone_ can get into .org, the charter means nothing, etc, and that ICANN cannot help it, etc. And the fact that ICANN is perfectly willing and able to create new domains such as .biz, .info, .aero, .museum, .travel, etc but flatly refuses to create the more realistic and useful domains of .xxx, .spam and .scam and .virus should tell you exactly where their heads are at. I recommend that netters simply begin to refuse to pay the extortion fees ICANN asks for, and begin their own root servers, saying to hell with ICANN and Vint Cerf once and for all. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: California Governor Says Phishers to be Punished Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 14:33:49 -0500 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill on Friday making Internet "phishing" identity theft scams punishable by law. The bill, advanced by state Sen. Kevin Murray, is the first of its kind in the United States and makes "phishing" -- getting people to divulge personal information via e-mail by representing oneself as a business without the approval or authority of the business -- a civil violation. Victims may seek to recover actual damages or $500,000 for each violation, depending upon which is greater. Phishing often involves the use of names of legitimate banks, retailers and financial institutions to convince recipients of bogus e-mail offers to respond. 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: Jefferson Graham Subject: Video Laced Webstes Evolve Into Pseudo-TV Stations Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 14:36:47 -0500 By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY writer Don't touch that mouse. Online news and entertainment video is booming, says market tracker Forrester Research, with video traffic doubling every six to eight months on average at websites that offer sight, sound and motion. America Online next month introduces a celebrity journalism series that will offer video-on-demand stories about Paris Hilton, Tom Cruise and other stars. Yahoo recently hired independent journalist Kevin Sites to file video news reports from Iraq and other war zones. World Wrestling Entertainment just moved two long-running shows from cable TV -- WWEHeat and WWEVelocity -- to its wwe.com site. "There seems to be no way to quench people's thirst for online video programming," says Chris Chambers, WWE senior vice president. A few weeks ago, the first hour of WWE's Friday Night SmackDown series on UPN was pre-empted by Hurricane Katrina coverage, so WWE put the show on its website. The show averages 5 million viewers weekly, and WWE thought it might attract 250,000 viewers online. Instead, there were 500,000. "That was with no promotion, without people knowing that the show was there," Chambers says. In the dot-com bubble era, there were lots of grand plans for the Internet to replace television as the viewing medium of choice. But slow Internet connections made the shows practically impossible to watch, and advertising support wasn't there. Now, Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff says, "The viewers are there, in a big way, and so are the advertisers." Online advertising is expected to grow to $26 billion by 2010, from $14.7 billion, Forrester says. "I can envision a day when we'll all be watching our flat-panel TVs and will Google the TV to figure out what to watch," says Sarah Kim, a vice president at advertising agency AvenueA/Razorfish. Indeed, Internet giants Google, Yahoo and America Online all are investing heavily in video. Google last week presented the pilot episode of UPN's Chris Rock series, Everybody Hates Chris, on its Google Video project. Google Video director Jennifer Feikin says the online airing was clearly promotional, designed to get people to tune into UPN, but she says the next phase of Google Video will be about offering shows on demand, for a fee. "Let's say I missed an entire season of a TV show and now would like to catch up. There may be an opportunity for a TV producer to say, 'Let's put it on Google, and receive a payment in return.' " Yahoo has big plans to expand, under the leadership of former ABC programming chief Lloyd Braun. He was hired last year to oversee Yahoo's original programming. Kevin Sitesin the Hot Zone, which made its debut last month, is the first original effort from his team. Furthest along is Time Warner unit AOL, which used video as the cornerstone of its re-launch as a free Web portal in June. AOL recently began two original, online reality series -- The Biz and Project Freshman -- and has more in the works. AOL will begin webcasting classic TV shows intact in the coming months. Video is an integral part of AOL's new look. AOL is bankrolling new shows because, "We wanted to make a statement," says Jim Bankoff, AOL executive vice president. "The new AOL is optimized for today's high-speed (Internet) user." Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. 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. For USA Today headlines and stories, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: Michael Liedtke Subject: Google Morphs Into Multifaceted Juggernaut Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 14:39:15 -0500 By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer SAN FRANCISCO - In just seven years, Google Inc. has morphed from a bare-bones online search engine into a technological octopus that seems to sprout another intriguing tentacle every other week. The Mountain View, Calif.,-based company, with $7.1 billion to spend thanks to zealous shareholder support, is now positioned to head down a variety of different paths. And that's spurring an almost-daily guessing game about where Google's flurry of innovation might lead. Internet and software rivals like Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) and Microsoft Corp. aren't the only ones tracking Google. Big media and telecommunications companies also are on the lookout, realizing they too may face a looming threat. The theories about Google's next move are all over the map. Is Google cobbling together an Internet-driven computing platform that would challenge Microsoft's stranglehold on the personal computer? Is the company preparing to build a wireless network that would provide free Internet access nationwide? Will Google dip into its huge hoard of cash to pull off a blockbuster deal? There's a consensus on one overarching point: "Google wants to be everywhere that people are," said Danny Sullivan, who has followed the company closely as editor of the industry newsletter Search Engine Watch. But Google's long-range objectives remain obscure. Is the company simply exploring different ways to distribute the ads that generate virtually all of its revenue? Or is Google pursuing a much grander plan that ultimately will transform the way people work, communicate, shop, read and even watch TV? Former Stanford University graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin have never been shy about sharing their ambitions to change the world. But they have never been keen on discussing the specific implications underlying the company's stated mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who makes all the key decisions with Page and Brin, isn't about to start divulging any secrets now. "You can't know what we are really up to until you are in the bowels of the company," Schmidt said during a recent interview with The Associated Press. John Battelle, the author of a recently released book on Google's impact and potential, thinks the company's mystique has turned it into the equivalent of a Rorschach inkblot -- an amorphous object that's defined by the hopes and fears of whomever is looking at it. "When we see a remarkable new company that redefines the technology industry, we either fear it because of all the things it might do or we expect more from it than it can possibly deliver," Battelle said. Some previous theories about Google's maneuvering already have turned out to be off base. For instance, last year, it was widely believed that the company planned to introduce its own Web browser. Schmidt has since thrown cold water on that idea. There's little doubt that Google is going to get much bigger. The company made that clear last week when it announced plans to build a 1-million-square-foot campus just a few miles away from its 915,000-square-foot headquarters, known as the "Googleplex," on the grounds of NASA's Ames Research Center. Google needs the space for thousands of new workers and plans to draw on the brain power of NASA's rocket scientists. The new hires will join a payroll that already has nearly tripled in the past two years to 4,200 employees. For all its growth, Google remains a relative midget alongside Microsoft, which employs 61,000 workers and holds nearly $38 billion in cash. But few companies spend more time worrying about Google than Microsoft, and not just because its rival has been raiding its work force to lure away talented engineers. The defectors include Kai-Fu Lee -- currently prevented from working on search technology because Microsoft sued him for jumping to Google -- and Mark Lucovsky, a key architect of the Windows operating system. Since 2003, Google has rolled out an assortment of software and services that could coalesce into a challenge to Microsoft's Office suite of applications, says Stephen Arnold, whose recently completed electronic book, "The Google Legacy," examines the company's ambitions beyond online search. After studying the details of the patents that Google has obtained during the past two years, Arnold is convinced the company plans to build upon the sophisticated computer architecture that drives its search engine to offer a Web-hosted alternative to Windows. "They have the infrastructure to challenge a company like Microsoft," Arnold said. All of this hasn't gone unnoticed at Microsoft headquarters, where CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to kill Google in an obscenity-laced tirade late last year, according to a sworn court declaration submitted by Lucovsky in the lawsuit targeting Lee. Ballmer has described Lucovsky's recollection as a "gross exaggeration." Google does seem to have designs that extend well beyond the turf of the world's richest and best-known technology company. While gearing up for its looming showdown with Microsoft, Google also has: . Launched an effort to create digital versions of entire brick-and-mortar libraries, triggering copyright infringement allegations from the publishing industry, which fears Google won't be able to protect the contents. . Unveiled a system for talking over the Internet, spurring speculation about a potential Google-branded telephone; . Dabbled in wireless Internet access at a handful of connection points near its Silicon Valley home and now wants to extend the service throughout San Francisco, inspiring predictions about a nationwide network that will enable people to get on the Web for free; . Confirmed the development of an online payment system that hints at company designs on electronic commerce; . Started to stockpile video and transcripts of previously broadcast material, fueling theories that Google wants to play a bigger role in television; . And raised $5.3 billion in two separate stock offerings, providing ample financial ammunition for a major acquisition or investment in other projects that might open even more doors. Industry analyst Lauren Rich Fine suspects Google might use some of that money to buy a stake in its biggest business partner, America Online -- and thus thwart Microsoft's reported attempt to form an alliance with AOL. Google declined to comment on that possibility. There's already plenty on Google's plate, so much so that some industry observers suspect the company will become a 21st-century Icarus, a high-flying Internet company brought down by its own hubris. Others believe Google possesses the technical dexterity to wrap its arms around all of its disparate projects. But even the optimists like Battelle have their doubts. "There are no guarantees for Google," he says. "The biggest question is whether they can accomplish everything they want before someone else comes along with even better ideas." On the Net: John Battelle's Web log: http://www.battellemedia.com Stephen Arnold's "Google Legacy" book: http://www.infonortics.com/publications/google/google-legacy.html 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. ------------------------------ From: AFP News Wire Subject: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 14:41:38 -0500 Attention: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida Welcome to Florida, but avoid arguments or thanks to a new law you run the risk of getting shot, according to an ad campaign launched by a gun-control group. The campaign coincides with a state law that enters into effect authorizing gun owners to shoot anyone in a public area who they believe threaten their safety. The law, supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA), was approved by the state legislature in April. Governor Jeb Bush described it as a "good, common sense, anti-crime issue" when he signed it into law. His is a brother of US President George W. Bush. Supporters call it the "Stand Your Ground" law, while opponents call it the "Shoot First" law. Under the previous law gun owners had first to attempt to withdraw and avoid a confrontation, and were authorized to shoot the threatening individual inside their home or property. Critics say the current law allows gun owners to shoot if they engage in a simple argument. Supporters say that criminals will think twice when they try to attack someone in public. Before the law was "on the side of the criminal," said Marion Hammer, head of Unified Sportsmen of Florida and a former NRA president. "The new law is on the side of the law-abiding victim," Hammer said. Enter the Washington DC-based Brady Campaign to Control Gun Violence. The group will run ads in US and British newspapers warning tourists planning to visit Florida that a "nervous and frightened" Florida resident could shoot to kill. "Warning: Florida residents can use deadly force," the ad states. "If you are involved in a traffic accident or near-miss, remain in your car and keep your hands in plain sight. If someone appears to be angry with you, maintain to the best of your ability a positive attitude, and do not shout or make threatening gestures," the ad reads. The Brady Campaign promises to also run ads in French, German and Japanese newspapers if they can stretch their budget. They also plan to hand out fliers and post signs on the Florida highways with the warnings. "It is reasonable to make people know that while they're visiting Florida they should take the right precautions to avoid potentially being victims of violence," Brady Campaign spokesman Peter Hamm told AFP. The group is named after Jim Brady, spokesman for president Ronald Reagan. Brady received a gunshot that paralyzed him when a mentally disturbed man shot Reagan in 1981. Florida tourist authorities are hardly amused by the campaign. "The Brady Campaign is one group's political agenda and not a safety and education issue," fumed Bud Nocera, executive director of Visit Florida, the state's tourism office, who described it as a "scare tactic" campaign. "It is sad that such an organization would hold the 900,000 men and women who work in the Florida tourism industry, and whose lives depend on it, hostage, to their political agenda," he added. Nocera said the campaign would have no impact on the millions of tourists that visit Florida, numbering 80 million in 2004. "I can't understand why anybody would be opposed to telling visitors what the law is," said Hamm. "No state in America has ever passed a law like this one." The Brady Campaign is "not telling anybody that they shouldn't visit Florida. My family and I vacation in Florida every Easter and were intending to do so. But I'm going to make sure that none of the people in my family get into a loud argument while we are there," he said. Copyright 2005 Agence France Presse. 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, Agence France Presse. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2005 12:03:08 -0700 From: Chuck Wassall Subject: On Bluefrog You are quite right in your exceptions to Bluefrog, and have reservations as I do. Let me explain. I live in a remote location that can only receive a 28.8K input. While I understand broadband has spread widely, most of the world still operates at that speed. When I get a hundred spams, some of them over 50K, it takes 4 hours to download and my email service has been rendered useless. I think it is up to the individual ISP's to filter their services, rather than choose to ignore the complaints of their customers as they do now. Yahoo has blocked the Bluefrog site altogether from it's users. My suspicion is that considering my ISP wants 5 bucks a month extra to "automatically" block spam, they might not be so happy to see a solution for free. I might add I get less than one a day now, so it works and that to me is utterly amazing. David against the giant and all that. Cheers, Chuck [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Least anyone forget, Blue is the security service which has been rather successful to date in cutting back the amount of spam sent to it. Blue Frog simply sends an email of complaint to each spammer _one time_, in the name of each person who received the spam. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Stone Subject: Re: On Television, Brands Go From Props to Stars Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2005 19:59:14 GMT This is nothing new. It was a popular tactic used in the heyday of radio shows. Steve, N2UBP ------------------------------ From: henry999@eircom.net (Henry) Subject: Re: State of the Internet, 2005 Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 23:10:13 +0300 Organization: Elisa Internet customer OK, let me keep this simple for you. Robert Bonomi wrote: > wrote: >> TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: >>> A look at the internet as it stands now, in 2005, from a compilation >>> originally prepared by CNN.com: >>> Chain letters >>>...it is illegal to start or forward an e-mail chain letter >>> that promises any kind of return. Anyone doing so could be prosecuted for >>> mail fraud. >> 'Anyone doing so could be prosecuted for mail fraud.' > In the United States, that statement _is_ correct. > The USPIS handles investigation/enforcement of 18 USC 1342. > Which includes frauds that _induce_ victims to send money > _via_the_mails_. > If the 'scheme to defraud' involves the use of the postal mail system > *in*any*way* then the crime of 'mail fraud' applies. YOU are the first one to mention MONEY. What the CNN report said, and PAT quoted, was 'a chain letter that promises any kind of return.' Nothing about money. What about a chain 'letter', by E-MAIL, which promises that you'll receive ten prayers for every one you send? It does not involve money. It does not involve use of the postal mail system. It is completely absurd to suggest that _anyone_ (in the world!!!) who does this could be prosecuted for mail fraud. You kind of remind me of the apologists for the Customs service. On the one hand they claim that they have sophisticated 'profiles' which identify even the wiliest of smugglers, yet on the other hand they harass hundreds of millions of completely innocent people every year. You can't have it both ways. If the USPIS is so bloody adept and 18 USC 1342 applies to e-mail too, then why the hell are we all inundated with SPAM -- much of which is clearly fraudulent??? cheers, Henry ------------------------------ From: Brad Houser Subject: Re: Help Needed with DHCP on Remote Laptop Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 13:17:40 -0700 Organization: Intel Corporation Reply-To: bradDOThouser@intel.com On Sun, 02 Oct 2005 21:00:00 CDT, ptownson wrote: > Help wanted: I have a laptop computer here running Win NT from 1997. > I have a NetGear Wireless card in a slot. It seems to be correctly > installed; that is, the drivers are there, the little green light on > the 'television icon' is present, it _says_ it has a very good link, > and should be working fine. But the laptop reports "The DHCP client > could not obtain an IP address". Furthermore, no one else on the > network can see the laptop. The laptop cannot connect to the internet > nor see anyone else on tne network either. Yet it claims the link > is present and very strong. Can anyone tell me what is wrong? Why > is it unable to obtain an IP address via DHCP? Thanks for the help. > PAT Try picking a static IP address in the correct range and see if that works. Just dont' pick one that is already in use. Brad H ------------------------------ From: gordonb.3ugya@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2005 21:55:51 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For the life of me, I do not understand > why United States insists on keeping total control of Internet for > itself, rather than at least sharing control with other countries. I I suspect that it has a lot to do with the amount of havoc that can be wrought by hijacking a top-level country domain as a deliberate act of war. The US government wants to (a) be able to do it to someone else, and (b) not have anyone else do it to it. It may also realize it's vulnerable. (As I recall, the top-level domain for Iraq, .IQ, used to have its servers in Dallas, until the FBI raided them. Since then it's been turned back to the new government of Iraq.) Gordon L. Burditt ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Free 411 Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2005 17:00:47 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 01 Oct 2005 19:43:30 -0700, Joseph wrote: > New ad supported directory assistance. 1-800-FREE-411 > (1-800-373-3411) > Before the number is given you have to listen to a ten second > advertisement. The service also has auto connect to the number given. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I tried it, it is a national service, > handled as much as possible by interactive voice recordings. But their > voice recognition software does not seem to be very good. After three > or four attempts to find out what I wanted "a radio station, KOSN in > Stillwater, OK" it gave up and transferred me to an operator. PAT] Well, it may not be perfect, but you got what you paid for... ! If the IVR cannot understand you at least you *do* get transferred to a live human being. Some services such as 800 directory IVR won't transfer you to a real person other than during "working hours." AFAICS the numbers given are correct. Not only that it provides for call completion for free! If you don't have unlimited long distance from either your VoIP line or your cell phone it's a bargain in my book. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 #451 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Oct 4 22:33:11 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 159B214D0F; Tue, 4 Oct 2005 22:33:10 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #452 Message-Id: <20051005023310.159B214D0F@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 22:33:10 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.1 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, BIZ_TLD,OPTING_OUT autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Oct 2005 22:33:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 452 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Movie Industry to Move Online to Beat Pirates (Adam Pasick) Business Leaders Seek Anti-Piracy Action (Jane Wardell) Online Lawsuits Fuel Debate in France (Laurence Frost) Cellular-News for Tuesday 4th October 2005 (Cellular-News) European M&A Action Heats Up (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: On Bluefrog (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Help Needed with DHCP on Remote Laptop (Gary Breuckman) Re: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida (Mark Crispin) Re: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida (David B. Horvath, CCP) Re: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida (Steve Sobol) Employment Opportunity: Samsung Hiring Engineers in San Jose (G. Gibson) 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: Adam Pasick Subject: Movie Industry to Move Online to Beat Pirates Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 16:33:15 -0500 By Adam Pasick The film industry is working to launch online movie download services to avoid the same fate as the piracy-ridden music industry, NBC Universal Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Wright said on Tuesday. "It's something we have to do, but it has to be done well," Wright said "These movies are so expensive we have to be careful ... We're pretty close. Hopefully by the end of this year we'll be able to do that." Wright was speaking at the launch of an anti-piracy and counterfeiting initiative with senior executives from media, software, pharmaceutical and food industries known as "Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy" (BASCAP). Other participants included Microsoft's Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, Nestle's Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Vivendi Universal's Jean-Rene Fourtou and EMI Group's Eric Nicoli. "The problems are spreading and no one is immune," Wright said. "In my business we're just looking over the shoulder of the music industry, which has gone through a very difficult time." The global music industry has been decimated by physical piracy and online file-trading networks. It has stemmed some of the losses by aggressively targeting illicit file-sharers with lawsuits while also offering legal online alternatives like Apple's iTunes Music Store. Movies are increasingly vulnerable to online piracy due to the spread of high-speed Internet connections and file-sharing technologies like BitTorrent. Eight people were charged last week for stealing a copy of "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" and posting it online before the movie appeared in theatres. There are already at least two fledgling online movie stores: Movielink, which is a venture of five major Hollywood studios, and CinemaNow, which is jointly owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, Microsoft, Blockbuster and several private equity firms. Wright also spoke about the battle over next-generation DVD technology. Universal Studios, a unit of NBC Universal, and Warner Bros Studios have endorsed the HD DVD format, while Paramount, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and Twentieth Century Fox have backed the rival Blu-ray format. "You'd always rather have one standard -- that's going to happen eventually," he said. "Hopefully this won't go as far as (the) Betamax-VHS (video tape format battle)." 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: Jane Wardell Subject: Business Leaders Seek Anti-Piracy Action Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 16:34:44 -0500 By JANE WARDELL, AP Business Writer Business leaders representing industries ranging from pharmaceutical to software agreed at a meeting here Tuesday to form a coalition to lobby governments around the world to step up the fight against international piracy and counterfeiting. Executives including Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer, EMI Group PLC Chairman Eric Nicoli and NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer Bob Wright said many governments had not done enough to legislate against -- or enforce existing legislation against -- the theft of intellectual property. NBC Universal is , a unit of General Electric Co. "We need an adequate legal framework and enforcement capacity," said Vivendi Universal Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou after the meeting. "We are very far from that even in the U.S., and Europe is quite worse." Nicoli warned governments that the companies forming the coalition under the banner "Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy" were worth around $1,000 billion, with a work force of 1 million and served more than a billion people. "These aren't statistics, we respectfully suggest, that governments can afford to ignore," he said. Nicoli declined to name countries that were dragging their heels on the fight against piracy, but said that the coalition would draw up a series of indices and publish them within the year. He said the executives had decided to tackle the problem in the same way the pirates operate, by forming a coalition across industries and companies. Nicoli on Tuesday dismissed suggestions by Apple Computer Inc. that a single price for songs sold over the Internet would help prevent piracy in the music industry. "I'm not persuaded by the argument that a single price deters piracy," Nicoli said at a news conference in London to promote a new coalition of countries involved. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs last month called music companies greedy for seeking higher prices for music downloaded from the Internet, saying such moves would increase piracy. While the music industry has so far borne the brunt of copyright theft, with its easily reproducible and distributable products, the executives pointed out that almost every other industry is vulnerable. Ballmer told the conference that the software industry is losing up to $32 billion annually to piracy. In the pharmaceuticals sector, up to 10 percent of products worldwide are counterfeit, rising to as much as 50 percent to 60 percent in the developing world. "Nobody is immune," said Wright. "There are elements that are very bad and the reputations of countries and citizens are at stake." Nicoli said there would be no "overnight success" in tackling piracy and counterfeiting but pointed to improvements in the music industry, which has waged a campaign against digital piracy over the past few years. The multi-pronged approach by the music industry has included a public education campaign and a series of lawsuits against individual file-sharers around the world. "We are seeing progress and we are at least containing piracy," Nicoli said of the music industry. The executives agreed to combine their current efforts to fight piracy and create the first global cross-sector stock-take of the size of the problem. They will also lobby other businesses to join the coalition. 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. For more news headlines and stories from Associated Press or to listen to AP News Radio, go to http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Laurence Frost Subject: Onlne Lawsuits Fuel Debate in France Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 16:37:14 -0500 By LAURENCE FROST, AP Business Writer Attorney Jean-Marc Goldnadel knew he was going to make waves when he launched classaction.fr -- a French Web site that lets users sign up to lawsuits online for as little as 12 euros ($14.50). Sure enough, the site has ruffled France's traditionalist establishment and raised the temperature of a debate on government plans to let plaintiffs file U.S.-style class actions in French courts. But Maitre Goldnadel underestimated the backlash, and even several consumer groups are trying to shut him down. A verdict is due next month on their court challenge, the second against the site, and the Paris Bar Council is scouring its pages for ethics breaches. Opponents of the government's plans have also seized on classaction.fr as evidence that a class action law would encourage the kind of "excesses" that the United States is now trying to curb: ambulance- chasing lawyers, ruinous damages awards and spurious lawsuits used to blackmail companies into settlements. "This is grist for our mill," said Joelle Simon, head of legal affairs at France's main employers' organization, Medef. "This is exactly what we don't want -- we have no desire to see this kind of practice become widespread." President Jacques Chirac announced the introduction of class actions earlier this year, but Simon, who represents Medef on a government advisory panel, cautions that France would do well to avoid the U.S. model. "It's an incitement to blackmail," she said. "We know what the American system costs their economy, and that is one import we can really do without." Just as class action lawsuits arrive in Europe -- Britain and Sweden have recently opened their courts to limited forms of class actions and Italy is considering them -- Washington has been taking steps to rein them in. U.S. President George W. Bush signed a law in February making it harder to file "junk lawsuits" that stand little chance of winning in court, but sometimes scare companies into settling anyway. Such suits drove overall U.S. legal costs to $240 billion last year, Bush said. But French consumer groups say class actions are the only way to obtain justice when, for instance, a company overbills thousands of customers by a few hundred euros (dollars) each -- hardly worth suing for individually. Whereas a single U.S. consumer can file a class action covering all those who have suffered the same prejudice, French attorneys need a signed mandate from each litigant. Rules barring them from advertising or approaching prospective clients make it almost impossible to gather plaintiffs. Goldnadel and his associates work around the restrictions by getting the clients to come to them. Close to 1,000 plaintiffs have signed up online for two pending lawsuits. The first accuses movie distributors of breaching consumer rights by copy-protecting DVDs; the second seeks damages for misleading financial information allegedly given to Vivendi Universal SA shareholders. But French consumer organization UFC-Que Choisir and four smaller groups are accusing classaction.fr of unlawfully recruiting clients and requiring plaintiffs to cede control of settlement decisions. The site tells visitors who have bought DVDs that "you have suffered the following prejudices, for which we are demanding damages in court." It goes on to outline the case, inviting users to click on a flashing red button to sign up and enter credit card details. Fees start at 12 euros up front, plus 40 percent of any damages won. Goldnadel is confident that he is operating within the law. "There is nothing outrageous about telling people they've suffered a prejudice in a certain way," he said in an interview. "It is an attorney's job to do that -- it's not ambulance-chasing." Despite its case against the site, UFC-Que Choisir is pushing for a U.S.-style class action procedure in France that automatically covers all potential victims unless they opt out. French employers would rather see a more limited "opt-in" system obliging attorneys to collect mandates from every plaintiff -- as classaction.fr currently does. "If a company's involved in a court case, it should know who it is up against," said Medef's Simon. Others argue that the more powerful class action procedure would actually help corporations contain litigation risk. "It is in companies' interests to have an opt-out system," said Paris-based attorney Ron Soffer, who is also qualified at the New York bar. An opt-out suit usually covers the "vast majority" of possible plaintiffs, Soffer said. "Once it settles with the class, the company has basically settled the entire case and will probably never hear of it again." But such a major step could require changes to existing French laws as well as to the constitution. While the government is keeping quiet before the working group makes its recommendations, expected this month, comments by ministers suggest their approach will be gentler. Finance Minister Thierry Breton has said the government is keen to avoid the "abuse" of class actions seen in the United States. Their introduction will go ahead "in a French context and in a more controlled way," he told reporters recently. "It is a wonderful business for the lawyers, but not always for the consumer." 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. 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. ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Tuesday 4th October 2005 Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 09:11:47 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com PrePay Registration Commences in Malaysia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14271.php Following a decree from the Malaysian government requiring all PrePay phone users to register their handsets, prepaid mobile users in Penang and Malacca became the first in the country to be registered. The campaign was ... HSDPA Due in South Korea Next Year http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14272.php South Korea's SK Telecom has selected LG Electronics (LGE) and Nortel to deploy HSDPA and WCDMA platforms in the country. Nortel will provide the HSDPA infrastructure, while LGE will provide the UMTS core network.... Flash Memory in Casio Cellphones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14273.php Spansion, the Flash memory venture of AMD and Fujitsu has announced that Casio Hitachi Mobile Communications has developed two new cellular handsets with 512 Mb NOR Flash memory, which uses stacked versions of Spansion's... Tap into Tech-Savvy Female Market for Mobile Content http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14274.php The tech-savvy female market offers a source of new revenue opportunities for mobile operators worldwide, according to independent research commissioned by LogicaCMG. The survey shows that the percentage of female mobile... Improving Customer Care for Vodafone Hungary http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14275.php Vodafobe Hungary has migrated its entire customer base onto an Amdocs Billing platform. In addition, the company has selected Amdocs Self Service, which is part of Amdocs CRM. Amdocs was the systems integrator for the bi... Location Aware 3G Service from Vodafone http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14276.php Vodafone Japan has launched? location-based information services for Vodafone K.K. 3G handsets. Using location information from base stations, the service automatically displays the customer's current location area on Vo... Telefonica: Hasn't Approached KPN Over Possible Bid http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14269.php Telefonica spokesman Miguel Angel Garzon said the company hasn't had any contact with KPN's management. ... Nokia: T-Mobile Uses Nokia Mobile Solution In Hungary http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14270.php Finland's Nokia Oyj (NOK) Monday said German operator T-Mobile International AG (TMO.YY) has commercially launched a push to talk service in Hungary using a Nokia solution. ... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 13:06:29 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: European M&A Action Heats Up USTelecom dailyLead October 4, 2005 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vekIatagCqzXqFIVXT TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * European M&A action heats up BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Report: Verizon Wireless to roll out live TV in 2006 * Telefonica, KPN in merger talks * Philadelphia chooses EarthLink for Wi-Fi * More big companies consider own fiber networks * MCI to pay $331M in back taxes USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Deloitte Mergers & Acquisitions Conference @ TELECOM 05 TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Triple-play provider announces FTTH solution REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Some business travelers hope cell phone ban remains * Oregon woman sues RIAA * Editorial: Keep U.S. control of ICANN Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vekIatagCqzXqFIVXT ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 05:41:11 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com In article , Thor Lancelot Simon wrote: > In article , PAT wrote: >> Since the 'root servers' are by and large in the United States, or >> under the supervision of the United States > The quoted statement above is essentially false. The root servers > *your* DNS requests happen to terminate on may be in the United > States, but that's just an artifact of particularly clever and > effective use of DHCP. The root servers are distributed around the The mind thought "BGP". The fingers typed "DHCP". Oops. 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: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: On Bluefrog Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 11:36:33 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Chuck Wassall wrote: > You are quite right in your exceptions to Bluefrog, and have > reservations as I do. Let me explain. I live in a remote location that > can only receive a 28.8K input. While I understand broadband has > spread widely, most of the world still operates at that speed. When I > get a hundred spams, some of them over 50K, it takes 4 hours to > download and my email service has been rendered useless. I think it is > up to the individual ISP's to filter their services, rather than > choose to ignore the complaints of their customers as they do now. I have broadband 11 months of the year and dial-up the remaining month. When on s-l-o-w dial-up I have found using my ISP's webmail to clean out spam before I do a POP3 download works quite fine as a workaound to avoid downloading reams of spam. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do the same thing here. Although I am always on broadband, one of the 'mail stops' my computer makes each time I check for mail is with cableone.net. Cable One takes those items it _percieves_ to be spam (it can be trained by watching your work the first few days you have it) and it batches them all in a single file called 'spam and viruses' then sends me a single cover letter asking me to 'call at the post office' (an http link is provided) to examine, claim or destroy those items. Naturally I get between 75-100 viruses most days, and about the same number of spams at my cableone.net account. Little check boxes allow for deliver, destroy, destroy all, etc and often times just a glance tells me all I care to know about some of the items, and they can get junked on the spot. Then I can back out of the post office, return to my Outlook Express and deal with the _real_ email. It makes it much easier using POP to go to the server and trash a few hundred of the nasty things then and there rather then sit and wait while POP delivers them all to me, especially since some of them are so _huge_ and nasty. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: Help Needed with DHCP on Remote Laptop Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:52:10 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: puma@catbox.com ptownson wrote: > Help wanted: I have a laptop computer here running Win NT from 1997. > I have a NetGear Wireless card in a slot. It seems to be correctly > installed; that is, the drivers are there, the little green light on > the 'television icon' is present, it _says_ it has a very good link, > and should be working fine. But the laptop reports "The DHCP client > could not obtain an IP address". Furthermore, no one else on the > network can see the laptop. The laptop cannot connect to the internet > nor see anyone else on tne network either. Yet it claims the link > is present and very strong. Can anyone tell me what is wrong? Why > is it unable to obtain an IP address via DHCP? Thanks for the help. > PAT I would try setting the connection up manually. - address - netmask (255.255.255.0) - gateway - DNS entries (any working DNS) and see if it works. -- Gary Breuckman ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 21:34:10 -0700 Organization: University of Washington The new Florida law does nothing more than say that if you are the victim of an unprovoked attack, you do not have a duty to run away from the attacker. The key word is "unprovoked". You're not allowed to bait someone at a bar into a rage, and then pull a gun as your trump card. This brings Florida law back into line with the laws of most other states. When the Brady bunch says "no other state has ever passed a law like this one", what they really mean is that Florida is the first state that had a New York City style "you're not allowed to defend yourself" law and subsequently repealed it. Then again, truth has never been a strong point for the anti-gunners. -- Mark -- http://panda.com/mrc Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 08:20:22 -0400 Subject: Re: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida From: David B. Horvath, CCP PAT -- please mung my email address, leaving my real name is just fine. On Mon, 3 Oct 2005 14:41:38 -0500, AFP News Wire wrote: > Attention: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida > Welcome to Florida, but avoid arguments or thanks to a new law you run > the risk of getting shot, according to an ad campaign launched by a > gun-control group. It is important to note that "visitors" risk being shot in any state (and country) since firearms are easy to get just about anywhere (even where heavily regulated or illegal like Washington DC or London England). Beyond that, the Florida law change isn't just about gun owners, it is about the use of "deadly force". A senior citizen using their walker to fend off a mugger is using deadly force ... Florida isn't the first state to have a law like this; I know that the law in Pennsylvania declares that deadly force may be used in situations where a reasonable person would fear for their life, serious bodily injury, or the same for another (i.e., someone is threatening a spouse with a baseball bat). BTW: Who is AFP News Wire and why are they using a telecom-digest address (and not their own domain)? Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. - David [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: AFP is 'Agence France Presse' and it is the 'French equivilent' of our United Press International or Reuters or Associated Press. It is one of the news wires I receive here each day. The main reason I show their address as '@telecom-digest.org' is because of the terrible spam problem. As with the writers from Reuters and/or Associated Press, they do have email addresses with their organization (which will often times be found camoufloged in the news item at the bottom of the article, etc.) But because all of the news writers/reporters get absolutely eaten alive with spam each day -- same as myself -- one thing I offer all of them is a bogus address at the old honey-pot itself, telecom-digest.org. Its the same as I offer you readers who cannot deal any longer with spam; if you tell me you do not want your address made public -- and assuming I do not screw up as I did with one the other day, I 'assign' you a mailbox in my other favorite domain, '@notchur.biz'. Any of the crapola which comes to somename@telecom- digest.org I just pitch out unread usually. Stuff that winds up at somename@notchur.biz goes to whoever runs 'notchur.biz' and they get to deal with it, I suppose. I invite any of you to use 'notchur.biz' for unsolicited mail. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2005 21:31:16 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com AFP News Wire wrote: > Florida tourist authorities are hardly amused by the campaign. Then they should have taken an active stance against the law. If this article is to be believed, Florida legislators are apparently *really* stupid. -- Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well no one I know ever accused Florida legislators of being classmates in competition with Albert Einstein. Yes, that is a new law in Florida. You may also recall that a few years ago, there was an instance of some tourists from Germany getting their rental car in Florida car-jacked, then they, themselves got shot dead. There was a big stink about that case also, and the German newspapers played it up. Probably the French newspapers (AFP) wanted make French people aware of this new law in Florida also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gg_samsung Subject: Employment Opportunity: Samsung is Hiring in San Jose!!! Date: 4 Oct 2005 14:56:31 -0700 Samsung Telecommunications of America Position: Software Engineer Group: Mobile Communications Lab Location: San Jose, CA Job Summary As a software engineer, you serve as a vital team member of a newly created R&D group for Samsung Telecommunications America (STA) in San Jose, CA. Your responsibilities will include creation of full lifecycle software development projects related to mobile systems and applications, contributing to requirements specification, S/W architecture and design. Requirements - Bachelor's degree in CS/EE/Wireless Networking - Superior C programming skills. - Familiarity with embedded real-time software development. - Knowledge of UNIX and Windows based environments. - Understanding of hardware/software design and integration. - Knowledge of wireless telephony services, applications, and associated protocols and standards. - Highly self-motivated; a team-player with problem-solving capability, good verbal and written communication. Bi-Lingual in Korean and English as plus! Job Duty/Responsibility - Participate in full development lifecycle ranging from specification requirements to implementation, testing, and product support. - Research and learn new technologies and algorithms related to mobile software systems and applications. - Liaison with other engineering teams, product planning, and alliance groups, both US and non-US based. - Participate in continuous software development process improvement. For consideration, email your resume in MS Word format to ggibson@sta.samsung.com ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 #452 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Oct 5 14:15:14 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id E6F8814FBE; Wed, 5 Oct 2005 14:15:13 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #453 Message-Id: <20051005181513.E6F8814FBE@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 14:15:13 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.0 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, BIZ_TLD autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Oct 2005 14:15:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 453 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AOL Boasts Anti-Phishing Protection (Reuters News Wire) U.S. FTC Sues New Hampshire Spyware Operation (Reuters News Wire) Texas Grants First State-Issued Cable Franchise (USTelecom dailyLead) Cell Phone 'Bill of Rights' Debated on Beacon Hill Today (Monty Solomon) Locked In Cell: How Cell Phone Early Termination Fees Hurt (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News for Wednesday 5th October 2005 (Cellular-News) Sept 2005 Consumer Reports -- Good Computer/Telecom Info (Lisa Hancock) Virus Checking, was: On Bluefrog (Danny Burstein) Re: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida (David B. Horvath, CCP) Re: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida (Eric Friedebach) 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: Reuters Newswire Subject: AOL Boasts Anti-Phishing Protection Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 12:24:19 -0500 America Online, the online division of Time Warner Inc., on Wednesday said it plans to step up protections against the illegal gathering of subscribers' sensitive data through fraudulent Web sites. AOL said it has struck partnerships with MarkMonitor Inc. and Cyveillance and expanded an agreement with Cyota Inc. to help prevent what's popularly known as "phishing." The companies will help AOL spot and block sites that mimic legitimate companies. AOL also plans to monitor for new phishing sites across the Web as well as track down suspicious links contributed by its subscribers. "The only difference between a phisher and a mugger is that a phisher uses a keyboard and not a gun," Tatiana Platt, AOL Chief Trust Officer, said in a statement. The move follow improvements AOL made in late September to block out programs that track user behavior, known as "spyware." 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. For more headlines and news reports, also go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html (also) http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: U.S. FTC Sues New Hampshire 'Spyware' Operation Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 12:25:38 -0500 U.S. regulators asked a court on Wednesday to shut down a maker of what they termed computer "spyware" that steers Internet users to fake search engines and tracks their movements online. Odysseus Marketing Inc. of New Hampshire said its free Kazanon software would allow users to share music anonymously over "peer to peer" networks to avoid prosecution from the recording industry. But the software doesn't work as advertised and the company's work should be halted, the Federal Trade Commission said in a complaint filed with a U.S. court in New Hampshire. The FTC said the software serves as a Trojan horse for other, unwanted programs that deliver "pop up" ads and track the user's online movements, the FTC said. Those infected with Odysseus' spyware have their search results corrupted as well, the FTC said. When they try to use a search engine like Yahoo or Google, they are steered to a look-alike page that prominently lists Odysseus clients in the results. Those who use an Odysseus software tool to remove the spyware only draw more unwanted programs on to their computers, the FTC said. Odysseus principal Walter Rines was not immediately available for comment. The U.S. House of Representatives voted in May to stiffen jail sentences and establish multimillion-dollar fines for spyware purveyors. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate. 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. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 13:12:30 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Texas Grants First State-Issued Cable Franchise USTelecom dailyLead October 5, 2005 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vhBoatagCrcjldTIOH TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Texas grants first state-issued cable franchise BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Sprint Nextel sues Vonage * Covad snaps up NextWeb * Denmark's TDC gets another offer * Telefonica taps Nominum for DNS * Report: Rokr sales lukewarm USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Register by Oct. 15 for TELECOM '05 and save! TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * WiMAX holds promise, but obstacles remain * Study: SMS overflow could jam mobile phone networks * Alcatel announces "universal" optical metro switch REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Qwest adds BellSouth to Networx bid team Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vhBoatagCrcjldTIOH 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: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 23:44:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cell Phone 'Bill of Rights' Debated on Beacon Hill Today By Emelie Rutherford / Daily News Staff BOSTON -- While lawmakers want to help Massachusetts wireless customers dodge "dead zones" and unwanted contracts, the industry is balking at a proposed Cell Phone Users' Bill of Rights it said would lead to higher prices. Both sides will face off today over the legislation that would ban wireless carriers in Massachusetts from offering contracts for more than a year and from extending contracts without the customer's written permission. Additional protections include requiring the carriers to give customers 30 days to cancel their contracts without penalty, easy-to-understand bills, clear explanations of fees and precise coverage maps. Under the bill of rights state regulators also would monitor service quality, such as dead zones and signal strength, and handle billing disputes. If the bill of rights passes, Massachusetts would be the only state to have such a consumer protection system for cell phone users. http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=110722 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 03:00:50 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Locked In a Cell: How Cell Phone Early Termination Fees Hurt Customers Executive Summary http://masspirg.org/MA.asp?id2=18535 Press Release http://masspirg.org/MA.asp?id2=18541 Full Report http://masspirg.org/reports/lockedinacell05.pdf ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Wednesday 5th October 2005 Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 07:30:54 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com Two Join Up for 3G Testing in Japan http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14282.php Cetecom and Telec have announced a strategic collaboration to provide the Japanese mobile communications industry with conformance testing resources on location for accessing global markets. The first phase of this coope... New Wireless 911 Contracts Signed http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14283.php Intrado has announced new contracts for wireless E9-1-1 solutions with WestLink Communications, Nex-Tech Wireless, Edge Wireless, Chariton Valley Wireless, Cellcom Inc. of Wisconsin, and Appalachian Wireless. Each of the... MTC Denies Staff Arrest Claims over Lebanese PM Assassination http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14284.php Last Tuesday, the Information Division of the Lebanese Interior Security Services visited the offices of the GSM network operator, MTC Touch in Beirut, as part of their investigation around the assassination of former Le... 3G Contract Signed in Andorra http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14285.php Motorola has signed a 3G contract with Andorran operator, Servei de Telecomunicacions d'Andorra (STA), for a UMTS network. The network deployment with Andorra's only network provider is planned to commence in October 200... Test Equipment Vendors Need to Keep Pace With Changing Standards - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14286.php Recovering from the dismal growth of 2002 and 2003, the European wireless communication test equipment market improved considerably in 2004 to record revenues of approximately US$572.8 million and is likely to grow at a ... Russian Operator Dropping Dollar Currency Tariffs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14287.php The Russian operator, MegaFon-Moscow has decided to stop offering its tariffs in dollars and switch entirely over to the local currency, the Rubble. The switch will occur from January next year. Expecting the transfer, o... Crown Castle Considers Future of Australian Operations http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14288.php The wireless tower operator, Crown Castle International says that it has commenced an evaluation of strategic alternatives for its investment in Crown Castle Australia ("CC Australia"), which may directly or indirectly i... Dubai's Emaar Among 15 Cos Interested In Turkey's Telsim http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14277.php Dubai developer Emaar Properties (EMAAR.DI) is among the 15 firms that have applied for pre-qualification in the tender for the sale of Turkey's cell-phone operator Telsim, an Emaar spokesman said Tuesday. ... Ericsson To Expand Network For Vodafone In Fiji http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14278.php Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Telefon AB L.M Ericsson (ERICY) Tuesday said it has signed a contract with Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) to expand its network in Fiji. ... MTN Applies For Prequalification In Tunisie Telecom Sale http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14279.php JOHANNESBURG--South African telecommunications company MTN Group (MTN.JO) said Tuesday it has applied for prequalification to bid for a stake in Tunisian incumbent Tunisie Telecom. ... EU Launches Web Site Detailing Mobile Phone Roaming Fees http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14280.php In an effort to increase transparency for mobile phone users, the European Commission Tuesday launched a Web site detailing the roaming charges customers pay while traveling abroad. ... Orange Adds 8 Mobile TV Channels In UK Including Cricket http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14281.php Orange, the mobile telecommunications unit of France Telecom SA (FTE), Tuesday said it has added eight new television channels to its mobile TV service, including live cricket coverage of the ICC Super Series games. ... ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Sept 2005 Consumer Reports - Good Computer/Telecom Info Date: 5 Oct 2005 07:07:10 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I recommend this issue. While tech-savy people probably know most of it, a lot of lay people do not. There is good information on protecting one's personal computer from spam, viruses, phishing, spyware; issues on legislature, and cell phone user issues. ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Virus Checking, was: On Bluefrog Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 02:50:59 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC ( I originally wrote "virus chacking", with the second word being a manglement, so to speak, of "checking" and "whacking". Might be a good word...) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do the same thing here. Although I am .... [ snip ] ... > to examine, claim or destroy those items. Naturally I get between 75-100 > viruses most days, and about the same number of spams at my cableone.net > account. Little check boxes allow for deliver, destroy, ..... While filters for "spam" have a pretty serious risk/tradeoff of false positives, so simply sending all suspicious e-mail to the garbage is risky (but often done at of necessity...) many of the current anti-virus products are pretty good You might want to check with your various ISPs (or the e-mail clients you're using) to see if there's a simple "kill all viruses and executables" e-mail. That would help make your situation a bit more manageble. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 09:10:56 -0400 Subject: Re: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida From: David B. Horvath, CCP PAT -- As usual, please mung my email address; showing real name is fine. On Mon, 03 Oct 2005 21:31:16 -0700, PAT wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well no one I know ever accused Florida > legislators of being classmates in competition with Albert Einstein. > Yes, that is a new law in Florida. You may also recall that a few years > ago, there was an instance of some tourists from Germany getting their > rental car in Florida car-jacked, then they, themselves got shot > dead. There was a big stink about that case also, and the German > newspapers played it up. Probably the French newspapers (AFP) wanted > make French people aware of this new law in Florida also. PAT] While I might agree or disagree with you about the average IQ in the state govenment of Florida (depending on whether I was pro or anti Bush), they have passed some innovative laws regarding self-defense. They were one of the first states to pass a "shall-issue" concealed firearm permit law. Many states had concealed permit laws before but they were often at the whim of the issuing body (i.e., if you were friends with the mayor, you got one). Vermont has always allowed concealed carry (without permit) and most states have "open carry" laws (you can carry a gun so long as it is visible). After Florida got "shall-issue", a decent (10-20) percentage of the law-abiding population went through the process and got permits. The criminals quickly learned that they were risking their own lives trying to carjack or mug Florida residents. They looked for the next soft target which was tourists. Tourists are easy to identify by the stickers on their rental cars. Florida enacted a law forcing removal of the rental-car company stickers. They also now issue non-resident conceal carry permits as well as recognizing the permits issued by a number of other states. - David ------------------------------ From: Eric Friedebach Subject: Re: Visitors Risk Being Shot in Florida Date: 5 Oct 2005 10:08:14 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com PAT wrote: > You may also recall that a few years ago, there was an instance of > some tourists from Germany getting their rental car in Florida > car-jacked, then they, themselves got shot dead. There was a big > stink about that case also, and the German newspapers played it up. > Probably the French newspapers (AFP) wanted make French people aware > of this new law in Florida also. PAT] I believe that was not long after Florida passed a concealed carry law. Florida does not have front license plates, so many rental car companies would add a plate with their logo on it. This made it very easy for the criminals to spot their unarmed victims. TELECOM Topic: Its been three weeks since the last junk fax! Eric Friedebach /And now it's time for: Jaromir Weather/ ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 #453 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Oct 6 14:53:36 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id DF17514FF0; Thu, 6 Oct 2005 14:53:35 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #454 Message-Id: <20051006185335.DF17514FF0@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 14:53:35 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.2 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 Oct 2005 14:53:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 454 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet Crime Shifts to Russia (Reuters News Wire) Windows XP Service Pack 3 Reviewed OnLine (Elizabeth Montalbano) Finally Cutting the POTS Cord (Brian E Williams) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Lisa Hancock) Disaster Recovery in 1871 (Patrick Townson) Jurrasic Telecom (Don Kimberlin, Digest July, 1999 Reprint) Go Ahead, You Can Ask Anything (Monty Solomon) Online Pioneer Sets Out to Shake Up TV (Monty Solomon) Deconstructing Google bombs: A Breach of Symbolic Power (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News for Thursday 6th October 2005 (Cellular-News) 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: Reuters News Wire Subject: Internet Crime Shifts to Russia Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 21:11:50 -0500 Trafficking in stolen credit cards has largely shifted to Russian-language Web sites after an international crackdown sparked disarray among English-speaking scam artists, a U.S. Secret Service official said on Wednesday. The October 2004 raid, dubbed Operation Firewall, led to 28 arrests in seven countries and shut down several Web sites that served as online bazaars where scam artists could buy and sell credit-card numbers, drivers' licenses and other documents. Now much of the activity has shifted to Russian-language Web sites that are wary of outsiders, posing additional challenges to online investigators who must cope with language and legal barriers, said Brian Nagel, the Secret Service's director of investigations. "The English-speaking side of this criminal activity seems to be in complete disarray," Nagel said at a credit-card security conference. "The Russian-speaking side ... rebounded pretty strongly and there seems to be more membership than there was before," he said. Nagel said just a "handful" of Secret Service agents speak Russian. "It's not a problem, but it's an area where we need to grow," he told Reuters. Those arrested in the Operation Firewall crackdown were responsible for at least $4.3 million in losses, the Secret Service said at the time. 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: Elizabeth Montalbano Subject: Windows XP SP 3 Review Surfaces Online Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 21:15:28 -0500 Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service Though Microsoft still won't confirm that it will release a third service pack for its Windows XP operating system, a preview version of the software update has been made available on the Web. An "unofficial" preview pack of Windows XP Service Pack 3 is available at The Hotfix, a software download site and discussion forum that focuses on patches and software updates. Info Avaiable, but Hidden Ethan Allen, creator and administrator of The Hotfix, said Wednesday that he assembled the preview pack from software updates sent by an internal Microsoft source that are expected to be released in SP3. The updates include Windows log-on improvements and features that fix current problems with connecting Windows XP computers to various networks, according to the SP3 forum on the site. Allen, a Microsoft beta tester who previously worked on a contract basis for the Redmond, Washington-based software company, updates the list of technologies for Windows XP SP3 daily based on information found on Microsoft's Web site. "Microsoft makes it freely available about what's going to be in the next hot fixes, but they hide it," Allen said. He said he found information on updates that will be made available in Windows XP SP3 by using keywords contained in articles on Microsoft's Web site. This is the same way he discovered the technologies that were released in Windows XP SP2. He posted those updates on a Web site before that service pack was released in August 2004. Allen now works in software assurance for a Bellevue, Washington-based high-tech company that he declined to name. He said Microsoft has not contacted him about The Hotfix, which he launched in July. Allen's site has also published a transcript of a chat discussion in which Microsoft engineers fielded questions from beta testers about whether Internet Explorer 7 will be included in SP3. According to the transcript, Anurag Jain, a program manager on the Internet Explorer team, said that the service pack won't include IE 7 but will "support" it. Instead, Internet Explorer 6 will be a part of Windows XP SP3. SP3 or No SP3? Microsoft provides service packs to add what the company and its users think are important updates to the current releases of its software. For example, Windows XP SP2, which significantly updated Windows XP, included software intended to make the OS more secure. Reports published last week quoted Microsoft France's technical and security director Bernard Ourghanlian as saying that a third service pack for Windows XP will become available after the next version of the client OS, Windows Vista, ships at the end of 2006. A Microsoft spokesman Wednesday insisted that Microsoft still hasn't decided whether to release SP3 for Windows XP. "We have not confirmed plans for a Service Pack 3 for Windows XP yet," said Michael Burk, product manager for Windows Vista. "At this point, the Windows servicing team is reviewing the feedback on Windows XP SP2 and is still evaluating timing and alternatives for the next Windows XP servicing release." Copyright 2005 PC World Communications, Inc. 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, PC World Communications, Inc. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Brian E Williams Subject: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord Date: 5 Oct 2005 11:52:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com http://tinyurl.com/9jqae Above link is a picture of the inside of my outside telecom box here in the USA. I want to route my Vonage VoIP service to my internal phone network, so first I am going to disconnect the internal network from the POTS provider as a test. I am guessing that I just flip those little connectors up and then pull out the solid blue and blue-white wires, being careful to keep them arranged for easy reconnection. Is there anything else I need to worry about? Also, is having four wires standard for a single line? Maybe that is how I can do three way calling and call waiting, but I never thought about it before. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The two features you asked about; call waiting and three-way calling are _central office features_ and have nothing to do with your internal wiring. All you really need for a single central office line is two wires, typically red/green or perhaps in newer configurations solid blue and blue/white. The absolutely most important thing to remember is avoid having the central office lines (whatever color they are) come in contact with the VoIP lines. Having them come in contact will almost surely cause the VoIP box to fry out. As long as the _live_ telco wires do not come in contact with the VoIP line or your house wiring then wherever your telco line reached before, your VoIP line should reach now. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: 5 Oct 2005 13:06:01 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple things I do not understand > about voice communication over electrical power lines: Some say it > will not work; others say it is okay. My own experience has been that > (a) Chicago Transit Authority for many years (has?) used the third- > rail for telephone conversations between control towers/trains/station > agents. (b) I personally have tried so-called 'wireless intercoms' > between different locations nearby; sometimes they worked (although in > a rather piss-poor way; other times not at all. I have no personal > experience with (a) but have been told the connections are very > 'noisy' many times, and (b) when they worked, they seemed to have a > lot of 'hum' in the background. When they did not work (all I got > was hum with no audible voice at all) I am told this was because the > two intercom stations involved were on opposite 'legs' of the > transfomer. Can anyone explain this better to me? I am not an expert on the technology, but it is not hard to "piggyback" voice communication over an electric power line in various ways: a) Some college and high school radio stations use facility power lines as their transmission media. A regular radio tuned to the proper frequency will pick up the signal, but the radio has to be in a school building. b) As mentioned, there are home intercoms that transmit over house wires. c) Some subway-el systems transmit trainphone over the 3rd rail. I don't think the quality is that good and there is a lot of "hum" in the power background. (Even regular telephone circuits pick up the hum). I believe some systems started off with 3rd rail carrier but switched to true radio, which requires the stringing of antenna through all the tunnels and stations, but gives a better signal and allows hand held walkie-talkies. An electric wire can carry currents of different frequencies, so AC power current, DC power current as well audio frequency and radio frequency can be all carried on the same line. For example, a RR line powered by AC has both the AC power (25 or 60 Hz) as well as the control signal (100 Hz and others) sharing the medium. Some lines even have multiple power sources from a separate wire, such as DC via third rail. There are "filters" (IIRC, "impedence bonds") that separate out the stuff. So, from a purely theorectical point of view, voice and data communications can be carried on power lines. How well and expensive that would be in practice remains to be seen. > I know that the third-rail seems like an awful way to transmit voice > communications. On the one occassion I had to see the CTA system in > action, I called into the CTA main headquarters phone number (MOHawk > 4-7200) and the operator switched me to a supervisor in one of the > control towers several miles away for whom I had a question. The > connection, frankly, was not all that good. Once I also called Grand > Central Station in downtown Chicago to the Lost and Found; she > switched me to the Lost and Found in Baltimore, OH, also via the > trackside phone lines. That connection sounded pretty bad also. PAT] For the calls above I doubt they used the trainphones, which are meant more for trains. Before SEPTA switched over to Bell, it's internal communication system between towers and the like was pretty bad. That was the result of just physical decay of the private network -- old wiring, open pole wire, old telephone sets and switchgear, interference from power sources, etc. SEPTA dumped it's own system and switched over the Bell Centrex which was a huge improvement. PATCO's original internal telephone system (a used SxS switch) had a terrible hum in the background since the switch was atop a power substation and telephone lines near traction power lines. It has been replaced and it's much nicer now; presumably the new system has better filters to keep out the power noise. Well into the 1980s a lot of carriers had handcrank local battery telephones still in use as wayside telephones; many of those phones used antique components. Keep in mind that railroads and transit carriers almost always built their own voice communications network instead of relying on Bell; it was more cheaper given the distances involved. I suspect the widespread deployment of ESS allowed Bell to offer reasonable rates on a regional Centrex system that wasn't possible before. For example, the Upper Darby Terminal of the Mkt-Fkd line is out of the city limits and it's a 3 message unit between one terminal and the other. Given the numerous times the dispatchers, motormen, towermen, cashiers, supervisors, and shopmen need to communicate with each other 24 hours a day the message unit charges would be horrendous; it's free with a private system. Further, carriers already have trained staff who maintain the traffic control signals and they maintain the telephone network as well. In the last 30 years, both railroad and transit have upgraded much (but not all) of their systems. Railroads have gone heavy into fibre optic and even satellites. Transit has gone into advanced systems "applique" phones. NJ Transit gives train crews Nextel cellular phones for emergency use and to double as walkie-talkies. Would anyone know the history of telephone ownership on the New York City subways and IRT, BMT, and IND predecessors? I think whatever private networks they might have had were dumped long before other subways. ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson Subject: Disaster Recovery in 1871 Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 23:40:38 -0500 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here is an article I wrote nine years ago, in October, 1996 for this Digest, marking the 125th anniversary of the Great Fire in Chicago, October 8-9, 1871. I hope you will enjoy seeing it again, in the event you missed it first time around. As the Chicago Historical Society did this month, you might like to make some comparisons between Katrina/New Orleans last month and the Great Fire, 134 years ago this week. PAT] Telecom Disaster Recovery in 1871 by Pat Townson, ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu It was 125 years ago on October 8-9, 1871 that the Great Fire in Chicago completely burned out a large portion of the city as it existed at that time. The entire month of September had been very dry and with no rain. In those times everything here was built out of wood with the exception of 'modern fire-proof buildings' which were made out of bricks. The exact reason for the fire was never detirmined. There is the one theory of the Cow, and although the cow's owner Mrs. O'Leary at first alluded to the possibility that her lantern may have been kicked over by the cow during its milking, she later testified under oath in special hearings before the Chicago Board of Aldermen (what is now the Chicago City Council) that no such thing had occurred. Other witnesses who lived nearby Mrs. Oleary's home claimed they had seen teenagers 'sneaking into the O'Leary barn to smoke cigarettes ...' Oddly enough, Mrs. O'Leary's house did *not* catch fire and burn down although her barn and some 17,000 other buildings in the city were destroyed by the time the fire was extingquished due to a heavy rainfall early on Tuesday morning, October 10. About 90,000 persons were left homeless, and about 300 persons died in the fire. The fire burned from about 9:00 pm that Sunday night, throughout the day on Monday and until shortly after midnight at the start of Tuesday. A combination of factors made the fire as bad as it was. Not the least were the nearly exhausted firemen who had battled a rather large fire on the west side of the city less than 24 hours earlier. Winds of 30 miles per hour spread the blaze rapidly. The 'sidewalks' were made of wooden planks elevated slightly off the ground and these had lots of trash under them. The citizens also were caught off guard or perhaps simply ignored the urgency of the matter until it was too late. The steeple of City Hall contained a large bell which was used by the Fire Alarm office to warn of such emergencies. It was operated by a mechanical device which was spring-wound, much like the clock which was also in the tower of the steeple. This device had a 'clutch' or similar on it and could be set to ring the bell with various cadences to mean various things. One ring and a pause meant a fire in the north part of the city; two rings and a pause meant a fire in the south part of the city; three rings and a pause meant a fire on the west side of the city; four rings and a pause was a general alarm to which all citizens were urged to heed. But as the {Chicago Tribune} reported two days after the fire, for nearly a week prior the bell had been ringing almost constantly due a large number of small fires all over the city created by the very dry weather and tinderbox conditions. The Tribune noted that 'our citizens cannot be blamed for giving the bell little attention that night; for over a week it seems everywhere we walk about town there is scarcely more than a few minutes passing before we see a team of horses racing down the street pulling their water-wagon with the firemen astride it making loud noises with their gongs to warn us to step aside quickly and let them past ...' So that warm and very pleasant Sunday evening as the good citizens of Chicago returned to their homes from church services they heard the bell in City Hall and most just said, 'oh, it is another fire somewhere ...' and let it go at that. At the telegraph office on LaSalle Street, the fellow who was the combination clerk/telegrapher on duty that Sunday night sat 'on the wire' talking about it with other telegraphers in cities far and wide. Even to him, it was 'just another fire' -- although a bigger one than usual -- as he looked out the window and saw the orange glow a mile or so to his southwest. Everyone assumed the fire would end when it burned its way to the south branch of the Chicago River near Roosevelt Road. It was common for the telegraphers to 'chat' among themselves when none of them had any traffic. They'd sit at the 'key' and just idly 'converse' with their counterparts around the nation. If any of them had something to send over the wire, he'd just tap the key a couple times in a sort of heavy-handed way and the others who had been chatting among themselves would become silent. Then the one who had interuppted would key "I have traffic", and the other operators would remain silent while he passed his traffic to wherever it was going. When he had finished, there would be a few seconds to a minute of silence as the others waited to see if more traffic was to follow, and if none was there, the chit-chat among them would begin again. The Chicago guy even mentioned it was quite a fire that seemed to be going on the west side of town that night. Then what no one expected would happen did happen. Strong winds carried burning chunks of wood, etc across the river, and the first few landed on the roof of the People's Gas Works Building. Employees at the gas works had the presence of mind to cut the gas supply immediatly, but sufficient gas under extreme pressure in a holding tank nearby was all that was needed to cause an explosion that, as the Tribune later reported 'must have been seen and heard by God Almighty Himself, wherever He is, considering the huge ball of fire which rose into the air and the noise of the explosion as the gas works went up in flames. That was about midnight Sunday night, and from that point on, the fire just simply spread from one building to the next throughout the downtown area. In an interview in the {Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine} in 1911 on the fortieth anniversary of the fire and the fiftieth anniversary of the employment of the man who had been on duty in the telegraph office that night, the man told his memories of the occassion. By 1911, the Chicago telegraph agency was operated by Western Union (it had not been in 1871). WUTCO, as readers here know, was itself a consolidation of several small telegraph companies and their agencies which took place over a half century or so. The old gentleman was retiring from employment with WUTCO that year in 1911, and people at the Chicago Historical Society, the Tribune and others felt his story needed to be recorded, because as the {Chicago Daily News} noted about the same time, 'soon all the people who were around at the time of the fire will be dead, and no one will be left to tell the real story.' In his interview in the Tribune Sunday Magazine in 1911, the man mentioned a few things he remembered from that night forty years earlier. He remembered that: Mayor Roswell Mason had come to the telegraph office with some of the aldermen about 1:00 am when it was apparent the fire was going to destroy most of the city. Mayor Mason had told him to send out several telegrams immediatly; one to the president of the United States informing him of the disaster; one to General Sheridan of the United States Army asking for a declaration of martial law and to send troops; 'and a few others were sent calling for assistance to be given.' By the time he had sent those messages as ordered by Mayor Mason, the wires were abuzz all over the country as other operators heard the messages being transmitted and began talking among themselves. By then it seemed every telegraph operator in the United States on duty at that time of night was talking about the great fire going on in Chicago. There was also traffic on the wire about a fire of similar fury and destructiveness going on at about the same time in the smaller town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, where some 2000 people lost their lives over a 24 hour period. He recalled watching the fire as it was burning in several buildings across the street from the telegraph office and then it became obvious his own office was going to go up in flames also. He said that he gathered up what he could of the company's books and records, as well as the cash box at the front desk, and stored it all in the fireproof safe there. He sat down at the telegraph key one last time and 'broke' the chatters who immediatly went silent expecting that traffic was to be passed. When he had their attention he said, "the roof of our building here has caught fire and I am getting out now. Goodbye, we will be in touch when we can ..." He said he recalls grabbing a few more things to toss in the safe before locking the door on it while the 'key' was chattering and other operators were sending words of encouragement. He said he remembers 'God bless' coming on the wire as he was going out the door. It was fortunate he left when he did, because within about a minute the roof collapsed in flames and the entire building began to burn, just as every other building around him was already doing. [TELECOM Digest Editor's 1996 Note: A quick side note: I am reminded of the great flood a few years ago when the old underground tunnel system here sprang a leak and the Chicago River began pouring into the tunnels and the sub-basments of buildings all over the downtown area. Although City Hall was one building which had to be totally evacuated, there were ten or so women who stayed behind -- the centrex phone operators -- who took call after call from the media all over the world as well as countless frightened citizens asking for information about the disaster. One of the ladies was asked, 'how long are you going to remain there?' and she replied 'until the phones go out of service or the water has risen to this level or the police come and carry us out. :) ' For about two hours employees of Ameritech frantically worked to re-route the City Hall centrex lines away from the rising flood waters in the basement to a location directly across the street in the Chicago Temple Building. They lost to the flood; the water rose faster than they could get the Fire Department lines and the centrex lines relocated, so the ladies were 'off line' about 45 minutes along with the people who answer fire calls routed to them through 911. For about 45 minutes, calls to 312-744-4000 and/or 911 just went off to nowhere; no ring, no answer but then suddenly it started ringing again and the cheery ladies who had taken several thousand extra calls that day responded once again. They had all gotten up and walked across the street to the Temple Building where banks of phones had been set up for the operators and the Fire Alarm office personnel. Other City Hall workers would be without phone service for a few more days. PAT] He said he remembered walking around downtown the rest of the night, going no where in particular but just watching the fire everywhere. The streets were almost entirely deserted. He said perhaps the most grotesque thing of all was the bell in the steeple at the City Hall. His words were, "the bell was on a wind up spring attached to gears which allowed it ring without human intervention. What was so strange was that long after the people in the Fire Alarm office itself had fled in terror seeking to save their own lives and what they could of their possessions in their homes, that bell continued to ring. Totally deserted streets downtown and that bell with its hideous sound as it would ring four times and pause, then four more times and pause ... a fire everyone! a fire! ... but no one there to listen to it. And then he watched as the cupola of City Hall caught fire and 'the flames swept wildly up the steeple itself and into the tower. The ropes which held the bell in place began to burn and presently the bell itself fell to the ground with an awful noise and the mechanicals kept moving up and down as the remains of the rope to the bell got tangled up in it.' And then soon the clock itself got dislodged from above and fell to the ground next to the bell. He recalled that about about 3:00 am that Monday morning the fire further jumped the main part of the river and spread into the north part of the city. The water works caught on fire and the hydraulics which caused air pressure to go into the mains went out of order. That was the end of any possible fire fighting efforts. Nonetheless people did what they could on the north side all day Monday to save their homes but with little or no success. He went back to the place where the telegraph office had been located shortly after daybreak to find only smoldering ashes with the building completely down, but the company safe still standing there. One of his supervisors asked him to go along with him to the telegraph office in the village of Austin to the west of the city (now a neighborhood in the city known as Austin) where they could obtain tools and spare equipment to get themselves up and going as soon as possible. He said they rode their horses out that way and he recalls passing two young ladies on their way to work downtown carrying their lunch sacks; they were totally oblivious to everything and apparently unware of the fire. He said to his supervisor they would certainly be surprised when they got downtown ... :) With tools in hand, a lot of wire, spare telegraph keys and the help of everyone employed there, he said they managed to relocate the telegraph office by the middle of the day Tuesday. He said they relocated in an area in the 'Customs Building' on South Clark Street near 18th Street and after working the entire day Monday and all that night they had a crude facility set up and operational Tuesday afternoon. He recalled that when they first began attaching the keys to the newly installed wire, the keys of course came to life immediatly with traffic and at the first available free space in the traffic he 'broke' the other operators 'this is Chicago, I told you we would be back as soon as possible.' The other operators started chattering about it immediatly of course, wanting to know the extent of the damage, etc. There were 'floods of traffic for several days afterward' as people anxiously inquired about relatives and friends. He said that at every minute there were three or four telegraphers on duty; none of them stopping for more than a few minutes at a time with people lined up in the street waiting to get out messages and a lot of messages coming in almost constantly around the clock. The first messages sent out were by Mayor Mason to government officials telling them of actions he had taken. He recalled Mayor Mason's message to the president of the United States in which he stated, "In emergency session of the Board of Aldermen on Monday I instructed the aldermen to get on their horses and ride to Lincoln Park (where over a hundred thousand people camped out homeless on Monday night) to assure the citizens that everything possible is being done for their welfare, and to advise them that the government has been restablished and is in control." He noted the message to the president continued by saying that martial law had been declared and that the First Congregational Church had been seized by the government to serve as the temporary location of City Hall ... and that furthermore, several railroad trains which had entered the city on Monday and Tuesday had been comandeered by the police with the food and other supplies therein seized to be given to the citizens 'most of whom went without their supper on Monday night as they stood in the park, grateful that the only real things of value -- their loved ones -- were there safe with them ...' He remembered the day afterward, the Tuesday when the telegraph office re-opened for business and his visit to the downtown area that afternoon: 'Never did I see so many people downtown on one day. Thousands of people came downtown to wander the streets and look in amazement and awe. Just rubble everywhere. The safe remained too hot to open on Monday but after the rain Monday night it cooled off and on Tuesday morning executives of the telegraph agency went to the now burned out premises to open the safe and retrieve the contents. Quite a few of the documents were singed and crumbled into ashes when picked up, but there was quite a bit they saved.' Looters and trouble-makers used the circumstances of Monday to their advantage that night, and groups of citizens formed vigilante parties to protect what remained from the disaster. He noted in the Tribune interview that 'General Sheridan and his troops rode into town late Tuesday evening and never were the citizens so glad to see anyone in their lives. Order was restored almost immediatly when General Sheridan placed on display a revolver and a noose made from rope and explained "these are the tools I will use for those who need them. __Orderly distribution of relief supplies_ will follow immediatly beginning at six tomorrow morning (Wednesday). My men (the troops)will be at nearly every street corner assisting the police. The first business to re-open downtown was that same Wednesday, two days after the fire. A man built a small wooden stand and had vegtables and fruits for sale. The Tribune Building had also burned down despite its supposedly fire-proof status, and the Tribune missed publication that Monday, but was back in business with a Tuesday edition from their new headquarters a few blocks away, and their headline that first day back after the fire was 'Chicago Will Rise Again'. The telegraph office stayed at its new location for several years until Western Union bought it, and it then moved into the new building WUTCO constructed at 427 South LaSalle Street where it remained until the 1980's. Telephones were yet to come; they would not be available for another seven or eight years in the city. REFERENCES: Visit the Chicago Historical Society on the web. http://www.chicagohistory.org PAT ------------------------------ Subject: Jurassic Telecommunications, Part I Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 09:22:13 From: Donald E. Kimberlin Organization: TELECOM Digest [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Another reprint, this time by Don Kimberlin writing to us in July, 1999. PAT] Jurassic Telecommunications, Part I This is the first in a series about the beginnings of what we today so casually take as Telecommunications. Reaching back into those late Victorian and Edwardian era times before the world had electronics, the first developers were forced to accomplish their feats with unwieldy, often heavily mechanical methods one could as easily credit to Jules Verne. While a large part of these methods have become obsolete, it is amazing to consider what those first contributors to telecommunications did accomplish. At the same time, seeing their methods reveals some delightfully simple ways of understanding how the patchwork of today's technology operates and how to manage it. Valdemar Poulsen - The Doctor Frankenstein of Telecommunications? Poulsen is perhaps best known for his other major contribution to the art of telecommunications, a literal fire-breathing monster that functioned as a radio transmitter. That story, however, stands quite apart from one that more closely parallels Mary Shelly's tragic hero. If the immortality we hope for really exists, then it follows there is likely a collegium of archangels or a pantheon of gods of man's higher accomplishments. Valdemar Poulsen rightly deserves a place in such a group for his contributions to man's shrinking of time and space; to man's increase of social intercourse, and thus, one would hope, the furtherance of peace and harmony in the world today. However, one of Poulsen's major contributions has had its dark sides as well as its benefits. The first notion of recording sound by magnetic means seems to have been stimulated rather early in Thomas Edison's spew of development around 1880. Then-prominent American mechanical engineer Oberlin Smith, after a visit to Edison's Menlo Park, NJ laboratory, filed an 1878 patent caveat that was never followed up. It described the notion of recording electrical signals produced by a telephone onto a steel wire. While investigating ways in which speech might be recorded, Edison;s assistant Sumner Tainter noted on March 20, 1881; "A fountain-pen is attached to a diaphragm so as to be vibrated in a plane parallel to the axis of a cylinder. The ink used in this pen to contain iron in a finely divided state, and the pen caused to trace a spiral line round the cylinder as it is turned. The cylinder to be covered with a sheet of paper upon which the record is made." (1) It's interesting that had the Edison team followed this route and succeeded, the world may have had postally mailable recordings on paper sheets a hundred years ago. Rather, however, developments focused on purely mechanical means to record and play back sound. Not yet having any of the electronics necessary to amplify the weak magnetic signals or to prepare the magnetic medium by biasing it, mechanical recording certainly would have been seen as the only practical method of the era. From the Edison notebooks, it seems that idea lay fallow for almost two decades. Oberlin Smith decided in 1888 that he would not pursue his idea. He "donated" it to the public by publishing his ideas about magnetic recording in the journal Electrical World. (2) This publication may have caught the interest of Poulsen, who after all, had attended the university at which earlier Danish physicist Hans Oersted made the connection between electricity and magnetism in 1820. By 1893, then 24- year-old Poulsen was working for the Copenhagen Telephone Company. Poulsen attacked a point about magnetic recording that Edison had not addressed -- the matter of how to play back a magnetically recorded message. He found that, indeed, Faraday's principle of magnetic induction would operate to make a magnetic recording playable. Poulsen's first demonstration device was simply a steel chisel edge along which he moved a small pickup coil. He sidestepped a suggestion by Smith of using cotton thread impregnated with iron powder, advancing directly to a wire suspended across a room. He mounted the record/pickup coil on a moving trolley. To achieve a compact and portable device for his patent application, Poulsen had by 1898 formed the wire into a drum-like vertical coil. This was rotated with a crank to cause the wire to pass under a fixed record/pickup coil assembly, as shown here. (3) Poulsen's earliest patent papers showed he was aware that tape was a practical option to wire. It was not until later designers attempted to store steel wire on reels that wire twisting became an irritating source of high audio frequency loss. That change was not to ensue until around 1928, when Germans working for AEG and BASF addressed the Edisonian notion of applying iron power to a paper (by now paper tape) backing. This created the Magnetophon tape recorders used in German broadcasting until their discovery by American Jack Mullin at the end of WW2. But, back to Poulsen and his first development. At the outset, his Telegraphone was intended to store either analog speech or digital Morse telegraph signals. Poulsen's original Danish patent application indicated his Telegraphone was intended for use to answer unattended telephone lines and record messages for later playback. Thus, we see that Valdemar Poulsen's first plan for his development was to provide Copenhagen Telephone Company with central office based voice mail, which of course, has a parallel in the telephone answering machine and other forms of voice mail we now encounter daily. Much is made by persons in the recording industry of Poulsen inventing magnetic recording, but little or nothing is said of the often frustrating other outcome of his work! It would appear, however, that the world little appreciated Poulsen's breakthrough at the outset. He took it to the Paris Exposition of 1900, there paralleling a promotional device used by Alexander Graham Bell a quarter-century earlier. Just as Bell managed to get the Emperor of Brazil to exclaim interestedly that a telephone worked (in Philadelphia in 1878), Poulsen snagged Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria into a demonstration of recorded voice on the Telegraphone. Based on that royal attention, the Telegraphone was described in glowing terms by the technical and scientific press as superior to the phonograph and a great advance in physics as well. It won Poulsen a gold medal, but not business success. Poulsen obtained patents on his Telegraphone in a number of nations, and even founded an American Telegraphone Company in 1903, with a manufacturing plant in Wheeling, West Virginia. Efforts to market the Telegraphone as a business office dictation machine met with little success, but a number of Telegraphones were marketed to railroads through Western Union Telegraph as recording devices for Morse telegraph messages. Correspondence in the Lemuelson Collection of Western Union at the Smithsonian Institution attests to use of Telegraphones on the P. and R. railroad, the Northern Pacific railroad, the L. and N. and the D. and H. railroads. One can surmise the Telegraphone drew AT&T's attention, as a version was offered that could answer an unattended telephone - even in 1903! American Telegraphone moved to Springfield, Massachusetts in 1910, then went into bankruptcy receivership in 1918, never to emerge; only to finally close in 1944 following Poulsen's 1942 death. Other interests, however, benefited and prevailed from Poulsen's original concepts, even during his firm's bankruptcy. Not the least was AT&T, which for reasons not completely published, began delving into magnetic recording in 1930. Bell Telephone Laboratories initiated a major research effort in magnetic tape recording under the direction of Clarence N. Hickman. By 1931, prototypes designs were made for a steel tape telephone answering machine, a central-office message announcer, an endless loop voice-training machine, and a portable, reel-to-reel recorder for general purpose sound recording. None were said to enter production except for the voice trainer, which failed in the marketplace. AT&T's official policy on telephone recording devices was that they would not be allowed on public telephone lines. (4) The steel tape ramification of magnetic recording seems to have been of particular interest to AT&T. Although their interest in magnetic recording was declared not an AT&T business objective, I personally saw steel tape playback units used in AT&T's overseas radio station for Miami at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In that use, vertical steel tapes ran in a glass-enclosed cabinet about 6 feet high over flat brass rollers to endlessly play back the message heard by so many on HF radio over the years, This is a test transmission from a station of The American Telephone and Telegraph Company. This station is located near Miami, Florida. Similar messages emanated from plants near New York and San Francisco for decades. ostensibly from those Telegraphone-like steel tapes. Obviously, by the 1960's, the later developments by Armour (since Marvin Camras' work in 1939), Brush and Ampex interests were mushrooming so as to overshadow any remembrance of the start Poulsen gave to the recording art. Along the way, however, there was a heinous incident in which Poulsen's conception figured. At the Telefunken radio long wave radio stations built around 1910 at Tuckerton, New Jersey and Sayville, New York, Telegraphones were found useful for first recording Morse radio messages at normal speed, then transmitting them at high speed on the radio link so as to gain throughput on their expensive, gargantuan international radio links to Germany. It just so happened that by 1915 Telegraphone-originated high speed transmissions raised the curiosity of radio experimenter Charles Adgar in New Jersey when WW1 was still a European war. Adgar, when one day playing back recordings of the US - German link, had the spring wind down on his Edison machine. Messages from Sayville became readable. One of them was a copy of the infamous 'Zimmerman letter', in which the German Foreign Minister encouraged Mexico to attack the United States, to divert attention from the European war. The final straw was the message on May 7, 1915 telling German submarine U-39 to 'get Lucy', ordering the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania. On intercepting that message, the US Navy immediately seized the Sayville and Tuckerton plants of Telefunken, ultimately expropriating them after the war. Finally, when GE and Westinghouse joint ventured the Radio Corporation of America, the new RCA was given them as part of reparations for the war. Poulsen, who obviously knew of his machine's involvement in that action, may indeed have felt like our tragic hero, Doctor Frankenstein. Want to know more? Here are some references and websites with related information: http://www.dmg.co.uk/ibex/museum/25years_a.htm 'Some possible forms of phonograph' by Oberlin Smith, The Electrical World, September 8th 1888. Danish Patent 1,260, Valdemar Poulsen, 1898. http://www.cinemedia.net/SFCV-RMIT-Annex/rnaughton/POULSEN_BIO.html http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~dmorton/mrchrono.html http://www.asb.com/usr/w2g3zfj/lusit.htm http://www.asb.com/usr/w2g3zfj/fliwh1/hiscom.htm [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: (in 1999) If you were reading this Digest several years ago, you will recall that Donald Kimberlin was a very frequent contributor; then he just sort of dropped out of sight. I hope that the above means we are going to be hearing from him again on a regular basis. Of course his article above will receive permanent placement in the Telecom Archives at http://telecom-digest.org/archives/history very shortly. Welcome back, Don! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 01:36:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Go Ahead, You Can Ask Anything By WALTER S. MOSSBERG If you're one of those people who thinks he's always right, but can't prove it on the spot, we might have just the technology for you. This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested a new service called AskMeNow that attempts to be like a digital version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire's phone-a-friend. This service works by answering questions of all sorts in just a few minutes for free, or in some cases for 49 cents per question. AskMeNow, based in Irvine, Calif., is a division of Ocean West Holding Corp. and is currently only available in beta (or prerelease version), but its full-scale service will come out in the beginning of next month. Its concept is very straightforward: You send questions to the service by calling from your cellphone or emailing directly from a portable smartphone, and answers are sent back to your phone or hand-held via Short Messaging Services (SMS) or email within about a minute. Questions can be asked for free using a form-entry method, called "auto answers," or by calling in questions that don't fit into one of the form-entry categories. (These are referred to as "AskAnything" questions, and they are the ones that cost 49 cents each.) To answer your questions, the company employs real people who sit at computers in the Philippines, furiously researching the Internet (using data from content partnerships) trying to respond to your queries within three minutes. This doesn't always mean the response is correct. It simply means that the retrieved information was online somewhere. But our results proved rather accurate. If your question has been asked before, it's more likely to get a faster response because its answer is already on file. AskMeNow reserves the right to not answer questions that aren't family friendly. The service sometimes answers opinion questions using opinions posted online, but we couldn't get an answer to our question, "What is the hippest bar in Washington, D.C.?" http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20051005.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 01:44:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Online Pioneer Sets Out to Shake Up TV By SAUL HANSELL CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Jeremy Allaire has a long history of shaking up the established order as an Internet pioneer. Mr. Allaire was an architect of the evolution of Macromedia's Flash system into a video format that is now second only to Microsoft's Windows Media platform in popularity for delivering video on the Internet. Now, he has started a new company called Brightcove. As with his earlier ventures, Mr. Allaire intends to shake up an industry - this time, the world of television - by allowing all types of video producers, from media giants to anyone who has a camcorder, put their work on the Internet and make money if anyone watches it. Set in an office building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brightcove will offer three interrelated online services. It has tools that let television producers load their video onto its servers, arrange them into programs and display them to Internet users. It will help producers charge fees for their video, if they choose, or sell advertising on their behalf to insert into the programs. And it will broker deals between video creators and Web sites that want to display the video, arranging for the profits from such arrangements to be split any number of ways. Three dozen production companies are testing the production tools now, and a few have started publishing videos using the tools. By early next year, Brightcove will have the ad sales and fee systems built and will open its distribution network to nearly any video producer through a Web site. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/technology/06bright.html?ex=1286251200&en=195314d237212120&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 09:55:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Deconstructing Google Bombs: A Breach of Symbolic Power? http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_10/tatum/index.html Deconstructing Google bombs: A breach of symbolic power or just a goofy prank? by Clifford Tatum First Monday v10n10 October 2005 Abstract In this study I compare two Google bombs using Melluci's (1996) social movement framework. Viewing the Google bombing practice as a social movement provides an informative lens from which to analyze the nature and goals as well as the results of this form of online collective action. The empirical basis for this research relies on analysis of the content and context of Google bomb hyperlinking using an approach informed by Beaulieu's (2005) notion of sociable hyperlinks. From this study I conclude that the Google bombing practice is an online protest technique not unlike the "media mind bomb" developed by the late Bob Hunter of Greenpeace (2004) fame. In the case of Hunter's mind bombs, sounds and images were used to form alternate constructions of reality in the news media. Similarly, Google bombs are constructed by manipulating the relative ranking of an Internet search term and thereby creating alternate constructions of reality through collective action online. Contents Introduction Analytical framework Deconstructing Google bombs Discussion Conclusion http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_10/tatum/index.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Thursday 6th October 2005 Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 07:26:06 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com Shoppers Unhappy With Phone Shops - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14304.php As wireless penetration among new users begins to slow and the competition to keep existing customers continues to accelerate, the likelihood of switching providers among those most dissatisfied with their recent retail ... Telecom New Zealand Offers Compensation Over Billing Fault http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14305.php New Zealand's Commerce Commission says that it has reached a settlement with Telecom Mobile after a billing fault on the 027 network resulted in thousands of customers being charged peak rates for off-peak calls.... Leather, Willow and 3G http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14306.php CDMA Group Publishes 3G Evolution White Paper http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14307.php The CDMA Development Group (CDG) and Signals Research Group have jointly published a white paper on CDMA2000 evolution to 3G and beyond and the benefits it offers to operators in regards to capacity, data throughput, enh... More Cash for Mobile Content Firm http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14308.php The mobile content provider, Mforma Group says that it has raised US$30 million in a third round of institutional financing. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), and includes participation by existi... Top Selling Handsets in September 2005 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14309.php The Swedish manufacturer of carrying cases for portable electronics, Krusell, has released their "Top 10"-list for September 2005. The list is based upon the number of pieces of model specific mobile phone cases that has... Americans Benefit from Mobiles more than Europeans - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14310.php The wireless industry has become a strong driver of the USA's economy, comparable to the US automobile industry, according to Ovum the analyst and consulting firm. In a study commissioned by CTIA-The Wireless Association... Sprint Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Agaist Two Telcos http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14289.php w Jones)- Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) filed a patent infringement lawsuit against two separate companies, alleging they infringed seven of its patents relating to voice over packet technology. ... Vodafone New Zealand Lifts Fiscal Year Net Profit, Will Reinvest In Network http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14290.php Jones)- Vodafone New Zealand said Wednesday its full year net profit was 18% higher than a year ago and added that the increase will allow it to continue investing in its network as it battles rival Telecom Corp. of New... Nokia To Commence Fixed-Mobile Trial in Brazil http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14291.php Jones)- Finland's Nokia Oyj (NOK) said Wednesday it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Brazilian telecommunications giant Telemar Oi to begin trials of Nokia's Fixed Mobile Convergence solutions. ... T-Mobile Launches "web'n'walk" Mobile Internet Service http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14292.php es)- T-Mobile International AG (TMO.YY), the mobile telecommunications arm of Deutsche Telekom AG (DT), Wednesday launched a mobile Internet service called "web'n'walk." ... FOCUS: Russia mulls fighting mobile handset thieves http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14293.php Russia is facing a rising problem of mobile handsets theft. In 2004, the Moscow police officially registered over 7,000 mobile handset thefts. However, analysts consider that the real number of stolen mobile handsets is ... Ericsson To Supply 3G Network To Polish Operator http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14294.php Jones)- Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Telefon AB LM Ericsson (ERICY) Wednesday said it will supply a 3G network to Polish operator Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC.YY). ... Nokia Gets GSM/EDGE Expansion Deal In Argentina http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14295.php Jones)- Finland's Nokia Oyj (NOK) Wednesday said it has signed an agreement with Argentine phone company CTi Movil Argentina to deliver servers to enable an expansion of the GSM and EDGE networks in Argentina. ... O2 Launches i-mode In Ireland http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14296.php es)- O2 PLC (OOM.LN), the U.K. mobile telecommunications company, Wednesday launched its i-mode mobile Internet service in Ireland, with handsets enabled for the service available in shops from Friday. ... Belarus’ MDC mobile subscriber base up 4.1% in September http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14297.php The subscriber base of Belarus’ mobile phone operator Mobile Digital Connection (MDC) increased 4.1% on the month in September to 1.645 million users, the company said Tuesday. ... Siemens To Expand PTC's 3G Wireless Network In Poland http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14298.php Jones)- German technology company Siemens AG (SI) has an order from Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC.YY) to expand the Polish telecommunications company's third-generation wireless technology network to the cities of Poznan... Nokia Delays Launch Of Mobile Internet Device Until 4Q http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14299.php Jones)- Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. (NOK) Wednesday said it has delayed the launch of its wireless Web surfing device, 770 Internet Tablet, to the fourth quarter. ... Ukraine's Jeans mobile subscriber base up to 5 mln users Sep 30 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14300.php The subscriber base of Ukraine's Jeans rose 74% since the beginning of the year to 5 million users as of September 30, Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC) said in a press release. ... Russia's Euroset to cooperate in MVNO project with MTT http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14301.php Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset has concluded an agreement with Multiregional Transit Telecom (MTT) on cooperation in the development of Euroset's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) project, an MTT... Lucent Tech In External Manufacturing Services Pact With Celestica http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14302.php Jones)- Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) said Wednesday it entered into a pact that gives Celestica Corp. (CLS) the exclusive right to manufacture most of Lucent's existing and new wireless products for three years. ... TeliaSonera says holders to invest $60 mln in Moldova's Moldcell in 5 yrs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14303.php Shareholders of Moldova's mobile service operator Moldcell plan to invest U.S. $60 million in the company within five years, Anders Igel, CEO of TeliaSonera, Moldcell's key shareholder, said Wednesday. ... ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #454 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Oct 6 15:42:10 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 3FAF514DA7; Thu, 6 Oct 2005 15:42:10 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #455 Message-Id: <20051006194210.3FAF514DA7@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 15:42:10 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.2 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 Oct 2005 15:42:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 455 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AOL Buys Blogs (Kenneth Li and Eric Auchard) Court Rules in Favor of Anonymous Blogger (Randall Chase) Microsoft Says Windows Safer Than You Think (Georgina Prodhan) MCI Shareholders Approve Verizon Deal (USTelecom dailyLead) MCI Accepts Verizon Offer (Lisa Hancock) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (Kenneth P. Stox) Re: U.S. FTC Sues New Hampshire 'Spyware' Operation (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: Kenneth Li annd Eric Auchard Subject: AOL to Buys Weblogs, Courts Bloggers Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 13:58:21 -0500 By Kenneth Li and Eric Auchard America Online on Thursday said it will buy Weblogs Inc., a network of Web sites focused on topics ranging from scuba diving to gadgets, marking the biggest bet on unfiltered online commentary. The deal, which is expected to close next week, is worth about $25 million, one source said on Wednesday. Financial terms were not disclosed. AOL's agreement is the biggest price paid for a network of blogs, or Web journals, analysts said, although it is a smaller price compared with recent Internet acquisitions by media companies such as News Corp.'s $580 million deal to buy Intermix Media Inc. Weblogs is one of the more successful attempts at weaving together a network of individual blogs to attract a stable of advertisers and cash in on the blogging phenomenon. The purchase also marks the third acquisition in recent months for AOL after the online unit of Time Warner Inc. restructured its business this year to focus on boosting advertising revenue to offset a declining dial-up customer base. Once seen as the red-headed stepchild of Time Warner, whose portfolio includes HBO, the Warner Bros. movie studio, and CNN, top executives now view AOL as a major source of growth for the entire company. Over the summer, AOL has made more of its once proprietary services available for free on its Web site, including music videos and e-mail. It scored a victory in July when more viewers watched AOL.com's presentation of the Live8 concerts than on television in the United States. "AOL is strong at mass market programing. We needed to go down to the next level and do it in a scalable community based way," said Jim Bankoff, executive vice president of programing at AOL. Web logs adds 85 new Web sites, including the popular Engadget, Autoblog and Joystiq, with contributions from over 100 freelance bloggers to AOL's group of properties. The company will be managed separately from AOL, but will be featured throughout AOL and AOL.com's existing services. Engadget ranks as the Web's third most popular blog in terms of links from other sites, according to data on traffic measurement site Technorati (http://www.technorati.com/pop/blogs/) "We've reached a milestone in the development of citizen media," Jason Calacanis, co-founder and CEO of Weblogs Inc., said in a statement, citing AOL's advertising expertise as a reason for the sale. Calacanis is a dot-com impresario who in the second half of the 1990s acted as the unofficial mayor of Silicon Alley, a hub of Internet companies that formed in Manhattan's downtown. A rival network known as Gawker Media is backed by Nick Denton, another New York-based blog entrepreneur. The Gawker network focuses on a smaller number of highbrow, gossip-oriented sites, including Gawker and Wonkette. "The concept of unfiltered content being on same level of major media companies is revolutionary, but also appropriate," Calacanis said. AOL on Thursday also said it made its AOL Instant Messenger software and services available on several blogs and social network Web sites. They include: Facebook, an online directory of high school and college users; LinkedIn, a social network for job seekers; Six Apart, which makes blogging software; and Glam.com, a fashion and beauty site. 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: Randall Chase Subject: Court Rules in Favor of Anonymous Blogger Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 13:59:57 -0500 By RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press Writer In a decision hailed by free-speech advocates, the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed a lower court decision requiring an Internet service provider to disclose the identity of an anonymous blogger who targeted a local elected official. In a 34-page opinion, the justices said a Superior Court judge should have required Smyrna town councilman Patrick Cahill to make a stronger case that he and his wife, Julia, had been defamed before ordering Comcast Cable Communications to disclose the identities of four anonymous posters to a blog site operated by Independent Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Delaware State News. In a series of obscenity-laced tirades, the bloggers, among other things, pointed to Cahill's "obvious mental deterioration," and made several sexual references about him and his wife, including using the name "Gahill" to suggest that Cahill, who has publicly feuded with Smyrna Mayor Mark Schaeffer, is homosexual. In June, the lower court judge ruled that the Cahills had established a "good faith basis" for contending that they were victims of defamation and affirmed a previous order for Comcast to disclose the bloggers' identities. One of the bloggers, referred to in court papers only as John Doe No. 1 and his blog name, "Proud Citizen," challenged the ruling, arguing that the Cahills should have been required to establish a prima facie case of defamation before seeking disclosure of the defendants' identities. The Supreme Court agreed, reversing and remanding the case to Superior Court with an order to dismiss the Cahills' claims. "Because the trial judge applied a standard insufficiently protective of Doe's First Amendment right to speak anonymously, we reverse that judgment," Chief Justice Myron Steele wrote. Steele described the Internet as a "unique democratizing medium unlike anything that has come before," and said anonymous speech in blogs and chat rooms in some instances can become the modern equivalent of political pamphleteering. Accordingly, a plaintiff claiming defamation should be required to provide sufficient evidence to overcome a defendant's motion for summary judgment before a court orders the disclosure of a blogger's identity. "We are concerned that setting the standard too low will chill potential posters from exercising their First Amendment right to speak anonymously," Steele wrote. "The possibility of losing anonymity in a future lawsuit could intimidate anonymous posters into self-censoring their comments or simply not commenting at all." The standard adopted by the court, the first state Supreme Court in the country to consider the issue, is based on a 2000 New Jersey court ruling. Under the standard adopted by the Supreme Court, a plaintiff must first try to notify the anonymous poster that he is the subject of subpoena or request for a court to disclose his identity, allowing the poster time to oppose the request. The plaintiff would then have to provide prima facie evidence of defamation strong enough to overcome a summary judgment motion. "The decision of the Supreme Court helps provide protection for anonymous bloggers and anonymous speakers in general from lawsuits which have little or no merit and are filed solely to intimidate the speaker or suppress the speech," said David Finger, a Wilmington attorney representing John Doe No. 1. "Delaware cases are generally respected in other states, and we'll have to see if this trend continues with these types of lawsuits, but I expect the decision of the Delaware Supreme Court to be influential," Finger added. Robert Katzenstein, a lawyer representing the Cahills, did not immediately return a telephone message left at his home. "This is the first state Supreme Court to squarely decide the standards to govern John Doe subpoena cases," said Paul Alan Levy, an attorney for Public Citizen, a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, who helped argue the case for John Doe No. 1. "The court's determination to require sufficient evidence before a critic is outed will go a long way toward reassuring citizens that they remain free to anonymously criticize public officials." Steele noted in his opinion that plaintiffs in such cases can use the Internet to respond to character attacks and "generally set the record straight," and that, as in Cahill's case, blogs and chatrooms tend to be vehicles for people to express opinions, not facts. "Given the context, no reasonable person could have interpreted these statements as being anything other than opinion. ... The statements are, therefore, incapable of a defamatory meaning," he wrote. 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. Other news and headlines from Associated Press available at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Georgina Prodhan Subject: Microsoft Says Wwindows is Ssafer Than You Think Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 14:01:41 -0500 By Georgina Prodhan Microsoft Corp. launched a trust-building initiative on Thursday designed to show its commitment and progress to date in making its frequently attacked Windows computer operating system more secure from hackers. Microsoft, which is moving increasingly into the territory of specialist security software companies such as McAfee Inc. and Symantec Corp., said it planned a string of product launches designed to combat cybercrime. The world's biggest software company said it planned to release a preliminary, or beta, version by the end of this year of new software to protect corporate computers running Windows against viruses, worms and other attacks. "It's a unified product. You don't have to pick whose anti-virus solution you think is the best," Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told a news conference in Munich. "The threats we see do need more than secure software." Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, which already offers security software for networked server computers and desktops, said the new software, called Client Protection, would be aimed at large companies. It will offer tools for system administrators to keep users' computers from being infected by viruses and other malicious software and would be integrated with Microsoft's technology used to track user accounts and logons. But Mike Nash, Microsoft's vice president for security technology, said the new software would not eliminate the need for other security products. "Does it mean that we're going to solve all problems immediately? No," he told Reuters in an interview. "There are customers that will choose to use competitors' products." Microsoft currently offers server-based security software to protect corporate networks from hackers and is testing an anti-virus and security software service called Windows OneCare. The company also said it had set up an alliance of 30 firms including Symantec and VeriSign to work on security products for the Microsoft platform, uniting and expanding on previous partnerships. CULTURE SHIFT Microsoft has battled for years against the perception that its software is not secure. It also presented data on Thursday which it said showed Microsoft was safer than rival open-source operating system Linux. "This is an area we'll continue to invest in the long term," Nash said. He added he had seen a culture change since Chairman Bill Gates said three years ago security would be a top priority. "I used to be begging people to pay attention to security. Now they get it. Security is part of everyone's job." He said the Blaster worm outbreak of 2003, which targeted Microsoft software and devastated hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide, was also a spur to action. "When Blaster happened, I spent a lot of time on the phone. It was very focusing for the company," he said. In the last year, Microsoft has also bought a series of companies including anti-virus software maker Sybari to shore up security in its Windows and e-mail software. Asked whether more acquisitions were in the works, Nash said: "There's nothing specific in a plan." But he said Microsoft asks the question: "Are there great things out there that are important to our portfolio?" Nash also said he was seeing cybercrime increasingly motivated by financial gain rather than by pure vandalism as hackers use more and more sophisticated tools to trick users into revealing personal information or simply to steal data. "Look at the guy who wrote the Sasser worm. He did it to see if he could," Nash said. "It's different now." (Additional reporting by Reed Stevenson in Seattle) 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. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 13:44:13 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: MCI Shareholders Approve Verizon Deal USTelecom dailyLead October 6, 2005 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vohUatagCrheyVibXt TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * MCI shareholders approve Verizon deal BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Telcos' mergers could shake up wireless business * Eircom denies Swisscom reports * Motorola pares work force * Spat between ISPs cuts off some customers * Telephone, cable study blasts citywide Wi-Fi projects USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Legg Mason to present financial conference at TELECOM '05 TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Company launches BPL service in Virginia REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * India says gear makers must set up shop there * European telcos oppose ICANN proposal Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vohUatagCrheyVibXt ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: MCI Accepts Verizon Offer Date: 6 Oct 2005 09:49:18 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com MCI agreed to be bought by Verizon. See: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VERIZON_MCI?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=BUSINESS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT "MCI Inc. shareholders voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve an $8.4 billion acquisition by Verizon Communications Inc., despite some lingering shareholder resentment over the company's rejection of a higher bid." I have no regrets to see MCI disappear. IMHO, the company developed its business unfairly by making up its own rules and litigating itself customers instead of earning them. Imagine two restaurants. One follows rigid and expensive govt regulations regarding sanitation and service, e.g. being open 24/7, serving low-income customers below cost, having a wide variety of foods available at all times, high quality food, have high capacity for large crowds, all under prices set by the govt. The other restaurant is only open during peak hours, sells only profitable foods when it can get them, uses the first restaurant's parking lot, and ignores the govt mandates to provide comprehensive service at all times to all comers. Obviously the second restaurant has a lot of advantages. Or as someone correctly noted in this newsgroup, how many microwwave towers atop mountains in heavy snow did MCI install and maintain? I particularly object to people calling MCI the "hero" in taking on AT&T. The record is clear that long distance rates were continually falling as a result of new technologies. Interstate toll calls were as low as 5c per minute. Calls from payphones, collect, and calling cards, conversely, have shot up to ridiculous levels. While other retail products require price labels, there is no such requirement for toll calls. The old AT&T gladly told you the rate before you made a call, I could never get that info out of MCI and certainly not today. But supposedly I, as a consumer, am better off. No, the people who are really better off are new folks in the telecom industry. It should be noted that over the years MCI lost a number of lawsuits as to its business practices. Most recently: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MCI_SETTLEMENT?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=BUSINESS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-10-03-19-29-17 MCI Inc. has agreed to pay $331 million to 16 states and the District of Columbia to settle accusations that it engaged in accounting fraud, the company and the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said Monday. ------------------------------ From: Kenneth P. Stox Organization: Ministry of Silly Walks Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:39:32 GMT Am I the only one who is ROFLMAO about this? There is nothing preventing other nations and/or organizations from setting up their own root servers. It amazes me how much press this issue has gotten recently. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: U.S. FTC Sues New Hampshire 'Spyware' Operation Date: 6 Oct 2005 09:19:43 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Reuters News Wire wrote: > Those infected with Odysseus' spyware have their search results > corrupted as well, the FTC said. When they try to use a search engine > like Yahoo or Google, they are steered to a look-alike page that > prominently lists Odysseus clients in the results. > Those who use an Odysseus software tool to remove the spyware only > draw more unwanted programs on to their computers, the FTC said. The practices described are outright fraud. I wonder what kind of people work as programmers for these kinds of outfits. I used to think -- obviously incorrectly -- that computer programmers had some level of ethics and would use their skills and gifts for good, not evil. It's too bad the programming profession never developed widely recognized codes of ethics and professional standards like CPAs or PEs. I think the programmers ought to be prosecuted as accomplices in creating of fraud. Likewise for those who create spam systems. Can anyone make a case to defend the programmers who do such garbage? [public replies please] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 #455 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Oct 7 00:04:36 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id EE1D714FE0; Fri, 7 Oct 2005 00:04:35 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #456 Message-Id: <20051007040435.EE1D714FE0@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 00:04:35 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.0 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, BIZ_TLD autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Oct 2005 00:04:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 456 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (John Hines) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (John Stahl) Re: U.S. FTC Sues New Hampshire 'Spyware' Operation (David B. Horvath) Re: U.S. FTC Sues New Hampshire 'Spyware' Operation (Barry Margolin) Re: 2L-4N, 3L-4N, 2L-5N Numbering (Neal McLain) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (George Mitchell) Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 (Norm) 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: John Hines Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 15:18:21 -0500 Organization: www.jhines.org Reply-To: john@jhines.org > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple things I do not understand > about voice communication over electrical power lines: Some say it > will not work; others say it is okay. My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller number are run. For example, in my neighborhood, each block of houses (8-10) has its own transformer, which would require a fiber run, or some way to couple it to the 12kv 3phase line that drives the transformer. Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the article, it was Japan. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 18:17:07 -0400 From: John Stahl Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Previously published: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple things I do not understand > about voice communication over electrical power lines: Some say it > will not work; others say it is okay. The real bottom line measurement for potential deployment is probably cost. The existing technology of "transmitting" broadband over a medium to/from the end-user is pretty mature technology (for example DSL, broadband over cable, wireless, etc.) and therefore probably able to offer much lower costs than BPL will ever offer. The following article indicates that one of the major power companies (Pittsburgh Power and Light, Allentown, PA) in field testing phase of BPL (Broadband Over Power Line) technology has decided to "pull-the-plug" and not pursue widespread deployment. Full article at: http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15323715&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=8 > http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?brd=2185 custlogo.gif > 10/04/2005 > PPL Corp.ditches Internet program > BY DAVID FALCHEK Staff Writer > Intense competition and the high cost of a full-scale rollout prompted PPL > Corp. on Monday to ditch a year-old pilot program that offered residential > customers Internet service over the electric company's power lines. According to earlier published articles about this technology, the basics of design came from research and development of European power companies. But their usage differs from potential US deployment from the basic differences in end-user voltage of 240 VAC (Europe) vs. 120 VAC (US). The European distribution system normally connects something like 200 - 300 end-users into one (last link) transformer distribution point while the US power system has something like 4 or so end-users connected to the (last link) power transformer. This big difference makes the US proposed BPL system design more expensive than other deployed methods of supplying broadband to end-users. Don't be surprised to see many more of the BPL testing power companies to similarly end their testing and plans for deployment. John Stahl Telecom/Data Consultant Aljon Enterprises ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 16:54:59 -0400 Subject: Re: U.S. FTC Sues New Hampshire 'Spyware' Operation From: David B. Horvath, CCP PAT -- please mung return address, real name is fine. On Date: 6 Oct 2005 09:19:43 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > It's too bad the programming profession never developed widely > recognized codes of ethics and professional standards like CPAs or > PEs. Actually there are, unfortunately too many people have the mind set "the kid down the street can do it, why should I pay more for you because you're certified". Check out www.iccp.org or www.acm.org or even www.ieee.org I will mention that I volunteer with the ICCP. > I think the programmers ought to be prosecuted as accomplices in > creating of fraud. Likewise for those who create spam systems. That's a tough one. If I write some generic code for the company that they later add into the larger spamming package, would I also be subject to prosecution even though I had no way of forseeing the final use of that code? Should car dealers go to jail as accomplices for selling cars to habitual drunkards? Should gun manufacturers and dealers go to jail as accomplices for selling guns to someone with a clean record who goes and commits a crime with that gun? > Can anyone make a case to defend the programmers who do such garbage? Because they are unemployed and the alternative is their kids going hungry/homeless (or nearly so while trying to live on McDonald's wages)? Or because they're on H1 visas and will be kicked out of the country if unemployed. Or they're really sitting in Russia or India or Karjackastan which don't have laws against such activities? - David ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: U.S. FTC Sues New Hampshire 'Spyware' Operation Organization: Symantec Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 19:23:18 -0400 In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Reuters News Wire wrote: >> Those infected with Odysseus' spyware have their search results >> corrupted as well, the FTC said. When they try to use a search engine >> like Yahoo or Google, they are steered to a look-alike page that >> prominently lists Odysseus clients in the results. >> Those who use an Odysseus software tool to remove the spyware only >> draw more unwanted programs on to their computers, the FTC said. > The practices described are outright fraud. > I wonder what kind of people work as programmers for these kinds of > outfits. I used to think -- obviously incorrectly -- that computer > programmers had some level of ethics and would use their skills and > gifts for good, not evil. Why would you expect programmers to be different from the rest of humanity? There are evil people in all walks of life. I'd expect priests to be the epitome of morality, yet we have all those child abuse scandals. > It's too bad the programming profession never developed widely > recognized codes of ethics and professional standards like CPAs or > PEs. Organizations like ACM do publish codes of ethics. Buta code of ethics has little force if the profession doesn't require licensing. And even if it does, why would a malware company care whether their employees are licensed? It would be like not hiring an assasin because he couldn't get a proper gun license. > I think the programmers ought to be prosecuted as accomplices in > creating of fraud. Likewise for those who create spam systems. > Can anyone make a case to defend the programmers who do such garbage? I could be wrong, but I assumed these programs were written by the bad guys themselves, they didn't hire programmers to do it. Then they sell their programs to other bad guys. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 20:45:42 -0500 From: Neal McLain Subject: Re: 2L-4N, 3L-4N, 2L-5N Numbering During the 1952 presidential election campaign, the Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson had complained about "the mess in Washington," apparently referring to the ongoing war in Korea and alleged corruption in the Truman administration. The Republican campaign adopted a strategy of ignoring Stevenson, and concentrated its efforts on discrediting Truman while positioning the Republican candidate, Dwight Eisenhower, as the candidate who could clean up the mess. While this was going on, C&P Telephone converted the Washington DC area (including suburbs in Maryland and Virginia) from 2L-4D to 2L-5D. An example that comes to mind: Bethesda's OLympic XXXX became OLympic 9-XXXX. That change really did create a mess in Washington, as contemporary commentators and cartoonists noted. One memorable newspaper cartoon featured a telephone operator speaking with a customer, noting that "that number has been changed to (some NNX code)-OOU2." Neal McLain ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:33:21 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Kenneth P. Stox wrote: > Am I the only one who is ROFLMAO about this? There is nothing > preventing other nations and/or organizations from setting up their > own root servers. [...] Anybody who wants to can set up their own name servers, and they don't have to ever connect to the current root name servers. But few people are inclined to do this. Ninety-nine percent of users will simply configure their systems to use their ISP's name servers by virtue of doing nothing: DHCP, the same protocol by which they receive their IP address assignment, will also tell them the IP address(es) to use for domain name lookups. Ninety-nine percent of ISPs will use the root name server hints which were packaged with their own name server setup packages, and guess where those hints will send domain name requests for the root zone? Various people have tried on more than one occasion to set up meaning- ful alternative root name servers. None achieved wide acceptance, and no one I know of has even tried in the last five years. -- George Mitchell ------------------------------ From: Norm Subject: Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 15:11:19 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: normdec@yahoo.com Nice item, thanks! I've looked for something you posted a dozen years ago, that happened during the initial A- bomb testing, where they couldn't make phone calls and someone drove out and traced the telephone lines to the "central" office in a house and woke the operator. Is that still around somewhere? Thanks, Norm [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The story goes like this ... in the early to middle 1960's I was employed as a telephone operator at the University of Chicago. I lived in an apartment hotel on East 56th Street, 56th and Hyde Park Blvd. to be precise. Another resident of the hotel was Mrs. Laura Fermi, widow of the late Enrico Fermi, of atomic bomb fame. Mrs. Fermi was a typical, 'well-to-do' widow. She, on various occassions 'invited' me, a Young Man to join her for dinner and cocktails at 'The Anchorage', the hotel's dining room and cocktail lounge. I almost always accepted her invitation. In those days, forty years ago, the Windermere Hotel (phone FAIrfax 4-6000) was not only a very good place for a Young Man to live, but the bar and restaurant was very 'cozy' also. Of course dinner and drinks were on her on-going always-open tab at the restaurant/bar/hotel. I understand now that maybe 20-25 years ago, UC bought the property and converted it into faculty housing. I understand the bar, restaurant, front lobby, etc have, like much of Hyde Park these days lost their luster, if in fact The Anchorage is even still open, which I sort of doubt. Anyway, this would have been in 1962-63 or thereabouts. Mrs. Fermi told me a very interesting story which I will relate to you. After I first related this here in the Digest, middle to late 1980's there were some readers who discredited it to varying degrees. The discredits ranged from polite attempts to set the record straight, to more crude replies about older ladies spending forty dollars (in 1960's money) to entertain and amuse a Young Man with food and drink for whatever reason, once or twice weekly. Most readers did not discredit the account, nor me, nor Mrs. Fermi however. Certainly, as a telephone operator at a prestigious university, and a salary to match the cheap standards of UC (i.e. 'you should be glad to be allowed to work here, do not bother us asking for still more money') I certainly could not afford to eat/drink at The Anchorage, although I did live in the building. The Hyde Park Coffee Shop up the street was more my speed. Anyway, Mrs. Fermi was good friends with Doctor and Mrs. Beadle, (in those days _he_ was president of UC) so it just seemed 'prudent' IMO, for this Young Man to do what was expected of him. With this preamble in mind, Mrs. Fermi told me this acccount of the closing days of World War II: "Enrico and several fellow employees in his lab were asked to go out to Alamagordo, NM, to monitor one of the test explosions. It was all very hush-hush, secrecy was still in effect and quite widely enforced. He took me along, and was to report to a certain place about forty miles out in the desert about 3 AM that day. We checked into a motel outside Alamagordo, then drove out to the place where Encrico was to set up his observation equipment. As luck would have it, it started raining, a very hard drenching rain. We sat in the car and waited until the rain stopped, then he sat up his testing gear. The test explosion was to happen at 4 AM, but 4 AM came and went; no bomb test. "Finally Enrico got to thinking it out and he said that maybe because of the heavy rain the test had been called off. He would need to check with the other scientists and see what was going on. He packed up all his equipment and we drove back toward Alamagordo. The only place that was open at that time of night was the motel we were staying in, so he drove the car up and stopped next to the public phone in the parking lot. He put a nickel in the phone and waited and waited and waited for an answer from the operator; which never happened. He finally slammed the phone down in disgust and said 'I am going to find out what is going on here.' We got back in the car, and starting from that payphone booth, he began driving slowly down the street, all the while stickihg his head out of the car window studying the overhead wires. We went down one street, then the wires turned another way and we started going down that street. I know why he put the nickle in the phone; all the scientists on this mission had agreed that if anything went wrong they would talk in code to each oher; him in Alamadordo, the other guys elsewhere. Anyway, driving down the street he suddenly saw what he was looking for; there was this one house and out of the sky from various directions came bunches of telephone wires; all the wires went in through a hole on the side of this lady's house. A bunch of wires as thick as your wrist; all came out of the sky from various directions and went into this house. "It just looked like any regular house; but the front porch light was turned on, the front door was open but the screen door was latched. In the house itself sat a telephone switchboard, with bunches of lights blinking off and on. A radio was playing soft music in the background and there was a sofa nearby; stretched out on the sofa was a woman who was sound asleep. "Enrico banged and pounded on the door for a couple minutes, then the lady must have woke up; she sat up sort of startled, looked over at Enrico by the door, then turned and looked at the switchboard all glowing with people waiting for service. She looked back at Enrico and literally jerked to her feet, stood up, walked over to the switchboard, sat down and began taking the calls as fast as she could. Enrico said to me as he got back in the car, let's go back to my observation point. And we drove out there right away; Enrico set up his test gear once again, and about eight or ten minutes after we got there, the test explosion went off. "We found out later that all those guys had been trying to get in touch with one another since a few minutes after 4 AM, but the central swithboard for that area was going unanswered while this woman had her nap. I cannot blame her, really, yes, she should have been awake and alert, but given that she worked nights and had to sleep in the daytime, it was a 'mere' 115 degrees the day before, too hot to sleep during the day when she should have been, and then that night it rained, blessed cool air and she fell asleep. I doubt if on a typical night there were ever more than one or two calls through the board all night (there was a 'night bell' and a 'flashing light' which should have woken her up in those cases) but somehow they did not do so. "I seriously doubt to this day that the lady knows the reason the atomic test explosion was delayed for an hour and fifteen minutes was because _she_ was asleep. Enrico said to me 'I am not going to tell on her and get her in trouble.' She looked to me like just a teenage girl anyway." ---------------- Now that was the story as told by Laura Fermi, eighteen years after it happened, and twenty-five years (my first relaying of it) after I heard it and now forty years (my second relaying of it.) Is it a true story or not? Or was Mrs. Fermi a wee bit forgetful that night? Or did I have too many shots of brandy or some other after-dinner liquor in me? PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 #456 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Oct 7 13:46:14 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 10397150A4; Fri, 7 Oct 2005 13:46:14 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #457 Message-Id: <20051007174614.10397150A4@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 13:46:14 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.0 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, BIZ_TLD autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Oct 2005 13:46:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 457 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cellular-News for Friday 7th October 2005 (Cellular-News) Crossbar PABX Wanted (Larry R) Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan (Henry Cabot Henhouse III) Obituary: Passing of Little Known Influential Telecom Figure (Lapsley) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Steven Lichter) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Danny Burstein) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Daniel AJ Sokolov) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (David Clayton) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Joseph) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (BobGoudreau) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (John Levine) Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord (John McHarry) 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: Cellular-News for Friday 7th October 2005 Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 07:28:23 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com Camera Phones to Represent 90% of Western European Mobile Phone Shipments http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14320.php According to a recent forecast published by IDC, camera phone shipments in Western Europe are set to reach 179 million units in 2009, to constitute just over 90% of total mobile phone shipments. IDC predicts a compound a... New Bang & Olufen Phone Launched http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14321.php Bang & Olufen has shown off its latest handset, developed in co-operation with Samsung. Since early 2004, the two companies have cooperated to realise this idea and the result is a truly unique product. The name of the p... East European Wireless Profitability Continues Rapid Slide http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14322.php Strategy Analytics has reported that average margins per user (AMPUs) in Central and Eastern Europe fell almost 30% to just US$6 per month in 2Q 2005. Operators in the region are losing ground with AMPU levels 50% below ... FOCUS: Russia mulls fighting mobile handset thieves http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14293.php Russia is facing a rising problem of mobile handsets theft. In 2004, the Moscow police officially registered over 7,000 mobile handset thefts. However, analysts consider that the real number of stolen mobile handsets is ... Belarus MDC mobile subscriber base up 4.1% in September http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14297.php The subscriber base of Belarus mobile phone operator Mobile Digital Connection (MDC) increased 4.1% on the month in September to 1.645 million users, the company said Tuesday. ... Ukraine's Jeans mobile subscriber base up to 5 mln users Sep 30 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14300.php The subscriber base of Ukraine's Jeans rose 74% since the beginning of the year to 5 million users as of September 30, Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC) said in a press release. ... Russia's Euroset to cooperate in MVNO project with MTT http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14301.php Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset has concluded an agreement with Multiregional Transit Telecom (MTT) on cooperation in the development of Euroset's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) project, an MTT... TeliaSonera says holders to invest $60 mln in Moldova's Moldcell in 5 yrs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14303.php Shareholders of Moldova's mobile service operator Moldcell plan to invest U.S. $60 million in the company within five years, Anders Igel, CEO of TeliaSonera, Moldcell's key shareholder, said Wednesday. ... Motorola Cutting 1,900 Jobs In More Than 20 Countries http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14311.php (AP)--Motorola Inc. (MOT) is cutting 1,900 jobs at 29 different U.S. and international locations in an effort to improve operating efficiency, the company said Wednesday. ... Venezuela Fines and Shuts Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson Offices http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14312.php nes)- Venezuela's tax agency Seniat said Wednesday it imposed fines and ordered the temporary closing of various foreign companies due to tax irregularities. ... Belarus' BeST to buy $234 mln equipment from Alcatel Shanghai http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14313.php Belarus state-controlled mobile operator Belarus Telecommunications Network, or BeST, has signed an agreement with China's Alcatel Shanghai Bell to purchase the Chinese company's telecommunications equipment for U... Telecom Merger Talk Sweeps Europe; Eircom The Latest http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14314.php s) -- Eircom Group PLC soared as much as 10% Thursday on a report that Swisscom AG has approached the Irish fixed-line telecom with a view to a making a 3 billion-euro bid. ... Magyar Telekom Board OKs Mobile Arm Merger With Fixed Line http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14315.php ones)- Hungary's leading telecommunications company, Magyar Telekom Rt. (MTELEKOM.BU), said Thursday that its board approved the merger of the company's mobile arm, T-Mobile Hungary Rt., into the fixed line segment, T-Co... Russia's VimpelCom to launch tariff with free cell phone in Dec http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14316.php Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom plans to launch a tariff with a free mobile handset included in the price of the subscription fee, the company said in a press release Thursday. ... Investcom Shares Higher In Conditional Trading In London http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14317.php were sharply higher in conditional trading in London after the Beirut-based cellphone operator earlier Thursday priced its initial public offering at the top of the range used to survey investor interest. ... News Leaks Put Pressure On TDC To Make Statement http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14318.php Jones)- Danish telecommunications company TDC A/S (TLD) could be compelled by regulators to make a statement on efforts to take over the company, following news reports that it is cooperating with bidders. Danish Bourse... Russia’s VimpelCom user base in Far East hits 1 million people http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14319.php The subscriber base of Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom in the country's Far East Federal District has exceeded 1 million people, the company said on Thursday. ... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 19:44:53 PDT From: Larry R <_lr_@yahoo.com> Subject: Crossbar PABX wanted Does anyone out there know of a crossbar PABX, preferably Western Electric, that might be available? Location in the Northeast would be a big plus. The plan is to use it as a sink for my extra time and money, hopefully getting it operating someday. If you know of one, please write to me at this address. Thanks, Larry Rachman ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:16:17 -0700 From: Henry Cabot Henhouse III Subject: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan When I signed up with Vonage in December '03, I did the 500 minute plan, which was perfect. I seem to recall that all local calls - in our case in Los Angeles within the 323 area code -- were included and did not eat up any of the 500 minutes. Last month was the first time we've ever exceeded 500 minutes -- most of those for local 323 calls. I was charged for calls over and above my 500 minutes, the call detail shows local calls being billed at the 3.9c per minute. I poked around the Vonage website and can't find any reference to local calls being included. Does anyone know a site that may have the older Vonage website in storage? An email to Customer Service resulted in a stock reply, pointing me to a bunch of faq's - none of which seem to answer my question. Thanks in advance, Dave ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 19:34:18 -0700 From: Phil Lapsley Subject: Obituary: Passing of Little Known Greatly Influential Telecom Figure [Patrick: my name is Phil Lapsley and I've been a telecom-digest poster back since the old days ('83, I think). If you could please withhold my email address on this posting to avoid spam, I'd appreciate it. Thanks! --Phil] Carl A. Dahlbom, one of the key figures behind multifrequency (MF) signaling, died last week at age 93. If you've ever heard and enjoyed those quick little tones after you dialed a long-distance call, or if you've ever used a blue box, Carl is the man you have to thank for it. He is probably most famous for the article "Signaling Systems for Control of Telephone Switching", co-authored with C. Breen for the November 1960 issue of the Bell System Technical Journal. His obituary can be found at: http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2005/09_29-37/FOR. Instead of a moment of silence, honor Carl with a burst of 2600 Hz followed by some MF tones. Phil ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 04:03:28 GMT John Hines wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple things I do not understand >> about voice communication over electrical power lines: Some say it >> will not work; others say it is okay. > My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the > world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the > US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences > are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller > number are run. > For example, in my neighborhood, each block of houses (8-10) has its > own transformer, which would require a fiber run, or some way to > couple it to the 12kv 3phase line that drives the transformer. > Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, > and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US > media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the > article, it was Japan. A few years ago the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had planned a system, don't know if they ever went ahead with the plans. 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: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 04:16:26 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In John Stahl writes: [ big snip ] > companies. But their usage differs from potential US deployment from > the basic differences in end-user voltage of 240 VAC (Europe) vs. 120 > VAC (US). The European distribution system normally connects something > like 200 - 300 end-users into one (last link) transformer distribution > point while the US power system has something like 4 or so end-users > connected to the (last link) power transformer. This big difference > makes the US proposed BPL system design more expensive than other > deployed methods of supplying broadband to end-users. I have to wonder whether there's a multi-country definitiional/translation issue here. In US urban areas, while the utility transformer may only feed five separate addresses, each of those is an apartment building with 25-50 or more customers (which, in turn, may be 50 or 100 people -- totalling up to, perhaps 500 or more individuals per transformer). And our rural areas tend to be, well, more rural ... than most of Europe. And certainly more spread out than Japan. Anyone out here in Telecom Digest land have any hands-on familiarity with the distinctions? Thanks. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 11:44:01 +0200 From: Daniel AJ Sokolov Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband 07.10.2005 00:17 John Stahl wrote: > The following article indicates that one of the major power companies > (Pittsburgh Power and Light, Allentown, PA) in field testing phase of > BPL (Broadband Over Power Line) technology has decided to > "pull-the-plug" and not pursue widespread deployment. The same has happened to most deployments in Germany. If you have one or two users, it works fine (though you generate interference for other users, especially shortwave radio). But if you get hundreds or thousands of users, they start to interfere themselves and the bandwith drops considerably. MfG Daniel AJ My e-mail-address is sokolov [at] gmx dot net ------------------------------ From: David Clayton Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 17:10:41 +1000 On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 18:17:07 -0400, John Stahl wrote: > Previously published: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple things I do not understand about >> voice communication over electrical power lines: Some say it will not >> work; others say it is okay. ...... > Don't be surprised to see many more of the BPL testing power companies to > similarly end their testing and plans for deployment. 2005-Sep-13 "The world's first large-scale trial of Broadband over Powerline (BPL) technology began in Tasmania today": http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1541 Regards, David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@XYZ.myrealbox.com Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. (Remove the "XYZ." to reply) Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 06:53:31 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 15:18:21 -0500, John Hines wrote: > Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, > and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US > media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the > article, it was Japan. Japan uses 100 V @ 50 or 60 Hz (in comparison with the USA and Canada which uses ~120 V @ 60 Hz.) http://kropla.com/electric2.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:43:41 -0400 From: BobGoudreau@notchur.biz Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband [As always, please anonymize my email address.] John Hines wrote: > My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the > world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the > US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences > are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller > number are run. > Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, > and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US > media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the > article, it was Japan. Nice theory, but a few seconds with Google would have saved you the trouble of expounding it. In fact, there are MORE than two different electrical systems in the world; the existence of two chief voltage ranges (110ish vs. 220ish) is only one of the differentiators. The other big one is the frequency of the AC (50 Hz vs. 60 Hz). And there are several different physical connector standards (plugs and sockets) even to serve some of the same voltage/frequency combinations, though of course this does not affect things like transformer load. The US is hardly alone in using 110v at 60 Hz; so does most of the rest of the western hemisphere. Most of the eastern hemisphere uses 220-240v, but one of the exceptions is in fact Japan, which uses 100v (though part of the country runs at 60 Hz and the other part at 50 Hz). So, any conclusions made on the faulty premise that Japan uses 220v power must be discarded. See http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm for a detailed breakdown of the world for all the aforementioned categories. Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ------------------------------ Date: 7 Oct 2005 15:13:47 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the > world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the > US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences > are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller > number are run. Pretty much true. I don't know whether it's the voltage or the way neighborhoods are laid out, but Europe puts a lot more people on a transformer than we do. > Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, > and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US > media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the > article, it was Japan. Oops, Japan isn't 220v or even 110v. It's 100v. But the neighborhoods are extremely dense. I'm kind of surprised that Japan has any BPL at all since you can get 10mb fiber connections cheaper than you can get DSL here. R's, John ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 02:19:25 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 11:52:19 -0700, Brian E Williams wrote: > http://tinyurl.com/9jqae > Above link is a picture of the inside of my outside telecom box here > in the USA. I want to route my Vonage VoIP service to my internal > phone network, so first I am going to disconnect the internal network > from the POTS provider as a test. I am guessing that I just flip > those little connectors up and then pull out the solid blue and > blue-white wires, being careful to keep them arranged for easy > reconnection. That doesn't look like a standard demarc to me. Maybe you are in a multifamily dwelling, or maybe I am out of date. The demarcs I am familiar with use an RJ-11 plug on your side to plug into a socket on the telco side. This allows you to test whether a problem is inside wiring or telco by unplugging your whole inside plant and plugging in a known good phone. > Is there anything else I need to worry about? Also, is having four > wires standard for a single line? Maybe that is how I can do three > way calling and call waiting, but I never thought about it before. Four wires are standard for residential wiring. As PAT notes, only red and green are used for the first line. This allows a second pair for a second line, or a ground connection for grounded ringing (mostly used in old two party lines). As PAT also notes, getting the telco hooked up across your VOIP service is ungood. The trouble with doing your connection at the demarc is that telco has access to it and may, possibly inadvertently, reconnect themselves. Also, some telcos leave disconnected lines connected to the switch and able to call 911, much like an unassigned cell phone. You might be better off to cut into your house wiring before the first tap and either disconnect the telco there, or move it over to line two, so you could use their 911 service in an emergency. I don't know how many terminals you intend to bridge onto your Vonage box, but, if it is like the Packet8 DAT310, it may have trouble driving some of them. I can ring two phones just fine, but there doesn't seem to be quite enough talk battery to keep my speakerphone happy. Of course, that may be more the phone's fault for being overly greedy. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What I do here is the Bell System demarc box is on the wall of my house outside with _two_ lines there from telco but I only use one. I have tape around the modular connector of the second, unused line. I have a small PBX unit inside my house, in a closet near my computer area. From the outside demarc, I bring the one working pair there into my house on my own wires, and into the PBX where it becomes 'dial 9' for outgoing local calls. Then I have my Vonage (VOIP) adapter box near the computer with a connection into the broadband cable line. I go from there with my personally owned modular cable to another input on the PBX, where it becomes 'dial 8' for long distance calls. Both lines (Vonage VOIP) and telco also go through a two-line splitter to which I have a caller ID device and an extra loud ringer (in my old age and feeble condition I am also a wee bit hard of hearing these days as any of you who telephone me know when I periodically ask you to repeat yourself. Then I have several pairs running from the PBX back down the cable to the outside and back to the telco demarc box where _everything_ telco related has been disconnected except for the aforementioned one incoming line. So to make a local call from any extension, it travels down the pair to the demarc, back in to the PBX, and dial 9 sends it back out the cable to the demarc and off to telco. To make a long distance call from any extension it travels down the pair to the demarc, back in to the PBX where dial 8 sends it across the room to the VOIP box and the broadband internet. To call around my house, it travels down the pair to the demarc, back inside to the PBX where dialing 100 through 105 or 0 Zero treats the call as needed, ships it back through the cable to the outside demarc where it gets distributed to where it should go. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 #457 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Oct 7 19:37:01 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 066D01502C; Fri, 7 Oct 2005 19:37:00 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #458 Message-Id: <20051007233700.066D01502C@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 19:37:00 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, BIZ_TLD,URI_REDIRECTOR autolearn=unavailable version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Oct 2005 19:37:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 458 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Private Equity Firms May Tender Offer For NTL (USTelecom dailyLead) Telecom Update #500, October 7, 2005 (Angus TeleManagement Group) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Tony P.) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Lisa Hancock) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Paul Coxwell) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (Tony P.) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John Levine) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (Steve Sobol) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John McHarry) Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 (Dan) Re: Life Beyond Earth (anon1@sci.sci) Re: 2L-4N, 3L-4N, 2L-5N Numbering (Paul Coxwell) Re: Motorola Bag phone (Dave Hunter) Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan (Daniel AJ Sokolov) 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, 7 Oct 2005 12:51:20 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Private Equity Firms May Tender Offer For NTL USTelecom dailyLead October 7, 2005 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vrBoatagCrluyVASAu TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Private equity firms may tender offer for NTL, Telewest BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Time Warner, Microsoft in Internet talks again * Report: SBC to use AT&T brand * Nortel's chief touts growth prospects in Asia * Cable & Wireless shares plunge following revenue announcement * Yahoo! chief outlines future, badmouths Google * EarthLink plans mobile phone service USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Presented by HP: OpenCall Media Platform and Next Generation Voice Services TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * IPTV's star on the rise, report says VOIP DOWNLOAD * XO joins Stealth's VoIP peering fabric * AOL puts new focus on VoIP REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Google hires lobbyist, opens D.C. office EDITOR'S NOTE * The dailyLead will not be published Monday Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vrBoatagCrluyVASAu 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: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 11:34:19 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #500, October 7, 2005 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 500: October 7, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** 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/ ** NEC UNIFIED SOLUTIONS: www.necunifiedsolutions.com ** ROGERS TELECOM: www.rogers.com/solutions ** VONAGE CANADA: www.vonage.ca ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Ten Years of Telecom Update ** Rogers Telecom Buys GT Fibre From Bell ** Cellcos Oppose Early Number Portability ** Rogers Signs 18,000 Phone Subscribers ** Bell, Matthews Join for Business Applications ** Wireless Revenues Jump 16% ** Emerson May Favor Local Deregulation ** Starbucks and Bell Begin Wi-Fi Rollout ** Bell Not Required to Collect Directory Bills ** Aliant Wants Automatic Contract Renewals ** Bell Seeks Higher Rural Business Rates ** Meriton Acquires Mahi Networks ** Telecom Ottawa Adds SONET, WDM ** RFP Seeks Ontario Optical Net ** Aliant Offers Flat-Rate Cellular LD ** Cygnal Restructures Debt; CFO Quits ** One Week to Telemanagement Live ============================================================ TEN YEARS OF TELECOM UPDATE: Happy Birthday to us! This is issue number 500 of Telecom Update. We launched it in September 1995 as an experiment in electronic publishing, and it soon became the most widely read telecommunications newsletter in Canada. ** Telecom Update is distributed free of charge, thanks to generous support from our sponsors. All 500 issues are available on line at www.angustel.ca, providing a unique outline history of a decade of dramatic change. ROGERS TELECOM BUYS GT FIBRE FROM BELL: Rogers Telecom (formerly Call-Net) has paid $23.6 million to Bell Canada to purchase 7,700 route kilometres of fibre in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. The fibre was formerly owned by Group Telecom, which was acquired by Bell in 2004. (See Telecom Update #435, 458, 480) ** Rogers has an option to buy more GT fibre in Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland by the end of 2006. CELLCOS OPPOSE EARLY NUMBER PORTABILITY: Replying to a CRTC request for ways to speed up wireless number portability, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association says that preparing alternate scenarios would be costly and time-consuming, and that the original plan to implement WNP nationally by September 2007 is "both aggressive and reasonable." (See Telecom Update #497) ** The major cellcos agree, saying that an earlier target date would create many technical problems and would be unfair to consumers. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Letters/2005/lt050923.htm ** The CRTC has received over two dozen comments from consumers, all irate at waiting another two years for WNP. www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8620/c12_200510934.htm#4b ROGERS SIGNS 18,000 PHONE SUBSCRIBERS: Rogers Communications says its cable-based local phone service, launched on July 1, now has more than 18,000 subscribers. (See Telecom Update #488) ** Rogers expects to add between 600,000 and 650,000 wireless subscribers in 2005, about a third more than its previous forecast. Net 3Q additions: 213,000. BELL, MATTHEWS JOIN FOR BUSINESS APPLICATIONS: Bell Canada and Wesley Clover Corp. have jointly launched an Advanced Solutions Innovation Centre in Kanata, Ontario, to develop IP-based business applications. Wesley Clover, a holding company chaired by Terry Matthews, owns Mitel Networks, March Networks, and NewHeights Software. WIRELESS REVENUES JUMP 16%: Statistics Canada says wireless telecom revenues grew 16%, to $2.5 billion, in Q1 2005. Canada now has over 15 million wireless subscribers, a penetration rate of 47%. Wireless now generates nearly one-third of total telecom revenues in Canada. ** Wireline revenue fell 1.2% to $5.6 billion, and wireline network access lines fell by 1.2%, the thirteenth consecutive quarterly decline. www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/051004/d051004a.htm EMERSON MAY FAVOR LOCAL DEREGULATION: Interviewed by Bloomberg News this week, Industry Minister David Emerson said that eliminating the requirement for incumbent phone companies to get prior approval for price changes could improve the industry's efficiency. However, a spokesperson for the Minister later said he would not make any major moves in telecom before receiving the Telecom Policy Review panel's report. STARBUCKS AND BELL BEGIN WI-FI ROLLOUT: Bell Canada and Starbucks say they will begin offering Wi-Fi service in 140 Starbucks outlets in Ontario this week, and will eventually deploy it in more than 400 stores across Canada. Bell has subcontracted installation and management of the networks to Ottawa-based Wi-Fi pioneer Boldstreet Inc. ** Customers can have their Wi-Fi internet access billed to a cellphone bill, or pay by credit card. BELL NOT REQUIRED TO COLLECT DIRECTORY BILLS: Following an expedited hearing on September 23 (see Telecom Update #498), the CRTC has ruled that billing and collection for directory advertising is not a telecommunications service, so Bell does not have to perform the service for YP Corp. if it does not wish to. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/dt2005-57.htm ALIANT WANTS AUTOMATIC CONTRACT RENEWALS: In Tariff Notice 178, Aliant Telecom asks the CRTC to approve a procedure for automatic renewal of contracts for Centrex and other business local services, effective October 31. Under the proposed rules, the telco must advise the customer 60 days in advance of the renewal, and the customer will be allowed to cancel up to 30 days after the renewal. Similar rules have been previously approved for other telcos. www.crtc.gc.ca/8740/eng/2005/a53/tn178.pdf BELL SEEKS HIGHER RURAL BUSINESS RATES: Bell Canada Tariff Notices 6907 and 6908 propose increases of 8.5% to 9.9% in the monthly rates for individual business lines and for Local Link service in the rural and remote rate bands E, F, and G. Bell wants the CRTC to okay the rate hikes in time for implementation on December 4. ** The increases would not apply to sub-bands E1, F1, F3 and F5, which are part of larger exchanges. www.crtc.gc.ca/8740/eng/2005/b2/tn6907.zip www.crtc.gc.ca/8740/eng/2005/b2/tn6908.zip MERITON ACQUIRES MAHI NETWORKS: Meriton Networks, an Ottawa-based provider of high-speed optical networking systems, is buying New Jersey-based Mahi Networks, which makes reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers. TELECOM OTTAWA ADDS SONET, WDM: Telecom Ottawa now offers SONET, WDM, and storage extension services, using Ciena technology, as part of its 10-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity in the Ottawa region. RFP SEEKS ONTARIO OPTICAL NET: CANARIE and ORANO have issued a joint RFP for a next-generation network across southern Ontario with possible extensions to Montreal, Albany, and New York City as well as from Windsor to Chicago, as a basis for experiments with novel optical architectures over the CA*net 4 and ORION networks. www.canarie.ca/canet4/rfp8.html ALIANT OFFERS FLAT-RATE CELLULAR LD: Aliant cellular customers can now make unlimited long distance calls within Atlantic Canada for $20 per month. CYGNAL RESTRUCTURES DEBT; CFO QUITS: Cygnal Technologies has obtained about $25 million in new financing to pay off bank debt and provide working capital. ** CFO David Horsley has resigned; his interim replacement is Michael Conway. ONE WEEK TO TELEMANAGEMENT LIVE! Canada's premier business telecom and networking event will be held October 17-19 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Canada's top conference and tradeshow facility. Over 35 in-depth sessions will address the most important challenges facing enterprise telecom and network managers in Canada today. ** This year's program also features the announcement of the first members of Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame, at a gala celebration and dinner. ** Space is limited: register now at www.telemanagementlive.com ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== 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 jriddell@angustel.ca. 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: Tony P. Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Organization: ATCC Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 16:02:15 -0400 In article , BobGoudreau@notchur.biz says: > [As always, please anonymize my email address.] > > John Hines wrote: >> My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the >> world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the >> US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences >> are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller >> number are run. >> Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, >> and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US >> media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the >> article, it was Japan. > Nice theory, but a few seconds with Google would have saved you the > trouble of expounding it. In fact, there are MORE than two different > electrical systems in the world; the existence of two chief voltage > ranges (110ish vs. 220ish) is only one of the differentiators. The > other big one is the frequency of the AC (50 Hz vs. 60 Hz). And there > are several different physical connector standards (plugs and sockets) > even to serve some of the same voltage/frequency combinations, though > of course this does not affect things like transformer load. > The US is hardly alone in using 110v at 60 Hz; so does most of the > rest of the western hemisphere. Most of the eastern hemisphere uses > 220-240v, but one of the exceptions is in fact Japan, which uses 100v > (though part of the country runs at 60 Hz and the other part at 50 > Hz). So, any conclusions made on the faulty premise that Japan uses > 220v power must be discarded. Interesting point about the 50/60 Hz in Japan. Maybe this is the reason most computer power supplies can switch between not only voltage but frequency. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: 7 Oct 2005 13:06:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com John Stahl wrote: > while the US power system has something like 4 or so end-users > connected to the (last link) power transformer. My old city rowhouse neighborhood (built 1948, gas heat, hot water, cooking, clothes dryer) had about 70 houses off of one transformer. My present complex (built 1970 and all electric) has one transformer per building serving 14 units. In the 1948 neighborhood, many homes were rewired from 60 amp to 100 amp service in the 1960s and 1970s. Around 1980 the electric company strung new cables. I wonder how much the power company had to add to their neighborhood distribution system to accomodate increased needs. In 1948 home air conditoners were rare, by the 1970s almost every house had at least one large window unit (required 220 service). (My family had an early RCA window air conditioner from about 1950 that lasted for 30 years. When it was running we couldn't use other appliances without blowing a fuse). Likewise, I wonder how much extra capacity was needed for telephone service. I believe everyone in the neighborhood had a phone in 1948, but many had party lines. Into the 1970s party lines were gone and some families had two lines. Into the 1990s multiple lines would be common for computer/home fax/home business use. (I would love to find any planning documents for the neighborhood. Land was reserved for schools. Streets were usually continuation of the existing grid, but individual blocks were built by many different developers, large and small. I believe the city and private utilities were ready in advance. The new schools built with the neighborhood did suffer from overcrowding from the baby boom. Today the school population is a lot lower than my day. The power cables were mounted on the back wall of the wall houses near the second story. The telephone cable pipe (also redone around 1980 from lead to heavy rubber) was around the first floor. Around 1990 cable TV came and was hung still lower. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 23:12:21 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband > agents. (b) I personally have tried so-called 'wireless intercoms' > between different locations nearby; sometimes they worked (although in > a rather piss-poor way; other times not at all. I have no personal > experience with (a) but have been told the connections are very > 'noisy' many times, and (b) when they worked, they seemed to have a > lot of 'hum' in the background. When they did not work (all I got > was hum with no audible voice at all) I am told this was because the > two intercom stations involved were on opposite 'legs' of the > transfomer. Can anyone explain this better to me? Pat, The standard electrical service to homes in the U.S. is a 3-wire system which delivers both 120 and 240 volts. The secondary on the pole transformer provides 240V, but has a center tap which is grounded and becomes the neutral to your house. The two "hot" legs are thus each at 120 volts with respect to ground/neutral, but because these two legs are at opposite ends of the winding they are 180 degrees out of phase and thus you get 240V between them (used to feed your range, dryer, large A/C unit, etc.) The 120V outlets in your house are wired so that some are on one leg of the supply, some on the other. If you plug your intercom stations into receptacles which are on opposite sides of the transformer, the signal will be affected by the degree of coupling which exists between the two sides. If that same transformer feeds other nearby homes, then you may be able to communicate between houses, but again the signal will be affected by which side of the transformer you are connected to. If you got a poor signal from house to house, you may have found that it would have improved if you'd plugged into a different outlet (on the other leg). John Hines wrote: > My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the > world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the > US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences > are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller > number are run. Yes, North America typically has single-phase transformers feeding residential loads, each transformer providing power to a small number of homes. On this side of the Atlantic, the typical British system uses very large 3-phase transformers, each providing power to a large number of homes by way of a 3-phase 4-wire wye distribution network running at 240/415 volts. Normal residential services are just tapped from the network as 2-wire 240V, houses being distributed between the phases as evenly as possible, while commercial premises can take 3-phase 415V power from the same transformer. You can find smaller, single-phase pole transformers serving a small group of houses in rural areas, but as soon as you get anywhere with more than a couple of dozen homes together you'll find the 3-phase 4-wire system in use. In Continental Europe, it's quite normal to find 3-phase 4-wire 220/380-volt service to even quite small houses, In France they'll even install 3-phase residential power that way with the main breaker set for 15A maximum per phase! Very strange. Going back to Pat's wireless intercoms, you can find a similar situation here in which you might not be able to get a good signal to your next-door neighbors' house (different phase) but can to a house a few doors away (same phase). I remember a problem of this nature some years ago in which the owner of a general store was trying to use a set of these intercoms to communicate with his apartment above. The signal was very noisy due to the units being on different phases. Fortunately, the store had a 3-phase supply and I was able to solve the problem by installing an outlet for the intercom on the same phase as that used to feed the apartment above. > An electric wire can carry currents of different frequencies, so AC > power current, DC power current as well audio frequency and radio > frequency can be all carried on the same line. For example, a RR line > powered by AC has both the AC power (25 or 60 Hz) as well as the > control signal (100 Hz and others) sharing the medium. Some lines > even have multiple power sources from a separate wire, such as DC via > third rail. There are "filters" (IIRC, "impedence bonds") that > separate out the stuff. The Victoria line of the London Underground (subway system), built in the 1960s, was designed to run with automatic control right from the start. All the driver has to do is close the doors and push a pair of "start" buttons when ready to leave the station, then the train runs automatically, stopping and restarting at signals if necessary, and coming to a stop at the next station. The control is provided by safety codes modulated onto a 125Hz carrier injected into the running rails, along with higher frequency signals (up to about 20kHz) which control the actual application of power and braking. There's a good outline of the system on the "Tube Prune" website (go to "Signalling Pages" then "Victoria Line ATO"): http://www.trainweb.org/tubeprune > I know that the third-rail seems like an awful way to transmit voice > communications. On the one occassion I had to see the CTA system in > action, I called into the CTA main headquarters phone number (MOHawk > 4-7200) and the operator switched me to a supervisor in one of the > control towers several miles away for whom I had a question. The > connection, frankly, was not all that good. Once I also called Grand > Central Station in downtown Chicago to the Lost and Found; she > switched me to the Lost and Found in Baltimore, OH, also via the > trackside phone lines. That connection sounded pretty bad also. PAT] These days the London Underground uses radio extensively, but for many years it seems the only communication available was by a portable phone kept in the cab. A pair of bare wires a couple of inches apart run on insulators along the tunnel walls. These carry a low-voltage DC circuit which serves a dual purpose. By shorting the wires together a driver can remotely open the breaker which feeds traction current to his section of track. He can then take his portable phone and clip it across the wires to communicate with the control center. Connecting the phone trips the traction current off if that was not done already, so clearly this was used only in emergencies. The traction supply in the London system is interesting in itself, being 630V DC arranged on TWO separate conductor rails (i.e. the running rails are not used as the return). You can see some pictures of the layout on the link above. -Paul. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for that good explanation. I will tell you another example I found fascinating a few years ago. I worked part time late evenings a couple nights per week for a department store in downtown Chicago. The building was closed at that time of night except for me working in the one small office. When I was ready to leave, I always had to turn the burglar alarm on and put a wooden gate with wires on each end of it across the door to the elevator after I boarded the elevator; i.e. set the alarm, within 15 seconds get on the elevator, insert the gate on the front of the elevator and leave the premises. One night it malfuctioned; the alarm failed to 'set'; I had to call the alarm company to come out and correct it. The alarm company repairman came out with tools and also with a headset. He clamped his headset onto the wires (which otherwise were not connected at the elevator without the piece I put there upon leaving at night), he then diddled up some code on the box I used to set the alarm, and presently was talking over his headset to his office, wherever it was. I told him I thought it was interesting that he was able to 'communicate by voice' over those wires which served as our burglar alarm system; he said it was a routine thing whenever he went out to do repairs to systems like ours around town. This alarm system came from the ADT Company, which I think means 'American District Telegraph' or at least it did in the olden days. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Organization: ATCC Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 07:16:17 -0400 In article , george@m5p.com says... > Kenneth P. Stox wrote: >> Am I the only one who is ROFLMAO about this? There is nothing >> preventing other nations and/or organizations from setting up their >> own root servers. [...] > Anybody who wants to can set up their own name servers, and they don't > have to ever connect to the current root name servers. But few people > are inclined to do this. Ninety-nine percent of users will simply > configure their systems to use their ISP's name servers by virtue of > doing nothing: DHCP, the same protocol by which they receive their IP > address assignment, will also tell them the IP address(es) to use for > domain name lookups. Ninety-nine percent of ISPs will use the root > name server hints which were packaged with their own name server setup > packages, and guess where those hints will send domain name requests > for the root zone? Actually it's DNS that tells them. DHCP does nothing more than dish out an IP address and various routing information. > Various people have tried on more than one occasion to set up meaning- > ful alternative root name servers. None achieved wide acceptance, and > no one I know of has even tried in the last five years. I cache Cox's DNS servers on a box I own because quite frequently their DNS servers go belly up. ------------------------------ Date: 7 Oct 2005 15:10:31 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Am I the only one who is ROFLMAO about this? There is nothing > preventing other nations and/or organizations from setting up their > own root servers. It amazes me how much press this issue has gotten > recently. Well, two things standing in the way are money and expertise. Running a real root server, as opposed to a toy one that only you and your twelve best friends use, is a a significant operational challenge. I gather a typical root costs about a million bucks a year. The other reason that nobody sets up new roots is that there is no actual reason to do so. For all that ICANN does a lousy job, the roots work fine and nobody other than a few get rich quick artists and foolish idealists want root domains other than the ones there already. Of the new domains that have entered the roots in the past few years, the only ones with enough registrations to be a financial success are .INFO and .BIZ, cynical clones of .COM used almost entirely by people whose information you don't want and with whom you do not want to do business. The .NAME domain, intended for personal domains, has a modest number of registrants, largely in Europe, but I see them loosening up their registration rules which tells me that they're scrambling for registration dollars. The rest, .MUSEUM, .AERO, .COOP, and .PRO are failures used by almost nobody. The three new ones .JOBS, .TRAVEL, and .MOBI haven't been around long enough to fail, but there's no reason to expect them to be any different. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 19:41:48 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Kenneth P. Stox wrote: > Am I the only one who is ROFLMAO about this? There is nothing > preventing other nations and/or organizations from setting up their > own root servers Except the fact that many Internet users' computers won't even recognize them. Nameservers are hard-wired to look up TLDs and SLDs using specific root servers, and for them to use other root servers you're going to have to have a huge number of ISPs, etc., change etheir NS configurations. > It amazes me how much press this issue has gotten recently. It shouldn't. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 02:50:23 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:39:32 +0000, Kenneth P. Stox wrote: > Am I the only one who is ROFLMAO about this? There is nothing > preventing other nations and/or organizations from setting up their > own root servers. It amazes me how much press this issue has gotten > recently. I think the problem with doing that is that the root servers hold a database of top level domain servers. It doesn't change rapidly, but it does change. Unless you could get a feed of the official file from IANA, or a domain transfer (dump of the database) from one of the root servers, you would slowly lose connectivity. If you did get either sort of connectivity, I guess it wouldn't be that hard to to add or subtract what you wanted from the official TLD list. I think the real complaint is that IANA derives its authority from a $0 contract with the US Department of Commerce, which, under certain conditions, can veto changes in the database. ICANN and IETF are probably also similarly tainted. Would we trust the British, or the wily Canadians, with similar control over our vital infrastructure? I think not. We have had what are now called ITU-T and ITU-R for decades with everyone being more or less comfortable. I see no particular harm in an ITU-I, with the same bunch of propeller heads doing much the same thing as they are doing now. ------------------------------ From: Dan Subject: Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:37:22 -0500 On 10/6/2005 2:11 PM, Norm wrote: > Nice item, thanks! I've looked for something you posted a dozen years > ago, that happened during the initial A- bomb testing, where they > couldn't make phone calls and someone drove out and traced the > telephone lines to the "central" office in a house and woke the > operator. Is that still around somewhere? > Thanks, > Norm > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The story goes like this ... in the > early to middle 1960's I was employed as a telephone operator at the > University of Chicago. I lived in an apartment hotel on East 56th > Street, 56th and Hyde Park Blvd. to be precise. Another resident of > the hotel was Mrs. Laura Fermi, widow of the late Enrico Fermi, of > atomic bomb fame. Mrs. Fermi was a typical, 'well-to-do' widow. She, > on various occassions 'invited' me, a Young Man to join her for dinner > and cocktails at 'The Anchorage', the hotel's dining room and cocktail > lounge. I almost always accepted her invitation. In those days, forty > years ago, the Windermere Hotel (phone FAIrfax 4-6000) was not only a > very good place for a Young Man to live, but the bar and restaurant > was very 'cozy' also. Of course dinner and drinks were on her on-going > always-open tab at the restaurant/bar/hotel. I understand now that > maybe 20-25 years ago, UC bought the property and converted it into > faculty housing. I understand the bar, restaurant, front lobby, etc > have, like much of Hyde Park these days lost their luster, if in fact > The Anchorage is even still open, which I sort of doubt. Anyway, this > would have been in 1962-63 or thereabouts. Mrs. Fermi told me a very > interesting story which I will relate to you. After I first related > this here in the Digest, middle to late 1980's there were some readers > who discredited it to varying degrees. The discredits ranged from > polite attempts to set the record straight, to more crude replies > about older ladies spending forty dollars (in 1960's money) to > entertain and amuse a Young Man with food and drink for whatever > reason, once or twice weekly. Most readers did not discredit the > account, nor me, nor Mrs. Fermi however. Certainly, as a telephone > operator at a prestigious university, and a salary to match the > cheap standards of UC (i.e. 'you should be glad to be allowed to > work here, do not bother us asking for still more money') I certainly > could not afford to eat/drink at The Anchorage, although I did live in > the building. The Hyde Park Coffee Shop up the street was more my > speed. Anyway, Mrs. Fermi was good friends with Doctor and Mrs. Beadle, > (in those days _he_ was president of UC) so it just seemed 'prudent' > IMO, for this Young Man to do what was expected of him. > With this preamble in mind, Mrs. Fermi told me this acccount of the > closing days of World War II: > "Enrico and several fellow employees in his lab were asked to go out > to Alamagordo, NM, to monitor one of the test explosions. It was all > very hush-hush, secrecy was still in effect and quite widely > enforced. He took me along, and was to report to a certain place about > forty miles out in the desert about 3 AM that day. We checked into a > motel outside Alamagordo, then drove out to the place where Encrico > was to set up his observation equipment. As luck would have it, it > started raining, a very hard drenching rain. We sat in the car and > waited until the rain stopped, then he sat up his testing gear. The > test explosion was to happen at 4 AM, but 4 AM came and went; no bomb > test. > "Finally Enrico got to thinking it out and he said that maybe because > of the heavy rain the test had been called off. He would need to check > with the other scientists and see what was going on. He packed up all > his equipment and we drove back toward Alamagordo. The only place that > was open at that time of night was the motel we were staying in, so he > drove the car up and stopped next to the public phone in the parking > lot. He put a nickel in the phone and waited and waited and waited > for an answer from the operator; which never happened. He finally > slammed the phone down in disgust and said 'I am going to find out > what is going on here.' We got back in the car, and starting from that > payphone booth, he began driving slowly down the street, all the while > stickihg his head out of the car window studying the overhead wires. > We went down one street, then the wires turned another way and we > started going down that street. I know why he put the nickle in the > phone; all the scientists on this mission had agreed that if anything > went wrong they would talk in code to each oher; him in Alamadordo, > the other guys elsewhere. Anyway, driving down the street he suddenly > saw what he was looking for; there was this one house and out of the > sky from various directions came bunches of telephone wires; all the > wires went in through a hole on the side of this lady's house. A bunch > of wires as thick as your wrist; all came out of the sky from various > directions and went into this house. > "It just looked like any regular house; but the front porch light was > turned on, the front door was open but the screen door was latched. In > the house itself sat a telephone switchboard, with bunches of lights > blinking off and on. A radio was playing soft music in the background > and there was a sofa nearby; stretched out on the sofa was a woman who > was sound asleep. > "Enrico banged and pounded on the door for a couple minutes, then the > lady must have woke up; she sat up sort of startled, looked over at > Enrico by the door, then turned and looked at the switchboard all > glowing with people waiting for service. She looked back at Enrico and > literally jerked to her feet, stood up, walked over to the switchboard, > sat down and began taking the calls as fast as she could. Enrico said > to me as he got back in the car, let's go back to my observation > point. And we drove out there right away; Enrico set up his test gear > once again, and about eight or ten minutes after we got there, the > test explosion went off. > "We found out later that all those guys had been trying to get in > touch with one another since a few minutes after 4 AM, but the > central swithboard for that area was going unanswered while this woman > had her nap. I cannot blame her, really, yes, she should have been > awake and alert, but given that she worked nights and had to sleep in > the daytime, it was a 'mere' 115 degrees the day before, too hot to > sleep during the day when she should have been, and then that night it > rained, blessed cool air and she fell asleep. I doubt if on a typical > night there were ever more than one or two calls through the board all > night (there was a 'night bell' and a 'flashing light' which should > have woken her up in those cases) but somehow they did not do so. > "I seriously doubt to this day that the lady knows the reason the > atomic test explosion was delayed for an hour and fifteen minutes was > because _she_ was asleep. Enrico said to me 'I am not going to tell on > her and get her in trouble.' She looked to me like just a teenage girl > anyway." > ---------------- > Now that was the story as told by Laura Fermi, eighteen years after it > happened, and twenty-five years (my first relaying of it) after I > heard it and now forty years (my second relaying of it.) Is it a true > story or not? Or was Mrs. Fermi a wee bit forgetful that night? Or > did I have too many shots of brandy or some other after-dinner liquor > in me? PAT] Why would she make up such a story? What is interesting is 'what would have happened if Fermi didn't get equipment deployed and operational in time?' Does anyone know if phone switch operators protested/picketed when auto-switches were being put is place? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Indeed, in Chicago at least, there was a work stoppage by telephone operators over this very issue, in 1954-55 in some of the non-automated (at that point in time) suburbs. All that accomplished was to build the company's resolve to work harder and faster at getting those points automated as well. But Bell did not lay off a _single worker_ (usually an operator) as a result of automation. They kept everyone around, and it was only through attrition (people retiring, otherwise getting fired, etc and Bell not hiring new workers) that things leveled off. There were a lot of rumors in Chicago during the 1940's from operators saying that 'when the company is totally automated most of us wil be let go.' That simply was not true and did not happen. PAT] ------------------------------ From: anon1@sci.sci Subject: Re: Life Beyond Earth Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 10:41:48 -0700 Organization: UseNetServer.com > Changes on the surface of the Jovian moons, by contrast, look far > older, perhaps 100 million years or more. It's my understanding that new cracks open on Europa almost daily, and then the latest open crack extends continually for a major portion of one orbital period around Jupiter. Thus at any time we choose, there are changes on the surface of Europa less than a week old. For more discussion on this topic, perhaps move to a more appropriate newsgroup? . ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 21:46:03 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: 2L-4N, 3L-4N, 2L-5N Numbering > While this was going on, C&P Telephone converted the Washington DC > area (including suburbs in Maryland and Virginia) from 2L-4D to > 2L-5D. An example that comes to mind: Bethesda's OLympic XXXX > became OLympic 9-XXXX. > That change really did create a mess in Washington, as contemporary > commentators and cartoonists noted. One memorable newspaper cartoon > featured a telephone operator speaking with a customer, noting that > "that number has been changed to (some NNX code)-OOU2." The changes in numbering seem to have provided an outlet for humor in many branches of the media at the time. Near the beginning of the movie "Move Over Darling" (1963) there's a wonderful scene in which Doris Day arrives back in America after being marooned on a desert island for years. She goes straight to a coinphone on the dock, calls the operator and asks for a 2L-5N number in Los Angeles. There follows a wonderful exchange as the operator corrects her by saying that's now a 7D number, she asks for that number, the operator then says she can dial direct by first dialing 213 then the number etc. I can't remember the title, but there was a British movie of the same era which also made light of the changes here as direct long-distance dialing was being implemented, introducing people to the pleasures of dialing up to 10 digits in one go. Somebody picks up phone, we see him dial out about 15 or 16 digits, then hear him say "Operator? Could you connect me with 25 please." -Paul ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 17:48:13 -0300 From: Dave Hunter Subject: Re: Motorola Bag phone Hi Steven: Steven Lichter wrote: > I have one of these. Don't use it at all; it is not digital. > Pretty good condition, no battery with it, just pugs in to lighter in a > car. It was on BellSouth Mobility, but with you try to use it it says > it is not registered with Verizon. > If someone wants to pay me to pack it up and ship it to them, let me > know, I can send pictures if you like. > 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. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I certainly have the required power > supply even though I do not have a car/cigarette lighter. I wonder > how it would work on Cingular Wireless here in Kansas? PAT] Probably way too late, but do you still have the bag phone, Steven? I am looking for one for the museum display of cellphones ... Dave The Telephone on Prince Edward Island: http://www.islandregister.com/phones/phones.html The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island: http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 00:13:35 +0200 From: Daniel AJ Sokolov Subject: Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan Am 07.10.2005 07:16 schrieb Henry Cabot Henhouse III: > When I signed up with Vonage in December '03, I did the 500 minute > plan, which was perfect. I seem to recall that all local calls - in > our case in Los Angeles within the 323 area code -- were included and > did not eat up any of the 500 minutes. > Last month was the first time we've ever exceeded 500 minutes -- most of > those for local 323 calls. I was charged for calls over and above my 500 > minutes, the call detail shows local calls being billed at the 3.9c per > minute. > I poked around the Vonage website and can't find any reference to > local calls being included. Does anyone know a site that may have the > older Vonage website in storage? An email to Customer Service > resulted in a stock reply, pointing me to a bunch of faq's - none of > which seem to answer my question. Do you have the "Unlimited Local Plan" for 24.99? It includes unlimited Local and Regional Calling plus 500 Long Distance minutes. Take a look at this: http://web.archive.org/web/20031201145749/http://vonage.com/ It is a snapshot from December 1st, 2003. HTH Daniel AJ My e-mail-address is sokolov [at] gmx dot net ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 #458 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Oct 8 19:46:23 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id ED6D315004; Sat, 8 Oct 2005 19:46:22 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #459 Message-Id: <20051008234622.ED6D315004@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 19:46:22 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.1 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, URI_REDIRECTOR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 8 Oct 2005 19:47:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 459 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Want to Check Your Email in Italy? (Sofia Celeste) US Appeals Court Rejects Rehearing on RIM-NTP Case (Peter Hodgson) Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal (Brian Bergstein) Dispute Leads to Woes For Thousands of Internet Users (Andy Sullivan) Talking About Web 2.0 (Ryan Singel) Bank of America Warns Customers About Stolen Laptop (Brian McMillian) An Obscene Web Site? (Reuters News Wire) Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? (anon1) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John Levine) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Jim Haynes) Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan (DevilsPGD) Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord (Brian E Williams) Re: Telecom Update #500, October 7, 2005 (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: Sofia Celeste Subject: Want to Check Your Email in Italy? Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 20:38:55 -0500 http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1004/p07s01-woeu.html Want to check your e-mail in Italy? Bring your passport. An antiterror law makes Internet cafe managers check their clients' IDs and track the websites they visit. By Sofia Celeste | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor ROME - Looking out over the cobblestone streets of Rome's Borgo Pio neighborhood, Maurizio Savoni says he's closing his Internet cafe because he doesn't want to be a "cop" anymore. After Italy passed a new antiterrorism package in July, authorities ordered managers offering public communications services, like Mr. Savoni,to make passport photocopies of every customer seeking to use the Internet, phone, or fax. "This new law creates a heavy atmosphere," says Savoni, his desk cluttered with passport photocopies. He is visibly irritated, as he proceeds to halt clients at the door for their ID. Passed within weeks of the London bombings this summer, the law is part of the most extensive antiterror package introduced in Italy since 9/11 and the country's subsequent support of the Iraq war. Though the legislation also includes measures to heighten transportation security, permit DNA collection, and facilitate the detention or deportation of suspects, average Italians are feeling the effect mainly in Internet cafes. But while Italy has a healthy protest culture, no major opposition to the law has emerged. Before the law was passed, Savoni's clients were anonymous to him. Now they must be identified by first and last name. He must also document which computer they use, as well as their log-in and log-out times. Like other owners of Internet cafes, Savoni had to obtain a new public communications business license, and purchase tracking software that costs up to $1,600. The software saves a list of all sites visited by clients, and Internet cafe operators must periodically turn this list into their local police headquarters. "After 9/11, Madrid, and London, we all have to do our utmost best to fight terrorism," says a government official who asked not to be named. Italy claims that its new stance on security led to the arrest of Hussein Osman, also known as Hamdi Issac -- one of the men behind the failed bombing of the London underground July 21. "Hamdi was well known to our security people and had relatives here with whom he communicated, in some form," says the government official in an e-mail interview. But Silvia Malesa, a young Internet cafe owner in the coastal village of Olbia, Sardinia, remains unconvinced. "This is a waste of time," says Ms. Malesa in a telephone interview. "Terrorists don't come to Internet cafes." And now, would-be customers aren't coming either, say Savoni and Malesa. Since the law was enacted, Savoni has seen an estimated 10 percent drop in business. "So many people who come in here ask 'why?' and then they just leave," Savoni says. Most tourists who wander in from the streets, he explains, leave their passports at home or are discouraged when asked to sign a dis- claimer. Savoni says the new law violates his privacy, comparing it to America's antiterrorism law that allows authorities to monitor Internet use without notifying the person in question. "It is a control system like America's Patriot Act," he says. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have criticized the Patriot Act because it permits the government to ask libraries for a list of books someone has borrowed or the websites they have visited. Under Italy's new antiterror legislation, only those who are on a black list for terrorist connections are in danger of having their e-mails read, according to the government official. Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu has declared Italy will stop at nothing to fight terror. "I will continue to prioritize action to monitor the length and breadth of the country, without ever underestimating reasonably reliable reports of specific threats," said Mr. Pisanu in a Sept. 29 interview with Finmeccanica Magazine. Pisanu has also called for developing sophisticated technology to combat terror on Italian soil. "There is no doubt that, to achieve maximum efficiency, we need the support of the best technological applications," Pisanu affirmed. As a result, Pisanu has formed the Strategic Anti-terrorism Analysis Committee, which aims to examine and take action against all terror threats. Due to new measures, more than 25 Islamic extremists were arrested on Italian soil in 2005, according to the Interior Ministry. The ministry also reported that they are conducting "rigorous surveillance" of high-risk areas of terrorist activity and over 13,000 strategic locations in Italy. On Aug. 12 and 13 alone, a reported 32,703 checks were carried out on suspicious individuals. Despite the inconvenience, most Italians seem relatively unfazed by the law. "If I am not doing anything wrong, fundamentally nothing is going to happen to me," says Mauro Pallotta, a young artist, after checking his e-mail at Savoni's cafe. www.csmonitor.com | Copyright 2005 The Christian Science Monitor. 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 Christian Science Monitor on line daily along with New York Times at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ From: Jeffrey Hodgson and Peter Kaplan Subject: US Appeals Court Rejects Rehearing of RIM-NTP Case Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 20:49:48 -0500 By Jeffrey Hodgson and Peter Kaplan A U.S. appeals court refused on Friday to reconsider a patent infringement ruling against Research In Motion Ltd. in a case that could halt U.S. sales of its popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail device. The Canadian firm had asked that all the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rehear and reconsider the ruling of a three-judge panel first issued in December. The case goes back to 2002, when patent holding company NTP successfully sued RIM in a lower court. That first ruling found RIM infringed on 16 claims tied to five NTP patents. NTP won an injunction in 2003, stayed pending appeal, to halt U.S. sales of the BlackBerry and shut down its service in the United States. A December appellate ruling concluded that RIM infringed on 11 NTP patent claims, but scaled that back to seven in August. RIM and NTP had reached an agreement in March to settle the dispute for $450 million. That deal fell apart in June, but RIM has said it would ask for court action to enforce the agreement. NTP said in a statement that the latest appeals court ruling means the case will go back to a lower court for "re-confirmation" of the injunction. An NTP lawyer said the firm would move quickly to get the case back before the lower court. Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM said it now plans to seek a review of the case by the U.S. Supreme Court. RIM SHARES DROP RIM's stock fell almost 4 percent, or $2.42, to $64.55 on Nasdaq on a volume of more than 22 million shares. The stock at one point touched $60, its lowest level since September 2004. In Toronto, the stock dropped C$3.20 to C$75.95. Canaccord Capital analyst Peter Misek said in a note to clients the ruling was negative, but expected, and that a review by the U.S. Supreme Court would be "another long shot." "In the end, we think that NTP's negotiating position improves on the news, which could warrant a settlement further in NTP's favor -- perhaps adding a few hundred million dollars on top of the original $450 million," the note said. "As a worst-case scenario, we could see RIM pay close to $1 billion." Paradigm Capital analyst Barry Richards, who owns the stock, said he thought investors were overreacting given that a rehearing was always unlikely. While RIM acknowledged Supreme Court reviews are uncommon, it said it "continues to believe this case raises significant national and international issues warranting further appellate review." Meantime, RIM said it will ask the Federal Circuit to stay further proceedings in the case until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a decision on a review. RIM said on Friday that if the ruling does go back to the lower court, it expects the court will rule on its request to enforce the agreement. It said it also expects the lower court would consider recent patent office rulings. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently completed a re-examination of eight NTP patents and issued initial rulings rejecting 100 percent of the claims. RIM has noted the ruling is not final, and NTP has said it plans see the full re-examination process through, which could take years. Some analysts have noted that until that process is complete, the patents remain valid in the eyes of the court and could support an injunction shutting down the BlackBerry 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: Brian Bergstein Subject: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 20:51:18 -0500 By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer 41 minutes ago Students at Eastside Preparatory School in Kirkland, Wash., are getting class materials in a new way this year: on a tiny flash-memory drive that plugs into a computer's USB port. Small enough to wear on a necklace, this "digital backpack" can hold textbooks, novels, plays, study aids, the dictionary, graphing-calculator software -- almost anything, really. Falling prices in computer memory have made these little flash drives -- also called pen, thumb or key drives -- into enormously powerful tools that are on the verge of changing the concept of "personal" computing. With a gigabyte of flash memory now available for less than $100, these inexpensive digital storehouses can hold not just important data but also entire software programs. The information they carry can be encrypted and accessed speedily, a benefit of faster microprocessors. What this all means is that computer users are no longer at the mercy of the machine that happens to be nearby. Everything we need to interact with computers -- even down to the appearance of our home PC's desktop -- can be carried with us and used on almost any computer. "What's your personal computer, anyways?" computing pioneer Bill Joy said in a speech that touched on the trend at a recent conference. "Your personal computer should be something that's always on your person." A few years ago Jay Elliot was looking for a way to help doctors move medical information securely and decided that flash memory -- which has no moving parts, unlike hard-disk storage -- was the perfect solution. But as memory prices kept falling, he realized there was room for more than just data. So he invented Migo, software that lets removable storage devices such as USB drives and iPods essentially function as portable computers. Plug a Migo-enabled device into a computer and enter your password, and a secure session launches in which you can send and receive e-mail and work on documents, with the background desktop and icons from your own PC rather than the ones on the host computer. When you're done and remove the drive, all traces of what you did are removed from that computer. The next time you plug the drive into your home computer, data on each are synchronized. Multiple people can share one USB device, with separate password-protected profiles for each. So when Elliot recently went on vacation, he, his wife and two sons each called up personalized desktops on a hotel computer -- all through a drive smaller than a cigarette lighter. "People are carrying very expensive devices with them, but they only use 4 or 5 percent of their capability. What a waste," said Elliot, who heads Migo's maker, PowerHouse Technologies Group Inc. Instead, he said, the model should be that "your data goes with you, in whatever form you want it. You just find a place to use it." Another reason this flexibility is now possible is that software makers and flash-drive manufacturers relatively recently settled on technological standards that let programs be stored and run off the tiny drives. Two hardware vendors, SanDisk Corp. and M-Systems Inc., formed a separate company, U3 LLC, to license and facilitate that technology. Now a spate of U3-enabled drives have hit the market, preloaded with everything from photo-management software to the Firefox Web browser and instant-messaging programs. Skype Technologies SA's Internet phone software is also available, meaning almost any computer can be used to make free calls over Skype, even if the computer owner never bothered to download Skype. "The next time you go to install software that's going to be locked to the hard drive, your first reaction is going to be `Man, I want this on my U3 so I can have this anywhere,'" said Kate Purmal, U3's CEO. The only big missing element for now is Microsoft Corp. software. Although its popular productivity programs such as Excel or Word are common on office PCs, traveling workers still might not find the programs on a home or public computer. So the ability to launch Microsoft software from a flash drive could be a big help. Microsoft and USB companies are still discussing potential licensing arrangements. In the meantime, though, several new devices are emerging to take advantage of this shift in computer use. For example, by tweaking the tiny processor in its flash drives to enable copyright protections, SanDisk created a drive called the Cruzer Freedom that lets students download reams of educational materials when they plug the device into a PC. Because each drive has a particular numeric identifier, teachers can put assignments and materials online that are accessible only to members of their classes. That enabled Eastside Prep's new flash-drive project in Washington. Mark Bach, who heads the upper school and teaches at Eastside, plans to use the drives to disseminate primary source documents and other materials he's gathered for a unit on regional history. As the drives' memory expands even further in coming years, he expects to augment the text with video. "It becomes very, very malleable, and very creative on the part of the teacher, because the teacher can go beyond textbooks," he said. For the business world, startup Realm Systems Inc. soon plans to roll out its own USB-based "mobile personal servers," with several gigabytes of memory for a few hundred dollars a pop, that could be plugged into any PC to let mobile employees do their computer-related work. The Realm device will have a fingerprint reader to restrict access. It also clears its tracks from the host PC for privacy. Of course, any portable storage device with significant memory, whether it's a "smart" cell phone, a digital assistant or an MP3 music player with a miniature hard drive, can do this trick of making any computer personal. That's more reason to believe the PC will soon fade into the background. International Business Machines Corp. researcher Chandra Narayanaswami offers a good illustration of how we'll know it's happened: When you check into an average hotel room and find -- alongside the alarm clock, hair dryer and DVD player that once were bring-your-own items but now are as standard as the furniture -- a cheap PC for guests to plug into, as our truly personal computing environment travels with us. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of 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. For more AP news and headlines, please review: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I may be mistaken but I do not think it is just a simple matter of plugging one of these 'pen drives' into a USB port. I have one -- I do not use it a lot, it is 62 MB, and about the size of my thumb. As I recall, when I first installed it,I had to additionally run a CD which loaded the required 'drivers' onto the host computer to get it (host) to recognize the USB ports and to get the 'pen drive' formatted, etc. Have they gotten easier and quicker to use in recent months? Although being able to carry the little device away in my shirt pocket to use elsewhere _is_ a good point, having to do a few extra steps to configure the host computer to recognize a USB slot and accomodate the pen drive takes away some of the enthusiasm for me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Andy Sullivan Subject: Dispute Leads to Internet Woes for Thousands of Users Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 20:53:38 -0500 By Andy Sullivan Thousands of Internet users struggled to send e-mail and keep their Web sites running on Thursday after a dispute between two service providers left large portions of the Internet unable to talk to each other. Computer technicians scrambled to shore up their networks after Level 3 Communications Inc. refused to accept traffic from rival Cogent Communications Group Inc., rendering large portions of the Internet unreachable by others. "We weren't able to get to our e-mail systems, we weren't able to get to our externally hosted chat systems," said Bob Serr, chief technology officer at Chicago instant-messaging provider Parlano Inc. "Some customers say they've had trouble getting to our Web site." The rift meant that thousands of customers -- including individuals who use Time Warner Inc.'s Road Runner cable-modem service -- were not able to view Web sites and send e-mail to servers located on the other company's network, violating the Internet's premise as a universal, borderless network of computers. The dispute affects roughly 15 percent to 17 percent of the Internet, Cogent CEO Dave Schaeffer said. "The usability and value people get out of the Internet is highly dependent on its ability to be ubiquitous and affordable, and I think what Level 3 is attempting to do is undermine both of those core principles," he said in an interview. TOO MUCH COGENT TRAFFIC Like other large, wholesale Internet service providers, Cogent and Level 3 handed off traffic from one network to each other free of charge, until Level 3 said that it was handling too much Cogent traffic. "We felt that there was an imbalance and we were disadvantaged in that relationship and we were ending up with what amounts to free capacity," Level 3 spokeswoman Jennifer Daumler said. Cogent's Schaeffer said Level 3 was simply trying to get Cogent to raise its prices, which at $10 per megabit are far below the market average of $60 or so per megabit. Larger customers of each company have been little affected by the dispute because they usually sign agreements with several different wholesale providers. But customers who rely entirely on either provider for their Internet connections would not be able to reach any Web sites or servers on the others' network, those involved in the dispute said. That would include law firms, community colleges and companies like Parlano, which face lost business and angry customers from the outage. "It's kind of a game of chicken to see who's going to blink first, and to see whose customer base wants connectivity to the other customers' more," said Alan Mauldin, an analyst at TeleGeography Research in Washington. Parlano's Serr said he would stick with Cogent as his provider for the time being because he saw Level 3's move as "strong-arm tactics." Road Runner said its customers have not been able to visit Web sites and send e-mail to Cogent customers. "We are working to find alternate pathways so our customers can be connected with these Web sites as soon as possible," Road Runner said in a statement. Representatives for America Online Inc., EarthLink Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN service said their customers have not been affected by the dispute. Cogent ran into a similar dispute with America Online several years ago but it was resolved amicably, AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said. Cogent said it was offering Level 3 customers affected by the dispute a year of free service if they wished to switch providers. Level 3 said it was working with its customers to ensure they could reach the entire Internet. "Level 3 is working with their customers and Cogent needs to work with its customers," Level 3's Daumler said. "If Cogent wants to make its customers happy they've got to figure out a way to get that connectivity to the Internet." 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: Ryan Singel Subject: Talking About Web 2.0 Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 20:56:25 -0500 By Ryan Singel SAN FRANCISCO -- No one may be able to agree on what Web 2.0 means, but the idea of a new, more collaborative internet is creating buzz reminiscent of the go-go days of the late 1990s. Excitment over emerging new publishing theories -- and the whiff of a resurgence of startup financings -- this week drew throngs of geeks paying $2,800 a head to the sold-out Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. Eight hundred people jostled in the doorways of early workshops devoted to tagging, innovations in search and raising venture capital. Web 2.0, according to conference sponsor Tim O'Reilly, is an "architecture of participation" -- a constellation made up of links between web applications that rival desktop applications, the blog publishing revolution and self-service advertising. This architecture is based on social software where users generate content, rather than simply consume it, and on open programming interfaces that let developers add to a web service or get at data. It is an arena where the web rather than the desktop is the dominant platform, and organization appears spontaneously through the actions of the group, for example, in the creation of folksonomies created through tagging. The theory has been percolating for some time. But it intensified last week when O'Reilly published an essay on the topic, as well as a graphic outlining the key categories of this new medium. Ross Mayfield, the CEO of SocialText, a company that sells collaborative wiki software to enterprises and that is hosting the Web 2.0 wiki, had a simpler definition for conference goers. "Web 1.0 was commerce. Web 2.0 is people," Mayfield said. The day was not without skeptics. In a freewheeling conversation with Web 2.0 conference organizer John Battelle, InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller, who recently purchased Ask.com, dismissed the idea that citizens with blogs and video editing software were major threats to the entertainment industry. "There is not that much talent in the world," Diller said. "There are very few people in very few closets in very few rooms that are really talented and can't get out." "People with talent and expertise at making entertainment products are not going to be displaced by 1,800 people coming up with their videos that they think are going to have an appeal." That clear-headed observation didn't set well with some, including media critic Jeff Jarvis, who promptly blogged the talk and labeled Diller with the deadly moniker, "Web 1.0." By whatever the theory, Web 2.0 is shaking up the status quo in web publishing, and feeding a surge of dealmaking. Small Web 2.0 companies are already being snapped up by internet giants. Google acquired Dodgeball, a mobile phone social networking application, and recruited one of the princes of mash-ups, Paul Rademacher of Housingmaps.com, from his job at DreamWorks Animation SKG. Yahoo snapped up Flickr, a community photo sharing application that relies heavily on tagging, and on Tuesday, bought Upcoming.org, an user-driven events tracking service. Wednesday afternoon's LaunchPad presentation, featuring 13 companies giving six minute pitches, drew throngs, including venture capitalists smelling money to be made from the cleverness of young programmers, and representatives from internet giants trying to determine whether their business models were as doomed as bloggers have prophesied. The crowd was so large that hotel staff had to break down the partitions separating three conference rooms to accommodate everyone. The presentations included a demo of the well publicized, but as yet unreleased, Flock browser, that aims to make Firefox into a two-way communication tool. Ian McCarthy of Orb showed the crowd how his software would let them stream media from their desktop using any web-enabled device, without having to worry about the format or bit rate of their movies or music. Zvents.com unveiled its event finder (which currently covers only the San Francisco Bay Area) and claimed it was far better than the service Yahoo had purchased the day before. Rollyo, short for roll your own search engine, officially launched at the demo, unveiling a service that lets users build their own specific search engines for travel or politics using Yahoo's search API. Longtime RSS player Pub Sub unveiled its initiative, Structured Blogging, to help bring the fabled Semantic Web into being. Structured Blogging allows bloggers to easily add structured meta-data to blog posts, such as movie reviews or event listings, so they can be easily found, read and syndicated by other sites. The ad-hoc XML (no standards body has yet decided on what elements should be in such data) would make possible a search for book or product reviews that only returned real reviews, instead of the current jumbled listing of commerce sites and spammers that search engines currently provide. But the crowd reserved its largest applause and its gasps of envy for Zimbra, a company which debuted its open-source enterprise software in early September. The software, called a collaboration suite, performs the same server based calendaring and e-mail of Microsoft's Exchange Server. Zimbra CEO Satish Dharmaraj wowed the crowd with his demo of his Ajax-powered web client, which would display the calendar when mousing over a date mentioned in an e-mail and call a number through Skype when clicking on a phone number in a message. Zimbra already has devotees working on the code and translating the interface into Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. Dharmaraj knows he's facing a tough battle taking on a flagship Microsoft product, but thinks that Web 2.0-style collaboration and the efforts of the open source community might be his savior. "I would not like to take on the big boy by myself," Dharmaraj told Wired News. "I would love to take Microsoft on with IBM and Google and Apple on my side." Copyright 2005, Lycos, Inc. Lycos is a registered trademark of Carnegie Mellon University. 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, Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Robert McMillan Subject: Bank of America Warns Customers After Laptop Theft Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 16:48:18 -0500 Robert McMillan, IDG News Service Users of the Bank of America Corp.'s Visa Buxx prepaid debit cards are being warned that they may have had sensitive information compromised following the theft of an unencrypted laptop computer. In a letters sent to Buxx users and dated September 23, the Charlotte, North Carolina, bank warned that customers may have had their bank account numbers, routing transit numbers, names, and credit card numbers compromised by the theft. Visa Buxx is a prepaid credit card for teenagers that the Bank of America (BofA) stopped selling in January. The laptop, which belonged to an unnamed Bank of America "service provider" was stolen on August 29, said Diane Wagner, a BofA spokesperson. The bank was notified of the theft on September 9, and began sending out the letters after a two-week investigation, she said. Though the information on the laptop would not have been easily accessible to thieves, it was not encrypted, Wagner said. The bank has been monitoring the affected accounts and has not yet observed any signs of fraud. "We have no evidence that an unauthorized person has accessed or even reviewed that customer information," she said. Wagner refused to offer many other details on the theft, which was reported Friday in the San Francisco Chronicle. She would not name the service provider, say how many BofA customers had been affected, or even confirm that the theft had occurred within the United States. This is not the first time BofA has had to notify account holders of identity theft. In March, it confirmed that information on about 60,000 of its customers had been stolen by an identity-theft ring. The March disclosure came just a month after BofA revealed that it had lost digital tapes containing the credit card account records of 1.2 million U.S. federal employees. Copyright 2005 PC World Communications, Inc. 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: Reuters News Wire Subject: An Obscene Web Site? Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 16:47:54 -0500 Iraq-corpse Web site operator held for obscenity The American operator of a Web site which posted grisly pictures of people killed in the Iraq and Afghan conflicts was arrested on obscenity charges unrelated to the war photos, police officials in Florida said. The Polk County sheriff's office said Christopher Michael Wilson was arrested on Friday and faces one count of wholesale distribution of obscene material and 300 misdemeanor charges relating to the Web site and pornographic photos. The charges were unrelated to the photos of corpses from Iraq and Afghanistan, which the site states were provided by U.S. troops in exchange for free access to pornographic material. Several of the graphic pictures showed men wearing what looked like U.S. military uniforms, standing over charred corpses, mutilated bodies and severed body parts. Many were accompanied by captions making light of the corpses. One photo of a charred body was dubbed "Cooked Iraqi." The Pentagon has said it found no evidence any of the photos were posted by soldiers. Wilson was being held in jail under a $151,000 bond, the Polk County sheriff's office said. "In my 33 years of law enforcement experience, this is one of the most horrific examples of filthy, obscene materials we have ever seized," Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. He did not elaborate. Judd said the investigation was continuing and any pertinent information would be shared with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division. Judd told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper his investigation was not spurred by federal authorities. Wilson lives in Lakeland, Florida, but hosts the site out of Amsterdam, Netherlands, according to an article last month in the Online Journalism Review of the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Southern California. The controversy sparked by the photographs of war dead followed the publication a year and a half ago of photos showing U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail. That scandal prompted international condemnation of the United States. 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: anon1@sci.sci Subject: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 19:01:34 -0700 Organization: UseNetServer.com I'm looking for a device that connects between my telephone line and the serial (RS232) port on my computer, capturing caller-ID on incoming phone calls and using that information to determine whether to ring my phone immediately or put up various touch-tone menus the caller must traverse. What is the correct jargon for such a device? (So that I might do a Google search and find the info I seek.) What is the best newsgroup for asking about such a device? Does anybody here happen to already know of any Web sites that list and describe such devices? ------------------------------ Date: 7 Oct 2005 23:49:31 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I think the problem with doing that is that the root servers hold a > database of top level domain servers. It doesn't change rapidly, but > it does change. Unless you could get a feed of the official file > from IANA, ... It's easy to get a feed of the root zone. Fill out a form from Verisign, fax it back, and you too can FTP a copy from their server whenever you want. BTDTGTZF If you wanted to run your own root with a copy of the same data, you could. But there's no point, since the real roots work just fine. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But although the 'real roots' work just fine, as you note, someone starting their own competing root server could bypass all the silly requirements of things like ICANN couldn't he? In addition to copying all the data now in use, he could also start his own domains, could he not? He could start a domain for example called '.abracadabra' or whatever name and it would not be subject to any rules but his own. Or am I missing something here? Maybe he would then sell re-direction and aliases from his '.domain' and point them to the existing .com and .net as '.tf' does now. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 01:30:57 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for that good explanation. > it was interesting that he was able to 'communicate by voice' over > those wires which served as our burglar alarm system; he said it was I knew some guys in the Chicago suburbs circa 1965 who had their own private telephone system among them. They had learned it was possible to lease burglar alarm lines very cheaply from the telephone company; and in fact when you leased one you got an ordinary wire pair that worked just fine at voice frequencies. So that was what they used for their distribution. Eventually the phone company got onto what they were doing and connected large capacitors across the pairs, which put an end to their scheme. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 21:18:38 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message Henry Cabot Henhouse III wrote: > When I signed up with Vonage in December '03, I did the 500 minute > plan, which was perfect. I seem to recall that all local calls - in > our case in Los Angeles within the 323 area code -- were included and > did not eat up any of the 500 minutes. > Last month was the first time we've ever exceeded 500 minutes -- most of > those for local 323 calls. I was charged for calls over and above my 500 > minutes, the call detail shows local calls being billed at the 3.9c per > minute. > I poked around the Vonage website and can't find any reference to > local calls being included. Does anyone know a site that may have the > older Vonage website in storage? An email to Customer Service > resulted in a stock reply, pointing me to a bunch of faq's - none of > which seem to answer my question. At one point Vonage had a plan that included unlimited local calling, and 500 minutes of long distance. It's still offered in Canada, but was discontinued in the US when the unlimited plan dropped to $24.99 (which was the original price of the unlimited-local-calls plan) In message Daniel AJ Sokolov wrote: > Am 07.10.2005 07:16 schrieb Henry Cabot Henhouse III: >> When I signed up with Vonage in December '03, I did the 500 minute >> plan, which was perfect. I seem to recall that all local calls - in >> our case in Los Angeles within the 323 area code -- were included and >> did not eat up any of the 500 minutes. >> Last month was the first time we've ever exceeded 500 minutes -- most of >> those for local 323 calls. I was charged for calls over and above my 500 >> minutes, the call detail shows local calls being billed at the 3.9c per >> minute. >> I poked around the Vonage website and can't find any reference to >> local calls being included. Does anyone know a site that may have the >> older Vonage website in storage? An email to Customer Service >> resulted in a stock reply, pointing me to a bunch of faq's - none of >> which seem to answer my question. > Do you have the "Unlimited Local Plan" for 24.99? It includes unlimited > Local and Regional Calling plus 500 Long Distance minutes. > Take a look at this: > http://web.archive.org/web/20031201145749/http://vonage.com/ > It is a snapshot from December 1st, 2003. IIRC, that plan was not grandfathered, all users were upgraded to the unlimited calling plan which is the same price. ------------------------------ From: BrianEWilliams Subject: Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord Date: 8 Oct 2005 05:56:38 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Sorry for the top post, but I just want to thank both of you for your very helpful response. I will report back my results when my POTS ends Oct 22. BTW, this is a single family home, and my neighbor's home has the standard RJ-11 plugs whereas mine has this funky setup. John McHarry wrote: > On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 11:52:19 -0700, Brian E Williams wrote: >> http://tinyurl.com/9jqae >> Above link is a picture of the inside of my outside telecom box here >> in the USA. I want to route my Vonage VoIP service to my internal >> phone network, so first I am going to disconnect the internal network >> from the POTS provider as a test. I am guessing that I just flip >> those little connectors up and then pull out the solid blue and >> blue-white wires, being careful to keep them arranged for easy >> reconnection. > That doesn't look like a standard demarc to me. Maybe you are in a > multifamily dwelling, or maybe I am out of date. The demarcs I am > familiar with use an RJ-11 plug on your side to plug into a socket on > the telco side. This allows you to test whether a problem is inside > wiring or telco by unplugging your whole inside plant and plugging in > a known good phone. >> Is there anything else I need to worry about? Also, is having four >> wires standard for a single line? Maybe that is how I can do three >> way calling and call waiting, but I never thought about it before. > Four wires are standard for residential wiring. As PAT notes, only red > and green are used for the first line. This allows a second pair for a > second line, or a ground connection for grounded ringing (mostly used > in old two party lines). > As PAT also notes, getting the telco hooked up across your VOIP > service is ungood. The trouble with doing your connection at the > demarc is that telco has access to it and may, possibly inadvertently, > reconnect themselves. Also, some telcos leave disconnected lines > connected to the switch and able to call 911, much like an unassigned > cell phone. You might be better off to cut into your house wiring > before the first tap and either disconnect the telco there, or move it > over to line two, so you could use their 911 service in an emergency. > I don't know how many terminals you intend to bridge onto your Vonage > box, but, if it is like the Packet8 DAT310, it may have trouble > driving some of them. I can ring two phones just fine, but there > doesn't seem to be quite enough talk battery to keep my speakerphone > happy. Of course, that may be more the phone's fault for being overly > greedy. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What I do here is the Bell System > demarc box is on the wall of my house outside with _two_ lines there > from telco but I only use one. I have tape around the modular > connector of the second, unused line. I have a small PBX unit inside > my house, in a closet near my computer area. From the outside demarc, > I bring the one working pair there into my house on my own wires, and > into the PBX where it becomes 'dial 9' for outgoing local calls. Then > I have my Vonage (VOIP) adapter box near the computer with a > connection into the broadband cable line. I go from there with my > personally owned modular cable to another input on the PBX, where it > becomes 'dial 8' for long distance calls. Both lines (Vonage VOIP) and > telco also go through a two-line splitter to which I have a caller ID > device and an extra loud ringer (in my old age and feeble condition I > am also a wee bit hard of hearing these days as any of you who > telephone me know when I periodically ask you to repeat yourself. Then > I have several pairs running from the PBX back down the cable to the > outside and back to the telco demarc box where _everything_ telco > related has been disconnected except for the aforementioned one > incoming line. > So to make a local call from any extension, it travels down the pair > to the demarc, back in to the PBX, and dial 9 sends it back out the > cable to the demarc and off to telco. To make a long distance call from > any extension it travels down the pair to the demarc, back in to the > PBX where dial 8 sends it across the room to the VOIP box and the > broadband internet. To call around my house, it travels down the pair > to the demarc, back inside to the PBX where dialing 100 through 105 or > 0 Zero treats the call as needed, ships it back through the cable to > the outside demarc where it gets distributed to where it should go. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Telecom Update #500, October 7, 2005 Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:12:48 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Fri, 7 Oct 2005 11:34:19 -0700, Angus TeleManagement Group wrote: > CELLCOS OPPOSE EARLY NUMBER PORTABILITY: Replying to a CRTC request > for ways to speed up wireless number portability, the Canadian > Wireless Telecommunications Association says that preparing alternate > scenarios would be costly and time-consuming, and that the original > plan to implement WNP nationally by September 2007 is "both aggressive > and reasonable." (See Telecom Update #497) > ** The major cellcos agree, saying that an earlier target > date would create many technical problems and would be > unfair to consumers. To which I say "Ha!" The Cellcos are going to drag this out for as long as possible. The US Cellcos also dragged their feet for WNP also and had the deadline for implementing it postponed at least a couple times. They made the same arguments that the Canadian cellcos did that it will cost them lots of money and that it will be "unfair" to consumers. Unfair to consumers is pure bullshit. If they bothered to pay attention to the model that WNP has had in other countries such as the UK and the US they'd see that the sky did not fall and that far fewer people abandoned their present service than they had anticipated. The only reason cellcos don't want WNP is because it would force them to clean up their act and make their services better than they are with decent customer service and decent quality of service. Cellcos try lots of tricks to make things work for *them* and not for their subscribers. It's only because subscribers are locked into contracts for as long as two years that many do not leave their present carrier since leaving before the end of the contract will make them pay early termination fees of as much as $200. Also many do not leave since they are business people and have their clientele know them by their present mobile number. It'd be a real PITA for them to have to notify all that they've changed mobile companies and have a new number. No, WNP will help subscribers force the cellcos to clean up their act. Of course they would prefer that it go away. And from the same issue #500, Angus TeleManagement Group wrote: > ROGERS SIGNS 18,000 PHONE SUBSCRIBERS: Rogers Communications says its > cable-based local phone service, launched on July 1, now has more than > 18,000 subscribers. (See Telecom Update #488) And this is one of the reasons Rogers *killed* the CityFido programme since it would canibalize their VoIP business. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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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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 #459 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Oct 9 18:00:58 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 8F9AB150AD; Sun, 9 Oct 2005 18:00:57 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #460 Message-Id: <20051009220057.8F9AB150AD@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 18:00:57 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.3 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, INFO_TLD autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 Oct 2005 18:01:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 460 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Court Ruling in BlackBerry Case Puts Service to Users at Risk (Solomon) RIM Faces Loss of U.S. Market For BlackBerry (Monty Solomon) Seasonal Satellite Telecommunication Disruptions Coming Soon (N. Allen) Bird Flu (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: Device That Interfaces Between CallerID and Serial Port (G Burditt) Re: Device That Interfaces Between CallerID and Serial Port (C Navarro) Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal (Joseph) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John Levine) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (George Mitchell) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Neal McLain) Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord (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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 14:19:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Court Ruling in BlackBerry Case Puts Service to U.S. Users at Risk By IAN AUSTEN OTTAWA, Oct. 7 - A court decision Friday renewed the possibility that service to BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices might be cut off for most users in the United States. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington rejected a request by Research in Motion, the Canadian company that makes the BlackBerry, to rehear its appeal of a patent infringement case brought by NTP Inc., the patent holder. A three-judge panel of the court ruled in August that Research in Motion had violated seven of NTP's patents. As part of that litigation, NTP, whose only assets are wireless e-mail related patents, had been granted an injunction banning the sale of BlackBerry devices in the United States and forcing Research in Motion to stop providing e-mail services to all American customers except government account holders. While the court declined Research in Motion's request for a complete rehearing by all 12 of its judges, it did order the panel of three judges to review some aspects of NTP's patent claims. Kevin Anderson, a lawyer for NTP, said the company would now ask the court to apply the injunction to the patent claims that are no longer under review. Those patents, he added, are broad enough to prevent Research in Motion from continuing service in the United States, which accounts for about 70 percent of its revenue. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/08/technology/08rimm.html?ex=1286424000&en=36a03410727d06ab&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 14:19:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: RIM Faces Loss of U.S. Market For BlackBerry Sales injunction possible from patent case By SIMON AVERY TECHNOLOGY REPORTER Research In Motion Ltd. faces the spectre of an injunction against sales of its BlackBerry communications products in the United States after a court there yesterday refused to rehear a patent infringement case against the company. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington denied RIM's request that its full slate of 12 judges hear the case. In August, a panel of three of the court's judges upheld most of a jury ruling that found RIM had infringed on patents held by NTP Inc., a patent holding firm in Virginia. While the decision was not unexpected, the prospect of the injunction sent shares of the Waterloo, Ont.-based company tumbling as much as 10 per cent. They closed on the Toronto Stock Exchange down 4 per cent, or $3.20, at $75.95. The U.S. accounts for about 70 per cent of RIM's total sales. The dispute between the two companies now heads back to district court in Virginia, where NTP says it will seek to have a previously awarded injunction imposed. RIM, however, said it will ask the federal court to stay further proceedings while the company tries to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to review the appeal court's August decision. Legal experts don't expect the top court to hear the case because it already has a couple of intellectual property cases before it. But in a news release, RIM said the case "raises significant national and international issues warranting further appellate review." Specifically, the company has argued that, because parts of the alleged infringement occurred on its relay and routing system that is based in Canada, U.S. patent law should not apply. Under U.S. law, the territorial reach of a patent is limited and generally only enforceable if the infringement occurs in the United States. However, both the district court and appeals court rejected this argument. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051008/RRIM08/TPBusiness/Canadian ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Subject: Seasonal Satellite Telecommunications Disruptions Coming Soon Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 21:29:02 -0400 The following press release was issued by Northwestel. I don't work for Northwestel, but I thought that readers of Telecom Digest might find this interesting. 10/04/2005 Seasonal Telecommunications Disruptions Coming Soon Northwestel is reminding northern communities that receive telecommunications services via satellite that their telecommunications services may be affected by minor disruptions throughout the next few weeks. Beginning October 5th and ending October 18th, these communities may notice short telecommunications interruptions because of a phenomenon called "sun transit." Sun transit occurs twice annually, both in the spring and fall, when satellites pass directly between the sun and satellite dishes on earth. The natural radio frequency noise from the sun is stronger than the satellite signals, which results in a brief service degradation. Northerners may notice noise, fading, or interruptions to long distance, data and television services that are carried via satellite. The exact time of the sun transit disruptions depends both on the location of the satellite being affected and the geographic location of the earth station receiving the signals. "The disruptions are usually so brief that many people don't notice them," said Anne Kennedy, Northwestel Public Affairs Director. "This fall, they'll occur during a 40-minute period that will begin either around noon, or in the early to mid-afternoon, depending on which area of the North you are located in," Local telephone service will not be affected. "There is nothing that can be done to prevent sun transit disruptions, because they are a natural phenomenon," added Kennedy. "If customers do have trouble when trying to place long distance calls or with data transmissions, we recommend that they wait a few moments and then try again. The disruption is likely to be over when they try a second time." For more information on the effect of sun transit on satellite transmissions, check Telesat's website at http://www.telesat.ca/satellites/sun-transit-preditcs.htm Northwestel provides complete telecommunications solutions for the 110,000 residents of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon and northern British Columbia. The company's operations span nearly 4 million square kilometres of the most remote and rugged areas of Canada. All of the company's nearly 600 employees are northern residents. Established over 50 years ago, Northwestel is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bell Canada. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 00:23:21 -0400 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Bird Flu Article and references compliments of the Johnmacs group. Bird Flu is coming. Tamiflu is scarce. Even in Russia, where almost anything can be obtained for a price, it's scarce, and is actually more expensive than in the US (usually drugs are much cheaper there). Hospitals have trouble keeping it in stock for its other uses. http://www.thetravelinsider.info/2005/email1007.htm There are vaccines, but are experimental and they will be scarce. http://au.news.yahoo.com/050922/2/w240.html There have been a few reported cases of human to human transmission, http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/13/1374 but the epidemic is not expected this year. There's a lot of interest in the Congress right now, but they'll probably forget about it just as they forgot about biodefence in 2001, after the anthrax scare died down. There is some thought that vaccinating young children, ages 2-5 or so, may be very effective at preventing the spread. Indeed, it may be more effective at preventing the spread to old people than directly vaccinating old people (now usually considered the "at risk" group for flu shots). To date, according to the NEJM: "Most patients have been previously healthy young children or adults." Part of the problem is that people go in to work when sick. "Our culture was: I'm here at work, and I'm sick, and aren't I great?" Short said. "We had to create a whole new culture." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002538085_fluforum04m.html http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002538085&zsection_id=2002111777&slug=fluforum04m&date=20051004 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002538085&zsection_id=2002111777&slug=fluforum04m&date=20051004 For more information on the flu and personal protection, with many links, try: http://www.thetravelinsider.info/2005/aboutbirdflu.htm http://www.thetravelinsider.info/2005/survivebirdflu.htm (the third article in this series is not yet out). ------------------------------ From: gordonb.dutxl@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 02:59:47 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com > I'm looking for a device that connects between my telephone line > and the serial (RS232) port on my computer, capturing caller-ID on > incoming phone calls and using that information to determine whether > to ring my phone immediately or put up various touch-tone menus > the caller must traverse. > What is the correct jargon for such a device? (So that I might do a > Google search and find the info I seek.) Assuming you are looking for a device that receives Caller-ID, and the voice menu stuff is done by something else, I think it's called "a cheap modem". It needs Caller-ID but it doesn't need 56K or even 33.6k speeds. You don't want to set it up to auto-answer. The modem's RING response code will include caller-ID if it's set up to return it. The various Digium PCI cards used by Asterisk to interface with analog phone lines let you do a lot more, including the voice menu stuff itself, but they don't do RS-232. Gordon L. Burditt ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro Subject: Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 11:26:39 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com On Fri, 7 Oct 2005 19:01:34 -0700, anon1@sci.sci wrote: > I'm looking for a device that connects between my telephone line > and the serial (RS232) port on my computer, capturing caller-ID on > incoming phone calls and using that information to determine whether > to ring my phone immediately or put up various touch-tone menus > the caller must traverse. > What is the correct jargon for such a device? (So that I might do a > Google search and find the info I seek.) Try www.callerid.com and check out the Whozz Calling box. You can check out the downloads and the software partners for software and manuals that describe and control the blocking feature of the box. Carl Navarro ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal Date: 9 Oct 2005 01:02:04 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > I may be mistaken but I do not think it > is just a simple matter of plugging one of these 'pen drives' into a > USB port. I have one -- I do not use it a lot, it is 62 MB, and about > the size of my thumb. As I recall, when I first installed it,I had to > additionally run a CD which loaded the required 'drivers' onto the > host computer to get it (host) to recognize the USB ports and to get > the 'pen drive' formatted, etc. Have they gotten easier and quicker to > use in recent months? Although being able to carry the little device > away in my shirt pocket to use elsewhere _is_ a good point, having to > do a few extra steps to configure the host computer to recognize a USB > slot and accomodate the pen drive takes away some of the enthusiasm > for me. PAT] The devices come pre-formatted, and XP includes the drivers necessary to recognize and talk to them. If you insert one into an XP system it will also auto-run whatever is designated for that purpose on the device, just like a CD. The only time you need to install software from a CD is if you're trying to use it on Win98 or older systems. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 19:27:32 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Fri, 7 Oct 2005 20:51:18 -0500, [Telecom Digest Editor] wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I may be mistaken but I do not think it > is just a simple matter of plugging one of these 'pen drives' into a > USB port. I have one -- I do not use it a lot, it is 62 MB, and about > the size of my thumb. As I recall, when I first installed it,I had to > additionally run a CD which loaded the required 'drivers' onto the > host computer to get it (host) to recognize the USB ports and to get > the 'pen drive' formatted, etc. Have they gotten easier and quicker to > use in recent months? Are you running Windows 98 or XP? XP generally does not need special drivers and the Flash device will just be recognized as another external drive. 98 generally does require drivers. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have a Win 2000, a Win 98, and thanks to a good friend of the Digest I also now have a Win NT laptop from 1995-96. (Unisys, Aquanta for anyone interested, which replaced an IBM Think Pad which started life as Win 95 in 1996 at the factory, but then was converted to Win 98 at my 'factory' in 2005, and blew up later the same year, about a month ago.) Which reminds me: does anyone know the _cost_ these days of an IBM (easily)removeable hard drive 8.1 GB part number 01K9735. This was the original one which was in the machine (you pop open a door on the back of the laptop, then slide the hard disk into place firmly). Someone tried to tell me that because of its age and the rarity of these older IBM Think Pads (this one was in a model 770-ED) a replacement hard drive would cost BIG $$ but you know me: if anyone happens to have any spares I'd appreciate knowing about it. I had to run a driver disk with the Win 2000 also on the 'flash device' and also on the Win 98 as well. They sure do want people to buy newer computers, don't they? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 9 Oct 2005 01:17:50 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > If you wanted to run your own root with a copy of the same data, you > could. But there's no point, since the real roots work just fine. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But although the 'real roots' work just > fine, as you note, someone starting their own competing root server > could bypass all the silly requirements of things like ICANN couldn't > he? In addition to copying all the data now in use, he could also > start his own domains, could he not? He could, but then it wouldn't be a copy of the same data, would it? And what will you do when you set up your own freelance version of .TEL and a couple of years later ICANN lumbers along and sets up their version of .TEL? Which one will you throw away? If you tell ICANN they have to add all your "registrants", they'll just laugh. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I probably (if it were me, which I strongly doubt) wouldn't insist on anything from ICANN. I would simply ignore them as much as possible. I would not set up a 'freelance .TEL', I would set up some top level domain (such as .pat) that they (ICANN) would be quite unlikely to pick anytime in the next few decades; oh hell, maybe even '.townson' and invite the whole world to use my root if they wished to do so. I might even use some possibly copyrightable phrase for the domain name making it more difficult for ICANN to copy it exactly as their own. Then they could laugh all they wanted, I guess. In addition to treating with my own root server all my own (copyrightable or unusual) top level domains, I would send requests for _their_ TLDs to some one or more root servers well outside the reach of ICANN. If they did not want to go along, and service _my_ clients, it would be their loss. You see, John, amazing things can be done when (unlike ICANN) you are not involved with the net on a purely commercial basis. When, (unlike ICANN) you do not have a deep, abiding interest in converting the net into a huge, successful business venture. The only things I would put into my contracts (and I remind you, I strongly doubt this would be me) would that the existing rules on things like the use of someone else's name, i.e. 'coca-cola.townson' would be verbotin unless you _were_ Coca Cola. Any contracts would say that if a single piece of spam or virus came out of a computer under your control, you would be out on your ass the same day, no refunds given, etc. I am thinking I would use ICANN's top-level domain names '.com' '.org' '.net' etc as my second-level names, i.e. '.com.townson' or 'org.townson' etc. Many countries do that now, for example, Great Britain with its 'co.uk' domain. Much good could be accomplished on the net if there were other than greedy son-of-a-bitches like ICANN in charge. Again, I doubt very strongly it would be me, but I suggest a philanthropist, a weathly person who believed in doing good for the world could set up one or more root servers and have an operational philosophy which was good for all, not just ICANN and big business. After all, we have Fords, Carnagies and Rockefellers giving away millions of dollars for schools, libraries and such. Why not such a person for the Internet? PAT] ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 20:25:11 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Pat Townson wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But although the 'real roots' work just > fine, as you note, someone starting their own competing root server > could bypass all the silly requirements of things like ICANN couldn't > he? Everything you say is correct. It's trivial to create your own root name server. The problem is in getting anyone _else_ to pay attention to it. The people who, in practical terms, operate the root name servers are a pretty independent bunch. Regardless of ICANN's nominal authority over them, they're not going to do anything to destroy the integrity of the internet. And that's why it's a good thing that the addresses of the current root name servers are so deeply embedded into so many of the domain name resolvers out there. -- George Mitchell ------------------------------ From: Neal McLain Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 22:30:20 -0400 PAT wrote: > it was interesting that he was able to 'communicate by voice' over > those wires which served as our burglar alarm system ... According to Herbert Casson, in his "The History of the Telephone," the first "exchange for telephone service" used burglar alarm wiring. "When the first infant exchange for telephone service was born in Boston, in 1877, it was the tiny offspring of a burglar-alarm business operated by E. T. Holmes, a young man whose father had originated the idea of protecting property by electric wires in 1858. Holmes was the first practical man who dared to offer telephone service for sale. He had obtained two telephones, number six and seven, the first five having gone to the junk-heap; and he attached these to a wire in his burglar-alarm office. For two weeks his business friends played with telephones, like boys with a fascinating toy; then Holmes nailed up a new shelf in his office, and on this shelf he placed six box-telephones in a row. These could be switched into connection with the burglar- alarm wires and any two of six wires could be joined by a wire cord. Nothing had been simpler, but it was the arrival of a new idea in the business world." Herbert N. Casson. "The History of the Telephone." Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1910, 151-52. Neal McLain ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 19:34:35 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 8 Oct 2005 05:56:38 -0700, BrianEWilliams wrote: > Sorry for the top post, but I just want to thank both of you for your > very helpful response. I will report back my results when my POTS ends > Oct 22. BTW, this is a single family home, and my neighbor's home has > the standard RJ-11 plugs whereas mine has this funky setup. > John McHarry wrote: >> On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 11:52:19 -0700, Brian E Williams wrote: >>> http://tinyurl.com/9jqae >>> Above link is a picture of the inside of my outside telecom box here >>> in the USA. I want to route my Vonage VoIP service to my internal >>> phone network, so first I am going to disconnect the internal network No, I will not accept an apology. You should well know that it's *never* necessary to requote an entire original article especially a long one. You quote a few lines to jog your reader's memory. You do *not* barf back an entire original article at your audience. Whoever taught you that bad behavior didn't know much about on line communication. Whether top post or bottom post over quotation is never good under any circumstance. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 #460 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Oct 10 14:31:53 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 6A06B14F10; Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:31:53 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #461 Message-Id: <20051010183153.6A06B14F10@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:31:53 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.1 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:32:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 461 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Dutch Police Arrest Hackers (Reuters News Wire) Microsoft at Age 30; Grapples With Growing Up (Allison Linn) Telephone Collection Carried to an Extreme (Christopher Rhoads) Airline Hits Logan on Bid to Limit WiFi (Monty Solomon) EFFector 18.31: Action Alert - Don't Touch That Dial, RIAA! (M Solomon) EFFector 18.32: Don't Let Congress Ignore the Broadcast Treaty (Solomon) EFFector 18.33: Feds Unable to Search Own Anti-Terrorism List (Solomon) EFFector 18.34: Delaware Supreme Court Protects Anonymous Blog (Solomon) Cellular-News For Monday 10th October 2005 (cellular-news) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John McHarry) Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal (Joseph) Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan (Henry Cabot Henhouse III) Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 (John McHarry) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John McHarry) Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord (Brian E Williams) 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: Reuters NewsWire Subject: Dutch Police Arrest Hackers Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 17:44:56 -0500 Dutch police have arrested three men suspected of stealing credit card and bank account data by hacking into more than 100,000 personal computers worldwide, public prosecutors said on Saturday. The three Dutch men supposedly used so-called "Trojan horse" software to infect computers with a virus and steal confidential personal information, and to attack company websites, the public prosecutor's office said in a statement. "In the Netherlands alone, several thousands of computers were infected," the statement said. The three men, aged 19, 22 and 27, were arrested on Tuesday. The hackers are also accused of plundering accounts in PayPal, the payment-processing business of online auctioneer eBay Inc, and are suspected of threatening to attack the computer system of a U.S. company, the statement said. The three used a virus, called W32.Toxbot, which allows access to the infected computer's control system. They kept adapting the virus in line with upgraded anti-virus programs, prosecutors said. Justice officials expect more arrests in the case, Dutch media said. 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: Allison Linn Subject: Microsoft at Age 30, Grapples With Growing Up Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 17:44:31 -0500 By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer Microsoft Corp. promises its software will make people better workers -- more productive, more profitable, more able, as the company likes to say, to achieve their potential. Yet some wonder why the software behemoth isn't taking more of its own medicine. As Microsoft hits 30, critics reel off a list of complaints that sounds like, well, a Microsoft commercial: stifling bureaucracy, frustrating miscommunication, different units working on overlapping technology without adequate cooperation. In short, the very ills Microsoft promises to cure with its software. Growing pains have delayed products, leaving the door open for Microsoft to be beaten to market by younger, more nimble competitors led by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. Meanwhile, Microsoft shares have been trading at about the same level for several years. As it gears up to release a slew of new products, Microsoft is trying to untangle bureaucratic snags with a corporate shakeup meant to get the best ideas to market faster and increase the company's push toward over-the-Internet software and services. Of course, no one would argue that the company co-founded by Bill Gates is in dire straits. Microsoft continues to earn billions from its flagship Windows and Office products, and the company is steadily making inroads in markets including mobile phones, video game consoles and server software. But it isn't just Google and Yahoo that should worry Microsoft. It's also up-and-comers big and small that offer products as Internet-based services. Salesforce.com, which manages customer relations, is a big one. Writely and gOffice, which provide Web-based word processing, and e-mail application Zimbra are among the small. Web-based offerings give users easy online access to products and services, sometimes for free. The threat to Microsoft is that such products, by their very nature, could decrease the importance of Windows or Office. Google and Sun Microsystems Inc. announced a partnership last week that, while still vague, could eventually yield tools that provide, cheaply or for free over the Internet, an alternative to pricey Microsoft software such as Word or Excel. "What you've actually got going here between Google and Sun is their own personal version of the film 'Kill Bill,'" said David Garrity, director of research for Investec's U.S. operations. Microsoft insists it is in a strong position to fight its competitors. Kevin Johnson, recently named co-president of a new Microsoft unit that includes Windows, servers and its MSN online division, said Chief Executive Steve Ballmer spoke about software as a service as long as six years ago. The company was forecasting some of these potential markets a decade ago, he added. "We've provided the vision of where these things were going." Still, Microsoft now lags in some high-profile areas, although Johnson said there are plans afoot to help the company to expand further and quicker into the field. Its competitors were the first to provide Web-based tools for finding things more easily on Windows-based desktops. Microsoft also has played catch-up on developing its own online search engine, the technology that formed the basis for Google's explosive success. And while Microsoft was a pioneer in offering free, Web-based e-mail with Hotmail, Google and Yahoo have been quicker to improve their products recently. The company continues to struggle with the issue of helping computer users instantly find what they need. When Vista, Microsoft's first significant Windows upgrade since 2001, is released next year after serious delays, it will initially lack a hotly anticipated data management system called WinFS that would let people swiftly find documents, pictures or e-mails. Microsoft also is tailing its competitors in developing the money-making engine behind Google -- paid search. This month, Microsoft begins U.S. testing of its own system for selling sponsored links next to its regular search results, which are based on a formula that ranks Web pages according to such factors as relevance. Microsoft currently outsources that job to Yahoo, which has a contract with Microsoft through June 2006. Microsoft also was in talks with Time Warner Inc. about a potential deal with its America Online unit that could help raise Microsoft's profile against Google. One potential option was some sort of online advertising partnership. It's unclear where those talks stand now. Johnson acknowledges that the company has sometimes been slower than some of its competitors. He says that's partly because Microsoft is focused on "the big, bold challenges," such as folding useful technologies into products instead of just rushing something out to market. And analysts note Microsoft's track record of quickly playing catch-up and marshaling the forces necessary to stay ahead. Johnson says the company's reorganization -- which groups its seven business groups under three large units -- is designed in part to streamline decision-making and make Microsoft more agile. If successful, such changes could help alleviate complaints that employee productivity is being slowed by management hoops that require too many layers of approval. In one of the most high-profile cases, former executive Kai-Fu Lee complained in court of groups working autonomously that should be collaborating, and of being forced to report to too many people. Lee defected to Google and Microsoft sued, alleging violation of a noncompete agreement. The case is ongoing. Microsoft also is seeing the downside of a longtime corporate culture that allowed several groups to work on the same technology, sometimes even in competition with one another. That philosophy hasn't been as successful as hoped with search technology, where despite multiple efforts many analysts say the company still has work to do. Johnson said Microsoft is trying to find ways to re-evaluate that approach while still encouraging individual groups to develop fresh ideas. "Bottoms-up innovation is a great thing," he said. But, he added, "At a certain point in that innovation life cycle you have to make decisions so you avoid duplicative or competitive work." Microsoft is facing the classic dilemma that befalls a company that grows from a small startup to a major corporation, said the analyst Garrity. There's really no way to manage thousands of employees without a strong corporate structure, but that structure will inevitably alienate some workers who remember the freewheeling early days. "They're all victims of their own past success," he said. Microsoft's reorganization appears to be an attempt to tackle the size problem -- to teach the elephant to dance, said Garrity, alluding to a popular corporate problem-solving book by James Belasco. "I don't know if we can teach the elephant to dance, but they certainly look as if they are getting their tutu on." 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. For more AP news headlines and stories, go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html (also) http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.htmln ------------------------------ From: Christopher Rhoads Subject: Telephone Collection Carried to an Extreme Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 06:35:28 -0400 To the Heirs' Dismay, Mr. Prosser's Calling Was Old Telephones; His Legacy Overruns a Town, Which Wants It Cleared; Collectors vs. the Landfill By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL October 10, 2005 TURTLE LAKE, Wis. -- In a dilapidated former creamery here, Becky Rongstad edged her way down a tight passage snaking through 20-foot-high mountains of telephones. Thousands of tan plastic rotary-dial phones reached to the roof in tangles of cords. Piles of more distinctive models, such as phones affixed to beanbags or shaped like a genie's bottle, tumbled into the narrow walkways. Some phones were covered in dust, others wrapped and unused in their original boxes. "It's more than anyone wants to deal with," said Ms. Rongstad, a 62-year-old retired dairy farmer. When the collector of the phones, Robert Prosser, died in 2003 at the age of 81, Ms. Rongstad, his niece, and her three siblings inherited the unusual collection -- and a problem: what to do with it. Around this town of 1,089 people, the heirs now own a half-dozen other buildings, including a gymnasium, full of similar heaps of mixed-vintage phones -- more than 750,000 in all. At its peak, the collection numbered more than a million phones, making it the largest private phone collection in the world, Mr. Prosser claimed. "The next guy has about 10,000 phones and he bought them from me," he once boasted to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Now, the town wants the phones gone so it can restore some of the rundown warehouses, such as the 1928 gymnasium, as historic buildings. Ms. Rongstad's brother, Lance Gore, co-executor of the estate with her, thinks the collection is worth more than a million dollars and wants to hold out for a single buyer. Ms. Rongstad would like to be rid of the problem, even if that means dumping some of the phones in a landfill. Aghast at that idea, antique phone buffs want to pick over the sprawling collection for rare models and parts. "I'd like to have the rotary dials out of there," says Ronald Knappen, who started his own antique-phone business, 130 miles south in Galesville, Wis., with inventory he bought from Mr. Prosser in the early 1970s. Mr. Prosser got hooked on phones while growing up during the Depression. His family owned the Turtle Lake Telephone Co., which provided service to about 600 homes in a nine-mile radius of town. His mother, Ruth, worked the manual switchboard as the town operator. The family lived in a small apartment in the back of the phone office. At the time, there were more than 5,000 such tiny, independent phone companies across the U.S. But big phone companies were buying them up, in the process modernizing equipment and rendering huge numbers of phones obsolete. Mr. Prosser began collecting these castoffs after reading about a man collecting Ford Model T cars and parts in the 1930s. The collector was betting the vehicle would become valuable one day. A portion of Robert Prosser's phone collection piled up in a former creamery. Just out of high school at the time, Mr. Prosser figured the same would be true of old telephones. He began with wooden wall-phones, including many that his family's company was replacing with newer models. After the war, he took over the family phone company but left enough time to travel extensively to acquire rare models. Among them were an ornate crank-operated Eiffel Tower phone from France, a cradle phone with Arabic lettering that Mr. Prosser claimed was owned by the last sultan of Turkey and a 1903 phone made of iron. He also bought phones in bulk. With European governments revamping their damaged phone systems after the war, more unwanted phones became available. Mr. Prosser gobbled them up, once purchasing 60,000 phones from the Belgian government. That acquisition required five boxcars to ship to Turtle Lake, about 80 miles northeast of Minneapolis. "He has telephone-itis," proclaimed a 1988 "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" comic-book feature on him and his burgeoning collection. Nostalgic customers around the U.S. converted Mr. Prosser's wooden phones for use as planters, spice racks and liquor cabinets. The well-built devices also still worked as phones, making them popular in remote areas without phone service. Farmers, lumber companies and miners could string up their own private phone systems for their working needs. The 60,000 phones that Mr. Prosser bought in Belgium, which cost him 40 cents apiece, were initially resold for $1.50. By the late 1980s Mr.Prosser was charging $300 for them. A private collection in his basement included more-valuable models, such as an explosion-resistant military phone, a 14-carat gold Swedish phone and a "Silver Princess," which had a head of a princess that split open to reveal a phone. Between used phones and the family phone business, sold in 1991, Mr. Prosser grew wealthy. That fueled other hobbies. After his wife, Erma, died in 1983, he began spending more time in Las Vegas, says Connie Chumas, who was Mr. Prosser's stockbroker for 30 years and lives in nearby Eau Claire, Wis. "He loved the dice," says Mr. Chumas, who occasionally traveled with Mr. Prosser on gambling trips. "It was not unusual for him to have $50,000 to $100,000 on a table at a time." Ms. Rongstad says she still receives letters from several Las Vegas casinos demanding payment on his debts. But Mr. Prosser never stopped buying phones, believing even the latest models would become valuable some day, too. The collection grew to the end of his life: While he was on his deathbed, two truckloads of phones arrived from Canada, says Ms. Rongstad. "I once asked Bob what we'd do with all these phones if something ever happened to him," says Ms. Rongstad, who as a child cleaned phones for her uncle for 25 cents apiece. "He told me that if we didn't want them, he'd give them to someone else. We should've told him to do that." At the old gymnasium, stacks of phones blocked dormer windows. To move them from the loading area to the second floor, a conveyor belt had been run through a hole cut in the upper floor. One large wooden bin alone, with names like Trendline and Contempra scrawled on the sides, contained more than 30,000 phones, estimated George Pearson, 69. Together with his wife, Fern, 89, he had categorized and unloaded all the phones that Mr. Prosser bought. "People would ask me what I do for a living," said Mr. Pearson, who quit his job as a fireman in the 1980s to work for Mr. Prosser. "I told them if they didn't see it they wouldn't understand it." Ms. Rongstad is working with the town to apply for a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to clean up the sites. The creamery, which the town wants to condemn, may be contaminated with asbestos. She's talking with a Boston-based exporter who has expressed interest in buying the collection. And she's wondering whether there's potential as a tourist attraction. "You have to come up with something really creative, like building a huge phone out of all the phones," suggested William Bell, the town administrator, to Ms. Rongstad in his office. He quipped that such an attraction would not be so farfetched, noting "there is a troll museum in Wisconsin." Write to Christopher Rhoads at christopher.rhoads@wsj.com URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112890280105864097.html 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, Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 01:19:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Airline Hits Logan on Bid to Limit WiFi By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff American Airlines, the biggest carrier at Logan International Airport, is accusing Logan officials of 'strong-arming' to crush competitive alternatives to the airport's new high-speed Internet access service. The airline also alleges that the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, trumped up 'security concerns' and violations of airport terminal leases as a pretext for shutting down airlines' WiFi service. It contends Massport wanted to force passengers to pay $8 a day for Massport-controlled wireless Internet service. "Massport's objective is clearly to force all WiFi access onto the [Massport] system, either through strong-arming other providers or by preventing carriers from providing Internet access to their own patrons," wrote American Airlines attorney Alec Bramlett in a filing to the Federal Communications Commission late last month. Massport spokeswoman Danny Levy said Massport's security concerns 'are indeed accurate.' A profusion of airline-operated WiFi signals, Levy said, could jam radio frequencies used by the State Police and Transportation Security Administration. Levy said the TSA has already begun testing use of the Logan WiFi network for protected security operations. "Additional applications are planned for the future, but I cannot get into specifics," she said. WiFi, which stands for wireless fidelity, offers multimegabit Internet connections for laptop computers and other devices within so-called hot spots. Hot spots are zones within about 150 feet of a special radio transmitter that operates on nonlicensed airwaves similar to those used by baby monitors, cordless phones, and walkie-talkies. Massport first began offering its own airport-wide WiFi access at Logan in June 2004. Since then, the agency has ordered American to remove a competing WiFi service in its Admirals Club lounge in Terminal B, which wireless communications provider T-Mobile USA Inc. has been operating since 2000. In July Massport also ordered Continental Airlines Inc. to stop providing WiFi at its frequent-flier club, and ordered Delta Air Lines Inc. not to deploy WiFi in its new Terminal A. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/10/08/airline_hits_logan_on_bid_to_limit_wifi/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 00:16:01 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.31: Action Alert - Don't Touch That Dial, RIAA! EFFector Vol. 18, No. 31 September 15, 2005 danny@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 348th Issue of EFFector: * Action Alert: Don't Touch That Dial, RIAA! * EFF Hosts 15th Anniversay Party! * EFF Wins Unsealing of Secret Documents in Apple Case * TIVo Owners: Got Macrovision? * WIPO Development Agenda: Where Does Your Government Stand? * Boucher by the Bay: Fair Use Congressman To Visit Stanford * Weddings Not Cars: Giving to EFF * miniLinks (10): Notes from the Future * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/31.php ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 00:16:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.32: Don't Let Congress Ignore the Broadcast Treaty! EFFector Vol. 18, No. 32 September 23, 2005 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 348th Issue of EFFector: * Action Alert: Don't Let Congress Ignore the Broadcast Treaty! * Google's Card Catalog Should Be Left Open * EFF Hosts 15th Anniversary Party, October 2 * Election Reform Commission Urges Secure E-voting * EFF, Florida Disability Rights Advocates Fight to Avert E-voting Debacle * EFF in Canada: Protect Your Northern Rights! * CopyNight Reminder: Cocktails & Copyright, September 27 * miniLinks (10): Hollywood to Waste $30 Million Believing It Can Build Better Copy Protection * Staff Calendar: 09.24.05 - 09.25.05 - Annalee Newitz emcees Webzine 2005, San Francisco, CA; 09.25.05 - Jason Schultz speaks at ResFest, San Francisco, CA; 10.02.05 - EFF hosts 15th Anniversary Party, San Francisco, CA * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/32.php ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 00:13:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.33: Feds Unable to Search Own Anti-Terrorism Database EFFector Vol. 18, No. 33 September 29, 2005 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 349th Issue of EFFector: * Feds Unable to Search Own Anti-Terrorism Database * Trusted Computing Group to Lock Down Mobile Phones * FCC Mandate Forces "Backdoors" for Broadband ISPs and VoIP Services * Cell Phones Used to Track People Without Probable Cause * EFF Asks Supreme Court to Consider Controversial Patent Case * Come Celebrate EFF's 15th Anniversary, Sunday, Oct. 2 * miniLinks (8): More Rights Are Wrong for Broadcasters * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/33.php ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 00:14:24 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.34: Delaware Supreme Court Protects Anonymous Blogger EFFector Vol. 18, No. 34 October 6, 2005 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 350th Issue of EFFector: * Delaware Supreme Court Protects Anonymous Blogger * EFF Defends Right to Access Public Web Pages Without Getting Sued * Europe's Coming Broadcast Flag: A Stealth Attack on Innovation and Consumer Rights * EFF Partners with Craigslist for Nonprofit Boot Camp - October 8 * ACLU Freedom Files: "The Supreme Court" - October 13 * miniLinks (16): Declaration of InDRMpendence * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/34.php ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Monday 10th October 2005 Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 07:24:46 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com Help us with an important survey: http://www.cellular-news.com/survey/survey.php?sid=28 We will use the feedback to ensure that cellular-news stays focused on things which interest you. Many Thanks. ====================================================================== New GSM License for Bangladesh http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14331.php Bangladesh is planning to offer another GSM license in an open tender. Any applicant must either be an overseas company with existing GSM experience, or an existing local company or joint venture that has trade... Improving Telecoms Regulation in Africa http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14332.php Regulators from fifteen West African nations have agreed to a common regulatory framework for their national ICT markets. Regulators hammered out the new framework during a three-day validation workshop in Sept... Telecom Italia Prepares for Fixed Mobile Convergence http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14333.php Telecom Italia says that it is revamping its company to work towards fixed mobile convergence. Based on analyses provided by the working groups managing the integration, the Board of Directors of Telecom Italia... EDGE expands in the Czech Republic http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14334.php The Czech Republic based, Oskar Vodafone says that it is expanding its EDGE service coverage, and data services will be automatically made available to customers without calling customer care. Until now, custom... SMS for Burmese Mobile Phones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14335.php The few mobile phone users in Burma (Myanmar) are to be permitted use of SMS services for the first time. As befits the military controlled country though - all messages are to be passed though a censor in the ... South Africa Approves Mobile Number Portability http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14336.php The South African telecoms regulator, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has published its plans to launch Number Portability in the country. The policy will apply to both landline and... 3G - WLAN Router Launched by Vodafone http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14337.php Vodafone Netherlands has launced a 3G/UMTS Router, a mobile mini-hotspot. With 3G/UMTS Router five employees can work simultan- eously and wireless, on their company network. As soon as the mini- hotspot, with the... Vodafone Japan Mobile Phone Users Rise Net 3,300 In Sep http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14328.php The Japanese unit of U.K. mobile phone giant Vodafone Group Plc. (VOD) said Friday it gained 3,300 subscribers to its mobile phone services in September on a net basis, the forth consecutive month of increase. ... KDDI Gains Net 165,100 Mobile Phone Users In Sep http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14329.php KDDI Corp. (9433.TO) said Friday it gained 165,100 subscribers to its mobile phone services in September on a net basis. ... NTT DoCoMo Gains Net 124,800 Mobile Phone Users In Sep http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14330.php NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437.TO), Japan's largest mobile phone carrier, said Friday it gained a net 124,800 subscribers in September. ... O2 Considered Acquisition Of Amena, Wind-CEO http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14323.php O2 PLC, the U.K. mobile telecommunications company, Thursday said it considered acquiring both Spain's Amena and Italian operator Wind when those assets were for sale. ... 13 Companies Shortlisted For Tunisie Telecom Stake http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14324.php The Tunisian government said Friday it has pre-selected 13 companies, including Vivendi Universal (V), France Telecom (FTE), Telecom Italia SpA (TI) and Telefonica SA (TEF), to bid for 35% of state-owned Tunisie Telecom.... U.S. Court Refuses To Hear Research In Motion Appeal http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14327.php SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- A federal appeals court said Friday it wouldn't hear arguments to reconsider a prior decision that upheld several patent-infringment charges against Research In Motion Ltd., the mak... ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 02:36:18 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 23:49:31 +0000, John Levine wrote: > It's easy to get a feed of the root zone. Fill out a form from > Verisign, fax it back, and you too can FTP a copy from their server > whenever you want. BTDTGTZF > If you wanted to run your own root with a copy of the same data, you > could. But there's no point, since the real roots work just fine. I was thinking of a zone transfer, but your method is probably more than good enough, so I stand corrected. I don't think much of anybody other than a national government would want to do this. The reasons for that would be partly to make sure the US couldn't mess up their Internet operations, and partly a matter of not having to petition another sovereign power for changes they want to make. Of course, the dispute goes beyond control of DNS to allocation of IPV4 address space and other issues. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But although the 'real roots' work just > fine, as you note, someone starting their own competing root server > could bypass all the silly requirements of things like ICANN couldn't > he? In addition to copying all the data now in use, he could also start > his own domains, could he not? He could start a domain for example > called '.abracadabra' or whatever name and it would not be subject to > any rules but his own. Or am I missing something here? Only that his root domains would only be recognized by users of his root servers. There might be some use for this in setting up shorthand domain names, but it wouldn't make the actual sites private, since they would still have public underlying IP addresses. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Flash Drives Make any Computer Personal Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 16:25:27 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 19:27:32 -0700,Telecom Digest Editor wrote: > I had to run a driver disk with the Win 2000 also on the 'flash > device' and also on the Win 98 as well. They sure do want people to > buy newer computers, don't they? PAT] Let's have a little reality check here. Windows 95 which you used on one of your systems. That's *10* years ago! Windows 2000. That's *5* years ago. Time marches on. That's part of the reason Mac OSX works as well as it does. They don't *have* to have absolute compatibility with OS's that are many years old and have become obsolete. You get new software for your new and improved OS. Yes it costs money to do, but if you want to have your functionality you do have to upgrade. That's just the way of the world. Sometimes upgrading to a new OS is just something that you put off. I have put off upgrading to XP pro only because when I do put it on this machine I'm going to wipe the drive and start fresh rather than cobble my machine with old and new stuff. It's a question of saving what I need to save and then just taking the time to do it. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 16:47:34 -0700 From: Henry Cabot Henhouse III Subject: Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan I couldn't find reference to the "unlimited local w/500 national" minutes on the archived website that Daniel pointed me to, but the info from DevilsPGD confirms what I thought I signed up for... and the reason I changed my pcs to a 323 number so forwarded minutes would not count towards the 500 minutes. I don't recall ever receiving notification from Vonage that the plan changed. Vonage has been ok, I've only suffered through a few outages -- which affected everyone -- and fortunately I've never had the pain of trying to get through to them on the phone. I've recently considered switching to Sunrocket ... the website says they can port one of my Verizon Wireless numbers (310-995 Gardena) which Vonage can not do. I guess that, along with them being five bucks a month less than Vonage for unlimited, makes SR attractive to me. Anyone have any opinions on SR? Thanks, Dave ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 01:55:39 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 15:11:19 -0400, Norm wrote: > Now that was the story as told by Laura Fermi, eighteen years after it > happened, and twenty-five years (my first relaying of it) after I > heard it and now forty years (my second relaying of it.) Is it a true > story or not? Or was Mrs. Fermi a wee bit forgetful that night? Or > did I have too many shots of brandy or some other after-dinner liquor > in me? PAT] Well, I sent the original article to friends who were stationed near Alamogordo several years ago, and they found the house. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I seem to remember you writing here to tell me about them finding the house which had formerly belonged to the switchboard operator. I do not remember if your report said the house was still telco property and in use (for something else, obviously) or not. PAT ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 02:10:55 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 07:16:17 -0400, Tony P. wrote: > In article , george@m5p.com says... >> Anybody who wants to can set up their own name servers, and they don't >> have to ever connect to the current root name servers. But few people >> are inclined to do this. Ninety-nine percent of users will simply >> configure their systems to use their ISP's name servers by virtue of >> doing nothing: DHCP, the same protocol by which they receive their IP >> address assignment, will also tell them the IP address(es) to use for >> domain name lookups. Ninety-nine percent of ISPs will use the root >> name server hints which were packaged with their own name server setup >> packages, and guess where those hints will send domain name requests >> for the root zone? > Actually it's DNS that tells them. DHCP does nothing more than dish out > an IP address and various routing information. George was correct. One of the items DHCP can pass is DNS server addresses. You can configure your system not to use them, but most users don't know how. Nor do they have much reason to do so. I have thought about running a caching only server myself, but problems with my ISP's servers have tended to go away before I worked up the energy. ------------------------------ From: Brian E Williams Subject: Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord Date: 10 Oct 2005 07:33:05 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I do appreciate you taking the time to set me straight. I promise that is the last time I ever top post or quote an entire post. Cross my heart. Joseph wrote: > On 8 Oct 2005 05:56:38 -0700, BrianEWilliams > wrote: >> Sorry for the top post, but I just want to thank both of you for your >> very helpful response. I will report back my results when my POTS ends >> Oct 22. BTW, this is a single family home, and my neighbor's home has >> the standard RJ-11 plugs whereas mine has this funky setup. >> John McHarry wrote: >>> On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 11:52:19 -0700, Brian E Williams wrote: >>>> http://tinyurl.com/9jqae >>>> Above link is a picture of the inside of my outside telecom box here >>>> in the USA. I want to route my Vonage VoIP service to my internal >>>> phone network, so first I am going to disconnect the internal network > No, I will not accept an apology. You should well know that it's > *never* necessary to requote an entire original article especially a > long one. You quote a few lines to jog your reader's memory. You do > *not* barf back an entire original article at your audience. Whoever > taught you that bad behavior didn't know much about on line > communication. Whether top post or bottom post over quotation is > never good under any circumstance. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 #461 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Oct 11 15:18:32 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 68E6215009; Tue, 11 Oct 2005 15:18:32 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #462 Message-Id: <20051011191832.68E6215009@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 15:18:32 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.1 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 11 Oct 2005 15:18:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 462 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Yahoo Expands News Searches to Include Blogs (Eric Auchard) Internet Enters Bold Second Act (Mark Trumbull) Cellular-News for Tuesday 11th October 2005 (Cellular-News) BellSouth Expands Wireless Broadband Service, (USTelecom dailyLead) NEC 2400 Out of Extensions (Jason Wasser) PocketDISH Portable Media Companion (Monty Solomon) Location Tracking - For People, Products, Places (Monty Solomon) Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID - Serial Port? (anon1) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (Gordon Burditt) Re: Dispute Leads to Internet Woes for Thousands of Users (Henhouse III) Re: Life Beyond Earth (Linc Madison) Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan (DevilsPGD) Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan (J Kelly) 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: Eric Auchard Subject: Yahoo Expands News Searches to Include Blogs Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:00:03 -0500 by Eric Auchard Yahoo Inc. said on Monday it will begin featuring the work of self-published Web bloggers side-by-side with the work of professional journalists, leveling distinctions between the two. Yahoo News, the world's most popular Internet media destination, is set to begin testing on Tuesday an expanded news search system that includes not only news stories and blogs but also user-contributed photos and related Web links. The move will further stoke the debate between media traditionalists who want to maintain strict walls between news and commentary and those who argue such boundaries are elitist and undervalue the work of "citizen journalists." Blogs, short for Web logs, are easy-to-publish Web sites where millions of individuals post commentary from political analysis to personal musings, creating a grassroots publishing medium that challenges established media's authority. Yahoo said its move to combine professionally edited news alongside the work of grassroots commentators promises to enrichen the sources of information on breaking news events. "Traditional media doesn't have the time and resources to cover all the stories," Joff Redfern, product director for Yahoo Search said. "It really does add substantially to what you are looking at when you are looking for news." Yahoo has, in effect, created a three-tier system for finding news that starts with the links to top ten stories and related photographs produced by mainstream news organizations on the main Yahoo News site. Readers searching for further details will be taken to a second-level news site, which splits the page between news from 6,500 professional sources and links to the hundreds of thousands of blogs available from its syndication service. Thus the expanded search stops short of blurring all lines between edited news and self-publishing. "We do try to demarcate what is mainstream media and what is user-generated content so that there is no confusion there," Redfern said. Those choosing to dig still deeper can click on "More Blog results..." to be taken to purely user-generated news from blogs, photos and links. This allow the user to search 10 million blogs listed on Yahoo's blogs blog tracking service. The search includes links to many of the 42 million photos on the popular Flickr photo-sharing site, which Yahoo acquired this past spring, as well as to My Web, Yahoo's mechanism for allowing its users to learn from the Web searches of others. FIGHTING TO DEFINE JOURNALISM Robert Thompson, a media studies professor at Syracuse University, said it was important to preserve the distinctions between professional journalism and personal commentary. He defined professional journalism as reporting which adheres to standards of accuracy and writing subjected to an editorial process, and all done with an eye to journalistic ethics -- however often journalism falls short of these goals. "There is a distinction between something that has gone through an editorial process as opposed to something put up by someone that has been through none of those processes," Thompson said. But media critic Jeff Jarvis, author of the blog Buzzmachine (http://www.buzzmachine.com), said major Internet sites such as Yahoo and Google continue to patronize bloggers by treating them as secondary sources of news. Jarvis, who is a former TV critic for TV Guide and People magazines, mocked the notion that journalists live by a shared set of professional standards, that they are better trained or more trustworthy than the anyone-can-join blog movement. "What made the voice of the people somehow less important than the paid professional journalist?" he asked. "You don't need to have a degree, you don't need to have a paycheck, you don't need to have a byline," Jarvis said. "If you inform the public, you are committing an act of journalism," he declared. 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: Mark Trumbull Subject: Internet Enters a Bold Second Act Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:59:47 -0500 By Mark Trumbull, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Across the high-tech landscape, tectonic plates are shifting. Google, the company that's king of the online search, recently offered to provide wireless Internet access to the entire city of San Francisco -- for free. Apple Computer now offers an iPod music player so tiny it could get lost in your wallet. And the British Broadcasting Corp. is starting to offer many of its TV programs in digitized formats online. In their own ways, these developments point to a common theme: Led by the Internet, the high-tech industry appears to be entering a vibrant new phase of both growth and upheaval. This is a far different boom from the dotcom craze of the late 1990s. It is the Web's sober second act, characterized not by soaring stock prices but by forces that are challenging traditional industries -- from publishing to telecommunications -- to adopt new business plans. Consumers seem to be the only sure winners. "We've taken a huge step forward and moved from a stage of concept to a stage of product and service delivery," says Brooks Gray, vice president of Technology Business Research in Hampton, N.H. His warning is clear: "There are some sizable risks to companies that don't evolve." The maturing of the Internet as an engine of the global economy is being driven by a handful of important forces: Prices and sizes shrink. Miniature "flash memory" technology, for example, is enabling the rise of little gadgets that link people to the Web. Transferring songs from the Internet to a shirt-pocket music player is just one example. Next, in an announcement Wednesday, could come iPods that show music videos. And cellphones will soon display TV episodes. Information goes digital. Lines are blurring between computers and traditional consumer devices such as phones, television sets, or even printed books and newspapers. Finally, "digital convergence" -- the fusion of computing with other traditional industries foreseen in the 1990s -- is happening in earnest, challenging traditional communications industries. Mobility expands. Wireless services, such as the network Google envisions in San Francisco, are making the Web portable, not just a desk-bound tool. Shopping for shoes? A smartphone will help navigate as you hoof it from store to store. As all these trends shower consumers with new products and services, corporations face both risks and opportunities. The good news, experts say, is that the online realm has reached critical mass. As of this fall, an estimated 1 billion people worldwide have Web access. In the US, the share of Internet users with high-speed connections is passing 50 percent. Online advertising revenue is soaring, and consumers are getting used to the notion of paying for services online. But as information is digitized, profit margins can get squeezed. The Internet may be maturing, but it's not yet yielding the rich rewards that top companies typically reap when an industry reaches full bloom. Instead, it's shaking up a host of traditional industries. Consider telecommunications. Businesses and consumers are increasingly flocking to upstart providers like Vonage, which send calls over the Web for a fraction of the traditional land-line cost. The rise of wireless online networks adds to the potential for price wars. These networks compete with phone and cable wires to take people online. They also could give consumers an alternative to traditional cellphone voice traffic. "It's good for everybody except possibly the providers" of all these networks, says Allyn Hall, an expert in wireless technologies for the market-research firm In-Stat, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Advertising revenue may help Google or some other bidder to finance a free wireless network that San Francisco hopes to create. Such efforts, under consideration in other US cities, represent a direct challenge to traditional phone companies. So it's likely they will fight back not only with rival service plans but also by lobbying lawmakers and regulators. "Never bet against the regulated providers," Mr. Hall says. But in this battle to provide access to an array of online services, the winner will be "perhaps less dependent on technology than on other factors like marketing," he says. The providers of content, such as media conglomerate Time Warner, face a different set of challenges. As content goes digital, these firms are learning to get consumers to pay for the information and news they get online. And they're finding more advertisers who will help foot the bill. By 2010, online ad revenues are expected to more than double from last year's $9.3 billion. The problem of illegal copying, which has plagued the music industry, must be solved anew for video products as TV goes online. Whatever the hurdles, Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons recently said the Web -- specifically his company's troubled merger with Internet service provider AOL -- is where the "growth opportunity" lies. Mainstream high-tech companies are also scrambling for their place in the wild wild Web. The most closely watched battle pits Microsoft, the dominant software provider for personal computers, against Web-search giant Google. "Google is certainly the best candidate that's come along in a long time to displace Microsoft," says Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research. That doesn't mean it will. Microsoft is famous for tenaciously fending off threats, and has recently reorganized, in part to strengthen its MSN Web services. The company has also discussed a possible alliance with AOL. But Google embodies a whole new model of computing. Where Microsoft has traditionally helped people make the most of their own PC, Google wants the Internet to be a giant personal computer for the planet. It's stated mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible." The more the Internet becomes such a tool, the less important traditional desktop software like Microsoft's becomes. The PC becomes just a way to get on to the Web. Mr. Wilcox isn't counting Microsoft out just yet. But "Google could be in a very good position if it executes well," he says. And as all these battles shake out, consumers stand to be in the best position of all. Their main challenge may be the old one of competing standards. Remember Betamax vs. VHS? Today, consumers could pay $299 for an iPod, only to find that next year's music player comes from a different company. Copyright 2005 The Christian Science Monitor 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, The Christian Science Publishing Society. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Read NY Times, CS Monitor and NPR News headlines and stories each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Tuesday 11th October 2005 Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 07:41:05 -0500 From: cellular-news Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com Alcatel Wins Cambodian GSM Contract http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14349.php Alcatel has signed a US$8.8 million contract to expand and upgrade the GSM network of Cambodia's CamGSM. With this agreement Alcatel becomes CamGSM's sole supplier of radio network solutions. Alcatel will also extend the... Cingular Wireless Corrects Subscriber Count Reports http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14350.php Cingular Wireless says that it has corrected the number of customers it reported at the end of the second quarter of 2005 from 51.596 million to 51.442 million. This change has no impact on the company's previous financi... Specialist Phone Insurance Overpriced - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14351.php Just under 2,000 mobile phones are stolen in the UK every day making it important for customers to consider insurance. But the British Insurance Brokers' Association warns that mobile phone insurance policies can prove e... Italy Getting Digital TV on Mobiles http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14352.php Mediaset and Italy's TIM have reached an agreement that will become the basis for a commercial launch of digital terrestrial TV on mobile phones using DVBH (Digital Video Broadcast Handheld) technology.... New Smartphone from SonyEricsson http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14353.php Sony Ericsson is launching an upgraded smartphone, the P990 - which will be the first commercially available smartphone to adopt the enhanced Symbian OS version 9.1 and UIQ 3 software platform. This flagship UMTS smartph... Use SMS to Boil Water http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14354.php The tea seller, PG Tips has teamed up with Orange UK to develop a PG Tips branded kettle - that can be switched on by sending it an SMS. Inspired by loveable inventors Wallace & Gromit, PG Tips, best known for the innova... FOCUS: Russia mulls fighting mobile handset thieves http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14293.php Russia is facing a rising problem of mobile handsets theft. In 2004, the Moscow police officially registered over 7,000 mobile handset thefts. However, analysts consider that the real number of stolen mobile handsets is ... Belarus MDC mobile subscriber base up 4.1% in September http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14297.php The subscriber base of Belarus mobile phone operator Mobile Digital Connection (MDC) increased 4.1% on the month in September to 1.645 million users, the company said Tuesday. ... Ukraine's Jeans mobile subscriber base up to 5 mln users Sep 30 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14300.php The subscriber base of Ukraine's Jeans rose 74% since the beginning of the year to 5 million users as of September 30, Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC) said in a press release. ... Russia's Euroset to cooperate in MVNO project with MTT http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14301.php Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset has concluded an agreement with Multiregional Transit Telecom (MTT) on cooperation in the development of Euroset's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) project, an MTT... TeliaSonera says holders to invest $60 mln in Moldova's Moldcell in 5 yrs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14303.php Shareholders of Moldova's mobile service operator Moldcell plan to invest U.S. $60 million in the company within five years, Anders Igel, CEO of TeliaSonera, Moldcell's key shareholder, said Wednesday. ... Belarus' BeST to buy $234 mln equipment from Alcatel Shanghai http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14313.php Belarus state-controlled mobile operator Belarus Telecommunications Network, or BeST, has signed an agreement with China's Alcatel Shanghai Bell to purchase the Chinese company's telecommunications equipment for U... Russia's VimpelCom to launch tariff with free cell phone in Dec http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14316.php Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom plans to launch a tariff with a free mobile handset included in the price of the subscription fee, the company said in a press release Thursday. ... Russia's VimpelCom user base in Far East hits 1 million people http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14319.php The subscriber base of Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom in the country's Far East Federal District has exceeded 1 million people, the company said on Thursday. ... Russian court freezes SMARTS' shares once again http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14325.php Russia's regional court in St. Petersburg has frozen 100% of the shares of Russian regional mobile operator SMARTS, Kommersant business daily reported Friday, citing Gennady Kiryushin, the company's general director. ... Finland's Elcoteq opens telecom equip plant in Russia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14326.php Russia's ZAO Elcoteq, a subsidiary of Finland's electronics manufacturing company Elcoteq Network Corporation, opened a telecommunications equipment plant in St. Petersburg on Friday, Elcoteq's CEO Antti Piippo said at... Hong Kong Hutchison Whampoa Says 3G Subscribers Surpass 10 Million http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14338.php Jones)- Ports-to-telecommunications conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. said Monday its third-generation mobile phone subscribers surpassed 10 million worldwide. ... Hong Kong Hutchison Telecom Plans US$1 Billion Loan - Sources http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14339.php Jones)- Hong Kong-listed telecom operator Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. (HTX) is planning to launch a US$1 billion syndicated loan this week to finance expansion in India, Indonesia and Vietnam, people ... EUROPE MARKETS: Telecom Equipment Shares Climb In Europe http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14340.php s) -- Telecom equipment shares gave European markets a lift Monday amid reports that Ericsson is near a deal to buy smaller rival Marconi and on optimism from the chief executive of Nokia, the world's leading mobile-hand... Dobson Communications Puts 3Q Net Subscriber Base Down 24,100 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14341.php Dow Jones)- Dobson Communications Corp. (DCEL) expects to report a net subscriber reduction of about 24,100 for the third quarter, compared with a net addition of 1,200 in the year-earlier period, and the company announc... PRESS: Russia's VimpelCom may start ops in 9 Far East regions http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14342.php Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom may get frequencies for operation in GSM 900 frequencies in nine regions in the Far East Federal District, Vedomosti business daily reported Monday, citing a letter fro... CWA Members On Strike At Sprint In Four States http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14343.php Jones)- Nearly 1,000 Communications Workers of America members working at Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) went on strike early Monday protesting the company's calls for benefits cuts in contract negotiations for workers at its ... MegaFon says ups base stations in Moscow to 1,500 units http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14344.php Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon has increased the number of base stations in the Moscow License Area (MLA) to 1,500 units as of now from 1,000 units as of January 1, the company's General Director Sergei... Nextel Partners Responds To Sprint Nextel Lawsuit http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14345.php ones)- The dispute between Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) and affiliate Nextel Partners Inc. (NXTP) got uglier Monday as Nextel Partners fired back a response to Sprint's legal action. ... AC&M says Russia's mobile user base up to 111.74 mln on Sep 30 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14346.php The number of mobile phone service subscribers in Russia increased to 111.74 million people as of September 30 from 107.33 million people as of August 31, Advanced Communications & Media (AC&M) said in a report released ... Russia's SMARTS launches EDGE technology in test mode http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14347.php Russian regional mobile operator SMARTS has launched Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) technology in test mode, the company said Monday. ... America Movil Launches New Claro Trademark In Peru http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14348.php Mexican wireless communications provider America Movil SA (AMX) launched its new Claro mobile-phone trademark in Peru on Monday. ... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:02:58 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: BellSouth Expands Wireless Broadband Service, Strikes Deal USTelecom dailyLead October 11, 2005 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vvhUatagCrppyVMalM TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * BellSouth expands wireless broadband service, strikes deal with Sprint BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Marconi won't comment on reports of Ericsson bid * Carriers see gold in mobile gaming market * AT&T offers 911 solution for roaming VoIP users * Icahn boosts stake, increases pressure on Time Warner USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Free Tomorrow: CALEA Update - Impact on VoIP and Broadband Telephony HOT TOPICS * Sprint Nextel sues Vonage * Texas grants first state-issued cable franchise * More big companies consider own fiber networks * Report: Verizon Wireless to roll out live TV in 2006 * Report: SBC to use AT&T brand TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Wi-Fi group seeks approval for new tech specs * Coming wireless TV boom could benefit Qualcomm REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Pay phones live on in some rural towns * Sprint Nextel asks court to review Nextel Partners deal Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vvhUatagCrppyVMalM ------------------------------ From: Jason Wasser Subject: NEC 2400 Out of Extensions Date: 10 Oct 2005 12:54:29 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com We have an NEC 2400 and we're running out of extensions. How do we get more? We're currently only using three digit extensions. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:42:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: PocketDISH Portable Media Companion DISH Network Introduces PocketDISH Portable Media Companion; Three Handheld Styles Play Music, Store Photos, and Display TV Entertainment, Anywhere - Oct 11, 2005 08:02 AM (BusinessWire) ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 11, 2005--EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) and its DISH Network(TM) satellite TV service announced today the rollout of its PocketDISH(TM), a new line of portable media companions. Enhancing the most on-the-go lifestyles, the handheld PocketDISH downloads and plays thousands of MP3s, stores and displays photos and is one of the industry's first video players. PocketDISH gives TV viewers the ability to take their favorite sitcoms, reality shows or even last night's game with them to watch anywhere. The sleek, silver PocketDISH is available in three models: two portable media recorders and a portable media player. With the choice of a crystal-clear 2.2-inch, 4-inch or 7-inch LCD screen, PocketDISH is one of the most advanced portable media devices available and provides consumers the ultimate convenience in how they watch television. Compatible with most TVs and consumer electronic devices on the market today, the units can download or record content from a PC or Mac, digital cameras, mass storage devices, as well as other video or audio sources such as DVD players, camcorders and VCRs. DISH Network customers will enjoy a special feature of ultra-fast video transfer speeds when attaching PocketDISH to select DISH Network digital video recorders (DVRs) via a USB 2.0 connection. For instance, an hour of DISH Network programming can be transferred to the PocketDISH hard drive in about five minutes. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52278962 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:07:54 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Location Tracking - For People, Products, Places Location tracking -- for people, products, places -- is fast coming into its own It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your _______ is? By Andrew Caffrey, Globe Staff | October 10, 2005 In one operating room at Massachusetts General Hospital, doctors and nurses wear radio tags that register their comings and goings on a 42-inch television screen so other members of the medical team know who is attending the surgery at any given moment. At an old-soldiers home in King, Wis., elderly residents who are at risk of wandering off carry a small wireless beacon that signals their location within a residential facility, and triggers an audio alert over the public address system when one gets close to a potentially risky area, such as a stairwell. At the Illinois Institute of Technology, prospective students could take a self-guided tour using a tablet PC that spits out information on activities happening near where they are standing on the Chicago campus or gives them architectural highlights of the Mies van der Rohe building as they walk by. Such tracking technologies, including new applications for Global Positioning Systems, are coming to a campus, cafe, or care center near you. After years of false starts and underwhelming results, systems for locating people, places, and objects are finally finding themselves. Once the province of the fanciful imagination of Q from the James Bond series, location technologies are wending their way into ordinary business practices and extraordinary human applications, from monitoring the elderly to connecting a cardiac patient admitted to the emergency room with the nearest surgeon. The advances are being aided by upgrades in hand-held and other mobile devices, which can now process prodigious amounts of data generated by navigation and related technologies. Communications networks are more robust and can provide more saturated coverage, and the costs of chip sets for GPS and other tracking technologies have fallen steeply. Indeed, consumers are now so accepting of mobile devices such as cellphones that industry analysts predict they won't be reluctant to adopt this next wave of newfangled technologies. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/10/10/location_tracking____for_people_products_places____is_fast_coming_into_its_own/ ------------------------------ From: anon1@sci.sci Subject: Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 12:53:17 -0700 Organization: UseNetServer.com > Assuming you are looking for a device that receives Caller-ID, and the > voice menu stuff is done by something else, .. That's a very bad assumption. It's the voice-menu touch-tone: press 1 if you are a personal acquaintance whose first name I would recognize; press 2 if you are calling me in regard to an existing business relationship such as a credit card or bank account; press 3 if you are a stranger trying to call me to advertise a product or service; press 4 if you are offering me a job; press 5 if you are a stranger trying to call for personal reasons such as you want to discuss something interesting I posted in a newsgroup; press 6 if we met in person but I don't yet know your name but I'd remember meeting you.) which I don't have and am seeking. Do you know what such a device would be called and which newsgroup would be appropriate for asking about such devices? It would be nice if that one device also included decoding of caller-ID, so that I can put up different touch-tone monus depending on whether the call provides caller-ID or not and if so then whether the call is from somebody whose number I already know, and if a number I already know then depending on the number: -- You have harassed me and I asked you to stop calling. But here you go calling me to harass me again. Your call will be reported to the police. -- Hi daddy. Phone is ringing now. If I'm here, I'll answer shortly. -- Hi Margaret. Nice to hear from you. If I'm here, I'll answer shortly. > "a cheap modem". It needs Caller-ID but it doesn't need 56K or even > 33.6k speeds. You don't want to set it up to auto-answer. The modem's > RING response code will include caller-ID if it's set up to return it. I already have a modem, a SupraExpress 56. When the phone rings, the modem sends just the word RING on a line by itself, with a blank line between consecutive RINGs. I don't know of any way to make it detect caller-ID and report that. > The various Digium PCI cards used by Asterisk to interface with analog > phone lines let you do a lot more, including the voice menu stuff > itself, but they don't do RS-232. I don't think a mere "card" would be of any use to me. It doesn't sound like anything I can connect up to a phone line and program/configure in any simple manner. But just in case I'm mistaken in rejecting your suggestion, please tell me how somebody would program the "card" to set up the various touch-tone menus? Is there a keypad on the "card" for entering configuration commands, and a LED or LCD display on the "card" for getting responses to verify what I'm doing? > Try www.callerid.com and check out the Whozz Calling box. I looked on that Web site, but didn't see any description of the Whozz Calling box nor any link to such information. The only mention was "using our Whozz Calling? family of multi-line hardware." with no link to info about the device. The text " Features simple viewing, logging, and networking of both incoming and outgoing Caller ID . Setup screen, search and find hardware routine, help screens, documentation, and source code included." appears to refer not to the box but to some software that wouldn't run on my Macintosh in any case, and there's no mention of either software or hardware providing any touch-tone menu. I did a Google search for "Whozz Calling box" and found: http://www.sandman.com/callerid.html Whozz Calling 2 Rear Panel 2 ports with a DB-9 Serial output to connect to a Serial Printer or PC! Has a 250 Call Buffer, to store calls until you download them to your PC - using any terminal program with a "Save to Disk" feature! OK, that would be a slight improvement on my current TPC-supplied caller-ID box which stores only the last 25 caller-ID info and requires me to manually view each individual record and manually re-key the information into a text editor. But I see nothing about supporting touch-tone menus. * See any DTMF digits dialed ON INBOUND CALLS! Use this to verify what mailbox was dialed along with the Caller ID number! I assume DTMF is the technical name/abbreviation for the tones used by "touch tone" dialing. In the absense of any outgoing message, there's no reason anyone would key in any DTMF tones after getting a connection, so by itself this is of no use here. I really need something that will enforce a touch-tone (DTMF) menu, which anonymous or other unknown/suspicious callers must traverse before they will be allowed to ring my phone. I don't see any indication that Whozz will provide that capability. If there's no such device that handles both touch-tone menus and caller-ID decoding to pick which menu to use at the start, then I'd settle for a device that didn't have any caller-ID decoding at all, merely uses the same touch-tone menu for all callers, and rings my phone only if the caller passes a "Turing" test for establishing the person as a known friendly acquaintance or relative. (I currently get ten to twenty harassing calls per day, and maybe one or two non-harassing calls per month. I would like the touch-tone menu to filter out everything except those very few non-harassing calls.) ------------------------------ From: gordonb.youeh@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 22:12:26 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But although the 'real roots' work just >> fine, as you note, someone starting their own competing root server >> could bypass all the silly requirements of things like ICANN couldn't >> he? In addition to copying all the data now in use, he could also start >> his own domains, could he not? He could start a domain for example >> called '.abracadabra' or whatever name and it would not be subject to >> any rules but his own. Or am I missing something here? I don't have to pretend to be a root server to set up my own top-level domains. If I want ".abracadabra", I can set up my server to serve it, possibly delegating it to some other server (in BIND, this is a "forward zone") or slaving the .abracadabra zone from some other server. I can use the normal root servers for all the other stuff, except the OFFICIAL .abracadabra should it ever exist. Of course, the only machines that will see this are ones using servers (directly or indirectly) that know about this zone. If I can convince enough people to use my servers or (e.g. use "forwarders" in a BIND config file) point a reference to .abracadabra to my servers (the BIND "forward zone"), I might actually be able to sell domain names in that zone profitably (dream on!). > Only that his root domains would only be recognized by users of his > root servers. There might be some use for this in setting up shorthand > domain names, but it wouldn't make the actual sites private, since they > would still have public underlying IP addresses. To say nothing of the fact that DNS is usually public: if you have a zone on your server, I can normally query it directly if it has a public IP address and you didn't put in an access list to restrict who to answer queries from. Gordon L. Burditt ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 16:17:21 -0700 From: Henry Cabot Henhouse III Subject: Re: Dispute Leads to Internet Woes for Thousands of Users I'll bet a lot of traffic coming from Cogentco is spam and porn ... a large percentage of traceroutes to .cn hosts where spam originates traces back to the Cogentco network. Cogentco also sells to companies that resell to pornographers. I ran across a spammer on IRC hawking kiddie porn using a redirect. Traced it to hostf*ck.com, which is off a provider off Cogentco. Do you think anyone at Cogentco cares? Nope. As long as the customer pays the bill, Cogentco doesn't care what kind of filth they deal with. Cogentco is worse than just a haven for spammers ... they're a haven for smut merchants. Andy Sullivan wrote in message news:telecom24.459.4@telecom-digest.org: > By Andy Sullivan > Thousands of Internet users struggled to send e-mail and keep their > Web sites running on Thursday after a dispute between two service > providers left large portions of the Internet unable to talk to each > other. > Computer technicians scrambled to shore up their networks after Level > 3 Communications Inc. refused to accept traffic from rival Cogent > Communications Group Inc., rendering large portions of the Internet > unreachable by others. > "We weren't able to get to our e-mail systems, we weren't able to get > to our externally hosted chat systems," said Bob Serr, chief > technology officer at Chicago instant-messaging provider Parlano > Inc. "Some customers say they've had trouble getting to our Web site." > The rift meant that thousands of customers -- including individuals > who use Time Warner Inc.'s Road Runner cable-modem service -- were not > able to view Web sites and send e-mail to servers located on the other > company's network, violating the Internet's premise as a universal, > borderless network of computers. > The dispute affects roughly 15 percent to 17 percent of the Internet, > Cogent CEO Dave Schaeffer said. > "The usability and value people get out of the Internet is highly > dependent on its ability to be ubiquitous and affordable, and I think > what Level 3 is attempting to do is undermine both of those core > principles," he said in an interview. > TOO MUCH COGENT TRAFFIC > Like other large, wholesale Internet service providers, Cogent and > Level 3 handed off traffic from one network to each other free of > charge, until Level 3 said that it was handling too much Cogent > traffic. > "We felt that there was an imbalance and we were disadvantaged in that > relationship and we were ending up with what amounts to free capacity," > Level 3 spokeswoman Jennifer Daumler said. > Cogent's Schaeffer said Level 3 was simply trying to get Cogent to > raise its prices, which at $10 per megabit are far below the market > average of $60 or so per megabit. > Larger customers of each company have been little affected by the > dispute because they usually sign agreements with several different > wholesale providers. > But customers who rely entirely on either provider for their Internet > connections would not be able to reach any Web sites or servers on the > others' network, those involved in the dispute said. > That would include law firms, community colleges and companies like > Parlano, which face lost business and angry customers from the outage. > "It's kind of a game of chicken to see who's going to blink first, and > to see whose customer base wants connectivity to the other customers' > more," said Alan Mauldin, an analyst at TeleGeography Research in > Washington. > Parlano's Serr said he would stick with Cogent as his provider for the > time being because he saw Level 3's move as "strong-arm tactics." > Road Runner said its customers have not been able to visit Web sites > and send e-mail to Cogent customers. > "We are working to find alternate pathways so our customers can be > connected with these Web sites as soon as possible," Road Runner said > in a statement. > Representatives for America Online Inc., EarthLink Inc. and Microsoft > Corp.'s MSN service said their customers have not been affected by the > dispute. > Cogent ran into a similar dispute with America Online several years > ago but it was resolved amicably, AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said. > Cogent said it was offering Level 3 customers affected by the dispute > a year of free service if they wished to switch providers. Level 3 > said it was working with its customers to ensure they could reach the > entire Internet. > "Level 3 is working with their customers and Cogent needs to work with > its customers," Level 3's Daumler said. "If Cogent wants to make its > customers happy they've got to figure out a way to get that > connectivity to the Internet." > 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. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Life Beyond Earth Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 00:06:19 -0700 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: lincmad@suespammers.org Organization: California resident; nospam; no unsolicited e-mail allowed In article , Brad Guth wrote: > This "Life beyond Earth?" is yet another very nicely composed > article. However, I've also noticed as to how nicely you've avoided > the nearest of such orbs as having been perfectly good for another > chapter or two within your "Life beyond Earth" topic, that are by far > the most humanly accessible and should perhaps remain as keen > interest to humanity for less than a penny on the dollar. > Are you and your readers up for the task of an icy proto-moon or > that of Venus? In order to go explore an icy proto-moon of earth, there first has to actually EXIST an icy proto-moon of earth. As for Venus, we're more likely to play a soccer match against the folks from Alpha Centauri than to find recognizable life on Venus. Although it is obviously possible that some radically different form of life exists elsewhere in the universe, all life on earth is dependent on the existence of liquid water, which is completely absent on Venus. To bring this back to some shred of telecom relevance, I was at a shopping mall this afternoon and saw a whole *booth* devoted to products to protect me from the risk that my cellphone could cause brain cancer. The products included some hands-free ear pieces that at least move the source of radiation away from your brain, which would significantly reduce the danger if there actually were any danger to begin with. However, they also included some little metallic stickers to place over the speaker grille of the cellphone itself, for people who insist on holding the phone right up against their brain cases. Those would be utterly superfluous even if there were a real risk, but they claim to reduce harmful radiation by up to 78%. Where is the bunko squad when you need them? Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad d0t c0m Read my political blog, "The Third Path" DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 17:11:58 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message Henry Cabot Henhouse III wrote: > I couldn't find reference to the "unlimited local w/500 national" > minutes on the archived website that Daniel pointed me to, but the > info from DevilsPGD confirms what I thought I signed up for... and the > reason I changed my pcs to a 323 number so forwarded minutes would not > count towards the 500 minutes. > I don't recall ever receiving notification from Vonage that the plan > changed. If you were on that plan, you were upgraded to the unlimited national plan at no additional charge. ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:26:12 -0500 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@*newsguy.com On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 16:47:34 -0700, Henry Cabot Henhouse III wrote: > I couldn't find reference to the "unlimited local w/500 national" > minutes on the archived website that Daniel pointed me to, but the > info from DevilsPGD confirms what I thought I signed up for... and the > reason I changed my pcs to a 323 number so forwarded minutes would not > count towards the 500 minutes. > I don't recall ever receiving notification from Vonage that the plan > changed. > Vonage has been ok, I've only suffered through a few outages -- which > affected everyone -- and fortunately I've never had the pain of trying > to get through to them on the phone. > I've recently considered switching to Sunrocket ... the website says > they can port one of my Verizon Wireless numbers (310-995 Gardena) > which Vonage can not do. I guess that, along with them being five > bucks a month less than Vonage for unlimited, makes SR attractive to > me. > Anyone have any opinions on SR? > Thanks, > Dave Check over on broadbandreports.com for reviews. I seem to recall seeing a lot of posts there about SR being down a lot. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 #462 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Oct 12 00:46:37 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 540F914FDE; Wed, 12 Oct 2005 00:46:36 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #463 Message-Id: <20051012044636.540F914FDE@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 00:46:36 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.1 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 12 Oct 2005 00:46:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 463 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MSN and Yahoo Connect Their Instant Messenger Services (Reuters News) AT&T Internet VOIP Service to Require Fixed Location (Reuters News Wire) Search for Four in New England Flood (Katharine Webster) Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? (mhd) EchoStar Introduces Portable Media Player (Monty Solomon) Linksys and Skype Team Up to Launch New Cordless Handset (Monty Solomon) Audiovox Corporation Reports 2005 Fiscal Third Quarter (Monty Solomon) 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: Reuters News Wire Subject: MSN and Yahoo Connect Their Instant Messenger Service Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 22:21:08 -0500 Microsoft, Yahoo to link instant message services Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. are preparing to link together their free instant messaging services as they take on entrenched messaging leader AOL and market newcomer Google Inc., a source close to the companies said on Tuesday. The deal, the first major alliance between two of the Web's main providers of instant messaging, will allow users of Microsoft's MSN Messenger service and Yahoo Messenger to swap instantaneous text messages with each other. A Microsoft spokeswoman and a Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment on the alliance, first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The tie-up, expected to be announced on Wednesday, will also give users of both services the ability to communicate via voice as well, a feature that up to now has been restricted to users within each service, the source said. AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc. is currently the market leader in the instant messaging space with a share of 56 percent, according to research firm Radicati Group. But with Microsoft and Yahoo making up the rest of the market, their combined service could be a formidable threat to AOL. Google launched its own instant messenger, which includes Internet voice calling, in August. At stake is the ability to attract users and offer them other services and information from the Web portals, which in turn helps Microsoft's MSN Internet unit, Yahoo and AOL earn advertising dollars. The technology behind the deal already exists. Microsoft has already opened up its corporate online messaging service, which requires a license and offers more features, to AOL and Yahoo. Unlike free messaging services, corporate messaging lets businesses install instant messaging within corporate networks, where conversations can be monitored and saved, much like enterprise e-mail. Being able to send instant messages to different services using a single program isn't new, however. Users of unified messaging services such as Trillian can use a single software program to send and receive instant messages from AOL, MSN, Yahoo and other providers, as long as they have an account with each service. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: AT&T Internet VOIP Service to Require Fixed Location Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 22:22:06 -0500 AT&T Corp. said on Tuesday it would suspend Internet phone service for subscribers who fail to keep their location up to date when they move around with the mobile service. Unlike Vonage and other VOIP carriers, which permit traveling with an adapter, AT&T will not permit it; even though it is technically possible, AT&T will not permit it under their regulations effective in November. Internet telephone service, known as Voice over Internet Protocol, can be used anywhere a subscriber has a high-speed Internet connection, which are becoming more common around the world. That mobility has prompted concerns by U.S. communications regulators who worry that if a subscriber does not register his location in the United States, emergency authorities may not be able to find the person if he dials 911 for help. The Federal Communications Commission in May ordered VOIP carriers to provide 911 emergency services by November 28, including connecting calls directly to dispatchers. Carriers, like AT&T and the biggest U.S. VOIP provider, Vonage Holdings Corp., will also have to provide callers' numbers and addresses to dispatchers. There are about 3 million subscribers in the United States to VOIP, a cheaper alternative to traditional phone service. AT&T said it would use a telephone adapter to determine when a VOIP phone has been disconnected from the network and reconnected, prompting a query to the subscriber to confirm or update his or her location. The customer can either confirm the location has not changed or receive directions for updating it. "If the customer confirms that she has moved her service from the existing registered location address, service will remain suspended until she registers a new primary location address," Robert Quinn, AT&T vice president for federal government affairs, said in an October 7 letter to the FCC. The subscriber still would be able to dial 911, according to Quinn. However, AT&T said there is not yet a way to confirm the customer's location. "This is the best technology has to offer at this time," AT&T spokeswoman Claudia Jones said. The FCC has said it eventually plans to require carriers to provide the customer's location on their own. AT&T said it would not offer to new customers its VOIP service in areas after November 28 where the company cannot provide 911 capabilities. The company, the No. 1 long-distance carrier, is being acquired by SBC Communications Inc., the No. 2 local telephone company. The FCC adopted the rules after several high-profile incidents in which people only reached an administrative or business line at a 911 emergency call center when they used a VOIP phone. The requirements only apply to those providers that connect calls to and from the public telephone 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. For more news headlines and stories, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Katharine Webster Subject: Search For Missing in New England Flood Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 15:35:37 -0500 By KATHARINE WEBSTER, Associated Press Writer Where Sally and Tim Canfield's home once stood, there is only open land. Their home was washed away by floodwaters, and two days after the rains subsided, their family found no trace of them. Rescue crews and police dogs searched rivers and woods Tuesday for the Canfields and two others missing in New Hampshire after a weekend of heavy downpours that left at least 10 people dead from Maine to Pennsylvania. "We didn't find any bodies," said a brother-in-law, Rick Mason, who spent time with crews looking for the Canfields. "First there was Katrina, then there was the earthquake, but this is pretty devastating right here." At least one of those missing in New Hampshire, a 67-year-old kayaker, was feared dead. Gov. John Lynch said the floods were the worst the state had experienced in a quarter-century, and he sought a federal disaster declaration. Teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were expected to arrive later this week. In Greenfield, Mass., where floods wrecked 40 trailers in a mobile home park, the mayor said repairs would cost more than $1 million. The flooding damaged a bridge and a dam, washed out a road, cracked sewer mains and left at least 70 residents homeless, Mayor Christine Forgey said. And just as in Katrina and the Gulf Coast, electric and water service as non-existent or sporadi, as were telephones. She declared a state of emergency and said she also would need state and federal help. "There is no way we could foot this bill," she said. From Friday evening through Sunday, storms dumped as much as 10 inches of rain on New England and the mid-Atlantic states. In New Hampshire, Hinsdale got 10.8 inches and Keene 10.5. Just as the region began to dry out, forecasters warned that there could be another of flooding if rainfall exceeded the 1 to 2 inches expected through Wednesday. Weather forecasters said to 'count on at least two inches over the same area on Wednesday.' The floods forced the evacuation of 1,000 New Hampshire residents. Officials went door-to-door Tuesday to check on the condition of many homes. A stretch of at least 50 along one road had some type of damage; officials said a dozens houses were washed away. Some residents found they did not have much to return to. "There's four feet of mud on our first floor," said Wendy Gendron, who was evacuated with her family on Sunday. "There is no backyard anymore." Police in Alstead discovered that the flood had washed away their little police station. Other nearby communitities responded by taking over Alstead police communications. "All of our police records, computers, weapons ... everything that was in there is gone. It's destroyed," said Police Chief Christopher Lyons. 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. Also see http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: -mhd Subject: Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 20:50:22 -0400 anon1@sci.sci wrote: > I already have a modem, a SupraExpress 56. When the phone rings, the > modem sends just the word RING on a line by itself, with a blank line > between consecutive RINGs. I don't know of any way to make it detect > caller-ID and report that. Have you initialized it with "at+vcid=1"? -mhd ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 23:02:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EchoStar Introduces Portable Media Player By SANDY SHORE AP Business Writer DENVER (AP) -- The operator of the Dish Network satellite cable TV service introduced a portable media player Tuesday that can display TV programs or movies, play music and store digital photographs. EchoStar Communications Corp.'s PocketDish works not only with Dish Network equipment but also with most televisions, PC or Mac computers, digital cameras, digital video recorders and VCRs. The device, which is not equipped to receive programming broadcast directly from Dish's satellites, is one of a growing number of portable multi-use electronic devices on the market or expected to be introduced that display video content. Rival products include devices from Dell Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Creative Labs. Inc. In fact, the new Dish player is based on an operating system from Archos Inc., which introduced one of the first portable media players. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52303031 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 23:04:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Linksys and Skype Team Up to Launch New Cordless Handset to Drive New Cordless Internet Phone Provides Convenient Use of Free Skype Internet Calls IRVINE, Calif., and LUXEMBOURG, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Linksys(R), a Division of Cisco Systems, Inc., the recognized leading provider of voice, wireless and networking hardware for the consumer, Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) and small business user, and Skype, the Global Internet Communications Company, today announced their global relationship that will include marketing a new cordless phone that takes free Skype Internet phone calling off the computer and puts it into the hands of callers. The new Internet Telephony Kit (CIT200) provides callers with a convenient alternative to making free Skype calls while sat at their computer, giving them the freedom to make free Skype calls wherever they are in the home or office. The CIT200 is the first Skype-enabled product bundled with a Skype starter pack. The CIT200 will be available from 17 October from more than 3,000 online and high street retailers throughout North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Internet Telephony Kit includes a handset, charger and a USB base station that plugs into a computer's USB port. The handset lets callers take their free Skype calling off the PC and into other rooms using the compatible USB base station. The handset can read and display callers' Skype contact list on its built-in illuminated display, letting callers know which of their Skype contacts are online and ready to be called. The handset also supports SkypeOut, SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail, low-cost premium services that lets callers make and receive calls to family, friends and colleagues using traditional landlines or cell phones, and send and receive messages up to 10 minutes long. The handset also includes a number of convenient features for Skype users: * Supports call waiting * Mute button * 3 available ring tones * Intercom support to between multiple handsets * Built-in speakerphone * Color LCD panel * Up to 120 hour standby time and 10 hour talk time * Hold Button * Caller ID * Address Book that supports up 120 contacts * Ringer -- Off/On switch * Navigation button for screen * Utilizes voice encryption for high security * Headset jack for connecting a headset * Uses DECT wireless technology so won't interfere with 2.4GHz phones or devices * Single base station supports up to four additional DECT based phones * Handset locater button on USB base station * Handset is light and comfortable to use (4.23 oz/ 0.12kg) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52300542 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 23:05:34 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Audiovox Corporation Reports 2005 Fiscal Third Quarter HAUPPAUGE, N.Y., Oct. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Audiovox Corporation (Nasdaq: VOXX) today announced results for its fiscal third quarter and nine-months ended August 31, 2005. Audiovox Corporation (the "Company") reported fiscal 2005 third quarter net sales of $122.9 million, a decrease of 7.3% compared to net sales of $132.6 million reported in the fiscal third quarter of 2004. Net loss from continuing operations for the 2005 fiscal third quarter was $3.6 million or a loss of $0.16 per diluted share compared to net income of $37,000 or earnings per diluted share of $0.00 in the comparable prior year period. Including discontinued operations, the Company reported a net loss of $3.7 million or a loss per diluted share of $0.17 compared to net income of $5.3 million or $0.24 per diluted share in the fiscal third quarter of 2004. Mobile Electronics, which represented 64.0% of net sales, came in at $78.6 million, down 21.3% compared to net sales of $99.8 million reported in the comparable prior year period. This decline was primarily related to the reduction of selling prices in satellite radio Plug-N-Play units and certain discontinued mobile video products. As previously announced, the Company took an inventory write down of $3.8 million to reflect current market conditions in the satellite radio category, which has seen prices on Plug-N-Play units fall by roughly 50%. Offsetting these declines were stronger sales of the Company's Jensen branded auto sound products, Terk products and the introduction of new mobile video systems. Consumer Electronics, which represented 36.0% of net sales, had sales of $44.4 million, an increase of 35.2% compared to net sales of $32.8 million reported in the fiscal third quarter of 2004. This increase was due primarily to higher sales of LCD flat- panel TV's and portable DVD products. Gross margins for the third fiscal quarter of 2005 declined primarily to the satellite radio inventory write down, increased consumer electronics sales at traditionally lower margins and the lower margins associated with the remaining sales of discontinued mobile video products. This decline was partially offset by higher margins from the Terk and Jensen product lines. Operating expenses for the fiscal 2005 third quarter were $21.3 million, a decrease of 3.6% as compared to operating expenses of $22.1 million reported in the fiscal third quarter last year. The reductions in operating expenses were primarily in selling, general and administrative expenses and were partially offset by higher expenses associated with increased technical and engineering support. Other income came in at $2.5 million as compared to $580,000 reported in the comparable prior year period. This increase was primarily related to higher interest income generated during the quarter. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52299403 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #463 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Oct 12 14:55:26 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 1421B150B2; Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:55:26 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #464 Message-Id: <20051012185526.1421B150B2@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:55:26 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.1 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:55:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 464 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Yahoo Shuts Chat Rooms Promoting Child Molestation (Jonathan Stempel) EU to Force Telecoms to Keep Records (Associated Press News Wire) New Orleans Cable, Phone Service Spotty (Michael Chance) MEF Announces Carrier Ethernet Certification Plan (Telecom Daily Lead) Microsoft and Yahoo! Announce Landmark Interoperability Agree (Solomon) Faulty Radar Serving Logan Leaves Thousands Stranded (Monty Solomon) You Need Not be Paranoid to Fear RFID (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News for Wednesday 12th October 2005 (Cellular-News) Re: Device That Interfaces Between CallerID / Serial Port (C Navarro) Re: Device That Interfaces Between CallerID / Serial Port (G. Burditt) Re: NEC 2400 Out of Extensions (Carl Navarro) 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: Jonathan Stempel Subject: Yahoo Shuts Chat Rooms Promoting Child Molestation Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 12:28:11 -0500 By Jonathan Stempel Yahoo Inc. the online media company, has agreed to shut down Internet chat rooms designed to promote child molestation. The agreement with the attorneys general of New York and Nebraska is the first to institute systemwide controls over chat rooms likely to be frequented by child predators. Yahoo said it voluntarily suspended all user-created chat rooms on June 15 and is evaluating whether to reinstate the ability of users to create them. Earlier that month, Yahoo removed or barred the posting of 70,000 rooms whose names suggested illegal conduct, including the promotion of sex between adults and children. The number represents 11.4 percent of the 614,000 names Yahoo reviewed. Some rooms carried labels such as "kiddies who love sex," "girls 13 & up for much older men," "8-12 yo girls for older men" and "teen girls for older fat men." Many were located in chat categories titled "Schools and Education" and "Teen." One that persistently showed up was "Sex B-4 Age 8 or its Too Late" and also "Sex Education Classes for 7 yo boys" In an October 7 letter agreement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan acknowledged that "certain individuals, interested in engaging in sexual conduct with minors, have at times entered or even created chat rooms for such purposes. Yahoo is committed to continue to work with (the) law enforcement community, to minimize, target and take action against such behavior." The agreement is "an affirmative step for Yahoo," Spitzer said at a news conference. The attorney general said his office will look at other Internet service providers that may have similar problems. "Because of this agreement, Yahoo chat rooms are a safer place today," said Jon Bruning, Nebraska's attorney general, in a statement. Yahoo agreed to pre-screen user-created chat room names, to reject names encouraging sexual activity between adults and children and, upon finding chat rooms encouraging such activity, to purge them within 24 hours. It also agreed to develop education materials promoting the safe use of chat rooms. In a statement, spokeswoman Mary Osako said Yahoo will also enhance online users' safety by restricting Yahoo Chat to users 18 and older and removing the Teen category. New York and Nebraska began their investigations this year after learning that children had unfettered access to adult chat rooms. One investigator, posing as a 14-year-old girl, reported receiving 35 personal messages of a sexual nature over 25 minutes, Spitzer said. The senders of those messages appeared to be adult chat room participants, he said. Yahoo also agreed to donate $175,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's New York affiliates and additional free online advertising to promote Internet safety. (Additional reporting by Michele Gershberg and Ed Leefeldt) 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: Associated Press News Wire Subject: EU to Force Telecoms to Keep Records Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 12:27:49 -0500 EU to Force Telecoms to Keep Records The European Union agreed Wednesday to legally require telecommunications companies to keep records of their phone and e-mail traffic for at least a year as part of the bloc's anti-terrorist campaign. The decision by the 25 EU justice ministers comes after years of European debate over the privacy and cost concerns of data retention. The ministers agreed phone companies must keep records for 12 months and Internet access providers must retain data on Web sites visited and e-mail addresses used for six months. The EU's counterterrorism efforts began taking shape after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Some have already been enacted. The phone and Internet data retention bill took on added urgency after the July 7 suicide bombings in London that killed 52 people on the city's transit system. British Home Secretary Charles Clarke, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said he was pushing hard for a European law by year's end. He said it will happen with or without the backing of the European Parliament which has raised privacy concerns. Some of its members have spoken of "invasive measures." The EU assembly's approval is crucial, however, if the measure is to be quickly enacted across Europe. Without it, the law would be much weaker and the EU's executive office would not be able to pressure countries that drag their heels in putting it into force. Clarke said the legislation would be flexible and that countries may require data to be kept for more than a year. Italy and Ireland would be allowed to continue to require their telecommunications companies to keep traffic data for three and four years respectively as currently required by national laws there. In recent months, the telecommunications industry has warned that keeping traffic data on record for a year or longer would cost millions of dollars, especially if the industry must also keep track of calls that received no answer. Law enforcement agencies are interested in those calls because they can set off remote bombs. Clarke said it would be left up to individual nations to compensate the industry. 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. Also see news stories at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html (and) http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Michael Chance Subject: New Orleans Cable, Phone Service Spotty Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 11:48:10 GMT Some flickers of progress seen By Keith Darce Business writer, New Orleans Times-Picayune Telecommunications service remains spotty in New Orleans and many suburban communities six weeks after Hurricane Katrina decimated the underground and overhead wires that carry telephone conversations, Internet traffic and cable television signals. Many people returning to their homes and businesses are finding electricity and water flowing, but no dial tone in their phones and no picture on their screens. http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/business/t- p/index.ssf?/base/money-0/11290987883030.xml ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 13:31:28 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: MEF Announces Carrier Ethernet Certification Plan USTelecom dailyLead October 12, 2005 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vAsYatagCrtLcNDsDP TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * MEF announces Carrier Ethernet Certification Plan BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Microsoft, Yahoo! to merge IM networks * Sycamore turns a profit * Global Crossing cleared to offer voice service in Mexico * Pac-West broadens its horizons * Leap Wireless signs deal with Nortel USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Register this week for TELECOM '05 and save! TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Linksys unveils Skype cordless phone REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Microsoft settles with RealNetworks Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vAsYatagCrtLcNDsDP ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 12:10:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Microsoft and Yahoo! Announce Landmark Interoperability Agreement Microsoft and Yahoo! Announce Landmark Interoperability Agreement to Connect Consumer Instant Messaging Communities Globally - Oct 12, 2005 10:30 AM (PR Newswire) Consumers will be able to exchange instant messages, see presence, share emoticons and add friends from Yahoo! Messenger or MSN Messenger. SUNNYVALE, Calif. and REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced a landmark agreement to connect users of their consumer instant messaging (IM) services on a global basis. The industry's first interoperability agreement between two distinct leading global consumer IM providers will give MSN(R) Messenger and Yahoo!(R) Messenger users the ability to interact with each other, forming what is expected to be the largest consumer IM community in the world, estimated to be more than 275 million strong. Being able to instant message between IM communities is one of the features most requested by MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger users, and Microsoft and Yahoo! share a commitment to provide IM interoperability while keeping consumer security and privacy first and foremost. In addition to exchanging instant messages, consumers from both communities will be able to see their friends' online presence, share select emoticons, and easily add new contacts from either service to their friends' list, all as part of their free IM service.* Yahoo! and Microsoft plan to introduce these interconnectivity capabilities between MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger to customers around the world in the second quarter of 2006, and in doing so expect to help make IM an even more useful part of consumers' online communications and communities. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52313290 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 04:02:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Faulty Radar Serving Logan Leaves Thousands Stranded Monitors show objects that don't exist; solution uncertain By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | October 11, 2005 A malfunctioning radar system serving Logan International Airport caused flight cancellations and delays of several hours yesterday, stranding thousands of passengers on a holiday weekend and adding to the woes of an airport that has logged several runway incidents in the past few months. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/11/faulty_radar_serving_logan_leaves_thousands_stranded/ Radar malfunction causes long delays at Logan October 11, 2005 BOSTON --Flight delays continued Tuesday at Logan International Airport as federal officials worked to repair malfunctioning radar and controllers using a backup system added extra space between planes. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/11/radar_malfunction_causes_long_delays_at_logan/ Airport travelers play the waiting game Many in the dark about radar glitch By Heather Allen, Globe Correspondent | October 11, 2005 http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/11/airport_travelers_play_the_waiting_game/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 04:29:51 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: You Need Not be Paranoid to Fear RFID By Hiawatha Bray It's one of the cutest of those cute IBM Corp. TV commercials, the ones that feature the ever-present help desk. This time, the desk appears smack in the middle of a highway, blocking the path of a big rig. "Why are you blocking the road?" the driver asks. "Because you're going the wrong way," replies the cheerful Help Desk lady. "Your cargo told me so." It seems the cartons inside the truck contained IBM technology that alerted the company when the driver made a wrong turn. It's clever, all right -- and creepy. Because the technology needn't be applied only to cases of beer. The trackers could be attached to every can of beer in the case, and allow marketers to track the boozing habits of the purchasers. Or if the cargo is clothing, those little trackers could have been stitched inside every last sweater. Then some high-tech busybody could keep those wearing them under surveillance. If this sounds paranoid, take it up with IBM. The company filed a patent application in 2001 which contemplates using this wireless snooping technology to track people as they roam through 'shopping malls, airports, train stations, bus stations, elevators, trains, airplanes, rest rooms, sports arenas, libraries, theaters, museums, etc.' An IBM spokeswoman insisted the company isn't really prepared to go this far. Patent applications are routinely written to include every possible use of a technology, even some the company doesn't intend to pursue. Still, it's clear somebody at IBM has a pretty creepy imagination. And it's not just IBM. A host of other companies are looking at ways to embed surveillance chips into practically everything we purchase -- and even into our bodies. It's a prospect that infuriates Harvard graduate student Katherine Albrecht. http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/10/10/you_need_not_be_paranoid_to_fear_rfid/ ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Wednesday 12th October 2005 Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 07:38:33 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com Alcatel Testing WiMAX in Norway http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14359.php Alcatel has signed an agreement with Norway's NextGenTel to conduct its first field-trial of WiMAX in Oslo and Bergen. Under the terms of this agreement, Alcatel will supply, install and support NexGenTel with its WiMAX ... Roaming on CDMA and GSM Networks in Australia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14360.php Australia's Telstra is launching a service that enables customers to roam between its CDMA and GSM networks while retaining the same phone number. Telstra's Head of CDMA, Ms Jenny Roche, said the new calling solution all... Danish Switchboards http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14361.php Denmark's Sonofon has just launched a service that is says is designed to aid small businesses in dumping their landlines -- the Mobile Switchboard. The Mobile Switchboard lets several co-workers in the company share swit... Pannon Launches Hungarian 3G Network http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14362.php Less than a year since the company was awarded its 3G license, Hungary's Pannon GSM has launched its commercial 3G network. Video calls will continue to be free until the end of this year as a continuation of the existin... GSM Jumps Back to the 450 Frequency Band http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14363.php Nokia and Ericsson have both returned to the GSM450 market, announcing plans to start selling infrastructure in the 450Mhz band, currently dominated by CDMA450. The GSM vendors had originally planned to deploy GSM servic... Fully Automatic HSDPA Optimization Solution http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14364.php Radioplan, the German automatic mobile network optimization (ACP) vendor, has announced that the latest version of their automatic cell planning solution features fully automatic HSDPA optimization functionality.... Anti-Virus for Microsoft Mobiles http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14365.php The anti-virus company, F-Secure has launched an anti-virus package for mobile phones running on Microsoft?s Windows Mobile operating system. Symbian Series 80 users will also get a new product called F-Secure Mobile Sec... Trinidad & Tobago Braces for Intense Competition http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14366.php The opening of Trinidad and Tobago's telecommunications market represents one of the last Caribbean markets to open its sector to competition, leaving the Bahamas as the only other closed market in the region. The entran... FOCUS: Russia mulls fighting mobile handset thieves http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14293.php Russia is facing a rising problem of mobile handsets theft. In 2004, the Moscow police officially registered over 7,000 mobile handset thefts. However, analysts consider that the real number of stolen mobile handsets is ... Belarus MDC mobile subscriber base up 4.1% in September http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14297.php The subscriber base of Belarus mobile phone operator Mobile Digital Connection (MDC) increased 4.1% on the month in September to 1.645 million users, the company said Tuesday. ... Ukraine's Jeans mobile subscriber base up to 5 mln users Sep 30 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14300.php The subscriber base of Ukraine's Jeans rose 74% since the beginning of the year to 5 million users as of September 30, Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC) said in a press release. ... Russia's Euroset to cooperate in MVNO project with MTT http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14301.php Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset has concluded an agreement with Multiregional Transit Telecom (MTT) on cooperation in the development of Euroset's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) project, an MTT... TeliaSonera says holders to invest $60 mln in Moldova's Moldcell in 5 yrs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14303.php Shareholders of Moldova's mobile service operator Moldcell plan to invest U.S. $60 million in the company within five years, Anders Igel, CEO of TeliaSonera, Moldcell's key shareholder, said Wednesday. ... Belarus' BeST to buy $234 mln equipment from Alcatel Shanghai http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14313.php Belarus state-controlled mobile operator Belarus Telecommunications Network, or BeST, has signed an agreement with China's Alcatel Shanghai Bell to purchase the Chinese company's telecommunications equipment for U... Russia's VimpelCom to launch tariff with free cell phone in Dec http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14316.php Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom plans to launch a tariff with a free mobile handset included in the price of the subscription fee, the company said in a press release Thursday. ... Russia's VimpelCom user base in Far East hits 1 million people http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14319.php The subscriber base of Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom in the country's Far Easqt Federal District has exceeded 1 million people, the company said on Thursday. ... Russian court freezes SMARTS' shares once again http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14325.php Russia's regional court in St. Petersburg has frozen 100% of the shares of Russian regional mobile operator SMARTS, Kommersant business daily reported Friday, citing Gennady Kiryushin, the company's general director. ... Finland's Elcoteq opens telecom equip plant in Russia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14326.php Russia's ZAO Elcoteq, a subsidiary of Finland's electronics manufacturing company Elcoteq Network Corporation, opened a telecommunications equipment plant in St. Petersburg on Friday, Elcoteq's CEO Antti Piippo said at... PRESS: Russia's VimpelCom may start ops in 9 Far East regions http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14342.php Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom may get frequencies for operation in GSM 900 frequencies in nine regions in the Far East Federal District, Vedomosti business daily reported Monday, citing a letter fro... MegaFon says ups base stations in Moscow to 1,500 units http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14344.php Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon has increased the number of base stations in the Moscow License Area (MLA) to 1,500 units as of now from 1,000 units as of January 1, the company's General Director Sergei... AC&M says Russia's mobile user base up to 111.74 mln on Sep 30 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14346.php The number of mobile phone service subscribers in Russia increased to 111.74 million people as of September 30 from 107.33 million people as of August 31, Advanced Communications & Media (AC&M) said in a report released ... Russia's SMARTS launches EDGE technology in test mode http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14347.php Russian regional mobile operator SMARTS has launched Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) technology in test mode, the company said Monday. ... Nokia Launches Software Devt Products With Symbian http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14355.php Finland's Nokia Oyj (NOK) Tuesday said it has launched two new software development products together with Symbian Plc (SYN.YY) in the U.K. ... Vodafone Sweden Offers BlackBerry Services For 3 New Phones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14356.php Telecommunications operator Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) Tuesday said its branch Vodafone Sweden is introducing its BlackBerry connection services to three new mobile phones. ... Nokia, TeliaSonera Sees Explosive Mobile E-mail Growth http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14357.php Swedish telecommunications companies TeliaSonera AB (TLSN.SK) and Nokia Corp. (NOK) sees usage of e-mail in mobile phones growing rapidly in the coming year, despite current obstacles to growth. ... Ukraine's UMC mobile subscriber base up to 10.916 mln Sep 30 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14358.php The total subscriber base of Ukraine's Mobile Communications, or UMC, Ukraine's largest mobile phone operator, rose 3.8% on the month to 10.916 million subscribers as of September 30, UMC said in a press release on i... ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro Subject: Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port? Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 11:03:21 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com On Mon, 10 Oct 2005 12:53:17 -0700, anon1@sci.sci wrote: >> Assuming you are looking for a device that receives Caller-ID, and the >> voice menu stuff is done by something else, .. > That's a very bad assumption. It's the voice-menu touch-tone: press 1 > if you are a personal acquaintance whose first name I would recognize; > press 2 if you are calling me in regard to an existing business > relationship such as a credit card or bank account; press 3 if you are > a stranger trying to call me to advertise a product or service; press > 4 if you are offering me a job; press 5 if you are a stranger trying > to call for personal reasons such as you want to discuss something > interesting I posted in a newsgroup; press 6 if we met in person but I > don't yet know your name but I'd remember meeting you.) which I don't > have and am seeking. > Do you know what such a device would be called and which newsgroup > would be appropriate for asking about such devices? It would be nice > if that one device also included decoding of caller-ID, so that I can > put up different touch-tone monus depending on whether the call > provides caller-ID or not and if so then whether the call is from > somebody whose number I already know, and if a number I already know > then depending on the number: -- You have harassed me and I asked you > to stop calling. But here you go calling me to harass me again. Your > call will be reported to the police. -- Hi daddy. Phone is ringing > now. If I'm here, I'll answer shortly. -- Hi Margaret. Nice to hear > from you. If I'm here, I'll answer shortly. Let me start again. You didn't tell me that you couldn't read, so here's a specific link to products that you can use. http://www.callerid.com/?page=ezid You need an IVR that can process the CID DTMF. Amanda comes to mind, but I'm sure there are others. > I don't think a mere "card" would be of any use to me. It doesn't > sound like anything I can connect up to a phone line and > program/configure in any simple manner. But just in case I'm mistaken > in rejecting your suggestion, please tell me how somebody would > program the "card" to set up the various touch-tone menus? Is there a > keypad on the "card" for entering configuration commands, and a LED or > LCD display on the "card" for getting responses to verify what I'm > doing? >> Try www.callerid.com and check out the Whozz Calling box. > I looked on that Web site, but didn't see any description of the Whozz > Calling box nor any link to such information. The only mention was > "using our Whozz Calling? family of multi-line hardware." with no link > to info about the device. The text " Features simple viewing, logging, > and networking of both incoming and outgoing Caller ID . Setup screen, > search and find hardware routine, help screens, documentation, and > source code included." appears to refer not to the box but to some > software that wouldn't run on my Macintosh in any case, and there's no > mention of either software or hardware providing any touch-tone menu. http://www.callerid.com/?page=wc4 Wow. www.callerid.com Clicking on the products tab brings up the entire line of products. In about 30 minutes, you ought to be able to build a pretty long wish list and download some use(ful/less) software. Perhaps your computer is broken?