TELECOM Digest     Mon, 5 Mar 2007 15:39:00 EST    Volume 26 : Issue 64

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Hacker Steals Election Data from LePen (Reuters News Wire)
    Diebold Seeks to Dump its Election Business (M.R. Kropko, AP)
    What Starbucks Can Learn From the Movie Palace (Monty Solomon)
    Countdown to Confusion / Daylight Saving Time Comes Early (Monty Solomon)
    The Architecture of Mailinator (Monty Solomon)
    CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily)
    Telecoms, Cable Compete in On dDmand (USTelecom dailyLead)
    Re: Innocent Teacher Convicted in Computer Porn Case (RadicalModerate)
    Re: Cordless Phone Does Not Ring (Dave Garland)
    Re: Unlisted Phone Number (Steve Crow)
    Re: 511 Traffic Phone Lines May Raise Crash Risk (Dave Close)
    Re: 1010-WINS Subway-Payphone Poll (Curtis R Anderson)

====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime.   Geoffrey Welsh

               ===========================

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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:42:43 -0600
From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Hacker Steals Election Data from LePen


A hacker stole sensitive data from a computer in the offices of French
far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, police said, fuelling his fears
that rivals used it to try and keep him out of the presidential race.

The security breach at Le Pen's National Front party headquarters
comes as the campaign intensified ahead of the April and May election
with several candidates facing smear scandals in recent weeks.

Le Pen, who shocked France by finishing second in the 2002 presidential 
election, is struggling to secure the backing of at least 500 elected
officials needed to run this time round.

He says he has been the target of a well-prepared offensive to persuade 
the officials, including mayors, not to sign and asked police to open an 
investigation after suspecting that a mole might have leaked the names 
of his potential backers.

After a visit to the headquarters of his National Front party on Friday, 
the police said the list of officials who had agreed to back Le Pen had 
been stolen by a hacker.

The hacker had gained access using an internet site specializing in
breaking entry codes. A National Front employee who used the computer
that was hacked into was detained but later released.

News of the electronic break-in, came just a week after the Socialist
party demanded an investigation into what it said was a spate of
burglaries targeting its campaign team.

Le Pen has until March 16 to gain the sponsorship of at least 500 of
France's 42,000 elected representatives, including parliamentarians
and mayors, to become a candidate.

He says he is 100 short and has accused a far-right rival of trying to 
poach his sponsors.

Despite his success in 2002, when he won 16.8 percent of the vote, Le 
Pen's National Front party does not have any mayors and he has 
criss-crossed France for months to find backers.

Supporters of mainstream conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy have 
appeared increasingly uneasy at the prospect of Le Pen being blocked 
from running.

They believe National Front supporters will prove a vital pool of
potential voters in an expected second-round run off between Sarkozy
and Socialist candidate Segolene Royal, and fear a high abstention
rate if Le Pen is shut out of the first round.

Among other candidates who may not make the sponsorship grade are
anti-globalization leader Jose Bove who says he has accumulated just
350 signatures. Greens candidate Dominique Voynet says she has 500
pledges, but only 15 returned forms.

The candidates fear some mayors will not come good on their promises
and say they need at least 600 pledges to feel safe.

Copyright 2007 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. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or)
http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html

For more news and headlines, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra.newstoday.html

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:50:58 -0600
From: M.R. Kropko, AP Business Writer <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Diebold Seeks to Dump its Election Business


Diebold weighs strategy for voting unit 
By M.R. KROPKO, AP Business Writer

Diebold Inc. saw great potential in the modernization of elections
equipment. Now, analysts say, executives may be angling for ways to
dump its e-voting subsidiary that's widely seen as tarnishing the
company's reputation.

Though Diebold Election Systems -- the company's smallest business
segment -- has shown growth and profit, it's faced persistent
criticism over the reliability and security of its touch-screen voting
machines.  About 150,000 of its touch-screen or optical scan systems
were used in 34 states in last November's election.

The criticism is particularly jarring for a nearly 150-year-old company 
whose primary focus has long been safes and automated teller machines.

"This is a company that has built relationships with banks every day
of every year. It pains them greatly to see their brand tarnished by a
marginal operating unit," said Gil Luria, an investment analyst who
monitors Diebold for Wedbush Morgan Securities Inc.

In the calm after the November midterm elections, Tom Swidarski,
Diebold's chief executive officer, told analysts in a conference call
that the company plans to announce its long-term strategy for the
elections unit early this year.

Swidarski declined an interview request to shed more light on the voting 
segment's future.

But in an annual report filed last week with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, Diebold's discussion of its election systems
business pointed out various ongoing concerns. Diebold acknowledged
that complaints about its voting products and services have hurt
relations with government election officials.

Diebold indicated it still is "vulnerable to these types of challenges
because the electronic elections systems industry is emerging." The
report also mentioned inconsistency in the way state and local
governments are adapting to federal requirements for upgrades in
voting technology.

Further changes in the voting laws could further hurt business, the
filing said.

Diebold spokesman Mike Jacobsen said that whenever Diebold evaluates
one of its businesses, it looks for growth, profitability and
characteristics that make it a long-term strategic fit.

Jacobsen would not say when the announcement about the subsidiary's
future may come.

"I imagine at this point it's a question of whether have they found a
private equity buyer yet or are they about to announce they are going
to look for one," Luria said. He did not speculate on who that may be.

Diebold headaches have abounded.

Some of its voting machines have been criticized for lacking a
voter-verified paper trail for post-election audits. Last summer, the
Open Voting Foundation issued a report alleging that Diebold
touch-screen functions can be changed with the flip of an internal
switch. Activists have found source code online. And there have also
been numerous lawsuits and leaked internal memos.

FTN Midwest Securities analyst Kartik Mehta wonders if a business that
has been a lightning rod for criticism is worth it. He said Diebold
leaders need to decide "if that negative publicity is hurting them in
selling products to financial institutions, security products to
government or any of their other customers."

North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold jumped into e-voting in 2002, when it
acquired Global Election Systems. It had some prior experiences with
electronic voting through its Procomp business in Brazil.

The elections business was good for 8 percent of Diebold revenue and
about 12 percent of profit last year, but some of that is from
Diebold's voting and lottery contracts in Brazil.

By comparison, the ATM segment produced about 65 percent of the
company's revenue and 63 percent of profit in 2006. Safes have evolved
into Diebold's second biggest segment, now called "security
solutions."  It makes various devices and systems for business and
government security. Last year it gave Diebold about 27 percent of its
revenue and 25 percent of its profit.

If profit is the key measure for Diebold, the voting business would
seem to be a good fit. But for this segment, a 2006 gross profit
(before taxes, costs and expenses) on products and service of about
$83.5 million isn't the whole story.

"I've been surprised that Diebold has stayed in the voting business
for this long, considering the size of the company and the other
sources of revenue," said Avi Rubin, a computer scientist at Johns
Hopkins University and a frequent foe of Diebold voting systems'
programming.  Rubin is director of ACCURATE, an e-voting research
organization funded by the National Science Foundation.

Diebold has always defended its voting machines and its own
intentions, even after its former chairman and chief executive, Wally
O'Dell, sought with little success to convince critics his strong ties
with Republican politics as a fundraiser for George W. Bush were not
the motive for the company's involvement in elections.

O'Dell resigned in 2005 and was replaced by Swidarski, who had been
the company's president and chief operating officer. His main focus
has been on expanding international business for ATMs, a less public
business.

Critics remained. About the time of the November elections, HBO aired
a scathing documentary entitled "Hacking Democracy" that again raised
questions about the security of Diebold machines.

Might Diebold choose to keep the voting business and grow it?

"It's a possibility, but I'd assign it a very low probability," Luria
said.

Voting machine makers such as Diebold; Election Systems & Software, of
Omaha, Neb.; Sequoia Voting Systems, of Oakland, Calif., and Hart
InterCivic, of Austin, Texas have had the federal Help America Vote
Act of 2002 as a sales catalyst. HAVA, with $3.9 billion of funding,
urged the nation to move past punch card voting and hanging chads that
delayed the conclusion of the 2000 presidential election.

ES&S, Sequoia and Hart InterCivic declined comment on a possible
Diebold Election Systems sale.

Douglas E. Rodgers, managing partner and chief executive officer of
Washington-based investment banking firm FOCUS Enterprises Inc., said
he has worked with Diebold executives on recent acquisitions. He could
not comment on Diebold's intentions for voting systems.

Kimball Brace, who closely tracks voting system vendors as president
of Washington-based Election Data Services Inc., said there is
uncertainty now in the elections market, a result of possible
legislation setting new requirements with no promise there will be
additional funding.

He couldn't say what Diebold will do.

"If I were in these guy's shoes, I'd be looking close and hard at what
I'm doing in this marketplace," Brace said. "But given the
uncertainty, who would buy it?"

On the Net:
Diebold Election Systems: http://www.dieboldes.com

Copyright 2007 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. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or)
http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html

For more news and headlines, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2007 18:23:21 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: What Starbucks Can Learn From the Movie Palace


By RANDALL STROSS
The New York Times
March 4, 2007

WI-FI service is quickly becoming the air-conditioning of the Internet
age, enticing customers into restaurants and other public spaces in
the same way that cold "advertising air" deliberately blasted out the
open doors of air-conditioned theaters in the early 20th century to
help sell tickets.

Today, hotspots are the new cold spots.

Starbucks became the most visible Wi-Fi-equipped national chain when
it began offering the service in 2002. Now, at more than 5,100 stores,
Starbucks offers Internet access "from the comfort of your favorite
cozy chair."

Before you pop open your laptop, however, you need to pull out your
credit card. Starbucks and its partner, T-Mobile, charge $6 an hour
for the "pay as you go" plan. Day passes or monthly subscriptions are
available but can be used only at Starbucks stores and other T-Mobile
partners like Borders bookstores.

McDonald's offers Wi-Fi in more than 8,000 of its 13,700 stores in the
United States, giving it wider reach than even Starbucks, and it also
charges for access. McDonald's doesn't charge as much: it asks $2.95
for two hours. You can't apply your T-Mobile subscription there,
however, because McDonald's works with other partners.

Metering and charging for a service, of course, is the prerogative of
any business owner in a free market. One will always find
entrepreneurs willing to try new ways to profit by erecting tollbooths
in front of facilities that had been freely accessible.

In the past, this took the form of coin-operated locks on bathroom
stalls. (You may have first encountered these at a moment when you
were least ready to praise the inventor's ingenuity.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/business/yourmoney/04digi.html?ex=1330664400&en=65ffd17d76dd5fb5&ei=5090

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2007 20:53:13 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Countdown to Confusion / Daylight Saving Time Comes Early


Countdown to Confusion
Daylight Saving Time Comes Early This Year, But Will Your Computer 
Know When to Switch?

By Charles Babington and Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 3, 2007; D01

Perhaps the worst that will happen in millions of offices on the
second Monday in March is that caffeine-deprived workers will wonder
why their automatic coffeemakers failed to perk on schedule. In less
lucky workplaces, however, employees might miss meetings, overbook
conference rooms or inaccurately record the time or date of important
financial transactions.

For the first time in 20 years, daylight saving time will not start on
the first Sunday in April. Instead, it will begin three weeks earlier,
at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March, the 11th.

Devices from the tiniest BlackBerry to the largest mainframe computer
must be updated to ensure their internal clocks "spring forward" by
one hour at the right moment rather than on the old date, which has
been written into countless programs. Similarly, they must be
reprogrammed to revert to standard time a week later than usual, on
Nov. 4. Congress decided in 2005 to expand daylight saving time by
four weeks, starting this year, in hopes of conserving energy by
pushing more human activity into sunlit hours.

   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/02/AR2007030201346.html

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2007 21:53:27 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: The Architecture of Mailinator


Paul Tyma
January 19, 2007

Almost 3.5 years ago I started the Mailinator(tm) service. I got the
bulk of the idea from my drunk roommate at the time and the first
incarnation took me all of about 3 days to code up. In some senses it
was a crazy idea. As far I know, it was the first site of its kind. A
web-based email service that allowed any incoming email to create an
inbox. No sign-up. No personal information. Send email first, check
email later.

This became ridiculously handy for things like signing up for websites
that send you one confirmation email, then save or sell or spam your
email address forever. And of course, it *is* very handy for
users. But think about it from mailinator's side. Its basically
signing up to receive spam for that address forever. That's a tall
order and one that seems to have the possibility of a terrible
demise. Someday, enough email could come in that will simply smush
Mailinator. But, as of this writing, that day isn't today.

http://mailinator.blogspot.com/2007/01/architecture-of-mailinator.html

------------------------------

Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update
From: communicationsdirect_daily <communications@communicationsdirectnews.com>
Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com
Date: Mon,  5 Mar 2007 11:29:34 EST


********************************
PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents
The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update
For March 05, 2007
********************************

Our new poll: Do you use a mobile handset when you travel abroad?
Visit our web site to vote.

Bringing the Mobile Web to the Masses
http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/110/23072?11228

     Over 20 percent of mobile users want to be able to browse the Web
     from their phone, according to Telephia, a San Francisco-based
     telecom market research firm. But it's difficult for people
     lacking expensive Blackberry-style devices and licensed
     enterprise software to easily access Web-based resources from
     their handsets.  GoWare ...

Deutsche Telekom Plan New Network Unit for 25,000 Staff
http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/23066?11228

     Deutsche Telekom wants to create a new unit to handle the
     company's telecommunications network and plans to transfer 25,000
     existing staff to the new unit, according to a report in the
     German magazine,Wirtschafts Woche. The report adds that the new
     unit is in addition to the already-announced plan to transfer
     50,000 staff into a new ...

Report: Palm Consulting With Investment Bankers on Options --
Including Sale or Purchase
http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/23061?11228

     SUNNYVALE, California -- Smart phone maker Palm reportedly is
     consulting with investment bankers on its strategic options, ranging
     from a sale, an investment by private equity or a purchase of its
     own. Beset with growing competition in the cell phone market,
     Palm Inc. is discussing its future with bankers at Morgan Stanley,
     the ...

FCC Ruling Favors Cable VOIP
http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/23059?11228

     The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has upheld Time Warner
     Cable Inc.'s right to link its VOIP customers to the public
     switched telephone network (PSTN) through wholesale phone lines.
     The FCC approved a year-old request from Time Warner seeking
     interconnection and traffic exchange rights with incumbent local
     exchange ...

Sun Updates Java Platforms
http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/23057?11228

     Sun Microsystems and 13 other mobile industry companies have
     released the next generation of the Java platform for mobile
     phones, which will be supported with Mobile Service Architecture
     (MSA). Sun also released its newest enterprise-specific Java
     platform. The Java Community Process, composed of software
     vendors, OEMs and mobile ...

Sonae Loses PT Takeover Vote
http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/23054?11228

     The $20 billion hostile bid by Sonae and its 60-percent-owned
     SonaeCom subsidiary to take over Portugal Telecom (PT) along with
     its cable and broadband subsidiary PT Multimedia (PTM) has hit a
     brick wall. PT shareholders, at a crucial extraordinary general
     meeting (EGM) Friday, voted against lifting the ban on any entity
     owning more than ...

Tech Roundup: Verizon Goes MediFLO
http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/23051?11228

     Mobile TV finally arrives in the U.S. -- at least in the Midwest.
     Also, WiMax gets smaller, WiBro gets wider, and Star Trek-style
     communicator badges go cellular.  Switched-on wireless: Verizon
     Wireless has launched the first mobile TV service in the
     U.S. with eight channels of 24-hour broadcasting in 20 markets
     across the country.  ...

Your feedback on our e-letter is always welcome. Send email to:
CommunicationsDirect Editor <telecom_direct_editor@us.pwc.com>

Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 12:32:58 CST
From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com>
Subject: Telecoms, Cable Compete in On Demand


USTelecom dailyLead
March 5, 2007
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/gpbgfDtusXmZirCibuddiwxx

TODAY'S HEADLINES


NEWS OF THE DAY
* Telecoms, cable compete in on demand
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* Scripps forges video agreement with rural telecoms
* Alcatel-Lucent chief stands behind the merger
* Nortel, NDS team for IPTV in Europe
* Operators vie for Singapore broadband network
* Cisco snaps up some of Utah Street's assets
* Motorola chief receives $13 million in compensation
* Time Warner Cable launches mobile TV in Cincinnati
* WSJ: Alltel steps up efforts to find a suitor
USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT
* Register for NXTcomm today!
HOT TOPICS
* Verizon makes a bold move with FiOS
* AT&T calls for VDSL interoperability standards
* Ericsson offers $1.4 billion bid for Tandberg
* Launch of Apple's TV device on hold
* AT&T plans to ramp up U-verse rollouts
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
* Bay Area embraces broadband
* Avaya adds on VoIP services
* Opinion: Apple TV not a game-changing device
* Qualcomm plans MediaFLO trial in Taipei
* Column: Technology the tipping point for new-age TV

Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/gpbgfDtusXmZirCibuddiwxx

------------------------------

From: nospam4me@mytrashmail.com (RadicalModerate)
Subject: Re: Innocent Teacher Convicted in Computer Porn Case
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2007 20:59:29 UTC
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC


hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> On Feb 16, 1:32 am, M <M...@notchur.biz> wrote:

> The problem is that techies are a small group of people.  There is
> everyone else out there who have no idea of the complexity of the
> Internet or the many threats out there.  They don't keep their
> spyware, firewalls, virus protection up to date, and may innocently
> venture onto dangerous cites.  And even technies make mistakes;
> sometimes forgetting the basics and leave themselves vulnerable.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Makes for ideal circumstances for
> police officers, doesn't it?   PAT]

Think for a moment: 

As the law now stands, the way most people have the preview pane in
their email program enabled, if they are sent unsolicited illegal
images, they're at risk even if they immediately delete them.  Most
people don't know the data from deleted emails delivered to their PC
is still on the hard drive for quite some time.  All I can say is if
you ever receive illegal content in email, call your attorney at once
for guidance!

Question for Moderator: Do posters from Usenet get email confirmation 
their post was received?
The address I use Does receive mail.

Herb Oxley


[TEELCOM Digest Editor's Note: Incoming mail to telecom arrives from
various sources, including Usenet mail (response to other writers or
original articles submitted), email sent direct to one of various 
addresses for myself, and other sources. A small amount of mail is
permitted to bypass filtering.

Auto-replies, or autoacks go out as follows from telecom: Items of
mail which Spam Assassin believes are spam do NOT get any
autoack. Spam Assassin rules, or modifications to those rules, as they
are announced by SA are used. This 'mail' is put in a separate box
(hundreds of items daily) for my manual review, as time permits. It is
all zapped by myself; I trust Spam Assassin entirely to spot this junk.
This comprises in excess of 90 percent of all incoming mail. 

All other mail -- about ten percent -- that which correctly passes
filtering by Spam Assassin, -- is handled one of two ways: The _vast
majority_ of it is indeed spam, it simply managed to get past Spam
Asssassin. I have yet to see any legitimate mail get caught up in spam
traps, but I do get a lot of it which _should have been trapped but
wasn't._ This category of mail receives an 'unacceptable for
publication' notice. I do visually scan these items each day, about
100-200 items, *and when I catch one that is legitimate* I pull it
out for use.

A tiny amount of incoming mail -- about two or three percent of all
incoming mail from all sources (see first paragraph above) contains
the secret word and it receives a positive acknowledgement and it goes
direct to my incoming mail, again, from all sources in the first
paragraph.  At one time -- several years ago -- I used to carefully
read and consider ALL mail, but spammers and scammers have made that
impossible now for a long time. As I suspected, spammer/scammers do
try and trick me: I am seeing now more and more messages which contain
'legitimate' (that is, secret word related) subject lines but in fact 
are only scams/spams 'under the surface'; that is to say, a subject 
line which includes the secret word, gives appearance of being a 
legitimate question/comment but then, the mail itself is only some
trash thing. I suspected that would happen if I _ever_ published the
secret word here in the Digest. For example, "(secret word) how do I
do thus and so" or "(secret word) why does my telephone act like
this" and then when I read the message there is no further mention of
(secret word) nor any further mention to thus and so  or why telephone
acts like this.  In other words the subject line was simply a lure to
get the rest of the message read. 

So, if you pass the preliminary screening (either as a real, legimate
writer or as a smart-ass spammer/scammer) you will get some sort of
reply from me: mostly a rejection notice, since mostly all I hear from
are scammers/spammers, but occassionally a positive notice since a
very few of you are legigimate readers/writers. PAT]

------------------------------

From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Does Not Ring
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 21:37:07 +0000
Organization: Wizard Information


It was a dark and stormy night when PAT wrote:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But when you unplug your cordless
> phones and replug them in at someone else's jack they _always_ work
> correctly?  (yes/no) You have two cordless phones now, the original
> one plus a new one you bought recently? Do they both always work OK
> at the other location while _NOT_ working at your location? (yes/no)
> At your place, knowing that a call is coming in (your own cell phone)
> you can answer all incoming calls without having heard a ring?
> (yes/no). The phones work okay at both locations except you do not get
> ringing signal (although you know it is 'ringing' at your place?)
> If for all these questions your answer is (yes) then I strongly
> suggest the hassle is somehow with your own wiring.   PAT]

Could this be a short (through defective wiring, lightning arrestor,
or perhaps through a defective DSL filter, since those were probably
installed recently) that only conducts at the higher voltages involved
with the ringing signal?

I don't think the poster has said what happens with a hard-wired phone
(best of all with an old one with the mechanical ringer).  Is there
any evidence that he's getting (adequate) ringing voltage under any
conditions?

There are others here who would know far better than I, but when DSL
was hooked up, would his telephone line been switched to a different
card at the office (or in the pedestal on the street)?

Dave


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Those were going to be some additional
questions of mine: perhaps the original writer will respond to these
items as well.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: Steve Crow <steve.crow@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Unlisted Phone Number
Date: 3 Mar 2007 22:52:39 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


I think the better question is why, for about 100 years, the phone
companies have been charging subscribers for the privilege of NOT
listing the number ... is there some sort of additional effort required
to accomplish this task?

On Mar 2, 12:01 pm, Patricia Pascale <ppasc...@comcast.net> wrote:

> Patrick,

> I'm not sure if you can help me but I've not been able to find
> information on when "unlisted" phone numbers first came to use.

> I'm a  novelist, working  on my  third book, and  trying to  find this
> info.

> Can you help or point me in the right direction?

> Many thanks,

> Patricia

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not know when they first got
> started, but I can tell you that in the 1922 Chicago Telephone
> Company alphabetical directory, on the page entitled "Services
> You Can Obtain From Our Business Office" non-published/unlisted
> phone numbers were available at the rate of an additional five
> cents per month. PAT]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: According to telco there is an 
additional effort involved. Telco estimates a certain time frame
required for each directory inquiry call. This time frame is 
completely lost when telco has to argue with callers about numbers
being unlisted and/or unpublished, i.e. time spent listening to
callers telling the operator how dumb she is, demanding to speak
with a supervisor, insisting 'party would want to speak with me',
impersonating a police officer with a 'right to know number', etc.
All those needless conversations between caller and operator take
additional time. That, telco says, is where the extra money is 
spent; in dealing with persistent callers.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: Dave Close <dave@compata.com>
Subject: Re: 511 Traffic Phone Lines May Raise Crash Risk
Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2007 07:45:32 UTC
Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California


Marie Skelton, USA Today <usatoday@telecom-digest.org> writes:

> Though the traffic information service is also available online, some
> safety advocates say drivers will most likely use the phone service
> while driving. "The biggest irony about calling the traffic report
> while driving is that the majority of traffic delays are caused by
> crashes, so in the course of calling to check traffic, drivers will
> crash and cause more traffic delays," says Lisa Lewis, executive
> director of the Washington, D.C.-based Partnership for Safe Driving.

So, cops can talk on the radio while driving in a high speed pursuit,
and that's safe. But if I call 511 while stuck in traffic that isn't
moving at all, that is illegal? We already have laws that require
drivers to pay attention while driving. All the cell phone bans do is
give cops an easier way to prove it, while making perfectly safe
actions illegal.

The 511 system in the San Francisco Bay Area is voice-command only, no
touch-tone entry. And it is absolutely unable to understand a highway
number even if spoken slowly, digit by digit. When you need it, it
doesn't work. Any distraction from trying to use it is caused by its
worthless voice recognition crap. If you are lucky enough to get a
response about the jam in which you are currently stuck, you'll be
told traffic is moving normally.


Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA  "Greed is to the moralists of the
dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359    left what sex is to the moralists 
dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu           of the right." - Cathy Young


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have always wondered by it is safe
for police officers to talk on the radio while their car is moving
but it is not safe for civilians to do the same thing. The answer, we
are told, is that 'police officers have better training for same.'
PAT]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2007 19:45:38 -0500
From: Curtis R Anderson <gleepy@gleepy.net>
Organization: Gleepy's Chaotic Henhouse
Subject: Re: 1010-WINS Subway-Payphone Poll


Carl Moore wrote:

> Web site (1010 AM radio) has "Do you use payphones in subway stations?"

> Choices:

> Yes, sometimes it's a necessity.
> No, I use my cell phone all the time.
> They have payphones in subway stations?

They do in Buffalo, as carriers like Verizon Wireless don't work 
underground. I don't believe the others work, either.

Curtis R. Anderson, Co-creator of "Gleepy the Hen", still
"In Heaven there is no beer / That's why we drink it here ..."
http://www.gleepy.net/      mailto:gleepy@intelligencia.com
mailto:gleepy@gleepy.net (and others)  Yahoo!: gleepythehen

------------------------------


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