TELECOM Digest     Sun, 25 Mar 2007 22:33:00 EDT    Volume 26 : Issue 83

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years (Monty Solomon)
    Ruling May Be End for Vonage (Monty Solomon)
    Slow Down, Multitaskers, and Don't Read in Traffic (Monty Solomon)
    Numeric Pager Notification of E-mail (Steve Crow)
    Re: "Please Enter Your ID Number" So We May Ignore it (harold@hallikainen)
    Re: "Please Enter Your ID Number" So We May Ignore it (Mr Joseph Singer)
    Re: "Please Enter Your ID Number" So We May Ignore it (Steven J. Sobol)
    Re: Judge Hits Vonage With Injuction; Stop Using Verizon Tech (L Hancock)
    Working TSPS in 1983 (Bill Hendley)
    Re: Unlisted Phone Number (Wesrock@aol.com)

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Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:31:16 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years / U.S. Watch Lists


Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years
U.S. Watch Lists Are Drawn From Massive Clearinghouse

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 25, 2007; A01

Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around 
the world -- field reports, captured documents, news from foreign 
allies and sometimes idle gossip -- arrive in a computer-filled 
office in McLean, where analysts feed them into the nation's central 
list of terrorists and terrorism suspects.

Called TIDE, for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the list 
is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence 
community believes might harm the United States. It is the wellspring 
for watch lists distributed to airlines, law enforcement, border 
posts and U.S. consulates, created to close one of the key 
intelligence gaps revealed after Sept. 11, 2001: the failure of 
federal agencies to share what they knew about al-Qaeda operatives.

But in addressing one problem, TIDE has spawned others. Ballooning 
from fewer than 100,000 files in 2003 to about 435,000, the growing 
database threatens to overwhelm the people who manage it. "The single 
biggest worry that I have is long-term quality control," said Russ 
Travers, in charge of TIDE at the National Counterterrorism Center in 
McLean. "Where am I going to be, where is my successor going to be, 
five years down the road?"

TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The 
list marks the first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined 
in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once 
someone is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off it. At 
any stage, the process can lead to "horror stories" of mixed-up names 
and unconfirmed information, Travers acknowledged.

The watch lists fed by TIDE, used to monitor everyone entering the 
country or having even a casual encounter with federal, state and 
local law enforcement, have a higher bar. But they have become a 
source of irritation -- and potentially more serious consequences -- 
for many U.S. citizens and visitors.

In 2004 and 2005, misidentifications accounted for about half of the
tens of thousands of times a traveler's name triggered a watch-list
hit, the Government Accountability Office reported in September.
Congressional committees have criticized the process, some charging
that it collects too much information about Americans, others saying
it is ineffective against terrorists. Civil rights and privacy groups
have called for increased transparency.

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032400944.html

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

Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:34:19 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Ruling May Be End for Vonage / Judge Enjoins Use Of Key Technology


By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 24, 2007; D01

A federal judge yesterday dealt a potentially fatal blow to Vonage
Holdings, the Internet-phone service that offers one of the few
alternatives to traditional carriers, by ordering it to stop using a
technology that connects its network to the public telephone system.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton approved the request by Verizon
Communications for a permanent injunction two weeks after a jury in
Alexandria found that three of its patents had been infringed by
Vonage, including one for the technology allowing the Internet
company's 2.2 million customers to call regular phones.

Hilton said the ban would not take effect before he holds another
hearing in two weeks on Vonage's request for reprieve through a stay.
The company said customers will not be affected by the court's
decision, although analysts are skeptical the company will be able to
sustain service if the ruling is not overturned.

This is the latest setback in Vonage's troubled history, which has
included some regulatory losses and a shareholder suit stemming from
its public offering. Vonage, which has never generated a profit,
helped popularize online calling as a cheaper alternative to
traditional phone service, waging a flashy marketing campaign on
prime-time television and over the Internet. But some industry
analysts said its flat-rate service was already starting to lose its
luster next to new offerings from phone and cable companies selling
combined telephone, Internet and cable television services.

The impact of the court's decision on other providers of Internet
phone services, known as voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP,
remains unclear, analysts said. This could depend on whether Verizon
wants to shut down Vonage or sell its licenses for the technology.

Vonage, which was ordered by the jury to pay $58 million in damages,
has vowed to appeal the verdict and seek a stay from the federal
appeals court if Hilton does not grant one.

In his ruling, Hilton said that the financial award alone was not
enough because it "does not prevent continued erosion of the client
base and customer base" of Verizon.

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032300986.html

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

Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:46:39 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Slow Down, Multitaskers, and Don't Read in Traffic


Slow Down, Multitaskers, and Don't Read in Traffic

By STEVE LOHR
The New York Times
March 25, 2007

Confident multitaskers of the world, could I have your attention?

Think you can juggle phone calls, e-mail, instant messages and
computer work to get more done in a time-starved world? Read on,
preferably shutting out the cacophony of digital devices for a while.

Several research reports, both recently published and not yet
published, provide evidence of the limits of multitasking. The
findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management
professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their
multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving
a car.

These experts have some basic advice. Check e-mail messages once an
hour, at most. Listening to soothing background music while studying
may improve concentration. But other distractions - most songs with
lyrics, instant messaging, television shows - hamper performance.
Driving while talking on a cellphone, even with a hands-free headset,
is a bad idea.

In short, the answer appears to lie in managing the technology,
instead of merely yielding to its incessant tug.

 ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/business/25multi.html?ex=1332475200&en=f2956114b1265d9b&ei=5090

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

From: Steve Crow <steve.crow@gmail.com>
Subject: Numeric Pager Notification of E-mail
Date: 25 Mar 2007 01:39:36 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


I have a need to receive notifications of new e-mail on my numeric
pager. Obviously the simplest solution is to just upgrade to a text
pager and forward copies of my e-mail to it. However, this simply
isn't an option.

The specific situation is that I use GrandCentral for my voicemail and
I would like to be paged with my GrandCentral number (or at least a
recognizable string of numbers that indicate new voicemail) when a new
message is deposited. If I configure GrandCentral to send
notifications to a specific POP3 box, I can have a service monitor
that POP3 box and shoot out a notification to my pager when a
GrandCentral message gets deposited.

Is anyone aware of any service that will monitor a POP3 e-mail box for
a new message (better yet, from a specific e-mail address) and then
blast a string of numbers to a conventional numeric pager? Googling is
leaving me empty-handed.

I did take a moment to leave beta feedback with the GrandCentral folks
suggesting pager notification of new voicemail, particularly given the
number of people who still carry pagers and the fact that most modern
cellular voicemail systems still offer this capability.

Thanks!

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

From: harold@hallikainen.com <harold@hallikainen.com>
Subject: Re: "Please Enter Your ID Number" So We May Ignore it
Date: 25 Mar 2007 10:11:41 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


On Mar 24, 11:09 am, har...@hallikainen.com <har...@hallikainen.com>
wrote:

> I think the voice recognition systems are getting pretty good. I
> find it a lot easier to speak the large number of digits in an
> account number than keying it in. The VoIP service I
> use http://www.sipphone.comdirects 411 calls to "Tell Me" (800 TELL
> ME). I call it quite a bit over sipphone to get the weather. It does
> work very well for me. I think I read this week that the tell me
> company was bought by Microsoft.  

> Harold

OOPS! I got the phone number wrong! It's 800 555 8355 
http://www.tellme.com/products.html .

Harold

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

Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 11:22:27 PDT
From: Mr Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: "Please Enter Your ID Number" So We May Ignore it


T <nospam.kd1s@cox.nospam.net> Sat, 24 Mar 2007 02:33:26 -0400 wrote:

> Voice recognition never seems to work for me.  I don't like it at
> all.  I complain to the human who eventually answers and they say "oh
> yes, we have a lot of complaints on that".  Well, get rid of it, damn
> it!

(el snippo)

> And they were right.  Reciting your 16 digits is harder than tapping
> them in, especially when the machine comes back "Sorry, I do not
> understand" five times and you go crazy trying to get through it.

My experience is that whoever sets up the IVR matters and how they set
it up.  Many don't have a clue on what's logical and what's not.  As
an example, Rogers/Fido in Canada decided that they'd set up "Andrea"
to take care of customer functions.  When they first got "Andy" up and
running she was just plain stupid and for just about anything and
everything the response was pretty much "I didn't get that" and you'd
scream normal things like "operator", "assistance", "agent" or any
number of things and you'd still get "I didn't get that."  Evidently
someone in the back finally got word that how they'd programmed the
IVR was just awful and they finally used normal things like allowing
you to press 0 to talk to a real person and used terminology that
someone would typically use such as "operator" rather than what they
had [agent]

On the other hand a really good implementation of an IVR would have to
be what T-Mobile chose to use.  All responses are what a normal person
would use and if it cannot understand you it doesn't make you
endlessly try other words it will simply transfer you to a real person
to speak to.  My gripe with IVRs is that IVRs are pretty much useless
if you are making a call and there's lots of ambient background noise.
Even a loud clapping sound is enough to confuse the IVR.  Bottom line
is how the IVR and phone "tree" is set up.  It can be logical or it
can be as illogical as possible.  All my bank cards have crappy phone
trees that do not have any logic at all.  I complain to the person
finally taking my call, but I'm guessing that it will not do any good
at least with banks and big corporations like Citi, Bank One, etc.

> And the S.O.B. administrators won't let you enter zero to get a
> human, they freakin' force you to go through their hell.

Cox technical support for HSI recently rolled out a voice response 
troubleshooter that is absolutely useless and only serves to frustrate.

One of the first things its says is "Hmmm, I can't see your modem. Try
unplugging it, wait twenty seconds and then plug it back in. Say
'continue' when you're ready."

Since I've already tried that little tech support trick, I just start
screaming "AGENT" about twenty times and that finally gets the system
to connect me to a human.

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

From: Steven J. Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: "Please Enter Your ID Number" So We May Ignore it
Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 00:53:26 UTC
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


In article <telecom26.82.5@telecom-digest.org>, T wrote:
 
> Cox technical support for HSI recently rolled out a voice response 
> troubleshooter that is absolutely useless and only serves to frustrate. 

> One of the first things its says is "Hmmm, I can't see your modem. Try
> unplugging it, wait twenty seconds and then plug it back in. Say
> 'continue' when you're ready."

I just lie my way through the same prompts with Charter Cable. I know
enough to have diagnosed the basic stuff before I call.

On the other hand, enough people don't do that that I can understand
why such a system would have been put into place. :)

Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California     PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

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

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: Judge Hits Vonage With Injuction; Stop Using Verizon Technology
Date: 24 Mar 2007 18:27:06 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Peter wrote:

> A federal judge dealt a blow to Vonage Holdings Corp. that sent its
> stock reeling on Friday, when he agreed to bar the company from
> using Internet phone call technology patented by Verizon
> Communications Inc. ...  A jury on March 8 found Vonage had
> infringed three patents owned by Verizon. ...

When Vonage hit the scene, a number of participants here were quite
enthused about it.  I am curious as to what they think of the current
situation.

Also, could anyone explain -- in layman's terms -- what the three
patents covered?

At the risk of offending some people, I am not sympathetic to Vonage.
I felt they entered the market by low-balling the pricing and failing
to provide 911 support.  They had to make that up after the fact.
Cutting corners is an easy way to break in to a market, but not
necessarily a good one.  Now they've been found guilty of stealing
inventions.  Well, gee, you steal someone else's R&D, it's easy to
underprice them.  They do all the work, you get all the benefits.

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

From: Bill Hendley <wh3786@swbell.net>
Subject: Working TSPS in 1983
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:07:51 -0500


I worked TSPS in 1983 during the work stoppage just prior to
divestiture.  Although there may have been other reasons I have long
since forgotten, we had to prepare mark sense cards under the
following circumstances:

Emergency calls to the police/fire/ambulance.  This was pre ubiquitous
911 and we had to have a record of how we disposed of the call.  As an
aside, we had to first look up the number of the local police
department based on the caller's NPA-NXX in a card index flip file, in
our case in El Monte TSPS II that was most often the Los Angeles
Police Department dispatch number in Van Nuys.  Before any of you say
" Van Nuys and El Monte are 25 miles apart", generally -- in Pacific at
least -- a TSPS office did not handle calls from the area in which it
was physically located. You cannot believe the horror and frustration
we felt when we were placed in queue because the LAPD center was
overloaded could not process the call.  Many times we could hear
yelling, screaming, "he's got a knife/gun, don't hit me, etc."

Certain calls from hotels/motels which did not have automated HOBIC (hotel
billing) equipment ...

Calls which we completed when an error code illuminated a button on the
console indicating that AMA had not engaged for whatever reason ...

I think some international calls ... 


Bill Hendley

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

From: Wesrock@aol.com
Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 09:47:37 EDT
Subject: Re: Unlisted Phone Number


In a message dated 23 Mar 2007 19:45:02 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
writes:

> It's also notable that much of the country, at least 11 states, were
> not as yet equipped to receive DDD calls.  We forget that the
> implementation of DDD required both new equipment at the sending end
> as well as new equipment and often numbering changes at the receiving
> end.  It's one thing to assign everyone a unique ten digit number
> nationwide, but quite another to convert local switchgear to
> accomodate it.  It's also impressive in that the "logic" to handle
> billing records, signalling, and routing, was all done by relays.

     Another requirement for incoming DDD was that trunk groups be
reinforced to provide at least P=.01 (not more than one call out of
100 would fail because of all-trunks-busy) on the final route.  This
required a considerable increase in trunking capabilities in many
areas.

     (An interesting artifact of this requirement, probably duplicated
in many places, was incoming calls to Blackwell, Oklahoma.  You could
readily tell if your call had taken the high-usage direct trunks from
the Oklahoma City 4A or the final route via Ponca City by the set-up
time for your call.  Calls over the direct trunks were XB to XB and
set up virtually instantaneously.  Calls on the final route had a
noticeable delay, since Ponca City was a step office and had to send
the number to the Blackwell office by dial pulses.)


Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com
wleathus@yahoo.com

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


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End of TELECOM Digest V26 #83
*****************************